#dick coyne fic

[talesofzero]

La Douleur Exquise - Ch. 2

AU; Chapter 2 - The Case of Black

Half this fic is just everyone giving Harlock a bad time.

~3200 words 

Clients who requested full lineups were always trouble. I gave a list of each boy’s specialty, and most clients were happy to pick based on that. Some requested to see one or two in person before deciding, but then there were these bastards.

All the boys picked spots around the couches, some more relaxed than others, as the client eyed them like a row of produce at the grocery store. I stood by behind him, enough to the side that I could watch his face with my good eye.

Clients who requested full lineups were trouble because they thought they could have whatever they wanted. The list of each boy’s specialty also came with each boy’s boundaries. Almost every time Daiba had been called to throw a client out, he’d been one to ask for a lineup.

I had no evidence against this one. His record was fairly clean, and he could certainly afford any of the boys with the bank account I’d seen, though the way his brows pinched when he glanced at Manabu made it apparent he had some limits.

Manabu must have noticed the look, must have learned to recognize it, because his shoulders slumped. I’d also learned to hide my relief as he was passed over yet again.

Susumu sat leaned against his brother’s side. The two were whispering about something that had Mamoru smiling. They didn’t seem too interested in the client, but at least they didn’t look as bored and unimpressed as Zero. He stared the client down as though daring him to have the gall to pick anyone. Not good for business, but I wasn’t going to get onto him.

With Shep looking sleepy from his early-morning clients, Richard was the only one bothering to smile at the client. But, well, that was Richard.

Naturally, the client picked him, and his expression lit up with the gleam in his eyes. It was for the best, as the boundaries listed for Richard were…near-nonexistent.

My brother would do anything for money.

The rest of the boys dispersed with sighs and yawns, most meandering to the dining room to harass Tadas- Monono for lunch. I did, however, find myself with a tail as I headed upstairs. “Hey, Uncle Phantom?” Manabu called as he rushed to keep up with me. I had a feeling I knew what this was about.

“Yes, Manabu?”

“Do you know if Dad’s coming today? I think he has the day off.”

I sucked in air to keep from sighing. “I believe he is.”

A sideways glance showed Manabu’s expression weighted by weariness, so I reached up and ruffled his already-messy hair. “You won’t have to talk to him,” I said. “I can sick Daiba on him if need-be.”

“I don’t want him dead,” Manabu said, fighting back a smile. “But if you can get him to leave me alone, I’d appreciate it.”

“I’m not a miracle worker, but I’ll make sure he doesn’t bother you today.” Even that much was easier said than done. I could see Manabu breathe easier at the prospect, though. He murmured a quiet thanks before darting back down the stairs toward lunch.

Leaving one trouble behind, I found a new one as I entered my office. Tadashi, who’d stolen the name from Monono and left me eternally mixed up, was climbing my shelves in an effort to dust everything. Thankfully the shelves were nailed to the wall, or everything would have come tumbling down on top of him.

For whatever reason, he was still wearing that maid uniform. I wasn’t sure why I’d bothered to get him new clothes. He’d seemed confused when I’d handed them to him. “Are these my uniform?” he’d asked.

“You don’t have a uniform,” I’d said. “You can wear whatever you like.”

Later I’d seen Daiba wearing the clothes, Tadashi still in his uniform. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected.

“I can get you a step-stool if you need one,” I called as Tadashi managed to reach the top shelf where I kept my old saber.

“I’ve got it,” he said.

“Very well. Do you need any other cleaning supplies ordered?”

“Oh yeah.” He batted at the saber with the feather duster. “Like everything.”

Honestly, that may have been a fair assessment. I could only recall buying a few cleaning tools in all the years, after Zero complained over the state of things. As I sat down to order “everything,” said-complainer popped through the door. Whatever scolding I was about to receive halted as he noticed Tadashi clinging to the shelf.

“Goodness, we’ll get you a step-stool,” Zero said as he rushed over and grabbed the boy under the arms to pry him away from the shelf.

“I’ve got it!” Tadashi insisted with a huff.

“Sure you do,” Zero said. “Now go get lunch. You’re on break.”

Tadashi looked to me for confirmation, and I nodded; then he was off like a flash. “I’ve never seen anyone quite so oblivious to a tactic to get him to leave,” I said.

Zero went over to close the door behind him. “I’ve never met anyone so eager to eat,” he said. “But I guess he is a teenage boy.”

“I know you’re still upset about it, but you’re not-”

“I know he needed the help. I know.” Heaving a sigh, he walked over and took a seat on my desk. He never would have admitted it, but he sat on my bad side or turned his back when he was upset. He never liked to give too much away. “What happens if Wataru finds out?” he asked.

“He may have the kid’s wanted poster already, but I think I can talk him down. That crime has too many inconsistencies.”

“Maybe, but he’s still going to be furious you hired another underaged boy. Might actually kill you this time.”

I smiled, resting my chin in my palm. “You didn’t, and you said you would.”

He turned enough for me to see his glare. “I considered it.”

“Come on, you’ve been begging for a maid for ages.”

“I have not! I’ve been trying to get all of you to clean for ages!”

He was a saint for attempting such a feat, but I’d ruined things with how much I spoiled the boys. “Well, now you don’t have to worry about it,” I said, hoping he’d be willing to drop the subject. “Anyway, I need you to help me make sure Wataru doesn’t bother Manabu when he comes.”

He saw through my ploy. “Don’t change the subject! And good God, Harlock, you’re asking a lot.”

“Just seduce him or something. You can do it.”

The unamused glare he sent piercing through me suggested otherwise. “That man is so oblivious he wouldn’t realize someone was hitting on him if they started stripping in front of him.”

“Do you know that from experience or-”

It wasn’t that I didn’t know what was coming. I just wasn’t fast enough to avoid it. His hand caught be around the back of the head, dragging down to slam my forehead into my keyboard. I couldn’t say it wasn’t fair, really.

“Get back to work,” he snapped. “And no more full lineups. I don’t trust those assholes.”

He left me to my throbbing head, as per usual. Monono came in later with a tray of smoked fish and rice. Since I was already buying a truckload of cleaning supplies, I asked him if he needed anything while I was at it.

“You could get some more plates and glasses. The new guy broke a lot when I let him help me do dishes. I don’t know how he did it. He just kept breaking them.” Bewildered, he shook his head. “I told him I would handle the dishes from now on.”

Tadashi worked hard, so hard that he was covered in dust and dryer lint by the end of each day. When he mopped, he somehow soaked his socks up to the knee. He was certainly one of my more reliable workers.

But he seemed to break everything. He’d shattered the vacuum on his first day, though Richard had managed to fix it into an odd Frankenstein’s monster of plastic, glue, and tape. Tadashi had gone on to knock a hole in a wall, snap off part of the stair banister, and break one of his own fingers. Daiba patched it up for him so quickly he didn’t have time to cry.

I wasn’t sure how he managed any of that, but at least the place got clean. He also had helped me weed out a few bad clients who had asked after him upon seeing him in the foyer. Daiba was quick to dispose of them.

Daiba was also quick to follow Wataru into my office after my brother slammed my door open. “What is that small girl in a dress doing downstairs?” Wataru demanded.

Before I could answer, Daiba jumped between us. “That’s my brother,” he hissed. He’d certainly invested himself in the role. “I’m looking after him.”

Realizing his mistake took some of the fire out of Wataru. “Sorry,” he said, blinking rapidly. “But that boy is clearly underage. You can’t have him-”

“He’s safer here,” Daiba said, his voice laced with venom. “I won’t let you take him.”

Wataru knew better than to fight Daiba on anything. We all knew better. Wataru put his hands up in surrender, though as he looked down at the boy, his eyes narrowed. “You don’t have a brother,” he said.

“I do now,” Daiba returned without hesitation. “Let this go.”

Wataru’s shoulders were tense with the urge to argue, but he relaxed with a slow exhale. Stepping past Daiba, he strode up to me. “The SDF sent me an update on criminals that may be in the area. There were more than usual this round, so keep your head up.”

He pulled a drive from his coat pocket and set it in front of me. This was our usual routine. He gave me confidential information, and I gave him anyone I came across on those wanted posters. “Not all my clients are criminals,” I said as I snapped the drive into my computer.

Wataru crossed his arms. “Oh, I know. You have a few rich bastards sprinkled in the mix.”

“A few bored SDF passersby too,” I murmured.

He stared down his nose at me as I flipped through the latest batch. I could usually tell based on looks alone if someone had a chance of stopping by - the ones with cockiness in their eyes. Standard petty-crime types tried to keep their heads low. Arcadia was flashy for a reason. The cocky ones always seemed lured-in by the shine.

As I neared the end of the list, my gaze caught the wanted poster I’d already seen. I kept myself from lingering on it - the photo of a smiling young boy, clearly pulled from some family album and slapped on the poster.

The name was different and his hair was longer, but it was clearly my new maid. Wataru didn’t seem to have noticed yet. I flicked my eye back up toward him. “Anything else?” I asked.

“I want you to release Manabu from his contract,” he said like a man who’d repeated the same thing dozens of times.

“No,” I returned the same way. “It’s a contract. That’s not how they work.”

Naturally, he switched to his scolding dad voice like that had ever worked with me. “Phantom.”

“Wataru,” I mocked. “If you’re done, go enjoy your day off. You know you’re not supposed to work during those.”

He crossed his arms. “I came to visit my son. Giving you the drive just happened to coincide.”

“Manabu’s busy,” I said, as though my nephew ever had a moment’s work since signing his contract. “You should come on his off-day.”

For a split second, Wataru believed my lie. Horror and rage flashed through his eyes. My death would have been quick had he not come to his senses. “I’m going to see him,” he huffed.

“No you’re not. No one sees my boys without permission.”

“He’s my boy.”

“No one owns him!” Daiba roared, startling both of us.

Daiba would fight us both if I didn’t find a way to ease the situation, not that I would mind fighting my brother myself.

“Not today, Wataru,” I said. “Leave him be for now.”

I waited for his rebuttal, but his shoulders dropped the same way his son’s had. “So he said he didn’t want to see me. Very well.”

“Any of the other boys would be happy for your company.”

He didn’t have the energy to be mad at my usual joke. “Don’t do anything stupid, Phantom,” he said with a sigh as he left. Ever untrusting, Daiba followed him out.

The silence of the room held me for a minute before I stood and left as well. Manabu’s room was empty. Instead, I found him in Zero’s violently yellow one. Sitting on Zero’s bed, Manabu sipped tea out of his usual blue mug.

“Your father left, so you can come out of hiding,” I said.

Rather than looking relieved, his brows pinched, and he stared into his mug. “Was he mad?”

“A bit. He’s always a bit mad.” Usually at me. 

Manabu’s hands tightened around the ceramic. “We always argue when he comes over. I just didn’t want to argue again.”

At his desk chair, Zero sipped something probably-alcoholic from his own mug. “He’s just worried about you.”

“I know but-!” He huffed, his shoulders scrunched up by his ears. “It’s really annoying! I can’t get laid!”

Zero and I both tried to block him out as he continued, glancing around the room as though it could protect us.

“Clients are like ‘oh, aren’t you that one guy’s son? I heard he’d kill anyone who went near you.’ Like, how does he make something like that known? Why does everyone know we’re related? We don’t look that much alike.”

They did.

“I started this job to get fucked by guys! And I haven’t been fucked by one guy! This sucks! I’m horny!”

At some point, Zero had put his face in his hands. He clearly hadn’t had enough to drink, and neither had I. The other boys talked about far more explicit things. I could deal with that, but I’d known Manabu since he was a baby.

“Uncle,” he whined. “You can get me a client, right?”

We’d already had this conversation too many times, and I rubbed my fingers across my forehead as I repeated my usual line. “We’ll get you one.” 

“Would I be more appealing if I weren’t a virgin?”

Zero whispered a scream as I threw up my hands. “I’m throwing in the towel on this conversation. Your contract says you stay a virgin ‘til- so just- I’m going to go drink.”

“Boo,” Manabu called as I skittered toward the door. “Uncle Phantom, get me a guy to sleep with, or I’ll keep telling you these things!”

“I’ll sleep with him!” I heard Mamoru yell from his room next-door to Zero’s.

