Ken shooed Youji out of the kitchen - claiming that his teammate 'was in his creativity's way' - and Youji slowly limped up the stairs. Descending had been relatively easy, but now he really had to concentrate on the task. Once he reached the corridor upstairs, he started to limp towards his room, but stopped at Omi's door. He felt a nasty feeling that could've been guilt; something had been left hanging in the air. This wasn't Omi's usual behaviour. Youji couldn't just let it be. He knocked on the door.
"Come in", came Omi's cheerful voice.
Youji opened the door and found Omi lying on his bed, reading manga.
"What is it, Youji-kun?" he asked, blinking innocently, apparently back to himself.
"I was about to ask the same", Youji said in a serious tone, leaning against the wall. "You've been acting strangely lately. Ken has noticed it too, and that means it's pretty darn obvious."
Omi closed the manga book and sat up.
"Well, it isn't about Otake-san, if that's what you're suggesting."
"C'mon Omi, I was only teasing you", Youji quirked an eyebrow, smiling widely. "Though she's got it bad for you, I can tell you that."
Omi moaned and rolled his eyes.
"She's made it pretty clear in school. Everybody knows that."
"I didn't."
Omi looked at Youji straight in the eyes, and smiled.
"Then if it isn't your desperate fan, what is it that's bothering you?"
Youji asked, leaning more heavily against the wall when his leg started to ache again.
Omi's eyes didn't miss the gesture, and he scooted over in the bed, inviting him to sit down. Youji gratitiously accepted the offer.
Omi wrapped his arms around his legs, and buried his face in his knees.
"Do you really want to hear?"
"Aa", Youji said simply, not urching him on as he gathered up his thoughts.
"When I didn't come back from school... when we got that mission", Omi started slowly, "I ... went to sit in a park and kind of, well, forgot the time. I needed to think."
"That sounds like a cliché", Youji snickered.
"But it's true! I mean, I, I don't have all that much time to just sit back and think of what I've gone through. I have the school, and Ko-neko, and Weiss, and..." Omi sighed and slowly shook his head.
"Well, to be honest... I thought of that the other day, too", Youji said, and Omi turned around to look at him in surprise.
"Really?"
"You saw what happened when you were gone", Youji shrugged. "Maybe we're depending on you more than we realise."
Didn't you mean to say 'I'? a voice in his head added, but he silenced it efficiently.
Omi didn't say anything for a while. For some reason, he felt the others dealed with him as a necessary burden; the kid that tagged along. He had long ago gotten used to the idea and decided that if he wanted to be respected as one of the Weiss, he had to prove his worth to the group. The thought that they were all depending on him felt awkward to say the least. And when it came from Youji, of all people...
"Oh, I have something for you", Omi changed the topic, putting a brave smile on his face.
Youji raised an eyebrow questioningly. Omi reached under his bed and pulled out a very familiar looking pair of jeans. He offered them to Youji, smiling sheepishly.
"These are - ?"
"Un, your jeans. I fixed them up for you", Omi said, tugging his bangs nervously.
When Youji first chuckled and then began to laugh heartily, he turned to look at him in surprise.
"You're full of surprises, aren't you, Omi?" Youji chuckled with his usual teasing tone, and playfully mussed Omi's hair.
He seems to do that often nowadays, Omi realised, and to Youji's surprise, blushed slightly, shooing his hand away.
"Stop it", he said, still smiling a bit sheepishly. "I was the one who cut them in the first place, so..."
"Ne, tell me one thing. Did you come to some sort of a conclusion during that self-claimed day off?" Youji asked, leaning one cheek on his hand, his eyes sparkling mischievously.
"Not... particularly", Omi replied, turning his eyes away from Youji.
He let his gaze wander around the room.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Youji inquired.
"I don't want to talk about it", Omi said, more sharply than he had intended and what Youji had expected.
"What? C'mon, I'm your friend, you can talk to me", Youji knit his brows.
"That's exactly why", Omi sighed, picking up his manga book and starting to leaf through it.
Youji got the hint and nodded, although disappointedly.
"Well, if you don't feel like talking about it..."
He got unsurely on his feet, and had to grit his teeth. Was it just him, or was the leg really starting to hurt more and more?
"Let me help", Omi was immediately fussing over him.
"I'm fine, I'm perfectly able to limp to the other side of the hallway!" Youji claimed.
"I'll go get you some painkillers", Omi said, rushing to the door.
"Not the kind you gave me last time! I slept two days, this time I could snore until summer!" Youji joked.
The boy gave him an adorable smile and ran on his way.
Youji sat on his bed and looked at the sad mess around him. What was it with the room that if he neglected the place for a few days chaos slowly started to crawl in? He didn't give the matter another thought as Omi ran in and offered him the promised pills and a glass of coke.
"Hen da yo... it just started to ache all of a sudden", Youji pondered aloud.
"Maybe it's got worse. Dammit, I told Aya-kun we should've taken you to hospital!" Omi scowled.
