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Reigen greeted him at his apartment door as if he'd been expecting him.
“Oh, you brought sake?” Reigen said, quirking a brow at the bag Ekubo brought. He shrugged and followed Reigen in, kicking the door shut behind him as he went. “You couldn't have gotten red wine or something else?"
“You’re welcome, Reigen, I'm so happy to hear you love the gift," Ekubo deadpanned. Reigen snorted as he took the bag and carried it to his small kitchen to pour them in glasses.
Silence fell between them. Allowing his eyes to roam while Reigen's back was turned, Ekubo drank in his form from his soft honey-yellow hair, pale nape, narrow waist, down to the swell of his ass. The man licked his lips.
What a shame.
He averted his gaze to the fridge just as Reigen turned around to pass him his glass. “So what's the occasion?"
Fast food flyers, a grocery list, and, just beneath it all, a scrap of paper with numbers written in a familiar script.
Ekubo tore his eyes from the paper to look at Reigen who stared back, his head tilted slightly with curiosity. So cute, yet so devious.
“Take a guess," he sneered, keeping eye contact as he raised the glass to his lips. Reigen broke it first, and Ekubo could see him watching his mouth.
Reigen hummed, eyes lidded, before taking a sip from his own glass. In the cramped space of his apartment kitchen, they stood facing each other, drinking. Waiting.
The only source of light in the dingy room was the old bulb overhead, dim and buzzing as though ready to flicker to its death at any moment. Despite the shitty lighting, Ekubo knew precisely where the gash was on the wall behind Reigen.
A souvenir from the first time they met. Reigen never fixed it. The wallpaper was ugly enough that it was impossible to tell that a wakizashi once got embedded in it.
The clink of Reigen's empty glass on the countertop made Ekubo refocus on his host. There was a slight redness on his cheeks that wasn't there before as Reigen smirked at him with hooded eyes. “Are you finally confessing to me? Oh Ekubo, I've always known."
He failed to suppress mirroring Reigen's smirk, allowing his sharp teeth to bare. If Reigen shivered, Ekubo couldn't be sure, but he was unmistakably inching closer.
"Oh, have you, now?"
Distance closed, he could feel Reigen's breath hot on his skin, his hands coming up to wrap around the taller man's waist. His lips were so close, Ekubo wondered not for the first time what they would taste like.
“I know a lot of things,” Reigen murmured.
Then Ekubo's hand darted up to his own back to grip Reigen's wrist, stopping him, and in one fluid twist, Ekubo had him pinned against the wall, both wrists in his grip. Preventing him from taking the gun holstered on his back... Or touching the wakizashi sheathed on his side.
Reigen hadn't made a sound, only staring up at Ekubo with a kind of heat in his eyes.
“We have no information on his identity. All that is certain is that he's stealing potential clients and that he works alone,” Mogami's cold voice rose from his memory, unbidden.
“Hm. Like what?” Ekubo asked, his smirk ever present.
There was something different in Reigen's smile this time. Ekubo couldn't tell whether it was desire… or intent to kill. Ironic given his occupation. Then again, Reigen wasn't always easy to read.
“I know you want to kill me,” Reigen answered, not a trace of fear in him. If anything, the curl of his lips told a different story. He was challenging him.
“His code name is Kitsune. Fitting for a sly vermin."
Searing pain erupted from his groin, forcing him to release his hold on the shorter man as Ekubo hissed. He raised his head to glare at Reigen, only to see the barrel of a gun pointed at him.
“His methods are indirect. Underhanded, even. Likely can't fight. I'm certain you can crush him easily.”
“I can't believe you fell for that. The great Ekubo-sama?” The shit-eating grin Reigen gave him made Ekubo's blood boil. Oh, he was going to bend him over and fuck him senseless… or kill him with his bare hands.
“Should've shot me while you had the chance,” Ekubo sneered.
“The first time was an accident,” Reigen pointed at his shoulder, "But this time, it won't be."
“To think I was doing my rescuer a favor by offering to take care of his problems .”
Reigen's gaze flickered briefly towards the fridge. "A touching present. But I've been perfectly capable of handling problems by myself, thank you.”
There was a dull thump then smoke engulfed the room.
Ekubo’s foot connected with Reigen’s wrist. The heavy clatter told him he’d disarmed the man. Hindered by the smoke screen, Reigen was too slow to block the kick to his stomach, and he hit the floor hard. Through the haze of smoke, backlit by the dim kitchen light, Ekubo’s form towered over him. A vengeful demon with a blade.
“I almost felt bad about having to kill the man that saved me,” he said, conversational in the middle of stabbing his wakizashi into his prey. “But I suppose this is just making things even now that I know it was your doing to begin with.”
Never one to mince words, Mogami told—no, commanded him. “Find out who this pest is and kill him.”
