By the time the doctor from Kritiker arrived both Omi and Yohji had decided to rejoin the land of the sensible. Yohji had fallen asleep, head tilted back, mouth hanging open, assembled in a boneless heap in the chair next to Aya's bed. His light snoring masked Aya's raspy breathing and somehow made him look almost cute. Especially since he kept sliding down the chair, his shirt hiking up in the back and his sunglasses, which no one had seen him put on, hanging haphazardly from one ear.
Omi, after a nap of exactly 15 minutes, had gotten up and felt much better. Ken had helped him slip his arm into a sling after looking over it and deciding it wasn't as bad as they had thought. While it had gone into his shoulder the bullet ended up missing anything vital, like ligament and bone. It would mostly just leave his arm immobile for a while, something Omi wasn't particularly happy about.
Watching Omi try to make breakfast one-handed was a lot of fun though. Ken stood in the doorway at the bottom of the stairs, dressed in a pair of dull navy blue sweat pants and an overlarge T-shirt that said "KICKS" in bold black letters over a blue and silver soccer ball. He didn't look like he had any fashion sense but he hadn't really been trying. The shirt had soccer on it, and anything that had to do with soccer was equal in value to the Pink Panther diamond as far as Ken was concerned. I took him a second to realize Omi had been trying to talk to him.
"What was that?"
"Help me with this Ken. We need to eat and make sure Yohji eats too. Then I need to write a report to Kritiker so they know what's happened. And then I have this stupid report for school on a stupid expository subject that any preschooler should know and I want some ice cream!"
"Whoa! Calm down. We have some ice cream in the freezer, I bought some yesterday, and I know it's not the kind you like but it is still pretty good. As for the report if it's that easy it shouldn't take you that long to write and-"
"That's not the point!"
Omi stopped talking, hand clenched on the handle of the spoon he had just pulled out of the drawer. Fine trembles that ran through his arm made the spoon clank lightly against the counter.
"Omi..." Ken trailed off, unsure of what to say. He didn't even know what was wrong. Omi rarely reacted like this. The last time Ken had seen him go this out of control was when Yohji had gotten shot pushing the little blonde assassin out of the line of fire. It had taken them two days to figure out Omi avoided them and flinched whenever they came in contact because he was feeling guilty over Yohji getting hurt because of him. They, Aya not included even though he had been the one to point out Omi's reasoning to them, had spent an entire afternoon convincing Omi that it was most definitely not his fault.
"He's so badly hurt Ken. And he got hurt protecting us. I-I…it's all my fault."
Ken blinked, not quite sure how 'he got hurt protecting us' translated to 'it's all my fault' but Omi always took things a little too personally. And concerning the idea the Aya had been protecting them Ken was a little doubtful. He'd probably wake up pissed at them for ruining the mission and forcing him to drag them home. Ken bet Aya wouldn't even consider the fact that they had actually gotten the target while he was devising the best way to kill them.
"It is not your fault Omi. It is most definitely not your fault. We all screwed up. Anyway, Aya will be fine, he's far to much of a stubborn bastard to die so easily." Please let that be true, even if he was a bastard he was still a teammate, still family. Ken snorted, okay, maybe not family.
"But Ken…" Omi's voice was hesitant and uncertain. Which was better than utterly convinced it was his fault.
"No buts, Omi. Aya's gonna be fine alright? We all are." He was sure if he said it enough times he could convince himself, too.
"'Going to'."
"What?"
"It's 'going to' not 'gonna'. Learn some grammar."
Ken tried to be annoyed, but ended up smiling.
Mental Note: Never ever fall asleep in Aya's chair. Yohji felt as if someone had decided to imbed random blunt objects inside his skin and, after figuring that torture wasn't enough, had tied his spine in a mess of little knots.
"So you're finally awake, huh, Yohji?"
Yohji gave a disgruntled grunt and peeled his eyes open. At least he wasn't cringing from the light like the last time he woke up. His head also hurt a whole lot less, something he was very grateful for. And even as he let out a protesting moan at moving his aching body it was a lot less painful then walking around the hallway had been earlier.
