Washed Up [Part 4]
Nov. 4th, 2016 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
esp_dragonFandom: Noblesse
Summary: This'll be fun, Tao said. It'll be something you've never done before, Tao said. Chin-mae agrees that breaking into an aquarium on a night out is something he's never done before.
He wouldn't consider stealing an octopus as fun though. Or what happens afterwards because of it.
Contains: M-21/Tao
Rating: PG-13
Genre: General
Word count: 2,552
Total word count: 9,744
Status: Work in progress
Tao's heartbeat was beating harder in his chest with every step he took towards the aquarium. He was going to be fine. Completely fine. This entire thing was going to go smoothly and he would walk straight out again.
Should.
Maybe.
Tao's stomach was crushing itself, like it was trying to wring every scrap of food he'd eaten in the last day and force it out of him. But at least he didn't feel sick. And he probably shouldn't have thought that.
Right. One step at a time. That's what he had to do. Take it one step at a time.
He already knew the exit routes he could take and the codes to certain doors, so he already had an escape plan if he needed it.
Hopefully he wouldn't.
There didn't seem to be any problems when he got in, not when Hyun-woo was right there waiting for him at the front door and Tao was led through the building.
"About time you got here," Hyun-woo grumbled, his hands shoved in his pockets.
"Hey, I may be a computer wizard, but there's not much I can do about traffic." Especially when the storm still wasn't letting up, and it must have been a week now since it started.
There were a couple harried people rushing about, but that was about it as far as Tao could see. No-one spared them a second glance, not that Tao expected one, and they had to have been busy with the trashed room.
"Bet you didn't expect to be back so soon."
Tao chuckled, and he was sure the sound was an octave higher than it usually was. So long as Hyun-woo didn't know that, he'd be fine. It wasn't noticeable. "Yeah, I don't want to return to a place once I'm finished; it means I've done my job."
"Apparently you didn't this time."
Tao winced. "Yeah," he murmured. He shook his head. He was being too quiet. "And I'm gonna get to the bottom of this!" This was both personal pride at stake, and finding out what the hell happened last night.
"We found out when it happened," Hyun-woo said, "but the how-"
"Is my job," Tao finished, lips twitching. "Which is why I'm here."
There were more eyes on Tao once they entered the security room, but no-one from the night before as far as Tao could tell. "Hey, a couple new faces." Tao grinned and waved. He got a few nods in return, and he walked over to where the wall of cameras were. There was a guard sitting in front of it, frowning over one particular screen.
Tao squinted at it and then blinked. It was the room he and Chin-mae had been in the previous night. The timestamp in the corner said it was just before midnight and Tao broke out into a cold sweat, watching the seconds tick by.
Oh, fuck oh fuck oh fuck. Was this it? Had he been right? Had he just been brought in to reveal he was the culprit before getting ganged up on?
The door was on the other side of the room, but there were at least four bodies between him and it and there was no way he would be able to dodge every single one of them.
The hair at the back of his neck prickled, and Tao stared at the room, keeping his eye on Takeo. All that should have shown up was the tape that moved to the top of the tank and Takeo going missing. That was it. He eyed the bottom left corner of the screen — that was where the door he and Chin-mae had entered through, so if anything showed up there, he had to bolt.
When had they left anyway? They'd gotten home after midnight, but the roads had been dead (just like he was going to be in a few minutes, and brain, shut up) and-
Tao jerked, his eyes widening.
His jaw dropped open. "The hell-?"
When he'd been told the room had been trashed, they meant it. The camera angle could see at least four different tanks of varying sizes, Takeo's right next to the large sink that was probably there to help wash affected animals.
They were all gone between one frame and the next, the floor flooded with water, the taps on the sink ripped out that steady streams of water were gushing out of them. That wouldn't have been enough to save the fish on the ground, most of them still flopping about in an attempt to keep breathing.
A few minutes. That was all that the cameras had missed the intruder by. If Tao had set his timer just a couple of minutes less, then they could have seen who had done all this.
Had he really allowed the intruders in? The other option was there was a fault in his system and that wasn't true, so... Shit.
How close had it been? How close had it been to him and Chin-mae lying there alongside the dying fishes?
