GetBackers Fan Fiction ❯ All Smiles ❯ Chapter 1

RATING: PG. There are some light m/m thoughts here, but nothing big. If that bothers you, pass this by.
SPOILERS: small ones for "The Final Battle! Ginji vs. Makube X" (episode 24) and "Hot Spring Retrieval Vacation?!" (episode 26).
SUMMARY: Friends take care of each other.
ARCHIVAL/DISTRIBUTION: Anywhere, as long as you ask me first.
FEEDBACK: can be sent to Viridian5@aol.com
DISCLAIMERS: All things GetBackers are owned by Rando Ayamine & Yuuya Aoki, Kodansha, Ltd. Publishers, TBS, Inc., and KONAMI & Konami Computer Entertainment Japan. All rights are theirs. No infringement intended.

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"All Smiles"
By Viridian5
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Restless, looking for something although he wasn't sure what, Kazuki walked into the Honky Tonk and found Ginji. Since Ginji certainly qualified as something worth looking for, Kazuki sat beside him and asked, "What's wrong?"

Looking a little depressed, Ginji answered, "The Ladybug broke down out in the middle of nowhere. Ban-chan is waiting for someone to come fix it."

Which meant that Ginji had nowhere to sleep tonight, since the GetBackers currently lived in their small car. Apparently thinking the same thing, Paul said, "There will be no freeloaders sleeping here tonight. Your tab is large enough already."

"But Ban-chan says he has a job lined up!"

"Somehow most of your paying jobs turn into non-paying jobs."

"It's supposed to rain tonight!"

"No." Paul walked to the other end of the counter and read his newspaper as a shield, avoiding the puppy-eyed looks Ginji kept shooting at him.

"You can stay with me," Kazuki said.

Ginji's face returned to its usual smiling default. "Yeah!" He took on a look of gleeful cunning. "And Ban-chan isn't here to say no, either."

Proud, always calculating debts, Midou Ban didn't appreciate Kazuki's offers of food and lodging. It made Kazuki wonder how Ban justified the large tab he ran up at the Honky Tonk.

Did Ban see Kazuki as Ginji's friend, not his? He might have some justification in that. Kazuki tolerated his insults and easily wounded pride because he made Ginji smile so much, made him happy. Every smile the Volts had gotten from Ginji had been hard-won, rare and precious.

Since Kazuki missed Jubei so much, he could hardly fault Ginji for finding happiness with such a stubborn person. Maybe Ban had a sweet side too, as Jubei did, just well hidden to protect himself.

If only Kazuki could figure out why Jubei felt that he needed to do so many things alone....

Casting such thoughts from his mind, Kazuki asked, "Ginji-san, what would you like on our pizza?"

Ginji's eyes grew wide. "Our pizza?" Looking unbearably adorable, he threw himself at Kazuki and hugged him, making the two bells in Kazuki's hair jingle violently. Who would believe that this sweet, excitable... child had been and sometimes became again Mugenjou's feared Emperor of Lightning?

Kazuki loved Ginji either way, just differently. "Friends take care of each other."

After Ginji devoured his half of the pizza and most of Kazuki's share with speed and great joy, they walked to Kazuki's apartment under his umbrella. Ginji enjoyed the lightning and gave off a few sparks of his own, then laughed and apologized at how it made Kazuki's hair stand on end a little.

Once inside, they took off their soaked-through shoes, and Kazuki put the drenched umbrella in the tub and came out with towels. "Do you want to stay up or go to sleep?"

Ginji took off his socks and vest and tried to blot himself dry with a towel. "Sleep, if that's okay."

It was fortunate that most of Kazuki's hair hadn't gotten wet. It took forever to dry. "It's okay."

"Where are you going?"

"I'll sleep on the couch."

"I could never put you out of your bed!"

"It's a small bed, and you're a guest."

"We can both take the bed. We're friendly enough. If you don't mind."

Of course he would make such an offer. The Volts had often slept close together in Mugenjou for security, comfort, and affection. The world outside had different ideas on where such intimacy would inevitably lead, but that didn't matter here. And Kazuki had missed having Ginji nearby.

He'd never been lonely until he'd gone back outside. "We can do that."

"Good! Now get in!"

"I have to change for bed first."

"So?"

"I have to leave to do that. You and Ban may have stolen an eyeful at the hot springs, but I have some modesty."

Ginji colored. "I'm sorry about that. We didn't see you very well at first and thought you were a girl-- suspicious! We thought you were suspicious! We didn't recognize you at first."

"Of course."

Once he'd changed and returned to the bedroom, Kazuki unbound most of his hair, leaving only the fastening for his bells in. It paid to be cautious and armed. In any case, after so many years, it would feel strange not to have the bells and the strings kept inside them in easy reach.

