[fic] The Things We Can't Control - Chapter 25 ~The Next Stage~
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: Next step in the Save Tatsuya effort.
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 25 ~The Next Stage~
After everything that had happened in the last couple hours, Kame imagined himself unable to sleep, back against the wall with a wary eye cast in Jin’s general direction. It seemed, however, he was wrong because one minute he was pulling the blanket over himself and the next Koki was waking him up. Apparently Jin woke before him and didn’t bother locking the door behind himself.
“… and you said you wanted to have the meeting first thing, didn’t you?”
“Huh?” Kame blinked, trying to catch up. He hadn’t exactly been listening. “Oh. Oh! The meeting!”
“Yeah. We’re all waiting for you. I can’t believe you’re still asleep at noon!”
Noon? NOON? “It’s noon?!”
Koki nodded.
Kame couldn’t remember the last time he’d sleep till noon and it was even more surprising because he’d expected a sleepless night after everything…
“Alright, I’m on my way. Give me a second, would you?” Koki nodded again and left the office, pulling the door to but not shutting it all the way. Kame rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair to pull out the tangles. Stretching felt so good and Kame couldn’t help but wonder how many more lucky nights he’d get. It didn’t make much sense to him, but he definitely felt more rested the two nights he’d shared the office space with Jin.
With one last satisfying stretch, he climbed to his feet and took off for the sanctuary.
And, indeed, everyone was there waiting. He’d feel bad about it normally but he just didn’t for some reason this time. Ah, well. The point was that he was there now, right? Though he did apologize after several gang members teased him about sleeping so late.
But everyone settled down and Shige asked, “How did everything go? Did the hellions find out what we want to know?”
He said not to call the kids that, hadn’t he? Ah, well. Maybe arguing over that was about as pointless as expecting Massu to answer a telephone properly. “Yeah. Though Ueda Tatsuya is, as best as we can know, alive… he’s not in a good place. Papa K’s got him at his rough-trade house. Koki?”
“Well, I never worked there; it was mostly just something he threatened us with to make us stay in line with only the most rebellious of us ever actually getting sent there. The place is two floors. There’s a large room right through the front door to finalize arrangements about paying and stuff, with a kitchen and laundry room and small rooms for Papa K’s mercenaries to stay in.”
“They live there?” Massu asked, surprised.
Koki nodded. “Yeah, they live there. Two or three… no, maybe it was four… Wait..” Koki looked confused. “Um… well, really, I guess it depends on who you ask. I’m not sure how many. But at least two. And the whores each have a room upstairs with an adjoining bathroom. They don’t get to leave their rooms. He keeps them locked up.”
“At least, that’s what everyone says. That’s what he tells us.”
From Yuya, “But you’ve never seen it yourself?”
“No, I haven’t. Thankfully. Well, I guess not so thankfully since that means I don’t really know…”
Shige interrupted him with, “Well then, shouldn’t that be our next move? Find out for sure?”
“Maybe…” Jin started, drawing the attention of the entire crowd, “We could get a message to him then? Let him know help is coming? He must be s-so…” and Kame thought it was so sad, the way emotion overcame Jin and robbed him of his ability to speak.
The man really had put his trust in Kizuna, hadn’t he? When Kame had asked him before and they shook hands, he’d really given that trust to them… Because Jin wouldn’t be sitting there still, given everything he was feeling, unless he was absolutely sure his best way to see his friend again was to work with Kizuna.
Addressing Jin and Koki, Kame asked, “Is he the sort who’d be able to keep it to himself or will it end up tipping off Papa K’s mercenaries and then Papa K himself, if we were to give him a message?”
“He’ll keep it to himself,” was the in near-perfect unison answer from both of them.
“So…” and now Kame addressed the whole group, “The question becomes, who goes? Again, it can’t be anyone from the Koki mission. It can’t be Jin. And whoever we use will probably have to sit out of the later stuff, too, so it needs to be someone whose absence later will not cripple our efforts. That means we should count out our best fighters for this. I can’t imagine getting through this without a fight in the end and we’ll need you guys for that. And, yes, that means you too, Yurina.”
“How about if I go?” Yuya suggested, though it was pretty clear he didn’t exact look forward to going anywhere near Papa K’s properties.
Koki saved Kame the trouble of responding, instead coming out with, “It wouldn’t work. It needs to be someone much more dominant than you. Er… no offense. I just meant… well, you bottom, right? People who go to the rough trade house go to inflict pain and not to receive it. They’d see right through you and probably put you to work and then we’d have to rescue you, too.”
“Ah… that’s a good point…” though Yuya blushed as he said it.
