Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Broken ❯ Easier to run ( Chapter 7 )

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Broken

(Easier to run)

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Why does it always rain on me?

He couldn't remember where he had heard that line before, but it fit so well that he couldn't stop repeating it in his mind. Well, to be honest he hadn't really tried that hard to stop thinking it, at the moment he was rather happy about every distracting thought his more than just confused brain could come up with. Everything was fine with him right now, everything that kept him from thinking about…

Rain on me…

He shook his head in frustration, growling softly under his breath.

Dragging his hood deeper into his face to avoid getting wet… okay, wetter in the pouring rain he picked up his pace, jogging on as fast as his legs would carry him, completely oblivious as to where he was going. It was cold, at least he assumed it was, he could see his breath in front of him making tiny little clouds as he ran on, but oddly enough he couldn't feel it. He didn't feel the wetness of his clothes either, everything he could feel was this strange numbness that was slowly but surely spreading throughout his whole chest. At first it had felt as if he had been shot, a searing pain that had forced him to take slow, halting steps when all he had really wanted to do had been to run away as fast and far as possible. It had almost felt as if something deep inside of him had been torn apart, ripped open like his bugnuks slashing through the body of one of his opponents in a fight.

And it hurt, God, it hurt. Like nothing else he had ever felt before. It hurt so bad he only wanted it to stop before it would drive him mad.

By now the tight feeling across his chest had loosened enough for him to pick up his pace to a near-jog and although it was still uncomfortable and painful as hell it helped, got his mind off…

RAIN ON ME, dammit!!!

He would have to sneak past Yoji again once he'd return to the Koneko, he really didn't want to talk to him again, not this night. The other man had seemed tired and… sad… Well, he'd often seen a tired Yoji, morning always seemed to come way too early for him after a night out at the bars, but sad… thoughtful, yes… worried, of course… but sad… It was nice to see that he was not the only one having second thoughts about the call, about Ran appearing in their lives again and yet… were they… was he really strong enough to push Ran back out of their… his life? After he'd spent this long wishing he would come back gain?

Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it…

Well, nobody had ever warned him that life could be so unfair and play such cruel tricks on people.

And it was difficult to accept he felt this way, both because of his friendship-feelings towards Ran and his own, more personal feelings. He knew that Ran would not leave them without a damn good reason, no matter what Yoji and Omi said about him they all knew that Ran was a very responsible man, he had always cared for them, looked out for them, even if they had not always noticed it back then. Something must have happened, something that must have kept him from coming back to them, he would not abandon them, ever.

And if he could do something like that he would never have come back.

God, he missed him, right now he missed him even more than in the past year. He longed to see him, talk to him, see him smile…

He slowed down his pace when he gradually became aware of where his thoughts were straying. He didn't want to go there, he didn't want to admit his feelings… He didn't… not him… not Ran…

He had been through this before, back then, almost a year ago. After they had finally agreed between the three of them that they would officially consider him dead. It had been a forced decision, one they would never have agreed upon if Kritiker had not insisted on them giving up to look for Abyssinian. It had been Kritiker who had declared Ran Fujimiya officially dead, had given them a one-month-break to recover from the (physical) wounds they had suffered in the fatal fight. In the meantime the once powerful organization had licked its wounds and recovered some of the dignity and influence it had lost through Persia's death. Persia's replacement had been an equally obscure and faceless man called Maine Coon who was giving them their missions now. They didn't know anything about him, everything that was left of their old world was Manx who still supplied them with information about their mission but had lost a lot of her usual sense of humour. She didn't talk to them more than was necessary and they had yet to find out the reason for this.

But they had been too busy getting their team back together to talk much to her. Oh yes, they had been asked if they wanted to continue working as a team and of course they had been assured that they would be compensated for what they had done so far if they chose not to, but all three of them had known they would never make it on their own. In a moment of complete honesty they had talked about their plans for the future and one by one they had had to admit that they couldn't picture their lives without the other two. It had been both the worst and the luckiest moment of his life to find that he would on the one hand still be forced to lead the life of an assassin he loathed so much, but on the other hand he had just been glad he wouldn't lose the rest of his family as well.

