[Fanfic] Red West II. - Chapter thirty six
Title: RED WEST II.
Author: Kasumi
Rating: NC-17
Genre: Western, Drama, Romance
Warning: AKame pairing; vulgarisms, violence
Beta-reading:
atago4
Summary: Once upon a time in the west... During the wild period of the United States formation, two young men became close friends and lovers, before they had to go separate ways... After a furious search, Jin managed to find his younger brother Leo, who is now a leader of the feared gang - ´Black Riders´. And after Kazuya helped the remaining Indians of Blackfeet Tribe move into the reservation, he was able to track them down and so the two met again... But will they overcome the new obstacles and old enemies? And does their affectionate relationship even have any chance in those cruel times?
Thank you: To
seiko22 for always supporting me; To
atago4 for awesome beta-reading; And to Kamenashi Kazuya and Akanishi Jin for being who they are...
AN: Kon´nichiwa! ^^/
This chapter is one of those, which were quite difficult to write, but once I´ve started I couldn´t stop until it was done...
I guess I won´t be very popular for this particular cliffhanger, but... don´t kill the messenger, ok? ^_^v
I´ll do my best to deliver you the next one asap, even though December is aways a very busy month for me...
I´m really grateful for every opinion or advice and always happy to know my readers.
Your comments are my best reward and kick me off to try harder and keep writing.
Thank you for them, no matter how long or short they will be.
Previously:
Chapter one // Chapter two // Chapter three // Chapter four // Chapter five // Chapter six // Chapter seven // Chapter eight // Chapter nine // Chapter ten // Chapter eleven // Chapter twelve // Chapter thirteen // Chapter fourteen // Chapter fifteen // Chapter sixteen // Chapter seventeen // Chapter eighteen // Chapter nineteen // Chapter twenty // Chapter twenty one // Chapter twenty two // Chapter twenty three // Chapter twenty four // Chapter twenty five // Chapter twenty six // Chapter twenty seven // Chapter twenty eight // Chapter twenty nine // Chapter thirty // Chapter thirty one // Chapter thirty two // Chapter thirty three // Chapter thirty four // Chapter thirty five //
Expose
For a few long seconds, nobody moved. Leo seemed to be too shocked to even say anything and as for Jin and Kame, the encounter with him was too sudden to somehow react right away.
Then Jin´s hand slid down from the younger one´s back slowly and clenched into a fist. Kame was trying to recognize the younger Akanishi´s expression anxiously, but it was almost impossible. Leo´s face was hardly recognizable in the shadow created by the bright daylight behind his back.
“Leo… I can explain…” Jin spoke in a somewhat restrained tone, breaking the heavy silence. But he didn´t get a chance to continue, since his younger brother just turned on his heel and walked away without a single word.
Kame turned to Jin, hesitating what to say: “I´m sorry…” he managed to get through his constricted throat. “I didn´t notice him at all…”
The older one stared at the empty exit for a while, before he looked at Kame. His eyes were strangely unmoving and the younger one had a feeling that Jin didn´t even hear what he had said.
He took a determined breath: “Jin, I can…”
“No… Just no,” the older one cut in, shaking his head. He was gathering his thoughts only slowly, but he sounded quite decisive. “It´s… all right. Leave my brother to me,” Jin stated and then hurried after Leo.
Kame just stood there, under that unfortunate ladder, feeling helpless.
Even though Jin wasn´t very eager to reveal their relationship to the others, Kame was quite sure they would have done it, eventually. But not like this… Not being caught by his brother as some horny teenagers. There was basically no solid reason for it, but Kame was really worried about how Leo would react to such a discovery.
When he finally made his feet move forward, they led him back to the stalls, to the stable from which his dear mare was looking out for him already; as if Ukushi knew that her master would come to her, seeking some composure. Her silent presence helped Kame calm down a bit, but it didn´t take long before his ears caught two quite loud voices from the outside…
*
Jin thought that his brother went right back to the saloon, so he set off across the back yard in fast pace. But then he stopped so abruptly that his boots almost slipped in a muddy puddle. Leo was still outside. His younger brother was sitting on the wooden block for chopping behind a small tool shed, and he was smoking.
The older Akanishi took a deep breath and made a few steps back, approaching him slowly. Leo didn´t pay him any attention, not even when his brother stood right in front of him.
“Just listen to me, Leo, all right?” Jin started carefully. “What you saw… I didn´t want to tell you about it, because… You know… Me and Kame…” he really wanted to say it so that Leo would understand, but somehow he felt absolutely lost trying to finding correct words.
His younger brother suddenly chuckled, in a quite mocking manner: “Hey, it´s ok, Brother,” Leo stated somewhat too lightly and took a deep draw from the cigarette. “We all have our flings from time to time, right?”
“What? No, it´s not…” Jin tried to explain the situation again, but his brother didn´t let him.
“Look, it´s true that I´d have expected to catch you with some chick instead, but when you have to, you have to…” Leo threw only a half-smoked butt away and pressed it to the ground with the tip of his boot, before he got up. “No need to be ashamed, Bro,” he grinned, but it seemed to be forced. “Everybody can see that Kame is almost as pretty as a girl, right?”
“Well… I…” Jin stared at his brother, slowly comprehending what the other one meant by that statement.
“It´s your privacy. What happened, happened,” Leo shrugged. “I´ll forget that I ever saw something and we´ll never talk about it again. Problem solved, huh?”
The younger Akanishi patted his brother´s shoulder and turned to leave.
“But I don´t want you to forget it,” finally, Jin found a breath to speak, mostly thanks to the fact that he was starting to be quite upset.
Leo stopped and then turned back towards him slowly: “What´s your point?”
“Kame is not just a fling to me,” Jin stated firmly, determined not to stop until Leo would realize what was actually going on between him and Kame. When he had found out about them now, he deserved the truth, not some cover stories.
“Ah, I get it…” his brother nodded with a strange smile. “You couldn´t help it and now you realize you´ve made a mistake. Cool down, Jin. Anyone can make one sometimes…”
“NO!” Jin raised his voice, already really pissed that Leo was turning everything upside down. “Kazuya is neither my mistake nor my fling, not anything like that!”
That awful smirk finally disappeared from Leo´s face: “What do you mean by that? That he´s your… boyfriend or what?” he asked rather scornfully.
“Yes, that´s exactly what I mean!” Jin snapped to make the things clear to his stupid little brother. “We don´t do this to beat boredom; we´ve been together for months!”
Leo stared at him for a while, before he spoke again stiffly: “You´re not serious.”
“Absolutely,” Jin opposed.
His brother approached closer to him again, looking into his face closely: “Are you trying to tell me that you have some kind of serious relationship with Kamenashi?”
“And what if I had?” the older one reacted huffily. “Ever since we had met in Bozeman!”
Now, it was Leo, who took a deep breath: “Wow… That´s quite a long time,” he evaluated in a sarcastic tone.
“It is!” Jin confirmed harshly. “So, stop trying to make this look like some stupid affair.”
“I don´t get it!” Leo burst out finally. “Especially you, who had always dreamt about having a normal family, you declare this?!”
That caught Jin unprepared and he remained speechless, while furious Leo continued.
“You kept saying that once you have a family, you would never be like our father! That once you have children, you never let them experience the fear we did! You used to talk about this so often that it was annoying!”
