[JE] [JEF #4] Past Flaws 10/12
Title: JE Fleet IV: Past Flaws 10/12
Series: JE Fleet
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Akame
Rating: R (m/m activity)
Genre: AU, crack, sci-fi
Word count: 54,000
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the guys or random song lyrics that appear in this fic. Credit for naming the Yunaka goes to maya_morning.
Summary: When Akanishi Jin runs away from Earth, falling in with thieves along the way, the last thing he expects is to attract the attention of rookie Lunar/InterPlanetary Security officer, Kamenashi Kazuya.
Chapter 10
There were times when all six occupants of the Yunaka were awake, but they slept in shifts, taking it in turns to man the cockpit. It wasn't so much that they trusted each other as that they had no choice. Nakamaru didn't have much faith in the autopilot anyway (it wasn't up to his skill level, he proclaimed) and with an APB out on the ship, they couldn't afford to be caught napping.
To make matters worse, the artificial gravity was even flakier than before, the generator having acquired a new dent during the LIPS invasion, and if no one was awake to kick it back into obedience, things really started to get rocky in the cabins.
Not, however, as rocky as they got when Kame and Jin were taking their first turn alone together in the cockpit, and everyone else was sound asleep.
Kame kept a close eye on the instruments; Jin paced to keep himself awake. Too bad there wasn't much room to walk. After cracking his knee against a panel for the third time, Jin decided he'd better sit down before he did any permanent damage.
"Finally," Kame said, relieved. "You were making me dizzy."
"I didn't think you were watching."
"You almost fell on me twice - it was hard not to notice."
"Oops." Jin scratched his nose and gave Kame an embarrassed smile. "Sorry about that. I think better when I move."
Kame peered closely at the radar mapper, responding to Jin without actually looking at him. "And what were you thinking about so hard that you nearly hit your head on the weapons locker?"
"Uh...the rising price of hyperdrive fuel?" Jin tried. Telling Kame he'd been thinking about him wasn't an option.
"Sure, whatever." Kame didn't push.
"I mean, it's really important," Jin babbled, because if he didn't talk the conversation was going to stop and he wanted to talk to Kame - but at the same time, he didn't, because that meant talking seriously. "We need to pick up more fuel and I think that might be even more important than getting the coffee and-"
"Jin." Kame looked up from the screen. "Stop. Not that I object to you babbling, but I really don't want to hear about hyperdrive fuel. Makes me think of the last briefing I attended."
"Oh. Right." Jin scrabbled around for another topic, but it was difficult to concentrate on anything else when Kame was sitting only a foot away from him, somehow managing to look professional even in a T-shirt and sweatpants. The truth would have to do. "Actually, I was wondering what you were going to do afterwards."
"Afterwards..."
Kame hadn't wanted to think about it. He'd been good at planning, once, and he knew he was flexible enough to adapt to a change in circumstances, no matter how radical. But he hadn't counted on falling in with five guys who, for all the squabbling, temper tantrums and wildly different personalities, actually seemed to like him. Kame wasn't sure what would happen once they got the money and took care of the Ishida problem...but he harboured some small, faint hope that they might stay together.
Going back to Lunacy held very little appeal; returning to Earth, not much more. Kame hadn't forgotten why he'd joined LIPS in the first place: travel.
And Akanishi Jin made a very attractive travelling companion.
"I don't know," Kame said simply. "Depends how much money we all end up with. I suppose...you'll be staying on the Yunaka?"
Jin nodded. "I'm having fun here. We could fly anywhere!"
The excitement in Jin's voice fanned an answering spark in Kame. "Anywhere" covered a lot of ground - a lot of space, even.
"Anywhere but Earth," Jin said after reconsidering for a moment. "I'd like to give the old man time to forget my name."
"Think it's likely?"
Jin's heart skipped a beat. "Not really, but I live in hope."
"Better than living in fear." Kame's teasing tones took a turn for the tentative. "I...like it here too," he admitted. "Not so much the ship, but the people on it. None of you have any reason to like me, yet..."
It was a good thing the lights were down low, Jin thought, because he was pretty sure that his colour was high. "I don't know why anyone *wouldn't* like you," he mumbled.
"Aside from locking you in a tractor beam, getting you arrested and throwing myself at you in an interrogation room?"
"All right, so it wasn't an ideal location..."
Kame gave him a sidelong glance, and said carefully, "Are you suggesting somewhere else?"
A small, usually-silent part of Jin wanted to respond with, "No, you chair-loving lunatic!", but most of him was busy trying to come up with some sort of inoffensive response that wouldn't earn him a black eye. The remainder was of the opinion that grievous bodily harm was an acceptable risk, and that he should just jump Kame in the pilot's chair.
When Jin's face went completely blank, Kame wondered if he'd been misreading the situation. On such a small ship, keeping secrets was difficult and when Nakamaru had overheard Kame making a copy of the recording using the comm, everyone had found out exactly what had happened at the prison. Kame didn't think it was a coincidence that he and Jin had been asked to take watch together. Ueda, who'd made the request, had smiled sunnily at him and told him he'd better sort out his issues with Jin because the Yunaka wasn't big enough to deal with the tension.
Kame had tried to tell him that it wasn't that easy, that he didn't know how to apologise. Ueda's reply had given him a whole new set of problems to deal with.
"I think he's heard enough of your apologies - why don't you try talking to him about something else? It's obvious he's not holding a grudge. Quite the contrary, in fact."
