[fic] The Things We Can't Control - Chapter 09 ~Trust Me~
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...
Summary: Two criminals with vastly different styles meet by chance one day. Can they work together or will they end up destroying each other?
Author's Note: Back to Jin and Kame. You learn a few things about Jin's past, get to know Kame a bit better.
BANNER BY DESHISORABA!!
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 09 ~Trust Me~
When he finished eating, Jin pulled his shirt off over his head, spreading it out in front of him so he could see to pick the stray bits of food off of it. He still wasn’t quite sure why Kame had thrown the tray at him, but whatever.
The sound of the door drew his attention. Kame eyed him up and down and, sighing, sat down next to him, reaching over to help pick the food off the shirt. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have thrown it at you.”
Jin didn’t know how to respond to the apology, so instead he said, “Thanks for feeding me. I didn’t eat yesterday.” The last time he’d eaten was actually the morning before that, with… with Tat-chan…
Damn, he had no idea what to do. He didn’t know where his friend was. He didn’t know how he’d get the money. He’d been on the streets damn near his whole life and he couldn’t remember feeling this helpless in a long, long time.
“I think… I think I was wrong to come here…” Jin said softly.
With a small encouraging smile, Kame said, “Because you can’t get the money here?” But the man had a right to know. “You’re not meant to.”
“What do you mean?” Jin asked, staring at Kame in confusion. “The pimp said…”
“The pimp is keeping you distracted. He knows you’ll never get that money. He plans to kill your friend no matter what and just wants you out of the way to do it.” Kame looked sad. “He’ll probably wait until Friday just in case by some miracle you find the money, but once you pay him, he’ll just kill you both.”
Was it true? God, if that pimp already wrote Tat-chan off as a loss, who knows what kind of customers he’d trick him out to! There were all sorts of people and groups willing to pay decent money for a “throwaway” and none of them were the sort you’d wish even on an enemy.
“Are you saying it’s hopeless? That I should just forget him? I… I can’t do that!” He stared at Kame in outrage. “I can’t believe you’re saying…”
But Kame interrupted him, “I not saying that, Jin.”
“Well, then what are you saying?”
A knock on the door drew both of their attention. From Kame, “Enter!”
The door opened and Koki slipped inside. “I came to apolo… damn, what happened to you? That’s a pretty nasty scar!”
Huh? Oh, right. His shirt was on the floor, so Koki and Kame both had an eyeful. Starting at his left collarbone and running a jagged line down his chest to right about the left nipple was the last reminder of his first relationship, a woman he’d really rather forget. It wasn’t his only scar, but it was definitely the worst.
“I got a bit stabbed.”
He left out the part where she used up all the drugs her boss gave her to sell and then told her boss Jin had stolen it all. The man came and attacked him. Jin was eventually able to wrest the knife from the guy’s grasp and kill him. The girl tried to apologize. She said she was scared and that’s why she lied. But Jin didn’t care. He left her behind to deal with the drug dealer’s body and he threw the knife in the river. He never saw her again. Though, come to think on it, hadn’t he heard something about her overdosing a few years ago? Well, in any event, he was a lot more careful about trusting people after that.
“With what? A machete? Geez!”
Self-conscious, Jin snatched his shirt up and pulled it on fast, mumbling, “Don’t wanna talk about it…” There was no expiration date for murder. Even though it was self defense, Jin just didn’t think the cops would believe him. In their eyes, he was just another piece of street trash.
“Koki, enough!” Kame scolded. See, at least Kame had the decency to ignore it! “What do you need?”
“Oh, right! No, I just came to apologize to Jin for suddenly running off like that.”
Shaking his head, Jin said, “It’s okay.”
“Okay. Well, I guess I’ll go help with dinner…” Koki said.
“Hey, send Yuya along in about an hour, would you? I’ll be in here for a while,” from Kame. Koki nodded and left. He didn’t close the door behind him. Jin got the impression that the door was hardly ever closed or locked and that it was just to keep him in that they had locked it before.
Now that he thought about it, it was a bit funny to him that a church would have locks on the inner doors. The outside doors, sure, to keep vandals out… but things like the office door? Guess not even priests trust their fellow man. Idly Jin wondered just how long it had been since the church was an actual church.
But Kame’s voice interrupted his train of thought. “If I let you out of this office, would you stay?”
Would he? “I… I dunno. Probably not.” He had to find Ueda. If Kame was right about the pimp, it was a waste of time to get the money and instead he should just search for his friend.
“If Kizuna agreed to help you rescue your friend, would you stay? At least, for now?” and Kame sighed. “I’ll be honest with you. I don’t like keeping you locked up against your will. It just doesn’t feel right. But Kizuna has many enemies and we can’t afford to move base if they find us. We lucked out with the church. So many people are counting on us, counting on us to keep them safe and to do our best to keep them fed. Kizuna has everything from con men, prostitutes, armed robbers, mercenaries for hire, pretty much everything except drug dealing… and that’s not even counting the street kids and the rest of the homeless that, though not technically members of Kizuna, we still look after. Everyone gives what they can and we can’t risk letting you leave, even more so because of your friend Ueda situation.”
“What do you mean?” Jin asked, confused.
“We’ve already stolen away one from that pimp’s stable. He’s pretty much decided to destroy us. If you try to rescue your friend by yourself and get caught… well, let’s just say that if he thinks you know how to find us, he’ll get the information out of you one way or another and, trust me, you don’t want that and we can’t take that gamble.”
Sudden hope struck Jin at hearing Kame’s gang actually rescued someone from that pimp before. Pretty much everything else Kame said to him after that didn’t register, only the part about how they’d done it before. “Please, please help me find my friend! I’ll do anything, anything you want. I… I’m a decent thief. I know you don’t think so because of the bank but really, I am. I just… Okay, maybe my plans aren’t always so good but I get the job done!”
