A/N: The Japanese word 'ran' has at least three meanings that I am aware of and it would be almost impossible to know which one of them Aya's name means without seeing it written, but we shall now ignore the fact or at least think Yoji's good at guessing. I know the meaning; I have seen it written, so trust me here. ^^
I have to tell the background of this chapter, once again. Heh... Okay, I wrote the basic idea of this in the dark and nearly asleep after having watched anime for four hours in a row. It was very challenging to figure out what the hell I had been trying to say, once I woke up in the morning. Or afternoon, more likely... Yes, on with the story!
~*~*~*~*~
Chapter 9 : Rusty
Yoji's POV
Ran. A fragile little flower? The redhead's parents certainly hadn't had the skill to predict the future; otherwise they would have picked quite different name for their son. 'Ran', orchid, somehow didn't suite him, the person he now was. I didn't know what he had been like long ago - maybe the name had looked better on him, back then, but now... No. I couldn't consider Aya being Ran, all of a sudden. Even though it had been obvious from the start that his real name was not Aya - I of all people should know it, I sort of gave the name to him - I had learned to think of it as the most suitable name for him. He never had written it with kanji, but katakana, but still I had connected the two syllables with 'ayashii', dubious, because that certainly was what the redhead was. Always watching his back.
Who was Aya, then? I remembered trying to guess it the first time I had met - Ran. That was when I had carried his unconscious being into my apartment and stayed up all night watching if he was breathing or not. When he had woken up he had nearly torn my shirt because I had asked him -apparently- personal questions about 'Aya'. It had half been a joke, suggesting that I could call him Aya. No one had dared to say a word against it, and so the name had lived.
I snapped my fingers when I remembered something. (Aya gave me an odd look at this, but I didn't bother to explain.)
// I handed a katana and a key to Ken, and to his questioning look I replied:
"For Aya."
"Aya?" he asked, still the same questioning expression on.
"That's what you should call the guy from yesterday."
"But isn't that the name of his sister?" Ken asked, but I ignored him. "I think she's in coma," he added.
"I have no idea. Just give those things to him. Good night!" //
Cheers for me for realizing the meaning of something years after that something had happened. One of the moments I felt sorry for not being PI anymore. My skills were getting rusty.
How Ken had known or supposed that the redhead had a sister named Aya who was sleeping comatose sleep, I did not know, nor did I have the time or will to think about it at the moment. I was particularly interested in knowing more about the well-kept secrets that Aya kept from us others. The wide-awake Aya, that was.
"Is she your sister?" I asked carefully, hoping that Aya wouldn't attack me like he had done when I had first questioned about the mysterious 'Aya' person.
He did nothing but glanced sideways and then stood up, walking to the door of the flower shop and turning the 'Open' sign to 'Closed'.
"It is not your concern," he then replied and walked away. A moment after he came back, left his apron behind and left again, apparently deep in his thoughts.
I remained still in my place, half-heartedly digging up a cigarette and then lighting it up. I felt like sharpening my PI skills and the process required some peace and a full pack of cigarettes. The latter one I could not provide, but at least I had the peace. At least in the rooftop.
I stood up, closed the shutters Aya had left open and walked up the stairs, making my way up to the highest place of the building with the most silent surroundings.
I always liked being there, high above the city. Well, a rooftop of a flower shop with two floors of apartments can't be that high, but at least it was much above the ground and therefore could be considered being high above something. The pavements and park benches, anyhow.
I blew a cloud of smoke into the air and watched it drifting away. I knew I had left a trail behind me and once Aya or Omi would notice I had smoked in the shop they would team up and give me a lecture about killing the plants. But it wasn't my concern at the moment. My concern was the oddly behaving exhibit A. Why, I had no idea. Maybe I didn't have anything better to do and wanted to use my spare time thinking about my teammates' pasts and the consequences of them. Maybe I just wanted to know about Aya. Maybe it was something else, but I just didn't allow myself to admit it out loud.
It was late afternoon, I informed myself. Very important piece of information. I might have though it was early night. I had no idea what the time of the day had to do with anything, but settled with the answer that it was to distract my thoughts from Aya who was not Aya, but Ran, and who was a brother of a girl named Aya who was most likely in coma. Difficult thought, but somehow made very much sense.
There was a low rumble, which I recognized as a sound of an upcoming thunder. It was about time, too. The yearly months-lasting rain was late.
I put out the cigarette and threw the butt down from the roof. I felt like staying and waiting for the rain to come, and to see the flashes of lightning in the horizon. I wasn't too fond of the rain, but thunderstorms were too beautiful to miss.
Slowly the raindrops began falling down from the skies, and along with them the scenery turned to shades of gray and the clouds hung heavy in the air. Then came the flashes lightning and lit up the gray skies with their electric light.
