Oneshot: Flowers
Disclaimer: I do now own, or claim to own, any of the characters mentioned below or the anime from which they originate.

The questions in front of him were beginning to grow tiresome, but the quiet permeating the usually noisy shop helped Omi concentrate solely on his homework. The hard, steady rain outside had kept away all but the most determined of customers, making it useless for all four of the workers to be downstairs when it was clear that only one person was needed to watch over the register. When Aya had appointed him to the task Omi hadn't been bothered; the lack of activity allowed him to get a head start on his schoolwork and he was pleased to notice that only a few more questions remained from the stack he had been assigned.

Still, as determined as he was to hurry and finish, the desire to take a break had been growing for the past half an hour and, after a moment of consideration, he finally gave into it, deciding that his quality of work would suffer if he didn't allow himself to rest for a few minutes. Lowering his pencil and resting his chin on his hands with a tired sigh, he turned his gaze to the glass that separated the interior of the shop from the rest of the world. Part of him was grateful for this virtual day off—the weather had stopped the usual flood of girls from appearing, most of whom never really bought anything and simply spent their time giggling and getting on Aya's nerves. Still, another part of him wished that the rain had let up—annoying as some of them could be, a number of the girls were nice, reoccurring customers that he wouldn't have minded chatting with.

The view through the glass was starting to darken; a quick glance at the clock informed him that it would be time to lock up in less than twenty minutes. If he was lucky Aya might come down and say that he could do it early, but, knowing the red-headed man as he did, Omi doubted it.

No one's going to buy flowers in these conditions, he thought disappointedly, watching as the few people outside rushed about their business, not a single one even glancing in his direction. After a few moments of this, however, he was pleasantly surprised to see one person slow to a stop, hesitate briefly, and enter.

"Oh, Usagi-san, I didn't expect to see you today." Omi couldn't keep the surprise out of his voice as he recognized the short girl. She was a reoccurring patron and though she always arrived late in the day after the crowds had gone he had never seen her arrive so close to closing time. He took in her soaked, bedraggled appearance—determinedly not letting his eyes linger on her uniform, which clung to her form in a way that would have had Yoji staring appreciatively—and when he spotted the large bruise that decorated the right side of her face he was unable to stop himself from blurting out, "What happened to you?"

Usagi paused in the middle of her attempt to wring water out of one long, blonde pigtail and gently touched the injury. "I, uh, got this when my friend Makoto was trying to teach me some self-defense moves," she replied, eyes narrowed slightly at the pain talking caused. "It's nothing serious, Omi-kun."

"Are you sure, it looks really bad…" He moved from behind the counter and walked up to her in order to get a closer look, but she turned her head away nervously.

"Really, its okay," she said, smiling in an effort to reassure him. "Are you still open or did I come too late? I rushed over as fast as I could…"

Omi hesitated before letting the topic drop. This wasn't the first time he had seen her like this; to some degree or another, she never entered the shop without sporting an injury, either visible or hidden and only noticeable by the careful way she moved. He wished that she felt like she could talk to him about whatever was hurting her—he thought they were close enough that she wouldn't be so close-mouthed—but he wouldn't force her. So instead he smiled and responded, "No, we're open for about fifteen more minutes so you can take your time looking around. Would you like me to get you a towel to dry off with? You look like you're freezing."

He was a little sad with how grateful she appeared that he had changed the subject, but could understand her desire to keep some things secret.

"No, I've got to go back out in the rain anyway, so what's the use? Plus, it's nice and warm in here so I should dry off while I'm walking."

"If you're sure…"

"I am. So, how's everything been going with you lately?" she asked as he made his way back to the counter and she started to examine a nearby display of white roses.

As he responded, he took notice of the stiff way she moved and the careful way she breathed, signs that made him suspect something was wrong with her left leg and ribs. Aware of how she had winced when she spoke, he did his best to take up the brunt of the conversation.

