[fic] The Things We Can't Control - Chapter 111 ~Two Creepers~
Title: The Things We Can't Control
Author:
prettyorianna
Pairing: Akame. Others to be added later.
Rating: NC-17.
Genre: crime drama au
Beta by: my cat Gemma. okay, seriously, nobody
Disclaimer: I don't own KAT-TUN, any of its members, any other JE people. I write this for fun and for other fans of these fine folks. But don't steal my plots, mmkay? I put a great deal of time into them except for when I'm randomly spastically spitting words onto a page. But I value those too...Read more...
Summary: Two criminals with vastly different styles meet by chance one day. They immediately clash but is that all they'll ever be? How much is fate and how much choice? And how will their meeting change the world around them?
Author's Note: Chapter 111. Enjoy! It's a little rough in the transition from the first scene to the second one and I'm not 100% happy with the end, but this is what you get LOL
BANNER BY going_dangerous!!
Warning: This gets graphic often occasionally, containing at the very least foul language, character death, nefarious crimes, rape, etc etc.
The Master Posts:
On my journal - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the akame_ Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the akame_fanfics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the je_kamenashi Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the kattun_fanfics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the jin_fics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
Chapter 111 ~Two Creepers~
News of the armored car robbery spread through Kizuna almost as quickly as Maru’s ridiculous ghost nonsense. A little over $450k… Kame could still barely believe it. After the botched bank robbery, he’d pretty much given up on finding such a large score. Maybe Tatsuya’s renewed faith in destiny was contagious, but Kame took the events at the bank those months ago as a sign that perhaps they shouldn’t try bank robbing anyway. The universe only gives you so many warnings and he didn’t want to be told twice.
Jin was insufferable all day, of course. Massu and Shige weren’t much better. The three of them each had their own version of the events which they used to paint themselves as the hero of the story. Koyama wouldn’t confirm any of the stories, preferring to stay out of the middle. It was probably for the best. As things stood, Jin, Massu, and Shige were only goofing off and not really and truly arguing about it and that’s how it needed to stay.
Everyone was either obsessed with the supposed haunting or celebrating the much-needed cash the four brought back with them. Taipi’s photo proof of the ghost must have been a bust because he disappeared. Yamashita claimed to have seen him skulking about with his camera again with a look of determination.
Around three in the afternoon, something happened Kame could never have predicted.
He was in the sanctuary, having just finalized all the detail for Detective Nishikido’s upcoming event with Tesshi. The others left but Kame was slow to go. He was thinking. Something was up with Tesshi and considering everything, it was probably related to the detective. The two of them had known each other longer than Kame had known either of them but recently, things seemed different. Tesshi seemed both happier and worried at the same time and Kame didn’t want to pry but it was…
He was pulled out of his thoughts by a quiet voice behind him. “Food?”
A wave of relief flooded through him, knowing Girl was still around after all. It didn’t stay long, though. Kneeling down in front of her, he asked “Sweetie, have you not eaten since Friday?” That was three days ago and neither he nor Jin nor Koki had seen her in the interim.
Girl didn’t answer his question. She just stared unblinking into his eyes for a moment and then repeated, “Food?”
His heart was breaking. “Oh, you poor thing… Let’s go to the kitchen and I’ll get you something to eat. Does that sound good?” and he smiled at her, trying to be reassuring.
“Food?”
“As much as you want.”
She nodded.
Rising to his feet, he turned to lead the way.
That’s when he heard Maru’s voice, calling out for him. Groaning, Kame rolled his eyes. He didn’t want to sit through another of Maru’s lectures on why it was time to take the fight to Papa K’s territory and he definitely didn’t want to hear any more superstitious nonsense.
But as Maru rounded the corner, he stopped in his tracks and in a shaking voice said, “Hold very still and whatever you do, don’t turn around…”
“What?” Was Maru actually afraid of something? Kame never thought he’d live to see that. What had him so scared?
“Walk very slowly towards me.”
“Why? What’s the matter?” Curiosity got the best of him and he glanced behind him. All he could see was Girl. The room was the same as it always was, with pews and the altar and the open space at the back where they’d pulled up the pews to make room.
Maru completely lost it, to the point he couldn’t even form a proper sentence. “I said d-don’t… so bad… steal your soul… Oh, you’re in such danger… Maybe I should get Tat-chan…”
This was getting tiresome. “I see nothing. Why don’t you just tell me what you see there?”
