Disclaimers:
WK: Oh this is so painful to say! I- I do- I do-do...
Ken: -sigh- westkitsune doesn't own me or Aya or Weiss for that matter.
Ran: Hn
WK: oof that hurts, well, as Ken says unfortunately I do not... – sob – but I am, ofcourse with the power bestowed upon me by my mighty Microsoft Word and allowed to play with these two characters to my heart's content, so, um, this is my first Weiss fic so go easy ok? – glomps all who will review – I'm beginning to think they might end up OOC –cringes - This is a little dedication to –Atsureki- who inspired me to write a Ran x Ken fic -practically worships-. I'm planning to make a short fic but who knows what'll happen? Heh, heh, Wai my works have such poor tenses, I know I suck at it...
One More Pose
"Ok one more shot and this'll be a wrap!"
Tanned hand reached up to shield his face as deep brown eyes squinted through the flashing brightness of several bulbs aimed at him. The brunette sighed, feeling tiredness threaten to engulf him. His back was having cramps from being immobile in one position waiting for two photographers to finish after a gazillion shots of him, add in the fact that he was in an air-conditioned room wearing shorts for this sports magazine is not helping at all. Now more than anything he wished he was just curled up in his comfortable bed.
"You alright there Kenken?" Youji snickered from the far corner of the room. Green eyes watched him with amusement as the blonde approached him. "Don't worry Aya's going through just the same torture on the next studio."
"So I believe you're done already?" Ken asked with a hint of jealousy in his voice as one of the photographers shifted his position to lean against the wall, which he was thankful for since he was already having a sore ass. The photographer then proceeded to strategize how Ken would hold the soccer ball.
"Ah well the photographers seemed to love me, didn't have that much of a problem" He smirked "Well in all honesty I'm not surprised Aya had many clients, he's been posing for hours now and there's still a lot of requests."
Ken sighed. "Ok smile!" The photographer commanded and Ken put on his most charming smile that was already looking like a smirk because his of his jaw that was beginning to betray him. "Alright, all done now, that's a wrap for today you guys!" He clicked his camera shut and the blinding lights were shut off, leaving a dazed brunette still sitting on the monochromatic green background studio. One by one the staff and crew praised ken for a great job and left, talking to themselves about where to eat dinner. Ken sighed, feeling his own stomach rumbling.
Youji grinned as Ken gave him a pleading look to be helped. Reaching out he pulled the brunette to his feet. Ken swayed a little, trying to keep his balance. Finally standing upright after grueling hours he stretched his arms as Youji headed for the exit.
"I'll leave you to change, I promised Omi I'll meet up with him at the lobby. He wasn't able to go through much longer immobility than I thought so the poor boy's got a huge cramp on his legs and the great Youji's stuck to tend to him." He snickered, and Ken had this sinking feeling Youji doesn't seem to get bothered about it... in fact the blonde has this, how will you call it, eagerness in his eyes. He gave one final wink at Ken, "I suggest you go with Aya, I have this feeling he might be blowing the heads off those photographers if they make him pose for one more time"
Ken simply nodded, "Sure" as Youji disappeared out to the corridor. He sighed, practically tearing off his shorts and pulling on black pants, placing the shorts back inside his duffel bag. One of the advantages of posing as image model was that you get free clothes every time you had a shoot. He shouldered his bag and jacket, wincing as his tensed muscles were stretched after some time and bounded out of the room. He trudged towards the door on the left, hearing muffled voices inside. Ken slung his jacket higher and knocked. After a muffled, 'come in' was heard he opened the door and took a step before being completely blown away by loud, excited murmurs of praise and awe from the crew inside.
Ken blinked, and followed the train of eyes and what he saw made HIM stare back in awe. Red and amethyst flashed against green. Ran was leaning against the green background, dressed in an open violet polo revealing a pale chest and black pants gingerly holding a rose between his fingers (1). He looked completely stunning; amethyst eyes that seemed questioning and lips curled into something people would consider seductiveness. His scarlet hair (particularly his ear tails) cascaded down on his shoulders in some sort of casual elegance that neither Ken's nor Youji's hair would ever be able to accomplish. How Ran could manage to look like that, even hours and hours of it, Ken could only imagine.
