balancing the books
Title: balancing the books
Groups/Pairings: NewS (Yamashita, Koyama, Ryo)
Rating: PG-13 for violent themes and swearing
Words: 2,250
Warnings: Mentions of killing, some torture, illegal activities.
Summary: So he's less an accountant and more a shady repo man, but the sentiment's the same - it's all about the money.
Notes: *Repost* For meissa in je-otherworlds 2011. Original is here. I was really happy to get to write for her especially since I enjoy her fics so much. <3 Also, I suck at being anon, lol. Me and my see-through notes. Also, HUGE thanks to my beta, yey-yey for being so good to me. <3
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Yamashita really tries, as a general rule of thumb, not to employ anyone who makes a habit out of looking like he'll get sleaze all over you if you even achieve eye contact. He'll be the first to admit, though, that right now he doesn't have much choice.
"You'll do," he grunts, and yanks the man after him, making a mental note to wash his hands later.
"I'd make a quip about your tendency to bring home strays," Koyama drawls as Yamashita makes it back to their ride, stranger in tow, "but then I wouldn't be here either. Though you could've picked someone a little less…" he trails off, looking uncomfortable as he gets them moving, and yeah, Yamashita thinks, glancing at the guy, he probably would feel uncomfortable too if he were being glared at like that.
"Hey," Yamashita protests, "I was in a tight spot and I didn't see anyone else offering to save my hide for love or money."
"I told you I should've come in."
"You always get squeamish when I have to whack someone."
The stranger's rough voice stops them. "I hate to interrupt your domestic squabble, ladies, but I'm right here."
Both sets of eyes face the new guy and he just stares back at them expectantly. "Who are you?" they ask in tandem.
The man gives them a very unimpressed look. "Your knight in shining armor. But you can call me 'Ryo'."
Yamashita guesses he's going to fit right in. Sarcastic little bastard.
It's not exactly the sort of life his mother had envisioned for him. Not quite what he'd expected for himself, either - intergalactic debt collector. He'd started off as a regular old accountant but had hated sitting at a desk all day. So when a boss had suggested he might use his knowledge, stubbornness, and special brand of charm in a more active manner, Yamashita had jumped at the chance. One thing had led to another, and now here he was, little more than a glorified goon making money doing someone else's dirty work.
But hey, it was a job, and he was actually really good at it. He hadn't had to kill anyone in several months and that was better than most people in his line of work could say. He could charm a person out of their own pants, and for times when he couldn't, Koyama could sweet talk a mother out of her only child (not that he would - he drew the line at human trafficking). But when none of that worked, Koyama was a mean lock-pick, and they'd "liberated" their fare share of payoffs. Adding Koyama to his team helped with this, too, because you couldn't just hand an employer someone's antique timepiece and expect to call it even. Which was where Shige, practically Koyama's other half, came in. Shige owned one of the galaxy's more reputable auction houses, and if he slipped in a few hot items who would know? He always gave Yamashita a dirty look when Koyama brought things in, but he could never turn them away.
Ryo, though, he's adding some serious spice to the mix. Koyama looks like he is going to throw up.
"Look, I was nice and only broke your pinky, because who really uses it anyway? But your thumbs are going to be next and you won't be doing much of anything without the use of those. So what do you say? Ready to pony up?"
"Ryo…" Koyama starts, face a bit pale, not that Yamashita can blame him. It's never easy watching someone get their bones bent ways they were never meant to go. It's all a bit grotesque.
The two bicker as they leave, Koyama and Ryo, and Yamashita just follows behind, stuffing a stash of credits in his bag.
"What?" Ryo is asking, exasperation clear in his voice. They've had this talk before. "We didn't have to waste him so I don't see the problem. You should be kissing my ass, not chapping it."
"We could have just stolen it."
Ryo stops stock-still and Yamashita runs face-first into him. "Keep moving," Yamashita tells him, and is promptly ignored.
