Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Ghost Story ❯ Ghost Story Part 15 ( Chapter 15 )

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

Title: Ghost Story, Part 15

Author: Genuinelie(s)

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

Rating: PG-13

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?

xXxXx

"You are what?" Jun was looking manic, his eyes showing the whites all the way around his pupils. He seemed to be frozen like a rabbit in the middle of his small living room.

Ken held out his hands, like he would to calm a dog.

"I, I mean, you did what?" Jun stammered, which was completely unlike him. "Is this..." his face turned angry, but it only lasted a moment before drifting back to confused. "Did you think this would make you a hero or something? Ken, man, don't lie to me. I told you it was okay. Holy crap, I just needed to tell someone..."

"I'm not lying!" Ken protested quickly. "I would never-"

"You think that saying you killed my dad after I told you what I did is gonna make you cooler or something? What the heck is this about?" Jun started pacing. "I needed you man, I needed you to understand, not to-"

"I'm. Not. Lying!" Ken made his words staccato. He was expecting the panic, not so much the tenacious disbelief. He jumped to his feet and grabbed Jun by his shoulders. "How do you think I knew about this? It didn't even make the news yet. It's too early. I mean, geez, I'm glad you don't think I could do something like that, I guess, but this has been eating me up!" He drew in a shaky breath.

Jun froze at the contact, eyes finding every corner of Ken's face. His eyes widened more after they found his eyes again.

Ken gave a small nod of encouragement. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but you were gonna find out, like you said about your dad, it's just this secret is about me." Ken fell heavily back on the couch. He yanked his hair with one hand. "I was planning to tell you all along, just not this soon. It's my job, it's a job, and it really saves people, you know? I feel like I'm making some sort of difference with this. But then we got the order about your dad, and I just - look, I couldn't keep seeing you without telling you."

He squared his shoulders and tilted his head up to face Jun. Jun was standing stock-still again, looking like his brain was skipping like a CD.

"You said you were a soccer player," Jun mumbled.

Shit.

Looked like he was gonna have to get into every damned thing.

xXxXx

"I'm home!" Ken came through the door, and would have slammed the door if he'd had the energy. He just didn't care to make a statement like that though. The world was grey, grey and empty and full of suck, just as it had been for a long time.

He was surprised to find Omi waiting at the kitchen table with nothing but a phone in front of him. He looked at his watch and then back at Omi, who'd jumped to his feet by that point.

"Ken-kun!" Omi exclaimed. "What happened? Are you and Jun...?"

Ken blinked. He surveyed the room. There weren't any dishes to be seen, either in the sink or the dishrack. The shop wasn't open, but he'd counted on that. He doubted any of them wanted to fend off the fangirls asking where Ran was, and that just wasn't good strategy for keeping their cover, anyway. "Dude, Omi. Did you even eat today? What're you doing in here?"

Omi didn't miss a beat. "Ken-kun! What happened with Jun? Does he know about us?"

Ken frowned, and pulled out a chair, plopping down in it. He suddenly felt weary. "Yeah, he knows, Omi. Sorry."

Omi's face didn't give much away. "I guessed you were going to tell him, Ken-kun. That's okay, if you think he's trustworthy."

"I don't think he's gonna tell anyone. I'm not even sure he believed me. I mean, I guess he did near the end, kinda...told him about Kase, kinda...oh, man." Ken crossed his arms on the top of the table and thunked his forehead down on top of them. He had barely slept before getting that call from Jun, and now...he tried hard not to focus on the sick feeling in his gut, the one that was so familiar. Jun hadn't exactly betrayed him though, it was kinda closer to the opposite.

The room was silent. Ken imagined Omi frowning at him.

"Well, I don't know how, but we'd better keep an eye on him for a little while anyway. I'm really sorry, Ken-kun, but we can't just trust him not to tell anyone." Omi said.

"I know," Ken sighed dejectedly.

"Ken-kun?" Omi prompted. His hand fell onto Ken's back, warm and small.

