DISCLAIMER: I don't own Lupin, but I did get invited to the Blondie and Dagwood 75th anniversary party… (Heh, gotcha)….
Heya there…
Sorry… Another long wait, but another long chapter as a result. I'm thinking this chapter should be known as the 'relationship' chapter, because, well… Eh, just read on and you'll find out, you'll see what I mean. Anyhow, not much in the way of special messages here; been pretty busy with school, but that's nothing new. Please read and give your opinion and critiques, as always. I so love them… I love them even more than I love old musicals… And that's a LOT!
Fun Fact of Boredom: A character introduced in this chapter is actually from an RP (Yes, I do online RPs… Yes, I'm trying to find out where there's a nearby L.A.R.P. convention… And if you know what L.A.R.P even is your nerd points have gone through the roof) I run with a friend, so he deserves some credit in helping to make this chapter (thanks again, RP Buddy!).
Chapter Twenty Four: Honky Tonk Woman
Armenia:
"I still don't believe this…" Max said with a shake of the head, glaring at his relative once more and then staring at the road ahead of them. He slammed on the brakes as he almost hit a chicken, and Heiji looked up from his laptop briefly and over at Max.
"You think you could try to watch the road?" Heiji asked with a bored sigh.
"You think you could BITE ME?" Max shrieked.
"Hey, Interpol needed to put you with someone you wouldn't end up screwing. You already put their best translator out of work for God knows how long… Have you tried the coffee I picked up yet? Armenia's famous for its coffee."
"It's also the first Christian nation… This of course constituted a visit from the Pope, and therefore he left the country with a gift in the form of a gorgeous Bible which is said to house five missing books of the Bible."
"This must be putting a bee in your bonnet, considering you don't even believe that crap."
"I'm not even really big on the Torah… I'm too busy for G-d and if you look at my life it's pretty damn obvious he's been too busy for me," Max murmured and turned into a small hotel. "I hate Eastern Europe…"
"Heh, and yet you always get drug back here. You ever think about getting your karma checked, Maxie?" Heiji packed away his computer equipment and followed Max out of the vehicle and into the small inn and up the stairs into their room, where there was one bed.
"I'm going to pull a Goemon and take the floor," said Heiji after a pause.
"Watch the rats," Max sighed tiredly, rubbing his eyes.
"Better than you thinking I'm Leo and trying to cuddle," Heiji snapped.
You see, everybody wonders why I stayed in the closet for years. It's because of people like you, Heiji… It's because of people like you. Truth be told, you aren't even my type."
"Well, I feel special now," Heiji smiled and tilted his head to a side. "Why don't you check up on your Missus?"
"I don't trust you… I know you're up to something—You have to be," Max glared at Heiji once more before exiting the hotel room, cell phone in hand.
Heiji chuckled and waited for Zenigata to exit, and then opened his laptop and began to type in a series of numbers. Max, being the math genius he was, would never figure out what he was doing… Heiji smiled as he looked at his handiwork; it looked like a bunch of gibberish, but to someone who actually understood numbers, this was valuable information.
Houston, Texas:
"So he's got him in Armenia?" Fuji laughed wildly and fell back on her bed, clapping happily, "Oh, Heiji-chan you're great!"
"Well, he's halfway right," Yukiko set her pencil and paper aside and placed her fedora back upon her head. "We are after something that's in Armenia… It just happens to have relocated itself in a Texan museum for the time being."
"And soon it'll be in my private vault!" Fuji added with another cheery smile which faded as Odori walked in, recently returning from the airport.
"How'd it go?" Yukiko looked above the brim of her hat at Ishikawa sympathetically.
"I…. I don't want to talk about it!" Odori yelled, and ran to her door. She was quick to cloister herself away from the others in the gang, so no one would see her in the weak position of crying. Odori looked about her room, and saw only her things about them… Almost every sign of Namiko was gone. Almost. Odori still had a few photos and a kimono which Ryo had made the little girl in her spare time. But Odori knew she'd have to send off the kimono when Namiko was old enough, in care of her biological mother.
"I won't even have the right to be known as her mother," Odori placed her forehead upon her knees, and her wailing could be heard through the door. Ally, Ryo and Toshiro, who had just come from lunch, stopped at the door, and all returned saddened glances with the other two members of the Lupin gang.
