Fic Archive: Betrayal, 3
May. 28th, 2009 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
texchan(Written: 2004)
Warnings: Bad Language. Violence
Summary: Aya slowly begins to rediscover his humanity, only to face betrayal at the hands of someone he trusted. Decisions he's made with regard to Kritiker come back to haunt him, as the organization decides to retire him, leaving Aya cornered, badly injured, and, along with Yohji, on the run with nowhere to turn for help except the very man who betrayed him. Events start to tumble at breakneck speed toward a conclusion, following the twisted course Fate seems to have decreed. Can Aya stay alive long enough to untangle the sticky web in which he, Yohji, and his friend-turned-betrayer find themselves ensnared?
Legal Stuff: As always, this story is intended to express one fan's genuine appreciation of Weiss Kreuz and its characters. It is just for fun and not for profit. If you have any rights in the anime described here and find the posting of this fanfiction offensive or harmful, please contact me, and I will be happy to remove it.
Author's Note: Story #2 in the "Nowhere Man" Trilogy. Story #1: Nowhere Man. Story #3: Redemption
Betrayal
Chapter 3
The sound of enraged snarling and frenzied barking woke Yohji from a dreamless sleep. He rolled over with a groan and fumbled on the nightstand for his clock. When he finally succeeded in locating the errant timepiece, he pulled it off of the bedside table and held it close to his eyes, squinting at it in the grayed-out, semi-darkness of his room. The glowing, digital numbers seemed to slide into strange shapes for a few minutes before he finally managed to make his eyes focus on them adequately enough to read the time.
"2:30," he groaned under his breath as he threw the clock toward the nightstand. It missed, and fell to the floor with a loud cracking sound that heralded breaking plastic and a trip to the corner electronics store. He placed his hand over his eyes and squinted at the ceiling through the space between his fingers. 'It's not that dark. Must be in the P.M.,' he thought as he slowly willed his mind to get over the shock of being so abruptly and rudely awakened. He ran his fingers through his tangled hair and tried to figure out just how long he had been asleep. He could vaguely remember stumbling back into his room at around five that morning.
'Nine hours,' he thought slowly. 'Shit. Doesn't even feel like nine minutes. I'm getting too damn old for this shit.'
Yohji stretched, grimacing at the sound of his joints cracking, and absently wondered exactly what had awakened him. He shrugged and turned over onto his side, his back to the door, and was just about to drop back off to sleep when Bubba's angry, snarling bark once again worked its way into his subconscious. He sighed angrily as he rolled over to sit on the edge of the bed. As soon as his feet hit the floor, he thought, 'Damn I hate that dog.'
Yohji stumbled toward the door, pulling on a pair of black jeans as he traveled across the floor. He tripped over a pair of shoes, nearly falling flat on his face, and tossed the traitorous footwear behind him with a string of muttered curses. They hit the opposite wall with a loud thud just as he managed to yank open the door and stumble out into the hallway toward Aya's room. When he reached the redhead's open doorway, Yohji stood and stared for a minute as his sleep-muddled mind continued to fight to make sense out of things. Aya's room was empty, and it slowly occurred to Yohji that the barking was coming from downstairs.
He sighed irritably as he turned to make his way down the hall toward the stairs that would lead into the flower shop's back room. "Geez, Aya," he muttered angrily under his breath, "People are sleeping here, for crying out loud. Why the hell can't you get that damn dog to shut the fuck up?"
Yohji paused briefly as he passed Omi's door, which was slightly ajar. When he peered through the crack, he saw a rumpled shape on the bed. After a few seconds of squinting, he realized it was Omi. He pushed the door open a little further and stuck his head into the room, softly calling, "Kiddo? Hey, Kiddo. Everything OK?"
Omi rolled over to face the door with a soft groan and replied, "Yeah?" His voice was muffled and sounded hoarse and weak.
"I asked if everything was all right," Yohji repeated, entering the room to stand next to the boy's bed. He leaned over and placed a tentative hand against Omi's forehead. "Whoa," he said with a low whistle, "You've got one hell of a fever going there."
Omi swatted Yohji's hand away irritably as he said, "Yeah. I got sick at school, so Aya picked me up a few hours ago. I think I have the flu, so don't get too close, if you don't want to catch it."
Yohji grinned. "Don't worry. I never catch stuff like that. It must be my superior genes."
Omi chuckled, immediately regretting his action as the laugh disintegrated into a shuddering, hacking cough. "Yeah, right," he said in a soft, hoarse voice when he finally managed to catch his breath, "It's probably all the alcohol and cigarettes. I'm sure they kill off the germs." As Bubba unleashed another round of furious snarls, growls, and barks, he sighed irritably and mumbled, as he turned back toward the wall, "Get Aya to shut up that fucking dog."
"Yes, sir," Yohji muttered as he turned away and exited the room.
He traveled another short distance down the hall and paused in front of the door to Ken's room. He could hear the ex-goalie snoring loudly through the closed door. He shook his head and decided against opening the door to check on his teammate. "That idiot," he muttered under his breath as he approached the stairs, a slight smile playing across his lips, "Only Ken could sleep through all this damn noise." He rubbed irritably at his eyes and mumbled, "When I get my hands on Aya, I'm gonna beat the ever-living shit out of him for letting that dog wake me up. Then, I'm gonna get my wire and tie that fucking dog into a knot --- a little, black ball." The thought of Bubba tied up into a small, little black ball, as ludicrous as it was, finally broke through Yohji's sleepy veneer and caused him to laugh.
