they are the hunters, we are the foxes - and we run

[hastily]

the ON THE RUN meme


Sometimes, these things happen. Sometimes, you're in just the wrong place at just the right time, or you've made the wrong (or right, depending on your intentions) person mad. Sometimes it's better for everyone if you just go. Sometimes there isn't time for good-bye.

LOST
You've managed to lose yourself somewhere out there, for whatever reason it was. Maybe you took someone with you (willingly? not?), or you found someone else who needed to disappear as badly as you did. You're in your car, or a cheap hotel, or a house by the side of the road. What else can you do but watch, and wait?

FOUND
It could have been as simple as being glimpsed at the 7-11. Your phoneline wasn't as secure as you thought. You locked eyes with the wrong person across the room. Now the house of cards is collapsing, and maybe not just your life, but the lives of everyone you love could be in jeopardy now. The walls are closing in, and your arms are giving out.

RULES
- post with your character's name and canon. if you have an on-the-run AU, or scenarios you might want to play out, mention them here.
- find others. tag them.
- and then, run.

Comments

[clouded_moon]

'Your wife sucks dick for money!" Izumo shouted after the cabbie, and rounded on Clint. He's recognized him almost immediately, of course, but his tirade had needed finishing. Now he turned to Clint. "And you, watch where you're going, or I'll start to think you're just as brain damaged as the rest of these hopeless fucks."

He grinned, though, despite his words. "I am in some serious need of coffee. You?"

[ihazanest]

"Hey now, I am as brain damaged as the rest of these hopeless fucks." He replied with a crooked smile, "Otherwise I would have high-tailed it the hell out of the country, right?"

He figured Izumo had to have heard something, aside from the fact that all of SHIELD's intel was now available to to anyone with a reliable internet connection, "But yeah, coffee. I know a place." He turned then, heading up the sidewalk, hands still in his pockets.

[clouded_moon]

"A running target's easier to see," Izumo returned, falling into step with him. "I hope it's good coffee, you have no idea how many time zones I've crossed today. I may have done some actual time travelling."

Well so maybe he hadn't, but it had been a very long day. He was tired and more than a little cranky and ready to find his stupid contact and bunk down. Or maybe he'd just crash with Clint and check in later. Well. If Clint had a place. Presumably he did, since he was here strolling the streets instead of hunkered down somewhere like a mouse in a hole.

"Gods, and after this I've got to find a place to stay. Today sucks hairy balls. How's your day been? Good until you ran into some bastard?"

[ihazanest]

"Pretty much." He agreed, not exactly cheerful, but cheery at any rate, "And you know me, I don't deal in bad coffee." This was patently untrue, if only because unless the coffee was actually terrible, Clint would probably still drink it, and chances were good that he'd drink it even if it was actually terrible, he'd just complain about it was all.

The cafe he stepped into, though, didn't seem to be the kind that served crappy coffee, not if the wide selection of hair colors, tattoos and piercings on not only the staff, but also the clientele was anything to go by.

[clouded_moon]

"The hell you say? I've seen the swill you'll drink, straight from the pot," Izumo retorted, jauntily, as he followed Clint inside. He looked around with interest, noting the door and windows, number of chairs and patrons, and muttered, "If you buy me hipster frou-frou coffee with too much sugar you'll wear it."

This was just mostly him being grumpy: he knew Clint knew he took his coffee black and unadorned, and usually very very strong. Izumo was also against paying a great deal for his coffee, because coffee could be had damn cheap. Being a spendthrift kept him out of coffee shops, most of he time.

But his little touch to Clint's elbow was gentle, a different message than his tone.

[ihazanest]

"If I do that, I'm pretty sure I deserve to wear it." HE replied, just as almost-chipper, turning an easy smile on the girl behind the counter, "Two Baptists today, Mo."

"Gonna kill yourself with that stuff one of these days," She replied, even as she rang it up, eying Izumo for a moment before adding: "Don't let him drag you into his bad habits." Both warnings had the tone of an old inside joke, far more tease than serious even despite the near-deadpan expression.