"Well, she did what was right…." Ryo folded her arms across her chest and sighed. "Poor Dori…"
"Yeah, she loved Namiko. Who could blame her? I mean, hell, I thought of her as my daughter, almost!... I even offered to take care of her for Dori. Carmen really wants kids," Ally added.
"How're you and Carmen doing, on that note?" asked Fuji.
"She still isn't talking to me," Ally answered, placing his hands in his pockets and seating himself in a chair beside Fuji's bed. "….We're all having a crap week, it seems."
"Hrm… I know! We'll go out tonight, all of us!" Fuji snapped her fingers and smiled. "Maybe that'll help Dori-chan a little… I can always steal that tapestry tomorrow. I signed that letter saying I'd steal it at midnight, anyway… I never said midnight of what night!"
"I thought you were going after something from the pope…"
"Heh, you kidding? That's kibble compared to this prize. That tapestry has directions to the lost books of the bible that King James himself had stored away for fear of them leaking out," Fuji smiled and snapped her computer shut. "Come on, guys, let's get a goin'!"
"Who else wants to line dance?" asked Ryo.
"Eh. No one besides your weirdo self," Fuji blinked a few times and then turned back to her closet. "Hmm…. Do I want to go for slutty yet fun or sparkles tonight?"
"Sparkly and slutty," said Ryo after a pause. "That fits you perfectly."
"Hee hee hee… I'm laughing on the inside," Fuji rolled her eyes and shook her head as she pulled out an outfit and studied herself in the mirror a few times. "Hrm… This one makes my hips look huge…"
Paris:
Leo sighed as he felt someone jump upon his bed, and rolled over and narrowed his eyes at Dako, "….Yes?"
"Max called."
"That's nice…."
"He said to tell you that he loves you."
"Good for him. I'm going to go back to sleep now."
"So are you like an at-home mom now?"
Leo sat up in bed and put on his glasses, "I'm an at-home dad…. And this is a temp thing."
"Hm… He made a bunch of food before he left and froze it so we wouldn't starve on your cooking he wanted me to tell you," Dako continued.
"He did what?" Leo grabbed his kimono on the bedpost and draped it over his shoulders, and walked out to the kitchen. Leo yawned and opened the freezer door and looked downward at the numerous plastic containers, "Damn I love him…" Leo muttered as he pulled out one container and found he had even taken care of breakfast.
After thawing out breakfast for himself and Dako and then feeding Avery, Leo dressed himself and then Dako helped him get Avery ready, and then they left to run errands for the day.
"Where are we going to first?" Dako sat next to Leo as they drove down the busy French street ahead of them.
"Well, I've got to see if a book came in for me," Leo replied, looking down at the little girl and then back at his son.
"Hey, I've got a question…. Well, a couple…. Should I call you and Max 'dad'? Wouldn't that be confusing?"
"Do you want to?"
"Sort of… I mean, I hate having to explain the whole story to other kids I hang out with at the Embassy." Dako, of course, was referring to the American embassy, where she played with fellow American children. Fortunately, Leo was a longtime friend of the Ambassador to the U.S. in France.
"If you want to, I'm sure Max won't mind you calling him Dad."
"Well, what am I supposed to call you…. Mom?"
"Ehhhh…. No. How about Papa? That's what I call my dad when I speak to him in French. It's more of a European term, and it's a little weird for you, I know, but, hey… It'd definitely void out any confusion."
"Okay, thanks for clearing all of that up. I want to set an example for Avery, and I don't want to go around calling you guys by your first names."
"Hey, no problem. Thank you for doing that, Dako. Now, what about those other questions?"
"Well… Um… I was talking with some friends… You know, about our parents and stuff…"
"Oh, your friends again?"
"Yeah… Anyway… How do you and Max, um… Dad…?"
"How do we what? Catch the bad guys?" Leo looked over his glasses and smiled. "That's easy, you see, if—"
"No, not that…" Dako glanced at her sneakers and cleared her throat. "How do you know, you know… Do… It?"
"Do what? Do…" Leo screeched his brakes to a halt as a car in front of his stopped and he stuck his fist out the window, "ZUT! Idiote! Regarde! Regarde!... Merde…" He sighed as he began his drive once again and turned to Dako after he checked Avery over to make sure he was all right. The boy had gone into a screaming and crying fit at the sudden stopping of the vehicle, and was still wailing. "I think I know where you're going with that, Dako…"
"Yeah? Thank God… I didn't want to have to explain myself."
