[fic] The Things We Can't Control - Chapter 56 ~A Promise~
Title: The Things We Can't Control
Author:
prettyorianna
Pairing: Akame. Others to be added later.
Rating: NC-17.
Genre: crime drama au
Beta by: my cat Gemma. okay, seriously, nobody
Disclaimer: I don't own KAT-TUN, any of its members, any other JE people. I write this for fun and for other fans of these fine folks. But don't steal my
plots, mmkay? I put a great deal of time into them except for when I'm randomly spastically spitting words onto a page. But I value those too...
Summary: Two criminals with vastly different styles meet by chance one day. They immediately clash but is that all they'll ever be? How much is fate and how much choice? And how will their meeting change the world around them?
Author's Note: I have been given the Marika Seal o' Approval. The MSoA is the highest honor I can get LOL! But, silliness aside, I think you will like this chapter. I hope you will, anyway. I had the barest snippet of the middle of this written for quite some time and I have been working for a long, long time to get from where the story was to the point I could use the snippet. And we're finally there. Though I do apologize; there's not really a whole lot here about Kame trying to kill Yasu before. But you'll get that information, sooner or later. It just didn't fit right now.
BANNER BY DESHISORABA!! THE MOST AWESOME BANNER EVER AND I WILL FIGHT ANYONE WHO DISAGREES!
Warning: This gets graphic often occasionally, containing at the very least foul language, character death, nefarious crimes, rape, etc etc.
The Master Posts:
On my journal - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the akame_ Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the akame_fanfics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the je_kamenashi Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the kattun_fanfics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the jin_fics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
Chapter 56 ~A Promise~
Maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, since he’d seen his father there, but Kame just couldn’t leave. He had to watch it. He had to stay until the flames died off, a mourning vigil for the place that had meant so much to him.
The fire truck eventually showed up but it was far too late to do any good. The building was gone. The whole thing was reduced to a pile of charred beams and melted glass.
The crowd was gone long before the fire truck arrived. Only Kame stayed.
He gave the firemen the fake name that was on his bank account and ID card, Odagiri Ryu, and told them everything he saw. He told them about the one-eyed man leading the charge, whipping the crowd into a frenzy. He didn’t directly name his father because he didn’t want them linking the two of them but he gave a spot-on description and how many well-dressed gentlemen with only one eye could the city have?
They wrote the whole story down but really, it seemed like they just didn’t care. They probably wouldn’t have shown up at all except they didn’t want the fire to spread to other buildings.
Then, for lack of anything better to do, Kame walked back to the bus stop and went back home.
The next day, he felt worse.
The fact that he’d been so close to his father finally fully hit.
Oh, he wasn’t scared; not like he probably ought to be, at least. No, he was angry. Furious. It wasn’t just his life his father was destroying. Someone had pimped those boys out and he knew it wasn’t the twins. He’d bet anything it was his father. And now the twins were in jail but that wasn’t enough to satisfy the man. He had to go burn their club. He somehow convinced a crowd of ordinary people to torch it.
And who knows how many other people the man was hurting!
Someone needed to do something about it. The cops wouldn’t. There was nothing within the law to help the people his father was hurting.
And not just his father, either. People like Jiro and his goons. So many people hurting, being taken advantage of. Drugs. Rape. Murder. A whole world of evil people doing evil things and the innocent getting caught right in the middle. So much suffering…
There had to be something he could do. Some way to help.
But how?
What could he really do when the rest of the world seemed completely incapable of helping?
He didn’t know…
But…
He would find a way.
However long it took, he would find a way.
July faded into August, until it was over a month since the day the twins had changed their pleas.
He missed them so much. He’d moved into the bedroom, rather reluctantly, but it was there and there was no reason to keep sleeping on the couch. It did make it harder. It was like some admission they weren’t coming back.
He was almost completely recovered from the beating Jiro’s crew had given him.
Maybe it was time to go visit?
Better take enough cash to grease some wheels; he probably wouldn’t be able to see them otherwise.