Jin frowned: “What does this have to do with me and Kame?” he asked darkly.
“What? You ask me what? You don´t have that dream anymore?!”
The older one was repaying Leo´s burning look for a while, before he admitted: “I do, but still…”
“Then how are you going to fulfil it with him, damn it?” Leo snapped. “Is Kamenashi just a woman in disguise or what?”
Jin didn´t like his brother´s tone at all, but he couldn´t find a proper argument at once: “I didn´t think about it that way…”
“Obviously!” Leo snorted. “Is he so good in bed that he makes you stop thinking altogether?”
“Stop talking about him like that!” Jin lashed out. “You know nothing about us!”
“At least I know that some long-term relation of two men is bullshit!”
Jin gritted his teeth, trying to keep his anger under control. After everything what he and Kazuya had been through, he was not going to put up with prejudices from anyone, the least from his younger brother.
“Shut up, Leo, otherwise… whether you´re my brother, or not, I will make you,” Jin stated in a quiet, but more threatening voice. “You cannot understand…”
“No, of course I cannot!” Leo interrupted him once again. “I can´t watch my brother ruining his life!” he exclaimed rather desperately, shoving into the older one.
“I´m pretty sure that I can do with my life whatever I want,” Jin reacted, not moving even an inch away.
Leo stiffened and his expression changed slowly.
“Sure, you can…” he admitted, suddenly quietly. “And here are your actual choices - if you want to continue with us to Hereford, your little romance, or whatever it is, ends right here, right now.”
“You command me to break up with Kame?” Jin asked incredulously.
“Exactly. I won´t accept it either as your brother, or as the leader of Black Riders. Is that clear enough?”
That was just too much for Jin to chew on… He was angry and disappointed about Leo´s blinded attitude. And he knew how to decide right away, not thinking about it even for a second or about any consequences.
“Crystal clear, Leo,” he reacted coldly.
“So?”
“It seems that our ways part in this city,” Jin said in a stiff tone.
The younger Akanishi was looking to his eyes for a long while, as if he was searching for some sign of hesitation, which he didn´t find.
“I see…” Leo backed off and turned away from his older brother. “Your choice,” he murmured over his shoulder and disappeared in the back entrance of the saloon´s building.
Jin´s chest was raising with heavy breaths and he just couldn´t release the clenched fists, even though he wanted to. He had imagined a few options of Leo´s reaction on his relationship with Kame, from shock to anger, but he would have never thought that his brother would want them to break up right away. That was an outcome he was not willing to accept.
“That didn´t go so well…” a sad voice behind him said, making Jin turn.
“Kazu... You´ve been listening?” he figured out quickly, as Kame looked quite miserable.
“To a part of it,” the younger one admitted. “It´s was quite hard to ignore you two.”
Damn… Jin frowned. There were things which his handsome boyfriend really didn´t need to hear.
“Don´t bother with what he said,” he emphasized. “Leo doesn´t understand what…”
But Kame interrupted him softly: “I get it, Jin. It was probably quite a shock to him. What could we expect?”
“Well… I didn´t expect this,” the older one murmured.
*
Kame was observing his lover´s glum face with uneasiness in his heart, which he was trying hard to cover up. The older one told him not to bother with Leo´s words, but that was not so easy.
So, Jin would like to be a father… They had never talked about something like that, naturally, there was no reason to, but still… Leo was right about that one - they already were a strange couple and they could never be a proper family.
“Kame, do not worry about it, all right?” Jin repeated, probably noticing something in Kame´s expression what he didn´t like.
How can I not worry about your happiness? Kame sighed in his mind, before speaking aloud: “Maybe we should apologize…”
“No way!” angry Jin was back right away. “After everything he´s just said?!”
“It´s worth trying,” Kame insisted. Leo was the only family Jin had left and it mattered to him a lot. It would be terrible if they parted like this.
The older one huffed: “Do as you wish, but I´m not going after him now. I think I need some air…” Jin turned and walked away, towards the river behind the barn.
Kame sighed and with a heavy heart, he followed Leo´s track back inside the saloon.
*
“That was quick,” Ryo welcomed Nick and Jane, as they joined them at the half-empty table in the corner of the taproom. “How did it go?”
Nick placed an obviously full bag in front of Koki, who was patting his full stomach satisfied, while the brunette replied smiling: “We´ve got it. That doctor was very helpful; he gave us a good price.”
“Only after you blinked your eyelashes at him a couple of times,” the older Rider noted amusedly. “But it served its purpose. We have enough of those medicaments, I dare to say.”
“Great, just in time,” their leader´s voice was heard behind them, but there was not even a trace of joy in it. “Ryo, fetch Cullen and Jack from upstairs. All of you grab our stuff, we´re leaving. I´ll settle the bill,” Leo announced strictly, took his hat from the hook on the wall and headed to the bar counter, while everybody watched him speechless.
They were all still sitting or standing there, even after Leo paid to the lady innkeeper and returned to them.
“You didn´t hear me, or what?” he asked with a rather scary expression.
“But what about our rest?” Koki dared to object. “You agreed that…”
“There´s plenty hours of daylight left yet and we have no time to waste,” Leo snapped. “Stop whining, Koki and let´s go. And get also my horse from the stables.”
And with that, the Riders´ leader left the taproom to wait for them outside.
Jane turned to the sitting youngsters: “What happened while we were gone?” she asked.
Koki shrugged, just as incomprehensive as the others.
“I have no idea what got into him,” Ryo stated as he got up. “But I´m not gonna argue with him in this mood,” he assumed wisely, and then rushed up the stairs to get Cullen and Jack.
*
When Kame entered the taproom, Cullen and Ryo were just leaving through the main entrance. Through the windows, he could also see that Leo, Jane and Nick were outside. He rushed along the bar counter and stopped only at the veranda.
As the stalls were easier to access from the street, both Jack and Koki were leading four horses to the waiting Riders from there, since Jane´s and Nick´s were already waiting in front of the saloon. All of them were preparing for departure, although with quite confused faces.
“There you´re!” Ryo exclaimed, as soon as he spotted Kame standing there. “Where´s Jin?”
Kame ignored the question and hurried to Leo, who had already managed to get himself up into the saddle.
“Leo, please, can you just hear me out?” he stood in front of his horse with a pleading question.
The dark eyes pierced him coldly: “If there´s anyone I want to talk with even less than with my brother, it´s you,” Leo hissed.
That made everybody else more surprised than they had been so far. Cullen, seeming to be still half asleep, glanced from one to another suspiciously. Koki, who was the least willing to leave, was observing them with a frowning expression, while Jack, Nick and Ryo were totally confused. Jane was the most cautious one of all, trying to figure out what happened.
“Leo, just…” Kame tried again. “We wanted to tell…”
“As I said!” the Riders´ leader interrupted him impatiently. “I don´t want to talk with you!”
The second man in command approached them soberly: “What happened, Leo? Why are you so mad?” Cullen asked seriously. But not even his calm attitude was of any help.
“I won´t discuss that right now, and that´s it!”
“But I won´t go until I know, why are you like this,” Koki spoke too, clenching the reins of his horse.
Leo gritted his teeth: “Fine!” he snapped, completely out of his usual reasonable self. “You can just stay here with those liars then!”