"Wouldn't you like me to give you the other talk instead?" Leo asked pleadingly as he made a left turn and stopped at a bookstore. "The one about boys and girls?"
"Nah, I know about that already."
"How?"
"I made Max tell me."
"Max told you about that?" Leo gave a small chuckle at the thought of this; Zenigata had never had a girlfriend, much less relations with one, as far as he knew. "Well, I'll let him explain that to you, too, as soon as he gets home. He knows a lot about that, too."
"Okay… What about two girls then, you know about that?"
"I'll buy you something really nice if you quit asking me this stuff…. Pleaseeeee just stop asking, Dako…."
"You're really uptight for a Lupin. I think that's why you and Max get along so well. He's a lot more lose than you…. But you're a lot easier to talk to. You remind me a lot of my mom."
"At what point did I become the frilly one?" Leo muttered.
"Huh?"
"Nothing…. Let's get Ave and go on inside…"
"I hate these bookstores… They smell like my old grandma's house…"
"Your old grandma?"
"Uh huh—The one I had before Nana and Grandma. Nana and Grandma are better, though. Nana cooks a lot and Grandma takes me shopping all of the time."
"Well, you're a real Lupin woman in that sense, Dako. They all seem to love shopping," Leo chuckled as he unbuckled Avery and stepped into the shop.
Armenia:
"What do you MEAN 'Texas'?" Max shouted into the receiver.
"Zenigata, relax—We'll have you on the first flight out there," the inspector on the other side of the phone sighed heavily. He had grown used to Zenigata's ranting over the past few years; many had. How Leo even put up with him was a popular question around the office.
"Freakin' Texas…" Zenigata slammed down the phone and glared at Heiji. "She isn't in Armenia—She's at an Armenian exhibit."
"…Are you sure I didn't accidentally put in your contacts this morning, Max? I could've sworn I read 'Armenia'."
"That's Inspector Zenigata to you!"
"Please—Inspector Zenigata's your father. You're just some clown walking around in a cheap tweed suit," Heiji smiled and continued to pack his belongings. "You ready?"
"I don't care if I am related to you, I'll still kick your ass the first chance I get," Max gave a glare and put on his jacket, following Heiji out of the small hotel room.
Texas:
"This place looks good…" Fuji looked upward at the shining club sign that stuck out upon the darkened highway.
"It isn't too bad… Not the kind of honky tonks I like, though…" Ryo gave a small sigh and pulled into the dirt parking lot, and stepped out with the others, who had dressed accordingly to the occasion. Even Odori had dressed in an American style, something which shocked many of the gang, although they said nothing to her. There was nothing that could be said to her, really.
"Remember, you stick to Sprite," Toshiro said with a slightly chiding tone to Yukiko.
"Uh-huh…. I have a dad, thank you," Yukiko waved him off as she entered in the darkened club, Toshiro walking beside her with a hand upon her hip protectively.
"I'm hitting the bar," Ryo tilted the cowgirl hat she had worn to the group and then disappeared into the crowd, a sea of hats in her wake. She seated herself at the bar and ordered a bottle for herself, and was more than a little surprised to find that the beer had already been paid for. She looked over to where the bartender pointed, and saw a gentleman in a black hat, jeans and long-sleeved black shirt with Western stitching.
He rose, and Ryo groaned as she managed to get a clear look at his face, "Take a seat, Victor…."
"Funny, us meeting like this," Victor smiled and seated himself beside Ryo.
"Yeah… And not funny ha-ha, either," Ryo took a long swig of her beer and shook her head. "How in the hell do you do this?"
"I'm a Lupin, it's a talent," Victor tilted up his hat and smiled at Ryo. "Are you here with anyone?"
"Just the usual," Ryo shrugged indifferently. "Why do you ask?"
"I wondered if you'd like to join me…. Have you ever been to Mexico?"
"You want me to go out of the country with you? What are you on, Victor?"
"It'll just be for a short time… I have the borders taken care of," Victor rose from his barstool and held out his hand. Ryo stood in her boots and moved away from him, finding Fuji in a corner of the bar talking with several men. Odori sat by herself in a corner of the bar, Yukiko and Ally had taken to playing pool and Toshiro was talking with several people over the bar. He was just glad to be talking with other Americans for a change.
