Author's Note: As usual, I'd really appreciate any and all reviews! As long as they hold constructiveness.
Special Thanks to Sachiko V, Whisper Reilman, and Comtess for constantly keeping up with this story and reviewing it! It's always encouraging to see that I've got a few readers hooked and coming back for more.
In other news, I'm finding it sooo amusing that even though this fic is already 4 chapters long, it's still shorter than my two-chaptered fic, Restitution (That's a SchuKen, btw.) Maybe this chapter will throw it over the other fic. I'll be laughing if it still doesn't beat the other fic though! Haha, I'm so easily amused. It's just, these chapters seem sooo long to me, I can't believe it's still like, 2000 words short of the fic that I thought appeared so much shorter than this one.
Disclaimer & Warnings: Everything was listed in the first two chapters.
Pairing: RanOmi and twist in the one-sided SchuKen. Oh yeah, Omi+Ken friendship here too.
Fic Note: Going to fix the small minor errors in the other chapters soon. Probably after this fic is done, I'll read it over several times and fix whatever needs fine-tuning. After that, probably won't touch this fic too much more, I'll be moving on to my next project. I'm thinking about another Weiss fic before moving on to a different fandom for a while. I'm planning on a Fruit's Basket and Gundam fic soon, so look out for me there, I'll probably hit those places soon!
Oh yeah, this chapter is going to seem a bit shorter than the other ones. I didn't have a whole lot to place in here. Sorry to disappoint!
Spät
Omi found Ken lying on the couch in the basement of the flower shop. His figure was barely visible to Omi because it was so dark and there was barely any light pollution where they were, but he knew that Siberian was there. The other Weiss boys had gone to their respective homes, but Omi had returned to their meeting place in order to get a small head start on their latest mission. He tried to creep by the boy quietly, but then found out that Ken was awake.
"Omi...?"
Omi jumped slightly, he wasn't expecting Ken to be awake. "Um...yes, Ken-kun?" the chibi didn't want to upset Ken since he seemed to be in an emotional crisis since his break with Ran.
He heard Ken chuckle. "Does he make you happy?"
Omi blinked. "You mean Aya?"
Ken didn't respond for a moment, and then remembered that he had been the only one of the boys to call him Ran. "Yeah...Aya..." his voice sounded distant.
The chibi gulped nervously, careful about his response. Ken was like a great big brother to him. At the moment, their relationship was more like one of those asian dramas where the older sibling gives up their love so the younger sibling and the former lover could be happy. Which meant the chibi was in shallow water right now, and he needed to tread as lightly as possible so as not to anger his friend.
He heard Ken laugh again, but this time more resigned. "It's okay...Omi. I just...I just want to know if you guys make each other happy?"
Omi blushed. Ran really did make him very happy. Omi turned and nodded to the darkness, not sure if Ken could see him or not. "Yes...he does..."
He heard Ken turn over where he was in his place and heard Ken's tired voice. "That's good...I'm glad...thank you..."
Omi blinked. Why was Ken thanking him? "Um...Ken-kun...?"
Ken answered the unspoken question. "Omi...thank you for bringing his smile back...he looks much better now..."
Omi was flattered and surprised that Ken hadn't chewed his head off, but he was also very relieved. Perhaps Ken was going to forgive them all and things were going to go back to normal after all. He settled into his chair in front of the computer as he heard Ken softly snoring in the dark. He found he couldn't concentrate, however, and ended up turning off the computer and reminiscing of the past while sitting in the dark. Somewhere during that time, he fell asleep.
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It was the exact date of Ken's break with Ran. Ken had come back to the store late in the afternoon with his hand in Ran's. Omi was in a bit of a jealous mood and didn't really feel like talking to either of the boys. This usually happened when Ken came at the same time as Ran. He didn't have hard feelings against either of them, but he couldn't help but feel a small twinge of jealousy for Ken, since he had the position that Omi so desperately wanted.
Ken had walked up to Omi just then, and asked him to help take out the garbage with him. For some reason, Omi's small jealousy vanished. It was just something Ken happened to cause in all of them. Any negative feeling against Ken just couldn't last long. Ken was an easily forgiving person, and in turn, it caused all of the Weiss boys to be just as forgiving for Ken. Omi followed him outside to take the trash out with Ken. Omi felt Ran's gaze on them both, and he pretended that Ran's gaze was entirely on him. He was right for the most part.
Omi threw his three trash bags into the large trash container. Ken threw his bags in and seemed to hesitate at the container, his hands leaning against the wall of the large rectangular container. Omi looked at Ken questioningly.
"Ken-kun? Are you all right? Are you sick...?"
