A Deal is a Deal (Rei no Kaado)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Yamada blinked at how Lucius referred to him. First name, no honorific. Either the kid didn't know how honorifics worked, was trying to insult him, or for some reason thought they were awesome buddies. Probably one of the first two. The third seemed highly unlikely to Yamada. He took the paper from Lucius and placed it into his pocket.

"Well, thanks for everything. Now I've really gotta get to work, and--"

"Yamada? What the hell are you doing?"

Yamada jumped as he heard Takahashi's voice and turned toward where he'd heard the voice from. Takahashi was standing in the doorway.

"Oh, Takahashi-san! I-I didn't expect to see you in so early," Yamada said. Takahashi scoffed and walked forward.

"I'm always here early," Takahashi growled. He stopped and looked toward Lucius. "And what the hell are you doin' here?"

[mugenginga]

Lucius jumped a bit at the shout as well. Or as far as anyone would be able to tell. The "teen" was a master of false emotions. He relaxed quick enough and gave an exaggerated shrug. However, both Takahashi and Yamada would likely be aware at the thinly veiled "nervous" glances he was giving Takahashi's gun. Takahashi was in the door as well, and Lucius didn't look inclined to try and push past him.

"I was just taking care of some business," Lucius said, making an exaggerated point of not breaking eye contact with Takahashi, "You gonna let me past?"

Inwardly, Lucius was smiling like a fool. If things went just right, and he saw no reason that they wouldn't, Takahashi would deepen his grave. Lucius had marked it with his "report". Yamada was nervous as all hell, even now. So it wouldn't take much. He glanced past Takahashi as if trying to figure out how to squeeze past him without endangering himself.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Takahashi raised an eyebrow at Lucius' continued glances toward his holstered gun. What the hell? He looked toward Yamada, who seemed to be rather nervous. Well, Yamada was always nervous, but this was more nervous than normal. He looked back toward Lucius.

"Business, huh. Alright kid, what the hell did you tell Yamada?" Takahashi growled. Ugh, he knew that this blond-haired kid was trouble from the start. He didn't like him at all. It looked like he was trying to stir up some kind of trouble, though what kind Takahashi had no clue.

[mugenginga]

Lucius glanced at the gun again. He seemed a bit tense as Takahashi addressed him. He gave a glance to Yamada as if to imply his point being made. In truth he was gauging where Yamada was at. He didn't know just how well his next ploy would work as he gave a determined step forward. He just figured it would aid in making the man before him seem paranoid.

With that step foward, he made it impossible for Yamada to see his face. He kept a firm fix on Yamada's life energy and position. If the man so much as twitched towards him he'd reverse the effect. He was looking Takahashi in the face as he spoke. That wasn't the biggie. He ever so slightly raised his energy. No normal human would sense that. What Takahashi would see, however, was that his pupils had slit into something more cat-like. His voice was normal, though.

"I just told him the truth! You were freaking out back there!" He sounded rather indignant, and his voice shook just a bit, as if he were trying to fight past fear.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Takahashi hadn't moved as Lucius stepped forward. But as the teen's eyes slitted, he'd taken a step back and his face had paled. Those eyes weren't human. That kid... wasn't human. This kid couldn't be the same kid he'd seen in the Onigafuchi-Hinamizawa. Somehow, somewhere, some demon had appeared in the kid's place.

And even though Lucius' voice was normal, Takahashi was hearing the words slightly different, if only because of how freaked out he was right now.

"'Course I was freaking out! Adachi had just tried to kill me! So what the hell did you tell him!?" Takahashi said. His voice managed to carry his panic rather well.

Yamada was officially freaking. Oh man, the kid had been telling the truth. Takahashi really was losing it.

[mugenginga]

"What the hell did I tell him!? What the hell are you saying!? I just told him you were freaking out over demons and babbling over that Adachi guy trying to kill you! Man, you really do need help! You're fucking insane, aren't you!?"

Lucius sounded mildly panicked as well. It was somewhat understandable. This teenager was in a yelling match with a man with a gun. And from the story he'd told Yamada, the man was unbalanced, thought Adachi was trying to kill him, and had a twitchy trigger finger to top the whole mess off. Lucius let his eyes return to normal before he took a nervous step back.

"Look, I'm sorry! Just don't shoot me!"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Takahashi couldn't believe what was coming out of Lucius' mouth. The kid (demon, Takahashi reminded himself) was technically telling the truth. But he wasn't telling the whole truth. It was something like those old stories of faeries he'd heard from some of the Westerners he'd met on this job. They were obligated to tell the truth, but that didn't mean that they weren't manipulative as fuck.

"I-I wasn't gonna shoot you! Now get the hell out of this station!" Takahashi yelled. He pointed out the door...

Right at a very tired looking Adachi. Who had finally decided to come in to work. He backed up a bit.

