Post by Neptune on Mar 6, 2015 9:32:42 GMT -6
~ Present day ~
It took me a little while to convince Mattaki to come with me to the arcade. He’s not much of a gamer so when I said to him that I wanted to go, he fought it. But in the end, he could see that I really wanted him to come along. I told him about the competition happening that day. They have these tournaments every once in a while, to get people come in and spend money on their machines. With people having easy access to game consoles, why waste time and money at arcades, right? Well, I still like to go there sometimes. I don’t know why. Maybe because of the atmosphere and it’s fun. Fun to crush other people. Ha.
“This is going to be good,” I said.
“Why did you drag me to this thing?” Mattaki asked.
I thought it was pretty obvious.
“For training purposes, of course,” I said.
Mattaki chuckled. Well, it was more of a snort really.
“How is this a training session?”
I pointed to the big banner in the arcade.
“Well, they have a Tekken Tag tournament today! You and a partner team up and take on other teams! You know, just like our upcoming match?”
This time, Mattaki laughed.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“You are too cute sometimes,” he said. “Why do you pretend this is for training? This is not going to help at all, and you know why? Because this is not wrestling, it’s not even real fighting. It’s playing with a stick and mashing buttons. No wrestling skills involved.”
I glared at him.
“You’re so mean,” I protested. “This is not stupid. Don’t mock it without trying. You might learn something!”
Mattaki smiled at me with that smug look on his face. “Okay, you big baby,” he said.
I gave him the reaction he probably wanted and slugged him on his shoulder. I guess you could say that it was our thing. We tease each other a lot. Well, it’s mostly Mattaki. It’s his favourite hobby it seems. But you know, if he truly didn’t want to be there, he wouldn’t have stayed. Mattaki wasn’t the kind of guy who’d do something that he didn’t want to do.
Well, unless he was blackmailed into doing it.
Something funny happened before the tournament even started. Well, kind of funny I guess.
We were walking around when a group of people stopped us. From the look on their faces, I knew they had recognized us. I was surprised, honestly, because we only had one match so far and it was a squash. But they were excited to see us.
Thing is though, I disliked having to deal with fans outside of ‘work hours’ so I was ready to tell them off. But then…
“Mattaki Fukushuu!!” said one of the guys. “You’re THE Mattaki Fukushuu?! I can’t believe it! We’re like super fans of your work! We used to watch you all the time! You are so cool! I can’t believe we’ve bumped into you in a place like this!”
I knew Mattaki was like me, he didn’t like dealing with fans when he wasn’t being paid for it… but for some reason he enjoyed the attention. That smile of his reeked of satisfaction. The fans asked to have a picture with him, and he complied.
“This is so amazing,” said another fan. “And they gave you a personal assistant too? I’ve got to watch that show!”
“Personal… assistant?” I asked back. “You think that… I… am his personal assistant? ARE YOU SHITTING ME? I AM NEPTUNE, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES! SOME FANS YOU ARE!”
They stared back at me in shock before nodding to Mattaki, apologizing for bothering him, and ran off.
I caught my breath and looked at Mattaki.
“That was such bullshit!” I said. “They pretend to be big fans of yours and they can’t tell I’m your tag team partner? Or better yet, your fucking boyfriend? What a bunch of c****!”
Mattaki bursted out laughing. “Oh, my angry little monkey,” he said, “I paid them a couple bucks earlier to come and do this. They had no idea who I was, money well spent I’d say.”
“Wha… WHAT? Why the hell would you do that for?!”
He threw an arm around my shoulder as he kept laughing. He said, “Because that look on your face was fucking priceless.”
“That was just mean,” I said.
“Oh, come on, it’s your fault for being so gullible,” he said. “Do you seriously think people wouldn’t know who you are? Or that we’re a team? We are the best fucking team in this business. We were the best a couple of years ago and we’ll be the best now.”
I looked at him, knowing that I had already forgiven him once again for messing with me. I always did.
Then he flashed me that winning smile of his and he said, “Come on, let’s go win this tournament. You’ll owe me one after this.”
“Wait, what?” I asked. “No, no, this is training! This is for our match! You can’t claim that as a thing you did just for me!”
But the Thunder Dragon just grinned at me as he made his way to the tournament zone of the arcade. I followed him, grabbing his hand in mine.
