Chapter 1
Ken Hidaka slammed his clawed hand into the chest of the assassin intent on tearing his head off. The man fell in a heap to the ground before the former-soccer player's might. Turning Ken headed now towards the sound of steel slashing through the air, where his team leader Aya Fujiyama was fighting against Brad Crawford. He came through the door just in time to see Aya holding his katana up in the air, his violet eyes sharp and fiery, with the intent of stabbing Crawford in the chest. Ken saw the wounded assassin, the one Aya had most likely though he'd already killed in his haste to get to Crawford, was raising a gun at Aya from his position on the ground.
Ken's fist caught the man mid jaw and sent the gun shot spiraling harmlessly off into the air. Aya hesitated for a moment at the shot, but when Ken flipped him a salute he resumed his stance. Ken's sea-green eyes widened…the end of Brad Crawford, might have actually been at hand. Those eyes blinked though when the sound of an engine reached Ken's ears. They widened again as the brunette saw a car come crashing through a nearby wall in the building, headed right for him. The wind got knocked out of him as a body crashed into his sending him flying out of the way of the oncoming car and under a table nearby. Ken groaned at the pain in his head from when it had hit the ground and looked up at his rescuer.
"Aya," Ken realized in shock as the red head's body shielded his own from the storm of plaster and debris that flew through the air.
"Don't expect me to save your no-good butt next time!"
Ken winced at Aya's harsh words then looking over the man's black clad shoulder to see Brad Crawford getting into the car, and the car taking off.
"Damn it, he got away!" Ken wished instantly that he could take the words back. If Aya hadn't had to save Ken's butt from turning into road, uh floor-kill then Brad Crawford would be dead. It was Ken's fault. He wasn't scared of having to face Crawford again he was scared of presently having to face Aya. The red-head stood up brushing off his jacket," Get up, andlet's go."
Ken sat there for a few seconds as Aya's words sunk in.
'Get up, let's go', not 'Die you freaking idiot'?
Getting to his feet Ken removed his Bugnuks, clawed gloves, and put them in his pants pockets. Aya went over to where he'd dropped his katana and shoved it back into its sheath a fair bit rougher then he normally did. Ken gulped to himself.
"Hey," a voice called from the doorway causing the two young men to turn and stare. Omi and Youji had just come through the doorway," Where's Crawford you two…holy, what happened in here?"
Ken cringed, if Aya hadn't bitten his head off then Youji definitely would, no one was lucky enough to avoid the wrath of both men.
"He got into the car that came tearing through the wall," Aya said flatly. Ken blinked in shock Aya had just lied, well maybe not lied but definitely with held the whole truth.
"How does he always get away?!" Omi wailed. Youji shrugged," the guy is slick kid, what can I say?"
Ken watched as the two wandered back toward the door. Ken started to follow them in a daze, quickly glancing back at Aya. The tall red-head assassin was removing his blood stained gloves like he always did after a mission, his violet eyes even and calm. Aya had saved him, Aya hadn't killed him for letting Crawford get away, Aya hadn't told the others what had happened, Aya wasn't even fuming; what was going on, too many miracles in one day was scary! When Ken felt a hand on his shoulder he nearly jumped out of his skin, and that was before he felt the familiar presence behind him. Aya had caught him he knew there was no way he'd get away with screwing up the mission. He closed his eyes and braced himself for whatever punishment was bound to come. His eyes snapped open as warm breathe fanned his ear as Aya said," Baka, next time move on your own and save me a heart-attack."
With that Aya breezed right past him and went through the door that Omi and Youji had already passed through. Ken stood there, rooted to the ground like a tree, frozen. Slowly, like an owl, he blinked.
'What just happened?'
"Kenken, which color would look best with chocolate brown?" Ken winced at the nickname the schoolgirl called him by.
The flower-shop was always full after the school's let out for the day, but this week was the worst, because girls were shopping for prom. Well not exactly. It was the boys responsibility apparently to buy the corsage but these girls wanted to know what flowers to tell there dates, there poor unfortunate dates Ken added to himself, to get for them.
"Kenken," the girl who he'd been stuck helping whined.
