[fic] The Things We Can't Control - Chapter 87 ~Ups and Downs~
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: You were all so very patient, so here's a longer chapter for you.
BANNER BY going_dangerous!!
Okay, now I have two banners and they're both amazing (oh, and you should see the wallpaper version of this banner.... so nice!), so I will be rotating them out every few chapters. Thanks to both going_dangerous and deshisoraba for my wonderful two banners.
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 87 ~Ups and Downs~
Water splashed everywhere as the dish clattered from Kame’s hand into the sink. It was an accident, really; he just wasn’t expecting sudden arms around him, pulling him back. And though he could tell almost immediately that it was Jin because… well, it felt like Jin and nobody else felt like Jin, right? But for a moment it scared the hell out of him.
“Damn it, Jin, don’t sneak up on me like that!” he fussed, but there was no real bite to it. Okay, maybe he was a little irked about the broken dish and the water on the front of his shirt, but Jin’s arms were so warm and safe…
“Sorry.” Not that he sounded like he meant it, not with that snicker in his voice. But Kame didn’t want to argue. He just wanted to know about Maru.
“Did you talk to him?”
Kame could feel Jin stiffen at his back. “I did.”
Turning in Jin’s arms, Kame looked up at him with concern. Something terrible had happened, he was sure of it. “Jin?”
“His rabbits are all dead…” Jin said cautiously.
“Oh, thank god!” Kame exclaimed, a lot louder than he meant to. “Rabbit’s blood…” he continued, a bit softer. It was just rabbit’s blood and Maru was distraught over the loss. Kame had feared something much worse had happened. Oh, not that he’d ever tell Maru that; the man loved his rabbits an almost unnatural amount. To Maru, it probably was the worst.
But Jin shook his head. “No. Not rabbit blood. He sort of maybe went on a killing and maiming spree over them and I’m not convinced everyone in the spree deserved it…”
“WHAT!?”
“Um… yeah. He used the word ‘eventually’ in a very creepy way and he also said... oh, what was it… um, he said that the ones that aren’t dead are not capable of hurting things anymore.” Jin actually looked kind of frightened, which was strange all on its own.
So what now?
If Kame said he had even the faintest notion, he’d be lying.
“Oh, he did say some other stuff, too. Didn’t make a lot of sense though,” Jin said, tightening his grip around Kame. “Maru’s just nuts. It’s not like it’s news. It’s creepy but, well, it’s Maru, right? Besides, I don’t want to piss him off…”
“Stuff like what?” Kame asked, melting into Jin’s embrace despite his intention to stay focused. If he didn’t know better, he’d think Jin was distracting him on purpose.
“I dunno, weird stuff. Some normal Maru-weird things like the shop being cursed but there was a whole bunch about some cards and Tat-chan knowing things and I didn’t understand any of it…” but Jin suddenly brightened. “Oh! He did say we were welcome to anything in the three warehouses but not allowed to go to the shop because it was cursed. As long as he’s here, he’s sharing it all.”
“Well, that’s at least a bit of good news,” Kame sighed contentedly. It really was hard to be worried when he was so warm. But then, “Wait, cards? Like… ordinary playing cards?”
“No, weird cards. He said they were Tatsuya’s. Koki and I found two kinda like it in the sanctary… sanctury… damn it, Reina, now I can’t say the word right! Whatever. That place.”
Wait… hadn’t Tatsuya given him a card, too? Singer… singer of something. Pretty. Blue. When he was still kind of in shock after his rescue. “I think I have one, too. I put it in the desk in the office.”
“Do you know what a myomancer is?” Jin asked hopefully. “Maru’s card had a big nose, blood around the edges, and had that word on it.”
“No clue.”
Tatsuya’s voice came from the kitchen doorway. “A myomancer tells the future by studying mice. Where’d you hear that word, anyway?”
Both Kame and Jin turned towards him. “I read it on Maru’s card,” Jin said.
“Myk? Maru has Myk?” Tatsuya sighed. “Guess Myk will have to switch to church mice after all. Pity. He’s fond of field mice.” He didn’t sound happy at all. “Next thing you know, the Rarr will start tearing through the halls… I have tried again and again and again to get rid of those things. Why are they appearing now? First that one when I woke up in the office and now Myk. I set the damn things on FIRE and they still show up.”
