Work Text:
Unable to see through the blindfold, all Mafuyu could hear was the sound of quick running and gunshots. Shouts turning into screams, and the growing feeling of uneasy coldness.
Listening in, leaning as far as she could with the restraints binding her to the wooden chair, she could hear a faint pattern to the footsteps that radiated with familiarity, and she quickly realized were heading to her location. As the person got closer, the bullets grew lesser, until it was near silence. She could hear the ground creak right outside the door of her room, though, and the messiness of the intruder shot a realization through her.
The door banged open, light flooding into her vision.
“Hey. Finally here, princess,” a man scoffed, voice echoing in the room. “Ton of assholes here, can’t believe you’d really get involved with ‘em without me.”
“Akito,” she said flatly, flexing against the ropes and ignoring the pet name, “could you untie me first? There weren’t only ten people there, we need to get out before you complain.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know there’s a ton of people. You’d never become a captive if there weren’t,” he rolled his eyes, but kneeled behind her chair regardless.
Untying the knots with unexpected precision, Mafuyu felt the binds slide down onto the base of the chair or the ground. As Akito slowly worked up, he slid the blindfold over her head, struggling with it. With the sudden hit of pure light, Mafuyu blinked rapidly, kicked her legs upward. She had only been there for two or three days, if her captors’ feeding patterns aligned with the day’s own patterns, but her body felt unbelievably stiff. Akito, finishing untying the final knot, pulled the thick fabric off and shoved it into his pocket.
Standing up, she stretched out, head aching from the sudden movement. Akito stood beside her, arrogant smirk plastered across his pretty face, hands fiddling with a necklace he stole. She recognized it as Prince Toya’s, the one that had recently been stolen. One of her captor’s must’ve had it on person, then. He never stole anything from him, surprisingly enough.
Waiting for the blood flow to return properly, she looked over Akito. Blood stained his hood and collar, some dripping off his cheeks. The lower half of his pants were practically drenched in that red liquid, though it wasn’t as apparent with the black color of them. His gun rested in his pocket, bulging out, and she noticed his eyes tracking hers, his gaze focused right on where she was staring.
“Alright, you good now?” He asked, eyes drifting from his gun to Mafuyu’s. Or more accurately, into Mafuyu’s.
“Yes,” she nodded, before picking up a sound. Eyes narrowing, she stared at the door.
Akito, picking up on the same noise, groaned. “Fuck. Got any ideas on a good outing?”
“I’ve been tied up against a chair.”
He glared at her for no more than a moment, and suddenly a bullet ran between them, Mafuyu leaning back to avoid it. Muttering another curse under his breath, Akito fished another gun out of another pocket– how he actually hid that one was beyond her– and tossed it into Mafuyu’s hands, aiming his own at the intruder. Technically, he was the intruder, but that was besides the point. Anything he deemed himself to have control over was his territory.
Quickly pulling into proper aim, she took a shot at one of the six guys, Akito stepping to the other side of the room. The bullet hit the man in his neck, a yelp escaping him, and she heard her partner hold back a chuckle. While she didn’t quite understand what was so funny about it, she couldn’t think too much yet, one of them in the back shouting at them to ‘get both of them’.
Both of them held their breath, before two more shots were taken, and then another at the already injured one from Mafuyu. Headshot. He fell onto the floor, blood spraying out and onto the ground.Two of the men backed up, fear creeping into their eyes. Another bullet was taken at them, one falling to the floor again.
“Hah? Did he not even try?” Akito coughed, and Mafuyu almost went to scold him for not paying attention, but then she was being shoved to the side by him as a bullet hit her former space. “You gotta try too, can’t just give you the princess treatment right now.” He shot at one of them again.
“It’s odd that there’s only six guys,” she murmured.
“Four now. And I know, but we should take advantage of it. They just know of us as the intruders, not our actual job,” he whispered back. “They’re probably thinkin’ we’re just gonna fall down after a few minor injuries are taken.”
“Maybe.”
“Hey, I have an idea,” he grinned, eyes darting to a vent in the corner.