If Takeo hadn't hurried them along... Shit. He had to keep his breathing under control, he was starting to breathe too quick and too shallow.
"Daaamn," Tao drew out, trying to keep his hands unclenched. "That's a lot of damage." His voice sounded like a squeak to him, and if he could just pretend that was from shock at the destruction rather than the sheer terror at the fact he'd been so close to death the night before. "Do you know why they did it?"
"They're fucking vandals," Hyun-woo said with a sneer. "They just wanted to 'make their mark'."
"How many rooms were destroyed?" Tao asked, glancing at the other cameras. The rooms on screen seemed untouched.
"Just this one."
Tao paused, and then turned to look at him. "What? Seriously?" But... That room wasn't anywhere near the exits or entrances. Why would someone go specifically to that room just to bust it up when there were a ton of other places they could have gone to first? Especially the shop.
This was too...mediated. There was too much focus.
"What about the fish?" Tao asked, trying to make them out as the fishes' struggles lessened. "Were any of the fish stolen?" What was the reason for this?
"Most of them are accounted for," Hyun-woo said. "The only one that's missing is the octopus, and well." He grimaced. "He could have been taken -though I'm not sure why- or he squeezed himself into a nook and died there."
"Oh." Tao turned his attention back to the cameras, looking through them again. Nothing had been taken, so the only reason for that was to specifically destroy that room?
What if... Tao tapped a finger on the back of the chair. What if whoever had done that had done it to protect him and Chin-mae, to hide what they'd done?
But how could they have known what he was planning?
"Hmm," Tao hummed. "Maybe I'll be able to find something once I take a look." He wouldn't. That was the problem. For him to find out who did it would mean he would have to expose himself and Chin-mae, and no way was he going to do that either.
"Then we'll leave it to you."
The guard in the chair stood up and yelped when he passed Tao. Startled, Tao took a step back.
"Jeez," the guard said, shaking a hand in the air. "You have to be a real security technician if you've collected that much static electricity in you."
"Thaaat would be a bad thing for me," Tao said, sliding into the chair after him. Ground himself, find metal. Oh right, the chair. "I'd end up frying all my equipment if I collected electricity like that," he said, touching the metal part of the chair. "And that would be the opposite of what I wanted." Frying any of his equipment would suck to replace.
"Heh, fair enough."
Tao listened to the guards milling about behind him, talking about their day and okay. He could do this. He took a few calming breaths and then started pretending he was trying to find out what had happened.
* * *
Tao turned onto his street, sending one last text to Chin-mae, keeping it in his hand once it was sent.
He'd survived. That was the main thing. And he survived with no-one at the aquarium any wiser about what had happened (and been given a discounted payment for it too). Not bad considering all he'd been doing was just tidying up a few things. Not that they would know that.
He hadn't found anything to suggest how the other people had gotten in or tricked his system though and he'd spent hours poring over everything, trying to find one weak spot. He hadn't.
So that meant he'd let them in.
Shit.
The only thing that could make it worse — Tao checked his phone when it buzzed and breathed a sigh of relief. Chin-mae and Takeo were fine. Chin-mae was still responding to his texts (unless that was someone else, but Tao was sure he could tell when someone was trying to impersonate him) so he was still alive.
That reassurance didn't stop Tao from expecting to see his front door kicked down and its contents strewn everywhere. But the door was locked and when Tao poked his head in after opening it, he could hear Chin-mae moving around.
"Hey," he heard Chin-mae say and for the first time since he'd walked out, Tao relaxed, everything coming out in a whoosh. He stayed at the door after he'd closed it, just leaning on a wall, until Chin-mae came through, a concerned look on his face.
"Not dead," Tao said with a weak smile, and Chin-mae went over to him.
"Yeah, I can see that." Chin-mae nudged his elbow, but didn't try to herd him anywhere. "I made tea."
"You're the best, you know that?" Tao said, leaning on Chin-mae instead. He made a much better rest, especially when Tao could feel his breathing, feeling that he was really there.
"I have to be to keep up with you."
Tao chuckled at that, just basking in Chin-mae's presence. "You admit I'm the best?"
"You're saying you're not?"
