Chosen

Chosen (chapter three)
Author: Shukujo Kurai
Warnings: shounen-ai, OOC, ....supernatural (for lack of better terms)
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Weiß. I do own Josh, Hideo, Yuri, Lanh, and all the dead people. ^.^;;;;
Author\'s Notes: Okay...a month and a half later...I try to get started....*sweatdrop* Gomen...
Dedication: MD, as always, but also to Soulstrife. Thanks for liking this fic when no one else does.

----------------

The rest of our stay with mouse-man is uneventful, to say the least. Just bruisings on Lanh\'s body so far....
I look over toward Birman, who\'s drifting off to sleep in the chair, and sigh. I wish I could sleep too.

\"Sir?\" Mouse-man interrupts my dreams of slumber.

I look back at him to see what he wants, if anything. Sometimes he just gets my attention to irritate me. I think this guy could top Aya in that department. Aya...

I attempt to force thoughts about my stoic leader out of my head, which proves to be an easy task once I look at the nearby corpse. I\'ve got to focus. Focus....but focusing on a rotting corpse is much less pleasing than focusing on Fujimiya Aya\'s solid, living body. A soft sigh leaves my lips involuntarily...

I still keep thinking about him, even after that fight. I suppress a groan, embarrassed at my earlier actions. I shouldn\'t have hit him. No matter what he said about me, I shouldn\'t have hit him. I promised myself I wouldn\'t become what I despised, but it seems that I have. I would apologize, but he\'d probably kill me before I even got all the way in the room.

\"Oh, my, I nearly forgot!\" The man squeaks, his voice rings in my tired ears, causing me to jump.

\"Forgot what?\" I grumble, not wanting to stay here any longer.

He hands me two photos and a sketch. \"This drawing was on his arm. It\'s faded from the water so badly that I can\'t make it out. I was wondering if you could...\"

I glance down to see vague lines and I simply sigh. \"Do you have a computer and a scanner, sir?\" I can\'t remember this guy\'s name...does he even have one?

He nods, thankfully neglecting to answer me verbally, and leads me over to the computer terminal. However, he doesn\'t leave as I start scanning in the pictures. \"What are you doing?\" He asks curiously.

\"I\'m scanning in those pictures to see if I can restore them somewhat.\" I reply, drumming my fingers against the desk in a gesture of impatience. Damn slow scanner. The pictures pop up on the screen and I set about to restoring them. Thank God I paid attention when Omi showed me how to do this.

About half an hour later, I finally make out the majority of the image. It\'s an upside down cross - St. Peter\'s, I think - with an English \'s\' on the left side and an English \'n\' on the right. Beneath the image is a word sloppily written English. \"Peccavísti...\" I mumble aloud, probably butchering the language...whatever it is.

\"Excuse me?\" The nosy doctor asks, coming up behind me slowly.

Before he can get a glimpse of the paper, I wad it up and toss it in the garbage. \"It\'s no use. The image is just too faded to get anything from it.\" I sigh in annoyance, hopefully it\'ll come off as directed at the image and not at the doctor himself.

He nods and sighs as well. \"You look tired, Doctor Satoshi,\" he informs me, forgetting that I\'m not really a doctor, \"why don\'t you and Miss Birman head home and get some sleep?\"

I look at him dubiously. I really hope he doesn\'t think that Birman and I are together. I have to restrain myself from shuddering at the thought. I always used to tease Aya about my having seen Birman first, but the woman\'s personality doesn\'t match well with mine at all. She\'d kill me in a day, less if she\'s sleep-deprived.

\"I think we\'ll do that, Doctor.\" I say, stretching. \"You might want to suggest that to Birman, though.\" I gesture, trying to give myself the opportunity to fish the wadded paper from the garbage can.

He does so, scurrying off in that strange manner of his.

I retrieve my paper and tuck it into my pocket before standing up to go coax Birman out of here. I don\'t think that I can stand any more of Dr. Rodent today.

--------------------

Birman drives me to the Koneko, where a shadowed figure watches from a dimly lit room. \"Probably Abyssinian...\" She mutters, obviously unhappy with the interest that Kritiker\'s Golden Boy is giving me. \"If he says anything to you, call me, okay?\" She practically orders, locking the door before I can get out of the car.

I try the handle, cursing under my breath when I find the damn thing\'s immobile. I look back to Birman. I look away. I don\'t want to make a promise I can\'t keep. I don\'t want to look in her eyes and have to lie.

\"Okay?\" She repeats, her voice is tired, groggy and muddled with sleep. She looks at me seriously. Even exhausted as she is, she\'s imposing.

I finally give in. \"Okay...\" I sigh in defeat. The lock pops up once the magic word is spoken.

\"I\'ll try to give you a break, Balinese. If any more evidence turns up, I\'ll try to push it back until you\'ve had some sleep.\" She tells me before I\'m completely out of her car.

\"Don\'t worry about me, Birman.\" I inform her honestly. \"You need to get some sleep as well. Besides, I have morning shift.\"

\"I\'ll call you in sick.\" She states, checking her watch.

I shake my head. \"No, Abyssinian thinks that I\'ve been out with a \'lady-friend\' all night. It\'d be best to keep it that way.\" I admit with a sigh. It annoys me sometimes, to know that Aya has such a low opinion of me.

She raises an eyebrow skeptically. \"Are you sure? It\'s five thirty Monday morning, Kudou...and you haven\'t slept since Saturday morning...\" Concerned brown eyes meet mine. Wow...she actually cares...I\'m not sure what to think.

\"I\'ll catch as much sleep as I can, I promise.\" I concede before giving her a small warm smile, winking, and getting out of her car. She pulls away and I head to meet my maker, namely Aya.

--------------------

As expected, Aya meets me at the top of the steps, blocking the way to my room. \"Yes?\" I ask, not wanting this confrontation to take place right here, right now.

Instead of blowing up, which is what he looked ready to do a second ago, he raises an elegant red eyebrow. \"Why are you wearing a lab coat and latex gloves?\"

Shit! I\'d forgotten all about those... Arg...gotta think, gotta think. I say the first thing that comes into my mind. \"Kinky sex games.\" I inform him with a wink and as much of a sleazy grin as I can muster at the moment.

