Title: Cold November Rain [part 22/?]
Book 1 of "Redirecting Destiny" and prequel to "Romantic Resolutions"
Author: Enigma
Series: Weiss Kreuz
Written: January-February, 2002
Rating: R
Pairings: (Yohji + Ken + Aya) (Omi + Nagi) (Brad + Schu)
Category: Dark! Yaoi Angst Action/Adventure Violence Blood Squick Language Romance. AU-OOC.
Archive: fanfiction.net [author: "E-sama the Llama"], Scripta Manent: http://digilander.iol.it/sakaba/Home.html
Spoilers: None, safe for new viewers as well as old.
Warnings: dark! yaoi, heavy angst, action/adventure, graphic violence, large quantities of blood, squick: medical and other, coarse language, agonized and overwrought romance, rare touches of sap, cigarettes, destiny, cruel cliffhangers, original characters. AU-OOC.
Disclaimer: "Weiss Kreuz" is the property of Koyasu Takehito and Project Weiss. This unauthorized work of fanfiction is intended for entertainment only; kindly do not sue me.
Notes: When Ken falls in battle, how can the other members of Weiss cope with the guilt and blame that they all seem to share and will he survive in spite of the odds against him?
++ date and time reference within the storyline beginning with the day of the battle ++
{{telepathic speech}}
*****
++ day: 2. time: 0750-0855 hours ++
*****
By the time Omi and Nagi had brushed their teeth and generally gotten themselves cleaned up as much as they were going to without showering, Yohji had decided to come back inside in search of warmth, finding it in the cup of coffee Aya handed him wordlessly.
The lanky blond disconsolately leaned against the wet bar and sipped at his mug without speaking to his violet-eyed lover who had returned to his earlier occupation of studying him from across the room. This was no innocent game of "Yohji watching" for the younger of the two, however. Whereas Aya didn't know the full story behind the conflict between Balinese of Weiss and Calico of Grün, he knew enough to keep his own counsel until the former detective cared to discuss it with him willingly. In the meantime he intended to remain close at hand should the subject arise and with the impending return of the two teens it seemed likely.
As Yohji tilted the mug back and drained the last swallow, a fairly restrained alto greeted him, "Good morning, Yohji-kun." Omi's pleasant smile seemed cautious as he and his boyfriend walked into the room and he glanced at Aya who immediately rose from his chair, face an expressionless mask once more as he moved silently to begin pouring coffee for them all.
Yohji seemed to transform as soon as he realized the younger assassins had rejoined them. A warm and welcoming smile grew on his face and he slipped his eternally present sunglasses to the top of his head and he greeted almost jovially, "Ah, good morning, my fine bishounen! Did you both sleep well?"
"Yes, thank you!" Omi answered with a low-level genki smile as he reached for Nagi's hand and clasped it briefly before saying, "We both slept well, Yohji-kun. What about you? Did you and Aya-kun sleep okay, too?"
Startled by his lover's reaction to the question as Aya's usually rock-steady hand slipped on a newly-filled coffee mug and it fell to the countertop, the lanky blond ran a hand through loose shoulder-length hair and answered with a shrug, "No, Omiitchi, I'm afraid it wasn't exactly a great night for sleeping for either of us." He worriedly glanced at Aya who was studiously ignoring all of them as he incautiously wiped up the scalding hot fluid only to discover it was suddenly cleaning itself up, flowing directly into the sink courtesy of Nagi's powers which brought a towel over to finish the task.
Both of the older men gazed at the telekinetic with some concern that he ought not to overuse his powers in this fashion, but the psychic's eyes hadn't darkened appreciably and it didn't seem to affect him much as he explained, "This happens all the time at home. Some mornings Farf can't get a bowl of cereal to the table without leaving a trail of milk for me to clean up. Not that I mind, of course, it's just hard for him to realize that when he's shaky it makes a mess."
"I see," Yohji commented, regretting that he could indeed see exactly how that could happen and feeling a sense of commiseration with the Irishman he didn't want to experience. Eager to not get too much of an insider's view of the enemy's home-life, he returned to the prior subject, saying, "As for last night, well, why not grab your coffee and we'll sit down and talk about it. Aya and I had a bit of an adventure that we want to let you in on before we go over to the hospital around nine."