Tao grinned. "Of course I am!" Taking in a deep breath, he straightened and stretched, hearing a couple joints crack. "So it was a fun ride," Tao said, taking his shoes off. "They didn't suspect me but..." He blew air through his teeth. "You were right," Tao said. "We almost ran into them by a few minutes by the looks of it."
Chin-mae sucked in a breath and Tao nodded.
"Sooo yeah." Tao brought out the bag of crabs he'd bought. "Here's my thank you, Takeo."
[Eh?] Takeo swam over to them, studying the bag. [But I didn't-]
"If you hadn't told us to get our butts in gear..." The image of the room flashed in Tao's mind again. "They hadn't let me anywhere near it but the security camera was enough." A shiver rippled up his spine just thinking about it.
[What happened?]
"They smashed up the entire room," Tao said, dropping the crabs into the tank. "Glass and water everywhere. And the best thing is, nothing was taken. They just went into the room to destroy everything in there and then left."
Chin-mae's eyebrows shot up. "That's...interesting."
Tao nodded. "Right? The only thing missing was an octopus."
[...Oh.] Takeo grabbed one of the crabs but didn't eat it immediately like he had with the shrimp. [Then, if you hadn't rescued me when I had...] Takeo's tentacles were curling up under him. [You saved my life.]
Tao blinked and peered into the tank. Damn, he'd been so distracted about what could have happened to him or Chin-mae, he hadn't thought about what that would have meant for Takeo.
He smiled at Takeo. "We saved each others' lives, so we're even."
A light exhale. [Yes, we are.]
Tao squinted at Takeo, then glanced at Chin-mae, who gave him a questioning eyebrow raise. That almost sounded like Takeo was going to invoke some kind of life debt or something. Like he was a sea prince.
Well, if Chin-mae hadn't picked up on it, Tao wasn't going to bring it up. Because Takeo was most likely an escaped lab experiment.
"Time to get out of these wet clothes," Tao said, picking at them. The house was warm, but not that warm.
"When you're done, be ready to learn," Chin-mae said, his voice wry, and Tao paused, glancing back at him.
"Huh?" What would Chin-mae think he needed to learn? Chin-mae hadn't mentioned anything recently, had he...? Or was this something to distract him?
Tao looked over at Takeo waving at him. [You're ah...]
"Loud," Chin-mae finished for him, leaning back against the wall next to Takeo's tank. "We both are."
Tao blinked. They hadn't been yelling earlier — okay, he might have been, but he was fairly sure he hadn't been and if he hadn't been yelling, then how else had he been...loud... Tao studied Takeo and then dropped his jaw open. "Oooh, you mean like-" He waved his hands towards his head. "You can hear our thoughts?" Which Takeo had said earlier, and Tao's thoughts had not been quiet in the morning that was for sure.
Takeo bobbed his head. [Yes.]
And by lesson that had to mean- Tao beamed. "You're going to teach me how to quieten them?"
Another bob of the head. [It seemed to work with Chin-mae so I think I understand it better now.]
"You already did it with Chin-mae?" It wasn't that surprising seeing how long Tao had been away. And if Chin-mae got a lesson, there was no way Tao would decline getting the same treatment. Not that he was going to anyway.
"All right then!" Tao gave him a thumbs up. "I'll be back in a couple of minutes," he said, before dashing to the bedroom.
* * *
Chin-mae looked at where Tao had disappeared through for a few seconds before glancing at Takeo again. Tao could have been a lot worse but for the moment, he seemed fine for the moment.
"How many times did you eat today anyway, Takeo?" Tao asked a few minutes later, looking a lot less like a drowned cat when he re-emerged.
[I didn't count,] Takeo said, [but Chin-mae gave me food often enough I wasn't hungry.]
"I told you I could do internet searches," Chin-mae said, snorting. It hadn't been hard to look that up and at least he could check with Takeo whenever he wanted food.
"I know you can, but you know... Oh!" Tao jerked like he'd been startled, and then he grinned. "Now I can make up that list!"
Good. If Tao was starting to think of that, that meant he wasn't as worried anymore.
"But-" Tao said, clapping his hands, "that'll be after learning how to shield my thoughts. Your student is ready to learn, teacher," he said, leaning in to wave his fingers at Takeo.
Chin-mae didn't stop his small smile as Takeo folded his tentacles and started teaching a rapt Tao.