Ken had smiled a smile that sent eerie chills down Omi's spine. It was friendly, but it seemed kind of pained, like Ken was trying not to lose his temper or something. Omi waited patiently, waiting for an explosion. It came, but it wasn't the kind of explosion Omi had been expecting. One minute Ken had been smiling at him, the next minute he was crumpled on the ground with his face in his hands, crying.
Shocked, Omi quickly bent down beside Ken and gripped the ex-soccer player's shoulders, shaking him slightly. "Ken-kun! Ken-kun! What's wrong?"
Ken's tear-stained face looked Omi straight in the eyes and it seemed to strike a small blow inside Omi. Ken's gaze was so clear, so honest. He wasn't guarding a single pained emotion from Omi. Omi tried his best to shoot a reassuring smile at Ken, but he wasn't sure how to handle this side of Ken. Ken was known for being emotional, but never this emotional. "Ken-kun, please tell me!"
Ken's mouth moved without any sounds coming out for a few moments, but then he finally found his voice. He hugged Omi in a crushing embrace, surprising the chibi even more. "Omi..." he whispered.
Omi lowered his voice into something as soothing as possible, trying to hide the panic in his voice. He was debating in his head whether or not to call Ran, but what Ken said next labeled that option completely out of the question. "We're through...Omi..."
Omi was confused. "Through...? Who's through, Ken?"
Ken swallowed, but failed to calm himself. He started shaking against the smaller boy's body. "Aya...and me...we're over..." Ken had almost said Ran, but no one knew that he called Ran that.
Omi thought he was going to be sick. First of all, it didn't make sense. Ran had been holding hands with Ken when they had come in. Sure they had been particularly quiet when they had come in, but Omi just thought they had some kind of relaxing day or something. Omi was starting to feel bad for his feelings of jealousy from earlier. Now was not the time to be jealous of Ken at all.
"But Ken-kun...! You two were so close what happ-"
Ken hugged Omi tighter, which silenced the chibi. Ken was always good at that. Communicating well with his actions. Right now his hugging clearly stated "shut up."
Omi stared at Ken silently as he pulled back and patted Omi's shoulders playfully with his hands. He was laughing, but the tears were still coming. "Omi...good luck, okay?"
Omi didn't get it. He blinked. "Uh...Ken-kun...?"
Ken didn't even explain. He wiped his tears and ruffled Omi's hair and winked. "Your...turn," was all Ken said before he walked back into the flower shop, leaving behind a very confused Omi to contemplate to himself a while before he himself went back inside.
After that, things seemed to work in fast motion. Ran had asked him out on a casual date, and that casual date turned into continuous late night meetings. They were well into the relationship when Ken had suddenly decided to leave. Omi had felt his heart stop when Ken had thrown his bugnuks to the ground. Ken had threatened to leave several times before, but that night he had seriously meant it and gone. Now Ken was back. He wasn't sure how he could handle the guilt if Ken decided to leave again because he felt he didn't have a place in Weiss.
"Omi-kun!" Omi jolted awake as he felt someone shaking his shoulder.
It was Ken with a toothbrush in his mouth, hair wet, towel around his neck, and in his soccer gear. He was smiling. "Time to wake up, chibi."
Omi smiled a small smile of relief and nodded. It seemed as if things had a chance of going back to normal again. "Thank you, Ken-kun..."
Ken laughed. "Don't be late," he paused for a moment, "Aya wouldn't be too happy if you were late for opening up shop...you know?"
Omi barely felt himself nod. "Yeah...I'll be there soon!"
Ken smiled one of his more mature and serious looking smiles. "Good. See you soon."
Omi watched silently as his friend walked up the stairs. He really admired Ken sometimes.
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Weiss was four again. That was how they were when Manx and Persia greeted them again the next night. Neither seemed too terribly surprised, though Manx was a bit shocked that Ken had actually come back. Though Persia had reassured her that Ken would probably eventually return, she had slightly doubted the man, and now felt a bit guilty for that doubt. She should have trusted Persia's judgement a bit more.
"Welcome back, Siberian," was all Persia said before he began going over the mission for that night once more.
Ken only nodded in response and appeared the most ready for their latest mission. They were to infiltrate a Esstet base, and completely destroy their latest human control project. This meant that Schwarz was most likely going to be there to look over things. To everyone's slight surprise after Persia signed off, Ken had been the first to take the file instead of Ran, and began looking over it intently. Ken had seemed to undergo an odd change overnight. The old Ken came back for a moment however, when he handed the file over to Ran and mumbled about not being able to understand those high-tech things. This caused all of them to laugh a little, and a small smile even formed on Ken's own face out of embarassment. It was good to have Ken back, no matter how strange he was acting now.
