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: Well, my schedule for completion of this is completely shot to hell, but then I was half expecting that. It will be finished, however. Eventually. As it is,I shouldn't evenbe posting today. I should be holed up in a corner studying. The invertebrate zoology midterm cometh...

Solstice

By Rapunzel

Chapter 5

The next morning when the shop opened, Ken did not appear for his shift. Omi went upstairs to fetch him, but came back down again saying that Ken claimed to be feeling unwell and still would not admit anyone to his room. Youji opined that he was moping rather than sick, but Aya decided to leave him alone anyway. As it was, the shop was only open for part of the day that day, since it was Christmas Eve, and he didn't consider it worth the effort to drag Ken down for a half day shift when the brunet was obviously hell bent on staying locked in his room.

As it turned out, Ken didn't leave his room all morning. Aya watched and listened carefully for any sign of him, but he never appeared. By the time lunch rolled around with no contact from the brunet, Aya was equal parts annoyed and worried. It wasn't like Ken to hide like this, and Aya wondered what he was hoping to accomplish with his disappearing act. It certainly wasn't a strategy that would work long term.

When they closed the shop for lunch, Aya wandered to the back to find Omi looking concerned. "Ken-kun still hasn't come out yet, has he?" the boy asked.

Aya simply shook his head.

Omi chewed his lower lip in a worried fashion. "I wonder if he's eaten at all today."

"Probably not," Aya said.

"Maybe I should take him some lunch," Omi suggested.

Aya wasn't sure that that was a good idea, simply because he had been hoping that food, or lack of it, would be one of the factors that would motivate Ken to break his self-imposed isolation. However, he saw no way to contradict Omi's suggestion without sounding very cold hearted indeed, so he simply shrugged.

Taking the shrug as permission, Omi nodded decisively. "I'll fix something to take up to him. If nothing else, it might provide an excuse for me to talk to him."

Aya snorted. "That's assuming he lets you in in the first place."

Omi, however, remained optimistic. "It can't hurt to try again. He's had all last night and this morning to get over it."

"Or to brood on it," Aya said darkly. Knowing Ken, he was fairly certain it was the latter. Staying locked in one's room didn't sound like getting over it behavior to him. Still, Omi was right; it couldn't hurt to try. And Omi had a way of cajoling people that Aya could never hope to match. The boy probably had a better chance of getting Ken to let him in than anyone else.

Omi, who had been busily setting food items on a tray while Aya thought, finished his preparations and hefted the tray up. As he headed off for the stairs, Aya stopped him.

"Omi," he said.

Omi paused. "Yes, Aya-kun?"

"If he does let you in, tell him I want to talk to him."

Omi nodded and continued on his way.

/-/-/-/

Ken was dozing lightly when the knock came on his door. His distress the previous night had made it difficult to sleep, and now he wanted nothing more than to curl up on his bed and ignore the world. However, the insistent knocking refused to be silenced, no matter how much he ignored it. When stuffing a pillow over his head failed to improve the situation any, Ken finally gave in and called out, "Who is it?"

Omi's voice filtered in to him through the wood of the door. "It's me."

Ken sat up in bed and scowled at the door, totally oblivious to the fact that Omi couldn't see him. "Go away."

"But I brought you lunch," Omi said. "Aren't you hungry, Ken-kun?"

Ken opened his mouth to say that no he wasn't, but his stomach, encouraged by the thought of food, beat him to the punch by growling loudly. It reminded him, in no uncertain terms, that since he had gone into hiding before eating dinner the previous night, he had not put anything into it for approximately twenty-four hours.

"Damn," Ken muttered softly.

"Ken-kun." Outside, Omi's voice took on a slightly wheedling quality. "I know you're mad at us, but it's really not as bad as you think. Won't you let me in so we can talk while you eat?"

Ken considered his options. He was still a little peeved with Omi, but not nearly as pissed as he was with Youji. And given Aya's current frame of mind, there was no way Ken was going near him unless absolutely necessary. Sooner or later he would have to eat, and of all the people who could bring him lunch, Omi presented the least potential for confrontation. Thinking along those lines, Ken reached his decision.

"Fine," he called resignedly. "Just give me a minute."

He slid out of bed and padded across the room to the door, undoing the lock and opening it just enough to cautiously peer out. Seeing no one but Omi, who was holding a tray and looking both hopeful and concerned, he opened the door fully and stepped back, allowing his younger teammate to enter. He noted that Omi seemed rather relieved to be let in.