Yohji was still laughing as he made his descent. He paused briefly on the second floor, where he peered into the kitchen and living room, to make sure no one was in there before continuing on his way to the foot of the stairs. But, about halfway down, the sound died in his throat. The door at the bottom of the stairs was closed, effectively shutting the apartment off from the rest of the shop. Bubba was at the door, snarling and growling angrily. Every few seconds, the huge dog would throw himself against the door, causing it to creak slightly outward. Yohji could hear the wood groan under the animal's weight, but the door was old and solid, and it held fast. When he was unable to break through, Bubba resorted to chewing at the door with his teeth and raking it angrily with his claws. As Yohji came to the last stair, a few inches behind Bubba, he could see fresh score marks and gouges in the wood, made by the dog's teeth and nails, and the door and stairwell immediately surrounding Bubba were liberally covered with slobber.
The stair creaked under Yohji's weight, and Bubba whirled around at the noise to face his new enemy with an angry snarl. The dog's eyes, which were practically glowing with rage, were narrowed into angry, little slits, and he faced Yohji with teeth bared and a low, throaty growl. In the semi-darkness of the stairwell, all the tall blonde could clearly see of the dog were his glowing, yellow eyes and eerily white teeth. Yohji involuntarily took a step backward, and, for a moment, he thought about retreating back up the stairs to the relative safety of his room. But, just as suddenly as he had turned on him, Bubba turned his attention back to the door, as if he had completely forgotten Yohji was even there.
That did it for Yohji. The tall blonde felt the little hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and his danger sense kicked into high gear. For this particular dog, which seemed to hate all of them, to ignore him and act like this, something had to be horribly wrong, and, considering Bubba's frenzied state and single-minded devotion, that something had to be wrong with Aya. Yohji paused for another moment, silently cursing himself for not bringing his weapons downstairs with him. He closed his eyes and pictured the watches sitting on the dresser near his door, right where he had tossed them when he had stumbled into his room early this morning. He briefly thought about retreating back up the stairs to retrieve them, but a new, more frenzied round of barks and growls from Bubba, accompanied by the sound of the dog's massive body once again slamming into the closed door, jolted him away from that thought.
Yohji carefully pushed his way past Bubba and placed himself between the dog and the door. He silently prayed that the crazed animal wouldn't attack him, but the door opened into the stairwell. This was the only way he could put enough distance between it and the dog so that he could pull it open. He only had a brief glimpse into the room before Bubba rocketed past him, knocking him roughly to the stairs, but that split-second glance was enough to send chills up his spine and make his blood run cold.
The Koneko's back room was in shambles. Cut flowers, plants, broken pots, and various florists' tools were tossed around the room and onto the floor. The glass doors on the coolers near the doorway leading into the main retail area were shattered, and the plants within them spilled out onto the floor, as well. He could only see part of the store's front room through the open doorway, but, in that limited area of view, he could see more broken pots, flower buckets, cut flowers, dirt, and water spilling across the floor, and two more broken flower cooler doors. Despite the signs of a violent struggle, the rooms were strangely quiet. The only sounds were Bubba's angry growling, dripping water, and soft, crazed laughter. Just before the dog shoved its way past him, Yohji leaned slightly to one side, and caught a split-second glimpse of Shuldich standing in the store's front room. The German was in front of the large, plate-glass window. He was holding Aya by the throat, slightly off the ground, and he was laughing at the swordsman, who was still struggling weakly against his grip. Yohji couldn't believe what he was seeing. His mind knew he'd only been standing there for a couple of seconds, but he felt almost as if time was standing still, as if he was frozen to the spot and unable to race to Aya's aid.
Bubba was a black blur of legs, massively muscled body, and flashing, white teeth as he rocketed past Yohji with a vicious, angry snarl and a low, gravelly bark of rage. The dog clipped the backs of Yohji's legs, sending the tall blonde sprawling onto the stairs and effectively breaking the spell that seemed to have stopped time in the flower shop. Yohji couldn't believe that an animal as large as Bubba could move with such speed, but, by the time he had managed to pick himself up off the floor, the dog had already crossed the back and front rooms to launch himself directly at Aya's attacker with a loud, angry snarl.
Yohji stumbled toward the doorway. When he had almost reached the front room, he slipped in the water covering the floor and fell heavily to his knees. He pulled himself to his feet, using the door frame between the two rooms for support, and succeeded in righting himself just in time to see the frightened, shocked look on Schuldich's face as Bubba came hurtling toward him. Yohji allowed himself a small feeling of smug satisfaction as he regained his feet and tumbled the last couple of feet into the store's front room.
The tall blonde's feeling of satisfaction at seeing Schuldich bested by Aya's dog melted away within seconds. Bubba hit Schuldich almost square in the back and immediately sank his teeth into the German's shoulder. Schuldich howled in anger and pain. He twisted slightly and punched at the dog with his free hand, but he never relinquished his choke-hold on Aya. The redhead had stopped struggling, and he hung limply in Schuldich's grasp, although his hand still weakly gripped the German's wrist. Bubba was like an eighty pound missile, and the impact knocked Schuldich off balance. The German seemed to struggle briefly to stay upright, but Bubba's momentum sent him, along with Aya, tumbling through the shop's plate-glass window.
"AYA!" Yohji screamed as he leaped across the last few feet of empty space separating him from the other two men.
