Chapter 4: Battle

*****

"Well, this sucks."

Couldn't have put it better myself. Out loud, Ken deigned not to reply to Yohji's outburst, choosing instead to stare at his bugnuk-less hands, cupped in his lap. However, as much as the brunet hated to admit it, he agreed with both Yohji and his own obnoxious, talkative subconscious. Weiss had definitely had more successful missions.

Yeah, like every other one you've ever gone on.

Don't push it, he remonstrated the voice, not wanting it to think for a moment that he had actually given into it. He was still in control.

Sure, you're sitting in a locked cell, easily captured by those you were sent to kill. Yeah, in total control.

Ken growled before he could stop himself. Green and violet pairs of eyes both flicked over to him. Oh great, now look what you've done.

He couldn't help it; he snapped. Fist balled tight, he slammed it into the hard concrete of the cell, welcoming the flash of pain accompanying the impact. He was angry, at himself, at his three teammates, at the situation, but most especially at who or whatever up there that was getting a good laugh at his expense.

"Damaging your hand is not going to help the mission any." Aya's softly spoken words halted the brunet's fist only a fraction of inch from connecting with the ground for a second time.

"Gee, you'd think getting caught also wouldn't help the mission any, but I didn't see that stopping you."

He regretted the words the instant they were out of his mouth. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Yohji wincing. Apparently the blond also hadn't missed the way Aya's eyes narrowed, nor the way he began clenching his fists as if picturing someone's neck between his fingers. "Are you implying something, Siberian?"

Eep! Ken gulped, resisting the urge to fling himself against the bars and beg for assistance, or at the very least, mercy.

The redhead had risen and was slowly striding over, one graceful, deadly step at a time. "Are you suggesting that our incarceration is perhaps my fault?"

Well, look on the bright side, they were probably going to torture you for information and then kill you. This way it will all be over much quicker.

"Well?" the looming shadow hissed down at him.

"Err, well...I was just thinking that getting roaring drunk the night before a mission might not have been the wisest..." Ken trailed off, silenced by the look of death radiating from the face poised only inches above his own.

From off to the side, he swore he heard the sound of Yohji's laughter, giving Ken the strong desire to throw something at him, or beat him to death with his boot, or maybe...

Or maybe you could just kiss him.

For once, his subconscious had Ken completely stumped. Which him?

Either, does it really matter?

Thinking about it, he supposed not. Either way it would probably just make matters worse.

In the meantime, Aya, sick of waiting, unaware of the internal conversation, had grabbed the brunet's shirt and started shaking him furiously. Thankfully, the third member of their team was a little more on the up and up and moved to do something about it, even if Ken himself wasn't going to.

"Aya, I don't think that's really helping--" Yohji, rushing over, reached to stop the swordsman.

Ken grinned. "--But hey, if it makes you feel better, by all means, continue."

With a snarl, the hands dropped him, and Aya began to stalk away.

"What, no more roughhousing?" Why am I doing this? Why am I goading him like this? He could see Aya's shoulders stiffen, could tell he was upset. Ken, you're such a baka.

Yohji apparently had a different explanation for his behavior. Leaning down, the older man gave him a lopsided grin. "Jeez, Ken, I never took you for a masochist before."

The brunet shrugged, starting to rise. "Guess I must be, to fall in love with both of you and...oh shit." The words were out before he had time to realize what exactly he was saying.

In the process of reaching out to help Ken up, Yohji froze, hand extended. Across the room, Aya swung around, eyes wide, an uncharacteristic expression of shock on the usually solemn, stony face.

Glancing first from one beautiful visage to the other, Ken decided his best bet was to look somewhere else. Like the nice, hard, stone wall behind him. "So, I'm just going to go slam my head repeatedly against this wall until I make absolutely sure my mouth can never possibly betray me like that again. Don't mind me."

Turning with the full intention to make good on his words, Ken was halted by two voices simultaneously shouting his name. Leaning forward, he squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his head against the cool surface, hoping in the dim light they would be unable to see the flush creeping into his cheeks.

