Title – Price of Forgiveness (Chpt 2)
Author - HourglassThorne, hourglassthorne@yahoo.com
Rating – R
Pairing(s) - Pairing yet to be specified
Warning(s) – Gluhen spoilers;
strong language; graphic
violence; disturbing content Summary - Set 2 years after the events at Koua Academy, Aya and Ken
are settled into their new lives as assassins for Kryptonbrand. However, a man
with the least reason to seek them out is thrust back into their lives once
more.
Status of fanfic - ongoing
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"Faster! Faster!" Youji thought furiously to himself as he ran down the street, narrowly avoiding colliding with random people as he did so. "Need to draw them away from her! Can't let them find her! Gotta keep her safe!" He came to the end of the street and turned another corner, and then another in an effort to confuse his persuers. Hoping to gain some more distance between himself and the three men who were after him, he turned to run into a narrow alleyway and came to a skidding halt. With horror he stared at the tall chainlink fence that stood between him and the street on the other side. Whirling about, he turned to run back onto the street and froze when he saw the the first of his persuers run past the alleyway, not noticing Youji within it. The second and third of them who followed soon afterwards were not that unobservant.
Turning around as fast as he could, Youji ran and leapt up on several discarded wooden boxes, using them to get a higher leap at the fence. Frantically, he scaled the fence and was almost to the top when he suddenly felt a bolt of burning agony graze his right arm. With a sharp cry, he lost his grip on the chain link fence and fell directly into the pile of boxes beneath him. Splinters and shards of broken wood rained down on his face as he moaned in pain, his limbs attempting to move his battered body in an futile effort to run away from approaching ominous footsteps.
~*~
Aya was running as quickly as he could, managing to catch glimpses of the men pursuing Youji as they turned around this corner and that. In his mind, so many questions ran around in his head.
"What is Youji doing here? How did he find us? Who is he running from? Does he remember anything?" These and so many others tangled his thoughts. He came to a screeching halt as he turned another corner and, growling a curse in Japanese, realized that he had lost sight of the men he had been following. "Kuso!" The frustrated red-head jogged down the street, looking around desperately. "Where the hell did they vanish?!"
He was answered by the sound of a pained cry and a muffled crash coming from a nearby narrow alleyway. Aya rushed over and cautiously peered into the alley, his violet eyes turning cold and flinty as they saw the three men roughly dragging the still stunned blonde to his feet.
"Where is the girl?!" The man with the scarred face growled at Youji, who managed to glare back at him through the haze of dizziness and the scream of aching muscles, a smirk playing at his bloodied lips.
"Girl? Sorry fellas, don't have a clue what you're talking about." He was rewarded with a backhanded fist across his cheek.
"Oh 'that' girl," Youji muttered as if some light blinked on with the blow that rattled his teeth. "Sorry boys, but she's spoken for. You'll have to find another cradle to rob." A meaty hand attached itself to the taller man's neck and shoved him up against the fence as the silenced barrel of a pistol was pressed into his stomach.
"One more time… Where is the girl?!"
Youji's dark emerald eyes blazed pure unadulterated hatred and fatalistic determination at them. "Fuck you!" he snarled himself through his strangled throat. The man holding gun was bringing it back up to strike him in the head with it when out of nowhere a steel pipe flew out and struck his would-be attacker sharply across the back of his skull.
The injured blonde crumpled to the unforgiving ground as he was released, gasping and choking. The other two tried to draw their weapons on Aya, but the enraged red-head was too quick for them. The steel pipe definitely wasn't his katana, but it was damned effective in a pinch. The remaining bruisers didn't have a chance. All they managed to see was a blur of red and then they were out, bruised, broken, beaten, and bloodied. But not dead, however. And that fact moved Aya even quicker to Youji's side.
"Youji? Get up! We have to go" Aya knelt down to get the blonde's arm over his shoulder to help him to his feet.
Youji winced as injured muscles protested the movement, though it was obvious from the expression in his eyes that his mind was elsewhere. "Kaiya? The girl? Is she safe?" he whispered as he finally managed to stand upright, albeit a might unsteadily.
Aya blinked and stared at Youji incredulously. "A girl?!" he thought with an internal exhasperated sigh as he forced the two of them to begin moving out of the alleyway and onto the main sidewalk. His amythest eyes narrowed as he shook his head with a grimace. "Typical! The great Youji Kudou getting the shit beat out of him once again over a woman. Judging by those men, he probably made out with the wife or girlfriend of some drug dealer or crime lord and now has a price on his head. Baka! And I thought Ken said that he was happily married now!" His frustrated thoughts remained unvoiced, though he glared at the staggering blonde for a moment as the turned around a corner. "Just keep moving, Kudou," he said, keeping his voice even and crisp.
