Bad first Impression
Chapter 3
*Later that same night.*
Just as instructed, he came out with his hands above his head. That wasn't the only thing on display, though.
"Whoa, what the f—" one of the troopers blurted. "Why the hell are you butt naked?"
"You are one sick bastard," the female trooper said, disgust written all over her face. She kept staring at him like he was something scraped off the bottom of a shoe. Of the three troopers, one of them — quiet, observant — seemed to actually read the situation for what it was, glancing between the injured girl and the naked man without saying a word.
"What do we do with this bastard?" Troy — the one who'd ordered him out — asked, gun still trained on Kaito.
"How about asking me how my day was? Or introducing yourselves first?" Kaito said, trying to defuse things. "I don't know about you guys, but I was always taught you say hello before assuming the worst about someone you just met." He could tell exactly what they thought had happened here — that he'd forced himself on a girl he'd met minutes ago.
"Shut the f— up, you swine," the female trooper — Lana — snapped, before turning to the traumatized girl. "Why should we treat you with any respect after what you just did?" She waited for the girl to answer.
A few moments of silence passed.
Finally, a faint voice spoke up. "...My name is Chloe."
Faint as it was, everyone in the room heard it clearly.
"Alright, let's tie this bastard to the counter, use him as bait while we get the girl out of here."
"You forgot someone," Kaito interrupted, careful. All three troopers immediately started scanning the room.
"Where?" Chase — the one calling the shots — asked, tense. Misunderstandings got people killed in situations like this.
"He's outside. Take a left from the counter, open the back door, you won't miss him." Kaito shrugged. "Or her. Does it even matter at this point?"
Troy and Chase went to check.
"Your boyfriend must've been the toxic type," Kaito said to Lana, trying to figure her out — she clearly hated men on principle, so why was she running with two of them? He was hoping she'd talk.
Instead, she fired a shot that grazed his cheek.
For a second the room just rang. Kaito's hand went to his face on reflex, came away red. He looked at the blood on his fingers, then at her, more surprised than angry — like he genuinely hadn't clocked how close that had come to being a lot worse. "Noted," he said, voice a little rougher than before. "Toxic and armed."
Troy and Chase rushed back in, terrified something had gone wrong, only to find him standing exactly where they'd left him — bleeding now, but standing — the two girls untouched.
"False alarm." Chase glanced at the blood on Kaito's cheek, then at Lana, and didn't ask. "Put the gun down. Get the girl to the car."
She hesitated a beat before finally complying.
Troy told Kaito to put on something decent — they were sick of looking at him. Both Chase and Troy had clearly misread the whole situation, but their pride wouldn't let them admit it, and there was nobody left to call them out on it.
They finally left the diner with Kaito dressed in the only spare clothes on hand: a pair of heart-shaped pink briefs, a thin line of dried blood still down the side of his face.
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