There was a ridiculous amount of secrecy surrounding the details of the job he accepted on a whim. Frankly, he didn’t give it much thought because there wasn’t much he’d decline. They call it a death wish, and maybe on some days, they’re right, whoever they are.
Morimoto Shintaro wasn’t sure what he should expect, but he was never one to prepare anyways. His instincts were all he ever needed, and surely he wouldn’t fall short of it this time, he hoped.
The murky rain water splashed around his footsteps as he trod up the tall staircase, shrouded by tall trees and whistles of wind that would make the meetup rather ominous. Not one for the lack of ambience, he thought, as he made his way to the top of the jinja entrance, hands in pocket and footsteps light. Clad in a dark hoodie and another jacket of the same color layered on top, sunglasses clipped to the edge of the collar of his white tank top (which seemed silly now, given the downpour).
Shintaro slid his hood off for a moment to pay his respects at the entrance before pushing it back on to shield from the drizzling rain, his damp bangs falling over his ample brows under the hood. He stepped over the threshold almost silently, yet the grounds had been so empty the splash of his footsteps were audible throughout the yard. His hands remained in his pockets, but his right hand had gripped onto a small switchblade. Shintaro wasn’t one to prepare, but it didn’t mean he didn’t come packing.
Halfway across the courtyard, the view of a man came into sight. Shintaro squinted against the rain, hoping to see better. But deep down, he knew that back of the head.
More precisely, he knew the prick who would wear such ridiculous printed hats for an inconspicuous meet-up of two parties who both of which – were supposed to be dead.
He remembered the man called it “hiding in plain sight”.
“Back from the grave?” Shintaro stepped into the main room, taking small cautious steps towards the subject.
The man turned around, and he confirmed his suspicions. The tall frame, dark leather jacket, and ugly hat was a dead giveaway afterall.
“You look good for a dead man yourself.” Jesse Lewis smiled, taking in the man who looked like a sopping wet dog, but hoped there was no time and lost love between him and Shintaro.
Shintaro slid his hood off, eyes meeting Jesse’s for a moment with an intensity, almost incredulous yet confused at his casual remarks, before it withered melting into a smile. He closed in with open arms, ready for an overdue hug.
Jesse quickly reciprocated the embrace of his former colleague, realizing how good it felt to have his partner in crime back. He gave Shin several solid affectionate slaps on the back, reminding himself of their colorful history.
“I can’t believe they got you on the payroll again.” Shintaro’s wide grin was childlike, not unlike his usual playful attitude even on the clock.
“Unfortunately, staying dead doesn’t pay the bills.”
“You didn’t get paid for that?
“You did?! They said it was a professional hazard!” Jesse exclaimed, baffled he apparently came back for nothing.
Shintaro swung one arm around the taller man, the other hand patting his chest a few times in consolation while leading the way out, “Come on, drinks are on me.”
He tried to stifle a laughter at Jesse’s expense, but failed. Shintaro was too superstitious for his own good, the poorly timed rain for this meeting when it had been perfectly sunny the same morning spelled bad news in his books. But apparently nothing fixes that pit in his stomach better than seeing the last person he expected. His personal sunshine. Jesse motherfucking Lewis.
“How’ve you been, you handsome son of a bitch?”
*
*
*
The job was par for the course. Between the two of them, they could do it with their eyes closed, one hand tied behind their backs. But the kicker was that it needed two people who worked flawlessly together to pull it off. Whoever hired them must have been a perfectionist because they paid state-of-the-art money for the best in the business.
“All that money and you couldn’t get us better suits?” Jesse tugged down his pant leg one more time, evidently a smidge too short
Shintaro shrugged, “Are your ankles too scandalous for the city?”
“Shut up.”
He laughed at Jesse who was unable to keep his pants long enough to keep his ankles covered, but Shintaro wiggled about in his own suit the same. God, he hated wearing suits. They were so constricting for no reason.
