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Dance While You Can
Chapter 12: Tunnel Vision
In which our heroes become tombraiders.
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Lea kind of felt like an idiot, and despite the fact that he usually had no qualms about looking a bit foolish if it meant cheering somebody up, he really hated looking dumb. This gypsy—er... Romani, whatever—had really made him look downright stupid, in front of two of the only people whose opinions he genuinely gave a damn about, and he wasn't too happy about it. Really, imagine, him getting his pocket picked in broad daylight! He was already trying to come up with a proportionate punishment for this guy, but so far he had to think that facial burns probably would have earned him a scolding from Riku. (What a party-pooper.)
It was no easy task to follow the man through the crowd in the middle of the square in Paris. Lea had plenty of experience tailing people, but he had a feeling this guy had some experience being tailed, because he moved through the crowd like water, doubling back and clearly trying to shake off anyone that might have been trying to follow him. Well, Lea wasn't going to be so easily gotten rid of. He managed to stick to the Romani man, waiting for the right moment to try and confront him, but a moment didn't come. He couldn't just attack him in the middle of the square, after all—he would probably play the victim card if that happened, and while Lea wasn't sure the public would side with a Romani, he had to figure they'd be less inclined to side with an out-of-towner.
After about twenty minutes of rigmarole, it seemed the man was finally convinced he wasn't being followed anymore and headed away from the crowd, and Lea knew this was his chance. Oh, how he wished he had any talent with Slow or Stop spells, it was always entertaining to watch someone who had fallen prey to Time magicks. He continued to follow as the Romani headed east, away from the square and the cathedral, until they arrived at a large wrought-iron gate that led into a cemetery. Lea hesitated, frowning. He wasn't really the superstitious type, but somehow chasing someone through a graveyard felt like a bad idea.
He wasn't just going to let that guy have his munny, though! With a growl, Lea followed him into the cemetery, shaking his head. Well, everyone in a graveyard was already dead, right? He probably wouldn't run into any trouble.
(Who was he kidding? Lea had a penchant for running into trouble.)
He ducked behind a large headstone to see where the Romani went. This place was a little creepy; it was far too quiet and way too still. Granted, he guessed quiet and still were preferable to the alternatives, given it was a cemetery. He really wasn't in the mood for zombies. The grounds were old and a bit unkempt, some of the headstones were broken or toppling sideways, and he frowned at the name etched into the marker he was hiding behind. Jehan le Cler, it read, 14 September 1465 - 18 December 1481. Lea made a face and pulled away from the headstone. The person buried there had died when they were sixteen. Sixteen... that was far too young. That was how old he'd been when he'd lost his heart. Suddenly he felt like he had way too much in common with this Jehan person buried beneath him. Ugh, wasn't it bad luck to tread on people's graves anyway? Perfect, now he was going to be haunted on top of broke.
Watching as the Romani man glanced over his shoulder and then vanished into the open tomb in front of a small mausoleum, Lea shuddered. Okay, he wasn't really sure if getting his wallet back was worth going into an open grave. He couldn't deny his curiosity, though. Where had the man gone? Where did the tomb lead? Surely he hadn't just jumped into a six-foot hole in the ground, that wouldn't have made any sense. There had to be something down there, a tunnel, perhaps. Curiouser and curiouser...
He crept out from behind the gravestone and approached the open tomb hesitantly, his steps light like he was worried the ground might collapse under his feet. Craning his neck, Lea tried to peer up and over the ledge of the tomb without getting too close. There were stairs beyond the lip of the tomb, stairs that went steeply downward and into a black obscurity. He could faintly hear what sounded like water dripping from somewhere below, slow and rhythmic. What was down there, beyond what he could see? What was at the bottom of those stairs? Lea stepped half an inch closer, reaching out to steady himself on the ledge, and—
"Drop something?"
"Uwaugh—!"
Lea let out a shrill yelp and staggered sideways when a voice piped up from behind him, and he turned sharply with a glare when Kairi burst out laughing.
