Hands ghosted across my body. But not the rough tanned hands that so often haunted my dreams. These hands were smooth and soft. Pale. And they moved differently too, usually the hands were shy, gentle. But right now they were confident and talented, never hesitating just moving with a will of their own. Long blond hair hid the lips that had absolutely no qualms about where they touched me. A far cry from the adorable blush my chocolate haired dream lover has when he comes anywhere near my body, tentatively touching increasingly sensitive spots until he works up the courage to venture into deeper waters. Something was not right. This wasn't my Ken. This was...

"Y-o-j-i" I woke up abruptly. Did I say that? I didn't know such a needy raspy sound could come out of my throat. And since when do I dream about Yoji? Yoji is my best friend. Sure he's attractive, but I love Ken. As the dream faded I grew slowly surer of this fact.

It was a fluke. A once in a lifetime thing because I'm stressed and my head hurts and my brain is screwing things up. Nothing to worry about.

Still a bit shaken up, I made my way downstairs to get more Tylenol.

Yoji was leaning against the counter nursing a cup of coffee while Ken made pancakes. They both gave a start when they heard my cheerful good morning and I could feel them looking at me strangely as I poured myself some orange juice.

[should he even be up?]

[He was struck by lightning; he should still be in bed.]

I was a tad annoyed that they were talking about me quite literally behind my back, but I was still a bit uncomfortable being in the room with both of them after my dream so I didn't comment. I was a bit surprised to hear I had been struck by lightning. No wonder my head hurt.

I hopped up onto the counter near Ken and started swinging my legs giving him my best puppy dog look in the hopes of procuring some pancakes.

[So cute.] I nearly fell off of the counter in complete shock. Ken had said I was cute! To my face! I had never heard him really compliment anyone to their face before, and cute could be construed as attractive which meant maybe my crush wasn't a lost cause after all. Not that I ever had any doubt. I managed to stop myself from falling, but I couldn't keep from grinning like a complete idiot. Ken noticed and grinned back.

Yoji looked up from his coffee and noticed us smiling at each other while the pancakes burnt. He smirked at me.

[Awww, Omi's in love] I seriously almost killed him right then. I'm not talking as an angry teenager either. I mean as a professional assassin with poison darts in the pocket of my shorts I almost killed him right then and there. He might have ruined everything. But luckily, Ken didn't seem to hear. He didn't even blush, just put the pancake on a plate and handed it to me.

I grinned at Ken as I took my plate and looked down at my breakfast, and scowled.

It was shaped like Mickey Mouse.

So much for cute being a good thing. Ken must have seen me scowl.

[What did I do now?]

"Nothing."

"Huh?"

"The pancake looks great." I tried my best to smile. It got easier when I saw that Ken's own pancake was shaped like Donald Duck. Maybe I was over reacting.

We ate in silence (except for the occasional word from Yoji when he commented on something in his paper to himself which was also odd) just enjoying each other's company for a while. I thought I heard Ken singing It's Raining Men softly, but I don't think he knew he was doing it so I didn't comment. Although I'm a bit surprised that Yoji didn't tease him either.

Aya came down a few seconds later glaring at me. I had a sudden mental image of Aya castrating me with a grapefruit spoon, but I shook it off. Surely he wasn't that angry at whatever it was I did.

"Morning Aya-kun."

[Takatori slut] Well that was just uncalled for

"What did you call me?"

"Huh?"

"You just called me a slut. Don't deny it, Yoji and Ken are right here, they heard you."

"Aya didn't say anything Omi." Yoji looked at me sadly. [Poor kid's finally lost it]

"I haven't lost it, and would you all please stop talking about me as if I wasn't here."

"No one said you lost it Omi, and no one has said anything about you all morning." Ken looked extremely concerned, Yoji however, was staring at me wide eyed.

[Can you hear me?]

"Of course I can hear you Yoji-kun, you're standing right there."

"Yoji didn't say anything Omi." Ken looked nearly hysterical now. [we need to call Kritiker, that lightning must have caused more damage then we thought.]

"I'm fine Ken, and leave Kritiker out of this, they'll just prod at me."

gasp Yoji and Ken stared at me, almost frightened. "Omi, I'm going to pick a number between one and a million."

"three"

"Omi, I think you can hear our thoughts."

"That's ridiculous."

[oh shit] Ken ran out of the room. I could hear the soft thump thump thump of his feet as he ran up the stairs to his room and the slamming of his door, followed by loud heavy metal music.

"It's true Omi, until Aya came in neither one of us really said anything."

"I think you've been watching too much late night twilight zone. I'm going out."

It was ridiculous really, you can't just develop psychic powers overnight, or at least, I think you can't.

As I was thinking I wandered around aimlessly, there weren't many people around since it was ten AM on a Tuesday so I was alone with my thoughts, and my thoughts alone, not that I could have heard anyone else's thoughts if they happened to be around. Or so I thought.

[Do these jogging pants make my ass look big?]

Well, I didn't think anyone would say that out loud to a stranger, but people are weird like that. Never the less I gravitated toward the benches to avoid joggers.

[I think my wife might be cheating on me]

Definitely not something I would tell a stranger. Starting to get a bit panicky I ran out of the park and into the first building I saw, which ended up being a grocery store. I needed some comfort food anyway.

[Do I want Ketchup or Catsup? What's the difference, I don't think it's made from cats. Maybe one is European. Do Europeans even eat ketchup? Do Japanese?]

That was the last straw, I dropped my basket full of snack cakes right in the middle of the aisle and ran all the way home where I locked myself in my room, hid in my bed, and turned on the TV loud enough that I could hear it over Ken's still-blaring stereo.

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I was going to work on this and tweak the beginning so it didn't sound so forced, but i'm lazy and it's been too long since my last update anyway, plus with moving i don't have much time to write. Sorry about that.