Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Ghost Story ❯ Ghost Story Part 10 ( Chapter 10 )

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

Title: Ghost Story

Author: Genuinelie(s)

Pairings: Aya/Yohji; non-graphic OmixAya-chan; KenxOC

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?

A/N: I never write het. I never write OCs as in relationships with characters! What's wrong with my brian ;_;

This story is still going! I'm worried I'm boring everyone!

If anyone is reading this on here and have a minute, leave a comment and you'll get a virtual cookie ^_^ And love. And that won't even be virtual. I've been posting this to LJ first, but idk if I should be posting this here too or not!

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"So you, you and Aya, eh?" Ken was leaning on the doorframe of the Koneko, watching Yohji clean up after a couple busy shifts. His soccer ball was no where to be seen, for once.

Yohji raised an eyebrow and smirked, carrying the last vase back into the storeroom. When he'd returned, Ken had pulled down the grate, probably the only few seconds of work he'd done that day.

Yohji shook out a cigarette and leaned on the counter. He was happy enough to have the comforting weight of his sunglasses on his head again, in case he needed them. "Ran," he corrected finally.

"What?" Ken's eyebrows raised, then he let out a guffaw. "So it's true!"

"Yeah, and I'm not sleeping with his sister, and Omi is sure as hell not making moon-eyes at him, so make an effort, okay, Ken-ken?" He lit the cigarette and took a drag. He gave the soccer player a smile to take the bite off his words - it wasn't Ken he was pissed at for staying away from the shop for going on five hours.

Ken shrugged, then sobered. "Can't keep from thinking 'Aya' though. Seems weird to start calling him something else."

Yohji shrugged one shoulder transferred his weight to one elbow. "It's his name."

Ken snorted. "Whipped already."

Yohji took the sunglasses off his head and inspected the lenses casually. Generally to be whipped, one had to be in a relationship. And not the kinky kind of 'whipped'. He wanted none of that, especially not with Ran, who'd probably kill him.

"I can't believe he slept with you," Ken commented, his mouth obviously operating independently of his brain, per usual. He held up his hands quickly. "No offense, but come on, it's Ay-Ran. It's his choice, but you had better be careful, Yohji."

"Seriously, Ken, is there something I don't know about here, between you and him?" Yohji narrowed his eyes. Ken was being weirdly protective of someone he butted heads with more often than not.

Ken laughed, then shook his head vigorously. "What, Aya? Mr. mile-wide-chip-on-the-shoulder? Hell no. He's just..." He sobered up, quickly. "We talked about this, man. He hasn't been looking great lately."

And Ken, it seemed, was afraid Yohji would break him.

"Not a problem, Ken-ken. Ran can handle himself." Yohji placed the sunglasses over his eyes.

Why does it always surprise you when people actually don't see right through you? Yohji mentally rolled his eyes at himself. He had a skill, that was for sure. At coming off as what was apparently a whorish, lazy, inconsiderate ass.

The back door opened and shut.

"We're home!" Omi and Aya-chan walked through the door, hand-in-hand. They both looked happier than Yohji had seen them in a while.

He gave them a knowing smile. "Hey, kiddos. Welcome back. Good day?"

Ken interrupted them by walking through their congregation with a big grin, waving a hand. "I have a date, so don't stay up for me, 'kay? Suckers." He breezed out the door.

Yohji shot the empty doorway a grin of his own. "Looks like your little plans to improve my love life benefitted someone."

Omi coughed delicately while Aya-chan studied the sink.

"About that," Omi started.

Yohji waved the hand with his cigarette, took a look at Ran's sister, then stubbed it out on the counter and threw it away. "Don't worry about it. But don't do it again, either. Next time Ran has the bright idea to spy on the two of you I'll make him do it himself, deal?"

Both teens nodded solemnly at him.

Yohji hoped he could keep that promise. He'd probably be doing anything Ran asked him to, given the chance.

"So," he added casually, "Speaking of your brother..."

Aya-chan regarded him with that same eerily thoughtful expression she'd given him earlier. He was glad to have his shades on for it this time. "He called and said he wouldn't be back until later."

