Chapter Text
Something Lupin didn’t consider when it came to having a boys’ night with Stephen was how the kid might change the dynamic that he already had with Jigen and Goemon. Granted, he should have expected the dynamic to change, but Lupin was having a hard time knowing what to expect with any of his kids in general.
Once everyone got settled down and explored the place they would be staying, they found that there wasn’t much to do. Thankfully, Jigen had a worn pack of cards on him, and the group agreed on playing a couple games of poker after calling up some bottles of booze and something non-alcoholic for Stephen; which ended up just being apple juice that was so expensive that Lupin thought it damn well have better been made from the golden apples of the Garden of Hesperides.
After playing their third consecutive game of Poker where Stephen had been absolutely clobbered, he looked like he was at his breaking point. The poor kid was so easy to read that he was basically telling you his hand each round. And while it may have been a bit of a dick move, Lupin didn’t feel bad about not going easy on Stephen since there was no actual money at stake.
“Ugh!” Stephen tossed his hand of cards on the table, revealing that they were in fact, just as shitty as everyone already guessed them to be, and ran his fingers through his hair. “How is everyone better at cards than me?” He leaned back on the couch and shook his head. “Even Kris wipes me across the floor every time... I’ve learned not to play for money with her. I’m rubbish at them.”
“Well, duh.” Jigen said, picking up the cards and shuffling them with ease. “You’ve got so many tells that it almost feels wrong to play with you.”
From beside Stephen on the couch, Goemon spoke up. “Perhaps we should play something else.”
“Says the guy who didn’t play a single hand with us.” Lupin rolled his eyes. “Goemon doesn’t play for the same reason that you’re losin’, kid.” Crossing his legs, Lupin looked over at Stephen. “He can’t hide his emotions for shit when it comes to cards.” He shrugged. “Kinda odd for a samurai, but it makes playing against him pretty easy.”
Goemon looked rather rumpled at this. “That isn’t true.” He said, a little red in the face. “I just prefer to play Japanese games, like Shogi or riichi mahjong; and I think that we should play something that Stephen actually has a chance of winning.”
Stephen nodded along. “Yeah, I’d be better at anything but cards.”
“Well…” Lupin thought. “What are you good at then? Darts?” He questioned. “Pool?”
After thinking for a second, Stephen shrugged. “I don’t play a lot of games really, but I’m not half bad with dice.”
Hearing that, Lupin perked up. “Dice, huh?” He grinned. An idea fell into his mind. “You ever play craps?”
Before Stephen could even open his mouth, however, Jigen cut him off. “Hold it.” He pointed at Lupin. “I know what you’re thinkin’ and you aren’t pulling any Rain Man shit with the kid, having him shoot dice for you.”
“What’s Rain Man?” Stephen whispered to Goemon with his hand over his mouth.
Shrugging, Goemon looked just as confused as Stephen. “I think it’s a weather forecaster.”
Meanwhile, Lupin was still bickering with Jigen about using Stephen to gamble. “Hey, what’s the fault in it?” He asked. “He looks so grown that I know they wouldn’t card him.”
“Why is that your only worry with this situation?” Jigen shot back. “Glad as hell you aren’t my dad, I’ll say that much.”
Rolling his eyes, Lupin sighed dramatically. “You call me daddy enough, so I think I’ll cope.” He then grinned, ignoring how Jigen cursed at him while punching his arm none too gently. “Since my master plan was shot down, what type of dice games you play?”
“Uh,” Appearing a little unsure about Lupin’s and Jigen’s last interaction, Stephen hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. “Oh, I like Yahtzee, I guess?”
“Yahtzee?” Lupin questioned. “Really?” He shook his head. It certainly wasn’t his game of choice, but how bad could it be? “Sure, I bet we can call that up.”
“We should get food then, too.” Said Goemon. “You still owe me soba.”
Lupin had really hoped that Goemon had forgotten about the promise he had made to him about getting him soba, but he knew sooner or later Goemon would bring it up again. That man never forgot a word when it came to his favourite things, and more importantly: peoples’ promises to get him said favourite things. “Oh, do I?” Lupin asked nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. “I thought I got you some already?” He knew that his chances of actually getting Goemon good soba would be much slimmer in France than they had been in England.