“No!” I snapped at both of them, caught between the rooms. “Both of you be quiet! There are minors present!”

“Captain, it’s a brothel,” Mamoru yelled back.

“But it’s my brothel! I make the rules!”

Manabu appeared in the door-frame, leaning against it with the same unamused look in his eyes that his father got. “Do I still count as a virgin if it’s just like handjobs?”

Unable to look at him, I pointed down the hall. “No. Now go to your room. You’re in timeout.”

“Time out? You’re not my dad.”

“I’m your boss!”

“Timeout,” Zero said. Glancing up, I saw him pushing Manabu toward his room. “Off you go.”

“So is it a brothel or a daycare?” Mamoru asked as he peered out of his room. “We’ve got all the usual daycare trappings: brightly colored rooms, timeout, actual children.”

“You’re in timeout too,” I said, pushing against his head to shove him back inside.

I was far, far too sober to deal with them.

Monono found me sitting on the kitchen countertop holding a bottle of wine. He had me move my legs so he could get into the cabinets. “I need some of that for cooking, so don’t drink it all,” he said.

“Why did I hire my nephew?” I whispered.

“I dunno. It was pretty weird,” he said, examining a wok.

“His father is going to kill me.”

“Probably- Dick, put a shirt on!”

I looked up to find my other brother poking around in the fridge. He didn’t have pants on either, just his boxers, though he’d clearly showered judging by the wet hair sticking to his cheeks. “Dick, put a shirt on,” I said.

“Yeah-yeah. I’m hungry.” He pulled out an apple and took a bite. “I don’t know why you’re all stressed about hiring family,” he said between chews. “Hired me.”

“Don’t remind me.” I had actually been drunk at the time, but he’d begged me for the job just like Manabu had.

“That guy was alright,” he said. “Hope he comes back. Easy money. Did you get the new wanted list today?”

“Mm-hm,” I said through another swig of wine.

“Anyone interesting?”

“No.”

“Anyone hot?”

“Absolutely not.”

Why was all of my family like this?

Daiba walked in, looking annoyed as usual. “Hey, Captain- Dick, where the fuck are your clothes?”

“On the floor,” Dick said.

For once, Daiba reined in his urge to scream at Dick, turning back toward me. “A client showed up without warning. Should I kick his ass?”

“Not yet. If he’s new I’ll have to talk to him and do a background check.” Not that I was in the best state to do that, but I’d been worse. “Put some clothes on, Dick,” I said as I hopped down from the counter. “You can’t go around looking like that when we have clients.”

He cocked a brow and gestured at his bare torso. “But isn’t this what they’re here for?”

Clients were usually only interested in what was below the belt, but this was the last conversation I wanted to have with my brother, so I muttered another “Put some clothes on,” and headed for the foyer.

Clients came in a set few breeds I’d come to know over time. This guy was one of the rare exceptions. He sat on the longer lounge couch, wearing an easygoing smile that reached eyes the color of a fresh bruise. Susumu sat nearby, clearly charmed by whatever he was saying, or at least acting the part to earn his favor. He may have been from the same race as Shep or a related one, as his skin was about the same shade of blue, his hair blond like a wheat field. He may have been military judging from the gray uniform.

But even the occasional SDF member or soldier we got never saw fit to sit and talk with the boys. Tolerable clients saw the boys as workers, though viewing them like tools was more common. Only a handful ever treated them like people.

Manabu and Mamoru must have still been in timeout, but Zero and Shep were seated nearby as well. Shep wore his usual smile, while Zero couldn’t hide his curiosity.

“I admit, I didn’t know what to expect coming in,” the man was saying. “I heard good things, and the decor is certainly nice. The company is not bad either,  though it’s quieter than I was expecting.”

“We don’t have many clients scheduled on Mondays,” I said.

His piercing eyes shot toward me, bright with interest. “I suppose I came at the right time then. Are you the man in charge?”

“I am. You may call me Harlock.”

“Desslar,” he said with that winning smile.

Shep’s eyes widened. Zero’s jaw dropped. I shook my head. Surely not… “Abelt Desslar?”

“The Galman king?” Susumu asked.

With a soft laugh, he scratched at his cheek with a gloved hand. “Ah, it seems I’ve been found out, though ‘king’ is such a human term. I’d prefer to avoid any formalities while I’m here if that’s alright.”

“Well aren’t we moving up in the world?” Zero muttered. “Entertaining royalty along with our criminals.”

This may have been one of the “stupid” things my older brother warned me not to do, but then again, who paid better than royalty?

#space pirate captain harlock #captain harlock #galaxy railways #harlock fic #zero fic #cwz fic #galaxy railways fic #manabu fic #wataru fic #daiba fic #dick coyne fic #monono fic #mamoru k fic #susumu fic #shep fic #good lord there are too many characters

[ailelie]

Like a Bad Penny (not!fic, crack treated seriously; Damian is Stephanie’s Dad)

This is over 2.5k of not!fic going more or less scene-by-scene of how I’d write the Stephanie-is-Damian’s-Daughter fic I first mentioned here. This is crack treated seriously. This is not written as fic. This is written as an in-depth, first draft description of a fic, scene-by-scene, with a few rare moments of dialogue. It involve an OC who is the daughter of an old and off retconned out rogue, the Penny Plunderer or Joe Coyne. Of course Coyne named his daughter Penny.

This is Steph/Tim. And would inevitably be followed by a half-dozen ficlets focusing on the weird father-daughter relationship between Steph and Damian.

---

“I’m just saying—knowing Penelope was Joe Coyne’s daughter would have helped us solve this a lot sooner.”

Tim and Bruce are in the Batcave after a case. The giant penny is prominent in the background. The case involved an Arkham breakout of Joe Coyne and Zachary Gate. Gate is still focused on eliminating the founding families of Gotham. The villains always seem one step ahead until the Bats realize that a new engineer at Wayne Enterprises, Penelope Finger, has been feeding the villains information and providing them with weapons. When caught, Penelope talks about how her father had turned his greatest failure into the cornerstone of his success. He taught her to always learn something from failure. She points out a pair of pennies on the table and chides the heroes that they should pay more attention to the things they think are useless. She moves one of the pennies, completing a circuit embedded in the table, and causing an explosion. She escapes in the confusion.

Penelope’s thing is about how people overlook the terrible potential of the mundane and undervalued. Her inventing prowess focuses on using the seemingly useless and unexpected with great creativity.  While Batman and co. focused on Gate, Penelope and her father quietly stole the materials she needed to finish making a time machine.

Gate and the others are recaptured, but Penelope and her father remain at liberty. Penelope finishes her time machine. Joe Coyne, though he helped with the thefts, wants to use the time machine to change the past. His time in Arkham really did rehabilitate him. Penelope, however, for reasons unknown, was aware each time the timeline changed. She remembers the timelines where her father almost ceased to even exist and blames the Justice League, but mostly Batman since he captured her father in the very first place and then had the gall to forget him.

It eventually gets revealed that the Batman Beyond universe exists through her machinations. She either helped the Joker get his three uninterrupted weeks with Tim or provided the microchip, for example.

But all of that is late reveal stuff. At this stage in the game, the Bats think she helped Gate to buy herself time to get her dad somewhere safe and out of the way.

Bruce goes to bed and advises Tim to go rest as well. Tim, instead, sits at the Batcomputer and starts writing a program to identify familial relationships among the DNA samples saved in the computer’s memory, as well as a secondary program to ensure this doesn’t lock the computer up like tea aboard the Heart of Gold in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

A few days later, Tim is using the Batcomputer for one his cases while Bruce runs tests on a new drug growing in popularity in Gotham. By this point Tim has grown slightly annoyed with his own program as it so far has identified relationships such as Bruce and Damian, Ra’s and Damian, etc. When yet another Damian alert pops up, he almost closes it without read it. Except Bruce tells him to wait.

Then Tim pays attention and realizes what it says: a paternal match between Damian Wayne and Stephanie Brown.

“Run that again,” Bruce orders.

Tim minimizes his case files and pulls up Damian and Stephanie’s DNA profiles. Time drags as they wait, but the answer is unchanged. A paternal match.

“Could the DNA files be corrupted?” Tim asks.

“I’ll call them in.”

This leads to Stephanie and Damian in the Cave. Tim and Bruce each conduct their own paternity tests, just to be absolutely certain. Hours pass. Damian and Stephanie’s patience dwindles.

“Father, I demand you explain what is happening right now.”

“Seriously, you’re both acting super weird.”

“Maybe we should just show them,” Tim says, looking at Bruce.

“Show us what, Tim?”

“Show them. I’ll be right back.”

Tim sighs, glaring at Bruce’s back. “This.”

Stephanie and Damian are still ranting in disbelief when Bruce returns with a strange device that he explains he took from the Flash. He asks Stephanie to step aside and he runs the device around her. The readings are faint, but enough to confirm his suspicions

“Stephanie is from the future.”

No one takes this particularly well. Tim chases after Steph when she bolts.

Tim and Steph have a cute conversation about this changing nothing, which ends with Stephanie starting to find the humor in the situation.

“Damian is my dad. Wait, Tim, you realize what this means? You’re dating Damian’s daughter.” She laughs, then her eyes widen. “Your brother Damian’s daughter. I’m dating my uncle! This horror show’s got levels.”

Tim buries his face in his palm. “Please stop.”

On a lighter note, she also gives him an envelope of purple glitter and tells him “happy 18th.” He tries to toss the glitter out, she refuses to let him and tells him it is punishment. “On my birthday? For what?”

“I’ll think of something.”

Meanwhile, Bruce uses the very faint readings from the device to pinpoint from when in the future Stephanie came. Damian is training and occasionally ranting in the background. He alternates between anger and nascent protectiveness.

“Brown can’t be a Wayne. She’s not worthy of our name. There must have been a mistake. She can barely hold her own. Could you imagine what Mother would think of her?” He stops, in sudden alarm. “The League cannot find out about her. They’d destroy her.”

The readings on Stephanie were too faint to pinpoint an exact year. With help from the Justice League, Bruce gets a device to allow time travel. He decides to travel to the last possible year in the range he determined, deciding that it is far better to return after her disappearance than it is before her existence.

Tim, Stephanie, and Damian join him.

Dick, Jason, Duke, and Cass stay to hold down the fort in Gotham.

Here the narrative splits. One of the four in the present time discovers the case Tim pushed aside when the paternity alert popped up. The case is cold and involves a string of strange thefts that took place while they were trying to re-capture Zachary Gate. Investigating these thefts eventually leads the present-time crew to realize that Penelope has built a time travel device of her own and has been using it.

The future time crew finds out that the Batfamily is no more. Batman was last seen five years ago. Terry McGinnis is, at this point, three years old.

“Is this the darkest timeline?” Steph asks quietly reading Tim’s wiki page over his shoulder. Older Tim is in Communications. Damian, Jason, and Cass are all missing. Dick is in Bludhaven, though Nightwing appearances are increasingly rare. Bruce is alone. Leslie Thompkins is still operating her clinic and they decide to start by talking with her.

Leslie fills them in, not just on Stephanie, but Tim’s time as J.J. (which, they realize with horror, is not too far into their future) and Damian’s recent arguments with Bruce. After Damian’s daughter, Isra Wayne, disappeared from the hospital, Damian’s marriage fell apart and he blamed Bruce for not being able to find Isra. Last Leslie heard, Damian was off looking for someone who could help. She also tells them about Bruce’s heart attack and retirement.

Instead of going to old!Bruce next, they track down Dick. Dick, at least, hasn’t completely given up Nightwing yet and may have more connections that can help them. By this point, Damian has decided to call Stephanie “Isra” and nothing else. This is what gets overheard by older!Damian who is also in Bludhaven to visit with Dick.

Older!Damian is investigating a break in at Cadmus (he’s been promised access to various tools to help him find his daughter if he helps them find the thief; Damian hasn’t completely joined up with his grandfather yet, but he is wavering) and wants to consult with Dick. When he hears younger!Damian use the name “Isra” he shadows the group. He is nearly caught by Bruce, but manages to escape.

Once older!Damian confirms that Stephanie is Isra, he calls in a favor from his mother. Talia arranges a diversion and older!Damian abducts Stephanie.