How could I be such a Baka? Baka--

"Ken, did you..."

Uncomfortable silence. Good try, Aya--Baka, baka, baka--

"Umm...Ken..."

--Hehe, for once, Yohji, Aya is more articulate, if only a bit--Baka, Baka--

"Siberian!"

Wait a minute, that sounded like--

"Abyssinian! Balinese!"

Embarrassment temporarily forgotten, Ken spun around, noticing Aya and Yohji do the same, to see Omi being led down the hall by three guards, gun directed steadily at him.

"Kuso."

Ken heard Yohji's soft curse at the sight, echoed it with one of his own. They were now totally, officially screwed. Still, after the last few moments, the brunet was beginning to feel the torture and death most likely in store for them would be welcome.

Hell, maybe when they opened the cell to throw Omi in, if he charged them, they might do the favor of shooting him--

A restraining hand on his shoulder quenched the thought before it was fully formed. "Don't even think of it...Siberian."

Oh swell, Aya's reading minds now, too.

With one gun trained on them, one trained on Omi, the cell was quickly opened, the fourth Weiss member hastily tossed in, the cell relocked and the guards departed. All was conducted in silence.

As soon as the three men were out of eye- and earshot, Omi turned slowly around and subjected his older teammates to a withering glare.

Ken blinked. Wow, and I thought Aya was scary.

"One of you want to explain to me how they managed to capture all three of you?!"

******

Omi had begun to worry when all three of the others were five minutes late to the rendezvous. Due to the complex's tight, high-tech security, they had decided that radio communication would be unwise. Thus beforehand they had each taken a specific assigned task, of which his had been by far the most difficult.

He was to penetrate one of the labs, hack into the network, and cause a blackout, giving a chance for the other three to slip into the executives' office area and take out three key individuals. Not only was Omi expected to do the initial break-in and hack, he was also suppose to make the hack easily traceable so they would come looking for him, making it the perfect decoy.

All Aya, Yohji and Ken had to do was wait for the signal of the lights' out, slip in, dispose of each of their individual targets, and get the hell out of Dodge.

Simple. Hence at first Omi was more surprised than anything else when the other three did not show up. After fifteen minutes, he let anger override surprise : What the hell were they doing that was taking so long? After half an hour, he made the decision to go back in, worry having won out over both surprise and anger.

It all came down to the fact that if they were going to go down, he'd rather go down with them than go on without them...any of them.

Capture or death, one or the other, or more likely both, were inevitable the moment Omi went back inside. He knew that, was expecting it. Knew that there was a good chance his teammates...no, more than that, his friends, possibly even his love(s) were most likely seriously injured or dead. Nothing else would ever slow them down, delay them.

After twenty minutes of easily avoiding guards, Omi found himself just plain confused. The security in the place was tight, but not that bad, nothing compared to what they'd dealt with in the past. So what was going on?

Omi's mystery was solved as he overheard two men talking of the three men they had found "sloppily" snooping around. Unfortunately his curiosity got the better of him, and as his eavesdropping continued he ended up finding himself at the wrong end of a machine gun muzzle.

Oops.

As his captors led him down the hall, he allowed himself to feel no regret for the moment, focusing on the relief at knowing the other three alive. However, that initial feeling quickly wore off, and Omi's anger took hold once again. From what he saw, none of them were even hurt. They were fine, so what the hell had happened? How badly had they botched up that they all managed to get captured?

Thus, by the time his three escorts had left, he was positively seething. "One of you want to explain to me how they managed to capture all three of you?!"

In any other circumstance, Omi would have found it funny how they all went about avoiding his eyes. But not now. Now, he simply growled, "What." Glaring at Yohji, not so cunningly attempting to distract himself with a bit of lint on his coat.

"The hell." Switching to Aya, who seemed to think Omi was about seven feet tall, judging by where he was looking.

"Happened?" Shifting his gaze to include Ken, who seemed to be...fighting off a blush? OK, that's a bit weird. Choosing to file it for later, he stepped forward. "Speak!"

Just his luck that they all decided to jump in at once.

