Hunted

The phone ringing? It was his business phone though. Ramesh stared at it for a moment, wondering whether or not he should bother. His gaze shifted out the windshield to his brother's back hunched over in a thorn bush. It was amazing that guy didn't get all scratched up. Probably wouldn't be much time for anything else, but they were running low on funds. A good paying job would be a godsend – maybe even enough to make him ditch his mission of killing those fuckers.

He took his time picking the phone up off the passenger seat and pressing the button. He put it to his ear and yawned before speaking into it. "What do you want?"

The voice at the other end sounded insistent and a bit annoyed. "Need your help, Ramesh. Real quick."

Sounded like a job to him. He leaned back in his seat, smiling to himself as he watched the flickering light of his brother's lighter. "Well, that's fine and dandy, but I'm going to need a bit more information than that. Numbers, preferably. Y'all know how I love math."

"Depends on how well you do it. Two grand up front, another two grand after I've seen you do it. If you're good and discreet, I'll give you a bonus."

"Four grand? Not the big number I was hoping for, but I'll decide how fitting it is when I hear the details. When would you like your first consultation to be?" When Ramesh spotted his brother setting fire to a spider, he cringed and opened the window to harshly whisper, "Do that again, and I'll take your lighter away, dumbass."

"If four grand is not enough for you, then aim for the bonus." The guy said that with a firm tone, probably implying that acquiring the bonus shouldn't be too hard. "I need this done by the end of the week. The sooner you start, the better. You available now?"

Ramesh thought about that. Had to meet up with his favourite schoolgirl still that day, but he figured he had time. "Yeah... But don't take up too much of my time. I have appointments. Give me a location and I'll be there in a jiffy. Maybe we can even negotiate the numbers."

"Parking lot behind the saw mill just up from city centre. Come alone, nobody else gets to see me. Don't tell anyone where you're going, and if I see a camera, you're not getting paid. Got it?"