"Fuji, I'm going out for a while. I've got a room key and my cell phone on me, so call me if anything happens."
"Yeah, yeah… Bye-bye," Fuji did not even make eye contact with Ryo, and Jigen rolled her eyes and turned back to Victor.
"Let's get going…"
"What? You're coming?" Victor blinked with surprise. Ryo nodded, and pulled Victor out of the tiny joint by his bolo tie and out to his now-familiar car. "I suppose you want to drive?"
"Damn straight. I know a shortcut," Ryo nodded and took hold of the keys as Victor tossed them to her. She hopped into the car and started it up, once again not waiting for him to buckle up as she zoomed out of the parking lot.
While they made their way to the Mexican border, the others inside continued doing just as they had done before. Yukiko was beating Ally hand over fist in the pool game, Toshiro had now entered a drinking competition, Fuji had been invited to dance with one of the men, and Odori continued to look straight ahead at all of them with great annoyance. She pulled some of her hair away from her face and wondered how Fuji had talked her into wearing it down in the first place.
"Excuse me, Ma'am, is this seat taken?"
"Yes," Odori was quick to answer. She glared as she heard the man seat himself next to her, and refused to look in his direction. She looked over to him, and her eyes widened. He was rather attractive… For an American. Blonde hair, tan… Very opposite of what she was used to.
"Sorry, it's just that you looked pretty depressed. You looked like you needed a little cheering up," he gave a shrug and ordered drinks for them.
"I don't speak English."
"That's fine, I speak Japanese," he smiled and immediately switched over to Odori's favorite language, much to her surprise.
"You aren't getting in my pants," said Odori sternly.
"You're wearing a dress."
"You know exactly what I mean," Odori narrowed her almond-shaped eyes and looked down at the drinks that were brought to their table. She looked at the beer as though it were some object from an alien spaceship.
"I'm guessing you don't drink a lot," he laughed and took his beer and took a sip of it. "You don't seem like the type."
"I drink sake," Odori responded, nudging the drink away from her like it were a bottle plague.
"Try this, you might like it!" he smiled widely, making Odori's annoyance grow to an extraordinary level. "Come on, don't look at me like that, Miss—"
"Odori…"
"Dori?"
"Only my friends may call me that, and I don't remember you as being one of them."
"You…. Don't date a lot, do you?"
"I don't see a point," Odori answered with the same look which gave the impression that she was about two seconds away from splashing her drink in his face or worse. Odori had had her nails done, a fact that would have struck fear in most men, but not this one.
"That's a shame. Maybe you should give it a shot, you just might enjoy yourself! Or does that scare you?"
"Leave," Odori repeated, this time in English.
"Here," he handed her a small card and nodded. "If you change your mind, let me know," Odori waited until he was out of sight, and slipped the card in her purse.
The Mexican Coast:
"This is really gorgeous," Ryo said as she stood out on the porch of the beach house Victor had taken her to. It had been hours since she had left, and everyone was probably still at the bar. Luckily there was a designated driver already (Yukiko) and Ally rarely drank, so he would be able to drive the Vespa home, leaving little worry in Ryo.
"I bought it last year. I haven't had a lot of time to really live here, though. Not that any house I own is really considered a home," Victor answered with a shrug. He seated himself on a patio chair and studied Ryo while she looked out at the scenery, resting his elbows on the table and his chin on his clasped hands. "I have a question… If you hate me, then why—"
"Do I always go off with you? I have no idea," Ryo shrugged and seated herself next to Victor. "I've tried to answer that one, and the best I can come up with is you, in a sick way, are really sweet to me."
"I only treat you as you deserve to be treated," Victor replied.
Ryo sighed and placed a hand over her eyes, while Victor looked onward puzzled. "This isn't… This isn't how it was supposed to be! This isn't how anything was supposed to be, damn it!"
"You still love him?"
"Of course I do!" Ryo shouted, and looked over at Victor, who wore his usual complacent expression. "I've loved him since we were kids! It… It just isn't fair!"
"Nothing really is, in life."
"Oh, don't even start on that with me! I've heard it too many times to be hearing it from you!"