After they had moved into their new home at the other end of town he had found himself thinking of Ran almost every moment of the day. At first he had thought that he still couldn't let go of him, missed him too much to let him rest in peace. He had not told Omi nor Yoji about it, had kept it to himself to not torture them with feelings he had thought they had both already dealt with. It had worked… at first.

Until Yoji had come to his room one evening and told him without much ado that he knew what Ken was going through. He had not understood it then, had denied everything the older man had told him. He had got very angry and upset with Yoji for telling him about his own feelings and literally thrown him out of his room. He had stopped talking to him for two entire days, even leaving rooms as soon as Yoji had come in. On the third day he had finally given in, gone to him and admitted the truth of what he had probably been feeling ever since he had first seen the furious redhead on top of the building so many years ago, seeking help, comfort, understanding. He had completely lost it then, had broken down in front of Yoji, the combined feelings of longing and grief for Ran too intense to bear anymore.

Yoji had been awesome that night, had given him more comfort in this long night than anybody had ever given him before. He had been there for him. He had listened, had not laughed, had not made fun of him as Ken had feared he would. He had simply spent the night together with him, talking and just being there for him until Ken had finally fallen asleep on top of Yoji's bed. The next morning he had awoken in his own bed, tired and bleary-eyed from all the crying of the night before, feeling ashamed and much too self-conscious for his liking. He had dreaded the moment he would have to see Yoji again because now he knew, but the older assassin had merely passed him a cup of coffee once Ken had gathered enough strength to face his friends. Coffee and a reassuring smile that had told him more than words that everything was going to be all right.

He had not understood back then why he had feelings for Ran. He had never thought he would ever again fall for another man after he had had that major crush on Kase. He had not told his best friend then what he had been feeling for him, he had always felt that Kase would not understand. And, considering how things had turned out two years ago he had been more than relieved that he had kept his mouth shut.

With Ran his feelings had been different. As had been many things whenever the redhead was concerned. At first Ken had told himself time and again that he didn't fall for guys, then had grudgingly admitted to himself that there might be something more and finally he had accepted those feelings for this special, katana-wielding assassin. It had not been that difficult then to admit this to himself because… well, Ran had been dead then. At least that was what he had forced himself to think then. Whether or not he admitted the feelings to himself did not really matter, because there wouldn't be any consequences he would have to fear. At least nothing but feeling strangely self-conscious and embarrassed whenever he thought about Ran… Which had, of course, been the case more often than usual…

But now… Everything was different, Ran apparently wasn't dead and all those feelings were once again threatening to overwhelm him, all those familiar questions and doubts coming back to haunt him. Why him, why Ran?

Yoji, he could understand. Developing feelings for Yoji was kind of a natural defence mechanism you developed once you got to know him. Yoji was charming, easy-going, seductive, sensual, sexy… Who wouldn't fall in love with him? He had this way of looking at you when you spent time with him, he always listened when you had problems and he looked out for you in his own, sometimes funny way. He'd come really close to him emotionally during the past year, Yoji had been behaving like a mother hen, fussing and doing his level best to ensure that he and Omi were safe. He loved him for that… but in a completely different way than what he was feeling for… Ran…

There, he had said it… well, thought it… He had feelings for him… for Ran…

What now?

He actually stopped, both thinking and walking, for a moment, squinting up at the apartment building he had unconsciously come to. He knew this building, all members of Weiss did. It was just an ordinary apartment building somewhere in the middle of town. It wasn't a particularly large one and it wasn't even a very important building and that was exactly why they had chosen it back then. It was a safe house. Not in the usual sense of the word, it was where they would meet if one of their missions went wrong and they had to split up. It had an accessible roof and they had even had to use it on two missions already. If something went wrong on a mission they couldn't risk leading their enemies to the flower shop and so they had agreed on this house as a gathering place.

What was even more important now was the fact that the roof had a small hut with two or three rusty bicycles where you could find shelter from the pouring rain that was still pounding down mercilessly upon him. It was basically just as good as any place he could find right now and it had the small advantage that nobody would ask him about his undoubtedly dishevelled, drenched appearance.

