Forcibly United

A Weekend With Eda: Chapter 9

oOo

Ranma lounged indolently in the sun, leaning back in the sturdy metal chair of the cafe, his eyes closed as he drifted into and out of a light nap. Hanging loosely from his hand, but not quite dropping, his Heireken tallboy dripped condensation onto the patio beneath. Across from him, Ryouga nursed a rum and coke as he wrote a letter.

Both boys were a study of disinterest in the conversation taking place two tables away. At it, Eda was arguing with a tall Vietnamese woman, her short hair dyed an electric purple which matched her tank top. One long, jean-covered leg lay over the other as she held up her chin with one upturned hand.

"Five thousand? That price is ridiculous, Mai! We both know I can get the safe opened far cheaper than that!" Eda protested, across the table from a woman, presumably Mai, who was smiling lazily at the nun.

The safe in question, still sporting the rods meant to keep it from being ripped out of the steel wall it had been set in as well as a portion of the wall itself, lay in the back of an old Toyota pickup, sagging dangerously towards the back under the weight.

"By amateurs and idiots, yes?" Mai asked, grinning a bit. She spread her hands helplessly. "Eda, dear, don't be so stingy! Or so foolish as to think I don't know why you came to me! We both know that the safe may have been damaged by the... admittedly impressive way it was removed from the location it was at previously. Opening that is no job for an amateur."

"Those two guys over there did it. Hell, if I asked them to rip off the damned door they can probably do it," the blond girl countered, crossing her arms. She leaned forward a bit, peering at Mai over the top of her sunglasses. "I'm coming to you because I'd prefer to avoid the potential of damaging the safe, but for all I know that thing is packed with gold or something else that can't really be damaged. I might consider it worth the risk if you're coming to me with a price like that."

"I'll admit that the dubious nature of the safe and the contents within may make my services seem overpriced," the purple-tressed Vietnamese woman admitted, sipping her beer lightly before continuing. "I'll admit that perhaps, I can lower the price of my services to a mere four thousand in this rare case."

"Four thousand? Please. Ryouga, be a dear and bring me the safe, please?" Eda said. Ryouga raised an eyebrow, still in the middle of writing his letter.

"Make Ranma do it. I'm not finished with this letter," Ryouga grunted. Glancing at Eda proved to be his undoing. The woman was pouting slightly, and her eyebrows were also raised in slight consternation. Her sunglasses were lowered just enough so that the baby-blue of her eyes practically glistening with tears, and they were pleading with him to simply do as he was asked.

Unhelpfully, Ranma chuckled and took a drink of his beer, entirely uninterested in the exchange.

"Fine!" Ryouga growled, standing. He then glanced over to Ranma, spacing out the distance to the truck. He hurried over to pick the safe up with a grin. His pigtailed compatriot had time to glance in Ryouga's direction with idle curiosity before he realized the Lost Boy's intent.

"You bastaAAAUGH!" The Saotome heir screamed as Ryouga scythed his bracer-clad arm up and out, sending his lazy companion up and over his head, keeping a perfectly circular arc as he passed thirty feet above Ryouga's head before kissing the asphalt a few feet away from the opposite curb. The pigtailed boy found himself dodging traffic as Ryouga walked the safe over to where the two women were seated in the cafe.

Mai merely raised one eyebrow at the feat of strength.

"As you can see, the safe shows no real sign of damage. Yet," Eda admitted, tossing her hair and glancing at the safe. She tapped her jaw idly as she looked at the metal box. "I'm fairly certain that if Ryouga here is real careful, and he can be delicate with those big hands of his," this drew a crimson blush from the young man, who Eda favoured with a grin before continuing, "Well, he could probably take this door off without damaging anything inside at all. However, for twenty-five hundred, I could see myself spending the extra money to make sure I don't have to worry about Ryouga-baby here damaging anything inside."

"A deal, yes?" Mai finally ventured, standing and moving over to the safe. She tapped it with one knuckle thoughtfully, her lips pursed. "I will open it for twenty-five hundred. That cash you pay me now. However, if the safe holds something that would have been damaged if this strong man had ripped the door off, the price goes up and you pay me another thousand."

"Two thousand now. An additional fifteen-hundred if the goods could have been damaged," the blond nun countered after a moment, one golden eyebrow raising. "If you want to negotiate terms, they're going to be in my favour."

"Two thousand now," the dark-haired Vietnamese woman agreed, sticking her hand out. Still clasping Eda's hand, she added with a smile, "Of course, you'll have to deliver the safe to my workshop. Part of the deal."

