Chapter 4: Sharp pointy objects and nicknames
"Hey, Shadow?"
"Yeah Kitty?"
"Kitty?"
"Yeah, I'm trying to find a good nickname for you. So what'd you want?"
"How old are you?"
"Um…'bout fifteen I think. Why?"
"Oh, I was just wondering. Do you know how to fight?"
Shadow looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "Of course. Probably better than you do. The boss himself taught me how to fight. Why'd you wanna know anyway?"
"Because I think we're being followed."
"You spotted 'em too?"
"Yes. Any idea who they might be?"
"Yep, they'd probably be the Hawks. And they don't like me much. I'd give 'em about another block before they try anything so, here." He pulled out his gun and slipped it into Quatre's hand.
Quatre looked at Shadow, shocked that the boy would give him his gun. "You sure about this?" He asked as he tuckedit into the back of his pants.
"Yeah, the boss said you'd be a good shot and that I'd be able to trust you not to shoot me. Just try not to get yourself killed, I don't wanna get blamed for it if you get hurt."
"I'll try not to inconvenience you."
"'Preciate it."
As predicted, a block later they found their way barred by a group of eight men. All of them glaring at the duo.
'I knew it,' Shadow thought 'I knew I shouldn't have jinxed it.' He looked around at the people that were blocking the alley in front of them. "Shit." He muttered, drawing Quatre's attention away from the group.
"What?" He asked, knowing these guys were the enemy by their emotions alone, but he wanted to know how much trouble they were in.
"I was right. Those would be the Hawks, or at least some of them. This is bad, could be worse, but it's still bad." Shadow took a deep breath to calm himself. "That guy in the middle there, with the double feather tattoo under his left eye, that's their leader. And he hates my guts."
"How could it be worse then?"
"You'll see."
"Well well well. Lookie 'ere boys, if it isn't little Shirt-tails come out to play." The leader sneered. "What're you doin this far ouside your turf? And without your "daddy" to back you up too." He stood with his hands on his hips, his posture radiating smug bravado.
"The name," Shadow gritted out through clenched teeth. "is Shadow you stupid fucker. Even you should be able to remember that much at least. After all, we carved it into that piece of shit's forehead before we sent it back to you." He smirked as the leader turned red with anger.
"That was my brother you little bastard! One day I'll kill you for what you did to both of my brothers. You and that damned leader of yours."
"Not this day you won't, I can guarantee you that Nickoli." Shadow said, his voice deathly calm.
"Oh? An just who's gonna stop me? You're all alone 'cept for blondie over there, and he don't look like much."
Out of the corner of his eye Shadow saw Quatre stiffen in anger and shift slightly into a fighting stance, feet braced and shoulders squared. Shadow's opinion of the blond rose with that one move. He hadn't gone for his gun and started waving it around as he'd half feared he would. Maybe Shin hadn't been exaggerating on how much grit this guy had.
Though tempted to get into a brawl just to see how good Quatre really was, he figured that Shin would have his head for it. So instead Shadow just said, with a smug I-Know-Something-You-Don't-Know look on his face.
"Who said we were alone?"
The reaction was immediate as the Hawks started glancing all around, in alleyways, the rooftops, behind cars, everywhere in the surrounding area.
Quatre could tell by the look on his face that Shadow was enjoying the Hawks growing apprehension as they failed to catch sight of anyone. He had to admit, if only to himself, that the idea of having people skillful enough at stalking that not even he knew they where there was slightly unnerving.
"Fine." The leader snarled, taking slow careful steps backwards. "We'll call this done for now, but someday soon you're finally gonna get what's comin' to you."
"More than likely." Shadow said with obviously false cheerfulness before dropping the act all together and his face fell into a glare. "But not by you."
Quatre watched in fascination as the Hawk group, as a whole backed up slowly never leaving their backs exposed and watching the rooftops and alleyway. Nickoli keeping his gaze firmly locked with Shadows. When they had backed up three paces it was obvious that there was one Hawk that wasn't backing up, or down and his expression made it clear that he didn't believe Shadow.
"I'm not gonna fall for that you little punk, there's nobody else around to save you and I think I can take both of you by myself." He was one of the Hawks' newest members and wasn't street-wise enough to know to follow the crowd and stay safe. But he was about to learn.