It didn't take him long to reach the empty rooftop, nobody seemed to replace the rusty old lock that had originally been placed on the door to keep unwanted visitors off the roof. A few steps onto the wet floor straight ahead, another few steps to the left and he was standing under the small roof. It didn't help much against the rain, he was already completely soaked to the bone, but at least he did not have to wear that uncomfortable hood anymore to keep the rain from dripping into his eyes. He reached up to wipe away the remaining moisture from his cheeks and was surprised to find that as soon as he had wiped it away it came back, almost stubbornly. It took him a few moments to realize that he was actually crying, that those were bitter tears streaming down his face. Tears he had not been aware of as to this moment. He blinked a few times, feeling oddly ashamed, and took a few deep breaths, cheeks burning furiously as he tried to regain his composure… Great, now he was crying like a little girl… He buried his face in his hands and shook his head slightly, sighing softly under his breath. People like him didn't cry, didn't show their feelings this openly. At least not in public, where everybody could see them. Ideally, he mused miserably, people like him shouldn't have any feelings at all. The wall behind him was cold and damp but he leaned against it nevertheless, right now he needed every support he could get.

Life would really be that much easier without those damn feelings.

He closed his eyes and took another long, shaky breath, listening to his surroundings somewhat distractedly. Actually the city didn't `sound' that chaotic and busy he had always imagined, though he had to admit that he had never really listened long enough to really hear it. Maybe it was the fact that he was currently more than a few feet above the ground and the traffic was way down below him… The rain was still pounding, almost rhythmically, like slow, careful steps that were sneaking towards him…

His instincts finally kicked in then and his eyes shot open, body tensing as he finally realized he wasn't imagining things, there was indeed somebody with him on the roof. Well, just his very special, personal luck, of course somebody had to decide to come up on the roof when he wanted desperately to escape from reality for a moment… Damn it… Maybe if he could crouch down behind the relatively small crate in one corner of the hut they wouldn't see him, do whatever they had come here to do and leave him alone again…

"Ken?"

Later he would admit that his reaction to his name could very well be considered to be a really dumb one, but in the moment he didn't think twice about it, he just raised his head and stood up from where he had almost been crouching behind the crate, answering without hesitating, "Yeah?"

Then he froze and blinked, confused. Wait, whoever was there with him wasn't supposed to know his name, right? And this voice, he was sure he had heard it before. Somebody he had met at the koneko?

While he was still pondering the question -it was about 4 a.m. in the morning, after all- he saw movement out of the corner of his eyes and turned to see who…

He had often heard people describe how time seemed to slow down and everything seemed to move in slow-motion when something really earth-shaking was happening and right now he could actually see how the raindrops took their time as they fell down and even the dramatically-timed flash of lightning seemed to last forever as the last person he would have expected to see slowly stepped into his line of sight, gazing over at him, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"Ran?"

He didn't know where he had found the voice to say this name, could only feel his knees go weak and reached out automatically to brace himself against the crate as he stared, open-mouthed and completely stunned at the man before him.

Ran had barely changed in the past year. He was wearing a black coat and black pants and he had apparently been out in the pouring rain as long as he had, his still bright red hair was plastered against his skull. He had his hands tugged into the pocket of his coat and was gazing at him with a carefully guarded look in his eyes, his shoulders drawn up to protect himself as best as he could against the wetness that was apparently streaming down his neck. He didn't move as Ken looked him up and down, completely at a loss of words.

The sudden, almost overwhelming urge to run, just run away from the situation and bury his head somewhere where nobody would find him nearly made him flinch back from Ran and he tensed, his eyes still locked on his former team leader. It would be so easy to just close his eyes and pretend that he was just imagining things. Much more easier than dealing with the pain that was once again creeping up his throat, threatening to strangle him.

It would be so easy just to go.

But somehow he couldn't move, was frozen to the spot, his body too shocked to respond to his racing thoughts and silent pleas. He dimly noticed that Ran was watching him patiently as he continued to gape at the redhead, thinking fervently about something intelligent to say.

"Ran? You're… you're still alive?"

