Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Ghost Story ❯ Ghost Story Part 2 ( Chapter 2 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Pairings: Aya/Yohji (hopefully!); possibly other

Rating: Right now, PG, PG-13 for language

Status: Ongoing

Summary: Yohji's housemates decide he needs help with a problem he doesn't want discovered, but that's pretty hard when you're being watched so carefully. But is someone watching the watchers?

Note: I had started this way back in September for Halloween, but never really finished it.

xXxXx

The shop was dead, all the local schools had some fair or something. Ken knew because Omi and Aya-chan were at it. Ken bounced his soccer ball off the ceiling, first with his knee, then with his head. Repeat ad infinitum.

Yohji was killing the plants by smoking by the window. Ken wrinkled his nose, but knew better than to pick a fight with a bored Yohji. Besides that, he looked completely exhausted, and a sleep-deprived Yohji was hell to deal with. Aya was who-knew-where, but he'd gone out on a rare daytime excursion.

Speaking of Aya: "Hey, has Aya been looking kinda beat to you?" Ken caught the ball in his hands and dropped it to the floor. He began kicking it between his feet.

Yohji's eyebrows raised. He pushed his sunglass up to cover his eyes better and took a drag on the cigarette, tilting his head. After a moment he replied, "That is seriously annoying, Ken-Ken. Why?"

"'cause he looks like hell lately!" Ken replied, irritated. Come on, Yohji couldn't be that oblivious. The man had looked like death lately, and it wasn't like it was a secret Yohji was almost more of a mother hen than Omi. He kicked the ball back up into his hands and dropped it on his knee, bouncing it back into the air.

Yohji gave a fluid shrug. "It's not missions."

Ken caught the ball in the crook of his elbow and pointed the forefinger of his other hand at Yohji. "You have noticed! How the hell do you know that?"

"Why do you care, Ken-Ken? You have a crush?"

Ken pitched the ball at Yohji's head. The man ducked and it bounced into a flower pot on the window. It teetered for a moment, then crashed to the floor. It was perfect timing, Aya appeared in the doorway with an armful of library books just in time for a spray of dirt to land just short of his feet.

"No balls in the shop!" Aya snapped predictably. "That's coming out of your paycheck, Ken, not ours."

"What-!" Ken protested.

Aya ignored him, and left the doorway. The redhead passed the window a second later, showing he was headed for the back entrance.

Ken made faces at his retreating back. Yohji stretched, then put out his cigarette in the dirt on the floor. "Well, this has been fun, but that's not my mess. Omi should be here soon, right?" He waved lazily and exited into the apartments.

"You're lucky he didn't notice you smoking!" Ken yelled after him, hoping Aya heard him. "I think you can thank me for that, you ass!" Ken shot his back the finger, then went with a sigh to collect the broom.

xXxXx

"Did he catch you?" Aya-chan worried her bottom lip with her teeth.

"No!" Omi gasped, horrified because Yohji had, in fact, almost caught him uploading a personal ad.

For Yohji himself.

Aya-chan slowed down. They were nearing the flower shop after returning from their school field trip to the Koishikawa-Korakuen gardens. The two had spent almost the entirety of the excursion hanging back from their class, discussing the candidates Omi had reeled in online.

They stopped just short of the door to the flower shop, by the alleyway. Omi leaned forward to whisper, even though there was no one outside to hear them. "So, we're going with Jun, right?"

Aya-chan smiled wanly and nodded. "If you think this is really..."

"Yes!" Omi interrupted. "But I really can't help Yohji all by myself. You're sure you're okay with..."

"It's no trouble!" Aya-chan said firmly, even though there was still a slight crease in her forhead. "Ran-kun will be happy to come out with me. Are you sure you're okay with this plan, though, Omi-kun? You'll be all alone with..."

"No I won't!" Omi denied hurriedly. He'd learned his lesson. "I'm not going to be anywhere near the shop when..."

The door opened suddenly. Yohji strolled outside, one hand in his pants' pocket, the other fumbling in his shirt pocket, a cigarette hanging from his lips. The sunglasses were up, never a good sign, as far as Omi was concerned.

Aya-chan shot Omi a wide-eyed, deer-in-the-headlights look. Omi felt himself mirroring it guiltily.

The older man didn't even look their way until the butt was burning away, however. When he did, he gave them a wide smile that appeared surprised. "Oi! Welcome home, kiddos. How was the field trip?"

"Good!" Aya-chan squeaked. She hurried away and into the front door of the shop.

