openmisc | A colorful AU!

A colorful AU!

The world is gray. Always gray. He had thought once, as a little boy, that the emergence of color would be a wonderful thing. He used to dream that finding that person, that getting to see everything in brilliant Wizard Of Oz technicolor would be something he would always cover until it happened.

But after Ishwari, after the betrayal and the loss, after Ajay and Lakshmana left to America after Mohan's failed assassination attempt, Pagan just gave up on that dream. Love, he decided, was just for those who have given up on themselves. Not worth the trouble.

Yuma became the face of Kyrat after that and Pagan stepped back, letting her handle the death threats and the rebels and all of the bullshit that he just didn't want to deal with. Pagan ruled from the back, tempering Yuma's impulsive bullshit with a cooler head, though no less ruthless. However, the arrangement left him free to roam the world, taking care of his business in Hong Kong and the mainland unmolested. His father might not have had the desire to rule the Triads, but Pagan sure as fuck does. Even if it means he has to go and do things himself.

It's this reason, chasing spineless Hong Kong assholes, that lands him in Japan. He has a small security detail that walks the crowd, but otherwise Pagan is by himself as he walks the streets, checking his phone for his victim's last location.

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Pagan looks up and feels his chest tighten a little, just for a moment. Strange to be so affected for this time. But Pagan had - missed him. In just that short time. As much as he didn't want to. As much as he tried to tell himself that he is above that.

He tries not to let it show, but Pagan's not one to hide his feelings. "You're here! Now, I guess I'll follow you, hm?"

He slides his phone into his back pocket. He's out of the pink and into a silver shirt and blue trousers, which are no less nice but certainly more subdued.

Kiryu is used to a near perpetual state of longing at this point... but even then, this is something else. This is a different kind of pull.

He shrugs and looks over at Pagan, lip curling a little as he starts walking.

"Where am I leading us again?"

Pagan shrugs. "We had one idea before, but now I don't fucking care," he admits. "So now you're leading me to get a drink. A good drink. Not a hurried, confused drink. I want to see what color brandy is."

Kiryu nods... and that's when he'll take him on a slightly longer walk, down Pink Street with it's dancing girls and video displays and past the Champion District where they'd been before. Instead, he ducks down an alley and heads into a place labeled just 'Bar Tender'.

It's a small, intimate little place with a bar tender, an older woman who looks like she makes good money, and plenty of empty spots.

For the first time since they met, Pagan is actually alone. His guards don't follow, by his orders, and he just trusts Kiryu to watch out for any potential dangers.

The place he leads him to is - quiet, though he doesn't quite see that as detrimental.

"This is exactly what I had in mind," he says with a laugh, letting their shoulders touch just briefly.

He'll make his order and the bartender will take Pagan's as well, serving up relatively quickly. There's a little tucked corner that Kiryu ends up in down at the end of the bar that gives visibility to the door and leaves their back to a wall.

Once he's settled in-

"I'm assuming you've been thinking about how you want to handle this."

"I haven't," he tells him, sitting with his drink and watching it with a bit of fascination. "There's nothing to handle. Not for a few days, I mean."

"And after a few days?" he asks with a glance over at Pagan as he looks at his own drink.

"Doesn't that depend on the next few days?" he counters, taking a long drink. "But I intend to monopolize your time, so, well, plan for that."

"Not much planning to do since I'm off assignment," he says with a wry twist of his lips. "I'm not... usually on. They keep me for certain things."

The kind of jobs where they need someone who can get in and get out regardless of the odds. And a surprising amount of diplomatic entreaties. The genuineness he gave off was good at getting talk started.

"I haven't told them yet. About you. I still want to know what you intend to do. Especially since I need to keep... people safe."

Pagan has been thinking about that part, at least. He doesn't like this position that he's in but only because it's so unfamiliar.

"What I intend to do is try and take you the fuck with me. But since that doesn't seem to be a good option right this goddamn second, then I suppose I'll have to leave and come back. I'm not - giving this up, you realize. Just because it caught me by surprise."

"I thought you were dead," he says quietly as he nods towards Pagan. "I thought, if I had a match, they'd been killed years ago. I never believed it was possible. I've been... alone. For most of my life."

"And I didn't give a shit about whoever mine was because - well, the one person I loved, I thought she would be the only one I would ever love. Could ever love. So we're broken men, but that's something we both knew about each other."

He picks up his glass and just stares at the remining drink.

He looks at his own for a good long time. And when he opens his mouth, he wishes he didn't have to say this. But he knows he does.

"...I want to go with you. I want to try a life with my soulmate. I have...

"My life is almost entirely empty now. I gave up everything for my kids. For their future. What I do now, I do because I can't do nothing. This is what's left to me.

"And I don't think you will. I think it's the last thing you'd want to do."

He turns to look at Pagan.

"But if you hurt my kids, in any way, I will tear you, and everything you've ever built, apart at the seams with my bare hands. And even if I'm lonely every day of my life after that, I will not regret it."

Pagan sets his glass down and reacts to that threat not with anger or amusement, as he would with anyone else, but with true seriousness. He rests his fingertips against the glass.

"I know you will," he assures him. "But I don't want to hurt your children. Or you. In fact, all of the resources I have at my disposal are yours. Whatever you need to do."

He watches Pagan for a moment... and then he nods.

"Like I said: I don't think you would. But part of being genuine with you is making that clear. We're bound together. You should know what matters. No surprises."

He glances over at Pagan then.

"Is there anything like that for you?"

"Just my children, in America," he explains. "And I have no worries for that. Well, not from you, at least."

He turns, meeting his face. "Nothing else in my life matters, honestly."

He considers that as well.

"Both of us without a purpose beyond our children," he says carefully. He looks to Pagan.

"Do you think our meeting might change that?"

He considers that very seriously. "Ah, now that is a question. A very good question, but one that I don't know if I can answer. Do I - want it to? Now that's the right question."

Pagan leans forward, folding his hands together.

"Dreams take root in our hearts whether we want them to or not," he says in counter. "But whether you choose them or pursue something else... that's what can change things."

Pagan's laugh isn't bitter, but it's certainly not warm. He's never encountered a situation like this before. Never thought he would have the chance to.

"I - want to hope for it."

He nods.

"I'd like to too. I think-" and this is clearly something that takes him a moment, that takes effort- "I think we leave a bad example, only living for others. Our responsibilities, they're important. But if we only live for them, we only show them how to be trapped."

"And you are trapped here, Kiryu Kazuma," he says firmly. "Even I can see that fucking much. Trapped in this life. And I'd like to think that it's more than this goddamn bond that makes me want to help free you from it."

"I like to think that too," he says honestly as he breathes in, takes a sip, and puts down his drink.

"...so let me know when you're ready for the two of us to introduce ourselves properly."

What, you thought he forgot that part?

He chuckles. "I hesitated earlier because - well, I didn't know if it would be worth it." He wanted to have a talk, this talk, first.

"But now I think it is. And I'm rather looking forward to it."

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