Johnny Rocker - RocknRolla 4/4
Joker doesn’t sleep a wink. So around seven he decides to go over to Romeo’s place and kick him out of whatever hangover he probably picked up from last night’s party just so they can plan for the job. Romeo keeps a key on the upper lintel of his apartment door. After knocking for a straight five minute interval, Joker just goes in. Naturally he regrets this the moment he crosses the threshold into the studio apartment.
It’s like someone hit the volume on a porno. The bedroom door is only cracked open a bit but Joker cringes when he hears the heavy guitar riffs streaming around the apartment, but as much as it was switched on to drown out the other noises, he can still hear it all too well.
“OK, sweetie, say my name!”
Some woman, her breathy voice hoarse from god knows what, throatily starts to cry out in these volleys of sheer elation.
“Romeo, oh… Romeo~!!”
Romeo’s raking, boyish chuckles fill the air.
A nightmare shudder coating the walls of his mind with unwanted images, Joker rushes to the living room where the entertainment centre is. Muttering a plethora of ‘no’s, he tweaks the volume to maximum and sits on the couch, knees drawn up, desperately trying not to think too much.
It’s perhaps what feels like years later that the volume of the music goes down and Joker opens his eyes to Romeo-hair caught up in a ponytail over his head- wearing a bathrobe, slowly turning the knob off the volume. He fixes a slightly sardonic look at Joker before raising a glass of milk in a smug gesture of a toast.
Joker sits up. “You could’ve left me a message you know. This is sort of uncool,” he grumbles.
“No, you’re just early,” Romes answers, dead-pan, between gulps of milk.
Joker opens his mouth to say something, but Romeo’s bedroom door opens and the bunny girl from last night, all in sheets, shuffles for the bathroom, sending a shy, smiling look at both of them. Joker only recognises her because she’s still wearing her ears. He shoots a judging look at Romes whose shoulders are shaking as he pretends he’s still drinking, but the bubbles in his milk tell otherwise. “Along the subject of rabbit or wolf…” he starts to say, grinning.
“No,” Joker cuts in, getting up. “It was only funny the first time with that thing you had going with the actress who played the werewolf three years ago. Now it’s just... look, let’s talk work.”
Romes looks a little put-out, following him to the kitchen table. “Last night didn’t work out for you, then?”
“We’re not going to talk about last night or any other night; we’re talking about this afternoon and how we’re going to do this,” Joker snaps grumpily as they take seats on opposite sides of the table.
Romes frowns at him, but nods. “Right, whatever. I don’t know if we can get proper guns in time, but I have some shells we can fill with rock salt as an alternative so if the first blow doesn’t do the job we can slow them down with a few shots. At about twelve feet anything’ll penetrate. So I’ll drive the bigger thing before we toss it and Long can drive-“
“I don’t want to use Long.” Joker purses his lips, eyes fixed downward.
“What?”
“I don’t wanna use him.”
“But he’s our driver,” Romeo says poignantly, brow creased. “We’re not going to get much done if he’s not driving us out of there.”
Joker folds his arms on the table. “No.” He can’t for any effort look Romeo in the eye.
There’s a very protracted pause before Romeo sighs, folding his arms. “Seriously, Joker…what the hell is going on between you and Junno, huh?”
Joker swallows. He feels like he keeps enough secrets from the other two like this, and he’s generally had enough. “Ueda,” he says finally. “There’s something about Taguchi that I don’t think you know…”
Romeo’s expression remains still, his eyes hooded. “What? That he’s gay?”
Joker’s jaw drops. “Wha- how the fuck do you know that?”
Romes rolls his eyes. “Everyone knows he’s a flamer except you. No, he likes boys,” he murmurs candidly. After a pause, he gets up to go to the fridge, pouring himself another glass of milk. He downs it, then turns to Joker, unmindful of the milk moustache. “If it’s the steak or the mashed potatoes, Long’s the all-meat kind of guy.” He makes a sweeping gesture, glass in hand, that looks like it’s supposed to encompass the term, “all-meat”.
Joker stares. “There is something very very wrong with you,” he says.
Romes has his tongue in his cheek, trying not to smile. “Did he hit on you or something?”
Joker buries his face in his hands. “Yes! Yes, he fucking did the night before his trial and…”
“And so?”
Incredulity doesn’t quite cover the reason Joker’s entire face is red.