The pair assumed their cover as security details for an art gala and walked right through the front door. Past the large chandelier in the lobby and the extravagant carved statues, they walked in with confidence. They played their parts, making rounds to assess the layout, but it was all simply verification for their own nefarious purposes. If the blueprint was all correct, the plan they had in place should unfold perfectly and quietly.
The two ducked away after checking in with their fake identities. Every camera angle lined up and all the blind spots were covered. Shintaro synced his watch to Jesse’s so they could press the button at the same exact time, before they split to execute their pieces.
“Ready?” Jesse pressed his wrist up to Shintaro’s, the watch faces adjacent.
Shintaro nodded, “Hey.” A grin on his face.
“Yeah.”
“Race you?”
“Loser has to do the laundry for a week.” Jesse bought in, seeming fairly confident that he’d come out on top of the bet.
“Deal.” The two exchange glances before pressing start at the same moment and they dashed in the opposite directions. At the opposite ends of the same building, they had to breach two different sets of security to unlock their respective vaults, which then remotely unlocked the bigger vault their client was after.
Shintaro quickly lunged up three flights of stairs, finding the closet he had stashed his next cover in. He quickly pulled the jumpsuit over his security get up, brushing his hair back with his hand and pushed his cap on. He wore it low, pushing the janitorial cart briskly down towards the elevator, scanning his way up.
Jesse’s approach wasn’t terribly different. Not for a lack of creativity, but he was too lazy to give it too much thought. A visibility vest, clip board, and a charming smile got him into just about anywhere. Once he reached the elevator, it was a short wait before the electrician they bribed would trip the power to their specific elevator shafts.
“Testing, testing.” Shintaro spoke, while testing his weight on the elevator rail before scaling it. He popped one of the light panels and hauled himself through the opening.
“Loud and clear.” Jesse replied as he unloaded the cable he launched as part of his cover. He latched it onto the metal infrastructure embedded onto the elevator shaft wall.
“Hey, how were we supposed to know who won the race?” Shintaro suddenly realized the flaw in their friendly competition, “Because I feel like I arrived first.”
Jesse thought for a moment, but he was stumped. He didn’t have a good answer for Shintaro.
“Okay well…maybe we didn’t think it through.” Jesse tugged on his cable, testing how load bearing it truly was, “Second of all, you definitely didn’t beat me.”
The two waited in silence for a few moments, waiting for the second flicker in electricity before they could scale down the shaft.
“Hey, you think I got time for a snack break?” Shintaro sat on the edge of the elevator, legs swinging off the deep elevator shaft.
“You packed a snack?”
“Yeah, I think I’ve got a bag of pretzels somewhere in my pack.”
“And you didn’t pack me one…” Jesse muttered, genuinely offended that his partner didn’t think of him.
The minute was up and the two quietly scaled down the suspended elevator shaft, en route to the sublevel control room where the thick concrete walls would cut them off until their piece was done. The lack of communication would be the true testament to how well they worked together.
The night which they picked to execute was intentional, as much of the security would be guarding the gala on the main floor. The security left to guard the control room should have been bare bone and taking out a handful of these guards couldn’t pose much of an issue to these two professionals.
Upon retreat, the two found out at the same time that the mission was a success but before a celebration was in order, a static came over Shintaro’s ear piece so loud that he plucked it out by reflex before pushing it back in.
“Jesse?”
“Uhhh, we got a problem.” The static reduced, but judging from the noise on Jesse’s side, something had gone terribly wrong, “You have incoming. Change your course. We gotta pivot.”
“Copy that.” He replied cooly, but immediately flashed back to that bad feeling he had the rainy day they met up on. He fucking knew it.
“Fuck.” Jesse muttered before static cut out the communication again.
Shintaro turned on his heel, heading back to find the security guards he had tied up and stripped one of them of his badge, weapon, and walkie before stuffing them back into the closet.
“Be good for me and stay here.” He pointed to the guards muffled against their wills, and then shut the door anyways.