*
Jane kept her restless stallion on a short leash, as the animal seemed to be eager to follow its comrades. Cullen, Ryo, Jack and Nick left right after Leo. They didn´t understand, but they followed their leader, who was obviously not open to any discussion.
She stared at the empty end of the street feeling an unpleasant surprise. She had never seen Leo like that before. Of course, he got angry from time to time, but it never got into the extent of him ignoring everyone else or being reckless.
“What the hell?!” Koki, who was the only one remaining behind, threw his hands up helplessly.
Kame seemed to be kind of thunder-struck as well, as he stood there under the veranda, motionless. Jane led her horse towards him.
“Kame, can you tell us what happened?”
The younger one turned to her with an awfully unhappy expression and studied her face for a while. Koki made sure his horse won´t escape the knot, by which he tied him to the railing and approached them as well.
“You know about us, right? About me and Jin?” Kame asked quietly.
The brunette sighed, already suspecting the reason of Leo´s behavior: “Yes, for quite some time…” she admitted.
“I thought so…” the younger one murmured.
“Leo found out as well?” Jane guessed.
“Yeah… He saw us. And he didn´t take it well,” Kame reacted gloomily.
“So, that´s why… And I wanted to see his expression…” the blonde Rider whined.
“Koki,” Jane looked at him reproachfully.
“You can´t deny you wanted to see it as well,” Koki grinned.
“You two knew about each other?” Kame asked in surprise.
Jane nodded: “It was easy to tell, since he mocked you two so cheerfully.”
Koki just snorted something, before his face got more serious: “But I still don´t get it, why is Leo so pissed?”
Kame sat down on the stairs, suddenly seeming to be very tired: “He and Jin had a quarrel. They didn´t fight, but it was not far from that… I didn´t expect a…. full understanding, but…”
“If Leo said something stupid, don´t worry about it,” Jane said, seeing the younger´s expression. “I know him and when he´s angry, he tends to say things he doesn´t mean.”
Kame looked up, trying to put on a more composed face, but it didn´t seem to Jane that her words had that correct effect.
“Just as Jin,” he said quietly. “He is quite pissed as well, refusing to talk with Leo again.”
“Oh, my…” Jane sighed. “What else to expect, right? Brothers… Look, leave Leo to me, I´ll talk some sense into him. Your task is to persuade Jin to follow us, all right?”
Kame didn´t seem to be very convinced, and for once, Jane was grateful for Koki, who sat down next to him, and threw an arm around his shoulders.
“I´ll help you, handsome,” the blonde one promised. “Even if we have to drag him away from here by force!”
Finally, Kame seemed to be a little relieved: “Thanks… Thank you both.”
“No need to,” Jane shook her head, and jumped into the saddle. “I know that one Akanishi to handle is already more than enough, with two… We must join our forces. Will you be able to follow us?”
Kame nodded: “If you stick to the planned route, then yes.”
“Fine… Good luck, guys.”
“I need no luck,” Koki swaggered. “Mr. Upset has no chance against me.”
Jane just rolled her eyes and waved a goodbye to at them, before making her horse move.
*
When the pretty brunette rushed around the closed theater, galloping to the north on her well-built stallion, the shadows behind one of the decorative pillars moved and revealed a tall figure of a smoking man. He watched as the female rider crossed a narrow bridge and disappeared between the buildings on the other side of the river. Only then he turned towards the Mexican-style saloon on the opposite side of the street again.
Two youngsters, now already standing, talked for a bit, before the one with crazy hairstyle patted the other´s shoulder encouragingly. Then the blonde one headed around the saloon to the back yard of the place, while the other Rider, who seemed to be very troubled, went back inside.
“How many of them arrived, you said?” the man asked, keeping his eyes on the noisy saloon.
“Nine, including that woman,” a quiet voice replied from a shadow behind the next pillar.
“And how many of them we just saw leaving?” the gunman raised another question, despite knowing the answer.
“Six, Chief.”
The smoking man smiled in a quite repulsive way: “Well, aren´t we lucky?”
*
Koki could tell right away, that Kame-chan was not his usual self. He let himself be convinced quite easily to wait in the taproom, while only Koki would go to bring the older Akanishi to senses. That rupture with Leo disconcerted the younger one more than he showed. And that was just another reason to deal with the pissed Akanishi alone.
The blonde Rider didn´t know to where the older one could hole up, so he searched the barn, the stalls, the tool shed, the whole back yard, almost digging in the pile of dung too, but Akanishi was nowhere to be found.
Koki was already tempted to give up, and wait for Jin in the saloon with Kame, when he finally spotted somebody sitting at the tree on the hill behind the barn. Reminding himself not to be discouraged easily, he ascended the slope and stopped next to the young gunslinger.
Akanishi stopped staring at the river, glanced to the side and made a face: “What? Are you a peacemaker now?”
“Kind of,” Koki assumed. “But Leo didn´t send me.”
“Even if he did, I wouldn´t care,” the other one snapped.
“Can you stop fuming for three seconds at least?” the blonde one asked caustically. “We have no time for your offended pride.”
Jin glared at him: “What do you mean by ´no time´?”
“The others had already left, so we need to catch up with them, before they get too far,” Koki informed him sharply.
The information seemed to surprise the older one and it didn´t improve his mood at all: “Who said I want to catch up?”
“Come on, man,” Koki squatted down to look at Jin straight. “Do you really want you two to part in such a way? Leo was just too surprised to think clearly; he will cool down.”
Akanishi kept silent for a while, before he asked: “Who told you about it?”
“Kame-chan did; Leo didn´t explain a thing to us and just herded his horse away from the city.”
“He wasted no time, really,” Jin growled. “Anyone else stayed behind?”
“No, Kame is waiting in the saloon alone; I suppose he already has enough of your burst outs,” the blonde one grinned.
“I´m shocked you´re still here then,” the other one hissed. “Moreover unnecessarily. I won´t come after my stupid brother asking for forgiveness. He´s the one who should apologize.”
Koki rolled his eyes: “Jane was right; you two are unpleasantly alike... Both of you are awfully stubborn.”
“I don´t need you to analyze my character!” Jin snapped again. “Just get off and leave me alone!”
The blonde one observed Akanishi´s angry expression for a while: “Why are you so pissed, I wonder?” he asked a little helplessly. “Isn´t it good that he finally knows? Now you two don´t have to…”
That was not the best choice of words, as Koki found out right away.
“It´s not your concern, Tanaka. Get lost!”
Koki knew what that burning shine in the dark eyes meant. It was useless. At that moment, the older Akanishi wasn´t willing to listen to any reasonable statements. Maybe only Kame would be able to persuade him.
“Fine,” he sighed, giving up. “Just come to the taproom once you calm down, so we can set off. No matter how angry you´re, you know it´s stupid for us to separate like this. Even if you don´t talk to each other, you can still do it together.”
*
Kame stared at those three unfinished beers, left behind by his friends, but he had no taste for alcohol. He was sitting alone in the corner of already quite crowded taproom, as many people stopped by on their way from work to enjoy the specific taste of the Mexican cuisine. But he didn´t really hear their chitchatting about recent news or clinging of cutlery, he was too deep in pessimistic thoughts for that.