"Hey, wow, that was not funny," he said, jabbing a finger at her as Riku folded his arms and gave Lea a self-satisfied look.
"What happened to 'a hundred years too early to sneak up on me'?" he asked with a grin, and Lea harrumphed.
"I was preoccupied," he snarled, and Riku didn't really look convinced as he hid laughter behind one hand.
Kairi, meanwhile, was holding her sides. "You went white as a sheet," she guffawed. "I wish you could have seen your face!"
"Har har, you guys are a riot," Lea grumbled, rolling his eyes. Actually, he was a little surprised himself; he had been kind of preoccupied, but usually when he was spooked he was more on-edge. Why hadn't their presence been obvious to him? Had he really gotten so comfortable around them already? He raked a hand back through his hair and hefted a sigh, then put his hands on his hips. "What are you doing here, anyway?" he asked. "I thought we were going to meet at the cathedral later."
"That was your idea," Riku said, arching one eyebrow.
"We saw you running in circles in the square after we met up with someone Riku knows here," Kairi said, one hand still on her side and the other wiping a tear of laughter away from one eye. "So we followed you."
"We thought maybe you could use a hand getting your wallet back," Riku said, grinning again, and Lea fought the urge to make a very rude gesture with a particular finger.
"I was fine," he insisted, folding his arms and looking unimpressed. "I was just following the guy and he came here," he said, gesturing to the open tomb. "I was debating the merits of going after him, is all."
"You were scared," Kairi snickered, giggling again, and Lea advanced toward her, making a swatting motion. She squealed and ducked behind Riku, still laughing. "Lea, it's a graveyard, it's supposed to be scary," she said. "There's no shame in being afraid to go into an open crypt, okay?"
"Then why are you laughing at me?" he asked, glowering when Riku saw fit to laugh as well. His ears went a little red at that. Now he felt extrastupid.
"Your reaction is what's funny," Riku said, shaking his head and stepping forward to approach the tomb. "You're so animated, it's like watching TV." He leaned over the ledge to peer down the stone stairs that led downward and quickly faded to inky black.
Lea exhaled audibly, then moved up beside him, staring down as well.
"What do you think?" he asked, giving Riku a sidelong look. The truth was, he really didn't want to go down there alone. Maybe Kairi was a littleright, maybe he was a little freaked out by this place. Lea liked ghost stories and horror movies, but mostly because what he'd been through was that much worse than anything a filmmaker could dream up; he wasn't so sure about living one on purpose.
"I think this is an awful lot of trouble for a wallet," Riku said, then lifted his chin a little to indicate the inscription over the tomb. "There's something written there," he said, and Lea squinted at it.
"Well, don't look at me," he said. "The only stuff I can say in French isn't anything to be said on hallowed ground."
"I think it's Latin, actually," Kairi said, stepping up alongside him, and Lea quirked his mouth to one side.
"I can't even swear in Latin, so I got nothin'."
Kairi paused for a moment, and then took Lea's arm, using it for leverage as she clambered up onto the ledge. "I wanna see what's down there," she said, standing on the top step, and both men blinked at her.
"Are you serious?" Lea asked. Weren't girls supposed to be afraid of ghosts?
"'Course I'm serious," she said, hands on her hips again. "I think we've come this far, so we might as well see it through, you know? Aren't you even the least bit curious?"
"Kinda," Lea said at the same time Riku said, "Not really." They glanced at each other, then back up at Kairi.
"Come on, it can't hurt to take a look," she said, and blithely headed down the steps.
"Kairi—wait!" Riku reached after her to grab her wrist, but wasn't quite fast enough to catch her before she disappeared into the shadows. "Great, why doesn't anybody ever listen to me?" he muttered, and then looked at Lea. "I guess she made the decision for us."
Lea grimaced, but dutifully hoisted himself up and over the ledge. "I'm pretty sure I've seen this movie," he said with a shake of his head.
