Chapter Text
Greed kept running as he heard the sounds of the shooting behind him.
Gun in one hand, gym bag full of cash in the other, he ran around a corner and stopped, catching his breath.
This was bad.
This was very very bad.
He had decided to do this weeks ago, he had planned this, damn it! He was usually a very impulsive person, but this thing he had thought through, and it had taken weeks to arrange. And yeah, maybe a few weeks was still very little time to plan to leave his own mob family, robbing them blind in the process, but for Greed was still a lot of time to wait and think after making up his mind.
This was just his luck! When he was about to take the money and leave with the forged documents and the necessary contacts, the fucking police came in.
Just his fucking luck.
Still, better a raid now than two weeks ago, when he would have been forced to take part in the fucking shooting.
Still, if they had waited just one more day it would have been perfect!
Damn it!
And now he wouldn’t even be able to go back to the clean getaway car he had prepared. Also, he was sure someone noticed him flee both from the police and the mob.
The gunshots were getting closer.
Fuck.
He needed to get away from there now.
He could hear steps behind the corner. Shouts.
Greed didn’t know if it was police or mob but he sure knew he didn’t want to stick around and find out.
He needed to flee right fucking now.
Looking around he saw a big road with little to no people but many moving cars.
Twenty feet from him, though, there was a car parked at the side of the road.
That would have to make do.
No time to think, he sprinted.
There was a person inside, damn it. He tightened his grip on the gun and went on, no way he could go back now.
He opened the passenger’s door, got in, pointed the gun at the driver and talked in the firmer way he could at a time like this.
“Drive, right now, go.”
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The moment he entered the car everything started to get insane.
Given his, quite understandable, hurry he looked up to the other person’s face only after he finished his sentence.
They turned out to be a startled looking Xingese kid. They stared at each other for a few moments before Greed moved his gun closer to him and repeated: “Now.”
The kid’s stare went from him to the gun to the gym bag so clearly full of money that Greed could have used a dollar sign bag and be more discreet, to his gun again before settling on his face.
Then the weirdest fucking thing happened.
The guy grinned.
“Right now?”
“What.”
“You want me to go right now?”
Was he mocking him?
He pointed the gun directly against his temple as a response.
The guy fucking smiled wider, did a mocked salute and started the car.
“Sir, yes sir.”
They were out the parking spot and into the traffic only moments before Bradley turned the very corner Greed had rested by seconds ago.
So he was the one running behind him, good call running away even if not in the car prepared for him. If Bradley was there, risking to dirty his perfect reputation of a politician, it meant the situation was really actually serious.
Greed looked outside the window just in time to see his half brother notice the car moving and then its passengers. He couldn’t help but grin as he saw, for the first time in his life, a stunned expression on the guy’s face.
Guess he hadn’t expected Greed to betray that asshole of their father. Or hadn’t expected him to get away with it.
That face alone was almost worth all the risks of his desertion.
They were out of that road and out of sights in seconds.
Greed had been wrong, though. That was the moment everything went truly crazy.
Still looking at were Bradley vanished, lost in the movements of the traffic behind, he heard a voice beside him (he had almost forgotten he wasn’t alone, even with the car moving and the cold feeling of the steel of the gun in his hand and all)
“So, where should I take you?”
“Huh?”
He turned to see his... well Greed may as well call him what he was… his hostage, politely smiling at him.
“Where do you want to go?” The guy repeated, slowly, like he was talking to a particularly slow child, and not to the man that just kidnapped him at gunpoint.
“Ehm… Just drive out of here. Fast!” Then he added, unintelligently, waving the gun “Or else...”
He got an unimpressed look in response. Was he being judged by the brat he just abducted?
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“What isn’t?”
“Driving fast. I’m assuming you were running away from the police, right there. With all the gunshots and the sirens I heard. Not a good idea to break traffic laws if that’s the case.”
“Well, it’s not a good idea getting caught by the mob either.”
“Oh, so you’re not one of them?” He was talking like… like if they were two strangers in line at the dentist office chatting up to avoid boredom.
“Just shut up and drive okay?”
“Sure.”
“...And don’t break any traffic law.”
The dumbass grinned.
“Sure.”
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Now that they were well out of sights, he decided to get a better look at his driver.
His first impressions had been fairly right. He was a Xingese twenty-something years old, long black hair tied into a seemingly messy ponytail. He cast a sideways glance and smiled at Greed when he saw him looking.
“My name is Ling, by the way. If you want to tell me yours I can stop calling you 'Hot armed stranger' in my head.”
What the fuck was wrong with this guy?
Well, at least Greed knew his motivations now.
“You know, kid, you don’t need to do the whole ‘talk to the kidnapper so he sees you as a person and doesn’t kill you’ bit. I’m not going to hurt you, I’ve no intention of killing you and I don’t care if you’ve seen my face or any other crap movies told you is important to do in this situations.”