Youji lifted his head a bit, turing his eyes to Aya as the moved, the redhead very nearly dragging the blonde down the street in a rush. "'Kudou'," he murmured, as if tasting the name for the first time on his tongue. "Is that my family name? Do you know who I am?"
He bit back another curse as he focused his eyes on the next corner they needed to turn. "Damnit! He still doesn't remember!" Aya thought as he tried to ignore Youji's persistant emerad gaze. "But if he doesn't remember, how the hell did he find us here? And what the hell is he doing in England for that matter? Argh! He's not here five minutes and the bastard's already giving me a headache!" He pulled on Youji to move faster. "Come on. Those men will wake up eventually, and we need to get you to safety."
Shaking his head as if to clear the cobwebs tangling his mind, Youji turned his attention back to keeping his feet from tripping out from under him. "The name fits, I think. It sounds right anyways." he muttered. He stumbled and bit back a cry of pain as Aya forced him to turn suddenly and he felt his right ankle give way underneath him. "Shit! I think I sprained it."
"Keep moving, we're almost there." Aya commanded, though he did shift a bit to allow Youji to lean against him more. He led them down an alleyway that eventually led to the rear delivery entrance to the "Kitten's House". Pulling a key from his pocket with his free hand, Aya unlocked the door and brought them both inside, locking it securely again afterwards. Both men were breathing hard, though Youji certainly looked worse for wear. Only when he had seated the injured blonde in a nearby chair did Aya notice the scent of blood and deepening dark stain seeping through a jagged cut in the sleeve of Youji's jacket. "Take off your jacket, we need to take care of that wound. Ken! Michel!" Aya yelled to the front as he turned to get the first aid kit. "Close the shop and get back here now!"
Aya nearly dropped the kit, however, when he was answered by a piercing wail. "What the hell?!" He turned to glare at the source of the noise as it was carried in by Michel's arms, the younger man trying desperately to soothe the upset infant as Ken followed afterwards, wincing at the noise himself.
"Jeeze Aya! Now look what you've done!" Ken admonished.
"What I've done?! What the hell is that thing doing in here?!"
Michel frowned at Aya. "It's not a 'thing'. It's a baby. And can you please stop yelling? You're upsetting her."
"Kaiya."
Aya, Michel, and Ken all turned to stare at the bloodied, limping blonde as he hobbled over unsteadily. His deep green eyes, however, were gazing softly with undisguised relief and love at the infant girl, who had stopped crying suddenly and turned to look at Youji intently. Youji smiled gently and reached out to take her from Michel. "Shh shh shhh… It's ok Kaiya… I'm here." The baby broke out into a huge smile and began struggling to free herself of Michel's grasp and held out her open arms to Youji, who scooped her up and cradled her close to his chest, despite the pain in his wounded arm and supporting his weight on his uninjured leg. "It's ok, princess. I've got ya. Papa's here. Papa's here."
Ken and Aya stared at Youji in absolute stunned silence as Michel, seeing his teammates' shocked stupor, sighed and took matters into his own hands. "Mister? You really ought to sit down now," he said to Youji as he picked up Aya's forgotten medical kit from the floor. "We need to get you bandaged up. Don't want to go bleeding all over your baby girl now, do you?" He smiled winsomely as he led Youji back to the chair. "Kaiya… That's a pretty name. How old is she?…" Michel's voice trailed off into idle chatter as he tended to the relieved father's wounds.
The other two watched, each trying to wrap their minds around the impossibility of the scene before them.
"Youji… A father…?" Ken broke their silence first.
"He said her name was Kaiya." Aya added, the thoughts of what was spoken earlier when he found Youji beginning to click into place. "I think the men who were after Youji were really looking for her." he whispered to Ken in a hushed tone, studying his former teammate with curiosity. "He still doesn't remember who we are, though, Ken. Let's try not to tell him too much about the past. At least, not until we figure out exactly why he is here and who he is running from."
Ken nodded in agreement. "I'll call Mihirogi. He may not remember us, but he's still our
friend. She'll be able to find some
answers." He pulled his cell phone from
his apron pocket and walked out of the back room and back into the shoppe as he
dialed while Aya stood back and watched silently over Youji, memories of the
past and images of the present colliding with one another in a tangled heap
that he tried to make sense of.