When Wednesday rolled around, Sasuke found himself in the car, headed to meet his brother at the party house. He'd called him about an hour ago and asked him to meet him there, no explanation given. Itachi sounded hesitant, and exhausted, but mostly hesitant. Jordan drove, so they made it to the house in no time, meaning now they had to wait. Jordan had gone inside to 'inspect the job,' but he suspected she actually didn't want to meet his brother.
Sasuke was sitting sideways in the passenger seat of the car, door open, his feet on the driveway, hunched over his phone, texting Suigetsu, when itachi pulled in.
His brother looked as tired as he sounded on the phone, and the car he drove rattled hopelessly, but his hair and clothes were clean so he wasn't too worse for wear.
"Is that dad's car?" Sasuke asked, almost unable to recognize the silver Chevy with all of its dents and scattered paint chips in safety yellow. Itachi nodded. He didn't need to ask what happened, all of his father's cars ended up that way.
"What did you need Sasuke? I'm a little busy today," the older man asked, pocketing his keys. Busy, too busy for him, just like always. The younger stood up and asked his brother to follow him. He could feel the suspicion he was giving off, but Sasuke choose to ignore it as he opened the front door and lead him inside. The house was as good as new, the dark wood floor flowed seamlessly throughout, and the ceiling was painted pitch black just like the other walls. The furniture hadn't been harmed, and he would have hoped not, with the amount of abuse they were made to withstand. The finish on the closest table still looked new. Itachi followed his brother quietly down the hallway from the entrance and into the living room, where he was invited to sit down. He wasn't sure if he wanted to. He was afraid the sofa might reject his middle class ass.
"Who's house is this?" The older asked, adjusting himself in his seat. He should have taken his shoes off he decided. For such a plush chair, he sure was uncomfortable.
"My mentor uses this house for parties," the younger answered, folding his hands in his lap. That was clear, the house's large speakers were in full view. Itachi stayed quiet, his nerves were on edge at home, he didn't need this too. It took Sasuke a second to reply, he wasn't great at this sort of thing.
"I wanted you to be able to get away from mom and dad. It's not fair I got out and you have to stay."
Itachi made an unhappy noise and sat back in the chair, putting one hand over his eyes. Sasuke sat still, watching, waiting and hoping Jordan would come out from where ever it was she was hiding and to the talking like always.
As brothers they shared a bond with each other, no matter how long they'd been apart and the distance between them both physically and emotionally, he wouldn't call it love, but they had at least an understanding. Sasuke was sure Itachi knew he only wanted what was best for him. The silence was growing and becoming more and more awkward.
Finally Itachi sighed and stood up, taking a long look over the house as he strode to the back sliding glass door to glance over the back yard. He was quiet for a few more moments, his face contracting and his mouth moving, going to start a sentence but lost the words, until finally turned and sound left his lips.
"I appreciate all of this, I really do. I know you think it's worthless trying to help mom and dad, but they need me."
Sasuke sat back on the sofa and sighed. Honestly? He was still on about their parents?
"Have you learned nothing from our childhood? I wouldn't call what they did neglectful but they certainly never did us any favors," he spat, tongue on fire, words made of acid, he kept his calm demeanor though, tone level, his face unreadable. "You are so blind Itachi. I'm trying to lead you but you'd rather stumble in the dark."
His words cut deep, the older man scowled, deeply offended. "I won't abandon our parents," he hissed, "they need me."
"Why do you keep saying that? They don't need you! They don't need anyone!" Sasuke shouted, a sudden rage coursing through his veins like nothing he'd ever felt before. He grit his teeth and his fists clenched. "If they want to drink themselves into an early grave then let them! They never tried to help us Itachi, why should you help them?"
Itachi tried to drive his point home, to hit him hard with words, but they rolled right off of Sasuke's back. His younger brother wasn't listening. "If you'll excuse me, I have a meeting with a rehab center in half an hour." Itachi replied, curt, as he pulled his keys from his pocket and got ready to leave, and as if she was cued, Jordan decided the steps.