"Don't stress, Omi", Youji tried to calm him down. "Maybe I just pushed too far. I was too eager to move around a little, I think."
He grimaced as he positioned the leg better on his bed.
"Maybe you should rest for a while. Do you want me to bring you dinner?" Omi offered.
Youji couldn't help but smile. There seemed to be no end to the boy's helpfulness.
"Look, you've done enough. I'm fine. Don't act like I'm going to die any second."
"Sorry", Omi heaved a sigh, sitting on the floor next to the bed. "I just... I somehow still think it's my fault you got hurt."
Youji didn't say anything. Omi already knew that wasn't true.
After a while, Omi got up and started to pick up the trash from the nightstand.
"Have you taken out ANY of these empty takeout packages from the last MONTH?"
Youji moaned and slumped down on his back.
"I'm SORRY, mother, but I happen to be kinda handicapped right now. Do you know how frustrating it is, not being able to walk about normally? A few days buried in this hole and I'd give off my favourite pair of velvet hipster jeans to be ABLE to take out the garbage."
"Well you could at least put them in the trash can", Omi said with mock seriousness.
"I don't think so. It's been full to the brim so long that I'm afraid the litter might try and bite me if I approached it."
"Since when have you been such a pig?" Omi snapped, stopping his fruitless efforts to clean up at least a little.
"Since when have you cared?" Youji snapped back.
Omi turned to look at him and put his hands on his hips.
"Ken-kun I can understand, he makes a mess where ever he goes, one way or the other. But I don't remember seeing your room this messy before", he scolded.
This put Youji to thinking, surprisingly enough. Omi was right, his room was slowly suffering the same fate as Ken's, where long lost socks could be found hanging from the lamp one morning. Youji had once teased Ken by remarking that he better not take small animals or children to his room, because they might never be seen or heard of again. It was strange that his room had all of a sudden started to look like Ken's. Youji had enough class to at least respect a clean environment, unlike Ken, who just shrugged cheerfully at the whole matter.
What could have happened that made me neglect my room so much? Youji thought, heaving a sigh as he registered the sad mess around him.
True, I haven't spent all that much time in here during the last few weeks... This has just been a sleeping place of sorts, a resting place for the time when I don't feel social... And THAT's odd: I haven't brought a girl in here for at least a month. That would explain some of this mess. No need to clean up just for myself... but why haven't I brought any girls here? Seems weird somehow...
"I'll, um, go now", Omi ended his musings. "I have some stuff to do and... y'know."
"Yeah", Youji nodded absent-mindedly. "Thanks."
Omi stood there for a moment, as if pondering over something.
"Something wrong?" Youji asked.
The boy's gaze flickered nervously over him and the surroundings.
"The reason I've been so distracted... I sorta... it's... oh, never mind", Omi shook his head and turned hastily to leave.
"I do mind. What is it?" Youji insisted.
Omi stopped in the doorway, his back to him.
"Otake-san aside... I think I have a crush on someone, too."
"I'm all ears. Who?" Youji smirked, sipping coke.
The younger Weiß turned to look at him with sad eyes, a hint of a smile on his face.
"You."
Youji almost choked on his coke.
"I just thought you should know", Omi added quietly. Then he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
He breathed in deep, biting his lower lip.
Now I can only hope I did the right thing.
All he could do now was wait. Omi pushed the thought to the back of his mind; at least he had finally managed to blurt it out, he didn't have to ponder over it right now. Better to just let things go as they would.
Omi considered going back to his room, but the delicious aroma coming from the kitchen drew him downstairs.
"Oh, hi", Ken greeted him, looking for something in the fridge.
"What are you cooking, Ken-kun? It smells good!" Omi sat on the unoccupied end of the kitchen table.
"Don't sound so surprised!" Ken pouted.
Omi couldn't help giggling.
"It's just rice noodles and some sauce. The recipe is of my own invention. And since you brought ice cream, we could probably eat some of it for dessert, ne?"
Omi nodded. "That's what I had in mind when I bought it."
Ken picked up a jar which seemed to contain jam and studied the label.
"Aya!" he called, furrowing his brows.
The redheaded man walked in the kitchen, leaning against the fridge with his other hand and holding a book with the other.
"Nan da?"
"What the hell is this jam you bought? The list I gave you said raspberry jam! Look at this, I can't even read the label - it's Chinese!"
Ken complained, throwing him the jar.
Aya caught it and gave it a quick glance before stating, "I didn't buy this, Omi must have brought it with him."
"No I didn't", Omi shook his head. "I don't even like jam with ice cream."
Aya shrugged, not really caring. He pulled out a stair and sat down, turning his attention back to his book.
"Maybe I should taste this to see what this is?" Ken thought aloud, taking the jam back.
He absent-mindedly put some more pepper in something which apparently was meant to be their dinner.
Aya glanced up from his book.
"Could you at least watch what you're doing?"
"Hai, hai", Ken mumbled, trying to open the jar.