But some careful flattery and a few hundred dollars later, he was staring through the glass at Akira, talking into that phone. “I miss you guys. I wanted to see both of you but… I didn’t bring enough, I guess.”
“I’ll tell him you came. He’ll be happy to hear it.” Akira smiled at him, though his eyes were just tired. Was that a bruise hidden under that sleeve? Kame shifted a bit to see better. Oh, yeah. That was a bruise, and a bad one at that.
Kame frowned. “You’re hurt.”
Akira shook his head. “It’s nothing. A little scuffle in the yard last week. You shouldn’t worry about it.”
“But…”
“We’re fine, Kame. Don’t worry about us. They put us together, at least. Not at first, but… now. Now we’re cellmates. We’re together so we’re fine.”
That was something, at least. “I’m glad they haven’t pulled you two apart. You should really be together.”
“What about you, Kame? Did… did you get out of that place, go back home?” Akira asked hopefully.
“Yeah. There were a few snags but I got out of there. I…” and Kame sighed, “I moved into the bedroom. It feels… weird. The place is lonely without you two. But I feel safe there.”
“That’s good.”
“I… saw my dad.”
Akira lost all pretense of smiling. “What?”
“He got them to burn The Club. I… I couldn’t stop it. I just… all I could do was watch it burn…” he confessed, tears stinging his eyes. “But he saw me and he just… he smiled. He’s punishing me, going after the people I love. The places that feel like home to me. I don’t understand why he didn’t just take me that day. Maybe it was too risky in front of that crowd, I don’t know. But I understood the look he gave me. I know he had something to do with your arrest. I know it!”
“The boys work for him, I believe. Still, probably,” Akira said.
Kame thought so, too. “And there’s nothing that can be done for them, is there? No way to help them, none at all?”
“Not everyone can be saved, Kame.” But when Kame went to protest, Akira raised his hand to silence him. “No, let me finish. Not everyone can be saved, but some people can be. You just have to be able to figure out which ones can and which are beyond help. But even trying, it’s a noble goal, do you not think so?”
Kame nodded.
“But it’s also not a task to undertake lightly and you have to know what you are and are not capable of. You have to decide what measures are acceptable and what measures make you just as bad as the people you are saving them from. And one more thing, probably more important than all the rest of it combined. Do you know what that is?”
He thought about it, but couldn’t come up with an answer that didn’t sound stupid in his head, so he finally said, “No, I don’t.”
“You can’t act out of hate.”
“You mean to say, it’s not okay to hate the bad guy?”
“If you care about saving someone, you can’t act out of hate. It blinds you, Kame. You’ll start to care more about punishing the bad guys than saving their victims.”
Kame gave a bitter laugh. “I hate my father…”
“With all due respect, Kame, but that’s a lie. Not only is it a lie but you know it is a lie.”
“But… after everything he’s done, I should hate him. I know that. He deserves to be hated!” And that same anger that he’d felt so often recently washed over him. “He laughed, you know? When he burned the club down. He laughed!”
“He hates. But you don’t hate him. You don’t trust him - and you shouldn’t! - and you try to hate him, but you don’t. You can’t. Not just because he’s your father, though there is that. You see, everyone has in them the ability to hate, buried however deeply. You have it in you like all of us. But your ability to love… the same thing that makes your heart ache for those boys and for the other people your father hurt… it won’t let you go that far. Your anger doesn’t come from hatred, Kame. It comes from love. Care. It’s why you were so good with the club members, Kame. You let yourself care about them, took the time with them to learn about them and did your best to make them as happy as you possibly could.”
“Akira…” but he was so grateful for those words. “Well, I didn’t come here to talk about me anyway. I want to know how you two are. I wanted to see how you’re adjusting and…”
Again, Akira just smiled that tired smile and said, “We’re fine, Kame. Don’t worry about us.”