“I didn’t mean… well, I wasn’t being mean, Tesshi. I just don’t want anything bad to happen to you!” And now it was Koki that was blushing while everyone else was giving him knowing looks. Kame, on the other hand, was taken a bit by surprise. Though nobody had said it outright, it seemed like Koki had a bit of a crush on Yuya and Kame had somehow completely overlooked it. Some leader he was…
Even Jin seemed to have picked up on it. But, again, nobody said anything about it. Instead, Koyama broke the silence with, “Does it have to be one of us? What about Nishikido-san? A crooked cop is the perfect sort to go visit a place like that. He wouldn’t look out of place at all!”
“But Nishikido is expensive,” Kame sighed. “I don’t doubt he’d ask for… hmm, at least five hundred dollars, probably. I mean, if we don’t have any other choice, we can consider him a Plan B.”
“Well,” Massu said, “What about that annoying reporter that keeps coming by?”
A collective “hmm?” and the whole group turned to look at Massu. “Well, I mean, he wants to write an article. He might do this for us in exchange.”
In theory, it was a good idea, but… telling the whole city that he was the one running Kizuna and that Kizuna operated out of the abandoned church… it was dangerous! Papa K wanted to destroy them and he’d know right where to look if it was in the newspaper. “That’s pretty dangerous. Does anyone have a better idea?” Because, well, even if it was dangerous, Kame couldn’t think of a better idea himself.
Maybe… well, if he could convince Yamashita to leave out certain details…
And it seemed like the rest of the group couldn’t come up with anything better because they all sat in silence for several minutes.
“Alright, alright. I have his card somewhere in the office. I’ll call him. If I can convince him properly, we’ll try that. Otherwise… well, while I’m dealing with him, see if you can come up with a better idea. We’ll gather back up in a few hours?”
+++
It was embarrassing, the way he’d choked up at the meeting. Jin was trying so hard to put up a strong front, to show Kizuna and especially Kame that he was capable and confident and…
But really, he was scared.
He was scared for his friend Tatsuya, considering where he was and considering the fact it was already Tuesday and nobody had the first notion on how to get him out of there.
He was scared for himself, for the way that he kept letting Kame in. Kept letting him get under his skin. Kept caring what the younger thought about him. It wasn’t like him! No, he was changing and it scared him.
He was scared for Kame, for what he’d seen last night. For how Kame still denied he was punishing himself. For that trembling voice, asking him “Why did you attack me?” and begging him to “please don’t tell them…”
When had he become so uncertain?
Well, there was nothing he could do at the moment. He’d just have to wait until Kame was done talking with some reporter.
But he did feel a bit like he was going crazy.
Though…
That kiss last night… the first one, not when Kame attacked him in the office…
Every now and again, when his mind wasn’t otherwise occupied, the thought would hit him that it really was a very, very good kiss.
Er, not that he… well, he wasn’t in love with Kame or anything. Of course he wasn’t. He just… appreciated skill. Yeah, that’s it… he appreciated skill.
Nothing more.
Right?
+++
By the time Yamashita “call me Yampi” Tomohisa left the church office, Kame was ready to just bang his forehead on the desk until sweet oblivion overtook him. Reporters were just awful people to make bargains with. They think of everything and they argue and argue about every little detail. Yamashita hadn’t been happy with the “don’t mention me by name” and “don’t say where we’re located” clauses and especially the “don’t publish until he’s safely rescued” bit, but after a three-hour argument, they’d finally come to some agreement.
Yamashita would go to the rough trade house and request Tatsuya, a pretty typical thing. He’d scout out how well-defended the place was and he’d confirm firsthand that Tatsuya was… well, it’d be a bit much to hope he was “okay” but still… And he’d pass on the message that friends were coming for him if he’d just hang on a bit longer. And then when he got back, he'd report what he found to Kame and then Kame would let him interview him.
Kame wasn’t sure he could trust the man. In fact, he was pretty sure he couldn’t. But he’d made a promise to Jin. He promised he’d rescue Tatsuya and, damn it, that’s what he’d do. For some reason, it really, really mattered to him that Jin had put trust in him and in Kizuna and so he just had to keep his word, no matter what it took.
He’d like to claim it was his normal sense of pride that made it so important to him, but some small part of him knew better. He just didn’t want to disappoint Jin, even after everything that happened last night. Hurting Jin like that, by proving unworthy of that trust…
He just couldn’t do that.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
The story continues:
Chapter 26 ~Life Goes On~
A/N: Okay, not all that long of a chapter, but nevertheless it's important. Betcha all wondered when Yamapi would show back up. Here's hoping he can get in to see Tatsuya and give him the message that help is on the way. And also, here's hoping he keeps to his promise about withholding certain information in his article.
Anyways, I've got the next chapter already about 3/4 of the way done so it should be up tomorrow sometime. You can find out what happened to past!Kame and the twins.