My First Roadtrip
Summary: Lupin and Jigen friendship story, based on events that may or may not have taken place in Lupin III: Episode 0 "First Contact".
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: ©, Monkey Punch.
Chapter Name: First Impressions
Other Notes: For those who haven't seen First Contact, a quick overview of it's plot: the tale of the Gang's first meetings of each other, but quite possibly just a bunch of cleverly spun B.S. by Lupin himself. This story assumes it actually happened. All you really need to know is that it takes places in New York, and by the end of the movie they all went their separate ways 'cept for Lupin and Jigen. I highly recommend First Contact to any Lupin fan that hasn't seen it. It's amazing.
When Lupin first encountered Jigen Daisuke, he thought of him only as a rather difficult obstacle, one standing in between him and what he wanted. It kept him from thinking of Jigen as an actual person. Jigen Daisuke played a dangerous game and he was far too skilled to be safely or easily incapacitated. It would have been a shame to have to kill him. Even though the few times they had actually come across one another had always ended with them shooting at each other, Lupin found he liked this Jigen Daisuke.
Jigen was... exceptional.
And Lupin liked exceptional things, be it objects or people.
Lupin himself was exceptional (and ever so modest too!), and it was extremely rare for him to come across someone who was as good as what they did as Lupin was good at what he did. And for the first time perhaps ever, Lupin wanted a partner, as long as that partner was Jigen Daisuke.
Too bad he had to come packaged in a grumpy American, despite his distinctly Japanese name.
He'd have to remember to ask him about that...
---
Arsene Lupin III had been right about him – he wouldn't have survived much longer.
...And that's all Jigen was going to say about that.