"I know what it's like to love someone and not have them love you, no matter how hard you try," Victor announced in a quiet pause after a few tense moments between the two. "You do everything you can in hopes that maybe, just maybe they'll see past the reputation and give the real you a shot."
"You have no idea what it's like to have your ex run off with another person of the same friggin' gender! I… I could've competed with a woman—How in the hell am I supposed to compete with a man?"
"You aren't," Victor replied, folding his hands together and giving a heavy sigh. "Letting go is one of the hardest things you'll ever have to do in your lifetime, if not the hardest."
"I don't want to, though…."
"Then think about the children. Those two children they have adore them. You wouldn't want to split up their parents, would you? You have to take them into consideration."
"You're just making up reasons for me to run to you," said Ryo numbly. Victor, in return, said absolutely nothing.
"Everyone may think that Ari is nice, but he's the biggest sinner out of anyone to make a beautiful woman like you cry over him so much. He has no idea how good he had it."
"No, he doesn't," Ryo, for once, agreed with Victor on some subject.
"I'd like an idea of what he had," said Victor after a long pause. He then braced himself for the beating that he knew was coming from Ryo, and was stunned when she did no such thing.
"I… I don't think I could right now," Ryo admitted with a shake of the head.
"I'm not asking you to stay the night, Ryoko. I'm just asking for an opportunity to be able to have you go out with me for once and not have you judge me upon what I've done in the past. Would that be fair?"
"I… I haven't…."
"Hm?"
"I haven't really gone out with anyone except Ari."
"So you're afraid, and that's what part of this is all about," Victor leaned forward and took one of her hands. "Don't worry; I will be on my best behavior."
Ryo knew how he would act… She just wasn't sure what the real Victor would be concocting, or if this was the real Victor.
A Texas Airport:
"So, it leads to the original copies of the Apocrypha?" Heiji looked over to Max again, and Zenigata nodded from his magazine. Heiji was only playing dumb in order to make believable conversation, however. He was amazed at how slowly Interpol received their information. If he weren't a spy for the enemy, he probably would've been an excellent researcher.
"Yup, the lost books of the bible…. Includes the Gospel According to Thomas… Personally, I think we had it right at my Rabbinical School. It's like the movies—The original's a masterpiece and the sequel's all right, but it's not the same."
"How much did your parents pay for you to go to learn an analogy like that?" asked Heiji with a few stunned blinks of the eyes.
"Enough to put me in debt to them for a long time. You see, my parents did the right thing when they started to see me veer off."
"Please, they probably did it too late, as big a moron as you are. You probably have lost so many brain cells from drugs they could do a medical study on you. Plus how can you bash my parents when your sister's my mother?"
"I wasn't bashing," said Max with a shake of the head.
"You were bashing…"
"I was not! Damn it! Quit acting like a kid!" Max growled. His cell phone rang, and Max gave a sigh of annoyance and of relief, and picked it up. "Hello? Hey, Honey. How are you?"
"Oh, boy… Here we go…" Heiji removed a small case from his shirt pocket, opened it and placed in the earplugs he had purchased earlier in place. Max gave Heiji a small glare and then turned his attention back to his conversation with Leo.
"Avery and Dako are doing fine, too," said Leo through his side of the phone call. In France, it was early morning, and he was giving Avery a feeding; it was four in the morning, so naturally he was hungry. "Do you know when you're going to be home?"
"I have no idea," Max replied regretfully. "Hopefully soon… I really miss you…."
"I miss you, too. The kids do… A lot…. Max, this is going to be the last case you're doing away from home, right?"
"What else could I do? Give out parking tickets?"
"You could always ask them to put you on the French Police squad… I'm sure they'd agree to that."
"I—I can't even speak French that well, though," sputtered Max. "Listen, your sister's out there, so—"
"Hey, I've got to go, my tea's boiling," Leo said in a deadpan tone. What concerned Max is that he heard no kettle in the background. "I'll talk to you later. Bye."
"I love you," said Max quickly.
"Yeah… Love you too…" Leo muttered, and then 'click'; he was gone.
"You know who you're turning into, right?" Heiji looked over at Max and removed his earplugs.
"I'm doing what's right for my family!" snapped Max.
"And I'm sure that's exactly what your dad said when he left his family."
"I am not leaving them!"
"Yeah, but you're spending a lot of time away from home…. You never know, Leo's a nice guy, he could always meet someone else."
