Work Text:
“There’s no need for you to worry, Young Master. The Chairman has generously waived all the debt you accrued from this loss, so you won’t have to pay anything. It’ll be a clean slate.”
Generous , Kazuya thought as he recalled the fact that his father hadn’t even bothered to visit him in the hospital this morning, much less speak to him at all after that night. Now he sat in one of his father’s limousines, uncertain and uncaring about where they were headed. Don’t you have any clue what he’ll do to you after you’re done with this ‘errand’, Takazaki?
Kazuya couldn’t explain why his stomach churned at the thought.
Takazaki turned the car to park as he continued on about how this situation was actually a good thing for Kazuya, one that was full of possible growing and learning opportunities, or something like that. All of the tripe that came out of his mouth were just pitiful attempts to soften the reality of his father’s outrage.
But Kazuya couldn’t focus. The confusion of everything that happened in the past 24 hours sank deep against the whirlpool of all the other conflicting emotions in his mind, yet none of which could seem to swim to the surface, as he was left with nothing to show on the outside. Empty, yet completely inundated.
“After tonight, we've been ordered to no longer interfere or communicate…” Takazaki dug into his pocket to take out a neatly folded bundle of bills with a clip to keep it all together. He reached his hand holding what was likely his own money over the dividing seats towards Kazuya. “I truly apologize that it has to be this way, Young Master.”
Sitting in the back with his head leaning against the window, Kazuya kept his eyes set on the high-class hotel they were parked in front of. Takazaki sighed and reached a little farther, hoping to coax Kazuya to take the money in his hand. “Please, Young Master, it’s already getting late. Take this and stay at least for a few nights h–”
Kazuya silently waved a hand at the offer as he put on his overstuffed backpack and got out of the car, pivoting away from the hotel’s entrance to cross the street instead, ignoring Takazaki’s continuing protests.
Somewhere nearby, a broken glass door quickly slid open against its sill with a dull scrape, then once again as it closed.
Stepping as silently as he could through the backyard of the abandoned house, Kaiji cursed to himself about forgetting to ask Mario to pick him up a pack of cigarettes. He’d been without for too long, and he knew Mario shouldn’t have to put up with any more of his irritability because of it.
Still, the risk of being caught was high, and Kaiji stuck out like a sore thumb. Not only was he the only one around who was outside at night, he had an air about him that clearly showed he didn’t fit in with the quiet suburban life. At least the electrical whirring from the streetlights softened his footsteps somewhat in the otherwise quiet neighborhood.
Even without his need for a smoke, Kaiji was already on edge enough as it is. He was trying his damnedest not think about how, at this point, things always started going horribly wrong. A big loss was always shadowed closely behind such a big gain. Loss of money, loss of blood, loss of friends. He dreaded whichever one came to him, or if some higher power decided to surprise him with something even worse.
He’s tense as he finally rounds the corner of the last bit of the residential neighborhoods and onto the streets of the local business district, towards the low hum of the nearby neon-lit convenience store. The door dings and Kaiji mumbles an apology as a shoulder bumps into his own on his way in. His eyes are too distracted to give any notice, sight tunnelling to the rack that holds packs of his brand of cigarettes in the store.
Kazuya usually wouldn’t have let someone knocking his shoulder slide so easily. Usually. But he wasn’t his usual self, with his usual influence and his usual entourage of bodyguards. He was too lost in thought to care at first, until he almost missed passing a glance at that hair, those clothes, that scar . He froze momentarily until he turned back towards the convenience store. He knew he hadn’t just imagined it. That was definitely the man responsible for his current predicament.
His senses dulled to his surroundings almost completely, centering only on Kaiji striding towards the store register. His breath wavered as his heart started to pound faster, as if it could shake his soul right out of his body.
The normal thing to do would probably be to bolt in the opposite direction before Kaiji noticed him, or to blow off steam by telling him off, or even socking him in the face and then bolting.