He didn't know why it came out as a question, an utterly dumb question if you thought about it, and it wasn't exactly what he had wanted to say. But, in the end, it was probably just as good as anything else he could have come up with.

Ran was still watching him closely and the unreadable look in his eyes didn't change, though his smile grew a little wider.

"Yes, I am… It's… good to see you."

Ken didn't miss the slight pause and gazed at him questioningly for a moment, finally finding enough strength to stand up straight, without the support of the wall. He didn't know exactly what to say now and mumbled softly, "Well… it's… good to see you, I guess…"

He felt as if he was talking to a complete stranger, this was not as he remembered it from before and certainly not how he had always imagined their reunion to be. Ran seemed to have similar thoughts, after studying Ken's face for a moment he dropped his gaze slightly.

"So, I guess you're the only one who wanted to see me then?"

Despite the feeling of strangeness that was hanging between them he could sense a hint of disappointment in those words and he frowned slightly, cocking his head to the side." Why do you… what… what do you mean?"

Ran's gaze wandered back to Ken's eyes and he looked at him for a moment. "You did get my message on the answering machine, didn't you?"

Yes, I did, and it turned my world upside down… was what he wanted to answer, to yell at him, but all he felt himself capable of doing was nod slightly.

"I guessed you would know where to find me… here… I didn't know if there was somebody in your apartment who wasn't supposed to know about me."

Ken blinked at him, not yet comprehending what Ran was trying to explain. "But Yoji and Omi don't know that I'm here… that you'd be here. I didn't know either, I just wanted to get out of the rain…" He trailed off, again, not really sure how to continue, and watched how Ran gave him a confused look, then nodded slowly to himself.

"Well, I guess I should be going then…"

Ken's eyes grew wide as he watched Ran take a slow step back and he rushed forward the next moment, almost tripping over one of the bicycles in his haste to hold him back. "NO!"

Ran's surprised expression told him how desperate he must have sounded and he stopped, repeating more quietly, "No, Ran, please stay…"

He would not let him get away, leave him here without a chance to ever talk to him again. Not when he had just realized what Ran Fujimiya, Abyssinian, former leader of Weiss meant to him. He needed to know, needed to understand what had happened, why he had left them.

"There is so much I want to talk about, I… Ran, where have you been? What happened? Why didn't you come back?"

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It wasn't difficult to sense the betrayal in Ken's voice, both because Ran had been anticipating it since he had made the decision to meet them and also because Ken had never been someone who could suppress his feelings, even if he wanted to. He deserved it, deserved the accusing gaze that followed his every movement, the look that would soon change into anger, most probably hate. He knew what Ken was capable of when he was furious, had once even been witness to see what he was able to do when he felt hurt, betrayed. The words stopped him in his tracks and he hesitated for a moment, torn between the knowledge that he couldn't tell him what he wanted to know and the need to make him understand, if possible even forgive him for what had happened. He cleared his throat slightly, fighting to keep the regret out of his voice as he spoke softly, "Ken… This is not going to be easy, but… there isn't much I can tell you… I just came to see if you're okay… and to tell you that you don't have to worry about me, I'm fine."

He already knew how Ken would react to his words, he doubted he himself would have been able to remain impassive at all, and still the anger he could feel starting to build up in the younger man surprised him.

"What?"

He watched as Ken just stared at him, incredulously, looking very much as if the ground had just been pulled out from below his feet.

"That's it? We don't have to worry about you and that's it?" Ken's voice was getting louder at every word and it looked like he couldn't get the air into his lungs fast enough to keep up with his outbreak. "You can't be serious, Ran, you didn't really think we… I'd buy this, did you?" His face was becoming flushed with anger and he was taking a few steps towards him, his fists clenched at his side. "Goddammit, we thought you were dead! Gone forever! DEAD! Do you even know what that means? You can't just come back and pretend that everything is all right! We were mourning for you, Ran! I cried my eyes out because I thought you were dead and I'm not a fucking girl!!" His voice broke on the last word and he stared at him, wide-eyed, blinking several times as if to clear his vision.

