Disclaimer: I do not own Weiss.
A/N: Yup, I'm still going! Glad people are actually still reading this. Well, hope you enjoy the next chapter!
Chapter 5: My life
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The bell was ringing quickly, signaling the departure of a train. JT peeled open his eyes, briefly aware of the fact that he had accomplished the feat of sleeping. Another sound of the bell sent him to his feet, yelling.
"Oh my god! That's my train!"
Grabbing his bag up he began to run towards the end of the train, ticket in hand. It had already begun to move, slowly, but still fast enough for him to be panting when he caught up. The conductor looked at him oddly when he saw him waving.
Shouting to him the teen said, "Wait! This is my train! 241, Tokyo to Hirosaki!"
Waving the ticket the conductor grasped the rail and leaned out, grasping the boy's hand and pulling him onto the platform. Looking at the ticket he tore the end off then handed him the stub.
"You are one lucky boy, you know. Your car is in the middle, the dining car is towards the front and bathrooms are within your cell."
JT gave him an odd look. "Cell?"
The man smiled. "The room you're sharing. The bathroom is within your sleeping courters."
"I'm sharing a room?!"
"Didn't you realize? You bought one of the most expensive tickets."
The blonde made a disbelieving noise, kicking himself mentally for spending more money than he had needed too. Nodding his head finally he thanked the man then went on his way towards his room.
As he was walking he noticed that people were staring at him.
"I guess its because I'm so young with no company." He thought.
Reaching the door that matched his ticket number he sighed happily and opened the door, though instantly wished he hadn't.
"What are you doing?! Shut that door!"
JT screeched at the woman in his room with only her bra and a slip on. He quickly jumped out and slammed the door shut. Blushing brightly he wondered if he had entered the wrong room. He checked the number of his ticket with the door number, several times, before the door swung open and the woman grabbed him by the collar and dragged him in.
Slamming him into a seat she glared at him, hands on her hips.
"Just what did you think you were doing? You couldn't knock before entering? What do you even want? Awfully young to be a pervert, aren't you?"
JT blushed even redder then stammered out his excuse.
"I'm not a pervert! My ticket said I was in this room is all! Here, see for yourself!"
Grabbing the ticket the woman looked it over, then sighed with a smile. Handing it back to him she waved her hand and said,
"I see now, just an innocent accident. Well then, I suppose we'll be room mated for these next days. My name is Alida, but just call me Lida. If you can tell by my dress, I'm a lounge singer."
The blonde looked at the new dress the woman had on. It was long, silky red, with an embroidered top. He found it much more welcoming than what he had seen her in first.
"But there are no lounges around here, are you going to a new job?" he asked.
Lida sighed and flopped into a chair opposite from him. "Well, not exactly. I had wanted to make it big in Tokyo but unfortunately I couldn't find a steady job, most paid crap any ways. So I just decided to make my way back home, so now I'm going to help my niece out in her flower shop."
The boy perked up. "A flower shop?"
"Yes, her father died just recently and her mother had left when she was much younger, so she has no one else but her old grandmother. I suppose it won't be that bad, she said they were in desperate need of help but no one would even think of it."
"I'll help!"
The woman turned dark eyes towards the boy curiously. "You'll help?"
Gulping hard he began to explain. "I ran away you see, my father doesn't want me anymore, so I'm going to make my own life. I used to work at a flower shop too! My uncles and father ran it, but now I don't have anything. I don't have a job or even a place to stay; I just need to get away from here is all. I'll work for cheap pay; I wasn't even paid last time! Please say yes!"
Lida smiled sweetly at him. "When we get there you can follow me to the shop. If my niece still needs help and she agrees to it than that's fine, but if she doesn't than I'm afraid you'll have to go else where."
JT gulped. He hoped they still needed help. Nodding he then stood and started towards the bathroom, that is until Lida sprang up and blocked the doorway.
"Hold on before you go in, dear. I made a bit of a mess in there and I was sure I would have a female partner who wouldn't mind. Just give me a minute or two."