“I don’t know how yet; I doubt we can use the same plan as last time because he’ll expect it. But we’ll come up with something, okay? Just trust me,” and Kame held his hand out to Jin.
For a moment, Jin just stared at the man’s hand. It was true that almost everyone he’d ever trusted had turned on him. His mother kicked him out when he was ten at the request of one of her boyfriends. The few people he’d tried to date betrayed him one way or another, all the way back to the first one, the girl who’d sent her drug dealer boss after him. He’d pretty much decided the only one he could really trust was Ueda.
But there was something, some determination in Kame’s voice, some familiar weariness in his eyes… Maybe, ultimately, they weren’t all that different. They both had people they wanted to protect and they both did the best they could with what they had. Maybe the man in front of him actually could be trusted.
Dare he take that leap?
Well, it wasn’t like he could afford not to.
So be it. He accepted Kame’s handshake. “I’ll trust you. Please don’t make me regret it…”
Kame nodded. “Well, I need to take care of some stuff. Do you think you can go to the kitchen and help out for dinner? Also, get Koki to find you a place to sleep. We’re crowded but we’ll fit you in somewhere.”
“Which way?”
“From here, go left and all the way down the hall. It’s at the end.”
“Alright…” And off he went.
+++
Taking the key from around his neck, Kame unlocked the desk drawer and pulled the money pouch and the ledger out. He put the hundred dollars and the voucher for the jewelry in the pouch, zipping it back up, and flipped open the ledger to the first page with an empty line.
Eyeballing the figures covering the first half of the page, Kame sighed. They really needed that bank job. He could understand why Jin was so stubborn back at the bank, but he had been counting on that money…
Well, they’d just have to take what was left and go to Maru’s tomorrow morning. If they could get some ammo and a couple smoke bombs and flash bombs, fill up the gas tank in the Taurus and make the drive from the capital to any one of the neighboring towns, and assuming he could convince Jin to come with them, they would be able to hit two places at once. It wouldn’t be the payout they’d have gotten at the bank, but they could steal money and groceries in one stop.
It’d be cheaper to hit shops in the city, but with grocery stores, he didn’t want to take the risk word would get back to the shopkeepers around the church. Those people might not care if they wanted to rob a Walmart but they’d definitely object to Kizuna robbing the smaller family-owned places and, frankly, since he’d had to leave behind all the charges he’d set up around the bank, they couldn’t afford the supplies it would take to hit something so well guarded.
Briefly Kame considered sending someone back to the bank to get what they’d left behind, but most likely the bank conducted a search after what went down earlier and whoever he sent would just end up in jail.
Sighing again, Kame updated the records and when he was finished, he put it all back in the drawer and locked it.
“Kame?” Yuya’s voice came from the doorway. “Wow, you look beat.”
“Eh, I’ll be alright. Listen, can I ask you a favor?” Kame asked hesitantly.
“A favor and not an order? Must be something bad…” Yuya teased, but the smile left him as he took in the expression on Kame’s face. “What do you need?”
“Nishikido Ryo is pretty fond of you, isn’t he?”
Nodding, Yuya looked confused, “What’s this about?”
“Would you go ask him to help Junno?” Kame asked. Both of them knew exactly what that would mean.
“Are we that bad?” Yuya asked. He looked worried.
“It’s pretty bad, yeah. Listen, I wouldn’t ask, but…” Kame shook his head before continuing, “I’m not sure we can wait three days and you know Ryo won’t help for anything less than $200 normally.” Not that Kame could blame him. A man’s got to eat, right? And it was true that Ryo took a big risk any time he stuck his nose into a situation.
“I mean, I’m going to get some of the gang over there to help him clean up but Ryo could really speed things along…” Kame said. “But I won’t make you.”
The look on Yuya’s face was pretty serious and so was the tone of his voice, but he said, “I’ll do it. I guess it’s safer than hitting the street tonight after supper.”
“Thanks.”
“When do you want me to go?”
Kame thought a moment. “Get something to eat first, but right after that would be best. I’m going to take Koki, Massu, Shige, Koyama, and probably Jin with me tomorrow to hit some stores, maybe steal some food while we’re robbing the register.”
“Sure thing, Kame. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow evening, then. Good luck!” And Yuya sped off down the hall towards the kitchen.
Damn, he really hated asking favors like that. If Yuya worked the street, most of what he made he’d get to keep for himself. But going to see Ryo wasn’t going to earn him a dime. It was safer, but it definitely cut into Yuya’s own pocket.
Also, Kame had promised himself he would never dictate who the whores in Kizuna had to sleep with. He didn’t want to be that sort of man, like the pimps, who controlled every aspect of their stable’s life, forcing them to take customers they didn’t want. When he had to ask for that kind of favor, it felt almost like he was breaking that promise. Okay, realistically, he knew that if, for example, Yuya had said no, he would have left it at that. He wouldn’t have made him do it. But at the same time, Kame was in charge and, really, who was going to say no to him if he asked?
Sometimes, there aren’t any good solutions. You just have to do the best you can and hope it’s enough.
+++++++++++++++++++++
The story continue:
Chapter 10 ~That First Day~
A/N: Well, at least Kame has a plan for the gang. Though he still has to figure out how to help Ueda. But at least he sort of reached an understanding with Jin.
Oh, and apparently Yuya is a prostitute. There's a few of them in the gang. Koki stopped being one after he came to the gang because of what happened to him but some of the other members still are.
I've been talking with Desh about some UP stuff and I think I've got my head on straight about what's next and so on, so tomorrow should be an UP update, not a TWCC one.
Yeah, sorry 'bout that. You'll have to wait two days, not one, to learn who the boy is. But I really, really wanna update UP!!