It seemed to him that Jin had anticipated his brother´s reaction and that was why he wanted to keep their relationship secret in front of other Riders. Only Kame was so naive to think that maybe all of them would be able to accept it. Moreover, that dream, which Leo had mentioned, kept bugging in Kame´s head.
Jin confirmed that he would like to have a family once. But he couldn´t have it with Kame, that was more than clear. So, once again, the younger one wondered what exactly their relationship meant to Jin… But he kept chasing those worries away, as he was more bothered with the argument between the Akanishi brothers. Kame really hoped that both Jane and Koki would succeed in persuading the two to reconcile. He hated to be the cause of their conflict…
Unexpectedly, somebody sat down on one of the free chairs at the table across from Kame. He looked up to a man wearing a dusty jacket and a wide brimmed hat, which hid his face in the dark. Kame meant to tell him that the table was occupied, but the words got stuck in his throat.
The air in the taproom turned heavy; it was suddenly so thick that it was impossible to breathe normally. All sounds around Kame dimmed and it felt as if the time slowed down for the moment, during which he turned into a statue, not being able to move under the grey look of the eyes, which pierced him from under the hat.
The thin lips created an amused smirk, as the man obviously enjoyed his reaction. Hundreds of pictures ran through Kame´s mind - from tortured Jin, through his burnt-out home, to the motionless bodies on a frozen ground… On his way to Denver, he was lucky to avoid that person, when he set Ukushi and Koki free, so now Kame was almost surprised by the extent of negative emotions, which flooded him at the second their eyes met. That man sitting across him committed so many evil deeds, but paid for none of them. And Kame was not willing to let Math Grenet mess up with his life again.
The young gunslinger didn´t even realize that his hand slipped down to the gun-stock poking out from the sheath on his right hip. He just listened to his instinct telling him to get rid of that person sooner than it would be too late. No matter the consequences, no matter if he had to become a fugitive from of the law… He was ready to shoot that bastard right on that damn chair he was sitting on…
“If you´re thinking about doing something stupid, I strongly recommend you to think again, baby boy.”
Kame froze, with his hand gripped around the revolver. That voice was just as he remembered - quiet and hoarse, overfilled with mocking amusement and dark threat. Not to mention he really hated that stupid nickname.
The time flow returned to normal, though it still felt as if there was not enough oxygen inside the saloon. Kame glanced to the side and noticed Danny McFly, who was standing near the wall just a couple of inches away, watching him. Scanning the rest of the room, he also recognized a familiar gunman at the bar counter, who was staring towards their table. Everybody else seemed to mind their meals or beers.
Kame´s mind had already started working under the emotional pressure - he figured he might still manage to shoot and then overturn the table to avoid being aimed at by the other two. In the mess after that, he would slip outside through the back door, it was quite close and McFly didn´t mean any difficult obstacle for him. Then he would just have to find Jin and Koki and leave the city right away…
He looked back at Grenet, trying hard to remain calm; he couldn´t give in to his emotions now. Kame focused on the feeling of the weapon in his grip, ready to release the fuse.
The smile of the man, who murdered his mother, slowly faded: “Aren´t you missing someone here?” Grenet asked, with his eyes narrowed.
After hearing those words, Kame didn´t feel the gun stock under his fingers anymore, as they turned into ice. He was not able to accept what that question could have meant right away and he just stared at that bastard speechless.
“Let me tell you something, Kamenashi,” Grenet continued, as he lit up a cigarette. “There´s one of my men outside, waiting and he has a task. If you don´t come out with me within five minutes, he´ll shoot off the stupid head of your precious friend.”
Kame would not be able to speak even if he wanted; only his thoughts ran wild.
How the hell could he…? No, wait, wait… Maybe that Grenet is lying, just to corner me… Kame was persuading himself. There was no way he could get Jin or Koki so quickly. He was waiting there only for a short while… But Jin has been outside longer…
The smoking gunman smirked again: “You´re probably wondering which friend of yours it is - that blonde asshole or Akanishi. Good for you there´s not so many possibilities since the others left the city, right?”
We´ve been watched since we arrived to Fort Collins… Kame realized in horror and everything squeezed inside of him. Grenet was probably just waiting for the first opportunity to strike and since they separated from the others because of that argument…
Grenet leant over the table towards him: “Come on, pretty boy, at least guess which of them has the gun at his temple right now.”
Kame was desperately trying to find the way out of the situation, but he just couldn´t see any.
“No?” Grenet raised his eyebrows. “You´re much less talkative than before… Never mind. Give your gun to Danny. Now.”
Kame didn´t move. He couldn´t remember the last time he felt so helpless.
“Do not try me, baby boy… You know what I´m capable of,” Grenet hissed with more than a clear threat.
Yes, Kame did know that, there were memories inside his head which could never be erased. And that was why he was so desperate not to give up. But then he realized there was no fight from the very beginning; Grenet was two steps ahead of him. He had no other choice in this moment. He couldn´t endanger Jin´s or Koki´s life knowingly… So, Kame released his grip on the revolver and started to pull it up only by two fingers.
“Slowly,” Grenet reminded him harshly, watching him like a predator its prey.
Kame raised his hand only a little above the table and waited, until McFly took the revolver from his fingers.
“Good boy,” the smoking gunman noted and got up. “You first,” he gestured to him to leave.
Kame got up stiffly and slowly followed McFly, who led the way to the exit. That other gunman at the bar, whom Kame slightly remembered from Bozeman, joined them at the veranda and buried a cold barrel into Kame´s back.
“To the other side of the street, quickly,” Grenet ordered.
They walked in a tight circle around Kame, so that other passerby would not notice anything suspicious. Kame staggered among them, waiting for any sign, which would tell him that he was being deceived. There was still a chance that Grenet was lying… Once he would confirm that Jin and Koki were safe, he might try to run off, to the nearest Marshals office for example, or simply snatch another gun and put a proper bullet into that jerk´s head. As far as he didn´t like killing, Kame was sure that he would have no problem with it in Grenet´s case…
They entered the narrow aisle and at its end Kame noticed some horses waiting and one man with them. The closer they got, the surer he was that there was nobody else. If Grenet really had one of those two, it would have to be somewhere close.
Kame concentrated on the movements of his captors around, waiting for the end of the aisle. There were two men with guns behind him, and one of them Grenet, but only McFly was in front of him. If he could throw the boy against the guardian of horses and managed to get behind the nearest corner… Grenet didn´t want to kill him, at least not right away, he was pretty sure about that. And since it seemed that he was just bluffing about having Jin or Koki, an attempt to escape, no matter where, was his only chance and he was going to…
Kame didn´t even finish his thought, as a strong hand grabbed him, forcing him to stop and a sudden hard hit from the side made his mind go black.
*
Marty crouched down to the motionless body and pressed the fingers against the pale skin of the youngster´s neck. Then he nodded at his boss. One precise blow right into the temple was enough, Kamenashi was unconscious.
“Tie him to the saddle and let´s go,” satisfied Grenet ordered, finishing his cigarette.
“What about Akanishi?” Danny asked quietly, while Marty and the other gunman dragged Kamenashi from the aisle towards the horses.
