Chapter Two : "Iratus" (angry)

Little white bubbles of soap collected on the shower knob as Ken turned the cold water all the way on. Not only would taking a freezing shower wake him up, but he would also be punishing himself for waking up late. After all, it was his fault for staying up until one in the morning anyway.

He only let himself take 5 minutes in the shower though, if he was any more late than he already was, Aya was sure to behead him. Ken cringed when he got the image of the redhead angry. It wasn't yelling or screaming he hated, it was his cold, icy stare. The stare that could burn holes in your head if he got angry enough. His stare could freeze all the blood in your veins and turn your legs to jelly... but, Ken's legs felt like jelly whenever he looked at Aya anyway.

Ken turned the shower off and shook himself like a wet dog, trying to get rid of the coldness. He threw on clothes and ran downstairs, tieing his apron as he entered the kitchen.

Yohji turned around and threw the fork at him. "G'morning, sleeping beauty. Get a little angry at the wall last night? Oh I could understand, it is painted an awful shade of blue, isn't it?"

The brunette rolled his eyes at Yohji and shifted his eyes to Aya, who was now at the sink washing his dirty plate. He placed his dish in the cabinet, dried his hands and turned around to Ken, and squinted his eyes. There it was, that stare that made Ken melt... and all of a sudden, Siberian was stiff.

Aya crossed his arms over his chest lazily. "You made holes in the wall. And you're late. Did you set your alarm?"

Ken gulped, and shook his head no. He hung his head in shame, waiting for his partner to start yelling at him, or call him useless, or... something.

"Do you remember I said I'd kill you if you were late, when you were the one who told me to go to bed at 12:30 last night?"

A nod.

"Good."

And with those words, Aya tied his own apron and pushed open the door into the shop.

Ken's eyes widened and he scratched his head. Thats it...? No yelling, no cussing, no name calling? No punishment? No extra chores? Well, not that the redhaired assassin really could, anyway, its not like Ken was his son or something. But when Aya said something, ninety five percent of the time it usually meant he would do it. Even Omi and Yohji, who had witnessed Aya's actions, were staring at Ken in bewilderment. It was like he had just gotten news he won the lottery.

"Wow." Omi said, taking off his hat and putting it on again. "You're lucky, Ken. What did you do to make him go so easy on you? If it was anyone else, we would have gotten busted."

Yohji snapped out of it and turned to finish washing his dishes. "Well, its not like he broke a window or anything Omi. He woke up an hour and a half late, its not the end of the world."

"With Aya.. it is."

With that comment, both Yohji and Ken looked at Omi. He was right, they hated to admit. Aya was anal with everything, and Ken wasn't usually an exception, no matter what little thing was out of place. Maybe something had finally managed to pull that stick out of Abyssinian's ass.

---

Ken had decided not to bring it up right away. It wasn't really a big thing, but he really couldn't help dwelling on it. He had to get on fixing and painting over those little holes in the wall before he really did get yelled at.

He sighed and continued watering the carnations, confused as to what to think. Maybe I shouldn't dig so much into it, Ken thought to himself. After all he was used to people ignoring him, especially Aya. He didn't really expect much more from him anyway. Ken looked around him, watching the others work, Yohji and Omi occasionally exchanging a word or two. Sometimes he wished he was Yohji... hell, he sure gets a lot of attention.

After 30 minutes of watering the same section of flowers while staring at the back of Aya's head every few minutes, he decided to switch places with Yohji and work the register. But before he could put the hose down and walk over there, Yohji was already beside him.

"Whats with you and Aya?" He whispered into Ken's ear.

Ken raised an eyebrow. There was something going on? "What are you talking about?"

"I've been watching you two." He breathed into the brunette's neck. "Every time you turn around from staring at him, he turns around to stare at you."

A faint blush appeared on Ken's cheeks and he glanced over his shoulder, and caught a tiny glimpse of violet eyes before Aya turned around again. He felt Yohji crack a smile and his cheeks became redder, at a complete loss of words. And thoughts, for that matter. What the hell was going on? All he did was wake up a little late! Ken swallowed.

"Yohji, I want to work the register for a while."

He shook his head, dropping the hose and walking over to the counter. Yohji let out a grunt and picked it up, turning on the switch and moving over to the tulips.

---

He couldn't take it. He couldn't stop moving eyes to watch Aya. He wasn't doing anything besides helping customers, but there was just something about the way he moved that kept Ken in a trance.

Before he could realize, he heard Aya calling his name.

"Ken, I need your help with something."

Ken shook his head and looked around, and realized nobody else was in the store. No more customers, but where were Omi and Yohji?

"Yohji went to make a delivery, and Omi felt sick so he went to bed. So stop looking around like that and help me with this arrangement."

Ken simply nodded and joined Aya at the back table, listening to him explain the task at hand. He instructed Ken to hold up a foam heart so he could stick roses into it without squishing the ones in the front. A simple task, but every so often Ken couldn't help but inhale the sweet smell of Aya's shampoo. Mmm, strawberries... Was now his chance..?

"Aya... why.. why didn't you yell at me? I mean, you told me you were going to--"

"Shh."

Ken raised an eyebrow. "But Aya--"

"Shh."

Okay. now he was totally confused. Did something happen that Aya wasn't telling everyone else about? He was so used to the redhead being irritable and standoffish. And he sure was being distant, but not irritable? That was kind of new... not that Ken was complaining or anything, but he was a little worried.

"...Is there something you want to talk about?"

Ken shook himself out of his thoughts and looked up, staring right into Aya's beautiful violet eyes.

Something he wanted to... talk about..?

"Basium dano ops redimio animus pro infinitio."