Of Gunshots and Sorrow

Chapter 19

Love and Bravery

AN:/

Moody1656: Sorry for the long wait. But here you guys go! I know you'll like this one.

Fuu bit her bottom lip as her eyelids pulled open slowly. The small hairs on her arms and legs were standing up so high she felt they would simply pluck themselves out and she'd never have to worry about shaving again. She sighed and turned around to her right side in order to see the idiot she liked comfortably snuggling his face into the very plush covers she had eyed so happily three hours earlier before going to bed.

Jin had been surprisingly nice enough to pay for the last two hotels they'd stayed at. Mugen, not so surprisingly, had been territorial and pulled her into bed with him by the small of her waist every night since the tall man had joined them. Fuu had, since their first night as a trio, scolded him before going to sleep each night and forced him to reside on one end of the bed while she took the other.

She thought it was the only polite thing to do when they were sharing a room with Jin. Mugen had been sulky and made sure he'd at least get a good make out session in before she'd go to work each day. Despite the money Mugen had raided from the casino, Fuu insisted on working until they found Saiai and Genji or came up with a better plan.

Fuu glared at the stupid man a mere foot away from her. It didn't matter how nice and easy their relationship, whatever the hell it was, got he was still Mugen. She grabbed the comforter tightly in her fists and gave a strong tug.

And in turn she was tugged back across the foot distance straight into Mugen's chest. She winced, having hit her forehead on his chin, "Ow." She tried shoving him but that did little to move the street rat. She groaned trying to at the very least shift and tuck her head under his chin, seeing as his right arm was wrapped around her lower half while his left hand held her against his chest-the covers were wrapped tightly around them like a cocoon. "You're such a jerk."

He chuckled in response.

Fuu sighed and was surprised to notice that there was something different. "You don't stink."

"I've been showering." he commented, suppressing an eye-roll.

"Hm," was her simple response.

Mugen opened his right eye and looked down at her brunette head curiously, "What?"

She shook her head smiling, actually settling into his arms. "You're not going to let me go are you?" Both lightly wondered why it sounded like she was asking about more than just the covers. "I mean, like, right now."

"No. I'm tired of you being all uptight for fish-butt's sake." Fuu wondered whether Mugen would ever come up with any better nicknames for Jin.

Fuu pouted in defeat, though he was unable to see the action, "Fine." She tensed when he pat her ass in a demeaning 'atta girl' kind of way.

He grinned from the victory and relaxed his hold on her knowing that she wasn't going to leave. In his defense he had behaved well for the last week and a half or so. In fact he wasn't even in a rush to get in her pants. He was just sick and tired of her acting like such a prude cause the king of prudes was around ALL the fucking time.

He wasn't even much for cuddling, but at least feeling her against him made up for the lack of fun he had with her now.

"If I hear any sound, anything at all, coming from you two I will personally shoot it off." Jin's cold voice was more than enough clarification they needed for what 'it' was.

- - 19 - - 19 - -

Fuu sighed, wiping her brow with the hem of a ratty apron. It had been her sixth day at work and she wasn't close to being used to her newest title, fry cook. Waitress she was used to, she never had to see the kitchen. Sadly, fry cook was the only open spot in the only place hiring in that city at the moment.

She was determined to finally get paid for her work. She made sure the owner would pay her weekly and that the guys understood she would kill them both if they were to all leave before she was paid.

The owner had been nice to her in general, so she suppressed her complaints to the best of her ability. Which was how she managed to also get an early lunch break. She dropped the apron on a wooden surface, picked up food she had been making all day, and moved toward the most hidden table in the tiny diner to eat.

Fuu took a big bite of the waiting burger and almost cried when she bit into it. "This is awful," she groaned looking at the greasy sandwich with distaste. She couldn't believe anybody had been buying her food for so many days.

The burger stared back up at her despairingly, a combination of ketchup and watery mustard dripping down the meat and bottom bun. Her stomach growled loudly even though her tongue felt drier all of a sudden. Fuu moaned to herself knowing she had no choice but to eat, something she never thought she'd ever have issues with before.

