Beautiful Alone

By: Raiha-chan

Spoilers: None.

Disclaimers: Weiß Kreuz and all its characters belong to Koyasu Takehito and Project Weiß. "Beautiful Alone", the first ED song, does not belong to me either. Do not sue me for I have nothing. Sad, really.

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--- Chapter Five ---

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"To every life, there's always an end,
But I close my eyes, I still see your face; beautiful...
And I throw a rose as they now lower you down
But I still believe I'll see you again

I wait for the day that I can once more hold you tight
Until then, I can't cry this pain away
Until then, memories are all I have..."

I threw the door open, a grin playing on my lips. The violet-eyed boy stood there, seething. I pouted somewhat before pulling on another cheesy grin.

"Come on!" I pulled at Hikaru's sleeve and literally dragged him into and up the house. "This will be fun, I promise!"

"You say that to everything," Hikaru sighed softly, behind me.

"Do not!" I turned my head slightly so that he can see my face. "And besides, it's true, isn't it? This will be fun or my name isn't Brad Crawford!"

Hikaru coughed.

"Oh, shut up. That was only once. So sue me."

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I managed to drag us both up into the dusty attic. Mom made me clean out the junk and being such a wonderful friend, I decided to rope Hikaru into helping me. Sure, I met some hesitation but that boy can never resists my charms.

"Now, where should we start?" I looked back at my reluctant helper. He gave me a one-shoulder shrug and continued to look bored.

"Well then," I rubbed my hands together gleefully, "Let's start with the boxes in the back." I jerked a thumb towards the corner where a tall closet stood.

"Whatever," Hikaru shrugged again. He moved towards the big boxes and blew at the top, causing the dust to scatter about. Some of the dust must have reached his nose because he started coughing up a storm.

Hikaru turned and glared at me, making his message clear. I retaliated by sticking my tongue out at him, then moving to another set of boxes to begin the work.

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I flopped down onto the hard floor, exhausted. And I only managed to finish sorting through three boxes. Damn job is killing my back muscles.

I jumped at the ice-cold touch against my cheek. Hikaru held out a can of soda to me and I took it, with a glare.

"So what did you find?" Hikaru sat down beside me.

"A lot of old letters and pictures," I replied. "I don't know what it's about, though, because they're all in German." I set the can down and reached over to the stack of albums and letters I made just a while ago. I took out the album right on the top and opened it to show Hikaru.

"Strange group of people, really," I commented, while pointing at a man with orange-colored hair. "I wonder who they are…maybe mom knows something."

Hikaru took the book from me and started flipping through the pages with mild interest. Deciding that I should get to work once more, I took another gulp of my soda and stood. I barely noticed the slip of paper that fell out of the book. Hikaru picked it up and looked at me.

"It's probably another letter in German again or something," I shrugged then move towards the unopened boxes.

"Or something," Hikaru murmured behind me. "It's in Japanese."

"What--?" I whirled my head around so quickly that I nearly lost my balance for a moment. "Let me see it." I took the offered paper eagerly and scanned through its contents as carefully as possible.

…Alright, that took about like…one second.

"Hika-chan…" I glared at the still-seated boy. "The only thing on this paper is 'thank you for everything'."

"At least it's not in German," Hikaru said, shrugging. I blinked at him, then narrowed my eyes when I registered the fact that he's barely aware of what I was saying.

"Oy, Hika-chan, are you even listening to me?" I pouted, then glanced down at the so-called letter again. That was when I saw it.

Fujimiya Ran.

I sneak a peek over at Hikaru then back down at the paper, then over to him again. My eyes widened as realization struck me.

"Fujimiya…that's your…" I watched in shock as Hikaru stood. "That's your great-grandmother's surname, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess…" Hikaru brushed a few strands of black hair away from his face.

"So then…Fujimiya Ran is--"

"--My great-uncle," Hikaru finished for me.

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"Jesus Christ, Brad! Stop running around the house or I'll personally make sure you will never get the chance to reproduce!" Maki screamed at the top of her lungs. I flew past her door before stopping and going back.

"Oy, Maki, I have a question," I stood, slightly panting from the running.

