Not Exactly Film Noir (SaGa Frontier, Fuse/Red)
Title: Not Exactly Film Noir
SaGa Frontier - Fuse/Red
Author: Genuine Replica
Recipient: V V Cephei
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: none
Summary: One's a hard-bitten cop with a job to do and sodas to drink; the other's a teen superhero who has to keep his identity secret. Together, they fight crime.
Prompt: Saga Frontier: Fuse/Red They don't want to admit that they
are getting close, and yet...
All the fast food joints in all the Regions, and he had to walk into mine, Fuse thought.
Red blinked over, then gave him a sulkily reluctant smile. Fuse knew the smile. It was the 'I just saw someone I don't really like but we bonded together in trying circumstances and now that I've seen him and he's seen me see him I can't just pretend I didn't see him, so I'd better go over there and say hi, then extract myself as quickly as possible from the conversation' smile. Fuse knew the smile well.
"Hey, Fuse," Red said, coming over.
Fuse rose and looked at Red seriously. "..."
"Huh? What--"
Fuse backfisted him casually. "Call me 'Officer'."
***
"I can't believe you got us thrown out of the burger place and deported," Fuse told him, about twenty minutes later.
"I can't believe you hit me!"
"...It's fun."
"You are such an asshole!" Red raved. One hand was cupping his eye; he hadn't got a black eye when Fuse had hit him initially, but had when he'd thrown himself over the table to get at Fuse and ended up getting a soda can jammed there. The resulting skirmish had broken two tables, scared the mascot girl, caused inappropriate launching of not one, not two, but three packages of frozen hotdogs to go flying in a missile-like manner, and had ended up with mall security.
Fuse shrugged. It was true. He was.
"Couldn't you at least have shown them your badge to keep 'em from throwing us out like that?" Red asked. He still hadn't tried to get up. The economy-class cargo hold in the region ship was narrow and he'd ended up jammed between two crates.
Fuse gave him a look. "Who the hell wants to admit to being IRPO when getting thrown out of a fucking burger joint? Use your goddamn bra-- shh."
Red froze. "What?"
"Can you hear that?" Fuse whispered. He jammed his cigarette out on the caution: high-- sign on the crate he was beside and managed to get his leg down from the crate beside it. Carefully he inched forward until he could peer into the cargo bay.
Behind him was the quiet sound of cloth as Red shifted this way and that to get free, then the heat of the kid against his back. Fuse gritted his teeth.
"What's going on?" Red whispered, low, barely breathing.
Fuse muttered back through gritted teeth. "You see those guys there? They're Trinity agents."
"Is Trinity up to something again?"
"Well," Fuse said, "unless 'The entire stock of modded laser cannons is complete; IRPO was completely duped at customs' is some kind of secret code for stock market exchanges, I think it's safe to say that Trinity's up to something, yeah."
Red ground his knuckles into the spine at the small of Fuse's back. "Don't be a jerk."
"Ow!"
They both froze as the voices from the cargo bay grew louder. "Did you hear something?"
"Probably just a rat. Better to check, though--"
"Hey, kid," Fuse asked, one hand slowly lowering to his side to get his gun. "You still know kung fu?"
"--It's not kung fu."
"Do you still know it?"
"Uh, yeah--"
"Good!" Fuse said and flung himself forward, aiming. "This is the Patrol! Freeze, scumsuckers!"
***
Fuse gave Red a dirty look.
"What!" Red said.
"I asked you to back me up, kid. Not to run and find some crazy superhero in cosplay to come and help out."
Red glared. "You were damn lucky Alkaiser was there."
"I'm just saying. Be a little less useless next time."
"Next time!" Red's voice raised as the announcement came through the PA system that the ship was docking in Koorong. "What next time?!"
***
They stood together in the region port's booking area with an awkwardness, one Fuse couldn't decide if it was reluctance to part or, more simply, reluctance to part without punching each other a few more times.