He tried to hold Ken's gaze, to endure seeing the feeling of hurt and betrayal his friend… Ken had to be feeling, the anger and accusation directed at him, but he couldn't. Dark brown eyes were staring into his own, taking his breath away with the raw emotions he could read there, feelings he had never thought Ken, nice, easy-going, enjoyable Ken capable of. Ran found himself looking away, dropping his gaze to the floor, studying the ground, the small puddles in front of his feet.

"Ken, this is really complicated, I'm sorry…"

They lied to me, Ken, they told me you were dead and didn't let me leave to go looking for you myself.

Ran kept looking at the raindrops, telling his inner voice to shut up, to keep silent. He couldn't tell him what had happened, he knew what would happen if he did. As much as it hurt to see Ken looking at him like that he would not give them any reason to- No, he was not going there…

Focus, Ran, get back to the situation at hand…

Ken was still staring at him, breathing heavily, his hands still clenched at his side, but he had apparently wrestled his anger down, seemed to be able now to talk reasonably to him. His voice turned soft, his posture relaxing slightly as he backed down a little, turning a beseeching look at him.

"Ran, please, you've got to tell me something… anything. I don't care what happened, whatever reasons you had to do this, I just want to understand… please?"

The last word was almost a whisper and Ken slowly came out from under the hut, stepped into the rain, but then stopped again, well out of his personal space. The sudden mood-swing startled him for a moment, but he needed to get through with this…

"Ken, listen… I can't tell you exactly what happened, but… If I had had any choice in this matter I wouldn't have left Weiss… I wouldn't have left… you…"

Ken was watching him closely, taking in every word he was saying. The younger man was contemplating his words, apparently turning them over in his head and then suddenly started to smile, a small smile that tugged slightly at the corners of his mouth, and, more importantly, lit up the dark eyes that were resting on his face now, softening his hard, reproving expression. He must have said something Ken had been hoping for and when Ken spoke softly he understood.

"I always knew you wouldn't leave us for nothing, Ran, you wouldn't do something like that… I knew you wouldn't be dead, I never believed that!"

He was really smiling by now, positively beaming up at him with a relieved, if not thankful expression that almost threw him off his emotional balance. He was at a loss for words for a moment, but nevertheless he felt his lips spread into a small answering grin, feeling relieved beyond anything that Ken wasn't shouting angrily at him anymore. Talk about mood-swings, ne?

He felt himself relax a little and sighed, resting his gaze on Ken's face, feeling safe enough to ask him softly, "How are you, Ken? How have you been, are Yoji and Omi okay?"

He really needed to know, he had been thinking about them ever since his life had been turned upside down -again- one year ago.

"They've missed you, Ran… I've missed you…"

Brown eyes met his and his heart stopped for a beat, where only one moment before a mixture of pain and accusation had threatened to beat him senseless right there on the spot, there now was pure affection warming him despite the cold that was seeping through his wet clothes.

"We told them you couldn't be dead, but they didn't list, they didn't believe us. They couldn't find your body, but… they told us to stop looking for you, you couldn't possibly have survived this… I didn't believe them, but they declared you dead and there wasn't much we could do about that. And with Omi's condition at that time we didn't really have time to do anything at all…" He trailed off, giving him an apologetic shrug and he froze, feeling his stomach tighten.

"Omi? What happened? How is he?" This couldn't be, they had told him that the three of them were safe and okay. And their resources were impeccable; he knew that from painful experience. Omi was tough, he couldn't have…

"It was really bad, he must have hit his head pretty bad when the building came down, was unconscious when he hit the water. He almost drowned, but Yoji found him and saved his life… I guess that first-aid-course he did because of that American girl really paid off. I don't remember much of it actually, I know Yoji found me, but I came to in the hospital, after they had brought him back-Ran?"

The shock at the image of Omi lying bleeding and half-dead at some beach must have shown on his face and Ken looked up at him questioningly, then grimaced a little and smiled what Ran supposed was to be a reassuring smile, "No, relax, Omi's all right, he had a concussion and had to stay in bed for a time, but he's okay now, he's fine! We are all okay now…"

He needed a moment to digest the information and the tightening of his stomach eased a little, in fact it relieved him so much that he actually found himself smiling at the younger man after a moment, then his smile widened when Ken's familiar answering-grin relieved even more of the tension he had been feeling ever since he had stepped out onto the roof.