He settled down to listen as well, to make sure he had all the basics down.
Summary: This'll be fun, Tao said. It'll be something you've never done before, Tao said. Chin-mae agrees that breaking into an aquarium on a night out is something he's never done before.
He wouldn't consider stealing an octopus as fun though. Or what happens afterwards because of it.
Contains: M-21/Tao
Rating: PG-13
Genre: General
Word count: 2,552
Total word count: 9,744
Status: Work in progress
Tao's heartbeat was beating harder in his chest with every step he took towards the aquarium. He was going to be fine. Completely fine. This entire thing was going to go smoothly and he would walk straight out again.
Should.
Maybe.
Tao's stomach was crushing itself, like it was trying to wring every scrap of food he'd eaten in the last day and force it out of him. But at least he didn't feel sick. And he probably shouldn't have thought that.
Right. One step at a time. That's what he had to do. Take it one step at a time.
He already knew the exit routes he could take and the codes to certain doors, so he already had an escape plan if he needed it.
Hopefully he wouldn't.
There didn't seem to be any problems when he got in, not when Hyun-woo was right there waiting for him at the front door and Tao was led through the building.
"About time you got here," Hyun-woo grumbled, his hands shoved in his pockets.
"Hey, I may be a computer wizard, but there's not much I can do about traffic." Especially when the storm still wasn't letting up, and it must have been a week now since it started.
There were a couple harried people rushing about, but that was about it as far as Tao could see. No-one spared them a second glance, not that Tao expected one, and they had to have been busy with the trashed room.
"Bet you didn't expect to be back so soon."
Tao chuckled, and he was sure the sound was an octave higher than it usually was. So long as Hyun-woo didn't know that, he'd be fine. It wasn't noticeable. "Yeah, I don't want to return to a place once I'm finished; it means I've done my job."
"Apparently you didn't this time."
Tao winced. "Yeah," he murmured. He shook his head. He was being too quiet. "And I'm gonna get to the bottom of this!" This was both personal pride at stake, and finding out what the hell happened last night.
"We found out when it happened," Hyun-woo said, "but the how-"
"Is my job," Tao finished, lips twitching. "Which is why I'm here."
There were more eyes on Tao once they entered the security room, but no-one from the night before as far as Tao could tell. "Hey, a couple new faces." Tao grinned and waved. He got a few nods in return, and he walked over to where the wall of cameras were. There was a guard sitting in front of it, frowning over one particular screen.
Tao squinted at it and then blinked. It was the room he and Chin-mae had been in the previous night. The timestamp in the corner said it was just before midnight and Tao broke out into a cold sweat, watching the seconds tick by.
Oh, fuck oh fuck oh fuck. Was this it? Had he been right? Had he just been brought in to reveal he was the culprit before getting ganged up on?
The door was on the other side of the room, but there were at least four bodies between him and it and there was no way he would be able to dodge every single one of them.
The hair at the back of his neck prickled, and Tao stared at the room, keeping his eye on Takeo. All that should have shown up was the tape that moved to the top of the tank and Takeo going missing. That was it. He eyed the bottom left corner of the screen — that was where the door he and Chin-mae had entered through, so if anything showed up there, he had to bolt.
When had they left anyway? They'd gotten home after midnight, but the roads had been dead (just like he was going to be in a few minutes, and brain, shut up) and-
Tao jerked, his eyes widening.
His jaw dropped open. "The hell-?"
When he'd been told the room had been trashed, they meant it. The camera angle could see at least four different tanks of varying sizes, Takeo's right next to the large sink that was probably there to help wash affected animals.
They were all gone between one frame and the next, the floor flooded with water, the taps on the sink ripped out that steady streams of water were gushing out of them. That wouldn't have been enough to save the fish on the ground, most of them still flopping about in an attempt to keep breathing.
A few minutes. That was all that the cameras had missed the intruder by. If Tao had set his timer just a couple of minutes less, then they could have seen who had done all this.
Had he really allowed the intruders in? The other option was there was a fault in his system and that wasn't true, so... Shit.
How close had it been? How close had it been to him and Chin-mae lying there alongside the dying fishes?
If Takeo hadn't hurried them along... Shit. He had to keep his breathing under control, he was starting to breathe too quick and too shallow.