A bell sounded from the entrance, letting her know that someone had come in and that one of her two coworkers would have to cover for her in the back. I hope it's that bitch, Kairi. She's been giving me a hard time all week.

Though she couldn't complain at work she had tried complaining to the guys after work about her but both ignored her. When she yelled at them for being insensitive, Jin continued with whatever he was doing and Mugen just shrugged at her and told her that if she needed someone to listen to her bitch and whine all day she could just talk to the mutt since Momo didn't understand all she was blabbering about enough to ignore her. In retaliation she had Momo sleep between them in the bed that night.

The jerk still treated her the same as he did before their relationship escalated into whatever not labeled thing they were now, minus the open and excessive groping and kissing.

Switching her attention back to the task at hand, Fuu forced another bite of burger into her mouth. She seriously wondered how the hell she managed to fuck up a burger so badly that even she herself could not eat without focusing.

She closed her eyes and slumped further down her seat, placing her ankles on the edge of the seat opposite to her. Taking another bite, smaller this time than the last, she noticed the sound of footsteps getting closer to her. Her eyebrows furrowed together as she silently tried to pinpoint the moment when Kairi or Riko rang the cash register.

She slowly separated her eyelids and turned to the sound of the footsteps. She stood out of instinct as Mukuro sauntered over to her table and took a seat as if he belonged there. She was stuck between screaming and running, doing her best to beat him up, calling for help, and her current position of being shocked still from fear.

Fuu's eyes enlarged at the sight in front of her. "Mu-Mu—"

The man looked up at her annoyed. "Shut the hell up. I don't care about you right now. Not yet anyway." He slipped a folded piece of paper, it must have been folded three times, across the table and stood up coolly. "I'm just delivering a message for now."

She shut her eyes tightly and held her breath as the man shrugged past her. "See you around, babe."

Vaguely, she registered the sound of his exiting the second door of the diner. Her mind was too busy rushing from one though to another to notice anything around her really, much less the fact that she was still unable to breath.

Eventually, everything went black.

- - 19 - - 19 - -

Momo watched the people his loyalties went to through glass. He tried whining but he only got a glare by the scruffy man of the group inside.

The three were eating. Meat. The poor dog could smell it all the way outside. He tried barking but this time all three humans glared.

Giving up, the black lab turned and laid on his stomach in defeat. He hoped that one of his owners would at least save him something to eat. Maybe a bone.

"This is so good," Mugen goaded through stuffed cheeks.

"What's the occasion?" Jin asked skeptically as Mugen devoured his own meal.

Fuu laughed and waved her hand, "Nothing, really. Geez, Jin, learn to relax for once." She sighed and leaned back into her chair, sinking down the smoothness of the seat slightly, "I just finally got an actual paycheck for once instead of just tips, so I decided to share my gain with you two."

Jin continued to analyze her with his stare but Fuu just smiled back reassuringly so he eventually conceded. "I'm sure I'll regret this later."

Mugen rolled his eyes and punched the man amiably on the arm. He swallowed the fistful of food in his mouth harshly before speaking, "Kid's right four eyes. You need ta lighten up. Dude, it's a free meal!"

"Yeah. One you never treated me to after you stole all that cash last time." She glared him down. The tattooed man kept his smirk and eyes on the girl as he shoved another serving of beef in his mouth without concern. She scoffed, "Asshole."

He laughed deeply from his chest.

Jin turned from the man to Fuu. "I was wondering. Since you have received payment for working this week are we going to leave soon? Our destination isn't more than another four to five hour drive." Fuu's features softened up and she regarded the eldest of the group with a pensive expression. "Then again, we may not have enough money to cover gas and another hotel room for our journey after this...meal." As he ended his statement he quite obviously gave her and Mugen's stack of plates a disdained look.

"I'm pretty sure it's about time for us to do something else," She answered with a small shrug. She looked down at her meal.

"Right," he said. "Tomorrow then?"

Mugen looked up from his newly empty plate and spoke as he picked meat out between his teeth. "Sounds good to me." Jin glanced at the man before continuing his meal silently.