"Red, red would look best with the brown," Ken muttered. Speaking of red, where was Aya? It was his and Ken's shift right now and the scarlet-haired assassin was nowhere to be seen. As soon as he'd managed to get the annoying girl out of the shop Ken went in search of the Weiss leader; even if he ended up on the wrong end of Aya's katana there was no way he was letting him get away with sticking Ken with all the work, uh-uh, no way in hell. He was about to go through the door into the back room when the front door opened, the little bell ringing a warning. Ken turned to what would most likely be another 10 minutes of misery at the hands of an over energetic school girl, and blinked when he saw it was Aya who had come through the door.
Ken opened his mouth to ask where the hell the red-head had been but the red-head in question sent him the weirdest look Ken had ever seen on the man's face. It wasn't anger, nor was it Aya's normal emotionless stare, it was something else entirely. Aya looked away and walked right past Ken into the back room. Ken blinked and stared after the man. What the hell was going on?
"Oi, what's up with him?" Ken jumped as Youji seemed to materialize out of nowhere behind the counter.
"No idea," Ken muttered shoving his fingers into his hair. He honestly had no idea.
Over the course of that day Ken's suspicions about something being wrong with Aya were confirmed. The entire morning shift Aya had been in the back room, until Ken came back there for lunch whereas the man had gone to the front room. Then when the shift change had finally come, to the relief of a frazzled Ken, Aya had pointedly ignored him the entire time they'd been in the greenhouse tending to the flowers. The trip to the diner down the street to pick up food, the dinner table, the living room after, the entire time Aya was ignoring Ken and avoiding him like the plague. Omi and Youji were just as surprised as the brunette when it came to how Aya was acting. To Omi Aya was a guardian; to Youji Aya was his favorite argument buddy, as for Ken…well out of the three of them Ken had the most normal friend relationship with Aya, so Aya ignoring him was either the anger of not killing Crawford the night before coming out…or the world was going to end. Though Youji insisted it was the second one, which he was probably only saying so he could have an excuse to go out and party like it was his last night on earth, Ken knew it was the first one.
Usually after dinner Ken, Youji, and Omi would watch TV while Aya would read a book and give them disgusted glances when they cheered or yelled at whatever they were watching on the plasma screen. Today though, Aya simply grabbed a book and went up to his room for what was most likely going to be the rest of the night. Ken felt so dejected that while Omi and Youji were laughing at a movie he was thinking about the night before. How he'd messed up Aya's chance to permanently end Brad Crawford. He shouldn't have been surprised that Aya wasn't happy with him today but it wasn't like Aya to put off till tomorrow what he could have done today. If Aya was mad at him he would have ripped him to pieces last night. This meant that Ken had done something else to upset Aya.
"Hey Ken there's a soccer game on," Omi chirped. Ken got up," I'm going to bed."
The little blonde's bright blue eyes gaped up at him and Youji had an expression of such shock on his face it made his sunglasses slide down to the tip of his nose.
"Ken…it's before 10:00, there is a soccer game on…you want to watch it." Youji said slowly as if he was correcting Ken's previous sentence.
"I'm tired," and in all honestly Ken was. He felt way too guilty to watch a soccer game. So without a word Ken left the room and a very shocked Omi and Youji.
Ken woke up in degrees and let out a groan when he looked at the alarm clock. It was two in the morning. Sitting up on his bed he realized he'd fallen asleep in his clothes, and instead of falling asleep instantly as was normal for him he'd spent at least three hours tossing and turning trying to go to sleep only to wake up 2 hours later. Getting up from his bed Ken made the decision to go down into the kitchen and scarf down the gallon of ice cream in the fridge. Since the ice cream belonged to Youji and Youji never shared the food he bought for himself, Ken knew just how miserable he was if he was willing to face Youji's wrath when the man woke up.
Month's before he had accepted that Aya was his friend and nothing more, at least to Aya. He'd buried the weird idolization he had for the older man in the graveyard where his childhood dreams of soccer glory rested in pieces. He couldn't bury the fact that those emotions had existed and that he'd looked up to Aya and always would but he could hide it. If Youji and Omi found out about how he thought of Aya as some superhero they would either laugh at him or live in fear of him. As for Aya…he didn't even want to think about it. The guy would kill him if he found out that Ken thought of him as heroic.