“What’s the problem?” Romes puts his glass in the sink and comes back over to sit. And it looks silly with the milk moustache and everything but Joker has bigger issues. Romes’ next sentence in particular. “It was supposed to be his last free night so you took care of his business and that’s what real friends are for. I’m proud of you,” he declares succinctly. “Well done.”
Joker thinks he’s going to cry. “You…”
Romeo nods sagely. “Also, I won’t tell any of the guys.”
“What?” Joker says, still beet-red. “What do you mean you won’t tell any of the guys? You won’t tell them what?”
Romes leans forward intently. “So what did you do? Did you suck his-“
“NO!” Joker hollers and it’s just as Romeo’s bunny girl emerges fully dressed. She jumps at the shout and Romes turns his head to look at her, all bright smiles and charm. Joker drops his head in mortification. He’d forgotten she was there.
“Look at you,” Romeo says to her warmly, while Joker tries to blend into the table via osmosis. “All good as new.”
She laughs and comes over and there’s a breathy, kissing pause and Joker doesn’t look as he sits in the afterglow of his own waking nightmare, head still on the table. He waits until they’re done and she leaves before he raises his head again and by that time Romeo’s looking at him again, all long-lashed eyes smug. “You’re blushing like a maiden right now,” he remarks. “You must’ve touched him.”
“No,” he hisses back. “OK, so I asked him…”
“What exactly was it you want to do… with me?”
Long’s laugh was soft, breathing like a solitary and safe whisper. “Tonight, Joker? Tonight…” he trailed off and Joker braced his hands on the armrest as Junno’s tall frame rose, leaning across the space between them, lashes wet.
He tasted like tears and the press of his lips wasn’t demanding, but hesitant and a little coy. He pulled back and Joker’s heart was beating a rough pattern on the inside of his chest.
“Tonight, before I go, there’s only one thing I want to do with you.”
So he paused, like anything melodramatic he enjoyed, seeming to rest in a second where Koki’s nerves and fears all rocketed up to breaking point.
“I want to dance with you,” he said, teeth all a glitter with the heat of the car blazing up against them, working through like steam in Joker’s wet jacket.
“Dance? Like at a club?”
“Yeah sort of. Let’s just go dancing.”
“Haha! Come on, Koki; it’s not like you need to know the steps for it; just sway and stop looking at your feet.”
And like most new things they did together, Long managed to irritate the hell out of him while they did it. A pretty small dive bar up in Ni-chome with a very Central American theme going; the music was all horns, tango, and Joker was only looking at his feet because Long was too fucking tall. If he looked anywhere it’d be his chest. Long had him by the hand with another around his waist, and Joker felt like such an idiot.
“Ko~ki!” Junno was saying under the music, trying to duck his head, but Joker remained stiff and steadfast, glaring at their shoes sliding back and forth on the wood floor.
It was a quick and sly move as the Mexican horn let out a particularly piercing note, Long spun Joker away from him, pushing him out with one hand still on his wrist.
“WAH!” Joker wailed without thinking, but he felt himself yanked back and Long was laughing as his arms came around Koki, holding him tight with his head over his shoulder. Warm and engulfing. And Koki glared at the other dancers who dared to look at them despite the fact that they were all male couples too.
“Thanks, Koki… this is the most fun I’ve had in months.”
They gained a rhythm and though the music was in Spanish, Long tried to trip along with the words, murmuring a made up language on the spot, and Koki grimaced. Long’s voice was so much the same, as if he’d been singing all that time, like a frightening, strange chord right up against Joker’s throat. Five Years. And Joker hated how intently he processed those things so he could commit them to memory when Taguchi would disappear.
Romes blinks at him. “So it was a slow dance?”
“Not really the point I was going for,” he groans, and then swallows, running his fingers in his hair fretfully. “I don’t know what’s what anymore…that asshole has done things to me, to my head.”
Romeo goes quiet so Joker glances up at him hesitantly. For the first time today, Romes looks serious. “Listen, Joker. I’m going to tell you something about our Long Johnny.”
Joker nods warily.
“Back when you had to disappear for a three year sentence and your younger brothers were still in Tokyo, who do you think went looking for them? Who do you think took care of them, kept them out of trouble, huh?” Romeo folds his arms, looking at him with deep meaning.