“You did not.” Goemon said simply.
“You’re not going to let me off the hook here, are ya?” Frowned Lupin, slouching in his seat. When Goemon only gave him a deadpan stare for an answer, Lupin dragged his hand down his face. “Fine. Guess I have some work to do.” He said, standing up.
From there, Lupin took the time to call down to the front desk for the second time that day. He requested them to send up a game of Yahtzee (which they weirdly had on hand) and for them to find a Japanese restaurant that served soba. Although Lupin highly doubted that they would find a friggin’ Japanese restaurant in one of the more touristy areas of France, he didn’t want to jinx himself by saying his thoughts on the matter aloud.
No more than ten minutes later, an older man in a bellhop uniform brought up a game of Yahtzee and a menu for a Japanese restaurant called Sakura Japanese . As Lupin took the things from the bellhop from the man, he dropped a couple francs into his hand and then promptly shut the door.
“Surprise, surprise, Goemon.” Lupin said, studying the menu for the restaurant for a second. He walked back into the main room where everyone else was. “Looks like I can make good on my promise.” Lupin held the menu out to Goemon as he set the Yahtzee box on the table between the couch where Goemon and Stephen were sitting and the two plush chairs he and Jigen had pulled up.
Goemon took the menu without a word.
Leaning over, Stephen gave a glance at the menu before settling back down in his seat. “I’ve never had Japanese food, is it good?”
As he sat back down in his chair, Lupin grinned. “I think we’re a little biased considering all three of us are Japanese but-” He snickered, “Yeah, it’s good.”
“Oh.” Stephen went a bit pink. “I can’t believe I forgot that.”
“Lupin.” Goemon said, looking up from the menu.
“Uh, yeah?” Asked Lupin. “What’s up?”
“I think this menu is in French.”
“What?” Lupin leaned across the table and took the menu from Goemon. He looked at it again and saw that it was in French, something that he didn’t notice earlier when he only briefly looked at it. “You were looking at it for the past two minutes and you just realized that it was in French?”
“That is-” Goemon hesitated and looked the other way. “That’s correct.”
Rolling his eyes, Lupin looked over at Stephen. “Do you understand, French, kid?”
“Uh-” Stephen shook his head. “No, I don’t, I’m afraid. Kris does though.”
“Great.” Leaning back in his seat, Lupin turned the menu over in his hands. “I guess that means that I’ll be the one who’ll have to read the menu to you all so you can pick what you want?”
That was in fact what Lupin had to do. It was tedious, but for the most part it wasn’t too boring. Goemon was easy, he wanted cold soba and sake if they had it (which they did). Jigen on the other hand wasn’t too hungry, and was not as picky as Goemon so he was fine with a plain old sushi sampler. Then for himself and Stephen, Lupin just ordered two things of tonkotsu ramen. Considering that the kid didn’t know the first thing about Japanese food, Lupin thought that it would be a safer thing to start him off on than sushi.
After all the food was ordered and set to be delivered to their hotel, the group began their first game of Yahtzee. However, not half an hour later, the game wasn’t even close to being finished (but that didn’t stop Stephen from already having good enough numbers to be the winner) and there was a knock on their hotel room door.
Everyone looked towards the door on the other side of the room as Lupin dropped his dice from the blue Yahtzee cup on to the coffee table. Before anyone could notice, he quickly flipped all of the dice over to six while everyone else was looking at the door.
“Could that be the food?” Asked Stephen. “I thought it would be longer…” He mused.
“Why don’t you get the door and find out?” Lupin asked. “Oh, would you look at that!” He said in surprise, looking at the dice like he hadn’t just cheated. “Yahtzee!” With a grin, he swiped up his mini pencil and began jotting down his new points on his scorecard.
Jigen did a double-take while Stephen stood up from the couch to see who was at the door. “What?” He jammed his cigarette into the quickly filling ashtray on the table. “No friggin’ way in hell that you got Yahtzee on your first roll!” He tried to snatch Lupin’s scorecard out of his hand but was too slow. “What even are the chances of that?”
Lupin stuck out his tongue. “You’re just mad that you can’t even get a Small Straight!” He laughed. “Don’t be a sore loser now, Jigen!”