He makes a disgusted face in response and even winces when I snap the latex of a glove against my wrist. \"Should\'ve known...\" He grumbles. \"Be ready for your shift on time, Kudou, no excuses.\" He storms off downstairs.

I hate my life.

------------------

I grumble softly as I roughly towel-dry my hair after slipping on a pair of pants that used to be tight on me. Who does he think he is, that he can just dictate my life like that? He\'s not my superior. If I really wanted to, I guarantee that I could kill him. At the moment, the thought no longer sickens me like it used to. Right now I want to kill him because that\'s the only way he\'d shut up.

When I step out, I run straight into him, his violet eyes wide and almost confused.

\"....sorry,\" He mumbles almost inaudibly, \"...thought you were Ken.\" And then walks off before anything else could be disclosed.

Well, I most certainly didn\'t need that. My suspicions of him and KenKen are bad enough, I don\'t need further proof.

.....So...why was he waiting for Ken? The fact that he\'d been right up against me gives me one clue that I\'d rather not think about. \"Damn you, Ken.\" I grumble unknowingly. \"You\'d better not hurt him.\" I can\'t stand the idea of him fucking up something that I don\'t even get a chance at.

\"Kudou?\" Aya\'s soft baritone voice comes from a few feet away.

I look up to meet hooded violet eyes as he holds out a manila envelope.

\"This came for you.\" He shoves it at me, but doesn\'t walk away like I thought he would. Instead, he stands there, waiting for me to do something.

\'He\'s probably being nosy,\' I decide, once again mustering up a sleazy grin. \"She got those developed already?\" I look at him and waggle my eyebrows. \"You wanna see?\"

At least he has the decency to look properly horrified. \"No.\" He growls as he spins on his heel and stalks back downstairs. Bastard.

I stalk into my room, slightly peeved at how lowly Aya thinks of me. Sure, maybe I deserve it some of the time, but everyone has their not-so-annoying moments, right? Guess not.

I toss the now-wet towel onto my nice dry bed and open the ominous manila envelope. Mmm...dead bodies. Just when you think you\'ve gotten away from them, someone sends you pictures. I sigh in resignation. I should have listened to all those bitchy teachers telling me to be a doctor...would have paid better than the detective stint and I wouldn\'t have to put up with Aya\'s shit.

I pull out a paper with Birman\'s handwriting all over it. Didn\'t I tell her to get some sleep? Lord knows I don\'t want her to slam me against another wall next time we see each other. That reminds me, she owes me a pair of sunglasses.

\"Stop drooling over your homemade porn! You\'re going to be late!\"

Oh my freakin geez! I wonder if it\'s justifiable to kill him right now. Several smart-ass remarks spring to mind, but I say none of them. There\'s no sense in provoking Aya any further, plus I\'m just too tired to care at this point. But there is one streak in me that I can\'t suppress. \"Coming, sexy!\" I call jovially, snickering at my less-than-humorous comeback.

\"What?!\" He roars back at me from behind my closed door.

I stifle another chuckle as I pick up the discarded towel and resume drying my hair. I smirk as I walk over and open the door. Surprisingly, Aya\'s still there, glaring of course. \"Shall I come down like this, since you\'re in such a rush to get me into the shop?\" I gesture at my half-dressed state.

He does appear to blush slightly, but you could pass it off as irritation. \"Get dressed, Kudou.\"

\"We\'d do a lot more business this way.\" I comment off-handedly, more for the sake of conversation than anything else. Dead bodies, sleeping superiors, and rodent-like doctors aren\'t the greatest conversationalists in the world.

He glares and I remember that Aya might just fall in the \'dead body\' category.

I frown and flop the towel on his head as he turns to leave. Yes, as a matter of fact, I do have a death wish. Thank you for asking.

In a matter of seconds, the towel is twisted and smacked against my bare chest before being shoved at me by a rather pissed off Fujimiya Aya.

If I didn\'t know better, I\'d say he was playing around with me. Jokingly, if you\'d ever believe that. But the death-glare he sends my way tells me just how much truth that idea really holds. Zilch.

I head back into my room as he heads back downstairs. It\'s depressing that Aya and I can never get along. Our personalities just clash too much. I wonder if he ever contemplates spending time with me out of his own free will? No, he doesn\'t do that for any of Weiß. Well, no....there\'s always Ken. Damn it. Must not go there...Must not go there...

I walk over to my closet and pull out a long-sleeved black shirt to match my black jeans. I don\'t even bother with my hair, seeing as it\'s a lost cause with my being so tired. I\'d probably get frustrated and try to cut it off again.

Time to go see who I\'m stuck working with today.

--------------------

It\'s miserable, as per usual, because for the fifth working day in a row, I\'ve had a shift with Aya. Probably his idea of keeping an eye on me. I sigh to myself as I tie a ribbon around a rather dull bouquet, undoubtedly a creation of Ken\'s. No one makes uglier arrangements than he does. I wonder if that\'s something to be proud of. He probably is, anyway.

\"Kudou?\" My esteemed leader\'s voice calls me, \"It\'s time to close.\"

I look down at my watch. Man, that double-shift sure went by fast. S\'probably the lack of sleep.

As I close the metal shutters on the door, a surprisingly warm hand is placed gently on my shoulder. I look up to the face of Fujimiya Aya and, for once, he isn\'t scowling at me.

\"Please, get some sleep.\" Aya\'s actually being polite.

I don\'t know what to say, so I cut right down to business. \"Can\'t.\"

\"Why not?\" He growls out, his violet eyes narrowing into angry slits.

\"You and I have a stakeout mission.\" Well, technically I do, but I don\'t quite trust myself to be very alert, given my current state.

\"I\'ll do it alone.\" He states as though his words were the gospel truth.

I shake my head, not really willing to argue again. \"I know what we\'re after and I know the people. I need your eyes, though.\"

He raises an eyebrow.

\"I have to find out information and I need you to watch for the future target.\" I attempt to clarify.

I receive a blank look in response.

\"Do you accept or not?\" I ask, my patience growing thin.

\"I do not.\" He replies cooly before turning away only to be met by both Manx and Birman, the latter looking even more tired than she had been.

\"You do not have that choice, Abyssinian.\" Manx states, her voice colder than I can ever remember it being.
The redhead turns to glare at me. I just shrug.