That Jin clearly didn't hold him responsible for his actions helped to explain why he hadn't been lynched yet, though it didn't give Kame any indication as to what the other man really wanted. A hasty rendezvous in the cargo hold? A delightful dinner date on Deimos? A declaration of undying love?
The best way to get information out of Jin was to ask him, but since he hadn't replied...
"Sorry," Kame said awkwardly after three minutes had passed and Jin still hadn't responded, "I shouldn't have made assumptions."
Jin's impulses were still fighting it out. When he knew what he wanted, he went after it, full speed ahead; when he was confused, he found it hard to make decisions. And Kame confused him. A lot.
"What were you assuming?" he asked.
Kame glared at him. "I was assuming that you were concerned about my future plans because you wanted to be involved in them in some way."
Jin licked his lips nervously. Twice. "Isn't there some sort of syndrome where the hostage falls for the captor?"
"There is, but I don't think it applies here, or you'd be the last person wanting to take Ishida down." Kame covered his mouth with his hand, not wanting to disturb the others, but he had to laugh at Jin's disgusted expression. "Jin, if you're trying to tell me you're attracted to me and want to go fool around without the chair and restraints, fine, but if you're saying you like me...I mean, you know next to nothing about me!"
"I know! But I want to know more!" Jin blurted out. "I want to know your favourite sport, if you have any brothers or sisters, what you wanted to be when you were a little kid-"
"Baseball, three brothers, and the number one baseball player in the Sol System," Kame interrupted. "None of which helps you much. You can't learn everything you want from me just by asking me questions."
"Then I'll skip the questions and get straight to the point."
Jin didn't plan his next move. If he had, it might've been smoother, might've been softer. Not a desperate lunge towards Kame, holding him down by the shoulders and pressing against his lips with more enthusiasm than care. Not one stupid, thoughtless - but not worthless - attempt, one moment where Jin didn't have to wonder if Kame would push him away.
Because Kame kissed him back, bruised lips and all.
"You're right," Kame said when they came up for air. "Skip the questions."
"I have one more," Jin said breathlessly. "Can we do that again?"
"Only if you promise to stop trying to knock my front teeth out."
That promise was easily given though the cockpit wasn't much of a place for making out, despite the heaps of comfortable clothing providing respite from cold metal and hard plastic. Kame, who couldn't put less than a hundred per cent of his effort into anything even resembling work, wanted to keep a close eye on the instruments. Jin, who figured they'd have plenty of warning if anyone showed up, wasn't nearly so bothered about this. The radar mapper would beep if any ships got within range - and if it was out of range, they wouldn't know about it anyway so why worry?
There wasn't really enough room for two on any of the seats, either, and the floor was too far away from the controls. Jin ended up warring with duty for Kame's attention, leaning across the armrests and the gap between their chairs when he felt too neglected - which was often. Kame had no objections.
Anything more complicated than a brief kiss was going to have to wait until later. Even then, Kame didn't count on them finding much privacy. Besides, it wasn't really a good time for romance - not when the radar mapper was making such an irritating sound...
"Jin!" Kame pulled his hand free from the other man's grasp and made a dive for the controls. "We've got company!"
Jin's gaze immediately went to the door. "They're early!"
"Not that kind of company. On the screen, look."
He followed Kame's finger, which was pointing at a small blip making its way through the asteroid field - fast. The trailing nine-character registration looked oddly familiar...
"It's the Murasaki," Kame confirmed. "Don't ask me how, but they found me."
Jin narrowly avoided slipping on a skull-print fedora on his way to wake the others, and it wasn't until he was out the door that Kame realised they could just have yelled over the intercom. Still, nothing said "panic stations!" like being dragged out of bed by a hormonal, hyperactive, headstrong young man who didn't know how to take 'no' for an answer.
Nakamaru stumbled in first, rubbing his eyes, but the moment he took Kame's place at the helm he woke up. "We can't outrun them," he said flatly. "Not here. I need more space for a jump. But they shouldn't be able to get a lock on us with the tractor beam either - too many asteroids."
"So we can't run." Taguchi sounded disappointed.
"We can't hide," Kame said. "Not for long. They know we're here."
Sure enough, the blip was headed straight for them - as straight as it could while evading asteroids, anyway.
Jin gulped and looked at Koki. "Can we fight?"
Koki shrugged. "Don't ask me that. Ask our expert here." He turned to Kame. "What are the shields like on that thing?"
Kame couldn't lie to him. "The best. A lot of people fire on LIPS ships, the shields have to be good. I don't think the Yunaka's got the firepower to break through."
"Maybe we can bargain," Ueda said. "Ishida needs that diamond, and he knows we've got it."
"Yeah, and the moment we hand it over we're all dead anyway." Jin was in no rush to get himself blown up. "We have to think of something else."
"And fast, because they're gaining on us!" Nakamaru interjected.
Kame didn't have to think about it for long. There was no other way. "I'll go. They're supposed to be rescuing me, right? So they have to at least pretend to let me aboard. I won't let them fire on you guys."
"And when your former sergeant kills you and blows us all to pieces, I'm sure your soul will rest quietly, knowing that it tried its hardest," Jin said sarcastically.
"I don't see you coming up with anything better!"
"Guys, please!" Nakamaru threw one hand in the air - the other was still in the sling - and chastised them without taking his eyes off the screen. "If you're going to argue about it, we're going to have to lock you both up in a cabin till you work it out between you."
