Chapter Text
There was nothing around for miles, nothing for lightyears, even. Just a man and his ship, floating in space. And a cargo deck filled with crates of good clean medicines taken straight from the top hospital in the solar system.
Akira Kurusu, the captain, pilot, mechanic, and crew of this ship, scanned around him for as far as his radar could reach. When nothing turns up, he sighs in relief, then allows a wide grin to cross his face. He stepped back from the controls and spun on one foot, a quick pirouette before he left the cockpit. He had turned the main power off to conserve energy, so he walked down the hall lit by the red emergency lights. He couldn't help but step into a skip, spinning again when he gets into the living area of his ship.
His abundant joy was easily warranted; Akira had just pulled off a huge heist without injury. Well, without his own personal injury. The people who hired him to help with the heist got a little injured. Not his fault, of course. Not his fault directly, at least. Whatever, they knew who they were hiring. They knew the risks. They hired him anyway, and the outlaw Akira Kurusu, codenamed Joker, lived up to his title of Phantom Thief as he disappeared into the sky while his employers got arrested. Really, he was thankful for them. Their fighting with the Feds and subsequent arrest provided the perfect distraction for Akira to get away with the goods.
He side steps on the open floor, jutting a hip out as he lifts his arms. He twirls again, hopping into another movement carried by his feet and he dances in place, silently listening to the music in his head.
"Joker!" A robotic call from the speaker on the wall stops Akira's movements. He doesn't say anything, just listens as the voice continues.
"I don't want to interrupt your little dance party, but we should get moving again. The sooner we deliver this cargo, the sooner we get paid. Then we can dance for as long as you want."
Akira smiles, shaking his head as he heads back up to the cockpit.
"You can't dance, Morgana." He responds, speaking to the very ship he was piloting. The speakers make a loud and annoyed static sound, but say nothing else.
He sets course into nothingness. Nothing for miles, just a man and his ship. Just the elusive Phantom Thief Joker and his ship, a model 5 Mona that he programmed with an AI named Morgana. Just the two of them.
And another smaller ship that suddenly popped up on the radar and sped in their direction.
"Shit." Akira breathes out the word, taking the controls and moving. The other ship continued in the same direction, and Morgana moved to the side far enough that the ship zipped right past them. Moments later, he received a distress call.
"Joker! Aren't you gonna answer?" Morgana chirps to life after Akira stares at the request to video communicate for a few moments. He pauses but says nothing in response, reaching to dismiss the call.
Before Akira presses the button, the screen changes to tell him it was connecting.
"Morgana!" He yells angrily while the AI laughs. "I can turn you off, you know! I'd do it!" The video finishes connecting. Akira's eyes widen as he hears a "hello?" He looks back at the screen but it is very grainy and hard to see who was on the other side. He says nothing.
"Hey uh, so I think I figured out how to slow this thing down so I'm just sittin' here way over to your uh," the voice pauses a moment. "I'm a distance away from you." The voice says unhelpfully. Akira hopes his face isn't clear for the other guy because he just rolled his eyes so hard.
"So? What do you want me to do?" The pilot asks, tapping impatiently on the console.
"Pick me up? I sure as shit ain't got enough energy to get to another planet and I'd be lucky to run into anyone else out here. You gotta help, man!" The person on the other side pleads and the screen clears up just a little. All Akira can make out really is a bright yellow before it fizzles out again.
"Why should I help you?" He asks, sounding bored.
"Uh, cuz you're a big friendly ship and I'm a dude in an escape pod that's gonna die if you leave me?" The guy on the other side sounds a little desperate.
"And how do I know you're not with the Feds, or going to try to kill me and take my ship?" Akira kept his voice flat and unemotional, the complete opposite of this guy.
"Once again, I remind you. Tiny little escape pod. I'm not with the Feds dude I'm running away from 'em!"
"Hm." The captain of Morgana just hummed thoughtfully, the noise barely being picked up by the receiver.
"Oh come on! I dunno why you'd think I'd try and take over your ship, I'm just one guy! I dunno how much crew you have! I don't wanna say please, man. I don't like begging but I am like, really desperate right now." Akira felt a smirk forming on his face.
"You sure are desperate. Tell you what. I'll let you on my ship, but you gotta earn your keep around here. If you can't do that, I'll drop you off at the nearest planet I can find." The offer seems to be acceptable.
"Oh man, yeah! Yeah of course! Thank you!" The voice sounded happy, an emotion Akira hadn't seen in another person for a long time.
Morgana tracks the pod down and opens the docking bay, and soon enough the escape pod door opens. Akira is standing there as Joker, tailcoat and mask on, gloves and everything. Out of the door falls a human, presumably male, with short blonde hair. Akira looks further at him and sees that his one leg is wrapped with an obviously hasty splint.
