Chapter Text
When Rei was 12, he had learned three things: his fath—boss, was an absolute asshole and Rei lowkey wanted to murder him, two he was now terrified of dogs, and three, he had a new partner (Rei called him a babysitter), who looked horrified at the scene before him.
After begrudgingly accepting the two things, Rei then met the third thing.
“This is your new partner, since you’re unable to defend yourself,” his boss practically sneered to the child he had backhanded into the dirt. He roughly shoved the blonde-haired teenager he was talking about, forward towards Rei. “Patch him up; he’s your responsibility now.”
The two had a small stare-off, neither of them saying anything for a long moment.
“Kazuki,” his newly partner introduced himself after the boss had left them both outside. Absentmindedly glancing at the corpse of that dog for a brief second, a disgusted shiver took him, before he knelt down next to the darkhaired boy, forcing his stiff fingers to drop the first-aid kit he had been practically death gripping. He exhaled slowly to reduce the trembling in his arms and fingers, and started to tenderly clean and patch up Rei’s dog bites and scratches on his arms.
Rei had never been handled so gently before; he almost thought this was a setup; no one was this nice in the environment that he had grown up. Rei watched the blonde with suspicious eyes, he wanted to ask questions, but he had also learned that not keeping his mouth shut, meant that he’d be beaten.
Kazuki looked up, feeling the younger’s stare. “Sorry, am I hurting you?”
“…No,” Rei mumbled, averting his gaze away.
“Okay, well, just lemme know,” Kazuki murmured. “Um, I’m not for sure what to talk about during these situations, but if I can be honest, this sucks.”
“I don’t think you’re supposed to say anything at all,” Rei coldly responded. He felt his teeth grit when amused amber eyes lifted again to meet his. “What?” he seethed.
“Nothing,” Kazuki mused going quietly for only moment. “Say, can I ask you something?”
“You already did,” Rei muttered and froze when he heard Kazuki laugh. It was the sweetest thing he’s heard and again, abnormal, because no one laughed here, unless it involved torturing someone for intel.
“Well, I’ll ask another question,” Kazuki grinned. “How old are you?”
Rei frowned, was he about to be teased about how old he was? Reluctantly, he responded, “I turned twelve last month.”
“Ah, well, I guess I’m your senior by three-years. Not to be rude, but you look older than me,” Kazuki started to frown at the end. “Must be this hard life, you know? I’m sorry that you had to deal with…that,” his gaze slid back to the shot animal and another shiver rolled down his spine.
“It’s kill or be killed,” Rei hollowly echoed his boss’ words. He instantly hated that sad, bitter look that crossed Kazuki’s face, before his partner’s bangs his eyes as he ducked his head down further.
“I know,” Kazuki whispered quietly, still careful with Rei’s wounds, “but it shouldn’t be.”
His partner was quite the enigma, Rei thought. He didn’t understand how someone could still think that way, not with the way they lived. “Are you new here?”
Startled, Kazuki looked up at him again. “Ah…I guess it shows, doesn’t it?”
“You won’t think like that after a couple months,” Rei told him. He saw the fire of challenge spark up in those amber eyes and that threw Rei off kilter, because did Kazuki really think that this would be an easy life?
“Okay, Rei-kun—”
“Just Rei.”
“Okay, then, Rei,” Kazuki smiled warmly to him again. “I guess I’ll just have to make this life better for you then, hm, partner?”
Rei didn’t want to trust or believe him, but he could still feel that childish hope inside him that maybe Kazuki could prove him wrong. He looked at the inviting hand Kazuki offered to him, when the blonde stood up and part of Rei was wary; he’s been burned before.
Kazuki didn’t move, waiting for Rei. “We’re going to be partners. First lesson: I’ll never turn my back on you, or you can, I dunno, have a free pass to stab me or something. Maybe, on second thought, please don’t stab me, because I don’t like knives.”
Rei’s eyes widened slightly at how nonchalant Kazuki was behaving.
Still, he reached forward and warm fingers wrapped around his, they felt strong and sure; sharing and pressing warmth into his cold, small fingers. Kazuki didn’t let go as he pulled Rei up and the first thing he was going to do, was make this kid a proper meal, it felt like he was lifting a small bag of flour.
Rei was a little unhappy that Kazuki let go of his hand, he hated feeling cold.
“C’mon, let’s get inside, I’ll fix you some dinner,” Kazuki told him, turning to lead the way inside.
All Rei could do was follow his new partner inside, a whole new stew of emotions mixing inside of him. Kazuki was strange, but fascinating, and there was something else that nagged at Rei, he couldn’t place his finger on it.
~~~
Rei was 17, he was a trained killer, nothing fazed him; he could pull the trigger on any man or woman or animal without a second thought. He had climbed ranks in the mafia with Kazuki at his side. Rei did the most killing for this missions, as he had learned something early about Kazuki, his partner didn’t like to kill.
