As always, big thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter.
This is one of my favorite chapters.
"Someone just kill me and get it the hell over with!" Yohji groaned. Using the refrigerator for support, the blonde leaned into the cool box in search of a beer and tried, without much success, to forget the entire night.
"Will you quit bitching already?"
He glared at Ken as he pulled himself out of the fridge, beer in hand. "Sorry," he said. "Some of us didn't get to spend the night all cozy and happy in the car doing surveillance. Some of us had to actually risk our lives."
"For the last time – it's not my fault you were chased by dogs all night!"
"What part of 'surveillance' don't you understand, dick head?"
"All right, that's enough foul language and threats of violence for one night," Omi said cheerfully, coming through the door. "Head on to bed now, or else volunteer to send my report to Krittiker to me. Any takers? No? Oh, what a shame!"
Yohji and Ken shared one last dirty look before the latter turned to go upstairs.
"Really. It was a good mission. We were successful and none of us got hurt!"
"After-mission bickering is, like, a law, chibi," Yohji pointed out, popping the top on his beer. "You really want to risk angering the universe by not following its plan?"
Omi shook his head wryly. "You're so full of it, Yotan."
"Don't stay up too late writing to those jackasses, okay chibi?"
Waving, the youth retreated to the basement.
Yohji looked up from his drink as Aya finished locking up the back door and turned to go upstairs.
"So you're not even going to tell me goodnight?" he drawled slowly.
"It's too late for us to do anything, Kudoh," the man sighed. "Behave yourself, and we'll try to go out tomorrow."
"You can at least take a seat and talk to me for a few minutes, can't you?"
Aya glared. Yohji tried to look innocent.
Aya took a seat.
"You see?" Yohji teased. "That didn't hurt at all, did it? Hold on…" he got up and went back to the fridge. Aya blinked at him when he returned with a drink.
"What's this?"
"You don't like beer, right? So I picked you up some bottled tea. That brand's supposed to be pretty good, and…what?"
"Nothing. Thank you." Aya twisted the top off the bottle and took a small, experimental sip. Yohji watched him until, slowly, the smaller man raised his eyes to meet him. It was Aya's turn to ask, "What?"
Yohji grinned. "'Nothing.'"
The smaller man frowned at him, not liking having his own trick turned back on him.
"You wanted me to stay down here and talk to you. So talk," he ordered. "Or I'm leaving."
"I'm amazed, Aya."
"Amazed?"
"Who would have guessed you were secretly so cute?"
Aya scowled and began to rise. Yohji quickly grabbed hold of his wrist.
"Where are you going?"
"That doesn't constitute talking, Kudoh. Good night."
"Wait!" Yohji rose quickly. Aya merely looked at him, expectant. "How about that kiss we never had?"
"What happened to not rushing it?"
"Just a small one," Yohji reached for his other arm, holding him gently in place. "What do you think?" he slid his hands down the soft leather that covered Aya's arms, took his hands into his own. Aya didn't say yes, but he didn't say no, either. Yohji leaned in close. "Barely even a kiss, really," he whispered, their breath mingling. "Just something…to prove that tonight hasn't been a complete waste."
Aya was staring at his lips; his own had parted slightly. Yohji raised one hand to gently cup the back of Aya's head as he leaned in even closer.
His lips just barely brushed the corner of Aya's mouth. Yohji smiled to himself as he heard the small man's breath catch, and moved his lips upwards, tracing gentle kisses against the line of Aya's cheekbone. He brushed his lips against one soft earlobe, breathed softly into the soft shell of his ear, then pulled slowly away.
Aya's eyes were closed. When he opened them, they were almost accusing.
Yohji smiled.
"Goodnight, then."
"Yohji?"
He waited. Aya actually faltered for a moment.
"I like the tea," he said at last.
"Good."
"Good. Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Yohji agreed.
Looking adorably confused, Aya left.
Yohji returned to his seat and his beer, although he only took the can into his hands and didn't drink from it. He suddenly felt energized. Excited.
Alive.
It had been years since it had been so effortless. He felt like a horny teenager again, but it wasn't just the 'horny' part of teenhood he felt. It was that excitement, that anticipation, that not-quite-fear feeling of not knowing what was to come next, but not being able to wait, and sex – or the illusion of the chance of sex – was only a part of it all.
Yohji leaned back in his seat and tried to imagine Aya upstairs getting changed for bed. Those slim, pale shoulders. That strong, graceful back. That long, elegant torso.
His hands tightened around the beer can, and he had to force them to loosen. The fact that he had seen it all the other night only served to make his imagination cruelly accurate. He was going to need a cigarette if he kept up this train of thought.
Yohji drank deeply from his beer. Aya was, very clearly, not one of those love-him and leave-him conquests the blonde had become so accustomed to. The fact that teasing the man even the slightest bit could get his brain on this track proved that.
Aya clearly didn't know what he was getting himself into. Yohji seriously doubted that the man meant to be getting himself involved with someone so willing to throw himself into love.
It was time again. Love had cut his heart out in the past, but the damn thing kept growing back anyway.
And there was something about Aya that told him that this could be something very serious indeed.
Yohji finished his beer and decided to go to bed, rather than have another. He would need to be in top form tomorrow if he wanted to be able to play with Aya.
