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'm afraid that I've gotten a little behind on this, since I went out of town for a few days. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it before the new quarter gets too crazy and I have no time.

Solstice

By Rapunzel

Chapter 4

'I hate him!' Ken thought. 'I hate him! I hate him!' That mantra kept repeating itself in his brain as he made it to his room, slamming the door as hard as he could and locking it behind him.

He summoned up every hateful thought, every curse he could ever remember hearing, and directed them all against Youji. How dare he do such a thing, both to Ken and to Aya? To play a joke like that at his expense was bad enough, but to drug Aya to accomplish it... That was unforgivable. One simply didn't do devious things like that to one's friends.

Ken wasn't quite sure what Youji had hoped to accomplish with the whole thing anyway. Youji had joked about having Aya wrapped in ribbon as a birthday present, but the idea of actually making a gift out of another person was absurd, at least to Ken's mind. Youji must have intended all of this as a sort of gag gift. Probably he had only wanted to see the look on Ken's face when he came back to find Aya dressed like that. Youji had mentioned the drug wearing off too soon, which made Ken think that he had intended for Aya to sleep through the entire thing. That made sense, since Aya's murderous reaction proved that he wouldn't have taken the whole idea too well. Youji had probably planned to have him back in his normal clothes before he woke up. It seemed a somewhat extravagant length to go to just for a joke, but then Youji was in many ways an extravagant person.

What confused and hurt Ken even more was Omi's involvement in the whole thing. He must have been a part of it, since he had practically admitted to getting Ken out of the way while Youji carried out his plan. Omi had mentioned something about convincing, though, so at least Ken could absolve him of any involvement in the drugging part. Still, he didn't know why Omi would want to help make fun of him. Had he done something particularly egregious to his younger teammate to warrant such treatment? Was it simply that Youji had a strong enough influence on Omi that the small blond would go along with whatever he said? Ken wasn't sure, but he still didn't like the thought that Omi, who was his close friend and whom he had thought would never stoop to such a level, would take part in something like this. It seemed as if the only person who had not been in on the joke was Aya. That was both comforting, since it meant that Aya at least had not been making fun of him, and mortifying beyond words.

And now, thanks to Youji and Omi and their conniving plot, Aya knew. He knew that Ken had lustful thoughts about him, and to judge by the look on his face when Ken had left, he was none too pleased. The glare he had fixed Ken with still haunted Ken's memory. Why oh why couldn't he have simply laughed it off as some stupid joke of Youji's? Aya might have eventually been able to forgive him for that. But now, Aya would be wary around him. He would never forgive or forget the way Ken felt about him, and it would make him second guess Ken's every action, looking for the ulterior motive behind it. Before, Ken had been able to get away with admiring from afar, but now Aya would be vigilant against even that; now he would know to check and see if Ken was watching him. There would be tension between them, there was bound to be. Things might never go back to the way they had been. And it was all because of his plotting teammates.

'I hate them all!' Ken thought savagely. 'Except for Aya. But Aya...'

'Aya probably hates me now.'

/-/-/-/

One of the first things Aya did upon recovering from the shock of Ken's abrupt departure was to find his clothes. Youji had conveniently left them in a heap near the end of the couch, and once Youji no longer had the end of the ribbon to hold on to him with, Aya was free to go collect them. After unwinding himself from the ribbon and putting on his pants and sweater, Aya felt a little more in control of the situation. He stalked over to Youji, who was still sitting on the floor, grabbed him by the collar, and hauled him up until he was looking him in the face.

"You have five minutes to explain what the hell you thought you were doing before I kill you," Aya said, his tone deadly serious. "What was Ken talking about when he mentioned a joke and what have you done to upset him like that?"

"I'm not the only one who's managed to upset him," Youji said, pulling himself from Aya's grasp contemptuously.

"Don't you dare try to put any of the blame on me!" Aya hissed. "You're the one who was trying to make a fool of me!"

Youji just snorted. "Both of you have got it so wrong that it'd be funny if it weren't so sad."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Ken's pissed at me because he thinks I'm making fun of him. You're pissed at me because you think I'm making fun of you. Both of you are wrong," Youji explained. "I'm not trying to make fun of anyone. I was trying to help the two of you acknowledge what's been sitting under your noses for a while now. And since you can't seem to figure that part out, Ken's even more pissed at me."

Aya frowned. "That doesn't make any sense. What am I supposed to figure out? And what the hell were you doing, tying me up with ribbon, if you weren't trying to humiliate me?"

"I told you, already! You were supposed to be Ken's birthday present!" Youji said, exasperated.

"And how does stripping me and winding me up in that stuff constitute a present?" Aya snapped.

"Oh, figure it out already, Aya!" Youji yelled back. "You're not that stupid. What do you think?"

