GetBackers Fan Fiction ❯ You've Bewitched Me! ❯ I like you better than cookies ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
“Where the hell is he?!” Ban stormed across the lawn of Madoka’s home and screamed in Shido’s face two hours after he went out in search of Ginji.

“What are you talking about, snakes for brains? Are you already drunk at this time of day?” Shido yelled back and flailed the rake he had been using.

“Don’t play coy with me, Monkey Boy! Ginji! Tell me where he is! He’s got to be here! You’re hiding him, aren’t you?!” He poked an accusing finger at Shido's chest.

“What kind of hallucination are you having? Ginji isn’t here! What’s the matter? Did he finally come to his senses and take off?” He taunted while mentally making note of how Ban had scattered his pile of neatly raked leaves.

Ban shot him a glare that would have made any other mortal’s knees buckle and bladder weaken. However Shido only saw it as a sign that Ginji may actually be in trouble.

“Is he really lost? What have you done now?!”

“So he really isn’t here?” Ban ignored Shido's actual question. He still eyed him skeptically, since he wouldn’t trust Shido to tell him even if Ginji was there.

“No, he isn’t. I haven’t seen Ginji all week.” Shido insisted, and returned an equally sour face. Ban knew exactly what Shido was thinking, and he would have loved to punch that look right off of his face, but there was no time for that now. He had to find Ginji first.

He’d come back to pulverize Shido later.

“How can a person be so irresponsible that they lose a fully grown human being?” Shido demanded.

Ban twitched. “I didn’t lose him! I just don’t know where he is right now!”

“That’s the same thing you moron!”

“No it isn’t! It’s not like I forgot where I put him; he took off on his own! I--Ugh, never mind that!” He stopped short and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. “I don’t have to explain anything to you. If you don’t know where he is then I don’t have time to waste standing here arguing with you.” He flatly informed him and turned to be on his way.

“So he did take off on his own, then? If you’ve done something to hurt him…” Shido warned before Ban could take one step.

“I haven’t-” Ban stopped himself again. If he hadn’t hurt Ginji he wouldn’t be in this situation right now, would he? “This has nothing to do with you, so don’t stick your giant nose where it doesn’t belong!”

“Nothing to do with me? Ginji was our leader-!”

“Yes, was your leader!” Ban interrupted. “But he’s my partner now, so will you just accept it already and back off?! Quit acting like Ginji’s your baby and I’m the cradle robber! I assure you, once I find him I’ll be able to straighten everything out and all will be hunky-dory again. Now if you don’t mind, I have more important things to do.” He side-stepped Shido and escaped to Miss Ladybug before Shido could react.

Shido grimaced at the retreating car and placed his fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly, causing a flock of birds to ascend from the surrounding trees in the yard and spread out into the sky. “Regardless of whatever terms you and Ginji are on now, Midou…" Shido spoke after the car was out of sight. “For Ginji’s sake, I think I’d better keep an eye out for him myself.”

He saw to it that his birds had dispersed to go in search of Ginji, and then went back to grumpily rake up all the leaves Ban had messed up.

-:-

“Well that was a complete waste of five minutes.” Ban thought irately as he drove. He had probably given too much information to the enemy, and now Shido was most likely organizing his own search party for Ginji. Stupid Shido… And stupid Ginji, too – trust him to turn a perfectly good day into a mission to get back his own partner from absolutely nobody. He continued to grumble to himself and drive on, backtracking to see if he had missed any spots in the city.

He had already checked all of Ginji’s usual favorite spots with no luck, but if he was supposedly on foot he couldn’t have gotten too far away. The sight of the Limitless Fortress looming on the horizon had briefly caught his eye, but he barely even gave it a second thought. Nothing this trivial would make him hide out there so it wasn’t even worth investigating…right? Ban banged his head on his steering wheel in frustration.

“He’s probably right under my nose, too.” He griped silently as he slowed down for a group of young trick-or-treaters passing by. “In any case it’s getting pretty late and it looks like it'll rain tonight.” Ban began to get even more concerned, noting the heavy black clouds that slowly crawled across the sky. “That bastard better not have gone back to wait at the Honky To-” His flow of thoughts were interrupted when he spotted a very familiar blonde haired and green-vested figure leaning against an iron fence, watching the kids scattered along the street as they collected their candy.

“Aa-HAAAAA!” Ban exclaimed in victory and slammed down on the brakes, making the car spin up against the curb, and he jumped out.

“Ginji!” He screeched in the not-so-far distance between Ginji and himself. “You had me worried half to death! What were you thinking, running off like that without a word? What are you doing here, anyway?” He chided him.