“The vent’s too small to go through.”
“Say that louder. Not in your regular voice either, make sure they hear it.”
Ah. The captors, or whatever role they played, were obviously scared. He was just trying to distract them; they wasn’t worth wasting any ammo over.
“The vent’s too small to go through,” she repeated, exaggerating her voice until it was what most would classify as a regular speaking tone.
“Isn’t it worth tryin’? We’re almost outta ammo,” he replied, voice equally exaggerated. It wasn’t quite necessary when it came to his, though it at least helped support his lie.
As expected, one of the remaining people rushed forward to the vent, the other two unexpectedly running away. That probably wasn’t a good sign, however that had to be disregarded for now.
Grabbing Akito’s hand, Mafuyu sprinted out of the room, the former punching him directly in his face, enough force to knock him down. Reckless for sure, but it was effective. What would be more effective would be beating him to death, but they didn’t have the time for that.
Turning a corner, Akito took the lead, darting towards a much bigger vent. It was already unscrewed, and when Mafuyu realized, he winked.
“Do you have a new obsession with vents?”
“Haah? No, I’m just tryin’ to get us outta here! The hell makes you think I’m obsessed with vents?”
“Your distraction involved them, and your escape plan did as well.”
Glaring at her, he kicked open the vent, crawling into it. It was surprisingly large, enough so that you could move side to side. Not by much, though; it was still cramped, just as any other space like this was.
He moved forward a few feet, giving Mafuyu enough space to come in. Hesitantly, she crawled in, listening out for any signs of people coming.
“Continue,” she instructed.
“ Shit! ” Akito blurted out, falling down an opening. Eyes widening, Mafuyu peeked down at him, gripping the edge of the vent.
It was another room, one that didn’t appear to have any door. It looked to be a storage room, around the same size as the one Mafuyu was kept in, filled with shelves surrounding the perimeter that held unopened boxes. A folded up ladder laid against one of the wall’s empty spots, right on top of the vent’s door, convenient yet suspicious enough to raise an eyebrow. Akito stood in the middle, looking up at her.
Shouts that Mafuyu couldn’t make out any words of echoed from outside the vent, alongside someone clambering into it. Racing through her thoughts, she slid into the room, landing directly on Akito. Before he could let out a pained groan, she slipped her hand over his mouth, listening out, ignoring the glare she could feel against her.
The vent creaked again, and this time Akito could hear it. Shoving Mafuyu off of himself, he scrambled to the vent door before abruptly pausing. Glancing at Mafuyu and the vent, he furrowed his brow.
“Trap. Damn it,” he scoffed, keeping his voice as low as possible. “Not a good one, though. Were you able to see the corners of the room?”
“When I angled my head a bit, yes. It was easy to see the rest of it, though.”
“Cool. Which corner was the furthest?” He asked, voice clearly focused, tone a stark contrast from his usual.
“That one,” she stated, looking at the one furthest from the ladder. He grinned.
“They won’t be checkin’ there then, probably,” he explained, cocky grin turning smug.
As the sounds of crawling and creaking grew louder, Akito grabbed Mafuyu’s hand, pushing both of them against the corner, unintentionally or intentionally pinning Mafuyu against it with his hand only a few inches away from her, her face heating up at the closeness. The man peeked his head into the room, Mafuyu immediately recognizing it as one of the two that ran away earlier. She dragged Akito’s hand away from his pocket as a bitter frown was etched into his face, presumably realizing the same thing.
His head left the room, jumping over the hole and progressing down the vent. Exhaling in sync, Akito stepped away, though his hand didn’t leave its position for another moment. Without prompt, he grabbed the ladder, glancing at Mafuyu for help.
“Dumbasses,” he groaned after unfolding it. “Who the hell doesn’t look at th’other corner?”
“They’re just thinking lowly of us. As you said, it was a trap.”
“An obvious one,” he huffed. “We do need to get outta here soon though. If we’re late, we’re not gonna get the payment.”