“For someone who says he’s not going to hurt me, you wave that gun an awful lot”
Why did he keep seeming so unworried by all this? Was he just that good at pretending?
“What can I say? I gesture a lot, I’m a gestures kind of guy. I was in the mob until like fifteen minutes ago, maybe I’ve got Italian blood…”
“That’s funny! You’re funny! Also, just a suggestion, you could put the gun down. I’m cooperating, there’s no need for any of that”
“And I am supposed to just believe that?”
“Did I gave you any reason not to believe me?”
Greed thought about it a little.
“No, you didn’t… Why didn’t you?”
“Maybe I just want to break the monotony of my life and you look interesting enough.”
“I look interesting enough so you just go with being abducted? What if I said that you need to drive me all the way to the other side of the country?”
The kid, (what was his name?) Ling, honest to god, shrugged.
“Fine by me.”
“You know, people normally reject abductors stealing their car at gunpoint…”
“Eh, this car is big enough for three, even four of yous” he thought about it for a second “if they squeeze a little” he amended.
“You’re insane.”
“I’ll take it as a compliment, Mr 'Hot armed stranger'.”
“Oh my God, this is just my life. The police shows up the moment I planned my escape from the mob and now I’ve abducted an insane person to drive me.”
“Eh, I can say the same about me. I was chilling in a parking spot and a hot madman with a gun showed up out of nowhere. Can you tell me where to go now?”
“Turn left at the next intersection, let’s get out of town from East then go West. Just to be sure, if somebody’s following us”
“Mmmm next intersection? Are you sure? I’d turn the one after...”
“Yes, I’m sure, do as I told you.”
“Okay, okay if you’re sure.”
He followed his instructions and went down the exact road Greed wanted him to take… until they met some orange street signs.
“Fuck! ‘Road work ahead’”
Ling gasped. Then looked at him like today was his birthday and Greed had just given him the best present in the world.
“Ah... yeah?! I sure hope it does!”
What.
“What?”
“Come on! The vine!”
“The what?”
Ling stopped the car abruptly. Some angry dude surpassed them blowing the horn like his life depended on it.
“What do you mean what?” He turned toward him looking more shocked than when Greed entered his car.
“Did I tell you to stop?”
Ling ignored him and started to search his pockets frantically. “Yes yes shoot me, whatever, but first,” he fished out a phone and started typing. “Watch this.”
Greed found himself with a phone in his hand and a six seconds clip playing. He looked up at Ling watching him closely and expectantly.
Millennials…
Also, Greed wanted to kick himself. Forgetting to take the phone away from a hostage, rookie mistake. He should be ashamed of himself.
Also, he decided that the vine thing was not worth addressing.
“I’m keeping this.” He wiggled the phone now in his possession. “Don’t want you to call anyone or something.”
“LOL, call? I wouldn't make a phone call if my life was on the line… which... hey it’s pretty much the situation I’m in now, I guess, right?”
“Shut up. Your life is not on the line, idiot, just go back to driving.”
“Aye aye…” After they went back to the middle of the increasing traffic (due to the fucking road works) “I should be angry you took it…”
“And you’re not?”
“No, I have been an idiot. And so have you.”
“Excuse me?”
“You should break my phone, and yours while you’re at it. You know, GPS…”
“I have a burner, I’ve been planning this, you know.”
“You’ve been planning to steal a random car with someone inside?”
“Not everything went according to plan, okay? I had to improvise.”
“Okay okay, still, you should break mine.”
“Why would anyone want to track you? They don’t know I’m with you.”
“... well… eh, maybe someone saw you.”
Fuck, maybe the brat was right.
“Bradley.”
“What?”
“King Bradley maybe saw us.”
Ling tensed up a little.
“...The politician?”
“Yeah, he saw me take this car… he may get information about you, now that I think about it…”
“Bradley was there?”
“My sweet brother? Why yes, he was”
“I’m sorry, your brother? King Bradley's your brother?”
“Eh, half-brother.”
Greed placed the phone in the dash and smashed it with the butt of the gun. Ling cast him a few quick glances, smirking, as he threw the phone out of the window.
He thought about it for a few minutes then shrugged and pocketed the gun. Ling laugh made him turn around.
“See, now we’re just two unusually hot friends going on a road trip!”
“We really aren't.”
“You don’t think you’re hot”
“I’m gorgeous, thank you very much. That’s not what I meant.”
“Wait… you don’t think *I’m* hot?”
“I think you’re weird.”
“But also good looking, right?”
“How is this a priority for you, in a moment like this? Anyway, I don’t trust you, you’re being too helpful.”
“You’re changing the subject… And what, you would have preferred an uncooperative hostage?”
“I can understand not being cooperative, I cannot understand whatever you’re doing.”
