Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Ghost Story ❯ Ghost Story Part 9 ( Chapter 9 )

[ 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

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?

Thanks to everyone who's been reading!

Also, comments are always, always appreciated <3

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Ran heard Omi trotting after him, and did not slow, or turn. "Go home."

"No! Aya, whether you like it or not-" Omi's voice was a little breathless.

"My name is Ran," Ran cut him off sharply. "Go home."

"Sorry! Sorry." There was a pattering and Omi suddenly caught up to him. Ran glanced down and from the corner of his eye saw Omi looking up at him, even as he hurried to keep pace. "But Ran, I thought it was okay with you that I started dating Aya-chan. She said so."

"Did she." Ran said shortly. He couldn't remember having said those exact words.

And this is how well you know your own sister. She lies to other people about what you do. He wasn't angry with her though. How could he be? She was trying to live.

And you won't let her, Ran frowned, though he didn't speak his thoughts aloud.

He had never been sure how else to protect her, short of sending her away, and neither of them wanted that. She kept him, he kept her. They were all that was left of their family. In his view, other people were liabilities.

That didn't mean he wanted her cut off from other people. He had always been okay with her making friends. She needed them. He wanted her to meet someone and have a normal life. It was what their parents would have wanted. It was what he thought she wanted.

But Omi was not a normal life. Omi was his life. In some ways, Omi was worse than his life.

A Takatori bloodline.

Omi had asked him that very question once.

Ran had told him that he was not a Takatori, he was Tsukiyono Omi.

He looked down properly at the boy running beside him. Omi's blue eyes were wide and filled with concern.

And understanding.

Always too understanding. Understanding to the point that he would sacrifice himself completely for another.

Ran made a sharp left around the corner of a building. Omi had to fall back several paces to get around it, and when he did, he ran into the bicycle rack on the sidewalk with a sharp cry.

Ran kept his hasty step, then slowed. He stopped, and turned.

Omi was holding his knee, but was picking up pace again. He straightened when he caught sight of Ran and trotted up to him. "Well, so you didn't give us permission! But you know what, she asked me, and it's her decision! What am I going to tell her, A-Ran? She's not going to like it at all if I tell her you told us no."

Ran really could have punched Omi just then, and it wasn't a feeling he was used to when it came to their youngest teammate. "Omi. I'm not going to disallow it."

Omi worked his mouth. Finally, looking completely unsure of himself, he asked, "Then I'm coming with you to find her?"

"We'll both be back, Omi." Ran finally sighed. "You didn't tell the others where we went."

Omi's eyes widened farther. "No, they don't know we've gone, but - Ran, I feel like it's my fault! I...oh my god, I was so embarrassed last night, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but I didn't even want to face her and I think she looked upset and it's my fault that I didn't even say a proper goodnight to her!"

Ran shook his head shortly. His lips flattened into a thin line. "You might not have comforted her, but you also did not make her upset. Let me find my sister by myself."

Or I'll make you was implicit in his tone.

Omi sucked in a slow breath. His shoulders squared visibly. "I'm sorry, Ran, but you're wrong. I'm not going home. I know you're blaming yourself for not taking care of her better, but she's been through a lot and there's no way you can do any better, and I really wish you'd realize that because I wish there was someone who...who.." Omi colored. He took in a deep breath. "She's lucky to have you! She knows that, too. But you aren't...you aren't the brother she knew, and we're all trying to get to know you right now, and it's because we all value you as our friend and your sister loves you."

Ran narrowed his eyes. Omi had delivered several accurate blows in his monologue, but he was damned if he was going to let it get to him right then. They were wasting time. Nevertheless, he waited, because it was obvious Omi wasn't done yet.

"So I'm going to go find her, and you're going to go home, because I really think she left so she could have some time to think about you and she's only going to feel suffocated if you chase her down every time she needs some space!"

Fuck, but he'd forgotten what a bastard their littlest member could be. And not a word he'd said wasn't true.

The two Weiss squared off, Omi with his hands on his waist.

"I'm going with you," Ran said finally, "To make sure that she's there. You will call me if you..." He sighed, and ended more quietly. "...if she won't come back." The words were sour.

Omi nodded resolutely, looking like he'd been given a suicide mission. "But I don't think she was ever intending to run away, Ran-kun." He looked utterly convinced of his words.

Ran supposed he knew that. He didn't answer, but clapped a hand on his shoulder, and Omi took off with another little nod down the sidewalk.

xXxXx

The smile on Yohji's face waned in Ran's absence, after the man left the roof to take his piss or - more likely - simply to flee having to face Yohji after he'd given in. But the suggestion he'd left with hadn't been necessary, and it wasn't like Ran to make false promises, or give false hope.