"I think that you were trying to give Ken a good laugh at my expense!" Aya growled. "And I don't appreciate it!" The words seemed hardly appropriate to describe his ire over the whole thing, but they were all he could come up with at that moment. What really stung about the whole thing was the thought that Ken might actually have found the idea funny at some point.

Youji looked ready to tear his hair out in frustration. "Didn't I already tell you this had nothing to do with making fun of anyone?"

Omi suddenly spoke up, interjecting a comment into the argument for the first time. "Ken-kun didn't seem to think it was very funny."

That was true enough, Aya supposed. Ken hadn't seemed at all pleased with the way things had turned out. That was some comfort at least, that Ken had been angry on his behalf over the whole thing. But why would Youji try to give Ken such a gift when it would only make him angry?

"It's your fault that Ken misunderstood the whole thing," Youji said accusingly to Aya. "If you had just had enough sense to see what I was trying to do and go along with it..."

"Oh, so I'm supposed to let you truss me up like that?" Aya asked sarcastically.

"You were supposed to drink all of your tea and sleep through the trussing up part," Youji said. "Admit it, if you hadn't woken up until Ken got back and found you like that, it wouldn't have been so bad."

"Not so bad?" Aya repeated incredulously. "It would have been mortifying!"

"But if Ken had reacted favorably, you wouldn't have minded so much in the end," Youji said.

"What do you mean, reacted favorably?" Aya asked. Yet even as he said it he knew what Youji meant. The realization was accompanied by a horrible pooling feeling in his stomach that felt like guilt as he began to understand just why Ken had been so upset.

"Judging by the 'oh shit' look on your face, I'd say you've finally figured it out," Youji observed. "Took you long enough."

Aya had nothing to say to that. He was too busy replaying the shouting match in his head, trying to figure out exactly how much damage he had done. How would Ken have interpreted his comments and accusations? If the brunet had assumed that Aya was angry at him for having feelings for him, no wonder he was so upset. Aya winced as he recalled his own words to Ken.

' "Do you think this is funny?" '

"Shit," Aya muttered.

"Yeah," Youji agreed. "I'd say that just about sums it up."

Aya glared at him malevolently. "This is still your fault, you know. If you hadn't decided to meddle in such a ludicrous fashion, there wouldn't have been any misunderstanding."

Youji rolled his eyes. "There wouldn't have been any understanding either though. You two were sure taking your sweet time figuring out the whole mutual attraction thing. I've had you both pegged for months, which is why I thought the present idea would work."

"Well, the present idea, as you call it, is probably the stupidest thing you've done yet," Aya retorted scathingly.

"No," Youji said, a serious and slightly melancholy note in his voice. "It's not." He stared at the rug for a moment, his eyes focusing on something only he could see, but then his face cleared. "But I have to admit, it certainly is pretty high on the list of idiotic things I've done."

Aya sighed heavily and resisted the urge to simply put his face in his hands and give up. "What the hell do we do now?" he asked wearily.

Omi, who had been standing fairly unobtrusively off to the side, decided to join the conversation again. "I think, Youji-kun, that you should go and apologize to Ken-kun. I'll go with you, since I was partially involved as well."

"No," Youji said, shaking his head, "Aya has to go apologize first."

Aya raised his head to stare at Youji incredulously. "Me?" he asked. There was no way Ken would want to talk to him after what he'd said.

"Yes, you," Youji said. "You need to apologize too, don't you?"

Aya didn't deny it. "But why me first?"

"Because," Youji said, "Ken isn't going to be in any mood to forgive me unless you two make up first."

Aya looked to Omi as a voice of sanity, but the boy just shook his head. "Youji-kun's right."

Sighing as he resigned himself to his fate, Aya rose to his feet and headed for the stairs. He had no idea what he would say to Ken, other than that he was sorry, and he had to think of something quickly. And it needed to be something good too. The last thing he needed was to screw this up as well.

However, when he reached Ken's door and knocked, there was no response.

"Ken?" he called tentatively.

Still no answer. Aya tried the handle only to discover that the door was locked. He knocked again, a little louder this time, just in case Ken had gone to sleep, which seemed unlikely. When there was still no response, Aya admitted defeat. Ken was avoiding him, probably as unsure of what to say to Aya as Aya was about what to say to him. Since Aya knew that he was responsible for Ken's hiding in the first place, he was unwilling to force the issue. So instead of pounding on the door and demanding that Ken let him in, he settled down with his back to the wall to wait.

'What the hell am I supposed to do now?'

Tbc...

Author's Notes: This chapter ended up being a little later than I'd intended, but thankfully the start of the quarter lull has jumpstarted the muse. Only two or so more chapters to go, and I'll be done with this.