"Don't tell me how it ends," Riku said, hopping up after him and following Kairi down into the darkness below them, "I don't think I want to know."
Lea headed down after him, calling a tongue of flame to one hand as they descended the stairs.
"Kairi, wait up," Riku called, dragging his fingers across the wall and then recoiling sharply with a noise of disgust, wringing his hand. Lea decided he did not want to investigate what was growing on the walls.
As they continued downward, a light appeared from below, and Lea could make out Kairi's silhouette at the base of the stairs.
"There's water," she said, frowning, but he was more interested in the rest of their surroundings.
The ceiling was high—about two and a half times the height of any normal ceiling, and there were torches along the walls. There were also piles of bones along the walls. Piles and piles of bones. There must have been at least a hundred skulls in each pile, stacked up against the thick stone walls beneath the torches, along the length of the room, and Lea had a sudden very distinct sinking feeling about this entire undertaking. He raised one hand.
"All in favor of going back to the surface?" he asked, and Riku started to raise his hand as well before Kairi snatched it.
"Don't be such a 'fraidycat," she scolded. "They're just bones."
"Bones that used to belong to somebody," Riku pointed out. "You know, like a body?"
"Yeah, how do you think they got here?" Lea asked dryly. Kairi met his eye and gave him a look. Lea held her gaze a moment, then decided that obviously someone was going to have to make a move here, and it might as well have been him. This had all been his idea in the first place, and he really needed to get better about seeing things through, didn't he? Very well. He shrugged and moved past her, stepping into the ankle-deep water. "Fine, but if we die it's all your fault," he said, making a face. Eugh, wet shoes.
Riku made a noise that was somewhere between a groan and a whine of protest. "Could we maybe not?" he asked, and Lea glanced over his shoulder as he trudged through the water.
"Ohh no," he said, "I'm invested in this now, I got my shoes wet. You guys are coming if I have to drag you; come on, it ain't deep."
"Depth isn't what I'm worried about," Riku said, making a face as he stepped into the water after Lea. Kairi followed, making a similar face, and Lea was starting to wish he'd worn his boots for this mission. They slogged through the dirty water toward an opening in a side wall, and Lea was grateful when he saw that the water didn't cover the next section of the tunnel.
"It goes back up," he said, stepping out of the water and shaking his feet rather like a cat might: one at a time, trying to get the water out of his shoes. "This room's dry."
"Thank goodness," Kairi said, still making that face as she followed Lea and stepped to one side, picking her feet up as if to drip-dry her shoes. "If the whole going down into a tomb thing wasn't enough of a deterrent, that gross water sure would be."
"And yet here we are," Riku said, stepping up out of the water after her.
"Yes, here you are."
All three of them tensed instantly, spines going rigid as a fourth voice echoed in the semidarkness. Where had it come from? Lea whirled in time to see the Romani man step out of the shadows to their left. He snatched Kairi by the arm and yanked her backward, and she yelped in alarm as he pulled her close and covered her mouth with one hand.
"Shh, shh, do not make noise, little girl," he crooned at her, "or you will wake the dead!"
"Let her go," Riku said, stepping forward, and the Romani man stepped backward in kind, taking Kairi with him.
"Ah ah," he said, shaking his head, "stay where you are, mon frère, we wouldn't want anyone to get hurt."
Riku summoned his Keyblade, dropping into an offensive stance as it shimmered into view. "No, we wouldn't," he said dangerously, and Lea reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. His courage was admirable, but offense wasn't the way to handle a hostage situation—he was only going to make things worse if he riled the Romani man up.
"Easy, Riku, let's everybody just take it easy, okay?" He held both hands up then, as if in surrender, and Kairi gave him a desperate look, struggling against the man's grip. She had been the bravest of them only a moment ago, willing to face all the things they hadn't been able to see, but suddenly she looked so much smaller. Lea grit his teeth. This was not how he had wanted this excursion to go.
"Why are you following me?" the Romani man demanded, his dark eyes narrow as they flicked from Lea to Riku and back. "You've been after me since the square, haven't you?"