In bare feet he tromped down to the kitchen and headed for the fridge. His hand froze on the freezer handle when a voice said;" If you're headed for Youji's ice cream I would suggest you stop where you are."
Ken whirled around to see Aya sitting at the table.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Ken wheezed putting his hand on his chest to feel how fast his heart was beating. Aya brandished the cup of what was most likely tea in his hand.
"I mean what are you doing here in the dark." Ken murmured, finally calming down a bit.
Aya shrugged," I like the dark."
"Wow you like something? I'm shocked," Ken managed to joke before grabbing a cup from the cupboard and helping himself to the pot of tea Aya had made. For what seemed like an eternity they sat in silence, in the dark, drinking tea, not speaking, and not looking at anything but there cups. Finally it was too much and Ken opened his mouth to say something, but the questioning look from Aya had him shutting his mouth.
"See you in the morning," Ken managed putting his cup in the sink and turned with the intention of going back upstairs, instead bumping into Aya's chest.
"What," when had he moved? Ken's next question was,' what the hell?!' as Aya put his hands on the sink on either side of Ken' waist, effectively trapping him as he stared at him. Ken leaned back so he could see Aya's face.
"You were going to ask why I ignored you all day weren't you?"
Ken cringed,' busted!'
Ken blinked as Aya leaned closer. He had time to realize that Aya smelt like vanilla before the red-head spoke again," Well?"
Ken lowered his eyes guiltily;" I know I screwed up the mission last night, but I know that it's something else I did that's got you so mad at me."
Aya was silent, staring at Ken.
Ken kept going," Come on man, I know you're pissed so just tell me what's wrong, hit me, hell you can even hang me upside down from the ceiling fan; do whatever you want to me just quit ignoring me!"
Aya's expression was unreadable," anything huh?"
Ken was already regretting his outburst but he swallowed and nodded," Uh-huh."
"Fine," with that Aya ducked down and fused his lips to Ken's. Ken almost heard his brain cells dying as his eyes widened like a fish. Aya was kissing him…Aya was fucking kissing him! Ken opened his mouth to say something but Aya ignored that and instead took the opportunity to shove his tongue down Ken's throat. Ken moaned helplessly and gripped the sink where he was pinned to keep from sliding to the floor in a boneless blob. His temperature was rising, his IQ was sinking, and his body was taking over. Aya moved his hands from the sink to dig into Ken's hips, and the brunette winced a bit at the slight discomfort that caused. Aya's tongue continued to swirl around the inside of Ken's mouth searching out the dark recesses that made the brunette moan. When Aya finally pulled away Ken's breathe was labored, his brain was long gone, and his body was painfully tight.
"That's what was bothering me, now do you regret asking?"
Ken managed to open his eyes as he caught his breathe. Looking up he saw the expression on Aya's face that he had seen that morning. He realized now what it was; not anger, not a total lack of emotion, but desire.
At some point after his brain had booked it Ken had worked his arms around Aya's neck and now, he didn't want to move them. So he just sort of hung there while Aya kept his arms around Ken's waist.
"You said I could do anything, I don't want to stop there," Aya muttered into Ken's neck. Ken shivered.
He had always closest to Aya, heck Omi and Youji even said that he and Aya were best friends, so Ken thought that was what he and Aya were, friends. Despite this though, occasionally he would feel a twinge somewhere if Aya happened to look particularly dangerous or sexy, which was pretty much all the time, but now that wayward twinge was turning into a full-blown arousal. Ken couldn't work his tongue but let out a sort of grunt of agreement and tightened his arms around Aya's neck. His answer was a soft bite to the neck and Aya pulling him toward the stairs. For the entire trip to the apartments upstairs Ken stared at the hand fastened on his wrist. His own tanned skin was a stark backdrop to Aya's ivory colored hand.
He heard a click and realized he was in Aya's room and Aya had just locked the door.