Ken was still watching him, keeping quiet for a moment and he looked back at him, taking in his entire appearance, taking a few moments to really look at him. He had changed, but although those changes were not very obvious to the untrained eye, he realized at once that Ken seemed to have grown up a little. He had definitely become a bit more serious; there was a certain self-conscious aura around him that hadn't been there when he had last seen him. His hair was a little shorter and his eyes were looking a bit different now, he would say they had a distinctive touch of seriousness and experience in them, a certain quality which made him seem a lot more… masculine. Shaking his head at this not really unexpected change of topic he allowed himself the luxury of just looking at the former soccer-player and found that indeed, as he had been fearing for quite some time, his feelings for him hadn't changed one bit.

The nice part of his feelings was the fact that he had always been able to turn them off in a matter of seconds, whenever he had been in a situation where he couldn't deal with them. Whatever he was feeling at that moment he could push way back into his mind and seal it behind a wall of stubbornness even Void found particularly hard to break down. One second there was rage, anger, the next moment there was nothing there at all, nada, zilch. He had always liked that, a lot, even though he had very well been aware of the fact that people thought of him as an emotional iceberg, even people who should know better.

The downside of this were those few moments when his very own feelings decided to sneak up on him, tear down his walls and then suddenly, without any warning at all, jumped at him and were suddenly just there, where he could do nothing about them. And one of those moments was apparently right now, in the blink of an eye everything was back, right there, in front of him.

Which, sadly enough, could only mean one thing: He was pretty much fucked, if not literally, then at least emotionally.

"Remember, don't be an idiot, tell him what you feel, you of all people should know that you might not get another chance."Void had told him only one week ago, when he had been seriously debating with himself if he could really manage seeing them-seeing Ken again after all this time. "Go see him and tell him what you feel!"

It had all seemed so logical then, this was exactly what he should be doing and he knew it. He had learned the very hard way that, if you kept your feelings to yourself and didn't do anything about them, it could well be too late one day.

He had spent the better part of a very long year cursing himself for his lack of courage to tell Ken he wanted more, much more of him. He had needed a figurative -and some more bodily- kicks in the head to realize this and Void had more than happily stepped in to provide them to remind him time and again to come clear with his feelings. Surprisingly it had not taken that long to admit them… to himself. All that was left was the question of how he could… if he would tell him…

The problem was… Ken wasn't female. Which wasn't exactly the problem per se, it was rather the fact that Ken was apparently anything but gay. Ken's experience with Yuriko and his almost-trip to Australia had made it pretty clear that he didn't go for men…

He dimly recognized movement in front of his eyes and he blinked reflexively, snapping back from his musings to reality in an instant. Ken had taken a couple of steps towards him and was waving his hand in front of his face, gazing up at him with a questioning look

"Ran, you're still there?"

He looked down at him then, straight into those hazel-eyes he had longed for for eternity, trying not to lose himself. Which he found to become increasingly difficult when Ken didn't do anything but look back at him, blinking once, twice to keep the rain out of his eyes.

"Ran?"

Ken's voice was soft, almost too soft to hear and Ran blinked, then grinned sheepishly, burrowing his hands even deeper into his pockets.

"How… how are you then?" He didn't really pay attention to what Ken answered, just continued looking at him, watching how those lips were moving, how those eyes were sparkling in the darkness, how his voice seemed to reverberate throughout his body…

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In retrospect it was impossible to tell which of them made the first move, anybody watching would only have seen how both of them, at more or less exactly the same time leaned forward, into each other's personal space. A moment later lips brushed softly against lips. It was a gentle touch, probing, unsure. One hand reached up to brush across the other's cheek, a loving gesture neither of them would have expected. Deep, brown eyes that had closed at one point slowly blinked open, gazing up at amethyst seas of affection while their lips were still touching. For a moment time seemed to stand still; the rain felt a little less wet, the very air around them lost any coldness it had had only moments before and even the darkness around them seemed to be on their side, covering them for a second, shielding them from reality. Both closed their eyes and the kiss deepened, neither of them backing away, but stepping closer, one of them sneaking his arms around the other, drawing him closer, holding him near.