The weapon impaled a kitchen chair instead, pulled by Reigen in the nick of time, before he pushed Ekubo back from behind. The raven-haired man crashed against the cheap kitchen table which gave way under him, allowing Reigen the time to roll away and grab his gun.
“Don’t flatter yourself. You weren’t even my target that time, yet you attacked me the moment you woke up,” Reigen scoffed, the cocking of his gun strangely loud. “You put a fucking gash in my wall. I should have left you to bleed out had I known you were the insufferable Oni .”
Ekubo barked out a laugh as he retrieved his weapon from the chair cushion. “Would’ve been the smartest thing you’ve ever done, Kitsune. ”
Pure reflex saved Ekubo from a bullet to the head, Reigen’s gun having gone off with a muted bang, grazing Ekubo’s right cheek. He dashed to the blond, not allowing him time to fire a second shot. Reigen yelped, the wakizashi pinning the sleeve of his shooting arm against the wall. Panic flickered briefly across his face, and Ekubo savored the expression before Reigen’s indifferent mask went up again. Ekubo pressed against him, fingers holding Reigen’s jaw with all the tenderness of a wild animal securing its prey. “Any last words from that smartass mouth, sweetheart?”
Pressed up between the wall and Ekubo’s firm muscular form, Reigen had the balls to laugh.
“Somethin’ funny?” Ekubo drawled, face inches from the other’s.
Reigen licked his lips, corners curling to a smirk before meeting Ekubo's gaze. “If you really wanted me dead, we both know this would be over already.”
“I could say the same to you. Your shots are terrible for someone with a target three feet in front of him.”
“Sorry. That sake you brought must be getting to me. Let me make sure I don’t miss this time.”
Ekubo did not get another word in. His body seized, zapped by lightning, his vision going white as he stumbled back in agony.
“Oh shit, they weren’t kidding when they said you aren’t human.” There was a mix of amusement and fright in Reigen’s voice, and Ekubo finally saw as soon as his sight returned the stun gun in his free hand. “At least fall on your knees or something. Damn.”
“You little fucker,” he growled, raising his head to glare at Reigen. His murderous look reminded Reigen of his situation—a butterfly on a pin board—and he dropped the stun gun in favor of frantically trying to free himself. The wakizashi did not budge in the slightest, embedded into the wall too deep to pull out with his strength.
Ekubo took one step, the effects of the stun gun beginning to wear off, causing Reigen to struggle with more vigor. If Ekubo had been toying with him before, the bloodlust he now exuded told him it was no longer a game. He had a deranged grin, teeth bared like fangs of a creature straight from hell.
Reigen pulled hard, tearing his sleeve. The moment Ekubo regained control of his facilities, Reigen had thrown open the window, hurling himself out with the urgency of a man who knew he had poked a bear and woken it. Ekubo reached to grab him, fingertips brushing his dress shirt for the briefest moment, then Reigen was gone. Clicking his tongue in annoyance, he retrieved his wakizashi from the wall with a single tug before stepping onto the windowsill.
Reigen's footsteps were almost quiet despite how he raced up the metal staircase of the building's fire escape. From the window, Ekubo pulled out the gun from his back, aimed, and… nothing. Confused, he pulled the trigger again and again and noticed a second later that his weapon was much lighter than it should be.
“Looking for this?"
He looked up at the sound of Reigen's voice and immediately regretted it. The blond was peeking at him from between the gaps of the stairs a few stories above, magazine in his hand and the smuggest, most aggravating grin on his face.
Ekubo growled and hauled himself out, doing a high jump to catch the rail of the staircase landing above and pulling himself with the grace and speed of a man who could scale buildings and leap across rooftops with his eyes closed. He heard an “oh shit–” just above him, and Reigen was running again.
Cold evening wind whipped at the assassin harshly, his midnight long coat dancing behind him like devil wings as he swiftly caught up to Reigen. The building rooftop was deserted, the moon the only spectator of their little dance. On the other side, Reigen stood at the ready, gun poised to shoot.
“You know I have every reason to kill you right here.”
The nighttime hubbub and the blow of the breeze did not stop Reigen’s voice from carrying over. All traces of humor were gone, his expression something Ekubo recognized too well: the detached iciness of a sniper who knows for a fact that someone will die when they pull the trigger.
“Humor me; what are the chances you have a reason not to?” Ekubo responded calmly, moonlight glinting on his blade.
“I suppose it would be a shame to kill something I saved once upon a time.”
“Sounds like an excellent reason. We’re practically best buds now, aren’t we, Reigen?” He began walking towards him in a casual pace.
Reigen remained in place, his aim steady. The corner of his mouth twitched up minutely — something Ekubo didn’t miss. He was suppressing a smile. “I think we’re beyond ‘best buds’ now. But that doesn’t mean a thing because you have to kill me, no?”