Ken felt just as much as saw that heated violet gaze rake over his clothed body and it made him shiver. Aya stepped away from the door and moved to stand directly in front of the brunette, looking down at him. Two hands started at Ken's forearms, bared by the T-shirt he was wearing, and trailed up to his shoulders, over his neck and stopping to cup his face on either side, a light but erotic touch that made him close his eyes tightly.
What the hell was going on?! Okay though this was a way better outcome then the torture Ken had been expecting from Aya for whatever he'd done to upset him, okay so he found the red-head attractive, okay so Aya apparently wanted him; those things he could understand. What he couldn't understand though was….WHY IN HELL DID AYA WANT HIM?!
The focus of Ken's thoughts was absently moving his hands back down the path they had come, and gripping Ken's hips turned him around so that his back was to Aya and the bed was in front of him.
Holy Crap.
"Aya," Ken managed to work the word out of his lax mouth," why…do you…want…this?"
There was silence for a moment and then Ken felt more then heard the words spoken behind him on his neck," Because of you, Baka."
Eh?
Ken glanced over his shoulder to see Aya resting his head there. The hands that had gripped his hips now hooked loosely around them, in a relaxed embrace.
Embrace, Ken realized. Aya was hugging him; now he was really confused!
"When I first met you we nearly killed each other, but when we became partners you just stuck your hand out like we'd known one another for years and that first meeting never happened. Outright forgiveness for no reason at all to a complete stranger who had nearly killed you and thought a simple honest apology could make up for that."
The hug tightened a bit, succeeding in pulling Ken and Aya's bodies closer together.
"In that moment you reminded me so much of my little sister that I decided to keep a close eye on you."
'Aya had a sister?' Ken thought, though his thoughts sidetracked when he thought of the fact that he reminded Aya of said sister. Ouch. Ken felt every nerve in his body light up as Aya lifted his head a bit causing his hair to brush the back of Ken's neck, the soft velvet caress causing Ken's body to stiffen like iron.
"Time passed and though you reminded me so much of my sister, you baffled me in how different you also were from her. Your obsession with soccer, the fact that schoolgirls to you were nails on a chalkboard, how you could wear orange with black and still look dangerous on missions."
Ken turned and glared bringing his elbow up to catch Aya's jaw," Don't make fun of my jacket you…"
Aya caught Ken's arm and looked down at him, his violet eyes cloudy. Ken gasped inwardly to himself and relaxed the arm that Aya held captive. Those amethyst eyes held his captive as Aya brought the back of Ken's hand to his mouth and kissed it," There is also that protective instinct you have over that orange jacket which is your trademark."
Aya let go of his hand and resumed his earlier position, now resting his face in the crook of Ken's neck. Ken was losing it, he knew. His face was flushed, his breathe was ragged, his manhood was painfully aroused and yet Aya was typically calm and collected. Ken felt like a damn woman!
"Because you reminded me of my sister I watched you, because of how you make you, you, I fell for my teammate Siberian, and the man Ken Hidaka."
Ken let out a surprised yelp when Aya's tongue unexpectedly, by now he should have learned to expect that, slicked up the side of his neck and the red-head placed another light kiss there. Ken let his head fall forward with a groan," Crap, you're making me lose it; get on with it already before I pass out."
Ken's eyes snapped open,' what did I just say?!'
He had a pretty good idea what he'd said for at that moment Aya spun him around again, gave him a push, and Ken found himself on his back in Aya's bed with Aya on all fours above him. Unexpectedly the older man was smiling down at him. Aya, the Ice King, the Cold-Blooded Assassin leader of Weiss, was smiling.
" You certainly know how to ruin a moment, huh Kenken?"
Ken cringed at the nickname," Aw man don't call me that, those scary girls are the last thing I want to think about right now."
Ken slapped a hand over his mouth in shock at his statement, blushing as Aya laughed softly. The hand on his cheek wouldn't let him look away to hide his red face. With nowhere else to look Ken looked at Aya again, seeing that the man's face was once more filled with desire. As he stared he saw the expression change to one of pained concern as Aya spoke again.
"Ken," he said stroking the younger man's cheek," if you don't want this then tell me now, I don't want to force," Ken swallowed the last bit of that sentence with his mouth as he raised his head to kiss Aya.