Aya kept watch as Nagi's telekinesis finished the job of cleaning up the mess quite handily and then the scarlet-haired man turned to the more mundane task of pulling an assortment of Danishes and pastries from a bag the Kritiker courier had delivered along with the clothing. Dropping a few unceremoniously onto a platter, he walked towards the other three who had clustered around a table in the nominal eating area and he set it down without explanation before sinking into a chair.
The simple activities of working in the suite's substitute for a kitchen had reminded the scarlet-haired man of the person who would've been providing the same services on a normal morning at the Koneko. Ken wouldn't have been as careless as he had been with the coffee mug neither would he have served the pastries in such a jumble, but Aya simply didn't have the finesse with such things that the brunette had developed. Disturbed amethyst eyes focused on the tabletop for a moment as the Weiss swordsman forced himself to stop reminiscing about the injured nineteen year old and returned his thoughts to his concerns about the twenty-two year old who sat nearby.
The youngest member of Weiss continued to observe his violet-eyed teammate with concern knowing it took a lot to distract Aya as totally as he obviously was, yet also realizing that he wouldn't ask more uncomfortable questions if he could avoid it.
The Schwarz telekinetic seemed pleased to simply sip a cup of coffee in peace compared to the usual playful harassment he received from Schuldich when the redhead deigned to get out of bed early enough to see him before school. It was mostly just the German's way of staying in touch with the boy, he respected the teen's need for privacy yet he still worried like anyone else would about someone they care about. But Nagi wasn't usually a "morning person" and he didn't appreciate being told day after day that fish for breakfast was "unglaublich," a word which should have only meant it was hard to believe yet somehow the slender telepath always made it sound disgusting.
Then again, the sable-haired teen was currently totally at ease with his boyfriend so close by and it was a welcome respite simply to quietly relax with him near.
The eldest assassin present had already abandoned the issue of why his lover had atypically spilled a cup of coffee the way that Aya had when Omi had posed his innocent question about sleeping the night before. Instead, his focus was on the watch on his wrist, thoughts wrapped around the deadly wire within it.
During the sleepless night which had seemed to drag on longer than it truly did, Yohji had been plagued by memories of the day before and thoughts about the two men he'd come to cherish, both of whom were now suffering because of ill-fortune and poor planning. His mind's eye had been filled with flashbacks of Ken's torn and inert form on the drug factory floor and worse. The recollection of Aya's agonized expression as he placed his burgundy trench coat around a dark-clad body which dripped blood all too freely brought a deep stabbing pain to Yohji's heart. The eldest member of Weiss truly did blame himself for all that had gone wrong, unwilling to admit even to himself that perhaps Omi had indeed made a mistake in his research.
With a deep sigh of regret, the jade-eyed man continued to be mesmerized by the thin filament within the band on his wrist and for the first time in a long time, he considered giving up his current position in the war against evil. The price of revenge and justice seemed too high when it might include the life of the former J-league player who had taught him to treasure simple pleasures.
Selecting a gooey almond-encrusted pastry from the platter and nibbling on it for a moment, Omi finally broke the silence and asked, "Yohji-kun, weren't you going to tell Nagi and me what happened last night with Ken-kun?"
"Hm? What was that, Omiitchi?" The older blond looked up, his lack of focus causing him to miss all but a few key words.
Across the table, the scarlet-haired man stroked his long gold earring and tried not to allow his growing concern regarding the dangerously distracted nature of his lover to show on his face.
Omi looked puzzled as he tried to make up for his teammate's lack of attentiveness, saying, "I assume it's nothing too horrible or we wouldn't be sitting here eating breakfast instead of being at the hospital, but I'd really like some details. Please?"
The diminutive telekinetic had been drawn into the complex unspoken conversation by this point and he caught himself wishing Schuldich was there so he could silently whisper an inquiry to see if the German telepath understood what was going on. As it was, though, he kept quiet and sipped his coffee before noticing the muffin sitting meaningfully on a napkin in front of him and despite not knowing which of the other three had placed it there, he ate some dutifully.