More like give false, ego-crushing, hope-crushing blows. That was definitely more his nature.

Yohji rolled his neck, wincing at the cricks and wishing that Ran had stayed around. Not that he'd ever be willing to deliver a backrub, but this was Yohji's fantasy, and he could imagine whatever the hell he wanted to. He hurt all over, Ran hadn't been joking. He knew that would be the outcome before they'd started. He still didn't care. Ran had offered a piece of himself and all of his body to Yohji, and that wasn't something he would ever be whining about, in whatever location Ran chose.

Yes, he was pathetic.

And in agonizing love.

Just had to name it, he told himself helplessly. He rolled up the blanket, bundling the container of lube, his clothes and the pillow into it. He tugged on his pants so he could go stand on the ledge of their building without getting caught for public indecency.

The city was beginning to glow, sunlight reflecting off of metal and glass, and the honk of cars and distant sounds of construction filled the air with life. Yohji breathed it in and took a deep drag on his cigarette as well, and for the first time in a long time considered about giving his habit up.

Not that he ever would.

But it was the thought that mattered, and his reasons for thinking it.

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Aya-chan knelt on the ground before her parents' graves, probably it was directly over their bodies, if she thought about it. Which of course she did, because how couldn't she? She wished she didn't, though. Even if they were her parents, it was creepy.

And also the closest she would ever be to them again. She touched a bare hand down on the ground at the base of her mother's gravestone.

"I'm sorry we're not better," she offered. She bit her lip. She and Ran had only been back to the graves once since she had woken up. Ran had even hung back then, meters away, while she had paid her respects. She had bawled for hours; he had remained silent and stone-faced through the visit.

Like maybe he hoped our parents wouldn't know he was there.

Aya-chan's eyes blurred.

"If it makes you feel any better," she continued, "I don't really think he wants me to see him, either."

She removed her hand to place it by her father's grave. She played with a long piece of grass at the edge of it.

She bit her lip, but some tears streaked down her face anyway. "I don't think he wants anyone to see him! I don't understand. He does everything he's supposed to, just like he did back home, except when he snuck out to see that boy that one summer, but you know about..." she took in a deep breath, then gave the grass a shaky smile. "He misses you. I know you know that, but I want to tell you since he won't."

It was a beautiful day out. She wasn't sure if she'd rather it were raining or not, because the contrast with how she felt inside was making her feel a little worse. A slight breeze whispered over the grass and ruffled her skirt and hair.

"Anyway, he's taking care of me, too. So you don't have to worry. And I promise, I'm trying to take care of him." She slid her hand back to her mother's grave, this time touching the stone where her mother's name was carved. "But it's really hard. I think..." She bit back what she was about to say, and decided her parents didn't need to know everything.

She was going to say, 'I think Yohji's trying, too.' But her parents didn't know who Yohji was.

She pictured Ran bringing him home.

And giggled, then sobered. Her mom probably would have loved him. Her dad probably would have walked around with that grim expression he wore when one of them had broken something.

Her lip trembled again. She liked Yohji. She wanted Ran to like Yohji, but aside from those quiet nights when she watched her brother watching Yohji, he seemed to hate him.

If she didn't know better. That was something that hadn't changed - Ran had always been one to hide what he was feeling, from everyone. He would sometimes tell her if he was truly mad at their parents, or at another student from school, but hardly ever when he was happy about something. She would have to watch him carefully for those thoughtful expressions and small smiles when he thought no one else was looking.

But now, his housemates didn't see that. It seemed like they all thought of her brother as this heartless, emotionless...

...assassin.

Aya-chan's eyes widened, then closed. She didn't even want to think the word around her parents' graves. As if ghosts were psychic too.

But that was who she was living with. Four assassins.

Even Omi. She forgot that...well, she forgot that pretty much all the time.

"I'm living with three other really, really good people," she stated to the air. "But you already know that. I told you last time."

"Aya-chan?"

Aya-chan screamed, and scrambled forward to put her parents' graves between herself and the unexpected voice.

It took her a moment to focus and realize that the apparition she was staring at was her assassin boyfriend. Who apparently had assassin-ninja-sneaking skills.

"You scared me!" She yelled at him.

How had he found her?! She stared at him wide-eyed. She also hadn't thought she would be gone long enough for anyone to miss her.

Omi had been looking incredibly serious. He gave her a small smile that crinkled his eyes. "Sorry. I'm also really sorry for...for interrupting you, but Ran-kun and I, we were both worried when we couldn't find you." He shifted on his feet. "Please don't be mad."

