Started off as a random idea and a couple of one-liners. As the description mentions this fic is inspired by the Film Noir style of cinematography. It took longer to finish than what I was expecting, mainly due to it being written in a style I've never used before. Some of the time investment went purely into researching slang of the 1930s and 1940s era, as well as light motifs of the Noir genre. All in all, it was good fun to write.
"I've met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my time, but you- you're twenty minutes."
I slide in the key to the door of my office and shove it open, along with the letters plastered on its window…
Sasuke Uchiha: Private Investigator
The draft slams it shut behind me as the floorboards creak under the weight of my footsteps. I pass by the old officer badge framed on the wall while lighting myself a fresh smoke. It's a copy, of course… the bastards wouldn't let me keep the real thing.
A grand new day in this city of sinners and saints. I laugh at my own thoughts. Who am I kidding? We're all sinners here.
[…]
She comes in late. A few more minutes and I would have been driving away from this shit hole. The knock on the door is barely audible, almost timid. None of my current clients have that kind of self-control.
"Are you… Sasuke Uchiha?"
She relaxes once I confirm that she's speaking to the man she's looking for. Then she takes off her coat and hat, and I am left standing there like a stump. She fills that dress she's wearing in all the right places. When she sits down, I catch the scent of her expensive perfume, even through the cheap tabaco still smoldering in my ashtray. What's a woman like this doing in such a lousy part of town?
She shivers like the last leaf on a dying tree as she pushes a photo across my desk.
"My services aren't cheap." I light up another smoke, if only to get my attention from her mesmerizing gaze.
She bends over to her purse and pulls out an envelope, dropping it next to the photo, like she'd rehearsed this a thousand times before she worked up the courage to come.
"I'm-"
"I know who you are, Bright-Eyes… I see you and yours in the paper every other week." Hinata Hyuga… Prized princess of most powerful family in the city. Her people have their fingers in just about every pie this side of the river.
"My sister…" She points to the photo depicting a young girl - I reckon no older than eighteen. "She's gone missing."
I drag the picture to my side of the desk, ignoring the envelope; I can tell there's more money in there than I've made in the last year.
"How long?"
"Three days ago."
"People that go missing for that long in this city don't usually turn up again."
"That's…! She's alive! I know it…" She starts outraged but by the end, there's only a whisper left of her voice. So much for conviction. "Please. I need your help…"
There's a knot forming in my gut and all my instincts are screaming at me not to go down this rabbit hole. To tell her that her sister is dead and that she'd be wasting her money and my time on this wild goose chase. But how can I refuse such a woman…? How can any man?
[…]
It's a damn cold night. One of those when the wind cuts to the bone… and yet I can't feel a thing. I drive my car across the city like a bat outta hell and it's only when I trip a red light that I realize how riled up she's got me. Rookie mistake, letting my feelings get a hold of me like that. The last thing I need is a cop on my case.
Bright-Eyes said that her sister was grabbed in the middle of the road, by a pair of thugs. That's all her driver saw before he got knocked unconscious. But something doesn't fit… If this was a ransom operation, the Hyugas would have gotten a call. Hell… The girl would even be back in her ivory tower by now, with the amount of cash her family throws around.
This wasn't a professional job. Professionals have standards – and by that, I mean the driver wouldn't be alive to give any details on the kidnappers. Low level scum wouldn't have the courage or the brains to go after one of the Hyugas, which only leaves one option: they were hired by a bigger fish. If they're not dead in a ditch after completing the job, they must be out spending their pay, and I know exactly what type of place offers everything these types want from life.
[…]
'The Flower Shop'… It's the biggest brothel in the Red-Light district. If I'm gonna find any answers, I can think of no better place to start. When you got the money and play by the rules, this place will make any man's dreams come true.
Inside, I spot the usual suspects – a few off-duty cops, some gang members, even a judge. This is neutral ground. Nobody in their right mind would pick a fight here, because everybody knows the worker bees are armed to the teeth… and they don't give second chances.
I take my seat at the bar and wave to the pixie behind the counter.
"Gimme a shot of something strong… and keep'em coming."
I've only downed my second glass when I feel the cold barrel of a gun pushing against the back of my head.
