(A/N: Blah. I sho lazy. I not update for long time. Oh well. Me update now. ^_^
Thankies for ze reviews! ^^
Desi: No, Kevin shouldn't be so inquisitive. ^^ And ze skank ish just being ebil. ^^
Tenma Koneko: I forgive you! ^^ I'm glad you liked the chappie so much! ^^ And no, Mari isn't Mariah. That would be...weird....o_O Thankies for putting me on your favs! ^^ No, don't kill Jin! He just might be important to the plot! O_O Jin ish goodbad. XD He really isn't either, in a way. Don't worry, it's supposed to be confuzzling. ^^ And glad u like the chappie! ^^ This chapter's even shorter. -___-;;;; Maybe Mari does have a split personality....hmmm....Ne who, you'll have to wait and see if anybody gets killed! XD
Now, on with the fic!)
And No Birds Sang
Chapter 10: Truths
Kevin forced himself to stay crouched down by Rei's side, to act natural, even when he heard Jin's voice, heard the older neko-jin's heavy footstep on the floorboards, coming toward him. god, how he hated him!
He couldn't believe he'd ever wanted to stay in the same room! He couldn't believe he'd ever looked up into those horrible eyes and found them to be so truthful and friendly! Jin had saved him, Jin had taken him home, kept him safe. Jin had been so...so helpful and friendly and kind! Jin couldn't really have murdered all those people...
He felt betrayed. Rei had betrayed him too. Rei...Rei was queer, Rei was so...not normal! And now, Jin wasn't either. He felt so lost and confused. He buried his head in his knees and tried to quiet himself, for there were people flooding into Rei's room.
He knew Jin was there, and Mari was there, and there was a third presence. The third was so familiar, he swore he knew it. And then, he heard Kai's voice and glanced up through his tears to see the bluenette on his knees beside Rei, holding the sleeping neko-jin's hand.
A hand was placed on his shoulder. He glanced up, looking into the decietful eyes of Jin. He longed to tear his gaze away, but he just couldn't. "What's wrong?" the older neko-jin asked.
Kevin was tempted to yell and scream. He wanted to tell the man to go away, to let go of him, to leave him alone. He wanted to run, just run away from all of this. Instead, he shook his head no.
Jin grabbed him by the arm, hauling up to his feet. "C'mon, kiddo. Come outside and tell me about it," he said, low enough so the others couldn't hear him.
For a split second, Kevin wanted to believe him. But he remembered the paper and he couldn't. He couldn't trust this terrible, horrible, lying, murdering fiend!
They were outside, in the alleyway, before he knew it. Jin had guided him all the way downstairs and now, here they were, in the cool of the night. Jin lit a cigarette, but said nothing.
Kevin stood, staring down at his feet, shuffling them on the pavement. The silence began to get uncomfortable. "I...uh..."
He didn't know what to say. Jin had told him to stay put and not wander around the house, but he did anyways. Would Jin be angry? Of course he would. Kevin had gone and done exactly what he'd been told not to do. Who wouldn't be angry with that?
And of course, there was the fact that Kevin knew, that Kevin had found out Jin's double life. He found the words just rolling off his tongue anyways. The nervous adrenaline was killing him. "I...went into your room."
He stopped, feeling that was sufficient, waiting for Jin's reaction.
The older man blew out smoke and for a second, Kevin was reminded of the angry dragons in the fairy tales his mother had read to him when he was very small. Grey-blue eyes turned on him, gleaming dangerously. They watched him, waiting for him to continue. "You did now, did you?" he prompted, finally.
"Yeah. I did. And...I, uh...found some paper."
"And what did those papers tell you?"
The voice was soft, quiet and as level as ever, but deadly sharp, like a knife, peeling away useless layers of information, scraping the core for the information he really needed.
Kevin snapped. He couldn't take it anymore, he couldn't take staring at that two-faced murder anymore! He pointed the finger. "I found out you're...you're a murderer and a liar! I hate you! You killed all those people at the train station! You killed them! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"
There was silence. There was no anger, no saddness, no nothing for a minute, just Kevin's harsh breathing, the blood pounding through his ears, the curling smoke from Jin's cigarette.
Jin smirked. Jin snickered. "Nobody ever understands," he said softly, crossing his arms and looking away.
Kevin looked up at him in confusion. "W...what do you mean?"
Jin's nails were digging into the flesh of his arm, hard, painfully. "Nobody understands why we do it. Not even neko-jins. You're all so naive."