For good measures, he raided another one for weaponry while his brain spun to formulate a new plan. Scaling back up the shaft was likely out of question now. He closed his eyes, rubbing his brows trying to recall the blueprint they studied. Shintaro didn’t like what he recalled, but air vents were looking like the only plausible way out. He looked at the panel above his head, cleared the security desk, and up he went. Finding his partner was the most important matter at hand. He will have to suffer the air vents if he has to.
Once he crawled his way out of the basement levels, Shintaro landed in an empty office on the 2nd floor. He cautiously checked the hallways before exiting, but as soon as he turned the door knob, alarms blared in every direction.
It seemed his luck was not ready to turn around just yet.
After somehow tripping security despite passing the two-factor authentication for remote access, Jesse ended up in a mad dash to the sixth floor, playing cat and mouse with a squad of guards.
“Jesse?” Shintaro checked in on his partner as soon as he had been made.
“Yeah!” He yelled, as he sprinted down the hallway, swiping the corner to lose the tail he caught and made way for the emergency staircase.
“You good?”
“Yep! meet me on…” Jesse flew down the steps, several at a time, “6th floor, West end.”
He picked a random floor as their rendezvous point, for no other reason than six being his lucky number.
“On my way.” Shin was a few floors below the one Jesse picked, and he immediately headed towards the staircase.
After trying every door knob, he finally found a supply closet that was unlocked and he quickly slipped behind the door, “Supply closet, end of the hallway.” He added to his partner, “Hurry.”
Jesse lets out an exhale of relief, although they were not out of the woods yet. He pulls out a flashlight and rummages the closet for anything they could use. Nothing, unsurprisingly. The stock was half cleaning supply and half dry food, so maybe they could molotov cocktail their way out, homemade IED, perhaps. Jesse could only hope Shin shows bearing good news.
He quickly ducked behind a rack when he heard the doorknob rustle, holding his breath until he realized it was just Shintaro.
“Jesus, you scared me.” Jesse came out, standing down with his makeshift ‘weapon’.
“What, were you gonna whack your enemy down with a can of pineapples?” Shin glanced at the canned good Jesse set down.
“Unless you have a better idea.” Jesse sniffed, “You smell like a musty air vent.”
Despite Jesse’s comment, Shin grinned proudly, “In fact I do.”
He tossed a gun holster to Jesse while strapping one on himself, “Snaked these off of two security guys.”
Jesse caught the holster, took one peek, and immediately realized a new problem.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” He held up the firearm and it barely stretched past the palm of his hand.
Shin looked up to Jesse's comment, quickly realizing the same problem.
“Fuck me.” Shintaro muttered, unsure how he drew the shortest of straws now with his luck.
“Who—seriously, what are these? Toy guns?” Jesse pulled out the chamber, “Baby bullets?” He sounded less enthused by the second.
“I’m sure these rounds would tickle.”
“What Walmart-knock off security firm uses guns this small?” Jesse grumbled, but checked the chamber of the gun no less before shoving the small firearm into the back of his pants anyways. Jesse paced over to the window, mentally calculating how much a six story fall would hurt.
As though knowing exactly what Jesse was thinking, Shintaro said, “Well on the bright side, the job is done. We just have to get out in one piece.”
A six story fall was out of the question.
Jesse snapped back, taking stock of what was available to use while Shintaro explored their limited options.
It was either explosives or the air vent. Or both.
“I have an idea.”
“Good, I could use ideas.”
“It’s a stupid one.”
Jesse loosened his tie, “Let’s do it.” Shintaro’s plans were usually better than his, because his plans usually required a suspicious amount of luck to pull off.
They snuck back out of the closet, and while Jesse led the guards on the same cat and mouse chase, Shintaro and his arm full of his best craft would get the whole building evacuated, including the security guys. Of course, not enough to kill anyone. They just had to believe there was a bigger bomb in play.
“Be careful.”
“I will.”
