Redo Knight Hunters

Chapter 4

Work and Play

"Aya!" Elizabeth called, pushing through the large crowd of love struck girls.

When Aya heard her, he turned around, a surprised look on his face. She also seemed to catch the attention of a few others as well. All together, these girls were starting to give her a headache.

"Elizabeth, what are you doing here?" he asked, trying to get over the shock of seeing her.

She stepped a bit closer, eyes watching her from every angle, trying to figure out her next move. The girls were monitoring every step that she took, every breath that she breathed. It was creepy.

"Well, I thought I'd help with your current problem," she told him, winking at him for emphasis.

Realization dawned on him as she said this. Although, he seemed a bit hesitant, he still went along with it.

"Just give me an apron and I'll be fine," she whispered.

He nodded his head, fetching her an apron. She went behind the counter, placing her bags against the wall. After that, she tied the apron around her, before putting on a smile.

"Thanks again for giving me the job Aya, I really appreciate it, and I promise to work hard," she announced for everyone to hear.

The other three guys just stood there staring at Aya, wondering what in the world he was doing.

"Hello ladies, how may I help you?" she asked, a large smile on her face.

They just stared at her, a strange look on their faces.

"We have some wonderful Tiger Lilies today. We also have plenty of beautiful freshly cut roses that will brighten up any room in your home," she smiled.

One girl came forward, a shy look on her face as she approached her.

"Yes?"

"Um, I have a question… My little sister's been sick for a while and I wanted to get her some roses," she looked away for a moment, glancing at the other girls that were standing around her. "What kind would you recommend?"

Elizabeth smiled at her, guiding her into the shop.

"How old is she?" Elizabeth asked.

"12"

Elizabeth nodded her head as she opened one of the flower coolers. She pulled out three different roses. A white one, a red one, and a pink one.

"Together, the red and white is unity. I can tell that you love your little sister, therefore, you have the red. White symbolizes purity and innocence, which comes with being young. The pink says, 'Believe me, I know you'll get better'," Elizabeth explained, grabbing a deep blue silk ribbon and wrapping it around the stems to hold them together.

Elizabeth held them out to her for her to take. She held a calm, but thankful look on her face as she took them, holding them in her hands.

"Aya, would you mind taking care of the rest for her?" she asked, gently guiding the girl over to him.

He nodded his head, moving behind the counter, wrapping things up. After that, others started to follow the same pattern, coming to her for advice and selection. SDhe could see the relief on all of the guys faces as she took care of the loud and rowdy girls that constantly pestered them. Although, of course she wasn't able to take care of all of them, but that's to be expected.

Surprisingly enough, she managed to get them through the rest of the day without much of a problem. After that, the tall guy with brownish blond hair came over to her, wrapping her in a hug. She nearly freaked out if it weren't for the fact of Aya pulling him off of her.

"Sorry, but you do realize that now we have to do some actual restocking, right?"

She gave him a confused look.

"For once, we sold more flowers than we had to throw away."

She was still confused as he sighed, running his hand through his nearly shoulder length hair, removing the sunglasses that were perched on top of his head. She stared at him for a moment, finding the sunglasses a bit odd since it hadn't been that bright today and he'd stayed inside away from the sun.

"You see, normally we have to throw a lot of the flowers away because they end up going bad. Those girls end up chasing away a lot of the customers," he told her.

"And they don't even buy anything half the time," said a younger guy with short, dark brown hair.

"Come on, be nice Ken," the youngest said.

"You know that it's true though Omi. There's no need to try and defend them since we're the ones losing money," Ken said bluntly.

"Well, I never see Yohji complaining about the attention," he countered, glancing at the tallest of them.

Yohji laughed nervously.

"Come on, Omi, you know it's not my style to turn away pretty girls," he chuckled, a poor attempt at defending himself.

"What happened to 'sticking to your own age group'?" Aya added, moving some pots out of the back room.

"Here, let me help," she said, moving to the back and grabbing some pots.

"No, you don't have to," Aya said, turning around after placing a large pot on the floor. "Yohji, do your job," he said in irritation, watching her come out of the room with a large pot in her arms.

"Here, let me have that," Yohji said, walking over and trying to take the pot from her arms.

She turned away, keeping him from grabbing it.

"I've got it, really. I mean, I've been helping all day, why stop now?" she questioned, crouching down to place the pot properly on the floor.

"Okay, I don't care where you got her Aya, but I like her," Yohji approved with a grin, watching her from where he stood. "I really like her," he mumbled, earning a sharp elbow to the ribs from Aya.