Omi shot Yohji a wide smile. "It was fun, Yohji-kun!" He gave a pause for authenticity, then donned his best innocent expression. "Speaking of school...Yohji-kun, I'm really sorry about this, but there's an extra-credit assignment I want to stay after for tomorrow. I think Aya-chan and Aya-I mean, Ran-kun..." Omi paused on that, and didn't miss the slight wrinkle that also passed over Yohji's placid features. "Anyway, I think they wanted to spend some time together. Ken-kun has soccer practice tomorrow, and oh, Yohji, I really don't want to leave you alone by yourself, but it will only be for one hour, and then I promise, I'll be back..."

"Tomorrow?" Yohji didn't look terribly happy. After-school was peak hours for swarms of non-paying 'customers'. Omi amped up the pathetic pout. It was a long minute, but after it, Yohji finally sighed, and blew out a long trail of smoke. "Yeah, kiddo. That's fine. But you'll owe me." He wagged a finger at Omi.

Omi gave him a huge grin. "Thank you, Yohji-kun! I'll make it up to you, I promise!"

That takes care of that. Phase one, complete. Omi ran into the shop after Aya-chan before Yohji decided to question why Omi needed extra credit in the first place.

xXxXx

Yohji fiddled with his cigarette as Omi scurried away.

Both of his eyebrows were raised. Aya-chan was usually friendly with him, but she'd all but run into the shop. That had definitely been a blush on her pretty little cheeks. She really did look like her brother despite the brown hair and huge eyes.

"And Omi's up to something," Yohji muttered aloud to the empty street. He didn't seem too nervous, though - so he couldn't have gotten himself into any trouble.

Yet. Yohji amended. A scheming Omi usually meant trouble for at least one of them.

Unless...unless, he wasn't scheming, and was just embarrassed.

"Could Aya be right?" He sounded disbelieving, even to his own ears.

"I usually am." A dark voice said from behind him.

Yohji spun, blushing every bit as hard as the teenagers. "Shit, Aya." The man had come from the back of the shop, holding bulging trashbags. He dumped them and turned to face Yohji, hands hanging by his sides. Aya always looked irreparably awkward, despite him being a more-than-competent killer and usually confident. Yohji found it irreparably endearing.

At the moment, a rare upturn of the mouth said the other man was actually amused. Yohji gave him a smile back, despite himself, and despite being irritated by his statement. Even if it was made in jest. "You're not right all the time." He stated, then kicked himself mentally.

That wasn't a challenge, that was a joke. Fuck, but Aya just brought it out of him.

It had wiped clean Aya's expression. Yohji's insides felt like they were twisting. Every time they talked. He was sabotaging himself, and it was like watching a movie of a car going around the bend of a cliff. Third person view? No guardrail around the corner.

"Yohji." Yohji refocused to see Aya actually regarding him with curiosity. He didn't seem to be too affected by Yohji's statement. "Why am I right?"

Yohji ground the cigarette out on the wall and tossed it deftly into the dumpster. He ran a hand through his hair and pushed his sunglasses up with it. "I was just thinking out loud. It was nothing."

"I saw Aya-chan and Omi return from work." Aya was scrutinizing him. Yohji would have been basking, whether or not the look was meant to be complimentary or distrustful. As it was, he rolled a shoulder nervously.

"You might be right that there's something going on. Oi, Aya, Ayan-baby," Yohji winced at himself, but Aya didn't seem to notice. He was glowering at the shop. "I'm not sure it's anything you have to worry about. I just think the kiddo's up to something. It might not even be related to us, yanno?"

Aya's eyebrows went up a little when he looked back at Yohji, as if the thought hadn't occurred to him.

"I'll keep watching them," Yohji offered.

Aya gave a short nod, doubt on his face. "Thank you." He went back inside the shop.

Yohji lit up another cigarette and pulled his sunglasses back down before following him.

xXxXx

Aya was ghosting the shadows, and Yohji was in the kitchen. They were both moving through the dark, it was past midnight and everyone else were in their rooms, if not asleep. Aya had made sure to check, after the strange sounds of the night before.

Aya held his breath, hovering on the stairs. He'd misjudged his pace - the other man had paused to get something from a cupboard. The door to the garage was open, a slight breeze was whistling in from outside.

"Go away," Yohji hissed, after about three minutes of keeping Aya in the stairwell. The door shut with a decisive click. A moment later, the car engine hummed and faded after the sound of screeching tires.

Aya's eyes widened.

Did he know?

No. Impossible.

Aya went the rest of the way downstairs, but he was shaken by Yohji's words. He took a bottle of green tea from the refrigerator instead of waiting to brew a pot, and snuck back upstairs.

No. He couldn't have known, Yohji would have been angrier, and most certainly would have confronted him. He would have loved to call Aya out on this spying routine, had he really known.

