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 have reached the conclusion that there's no way I'll have this story finished by New Year's, or even Twelfth Night, since I'm planning to go out of town for a few days, and then I leave on vacation with my parents shortly after that. My new goal is now to finish before the end of January.

Solstice

By Rapunzel

Chapter 3

While Youji would have admitted that he was not necessarily a man who had book smarts, he did pride himself on being quick witted. It was almost a requirement if one wanted to flirt successfully with a wide variety of women, which Youji did routinely. He always had to be ready with an appropriate comment to charm, or a disarming explanation to dissemble if they ever started asking too deeply into his personal life.

After many successful years in Weiss (successful in many respects), Youji had come to have a fair opinion of his own abilities when it came to plotting and pulling off crazy ideas. So he didn't anticipate any problems in his quest to secure Ken's birthday present. Drugging Aya's tea had been almost too easy, and he had taken an amused sort of satisfaction out of watching his normally graceful leader fall face first into the kitchen table like a sack of bricks. He didn't worry too much about the headache such an action might bring on later; it would serve the man right for always getting on his case when he was hung-over. Hauling Aya over to the couch to lay him out was a little more difficult. Aya was damned heavy for someone as skinny as he was. It was probably all that muscle mass, Youji decided. Of course, ideally he should have maneuvered Aya over to the couch before drugging him so as to avoid the whole moving process, but then hindsight was always twenty twenty.

It took longer than he'd expected, but Youji finally had Aya laid out on the sofa. Then came the dangerous part, the removal of the clothing. Under normal circumstances, attempting to remove Aya's clothes would have amounted to suicide, which was why Youji had taken the precaution of drugging him first. The task proved to be more difficult than Youji had anticipated. True, he had a lot of experience undressing people, but usually they were conscious and more than willing to help him. Aya, in his drug-induced sleep, was a deadweight, and Youji ended up accidentally rolling him off the couch just trying to get his shirt off. He considered leaving the redhead on the floor, but decided that neither Aya nor Ken would appreciate that very much. Then, once he'd managed to get Aya back on the couch and was ready to move on to removing the pants, he realized he'd forgotten a very crucial item. The red ribbon was still up in his room. Cursing, Youji left to go fetch it, knowing that he couldn't properly carry out the plan without it.

The plan was fairly simple. Omi and he had conspired to get Ken away from the shop for a few hours. During that time, Youji had told Omi that he would "convince" Aya to don the required costume. Convince, in this case, meant drug senseless, since Youji was fairly certain that nothing short of that would induce Aya to remove all of his clothes and wear nothing but a red ribbon wrapped all around his body, Ken's birthday or no. So, Aya had been duly drugged, and Youji, once he finished removing all of the redhead's clothes, would bind him up in the ribbon and leave him there for Ken to find when he got back. Of course, he expected Aya would be a little miffed with him when he woke up, but he was hoping Ken would have returned by then and that Ken's reaction to the costume would take care of any irritation Aya felt towards him.

It took him almost five full minutes to find the ribbon, but at last he returned triumphant to the room below where Aya was still waiting, sprawled unconscious on the couch. Youji began to wind the ribbon artfully around his shoulders and bare torso, trying not to make to the loops too tight. While having Aya trussed up would have meant the redhead couldn't hurt him, he doubted that Ken would appreciate it if Aya's movements were restricted, and this whole endeavor was for Ken's sake, after all. Humiliating Aya was just an added bonus, one Youji planned to take full advantage of by taking pictures of his handiwork once he was finished.

Youji quickly finished the wrapping job on Aya's chest and set the ribbon reel down on the couch while he went to remove Aya's pants. He paused to considered Aya's socks for a moment, then removed those too. When in doubt, bare more skin, that was his motto for the day. Of course, it wasn't his skin he was baring, but that was a minor point. His plan was going perfectly.

At least, his plan had been going perfectly until the worst happened.

Youji was just steeling himself to remove Aya's underwear when the redhead suddenly twitched. Youji froze and held perfectly still, hoping that the movement wouldn't be repeated. A moment went by during which both men remained in perfect stillness. However, just as Youji was breathing a silent sigh of relief and preparing to go back to his task, Aya twitched again. His eyelids fluttered briefly, and he shivered slightly as his body seemed to realize that it had been deprived of all the layers that had kept it warm.

'Please go back to sleep. Please go back to sleep. Please go back to sleep,' Youji begged silently. If Aya woke up at this stage in the game, he was a dead man.

Luck was not with him, however, for Aya groaned and lifted one arm to rub at his face. Youji cursed himself for his foolishness. He must have miscalculated the dosage for the drug. Either that or Aya hadn't finished all of his tea. Whatever the case, it was too late to do anything about it now.

Aya, meanwhile, in rubbing his arm across his face, had encountered the strange material there. He blinked his eyes open blearily to stare in confusion at the strange red cloth that encased part of his forearm. His gaze then traveled down to the rest of his body, and awareness began to return to his eyes. Youji realized that he had a very limited window of time in which to act before he died a horrible, painful death at Aya's hands.

"Kudou," Aya said in a soft but very dangerous voice, "what is the meaning of this?"

Youji swallowed hard as he looked into the violet eyes that were promising him a one way ticket to hell, and came to a decision.

'What the hell, I'm done for anyway.'

"I'm not done yet," he said, "so hold still." So saying, he strode over to Aya and made a grab for the edge of his underwear.