"I'm fine." Ken lied. "Said he needed space, man. Means I got dumped."

Omi gave him a hug. Ken was grateful for it, then started to get antsy and shrugged him off.

"Whatever, what'd I think would happen? 'Hey man I'm an assassin and I just killed your dad.' Except yanno, that should have been okay!" Ken flung his hands up into the air, obviously startling Omi, who gave a little jump. "He knew he was a bastard! He told me, that's why I told him, this whole thing just sucks...hey, where's Yohji?"

Omi frowned. "Out."

Ken frowned back. "Great."

He was pretty sure that Yohji 'out' was the last thing they needed, until they got Ran back.

xXxXx

Yohji watched the clouds making their way from the right side of his vision to the left, the sky a pale hazy blue behind them. At the moment he was bathed in warm sunlight; he was watching cloud approach the sun that would cast him in shadow in a moment.

He lay on the grass with his hands behind his head, an unlit cigarette dangling in one corner of his mouth. It just didn't seem appropriate to smoke on Ran's parents' graves. Maybe when he was on a different plot and sure Ran's body was in the grave he was laying on he'd smoke just to piss off his spirit as some sort of revenge for leaving them behind. As it was, he was holding on to the thin shred of hope that he might need these ghosties' approval when it came to their son.

A cloud passed in front of his vision that looked like his Seven. It didn't even make him smile, and that depressed him.

He wished he wasn't wondering what sort of person it made him that he almost hoped he'd find a fresh spot of churned earth when he'd come here, deep down in his secret heart. It was driving him mad not knowing.

Hold it together...

He was learning to live with ghosts haunting him.

Hasn't even been a day.

If Kritiker was just stringing them all along...he hoped they didn't think they were going to be left with a loyal team of assassins. The way they were giving them just the threadbare tatters of expectation that Ran was still alive and coming back...Yohji knew that if that proved false, if Kritiker was trying to prevent them mourning only to slam it into them in the morning, he wasn't going to survive it this time.

He didn't know if that would be better or worse than living with the suspicion that Ran had tried him out, started using his own name again, started to open up to Yohji and then simply left because he'd decided not to feel the truth. Yohji was having a really hard time dealing with that one. He doubted either way that they'd ever be clued in.

"Fuck you," Yohji muttered.

The cloud chose that moment to take away his sun.

A sudden ring from his cellphone made him jump and scramble with his hand around his body, finally remembering he'd laid it on the grass for easy access. His hand was shaking badly as he flipped it open and brought it to his ear. "Yeah?"

"Yohji-kun!" Omi's voice sounded relieved. "Ken-kun came back, I thought you'd like to know."

Yeah, he supposed he did. Disappointment sucker-punched him though. "Yeah, yeah, good. Ran?"

"No word yet." Omi said, his voice noticeably smaller. "But Yohji-kun, we'd both be grateful to have you here. Jun dumped Ken when he told him about..."

"Call me when you hear from Kritiker." Yohji cut him off. He really could just not deal with Ken's heartache at the moment. Omi probably needed a distraction, and he'd be better at comforting Ken anyway.

He cut Omi's voice off by closing his phone before Omi got out a whole word.

He successfully ignored the lump of guilt in his throat.

He slid his sunglasses down over his eyes with one finger and sat up. He was faced with Ran's last name on two headstones.

"Don't even think about it," Yohji muttered darkly.

He pushed himself to his feet.

Time for some distraction.

xXxXx

Ran blinked open sticky eyes to lights that were too bright. He shielded his eyes with his forearm, and thus discovered the IV trailing a cord out from his skin.

"Don't panic," a familiar woman's voice cautioned.

"Where the-" Ran turned his head.

Manx sat with her legs crossed in a bedside chair, her posture military-stiff. She gave him a smile that quickly disappeared. "You were drugged. Your target's building exploded. You called in your sister's safety-code to our office. Do you remember any of this?"

