by Naomi Aoki
“You might want to, I don’t know, put some clothes on before leaving the room.”
“Right.” He dropped his shoes onto the bed and tugged on a pair of boxers. “Better?”
Kennosuke merely nodded, not that Brian had time to wait for a longer reply. He headed for the door, this time remembering to also grab his dress uniform and rushed toward the bathroom. Jamie yelled out something to him as he went past. A greeting? A question? Brian wasn’t sure, and he didn’t stop to ask.
He didn’t waste time in the shower jumping into it once the water was barely tolerable. A rough pass over with his shower gel and shampoo through his hair, a little longer than he normally kept it. He dragged a hand over his face, stubble scraping his palm before turning off the water and stepping onto the bath mat. Shaving would be one task he didn’t rush not wanting to appear at the hearing with nicks all over his face. Lathering up, he grabbed his razor from the cupboard in front of him, taking long slow strokes until the skin beneath was smooth. Finished, he splashed his face with water, rubbed in moisturiser and proceeded to put on his uniform – a little less wrinkled.
He sat on the couch to lace his shoes and glanced at the bedroom door Kennosuke still hadn’t emerged from. Brian wasn’t sure if he’d have time to say goodbye, not wanting to arrive to the hearing late. Many of those overseeing it who’d be more than happy to find an excuse to see him lose his position simply because of who is father was. And while their assumptions about him weren’t wrong, Brian couldn’t protect those important to him without this uniform. But he would grab a couple of guns out of his hidden stash for Jamie and Kennosuke, not willing to leave them unable to defend themselves if Takeshi cornered them.
“You going to work?” Brain turned to find Jamie leaning over the back of the couch, a teasing look played with the edges of his lips. “Surprised you could even get out of bed.”
“Yeah, well, if I could have stayed there I would have, but-,” the teasing lilt of his voice faded away. “- it will be better, safer for everyone if I can get rid of this pesky suspension. Even if the hearing being brought forward is a nuisance.... And shit, I gotta run.”
Jamie’s shout of “Good Luck” chased Brian out the door. He shouldn’t need it, but right now Brian would gather up all the luck he could and hope he didn’t need it further down the track.
“SO, YOU AND BRIAN HAVE what? Sorted things out... or is it just fucking?”
Kennosuke groaned and considered returning to the bed he’d just left not wanting to talk about it. He knew Jamie would have questions. But couldn’t he at least have waited until after Kennosuke had drunk some coffee and eaten.
“Something like that,” he mumbled, moving toward the kitchen and switching on the only appliance Jamie allowed him to touch, the kettle. Seemingly they deemed him at least capable of boiling water safely.
“Like what?” Yeah, Jamie wasn’t going to drop the subject that easily.
“We talked... or at least Brian talked, and I pretended to sleep until I didn’t... and then we...”
“You fucked. Trust me, the whole neighbourhood probably heard it.”
Kennosuke shrugged his shoulders finding he didn’t care who’d heard them last night, even though normally he’d be embarrassed by it. He did blush at the memory of it, how good it had felt to have Brian’s hands on him when he’d resigned himself to never having them touch him again. The pleasure that came with Brian’s teeth sinking into his skin, marking him and he knew Jamie could see it, not bothering to hide the trail of bite marks running down his chest. “Might have given some of the old dears a thrill.”
“What are the two of you going to do now?”
“Well, I’m getting a coffee and Brian’s at work trying to get himself unsuspended.”
“Don’t be an arse.”
Ken braced himself on the bench, head dropping forward. “I don’t know Jamie. Yeah, we’ve talked. Got all the emotional shit out in the open, but what happens when we head home? I-I don’t know. And I was trying not to think about it.”
And he didn’t.
Reality was a bitch. Again, and again it had shown itself to be and still Kennosuke had latched on to the emotion of the moment. Emotion that would serve no purpose once he returned to Japan, without Brian. It wouldn’t work. Couldn’t. Maybe it would have been better for Brian to keep his words to himself, because this pain was so much worse than believing Brian saw him as nothing more than a bit of fun.