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he felt those intense orbs bore onto him, chocolate eyes snapping up to meet Ran's, whose brows were knitted for some reason. "Ok that's a wrap!" the photographer announced, and a murmur of praise erupted from the whole room. Ran walked over to the table where his bag was sitting and placed the rose there, carefully reaching up to button his open polo as, like what happened to Ken, all the crew went over to him to praise him. He answered them with a small flicker of a smile, and only then would you realize how long Ran had been posing. How professional.
"Hey" Ken approached him, dropping his bag beside the redhead's and started to jam inside it some of the scattered clothes Ran had modeled on.
"Hn" Ran answered, still preoccupied with buttoning his top. Ken sighed, he was used to the redhead's answer. He whipped his head around as the head photographer headed towards them. "You two the next shooting will be next week, I take it that your friend Omi cannot make it anytime this week so you four can take time to rest till then."
"Thank you" Ken couldn't hide the relief in his voice as the man turned to leave. Ran grunted and shouldered his bag, then glanced at Ken one eyebrow arching a little. Ken shifted, he always felt a little queasy whenever Ran would look at him, and he was lost for words at the moment.
"Dinner?"
Ken's brown eyes shot up at this words, ok, word. Ran was actually asking to go for dinner and not head back as he usually does? It's a miracle.
"Erm, sure I'm starving"
The two of them made their way towards the close restaurants of the building. Once they agreed on where to eat they settled down on the table and asked for the waiter.
"What do you want?" Ran suddenly asked out of the blue, almost making Ken choke on his water. Fujimiya Ran actually spoke four words, add in the fact that he's asking what Ken wants; it's practically twilight zone. Ran had raised at eyebrow at him again, clearly impatient. Not one to rub the sudden actions of the redhead Ken blurted out what he wanted to eat and the waiter stalked off.
Until their food arrived Ran didn't utter a single word, but he listened intently at Ken who went on to rant about how much of a cramp he had from posing too long. Ran snickered inside, mentally thinking to offer the brunette a massage later. When these thoughts came to him he resisted the urge to kick himself, what the hell is he thinking about?!
Ken couldn't stop himself from ranting, and it felt like talking to the wall, with all honesty, but he had to so he would have to do something other that stare at the beautiful redhead, drown at those intense purple eyes that would surely make him blush like mad. A few weeks ago some man arrived to their shop and offered them a job as image models. Ran had bluntly answered no right then and there but when they heard of how much money they'll be earning the four had given another thought about it.
"... so then my ass hurt like hell and my whole body was aching by the time I came inside your studio and when I saw you I thought that you looked beautiful even though-"
Ken suddenly stopped and threw a hand on his mouth. What the damn did he just say?! He blushed like crazy, looking up at Ran who was watching him with a blank gaze, which made him blush even harder. Man what an idiot he felt like.
The next minutes flowed by in silence. Ran glancing up every now and then at the brunette whom had his head lowered. He couldn't help snickering at the words the brunette had accidentally blurted out. He doesn't really understand but it felt good that Ken praised him, and he wondered how Ken looks like during his photo shoot.
---
"Ken... KEN!!"
Ken groggily woke up; sunlight streaming through the window and sending lightning bolts coursing through his eyes. Reluctantly his chocolate colored eyes fell open as he struggled to get his brain to kick into action. Aya... Aya was calling him. Normally he'll sleep through whoever was calling him that early in the morning, but it seemed his body wanted to react to that deep voice he don't normally hear, so before he knew it he was standing on the corridor facing a disgruntled redhead.
"Phone" Ran muttered. His shoved the phone towards Ken and made his way downstairs.
