Twilight (1/1)

By Anne

Ratings/warnings: OK (Oz/Kiwi spelling/grammar etc) – Angst PG13. .

Author's notes: Written for the drabble request meme on LJ for Bast. Thanks also to her and Misanagi for their comments and suggestions.

Pairings: Omi/Ken (friendship)

Summary: Omi reflects. Ken helps him to find some answers within.

Archive: http/dryerspace dot fanworkrecs com

Weiss Kreuz is the property of Koyasu Takehito, Project Weiss. I promise to return the characters in one piece, more or less, when I'm finished, but hold no liability for any broken bones or psychological trauma sustained by them in my fiction.

Comments to: anne at fanworkrecs dot com

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Omi knelt in front of the grave, laid the flowers down, and bowed his head. He knew that he should be focusing on the task at hand and paying his respect to his uncle. But, as always, he couldn't rid himself of the thoughts and emotions plaguing him.

He was the last surviving member of his family – as far as he was aware – but it was not a legacy he was proud of. His uncle had tried to make a difference but had been killed for his trouble. Killed by his own brother – Omi's father. Father? Omi shook his head in disgust. That man had never been a father to him in any sense of the word. What father would abandon his son to kidnappers by refusing to pay the ransom?

No! He wouldn't allow himself to dwell in those memories now. Omi knew that he had issues with that part of his past. Issues with his whole family. Would it have been better not to have known who he was, where he had come from?

He was Tsukiyono Omi, code name Bombay, not Takatori Mamoru. Weiss was his family now. His friends would never beat him after he had tried to save them.

"It's not fair," he muttered aloud. "I'm supposed to fight the darkness yet I'm no better than those I kill." Omi glanced down at his hands. They were covered in blood . What gave him the right to kill? To judge? If anyone should be judged it should him. It should be all of them.

He turned at the gentle touch on his shoulder, ready to do battle, prepared to kill. His reaction did nothing to help his current state of mind.

"Omi," Ken nodded his head in greeting. "Sorry, I coughed, but you didn't hear me."

"Sorry," Omi answered. "I was …um…paying my respects."

"Really?" Ken raised an eyebrow, his face creasing into a frown. His voice dropped to barely more than a whisper. "We are better than those we kill." He indicated the grave. "Persia knew this. We have to remember this or it will become a weakness that will eventually destroy us."

"You heard?" Omi wasn't sure how to answer, but knew he needed to say something. Of his teammates, Ken was the one he felt closest to, the one who would listen. Aya was too busy being silent and brooding and he had his own demons to battle. Yohji, well Yohji was rarely serious enough to hold this kind of conversation with.

Ken merely nodded in reply. He knelt and looked Omi straight in the eye. Omi wanted to look away. He didn't like the pain he saw there. They all had their ghosts, maybe that was one of the reasons why Persia had recruited them.

"No one is what they seem, Omi." Ken shook his head. "Persia wasn't. We certainly aren't. There's no such thing as light and darkness, just shades of grey." He paused, glancing between the flowers Omi had brought and back to Omi himself. "We are doing the right thing," he said, although Omi wasn't sure whom the words were directed towards. He knew Ken spoke to him, but yet Ken's voice seemed distant, reflective somehow. "Weiss is a beacon in the darkness, a white cross on the horizon. It's important to remember that."

"But we're so full of darkness ourselves," Omi said, not convinced.

Ken shrugged. "Maybe that's why we're so good at what we do. We can recognise the darkness, hunt our prey because we're fighting a part of ourselves, destroying pieces of our own darkness with each one we kill." He rose to his feet, his mood lifting. "It's late."

Peering up at the sky, Omi was surprised at the change in light. With one final look at the grave, he got up from his knees, and followed Ken, allowing his friend to lead them home.

Fin