As You See Me.. (12).
Disclaimer: Same as in previous
Pairing: Yohji x Aya/Ran
Warnings: Yaoi, Shounen-ai, Violence, Angst, Language, AU
"FUCK!FUCK!FUCK!"
The outburst came from one orange-red haired crime overlord who had just gotten the picture files of a young man who had left the Japanese orphanage not more than twelve hours ago. The teen had been a thorn in his side for a while. It had taken great effort and a healthy sum of cash to get the youth out of his hair. He glared at the subordinate with angry eyes.
"HOW did this happen?"
The man swallowed before he spoke, "I'm not sure, sir. Here's a picture of the kid who dropped him off."
Schuldig recognized the boy in the photo. "Omi Tsukiyono… I should have known that Balinese's pet computer junkie had something to do with this." He sat down at his desk and put a cigarette between his lips, his eyes rising back to the man before him. "Grease some palms… I want that boy's life a living hell."
"Understood, sir. How much hell do you want?"
The German smiled evilly. "Make him wish he'd died." He took a drag from the smoke and exhaled, glaring again when the man made no move to leave. "Well?"
"Sorry, sir." The suit left, closing the door quietly behind him.
Gazing out the window thoughtfully, Schuldig wondered just how Balinese had found out about the boy. He knew that there weren't too many documented reports about his slave's connection to the street kid. "Just how thorough is Tsukiyono?"
Ashes gathered on the end of the cigarette. Finally, the German rose from his chair and stubbed it out. "I think I should go ask my sweet little pet a few questions…" Following the train of thought, Schuldig went out the only door of the room and headed for his own bedroom.
It had been a few weeks since Ken had gotten a really good beating…
Taking a look around, Nagi Naoe got off the plane. His blue eyes took in everything. Survival was the name of the game he'd been playing for the last year. In exacting his revenge, he'd had to hide and run. As far as he knew, Ken was dead.
That thought made a surge of anger flare through him, but he kept a tight lid on it. Ken Hidaka. His only friend in too many years. The nice guy who'd gotten him off the streets and into something better.
All that came crashing down when he disappeared. Nagi had known something was up when the soccer player got blacklisted from the J-League. Unknown to the older teen, he went back to some of his old contacts to find out just what the hell had happened. He'd paid out money, made deals, made threats - all until he could get something solid on the problem.
That was how he'd found out about Schuldig. The crime boss had, for some unknown reason, decided to take a personal hand in effecting Ken's life. Nagi hoped it wasn't for what he feared… He knew the German sometimes kept slave pets. He also knew that not a single one of them had lasted for over a year and a half…
'Ken… If you're not alive, Schuldig will pay in blood. I'll do it personally if I have to.'
His head came up when a redhaired woman approached him. Pretty. Pleasant face. Walked like a businesswoman. Threat factor - mediocre, possibly higher, but not likely.
"Nagi?" She asked in a soothing, sultry voice.
He nodded, saving his voice for more important questions. When the redheaded woman waved him towards a waiting car, he followed without complaint. Her voice lowered as she opened the passenger side door, "Mr. Kudou hopes you'll enjoy your stay in L. A."
The Japanese boy turned to her then, his blue eyes unreadable. "What does he want with me?"
Manx watched the youth get in the car and then went around to the driver's side. As she sat down in the seat, she looked at Nagi. "You were targeted by a man named Schuldig. Yohji's been having some… problems with him."
This was a subject worth discussing. "What kind of problems?"
Her answer didn't miss a beat, "He's trying to either kill or kidnap his lover." Manx started the car, pulling out of the space and then the lot. "We're not sure which and, frankly, I don't care. One's as bad as the other. If something happens to Ran, I'll find this bastard myself and do him in."
Nagi turned his eyes back to the highway. Something to think about. Schuldig was known for kidnapping people, having his way with them, and then casting them aside or having them killed. After Ken's disappearance, the boy had sworn not to let it happen to another. If this 'Ran' had any nice looks at all to him, then he was surely in danger.
"I'll protect 'Ran' for him."
