Chapter 6

There was the sound of dripping water; the kind of sound that drifts into the background before you notice it and then it becomes the most annoying sound. Almost like a squirrel eating nuts outside your room window. When you hear the animal you wish you had a handgun to be able to shoot the damn thing and go back to sleep. That was how Yohji’s day started, with the annoying drip of water and an empty bed.

Turning to hug his lover the blonde was met with an empty bed and the glare of sunlight in his eyes. Aya must have opened the windows before getting up.

" Aya?"

There was some coughing coming from the bathroom. It wouldn’t be good if Aya was sick, usually the redhead was the stronger one of both of them, and if Aya got sick more than likely Yohji would be sick before the end of the day.

Yohji brought a hand up to rub at his eyes before turning to look at the time. The clock read 9:47am. The blonde thought it was odd that Aya was still in the shower at this time but paid no heed instead shifting his attention to look for a shirt to cover his shirtless body. He felt cold but when a body is going through a bout of sex the only thing you notice is how hot the room is.

Ever since Ryo had flirted with the German, Yohji had felt the necessity to give Aya a reason to stay with him. If it were something as low as manipulating the redhead with sex, then Yohji would do it. Anything to keep Aya who had only started out as a lover but had now taken up a big place in Yohji’s heart. The blonde didn’t know what he would do if he ever lost Aya.

Putting on a navy blue t-shirt Yohji wandered over to the bathroom knocking on the door. "Sweetie? Are you coming down with something?"

The coughing stopped for a few seconds before it started again but it didn’t sound right. Not like the usual cough, it was more like Aya was trying to cough something out.

"Aya?"

Putting his head against the door to hear, Yohji heard water running before Aya opened the door smelling like he had just brushed his teeth with a pound of mint toothpaste. Grimacing a bit at the smell, the blonde noticed how tired his lover looked. The redhead was wearing a pair of faded pajama pants and a white T-shirt. The shirt seemed a bit too big; it made Aya look like a sleepy kid. Smiling Yohji brushed red bangs from red-rimmed eyes. That was partly his fault for keeping Aya up at ungodly hours of the morning.

" Are you okay?"

Aya nodded quietly before walking past the blonde to the kitchen, where Aya had left a pot on the stove that had started having some water in it but was now completely gone.

"Aya?"

"I’m fine. Just a bit tired." At that Aya gave Yohji a knowing look at which Yohji just grinned.

" Sorry sweetie. Didn’t mean to keep you up but I got a bit carried away." Aya smiled a bit.

" Happens to the best of us, ne?"

Yohji smiled. It was one of the few days that his lover was in a good mood. Aya would usually wake up cranky and with enormous migraines. Yohji knew exactly why, but Aya liked to pretend that Yohji didn’t know. If the thought of Yohji not knowing made Aya feel better, Yohji was going to let him believe it. As things went, the last month had been trying for everybody. Ever since Weiss picked up the last mission, Kritiker had been abusing that privilege. They kept giving the assassins new missions always promising that it would be the last one. Yohji knew it was all bullshit, but he kept his mouth shut. For some odd reason Aya was finding the missions to be soothing. When they had a mission that would be the night that Aya wouldn’t suffer from nightmares.

"Are you going to your classes later on?"

"I was planning on it, now I don’t know."

The redhead scratched the back of his head before pulling on it lightly. That usually meant the redhead was getting stressed. It was a recent habit that Aya had picked up, that and another one of constantly washing his hands. As if he couldn’t wash off some stain or mark. Yohji could bet that the latter one was Gendo’s influence. That personality was becoming more annoying as time went by. He would appear at the most random places, once when Aya was at school. Aya had the fright of his life when he woke up at their apartment not remembering that he had just arrived from class. Yohji has just kept on reading a new assignment he had gotten so Aya wouldn’t be so nervous. Yet it seemed that Aya was noticing. Yohji guessed that was better than pretending nothing was wrong.

"You know something is wrong." It wasn’t a question but simply stating a fact. Yohji blinked at the sudden shift in topic. Smiling, the blonde started to light up a cigarette before responding.

"What’s wrong?"

Aya narrowed his eyes as he filled a pot with water and put it on the stove. Pulling a bit at his shirt, Aya took a deep breath before turning toward Yohji. The redhead stared at him before nodding lightly. Yohji kept smoking languidly; he wasn’t about to give himself away.

"I’ve been having strange dreams."

That caught Yohji’s attention. He was dying to know why Aya always woke up so agitated, this was his chance as long as he didn’t say anything to make the redhead clam up.

