Solace
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Author: Li Pei Fen
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama. Romance.
Status: Complete.
Pairing: Ban x Kazuki.
Summary: Ban and Kazuki go undercover searching for a necklace.
View as a Complete File

“Oh, come on, Kazuki, this is probably the easiest job you’ll ever do in your life! I’d be willing to do this without pay! …But you’re going to be paid for it…I don’t see why you would want to refuse…” Hevn tried to persuade the longhaired man.

“It is easy for you, Hevn-san, because you’re a girl. But… this is not worth it for so little pay! Better ask Himiko-san to do this…isn’t there a better way of getting back that necklace?” Kazuki protested.

“I don’t see much difference between ‘Kazuki’ and ‘girl’, you know…and I think that you kind of look more girly than Himiko… even if she’s a real girl. And no, there are not much options, just this. His data says he’s INCREDIBLY vulnerable to sexy young women.” Hevn said, leaving Kazuki open-mouthed and staring at her in disbelief. “I’m off to buy you clothes. Don’t worry, it’s on me,” she said excitedly with a wink, and headed for the door.

“Darn that Hevn!” Of all people, why assign me this boring and practically STUPID job?! Juubei would do a better job at it!” Ban complained.

Kazuki’s eyebrows twitched. “You’re lucky you just have to watch me. If you were in my place, I imagine Hevn-san’s all bruised from you beating her up. And how can Juubei watch me if he’s blind?”

“What could be so hard about walking around as a girl?”

“What could be so boring and stupid about just watching a ‘girl’ like me?” Kazuki paused to think about what he said. Well, everything about it WAS stupid and boring. “Okay, so maybe it IS boring and stupid. But do realize how easy your part is and be thankful, and just watch me, like you’re supposed to,” he snapped.

“Right.” With that, Ban headed for the door as well.

Hevn came back loaded with shopping bags of designer clothes and a wide smirk of eagerness on her lips. “Come on, Kazuki, I bought the PERFECT clothes for you. You’ll look like a complete babe after I’m done with you. Here, try this out. I’ll be leaving you here, and call me back after you dress.”

Kazuki didn’t know where to start. There were pieces of clothing laid on the table and he knew perfectly how and where they went on, only he couldn’t move. Hevn’s knock on the door brought him back to his senses and said, “Alright!” a little higher-pitched than he’d wanted it to sound originally.

“You look ABSOLUTELY marvelous, Kazuki-san! Even without the make up, you do! The clothes go perectly with your body and skin tone, like I thought it would! I told you this job was perfect for you…” Hevn said, and even if she sounded like she was praising him, Kazuki knew she was just marveling at how knowledgeable she was at these things.

“Ban-kun, come on in, I have a surprise gift for you.” Hevn said, after having searched for Ban all over the place.”

“What? New bullshit clients?” Hevn shook her head and opened the door for him. “Oh my go- WHO’S THAT?!” He asked her, trying to whisper his excitement to her.

There was a hot babe sitting on a Honky Tonk stool, drinking some hot chocolate. She wore a figure-hugging sleeveless black top with a white collar, with fashionably opened buttons on the top part, a white micro-mini skirt and black stiletto boots with silver bangles to match. She had long, brown hair tucked behind her ears, which had been the home of a little, white crystal star of some kind as earrings.

Long, brown hair… “KAZUKI?!” Ban wanted to slap himself REALLY hard in the forehead for only recognizing him now. Who would have though Kazuki had such a deadly feminine figure, anyway? He was even beginning to think up a pickup line…

“Hai…” Kazuki’s tone sounded uninterested and gloomy as he turned around to look at Ban.

“Oh my GOD! Hevn, what’d you do to him? No WAY I can function properly around that…person!” Ban said, controlling himself from laughing his head off for some unknown reason.

“See? I told you, you look perfect! Now get up and get to work, both of you. Make my hard work worth it.” Hevn said and forced the two out of the café.

Before they entered the club, Kazuki stopped Ban. “Okay. Here’s his picture again,” he shoved Ban the picture of their subject, Minase Hibiki. He was a rich 25-year-old and rather handsome man with expensive jewelry all over his body. “He’s bound to be in there. That’s 99.9% sure.”

“What’s the 0.1 for?”

“Nothing, I just feel he’s 0.1% not there. Well, I kind of wish he’s not there, actually…” Ban laughed at Kazuki’s ‘joke’. He knew Kazuki was getting apprehensive about his weird role in this assignment.