“The Rarr? This?” and Jin pulled the card he found in the sanctuary out of his back pocket. “Koki found one, too. You know, his actually looked like someone tried to burn it. Maru’s just had blood on it.”
Tatsuya just stood there in apparent shock for a moment but then he hesitantly asked, “Is… Maru… hurt? I mean, has… has something happened?”
“Since when do you believe in this stuff anyway?” Jin asked. “You never mentioned any of this stuff to me. You said there was no such thing as destiny or ultimate truth or anything like that! Are these the cards Junno was talking about when he told me you guys used to date?”
“Probably. They’re mostly all destroyed now. Look, the past few years were a dark time for me, okay? Your friendship was maybe the only good thing in my life for years.” Kame couldn’t get over how sad Tatsuya looked as he spoke to Jin and the way he unconsciously rubbed the scars on his wrist. He understood the despair only too well, but it was still hard to see it in the man’s eyes and, though the more recent rope burns nearly covered them, the faint scars of cuts he’d bet real money were self-inflicted. “After things ended with Junno, I was… You know, I don’t want to talk about this. It’s past. It’s over and nothing can change it and things are different now. Now answer the damn question! Is Maru okay?”
“Has he ever been?” Jin snapped back irritably. “He’s not physically hurt, if that’s what you mean.”
“Oh, thank god…” Tatsuya sighed. “I should probably talk to him. I owe him an apology for… for how I abandoned him. How I abandoned them both over a stupid lie…”
“I don’t think he sees it that way, Tat-chan!” Jin shook his head.
“What do you mean?”
Kame was beginning to feel like an intruder. What they were talking about, it wasn’t his business. Not that he didn’t care - far from it! - but that it was about things he hadn’t been invited to become involved in. With a quick kiss on the cheek, he excused himself with a “find me later” and a soft smile.
Besides, he thought as he left the kitchen, it wasn’t like he didn’t have responsibilities. And Maru would probably need something to wear that wasn’t covered in blood. The church had a small collection of donated clothes and though most of it was sized more towards the Hellions, there might be something useful for him.
Also, there was the matter of the stuff in the warehouses. If Maru was really giving Kizuna full access, maybe he wouldn’t mind if they moved what they already had to them. Kame had never been entirely comfortable having the weapons around the street kids. Oh, sure, they were locked up, but that wasn’t necessarily a deterrent and it was just fortunate none of the kids had taken it in their heads to try to get at them.
That he knew of…
+++
“So,” Jin asked, “What are these things exactly, anyway?” He waved the card in front of him.
Tatsuya responded with, “They’re just cards, Jin. They don’t do anything. Their only power is what magic we give them and also the fairies they represent.”
“You really believe in this shit? I mean, fairies and magic and all that? Destiny?”
“Jin, you and Kame tried to rob the same bank on the same day at the same time. Do you know how unlikely that is? How insane the odds are for it? And that one meeting, it brought us both here, alive and, if I’m any friend to you at all, I can tell you’re happier than you’ve ever been. I do mean ever. And I’ve been reunited with Junno and I don’t have to sell myself anymore. I’m happy, too. I’m in love. You’re in love.” Tatsuya’s expression was dead serious. “Of course I believe. How can I not, after all of this?”
“The danger isn’t over, though. Someone tried to kill you both,” Jin said.
Tatsuya’s serious expression softened and he smiled slightly, “And they failed because we recognized the danger and fled. The people waiting for us at Junno’s house were professionals. If we hadn’t gotten home at that exact moment, we never would have realized they were there. They hadn’t had enough time to get properly set up, to disguise their presence better.”
It was true that all of the events over the past couple weeks were… well, kind of miraculous. Not perfect, but Tatsuya was right. Jin was happier than he’d ever been and that was all because of meeting Kazuya.
So… okay, maybe his friend had a point about destiny. Still… “Yeah, but… faeries?”
“I’ve seen them, Jin.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“No, I really have. In my dreams.”
Jin couldn’t help laugh at that. “Dreams don’t count. Last night I dreamed I started an office supply store with a girl I used to know,” which was Angela, his druggie first girlfriend, who he hadn’t really thought about in years until he told the story of his life to some of the other Kizuna members a few days ago, “only then the Russian Mafia showed up and bought us out.”