"Why do you keep your hair so long if you just keep tying it together?" Ginji asked from the bed.

Kazuki settled in beside and around him under the covers, wherever there was room. "I like it, but it gets in my way sometimes."

"It's cool." Ginji wound some tendrils of it around his fingers. "Soft too."

While Raitei Amano Ginji, leader of the Volts, ruler of Mugenjou's Lower Town, had been sleek and tragic, inspiring desire, Amano Ginji of the GetBackers was adorable, inviting hugs and hair ruffling. Sometimes Kazuki thought that it said terrible things about him that he was no longer attracted to Ginji now that Ginji was happy, but he strove to see the truth in all things and had to admit that Ginji of the GetBackers seemed too much the bubbly, good-natured child to inspire such sexual interest. At least for Kazuki. Sometimes he wondered how Ban saw Ginji....

In uncharitable moments, Kazuki wondered if Ginji's happiness didn't come so much from anything Midou Ban did as from having the responsibilities and manipulations of the god of Mugenjou lifted off his shoulders.

Ginji had shouldered those responsibilities and his fears alone, unwilling to worry his friends. He'd left Mugenjou and them to save them... from him.

"Kazu-chan, am I depressing you?" Ginji asked.

"I'm depressing myself, actually."

"Stop that right now!"

So cute. "All right."

"You're smiling now. What are you thinking about?"

"Your attempts to grow your hair long." Which was not a lie, because now he was thinking of that. Ginji's innate electrical charge had made it stand out and up no matter how long it became.

Ginji had a small smile on his face as he ran his hand through his short, spiky blond hair. It somehow looked bushier when he wasn't Raitei. "I'll never have hair as pretty as yours."

"A tragedy."

"Hey, do I get breakfast too?"

If Ban didn't starve right alongside Ginji during the GetBackers' lean times, Kazuki would have words with him. As it was.... "Of course."

"Breakfast!" Ginji snuggled in closer, sending slight, pleasant tingles through Kazuki's body.

He really was too sweet. "Good night." With the gentle patter of rain and the warm presence of one of the people he loved most beside him, Kazuki quickly fell asleep.

When Kazuki woke up, Ginji still had some of his long hair wound around his fingers. Unwilling to wake him yet, contented, he closed his eyes again.

Eventually Ginji started to gently shake him awake, saying, "It's so late! What will happen if Ban gets back and I'm not there?"

"He'll wait for you."

That stopped him for a moment. Then he said, "Probably, but I want to be there to greet him when he walks in."

"Does that mean that you don't want breakfast here after all?"

Ginji grinned. "I didn't say that."

"The Invincible Ban-sama has returned!" Ban shouted as he walked into the Honky Tonk.

"Does the Invincible Ban-sama have the money to pay his debts?" Paul asked.

"We have a job. A good job!" Ban answered, then grunted as Ginji gleefully tackled him while shouting, "Ban-chan! Ban-chan!"

Kazuki noticed that Ban did as much hugging during the rough, boisterous greeting as Ginji did, though a more casual onlooker would see Ginji as the sole perpetrator. Ban asked, "What did you do with yourself last night? Not even Paul would make you sleep out in the rain."

"I spent the night with Kazu-chan!" Ginji said.

Ban twitched, then said, "Oh, you spent the night in his apartment. Good work, thread spool."

Kazuki had a name, thank you. Before he could answer, Ginji said, "Yeah, we slept together. It was great."

Ban really twitched then and looked at Kazuki, who smiled and gave him his most demure look in return, playing along with Ginji. If Ban hadn't noticed the mischief in Ginji's eyes, it was his own fault. "I took good care of him," Kazuki said as he wound some of his hair around his fingers, making his bells jingle. "I think I left him very satisfied." Outside of Mugenjou, he didn't have to resort to violence very often, so it felt good to get his aggressions out when he could, even if subtly. "He was an animal...."

Ban's purple-tinted glasses slid down his nose as his mouth opened and no words came out.

"Yeah, I demolished those eggs this morning, didn't I?" Ginji said.

"Eggs?" Ban asked, then he said, "Why you--" He put Ginji in a headlock and gave him some very thorough noogies. "Do you know what you made me think?"

"Yeah! It was fun! Ban-chan, you're rubbing the hair off my head...."

"That's what you get for toying with me."

"It's not like I lied! I did share a bed with Kazuki! He let me play with his hair too--"

Leaving them to their rough affection and inevitable bill for property damage, Kazuki walked past them and smiled at Ginji's jaunty, shouted "See you later, Kazu-chan!" He would visit Jubei. Maybe he could stay over....

***********************THE END**********************

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