In the blink of an eye, Goemon’s Zantetsuken flashed and the end of Lupin’s already tiny pencil fell onto the table next to Lupin’s cheated Yahtzee roll. “You should roll again, Lupin.” He said, sheathing his sword once more.
Lupin dropped his pencil with a small scream. He immediately opened his hand and turned it over to make sure all of his fingers were still there. “What in the hell was that for!?” He shouted once he recovered his senses.
“You cheated.” Goemon shook his head, pointing at Lupin’s roll.
“No, I did not!” Lupin said.
“Yes, you did!” Jigen gathered up the dice and threw them in the blue Yahtzee cup. “Now, friggin’ roll again or we’re skipping you this round.”
Never in the history of board games had there ever been a Yahtzee game so heated, however, before the game could escalate any further, there was a shout from the front door that made the three thieves at the table forget about their game.
“In-Inspector Zenigata?!” Stephen gasped. He quickly looked between Lupin and the others, who were now standing up at the Yahtzee table, and Zenigata who was behind the door. He was doing his best to shield Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon from view, but their earlier shouting was much too loud to do Stephen’s attempt at hiding them any good. “Uh- uh…” He struggled to appear calm and finally leaned against the doorframe in a very unnatural way. “Whatever are you doing here, Inspector?”
“Stephen?” Zenigata sounded just as surprised as Stephen had. “What are you- No,” He shook his head. “I received an anonymous tip that Lupin was here, and from the sound of it he is.” He said. “What are you doing here? I didn’t see you at the headquarters in Manchester last month, I was told you quit your internship… Did you quit to try and find Lupin yourself? Attaboy!” He smiled. “I can’t believe you found him by yourself! I knew you showed promise working that case.”
“Uh…” Stephen looked extremely uncomfortable.
Lupin knew there was no getting out of this situation. He stepped across the room and shoved past Stephen. “What are you doin’ here, Pops? Didn’t think you were the type of cop to arrest someone in front of their kid.”
“I came here to-” Zenigata began, but immediately froze. He looked like he had just been slapped across the face. “You mean-?” He pointed from Lupin to Stephen and shook his head. “No! I refuse to believe that such a well mannered boy came from you!”
“Gee, thanks.” With a roll of his eyes, Lupin stepped back into the hotel room. He gestured for Stephen to follow him.
“Stephen, I thought your father was Inspector Knightly?” Zenigata grabbled, still visibly trying to wrap his head around the situation.
“Um…” Stephen looked over his shoulder at Zenigata. “He’s my step-father actually. He married my mother when I was 3.” Still looking very uncomfortable, he unsurly gestured for Zenigata to enter the room too. “Uh- come in?” He asked uncertaintly, looking at Lupin who had taken his seat at the Yahtzee table again.
Lupin merely nodded as Zenigata stepped into the room, looking utterly bewildered as Stephen shut the door behind him. He grabbed a fresh cigarette from the pack inside his jacket, lit it, and handed it to Zenigata as he walked past him.
Zenigata wordlessly took the cigarette. He stared at Lupin like he had never seen him before and sat down on the sofa with Goemon after Stephen offered him his seat. “I don’t know where to start with this-” With a shake of his head, Zenigata looked from Lupin to Stephen. “How did this happen?”
“Well,” Lupin began. “When two people love each other very much-”
“Cut the crap, Lupin.” Zenigata sighed. He took a drag of the cigarette. By the expression on his face it was clear that he wasn’t in the mood for Lupin’s games. “Since when do you have a kid?”
“Well, y’see-” Lupin vaguely gestured with his hands. “That’s the thing… it’s not just ‘kid’, it’s uh- plural.”
“Plural?” Zenigata’s eyes widened. “You mean- kids?” He stood up and began to pace behind the couch. “Look- I know there are things you don’t tell me, but I thought-”
“Hey, it isn’t like that, Zeni!” Lupin too, stood up. He was getting rather tired of telling this story. As he rushed over to Zenigata, he grabbed Stephen by the arm and pushed him back towards the couch. “Here, have a seat, kid.” He mumbled before turning to Zenigata. “Listen, it’s not like I was trying to hide them for you.” He paused. “Okay, I was , but only for the last month or so. This is all circumstantial, just let me fill you in before you decide whether or not to be pissed at me. Alright?”
