Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Transience ❯ One-Shot

“Transience”
By Viridian5
5/1/08

RATING: PG-13 (for Yoji’s mouth).
SPOILERS: “Mission 15: Duell-- Hunters of Revenge.”
SUMMARY: Life is made of moments.
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.
NOTES: Pre-reading by Syvia.

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“Transience”
By Viridian5
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Today sucked. Omi had roped him into an early shift then sent him out to help Aya deliver some big arrangements that needed two people to move. At least the size of the delivery meant they had to use the van instead of the pink and white scooter thing. That was a rep killer. Ridiculous.

Everything felt ridiculous. Him being awake at way too early to deliver way too big arrangements only started the list. He was a killer pretending to be a florist. All these people walking around in the sunshine, enjoying pleasant spring weather, and smiling as cherry blossom petals floated through the air had no idea about reality. They had no idea what their politicians and captains of business did behind closed doors. The kids laughing as they scooped up petals and tossed them at each other had the excuse of being young at least.

But he couldn’t totally blame them. Good times never lasted, so they should be enjoyed while you had them.

Yoji yawned. Damn, he wanted a cigarette, but Aya would bitch about him smoking in the van. More than that, he wanted to go back to bed. Mornings made him cranky and morbid. The cherry blossoms would still look pretty in the evening.

If he were out with a woman on a day like this he would be charming and romantic about it, but today he just had Aya, and sitting in a van alone with Aya made him frustrated. “Do you ever wonder what the hell you’re doing?”

“I wonder what the hell you’re doing constantly, especially during the workday. For all the work you get done I might as well have gone out alone,” Aya answered.

“You know what I mean. What we’re doing as a group. How we must be fucking crazy to go along with it. What we’re doing with our lives.”

“Are you attempting to have a conversation about philosophy with me?”

“Seems that way. C’mon, as a modern day samurai or something and with all the reading you do, you must have stuff like that to pull out of your ass.”

“If I thought myself a samurai, I’d be a killer with delusions of grandeur.”

“Since you don’t, you’re just a killer?”

“Hnh.”

Yoji drank to kill boredom or stop his train of thought, but he couldn’t do that right now so he had to indulge in one of his other hobbies for distraction. It didn’t actually take that much to prod taciturn Aya into talking; anyone who’d seen him working around the fangirls knew that you just had to keep poking at him until he exploded into words. Aya was kind of like a piñata that way. If you kept walloping him, eventually surprises came out. Sometimes candy.

Of course, prodding Aya could be hazardous to one’s health, but Yoji didn’t expect to die of old age anyway.

Aya didn’t look at Yoji as he said, “Takatori had considered my family trivial, insects. He died unable to comprehend how the son of an insect had killed him to avenge insects.”

Aya sometimes did segues that you’d only understand if you had a map of his mind. Lacking that map, Yoji could only sit and wonder how Aya had gotten from point A to point B. He’d become a detective partly from being naturally nosy. In any case, Aya had never said any of that to any of them before.

But just as Yoji was about to ask more, Aya finished parking the van and got out, saying, “We’re here. Get moving.”

Had Aya timed his confessional moment that way? Yoji knew that if he stayed seated in the van Aya would bitch at him all the way back, so he went out to the back. “It would serve you right if I didn’t help,” Yoji said as Aya started to pull the first bulky arrangement toward the open backdoor.

“What? Because I said mean things to you? You’re full of excuses. I suggest you man up and do your job. It’ll get us out of here faster.”

“It’s a pretty day. Maybe I’d rather stay outside.”

“It’s harder to sleep out here than in the shop.”

“How does that work?”

“If you stay out doing nothing, I’ll stick around you to make sure you don’t enjoy it.”

He would, too. Sighing, Yoji picked up his end of the arrangement and started moving along with Aya to get it into the building.

A sudden gust of wind threw a wave of petals at them. Once the deluge ended Yoji had to smirk at what he saw. The surfeit of white and pink petals looked odd strewn throughout Aya’s dark red hair but went nicely with his purple eyes.

Frowning at Yoji’s expression, Aya said, “You didn’t escape unscathed yourself.”

That wouldn’t look cool, but Aya didn’t seem inclined to put down the arrangement to give him free hands to deal with it. “C’mon, Aya.”

“Let’s just get this inside before it gets any more messed up.”

The arrangement hadn’t escaped the spring petal shower either, and they’d never be able to get all of it out. “You think they’ll notice?”

“We can hope not.”

They brought it inside and to the right place without any further problems until the guy signing for it said, “We didn’t order cherry blossoms on it.”

Aya had already gone out into the hall, waiting to get the next one, so that left Yoji to answer, “It adds a seasonal touch.” Maybe the guy wouldn’t notice that Yoji’s hair matched and hadn’t seen the floral bounty in Aya’s.

The guy frowned at him then asked, “The other one matches it?”

“Of course it does. You ordered them to match.” Yoji hoped. He hadn’t paid attention.

“All right. Bring the other one in.”

“Yes, sir.” Yoji hated people. Once he and Aya had walked away a bit, out of earshot, Yoji said, “Thanks for leaving me alone on that one!”

“I put the flowers together. It’s only right you do some part yourself.”

“The guy noticed, so I had to make up an excuse.”

“You’re good at excuses.”

“The other arrangement has to match now!”

“That’s doable.”

“You’re nuts.”

“Don’t do that.”

“I have crap in my hair.” Yoji had done a few sexy swipes to get petals out of his hair. It had to look effortless.

It took a lot of effort to look this effortless.

“We may need them.” Aya opened the van’s back doors, pulled the arrangement close to him, then bent over it and quickly finger combed petals out of his hair into it.

Yoji managed to stop laughing long enough to say, “I hope you don’t have dandruff.”

Only a few stray petals remained in his hair when Aya unbent and looked at the arrangement. “Needs more,” he said then grabbed Yoji and briskly brushed petals out of his hair too.

“Hey! You--”

“This won’t take long.”

When Aya let go of him, Yoji stumbled back and grumbled as he put his clothes back in order. Aya had a bland look on his face as he said, “Take the other end.”

“Sure, sure.”

The guy had no objections this time, so they took their receipt and hotfooted it back to the van. Once safely seated inside, Yoji had to fight down laughter, especially when he saw himself in the mirror on his sun visor and shot looks at Aya, whose mouth kept curling up now and then. They both retained some stray petals in their hair.

Maybe some things didn’t suck so much.

  ***********************THE END**********************