“Wait.” Shintaro stopped Jesse, “I love you.”
Jesse laughed, “I know.”
Shin grinned like a child on Christmas morning, and Jesse knew it was because his partner may secretly be a slight pyromaniac and this was right up his alley.
*
*
*
After the duo wreaked havoc, chaos had thoroughly erupted, and against their best judgement, Shintaro led Jesse up the stairs all the way up to the twelfth floor while gala attendees and staff members alike scrambled to evacuate the building.
“And you’re sure about this?” Jesse yelled as they reached the rooftop patio. They were looking for a ledge off of the building they were in, the only end that protruded out further and got them closer to the neighboring building.
“Trust me, you don’t wanna know.” Shintaro found the ledge he had been targeting, “We just have to close two…ish meters?” He pulled his tie until it loosened and he removed it entirely, taking deep breaths as they got ready.
He didn’t want to think about their odds. His gut told him he couldn’t afford to.
The shortest point between this building and the next one was on this specific rooftop. The pebbles shuffled under their feet as they got ready to rev up for the jump. They agreed to jump together, at the same time.
Jesse licked his lip nervously, and looked over at his partner, realizing they had pulled off larger miracles before.
“On the count of three…”
“3…2…1!”
The pair ran at full speed and took the leap of faith, flying across the plunge and tumbling onto the concrete floor of the other building.
“Well, holy shit. I didn’t think we’d make it.” Shintaro grimaced, and patted his partner’s back as he immediately dusted himself off and made for the door.
“Fuck I need a drink…” Jesse muttered as he ran after Shintaro, and hopefully to their grand escape..
After an impossible amount of stairs, they found their way to the back alley, threw their suit jackets over the fence and then hauled themselves over it. But just as quickly as they scaled the fence, flashlights lit up the alleyway, casting long shadows of the two men. They had immediately raised their arms in surrender, but only as a fake out as they leapt off the fence in the next moment, landing onto the pavement with a tumble.
As bullets began to ricochet off the fence, they scrambled to their feet. Now that they were outside, they could only assume this was proper law enforcement and they had better hauled ass before their asses got handed to them instead.
“Jesus Christ! Why are they shooting at us?!”
“Just run, god dammit!”
Shintaro was always the faster of the two despite Jesse’s long legs and this time was no exception. When Shintaro swiped the corner first, he had faced more cops head on and immediately ducked for cover. Jesse, who arrived hot on his heels, was immediately dragged for cover by Shintaro.
“I’m going to fuck these guys up with my baby gun” Jesse said rather sarcastically while rummaged through his pocket for their car keys and tossed them to Shintaro, “You go get the car, I’ll cover you. ”
Shintaro waited for an opening to make the dash to their car, but not without questioning Jesse first, “Why can’t you drive?”
“You fucking know why!” Jesse began firing at the other car and Shintaro took the cue to get to their vehicle, laughing at Jesse’s expense again. He did fucking know why.
Just as Jesse was running low on ammunition, Shintaro swung by, the car door flew open, and Jesse hopped in before they tore away at full speed.
Shin checked his rear mirror to see if the sharp turns and weaving through traffic shook off their tail. Once he confirmed they were in the clear, his shoulders slumped from its original tenseness.
“I don’t know what happened, but what the fuck?” Shintaro exclaimed, his volume giving away his surprise at the sudden twist in events. This was not the job to blow a cover on.
But instead of adding to the stress, Jesse only laughed, to which Shintaro turned and saw how genuinely amused his partner was.
“Sorry, I just…” He explained between laughs, “I forgot how fun this was.”
“The other cons just aren’t the same.” Jesse continued, and Shintaro looked away for a moment, turning his head away from Jesse. Watching him have fun dissipated any tenseness and before he knew it, he was fighting back a stupid smile. Shintaro forgot Jesse had the power to give him confidence no matter the situation. There was an unspeakable amount of faith Jesse had in them as a team, that no matter the perils, it wasn’t anything they couldn’t overcome.