“It leaves a bad taste to do it to someone I thought I owed my life to but,” he shrugged, now only a few steps closer, “I have to kill you, yes.”
“Drop your sword.”
And he did so without hesitation, the wakizashi clattering behind him as he stopped an arm’s length from Reigen. A perfect point blank range to the heart. “Aren’t you going to shoot—”
And he did so without hesitation the moment Ekubo’s words left his mouth.
Dark red liquid splattered the floor. The wound blooming like a rose was almost invisible on the shoulder of Ekubo’s black long coat, blood dripping down his arm like coiling tendrils.
“Missed again. That sake must be hitting you real hard, huh?” He let Reigen cock his gun before he took a step closer. Right into Reigen’s personal space. The bustle of the evening city was much louder now from the edge of the rooftop. For the third time that day, he had Reigen pressed against him once more. This time though, there was no wall to trap him in place.
“You mean that flavored water you brought?” Reigen sneered, eye contact never wavering even when Ekubo grabbed him by the collar and shoved him roughly down, his upper body suspended in the air, his back to the street several stories below. With his center of gravity off, only Ekubo’s hold kept him in place. Ekubo could feel Reigen’s gun between them, the barrel pressed right against his heart. Reigen could shoot him dead at any moment. Not that it would save him since he would fall to his death right after if he pulled the trigger. They were both well aware of that. Neither moved, instead they stared at each other, counting their breaths because any could be their last.
Ekubo had never felt more alive than at that moment, and he knew Reigen felt the same. Whatever this was, it was undeniably electric.
“Remind me how the sake tasted,” he murmured, leaning close. Reigen met him halfway with matching eagerness.
He dipped his head to find out the taste.
Ash and something deliciously addicting.
Curiosity satisfied, he pulled back and watched with great pleasure Reigen’s narrowed eyes. Whether that look meant arousal or bloodlust, he still wasn’t sure. It didn’t really matter as long as he got to see it. Ekubo laughed aloud.
“See you in hell, Reigen.”
Dangling him over the ledge, Ekubo loosened his hold on Reigen’s collar, letting gravity do the rest as the fabric slipped from his palm.
The casino he arrived at had carpeting in a color perfect to camouflage blood. A cacophony of loud slot machine noises permeated the air along with the thick scent of tobacco. Like most casinos he'd been in, the place was dimly lit, the neon glow from the machines casting purples and blues on the ceiling. Ekubo smiled lopsidedly to himself, placing a cigarette between his teeth as he strolled past gamblers and attendants.
He located his target at a poker table. Ekubo joined in to monitor him, uninterested in winning. From the sound of it, the man was not doing great, which was perfectly fine for Ekubo. The sooner he used up his chips, the sooner he could settle his business.
He found himself staring at the dealer’s hands, thin and deft as they expertly laid the cards. His target bellowed something in anger, knocking his chair down in a show of aggression at some other player who had laughed at his losses. The argument only seemed to escalate, both parties exchanging threats and shoves enough to catch people’s attention.
Ekubo glanced up. Through the veil of his cigarette smoke, he eyed the dealer who seemed completely unconcerned, his long fingers shuffling the cards with the ease of an experienced cardist.
His target stomped off, grumbling something like “rats should stay in the sewers” as he angrily chewed on the fingernail of his thumb.
And pigs like you should stay in your room, Ekubo thought, sliding off his stool to tail the man, aware of the Plainclothes officers in his peripheral. Normally, he did not particularly care where he completed a mission – he even enjoyed fights when people tried getting in his way. With his recent shoulder injury though, he had to be smart about the job and do it the old-fashioned way: in the privacy of the mark’s room.
“Sir, you forgot this.”
His fingers jerked ever so slightly to the direction of his hidden weapon, the voice having taken him off-guard. He spared a quick glance at the person who had somehow snuck up on him—the dealer from earlier—before resuming his watch on his aim. Few people could sneak up on Ekubo considering his occupation. That this random man managed to do that while Ekubo had been on alert the entire time didn't sit well with him. The man he was after was getting away though so, choosing his priority, he pocketed the item handed to him without checking before hurrying after him.
Abruptly, his target stopped.
Then he collapsed, face twisted in agony while his nails clawed at his mouth and throat. He thrashed violently on the floor, those who noticed hurrying to help. Just as quickly, the man stopped moving. Ekubo knew by then that he was dead.
Everything that happened next felt like something out of a dream. The chaos unfolding around him felt muted and hazy as he pulled out what he had just mindlessly put in his pocket. The thing he “forgot” despite knowing full well he did not leave behind anything important.
A joker card. And a scrap of paper with numbers written in a familiar script.
He looked back towards the table where he and his target had been from. The dealer met his gaze with mischief in his eyes and the smuggest, most aggravating grin on his face.