That shut them up. Not that Kame objected to being locked in a cabin with Jin, but he thought that in the event that the Yunaka got raided, Ishida was the last person he'd want to walk in and catch him in a compromising position. And a compromising position was guaranteed - even with the sudden tension in the air, and the presence of four extra people, the effects of Jin's kisses lingered still. Good thing Kame's T-shirt was extra long.
"If we get clear, can we jump?" Kame snapped in frustration.
"Yeah, but-"
Kame cut Nakamaru off by reaching across him to flip the activation switch for the hyperdrive. "We can at least warm it up. We'll just have to come back to Deimos later."
"If there *is* a later," Nakamaru said as a truly alarming grinding noise began in the depths of the ship, and the clothes strewn on the floor began to flutter. "The gravity's going again. Can someone go do something about the generator before we all end up on the ceiling?"
Everyone looked at Koki. "Fine," he grumbled, grabbing a toolkit, "but I'll need a hand."
Ueda volunteered; the pair of them lurched out the door, anchoring themselves with the handles situated at convenient - and some, not so convenient - places along the wall. Kame, the only one left standing, clung to the back of Jin's chair as he felt his feet start to leave the ground.
Nakamaru laid it out for them, all nice and simple. "If the gravity's not working when we jump, the restraints are all we've got and that's not saying much. I don't like to admit it but," he patted the console fondly, "the Yunaka's an old girl and she won't stand up to a lot of stress. Such as, the impact of six guys hitting the wall simultaneously. It won't do us any good either."
Not for the first time, Jin spared a thought to wish he'd stowed away on someone else's ship. Someone safe, like, oh, an intergalactic warlord, or perhaps a mass murderer whose favourite targets happened to be young Japanese men.
"Worry about getting us clear first," Kame said grimly.
The Murasaki fired a warning shot. It missed, but only just. Jin double-checked the shields. The readings made him hope the other guys weren't inclined to shoot the messenger.
"Uh...we have a problem."
"It'll have to take a number." Nakamaru's one good hand was a blur as he guided the ship through the field. "Or better yet, come back next week."
"There may not be a next week," Jin said. "The shields are failing."
Kame tried to get a closer look and ended up sitting in Jin's lap; Taguchi grinned at them until a bleep from the comm made him turn round to investigate. Sure enough, the shields were in trouble.
"All the power's draining elsewhere," Kame said, frowning. "There's barely enough left in the shield generators to deflect a fast-moving pillow."
As he spoke, a small, sandalwood-scented pillow drifted past his nose. Taguchi had the good grace - just barely - to look sheepish, and snatched it back.
Nakamaru sighed. "It's not just the shields - the sub-light engines are losing power too. We're slowing down."
Kame moved to hit the intercom, to warn Ueda and Koki, but Jin intervened. "Won't that just make them panic?"
A particularly nasty hissy fit on the part of the artificial gravity generator almost shot Kame up to the ceiling; only Jin's arm about his waist kept him anchored. Seconds later, things went in the opposite direction, increasing the gravity so much that Kame couldn't have moved if he'd wanted to, pressed heavily into Jin. Jin, in turn, was getting rather better acquainted with the seat than he'd have liked.
Once Kame could exercise his muscles again, he shook his head. "I'm sure they're already panicking; I know I am. Anybody got any *good* news?"
"I don't know if this is *good* or not," Taguchi began, "but we've got an incoming message. It's from the Murasaki."
Jin thought they could probably rule that out as being good news, then. "Tell them that if they want to surrender, we accept," he said with false cockiness.
To his surprise, Taguchi did exactly that. "We're prepared to accept your surrender," he said brightly, and turned up the volume so the others could hear the response.
Ishida's menacing sneer filled the cockpit. "I don't have time to play games with low-down space scum like you. Hand over my precious subordinate and maybe I'll let you live - if he's unharmed."
Kame snorted. "I wouldn't be his precious anything if he paid me. I'd rather kiss an asteroid!"
"Me and chairs aren't enough for you anymore?" Jin muttered.
Taguchi looked confused, but conveyed the message anyway. "Uh...Kamenashi would rather make an alternative lifestyle choice than come back to you."
"What do you mean, he's not the same as he used to be? If you cut anything more than his fingernails you can forget prison, you'll all be left in the nearest black hole!"
It was Jin's turn to look confused. "I don't think he's listening to us."
"Actually, I think he's the only one listening to us," Kame mused. "Ishida's putting on a show for someone. He must be wearing a headset."
Jin looked at the screen, where Kame's former colleagues were clearly gaining on them. "So someone on that ship isn't in on it?"
"I can think of a handful of people," Kame said. "Ishida could just wipe the logs afterwards, claim a malfunction, and he can play the big hero all he likes. It doesn't matter what we say. Go on, Taguchi, say something to him that's completely irrelevant."
"Iriguchi, deguchi, Taguchi desu!"
Everyone else in the cockpit groaned.
"Don't think you'll get away with this!" Ishida all but screamed at him. "I want to talk to Kamenashi. Now!"
"He's not interested in anything I have to say," Kame said. "I think we're close enough now that I can try to reach one of the others by datband; just keep Ishida talking!"
As Kame and Jin retreated into the corridor, Taguchi pantomimed falling rain, shook his head, then hunched his shoulders like a turtle retreating into its shell. "Ame dame. Kame da ne!"