Zenigata looked at Lupin for a long moment before looking at Stephen with a sigh. “Alright. But if it doesn’t add up I’m arresting you right here and now for child endangerment and kidnapping, because I know damn well that Stephen is a minor and- and if you’ve roped him into any funny business-”
“Well, if you’re worried about him being up to no good, you should hear the things his sister’s done.” Lupin said under his breath.
“How about you just fill me in about one kid at a time?” Asked Zenigata, sounding rightfully exasperated.
And so that’s what Lupin did. He relayed the story- or really- everything that he knew about it. How he had been just as shocked as Zenigata to find out that he had three, fully grown bastard children, the very lengths said bastard children had gone to get his attention, and just how he was trying to work everything out with them. However, Zenigata wasn’t a very good listener. He would butt in very often with questions that made the story take longer to tell, but Lupin wasn’t going to tell him off for it.
“So, that’s how it happened.” Lupin finally finished. He grabbed another cigarette for himself and lit it up. “Am I guilty of child neglect, Pops?” He said, attempting to joke to lighten the situation as much as he possibly could (which wasn’t much).
“Legally?” Zenigata questioned after a moment, he had long stopped his pacing and instead moved to sit in Lupin’s chair. “No, but… This really is a lot.” He turned to Stephen for a second but didn’t say anything, he just shook his head and looked once more at Lupin. “I don’t think all of it is made up.”
That was better than Zenigata not believing any of it in Lupin’s opinion. He puffed his cigarette and shrugged. “Good enough… Now, what are you doin’ here? Usually when you’re tipped off about us you try to bust our asses.”
Shaking his head again, Zenigata said, “No. My reason is why I believe your story actually.”
Lupin raised his brows. “Yeah?” He sat on the edge of the sofa near Goemon. “Don’t leave us hanging now, Pops.”
Zenigata looked up at Lupin and shook his head with a sigh. He took a long drag of his cigarette, finishing it off before he began to speak. “The crime scenes felt different.” He said, cramming the butt of his cigarette in an overflowing ashtray on the edge of their abandoned Yahtzee game. “Sure, everything looked like you had done it to everyone else, but-” Shrugging, Zenigata finally met Lupin’s eye. “They missed your little romantic touch, I guess. I thought you were trying to tell me you were angry at me or something, but then as they went on I began to figure out that it wasn’t you.”
Lupin froze. Having not seen any of the crime scenes himself, and with his mind being on different things, he hadn’t even thought about how they might be different. The thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. But of course, Kris not knowing of Lupin and Zenigata’s relationship, much less so about how nearly every crime scene Lupin created duly acted as a love letter to Zenigata, would only think that she was copying Lupin’s style. However, Kris didn’t know that only in ‘copying’ Lupin’s style of thieving that she was leaving out one major component: the romance. Because in Lupin’s opinion, romance was a crucial part in being a thief. Any thief without romance was just some brute with a gun and a god-complex.
“Jeez, Zeni, you’re making me blush.” Waving his hand in fake embarrassment, Lupin leaned over the back of the couch, dropping one of his arms between Goemon and Stephen. “You’re that obsessed with me? I’m all flustered over here.”
Zenigata looked ready to either shout at or punch Lupin (things most people were torn between whenever looking at him), but before he could do anything, Stephen spoke up.
“Mr. Zenigata?” Stephen asked. He raised his hand a little, like he was in a classroom. “If you knew that it wasn’t Lupin who was stealing all of that stuff, why didn’t you say anything?”
“I didn’t want to get moved off the case.” Zenigata said. “If I told everyone that I thought that Lupin wasn’t behind all of those jobs they’d put someone else in charge. I wanted to see who was behind this… Because when there’s something strange happening it usually has something to do with Lupin in one way or another.”
“You talk about me like I’m not even here, how rude.” Lupin said with a grin.
“Is he wrong though?” Jigen piped up. “Whenever something strange happens, it’s usually ‘cause of you.” He shrugged, putting his arms behind his head as he leaned back in his seat.