"Why should we have to go through all that effort to steal it? They're the ones that owe the money. We'd spend hours planning the hit and then hours carrying it out and then have to lug it all the across the galaxy to your girlfriend and wait for it to sell. This way we spend thirty minutes kicking the door in and breaking a couple fingers and we can be at the bar chatting up some ladies with questionable virtues before you can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."
"You're so missing the point," Koyama mutters.
Yamashita thinks that he's going to have to start leaving one of them behind on these runs. They have clashing operating procedures and it makes his head hurt.
In the end they work it out, though, building up a sort of blended style, the best of all worlds, that gets them in and out pretty quickly while stepping on the fewest possible toes. No one said anything about fingers, though, and Yamashita notices that Koyama keeps his fragile, slender hands as far from Ryo as possible at all times. He doesn't think it's intentional, but it is pretty funny.
Good times don't last forever, though, and their successful run comes to a screeching halt. They'd left Koyama back at the hotel while they went and took care of an especially vicious hit. Yamashita wishes he hadn't so readily agreed to leaving him behind, because he gets a call just as they finish, Koyama's name flashing on his handset, and he answers without hesitation.
"I'm sorry, Pi," Koyama says, and his voice is all shaky, scared maybe. "I tried to reason with him. I should have been more careful."
There's the sound of shuffling and then "I think I have something you want," a new man says, and Yamashita instantly freezes, reaching out with one hand to grip Ryo's shirt.
"Who is this?" Yamashita asks, voice hoarse.
"'Jenneson Noyes' ring any bells?"
It does. An old hit Ryo had roughed up pretty good before the man gave in and paid. "What do you want?" he whispers, and he and Ryo just stare at each other.
"I want you and your snap-happy buddy to meet me at Trippy, the bar at the corner of Alain and Twan, uptown. You have ten minutes."
The call ends abruptly and Ryo finally speaks. "What's wrong? You look like hell."
"Noyes has Koyama. We've gotta go."
"Aw , shit."
The area surrounding the bar is dead. It looks like it's had no power for years, just enough to run streetlights at night, though a lot of the lights aren't on, broken probably. The bar itself, however, is bathed in light, enough so that when they enter the room, there's just enough coming in through its windows to see Koyama by. Koyama's got his feet braced wide apart, bent at the waist so that his back is flat and his cheek is pressed against the top of the bar. His hands are bound at the wrists and are twisted up behind him, Noyes pressing Koyama's bound hands high enough to be on the edge of painful, holding him down single-handedly. Yamashita sees the other hand smoothly lift a long blade up into the space between the bar top and Koyama's shoulders to run its sharp edge along his slender throat. Koyama's legs are trembling with fatigue and it tells Yamashita he's been like that a long time. Too long.
"Been waiting. Time was almost up," Noyes says.
Koyama's eyes flash open and he lets out a whimper when he sees them, his breathing speeding up, pain flaring in his eyes as he tries to move and stay still all at once.
"Easy, Koyama," Yamashita breathes, then focuses on the captor's grinning face.
"Hi," the man says, "remember me?"
Ryo is furious. "I remember thinking I should have broken more than just your fucking fingers, that's what I remember."
"Shit, Ryo," Koyama growls. "Could you hold off on the 'asshole' for a change?"
Noyes laughs. "Should always go with your instincts, Ryo."
"Why Koyama?" Ryo asks, edging a little closer but stopping when the man 'tut's and pushes up on Koyama's hands and makes him whimper again. "I'm the one who did it."
And Yamashita is frankly wondering the same thing. It's Koyama who always tries to keep them from hurting people, to leave violence as a last resort. They should have listened. He can't stop looking into Koyama's eyes and seeing the pain and fear there. His mind is reeling with possibilities, angles, a way to get them all out of here without anyone but Noyes getting hurt too badly.