The second kiss lasted longer, was even more gentle than the first and when they eventually both drew away reluctantly there was a pause, a longer moment where none of them spoke, where they only looked at each other. The shorter man slowly broke into a hesitant, nervous smile and reached up with his hand, his fingers brushing softy over his lips where he had just been kissed and his cheeks flushed almost instantly. "Ran, I didn't know... how did you…" He trailed off, but his voice was laced with a tone of wonder.

The other man shrugged, avoiding his eyes, looking down at where their bodies were still pressing against each other, resting his hand on the other's shoulder. "I didn't… I was just following some advice somebody gave me… It worked… I guess."

The brunette grinned slightly, then leaned a little into the touch, adding softly, "I didn't want you to leave, Ran, I really want to know what happened then, where have you been?"

The taller man tensed, then slowly closed his eyes, shaking his head regretfully, "Ken, I really can't tell you about these things... Please try to understand. I can't tell you anything, as much as I would want to make you understand. We couldn't tell anybody about Weiss back then and this is similar… I'm on a different team now, that's all I can tell you." The other man started to interrupt him, but he raised his hand, shaking his head slightly, "Ken, don't ask, I can't tell you… this is too complicated-"

Both of them tensed at that moment, heads shooting up when suddenly the door on the roof slowly slid open to reveal a dark figure standing in the doorway. The red-headed man reacted immediately, pushing the other behind him and glaring at the newcomer, narrowing his eyes to dangerous slits as he hissed, "Get out of here, this is none of your business.."

"Ran, who is that?" The smaller man tried unsuccessfully to look past the towering figure in front of him, but he was always pushed back, behind the other man as violet eyes fixed their gaze on the shadow. "Leave."

The figure didn't move, just stood there, his eyes resting on the furious redhead. "We're leaving." His voice was no more than a deep growl as he kept staring pointedly at the other man.

"Ran, who is that, what's this all about?" The younger man had finally managed to get a look at the newcomer, squinting a little in the rain, barely able to see more than a few strands of short, silvery hair and black leather clothing. Another flash of silver appeared suddenly in his line of vision and he jumped back reflexively when the shiny blade of a katana appeared almost right before his eyes. "Ran, what…" he gasped, jumping back a few steps and automatically crouching down, ready to defend himself, but the redhead kept his back towards him, still fixing his gaze on the shadowy figure, taking a threatening step towards him. "If you don't leave now I will make you."

The figure ignored him for a moment, looking pointedly into the direction where the smaller man was standing his ground, watching the scene in front of him with wide, uncomprehending eyes.

"Don't you dare." The redhead stepped forward, eyes promising a slow, painful death as he raised his katana even more, fixing his gaze on the other's throat.

"We're leaving." With those words the shadow turned and stepped back into the darkness at the door, disappearing from sight as soon as he was inside.

The tip of the katana was slowly dropped and the redhead turned slowly to look at the brunette, looking at a loss for words. The soccer player frowned at him, confusion evident on his face. "What was… who was that? What happened here?"

The katana disappeared beneath the long, black coat and a deep sigh was heard as the redhead turned back to the smaller man. "Ken, I'm sorry. I can't tell you. I can't stay right now, I'll have to clean up a few things, but I'll come back to you, Ken, I promise. As soon as I can. Say hello to Omi and Yoji for me, okay? I'm sorry…" One last look into the wide eyes and the next second he was gone, had disappeared through the entrance door.

The smaller man was too stunned to react for a long moment, just stared at the door with big eyes. After a moment he slowly raised his hand to his lips again, brushing across them thoughtfully as a small, wistful sigh escaped his lips, carrying a name, almost drowned out by the pouring rain.

"Ran…"

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- end of this chapter -

About the POVs: I couldn't decide which of them (Ran or Ken) to chose for the kiss, so I took the easy way out and added the 3rd-person view to be as objective as I could. I didn't want to show only one side of this and writing the scene twice, with two different POVs was out of the question at well, so... I hope you still enjoyed it, please tell me if it was okay to do it like this! :)

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