Birman steps closer to me. \"Same as before, this time we need you to finish the investigation of the club \'Fury\'.\" She informs me softly.

I nod. I know very well that she means the downstairs of Josh\'s club.

\"I am not working with HIM,\" Aya thrusts an index finger at me, \"at a club.\"

Manx rolls her eyes and Birman follows suit. \"Balinese will behave himself, won\'t you Balinese?\" Manx asks, her eyes glaring daggers at me.

\"Yes, you have my word.\" It\'s easy enough. I\'m too damn tired to flirt with anyone...except Aya, perhaps.

\"Here.\" Birman shoves a bag into Aya\'s crossed arms. \"That\'s your new mission gear.\" She winks surreptitiously at me when Aya\'s engrossed in the contents of the bag. I can only wonder what she\'s got in there. I try to peek in, but Aya closes the bag with a growl.

\"You have six hours.\" Manx states blandly before going to inspect some flowers.

Birman, however, watches as Aya mounts the steps, then turns to me after digging in her small purse. \"Here.\" She says, handing me a rectangular wrapped box. \"I wanted to apologize.\" She lowers her head in defeat before smiling up at me. \"Go ahead. Open it!\"

Her smile urges me on, making me wonder just what the hell\'s going on. It\'s a hard dark green leather box.

\"Keep going...\" She whispers almost excitedly.

I do so and discover a pair of sunglasses, remarkably similar to my old ones. \"Birman, you didn\'t h-\"

\"I wanted to. It\'s only right after I broke your other pair.\" She cuts me off quickly. She takes them out of my hands and puts them on my face. \"There. How do they feel?\" She asks softly.

\"Perfect. Actually perfect.\" I answer with a smile, still wondering about her sanity.

She smiles softly, almost sadly just before Manx strolls over to retrieve her. \"You\'d better go get ready.\" She starts to wave me off. \"Balinese?\" She asks. \"Be careful.\"

I nod mechanically.

-----------------------

After going over my files and taking a brief nap full of dreams about dead people, I\'m going through my closet trying to find a shirt suitable for \'Fury\' when there\'s a knock on my door. I sigh softly, thinking it\'s Omi coming up to check on me again. I promptly abandon my shirt-finding efforts and open the door only to be graced with a similarly shirtless Aya. He shoves the shirt that Birman had handed him into my arms.

I look down at him, honestly puzzled as to his intention. Am I supposed to give him a different one?

He glares down at the shirt, which is actually just a bunch of buckles, and back up at me.

I stare blankly.

His eyebrows furrow in irritation. \"I can\'t...I don\'t....\" He gestures toward the bondage-shirt in a vain attempt to convey his point.

\"You don\'t like it?\" I ask, completely dumbfounded.

\"I can\'t get the damned thing on.\" He finally spits out, lashing out at me as though I were the cause of all this.

\"Oh.\" I mumble before taking a closer look at all the buckles that he\'s undone. \"Well, it would have been a lot easier if you hadn\'t unbuckled all of these.\" I sigh to myself in resignation. \"Come on in, it\'ll take me a minute to get all these back in order.\" I hold open the door for him as I pretend to examine the shirt.

He enters at last and actually goes so far as to sit down on the edge of my bed.

I look up to see that \'this-is-all-your-fault\' glare. \"Look Aya, despite what you think, this is NOT my fault.\"

He looks at me incredulously. \"How so?\"

I roll my eyes in irritation. \"It\'s the target\'s fault. If he weren\'t doing some weird shit we wouldn\'t have to kill him.\" I explain as I attempt to realign all these buckles.

It\'s a bit far-fetched, but apparently he agrees with me since he tries to look at everything else in the room. \"Is that your homemade porn?\" He points to the half open manila envelope and actually starts to reach for it.

I come to my senses and snatch it away. \"Never knew you had such a hentai streak in you, Ayan.\" I comment as I move them out of his reach and go back to the minions of buckles.

He glares and starts to retaliate, but I cut him off.

\"So, how\'s your Latin skills?\"

He looks at me as though I\'ve grown another head.

\"Your Latin skills. Did you ever take Latin in school?\" I ask, attempting to clarify myself somewhat.

He shakes his head. \"I studied it on my own.\" He murmurs, almost unintelligibly. \"Why?\"

I wince. \"This club we\'re going to...\" I fumble with a buckle, \"...we have to investigate the downstairs...it\'s a really, um....how do I put this....gothic-type place.\" I fix the buckle I was working on and I move on to the next one. \"They\'ll probably be using a lot of Latin, if the other goth clubs were any indicator.\" Damn buckles.

He nods, probably not listening to a word I said.

I\'ve gotten them all back in place, but loose enough so that he can get it on. \"Raise your arms.\" I tell him as I walk over with the dreaded shirt.

He does so begrudgingly.

I shove the damn thing over his head, hoping against hope that it hurts. \"You tighten the ones in front and I\'ll tighten the ones in back.\" I order, climbing onto the bed to kneel behind him.

God, I feel like such a pervert, looking at those low-slung pants of his. Black leather, I absently note. Leave it to Birman to get him real leather. Though I DO admire how he doesn\'t have fat rolls hanging off the sides like most people. I almost tell him this, then remember that this is the man who\'s supposed to watch my back later. I do not want him mad at me.
I hesitate when I get to the lower buckles. They\'re so close to the line of his pants, it\'s all I can do not to let my fingers wander. I force myself to think of Lanh\'s waterlogged body. That\'ll get rid of any hentai thoughts for sure.

Well, apparently not when Aya\'s involved in them. I find that my mind wanders to what Lanh might have looked like before his murder. He must have been attractive. The pictures that his mother had were so faded, but from what I could tell, he was lean and serious. Just like Aya. Damn it.

\"There. All done.\" I state happily, thankful for his impending-departure.

He turns to face me and mouth some sort of thank-you, but I notice his decided lack of gothness. \"Aya, we\'re gonna have to do something about your face.\" I know it sounds like I\'m calling him ugly. I meant for it to sound that way.

He glares at me, almost like he\'s offended.

I casually stroll over to my closet and dig around. \"Here.\" I toss him a bag and go back to shirt hunting.