Math smiled confidently: “No need to worry about him, Danny. If he cares for our pretty face just half as much as I think, he´ll come on his own. And even if he cannot find the way, we´ll help him a little. But only after I have my fun…”
- To be continued -
Credit for banner:
witchann2
Author: Kasumi
Rating: NC-17
Genre: Western, Drama, Romance
Warning: AKame pairing; vulgarisms, violence
Beta-reading:
atago4
Summary: Once upon a time in the west... During the wild period of the United States formation, two young men became close friends and lovers, before they had to go separate ways... After a furious search, Jin managed to find his younger brother Leo, who is now a leader of the feared gang - ´Black Riders´. And after Kazuya helped the remaining Indians of Blackfeet Tribe move into the reservation, he was able to track them down and so the two met again... But will they overcome the new obstacles and old enemies? And does their affectionate relationship even have any chance in those cruel times?
Thank you: To
seiko22 for always supporting me; To
atago4 for awesome beta-reading; And to Kamenashi Kazuya and Akanishi Jin for being who they are...
AN: Kon´nichiwa! ^^/
This chapter is one of those, which were quite difficult to write, but once I´ve started I couldn´t stop until it was done...
I guess I won´t be very popular for this particular cliffhanger, but... don´t kill the messenger, ok? ^_^v
I´ll do my best to deliver you the next one asap, even though December is aways a very busy month for me...
I´m really grateful for every opinion or advice and always happy to know my readers.
Your comments are my best reward and kick me off to try harder and keep writing.
Thank you for them, no matter how long or short they will be.
Previously:
Chapter one // Chapter two // Chapter three // Chapter four // Chapter five // Chapter six // Chapter seven // Chapter eight // Chapter nine // Chapter ten // Chapter eleven // Chapter twelve // Chapter thirteen // Chapter fourteen // Chapter fifteen // Chapter sixteen // Chapter seventeen // Chapter eighteen // Chapter nineteen // Chapter twenty // Chapter twenty one // Chapter twenty two // Chapter twenty three // Chapter twenty four // Chapter twenty five // Chapter twenty six // Chapter twenty seven // Chapter twenty eight // Chapter twenty nine // Chapter thirty // Chapter thirty one // Chapter thirty two // Chapter thirty three // Chapter thirty four // Chapter thirty five //
Expose
For a few long seconds, nobody moved. Leo seemed to be too shocked to even say anything and as for Jin and Kame, the encounter with him was too sudden to somehow react right away.
Then Jin´s hand slid down from the younger one´s back slowly and clenched into a fist. Kame was trying to recognize the younger Akanishi´s expression anxiously, but it was almost impossible. Leo´s face was hardly recognizable in the shadow created by the bright daylight behind his back.
“Leo… I can explain…” Jin spoke in a somewhat restrained tone, breaking the heavy silence. But he didn´t get a chance to continue, since his younger brother just turned on his heel and walked away without a single word.
Kame turned to Jin, hesitating what to say: “I´m sorry…” he managed to get through his constricted throat. “I didn´t notice him at all…”
The older one stared at the empty exit for a while, before he looked at Kame. His eyes were strangely unmoving and the younger one had a feeling that Jin didn´t even hear what he had said.
He took a determined breath: “Jin, I can…”
“No… Just no,” the older one cut in, shaking his head. He was gathering his thoughts only slowly, but he sounded quite decisive. “It´s… all right. Leave my brother to me,” Jin stated and then hurried after Leo.
Kame just stood there, under that unfortunate ladder, feeling helpless.
Even though Jin wasn´t very eager to reveal their relationship to the others, Kame was quite sure they would have done it, eventually. But not like this… Not being caught by his brother as some horny teenagers. There was basically no solid reason for it, but Kame was really worried about how Leo would react to such a discovery.
When he finally made his feet move forward, they led him back to the stalls, to the stable from which his dear mare was looking out for him already; as if Ukushi knew that her master would come to her, seeking some composure. Her silent presence helped Kame calm down a bit, but it didn´t take long before his ears caught two quite loud voices from the outside…
*
Jin thought that his brother went right back to the saloon, so he set off across the back yard in fast pace. But then he stopped so abruptly that his boots almost slipped in a muddy puddle. Leo was still outside. His younger brother was sitting on the wooden block for chopping behind a small tool shed, and he was smoking.
The older Akanishi took a deep breath and made a few steps back, approaching him slowly. Leo didn´t pay him any attention, not even when his brother stood right in front of him.
“Just listen to me, Leo, all right?” Jin started carefully. “What you saw… I didn´t want to tell you about it, because… You know… Me and Kame…” he really wanted to say it so that Leo would understand, but somehow he felt absolutely lost trying to finding correct words.
His younger brother suddenly chuckled, in a quite mocking manner: “Hey, it´s ok, Brother,” Leo stated somewhat too lightly and took a deep draw from the cigarette. “We all have our flings from time to time, right?”
“What? No, it´s not…” Jin tried to explain the situation again, but his brother didn´t let him.
“Look, it´s true that I´d have expected to catch you with some chick instead, but when you have to, you have to…” Leo threw only a half-smoked butt away and pressed it to the ground with the tip of his boot, before he got up. “No need to be ashamed, Bro,” he grinned, but it seemed to be forced. “Everybody can see that Kame is almost as pretty as a girl, right?”
“Well… I…” Jin stared at his brother, slowly comprehending what the other one meant by that statement.
“It´s your privacy. What happened, happened,” Leo shrugged. “I´ll forget that I ever saw something and we´ll never talk about it again. Problem solved, huh?”
The younger Akanishi patted his brother´s shoulder and turned to leave.
“But I don´t want you to forget it,” finally, Jin found a breath to speak, mostly thanks to the fact that he was starting to be quite upset.
Leo stopped and then turned back towards him slowly: “What´s your point?”
“Kame is not just a fling to me,” Jin stated firmly, determined not to stop until Leo would realize what was actually going on between him and Kame. When he had found out about them now, he deserved the truth, not some cover stories.
“Ah, I get it…” his brother nodded with a strange smile. “You couldn´t help it and now you realize you´ve made a mistake. Cool down, Jin. Anyone can make one sometimes…”
“NO!” Jin raised his voice, already really pissed that Leo was turning everything upside down. “Kazuya is neither my mistake nor my fling, not anything like that!”
That awful smirk finally disappeared from Leo´s face: “What do you mean by that? That he´s your… boyfriend or what?” he asked rather scornfully.
“Yes, that´s exactly what I mean!” Jin snapped to make the things clear to his stupid little brother. “We don´t do this to beat boredom; we´ve been together for months!”
Leo stared at him for a while, before he spoke again stiffly: “You´re not serious.”
“Absolutely,” Jin opposed.
His brother approached closer to him again, looking into his face closely: “Are you trying to tell me that you have some kind of serious relationship with Kamenashi?”
“And what if I had?” the older one reacted huffily. “Ever since we had met in Bozeman!”
Now, it was Leo, who took a deep breath: “Wow… That´s quite a long time,” he evaluated in a sarcastic tone.
“It is!” Jin confirmed harshly. “So, stop trying to make this look like some stupid affair.”
“I don´t get it!” Leo burst out finally. “Especially you, who had always dreamt about having a normal family, you declare this?!”
That caught Jin unprepared and he remained speechless, while furious Leo continued.
“You kept saying that once you have a family, you would never be like our father! That once you have children, you never let them experience the fear we did! You used to talk about this so often that it was annoying!”
