Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Paying the Devil ❯ 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Paying the Devil 4/5

By Nix for Shumea-chan

Disclaimers: I don't own WK. I'm just practicing and playing! However, I got my SAT scores back today and I got a 1250 and a 770 on the Verbal! *is happy*

Notes: Uh…. None that I can think of now

Paying the Devil 4/5

Aya stood at the edge of the little clearing lit by the campfire. The two campers looked back at him, anger and caution not quite overcoming human trust. The man was a Japanese, wearing just black pants and a black dragon on his shoulder. He watched Aya as if the red head might be some kind of biting insect. The woman though, she held the long handled metal spatula with the metal end in the fire, stirring around the coals, hardly hiding the intent to use the spatula as a rather effective branding iron if Aya got too threatening. He held the phone out by the antennae. "I brought it back."

The man grunted an acknowledgement as he got to his feet. He crossed to Aya and took the phone. "Did you call for help? What happened to your friend?"

"Snake bite," Aya replied, thinking it wasn't completely untrue. "Can we sit down by your fire?"

The woman stood. "I'll get the first aide kit. You should have just asked, you know? We would have helped."

Aya looked down, vision caught by the fire, the sound of Ken's soft muffled sounds of pain holding his attention. He knew he should have just asked. He held his wounded trust in humanity in his arms. Just asking had seemed too very risky. "I'm sorry. Help is coming. If we paid you, would you go down to the highway and wait for them?"

She opened the kit. "Set him down. You look like you're about ready to fall over anyway. Are you hurt?" Looking through the little kit, she went from top to bottom and found Band-Aids and antibiotics, some salt tablets and some smelling salts. "I don't really have anything for a snake bite. What kind of snake was it?"

Exhaustion bit into Aya as he knelt to lay Ken on the blanket the man had spread out by the fire. A blue line, faint by there, showed around Ken's lips. Aya held his wrist, counted his racing pulse, and mentally commanded Youji and Omi to get there, to hurry, even though they were a good fifty miles from Tokyo. "I don't know what kind it was, but it was black. It was going to bite me, but Ken got in the way," Aya said, confessing to total strangers, in his own way. "Our friends are coming now. Can you wait for them?"

"I don't think we can get this guy out on the bikes," she said, squatting down to look at Ken. "I suppose we could go back to the highway. It's a good twenty miles. Are you friends coming from Tokyo? Are you sure you want to be alone?" She said it as if she were hiding some kind of secret, something Aya should know, but that she didn't want to say so the barely conscious Ken could hear.

"He's going to be okay," Aya protested, the tips of his fingers lightly touching the blue around Ken's lips. "Yes, I'm going to be fine. Thank you for helping us."

"Keep my phone, but I'm gonna bill you for the minutes. There is water, food in the cooler. Use what you want," the man said, slipping into his shirt, tying it at the side. "I'm leaving my katana in the tent. Use it if you need to. Don't dishonor it."

Aya blinked, mouth dropping open. Ken's hand came up, batting at the air, and Aya caught it without looking, holding it gently.

The woman laughed. "You have an empty katana holster on your back. Maybe the snake stole your sword?"

Ken's fingers closed around Aya's. "The snake might be following us. It would not be wise to be here if it finds us."

The man strapped on his helmet. "The sword has dealt with snakes before."

"You are too generous," Aya said, disoriented by the kindness. "The snake is very dangerous. You should go farther than the highway. Buy flowers from the Kitty in the House Flower Shop."

"Understood." The man lifted his bike off the kickstand, kick started it.

"Here." The woman tossed the key to her bike to Aya. "Hurt it and I'll send you the biggest assed bill you ever saw."

Aya caught the key easily, slipping into a shirt pocket. "I have to finish paying the devil first. Anything that's left, I'll send your way."

She swung on behind her lover and they went out the trail towards the highway, leaving Aya and Ken to the fire and the dark snake filled forest.

"I'm going to gather supplies, Ken. Don't fall asleep."

The fire felt warm. Warmth reminded Ken of soccer fields, of moving that ball around anywhere he wanted to, of green shorts and cold drinks of water. In his fevered dream, he was full on World Soccer League, last game of the season, Japan against the Brits and he was driving towards the goal, evade, spin the ball into the air, head hit and the ball went straight into the net!

