Author's Notes: Brad and Ken. What the heck are my muses up to? I opened up Notepad yesterday and began typing whatever came to mind. At first I was thinking I would write some angsty stuff for Seduction, because I was in a sour depressed mood, but Kenken was all "no, write a nice fic to cheer yourself up!" Heh, Kenken's silliness and Brad's odd humor did cheer me up after all. ^_^ Well...anyway...it's not much...some flirting if you look closely, but not really as much shounen-ai or yaoi as I had hoped. Enjoy reading.
Disclaimer: These bishounen do not belong to me. *sobs* They belong to Takehito Koyasu *swoons* and Project Weiss and whoever owns them that I didn't list here. Speaking of which, I'm sure someone has written something similar to this (like someone hasn't conceived this idea). I don't plagiarize fics. I didn't copy this from someone else's work, so if it looks similar, don't email me with a 'You %#^%$&%*-ing copycat' message or something.
**********************************************************************************
Excursion
**********************************************************************************
Nope.
Couldn't be.
Ken peered down the isle, then ducked back to his hiding place behind a shelf of packaged pastries. Very slowly he moved his head to look down the isle which must have been the umpteenth time in the past five minutes. He wasn't dressed like usual, but Ken could spot his former enemy anywhere. Even if that anywhere happened to be a small corner store.
Dark hair...tall...Ken's eyes widened as the man moved closer down the isle towards him, minding his own business. Ken knew he hadn't been noticed. Not once had the one he'd been watching even glanced in the direction which he was hiding. Taking a deep breath, Ken crouched low, and shifted his position so that he could glance down the isle again.
And came face to face (or head to head?) with the front of Brad Crawford's pants.
Ken let out a yelp, throwing himself backwards and knocking over the shelf of pastries as he went. He sat up quickly, righting himself in case of attack, but saw that Brad hadn't moved and was merely looking down at him with mild annoyance.
"Nice going," he commented dryly.
Ken looked around him at the mess he had caused, his face red with embarrassment at what had just happened. He immediately grabbed a few packaged pastries and began putting them back on the shelf. Not that he minded how they looked, anything to divert his attention from the American watching him was fine enough.
He set the last pastry on the shelf then glanced around to make sure that an audience hadn't gathered to watch his stupidity. Somewhat to his relief, he still only had Brad's attention. The dark-haired man extended a hand to help him up, and Ken stared up at him with a blank expression.
"Would you rather stay on the floor then?" Brad asked.
"N-no!" Ken took Brad's hand, allowing the older man to help him up.
"Do you always prowl food marts or am I interrupting a mission?" the American questioned, then added with mild discomfort, "You can also let go of my hand now."
Ken looked down to realize that his hands still gripped Brad's. Quickly he let go, wiping his hand on his jeans nervously, "Ah no...it wasn't a um mission...just...uh...iwaswatchingyou..."
"Excuse me?"
Ken could feel his face turn brighter as he said each word, "I was watching you."
"Hm," Brad nodded, "Well rest assured that I am not about to rob this food mart. I am not that low."
"I-I know...I mean...um...I thought you might kill someone...cause that's what you do, right?"
Brad blinked at him, "I am shopping, Hidaka. I am not even armed, and neither are you, so don't get any ideas."
"I...okay..." Ken picked up his shopping basket from the ground, and looked up nervously at the American, "Um, you can continue to shop now."
"I am glad to have your permission to shop in a public place," Brad said with mild sarcasm, and walked past Ken, gently brushing against him without purpose.
The shopping basket fell from Ken's grip a crashed on the ground. Brad stopped walking to turn and give him a questioning look. Ken laughed a bit nervously, leaning down to pick the basket and it's spilled contents back up.
"The um...handles are slippery," Ken tried to explain, which was half-truth, being that his hands had become slightly sweaty being nervous in the American's presence.
Brad shook his head, then turned down an isle out of Ken's sight. The Weiss assassin breathed a sigh of relief. That had been too weird for him. He'd always gone to this food mart when it had been his turn to do a grocery run and had never seen any Schwarz assassins here. He wondered briefly if Aya, Youji, or Omi had bumped into their former enemy before.