Shintaro forgot how much he missed having Jesse watch his back.
“Hey.” Jesse broke Shintaro out of his thoughts, unaware that he had appeased all of his worries.
“Yeah?” Shintaro was gripping the steering wheel, arm flexed straight and eyes on the road until the pause finally caught his attention and he turned towards Jesse.
He smiled, “What’s this?”
Jesse swung a gold pocket watch in front of Shintaro. As the car sped down the highway, when the amber road lights hit the gold, the jewels encrusted in its shell would glimmer. It looked like it came out of a deep sea treasure chest, and Shintaro was fascinated.
“Found it in the vault earlier. Grabbed it for our troubles.” Jesse smiled proudly, “This one is for you.” He reached over his seat and slid it into Shintaro’s pocket, with a pat on the back.
He reached into his pocket and felt the cold metal against his fingers.
“Happy birthday, bud.” Jesse said and immediately started laughing. He couldn’t keep a straight face, even though he was entirely serious about it being a birthday gift for Shintaro.
“Come on, what is this?” Shintaro chuckled nervously, as he pulled into a diner off of the highway. He remembered Jesse said he wanted a drink, and it was definitely past dinner hour. He could use some food, he was famished.
He pulled into a parking spot under the dimly lit neon sign, pulled out the pocket watch and examined its every side. It looked authentic, and it looked very expensive. Definitely the real deal if it was sitting in the vault.
“My birthday gift?” Shintaro felt his ears grow hot, embarrassed at the sudden gesture. He had totally forgotten his own birthday.
“You like it?” Jesse continued asking, and before Shintaro could answer him in the affirmative, he opened up his suit jacket, “Cause I’ve got more.”
He pulled out a handful of pearls and diamonds, a stupid grin across his face as he watched Shintaro’s eyes brighten with amazement. Jesse stuffed it back into his jacket, leaned back in his seat, and smacked his lips together, “I’m starving.”
At Jesse’s cue, Shintaro stuffed the watch back into his pocket and hurried Jesse out of the car, “Come on.”
“I want pancakes. I could really use some pancakes.”
“I want a milkshake. And fries.”
Shintaro wasn’t sure why he suddenly expected Jesse to jingle and jangle with all the hardware he had on his person, and it made him really want to laugh. Somehow when he worked with Jesse, there was an abundance of stupid laughter, like two school boys secretly tinkering with their toys at the back of the classroom except they were committing grand theft. He finally caught onto why Jesse had been slow to retreat today, and despite the trouble it caused, what was a job without a bit of fun? What are thieves without a bit of harmless greed?
Once they found themselves a booth and plates full of food in front of them, Shintaro began to ask Jesse about his plans, to which Jesse laid out his plan to pawn his goods, then flee the country.
“You think we’ve been made?” Shintaro leaned across the table and nabbed a fry off of Jesse’s plate.
Jesse shook his head, “Nah. No way. God…”
As if Shintaro remembered at the same time, “Hey, remember that last time we got busted?”
A short pained expression flashed across Jesse’s face, quickly replaced by a genuine nostalgia for something that should not have been a good time.
“In L.A.? And they took our mugs at the station when we were still in the ridiculous get-ups?” He remembered the fedoras and sunglasses, but at least the suits weren’t half bad.
“Yeah, and which genius’ idea was it to blend in with the extras to sneak onto the film site…only to get dragged to do every single scene ?”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time, alright? Idea beats no idea.” He pointed out.
“Yep.” Shintaro replied sarcastically, “And you remember how we got out of that one?”
Shintaro was leading to something and suddenly it clicked to Jesse.
Jesse recalled the drag it was to get themselves out of that one, “City of Angels, my ass…”
“Where are you headed then? Vacation? Want to go to Italy?”
Jesse smiled at Shintaro’s insinuation that he was tagging along. He wasn’t opposed to the idea. In fact, he very much quite liked the idea.
