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“I’m going to do the vault tomorrow.”
“What?” Dundee knew he had a red dongle, knew since the last time he got raided. They both understood they couldn’t risk the red dongle and they could always make back the money. It’s why Dundee couldn’t ask Yuno to come get him while being chased after that revelation. Still, he didn’t think Yuno was doing the vault so quickly.
“Mhmm I’m really excited! I don’t know the getaway plan yet and I hear the hacking is harder but you know this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.” Yuno eagerly chattered while pacing around the prison yard.
“Oh yeah.” Why does this bother him? “With who?”
“With Mr. Lang, Ray and Tony!” Yuno somehow managed to hoist himself up to the top of a building. Seems like he got tired of just pacing around.
Yuno looked down towards Dundee and continued speaking “Mr. Lang has done the vault before so we should be in safe hands and I think he's had some experience with the thermite? Or was that Tony?” Yuno stopped to wonder for a second before shaking his head “Anyway we got a pretty great team! Oh and Ray is a great driver and planner so the getaway should be fun.”
“I’m a better getaway driver and planner.” Dundee murmured.
“Huh did you say something? I couldn’t hear you.” Yuno called from above. It looks like he was too distracted by his new surroundings to properly pay attention. It didn’t matter anyway. Dundee hadn’t intended for Yuno to hear what he said.
“Didn’t say anything, Yuno.”
“Oh okay.” Yuno sat down near the edge and started swinging his legs back and forth. Dundee guessed that in approximately two minutes he’d be up and moving again.
“Even though I’m really excited, I get so nervous just thinking about it.” Yuno admitted.
“You’ll do great Yuno. Like you always do.” Dundee couldn’t help the fondness that seeped into his voice.
“Uh huh.” Yuno replied unsure.
“I’m serious, Yuno. You’re the best goddamn hacker in the city.” Dundee reassured but Yuno still looked unconvinced.
“Yuno, just know I will continue to repeat this until you believe it.” Dundee, tired of looking up, lifted himself up the building with more effort than it really should’ve taken. How did Yuno make this look so effortless?
Dundee smirked and proceeded to sit next to Yuno “If you don’t we might have to go to visit those mines again.”
“Oh jesus!” Yuno giggled, his eyes turning into tiny crescents and his hand rose up to hide his smile. “But I’m serious, I’m probably fourth at best. We all know X is number 1.”
“Hmmm but he’s not here is he, mate? In my eyes you’re definitely the best.” Dundee chose to ignore the fact that Yuno still believed X was out there.
“Th-thank you, Dundee, I appreciate that.” Gratefulness showed clearly through his eyes.
“No problem, champion.” The conversation should’ve ended with that but Dundee couldn’t help but think back to the fact that Yuno was doing the vault without him. Wasn’t the Soy gang supposed to hit the vault together first? He understood that X was gone but maybe they could’ve brought Barry to fill in for the last slot if he didn’t mind.
“You’ve been hitting back to back banks a lot huh.” So much so that he sometimes had to reschedule banks with him.
“Yeah and I’m still broke somehow.” Yuno chuckled. He obviously found it amusing that a person who's been on almost 20 bank jobs is on the edge of debt.
“That’s your fault, you're the one who tells everyone to minimize your cut.” Dundee chided.
“Hmmm maybe.” Yuno lightly agreed, raising his arms up to stretch. “But all my worries about money will be gone after this bank job.” Yuno exclaimed excitedly.
“We’re gonna be rich, Dundee! Rich I tell you!” Yuno pointed at him and then proceeded to immediately stand up on his feet and began heedlessly walking on the roof. His footsteps light with almost a slight bounce to it. Dundee couldn’t help but let out a chuckle seeing how right his prediction turned out to be.
Yuno started mindlessly babbling about what kind of car he should get after the vault heist. Obviously very elated that he won't get stopped anymore for driving a stolen car. Dundee was delighted for the prodigy hacker. Happy that he was getting such opportunities. God knows he deserves it. But to be honest, he kinda hated this topic even though he was the one who brought it up again. (Maybe what he truly wanted to see was him bubbling with excitement and that’s why he brought the conversation back to banks).