Kevin felt his anger rising again. Jin was teasing him - talking about something that was just beyond his comprehension. He balled his hands into fists. "Just what are you getting at?!"
The skin was broke and blood burst from the wound, dribbling down Jin's arm, down his nails. He turned on Kevin, eyes blazing. "Don't you get it?! We're giving those stuck up bastards a taste of their own medicine! They always trip us up, make us fall down! They kill us by the thousands, they herd us into ghettos and make us live like animals! They make us beg! Have you never been humiliated by them?! Have you never seen a neko-jin so broken, so poor, on his knees, begging for a scrap of week-old bread at the feet of a ten laughing, jeering humans?! Oh, God! I hate them! I hate them so much!"
Here, he paused for breath and struck the wall in frustration. "Damn," he said.
He looked skywards. He was on the verge of tears, Kevin could tell by the quaking of his voice. "They...they can kill us by the millions and nobody gives a fuck. And yet...if a dozen of them die...no, if even one of them dies, it's such a tragedy. They deserve more mourning than a million of us. And they don't."
He glanced at Kevin, before he started laughing. "Lookit you. You just don't get it. I guess you've seen enough killing to think each and every life is precious. Well, theirs aren't. They aren't worth anything. Not a single one of them is worth a hundred million of us!"
Jin threw his cigarette butt to the ground and started to walk away. He waved his hand in dismissal. "Do what you like," he called. "One day, you'll understand."
Kevin stood in the middle of the alleyway, completely baffled. The light breeze brushed by him, snuffing the life from the glowing cigarette butt.
~*~*~*~*
Mari stood silently, watching Kai. Her eyes were slitted, darkened with hatred and jealously. She curled her lip in disgust as the bluenette frantically tried to wake Rei up, but to no avail.
'Just look at him...so frantic, so pathetic.'
She hated him. He was so weak, and so pathetic. He didn't deserve easy living. She would have bet he'd never had someone die. She'd bet her life that he didn't know what went on outside of his almighty castle. Everything was just as peachy as it could be, life was all one happy game.
She would have liked to spit on him.
At last, Kai turned away from the prone body, sighing. She snapped herself from her thoughts and locked eyes with the bluenette. Red eyes met green in a heated, disgusted stare. A terse silence reigned, broken only by Rei's soft breathing.
Kai got up from the floor, slowly. He heard a metallic click and found himself at gunpoint.
Mari's smile was cruel, cold and sadistic. "You rich bastard," she growled, almost laughingly.
Kai didn't say anything. He watched the end of the gun.
Mari continued talking. "So, how's it feel, to know that death's only a second away? How's it feel to know your whole happy little lie is gonna come crashing down?"
Kai lifted an eyebrow. "Happy little lie?"
Mari curled back her lip. "Don't play stupid! I know how you rich assholes live! Everything is good as long as you're rich, as long as you can hide! Money solves all your problems!"
"What are you talking about?!" Kai asked, his voice rising.
How could she just assume they were all alike? How could she just assume that just because he had money, he'd never saw the cruelty the world had to offer?
"You don't know me at all," he growled.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Oh, fuck off. You're all the same, every last one of you."
"That's like saying all neko-jins are the same - stupid, naive and lazy."
"We are not!" she hissed, her hand shaking in rage. Her finger tightened about the trigger.
"Then not all rich people are alike."
"You...you...shut up!" she screeched and closed her eyes.
~*~*~*~*
Jin walked along the street, hands stuffed in his pockets, looking at the ground as his shoes scuffed it. The sound of shattering glass and a loud bang reached his ears.
He glanced up, looking back toward the apartment.
Fragments of glass glinted in the light from the bedroom.
He pondered this for a fraction of a second, before realizing he'd left Mari, Kai and a gun in the apartment. Alone.
"Shit," he growled and changed his course, heading back to the apartment.
~*~*~*~*
Kevin trudged wearily up the stairs, his mind still reeling from his conversation with Jin.
Was the older man right?
The shot startled him out of his thoughts and his first reaction was to throw himself to the stairs, arms over his head protectively.
Silence reigned for a long time and he slowly uncurled himself. 'What was that?' he wondered.
Curiousity forcing him forward, he dashed the rest of the way up the stairs, back into the apartment.