She looked like some sort of royalty, and this was rightfully her castle, all she was missing was the flowing dress and a crown. She moved fast, but with poise, level shoulders and calculated steps, grinning and running her hand down the railing until she reached the bottom. Her sunglasses glint, catching the light as she crossed the room.
"I hope I'm not too late to meet your brother!" she sounded happy almost, grinning ear to ear, and coming over to shake his hand, "it's nice to meet you, I'm Katzuki, please call me Jordan."
They'd meet before, Itachi was sure of it, and by the look of disdain and confusion on his face, he wasn't sure what to make of her. Had she not heard any of the yelling? And why such a tight grip on his hand?
"Anyway, your younger brother is such a gifted young man," she beamed, putting her other hand on Itachi's shoulder, "I'm very proud to have him working with me, you must be proud too right? I'm sure of it. He's so kind, and good with the rest if the staff, a real hard worker!"
Itachi didn't even have a second to get a word in.
"He explained to me that you needed a place to stay, and don't we all? Don't worry. You can stay here rent free, but you've got to buy your own food and things, the TV upstairs gets ten thousand channels, the pool is heated, good deal right? I thought so. But I'm still having parties here too, in fact I'm having one for Halloween, but you wouldn't mind, would you? I'm sure you young, college bucks just love parties."
Itachi took a step back, overwhelmed by the dominant presence in the room, Jordan could see she made him uncomfortable, and she was standing in the path of the only exit.
"I was just explaining to Sasuke that I..." Itachi trailed off, but Jordan picked up on what he was trying to say. After all, it was hard not to hear the brothers screaming match.
"Oh nonsense. They're grown people. And it's not like you don't have a car, there's a phone here to use if they need help. You aren't that far from home are you? Come on, no rent living in a gorgeous house. How good can it get for a law student?"
Itachi couldn't keep eye contact with her, so he settled to looking at his brother for help. Sasuke, who offered no assistance, had his hands shoved in his pants and looked very relaxed. Lucky him. This dark haired, smiling women wouldn't take no for an answer and he was quickly catching on.
"I'm going to need some time to gather my things," Itachi finally muttered. That was a dirty move, but Jordan got what she wanted, and by extension, so did Sasuke. They wasted a little more time with Itachi, showing him around before the elder Uchiha had get going, he did have a meeting to get to after all, so as Jordan got her own car started, Sasuke walked his brother back to his.
No words were exchanged, no knowing looks. Itachi was unhappy, but Sasuke choose to ignore it in favor of all the good he was sure it would bring. He watched his brother get into his car and fight to start it.
"Itachi, hold on."
The elder looked up from the steering wheel as the engine sprung to life, his face sort of blank with the bags under his eyes pulling at him. From his pocket Sasuke produced a wad of cash and handed it to his brother. One week's salary was gone just like that, but he was fully prepared to hand it all he had over to his brother, he wasn't bothered at all. Itachi was struggling, it would be two thousand dollars well spent. Before the elder could protest, Sasuke revolved face and got back into the passenger seat of Jordan's car. The Chevy sat in the driveway a few more moments before he backed out and left the opposite way he came.
When he looked over to see why his own car wasn't moving, he meet Jordan's smug smirk.
"My, how selfless," She remarked, "or are you compensating for something?" She giggled a little, setting the wheels in motion. "You're too nice to him. Next time you broker a deal, I won't come help you."
Oh, so that was training.
"He's my brother," Sasuke replied in his defense, she outright laughed at him.
"At least it wasn't too big of a loss. That was a small chunk of change anyway compared to what I make. Do you know what I make? You should know, go on, ask me." She egged him on, grinning like mad as she floored it through a red light. Car horns blared around him and Sasuke found himself clutching his door for some sort of false security.
"How much do you make?" He asked, and he asked only because he knew she'd tell him anyway.