\"Make-up?\" He asks skeptically.

\"Yes, Aya, make-up.\" I confirm with blatant sigh. \"Put some eyeliner and eyeshadow on.\" I almost tell him to put some black lipstick on as well, but decide not to. He\'d probably kill me.

He growls low in his throat before digging the aforementioned items out and moving over toward my dresser where a mirror is. He is just not going to give me any peace this evening. Even sleep-depravation doesn\'t deter my hormones - at least when he\'s involved.

--------------

Surprisingly, the redhead doesn\'t say anything to me as we drive in Seven to \'Fury\', so I\'m left with the sounds of ugly J-pop from the radio. My dear God, I get enough of this at the Koneko. I angrily hit the radio until it changes to a depressing song that soothes my enraged soul. Did I ever mention that I really hate silence?

Apparently, Aya sees this and mumbles something that sounds like \'who is this?\'.

\"Luna Sea.\" I grumble, not caring if that\'s what he asked or not. If he wants the correct answer to his half-formed questions, he\'ll have to at least speak up.

I slide into a parking spot and immediately turn off Seven just before stepping out. I don\'t think that I can handle the goths tonight. Especially not that Vampire-guy.

I sigh softly, forcing my body to calm down as Aya steps toward me in his bondage outfit. Admittedly, mine isn\'t much better. Like him, I have on black leather pants, though his are actually tighter, but I have on a genuine chain-mail tank-top. Why? I don\'t know. Like so many other things, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I look down at him, unfortunately. He took my advice and put some make-up on, but I wasn\'t aware that he was so skilled at it. Yet another fact about him that disturbs me. He\'s accentuated his eyes with a hint of glittering crimson along with the standard black eyeliner and - if I\'m not mistaken - there\'s a hint of lip-gloss on his lips. I shake my head rapidly to dispel this image of \'sexy-Aya\'.

\"Are you ready?\" He snaps at me, effectively breaking the spell he had over me.

\"Of course.\" I smile at him and offer him my arm.

This, of course, is met with a 500-watt death glare. Needless to say, we walk in separately.

-----------

The bouncers wave to me as we move to the back of the line, motioning for me to come over. \"Youji, right?\" One of them asks.

Mildly disturbed, I nod.

\"You\'ve got clearance already. Josh\'s waiting for you.\"

My eyebrow raises at this revelation, but Aya and I walk on in nevertheless. Well, that frees up a good hour or so that we would have spent in line.

\"Who\'s this \'Josh\' person?\" Aya asks in a subdued hiss with a rather horrible accent on Josh\'s name.

\"Remember the venus fly trap guy?\" I ask in return, still amused with Aya\'s horrible English skills.

He makes a face.

\"Yeah, that\'s him.\" I affirm with a small chuckle. Gotta love first impressions.

We keep pushing through the sea of black-clad bodies and I can see that this is definitely NOT Aya\'s type of atmosphere. To be honest, it\'s not even my type of atmosphere, but neither of us really have a choice in that matter, now do we?

\"Do you even know where you\'re going?\" Aya\'s angry baritone voice chimes in as he stops wading through the goths.

\"Of course I know where I\'m going A-OOWWW!!!\" I grab my neck where pain just lanced up. \"What the fuck?!\" I yell as I spin around to see the soon-to-be-dead Vampire-guy from the other night. \"Why you little-\"

Aya cuts in. \"You\'re bleeding.\"

\"No shit, Aya!\" By this time, about a quarter of the club has turned to face us, wondering what all the commotion is about. I spin back to where \'Belial\' or whatever he wants to be called is trying to flee. \"What the hell was that for, you little shit?\" I ask, grabbing him by his hair, which I decide hasn\'t been washed in a few weeks, yanking him backward and letting go before I catch some disgusting disease from him.

He remains quiet.

\"WELL?!\" I demand, ignoring the steady trickle of blood down my neck. I think the little bastard hit my jugular or something.

\"Come on, Youji,\" Aya protests, going so far as to gently touch my bare arm, \"lets get you cleaned up.\"

Why the hell is he being so damn calm about this? I know HE\'D be pissed if it were him bleeding from some freak\'s fake fangs.

\"Such a charming and beautiful lover.\" \'Belial\' remarks as he gets on one knee and grabs Aya\'s hand. \"Much too refined for the likes of \'Youji\', let me assure you.\"

I know I must be shaking from anger. \"One more word, Belial...\" My voice is low, lower than it is even when in mission-mode, \"...one more word out of your mouth and I assure you that you\'ll never live to see another night.\"

By this time, Aya\'s already snatched his hand away and has moved a safe distance away from both Belial and I.

\"Get out, Belial.\" A similarly low voice from behind me cuts in.

I turn to see Josh and two guards/bouncers.

Belial does as he\'s told, quickly fleeing the club.

I start to follow him, but Josh grabs my arm and weakly smiles up at me. \"Come on, I have a first aid kit at the bar.\"
We walk over to the bar, Josh leading me by my wrist and Aya glaring the whole way.

\"Stay here while I get the kit.\" The blue-haired bartender instructs us calmly just before Aya plops down on a barstool.
I glare at him, the sleepless nights catching up to me. \"You know, it\'s certainly not MY fault that he bit me.\" I inform him gruffly, not bothering to sit down and be civilized about it.

The glare, of course, is returned. \"You probably pissed him off the other night.\" He speculates in a bored tone. Yes, Aya, we know that you are above these idiocies. Now please refrain from pointing that out any further.

\"Granted, that\'s probably true...\" I trail off with a sigh, spotting something out of the corner of my eye. I\'m about to continue with my retort when Josh returns.

\"Hey, you\'re getting blood on my bar.\" He informs me in English while pouting.

I glance down at the few drops. \"Sorry.\" I reply in his language as I wipe the drops up with my hand. I am so careless anymore. But not even the Dhali Llama could concentrate with Fujimiya Aya accusing them of being a pest to innocent goths.

\"That\'s okay.\" He replies with a smile. \"I needed to disinfect it after \'Belial\' visited anyway.\" Warm fingers dab at the puncture wounds on my neck. \"He really got you good, didn\'t he?\" Josh comments as he\'s forced to break out a damp washcloth. I surprise myself by shivering slightly at his excessively close proximity. \"Oh, Lilith\'s here in her bee costume. I think she was looking for you.\" He waggles his eyebrows as he casually mentions this.

