Chapter 9

Aya

Sighing I looked at my watch; we'd been here for half an hour! Really though I had no right to complain seeing as it had been my choice to stay until the girl's father came to claim her. The clang of a bell drew my attention up as the door to the little office was opened. A man of about forty or so entered looking about frantically. "Kagami?"

"Daddy!" The little girl whom Youji and I had found came running from her coloring book to throw herself into her father's arms. Honestly, it was rather touching to me, having always had a softer spot for children. I've always felt the need to have someone to protect and lavish upon, that person used to be my sister. Now with the void vacant though, grumpiness came in to fill it without even bothering to submit an application.

Picking the slight girl up in his arms, the man walked over towards us. "Thank you so much! We were in line one moment and in the next. . . Shuichi?" Huh? The man had finally noticed Youji and apparently, he knew him.

"Oh Seiko, I didn't know you were coming here today!" Now I was really confused. "Yuki-koi, this is Seiko he works at the hotel. We met in the front lobby this morning."

"How do you do?"

"Much better now." Shaking the man's hand I mentally noted: suspect number three. "I didn't know that we were coming here either but when I found out that I could get the day off I decided to take advantage of it by going out with my kids. Since the divorce I don't get many chances to have them." Kids? Looking behind him, I noticed that there was another child, well teenager. She was probably about Omi's age and she looked disinterested.

There was something not right about this man; the situation was too coincidental to actually be coincidence.

Youji

"Well I hope you guys enjoy your day off!" I smiled at them. That Seiko guy was the one who had recommended the place, and I was rather glad because otherwise it probably would've been something touristier, like a shuttle bus tour of Kyoto. I shudder at the thought.

"You too, thanks again!" With that, the happy family was off and Aya and I were free to go back out into the park. Ah, despite the disruption the day had been going amazingly well. Not only had I gotten to go on nearly a dozen great roller coasters, but got a beautiful picture of Aya smiling like a little kid as well!

"So what now koi?" I inquired as we walked out of the little office.

"Dinner," he answered a little too quickly. . . Then again, I couldn't blame him as I realized that he probably hadn't had anything to eat all day.

"All righty, something overpriced or something deep fried?"

"Aren't they the same around here?"

"True, true. The difference being that the overpriced ones don't come with a stick shoved in 'em. . . I noticed a pizza place over near that one wooden coaster, that sound good to you?"

Softly he mumbled with a shake of his head: "I don't care for pizza."

"Nani?!?!" The crème de la junk food, the staple of every man-in-his-twenties' diet and Aya didn't like it?! "How can you not like pizza?!"

"Just the concept of it is disgusting. Liquefied tomatoes put onto some bread, with a cover made from the fungus of a cow byproduct." Eeew, when put that way pizza did sound rather unappetizing.

"Okay, then what do you want?"

"Anything but pizza."

"Aya!" I growled. "You're being so difficult. I like all of the food around here so just pick!"

Raising an eyebrow, he glanced suspiciously at me. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yeah."

Aya

Fighting back drool and a grin, I took the obnoxiously large banana split from the waitress along with two spoons. Having been raised in a family of firm believers in desert before/instead of dinner, I felt the need to carry on their tradition. Mmm, four kinds of ice cream, three syrups, whipped topping, nuts, generous banana slices and a maraschino cherry.

Sighing as I approached our table Youji shook his head with a grin. "Aya, that metabolism of yours is gonna kick out one of these days and you'll be using sumo on your opponents instead of a katana."

"Shut-up," I threatened half-heartedly as I took a seat, handing one of two spoons over as I did so. "This is a balanced meal. The nuts are protein, cherries and bananas are fruits, ice cream is dairy, and the waffle bowl is the grain."

"And everything else is artery-clogging-go-straight-to-your-ass lard," his complaint wasn't very believable as he took a large bite of strawberry ice cream, slathered in hot fudge.

"Get over it, you sound like a woman," I murmured as I licked some of the sticky syrup off my fingers. Looking up at me the blonde had an odd expression on his face. "What?" As I questioned I popped the sickeningly sweet cherry into my mouth.