"What happened?!" he called breathelessly as he tore into the bedroom, only to find -
~*~*~*~*
(A/N: Oh, no...a cliffy...I'm so evil...R&R please? 0.0)
Thankies for ze reviews! ^^
Desi: No, Kevin shouldn't be so inquisitive. ^^ And ze skank ish just being ebil. ^^
Tenma Koneko: I forgive you! ^^ I'm glad you liked the chappie so much! ^^ And no, Mari isn't Mariah. That would be...weird....o_O Thankies for putting me on your favs! ^^ No, don't kill Jin! He just might be important to the plot! O_O Jin ish goodbad. XD He really isn't either, in a way. Don't worry, it's supposed to be confuzzling. ^^ And glad u like the chappie! ^^ This chapter's even shorter. -___-;;;; Maybe Mari does have a split personality....hmmm....Ne who, you'll have to wait and see if anybody gets killed! XD
Now, on with the fic!)
And No Birds Sang
Chapter 10: Truths
Kevin forced himself to stay crouched down by Rei's side, to act natural, even when he heard Jin's voice, heard the older neko-jin's heavy footstep on the floorboards, coming toward him. god, how he hated him!
He couldn't believe he'd ever wanted to stay in the same room! He couldn't believe he'd ever looked up into those horrible eyes and found them to be so truthful and friendly! Jin had saved him, Jin had taken him home, kept him safe. Jin had been so...so helpful and friendly and kind! Jin couldn't really have murdered all those people...
He felt betrayed. Rei had betrayed him too. Rei...Rei was queer, Rei was so...not normal! And now, Jin wasn't either. He felt so lost and confused. He buried his head in his knees and tried to quiet himself, for there were people flooding into Rei's room.
He knew Jin was there, and Mari was there, and there was a third presence. The third was so familiar, he swore he knew it. And then, he heard Kai's voice and glanced up through his tears to see the bluenette on his knees beside Rei, holding the sleeping neko-jin's hand.
A hand was placed on his shoulder. He glanced up, looking into the decietful eyes of Jin. He longed to tear his gaze away, but he just couldn't. "What's wrong?" the older neko-jin asked.
Kevin was tempted to yell and scream. He wanted to tell the man to go away, to let go of him, to leave him alone. He wanted to run, just run away from all of this. Instead, he shook his head no.
Jin grabbed him by the arm, hauling up to his feet. "C'mon, kiddo. Come outside and tell me about it," he said, low enough so the others couldn't hear him.
For a split second, Kevin wanted to believe him. But he remembered the paper and he couldn't. He couldn't trust this terrible, horrible, lying, murdering fiend!
They were outside, in the alleyway, before he knew it. Jin had guided him all the way downstairs and now, here they were, in the cool of the night. Jin lit a cigarette, but said nothing.
Kevin stood, staring down at his feet, shuffling them on the pavement. The silence began to get uncomfortable. "I...uh..."
He didn't know what to say. Jin had told him to stay put and not wander around the house, but he did anyways. Would Jin be angry? Of course he would. Kevin had gone and done exactly what he'd been told not to do. Who wouldn't be angry with that?
And of course, there was the fact that Kevin knew, that Kevin had found out Jin's double life. He found the words just rolling off his tongue anyways. The nervous adrenaline was killing him. "I...went into your room."
He stopped, feeling that was sufficient, waiting for Jin's reaction.
The older man blew out smoke and for a second, Kevin was reminded of the angry dragons in the fairy tales his mother had read to him when he was very small. Grey-blue eyes turned on him, gleaming dangerously. They watched him, waiting for him to continue. "You did now, did you?" he prompted, finally.
"Yeah. I did. And...I, uh...found some paper."
"And what did those papers tell you?"
The voice was soft, quiet and as level as ever, but deadly sharp, like a knife, peeling away useless layers of information, scraping the core for the information he really needed.
Kevin snapped. He couldn't take it anymore, he couldn't take staring at that two-faced murder anymore! He pointed the finger. "I found out you're...you're a murderer and a liar! I hate you! You killed all those people at the train station! You killed them! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"
There was silence. There was no anger, no saddness, no nothing for a minute, just Kevin's harsh breathing, the blood pounding through his ears, the curling smoke from Jin's cigarette.
Jin smirked. Jin snickered. "Nobody ever understands," he said softly, crossing his arms and looking away.
Kevin looked up at him in confusion. "W...what do you mean?"
Jin's nails were digging into the flesh of his arm, hard, painfully. "Nobody understands why we do it. Not even neko-jins. You're all so naive."