"Uh... Hey, I can come back later," Adachi said. Oh shit, it's Lucifer. What the hell is he doing here?!

[mugenginga]

Lucius nodded quickly. He was taking quick steps towards the door. The look on his face said he didn't believe a word Takahashi was saying, but he wanted the hell out of that place. As a result he almost ran right into Adachi. He skittered back over his own feet, looking back in an apparent attempt to not run into Takahashi. It caused him to stumble a bit more, and his back hit the counter.

"Adachi! Takahashi's really losing it here! He's still insisting you're trying to kill him!"

Right over the top of Lucius' fairly panicked and almost concerned speaking, Adachi would hear voices in his head. Lucius', but distorted more like the tone he'd used when he'd told Adachi the man was his. That same demonic distortion, and very demanding...

"If you don't want to end up in prison, just play the fuck along, Tohru."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Adachi's eyes widened at Lucius' words. To Yamada, it looked like he was freaking because Takahashi thought he was trying to kill the older man. But in truth, it was because of the distorted voice he was hearing in his head. Adachi backed up a little further at that. Shit. Well, fine. He could act just fine.

"Takahashi-san, I told you, I didn't do anything!" Adachi said. His voice sounded fairly panicked. Takahashi wheeled on Adachi.

"Like hell! You pushed me into that TV in the back room!" Takahashi yelled. "If it weren't for that bear, I'd still be stuck over there!"

"T-Takahashi-san, I really don't know what the hell you're going on about!" Adachi said. He backed up even further. By this point he was halfway out the door again.

Okay, Yamada was convinced now. Before Takahashi could say anything else, he pulled a pair of handcuffs off of his belt and cuffed Takahashi's right wrist. Before Takahashi had a chance to react to that, he pulled the hand around so that he could cuff the other one.

"Sorry, Takahashi-san, but I gotta do this for your own safety and the safety of everyone else. I really don't want you hurting Adachi-san," Yamada said. Takahashi struggled against the cuffs.

"Yamada, what the hell are you doing?!" Takahashi growled. Adachi blinked.

"Uh, Yamada-san, what's going...?"

"Takahashi-san's suffering from this thing we've taken to calling Hinamizawa Syndrome. You haven't been around here long; you wouldn't know about it. Basically, guys from the same area as where I came from end up losing it. I think he'll be fine after he takes a much needed vacation, but I think he really needs to get the hell away from you, Adachi-san," Yamada said. Adachi blinked.

That worked a lot better than I expected, Adachi thought to himself. He was still wondering what Lucifer was doing here. No, he was probably trying to protect him somehow. He said he didn't like people "breaking" his "property." And Takahashi had been trying to convince the station he had tried to kill the man. Lucifer had probably trying to convince him otherwise.

"Dammit, Yamada, I don't have Hinamizawa Syndrome! Let me go!" Takahashi growled. Yamada ignored him and looked toward Lucius.

"Hey, kid, you should probably go. Me and Adachi-san can handle things here," Yamada stated.

[mugenginga]

"Good boy, Tohru."

Lucius nodded quickly. By this time a few strands of hair had worked themself free of the holder. They were hanging in front of his face, but he didn't seem to notice or care. He glanced at Takahashi with a bit of a nervous look and took a wide path to get around him. He also took a route that put him behind Yamada rather than Takahashi. He squeezed out past Adachi, who had made enough room to get out by moving back a few times. Once he was out of the station he walked a lot quicker, turning out of view of even Adachi first chance he got.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Adachi didn't let it show, but he was a little ticked off at how Lucifer had worded that. Like he was some kind of dog. Well, he was Lucifer's property now. It was almost sickening how he'd adjusted to that concept. Well, at least he wasn't being possessed... Some small comfort, though.

"So, what do we do with him now?" Adachi asked Yamada. Yamada shrugged. Takahashi had stopped struggling by now, but he still looked pissed off.

"Wait for someone else to get here? To be honest, I never thought Takahashi-san would snap," Yamada said.

"I didn't 'snap', as you so kindly put it," Takahashi growled. "I'm perfectly sane. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not hearing footsteps that aren't there." But you are seeing people with weird eyes, Takahashi thought morbidly.

"Well, I just wanna be safe. You looked about ready to attack Adachi-san there. We can talk later once some of the other guys show up. In the meantime, why don't you hang out in here?" Yamada led Takahashi to another room, the same one Takahashi had gotten pushed into the other side through. He switched the light on and undid Takahashi's handcuffs once he was inside the room. "Alright, just hang out in here for a bit, Takahashi-san."

Before Yamada closed the door, Adachi flashed a smirk at Takahashi. Takahashi's eyes widened, and he returned the smirk. So this had been part of Adachi's plan all along.

Adachi hadn't expected Takahashi to return the smirk. His expression returned to normal when Yamada looked back toward him. He hadn't expected the events of the day, but at least something had gone right.