Joker pauses, caught in that thought.
“Because it wasn’t me, and you know it wasn’t Ru and we’re both the only friends you’ve got. It was Taguchi. He’s always got your back and he’s the first to defend you when it comes to your little thing with Kame-“
“Wait, what?”
Romeo chews his lip, staring at Joker with some temerity. “That thing with Kame you had going on. Even if Nino hadn’t told us, I’d have known. Cameras aside, if there’s sex happening in that backroom of our building, then I’m gonna know about it.”
Mortification doesn’t cover it. It really doesn’t. “Why does everyone know everything and I’m sitting here like some kind of chump trying to keep you two out of it!”
Romeo frowns with distaste. “If that’s the secret you thought you were keeping from me, I’m going to punch you in the jugular.”
Joker doesn’t reply, blinking owlishly at his hands.
“Well, whatever,” Romes continues, executing his default shrug. “Long is a fucking irritating assemblage of what defines a decent person. It’s just a bonus for your sorry ass that he even wants a piece. So, you know…” He leans back and waves his hand forward aristocratically. “Get some.”
The world seems to shut down when he’s here. Ru’s phone has about thirty missed calls, twenty of those from Sho, the rest from the juniors calling on Sho’s behalf. Lying sideways on the karaoke bar sofa, he shifts a bit upright trying not to upset Jin who is curled up with his guitar, strumming as he breathes shallowly, restlessly on as Ru scrolls through his numbers a little apathetically. It’s nearly three in the afternoon and if he doesn’t go back now, he’ll be held under suspicion. He wishes he cared a bit more; spending time with a dead man makes him wonder whether he’s just as dead.
He phone buzzes again and it’s Sho lighting up all polyphonic.
“Pick up,” Jin says, tone darker, medicated by memories.
Ru stretches, his hand that holds the phone moves to the end of the sofa for a slow, listless moment. Jin shifts, and his eyes are only half open, but he looks dead serious. Ru sighs and thinks the dead must be a lazy bunch. Jin takes the vibrating phone, curling it in his palm as if he’s going to crush it, fold the plastic and metals over in his hand. He doesn’t, though. He hands it back to Ru.
“Yeah. Pick up,” he orders.
Ru watches him and the buzzing wordless moment rings in front of them. From the kill last night, from the way they touch each other, from the steady, mindless way that Jin stares at him.
The phone buzzes once more and Jin hits speaker, laying it between them. “Sho?” Ru says, not looking away from Jin.
“I’ve been trying to get ahold of you since yesterday!” is the immediate reply. “You need to get down here; the juniors have given me a lead saying that Akanishi might still be alive, that he’s in hiding…I think he may have come in and stolen the fedora…”
Ru freezes inside and he searches Jin’s expression. Still the same as the first night he came in.
“I-I’ll be there.”
“Make it quick, please,” is the final order before Ru hits the end button. He stares down at the phone, still feeling caught in a dream. He can feel Jin’s gaze.
“I’ll lie to him…” Ru whispers. “I’ll tell him I found you dead, tell him…”
“You’ve changed into such a scary man, Nakamaru,” Jin replies, thin hand rising, running a single finger down the bridge of Ru’s nose. “I hear that’s what four years in jail can do to you, eat away at your soul. Are you pretending to be dead so no one notices your soul’s gone?”
Ru catches Jin’s sickly thin wrist. “I’ll take the fedora back and you stay here and I’ll come back for you, all right? We’re going to leave this place…we’re going to get you cleaned up and-and…”
Jin isn’t listening; he leans forward and brushes his rough cheek against Ru’s smooth jaw. “You ever wonder…why you went in. Why the jimusho’s info security didn’t protect you… why you had to take a fall.”
Ru shakes his head. He can’t be distracted now. “Don’t leave here; lock the door, and no one will find you. Just wait for-“
“No, Ru,” Jin replies and he leans away, laying his guitar to the side. “You and I are going to finish all this; we’ll do it together.”
Silence. He feels it like bile. “What do you mean?”
He gets up, pulling through his things. “Let’s take a trip up to Sho-papa. I’ll wear my best hat and when it’s nearly done… I want to tell you something, something very special.”
Ru watches him. “Jin…”
He reaches to the fedora, ever discarded on the floor. He sits it on his head, tilting it the way he did when they were young. The shadow over his eyes reminds Ru of something simpler. Even when Jin smiles right then, shyly, like he’s testing out something new, it just makes Ru shut his eyes, the burn of stage lights singeing him in memory.