"Because you're never alone, are you? You spend a lot of time covering up your fear of solitude by acting like you're a big, bad guy. Besides, this hurts you well enough. Never thought you'd have to actually be responsible for your actions, did you? Won't you be upset when I break your friend's pretty fingers? They take months to heal properly; I should know."
All four of them are silent for a moment, and then Ryo's harsh laugh rings out in the empty room. "Break them. What do I care? He's not a friend, just a partner, and I take enough shit from him. Yamashita might care, but I don't."
Koyama's eyes widen when Ryo says this, and he bucks up against Noyes, moaning at the pain in his weak legs, awkwardly bent arms, the knife pressing just a shade too hard against his neck and drawing a sliver of blood.
"Easy, tiger," Noyes tells Koyama, eyes narrowed and still trained on Ryo. "Too bad I don't believe you, Ryo. Pinkies first, right?" he asks with a smile, and eases up on Koyama's arms so he can start trying to pry up one of his pinkies.
Yamashita is frozen, can't look away from Koyama's eyes, now screwed tight as he tries to keep his hands in fists and not rock forward into the blade.
"What do you want?" Yamashita says into the silence. "Revenge? You can have it. Take Ryo. Take Ryo and all the money we took from you. Free and clear."
Ryo's head whips toward Yamashita, disbelief written across his face. "What? I do more for you than Koyama ever did. Stealing? That's tedious, boring. I get you where you need to go and I do it fast. He's done nothing but hold you back."
Yamashita looks between Koyama and Ryo uneasily, seemingly ignoring Noyes and his disbelieving face, and Ryo continues softly, "It's dog-eat-dog out there, Yamashita. Koyama won't be anything but a dead weight."
There's dead silence, and Yamashita sees, out of the very corner of his eye, Noyes remove the knife from Koyama's neck, trying to angle his body so that he can launch himself at Ryo while Ryo is still busy glaring at Yamashita, Koyama becoming more useless to him by the moment.
What comes next is almost too fast to process. Using the very last of the strength in his legs, Koyama rocks up and back, shoving hard against Noyes and knocking him off balance, and Yamashita and Ryo rush Noyes at the same time, tackling him to the ground. There's a sharp flare of pain in Yamashita's shoulder as they go down, and Koyama drops to his knees before collapsing to his side in a whimpering and undignified heap. And just like that it's all over.
Taking Noyes' blade, Yamashita slices the cords binding Koyama's hands and rolls Koyama over gingerly, barely registering Ryo's mocking insults as he hogties Noyes and tells him just how stupid he is in no uncertain terms. "You okay?" he asks Koyama, rubbing his hands carefully and noting the fine trembling in Koyama's limbs.
"Yeah, fine. It's not every day a man gets tortured and threatened with death and gets to hear his friends discuss his real value in vivid detail." But he's smiling and it's okay.
"Don't smile, dumbass," Ryo mutters, sitting next to Koyama's knees and rubbing gently at his shaky legs. "It's your fault we had to even deal with this. I thought you were at least smart enough to watch your own back, but I guess I'll have to babysit you from now on, won't I?"
"Guess so," Koyama replies happily, if with a still-shaky voice. Then he frowns, reaching up and pushing at Yamashita's shoulder gingerly and wincing at the pain in his wrists. "Stop bleeding all over me."
"Ah, damnit," he says, grimacing at the wound and finally registering the pain. "I really liked this jacket."
"I'll get you a new one," Ryo says gruffly, after a moment, and Koyama and Yamashita share a grin Ryo pretends not to see.
They end up smuggling Noyes onto a prison ship destined for a remote mining planet, because even though he pretends to be a hard-ass, Ryo always stays behind with Koyama, too, when Yamashita has to play hitman. And it was Ryo's idea to send Noyes packing when Yamashita was contemplating utilizing his gun, Koyama's eyes sparkling at his cranky partner in a rather sappy way.
Yamashita just leans back against the smooth wall of the space dock and smiles at them as they bitch about their next job. He's kind of ready for a vacation, but he'll be bringing both his dead weights with him.
