Disclaimer: While I have immense amounts of fun with the characters of Weiss, I am not delusional enough to think that I own them.

Warnings: shounen ai

Author's Notes: I've been trying to keep my promise to myself and get this finished on time. Of course, it's finals week right now, which means that my muse is going crazy trying to run in seven different directions at once. Hopefully she'll hold still long enough to let me get through this.

Beta's Notes: Additionally, we're really sorry this wasn't up yesterday, but 'Zel and I were having formatting difficulties, where my computer was refusing to open the files of this chapter she sent me. Obviously, we eventually got it to work, but it as a result, this is going up a day later than she had originally intended ;

Solstice

By Rapunzel

Chapter 2

For all the holiday cheer that seemed to have infected the shop, Aya was feeling very gloomy indeed. The crowd of fangirls clustered around him did nothing to improve his mood. With the winter holidays upon them, they were no longer protected from the onslaught of girls by normal school hours. The only bonus was that Omi was also out of school and thus able to help around the shop during those hours.

At that particular moment, however, Omi was not working. In fact, he was taking off his apron and appeared to be getting ready to leave the shop with Ken. Aya narrowed his eyes as he noted this. The shop wasn't due to close for another hour yet, and Omi was supposed to be on shift until then.

Stalking over to the pair, Aya scowled at Omi and demanded, "Where do you think you're going?"

Omi's smile held just a hint of nervousness as he answered. "Aya-kun, I was just going to head out with Ken-kun to do some last minute shopping."

"You're not off work yet," Aya said, still scowling at him.

"Oh, let him go, Aya," Youji called from behind the counter where he was wrapping a bouquet for a young lady. "I'll cover the rest of his shift and help you close up, if that's what you're worried about."

Aya turned an incredulous gaze on Youji. "You've never offered to close up for anyone before," he said, his voice containing a faint note of suspicion.

"Yeah, but we can't let Ken brave the crowds all on his own and on his birthday no less," Youji said.

"Fine," Aya told Omi resignedly. "As long as your shift's covered, there should be no problem." Truth be told, they could have used the extra help. But Youji was clever, Aya would give him that. He had managed to hit on one of the few excuses he knew Aya wouldn't refuse. Ken's birthday.

That same birthday had been troubling him all day. Ken obviously didn't expect the others to make a big deal out of the day, but Aya felt that to let it pass without any recognition at all would have been too sad for words. He wasn't too sure what exactly he should do to commemorate the occasion, however. He'd gotten Ken a gift, of course, but it was boring and practical, and he wasn't sure if Ken would really like it. His biggest concession had been to give Ken the day off work, and while he knew that Ken probably appreciated that, it seemed a paltry thing. The trouble was that most of the things Aya knew Ken really wanted, such as a normal lifestyle, were not things that he could give. His only consolation was that if he screwed up royally with Ken's birthday present, he had a few more days to try for a better Christmas present.

That consolation did not help to cheer him, however, as he watched Ken and Omi steer their way carefully through the crowd of girls and out the front door of the shop. Several of those same girls had already presented Ken with gifts of their own. Indeed, Aya had been surprised by the number of them who had known that today was Ken's birthday. Then again, maybe he shouldn't have been. The amount of information the girls had managed to compile for each of them was a little disturbing.

Having the fangirls present Ken with gifts had only made Aya more dispirited. He rather selfishly wanted his gift to stand out in Ken's mind, but given the number of presents the brunet had already received, that didn't seem likely. Still, at least Ken would know that he hadn't forgotten the occasion entirely.

Aya realized abruptly that he was in danger of zoning out, and quickly brought himself back to reality. Observing a crowd of girls milling around the counter and gazing at Youji with admiring eyes, he snapped, "If you're not buying anything, get out!" Some of the girls glanced at him briefly, some of them tittered nervously, but most of them simply ignored him, a response which only served to infuriate Aya. Surely they weren't going to force him to start cracking down on them again, so soon after the last time.

"Oi, Aya," Youji called, "loosen up a bit. They'll buy stuff, I just have to finish putting it in bouquets for them."