Jin frowned: “What does this have to do with me and Kame?” he asked darkly.
“What? You ask me what? You don´t have that dream anymore?!”
The older one was repaying Leo´s burning look for a while, before he admitted: “I do, but still…”
“Then how are you going to fulfil it with him, damn it?” Leo snapped. “Is Kamenashi just a woman in disguise or what?”
Jin didn´t like his brother´s tone at all, but he couldn´t find a proper argument at once: “I didn´t think about it that way…”
“Obviously!” Leo snorted. “Is he so good in bed that he makes you stop thinking altogether?”
“Stop talking about him like that!” Jin lashed out. “You know nothing about us!”
“At least I know that some long-term relation of two men is bullshit!”
Jin gritted his teeth, trying to keep his anger under control. After everything what he and Kazuya had been through, he was not going to put up with prejudices from anyone, the least from his younger brother.
“Shut up, Leo, otherwise… whether you´re my brother, or not, I will make you,” Jin stated in a quiet, but more threatening voice. “You cannot understand…”
“No, of course I cannot!” Leo interrupted him once again. “I can´t watch my brother ruining his life!” he exclaimed rather desperately, shoving into the older one.
“I´m pretty sure that I can do with my life whatever I want,” Jin reacted, not moving even an inch away.
Leo stiffened and his expression changed slowly.
“Sure, you can…” he admitted, suddenly quietly. “And here are your actual choices - if you want to continue with us to Hereford, your little romance, or whatever it is, ends right here, right now.”
“You command me to break up with Kame?” Jin asked incredulously.
“Exactly. I won´t accept it either as your brother, or as the leader of Black Riders. Is that clear enough?”
That was just too much for Jin to chew on… He was angry and disappointed about Leo´s blinded attitude. And he knew how to decide right away, not thinking about it even for a second or about any consequences.
“Crystal clear, Leo,” he reacted coldly.
“So?”
“It seems that our ways part in this city,” Jin said in a stiff tone.
The younger Akanishi was looking to his eyes for a long while, as if he was searching for some sign of hesitation, which he didn´t find.
“I see…” Leo backed off and turned away from his older brother. “Your choice,” he murmured over his shoulder and disappeared in the back entrance of the saloon´s building.
Jin´s chest was raising with heavy breaths and he just couldn´t release the clenched fists, even though he wanted to. He had imagined a few options of Leo´s reaction on his relationship with Kame, from shock to anger, but he would have never thought that his brother would want them to break up right away. That was an outcome he was not willing to accept.
“That didn´t go so well…” a sad voice behind him said, making Jin turn.
“Kazu... You´ve been listening?” he figured out quickly, as Kame looked quite miserable.
“To a part of it,” the younger one admitted. “It´s was quite hard to ignore you two.”
Damn… Jin frowned. There were things which his handsome boyfriend really didn´t need to hear.
“Don´t bother with what he said,” he emphasized. “Leo doesn´t understand what…”
But Kame interrupted him softly: “I get it, Jin. It was probably quite a shock to him. What could we expect?”
“Well… I didn´t expect this,” the older one murmured.
*
Kame was observing his lover´s glum face with uneasiness in his heart, which he was trying hard to cover up. The older one told him not to bother with Leo´s words, but that was not so easy.
So, Jin would like to be a father… They had never talked about something like that, naturally, there was no reason to, but still… Leo was right about that one - they already were a strange couple and they could never be a proper family.
“Kame, do not worry about it, all right?” Jin repeated, probably noticing something in Kame´s expression what he didn´t like.
How can I not worry about your happiness? Kame sighed in his mind, before speaking aloud: “Maybe we should apologize…”
“No way!” angry Jin was back right away. “After everything he´s just said?!”
“It´s worth trying,” Kame insisted. Leo was the only family Jin had left and it mattered to him a lot. It would be terrible if they parted like this.
The older one huffed: “Do as you wish, but I´m not going after him now. I think I need some air…” Jin turned and walked away, towards the river behind the barn.
Kame sighed and with a heavy heart, he followed Leo´s track back inside the saloon.
*
“That was quick,” Ryo welcomed Nick and Jane, as they joined them at the half-empty table in the corner of the taproom. “How did it go?”
Nick placed an obviously full bag in front of Koki, who was patting his full stomach satisfied, while the brunette replied smiling: “We´ve got it. That doctor was very helpful; he gave us a good price.”
“Only after you blinked your eyelashes at him a couple of times,” the older Rider noted amusedly. “But it served its purpose. We have enough of those medicaments, I dare to say.”
“Great, just in time,” their leader´s voice was heard behind them, but there was not even a trace of joy in it. “Ryo, fetch Cullen and Jack from upstairs. All of you grab our stuff, we´re leaving. I´ll settle the bill,” Leo announced strictly, took his hat from the hook on the wall and headed to the bar counter, while everybody watched him speechless.
They were all still sitting or standing there, even after Leo paid to the lady innkeeper and returned to them.
“You didn´t hear me, or what?” he asked with a rather scary expression.
“But what about our rest?” Koki dared to object. “You agreed that…”
“There´s plenty hours of daylight left yet and we have no time to waste,” Leo snapped. “Stop whining, Koki and let´s go. And get also my horse from the stables.”
And with that, the Riders´ leader left the taproom to wait for them outside.
Jane turned to the sitting youngsters: “What happened while we were gone?” she asked.
Koki shrugged, just as incomprehensive as the others.
“I have no idea what got into him,” Ryo stated as he got up. “But I´m not gonna argue with him in this mood,” he assumed wisely, and then rushed up the stairs to get Cullen and Jack.
*
When Kame entered the taproom, Cullen and Ryo were just leaving through the main entrance. Through the windows, he could also see that Leo, Jane and Nick were outside. He rushed along the bar counter and stopped only at the veranda.
As the stalls were easier to access from the street, both Jack and Koki were leading four horses to the waiting Riders from there, since Jane´s and Nick´s were already waiting in front of the saloon. All of them were preparing for departure, although with quite confused faces.
“There you´re!” Ryo exclaimed, as soon as he spotted Kame standing there. “Where´s Jin?”
Kame ignored the question and hurried to Leo, who had already managed to get himself up into the saddle.
“Leo, please, can you just hear me out?” he stood in front of his horse with a pleading question.
The dark eyes pierced him coldly: “If there´s anyone I want to talk with even less than with my brother, it´s you,” Leo hissed.
That made everybody else more surprised than they had been so far. Cullen, seeming to be still half asleep, glanced from one to another suspiciously. Koki, who was the least willing to leave, was observing them with a frowning expression, while Jack, Nick and Ryo were totally confused. Jane was the most cautious one of all, trying to figure out what happened.
“Leo, just…” Kame tried again. “We wanted to tell…”
“As I said!” the Riders´ leader interrupted him impatiently. “I don´t want to talk with you!”
The second man in command approached them soberly: “What happened, Leo? Why are you so mad?” Cullen asked seriously. But not even his calm attitude was of any help.
“I won´t discuss that right now, and that´s it!”
“But I won´t go until I know, why are you like this,” Koki spoke too, clenching the reins of his horse.
Leo gritted his teeth: “Fine!” he snapped, completely out of his usual reasonable self. “You can just stay here with those liars then!”
