Dirt on My Shoes
Rated: T for Violence and Language
Disclaimer: Me no own.
Note: This takes in AU Japan, like around the 1930s-40ish, so no cell phones or high tech stuff here.
"An...An wake up, you'll be late for school. Don't you have morning classes today?"
An stirred in her sleep, her eyelids, heavy and refusing to budge, "What? Classes?" she groaned, rubbing her eyes before she froze.
"Brother? Is that you?" Open your eyes An, open your eyes! She willed herself to, but she didn't find the strength to do so.
"An, wake up. How long are you planning on lying around?" It was her brother, no doubt about it.
"Kippei, wait...don't leave me...don't leave me again..."her voice cracked as she reached out trying to grab at him, yet not knowing if she could even reach him. "Don't go...please..."
"What are saying An?" he chuckled, "I'm right here, I won't leave you. Not like that man. We're family, I'll always be here." She felt a brush against her cheek, and she could feel tears escape as choked back a sob.
"Wake up now An, open your eyes."
"Brother..."
"Wake up. Hey!" An felt her whole body jolt as somebody roughly shoved at her side.
"God, this woman sleeps like the dead..." That voice...An had heard that voice somewhere before. She decided to keep her eyes closed, trying to remember what happened and where she was. Her mind could only draw a blank, as pieces of her memory of being chased by Hyotei gang members was all she could remember.
"You probably made her brain dead, you hit her pretty hard back there Kirihara..."
"Yeah, we'll she wasn't going to willingly follow us, and Sanada-san was getting impatient. Can't disobey orders now can I?" An's eyes immediately opened, and quickly she sat up from her lying position.
"You should have listened to what you were told."
"You...you...!" An's eyes scanned for the culprit, but was unable to identify who it was, since there was not actually just two men in the room, but four.
One man, was standing next to her bedside (Why am I on a bed? She shuddered), he had bleached white hair, some of his hair had been pulled into a short ponytail at the base of his neck. The man eyed her, slightly amused, "Well, well, looks like Sleeping Beauty has awakened. Aw, and we didn't even get a chance to land a smooch on her yet...Kirihara, you were too slow."
She spluttered at his words...and so did the person sitting on the bed, his hand on her shoulder.
"What...? Niou-san, what the hell are you saying!" The man sitting by her side was clearly flustered at his words, "Have you forgotten who she is, stupid!" An chanced a glance at the man by her side. He had curly, short black hair with fairly sharp features and bright green eyes. The voice...was definitely of the mysterious person that knocked her out. She continued to scrutinize him; luckily the pair bickering didn't seem to notice at all.
He barely looks older than me.
"Hey, that's rude brat. Didn't we teach you to respect your elders?" the man, Niou, teased and poked the curly haired man on the forehead. Kirihara, at least An assumed was his name, scowled at him, "Yeah, well I had lousy teachers." Which earned him another flick on the forehead, and eventually resulted in a mini brawl. An rolled her eyes.
Better not let my guard down.
Her eyes roamed to the other two men in the room. One man was slumped over a desk, fiddling with something in his hands; he had ridiculously bright red hair that barely brushed against his shoulder. She couldn't see his face, since his slumped figure caused his hair to fall over his face as continued to fiddle with whatever it was in his hands.
The other man standing nearby was dark skinned (A foreigner?), with his hair completely shaven off. The handsome man was watching Kirihara and Niou wrestling each other on the floor with an exasperated look on his face; however, he did nothing to stop them. An's eye shifted around the room to assess the situation.
"Always be aware of your surroundings, look and find any possible escape routes and take note of them."
Kippei had taught her this at a young age, and it has never failed her. She was going to escape, she was sure of it. So far, the room was fairly small with a small window and, judging from the scenery, she was up fairly high. Light was still pouring through the room, and unfortunately there was no clock.
Still day time, but how long was I out?
Her eyes flickered to the door; the dark skinned man however was blocking the way. Her fingers twitched in her lap, the room was bare except for the desk that the redhead was occupying and the bed she was still in. There was probably nothing in the room she could use to help her; her captors did a good job of making sure of that it seemed.
"You won't be able to escape you know." An blinked and turned to the Redhead, who now had his head up, and was currently staring at her intently. "Our Boss insists that you stay for a while, says it's dangerous for a young lady to run around in that part of Kanagawa on her little lonesome." An rolled her eyes, "I suppose that's true, but I hardly find this situation any better." She bit back sarcastically. The redhead blinked, and then laughed, "Yeah...yeah, you know what that's true."
The man leaned back in the chair he sat on, and An could clearly see the object in his hand now. She screeched angrily, "What! What are you doing with that? That's mine, give it back!" She sprung out of the bed and snatched at the locket in his hands.
"Whoa there! Geez, I was just looking at it...Piece of junk doesn't even open. Here, take it back...yeesh." The man shoved the locket in to her hands, a frown on his face, "What? Is it a present your brother left for you or something?"
An glared at him, clutching the locket closer to her, "That's none of your business." She spoke frostily.
"Actually, it is." It was Niou that spoke, the two had broken up their fight right when An had angrily insisted that she got her locket back, he dusted himself off before turning back to address An, "If it was from your brother, we may need to...ah...borrow it for a while." Niou made to move towards An, but she quickly shuffled away, eyes watching him wearily. "It's not from my brother."
Niou rolled his eyes, "Yeah, right...Come on, hand it over. We'll be the judge of it's usefulness or not. "
"No!"
Niou's features began to darken a bit, he moved forward, hand raised, "Look woman, just hand it over. You're not exactly in a position to be saying no." He spoke coldly.