"Well," Red said finally. "I should book a ship to Yorkland, so--"
"Yorkland, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Need to get real stinking drunk after all this?"
"Maybe I want to go visit the country ambience," Red said, scowling and running a hand through his spiked hair.
Fuse looked at him.
"--Or maybe I need to get real stinking drunk, yeah."
"Well," Fuse said. "It's not like Yorkland -- shhh."
"What," Red said. "What is it this time. What."
Only looking out of the corner of his eye, Fuse nodded to a passing man in a red hat, carrying a parcel. He shifted his cigarette from one side of his mouth to the other and hissed at Red, "You see that guy?"
"Yeah?"
"He's known to IRPO. We've had our eyes on him for a while -- literally."
Red frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"He's a supposed organ dealer."
"Wh-- What?!" Red hissed, managing to keep his voice down at the last minute. "An organ dealer?!"
"Yeah," Fuse said. "Keeps getting off on technicalities. He used to work for BlackX -- the organs were used for experiments to incorporate cybernetics into the human body, you get it? But last I've heard he's gone freelance. He won't have any powerful backing if we catch him this time, pro'lly won't get off."
"...Oh," Red said. He sounded weirdly angry. "Huh."
Fuse nodded at him solemnly. "Well, enjoy your vacation in Yorkland, kid. I'm gonna follow this guy."
He turned away, but before he could get far, Red caught his arm. "I'm coming with you," Red said.
***
They lost the guy in the complex maze of back alleys and sewers outside of the main Koorong shopping district.
"We have to get this guy!" Red said. "We can't just let him get away!"
Fuse sighed, shaking his head. "I didn't want to go this far," he said. "But if it's organ dealing, I know just the guy who might have information."
***
Doctor Nusakan's office was small, tidy, dark, and decorated with a vast array of evil paraphernalia, from skulls to candles to pentacles etched in the floor. The doctor himself sat in front of a blood-stained operating table and looked highly professional in his nice suit and white lab coat. His pale skin and dark green hair were characteristic of mystics; in Fuse's experience not that bad a group of people for bloodsucking jackasses.
"Allen Hubong? Yes, I know of him," Doctor Nusakan said. "You understand, I do try to keep track of potential suppliers."
"Suppliers of what?" Red asked, poking a finger cautiously at a skull on a crowded bookshelf.
Nusakan glanced over at him. "Don't touch that. It bites."
"Ow! Shit! Shit!"
"Who's he working for?" Fuse demanded.
"That I don't know," Nusakan said. He examined his fingernails. "Perhaps he simply takes whatever work comes by. It can be a difficult business, you know."
Fuse rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure. So do you know where he works from?"
"Yes, I know that," Nusakan says. "He can usually be found working out of a secret lab in the basement of a certain club." His eyes track to Red. "You should have no trouble getting in there."
"Get it off me! Get it off me!"
"Sure," Fuse said. "What's the club?"
"The Gym's Rose," Nusakan said. He smiled blandly. "I trust that I've been of assistance to you, Officer. I do always try to provide support to the IRPO whenever I can."
In the lobby, an unholy howling began. It was, just barely, human.
"After all," Nusakan added, "if we don't have order, if we don't have law -- why, what's left?"
***
"Wait a minute," Red said, around the fingertips he was still sucking on. "We have to infiltrate a gay bar?"
"Don't worry. It's a standard procedure."
Red glared. "Isn't that pretty cliche? In all the stories--"
"You read those stories, kid?" Fuse asked. He took a large, symbolic step away from Red.
"No, I -- that is -- shut up! Anyway," Red said hurriedly, "I'll help out 'cause it's BlackX, but don't take it seriously or anything."
"Sure, whatever." Fuse said. He took another step away.
Red looked like he was contemplating jumping at Fuse again. "Stop that! Anyway, why didn't you arrest that guy."
"...would you try arresting him? Get those fingers out of your mouth, kid," Fuse added, "you're swapping spit with a dead man."