"Daaamn," Tao drew out, trying to keep his hands unclenched. "That's a lot of damage." His voice sounded like a squeak to him, and if he could just pretend that was from shock at the destruction rather than the sheer terror at the fact he'd been so close to death the night before. "Do you know why they did it?"
"They're fucking vandals," Hyun-woo said with a sneer. "They just wanted to 'make their mark'."
"How many rooms were destroyed?" Tao asked, glancing at the other cameras. The rooms on screen seemed untouched.
"Just this one."
Tao paused, and then turned to look at him. "What? Seriously?" But... That room wasn't anywhere near the exits or entrances. Why would someone go specifically to that room just to bust it up when there were a ton of other places they could have gone to first? Especially the shop.
This was too...mediated. There was too much focus.
"What about the fish?" Tao asked, trying to make them out as the fishes' struggles lessened. "Were any of the fish stolen?" What was the reason for this?
"Most of them are accounted for," Hyun-woo said. "The only one that's missing is the octopus, and well." He grimaced. "He could have been taken -though I'm not sure why- or he squeezed himself into a nook and died there."
"Oh." Tao turned his attention back to the cameras, looking through them again. Nothing had been taken, so the only reason for that was to specifically destroy that room?
What if... Tao tapped a finger on the back of the chair. What if whoever had done that had done it to protect him and Chin-mae, to hide what they'd done?
But how could they have known what he was planning?
"Hmm," Tao hummed. "Maybe I'll be able to find something once I take a look." He wouldn't. That was the problem. For him to find out who did it would mean he would have to expose himself and Chin-mae, and no way was he going to do that either.
"Then we'll leave it to you."
The guard in the chair stood up and yelped when he passed Tao. Startled, Tao took a step back.
"Jeez," the guard said, shaking a hand in the air. "You have to be a real security technician if you've collected that much static electricity in you."
"Thaaat would be a bad thing for me," Tao said, sliding into the chair after him. Ground himself, find metal. Oh right, the chair. "I'd end up frying all my equipment if I collected electricity like that," he said, touching the metal part of the chair. "And that would be the opposite of what I wanted." Frying any of his equipment would suck to replace.
"Heh, fair enough."
Tao listened to the guards milling about behind him, talking about their day and okay. He could do this. He took a few calming breaths and then started pretending he was trying to find out what had happened.
Tao turned onto his street, sending one last text to Chin-mae, keeping it in his hand once it was sent.
He'd survived. That was the main thing. And he survived with no-one at the aquarium any wiser about what had happened (and been given a discounted payment for it too). Not bad considering all he'd been doing was just tidying up a few things. Not that they would know that.
He hadn't found anything to suggest how the other people had gotten in or tricked his system though and he'd spent hours poring over everything, trying to find one weak spot. He hadn't.
So that meant he'd let them in.
Shit.
The only thing that could make it worse — Tao checked his phone when it buzzed and breathed a sigh of relief. Chin-mae and Takeo were fine. Chin-mae was still responding to his texts (unless that was someone else, but Tao was sure he could tell when someone was trying to impersonate him) so he was still alive.
That reassurance didn't stop Tao from expecting to see his front door kicked down and its contents strewn everywhere. But the door was locked and when Tao poked his head in after opening it, he could hear Chin-mae moving around.
"Hey," he heard Chin-mae say and for the first time since he'd walked out, Tao relaxed, everything coming out in a whoosh. He stayed at the door after he'd closed it, just leaning on a wall, until Chin-mae came through, a concerned look on his face.
"Not dead," Tao said with a weak smile, and Chin-mae went over to him.
"Yeah, I can see that." Chin-mae nudged his elbow, but didn't try to herd him anywhere. "I made tea."
"You're the best, you know that?" Tao said, leaning on Chin-mae instead. He made a much better rest, especially when Tao could feel his breathing, feeling that he was really there.
"I have to be to keep up with you."
Tao chuckled at that, just basking in Chin-mae's presence. "You admit I'm the best?"
"You're saying you're not?"
Tao grinned. "Of course I am!" Taking in a deep breath, he straightened and stretched, hearing a couple joints crack. "So it was a fun ride," Tao said, taking his shoes off. "They didn't suspect me but..." He blew air through his teeth. "You were right," Tao said. "We almost ran into them by a few minutes by the looks of it."
