Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Ghost Story ❯ Ghost Story Part 8 ( Chapter 8 )

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

Title: Ghost Story

Author: Genuinelie(s)

Pairings: Aya/Yohji; het (!)

Rating: PG-13 this chapter with past NC-17 referenced

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?

A/N: I am so sorry this took so long! I honestly had no idea where to go with it after that last chapter. But I'm all good now. Hopefully. Heh. ^^;

xXxXx

Aya-chan and Ken stared at the floor and the television respectively, in Omi's absence. Finally Ken cleared his throat. "So, uh, you, you and Omi..."

"We're together!" Aya-chan cut in fiercely. She met his eyes.

"Uh..." Ken was blushing now, he felt it, but that was okay, because Aya-chan was too, despite her defiance. "Not what I was gonna say."

"...oh." Aya-chan ended meekly.

Ken's brain decided to torture him with some of the possibilities 'together' meant, and he had to hold himself back from the 'oh yeah and next time get a room, okay, thanks' comment he would have given Omi.

Ken coughed again. "I was gonna say, you and Omi really made up a personal profile for Yohji? Because..." He ahemmed, and mustered a smile. "That's brilliant. Should have let me in on it. Also, I got a date out of it, so I'm gonna have to thank the two of you."

Aya-chan smiled a little at him. "Well, it seems like it was a pretty bad idea."

Ken shrugged. "Worked out okay, didn't it?"

Aya-chan immediately looked depressed. She gave a tiny shrug.

"Hey," Ken gave her a fuller smile, even if he felt worried about things, too. Things like, maybe she's right, 'cause Omi's not back yet, and maybe one of them's short a few limbs and oh fuck we're screwed if Yohji's not serious and actually, we are fucked, 'cause we're gonna hafta find a new teammate either way. And if Aya goes and takes his sister, oh boy, Omi's not gonna like that now.

"Hey," he repeated, this time with a lot less confidence. "They're adults. Well, Aya is. They'll work it out."

"Aya." Aya-chan repeated. She wasn't quite meeting his eyes. When she did, Ken was sorry. She looked way too much like her brother, at least in that creepy, haunted expression. "You're both really worried he'd hurt Yohji? Just for...just for liking him? That's just so...my brother just wouldn't ever..."

Ken ran a hand through his hair. "Shit. I don't know. It's not 'cause he's a bad guy, it's just that Ay-I mean, Ran, sorry - it just might fu-I mean, sorry, mess, it might mess with the team, he's just kinda responsible, and Yohji-" Ken felt a little guilty for spilling all this about his teammates, even if it was to the sister of one of them. "He's just been kinda going down hill these days."

Aya-chan watched him with wide eyes. "So has Ran." Her voice was so quiet Ken almost didn't hear her.

Ken's eyes widened in response. "What? He's got you back. Best he's ever been. Don't worry about your brother."

Aya-chan looked like she was on the verge of tears. Shit. This was why he didn't talk to girls much. "No, Ken-kun. He's not doing okay." The tears switched on, Ken began praying Omi would get his ass back down there. "And I think it's because of me."

Ken shook his head vigorously. "Ridiculous! Stop worrying so much! The guy's fine. He's just angsting over having nothing left to angst about." He gave her a big, reassuring grin. "Just kidding! Really. He's getting better. He's actually talking now!"

If anything, that just made her look sadder.

There was a sudden commotion on the stairs that made Ken think someone might have gotten pushed down them. Aya-chan and Ken both leapt to their feet. Omi skidded into the room a second later, his eyes wide.

"Who's dead?!" Ken squeaked.

Omi shook his head. "Uh, um, uh, no one! No one. Everything's fine."

Ken narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "Who's bleeding, then?"

Omi shook his head harder. "You know what, guys, uh, I'm really tired. Gonna go to bed. You should too. Don't go on the roof, okay?"

