Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Neutral Territory ❯ A Revealing Breakfast with Weiss ( Chapter 15 )

Title: Neutral Territory [part 15/?]

Author: Enigma

Written: begun October, 2001

Rating: R

Pairings: (Omi + Nagi) (Yohji + Ken) (Brad + Schu)

Category: Shonen ai/Yaoi Angst Friendship Romance Action Violence. AU-OOC. Giftfic.

Archive: fanfiction.net & mediaminer.org [author: "E-sama the Llama"] plus Wuffie.net [author: "Enigma"]

Warnings: shonen ai/yaoi, angst, masculine friendship in many forms, various levels of romance, action, coarse language, whiffs of citrus but nothing detailed, possibly graphic violence, bloodshed, tiny bits of humor, fluff, and sap; more warnings will be added as necessary. AU-OOC. Giftfic for Rubious.

Spoilers: Aya's sister's condition and a few other small things, nothing major.

Disclaimer: "Weiss Kreuz" is the property of Koyasu Takehito and Project Weiss. All original characters featured herein (including but not limited to: Glocksten, Charon, etc.) are © Enigma, 2003, and are not to be used without permission. This unauthorized work of fanfiction is intended for entertainment only; kindly do not sue me.

Notes: Omi's first trip to the public library results in an unexpected meeting when Nagi saves his life without being aware of the Weiss archer's identity. Can two lonely teens overcome the limits of their dark purpose in life to find friendship and possibly love in the midst of "neutral territory"?

//thoughts//

{{mental speech}}

*****

Thursday early morning. The basement of the flower shop.

*****

An unfamiliar ringing sound eventually dragged Omi from slumber.

"What the hell is that noise?" The Weiss tactician demanded, looking up from the nest of blanket, pillow, and cushions on the couch where he had slept quite comfortably. Blurry cerulean eyes blinked several times as he looked around trying to figure out where he was. "Why am I sleeping in the basement in my clothes? And what *is* that annoying sound?!"

Glancing around the room, he noticed that an image of an old-fashioned alarm clock with actual bells on top of it had appeared on the screen of the computer and he sighed, "Oh, *that's* what it is! Shit, but that's an annoying program! I'll need to download a different alarm simulation someday. If I'm going to sleep down here, I'd at least like to wake up to something more normal."

Sitting up was difficult thanks to the blanket being wound too tightly around him as well as the fact that his jeans were terribly uncomfortable as sleepwear, but he achieved it since the goal of turning off the irritating noise was so desirable. Once peace had returned to the basement, Omi stretched, scratched the back of his head in confusion, then went off to take a much needed shower.

*****

Thursday morning. The kitchen of the flower shop.

*****

Dressed for school and feeling much better, Omi wandered into the kitchen and found Ken at the stove cooking scrambled eggs and Yohji at the table sipping at a cup of coffee while reading the newspaper.

"Good morning, everyone!" The young blond greeted as he walked into the homey room and made a beeline for the coffeepot. The aroma of freshly browned bread tickled his nose and his stomach informed him that it wanted breakfast.

"Hi, Omi!" Ken smiled in return, "Want some eggs?"

"Yes, please, Ken-kun, that would be really nice," Omi replied as he poured a mug of coffee and then turned to glance at Yohji who was frowning in response to whatever he was reading in the paper. "Um, Yohji-kun? Is something wrong?"

"Huh?" Sleepy green eyes blinked up at him and then Yohji laughed slightly, "No, not really, Omiitchi. I was just reading the extended seasonal forecast the Tokyo weather service has issued and they're predicting a hard winter, that's all." With a stifled yawn, he folded the newspaper and set it aside, missing entirely a small article about the disappearance of a young, violet-eyed boy from the park Omi and Nagi had been at the day before.

Ken frowned unhappily and commented, "'Hard winters' aren't good news for florists *or* assassins, that's for sure! Let's hope they're wrong." Shoveling fluffy yellow eggs onto a plate that was then placed in front of the eldest member of Weiss, he commanded, "Here you go, Yohji. Eat your breakfast, koi."