I make a disgusted noise in response. Just the thought of the bee-chick threatens to send me into convulsions. Glugh...I need to change the subject. Perhaps I can dig some information out of him. \"How\'d you end up working here, anyway?\"

He smiles a bittersweet smile and closes his eyes. \"Hideo and I inherited the club from his...our parents.\" He looks over toward the empty stage. \"I miss the way it used to be, really. This was Hideo\'s idea.\"

\"The goth scene?\" I ask as he pours some antibacterial crap on my neck.

\"Yeah.\" He replies, the far-off look coming back onto his face. \"I liked it as a coffee house. Every weekday was an amateur night on stage. Most people played the guitar and did rather well, but some really sucked.\" He smiles warmly at me.

I mean to smile back, but Aya jumps and hits my arm, effectively gaining my attention. I look around him to see what made him so unnerved since I know he wouldn\'t tell me even if I asked. There\'s a group of giggling goths - both female and male - to his right, leering at him. I force myself to repress a chuckle, and instead pat his arm sympathetically and smile down at him before turning around back to my conversation.

\"He doesn\'t talk much, does he?\" Josh asks as he motions toward Aya with his head.

\"No.\" I reply in a saddened tone. \"He doesn\'t talk at all.\" I decide to include him. \"Do you, Aya?\"

The redhead in question turns to look at us with a blank expression. Has he not heard a word we\'ve said?

Josh leans toward me, his gaze still faceted on Aya. \"Does he not speak English?\"

Realization suddenly dawns on me. We\'ve had our entire conversation in English. I thwack my head with my hand. Of all the stupid, idiotic things to do... Well, it\'s not my fault that Aya apparently doesn\'t speak English. \"Gomen, Aya.\"

He glares at me as though I were the least intelligent thing in this room. Granted, I\'m not, judging from the few regulars that I\'ve talked to.

I sigh softly in resignation. THIS is why I didn\'t want to bring him along. Well, that and I knew he\'d just be glaring at everyone, scaring them off before I could interrogate them.

\"Did you ever mention how much you liked the coffee house to Hideo?\" I ask curiously, wondering if he\'s intimidated by his brother.

\"Nah. The place is more Hideo\'s than it is mine, so I let him make the decisions. I just run the bar.\" He shrugs it off easily enough.

I tilt my head to one side in a gesture of contemplation even though it looks like I\'m just giving him better access to my punctured neck. \"You don\'t consider yourself Hideo\'s equal, do you?\" I inquire, hoping to gain some insight into his life if I can\'t concentrate on this case.

\"No...no, I don\'t.\"

\"He\'s your brother, why not?\" I push further, watching for signs that he\'ll snap.

He sighs with a smile. \"His parents found me and adopted me. I\'m not his equal.\"

I pause, remembering things that I\'d rather not. \"You don\'t remember your parents, do you?\"

He shakes his head.

\"I don\'t really remember mine either.\" I whisper to him, keeping the conversation in English so Aya won\'t be able to have any sort of dirt on me. There are just some things that I don\'t want my teammates, especially Aya, to know. \"They died when I was pretty young.\" I add as an afterthought. I don\'t know why I\'m telling him this, but I guess I can trust him just as much as he trusts me.

\"Must\'ve been rough.\" He comments softly as he sticks a gigantic flesh-colored bandage on my wound.

I chuckle bitterly. \"Didn\'t have enough time to get attached to them.\" I reply with a shrug. As much as I\'d like to let someone know all this, I need to change the subject. I look around for inspiration. \"Do any of these people ever seem...dangerous...to you?\" I ask, trying to casually bring it up.

He raises an eyebrow at either the abrupt change or the question itself. \"None of the ones up here.\" He finally answers.

\"But there are some?\" I push, probably too eagerly.

He looks at me and something in his blue eyes flashes dangerously. \"This is about those missing patrons, isn\'t it?\" He demands, the atmosphere turning hostile.

It\'s my turn to raise an eyebrow. Patrons? That could be the key, the one thing linking all the victims. \"Not entirely.\" I reply with a certain amount of hesitation. \"There\'s a boy, a friend of mine...\" I trail off, my jade eyes meeting his bright sapphire ones. \"Hiketora Lanh.\" I try to give an innocent \'I-just-want-my-friend-back\' look.

Josh stiffens, but tries to help. \"What does he look like?\"

\"Mid-neck length straight black hair, dark brown eyes, about 5\' 9\"...\" I offer, hoping that it\'ll trigger something in his memory.

He gives me a look reminiscent of Aya\'s stares. \"Everyone looks like that here.\"

Well, that\'s true. \"When he wasn\'t wearing his uniform, he wore baggy blue jeans and a baggy shirt....\" I babble, forcing myself to remember all the crap that Yuri told me about her son.

\"How old is he?\" Josh asks me, the telltale look of recognition still not crossing his face.

\"19.\" I reply easily.

He shakes his head. \"If he didn\'t drink, I wouldn\'t have seen him.\" He tells me with a sad expression on his face. \"Maybe Hideo did...\" The disappointment must have shown on my face since Josh lays a tentative hand on my shoulder. \"I hope you find him soon...I know what it\'s like to lose a friend.\"

\"We found him...\" I whisper, the information falling unbidden from my lips, \"...but he\'s dead.\"

Josh looks up at me, shock evident on his face.

Before I can say anything, Aya presses up against my right-hand side.

\"Huh?\" I murmur as I look down at my companion in shock.

He\'s glaring at the guy sitting next to him and I think he\'s about to grab the nearest blunt object.

Again, Josh leans toward me as though he were going to check my neck again. \"...Your lover?\"

My eyes open widely at the utterance of his half-formed question. \"Usotsuki!\" I hiss, trying not to attract unwanted attention. It\'s bad enough that I\'m here with an incredibly sexy redhead AND the bishounen bartender is standing obscenely close to me. From what I\'ve heard, Josh is supposed to be the ultimate catch around here. Maybe if I weren\'t so infatuated with Aya, I\'d be going after Josh...but I\'m stuck lusting after an icicle-man. Fun.

