Work Text:
Jouno sips his coffee, feeling every single one of the Hunting Dog’s eyes on him. He doesn’t know why, but they all seem a little nervous. Tachihara is more than a little nervous, his heart racing as he looks between Jouno and the floor. He tries not to be too obvious, but Jouno has already noticed all of them. He doesn’t say anything though, trying to enjoy his coffee despite their eyes on his back. He stands up after a moment, walking towards the kitchen. Tecchou follows him, not saying anything, but standing very close.
“May I help you?” Jouno asks, rinsing out his mug.
“Yes.”
After a whole minute of silence, Jouno sighs. “Alright, what can I do for you?”
“I’m watching you.”
“I can tell that. I want to know why,” he replies, annoyance filling his tone.
“Oh, I don’t want you to explode.”
“Excuse me?”
“I don’t want you to explode,” Tecchou repeats, completely serious.
“Get out of the kitchen,” Jouno commands.
“Ok.”
He turns and walks out. Jouno shakes his head, rubbing his temples. “What was that about?” he wonders, opening the fridge.
They keep their individual food in small plastic containers, so he reaches for his. He tries to find the fruit he bought the other day, but he can’t smell any of the sweet fruit. He groans, shoving the container back into the fridge. He walks back to the living room, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Who took my food?”
“I did,” Teruko announces loudly, grinning wildly.
“Why?”
“I don’t know, I thought it would be tasty.”
Jouno opens his mouth to say something else, but the captain walks in.
“We have a mission, let’s go.”
“No more arguing,” Teruko says tauntingly, sticking her tongue out. Her face sombers, almost as if she remembered something sad. “Sorry that I ate your fruit, Jouno.”
Jouno stops dead in his path to the door. He stands there for a moment, letting that sink in before he scrunches his face up.
“Yeah.”
He keeps walking, following the captain out. The mission is fairly simple, hence why the captain ends up only taking Jouno with him. There’s a hostage situation in a bank, including a bomb threat. Upon their arrival, the captain turns towards Jouno.
“You’re going in alone.”
“Alright.”
He strides past him over to the police tape. One of the officers recognizes his uniform, letting him past the tape. Jouno nods his thanks, turning back towards the building.
“What’s the situation?”
“There are three people, but only one of them has a detonator. They’re threatening to kill everyone there if we don’t let them get away with the money.”
“So, they’re stupid. That’s fine. Is there a ventilation system?”
“Yeah, we have a map for it, but I don’t think that’ll be very helpful.”
Jouno blows hair out of his face, his headache from earlier growing with each second.
“Have someone trace it with a little bit of force on the paper. I can tell where everything is from the indentations.”
The man nods, looking a little skeptical. Jouno ignores his odd look, instead waiting for his hand drawn map. Once it’s handed to him, he places it on a flat surface, tracing every detail. Once he’s sure that he knows the whole system, he strides towards the building.
Ugh, this would be so much easier if there wasn’t a bomb threat. I could just stride in the front door, he thinks bitterly as he climbs into the vents.
It takes him a few minutes to reach the bombers. The bombers are outside of the vault, still attempting to get in. The bomber in the middle’s heart rate is through the roof, meaning he must be the one with the detonator. Jouno takes everything around him in, the positions that everyone is in, the way things smell, how many civilians are nearby. Then he pulls on his cape and readjusts his sword so that neither of them catch when he drops himself to the ground. If he were any bigger, he would have had to leave his stuff outside. Luckily, he’s not, so he can carefully pull the grate off of the vent, sliding it beside him. He pulls himself up to the edge, then launches himself out of the vent, landing on the man with the detonator. He hears it go flying through the air, so he reaches out, deftly catching it. It’s definitely the detonator, so he slips it in his pocket. He listens to the racing heartbeats of the people behind him, they’re obviously terrified.
I should finish this quickly, so they can give their testimonies and go home.
He knocks out the guy closest to him, snapping the other guy out of his trance. He’s not bad, but no match for a member of the Hunting Dogs. He’s done within five minutes, immediately turning back to the civilians.