Now that he thought about it, Yuno didn’t really hang out with the two remaining Soy boys much anymore. With Benji busy with Vagos matters and Ash, Yuno taking on a constant stream of bank jobs and Dundee taking care of matters regarding the BBMC they hardly ever saw each other. Heck, the last time he saw Yuno before coming to prison was when he helped with initiating Chain to the BBMC and Dundee hardly counted that time since his focus was on Chain, not on catching up with Yuno. Dundee understood it was kinda his fault he hadn’t talked to Yuno in forever but his brain couldn’t help but bring up the fact that Yuno was slowly amassing a lot of new people to hang around with. Which included new people to rob banks with. Hell, since when did Yuno start doing bank jobs with the Clean Boys. Wasn’t this Mr. Lang character an asshole to him? To be fair, though that never stopped Yuno before and it certainly wasn’t gonna stop now.
Was he actually starting to miss Yuno? Fuck, it was starting to become like with what happened with X.
It’s not like he hadn’t noticed the similarities between X and Yuno. Both of them crazy in their own unique way yet both exuded a kind of similar aura. Both of them expert hackers with plenty of connections across the city. It’s why even after X was gone, he didn’t completely feel his loss when Yuno was here continuing his legacy. It was also a crazy coincidence that they both met Dundee first when they first moved into the city.
But that’s where the similarities ended in terms of their relationship with Dundee.
Ever since Dundee met X they both understood they were people on equal ground. They mutually held a lot of respect for one another especially after Dundee taught X how to do crime and X quickly getting notoriety across the city. Dundee was happy for his friend truly. Still he’d be lying if he said he didn’t miss his friend. With X doing bigger and better crimes and stunts by himself they hardly ever saw each other after a while. They were friends who held each other with high regard but that’s as far as it went.
Yuno was an entirely different story.
When Dundee first met Yuno and started teaching him the way of the streets he figured it was going to be the exact same way as how it went with X. Sure Yuno was a much kinder and softer version of X but eventually he would realize that his potential could be used somewhere else and get tired of Dundee’s presence. Everyone has an ego to satisfy after all. X would know all about that.
He was completely utterly wrong.
Somehow, Yuno didn’t leave after learning how to hack banks and rob houses. He instead continued to follow Dundee like a lost puppy. Yuno’s first bank? Dundee was there. Doing Oxy? Yuno will come along to help. Some random suspicious demon guys texted Dundee to meet him in the middle of nowhere? No problem, Yuno hopped along for the ride. He didn’t leave and Dundee did nothing to stop him. Instead he got close to the broke college dropout and began to see him as his student. He made it his personal goal to see Yuno grow in ways that will help him survive this hellscape of a world.
Dundee in the meantime realized a key difference between Yuno and X, that being that Yuno didn’t care about money or his pride. Instead his biggest priority was having fun. Thrilling car chases, robbing banks, they all satisfied Yuno’s need for fun and as he stated it’s a lot more exciting with friends. And that’s something Dundee can truly get behind. Because that’s the exact reason why Dundee does these things for the first place. It's all for the thrill.
And with Yuno along he makes things more interesting. He’s an unpredictable variable in literally everything he does. He pings cops during chases and leaves them burgers for them to find, teasing them. He gives food to the hostages. He now sets people on fire with no remorse. Dundee’s quite proud of him for that one.
He’s so proud of how far he’s come and isn’t that fucking scary.
Yuno is his friend, yes. However, it’s pretty obvious to see that there’s more to it than just that. Benji and Barry have clearly pointed out on several occasions that they look like father and son. (In each one of those moments he pointedly ignores the fluttering happiness in his chest). But while he’s happy with what they have, he’s also scared shitless. Because Dundee was a fool and got himself attached to another person when he told himself in the beginning that he was okay with just Barry, Emma and Riley. Got himself attached to someone who’s on the same route as X. To be the greatest criminal of Los Santos.
He will inevitably leave like X only that this time the process will drag out as cruelly as possible. He’d been too focused on the BBMC to notice Yuno slowly drifting away. Dundee will squeeze every last moment he can with the kid while Yuno goes on bank job after bank job, not waiting for him. It was true, he was going to do the vault without him.
Admittedly, sometimes Dundee has nightmares that Yuno will end up too much like X and get shot for going too far in a place where no one can find him. Dundee will arrive but it’ll be too late and all he could do is cradle the corpse of someone he saw like a son to him as he cursed the world. His body will look strangely still for someone with constant movement. Yuno’s helmet will be laying at his side. The glass cracked and sticky with blood….
“Dundee, you ok there? You kinda spaced out for a bit and I’m the one who’s usually distracted.” Yuno waved his hand in front of Dundee’s face.