"As long as you don't mind him hanging around to watch you open the safe," Eda replied bluntly. "I wouldn't want you to have an attack of stupidity while opening the safe. Whatever is in there is mine. I'm going to see to it that it stays mine."

Watching Ryouga pick up the safe and heft it onto the truck without any visible sign of strain, Mai nodded, whistling before adding, "I'm happy to have your insurance nearby. Keeps things simple for everybody."

The deal done, Eda drove the Japanese duo and the safe to Mai's workshop, promising to return as soon as she'd dealt with the irate owner of the boat she'd rented at the outset of their trip.

oOo

It had been two hours. Ranma was sipping his third tallboy of Heireken, and Ryouga was nursing his second. The pair were sitting at a folding table Mai had provided, playing a game of poker. Neither boy was especially good at it. Ranma couldn't bluff to save his life, but this was offset by Ryouga's consistently poor luck.

Not that they were wagering much to begin with. Despite two hours of gambling, neither boy had needed to add another hundred dollars to the pot to get more chips.

Ranma sipped the beer, wincing a bit. He caught Ryouga's nod, and glanced over at Mai, still working on the safe. The purple-haired woman had cast more than a few confused glances their way since they'd moved past their first drinks, but otherwise she'd given no other sign that things were abnormal.

"You know, I wonder how she poisoned these. I mean, I've taken a pretty good look at the cans. I can't see any sign of tampering whatsoever," Ranma noted, pushing two cards towards Ryouga. He accepted two new cards, grinning a bit and giving away his hand.

"The sleeping pills give it a bit of extra bite," Ryouga admitted to his comrade with a grin. He rolled his neck a bit, before draining his drink. "It's actually making me relax a bit."

Both boys chuckled. While they'd been drugged in the past, it took a concentrated amount to down either of them. Binge drinking of straight alcohol could fell them nearly as quickly as a normal person. Even sleeping pills or chemicals designed to create paralysis could effect them... In proper dosage.

The minor amount Mai had added to the drinks, no doubt designed to subtly lull clients into a drunken sleep while they waited for her to crack a safe, was no match for either boy's metabolism. Instead of rendering the duo unconscious, it had simply instilled a warm feeling of relaxation in the pair.

"You want another?" Ryouga asked, standing and crushing the empty in his hand.

"I'm good. We're on the job right now," the pigtailed boy noted, grinning a bit. He gestured with one hand. "We're probably going to have to dodge gunfire in a little while. I've still got some left, so I'll just pace myself."

"Your call," Ryouga noted, making his way over to the bar fridge and pulling out one more can.

Their poker game continued almost until Ranma and Ryouga were on the verge of finishing their third drinks when Eda arrived. Noting that Mai was still deep in her work on the safe, the pair waved the blond nun over to their table.

She sat down, before her nose curled and her eyes narrowed as she glared at the two near-empty cans in front of each boy. She grabbed Ryouga's drink and raised it to her face before her arm shot out full extension from her and she quietly coughed.

"These beers smell like date-rape. Is there any reason you two are drinking them?" Eda demanded, her voice low so it wouldn't carry.

"We're curious to see if she's going to try anything if it doesn't work," Ranma admitted with a grin. Ryouga backed it up with a chuckle, opting not to add anything to his blue-eyed partner's comment. Eda took another sniff of the beer, wincing.

"We're getting back the two thousand from her. At least," the blond teenager noted darkly. She patted the semi-automatic at her hip. Stroking it idly, she pouted. "We've got to wait for her to finish cracking that safe and here I am with nothing to drink."

Almost as if from nowhere, a beer appeared in front of her. Blue eyes framed with blond met blue eyes framed in black, and Eda smirked.

"Thanks, Ranma. I'm flattered, but if I have sex with you... Well, I think I'd like to remember it. You don't need to slip me anything to... slip me anything," Eda announced with a purr. Ryouga choked and his hand reached up to clasp his strangely-bleeding nose as Ranma snorted.

"Yeah, because that wouldn't cause me more trouble," the pigtailed youth replied, rolling his eyes. He gestured to the beer. "That's one of the ones I grabbed at the store earlier. No need to worry about waking up in bed with a guy and a hangover you can't explain."

Eda paused for effect, waiting for Ranma to glance over at her.

"Who said I wanted you to be a guy for it?" The blond asked, innocence that wasn't dripping from her voice. Ryouga coughed and looked on the verge of passing out, and even Ranma now sported a fairly crimson blush. "So what's the plan, then?"