"Yes, mom," Yohji teased in reply, but pulled the other man close for a quick hug before turning to look at the eggs critically as he put a bite in his mouth. "Hmm, these are good, but a little bland. Will you hate me forever if I put Worcestershire sauce on them, Kenken?"

Warm brown eyes threw an annoyed look at playful emerald ones even as Ken was already retrieving the requested condiment from the refrigerator. "I'd be shocked if you didn't put *something* on them, Kudou! I'm glad you're off that jalapeno kick you were on, though. I'd taste the damned things every time you'd kiss me. Yuck!"

Omi bit back a laugh as Yohji countered with, "Well, I *offered* to stop kissing you, sweetness, but you didn't like that option either. Is it *my* fault you're so hard to live with?"

"Yes," Ken replied teasingly as he whisked some eggs in a bowl. "I had no bad habits whatsoever until you came along and seduced me into that wild lifestyle of yours. Like going out and dancing all night before coming home and letting you have your evil way with me all the time? Oh, yeah, *definitely* all your fault!"

"It wasn't all *that* hard to 'seduce you', you know," Yohji nearly purred rising to the challenge and moving to embrace Ken from behind even as the younger man was beginning to cook a pan of eggs for himself and Omi.

"Yohji-kun! Ken-kun!" Omi suddenly exclaimed, blushing furiously as it occurred to him that perhaps the other two might have forgotten that he was even present. "Please! No sex in the kitchen!"

"No? Why not?" Yohji asked with a smirk. "Is that a new rule of Aya's or something?"

"No," Omi chewed on his lip lightly trying to keep from either laughing or shouting, "It's just a request. Please?"

"Of course, Omi," Ken reassured, gently pushing Yohji back towards the table. "We were just playing around *weren't* we, Yohji?"

"We almost were, but you said to stop," Yohji smirked again and barely dodged a piece of toast that Ken had launched at him. A good natured laugh erupted from his throat as he commented, "Good thing that you were the one to throw that at me, Kenken, and not Omiitchi over there! With his accuracy, I might have ended up dead due to bread!" An amused chuckle nearly masked the last few words as Yohji turned back to the serious business of eating the breakfast his lover had cooked for him before it got cold.

Ken and Omi both groaned at the stupid remark and shook their heads in amazement that the former detective seemed to have a bottomless supply of pointless quips with which to annoy them when he wanted to.

Carrying his coffee mug to the table and sitting down to wait for the eggs that were almost ready, Omi thought for a moment then asked, "Which one of you may I thank for getting me onto the couch to sleep last night?"

"What're you talking about, Omi?" Ken asked, sliding a plate of eggs in front of the boy before sitting down beside him with his own steaming dish.

Yohji glanced up with a confused expression on his face and remarked, "Is that where you were? I saw your bedroom door was open and since the bed hadn't been slept in, I assumed you'd gone out late last night and got lucky."

"Yohji-kun!!" Omi blushed deeply, shaking his head in negation even as a corner of his mind mentioned helpfully that he *had* spent a lot of time online with Nagi and he'd felt lucky about that yet knew full well what the former playboy was insinuating. "I think I fell asleep while I was working on the computer last night, but when I woke up this morning, I was on the couch with a warm blanket on top of me. It was so nice, I assumed one of you two did that for me."

Yohji shrugged his shoulders then remarked, "No, we were a little too, um, *busy* last night for that sort of thing, Omi. It must have been Aya."

"Ha!" Ken chortled, "That would be a sight to see! Fujimiya Aya showing some simple human kindness? Never happen!"

"Ken-kun," Omi chided, "that's not a very nice thing to say! However, putting me to bed that way doesn't exactly sound like something he would do to me either. Maybe I made it over there myself and just don't remember it."

Yohji nodded thoughtfully, "I'd assume so, yes. That's the most logical conclusion at least."