“The prince is forgiving when it comes to deadlines. We both know that,” she said flatly, guiding the ladder to rest against the edge of the vent. “This isn’t our first time helping him.”
He choked out a laugh. “Remember, princess, you were the one who accepted it. This didn’t involve me.”
Climbing up the ladder, Akito jumped back into the vent, Mafuyu following as before. He seemed more confident, though, a path routed out in his brain. She ignored the back of her brain screaming at her about how suspicious that was, about how it looked like he had planned this out when he was far too impatient and reckless to do so, opting to follow him silently, to place all trust in him. He hadn’t let her down yet, and by now, she knew him well enough to fight back if he did.
Abruptly turning right, she watched as Akito slid into another room. Waiting for a prompt to follow, she glanced behind her, a vague, hazy feeling overcoming her. No one was following, which was good, but that wasn’t enough to shake it off. When Akito looked back up at her, eyes shifted into a near glare, she jumped into the room.
“This place isn’t that big. We should be near one of the exits, if they didn’t block it up,” he explained, pushing open the door. It was relieving, in a way, to have a proper exit.
“Have you been here before?” She replied, trying to drag sarcasm into her voice.
“Nah,” he shook his head, looking away. When Mafuyu stepped closer to him, though, a grin was plastered on his face. “You were only there for three or four days, right? I wouldn’t have had the time to do it myself,” he continued. “Needed to carry out one of our other missions anyways, the guy marked it as urgent, and we didn’t have enough to pay our bills.”
That… was true. Defensive, though.
“Come on. We need to get outta here.”
If Mafuyu had to guess, they’d been roaming around for about half an hour. Getting lost in absurdly long hallways, travelling through vents and Akito pulling her into random rooms at any sign of an incomer, she was starting to fully doubt that her partner knew what he was doing. It wasn’t as if she had any better of a clue though; starved for the past few days, she was out of element. What made that fact even worse was that Akito seemed in his own for once, reaching a peak that she was convinced didn’t exist.
Yet, it felt… warm to see him like that. It wasn’t anything she particularly wanted to delve into, as much as she wanted to re-tune herself with her emotions, as much as she sometimes wished to chase after that warmth. It was risky to feel like that around people, especially Akito, when either of them could easily die if a bullet hit the wrong spot. The warmth didn’t have any right coming from him.
Making a left turn, Mafuyu opened a tall wooden door. It opened with a loud creak, her wincing in response, turning to see if there were any signs that someone heard them. There was no one, and the space– or lack of– behind the door wasn’t enough to hold more than half a person.
“You’re fine,” Akito said flatly, fidgeting with something in his pocket. “If we can’t find the exit, we can just try shootin’ a hole through the wall or somethin’.”
“We would get caught. My gun doesn’t have enough ammo to be able to handle a horde of people. Also, are you sure you know where we’re going?”
“I already said I haven’t been here before,” he shook his head, “but you trust me, right?”
“I need to trust you.”
“How unromantic. Well, I’ve been wasting our time.”
“Hm?” Her hand unconsciously gripped her gun through her pocket.
He paused, exhaling, “Toya’s pretty nice, yeah? Offering us some back-ups in case we fuck up.” She nodded, expecting him to elaborate. He didn’t, nothing more than a small chuckle escaping him.
What served as elaboration was the sound of rumbling, promptly followed by crashing and crumbling, and the scurried sound of footsteps. A wall crashing down, if she had to guess. She cocked her head towards Akito, who just shrugged.
“You were planning something,” she noted.
“That’s… can we get out first before we talk ‘bout this? We have the ammo to shoot through any guys there, and I don’t wanna be here any longer. Shit’s dragging on.”
Before Mafuyu had a chance to respond, he began to sprint towards the sound, pulling her along by her hand. Scrambling to keep up, she pulled out her gun, keeping her grip tight in case anyone was near their newly made exit. Eyes focusing straight ahead, she pulled forward, exit coming into sight after a few more left and right turns. Akito’s grasp on her loosened— she couldn’t help but feel cold at that— fishing his gun out of his pocket when someone came into sight.