Goemon nodded. “I almost come to expect it now. Being associated with you, Lupin, immediately means being connected to something strange.”
“You know what, I could choose to take those as insults-” Lupin began with a sigh. “But because I don’t need that energy in my life, I’m just going to write it off as you all calling me a fun guy to be around who always brings some excitement into your lives.”
“ ‘Excitement’ doesn’t cover half of it.” Zenigata shook his head. “What do you even expect me to do in this situation?” He asked, holding out his hands. “If this progresses, I-” Exhaling, he closed his eyes. “I don’t want to have to arrest a kid, Lupin.”
“Well, with how good she is you won’t have the chance to arrest her.” Lupin pointed out. “If that makes you feel any better.”
“You know damn well what I mean-” Began Zenigata. But Stephen cut him off.
“You won’t have to arrest Kris!” Stephen said suddenly, making everyone jump as he stood up from the couch. “You can’t.” His voice shrunk once he noticed everyones’ eyes on him, but he stood his ground, looking at Zenigata. “She’s stopped stealing since we found Lupin. That was the only reason she did it anyways, and it was always a part of our plan for her to stop.”
“Stephen, it’s not as simple as her not doing it again-” Standing up, Zenigata straightened the collar of his jacket. “It’s the fact that she did it. Honestly, you should be in trouble too for being a part of this whole mess… I could see maybe if she returned everything.” He eyed Stephen, who only squirmed nervously. “But I can see that that’s not a possibility,”
“It’s-” Stephen stumbled over his words. “She… I mean we could, but… We can’t really.”
“Pops,” Lupin said in a serious tone, his face devoid of any hint of joking. “Lay off the kid. It’s my fault. Technically all those crimes are under my file, yeah? Just leave it at that. Leave the kids out of it.” He gripped the back of the couch with one hand. “I didn’t tell you about them so you could go take ‘em downtown and get their mugshots taken, I told you because you deserved to know in this situation.”
“I-...” Slowly, Zenigata shoved his hands into his pockets and frowned. “I didn’t come here to cause trouble. I came here because I wanted answers.”
Lupin nodded. “And you got them.”
Looking disgruntled, but not saying anything about Lupin’s interruption, Zenigata pushed on. “I won’t say anything about the kids, that wasn’t my intention, but- if I so much get the faintest idea that you’ve brought them into your gang or something.” He pointed a finger at Lupin. “Then I can’t let that slide.”
Unable to help it, Lupin chanced a smile. “What?” He asked, putting up his hands like Zenigata had a gun pointed at him instead of his hand. “You think I’m a bad influence on impressionable young minds?”
Zenigata just stared at Lupin for a moment before sighing and dropping his finger. “Lupin- I shouldn’t even have to answer that.” He put his hand back into his coat pocket. “Every person you make a positive impression on- half of them end up willing to throw away their lives to be a thief alongside you. And I know you’re not the type of person to take advantage of them like that, but… You don’t know the first thing about taking care of kids.”
Even though Lupin had honestly expected that answer and it was true, it hurt him to hear it and he didn’t know why. He kept his smile but let his hands fall. “Hey, you might be right, but that doesn’t matter.” With a shrug, Lupin looked the other way for only half a second before returning his attention back to Zenigata with a full grin. “What I don’t know, I’ll learn. Besides, out of all the things I’ve pulled off, being some sort of parent can’t be the hardest of ‘em. How hard can it really be?”
Zenigata only looked at Lupin for one second before Lupin spoke again. “Don’t answer that.”
This made Zenigata’s lips twitch in a smile. “Fine.” He gave a soft sigh and looked over everyone in the room, his smile fell. “But I stand by what I said…” As he said this, he began to turn around and walk back towards the door. “I won’t call my men in on this place or while you’re here in France, I’ll let you have that much, but the moment you leave the country I’ll be back at it.”
“Fair enough.” Even though Zenigata couldn’t see him, Lupin gave a small nod towards the inspector’s back. He watched as Zenigata reached the door and gripped the handle. “See ya, Pops.”