“G-ghost…”
Oh, for the love of… “There’s no ghost! Now stop before you scare Girl.”
“You can’t scare a ghost, Kame-chan! They’re not afraid of anything!”
Did Maru think Girl was a ghost? Was that how this whole thing started? “Maru, I’m going to say this once. She’s not a ghost; she’s just a little girl. Jin rescued her from the streets and brought her to the church last Friday.”
Maru would have none of it. “No, no. She’s a ghost. It’s in the eyes. That’s how you can tell.”
“I don’t have time to argue with you about this. Come on, G-” but as he turned back towards her, he realized she had vanished again. “Girl? Where did you go?”
“See, I told you. I’m going to get Tatsuya. The sanctuary needs a cleansing or she might come back and I won’t be responsible for whatever souls she steals!”
As Maru took off to look for Tatsuya, Kame wondered - not for the first time - how Koki ever got anything through the man’s thick skull. Then again, he supposed the same could be said about him and Jin. Love very rarely took those things into account when arranging lives…
Not that he’d have it any other way.
After a fifteen minute search, there was still no sign of Girl. How had she vanished so quickly? If she really hadn’t eaten since Friday, he had to find her. He couldn’t let her starve like that. He knew what it was like, being so desperate for food and on top of that, there was something so familiar in her eyes. Somehow, he felt they could understand each other and, even more, that Girl needed that.
Resigning himself to not finding her, he tried to ease his worry with the knowledge that out of all of the things the “ghost” had taken, most of it was food. It wasn’t helping much.
Tatsuya’s voice calling from somewhere down the hall, “Kame? Maru said you needed me?”
Mentally facepalming, he sank onto one of the front pews and shouted back, “In the sanctuary!”
“What’s up?” Tatsuya looked concerned as he entered the room. “Has something happened?”
“No. Nothing at all, other than that Maru is crazy.”
Laughing, Tatsuya asked, “More than usual?”
“He wants you to exorcise the sanctuary because he believes the little girl Jin brought to the church last Friday is a soul-stealing ghost. You know, if you really want to help, you’ll go tell everyone you can find that Maru’s ‘ghost’ is a little girl - a real one - and that she’s definitely damaged but isn’t stealing anyone’s soul. She’s just… she creeps around and disappears quickly and has been stealing food from people when they turn their backs, but she’s not magical.”
“Did you tell Maru that?”
Kame just nodded. “She was standing right here behind me and I still couldn’t convince him she was alive.” But then a sudden thought hit. “Ah, you’ve known him longer than the rest of us. Is he dangerous? Would he hurt her if he thinks she’s trying to take his soul?” He had gone on a killing spree after someone slaughtered his rabbits, after all.
“I… think… probably… not dangerous? Not over this, at least?”
“Your confidence is very encouraging…” Kame sighed. “Come on, let’s go put down the ghost craze before it spreads any further.”
It took hours but as it neared dinner time, Kame was pretty sure everyone now knew the truth. Well, everyone except Maru who argued against it every time he was within earshot of the conversation.
After dinner, Kame, Jin, and Koki (who was not speaking to Maru until he calmed down) all went looking for Girl again.
He finally found her hiding in the sanctuary.
“Hey, Girl!” Kame exclaimed softly as he sat down on the floor in front of the first pew, tilting his head to the side to get a better look at the girl hiding underneath it. “What are you doing under there, huh? Playing hide and seek with Reina?”
He could see where she’d stashed bits of food - nothing complete so much as just a cracker here and a bite of sandwich there - and he could tell she was doing her best to move to block his view of it all, too. Poor thing…
“Ne, Girl… you don’t have to hide. And you can have food when you’re hungry. All you have to do is ask, sweetheart.”
She stared at him a minute, still obviously trying to block line of sight to her stash. Finally, eyes wide and staring straight into his, she whispered, “No take…” It was a desperate plea she was obviously barely brave enough to make and again he thought there was something so familiar in those eyes.
Maybe it was how much he could relate to them. All those times his father starved him…
“Oh, sweetheart… I would never do that. Do you know what that means?”
She just kept staring him straight in the eyes as she fumbled over the unfamiliar word. “Neebaa?”