"Your leg is broken." He comments as the other sits up.
"Yeah." He says, trying to put his good leg and arms under him to stand up.
"You didn't mention you were injured."
"Would you have left me if I told you that?" The person stands up, wobbling on one leg. Akira doesn't answer. When the new guy's brown eyes finally look up at his savior, his jaw drops.
"Oh my god. You're that- that Phantom Thief guy, ain'tcha? You gotta be joking!" He sounds a little impressed and a little scared at the same time. The Phantom Thief laughs lightly.
"Joker, actually. The name's Joker." He sticks out a gloved hand for the guest to shake. Brown eyes glance between the hand and the face of his savior before he reaches out to grasp it. Akira gives his arm a good tug, knocking him off balance and pulling the guy towards him. He catches him before he falls, dipping him back like they were dancing, dramatic as ever. He smirks down at his guest as the other looks up at him with a stunned expression.
"Now you know who I am, who are you?" Akira asks, smiling wider as he watches the guy in his arm's face redden.
"N-nobody. I'm just a guy. You can call me Ryuji, though." The hesitant smile Ryuji offers is honestly cute, and Akira starts to think he might like his new guest. That's a dangerous feeling.
The graceful thief pulls the boy up standing again, forcing him into a twirl before he hooks an arm under both legs and his back, carrying him bridal style.
"Lets get you to the med-room." Akira starts walking while Morgana disconnects the escape pod. Ryuji just nods his head wordlessly, looking somewhat dazed.
Akira places his guest down on the examination table, asking Ryuji where he came from and why.
"I'm from the space station, in the Shibuya section. I barely got away..." Ryuji explains as Akira unwraps his leg.
"Uh huh. Did anyone follow you?" The Phantom Thief looks up, grey eyes holding faint worry in them.
"No, no! I don't think so. I didn't see anybody. Think they gave up when I got in the escape pod and blasted away." He shows this in a motion of him moving one hand pointing a finger away from his fist, making a "pshoo" noise. He bends to the side and accidentally bumps his leg on the side of the table he was sitting on. "Haaahhhh shit." Ryuji winches, closing his eyes. "Not smart." Akira has to hold back a laugh.
"Yeah, that wasn't smart. Don't move." He touches the leg, the break seeming to be in the calf, not above the knee. But, he isn't a doctor, and has no medical expertise. Basically, this guy's leg was totally screwed as far as Akira knows.
"How did this happen? And how long ago?" Akira pokes the leg again and Ryuji kicks him with the other one.
"Quit pokin' at it, effin' hurts." He grumbles. Akira raises an eyebrow at the self censoring. Didn't this guy just say shit like a minute ago? Doesn't matter. Akira stands up again, having been bending down to reach the leg right.
"Tell me everything, Ryuji. Why your leg is broken, who was chasing you, why you left your station, and how long ago this all happened." Akira leans on the wall perpendicular to the examination bench in the middle of the room, crossing his legs and arms.
"Alright. So it all started about... I don't even know. But there's a supervisor, a real great war veteran. Real famous." Ryuji begins, but Akira stops him there.
"What's his name?"
"Kamoshida?" Ryuji responds, waiting for a reaction. There is none.
"Haven't heard of him." The masked man shrugs. "Go on with your story then."
"Haven't heard of-?! Oh, well, I guess you aren't from around here." Ryuji thinks out loud. "Where are you from?" He asks, innocently enough.
"I'm asking you questions. Not the other way around. Go on with your story." Akira's voice is stern and Ryuji sits back, frowning and looking a little concerned.
"Right, yeah. Sorry. But. Uh. Where was I?" He taps his chin, looking at the ceiling to remember. "Oh! Right. Kamoshida. Yeah, so I was going to work an' all, normal day. Had training out on the field. Eh, artificial field. But we had to work with guns and athletics an' shit. I've been training to be a soldier for almost a year now, got drafted. And oh, here's some backstory on my commander, Kamoshida. He's a total shit head, I tell you!"
"Kamoshithead..." Akira mutters to himself, a small self satisfied smirk on his face. Ryuji looks up at him.
"Huh?"
"What?" Akira tilts his head, acting as if he said nothing. Ryuji carries on.
"Never mind. Anyway, he's the worst. We do something wrong? We do more exercises. Nearly pass out from dehydration? Have to do laps around the field before we can take a drink break. It's abusive, man! And if that's not bad enough, if you say no, he'll hit you and mark you down as a deserter. And if you're a girl..." Ryuji frowns, looking down. Akira frowns as well, disgusted by what he's implying.
