Weiss Katze

By: Alithiel Daystar

Disclaimer: Hey, here I am again! Now that the formatting problems on FF.net are fixed, this chappy should be much easier to read than the last!

Warnings: Slightly improbable plot, Eventual Shonen Ai/Yaoi (pairings secret right now, but anyone who knows me can figure 'em out.), language, slight OOC, *MAYBE (as in if I get the courage)* eventual Lemon/Lime.

Notes: Thanx to Sue, sara-chan, blackdrak, and Seraph1 for being the first to review. Arigato!!

=^o^=

---CHAPTER 2---

DECEMBER 24

Ken held the warm mug in his hands, blowing the steam off of the hot drink before taking a sip. Rich chocolate flooded his mouth, making him sigh with happiness.

He turned luminous eyes to his friends. "You guys have no IDEA how much I missed this."

"We can guess." Yohji said with a smirk. That made Omi and Ken start laughing.

It was early morning Christmas Day, and the members of Weiss were gathered in the main room of Ken's apartment, with Ken curled up in his chair and wrapped in a thick blanket, to hear what he had to say, what he could remember of the time he was gone. The former soccer player had slept through the whole previous day, so they hadn't been able to ask him any questions until now.

"Has Manx called with the results of the blood test?" Omi asked seriously after he was done laughing. There was no response from either of the two elder assassins. Ken sighed, the smile on his face dissolving.

"What do you remember, Ken?" Aya asked quietly, intent on changing the subject.

"I...can't remember how I got there, but I do remember being very cold most of the time. I remember a lot of needles." He shuddered, the strange vertical pupils of his eyes dilating. The others knew how much Ken hated needles. "I think they drugged me, but I know I was scared. Very scared. I don't know what they gave me, but I was functional. I know they allowed me to go outside."

"They who?" Yohji asked.

"That's the thing. If I try to remember, all I get is a really bad headache. I noticed that my room was really clean when I woke up." He watched his fellow assassins for a moment, before raising an inquiring brow. "You guys cleaned it, didn't you?"

Three identical nods. Ken smiled. "Thank you."

"Well, you were gone for two months." Omi pointed out.

"And you left it a huge mess." Yohji finished.

Ken just gave another incredibly sweet smile. "What can I say? I'm a horrible housekeeper, and you guys are the best."

Aya cleared his throat...for some odd reason it had decided to close up on him. "You missed your birthday."

Ken rolled his eyes. "Behold Fujimiya Aya, master of changing the bloody subject."

Omi, Ken, and Yohji laughed a little at that remark. "Well, he did." Aya said a little petulantly.

"That's right, KenKen!" Omi said, his eyes lighting up. "We should celebrate."

"No way. I can't go out with my eyes like this." Ken said doubtfully.

"You could say they're contacts."

"I can't."

Yohji shrugged. "Then we'll stay here, KenKen. Hey Omitchi, let's go order in some food, ok?" The two of them left the room, leaving Aya and Ken alone.

Ken gulped. Here he was, alone with the icicle leader of Weiss. Aya was just watching him, an unreadable expression on his face.

"You lost these." He said shortly, pulling out a small bundle from he pocket of his jacket and tossing it on Ken's blanketed lap. The bugnuks gleamed in the thin winter daylight streaming through the window. Ken grinned.

"You kept them? How did you know I'd be coming back?"

Aya smiled then, and actual smile that lit up his whole face. "I didn't. I HOPED you'd be coming back." With those words he stood. "Rest for now, Hidaka." He said as he walked toward the door, the cold leader of Weiss returning, squelching out the tiny spark of who he really was.

"Aya?"

But he was gone and the door was shut. Ken sighed and settled back into his squashy armchair (A.N.: Thank you, JK Rowling for the word 'squashy'). For just a moment, he had seen the real person hiding beneath the icy mask Aya always put up around himself. For some reason, moments before, it had slipped, showing the person locked beneath. And for that split second, Ken had liked what he saw.

------------

"Hey, Aya."

I looked up as I shut the door of Ken's room. Yohji was leaning against the door, a cigarette poking out of the corner of his mouth, the thick smell of smoke filling the hallway. Glaring, I tried to pass him. He just gave me one of those superior looks of his and blocked my way.

"You're worried about him." He declared as if he had discovered something significant.

Even the patented death glare wasn't working. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

He started speaking to me like I was a third grader. "You're worried about Ken."

"Of course I am. He's a teammate. I would be just as concerned if it was another one of you." I replied from between clenched teeth. Just what was he getting at anyway?

"Liar. You never worried about anyone in your life other than your sister. And besides, you know that's not what I mean." He rolled his eyes at me. Of course that only made me madder.

