Children by Robert Miles is amazing.
*Children*
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On the way to somewhere, Jin and Nina are stuck in traffic. Jin Kazama wanted to check out Kazama Dojo out of curiosity, hearing that it was on sale so he was interested. She wonders how much of a jackass he was planning on being to his maternal family. He hadn't spoken to her much since the night she tried to wake him up from his nightmare. It shouldn't but it irks Nina. She tries to get comfortable in the car.
The driver puts on Robert Miles on her request. Just to drown out both the noise from outside and the silence within.
They should have taken their bikes. The area was quite old fashioned, quite narrow but luckily hadn't been touched by the war. Yet. A cheerful boy with roses knocks on their window. He was selling roses to make a living. The war rendered his family unemployed. Nina's grateful that the boy doesn't recognise Jin. She's also surprised Jin even opened the window.
He buys a few roses and hands a generous note to the boy. Their driver must have been surprised too.
"Sir, you're not as bad as they say you are." The driver stutters.
"I'm doing this for show." Jin says back. "My dear grandfather taught me everything about appearances. It's why I accepted Eddy Gordo's offer."
Nina rolls her eyes.
Hear, hear.
Jin leaves the roses on the seat. They rest in the space between them. Nina toys with the petals.
She watches the young boy go back into a building. Seconds later, it explodes.
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They find the boy buried beneath the rubble with no scratches. Nina keeps her eyes on Jin, making sure even with his hoodie on, no one recognised him. She was also dressed in a similar fashion. She watches Jin carry him to their car without another word. Nina is sure to hold the roses so they wouldn't get crushed under the boy's weight.
The doctor at the zaibatsu says the boy is fine. Nothing life threatening. Alisa comes back and reports that the boys parents didn't survive. Jin retreats to gargoyle perch leaving her to watch over the boy until he woke up.
Great, he's going to leave me to deal with the traumatised kid.
She doesn't know what is going on in his mind. But it was just like the same when he had left the bedroom after his nightmare. They hadn't spoken since then about that.
When the boy does wake up, he cries out for his parents.
Nina doesn't have the heart to tell him to deal with it. Instead she places the roses by his bedside. But it doesn't work. He cries so much that it almost draws the tears out of Nina. She had cried like that when her father had been killed.
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Sometimes Jin would take off without a word and while that didn't really bother her as she knew he could protect himself, the searching for him part annoyed her. There was nothing more time consuming that driving to every damn harbour in the area and avoiding trouble with the resistance just to find Jin. She was lucky he agreed to wear a tracking device.
"I'm starting to think you love playing hide and seek." She once told Jin in a frustrated tone, wondering if that's the game he used to play as a kid and at school.
To her surprise and disdain, Jin laughs. "Usually, I don't like being found."
When she does find him again, it's by the harbour. No surprise there. Jin loved being near water. So did she.
Jin was in his gym clothes, a tracksuit and sneakers. His hood was down.
Right, since the kid wasn't around, she was going to tell Jin to get rid of the kid. She didn't care how he did it, as long as their penthouse was childfree, she would be happy.
As she steps close towards him, she feels the pain and despair that haunts him. He looked so much older than he was. A far cry from the usual Jin. He just never let himself cry it out, like her. Both stubborn as hell not to shed a tear, not to fall weak.
It could wait. She should talk about the kid later.
Nina rests a hand on Jin's shoulder. Not knowing what to say, she just keeps quiet. Let's him know she's there. Eventually he turns around and pulls her close.
Strong arms envelope her causing Nina to skip a breath. Shocked as hell, Nina stiffens as he holds her tight.
What was was this?
Jin sighs deeply, resting his head against her shoulder. She pulls his hood over his head and wraps her arms around him when some people pass them by.
No words are spoken.
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"Enough is enough." Nina says, finding Jin dozing off on the throne. She thought it was a bit too dramatic. The whole room was theatrical at best. It was a good thing they kept the kid away from it. That hologram world spinning in the devil's palm? Yep. Scary for a kid.
She places her hands on her hips and stares down at Jin. "You should sleep in your bed."
"I will." He answers politely. "Later."
"Five days asleep in the throne room will kill your back. I am good but I don't have Julia's strength to lug a beefcake like you around."
That elicits a chuckle from Jin.
"Well?" Nina pushes it a little, just testing the waters. She extends a hand to him.
Jin removes his hand from under his chin. "I hurt you that night."
Please. Nina scoffs. She didn't even get a scar from that encounter.
"No you didn't."
"You can't trust me."
"I can. I do."
Jin looks at her in a way that feel as if he's looking at her soul. As if he wants her to say she loves him. His bangs add to that whole intense shit. She wiggles her eyebrows and still has her hand extended to him.
He sighs. She smirks. "Out of excuses?"
Jin takes Nina's hand and gets up.
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"Boy's name confirmed as Tetsuya Yamazaki. His parents owned a florist." Alisa says. It didn't make the situation better but atleast Nina and Jin didn't have to address him as boy or kid anymore.
Jin gives orders for the boy to get new clothes and a suitcase. Nina takes his measurements and lets him have one phone-call with a relative. She didn't know what was going through Jin's mind but he had to understand that keeping the boy with them wasn't a good idea. It would make things complicated and get in the way of their work.
She'd have to talk to Jin about this.
When the next morning comes around, the boy is at their table with them. Jin barely says anything so Nina asks Tetsuya to talk about what he thought of the war. Perhaps Jin would start to realize it wasn't time to adopt kiddies when he had a devil problem. Who knows when that creature might unleash itself and hurt the poor boy. He could not control that devil gene yet.
"I don't know what the war is for but my parents said the Mishima Zaibatsu started it." Tetsuya sniffs from across their table.
"I'm sorry." Jin says quietly.
She hears the sound of his fork against his plate.
"Can you guys call me 'Suya' ?" He hiccups. "My parents gave me that nickname."
Nina meets Jin's gaze. This was unchartered territory and they both knew it.
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