“Oooh, maybe somewhere tropical.” Shintaro added before Jesse could answer.
“Tropical vacations are overrated.” Jesse shoved a bite of his burger into his mouth, wiping the corner of his mouth and licking the mustard off of it afterwards, “Italy sounds nice though. I’ve got a nice summer suit I never find the occasion to wear.”
Shintaro watched as if he could visibly see the gears turning in Jesse’s head. An anticipation crept over Shintaro’s face, and the smile that meant Jesse knew he was waiting for him to say something.
He leaned across the table, licked his lips and raised his brows, “What if…Vegas?”
“Vegas?” Shintaro knew Jesse was leading to something, he just wasn’t sure what yet.
“Yep. Gather the old gang.”
Shintaro nodded, “Mhm…”
“You know what Vegas means.”
“Oh. We’re running it back.”
Jesse wiped his hands clean before holding it out to Shintaro, “You in?”
“Let’s fucking do this.”
Shintaro snatched another fry and held that out to Jesse instead. He followed his lead and grabbed one of his own, they cheered the golden crisps and signed up a renewed subscription for adventure.
What better place than Jesse’s hometown?
*
*
*
“Wait before we start anything new, come to my place tomorrow morning. 8 o’clock sharp.”
Jesse tilted his head, puzzled, “What for?”
“Don’t worry about it. Just come.”
…
The next morning when Jesse showed up bright and early, Shintaro opened the door and found that he had accidentally matched Jesse’s crisp white t-shirt and blue denim. They had a good laugh over it, before Shintaro returned back to the door with two water guns, buckets, and sponges.
“What’s this?”
“You soiled my car, you’re cleaning it with me before we leave for Vegas.”
“...How was I supposed to know that the pigeons in that alley were gonna have a crap fest?” Jesse couldn’t make it through his own sentence without laughing thinking back to when they saw the hood soiled with white splatters after they made their great escape.
“You picked it!” Shintaro retorted as he threw a large toy pistol to Jesse.
He caught it and started laughing harder, “What’s with these?”
Shintaro smiled, “It’s one way to clean the car?”
“You’re right.” Suddenly he was on board with the idea and followed Shintaro out to the car, all while chatting up their plans for Vegas.
“Have you talked to any of them?”
“I hear Hokuto is free,” Shintaro suggested, “And bored.” He remembered learning about his most recent endeavors to learn some programming to enhance his assets, but ended up realizing he was better in his other hustles.
“He’d be in?” Jesse asked anyway.
“Only if you ask.” The way to Hokuto’s heart was Jesse. He does like himself a tall muscular man.
Jesse dropped a sponge into the bucket and began to lather up Shintaro’s precious car, “And I heard Juri is already in Vegas. Dude, he’s so obsessed with the Sphere. It’s kinda creepy.”
Shintaro chuckled after imagining Juri spending way too much time around the Sphere and concluded that it sort of adds up. He always had weird fixations.
“That makes four.” Jesse commented before smiling at his handiwork, drawing a big turd with his water gun against the bubble-smothered car.
“Have you heard from Kochi?”
“This time of year he’s probably at his cabin. Last year he made off with millions doing freelance work for the military.”
“The military ?” Shintaro exclaimed, his head popping around the corner with a surprised face.
“Wait, no. Private military contractor. He signed an NDA.” Jesse continued, “Not with his real name, of course.”
“Camping sounds fun. Let’s go see him first.” Shintaro began rinsing his side, polishing his window extra carefully.
“You’re forgetting something.” Jesse pointed out.
“Right. How could we forget the Kyomoto Taiga…”
“His majesty is dabbling in racing, I hear.”
“Betting?”
“No, I think he owns a team.” Jesse replied, rolling his pant legs up, regretting his decision to wear denim.
“Are they any good?”
“Nope. Absolute dog shit.”
Shintaro laughed, “Alright, let’s count him in then. Six then?”
“Six.”
“Six is good.”