[fic] The Things We Can't Control - Chapter 11 ~One Town Over~
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: I think it is now time for me to admit it: I suck at writing armed robbery. But I did my best so I hope it's followable and makes sense.
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 11 ~One Town Over~
A knock on the open door and Jin’s voice, “Hey, brought you some food.”
With a dismissive wave of his hand, Kame replied, “I’m fine. Give it to someone who needs it more.”
But Jin stubbornly didn’t listen. Instead he walked over and dropped the tray on the desk. “He said you’d say that. He also said, if I like my balls, I’ll make sure you eat it. He was waving that spoon in a really scary way so I figured I better do what he wanted.”
Laughing, Kame asked, “Who said that?”
“Koki. He also said to tell you to stop giving away your food.” And Jin looked confused. “But I don’t understand it at all. Food’s hard enough to get so why on Earth would you turn it down?”
“No, it’s not that I don’t want it. But I can go fine for a few days, while…”
“A few days? How many is a few, exactly?” Jin interrupted, staring at Kame strangely. “When was the last time you actually ate…?”
Kame had to think about it for a minute. Not today, not yesterday… had he eaten the day before that? “Either the day before yesterday or the before that. It’s not important. I’ve gone longer.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me…” and now Jin had the nerve to actual glare disapprovingly at him, even! “Okay, I’m staying right here until you eat every bit of that. Don’t make me force-feed you.”
“Wow, you’re really scared of Koki’s spoon, huh?” Kame laughed, hoping to lighten the suddenly tension in the room.
“No, you great gaping idiot. How the hell are you supposed to help me rescue my friend if you faint because you didn’t eat? Okay, yeah, sometimes you have to go without food so it’s good you can still function if things get tight. But that’s when you have to. There’s no excuse for going hungry when there’s food on-hand.” Jin shook his head. “People call me an idiot…” he mumbled.
“It’s not that I don’t want to eat. It’s just there’s so many others and…” Kame tried to explain. “You know, everything I eat means someone else doesn’t.”
The look Jin gave him was a pretty skeptical one. “Well, you can’t feed everyone and you’ll die trying. But you know what? I don’t even think that’s what this is. You may have the rest of the people around here fooled but not me.”
“What do-”
“You’re punishing yourself. I don’t know why and right now, I don’t care why. Just eat the damn food.” Jin gave the tray a hard shove across the desk to Kame.
“Fine, I’ll eat. Then you’ll shut up?”
Jin nodded grumpily and turned to leave, but when he got to the door, he stopped. “Oh, Koki also said there’s no room anywhere else so if you want me to sleep at the church, you’d better give up a patch of floor in here for me.”
That stopped Kame mid-motion. “WHAT?!” His chopsticks clattered on his plate as he dropped them. No, he couldn’t have Jin sleep in the office with him. That was completely unacceptable. He locked the door at night for a reason! Small comfort, since half the people in Kizuna could pick the lock but it was the symbolic act that was reassuring to him…
No. Calming breaths. Rule the panic, not the other way around… Don’t show that bit of fear suddenly gnawing at the pit of his stomach. These past years had taught him ways to deal better with his fears but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel them from time to time. He used to think the fear made him weak, but along the way somehow his view on that had changed. He recognized the fear as natural now and that the only weakness would be in letting them guide him past the advice from his heart and his head.
Still, he knew he would have trouble sleeping with someone else in the room. But… Was there even a choice? He couldn’t afford to just set Jin loose.
Damn it!
“Are you okay?” Jin voice broke through to him despite the heavy thoughts Kame was experiencing.
“Why wouldn’t I be okay? I’m fine. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“No reason…”
“Well, I guess you’ll need a blanket then… Oh, I almost forgot!” And Kame felt somewhat embarrassed that he’d let something so important slip his mind just because he didn’t want to share his room. “Before we can help save your friend, we need more food and more money. Tomorrow, we’re taking what money we have to Maru’s. We’re going to load up, head to a neighboring town, and do coordinated hits on a couple grocery stores. Once we’ve settled the situation, or at least provided a temporary relief, we’ll be able to deal with your friend.”
Jin gave him the “go ahead” nod for Kame to continue to his point.