"I make ten million, four hundred thousand a year. That's five thousand an hour!" She was near cackling as she ducked into a gas station to avoid another red light, "I want some chocolate," she remarked absentmindedly, turning the sound system up. Sasuke rolled his eyes despite the fear they might jerk out of his head any moment as they went around a corner.
Work was work, tedious and boring, though on the way up the glass elevator, Sasuke did notice a larger than average group of newspaper journalists and news reporters. People took pictures of them, calmly, with their camera focus, but Jordan ignored them so Sasuke did too. After the last big fiasco, if you weren't employed by KMA, you didn't leave the ground floor. Regardless if they were always there, which they always were ("trying to sneak a peek at my next bright idea," Jordan would always say), the increasing number of reporters had him wondering. What did these people think was going on? Did they know something he didn't?
Probably not but it didn't stop him from worrying.
Today he and Jordan were doing staff reviews and rightfully so. They set a few aside to be fired and a few more to be audited and interviewed, most of the people they reviewed passed. The majority of these people were just worker ants oblivious to what their superiors were up to. It was better it stayed that way.
They'd be doing this for days, today they'd just reviewed the accounting division. Twelve more floors to go, figuring if they did one a day, they'd be busy for just short of two weeks. Well, hold on, they'd been late today. Whatever, it didn't actually matter. All that mattered was he had a distraction.
Jordan drove home, but something was different about the way she did it. She exaggerated a lot of her movements, when she braked, which she was doing an unusual lot today, she glided to a stop, and when she accelerated, it was a gentle increase, the expensive tires didn't squeal. At first, he again, thought something was wrong, and then it occurred to him that she was trying to give him a little driving lesson. This is how a person was supposed to drive, he knew that, but he was also fully aware this was an expensive sports car and it wasn't like it worked exactly the same as he was used to. He figured that shifter between them was going to give him the most trouble. His suspicions were confirmed when she pulled into the driveway and turned to him.
"Think you can do what I did?" She smirked, raising her eyebrows. Her expression was playful as she bailed out of the car, slid across the hood dramatically and switched spots with him. After adjusting the seat, he was all set to drive.
The gas was touchy and the brake sank a lot when he pushed it, but after stopping in the middle of three four way stops, cutting off a backing out truck and running a stop sign, he was well on his way to learning how to drive the four wheeled abomination. Yeah, he was exhausted from work and scared to death of totaling the car, but it was sort of fun at the same time. This was good for him, he reasoned, the winding streets of the housing complex they lived in were good for him, so he drove slowly, staying in first gear. Jordan knew the roads and the speed limits by heart, which was strange seeing as she saw speed limits as more of a suggestion, so she directed his unsteady hands.
"Your sure this is your first time driving?" She teased, laughing, "when do you think you'll be ready to go out on the roads?"
"Not today," he asserted, stepping on the break a little harder than he liked. The car stopped anyway, and he looked both ways down the street before proceeding.
"I wanna show you how to go faster," she replied smoothly, almost ignoring him. She pried his right hand of the wheel and put it on the shifter, letting her hand rest on top of his until he got the hang driving with one hand.
"Turn left," Jordan commanded, and suddenly he was on a long, narrow street, that was straighter than a ruler. "Step on the gas, ease on to it, but push it."
He pushed it, faster and faster, until it wouldn't accelerate any more.
"Hear that?" Jordan asked, and he could hear it. The motor whined in a sort of unfamiliar way, one he hadn't noticed before, "shift."
Before he could move his hand, she moved it for him, kicking the car into second. They accelerated along with the increasing RPMs. The car roared, carrying them forward, and then he heard it again, the engine rumbled, and he knew he had to shift it again. It was like he had a real jaguar under him, each stride was even and planned, gliding over the pavement as the concrete jungle parted. His speed would drop, he wasn't perfect with that gas pedal just yet, and the car would jump to life, growling like he'd spurred the big cat on. His excitement heightened as he shifted the car again and pushed, reaching a new top speed. He was flying, he had to be.