But ‘normal’ doesn’t live here, because all Kazuya wanted to do was to talk to him. About what, he was drawing a blank, but the urge was there nevertheless. Just to say something before the chance was lost, for whatever reason and urgency he couldn’t figure out.
The sliding door of the store entrance toned, followed by a plastic shopping bag falling hard on the ground and hissed cursing coming from Kaiji’s voice. The quick succession of sounds had pulled Kazuya back to reality, but before he could act, Kaiji hastily picked the bag back up and started sprinting away from him towards a nearby alley.
“Wait! Kaiji!”
Damn! Goddamnit! How did he find me?
Kaiji’s legs picked up in pace, running faster as he thought about Mario, alone and defenseless in the abandoned house. A pit of dread grew in his stomach when he realized Kazuya, too, had been alone. Where were all the Black Suits that followed Kazuya constantly?
Mario! Hang on, I’m coming! God, please be safe!
Kaiji crossed streets and wove through alleyways to shake Kazuya from his trail, knocking over anything in the way that he could reach and wasn’t bolted down, hoping to slow Kazuya down. He didn’t expect that Kazuya would be quick to catch up, and that made him even more anxious to get away. Looping around another block, Kaiji hoped that he had finally lost him, only to look back and see him again.
Was it possible that Kazuya didn’t know about the abandoned house after all? If that were the case, and if Kaiji failed to shake him off his trail, he would only be leading him straight to the house. Amid all of his uncertainty, his legs slowed until he finally stopped halfway through an empty park playground, allowing Kazuya to close in on him. It didn’t matter to Kaiji, he knew it was pointless to continue running if it was only going to be followed by a grim fate.
“Kazuya…” Kaiji was hesitant, but when he turned around he saw Kazuya beam. His face was surprisingly void of his father’s deranged smile that had been burned through his brain, now replaced with one that Kaiji was almost certain looked like genuine relief.
Now that Kaiji had a closer look at him, he could see why he didn’t immediately notice Kazuya sooner.
He was wearing a much more casual and dull outfit than Kaiji would have expected him to ever wear. Pants and blazer in black with a plain white button-up shirt, topped with a white, hooded jacket with some school emblem on the breast. He had the hood up earlier that had fallen when he ran after him. It was a strangely normal outfit for him, but it was something one might wear if it was for a cool daytime stroll rather than a cold mid-winter night. The bag he had on his shoulders was a terribly overloaded school backpack made of black-dyed leather.
But the most obvious and surprising change was that he had on what Kaiji assumed were backup glasses, a pair that Kazuya normally wouldn’t have been caught dead in. A simple rectangular style with thick, plastic frames surrounding clear lenses. It was a big contrast to his flashier, gold-trimmed, blue-tinted pair. Nowhere near as tacky as the ensemble he wore the other night, but there was no mistaking that it was him, especially since his new glasses only made his nose stand out even more.
Even with the all the anxiety roiling in him, Kaiji couldn’t deny that he was glad that Kazuya seemed alright since he last saw him.
“So which is it? Are you following me, hoping I’d lead you straight to the money?”
“Whoa, whoa!” Raising his palms up in defense, Kazuya stepped back slightly. He could admit that he wasn’t entirely sure what he expected in the event that they would ever run into each other again, but he should have probably seen something like this coming. “Okay, yeah, I can see how you’d think that, but–”
“Where are they, then? Your Black Suits? Or is this supposed to be some kind of distraction?”
“Oh, nah, you don’t have to worry about them. They’re not here and they’re not coming either.”
“Huh?”
“Well, I guess you could say I’m flyin’ solo now.” Kazuya winced a little, fully aware of how silly that sounded only after the words came out. Pausing to take a breath and hoping it wouldn’t be obvious he was steeling himself, he tried to finally put it to words. “Because, uh, I’ve been kicked out.”
“Bullshit.”