Groups/Pairings: NewS (Yamashita, Koyama, Ryo)
Rating: PG-13 for violent themes and swearing
Words: 2,250
Warnings: Mentions of killing, some torture, illegal activities.
Summary: So he's less an accountant and more a shady repo man, but the sentiment's the same - it's all about the money.
Notes: *Repost* For meissa in je-otherworlds 2011. Original is here. I was really happy to get to write for her especially since I enjoy her fics so much. <3 Also, I suck at being anon, lol. Me and my see-through notes. Also, HUGE thanks to my beta, yey-yey for being so good to me. <3
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Yamashita really tries, as a general rule of thumb, not to employ anyone who makes a habit out of looking like he'll get sleaze all over you if you even achieve eye contact. He'll be the first to admit, though, that right now he doesn't have much choice.
"You'll do," he grunts, and yanks the man after him, making a mental note to wash his hands later.
"I'd make a quip about your tendency to bring home strays," Koyama drawls as Yamashita makes it back to their ride, stranger in tow, "but then I wouldn't be here either. Though you could've picked someone a little less…" he trails off, looking uncomfortable as he gets them moving, and yeah, Yamashita thinks, glancing at the guy, he probably would feel uncomfortable too if he were being glared at like that.
"Hey," Yamashita protests, "I was in a tight spot and I didn't see anyone else offering to save my hide for love or money."
"I told you I should've come in."
"You always get squeamish when I have to whack someone."
The stranger's rough voice stops them. "I hate to interrupt your domestic squabble, ladies, but I'm right here."
Both sets of eyes face the new guy and he just stares back at them expectantly. "Who are you?" they ask in tandem.
The man gives them a very unimpressed look. "Your knight in shining armor. But you can call me 'Ryo'."
Yamashita guesses he's going to fit right in. Sarcastic little bastard.
It's not exactly the sort of life his mother had envisioned for him. Not quite what he'd expected for himself, either - intergalactic debt collector. He'd started off as a regular old accountant but had hated sitting at a desk all day. So when a boss had suggested he might use his knowledge, stubbornness, and special brand of charm in a more active manner, Yamashita had jumped at the chance. One thing had led to another, and now here he was, little more than a glorified goon making money doing someone else's dirty work.
But hey, it was a job, and he was actually really good at it. He hadn't had to kill anyone in several months and that was better than most people in his line of work could say. He could charm a person out of their own pants, and for times when he couldn't, Koyama could sweet talk a mother out of her only child (not that he would - he drew the line at human trafficking). But when none of that worked, Koyama was a mean lock-pick, and they'd "liberated" their fare share of payoffs. Adding Koyama to his team helped with this, too, because you couldn't just hand an employer someone's antique timepiece and expect to call it even. Which was where Shige, practically Koyama's other half, came in. Shige owned one of the galaxy's more reputable auction houses, and if he slipped in a few hot items who would know? He always gave Yamashita a dirty look when Koyama brought things in, but he could never turn them away.
Ryo, though, he's adding some serious spice to the mix. Koyama looks like he is going to throw up.
"Look, I was nice and only broke your pinky, because who really uses it anyway? But your thumbs are going to be next and you won't be doing much of anything without the use of those. So what do you say? Ready to pony up?"
"Ryo…" Koyama starts, face a bit pale, not that Yamashita can blame him. It's never easy watching someone get their bones bent ways they were never meant to go. It's all a bit grotesque.
The two bicker as they leave, Koyama and Ryo, and Yamashita just follows behind, stuffing a stash of credits in his bag.
"What?" Ryo is asking, exasperation clear in his voice. They've had this talk before. "We didn't have to waste him so I don't see the problem. You should be kissing my ass, not chapping it."
"We could have just stolen it."
Ryo stops stock-still and Yamashita runs face-first into him. "Keep moving," Yamashita tells him, and is promptly ignored.
