There was no reason for Brianna to stop by the flower shop on her way home from work. As the shop was closed, she walked around to the back of the shop, to the back door. The door opened easily. Brianna bypassed the darkened shop and went upstairs to the apartment. All the lights were on, but no one was there. As she was opening the door to leave, a noise from the basement made her pause, and then slip silently down the stairs.She paused when a woman's voice rose above the softer tones of the men. "Damn it. You're Weiss. This is what you're paid to do. You're not supposed to start having moral issues about the targets."
"Manx, you don't understand. This isn't right." Ken sounded upset, but it was nothing to the horrified tones that Omi was protesting in.
"No. No no no. I won't believe it. Manx, tell me that it's not true. You added the second target after the mission started, there might be a mistake."
Brianna shook her head, not understanding. She moved a little further down the stairs, and saw the woman who had been speaking. Tall and red-haired, the woman had an angry expression on face and had her arms folded. Omi was at her side, wide blue eyes shimmering with tears that hadn't been shed. Suddenly there was a thump, and she heard Ken curse.
Curiosity got the better of her, and she walked down the stairs. Four pairs of surprised eyes turned to her; Ken was staring at the blood smeared across his knuckles. Brianna could see a large dent in the plaster wall next to him. "Ken, are you all right?" He did a double take at her, then nodded.
The woman exhaled sharply in annoyance. "You know her. You're objecting because you know her."
Aya nodded. Ken glared, while Omi swiped a hand across his eyes. Yohji sighed, and walked to Brianna, slinging an arm over her shoulders. "Manx, this isn't the time to discuss this. But yes, to an extent, we're objecting because we know her. Go back to Krittiker and tell them that we're not going to take out the secondary target until we see some solid irrefutable proof that we'll believe."
Brianna was stunned. What are they talking about? Weiss? Secondary targets? Moral issues? What is this woman talking about? The woman had left, angry but knowing that staying would mean fighting a losing battle. The four guys crowded around Brianna, who was still confused and worried. This is it. This is the dark secret that I kept sensing was there.
"Brianna-chan? We can explain." Omi's eyes were worried; she could see Ken fiddling with the cloth that Aya had produced from somewhere to wipe the blood up with. "Sit down, and we'll tell you everything."
The girl sat, but before any of them could speak, she started talking. "I've spent nearly four years being scared. I moved to Japan because my home was too lonely. But it wasn't going to be any different here. I was still by myself, and couldn't handle the level of isolation that I was feeling."
She waved a hand at Ken as he started to say something. "But then I met you four. For the first time in years, I don't fear getting up in the mornings. I don't look around, constantly worrying. I don't jump at noises – I can eat out again. I sleep through the night now. You make me feel safe." She took a deep breath. "You four banished my beautiful alone. You became people that I could trust, men that I could trust. And I haven't trusted anyone or felt safe since I left him."
"Him?" Yohji settled on the couch next to her, draping an arm around her shoulders. The tiny girl shook her head, again shushing the comments.
"I was told once that it's better to live on, no matter what; that the will to live is the strongest force in the world for a reason. I didn't believe that for a long time.
After I was let out of the hospital, my parents were killed in a car accident. They were my closest family; the only other relatives I speak with are two of my cousins, and neither of them lived anywhere near D.C. Because of everything that had happened, I was forced to see a doctor. A psychiatrist. He was the one who told me about the will to live, that told me that the…incidents…weren't my fault." She looked around at each of the men facing her, meeting each pair of eyes directly.
"You know, you can let go of depression, and you can push aside guilt and shame, and you can pretend that you don't hate yourself – but none of it really ever goes away. You just learn to live with it, to ignore it. Every day was easier to cope with – especially once I isolated myself from a social life. If there isn't anyone around you, you can't get hurt, right?" She laughed, a short, almost ugly sound. "But no matter how much you push people away, you are confronted with people who you need. Lives that touch you, that force you to shove through your own inadequacies. You force me to do that. Something in the back of my mind won't let me walk away from you." She shook her head. "But no matter what that voice says, I know that I make bad choices. All I've ever made were bad choices when I've tried to follow my heart. And right now, I need you to tell me something – are you another bad choice? Are you going to reveal something terrible that will hurt me?"
The room was silent after her words. The four men traded glances, no one sure what to say. Finally, Yohji sighed. "We're not florists." Then he fell silent again.
"That's all you have to say?" Brianna started trembling. "That's it. 'We're not florists'? What are you then? Hired killers?"
The silence was almost touchable. Stunned by the fact that no one was denying it, Brianna's eyes filled with tears. No. Oh, gods, what have I done to myself now. She brushed impatiently at the tears, and shrugged off Yohji's arm. Standing, she looked at each of them, nearly panicking, and seeing the calm, resigned, and sad expressions, fled the florist shop.
She reached her apartment, out of breath and crying. She searched through her pockets, nearly sobbing with frustration, as she couldn't find her key. When she finally admitted that she'd dropped her key ring someplace, she slid down to the hallway floor, leaning back against her door and dropping her head to her knees.
I thought they were safe. I thought they were good. They lied to me, pretended to be different men, safe men. They're just going to kill me. That's what all that was about. I'm an assignment to them. One that they're going to murder.
She couldn't have been sitting there for more than two or three minutes when she felt someone's presence in front of her. Giving in, she looked up to see Omi kneeling in front of her. He held out her set of keys silently. She took it, her hand trembling. Tear tracts marred her face, and she was sniffing.
"We never meant to hurt you, Brianna-san. We only wanted for you to see us without having to see the blood. None of us wanted to be the one to disturb your innocence." He stood up, his wide blue eyes sad. "We did it anyway, with these hands stained with blood." His disgust with himself was broken through when she began laughing.
"Innocence?" The laughter was sharp, nearly hysterical. "What innocence? I lost that the day that I agreed to marry that man." She burst into hysterical sobbing, unable to hold back the floods of emotion that she'd restrained for so long.
Omi fell to his knees, gathering her into his arms. He patted her shoulder, not knowing what to do with her tears. Looking down the hallway, he saw Yohji running from the stairwell where the others waited. The older man dropped down and gently took Brianna into his arms, lifting her up. "Open the door, Omi. I'll take care of her."
"She…she said something about losing her innocence when she agreed to marry someone. Yohji, I didn't know that she was married…." Omi's hands shook slightly as he unlocked the apartment door.
"I'll get her to tell me the whole story. It'll be all right, Omitchi." Yohji's reassuring words didn't touch the pit of his stomach, where a cold weight was settling.