Seven Days

It was by red light he looked at his watch. The damn thing should have lit up on its own, but after that heist a few months back, it failed to do just that. 10:??- Damn it. He puffed harder on the cigarette, reestablishing the red light to read by.

10: 3 4

In 3 minutes, it would be exactly a week since he had stood here, firing up a smoke before leaving Lupin with his choice.

Stubbing out his light against the wall he forced himself to stand upright, hands returning to their lairs deep within the pockets of his dark suit. Taking a shaky breath, the gunman bit his lip before turning to the window he dared not look at until now.

It was open. Did-did he leave it open for him? Or.. did Lupin just leave, and not bother closing it after watching him use it for his own exit of sorts, 7 days ago?

The carpet pulled at his shoe as he stepped in, the damp shag acting like a swamp, clinging to his sole.. or was it soul? This meant the window hadn’t been closed.

Chewing on the snuffed stub of his smoke, Jigen plodded through the water damped patch, through the shards of mirror that littered the floor like an ill fated disco ball. The bearded man closed his eyes and ran a rough hand over his face as the red on some shards stood out.

Of course he had left. Fujiko may hurt his heart and pride, but he..he had hurt him. Made him bleed. Hell, the man may even have scars from it. Facial wounds did tend to do that. It was part of the reason he himself wore a beard.

Jigen stood there, hand on the doorknob to what had been his room for the stay, frozen. There was nothing in this room for him, nothing but certainty that Lupin was gone..

But on the other side of the door..

There was hope. He could feel it; he knew it was there. The hope that beyond this room, that Lupin was waiting for him.

It was unsettling, to find the room exactly as he had left it, but.. he still had the hope that if he opened this door..

The question was, was trading in this hope for the truth that awaited him in the rest of the building worth it?

Resting his head against the door, Jigen took a deep breath and opened it.

The hallway was dark. Dark and cold. The gunman slammed a fist into the wall, ignoring the pain that flared as he busted through the dry wall and found a support beam. It would heal. Hell, wasn’t like he had never busted a knuckle before anyways.

He didn’t notice the light night away, but drawn out of him mire of examining where the nail had gouged his knuckle, Jigen became aware there was a light on.. somewhere.

“The living room!” The gunman grinned, mangled butt sliding between his teeth with the action. Trying not to seem too eager, he strode down the black hall, smile almost fused to his face. Lupin wouldn’t have turned all the lights off but one. Hell, the living room light was off when he left! So if it was on now, Lupin had…to…be..

Jigen stood in the empty room, the harsh lighting mocking him and his hope. Not that it mattered. He didn’t have any of it left to be mocked anyways. Maybe it was mocking the fact he had had any at all. He couldn’t compete with Fujiko. Stick thin, dour, bullet scar ridden and male couldn’t fight against flawless skin, bubbly, evil and a DD cup.

A scent, fetid to his senses, rolled over him. He hadn’t noticed it before, he wasn’t sure why. There was no way the overpowering stench of channel No. 5 should have went unnoticed before. The entire room, building was steeped in the rank scent, the whores stench permeating everything in his view, everything that wasn’t as well.

He hadn’t cried in years. Not since that day he and Goemon had though Lupin was dead. But as he sat on the couch, he felt the tears coming. Spitting out the mangled stub of his last smoke, Jigen pulled a new one from the battered pack in his jacket and set it between his lips.

It took more tries then he wanted to count to light it, his hands shaking with the sorrow he held back. Finally it took and he calmed with the first lungful of the acrid smoke, feeding him the drug he craved more then anything.

Well almost anything, he amended as an image of a certain monkey faced thief flashed across his mind.

Turning about, he tried to clear his mind of anything and everything having to do with that man, anything he had hoped, wanted, needed or dreamed.

Dreamed was the wrong word. Clenching his teeth, he tried to chase off the memories of the last time he lay on this couch, and the dream Lupin had ruined by mentioning he and Fujiko tryst on its slightly flocked surface.

But it did no good. A hot tear rolled down his cheek followed by another and another as he tried to repress the fantasy world his sleeping mind had created, him and Lupin, just them. No Fujiko, no Pops, no Goemon, not even a heist. Just a quiet day, sitting about the room, Lupin reading a comic while he cleaned his gun. But he knew.. knew that if at any moment he turned and sought out Lupin's eyes with a smile in his, it would be returned.