I sat still and enjoyed the show.
~
"Are you doing this on purpose?"
I opened my eyes and was faced with Omi's concerned expression. He was sitting on a chair beside my bed where I was laying under the covers, and along with concern there was frustration in his look.
"Terrorizing the team," he added.
"What?" was all I could say. It pretty much represented everything there was going on in my mind. I glanced at my watch. It was way past nine and with a quick look out from the window I saw that it wasn't raining anymore. What the hell?
Omi rolled his eyes. "For a reason I don't know, you were sitting outside, in the rain on the rooftop and refused to come back inside. You claimed that you could make it by yourself. As you can see, you couldn't and now you'll probably come down with a really evil flu and will have to stay still for few weeks."
"What?" I repeated. I had no idea what Omi was talking about. I agreed with him in the fact that I had sat in the rooftop and in the rain, but the rest of what he had said sounded really distant.
'What would it feel like to sleep in the thunderstorm?' A faint vision of having fallen asleep reached out to my memory, but didn't want to become any clearer. From that faint image, I figured that I had fallen asleep in the rain and had been dragged back inside.
"Details. What the hell happened?"
Omi shook his head. "You just insisted to stay outside and when we didn't hear from you in a long time Aya-kun dragged you back in."
Weird. Very weird. Almost surreal. I was almost sure I would wake up any moment with a lovely little headache.
"Tell Aya to get his ass in here," I ordered. When Omi tried to argue I cut the arguments short and told him I would go to Aya myself if Omi wouldn't get him come to me.
A brief quarrel later Omi left the room and after a moment Aya was standing in the doorway, glaring at me, trying to keep his arms folded but only managing to look pretty amusing because of the broken, wrapped arm.
"What?" he asked.
"My words exactly."
"You passed out, I dragged you back in. What's there to discuss?"
"We would be even if you had dragged me into your bed," I grinned, reminding him of the rather alike incident few years back.
"Shut up and sleep. You might want to cancel that date of yours; you won't be going anywhere in at least a week, if it's up to Omi."
I stared at Aya. "You remember I have a date? You suggest me to cancel it?"
"I am not the one with the tendency to memory-losses," Aya informed me and turned to leave.
"I didn't say anything, did I? When I was out cold, I mean. "
Aya stopped, as if thinking what to answer. Then he shook his head. "No. Nothing."
~* TBC *~
Guess twice if Yoji said something... Yeah, I think the next chapter will be the last, most likely. Don't begin crying yet. Instead, leave a review! ^^
I have to tell the background of this chapter, once again. Heh... Okay, I wrote the basic idea of this in the dark and nearly asleep after having watched anime for four hours in a row. It was very challenging to figure out what the hell I had been trying to say, once I woke up in the morning. Or afternoon, more likely... Yes, on with the story!
~*~*~*~*~
Chapter 9 : Rusty
Yoji's POV
Ran. A fragile little flower? The redhead's parents certainly hadn't had the skill to predict the future; otherwise they would have picked quite different name for their son. 'Ran', orchid, somehow didn't suite him, the person he now was. I didn't know what he had been like long ago - maybe the name had looked better on him, back then, but now... No. I couldn't consider Aya being Ran, all of a sudden. Even though it had been obvious from the start that his real name was not Aya - I of all people should know it, I sort of gave the name to him - I had learned to think of it as the most suitable name for him. He never had written it with kanji, but katakana, but still I had connected the two syllables with 'ayashii', dubious, because that certainly was what the redhead was. Always watching his back.
Who was Aya, then? I remembered trying to guess it the first time I had met - Ran. That was when I had carried his unconscious being into my apartment and stayed up all night watching if he was breathing or not. When he had woken up he had nearly torn my shirt because I had asked him -apparently- personal questions about 'Aya'. It had half been a joke, suggesting that I could call him Aya. No one had dared to say a word against it, and so the name had lived.
I snapped my fingers when I remembered something. (Aya gave me an odd look at this, but I didn't bother to explain.)
// I handed a katana and a key to Ken, and to his questioning look I replied:
"For Aya."
"Aya?" he asked, still the same questioning expression on.
"That's what you should call the guy from yesterday."
"But isn't that the name of his sister?" Ken asked, but I ignored him. "I think she's in coma," he added.
"I have no idea. Just give those things to him. Good night!" //
Cheers for me for realizing the meaning of something years after that something had happened. One of the moments I felt sorry for not being PI anymore. My skills were getting rusty.
How Ken had known or supposed that the redhead had a sister named Aya who was sleeping comatose sleep, I did not know, nor did I have the time or will to think about it at the moment. I was particularly interested in knowing more about the well-kept secrets that Aya kept from us others. The wide-awake Aya, that was.