“Well, I’d say the lesson in that dream is that you shouldn’t start an office supply store if you have a fear of Russian money. What do they use anyway? Roubles still or are they using Euros?”
“Why are you asking me?” Jin gave Tatsuya a playful shove. “How should I know that stuff?”
“It was your dream!” And Tatsuya shoved him back and now they both were laughing and it felt good. They hadn’t laughed like that together in a long, long time and even then, it was always somewhat reserved. This… it wasn’t desperate or reserved or anything of the sort. It was real, honest-to-goodness happy laughter.
He really was happier now than ever before, wasn’t he? And it was all due to Kazuya. He… he really should tell him that, shouldn’t he? It wasn’t something that would be right to keep to himself. Kazuya was such a remarkable person and didn’t even seem to know it and, in all fairness, sometimes Jin felt really unworthy of his love and yet selfish enough to accept it anyway. But if he wanted to become worthy, a good place to start would be to tell Kazuya how much he means to him despite how recently they met and also to get to work on the task Kazuya had given him.
So he stuck the card back in his back pocket and excused himself. He intended to go straight to Kazuya, but first, he had another quick promise to fulfill. Snatching up one of the last remaining pieces of sausage, he stepped out into the alley and closed the door behind him.
“Kitty-chan?” Jin called out. “Where’s my pretty girl?”
A tiny puff of grey fur came flying out of nowhere until she had fairly plastered herself to the side of his leg. He reached down to scratch her under the chin and then gave her the sausage. She purred, rubbing against his leg once more before disappearing into the alley just as quickly as she’d appeared. With a half-hearted sigh, he mumbled, “You know, if you keep disappearing like that, I’ll think you’re only using me for food…”
“It takes a good heart to see beauty in that cat,” came Kame’s voice from behind him, causing Jin to nearly jump over the dumpster in surprise. He hadn’t even heard the door open!
After his heart settled and he could breathe again, Jin frowned and said, “What are you talking about? She’s adorable! With the pretty grey fur and… and…”
Kame just smiled at him and once again, Jin felt like he couldn’t breathe. That smile was… it was just…
Amazing.
Truly wonderful.
“Ne, Kazu-love…?” he started hesitantly, gaze locking with Kazuya’s because Jin wanted him to see him - really see him - as he spoke. “I… well, there’s this… I mean…”
God, he was just embarrassing himself now, wasn’t he? Maybe he should have practiced this first. It was one thing to just say “I love you” but another thing to share your feelings so openly and honestly, with no holding back or thought of safeguarding even one small bit of yourself from the one you love.
“Jin, what is it?” Kame asked, stepping closer and reaching up to place a palm on Jin’s cheek. His hand felt so warm… “Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s not… it’s like, the opposite of that. You know, thanks and… and stuff… like that… because you’re… and I really… and then…”
Really should have rehearsed this.
Seriously.
“Jin?”
“You’re just… fucking amazing, okay?” Jin finally said in a huff, turning away. “Damn, I suck at this…” He was doing his best but maybe that just wasn’t good enough. Kazuya deserved someone who could speak properly to him, tell him exactly what he was feeling with pretty words and… and…
But this was it. This was the best he could do. “I wish I could talk to you the way you deserve,” he whispered, though he was more speaking to himself than to Kazuya by then.
Kazuya seemed to realize it, too. But as he gently turned Jin face towards him once more, he had tears in his eyes. “Oh, Jin… It doesn’t matter what words you use. I still hear you.” Kazuya tapped his chest, right over his heart. “Koko de. And I know you hear me, too. I can see it in your eyes.”
Jin smiled back at him. Maybe this wasn’t going as disastrously as it first appeared. And when Kazuya’s arms slipped around him and leaned up to kiss him tenderly, all concern over what words to use or any inadequacy on his part was forgotten. It was hard to worry when it felt so right. Yet again he was flooded by thoughts of strawberry and jasmine.
“I love you, too,” Kazuya whispered against his lips.
With a unmanly giggle he would definitely deny later if accused, Jin said, “We’re all alone out here, you know… ”
Kazuya stiffened his arms and pulled away a bit. “I’m not having sex in the alley.”
“Nobody would know!” Jin pouted. “Besides, doesn’t that make it more thrilling?”
“There’s nothing exciting about being taken against a filthy alley wall, Jin. It’s degrading. I’m not doing it!” He looked angry.
