Chapter Text
Ash woke up from a loud bang coming from outside. He could hear cars honking and people yelling, a normal morning for anyone who lives in New york. He sighs running a hand through his blond hair that had slightly greased up throughout the week of him having to boss around the idiots he calls gang members.
He got out of his creaky bed and sludged over to the small bathroom to brush his teeth, but when he makes it there his phone rings. He goes over to the small wooden table and he picks it up looking down at the caller ID.
Ash grimaces slightly, there were about a thousand other things Ash would rather be doing then talking to Dino this early in the morning. He exhales and picks up, pressing the flip-phone to his ear.
"Goodmorning, sweetheart."
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Eiji looks around New York in a mix of excitement, tiredness and pure fear of how many people he's seen in superhero costumes tryng to get money. It's...definitely diffrent from Japan but he agreed to come along with Ibe to help with photographing and there's no backing out now.
On cue Ibe snaps Eiji out of his thoughts with a quiet "Ei-chan, you coming?", Eiji gives him a faint smile and nods as he grips his bag closer to himself and he follows Ibe through the busy streets.
The jetlag must really be getting to Eiji, because all of the colourful billboards suddenly mush all together into one blob of advertisement as he just follows Ibe untill they get to their hotel. They go to step onto the elevator but the woman sat behind the front desk yells out in her thick American accent "It's broken for the week! Y'all will need to take the stairs."
Ibe and Eiji glance at the stairs and sigh, but walk up them nonetheless to the seventh floor, Room 24. Ibe unlocks the door with a card and they head inside. Eiji takes off his shoes and hangs up his blue coat, then he proceeds to flop down on the bright white bed on the right.
He just lays there, the 14 hours of pure torture slowly dissolving out of his body as he relaxes. He's exhausted even tho all he did was sit for those long hours. Ibe seems to think the same thing, though not showing it as much as the nineteen year old.
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Ash exits Dino's office with a glare that would make lion's cower. He hated doing the dirty things Dino loves, but Ash knows better then to refuse. He passes Marvin and the fat swine whistles lowly, checking Ash out. Ash sticks his middle finger out as he walks, exiting the large mansion in a bad mood.
As Ash walk through the streets with his hands in his pockets, he realises he's close enough to Chinatown and he could go visit Shorter in Changdai.
Ash walks a few minutes untill he saw "Changdai" in big bold Chinese characters, one of the characters not lighting up tho. He walks in and spots Nadia by the cash register, sat there with a bored expression waiting for customers. Ash walks up to her and she looks up, a bit surprised to see him "Ash..I haven't seen you for so long" she says in a mix of curiosity and delight.
Ash flashes her a smirk "What, did you miss me that much?" he says while taking a seat in one of the booths. Nadia scoffs rolling her eyes slightly "I didn't miss that attitude." she mutters under her breath as she walks over to the booth with her arms crossed.
"I'm guessing you're looking for Shorter" She says looking at him knowingly, he just gives her a smile back "Am I that predictable?" They both knew the answer to that. "Well he's not here today, the little shit got sick and decided to bail on work today." she sighs lighting a cigarette.
Ash raises a eyebrow, amused "You know it's not healthy to smoke infront of a kid right?" Nadia scoffs, a thin cigarette between her teeth "Oh that's a load of bull, it's the 80's everybody smokes everywhere. Especially here in New York."
Ash huffs quietly "Yeah yeah" he gets up from the seat, hands in his pockets and the yellowish lights in the diner making his blond hair look more like a mustard yellow. "Well i'm going, i need to run a few errands that sure as hell won't do themselves." he sighs quietly walking to the door, Nadia waves and he walks out of the diner.
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When Eiji finally got over his jetlag he decided to come along with Ibe to photograph a known gang in New York.
Honestly, Eiji's first reaction was to absolutely refuse and tell Ibe-san he was a maniac for even trying to talk to a gang leader, but then Ibe had calmly explained that he knew the gang leaders..sort of father but not his father at all but at the same time he kinda was.
Whatever. Eiji had agreed to help with the photographs and now the both of them were getting led into a sketchy alleyway by a kid that looked no older then 9, but in all honesty Eiji found it normal at this point.