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Schwarz was waiting for Weiss to appear to try and interrupt things at the Esstet base. Crawford was already prepared, he foresaw Weiss appearing in about fifteen minutes. Nagi was waiting calmly in a corner, arms crossed. Farfarello was licking his blade as usual, tasting the coppery taste of his blood in his mouth happily. Schuldich on the other hand was the least focused this mission. His mind kept wandering to the brunette and it frustrated him. He had played his game through, hadn't he? He had made the ex-assassin fall for his fake affections, and then twisted the knife in the boy's back, figuratively speaking. Yet he didn't understand why he felt so guilty just now. Somehow, while he was still remembering the smiles Ken had given and his looks of shock and betrayal, Schuldich realized that the brunette had gone under his skin a little somehow. Not enough to throw him overboard into a totally different phase of life, but it did cause a small bit of confusion.
He couldn't ponder it for long, however. As Crawford had predicted, two of the Weiss members had already entered the building and were being caught on a well-hidden camera. Schuldich's eyes widened in slight shock as he recognized the shadow of Ken and his bugnuks rounding the corner. "What could the kitten be doing here for," Schuldich wondered, "I thought he quit."
"Apparently not," Crawford's voice snapped in his mind, "Now hurry up and let's go. You're holding everyone up today. We don't have time for hindrances."
Schuldich glared at Crawford and followed the rest of Schwarz out of the secret room out to confront Weiss.
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"All right. Here's the plan. Bombay and I will take care of demolishing the project. Balinese, you and Siberian take care of Schwarz. We will be with you all as soon as we can to help you both."
Normally, Ran's idea of constantly splitting them off so he was with Omi would bother Ken, but today he was all business. Ken wanted to feel the blood of the crazy German on his hands. Before any more words could be exchanged, Ken shot off to look for Schwarz, causing Yoji to stare a moment in wonder and then come to his senses and chase Ken down before he did anything stupid.
Ran and Omi watched the two go off for a moment before rushing off to where they had to be.
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It took Ran and Omi a couple hours to find the right room. In the meantime they had killed over fifty people in the process of finding the right place. They crept into the laboratory only to find the place completely deserted of everything save for a few stray papers and unfinished experiments.
"What is this?" Omi hissed.
Ran gave no reply. He was a bit confused to. He had been so certain that there would have been something here waiting for them. He didn't understand. Suddenly, the room lit up like it was Christmas. The two were now back-to-back, trying to regain focus on the room. The light had been blinding. They were suddenly attacked from all sides as they heard women's laughter. Ran and Omi fought blindly back and their visions began to clear and they were able to better make out their targets.
Their targets recoiled back and Omi and Ran were shocked. They were expecting only Schwarz to be guarding the goods, but they weren't expecting the girl assassin group, Schriedent to be involved in this either. That confirmed it. They were hiding some very important stuff. One of the girls chuckled. "Were you expecting something here?"
Ran and Omi were assessing where they were going to strike next. The youngest girl spoke up, "Yeah! It's too bad you're on the wrong floor!"
That made their blood run cold. That means the true challenges were on the lower floors, where Ran had sent Yoji and Ken. Ran was starting to worry about Ken. In his current very confused condition, this mission was already going to be difficult for him, but it looked like things were going to go more downhill. Schriedent wasn't going to be hard to beat, but they were a very stubborn group. It would take them a while to reach Ken and Yoji at this rate. Ran hoped for the best as he and Omi lunged for their targets.
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"This is the last room down here," Yoji hissed.
"Heh. Good. I'm getting tired of these appetizers," Ken chuckled darkly.
Yoji raised an eyebrow at Ken, looking him over once, critically noting that Ken didn't seem in a very good condition, as Ran had warned Omi and him of earlier. The blood was dripping off of Ken's claws like a waterfall. Yoji thought he would have never seen the day, but today Ken was full of surprises. He had never seen someone kill so mindlessly and heartlessly, and yet still radiate of simply pained innocence. How Ken managed to retain this confusing form of purity was beyond Yoji. He couldn't even say the same for half of his late night wild dates, and he was pretty sure most of them have never even killed or done anything too sinful in their lives.
Before he could plan things out in his mind, Yoji watched in slight horror as Ken kicked open the final door and rolled into the room. Yoji looked inside and clucked his tongue. "Shit...the goods were in this room the whole time," he muttered.
"Very good!" came Crawford's voice filled with mocking-approval, "I'd say I didn't expect Weiss to be smart enough to split up the work, but of course, I already foresaw it a long time ago. That's why we were sure to move the project to a place where Weiss would send their weakest and most annoying members. You two will be easy to destroy. Then we will have enough time to move this project to a safer place. You will not get in the way of Esstet!"
Immediately they were ambushed. There was one thing Crawford hadn't forseen. Ken's fighting technique when he was upset.
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Omi caused the last Schriedent girl to pass out from one of his sleeping darts. Ran grabbed Omi gently by the arm, but forcefully pulled him to the direction of the door. "Come on, let's go."