“Does it look like one of his knights?” He whispered, pausing before the man could see him. Six or seven men, now that they could see easily.
“No,” she answered, firing at one of them. Blood sprayed out as they collapsed to the floor pathetically, painting the white floor vibrant red. The rest of the people immediately, almost robotically, turned to look at them.
“Confident,” he snorted. “Wanna just run through and shoot ‘em if they get too close?”
“Yes. As you said, this is dragging on.”
Besides malnutrition and a few bullets to the chest and arms— not legs, because they were terrible at aiming, which made it embarrassing as all hell to get kidnapped but gave Akito so much material to tease Mafuyu with— they were fine. They had a few more days before they needed to inform Toya they completed the mission, and neither of them had the energy to discuss that with him. Rest was the only thing urgently needed, and that alone felt all funny. Resting wasn’t common, not in this era.
Sliding a plate across the kitchen counter, Mafuyu looked down at the contents. It was just bread and a small portion of scrambled eggs, the best they could afford. Akito pushed another plate over, one with a few different berries he plucked from outside after they escaped. She looked down at them.
“They’re fine,” Akito nodded, nudging it closer to her again. “Fruits are good. I’m not tryin’ to poison you.”
“I know they’re good, but how are you sure they’re not poisonous?”
“I was trained for it. Just eat some of the berries, I’m not havin’ you collapse right after we do a job.”
“Fine,” she sighed. After a pause, “Thank you.”
“Of course,” he smirked, eyes not leaving Mafuyu, “I wouldn’t just leave my partner to starve in there.”
Taking a bite out of the bread, taste completely bare, she remembered something.
“Can we talk about you planning it out now?” She asked, question leaning towards more of a statement. “We’re not gonna avoid that.”
“You were supposed to forget ‘bout that,” he huffed. “I’ll admit it though. I planned out some of it.”
“That’s a first.” Her tone was so flat that it forced a laugh-exhale out of him. “Why now though?”
“I just said why. I didn’t want you dyin’ in there. If anythin’, I would want me to be the one to deal the final blow to you.”
“That-”
“Sounds deranged, just realized that,” he interrupted. “Plan was barely thought out, hope you know that. I just took advantage of a couple things and hoped it’d work when I actually saved you.”
“Being the prince, I assume.”
“Yeah. Asshole’s always willing to help us.” An unnecessarily insult; she was more than aware Akito didn’t actually view him that way.
She took another bite out of the plain white bread, waiting for him to continue. He’d always say something mocking after incidents like these, whenever one of them got injured. She imagined it would be worse today, too, with the bandages wrapped around Akito that peeked out from his shirt and the whole kidnapping thing she went through. When she finished the bread, she cautiously ate one of the berries, flavor unfamiliar.
“You could pay me for saving you, if you’re gonna keep being so dry with me. You know, with a kiss or somethin’.” There it was.
“Akito,” she said, voice bordering into a warning.
“You know I’m joking, princess.”
Glaring at him, he raised his hands up in fake defeat. She stepped towards him, and as he took a step back in turn, she pulled him in by his rumpled collar, and messily pressed her lips against his. His eyes were wide open, startlement obvious, though a glint of something slipped into his eyes, and to that he kissed back. She wrapped her arms around his back, his hands roughly threading through her hair.
Pulling away for air, a sly grin placed itself on Akito’s face. Before he could try to tease her, she leaned back in, kissing him again. And again. And again. And again. And again.
“There. Your payment.”
“Didn’t expect you to actually do it,” he laughed. “Guess I’ve asked for it enough.” And he was kissed again, Mafuyu dragging him against the counter.
He choked on some sort of objection about her being in charge, and she lightly smiled at that. He wasn’t one to shut up, and how she made him do that spread warmth through her. Fondness ebbed and lapped against her heart, a risky spark she ignored. She gladly responded to it with another kiss.
Chasing after that warmth, she accepted this moment. A single break, a forgiving of all the both of them had done. Chasing after that warmth, she kissed him yet again.