Josh raises his arms defensively. \"Sorry!\" Back to English. I wonder if he\'s from America.

I sigh softly again. \"Nah, it\'s nothing you did, Josh.\" I sit down. \"In all reality, he hates me.\" I explain, gesturing surreptitiously toward Aya, who\'s resumed his former position and is trying to glare the goths away.

Warm blue eyes flicker back and forth between Aya and I. \"I doubt that, Youji.\" Apparently uncomfortable with discussing this around Aya, Josh focuses his attention elsewhere. \"Hey, that\'s an awesome tattoo!\" He compliments me as he grabs my arm. \"Where\'d you get the design from?\" He asks as he traces the wings on the cross.

I shrug. In all honesty, it was how I was feeling at the moment. Shitty.

A thumping bass beat starts up, drowning out any further conversation. I attempt to convey to Josh that we need to go by pointing to Aya, then to myself, then behind me.

He smiles softly and waves goodbye before grabbing a can of Lysol and spraying the bar.

--------------------

Aya and I resume fighting our way through the mass of goths as the bass is turned up even more. Normally I don\'t mind loud music, but today I can\'t stand it. I blame the definite lack of sleep.

Neither of us say anything during our trek to the ape-like man that guards the basement, but I still have a pretty good idea as to what\'s going on in Aya\'s head. He doesn\'t want to be here and, quite frankly, neither do I.

The monkey-man stops us, but I just fish out the card that Josh gave me the other night and he lets both of us through without any means of protest.

I guess I\'m not paying attention, because I run right into Aya as we reach the bottom of the spiral staircase. \"What\'s wrong?\" I ask, not quite daring to lay a hand on his sacred person. I look around him after realizing that he\'s not going to respond any time soon. It\'s another goth scene, only this one is decorated with paintings of angels and demons. I have to squeeze around Aya to see what he\'s gawking at.

Oh. I have to hold back a snicker. \"Not used to the S&M scene, Aya?\" I ask, already knowing the answer.

The lady with the whip turns to us both and smirks wickedly.

I smile in return, laying a protective hand on Aya\'s shoulder and steering him away from her. It wouldn\'t do to bring him back with a bunch of whip tracks on his back...amongst other places.

So this is what \'serious\' denotes, huh? I have yet to be impressed. Although it\'s giving me way too many ideas...

\"Hurry up so we can get the hell out of here.\" Aya mutters in the best official tone that he can muster after being subjected to all of this.

I nod, bored with his normality at the moment. This place holds new and exciting things for me, weird as they may seem.
It\'s only after I look around that I notice the stares that we\'re receiving. I\'ll admit that we probably don\'t look like the type to be down here, but does it really warrant everyone\'s undivided attention? I block the music out so that I can hear everyone. It seems that Aya and I are the center of everyone\'s conversations. I can hear words like \'demon\', \'angel\', \'lord\', and \'master\' along with phrases like \'can you believe\', \'the One with the Master\', \'the One is here\', and something along the lines of \'the seventh sign\'.

Their gazes become more intense, more piercing and smothering.

Overtop of the gossip, I hear a woman shriek in pain. Instinctively, I rush toward the sound with my fingers creeping up to caress my watch. What surprises me is that Aya\'s right behind me.

I push through the circle of people, brutally throwing them aside so that I can reach the owner of the screams. In the center, a woman\'s lying on the floor in the fetal position, her hands covering her head as countless people hit and throw things at her. I don\'t know what she did, but I doubt she deserves to be beaten to death.

Going on instinct alone, I throw the unarmed people as far as I can while incapacitating those with weapons. I think I broke more than a few noses in my rage. The circle widens until there\'s about an eight-foot radius between us and the crowd. \"What the hell was this about?!\" I demand as I pick the lady up off the cold concrete floor and hold her protectively against my body. Aya stands at my side, slightly crouched in a defensive position.

A bitter looking man speaks up first. \"She\'s been playing us false! Look at her neck!\"

Not in the mood for their petty games, I look down at the woman after prying her face out of my metal shirt. A tiny glimmer of silver proves to be a small crucifix. I cannot believe the audacity of these people. I pull her trembling body back against my steady one. \"None of you have any right to judge her by what she wears or what she believes.\" I inform them in a low tone, almost daring them to contradict me.

Again, their whispers grow loud enough to where I can hear bits and pieces of them.

\"It\'s just like the prophecy...\" Someone whispers behind me.

\"He defends the blasphemer, yet stands with the Master...\"

\"...takes no sides...\"

\"...judges no one...\"

Miraculously, I manage to see someone readying themselves to throw something out of the corner of my eye and I reflexively grab Aya and duck down just before the knife would have hit him.

After a collective gasp, the whispers start again.

\"It is Him...\"

\"...the prophecy is true...\"

\"He who defends both the good and the wicked...\"

Their little gossip party is broken up by a dark-haired man who comes stomping over. \"What in all the hells is going on over here?!\" He demands, then freezes as he looks at me. \"Youji?\" I recognize the voice and study the features until I recognize him as well.

\"Hideo, what the hell kind of place do you run? This woman was getting the shit beaten out of her.\" I demand, my voice still low and my eyes still narrow and angry. I don\'t like anyone who lets women get hurt by any means.

The man in question stares at the three of us for a minute before his eyes narrow and he turns to the crowd. \"This place is closed until further notice. I want all of you OUT!\"

The crowd hesitates, apparently unused to seeing the owner like this.

\"NOW!\" Hideo yells, his posture rigid and unyielding. He turns back to us, forcing himself to calm down. \"I am SO incredibly sorry. I just got back down here...\" He moves to help the woman, who shrinks back into my protective hold.

\"We\'ll take her home.\" Aya informs him, surprising me with his steadfast initiative. \"Come on...\" He tugs at the top of my pants.

I take the time to pick the lady up and cradle her against my chest before following him out, Hideo following us.
\"We\'ll pay for any medical expenses she has, I promise.\" He rambles as he fishes out a card and hands it to Aya. \"Here. That has our insurance information and the name of our lawyer if she decides to press charges.\"

I turn away to conceal a raised eyebrow. He must be sincere if he\'s willing to just give her the chance to press charges without much of a fight...either that or he knows that he could never win.