“It wouldn’t be like that. I…” Jin could tell he really stepped in it, but he wasn’t exactly sure how. He searched Kazuya’s face but wasn’t finding any answers there. All he could tell was that Kazuya had closed himself off. Completely confused, Jin mumbled, “It was just an idea…”
“Yeah, well, it’s a bad one. I’m not letting you fuck me in an alley!” Kame shoved him hard and the stormed off, leaving him alone in the alley once again.
+++
He shouldn’t have done that. He really shouldn’t have shoved him like that. It wasn’t like Jin was being intentionally dense. It was just…
It reminded him of his life on Pearl Street. Being taken by man after man until there were so many he couldn’t even guess the number.
But how was Jin supposed to know that?
Kame knew he should apologize but he couldn’t do it yet. Not before he got those images out of his head because his memory and his imagination were conspiring and all he could see was himself face-first against the wall praying for an end, only now he was imagining it was Jin doing it to him and it was just…
It was wrong. Jin wasn’t… he wasn’t like that but Kame couldn’t help but feel like he used to. All vulnerable and just… just cheap and dirty.
This was the very thing he’d been scared would happen. Maybe his past meant he could never properly be with someone…
No. No, no, he just had to take a moment. Breathe, collect his thoughts… all that… Work through it, because Jin was worth it. He was so worth it.
Wearing his brightest fake smile, Kame ducked into the sanctuary, trying to find a quiet place to be alone. Locking himself away in the office, though an extremely appealing idea, was just cowardly and he was no coward.
The shrieking blur of color darting past him out of the sanctuary was probably the street kids but they weren’t the only ones in there. Maru, wearing the jeans and the baggy shirt that Kame found for him earlier, was also in there, as was Koki.
Hm… Koki was far too observant and Kame really didn’t want to talk about it. Maybe he should go somewhere else.
Maru was acting very strangely though. He seemed unsure of himself, which was not something Kame ever expected to see in him. To Koki, Maru said, “So, we’re in a building. Do you like… uh, buildings?” and he gave a small nervous laugh. “I like buildings. Well, some… some build… Um, hi, I’m Maru but people call me Maru so you can call… um, hello."
Koki laughed warmly. “I know you’re Maru. We’ve met before, many times.”
“Right. Um…” Maru stammered. “Those other times were, you know, business and… you’re very pretty.”
Blinking, Koki asked, “I’m… what?”
“Well, well, okay, not pretty. Handsome? Sort of… Hi, I’m Maru?”
Koki’s smile was kind as he held his hand out. “Nice to meet you non-business… uh, -ly. Non businessly, then.” Was… was he blushing? Koki, blushing? Surely not. Kame had only seen that happen a handful of times in the months he’d known him. As Maru accepted his handshake, Koki added, “Nobody ever told me I’m pretty before. Well, I mean, the customers said I was hot but that’s… it’s not the same, not really…”
Kame slipped back out of the sanctuary quietly before he was seen.
Love was in the air, it seemed.
He just had to let his thoughts settle down and he’d be all right. Things now, they weren’t like back then, when he was living on the street. And if Tesshi could care so much for Detective Nishikido, and Junno and Tatsuya could mend whatever broke between them in the past, and even Maru could have feelings for someone not covered in fur with long ears, then he could do it too. He could have a relationship and it might not be perfect but he could have it nevertheless.
With Jin.
If Jin had the patience to take him as he found him.
Jin, it seemed, wasn’t at the church anymore though. Yurina said he’d gotten together a group and left to do a job. When he asked her what job, she didn’t know, but she did say he expected to be back sometime that same day.
And when Jin did get back, Kame missed him because he apparently wolfed down some dinner and then went to help guard one of Kizuna’s strolls.
He… he hadn’t driven him away, had he?
Kame wanted to ask but he didn’t get a chance to at all that day. He crashed before Jin got back and Jin didn’t join him on his sleeping mat when he got back in. Kame woke in the middle of the night just as alone as when he fell asleep.
But Jin wasn’t that far away. He was on the other side of the desk in the sleeping bag he’d originally slept in. So Kame crawled around to the other side of the desk and, with a small kiss on the cheek and a quiet apology, stretched out next to him.
“K-kazuya?” came Jin’s sleepy voice along with a yawn.
“It’s me.”