Yohji nodded his understanding of the question and gathered his thoughts behind yet another swallow of coffee then answered, explaining at length virtually every event of the previous night with one notable exception. Not a word was said about the presence of the Grün agent and the omission was immediately noted by the man's lover yet Aya didn't say a word, only allowed a slight darkening of the scowl that was already marring his handsome features. In that moment, he realized that there was clearly a deep problem to be dealt with regarding the Scotsman in the future or they might risk the blond's ongoing distraction to continue with potentially lethal results.
Without truly knowing him, Abyssinian was developing a sincere hatred for Calico, something that, unfortunately, wasn't misplaced in the least and when he discovered the truth for himself in the months to come, it would explode into homicidal rage.
After the discussion ran its course, the group agreed that as soon as the two teens had a chance to get showered and changed, they'd walk back to Tokyo General arriving in plenty of time for visiting hours in the intensive care unit to begin at 9am.
The usually taciturn Aya remained typically silent, yet all three of the others made note of his apparent unhappiness and hoped to get a chance later to ask him privately what was wrong. He never gave them the opportunity, though, and by the time Yohji would be alone with him later--and he was willing to talk--there would be other much more urgent matters to contend with first.
*****
When the foursome arrived at the intensive care unit's waiting room dressed in street clothes, Manx was waiting for them.
She looked up from the computer in her lap that she was checking before turning it over to the elder blond that was approaching. It was all she could do to keep from saying that she thought Nagi looked simply precious in a set of Omi's clothes there were too large for him, the cuffs of khaki pants turned up and too-long blue cotton shirt sleeves rolled up at the wrists. Instead of commenting on that, she chose to offer, "Good morning, guys."
With a slightly forced smile since he was already becoming nervous about being back in the waiting room again, Omi answered for them all, "Good morning, Manx. Is everything going okay here?"
"As well as can be expected," the woman said noncommittally then added, "Ken's condition hasn't changed and they'll let us know when they're ready for the first visitors. That'll be you and Aya, right, Yohji?"
"Of course." The green-eyed man shrugged and asked, "Is that for me, Manx? Does Persia still want a preliminary report?"
Large cerulean eyes blinked in curiosity and Omi asked, "Why are you writing that instead of me, Yohji-kun? That's usually my job."
Yohji turned to smile at his teammate and said reassuringly, "That's okay, Omiitchi, I think I want to take a shot at it this time. There'll be a need for a full report later that you can handle if you really miss the extra work." Then he added in a more restrained voice, "Besides, it'll give me something to do besides sit here and go nuts waiting, you know?"
"I know," the Weiss archer answered with an understanding yet sad smile.
"Thanks a lot, bishounen," the eldest member of Weiss shared a look of encouragement with the youngest and then turned towards the redheaded woman with an angry frown as he said, "May I speak with you in private, Manx? There's a little matter from last night that needs to be dealt with."
Sighing and nodding, she set the computer aside and then brushed the creases it had caused from her skirt and gestured towards the smoking area with one hand, saying, "I have a pretty good idea what it is you want to say, Yohji, but sure, we'll talk."
"Do you want me to come?" Aya offered unexpectedly. He had barely spoken a word since his earlier cautions to Nagi not to feel guilty about the past violence between the two assassin groups and it had seemed as if he wasn't even paying attention to the discussion in the waiting room but obviously he had.
Yohji turned towards him with a thoughtful expression yet he finally shook his head and said apologetically, "Thanks, but no, Aya. I think that this ought to be just between us two." A grateful half-smile crossed his lips as he got a silent nod of agreement from his lover and then he said, "Let me know if the nurse comes for us, okay? I don't want to miss a chance to see Ken first thing."
"Understood," Aya answered almost tonelessly in what they all recognized as Abyssinian's "mission voice" before moving to a wall and propping himself against it, arms crossed over his orange turtleneck-clad chest and eyes closed as if sealing himself away from the world.
Sighing deeply and regretting that things were always harder than they needed to be when Ken wasn't around, the jade-eyed man turned and walked from the room Manx following automatically.