Yohji reached them just as Aya, Schuldich, and Bubba hit the window, shattering it. He shielded his eyes from flying shards of glass with one hand and grabbed for Aya with the other, in a vain attempt to keep the redhead from falling through the window. He felt Aya's wrist slip through his fingers as the weight of his attacker and the dog carried him through the glass, and he was close enough to see the look of pain and panic that crossed the redhead's face as the three struggling bodies tumbled out of the flower shop and into the cold rain that had been drenching the city for most of the day.
Aya took the brunt of the impact with the window, as well as being the first to land on the cold, wet, glass-littered sidewalk. As he jumped through the now-empty window frame after them, carefully avoiding the glass littering the ground, Yohji saw Aya land heavily on the concrete, with Schuldich's and Bubba's full weight on top of him. The landing was enough to break the German's grip on Aya's throat. Yohji saw the redhead struggle for air after the initial impact, which knocked the wind out of him. After a couple of seconds that seemed like an eternity to the tall blonde, Aya took a deep, gasping breath, coughing weakly, as he lay, stunned, on the sidewalk in the pouring rain.
Yohji, who had jumped through the window only seconds after the others, was on top of Schuldich almost immediately. As always, though, the German's reflexes were sharp, and he recovered from the dog's attack and the tumble through the window with lightening-quick speed. Cursing in German, Schuldich brought his fist down, hard, on Bubba's snout and, somehow, managed to break the dog's death grip on his shoulder. With another string of unintelligible curses and a snarl of anger and rage that would have made even Bubba proud, the German kicked the dog off of him and catapulted the animal into Yohji, sending the tall blonde tumbling heavily onto the wet, glass-littered concrete. Schuldich rolled quickly off of Aya as Yohji struggled to untangle himself from the angry, snarling dog without getting bitten.
Aya, who was still badly stunned from flying through the window and the impact with the sidewalk, started to struggle to a standing position, as if in an attempt to defend himself. Almost as soon as he had rolled off of the redhead, Schuldich grabbed the front of Aya's shirt and pulled him up off of the ground. Aya was too badly shaken to muster anything more than a token resistance, and his legs seemed to refuse to support his weight. Schuldich cast a smug, hateful glance back toward Yohji as, with a smile, he threw Aya into the street, directly into the path of an approaching car. The German spared one last, mocking glance over his shoulder as he turned to run away from the shop.
At almost the same instant, Bubba and Yohji finally succeeded in untangling themselves. Bubba launched after Schuldich, using Yohji's chest as a springboard. The tall blonde winced as the dog's nails dug deep gouges into his bare chest and torso. Without pausing to think, Yohji jumped toward the street and Aya. He felt like he was struggling through sludge. It was as if he was watching a slow-motion movie, and he could almost see the car bearing down on Aya, frame by painful frame. Yohji felt like he had lived three lifetimes during the seconds it took for him to reach his teammate. Just as the car, which didn't have time to even attempt a stop, reached Aya, Yohji managed to grab the redhead's arm and jerk him roughly back onto the sidewalk. The tall blonde could feel the wind from the car's tires on his face, and the screaming screech of its brakes reverberated off his eardrums as he landed on his back on the wet concrete with Aya cradled against his chest.
The impact took Yohji's breath away, and he lay on the sidewalk, gasping for air and shivering from the cold and the rain that seemed to seep right through his bare skin to settle in his bones. When he felt Aya start to struggle away from him, he sat up and gently pushed the redhead away, into a sitting position, but as Aya began to struggle to his feet, he gently gripped the younger man's wrist to hold him in place.
"Stop it, Aya!" Yohji panted. "Where … where are you going?"
Aya continued to try to shake off Yohji's restraining hand, and he turned to glare at the older man. At least, Yohji thought he was attempting a glare at him, but the best Aya could muster, under the circumstances, was a vacant, lost look that made the tall blonde cringe.
"A … after them," Aya finally panted once he managed to catch his breath. "I … I have to get … have to get Bubba." He made another attempt to get to his feet, and failed miserably.
"No way," Yohji said, his voice hard and flat. He immediately regretted his tone when Aya winced and tried to shy away from him. "Sorry," he continued in a softer voice. "But, you're not in any condition to go anywhere. You can't even stand up! Come on," he said, standing and pulling Aya up after him. "Let's get inside." When Aya continued to try to struggle away from him, Yohji shook the younger man hard enough to almost make Aya fall back to the ground. He felt the redhead's legs give way, and quickly tightened his grip on Aya's shirt to keep him from falling as he hissed through clenched teeth, "Just come inside. I'll send Ken after the dog."
That seemed to satisfy Aya, and the redhead allowed Yohji to half-lead and half-carry him back into the flower shop. The tall blonde ignored the door, scrambling though the broken window, instead, and pulled Aya in after him. Yohji glanced around the wrecked store and spotted a dry spot on the floor near the counter. He helped Aya to it and gently deposited the redhead there. Aya leaned back against the counter to slide heavily to a sitting position, and Yohji frowned at the dark red streaks left on the counter's base after his slow descent to the floor. Once he was satisfied that Aya wasn't going anywhere, Yohji crossed through the shop to stand at the foot of the stairs leading to their apartment. He had to be careful of the water and glass on the floor, and almost fell twice before he reached his destination.
"KEN! OMI!" he yelled up into the dark stairwell, as he frowned and shook glass shards out of his hair, "GET YOUR ASSES DOWN HERE NOW!" Within seconds, he was rewarded with the sound of heavy steps pounding down the hallway at a run, and he turned back toward the front room, calling out, "Watch your step! There's water and broken glass everywhere down here!"
