The Innocent (A 'Finder' Fanfiction)

Shadow of Pluto - 2 - Alex

'Wow! This escalated quickly', he would say to himself, he mused ... but since he had known that the evening would not end pleasantly, he had to fake astonishment and dismay instead ...

Oh well, that was not really true in fact. He was indeed pretty dismayed because there had been a tiny glimpse of hope that Asami Ryuichi would eventually get killed while fucking that slut ... Yes, there would have been some problems following this outcome, too, but he was certain he would have sorted them out in some way.

Now, sadly, it had not worked out, and thus Alex had to get back to feigning the worried ex-brother-in-arms – not that that was hard for him to accomplish. He was an extraordinarily good actor and had been for all his life. It seemed to come naturally to him. He always found the best way to trick people and the right dose to make them believe him by pure instinct

Like any other, even Asami Ryuichi was not immune to be won over by him. Nor was his brother Maxim. If both men had anything else in common apart from the same father, then it was that they were pretty bad at reading people most of the time.

They were capable of sensing fear and doubt and lies and disloyalty when it came to business. But empathy or emotions seemed to be closed books to them. In that they differed from Alex. They both felt and suffered, worried and sympathized, disliked and loathed, they simply did not get it whenever liabilities like those were directed at them. Alex, on the other hand, realized those impairments from others towards him at once, and he used them to his advantage to the fullest always. He just did not have any of that himself. He did not give a fuck about anybody in the world.

To him, this was all a game. As Shakespeare had it: 'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players'. Presently, Alex was playing them all very well – as usually.

He had been in and out of Maxim Asami's mansion in Croatia for months, without even once meeting the injury stricken Ryuichi, who was confined to his bed most of the time. The moment they had finally met had just been a coincidence – of course! But in fact, he had shown up at the perfect instant. He had stepped in the very second he had gotten his cue. The stage had been set; all the supporting cast been pushed into place. Lights! Curtains! Alex!

He had accompanied the Japanese, who still needed crutches to walk, to Warsaw, where they had been told Takaba Akihito had been found and taken into protective custody.

"Takaba who?", Maxim had asked. He had some vague idea of what his younger half-brother had been up to in Japan, but he had not mingled with puny facts and had not minded the details. The name of a lover — or whatever anybody would call the young man — had never been of any interest to him. Those relationships had never lasted with Ryuichi anyway. He took someone to bed and tossed him or her out the next day. Why even care?

Maxim hadn't even realized how much that Takaba person meant to his brother, when a gun had been pulled on him. Alex, on the other hand, had known that very instant that everything Aaron had promised him about Takaba was true. Maybe he had lost sight of Ryuichi for a long time, but at some point he had quite known him. And the gun, the urgency, the need, the fear — all those tiny giveaways that Ryuichi actually hid so eloquently had been seen clearly by Alex.

Maxim, however, had been blind, as usual, had simply shrugged and had allowed his brother to leave.

Alex instead had feigned compassion, which compelled him to accompany Ryuichi. After all, they had been comrades once. And now his friend from years back was injured and distressed. He could not just let him set out onto his journey alone.

With his hands, he rubbed his well-tanned face now in the hotel room.

"Holy shit!", he whispered in bewilderment.