“So why did you put your gun away if you don’t trust me?”
“Eh, it could be a long time before we part ways, I don’t want to spend all of it pointing a gun at you, it’s tiresome. Also, we’re in the middle of the city, in the middle of traffic, if by chance, somebody looks inside this car, they would see you being held at gunpoint.”
“It would be a lot easier to leave me on the side of the road and go on by yourself, then… less dangerous for you.”
“And let you call the police on me the second I don’t have you in sight?”
“I wouldn’t do that!”
“Yeah, I believe you so much. And why do you sound...disappointed when talking about me letting you go?”
“I... think of this as an adventure! This day has been… something... but now I’m on a road trip! I’ve never been on a true honest to god road trip!” he started to jump on his seat. “ We should buy snacks!”
“We will not buy snacks. I honestly think you don’t really understand the situation you’re in, kid.”
“Oh, Mr. 'Hot armed stranger' I think I do. You assumed this is the wildest thing that has happened to me today… honestly, that’s bold of you!”
“Hum? Okay, I’ll bite, it’s not like I’ve got anything else to do… What happened to you today?”
“I just quit my job.”
“Oh wow, so much more intense than being kidnapped by a mobster…”
“You said you’re not a mobster anymore-”
“Still… where did you work?”
“The Yao Company”
The Yao company rang a huge bell inside Greed mind. The CEO Xing Yao was one of the most prominent ‘business associates’ of Bradley. In a few days, they planned to move the better part of the company’s money in a Caiman account and declare fraudulent bankruptcy leaving most of his employees without jobs and months of late salaries.
Greed looked at the kid and wondered if he should tell him what a huge bullet he just dodged.
Naaa, he wanted to be right far more than help this brat understand how nuanced his situation really was.
“Wow… quitting a corporate job… so much adrenaline…”
“You’d be surprised… Hey! In some way, we both quit our jobs today! Man, what a coincidence, we’re so similar!”
“Yeah, yeah, we’re practically the same person…”
They stayed silent for a while, with the exception of some directions Greed gave now and then on what turn to take. They exited the city from East and then started to circuit it to get West, like planned.
“I can’t go on, I’m too hungry”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“It’s been a weird morning and I haven’t eaten enough.”
“And it is my problem how?”
“You don’t want me behind the wheel when I’m hungry, I have a tendency to… pass out…”
Fuck… if it was true… just his luck.
“Just my fucking luck, an insane brat who cannot drive for two hours straight”
“Just switch with me, drive until we find somewhere safe to eat.”
“And leave you with free hands while I drive.”
“Oh come on, when did I give you any reason to doubt me? You put away your gun!”
“I’m regretting it already.”
“You said you wouldn’t shoot me.”
“Never said the gun was for you, I want to put an end to *my* sufferings. You’re driving me mad.”
“No, I’m driving you out of the city.”
“What did I do in my past life to deserve this.”
Ling laughed but tried again right after.
“I really need to eat, 'Hot armed stranger'.” And then he pouted, he honest to god pouted at him. “Please…”
How could this be his life? What set of circumstances led him to a moment like this?
He huffed.
“You will do no talking other than order, smile and say thank you. Nothing else. If I see you even think about warning someone…”
The brat threw his arms on the air in celebration before remembering he was driving and putting them back safely on the wheel.
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They had stopped in the drive-in of a random fast food and the brat had ordered pretty much every single thing on the menu, smiling expectantly at Greed when the girl presented them with the check.
Greed had paid and switched places with him so he could eat more easily.
At least now he could have some peace and quiet.
“I don’t like these.”
Of course, he couldn’t have.
Ling was whining, making the cuffs on his right wrist clink and moving around, as much as he could being tied up to the car door (as if Greed could let him stay free while he was busy driving).
“Stop it, at least you’re eating, as you wanted, and I’m driving, as you wanted. Keeping you here does seem to make less and less sense, now that I’m thinking about it.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“How do you know.”
“Just because…”
“Yeah sure, valid argument… I’m convinced…”
“Be as sarcastic as you want but I still know why you didn’t ditch me on the side of the road and run with the car.”
“Hmhm, sure. You know so much you don’t even know my name.”
“I don’t need to know your name Mr. 'Hot armed stranger' to know that you just want some company on this… escape… journey… adventure of yours.”
...This brat was so fucking annoying…
“Shut up and eat your food.”
Greed pushed Ling’s hand with the carton straight toward his face, sending some fries flying and making him smudge sauce all over his cheeks.
“Hey! Leave my fries alone, you monster!”
“Finally you get it!”
“You have no soul, taking your anger out on some innocent fries.” Ling shook his head.
“Shut up and hand me some.”
“You don’t deserve them.”
But he did hand the carton out so Greed could pick some of the fries out while driving.