Quatre prepared himself to fight, he might have the gun but against the one man it wouldn't be necessary. After knowing Heero, Trowa, and Wufei for as long as he had there was no way he wouldn't have learned how to defend himself by now. He knew that he could hold his own and was, most likely, better than the seven-foot brute before him but if the others attacked he wanted to be able to get Shadow to safety, pacifism be damned, he'd use the gun if he had to. Kidnapper-allied or not he wasn't going to stand by and watch a fifteen year old kid get attacked.
All this flashed through his mind in a heartbeat as the loud-mouthed Hawk took a single step toward them. Faster than thought, a silver blur flashed next to Quatre's head, the wind moving the hairs on the side of his face a little, and the Hawk stopped dead in his tracks.
The reason for his sudden stop was obvious when, as one, they all looked down to his feet and there, nailing his shoe to the ground at the toe, was a black-handled throwing knife, the blade alone easily the length of Quatre's hand from fingertip to the heal of his palm. There were black, purple, and blue streamers attached to the hilt that matched the colors on Shadow's headband perfectly marking it as belonging to his gang.
"Bill?" Nickoli called out, a slightly worried tone to his voice. "You aright?" He could see the knife sticking out of the shoe but expected more of a fuss out of the man.
Bill meanwhile, was staring at shock down at his foot and was only able to squeak out, "Yeah" he coughed to clear his throat "It's between my toes." He could feel the razor sharp edge of the knife pressing lightly to the skin between his big toe and the next.
While Quatre could only stare in shock at the amount of skill that shot must have required Shadow burst out laughing.
"Next time you'll listen won't you." He said, his eyes twinkling madly.
Bill bent down and, very carefully, pulled the knife from his shoe and dropped it like it was a snake. Without a word and his eyes still wide enough to see the whites in shock, he turned and ran to where the other Hawks where. As one they hurried away, keeping their eyes to the rooftops, now knowing for sure that they were being watched.
Still chuckling slightly Shadow looked to Quatre to gage the man's reactions, wanting to see the look on his face so he could tell Shin later, and he wasn't disappointed in the least. Quatre's mouth hung open slightly and his eyebrows were almost to his hair line. His next words shocked Shadow almost as much though.
"Holy Shit! That was impressive." (1) Shadow hadn't thought the blond even knew how to cuss, much less be impressed with the display. Quatre Winner was renowned for his peace-mongering ways. 'Hmm, looks like Kitty might have some claws after all.' It was definitely something to keep in mind.
Shadow puffed up a little with pride. "That's why they know better than to mess with us." He paused for a moment. "Well, at least they do now. And as for your question on how it could have been worse, we could actually have been alone. Then it would have been worse."
"True, but how did the leader…Nickoli? How did he know that we weren't traveling alone? Only the big guy thought you were bluffing. Why?"
"It's a well known fact that my gang don't tell lies. When I said we weren't alone they knew that I meant it. That big dope is new, he'll learn or he'll end up dead before too awful long." 'Won't be much of a waste' He thought, not adding it because he thought Quatre might be offended.
Shadow slipped the throwing knife into a sheath at his waist where it joined another just like it and sighed as his adrenaline rush ebbed. "Lets go Kattily-Whompus, we should be there in about fifteen minutes if we hurry." Quatre just sighed at the newest nickname. Looks like he'd only have to deal with Shadow mangling his name for a little while longer.
Damn that Déjà vu.
There were no further problems during the last leg of the trip and as predicted, it only took fifteen minutes until they were looking at the mouth of Dealers Alley. Shadow had kept up a steady line of chatter and Quatre was surprised to find that he didn't want their trip to end just yet. There was something so familiar about the boy that he just couldn't put his finger on, but whatever it was made him feel remarkably comfortable around him, as though he'd known him from somewhere before and it was frustrating that he couldn't remember. It was almost like he could predict some of the things the boy was going to say or do before he did it, and his impressive mental shields weren't helping either. He still couldn't get a decent read on him.
"Alrighty, here's the Alley. Now all we'll have to do is get you to the people on the other side and you'll be home free." Shadow was happy that he'd been able to accomplish the task with minimal difficulty and was looking forward to seeing the rest of the Gundam Pilots in the flesh. It was common knowledge who the Gundam pilots where but not where they were at any point in time. All that was really known about their personal lives was that Quatre Winner and Trowa Barton were married and it was speculated that Heero Yuy and Chang Wufei were together. Nobody knew what happened to Duo Maxwell though, he'd vanished soon after the Eve war.