“Fuck, Jamie-” he slammed the mug onto the bench, shattering it. Broken pieces of ceramic and coffee flying everywhere. “What am I going to do?”
He fumbled around for a cloth to clean up the mess, cursing as he stood on a piece of the broken mug and threw the cloth at the brown liquid dripping from the bench in frustration. Kennosuke leaned on the bench, avoiding the spilt coffee and lifted his foot resting it on his knee and winced as he pulled the shard from his foot.
“Well, for starters I think we should also ban you from making coffee,” Jamie teased, but his attempts to distract Kennosuke from his anger weren’t helping.
“Fuck off Jamie.” Kennosuke limped from the kitchen to the couch leaving a trail blood behind him. He didn’t care if it stained the floors, maybe it would remind Brian of him once he was gone - haunt him. The ache in his chest was all the reminder Kennosuke needed and he didn’t think it would disappear anytime soon. If at all.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Come back to bed.”
Brian chuckled at Kennosuke’s half-hearted demand, resisting the urge to pull open the curtains and flood the room with the bright morning sun. Instead he continued to pull out his uniform and lay it on the bed. “I’ve got to head to work.”
“Well, you don’t need to look so bloody happy about it.”
“But I am happy. I was so fucking bored on suspension.” Not that ditching work and climbing back into bed with Kennosuke didn’t have its own appeal. “And I’m more useful to everyone if I’m back in uniform.”
“Are you surprised they cleared you of it completely?”
He tugged on his shirt, buttoning it up as he watched Kennosuke lean against the headboard, blankets pooling at his waist and the temptation to forget about work tugged harder. “No. Would have been hard for them to censure me when the one who made the accusation then swears an affidavit that he’d lied.”
Kennosuke grinned, the decision to leave becoming even harder. “And you... your father didn’t have anything to do with that?”
“No... it wasn’t like the shithead hadn’t been found and convinced otherwise. I wouldn’t stoop to something that low.” Brian tried to keep his voice serious as though Kennosuke’s words had offended him, but he couldn’t manage it as he burst out laughing.
But Brian didn’t have time to spend laughing with his shift due to start in sixty-minutes. Back to busting criminals and saving his father’s arse; a routine that was familiar, comforting and yet it didn’t hold the excitement it once did. Takeshi’s threats were never far from his thoughts, always lingering on the edges of everything he did and it frightened Brian that the man’s word could be true. He might not be able to protect Kennosuke. Not that Kennosuke would appreciate him expressing such sentiment, pointing out angrily that he and Jamie were more than capable of defending themselves; that they’d faced worse in Japan. And whether he liked it or not, Kennosuke had grown up in an environment where death at the hands of another was almost expected.
He brushed the front of his uniform, smoothing out the fabric and the urge to tear it off almost overwhelmed him as Brain watched Kennosuke roll onto his stomach. The ink on his back taunted him; dared him to clamber onto the bed and touch each line etched on Kennosuke’s skin. There was more of it now; the ink spreading across Kennosuke’s arms and crept down his legs. It wasn’t finished either. He knew when the tattoo was complete ink would cover the entirety of Kennosuke’s body like Gou’s and Soichirou’s did. Brain groaned; one day he would spend hours cataloguing each line, e
ach intricate detail of the design, but just not today.
Brain breathed deep, pushed aside the heat rising in his blood as he exhaled slow. He leaned over the bed and kissed Kennosuke, before grabbing his boots and left the room. Only twelve more hours until he could return home.
“WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?” Brian’s dad yelled, ducking behind a steel girder that would eventually hold the roof of the building up. “And where the bloody hell did these men come from?”
“Not local then?”
“Do they sound fucking local?” his words forced between gritted teeth as he stared at the SUVs that had pulled into the building site twenty minutes before, catching them all unaware. “I can’t even say they’re lost fucking tourists! Not unless tourists are walking around the countryside carrying bloody guns.”
“Ken, do you recognise any of them?” Jamie shouted from his other side, hunkered down behind a pile of lumber. “They aren’t speaking Japanese.”