“You said you’re a good thief. Well, we could really use you tomorrow. I know you’re not part of Kizuna so I can’t just order you to do it. But… please, consider it. Without you, we wouldn’t have enough people to strike two places at once. Well, no, we have enough people, but I won’t take someone who doesn’t know how to handle these sorts of things because they’ll just end up dead or in prison. We’re training some of our younger members but they’re not up for this quite yet.”
Jin looked thoughtful for a moment but finally just nodded. “If you’ll give me back my gun tonight, I’ll go with you tomorrow.”
A pause. “I suppose I have to. You’ve extended your trust to me so I have to do the same to you…” but the truth was, he really didn’t want to. He was suddenly irrationally worried about the whole thing, ever since he found out he’d have to share his little office at night. But at least he could see that, understand why he felt that way. When you can identify the things that concern you, they become less powerful.
Taking the key back from around his neck, he unlocked the desk drawer again, snatching up paper and pen. Quickly he jotted down a note telling Koki to make sure to give Jin back the gun. They’d locked it away with their own stuff to keep the street kids out of it. Handing the note to Jin, Kame said, “Give this to Koki when he gets you a blanket.” Koki should recognize his handwriting.
“Look, I lock this door whenever I lay down for the night, which will probably be around eleven so make sure you’re back here by then.”
And Jin nodded and left, his final shot being, “That food better be eaten by then.”
Was Jin right? Was he punishing himself? No, he would know if he was doing that, right?
Kame shook his head and picked back up the chopsticks.
Jin eventually came back by, gun in a holster at his side, pillow under his arm and blanket draped over his arm. “Where do you want me?”
Somewhere else.
But Kame didn’t say that. Instead he said, “You’ll have the most room on the clear side of the desk, parallel to wall, like my mat is on the other side.”
“Thanks.”
Jin set the pillow down and took the gun holster off to set the gun beside him, in easy reach for him but opposite of the door. Kame knew why he did it. You keep your protection close, but at the same time, you want to make sure you’re not just arming your enemies. If they have to go past you to get your weapon, you’ll wake in time to prevent it.
Was it perfect? Not hardly. But then again, what way was? Was there such a thing as a perfect way to protect yourself when you’re at your most vulnerable?
Pulling the blanket over himself, Jin mumbled something that sounded like “good night” and then passed smooth the fuck on out.
Guess he was tired. Now that he was asleep, Kame thought he actually looked peaceful, like he hadn’t a care in the world.
Kame was almost envious. He anticipated a sleepless night.
Even so, he locked the door like always and lay down on his sleeping mat, wrapping the blanket around himself. But the rhythmic sounds of Jin breathing had an incredibly calming effect and before he knew it, Kame was asleep, better and deeper than he had been in as long as he could remember.
+++
“Whuh… huh?” Jin mumbled, opening his eyes just barely. “Ten more minutes…” and he rolled onto his other side. But there it was again, that insistent prodding. The hell?
“What? What what what!?” he said grumpily, pushing himself to sit and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “I’m awake. What do you want?” He yawned.
“Are you always this hard to wake up? I’ve practically been kicking you and for almost five minutes at that,” Kame complained.
Huh? No, that couldn’t be right. Jin never fell that deeply asleep. You sleep that deeply, you end up knifed or something. But he couldn’t just tell Kame that so instead, “What of it?”
“Are you coming with us or not? I gave you back your gun last night like you wanted!”
“Of course I’m coming. What, did you think I was lying? If you thought I was lying, why on earth would you give me back the gun?” Now he was confused. Seriously, it was too early in the day for these games.
Wait, was it even early? Stupid office with no windows…
“What time is it?” he finally asked.
“It’s almost ten!” Kame exclaimed irritably.
Ten? “No shit?” and Jin was dumbfounded. Just how deeply asleep had he fallen?
“No shit. You missed breakfast and we’re about to head to Maru’s. So get your lazy ass up so we can go!” And Kame not-quite-stormed out of the office.
Yes sir, Taskmaster Kame, Jin thought with a small chuckle, but he did get up and strap his gun back on, making sure his shirt hid sight of it. He quickly ran his fingers through his hair to loosen any tangles and then ran off after Kame.
When he saw the number of people waiting at the car, “You seriously think you can fit four of us back there?”
“Buck up, Princess,” one of the guys said, not so much in a mean voice as a teasing one. “You worried you’ll break a nail or something?”