"It's probably a good thing only Ishida can hear that," Jin said. "Otherwise they'd have blown us up by now."
"They can't do that unless we attack first, and Taguchi's not exactly a weapon of mass destruction."
Kame considered the LIPS officers in his old unit. The number of those who weren't slavishly devoted to Ishida was very small indeed. He didn't have long to think about it. In the end, he settled on Aya, figuring that with her mouth, she'd have no trouble causing a stir.
First, though, he had to get the damned thing to work. It had taken a nasty knock against the console when the gravity had gone haywire, and he couldn't seem to switch it on.
"Give me that," Jin muttered, and he slid it over Kame's wrist without so much as a by-your-leave. "I'll have a go."
"Careful, you'll-"
There was an audible crack as something snapped off the shiny silver datband.
"-break it," Kame finished, wincing.
Jin studied the small bead. It had been stuck next to the speaker, and didn't fit any datband design Jin knew. It certainly didn't look like a legitimate component - it hadn't even been embedded in the band.
"Kame, has that always been part of your datband?"
"Of course it has!"
Jin recoiled slightly. "And when did you get it? That's a LIPS-issue one, right?"
"Right. I got it when I was assigned to Lunacy. It was given to me by..." Kame trailed off, feeling sick, and it had nothing to do with the queasiness caused by the gravity problems. "By Ishida. It looks just like all the other datbands in my unit, though. All except his. I assumed that was because he was a higher rank."
Sliding his own datband off his wrist, Jin displayed it to Kame. "I can't think what possible function it would have. I've got modifications made to mine," he pointed to the tiny pink, blue and green lights he used to flash in clubs, "and they're all embedded. Yours was just stuck on, and not very well."
He handed the bead to Kame, who only needed a moment to identify it once he looked at the underside. "Transmitter," he said darkly. "He's known my location the whole time. No wonder he was able to find us out here." He crushed it under his heel - even though it was far too late to help, it still made him feel better, imagining that it was Ishida's head he was grinding into dust.
Kame tried contacting Aya, but even with the ground they'd lost, they were too far away from the Murasaki to reach anyone aboard. He was fiddling with the frequencies when there was a deafening bang and a scream from the cockpit. Taguchi staggered out, singed fingertips in his mouth and smudges on his cheeks, and said, "We can add the comm to the list of things that's not working properly."
"No kidding." Kame helped him to his cabin, lending as much support as he could manage without Taguchi sending them both crashing to the floor, while Jin returned to the cockpit to see if Nakamaru was all right.
Fortunately, there was no fire. The Yunaka's pilot was seated as far away from the helm as he could get, given that the seats didn't move, and was touching the controls very gingerly with his good hand while sneaking peeks at the blackened panels to his right. His skin tone would've made milk look sunburned, but he didn't appear to have been hit by any stray sparks.
"Are you hurt?" Jin asked. "Aside from the wrist, I mean."
"I'm great," Nakamaru said with forced cheer. "I could keep this up all day!" As he finished his sentence, a mechanical screech filled the room; his shoulders slumped in defeat and the rigid, "you couldn't pry this off my face with a crowbar" smile disappeared.
"What?" Jin said nervously. "Don't tell me that was the life-support system or something."
"Almost as bad. That was the hyperdrive."
That put paid to their chances of making a jump to safety, even if Koki and Ueda did manage to do anything with the artificial gravity generator - which, judging by the way Jin's feet were just barely skimming the ground, was looking less and less likely.
"She's falling apart, Jin." The Yunaka might only have been a ship, but for the pain in Nakamaru's voice, she might as well have been flesh and blood. "And there's nothing we can do to stop it."
Jin quickly weighed up their options. There were only two, and one of them ended with six funerals. The other was such a long shot that Jin actually had a better chance of playing forward for the Martian Marauders.
"Can we stop playing hide-and-seek and head straight for Deimos?"
"Well..."
"Can we?"
"It's not that simple!" It was the first time Jin had ever heard Nakamaru yell. "The only reason they don't have us in a tractor beam right now is because they can't get a lock on us while we're weaving through the asteroid field. The moment we get into open space, they'll haul us in...and that's if we've even got enough power to get there."
"Try anyway," Jin ordered. "If we can get closer to Deimos, we might be able to get a message across."
"The comm just blew up, in case you hadn't heard, and you'd have to be much closer to Deimos to use your datband."
"The external communications array is okay, though. I can use that to boost the datband signal."
Nakamaru gave him a warning look. "You'd have to suit up and go outside - and our shields failed two minutes ago. Getting shot would be the least of your worries."
Frankly, Jin thought that asteroids or no asteroids, getting shot was still a pretty major concern. He swallowed his next speech, which was going to be all about him nobly volunteering, and sank to the floor, clutching his useless datband as if he could physically boost its range.
Kame came flying through the door a second later - literally, flying, because the artificial gravity generator picked that moment to give up the ghost and Jin had to wrap his legs round the nearest seat to keep himself grounded. Koki and Ueda were right behind him, both dishevelled and panting, supporting the still-dazed Taguchi between them. They clung to the wall with everything they had, desperate to keep the ship's motion from splattering them across the cockpit, but Kame risked launching himself across to Jin's side.
He caught hold of the back of the weapons chair, slipped himself through the restraints, and collapsed, panting. "Guys, we're in serious trouble. I've just been down to check out the life support system and-"
The lights went out, leaving the six young men in cold, still darkness. The Yunaka was dead in space.