His head was swimming. His heart pounded. The speed, the sound, the thrill pricked his veins and nerves, sending adrenaline through his brain at a breakneck speed. His grip on the wheel tightened and he never once thought to so much as tap his brake.
"We have to slow down to turn," Jordan's voice reminded him that she was there. He'd almost forgot. After pressing the break, it was a nice easy flow to the stop sign. Jordan had showed him how to shift down, letting him get comfortable but keeping them both safe.
"Wanna get on the highway and drive, speed demon?" She removed her hand from his and smirked, taking her sunglasses off and putting them in a holder near the center console. Sasuke debated that for a while. Did he? He knew it wasn't good to exhaust yourself driving, but his mentor could take over if all else failed. Very slowly, he nodded. The woman's smirked turned in to a sneer, instructing him where to pull out and how to use the shortest distance to the highway with the least traffic. It was back to nerve wracking for a while, not knowing where other drivers were and unfamiliar with some of the road rules, but as he got on to the ramp and saw the highway in front of him, suddenly it didn't matter, he was leaving all of that in the dust.
It was amazing, being in control of this speeding wonder with a manual transmission. What he found even more amazing was the silence in the car. This was better than a walk, this was better than an action movie with junk food and soda, better than spending time with rich kids, and it was a million times better than where he'd been three weeks ago.
It'd been dark for some time by the time he decided to turn around. Round trip, he'd put almost a hundred miles on the car, not that it mattered. They'd need gas on the way back from work tomorrow, but that didn't matter either. When his feet touched the ground again after parking his new best friend in the garage, he felt a little wobbly, his right leg cramped a little, but it was a good ache. His night got even better when he found dinner all made up for him, caprese pasta salad, and Sasuke loved tomatoes.
The dinner table stayed strangely quiet. Karin did most of the talking, telling them about her day or the latest scandal in her group of friends, she did in particularly mention wanting to go to a festival, and actually, it didn't seem like that bad of an outing. Jordan kept her mouth shut completely, very out of character but at the time it didn't seem out of place.
A mug of hot cider and both of his fluffy kittens were enough to keep him warm though the chilled fall night. It frosted, killing everything left alive this late in the year but the next morning the temperature rose with the sun, requiring only a mid weight jacket to keep warm.
The monotonous task of reviewing staff had waited for him overnight on his desk, well, Jordan's desk, but she made herself scarce right after they'd arrived, and he'd inherit (was that the right word for it?) the thing eventually anyway, so it was pretty much his desk. In his eight hour work day he completed the maintenance, sanitation and the IT departments and prepped for the filing division tomorrow, because that's an entirely different can of worms.
After they arrived home, Jordan stalked off to her room. He'd decided days ago that she was spending all of her extra energy in deep, vindictive thought. He felt sorry for whoever it was that cost her team their spot in the finals. They should have known third place would have never been good enough.
Shedding his work clothes in exchange for a tshirt and some jeans, Sasuke sat back on the couch to watch a news program, something he wanted to get into the habit of doing. He wanted to monitor the company, inside and out and media was the best way to do so. The stock price hadn't moved much and KMA's name wasn't being drug through the mud or running across the bottom of the screen, so oh well. After that he flipped on some show about restoration of old stuff by some guy named Rick, a show he normally enjoyed, but today he wasn't paying a particular amount of attention.
The company meant a lot to him, it was his ticket to a better life, money and stability. The money was actually the only reason he stuck around, though mounting pounds of guilt and his personal code of ethics screaming at him. He was getting better at shoving those thoughts out of his head, but usually, especially times like now, those thoughts tugged at him.
Money was worth it, he reasoned, getting a safe place and cash to carry himself was worth it. He could retire in a few years, move someplace sunny, live the rest of his days without a care in the world.
But until then, the present day needed his attention, and a sandwich was calling his name.