"Sasuke Uchiha… I didn't think you had the balls to show your face around here again."
There she is… the Queen Bee herself… Ino Yamanaka. She could blow my brains out right here and now, and nobody would bat an eye at her. Within these walls, she is the law.
"Put that thing away… You're going to hurt my feelings." I turn to face her, staring past the piece and into her eyes.
"Your feelings are the last thing you need to worry about."
"I'm giving you a fair warning here, baby…"
She hesitates for only a second, then cocks the hammer and squeezes the trigger. I grab the barrel before the shot is fired, yanking the gun out of her hand and smacking her across the cheek.
"You… bastard!" In less than a second, half the weapons in the Red-Light District are pointed at me. The music goes quiet and the clients stop moving. Ino cups the sore spot with her hand, then licks her lips with a grin. "I forgot how quick you are…"
She grabs the cuffs of my coat and yanks me to her, shoving her mouth into mine so hard it hurts. Her tight embrace brings memories of fiery nights spent together – some good… some, less so. Her girls calm down and direct their attention back to their clients as if nothing happened.
"So why are you here?" She lets go of me only when she's had her fill.
I tell her about my newest case in detail – who hired me, who I'm looking for. Me and her might not have always seen eye to eye, but I trust her. She lights up a cigarette and orders another drink for both of us.
"And why should I help you impress some high-town canary?"
"Because sooner or later, the Hyugas are gonna figure out where to find the two idiots who took their princess, same as I did… and they won't give a damn about who gets in their way."
Her jaw clenches, clearly upset with my answer. I can see it in her eyes, the desire to fight me on this… but there's a fine line between courage and stupidity, and I know there ain't an ounce of the latter in her. She understands that there's always a bigger fish.
"Fine." She mutters through clenched teeth. "Couple of regular saps came in a day ago, asking for my best girls, ordering by best booze… throwing around a lot more dough than they're worth."
"Did they ever say where they got that kind of money?"
"They were pretty uptight about it at first… but you know my girls."
The corner of her mouth curbs up in a grin of pure satisfaction. Yeah… I know her girls.
"Said they got paid doing a job in up-town. Easy money, they called it. Had to knock out an old man and grab a girl."
[…]
Half an hour later I'm in another part of town. Not a good part, either. This is where the dregs live… the scum… the kind of people who'd take money to kidnap a girl from her family. I check the napkin with the address one last time, in front of the door, then I pocket it and pull out a pair of brass knuckles. I wasn't paid for this part… but that won't stop me from enjoying it.
I break the door to splinters and charge in.
The scuffle doesn't last long. The first one comes at me with a knife he picked up after the shock wears off. I break his arm in two places and leave him squealing on the floor like a pig being brought to the slaughter. His buddy fumbles his way to the gun on the table and fires at me, but all the drugs and alcohol from earlier don't help with his aim. The shot misses… and he never gets the chance to fire a second time.
When he comes to his senses again, I show him the picture, and I make sure he understands I'm not in the mood to hear tall tales. For every question that I ask and he doesn't answer, I take off a finger. He thinks I'm bluffing and makes a poor attempt to spit at me. One bloody stump later, I hear it…
"She's the one who hired us!"
"She?"
"The-the girl in the photo! Alright?!"
"You take me for a fool? Why would she, herself, hire a couple of thugs to kidnap her?"
I hover the knife over another finger.
"I don't know, man! Fuck! We just took the money and did the job. We didn't ask questions!"
"Go on…"
"She-she told us where to pull over the car and not to hurt the driver, but the old fart came at us so we had to knock him out."
I let go of his hand and he pulls it, crying, to his chest… well… what's left of it. If he's telling the truth, then this case just got a whole lot more interesting.
"Where did you drop her off?"
"I'll tell you, ok?! I'll tell you!"
[…]
It's a small farm on the outskirts of the city. A rickety old place, looking like it barely holds together. The fence is just a few boards nailed upright, so it gives me no trouble. I expected this to be a dead end when I left the apartment, but the light in one of the windows hints that my luck might not have dried out just yet.
The back door's lock gives in without any effort and I make my way inside, silent as a house cat. I can hardly believe my own eyes when I get to the only lit room.