"N-nothing!" The answer was obviously forced as he averted his gaze. Okay, Youji was acting weird tonight.

"Really?" I asked as I pulled an ice cream covered banana half out of the bowl and tool a bite out of the end. It was obvious that he didn't really care for the fruit part of our meal, as he'd pushed the banana and cherries from his side to mine, so I figured that I'd let him have more of the ice cream.

"Aya. . . Could you not do that?" Huh? What the hell was the blonde talking about?

"Do what?" Okay so I had double dipped the banana into the toppings, big deal. Seeing as we had shared plenty of saliva already, I didn't see any point in trying to avoid potential double-dip germs. Shaking my head in confusion I took another bite, at which the blonde's expression became even more. . . Odd.

Youji

My God, does he eat like a porn star on purpose?! The way that he was licking the chocolate off the banana, mixed with a small smudge of whipped cream on his face was just unbearably erotic. How could he not realize what he was doing?!

"Aya you're eating that sundae like you're making love to it!"

"Hn?" The redhead's eyes went wide and a slight tint made it to his cheeks. Okay, so maybe he hadn't realized it. Nevertheless, my pants were tight enough already, without staring at the hotness that was Aya as he innocently at ice cream.

"Well. . . Uh, there's a spot of whipped cream on your face." The truth but not the whole truth. . . So help me God.

"Oh," feeling dumb, most likely, Aya quickly wiped his cheek. "Better?"

"Yeah," I smiled then looked away. Watching Aya eat was better that pornography, but like porn, it wasn't something that I cared to indulge in publicly.

Dinner, however, did end eventually. The dish was spotlessly clean when we were through, about a quarter of it my doing. The question of the evening, where does he put it?

When we were finished, the time was near seven thirty and the sky was already beginning to dim to a warm purple with pink swirls slap dashed about. Sunset was a beautiful time of day. The perfect time of day for one certain ride. . .

"Aya wanna go on some more rides before we leave?"

Shaking his head, he politely declined. "I ate too much."

"I could've told you that. But c'mon, what if it's a really mild ride?"

"Youji," twin violet orbs made the quick transition into shi-ne glare mode.

"Just one?!" I asked smiling. If he refused the puppy dog eyes would just have to be brought into play.

". . . What ride?" Score!

Aya

Looking at the line, I sighed. The ferries wheel? "Youji this is an awfully long line for a rather lame ride."

"Please Aya! We can go back after this, I promise!"

Conceding with a nod, I shifted my weight to my other foot. No matter how good of shape you're in, it is impossible to not utterly slaughter your feet when touring. All of the damned walking. . .

Tiredly I counted the number of people in front of us, truthfully, it wasn't that long of a line, but surely it would be very slow moving. As I spaced out, I began to feel my lids grow heavy and they would close for a second or two, then open halfway before closing again. This day had been more tiresome than I previously would have thought.

"Tired?"

Shaking my head to clear it I looked over at my blonde partner who greeted me with a warm grin.

"Just a little," I affirmed.

Giving a small snicker, I felt his arm come around my shoulders, pulling me to lean against him. Despite a faint boniness, his shoulder was warm and inviting so naturally I leaned against him.

"Did I ever tell you're that you're kawaii?" The snicker that passed his lips was not altogether degrading, but I still didn't care much for the sentiment.

"I'm not cute."

"Yes you are."

"Am not," I murmured tiredly against his arm.

Chanting a tease he sang, "kawaii, kawaii, kawaiiii!"

"Baka."

"Kawaii koneko." Oh dear God.

"Kawaii baka."

"Really?!" He asked at my mumbling. "You think that I'm cute?"

"Not kawaii, kouai. You're a scary idiot."

"Suuure Aya. . . Oh look the lines moving!" Pulling away from Youji, we began to shuffle forward behind the crowd. The thing about ferries wheels is that the lines only move about once every five minutes but they always seem to have a lot of people board.