Ken stood in front of him, a ridiculously large shirt hanging off his shoulders. Didn't the guy know that he would never get a girl that way? He looked like some ignorant jock that was married to the game of soccer. Now that wasn't far off the mark, not that it was a bad thing, more girls for Yohji is all.
"You looked so comfy sleeping there. Like the chair?"
"Hell no. This feels worse than a hangover!" Yohji voice suddenly got serious. "How's Aya?"
"The doctor's here," Ken said, gesturing behind him at someone Yohji couldn't see. "Once Aya gets checked over Omi's gonna get checked and then so are you."
"I'm fine," Yohji said. He got up, gently pushing Ken away so that he could see Aya.
A woman was leaning over the bed so that her lower-back length strawberry blonde hair brushed against the bed. She wore a womanized version of a tuxedo done in black and a pale violet. Chocolate brown eyes focused on stitching Aya up with each methodical movement that reached all the way up to her shoulders. One hot chick with a sharp needle up for grabs. She had 'single' written all over her.
"Listen please. He has multiple lacerations and a small stab wound in his side. The lacerations are minimal but the stab wound was starting to get infected so I gave him some antibiotics. His fever should break in a few days, and then he'll need a few more days bed rest…"
Yohji snorted.
"…before he's healthy again." Reaching into her bag Miss. Hot-Doctor pulled out a rather ordinary syringe. Holding it in one hand she reached down for Aya's wrist.
"What are you doing?"
The doctor froze and Yohji looked over to stare. Omi's voice was cold and suspicious. He stood tense in front of the window, a frown on his face.
"Giving him some pain medication."
"You don't give that much pain medication to someone who has lost that much blood. And Kritiker doesn't have any women you're age on staff as doctors here in Japan. There's no way I'll believe your 'I'm new' thing from earlier. Who are you?"
The dark look that shown in the doctor's eyes a second before she struck was the only reason Aya didn't die. Yohji jumped forward, grabbing the woman and jerking her away just before the syringe would have pierced Aya's skin.
The woman shifted the aim of the syringe so that it was heading for Yohji's arm. Suddenly Ken was there, pulling the hissing woman off Yohji and throwing her to the floor. She sprang back to her feet and shouted a yell as she jumped at Ken.
Yohji felt helpless to help Ken until he realized that he still had his watch around his wrist. He hadn't taken it off since the last mission.
Filching a blanket off of Aya's bed to wrap around his hands so they wouldn't get too cut up, Yohji pulled out his weapon. Tossing it up and over the woman's head he caught her around her waist and yanked tight. She collapsed backwards at his attack, folding neatly in half. She landed in a confused heap on the floor.
"Who are you working for?" demanded Omi from where his stood by Aya's bed, protecting their unconscious leader. "How did you find us?"
"You won't get away with what you did," the woman spat. "He'll find you and he'll kill you and there is nothing you can do to stop him." She suddenly stilled, going completely limp.
"You can't play dead, bitch. Who's-"
"Yohji," Ken said sharply. Looking down Yohji saw Ken motion towards the would-be assassin's thigh. There, sticking solidly out of the muscle, was an empty syringe.
"Shit."
"Yeah."
"Ken. Yohji. Get some supplies we need to leave, now. If she came at a call to Kritiker then Kritiker's compromised. We need to leave before whomever she worked for shows up on our doorstep. She stitched Aya up alright and the antibiotics were real so he should be okay, but we need to get moving."
"Where are we going?" asked Ken.
"We'll start at Villa Weiss. We can try to contact Manx from there and find out what's going on. We really need to get out of here now though."
Yohji only listened to this with half an ear, staring down at the dead woman. It wasn't a good feeling, watching a woman die. It wasn't a good feeling to have killed one. Though it was his job, and having his teammates attacked added extra incentive. But she had been one hot bod.
"I wonder," mumbled Yohji softly under his breath. "Was she attacking all of us or just Aya? And why."
Okay, that was a very introductory introduction to the plot. I hope it's peaked your interest. Please review and return.