Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Coincidences and Second Chances ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2

`How is it we can clone human beings yet at the same time not be able to fix an elevator?'

The blonde hurried up the stairs to his apartment, pulling an assortment of keycards attached to a single key-chain shaped like a miniature gramophone from his jacket pocket. Once there he pressed his thumb to the soft pad next to the door and slid the keycard into the slot. When the light blinked green, he pulled the door open.

`I'm home!' he called and breathed a sigh of relief when no one answered. He wasn't back yet.

Tossing his jacket carelessly over the chair, he crossed the room in long strides pausing only in front of the large mirror that decorated the hallway.

He gave himself a satisfied smirk.

`I do look a lot like granddad,' he thought. However alike and identical were not interchangeable and he also knew that most of the similarities were cosmetic. His naturally dark hair the color of demerara sugar had been highlighted with blonde streaks and cut shoulder length. Truth was, his features were more elegant, more refined than rakishly handsome as his grandfather's had been. His slender build also wasn't quite as wiry.

However the one thing that he had truly inherited were his eyes. Almond shaped their shade of green falling somewhere in between forest and emerald, accentuated by minute gold flecks. When he looked hard and long enough, he swore he could see the man he had loved staring back at him.

Pulling the elastic from his hair, he shook it out over his shoulders and ran his hands through it. As he turned his head, the light glinted off his white gold diamond studs as well as the single thin gold bar earring he wore in his left ear. Satisfied, he gave himself a small nod before making his way to the kitchen.

It was clear to anyone who stepped into this apartment that music was an important part of Tori Nakata's life. Various musical instruments along with their accompanying sheet books filled every corner of the studio apartment and included an impressive baby grand piano, a drum kit and a set of synthesizers hooked up to a computer. His shelves overflowed with dozens of multicolored MD's, MP3 memory sticks as well as an older medium, the larger CD. His collection could only be described as eclectic where you could find Frank Sinatra happily sitting side by side with hardcore rapper Eminem.

Jazz, rap, classical, pop, you name it Tori had it. But it was more than just a hobby to him, it was a business.

He had broken into the music scene back in the States when he was just 18, in those days possessing more talent than polish. His skillful blend of hypnotic melodies and heartfelt lyrics stood out among the pop princes and princesses that had been currently dominating the charts and caught the attention of a prominent record company.

At first, times had proved rough with his first album only experiencing mild success. But things really took off with his second album, entitled "Urban Temptations", and soon everybody wanted a piece of Tori Nakata.

For the next 5 years it seemed to him that all he did was churn out one album after another. They were all commercial successes and made him a household name but it took its toll on him. At only 22 he found himself falling prey to the most cliched rock star vice.

The next 2 years of his life were passed in a drug stupor which he only came out off when his company dropped him like a bad habit. After that humiliation, he moved to Japan in hopes of getting back his focus. There he had met Sasha, got cleaned up and remained clean ever since.

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he started setting up the table for dinner. Even the very thought of his lover had a way of brightening his day.

After that he gave up the nitty gritty of making music instead choosing to establish his own music management company, with its main office situated in the heart of downtown Tokyo. Now he spent all his time giving other people chances to make it big. It was rewarding work and gave him a high no drug could match.

Even though his company had hit the big time, he still personally listened to every single demo they received. And so as not to stigmatize his bands, he ran it under the name of the man that had contributed the most to his life: Yohji Kudou.

Everyone called him that now, even Sasha. It was as if Tori Nakata had become a faded memory.

Yohji felt something brush against his leg and looked down straight into the soft brown eyes of his chocolate Lab, Barley.

`How you've been girl?' he murmured, scratching the sensitive spot at the base of her ears. In return she wagged her tail so fast it looked like a blur.

`I've got no time to play today, I've got to fix dinner,' he gently pushed her out of the way with his foot as he washed his hands. She shot him a reproachful look before plodding into the corner and collapsing in her basket. As he glanced at the clock, he saw he had just enough time to prepare everything.