“Relax, ‘woman’, I’ll be watching you, remember?”

“Yah… And if I successfully get him to take me home…” Kazuki shivered at the thought. “BE SURE to follow us. If you dare leave me alone, you’re so DEAD when I get back at you. I can’t handle his thugs all by myself with my weapons sleeping in my bag and with these horrible clothes on. Screw Hevn-san for this,” he said, looking down at how pathetic he’s gotten. Fuuchouin’s last heir, a transvestite…he could almost imagine his mother’s expression upon seeing him like this. Well, not that his father didn’t go through wearing kimonos and being all feminine like he was.

Ban grinned at the comment about Hevn. He never thought Kazuki was capable of saying such a thing. “You worry too much, I won’t leave you... And Minase’s such a pretty face, you might actually want to consider sleeping with him,” Ban teased.

“Yeah, right. Then blow my cover? Get real.” Kazuki sneered falsely. “It’s all over once he finds out I’m not a girl.”

“Well, I’m sure he’d still want you even after he finds that out.” Ban commented. “Anyway, once you’re in his room, coax him into showing his jewelry collection to you and drug him to sleep then take that freaking necklace. Maybe you could go unnoticed. I’ll be waiting with my car outside the parking lot near his mansion, okay?”

“Right. I just hope it goes as smoothly as planned,” Kazuki said. Ban gave him an encouraging squeeze on the shoulders without looking at him as they entered the nightclub called Lollipop, owned by none other than their target, Minase.

The place was packed with couples dancing all over the place, even on the tables. Ban signaled for Kazuki to go look for him. “I’ll be watching you,” he reminded, and stayed away from Kazuki since Minase’s people might notice their acquaintance. Not that it was bad that Kazuki was with someone else, but it might look as though Kazuki was already taken and make Minase back off.

Kazuki tried his best to stop himself from hitting the men who were trying to hook up with him while he roamed about the place in search of their subject. Occasionally, there were those who ‘accidentally’ bumped into him and asked for his number; also, there were perverts who were grabbing his ass and padded busts. Ban saw all of this and was almost ready to stand and protect the helpless Kazuki, if only he wasn’t bothered by girls bugging him and offering him drinks.

“Ugh! Mr., what’s wrong with you? Why d’you keep on staring at that ugly woman?” one of the more pissed-off women said.

Ban raised his eyebrows. “Ugly? If you must know, she’s my woman,” Ban lied, barely controlling laughter upon seeing the reactions on the three girls’ faces as they moved away from him.

“Hey, pretty-face, who’re you looking for?” said one anonymous guy.

Kazuki cleared his throat and tried to sound like a woman, which he was pretty good at. “My boyfriend. Oh, look, there he is.” Kazuki pointed at Ban, seated at a distant table, looking at them. Ban glared at the man so fiercely that the man just slipped away from Kazuki unnoticed.

The night progressed and there was no sign of Minase anywhere. Kazuki ordered a drink and prayed that his plan would work. He took a sip at the delicious wine and spat it out at the counter, complaining about how awful it was. “I paid for first class wine and you give me this?! Who told you to sell this garbage here?!” Kazuki shouted, acting as though it was greatly despicable that he had to drink this ‘bad’ liquor.

“Well, the owner thinks highly of this brand, ma’am…” the bartender cowered at Kazuki’s flaming aura.

“Then bring out the owner! I want to speak to him!” despite being stared at by a lot of people, Kazuki was glad that his acting was paying off.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but he’s not here right now.”

“…Then, tell him that I expect him to be here tomorrow.” Kazuki wanted to hit himself for making such a scene to no avail. He then pretended to be too angered to speak, which was technically true, and stormed out of the place, Ban following suit after a few seconds.

“Was the liquor that bad?” Ban joked.

“I thought it was delicious,” Kazuki said, smiling weakly. “Man, this job bites. I was molested for nothing the whole night! And my feet are killing me,” he complained. “Let’s go home before I burn this place up, boyfriend.”

Ban let out a small sound as a laugh and opened the door of his Beetle for Kazuki.

Kazuki was fast asleep before they even were five minutes away from Lollipop. Ban was too busy staring at Kazuki and watching him fall asleep through the car mirrors that he completely forgot to ask him for his address. It would be a shame to have to wake this beautiful man up, he thought, so he parked in front of the now closed Honky Tonk. He laid Kazuki carefully down on the backseat of the car and removed his boots. His feet had red sore spots all over. He shook his head and blanketed him with his white blouse. “Sweet dreams, girlfriend,” he whispered, and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, making Kazuki shift a little in his sleep.