"Oh?" said Yohji before bringing his cigarette back to his lips.

"I can’t understand why I dream about it, but every time I dream about it I’m happy. It scares me."

Yohji chucked. " Aya why would you be scared of a happy dream?"

Sighing the redhead picked up a piece of toast nibbling at it a bit before dropping it back on the plate.

" People shouldn’t feel happy when you dream you are killing people."

Yohji kept silent as he stared at the redhead. Aya was pulling a thread from the end of his shirt. The redhead wouldn’t look at him, ashamed.

" That’s nothing to worry about. We all have weird dreams, we’re killers. It’s only normal that you would dream about killing."

"It’s not that simple. I dream about killing people I care about."

The blonde didn’t miss a beat. " Like Ken and Omi?"

" Yes and Aya...and you."

"Well that’s interesting. Maybe I shouldn’t have used the last of your conditioner," said the blonde chuckling.

"It’s nothing to laugh about."

"No, it’s not," said the blonde as he put out his cigarette in the ashtray. "Nothing funny about it. Do you have any idea why you’re dreaming this?"

An exasperated sigh. " If I knew I wouldn’t be telling you this."

Yohji frowned a bit at that but said nothing, instead went over to the cupboard and got out two black coffee mugs. Filling them with the water from the hot pot, he handed one to Aya as he poured some instant coffee into his.

"So you don’t know and you have no idea. I would say we have a problem."

Aya glared at him. Yohji smiled.

" Aya you worry too much. It may be nothing."

" It might be everything. What if it’s something I want to do?"

"If you’re waking up scared then I really doubt you’ll do it. That makes sense enough don’t you think?"

Even Aya had to agree with that logic. They went on with their breakfast as usual.

Omi decided that next time he saw Ken he was going to kill him. It was enough of a pain to have to pick the brunette’s stinky soccer shoes from the living room and have to pick soccer balls from where Ken had dropped them. One would think that since Ken was an assassin the idiot would know that soccer balls at the end of stairs could be lethal. The genki blonde sighed; all that he could tolerate but muddy stains that where a pain to take off he could not. No one would tolerate that and this was the last time that Omi would do it. Now to wait for the brunette to walk through the door, then Omi could use his darts to inject some sense into that baka. Of course Ken would walk into the room after Omi cleaned it, and of course he would look cute as ever making Omi’s resolve slide away. It was a big problem with Omi.

The blonde wasn’t one of those people that were willing to admit that liking Ken was natural and pure. There was nothing natural about a man liking another man, at least not in Omi’s eyes. Well that wouldn’t be true because he believed Yohji and Aya made a really nice couple. Okay so Omi had issues. At least there was that one that he was an assassin and assassins shouldn’t fall in love with their coworkers. But Ken was growing on him; it was weird how it did. One day Omi saw Ken and thought it the brunette was the sexiest thing. Damn it, him and his hormones. One would think since he was almost twenty that he would have already grown out of this puberty shit.

"Hey Omi, what’s up?"

Of course nobody ever said that Ken was a very bright boy. The brunette could always find the right words that would make someone willing to forgive him to throw all that to scrap and decide to exact revenge. Ken blinked seeing how Omi’s eyes narrowed.

"What?"

"Do you want me to tell you or draw you a chart?"

One thing Ken had noticed was that the more Omi grew, as did his sarcasm.

"Umm..."

"Mud, Ken. Mud. Do you know how much I hate it?"

Ken chuckled scratching the back of his head. " Oh yeah, that."

Omi had his hands on his hips and for all purposes looked like a scolding mother. "Yes, that. I’m not your maid. You should clean your own mess it’s only polite. It shows how much respect you have for a person and from the looks of it seems that you have none for me."

Ken smiled nervously as he shifted his feet. Well it was a good thing that it hadn’t rained today or Omi would be killing him at the moment instead of scolding him.

"Sorry, I’ll clean my own mess."

Omi sighed before resuming his usual smile. "Good. Now how was your game?"

Ken visibly relaxed now that Omi was back to normal. For some strange reason having Omi staring at him made him nervous. Maybe because he hoped Omi could be staring at him for some other reason that was not simply platonic. Walking to the fridge to retrieve a bottle of water, the brunette took a big swig from the bottle before answering.

" Was good. Problem was that a lot of kids got sick because the last time I had them in the field when the air was damp. A lot of parents aren’t very happy with me at the moment."

Omi laughed, "Only you would think to take a bunch of five year olds to play when they can get sick."

"Oi." Ken pouted cutely.