Aya hadn't agree to allowing her in there just so that Yohji could flirt with her and look her up and down. She didn't seem to pay them any attention though as she went to the back, continuing to bring more pots out. A few times, Aya was actually afraid that she was going to drop one or something, but she somehow managed to hold onto them. It wasn't until she went back again that he changed his mind, hearing a pained and startled yell, along with the sound of braking pots.

Aya ran forward, pushing Yohji out of the way as he entered the storage room, finding Elizabeth on the floor. Pots were scattered and broken, pieces lying all around her. The shelf that some of them were on was now hanging off of the wall by its hinges.

"Are you alright?" Omi asked, brushing pieces of the pots off of her.

"I'm SO sorry!" she exclaimed. "I reached for a pot and the shelf just came loose," she explained, trying to stand up.

Aya took hold of her arm, helping her up the rest of the way. Looking down at her, he saw that she had a few cuts.

"Wait a sec…" Ken came forward, inspecting the shelf, before turning around with an eyebrow raised. "Isn't this the shelf that you said you fixed…Yohji?" he questioned.

Aya sighed upon hearing this. Couldn't that guy do anything right?

"I don't know what you're talking about Ken," he said, slowly slinking out of the room.

"Yohji…get back here," Aya said, his voice low, boarder line monotone.

"Bye guys!" he called, quickly running to leave the shop.

Aya grabbed him by the back of the shirt before he could go anywhere, dragging him back into the room.

"Come on, Aya, you know I'm not good at fixing things," he cried out.

"Well, you get to clean this up AND you're paying to replace everything," Aya said, shoving him towards the mess as Omi helped him get Elizabeth out of the room.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, groaning as she sat down in a chair.

Aya groaned as he got the first aid kit, dumping some of it on the counter.

"Look, there's no need to apologize. It's his fault and he has to deal with it," Aya told her, gently taking her hand in his.

She had a place on her left palm where a piece of one of the pots had cut into her hand pretty good. She winced as he placed some alcohol on the cut, biting her tongue painfully. He didn't like doing this to her, but he had too. I mean, it's not like he wanted it to get infected or anything like that. Despite the pain though, she did fairly well, sitting there and watching as he cleaned and wrapped her hand.

After he was done cleaning the other few cuts on her arms and legs, he bandaged them, before checking her over one more time. Finding himself more or less satisfied, he let her go, getting up and placing the first aid kit back where he got it from.

"Now, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah…I'll be fine, I'm just a bit sore," she laughed, though Aya could tell it was forced.

"Here," Omi said, handing her a daisy.

Her eyes seemed to brighten up a bit as she gazed down at it, carefully taking it into her hands. She ran a fingertip over the delicate petals as though cherishing it. It made Aya smile on the inside as he watched her. She actually seemed happy despite the current pain that he knew was running through her body at the moment.

"Come on, I'll take you home," Aya said, helping her up.

"You don't have to," she assured him, trying to decline, but he just shook his head.

"You have stuff to carry, it's already late, and you're hurt. I don't think so," Aya said simply.

As he said this, she sighed, finally giving up. He held back a smirk, grabbing her bags and taking them outside to his car. She was definitely stubborn, that's for sure, but at least now Aya could make sure that she got home alright. He wouldn't want anything to happen to her.

"Be careful now," Omi said, closing the car door for her.

"I will," she promised, waving goodbye to him and the other two.

"Just remember, you're more than welcome to come back," Yohji called, a smile on his face as he winked at her.

Her face instantly grew hot.

"Goodbye, Yohji," Aya said tiredly, quickly turning on the car and driving away.

Elizabeth nearly laughed as she watched him, seeing how the little things could get to him, how his friends pushed his buttons. She had to admit, they all seemed pretty nice, especially Omi. He was so cute and helpful.

"So…what's all this stuff for?" Aya asked, referring to the bags in the back seat.

"A new friend," she told him.

"So, you have more friends than just me?" he questioned.

She let out a short laugh, realizing that he was simply giving her a hard time in his own little way, so she decided to play along.

"Oh yes, I've been making quite a few friends lately. My day doesn't revolve just around you, you know?" she said plainly.

She heard him let out a faint snort at her response.

"Yes because I'm just that great," he said sarcastically.

This made her stifle a laugh, placing a hand on his arm for a moment.

"Oh, come on, you're not that bad Aya. You're basically the only person I even talk to," she said honestly.

When we got to Ms. Saki's house, he turned off the car and got out, coming over and helping her out of the car. She was about to grab some of the stuff, before he got in her way, stopping her from going any further.

"Don't even think about," he scolded, taking all of it in his arms.

"Aya…" she whined, before following him and climbing up the porch.