"He wouldn't do that," said Max quietly.
"And you know that how…? I mean, he's bi, so there's a great big world open to him there."
"Listen, I'm the creep. I'd be the one to screw up before him. He wouldn't go doing anything like that to me."
Paris:
"He's so unbelievable sometimes," Leo muttered darkly and shoved his cell phone back into his jacket.
"Having some trouble?" Leo looked over his shoulder briefly and sighed at the foreigner looking in the same section as him. He held several books in his hands, and Leo smiled with amusement as he recognized all of these selections.
"More like you are…" Leo picked up one of the textbooks and adjusted his glasses. "You're trying to learn French? This won't help you…" Leo reached about and pulled off another book from one of the numerous wooden shelves, "Now, this book… This is a perfect one!"
"You're a linguist?" he inquired as he glanced over the pages of the book and then added to his stack.
"Yeah," Leo smiled sheepishly. "I'm a translator, mainly… Hey, you're a foreigner, aren't you?"
"I'm trying to learn French because my company moved me here. I'm from Great Britain, originally," he replied. "Thank you for your help, Mister—"
"Mr. Lupin," said Leo with an uneasy smile.
"Lupin? Like—"
"The thief? The Harry Potter guy?"
"No; the flower."
Leo blinked a few times in the bizarre way this had been said, "Oh…"
"Papa, Avery's starting to cry, and I don't know why," Dako sighed heavily as she walked over with her weeping brother.
"He's probably hungry, is all," Leo picked up the baby bag at his feet while the Britain watched this in silence.
"You're married?" he inquired.
"Yeah," Leo smirked as he fished out a bottle of juice and handed it to Avery, who sucked at the bottle contently.
"I've got children around her age," he said with a smile, glancing down at Dako warmly.
"Yeah? That's terrific! How do they like France so far?"
"They… Live with their mother…"
"Oh… Oh, wow, I'm sorry; I didn't mean to upset you!"
"No, it's all right," he chuckled and patted Leo's shoulder with his free hand. "They're happy in Ireland with their mother. Are you separated from your wife?"
"I… I'm gay," Leo said in a low voice. Even after getting used to everything else, this still was the most difficult thing to say to a stranger. "My husband and I look after them."
"That's wonderful," he smiled as he looked at Avery, and then at Dako. "I'm in line for a new tutor, would you be interested?"
"I don't know… My schedule's pretty packed… I just had to quit translating for a book company because of my workload."
"Well, could you fit in even one hour a week?"
"And hour? Well, I guess I could do an hour…"
"Good—Call me up, and we'll set up a date," he smiled, and pulled out a business card for Leo. Leo took the card and glanced it over before placing it in his jacket pocket.
"I don't have a good feeling about this…" Leo muttered to himself as he watched the man who was older than himself and named Thomas pay and exit the bookstore.
"Oh, come on!" Dako rolled her eyes and sighed in disgust at Leo's cautiousness over the situation. "The most you'll do is make Dad jealous, and, let's face it, he could use a little jealousy."
"Dako, you know how I feel about hurting people. It's bad enough that Ryo's still aching years after our breakup…. I can't do that to another person," Leo shook his head and frowned. He walked to the counter, sighed, and paid for the stack of books, and let Dako carry them as he placed Avery in his baby seat.
"He was like checking you out," Dako chuckled as she seated herself in the front seat and looked back at Leo. "Especially—"
"I don't want to hear," Leo held up his hand in a gesture that begged her to stop. "Didn't you listen to anything? He's got kids…"
"So do you," Dako was quick to point out. Leo gave a low moan of exhaustion, and seated himself next to his daughter. "Listen, you're right, and he's probably straight. But he's also good looking, and that would definitely get Dad's blood boiling, as jealous as he gets."
"He's just afraid of people hurting me again," Leo looked downward at the card and flipped it over. "He's offering good money…" he muttered as he read over the figure Thomas had written down hastily.
"Like you need the money… You just can't stand being bored," Dako smirked and chuckled in his direction. "Come on, it's French. It'd be a piece of cake, and you'd probably end up broadening your social circle."
"I'll try it once," Leo looked over his glasses at Dako firmly. "But if he tries anything, he's gone and we're moving."
"What are you afraid he'll do, anyway?"