An didn't say anything, nor did she make in movements; she simply stared at him with wide eyes.
The room was silent, no one made any movements. Kirihara watched intently with an anxious look, the dark skinned man watched her impassively while the redhead turned away from them and pulled out a stick of gum.
Niou was starting to grow impatient, "I don't know what kinda sissy little gang your brother used to run, but us Rikkai members aren't as nice as you'd think. Yes, this is a threat. You'd better hand it over or I'll beat you til you're black and blue." An bit the inside of her cheek, steeling herself. Slowly she looked up til her eyes locked with his, "I won't."
Niou clenched his jaws, eyes flashing; he raised his hand high up, ready to slap her.
"Niou. I think we should report to Boss now that she is awake, let him deal with her." The dark skinned man said, "Marui, you come too." He turned on his heels, opened the door, and left. The redhead looked up from his spot at the desk, a neon pink bubble blooming in front of his face. Popping it, he turned to Niou, "Calm down Niou, let's go. Little Lady, you just got lucky." Standing up from his spot, he made his way to the door, on his way he clapped his hand on Niou's shoulder well nodding towards the door.
"Hey! What about me? Wait! Jackal-san! Marui-san," Kirihara looked at Marui with an exasperated look, "Don't tell me I have to stay with her!" Marui simply shrugged and left.
Niou dropped his arm to his side, snorting, "Don't be such a whiny brat. We'll be back soon; Boss was really looking forward to meeting her." He turned to eye her coolly at his last words. Quickly, he left the room, closing the door loudly behind him.
"You weren't really going to beat her up were you?" Marui turned to the other man, his eyebrow raised and gum snapping in his mouth. "'Cause if you were, Sanada-san would beat you black and blue."
Niou scoffed, "Of course not, I'd never hit a lady. I'm not some brute." Marui rolled his eyes, "Yeah, right, whatever."
"I don't really like what that implied there Bunta-chan." Marui shot him a dirty look, but paused, "You don't think Kirihara's gonna kill her do you? I mean, he's got a really short temper and everything..."
Niou shrugged, and continues to saunter after Jackal, "Who cares? We won't get in any trouble if he's the one who did it."
"Uh, yeah we will. Sanada-san would probably say something like we should have known better." Niou stopped; Marui, who nearly crashed into him, flipped him off. "Hey, watch it!"
Niou rubbed his chin, "Shit. He would kill us...what are the chances that those two would kill each other? We won't get in trouble if that happens right?" Marui pursed his lips, "Nope, we'd still get bitched at. Most likely twice as much." Niou sighed, "God I hate this job."
"Whoa, you look like crap."
"Shut up." Shishido looked up from his position braced against the sink in the bathroom, glaring over his shoulders at a grinning Gakuto, "You look messed up too."
Gakuto shrugged, "Just a black eye and a couple bruises, nothing I can't hide...but looks like Boss got the underlings to land quite a bit on you." He leaned against the doorframe of the bathroom, eyeing Shishido's pale complexion uneasily. "Want me to get Yuushi? He'll patch you right up..."
"...No...forget it." Shishido ran a hand across his face, lips pursed, "Fuck. All this shit just for some fucking bitch." His whole body ached, dark bruises lined up and down his arms as well as spots on his face.
Probably a lot more hidden under his clothes too. Gakuto thought grimly. He wisely chose to keep silent as he continued watching Shishido quietly.
"Tachibana...it's always a Tachibana that always gets me in these messes. Fuck!" Shishido slams a fist against the side of the sink. "...nough..."
Gakuto blinked, standing up straight and cocking his head to the side, "What?"
"I said I've had enough!" Shishido yelled throwing the drawer under the sink open, rifling through the contents.
"Wha-What are you doing?" Gakuto immediately went to Shishido's side but stopped when the dark haired man pulled out a pair of scissors, the sharp metal glistening under the bright lights in the bathroom. "Hey man, what do you think you're doing? Put that down..." Gakuto nervously spoke, slowly inching closer to him.
"I'm nothing more than those little pawns we boss around now, Gakuto. Just because I couldn't catch some stupid little girl. Now I'm reduced to this." Shishido spoke quietly his hand clutched the pair of scissors tightly, "Is it because I'm still too weak?" Gakuto shook his head, "Dude, it's not that! Besides...you'll rise back up the ranks eventually, don't sweat it. I'll help you! I'll get Yuushi to help you too, so just calm down." He placed a hand on Shishido's shoulder, "Come on. Calm down and just give me those scissors."
Shishido roughly shoved his hand away from his shoulder, glaring at him, "No way."
Before Gakuto could even say another word, he grabbed his long hair and snipped a chunk of hair of.
Snip. Snip. Snip.
Gakuto watched with wide eyes as he watched Shishido snip off more and more hair and watched as the floor around him was soon covered in long locks of dark brown hair. "Shishido..."
"I won't mess up again. I'll definitely get her this time, I swear it." Brushing away bits of stray hairs that still clung to his face, Shishido turned to look Gakuto straight in the eyes. "This will be the last time you'll ever see me like this ever again Gakuto, so you'd better take a good look."
Gakuto sighed, shaking his head, "You...never mind. Here, you missed a spot. Not to mention the fact that it's completely uneven." He held up his hand and wiggled his fingers to get Shishido to hand him the scissors still clutched in his shaking fingers. Wordlessly, he passed it to the purple haired man and watched him snip of the rest of his hair through the bathroom mirror.
A/N: Yeaaahhhh, fast update for once.
And thanks for the reviews to those that bothered to!