"So explain this once more."
Tama smiled. He was pretty sure Jay was waiting to be told it was all one big, elaborate rib. "Think of it as an art gallery. Except the art is a lot of naked women tied up. Kinbaku. It's about the ropes, making art out of knots on sexy flesh."
"And how the hell do you know about this place?"
"Fale's new woman is involved in it some way. Part owner, manager, I'm not totally sure. And it's the hot thing right now, I guess. Where you go for other people to see you were there."
"So we look at naked, tied up women."
"Yeah."
"And then we go home and think about naked, tied up women. All alone."
"Yeah. And then you call April and let nature take its course. And then she owes me one. And so do you."
"I don't know about explaining this to her in too much detail, you know?"
"I've got 5000 yen that says she already knows what it is."
"I've got five more that says Eagles is going to faint dead away ten minutes after he gets here."
Tama laughed. "Yeah, that might be even more entertaining than the show."
Jay had decided two things within those ten minutes. First, was that he was glad Tama didn't take the wager; Robbie was looking around like he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing, but he showed no signs of keeling over.
Second was that this wasn't quite what he was expecting. It actually did look like an art exhibit. Each woman was on an individual small stage with glass doors that could be shut between the stage and the viewers. Most were open. Some of the women were already tied. Some were in the process. Some were suspended off the floor at varying heights; others weren't. Some made sounds that suggested the strain they were under; others were silent. They weren't all naked, either. It was one of the handful that were clothed that Jay kept going back to, fascinated. She was wearing a wedding dress - veil and all - the ropes holding her in midair were white, too, and if he felt like if he were just a little more academic, or maybe political, the message there would be loud and clear instead of slipping through his hands and making him go back for another look.
Another of the women was interesting to him in large part because of the group of half a dozen viewers gathered around her who simply stayed there and watched her rather than circulating, even though there didn't seem to be anything in particular going on. She was a gaijin, which was definitely unusual; even though several of the women were masked, he would have wagered on skin tone alone that she was the only one. That might have been the appeal. He wasn't sure what else would be. She was already tied and suspended, didn't move, made no sound, and was clothed. The man who had done the tying was standing behind and to the left of her, observing her closely. Another man stood on the viewers' side of the open doors, quietly answering questions. One woman seemed to want hers answered particularly urgently; the man stayed with her for some time, and eventually gave her a business card.
He saw Tama there watching her, and made his way back over. "Any idea what's the story with the captive audience?"
Tama nodded. "I talked to the guy over there. She's some kind of shaman. I guess she's pretty much checked out up there. So everyone's waiting to see what happens when she comes back."
"You take me to the weirdest fucking places, man."
"Laugh it up. I'm still just bush enough not to. She's not home right now, no bullshit."
Robbie made his way around to them. "I know someone's going to explain all this to me. Right?" He glanced up at the woman. His eyes widened hard enough that Jay thought it had to actually hurt, and he staggered back two steps.
Figures. Five minutes sooner and I'd have made some money. In theory, anyway. "Are you all right, man?"
The woman's eyes snapped open; he would have sworn he heard them. They locked on Robbie like she was radar-equipped.
"Fucking hell. Mara?!"
A murmur rippled through the viewers. It nearly covered the single word the woman whispered to the man who had tied her, who had moved up next to her the moment her eyes opened: Jikandesu. The man immediately began lowering her; the one out among the audience jumped up onto the stage and began pulling the curtains that ran along the insides of the doors.
"No." Robbie was up there right behind him. Security was starting to converge.
"Oh, shit," Tama muttered. "Think we'd better go get our boy."
The woman said something again - Jay couldn't hear it, but he could see her lips moving - and the two men waved the security back. They let Robbie stay, which he wasn't expecting to see. After that, the curtains and doors closed, he couldn't see anything. "He...knows her?"
Tama was just flat-out grinning. "And you thought he was gonna faint. I think our boy's got a secret life. With ropes and shit."
"Yeah, but I think he just found out about it. Did you see his face?"
Tama nodded. "This definitely calls for getting him drunk and twisting his arm until he talks."
It took time and a lot of urgent, meticulously polite discussion among staff, security, and Fale, who was vouching for Robbie to everyone who'd listen. In the meantime, the rest of the guests were being redirected to other parts of the exhibit. No one asked them to leave, so Fale must have gotten it at least partly sorted out. He finally nodded as if he was satisfied with what he was hearing and came over to them.
"Somebody realized that was one fuck of a lot of free advertising. This place is going to be packed next time. Robbie's good, but he won't leave the woman. Literally won't let her out of his sight, they're saying."
"Do you know anything about her?"
"No. Met her once, that's about it. Fumiko said the guy who was out here does pretty much all the talking for her and the rigger. Like they're partway somewhere else all the time. She said they're a draw, though; the same half a dozen people come back every time, and there's always a new one or two."
"Did you ask her if Robbie's been hanging out here and not telling us?"
"Yeah, I asked. She said she's never seen him here before."
Robbie came out from behind the curtain about ten minutes later, but it was very obviously all he could do not rush back there again, and he couldn't keep himself from constantly looking back. "If we're still on for the club, we'll meet you there in an hour or so, okay?"
"Yeah, have fun." Tama grinned at him.
Robbie shook his head. "She's...kind of shaken up. It's going to take a little time before she's ready to go anywhere."
Tama nodded. "Wait a minute." He went over to the food table, surveyed, and asked the server for something. He kept waving at the guy - More. More. - until the plate was close to filled. "Bring her that. It'll help."
"Caviar?"
"Salt. And the first one who asks me how I know that gets kicked in the dick."