"Dude, you stole my wallet," Lea snapped. "I just wanted it back."
There was a beat of silence, and then the man just threw his head back and laughed, tossing his stringy black hair. "All of this, for a wallet?" he snorted. "You are truly foolish, my good sir, and now you have dragged your friends into your trouble as well."
"Actually, they came on their own," he said with a grain of exasperation, and Riku made a frustrated noise at him, Keyblade still drawn.
There was a protracted instant of tense silence, and then Riku's shoulders lifted as he took a breath. "Look, your name is Luca, right?" Riku said, lowering his weapon a bit and giving the Romani a severe stare.
The man looked a little wary suddenly, lifting his chin. "How do you know this?" he asked, and Riku squared his posture.
"You've got a pretty big reputation in the city," he said. Lea arched one eyebrow—this was news to him. How did Riku know who this guy was?
"Reputation?"
"As a man of honor among thieves," Riku said, and Luca squinted, then smiled a bit. Lea suddenly realized what was happening: Riku was baitinghim. He wasn't sure how the hell Riku knew this guy's name, but he was definitely stroking his ego, which was a classic subterfuge move. And here he hadn't thought Riku had it in him to be so underhanded. "We aren't here to give you trouble, Luca. We don't want a fight. How about we settle this with a game?" he asked. "Romani are good at games, right?"
"We are the best," Luca assured him, and Riku nodded.
"You can choose what we play, and if you win, you can keep the wallet and we'll just leave, no questions asked. If we win, you give it back, and we'll still leave, no questions asked." He gestured to Kairi, then dismissed his Keyblade and showed Luca his empty hands. "Just let her go, and we can settle this like civilized people, okay?" He shook his head. "You have no use for a hostage."
Luca hesitated, then furrowed his brow. He seemed to think for a long, quiet moment, and then a thin smile crossed his features. With a flourish, he released Kairi from his grip.
"Very well," he said. "The girl is yours."
Kairi staggered forward, stumbled, then caught herself and darted to Riku's side. Riku caught her hand in one of his and then held Luca's eye as the dark-haired man shifted his weight where he stood.
"And our game?" he asked.
Luca stepped to his right and turned a large crate on its side, then produced a trio of steel cups from seemingly out of nowhere. Lea's eyes narrowed; if this guy knew sleight of hand then they might have been in some trouble. He knew the sorts of games a street performer like this guy excelled at, and prestidigitation was surely par for the course. At this point he was less worried about his wallet and more worried about just getting out of here, but Riku didn't seem rattled. He had to figure the younger man had a plan of some sort—he usually did. He was pragmatic that way. Luca set the cups down on top of the crate, open side down, and rested his palms atop the two outer cups.
"For the wallet, then," he said, grinning toothily, "we will play cups." He rolled his wrist and held up what looked like a white marble. "You understand how the game is played, do you not?"
"I have to guess which cup the ball is under, right?" Riku asked, giving Kairi's hand a squeeze and then stepping forward. "I accept your challenge."
Kairi lingered behind as he moved toward Luca, then glanced at Lea and moved to his side instead. Lea touched her shoulder, cursing that penchant of his for finding trouble. Getting himself in hot water was one thing, but he'd never meant to get Kairi and Riku involved, even if they'd followed of their own volition.
"You okay?" he asked, and she nodded hurriedly. He squeezed her shoulder, then turned narrow eyes back to Riku. None of this had gone the way he'd planned, but something told him that Riku knew what he was doing. "It'll be all right," he said quietly as Kairi pressed herself against his side. After all, if there was anyone who knew how to beat someone at their own game, it was Riku.
Oh my god I did it again, I forgot to keep crossposting old backlog here I'M SORRY. I swear I really am going to try and be better about this gaskv,sdf lord. Still like 30 chapters to go, tho, so i'm not gonna post them all at once that would just be ridiculous. Gonna try and do two or so a week until I get caught up, sorry again! thanks for reading!