“Hey, you don’t believe me?” He took a handle of his backpack off of his shoulder, swinging it around to open one of the compartments. Kaiji eyed the inside, filled with clothes neatly rolled and packed tightly and likely arranged for him. Kazuya grew impatient and ended up handing him the whole bag. “Go ahead and check it out if you need to.”
Kaiji unzipped the back pocket of the backpack and sifted through paper documents. A birth certificate, sheets of his prescription and medical history, a photobook, some unfinished homework, his passport book, and an original copy of his own novel. He opened the other compartments finding travel-sized toiletries, notebooks and mechanical pencils.
He stood still as he held the bag in his arms. Scowling, he finally raised his eyes to Kazuya’s own.
“Seriously, do you really think this shit is going to fool me?”
“Wh–! Hey!” Kaiji flipped the bag upside down, causing a small pile of his personal belongings to drop onto the barkdust. “What the–! Stop!”
Kazuya tried to grab at the backpack from Kaiji’s hands, but only caused more of the contents to come pouring out. Tearing Kazuya’s hands away from the bag, Kaiji started to run around the playground with Kazuya shouting and running after him, frantically trying to pick his things up along the way. Kaiji finally stopped when he threw the empty backpack onto the top of the jungle gym. He figured that this should give him enough of a head start to make it back to the house without Kazuya catching up so quickly this time. As he started to leave, the only thing that stopped him was a soft sound, barely audible but still caught him in his steps.
Hearing it again, the sounds of sniffling, Kaiji turned around against his better judgement.
The sight was pitiful. Kazuya cursing as he’d crouch to pick each item up, dusting his clothes off against his thigh and straightening the bent papers as best as he could. He stuffed the clothes under one arm and held the papers in his mouth, leaving him only one free arm to work with. Muffled curses broke through his clenched teeth as he bent down, his sight becoming blurred again by the splotches of tears against his glasses. He stopped to take his glasses off with his free hand and wiped his face on his sleeve before any tears and snot could fall onto his birth certificate.
Kaiji couldn’t ignore the fact that no one had heard the shaky sobs and come running out from their hiding place to help, or come to kick his ass by now. Is it a trick, or could Kazuya really be telling the truth? After everything, he was afraid that he couldn’t be certain.
“Shit.”
Kaiji climbed up the bars draped with the empty bag to pick it back up. He jumped down and started picking up the mess he made himself, making his way to where Kazuya knelt.
“Uh, s-sorry…” He stuffed what he picked up in the bag and then held it open for Kazuya to dump his handfuls back in, causing the bag to bulge even worse than it had before. They both tried to zip the compartments up as best as they could. “I just thought, I don’t know, that you were lying I guess. Before we left, we were being chased, so...”
“Yeah, no, I get it. Can’t say I blame you.” He finally stood up and shuffled towards the swing set, taking a seat and hugging his bag onto his lap.
“So…” Kaiji took a seat in the swing next to him, “What were you doing at the store? You weren’t following me?”
“I know you probably won’t believe me, but I didn’t even know you’d be there. Honest!” He pushed himself slightly on the swings with his toes. “I went in to try and get some fucking smokes, I’m all out of ‘em. The guy behind the register just laughed and told me to fuck off ‘cos I’m not old enough yet.”
“You’re out too, huh... Wait, you ran out today ? I swear you had nearly a full pack just yesterday when you offered.”
“Yeah, I did.” Kazuya traced circles in the barkdust with his foot.
“Oh.”
“It’s funny, y’know, I haven’t had anyone be harsh to my face like that. Well, heh, until you. Stings a bit, but it’s also weirdly refreshing.”
Kaiji couldn’t think of how to respond. The swing set chains groaned against their weight.
“Are you staying with any friends or any other relatives?” Kazuya only snorted. “Or, well, is there anywhere at all you could stay?”
“Got enough on me right now to stay at a hotel…”
“Ah, that’s g–”
“For like, one night, maybe.”