Eventually they settled into a comfortable silence and Omi found himself leaning on one elbow, simply watching her and allowing wistful, half-formed thoughts to drift through his mind. If I wasn't a member of Weiss and we had just met one day… He liked to think that even under different circumstances they would have been became friends, perhaps even closer than there were now. It was nice to talk to her whenever she happened to appear, but he would have enjoyed it more if they could have spent time together like normal teenagers.

Like I was a normal teenager, he corrected himself with a grimace. Somehow he doubted that anything going on in Usagi's life matched his own being an assassin.

Slowly, he became aware that Usagi was looking at him with a concerned expression on her face, one hand resting on the extravagant vase of flowers in front of her. "What are you thinking about, Omi-kun? You look upset."

"It's nothing," he muttered, but when she didn't look convinced he admitted, "I was wishing that you would come by more often."

Her eyes widened and she blushed, beginning to fiddle nervously with one of the flowers. "Eh, really?"

"Yeah," he said, sitting up straight and watching her intently to better judge her reaction. "I like talking to you, but since we go to different schools and this job takes up most of my free time we don't get to see each other a lot. So, maybe, you could stop by near closing time occasionally and we could talk without you having to buy something."

"What about that redhead who works here? He doesn't seem to like anyone who isn't going to buy anything to be in here," she reminded him.

Unsure, he glanced towards the stairs, suddenly expecting Aya to appear. "I don't think Aya-kun would mind if I explained it to him…"

Usagi smiled to herself as she picked up the display in front of her and placed it on counter. "I'll see what I can do," she promised, pulling a number of wet bills out of her pocket and frowning at them. "Sorry, even my money got soaked."

"Don't worry about it," he assured her, ringing up the purchase. "Are these for your mother again?" He already knew the answer—it was always the same—but he felt compelled to ask anyway.

"Yeah, I think she'll like this a lot," she said, turning the vase to view the flowers at another angle and smiling at them softly. "She likes lots of bright colors."

"Usagi…" On the verge of asking about the bruise that marred her face, he hesitated, decided it was best not to, and instead asked, "So I'll see you later on this week?"

"Sure, I'll try to sneak away from my friends soon and meet you here."

"Why can't you come here with them?" he questioned, confused.

She leaned close to him, the barely noticeable scent of her perfume briefly making him light-headed, and confided, "Coming here and seeing you is my little secret; none of my friends know about it and I'd like to keep it that way. It's selfish, I know, but I can't help it." Blushing deeply, she admitted, "Coming here and talking to you is my own special thing, you know?"

"I understand completely," he replied, grabbing his umbrella from under the counter and handing it to her. "Here take this."

"Are you sure?"

"Go ahead, you can return it later."

Walking her to the door, he said goodbye one more time and watched as she made her way down the street, carefully holding the gift in one hand and the umbrella in the other. The rain was so thick, though, that she quickly became nothing more than a dim shape that faded and disappeared from sight.

"Omi, its time to close up."

"I'll be right there, Aya-kun." Despite his words, Omi stared at the empty space in front of him a few moments more before turning and entering the shop.

Author Notes: (Fixed a few errors) This is meant to be a short, simple one-shot to help me start writing again, so I decided to make it a friendship piece between Omi and Usagi. When I starting working on this I realized that Usagi has no real friends besides her fellow Sailor Senshi; as the series goes on Naru disappears and, while I understand just how close all of the Senshi are, I decided it would be nice if she had at least one person to talk to who had no idea about that particular side of her life. As to why she doesn't bring the other girl there: that would turn her meeting with Omi into a Sailor Senshi thing, rather than the private meetings they are now (if that makes sense). I didn't go into detail about it, but basically every time she's seriously injuried in a battle Usagi buys her mother some flowers, sort of out of guilt, and doing this allowed her to meet Omi. Having only watched the first season of Weiss Kreuz once and unable to get my hands on the DVDs again I can only hope that I got his personality right.

Reviews and constructive critisism would be welcomed.