~ Flashback ~
Following “The Road Back Part 2” by Mattaki Fukushuu
Tanaka had this very unique way of making you feel gross whenever he talked to you for more than a minute. Neptune couldn’t stand the guy. If he had his way, he’d kick Tanaka in the face until all his teeth broke to pieces. But as of today, Neptune and Mattaki were under his command, for a lack of a better word. Neptune hated it, and he knew that Mattaki hated it too.
Mattaki had been quiet on the way to the apartment from the Twin Towers Correctional Facility. And even after they got home, he was still pretty quiet. Neptune thought he was just processing what had just happened, so he let him be and went to have a shower. Neptune felt gross from dealing with Tanaka and his ribs were hurting like hell.
Neptune took his time in the shower, he had a bad day and all he wanted was to forget about everything and just enjoy the cool water washing over him. Neptune did feel like they had just made a deal with the devil, but what choice did he have? Mattaki was in trouble and they had no money whatsoever. To make it even worse, their previous loan shark had sent his goons over to remind Neptune that they still owed them money.
But Neptune was a survivor, he always had been. He knew he would deal with Tanaka the same way he dealt with the loan shark and every other rock thrown his way. He wouldn’t let it beat him, even if it threw him to the ground. He’d always get back up, always.
Once he was done in the shower, Neptune got dressed. Mattaki wasn’t in the bedroom, which surprised Neptune. He thought Mattaki would probably want to rest on a relatively OK bed after spending a night in jail. Or at least queue up for the shower.
“Mattaki? You around?”
Neptune walked out of the bedroom, and… he couldn’t see Mattaki. The apartment wasn't big at all. Looking for Mattaki didn't take more than a few seconds. Mattaki wasn't anywhere to be seen.
“Mattaki?”
Neptune glanced from side to side when something finally caught his attention. As he looked through the glass door leading to the balcony he saw Mattaki outside standing on the railing blind folded. He watched Mattaki move along the railing taking different stances and making different motions with his hands. Neptune then shook his head as he grabbed the door and slid it open.
“You're going to fall one day,” said Neptune.
Mattaki stopped moving and removed his blindfold.
“My balance is impeccable,” he said.
“Even monkeys fall from trees,” said Neptune. “Somebody told me that once.”
“Wise man, you should listen to him more often. If he were here now I’m sure he’d point out that he’s not a monkey. You on the other hand are the spitting image of a red faced spider monkey.”
“I’m just trying to look out for you jerk,” said Neptune.
“Oh I’m sorry, are you worried?”
As soon as the sentence escaped his lips Mattaki slipped and fell backwards off the balcony. A look of pure horror could be seen on Neptune’s face as he scrambled to where Mattaki fell over and peered over the edge but he saw nothing. Neptune then moved to the left side of the balcony and peered over, nothing. He then checked the right side and again found nothing except this time something was different. This time he fell to the floor of the balcony like he was shot because something thuds off of his ribs. While on the ground he turned around and found Mattaki standing there with his arms crossed.
“What the fuck did you do to me?” said Neptune.
“I gave you a little tap on the ribs with my foot,” said Mattaki.
Neptune looked back at Mattaki with big wet eyes.
“WHY?!”
“Well there's another old saying that goes ‘Never miss an opportunity to teach’, the lesson here being to always stay on your guard,” said Mattaki.
“However the main reason I did it is so that perhaps you could fathom what it’s like to worry about somebody and then feel the sharp sting of betrayal. You know, like what I had to feel when I listened to a fucking snake like Tanaka tell me that you got jumped instead of hearing it from you. Then to add the cherry on top of the shit sundae, I also get to hear from that very same snake that you signed a contract to work for him with no input from me what so ever.”
Neptune bit his lips, his eyes stung.
“I’m sorry okay, I was wrong, is that what you want to hear?” the red head asked. “I screwed up but Christ, you didn’t have to kick me.”
“I didn’t kick you, I tapped you, if I would have kicked you then your ribs would be broken.”
Neptune had his hands on his ribs.
“You mean they're not?”
Mattaki extended his hand to Neptune.
“Come on you big baby, let me wrap your ribs since you’ve probably got it done like a child. I’ll even make you something to eat that will help you heal faster.”
Neptune looked at Mattaki’s hand, then back at Mattaki.
“Is that your dickish way of saying you forgive me?”
“Only if we can also forget about my stint in the no fun hotel,” said Mattaki.
“Deal.”
Neptune grabbed Mattaki’s hand.