Nagi peered questioningly at Omi who looked back at him with a heartsick expression on his gentle face.
The telekinetic asked in a quiet voice, "Now what, koi? Do we stay here and wait or are we supposed to go somewhere else? I, well," midnight blue eyes darted from the door the elder pair had exited through over to the silent man leaning against a wall and back to his boyfriend before he added helplessly, "I'm confused by what's going on. Maybe it would be better if I went home?"
"No!" Omi said urgently in a low voice, reaching out to place a desperate hand on Nagi's arm. "Please don't leave, Nagi-love! I'm confused, too, but I don't want you to go if you don't have to. Remember what I said about it being important for Ken-kun to know we aren't the only ones here for him? *He* needs you to stay and so do I!"
"If you're sure?" Nagi asked uncertainly and got a firm nod in response and agreed. "All right, I'll stay, Omi-koi, since you asked me to, but I really do wish they'd tell us what's going on. It's weird to see Yohji-kun and Aya-kun acting like this."
"I know, it's kind of freaky," Omi admitted and was glad that the scarlet-haired man was ignoring them totally, Aya's face a mask of deep thought that was almost prayerful in its intensity. Then the blond teen looked back at his boyfriend and half-smiled, "But until they want to tell us about it, I guess we just wait."
The sable-haired boy nodded slightly and responded, "I'm good at waiting, I do it a lot for Crawford at times." He snorted softly and then remarked with forced humor, "But *he* never offered to play Yahtzee with me while I did it. Did you wish to teach me more of that game now, Omi? I thought it sounded interesting."
"Sure!" A glimmer of his normal genki personality returned and Omi gave Nagi's hand a quick, grateful squeeze and then they went to find a comfortable place to discuss the dice game. Before long, they were peacefully lost in rules and score sheets.
From his spot on the wall, Aya had ignored almost all of the proceedings around him.
Silently, he agonized over the fact that Yohji was shutting him out deliberately and he couldn't help but realize that if his and Ken's positions had been reversed, it was unlikely that the chocolate-eyed teen would've been excluded this way. There was no sense of jealousy in the thought, though, just a realization that the claw-wielding assassin's ability to offer their elder lover unqualified support was greater than his own.
Aya wrongly blamed himself for Yohji's distance. The katana-wielding assassin's cool exterior was in fact only a façade that hid a tortured soul which needed release in some form before it slowly and surely destroyed itself from within. Whether or not it found freedom from some of the pressure before it became too much to bear would remain to be seen and, as had always seemed to be the case for the deceased banker's son, it would depend on forces far beyond his control.
*****
To be continued.
Full Author's Notes to Run at Conclusion.
Please be advised: Parts 21 & 22 will be posted together.
All right, team, this is a bit weird, but this evening's posting run is dedicated to my youngest chibi, Lauren, who isn't even reading the story for obvious reasons (she's 12, the rating is "R", you do the math) because she was a real trouper today despite feeling like hell and let me get more fic ready for you to enjoy!
{quietly slips into the child's room, drops a tender kiss on her slightly-hot-with-low-grade-fever cheek, brushes some dark strawberry blond hair from her forehead in time for heartbreakingly lovely ice blue eyes made famous in the "Secrets Arc" for GW to open slightly as she peers up, then smiles. the llama quiets her with another kiss then departs to return and type more at an insanely late hour of the night, glad she's with him when she's sick so she's assured a parent at home all day which ain't gonna happen elsewhere}
I'm sure I don't need to give a list of reasons for dedicating anything to one of my darling daughters, yet I want to mention that if she hadn't been brave today, you would be seeing nothing at the MLs and yet another "intermission" note at fanfiction.net! And that would've been depressing for all of us, ne? As it was, though, when the doctor's office informed me that they aren't seeing sore throat patients until the symptoms lasted a full three days, she pouted for only a moment then sighed and nodded, promised to read more for her Science project if she could watch "Trading Spaces" and then went off to do just that. On a normal day, if she was *this* cooperative, I'd be suspicious, but she was tired from feeling "icky" and seemed content to relax on the couch with either a llama-approved TV program or her schoolwork for once.
