Aphrodite 2?
by Nix Winter
Disclaimers: I don't own WK. I'm just playing and catching up on my Christmas present to a precious friend.
Youji left the house. He'd been wearing a new black trench coat and a hat. It made Aya's teeth hurt. Youji was sleeping much of the day, getting up around two o'clock everyday and he was smiling almost constantly. He looked... healthier. Aya hadn't seen Youji smoke in over a week and he was dying to know what was going on.
Invading Youji's privacy was not an option, however. France was being good to Aya as well, with books and films, nice cafes and no death. It was amazing how that little detail seemed to make such a big difference.
Not that he didn't miss it just a little. Maybe it was a predatory instinct that once woken didn't really go back to sleep, or maybe it was some other need that he wasn't getting met. He hadn't gone to the Kritiker therapist and he wasn't going to play amateur head shrink. It wasn't really any of his business. If Youji were sleeping with come French woman, reading her children bedtime stories, and moonlighting to may her rent, it was none of Aya's business.
And then Ken went out.
And more than Aya's teeth hurt. Ken had dressed up, tight black jeans, a new leather trench coat, and as the door closed the scent of a new after shave wafted into the study where Aya sat, spicy and sweet. Cheap, Aya thought viciously, turning another page of his book deliberately. The French had no morals. That's what it was. Aya's finger tapped against the corner of his book, and he wanted to know.
He had the sudden flash of seeing Ken pressing Youji up against some damn alley wall, finger sliding through golden hair, lips pressing savagely against Youji's overused lips. And the flash turned into a nuclear explosion when he realized the day dream wasn't about Ken kissing Youji, but about himself kissing Youji. Aya nearly threw the book across the room.
It was just a day dream, some deep seated expression of frustration! "I don't care if you screw each other like fucking French rabbits," he screamed in Japanese. The hall echoed his words. France failed to notice his ire.
Ken had followed Youji the previous night, and the night before. He always went to the same club. It was a big club, sparkling and new. So Ken knew where Youji was going. He figured the older assassin had gotten himself a job there, maybe doing some kind of security. So Ken's curiosity was settled. What Ken wanted now was something very different than just knowing what the hell Youji was up to. He wanted ... wanted something he didn't even know what he wanted, but he was pretty sure Youji was the only one he could go to about this. If anyone in the world would understand, it would be Youji.
So Ken got in line. He'd never waited in line for a super snotty club before in his life. He'd really have rather gone and found a gym or an arcade. And maybe that was part of his problem. He had to grow up a little if he wanted someone to notice him. 'And god,' he thought, while fidgeting in the line, 'Youji was so beautiful. Youji could seduce a republican or an angel, or something'
It was a long wait and it wasn't quiet. He gathered there was a singer from Japan in there, named Xodus. Rumors said that Xodus had just returned from his US tour. That he was on the top 40 charts in Australia. The girl two groups a head of Ken swore she'd gotten his autograph when he was in Sidney. The way she talked, she'd screwed him too and only wished she'd gotten his baby.
Ken shoved his hands down into his pocket. Damn rock stars were like some drug. This crack head probably had slept with Gackt too and Hyde. And Ken fairly hated him before they even got to the door. Security was out in force, prowling the lines, keeping everyone polite, and Ken figured that was what Youji was doing here, free lance security.
Hell, maybe Youji was sleeping with this Xodus creep. Ken blew his breath out slowly. All he really wanted was to talk to Youji for a little while. Without all these crazed people that would have been so much easier. If Youji was sleeping with Xodus that would explain why he kept coming back, and the smiles. Ken suddenly felt shabby, and just taking off for the safe house was looking like a real good deal.
"Ken Hidaka?" A woman asked, her lips as polished as the rest of her, like a black vinyl baretta.
He started, backing away a little. It wasn't that he couldn't defend himself just fine against just about anyone, but she was beautiful in a unisex perfection kind of way and she was smiling at him, knew his name, and part of his mind told him to panic and run. Scwartz could be in France too, for Christ's sake.
She pulled back a little, hands moving apart, palms up. "Was just checking. You match the description."
"I'm Ken," he admitted, "I was looking for a friend. Tall blond Japanese guy. He might be working security."
She smiled and he revised her in his mind from a baretta to a fully on M16a2. "He works here," she agreed, lifting the black velvet rope barrier. "Come on. I'll take you in, Mr. Hidaka."
Only then did he realize that she was speaking English to him, not French. Youji must really have sent her, and that relaxed him a little. So Youji was doing free lance security. It wasn't like they'd been told to play dead, just to lay low for a while.
As they entered the club, the sound washed over him. Loud techno music, a beat picked Ken's blood up a notch and then... a voice that he knew.
The shock was all beyond profanity, and he didn't believe it until he saw it.
His mouth hung open as the vinyl semiautomatic herded him into the club, towards the stairs that lead to the dance floor. The singer was beautiful, wearing black leather pants and a silver half shirt, golden curls, Xodus made love to the microphone and to everyone in the club. He paused there on the stairs, both hands on the railing. Xodus was alive there in the light, a firefly living out a life that couldn't last more than a few nights as best. Ken fell in love then, just like everyone else in the club. Until that moment, he'd never seen Youji fully alive before. And he didn't want it to be true. He didn't want Youji to be pouring song out of his heart like it was the end of the world and he didn't want to have fallen in love a honey colored fire fly either.