Ban went to the driver’s seat and tried hard to believe that today even happened. It was too much to fathom, starting from early morning when Hevn was pushing Kazuki to do this job, when he, Midou Ban, was wheedled by Hevn’s fashion magic into thinking that Kazuki was a real girl… so few things happened today but it weighed much on Ban’s gut feeling that he was almost sure that they had to be careful of the following days.

Hevn had a crazier pair of clothing for Kazuki the following day. The red tiara placed on Kazuki’s head matched the red tight long-sleeved button-up blouse that exposed his bellybutton. The black A-skirt he wore didn’t reach up to the knees.

“Why does it always have to be skirts?” Kazuki whined.

“Skirts are pretty,” commented Natsumi.

“Because, Kazuki-san, you have nice legs! Don’t you want to show it around?” Hevn answered.

“No, I’d rather not.”

Hevn shrugged. “Tell him, Ban! Would men go crazy for him as much if he wore lousy pants?”

“I bet my wages, they would.”

“Ugh, you’re not helping! Tsk… Kazuki, don’t waste my money, you look perfect! I’m really SORRY Juubei can’t see this…” she shook her head in regret.

And the black sandals were higher than last night’s two and-a-half inch tall heels, considering Kazuki was having a hard time walking even with a two inch wedged heel, and all Hevn bought him were stilettos.

He had to take a “woman-like-walking workshop” from Hevn, which Kazuki perfected in less than half of the morning. This new walking by Kazuki alarmed Ban – he would have to take care of more perverted men for his partner. Not just that, he had to admit, it was getting pretty hard to take his eyes away from Kazuki’s butt as it swayed by movement of his perfectly swinging hips.

Ban was starting to believe that the gods made a mistake of having made Kazuki a guy. His light and thin figure was just not built to pass as a man’s, which was perhaps the reason why he seemed so light on his feet every time he moved.

“Are you ready yet?” Ban asked.

“Just a little make-up… This won’t take long.” Hevn said.

“He doesn’t need that crap. He looks gorgeous the way he is,” Ban remarked thoughtlessly. Hevn, Paul and Natsumi looked at him in surprise while Kazuki blushed silently in his seat. “I mean, doesn’t he?”

“Riiiiiiggghhhttt….” Hevn said slowly. Before she released Kazuki, she whispered in his ear, “Be careful of Ban.”, a comment which Kazuki brushed off his sleeve like a piece of dirt.

It was still 1:00 in the afternoon and Kazuki and Ban were out in the streets of Tokyo to go visit their client.

Their client lived in a big house in the outskirt of Shibuya [1]. They rang the doorbell and were welcomed by several housemaids. Then they were led to the “Grey Room”, as the royal people in Britain called some of their rooms by color in a castle. Ban was now getting an idea of how rich their client was.

Then, a woman in her twenties entered the room, followed by several men who looked like bodyguards and a couple of maids. She was a beautiful woman, whom Ban guessed, by the accent she used to speak English to her bodyguards, was indeed an Englishwoman.

Contrary to her looks, she spoke perfect Japanese. “Muzukashii desu ka? Kono shigoto ga [2]?

“Zen zen. Ore tachi wa pro da [3],” Ban answered.

“I’ve been watching you… I see you have not made any contact with him yet…”

“We’re working on it.”

“Indeed, you are,” she nodded towards Kazuki, whose true gender she knew.

“Ma’am, we are quite hanging by the edge of a knife here… See, we don’t know much about the necklace. How it looks or what it’s made of…or any of it’s discernible characteristics…” Kazuki said, ever polite.

“This is a special ornament we call ‘Solace’, passed down to my family for generations, since the Anglo-Saxon war in Britain. It’s well worth more than 30 million Pounds [4]. Hibiki has learned about it and took it from me…”

“If so, this Hibiki must be some guy. I can’t believe he even came out of this house alive after stealing that necklace…” Ban said thoughtfully.

“The man used to be my lover. He could get in and out of this house freely and knew all the secret hideouts I had here… I never knew he was crazed about jewelry until he took it. I should have known that he was an expert at these things; he found out about the secret passageways and hidden safes in this house that no one has ever heard of, not even me or some of my late ancestors.”