A second one nudged the speaker a bit with his shoulder and said, “Shige, don’t be mean…” but he said it with a smile. “I’m Massu, that’s Shige, and this is Koyama.”
“Jin.”
“We know,” this time from Shige again.
Jin saw Kame roll his eyes. “Just get in the car, guys. We’re sort of in a hurry. Maru’s already expecting us.”
So Jin reluctantly crowded in the back seat of the Taurus along with Massu, Shige, and Koyama, and Kame took the front passenger seat and Koki took the driver’s seat and then the whole lot of them were off, barreling towards Maru’s Bunny Shop.
Nakamaru Yuichi was an odd guy. A really, really odd guy. He owned an illegal gun shop, but woe to the man who tries to tell him that! No, he called his shop a “Bunny Shop” and Jin had learned a few years back that you don’t argue with Maru on that point. You just had to accept with good humor his repeated attempts to include pet rabbits with every sale.
But for all of his efforts to foster his rabbits on people and the incredible number he had in his Bunny Shop he just didn’t sell rabbits. Not a one. He only sold guns. You couldn’t walk into Maru’s and buy any of the bunnies in his Bunny Shop.
Sometimes Jin thought the guy was crazy. Other times, he just found him scary. Him and his cousin. That cousin of his smiled waaaay too often in Jin’s opinion. But he was a great fence. Both cousins were one of the most reliable people in their respective fields.
Kame told everyone to wait in the car, but Jin decided he needed out. His legs were falling asleep, all cramped back there. So he followed Kame into Maru’s Bunny Shop.
“Didn’t I say wait in the car?” came Kame’s testy voice.
“I didn’t know you two were friends?” Maru asked.
Jin shook his head. “We just met yesterday.”
But the Maru looked suddenly surprised, swinging his gaze back and forth between Jin and Kame. “Oh, that’s just priceless!” and he burst out laughing, much to Jin’s aggravation. Kame didn’t seem all that amused either.
“Yeah, why didn’t you mention someone else was after the same place?” Jin snarled a little more angrily than he meant to.
“I didn’t know it was the same bank. See, this is what happens when you don’t adopt a bunny. You get bad luck. Both of you. I told you that you would regret it, didn’t I?” and Maru wouldn’t stop laughing.
“And I told you, I don’t have a place to live! Where would I keep a damn rab….” But Jin didn’t finish the sentence because he realized almost too late he’d almost referred to Maru’s bunnies as ‘damn rabbits’ which was practically a death sentence.
But Maru was too busy laughing, so he didn’t seem to notice. Instead he said, “I bet if you took one with you, soon you might find yourself with a permanent home.” But then he suddenly was serious again, “You know, it might be karmically irresponsible of me to sell you anything else if you don’t take a bunny away with you. You’ll probably end up in a ditch dead somewhere!”
“Um… I hate to interrupt, but we’re here for business, right?” from Kame.
Maru nodded and they followed him into the back. “Okay, I put together a Fun Bag for your trip. I see you still have that drop gun, Jin… better throw some more ammo for it in as well. Give me just a second…”
How did he do that? Jin thought he had the gun well-hidden, but somehow Maru always knew!
Maru practically flew across the room, tossing small boxes to one side or another in search of something. “You can tell me exactly where each bunny in the front room is, by name, but you never seem to know where anything else is…” Jin pointed out, amused.
“Well, I have to know where each bunny is. Otherwise, how could I match them properly to my customers? I can’t just send them out randomly into the world!” he said offhandedly, like it made perfect sense somehow. But he finally found the right boxes and grabbed two of them, shoving them down in the Fun Bag. “You want to check it?”
Maru was scrupulously honest in his illegal dealings, so Jin was sure that what was in the bag was definitely worth what they were paying, but it doesn’t hurt anyone’s feelings to always check for yourself.
Jin didn’t know the plan yet so he just left it up to Kame. “This looks like everything I asked for…” he said as he carefully shifted the bag around to see the contents. “Hey, Jin, take this out to the car, would you?”
So Jin grabbed the bag and left Kame to handle the rest of the transaction. The last thing he heard before he was out the door was, “Are you sure? Neko would be a perfect pet; he’s exactly the right temperament for you…”
He named a rabbit “Neko?” Strange, strange man…
Once everything was loaded into the trunk and Kame came back outside, they set course for the city limits and onward to one of the towns within reasonable driving distance. Jin didn’t really know which one and to be honest, he didn’t really think it mattered which one.