***
"Why are you asking?" the bartender asked suspiciously.
Beside him, Red swallowed audibly; Fuse's line of questioning wasn't going well, and the bartender -- who had muscles on his muscles -- was clearly not happy with him.
"Well, you know," Fuse said. "My boytoy and I here. Uh. We could sure use some extra organs."
"Are you with the IRPO?" the bartender asked.
"What, no!" Fuse said. "We are a perfectly normal pair from Koorong's kinky and often illegal gay subculture. Observe."
He spun on his bar stool and grabbed Red, kissing him hard. Red made a disgruntled oomph of protest, hands grabbing hard onto the front of Fuse's shirt, staying still clearly only by virtue of the fact that the bartender, if riled, could plant them so far below ground with a single punch that they wouldn't need graves.
Fuse drew back after a long moment for a breath, then punched Red in the face. Squawking, Red fell backwards off the stool, clutching at his jaw.
"You see," Fuse said. "Perfectly normal!"
The bartender nodded, then raised his voice. "BOYS! WE'VE GOT SOME IRPO GOONS IN HERE!"
"Oh hell with this," Red said, and went into a fighting stance. "Fuse! Let's just fight our way down there!"
***
"So you're saying," Fuse panted as the two of them ran down flights of stairs past the hidden door, heading towards the hidden lab, "that when the two of us got separated, Red got quickly outmatched and had to go hide, and happened to find you just hanging around, and sent you to help me?"
"Uh, yeah," Alkaiser said. "That's right."
Fuse said, "Huh. Never knew you were gay."
***
"Oh, hey Red," Fuse said as Red jogged over. "We got the guy. See, downstairs he--"
"Alkaiser told me," Red said. "It's okay. At least that's one more BlackX goon down."
Fuse frowned. "Technically, he's not BlackX anymore -- you know, I think Alkaiser likes you."
"Wait what," Red said. "What."
Fuse leaned against a wall and lit up a cigarette. "Well, you know he's gay, right?"
"He's not gay!"
"He was in a gay bar, kid," Fuse said. "And he always shows up when you're in trouble!"
"It's not like that! Alkaiser and I, we're... we're..."
Raising his brows, Fuse waited. When Red just trailed off, he said, "Can't think of another explanation, huh?"
"W-well..."
Fuse clapped him on the shoulder. "No shame in having an admirer, kid, especially in a superhero like Alkaiser. Enjoy it while it lasts."
"It's not like that!"
***
Finally, they made it back to the port. Fuse stretched, then sighed. "Back to IRPO Headquarters with me," he said. "Gotta file my report for the records."
"I really need that trip to Yorkland now," Red said.
Fuse nodded. "Well," he said, awkwardly. "Guess this is goodbye."
Red hesitated. "Yeah," he said. "Good seeing you, Fu--"
"Shh! What's that?!"
"What?!" Red hissed. "What?! What this time!"
"You see that guy over there?"
"U-uh--"
Fuse sidled over behind a plastic plant and ducked down; after a moment, Red did likewise. "That guy," Fuse said, "is wanted on four Regions for enslaving monsters. Which, as you know, has been illegal since the MEA--"
"The wh-"
"Monster Emancipation Act," Fuse said impatiently. "Section 3-C11.247 of the Inter-Regional Legal Rights Code clearly states--"
"Skip that," Red said. "So what he's doing is illegal, right?"
Fuse nodded. "I'll bet my fine and manly derriere that he's here in Koorong to kidnap back-alley monsters again. Those street kids got it rough, you know."
"Uh-- yeah," Red said. "So we're going to stop him."
Grinding out his cigarette against the plastic plant, Fuse gave Red a sideways smile. "You with me?"
Red's brows creased like he had a headache. After a long moment, he sighed. "Sure. Sure, I'm right behind you."
Gaze focussed on the criminal, Fuse nodded. "Kid," he said softly, "this looks like the start of a beautiful relationship."