Dick is furious. He points out the ways better infrastructure could have made the attack impossible or, at least, more difficult. “When do we stop cleaning up messes and start preventing them from happening in the first place?” he demands.

They regroup at Dick’s. Dick, Damian, and Bruce bounce ideas off each other and Dick tries to contact older!Damian to no avail. Tim, needing to stay busy, looks through Dick’s open cases. One of them—a break-in at a Cadmus Lab in Bludhaven—piques his interest because it is very similar a string of thefts he’d been investigating in Gotham. He starts searching for similar cases. Damian is the first to realize the shift in Tim’s energy and calls him out on it.

Tim startles and then explains—he thinks whoever broke into the Cadmus Lab is the same person who kidnapped Stephanie (“Isra,” Dick and Damian correct) as a baby.

They re-break into the lab to do their own investigation. During the investigation Bruce notices a dropped penny. Dick doesn’t understand the significance at all. But Tim does. It was the sort of thing one would overlook. Less a clue than a taunt. They don’t say anything to the others yet.

Scene-jump over older!Damian and Stephanie. Damian is in awe of his daughter. He can’t believe how old she is, nor how much she resembles her mother. He tells her about her mom, how they met, how they played chess together, the wedding, Isra’s birth, and the terror of losing her. They talk and he asks her to remain, but she can’t.

She tells him about her life in his past, about her childhood, career as Spoiler, friendships, and relationship with Tim. She asks him to let her go.

He agrees on one condition—he goes with her.

When the others return to Dick’s from the Lab, older!Damian and Stephanie are waiting for them. Quick reunion. Bruce and younger!Damian are surprised by older!Damian. Tim shares the Lab information with Stephanie and she starts helping him crack through it. She asks about the envelope of glitter. She takes a pinch and throws it on older!Damian as punishment for abducting her.

Ultimately Stephanie is the one who finds Penelope’s true target—a microchip that can overwrite a person, creating a clone. Stephanie wonders if the chip was used for Joker Junior. Tim and older!Dick & Damian dismiss that. That was just brainwashing. Bruce, however, gets it—crimes hidden within crimes. Tim looks sick and the two future people questioning, so Bruce explains about Penelope.

Older!Dick and Damian both blanche. Older!Damian shows a picture of his ex-wife, Penelope. (Stephanie’d never met the woman in the past and so did not recognize her). Tim realizes she must have used her father to abduct Isra (he uses Isra for baby!Steph and Stephanie for his!Steph). Then she blames Damian for the abduction, divorces him, and disappears.

And she may be involved with Tim and the Joker.

“If I hadn’t created that program, if we hadn’t figured out that Damian and Stephanie are related—” Tim trails off and gestures around the room. “This would have been our future.”

“It won’t be,” Bruce promises.

“We have to go back,” Stephanie says. “We have to stop her.”

Bruce agrees and he sets up the device to create their portal home.

Older!Damian quietly squeezes Dick’s shoulder and says “good-bye” before rushing through the portal too quickly to be stopped.

“I lost her once,” he says on the other, “I refuse to lose her again.”

When the others say having two Damians is too confusing, older!Damian offers to go as “Ian Head” instead. He has the fake ID and passport to go with the identity.

(Later Ian will adopt Stephanie. Even though, as she’ll point out, she is turning 18 in a month or two and doesn’t need to be adopted. He uses paternity as proof. And the old, long forgotten news articles about the hospital lying about Crystal Brown’s baby being stillborn resurface. Stephanie keeps her first name, but changes her middle name to “Isra” partially for Ian, partially to explain he and Damian call her that. There are long arguments about whether she’ll keep “Brown” or change to “Head.” Connections are made. Media goes wild.

Talia notices the surname and that Ian’s name is just the last three letters of Damian’s. She will be stopping by for answers. But that’s in the future and not yet).

The present!time crew explains about what they’ve been doing. They tracked the thefts, concluded time travel device, and figured out it was Penelope. They have an idea for where she might be as well.

Before anyone can act on that information, though, alarms ring. The Joker is free.

They have to catch him. Someone needs to stay with Tim at all times, too. Of everything that went wrong in the future, Joker Junior was the start. It ends up being Ian who watches out for Tim. Unbeknownst to the others, however, Ian wants Tim captured. He’s hoping if he follows the Joker, he’ll be able to see Penelope. (Has this Penelope met him yet? Is Isra in her past or future?) He needs to confront her, to get answers.

So Tim is captured and Ian follows. Tim is still in his suit and tied up, rather than strapped down. Penelope arrives and Ian breaks in. His break-in diverts attention from Tim, leaving him tied up insteadof strapped down). Ian confronts Penelope, but is caught by the Joker who scolds him for being in the wrong time. Penelope and the Joker realize that the rest of the Bats might know where they are, so they need to move.

Tim finds the envelope of glitter. He has to hope that Penelope will be too wrapped up in the larger scheme to notice. He doesn’t drop a ton; just enough that he hopes Stephanie will notice.

Stephanie does.

It takes a few days, but they do find Tim and Ian. Penelope is not with them. The Joker is. A big battle ensues. Tim and Ian are rescued. And then Tim is there with a gun in his hand. And some things repeat no matter what. He shoots above the Joker instead, freeing something precariously attached. It falls and knocks the Joker out. Batman ties the Joker up and calls the authorities.

In the distance, watching, Penelope pulls out the microchip she never did give the Joker after Ian’s interruption.

And then it all epilogue. A birthday party for Tim. Ian bonding with Jason of all people. The adoption. And Ian breaking into Arkham and very quietly killing the Joker in his cell. Nothing personal, but his little girl cares about Tim and the Joker had hurt him. And, more importantly, it was time to take one of Penelope’s chess pieces from her.

And then the end.

#batman #not!fic #stephanie brown #damian wayne #tim drake #fic i want to read

[talesofzero]

La Douleur Exquise - Ch. 6

AU; Chapter 6 - The Case of Green

Dick’s color is green because he’s here for that cash. Pay the gross sand boy. “When’s there going to be actual smut in this fic?” Next chapter?? Maybe?? Idk

~3k words.

We had a mail day once a week. Kei went to our box on-planet, scanned for anything explosive or toxic, and brought back a bag of whatever she didn’t need to destroy as a precaution.

Harlock got the occasional letter, though I never saw him open them. Zero got the most mail out of all of us and always looked confused by his stack of letters and boxes. Daiba, Monono, Shep, and the Kodais got nothing. At least, Susumu used to get nothing. This time Kei came back with a box from his client. Susumu looked at it like it might rear back and bite him.

Usually I was the only one getting weird things from clients. Kei always used her foot to push the boxes my way, her nose wrinkled. The only thing she handed to me was the occasional letter with the worst chicken scratch scrawled across the front.

“What’s that?” Tadashi asked as I tore open my latest one. “Did someone actually hand-write you a letter? I’ve never seen a hand-written letter.”

“Only rich sorts on my planet have any sort of useful tech,” I said. “Since it’s a desert planet, everything gets clogged with sand unless we make it right.”

“You’re from a desert planet? That sounds rough.”

Unfolding the paper sent dirt spilling out. The words were all smudged, many misspelled, but he was getting better. “You get used to it,” I said. “What sort of place did you grow up?”

“Oh, I uh, I grew up with my brother.” His eyes screamed for help as he pointed toward Daiba. I would have expected them to corroborate their story a little better.

“Yeah? Where was that?” I didn’t care, but it was funny to watch him go wide-eyed with panic. None of us would have cared about whatever he was trying to hide, so I wasn’t sure why he was so nervous. A fifteen year-old couldn’t have anything that serious under his belt. Even if he did somehow, Harlock wouldn’t have let him stay.

Still, it didn’t matter, so I let him off the hook. “I just can’t believe all these guys letting their little brothers work here. It’s just absurd,” I said as I plopped down on the couch to properly read the letter. Parts of it were like trying to decipher a code.

Tadashi’s white-knuckle grip released from the hem of his dress when he realized he was safe. “Didn’t...your older brother let you work here?” he asked.

“Harlock’s not really my brother,” I said.

He got the message that time and shuffled away to get the broom for all the dirt I’d trailed onto the floor. Before I could get too far into my letter, though, Daiba leaned over the back of the couch, all glares and growls. “Dick, are you being mean to my brother?”  

“I would never,” I said as I reached up and patted his cheek. No matter how hard he tried to scare me, I always found Daiba cute. Sure, his bite was as bad as his bark, but he would never hurt one of us.

Except me. He might hurt me.

I had to pull my hand away to keep him from biting off my fingers. “Don’t be an ass!” he snapped. “And don’t talk to him! Don’t look at him!” His eyes narrowed. “Don’t think about him.”

“I’m sure you think about him enough for all of us,” I said.

He didn’t budge. His face remained a stony mask of anger, but his cheeks did tinge pink. The longer he glared at me, the more the color infected his ears too. “Cute,” I said.

Throwing myself toward the ground was the only way to avoid the punch that came barreling toward me. “I’ll kick your ass!” he screeched. “Get back here!”

Once I rolled out of his reach and regained my footing, I dashed for the stairs. I’d learned how to run from all the times I was caught pickpocketing, and his short legs didn’t stand a chance. “Love you, Daiba!” I called as I raced up the stairs two at a time. “Keep up the good work.”

He let out a yowl like a cat drenched with water, but I’d already made it to my room. The walls were to all our rooms were soundproof, so if he was still screaming, I couldn’t hear it. My comforter flared up around me as I flopped into bed. Tadashi must have washed it because it smelled of dryer sheets - ideal for burying my nose in as I read the letter.

As usual, things back home hadn’t changed much, but that was what I liked most about the letters. The little stories of daily life peppered throughout brought me back to that planet full of sand and groaning machinery. I’d been so accustomed to a world with endless pulses of heat during the day and bone-chilling cold at night that the first time I ever felt a/c was on the train out.

I had to ask the conductor what it was.

We saved for months to get me that train ticket, all in hopes that I could get a job that would get my brother out as well, get him as far away as possible from that wasteland. I’d told him I was going to be a mechanic, and in every letter since I’d left I told him about all the imaginary things I was fixing, all the ships and trains. Like I could ever make the kind of money I sent him from a job like that.

As I reread “Love, Sam,” for the tenth time, someone knocked at my door. “Yeah?” I called.

“Dick, I’ve got a couple new client applications for you.”

I poked my head out into the hall to find Harlock standing there with his arms crossed. Daiba didn’t seem to be hiding anywhere in preparation to jump me, but Harlock must have heard the screaming.

“Try not to antagonize Daiba,” he said. “You’re lucky Tadashi was there to calm him down.”

“Someone can actually calm Daiba down?” I gave a low whistle. “That maid kid’s magic. So let me see these new clients. Are they attractive at all?”

“Well, one of them isn’t human if that piques your interest at all.” He handed me a tablet with all the info he’d dug up on them.   

I always felt too aware of myself when near Harlock. It made me want to back away, to put space between us. He was taller, more broad-shouldered, and his eye was the deep brown of old rust. Other than that, though, we looked identical.

There was no denying that we were related. I’d known it from the moment I laid eyes on him.

All the gusto I had upon storming into his office and demanding a job vanished when he raised his head. He stared at me the same way I stared back - his eye filled with confusion and denial.

I’d seen the wanted posters. I knew about my father - not that the man ever deserved to be called that - but I never expected to run into any relatives on his side. The Harlocks were all fabled pirates. They weren’t real. They especially did not run brothels on suspicious, unmarked satellites.

“Alright,” Harlock said once he regained enough of his composure. “You...you want a job. I am hiring prostitutes, but that’s, um- You understand what this work entails-”

“I can handle anything,” I said, struggling to keep my eyes locked on his. I wasn’t opposed to begging. My pride had never been that great, but dammit, begging this bastard for anything was a blow to the gut. “I need the money. Please.”

“Sit down.” He gestured to the chair in front of his desk with one hand while the other rubbed harshly at his face. “I won’t be able to just ignore this, so about your father-”

“If you have to know, he was the former Captain Harlock,” I said, dropping into the chair. “I was an accident though. I never met him, and I doubt he knew about me. I didn’t know I would run into you here either if you were wondering about that.”

