Disclaimer: Don't own Gambit; do own Blaze
The Tokyo Job 06In the apartment, Gambit waited more anxiously than he would let on. Squinting at the lap top screen on which the images from Blaze's camera were portrayed, he watched the hatch grow orange and molten. Absently his fingers rubbed a point on the back of his neck, just below his collar, that was blistered and burned. He found it intriguing that for all Blaze's insistence that she'd never use her powers, the minute her guard was down all that firepower came roaring to the surface… Put it this way, if they were going to carry on this…development…of their relationship, he'd need to invest in some burn cream or something.
The hatch no longer an issue, Blaze took a moment to take some slow deep breaths and get a grip of herself. She hadn't stopped shaking all the way through using her firepower. She could feel her heart pounding and her jaw was sore with how tightly she'd clenched her teeth. She wished it hadn't been necessary, that maybe Gambit could have been here to take care of the obstruction. But he's not here, Blaze pointed out to herself stubbornly, so get on with it so you can get back to him.
Finally Blaze put her fingers out of the sewers, grasping the still warm rim of the hatchway. She'd put her glove back on to prevent leaving fingerprints. Levering herself into the maintenance room of the collection, she cleared her mind of all thoughts except finding the artefact and getting out of there as quickly as possible.
It proved to be fairly easy. The collection was poorly guarded, with barely a CCTV camera to bother her. More difficult was climbing back into the sewers with a two-foot long katana samurai sword getting in her way. She settled for putting it in the drain before her, and then sliding in after it and commando crawling back the way she'd come, pushing the sword along every few paces. She hopes whoever was buying it wouldn't mind it being caked in foul grime.
"Minging, minging, minging!" She exclaimed as she climbed out of the sewers again a little while later in the park below the apartment. Stamping her way out of the suit and boots, she flung all of her gear into a bin bag and tied it with a knot. The technical stuff she tucked under her arm as she looked about for Remy. True to form, his timing was impeccable as he rounded the corner in a stolen car already packed full of all the belongings from the apartment. Blaze dived into the passenger seat, slamming the door, then glanced across at him.
"You were right 'bout one t'ing." He offered with a grimace. "Somethin' don't smell too good round here right now."
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After ditching the bag of smelly clothes, they checked into a hotel so Blaze could shower and change. Gambit, feeling uncharacteristically generous, cleaned up the stolen sword for passing on to the lawyer. Then they headed out again, back to the lawyer's office in a second stolen vehicle to get their money and get rid of the weapon.
There was one small problem though. On pulling up outside the lawyer's office, they were quickly surrounded by a host of Japanese police, barking orders and generally being threatening. Gambit quickly tried to put his car in reverse and smash his way through the crowd. Blaze hung on grimly as the car's wheels churned, burning rubber filled the air, before Remy could get the car going in the right direction. More than one policeman had to throw himself out of the way as the car sped backwards without a care for their lives.
"Damn lawyer!" Remy swore.
"He's ratted on us?" Blaze said incredulously. "I can't believe it! I mean, I know I should believe it, but… What the hell are we going to do?"
"We got everythin' he gave you right?" Gambit asked, glancing in the rear view mirror. Twisting the wheel round to full lock, he swerved the car into a side street and the trailing police disappeared from sight.
"Yes." Blaze patted the silver case in the foot well of the car in front of her. "Why? Are you thinking we rat on him? Remy that's not like you…"
"Blaze you were set up to fail. You were supposed to get caught for this, an' to go down for his client's crimes. I ain't gonna let that damn lawyer get away with doin' that to you Petite."
Blaze glanced at Gambit as he speared the car through a pedestrianized zone, into a park and out onto a carriageway full of fast moving traffic. His face was set in a stern expression, his eyes intent on the road. She watched him purse his lips in concentration, wanting so much to reach over and kiss him passionately for coming through for her like this.
Unfortunately whatever attention wasn't rapt on escaping the chasing police was probably already working out a plan to bring down the scheming lawyer. Blaze liked her insides where they were and not plastered to the road surface, so she had to content herself with placing a hand on his thigh. Gambit smiled without looking at her, and released a hand from the wheel to squeeze hers briefly.
All Blaze could do was bite her lip and fix her eyes back on the road. Her adrenaline was pumping now, and not entirely because of the car chase. Her hand stayed where it was, a promised of thanks to come when all this was over…