Kaiji sighed. “Then I can give you some more money for–”
“Yeah? Then what, I just sit on my hands til I run out of dough? I don’t want your money.” He dug his heels to stop his swing completely. “I’m not gonna accept just ‘cos you feel sorry for me, that’s the fucking worst.”
“That’s just ridiculous, where the hell do you think you’re going to sleep tonight?” Kazuya didn’t answer. Kaiji just sighed, reaching into his plastic bag to grab at one of his new cigarette packs.
“Hey, gimme one too,” Kazuya held a hand out expectantly, then cleared his throat and added, “Uh, please.”
Funny, I thought you didn’t want any handouts. Kaiji switched between staring at Kazuya’s face to his hand a few times.
“I really shouldn’t, especially considering how many you’ve already had today.” He unwrapped the plastic coating of the pack and plucked two rolls out, handing one to Kazuya. “I could get shit for doing this if anyone saw, you know.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Kazuya bit down slightly on the filter as Kaiji leaned his swing closer towards his, one hand flicking on the lighter to ignite the cigarette in Kazuya’s mouth, his other hand protecting the delicate flame from the winter chill. “Thanks.”
“Sure.”
An awkward silence crept over them, pushing them back into their thoughts that were as restless as they were in their too-small seats.
It was Kazuya that spoke up first. “I just have to know…”
“Huh?”
“They told me how they found me, after you left. Hell, I couldn’t believe it. Then when I saw the tape…” He wiped his nose on his sleeve again and diverted his eyes towards the ground. Kaiji remembered the footage he saw of the dummy crashing down head first, how the cameras were positioned in just such a way to witness such a gruesome end.
How it had also caught what the three of them did for Kazuya that night.
“I gotta know... I can’t figure it out. Not just you, but Chang and Mario too. None of you had any reason to, after everything… but you did. And I just... why? ”
“What do you mean, ‘why’? Isn’t it obvious? I mean, you chose to save me too back then even when you’d first won. You could have just ignored Chang and Mario and let me fall, but you didn’t.”
“Now hold the fuck on, that’s completely different and you know that. I already told you that, even though normally that kinda shit would’ve ruined the intensity of the game, I allowed it because it continued the flow and made things interesting! It would’ve been a disappointment if it had just ended right there so easily, anyway.”
“Surviving this? I’m hoping for that myself, actually!” The words Kazuya spoke to him in the past reverberated in Kaiji’s head. He hid a faint smile behind his hand as he took another drag. “I’ll be rooting for you! From the bottom of my heart!”
Maybe there was some truth to what he said back then after all.
“Right, right,” Kaiji said. Though Kazuya may be right about these reasons on the surface, Kaiji thought about whether there was something more to his intentions behind what he did. Something about what Chang and Mario did for Kaiji that Kazuya couldn’t quite grasp, but wanted to desperately. “Maybe you’re not really so bad of a guy after all, Kazuya.”
Kazuya’s breath hitched while he drew in a smoke and started coughing, causing his face to turn red.
“Will yo–will you just shut the fuck up already? Stop saying such stupid shit.”
“Don’t tell me to shut the fuck up after I just gave you a cigarette.”
They lulled into a comfortable silence this time as they sat there on the park swings, swaying gently, blowing smoke and taking in the sights of a flickering streetlight, faded graffiti and dim stars.
“Kazuya,” Kaiji’s voice softened, “It’s true that we were playing against each other with our lives, but even so... I never wanted you to die . None of us did, or do, even. But also…” His thumb circled around the tip of his filter to concentrate, “Is it really so impossible to believe that others could be rooting for you, too?”
Kazuya only sniffled in response, keeping his gaze to the ground. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Kaiji’s scrutinizing stare as he said that.
Kaiji took one last drag before putting it out on the swing set pole, then hopped off of the swing to toss it in the nearest garbage can.
“Can’t believe I’m doing this but,” He turned to Kazuya and motioned for him to get up. “Come on.”
“Huh?”
“I know a place where you can stay.”