Bffimagine: Agh! Poor Kenken… What is he going to do?!?! Will Ran stop being a bastard? AHHHH!

Wide brown eyes looked at Ran, then Yohji, then Omi, and finally settled on the red-head.

Ken backed up, taking step by step backwards until the backs of his knees hit the coffee table.

"I don't want to talk, Ran," Ken whispered bashfully, "I don't want to make you hate me."

Omi's eyes brimmed with tears.

"We won't hate you, Ken-kun, we promise, just let us—"

Ken didn't hear the rest of Omi's sentence because Manx decided to walk in.

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I, boys?" Manx asked in clipped tones, a slender red eyebrow cocked elegantly.

"No, of course not, Manx," Ken replied easily, giving her a somewhat sheepish grin.

"Good. I need you all for this mission; for just the four of you it's dangerous, so don't get me started on if any of you drop out."

She received a solemn nod from every member of Weiss.

"Follow me."

The mission room was eerily quiet save for the scrape of plastic when Manx put in the tape. Omi sat on one end of the couch with Yohji sprawled over the rest of it. Ran stood, and Ken curled onto the armchair.

"Your target is messing with people. He basically wants to conduct experiments on psychological damage by raping people, torturing them, kidnapping them and observing them as they try to cope."

Images of people lying on the floor, bloody and mutilated, with eyes bloodshot and wild with fear, clutching at their heads as tears streamed down their faces…

Ken found that he had to look away.

"Occasionally he rapes and tortures random people off the street for the fun of it. Then he returns to his headquarters where he keeps the lab rats and studies them for the entertainment he finds in it. If any of the people he's keeping as his test subjects dies he burns them and if they try to escape he poisons them so they die a painful death."

Yohji looked like he was gagging and Omi looked like he was ready to throw up.

"What is the name of the target?"

"Ochiru Shiinji."

Ken froze when he saw the picture of the target flash onto the screen.

Bile burned the back of his throat, acidic and ugly and bitter. He wanted to slip away and not look back.

Same dark blue hair spiking in random directions. Pale face and chiselled features, set jaw and pointed, effeminate nose.

Violet eyes danced in his mind, haunting the remnants of his shattered soul, reflecting in the spatters of blood and shards of pain.

A small whimper escaped Ken's throat, unnoticed by all the others except Ran.

'What's wrong with him?' Ran thought sadly.

But he noticed because he was sitting closest to Ken. Not because he was watching him instead of the tape the whole time. Of course not…

"I trust you will have this job done well, as usual?" Manx tapped a perfectly manicured nail against her elbow.

Weiss nodded warily at her, hoping they wouldn't screw themselves over too badly.

Ken's fingers had begun to shake.

'I'm scared.'

Ran didn't know what to do. Was it more painful for Ken if he didn't do anything and neglected to try and find out what was amiss, or if he tried to find out and pried into something he was better off not knowing? What could he do to help? More importantly… How WOULD he help?

Manx left and the team of assassins filed out of the mission room.

Waking up was hard on spring mornings when it was warm under the covers and the air was chill and crisp. Once the sun smiled on the earth everything warmed, but for the time being Ran would have just liked to snuggle back down and ignore the glaring of the sun's rays.

If it hadn't been for his inanely annoying alarm clock.

"Ugh…"

Ran moaned as he threw off the covers.

'Better to just get it over with.'

A hot shower woke him up and soothed his nerves a bit, even though he still dreaded having to go downstairs to work.

To go downstairs and be faced with Ken's sad, lost, beautiful mocha eyes that used to be alive and laughing. It hurt to see the pain that those brown depths held, and Ran wished he could hold the brunette and make it all go away.

However, things like that only happened in fairy tales.

Shutting the water off, Ran stepped out and dried himself. Dressing quickly, he sighed and stumbled downstairs.

He stopped by the doorway, keeping out of sight when he heard voices from the kitchen.

"Where are you going Ken-kun?" Omi inquired softly from the table.

"Out." Ken was just as quiet.

"You know we have the mission tonight, right?"

"Of course, Omi."

Something about the lifelessness in Ken's voice made Yohji flip out.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Ken?"

Yohji lifted the younger boy off the ground by his neck, pressing his thumbs firmly into Ken's throat.

