[fic] The Things We Can't Control - Chapter 12 ~The Pawn Shop~
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. Can they work together or will they end up destroying each other?
Author's Note: Okay, I apologize to all those who picked option A, but B totally dominated so... But I'll do my best to keep the pace up. Now, this chapter is back to Kame as a 15-year-old and all even chapters will be. For now, the chapters are covering small bits of time, like a day or two. There will be chapters that cover months or longer, so I will get Kame to the present at a decent-ish rate. The trick is making sure the two story lines don't spoil each other which means they have to line up in certain ways. I'll do my best :)
BANNER BY DESHISORABA!!
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 12 ~The Pawn Shop~
It was a largely sleepless night in that alley. Kame pretty much stayed right where Ryuichi left him, sitting on the ground with his back against the building wall. Over the years, he always thought if he could only escape he would feel free. But instead of free, he felt lost. Hollow, almost. What Ryuichi had just done, so coldly… like it was nothing to him, like it was something to be expected out here…
It wasn’t what Kame imagined his freedom would be like.
And why had Ryuichi just assumed he’d sell himself, anyway? Okay, sure, the older kid had guessed right about his past, but by what measure did that speak towards his future? Kame had a choice now, one he’d never had before. But Ryuichi, he was so sure Kame would work the streets that he already took his… um, “payment” for the week.
Yes… just think of it as a payment and forget. Move on. Pretend it didn’t happen.
But he had to make sure it couldn’t happen again. He needed something, a knife maybe.
So there he was, back against the wall, trying to fall asleep and yet being too afraid of what would happen if he succeeded. And the night got a bit chilly but there was nothing to be done for that, not that night at any rate. He’d eaten the last of his food and it occurred to him that it might be smart to take the rest of the money and hide it in different places on him so that if someone tried to rob him while he slept, they might not get all of it.
Hugging his stuffed animal tightly to his chest, exhaustion eventually claimed him.
But the nightmares he’d been having ever since that… that monster… his eyes closed and he was back there in that room and the man was above him and it all hurt so terribly much and he was screaming endlessly. And then his eyes flew open and the room was gone, the pain subsiding except for his cheek which was stinging.
“Are you going to make that racket every night?” Ryuichi asked him irritably. Apparently he’d slapped Kame to pull him out of his dream. “Cause if you are, you gotta find another alley to sleep in. Right?” But then Ryuichi’s expression changed, though it was hard to tell since the light from the street barely reached into the alley. He reached out towards Kame’s face with one hand and said, “Maybe I can overlook a few things for someone so pretty, at least for a couple nights… Yes?”
“Don’t come near me!” Kame hissed.
“Touchy…” and Ryuichi shook his head. “You’ll get over that.” But he stood up and walked away.
And Kame slept fitfully the rest of the night.
The next morning, he asked some of the other people staying in the area where he could find a pawn shop. Pawn shops would have knives, right? He didn’t have a whole lot of money left after buying the food yesterday and some more that morning. The thought of running out of money put him to near panic but he pushed it back down, deciding there was no point worrying about the inevitable before the inevitable arrived.
A lot of the other whores on that part of Pearl Street were pretty young. Ryuichi explained that Second Street from where it intersected Pearl on to Hill Street two blocks east was the kiddie stroll so the younger pretty boys tended to stay close to that because their clientele often overlapped. It wasn’t a hard and fast rule; the ones working for the pimps still stayed up around 15th. But it was true for the most part.
Not everyone on the street was a whore, though. At the corner where 3rd and Pearl intersected, there was a kid named Samuel (not his real name, apparently, but the one he was using that month) selling stolen goods - mostly cheap jewelry and knock-off handbags - out of a van. The other kids on the street said there was a nun that brought free food now and again but they didn’t know if she’d come back again since she got mugged last time. There were a few older homeless that wandered in sometimes but they weren’t really a permanent part of the area.
Then there were the drug dealers. Ryuichi had some sort of deal worked out with them, too, apparently. Guess he really was in charge of that stretch… Kame wondered how, exactly, he was any different than a pimp. If it quacks like a duck…
But Kame kept asking around until finally someone told him where to find the most… well, the words the kid used were “most understanding” pawn shop. Whatever that was supposed to mean. It was a bit of a walk but not unreasonably so, located at the corner of 5th and Fortification. He couldn’t just leave his Snoopy in the alley, so he brought it with him.