Series: JE Fleet
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Akame
Rating: R (m/m activity)
Genre: AU, crack, sci-fi
Word count: 54,000
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the guys or random song lyrics that appear in this fic. Credit for naming the Yunaka goes to maya_morning.
Summary: When Akanishi Jin runs away from Earth, falling in with thieves along the way, the last thing he expects is to attract the attention of rookie Lunar/InterPlanetary Security officer, Kamenashi Kazuya.
Chapter 10
There were times when all six occupants of the Yunaka were awake, but they slept in shifts, taking it in turns to man the cockpit. It wasn't so much that they trusted each other as that they had no choice. Nakamaru didn't have much faith in the autopilot anyway (it wasn't up to his skill level, he proclaimed) and with an APB out on the ship, they couldn't afford to be caught napping.
To make matters worse, the artificial gravity was even flakier than before, the generator having acquired a new dent during the LIPS invasion, and if no one was awake to kick it back into obedience, things really started to get rocky in the cabins.
Not, however, as rocky as they got when Kame and Jin were taking their first turn alone together in the cockpit, and everyone else was sound asleep.
Kame kept a close eye on the instruments; Jin paced to keep himself awake. Too bad there wasn't much room to walk. After cracking his knee against a panel for the third time, Jin decided he'd better sit down before he did any permanent damage.
"Finally," Kame said, relieved. "You were making me dizzy."
"I didn't think you were watching."
"You almost fell on me twice - it was hard not to notice."
"Oops." Jin scratched his nose and gave Kame an embarrassed smile. "Sorry about that. I think better when I move."
Kame peered closely at the radar mapper, responding to Jin without actually looking at him. "And what were you thinking about so hard that you nearly hit your head on the weapons locker?"
"Uh...the rising price of hyperdrive fuel?" Jin tried. Telling Kame he'd been thinking about him wasn't an option.
"Sure, whatever." Kame didn't push.
"I mean, it's really important," Jin babbled, because if he didn't talk the conversation was going to stop and he wanted to talk to Kame - but at the same time, he didn't, because that meant talking seriously. "We need to pick up more fuel and I think that might be even more important than getting the coffee and-"
"Jin." Kame looked up from the screen. "Stop. Not that I object to you babbling, but I really don't want to hear about hyperdrive fuel. Makes me think of the last briefing I attended."
"Oh. Right." Jin scrabbled around for another topic, but it was difficult to concentrate on anything else when Kame was sitting only a foot away from him, somehow managing to look professional even in a T-shirt and sweatpants. The truth would have to do. "Actually, I was wondering what you were going to do afterwards."
"Afterwards..."
Kame hadn't wanted to think about it. He'd been good at planning, once, and he knew he was flexible enough to adapt to a change in circumstances, no matter how radical. But he hadn't counted on falling in with five guys who, for all the squabbling, temper tantrums and wildly different personalities, actually seemed to like him. Kame wasn't sure what would happen once they got the money and took care of the Ishida problem...but he harboured some small, faint hope that they might stay together.
Going back to Lunacy held very little appeal; returning to Earth, not much more. Kame hadn't forgotten why he'd joined LIPS in the first place: travel.
And Akanishi Jin made a very attractive travelling companion.
"I don't know," Kame said simply. "Depends how much money we all end up with. I suppose...you'll be staying on the Yunaka?"
Jin nodded. "I'm having fun here. We could fly anywhere!"
The excitement in Jin's voice fanned an answering spark in Kame. "Anywhere" covered a lot of ground - a lot of space, even.
"Anywhere but Earth," Jin said after reconsidering for a moment. "I'd like to give the old man time to forget my name."
"Think it's likely?"
Jin's heart skipped a beat. "Not really, but I live in hope."
"Better than living in fear." Kame's teasing tones took a turn for the tentative. "I...like it here too," he admitted. "Not so much the ship, but the people on it. None of you have any reason to like me, yet..."
It was a good thing the lights were down low, Jin thought, because he was pretty sure that his colour was high. "I don't know why anyone *wouldn't* like you," he mumbled.
"Aside from locking you in a tractor beam, getting you arrested and throwing myself at you in an interrogation room?"
"All right, so it wasn't an ideal location..."
Kame gave him a sidelong glance, and said carefully, "Are you suggesting somewhere else?"
A small, usually-silent part of Jin wanted to respond with, "No, you chair-loving lunatic!", but most of him was busy trying to come up with some sort of inoffensive response that wouldn't earn him a black eye. The remainder was of the opinion that grievous bodily harm was an acceptable risk, and that he should just jump Kame in the pilot's chair.
When Jin's face went completely blank, Kame wondered if he'd been misreading the situation. On such a small ship, keeping secrets was difficult and when Nakamaru had overheard Kame making a copy of the recording using the comm, everyone had found out exactly what had happened at the prison. Kame didn't think it was a coincidence that he and Jin had been asked to take watch together. Ueda, who'd made the request, had smiled sunnily at him and told him he'd better sort out his issues with Jin because the Yunaka wasn't big enough to deal with the tension.
Kame had tried to tell him that it wasn't that easy, that he didn't know how to apologise. Ueda's reply had given him a whole new set of problems to deal with.
"I think he's heard enough of your apologies - why don't you try talking to him about something else? It's obvious he's not holding a grudge. Quite the contrary, in fact."