The lid refused to come off.
"Damn Chinese containers", he muttered under his breath.
"Need help?" Aya raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah", Ken had to admit.
What kind of a White Hunter was he supposed to be if he couldn't even open a jar of jam?
Aya took the jar and with one easy-looking motion, took off the lid.
"Force rarely works on things like this."
"How did you do that?" Ken demanded. He felt humiliated.
"See this little arrow? That's the way you're supposed to unscrew it."
Aya sighed and globbered Ken in the head with his book.
"Baka."
"Ouch."
Ken rubbed his head and gave Aya a hurt look, but a smile threatened to crawl on his face.
"Truth hurts", Aya stated.
Ken just stared at him with a blank look on his face.
"What?" Aya asked, irritated.
Instead of answering him, Ken looked over at Omi.
"Did you hear that?"
"Of course I did", Omi smiled.
"I just had to make sure I wasn't hearing things. Fujimiya Aya just cracked a joke!"
"Maybe we should make sure he's not drugged", Omi joined the game.
Ken put on a purposefully threatening look and pointed at annoyed-looking Aya.
"Who are you and what have you done to Aya? Think well before you answer, because I have a jar of weird Chinese stuff which I don't hesitate to use."
Omi laughed, forgetting his own worries for a moment. Ken made sure there was never a dull moment in their life. And his continuous efforts to make Aya smile were rather sweet. All in all, Omi couldn't understand how anyone could possibly not like Ken.
Aya sat down, trying to focus back on his book. Living in this household had taught him how to raise mental barriers in seconds.
"Oh c'mon Aya", Ken pleaded, "don't act like that."
"The food", Aya remarked, not lifting his gaze from the book.
Ken blinked in confusion.
"It's burning Ken-kun!" Omi verified, and scrambled up to save it.
Ken also span around to take the pan off the stove, and the result was that they managed to save the pan but gave the table a forceful push. Several products fell on the floor, one or two cans and jars breaking in the process. Aya held his head.
Omi and Ken just stared at each other, and then the mess they had made for a few seconds, and then burst into laughter. Aya humphed, but it was an amused humph.
"I'll go... get the mop", Omi giggled when he felt he could speak again and went off.
Ken still leaned on the kitchen table for support, unable to stop laughing.
"It wasn't that funny", Aya remarked after a while, put away his book and helped Omi to sweep away most of the pieces of glass.
"Wakatteru yo!" Ken grinned, kneeling down to catch one jar which had remained almost in one piece.
He piled the usable products on the table. Omi ran off to take the mop and pieces of glass away, and Ken proceeded to wipe off the spilled jam and other food which had spotted the kitchen.
"Damn, I guess now I'll never know what this jam was", Ken mused aloud somewhat sadly, carefully gathering the pieces of the mystic Chinese jar in his hands and putting them in the trash can.
His hands were left sticky with the dark purple jam. He reached for the tap to wash it off, but his heart jumped to his throat when Aya grabbed his wrist. The redhead's grip was strong as always, but Ken would've probably not been able to offer any kind of resistance anyway. Ken watched Aya bring his jammy finger to his mouth and taste it, and he temporarily forgot to breathe as Aya's tongue swept over his index finger.
"Black currant", Aya said in a low voice.
For a fleeting moment, their eyes met, and neither knew just exactly what they saw. Ken realised he must look pretty stupid, staring at Aya with his jaw probably fallen through the floor to some lower plane. Before he could bring himself to say anything, Aya had walked off with his book, not leaving a sign of himself in the messy kitchen.
Ken dropped down to sit on the floor, not really caring that his jeans got smeared with jam and pickles.
What the... what the HELL was that?!
He shook his head to clear it off the thought and started to wipe the floor again, but he was helplessly dazed.
"Ken-kun! What are you doing?" rang Omi's clear voice.
The boy walked in the kitchen and offered Ken his hand.
"Come on, up we go! Look at your jeans, what did you do sitting on the floor?"
"Um, wiping the floor?" Ken drew a smile on his face as he tried to clean his jeans up somewhat.
As he had predicted, Omi sighed and smiled at him, turning to take care off the frying pan which both of them had forgotten for a moment.
Ken stole his 'invention' back to his hands and ushered Omi to set the table. Ken started to hum to himself, firmly deciding that this wasn't the time to think about the incident with Aya.
He saw a shadow pass the kitchen and looked over his shoulder. Youji was putting on his coat.
"Yo", he nodded, oddly quiet.
"Youji-kun?" Ken furrowed his brows.
The older man turned to look at him, wearing a look which Ken had never seen on his teammate before.
"I need some fresh air. Don't wait up for me."
"But the food is almost ready!" Ken protested.
"What about your leg, Youji-kun?" Omi asked in a serious tone, not looking at Youji.
"Daijoubu. I'll be careful", Youji managed a half smile and sneaked out of the door.
Ken looked at Omi, feeling there was something he was missing. Something which most likely meant serious trouble.