"Is she your sister?" I asked carefully, hoping that Aya wouldn't attack me like he had done when I had first questioned about the mysterious 'Aya' person.
He did nothing but glanced sideways and then stood up, walking to the door of the flower shop and turning the 'Open' sign to 'Closed'.
"It is not your concern," he then replied and walked away. A moment after he came back, left his apron behind and left again, apparently deep in his thoughts.
I remained still in my place, half-heartedly digging up a cigarette and then lighting it up. I felt like sharpening my PI skills and the process required some peace and a full pack of cigarettes. The latter one I could not provide, but at least I had the peace. At least in the rooftop.
I stood up, closed the shutters Aya had left open and walked up the stairs, making my way up to the highest place of the building with the most silent surroundings.
I always liked being there, high above the city. Well, a rooftop of a flower shop with two floors of apartments can't be that high, but at least it was much above the ground and therefore could be considered being high above something. The pavements and park benches, anyhow.
I blew a cloud of smoke into the air and watched it drifting away. I knew I had left a trail behind me and once Aya or Omi would notice I had smoked in the shop they would team up and give me a lecture about killing the plants. But it wasn't my concern at the moment. My concern was the oddly behaving exhibit A. Why, I had no idea. Maybe I didn't have anything better to do and wanted to use my spare time thinking about my teammates' pasts and the consequences of them. Maybe I just wanted to know about Aya. Maybe it was something else, but I just didn't allow myself to admit it out loud.
It was late afternoon, I informed myself. Very important piece of information. I might have though it was early night. I had no idea what the time of the day had to do with anything, but settled with the answer that it was to distract my thoughts from Aya who was not Aya, but Ran, and who was a brother of a girl named Aya who was most likely in coma. Difficult thought, but somehow made very much sense.
There was a low rumble, which I recognized as a sound of an upcoming thunder. It was about time, too. The yearly months-lasting rain was late.
I put out the cigarette and threw the butt down from the roof. I felt like staying and waiting for the rain to come, and to see the flashes of lightning in the horizon. I wasn't too fond of the rain, but thunderstorms were too beautiful to miss.
Slowly the raindrops began falling down from the skies, and along with them the scenery turned to shades of gray and the clouds hung heavy in the air. Then came the flashes lightning and lit up the gray skies with their electric light.
I sat still and enjoyed the show.
~
"Are you doing this on purpose?"
I opened my eyes and was faced with Omi's concerned expression. He was sitting on a chair beside my bed where I was laying under the covers, and along with concern there was frustration in his look.
"Terrorizing the team," he added.
"What?" was all I could say. It pretty much represented everything there was going on in my mind. I glanced at my watch. It was way past nine and with a quick look out from the window I saw that it wasn't raining anymore. What the hell?
Omi rolled his eyes. "For a reason I don't know, you were sitting outside, in the rain on the rooftop and refused to come back inside. You claimed that you could make it by yourself. As you can see, you couldn't and now you'll probably come down with a really evil flu and will have to stay still for few weeks."
"What?" I repeated. I had no idea what Omi was talking about. I agreed with him in the fact that I had sat in the rooftop and in the rain, but the rest of what he had said sounded really distant.
'What would it feel like to sleep in the thunderstorm?' A faint vision of having fallen asleep reached out to my memory, but didn't want to become any clearer. From that faint image, I figured that I had fallen asleep in the rain and had been dragged back inside.
"Details. What the hell happened?"
Omi shook his head. "You just insisted to stay outside and when we didn't hear from you in a long time Aya-kun dragged you back in."
Weird. Very weird. Almost surreal. I was almost sure I would wake up any moment with a lovely little headache.
"Tell Aya to get his ass in here," I ordered. When Omi tried to argue I cut the arguments short and told him I would go to Aya myself if Omi wouldn't get him come to me.
A brief quarrel later Omi left the room and after a moment Aya was standing in the doorway, glaring at me, trying to keep his arms folded but only managing to look pretty amusing because of the broken, wrapped arm.
"What?" he asked.
"My words exactly."
"You passed out, I dragged you back in. What's there to discuss?"
"We would be even if you had dragged me into your bed," I grinned, reminding him of the rather alike incident few years back.
"Shut up and sleep. You might want to cancel that date of yours; you won't be going anywhere in at least a week, if it's up to Omi."
I stared at Aya. "You remember I have a date? You suggest me to cancel it?"
"I am not the one with the tendency to memory-losses," Aya informed me and turned to leave.
"I didn't say anything, did I? When I was out cold, I mean. "
Aya stopped, as if thinking what to answer. Then he shook his head. "No. Nothing."
~* TBC *~
Guess twice if Yoji said something... Yeah, I think the next chapter will be the last, most likely. Don't begin crying yet. Instead, leave a review! ^^