Ran's eyes widened in shock; what the heck did Yohji think he was doing?

Ken coughed and spluttered, desperately trying to tear Yohji's hands away from his air supply.

"Stop it, Yotan!" Omi smacked Yohji's wrist lightly and the blonde relinquished his hold on Ken. The brown-haired boy tumbled to the ground, gasping for air and clutching at his abused neck. The long sleeves fell away from his thin wrists, revealing the almost-gone, healing bruise rings around them.

'Where did those come from?' Ran wondered, still watching from the doorway.

"You're overreacting. Ken didn't do anything wrong." Omi offered a hand to help his fallen friend to his feet.

"Like hell he hasn't! It's been nine days! Nine days since that night you didn't come back! Why so secretive and tight-lipped? What are you keeping from us, Ken? Why don't you talk to us about how you feel and what you think anymore?" Yohji's anger dissipated with every phrase, the last one hurt, "Why can't you tell us what's wrong?"

"I-I'm fine," Ken choked out, obviously on the verge of tears.

This time Omi whacked Ken in the arm.

"You've stopped eating, you don't sleep and you're still trying to play soccer to keep smiles on children's faces even though you lock yourself in your room at night and cry, usually to a sleep that never lasts over half an hour. You wake up screaming. You're killing yourself, Ken-kun. We want to know why and we want you to stop."

'My thoughts exactly, Omi.' Ran smirked in the shadow of the door's frame.

"I'm sorry, Omi. I'm not feeling well." Ken apologized, his voice tired and defeated yet still holding a fear that tinged it crimson.

"Bullshit, Ken! What's wrong with you? We're worried out of our minds!" Yohji's face was flushed with anger.

"You're the goddamn P.I.! Figure it out!"

Omi and Yohji were startled when Ken suddenly raised his voice. Siberian kicked off his shoes and fled up the stairs, not noticing Ran pressed against the wall.

Ken was pale, scared and upset. It showed in his eyes and the tear-tracks on his face.

"I have a feeling this is worse than we assumed," Yohji whispered guiltily.

"What are we going to do? He's hurting bad, Yohji. I can see it in his eyes, in the way he moves, in the way that just smiling looks painful for him."

"Not to mention the fact that he's trying to avoid Ran now."

'Well, that makes a load of sense. After what Well, that makes a load of sense. After what YOU said to him, Fujimiya, I'm surprised he hasn't run away.' Ran told himself. The red-head scowled.

Ran trudged back into his room, work forgotten.

Soft sobbing noises assaulted Ran's ears as he walked by Ken's room.

'He's hurting so much. Why?'

Tears of compassion and sympathy mingled with Ran's frustration.

How do you help someone so obviously broken?

Ran shook his head and entered his own room.

Yohji was livid.

"The mission is in an hour and a bit, Omi. Ken hasn't come down." He chewed on the end of an unlit cigarette because Omi wouldn't let him smoke in the shop.

"I don't think we should take Ken along, Yohji," Omi replied.

"He's not ready."

Omi nodded, but stopped.

"Manx said it was suicidal for only three of us to go. He has to come."

"He might use it as an excuse to kill himself!"

"Ken-kun is stubborn but definitely not cowardly or stupid. He won't fuck it up, Yohji."

Omi glared daggers and Yohji complied.

"Ken might not be the one to fuck up, but I'm certain SOMETHING will go wrong."

An hour later, Weiss assembled in the mission room.

"We all know our position, strategy, two back-up plans and the layout of the building?" Omi's eyes moved from one member to the next.

"Good. Move out."

Breathe in. Exhale. Inhale.

Ken tried to keep from panicking. They had nearly gotten to the main headquarters of Shiinji's sick experiments.

"You okay there, Kenken?" Yohji put a comforting arm around Ken, offering any solace he could to the teenager.

"I'm fine Yohji." Ken gave his teammate a shaky smile, not quite sure of how convincing he was.

He was scared to death.

bffimagine: MUAHAHAHA!

Shiinji: What does my office look like? Posh?

Bffimagine: (sweatdrops) I actually couldn't care less what your office looks like. It's big, has a desk and a chair that you're sitting in.

Shiinji: That's so cheap!

Bffimagine: You're facilities are more important when it comes to detail! So shut up and let people review!