Yohji's eyes widened behind the screens. He forced an easy smile. "Going out clubbing, again, is he?"

He got Omi to grin, at least.

Aya-chan only gave him a small smile.

Silently, Yohji cursed.

His sister didn't seem to be worried, but what did she know? If it didn't have to do with Yohji, he would have just called the shop. Made more sense than bothering his sister at school.

So last night was probably the only night. For the moment, it only produced a dull ache.

It's not like he wasn't expecting that.

"Yohji-kun, he probably has a lot to think about," Omi piped up.

Things to reconsider, Yohji added to himself. And hopefully his own life isn't one of them, with or without me in it.

Yohji shot them both a grin. "You kids probably have things to do. Don't let me keep you. Shoo." He motioned for them to head off up the stairs. "Go make out or something, I won't tell Ran when he gets back."

Omi and Aya-chan both blushed to their ears. Yohji gave them a mischievous wink.

They shared a look, then fled.

Alone in the shop, Yohji hunched over the counter, putting his head in his arms.

God, Ran, don't show me what it's like and then shut the door.

It was his fault. His damned mouth. His inability to not say what he felt. He was doing just fine when the other man didn't know.

And now that Ran did, he knew what to cut himself off from.

A headache was forming behind Yohji's left temple. He went to the kitchen to position himself at the kitchen table.

The irony of the situation didn't escape him. Ran had said he'd done this very thing, waiting for Yohji to come home late at night.

So now it's my turn to haunt my own ghosts.

Yohji pulled out another cigarette, and closed his eyes.

xXxXx

"Hey, man, you okay?" Jun purposefully ran into Ken's shoulder with his own, bounding up beside him as he approached the restaurant where they were supposed to meet.

Ken immediately grinned. "Yeah. Hey, good to see you."

"Yeah, back at you." The blonde was regarding him with an easy smirk. It kinda reminded him of Yohji's.

Hoo boy, let's not go there. Last thing he needed was to relate Jun with anyone in the Koneko. Ken rolled his eyes without thinking, then gave Jun a guilty look as he mock-glared at Ken.

"Seriously. What's up? You go all googly-eyed at the waiters and embarrass me there's going to be consequences, you know." Jun stated as they came up to the glass doors.

Ken smiled easily back, with a slight blush, because he didn't think he'd mind 'consequences' and was simultaneously horrified he'd thought something that dirty right off the bat. "Housemates are being pains in the ass." He said finally. "Yohji - you know, that guy you were supposed to date instead of me? Aw, man. I don't even think I can say it. Nevermind."

He frowned for a moment, then realized he was feeling jealous, of all things, of his teammates, because they could say something like 'I'm afraid my assassing teammate will try to kill my other assassin teammate because they're both borderline suicidal and one is pretty screwed in the head when it comes to even talking to another human, god forbid sleeping with one.' They could say it, and even Aya-chan would get it. Because they all knew the two oldest Weiss enough to guess that the two of them getting together was like two freight trains heading on a collision course.

At least, Ken thought they should know. It made him more stressed out that he was the only one who seemed to think so.

Anyhow, the point was, say something like the truth to someone like Jun, and he'd be lucky to get away with a restraining order.

Sometimes his life made him freaking depressed.

Suddenly, Jun's thumb found the area between shoulder blade and spine, and Ken was leaning into his touch as they walked, even despite the look the maître d' was sending them.

On the other hand, he didn't have to be worried about getting killed by Aya, either because he had a perpetual and soon to be re-unrequited hard-on for the man or his little sister.

Plus, Jun gave a hell of a backrub, and that was just with one thumb. And, Jun actually understood his passion for soccer. It had been a really, really long time since Ken had someone to throw things at the television with during games.

He grinned again. "But it doesn't really matter. Man, I'm starving."

Jun grinned back, and thankfully, let his unanswered questions go. "Good. 'cause I heard, this place has food."

xXxXx

Yohji was giving the cupboards where his alcohol was stashed a baleful look.

