Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Four Killer and a Baby, English Version ❯ Miriam moves in ( Chapter 3 )

Miriam moves in

Omi chased down the road and headed towards the flower shop at top-speed. He had forgotten the time over helping a class mate with the solution of a computer problem. Out of breathe and wheezing heavily he completed the last 500 meters in record time and was about to tear the shop door open as he violently ran into that very door and was catapulted back onto the pavement.

"Ooooowwwww!"

A long drawn-out cry of pain could be heard and the blonde boy rubbed his hurting forehead. Then he looked up and his confused gaze lingered, as if frozen, on the sign that said "Temporarily closed".

"But that's... how can ... but how... what?" he stuttered helplessly.

"Omi, why aren't you in the shop yet? And why are you sitting on the pavement?

The young killer turned around and looked directly into a pair of chocolate brown eyes, that gazed at him worriedly. Then a hand carefully caressed his forehead.

"Oww. Ken, stop that. It hurts."

"Did you fall? Do you want me to fetch you some ice? Have you got a headache or are you dizzy? Do you want me to get you a doctor or better, I'll bring you into the hospital immediately."

Omi rolled his eyes annoyed and slumped down a little. Ken was his best friend, but sometimes he simply overdid it. Facing Omi's dramatic eye- and body language, however, Ken lost it. Without waiting for an answer he picked his friend up and stormed towards the naturally still closed shop door but failed in his hurry to notice the closed sign and for the second time Omi's head crashed against the doorframe. This time, however, the impact luckily was sufficient to induce a painless buzz, although this ended with a rough landing on the pavement.

"Oooooowwwww"

"Ooooohhooooooowwwwoooowwww"

It had struck both assassins down.

"Ken, you're worse than Schwarz and Schreiend put together. Are you trying to kill me?"

Omi rubbed the second hurting spot on his forehead and noted then, that he had injured his hand on the hard pavement as well. He glared angrily at the Ex-Soccer player, who was staring at the closed door wide eyed. Slowly he turned his head to look at Omi.

"It's closed.", he stuttered.

"I know, that it's closed. I owe my first bump to that fact and to you my second one. Thank you very much."

"It's closed." Ken replied shocked.

"Yes, Ken, it's closed. I don't know why either, but that's how it is now. I guess then we have to reopen the shop."

Omi slowly stood up and swatted the dirt off his pants. Ken still sat on the pavement and starred at the door his eyes open wide.

"It's closed." was the only thing he brought out.

That was too much for Omi. With a strong grip he snatched Ken's hand and pulled him on his feet.

"If you'll say that one more time, I'll ring up Farfarello and tell him, that Weiß have got their own lunatic now, too. And then I'll invite him on a cup of tea and lock the two of you in your room."

Either it was the thread or the angry tone, but whatever it was, it snapped Ken out of his trance.

"Damn it, Omi, don't you understand what this means? Aya had the early shift today with Youji. And Aya would never close the shop just like that. No way. Maybe Manx came with an urgent mission or Youji didn't come home last night and Aya's searching him now or... or... anyway something horrible, something terribly must have happened for Aya to shut the shop down."

Waving his hands excitedly, Ken tried to make his teammate understand, how serious the situation was. This earned him only a skeptical look and Omi shaking his head.

"Whatever. If it would have been reeeaaallyyyyy that dramatic, Aya would have contacted us on our mobiles to tell us. So, now we'll open the shop, serve our customers and when either Aya or Youji return they'll probably tell us what happened.

That said, Omi unlocked the door, entered and for the third time this today fell to the ground.

"Damn it, who left a baby basket in the middle of the room?"

Swearing loudly the blond boy got up again. Now he hadn't only a hurting head and an injured hand, no, he had fallen on his knees, that were hurting now, too. And this really didn't serve to improve his mood. With a glare, that would have even scared Aya away, he kicked the basket. It turned over and spilled it's contents on the floor. Ken could only speechlessly watch with wide eyes and mouth open, how his usually so happy and cheerful friend disappeared cursing and swearing in the back of the shop.