Yohji knelt down next to Aya. Now that the initial adrenaline surge had left him, the younger man had begun to shiver violently from the cold. The redhead was sitting just as he had left him, and didn't seem to notice the blood that stained the counter and his clothes. Aya was drenched. Water dripped from his hair and face, mixing with the blood to run off of his body and puddle around him. He was staring at the floor directly in front of him with vacant, unfocused, slightly glazed eyes, and he didn't seem to feel any of the pain from his injuries. The tall blonde frowned and cupped his hand under Aya's chin, tilting the redhead's face upward so that he could look into the empty, bluish-violet eyes. "Hey," he called softly, "You in there?"
Aya jerked his face out of Yohji's grip and shook his head slightly, as if to clear his mind. "Yeah," he replied, his voice shaking and so soft that Yohji had to lean forward to hear it, even though he was only inches away.
"OK," Yohji replied. "Look, I think you messed up your back pretty bad when you went through the window. Your shirt's trashed, and you're bleeding all over the damn place here. I need to check, OK?"
When Aya nodded, Yohji unbuttoned the tattered remnants of the redhead's shirt, allowing it to slide gently off of his shoulders and onto the floor behind him. He gripped the younger man's shoulder and leaned him forward so that he could get a good look at Aya's back, wincing when he finally saw that it was a mass of deep cuts, shallow scratches, and embedded shards of glass. There were a few gouges along the redhead's sides that were deep enough to allow the blonde a view of Aya's ribs.
"What the hell…?" Ken's voice yanked Yohji's attention away from Aya's injuries.
The ex-goalie stood in the doorway separating the shop's back and front rooms. Yohji glared at the new arrival and made a mental note of just how much he hated Ken when he noticed that the brunette hadn't forgotten his weapons. The ex-goalie was just clicking the steel claws back into his gloves when Yohji looked up at him. Yohji could see Omi's pale, worried face peeking over Ken's shoulder, and the tall blonde mentally decided that he hated the kid, too, when he caught the vaguest glimpse of Omi's crossbow as the boy leaned around Ken to look into the front room.
"What the hell happened?" Ken repeated, bouncing on the balls of his feet. His eyes held the crazy, excited gleam that they seemed to take on whenever he was about to leap into action. When he didn't get any response from his teammates, Ken continued, "This place looks like a freaking typhoon hit it. Have you guys been fighting?"
"Don't be stupid," Omi snapped as he shoved Ken out of the way and darted into the shop's front room to kneel next to Yohji and Aya. He gave Yohji a worried look and asked, "Is … is he OK?" He reached out a shaking hand to brush at the bluish-purple bruises that were already discoloring Aya's throat, as if he could wipe them away. "Those look like … fingers," he said, softly, never taking his eyes from Aya's face.
"Yeah," Yohji finally replied. He finished his initial inspection of Aya's injuries and turned to his other two teammates. "Schuldich," he said, by way of explanation, spitting the word out as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. "I heard Bubba barking bloody murder and came down to find him trying to break through the door at the bottom of the stairs. When I opened it, I found Schuldich in here trying to choke Aya. Bubba attacked him and they all fell through the front window." He clenched his fists tightly as he pictured the panicked look that had been on Aya's face as he had fallen through the window, and the silent plea for help he had seen in the younger man's eyes, as he had fallen into the street in front of that oncoming car, and he could feel his whole body trembling with barely suppressed rage. He knew his voice was shaking with the emotion, but he couldn't stop it.
"How … how did he get in?" Omi asked, finally turning wide, surprised, blue eyes toward Yohji.
Yohji shrugged. "I don't know, and Aya isn't exactly sharing right now. Frankly, at this moment, I don't even give a shit." He sighed and looked away from Aya to meet Omi's eyes, and his voice softened at the frightened look he saw there. "Look, some of these are pretty bad. We need to get him to the ER. Omi, get a blanket, OK?"
Omi nodded and scurried off into the recesses of the shop, slipping and sliding around on the wet floor as he ran for the stairs. Within seconds, Yohji could hear the boy's feet pounding out a rhythm overhead, and, within another few minutes, Omi returned. He skidded to a stop, falling to his knees next to Yohji, and gave the older man an encouraging smile as he pulled a warm, heavy blanket around Aya's shoulders.
"Here," Omi said. He held a long-sleeved shirt out to Yohji. "Thought you might be cold, too. You're bleeding, too, Yohji."
"It's all right. My cuts aren't that bad. Thanks for the shirt," Yohji replied as he shrugged into it. He wouldn't have ever admitted it, but he had been cold, and he was grateful for Omi's thoughtfulness. He smiled his thanks at the boy and stood, gently pulling Aya up after him. Yohji frowned when the redhead leaned heavily against him without protesting.
"OK," Yohji said. He was still shaking with anger, but he could feel Aya trembling against his side, and he struggled to keep his voice soft, calm, and gentle in an effort to give his injured friend some reassurance. "I'm going to take him to the hospital. Omi, don't worry about cleaning up down here, but lock down the metal doors to cover the broken window, and then reset the security code … just in case."
"Should I … should I call Manx?" Omi asked hesitantly.
"No," Yohji replied, "We don't really know what the hell's going on here. I don't want to involve her until we have a better idea of what happened." He turned his attention briefly toward Ken, who still stood uncertainly in the doorway. "Ken, go after that damn dog. Aya's worried about him."
"OK," Ken mumbled as he moved to exit the shop. He looked distinctly uncomfortable about his assignment, but, given the circumstances, he knew better than to argue about it. As he passed near Yohji and Aya, he muttered, almost under his breath, "All things considered, if Bubba's chasing him, you really should worry about Schuldich."