“I’m sorry,” he sighed. “My father wasn’t the best, but… I know he would have wanted to help you had he known. If all you need is money-”

“I need a job.”

“I can get you something else-”

“This is all I know how to do.”

I only knew the old mechanics of my home planet. Even the tech of the train that brought me was far from my reach. But I’d slept around for money before. It didn’t take much brainpower to figure out sex. Whatever it took to get Sam a better life was worth it.

Harlock looked like he’d aged a few years since I showed up. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll take you on as a prostitute, but if you want to take any classes or need any means to learn a new profession, I will help you. I understand if you want nothing to do with me as family, but as your boss, let me help.”

I should have counted my blessings that he gave me a job. Should have thanked him and walked out. Too bad my temper was stronger than reason. “I don’t need your pity or your guilt, and I certainly don’t need you as family.”

He breathed a sigh through his nose before speaking slow and quiet. “I understand. I won’t force you to consider me or anyone else family.”

That took the wind out of my sails. If there were more than just him, it would be hard to ignore everyone.

“But,” he continued. “Look past your pride for a moment. You can’t be a whore forever.”

He was right. He was always right, dammit. He was right when I insisted on taking clients he’d voted against, right when he told me I had no chance of denying Manabu as family with that kid’s puppy-dog eyes, right about needing the stack of textbooks in the corner of my room, even if I mostly just used the information in them to send lies to my little brother.

Harlock and I were related, but we weren’t family. I’d stubbornly held onto that even after all he’d done for me. I knew it wasn’t fair to direct my grudge against his father onto him. Dammit, if I’d gotten to meet his father, I could have been mad at him instead, but the bastard had to go get himself killed.

If only the man’s brother could have shared the same fate.

“Hey, Phantom! Dick!”

We both went taught as a noose at the yell from downstairs.

“Uncle Franklin, we’re closed!” Harlock yelled back. “It’s Sunday, and past eight at that! What are you doing here?”

“Just came to say hi.”

Despite knowing better, we both shuffled to the end of the hall to see him in those old, dusty boots and wide-brimmed hat. It was a wonder he could see out from under it. He had a scar on each cheek as though to outdo everyone else in the family. Harlock had done his best to hide me from his uncle, but curiosity got the better of me, and the man spotted me when I tried to sneak a glimpse at him. I should have anticipated a keen eye from a sharp-shooter. Despite all my rage-fueled attempts, I could not convince him I wasn’t part of the family tree.

He flopped onto one of the couches, which made Tadashi look ready to faint. The man had tracked in enough dirt to make a farm, and now the couch wore half of it. “Any leftovers hanging around?” he asked. “I’m parched.”

“I can get Monono to fetch you something,” Harlock said, already looking exhausted. “You came just for food, didn’t you?”

“I would never!” he gasped in mock-offense. “I came for the food and the booze and the nice company.”

Harlock looked like he believed that about as much as he believed my lie that I was sending money back home to a girlfriend. As he started down the stairs, I trailed after him. If nothing else, Frank could be entertaining for a while.

“So why don’t you have any tables out here yet?” he asked. “Is that some fancy restaurant thing? Not having tables? It’s fine, I guess. I’m used to eating with a plate in my lap, but I’d think high society could afford some tables.”

“You still haven’t told him?” I asked Harlock in a whisper.

“I’ve told him a dozen times, but he always thinks I’m kidding.”

I was amazed the other guys hadn’t come down to swarm him in attention yet. Frank was so dense that he thought he was getting lucky with a waiter, when really Harlock just had access to his bank account. He paid his dues like any other client. He just didn’t know about it.

According to Harlock, Frank was a couple years younger than his father, but I imagined they looked about the same, so if I’d ever gotten to meet my father, I pictured him just like Frank. Equally cheerful and equally stupid.

The sound of bare feet slapping against the floor made me turn to see Manabu stumbling to a stop at the top of the stairs. “Franklin!” he greeted with a grin and a wave. The kid was the only one in the family who seemed to actually like the guy.

Frank waved back, all smiles. “He’s cute,” he said to Harlock. “Have I met him? Did I sleep with him?”

Harlock’s voice was as dry as my home planet. “That’s Wataru’s son. He’s related to you. You’ve known him since he was a baby.”

“Oh!” Franklin laughed in an odd, wheezy sort of way, like there were holes in his lungs. “He looks different clean.”

To be fair, Manabu was in his pajamas and freshly-showered. His hair stuck to his face in ringlets and bounced along to each of his steps down the stairs. I swore the kid was a puppy in disguise, impossibly cute and eager to please.

“Uncle Franklin, I haven’t seen you in ages,” he said. “How’s Heavy Meldar?”

“About the same as always,” Frank said with a shrug. “Mostly dirt.”

“Gotten in any shootouts lately?”

“Not that they have any proof of.”

Harlock looked like he needed a stiff drink as his uncle whipped a gun from his holster and twirled it with ease. Harlock was also the only one who didn’t jump when the safety failed and the gun went off into the ceiling.

Poor Monono, also in his pajamas, almost threw the food tray in his hands into the ceiling alongside the bullet.

“Please stop trying to kill me,” Harlock said, just looking tired while my heart was trying to break out of my ribcage.

Not as concerned as I thought he should be, Frank frowned and looked over his gun. “Sorry, they’re getting old. I’ll take them apart and check them over.”

“That’s likely what ruined them to begin with,” Harlock muttered as he went over to take the tray from a startled Monono. Poor kid was frozen in shock. “Anyway, Uncle, it’s everyone’s night off, so I hope you weren’t expecting anything from my...wait staff. I’d like for all of them to get proper rest.”

“I’m content with just the meal then. Oh, but I did bring you this. Almost forgot. I’ll trade ya’.” After fishing in the cheap drawstring bag on his shoulder, he pulled out a stack of letters that looked halfway toward crumbling into dust. They were all tied by string, most the same size and shape.

“More mail day for you,” I noted as Harlock traded the tray of food for the letters, confusion twisting his features.

I peered around to see the return address on the top one - Warrius Zero. Judging by the flowing cursive, the letter may have been handwritten as well. It was addressed to Phantom F. Harlock, and once Harlock tugged the string loose and began flipping through them, it became apparent that they were all that way - to Harlock, from Zero. Still sealed.

“Never had a forwarding address for you, and I forgot all about them,” Frank said around a mouthful of potatoes. “Sorry about that. Had ‘em in an old trunk, and I just found them again.”

His hands dropped down to hide it, but I saw. Harlock was trembling. “I see. Thank you,” he said in a voice so thin it could shatter at any moment. He always fought so hard to hide everything, but he was losing his grip over a stack of letters.

He looked so vulnerable, so human, and I understood. Not completely. I would never understand what had happened between him and Zero. But I understood letters and all the memories and pain that could be locked within them.  

Because there were a hundred letters under my bed I’d never sent, filled with the truth, filled with every joyful and painful memory I had of being at the brothel. All the letters I was too scared to send to my brother. All the letters promising I’d see him soon.

“Go on,” I breathed just loud enough for Harlock to hear as I nudged my shoulder against his. “We can handle Uncle.”

He smiled. For just a moment, Harlock smiled at me, a slight tug at his lips that warmed his eye. He looked that way at Wataru and Manabu, occasionally even Frank, but not me.

We were related, but we weren’t family. We were much too odd to be family. We must have been something though because I smiled back before turning to Frank with a simple means of distraction.

“So how have your horses been?”

While Frank was sweating bullets and stumbling over an explanation of how he’d managed to kill his past several horses, Harlock slipped off. Manabu was invested enough in the odd tales not to notice either, but my mind kept drifting back to those damn letters. I did need to see my brother before I forgot what he looked like.

The homesickness was starting to kill me.  

#dick coyne fic #Harlock fic #Manabu fic #Daiba fic #'is this whole fic just random people showing up at the brothel?' Yes. #AU fic

[talesofzero]

La Douleur Exquise Ch. 1

Leijiverse AU; Chapter 1 - The Case of White

They say, somewhere out in space, outside the law’s reach, is the best brothel in the universe. They say the sheets are clean and the boys are pretty. They say it’s called Arcadia for good reason.

As a Valentine’s Day gift, here’s the first chapter of my new fic. I have big plans for it to be a big piece of interlocking stories, so I hope you enjoy it.

~3700 words

I spent the last of my money on a maid uniform. To pull this off, I had to look the part, so I forced my chin up and strode forward like a person who definitely, absolutely had a job at a brothel.

As the maid, of course.

Unless they wanted me to be a whore.

I wasn’t going to say no.

For some reason, the place had big wooden doors, the kind that looked too tall and heavy to open. The metal knockers were too high for me to reach, so I rapped at the door with my fist. Maybe I was supposed to just go inside. It was a business after all.

As I waited, the train I’d taken chugged away toward its next stop – probably back to its home planet. I’d been its only passenger, and it was too small to be one of the SDF’s usual line. It seemed like it was just a ferry from the planet to the satellite.

I couldn’t help but jump back when the door cracked open. “Who are you?” a guy snapped. His tone was venom. His eye was a dagger.

But he was my height. That, I could deal with. Squaring my shoulders, I settled a mask over my face. “I’m the new maid,” I said.

With a blink, his anger vanished to boredom. “Oh,” he said. “Didn’t know you were coming. Guess you can come in then.”

He and I looked pretty similar, same dirty-blond hair, same haircut, same brown eyes. But he wasn’t dressed for the part. As I slipped in through the crack in the door, I found what I could only describe as a ballroom. Glittering chandeliers hung overhead. Hardwood floors held luxurious couches and curio cabinets filled with even more shining things – one with plates, one with glasses, and one with guns. The guy’s turtleneck and worn-out brown jacket just didn’t match.

“I don’t know where the captain is,” he more grumbled than said. He looked like he’d just woken up from a nap, all bleary-eyed and sluggish. “Did you want me to take your bag, uh…?” He squinted at me in the usual sign of waiting for a name.

“Oh, I’m Daiba. T-Tadashi Daiba.” Not as stable as in practice, but I’d gotten it out.

He stared at me with his head cocked like a confused dog. “Really?” he said at length.

I could feel myself sweating through my new uniform. My throat swelled shut. I should have known I’d never get away with this.

“That’s my name too,” he said. “Weird. Well, I’m the bodyguard, so just yell if you need me to kill someone for you.”

I forced a laugh with the breath I’d been holding, but his expression didn’t change. He stuck out a hand, and I was quick to shove mine into it. This made him blink down at my crushing grip. “Nice to meet you?” I attempted.

“Oh, yeah, so did you want me to take your bag?”

My face felt so hot, I swore I would pass out. “I’ve got it,” I croaked.

He smiled for half a moment before his expression flattened again. “Then I’ll show you around real quick.”

Up the stairs adorned with an endless rug, and down an even more endless hall, he opened the last door on the left. “This’ll be our room,” he said. “I’ll get a bed set up for you.”

It was the size of my whole apartment back home with two beds and two dressers already set up. The furnishings weren’t as fancy as the rest of the mansion, but the beds had actual frames. Peering into the connected bathroom, I saw a shower with a frosted glass door.

“It’s really nice,” I said.

“Not really. You’ll be sharing it with me and the cook. Just drop your bag wherever.” When I turned back toward him, he cocked his thumb over his shoulder. “Closet with all the cleaning stuff you’d need is right out to the left. Don’t go in any of the rooms marked red because that means the guys are at work, and don’t go in the room across the hall because that’s Kei’s and she’ll kill you. Hm, that’s about it. Yell if you need anything.”

With a lazy wave, he walked out. I guessed that was my tour.

Well, I had nothing to do but get to work. If I wanted the boss to accept me, I would need to prove that I was a worthwhile maid.

I had my work cut out for me.

Luxurious as the place was, it became apparent from the moment I started dusting that they hadn’t bothered cleaning in a while. They also had a feather duster which, while complimentary to my uniform, was all but useless at actually dusting.

And no matter how I strained on my tip-toes, I couldn’t reach half the shelves in the ballroom area. As expected, the other Daiba napped on one of the couches. He didn’t even wake up when I vacuumed the rugs.

The place was oddly empty. I’d expected more people, more sleazy clientele and flirty workers. But the big, open space echoed my every footstep. My attempt to drag the vacuum backwards up the stairs was even louder, with it cracking against every step.