\"I don\'t blame you if you do decide to sue, ma\'am.\" He rakes a hand through his long ebony hair. \"I would.\" He offers a small, meek smile before frowning. \"Please excuse me, I need to go make sure that they\'re clearing out.\" His large hand pushes the back door open, allowing us to leave.

-----------------

\"Are you okay, miss?\" I ask the lady as I set her down on Seven\'s hood. Gingerly, I tuck errant chunks of hair behind her ears before wiping blood and tears from her cold, clammy cheeks.

She nods as she continues trembling, her slender hand coming up to grab my right arm.

\"We need to get her to a hospital, Youji.\" A baritone voice informs me, confirming my suspicions that she\'s going into shock.

I manage to nod before noticing that she\'s swaying back and forth, fighting to remain conscious. \"Miss?\" My left hand moves instinctively to the back of her head to steady her.

She falls against my chest right as I feel a sharp pain in my wrist.

I draw in a sharp breath of air as I identify the source of my pain: there\'s a knife embedded in my wrist. I look up, hoping to catch a glimpse of my attacker.

\"He truly is the One...\" One of the shadowed figures whispers none too silently.

\"...the Messiah...\" The English word is horribly mutilated, somehow managing to sound like \'mesh-ee-yah\'.

Aya\'s warm hand lands gently on my shoulder. \"What\'s wrong?\" He asks, apparently not noticing the exchange between the freaks and I.

I manage to lift my injured arm from the back of her head to show him, blood dripping onto Seven. \"Don\'t let her see...\" I whisper almost inaudibly to my teammate, motioning for him to take the now-unconscious lady from me. \"Is she okay?\" I ask, my voice returning to normal.

Aya looks up into my eyes, slightly puzzled, before shaking his head. \"She\'s gone into shock.\"

\"Get in.\" I order him as I jump into the driver\'s seat.

\"You can\'t drive with..\"

I cut him off by yanking out the knife and tossing it into the back seat. It\'s not really that deep of a wound. We\'ve all had worse.

He gives up and gets in, holding the woman tightly against him.

I drive to the nearest hospital, forcing myself to ignore the flow of blood down my arm and the memories of a similar incident so very long ago. I look over toward my two silent companions. \"Aya, don\'t let her head loll back like that.\" I inform him tersely.

He corrects his slight mistake before glaring suspiciously at me. \"Well, what am I supposed to do?\" Damn it. I should have known that he\'d ask.

Well, now is not the time for trying to cover my own ass, not if I want this woman to live. \"Keep the environment calm, make sure she doesn\'t choke. Talk to her. It doesn\'t matter what you say, just so long as it\'s soothing.\"

He looks at me like I\'m an idiot. \"She\'s unconscious.\"

I have to suppress the insatiable urge to roll my eyes. \"I KNOW that, Aya. Sometimes the brain can still register things...nevermind, just recite a poem to her or something.\" Must get to hospital...must not kill partner.

He sighs softly and seems to dredge up a memory of a poem or story or something. \"\'What is Real?\' asked the rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side...\'does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a handle that sticks out?\'\" Tentatively, his hand reaches up to stroke her hair as he recites this story in a gentle soothing voice seemingly alien to him. \"\'Real isn\'t how you\'re made,\' said the skin horse. \'It\'s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.\'\" He glances over at me.

I nod to reassure him, noting that her breathing has started to calm down somewhat.

\"\'Does it hurt?\' asked the rabbit. \'Sometimes,\' said the skin horse, for he was always truthful. \'But when you are Real, you don\'t mind being hurt.\'\" His eyes have taken on a sort of glaze as he enunciates each word carefully. \"\'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,\' he asked, \'or bit by bit?\'\"

The pain on his face makes me want to comfort him as he recites his story, his violet eyes still blank and haunted. I nearly swerve off the road, my attention focused on his face.

\"\'It doesn\'t happen all at once,\' said the skin horse. \'You become. It takes a long time. That\'s why it doesn\'t happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very, very shabby. But these things don\'t matter at all, because once you are Real you can\'t be ugly, except to people who don\'t understand.\"

It almost bothers me to interrupt him, but I have to. \"Aya, we\'re here.\" I open my door and run over to get his as well.

---------------------

Nurses are irritating. Sure, I established this fact long ago, but tonight has only furthered that belief.

I glare at the woman in front of me who\'s currently demanding that I see a doctor and get stitches in my arm. \"Look, I\'ve had worse. Just give me a band-aid and I\'ll be fine.\"

She continues to rattle off strange and unmeaningful statistics as she searches for something on a desk, her brown hair falling out of it\'s bun and into her face.

\"I came to save HER life, not to get stitches for a scratch.\" The tone comes off as more irritated and forceful than I\'d meant it to, but right now I just don\'t give a shit. I\'m tired, I\'m bleeding, and Aya\'s gone catatonic on me. I look over toward the redhead standing by the window, blank eyes staring out at the city. If she wants to worry about someone, she should worry about Aya.

She doesn\'t heed my warnings.

Frustrated and unwilling to blow up at a nurse who\'s just trying to do her job, I grab a paper towel from the desk and stick it on my injured arm before walking off toward Aya. \"Hey...\" I murmur softly, uncertain how to handle a despondent Fujimiya Aya. \"We can go now, if you\'d like...\"

It takes him a minute, but he slowly moves away from the window and toward the door.

I follow, chattering about not wanting to be left with a rabid nurse in an attempt to get some sort of reaction out of him. It doesn\'t work. \"Aya?\" I ask, gently laying a hand on his shoulder.

He stops walking, but doesn\'t turn around.

\"It\'s a pretty silly question, but are you okay?\" I ask lamely.

He nods and starts to walk again, but my grip on his shoulder tugs him backward. He stares up at me with his violet eyes empty and almost sad and I find that I cannot look away.

In the face of our deafening silence, the paper towel falls off my arm, too soaked with blood to cling to my skin anymore. I still can\'t look away from the swirling plethora of emotions in Aya\'s normally expressionless eyes. He too seems engrossed with something in my expression, so we remain as we are: standing in the doorway of a hospital, staring intently at one another. For a moment, I desperately want to take him into my arms and hold him tightly so that nothing can ever hurt him this badly again, even if I don\'t know what it was that triggered this onslaught of depression in my normally stoic colleague. Then I remember the facts about life with Aya: don\'t stare at him, don\'t talk to him, don\'t touch him. I\'d rather not break any more of them than I\'m already doing.