"Dako, there's a lot of good things about being a Lupin, but there are some bad ones, too. One of the bad things is it's hard to trust anyone."
"You'll be fine, trust me," Dako sighed and patted him on the hand. "You're going to get over your social phobias if it kills me, Papa."
Texas:
"You got a guy's number?" Yukiko laughed and took another sip of her juice as she sat across from Odori. "Don't let Fuji know, she'll be trying to give you tips… I never even knew you dated, Odori."
"Well, I… I didn't tell him yes!" Odori snapped, looking downward at the table and narrowing her eyes and trying to keep her face from turning red.
"Oh, c'mon, it could be fun," Yukiko nudged her and chuckled.
"That's rich, coming from you," said Odori with a frown.
"This ain't about me, though. I was saying the same thing you were years ago, and now I'm carryin' the next potential Goemon."
"What in the hell are we going to call this one?"
"I dunno, Go-Go?"
"Dad hates being called that to this day," Odori smirked ever so slightly. "It didn't help when Kill Bill came out, either. Lupin once got him drunk, and he woke up in the…. Never mind, it's too disturbing to go into detail."
"Yeahhhh….. So, what's he look like anyway?"
"Blond, taller than me—"
"Dori, almost everyone's taller than you. You're 5'0 on a good day."
"May you suffer horrible morning sickness for that comment, Jigen. Anyway, blond, taller than me, blue eyes…"
"A white guy? Odori, I never knew!" Odori with gripped from behind around the neck and turned to Fuji, who wore her usual goofy smile across her face. "You met somebody? That's soooo sweet! I've been hoping you'd hook up with someone for a long time now, anyway!"
"I'd really like it if you stayed out of this, Fuji," Odori loosened Lupin's grip and felt her face grow an even deeper shade of crimson. If she had been wearing her red gi, she would've matched its color by this point.
"Oh, you know that I can't help playing matchmaker!"
"Girls who play with matches get burned," Odori quickly retorted.
"What, did you get that from your dad or something? Sounds like one of his crackpot fortune cookie sayings."
"It's from Fiddler on the Roof," Odori answered, sipping her beer and shuddering at its bitterness.
"Heh, too much time alone with Toshiro, I'm guessing," Fuji chuckled and nudged her, causing her to spill some of her drink on herself. Odori reached for her sword, and Fuji stepped back, and held up her hands in defense. "Hey, I just came to tell you that there's like this martial arts brouhaha goin' on, and there's a contact I need to hook up with there anyway, sooooo…."
"You want me to compete?"
"I figure kicking a little ass will take your mind over everything," Fuji shrugged. "And hey, maybe you'll get a little in the process!"
"Ugh," Odori placed a hand upon her forehead, and Fuji responded with her usual Lupin-like laugh. "I'll go, but only to distract myself."
"Thanks, Dori-chan!" Fuji went to embrace her, and Dori quickly drew her blade and glared at Lupin, daring her to come another inch closer to her. Fuji chuckled and complied, taking a step back away from the samurai. She blinked as she bumped into a figure behind her, who she thought to be Toshiro at first. She slowly turned about, and a wide smile came open her face, "Hey! Long time no see! You should've kept in contact with us!" she laughed as she recognized the face immediately.
"Yeah…" Odori recognized him as the man who had given him her number earlier, and from Yukiko's stunned expression, she also recognized him.
"I… Hi…" Yukiko muttered numbly.
"Hey," he met eye contact with her briefly and placed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "Been a while, huh, Yuki?"
"You two know one another?" Odori looked to the blond man, and then to Yukiko. From both of their stunned features, it was clear that these two were quite familiar with one another.
Mexico:
"That dream again," Victor sat up in his bed and laid a hand upon his head. "Always with the damn rabbits!" He sighed in self disgust and stood up from his bed, dressed in a pair of long sleep pants. He rubbed his eyes and sipped some of the water in a half-full glass on his dresser, and walked out of his bedroom, led by the sound of a television running. He glanced in at Ryo through the cracked door of his guest room and gave a small smile. She had decided to leave in the morning, and why she left the door open was a mystery to him.
He decided against his better judgment to step into the room; he would use the excuse that he needed to turn off the light in her room, anyway. He didn't like waste, and he never had. Victor nearly tripped upon something as he entered, but quickly gripped onto the doorknob and managed to keep himself upright.