Disappearing instantly JT smiled slightly then went back to sit down by the window. Looking out his thoughts traveled unintentionally back to the home he had known just a few hours ago. Oh, how things can change so quickly. Closing his eyes he thought of his father and his uncles, wondering if they even had the slightest idea that he was missing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"He's gone!" Omi exclaimed, grabbing hold of Youji's shirt.
The playboy tried to smile and pry the hands away from him at the same time. When the other's grasp was finally broken he sighed with much relief and turned to the Manx and the other two men.
"What are we doing? Shouldn't we be tracking him? We probably could've gone after him! Why are we sitting around?!"
The red hair woman sighed and rubbed her temple. Having Omi scream at her in his rather high pitched voice was bad enough but now Youji was joining him as well. Forcing her lips into a smile she finally began to speak.
"Unfortunately since JT was merely a child of Kritiker he has no real use to the agency, so you're prevented from going after him." The statement left all four men in a rage. Fearing what they would do if she didn't speak the woman began talking quickly. " However since I was very fond of him and I know how important he was to you all I can offer a bit of a compromise."
Omi lifted his eyebrow a bit. When Kritiker said no and Manx said yes there had to be something going on. "What kind of compromise?" He asked blankly.
She turned her deep eyes towards him. "If you all swear not to leave your post here I will have the other Kritiker agents scattered about Japan keep an eye out for him. He couldn't have left the country, there is no way, he could only have gotten to a train station at least. I can have someone process the data, then contact agents at each area to keep a look out."
Ken thought for a minute. It seemed reasonable enough but he felt he had to ask, there had to be a catch.
"I know there's something more to this.......what is it, Manx?"
The woman sighed and frowned, sometimes working with assassins made it hard to mask things. "Even if we do find him, which we may not, we couldn't bring him back."
"WHAT?!" All four bellowed at her.
She sighed again. "Technically, he left on his own, not as an agent, it was his choice, and since he isn't even really an agent, we can't force him to come back, it has to be of his own free will that he returns."
"What?! But, then what the hell is the point at all?!" Omi screeched. This was his son they were talking about, not some random person walking down the street. Feeling himself get angry he excused himself with a growl and headed off to the health club to get some steam out and think alone for a bit.
Aya followed the blonde with his eyes, then turned back towards the woman.
"Kritiker just wants us to be pawns for them, don't they? They don't care that we're still people too, that we have a life that needs attendance as well."
Startled, Manx lifted her blue eyes towards him. "How do you mean?"
The red head continued on his tirade. "They use our weaknesses against us to keep us in line, my sisters treatment for example, and now they're using JT. If they manipulate using the things we love we'll stay in line, but we aren't guaranteed what we want. We're just pawns."
Both Youji and Ken looked at him strangely. When she didn't respond Aya scoffed.
"See? That's all we're here for, to do the dirty work."
Growling, he too left, heading back towards his room. Youji shrugged as Ken gripped his hair in stress and pulled some of it out. Manx sighed, once again, and looked at them sympathetically.
"I'm sorry that this happened, but Kritiker really does need you. As far as JT goes, if we do find him I will ask for leave to go see him, talk to him, see if I can get him to come home. But you must remember......." She trailed off, making both men take in a sharp breath. " You can't change free will, if he does not want to come home, we cannot make him. Now, you get some rest, I'll get in touch with my contacts and start the search, until I have any information try to keep your noses clean."
Ken took in another deep breath, then blew it back out. Watching the woman leave he suddenly got distressed.
"Just what in the heck did we do any ways? You'd think that after being asleep for a year he would be dying to spend time with us again, but nooooooooo, he wants to go and run away, making us all worry. Maybe we should just leave him alone, it appears to be what he wants."
"Ken!" Youji scolded, locking the door after the lady. "You know we can't turn our backs on JT. He's only a boy out in the world, so many things could happen to him. And can you honestly say that you wouldn't feel guilty?"
The brunette sighed, admitting defeat. "So why'd he leave then? I just don't get it, we were all happy, why'd he do it?"
The dark blonde lit a cigarette and took in a long breath. Blowing the air back out he sighed at his friend. "Maybe it's not us, maybe it's really he and Omi that are caught in the current. If that's the case all we can do is let them work it out on their own or......."
"Or?" Ken pressed.
".......or we forget him.......Come on, lets go to sleep, no sense worrying about it now."
