Shot?

“Asami speaking.”



The hand that was holding the cell-phone was still slightly shaking even though he had drunk – no, make that downed – two glasses of his favorite whiskey. He took another deep drag of the cigarette he was holding in his other hand. He needed to calm himself down. Now. It just wouldn’t do to give in to his emotions, after all he had a reputation to uphold.



“You fucking bastard! The moment I see you I’ll fucking kill you…”



“Tstststs… Temper, Feilong, temper…” He gripped the phone tighter. Although they had come to an understanding, he couldn’t just simply forget what the head of the Baishe had done to his boy.



“We had a deal. We.Had.A.Fucking.Deal!”



“Yeah, we had a deal. Until you shot Akihito.” His indifferent voice seemed to infuriate the Chinese on the other end of the line even more.



“I didn’t shoot him. He jumped right into the bullet. Wan didn’t aim at him.”



“I know, but he aimed at me.”



“That’s because you were standing right behind that bastard. Wan shot at him - not you. So, now give him over as promised.”



“I’m sorry, Feilong, but right now I have more important matters to attend to. I’ll get in touch as soon as I can make time for the exchange.”



Click. He hung up. That immediately made him feel a bit better and it had taken his thoughts of his pet for just a few moments. Akihito. He groaned, this time unable to keep it down. He pressed his forehead against the cold window of the car, closing his eyes. How could he do this to me? He had waited weeks for the right opportunity to extract him from Feilong, spent the time he was forced to recuperate on thinking up countless scenarios for his boy and now? At least another three weeks before Akihito would be up to any ‘strenuous’ behavior, provided that his condition didn’t get worse. Yeah, God really hates me…



He groaned again, leaning back against the soft leather of the car-seat. Just remembering what he had come up with during those seemingly never-ending days he had to spend in a hospital-bed made him hard. Again. And again he would deny himself as he had since the day Feilong had taken Akihito from him. Damn you, brat. You better hurry up and get well before I explode.



He felt Keita’s eyes on him through the rearview mirror. He almost felt sorry for him. He knew that since the ‘incident’ he had become even more bad-tempered and everybody, including his bodyguards, was pussyfooting around him, carefully making sure not to do anything that could raise his ire.



“To the warehouse.” There was at least one way he could work off some of the tension that had accumulated over the last few weeks.



Pouring himself another glass of whiskey, he recalled the rather surprising turn of events on board of the ship. The exact moment he had Feilong at gunpoint and the Chinese dragon had yet managed again to amaze him.



Flashback:



“Keep moving forward and don’t turn around. If you make one sound I’ll blow a hole right through your head!” As far as threats went, he had thought this one was a fairly easy one to understand.



“Oh, and don’t even think about screaming for help like the little girl you are, nobody will come.” Asami forced him to a vacant room with a certainty that made Feilong realize that Asami had somehow gotten hold of the ship’s layout. He definitely had to look into that later. If there was a later…



“How dare you make a mockery of me? You\'ll pay dearly for this". He pushed the Chinese Triad Leader down on a table with so much force that the breath left the slender man with a whoosh, cutting off the snide come-back "...and you\'ve come all this way. Things have really come around to \'bite you in the ass\', Asami...!"



“I want my boy back.”



Distracting the older man with snide remarks that cut too close to the truth, finally gave him the chance he was looking for. Slamming his hand down on Asami’s wounded leg he managed to get out from under the Yakuza and dodging the bullets fired at him, he found cover behind a wall.



“You should have taken more time to heal, old man. As you remember I know exactly how long it takes for a bullet wound to heal… You know, you almost make me believe that Akihito really means something to you. Look at you, coming here for the boy, offering me billions in exchange for… what? A brat?”



“Leave Akihito out of this, he was merely the tool you used to get me to come and finally put an end to the mess you created seven years ago, Feilong. So, where is he?”



“You’re too late, Asami… Again. Someone has taken him from you. Again. You should really watch your property better. Getting sloppy with old age?”



The only response was another spray of bullets hitting the wall.



“You never planned on giving me back what’s mine, right? You bastard thought you’ll get away with my casino and the boy? What was the plan? Getting the boy and then shoot me like you did seven years ago? I’ll never give over, so go ahead and shoot me.”