Kennosuke didn’t blame Jamie for sounding confused, the men currently taking pot shots at them weren’t speaking Japanese, but Korean. Jamie hadn’t met any of the Yakuza organisations outside of the Kansai area, Gou choosing not to take Jamie with him on trips to Tokyo and didn’t know of the Korean involvement within them. He didn’t answer Jamie though, focusing his attention on the Koreans firing at them and wondering where Takeshi was. Which SUV was he sitting in waiting for him and Jamie to expose themselves.
And that’s what Takeshi was doing, getting his men to try and flush them out, noticing the men firing weren’t making any attempt to get closer to the building. Bullets which should be hitting them were angled enough to keep their heads down and worried about where the next one might land. Of course, there was no guarantee that a stray bullet might not hit them. They needed to move. They needed to figure a way out of here.
“Jamie-e-e... Ken-no-su-ke... where are you hiding?”
Kennosuke held his breath and prayed Mr Cooper’s men stayed in whatever bolt holes they’d found and didn’t try to take Takeshi down. He shifted his body, carefully twisting so he could get a better view of Takeshi as he paced near the SUV. He kept his gun held loosely in his hand and flicked his gaze across to Jamie who was also staring at Takeshi, gripping his own weapon tight. Kennosuke needed to figure out what to do before Takeshi decided to investigate the half-built structure he and Jamie were sheltering in.
“Oh? You aren’t going to talk to me? No matter-” Takeshi raised the gun in his hand and took aim. The bullet fired forced Kennosuke to duck lower as it whizzed above his head and prayed his feet sliding on the gravel surface didn’t give his location away. “-I’ll soon find you, and then we are going to have so much fun.”
He closed his eyes, trying not to imagine what Takeshi’s idea of fun would be, opening them again with the ping of a bullet on the steel girder next to him. Letting out a string of muttered curses, Kennosuke scrambled backwards, moving further into the building, Jamie and Mr Cooper quick to join him as bullets were fired into the structure from all directions.
“How the fuck are we going to get out of here, Ken?”
“We aren’t.” Jamie stared at him, confused and Kennosuke knew it would soon turn to anger. “You are. We need to get you out of here and on a plane back to Japan... Uncle will never forgive me if anything happened to you.”
“Ken... he isn’t going to like it any better if you get hurt. I mean how the hell do you see this playing out without you getting injured?” Jamie argued back and then it dawned on him as Kennosuke averted his gaze. “You’re expecting to not return, maybe at all. Great. Now I’ll not only have two angry Yakuza to deal with, but Brian as well.”
Kennosuke continued to ignore Jamie as he tried to provide reasons as to why they both should escape, but he knew it wasn’t possible. Someone needed to act as a decoy and that someone could only be him.
“Mr Cooper, are your men armed?” Most of the men present were directly involved with the building of the factory and he didn’t want to assume if they still carried weapons.
“Yes.”
“I need you to leave me with a few and then you, Jamie and the rest leave. Get Jamie on a plane and out of the country.”
“Ken? What the hell? I’m not leaving you behind.”
“Are you sure about this?” Mr Cooper asked already signalling his men to come closer, ducking out of the way of bullets still being fired into the structure.
“Yes. When you’re far enough away, ring the cops.”
“Done.” He squeezed Kennosuke’s shoulder before heading toward the back of the half-finished building where Takeshi couldn’t see them.
“Ken, what about Brian?”
“Don’t worry about him... I’ll deal with him. You just concentrate on getting back to Japan, Jamie.”
“Fine... just don’t give Takeshi the satisfaction of...”
Kennosuke nodded and watched Jamie hurry to catch up to Brian’s father as four men took up positions on either side of him. Counting to ten, he gestured at the men left with him and stood. Gripping his gun tight, Kennosuke walked into the open. “If you wanna play Takeshi, then let’s play.”
Takeshi turned, his focus on Kennosuke as he walked forward giving Jamie enough time to escape. The SUV barrelling out of the paddock and onto the highway before Takeshi could react to it.