"Pretend to pass out in a little while since she seems to be killing time, and then spring the ambush on her?" Ryouga suggested quietly, shrugging in apathy.

"A beer sounds good to me, Ryouga!" Eda announced loudly, winking at the boy. He got up and grabbed a trio of the tainted beers, setting them down on the table. Even looking for it, the Lost Boy very nearly didn't catch Ranma switching them for the ones in his bag. "Cheers to a job well done!"

The trio then began drinking their beers. Minutes later, after finishing his pint, Ranma was the first to 'fall', pitching forward with a moan. Moments later, Ryouga slumped in his seat with a groan, knocking his drink over as he did.

"Hey, what?" Eda slurred, enjoying the satisfied look on Mai's face as she bought the blond Nun's act. Eda turned sluggishly to her beer and then back to Mai, getting up and 'stumbling' to the ground a few steps into a run. She glanced up, pretending to be trying to scream "Mai, you!" before the 'drugs' in her beer forced her eyes to close and her head drooped.

oOo

"Fools," Mai chuckled to herself, pulling open the safe. She glanced at the contents, her lips forming a silent 'O' as she looked within the safe. "Oh, I can't let you suckers live after this. I think I'm going to be calling Sawyer to deal with you idiots."

The click of a gun being cocked caused a spike of fear not unlike getting stabbed as Mai whirled her head to find Eda's nine-millimeter pointed directly at her forehead.

"Who's Sawyer?" Mai turned her head to note that the pigtailed boy was taking a look into the safe, whistling a bit at the contents. He added, "Not quite two million, Eda, but I think even with the small size of our cut, Ryouga and I are going to be quite happy with this venture."

Mai's eyes reversed direction, finding the other idiot peering into the safe from the opposite side. He grunted his agreement, granite-hard eyes boring into Mai's own when she met them.

"One of those could have knocked a fucking bear out! How the hell did you guys fake drinking four each? I was watching the whole damned time!" Mai choked out, shaking.

"Whatever it is, it actually gave the drinks a nice kick, huh?" The pigtailed one, Ranma, asked the other Japanese boy.

"It'd be a shame if she missed out on the nice flavour," Ryouga agreed, nodding darkly.

Mai's pleading eyes found Eda's, who nodded in sympathy.

"Oh, don't worry. We're not going to kill you," Eda informed the safe cracker, running a finger along one side of the Vietnamese woman's quivering jaw. "We're just going to force-feed you your own brew. Then I think we'll drop you down by the bars in the harbour. I'm sure some nice sailor on shore leave will take proper care of a helpless, attractive woman such as yourself."

Strong hands forced her jaw open and powerful fingers pinched her nose shut. Mai was forced to drink or drown, and given the option, the woman chugged down the beer with desperation. Moments later, with hands clamped firmly over her mouth to prevent her from spewing the vile liquid up, the last sight she saw as consciousness left her was the three leering faces of people she'd been crowing about killing just minutes before, and no matter how hard she fought to cling to wakefulness, the drugs in her system overwhelmed her.

When she awoke, the sun was down. Judging by the pitch darkness outside the window, it had been for some time. The floor of her shop was a bone-deep relief after the dark promises which had been made as she fell into her drug-induced slumber, but sitting up proved that her relief was short-lived.

Every tool, every item of value had been stripped from her shop. All that remained was the card table and the fold-up chairs which surrounded it, and upon it the Vietnamese woman found a note.

"Next time, we won't play nice. Eda," Mai read, and the violet-tressed woman looked around her desolate shop and shuddered.

Those three were people she wouldn't dare cross again.

Ever.

oOo

Author's Notes:

Alright, so... Why did this take so long? The answer is simple: I really sort of wrote myself into a corner with this arc. Making Rip Van Winkle a joke character killed off any real way I had of separating Eda and the boys from their gold without some serious thought, for one. For two... up until then, I'd been hammering away at this story at an unspeakably fast pace (for me) for months on end. Even without my new job (which kicks ass) getting in the way of my free time, the story was feeling more and more like work to me.

So between a general lack of time and a frustrating wall where my inspiration usually comes from when I could find time to write, any work I did do was crap. Not to mention that I'm hammering this thing out on a laptop at present, and by god do I hate writing on laptops. Inevitably, as it always is, finishing this was simply a case of pushing through the writer's block by sheer blunt force and endlessly culled false starts.

Happily, the next arc should be a little more interesting and should also contain a lot more character development than the ones thus far. Yes, it's the one you've all been waiting for: Ranma and Ryouga are going back home. Ranma is, anyway. Ryouga couldn't find home with a map and a compass.