Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Clips ❯ Clip 9 ( Chapter 9 )

- Clip Nine: First Move -

 

Aya watched in silent empathy from the open doorway as Michel spent yet another day diligently watching over the recuperating Free. He knew from experience how difficult it was to keep vigil over a loved one so badly wounded.

At the same time he couldn't help but envy Michel. At least Free was on the mend, waking periodically and Michel himself had a network of emotional support to lean upon when needed. At least, Michel knew Free would recover fully in time, with his memories of the boy intact.

Uncertainty had plagued his every step when he had cared for Aya-chan; hopelessness drowned him when Yohji woke remembering nothing of their time together and never would.

Aya quietly walked away, the corners of his lips turned downward, lost in his gloomy mental meandering.

Memories…the stark lonely truth was memories were the only thing he could call his own - his treasure and his curse.

Two years of aimless wandering as an assassin-for-hire hadn't buried the memories like he hoped, and this version of Weiss was making it worse. Now he couldn't help but compare these new assassins to Weiss; the yearning for Yohji's presence grew stronger. Now he couldn't sleep without wishing that somehow Yohji were with him, lying naked and warm in his arms. He had to fill his waking moments with things to do, or his thoughts would stray to his lost lover.

Sometimes, he could almost hate Yohji for teaching him how to love and now leaving him with nothing but memories and a dull ache that just won't go away.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Startled, Aya looked up.

Chloe stood before him, having approached from the opposite direction. As usual, the phantom hunter - as he privately labeled the German - was fashionably dressed in his own definition of casual, white-blond hair artfully disheveled. Like before, Aya couldn't help but tense up as those secretive ice-blue eyes fixed upon him.

Ignoring the man, Aya sidestepped him and continued on his way. To his dismay, his rudeness did not deter Chloe. But rather the German changed direction and fell into step with him. He scowled at Chloe for his audacity.

Chloe apparently possessed skin the thickness of elephant's hide. He just smiled placidly at the sullen Japanese redhead.

“What do you want?” Aya growled to hide his unease.

“You look troubled,” Chloe said mildly. “As your future teammate, I thought to lend you a listening ear.”

“I'm fine.”

“That's not what I saw.”

Aya stopped abruptly and directed the full force of his patented death glare at Chloe. It had worked on his Weiss teammates before, even Yohji to a certain extent, kept them from asking questions when he didn't want to talk. To his annoyance and mounting frustration, Chloe didn't even look fazed.

“I'm fine,” he repeated curtly.

Chloe's expression, or what could be seen beneath the fall of white-blond hair, was mildly skeptical, which just irritated Aya.

“Are you always going to go out of your way to annoy me?”

One elegant eyebrow arched up in surprise. “Me?”

At that point, Aya's hold on his temper, which was never all that firm, snapped. “You know exactly what I-”

The rest of his words died on his lips when Chloe, unexpectedly and fluidly glided towards him, one elegant hand reaching out to touch his katana Shion. He froze, stunned by Chloe's sudden action.

“You carry this everywhere you go, don't you?” Chloe's languid yet intent gaze never left startled violet and somehow Aya could not look away, caught by the secrets in those pale blue depths.

Chloe idly stroked the pommel of Shion, thin fingers creeping nearer and nearer to the hilt and Aya's deathgrip. “Such an important part of you…I find it fascinating.”

The first feathery-light stroke over his bare hand shocked Aya out of his paralysis. Quick as lightning, he snatched his hand and katana out of Chloe's caressing fingers. To his consternation and dismay, he found his heart racing madly and his cheeks heating. The skin of his hand that Chloe had touched tingled in a way he hadn't experienced for a very long time.

Unnerved, feeling somehow he was losing this round; Aya leveled a final death glare at Chloe and stormed away.

And Chloe silently watched the fleeing redhead, a small smile curling his sculptured lips.