"Then ENLIGHTEN me!" I snapped a little louder than I intended. He winced, and I felt a surge of satisfaction. He was angry, I could tell. When you work with a group of people for years, you get to know their moods pretty well. And right now, Kudou Yohji was pissed.

"You are such an asshole." He growled at me, green eyes snapping. My own anger rising, I matched him glare for glare. "If I thought you were capable of it..."

"Capable of WHAT, Kudou?" I ground out. Yohji's glare vanished, replaced by an almost comical expression of puzzlement. He really thought I wasn't going to ask?

"Capable of what?" I repeated quietly, speaking slowly.

He sighed in defeat. "If I thought you were capable of it, I'd think you loved him."

Shocked, I stood frozen in place as he shoved his way past me and headed down the stairs. He just said I was in love with Ken. I shook my head. Impossible. I was not in love with my teammate. I wasn't...I was just worried. Yes, worried.

I can hear my imouto's voice in my head. "Ni-chan! You're in DENIAL!!!"

"Am not." I mumble in a sulky tone. Then I thought for a moment. Yohji...was right. Well, about one thing at least. I was more worried about Ken than I had ever been about anyone in my entire life. I was more worried right now about clumsy, perpetually cheerful, annoyingly kind, incredibly fierce, former soccer star Hidaka Ken than I had ever been for my sister the WHOLE TIME she had been in a coma.

Worried, yes. In love? I don't think so.

I recited my mantra in my head. 'I am the night. I am an assassin. Those that walk with death are not allowed to love. Those that walk with death are not allowed to hate. We merely walk with death at our side. I am the night. I am an assassin. I feel nothing.' Finished, I made my way downstairs.

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JANUARY 1

There had been no word from Manx for over a week. Omi glared at the ceiling of the van. Her e-mail was silent, no phone calls or information of any kind. And still no blood test results.

Nonetheless they had a mission tonight.

The mail had been from someone named Vaten, and had come through the secure Krittiker channel that Omi himself had installed. Tonight's target was a rather prominent pharmesutical company that had been experimenting with steroids. Several dead bodies ad already turned up in the quarry near the laboratory, deformed beyond belief. Omi shuddered, his huge blue eyes taking in his companions sitting around him, the crossbow and darts lying ready on his lap, and remembered how he'd almost gotten sick at the sight of the morphed humans.

Ken was insisting on going with them.

Never mind that the three of them, even Aya, had tried to convince him not to. Despite the fact that they didn't know what had been done to him, or whether or not he had returned to full strength, he was still adamant on participating in the mission.

"Basic mission." Aya stated in a no-nonsense voice as they approached the gates leading to the compound. "In, kill, out. We stay in a group. Does everyone have a radio?"

"Yeah." Yohji replied, stopping the van and turning off the engine. He shoved his silver sunglasses up his nose and adjusted the headset. "One group or two?"

"One." The leader turned chill violet eyes toward Ken. "Siberian, I want you to stick near us. Don't get involved unless you have to."

Ken looked indignant, glowing eyes flashing. "But..." Aya merely glared at him

"I you don't follow orders, I'll kill you myself. Got it?"

Swallowing hard, he dropped his eyes. "Alright, Abyssinian."

"Then let's get going."

------------

The four assassins made their way into the main building. Strangely empty, their footsteps echoed in the hallway, despite their efforts to keep them quiet. Aya lead the way, with Yohji bringing up the rear, Ken and Omi between the two. Sweat dripped, breathing became slightly harsh from the effort of being silent, and alert, and the incredible heat that seemed to grow worse with every hall. Moisture dripped from the band of Ken's motocross goggles that rested against his forehead, and he cursed his decision of wearing his leather jacket with every step. Or, rather, a new leather jacket: the guys had been kind enough to get him new gear for his birthday/Christmas, gear exactly like his old stuff. Well, ALMOST exactly...the jacket was black instead.

Ken paused. "Hey...do you guys hear something?"

"No." Aya whispered, the sound almost as loud as thunder.

"I just..."

It happened in slow motion. Men burst from the doors on both sides of the hallway, guns, knives, and various other weapons glinting in the dim light. Action exploded around him as Weiss reacted- Ken could see a group of men fall to the initial slash of Aya's katana like wheat fell to a scythe. Omi felled more men with a volley of darts. His fellow assassins surrounded him.

They were protecting him! They were so focused on keeping him safe that they were forgetting themselves. And more enemies kept coming.

"Stop protecting me! I can take care of it!" He yelled over the din of weapons.

"No can do, Siberian!" Yohji responded, yanking his wire from around the neck of a dead man to wrap around another foe, leaving his side open.

