Take a chance

Set after the Dream champ tournament, as I haven't finished Klonoa heroes yet.

Gantz walked through the town, feeling quite pleased with himself. His pockets were weighed down with dreamstones from his latest bounty. Several people he passed gave him an odd glance, but said nothing. They apparently had more sense than to anger someone carrying several different types of fire-arms. His lips formed into a cruel smirk as he watched people jump out of his way. Though it was the money he worked for, it was certainly the respect that he lived for.

He took this job mainly to keep his mind off of the dream champion tournament. Losing to the dream-traveller had been a large blow to his confidence. Klonoa had successfully invaded his every thought for the past week, constantly taunting him at the back of his mind.

This was not the main problem he had with Klonoa. He found himself irritatingly attracted to him, wanting to talk to him, just to be with him. Is this what friendship is? The thought made Gantz shudder. Bounty hunters needed no-one. Gantz had never had to rely on anyone else, and he wasn't going to start now. The sound of dreamstones clinking together calmed him and drove such unpleasant thoughts from his mind. He was concentrating so hard on said sound, he didn't hear footsteps following him, and didn't notice their owner till a hand was laid on his shoulder.

Gantz whipped round faster than one would think was humanly possible, two handguns drawn and the barrels touching their recipients head. People began running in random directions, not wanting to be close if gunfire started. Gantz turned his attention to the person in front of him.

"Jeez Gantz, what's got you so highly strung?" Gantz recognised the voice instantly. Surely enough, when he looked over his guns barrel, he saw a nervous looking cat with abnormally proportioned ears.

"What do you want?" Came the reply, devoid of any obvious emotion. Inside though, his mind fought between giving in and accepting this 'friendship', and filling him with bullets.

"Erm…" he eyed the gun still placed against his forehead "would you mind putting the guns down?" He stopped trembling as the gun was taken from its current position and placed instead in its holster.

"You're avoiding my question. What is it you want?"

"Well… seeing as we're friends now…" He was obviously terrified by Gantz, but pressed on "I think we should… you know, spend some time together?"

For a moment, Gantz didn't react. He then shot him a look that chilled Klonoa to the bone. While he stood shuffling his feet, Gantz thought it over. He didn't want anything to do with it, but this weird feeling that had been attacking him for the past week started to tie his stomach up in knots. He couldn't take it much longer, and surrender looked like a welcome option to him. In the end, he was still intrigued by it, and he wanted to see what it meant. What harm could it do right?

After what seemed like an age, he responded. "Yeah, okay." At this, Klonoa stopped cowering and a warm smile spread across his face.

"That's great Gantz! We're going to have so much fun!"

The pair walked along beside each other, with a few foot gap separating them. Every so often, Klonoa would try and shorten the gap, which was met with a death-glare for his trouble. Finally, having had enough of the silence, he spoke up.

"Where are we going Gantz?" He turned to his 'companion', who merely grunted and kept walking. This made him lower his head disappointedly and fixed his eyes on his feet.

The taller of the pair glanced sideways. Seeing the other looking downtrodden sent a pang of guilt through him. For someone who is an integral part of the underworld, someone who had held small children at gun-point and made them beg for their lives, this came as more than a bit of a shock. "I must be going soft…" He muttered, disgusted with himself. Keeping his eyes facing forward, as not to show TOO much sympathy, he decided to enlighten the other. "If you must know, I'm taking you out to eat, now shut your mouth, we're almost there."

To most, this would be considered insulting to say the least. But for someone who knew Gantz, this is treatment unknown to anyone else. Klonoa instantly raised his head adoringly to look at the wolf. Though most couldn't see it, he could tell that Gantz cared about him. He reached out in an attempt to grasp the others hand, but he noticed that it was clasped firmly around his fathers gun. He decided to do the sensible thing and retract his own before it was too late.

Before long, the pair had reached a large steakhouse. Ever the gentleman, Klonoa decided to open the door for Gantz, who hardly noticed as he pushed him out of the way and went in.