“Jewel collector…” Kazuki said. “Does he sell what he finds?”

“No, he has a wide collection in his manor. He must have kept it there. But I’m warning you, it is EXTREMELY difficult to get past his bodyguards… he has thrice as more than I do…most of them are the best bodyguards available in Japan. And only a few people ever had the chance to see this collection I am talking about. “

Kazuki felt his stomach do a somersault. He was in more danger than he thought he would ever be involved in. Making it to Minase’s room was easy, but only up to that. Getting him to show his collection and getting the necklace was another story, apart from making it out alive.

“So how does the necklace look like?” Ban asked.

One of the Englishwoman’s maids handed over a picture of a golden necklace with rubies, emeralds, amethysts, sapphires and diamonds carved to perfectly fit the spaces in between the interwoven gold to form a medley of patterned colors. The stones were outlined with what was impossibly silver, so Ban guessed it was platinum. It looked magnificent even in a picture. It must be a thousand times more in the flesh.

“I have heard of your good reputation from every single client you got. I put my trust and 5 million Yen at stake for this one necklace. Deliver it to me as soon as possible.”

Ban was not impressed with the amount of money. The job included getting Kazuki involved in a 40-60 ratio of coming out alive and dying in the assignment. Certainly Kazuki was not just worth anything near 5 million Yen.

“You still wanna do this?” Ban asked Kazuki later as they drove to Lollipop.

“Why not? We’d mess up Get Backer’s name if we quit. And the money’s enough for us to retire for five years and still live properly.” Kazuki sounded confident enough to convince Ban..

“Whatever you say,” Ban said, wanting to leave the situation as it is and just go forward. After all, they couldn’t turn back now…

Ban opened the door for Kazuki as they entered the nightspot. “Good luck, girlfriend,” he said, after giving Kazuki an ‘encouraging’ slap on the butt.

Tonight wasn’t much different form last night, still there were idiots who tried to befriend him, get to dance with him or even sleep with him. The people were not making the job any easier. He wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. The bartender was different from the previous night’s, and he decided not to go looking for the owner of the bar with the scheme he did before. He just sat as ‘patiently’ as he could, waiting and anticipating any little sign of Minase when...

“Kanojo (Miss), what’s with the bitter look?” said an unwanted voice.

Kazuki turned around to look at the source of the voice. He almost yelped for joy when he saw that it was no less than Minase Hibiki. He composed himself and said, “My man just broke up with me.”

“I can’t believe anyone had the backbone to break up with such a stunning beauty,” he said, sitting beside Kazuki. Kazuki jerked his head secretly to see if Ban was aware that their subject showed up already. He wasn’t.

“It’s that guy,” Kazuki said, pointing at Ban, acting all hurt and irritated. He hoped that the plan he thought up impromptu would work.

“He’s not that charming at all. I don’t see why you even had a relationship with him,” Minase said, and for some reason, Kazuki wanted to give him a good punch on the nose. “Anyway, my name is Hibiki. Minase Hibiki. And yours?”

“Ka–-Kasumi…” he didn’t want to give his true identity. “Midou Kasumi,” he lied, wondering why the ‘Midou’ part was the first to crawl into his mind. Hibiki reached out to shake Kazuki’s hand. Kazuki shook it, and the kiss Hibiki placed on his hand sent goose bumps running through his skin.

Kazuki chanced a glance at Ban. He was still not aware. “Hibiki-kun, would you mind being my boyfriend for a while?” Kazuki asked.

“Huh…S-sure…” he replied, not sure what Kazuki was up to.

“Good.” Kazuki dragged him on the dance floor directly in front of Ban. Ban still wasn’t looking. He was too busy staring at the big-busted woman flirting with him.

Kazuki started to dance with Minase and it didn’t take a long while before Minase realized what Kazuki was ‘up to’. He thought Kazuki wanted to make Ban jealous, but of course, the real aim was to make him notice the big fish Kazuki had caught.

Then gradually, Ban started glancing towards their direction. When Minase saw this, he decided it would help if…

Kazuki froze at the thoughtless kiss Minase was placing on his mouth. He wanted to push him away, but that would only make a bad name of him, so he had no choice but to ride on with it. He tried to convince himself that it was all worth it since Ban was definitely looking at them now. Or rather, glaring at them as if he was on fire himself.

