I Surrender My Rib

Can't even wait till I finished 5k before posting this chapter for this fandom. So… I've been writing various fics for 15 minutes each day and though it is not efficient to update quickly, at least I'm continuing my stories and not letting them die in Data1 (D:).

*singing~ I had a dream we were sipping whiskey neat*

Summary : No, he's not going to defect, no, he's not going to declare his love all of a sudden… It will be a confusing journey, one he won't even wish for anyone to go through, because how can you choose between two sides that both have your friends, and perhaps more? Tatsumi/Esdeath

. o . 0 . o .

Everyone was assembled in the living room. Susanoo was in full gear and not in his apron, so Tatsumi knew it must be an official meeting of sorts. He scooted away from Chelsea when she sent him a side grin, shuddering as he recalled her innocent expression while declaring she's going to cut it.

The sadist.

At least she's not antagonizing Mine this time.

"So, what's the agenda now, Miss Najenda?"

Najenda inhaled another smoke. "We're going to infiltrate the Palace."

Akame straightened. Everyone waited for their leader to explain.

"Tatsumi's information regarding the Jaegers and mapping the present Capital and Palace has been extremely valuable yet at the rate we're going, just because we have two new members isn't going to cut it. With more teigu users on the enemy's side, our chances are becoming slimmer, especially as they're now banning in a united front to fight against us. We've been forced into dealing with straight up fights for weeks now, and it costs us our friends."

Najenda gave them a hard look and continued, "We're assassins. We stalk and kill our enemies in their sleep, not fight them head on like soldier pawns. I've discussed this with the higher-ups and I agree that we can't take any chances in fighting more teigu-users or even chancing another ambush. We got lucky yesterday because Stylish didn't train his human experiments, they were merely quantity and cannon fodders. If any of you have been believing that you stand a chance in another ambush like that I suggest you get your heads out of the clouds. Next time, it may be the entire member of Jaegers."

Seeing that her subordinates got the point, she asked Susanoo to lay out a map of the Capitol. Tatsumi saw that it was full of marks, and neat notes he recognized as Najenda's writing. Numbers. Codes for battle plans they've worked out for hours.

Najenda pointed a section of the Palace—the dungeons. "I dislike this place. I avoided it because some the people chucked in were innocents who slighted Honest and I couldn't do anything about it." And whenever she tried, a couple of times she convinced some to be pardoned but then look back and think if she had missed other innocents too but she couldn't do anything because she doesn't know them or didn't have time to investigate more thoroughly and whoever she tried to recruit for investigations, they turned out to be half-hearted at best. It had been so depressing. "And now I regret it. Though the dungeons look like they're not taken care of, their defenses actually always got improved. To modify them though, they'll need to be broken down for a bit. Luckily, it'll be vulnerable for four days tops."

"You want us to ambush through them?" Leone smirked.

"No, the Revolutionary Army wants us to rescue the prisoners and if we're lucky, get tons of recruits."

"Wait," Tatsuya interrupted. "I know some are wrongfully convicted, but… not all of them are good people. Innocents, yeah, but most are probably pacifists and can't fight. And not to mention, some must be rightfully convicted. What if they get loose?"

"A good point, but worry not. We won't simply recruit them or let them free. We'll give them examinations as we heal them and deem those that may be recruited, which will be freed, and which will be executed should they not repent and actually deserve torture for whatever crime they have committed. Although this won't be our job, this for the Army. We'll simply be transporting them to the Army with Gareki."

Ah, yes, Gareki. The Manta Ray Danger Beast that Najenda somehow managed to tame—and didn't that make her more awesome, to actually tame a normally mindless, primal, killing machine beast.

"I'm wondering she named it flower gravel? Maybe it's its snack?" Lubbock whispered to Leone.

"And after all this time a brain actually exists in your head."

"Hey!" Lubbock hissed in anger. He let out an off when Akame jabbed his stomach with her elbow in an effort to remind him to pay attention.

"Okay, so who's going?" Mine asked.

"All of us, except Susanoo," Najenda turned to her teigu. "You'll be guarding our headquarters."

"Wait, all? You too? But your face—"

"Will be disguised thanks to Chelsea here." The girl in question grinned. "I, Mine and Akame will have our face masked. Unfortunately, maintaining another person's disguise is taxing on her energy, and Chelsea can only manage four people at once, which is a feat of itself. Previous owners of her teigu can't even maintain two at once. Thankfully, the rest of you haven't had your faces on the wanted posters so you're safe. No one will recognize you."

Tatsumi, Tatsumi thought, next time, don't omit things from your report. Holy hot cola, Najenda didn't know that Tatsumi's face was familiar to the Jaegers. All of them. He reported all he knew of the Jaegers' abilities which he spied from afar, which was true, he wasn't invited in the raid Esdeath planned… but he didn't told them that he had spent dinner and breakfast and lunch with them, omitting it because the conversation that ensues was mostly about his apparent relationship with Esdeath and and him laughing with them over Wave's awkwardness.

What was he supposed to say, I like the Jaegers, they weren't so bad with the obvious exception concerning the retarded imperial soldier girl and her mangy mutt?

He really should confess.

. o . 0 . o .

That drabble that just out-babbled your fingers with no plan whatsoever.

Notes:

"There is a problem though… this is Tatsumi we're talking about," Chelsea said.

"Wait.." Realization dawns on Mine. "You don't suppose he'll..."

"He'll make friends," Leone concluded dryly.

"And we all know how fiercely he protects them," Lubbock finished.

"...That idiot better not do something drastically stupid."

.

Esdeath's room was still the same. The bed placed by the window – as if she's hoping to get assassinated. Well, assassination attempt. Tatsumi swore that woman was some kind of Fighting Goddess! Tatsumi was toeing the line of believing that she alone can survive a one hundred personnel army.

.

Oh, right… I left out the part about Esdeath being in love with me… cause I wasn't sure…? Cause I don't wanna deal with Lubbock?! But, but mainly because I'm not sure how to say it.

.

It wasn't noticeable before, but after Tatsumi dropped in their lives – whenever the boy wasn't around, Esdeath's off-putting insincerity was much more unnerving.

.

"Tatsumi, are you okay?"

"Yeah." Except for the bruises and sword cuts and cracked ribs. Oh, and Esdeath's absence for a week now. The Jaegers (save for that retarded dog-loving bitch) think Tatsumi was crazy for worrying about the latter than the former. Because Tatsumi noticed. If she doesn't bother him with lessons and lectures every few hours, she would pop in after peaceful days for Tatsumi with books that were honestly more like bricks. If she doesn't try to kiss him every hour, she'd drop from the ceiling and attempt to molest him out of the blue. Tatsumi was worried that Esdeath was exchanging the daily spars for a torturous training regime.

In general, it's good to have Esdeath in his field of vision.

.

Tatsumi yawned. "Time to sleep..."

No, let's stay awake and remember every stupid decision you made in your life.

"….okay."

.

As you can see, I have SOME ideas to this AU. I miiiiight write more on this (like those above) when I have the time (or when I have this urgent need to write something light/funny).

Kind of inspired from Revenant_Crown's "A New Beginning" Kuroko no Basuke story's writing style/mood. I don't know how my brain jumped from oh awesome Akashi/Kuroko story to i'm going to write a Tatsumi/Esdeath but, well, clearly my brain worked halfway, this BARELY qualifies as a shipping story.

Anyway, a memento of your visit in the form of a review would be amazing :D

*singing~ Who's waking up to drive you home when you're drunk and all alone*