"What's the 'most logical conclusion'?" A new voice asked as a weary swordsman walked into the room, glaring murderously at the almost empty coffeepot as he pulled out a mug and poured the last of the coffee into it before taking a deep swallow of badly needed caffeine.

"Aya-kun! Good morning!" Omi chirped too cheerfully and caused the redhead to wince slightly as he set a fresh pot of coffee on to brew.

Aya ignored Omi's greeting, so Ken stuck his tongue out at the man's back angrily, feeling vindicated for his earlier unkind remarks even as he answered the question, "Omi woke up on the couch in the basement this morning. He had a blanket on him and everything and he was wondering who tucked him in down there. Since it wasn't me or Yohji, we figured he had done it himself. *That's* what the 'most logical conclusion' was."

"Hn," the field leader of Weiss grunted, focusing on his half-empty mug of coffee, relieved that no one even asked him if he did it.

//At least this way I don't have to lie about it.//

Aya briefly considered why he'd automatically chosen deception if he'd been questioned, but before he got very far with that thought, another came to mind.

//Wait a minute. They never even considered it possible that I did it in the first place? Am I really that much of an asshole that they'd assume I'd be incapable of helping Omi that way? It hurts to know they think so little of me, but why? I encourage that whole "icy Aya" reputation I try to maintain and now that it seems to have worked so well, I find that it makes me uncomfortable? What kind of idiot *am* I?!//

Deciding he didn't know his own mind, Aya sat with his arms crossed glaring at the coffeepot as it slowly produced the dark beverage his exhausted body craved. The violet-eyed man startled a bit when he felt a warm hand on his shoulder and he looked up to find Omi standing near him with a worried expression on his usually genki face.

"Aya-kun? Are you all right?" The young blond asked, gazing at him with a frown of concern furrowing his ordinarily smooth brow.

"Me?" Aya gazed back dazedly and then yawned before responding, "I'm fine, Omi. Why?"

"Well," the teenager's frown deepened, "your eyes are all red and you look really tired. Did you have trouble sleeping again last night?" The scarlet-haired man had an on-and-off case of insomnia no Kritiker physician had ever been able to explain and Omi wisely feared it might interfere with his teammate's health as well as his ability to help them destroy Glocksten and Charon.

The automatic urge to tell Omi to mind his own business was easily averted due to Aya's own internal confusion and the scarlet-haired man nodded a little as he admitted, "I'm afraid so, but don't worry about it. I'll be able to sleep again after we get this mission out of the way."

"Oh, all right," Omi wasn't convinced and neither were the two men who were simply watching silently, as concerned as the youngest member of the team was since they had seen the tragic side effects of Aya going into battle in a sleep-deprived condition.

During a mission that had been delayed by bad weather and therefore had lingered far too long at the forefront of Abyssinian's mind, an exhausted Aya had badly misjudged one of his trademark leaps and had become injured. The drop from the rooftop of a warehouse that had given his katana strike sufficient force to slice an enemy almost in two had ended with the sickening crunch of bones that were not those of the target breaking.

Collapsed in an agonized heap, Aya had discovered to his horror that he'd broken his ankle and eventually he'd found himself encumbered with a cast for too many long weeks and therefore unable to perform in either of his capacities. Since that night, the other florist/assassins were more than aware of the risks an extended mission posed to him and they worked together to avoid such an unfortunate outcome from repeating itself without Aya ever even being aware of it.

Unable to offer a solution to the problem of locating their prey any faster than he was already proceeding, the Weiss tactician changed the subject and asked his weary, violet-eyed friend, "Weren't you going to go see Aya-chan this afternoon? I'll be working in the shop after school with Ken-kun, so you can still do that, right?"

"That was what I had planned," Aya said before yawning again tiredly. "Ken's on all day, I've got morning shift, and you'll replace me when you get home. Yohji has the day off."