"Why should we have to go through all that effort to steal it? They're the ones that owe the money. We'd spend hours planning the hit and then hours carrying it out and then have to lug it all the across the galaxy to your girlfriend and wait for it to sell. This way we spend thirty minutes kicking the door in and breaking a couple fingers and we can be at the bar chatting up some ladies with questionable virtues before you can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."
"You're so missing the point," Koyama mutters.
Yamashita thinks that he's going to have to start leaving one of them behind on these runs. They have clashing operating procedures and it makes his head hurt.
In the end they work it out, though, building up a sort of blended style, the best of all worlds, that gets them in and out pretty quickly while stepping on the fewest possible toes. No one said anything about fingers, though, and Yamashita notices that Koyama keeps his fragile, slender hands as far from Ryo as possible at all times. He doesn't think it's intentional, but it is pretty funny.
Good times don't last forever, though, and their successful run comes to a screeching halt. They'd left Koyama back at the hotel while they went and took care of an especially vicious hit. Yamashita wishes he hadn't so readily agreed to leaving him behind, because he gets a call just as they finish, Koyama's name flashing on his handset, and he answers without hesitation.
"I'm sorry, Pi," Koyama says, and his voice is all shaky, scared maybe. "I tried to reason with him. I should have been more careful."
There's the sound of shuffling and then "I think I have something you want," a new man says, and Yamashita instantly freezes, reaching out with one hand to grip Ryo's shirt.
"Who is this?" Yamashita asks, voice hoarse.
"'Jenneson Noyes' ring any bells?"
It does. An old hit Ryo had roughed up pretty good before the man gave in and paid. "What do you want?" he whispers, and he and Ryo just stare at each other.
"I want you and your snap-happy buddy to meet me at Trippy, the bar at the corner of Alain and Twan, uptown. You have ten minutes."
The call ends abruptly and Ryo finally speaks. "What's wrong? You look like hell."
"Noyes has Koyama. We've gotta go."
"Aw , shit."
The area surrounding the bar is dead. It looks like it's had no power for years, just enough to run streetlights at night, though a lot of the lights aren't on, broken probably. The bar itself, however, is bathed in light, enough so that when they enter the room, there's just enough coming in through its windows to see Koyama by. Koyama's got his feet braced wide apart, bent at the waist so that his back is flat and his cheek is pressed against the top of the bar. His hands are bound at the wrists and are twisted up behind him, Noyes pressing Koyama's bound hands high enough to be on the edge of painful, holding him down single-handedly. Yamashita sees the other hand smoothly lift a long blade up into the space between the bar top and Koyama's shoulders to run its sharp edge along his slender throat. Koyama's legs are trembling with fatigue and it tells Yamashita he's been like that a long time. Too long.
"Been waiting. Time was almost up," Noyes says.
Koyama's eyes flash open and he lets out a whimper when he sees them, his breathing speeding up, pain flaring in his eyes as he tries to move and stay still all at once.
"Easy, Koyama," Yamashita breathes, then focuses on the captor's grinning face.
"Hi," the man says, "remember me?"
Ryo is furious. "I remember thinking I should have broken more than just your fucking fingers, that's what I remember."
"Shit, Ryo," Koyama growls. "Could you hold off on the 'asshole' for a change?"
Noyes laughs. "Should always go with your instincts, Ryo."
"Why Koyama?" Ryo asks, edging a little closer but stopping when the man 'tut's and pushes up on Koyama's hands and makes him whimper again. "I'm the one who did it."
And Yamashita is frankly wondering the same thing. It's Koyama who always tries to keep them from hurting people, to leave violence as a last resort. They should have listened. He can't stop looking into Koyama's eyes and seeing the pain and fear there. His mind is reeling with possibilities, angles, a way to get them all out of here without anyone but Noyes getting hurt too badly.