`And I would have had more if it hadn't been for that guy,' he grumbled under his breath. But the guy wasn't just any guy. Yohji had been so startled at how good-looking he had been that he tried covering it up with anger.

`Why did he have to be a redhead?' he sighed as he tore pieces of lettuce into bite size pieces and dropped them into a wooden salad bowl. He always did have a weakness for redheads. And never before had he seen such a deep shade of red, like black cherries. It made him wonder whether or not it had been dyed.

`Oh well, nothing is going to come out of that brief encounter,' he dismissed the matter briskly.

But he found himself thinking about the man in the Aston Martin every time his mind turned a corner.

*

`Tadaima!'

`Okeari Sasha,' Yohji called out as the slid a bottle of wine into a temperature-controlled bucket.

`Subdued lighting,' he called out and immediately the lights dimmed casting the entire apartment in a play of shadows and light. When Sasha entered the room, his eyes widened at the romantic scene before him. The table was perfectly set out and two bowls of chilled gazpacho lay waiting.

`Sugoi Yohji,' he complimented kissing his lover on the cheek. A pleased grin crossed the blonde's face.

`Lets eat,' he said simply. Once seated, he placed his head on his hands. `So how was your day?'

Sasha laughed. `Chaotic,' he answered.

Dinner passed amidst easy conversation between the two lovers. Although Sasha had been born in Germany, he spoke Japanese like a native and they always talked to each other in a mixture of English and Japanese.

At times Yohji just sat back as Sasha talked. Sasha had been his salvation and he loved just looking at him and noticing little things about him. Like the way his layered orange red hair fell around his shoulders as if he had just gotten out of bed. The way his velvety green eyes looked at him as if he knew what he was thinking.

`I am really lucky,' he thought, dropping a kiss on top of Sasha's head as he got up to change courses.

By the time dessert rolled around (Black Forest ice cream cake), the bottle of wine had finished and both were feeling mellow and mildly lustful.

`That was great Yohji, thanks,' the German pulled the blonde close as they both dumped their plates in the all-purpose washer. Yohji sighed into his hair.

`I wish you didn't have to go to the States for that project Sash.'

`You know I have to, the software is my design, I cant abandon it,' Sasha brushed back a lock of blonde hair. He buried his face into his partner's strong shoulders, enjoying the feeling of security his presence brought. `I will only be gone for a month. And we can see each other online.'

`You'll be gone for five weeks to be exact! I'll go nuts' Yohji joked cupping his chin and tracing the redhead's fine features with his fingertips. `And the Internet is no substitute for you being here.'

`I know.' Sasha's eyes suddenly sparkled with mischief. `Then lets make tonight extra special, koi,' he punctuated his sentence by rubbing the bulge forming in Yohji's pants with his knee.

Yohji gasped slightly but soon the dominant in him took over. He claimed Sasha's lips in an arousing deep kiss that made his bones turn to water. He opened his mouth so as to allow the blonde's tongue to slowly slip between his lips and felt his lover's titanium tongue stud gently clack against his teeth. When they broke for air, the flush in the German's cheeks almost matched his hair.

`So are you up for something a little rough?' Yohji said lavisciously. Sasha chuckled.

`Always,' he said naughtily as he pulled Yohji towards the bedroom.

***

Across town Aya was having a less enjoyable time turning the trunk he had brought back inside out. He was hot and sweaty and the worst thing was he still hadn't found the cufflinks. He was seriously thinking all this effort wasn't worth it, family heirloom or no family heirloom. But he had instantly wanted them to wear on his wedding tux ever since he saw them in a photo.

`You can have them if you can find them.' He could still hear his father careless words and bit his lip.

Rolling up his sleeves, he delved in once more and this time was successful. There sitting in the bottom of the trunk like they had always been there were the errant cufflinks. They were set in platinum and were fashioned out of amethysts to look like cat's eyes.