That Jin clearly didn't hold him responsible for his actions helped to explain why he hadn't been lynched yet, though it didn't give Kame any indication as to what the other man really wanted. A hasty rendezvous in the cargo hold? A delightful dinner date on Deimos? A declaration of undying love?
The best way to get information out of Jin was to ask him, but since he hadn't replied...
"Sorry," Kame said awkwardly after three minutes had passed and Jin still hadn't responded, "I shouldn't have made assumptions."
Jin's impulses were still fighting it out. When he knew what he wanted, he went after it, full speed ahead; when he was confused, he found it hard to make decisions. And Kame confused him. A lot.
"What were you assuming?" he asked.
Kame glared at him. "I was assuming that you were concerned about my future plans because you wanted to be involved in them in some way."
Jin licked his lips nervously. Twice. "Isn't there some sort of syndrome where the hostage falls for the captor?"
"There is, but I don't think it applies here, or you'd be the last person wanting to take Ishida down." Kame covered his mouth with his hand, not wanting to disturb the others, but he had to laugh at Jin's disgusted expression. "Jin, if you're trying to tell me you're attracted to me and want to go fool around without the chair and restraints, fine, but if you're saying you like me...I mean, you know next to nothing about me!"
"I know! But I want to know more!" Jin blurted out. "I want to know your favourite sport, if you have any brothers or sisters, what you wanted to be when you were a little kid-"
"Baseball, three brothers, and the number one baseball player in the Sol System," Kame interrupted. "None of which helps you much. You can't learn everything you want from me just by asking me questions."
"Then I'll skip the questions and get straight to the point."
Jin didn't plan his next move. If he had, it might've been smoother, might've been softer. Not a desperate lunge towards Kame, holding him down by the shoulders and pressing against his lips with more enthusiasm than care. Not one stupid, thoughtless - but not worthless - attempt, one moment where Jin didn't have to wonder if Kame would push him away.
Because Kame kissed him back, bruised lips and all.
"You're right," Kame said when they came up for air. "Skip the questions."
"I have one more," Jin said breathlessly. "Can we do that again?"
"Only if you promise to stop trying to knock my front teeth out."
That promise was easily given though the cockpit wasn't much of a place for making out, despite the heaps of comfortable clothing providing respite from cold metal and hard plastic. Kame, who couldn't put less than a hundred per cent of his effort into anything even resembling work, wanted to keep a close eye on the instruments. Jin, who figured they'd have plenty of warning if anyone showed up, wasn't nearly so bothered about this. The radar mapper would beep if any ships got within range - and if it was out of range, they wouldn't know about it anyway so why worry?
There wasn't really enough room for two on any of the seats, either, and the floor was too far away from the controls. Jin ended up warring with duty for Kame's attention, leaning across the armrests and the gap between their chairs when he felt too neglected - which was often. Kame had no objections.
Anything more complicated than a brief kiss was going to have to wait until later. Even then, Kame didn't count on them finding much privacy. Besides, it wasn't really a good time for romance - not when the radar mapper was making such an irritating sound...
"Jin!" Kame pulled his hand free from the other man's grasp and made a dive for the controls. "We've got company!"
Jin's gaze immediately went to the door. "They're early!"
"Not that kind of company. On the screen, look."
He followed Kame's finger, which was pointing at a small blip making its way through the asteroid field - fast. The trailing nine-character registration looked oddly familiar...
"It's the Murasaki," Kame confirmed. "Don't ask me how, but they found me."
Jin narrowly avoided slipping on a skull-print fedora on his way to wake the others, and it wasn't until he was out the door that Kame realised they could just have yelled over the intercom. Still, nothing said "panic stations!" like being dragged out of bed by a hormonal, hyperactive, headstrong young man who didn't know how to take 'no' for an answer.
Nakamaru stumbled in first, rubbing his eyes, but the moment he took Kame's place at the helm he woke up. "We can't outrun them," he said flatly. "Not here. I need more space for a jump. But they shouldn't be able to get a lock on us with the tractor beam either - too many asteroids."
"So we can't run." Taguchi sounded disappointed.
"We can't hide," Kame said. "Not for long. They know we're here."
Sure enough, the blip was headed straight for them - as straight as it could while evading asteroids, anyway.
Jin gulped and looked at Koki. "Can we fight?"
Koki shrugged. "Don't ask me that. Ask our expert here." He turned to Kame. "What are the shields like on that thing?"
Kame couldn't lie to him. "The best. A lot of people fire on LIPS ships, the shields have to be good. I don't think the Yunaka's got the firepower to break through."
"Maybe we can bargain," Ueda said. "Ishida needs that diamond, and he knows we've got it."
"Yeah, and the moment we hand it over we're all dead anyway." Jin was in no rush to get himself blown up. "We have to think of something else."
"And fast, because they're gaining on us!" Nakamaru interjected.
Kame didn't have to think about it for long. There was no other way. "I'll go. They're supposed to be rescuing me, right? So they have to at least pretend to let me aboard. I won't let them fire on you guys."
"And when your former sergeant kills you and blows us all to pieces, I'm sure your soul will rest quietly, knowing that it tried its hardest," Jin said sarcastically.
"I don't see you coming up with anything better!"
"Guys, please!" Nakamaru threw one hand in the air - the other was still in the sling - and chastised them without taking his eyes off the screen. "If you're going to argue about it, we're going to have to lock you both up in a cabin till you work it out between you."