I\'m startled out of my silent reverie by softly spoken words from my leader. \"What were they whispering...in that club?\" His voice is scratchy from not being used in the past few minutes and maybe from nervousness at being under my scrutiny for so long.

I force myself to raise an eyebrow, keeping him in the dark about everything. \"They were whispering?\" I ask, only succeeding in sounding retarded.

His eyes narrow and I\'m aware that he knows I\'m lying.

I shrug and lead him out the door after picking up my blood-soaked paper towel. \"I don\'t know. Sounded like psychotic babble to me.\"

He\'s silent for a few moments, then speaks in a semi-embarrassed tone. \"Most of it was in English...\" He pauses for a moment to stare up at the quarter moon. \"I haven\'t had to use English in so long...\" A reluctant admittance if I\'ve ever heard one before.

Again, I shrug. \"I speak English and it still didn\'t make any sense to me.\" I force myself to admit. It\'s sad, but undoubtedly true.

My companion sighs softly, almost inaudibly, before resuming walking toward Seven.

I look around, finding that I actually want to prolong this night. My eyes lay on a small shop that\'s still open. \"Hey Aya?\" I ask, not quite daring to tug on his arm.

He actually stops and turns around to see what I want.

\"You want to get some coffee or something? My treat...\" I offer, gesturing toward the open shop as I try to entice him with free sustenance. Even he has to eat.

Darkened eyes spot the place I\'d been looking at and he cocks his head to one side before looking down at his watch. He doesn\'t say anything, he just starts to head toward the café.

----------------

It\'s a nice enough place, I suppose, though one look at their menu tells me that I don\'t have much of a selection here. That\'s okay because I\'m here with Aya, the man I\'ve been watching for ages. Yes, I know I\'m hopeless.

An elderly woman comes over to take our orders, her thick glasses obscuring at least half of her face.

Aya, in predictable Aya-fashion, orders black coffee, nothing else.

I give the old lady the best smile I can manage at the moment and tell her that I\'d like a black coffee and a strawberry ice-cream cone.

Aya gives me the funniest look after the woman walks off. \"Coffee and strawberry ice-cream?\" He asks, completely appalled by the combination.

I smile at him, a warm honest smile. \"The sweetness of the ice-cream dulls the bitterness of the coffee.\" I inform him casually, acting as though it should be common sense. I do it just because I know for a fact that it irritates him when I do.

\"Sugar and cream would do that...\"

My smile never falters. \"You can\'t beat the natural sweetness and flavor of strawberries in your coffee.\"

He graces me with a disgusted expression. \"Sounds repulsive.\" He mumbles just before the old lady returns with our order. He sips his coffee quietly, occasionally sneaking a glance at me as I take a small bite of my ice-cream and wash it down with a gulp of coffee.

\"You want some?\" I offer, thrusting the dripping cone toward his face.

The redhead leans back in his seat in an attempt to avoid the frozen confection. \"That\'s disgusting, Kudou.\" He informs me as he pushes my hand back over to my side of the table.

\"Don\'t knock it til you try it, Ayan.\" To prove my point, I take a big, slobbery lick of the ice-cream and calmly follow it up with more coffee. I think I\'m making him sick.

He levels a glare at the pink ice-cream with chunks of real strawberries in it. \"Fine.\"

Before I can offer him the cone, he grabs my hand, tugs it over, and takes a medium-sized bite of the ice-cream. He lets it sit on his tongue for a few scant seconds before taking a delicate swig of his coffee.

I watch his face carefully as he tries to decide whether it\'s absolutely abhorrent or actually kind of tasty.

\"That\'s.....different.\" He finally decides, apparently still unsure.

I shrug again. \"Each to his own, I guess.\" I comment before resuming my routine. I don\'t bother making conversation, knowing that Aya\'d just ignore me.

I\'m almost finished with my ice-cream and coffee when a slender arm reaches over and grabs my ice-cream from me. \"Hey!\" I whine after figuring out what had just taken place. \"Ice-cream thief!\" I accuse, crossing my arms and pouting.

Aya, of course, doesn\'t care about my abused feelings. He just finishes up MY ice-cream and his own coffee. Guess he decided that it was actually pretty good. Either that or he just wanted to be an ass. Whichever.

I watch him eat the cone with a slightly amused expression. \"You owe me two bites of ice-cream and a cone.\" I state, resting my head on my uninjured arm.

\"You want some saran-wrap for that, hon?\" The elderly lady asks as she brings us what I presume to be our bill.

I follow her gaze down to my no longer gushing arm. \"Oh, no, that\'s okay, really.\" I try to weasel my way out of having cling wrap stuck on my arm.

\"It\'ll help stop the bleeding.\" Aya informs me and nods to the lady, who happily goes off to fetch the aforementioned item.

I glare balefully at Aya. \"Did it ever occur to you that I just don\'t want cling wrap on my arm?\"

My arm is carefully picked up and wrapped in saran-wrap, as promised. I thank the lady for the kind usage of her cling wrap and hand her the money for the bill.

Aya and I leave with what we pass off as fond farewells and walk over to Seven. I frown at the bloodstains on my hood.

\"They\'ll come off.\" Aya states blandly as he notices what I\'m glaring at before getting in the passenger\'s seat.

I follow suit and start my jeep. \"Well how would you like to have blood all over your Porsche?\" I retort sourly as I drive back to the Koneko.

He doesn\'t answer or say anything else until we\'re safely home. \"Don\'t forget, we have afternoon shift tomorrow.\" He reminds me as we walk up to our individual rooms. \"You\'d better be on time for once.\" He warns as he shuts his door.

Yes, that\'s the man I\'m obsessed with.

========================

Wa~ah! When I transferred this from NotePad to Word to check the spelling, I found out that it was 23 pages long. *stares in disbelief*

And, yeah, the ending was a bit on the crappy side, but that\'s okay. I hope the rest of the 23 pages made up for it.

Well...if anyone wants to encourage me after that fiasco, you can email me or post a review. Nothing gets me writing faster...well, nightmares work just as well, but that\'s beyond the point.