Cheering crowd, the yells of his teammates, and slaps on the back, all those paled compared to the red head sitting there, smiling in the stands, next to his sister. Youji sat behind Aya, and he was howling with the crowd, glass down on his nose, waving a pennant in both hands. Omi was there too, jumping up and down, wearing a jersey with Ken's number, and looking like a half grown kid, not like the leader of an assassin group. Ken turned back to his teammates, grinning in the warm sun. He was clean now, his hands free of blood. He'd made it into heaven somehow and heaven had national soccer teams! He always knew it would.

His teammates were still pounding his back, cheering for him. They were world champions!

Clouds began to eat up the sky, chewing it down with teeth made of thunder. He blinked and his teammates were Schwarz, a zombie Kaze. Crawford threw the winning ball up into the air and shot it. Ken screamed and Kaze's rotting hand reached out for him.

Strong arms wrapped around him, holding him, rocking him and he struggled to get free, free of the stench of sweet nauseous death. It wasn't Kaze's voice that chased the gagging away. It was Aya's. "Ken, it's me, Aya. Ken, don't hit me."

"Aya?" Ken closed his eyes in the hallucination that wouldn't let him go completely. Aya's voice, the scent of Aya's sharp fear and sweat, the lean hardness of his chest, and the gentle rocking in his arms, these fought against the zombie Kaze, laughing Schuldig, syringe wielding Nagi. "Aya, I don't want to go to hell. I want to play soccer. I want to be good, a good person."

Ear tails tickled Ken's face, as Aya pulled him up against him, held the nozzle of a sports bottle against his lips. "Drink, Ken. You're feverish and dehydrating. You're not going to hell. We send people there, we don't go ourselves."

Cool water filled his mouth and he swallowed, letting the clean wash down his throat, wash out the memory of hell. Fingers slowly combed through the fringes of his hair, caressing his neck, chasing away the demons. "They're going to find us. You have to go, Aya."

Both arms around Ken now, Aya didn't reply, just sat there rocking him, combing his fingers through brown tangles. "Ken, Omi and Youji are coming. You're going to be okay. I'll play soccer with you, once."

"Crawford shot the ball," Ken sighed. "It was the winning ball. Did you see me make the winning shot? You saw me play, didn't you Aya?"

"I saw you, Ken," Aya lied, shivering as he did, feeling like a black cat had crossed his path. "I'll see you again."

"Can't. No league in hell. Only heaven has leagues. Hell was bared for life cuz of gambling."

The first raindrop hit Aya on the back his neck and rain right down into his shirt, reminding him how chilled he was from stepping into the lake to pull the boat ashore. "It's starting to rain, Ken. We're going to get into the tent."

"There's a tent? I'm losing it, aren't I?" Ken tried to stand as Aya pulled him to his feet, one arm around the small of his back. His feet did hold him, and slowly they walked towards the tent. "Are there hot dogs too?"

"Maybe. Are you hungry?" Aya bent over, holding Ken as his knees gave out and they slipped into the little tent. Ken became to heavy at that angle and he lowered him to the spread out sleeping bag. Ken lay where Aya set him down. One boot lay on his ankle, arms sprawled out bonelessly. Aya inched forward on his knees, and moved the fluffy sleeping back away from Ken's face.

By now the rain made machine gun fire on the tent, wetting through the nylon quickly. Aya slipped out of his shoes and socks, then out of his pants. It was annoying that his own feet were pale, blueish, and he rubbed them to get the blood flowing again. Ken sneezed and he forgot his chilled feet, to work on tucking Ken into the sleeping bag, rolling him onto his back, and tucking the pillow under his head. "Don't get sick. You're a pain when you've got a cold."

Ken snickered, the snicker turning to a cough. "You should talk, Mr. Never-Say-A-Word-Glare-Them-All-to Death."

The sword turned out to be under the other sleeping bag, and Aya set it to the side as he moved the bag closer to Ken and slipped an arm under him. "You're hot. I'm cold. Share."

Ken couldn't find the strength to reply, only moaned softly, as Aya's chilled arms wrapped around him. Taking a part of the pillow with his head, Aya snuggled closer. "Flirting," Ken wheezed.

Aya froze, hand flat against Ken's chest, shocked, completely shocked. "What if I am," he hedged, surprised with himself that he'd allowed Ken's semi-consciousness to fool him into revealing his interest, feelings.

"S'good," Ken whispered. "Like you too."

As the rain fell, they lay there, together, waiting for the sunshine, fighting off the clouds of hell with the quiet chant of each other's breathing.