“Can you even drive a semi?” Joker asks, looking at the huge vehicle with some trepidation.
Romeo hops onto the truck’s skirt as he flings the large door open. “Probably better than you can,” he quips comfortably, settling in the seat, his head barely coming over the dashboard. “And it just has to go in a straight line, doesn’t it…”
“Right…”
The plan is sketchy and it’s even more frightening that they don’t even know who they’re coming up against. Still, the idea is just to disable those holding the money, taking it and getting out before they’re seen.
An old mini pulls up with Long behind the wheel.
“You’re late!” Romes hollers, leaning from the semi’s huge window as Long steps out. “I said four on the nose!”
Joker is busy fiddling with his gun. He loaded it an hour ago, but he figures now that Long is here and smiling with those big eyes immediately resting on him, he should appear busy.
Romes watches Long step up beside Joker, his gaze searching and Joker’s eyebrows curl downward stubbornly as he pretends to reload his gun. Romeo shakes his head, turning the key so the engine guns to life. The entire front of it creates a thrilling hum like he’s sitting on an amp the moment he slides a pick across the first string of his Jackson V. He’s always figured it’s supposed to be sex, boxing, and rock, but Romes is already revising it in his head to include a lit and decorated semi. That’d be cool. Ah, right…
“It’s four-twenty! Get in fucking position!” he hollers out the window and as promised a black SUV is about to pull out of the bank’s parking lot thirty yards away. He watches Long and Joker get in their car before he guns the engine, engages the airbrake and stomps his foot down on the clutch. It becomes unfortunate that he can no longer see, but he slides down in his seat and waits five seconds before he pushes it in gear and rams the gas.
He’s a hundred percent certain kamikaze’s feel this thrill and the crash alone sends him braced against the wheel but he holds steady as the truck’s front rams clear, a direct hit. He hears Joker shout and he realises he’s stopped. Dazed and still burning with adrenaline, Romes kicks his door open and climbs out, grabbing the arm-sized pliers. Joker is already at the overturned SUV, crowbar in hand as he rams the window open. As promised when Romes peaks in, there’s two shadows lying inside unconscious from the shock. Joker continues to slam the butt end of his crowbar and with a yell and a hard hit, the window shatters. “Cut it!” Joker shouts at him.
Romes jumps forward and climbs atop as Joker reaches in to grab one of the suitcases. The chain off the briefcase of cash, now handcuffed to the man lying inert comes off cleanly and Joker reaches in for the second bag. There’s movement and Romeo squints. They’re not that big is all he has time to register as the blob of shadow inside darts forward and Joker hollers as he’s suddenly pulled in.
“Oh shit!” Romes hisses, scrambling forward to grab Joker by the shoulders as the man inside hauls him back, a dark arm wrapping him in a chokehold. There’s isn’t enough room to get his hold inside, but he rams his fist at the attacker, quite sure he’s hitting something but getting nowhere.
“MACE HIM!” Long is yelling from the car and Romes turns in time to catch Long’s throw. He looks down at a can of mace and he hauls one of the bags back by the handles. Long catches it and shoves it in the car.
Romes backtracks and finds the crowbar lying off to the side and he slides over the opposite window and smashes it open.
The other attacker, grappling from behind turns once the glass from the window is done spilling, looking at him sideways. It’s an instant and still moment of recognition. “Ueda?” he says.
There’s a lot of things Romeo’s experienced throughout his existence as an idol; some he’s loved and some he’s hated. Now, looking directly in the eyes of a sneering Nishikido Ryo, Romeo remembers one particular thing he hated most.
Nishikido’s nameless partner is trying to choke Joker and Romes points the can directly in the window, thumb pressed down on the valve. A series of yells rocket out of the sideways vehicle, but he sees Joker kicks his legs out and slide down, briefcase in hand.
“You got me too, you fucker!” Joker wails, arm pressed over his eyes.
No time for sorry’s, Romes grabs Joker and hauls him toward the car where Long is hopping around inexplicably worked up. “Get in and drive!” Romeo shouts as he shoves Joker in the passenger seat. Nishikido ‘s eyes are blazing-most likely from the mace-- as he jumps out of the side window, pulling with him what looks to be a CAR-15 Commando rifle. Romes doesn’t waste anymore time before he opens fire on them.
