[fic] The Things We Can't Control - Chapter 76 ~Contracted Family~
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. and maeda_marika
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...
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: Ah... don't kill me?
BANNER BY DESHISORABA!! THE MOST AWESOME BANNER EVER AND I WILL FIGHT ANYONE WHO DISAGREES!
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 76 ~Contracted Family~
The rest of the weekend had not gone well at the apartment. Yurina didn’t come out of her room until very late the next morning, leaving Kame to eat dinner alone Saturday night. Even when she came out on Sunday, she wouldn’t talk or look him in the eye and when he touched her arm to get her attention she flinched.
Damn. She had been doing so well…
“Yurina, please. Understand, I didn’t really have a choice. It was the only way to find the others. I promise, I kept my focus on them, not you, and I only watched what I absolutely had to. I didn’t watch the whole thing. And I destroyed the tape. Please, Yurina… talk to me! Don’t crawl back inside yourself over this!” Kame pleaded with her. It didn’t do much good, though. She still wouldn’t talk.
But finally at dinner she said, “I do understand. I just… liked the way you looked at me before this. But now you’ve seen… that… Now you’ll never forget what a bad girl I am…” Her voice was flat, emotionless.
“Yuri-chan, how many times do I have to tell you that you’re a good girl still?” He wished he could make her see that.
She hadn’t seemed like she was going to cry but she suddenly had silent tears streaming down her face.
“Yurina…” and he smiled encouragingly at her. “Talk to me.”
“Akira… always called me that…” and she went silent once more. They spent the rest of the day in awkward silence.
Monday, she left for her self defense classes and he headed to work. But Ito-san didn’t look very happy to see him for the first time Kame could remember. Before Kame could ask him what was wrong, the man handed him a newspaper.
“What is this?” Kame asked, unfolding the paper.
Ito’s voice was cool as he directed Kame to turn to page six of what turned out to be the Sunday edition. Scanning the page, it was immediately obvious what he was supposed to read and, truth be told, he let out a huge mental sigh of relief at what was there.
The article talked about the death of Abe Mitsuru and Naito. According to the paper, Abe and his men slaughtered Naito and everyone else in that warehouse in a territory dispute and then some of Naito’s other men took revenge. The cops reportedly searched for them but there “wasn’t enough evidence to track them down at this time” and the cops had “more important cases to focus” than that one.
Very carefully, Kame closed the newspaper, folded it back up, and handed it to Ito-san. “Look, I…”
Ito shook his head. “I’m not an idiot, Kame-chan.”
“I had no choice. He had Yurina.” God, had Ito called the cops? Was he about to be arrested? “I had to save her. Please. And… and… you saw her. You know what they did to her…”
“They?” Ito-san asked, clearly surprised.
Oops. “Him. I mean, him. Abe Mitsuru.”
With a disappointed sigh, Ito said, “Look, Kame… I understand why you did this. I really do. And I won’t call the cops. Not unless someone else is arrested, because I will not let an innocent man pay for what you have done. But even if I do understand, I can’t have you work for me anymore. Keeping you employed would be a sign I approve of what you’ve done and I don’t. If you had let me call the police instead of taking matters into your own hands, they would have rescued her without this unnecessary bloodshed.”
The man did look seriously disappointed in him.
For some reason, it really hurt.
But Kame wasn’t going to argue with him. He wasn’t so sure he didn’t agree with him.
“I understand.” A brief pause but then Kame continued with, “Can Yurina still come visit you from time to time? It seemed to me like she trusts you. That’s… she doesn’t trust a whole lot after everything that happened to her…”
“Of course she can. I’m rather fond of her.”
“Thank you.”
“Go home, Kame-chan.”
And all Kame could do was nod and leave.
Great, first he was responsible for the twins’ predicament. Then he let Yurina get hurt. Next was when he went on a murder spree and after that he upset Yurina all over again. Now he’d disappointed Ito-san, too.
Well, at least there was a bright side. With no work to distract him, he could focus on finding a solution to help Aoi. Also, Yurina had her drug test next week and when she failed it, she’d have her probation conditions extended. The last thing she needed was to be grilled accusingly but there wasn’t any way out of it.
At least even with the setback cause by Kame’s admission he’d seen the tape, she was improving remarkably quickly. In an effort to help, he mentioned it to her and she admitted that with the men who hurt her gone and the fact that she was getting stronger physically, learning so many ways to protect herself in all sorts of situations, was helping bring her back to the girl she used to be.
But when he told her the next Monday, the one two days before her meeting with the probation officer, that he was going to go visit her brothers at the prison, Yurina refused to come with him. “I can’t lie to them,” she told him. “They can always tell.” Then she left for her knife-fighting class.
Kame wished he could convince her to tell her brothers what happened, but she just wouldn’t budge on that. At least she’d stopped making comments on how she wasn’t a good girl anymore. That was an improvement, right?
When he got to the prison, it took forty minutes longer than usual to get to see Aoi. Kame could tell immediately that something was wrong. Aoi’s eyes were… almost dead. Was it because of what the other prisoners were putting him through? Guilt washed over Kame as he took the phone off the cradle to talk to Aoi.
He didn’t even say hello, instead starting with, “What’s wrong?”
Aoi didn’t answer the question. He simply asked, “Where is Yurina?” and something in Kame’s chest twisted painfully to hear his voice sounding just as dead as those eyes. “She… she should be here. She should… be here…”
Since Kame had given his word that he wouldn’t tell Aoi what happened to Yurina, all he could really say was, “She had classes. She couldn’t come. She’s taking self-defense courses. It’s very important to not miss lessons.” Okay, that could be a totally lie. He really didn’t know.
Aoi just blinked a few times and then just stared wordlessly at Kame for quite some time.
“Aoi?”
“How did it happen?”
The question was unexpected, catching Kame completely off guard. “W-what happen?” He was squirming uncomfortably in his seat under such intense scrutiny.
“How many?”
“W-w-what?” Oh, no… had he somehow found out about Yurina? Because what else could his questions possibly mean?
“I promised…” Kame started cautiously. He didn’t want to give too much away, in case Aoi was talking about something different entirely.
“You promised me you’d keep her safe!” and now Aoi sounded angry. Though Kame couldn’t blame him for it, not when he agreed with everything Aoi was saying. But the anger bled away so very suddenly. Barely above a whisper, “She’s all I have left now. Her… and you.”
“Don’t lose hope, Aoi!” Kame said fiercely. “I’m sure Akira will wake up soon.”
“He’s never going to wake up.”
“You don’t know that.”
“The dead don’t wake up, Kame-chan.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++
The story continues:
Chapter 77 ~A Tense Meeting~
A/N: Don't worry, folks. You won't need those fireman's axes. I'm pretty sure Marika will kill me long before you find me.
Seriously, though, I couldn't leave him in limbo forever. It was either this or miraculous recovery. But the thing is, every thing in the rest of the past on up to the present, whenever I was thinking about ways the twins were involved (even before I actually wrote Akira getting put in a coma), Akira was suspiciously absent and yet it didn't seem incorrect. I think... even if I didn't want to admit it, I probably realized it was going to go this way even back then when they were changing their plea.
So that's why this way.
You'll get more details next past!chapter, and more details on how Aoi heard about his sister.