Then Omi set the tray down, and Ken ignored everything else in favor of attacking the food on it. He hadn't really realized how hungry he was until food had been mentioned. It only took him a few minutes to finish everything on the tray, and when he did, he looked up to find Omi watching him with a slightly stunned look on his face.

"Wow," he said. "You were hungry, huh?"

Ken just nodded, slightly abashed.

"It's a good thing I brought you lunch, ne?"

"Yeah," Ken agreed. "Thanks." He was hoping that now that the food was gone, Omi wouldn't have any reason to stay and would pick up and leave. Omi, however, seemed to have other ideas. He settled himself on the foot on Ken's bed and gazed at his friend intently.

"You don't look so good," Omi observed.

Ken sighed heavily. Great. Omi wanted to talk, and Ken didn't need three guesses to figure out what he wanted to talk about. The problem was that Ken didn't especially want to talk at that moment, particularly since he still couldn't decide if he was peeved at Omi or not.

"I just had what was quite probably the shittiest birthday of my life," Ken said with a shrug. "What did you expect?"

Omi sighed heavily. "Ken-kun, I'm really sorry about how things turned out, and so is Youji-kun. If you would let us talk to you, we would tell you that."

Ken didn't really have anything to say to that. Apologies didn't do much good at this point.

"We hoped that you might be more willing to let us apologize and try to make it up to you after Aya-kun had been up here, but he said you wouldn't let him in," Omi went on.

Ken frowned. "I don't want to talk to Aya right now."

"But why not?" Omi asked, looking bewildered. "Aya-kun wants to talk to you."

"Oh, I'll just bet he does, if by talk you mean chew me out," Ken muttered sarcastically.

Omi gave him a sympathetic look and patted the spot on the bed next to him, inviting Ken to come sit. For reasons he couldn't fathom, Ken found himself complying. He settled himself on the mattress next to Omi and sat staring at his hands, trying not to imagine what Aya would have to say to him when he was eventually forced to come out of hiding.

"Ken-kun," Omi said in a soothing tone, "Aya-kun doesn't want to chew you out."

Ken snorted. "Yeah. Sure. How can you think that? You saw how pissed he was last night. He probably thinks that I asked Youji to do that or something like that."

"He knows it was Youji-kun's idea, and you had nothing to do with it," Omi said. "He's not mad about that."

"He knows," Ken repeated vaguely. "He knows everything now."

Omi was silent, not denying the statement.

"He knows how I feel," Ken murmured, "and now he'll never let me near him again. Maybe if I'd had time to break it to him slowly, or if he'd never found out, I'd still be okay. Now it's all finished."

"That's not true," Omi protested. "Aya-kun isn't as mad as you think he is. And if he is angry, it's mostly at Youji-kun. He won't never let you near him again."

"Are you sure?" Ken asked, not quite able to believe that. "He seemed pretty mad at me last night. And really, the way the rest of my life has gone, this should just complete the pattern. Almost every other part of my life sucks, so why shouldn't my love life be the same?"

"Oh, Ken-kun," Omi said comfortingly. "You're being melodramatic. Things can't be bad forever. Sooner or later, there has to be a point when they can't get any worse, and then your luck will turn."

"I don't know," Ken said sounding glum. "I'm not sure my life has one of those points."

"It does," Omi said firmly. "And you're sure to hit it soon, if you haven't already. Things are bound to get better."

Ken rolled his eyes, but he didn't have the heart to directly contradict Omi on that one. Let the boy believe in his optimistic theory if he wanted; Ken wouldn't be the one to disillusion him.

After a few minutes of sitting in silence, Omi seemed to decide that he had gotten out of Ken all that he was willing to share. He rose to his feet and collected the tray, beginning to head towards the door. Before he opened it, however, he turned back to make one parting comment.

"Ken-kun, I know you think that Aya-kun hates you now, but he really doesn't. You'll just have to believe me on that. Please, if he comes up to talk to you again, don't turn him away. If nothing else, the two of you need to straighten things out. After all, you can't stay in here forever."

Ken went back to staring at his hands and did not reply.

Omi sighed. "Just talk to him, okay?" And then he opened the door and slipped quietly out.

/-/-/-/

Aya couldn't believe he was doing this. Had he been in any other circumstances, he would have considered going in to get his head checked. Actually, he was still considering that, but he reminded himself that there was a very good reason why he was doing what he was. Ken was a good enough reason for almost anyone.