He’d asked Kame before they left why they were going out of town just to commit a few robberies and Kame had looked at him like the question was foolish but finally answered, “We don’t want the local grocers to know about it, so we travel.”
When they finally reached town, Koki found them a relatively quiet part of town and parked the Taurus there. They all piled out of the car and Kame started to hand out weapons and ammunition and other trinkets. Jin had never used flash or smoke bombs before so he left those to the others, instead just getting ammo for his gun and snagging a knife for good measure as well.
“Koyama, Massu, Shige… you already know where to go and what to do so get going and stay safe…”
And with various mumbled farewells, the three of them left.
Before they had left that morning, Kame had explained the plan to him (he missed the breakfast briefing so Kame had to tell him separately). It was actually pretty simple. Koki stole a car for the three of them and they left for the small grocery store.
When they got there, Kame went it first. He grabbed a shopping cart and went inside where Jin knew he’d fill it as full as he could with foodstuffs the gang needed.
Jin counted off the minutes. He was supposed to give Kame plenty of time to load up the cart but at the same time go in soon enough that Kame doesn’t have to stand around suspiciously with his full cart and no apparent inclination to pay for the stuff.
After the previously decided wait, Jin took a deep breath and went in to do his part. The shop they hit was really small, so there was only two registers which meant they could be emptied quickly. It was nothing new to him. This is how he made a living, after all. Didn’t mean it wasn’t nerve-wracking each and every time.
He drew his gun as he approached the two register lines. One shot, carefully aimed at the scanning wand lying near one of the registers, sent everyone ducking for cover. Jin could only hope Kame was taking opportunity of this moment to get that cart of food outside so he could load up the stolen car by the time Jin was done.
Throwing a pouch to each of the two cashiers, he ordered them to empty the registers. While they scrambled to do that, Jin asked, “Where’s your safe?”
When they didn’t answer, he asked louder and shot out the monitor to one of the registers. “Don’t make me shoot you to prove my point.”
Nervously setting the pouch down, one of the cashiers said, “It’s… over there…” and she pointed. Her hand was shaking so badly. Jin felt like such an asshole. He always did. He didn’t like scaring people. But if they weren’t afraid, they wouldn’t obey. If they didn’t obey, things would get very ugly very fast. And he learned his lesson the hard way, but it was definitely ingrained into him now.
“Go open it, put the money in the bag, too.”
A frightened yelp and a quivering voice, “Please, we can’t. We don’t know how. The owner comes and… It’s… please, don’t kill me! I really can’t open it! Please, I have two kids at home… they need their mother… Don’t shoot us!”
With an aggravated growl, Jin snatched up both pouches and backed to the entrance. Well, two registers was at least some money, though not as much as he’d like. But he couldn’t make Koki and Kame wait forever.
As he left, he slid the gun back in the holster and booked back to the car. Once they had pulled out of the parking lot unhindered, Jin breathed his sigh of relief. Things had gone as well as could be expected. No safe, but two registers, plus the food. Time to rendezvous at the Taurus.
When they got there, Koyama’s team was just moving the last of their groceries to the trunk of the Taurus. Kame had Koki crank up the car so they could leave the moment they finished transferring the last of the food and Koyama, Massu, and Shige crammed themselves into the back seat once more while Kame and Jin went to get the very last bit of the groceries.
That’s when they heard the sirens and realized they wouldn’t make it into the car in time for everyone to get away. Kame looked at him and he looked at Kame and it was like in that instant, they came to the same conclusion. Waving for the others to go, Koki apparently realized what was happening and pealed out of there while Massu grabbed the door handle, pulling the back door closed.
“Try to keep up!” Kame shouted to Jin and the two of them ran, completely abandoning the last of the groceries. Jin doubted Kame knew where he was going, but it wasn’t like he knew any better.
Hopefully, the others got away…
+++++++++++++++++++++++
The story continues:
Chapter 12 ~The Pawn Shop~
A/N: See? Totally suck at writing armed robberies. But most of the rest of it, I'm happy with. Maru came out pretty much like I wanted him to, I think. Yeah, he's a bit... odd. I know there's a reason for his bunny-obsession but I haven't quite figured it out yet LOL. But it's not complete fluff.