The three passed a moment in relative silence until Mugen realized that silence wasn't ever Fuu's style. He nudged her leg with his foot. She looked up at him as he sat across from her and raised an eyebrow in question. Her lack of a quick scolding made him feel even more uneasy. "Hey, what's up with you being so quiet. Not that I'm complaining, but usually you'd be going on and on about something about now." He looked at her pile of plates, it was only about his stack's size. "Plus you're not eating all that much. Again, not that I'm complaining your fat ass is big enough as is."

She frowned and kicked him under the table. "Whatever," she scoffed. "I've been eating at work so I'm not starving like usual, so stop keeping tabs on my eating."

Her slight anger should have been enough to ease Mugen's worries—well concern might be a better word, worry is too big—but it didn't. His eyes drilled into her for a few seconds. "You okay?"

"What are you gonna do after we find your brother and sister?" Fuu interrupted.

"You mean if we find them," he corrected.

She rolled her eyes at his pessimism. "Have you though about what you'll do?"

"Not really." He finally conceded and answered her honestly. "If they're at that place the old lady told you then I guess I'm gonna check on them. See how've they've been, you know?"

She smiled. "I'm sure they'll be happy to see you again."

"I never said I was gonna see them. Just check up on them." He knew she'd probably start whining about family or something. She just didn't get that it was better if he stayed out of their lives. The kids got in a huge mess cause of him. If they were at the address the old lady gave them then they were probably better off then they ever were back in Ryukyu. He was basically stuck in crime, everyone around him followed him into that life. If he could help it, they'd stay out of it.

The only reason he even let Fuu stick around was because she was just as cursed as him. She was better off staying with him. He could keep an eye on her that way. He could keep her safe that way. He'd kill himself first before he let something happen to her again.

- - 19 - - 19 - -

The following day, Mugen woke up when Fuu tried to get out of his hold to get up, shower, and go to her last day of work. He pressed her closer to him and smirked against the top of her head. She groaned in annoyance and gave him a push with her open hand but he didn't budge.

"Mugen," She said in a mixed forcibly sweet and angry tone. "I have to go so I can quit today, remember?"

He shifted his weight slightly to cover her even more. "Can't you just not show up? After a couple of days they'll realize you're gone, right?" Mugen laughed slightly to himself at the thought of her boss getting annoyed for days before cursing and looking for someone to replace her. He shifted again and slipped a hand under her shirt.

"Mugen." Her whisper seemed to echo in his ears. "I can't." She sounded defeated and unsure.

He moved his head up to look down at her. Her hair was free, slightly tangled, and blanketing her head from the pillow. Her pretty doe eyes were slightly watery and her breath was a bit bitter from waking up. Mugen wondered if he'd seen her like this more often at the start of their journey if he'd have kept his hands off of her for as long as he had. She was shockingly attractive in the mornings. It didn't mean he was gonna be an asshole and try something then and there. Not yet, not with Mr. Prude a few feet away. Her first time was gonna be something only she and he'd get to experience.

"Hey," he whispered with a raw early morning voice. "Calm down. I ain't gonna do anything now." He hoped she understood he wouldn't until she was ready and wanted to. For once he actually cared enough about a girl to respect her pace in a relationship. Also, this was technically his first real relationship and he wasn't gonna fuck it up.

He wondered if his mind was playing tricks on him when he saw her eyes water even more. Was she gonna cry? Why the hell would she cry? The moment passed by quickly, she pushed his suspicions away by sighing. She narrowed her eyes at him, but the anger that usually went with it wasn't really there. "I meant I can't just not show up to work and quit."

"Why the hell not?" Mugen snapped with a pout. "Girlie, I want you to stay with me today. It's been awhile since I've had ya all to myself." He smirked at the last part and leaned down to place his nose against her cheek, just enough to tease her. "C'mon, you can't tell me you haven't thought about spending the day with me. And the night."

What happened next he hadn't expected. She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him down on her roughly, desperately. She kissed him eagerly, but again something felt off. He tried to pull away to see her face and see if he was right; but she just pushed him onto his back, straddling his waist, as she pressed herself as close to him as she possibly could. He missed having her so close to him, having her act without holding back, having her not stop when things got a bit heavy and checking that Jin wasn't around.