He noticed Karin was gone about an hour after he changed his clothes and after he'd taken the first bite of his afternoon snack. She'd probably to that festival, but why hadn't she invited him? She always invited him. Unless..
Down the hall he heard Jordan's door creak shut and she arrived seconds later, making quite a grand entrance for a living room. She dressed in a long, pencil type skirt and heels so tall he wondered how she even walked. She wore those big framed glasses on, the ones with the Cs, the ones that covered most of her face.
"Sorry to just spring this on you sweetheart," she spoke, handing him a pair of sunglasses and one of her nicer cell phones, one he didn't see her use often. He didn't reply, only took the items, found the keys and got in the car. He'd expected his mentor to ride shotgun, she always rode shotgun, but tonight she eased herself in the the back seat and sighed.
A ball of nerves was growing in his gut and it wasn't from driving in traffic.
Jordan had Sasuke take her down town, where the company building was located, but instead of pulling into the parking garage they kept rolling down the four lane boulevard. Sasuke drove, and he kept driving, because Jordan never told him to stop. He drove out of the city and into the suburbs, and then into a smaller business district. He was familiar with the area, there was a strip mall nearby that his mother liked to go to, and after being instructed, he took a skinny, two laned side road behind the mall that was meant for semi-trucks making deliveries. Keeping a steady hand on the wheel, he missed the final turn that would have taken them into the mall, and kept rolling, streetlights growing fewer and fewer until only the car lights lit the path. Up ahead, a graffitied train engine blocked the road, set on rusted old tracks and it seemed he could no longer continue until the road dropped off down a steep hill and under the tracks.
"Stop the car," Jordan said coolly, her voice smooth and level with demand. He did like she asked, immediately, jerking them both foreword, the brakes screeching. Foot still firmly on the brake, he turned around to look at her through the darkness. Neither of them moved for a hot second.
"Turn off the headlights and turn on the parking brake. Don't want you sliding down the hill right?" She asked before continuing in the same tone, "okay, so, I'm going to get out and walk down to the bottom of the hill. After my meeting, I'll wave you on so you can bring the car to the bottom of the hill, I'm going to get back in the car, and then you're going to use that cell phone to call someone, the contact is labeled "H", and tell them this is a green light situation. Got all that?"
"Yes," he replied, keeping his mouth shut, refusing to voice any of his many worries.
"Easy in, easy out. It'll take five minutes, watch me," she grinned, bailing out of the car, but something in his gut didn't agree with that statement. He watched her go, her sky high heals clicking with every step and hips moving uncomfortably with the angle of the incline. She disappeared under the tracks, turning right and vanishing though a maintenance door built in to the hill.
Sasuke threw the car in park and pulled the parking brake, settling down with the radio low to wait for his mentor. He'd cut the lights and plunged everything into an eerie darkness. Five minutes came and left in no time. Then ten, fifteen, and still no Jordan.
She's just taking a few more minutes being careful, he reasoned, just making sure all of her points got across. Removing the parking brake and shifting the car to drive, very slowly Sasuke rode the brake to inch down the hill. He'd tell her a cop told him to move or something, he was dying to see what was going on. It had to mean good things for her to be gone so long, right?
Sasuke stopped the car when the maintenance door opened again and illuminated a small almost circular area, reaching only three or four feet outside the door. He couldn't see what was going on, but he could see a figure, very vaguely step out into the street. She was coming, on her way right now. Sasuke eased back off the brake. Three other figures followed, the door shut and snuffed out all the light.
Three quick flashes illuminated the space completely, the sound that followed each illumination reminded Sasuke of fireworks. Boom, boom, boom, one after another.
It was still and dark, blacker than pitch with no sound other than the gentle idle of the car engine. The other three figures were gone, not that Sasuke was able to see, and one lay crumpled on the ground, writhing in silent pain.
Sasuke's pupils blew wide and it took a second to sink in, then, he realized.