Surprisingly, I realized as we made our way towards the front, we would be able to get on this go round. As two teenagers exited their little cart, we were ushered on. When he thought I wasn't looking, I saw the kawaii baka saying something to the carnie. What was he up to?

Youji

Hee, success.

Sitting down and pulling the latch bar over, we were soon set into motion. Slowly the large circle made its rounds, showing you the park, then taking the view away, again and again. The two of us were silent but my little redhead was cuddled, well more so leaning than cuddling but a man can dream, against me with my chin propped on his head. The minutes went by slowly as I lost myself in idle thought, but then I felt the ride slowing then come to a stop. Hmm.

"Oh look Aya; we're stopped at the top." Thank you mister two teeth!

"What a coincidence" he murmured. Hn, I had thought that he didn't know. Oh well, the fact that he didn't sound too particularly pissed was very encouraging.

"God, just look at the view." The city was all lit up and the stars were brighter than usual in the now nighttime sky. The moment was more romantic than anything I'd ever managed to pull off with one of my one-night exploits. . . Albeit a tad on the cheesy side, but I don't think that it's possible to even delve into the field of romance without the cliché factor.

"It is pretty," Aya agreed quietly.

"So are you having a good time?"

". . . Surprisingly, yes."

"That's good." Shifting so that I was sort of facing him, I placed my hand upon Aya's cold cheek; gently I stroked his soft skin with a small smile.

"What?" His tone was neither cold nor rude. . . Oddly.

"I meant it when I said that you were kawaii," and I had too. Gods, I'd always found him mysteriously beautiful before, and maybe a little handsome. . . However, I'd never seen a cute side, until now. Now it wasn't just his looks either, but his personality. In two days, I'd learned more than I'd learned in two years. This wasn't just an aesthetic appreciation or a lustful need anymore. It was deeper than that. . .

"Hmph," his eyes broke contact with mine as they rolled.

"Seriously!" My words were insistent and my staring gaze was begging him to believe me. For once, I just wished that Aya could see how I felt and know that without a doubt I was for real.

With a sigh, his eyelids lowered and he leaned his forehead against mine, as if he were frustrated. "I can see how you get all of the women; you really are very charming at times."

"Thank you, but I don't really care for anymore meaningless relationships-" Abruptly our moment was ended as the ride was set in motion once more. Dammit, I had originally wanted to use the stopping point for a make out session but it had been turning into a love confession. . . Why did all of my dramatic things always get ruined? Hn, sometimes I think that my luck is even worse than Aya's!

Aya

Quickly we were making our way out of the park, trying to beat the crowd before closing time came in an hour. My mind was a blank as I forced myself not to think into the blonde's words. A long time ago, I learned the hard way that thinking too much into things causes nothing but pain and hopeless misconceptions.

With a sigh of relief I noted that the main gate was up ahead, right now I just wanted to go back to the Hoshiko hotel and collapse. This was the most tiring mission ever and we hadn't even killed anyone yet!

Grabbing my wrist abruptly, Youji stopped me. "Wait a second."

"What is it now?" I growled tiredly in response.

"Wait here, I'll be right back!" Before I could respond, the blonde took off, leaving me near a tree. Damn that bastard, I frowned internally. If he wasn't back within five minutes, I'd be very angry; my feet were killing me and there wasn't anywhere to sit.

Also, being alone meant that my mind would think against my will. I don't really care for anymore meaningless relationships- So Kudou had found the one that he wanted, meaning that I had no chance. Perhaps I could stand him being with someone else, and being in love. . . What I could not stand, though, was him leading me on. Occasional flirting was all right, it was just his nature, but this constant hitting on me was building up false hopes. It was. . . It was heartbreaki-

"Back!" Looking up from my train of thought, I realized that he'd returned in record time.

"What did you run off for?"

"Well a promise is a promise," he drawled with a smile as he pulled an obscenely large sucker out from behind his back.

"Y-Youji." I couldn't fight smile that curled my lips as my head shook slightly with amusement. Previously I'd thought that he'd been joking. "Arigatou."

"Anytime."