So what the hell had Yohji meant by that, "Go away,"?

Aya put the bottle of green tea on his night stand unopened, and lay down on his back on the bed. A car that could have been Yohji's streaked a beam from a pair of headlights across his ceiling before leaving him again in darkness.

So a boy had visited the shop, looking for Yohji. Was that where Yohji was going tonight? Had been going? Had he rescued Omi, only to take a date for himself?

Did he leave so late at night because he was ashamed?

It didn't fit with what Aya knew of the older man. Yohji had always flirted with both genders, and that included his own teammates.

It didn't rule out the possibility of late-night dates.

If that were the case, Aya turned his head to stare listlessly at his outstretched, calloused hand, bone-white against his dark blankets. What does it matter?

xXxXx

"Ran! Let's get mochi. You still like that, right?"

Aya shoved his hands in his pockets and looked sideways at his sister. She was smiling, but too tall, too old to quite match up with the memory of them going through the same motions of walking down the streets of a fair, long ago.

She's back. Awake. The thought was laced with disbelief, echoing relief and something discordant.

He gave his sister's expectant face a nod. He was rewarded with a brightening smile, laced with relief of its own. He imagined it had to be comforting for Aya-chan to know his tastes hadn't changed all that much.

He was still, in some ways, the brother she remembered.

Aya let his sister coax his hand back out of his pocket into her own, gripping it and tugging him along through the crowd.

"But you buy," Aya-chan giggled. She picked out a mochi of her own at the booth and he complied with her request. Demand, really.

And yet, how many people would you kill to buy her all the mochi in the world?

Aya stuffed the mochi into his mouth to distract himself. The morality of his thought didn't bother him as much as thinking thoughts like that around his sister did.

He watched her eat, not through a tube, but with her own two hands. He smiled at her.

Aya-chan regarded him with an expression that said she knew exactly what he was thinking, and didn't approve.

"So that was nice of Yohji-kun to cover the shop, wasn't it?" She ventured, the statement startling him with its change of topic.

"Yes." He answered after a pause. Truthfully, he hadn't thought about it, but it had actually been nice of Yohji. Not unprecedented, but usually circumstances were more dire to force any of them to take on the shop after school hours alone.

"...he seems like a good friend?" Aya-chan ventured. There was something guarded in her eyes.

It made Aya nervous, and irritated. "Yohji is a..."

He was about to say, 'teammate'. He stopped himself just short of the customary excuse.

Did he wait up to see if Ken came back in the middle of the night, after taking a ride on his motorcycle?

He realized his sister was poking him with a sharp little finger. She looked happy about something, and not knowing what she was laughing at him about made him scowl. "Stop that!" He demanded.

"Yohji is a what?" Aya-chan grinned at him. "You stopped in the middle of your sentence, scatterbrain!" She made a show of peering around them at the crowd. "Cute girl? Hmm?"

"Aya!" He scowled harder. He did not appreciate any reference to attraction coming from his sister.

"Well, is he or isn't he a good friend?"

"Yes, he's a good friend," he admitted uncomfortably. There wasn't another answer she would be satisfied with, he knew. There was no reason for it, but Aya felt the question was loaded and more volatile than it seemed. Could he really call any of them friends? They didn't choose each other. Would any of them call him friend?

"Ran? What were you going to say?" She didn't look as satisfied with prying one answer out of him as he'd expected.

"It doesn't matter, Aya. Drop it."

She looked hurt and confused. "That shouldn't have been a hard question." She snapped.

He muttered a guilt-ridden apology. She gave him a quick hug, then tugged him through the crowd, as if they could escape the little argument.

His gut told him that whatever short-circuiting part of his brain was shooting him full of bullshit statements like that wasn't being truthful. Of course they were friends. They did things for each other than went beyond common courtesy or professionalism. They laughed together, even Aya joined in, on occasion.

Would it be more truthful to say he wished they weren't?

But that wasn't because their friendship was unwanted. It was just -

He blinked in surprise when he found she'd tugged him toward a bench. Aya-chan sat him down and held out her hand for money, which he gave her. "Where -"

"Not far," she said quickly, with a smile that was both tense and understanding. She sped off but kept within eyesight.

Aya watched her, a smile returning to his face. She came back with two cups of flavored ice, even though they'd just had mochi. Aya found he was still interested in eating it, it was a good distraction.

They were off to the side of the main path through the street fair, but people still streamed by them. He watched the tourists and native Japanese tug children along and take pictures and spend their money. He glanced sideways at his sister a few times to catch her doing the same, a slight smile on her face. The few inches between them seemed vast; she was merely people watching. He was scanning the vicinity for threats.