That was the only sound until my back hit something solid, and a man spoke near my ear. “Do you need help?”

As my hands shot up into fists, the vacuum went crashing back down to the last step, covering my startled screech. Still, Daiba slept on.

“Whoops,” the man said.

I peered over my shoulder, fists still poised to strike. The guy stood on the step above me, frowning down at the shattered remains of the vacuum. He was unfairly attractive, like the kind of guy half-naked in an advertisement.

He was wearing clothes though. Quite a bit of clothes. He had a dress shirt with a vest and slacks. The vest was some shiny green fabric that looked soft but smooth to the touch. Must have been expensive.

He was probably the owner, but it wasn’t like I could ask.

“Sorry,” I wheezed.

He shrugged. “Eh, my fault.” He had the prettiest blue eyes, which went well with the vest, but his hair was such a mess of brunet curls that it threw off the look a bit. “So who are you? Look kinda young to be a new hire.”

“You’re fucking stupid,” Daiba called from below, though he still didn’t move. “Why do you think he was carrying a vacuum around? In that outfit?”

“I dunno. Everyone’s got weird kinks.”

“I’m the new maid,” I whispered. My hands found their way to cover my burning face.

“Oh, we’ve got a maid now?” the man asked. “Nice! I don’t have to wash my own sheets anymore.”

“No one wants to touch your gross fucking sheets, Dick!” Daiba yelled. He looked awake now, up on his feet and glaring like when I first saw him.

So definitely not the boss then. No employee could get away with that kind of language toward the person paying him.  

“Ooo, Big Brother is on the offensive,” the man said. “Actually…” He took my chin between his thumb and forefinger, turning it toward him. “You two look really similar. Are you actually related?”

Before I could say no, Daiba spoke. “Yes, that’s my little brother. Hands off.”

I must have missed something.

The man’s eyes went wide like mine, though he didn’t let go of my face. “You have a brother? And you let him work here? At a whorehouse?”

“You work at this whorehouse, so it’s not like we have the highest standards,” Daiba said, crossing his arms.

“Yeah, but I’m an adult. This kid is like five.”

Being someone’s brother suddenly I could deal with, but I would not take such an insult to my age. I jerked my chin out of his grasp. “I’m fifteen!” I was actually fourteen, but one extra lie wouldn’t hurt.

“I can take care of anyone who bothers him!” Daiba added.

Despite his sigh, the man smiled. “Right-right, well anyway, I’m Dick Coyne. You can call me Dick.”

“Your name is actually Dick?” I asked before I realized what I was saying. I had half a mind to throw myself down the stairs and share the fate of the vacuum, but Dick laughed.

“Well, my real name is Richard, but that sounds so pretentious. Besides, Dick is an excellent name for a whore. They all want the Dick,” he said, eyes gleaming.

“Go burn in hell!” Daiba screamed.

That just made Dick laugh, while I frowned at him, and Daiba seethed. “My name is Tadashi Daiba,” I drawled. “It’s nice to meet you.”

That sobered him up, as he looked between me and Daiba with confusion. “You have the same first name?”

“Yes,” Daiba said.

“Then we have too many Tadashis. What’ll we call him?”

“That’s really not my problem,” Daiba huffed as he plopped back down on the couch.

“Hm, we’ll work on it then,” Dick said. “So, kid.” He turned back to me. “If you’ll go tidy up my room a bit, I’ll see about fixing the vacuum. Deal? I’ve got a mind for handiwork.”

“Not a kid,” I said, “but fine.”

It wasn’t until I’d walked back up the stairs and he’d walked down them that I realized I didn’t know which room was his. There were so many doors in just this first hall and undoubtedly even more up the second flight of stairs.

It was much too late to ask because I didn’t want to look stupid. One door down the left hall did appear to be cracked open, so I banked on a guess and headed toward it. When I flicked on the lights, I found a massive four-poster bed. The purple blankets matched the purple highlights everywhere else: the lamp, the chair cushion, and the pajamas on the guy who sat up from the bed, rubbing his eyes.

But the more important color was the bright blue of his skin. All of his skin. Blue as a summer sky. Like an idiot, I stood gawking at him.

He looked at me calmly in return before offering a wave. His hair was a spiked up mess of auburn, and his eyes were as blue as his skin with milky white pupils. He was hot like the other guy too. Unfairly hot.

“I’m sorry. I’m the new maid,” I rambled in explanation. “I was going to clean, but I’ll let you sleep. I’m sorry.”

He was frantically waving his hands when I shut the lights back off and closed the door. On stiff legs, I wandered off toward another room. There were massive gaps of space between the doors, showing off how big all the rooms were. When I reached the next one, making sure there were no red markings to be found, I knocked.

“Hm? Yeah?” someone answered. Before I could skitter off with a yell that I’d gotten the wrong room, a guy opened the door. He was younger than the other two I’d seen but still horribly attractive. He had neat curls of brunet hair around big gorgeous brown eyes. He wore the same silky vest as Dick in red and wasn’t quite as tall as the other man had been. I came up to his chin instead of his shoulder.

“Oh wow, I thought you were Daiba for a second,” he said. “Thought he’d lost some bet to get put in that outfit.”  

“Uh, I’m the new maid.” I’d practiced that line more than any other, so it always came easily. “Sorry to bother. I was looking for empty rooms to clean.”

“A maid, thank god,” he sighed. “It’s about time. But how old are you? Oh, I should introduce myself first. I’m Susumu Kodai, one of the whores, as you probably guessed.”

He was way too relaxed about it, so I tried to be too. “I’m Tadashi Daiba. I’m fifteen.”

“Tadashi Daiba?”

“The other Daiba is my brother.” Not that it made any sense.

“Huh, I didn’t know he had a brother,” Kodai said.

Me either.

Peering around him, I couldn’t help but notice the accents of the room matched his vest, all red as blood. “Are the rooms color coded?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s kind of stupid, right?” he said with a smile. He looked even more attractive when smiling. “It’s an ease of access thing. Keeps the clients from getting lost. You tell them to meet at the red room or the orange or whatever.”

His glance up over my shoulder was my only warning before a voice appeared at my back for the second time that day.

“Is this the new uniform? It should be. You’d look great in one of these, little brother.”

Something tugged at the hem of my dress. Before I could turn to look, Kodai snapped, “He’s fifteen,” and the tugging stopped. Once I glanced back, I found a taller, older guy patting the hem of my dress back down into place, his eyes wide and empty like he’d seen some horror.

Kodai heaved a sigh. “This is my older brother, Mamoru. Mamoru, this is the new maid, Tadashi Daiba. He’s our Daiba’s brother.”

Mamoru looked up puzzled, and damn, he was attractive too. His hair was cut shorter than his brother’s, and his eyes were more mature. He looked well-muscled, and he had a curve to his jaw that just screamed poster boy. His vest was a warm orange.

“Didn’t know Daiba had a brother,” he said. “You’re cute though. Nice to meet you.” With a gorgeous smile, he patted me on the head. “Please don’t tell your brother about the skirt thing, or he’ll kill me.”

“Skirt thing?” I asked.

“It’s nothing. My room is the next one down the hall, so just pop by if you ever need anything. Susumu is usually in there too because he sleeps there.”

“No, I just work there,” Susumu said.

By the time my eyes widened with the realization of what his work entailed, Mamoru was already speaking again. “I know. It’s like you don’t even love me.”

“Fancy that,” Susumu said dryly.

“I’ve got to go clean!” I said, slipping off as they continued on into an argument.

“You don’t have to be so mad. I didn’t see anything, just frills. Thank god.”

“That doesn’t make it okay, you gross pervert.”

Skipping over Mamoru’s door, I went to the next one. Knocking at this one greeted me with a man who looked tired and too tall. Just really tall. Really attractive and tall. He rubbed at his eyes, tinged red like his hair. He was older than the rest, maybe thirty. His nose was too long, but it was cute that way. The same went for his hair, which curled up at the ends like a mess of cowlicks.

“Hello, I’m the new maid.” It was coming easier now. “I was looking for rooms to clean. Sorry to bother you.”

He blinked down at me for a moment before speaking. “How old are you?” he asked.

“I’m fifteen.”

Heaving a sigh, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m going to kill him,” he whispered. With a quick pat to my head and a “wait here,” he stormed off down the hall.

His room was already clean by the look of things, highlighted with the same yellow his vest had been. Rather than wait, I meandered over to the next room. Finally, after no one answered the door, I opened it to find the elusive green room. It was a goddamn mess. I couldn’t help but feel I’d gotten the poorer end of the deal as I picked laundry off his floor. The laundry room must have been downstairs because the chute in the wall dropped off into an abyss.

Once everything was as clean as it could get from my bare hands, I set off in search of the laundry room. The man in yellow still hadn’t returned, the Kodais had found another place to argue, and the alien’s door was still closed.

As I reached the stairs, another man came down from the second flight. He wore a black vest and a lack of expression. He didn’t really need one. The scar across his cheek and the eyepatch gave enough away to show that I needn’t bother him. He was almost as tall as the man in yellow with messy ash-brown hair.

I nodded in greeting, hoping to just pass by, but he spoke. “Who are you?”

“I’m Tadashi Daiba. I’m the new maid.”

“Oh, alright.” With a nod, he turned down the opposite hall and left. My throat finally let me breathe again.

Downstairs, the pieces of the vacuum were all gone along with Dick, and Daiba slept on.

“Alright,” I grumbled as I headed for the nearest door. “What’s behind door number six?”

No prizes for me, as I wound up in a dining room with one overly long table. A guy not much older than me sat at the only filled seat sipping a cup of tea or coffee or something. He looked bored as anything, staring off into space. He was attractive, but not like the others. He was more cute than hot, his hair full of long, messy brunet curls that seemed to kiss his round cheeks. Even sitting, I could tell he wasn’t much taller than me.  

For a moment, I felt sure he was the cook, but the blue vest threw out that theory.

“Um, hello, I’m the new maid,” I greeted.

“Oh, hi there.” He smiled in a warm sort of way that made his brown eye shine. “I’m the new whore.”

He seemed trustworthy enough, so I crossed the room to him. “My name is Tadashi Daiba. I’m the other Daiba’s brother.”

“Nice to meet you,” was all he had to say on the matter. “I’m Manabu Yuuki.”

“So your room is blue, I’m guessing?”

“That’s right,” he said with a laugh. “My uncle isn’t much for interior decorating.”

“Your uncle?”

“Yeah, he’s the owner. He built this station.”

I couldn’t say I knew much about how brothels tended to be run, but a man hiring his own nephew as a whore seemed weird. Surely, that was abnormal.

“So do no girls work here?” I asked. “I’ve only seen guys.”

“Well, Kei works as a bodyguard, but all the whores are guys.”

“Why?” I asked.

He shrugged. “My uncle didn’t have any women to start out with, so we got a following of male clients who were into guys.”

“No women come here?”

“Nah, we’re all super gay.” He smiled at whatever odd look scrunched up my face. “Okay, some of the guys are pan or bi, too.”

“What about, uh, the alien?”

“Oh, Shep?” He grinned. “He has the most devoted clients, actually, but we have no idea what’s in his pants. Can’t say we really care either.”

Alright, Shep, so I had a name for the alien. Then there was bodyguard Daiba, weird guy Dick, brothers Mamoru and Susumu, fabled girl Kei, some mysterious cook, and the other two guys I’d run into. “What about the tall guy in the yellow room?” I asked. “I didn’t get his name either.”

“That’s Warrius Zero. You can just call him Zero. He’s real friendly. Surprised he didn’t give you his name.”

“Well, he stormed off saying how he was going to kill someone.”

“Ah, yeah, that happens.” I waited for him to smile about his joke, but he seemed perfectly serious.

“And the one with the black vest?”

He looked at me like I’d asked how many stars there were outside. “You mean Phantom?”

“I guess? Has an eyepatch?”

“That’s my uncle,” he said. “Didn’t he hire you?”

Well, I’d fucked up. I’d really fucked up.

“I did,” a deep voice responded as a hand clamped down on my shoulder. “He’s our new maid.”