SaGa Frontier - Fuse/Red
Author: Genuine Replica
Recipient: V V Cephei
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: none
Summary: One's a hard-bitten cop with a job to do and sodas to drink; the other's a teen superhero who has to keep his identity secret. Together, they fight crime.
Prompt: Saga Frontier: Fuse/Red They don't want to admit that they
are getting close, and yet...
All the fast food joints in all the Regions, and he had to walk into mine, Fuse thought.
Red blinked over, then gave him a sulkily reluctant smile. Fuse knew the smile. It was the 'I just saw someone I don't really like but we bonded together in trying circumstances and now that I've seen him and he's seen me see him I can't just pretend I didn't see him, so I'd better go over there and say hi, then extract myself as quickly as possible from the conversation' smile. Fuse knew the smile well.
"Hey, Fuse," Red said, coming over.
Fuse rose and looked at Red seriously. "..."
"Huh? What--"
Fuse backfisted him casually. "Call me 'Officer'."
***
"I can't believe you got us thrown out of the burger place and deported," Fuse told him, about twenty minutes later.
"I can't believe you hit me!"
"...It's fun."
"You are such an asshole!" Red raved. One hand was cupping his eye; he hadn't got a black eye when Fuse had hit him initially, but had when he'd thrown himself over the table to get at Fuse and ended up getting a soda can jammed there. The resulting skirmish had broken two tables, scared the mascot girl, caused inappropriate launching of not one, not two, but three packages of frozen hotdogs to go flying in a missile-like manner, and had ended up with mall security.
Fuse shrugged. It was true. He was.
"Couldn't you at least have shown them your badge to keep 'em from throwing us out like that?" Red asked. He still hadn't tried to get up. The economy-class cargo hold in the region ship was narrow and he'd ended up jammed between two crates.
Fuse gave him a look. "Who the hell wants to admit to being IRPO when getting thrown out of a fucking burger joint? Use your goddamn bra-- shh."
Red froze. "What?"
"Can you hear that?" Fuse whispered. He jammed his cigarette out on the caution: high-- sign on the crate he was beside and managed to get his leg down from the crate beside it. Carefully he inched forward until he could peer into the cargo bay.
Behind him was the quiet sound of cloth as Red shifted this way and that to get free, then the heat of the kid against his back. Fuse gritted his teeth.
"What's going on?" Red whispered, low, barely breathing.
Fuse muttered back through gritted teeth. "You see those guys there? They're Trinity agents."
"Is Trinity up to something again?"
"Well," Fuse said, "unless 'The entire stock of modded laser cannons is complete; IRPO was completely duped at customs' is some kind of secret code for stock market exchanges, I think it's safe to say that Trinity's up to something, yeah."
Red ground his knuckles into the spine at the small of Fuse's back. "Don't be a jerk."
"Ow!"
They both froze as the voices from the cargo bay grew louder. "Did you hear something?"
"Probably just a rat. Better to check, though--"
"Hey, kid," Fuse asked, one hand slowly lowering to his side to get his gun. "You still know kung fu?"
"--It's not kung fu."
"Do you still know it?"
"Uh, yeah--"
"Good!" Fuse said and flung himself forward, aiming. "This is the Patrol! Freeze, scumsuckers!"
***
Fuse gave Red a dirty look.
"What!" Red said.
"I asked you to back me up, kid. Not to run and find some crazy superhero in cosplay to come and help out."
Red glared. "You were damn lucky Alkaiser was there."
"I'm just saying. Be a little less useless next time."
"Next time!" Red's voice raised as the announcement came through the PA system that the ship was docking in Koorong. "What next time?!"
***
They stood together in the region port's booking area with an awkwardness, one Fuse couldn't decide if it was reluctance to part or, more simply, reluctance to part without punching each other a few more times.