He had no idea how Ran had done it. He didn't know how often, but he knew that Ran, by his own admission, had stayed up just like this waiting for Yohji to come home. Hopefully that was a lot later than Yohji was going to have to wait for him.

He still couldn't believe it. It sounded like a lie, even when it fell from Ran's own lips and his sister had confirmed it.

So why is it so hard?

Yohji was intoxicated just by standing across the room from the other assassin. He liked watching him doing simple things, like breathe. Ran had watched out for him and had let him touch him, and that wasn't just some pat on the shoulder they'd shared last night. How could it be so clear to him that they were given to each other, while Ran apparently still was running away from the choices only he saw? There were no choices. None. Just a solid path toward a little patch of peace in the turmoil of their lives.

He was being poetic, Yohji noticed, and it depressed him, because it meant he was far too sober and far too alone if he had the time to come up with those things and still had no one to say them to.

Yohji suddenly winced, recalling just how he'd been most of those late nights that Ran had been watching him. The whole point of going out late was so no one would have to see him like that. It just figured the one person he really didn't want seeing him like that was the only one who had. Unless Aya-chan had been watching him as well as her brother, and that was worse.

God, they were a bunch of spies. Maybe they should just screw assassin-dom and just start up another detective agency.

And repeat your past with a new partner? Good one, Kudoh. Even your fantasies are idiotic.

Somehow, it made sense to him that being a detective was far more hazardous than being an assassin.

Yeah, he was operating on a little less than all cylinders.

His thoughts were not really good company. Yohji tried some zen, attempting to clear his mind, and stared across the kitchen table at the boarded-up window above the sink.

He never had found out how that happened.

He'd been a little preoccupied.

He looked down at his watch. It was approaching 6 p.m. Pretty early, hardly even after working hours for most people.

But Ran didn't have a hospital to go to anymore, and the one person he'd be occupied with was doing things with Omi upstairs he'd rather not think about.

"Uhm..." The quiet interjection from behind Yohji was indisputably Aya-chan's voice.

He slid a gentle smile into place before pivoting in his chair to face her. Aya-chan was alone, standing by the doorway. She moved across the room to stand by the table at his glance. "Hey. You kids getting hungry? We can order some take-out, my treat."

It would give him some company, at the least.

Aya-chan smiled but shook her head, making her dark hair bounce slightly. Those Fujimiyas really had some good genetics, in Yohji's opinion. He preferred Ran's vibrant, almost unnatural red, of course, but both siblings were beautiful in their own right. "No, thank you, Yohji-kun."

Yohji shrugged. "A pizza may or may not show up anyway, don't feel bad eating it if it does." He grinned at her with a wink.

She gave him a little nod, but was biting her lip. "Yohji-kun..."

She seemed to be struggling with something. Yohji suddenly wished he wasn't about to hear whatever it was she had to say. Another warning from another Koneko resident to stay away from her brother? A notice that he wasn't going to return, delivered from her neutrally sweet lips?

"I'm worried about my brother. He said he might be back late, but...but I think..." She took in a breath.

Yohji let one out in relief. That wasn't anything bad. Worrisome, if she was worried, but not anything personally to do with Yohji. He could deal with that.

Aya-chan continued, with her eyes large and serious. "I think he's had enough of being alone, Yohji-kun. I think both you and and I can decide that for him now, whether or not he wants us to. And I think I know where he went."

Yohji was out of his chair before her last sentence was completed.

She told him her suspicions, and gave him a quick hug before turning and running upstairs.

Yohji was out the door in the next second.

xXxXx

Yohji wasn't sure what he was expecting Aya-chan to have told him, but the cemetery he was looking at was probably the last place he would have expected his friend and teammate to be. Another cemetery, where the man's own name was inscribed on a gravestone, possibly. But the gravesite of his parents seemed to acknowledge his childhood in a way that Ran didn't seem apt to do, at least not in so blatant a manner. He had always been about honor and revenge, that was true, and definitely linked with his past - but there was something about him visiting his dead parents that unsettled Yohji.

Ran - Aya - was full of surprises these days.