Victor cursed quietly and then lifted up the bottle, and his horror mounted as he looked over the empty aspirin bottle. He immediately tossed this aside and ran over to Ryo, taking her by the arms and shaking her.
"Ow damn it! Stop!" Ryo grumbled and pushed him away roughly. "What's your problem? Why are you even in here?"
"Huh?" Victor blinked, puzzled, and then looked at the empty aspirin bottle on the floor once again. He vaguely remembered almost being out in the first place, and gulped as he turned back to the still-angry Ryo.
"What in the hell are you up to, Victor?" Ryo asked in a growl.
"I… I thought you had…" Victor wordlessly glanced down at the bottle and cleared his throat.
"You thought I OD'd?" Ryo raised an eyebrow with disbelief. "You… You're joking, right?"
"Listen, that's what it looked like, and you're not exactly the most mentally stable person I know," replied Victor in a slightly annoyed tone. This always happened when he tried to play hero; it blew up in his face.
"So… You were worried?" Ryo continued. "Why, because of the fact that Fuji would think it was you?"
"I've killed people here before and gotten away with it, that isn't the issue," Victor responded, rising and still feeling incredibly embarrassed. "Sorry to bother you, Ryo."
Ryo paused, and sat up in bed, "Do you love me?" she inquired when he had almost made it to the door. Victor placed his hand on the doorframe and gripped it.
"That's a hard thing for me to admit, but I'm not denying your claims," Victor replied, and then turned to exit.
"Victor, damn it, wait!" Ryo snapped. "Get back in here!"
"You aren't my mother, Ryoko," said Victor, still out of sight in the hallway.
"Call me Ryo. It's what everyone else calls me," Ryo said with a sigh.
"I'm not everyone else," Victor stuck his head back in the doorway, his expression tired and his body wanting to leave the scene quickly.
"No… No you're not… You're certainly different, Victor," said Ryo with a sigh, her voice now level and calm now, "Do you think you could step back in here for a few seconds?"
Victor nodded, and stepped back into the room, bringing the door to a close behind him. He brought over a desk chair and seated himself next to Ryo, wondering what exactly she had called him back in for. She didn't have her gun in her hand, so that was already a good sign.
Ryo reached forward and placed a hand behind Victor's neck, then leaned in and kissed the stunned Lupin. Victor blinked, speechless, as Ryo parted from him, and he quickly rose and excused himself from her guest room.
Ryo rolled her eyes and placed her forehead in her hand, wondering exactly what in the hell she thought she was doing, anyway.
"Well, I might as well check in on him…" Ryo sighed and rose from her bed, then walked down the hall into his room. Victor was looking out the window at the beach seen, his arms folded over his chest. He glanced over at Ryo briefly, and then turned his attention back to the scenery.
"You sure get nervous pretty fast when things start to go your way, don't you?" Ryo smirked as she stood next to him.
"I'm not used to them going my way, is all," said Victor quietly, not bothering to turn his attention back to Ryo.
"That's got to be hell on your self esteem."
"Like you wouldn't believe," Victor muttered, and turned from her, letting his sights fall upon a bottle of tequila at his bedside he had purchased earlier in the day.
'Maybe it's not so much what I want, but more of what I need… Besides, how could it possibly be any worse than any other relationship I've been in?' Ryo thought as she looked over at Victor, who was in the beginnings of drinking himself into a stupor. She slowly stepped toward him and removed the bottle from his hands, Victor looking upward puzzled at her, wondering what exactly she was thinking.
"You never answered my question yes or no," said Ryo with a chiding smile as she screwed the cap of the bottle shut and leaned down in front of Victor.
"What in the world are you up to?" Victor asked suspiciously.
"A…. I guess a change of heart…" Ryo said with a shrug. "I honestly thought it was mainly all an act to try to get Ari mad at you, until I saw that you were really worried that I'd hurt myself in there."
"Maybe you should think about this a little more," said Victor quietly. "What… What about Ari?"
"I still feel for him, I can't get rid of those feelings, but… You're right about the kids; even if things get strained with Max, he'd stay in the relationship for the sake of those kids."
"…Now what?"
"This is the part where you kiss me, moron," Ryo said with a smirk.
"Oh," Victor blinked in surprise, still growing accustomed to a woman talking to him like this, and then complied to her request.