Looking at the youth from her side of the car, Manx was pretty sure that he wasn't skilled enough yet. She let a smile tickle her lips. "Best to leave this up to professionals."
Almost insulted, Nagi settled down in the seat and watched the scenery roll by. He allowed himself to doze in the silence of the drive; let the dreams of the past come back to him.
Manx took the exit that led to the recording studio. Yohji was in the studio working on some material for the next album but he'd insisted that she bring the young man by. He wanted to meet him for himself. As they pulled up outside the building, she saw that the redheaded boy, Ran, was in the parking lot having a smoke.
"That's Ran."
Taking a careful look, Nagi nodded. The older youth was attractive. He waited until they pulled up next to the car Ran was sitting on, then got out before the car was even stopped. The Japanese boy took in the other's appearance. Ran was definitely 'street' and, to his eye, probably a prostitute. As a general rule, streetwalkers tended to be a little tougher than the normal mundane person. For some reason, the fact rang more than true to Nagi.
Threat factor - better than average.
Ran looked at the young man with Manx. "Is this him?"
"Yes. Ran, this is Nagi. Nagi - Ran."
Sucking in another drag off the cigarette between his fingers, Ran looked at the new kid, taking notice of the fact that he appeared no older than sixteen. From the way he was dressed and the tough-as-nails expression on his face, the redhead decided that he must have been street-wise. He gave the dark haired boy a nod and then jerked his head towards the door. "Yohji's inside… The studio just started a no-smoking policy outside of the individual recording rooms, so… I'm out here."
Manx nodded. "Well, I've got some things to discuss with him. I'll go inside and let you two chat for a bit." With that, the woman opened the door and stepped into the building. "See you later."
After the door closed, Nagi turned so that he could lean back against the wall. "Got another one of those," he asked, indicating the cigarette. When one was offered, he took it and lit it quickly. His blue eyes studied Ran from the side and he switched his speech to Japanese, "What part of the city did you work?"
"South side Shinjuku. Where was your turf?"
"Same area… before a friend got me off the streets." Nagi took a second drag, his eyes studying everything around them.
They understood each other. Ran smiled a little bitterly. "I had some trouble with my… with Ryo."
"Someone had my friend kidnapped." The sound of Nagi's voice told Ran that he wasn't sure if Ken Hidaka was still among the living populace.
"I know. He called Yohji."
That simple statement brought the younger boy's head around with a nearly audible snap. Nagi gazed directly at him, hoping for some kind of explanation. The cigarette fell, forgotten, from numb fingers. At last, the Japanese boy found his voice, "He's alive?!? Where… where is he?"
Ran nodded his head and inhaled the last drag off his own smoke. "In the hands of the guy who's trying to have me killed."
The statement reminded the younger teen that things were more complicated this time around. Nagi gave the redhead a look and then set his eyes out onto the parkinglot. "He won't. He'll have you captured, so he can torture you first, then he might kill you quickly… Though, I doubt it."
"Sick bastard," Ran commented off-handedly.
Nagi gave silent agreement as someone got out of a car and came up towards the door. The young man approaching them paused, pulling out a cigarette and putting it to his lips. "Got a light?"
The taller youth produced a lighter and put a quick burst of flame to the end. As the man was putting his pack of smokes back in his jacket, Nagi shoved the redhead off to the side, catching the stranger's wrist as he started to pull it back out. Ran fell with a cry and rolled, coming back up several feet away. The cry distracted the street kid enough that the man wrenched free of his grip.
Both boys froze when they realized at the same time that the newcomer had a pistol pointed in their direction.
Omi sat down on his couch, munching happily on his popcorn. The movie was one of those god-awful B-rate horror flicks, but he didn't mind. It was just something to do until he crashed out.
Within an hour, his eyelids started to droop, a sure sign as how well exhausted he was. That, and the movie was boring as hell. Finally, he lay over onto his side on the couch and wrapped himself up in a blanket - fast asleep.
A single, unknown golden eye studied the scene with a grunting sound in the watcher's throat. Slender hands picked at the buckles of a straightjacket, making them jingle softly in the waiting darkness. Insanity glimmered in the eye as a soft cackling drifted on the breeze.