Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ HOUNDS ❯ Organized Crime ( Chapter 6 )

~

HOUNDS. Organized Crime.

~By Sweetdeily.

“War does not determine who is right, war determine who is left.
~Unknown.”

~

The splash of icy water against his face woke him from the confused blank whiteness of his subconscious.

The information that greeted his waking mind was heady and overpowering.

The scent of wood and pine-o-clean, the gently sound of cloth moving against flesh, the sharp bite of ropes against his wrists, the soft caress of a draught through a window. The flicker of someone dressed in a suit moving behind him. Two large, bald body guards in opposite corners of the room, the neat, attractive desk that sat between him at the punk at the other side of the wood.

Papers littered the desk, some had their corners folded, others had been outrightly turned into airplanes- a spare pen lay forgotten somewhere between a facsimile and a photocopy of some document or another.

The boy wasn’t dressed like your average punk. He wore a tailor-fit asphalt gray business suit that had a little padding in the shoulders. He needed it. He was tiny, almost smaller than most ten-year-olds, the spiked, multicolored hair gave him about an extra inch to play with. His eyes were a borderline red in their earthy-brown tone and if it weren’t for the eye shadow, Yami would probably have placed them as red eyes. Wolves didn’t usually get red eyes. The kid, and now it was impossible for Yami not to think of him as such- the ten-year-old thought had done it’s work, had a small, cute smile on his face that vaguely made Yami worried.

“Kono hito wa yumena... Lakii Kaato.” (This is a famous person… Lucky Cat.) The Japanese was oddly a surprise for Yami- sure the kid was Asian, but that didn’t automatically make him Japanese. He didn’t speak it all that well any more, but the subtle insult under the words wasn’t hidden by the language- these people were laughing at him.

“What do you want?” He asked in good old American. Yami had been in the states too long and it showed with his lack of another accent. He spoke English like he was American. Then again, he was a member of most countries so he could probably dig an American passport out of his ass if he really had to.

“Don’t you speak your own language?” The young boy asked. His English was thick with his accent.

“No.” Yami replied simply.

The boy smiled again, and it was very… condescending. “Well then, Yami-san, we shall speak like American’s.”

Yami fought not to raise his eyebrow- he really did- but he couldn’t help it… the eyebrow went up.

The boy’s smile faded and Yami felt someone move right before the back of his head received a sharp slap.

“Yami-san, I’ve something of a problem.” The boy began, tossing aside the formalities it seemed.

Yami kept his face blank and listened.

“You see; I recently lost a few of my men in a nasty shoot out down at the… what is it called? The fight-cage,” He paused; slowly rising from his chair and walking around the desk to stand in front of Yami, “and I have been trying to find someone who was there that could tell me-”

Yami’s lip twitched at the rolled ‘l’s’ but he bit it to stop from smiling.

“-What exactly happened.” The boy continued as though he hadn’t noticed the twitch.

Up close, Yami could smell it. The kid was a lycanthrope, a weak, puppy of a creature, but a lycanthrope nonetheless. He had a sort of lick to his scent that made Yami peg him as a pure-breed.

Born therianthrope were indeed an increasingly commodity these days. While lycanthrope dominated the shifter communities, less and less were shifter-made from an attack or sexual exchange.

“And you picked me because…?” A good question. Why had he been singled out? There was more to this than met his eyes. Yami didn’t like intrigue.

Yugi’s eyes flickered to his left and he spoke a little quicker than was easily understood. “Yuu have a repuutaation. I wanto know whata happened.”

No.

That was a lie and it didn’t take a genius prostitute-catnip-addicted-were-cat to figure it out. “Alright. Can we make a deal however?”

The boy’s muddy eyes narrowed. “What?”

“I’ll tell you everything you want to know… if you have the muscle men step outside. I’m a little intimidated by them.”

The young boy frowned and sat on the edge of the desk, thinking for a short time. “Very well. Leave. All of you, now.”

And there was no questioning of his orders, no ‘but sir…’. They simply left. Not what Yami had expected- after all the rumors of conflict in the Moutoh clan; it must have been a little inaccurate.

A little inaccurate to say the least.

Yami fought harder now; to keep his straight face as he shifted one hand and freed himself of his bonds. He kept his hands behind his back, however and spoke to the boy.

“You lied just now.”

“I do not lie.” The lycanthrope sniffed. Wolf-shifters hated being called liars. Didn’t mean that they weren’t- they just didn’t like being caught or called it. Liar was almost as bad as calling a black man a ‘nigger’. And it wasn’t a social thing between ethnic friends in the current day and age.

Yami loved watching lycanthrope bray at each other when they didn’t believe what the other said. It got ridiculous.

Yami smiled, slowly. “But you fibbed just then. Tell me, what’s the real reason you picked me? Of all the con-men, serial killers, bums and drug addicts you could have picked, why did you pick the whore?”

He stood, unbound hands catching the stunned boy’s face in his palms and bringing their bodies closer.

The boy’s mouth opened once or twice and a blush traced itself all the way across his face, turning his ears pink and… a small tearing sound before the bushy tail forced it’s way out of the boy’s pants to wag happily in the air behind him.