Assuming he was there. Which he did, because the Fujimiya siblings seemed to be uncannily tuned to one another.

Yohji peered into the blackness. The sun had set, and clouds were moving in again, and the streetlamps were few and far between in this section of town. There was one figure in the midst of the rows of gravestones, eerily still, sitting with his legs tucked under him, shadowed and nondescript in the night.

It was nevertheless recognizable as Ran.

A sharp, sick pain lanced its way through Yohji's chest at the scene.

Still waiting at bedsides, Ayan.

Yohji swallowed heavily around the sudden lump in his throat.

He felt like he was intruding.

He felt like he should have intruded a hell of a lot sooner. How long had the other man been there? What was going through his head? Yohji passed a hand over his face, grinding his palm into his eyes and steeling himself for whatever the coming confrontation was going to bring. He had a suspicion that Ran was not going to be thrilled at seeing him there, stalking him.

He drew in a shaky breath, and observed the image before him for another moment.

Yeah, Ran was really sitting by himself, at night, in the middle of a graveyard.

Yohji crossed the road and began his walk through the somber rows of dead. He attempted to make as much noise as possible. Eliminating the chance of a surprised Ran skewering him was top priority.

"You sister told me where to find you," Yohji called.

Ran was on his feet and whirling into a defensive crouch before the last word was out of Yohji's mouth.

Yohji held up both hands immediately, his fingers spread wide. "It's me, Ayan. Just everyone's favorite Yohji Kudoh." He gave a low, humorless chuckle. "Not a ghost."

He approached slowly as the other man straightened.

It was like a sucker punch to see Ran's face.

He'd never seen the man look younger.

He'd only seen Ran look like he'd been crying that much twice.

It surprised him that Ran was neither clenching his fists, or changing that vulnerable expression to something more protected. He blinked owlishly at Yohji, as he worked his way around the final gravestones to stand a couple feet in front of Ran.

"My sister?" Ran's voice was quiet, and only came after a very long silence.

Yohji nodded. "She sent me. I mean, I wanted to come, I was waiting at home for you, yanno." He gave Ran a lopsided smile. "You worried her. You've been gone a long time."

Another long silence. "Yes," Ran finally breathed.

It might have been Yohji's imagination, but he suspected there was more meaning to that single syllable than he was able to interpret.

Yohji hitched a thumb in the waistband of his jeans, brushing his long coat to the side of his hip to do so. "Mind if I pay my respects?"

Yohji forgot to breathe for a moment, the question was too full of importance and he wished immediately that he hadn't asked.

But Ran gave a short nod.

Yohji turned to the graves of Mama and Papa Fujimiya, and gave them each a low, respectful bow.

Sorry it's me your son's gonna end up with, Because there was no way Yohji was letting the redhead go now without a serious fight. He could be a bastard all he wanted; Yohji wasn't going to believe it was a result of anything but pain ever again. And he wasn't going to let Ran get away with lying to him about not wanting Yohji back, either. No one could fake their way through what they'd done last night, and be willing to spend the night on a cement rooftop on top of a thin, bloodsoaked coat for anything other than love. He just had to get Ran to see that it mattered. But I'm gonna do my best to take care of him. So you rest in peace.

A breeze whispered through the graveyard. It sent goosebumps over his bare stomach and up his arms.

Ran was watching him, his violet eyes open and thoughtful but still completely unreadable.

Yohji held out a hand and jerked his head toward the road. "There's somewhere we can go. If you're ready."

A deep tension left Yohji's shoulders as Ran's cold, calloused fingers settled against his own. He let out the worried breath he'd forgotten to stop holding minutes ago.

Ran let his hand go again to give his own sets of bows. He stood with his back to Yohji for a moment, head bowed, then turned. His eyes brushed Yohji's again, holding a question in them Ran never voiced.

Yohji relaxed into an easy, real smile. He knew Ran would be able to tell it was genuine; it didn't hurt at all to give it.

"I'll go," Ran replied. He followed Yohji through the rows of graves back to the street, and his waiting car.

xXxXx

TBC.

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