“How are we going to get past them without a gun fight?”
“Easy,” he whispers.
Peering around the corner, the… four?–yes, four, dang–criminals are grouped at the end of the hall, speaking in low, muttering tones.
The revolver rests heavy in his hand, but Dennis wraps his fingers around it as he reaches a decision. They don’t have a choice–not unless they want the hostages to turn into victims.
Dennis gulps, feeling too hot under his clothes. Just his luck to not have a vest, either… “We give them what they want; one of us. I’ll give myself up in place of a hostage and we figure it out from there.”
The stubborn set of Yuugo’s jaw only juts out more and more at every new word out of his stupidly self-sacrificing partner’s mouth.
He knows it looks hopeless. There’s too many of them and as soon as they even poke a toe around the corner, they will have lost the element of surprise. Then it’ll be just the two of them and a pair of guns, facing down god knows how many trigger happy terrorists in full riot gear.
While Yuugo and Dennis are in fucking civvies. They might as well be parading around naked.
“I’m just trying to stop you from getting yourself killed for no reason!” He practically screams his next whisper as he gets right back into his partner’s face. “Don’t talk to me like I don’t know what’s up! We’re not going to just give up like that without fighting. I’m not going to just give you up like that–!”
Yuugo breaks off when Dennis suddenly stops speaking and he finds himself eyeing him in trepidation. A quiet Dennis is a contemplative Dennis. And a contemplative Dennis means Trouble.
“…what…? What is it?” he says in a harsh whisper, suspicion lacing every part of his features. “You look like you’re thinking. I don’t like it when you’re thinking.”
Somehow, the words come out completely serious.
He doesn’t have the time or space to pout at his partner’s comment.
The vent. It’s further down the hallway they’re hiding in, a little past the set of bathrooms and what looks to be an employee-only room. It’s located high up on the wall, but Dennis can likely reach it without an issue, and it’s wide and seems spacey. Enough room for someone to move around in if they try.
Undoubtedly, this vent must leads to other numerous vents all across the mall. If they’re lucky, it could lead to even the hostage’s room.
…He’s really thinking about doing this, huh?
“Yuugo,” Dennis starts. “I need you to answer this question seriously, okay? Don’t get upset, either. All right?”
Already feeling the resolve of going through with a plan, Dennis takes his eyes off the vent and fully turns back to his partner. Yuugo’s suspicious is completely uncalled for; he’s never done anything bad to require suspicion of all things. But he’ll have to question him later, after they save the hostages.
“Out of the both of us,” he says, hoping his comrade sees he’s serious, “which would you believe can cause the most distractions? And who is flexible enough–” no, wait, he already knows he’s more flexible than Yuugo “”–who’s quiet enough to sit still in a confined space without creating any noise whatsoever?”
Yuugo’s unease grows by the second as Dennis continues to look thoughtful. He nearly jumps when he’s suddenly addressed, his tension at an all time high.
“Sure…?” he says, staring at him askance. But the part about promising not to get upset only makes it sound sketchier. He has to resist the urge to fidget as Dennis’s eyes start to land on various objects, still with that same thoughtful gaze. It’s giving him the hives.
Although what he does end up saying is even weirder than he could have imagined.
“E… Eh?!” he bursts out, even though he immediately claps his hands over his mouth to muffle the sound. He counts to five like Rin tells him to before he speaks up again in a harsh whisper. “Wait, wait, wait. You’re sayin’ you want one of us to go out and distract those guys, while the other one, I dunno, climbs up into that?” He punctuates the last word by jabbing a thumb towards the ceiling vent.
“That’s like some weird 007 shit, isn’t it? There’s no way it’ll work!”
Though to be honest, Yuugo really doesn’t think he can move without making a sound. That was more up his partner’s alley with his freakishly cat-like movements.