Aya scowled as the girls started twittering, gushing over Youji and thanking him for defending their right to be there. Snorting in disgust, he moved behind the register and sat down resolutely, hoping to give them some incentive to buy things. If they wanted to ogle him, they would have to come to the register, and if they came to the register, they had damn well better be buying something.

As it turned out, the scheme worked fairly well, and Aya was kept busy until closing time, at which point he almost gleefully evicted the girls from the shop and locked the doors. He and Youji set about the cleaning process in silence. Ken and Omi had not yet returned, and Aya wondered idly when they would get back. Not for a while, he surmised. Not given the crowds they were likely facing if they had attempted any sort of shopping that close to Christmas.

Finally, they were done, and Aya paused to give the shop one last once-over visually. Finding everything as it should be, he nodded briefly in satisfaction and headed to the back. Youji, he noted, had finished his part of the cleaning a little early and had gone before him. He found the blond in the kitchen, apparently preparing tea.

"Hey, Aya," Youji greeted him. "Want some?" He gestured to the kettle on the stove.

Aya nodded briefly as he sat down at the table. A cup of tea was sounding very nice after the long day he'd had, and the fact that someone else was preparing it for him was nice. Though come to think of it, it was a little odd. Youji didn't drink tea much himself; he tended to be more of a coffee drinker. Still, he was offering, and Aya had no intention of looking a gift horse in the mouth.

The kettle began to whistle, and Youji hastily grabbed it off the stove, pouring the hot water into two cups. "Busy day today," he noted as he prepared the beverage.

"Hn," Aya responded noncommittally. Youji was usually one to complain about work, so Aya didn't see why he'd want to make small talk about the subject now.

"It's lucky for Ken he didn't have to work today," Youji remarked, his back now to Aya as he handled the cups. He appeared to be fiddling with the tea bag in one of them. "It being his birthday and all."

Aya made another indistinct sound, idly wondering when Ken was going to get back. It wasn't too terribly late, but it was already dark outside, and it would probably be getting colder soon, if it hadn't already. Aya tried to remember whether Ken had taken his thick coat with him when he'd left.

"I'll bet you wouldn't be so nice to me on my birthday," Youji said, without any real bitterness in the statement. He sat down at the table across from Aya and slid a steaming mug in front of him.

Aya took the mug gratefully and wrapped his hands around it, savoring the warmth while waiting for the liquid to cool to a temperature that wouldn't kill off all his taste buds on contact. "Consider one of the days you simply decide not to work an early birthday present," he said.

Youji made a face at him. "Now that's not fair. I don't just decide to take days off for no reason, you know."

"Oh?" Aya asked archly. "And what's your reason, then? Getting out of bed required too much effort?"

"You know, you're a real hard-ass sometimes," Youji said, as casually as if he'd been talking about the weather. He nodded towards Aya's cup of tea. "Drink up already; it's not getting any warmer."

Aya took a cautious sip. He was pleased to note that the tea had cooled enough that he didn't end up scalding his mouth, but there was an odd taste to it that he didn't like. Leave it to Youji to screw up something as simple as making a cup of tea, he thought sourly. Still, he drank, not wanting to be blatantly rude. After all, it was his own fault for letting Youji prepare it for him in the first place.

"So," Youji went on, "is the day off the only thing you're getting Ken for his birthday?" His tone was casual, but he was watching Aya with a scrutiny the redhead wasn't sure he liked.

"No," Aya answered shortly.

"Glad to hear it," Youji said. "Because you know, Ken would probably be disappointed if it were. And you wouldn't want to disappoint Ken, now would you?"

"Hn," Aya responded noncommittally. There was a funny taste in his mouth now which he didn't like. He took another sip of tea to try to banish it.

"Of course you wouldn't," Youji said confidently, taking his grunt as a no. "Which is why I hope you won't be too mad at me for what's about to happen."