"Well," Red said finally. "I should book a ship to Yorkland, so--"
"Yorkland, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Need to get real stinking drunk after all this?"
"Maybe I want to go visit the country ambience," Red said, scowling and running a hand through his spiked hair.
Fuse looked at him.
"--Or maybe I need to get real stinking drunk, yeah."
"Well," Fuse said. "It's not like Yorkland -- shhh."
"What," Red said. "What is it this time. What."
Only looking out of the corner of his eye, Fuse nodded to a passing man in a red hat, carrying a parcel. He shifted his cigarette from one side of his mouth to the other and hissed at Red, "You see that guy?"
"Yeah?"
"He's known to IRPO. We've had our eyes on him for a while -- literally."
Red frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"He's a supposed organ dealer."
"Wh-- What?!" Red hissed, managing to keep his voice down at the last minute. "An organ dealer?!"
"Yeah," Fuse said. "Keeps getting off on technicalities. He used to work for BlackX -- the organs were used for experiments to incorporate cybernetics into the human body, you get it? But last I've heard he's gone freelance. He won't have any powerful backing if we catch him this time, pro'lly won't get off."
"...Oh," Red said. He sounded weirdly angry. "Huh."
Fuse nodded at him solemnly. "Well, enjoy your vacation in Yorkland, kid. I'm gonna follow this guy."
He turned away, but before he could get far, Red caught his arm. "I'm coming with you," Red said.
***
They lost the guy in the complex maze of back alleys and sewers outside of the main Koorong shopping district.
"We have to get this guy!" Red said. "We can't just let him get away!"
Fuse sighed, shaking his head. "I didn't want to go this far," he said. "But if it's organ dealing, I know just the guy who might have information."
***
Doctor Nusakan's office was small, tidy, dark, and decorated with a vast array of evil paraphernalia, from skulls to candles to pentacles etched in the floor. The doctor himself sat in front of a blood-stained operating table and looked highly professional in his nice suit and white lab coat. His pale skin and dark green hair were characteristic of mystics; in Fuse's experience not that bad a group of people for bloodsucking jackasses.
"Allen Hubong? Yes, I know of him," Doctor Nusakan said. "You understand, I do try to keep track of potential suppliers."
"Suppliers of what?" Red asked, poking a finger cautiously at a skull on a crowded bookshelf.
Nusakan glanced over at him. "Don't touch that. It bites."
"Ow! Shit! Shit!"
"Who's he working for?" Fuse demanded.
"That I don't know," Nusakan said. He examined his fingernails. "Perhaps he simply takes whatever work comes by. It can be a difficult business, you know."
Fuse rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure. So do you know where he works from?"
"Yes, I know that," Nusakan says. "He can usually be found working out of a secret lab in the basement of a certain club." His eyes track to Red. "You should have no trouble getting in there."
"Get it off me! Get it off me!"
"Sure," Fuse said. "What's the club?"
"The Gym's Rose," Nusakan said. He smiled blandly. "I trust that I've been of assistance to you, Officer. I do always try to provide support to the IRPO whenever I can."
In the lobby, an unholy howling began. It was, just barely, human.
"After all," Nusakan added, "if we don't have order, if we don't have law -- why, what's left?"
***
"Wait a minute," Red said, around the fingertips he was still sucking on. "We have to infiltrate a gay bar?"
"Don't worry. It's a standard procedure."
Red glared. "Isn't that pretty cliche? In all the stories--"
"You read those stories, kid?" Fuse asked. He took a large, symbolic step away from Red.
"No, I -- that is -- shut up! Anyway," Red said hurriedly, "I'll help out 'cause it's BlackX, but don't take it seriously or anything."
"Sure, whatever." Fuse said. He took another step away.
Red looked like he was contemplating jumping at Fuse again. "Stop that! Anyway, why didn't you arrest that guy."
"...would you try arresting him? Get those fingers out of your mouth, kid," Fuse added, "you're swapping spit with a dead man."