Protect the kid
“Uhhh yeah I’m fine, kid just got a bit distracted.” Dundee replied offhandedly, grabbing Yuno’s hand to stop the constant waving.
“Are you sure?” Yuno asked. Kind brown eyes shone underneath furrowed brows. “You seemed a bit scared there for a second.” Fuck, he forgot that even with his one-track mind he’s still pretty observant.
“I was scared you were gonna fall down with all that hopping around you were doing.” Dundee amended hoping that would get him off his case.
“You don’t need to worry about me.” Yuno insisted. Dundee is aware that Yuno has the entire city of Los Santos wrapped around his finger but he still couldn’t help but fret over him.
“I definitely do and even if I didn’t, I still would.” Dundee replied, causing Yuno to turn silent. Without the helmet, Dundee could see Yuno’s eyes widen but even then he couldn't discern the emotion flashing through his eyes. The silence seemed to stretch on with Yuno continuing to stare at him to the point where Dundee was starting to become a bit uncomfortable. “It also wouldn’t be the first time you fell from this height.” Dundee said, desperate to get that gaze away from him. It wasn’t a bad feeling, just that the gaze and conversation felt far too intense for something that was supposed to be casual talk. It probably was just Yuno processing the information he just received as if something as obvious as that deserved so much attention and admiration. Was that what his eyes were conveying? Damn it, he still couldn’t get a good read on him. But seriously did Yuno not know that everyone in this godforsaken city will do anything for him.
“I’ve actually fallen from higher heights than this before.” Yuno disputed. “WHAT!” Jesus, this kid was going to give Dundee a heart attack. “BUT THAT'S BESIDES THE POINT!” Yuno exclaimed, waving his hands around like an anime character would.
“The point is you were zoned out for a while and you even looked scared.” Yuno’s body stopped moving but his hands continued to fidget. “Are you sure you’re ok?” he questioned again.
“I’m okay, kid.” Yuno frowned at this response. He froze and took a deep breath as if he was gathering his courage for something.
“Dundee I’ve been noti-”
“HEY WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING UP THERE!” Both Yuno and Dundee jumped at the sudden scream from down below. They turned their gaze downwards to see a very much displeased prison guard glaring at them.
“OH JESUS! We’ll come right back down, officer!” Yuno yelled out after gathering his bearings and seemed to be already halfway through climbing down.
Dundee wasn’t sure whether to regard the interruption as a blessing or a curse. On one hand, he didn’t want to be interrogated by one of the few people who is able to see through his bluffs (as the call after the whole Chain initiation proved). On the other hand, he wanted to continue talking to Yuno. Nevertheless he climbed down not wanting to be shot for not obliging. It’s not that big of a deal anyway. He’ll get more time to talk to Yuno at the cafeteria. Hopefully Bovice will have gone to his cell by the time the guard finishes scolding them.
“Yuno, you’ve been bailed out.”
Nevermind it seems that the universe hates Dundee.
Yuno tilted his head “Oh really by who?”
“Your boss, Lang, I believe.” What the fuck. How close are these two? “Mr. Lang!” Yuno brightened at the mention of his boss’s name. “I know I can always count on him.”
“Yeah. Yeah. Let me escort you out.” The prison guard let out an exasperated groan. It seemed like this was an annoyingly common routine for him and Yuno’s joyful aura was probably not helping.
“You can wait for me by the door, I’ll be there in a minute.” The guard squinted his eyes, obviously not trusting Yuno's words but let him go nonetheless. Dundee saw the guard stop by the door to where the inmate telephone system was and turned to watch them attentively.
“Welp, it seems I have to go now but let’s hang out later.” Yuno started swaying back and forth slowly turning his back on Dundee “After you get out of jail, of course.”
“And I promise you this, Dundee” Yuno looked back with a small smirk on his face. The sunset shone behind making him look like he was glowing. “The next time you see me I’ll be a certified vault buster.”
Dundee gave a weak but convincing smile “I believe it. Tell me how it goes, love.” Yuno beamed and waved enthusiastically at him before running towards the guard, no doubt starting up a conversation with him, much towards the guard’s reluctance.
His smile steadily dropped as Yuno faded out from view. It was going to be ok. His stupid brain was just overanalyzing the situation. Even so, he couldn’t help but let out a melancholic sigh.
Please don’t be like X...
Please don’t leave me behind