That confused Aya. What was Youji talking about? What was about to happen? Aya was sure he was missing something important, but suddenly thinking seemed to take too much effort. The small part of his brain that still seemed to think it was worth the effort was screaming at him, telling him that something was definitely wrong here. There was no way he should have been feeling that tired and lethargic, and it was certainly unusual that his vision suddenly seemed to be blurry. Wait, did that mean he needed glasses?

Aya's last coherent thought, before he fell face first into his mug of tea, was to wonder why Youji seemed so damn pleased.

/-/-/-/

"Are you ready to go home, Ken-kun?"

Ken, who had been standing as unobtrusively as possible by the entrance to the computer store waiting for his teammate, started slightly when he heard Omi address him.

"Yeah, I'm ready," he answered. "Got everything I needed to get." He patted the bag he was carrying, which contained a book for Aya. It was the reason he'd had to go shopping that day, despite the fact that he could think of other ways he'd rather spend his birthday. He'd still needed to get Aya's Christmas present, and his work schedule had left him with no time to do so until now. It was Omi who had suggested this outing, and Ken had more than happily agreed.

"Have you got everything?" he asked, eyeing the somewhat bulky bag Omi was holding. Letting the boy into a computer store alone could be a dangerous thing, but Ken had been too busy with his own shopping to go along and supervise. Now he wondered if he had made the right choice. Ken fervently hoped that Omi hadn't gotten too much stuff, or transporting it back on his bike would be difficult.

"Oh yes," Omi said brightly. Seeing Ken's look directed at the bag, he added, "This wasn't the only place I stopped."

That made Ken feel marginally better, and they headed out to Ken's bike together. Outside, darkness had fallen. The night was clear and bitterly cold, and Ken found himself wishing he'd thought to bring a thicker jacket.

"I hate winter," he muttered, half to himself.

Omi heard him, however. "Really? I kind of like it, myself. I like snow and the way it makes everything look."

"But it gets dark so early," Ken said. "The nights get so long, sometimes you think they're never going to end."

"Well, that is true," Omi said thoughtfully, "but if you think about it, winter doesn't really start until the solstice. And that's the turning point, really. After that the days start getting longer again."

"Yeah, I guess," Ken said vaguely, looking skyward into the night. He tried to pick out constellations, but didn't have much success, as the city lights had taken over the night sky and pushed most of the stars into obscurity. Instead, he settled on exhaling through his mouth and watching his breath form little clouds of mist in front of him.

Now that Omi mentioned it, the solstice was something of a turning point. Even if the days after it tended to be colder, they were longer. And his birthday fell just after the solstice. He wondered if there was some significance in that.

Omi was watching him, a thoughtful frown on his face. "Ken-kun, does winter make you feel depressed?" he asked.

Ken thought about that for a moment. "Not really," he said, and then amended, "Well, maybe a little. Why?"

"I was just wondering if you have seasonal affective disorder," Omi said.

"What's that?" Ken asked.

"It basically means you get depressed in the winter," Omi explained. "They think it's brought on by a lack of sunlight."

"Is that the one they treat by sticking you in front of a special lamp?" Ken asked, breaking himself out of his reverie and tossing Omi his helmet for the ride back.

"I think so," Omi said, catching the helmet deftly and putting it on.

"Well I hope they don't do that to me," Ken laughed, putting his helmet on as well. "Not unless you want toasted Ken."

Omi also laughed. "Toasted Ken, huh?" he said. "When you say it like that, it makes it sound like some sort of weird food."

Still laughing, they climbed on Ken's bike and headed back to the Koneko. The ride back made Ken really wish he'd brought a thicker jacket; the wind made the cold that much sharper and more unbearable. He was shivering by the time they finally arrived, and Omi teased him a little for having no forethought as he trailed on Ken's heels. He nearly ran straight into Ken's back, however, when that young man suddenly froze, body going completely rigid as he stared incredulously through the doorway into the rooms behind the shop. For a moment he simply gaped, and then his enraged cry filled the air.

"Youji! What the hell do you think you're doing!"

Tbc...

Author's Notes: Most of you probably already have a fair idea of what it is Youji's up to, but if not, it shall be made clear in the next chapter. Hopefully that will be up on or before Ken's birthday.