With a triumphant grin of his face he slipped them into his pocket. As he was about to close the lid, he caught sight of something square and red resting at the bottom. Curiosity got the better of him and he pulled it out to reveal a square notebook. It was about the size of an average exercise book, bound in flame colored Moroccan leather and kept in place by a partially disintegrated rubber band.

As he ran his fingers lightly over its leather surface, the brittle rubber snapped and the book fell open to reveal a neatly printed name on the inner cover.

`Ran Fujimiya.'

Aya's eyebrows shot up.

`Holy shit its his journal,' he exclaimed. A further study of the proceeding pages confirmed this. Inside there were paragraphs upon paragraphs detailed in neat handwriting with their dates clearly displayed before each new entry. Although the ink had faded considerably, it was still legible.

He leaned back on his beige sofa and was about to start reading when his conscience stopped him.

`I can't read this,' he told himself, `this was his journal, his most private thoughts. I can't just barge in.'

That was what his sensible side wanted to do. However his less sensible side urged him to read on because the truth was, Aya had always been curious about his grandfather. But he hid this interest because his father had been so against talking about him. Through this he could perhaps get a deeper insight into the man whose name he shared, free from the biases of his family.

The two sides struggled for a suspended eternity before the former won out. He was about to close it when the first sentence on the first page caught his eye. It read:

`Today, I fell in love.'

Aya froze, the book still open in his lap.

`Perhaps…..just one entry,' he told himself as he leaned supine on his couch.

`April 24th 1998. Today, I fell in love. If I thought it strange to think of those words, writing them has just made it almost unreal. That I Ran, Aya to him, leader of WK, the ice prince, fell in love with Y.

My discovery has led me to contemplate how is it that I feel this way? Perhaps it occurred a few weeks ago when we almost lost him. Our M went wrong and our T was about to toss him from the balcony. Luckily O saved him in the nick of time. As we rushed to him, I should have been thinking about the M. Instead all I felt was the fear that I might lose him. That I would never see him again.

Aside from my sister, I've never felt this way about anyone.

Or perhaps it was today at work. He had been playing the fool as he usually does and I was watching….'

*****

~April 24th 1998, Tokyo~

`Oi Yohji! Stop flirting and help me move these boxes ok.'

Yohji glanced over to where Ken was standing with his hands on his hips a peeved expression on his handsome face. To the girls gathered in front of him however he shot his most disarming smile.

`Be right back ladies.' He sauntered over to his brown-haired teammate and hissed at him. `Way to horn in on my time Ken. I thought you were supposed to be Mr. Big Jock. What the hell does the little bishonen see in you?'

Ken smirked.

`A hell of a lot more than those girls see in you. Now just move these to the corner and stop whining.'

`Hai, hai,' Yohji conceded a pained expression on his face as he started lifting the boxes of multicolored peonies.

Aya watched this exchange from behind the counter with feigned nonchalance. For while his expression remained impassive, inside he seethed with an emotion he uncomfortably identified as jealousy.

`Why does he do this? I know he doesn't care. He hasn't cared since….'

`Aya-kun? You ok?'

Aya turned to find a pair of impossibly wide cobalt colored eyes looking at him with worry.

`I'm fine Omi,' he said shortly before turning back to his work. A hurt expression flickered in those eyes for a moment before disappearing. The other members of Weiss had grown used to their leader's cold ways and it seemed to Omi that nothing could stop Aya from behaving like….well, Aya.

As the redhead punched away at the calculator next to him, his mind divided itself between the task at hand and the playboy blonde working across from him. Once in a while, he would sneak a glance at Yohji and felt a tug at his heartstrings whenever he laughed or smiled. An irrational part of him wanted desperately to be the one that made him happy, to make him laugh all the time.

But Yohji was straight. Well he hadn't done anything to show he wasn't. He might have well have been chasing a rainbow.

`And yet,' Aya sighed, `I wonder…'

He ran a hand through his hair and on the way down, paused to fiddle with his thin gold earring. It wasn't the original one he had bought his sister though. She had them now, probably wearing them this minute as she and Sakura toured Europe.