“Drive!” Romeo bellows, ducking below the seat.
Long pulls Joker down between the seats before he ducks his own head. He guns the mini forward and single-handedly spins the wheel, just missing the flash fire assault.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Joker is muttering from the front seat beside Long.
“Was that Ryo-chan?” Long finally gasps when they make a sizeable distance into the backstreets.
Romeo nods soundlessly.
Joker moans, head pushed into the armrest by Long’s palm. Romes is just about to tell him to let Joker breathe when there’s a zinging sound and a huge thump. A foot kicks in the driver’s window and Long veers sideways.
“Did you drive in a circle?!” Romes demands, caught up in incredulity as he catches sight of Ryo running toward them as the car skids and Nishikido’s partner’s meaty fist reaches in. Long lets out a roar as he turns the wheel back, trying to shake the man off.
The resulting crash sends Romeo up against Long’s seat and Joker starts to grapple about against Long’s firm grip on him. It’s then that they hear it, the tearing noise that can only be metal as a large knife digs into the front of the car. Joker pulls Long and yells to the dazed Romeo. “There’s fucking two of them! We gotta split up and lose them.”
Romeo looks around stunned and catches a glimpse of Long blinking blood out of his eyes as he rolls sideways out of the wrecked car. He hears footsteps beating behind him, running and Romeo stumbles and kicks up his legs in a sprint as whoever is chasing him runs too. Confused, his senses beating his eyes glazed, he glances back and sees him. Nishikido Ryo tearing after him. Surreal as it is, he only runs faster. This persists for a long, salty twenty minutes to which he races through traffic, people, his guts screaming as he makes it to the next set of buildings and he thinks he’s hit the residential alleys so after dodging over toward the boulevard of trees in front of a complex he ducks into an underground parking lot.
It’s only when he turns the pillar over that he realises his mistake. He’s cornered himself. Heaving, bangs wet, he turns to look at his pursuer.
“You…” Nishikido says as he stops at the entrance to the alleyway, teeth bared and sweltering with rage. He’s breathing like he’s about to go over.
Romeo gasps and then swallows, hands on his knees as he glares daggers. “I don’t even have the…fucking money.” He says, voicelessly. “Why are you chasing me?”
It’s a matter of fact query and the way the late afternoon sun doesn’t seem to reach the parking lot they stand in feeds Nishikido’s words with foreboding as he pulls out his knife. “You emptied a can of mace in my eyes, you’re trying to steal my best friend’s money…” He raises the weapon as he begins to staggers toward Romeo. “…and you give me the creeps… “
Romes is still panting, but he straightens as Ryo stalks toward him. “Fine, bring it, sweet cheeks,” he spits, raising his fists loosely, feet set apart.
Ten seconds race like a bullet. Ryo flips his knife handle so the blade points downward just as he’s swiping in a quicksilver flash. Romes jumps back when Ryo starts forward, bringing the knife up with skill, aiming to penetrate, but with a sharp second tailing him at speed, the backs of Romes knuckles crush just on the inside of Ryo’s arm. Ryo grunts, pulling back, knife dropping to the ground.
Romes fists rise once more as he dances back, eyes intent. “Only a douche bag brings a knife to a fistfight,” he remarks softly, chest still heaving.
Ryo glances at the knife on the ground. “Fine,” he says, tone low. “We’ll do it your way.”
Romes grins, starting in on his rhythm, balls of his feet rocking up and down, the veins in his arms tightening like cords. “You know my way ends with you making love to the concrete, right?”
Ryo glares, his own fists balling up. “I’m going to hit you so hard you’ll be chewing gravel last week!”
That’s actually pretty funny and Romes chuckles which Ryo interprets as a taunt. He roars as he lurches forward and this is just a million and one out of possible ways to get in and send him back into last Tuesday, but he’s feeling a bit cranky about being called “creepy” on any level so he steps aside, pivots, and watches passively as Ryo stumbles forward. He hits the wall with his shoulder.
They’re both far too exhausted and Romes can see it in Ryo’s eyes. Ryo uses the wall as momentum to try to pounce, and Romeo drops one fist, leans back and lands an open-palm smack clear across Nishikido’s stupid face. He goes down with an “oof!” and Romeo’s tired of looking at him. “Tell your husband I used his money to buy you a pair of bitch panties,” he says wearily before backing up and jogging out of the parking lot.