When Youji had suggested the idea that afternoon, he had thought at first that the man was joking. Omi had come down from Ken's room and informed them both that while Ken didn't seem quite ready to talk to Aya just yet, he should be thinking about it. Youji had then suggested his idea of a way for Aya to try to make things up to Ken.

Aya had scoffed at first. "You already tried that," he'd said, "and we all saw how well it worked."

"Ah," Youji had said, "but I think that coming from you, it might work a little better."

And so here Aya was, standing outside Ken's door ready to humiliate himself in the name of second chances. He tried to console himself by thinking that the only person who was actually going to see this would be Ken. Somehow he didn't think that the brunet was going to laugh at him.

Deciding that he had better just get it over with, Aya raised his hand and knocked.

After a moment, Ken's voice rose in a cautious reply. "Who is it?"

Aya didn't respond. He wasn't sure if he was still on Ken's list of people he didn't want to talk to, and if he was, he didn't want to risk Ken sending him away without even opening the door. So in lieu of a verbal reply, he simply knocked again.

He spent another moment waiting in silence, but after about thirty seconds had elapsed, he heard Ken's footsteps approaching the door. He drew breath nervously and straightened, trying to appear braver about all this than he actually felt.

The door opened. "What do..." Ken's voice trailed off and died as he caught sight of Aya. They stood frozen for a full minute, Aya standing in the hall, and Ken standing in the doorway gaping at him.

Finally, Aya said, "Do you mind if I come in? It's a little cold out here."

The hallway was fairly chilly, especially since he wasn't wearing a sweater, or even a shirt. In fact, the only things he had covering the upper half of his body were a few loops of bright red ribbon, which came together to form a bow in the center of his chest. Despite Youji's suggestions, he had left his pants on. He still had some dignity left, and besides, there was no point in going all out when he wasn't sure exactly how Ken was going to react.

At that moment, Ken didn't seem to be reacting at all. It was as though someone had stolen his ability to speak. It took him a moment to process Aya's request, but when he did, he nearly jumped back out of the doorway, holding the door open and gesturing Aya in with rapid, nervous movements.

Aya entered gratefully. As he had expected, Ken's room was warmer than the hall, and he was glad for that. He turned to face Ken, who was staring at him as he shut the door, still utterly speechless. Aya waited in silence for him to regain his equilibrium and speak.

Finally, Ken licked his lips and whispered, "What on earth are you doing?"

"Trying to make up for your ruined birthday," Aya said. "Or trying to give you an early Christmas present. You decide which of those two you like more."

"Youji..." Ken started, but didn't seem to know what he wanted to say and so fell silent.

"Youji had nothing to do with it this time," Aya said. "Well," he corrected himself with a little grimace, "he suggested it, but he did not drug, force, or coerce me into it this time."

Ken blinked at him, his mouth working as he tried to come up with some sort of reply, but no sound came out.

Aya sighed heavily and picked at the bow. "I know that after last night's little fiasco, you're probably unhappy with me. I did not mean to sound so harsh to you; I spoke without understanding the situation."

"Then... you're really not mad at me?" Ken asked, sounding almost as though it was too much to hope.

"I'm not," Aya confirmed. "And I just wanted to say that... if I had known that this was what you wanted," he gestured at the ribbon, his bare chest, and the rest of himself, "I wouldn't have waited for your birthday to give it to you."

"You're serious," Ken said, his voice deadpan, as though he still couldn't quite believe it.

"I'm serious," Aya said. "As much as you want... you can have."

Ken nodded stupidly. Some of the disbelief was fading from his face, but he still looked stunned.

"I must confess," Aya said, frowning at him sternly, "I did expect a little more reaction though."

Ken blinked, and then shook his head as if to clear it. "The bow's distracting me," he said.

Aya arched an eyebrow. "Well, then take it off," he said, a hint of challenge in his voice.

Ken just stared at him for a moment. Then slowly, a feral and slightly predatory grin spread across his face. He stalked towards Aya slowly, reaching out to grasp one of the edges of the ribbon where it trailed out from the bow. "I think I will, if you don't mind," he said.

"I don't mind," Aya said, sounding a little breathless. Ken's close proximity and the look in his eyes were making breathing more than a little difficult.

"Good," was all Ken had to say as he simultaneously tugged the ribbon to undo the bow and leaned in for a kiss.

Well, Aya thought vaguely as Ken proceeded to kiss all the sense and rational thought out of him, Ken's birthday had been yesterday after all. It was no wonder he was eager to open his present.

Tbc...

Author's Notes: Only one more chapter to go, and this sucker is finished! I think that'll make it the first WK multipart fic that I've managed to finish.