Don't go damn it Aya! His thoughts screamed, but no words came out of his mouth. He felt a surge of disappointment because of some reason. Because I wished Aya was calling me because he wants to tell me that-? Heh, yeah like that'll ever happen.
"Hello?" Ken muttered on the phone, still a little frustrated. He trudged back inside his room, sleep making his mind go blank.
"Hidaka Ken am I right?"
Ken shifted the phone to his other ear. "Yeah and who might this be?"
"Yes well I'm one of the affiliates of the photography company you and your friends are working on, and I've come to admire you above all the four. So I'll cut to the chase, are you free this afternoon?"
"This afternoon?" Ken slowly asked, trying his best not to yawn. "Yeah I think so"
"Drop by this building, then" The man on the other line instructed. Ken took hold of a pen on his bedside table and half-sleepy, wrote the address on his palm. "fine?"
"Ok" Ken answered, stifling a yawn as he put down the phone on the table and landed on his bed. After being curled for a few minutes he suddenly bolted upright with a start.
What the hell did I got myself into?!
---
Ken checked and rechecked the address on his palm. He was feeling a bit nervous. The building he was sent to was giving him a shrewd feeling.
Quite old for a photography studio if you ask me... he thought to himself, but he shoved this feeling off, reminding himself why he had decided to come there after all. He and Ran had a heated argument why Ken had said Ok to some person he wasn't even sure off and Ken, who wanted not to lose to ice prince shot back that Ran must have been jealous. That did it for the redhead, muttered 'I don't damn care what happens to you!' and bounded out. If it wasn't such a bad situation Ken would have fainted that Ran had said 8 words to him in one opening of mouth. Youji had decided to stay out of it and went up to Omi's room to offer the blue-eyed a massage.
Ken hesitated, hand upon the cold door handle. He gulped, thoughts racing and reminding himself that Aya disapproved to this. And yet, the redhead had always had his way and Ken was sick of it. Before he could touch the handle it opened and a tall muscular man eyed him from head to toe.
"You're late"
"Sorry" Ken mumbled as he went in, inside where five more men seated in different corners of the room. One of them had a camera in hand and in one side there was a stool. Only that and the room were empty.
"Change to this" one man tossed a top and shorts to Ken, and he took it, feeling that strange feeling again inside of him that something wrong was going to happen.
---
Ran practically took large strides; pushing people away every now and then in his desperate search. He had yelled at the brunette to stay, but he should have known better that the stubborn brunette would not do so. So now after minutes of raging, frustration and fuming he finally grabbed his cloak and katana and went in search for Ken in fits of worry that he wasn't able to push behind his mind.
Oh Gods just make sure he'll be fine.
---
Of all the things to forget to bring, it has to be his weapon. Ken glared at the five men who towered at him, feeling helpless and shouldering a broken arm. One of them had locked the door, the other had yielded a whip, one a knife and it looks like this had all been planned to be fool proof. Ken had put up a struggle ofcourse, but one is no match to five (2) armed men. He took a step back, and another, until his back hit the cold wall.
"No place to go now, is there you beautiful rat? Well then stop resisting and just do what we want." He smirked, and when Ken only answered with a deep scowl he grabbed as fistful of brown hair, jerking the head up to face him. "Now if you don't want to follow we might have to break you up and make sure to send you to your friends in teeny tiny pieces!"
Ken closed his eyes as not to face the ugly smirk the burly man was giving him.
Aya... he couldn't stop himself from thinking about the redhead, I'm sorry, if only I listened... I deserved this.
Hot tears formed in his eyes and he blinked them back.
Please Aya... help me... he thought, mentally wishing with all his mind, heart and soul that Aya would get his plea.
"What are you waiting for you little moron?! Strip!"
TBC
1 I based this one from a pic I saw of Ran, he looks utterly gorgeously yummy there!!
2 yes I do believe no matter how good a person is he cannot outwit five armed men.
- Nyaaa will Ran make it in time to help Ken?! Well you'll find out if you click that little review button on the lower left side, please! Rating may change depending on what happens next...
-westkitsune-