The soccer player frowned. Nothing seemed to go their way; ever. Walking silently with his partner both silently wished that JT was safe and sound, and that if they ever found him that he would want to come home again, they missed him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Take it easy there boy."
JT was slumped in his chair, the window open, his face a pale color. He mentally kicked himself for forgetting to buy chaser tablets, he knew that he got motion sickness easily. Alida was standing beside him, amused by his lack of color and whinny little groans.
"If you want, you can borrow some of my sleeping pills. They'll do you good."
The boy looked up curiously. "You have sleeping pills?"
"Yeah, I usually only use them when I'm traveling, but I can see you need them more than I do. Well?"
She stared at the blank teen, waiting for his response. Finally he nodded and she left to get the pills and a glass of water for him. The boy sighed as he looked out the window at the passing scenery. Tomorrow morning he would be in Hirosaki, in a new town, with a new life. Well, hopefully. He prayed to the gods that Alida's niece would let him stay, but where would he live? Yet another problem.
Breaking himself from his train of thought the blonde youth lunged for the window, just in time to relieve his insides. When the woman came back she smiled at him like a mother would and gave him the tablets, which he quickly swallowed. The dulling effect began its work almost immediately, making JT stumble while he walked to his bed.
Falling down and into sleep almost instantly Alida went and covered him in his blanket and put the glass away. As much as she hated to admit it she was beginning to get rather fond of this boy.
"Well, boy, it looks like tomorrow we both begin our new lives. Maybe fate meant for us to meet. If so, than I suppose its best to please fate. Here's to the path we'll be taking."
Raising a glass of scotch to the open window she let her words float into the air freely, then fly with the wind, unsure of exactly what it was the future held. What ever it was, she hoped, for both of their sakes, it was pleasant.
~TBC
Another chapter at an end. Don't worry, a happy ending will be in place, some time. I think this'll be the last chapter thing I'll do with JT. I usually don't like original characters and yet JT is still hanging around.......odd. Any ways, next chapter, Manx's contacts get some clues and JT meets Alida's niece, whom he takes a certain liking for.
A/N: Yup, I'm still going! Glad people are actually still reading this. Well, hope you enjoy the next chapter!
Chapter 5: My life
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The bell was ringing quickly, signaling the departure of a train. JT peeled open his eyes, briefly aware of the fact that he had accomplished the feat of sleeping. Another sound of the bell sent him to his feet, yelling.
"Oh my god! That's my train!"
Grabbing his bag up he began to run towards the end of the train, ticket in hand. It had already begun to move, slowly, but still fast enough for him to be panting when he caught up. The conductor looked at him oddly when he saw him waving.
Shouting to him the teen said, "Wait! This is my train! 241, Tokyo to Hirosaki!"
Waving the ticket the conductor grasped the rail and leaned out, grasping the boy's hand and pulling him onto the platform. Looking at the ticket he tore the end off then handed him the stub.
"You are one lucky boy, you know. Your car is in the middle, the dining car is towards the front and bathrooms are within your cell."
JT gave him an odd look. "Cell?"
The man smiled. "The room you're sharing. The bathroom is within your sleeping courters."
"I'm sharing a room?!"
"Didn't you realize? You bought one of the most expensive tickets."
The blonde made a disbelieving noise, kicking himself mentally for spending more money than he had needed too. Nodding his head finally he thanked the man then went on his way towards his room.
As he was walking he noticed that people were staring at him.
"I guess its because I'm so young with no company." He thought.
Reaching the door that matched his ticket number he sighed happily and opened the door, though instantly wished he hadn't.
"What are you doing?! Shut that door!"
JT screeched at the woman in his room with only her bra and a slip on. He quickly jumped out and slammed the door shut. Blushing brightly he wondered if he had entered the wrong room. He checked the number of his ticket with the door number, several times, before the door swung open and the woman grabbed him by the collar and dragged him in.
Slamming him into a seat she glared at him, hands on her hips.
"Just what did you think you were doing? You couldn't knock before entering? What do you even want? Awfully young to be a pervert, aren't you?"
JT blushed even redder then stammered out his excuse.