Yohji was relieved to hear Aya respond to Ken's statement with a small chuckle.
Warnings: Bad Language. Violence
Summary: Aya slowly begins to rediscover his humanity, only to face betrayal at the hands of someone he trusted. Decisions he's made with regard to Kritiker come back to haunt him, as the organization decides to retire him, leaving Aya cornered, badly injured, and, along with Yohji, on the run with nowhere to turn for help except the very man who betrayed him. Events start to tumble at breakneck speed toward a conclusion, following the twisted course Fate seems to have decreed. Can Aya stay alive long enough to untangle the sticky web in which he, Yohji, and his friend-turned-betrayer find themselves ensnared?
Legal Stuff: As always, this story is intended to express one fan's genuine appreciation of Weiss Kreuz and its characters. It is just for fun and not for profit. If you have any rights in the anime described here and find the posting of this fanfiction offensive or harmful, please contact me, and I will be happy to remove it.
Author's Note: Story #2 in the "Nowhere Man" Trilogy. Story #1: Nowhere Man. Story #3: Redemption
Chapter 3
The sound of enraged snarling and frenzied barking woke Yohji from a dreamless sleep. He rolled over with a groan and fumbled on the nightstand for his clock. When he finally succeeded in locating the errant timepiece, he pulled it off of the bedside table and held it close to his eyes, squinting at it in the grayed-out, semi-darkness of his room. The glowing, digital numbers seemed to slide into strange shapes for a few minutes before he finally managed to make his eyes focus on them adequately enough to read the time.
"2:30," he groaned under his breath as he threw the clock toward the nightstand. It missed, and fell to the floor with a loud cracking sound that heralded breaking plastic and a trip to the corner electronics store. He placed his hand over his eyes and squinted at the ceiling through the space between his fingers. 'It's not that dark. Must be in the P.M.,' he thought as he slowly willed his mind to get over the shock of being so abruptly and rudely awakened. He ran his fingers through his tangled hair and tried to figure out just how long he had been asleep. He could vaguely remember stumbling back into his room at around five that morning.
'Nine hours,' he thought slowly. 'Shit. Doesn't even feel like nine minutes. I'm getting too damn old for this shit.'
Yohji stretched, grimacing at the sound of his joints cracking, and absently wondered exactly what had awakened him. He shrugged and turned over onto his side, his back to the door, and was just about to drop back off to sleep when Bubba's angry, snarling bark once again worked its way into his subconscious. He sighed angrily as he rolled over to sit on the edge of the bed. As soon as his feet hit the floor, he thought, 'Damn I hate that dog.'
Yohji stumbled toward the door, pulling on a pair of black jeans as he traveled across the floor. He tripped over a pair of shoes, nearly falling flat on his face, and tossed the traitorous footwear behind him with a string of muttered curses. They hit the opposite wall with a loud thud just as he managed to yank open the door and stumble out into the hallway toward Aya's room. When he reached the redhead's open doorway, Yohji stood and stared for a minute as his sleep-muddled mind continued to fight to make sense out of things. Aya's room was empty, and it slowly occurred to Yohji that the barking was coming from downstairs.
He sighed irritably as he turned to make his way down the hall toward the stairs that would lead into the flower shop's back room. "Geez, Aya," he muttered angrily under his breath, "People are sleeping here, for crying out loud. Why the hell can't you get that damn dog to shut the fuck up?"
Yohji paused briefly as he passed Omi's door, which was slightly ajar. When he peered through the crack, he saw a rumpled shape on the bed. After a few seconds of squinting, he realized it was Omi. He pushed the door open a little further and stuck his head into the room, softly calling, "Kiddo? Hey, Kiddo. Everything OK?"
Omi rolled over to face the door with a soft groan and replied, "Yeah?" His voice was muffled and sounded hoarse and weak.
"I asked if everything was all right," Yohji repeated, entering the room to stand next to the boy's bed. He leaned over and placed a tentative hand against Omi's forehead. "Whoa," he said with a low whistle, "You've got one hell of a fever going there."
Omi swatted Yohji's hand away irritably as he said, "Yeah. I got sick at school, so Aya picked me up a few hours ago. I think I have the flu, so don't get too close, if you don't want to catch it."
Yohji grinned. "Don't worry. I never catch stuff like that. It must be my superior genes."
Omi chuckled, immediately regretting his action as the laugh disintegrated into a shuddering, hacking cough. "Yeah, right," he said in a soft, hoarse voice when he finally managed to catch his breath, "It's probably all the alcohol and cigarettes. I'm sure they kill off the germs." As Bubba unleashed another round of furious snarls, growls, and barks, he sighed irritably and mumbled, as he turned back toward the wall, "Get Aya to shut up that fucking dog."
"Yes, sir," Yohji muttered as he turned away and exited the room.
He traveled another short distance down the hall and paused in front of the door to Ken's room. He could hear the ex-goalie snoring loudly through the closed door. He shook his head and decided against opening the door to check on his teammate. "That idiot," he muttered under his breath as he approached the stairs, a slight smile playing across his lips, "Only Ken could sleep through all this damn noise." He rubbed irritably at his eyes and mumbled, "When I get my hands on Aya, I'm gonna beat the ever-living shit out of him for letting that dog wake me up. Then, I'm gonna get my wire and tie that fucking dog into a knot --- a little, black ball." The thought of Bubba tied up into a small, little black ball, as ludicrous as it was, finally broke through Yohji's sleepy veneer and caused him to laugh.
