Chapter 36

Yohji sat down beside Aya-Chan in the waiting room.

"Are you sure he's going to be fine?" she asked, her hands shaking. Yohji closed his hands over hers to still them.

"He's been through worse. I wouldn't lie about him going to be alright if I didn't think he would. I don't like lying to women or girls. You have to know that Ran hated lying to you, too. But he never wanted anything like this to touch your life again. He wanted you to live a normal life." She was taking it far better than he had expected.

"How are you dealing with all this? I mean I know you've been through hell. How do you feel?" Yohji half expected her to go into sudden hysterics or something at the question, but she only nodded.

"And I already know what you're thinking. I won't tell anyone about you. It wouldn't be right," she said, looking up at him.

Yohji nodded. He wished he could peek inside her head to know what was going on in there. He believed her that she wouldn't tell, that wasn't it, he was dreading that she really wasn't okay at all and that she was going to leave Aya behind without a backward glance. If she did that it would kill him.

"Do you understand everything that's been…"

"He's my brother, but he's different. I know that. I mean whenever I visited I knew something was different, but I thought it was just because he was an adult now. I didn't know it was because he'd really changed. I should've been there for him. I never would've tried to stop him from continuing to… I just would've liked to hold his hand through it. He's so closed off from me. I don't know what I should do. Have I been a nuisance to him?" she looked so sad. Yohji felt for her.

"No, you're one of the only things that makes him smile. I had never seen him smile until you woke up. He's changed, but he's still the same. I think one of the hardest things for him was keeping this from you. He's always felt that he was too tainted to be happy. A very definite part of him died when everything went to hell for the two of you. I know some of the details, but not all of it, and its not my business. But I know that if you were to stop coming by he would retreat back into his shell and none of us would be able to find him again. He never let us call him Ran because he felt that part of him was dead, but he let you call him that because he wanted that part of him to be alive for you. I don't know if that makes any sense." Yohji knew he was going to have to be the one to explain these things to her, otherwise she would be in the dark forever, because Aya sure as hell wasn't going to. And if she was kept in the dark she might start to resent her brother for not opening up to her.

"What do you usually call him, then? I heard them say Abyssinian, like the cat, right? Is that what you call him?"

"When we're out on missions he's called that, but usually he uses your name. You'll have to ask him about that part, but if I had to guess I'd say its because it reminds him of what he fights for." Oh, Yohji knew he was going to be listening to Aya bitch about that one. The man wasn't going to be pleased about his sister knowing he was using her name.

"What about you, Yohji? You care about my brother, right?" and on to the personal questions.

"I love your brother and I like to think he loves me too. Does that bother you?" Yohji dreaded the answer to that one, too. If she didn't approve then…

"No. I'm glad he has someone that he can lean on. My shoulders aren't big enough," she winked at him. Yohji chuckled. She was so cute.

"Ran and I…"

"If you don't normally call him that then don't on my account," she interrupted, surprising him again.

"Aya and I have only been together for the past quarter. He and I hadn't hidden it from you, we hadn't seen you since we'd gotten together. He was such an asshole all the time that I never really got to know him as anything other than a good man to have your back on missions. Then he got hurt pretty bad and I helped take care of him. We kind of got together after that. To be honest I have no idea of the how's and if's of explaining these things to you when we saw you next. Chances are Aya would've treated me different when you were around. I had no problem with that. You're so important to him that it was probably the only thing he could've done. He didn't want to alienate you. None of us did." he finally released her hands now that they were done trembling.

"You know, I teased him a few times about how it was strange that four people so completely different in personality could get along well enough to not only work together every day but also share an apartment. I guess I wasn't all that far off," she giggled.

"I bet it was pretty awkward for all of you whenever I'd come to visit."

"The first time Aya told us you were coming to visit we all about had heart attacks. We had no idea what we were in for. We were expecting some stuck up little bitch to be honest. We thought for the most part that we were going to have to stay completely clear of you so that we wouldn't have things so awkward that you would suspect things. But when we met you we all genuinely liked having you over. It was seeing your brother smile that nearly gave us the heart attacks," Yohji had stared when he'd seen Aya smile. What had been even stranger was that it wasn't a faked smile. Yohji had to reign himself in before he could tease him about it. Teasing him around Aya-Chan would make it obvious that he didn't smile often, and teasing him without Aya-Chan would've resulted in fighting for his life.

"The real question, Aya-Chan, is what are you going to do now?"

"I'm off for a few weeks, so I'll be staying nearby to visit. I'll finish my schooling and then I'll come back. I can come back, right?" she asked with worried eyes.

"Its fine as long as no one knows that you know. Even if we ended up with a new member that new member would never be able to know you knew. Its very important that you understand that. If anyone found out that you knew anything the kill order would be put on you. Not only would you die but we all would, because we would try to protect you. I think Akio knows what's good for him and can keep his mouth shut. I'm going to talk to him as soon as he's available."

Speaking of which, the others still hadn't shown up at the hospital yet. He hoped they hadn't run into any sort of trouble. I mean Schwartz didn't have any friends, did they?

He nearly jumped out of his skin when the doors banged open. There they were.

"Took you guys long enough," Yohji shouted over to them.

"Bite me! We ran out of gas a few blocks from here!" Ken shouted at him, wrestling with Akio's weight. Omi was helping by holding the doors for him. Yohji knew from experience that Omi was too small to really help carry anyone.

Author's notes: Thanks chinchan for your reviews. =)

There's still a bit more for the story. Not much, but a little bit.