"So I've had enough of it. Today I decided that I was gonna say no. I couldn't stand it anymore, the stress and seeing him beat these people who were just doin' their best in a situation they were forced to be in. So I told him off, he was bullying some other guy and I had enough, so I stepped in. I called him out on all that bullshit. And he looks down at me and- and- he mentions somethin' that bothers me a whole lot so I deck 'im in the face. Punched that bastard right in the face, knocked him back a bit too! Y'know I was surprised, so was he. I was amazed, I actually punched a commanding officer. But uh, the people in Shibuya don't care what happens to people marked as deserters, and so I forgot about that part. Then he like, holds me by the head, and his hands are massive by the way, I bet he could pick up a small child and hold them by just their head, like a effin' bowling ball! But anyway, he grabs me by the head and pulled my hair and you can see there's not much to pull, but he like, kicks me or, or something. I can't remember exactly. They all left me out on the field. My team and everything. I heard him say that he was gettin' Feds involved and like, I can't. I can't go to prison. I'd get myself killed in there. And so I ran away." He finishes his story, breathing heavily. Akira nods, and stands up.
"Okay... you ran away? With a broken leg." He raises an eyebrow and leans on the table Ryuji was sitting on, hands on either side of him so Akira could lean right into his face. Ryuji leans back as far as he can without falling off the other side of the table.
"Figure of speech, man. I crawled, okay? I crawled back and into the station, crawled to the med room and stuck myself with two needles to numb my leg. I wrapped it up and soon I couldn't feel anything down there so then I ran. I got to the emergency bay, and they saw me at this point. So I'm running as well as I can with a leg that's all wobbly and get in an escape pod and get the hell out." Now he finishes his story, leaning forward again gratefully as Akira moves back.
"Okay. So you did run on a broken leg. I'm guessing the numbness is starting to wear off now, since it seemed to be hurting?" Akira says, poking the leg again and Ryuji winces.
"Ahh stop doing that! Yeah, it's wearing off. And it's gonna be miserable when it's completely gone. I know putting pressure on a break is bad. I'm not that dumb. I know I overexerted it, and I'm gonna pay the price but I couldn't, I just couldn't stay." Ryuji looks down at his leg, grimacing.
"I admire your tenacity. But you do know that if you hadn't run into my ship, you would probably still be flying through the nothing until you ran out of power. Then I'm not sure if the cold would get you or the lack of oxygen would get you first. Or maybe the power would outlive you, and you'd die of dehy-"
"Okay I get it! It was a dumb plan! I didn't think about it really I just panicked." Ryuji interrupts Akira's morbid commentary.
"Obviously. Hey, also, you mentioned something about how he brought up something that bothered you. What was it?" Akira leans forward a little again, but this time Ryuji holds his ground, setting his jaw confidently.
"I don't think you need to know that." He answers, and Akira frowns.
"If it's going to set you off and possibly put me and my ship in danger, I should know what it is." Akira's explanation draws an annoyed sigh from Ryuji.
"It's like, personal, man." He looks pleadingly at Akira, who is unfazed. "It's 'bout my dad." Ryuji mumbles, and Akira leans back, looking a little sympathetic.
"That's all I needed." He turns and looks around in some drawers for a needle, coming back over to Ryuji. "Here, uh. I'm not a doctor. I'll admit to that much. I figure I'll numb your leg again and wrap you up, and I guess just hope it mends."
"Oh, cool, that's comforting." Ryuji frowns, not looking comfortable at all. Akira bends down and injects the numbing solution before moving back. He goes to find something to make a makeshift cast with when the speakers static on.
"Joker can I talk yet?" A staticky voice whines through the walls and Ryuji jumps, looking around. Akira glares at the ceiling.
"Morgana! I told you to keep quiet!" He shouts while Ryuji continues to look around.
"Who is that? Where's your crew, anyway?" He starts questioning, and Akira grumbles.
"This is why I told you to stay quiet." He keeps his voice low saying that as it was directed towards Morgana, then raises it to talk to Ryuji. "That is my ship, Morgana." He starts wrapping Ryuji's leg, hoping it would do anything to help.
"Your ship?" Ryuji looks skeptical, then amazed when Akira confirms. "Your ship can talk? What else can she do?"
"Ahem. I'm a boy." Morgana speaks up again, but Ryuji looks confused.
"But don't people say that ships and shit are all female and whatnot?" He tilts his head. Akira looks bored as he responds.
"Morgana is a boy ship." He says, and Ryuji continues with his questioning.
"Aight. But like, how'd you get a talking ship? Like does he think and do things on his own?" He seems to be very interested. Akira opens his mouth to speak, but Morgana cuts him off.