"Balinese!" Ken cried, watching in horror as the enemy pounced on the opening. Aya fought wildly just in front of him, quickly being overwhelmed by the opposition, as was Omi, now out of darts and resorting to bow and crossbow.

"Bombay! ABYSSINIAN!!"

A rage filled him, seethed beneath his skin, unlike anything he had ever felt before. Ken clenched his fists. Electric tingles danced across his flesh. Everything before him was bathed in light the color of blood.

He screamed.

------------

I can't tell you what I thought when I heard Ken scream. Terror maybe, or fear. He is my friend after all. But I can tell you the sound will stay with me till my dying day.

All motion stopped. I looked at him. My sunglasses had broken sometime during the fight, so I could see him very clearly, even in the dim half- light of the hall. He was crouched on the floor, clutching himself, an expression of rage and pain twisting his boyish face, sweat plastering his dark brown bangs against his forehead. Breathing heavily, he screamed again.

I could see something ripple beneath his jacket.

All hell broke loose. The guys renewed their attack.

The ripples under his jacket increased speed.

An instant later a guy jumped me. I fought him off, but more kept coming. Something bright white flashed by my left side, knocking me over, and an ear-spitting roar filled the hall, followed soon after by blood-curdling screams.

Something warm and wet splashed my face, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out it was blood.

I risked looking up.

"SHIT!"

I could see Aya and Omi very clearly. They were gawking, just like I was. Sitting right in front of us, in a circle of mutilated bodies, was an ENORMOUS white tiger.

White fur of intense brightness, splattered with blood, was dramatically striped with black darker than I had ever seen. Its claws were stained with blood, as were its fangs, I noticed as it opened its mouth in a snarl of rage.

Omi by this time had slowly worked his way over to me.

"Yohji...is that who I think I is?"

"Yeah. It's Ken." I responded quietly, so not to tick off Kitty-Ken any further.

///Guys?///

I about leaped out of my skin. What the hell, Ken was Schuldich now, speaking into people's heads?

///Help me...///

His voice in my head was filled with pain, but his tiger's face was twisted with anger. I was frozen on the spot. I've faced a lot of things in my life, but I don't have NEAR enough bravery to face down a pissed off Siberian tiger.

But Aya did.

"Ken...can you hear me?" The redheaded assassin whispered, slowly approaching the tiger. It roared at him, baring wicked teeth the size of steak knives.

///Aya...///

"I'm here, Ken!" He said with abnormal kindness. This was a side of him I'd never seen, of have only seen rarely. He almost looked human. "You have to calm down."

///So...angry.///

Aya creeped further forward, reaching out with a bloodstained gloved hand. The huge cat snapped at him and growled, but he was still in touching distance, and moving forward. I realized that I was holding my breath. The tiger roared, and the swordsman took the opportunity to lunge forward.

Aya touched the tiger.

There was a bright flash, and once the glare cleared, I saw Ken. Covered in blood, he knelt in a pool of it, his face buried in his hands, crying. His clothes were amazingly intact, but Aya still whipped off his black coat and threw it around his shaking shoulders, wrapping an arm around his shoulders in the process. Aya looked at Omi and I, and there was such an expression of rage in his eyes that I immediately got cold all over.

"Help me get him out of here. Then torch it."

------------

JANUARY 2

It wasn't until we got back to the Koneko that the full importance of what had happened dropped on us.

I went and checked our e-mail as soon as I got in, still shaking. It's weird, but I've never been more afraid in my entire life, not even when I was kidnapped.

Anyway, there was mail from Manx. I about passed out when I read it, and the results of the blood test. Instead I printed out a copy and ran to Yohji and Aya.

They were in Ken's room, bandaging the minor wounds he had attained in tiger form. The poor guy was shaking so bad that Aya had to help clean the blood off of him, while all Ken did was stare into space with haunted eyes.

I waved Yohji over from my position by the doorway.

"What is it, chibi?" His eyes are sad, so sad that I felt like crying. Wordlessly, I handed him the message, watching as he skimmed over it and his green eyes darkened with rage.

"Damn it!"

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Alithiel~ Hooray, chapter 2 done! Sorry for the cliffhanger (and for what I did to KenKen-kun) but I couldn't think of a better way to end this chapter. Anyway, no, KenKen's not gonna be staring into space forever. I'll take good care of him, promise!

I just got a copy of the Weiss Kreuz Best Album, Die Bleibende Erinnerung. And I must say it is one of the best things I've ever heard. I recommend everyone listen to Carnival 2000, Jeepstar, Last Supper, and Rhodesia. You won't be sorry! Thanks, Arlyssa, for the CD!

Anyway, R&R...not rest and relax, though that's cool too. Read and review, onegaishimasu! Arigato!

~*Alithiel*~