That shut them up. Not that Kame objected to being locked in a cabin with Jin, but he thought that in the event that the Yunaka got raided, Ishida was the last person he'd want to walk in and catch him in a compromising position. And a compromising position was guaranteed - even with the sudden tension in the air, and the presence of four extra people, the effects of Jin's kisses lingered still. Good thing Kame's T-shirt was extra long.
"If we get clear, can we jump?" Kame snapped in frustration.
"Yeah, but-"
Kame cut Nakamaru off by reaching across him to flip the activation switch for the hyperdrive. "We can at least warm it up. We'll just have to come back to Deimos later."
"If there *is* a later," Nakamaru said as a truly alarming grinding noise began in the depths of the ship, and the clothes strewn on the floor began to flutter. "The gravity's going again. Can someone go do something about the generator before we all end up on the ceiling?"
Everyone looked at Koki. "Fine," he grumbled, grabbing a toolkit, "but I'll need a hand."
Ueda volunteered; the pair of them lurched out the door, anchoring themselves with the handles situated at convenient - and some, not so convenient - places along the wall. Kame, the only one left standing, clung to the back of Jin's chair as he felt his feet start to leave the ground.
Nakamaru laid it out for them, all nice and simple. "If the gravity's not working when we jump, the restraints are all we've got and that's not saying much. I don't like to admit it but," he patted the console fondly, "the Yunaka's an old girl and she won't stand up to a lot of stress. Such as, the impact of six guys hitting the wall simultaneously. It won't do us any good either."
Not for the first time, Jin spared a thought to wish he'd stowed away on someone else's ship. Someone safe, like, oh, an intergalactic warlord, or perhaps a mass murderer whose favourite targets happened to be young Japanese men.
"Worry about getting us clear first," Kame said grimly.
The Murasaki fired a warning shot. It missed, but only just. Jin double-checked the shields. The readings made him hope the other guys weren't inclined to shoot the messenger.
"Uh...we have a problem."
"It'll have to take a number." Nakamaru's one good hand was a blur as he guided the ship through the field. "Or better yet, come back next week."
"There may not be a next week," Jin said. "The shields are failing."
Kame tried to get a closer look and ended up sitting in Jin's lap; Taguchi grinned at them until a bleep from the comm made him turn round to investigate. Sure enough, the shields were in trouble.
"All the power's draining elsewhere," Kame said, frowning. "There's barely enough left in the shield generators to deflect a fast-moving pillow."
As he spoke, a small, sandalwood-scented pillow drifted past his nose. Taguchi had the good grace - just barely - to look sheepish, and snatched it back.
Nakamaru sighed. "It's not just the shields - the sub-light engines are losing power too. We're slowing down."
Kame moved to hit the intercom, to warn Ueda and Koki, but Jin intervened. "Won't that just make them panic?"
A particularly nasty hissy fit on the part of the artificial gravity generator almost shot Kame up to the ceiling; only Jin's arm about his waist kept him anchored. Seconds later, things went in the opposite direction, increasing the gravity so much that Kame couldn't have moved if he'd wanted to, pressed heavily into Jin. Jin, in turn, was getting rather better acquainted with the seat than he'd have liked.
Once Kame could exercise his muscles again, he shook his head. "I'm sure they're already panicking; I know I am. Anybody got any *good* news?"
"I don't know if this is *good* or not," Taguchi began, "but we've got an incoming message. It's from the Murasaki."
Jin thought they could probably rule that out as being good news, then. "Tell them that if they want to surrender, we accept," he said with false cockiness.
To his surprise, Taguchi did exactly that. "We're prepared to accept your surrender," he said brightly, and turned up the volume so the others could hear the response.
Ishida's menacing sneer filled the cockpit. "I don't have time to play games with low-down space scum like you. Hand over my precious subordinate and maybe I'll let you live - if he's unharmed."
Kame snorted. "I wouldn't be his precious anything if he paid me. I'd rather kiss an asteroid!"
"Me and chairs aren't enough for you anymore?" Jin muttered.
Taguchi looked confused, but conveyed the message anyway. "Uh...Kamenashi would rather make an alternative lifestyle choice than come back to you."
"What do you mean, he's not the same as he used to be? If you cut anything more than his fingernails you can forget prison, you'll all be left in the nearest black hole!"
It was Jin's turn to look confused. "I don't think he's listening to us."
"Actually, I think he's the only one listening to us," Kame mused. "Ishida's putting on a show for someone. He must be wearing a headset."
Jin looked at the screen, where Kame's former colleagues were clearly gaining on them. "So someone on that ship isn't in on it?"
"I can think of a handful of people," Kame said. "Ishida could just wipe the logs afterwards, claim a malfunction, and he can play the big hero all he likes. It doesn't matter what we say. Go on, Taguchi, say something to him that's completely irrelevant."
"Iriguchi, deguchi, Taguchi desu!"
Everyone else in the cockpit groaned.
"Don't think you'll get away with this!" Ishida all but screamed at him. "I want to talk to Kamenashi. Now!"
"He's not interested in anything I have to say," Kame said. "I think we're close enough now that I can try to reach one of the others by datband; just keep Ishida talking!"
As Kame and Jin retreated into the corridor, Taguchi pantomimed falling rain, shook his head, then hunched his shoulders like a turtle retreating into its shell. "Ame dame. Kame da ne!"