Shaking his head, Ken bent over after a while to collect the spilled contents of the basket. He noticed a rather large envelope while doing so. He turned it over, but couldn't find a recipient or sender address. But the envelope was open and it didn't take long for his curiosity to take over and he looked inside.

Omi was digging through the first aid kit in search of a pack of Tylenol. His head hurt like hell and he doubted, he'd survive the daily attack of the fangirls without pain killers. Still grumbling angrily to himself he swallowed two pills and prepared tea water. Actually nothing else could go wrong today anymore. The thought cheered him up again and he returned into the shop. There Ken was wrapped up in some documents, that he was studying with an unbelieving expression.

"Is everything ok, Ken? What have you got there?"

"Certificate of Birth of a Miriam Andrews. Born half a year ago. Here's the vaccination card and a weight chart and look, here are photos."

Omi stepped closer and took the pictures. A cute, little blonde girl grinned toothlessly at the camera. A soft sigh fought it's way out of his chest.

"She's so cute."

Ken nodded eagerly and then both were so wrapped up to work themselves through the many images, that they totally oversaw how a large truck stopped directly in front of the shop and how two men got off it.

"Is this the Koneko?"

The man's deep voice dragged both killers back into reality. Out of surprise, Ken put his hands up and dropped the images. Omi stumbled backwards and mentally saw himself landing on the ground again when Ken rescued him from this fate and grabbed him. With heavily beating hearts and wide-opened eyes they starred at the delivery man.

"Err.. yes, this is the Koneko. Why?"

"We've got a delivery for someone called Youji Kudo. Where do you want us to place the delivery?"

Omi and Ken gave each other confused looks.

"A delivery for Youji? He didn't say that he's expecting a delivery."

"I don't care. The delivery is paid and he gave us this address. So where do you want us to put the stuff?"

The delivery man crossed his arms impatiently. Ken swallowed nervously and Omi frowned thoughtfully.

"Err.. is it a lot?"

The delivery man grinned.

"You bet. The way I see it, the guy has to set up a nursery."

"A nursery?" it echoed unbelievingly and in two voices through the shop.

"That's what I said. Where can we put the stuff?"

Again Omi and Ken exchanged confused gazes.

"Well, you can screw his room because it's completely stuffed already. Same goes for ours and there's no place in the shop, either."

"Actually, all we need is place to store it so, then Youji can decide himself where he wants to put all that stuff. Bring the delivery in, we'll put them into the cellar." Omi decided short-handedly.

When he heard the word *cellar*, Ken twitched, but remained silent until the delivery man left the shop to start unloading.

"You don't mean the mission room, do you? That's impossible, we can't allow anyone in there."

"We don't have to.", Omi calmed him down. "He brings the stuff into the store and we get it downstairs."

Before Ken could reply, the first parcel entered and was placed directly in front of him.

"Ok, this is the largest one, a bed, as far as I can tell," the man muttered and went outside again.

Facing the large package Omi did falter a bit, but Ken took the bulky thing and placed it with lots of moaning and groaning in the back. He soon found out, that he wouldn't be able to get this downstairs, so he decided to just let it stay next to the spiral staircase. When he turned around to go back, Omi approached him with a slightly smaller package.

"This is part of a changing table, he said.", the blonde boy murmured as Ken took the box out of his hands to bring it downstairs.

The following half hour the two of them spent pending between the shop and the mission room, until everything was unloaded and safely stored. The delivery man waved one more time, before he got back on his truck on drove off. He left two very confused assassins back.

"As soon as Youji shows up here, I'll kill him."

"No way, I'll kill him first. And then we'll torture him until he tells us what this rubbish is all about."

"We'll hog-tie him up and destroy his cigarettes in front of him."

"And then we'll tear up his porn magazine collection."

"We have to come up with more. He won't get away that cheaply."