"I sure can! I'm almost as autonomous as you. I can steer the ship, turn lights on and off, answer distress calls before Joker can cancel them." The robotic voice is teasing, but Akira does not much appreciate it.
"Morgana!" He yells, angrily punching the wall. The ship just laughs, an odd crackling sound.
"You know I can't feel that." He chuckles, and Akira just looks more peeved. Ryuji looks almost heartbroken.
"You mean you were gonna hang up on me?" He frowns, and Akira can't look him in the eye and answer that, so he maintains eye contact and stays silent. Ryuji's sadness starts turning into disgust, then disgust into anger. "You weren't even going to answer! You were just going to keep going and never think of me again. You were going to ignore me and never even know who I was." His accusations are all true, and Akira tries very hard to keep a straight face instead of looking apologetic.
Ryuji stares at him more, then his eyes widen.
"How many distress calls have you ignored? How many people killed because you didn't even have the heart to answer the damn call!" The man on the table is yelling now, fingers clenched around the lip of the surface. Akira finally looks away.
"You think I'd let him do that? Really, it's surprising we ran into you out here at all. Nobody comes out here. How far away is your station? It never showed up on the radar." Morgana answers, actually calming Ryuji a bit. He sighs, looking up.
"Uh, I dunno. I was in the pod for a while, I might've even left a few days ago. What day is it?"
"Well, we kind of have a skewed time schedule, haha. Our clock goes on our own time. We have no idea what day it would be in your station." Morgana sounds apologetic, for a spaceship at least.
"Oh. Okay. Then I have no effin' idea how long I've been floating." Ryuji frowns, looking a little frustrated. Akira finally lifts his head back up from looking down at the floor.
"You must be thirsty. And hungry. I'll go make you something." He pushes up off the wall where he was leaning and quickly walks out. Ryuji opens his mouth to say something, but it's too late since Akira was already gone. He wasn't sure what he would say anyway, so it's fine.
While he waited, Ryuji looked around the room. He was bored, and curious about where he was. Just about a day ago he was being beaten into a soldier, and now he's here, on an outlaw's ship.
"Hey Morgana." He says into the open room.
"What's on your mind?" The ship responds.
"Can you talk into just one room, or do you always say everything to the whole ship?"
"You kidding? Of course I can specify where I talk. In fact, Joker shouldn't be able to hear us right now." Morgana sounds proud of himself. Maybe a bit overconfident.
"Oh cool. Do you have eyes?" Ryuji asks another question, and Morgana seems tickled.
"Oh yes! I have eyes in every room. Joker can turn off some rooms like bedrooms and sanitary chambers, but otherwise I have full view of everything. I see all of it all at once, I'm just that good." Ryuji can hear the smug smile in the voice. "I hope you like protein bricks. Man, sometimes I sure am glad I'm not human."
"Is that what Joker's cooking up? Oh." Ryuji makes a face of slight disgust. At least on the space station they had real food.
"Hey, it's all we got. But after we deliver our newest cargo, then we'll be rich enough to buy real food, and get me some new tech. Hehe." Morgana would be smiling if he had a face.
"What's the cargo?" Ryuji asks friendly enough, but his face falls when Morgana doesn't answer.
"Nothing you need to concern yourself with." Joker had returned, holding a plate and glass of water. The lovely brick of protein was actually cut into bite sized pieces. He handed the plate and cup over, and Ryuji took the plate with both hands. Akira puts the cup down on the table next to him. "I hope it isn't so disgusting that you can't eat." He deadpans, leaning on the wall again. He no longer had on his gloves.
Ryuji drinks some of the water first, realizing just how parched he was after he took the first sip. He downs the entire glass. With a sigh, Akira leaves to get him more water. While gone, Ryuji tries a bit of his food and it's not that bad. Not good, but not terrible. Tasted a bit like cardboard, but the consistency was a thick and cake-like. He downed the whole thing and asked for seconds.
"No. I can get you more water but we really should conserve as much as we can." Akira takes the plate away, turning to leave.
"But Morgana said once you-"
"Morgana shouldn't have said anything at all. Besides, there is never a guarantee of success." Akira cuts Ryuji off before he can finish, then leaves once again.
"Sheesh, what's the stick up his ass?" Ryuji mumbles grumpily.
"He's been through a lot. We both have. It isn't easy when the world is against you." Morgana responds, a sad tone to his voice. Ryuji frowns, humming thoughtfully while looking at the door.
In the kitchen, Akira puts the plate in the automatic washer, and then puts it away when it was automatically done. He fills the cup with water again and brings it back. Ryuji thanks him with a smile, and before he can stop himself, he's smiling back.