...it was just that caring for his teammates meant... His thoughts picked up where he'd left off a moment ago, filling the companionable silence between the siblings. Aya looked at his sister.

She bumped him intentionally with her elbow and grinned. He smiled back.

...It meant just what having his sister back meant.

Aya wasn't used to having so much left to lose.

xXxXx

"Ken-ken! Thank god." The oldest Weiss dumped an armful of potted plants into Ken's arms before the soccer player was able to drop the ball he carried. Ken barely managed to balance what he was given. Yohji's green eyes were wide with something akin to panic.

"Oi! Yohji, I can't, I just..." Yohji had already spun off to ring someone up at the crowded register. Ken carried the teetering objects and dumped them in the back room. He chucked his soccer ball at the back of Yohji's head, eliciting gasps but mostly giggles from the fawning schoolgirls.

"KEN!" Yohji shot him a look that Ken thought was supposed to be wounded.

The glare made Ken wince contritely. "You could have given me some warning, you ass. How long have you been here by yourself?" He donned his apron. "And you're welcome, by the way. Jerk."

"Thanks for coming back, Ken-ken." Yohji sighed long-sufferingly. "Since shift started. Omi had some sort of extra credit project, and he gave me that wounded puppy look. Aya, erm, Ra-, Aya, Ran," Yohji stumbled over the name for a moment, sounding like he was making introductions instead of talking about one person. "And Aya-chan are out together at that street fair downtown." The man turned a full-watt smile at another paying customer. "Thought they could both use the break."

"Well, you owe me." Ken left out the part where his practice with the kids was just finishing up anyway, so it wasn't any skin off his back. He did this sort of shit enough times he was positive Yohji did owe him something, anyway.

Yohji waved a hand at him. "Yeah, yeah. Definitely."

Ken moved to the front of the shop and went around picking up fallen flowers and rearranging vases. Would he admit he liked this to anyone, ever? Over his dead body, and that was probably pretty likely. But yeah. He, Ken Hidaka, liked arranging flowers. He even liked the crowds of people. It reminded him of -

"Excuse me. Are you Yohji?" The voice was a young man's.

The question sounded disconcertingly hopeful. Ken turned, eyebrows high on his forehead.

Short blond hair, a tan face, pleasant smile, definitely male. The guy was in a soccer jersey to top it off.

And he definitely looked like he was the type that would only be in a flower shop to buy a present for his girlfriend.

He looks nice. Ken decided. Not like a pissed off boyfriend of some girl Yohji's screwed.

"Nope." He smiled back at the guy. The blonde's smile was infectious.

The other's smile faltered. He turned around, scanning the shop. There was a lull in customers, Yohji was leaning with his forehead on the window, one of his unguarded, depressed expressions creeping over his face.

Man, he's been like that for fucking months. Get over it, already! Whatever 'it' was. Omi had thrown some half-assed, idiotic theory at him like five thousand times, but there was just no way...

"That's him? There wasn't a photo, so...really?" The other young man sounded disappointed.

Ken frowned. "Photo?"

"Yeah...on the personal ad..." They both watched as Yohji pulled out a cigarette. "Oh no! He smokes? I don't date smokers. Crap. I have to go before..."

"Personal ad?" Ken interrupted.

"Yeah, I found him on this online dating site I go to." The blonde suddenly blushed. "Sometimes! Just sometimes. I don't always, I mean..."

Oh, boy, he is not going to get a chance to live this down. Yohji Kudoh, self-proclaimed playboy extrordanaire, with an online personal ad?Oh, he was so not gonna hear the end of this.

Ken chewed on his lip to keep from laughing. Yohji was thoroughly ignoring them both. "Don't worry about it, man."

The other glanced sideways at Yohji. The older man waved a hand at them. "You and your friend okay if I go outside for a break, Ken-ken?"

"My..." Ken's voice rose.

"We're okay!" The blonde cut him off. Yohji went out the side door, and the young man let out an audible sigh of what Ken supposed was relief.

And another blow to Yohji's ego! Ken could kiss whoever this was. Not that he had it out for the older assassin, but Yohji was just always bragging. And what sucked was that he usually seemed to have a reason to.

"Oh, well." The blonde gave a small shrug. He smiled at Ken. "Nice to meet you...Ken. Guess I'll go."

On impulse Ken thrust out a hand. "Well, I'm not Yohji Kudoh, but I definitely like soccer."

The other looked at his hand, eyes wide. He took a firm hold on it a second later, a grin growing on his face. Ken matched it. "I'm Jun. And that's good to know."

xXxXx

TBC.

xXxXx