But before the two revenge-thirsty assassins could agree on the most effective means of torture, school girls invaded the shop and successfully prevented with their appearance the planing of an act of infinite cruelty and barbarianism.

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Youji was sulking. If someone would have asked him about it, he would have denied it vehemently, but his forward-pushed lower lip, the lowered gaze and the hanging shoulders absolutely left no doubt to the definition. He was sulking. Contrary the happily squeaking Miriam. And she was the reason for his bad mood.

Aya had insisted on buying a child safety seat. After long discussions they had finally found one, that would not deface his car completely. The handling of the safety seat was quite simple, too. But there was one tiny problem. The Seven didn't have a backseat, only an emergency seat. And the child security seat didn't fit into the emergency seat. That's why the safety seat had to go on the passenger seat and Youji on the emergency seat.

No protest had helped, neither the hint that he, Youji Kudou did know the car better not the entreating request to save him from the shame to be possibly seen like that by one of his many female admirers. Into the bargain, Aya had also remembered how the playboy had offered him the keys for his car. And so a rather cheerful Aya drove with a happy Miriam and a sulking Youji back to the Koneko.

On arrival, the next humiliation was already awaiting Youji. Aya held the kangaroo back out to him.

"No, no way. Aya, you can't do that to me. Wasn't it enough that I had to wear that stupid thing in the supermarket? I can't go into the shop like that. That'll ruin my reputation completely. And quit staring at me like that. I know, that your katana is up in your apartment. And by the way, if you kill me you can take care of Miriam alone."

Aya snorted briefly.

"As if you've taken care of her that much. May I remind you of a certain scene this morning?"

Youji sighed deeply. He hadn't forgotten. Neither his reactions, nor Aya's accusation he'd treat the little girl like an infectious disease. But he'd be damned if he'd wear this stupid bag on his chest in the shop where all his fans would show up. That was completely and totally out of question.

When the door to the Koneko opened several minutes the later, the sight offered to the customers and the two killer was a shy Youji Kudou, who was obviously trying desperately to convince himself that it as absolutely normal and stylish to walk around with a carrying sack with a little kid in it. No one was able to count the number of jaws that hit the floor in that moment.

For safety reasons, Youji took a step back when everyone was staring at him.

"Umm.. hi?"

A for him uncharacteristically shy grins had spread over his features, while he nervously combed through his hair with both hands.

Omi blinked heavily and turned to Ken, who simply stood there, eyes open wide and, as obviously ever other person present, apparently convinced to have hallucinations. But slowly it seemed to occur to at least the fangirls that the small blonde head on in front of Youji's stomach was for real and not a product of their imagination. Hesitantly the first approached the playboy, who almost fearfully looked at his two team mates in turn. To his horror he discovered an expression of almost gleeful content on Omi's face.

The young assassin nudged the still frozen Ken and nodded his head towards the spiral staircase. Ken's gaze dropped onto the wrapped up baby bed and remembered the haulage that he and Omi had brought behind them. Now they knew the reason for it. A satisfied grin slowly spread on Ken's face, too. They'd get their revenge, although it would be not as planned.

The fangirls came closer and closer to the object of their curiosity and Youji's gaze became more and more panicked. It wasn't that he minded being in the center of attention of a bunch of pretty girls. On the contrary. But that he was carrying a baby in a carrying sack in front of his chest at the same time was more then unusual for him.

The first girls stood next to him and starred unbelievingly at Miriam. The other fangirls assembled one by one closely around the playboy to catch an eye of the little blond head. And then a squealed "How cute!" broke the eerie silence that had spread over the room the moment Youji had entered the shop.

The spell had been broken and all fangirls broke into chatter and seemed to out-do each other with their ecstatic exclamations. Expressions such as "sweet" and "cute" changed so fast with questions of age, name and origin, that Youji had no chance to concentrate on a reply.

The noise was increasing steadily after the last girls had overcome their shyness and completely surrendered to their curiosity. Each wanted to take a look at the little girl, run their hand through her soft hair, take a finger or touch Miriam in any other way.