He wasn't about to waste such a great opportunity, so he responded just as eagerly. He kept one hand on her behind and the other went further up her shirt. He relished the moment even more every time he felt her tongue against his own and their teeth hit each other as they both got more into it. Her hair tickled him slightly as it fell down her shoulders and he began to notice she was shivering and shaking slightly in his hands.

She stopped suddenly and stood up before just as suddenly sprinting into the bathroom. The door shut behind her and he was left to stare blankly and try to rack his brain for a logical reason behind her behavior. He drew a blank. Chick is just nuts sometimes. Mugen wondered if he should wait until she came out again to see if she was okay. After several minutes of her not coming out, followed by the sound of the shower turning on, he decided to just quit and check on her later when she came back to the hotel and was (hopefully) less hormonal.

He peaked over to Jin's side of the room and noticed that the man wasn't there. Well, he thought, that explains why no one was nagging at us earlier. Mugen also took note of the time on the alarm clock on the bedside table between the two beds in the room; 8:40. The girl was supposed to leave at 9 or so to get to her workplace at 9:30, at least that's what he thinks he remembers her saying before.

Quite frankly, he didn't give a shit. As long as she came back to him at the end of the day safely, he was content. With that last thought, Mugen turned onto his stomach with his face buried into the side of the pillow and fell back asleep.

- - 19 - - 19 - -

The two figures waiting at the street's end were not only ominous they also caused an awful tremor of fear to take over Fuu's body as she neared the diner she had been working at all week. The diner she had taken a letter from her step-father from the hands of a man who had once burned her and tried to rape her in front of multiple people, including Mugen. The same diner she had also given her resignation letter to the day after, once she was paid. The diner she did not need to quit from that day.

Her feet ached as if bags of molten lead had been tied around her ankles. She was sluggish, her entire being burned with the desire to turn and run to Mugen pleaing for forgiveness, and she felt paralyzed from the terror that made her want to on the other hand stop entirely. She felt a familiar tingle in her hand from memories of it burning against the barrel of a gun and her skin felt as though it were being crawled over by hundreds of worms and bitten by thousands of spiders.

That letter from her parents' murderer, memories of her mother as she neared death, and memories of the numerous times Mugen stuck his life out on the line for hers gave her the strength to put one foot in front of the other and glare at the Ryukyan siblings with all the hatred that filled her for her murderous step-father, for her too-trusting father, for her weak mother, for all the men who had tried to kill her and Mugen, for the demon that took form in Mukuro's skin, for Khoza, for Jin intruding in her life when she was finally happy with Mugen, for Mugen for letting her live so long and for letting her have feelings for him and for kissing her and for never having sex with her because he decided to be responsible for once and for letting her go, and most of all she hated herself.

She hated that she had let herself trust her step-father, she hated that she let him kill her mother, she hated that she begged Mugen that night to save her when asking him to kill her would have been the best decision she could have made for anyone she had encountered since, she hated how many people she let die for her or because of her (even those who came after her in the first place), she hated that helping her survive is what kept Mugen from killing the man that was currently leering at her, she hated that her survival stopped him from a lot of things in fact, she hated that she looked so much like Hino, she hated that she never punched Khoza when she had the chance before, she hated that she had just left Momo, she hated everything, she hated herself for being too much of a coward all throughout her travels, she hated herself for deciding to change that now.

Bravery never fit cowards. And she was now committing an incredibly stupid and brave act by following her step-father's orders to stop running and going home for the sake of everyone else's safety. Because Mugen had rubbed off on her in the one way he would hate her for, she was doing something brave and unselfish for the sake of one person. She didn't need more motivation than that.

Something she was sure the Ryukyans in front of her knew from their last encounter and had fed as information to her step-father. It was all their faults for making her choose bravery over happiness. Something Mugen and she had always seemed to silently appreciate was the benefits of not being heroic. Heroes never got glory or happiness, they were destroyed first and if they were lucky to survive they may be glorified for a time but afterwards they are left with memories of loss and disgust. Trapped in the worst times of their lives forever. A hero's story was idyllic but it was never one that ended happily, just better in some way than it had started.