Former enemy? Why did he keep thinking that about the Schwarz members? Just because they weren't fighting didn't mean they weren't enemies...it didn't mean they were friends...it just meant... Ken paused in thought, deciding that 'former enemy' was a good enough phrase at the moment.
Then he remembered that Brad, a former enemy, was out of his sight and on the loose in an innocent food mart in which normal everyday people could be harmed if Ken didn't keep a close watch on the American. No...wait...Brad had said he wasn't doing evil deeds today, hadn't he? Could Ken really trust him?
Going back into stealth-mode, Ken quietly approached the isle that he'd seen Brad go down. However, Brad was no longer there. Ken panicked and made a mad dash down the next isle, nearly crashing into the American.
Brad rolled his eyes, and took a step backward, distancing himself from the brunette, "I should have seen all of this coming and not shopped here. Do you shop here often?"
Ken nodded once, "Why?"
"I know now which food mart to avoid," Brad explained, "I can understand why you distrust me, but I think you are taking it to an extreme. Would you prefer to just tag along with me until I leave this store?"
"Wouldn't I be jeopardizing myself if I hung around you?"
"I don't bite, and I think you would be doing the store and it's customers a lot better if we just stuck together. I will make sure you do not run into people and knock things over, and you can stop me from my nonexistent tendencies to randomly kill people for no real reason. Sound good?"
"Uh, yeah?" Ken answered.
"Do you need anything from this isle?" Brad asked, gesturing at the shelves lined with food.
"No. Wait, yes. Um, maybe?" Ken dug his hand in his pocket, and produced the shopping list he had Omi write for him before he left, "Uhh...yes."
Brad snatched the list from him and looked it over, then glanced at what Ken already had in his shopping basket. Sighing, he took a pen from his pocket.
"Hey! What are you doing??" Ken asked, as Brad moved behind him.
"Checking items off of your list," Brad replied, pressing the piece of paper to Ken's back and using his pen to check a few things off, "Knowing you, if the item was not checked off and you did not see it in your basket due to it being blocked by another item, you would go back and buy a second of the same item."
"That only happened once," Ken grumbled, "I'm not that stupid."
"I did not say you were," Brad handed the list back to Ken and pocketed his pen, "But if you can avoid the mistake, then you should."
"Fine fine, whatever," Ken scowled, glancing at the list.
"Now do you need anything from this isle?"
Ken looked at the already checked off item, then back at the American, "I hate you."
"You should thank me," he turned, gesturing at Ken to follow him, "Next isle."
"No wait. The next item on my list isn't in the next isle," Ken said.
"The fifth one is," Brad told him.
"But I don't shop isle by isle! I shop item by item," Ken explained.
Brad turned to regard him, "Then you waste a lot of time back-tracking and running back and forth around the store."
"At least I don't waste time going down every single isle," Ken spat back.
The American put a hand on his hip and frowned, "Are you saying that your shopping methods are better than mine?"
"Uhh..." Ken's eyes shifted nervously away from the American, "I didn't mean it in like...a bad way or anything..."
Brad didn't answer, and moved to the next isle, regardless of how the Weiss assassin did his shopping. Ken chased after him, deciding to let it go, in favor of keeping his eyes on the American.
"And where's your shopping list?" Ken asked as Brad dropped an item in his basket.
"I am shopping for myself. I do not need a list."
"What about your friends? Or team mates, or whatever they are to you? You don't shop for them?" Ken asked.
"No. They have their own modes of transportation and their own money to buy what they need," Brad explained, "What they want, they can get themselves."
"That's...nice of you," Ken replied bitterly.
"If you knew how picky they were about the exact items they wanted, you would toss the idea of shopping for them as well," Brad said, "On the flip side, I am just as picky, so they do not buy things for me either."
"Well...as long as it's mutual..." Ken shrugged.
"We don't hate each other, we just all have different tastes and preferences," Brad told him, taking an item off the shelf and putting it in Ken's basket.