Kazuki gracefully slipped away from Minase’s smooches. Both of them secretly looked at Ban. “It’s working, isn’t it?” Hibiki said.

“You bet it is,” Kazuki said, trying to sound happy, though inside, he wanted to cry. This was getting more ridiculous by the moment. “Want to drink?” he said, just so he could lure him away from tangling his body with his own.

“Sure. My treat. See, I own this place,” he bragged.

“Oh, you do?” Kazuki tried to sound surprised. “You must be very rich. I see you have lots of jewelry hanging from all over your body.”

“Oh, this is nothing. Here, take it as a reminder of when we first met,” he said, removing a golden bracelet from his hand and put it on Kazuki’s left wrist.

“Oh, wow…for a complete stranger like me? …Jeez, your girlfriend must be the happiest woman alive,” Kazuki said.

“Don’t worry about it… Besides, I kind of like you…And did I mention that I’m single?” he said, clasping Kazuki’s thigh in secret under their table. Kazuki flinched, though he tried to look as if he didn’t mind and liked it.

“What a coincidence… I’m single too…” Kazuki strived to make himself sound seductive. He brought out his leg from under the table and showed him more of his perfect legs by raising his skirt a bit. Minase, of course, took the bait, and Kazuki was half expecting him to invite him to his house, when Minsase said, “Will you be attending the party tomorrow?”

“What party?” Kazuki asked, clueless, and disappointment crawling to his face as he failed again.

“We’re having a swimming party tomorrow at my place. Exclusive for Lollipop’s members.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m not a member…”

“Well, I was thinking of making an exception of you. You’re special.” Kazuki wanted to kiss him then out of happiness. It was the perfect chance…

“Oh that’s sweet of you…Great, you can expect me to be there, “

“I don’t see why you would think otherwise, anyway, sweetie… ” he said. Minase tried to kiss him again when Kazuki stood up suddenly and said, “Great! Then I’ll be seeing you there. Anything in particular I have to wear to comply with the theme or something?”

“Actually, I want you to be my date for the night. You can wear something of a formal dress. I bet anything would look good on that body anyway. And we do have a swimming party. I’d LOVE it if you’d take a dip in the pool with me,” Minase said.

For some reason, Kazuki felt he was still a little unconvincing, so he decided to pull up a show and brush his lips with his gently in one stroke, as he didn’t want anything more than that. He left Minase hanging in the air, staring at his rear as he swayed his hips back and forth as he walked.

Ban followed Kazuki out the door after some time. When he got out, Kazuki was pacing back and forth in front of Ban’s car, slapping his forehead over and over again.

“Calm down, woman, you were doing a great job,” Ban said.

“All thanks to YOU, he had to kiss me!” Kazuki roared.

“Well, that help him like you some more… And I think you liked it, didn’t you?” Ban accused.

“You’re not helping!” Kazuki said, trying to calm down. “It’s tomorrow. He has a party for the members of this club. I was invited,”

“I know. I was invited by the woman who looked a lot like Minase… I was talking to her a while ago about this club and she invited me…”

“…And I bet everything I have, he’s going to try to sleep with me tomorrow.” Kazuki continued to pace around. “What if they catch me, there’s bound to be an alarm after I get that necklace…if they catch me, I’m dea–“

“Calm down, okay?” Ban held Kazuki by the shoulders and shook him a little. “You’re going with your weapons tomorrow and I’ll be there, right?” Ban reminded him.

“Yes, yes…okay,” Kazuki nodded his head slowly and breathed in and out to calm himself. He was comforted at the thought that he would have his weapons by him. Somehow he felt helpless without them. Or without Ban.

Kazuki closed his eyes. He was tired. He leaned his head on Ban’s warm chest and tried to rest for a while. “Thanks for everything,” Kazuki said, inserting his arms slowly in between Ban’s arms.

“Hey, it’s my job, isn’t it?” Ban smiled and wrapped his arms loosely around Kazuki’s waist. He rocked him gently from side to side to console him somehow.

Kazuki felt relieved and assured that tomorrow would go well. Ban was there, after all. And he was able to handle far more difficult jobs before, didn’t he? He could almost laugh at how stupid he was for even worrying. He was a good fighter. He was a Fuuchouin. And most of all, Ban would be there to save him if things had turned the wrong way, wouldn’t he?

[1] Shibuya is inside Tokyo

[2] Is it difficult? This job?

[3] Not at all. We’re professionals

[4] I’m talking about English money, not weight…