“Never is no take. No take today, no take tomorrow, no take at all.”
He could tell she understood what he was trying to say but from her body language and eyes, eyes which never left his own for a second in the entire time they were talking… She didn’t believe him.
It left such a sadness in his chest, that her life had been such that she couldn’t let herself believe him. He understood what it was like to be afraid to hope for better than life’s given you. She was…
…what the hell? That sound… what was that? A single high-pitched mewling noise had just come from under the pew, from behind the little girl. Her eyes went even wider and complete terror flooded into them even as he reached past her towards the sound.
When he pulled the little ball of grey fluff out from under there, he recognized it at once as the cat Jin had been feeding out in the alley behind the kitchen. Though what was it doing inside? Sitting the rest of the way up, he looked at the scruffy thing he was holding and started to ask, “How di-“
He was interrupted when Girl - with surprising speed considering she was crawling out of a very small space - scrambled out with a distressed shriek, “Kitty!” She grabbed the hand that held the cat, crying so hard he ached just to hear it, screaming, “Kitty! No! No! Kitty! NO KILL! NO KILL! KITTY! GIVE KITTY! NO KILL!” She was pulling at his hand, repeating it over and over again.
She really thought he would do that? “I…”
“NO KILL!” even louder. The room was slowly filling with people as they wandered in to find out what the commotion was about. He could hear them whispering to each other but he couldn’t make out what was said over the sound of Girl’s shouting. She took advantage of his momentary distraction, snatching the cat away from him and crouching down over it protectively. Her body tensed visibly like she was preparing herself, like she expected some sort of beating but was determined to take it to save the little animal.
“Oh… oh, you poor thing…” he whispered to himself, wiping the moisture in his eyes away before it could become tears. To her, in the most soothing voice he could, “Shh… It’s okay. No kill. I promise. No kill.”
He gently put his hand on her shoulder. She flinched but stayed where she was. He kept his hand there as he continued to speak softly to her, trying to show her he wouldn’t hurt her or the cat. “I bet you take good care of the kitty. Does kitty need food?”
A muffled and sniffly, “Food?”
“Food for both kitty and Girl.”
She didn’t say anything; she just kept crying. Looking up, Kame saw Jin, Tatsuya, Koki, Tesshi, Yurina, and Shige all standing near the doorway, watching everything. Their eyes weren’t exactly dry either. “Can someone bring some food?” He didn’t want to leave her side in that moment. He was overcome with the desire to show her that whatever bad things happened in her life didn’t have to be her whole world forever.
Jin took off and returned about five minutes later with a bowl of the stew from dinner as well as some lunch meat for the cat since they didn’t have any cat food. He knelt down next to the two of them and put the bowl on the floor in front of the still-crouched Girl. It took a few more moments of soothing words but she finally looked up and mumbled, “No pay neebaa? Furii?”
“No pay,” Jin promised. Her eyes darted to Kame again, who nodded.
Girl accepted the spoon and the cat’s meat. And even though she had to be hungry, she left the stew bowl alone. Instead, she rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and, slightly smiling, fed the little grey animal first. Only after she was satisfied the cat was fed did she snatch up her own food.
Jin smiled as well, patting Girl on top of the head and saying, “You’re such a good girl, aren’t you? No wonder Miss Kitty likes you.”
She didn’t answer because she had a spoon in her mouth now but Jin didn’t seem to mind that at all. Kame was struck once again with the thought that his boyfriend might be the most caring person he ever met. Baka? Yes, definitely. But such a wide heart!
He opened his mouth to tell Jin just how much he loved him but he never got the chance. Massu and Tamamori burst into the room with Massu’s shouted, “Come quick! It’s Taipi!”
“What’s wrong?” Kame asked.
“He’s hurt! He’s hurt bad!”
++++++++++++++++++++++++
The story continues:
Chapter 112 ~An Unexpected Face~ *new - May 29*
A/N: Yup, cliffhanger in both past and present. And yup, Girl is the ghost. I hope it was appropriately surprising without being unbelievable. To be honest, I was pretty sure with the timing of it, that everyone would figure it out early so I was doing my best to keep it secret LOL. And the title of the chapter refers to Girl's lurking as well as Taipi's hidden camera skulking. That's the other thing I was trying to hint at but not spoil.