Such a simple dream… but it wasn’t to be.

Jigen wasn’t going back to Chicago. He may have said that, but it was a lie. He couldn’t go back there. Lupin always chided him for his nervousness whenever their jobs took them too close to, or heaven forbid, into, the windy city. But he had a reason. 90% of the puckered bullet scars that mapped out a crazed dot to dot on his skin had come from one mistake made there.

The reason he had left it in the first place. His mother lived there still.. his father.. dead more then likely. Not that it mattered to him. He couldn’t stand the man. His family, what little there was of it, would suffer if he went back. It was better they thought he was long dead. Once, just once while they were in Chicago for a job, Jigen had gone and visited his own grave. Of course the name on the headstone wasn’t the one he used now..it was his old name. That man was dead, rotting in the cold ground. All that was left was one Daisuke Jigen, from Japan.

Didn’t matter if he completely failed to look Japanese in the least. He would just glare at someone if they tried to ask too many questions and suddenly, they had enough answers to suit them. And that suited Jigen just fine.

His home was beside Lupin, no matter how stupid that mangy monkey of a man could be, how blind and thick headed.

But now.. that home was gone, leaving him with nowhere to go. No one but Lupin had seen his skills for uses other then killing. He could go back out, find a place beside someone else, but he knew what they would want him for.

And he already had enough blood on his hands.

But a little more wouldn’t hurt, he realized suddenly.

He was too old for this game, too old for living like this anymore. Another few years and he would be looking at 40 flagging him down in his rear view. That wasn’t what he wanted. He didn’t want to be a middle aged washed up gunman with no heart for his job and leashed to the bottle.

He knew it would end this way for sometime, a bullet in the back. Or heart. Or brain.

He just never though he would be the one to pull that trigger.

“I’m gonna miss you baby.” He said as he held his combat magnum in his hands, the familiar weight of her stirring a few doubts. He loved what he did. Was this the wrong choice?

No, no it wasn’t. He loved what he did while working with Lupin. With anyone else, it wouldn’t be the same things. Just killing. The blood from that had far reached past his hands and was in danger of drowning him. It was a cesspool life he didn’t want to step into again.

“Will they bury you with me?” He asked softly of his gun as he popped the chamber open, counting the rounds. A 50-50 chance. Jigen grinned. His odds in almost everything he had done since joining up with Lupin were far worse, and they still won out. With odds this good on his side, there was no way it would go amiss now.

Finishing his cigarette, Jigen hummed himself a slow dirge, ruining it by laughing through part of it. “Like anyone will friggin care. I’m a ghost already anyways. Dead man walking as they say.” He chuckled, setting the barrel under his chin, finger sliding back the trigger with well-known movements.

“Jigen?” A soft, concerned voice said near his head. “I don’t think the shopvac I went all over town to find to clean up the bottle of perfume Fujiko threw at me, will be able to clean up the mess you’re about to make.”

Jigen looked up as his hat was pulled away from his head, a pair of worried brown eyes staring at him.

“I can take the gun now, right?” Lupin asked, grinning nervously at the bearded man, as he pulled the magnum from his frozen hands. “What-what were you about to do there, buddy, o-pal of mine?”

“Lupin?” Jigen stared at the scared face, disbelieving that he was there. Sitting up, he watched in shock as the thief sat down next to him. "You weren’t here. I came back and you were gone. Exactly a week.." He said, babbling, trying to convince himself this wasn’t some weird last minute insanity thing before he died from bullet in the.. whatever part of his head it stopped at.

"Jigen...." Lupin reached out and took his arm, turning it over to see the watch on his wrist. Silent, Jigen watched, the warm touch breaking apart his fear this was just a twisted delusion as Lupin tutt'd over something on his watch.

"Where were you?!" He snapped, pulling his arm away. "You think this is some sort of joke, show up an hour late?! God Damn it Lupin! I was thinking-"

Lupin listened to Jigen rant and lit a cigarette and puffed on it once, before calmly shoving it in the gunman’s mouth, cutting off his bitching.

