Title: Pace, Turn, Try Again
Pairing: Go/Jin
Fandom: Gransazer
Rating: G
Episode referenced: #36
He hated this. If there was one thing Go hated it was feeling helpless, especially when it involved his friends. He paced the small police box, trying not to think about the situation and failing miserably. He'd already passed on all the information he'd got his hands on and now there was nothing else he could do.
Jin was missing. Jin was missing and seen fleeing a crime scene. Jin was missing, seen fleeing a crime scene and trying to chase down an alien by himself, with no back-up whatsoever. What if Jin got in over his head? He was a good fighter but he didn't have the kind of power that, say, Naoto had. Or Akira. Jin's strengths lay with his speed and his agility: if this alien in red armour had the same qualities then...
No. No, he wasn't thinking about that. If he thought about that then he was only going to make having to wait for news even harder and it was hard enough as it was. Casting around for something to take his mind off the subject, Go's eyes fell on a stack of paper on the desk. That was it. He'd reduce some of the paperwork, that should occupy his mind and kill some time, keep him from winding himself up so tightly he wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything.
Yes, paperwork. Paperwork was good.
He was still going to kill Jin when this was over, for worrying him like this.
***
"And then," Jin was saying expansively, sprawled on the couch at the Professor's office, arms resting along the back of said couch, "I pretended that my car had broken down and--"
Go sat on a spare chair, listening as Jin recounted the events of the day, growing steadily more and more tense and unhappy. All of that had happened and he'd been powerless to do anything. Jin, held hostage for the better part of a day, and he'd been stuck in the police box, fretting and wading through paperwork in an attempt to distract himself with mind-numbing tedium. At least if it had happened in his area he could have done something about it, but no. No, Jin had to go and get himself kidnapped in another area. Moron. When would they learn to do stuff like this places he could actually do something about it?
Forcing himself to pay attention instead of fuming, Go was startled out of his internal rant as Jin's tale took on an even more upsetting twist. "He held you at gunpoint?" he demanded, not caring that his voice had risen several notes, staring at Jin in consternation. How was Jin just fine after being held at gunpoint?
Jin raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm fine," he enunciated clearly. "As you can see for yourself."
"Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"
"No," Jin replied, rolling his eyes. "I completely failed to notice how much trouble I was in when I had a gun at my head. How big of an idiot do you take me for?"
"Are you even taking this seriously?"
"What do you want me to do, Go, huh? Collapse in a heap, wailing about it?"
"Okay, guys," Tenma interrupted, straightening up instead of leaning against the Professor's desk. "Why don't we all just calm down and--"
"Shut up, Tenma!" Jin and Go snapped in unison.
"Like you should tell anyone to calm down," Jin added. "You're the one always rushing into things."
Tenma bristled, then winced as Mika not so subtly kicked him in the shin. "I think that's around when the Professor called us to tell us about the alien's description," she said. "So we were already on the way. What happened after that?"
Jin glowered at Go some more, then condescended to finish the story. Go stayed grimly silent as he listened. Maybe finishing his shift in time to hear Jin's story hadn't been such a good thing after all. He wasn't a particularly imaginative person, but he found it only too easy to imagine how it could have gone, how badly things could have gone wrong, all the things that Jin didn't seem to appreciate as fully as he should.
"What is your problem?" Jin demanded later as they were leaving, grabbing him by the wrist and forcing him to stop walking once they got outside. The Professor and the Flame Tribe were already moving on to damage control and archiving, they weren't exactly going to be paying attention to them out here. "Shinji doesn't remember a thing, no-one got seriously hurt, what the hell is the problem?"
"The problem," Go snapped. "Is that you could have got yourself killed and you're acting like it's nothing!" Did Jin just really not understand how big of a thing this was?
"Newsflash," Jin snapped right back, "we do this every day, remember? It goes with being a Gransazer."
"No," Go retorted. "It doesn't. We fight aliens, sure, but we don't get guns held at our heads, okay?" He carried a gun as part of his job, he was well aware of how dangerous they were and Jin's blasé attitude was pissing him off.
Jin sighed and let go of Go's wrist, leaning back against the wall of the building. "Why are you so upset?" he asked, sounding more tired than angry now. "You'd think you were the one held at gunpoint and not me the way you're freaking out."
Go bit back the first couple of responses, moving instead to lean against the wall next to Jin. "You're my friend," he said quietly. "I don't want to lose you." It wasn't all that he wanted to say but it was currently all he was willing to admit. There was definitely no way he was admitting just how much the thought of Jin not surviving the day scared the hell out of him.
Jin nudged him awkwardly in the side, a sharp jab that left Go muttering inwardly about pointy elbows and rubbing at his stomach with an injured scowl. "Come on," Jin said lightly. "If you're not careful, Go, I'll start thinking you actually care."
Go scowled, but the protest died on his lips as he saw the tired grin on Jin's face. "Can't have that, I suppose," he agreed instead and Jin laughed.
"Nope. Come on, let's go grab something to eat. I haven't eaten since lunch, I'm starving." Jin straightened up and pushed himself away from the wall, sauntering off towards his car. "Keep up, would you? I don't have all day."
Go rolled his eyes but nonetheless hurried to catch up. "You're infuriating," he informed his friend and only got a wicked grin in response.
"That's why you love me," Jin agreed. "Your life would be dull without me, admit it."
"Hardly," Go muttered, climbing into the other seat. "I have plenty to keep me busy."
"You're no fun," Jin sighed, turning the key in the ignition and slowly turning the car into the road. "Okay, anywhere in particular you want to go?"
Go shook his head and leant back in the seat, closing his eyes as the wind blew past. "I don't mind," he admitted. "Anywhere's good."
Jin was alive and in one piece. After that, nothing else was really important.
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