The meathead chasing Joker and Long manages to trail them up to the convenient store five blocks down before Long-one arm clutching the handles of the briefcase of cash-keeps a grasp on Joker by the arm the whole way, canters them down the road faster than an average anything. It’s only when they both jump the gate blocking the way to the street on the opposite end, does Long slow down.
They get to a set of dumpsters and Joker drops, head resting on his own briefcase.
“Koki?”
“My knees,” he groans. “My knees hurt.”
Laughter bubbles from Taguchi’s end. “We did it!” he cries, exultant. “We’ve got the money and you’re safe…”
Joker pushes himself up backward, leaning back against the rusty dumpster. “When I said split up earlier, I meant for you to go with Romeo,” he gasps out. There’s a stitch in his side and it’s too troublesome to move when Long drops in front of him, hands resting on his ankles.
“Romeo can take care of himself, but…”
“But what?” he snaps, and it comes out breathless.
Long is still smiling because he won something and Joker can’t quite remember when it became all right to just make assumptions. The kiss hurts because his lip is bleeding, but it’s laugh-flavoured and a full-strength acid trip, and even though he hasn’t the strength to raise him arms, Long’s fingers in his hair is the thing that mangles him.
“…but you’re mine.”
Black eyes have never been deeper. And Joker remembers to breathe again because Long’s phone rings. Exhausted, eyes burning, and lips now sore he shuts down and probably goes out like a light because what feels like a second later, Long is shaking him, gasping out words in bleary intervals.
“Uchi’s got me the info. The paperwork for the informer…the guy who’s been sending us to jail…”
When they were younger, back when the only thing really cool surrounding them were their senpais and Koki’s remembers there being a great many rappers he loved, emulated. Free-styling with Ru on cold performance nights when everything went quiet. So while Junno stares at the paperwork and keeps muttering the pseudonym, “Nanashi Namae,” like the words are a rhyme, Joker knows they’ve got to find Romes and then get to Ru and fast.
When they were younger, back when the only thing really cool surrounding them were their senpais and Koki remembers there being a great many rappers he loved, emulated. Free-styling with Ru on cold performance nights when everything went quiet. So while Junno stares at the paperwork and keeps muttering the pseudonym, “Nanashi Namae,” like the words are a rhyme, Joker knows they’ve got to find Romes and then get to Ru and fast.
It’s hot outside. Like burning through his skin, but it’s six in the evening and the sun isn’t shining and Jin thinks he might get a tan from phantom sun, which wheels him back around to ghost-like behaviour or whether there’s toast-coloured ghost running around.
God, but pretending to be dead can do some fucked up things to your philosophies. Well, so can the cocaine, but Jin has felt a gradient of vast improvement to his sensibilities because of both. Ru, for one, keeps reminding him.
It’s hot.
“Steady there, Jin,” Ru murmurs as they walk up to the big building that keeps Sho-papa. He’s got his hand and he squeezes as they enter the building. There’s something he was supposed to tell Ru, something about the tone, the way Sho had sounded over the phone, something about Ru and how he shouldn’t actually ever leave Jin. He breathes deep and lets Ru pull him into the elevator.
“You scared?” he asks, and he asks it because he is, scared. Not really for himself, never. Something screaming has been bubbling inside his progress since the day he’d looked down at the swirling water boiling from underneath that boat. He’d timed it-final notes of his favourite song-let the water take him. That was fearlessness and he’s a hundred percent about what’s accomplished.
“We’re gonna get through this,” Ru says steadily as the elevator jolts and Ru stumbles a little awkwardly, but Jin is there to right him.
The office doors are already open and Sho is in front of his desk, arms folded, sober, but exhausted. He watches them walk forward, Jin a little ways behind Ru, shoots looks at the juniors as they stare at him, open-mouthed.
“I see,” Sho says, taking in the sight of them. “I protected you, Ru. I made you into something far surpassing the people you surrounded yourself with because you had the potential And you allowed him, this dead man to poison you.”
It’s beginning to strike Jin. Memory. The secrets. His head is reeling with thoughts and off-putting sensations and he hates when people stare. He tugs the fedora lower, shutting his eyes. Ru seems a little too warm for him just now. He remembers that dead people don’t need company.