Aya-chan stood up. "Ran told you were to find me?"

Omi nodded.

Aya-chan crossed between the graves to stand by him. She gave her parents a low bow.

Omi bowed too, and it made her smile. When he looked at her, he was still worried. "Are you okay?"

She took his hand. "I just needed to...I miss them," she said.

Omi gave her a look that told her he wished he understood. She wished he'd had parents like hers, too. She gave his hand a squeeze. "I'm okay," she said. "We can go back."

xXxXx

The upstairs was quiet when Yohji finally brought the materials from the previous night's exploits down to wash. Which he did, diligently, and hung to dry over the railing of his own apartment so as to minimize the evidence for Ran's sake.

As his brain woke up as the minutes ticked by, he was becoming more and more incredulous that Ran had actually given in to himself. He also couldn't believe that Ran had pretty much admitted that was what it was - that Yohji had been torturing himself senseless thinking the other man was doing his best to ignore him.

Which, he supposed he was right about. He had just been dead wrong about the reasons.

Apparently.

God, but actually feeling something for the person you were having sex with was mind-blowing. Not that he'd slept with all that many people, but enough in the years since Asuka -

He let out a shaky breath. "Yeah, Asuka. I hope you're okay with it. I bet you are. You'd probably be pissed at me if I didn't find someone else to really care about, wouldn't you."

He knew the answer. He gave his empty room a smile.

Still talking to her ghost. He wondered if that would ever change, even if Ran decided to try out actually realizing that loving another human was a good thing.

Yohji ran a hand through his hair and steeled himself. He was going to have to face Ran at some point, not to mention his other nosy-as-hell housemates. He left his bedroom and went downstairs to the kitchen.

He raised an eyebrow to see Ken at the table.

"Oh, hey, Yohji." Ken gave him a smile that told Yohji he was nervous about something.

Yohji decided to milk it. They probably all knew anyway, and Ran was nowhere in sight. "Hey, Ken-ken." He gave him a wink. "Have a nice sleep?"

"They're gone," Ken broke in.

Yohji lost his smile.

The door opened. Omi raised a hand in greeting. Aya-chan followed him in, looking around nervously. Yohji's eyebrows went higher.

"We're home," Omi announced.

Yohji looked back at Ken to see if that was who he meant. Ken was staring at the door like he expected someone else to come through it.

"Is Ran in the shop?" Yohji asked the general public.

Ken looked nervously around as if he hoped someone else had the answer.

Omi gave them a smile that said he knew absolutely jack squat. "He walked with me some this morning."

Omi turned back to Aya-chan, who was hanging back, but looking at Yohji with a knowing, thoughtful expression. Yohji looked back at her, perplexed. She looked like she had things she wanted to say to him, which made him all sorts of unaccountably nervous. Yohji suddenly wished he had his sunglasses.

Omi continued, "But I wouldn't worry." He was speaking to Aya-chan. "I think he had things he wanted to..." he looked back at Ken and Yohji, then very obviously changed tactics. "He'll be back, I'm sure of it. He's not on shift today anyway, guys. Yohji-kun, will you write us a note for school explaining why we're late?"

Yohji would really, really have liked to know why they were late too, but didn't feel like getting into it with them at the moment. His upbeat mood had swung low. "Yeah, sure, kiddo."

xXxXx

Ran waited until his sister and Omi had left the cemetery before exiting the gift shop he'd hidden in across the street.

He stood on the sidewalk, looking across at the rows of gravestones, and didn't pay attention to the people crossing in front of him and behind him.

Someone finally ran into him, an older man that Ran was shocked to find himself thinking resembled what their father could have looked like, had he gotten old enough. He apologized distractedly as the man waved him off, muttering, and continued on his way.

Ran squared his shoulders, and crossed the street.

His parents' gravestones were like all the others beside them and to the front and back. He gave a low bow and straightened, hands kept by his sides. He felt awkward standing there.

He hadn't really done much of this, he realized. He came to maintain their site, but never just to visit.

Visit? He scoffed at himself. Visit ghosts? There wasn't anyone left there to visit.

His sister, apparently, thought there was.

Ran crouched down, and touched the ground gently between their graves.

"You can rest in peace," he said finally. "I didn't tell you last time. I came with her."

You're talking to an empty graveyard.

"I avenged you," he said.

Ran finally noticed the drops of liquid on his hand, drops that were not rain from the blue, cloudless sky, and how his hand was shaking in the grass.

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TBC.

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