“Phantom” stood beside me, looking unfazed by the matter. He was also incredibly attractive. “He’s done a good job so far,” he added.

“Did you make him wear that outfit though?” Yuuki asked. “That’s kinda sleazy, isn’t it?”

“I didn’t make him wear it,” Phantom sighed. “But he can wear it if he wants.”

“It’s cute!” Daiba insisted as he also popped up behind me. “You can fight me if you’re going to insult my brother, Manabu.”

Laughing, Yuuki put his hands up in surrender.

“If you’ll come with me, Tadashi,” Phantom said. “I need to discuss the terms of your contract with you.”

My heart hammered in my throat as he took me gently by the arm and led me back toward the stairs. He might as well have been dragging me because my legs didn’t seem to be working. Daiba trailed behind us until we returned to our room. A third bed and dresser had joined the space. Phantom pulled me to the bed, and pressed on my shoulders to sit me down on it.

“Alright,” he began. I was sure I would throw up on his nice shoes. “I’m not going to ask why you’re here. I don’t really care as long as it was of your own will. Obviously, I’m not going to let clients anywhere near you. You’re four years too young for that.”

Four years? Then he knew I was fourteen.

“You sure you didn’t hire him while drunk?” Daiba asked.

“That only happened the one time,” Phantom said. “It doesn’t matter. He’s hired now.”

“You’re okay with me staying?” I asked, my whole body shaking either from fear or how little I’d eaten in three days.

“Yes. As long as you work, room and board are covered. And as long as you stay here, you’re under my protection.”

“Mine too,” Daiba said.

Phantom nodded. “Daiba is your cover for now. Between the two of us and the rest of the boys, we’ll take care of you.”

“Thank you,” I said airily, “Mr. Phantom.”

“Oh god, please call me Harlock.”

“Or Captain.” Daiba said.

“Captain is fine too.”

“Um, thank you… Captain.”

He smiled, somewhat cocky like Dick’s but kind like his nephew’s. “Then welcome to Arcadia, Tadashi.”

He was really, really attractive when he smiled.

#Space Pirate Captain Harlock #Captain Harlock #Harlock fic #Daiba fic #Shep fic #dick coyne fic #Mamoru K fic #Susumu fic #Manabu fic #zero fic #Just kind of a preview chapter #everyone is gay throws confetti #It's kind of only half an AU idk

[talesofzero]

Carpe Noctem - Ch. 27

AU; Chapter 27 - Fiat Iustitia Et Pereat Mundus

More or less the final main chapter. Melodrama abounds.

~2700 words

Wataru and I always joked about who would win in a fight, and we’d had our spats. But this was different. This wasn’t for punishment, not him losing patience with me, not some harmless bout.

His hands shot toward my chest anytime he came within range. He wanted to tear my heart out. He wanted me dead. Well, it wasn’t really him.

My only thought was to stall. His reach was longer than mine, and if I made one wrong move, I was as good as dead. If it had been some other vampire aiming to kill me, I would have had little trouble moving in close and ending his life first. But this was my brother. I could only hope for an opening to knock him out.

In the cramped quarters between homes, I leapt back from him over and over, always fearing my back landing against a wall. He closed each gap I made in an instant, one hand outstretched to grab or kill me.

I had to buy more time. Useless as he was, Father wouldn’t abandon us. He would show up eventually to help.

Any moment now…

If that bastard did abandon us again, I would come back from the grave just to kick his ass.

Despite his empty eyes, Wataru wasn’t as mindless as he appeared. I was wrong to think I was leading him, as I saw the walls in my peripherals narrowing into a corner. He’d herded me right where he wanted me.  

With my options limited, I tried to dart past him. Immediately, I realized my mistake. His hand caught my throat and slammed me into the wall. The wooden structure crackled at my back.

“Wataru,” I hissed, catching his eye. The familiar song of hypnosis tinted my voice. “Stop.”

His eye flashed red for an instant, just long enough for me to know he was fighting, just long enough for his fingertips to pause against my chest. It gave me enough time to grab his arm and snap the bone clean in two.

Though he didn’t make a sound, his grip on my throat eased. Shoving myself from the wall, I placed myself in his guard. “Wake up!” I roared, grabbing his head in one hand and smashing it down onto the dirt ground. The crack of his skull rang up into my shoulder. As I knelt there panting, he remained still. Blood pooled out in a dark stain around his head.

I may have overdone it, but his heartbeat remained strong in echo to mine. Leaning in close, I breathed a sigh, “My apologies, brother. But please stay down.”

Regaining my feet, I looked back to the wolves. Nazca stood over Shep’s fallen form. The poor boy’s tail was tucked between his legs, though it was clear he was trying to look menacing in case of trouble. Gido, as always, had vanished from sight. I had to hope Father had tailed him.

“Nazca,” I called. The wolf’s ears perked up. “Try to drag these two to safety, somewhere out of the sun’s reach. If Wataru wakes, he shouldn’t hurt you, but stay out of his way just in case.”

He gave a nod. I had no choice but to trust him based solely on that. The sky was beginning to lighten.

I could still feel Gido and Father’s hearts, both racing now. They weren’t too far. I dashed down the nearest alley as half the sky stained the deep blue of the ocean. If the Sun caught me, so be it, as long as it caught Gido as well.

I came upon him in the middle of a crossroads, covered in nicks and gashes from the rapier clutched in Father’s hand. It hung limp in Father’s grasp, fallen to his side. His breath rattled like Zero’s had after that damn arrow hit him. The gash in Father’s shoulder, Gido’s cutlass, and the smell of wolfsbane in the air told the rest of the story.

As I rushed in between them, Gido stepped back. It seemed I’d arrived just in time, or something had stopped Gido from delivering a fatal blow.

“Sorry,” Father murmured at my back. “Let my guard down.”

“It’s alright, Vati,” I said. “Find a safe spot. Rest.”

His slowing heart raced a few beats. He always was easy to please. As his dragging footsteps grew distant, I stared Gido down.

“Enough running,” I said once again.

He said nothing, his lips pulled into a frown.

“Let’s end this.” I took a step forward, and he staggered back. It seemed all that talk was for nothing once he truly had to face me.

“Is Wataru alright?” he asked.

My blood boiled for a moment. He’d been the one to put Wataru in danger in the first place, but my confusion overwhelmed my anger. “What?” was all I could manage.

“You smell like his blood. Is he alright?”

“He’s fine,” I growled.

He swallowed. Then nodded. When he spoke, his voice wavered. “The house with the flowers in the window, back the way you came – go there when this is over.” A tear rolled down his cheek. “My god, it’s finally over.”

I took another step toward him, my hand reaching out on its own. And again, he stepped back away from me. His cutlass, stained with Father’s blood, clattered to the ground.

“Go back there, Phantom. Promise me you’ll go back.” More tears followed, bleeding out from under the mask.

This time, I didn’t give him the chance. In two quick steps, I stood close enough to rip the mask away. His eyes were puffy and red with exhaustion, yet they were the same brilliant blue as the sky overhead. “Richard,” I breathed. My hand came to rest against his cheek, and he leaned into my touch with a pained smile.

“Promise me, big brother.”

“I-I promise.” I couldn’t recall what I was promising. I only knew he was here now, my little brother. There was ground beneath my feet once more.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I can’t stay.”

No, I had him back now. He couldn’t leave again. I wouldn’t let him. I wouldn’t let anything hurt him ever again. I would protect him. I would-

“Let it end,” he said.

My heart burst again, a cavernous, bloody hole in my chest.

“But you’re back,” I said, dazed. “It’s you. I know it’s you.”

“He’ll come back. He always does once the sun sets. Phantom. Please.”

“I can’t,” I choked. “I can’t kill you. I can’t lose you again.” I clutched his face in my hands, tears pouring from my eye. “I can’t hurt you again. I’m sorry,” I sobbed. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Pushing up to his toes, he placed a kiss to my forehead and shushed me as though I were the younger one. “You don’t have to kill me. It’s alright. I should never have asked you to. But let it end.”

He placed his hand to my chest and shoved be back hard enough for my back to hit the wall. Again, he took a few steps back, out of the shadow of the house shielding us and into the sun’s burning rays.

“Richard,” I gasped, stumbling forward to grasp at him. Even with my glove, the moment my hand found sunlight, the sting made me jolt back. I couldn’t imagine my brother’s pain as he fell to his knees, steam rising from his skin.

“It’s okay-it’s okay,” he lied. He forced his eyes up to mine, a bright, brilliant smile easing onto his face. “I know Gido always wanted to make you hurt, so it’s cruel of me to give him what he wants like this, but I’m happy you’re here with me. I didn’t want to be alone.”

His breaths became ragged gasps for air, and I started toward him again. I wanted to pull him to safety, but if I couldn’t have that, I wanted to hold him close while he burned.

“No, Phantom, you have to live,” he said as a crack appeared in his cheek. “I’m not mad at you. I wouldn’t have traded those years with you and Daiba for anything. I want you to be happy like that again, with him. So live for them. And for me.”

His cheek began to crumble away, graying into ash and falling like snow. It infected his eye until he mirrored me. As I tried to find something to say other than an apology, he turned toward the sound of uneven footsteps. A young boy with rattling breaths hobbled toward us, his hair a mess of auburn. Blood dripped from his chin with his every lurching step.

“Sammy,” Richard called, and the boy’s red-hued eyes lit up. He collapsed into Richard’s awaiting arms as they too crumbled into dust. “I’ve got you,” Richard cooed as though speaking to a pet, as I felt sure he was.

“I’m sorry,” I said, this time to the boy. I doubted he heard me. His eyes fell shut as he rested his head in Richard’s lap, his breaths softened into nothing as Richard ran his vanishing fingers through the boy’s hair.

“It’s alright,” Richard said, a soft, contented smile on his face as he watched the boy. “It’s so warm. I’ve missed the sun.”

Finally, his body could no longer sustain him, and he fell away completely into dust. The boy lay alone with a pile of clothes. Unable to bring myself to leave him, I reached into the light and snatched him out of it.

It felt wrong to hold him, but nothing felt right anymore. Ducking into the still-shadowed alleys, I returned to the square where I’d left Wataru and the wolves. No signs of them remained. With the sun bearing down on me, I was left with no other choice but to hide away in the home with the flowers in the window. I had to return there anyway. I couldn’t deny my brother his last request.

The door was open, and the darkened staircase was an inviting reprieve from the blinding sunlight. As I carried the boy down, I felt the echoing drum of heartbeats. My family must have found the safe house as well, allowing me to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

It wasn’t until I reached the bottom of the steps that I noticed the two forms huddled in the corner of an open cell. They were much too small to be my family, yet their hearts beat as mine. Gido must have turned others, then.

That explained why Richard wanted me to come back, to take care of Gido’s newbloods, the poor things.

Settling the boy’s body on the floor, I crept toward the cowering forms. With no idea how they might react to me, I had to be prepared for a fight.

“Are you awake?” I called, my voice raw and hardly recognizable as my own. “Excuse me, I mean no harm.”

One of their heads popped up from being buried against the other, and a growl began. Just as the thought of a feral rang in my mind, it tackled me to the ground. Brown eyes hung over my own, tips of blond hair prickling my cheeks. He reared back to slash at me.

“Daiba,” I said as though the name were foreign to me. His hand froze in the air. “Daiba… Tadashi Daiba…” I couldn’t find anything else to say but his name, over and over. Perhaps that would make it real.

“It’s me, Daiba. Harlock. Captain.”

Of course, he didn’t understand. If anything, he found my scent familiar. His eyes remained fogged, his lips drawn into a snarl. I moved slowly so as not to startle him, bringing my hand up to my mouth to tear open my palm with my fangs.

He perked up at that, leaning down to latch onto my hand without hesitation. He gnawed on me like a dog chewing a bone, just like he always had. Daiba. This was Daiba.

He gave a yelp as I sat up and threw my arm around him. Despite his hissing and struggling, I buried my face in his hair. The smell of him brought back a torrent of memories, of the way he’d sneak into my bed or lounge in my lap like a lazy cat.

“My little Daiba,” I hummed as I found myself crying again. This made him still. His growls warbled into purrs. I must have held him for hours, until he fell asleep once more.