Then he remembers he’s not dead.
“I’m sorry, Sho-san,” Ru mutters from in front of him. “I brought him here so you could see, but we’re leaving after this…”
“No” Sho replies. “No, that’s not going to happen. I heard about everything. You went behind my back and helped out a couple of lowlifes because you seem to think that this company is the same as it was before. You took my money and threw it to them, and I know, I know about their thefts. You-“ he swallows, shaking with rage. “You think that information wouldn’t come back to me, but your friends who I tried to help, stole directly from my pocket and I am certain that, according to reports, they’ve gone and done it again. You are not going to walk out of here after you’ve betrayed me like this, after all I’ve…”
Jin shuffles backward, thinking, and Sho is doing something wrong, something incorrectly. That’s right. He’s…? That’s…Jin nearly jumps out his skin when a voice comes up from behind them.
“Sakurai-san, the men you sent us to get are here. They came on their own.”
Sho shoots one glance, just a single steady one at Jin, blame and the incorrect thing is on the tip of Jin’s tongue. Nameless…
Ru turns and his eyes widen. Jin turns too and bound, gagged and struggling is Koki, and Ueda, and even Taguchi. It’s a gathering.
Sho’s tone is deep, desperate and the way he looks at Ru makes Jin want to break things suddenly. “I am going to clean up your mess, Ru. This unrelenting mess you called a band, and you can come back, but I won’t ever tolerate this sort of thing again.”
Ru looks between them and it’s no decision but something angry and feral wipes Jin’s mind slate clean and he could cross the room and…
His hands rest on Sho’s shoulders and Sho looks at him again, disgust and vibrancy joined as one. “Sho-papa,” he says smilingly and it’s clear like anything. “This is my welcome back gathering, isn’t it? I love a gathering…I wore my best hat and- and…”
“Jin!” Ru hisses, stepping forward.
“And you’re such a filthy liar,” he states before he turns to look at his Nakamaru, all changed, lovely, and soulless. “Remember I was going to tell you something? Ru?”
Ru looks torn, helpless the way he’s looked the last few days since he wandered in on Jin’s karaoke house, gun pointed like he could shoot some life directly into Jin’s lungs and he breathes so much more when he’s there.
“I was going to tell you how Sakurai Sho-kun…your big rapper hero, the man you work for, is the very man who sent you to jail-“ The last word comes out breathless and unfinished because it’s a dark pain, lancing and he isn’t sure he felt it properly, but he recognises it. Yeah, fascination with guns all aside, he knows what a bullet feels like. It feels like the floor, carpet, pressed to his forehead once he sinks and clutches the wound.
They’re all yelling and Ru has jumped on Sho, pushing him back over his desk, prying the gun away from him and the juniors stare, shock and fear all reflected in Jin’s pooling blood.
It’s suddenly too cold.
All three of them-Ueda, Taguchi, and Koki-are able to break free in the resulting chaos and it’s Ueda who gathers Jin up, checking the wound on his leg, and then it’s Koki, biting his gag aside, that hollers. “He’s telling the truth! Check the papers in my pocket!”
Ru, now holding the gun, looks stern as he points it at anyone who looks ready to move in the room as he backs away from Sho. Koki, hands still bound, crawls forward as Ru reaches into his coat pocket and unearths a sheaf of folded papers. He points his gun once more around the room threateningly before he glares down at the print-covered pages.
Everything is still as Ru scans the pages. The look, something they’re all unfamiliar with, something no one in the room has ever seen cross Ru’s countenance, shifts the shade of the early evening. Like the room goes cold just then when Ru’s dark eyes slide from the page directly to Sho still half-lying back on his desk. “Nanashi Namae…I bet you thought that was pretty fucking clever, didn’t you?”
Sho stares at Ru and Jin leans back away from his wound, and Ueda helps to sit him upright.
Ru stalks across the room and there isn’t hesitation, the palm of his hand swipes downward, knocking Sho off the desk. He still doesn’t make a sound as Ru stands over him, lip curling. “I must’ve listened to your solo songs every day when I was still trying to make it in music. Nanashi namae--”
It’s Taguchi who makes a sound of outrage. “Nameless name?! That’s you…in English…”
“You taught me everything I needed to know about the law to get around it!” Ru shouts, flipping through the pages of details. “But becoming an informant was the thing I knew never to do! And you stood there talking to me of betrayal! You, Sho, are a filthy bastard!”