"I'll be damned… Hanabi Hyuga…"
She stares at me like a dear in headlights, eyes as big as saucers and mouth gaping open. I see her look at the window with panic, then back at me with resignation. Smart girl… I'd catch up with her before she made it off the property. Before I open my mouth to say anything else, I hear the clumsy footsteps behind me and the air rushing out of the way of the baseball bat aiming for my head. The young lad attacks me again once his first swing misses, but he's no fighter. I can see it, clear as day, in the way he holds himself, in the wasteful movements and the labored breath. The bat ends up in my hands and he ends up on the hard floor.
"Should learn to pick your fights better, junior…"
I raise the bat to cave his head in but Hanabi jumps between me and my target, tearful and pleading. She falls to her knees when I hesitate, then turns and wraps her arms around him, and in that moment, all of this makes sense. These two are lovebirds.
She confesses to everything, through sobs and whimpers. How she met him, how she fell in love, how her family would never allow her to be with someone of his status. That she's ok with living in squalor, as long as she's with him. It's a tale that tugs on the heartstrings, but I've heard enough of these to know how this song and dance goes. Her family will never stop looking for her until they find a body… and maybe not even then. They'll live their whole lives on the run, looking over their shoulder.
Half an hour later, the crying has stopped, and all I could see in her eyes is the fiery resolve that tells me she's willing to go through hell and back for the man she's holding in her arms.
Dames… All they gotta do sometimes is let it all out… and a few buckets later there's no way you'd know something was ever wrong.
[…]
Bright-Eyes tells me it isn't safe to talk over the phone, so here I am, three hundred meters above the streets of high-town, standing on the balcony of her penthouse. She walks out of the shower fifteen minutes after she told me to let myself in, looking looks like angels aught 'a look… It ain't right for a woman like her to exist. The siren… The goddess.
She joins me on the balcony and before I can think of anything clever to say, she takes the cigarette from my mouth and pulls on it once, then hands it back. I taste her lips on it and my heart is pounding so hard I can't hear anything else. I wanna reach over and touch her, hold her in my arms and get more than just a taste… but I clench my teeth and I focus.
I tell her what I found about her sister and that she's not coming back. She tries to hide the pain of the news with a fake smile, but I can see through it.
"My father was grooming her to become the next head of the Hyuga family. He failed with me. I was never… strong enough… brave enough to take his place. But she was. Brave enough to set herself free. Now it's to be the old days all over again, for me."
She perches on the rail and leans forward so far, I can already see her as a pretty stain on the pavement below. I wrap my arm around her slim waist and pull back.
"Why?" Her voice cracks into sobbing when she asks.
"Beautiful woman like you going out like that… It don't sit right in my book. Trust me, doll-face… Whatever you got going through your mind right now, it ain't worth that."
"You… You think I'm beautiful?"
I look at her, and I'm sure she's pulling my leg with a question like that, but the tears in her eyes make me realize she's as broken as everybody else in this damn city.
What flavor of hell has your old man put you through, that you don't even know that much about yourself, Bright-Eyes?
I feel pity. For all the riches at her disposal, for all the power that comes with her name, she's just a bird trapped in a cage. Those thoughts vanish when she presses her lips to mine… and in that singular, blissful moment, all the grime and the muck and the filth of the world washes off, in an explosion of passion that sets my soul ablaze.
"Stay with me…" She whispers. "Stay the night. If I am to take my sister's place, I would have this one last taste of freedom."
I pick her up in my arms and take her to the bed.
[…]
I slide in the key to the door of my office and shove it open, along with the letters plastered on its window…
Sasuke Uchiha: Private Investigator
The draft slams it shut behind me as the floorboards creak under the weight of my footsteps.
A grand new day in this city of sinners and saints.
Only this time… she's there. She's waiting for me.
"I got a new job for you… my detective."
I smile and light myself a fresh smoke.
"I want you to take me away from this city. I want you to run away with me."
I've heard enough tales to know how this song and dance goes. Her family will never stop looking for us. We'd live our whole lives on the run, looking over our shoulder.
And yet… how could I refuse such a woman? How can any man?
Fin~
Hope you enjoyed it.