"It wasn't my fault." "It was all Ken's fault." "HEY!"

"I hope you had the good sense to alert Manx or Birman before coming after us?"

The last came from Aya, and since Ken and Yohji seemed be suddenly involved in a shouting match, Omi decided to focus on the swordsman's question.

Well, at least until the question actually registered, a which point he decided the blond and brunet beginning to wrestle on the floor was far more important.

"Yohji, Ken, stop that this instant!" The red-head's barked order brought them to a temporary halt, thus allowing all three of Omi's teammates to turn their full attention on him.

Swell.

"I take it from your avoidance that the answer is no."

The disapproval in those violet depths was almost more than he could bear. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "But what could I do? I was getting worried, it was a simple mission and yet none of you showed up at the rendezvous, I had no clue what happened, and..." He trailed off.

"We all know the mission comes first. If you thought it had been compromised, you should have contacted--" "Goddamit, I was worried!" Omi exploded. "Does that mean nothing? I thought something terrible might have happened to one or all of you and I couldn't stand the thought and all you can talk about is the mission?!"

Aya continued to regard him coolly as the youngest Weiss member raged on, then opened his mouth to reply, only to be cut off by Yohji.

"Hell, Aya, leave him alone. After all, we both know the whole reason you botched up the mission was because you were worried about Ken."

"Nani?!"

Omi couldn't be sure where the question came from: Aya, Ken or from his own troublesome lips. It didn't really matter, though.

"Run that by me again, Balinese." The name emerged more as a hiss. "I wouldn't be the one talking, considering I have not missed the recent switch in your affections--coveting my Ken."

Apparently Yohji missed the ominous tone or was feeling suicidal; either way, he had a retort ready. "So now he's your property? Ah, Hello? You're the one who pointed out that he was after me! So maybe I've decided I want him."

"Um, am I a piece of meat or something?" Ken's question earned him a sharp glare from both the elder Weiss members before they returned to their arguing.

"And let's not forget the way I've recently seen you looking at Omi. If Ken's 'yours', what's your interest in Omi?!"

That got the teen's attention. "What, Aya's interested in me?" His heart was racing--could it possibly be true? But...but now what about your feelings for Yohji? Omi's attention was swiftly returned to the here and now by Ken's shout, accompanied by him forcing his way between both Aya and Yohji, who were becoming increasingly louder and more vehement with every rejoinder.

"Are you just planning to decide which of you gets which of us?" Ken nodded his head towards Omi, who returned the gesture with a look of bewilderment.

Yohji looked surprised; Aya however, turned to the brunet coolly. "You already told us you wanted us both, so do you really care who you get?"

"Nani?!" This time Omi was sure he himself was the source of the shout. "When did--" "Hey, don't blame me. My mouth did all the talking in that admission; I myself played no part."

Silence.

Blink.

A laugh. Yohji, holding a hand over his mouth, trying to suppress it and failing miserably. Omi couldn't blame him, considering how hard he was clenching his jaw to prevent the laughter from overwhelming himself as well. And out of the corner of his eye, he distinctly saw Aya's lips twitch, the anger in his brilliant eyes fading.

It was then that it dawned. The realization...and the solution. It wasn't just Aya he loved, or Yohji; he loved them both, as well as...

"All this arguing is so stupid. The solution's so simple, why haven't we seen it earlier?"

Walking forward, Omi grabbed Ken's shoulder, spinning him around.

All this time, all the stupid games, the stress, the worry, and there was an easy, obvious answer. Reaching up, Omi slid an arm around Ken's waist, with his other hand grasped the back of his head, tugging the older man forward until they were eye to eye.

Tilting his head slightly, ignoring the identical shocked looks on all three of his fellow teammates' faces, Omi brought their lips together.

******

Yay, only one part left! C&C welcome...and err, I know there have been a lot of voting for different pairings but I've had this planned out from the beginning and er...just don't kill me, onegai...

Oh, and as always, thanks to my wonderful beta, XmagicalX, as well as all the other people that have encouraged me to finish this!

merp! Having issues w/ ff.net and HTML!!!