“I wanted both of you... Jamie more so. The death of his precious lover would hurt Gou more than yours will.”
“Husband.”
“What?” Takeshi snarled staring at him in confusion.
“They’re married, have been for almost a year.”
Kennosuke could see Takeshi think over what he’d said, trying to work out how the two had managed it seeing as they couldn’t marry in Japan. But they could in New Zealand. “Well, then, it would make it hurt even more, won’t it.”
Takeshi jerked his head and the Koreans he’d brought with him rushed for the SUVs intent on chasing Jamie down. They ignored the men Mr Cooper left behind, the bullets flying around them until the shots began to hit. Takeshi growled as two Koreans hit the ground and the others turned to return fire. Kennosuke began to grin, the smile slipping from his face as Takeshi raised his gun aiming it straight at him. He dove onto the ground a bullet whizzing over his prone body, but he didn’t get a chance to fire back as he rolled over to find Takeshi looming over him, gun discarded. Kennosuke only had to time to curse and roll into a ball as a foot smashed into his body. He didn’t try to fight back, accepting the repeated blows to his ribs and head knowing the more time Takeshi wasted on him, the further Jamie could get.
The blaring of a horn and the faint sound of sirens saw Takeshi stop, racing off toward the vehicles and left Kennosuke lying on the ground. Dampness seeped into his clothes chilling his bones, bruised, aching and he hoped none of them were broken. He pushed himself up, ignoring the dizziness of his head and watched Takeshi disappear into the distance away from the approaching police vehicles. Reaching for his phone Kennosuke was surprised it had survived the beating he took, trying several times to unlock it and bring up the messaging app. Words, letters swimming in front of his eyes and not helping the nausea already churning in his stomach as he blinked away the darkness tugging at the edges of his vision. I’m sorry, he typed before it dropped from his grasp and Kennosuke no longer able to maintain consciousness.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Doko...ka?”
“Speak English, you idiot.” Brian ran a hand over his head trying to hide his relief, glad that none of his colleagues were present. “And you’re in a hospital. Again. Wish you wouldn’t keep finding your way inside one by trying to get killed.”
“Fuck. Brian?”
“Who else would it be?”
“Shit, Jamie... your dad... are they?” Kennosuke struggled to sit up.
“Lie down before you hurt yourself more.” Brian stood, placed a hand on Kennosuke’s shoulder and pushed him back onto the bed. He wanted to crawl onto it next to Kennosuke a
nd hold him tight. Tiredness beginning to hit hard after sleep evaded him while Kennosuke had lain here unconscious. Worried. Frustrated. Hating that he couldn’t wait by Kennosuke’s bedside without his uniform on, and then only under the pretence of needing to question him once he woke up. For both their sakes, the relationship between them couldn’t be discovered.
“Jamie’s safe. Back in Kyoto. My old man is fine too, the cops don’t know about the connection between you and him, yet.”
“How long was I out for?”
“Long fucking enough. You were in out of consciousness for twenty-four hours.”
Kennosuke fell quiet, no doubt processing what Brian had told him. He stared at Kennosuke, anger surged through his veins for the umpteenth time since he’d learned Kennosuke had been admitted to hospital unresponsive. Cataloguing each bruise, he could see and all those he knew lay scattered across Kennosuke’s skin hidden by the blankets covering him. He tried to draw out their time together before it was interrupted by the need to notify people that Kennosuke was awake. Not that anyone had a name for him, Brian pleased Kennosuke hadn’t been carrying any form of identification.
“So... am I under arrest?”
“Not yet. They can only get you on firearm’s charges, none of your shots hit the Korean’s Takeshi brought with him.” He glanced at the door watching for anyone who might try to enter. “But now you’re awake, and if the doctors clear you, you will be moved to a cell.”
“Fuck off. I need to get back to Kyoto.”
“Good luck with that. My hands are tied Ken. I can’t help you.” Brian closed his eyes not wanting to see the anger blooming across Kennosuke’s face.
“What the fuck do you mean by that?”
“I have a cover to maintain. I’m not destroying it to save your arse.”