Kevin felt his anger rising again. Jin was teasing him - talking about something that was just beyond his comprehension. He balled his hands into fists. "Just what are you getting at?!"
The skin was broke and blood burst from the wound, dribbling down Jin's arm, down his nails. He turned on Kevin, eyes blazing. "Don't you get it?! We're giving those stuck up bastards a taste of their own medicine! They always trip us up, make us fall down! They kill us by the thousands, they herd us into ghettos and make us live like animals! They make us beg! Have you never been humiliated by them?! Have you never seen a neko-jin so broken, so poor, on his knees, begging for a scrap of week-old bread at the feet of a ten laughing, jeering humans?! Oh, God! I hate them! I hate them so much!"
Here, he paused for breath and struck the wall in frustration. "Damn," he said.
He looked skywards. He was on the verge of tears, Kevin could tell by the quaking of his voice. "They...they can kill us by the millions and nobody gives a fuck. And yet...if a dozen of them die...no, if even one of them dies, it's such a tragedy. They deserve more mourning than a million of us. And they don't."
He glanced at Kevin, before he started laughing. "Lookit you. You just don't get it. I guess you've seen enough killing to think each and every life is precious. Well, theirs aren't. They aren't worth anything. Not a single one of them is worth a hundred million of us!"
Jin threw his cigarette butt to the ground and started to walk away. He waved his hand in dismissal. "Do what you like," he called. "One day, you'll understand."
Kevin stood in the middle of the alleyway, completely baffled. The light breeze brushed by him, snuffing the life from the glowing cigarette butt.
~*~*~*~*
Mari stood silently, watching Kai. Her eyes were slitted, darkened with hatred and jealously. She curled her lip in disgust as the bluenette frantically tried to wake Rei up, but to no avail.
'Just look at him...so frantic, so pathetic.'
She hated him. He was so weak, and so pathetic. He didn't deserve easy living. She would have bet he'd never had someone die. She'd bet her life that he didn't know what went on outside of his almighty castle. Everything was just as peachy as it could be, life was all one happy game.
She would have liked to spit on him.
At last, Kai turned away from the prone body, sighing. She snapped herself from her thoughts and locked eyes with the bluenette. Red eyes met green in a heated, disgusted stare. A terse silence reigned, broken only by Rei's soft breathing.
Kai got up from the floor, slowly. He heard a metallic click and found himself at gunpoint.
Mari's smile was cruel, cold and sadistic. "You rich bastard," she growled, almost laughingly.
Kai didn't say anything. He watched the end of the gun.
Mari continued talking. "So, how's it feel, to know that death's only a second away? How's it feel to know your whole happy little lie is gonna come crashing down?"
Kai lifted an eyebrow. "Happy little lie?"
Mari curled back her lip. "Don't play stupid! I know how you rich assholes live! Everything is good as long as you're rich, as long as you can hide! Money solves all your problems!"
"What are you talking about?!" Kai asked, his voice rising.
How could she just assume they were all alike? How could she just assume that just because he had money, he'd never saw the cruelty the world had to offer?
"You don't know me at all," he growled.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Oh, fuck off. You're all the same, every last one of you."
"That's like saying all neko-jins are the same - stupid, naive and lazy."
"We are not!" she hissed, her hand shaking in rage. Her finger tightened about the trigger.
"Then not all rich people are alike."
"You...you...shut up!" she screeched and closed her eyes.
~*~*~*~*
Jin walked along the street, hands stuffed in his pockets, looking at the ground as his shoes scuffed it. The sound of shattering glass and a loud bang reached his ears.
He glanced up, looking back toward the apartment.
Fragments of glass glinted in the light from the bedroom.
He pondered this for a fraction of a second, before realizing he'd left Mari, Kai and a gun in the apartment. Alone.
"Shit," he growled and changed his course, heading back to the apartment.
~*~*~*~*
Kevin trudged wearily up the stairs, his mind still reeling from his conversation with Jin.
Was the older man right?
The shot startled him out of his thoughts and his first reaction was to throw himself to the stairs, arms over his head protectively.
Silence reigned for a long time and he slowly uncurled himself. 'What was that?' he wondered.
Curiousity forcing him forward, he dashed the rest of the way up the stairs, back into the apartment.
"What happened?!" he called breathelessly as he tore into the bedroom, only to find -
~*~*~*~*
(A/N: Oh, no...a cliffy...I'm so evil...R&R please? 0.0)