Chin-mae sucked in a breath and Tao nodded.
"Sooo yeah." Tao brought out the bag of crabs he'd bought. "Here's my thank you, Takeo."
[Eh?] Takeo swam over to them, studying the bag. [But I didn't-]
"If you hadn't told us to get our butts in gear..." The image of the room flashed in Tao's mind again. "They hadn't let me anywhere near it but the security camera was enough." A shiver rippled up his spine just thinking about it.
[What happened?]
"They smashed up the entire room," Tao said, dropping the crabs into the tank. "Glass and water everywhere. And the best thing is, nothing was taken. They just went into the room to destroy everything in there and then left."
Chin-mae's eyebrows shot up. "That's...interesting."
Tao nodded. "Right? The only thing missing was an octopus."
[...Oh.] Takeo grabbed one of the crabs but didn't eat it immediately like he had with the shrimp. [Then, if you hadn't rescued me when I had...] Takeo's tentacles were curling up under him. [You saved my life.]
Tao blinked and peered into the tank. Damn, he'd been so distracted about what could have happened to him or Chin-mae, he hadn't thought about what that would have meant for Takeo.
He smiled at Takeo. "We saved each others' lives, so we're even."
A light exhale. [Yes, we are.]
Tao squinted at Takeo, then glanced at Chin-mae, who gave him a questioning eyebrow raise. That almost sounded like Takeo was going to invoke some kind of life debt or something. Like he was a sea prince.
Well, if Chin-mae hadn't picked up on it, Tao wasn't going to bring it up. Because Takeo was most likely an escaped lab experiment.
"Time to get out of these wet clothes," Tao said, picking at them. The house was warm, but not that warm.
"When you're done, be ready to learn," Chin-mae said, his voice wry, and Tao paused, glancing back at him.
"Huh?" What would Chin-mae think he needed to learn? Chin-mae hadn't mentioned anything recently, had he...? Or was this something to distract him?
Tao looked over at Takeo waving at him. [You're ah...]
"Loud," Chin-mae finished for him, leaning back against the wall next to Takeo's tank. "We both are."
Tao blinked. They hadn't been yelling earlier — okay, he might have been, but he was fairly sure he hadn't been and if he hadn't been yelling, then how else had he been...loud... Tao studied Takeo and then dropped his jaw open. "Oooh, you mean like-" He waved his hands towards his head. "You can hear our thoughts?" Which Takeo had said earlier, and Tao's thoughts had not been quiet in the morning that was for sure.
Takeo bobbed his head. [Yes.]
And by lesson that had to mean- Tao beamed. "You're going to teach me how to quieten them?"
Another bob of the head. [It seemed to work with Chin-mae so I think I understand it better now.]
"You already did it with Chin-mae?" It wasn't that surprising seeing how long Tao had been away. And if Chin-mae got a lesson, there was no way Tao would decline getting the same treatment. Not that he was going to anyway.
"All right then!" Tao gave him a thumbs up. "I'll be back in a couple of minutes," he said, before dashing to the bedroom.
Chin-mae looked at where Tao had disappeared through for a few seconds before glancing at Takeo again. Tao could have been a lot worse but for the moment, he seemed fine for the moment.
"How many times did you eat today anyway, Takeo?" Tao asked a few minutes later, looking a lot less like a drowned cat when he re-emerged.
[I didn't count,] Takeo said, [but Chin-mae gave me food often enough I wasn't hungry.]
"I told you I could do internet searches," Chin-mae said, snorting. It hadn't been hard to look that up and at least he could check with Takeo whenever he wanted food.
"I know you can, but you know... Oh!" Tao jerked like he'd been startled, and then he grinned. "Now I can make up that list!"
Good. If Tao was starting to think of that, that meant he wasn't as worried anymore.
"But-" Tao said, clapping his hands, "that'll be after learning how to shield my thoughts. Your student is ready to learn, teacher," he said, leaning in to wave his fingers at Takeo.
Chin-mae didn't stop his small smile as Takeo folded his tentacles and started teaching a rapt Tao.
He settled down to listen as well, to make sure he had all the basics down.