"Hey! That's not on my list," the brunette argued.
Brad paused, giving him a sidelong glance, "Yes it is."
"Oh."
"Give me your list so I can see what else you need," Brad ordered, holding out his hand.
"I can get the items on my own," Ken mumbled, reluctantly reaching in his pocket and pulling out the list to give to Brad.
"True, but I do not have all day to spend with you in the store," Brad said, taking the list, glancing over it and checking an item off, "It will go much faster if I just do it. Then we can both get out of here and go our separate ways."
"What else do you have planned for today?" Ken asked curiously.
"Evil megalomaniac bad guy stuff. I think I will go blow up Tokyo Tower today and flood the ocean tomorrow. Bye-bye Japan."
Ken gasped.
Brad glared at him, "I am picking up my dry cleaning and then getting my car washed, if you must really know."
"And then blowing up Tokyo Tower and flooding the ocean?" Ken stared at him wide-eyed.
Brad sighed, glancing at the list, decidedly ignoring the Weiss assassin. He wondered if Ken was really stupid, or if it was just an act to make him look innocent and cute. No one could ever guess that the young man standing next to him had blood all over his hands. Oh, but it was always who you least expected to be in that sort of business.
"It's not very fast if you're standing there staring at the list," Ken pointed out.
Brad frowned, and folded up the list. Ken followed him as he walked. Deep down he knew that Brad wasn't up to no good in the store, but there was something that still nagged for him to keep an eye on the American. And keeping an eye on the American he was, Ken noted with a small smirk. Feeling a faint blush rise on his cheeks, he shook his head to dispel whatever thoughts had seeped into his brain. They were wrong thoughts, bad thoughts, definitely not thoughts to be thought about a former enemy...even if 'former' was put in emphasis.
"Hidaka, quit staring at me," Brad said irritably.
"Huh? I wasn't--"
"You were. I have a keen sense of when someone is staring at me while I am not looking," Brad told him, "Where one is staring...that is another thing, but with my back turned and your eyes focused on me, I can figure out where."
Ken blushed furiously.
Brad shook his head, tossing a few things in Ken's basket. He reached past the brunette, brushing against him slightly and causing Ken's face to redden even more. Grabbing the item off the shelf behind Ken and putting it in his basket, he smirked at the Weiss assassin.
"I believe this ends our little adventure today," Brad handed Ken his list back then turned to head out of the isle towards the register.
"What? We're not even done!" Ken said, glancing over the list at the items that weren't checked off.
"One of your friends is on their way to investigate why you have been out shopping for so long. Perhaps if you hadn't gotten side-tracked watching me for so long, you would be done shopping by now," Brad told him.
"Eh?? You knew I was watching you?"
Brad nodded, "I said that I can tell when people are watching me."
Ken stood there, silent.
"Hm? You are not going to escort me through check out?" Brad asked sarcastically, "Or you suddenly trust that I will make no trouble in this store?"
Ken scowled, "No. I know you're not gonna steal anything or kill the cashier."
"Ah," Brad turned to leave, then paused, and tossed something to Ken, "Here, catch."
Brad left the isle, leaving Ken standing there alone with the American's pen in his hand. The Weiss assassin grumbled to himself and glanced over his list. To him it was out of order and messed up. He wondered if he should just continue isle by isle, or if he should go back to finding things in the order that they were on his list.
He leaned against a shelf of food. From his standing spot, he could see Brad paying the cashier and grabbing his bagged groceries and heading out of the store. He sighed, deciding just to stay in place and wait for whichever Weiss assassin was coming to check up on him...no more importantly which one ruined his moment with Brad.
"Moment with...? Ack, no!" Ken knew he once again blushing, but he knew the short time spent with the Schwarz assassin hadn't been so bad.
***********************************************************************************
Author's Notes: You know what part this is now. This is the part where you say "no, I didn't like it. Pyrochan, for the sake of the WK fandom and the survival of the BxS fandom that you oh-so-love, please cease in writing anymore BradKen fics." ...I did however leave this open to at least another chapter....so should I continue it? _