No, these earrings had been a gift from Yohji. No one could have been more surprised than him when out of the blue one day he had presented it to him.

`Why?' he had remembered himself asking all the while tightly grasping the earrings still in their velvet box. Yohji just gave him a mysterious smile.

`Because you look better with it,' he had answered. Aya had been more touched by the spontaneous gesture than he had let on.

`Erm… Aya-kun?'

Aya startled as he realized that Omi was reading over his shoulder.

`What?' he snapped.

`2000 plus 3000, doesn't equal 1000,' the chibi said hesitantly.

Aya blinked. In his daydreaming state, he had inadvertently scrawled the answer from the previous page's balance sheet. He glared at the figures. Above everything else, he HATED loosing his cool.

`Shit!,' he cursed, slamming the book so hard the spoon in his coffee cup rattled. Omi jumped back in surprise as Aya practically leapt off his chair.

`I'll be doing arrangements in the back,' he said curtly brushing past the blonde.

`Jeez, who spit in his cornflakes?' he head Yohji comment as he closed the door behind him.

Aya laughed a mirthless laugh.

`Wouldn't you like to know Kudou.'

*

Two and a half arrangements later, Aya was feeling more like his calm self. Ikebana always had a way of relaxing him, his deft fingers taking on a life of their own. It was almost magical to watch him transform piles of wire and flowers into stunning centerpieces.

`I can handle this,' he told himself as he tucked yellow and pink tea roses into the bouquet's center. The only things annoying him now though were the too long sleeves of his sports jersey that kept catching in the thorns.

`Here, let me help,' out of nowhere, a pair of slender arms encircled him and began rolling up his sleeves.

`Yohji?' Aya said in surprise.

`Be done in a minute, just hold still,' Yohji said casually leaning over so that Aya's back and his chest just touched. Aya briefly closed his eyes as he inhaled Yohji's sharp, tangy cologne, fighting every urge his body had just to lean back.

`We fit….so well,' he thought.

`There, all done,' Yohji patted his handiwork breaking the spell.

`Thank you,' Aya said stiffly as his moment of madness passed before returning to his work. He thought that Yohji would then leave but he didn't, choosing instead to hover in the background his hands deep in the pockets of his black jeans. Aya was about to snap at him again when Yohji spoke.

`Aya…..are you ok?' he asked tentatively. `It isn't like you to yell at the chibi.'

`The rest of us however….' he trailed off, his tone rueful. Aya had to smile at that remark which he tried to hide, but Yohji saw it and broke into his own megawatt grin.

`I've just got stuff on my mind,' the redhead finally answered.

`Is it about Aya-chan? Girl trouble perhaps?' he braved to ask, one hand toying nervously with the tail of his turquoise shirt.

`Yohji,' the warning tone in his voice was clear.

`All right, I'll leave you for now. But,' he squeezed Aya's shoulder, `I'm always there if you need a friend to talk to.'

The genuine concern reflected in those verdant eyes as he walked away should have been enough for him, but it wasn't. Aya wanted more from him than just concern. He wanted Yohji to treat him as more than just a teammate and friend. He sighed as he bowed his head over the counter.

`Face it Ran. For the first time in your life……you're in love.'

*****

~November 14th 2048, Tokyo~

For a few minutes Aya just sat there with his mouth agape. What he had just read left him completely gobsmacked.

`Grandfather was completely in love, with this……Y, this…… guy.'

Aya exhaled slowly, trying to digest what he had just read. A myriad of emotions zigzagged through him making his head spin.

`Why has he written it in code? There has got to be more than this,' he thought as he turned the page so he could read the next entry. Alas, he wasn't going to get a chance tonight.

`I'm home!' Rhianna called out nudging the button that would close the door with her hip. `Ran? Where are you?'

`In here!' he answered, carelessly stuffing the journal into his pocket. He would figure out this mystery later. But for now, welcoming Rhianna back came first.