"Good morning Sirs." A waiter near the entrance looked down at his book as he talked. "Do you have a reservation?" Gantz sighed and walked over to him. Upon hearing the click of a pistol being loaded, the waiter looked up and saw who he was talking to. "Oh, I'm so sorry Sir, please, right this way!" He hurriedly muttered whilst be bowed his head apologetically. He rushed them to a table near the back whilst still apologizing. Klonoa noticed Gantz was getting a kick out of watching the waiter suffer.

"Man, Gantz really has some issues..." Klonoa sat down at the table for two, and began reading the menu. Gantz didn't bother; he just stared at the waiter and asked for 'the usual'. Klonoa just shrugged and asked for his stake done medium.

Klonoa was glad it was before noon; otherwise the place would be packed. The few people who were in there though couldn't help but stare at the two. Gantz locked gazes with them and they hastily returned to eating, rushing to leave quickly.

"So… Gantz…" Klonoa began, trying to break the awkward silence "What have you been doing in the past week?"

"Nothing new," he began, checking the bullets in his guns, "hunting, killing, looting..." He said it all casually as if it was nothing serious. "You?"

"Err... just exploring the town, you know, getting a feel for the place." After that, Klonoa didn't feel too keen on conversation. That seemed to suit Gantz fine. They both ate their meals, Gantz's turning out to be a pound of bloody ox meat.

When it came to paying for the meal, Gantz paid in blue dream stones, more than covering for the cost of the meal. This was quite unexpected, Klonoa had been mentally preparing for running out on the bill, which he assumed they would be doing. Gantz didn't seem like the law abiding type, and Klonoa certainly didn't feel up to questioning his judgement.The waiter thanked Gantz for his generosity, but was undoubtedly eager to get rid of the two before the rush of customers came.

The two walked out of the restaurant, stuffed. Klonoa decided he would try speaking up again. "That was a lovely meal Gantz, thank you!" Gantz shrugged it off, not seeing it as such a big deal. He had many riches in many safety deposit boxes, paying for a meal meant nothing really. But to Klonoa it meant the world. It was a sign of another friendship, and though he didn't know why, this one seemed more important than all the others.

"Whatever, I guess we are 'friends' now, right?" It was an odd remark, coming from him. He had no real grasp of the concept of 'friendship', but the idea of spending more time with the cabbit was somewhat appealing. Damned if he knew why though.

"You mean it? We're friends now?" Klonoa had to ask, they idea was just so ludicrous. Gantz wanting to be his friend. If someone had asked him yesterday, he would have said it was impossible. But now, here was the evidence! Forgetting the unspoken rule about personal space, he leapt forwards and wrapped his arms tightly around Gantz. "I'm so glad that you said that!" He buried his head in the soft fur of Gantz's neck and let out a contented sigh.

Gantz's first instinct was to push the other off of him, but found that he enjoyed feeling the warmth of the others body on him. Awkwardly, he placed an arm around Klonoa, giving him a half-hearted hug back.

'I guess this isn't so bad' he allowed himself to relax slightly, before trying to remember what he knew about friendship. He had seen people embrace like this many a time, and usually afterwards they would... 'He can't want me to do that, can he?' Gantz cringed in disgust. 'That's revolting! Why would anyone want something like that?' He thought about it a little more, starting to accept the idea. 'Well, I suppose this whole friendship thing IS better that I had expected, just once wouldn't hurt...'

Klonoa had no idea how much time had passed, but felt that he could stay there all day. Gantz's fur was so soft and inviting... This was cut short when he felt fingers cup his chin. 'Great, now I'm in trouble.' He thought to himself as his face was lifted up so he was staring at Gantz. All of a sudden, the hunter turned his head slightly to the side and leaned towards Klonoa, mouth slightly open.

Their lips brushed, and Gantz slid his tongue into Klonoa's mouth. He was too shocked to respond as the tongue ran itself down the middle of his own before they broke apart.

Klonoa stared up at Gantz in shock, a blush settling across his cheeks. He wasn't sure why Gantz had done that, but he had liked it a lot. Gantz found it strange, but also came to the conclusion that he had enjoyed it, when a voice interrupted them.

"What the hell are you two doing?"