He didn't pay her any attention.

"Stop whining already," he said, "you've been doing it the whole way here."

This made her laugh, earning another groan from her as a result of the pain caused by her laughing. So ignoring the pain, she unlocked the door, letting Aya inside.

"Ran?" she called, not noticing Aya's stiffened form, though she did see him tense for a fraction of a second. "Here boy, here kitty kitty," she called, looking around for him.

She found the silly cat curled up in the kitchen.

"There you are," she smiled, kneeling down in front of him. "Come here you."

She then turned to Aya, holding the small cat in her arms.

"You were wondering who all that stuff was for? Well, here he is," she smiled, stroking his head gently.

Ran purred at her touch, before meowing and jumping out of her arms onto the floor. He immediately went over to Aya, rubbing up against his legs.

"Aww…he likes you."

It was so cute and she couldn't help but to laugh at Aya's sudden awkwardness as he tried to move around the cat. Ran just wouldn't leave him alone though and kept pestering him, meowing for attention.

"Come on, Ran, let him breathe," she giggled, scooping the cat up in her arms.

He meowed in protest, so she sat him down on the counter next to the bags. He seemed curious as he trotted over to them, standing up on his hind legs a bit to try and look inside. It didn't take long before he knocked one over, everything inside rolling onto the counter in front of him.

He meowed again, sniffing at one of the toys, before nudging it with his nose. He did it a few more times, before finally deciding to pick it up in his mouth.

Elizabeth merely stood there watching in amusement, watching him tug on it with his teeth. He rolled over on his side, pulling it against his body with his paws as he kicked at it with his back feet, chewing on it.

While he was busy doing that, she reached into the other bag and pulled out the collar that she had gotten. He glanced up at her almost instantly as she held the collar in her hand, staring at it. She then pulled him over and fastened it around his neck. He squirmed slightly for a moment, but stopped after she got it around his neck all of the way. It fit him perfectly.

"There, now all we need is Rina's approval and we're good to go," Elizabeth announced, petting his head.

He meowed happily, shoving his head against her hand affectionately.

"I hope she lets me keep you," she whispered.

He meowed again, trying to climb into her arms. She picked him up, allowing him to nudge her cheek with his nose.

"I think he's trying to tell you not to worry and to cheer up," Aya commented, coming to stand beside her.

She let out a small sigh, staring down at the little cat in her arms.

"But…what if she says no? I couldn't possibly take him to the pound," she told him, hugging Ran to her chest gently.

He meowed, reaching out to paw at Aya's arm.

"I'll take him," he said, reaching out and petting Ran's head.

"Really?" she asked in surprise.

He nodded his head.

"Yeah. Besides, it'll give me an excuse to keep you around," Aya said bluntly.

"Hey!" she yelled, shoving his arm.

He just chuckled, pushing her head down a bit.

"For someone so quiet, you sure know how to joke around," she pointed out, moving out from under his hand.

"Oh yeah, before I go…" he reached into his back pocket, "Here," he said, placing a fair amount of money into her hand.

She stared at him in disbelief.

"You can't be serious," she tried to reason.

"Look, you earned it, and you saved us a lot of trouble. Just take it, okay?"

Elizabeth looked at him for a moment, seeing the sincerity in his eyes. So with a low sigh, she nodded, accepting the money from him.

"Thank you…" she bowed my head in thanks, walking him to the door. "I'll see you later Aya," she smiled.

"Let me know how thing turn out, okay?"

"Okay… Oh yeah, hold on a sec," she said, running back into the kitchen again.

She came back out and handed him a small piece of paper.

"This is my cell phone number. Ms. Saki got it for me the other day," she said shyly.

He nodded his head as he took it, his fingers brushing hers for a moment.

"Get some rest," he told her, before turning and leaving.

She couldn't help but smile as he left. It really was nice having a friend that she could count on. In fact, it's just as he said when they first met. A friend is someone that you can count on, someone that will have your back.

So, having nothing else to do, she went upstairs to her room and laid down. Ran laid next to her, curling up in her arms and purring, his tail curling around him.

Such peace in a simple little thing, she thought as she fell asleep, a breeze blowing in through her bedroom window, and an unseen shadow standing by her closet.

Okay people, this chapter is also a new and never before seen chapter. I hope that everyone liked it? Please remember to REVIEW and MESSAGE me to let me know how you feel about it. Once again, I apologize for deleting my other chapter, but as I said, it was necessary. Also, please check out my other stories for FINAL FANTASY 7, FRUITS BASKET, LABYRINTH,FMA, X-MEN and MORE. THANKS EVERYBODY!