"How do you know that there are going to be people waiting for us? They have no idea where I am." Quatre had been wondering about this for a little while now, knowing he could find his way back to their hotel eventually if his guide left him here but he was worried about how his friends and lover were taking his disappearance with no word from him by now.
"Don't worry about it, the boss sent word on ahead of us to the police chief, somebody will be there waiting for you, trust me." Shadows smile turned reassuring as he grabbed Quatre's hand and led him toward the alleyway thinking that Quatre was feeling out of his element.
When they turned the corner they saw a limo parked at the other end, blocking it off from the street, effectively keeping their business semi-private. Down at the other end Quatre could see Trowa, Heero and Wufei along with Rashid and a policeman that he didn't recognize, but Shadow did.
"Hey Chief! How ya doin'?" Shadow called, waving at the chief of police while sizing up the other men. Damn but that one guy was big, looked like he could break the car in half if he wanted to.
"Doing much better now that you're here Shadow. Usual procedure?" Chief O'Neil asked, putting out a hand to stop Trowa from walking into the alley. There were rules to this sort of thing after all.
"'Course, how else would we do anything." They started walking at the same time, Shadow and Quatre from one end and Trowa and the Chief from the other. Chief O'Neil waved the others back as they made moves to follow, he'd told them in the car on the way over that they wouldn't be allowed to enter the alley once the 'trade' as it was had started. The rules stated that only an equal amount of people could enter from each end, if any more than that joined in it could ruin any sort of good faith that one side held for the other.
Realizing that this should be a private meeting between the couple the chief stopped about a quarter of the way in, letting them have their moment together. Shadow kept going with Quatre though, he had his orders to deliver the man to his people and by golly that was what he was going to do. He saw the way Trowa was eyeing Quatre, making sure there was nothing wrong or missing on his husband and Shadow's inner voice started making 'Awwww' noises at him.
Stepping up to Trowa before he could get within touching distance of Quatre, Shadow looked up (and up) into Trowa's eyes for a long moment as though looking into his soul before apparently finding what he was looking for, nodded and turned to Quatre. "This your guy?" Never tell Shadow that he wasn't thorough.
Quatre smiled. "Yes, this is my husband Trowa. Trowa, I'd like you to meet Shadow. He's been a great help in getting me back." Acting on impulse he reached out and ruffled Shadow's bangs getting a chuckle and a squirm out of the boy. He thought he heard a quiet "Not the hair." But he couldn't be sure.
Trowa shook hands with Shadow and thanked him in his quiet voice before Shadow placed Quatre's hand in his. "There, now I'm done. I said I would bring you back and I did so, see ya!" He turned and started walking back toward his end of the alley. After only a handful of steps though he turned back around. "Take care Cat! Don't forget to keep an eye on your wallet!" He gave one more slightly manic grin, waved with his whole arm and spun around again, his braid making an arc in the air before whipping behind him as he ran, looking almost like a shoulder length tail.
Quatre and Trowa stared after the boy from each others arms and thought the same thing.
'Why does that seem so familiar.'
From the rooftops Shinigami watched the scene with a smile on his face. The two people that had accompanied him in watching over Shadow and his charge keeping watch. Tank, the oldest of the three at forty was keeping watch for any enemies that might try and break up the reunion below while Skif, the youngest at fifteen-ish was keeping an eye on his boyfriend as Shadow exited the alley and started on his way back home. Shin couldn't have hoped for a better pair of lookouts.
Looking down on the happy scene below him in the alley Duo could see the changes in the boys he once knew, now men of twenty-seven they looked completed, no longer in the 'puppy' stage that he had last seen them in. And in some weird twisted way he was happy that his littles had kidnapped Quatre. Even if it was only for a moment, and even with the strange circumstances that it had all come about, he was happy. He'd missed them.
It was good to be able to see his family in person again.
End chapter four.
A/N: Well, chapter four is finally done. Sorry it took so long to get out but there was one line (1) that would. Not. Figure itself out. Finally pairings and ages are revealed, I was trying to find a place that felt right to put the ages in so it took a while but there you have it. Duo and the guys are twenty-seven. After that it went ok. Hopefully it won't take as long for chapter five to be done but no promises.
Thank you very much to everybody that reviewed! Those things keep me writing and help goose the plotbunnies.
Please Review, it keep the day sunny!