Bad control indeed.

“I-I-I-I-I…”

“You. Yugi Moutoh, head of the entire clan…” Yami fought not to call him the ‘midgit head of the entire clan’. “Decided that you wanted to test the theory of whether or not everyone I sleep with gets lucky?”

Yugi shook his head a little and slid back on his desk, nervously clutching his tail in one hand and trying to separate their bodies. “N-n-no.”

“Really?” Yami followed the boy and caught his chin in one hand again, bringing their faces inches apart and twisting his head to one side.

This was what was below the surface. A nervous little puppy who tried to act nastier than he actually was. No… Yami had heard the rumor about the fish- maybe he was nasty… but Yugi was a nasty that had a leash.

Yugi breathed in a few quick bursts and one little hand shot out, pushing against the therianthrope’s body. “N-n-n-o-u-yo…”

Yami wasn’t sure why he did what he did then. It must have been some strange backlash of all the catnip in his system… maybe it was because he’d been hanging around the wolves too long and was starting to want and dominate one of them a little better. Maybe he’d been playing the role of a whore too long.

He kissed the little teenager. He kissed Yugi hard and deep and so quickly that he was clumsy and sloppy in his technique.

The boy just sat there, surprised, stunned and with his mouth wide open.

Yami wrapped his arms around the boy’s waist and yanked him closer, knocking the writing block to the floor as he did so and forcing the boy’s body to press against his.

Yugi squeaked into the kiss, head jerking in surprise, small hands jumping to life and touching Yami’s arms like he wanted to be released but hadn’t quite figured out why yet.

And still the kiss deepened. The little Japanese boy returned the tongue in his mouth tentatively and softly. Like he wasn’t sure he was doing the right thing.

Yami slowly broke the kiss after a few minutes, releasing the boy gently and sitting back down. He was a cat. He didn’t need to explain anything.

The boy sat there, legs wide open, tail thumping madly behind him, and eyes little slits of red as he breathed slowly and closed his mouth with a small sound that sounded suspiciously like a groan of disappointment.

“Eeeto ne…”

Yami glanced toward the door meaningfully.

“Eeeto…” Yugi followed the look blankly.

“Are you going to call the men back in to beat me to a pulp or not?”

“Eeeeettttooo….” The lycanthrope frowned, eyes slowly turning back to normal as he slinked over to the other side of the desk.

“What happened at the club?” The small-voice asked; somewhat subdued.

Yami shrugged, morphing his hand out of the other cuff as he spoke. “A bunch of punks took on your stake in the territory. They were answered by a few of your guys.”

“Which punks?” Yugi asked.

Yami liked children. Not so much in the perverted sense that he wanted to molest them, but he generally liked seeing happy little kids running around. What Yugi would do with the name of the gang would end in a lot of kid’s bodies floating in the river. But Yami told the Moutoh boy anyway.

Because he had a need to live that outweighed his morals. And that’s what it came down to in the end for the Luck Cat.

Emotions were a luxury.

“The Hot Fangs.”

Yugi bit his lip and frowned. “Now you’re lying. The Hot Fangs are a bunch of kids… they don’t have the connections for guns.”

“Well that’s what they had. Guns. Machine guns… or whatever the guns were. I don’t know. You should talk to the HOUNDS about this stuff- all I know is what I saw.”

Okay, so probably that wasn’t going to happen, and the better person to talk to would be his roommate- but Yami really didn’t want to run the ‘off chance’ that Jounouchi would piss someone off and get them both whacked.

Besides… he hated cute people trying to kill him.

Yugi frowned, still blushing, but releasing his tail and forcing it back into his body.

“Alright… leave now.” He said quickly.

Yami didn’t question the evil crime-boss teenager-werewolf’s decision to let him go. He went for the door.

~

Jounouchi didn’t have a massive epiphany when he came home and the tiger was missing. He didn’t catch on that Something Was Amiss because the damn tiger’s catnip had been knocked all over the floor. And he didn’t coincidentally try to call Yami, only to discover that Yami wasn’t responding and therefore had been kidnapped because Yami –always- responded even when he was in the middle of rutting a were-rabbit.

The blonde came home, took one look at himself in the mirror with his uneven hair and pink ears and went out again to go and see a hairdresser.

He was scatter brained. He talked to his hair dresser about ‘relationships’ and how did you know when a girl liked you and… well, he talked like a scatter-brained blonde werewolf.

“And what if you’re play-acting with her and she kisses you? Does that mean maybe she really likes you or that she’s just being a tease…?”

The woman evening his hair up smiled around one of her clips and shrugged. “Maybe. Jesus, who cut this on you?”

“Some guy. He thought it was funny.” Jounouchi hadn’t noticed how bad the cut had been until now.

“Tsch.”

Snip, snip went the scissors.

“And what if you saved her kid brother, who she, like… loves. Would she just be kissing you as a favor? Or…”

“Maybe you’re over thinking this, Mr. Katsuya.” The woman said.

“You think?”