This impression was only furthered by the fact that Clint scoffed as he paid her, "Hey now, if I didn't have bad habits I wouldn't have any habits at all."

The coffee came out of a carafe on the far corner of the back counter, brushed steel that was labeled with a 'danger - corrosive' sticker. Luckily the coffee wasn't quite that strong, but it was dangerously close to it.

[clouded_moon]

At "Mo," Izumo perked up, because he used that as an undercover nickname often enough. But no, Clint had never called him that, he remembered, and he settled back feeling a little sheepish. Yeah, he was tired. Not at his best. He grinned his best, most charming grin at the woman.

"Oh, trust me, between the two of us, I think it's my bad habits he should watch out for," Izumo told her, in a conspiratorial tone, tossing in a little flirty wink. "He's the good influence in my life."

One of the better influences, at least. Izumo sniffed the coffee and nodded in approval. It smelled excellent and like just what he needed.

[ihazanest]

The woman just shook her head, though there was a small smile all the same, "See, now I don't even want to know what the two of you are going to get up to, because I kind of like not being an accessory."

Clint snorted, shaking his head as he wrapped both hands around his mug, "You know I wouldn't do that to you. Might tell you to clear out and not say why, but wouldn't go so far as to make you an accessory."

[clouded_moon]

"See? Good influence," Izumo declared, and cracked a charmingly wicked grin at her. He knew how to make it playful, not threatening, though the smile served both purposes as needed. "But honestly, I'm so tired right now I'm not up for mayhem and chaos."

[ihazanest]

Clint only barely managed to bite back his laugh at that, but he nodded in agreement, "That makes two of us."

He cocked his head towards one of the tables near the back, something away from the windows and close enough to the back hall that they could make a break for it if they had to, not that he was predicting such a thing.

[clouded_moon]

Izumo trundled his way along to the table in question, ans sat down with his back to the wall, the better to observe the rest of the clientele. He shrugged off his worn backpack and set it by his feet, out of casual kicking range. There were things that might explode in there if it were kicked.

"I see you're doing well for yourself, koneko."

[ihazanest]

"Well enough." He replied, giving a little shrug, "Figure it's because nobody knows who I am if I'm not in uniform, fine by me." He had a feeling that some people knew, but he'd already been living in the neighborhood long enough before he even became an Avenger that people were willing to overlook it. That and he didn't figure any of them thought he was a Hydra agent, and if they did, they were keeping it to themselves.

"So what brings you to the city? Or is that classified?"

[clouded_moon]

"I'm on my way home. By the long way around, but hell, I don't care. Got leave for a few weeks." Izumo cradled the coffee close and sipped at it slowly, savoring it. "Gonna find a place for a stop-over tonight, then keep going. My apartment's probably five layers deep in dust by now."

Well, maybe not. Two of his partners had keys and would probably stop by to clean every once in a while. "Haven't been home in a few months." Izumo shrugged. "Been busy."

[ihazanest]

He nodded, that was something he was familiar with, both not being home for a while and taking the long way around to get there, "You guys getting hit with any of the fallout from the whole Hydra thing?"

Only Clint would call the collapse of SHIELD and everything that had caused it 'the whole Hydra thing' in all seriousness.

"Or is it busyness unrelated to that mess?" Clint would probably offer his couch for the overnight stopover, because it wasn't like anyone else would be using it.

[clouded_moon]

"A little of both. Fun and excitement always happens when a regime falls, and we of course must be in the thick of it, the shit-stirrers we are." Izumo smiled wanly and chuckled. "I admit, I'm glad you're alive and not dangling in a cell somewhere. For a little bit it seemed the most likely option."

Factions, supporters, true members, and rivals had all come swarming out of the cracks when Hydra had stumbled. It was a cut-throat business, was organized crime, on any level and perhaps especially on that of attempted world domination.