Zenigata raised his hand in a halfhearted wave as he opened the door. He was a step over the threshold when he turned back around and looked at Stephen. “Listen- if you ever find yourself in trouble that these three can’t get you out of, you’ll always have a friend at Interpol, Stephen.” Then he looked at Lupin. “No questions asked.”
“Oh,” Stephen looked like he didn’t know what to do at this offer. He nodded rather stiffly. “Th-Thank you, Inspector.”
That was clearly enough to satisfy Zenigata, he turned back around and left the apartment, closing the door behind him.
After only a second of quiet, Stephen spoke softly. “You have a weird relationship with him.” He looked behind him, over the couch at Lupin.
Lupin didn’t even catch what Stephen had said at first, he had been lost in his own thoughts. What Zenigata had said to him… it still didn’t sit right. “What?” He answered. “If by ‘weird’ you mean ‘homoeroctically charged’, then yes.”
“No, the kid is right.” Jigen said, standing up. He moved to the little kitchen that was off the main room they were in and grabbed a bottle of Whiskey that came with the other drinks they called up earlier. “That was weird, even for you two, Lupin.” Pointing the bottle at Lupin as he spoke, Jigen then grabbed a small glass and filled it with a generous amount of Whiskey.
Ignoring Jigen, Lupin took this opportunity to take his seat back. “I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, Jig.” He said, despite knowing exactly what Jigen was talking about. Lupin had felt it, something had shifted between him and Zenigata. Something in their bantering relationship that was always just toeing the line of ‘going too far’ had finally gone too far. “Zeni is just in shock is all. Fuji was a bit weird when she found out too, remember?”
Grumbling something inaudible, Jigen came back into the room with a shake of his head. “I don’t like it.” He nursed his drink. “Feels… off .”
“Zenigata has always been unpredictable in new situations.” Goemon said. “He’s very black and white in how he acts.”
Lighting a fresh cigarette, Lupin knew that that was true. Zenigata was a hard man to find middle ground with. He always leaned hard into his ideals and arguing with him about them was as good arguing with a rock. Still, Lupin was still feeling antsy about the whole thing.
While Goemon and Jigen went back and forth about Zenigata’s behavior, with Lupin butting in here and there, Stephen stayed silent the entire time.
“I’m- I’m sorry that I made things weird.” Stephen spoke up. He had been quiet so long that everyone had almost forgotten he was there at all. He looked like a little kid who had just confessed to breaking something. “I didn’t mean to.”
Lupin glanced at Jigen and Goemon in confusion. They both looked as lost as he did. “What d’you mean, kid?” He asked slowly, looking back at Stephen. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Shaking his head, Stephen swallowed. “I was here. I muddled up your relationship and you had to explain everything to Inspector Zenigata- Maybe I should just go back to Babette’s and wait for her and Kris to get back.” He stood up, rubbing his palms over his knuckles nervously while not looking anyone in the eyes.
Lupin wasn’t the only one who jumped out of his seat. At Stephen’s words all three of them, Lupin, Goemon, and Jigen, got up to stop Stephen.
Looking rather spooked at being cornered in such a way, Stephen slowly put his hands up and looked between everyone. “Hey, now… What’s up?” He laughed nervously.
“You think we’re gonna let you leave that easy, kid?” Jigen asked.
Nodding, Lupin took a drag of his cigarette. He put one hand on his hip as he blew the smoke up towards the ceiling. “ Especially after I just bought you food?”
“I-” Stuttered Stephen, looking more unsure than before. He lowered his hands, biting his lip. “I just don’t want to mess things up.”
Goemon put his hand on Stephen’s shoulder, making the kid damn near jump a whole foot in the air for fright. “Things are always messed up with Lupin, don’t blame yourself for that.”
Lupin was going to say something about that jab, but before he knew it, Stephen was laughing.
“Sure-” Stephen breathed, trying to stop his laughter. “Yeah, I’ll stay.”
There was nothing more to say after that. Sure, things still felt a little tense, but shortly after that whole mess, the food that they had ordered earlier arrived and everything was forgotten.
But Lupin was beginning to realize that this whole ‘parent’ shtick was a lot harder than he initially thought. His relationships were changing and he was having to learn how to be responsible for someone else in ways he wasn’t used to. The learning-curve for being a parent was damn steep.