Youji looked around desperately for help. Aya had joined Ken and Omi and didn't seem willing to do anything to reduce the crowd of fangirls. And that although it was more than clear that none of the girls was there to buy something.

He tried to retreat from the closer-becoming circle of fangirls, but no matter where he turned, they followed.

Miriam couldn't stand it anymore. Not only, that all these other humans were so loud and kept screaming something incoherent into her ears, no, there was also constantly someone pulling and touching her. She tried to hide deeper into the kangaroo bag to escape the annoying hands, but without success. On the contrary, her actions caused those unrestrained screaming monsters to double their efforts. And that large human, that had been carrying her all the time, did nothing to stop those monsters.

Sulking, she pushed her lower lip forward and gazed upwards. Desperate and helpless green eyes looked back down at her. So it wasn't much better for him, either. She noticed, that he was trying to escape from these monsters, but they wouldn't let him go. Eventually she had enough and showed her disapproval the only way she could.

"WWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"

A loud, shrill not wanting to end scream of protest echoed through the flower shop. The phalanx of fangirls retread surprised and finally Youji managed to free himself from them. Without paying attention to his team mates or his admirers he vanished into the back of the shop.

Omi and Ken twitched together. The scream still in ears, they looked at each other emberassedly. But there wasn't much time for regrets, as the first fangirls tried to follow Youji. But this time, Aya blocked their path.

"That's enough. Either you buy something or you get lost."

The girls objected heavily, but eventually most of them left the shop. Although Omi felt slightly uncomfortable when her overheard one girl telling her friend, she'd hope the cute baby would be there tomorrow, too. Youji had looked too cute with it and this was news that simply had to be spread. Omi shook himself and felt almost sorry for the playboy. But only almost, because then he remembered his hurting back and the gleeful grins was back.

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Meanwhile Youji tried to calm Miriam down. Thankfully she had stopped screaming, but she was still whimpering and didn't seem to feel comfortable. Youji looked around. The mission room, where he had sought refuge, was stuffed with parcels and packages so that one was barely able to move in it. He had cleared the armchair enough so he could sit down, but that was all he felt capable to do.

Miriam was wiggling in her kangaroo bag and seemed to want out of it. After a moment of reflection Youji eventually gave in, picked her up and then threw the bag far away from himself with a disgusted face. Then he lifted her up to look into her eyes. Relieved he noted that his daughter had stopped crying and was gazing at him with large children eyes.

"What am I supposed to do? I don't know a thing about babies. What was your mother thinking when she left you with me?"

He closed his eyes and a soft smile stole it's way into his face when he felt a tiny hand clawing in his T-shirt.

"But we'll manage, right? You'll only have to be patience with your daddy. I'll get used to the thought. But one thing I'll tell you, little one, dare you start smoking or dating boys without telling me, then you'll be grounded for all eternity."

"I think she's a bit too young for that anyway."

Youji turned his head to look into Ken's laughing face.

"You can't start early enough with education, Ken-ken."

Youji winked at the brown-haired boy and grinned broadly. Ken shook his head and then suddenly sniffed the air suspiciously.

"Somehow it smells like..."

Ken made a short pause, looked at Miriam and then grinned at Youji,

"Diaper change."

Youji turned pale.

"Are you sure? I don't smell anything. I mean, you know... "

Youji sacked together and groaned softly. He could hear how Ken moved something to the side and packages being torn open. Eventually he dared to look up and sow how his team mate stepped to his side with a package of diapers, a few tins and bottles.

"I bet you don't know how to do this."

Youji shook his head. Somehow each of his friends seemed to know what a baby needed and how to treat it. Only he, the father of this little agitator was absolutely clueless. Could it get even more embarrassing?

He watched Ken clearing the table and spreading a blanket on it. Next to the blanket, he put the diapers and other utensils. Then Ken grinned at him.

"Ok, daddy. Let's go."

Youji felt his heart sink.