by Kira
Had the Get Backers not been experiencing one of their most disastrous business slumps in months, Ban would have never agreed to their latest retrieval request. The fact that they had not eaten in three days held some sway in his reluctant decision as well, and though Natsumi and Hevn teased him, the sad, pleading puppy eyes Ginji had turned on him when the request had come in had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Or so he claimed.
The request came from a little girl, no more than seven or eight years old. Her older brother brought her into the cafe, looking harried and tired, and holding the hand of the sniffling, red-eyed girl. Never one to cope well with the small people, and knowing for a fact they rarely carried anything greater than pocket change, Ban didn't think much of them. It was Ginji who took the request, and Ginji that got them into the mess.
The girl, who shyly introduced herself as Haruka, had lost something she claimed to be the most important thing in the world (after Mama and Papa, she quickly amended, with a hushed 'and sometimes Oniichan, too' following). Her brother explained he had been up all night plastering flyers all around their neighborhood when he had found one of Ban's advertisements plastered up on a telephone pole.
"What did you lose?" Ginji asked.
The brother jerked a thumb at his sister. "Her dumb pet rat."
Natsumi noticed a slight change in demeanor from Ban; he seemed to be listening more carefully to the brother and sister now, but it was not interest he was showing. There was a wary look on his face. When he caught Natsumi peering curiously at him, he quickly glanced away, pushing up his sunglasses to hide his eyes.
"He's not dumb!" Haruka exclaimed.
Her brother sighed, but did not take back what he said. Ginji smiled.
"Don't worry. We can get back anything, even pet rats."
"Really?" The girl's lit up hopefully, and Ban knew then there was no way in Hell he could back out of this one. Not because the hope he saw gleaming there meant anything to him. Hardly that, he thought with a contemptuous snort, even if the little girl was cute, and he did feel at least slightly bad for the loss of her pet. It was more that Ginji would never let him get away with it.
So that was how the Get Backers found themselves mucking through lower Shinjuku, searching dark alley ways, garbage cans, and under cars for one pet rat.
"His name is Chester," Haruka told them as they walked out of the cafe. Her brother was seated at the bar, munching on a pizza Paul had given them. "And he's sorta dark brownish but when he's in the light he looks a lot brighter. And he has one crooked whisker."
Ban never doubted the (nearly) one hundred percent success rate of the Get Backers, but searching for one rat in a city infested with them seemed like rather dismal odds to him. Ginji was more optimistic than his partner -- he always was -- something Ban could usually admire in him. As the day wore on and the sun began to disappear behind dark storm clouds, however, he was ready to give it up.
It was only a rat, anyway.
"But we have to find it," Ginji insisted, thinking of the sad, hopeless expression on Haruka's face when she stepped into the cafe. "One hundred percent success rate, remember?"
"Almost," Ban muttered.
"I'll look alone if you want to go back."
That, unfortunately, was something Ban could not do. There was a reason why they were called the Get Backers... even when Ginji decided to become the friend of little girls with lost pets and the savior of missing rats.
It was nearing dusk when they found the rat named Chester, dark brown fur glistening in the light of a street lamp, one crooked whisker, and a pink nose wiggling up at them curiously. There was only two problems. One being that the rat had somehow sustained a broken leg during his cheerful romp through the city. And secondly, Midou Ban was terrified of rodents.
Ban kept his distance, gnawing hard on a cigarette and fingers jittering in his pockets, while Ginji knelt beside the rat. He had no idea what to do with an animal with a broken leg, especially an animal of the rat's small size and distrustful demeanor. But he had found when there was something he did not know how to do or understand, Ban-chan usually knew in his place.
"Hey Ban-chan, d'ya think you can help him out?"
Ban glanced at him sharply. "What?"
"It's hurt. I dunno what to do with broken rat legs."
"What makes you think I know?" He was beginning to edge subtly away.
Ginji blinked. "Well, can you at least pick him up? I don't want to hurt him more."
"You're better with animals than me," Ban said quickly.
"Yeah, but..." Ginji paused, and inwardly, Ban cursed. Sometimes he forgot how scarily observant his partner could be. "Ban-chan," he began slowly, "... are you afraid of rats?"
"I'm not afraid," Ban snapped, but the response was too quick and too forced to slip by Ginji. Suddenly a slow, knowing grin was spreading across his partner's face. Carefully, he scooped up the rat in his hands and moved slowly toward Ban.
"You're really scared of this?" he asked, and held up the rat toward Ban. Ban let out something like a growl and indignant snort at the same time, and stood still a moment, blue eyes glaring down into small, beady black ones. The rat wiggled its nose at him, and in an action uncharacteristic of Midou Ban, who had stared into the eyes of murderers and come out victorious, he jumped away from the creature.
"Dammit, Ginji, don't shove that in my face!"
"It's just a rat," Ginji replied, but he did as he was told and held the rodent away from Ban. "One with a broken leg, too. It can't hurt you."
"It's not it hurting me that freaks me out," Ban muttered. "Those things're diseased."
"Not domestic ones," Ginji said matter-of-factly, sounding pleased to finally found something he could counter Ban on. Cradling the rat in his arms, he started down the alley, leaving Ban with no choice but to follow him... at a very safe distance away, that was.
"We should take it to the vet."
"Do whatever you want with it," Ban said, and then in a low mutter added, "Just don't get it near me."
There was able to find a vet with minimal amount of trouble, a quick look in the yellow pages found them exactly what they needed. It was getting there before the place closed that was the problem, and though they rushed, they were barely able to squeeze through the doors at closing time. The nurse on duty took pity on them (Ban figured it had something to do with those disgusting puppy eyes of Ginji's) and brought the rat to the doctor. Ban chose -- stubbornly -- to stay in the waiting room while Ginji went with the nurse to see Chester the rat patched up.
Even when the rat was dressed in a make-shift cast and put in a temporary carrying cage for the trip back to the cafe, Ban still walked a good two yards behind his partner. It took a valiant effort on part of Ginji to not burst out laughing at him.
Haruka's older brother paid them for their trouble with as much money as he could muster -- which, Ban was disappointed to see, was barely enough to buy even three cups of coffee. But for Ginji, it was enough to see the sad, heartbroken expression disappear from Haruka's eyes when he handed the caged rat to her and her face light up in a smile.
The lollipops she gave him helped, too.
Waving to the little girl and her brother as they walked down the street, Haruka holding her brother's hand in one of her own and carrying the rat's cage in the other, Ginji glanced at his partner and grinned.
"Ban-chan--"
"If you tell anybody I'm scared of rats, I'll beat the crap out of you."
Ginji continued to grin. "Okay, I promise not to tell anyone."
"Damn straight."
"But Ban-chan."
"What?"
"... really, rats?"
"... shut up."