"Where have you been, my friend? Certainly not around here. And not Chicago." He grinned at Jigen, nothing the slight start at the words. "You think I never noticed how weird you act when we get near there?" Lupin chuckled, lighting up a second smoke for himself. "I know you can’t go back there. Might end up having to put a second grave next to that empty one if you do."

Jigen felt his jaw drop. "How-what- Wait a minute! Don't change the subject! You think you can just fucking string me along and I'll just go with it?! Screw this! Screw this Lupin-"

"Sit down. Jeeze, boxers in twist I see. I wasn’t late, you were early. Like I said, I don't know where you’ve been, but it wasn’t here. Time change, my vein popping pal." Lupin commented, standing after seeing Jigen wasn’t going to sit.

Glancing at his own watch, Lupin grinned wide around his smoke, before taking it out of his mouth. "It will be 10:37 in 5..4..3..2.."

Plucking the half smoked cigarette from Jigens mouth, he grabbed the white tie and yanked the bearded man close, their foreheads touching.

"1."

Jigen fumbled for anything to say, his gut churning in a maelstrom of confusion and hope. But thankfully, his struggle to speak was ended less then a second later.

Lupin smiled into the kiss. Same as it had been a week ago, it felt the same.

Soft.

Warm

Sweet.

Minus the booze and blood, but the flavor of the Pall Mall addiction was still there, strong as ever.

Not that Lupin minded in the least. He was sure his lips tasted about the same. Just in a lesser degree.

He was surprised when Jigen suddenly broke the kiss, pulling away with a gasp, face flushed.

“Lupin, what the hell- what are you doing?” Jigen, asked, brow furrowed in anger, but the effect was ruined when Jigen licked at him lips, reliving the moment in his mind.
The thief chuckled, having seen that same reaction one too many times to miss it. Even if he had never seen it on a guy.

“Fujiko, well, she wasn’t very happy when I told her what had happened. She was even more upset when I told her she had to leave. That’s when she started flinging things at me.” Lupin said with a shrug, ignoring Jigen, save the sly smile on his face.

“She has cute little feet, but those high heels hurt like hell!” Lupin exclaimed, rubbing his scalp as Jigen looked on, uncertain what had happened, what was going to happen.

Why was he here? Was he.. was he here for him? Jigen scowled, biting his lip. This was starting to piss him off. Sure, it was fun watching Lupin playing ring around the facts with some of the assholes they encountered, but right now, he wasn’t enjoying it at all.

“-and then after I ducked the vase, I said “Hey now, you better be careful, you might hit me and then if I bleed more, I could pass out” But she didn’t seem too concerne-”

Jigen grabbed Lupins shoulders, giving him a quick shake. “What the hell are you going on about! Just tell me, just tell me Lupin! Tell me what I want to know, what you know I’m waiting for, you bastard!”

Shaken, not stirred, Lupin waited for him vision to return to normal. “Take it easy there. Jeeze, I’m not sure I made such a good trade. You’re almost as dangerous as Fujiko. Not a great way to start a relationship, is it? Name calling on the first day.” The thief sighed dramatically.

“I don’t gave a damn about that, I-“ Jigen let go, blinking at Lupin. “Wait, what?”

Snickering behind his hand, Lupin pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to Jigen, who caught it without thinking.

The gunman held it up, watching as the light reflected and refracted along its lines. “The Sarci Diamond..”

“I figured, you were right. She doesn’t deserve it. You do. I renounce any claim on it. Its all yours.” He said, pacing about in front of the gunman in small circles*

“Now, about us… I’ve never dated a guy before, hell, I’ve never dated only one person, let alone a guy! So, I don’t know about like.. the sex. I can handle the kissing, the kissing is nice, though you make me want to light up a smoke. But, I think, I can do this, because I want to. You mean more to me then I knew, until you left. Sure I would kill for you, die for you, but I figured it was because we were partners, not like Partners, but partners and I-“

Lupins confusing slurry of words ended as Jigen grabbed his shoulder and spun him about. Face to face, inches from each other, Jigen spoke. “I really wasn’t listening, just so ya know. I have one question. And that’s all. Are you saying you want to try to be a couple, with me?” He asked, getting a nod from Lupin.

“Good.” Was all Jigen said, before closing the small space between them, kissing the thief with a long hidden need.