“The problem is dealt with, one of you go get the police officers that are gathered outside.”
Someone nods, running off. Jouno turns to finish restraining the criminals. A child walks up behind him, tapping him on the arm.
“Sir?”
“Yes?”
“Can you help me find my mother? She went out to the car to get her wallet, and left me with the bank teller. They came in before she came back.”
“Hm, that does sound like an issue. We can figure out where she is as soon as the police come to take these guys away. I’m sure that she’s just waiting outside for the area to be cleared, but I can’t leave these guys unsupervised.”
“Like my older brother at a party?”
“Yes, to make sure that they don’t do anything that they’re not supposed to,” he agrees readily.
As soon as the police walk in, she tugs on his sleeve. “Can we go now?”
“Yes, they’re over here,” he says to the police officers.
They walk over, and he explains where he’s going. “My captain is outside, and he can help you with any of the legal work that needs to be done.”
“Alright, thank you, sir.”
He nods, and walks back out, the little girl still holding onto his hand. It’s only a few minutes after they get out that a woman comes running up.
“Oh my gosh, I thought something had happened,” she cries, throwing her arms around the girl.
“No, mommy, this man saved us. He’s very pretty. I like how red his hair is,” she says.
“Thank you so much for taking care of my daughter.”
Jouno nods. “Have a nice rest of your day,” he says before heading back to the car.
It takes ten minutes for Fukuchi to get into the car. They drive home in silence. Jouno barely steps out of the car before Teruko jumps on his back. He stumbles as Tecchou also approaches. He grabs Jouno's arm, pulling on him as well.
“What are you guys doing?” he demands, feeling his face heat up as he gets angrier.
“We thought you weren’t coming back,” Teruko replies from her spot near his ear.
“Why? What has been going on with you guys?”
He tries to push Tecchou off of him, but ultimately fails.
“Oh, are you guys still on about that?” Fukuchi asks, a small smile quirking up the side of his lips.
“What are you referring to?” Jouno demands, shaking his arm.
Tecchou is stronger than him, keeping his grip with a blank expression on his face. He sighs, giving up and dropping his arm.
“Well, do you remember when Teruko had us go see that psychic on the mission yesterday?” Tachihara interjects.
Jouno frowns, thinking back.
Teruko pulls on Fukuchi’s arm, pulling him towards a psychic shop instead of the car.
“Let’s all get our futures told,” she demands.
Almost everyone agrees immediately, except for Jouno.
“I don’t believe in psychics, I’ll stand watch by the door,” he says, leaning against the door frame.
“Suit yourself,” Teruko says, shrugging as she walks past.
They all walk inside, leaving Jouno outside alone. He’s not there for long, since they’re only inside for twenty minutes, but all of their heartbeats are oddly fast, and he can feel everyone looking at him, but he doesn’t pay them any mind. He walks them back to the car, opening the door for Teruko before climbing in the back. He’s too tired to notice how everyone continues to stare at him for the rest of the night.
“Yes, that was just yesterday afternoon,” he says, folding his arms.
“I know, and when we went in, the psychic said the same thing to all of us. That someone close to us would die soon, and you’re the only one that applies to all of us without it being one of the rest of us. So, since you didn’t talk to him, and he didn’t tell you that, Tecchou and Teruko have been convinced that you’re going to drop dead.”
“That’s absurd,” Jouno replies, cocking his head.
“I know, but I was more watching to see if you would kill them,” Tachihara admits, pink dusting his face.
“That makes more sense. I’m not going to drop dead. Can you guys get off of me? I’m obviously fine, and psychics are full of crap anyway,” he argues.
“How do you know that?” Teruko asks.
“What if I promise you that I’m not going to drop dead? Doesn’t that mean more than some random psychic’s word?”
Teruko thinks for a moment before replying,” Alright, I can live with that. So?”
“Ok, I promise that I won’t drop dead.”
“Yay!”
She throws her arms around his neck, snuggling even closer to him. He pats her head as Tecchou drops his arm.
“Good, I was worried,” he comments.
Jouno rolls his eyes, keeping in a heavy sigh.