Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ That First Step ❯ One-Shot

“That First Step”
By Viridian5
6/29/05

RATING: PG-13 (for language); Aya/Yoji. If m/m interaction bothers you, pass this by.
SPOILERS: Tiny ones for “Mission 16: Schatten-- Return to Battle” and “Mission 25: Ende des Weiss-- To the Knights.”
SUMMARY: Adversity can bring people closer together.
ARCHIVAL/DISTRIBUTION: Anywhere, as long as you ask me first.
FEEDBACK: can be sent to Viridian5@aol.com.
DISCLAIMERS: All things Weiß Kreuz belong to Koyasu Takehito, Project Weiß, Polygram k.k., and Animate Film. No infringement intended.

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“That First Step”
By Viridian5
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“The bomb’s about to go off! Get out!” Bombay said over the headset. Shit.

“The windows,” Aya said and grabbed Yoji’s wrist as he started to run in that direction.

“I’m going! Let go!” Yoji answered as he yanked his arm out of Aya’s grip. They could both defend themselves better if Aya didn’t hold onto him. Besides, Aya ran faster than he did. Keeping up with him almost hurt, but Yoji rode the pain. Once he reached the right mindset, it almost felt good.

Was this how Aya became what he was and why he couldn’t get out of the business even after his sister woke up?

Aya sheathed his katana and beat thugs with it, clearing them out of the way. He always did use his scabbard like another weapon anyway. Yoji whipped his wire at the people coming at them. Aya smashed the windows with his sheathed katana, grabbed Yoji’s wrist again, and yanked him through.

They were on the third floor. Yoji choked back a scream as they fell through the night. Going out the windows had seemed much saner before he’d realized how high up they were. Looking down he saw Aya’s white coat billow out and some kind of body of water much farther below. That was right! They’d seen it coming in to the estate. Good old Aya must have remembered it.

He heard Aya say through the headset, “Hit the water feet first,” sounding as cool as usual.

“That makes us more compact. Won’t spreading out slow our drop?”

“Yeah, but you don’t want to hit the water on your back.”

Damn. True. Being crippled would suck.

It killed him that Aya was a block of ice. But as they dropped Yoji noticed how wide Aya’s eyes were, not so cold after all. Somehow it reassured him to see Aya scared, which was idiocy but worked for him.

He heard a roar behind him and felt a wave of heat just before the shock of water and his plummet through the cold murk. The force of it ripped his shades off. Somehow he kept his mouth shut. His feet hit bottom hard enough to send a jolt all through his body but then he rocketed back to the surface, gasping air in great gulps.

He didn’t see Aya. Shit! Fortunately Aya came up then, spitting and gasping. Yoji’s heart started beating again.

They swam to shore, then briefly rested on the muddy grass and looked at the inferno nearby before staggering off to the cover of the trees. Then they rested for real, both on their hands and knees, gasping and shaky. Aya looked worse than Yoji felt. Ironic. Even Aya’s white coat looked muddied by the water they’d fallen into.

“You okay?” Yoji asked, shivering in his cold, wet clothes, starting to ache all over.

Aya nodded.

“Damned good thing you knew the water was there.”

Aya’s tired expression turned a bit sickly. “Didn’t.”

“Didn’t?”

“ ;I figured we’d survive a fall better than being blown to pieces.”

Pissed off, Yoji said, “We’ve survived exploding buildings before.”

“Yes. So why press our luck?” Aya really didn’t look well.

“You got a concussion?”

“Don’t think so. I get like this sometimes. After a mission.”

“Huh?”

“Mission gives me a purpose and drive. After.…” Aya closed his eyes.

Was that why Aya tried to go off on his own after missions, so they wouldn’t see him being human and tired? Was that sense of purpose why he stayed with Weiß? When he’d left the team before, he still had his sister to take care of.

“I feel like shit right now too.”

Aya nodded a little and looked almost relieved. “Doesn’t feel like anything’s broken. You?”

“No. Don’t go to sleep on me. Omi will want to check you out.”

Aya nodded again, then felt inside his coat and pulled out their prize. The disk remained safe in its airtight bag, in better shape after the dunking than they were in. Putting it away again, he said, “We have to go.”

“We have to rest for a bit.” Yoji settled in close to Aya, trying to share heat. Aya feebly smacked at him, but he clung to his side like a leech until Aya gave up.

“Abyssinian, Balinese? Do you read me?” Omi asked over the headsets.

“Yeah,” Yoji answered. “We got out and got what we came for. We just need a breather.”

“Do you need a pickup? Siberian’s well enough to drive.” Ken had been too injured in their last mission to work this one, but not so much that he couldn’t do small things.

Aya shook his head, but Yoji said, “Yeah. I don’t trust either of us to drive right now.”

“Idiot,” Aya murmured.

“The sooner we get a pickup, the sooner you don’t have to deal with me snuggling up to you anymore.”

“Then by all means Omi should get here quickly.”

Omi sounded amused as he asked, “Where should we come get you?”

“The place where we went through the fence.” That had been in the mission plans, so Omi knew where the entry point was. Yoji didn’t know if he and Aya would be able to climb the ropes to get out, though.

“Confirmed. See you in a while.”

“We have to get there.” Aya pushed himself up to his feet. “We can stay within the tree line nearby until he pulls up.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

As they walked, Yoji only kept going by thinking of how they could sit once they got there. Aya probably kept moving by sheer will and masochism, though he’d lost a lot of his usual speed. They trudged like old men. The mission had thrown way more thugs and flights of stairs at them than they’d expected.

Omi still hadn’t arrived when they made it to the area near the fence, so they both flopped to the ground in sight within the tree line to sit, with Yoji “snuggling” in close to try to keep them warm and dry their clothes a little more. Aya made only a small token sound of protest. Mostly staying quiet, they kept smacking each other on the arm to stay awake. Aya’s still wet hair looked bedraggled and nearly brown, and Yoji didn’t want to think about what he looked like.

If not for the ache, fatigue, and cold wetness, this might be nice. Aya leaned on him a bit, not that he’d admit to it. Too bad they were both so tired, because they’d keep each other warm better if they could stand and entwine. Yoji had a sudden image of Aya with his back to a nearby tree and Yoji plastered all along his front. Aya’s skin would be shockingly hot in contrast to his wet clothes, and he would taste like--

Damn. Stupid thoughts. Stupid, stupid thoughts. Not this again. When Aya lightly smacked his arm again, for a moment Yoji thought he’d heard them.

Fortunately, Omi arrived soon, and Yoji and Aya somehow managed to climb back over the fence. Sheer will again.

Yoji ached worse the next day. That never seemed fair. At least Aya hobbled around when he didn’t think anyone noticed, managing to look and move completely unaffected by the night’s work whenever he knew someone was looking at him. Omi had given them a clean bill of health: no concussions or broken bones, just some bruising, Aya worse than Yoji, and aches.

Yoji kept sneaking looks at Aya. It felt to him like a lot of things changed last night, but you wouldn’t know it from Aya’s behavior this morning. The cold stone prince had hit his reset button, showing no vulnerability and saying very little.

But later in the day they were alone taking in the plants and he noticed Aya looking at him, maybe actually seeing him, with an expression that didn’t fit a cold stone. “Yeah?” Yoji asked.

“...never mind.” And Aya walked away.

But it felt like a small victory.

  **********************THE END***********************     More Viridian5 stories can be found in The Green Room version 3.0 at http://viridian.shriftweb.org/   No-frames but no-frills access available at http://viridian.shriftweb.org/index2.htm