“Can’t a guy have some time alone once in awhile?” Ginji answered without giving so much as a glance towards Ban. “What does it matter to you what I do anyway, porcupine head?”

“You’re angry?” Ban brilliantly deduced.

However, Ginji just slumped over and sighed. “No, I’m not angry…just embarrassed.”

“Embarrassed? Why?”

“Why? Gee, I dunno, maybe because I made a complete fool of myself today?”

“You didn’t make a fool of yourself…”

“Yes I did. I thought it would be a good idea to tell you how I felt, but…” He shrugged dejectedly.

Ban slowly came closer to stand next to Ginji. “I know my initial reaction earlier was bad…but that was only because I didn’t know the card was from you.”

“…You said it was stupid. And…crap…”

“I…Ginji, I didn’t mean…” Ban stuttered and trailed off. What perfect timing for a loss of words.

“I know it’s more common to give stuff like that on Valentine’s Day, but that’s still three and a half months away.” Ginji tried to defend himself. “Halloween was the next holiday coming up and I couldn’t wait any longer to tell you how I felt. I know it’s kind of dumb to tell your business partner that you love them, but sometimes, the way you act, I…well, I thought it wouldn’t be impossible for you to have the same feelings for me.”

“It’s not impossible, Ginji.”

It took Ginji a few seconds before he looked over at Ban with the expression of someone who had just been informed that the sky is blue. “Wha’?”

“I’m really sorry that I can be such an asshole sometimes. My reaction to your card earlier…I didn’t mean to be such a jerk about it.”

“Wha’?” Ginji still gaped at Ban, dumbly.

“I felt really bad when Natsumi told me about the trouble you went through to plan it all. I wouldn’t have reacted that way if I had known it was from you.”

“Who else did you think it could have been from?” Ginji finally snapped out of his trance. “Natsumi? Paul?”

Ban barked a short laugh. “I didn’t know. It just never crossed my mind that it might have been you. I never thought you could be interested in me.”

Ginji looked stunned. “Are you kidding? I was worried I was being too obvious…” He shook his head in confusion. “But wait. What exactly are you saying?”

“You big dummy, I’m saying that I love you, too.” He got Ginji in a headlock and gave him a noogie.

“Waah! Ban-chan!” He escaped from the attack. “Are you being serious?” Ginji looked at him straight in the eyes.

“Driving around for five hours searching every nook and cranny of the city to apologize to you is pretty damn serious, don’t you think? You’re a very troublesome person, you know that? I put myself through some very unpleasant things just to find you!”

“Is that how Shido got involved in this, too?”

“Hmnh? What makes you think Shido…?” Ban trailed off, wondering if he really wanted to know.

Ginji motioned towards the dozens of crows perched in a row on a power line several feet away that stared at them intently. “Just a hunch.”

“That son of a bitch!” Ban cursed passionately. “I knew he was gonna-“

“You didn’t actually tell him what happened, did you?”

“Why would I tell him anything that’s none of his business? I only went over there to see if that’s where you went. But when I was talking to Shido, something suddenly occurred to me that I had plenty of time to think about during all that time I spent driving around.” He spoke a bit more softly.

“What is that?”

“That the reason I get so worked up when he talks about how you should leave me and go back to work with him is because I always want you by my side. It makes me sick to my stomach to think of you choosing to work with him again over me.”

“Ban, you know I’d never leave you to go back to them.”

“I know that, but it still gets on my nerves the way he never shuts up about it.”

Ginji smiled gently. “Shido’s possessive, but I think deep down he understands that my feelings for you are different than the feelings I have for him and my other friends. I mean, his crows have been watching me for hours, but he hasn’t showed up here once. If he didn’t recognize my desire to be with you, he probably would have tried to take advantage of this situation to convince me to go stay with him.”

Ban puckered his mouth and grunted thoughtfully. He still thought Shido was akin to a pile of dog crap, but maybe Ginji was right about a few things. At least he had had the decency to leave the situation in Ban’s hands. “Thanks, Monkey Trainer. You owed me one.” He smirked briefly before turning his full attention back to Ginji. “Well anyway, this is supposed to be a joyful time for us, so let’s not talk about Shido anymore, okay?”

A loud crack of thunder was immediately followed by a sudden downpour not two seconds later.

“Ban, I think it’s raining.”

“I knew it looked like rain tonight. Well let’s not stand out here like dumbasses!” He grabbed Ginji’s wrist to lead him to the parked car.

“Ahh, home, sweet home.” Ginji settled into his seat.