I would have been content to remain like that all day, having someone to hold onto once more. But my head snapped up as I suddenly recalled the other one. His heartbeat tipped me off, a frantic trill. He must have woken and noticed me because he’d pressed himself into the corner, clutching his head for protection.

Daiba gave a grumble as I set him down. It seemed he truly hadn’t changed from the clingy newblood I remembered. “Hang on,” I said. “I’ll be just a moment.”

As I eased closer to the other one, his trembling increased to violent tremors. Definitely another feral. “It’s alright,” I called regardless. “I won’t harm you.” Flexing my hand broke open the wound again, and I held it out to the boy.

But he turned and slammed his back further into the corner, terrified of my outstretched hand.

He looked so certain I would hurt him.

Yama.

My Yama.

I fell to my knees in front of him as he tried to fuse himself with the stone at his back. “Yama,” I breathed. “Yama, it’s me.”

But when I reached for him, he screamed, bringing his hands up between us for protection. It was like a knife to the chest. Daiba appeared then, pressing himself to Yama’s side and purring like a roll of thunder. Perhaps Yama imagined him like Mii-kun, as he clung to Daiba in a frightened daze.

As much as I longed to hold them both and to ease Yama’s fears, my exhaustion was catching up to me. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d slept properly, and crying had left me drained. “Ah, liebling,” I sighed only to realize my English had failed me. A quick shake of my head cleared the blur from my vision for a moment. “Please be here when I wake,” I said as I settled myself to the ground beside them.

I must not have looked threatening that way to Yama because Daiba’s purring infected him. It made for a nice symphony to help ease me into sleep. By some miracle, I had no nightmares.

And by some greater miracle, I found them both snuggled into my grasp when I next opened my eye. Some sound had woken me, but I let my eye fall shut again. The mumbled voices I heard were familiar enough to give me no cause for alarm.

I heard yelling soon after, enough that I could only pretend to still sleep. And pretend I did. Daiba was growling about something, but Yama remained close enough that I could smell flowers with each breath.

“Harlock!” Tochiro snapped, loud enough to break through to me. “Wake up!”

“No,” I said.

“We’ll have to carry him back,” Emeraldas said.

“What about Daiba?”

“Zero can get him.”

“He’s going to rip Zero’s throat out.”

“I doubt Zero will mind.”

“He won’t! And that’s the problem.”

“Quit talking about me like I’m not here,” Zero snapped.

A smile tugged at my lips. I felt far too heavy to move. Even speaking felt impossible, but I managed some slurred attempt at communication. “S’everyone alright?”

“I guess?” Tochiro said. “Léopard and the others are helping get your dad, Wataru, and the wolves back to the ships. What, uh, happened to Gido?”

“Gone.”

“Oh… well then we’d better, um-”

“Promethium called a meeting,” Zero said over him.

My eye snapped open. “What?”

“It seems she found out the Lords were congregating here without her, and she didn’t care for it. She’s on her way. Léopard is shaking in his boots.”

That would be Hell to deal with. With everything else going on, I didn’t need that too. “Can I… just sleep now?” I sighed.

Zero laughed. “Go ahead. Rest. We’ll take care of you for now.”

As my eye fell shut once more, I saw Daiba gnawing on his hand. Of course, I could leave things to him and the others. Neither Tochiro nor Zero had ever let me down. All would be well.

At least until Promethium arrived.

#AU fic #Captain Harlock #Space Pirate Captain Harlock #Harlock fic #Gido fic #dick coyne fic #sam coyne fic #Nazca fic #Wataru fic #zero fic #Tochiro fic #Emeraldas fic #Great Harlock fic

[talesofzero]

Carpe Noctem - Ch. 26

AU; Chapter 26 - Ego Te Provoco

Everyone has a bad time, as usual.

~3900 words

Zero still looked like a man at death’s door. Pale and clammy as a fog-drenched harbor, his breaths rattled in his chest. Vampires didn’t get sick, but there was no denying that Zero looked the part.

All from one arrow.

“Fine… I’m fine,” he murmured as my father looked over him. No one was a proper doctor. None of us really needed to be, but Father was the oldest, so we let him take over in case he’d seen anything like it before.

“It’s certainly acting like poison,” Father said, “but I do think it’s working its way out of his system. The wound does seem to be healing, slowly but surely.”

Zero would have healed even faster had he not cut open his already-ruined hand to turn Ezra of all damn people. “It’s your own damn fault,” Zero had said after the man’s body had stilled, the blood doing its work. “We could have questioned him if you hadn’t taken things so far. He’ll be lucky if he maintains the use of his legs.”

“What use would questioning him be?” I’d asked, still considering tearing Ezra’s throat out while he slept.

“There’s no doubt he works for Gido. Why else would he be here? We may have been able to get a location out of him.”

“Well turning him won’t change anything. It’ll be weeks before he’s of any use to us.”

“Just let me have this, Harlock. I want him to serve his penance after what he’s done to me and my city. You had your retribution for Yama. Let me have mine.”

I couldn’t deny him that, not after I’d thought him dead. His heart had stopped like Yama’s, just from an arrow to his shoulder. He’d awakened slowly, his limbs weak but his mind clear. Even after my brother and I helped him stagger back to the ship, he was still mostly immobile. Blood helped return some life to him, but for an Oldblood to be left in such a state was unprecedented. We were immune to so much, strong and impossible and immortal.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Especially not to Zero.

And now he’d stuck himself with a Newblood who would undoubtedly stab him in the back. He must have had a death wish.

Well, that much had always been apparent. He was a magnet for trouble.

Just as he’d almost dispersed the swarm of us around him with insistences that he was fine, the little wolf wriggled his way to the front. He was in human form now, and he looked much angrier awake. He must not have brushed his hair because it was an unruly mess. In fact, he may have never brushed his hair.

“It’s wolfsbane!” he snapped, hands on his hips as he glared at Zero. “You reek of the stuff!” He seemed to enjoy yelling.

“We were in that part of town,” Wataru said. “The smell might have clung.”

The boy shook his head harder than he needed to. “No, no! None of you smell near as bad.”

Looking hurt, Zero sniffed the collar of his coat.

“It’s all over his hand and his shoulder,” the kid continued. “Gido always smelled kind of like that too.” Stomping toward Ezra’s unconscious form, the little wolf dug around in the man’s bandoleer ‘til he found a vial of clear liquid. I would have thought it holy water, but the wolf pressed his sleeve to his nose, his brows pinched.

Wataru took it from him as the little wolf made a “blech,” sound. “It’s concentrated wolfsbane,” the kid said. “I think Gido made the stuff.”

“You don’t remember?” I asked.

“He wiped most of our memories, I guess. Everything is kind of hazy.” The kid waved his hand like it wasn’t a big deal, though I could only imagine he wasn’t all that concerned about what had happened to him because he couldn’t recall. Small victories, I suppose.

The “our” still rang in my ears though. There was still the other small wolf, the one I’d injured.

“So if we can get to the spot where the wolfsbane smells the strongest, we may be able to find him,” Wataru said. Our eyes all shot from the little vial to him.

“Maybe,” the kid said with a shrug. “Or if you can spot Sam somewhere when Gido sends him on an errand, you could follow him back.”

“Sam?” Wataru asked.

“The other werewolf. He’s about my age, but he was there longer. I don’t remember Gido too much – didn’t even remember that was his name ‘til you mentioned it – but I remember Sam pretty well. He didn’t talk much because he was always hypnotized. Eyes all blue and stuff.”

Wataru nodded. “We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to search again. The sun will be up soon.”

“I don’t think we should wait,” I said. I could feel their disapproval on me. “I’m going to go out again. I’ll be back before sunrise, or I’ll find a place to hide, but I don’t want to waste any more time. I’ll take the boy with me, and we’ll narrow down the search.”

When I nodded toward the kid, his eyes sparked with anger. I’d expected him to spout his hatred that I’d attacked them before, but I got a different sort of tongue-lashing. “I’m not a boy!” he screamed.

A girl then? Maybe I’d misjudged.

“My name is Nazca, and I’m a man!”

It was such a familiar spiel that I couldn’t help but smile. That just riled him up more. “Don’t you laugh! I’ll fight you, you vampire bastard!”

As his teeth began to grow and sharpen, Shep stepped between us and pat the kid on the head, somewhere between admonishment and affection. I was glad for his intrusion because I was certain I only would have served to make the kid angrier, no matter what I said.

Daiba had been the same.

No one but a stubborn kid would have been stupid enough to stowaway on a ship full of vampires. To his credit, I didn’t discover him until a few days into the journey. He’d hidden himself among our cargo, none of which was food. All he could do to eat was catch fish while we slept during the day. But when he gave into that option, I heard him moving about my ship. I caught him on the way back down from the deck, and I was far too tired not to be annoyed.

“You know I’m supposed to throw stowaways overboard,” I said with a sigh, rubbing a hand across my face.

In a thick Japanese accent, he’d spluttered on about how he could prove himself useful and why did we all sleep during the day and where was all the food. I waved a hand until he fell silent.

“We can deal with this in the morning.”

“It is morning,” he said.

“Evening,” I corrected. “Go grab an empty room or something. I don’t care. Just let me sleep for now. I’ll decide your fate when my eye isn’t stinging.”

“May I cook my fish?”

“Sure, kid.”

“I am not a kid!”

I ignored his anger in favor of going back to bed, but he was certainly a kid, somewhere in his teens and oddly blond for a Japanese boy. He was hardly tall enough to reach my chest and skinny as a rail.  Those big brown eyes of his were sharp though, piercing with curiosity and intelligence.

But mostly anger. He always seemed angry.

“I want to join your crew,” he demanded the next time we spoke.

“No. I’ll let you off at our next port. This is no place for a child.”

“I am no child! I’m fourteen!”

Richard stepped in, all smiles. He clasped the boy’s hands in his own, which the boy was quick to frown at. “Can you tell us your name?” Richard asked.

“Daiba Tadashi.”

After a moment’s consideration, I decided Daiba was his surname, and he’d given his names in the same order Tochiro had the first time we met. I doubted Richard noticed.

“Nice to meet you, Daiba. I’m Dick, and this is my brother, Phantom.”

“Harlock,” I corrected. “Call me Harlock.”

“If you’re the captain, I will call you Captain,” Daiba said.

I said nothing, so Richard continued. “Daiba, I know you want to join a pirate ship, but this is not the one for you. When we go to our next port, you can talk to captains there and see if any of them would be willing to take you in as one of their crew.”

Daiba’s gaze darted aside. “I tried. They all want me to warm their beds.”

A chill shot up my back. Richard’s eyes were wide as a startled rabbit’s. “Then why stowaway?” I asked. “You didn’t know what we could do to you.”

“I had to run. The townspeople said I killed my father, but I didn’t! It was that thing!”

“What thing?”

I almost didn’t catch his answer, mumbled down toward his chest. “The yokai.”

“Did you see this yokai?” I asked. Richard looked to me for answers, but I gave him a glance that said it wasn’t the time. Yokai were Japanese demons, meaning his father had likely been killed by one of us. Daiba just used the yokai explanation to make sense of it.

“I didn’t see much,” Daiba said, hands clenched tight in his lap. “But it was not human. I had no proof, so they were going to lock me away. You…don’t believe me, do you?”

“I don’t see why you would lie about this to a pirate. Having a kill on your record would usually be a good sign to us.” I shrugged. “I believe you. The trouble is, Daiba, none of us are human either.”

Richard looked as startled as the kid that I’d admitted it so quickly, but I knew I would be dealing with endless begging if I didn’t tell the truth now. Daiba was clearly the stubborn sort, and he wouldn’t give up on joining my crew without a fight. It was best to pull my trump card now.

“You’re…not?” Daiba echoed, expression screwed up in confusion.

“Don’t believe me?” I smiled wide enough to show off a fang. “There’s a reason we don’t go out in the sun – we can’t. We’re vampires.”

I expected more of a reaction than a blink. It didn’t seem to register for him. “What’s that?” he asked at length.

“Blood-suckers,” I attempted.

Still, nothing but a blank expression greeted me.

“You know, creature of the night? Have to drink blood to survive? Warded off by crosses and holy water and all that? Have to be staked in the heart or burned to die? Immortal?”