Yohji was still laughing as he made his descent. He paused briefly on the second floor, where he peered into the kitchen and living room, to make sure no one was in there before continuing on his way to the foot of the stairs. But, about halfway down, the sound died in his throat. The door at the bottom of the stairs was closed, effectively shutting the apartment off from the rest of the shop. Bubba was at the door, snarling and growling angrily. Every few seconds, the huge dog would throw himself against the door, causing it to creak slightly outward. Yohji could hear the wood groan under the animal's weight, but the door was old and solid, and it held fast. When he was unable to break through, Bubba resorted to chewing at the door with his teeth and raking it angrily with his claws. As Yohji came to the last stair, a few inches behind Bubba, he could see fresh score marks and gouges in the wood, made by the dog's teeth and nails, and the door and stairwell immediately surrounding Bubba were liberally covered with slobber.
The stair creaked under Yohji's weight, and Bubba whirled around at the noise to face his new enemy with an angry snarl. The dog's eyes, which were practically glowing with rage, were narrowed into angry, little slits, and he faced Yohji with teeth bared and a low, throaty growl. In the semi-darkness of the stairwell, all the tall blonde could clearly see of the dog were his glowing, yellow eyes and eerily white teeth. Yohji involuntarily took a step backward, and, for a moment, he thought about retreating back up the stairs to the relative safety of his room. But, just as suddenly as he had turned on him, Bubba turned his attention back to the door, as if he had completely forgotten Yohji was even there.
That did it for Yohji. The tall blonde felt the little hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and his danger sense kicked into high gear. For this particular dog, which seemed to hate all of them, to ignore him and act like this, something had to be horribly wrong, and, considering Bubba's frenzied state and single-minded devotion, that something had to be wrong with Aya. Yohji paused for another moment, silently cursing himself for not bringing his weapons downstairs with him. He closed his eyes and pictured the watches sitting on the dresser near his door, right where he had tossed them when he had stumbled into his room early this morning. He briefly thought about retreating back up the stairs to retrieve them, but a new, more frenzied round of barks and growls from Bubba, accompanied by the sound of the dog's massive body once again slamming into the closed door, jolted him away from that thought.
Yohji carefully pushed his way past Bubba and placed himself between the dog and the door. He silently prayed that the crazed animal wouldn't attack him, but the door opened into the stairwell. This was the only way he could put enough distance between it and the dog so that he could pull it open. He only had a brief glimpse into the room before Bubba rocketed past him, knocking him roughly to the stairs, but that split-second glance was enough to send chills up his spine and make his blood run cold.
The Koneko's back room was in shambles. Cut flowers, plants, broken pots, and various florists' tools were tossed around the room and onto the floor. The glass doors on the coolers near the doorway leading into the main retail area were shattered, and the plants within them spilled out onto the floor, as well. He could only see part of the store's front room through the open doorway, but, in that limited area of view, he could see more broken pots, flower buckets, cut flowers, dirt, and water spilling across the floor, and two more broken flower cooler doors. Despite the signs of a violent struggle, the rooms were strangely quiet. The only sounds were Bubba's angry growling, dripping water, and soft, crazed laughter. Just before the dog shoved its way past him, Yohji leaned slightly to one side, and caught a split-second glimpse of Shuldich standing in the store's front room. The German was in front of the large, plate-glass window. He was holding Aya by the throat, slightly off the ground, and he was laughing at the swordsman, who was still struggling weakly against his grip. Yohji couldn't believe what he was seeing. His mind knew he'd only been standing there for a couple of seconds, but he felt almost as if time was standing still, as if he was frozen to the spot and unable to race to Aya's aid.
Bubba was a black blur of legs, massively muscled body, and flashing, white teeth as he rocketed past Yohji with a vicious, angry snarl and a low, gravelly bark of rage. The dog clipped the backs of Yohji's legs, sending the tall blonde sprawling onto the stairs and effectively breaking the spell that seemed to have stopped time in the flower shop. Yohji couldn't believe that an animal as large as Bubba could move with such speed, but, by the time he had managed to pick himself up off the floor, the dog had already crossed the back and front rooms to launch himself directly at Aya's attacker with a loud, angry snarl.
Yohji stumbled toward the doorway. When he had almost reached the front room, he slipped in the water covering the floor and fell heavily to his knees. He pulled himself to his feet, using the door frame between the two rooms for support, and succeeded in righting himself just in time to see the frightened, shocked look on Schuldich's face as Bubba came hurtling toward him. Yohji allowed himself a small feeling of smug satisfaction as he regained his feet and tumbled the last couple of feet into the store's front room.
The tall blonde's feeling of satisfaction at seeing Schuldich bested by Aya's dog melted away within seconds. Bubba hit Schuldich almost square in the back and immediately sank his teeth into the German's shoulder. Schuldich howled in anger and pain. He twisted slightly and punched at the dog with his free hand, but he never relinquished his choke-hold on Aya. The redhead had stopped struggling, and he hung limply in Schuldich's grasp, although his hand still weakly gripped the German's wrist. Bubba was like an eighty pound missile, and the impact knocked Schuldich off balance. The German seemed to struggle briefly to stay upright, but Bubba's momentum sent him, along with Aya, tumbling through the shop's plate-glass window.
"AYA!" Yohji screamed as he leaped across the last few feet of empty space separating him from the other two men.
Yohji reached them just as Aya, Schuldich, and Bubba hit the window, shattering it. He shielded his eyes from flying shards of glass with one hand and grabbed for Aya with the other, in a vain attempt to keep the redhead from falling through the window. He felt Aya's wrist slip through his fingers as the weight of his attacker and the dog carried him through the glass, and he was close enough to see the look of pain and panic that crossed the redhead's face as the three struggling bodies tumbled out of the flower shop and into the cold rain that had been drenching the city for most of the day.