*
Jane kept her restless stallion on a short leash, as the animal seemed to be eager to follow its comrades. Cullen, Ryo, Jack and Nick left right after Leo. They didn´t understand, but they followed their leader, who was obviously not open to any discussion.
She stared at the empty end of the street feeling an unpleasant surprise. She had never seen Leo like that before. Of course, he got angry from time to time, but it never got into the extent of him ignoring everyone else or being reckless.
“What the hell?!” Koki, who was the only one remaining behind, threw his hands up helplessly.
Kame seemed to be kind of thunder-struck as well, as he stood there under the veranda, motionless. Jane led her horse towards him.
“Kame, can you tell us what happened?”
The younger one turned to her with an awfully unhappy expression and studied her face for a while. Koki made sure his horse won´t escape the knot, by which he tied him to the railing and approached them as well.
“You know about us, right? About me and Jin?” Kame asked quietly.
The brunette sighed, already suspecting the reason of Leo´s behavior: “Yes, for quite some time…” she admitted.
“I thought so…” the younger one murmured.
“Leo found out as well?” Jane guessed.
“Yeah… He saw us. And he didn´t take it well,” Kame reacted gloomily.
“So, that´s why… And I wanted to see his expression…” the blonde Rider whined.
“Koki,” Jane looked at him reproachfully.
“You can´t deny you wanted to see it as well,” Koki grinned.
“You two knew about each other?” Kame asked in surprise.
Jane nodded: “It was easy to tell, since he mocked you two so cheerfully.”
Koki just snorted something, before his face got more serious: “But I still don´t get it, why is Leo so pissed?”
Kame sat down on the stairs, suddenly seeming to be very tired: “He and Jin had a quarrel. They didn´t fight, but it was not far from that… I didn´t expect a…. full understanding, but…”
“If Leo said something stupid, don´t worry about it,” Jane said, seeing the younger´s expression. “I know him and when he´s angry, he tends to say things he doesn´t mean.”
Kame looked up, trying to put on a more composed face, but it didn´t seem to Jane that her words had that correct effect.
“Just as Jin,” he said quietly. “He is quite pissed as well, refusing to talk with Leo again.”
“Oh, my…” Jane sighed. “What else to expect, right? Brothers… Look, leave Leo to me, I´ll talk some sense into him. Your task is to persuade Jin to follow us, all right?”
Kame didn´t seem to be very convinced, and for once, Jane was grateful for Koki, who sat down next to him, and threw an arm around his shoulders.
“I´ll help you, handsome,” the blonde one promised. “Even if we have to drag him away from here by force!”
Finally, Kame seemed to be a little relieved: “Thanks… Thank you both.”
“No need to,” Jane shook her head, and jumped into the saddle. “I know that one Akanishi to handle is already more than enough, with two… We must join our forces. Will you be able to follow us?”
Kame nodded: “If you stick to the planned route, then yes.”
“Fine… Good luck, guys.”
“I need no luck,” Koki swaggered. “Mr. Upset has no chance against me.”
Jane just rolled her eyes and waved a goodbye to at them, before making her horse move.
*
When the pretty brunette rushed around the closed theater, galloping to the north on her well-built stallion, the shadows behind one of the decorative pillars moved and revealed a tall figure of a smoking man. He watched as the female rider crossed a narrow bridge and disappeared between the buildings on the other side of the river. Only then he turned towards the Mexican-style saloon on the opposite side of the street again.
Two youngsters, now already standing, talked for a bit, before the one with crazy hairstyle patted the other´s shoulder encouragingly. Then the blonde one headed around the saloon to the back yard of the place, while the other Rider, who seemed to be very troubled, went back inside.
“How many of them arrived, you said?” the man asked, keeping his eyes on the noisy saloon.
“Nine, including that woman,” a quiet voice replied from a shadow behind the next pillar.
“And how many of them we just saw leaving?” the gunman raised another question, despite knowing the answer.
“Six, Chief.”
The smoking man smiled in a quite repulsive way: “Well, aren´t we lucky?”
*
Koki could tell right away, that Kame-chan was not his usual self. He let himself be convinced quite easily to wait in the taproom, while only Koki would go to bring the older Akanishi to senses. That rupture with Leo disconcerted the younger one more than he showed. And that was just another reason to deal with the pissed Akanishi alone.
The blonde Rider didn´t know to where the older one could hole up, so he searched the barn, the stalls, the tool shed, the whole back yard, almost digging in the pile of dung too, but Akanishi was nowhere to be found.
Koki was already tempted to give up, and wait for Jin in the saloon with Kame, when he finally spotted somebody sitting at the tree on the hill behind the barn. Reminding himself not to be discouraged easily, he ascended the slope and stopped next to the young gunslinger.
Akanishi stopped staring at the river, glanced to the side and made a face: “What? Are you a peacemaker now?”
“Kind of,” Koki assumed. “But Leo didn´t send me.”
“Even if he did, I wouldn´t care,” the other one snapped.
“Can you stop fuming for three seconds at least?” the blonde one asked caustically. “We have no time for your offended pride.”
Jin glared at him: “What do you mean by ´no time´?”
“The others had already left, so we need to catch up with them, before they get too far,” Koki informed him sharply.
The information seemed to surprise the older one and it didn´t improve his mood at all: “Who said I want to catch up?”
“Come on, man,” Koki squatted down to look at Jin straight. “Do you really want you two to part in such a way? Leo was just too surprised to think clearly; he will cool down.”
Akanishi kept silent for a while, before he asked: “Who told you about it?”
“Kame-chan did; Leo didn´t explain a thing to us and just herded his horse away from the city.”
“He wasted no time, really,” Jin growled. “Anyone else stayed behind?”
“No, Kame is waiting in the saloon alone; I suppose he already has enough of your burst outs,” the blonde one grinned.
“I´m shocked you´re still here then,” the other one hissed. “Moreover unnecessarily. I won´t come after my stupid brother asking for forgiveness. He´s the one who should apologize.”
Koki rolled his eyes: “Jane was right; you two are unpleasantly alike... Both of you are awfully stubborn.”
“I don´t need you to analyze my character!” Jin snapped again. “Just get off and leave me alone!”
The blonde one observed Akanishi´s angry expression for a while: “Why are you so pissed, I wonder?” he asked a little helplessly. “Isn´t it good that he finally knows? Now you two don´t have to…”
That was not the best choice of words, as Koki found out right away.
“It´s not your concern, Tanaka. Get lost!”
Koki knew what that burning shine in the dark eyes meant. It was useless. At that moment, the older Akanishi wasn´t willing to listen to any reasonable statements. Maybe only Kame would be able to persuade him.
“Fine,” he sighed, giving up. “Just come to the taproom once you calm down, so we can set off. No matter how angry you´re, you know it´s stupid for us to separate like this. Even if you don´t talk to each other, you can still do it together.”
*
Kame stared at those three unfinished beers, left behind by his friends, but he had no taste for alcohol. He was sitting alone in the corner of already quite crowded taproom, as many people stopped by on their way from work to enjoy the specific taste of the Mexican cuisine. But he didn´t really hear their chitchatting about recent news or clinging of cutlery, he was too deep in pessimistic thoughts for that.