Fuu finally stopped walking after what seemed eons. She looked from Khoza, who was smiling at her as if nothing bad was truly occurring, to Mukuro who looked so pleased with himself she wondered when he would start laughing maniacally.

"Don't worry, we have a room set up for you already." Khoza's voice rang serenely. "We're eating steak tonight for dinner. Thanks to your father."

Her eyes snapped to Khoza in an instant. The girl cowered under her stare, a glare almost as powerful as Mugen's when he was truly angered. Her eyes were wide, but her eyebrows were furrowed in so tightly they seemed to disappear into her large orbs. Her jaw was tight and her teeth peaked a bit as she breathed harshly through the spaces between and her nose. Fuu looked ready to snarl at the other girl. "He is not my father." The threat was spoken quietly but the venom behind her words were clear.

Mukuro chuckled to himself. "Hisoka," he started to say and continued when Fuu finally turned her attention back to him, "expects you tomorrow afternoon. You won't see him till then."

Fuu straightened her back and tightened the straps on her backpack. "I don't want to see him even then." She crossed her arms and looked at him expectantly. When she had left the hotel earlier she had wondered how she would ever manage to be around Mukuro without crumbling in tears and screams of fear, now she knew she had enough loathing to keep her together for a year if she survived that long. A small innocent voice in the back of her mind told her she would normally wonder if that was how Mugen did it, but it was drowned out by more pressing thoughts and matters. "Where's your car?"

The man looked at her curiously for a second, not excepting her to be so collected much less so in command, but smirked almost immediately after. "Let's go then."

- - 19 - - 19 - -

"She left!" Mugen exploded slamming his fist into the small table Jin had found the small piece of paper he was clutching when he had returned to the room a few minutes before. "She fucking left!"

Jin nodded, quietly scanning the room for any of the girl's belongings that would tell them that she was taken rather than voluntarily left. "Yes."

"How can you be so calm about this?!" Mugen continued to scream. "She just left!"

Jin realized that what he was suspecting with dread since the day before was correct. He pinched the bridge of his nose in both resignation and annoyance towards his roommate. "Didn't you suspect she would earlier?" The spectacled man responded walking to the sofa and turning on the TV.

"Of course not!" Mugen charged in his direction and kicked the back of the sofa angrily. "The hell are you doing?! We gotta go save her ass!"

Jin did not turn his head but answered nonetheless. "That would be going against her wishes."

"She'll die, you dumb ass! I don't care if it's her last wish or whatever! We can't just fucking let her die cause her dad wants some extra cash!" This time when Mugen kicked the sofa again it toppled over.

In the background Momo began to scratch the door anxiously.

Jin stood up quietly and fixed the sofa, keeping his back turned to Mugen as he grit his teeth so tightly he felt one as it chipped in his mouth. "Forget you, then!" Mugen grabbed the note from where it fell on the floor and shot Jin one last dirty look. "I've been taking care of her for half a year without you, I can do it now."

However, as Mugen's shoes moved harshly against the floor and the door was thrown open with a call of, "C'mon mutt", Jin closed his eyes tightly trying to ignore the voice in the back of his head.

With a deep breath he finally stood up and went over to his luggage. Pulling out a gun he quickly loaded it and put some extra ammunition in his pockets, thinking out loud to the empty room: "You wouldn't make such a big deal of things if you didn't need me."

An:/

Moody1656: Sorry for the delay, guys. However, I'm determined to give you guys the ending of this story before the end of September. We're almost there! So as a treat you get this chapter and the next one will be up before the end of the week (trust me). Also a surprise at the end of the next chapter with the author's note.

Preview for Next Chapter:

"You'll follow me onto the train."

"Yes, sir." Fuu whispered hoarsely.

"You will stay with me without complains or threats to call the cops."

"Yes. Sir."

"And once you turn eighteen you will sign over the money to me."

"Yes..."

"Any questions?"

She raised her head slowly to see the man in the eyes, "What about Mukuro?"

"As long as there are no interruptions he will leave with us too. And everything will be erased that can link anyone to any of the ordeals you've made me go through these last few months." He answered bitterly.