And if he remembered correctly, the man was scheduled to open the shop – alone – in the morning.
"How's about a little breakfast?"
Yohji grinned as Aya jumped, nearly dropping the box he was carrying. The smaller assassin turned slowly to look at him. His gaze was venomous.
"What are you doing up?" he demanded quietly.
"I'm not working this morning?"
"No," Aya must have been grumpy this morning. By his tone alone he seemed very near to leaving what little patience he had. "It's Saturday morning," he stated slowly, coldly. "We don't need two people on a Saturday morning."
Yohji shrugged, holding out his own box.
"Doughnut?"
Aya glared at him suspiciously and Yohji did a very good job of continuing to grin.
"I don't like doughnuts," Aya groused at last, turning away.
Yohji hurried to follow.
"How can you not like doughnuts?"
A grunt was his only answer.
"There's no way you can dislike doughnuts. You just dislike eating, that's all." Yohji pressed. "You don't like anything that feels good – and I've made it my job to remedy that."
"I'm busy, Kudoh."
Yohji looked around the abandoned shop, then back to Aya. He raised an eyebrow doubtfully.
Caught in his lie, Aya actually faltered a moment before glaring. He dropped the box he was carrying right where they stood, and Yohji could see that it was filled with extra arrangement materials – surplus ribbons and papers and decorations.
"No need to be so pissy," Yohji teased, leading Aya over to the workbench. The shop, he noticed, was overstocked and spotless. The man must have been bored out of his mind.
Yohji set the doughnut box down and opened it to display the large selection of treats he had procured. There was no missing the look in Aya's eyes. The small redhead had most certainly been lying about his tastes.
Still, he began to reach for the plainest one.
Yohji caught his hand.
"Come on now – live a little!" he scolded. He picked out a chocolate-dripped cream-filled and handed it to Aya. The small swordsman only hesitated a moment before taking a small bite.
"Milk."
"Huh?"
"You forgot milk."
"Right. Be right back."
When Yohji returned with two large glasses and the cold carton, it was to find Aya finishing off the doughnut and eyeing another.
"Napkins?" he asked when Yohji joined him.
"We don't need any," Yohji assured him. He set his burden down and reached for Aya's hand. Aya quickly drew back.
"What are you doing?"
"Just trust me," he chuckled. He caught hold of his wrist with both of his hands and pulled it close. Aya's eyes grew very wide as Yohji began to lick his fingers clean.
He tried to pull away.
"Don't do that!" he hissed, a blush staining his cheeks.
Yohji rolled his eyes up and caught sight of a tiny clot of chocolate on Aya's lip. He released his hand and moved forward, and Aya, suspicious, moved back. Yohji succeeded in backing him into the workbench. Linking his fingers through the belt loops of Aya's jeans successfully kept the man trapped in place as he lowered his head and softly licked the chocolate away.
"What the hell?"
Yohji pulled quickly away at the unexpected, shrill shriek. He turned his head to find a very pale-looking Ken standing in the doorway that led from the shop to the kitchen.
Grinning, and feeling a little mean, Yohji leaned into Aya.
"Oh," he said casually. "Good morning, Kenken."
"Milk. I was looking for, and there wasn't any. Milk. Wasn't any milk. And I milk. Milk I. Um…" Ken swallowed, shook his head. "What the hell?" he shrieked again.
"We were out of napkins," Yohji explained with his best attempt at innocence. He grunted as Aya's elbow struck him, hard, in the ribs. The small man quickly squeezed out of his arms and away from his reach.
Ken's eyes, large and traumatized, followed him. Aya tried to ignore the stare, toying with a display of seeds as if believing the neat stacks in need of even more straightening, but as the seconds of silence slid into increasingly-awkward minutes, he at last looked up.
First he turned his glare on Yohji, and the blonde could only shrug. He was pretty sure they both knew Aya would only get angrier if he tried to 'help.' Silence was the only idea he'd had.
Aya reluctantly turned his eyes to Ken.
"We were…just…trying something," he said, far more awkward than Yohji had ever heard him. He lowered his gaze, shooting Yohji another glare from under his lashes.
"Trying something," Ken repeated flatly. "Trying something?"
Yohji snickered as, on the second repetition, his teammate's voice grew unnaturally high. This time when Aya glared, he knew he was well and truly angry.
The small redhead gave Ken a sharp nod, picked up the box he'd dropped earlier, and retreated to the supply closet.
Yohji cocked his head, happy to watch his backside as he walked away.
"How the hell do you just randomly 'try something' like that?" Ken demanded, still unnaturally shrill.
Looking at him again, Yohji couldn't keep himself from grinning. He gave a carefree shug.
"Like you wouldn't go for it!" he said flippantly.
Humming to himself and waggling his eyebrows for his friend's benefit, Yohji gathered up the remains of his breakfast. Ken actually scampered out of his way as he passed by on his way to the kitchen.
tbc
Why do I always feel like I should apologize to Ken fans? The boy lends himself to these kinds of situations, what can I say? (grins)
Response to Unsigned Reviews:
CaT70 - I think the rainbow trails would give them away during missions, though. lol. And you know, I think you're the first person in history to refer to Aya as a marshmallow...