"What?" Maki glared.

"You know who the Fujimiya's are, don't you?"

"The only Fujimiya I know of is Fujimiya Aya and she's long dead. That's Hikaru's great-grandmother. Why do you ask?"

"Well…we found this up in the attic a couple of minutes ago," I took the paper out of my pocket and handed it over to my sister. Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed Hikaru taking his sweet time walking over.

"'Thank you for everything'," Maki muttered. "And what, exactly, is your point here?"

"Look at the signature!" I hissed at her. "It says Fujimiya Ran. That's Hikaru's great-uncle!"

"Which brings me back to my question…WHAT is your POINT? Brad, you know already that our families -- both the Yoshida's and the Crawford's -- goes way back. So you found a letter from Hikaru's great-uncle…so what?"

"It says 'thank you for everything'!"

"I can read, thank you very much." Maki paused then narrowed her eyes. "You nosy little bastard. You wanted to know what he meant by it, don't you?"

"Uh…yeah, that too…" I chuckled, weakly. "But we found it stuck inside a photo album full of pictures and letters written in German. And none of the people in the pictures looked even remotely Japanese."

"What are you trying to get at, Brad?" Maki sighed.

"Look, nobody has been in the attic for years," I glared at her. "So no one has probably touched any of these stuff. Therefore, the letter has probably always been in the photo album. So now, my question is, what is a letter written in Japanese doing in a book full of…German stuff?"

"…German stuff?"

"That's one way of putting it." Maki gave me a strange look. "Oh, shut it, Maki! Just answer my question and you'll see my point."

"You told me to shut it so why should I answer your question?" Maki blinked at me, innocently.

"Maki!" I pouted. My sister giggled at me.

"Does it really matter?" Hikaru spoke up after a long while of silence. I turned my head sideways and gave him a quizzical look.

"Of course it matters!" I replied. "If the letter has always been in there, maybe it came with the album itself. So then, that would mean that your great-uncle is somehow connected with this…German dude. And--"

"In the end, it all comes down to one thing," Maki interrupted. "You're a nosy boy. Keep yourself out of matters that do not involve you. And get out."

"Bitch."

"Why, thank you. Now, get out."

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"You know…maybe I should ask grandma instead," I said as I walked Hikaru to the door. "I mean, she's like…older and everything. She might know more stuff than mom might since she was actually there…"

"Your sister is right, you know," Hikaru gave a soft sigh. "You are one hell of a nosy person. I don't even want to know why you bother."

"And why shouldn't I? I keep hearing things about how our families goes 'way back' but I wanna know some more."

"And what good does that do you? It's not like it seriously matters. It's not as if your life depends on someone else's life -- someone that was alive over 50 years ago."

"…Why are you so uninterested?"

"Because unlike someone I know," Hikaru gave me a light pinch on the cheek, "I'm not a nosy little bastard."

"Jerk. I'm not being nosy. I'm just curious, that's all."

"Curiosity killed the cat."

Instead of coming up with a witty reply, all I managed to get out was "…What?"

Hikaru gave me a strange look and his smile faltered. I was about to repeat my question when he suddenly smiles again. Though I could tell that this time, his smile was forced. I decided to kept my mouth shut for once, though that doesn't mean I don't want answers to my questions later.

"It's nothing. Just ignore it," Hikaru opened the door. "I'll see you in school tomorrow."

"Fine, fine…" I watched silently, as he leaves. Then I closed the door softly and leaned my back against it. I slid my eyes shut and stood deathly still. For a moment, I thought I heard something then I snapped out of it.

Mom was standing right in front of me in an apron, one hand holding a big bowl of dough and the other holding a big wooden spoon.

"Brad? Are you alright?" she asked, concern etched all over her face.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I popped another grin then literally bounced away from the door. "Remember to save some dough for me! And if Maki comes around trying to eat everything, tell her that her baby brother is still growing!"

"Brad…" I heard mom chuckled in the background as I made my way into my room.

I wanted to know…what it would be like to love you…

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--- End Chapter Five ---

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Dun-dun-dun. Crappy plot coming up.