It seemed to him that Jin had anticipated his brother´s reaction and that was why he wanted to keep their relationship secret in front of other Riders. Only Kame was so naive to think that maybe all of them would be able to accept it. Moreover, that dream, which Leo had mentioned, kept bugging in Kame´s head.
Jin confirmed that he would like to have a family once. But he couldn´t have it with Kame, that was more than clear. So, once again, the younger one wondered what exactly their relationship meant to Jin… But he kept chasing those worries away, as he was more bothered with the argument between the Akanishi brothers. Kame really hoped that both Jane and Koki would succeed in persuading the two to reconcile. He hated to be the cause of their conflict…
Unexpectedly, somebody sat down on one of the free chairs at the table across from Kame. He looked up to a man wearing a dusty jacket and a wide brimmed hat, which hid his face in the dark. Kame meant to tell him that the table was occupied, but the words got stuck in his throat.
The air in the taproom turned heavy; it was suddenly so thick that it was impossible to breathe normally. All sounds around Kame dimmed and it felt as if the time slowed down for the moment, during which he turned into a statue, not being able to move under the grey look of the eyes, which pierced him from under the hat.
The thin lips created an amused smirk, as the man obviously enjoyed his reaction. Hundreds of pictures ran through Kame´s mind - from tortured Jin, through his burnt-out home, to the motionless bodies on a frozen ground… On his way to Denver, he was lucky to avoid that person, when he set Ukushi and Koki free, so now Kame was almost surprised by the extent of negative emotions, which flooded him at the second their eyes met. That man sitting across him committed so many evil deeds, but paid for none of them. And Kame was not willing to let Math Grenet mess up with his life again.
The young gunslinger didn´t even realize that his hand slipped down to the gun-stock poking out from the sheath on his right hip. He just listened to his instinct telling him to get rid of that person sooner than it would be too late. No matter the consequences, no matter if he had to become a fugitive from of the law… He was ready to shoot that bastard right on that damn chair he was sitting on…
“If you´re thinking about doing something stupid, I strongly recommend you to think again, baby boy.”
Kame froze, with his hand gripped around the revolver. That voice was just as he remembered - quiet and hoarse, overfilled with mocking amusement and dark threat. Not to mention he really hated that stupid nickname.
The time flow returned to normal, though it still felt as if there was not enough oxygen inside the saloon. Kame glanced to the side and noticed Danny McFly, who was standing near the wall just a couple of inches away, watching him. Scanning the rest of the room, he also recognized a familiar gunman at the bar counter, who was staring towards their table. Everybody else seemed to mind their meals or beers.
Kame´s mind had already started working under the emotional pressure - he figured he might still manage to shoot and then overturn the table to avoid being aimed at by the other two. In the mess after that, he would slip outside through the back door, it was quite close and McFly didn´t mean any difficult obstacle for him. Then he would just have to find Jin and Koki and leave the city right away…
He looked back at Grenet, trying hard to remain calm; he couldn´t give in to his emotions now. Kame focused on the feeling of the weapon in his grip, ready to release the fuse.
The smile of the man, who murdered his mother, slowly faded: “Aren´t you missing someone here?” Grenet asked, with his eyes narrowed.
After hearing those words, Kame didn´t feel the gun stock under his fingers anymore, as they turned into ice. He was not able to accept what that question could have meant right away and he just stared at that bastard speechless.
“Let me tell you something, Kamenashi,” Grenet continued, as he lit up a cigarette. “There´s one of my men outside, waiting and he has a task. If you don´t come out with me within five minutes, he´ll shoot off the stupid head of your precious friend.”
Kame would not be able to speak even if he wanted; only his thoughts ran wild.
How the hell could he…? No, wait, wait… Maybe that Grenet is lying, just to corner me… Kame was persuading himself. There was no way he could get Jin or Koki so quickly. He was waiting there only for a short while… But Jin has been outside longer…
The smoking gunman smirked again: “You´re probably wondering which friend of yours it is - that blonde asshole or Akanishi. Good for you there´s not so many possibilities since the others left the city, right?”
We´ve been watched since we arrived to Fort Collins… Kame realized in horror and everything squeezed inside of him. Grenet was probably just waiting for the first opportunity to strike and since they separated from the others because of that argument…
Grenet leant over the table towards him: “Come on, pretty boy, at least guess which of them has the gun at his temple right now.”
Kame was desperately trying to find the way out of the situation, but he just couldn´t see any.
“No?” Grenet raised his eyebrows. “You´re much less talkative than before… Never mind. Give your gun to Danny. Now.”
Kame didn´t move. He couldn´t remember the last time he felt so helpless.
“Do not try me, baby boy… You know what I´m capable of,” Grenet hissed with more than a clear threat.
Yes, Kame did know that, there were memories inside his head which could never be erased. And that was why he was so desperate not to give up. But then he realized there was no fight from the very beginning; Grenet was two steps ahead of him. He had no other choice in this moment. He couldn´t endanger Jin´s or Koki´s life knowingly… So, Kame released his grip on the revolver and started to pull it up only by two fingers.
“Slowly,” Grenet reminded him harshly, watching him like a predator its prey.
Kame raised his hand only a little above the table and waited, until McFly took the revolver from his fingers.
“Good boy,” the smoking gunman noted and got up. “You first,” he gestured to him to leave.
Kame got up stiffly and slowly followed McFly, who led the way to the exit. That other gunman at the bar, whom Kame slightly remembered from Bozeman, joined them at the veranda and buried a cold barrel into Kame´s back.
“To the other side of the street, quickly,” Grenet ordered.
They walked in a tight circle around Kame, so that other passerby would not notice anything suspicious. Kame staggered among them, waiting for any sign, which would tell him that he was being deceived. There was still a chance that Grenet was lying… Once he would confirm that Jin and Koki were safe, he might try to run off, to the nearest Marshals office for example, or simply snatch another gun and put a proper bullet into that jerk´s head. As far as he didn´t like killing, Kame was sure that he would have no problem with it in Grenet´s case…
They entered the narrow aisle and at its end Kame noticed some horses waiting and one man with them. The closer they got, the surer he was that there was nobody else. If Grenet really had one of those two, it would have to be somewhere close.
Kame concentrated on the movements of his captors around, waiting for the end of the aisle. There were two men with guns behind him, and one of them Grenet, but only McFly was in front of him. If he could throw the boy against the guardian of horses and managed to get behind the nearest corner… Grenet didn´t want to kill him, at least not right away, he was pretty sure about that. And since it seemed that he was just bluffing about having Jin or Koki, an attempt to escape, no matter where, was his only chance and he was going to…
Kame didn´t even finish his thought, as a strong hand grabbed him, forcing him to stop and a sudden hard hit from the side made his mind go black.
*
Marty crouched down to the motionless body and pressed the fingers against the pale skin of the youngster´s neck. Then he nodded at his boss. One precise blow right into the temple was enough, Kamenashi was unconscious.
“Tie him to the saddle and let´s go,” satisfied Grenet ordered, finishing his cigarette.
“What about Akanishi?” Danny asked quietly, while Marty and the other gunman dragged Kamenashi from the aisle towards the horses.
Math smiled confidently: “No need to worry about him, Danny. If he cares for our pretty face just half as much as I think, he´ll come on his own. And even if he cannot find the way, we´ll help him a little. But only after I have my fun…”
- To be continued -
Credit for banner:
witchann2