{smiles, thinking of his daughter who drives him nuts most of the time and the way she pointed out that Lex seemed to reserve a "special smile" for Clark alone on "Smallville" tonight which made him atypically go, "Awww! Kawaii!"}
Granted, by this evening when I was cooking a large batch of homemade beef stoup with tons of fresh veggies to help aid her recovery, she was bored and I had to come up with a story off the top of my head to amuse her. However, it turned into a Fei-Tro angst/romance fic idea which might be a good way to return to GW fandom when this fic is done, so I owe her for that, too. All in all, she's still sick, the doctor's office will see her tomorrow if they know what's good for them, and with a modicum of luck, I'll be able to not only edit tomorrow but write as well and that makes this dedication even more heartfelt!
{stops gushing over his progeny and turns to the fic itself for a few notes before crashing and burning again, yet the moment he decides what topic is next, he gets a *very* wicked grin on his face}
Last night, something fairly radical happened in this fic, ne? No, no, no! I do *not* mean that Brad and Schu didn't go farther than they did, I mean Calico's arrival, of course!
Ah, he really *is* bad news, isn't he? Nineteen years old and apparently thinks he's invulnerable to deliberately bait Balinese *and* Abyssinian both the way that he did, ne? I know he seems like a jerk and a bastard, but you don't know the half of it yet! There will be more about him coming up soon, but I'm sad to say it will be awhile until his true evilness is fully exposed, by which point any number of readers may try to find *me* and kill me for creating him in the first place!
In the meantime, however, feel free to blast him to tiny bits in email or comments at fanfiction.net that lets me know you're enjoying what one reader called "a villain I can love to hate". As long as it's obvious you don't despise him simply because he's an original character--something that is almost unavoidable for the villains since Weiss was too good at killing all of them in the series!--then you can bet what you say will only encourage Melpomene to keep going here! I've got big plans for the Scottish brat as well as his partners, so thanks in advance for your support!
{happy grin about having new pawns to play with soon}
Also, on another wonderful front, I heard back from Zania {stops and hugs the Lemon Princess warmly, she's *far* too good a person to be friends with a lowly llama!} and she's already got that adorable pic she drew for me on her web-page!!
Yes sirree, now you, too, can go take a gander at the wonderful little (Nagi + Omi) moment from this story and feel some of the warmth I felt! It's at the URL that I'll list in a second but let me warn you, this comes with a "delighted sigh" warning on it, so unless you are located somewhere that it is safe to make such a happy little noise, don't open it. For example, if you are actually a spy breaking into a place that has sophisticated noise-activated security, don't take a look! You will no doubt see it, make a happy "Aww! Kawaii!" exclamation and end up getting caught, ne?
http://www.ichigotenshi.com/colorless/zania/Nagi_Omi.jpg
Oh, and after you see it and discover that it is indeed delightful, why not drop her a note and let her know you love it too? Her email address is [ichigo_tenshi@yahoo.com] and I'm sure she'd enjoy hearing how much you liked looking at it.
{huge yawn and a glare at the clock that says it's almost 4am, Casa de Llama time}
Well, enough is enough!
I'd hoped to try to get some thank you notes out today, but after all the sick-child-angst, I was just lucky to get more fic ready to post! I hope you've enjoyed a peek at Nagi and Omi in bed within the story and will forgive me for remaining out of touch for yet another night. I sincerely hope to be back with Parts 23 and 24 tomorrow night, but we'll have to wait and see how Lauren's appointment goes. If she's actually more sick than I think she might be, there may be some silence from this end as I get her taken care of and continue to nurse my headache, and for that I apologize in advance.
Take care of yourself and I hope to see you here at the Angst Theatre again soon!
~~~E-sama the Llama~~~
(who is positively *thrilled* that so many people enjoyed the (Brad + Schu) moment last night! that entire scene truly *was* created in response to the kind words of support that have been given and if at all possible, a lovely lemon in a different story within this continuity for them will follow!)
Posted 06 February 2002 ~4:15am