Aya took the brunt of the impact with the window, as well as being the first to land on the cold, wet, glass-littered sidewalk. As he jumped through the now-empty window frame after them, carefully avoiding the glass littering the ground, Yohji saw Aya land heavily on the concrete, with Schuldich's and Bubba's full weight on top of him. The landing was enough to break the German's grip on Aya's throat. Yohji saw the redhead struggle for air after the initial impact, which knocked the wind out of him. After a couple of seconds that seemed like an eternity to the tall blonde, Aya took a deep, gasping breath, coughing weakly, as he lay, stunned, on the sidewalk in the pouring rain.
Yohji, who had jumped through the window only seconds after the others, was on top of Schuldich almost immediately. As always, though, the German's reflexes were sharp, and he recovered from the dog's attack and the tumble through the window with lightening-quick speed. Cursing in German, Schuldich brought his fist down, hard, on Bubba's snout and, somehow, managed to break the dog's death grip on his shoulder. With another string of unintelligible curses and a snarl of anger and rage that would have made even Bubba proud, the German kicked the dog off of him and catapulted the animal into Yohji, sending the tall blonde tumbling heavily onto the wet, glass-littered concrete. Schuldich rolled quickly off of Aya as Yohji struggled to untangle himself from the angry, snarling dog without getting bitten.
Aya, who was still badly stunned from flying through the window and the impact with the sidewalk, started to struggle to a standing position, as if in an attempt to defend himself. Almost as soon as he had rolled off of the redhead, Schuldich grabbed the front of Aya's shirt and pulled him up off of the ground. Aya was too badly shaken to muster anything more than a token resistance, and his legs seemed to refuse to support his weight. Schuldich cast a smug, hateful glance back toward Yohji as, with a smile, he threw Aya into the street, directly into the path of an approaching car. The German spared one last, mocking glance over his shoulder as he turned to run away from the shop.
At almost the same instant, Bubba and Yohji finally succeeded in untangling themselves. Bubba launched after Schuldich, using Yohji's chest as a springboard. The tall blonde winced as the dog's nails dug deep gouges into his bare chest and torso. Without pausing to think, Yohji jumped toward the street and Aya. He felt like he was struggling through sludge. It was as if he was watching a slow-motion movie, and he could almost see the car bearing down on Aya, frame by painful frame. Yohji felt like he had lived three lifetimes during the seconds it took for him to reach his teammate. Just as the car, which didn't have time to even attempt a stop, reached Aya, Yohji managed to grab the redhead's arm and jerk him roughly back onto the sidewalk. The tall blonde could feel the wind from the car's tires on his face, and the screaming screech of its brakes reverberated off his eardrums as he landed on his back on the wet concrete with Aya cradled against his chest.
The impact took Yohji's breath away, and he lay on the sidewalk, gasping for air and shivering from the cold and the rain that seemed to seep right through his bare skin to settle in his bones. When he felt Aya start to struggle away from him, he sat up and gently pushed the redhead away, into a sitting position, but as Aya began to struggle to his feet, he gently gripped the younger man's wrist to hold him in place.
"Stop it, Aya!" Yohji panted. "Where … where are you going?"
Aya continued to try to shake off Yohji's restraining hand, and he turned to glare at the older man. At least, Yohji thought he was attempting a glare at him, but the best Aya could muster, under the circumstances, was a vacant, lost look that made the tall blonde cringe.
"A … after them," Aya finally panted once he managed to catch his breath. "I … I have to get … have to get Bubba." He made another attempt to get to his feet, and failed miserably.
"No way," Yohji said, his voice hard and flat. He immediately regretted his tone when Aya winced and tried to shy away from him. "Sorry," he continued in a softer voice. "But, you're not in any condition to go anywhere. You can't even stand up! Come on," he said, standing and pulling Aya up after him. "Let's get inside." When Aya continued to try to struggle away from him, Yohji shook the younger man hard enough to almost make Aya fall back to the ground. He felt the redhead's legs give way, and quickly tightened his grip on Aya's shirt to keep him from falling as he hissed through clenched teeth, "Just come inside. I'll send Ken after the dog."
That seemed to satisfy Aya, and the redhead allowed Yohji to half-lead and half-carry him back into the flower shop. The tall blonde ignored the door, scrambling though the broken window, instead, and pulled Aya in after him. Yohji glanced around the wrecked store and spotted a dry spot on the floor near the counter. He helped Aya to it and gently deposited the redhead there. Aya leaned back against the counter to slide heavily to a sitting position, and Yohji frowned at the dark red streaks left on the counter's base after his slow descent to the floor. Once he was satisfied that Aya wasn't going anywhere, Yohji crossed through the shop to stand at the foot of the stairs leading to their apartment. He had to be careful of the water and glass on the floor, and almost fell twice before he reached his destination.
"KEN! OMI!" he yelled up into the dark stairwell, as he frowned and shook glass shards out of his hair, "GET YOUR ASSES DOWN HERE NOW!" Within seconds, he was rewarded with the sound of heavy steps pounding down the hallway at a run, and he turned back toward the front room, calling out, "Watch your step! There's water and broken glass everywhere down here!"