"I'm not a pervert! My ticket said I was in this room is all! Here, see for yourself!"
Grabbing the ticket the woman looked it over, then sighed with a smile. Handing it back to him she waved her hand and said,
"I see now, just an innocent accident. Well then, I suppose we'll be room mated for these next days. My name is Alida, but just call me Lida. If you can tell by my dress, I'm a lounge singer."
The blonde looked at the new dress the woman had on. It was long, silky red, with an embroidered top. He found it much more welcoming than what he had seen her in first.
"But there are no lounges around here, are you going to a new job?" he asked.
Lida sighed and flopped into a chair opposite from him. "Well, not exactly. I had wanted to make it big in Tokyo but unfortunately I couldn't find a steady job, most paid crap any ways. So I just decided to make my way back home, so now I'm going to help my niece out in her flower shop."
The boy perked up. "A flower shop?"
"Yes, her father died just recently and her mother had left when she was much younger, so she has no one else but her old grandmother. I suppose it won't be that bad, she said they were in desperate need of help but no one would even think of it."
"I'll help!"
The woman turned dark eyes towards the boy curiously. "You'll help?"
Gulping hard he began to explain. "I ran away you see, my father doesn't want me anymore, so I'm going to make my own life. I used to work at a flower shop too! My uncles and father ran it, but now I don't have anything. I don't have a job or even a place to stay; I just need to get away from here is all. I'll work for cheap pay; I wasn't even paid last time! Please say yes!"
Lida smiled sweetly at him. "When we get there you can follow me to the shop. If my niece still needs help and she agrees to it than that's fine, but if she doesn't than I'm afraid you'll have to go else where."
JT gulped. He hoped they still needed help. Nodding he then stood and started towards the bathroom, that is until Lida sprang up and blocked the doorway.
"Hold on before you go in, dear. I made a bit of a mess in there and I was sure I would have a female partner who wouldn't mind. Just give me a minute or two."
Disappearing instantly JT smiled slightly then went back to sit down by the window. Looking out his thoughts traveled unintentionally back to the home he had known just a few hours ago. Oh, how things can change so quickly. Closing his eyes he thought of his father and his uncles, wondering if they even had the slightest idea that he was missing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"He's gone!" Omi exclaimed, grabbing hold of Youji's shirt.
The playboy tried to smile and pry the hands away from him at the same time. When the other's grasp was finally broken he sighed with much relief and turned to the Manx and the other two men.
"What are we doing? Shouldn't we be tracking him? We probably could've gone after him! Why are we sitting around?!"
The red hair woman sighed and rubbed her temple. Having Omi scream at her in his rather high pitched voice was bad enough but now Youji was joining him as well. Forcing her lips into a smile she finally began to speak.
"Unfortunately since JT was merely a child of Kritiker he has no real use to the agency, so you're prevented from going after him." The statement left all four men in a rage. Fearing what they would do if she didn't speak the woman began talking quickly. " However since I was very fond of him and I know how important he was to you all I can offer a bit of a compromise."
Omi lifted his eyebrow a bit. When Kritiker said no and Manx said yes there had to be something going on. "What kind of compromise?" He asked blankly.
She turned her deep eyes towards him. "If you all swear not to leave your post here I will have the other Kritiker agents scattered about Japan keep an eye out for him. He couldn't have left the country, there is no way, he could only have gotten to a train station at least. I can have someone process the data, then contact agents at each area to keep a look out."
Ken thought for a minute. It seemed reasonable enough but he felt he had to ask, there had to be a catch.
"I know there's something more to this.......what is it, Manx?"
The woman sighed and frowned, sometimes working with assassins made it hard to mask things. "Even if we do find him, which we may not, we couldn't bring him back."
"WHAT?!" All four bellowed at her.
She sighed again. "Technically, he left on his own, not as an agent, it was his choice, and since he isn't even really an agent, we can't force him to come back, it has to be of his own free will that he returns."
"What?! But, then what the hell is the point at all?!" Omi screeched. This was his son they were talking about, not some random person walking down the street. Feeling himself get angry he excused himself with a growl and headed off to the health club to get some steam out and think alone for a bit.
Aya followed the blonde with his eyes, then turned back towards the woman.