When they entered the bar the first thing Eiji noticed was how out of place him and Ibe-san were. Eiji was wearing a red crew neck with a white blouse under it, and when he glanced around he noticed most of the men in the bar had tanktops to show off their muscles and tattoo's.
Eiji and Ibe kinda just stand there in place, dumbfounded until the kid grins up at them "What are you so scared of? this way." and he continues walking. Ibe starts walking first and Eiji forces his legs to follow, they pass a pool table and a few people smoking cigarettes untill the kid stops infront of a boy with light blond hair.
"Here they are, Ash" the boy says and the blond boy turns around to face them, his face intimidating both Eiji and Ibe. Eiji had made eye contact with him swiftly but he immediately gazes away. Ibe clears his throat and smiles slightly
"I'm the photographer from Japan, the one who would come here to ask about your gang for a magazine article" he says in slightly flawed English, but definitely better than Eiji's. Ibe goes to shake his hand but Ash just looks at Ibe's face, with the same unreadable expression.
"What do you want to know." Ash asks and Ibe's smile falters slightly "Can we take a few pictures first?" He asks politely, Ash exhales quietly looking away "Not the face." Ibe nods and looks over in Eiji and starts to talk, this time in Japanese.
"Ei-chan, get the camera ready" Eiji nods, taking out all the equipment and getting it all ready. As Ibe goes to talk to some of the gang members Eiji hears from behind him "Do they use kids as assistants in Japan?"
Eiji recognises that it's Ash's voice and he huffs softly, turning his head "I'm older than you." Eiji says in his accented English, Ash raises his eyebrow "Well, Excuse me. You look like a kid" he says with a smirk as he takes a swig of whatever he's drinking. Eiji puffs out his cheeks and looks back at the equipment look who's talking...you're acting like a kid, Eiji thinks to himself.
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After a few photo's Eiji leans on one of the walls, looking around the bar in curiosity. He has never been to a bar, because in Japan you had to be 20 to even get in. Eiji also assumed American gang bar's were a bit diffrent then Japanese ones.
Eiji coughs slightly from the strong smell of tobacco and marijuana, he had already noticed it when he entered the bar but only now was it really effecting him. To distract himself from it he looks over at Ash who was currently talking to one of his men.
Eiji also notices another man by Ash's side who had leaned in closer to Ash and whisperd something. Ash had given him a glare, he looked pretty mad. Before Eiji could get closer the man had grabbed a gun and pointed it at Ash.
Eiji could feel his heart quicken, everybody had looked over at them intrigued. Ash had scowled and then as quick as light he had kicked the man in the crotch, and swiftly disarmed him...and then the man was dead.
Eiji felt his legs tremble slightly when he looked down at the bar's ground and he could only focus on the man's clouded over eyes, forever dead now. Everybody had treated it like it was normal but Eiji had built up the strength to take a deep breath and he walks to the door, exiting the bar and sliding down the concrete wall of the alley.
The dark alleyway didn't smell any better than the bar, but Eiji just needed to get out for a bit. Eiji knew that this was a gang, he knew the risk of seeing someone die...but it still shocked him.
Eiji blinks up at the sky and breaths in, letting his racing heart calm down. Suddenly he hears the bar door open and he looked at who came out, it's Ash. Ash looks at Eiji for a moment but then he sighed, looking away and fishing a cigarette out of his pocket.
Ash lights it and takes a drag, exhaling smoke into the air.
Eiji stays silent aswell.
"Y'know..." Ash starts and then stops again, not really good at comforting people, especially not strangers from Japan. Eiji exhales quietly and stands up "It's okay." Eiji mumbles, looking at him and then back at the concrete.
"You- Eh, you saved yourself, and that's okay" Eiji tries not to make a fool of himself by saying the wrong words. Don't get him wrong, he enjoyed middle school English, but it never really taught him how to stop someone from weirdly comforting him because he got traumatised.
Ash blinks over at him and hums "You're right, I did defend myself but it doesn't mean I can't check up on the dear kid assistant." he teases slightly, and Eiji looks at him with a pout again "I told you I'm older" he grumbles and Ash just let's his cigarette fall, crushing it with his shoe.
"Whatever you say." Ash hums and goes back inside.