Part Two

Aya sat on the floor with Mihana facing him. He had wedged her back against the sofa in the mission room and was smiling at her. Of course had anyone interrupted them he would have denied it. He pulled the length of cloth over his face "Where's Mihana? Where'd she go?" Then he lowered it again, "there's Mihana," and reached forward to tickle her. He was rewarded with a burst of giggles. She really was a little too young to play this with but it was worth it for the explosion of giggles that she answered with. He lifted the tea towel over his face again, "where's Mihana?" He asked, "where'd she go?" He lowered it again, "there's Mihana." And tickled her again.

"Aya?" Omi said, popping his head around the door, "Kawaii!" He exclaimed.

Mihana was dressed in a frilly pink dress festooned with ribbons, she was also wearing a pair of pink suede booties and white frilly socks. Her dark hair was like a shadow that was covered in a soft white bonnet. Aya was all in black but leaning forward to tickle her and they were both laughing. It was also perfectly clear from the tea towel between them what they had been playing.

Aya picked up Mihana and got to his feet, "is there something you wanted?" He asked, "surely the shop is getting ready for the after school rush?" Mihana was still giggling but Aya was obviously embarrassed at being caught.

"We're running out of tea and other things, I was wondering if you could do some food shopping, you could take her for a walk, we're also running a little low on diapers." When Aya was on a mission you needed to appease the mission part of him. It was okay in Aya's opinion for Weiss to starve to death when he was in Abyssinian mode, but it was not okay for his mission to go without diapers. Omi knew that. "Oh, and Aya, you might not want to take her through the shop when the fan-girls are there. So you might want to be quick." Aya shuddered at the very thought as he took Mihana over to her buggy.

It was a wide blue plastic buggy that Yohji had assured him was the very best in the shop, it had also been the most expensive. It was wide and cushioned and Mihana settled in as he buckled her in, and then tucked a blanket over her lap as he pulled his coat on, then lifted his wallet. "Thank you, Ayan." Omi said gushing.

"You want to give me a hand with this?" Aya asked, lifting the back of the pushchair, Omi picked up the front and between them they carried it down the three stairs into the back of the shop.

The flower shop was swarming with teenage girls all screaming and grabbing, it was a position that seemed much worse because for the fact it seemed to do no good Aya's yelling actually calmed them slightly. They were as destructive and feared as a plague of locusts and on one of the few nights they didn't have cram school they were worse than usual. Ouka stood at the counter obviously looking for Omi, who was hiding behind Omi, where Ken and Yohji were doing their best to cope. It was too late, Aya thought, girding his loins and preparing for battle. There were many dark beasts in the world, and none that he feared more than a shop full of teenage girls.

He took a deep breath and whispered, "Omi, distract them." And pushed him into the shop. There was a loud squeal and the boy was dragged off in a mass of hair ribbons and seifuku.

"Well if you aren't the most beautiful girl in all the world." Yohji said, diving into the fray to rescue the boy. "And, Yumiko, have you had your hair cut?"

Aya took a second deep breath and pushed the buggy into the shop. There was a moment of unearthly silence, as if a veil had been laid over the world and the sounds had been leeched from the world. Then there was a faint scream. Then every single one of them moved, as one, as if some colossal general had commanded a legion of the un-dead towards him. "Aya-san has a baby." One of them squealed.

"Kawaii." They shouted in unison and then dived on him.

"Kami-sama." Aya said about ready to turn face and run like a woman back into the safety of the apartment.

"Where did you get a baby?" "Is it yours? Can I hold it? Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Ladies." Yohji said, doing his best to extricate him from the mess, "Aya is just looking after her for his cousin, Hanae-san, don't pester him."

"What's her name?" Ouka asked, leaning in front of the buggy and making faces at the baby, who answered with a loud scream.

"Mihana." Aya answered, his knuckles were white around the handle. "I have to, umm, I mean, well."

"Aya was just taking her for a walk." Ken interjected.

"I'll go with him." Ouka volunteered.

Omi rolled his eyes, "but Ouka," he protested, "I thought that you were going to tell me all about what happened today at lunch." Aya mouthed a thank you and left at what was just short of a dead run.

He pushed the buggy through the automatic doors of the supermarket and cast his eyes about for teenage girls they way he did on a mission when looking for goons. Guessing that all was clear he stepped into the dairy aisle. There was a deadly silence, he looked at the three middle-aged ladies and they looked back. Somewhere a clock ticked. Then with quicker reactions they were upon him. "Is she yours? Where's her mother? Isn't she lovely?" They were making outstretched grabbing motions as they squatted in front of the push chair. Mihana took it in her stride, happily sucking on Froufie, as Omi had called her little Akita plushie. It was soggy and rather vile, and Aya had every intention of popping it in the laundry later. The barrage of questions continued, "what's her name? That frock she's wearing is lovely, where did you get it? how old is she? What did she weigh when she was born? Is she seven or eight months?"

"Hn." Aya went to push past them but they formed a human barricade. "her name's," across the store he could see Nagi at the candy by the cash desks obviously thinking long and hard over what to choose, Schuldig not far from him looking more and more irate. "Mi-," he paused for a moment, if Schwarz found him here they might take the opportunity to take Mihana and he would have failed his mission, "o, her name's Miho, she's six and a half months, yes she is a little big, but I'm only looking after her for a couple of days, she's my sister's baby."

"Aren't you a nice young man." One of the women said fluffing her short black hair around her face. "I have a daughter about your age, very pretty she is too, she can never find a nice man, and you are nice looking, though I'm not sure about your hair, and you're good with children."

"You're tall as well," one of the others said, "nice tall grandchildren."

What little colour Aya had drained from his face.

"You work in that florist's don't you? The Koneko no Sumu Ie." The third one said squinting, "My Tsukiko and Hoshiko have told me all about you boys. See girls, he even has a good job."

He wasn't sure which was worse to him that these women were setting him up, they were setting him up with fan-girls. He had told Yohji he wasn't allowed to use Mihana to cruise for girls. "What's your name, young man?"

Aya took a deep breath and did what any young man would do in his place, "Yohji Kudoh," he answered. "I'm sorry to run off, ladies, but I have quite a lot to do today and if I don't buy milk and diapers it will be Miho that suffers." He grabbed the first bottle of milk that came to hand and walked quickly and firmly away without looking back.

"Sir." A young woman called out behind him as he picked up a box of diapers. "sir," she called a little more insistently, he turned his head with a full factor five Shi-ne glare. The girl winced a little and then held up a small pink suede shoe. "Your daughter dropped this."

"She's not my daughter." Aya grated in such a cold and vicious tone that Mihana began screaming, everyone in the shop turned to look at him. He began wishing for the ground to open up and swallow him.

Author's note.

Sorry about the delay on this, but I was challenged to write a piece called afterimage of a boy, so i slaved over that for my challenger to tell me it needed to be done again, so in the next few days you may find it for those that are interested.

Anyhow, sorry this is short and took so long, but between working on something a lot more dour, flu and writers block time tends to slip away. thank you all for being patient.

And the idea about Kritiker just giving Aya the baby being completely irresponsible, i am aware of it, and believe me i have planned for it, just be patient, all will be explained. Also sorry chapter one was a bit rushed.