With a soft sigh, Jin said, “I don’t know what I did wrong…”
“It’s not really your fault, Jin,” Kame whispered to him, scooting closer so Jin could put his arm around him. “If having sex in the alley is important to you, then…”
“It’s not. It just happened to be where we were and I just can’t get enough of you. But we’re not in the alley anymore.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just that after a year of selling myself in an alley not much different from that one, I…”
Jin stilled at his back. “Oh, god, Kazu-love… I didn’t think… I’m so sorry…”
Turning to face Jin despite the fact that it was very dark in the room, Kame said, “I don’t want my past to control my future. You’re not those men. I didn’t want them. I want you. But it’s hard. You’re my first… well, lots of firsts for me. I think I get things wrong sometimes. I want… show me it’s not the same. Please. I need… I need to feel you. I know when I’m with you, it feels right and what’s in my head now, it’s not right at all. It’s not real. You’re what’s real.”
Jin’s lips found his despite the darkness and it was a slow, sweet kiss. “You taste pretty real yourself…” Jin teased. Kame could feel Jin moving against him but it was a bit confusing until Jin finally said, “Um, can you back up just a little? I can’t get to the zipper on the sleeping bag!”
“Oh, so I have you right where I want you, then?” Kame laughed, trying to push all those horrid images aside and focus on the here and now. He pushed Jin down by the shoulder and climbed on top of him, sleeping bag and all. “Now you’re my prisoner!”
“Hey, what about the Resistance? Without me, the brilliant leader, it will fail!”
“You know, you can crow till you’re blue in the face and it won’t make you leader of the Resistance. I’ll never give up!”
“Damn it, let me out of the sleeping bag!” but Jin didn’t sound angry at all. Only when Kame didn’t move, Jin somehow managed to roll them both over despite still being wrapped from chest down by the sleeping bag. “I’m not beaten yet, it seems…”
And in next to no time, Jin had the sleeping bag open and shoved to the side. Kame could feel Jin’s lips at his throat, pressing feather-light kisses everywhere and it felt good. It felt how it was supposed to, not like what he went through when he was younger. At least, it was what he thought it should feel like, the way it had every since that first time when he asked Jin to make love to him. “Oh, Jin…” he whispered, moaning.
“Hmm…?” Jin was practically humming now as he slowly undid button after button of Kame’s shirt. “I can’t hear you over the moans.” He licked a line down Kame’s chest, circling his tongue around the belly button and then down further to the top of Kame’s pants. And when he got there, he wasted no time but unbuttoned and unzipped them, pulling them down as he moved onward, lips and tongue caressing Kame’s skin. It was maddening. Every touch affected him just as strongly as that very first time and it felt right. Okay, maybe the intensity of it was a bit scary because it was still so new to him, but that didn’t make it any less right.
“You know…” Kame finally managed to find breath to pant, “It’s not really f-fair if I’m the only one naked.”
Jin laughed. “You’re not.”
“Huh?”
“Wow, you really need to pay attention when I’m touching you…” and he laughed again. “Seriously, Kazu, did you not feel me just throw my clothes over there?”
Actually, he hadn’t felt that at all. But he blamed Jin. If Jin hadn’t been touching him and kissing him while he stripped, he’d surely have noticed. All Jin’s fault. But rather than place blame, even mock-blame, Kame decided to take advantage of the moment and rolled the two of them back over so he was on top again.
“I think I like the view from up here,” Kame teased, pinning Jin’s arms above his head.
“It’s dark. There is no view.”
“There is no darkness that could hide you from me, Jin.”
+++
God, Kazuya was so tight… he was so close. He only wished he could see his lover a bit better, that it wasn’t so dark in the office. But when Kame rolled the two of them over and then got the idea to stay on top, getting up to turn the light on was the last thing on Jin’s mind.
But his imagination, coupled with what little he actually could see and everything he could feel, left him with a strong desire to actually see Kazuya riding him like this. Even just the thought of what it probably looked like was completely arousing.
Yes, they should definitely try this again with better lighting.
Oh, and a mirror.
Definitely with a mir…
Oh, god…
The way Kazuya just rolled his hips… There was some magic in it. The man wasn’t human. No way a human could move like that. And he kept doing it, speeding up as he got a rhythm going.
“Kazu-love,” but Jin had to stop to bite back a loud moan as Kazuya did it yet again, “if you keep doing that, this will be over real soon.”