No matter how many missions they took, or even after being partners for five-years, Kazuki could never kill someone, yes, put them out of commission, but he could never take the killing shot. That was fine with Rei, he…never wanted Kazuki to change; his partner has become something of a safety blanket to him.
A constant in his life, someone Rei could quietly fall back on to, look at when Rei was feeling overwhelmed, which even if Rei didn’t say it out loud, he was grateful for Kazuki’s presence in his life. The only best gift and friend this life has given him and Rei wouldn’t lose him, would do anything for him, just to keep Kazuki at his side.
“Rei?” Kazuki called to him.
Rei was pulled out of his musings, looking to Kazuki, who was at the kitchen island, a mixing bowl and whisk in his hand. A small frown pulled at Rei’s lips, his partner was baking cookies; he was stressed about something, but his face gave nothing away.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“You already did.”
Kazuki cracked a grin at the familiar banter. “I was thinking…”
“That’s never a good thing.”
“Oh, shh,” Kazuki laughed, stopping his mixing. He set the shiny bowl down dusting his hands onto his apron, a fond grin on his face, unaware at how warm it made Rei feel inside. Kazuki opened his mouth, “Let’s kill our boss and be free of this life.”
Rei felt his stomach drop at those words. Rei was a trained killer, nothing fazed him; he could pull the trigger on any man or woman or animal without a second thought. He would do anything for Kazuki. He’d do anything to keep Kazuki at his side. He would do anything, he’d do anything, he’d do—
“I can’t do that,” Rei finally whispered.
Kazuki tilted his head, somewhat shocked at Rei’s delayed answer. “Really?”
“He’s…he’s my father, even if he’s never been one to me,” Rei forced out, feeling horribly exposed.
Kazuki studied him, seeing that Rei was doing the same to him, though with an odd shine to his dark-violet eyes. “Hm, that’s a little surprising to me, but I guess I understand, if he was my parent.”
Do you? Rei wanted to ask. He didn’t know much of Kazuki’s past, as his partner himself didn’t know much; he probably had parents, or maybe they were dead. Rei had privately wondered when he was younger, if Kazuki’s parents were in debt to Rei’s and they had been killed and Kazuki had been kidnapped and given to Rei as some sort of payment owed.
“Would you hesitate if your father tried to kill you?” Kazuki asked him.
Rei could taste bitterness in his mouth, a phantom pain starting to sting in the area over his right lung. Angrily, he gritted out, “Why would you ask something like that when you already know the answer?”
Kazuki immediately went apologetic. “Shit…I’m so sorry, Rei, I didn’t mean—”
“Save it,” Rei curtly cut him off. He turned on his PS4 and slid on his noise-canceling headphones, shutting Kazuki’s words out. With the rest of the world muted, he could hear his own pulse fluttering a little too quickly in his ears, his stomach twisting into knots, and he felt short of breath, he could feel a panic attack attempting to seize him.
He wasn’t for sure how much time had passed, but Rei nearly leapt out of his skin when Kazuki was suddenly sitting next to him on their small couch. Rei kept his lips pressed together as he tried to ignore his partner, but he felt the warmth of a mug briefly press against the back of his clammy hand, before Kazuki sat it on the coffee table.
Amber eyes reflected so much grief and Rei almost felt his resolve crack.
Kazuki got off the couch, the message clear that Rei needed to simmer in peace.
His partner must have retreated back to his room and Rei shakily put down his controller that he hadn’t even used to select a game. Rei picked up the mug of tea, the warmth seeping into his skin, bordering uncomfortable, but it grounded Rei.
He didn’t bother blowing on it, accepting the burn of hot black tea on his lips and tongue; his eyes watered, but this felt better than what his emotional self was going through. Rei took deep steadying breaths after a couple sips; he put the mug down and curled up on his side on the couch, vacantly staring at the lit up TV screen.
Rei hated that he couldn’t do this for Kazuki; his partner gave so much of himself up to make sure that Rei was healthy and taken care of, watched his back during missions and out in public when they’d go out occasionally. Bought him snacks that he thought Rei would like, play video games with him, even though Kazuki sucked at them, and put up with Rei’s sulky attitude without too much protest.
They didn’t talk about it the next day, Kazuki offering him pizza from his favorite pizza joint and that was it; Rei was quietly grateful.
The topic never came up again, for nearly three-years, until one day, Kazuki was missing from their apartment; everything was a mess just from Rei being gone for twenty-minutes to run to the store, because Kazuki had begged him to go get some ice cream for their movie night.
He came back to the couch overturned, their coffee table was splintered, the island had all its things knocked off, the barstools knocked over, and he saw half-dried blood splatter on the cream-colored countertops.
There was only one person who knew where they lived, because Rei had always been under his thumb.
No more. Rei thought, as rage overcame him as he loaded his gun to go hunt down the shitty man, who dared take what was his. We will be free.