"Because you're never alone, are you? You spend a lot of time covering up your fear of solitude by acting like you're a big, bad guy. Besides, this hurts you well enough. Never thought you'd have to actually be responsible for your actions, did you? Won't you be upset when I break your friend's pretty fingers? They take months to heal properly; I should know."
All four of them are silent for a moment, and then Ryo's harsh laugh rings out in the empty room. "Break them. What do I care? He's not a friend, just a partner, and I take enough shit from him. Yamashita might care, but I don't."
Koyama's eyes widen when Ryo says this, and he bucks up against Noyes, moaning at the pain in his weak legs, awkwardly bent arms, the knife pressing just a shade too hard against his neck and drawing a sliver of blood.
"Easy, tiger," Noyes tells Koyama, eyes narrowed and still trained on Ryo. "Too bad I don't believe you, Ryo. Pinkies first, right?" he asks with a smile, and eases up on Koyama's arms so he can start trying to pry up one of his pinkies.
Yamashita is frozen, can't look away from Koyama's eyes, now screwed tight as he tries to keep his hands in fists and not rock forward into the blade.
"What do you want?" Yamashita says into the silence. "Revenge? You can have it. Take Ryo. Take Ryo and all the money we took from you. Free and clear."
Ryo's head whips toward Yamashita, disbelief written across his face. "What? I do more for you than Koyama ever did. Stealing? That's tedious, boring. I get you where you need to go and I do it fast. He's done nothing but hold you back."
Yamashita looks between Koyama and Ryo uneasily, seemingly ignoring Noyes and his disbelieving face, and Ryo continues softly, "It's dog-eat-dog out there, Yamashita. Koyama won't be anything but a dead weight."
There's dead silence, and Yamashita sees, out of the very corner of his eye, Noyes remove the knife from Koyama's neck, trying to angle his body so that he can launch himself at Ryo while Ryo is still busy glaring at Yamashita, Koyama becoming more useless to him by the moment.
What comes next is almost too fast to process. Using the very last of the strength in his legs, Koyama rocks up and back, shoving hard against Noyes and knocking him off balance, and Yamashita and Ryo rush Noyes at the same time, tackling him to the ground. There's a sharp flare of pain in Yamashita's shoulder as they go down, and Koyama drops to his knees before collapsing to his side in a whimpering and undignified heap. And just like that it's all over.
Taking Noyes' blade, Yamashita slices the cords binding Koyama's hands and rolls Koyama over gingerly, barely registering Ryo's mocking insults as he hogties Noyes and tells him just how stupid he is in no uncertain terms. "You okay?" he asks Koyama, rubbing his hands carefully and noting the fine trembling in Koyama's limbs.
"Yeah, fine. It's not every day a man gets tortured and threatened with death and gets to hear his friends discuss his real value in vivid detail." But he's smiling and it's okay.
"Don't smile, dumbass," Ryo mutters, sitting next to Koyama's knees and rubbing gently at his shaky legs. "It's your fault we had to even deal with this. I thought you were at least smart enough to watch your own back, but I guess I'll have to babysit you from now on, won't I?"
"Guess so," Koyama replies happily, if with a still-shaky voice. Then he frowns, reaching up and pushing at Yamashita's shoulder gingerly and wincing at the pain in his wrists. "Stop bleeding all over me."
"Ah, damnit," he says, grimacing at the wound and finally registering the pain. "I really liked this jacket."
"I'll get you a new one," Ryo says gruffly, after a moment, and Koyama and Yamashita share a grin Ryo pretends not to see.
They end up smuggling Noyes onto a prison ship destined for a remote mining planet, because even though he pretends to be a hard-ass, Ryo always stays behind with Koyama, too, when Yamashita has to play hitman. And it was Ryo's idea to send Noyes packing when Yamashita was contemplating utilizing his gun, Koyama's eyes sparkling at his cranky partner in a rather sappy way.
Yamashita just leans back against the smooth wall of the space dock and smiles at them as they bitch about their next job. He's kind of ready for a vacation, but he'll be bringing both his dead weights with him.