“Funny… I imagined you would be a much better liar…” but Kame shook his head. “Well, if you won’t tell me I guess that’s your business. I just worry about you. I can’t help it. I… I love you both. I really, really do.” And it was true, wasn’t it? They were the closest thing to a real family he’d ever had.
Akira’s eyes were swimming with tears now. “You… never said that before, Kame. I…” but the man had to stop to collect himself before he could continue, “I will tell Aoi. It’ll cheer him up immensely.”
“I wish I could tell him myself.”
“He’ll understand. Maybe next time, you can see him.”
The two of them chatted for a bit longer, mostly about unimportant stuff. It just felt so good to get to talk to him, to hear his voice again. But then their time was up and Akira was ushered away and Kame was for all intents and purposes kicked out.
But he went back in September. Again, they would only let him see Akira.
And again in October. And November. Just Akira.
He desperately wanted to see Aoi. Just once. No matter how much he begged, they wouldn’t let him. They wouldn’t tell him why. By the time December came around, Akira’s answers to his questions about Aoi were becoming more and more evasive. And every month, Akira himself just looked more and more exhausted. But Akira wouldn’t tell him what was going on.
January and February fared much the same.
During all those months, Kame spent his days trying to learn everything he could about his father and the people he was hurting. And, for good measure, he also greedily searched out for information on Jiro and his crew and Masaru and anyone else he could. He started keeping files, information he’d found out.
It was slow going at first and between the bribes to be allowed to see Akira and the cost of his slow information gathering, he was going to run out of money before he saw the age of 19.
But one day, about a week before his 18th birthday, he was out grocery shopping at the quiet little mom-and-pop shop that was closest to his apartment when some street punk started hassling the customers as they left. The shop was mostly used by the elderly from the surrounding neighborhood and watching that little punk torment them was just too much. Kame snapped and snatched him up by the collar suddenly.
He slammed him against the outside wall, growling, “If I catch you here again or even hear the slightest rumor you were spotted, I will hunt you down and I will make you regret it. You will leave these people alone to do their shopping in peace. Do you understand me?”
“Hey, man, I was just…” and the kid’s breath reeked of something. Not liquor, he didn’t think, but really it didn’t matter what it was.
“Do. You. Understand. Me?”
“Uh… yeah, man. We’re cool. We’re cool. I’ll… go.”
Kame released the guy who fled far faster than Kame would have thought possible. But he didn’t just stand there watching the guy run off. Instead, he went to the old man who had been pushed down, offering him a hand up. He picked the man’s groceries back up and walked him to his car.
Once the man’s groceries were safely in his car and he left, Kame walked back to where he’d dropped his own groceries in order to snatch up that kid. Damn, the milk carton had split. Better get some more. He wiped the milk off of the rest of his groceries, moved them all as best as he could fit into the dry bag, and leaned it against the wall while he went back inside to get more milk.
But the owner refused to charge him for it. Instead, he asked if Kame would like a job. Nothing fancy. Bagging groceries, maybe carrying them to the cars, since a lot of the customers were elderly and could use the help. Kame got the impression that the kid he’d just sent packing had shown up before when Kame wasn’t around and that really, the shop owner was paying him to be on hand in case he or any of his kind came back around.
And since he was offering to pay in cash, it was too good of a deal to pass up. Besides, he really wanted to make sure that idiot didn’t come back. Hassling the elderly was just… low.
So Kame thanked the man and accepted the job.
It cut into the time he could spend out gathering information, but oddly, he didn’t mind. He finally felt like he was doing some small bit of good. And now his money wouldn’t run out so quickly.
Kame’s 18th birthday was a quiet affair. He didn’t even bother making a cake. No, he just made himself a promise. He’d find a way to help the people his father and the others in the city hurt if it took his last breath from him.
And then it was March and he went back to the prison… and finally got to see Aoi.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The story continues:
Chapter 57 ~The Idiots We Can't Control~
A/N: Well, there you go. I know it's a bit rushed in places but seriously, I just needed to get Kame to age 18 before I could do anything else significant. So... I sort of gloss over a few months.