Ran's head was pounding. He accepted the cup of medicine Manx offered. It was hazy, his memory. He remembered being in the mansion, the ambush...tousling with the guard, the sharp grin the man wore as Ran finally impaled him, the needle the man produced from nowhere as he went down...despair, he had felt despair...his recollection cut off abruptly there.

"Yes," he affirmed finally.

"You thought you were going to die," Manx commented.

"Weiss?" He coughed.

"Are all fine," she replied. She had a cagey look to her face Ran found disconcerting.

He would ask in a moment. "My sister?"

"Is here," Manx replied. "She's been in to see you. She knows now of your plans with us for her future."

Ran gave a short nod. It didn't particularly matter.

"It's possible you're lucky we showed up for damage control," Manx commented. "You team was messier than we wanted this to be. Kritiker saved your life. We had an antidote for what was given to you."

Ran narrowed his eyes. "I'm not dead. Why did you bring my sister here?"

"Yes. You're not dead. We are smart enough to figure that much out." A twitch of Manx's lips was the only giveaway to the acidic humor in her words. "But you could be. So we kept to our agreement, for the time being."

Ran stared at her.

"You're offering to kill me?" He paraphrased dubiously.

Manx pursed her lips. "Perhaps you have been spending too much time with certain members of Weiss, Abyssinian. Use your head. This is an opportunity."

"Is this punishment?" Ran snapped.

The other redhead held up one hand. "I think I know what you were about to say." Her lips twitched again, in definite amusement this time. "But don't feel the need to spell it out. It's not unheard of among Kritiker, Abyssinian, so don't think of this that way. This is no punishment for...liaisons."

Ran stared at the IV, slowly feeding a clear liquid into his arm.

"You have your sister here. The code has been called in." Manx pursued irritably. "You have honored your contract with us, and Kritiker is rewarding that service by presenting you with an option."

Ran's head jerked up. Manx's expression had softened. "We will tell Weiss you died. No contact with old teammates once you leave. You can take your sister and start a new life for yourself."

"Weiss doesn't know I'm alive?" Ran gritted out.

Yohji.

"They'll live without you." Manx assured him crisply. "So think about it first."

She stood up and walked with staccato steps to the door. It clicked shut behind her.

It opened again immediately. His sister ran inside and threw her arms around him before he had a chance to get up.

"Careful," Ran cautioned quietly.

She stepped back. Ran eyed the IV and decided it wasn't anything important, and tugged it out of his wrist. His sister made a small choking noise. He looked up, she was grimacing.

"You probably should have let a nurse do that," she commented. "Oh Ran, I'm so glad you're okay! They knocked last night, I thought it was you, Manx took me here and they've been talking about some code - I'm old enough to know these things, I'm not just a child, even if I have been asleep, and I think I deserve to decide if I want to be kept somewhere or not if you die!" The last word was more of a shriek than a statement.

Ran winced, his head was pounding. "I thought I was going to die," he mentioned quietly.

Her mouth turned down and her lips trembled, although the rest of her expression managed to look angry. "Don't say things like that! And you weren't sure, now were you!"

Ran's eyebrows went up.

"I mean, I'm glad!" Aya-chan looked like she'd shocked herself. She ran forward again and threw her arms around his shoulders.

Ran hugged her closely. "I'm sorry," he offered. "I set that up before...I need to know that if something happens you will be all right. Kritiker has very good connections."

"I have the others," she said. "They'll take care of me, you know. You should trust them, Ran."

"It's more than that, Aya." Ran said. He pulled back from her. "There's legal stuff. They aren't relatives. I know they care for you, but I haven't asked them anything like that. Aya, you can't just assume other people will be willing to do that. They aren't obligated. They aren't really my-"

Aya-chan's chin set. "They are friends, Ran Fujimiya, and Omi at least thinks we're family. I bet Yohji does too! So don't you dare."

Ran frowned.

His heart monitor was getting annoying in the background. He tore off those straps too. The room fell into silence.

Ran broke it first. "Aya, they brought you in here to make us an offer."

"I heard it," she cut him off. "I was outside your door."