He looks fierce and everyone in the room sort of shrinks back under Ru’s stare. “Each one you has had to face trial because of this man…”
Sho shifts, shaking so he can’t move or look Ru in the eye anymore. “I kept the company living! I held these factions together so you could all wander about free to do your dirty dealings if I gave up at least ten of you a year, then the rest of the company was safe!” Sho’s explanation is like a report of statistics, a speal of traits against society’s. Ru flings the pages down over Sho.
“You…were a good man and your causes were just, but you’re still a filthy bastard,” Ru mutters. “No one would follow you for anything anymore. And I’m leaving, with my mess, with the company’s money, and if you so much as come at my people under any fucking name, I will come back here, and I will slap you again…before I put a bullet in your throat.”
When he turns around, it’s like the murder in him has vanished, leaving only a stinging remnant of the weary as his eyes rest on Jin, eyes barely open, lazy in the aftershock of the pain.
“Hospital,” Ru mumbles suddenly. “We need to get him…cleaned up.”
There is no Spring without a Winter, no life without death and the demise of Sakurai’s empire has breathed a new season into the very existence of what is known as Johnny’s Entertainment.
A Year Later
Their building, expanded, renovated and full to capacity-not with betting crowds, but with nearly every Johnny Rocker still around to tell their story-bears the affectionate name Rhodesia. Romeo had insisted on it since he was pretty adamant about not having to tell people that the club and business where he worked was called something as sleazy as “GIRLS”-Taguchi’s idea-and Joker thinks Romeo shouldn’t be accusing other people of being sleazy.
Of course there’s one Johnny Rocker they’re expecting to return and join them. Fourth of July seemed an appropriate date for this reunion.
“Wait ‘till you’ve seen him, guys,” Ru sighs smugly, a little tipsy. “He looks like he hasn’t aged a day over twenty four.”
“I’m sure, as his mother, Ru would be pretty proud,” Romeo remarks quietly to Long who nods, all smiles.
“This is a big step for him too,” Ru continues to anyone who will listen. “First few days out of rehab…he’s even put on weight.”
Joker returns with a tray and passes a drink to Kazu and then as an afterthought to Yamapi sitting beside her. Yamapi doesn’t notice the bottle being pressed to his hand; he keeps staring at the door for their guest of honour.
Technically, they’re all staring at the door and it’s beginning to kill their conversation despite Ru’s drunken outbursts of pride every few minutes. Inevitably, they do fall silent and Long opens his arms at Joker because he wants pda and Joker can swear they’ve talked about this.
“Is there someone going to come in very soon?”
Joker turns at the question and freezes. Hair cut a bit shorter and face fuller, less gaunt and still smiling serenely, Jin looks down at Joker politely puzzled. They all turn, seeming to sense something wrong
Jin breaks out in a grin. “Is this my birthday?”
It’s possible about three different people sitting in their circle launch themselves at Jin, all arms, hugs, and sobbing embraces. Kazu is positively weeping, arms wrapped around Jin’s waist with Yamapi wrapped around him from behind and Ru slips in easily. The others watch this with some mild discomfort.
“Pi…” Jin begins hesitantly. “Your girlfriend is kinda up in my junk.”
Kazu raises herself up and looks at Jin, tears still streaming and there’s a slow, uneasy pause before Jin’s round mouth falls open, bright eyes widening. “Wha…?” he says.
Yamapi rubs Jin on the back, hard, steady eyes squinting with his own tears. “That’s my wife,” he manages, tone hoarse.
Jin’s lips quirk up as he gazes at Kazu. “Did they run out women where you went?”
Kazu looks a bit less glad to see him, but it’s the same as before and Joker watches this with a little sifted sensation of no longer missing something.
“Now you’re all cleaned up, Jin. What are you going to do with yourself?” Ru asks finally, stern again as he straightens the lapels on Jin’s shirt as if its necessary.
Jin reaches out and pokes Ru right in the nose, eyes hooded. “You wanna watch yourself…because I’m gonna be just like you, Obamaru.”
They all watch Jin as he pulls himself out a Virginia slim, flipping his zippo out as he lights it silently.
“I’m gonna be a real Johnny Rocker.”