“Well, the way I see it, you’ve got two options. Let it be for a while and see what happens. Or… ask her.”

ASK HER? Jounouchi went pink. No way! He was not asking a werewolf alpha male if he liked Jounouchi. No fucking way! He’d die of embarrassment.

And then there was his street creds to think of! Ohhh…. Jounouchi shook his head wildly. “No! No…. nonononono. That’s not a good idea.”

The hair-dresser grabbed a hold of Jounouchi’s chin and righted his head.

Snip. Snip. Snip.

“Well you never know.” She said simply.

Which made Jounouchi’s thoughts whorl themselves back to square one.

“Done.”

“Done?” Jounouchi asked.

“Yes. I shortened it.”

Jounouchi looked at his face in the mirror and gawked. His hair… his beautiful long hair was no more. It was cut at the sides now, and it rushed forward in a rush of… bangs. He had bangs now. No tail, no long strands… all bangs. “I look…”

“Younger? I’ll say. I’d almost wanna’ ask for your ID to get a haircut.”

Jounouchi turned his head and saw the back in the little mirror the hair-dresser was holding.

He looked alien.

Strange.

Wrong.

But… kind of hot in a cute way now. He’d have to buy some new clothing to match his hair now. A gay man just couldn’t go around without the right kind of clothing to ruin next full moon.

Speaking of the full moon.

Jounouchi paid for his haircut and headed home. His arm was feeling better. But his good arm ached from his now constant touching of his hair.

His fur was going to feel weird for weeks.

“Hey! Joey the Cat’s! Fancy seeing you round these parts.” Someone called out.

Joey turned and looked for the man addressing him.

Ryuji Ootogi was very much like Joey in some respects. He was a lycanthrope that had grown up in America. Unlike Joey, Ryuji had been caught stealing at a young age and put in prison. At the age of ten a mob-boss had adopted him upon his release. Ryuji had gone down the proverbial ‘dark path’. The same path that Joey worried, some days, he was heading down. They’d been on and off acquaintances over the years. Ryuji didn’t trust the therianthrope and Joey didn’t trust the con-man. Ryuji spent too much time in wolf-form while in the joint and had retained his green, wolf-like eyes as a result. His teeth tended to be a little overly pointed as well.

“Heya.” Joey ambled over slowly.

Ryuji was leaning against the wall of a video-store, a half-finished smoke in one hand and a bag of videos in the other. “What happened to your hair and your arm? Did you get that badly shat on in the cages?”

“Sort of. I won.”

“So I should see the other guy?”

“Yeah.”

Ryuji chuckled dryly and took a drag of his smoke. “What are you doing this Friday?”

“Nothing much…” Actually he had plans. But this was a good opportunity to get in with the mobsters and gunrunners. If Mr. Phillip wasn’t answering his phone- and Joey’s gut told him why- then Ryuji Ootogi was a good alternative.

“I’m having a full moon hunt party. I know you’re not one to shift with the rest of us dogs-” Ryuji smiled then. It was a coy smile, because he was well aware of what Jounouchi hid from the lycanthrope community. “But you wanna come to the party?”

Joey let the jab go. Any other time he would have dumped his cast and tried to tear Ryuji’s throat out- but this was a good chance and he wanted to get brownie points from Seto Kaiba. “Sure. Where and what?”

“Just some booze and joints. At my boss’ new apartment. Wear something gay.” Ryuji pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and scribbled down an address.

“Something gay?” Joey questioned, taking the paper and shoving it in his pocket.

“My thing right now- I’m gay. So you can be my date.” Ryuji’s green eyes were smiling.

“I don’t know if that’s my thing…” Joey grumbled slowly. He didn’t want to be Ryuji’s date. There would be rumors!

“You live with the fuckin’ Cat don’t you?” Ryuji looked a little offended now.

“Yeah, but we’re just roommates.”

“In a one-bedroom apartment?”

Joey’s eyebrows shot up. “You been checking up on me or somethin’?”

“Maybe.”

It was Joey’s turn to smile. “Why, Ryuji. I didn’t know you cared.”

Ryuji stabbed his cigarette butt out and frowned, punching Joey’s bad arm. “I don’t. Just show up, alright.”

“You in bad or something?”

“Oh, shut up and go. I’ll see you on Friday.”

Joey held up his hands defensively and backed off, resisting the urge to rub his now hurting arm. So maybe it wasn’t as healed as he would have liked. “See ya’.”

Ryuji ignored him and lit up another cigarette.

Jounouchi smiled once he was safely at the bus stop. Too easy. He felt like phoning Seto Kaiba and telling him to kiss him because he’d done good. But he half delighted and worried that the HOUND would take it seriously.

No… he mostly delighted.

~Tsuzuku…

Sweet notes: Ahh. I had a feeling I shoved a Ryuji around here somewhere…

Ryuji: I don’t like where she’s going with my character…

Jou: Neither do I…

Seto: have you two been reading ahead in her brain?

Jou+Ryuji: *nod*

Seto: Don’t. That’s a bad, scary place.

Sweets: Meanie. Reviews?