"I must talk to you. Alone." Hideo very much didn't want to do this, but he saw no choice. Mara didn't realize just how complicated this had suddenly become, and she had to know.
"I'll be just a minute, okay?"
Hideo thought the man who had nearly tackled him to get to her didn't look like he thought it was okay at all, but he didn't argue as Hideo took Mara aside.
"That man, do you know who he is?"
"He's the one I met on vacation. I don't know how, but - "
"Wait. Please listen to me. It is important. His name is Robbie Eagles."
"I know that. How do you know?"
"Because he is a professional wrestler. He and all his friends waiting for him out there work for the same company Kota Ibushi works for. I was not certain until I saw all of them, but I am now. Completely."
"Oh, my god." Head in her hands, she took a deep breath. A second. "Tell him he needs to go now. Tell him...Tell him it's better for him if he forgets he ever saw me here."
Everything was fine. Just great. Right up until the next shouting match started. The only words to describe what Robbie was doing were screaming and cursing. He'd managed to get the woman's manager, or whatever he was, shouting back.
"What the actual fuck? Let's go get him." Jay took off toward the stage, aware Tama and Fale were right on his heels.
It took time to sort the whole thing out. Apparently in the two minutes Robbie had been out front with them - according to this guy, at least - the woman had decided she wanted Robbie to leave and not ever come back. Jay thought Robbie sounded like he believed that exactly as much as he ought to, but the man refused to let him go to her and hear it for himself.
Right then. It's fuckery time. He wished fervently for April for a few moments; he was fairly certain if she told Robbie he could eat lava, he'd go looking for a spoon. But he was going to have to do this himself. "Let's go before you're arrested. We'll sort this out another time. We know where to find them."
"I'm not leaving." Robbie looked like he wanted to kill someone, and if Jay was the closest at hand, that was fine at the moment.
"You are. With us." He lowered his voice to barely a murmur. "You trust me? Do it now." It was a tense few seconds before he nodded and went back out front. Jay followed, nodding to the others. They gathered in a quiet corner.
"How did you get here?"
"By bus," Robbie said. "What does that have to do with - "
Jay handed him the keys. "Get in the car. Keep it running and try not to look too much like you're waiting for crims to come on the run."
He obviously didn't have to say more for Robbie to get the picture; he went. "Right. We all saw her face. Anyone believe she wants him to fuck off all of a sudden?"
"No." Tama smiled. "So we go in and get her."
Jay nodded. "As the only one who speaks anything even resembling Japanese, Fale, it's your job to distract laughing boy over there." He turned to Tama. "Think we can deal with the kid with the ropes?"
Tama smiled. The kid was probably no more than a couple of years younger than Jay was. Maybe. "Oh yeah, we can handle him. We might have a pretty scared woman on our hands, though."
"We'll deal with that as it comes."
It actually went fairly smoothly. The woman looked unhappy, but she called the rope kid off when he stood to defend her, and went with them quietly enough. It all rang a bit too eerily familiar to Jay, and he found himself wishing for April to be there again. I seem to do that a lot where you're concerned, sweetheart.
It was, he thought, the most awkward drive he'd ever been on. The woman wouldn't look at Robbie at all, and was clearly fighting back tears. What the fuck happened in a minute and a half? "Where to?"
"My place."
The woman looked like that wouldn't have been her answer, but she didn't argue.
Robbie took her hand. "We have to talk, right? If you want to go after, I'll put you in a taxi to wherever you like."
She nodded. It was the end of her interacting with anyone in the car for the rest of the trip.
It had taken over an hour. Mara had decided if she was going to tell him, she was going to tell him all of it, not just the past four months since she'd seen him. What she did, the seediness for so long, the questionable choices...the co-worker she had history with, no matter how brief it was. He could know it all, and he could react the way normal people did to things like that and tell her to get the fuck out of his life. And now she was done.
"Did you think I believed you were sanitary-wrapped your whole life before we got to each other?"
She looked up, eyes wide. "You..."
"I hate to think about what you've been through. And I'd like to punch Ibushi in the nuts ten or fifteen times. Lovely thing about the business we're in; I might get the chance, and all I'll get is disqualified. But if people have treated you badly, I'm not the sort of bastard to blame you for it."
"I didn't think you'd ever want to speak to me again."
"So you got the first shot in." He hadn't touched her all the while she'd been talking, had barely dared to breathe near her. But he could now. He cupped her face in his hands. "Those things are done. Don't do them any more now. That's what matters to me."
"You're why I changed everything to start with."
"Good. So I'm one more reason to keep it changed."
"The best one."
"Want to know what I've been thinking about for four months?"
"Oh, I hope it's the same thing I've been."
"How was the big night out?"
"You wouldn't have liked it." Jay leaned back against the headboard, closed his eyes, and soaked in the sound of his wife's voice.
"Pretty dull?"
"Yeah, you know. Society stuff, art exhibits, kidnapping Robbie's bondage girlfriend."
"Holy shit, art exhibits?"
Jay laughed. "Yeah. Horrible thought, innit?" He had to cave and explain, though, as fun as this all was.
"It's okay now, though?"
"He phoned about 20 minutes ago. All good. He sounded like a man who just got thoroughly laid. Which beats what he's been acting like for the past few months."
"Which is?"
"A man who really needed to get laid."
She laughed. "So, are damsels in distress a Bullet Club thing, or what?"
"Must be. If he does as well as I did, he's good for life."
"Smooth talker. I never could resist one of those. Oh, and you can tell Tanahashi your wife's looking for him. And she's armed."
He laughed. "Everything's fine south of the belt, love. I'll prove it in a couple of days."
"I should have been a scientist. I just love proof."
(A little crossover with a couple of my other stories, just because. :) )