Could be a trap, but it wasn't unusual for a customer to be that cautious. He laughed at the idea of bringing a camera, though he knew he'd have to be careful about wandering dumbly into an ambush. Still he liked mysterious jobs like that. Got his adrenaline pumping. "Got it." He hung up and tossed the cell back onto the seat. Leaning out the window, he addressed his little brother. "I'm going for a bit, Jyotis. Watch them carefully and try not to let them out of your sight... And for fuck's sake, no more burning insects!"

~~~~~

Takuya had a cocky smile plastered across his face. "He agreed!" He said through an excited chuckle, then nudged at Kyun. "Come on, call that cool loverboy of yours. He's still watching, right?"

With a sigh, the Korean gazed at his worked-up friend. "I told him to watch, and he'll call if something happens. Sheesh, calm down, will you?" Despite his words, it was hard to keep his own heart from pounding painfully hard. This could be a key turn of events...

Nele stopped pacing and looked at them – his brown eyes narrowing stubbornly. He huffed and started toward the door, having to bend over to get his shoes on and tied. "What if the mou- ... Julian... Doesn't consider Ramesh leaving to be phonecall-worthy?"

"What if someone hears him getting the call? That could be bad..." Kyun frowned, not sure whether he was being over-protective after what had happened recently. The guy was after all inside, but it couldn't be impossible that someone got in, right? On the other hand, there probably wasn't much of a place for Julian to hide. "Alright," he said with a sigh, "I'll call."

Without further hesitation, he pressed the right button, and put the phone up to his ear.

The phone barely got halfway through the first ring before it was answered. The small voice had reduced to a shy – almost indignant – whisper. "Hello..."

Kyun hoped that didn't mean the purple-haired youngster had an issue with getting called. "Any news on your end, hot stuff?"

"Not much. He just gave the person in the bushes something and I think they're talking." There was a pause and a nervous chuckle. "There are some guys here, so it's a little hard to talk but... Oh wait!" Julian's excitement suddenly picked up, raising his voice a few notches. "The truck is leaving!"

With a smile and a thumbs up, the Korean moved over to his shoes by the door. "I'm going out there. Where do I find the right bush?"

"Across the street there's a power box with a big tongue spray-painted on the side. He's in a clump of bushes left of it... I think I see something flickering from the second one down." Julian gave a worried huff. "Please, Kyun, be careful."

"I will. Call me if something happens. Thanks, Julian." He hung up with a little smirk on his face, then proceeded to tie his shoes. As the Korean gazed up at his yellow-haired friend, he looked straight at the handle of a mean-looking knife. Well, it was at least a cute offer? "Don't need that, but thanks, Takuya..." He said, then turned towards the redhead by the door, already wearing shoes. "Looks like you want to come?"

The nod came fast. Nele was obviously all too eager. He looked over at Takuya and then back at Kyun. He nodded again more stubbornly as if he thought that would help convince. "I need to do something; anything. I won't make any trouble."

"Alright." Kyun flashed a quick smile. He felt sorry for the smaller guy; hadn't seen anyone change their mannerisms as abruptly as the guy just had this day. What happened probably really got to the guy. Not that he blamed him at all; to Kyun, it was more puzzling how the two Japanese seemed to be able to just go on being their regular selves.

He was treated to a grateful smile and the little guy fell in line behind him. "What are we going to do? Just take him in somehow? How will we get him to come with us?"

It wasn't too easy to speak it, but he'd have to live with acting it out soon enough, so he forced himself to. "I guess I'll have to make him..." Kyun frowned, then jogged down to the gate and out on the street. The power box was easy to spot, and he narrowed his eyes to gaze in past the branches. Yes, there was a little flicker of light, and he spotted the figure soon after. He lined up right outside the bush, and rested his hands at his hips. "Hey there, come on out."

Nele quickly slipped in past the power box to the other side of the bush where there was a driveway. His knees were bent as if he were ready to spring into action at the drop of a hat but he made no other moves.

The flicking stopped. There was no response for a good long while until the hidden man simply said, "No."

So how do you reach a stupid man? Kyun guessed that some of his friends would just have dived in and tugged the guy out. Maybe he'd have to do it like that too, but first he claimed eye contact, speaking slowly and articulatedly. "If you don't come out now, I will have to hurt you. Do you want me to hurt you?"

"You're bad. Bad people. You're liars." The man's voice was hushed but the anger behind it was clear. "You want to take it away. I won't let you take it away. It's mine>. You're bad, bad, mean people."

It? Thinking back to what he had heard the others talk about, he guessed it had to be the lighter, but didn't feel confident enough about that to refer to it directly. "If you don't come out right now," Kyun insisted, "then I'm going to take it away. And you'll never, ever get it back."

The eyes widened in alarm and then the guy dropped his lighter down his pants. As he stared down after it, he whined and furrowed his brows angrily. "Bad people lie. Ramesh says you are the bullies. You're going to hurt me anyway. Luo did. He hurt bad."

Well, there was no way he could compete with Ramesh as authority for that guy. Had to keep making the implications clear instead. "Okay, I get it." The Korean started to close in on the guy in slow, calm movements. "You want me to hurt you. You want me to take it away so you never, ever see it again." He bent the first branch aside, then put a leg onto it. "I can do that." He said with a nod, as his gaze wandered over the bushes in order to figure out how it was easiest to get to the guy.

That scared him enough. The guy started backing up out of the bush, but after a glance back, he seemed to think better of it. Nele was moving in from behind and muttering curses along the way. "Your brother is the bully. Your brother hurt us first and worse than we hurt you. You're not the only fucking person who feels pain, you stupid shitface."

"No." Jyotis grinned a strange twisted grin. "I'm the only one that matters." With that said, he pushed the branches away and stepped out onto Kyun's side.

"Alright, off we go. Let's cross the street." Kyun moved closer to put a hand behind the man's back. "And if I see that lighter, I'll take it away."

Luckily the guy made no move to reach down his pants. Some cursing was heard from the bushes and soon the redhead – with his face nearly the same colour – appeared beside them. “There were thorns in that fucking bush and I think about a hundred of them are in my ass now." He glared up the building until his gaze landed on a window. “Why does everyone get mad at me when I call him a rodent?"

Kyun sighed. What kind of question was that, not to mention timing? "Because it's rude and disrespectful, and makes you sound like Rick. In other words, a more juvenile version of Takuya." He ushered the thin, slightly taller man across the street and through the gate, heading for the staircase.

“Oh... but nobody gets mad when I call people asswipe or dickhead... I'd have thought mouse would be a step up from that." He sighed and eyed their new prisoner before concluding, “I don't want to be like Takuya. He's an asswipe."

When the Korean thought about it, he wasn't quite sure he was comfortable with those labels thrown in Julian's direction either. "If you want to call Takuya names, do it to his face. If you call Julian names, though, I'm not going to be very fond of you." He gazed over at the idiot, who was just staring blankly ahead.

Nele opened his mouth to argue, but closed it quickly again. He shook his head and broke into a jog to go back to the apartment ahead of them. “Fine, I won't call him names, but I won't like him either."

~~~~~

This is a collab, written together with Chlover. You can find her author profile here: http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/authors.php?no=26260