"Is Ran okay? Is..." Aya-chan's voice held a tremble. "Is Yohji-kun okay?"

"They're having sex!" Omi suddenly exploded, then went beet-red. "Oh. My. God." He turned on his heel and ran upstairs.

"Good night!" Trailed down from the stairwell.

Ken studiously did not look at Aya-chan. "Uhm. Well. See? They're okay. You good to go to sleep now, too?"

Ken saw the girl nod out of the corner of his eyes.

"Okay. Good. Well. Have a, uh, nice, uh, sweet dreams." He fled.

xXxXx

Ran woke sore, everywhere, and with his left side freezing. For some reason his right side was almost hot. He had a headache, and his left arm felt like there was a rock beneath it.

...a rock.

...one side warm.

Ran's eyes shot open. He found himself looking into the beginnings of a sunrise, spreading into the sky above the buildings neighboring the Koneko's roof.

You slept with Yohji, his internal voice informed him rationally. You fell asleep naked on the roof.

He took in a slow breath of crisp morning air. He blew it out. It didn't steady his emotions like he'd hoped it would.

You slept with a teammate. Did that matter more or less than the fact that it was Yohji? Less, he admitted. Less, because it was good. Yohji was good, even on the roof, on a coat, when you were both tired and you had a gash on your head and you hurt Yohji's ribs when you hit him, though he doesn't think you care.

Beside him, Yohji shifted and mumbled something, and threw an arm across his shoulders, tugging on his frame. Ran didn't accommodate. Yohji scooted closer to him anyway.

Ran stared over the edge of the roof, and allowed it. Yohji's bare chest was pressed against his arm, his face was nuzzled into the back of his head. He could feel Yohji's cold nose through his hair.

It wasn't unpleasant.

It bothers you that you slept with Yohji because you don't mind this. Ran's thoughts coalesced again. You should mind this. It's awkward. It's getting late. You hurt. The others will know, even if Omi keeps his mouth shut.

He wished he could stop from psycho-analyzing himself. He wanted to turn it off. But Yohji was keeping him trapped there, and despite that he needed to be opening the shop that morning and had planned to work through katas before then, he found himself unwilling to leave Yohji on the roof to wake up alone.

Yohji had been so wrong in his assumptions it was tragically funny. Ran cared about the man at his back. They had slept together, and it was good. And that meant that Ran couldn't ignore it, or pretend that it wasn't eating away at his soul, watching Yohji kill himself with drink, and cigarettes, and lack of sleep, and strangers in his bed.

But he was still powerless to stop it. He had no right. He didn't want the right; he could barely care for his sister. His sister was taking more care of him since she had awakened, if he were honest. He wanted to give Yohji something to make him heal, but he found nothing within himself aside from the painful tatters of feeling that refused to mend into real emotions.

So Yohji had been right about him.

Ran saw nothing left in himself, but a drive to go on, because he could not leave his sister, or his teammates, alone.

If that were true, why did you do this? Ran asked himself. You couldn't have actually thought this would make Yohji happy for more than a night.

He moved his left arm, gingerly. There was indeed a piece of cement that had chipped off the building beneath it. He frowned at it as if it were to blame for the aches everywhere else.

"Better not be leavin'...be lonely..." Yohji suddenly mumbled into his ear.

Ran stilled. Yohji's bicep tightened across his own.

"I have to piss," Ran informed him.

"There's a rooftop," Yohji muttered sleepily.

Ran glared out of the side of his eyes at him. "This is not a bed."

"Your choice..." Yohji replied.

Ran would not have guessed that Yohji would be coherent in the mornings. It figured.

"I don't want to be here," Ran stated finally.

Yohji had been nuzzling his neck. The man stilled. It was a long, silent moment before Yohji removed his arm.

"It's uncomfortable," Ran added, almost gently. He hadn't meant to sound like an ass, but Yohji never listened to him unless he was. "You should move too."