Omi laughed, "I’m beginning to wonder just how much your kids rub off on you."

Ken had to laugh at that. Omi passed a hand through his own hair to get the bangs out of his face. The hair fell back on his face before he huffed in annoyance.

"My hair is getting long. I think I’ll cut it off."

Ken licked his lips wondering what the hell he was thinking, "I think it looks cute the way it is."

Omi eyes widened as he opened his mouth to say something but snapped it shut immediately after. Smiling Ken moved from where he had been leaning against the wall to walk toward the fridge.

"Umm..."

"What are we gonna eat?" asked Ken smiling as he looked through the fridge. "I’m starving."

Omi let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in. Had Ken just flirted with him? He wasn’t sure.

Aya looked up from his work to see who was blocking his view. What he found was a smiling face and felt like bashing his head on the stone bench he was sitting on.

"Hey Aya, missed you."

"Hey Umi, I guess I also did."

Umi sat beside him, her brown curls bouncing off her exposed back. She was wearing a simple green spring dress that served to enhance the color of her eyes and a pair of flip-flops. To Aya she reeked youth, energy, and a lack of problems. Something Aya craved desperately. "You love me, you just don’t know it yet."

Aya chuckled a bit at that. "I’m sure I do just not the way you want."

Umi turned clear green eyes looking at him. Aya looked at her wondering what she was looking for before she placed her bag on her lap and started looking through it to produce a bottle of pills. Aya was beginning to hate pills.

"Here." Noticing the look Aya gave the bottle she said, " They’re vitamins, you look tired."

Aya brought his hand up to rub at his eyes, " You could say that."

"Umm..." Aya turned to look at the mousy girl beside him only to notice that she was blushing.

"What?"

"If I ask you something will you answer me truthfully?"

Aya’s stomach started to clench, every time someone said that usually meant that they were going to ask something they had no business asking.

" Depends."

Umi thought about it for a second before nodding. "Are you gay? Not that I mind since I’ve been suspecting it lately, but I was just wondering why you haven’t said a thing."

Aya laughed. It was amusing the way Umi had talked as if she had to get it all out in one breath.

Umi’s eyes widened a bit before she pouted. " What? It’s not funny."

Aya sobered up. " Yes it is."

"Well are you?"

"If you know why are you asking me?"

"I just want you to tell me. It’s what friends do."

Aya laughed, he was beginning to feel glad that Umi had decided to talk to him.

Umi was grinning as she watched Aya laugh, she didn’t think she had ever seen the guy smile. Except for that time. Now that she thought about it maybe she should mention it to Aya.

"Another personal question. Yes?"

Shrugging, the redhead grabbed a bottle of water out of his book bag before taking a swig at it. The spring sun was starting to get to him; maybe he would tan a bit. The thought was funny on itself.

"Did you break up with the blonde? What was his name?"

"Yohji? No." The redhead could feel his blush spreading. Since he was too busy blushing, he didn’t notice Umi’s silence.

"You’re a player. I wouldn’t believe it, but it’s always the quiet ones that surprise you."

Frowning, Aya turned to see what the brunette was now babbling about.

"What now?"

Umi gasped giving Aya a look that said that the redhead knew exactly what she was talking about.

"You’re cheating on him. Shame on you."

It was Aya’s turn to look at Umi. The girl had gone insane.

" What are you talking about?"

The girl stood up from the bench to tower over the redhead. "You know what I’m talking about. I saw you last week with the redhead. I even waved at you and you waved back telling me to come over. So I did, I was with my sister if you don’t believe me you can ask her."

Aya could feel cold chills running down his spine. He had a very bad feeling about what he was about to hear.

"I never...I don’t remember..."

"Well I don’t think that excuse is going to work on poor Yohji. The poor thing must have been home waiting for you while you were too busy being devoured by that German asshole. I never was one to like men with no manners. You should have heard the things the perv told me, well at least that’s what Roger says.... Aya, what’s wrong? Sweetie, you’ve gone all pale, I think you’re coming down with something..."

Aya had stopped hearing Umi since the ringing in his ears was louder. A German? But that wasn’t possible; Yohji had been with him this weekend. Hadn’t he? What was going on? When he started to feel his breakfast making its upward trek, Aya distantly wished that he wouldn’t stain his clothes. Yohji would know something was wrong, but that still didn’t stop him from bending toward the grass and spilling his breakfast.

Dimly he was aware of Umi rubbing his back as she said words of comfort. Aya was more aware of the fact that somebody was laughing...hopefully it wasn’t him.

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