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The Batchelors tumble out of their broken, beat-up car, its engine spluttering as it comes to a halt in the middle of the underground sewers. The engine was completely out. They had to continue running away on foot. Exhausted after a long, grueling car chase with the cops, they trudge away from the car as their leader, the notorious Luca Santos, fires comms into the receiver.
"Where the hell are you guys?! We're at sewers! Sewers! Underneath Alta street!" He reaches into his pocket and rips a packet open–what they called blue candy–hastily putting it all into his mouth. "Just please come and get us, the cops are still on our tail, hurry."
Shu pops the candy too, and he feels his limbs gain strength out of nowhere. He runs, not even pausing to look back or to take a breather.
He doesn't know how long they were running for until they finally escape into one of the narrower and less conspicuous paths in the sewers. Feeling the effects of the blue candy running out, he decides to slow down, stopping in front of Luca, who was standing alert and looking around just in case the cops actually managed to tail them. Behind them was Jimmy, who almost doesn't stop running on time before headbutting a stack of crates.
"Ack, almost couldn't hit the brakes there!" Jimmy steadies himself before plopping himself onto a crate. "Jesus man, the cops were on us for so long. It's no wonder the engine died."
"Yeah, they were literally ramming the whole time," Shu agrees, handing Jimmy a Neko Latte to help him calm down and refuel.
He looks over again at Luca, his boss. He's been quiet for some time. He can tell he isn't happy about the situation they were in; his boss preferred clean getaways, where they weren't waiting on other people as an escape plan. Luckily, Yukyun escaped the car earlier with all the goods, so all they were doing now was evading arrest. Still, they couldn't take their chances; in Los Santos, time is more valuable than money. The world could literally end tomorrow; they needed to make their name, and fast.
Luca sighs loudly, finally turning to his two gang members. "Listen, we might be safe for now, but they might still find us here. They know we're in sewers, so it won't be long till they figure out where we went. I'd really like not to be arrested, y'know. It's just a waste of time."
"Roger that," Shu says. "It's okay, boss. We'll be fine. Sonny is on his way."
With the reassurance, Luca finally loosens up. "I'd hope so." He removes his mask to wipe his sweat, and Shu and Jimmy follow suit.
Under his threatening black mask, his boss looked visibly agitated. They rarely get to see this side of him. Shu knows it's because he keeps himself composed even in the most difficult situations, so that his gang members always have the confidence to rely on him no matter what. In the 11 days he's known him, he believes he truly picked the right guy to follow–well, more like Luca chose him to join on day one, but, y'know. He still wonders why Luca chose him so suddenly when he was just riding in his taxi.
-
Moments pass with Luca occasionally speaking into the radio with the other boys. It seems they were finally able to pinpoint an entrance they could meet up at. Shu stands from the crate he was resting on, getting his GPS ready to leave.
All of a sudden, they hear loud voices from one of the tunnels.
"Their car broke down just behind us, they probably went this way!" The unmistakable voice of Officer Omi booms into his megaphone, echoing into the vast concrete of the sewer paths. Soon they hear the sound of a lot of footsteps running, getting closer and closer. Shu darted his eyes to Luca, who was already looking at him.
"We're fricked."
"Go, go, go!" Luca whisper-shouts before putting his mask back on, and the three of them take off running in the opposite direction of the voices.
Shu almost drops his radio trying to put the fox mask back on his head, but clear comms come first. "The cops are here, they might've heard us, we are running on foot, away from them, and we're gonna have to find another exit to rendezvous."
Raccoon-head Jimmy reaches into his pockets. "Crap, I'm out of candy! What do I do?!" He throws his arms up in despair.
"Take this," Luca throws his last packet behind him, Jimmy barely managing to catch it mid-air.
"What're you gonna do, Luca?!"
"I'll be fine. You two, let's split up, okay? They're right behind us, we have to lose them. Got it?"
Shu and Jimmy nod, and the three of them separate at a crossroads. Shu pops his last blue candy and books it, his footsteps echoing through the cement, taking him across the long and intersecting underground pathways. Before long, he finds a good spot to hide at–a dark, narrow alley by the wall that conceals him from view. He puts his back up to the wall and waits, his heart pounding in his chest, looking out and listening for the cops.
To his dismay, he hears noises approaching his direction.
He readies his gun.
-
"Freeze!!! You are under arrest!" Omi screams, barely keeping up with the black-masked criminal in front of him, almost tripping on his own feet. But the black-masked criminal persists, effortlessly hopping over crates and turning corners, desperate to create distance between himself and his pursuer.
Luca is thinking about what he should do in this situation right now. He could make Officer Omi follow him all the way back to the surface and into the fricking Cat cafe, and he could get changed and pretend to have been working there the entire time. But that's a really dumb idea. No way they would fall for that, right? Hell nah.
In the meantime, he picks up some boxes and throws them behind him, and he hears Omi shriek in surprise as the boxes hit his face. That buys him only an additional 10 seconds. He can not keep running forever. He needed a plan C, stat.
He swiftly turns a right and a left, using the same tactics as his usual above-ground car chases, with Omi's voice slowly fading away in the distance. His eyes dart all over the area, searching for somewhere to hide. He looks up, and in the distance, he sees some fox ears peeking out of a narrow alley.
It's Shu.
He hops over some broken cobble and beelines for the alley, only to be stopped in his tracks by a gun pointed right at his forehead.
He puts his hands up. "It's me, it's me, Mr. Fox." Fox immediately puts down his gun and makes way for Luca to enter the alleyway. It was so narrow they barely fit together, with Fox having to press himself flush against the wall.