"Kritiker just wants us to be pawns for them, don't they? They don't care that we're still people too, that we have a life that needs attendance as well."
Startled, Manx lifted her blue eyes towards him. "How do you mean?"
The red head continued on his tirade. "They use our weaknesses against us to keep us in line, my sisters treatment for example, and now they're using JT. If they manipulate using the things we love we'll stay in line, but we aren't guaranteed what we want. We're just pawns."
Both Youji and Ken looked at him strangely. When she didn't respond Aya scoffed.
"See? That's all we're here for, to do the dirty work."
Growling, he too left, heading back towards his room. Youji shrugged as Ken gripped his hair in stress and pulled some of it out. Manx sighed, once again, and looked at them sympathetically.
"I'm sorry that this happened, but Kritiker really does need you. As far as JT goes, if we do find him I will ask for leave to go see him, talk to him, see if I can get him to come home. But you must remember......." She trailed off, making both men take in a sharp breath. " You can't change free will, if he does not want to come home, we cannot make him. Now, you get some rest, I'll get in touch with my contacts and start the search, until I have any information try to keep your noses clean."
Ken took in another deep breath, then blew it back out. Watching the woman leave he suddenly got distressed.
"Just what in the heck did we do any ways? You'd think that after being asleep for a year he would be dying to spend time with us again, but nooooooooo, he wants to go and run away, making us all worry. Maybe we should just leave him alone, it appears to be what he wants."
"Ken!" Youji scolded, locking the door after the lady. "You know we can't turn our backs on JT. He's only a boy out in the world, so many things could happen to him. And can you honestly say that you wouldn't feel guilty?"
The brunette sighed, admitting defeat. "So why'd he leave then? I just don't get it, we were all happy, why'd he do it?"
The dark blonde lit a cigarette and took in a long breath. Blowing the air back out he sighed at his friend. "Maybe it's not us, maybe it's really he and Omi that are caught in the current. If that's the case all we can do is let them work it out on their own or......."
"Or?" Ken pressed.
".......or we forget him.......Come on, lets go to sleep, no sense worrying about it now."
The soccer player frowned. Nothing seemed to go their way; ever. Walking silently with his partner both silently wished that JT was safe and sound, and that if they ever found him that he would want to come home again, they missed him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Take it easy there boy."
JT was slumped in his chair, the window open, his face a pale color. He mentally kicked himself for forgetting to buy chaser tablets, he knew that he got motion sickness easily. Alida was standing beside him, amused by his lack of color and whinny little groans.
"If you want, you can borrow some of my sleeping pills. They'll do you good."
The boy looked up curiously. "You have sleeping pills?"
"Yeah, I usually only use them when I'm traveling, but I can see you need them more than I do. Well?"
She stared at the blank teen, waiting for his response. Finally he nodded and she left to get the pills and a glass of water for him. The boy sighed as he looked out the window at the passing scenery. Tomorrow morning he would be in Hirosaki, in a new town, with a new life. Well, hopefully. He prayed to the gods that Alida's niece would let him stay, but where would he live? Yet another problem.
Breaking himself from his train of thought the blonde youth lunged for the window, just in time to relieve his insides. When the woman came back she smiled at him like a mother would and gave him the tablets, which he quickly swallowed. The dulling effect began its work almost immediately, making JT stumble while he walked to his bed.
Falling down and into sleep almost instantly Alida went and covered him in his blanket and put the glass away. As much as she hated to admit it she was beginning to get rather fond of this boy.
"Well, boy, it looks like tomorrow we both begin our new lives. Maybe fate meant for us to meet. If so, than I suppose its best to please fate. Here's to the path we'll be taking."
Raising a glass of scotch to the open window she let her words float into the air freely, then fly with the wind, unsure of exactly what it was the future held. What ever it was, she hoped, for both of their sakes, it was pleasant.
~TBC
Another chapter at an end. Don't worry, a happy ending will be in place, some time. I think this'll be the last chapter thing I'll do with JT. I usually don't like original characters and yet JT is still hanging around.......odd. Any ways, next chapter, Manx's contacts get some clues and JT meets Alida's niece, whom he takes a certain liking for.