“Oh! I almost forgot.” Ban retrieved something wrapped in tissue paper from the dashboard and held out the small object for Ginji to take. It was a little pumpkin cookie with icing hearts drawn in place of the traditional triangular eyes. It was pretty dorky, but something in Ban’s gut told him Ginji would like it.

The corners of Ginji’s mouth lifted slightly at the sight of it. “Did you actually go out of your way to buy this?”

“Nah, I stole it from some kid that was trick-or-treating a couple of blocks back.”

Ginji looked back up at Ban and raised an eyebrow.

“Um…I’m kidding. I wanted to get you something to bribe you into forgiving me.”

“Thanks, Ban-chan!” He grinned, right before he broke the cookie in half right down the middle.

“You broke my cookie!” Ban exclaimed.

“Well you ripped my card.” Ginji retorted and offered one half of the cookie to Ban. “Here, maybe you were just cranky earlier because you were hungry.”

Ban accepted the offer, but only held on to his half and gave a sidelong glance to Ginji who cheerfully stuffed the remainder into his mouth. He knew he should just thank his lucky stars, but he still somehow felt guilty that Ginji always forgive him so easily. But it wasn’t something he wanted to dwell on too long; he shook his head to clear it and gulped down his half of the cookie before Ginji could change his mind about sharing it.

“Ah, Ginji, you’re nothing but an overgrown kid, aren’t you?” Ban sounded amused when he spotted a few errant cookie crumbs stuck to the corner of Ginji’s mouth. He leaned in and touched the spot with his own lips before Ginji had time to register what was happening.

“Hnh? Ban-chan!” He felt his face heat when Ban pulled away and licked his lips free of the crumbs.

“What? Don’t like it?”

“Th-those were my crumbs!” He cried and lunged at Ban’s mouth in return. He enthusiastically took his lips and sucked on the lower one which was now free of crumbs, but was even more delicious to Ginji. He felt Ban’s mouth form into a smile against his.

“Excuses, excuses. I know you really like me better than cookies.”

“Mmhmmn…” Ginji was muffled by Ban generously giving him more of himself. His hands roamed until they found and grabbed hold of the dampened and limp spikes on Ban’s head and he pressed forward to deepen their kiss. The mood in the little car continued to change drastically since just thirty seconds ago as Ban focused more intensely on the softness of Ginji’s lips and the faint sound of his heart pounding over his breathing. He could even feel Ginji’s heartbeat through his lips if he pressed on them just right.

Ginji couldn’t hold back the whimper in his throat and Ban took advantage of his parted lips to let the tip of his tongue in for a better taste.

“Hmm, so sweet.” He commented, and moved to kiss up his neck and behind his ear.

“What’re you doing? You were just getting to the good part.” Ginji lamented the sudden loss of lips on his.

“Haven’t you ever heard of the saying ‘haste makes waste’?”

“I didn’t know that saying applied to this type of thing.”

“Ginji, that saying applies especially to this type of thing.” He went back to leisurely planting small kisses on his face.

Ginji sighed and surrendered to the slowly paced caresses. He returned his own by running his fingertips up and down Ban’s back slowly and tickling the skin under the layers of fabric with the light touch, like the was trying to remember every dip and curve of him.

Ban’s hair stood on end and he got goose bumps on his arms from the ticklish sensations. Despite what he had just said Ginji was making everything from his belly button to his knees ache, especially the area in between. This wasn’t a very good omen for his strategy, seeing as they had only been at it for a couple of minutes.

“Damnit Ginji, why do you have to be so sexy?”

Ginji giggled and gave Ban a peck on the lips. “We’ve got all the time in the world, Ban-chan. But there isn’t any reason why we can’t just dive right in.”

“All the time in the world, you say?” Ban considered this fact.

Ginji nodded. “Aah. Let me stay with you forever, okay, Ban?”

Ban cranked down his window enough to shout at the few remaining crows that still watched them from their perch across the street. “Did you catch that, you little bastards?! Now go fly back to your master and tell him to put that in his pipe and smoke it! HAHAHAHAHA!” He cackled maniacally as he rolled the window back up to avoid getting drenched.

“Um…Ban-chan?” Ginji laughed nervously at the outburst. Ban turned back to Ginji and pulled the lever on his seat to make him fall back into a more conducive position.

“What do you say we do just dive right in to this ‘forever’ deal then? The night is young after all, and so are we…there’s plenty of chances to take our time later.” He propositioned as he crawled over to the passenger seat and straddled Ginji's hips.

“I agree. Because, you know Ban-chan, sometimes too much teasing can make waste, too.” He pulled Ban down on top of him and reached for his zipper.

The end!


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I hate fade to black endings but the rest isn’t suitable for this website HAHAHAHAHAHA :’(