“So I can’t join your crew because I’m not a…vampire.” He tested the word, uncertain he’d said it right. He had gotten the pronunciation down, but he’d gotten everything else wrong.

“Daiba,” Richard attempted. “We drink blood as food, human blood. We might hurt you.”

Daiba set a determined expression, like a kitten trying to appear intimidating. “I can defend myself.”

Considering his scrawny arms and lack of any visible weapons, I doubted it.

“It may very well have been a vampire that killed your father,” I said. 

“But it wasn’t any of you, right? You seem nice. You didn’t kill me when you could have.”

Poor as his logic was, we didn’t have much of an option at that point. We wouldn’t see port for at least a week. Despite his continuing protests, I assured him that he would be let off once we arrived.

That should have been the case. It would have been for the best.

But with the boy on-board, Richard would drink when I told him to. He still gagged against attempts to swallow blood, shuddering and turning his nose up at the smell, but he forced it down. He knew he would attack Daiba if he grew too hungry. The boy kept my brother stable.

When we arrived at port, I made no mention of Daiba getting off, and Richard couldn’t stop grinning. He adored Daiba. That was the boy’s downfall.

Daiba saw my brother’s affections as patronizing. I often heard screams of “I’m not a child!” when he received one too many pats on the head. Then he would retreat behind me, grumbling about my brother. “Not a little kid,” he’d say.

“Well, you’re certainly not big,” I’d return.

He’d fume and blush, but he never yelled at me like he did my brother. In his short time as a human, he didn’t grow much. He was eternally short and eternally angry about it. Richard’s increasing attempts to coddle him didn’t help matters.

It was all too obvious that my brother loved him, and it was all too obvious that my brother was slipping back into old habits despite or perhaps because of his infatuation.

I shouldn’t have left them alone. Richard became so violent when feral, so quick to claw and tear until he was covered in blood. By the time I was able to separate them, there were so many wounds on Daiba, I didn’t know where to put my hands to slow the bleeding.

He looked confused mostly. Pain burned in his eyes, but the confusion overwhelmed it. For the first time, he was quiet. He wouldn’t respond to me, lost in his own thoughts. I gave up on asking if he wanted to be turned for fear that he wouldn’t last much longer. Richard had warned him. We were dangerous. That was the last time I allowed a human to be part of my crew.

While Daiba slept in the limbo between life and death, I cleaned Richard off until there was no sign of his involvement. Perhaps if I’d let him know, he would have corrected his behavior, but I didn’t want him to suffer. I told him we’d been attacked, and Daiba had gotten the worst of it. Once Daiba awoke from being the most troublesome feral I’d ever seen, unable to recall his final moments, he backed up my lies.

Now that he felt safe around the newblood, Richard showed his affections even more. Daiba, of course, whined more. I always thought both he and my brother oblivious. Daiba didn’t seem to realize what Richard felt was love, and neither did Richard.

But I never paid much mind to Daiba’s clinging to me or his constant blushing in my presence. I was just as oblivious. We were all young and stupid at the time. Everything was simpler then, more innocent. I knew nothing of the lords and little of hunters. I thought Wataru was off growing old somewhere. I was a young, stupid, immortal pirate, and I thought I could stay that way forever. I thought we could stay that way forever.

But when that thing that wasn’t my brother once again took over and Daiba slipped back into quiet confusion before his agonizing end, the illusion was no more. I was able to retrieve Richard after he ran but not whatever was left of Daiba. The smell of Daiba’s blood was overwhelming on my brother, and I had no time or mind to clean him off him before he returned to himself.

Once he woke, he wouldn’t stop asking where Daiba was, his voice empty and broken. I couldn’t answer. I just watched him desperately trying to scrub the flaking blood from his hands. When his request changed suddenly, it came with a sobbed laugh.

“Phantom, please. Dear god, please kill me. You can do it, right? Just destroy the heart to kill a vampire. I’ve seen you do it before.” He fell to his knees in front of me and took my hand, pulling it to his chest. “Please, big brother. Just let it end.”

I should have. Even without the knowledge of what he would become, I should have known well enough to kill him then. He was destined to die young, weak and resting in bed as sunlight warmed him through the window. We’d always expected him to slip away just like that.

He was supposed to die. He wanted to die.

But I thought I could force him to keep living once again.

I pulled my hand out of his grasp as he looked up at me with desperation. I told him that I would not let him die. 

He vanished a few days later.

That was why it was not Wataru’s fight, nor my father’s. That was why I had to be the one to kill Gido - I had to be the one to kill my little brother - I owed him death.

Of course, my family attempted to convince me otherwise. They hounded me about waiting until the next night or taking them along. Everyone else agreed except Nazca, who insisted he was enough of a bodyguard on his own. “I can take on one vampire by myself!” he screeched, though something seemed to trouble him about the idea. He hesitated, eyes rolling up in thought. “Or…two? I feel like there were two.”

“Then Gido does have a cohort,” Father said. “You definitely need to take us along then, son.”

With so little time before daylight, I gave in, bottling the urge to hit my brother and father. They didn’t need to look so smug about it. 

Wataru asked Shep to accompany us as well, and the wolf gave a nod before slipping into another room to transform. Nazca just stripped right then and there in front of all the awkwardly-averted eyes. Luckily, his transformation was over in a quick flurry of fur. He was a mangy thing, looking more scrappy dog than wolf, especially when clean-cut Shep stood towering over him.

“Alright, Nazca,” I said once we were all outside. “I want you to close your eyes and listen to my voice.”

Even with the face of a dog, he did a good job conveying his displeasure with the idea.

“Just do it.”

He did, plopping down on his haunches with his chin held high. The ear that didn’t flop over stood taut at attention.

My family all had the same face and much the same voice, so I would need to become Gido for a moment. Trying to hypnotize Nazca into giving me information would do nothing. Gido’s hypnotism was leagues beyond mine and would cancel out any attempt I made. My only other hope was pure dumb luck and muscle memory.

“Return home,” I said in as calm-but-commanding a voice as I could. “Just follow where your legs take you, and go back to base. Go where you and Sam would stay. Do as I say. Come back to me.”

He must have understood my ploy because he broke into a dash before he’d even opened his eyes. I had to hop out of the way to keep from being barreled over, and then we were all running like idiots.

Shep seemed to be the only one not struggling to keep up, racing just ahead of us with long, smooth strides. It was a good thing he was there because we would have lost Nazca otherwise. Werewolves had an advantage of speed over vampires that had us sliding into walls at sharp turns. It was a wonder we didn’t wake the whole neighborhood.

“Do you think he actually knows where he’s going?” Father asked between panting breaths.

“No,” I answered honestly. I had no doubts that this was little more than a wild goose chase.

“I’m too old for this,” Wataru wheezed.

Father barked a laugh at that, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes despite my smile.

The sound of a gunshot silenced us. A screeched yelp signaled a dog’s pain, but as we rounded the corner toward its source, I could hear nothing but a jagged growl. Despite having no voice, it appeared Shep could make his anger known, and he did look furious. His eyes were wild, blood glistening in a dark stain down his front leg. He must have been shot in the shoulder, and that amount of blood could have only come from a silver bullet, but he showed no concern; He stood over the cowering form of Nazca, the boy trembling like the wind had frozen him through. In the moonlight, his round, dark eyes shone a bright blue.

Across the square, Gido stood reloading his pistol. His lip curled in annoyance. He was alone, armed only with a single-shot gun. It shouldn’t have been this easy.

In three steps, I’d placed myself between him and the wolves. Shep’s growl faded to nothing before I heard the sound of a body hitting the ground. The pain must have gotten the better of him. Wataru called to him, his steps crossing behind me toward the wolves. Father’s steps retreated back into the alley. He had a mind to flank Gido, but I hoped I could finish things before my father or brother could step in.

“I’ve always been a terrible shot,” Gido said, checking over his reloaded gun.

“This is the end,” I said. “Enough running.”

He acted as though he hadn’t heard me. His pulse remained even while mine raced.

“What do you hope to accomplish?” I snapped.

He shrugged. “I want you to suffer. It is my nature. It’s what I was born to do.”

“You’re just-!” Just what? Some sick bastard? Some sadist? Something from my brother’s own mind?

“I am what your brother wanted.”

“Lies!” Wataru and I spat.

He waved the gun like an extension of his hand. “More or less. He bottled his hatred, so now you have me – all that desire. All I’ve ever thought and wanted was for you to suffer, Harlock. That was your brother’s last desire as a human, his first as a feral. That’s me.”

“I understand,” I said, biting back my rage. I wanted all of that to be lies. Richard was far too kind for those thoughts to be part of him, but I couldn’t blame him for hating me after all I’d done to him. “But it doesn’t mean any of your actions toward others were justified. You’ve made far more suffer than just me.”

“Well, we’re supposed to be demons, aren’t we?” His lips tugged toward a vicious grin. “You and I both know we feel a rush whenever we kill. We’re made for it. To that end, I was doing what I was meant to. The weak are meant to be culled and controlled. I’m a Lord, after all. I’m supposed to lead. I make the rules.”

“You’re outnumbered, so your laws are overturned,” Wataru said as he came to stand at my side. Soldiers always spouted the worst lines. I tried not to make my cringe too obvious.

But Gido flashed a grin. “You’re right. Let’s even things up a bit.”

I tried to throw a hand out to smack over Wataru’s damn eyes, but Gido was quicker. For hypnosis to work, we had to take in both our target’s eyes. No matter his skill, Gido could not surpass this requirement. That was why he always ran from me. The one perk of my eyepatch was that hypnosis couldn’t take hold. That had always been my advantage over Gido. That was why I should have come alone.

“Come along, big brother,” Gido purred as Wataru’s eyes glazed over like ice on a pond. “You would always take my side against Phantom. So for old time’s sake, let’s end him.”

#AU fic #Captain Harlock #Space Pirate Captain Harlock #Harlock fic #Zero fic #Nazca fic #Wataru fic #Great Harlock fic #Daiba fic #dick coyne fic #Gido fic #Shep fic

[talesofzero]

Monokeros

Wrote a little Ozma drabble to practice writing Dick. *Insert dick joke here*

~430 words

The air always tasted like dirt, the sand crunching between his teeth every time placed them together. It didn’t matter how many layers of cloth he covered his nose and mouth with, driving a fluke fish through the desert still put sand everywhere it didn’t need to be.

Then again, he was so accustomed to it that he paid little mind, instead focusing on the small arms clenched tightly around his middle. Sam’s face was buried in his chest to ward the sand away. The goggles Dick had gotten him were still uselessly sitting in the honey-toned lion’s mane of his little brother’s hair.

Dick had told his brother to sit behind him on the fluke, but to no avail. Sam had insisted on riding in front, and now hopefully he had learned his lesson. Even when they made it to the cool interior of the cave, Sam still didn’t let go.

Tugging his mask down to hang around his neck, Dick spat off the side of the fluke, ridding some of the grime from his mouth. A quick shake of his head dusted more from his hair, but he’d never be fully rid of the stuff. “We’re here,” he called, more so Sam would let go than anything.

The child peered out with one russet eye, frowning at the dim rock walls of the cave. “I don’t see nuthin,” he huffed.

“That’s because you’re not looking in the right place.” Dick held up a hand, pointing ahead of them. “There it is, Sammy. That’s our secret weapon.”

Sam whipped around to see it, half covered in tarps as the men worked on examining it. It was sleek and silver, almost the shape of a thin bullet. “Are we gonna shoot the sand whales with it?” the boy cried eagerly.

“Well, sort of?” Dick frowned. “See, the Monokeros is made to disrupt QTF fields.” Seeing his brother’s dazed expression, he tried again. “Using it, we can trap the sand whales underground.”

“How?” Sam questioned airily.

“Though science.” Dick grinned. “Now, you gotta help your bother with the science.” He threw his leg over the fluke to step off, grabbing Sam to throw over his shoulder. The boy’s voice bounced with each step.

“How do I do that?”

“You run and get people coffee who ask for it, and you don’t touch anything.”

Sam thought for a minute, his brows drawn. “What about the coffee?”

Dick laughed, bright with amusement. “Well I don’t think you should go touching the coffee either, but you can certainly touch the mugs.”

#ozma fic #sam coyne fic #dick coyne fic