Aphrael: Wah! Sorry I picked on you!! I really was mostly kidding but I really needed a different excuse other than mental block for the delay of this one… XP

Lady Cosmos: About Aya, that's…… probably because I really rushed those parts ^^;;;;;;;;;; …… and also because Aya's so pissed off his brain isn't his anymore…… Maybe I should've had an OOC warning… In that case, this one has one too… A big one…

A Spell: Hmm…. Somehow I think we're from the same country… Especially since I cheated and found out you're a fellow member of blagger… XP The sister of a good friend of mine owns that clique… XP

This chapter would never have existed without Shiiru-sama, and the previous probably wouldn't have either. The main idea of the previous one was hers, and this one was mostly written by her and sorta edited by me. Thanks much, sempai! ^^

Chapter 16 – False Appearance

Aya stared in shock.

He was just standing there in the lobby of the hotel.

He hadn't even reached the front desk when he had spotted something out of the corner of his eye. He paused in his rampage to check and make sure. He entered the small café in the hotel lobby and got a better view of the two blondes he was looking for.

Yohji was sitting there at one of the tables, with Omi beside him. The former had both his arms around the latter, seeming to be saying something to him. The half-eaten food and drink before them was being ignored.

Aya scowled. Yohji was sitting quite close to Omi and he wasn't sure how Omi was reacting because Omi wasn't looking in his direction.

Fuming, he not-so-calmly walked toward their table, trying his best not to erupt, even though he was about to.

"Omae-ra…" he growled as soon as he was near enough.

Yohji looked up, apparently surprised. "Aya?!"

Omi also looked up. His eyes appeared to be red and his cheeks tear-stained, but Aya seemed far too gone to notice.

"HOW… DARE…. YOU…"

Omi and Yohji were speechless at first, just staring at Aya wide-eyed. The redhead seemed not to care and just continued.

"How dare you fucking run off like this while we were all STUCK in the MIDDLE of this DAMNED potion THING?!"

Neither of the two were sure of what to say.

And Aya still seemed not to care.

"And then, you have the damned gall to ENJOY yourselves while I'm OUT there running through THE WHOLE FUCKING CITY looking for YOU??!!"

Aya glared more at Yohji as he continued.

"How DARE you fucking take HIM," he pointed an accusing finger at Omi, "out on a date just to satisfy your goddamned ego, absolutely CONVINCED that you can charm anyone over to you?!

"Or maybe you just wanted to win against Ken THAT much?! Without thinking that he'd go INSANE and MAKE ME drive ALL OVER, LOOKING through every park, bar, restaurant and damnit! Even every HOTEL that we know you've used and hoping like SHIT that...."

He stopped in the middle, his voice trailing off as Yohji stood. Yohji walked to him and held his shoulders, gazing at him steadily until Aya lost his voice.

"Aya. I'm sorry."

Aya's face crumpled. Yohji immediately hugged him, pressing the younger man to his shoulder to keep anyone from seeing the look on his face.

"I should've left at least a damned note, huh?"

Aya brought out a hand and squeezed Yohji's shoulder. "……You bastard."

"Yeah, well… I really couldn't let Hidaka intrude on this one." Yohji kissed the top of his head deep in thought.

"Bastard." Aya repeated.

The other customers of the cafe were staring at them. Yohji was quite sure that security would've tried to kick Aya out were it not for him defusing the situation. And he wanted badly to look behind him to check on Omi. He wanted to see if the younger boy was alright.

But he couldn't break the momentary calm that Aya was in right now.

The truth was he didn't need to check, because Omi was smiling behind them. He was still red-eyed, and somewhat crying, but he was smiling.

Then he sighed softly and looked away, lost in his own thoughts.

Yohji finally spoke again after a moment's silence. "You hate me that much don't you?"

The hand on his shoulder fisted and hit him softly. "..... Of course I hate you. You're an egotistic, lazy, chain-smoking playboy. You're an incompetent bastard. You're annoying. You're stuck on the smug conviction that you're always right. You're a lying, cheating son-of-a-bitch. You're a slut. You're a whore. You're...."

Yohji chuckled. "Well then, what's the real reason why you're here?"

Aya was silent for a moment.

That's when it hit him. And it hit him hard.

He knew right then the reason why he was there.

He just suddenly knew what the reason was.

And he hated it.

He thought a moment more and recomposed himself, slightly pushing away from Yohji. He glared at Yohji, feeling to be more himself again.

"I wanted to make sure Omi was fine and you weren't molesting him."

"Really?" Yohji raised an eyebrow. "How nice of you to think of that all by yourself."

Silence.

"It was Ken who pointed out you two were missing."

"Hm?" Yohji looked confused. "Then why isn't he with you?"

There was no response.

"Aya. I seriously doubt that he'd let you stomp over here without him coming along. He'll want to go after Omittchi too, especially in his condition."

"… He was with me…"

Yohji raised an eyebrow, "…… Okay… So where is he now?"

Aya twitched a little.

"He… lost it on the way."

"He WHAT?!"

The two paused and turned around to a wide-eyed, slack-jawed Omi. Aya had forgotten that he was even back there.

Omi tried to calm his breathing as he said slowly, "A-aya-kun? Wh-where's Ken-kun now?"

"……… Kicked him out of the car."

The boy's voice erupted in a shriek.

"Wh-what?!! Where?!!"

"……… About three blocks back."

Of course he wasn't so sure about that.

Omi was clutching his own chest, looking as if he were about to have a heart attack. Yohji gathered up his and Omi's coats. "Damnit, Aya! What were you thinking?!"

Good question. What was he thinking? He hadn't been thinking straight this whole trip, like he was on some drunken rampage.

Oh wait… That's right… NOW he knew what he was thinking. But he wasn't going to say what that was out loud.

"Ken-kun…" Omi half-moaned, half-wailed.

"Don't worry, Omittchi," Yohji said, reassuringly. "We're going back for him. I promised, right?" He patted Omi's head.

Omi barely nodded. He couldn't bring himself to say anything. He couldn't really find his voice anymore.

Yohji turned to their other companion.

"Aya, you lead the way. Omi and I'll follow you."

With that said, he looked up and asked a passing waiter for the check. After paying for their orders, Yohji took Omi's arm and pulled him out of the café.

Omi followed, not able to do anything else even as Aya moved into the porsche and Yohji led him into the Super Sevens. He moved mechanically, not able to think straight.

Only one thing was running through his head.

Ken-kun… please be all right…

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Whee… Chapter's shorter than usual.

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