The walk actually did him some good. It let him clear his head, calm down a bit, and he was able to buy something to eat on the way. The sun was shining on his face and it occurred to him that, since he hadn’t left the house in so long, he hadn’t had the sun on his face in such a long time either. It felt good.
When he entered the pawn shop, he found that beyond the door lay a cage of some sort and that to get into the place proper, he had to be buzzed in. But apparently he passed whatever judgment the owner had and the cage opened, allowing him entrance.
The knives were under the glass of the counter. Now, Kame didn’t know a lot about knives, but it seemed to him that what would be best is a knife he could keep in his pocket. That meant it’d have to close or retract or something, so he didn’t accidentally get stabbed when he sat down or moved. It also meant it needed to be fairly small.
But everything he was seeing that fit the description either looked like it was falling apart or cost more money than he had left. Now what?
Maybe he could bargain with the guy?
“Please, I really need to buy a knife, for protection. But I don’t have quite enough money. Can… I don’t know, can I work here for a couple days, sweep up and stuff, to make up the difference? I really need it…” but he trailed off as he took in the man’s expression.
“Hold old are you, kid?” the man asked.
“Eighteen?”
“Right. How old really?”
“Seventeen?”
But the owner just kept staring, arms crossed.
“Fifteen…” Kame finally admitted.
“You have to be older to work in a pawn shop legally. Hell, you have to be older to buy a knife legally. I’m sorry, kid.”
“But…” There had to be a solution to this. He had to be able to defend himself! “I… I need…” What Ryuichi did the evening before flashed in his mind. “Please, there has to be some way…” He’d beg, if that’s what it took. “I’ll get down on my knees and beg if I have to. Please, sir, I really need this.”
The man gave a small laugh. “Sir? So polite. Haven’t been called ‘sir’ in a very long time. You’re new, aren’t you?”
Kame nodded. “I… it’s not technically working if you don’t pay me, right? Then it’s not illegal. I can sweep and whatever else you need, if you will just discount a bit. This is all the money I have…” and he started to pull it from the various places he’d stashed it, dropping it on the glass counter. All told after the food yesterday and that morning, he had about half of it left. “Please!”
The man eyed him up and down, then finally asked, “You working Pearl Street?”
“I’m not a whore!” Kame exclaimed a bit forcefully.
The man clicked his tongue. “Too bad. Well, I guess I can’t help you aft…”
“Whatever you want.” Kame almost whispered it, closing his eyes. “Whatever you want…” He took slow, calming breaths for a moment and then opened his eyes again once he was sure he wasn’t going to embarrass himself by crying or panicking.
The man gestured for Kame to follow him to the back so Kame did. Once they were back there, the man ordered him to get on his knees. Kame obeyed without a word and did everything the man asked him to do for the next twenty minutes. And when they were done, Kame left, making sure to not forget his stuffed animal and his new switchblade (apparently, the knife was illegal, which is why it wasn't in the counter with the others, but the pawn shop owner said it'd suit his needs best. He seemed rather pleased with Kame at the moment).
Kame thought he’d feel sick. He always got ill after the men who paid his father left. But now, he didn’t feel like that. He just felt numb. Was this his life now?
Well, he was completely out of money but at least he could defend himself. Let Ryuichi just try to touch him again. He would find Kame wasn’t such an easy target next time.
It was that moment that Kame decided he had to learn to be stronger. He had to stop crying when he got hurt. It was weak, right? Tears just showed the others he was weak and if they thought he was weak, they’d take advantage, like Ryuichi did last night.
He had to learn to do whatever it took to keep himself alive on the street and hidden from his father, no matter how awful…
Because the alternatives were all so much worse…
++++++++++++++++++++++++
The story continues:
Chapter 13 ~Overnight Stay~
A/N: Aw, poor Kame. So determined to not sell himself but then having to violate that rule so soon... now he'll try to close himself off, sever himself from his emotions. No good can come of this... well, it'll keep him alive. I guess that's good enough for now. But I bet he's figured out what that other kid meant about "most understanding" pawn shop owner.