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Laetitia sighed, leaning back against the cold metal of the inside of the interpol plane. They had been on the plane only for a couple of hours after fueling up, still around 8 to go, according to Fujiko. She turned to look over at the four men, gathered around and playing a card game. They had invited her, but she wanted some time to think. About… everything.
She had ample time to herself now, though, and stepped near, crouching between Jigen and Lupin.
“What are you playing?” She questioned, looking between Lupin and the cards.
Lupin seems to take a moment to catch up with her words, Jigen shouts something at Zenigata.
“Just- um. Hm… what is it called again?” Lupin holds his chin between his pointer and his thumb. “Sebenburijji… seven… I think you’d call it Seven Rummy? Or also just Seven Bridge. But I think it’s more popular as Seven Rummy. You wanna play next round? It’s basically the same as Rummy.” Lupin scoots over, making room for Laetitia to sit down. She continues to observe the card movements and how the men interact with each other.
“Hey- let’s stop speaking Japanese- for Laetitia, I mean.” Lupin seems to announce, none of the other men seem to be too pleased, not extremely proficient in any other language. Jigen seemed the best at English, other than Lupin. Even then he had an accent. Laetitia started waving her hands in front of herself.
“You don’t have to do that- I can speak Japanese fine. Well- not that fine, most of what I know is late-middle Japanese, but I picked up some modern Japanese. So I can speak and understand it. No need to go out of your way for me.” She tucked her hair behind her ear, somewhat nervous speaking the language. They seemed surprised. Then Lupin broke into a grin.
“Should’ve guessed it, with you having all those language books- Japanese ones included” Lupin laughed, hand in hair. “But really, French or English is no trouble- extra trouble- for any of us, they just like to put up a fight.” Laetitia narrowed her eyes, as much as she appreciated Lupin, sometimes she felt like a kid around him.
“Really, let me speak in Japanese, I need practice, anyways.” She crossed her arms. Lupin simply shrugged lightheartedly, and they continued the game.
Another hour had passed, Lupin resigned to somewhere in the back of the plane, finding a scratchy wool blanket to lay under, Zenigata followed not long after and the two ended up side to side under the only blanket. Laetitia had a laugh about it, but didn’t say anything, how cute!
Goemon was meditating somewhere to the right, so that left Jigen and Laetitia, they played card games, but cards were getting a little old for her.
“Jigen?” She piped up, absentmindedly cleaning up the deck and shuffling the cards while the gunslinger lit a smoke. He grunted in response, nodding his head slightly.
“Well- and don’t take this the wrong way- but I hadn’t heard of you, or Goemon, or Fujiko before… but you all seem to work with Lupin… What's with that? You seem talented enough.” Laetitia attempted to peer under the hat Jigen wore, was it tilted down on purpose to hide his expression?
Jigen took his cigarette out of his mouth and flicked it a couple times, ash collected next to his ankles.
“Well, to start off, we aren’t exactly flashy- save Fujiko, so we don’t get the limelight.” Jigen puffed the smoke out of his mouth. “Drawing attention really is mostly Lupin’s thing. Fujiko likes the right type of attention, and she knows her ways of persuading the press.” He mumbled low, aware that Fujiko could hear if he spoke too loud. She didn’t say anything.
Jigen took another drag and leaned on his arm.
“Not to mention he’s our boss- we are a team, but he’s the one with all the heist ideas. He could dispose of us without a second thought.” Jigen’s teeth glinted as he grinned, and Laetitia gasped with wide eyes. Would he really do that?
Her answer came quickly, though, from the back of the plane.
“Jiji-chan! Don’t go saying that stuff! I’d never do that!” Lupin, who Laetitia and Jigen previously thought was asleep, protested that depiction of himself. Jigen laughed, hoarse, then took another drag of his cigarette.
“I’m just kiddin’ kid. He wouldn’t do that to us.” Jigen tilted his hat back, looking Laetitia in the eyes. Something about how he said that made her think she was included in that us.
“But anyway.” He continued, “It’s also ‘cause we haven’t been grouped together all too long. I don’t know much about Fujiko’s case, but I’ve been running with Lupin about a year now, and Goemon’s been with us 7 months? Something like that. Fairly new partnership overall.”
Laetitia was surprised, they seemed to communicate with each other effortlessly, but only a year?
“So… that’s how it is, huh?” She titled her head, maybe when you find the right group of people, stuff just happens.
“Oh. Yeah I guess so.” Jigen yawned. “I mean it wasn’t easy. When I joined Lupin he practically kidnapped me from a Yakuza group I was working with. The ass- at least I got paid consistently.” Jigen rubbed his nose, “Hell, we got into so many fights, I almost left more than once.” Jigen turned to look at the back of the plane, Lupin seemed quickly asleep again.
He then leaned in closer to Laetitia.
“Now, don’t do blabbing, but I don’t think I’d dream of doing anything else. I’m fine dying working under the guy.” Jigen huffed, seeming amused with his own statement.
Oh! Laetitia thought. It’s also like that.