note: this continues to be dedicated to my girlfriend, in all of her infinate patience for letting my transcribe that gazebo scene. And then not killing me when i decided to edit it a bit.
Aya was grumpy. I had no idea exactly what had crawled up his ass and died, but he started ignoring the New Kid and I in such a specific and pointed way that the two of us almost started to bond. Or at least I stopped hating him. I still called him new Kid though. But long story short, Aya was inexplicably mad.
And so we were summoned for another meeting, I walked.
In the mission room, Aya was leaning against his regular pillar, encompassed by shadows. Deep, dark, gloomy, brooding Aya. I tried to give him a look, whether or not he caught it... I have no idea.
I sat on the couch, waiting. I was not disappointed, the screen flickered on and the distorted voice of Omi, oh no, forgive me, the distorted voice of Persia filled the room. I tried not to filter him out, I don't know what it is, but whenever he does the big deep Darth Vader voice distortion my mind just wanders. But from the way Aya had been acting I wouldn't be able to mooch a summary from him tonight.
"And so, I am terminating all investigations at Kowa Academy. All agents need to remove themselves from he Academy." Persia said in a conclusive sort of voice.
"What?" I cried, jolting out of my quasi-concentrating state.
"No!" Aya said, shortly after me, surprisingly all of us. We turned to look at him as one. "I'm not leaving. Not yet, we still have work to do at Kowa."
"Abyssinian, we are done at Kowa Academy." Persia replied.
"You might be. I'm not."
And he stood and stormed up the stairs. New Kid winced as the door slammed behind him. I tried to pat him comfortingly, but he flinched. Huh. I shrugged to myself, New Kid's issues were something I would deal with after I figured out what Aya's problem was.
"Okay, Aya, what the hell was that?"
He looked up at me, head jerking upwards sharply as I slammed the door behind me. He was sitting at the counter, marking. Essays covered the counter, each with little neatly written notes in red pen and a mark on top.
He was glaring. At me.
"What?" I asked, "I think I have a right to know, you know?"
"Its nothing, Ken." He grumbled. He wouldn't meet my eye.
"It's not nothing. You stormed out of a meeting. You don't storm out of meetings. I don't understand, what's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong."
"But it's-"
"Nothing." He repeated.
"Oh come on Aya," I pleaded, "I thought we were past this."
He didn't say anything. He simply stood up and walked across the room, he opened the door to our bedroom and closed it, quietly. With a thunk the deadbolt hit home. I wasn't done talking to him, but I'm too old to shout at him through a locked door. I went to the spare room and knocked on the door. The New Kid opened it, rubbing at his eye. He looked sleepy.
"What's up?" He mumbled, squinting at me. I tried to smile, like there hadn't been something of a domestic dispute a minute ago. I probably failed. If the look on his face was anything to go by. "What's wrong?"
"Oh nothing," I said casually, smacking myself internally. "Well, something, but I don't want to trouble you with it. I'm just here for the spare bedding, I'm bunking in the front room."
"Oh." he said, letting me into the room. I went to the box labeled 'soccer/guest', which was on top of three other boxes with soccer in the label, and I pulled out a couple of quilts and the ridiculously awesome soccer ball shaped pillow.
"Good night newbie. Have a good sleep. I guess we still have school tomorrow."
"Good night Ken."
So we stayed at Kowa, my grades began a steady downward spiral, Aya continued to not talk to me. I kept sleeping in the front room. Things at home got tense.
After a couple days of this bullshit I decided that I really, really needed to talk to Aya. This was ridiculous. This was stupid. This is crap I would have put up with back in the old days, but I was beyond this, I, at least, had learned to use my words.
So I snuck into the staff room in the high school and I waited. Aya would know I was there, and he would wait for everyone else to leave before addressing me. So I waited.
I listened to Aya get asked out by that chick teacher who totally has a thing for him. And I heard him accept the invitation. I would kick his ass about this later, in a friendly way.
"You can come out now." He said. I poked my head out from behind the corner.
"Hey sweetie," I said, grinning. He did not smile back.
"What do you want?" He asked, turning to his desk and fiddling with some papers. Into his briefcase, out of the briefcase.
"We need to talk." I said, heading for the door. "Be in the gazebo in twenty minutes."
And I left before he could argue.
He didn't disappoint me. Exactly twenty minutes later, to the second Aya appeared out of nowhere and stood before me. I leaned against the railing. We were quiet for a moment.
"There's no way we can continue to spit in Takatori's face and get away with it." I said, glancing at him. He had turned around, and was looking at the pond, watching it sparkle in the night. "They're probably planning to use Takatori's other weapon, their destruction specialists, the Crushers to take us out."
Aya said nothing.
"Of course, we'll totally kick their butts." I supplied.
"What do you want?" Aya said, like he hadn't heard me.
"You're not much of a conversationalist," I complained, he didn't acknowledge me. "Alright then, I guess I'll cut to the chase." I paused, wondering how to word this. "Why did you disobey Persia?"
"Simple." He replied, still turned towards the pond. I was ready for his reasoning. "For the same reason you chose to stay."
What the hell did that mean?
"Yeah, ok, I think I know what you mean." I lied. "But I want to hear it from you. Why did you disobey Persia's orders to withdraw from this academy and drop the investigation?"
Aya turned, and gave me a look. He was onto me. He knew I had no idea what his reasoning was. His eyes narrowed, he turned back to the pond.
"The enemy knows my true identity," he said, "You should avoid me."
He started to leave, I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back to me.
"Hey!" I cried, "I'm not finished yet!"
"Let. Me. Go." He growled.
"No. Not yet." I said, but I did let him go, knowing, trusting that he wouldn't storm off. Not just yet. "You're afraid to say it. Because if you do you won't be able to take it back. Should I say it for you?" I goaded, his shoulders stiffened, "The reason you disobeyed Persia? Well...?"
He moved like lightening, aiming a punch for my face, I caught his fist.
"You want out." I said. "You're plannin to leave Weiss."
"I'm not sure," He admitted, "Not yet."
I started to smile, ready to tell him that we should go home, that everything would be okay.
Pain. It blossomed in my stomach and went shooting up my chest and down my legs. I slid to the ground. Aya punched me. He turned and headed down the stairs. Back towards the school.
"Aya, you bastard!" I shouted at his retreating form, "It's the truth! We can continue to be Weiss. We can continue to be true Weiss, not just Takatori's puppets." Realization began to blossom in my pain addled brain. "That's why you're going to walk away, it's it? I'll do it too! I'm with you, man. I'll quit. Let's do it. What'd you think, Aya?"
He didn't respond verbally, but he stopped walking.
"Come on," I pleaded, "Don't just go."
He came back, stood before the gazebo where I had pried myself up.
"I think you should stop by the aprtment and pick up some of your stuff." He said, looking everywhere except at me. "I need to concentrate. I'd like to complete a mission properly for once."
That stung.
"Oh well, I'm sorry!" I said, now fully upright, I pushed forward to him, got right in his face. "I forgot that I ruin everything I touch. I forgot that I'm just a big screw up."
With that I pushed past him and stormed up the grounds, I didn't even know where I was going until Yohji opened his door and blinked blearily at me.
"Yohji," I said in a small voice, "I'm a big screw up."
"Now Ken-Ken," He said, leaning against his door, "Who told you that?"
"...I did."
Yohji raised an eyebrow.
"Aya and I may have had a fight." I admitted.
He sighed.
"You'd better come in and tell me the whole story."