Then, they silently set a pace (first with the fries, then with the nuggets and so on) Ling moving the cartons to his tied up hand to take some then moving it between them for Greed to eat.
Ling broke the silence again only when they found themselves way out of town.
“How does someone ends up joining the mob?”
Oh, this was the kind of small talk he wanted to have? Not weird at all…
“Why does someone quit a corporate job and is happy to be forced in a country-long road trip at your age? Aren’t you quite too young to have a midlife crisis?”
“Ahah! So you admit this is a road trip!”
“Idiot.”
“As far as being too young for a midlife crisis, it depends on how young you die, does it not?”
“No… It really doesn’t.”
“Eh… Agree to disagree. Anyway, that is not my case…”
“So why?”
“I asked you first! How did you end up mixed up with the mob?”
“Eh family reasons… Why did you take a job you clearly didn’t like?”
Ling smiled.
“Family reasons… And I never said I didn’t like it, it was just... something I had to do, quit I mean. Why did you run away from it?”
“Turns out, family isn’t that much of a reason when you hate yours.”
“Meaning?”
“I didn’t want to work for that asshole of my father anymore.”
Ling handed him his cup of soda and took his own, he then raised it in a mocked toast.
“Cheers to that! That is also my reason, told you we’re much more similar than you’d think!”
They went on eating for a little more until Ling whispered urgently.
“We have a problem.”
Greed looked around as if Bradley or his asshole father were to show up in the backseat of the car.
“What?”
Ling showed him the thing he had in his hands.
“Only the burgers are left and I don’t know how to help you eat yours while you’re driving…”
Greed blinked.
“Are you serious?”
“Well, it’s a problem.”
“It’s… Oh my god, okay, I’m full anyway with all that other fucking food you ordered, I’ll eat mine later.”
“I could… aid you with this heavy burden…”
“Do not touch my burger.”
“But I can see how this problem is weighing on your shoulders… I could make it go away in a few bites.”
“Don’t you dare, you little pissant! I’ll stop the car and eat yours too”
“You wouldn’t do that”
“Try me.”
“Okay okay, let’s not make harsh decisions now.”
“Just hand me my soda, again.”
While taking a sip, Greed found himself smirking at their antics. And maybe that was the weirdest thing of all this… road trip.
“Anyway, 'Hot armed stranger'…”
“... Greed”
“What?”
“My name… Greed.”
“Are you serious?”
“I told you I hate my asshole father, right?”
“Yeah, I can see why…”
He took a huge bite and added, with his mouth full “Anyway, Greed, there’s a cop car following us.”
“WHAT?”
He looked on the rearview mirror to see, indeed, a police car following them.
“Don’t worry, I don’t think they know who you are. They just saw you when you blew that stop sign a few miles back”
Greed took a deep breath.
“And you made us argue about a burger instead of telling me that?”
“It was important.”
“Okay, okay, nothing to worry about. They haven’t asked us to pull over yet. I’ll free your hand and you can come back to the driver seat. They’ll ask your documents but not mine and everything will be alright.”
“Aww, you trust me with that.”
“... I’ll still have my gun in my pocket.”
“You don’t need to threaten me… Anyway, it’s not going to work.”
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t show them my documents?” He said it like it was obvious.
“Why not?”
“What do you mean why n… Oh yeah, no my bad. I get the confusion. You see, this isn’t my car.”
“What”
"I stole it. I needed to run away and send a message at the same time, and steal this car could help me do both."
"What are you talking about?"
“Weeeeell, remember when I said I quit my job? It wasn’t much quitting and more like stealing more than half the company’s money and dividing it among the employees as bonuses after hearing the company was about to declare fraudulent bankruptcy…”
Greed… didn’t know how to respond to that.
“...I tried to do a little bit of redistribution of wealth if you will...”
“H-how?”
“I was kinda of the vice CEO, sort of nepotism if you ask me, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it otherwise so… nepotism because of me being Xing Yao’s son.”
“What”
“I know right?” He mimicked his head exploding.
“But… but you have the keys! Of the car”
“Yeah… I stole those too”
“From who?”
“Whom.”
“...”
“...King Bradley?”
“WHAT”
“I needed to escape. The mob was after me for pulling a stunt like that, even with me being my father's son. Fuck, I just discovered that I have have a mob-linked father! And I really don't think they'll go easy on me... Anyway, I had just changed the plates and ditched the GPS of Bradley's car when you stopped me…”
“So you planned it? Stealing it.”
“Not really, I just have a friend who’s a mechanic and she helped me last minute.”
“You’re insane.”
“I like to think of it more like, we’re insane. Just two insane, incredibly attractive guys, running from the mob and bonding.” Then he smiled. “Look,” He turned and grabbed a gym bag from the backseat of the car, half full of money. He pointed at it and then at Greed’s own gym bag full of cash. “Samesies!”