“If that’s what it takes to protect my property and to stop you incessant whining about what your father did…? I’m sick of being blamed for everything that didn’t go right in your sorry life.”



“You created ‘my sorry life’ when you teamed up with Tou to destroy Baishe. Making him claim me as his son to destroy everything I lived for. You just didn\'t realize that having pity on me and not letting me die would result in this, did you...?"



A dry laugh followed his outburst. “You never thought that I would one day really be the leader of Baishe, so why aren’t you happy that things went exactly as you had planned back then...?”



The only response he got was a noise off to the side, which caused Feilong to spin around, point his gun and shoot - only to realize too late that Asami had slipped behind him.



It didn’t take Asami long to disarm Feilong and bring him down once more.



"So...you wanted me to acknowledge you that much?"



Glaring down on the younger man, Asami continued to taunt the trapped man



“The father that should\'ve acknowledged you is no longer alive... and to think that you have come this far just for the sake of some pitiful revenge... I really feel sorry for what has become of the once mighty Baishe.”



With the gun grinding into the back of his head Feilong was forced to listen.



"In truth... you don\'t really care about the past, do you? Don\'t make me any angrier..."



Sliding the gunpoint further down, Asami slowly continued:



"I know exactly how to silence men like you... ...but I won\'t... just like I didn\'t seven years ago... You look after your own hide. I\'m not your father."



By now boiling in anger, Feilong fought against the larger man, managed to roll over and successfully pinned Asami down.



“You have no use for people unless they either bring you financial wealth or sexual pleasure. Why didn’t you just let me die back then? Was it only so you can insult me like this...? Will you insult even the years I\'ve lived hating you..?!"



“I didn’t want to let you die.” Words, almost inaudible muttered while grey eyes clashed with golden ones. "Do you not understand something simple as that?" Asami continued “It is up to you if you want to dwell in the past and be consumed by hate, but unlike you I don’t live denying my true self. If you want to kill me so much, go ahead. Here is your chance. But you will never be satisfied with that. You’ll never get the thing you want most…”



"Don\'t talk like you know anything about me..." and surprisingly the slender Chinese pulled Asami into a searing kiss.



“The past has nothing to do with this. I just wanted to get you… and you will not kill me.” It wasn’t a question, just a fact simply stated.



“And that would be… why, again?” The gun still aimed at him never wavered.



“Because I know that Yanzhui killed my father and you killed Tou for shooting me.”



“That’s old news from a long ago past. The present is the only thing that counts. And for whatever reason I let you live in the past, your transgressions of the present give me enough reasons to kill you.”



“This was all engineered by Arbatov to get the deed.”



“Don’t be so bashful Feilong. It is okay to talk about your involvement with him; Arbatov would really be hurt if he could hear you now. After all, he even went through the trouble of paying you a visit when you got injured. Did he at least bring you flowers to your sickbed?”



“He tried to convince me that you wanted all of Baishe. I didn’t believe him.”



“I don’t care. Akihito…”



“I know. I couldn’t help but take him. I won’t apologize.” Eyelids slowly lowered over grey orbs. “He had what I thought I wanted, yet… I realize now… it wasn’t what I wanted. I won’t apologize.”



The tall Chinese took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and locked grey with golden eyes.



“Do what you think you need to do but do it fast. Arbatov will kill him because I had him.”



Another deep breath.



“And I promised Akihito to send him home to you… So, are you coming or not?”



Together the unlikely couple made their way to one of the lower decks to intercept the Russian’s men trying to board a small ship. Their men were there as well, unsure of what to make of the situation.



“Get Arbatov! Now!” Feilong yelled as he was running towards the docking bay, Asami following at a slower pace with a slight limp.



“Watch out for Takaba.” He instructed his men, and in the following melee it was hard to tell who was going up against whom. The Yakuza managed to corner Arbatov who was trying to shoot his way out which resulted in the fateful shot that hit Akihito. The young photographer was cowering against the wall trying to stay out of the fight when he saw a gun aimed at Asami and had then reacted without a thought, jumping in front of the Yakuza, intercepting the bullet he thought was meant for the Japanese. And got shot. And fell over the rail into the ocean. Stupid brat.



End Flashback.



The car pulled up in front of the warehouse.



Finally…



*****