Omi didn't have to be told twice. They headed off towards the hallways leading towards the lower floors where the smelled a lot of blood. There was no question about it. Ken and Yoji had gone through here.
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Nagi had been the first to fall by Ken's claws. Ken only merely made Nagi pass out of both surprise and strength of impact as Ken's claws dug into Nagi's shoulder, slamming the young psychic into a wall with great force. It wasn't Nagi's blood Ken was after anyway. Ken's mind was now only on one particular psychic, and he wasn't going to let that man out of his sight.
Crawford and the other two Schwarz paused for a moment, as well as Yoji. Ken was staring straight at Schuldich in hurt and betrayal. Now that he was finally face to face with Schuldich again, all of Ken's anger seemed to dissipate right away, and everything was replaced with pain.
"Bradley!"
"What!" Crawford snapped back at the voice in his head, it was Schuldich.
"You and Farfarello take care of the blond. I'll handle the Siberian kitty."
Crawford snorted as he was able to catch a few of Ken's thoughts by accident by channeling Schuldich's thoughts into his mind. "All right. Do whatever you want to him. He's hardly a worthy opponent to us at this point anyway. You go kiss and make up with your boyfriend."
Schuldich's left eye twitched at Crawford's last statement, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he merely tackled Ken to the wall as Crawford and Farfarello started rushing for Yoji who was preparing his next move.
"So kitty came crawling back to Weiss, eh?" Schuldich mocked Ken only half-heartedly.
Ken's eyes narrowed. "Just shut up, Schuldich!" the boy lunged for him.
Schuldich caught Ken's arms easily and pinned them over Ken's head as he got very close to the other boy. "You realize I can terminate you right now, don't you?"
Ken showed absolutely no fear, in his mind, or physically. "Then go right ahead, you bastard. You'd be doing me a damn favor for once."
Schuldich blinked. He had been so ready to fight Ken, and now all of that was gone. They stared at each other a long time, Ken waiting for Schuldich to move, and Schuldich wondering over why he wasn't doing anything yet. Both were ignoring the other fighters who were being oblivious to their small "moment." Schuldich was starting to hesitate, Ken was really quite the interesting person.
Before he knew it, Schuldich found himself leaning in and pressing his mouth over Ken's, forcing himself in. Ken's eyes widened. The fighting around them stopped a moment. Crawford and Farfarello were looking at Schuldich strangely, and Yoji looked like he was in the middle of an "aha" moment and pure disgust that Schuldich would go that far. Nagi was still passed out on the ground, and Omi and Ran had just come through the door, frozen at the sight they were seeing as well.
Oblivious to all of stares and just plain disgusted at what was happening, Ken pushed Schuldich away with all of his strength, his shades which had been on his forehead slipping onto his face because of the force. He stared at Schuldich with a mix of anger and pure disbelief at Schuldich's nerve. "What the bloody hell was that!" Ken screamed in his mind.
Schuldich half-smiled as if he wasn't quite believing things himself. "Well kitten...I think I realized something just now...I think I'm going to keep you."
"Ugh!" Ken managed to yell out in frustration.
He glared in Schuldich's direction. "I don't...I don't believe you! Did you not have enough fun the first time around or something?"
Schuldich chuckled half-heartedly. It looked like he was going to have to win the Siberian over somehow. The fighting resumed when Ken lunged for Schuldich. Omi went to help Yoji, and Ran was running towards the battle between Ken and the German psychic. Crawford and Farfarello resumed their spat with the blond Weiss boy and readjusted to accomodate taking care of the other pesty Weiss member as well. Everyone's battle seemed to have lost some of it's seriousness now though. Everyone was distracted in their minds in some way. It was frustrating honestly.
Ken felt as if someone was killing him inside. He was tired of all of this ridiculous and confusing drama. He didn't need any more of these problems in his life. He was getting really sick of getting picked up, tossed aside, and taken up again at everyone's convenience. He just wanted things to be back to normal. Lunging for Schuldich, he wondered if he could ever make things the same for himself again. He had no doubt in his mind that he could, however, as he was able to cut a nasty gash into the German's shoulder. Things could go back to normal if he was given a little time. After all, he was Ken Hidaka. He had gotten out of deeply twisted situations before when he had really tried and wanted to. And he had enough motivation to get out of this one and just leave it behind. After this battle, he would do it.
He'd just start over.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Saiki.Kensuke.Yuuta: How was it? Final pairings are slowly making their apperances starting next chapter! Stay tuned! Reviews please! They really keep me going, seriously. Oh, and don't freak if you get e-mails from me once in a while. Just showing extra appreciation to the reviewers. And sometimes you all say things that really smile, and I just wanna share that emotion with you guys.
Thanks for sticking with my stories! Especially this one, since I've never done a multi-chaptered thing this long before.