Kazuya’s breath tickled Jin’s ear as he whispered into it, “I’m close anyway. Come for me, Jin…”
“You’re the boss…” but he at least had enough sense in him still to slip a hand down between them to pump Kazuya’s shaft . And when Kazuya came with that amazingly hot whimper, it was enough to push Jin that last tiny step over the edge.
Kazuya collapsed on top of him, sighing contentedly. “Now that's what I call a bright bang."
"Comparing me to a flash bomb n-"
But Jin didn’t finish what he was saying, because there was a sudden noise from the direction of the door and, before either of them could react to what was most certainly the sound of the door opening, there was a bright flash and the door was closed once more.
“What the fuck was that?” Jin asked, trying to blink away the aftereffects of the light. “Was… was that a camera flash?”
“You didn’t lock the door, did you?” Kazuya asked. He sounded annoyed.
“Um… I forgot…” Jin admitted with an embarrassed chuckle. “But, seriously, was that a camera flash?”
“Yes, Jin. That was a camera flash.” He sounded even more annoyed.
There was an awkward silence for a moment and Kazuya rolled off of him. “You know what? I don’t want to fight again. Can’t we just go to sleep? Come back to the mat with me. I’ll get the door.”
Jin nodded before remember that, well, it was pretty damn dark in there. “Sure, Kazu.”
He used the sleeping bag to clean the mess off his stomach (as did Kazuya). Kazuya locked the door and then the two of them moved to the mat. It didn’t take much for them to fall back asleep though for those few moments in between, all Jin could think was to wonder who had taken their picture and to hope that it was dark enough that even with the flash, Kazuya’s scars didn’t show up in the photo.
The next day, Jin couldn’t shake the feeling like he was being followed. Maybe it was just paranoia after what happened last night, but usually his instinct on that was pretty spot on. At least Kazuya seemed to have forgiven him for forgetting to lock the office door when he got in last night.
By dinner that night, Jin was sure he was being followed. No, not just followed. Someone was taking pictures, only they seemed most interested in those moments Jin and Kazuya were together. Holding hands, talking, laughing, kissing…
After dinner, Kazuya got a call from the JDA leader, Yasu. He was in a foul mood after that, but wouldn’t talk about it. It seemed like…
Well, like he was shutting Jin out.
It hurt.
Jin spent several hours that night out at a different one of the strolls keeping an eye on everyone, both as a guard for their safety and for his task Kazuya had entrusted to him. Not a one of the people who went on the job with him yesterday or any of the people he chatted with at the two strolls really stuck out as potential traitors.
But maybe whoever had taken up the paparazzi hobby would be different.
Kazuya was still closed off the rest of the night, though he didn’t object to Jin’s presence on the sleeping mat or when he slipped his arms around him.
Bright and early the next morning, though, Kazuya sent Koki to round up as many Kizuna members as he could for a meeting in the sanctuary. Jin decided to help put the word out, mostly to give Kazuya a moment to himself because he could tell his lover needed that.
That’s when he finally found the camera man. He was older than the street kids but he seemed pretty young still. Maybe twenty? Twenty-two?
It was possible it was a coincidence, but he was the first person in the church with a camera that Jin had seen. It was one of those cheap disposable cameras.
Their eyes locked and the young man seemed to realize the game was up, because he took off sprinting down the hall of the church.
“OI! GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE SHIT!” Jin shouted, giving chase. The kid was agile but there wasn’t really anywhere to lose him so after an annoying five-minute chase, Jin caught up to him. “Give me that!” he said as he snatched the camera.
“Hey, my Akakame pictures are on that! Give it back!” and the young man made a lunge for it. But Jin was expecting it and jumped back.
“Who are you, what the fuck is an Akakame, and why the hell were you taking pictures?”
But he didn’t answer. He lunged for the camera again. “Oh, come on! You guys are so cute together! Give me my camera!” The kid crossed his arms, clearly pouting.
A hand on his shoulder gave Jin a start but it was only Kazuya. “What are you doing to Taipi?”
The kid, Taipi, put his chin in his hands and with a big grin plastered on his face, sighed dreamily. “Oh, you should really kiss. But first give me back the camera!”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The story continues:
Chapter 88 ~Children's Services~
A/N: Well, I had a better authors note but I hit the wrong button and everything went bye bye. Sorry.