Cruel Twist of Fate
Pairing: Ivan Braginski / Wang Yao (Russia/China)
Summary:
Yao is a Chinese Emperor's son who has always thought how his life was such a curse, while Ivan is a Russian spy and assassin hired to take people's lives. They meet and become acquainted in a way that would make them have to choose between fulfilling their duties and leaving everything behind just to be able to remove that big tangle in their lives' cruelly twisted fate…
(Some supporting characters' names and settings invented)
Introduction.
Ivan thought how perfect the weather, and everything else, was for today, as he stared at the gray autumn sky above him, as he glanced at the red and yellow and brown and orange and yellow-green plants and trees around him, as closed his eyes for a second and breathed in that cold afternoon air, and as he stared at the unfortunate man below him who was holding on to the rocky cliff Ivan was standing on, not letting go despite his wounded hands that Ivan has been stepping on for minutes now, or despite knowing that there was a bomb tied around his torso and he couldn't remove it and Ivan could push its detonator anytime.
The sight of his pitiful target made Ivan grin. This man was his twelfth target this month and he was just so amazed how fast the money in his bank account increased more and more every time he was finished with a man he was hired to kill. This was his career as of the moment, and he would not complain even just a bit, for the very reason that he really liked this job. He really liked killing this sort of people— the corrupt ones, and he never argued with his clients because, so far, all of his clients had the same way of thinking as he does especially about other people. One less corrupt person in this world, Ivan thought as he stepped harder on the other man's hand, just like when trying to kill an irritating cockroach. Afterwards, he eventually kicked off the limp hands from the rocks and he watched the man fall, fall for so long in that very, very high cliff near the Trans-Siberian Railway and he pushed the detonator just seconds before the man's landing on the rocky ground. Ivan thought that the man should thank him for not letting him reach the ground and instead instantly blowing him to pieces without him feeling it. Oh well, whatever happened to him, he was dead anyway. And Ivan just used that explosive so no one would be getting any evidence. There wouldn't be a whole body, and the pieces would be eaten by wild animals, and even if someone would find some debris of the explosive, they'd simply think it was used for illegal hunting or whatnot since it did happen all the time everywhere and in this place too.
Ivan stared below him for a few seconds before putting the small detonator in his coat's pocket and waving a hand as a last goodbye. He turned around and started walking back to his car at the bottom of this mountain…
It has already been a week. Ivan was now standing in the center of a private office of his next client's manor, surrounded by big gunned men with tattoos and leather jackets and shaved heads and mouths with lit cigarettes. Gangsters. Ivan shrugged inwardly and just flashed a cheerful smile at every person with him in the room, including the man sitting on a high-back chair behind the office desk in front of him, the one who was supposed to be his client. The man smiled back as he started, "You probably know already the reason why you're here."
"Da, of course," replied Ivan, the smile not leaving his face. "Lay it on me."
The client chuckled humorlessly before holding his hands together on the desk. He explained, "I doubt you know of this place, but there is a small kingdom in China called the Dy Kingdom near the Altay Mountains. The emperor there is called Wang Yun, and he is known to have many enemies because of his family's properties all around the world. Too bad for him, one of those 'properties' he was trying to own is mine."
Hearing this made Ivan's smile turn into a grin. He thought that this one might be fun. "You want me to kill an emperor?"
"No," said the client, to Ivan's displeasure. But the client added, "He's trying to take one of my properties. So I'll take one of his— his most precious one."
"Oh," Ivan muttered plainly. "And this property is? Do I get to kill someone?"
"Of course! That's what you're hired for!" answered the client with an almost inaudible chuckle. "This property I'm talking about, Mr. Braginski, is his one and only son and heir to his throne."
"I'm going to kill this emperor's son for what reason again?" Ivan suddenly asked. Actually he was a bit lost of this client's purpose. It wasn't quite clear.
"Payback, Braginski! Just a bit of payback. Don't worry. I'll let you enjoy and do your stuff as long as you get the job done. Of course, if not, then it's goodbye to you. Deal?"
"Oh," Ivan chuckled. "Name your price."
...
Yao held tightly on the parapet of his bedroom's balcony while he looked at the setting sun, while he pursed his lips, and while he thought through another problem he was facing and how he could get out of it. This problem has been bugging him for the entire day now, and he felt so helpless and so cornered and so strangled at his position at the moment and he kept on asking himself why in the world his life was always being targeted by people who hated his father. He was not at fault of anything, not even of being born an emperor's son. So why was he the one in danger for his father's matters? And all the time at that!
He sighed. These kinds of things happen all the time anyway so what the heck!? Yao entered his room as the darkness finally engulfed the last of the sun's light, and when he opened the door to the hallway, he was surprised, in a nice way, to see his older half-brother Kiku standing there about to knock.
"Kiku?" Yao muttered as he gave way and gestured for his brother to enter. "What are you doing here? Come in."
"Thank you," Kiku replied as he did what he was told. Once they were both inside and Yao has sat down, he also sat on a couch near the balcony door, the one beside the couch Yao was sitting on.
"So what are you doing here?" Yao asked again. "It's unusual for you to visit me here in my room."
"It is, isn't it?" was Kiku's answer. "I'm sorry if you feel like I'm neglecting you."
"Oh no! No," Yao panicked. Sometimes, he thought this pessimism of his brother was just too much, Kiku was torturing himself. Of course that wasn't how Yao felt. He was actually pretty happy his older brother was still able to show him that he still existed as a person and not as the emperor's dummy even though the former was really busy with different matters about the kingdom. Couldn't Kiku see that Yao was smiling at the moment? Or does he not realize that that smile was because of him? "Kiku, 'neglect' is the opposite of how you've treated me all this time."
"Really?" Kiku sighed. "But the fact that… No, I won't talk about what happened this morning. Instead, I just want to know if you're all right."
"Yes, I'm fine" Yao replied, his smile slowly fading away. "But I'm still asking myself, Kiku. Why am I being targeted by my father's haters?"
Kiku shook his head slowly, as if saying, oh dear, oh dear. Afterwards, he said aloud, "You have to understand, Yao. This situation we're in right now is somewhat like… a game. Everyone's a player and each one has their own roles. Your father is everyone's target; everyone has different reasons why. In this game, it's all about saving what's yours and taking those of your enemies, and the enemies that lost something will try to take one from the person who took something from them. And the emperor has taken a lot from so many people… And those people know that you are his most important possession, making you their number one target… And that is why I'm here. I'm here to keep you safe, Yao."
"Kiku, you don't have to keep me safe," Yao said, his eyes now looked like they were pleading, and he had to wonder because he did not know why he was pleading in the first place. Probably it was because Kiku was very affected of these things and he wanted Kiku to stop being very affected. "I can protect myself just fine. And if I die, then I die and my father loses his most prized possession."
"Stop that! You can't think like that, Yao!"
"I already am," said Yao. "There's nothing good in my life. I envy you Kiku, because you have a different father and your father isn't a dangerous one and he's so kind and he even likes me even though I'm his wife's son with a different man."
"Yao, stop it—"
"He's so unlike the emperor who hates you and made you my servant and has so many enemies who want to kill me."
Kiku was speechless. For a moment or two, he just stared at his younger brother with his eyes wide and his lips a bit parted. Yao knew, as he saw that reaction, that Kiku knew and could not deny that he was right and Kiku would not be able to put up something against that. This isn't being pessimistic, Yao thought as he stared back. I'm being real, Kiku. "We have to accept the fact that I'm going to get killed sooner or later."
"No." Kiku shook his head, determined of something this time. "I'm going to bust you out of this wretched life. You'll see."
To be continued…