Izumo sipped his coffee and eyed the red-headed woman with half her head shaved. She was escaping full frontal nudity by the grace of some artfully-arranged leather straps masquerading as a shirt, but her abundant cleavage was not why he was looking at her. Suspicion only, her and a handful of others catalogued as potentially agents....but she was the closest.

"Got any party plans tonight, sexy?"

[ihazanest]

"I know they're not, but I'm just going to pretend that statement and that question are directly related." He shook his head, "But no, haven't got any plans besides ordering some crappy take-out and rotting my brain with some crappy reality TV."

He gave a one-shouldered shrug, following Izumo's line of sight, making a half-thoughtful, half-appreciative sound before adding: "You're welcome to join me if you haven't got other plans."

[clouded_moon]

"The only cells I'd have you dangling in would involve party plans, yes," Izumo teased, though it wasn't his preferred flavor of things. He stayed far away from anything related to BDSM. It was just not his cup of tea. "I told I just got into town. Even I'm not that fast."

Except when he was city-hopping for just that reason.

"Though if I join you, I'm updating it from crappy takeout to decent takeout...."

[ihazanest]

It wasn't really Clint's style either, not generally, which was probably why he snickered into his mug, shaking his head.

He gave a shrug at the statement that followed, though, "Eh, couldn't be sure if you'd planned in advance, I mean, I know I don't, but I'm also a terrible role model. And fine, halfway-decent takeout. Pretty much all I've got near my place anyway. Hard to find crappy takeout in this town anymore."

[clouded_moon]

"Not this time, I didn't plan." Izumo shrugged and eyed his coffee. "You know that point you hit about three nights short of sleep and running on caffeine and extra? That'd be me right now."

He grinned, and sipped his coffee again. "There good Korean takeout near your place? Because I could do with some bibimbap."

[ihazanest]

"Pretty close, between here and there, anyway." He shrugged, "There's pretty much anything within a few blocks of here or my place, one of those neighborhoods."

It was a big part of why Clint liked the place so much, really, he could walk to wherever he had a craving for, and was a regular at most of them.

[clouded_moon]

"Oh, good." Izumo chuckled. He was gambling again: on Clint's assurance of safety, on the idea that they were not being tracked, on the trust that Clint wouldn't turn him over. That last, though, was safe a bet as any Izumo knew. The man was true, in a way Izumo admired but knew he didn't have in himself. There was strength there, in a spirit others had tried to bend to their own means. That was what they got for making him part cat, honestly!

"Did I interrupt any errands, or think we could head that way before I fall asleep in my coffee? Which is damn good, by the way." Izumo chuckled, and nudged his sneakered foot against Clint's, playfully.

[ihazanest]

"Nah, didn't interrupt anything, I was just coming here anyway." It was true, he figured that having someone else make his coffee once in a while was probably good for him, even if they made it the same way he did. Something about getting fresh air and being out where there were people so he didn't become some weird paranoid loner was really the point.

He stretched, sucking down the last of his coffee and setting the mug aside, "Ready when you are."

[clouded_moon]

Izumo drank the last of his coffee as well and stood up with a huge yawn. He grinned sheepishly at Clint, nd rolled his shoulders to stretch them, before scooping up his pack. It was a well-worn bag and Clint had seen it before. Though small it held a hell of a lot more than it looked like it could, thanks to a few ninja tricks, and it was the only bag Izumo ever carried when travelling.

"Then let's go, sexy. Coffee will only hold off the crash for so long."

[ihazanest]

He tossed the woman behind the counter a salute on the way out, following it with a wave, grinning crookedly at the eye-roll he got in return.

He gave Izumo's elbow a nudge once they were outside, steering him in the right direction, "C'mon, this way. Couple blocks down and then a couple more blocks until we get to my building, can almost see it from here."

[clouded_moon]

Remembering Clint's need for both hands free, being an archer, Izumo reached up and grabbed a pinch of the back of Clint's jacket, instead of linking their arms together. "Lead the way, sexy, I'll admire the view," he teased.

Then, far softer, he asked, "Have you been trailed? Feeling a little extra paranoid today, see. Made a few personal enemies this past mission."