Shu takes off his mask and whispers. "Is there anyone chasing you?"
Luca removes his mask, throwing it away. "Omi was right at my tail, Shu. If he turns the corner, we are fricking fricked.”
Shu flinches, and it was then when he realized he'd been whispering right into Shu's ear.
“Listen, Shu, I have a plan, okay? And I'm gonna need you to just.. just go along with it, okay, Shu?"
He looks Shu in the eye, and he sees his eyes widen and his expression become serious. Luca could always trust and rely on him. He knew that no matter what he'd ask of him, he would always have his back.
"Yeah, of course," he nods. “What is it?”
Luca Santos closes his eyes, leans in, and puts his lips to Shu's.
-
This was his plan?!
They hear Omi turn the corner, yelling, and Luca leans deeper into the kiss, putting his hand on Shu's waist, his other hand reaching up to cup his face. Shu's eyes are wide open, aghast, before his brain spurs back into action, tilting his face to give his boss a better angle, and to better sell this act to the poor policeman who is about to discover them making out inside the sewers.
This was what he thought would get them off Omi's trail??!!
Luca moves his hand lower, gently trailing the outline of Shu's body, until it comes to a rest at his thigh–he hoists him up so Shu's leg is raised, slotting their bodies even closer together. Shu retaliates by reaching up and grabbing his hair.
“Mmph,” Luca lets out an unexpected sound. Taking the feedback, Shu continues running his hands through his dyed blonde locks. His hair was surprisingly soft. His kisses, however, had urgency to them, and were a little clumsy. Luca's other hand moves from his face to the small of Shu's back, supporting the position they were in.
What a gentleman.
Shu opened his mouth, deepening the kiss, and he briefly opened his eyes. Luca's face was so red. He was blushing with his eyes shut tightly closed. You would think he'd never done this before, or that he'd only seen it in the movies, with the way he's reacting to the kiss.
"Freeze!!! Put your hands up in the air– Luca? Luca Santos?!"
They break apart from the kiss with a loud smack. The drool trailing down their lips is a paid actor. Shu looks up at Luca again, but this time his demeanor has completely changed – he's looking down at the officer with the most irritated scowl on his face.
"Can't you see we're busy here?"
"I– I'm sorry!! I'm so sorry! It's just, I was just chasing some criminals down here, have you seen–"
"No. Please leave us alone, immediately." He makes eye contact with Shu before he starts necking at him, which startles him, but Shu quickly adapts – he cranes his neck, allowing his boss access to more of his skin, and deliberately looks Officer Omi in the eye as Luca bites and kisses at his neck. Shu lets out a few gasps here and there.
"Alright, I- I- get it!!! I'll go!!! Once again, I'm so, so sorry!!!" Omi almost stumbles on his own feet, trying to get away as fast as possible.
He can’t lie–it felt good. Luca was actually pretty good at this. Considering it was just an act they were putting on, he somehow knows which spots to hit and how to make him feel nice. Once Omi was a considerable distance away, Shu made a point to moan really loudly for dramatic effect.
And then he was gone.
"What– What the hell was that, Shu!" Luca laughs out loud, pushing Shu away from him, his back hitting the concrete.
"For dramatic effect, zad." Shu smiles. He looked up at his boss, who was looking at him with an amused look on his face. His face was still red, and he was breathing heavily. Shu reaches up and fixes his hair. "Sorry about that."
"No, no, I'm sorry for putting you through that. Uh," Luca uses his thumb to wipe the drool off Shu's lips. His touch lingers for a single moment. "At least we, uh, got away now. Yeah."
Shu tries his best to stay calm. “You think that convinced him?”
“I mean, I guess,” Luca laughs. “I’ve never kissed anyone like that, zad.”
“You’re joking.”
“No, really. I didn’t know what to do. So I thought I’d do it like in the movies.” He was smiling sheepishly.
I knew it.
“Well, then I guess it was absolute cinema,” Shu replies. “That, um…that felt nice.”
“Really? Did you like it?” He practically sees Luca’s tail wagging. The difference between the Luca he sees right now and the Luca Santos the world knows is driving him insane. Since when was his mafia boss this cute? Shu opens his mouth to ask him that when–
“Zad check, where are you guys at? We picked up Jimmy at the freeway,” Sonny’s voice rasps through their radios, snapping them out of the trance they were in.
“We- we’re coming,” Luca steps out of the alley and starts running. “Let’s go, Shu.”
Shu is right behind him. Up until this point, Shu thought that nothing could break his boss’s composure. He grins to himself, feeling a little pride about being the exception.
After all, he was the First Zadling, was he not?
-
They pile into Sonny’s getaway car, almost collapsing from exhaustion in the back seat next to Jimmy.
“What took you two so long, man?” Sonny shifts into 5th gear, and the car revs into full speed down the highway.
“Yeah, we were waiting for ages!” Saynah grabs some food from the glove box and hands it to the back seat. “Serpico interrogated us but we swore we were upstanding citizens and not waiting around to pick up some criminals. Nuh-uh.” Shu gulps down an entire Neko Latte.
“I ran out of blue so Omi was chasing me for so long,” Luca groans, chowing down on an Omurice. “I was down there turning corners like it was Temple Run.”
The group laughs and settles into a comfortable silence as the sound of the car’s whirring keeps them company. They were almost back at the Casa when Jimmy turned to take a good look at his two gangmates next to him.
“Hey, uh, Shu?”
“Yeah?”
“...What’s that bruise on your neck?”
Saynah spits out his water.