Ran sat up, his movements stiff. He looked over his shoulder. Yohji's hair was mussed, his eyes were sleepy but tracking him. He had one arm behind his head, the other was searching in his discarded pants, Ran assumed it was for cigarettes. Yohji confirmed his guess and lit one, letting it hang from the corner of his lip. Finally, he gave Ran a smile, lopsided and intentionally easy-going.

He'd taken too long to muster it.

"So, Ran, not bad, huh? Ol' Yohji Kudoh live up to his reputation?" Yohji patted his stomach like he'd swallowed a canary.

Ran watched him. Yohji's smiled faltered somewhat, belying his nerves, but it recovered into a full watt grin. "You weren't bad yourself, yanno. Sure you wanna go? We could..."

"No. You didn't live up to your reputation." Ran said shortly, and turned his head so that Yohji couldn't see the small smile on his face.

There was silence from behind him.

He turned, and was immediately sorry. Yohji's face was flat and serious. "Then," Yohji started quietly.

Ran grabbed his pants and pulled them on without his underwear, grabbing his shirt and not bothering to put it on. He stood up. He gave Yohji a small smile. The look Yohji was making him sorry he'd tried to tease. "At some point, you may have to try again."

Yohji's eyebrows went up on his forehead. The lightbulb finally clicked on, a wide smile stretching around the cigarette.

Ran nodded shortly, confirming it, then began walking for the door of the roof.

It surprised him a little that Yohji wanted to do that again, with him. Hopefully in a bed. But on the other hand, by the man's own bragging, he didn't seem like the type to turn down any sort of sex.

"Anytime, baby. Yanno, we could even try again now." Yohji called after him. It was followed by a smooth chuckle - Yohji was joking. "I'm even better after I've gotten my beauty sleep."

Ran didn't answer, and went inside to shower.

xXxXx

Ran stared at his own empty bedroom, lit with bright yellow sunlight. Since he'd never been back to it since the mission the night before, he hadn't drawn the curtains. He placed one hand on the frame, then punched it, hard enough to make the wood splinter. He followed it with a string of curses.

He resented taking the time to shower. He damned himself for being selfish, for being so preoccupied with Yohji that he didn't take care of speaking with his sister first...

It was the last place he had to check, his own room. All other places from the mission room to the storage room to the garage had been covered.

A deep panic sent adrenaline through his veins.

His sister was gone.

Why?

He had almost felt happy just moments ago. The shock of the contrast, one of the very few highs he'd experienced in the last several years of his life aborted by his worst fear, tore a raw wound through his emotions.

It was betrayal. Not on his sister's part, never on hers. But Fate's. It was the price of being selfish, the price of giving in to things he knew would only bring complications.

He hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary about his sister. That was what made him most afraid. She was his opposite in many ways, but in the most important she was truly like him.

It was his fault.

He had been so obsessed with Yohji...

It wasn't fair to the man. It wasn't his fault.

Ran had been so obsessed with his own problems, that he had failed to protect her.

No, he hadn't checked everywhere, he suddenly realized.

Ran turned on his heel.

xXxXx

"Aieee!" Omi bolted straight up as his door was kicked in. He was over the side of the bed and crouching behind it before he realized it was Aya standing in his doorway.

Nevertheless, he stayed hidden. "A-Aya-kun?"

"Where is she?" Aya's voice was in a tone Omi hadn't heard for months.

"If-if you're mad that I saw y-y-you and Y-Y-Yohji..." God, please don't kill him, please don't kill him....

"Omi." The word was clipped. "My sister. Where is she?"

Omi stood straight up, fear forgotten. "Aya-chan's gone?"

There was a second-long pause. Aya gave a short nod, then turned on his heel. "I'll find her. Don't come."

"But Aya-kun!" Omi began crossing the room.

He managed to stop just short of his own bedroom door slamming in his face.

Determinedly, he grabbed his jacket and ran after Aya.

xXxXx

TBC.

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