The usually observant swordsman had completely missed the fact that if Yohji *was* planning to have the day off, then what was he doing in the kitchen so early? Despite forsaking some of the less savory habits from his carefree, womanizing days, the lanky blond still enjoyed lazing in bed whenever possible. Granted, Yohji had been planning to do something entirely different that day, but waxing his car could wait and his exhausted teammate's need for sleep couldn't.

"Actually," Yohji interrupted, "I wanted to ask you something about that, Aya. I was thinking I'd work an extra shift today to make up for the one I missed two weeks ago when I had a flat tire."

Ken and Omi both glanced at the eldest member of Weiss curiously. The incident in question had already been compensated for, why was he offering again now?

Yawning again and missing the silent conversation going on around him, Aya agreed, "Sure, Yohji. Why not help pick up the slack around eleven? I almost forgot I need to leave early to get those arrangements to the shrine."

"No, that won't do at all, Aya," Yohji answered shaking his head and rising to his feet before pulling Aya's chair away from the table and thereby forcing Omi to take a step back. "Instead, I think that *I'll* help Kenken open the shop in an hour and *you'll* go back to bed now. You can get up later and do the delivery, then go see your sister."

"Now wait one damned minute," Aya began angrily even as Ken smirked and confiscated his coffee mug in an effort to assist his lover in performing the spontaneous act of compassion.

"I think that's a great idea, Yohji-kun!" Omi chimed in brightly, tugging on Aya's hand, urging him to stand so that he could go upstairs and hopefully get some sleep. "C'mon, Aya-kun, you need to rest more. Let's go!"

"Omi? Not you, too?" Confused amethyst eyes turned towards caring cerulean ones and in that moment Aya knew he'd lost the battle. "I don't really have any choice here, do I?"

"Nope," Ken remarked pulling out the thermal carafe that would keep Aya's newly ready coffee hot and fresh for later. "Face it, Aya, if you can't remember that Yohji already squared it for the time he lost because of that flat tire, you're in no shape to run the shop with me this morning."

Aya opened his mouth to complain even as Yohji pointed out, "What would we do if we get a firing solution worked out for Glocksten and Charon, but you're so tired you can't see straight? I won't risk losing a chance to avenge my friends because of your insomnia." A warm smile crossed the taller man's lips as he added more kindly, "Besides, you've opened the shop every morning this week, Aya. Go get some rest and let me be the responsible one for a change."

Shaking his head in amazement and not even pausing to consider whether or not the lithe blond had a hidden agenda, Aya answered, "You think you can *do* that, Kudou? Really?"

Yohji chuckled and nodded, "Hell yeah! If *you* can do it, how hard can it be? All teasing aside, though, you've got about ten seconds to get your skinny ass back upstairs under your own power or I'll be forced to carry you there myself."

"You wouldn't dare!" Shocked violet eyes went impossibly wide as Aya realized the truth.

"Oh, yes, I would," Yohji approached, danger glinting in his jade eyes. "You're down to five seconds, Fujimiya, what's your decision?"

"I've decided that you're all insane this morning!" Aya almost smiled then walked away from his teammates, calling back, "I won't forget this little mutiny of yours, Balinese!"

With arms crossed and a self-satisfied smirk painted across his face, Yohji answered, "Neither will we, Abyssinian." He smiled at the two other florist/assassins and then said firmly, "Now, for my first act as the designated responsible adult of the group, I believe I will remind Omi that he needs to leave for school. And then I will remind Kenken that he needs a shower and that I will meet him for one in, oh, say, five minutes?"

Omi had been grinning and gathering his backpack until the final remark which brought back the fierce blush from earlier that morning as he whined, "Yohji-kun! I thought you agreed! No sex in the kitchen!"

"Yeah? So?" Verdant eyes twinkled as he added, "That's sex in the bathroom, not the kitchen, Omiitchi. Now, go to school like a good boy and be back in time to work your shift, all right?"

Giggling a little, Omi nodded and answered as he walked to the back door, "Yes, dad!" Then ducked as the same slice of toast that Ken had thrown at Yohji earlier whistled past his own head to land outside in the alley.

*****

To be continued.