"It's probably a good thing only Ishida can hear that," Jin said. "Otherwise they'd have blown us up by now."
"They can't do that unless we attack first, and Taguchi's not exactly a weapon of mass destruction."
Kame considered the LIPS officers in his old unit. The number of those who weren't slavishly devoted to Ishida was very small indeed. He didn't have long to think about it. In the end, he settled on Aya, figuring that with her mouth, she'd have no trouble causing a stir.
First, though, he had to get the damned thing to work. It had taken a nasty knock against the console when the gravity had gone haywire, and he couldn't seem to switch it on.
"Give me that," Jin muttered, and he slid it over Kame's wrist without so much as a by-your-leave. "I'll have a go."
"Careful, you'll-"
There was an audible crack as something snapped off the shiny silver datband.
"-break it," Kame finished, wincing.
Jin studied the small bead. It had been stuck next to the speaker, and didn't fit any datband design Jin knew. It certainly didn't look like a legitimate component - it hadn't even been embedded in the band.
"Kame, has that always been part of your datband?"
"Of course it has!"
Jin recoiled slightly. "And when did you get it? That's a LIPS-issue one, right?"
"Right. I got it when I was assigned to Lunacy. It was given to me by..." Kame trailed off, feeling sick, and it had nothing to do with the queasiness caused by the gravity problems. "By Ishida. It looks just like all the other datbands in my unit, though. All except his. I assumed that was because he was a higher rank."
Sliding his own datband off his wrist, Jin displayed it to Kame. "I can't think what possible function it would have. I've got modifications made to mine," he pointed to the tiny pink, blue and green lights he used to flash in clubs, "and they're all embedded. Yours was just stuck on, and not very well."
He handed the bead to Kame, who only needed a moment to identify it once he looked at the underside. "Transmitter," he said darkly. "He's known my location the whole time. No wonder he was able to find us out here." He crushed it under his heel - even though it was far too late to help, it still made him feel better, imagining that it was Ishida's head he was grinding into dust.
Kame tried contacting Aya, but even with the ground they'd lost, they were too far away from the Murasaki to reach anyone aboard. He was fiddling with the frequencies when there was a deafening bang and a scream from the cockpit. Taguchi staggered out, singed fingertips in his mouth and smudges on his cheeks, and said, "We can add the comm to the list of things that's not working properly."
"No kidding." Kame helped him to his cabin, lending as much support as he could manage without Taguchi sending them both crashing to the floor, while Jin returned to the cockpit to see if Nakamaru was all right.
Fortunately, there was no fire. The Yunaka's pilot was seated as far away from the helm as he could get, given that the seats didn't move, and was touching the controls very gingerly with his good hand while sneaking peeks at the blackened panels to his right. His skin tone would've made milk look sunburned, but he didn't appear to have been hit by any stray sparks.
"Are you hurt?" Jin asked. "Aside from the wrist, I mean."
"I'm great," Nakamaru said with forced cheer. "I could keep this up all day!" As he finished his sentence, a mechanical screech filled the room; his shoulders slumped in defeat and the rigid, "you couldn't pry this off my face with a crowbar" smile disappeared.
"What?" Jin said nervously. "Don't tell me that was the life-support system or something."
"Almost as bad. That was the hyperdrive."
That put paid to their chances of making a jump to safety, even if Koki and Ueda did manage to do anything with the artificial gravity generator - which, judging by the way Jin's feet were just barely skimming the ground, was looking less and less likely.
"She's falling apart, Jin." The Yunaka might only have been a ship, but for the pain in Nakamaru's voice, she might as well have been flesh and blood. "And there's nothing we can do to stop it."
Jin quickly weighed up their options. There were only two, and one of them ended with six funerals. The other was such a long shot that Jin actually had a better chance of playing forward for the Martian Marauders.
"Can we stop playing hide-and-seek and head straight for Deimos?"
"Well..."
"Can we?"
"It's not that simple!" It was the first time Jin had ever heard Nakamaru yell. "The only reason they don't have us in a tractor beam right now is because they can't get a lock on us while we're weaving through the asteroid field. The moment we get into open space, they'll haul us in...and that's if we've even got enough power to get there."
"Try anyway," Jin ordered. "If we can get closer to Deimos, we might be able to get a message across."
"The comm just blew up, in case you hadn't heard, and you'd have to be much closer to Deimos to use your datband."
"The external communications array is okay, though. I can use that to boost the datband signal."
Nakamaru gave him a warning look. "You'd have to suit up and go outside - and our shields failed two minutes ago. Getting shot would be the least of your worries."
Frankly, Jin thought that asteroids or no asteroids, getting shot was still a pretty major concern. He swallowed his next speech, which was going to be all about him nobly volunteering, and sank to the floor, clutching his useless datband as if he could physically boost its range.
Kame came flying through the door a second later - literally, flying, because the artificial gravity generator picked that moment to give up the ghost and Jin had to wrap his legs round the nearest seat to keep himself grounded. Koki and Ueda were right behind him, both dishevelled and panting, supporting the still-dazed Taguchi between them. They clung to the wall with everything they had, desperate to keep the ship's motion from splattering them across the cockpit, but Kame risked launching himself across to Jin's side.
He caught hold of the back of the weapons chair, slipped himself through the restraints, and collapsed, panting. "Guys, we're in serious trouble. I've just been down to check out the life support system and-"
The lights went out, leaving the six young men in cold, still darkness. The Yunaka was dead in space.