Aya's reflexes had been slowed by the drug, and that fact was probably the only thing that saved Youji as he leapt back to avoid the fist that had been aimed at his face. Aya jumped up off the couch, but immediately tripped over the ribbon, which still trailed from his body to the reel, and went over backwards. Youji, seeing his opportunity, jumped on him and attempted to use the ribbon to bind him up.

"What the hell are you doing!" Aya yelled, enraged. "Get off of me, you damn pervert!"

"Hold still, damn it!" Youji snapped back. "This is for Ken!" Adrenaline was giving him a sort of high, and he suddenly didn't care if Aya was going to kill him for this. This was Ken's birthday present, damn it, and he was going to finish the job and get it right!

"I don't care who this is for!" Aya yelled, shaking and kicking violently to dislodge him. "Get the fuck off and leave me alone!" He managed to haul himself away from Youji and climb to his feet, but Youji hastily grabbed the trailing end of ribbon and tugged hard, stopping Aya dead as the coil constricted around his body. Youji felt a momentary surge of victory. Aya was out of his element here. He had no katana, whereas Youji already had a weapon in hand. Ribbon wasn't exactly wire, but it was close enough that he could work with it.

"Hold still, I said!" he repeated, also climbing to his feet and attempting to both restrain Aya and finish the wrapping job. Aya snarled at him, but Youji was not about to let himself be deterred. He was just getting ready to knock Aya over and sit on him if necessary, when he heard a door open in the background. He was beginning to realize the implications of that sound and just how much trouble he was in when Ken's voice, raised in astonished fury, broke through the chaos of the room.

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

Youji sighed heavily. So much for perfect planning.

/-/-/-/

Aya was pissed beyond words. His head still felt somewhat fuzzy from whatever drug Youji had used on him and he was angry with himself for having been gullible enough to drink the tea in the first place. To add insult to injury, he was now standing in the middle of the room with very little on in the way of clothing, and all three of his teammates were staring at him. To make matters worse, he was starting to get cold, since the ribbon didn't do much to provide thermoinsulation.

And now, worst of all, Ken had to see him like this. Ken had to see him mostly naked with the damn ribbon wrapped tightly around him like some sort of exotic snake constricting its prey. If Aya hadn't been angry enough to murder someone, he would have been trying to sink through the floor in embarrassment. His rage, however, would not let him back down until Youji had been suitably punished. In fact, the only person in the room who seemed to be more angry than he was about this turn of events was Ken.

"What the hell are you doing!" Ken repeated.

Youji seemed a little taken aback by the sudden return of the other two, but he quickly recovered himself. "Why, Kenken, you're back early," he purred. "I'm not quite done wrapping your present yet, but you can help if you want to. But I suppose you're more interested in the unwrapping part."

"Present?" Aya repeated incredulously. "I am not a damn present!"

Two long strides brought Ken into the room and over to them, and the next thing Aya knew, Youji was lying sprawled on the floor and Ken was standing over him, fist raised and ready for another punch, murder in his eyes.

"What are you trying to do!" Ken yelled. "Why are you trying to humiliate me like this? The joke about the ribbon wasn't even that funny the first time, and now you're trying to take it one step further?"

"Joke?" Aya repeated dangerously.

"No!" Youji said, hauling himself to his feet. "It isn't like that! Damn it, Ken, I'm not trying to make fun of you!"

"You think it's funny to knock me out, strip me, and tie me up?" Aya growled.

"Youji-kun," Omi put in from his place behind Ken, "I thought you said you'd convince him."

Ken whirled around to face Omi, eyes narrowed dangerously. "You mean you were in on this too!" he demanded.

"Um..." Omi backed away slowly.

"Look, the convincing part didn't go so well," Youji said. "But it wasn't supposed to turn out quite like this. The drug just wore off too soon."

It was the wrong thing to say. Ken spun back around to face Youji, his face turning white with fury. Youji took an involuntary step back as Ken advanced on him menacingly. "Drug?" Ken repeated, his voice a low growl. "You drugged Aya?"

Too late Youji realized the danger. "Look, I know what you're thinking, but it wasn't quite like that," he said, backpedaling as fast as he could.

"You're his friend," Ken said, his voice rising with every word, "and you drugged him!"

"I was just trying to get you your birthday present, damn it!" Youji yelled back.

"Why do you keep harping on this whole present thing?" Aya cut in. "How the hell does tying me up with ribbon constitute a birthday present?"

Ken, who had been preparing to pound Youji into a bloody mess, froze. His head slowly turned and he stared at Aya with wide brown eyes that held more than a hint of fear in them.

Aya glared back at him. "Do you think this is funny?" he snapped, gesturing at himself and his state of undress.

"N-no," Ken whispered back. He was so pale now that even his lips appeared an odd color.

"But you wanted this as your birthday present?" Aya said accusingly. "Well? Did you?"

"No," Ken said again, a little louder this time. "At least... not like this!" He suddenly whirled on Youji and burst out, "Now look what you've done! You ruined everything! Some birthday present!" He aimed one last savage kick at the blond, and then took off running for the stairs. The other three listened to his footsteps receding up the flight of steps, and then came the sound of a door slamming somewhere over their heads. They remained in silence, all staring after Ken, until finally Youji sighed heavily, rubbing his face where Ken had hit him.

"Well," he said quietly, "that could have gone better."

Tbc...