Ran grimaced. "No more killing," he stated. "We'd have a normal life."

"You've always protected me, from bullies, from getting yelled at, when I get hurt," Aya-chan answered him. Her eyes were wide and earnest. "It's kind of who you've always been, isn't it? It's not just killing. There seem to be a lot of other people who need protecting."

He wasn't sure how to take her statement. If he were being stubborn, he could read into it and translate that his own sister thought he was well-suited to be a killer - true as that might be it made bile rise. He knew that wasn't what she meant.

He examined her face, and tried to find the words he needed to convince them both.

Aya-chan narrowed her eyes. After a moment, she sighed. She sat down on the bed next to him and took his hand. He stared at their entwined fingers.

"I guess it's my turn to look out for you," his sister said. "Since you're being difficult."

xXxXx

Yohji had gone the same way from the cemetery as he had the night before, but headed to the club he'd mentioned to Ran instead of the coffee house. The idea of sitting there alone was too much for him, possibly for the first time. He'd usually been content to hang with Asuka's memory; it was the closest he'd ever be able to get to her. But Ran's absence was too fresh. Even the thought of going there so soon without him felt as if something was physically missing from his body. He'd walk into the bathroom and see only him and Ran and he knew that his actual solitude in contrast would be too much for him.

So he swerved to a side street and parked next to the back entrance to his usual bar, off the main drag to protect his precious vehicle.

"About ready to call it quits?" Michiru, the young female bartender, was peering at him.

Only if you're ready to go home with me, baby.

The words didn't reach his lips. So trained to respond like that. He was usually attracted to Michiru - tonight she just was coming off like an animated mannequin.

"Nah," Yohji responded.

Michiru frowned. "That wasn't exactly a suggestion...it seems like maybe you've had enough?"

"Nah," Yohji repeated. "Happy hour's coming up, don't wanna miss it."

He looked to the empty seat beside him, and imagined Asuka sitting there. Her hair turned red and lengthened, the smile turned into a barely-there quirk of the lips, her chest flattened and the blouse she was wearing morphed into a black tee, or perhaps it was a hideous orange sweater, or a coat with too many buckles.

Yohji frowned at the empty space where his apparition should be.

Asuka, Asuka, don't leave me like that, he thought to himself. You're my only ghost. You gotta give me your blessing for this, yanno? Not a replacement. He's different.

"Excuse me?" Michiru interrupted his thoughts. "No more. You're going home now, right?"

"Michiru, baby, you know me." Yohji gave her his most winning smile and a wink. "I know my limits. I just need some space tonight. So be kind to good ol' Yohji, huh? I'm very interesting to talk to -" He didn't feel like talking. But he didn't exactly trust himself to go home either. "-and not bad to look at either, eh?"

Michiru gave him a smile and a giggle, he guessed the first could have been real but the giggle was totally forced. "Ok, ok. But you listen to me next time. Right? Only a little while longer."

Yohji nodded. The bar was mostly empty anyway, it was far too early for business to pick up.

He glanced at the seat next to him, where he had imagined Asuka.

He realized that it didn't particularly matter that he hadn't gone to his coffee shop. Ran's absence still felt like a black hole had opened up at his side, sucking at him.

He wondered if Ran even gave him a second thought. Even wondered for a second how his absence was going to affect him. Wondered if Ran had this planned, even as he handed out poisoned crumbs of affection under the guise of sustenance.

Not even a day. It was still enough to shake the dishwater of Yohji's emotions and jostle up the dregs of unresolved loss.

He was cursed. If he'd ever had a doubt.

And fuck Kritiker. He resolved to go kick their asses tonight or maybe tomorrow, screw the consequences. He'd give them close to a day, just 'cause he couldn't really see himself doing much else, the kids needed him and there was still that small, small wisp of hope...

Yohji had been coping. Before this he'd been coping.

Yohji waved Michiru over. She was still pursing her lips at him, but poured him his drink.

xXxXx

TBC.

xXxXx