***
"Why are you asking?" the bartender asked suspiciously.
Beside him, Red swallowed audibly; Fuse's line of questioning wasn't going well, and the bartender -- who had muscles on his muscles -- was clearly not happy with him.
"Well, you know," Fuse said. "My boytoy and I here. Uh. We could sure use some extra organs."
"Are you with the IRPO?" the bartender asked.
"What, no!" Fuse said. "We are a perfectly normal pair from Koorong's kinky and often illegal gay subculture. Observe."
He spun on his bar stool and grabbed Red, kissing him hard. Red made a disgruntled oomph of protest, hands grabbing hard onto the front of Fuse's shirt, staying still clearly only by virtue of the fact that the bartender, if riled, could plant them so far below ground with a single punch that they wouldn't need graves.
Fuse drew back after a long moment for a breath, then punched Red in the face. Squawking, Red fell backwards off the stool, clutching at his jaw.
"You see," Fuse said. "Perfectly normal!"
The bartender nodded, then raised his voice. "BOYS! WE'VE GOT SOME IRPO GOONS IN HERE!"
"Oh hell with this," Red said, and went into a fighting stance. "Fuse! Let's just fight our way down there!"
***
"So you're saying," Fuse panted as the two of them ran down flights of stairs past the hidden door, heading towards the hidden lab, "that when the two of us got separated, Red got quickly outmatched and had to go hide, and happened to find you just hanging around, and sent you to help me?"
"Uh, yeah," Alkaiser said. "That's right."
Fuse said, "Huh. Never knew you were gay."
***
"Oh, hey Red," Fuse said as Red jogged over. "We got the guy. See, downstairs he--"
"Alkaiser told me," Red said. "It's okay. At least that's one more BlackX goon down."
Fuse frowned. "Technically, he's not BlackX anymore -- you know, I think Alkaiser likes you."
"Wait what," Red said. "What."
Fuse leaned against a wall and lit up a cigarette. "Well, you know he's gay, right?"
"He's not gay!"
"He was in a gay bar, kid," Fuse said. "And he always shows up when you're in trouble!"
"It's not like that! Alkaiser and I, we're... we're..."
Raising his brows, Fuse waited. When Red just trailed off, he said, "Can't think of another explanation, huh?"
"W-well..."
Fuse clapped him on the shoulder. "No shame in having an admirer, kid, especially in a superhero like Alkaiser. Enjoy it while it lasts."
"It's not like that!"
***
Finally, they made it back to the port. Fuse stretched, then sighed. "Back to IRPO Headquarters with me," he said. "Gotta file my report for the records."
"I really need that trip to Yorkland now," Red said.
Fuse nodded. "Well," he said, awkwardly. "Guess this is goodbye."
Red hesitated. "Yeah," he said. "Good seeing you, Fu--"
"Shh! What's that?!"
"What?!" Red hissed. "What?! What this time!"
"You see that guy over there?"
"U-uh--"
Fuse sidled over behind a plastic plant and ducked down; after a moment, Red did likewise. "That guy," Fuse said, "is wanted on four Regions for enslaving monsters. Which, as you know, has been illegal since the MEA--"
"The wh-"
"Monster Emancipation Act," Fuse said impatiently. "Section 3-C11.247 of the Inter-Regional Legal Rights Code clearly states--"
"Skip that," Red said. "So what he's doing is illegal, right?"
Fuse nodded. "I'll bet my fine and manly derriere that he's here in Koorong to kidnap back-alley monsters again. Those street kids got it rough, you know."
"Uh-- yeah," Red said. "So we're going to stop him."
Grinding out his cigarette against the plastic plant, Fuse gave Red a sideways smile. "You with me?"
Red's brows creased like he had a headache. After a long moment, he sighed. "Sure. Sure, I'm right behind you."
Gaze focussed on the criminal, Fuse nodded. "Kid," he said softly, "this looks like the start of a beautiful relationship."