Yohji knelt down next to Aya. Now that the initial adrenaline surge had left him, the younger man had begun to shiver violently from the cold. The redhead was sitting just as he had left him, and didn't seem to notice the blood that stained the counter and his clothes. Aya was drenched. Water dripped from his hair and face, mixing with the blood to run off of his body and puddle around him. He was staring at the floor directly in front of him with vacant, unfocused, slightly glazed eyes, and he didn't seem to feel any of the pain from his injuries. The tall blonde frowned and cupped his hand under Aya's chin, tilting the redhead's face upward so that he could look into the empty, bluish-violet eyes. "Hey," he called softly, "You in there?"
Aya jerked his face out of Yohji's grip and shook his head slightly, as if to clear his mind. "Yeah," he replied, his voice shaking and so soft that Yohji had to lean forward to hear it, even though he was only inches away.
"OK," Yohji replied. "Look, I think you messed up your back pretty bad when you went through the window. Your shirt's trashed, and you're bleeding all over the damn place here. I need to check, OK?"
When Aya nodded, Yohji unbuttoned the tattered remnants of the redhead's shirt, allowing it to slide gently off of his shoulders and onto the floor behind him. He gripped the younger man's shoulder and leaned him forward so that he could get a good look at Aya's back, wincing when he finally saw that it was a mass of deep cuts, shallow scratches, and embedded shards of glass. There were a few gouges along the redhead's sides that were deep enough to allow the blonde a view of Aya's ribs.
"What the hell…?" Ken's voice yanked Yohji's attention away from Aya's injuries.
The ex-goalie stood in the doorway separating the shop's back and front rooms. Yohji glared at the new arrival and made a mental note of just how much he hated Ken when he noticed that the brunette hadn't forgotten his weapons. The ex-goalie was just clicking the steel claws back into his gloves when Yohji looked up at him. Yohji could see Omi's pale, worried face peeking over Ken's shoulder, and the tall blonde mentally decided that he hated the kid, too, when he caught the vaguest glimpse of Omi's crossbow as the boy leaned around Ken to look into the front room.
"What the hell happened?" Ken repeated, bouncing on the balls of his feet. His eyes held the crazy, excited gleam that they seemed to take on whenever he was about to leap into action. When he didn't get any response from his teammates, Ken continued, "This place looks like a freaking typhoon hit it. Have you guys been fighting?"
"Don't be stupid," Omi snapped as he shoved Ken out of the way and darted into the shop's front room to kneel next to Yohji and Aya. He gave Yohji a worried look and asked, "Is … is he OK?" He reached out a shaking hand to brush at the bluish-purple bruises that were already discoloring Aya's throat, as if he could wipe them away. "Those look like … fingers," he said, softly, never taking his eyes from Aya's face.
"Yeah," Yohji finally replied. He finished his initial inspection of Aya's injuries and turned to his other two teammates. "Schuldich," he said, by way of explanation, spitting the word out as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. "I heard Bubba barking bloody murder and came down to find him trying to break through the door at the bottom of the stairs. When I opened it, I found Schuldich in here trying to choke Aya. Bubba attacked him and they all fell through the front window." He clenched his fists tightly as he pictured the panicked look that had been on Aya's face as he had fallen through the window, and the silent plea for help he had seen in the younger man's eyes, as he had fallen into the street in front of that oncoming car, and he could feel his whole body trembling with barely suppressed rage. He knew his voice was shaking with the emotion, but he couldn't stop it.
"How … how did he get in?" Omi asked, finally turning wide, surprised, blue eyes toward Yohji.
Yohji shrugged. "I don't know, and Aya isn't exactly sharing right now. Frankly, at this moment, I don't even give a shit." He sighed and looked away from Aya to meet Omi's eyes, and his voice softened at the frightened look he saw there. "Look, some of these are pretty bad. We need to get him to the ER. Omi, get a blanket, OK?"
Omi nodded and scurried off into the recesses of the shop, slipping and sliding around on the wet floor as he ran for the stairs. Within seconds, Yohji could hear the boy's feet pounding out a rhythm overhead, and, within another few minutes, Omi returned. He skidded to a stop, falling to his knees next to Yohji, and gave the older man an encouraging smile as he pulled a warm, heavy blanket around Aya's shoulders.
"Here," Omi said. He held a long-sleeved shirt out to Yohji. "Thought you might be cold, too. You're bleeding, too, Yohji."
"It's all right. My cuts aren't that bad. Thanks for the shirt," Yohji replied as he shrugged into it. He wouldn't have ever admitted it, but he had been cold, and he was grateful for Omi's thoughtfulness. He smiled his thanks at the boy and stood, gently pulling Aya up after him. Yohji frowned when the redhead leaned heavily against him without protesting.
"OK," Yohji said. He was still shaking with anger, but he could feel Aya trembling against his side, and he struggled to keep his voice soft, calm, and gentle in an effort to give his injured friend some reassurance. "I'm going to take him to the hospital. Omi, don't worry about cleaning up down here, but lock down the metal doors to cover the broken window, and then reset the security code … just in case."
"Should I … should I call Manx?" Omi asked hesitantly.
"No," Yohji replied, "We don't really know what the hell's going on here. I don't want to involve her until we have a better idea of what happened." He turned his attention briefly toward Ken, who still stood uncertainly in the doorway. "Ken, go after that damn dog. Aya's worried about him."
"OK," Ken mumbled as he moved to exit the shop. He looked distinctly uncomfortable about his assignment, but, given the circumstances, he knew better than to argue about it. As he passed near Yohji and Aya, he muttered, almost under his breath, "All things considered, if Bubba's chasing him, you really should worry about Schuldich."
Yohji was relieved to hear Aya respond to Ken's statement with a small chuckle.