On A Day Like This
a Weiss Kreuz story
by Gayle
"Ken, come on, you overslept and Aya says he wants you to get up right now." Omi's voice broke through Ken's dream just as he was blocking the goal the other team needed to win. He rolled over and looked at his clock. "Ten-thirty! Ah CRAP!!! Why didn't the alarm go off?" He checked it again just to make sure he HAD set it for nine. Yes, he had, nine PM that is. "Crap, crap, CRAP!!! What in the world..." His voice trailed off as he pulled his tee shirt over his head. He reached for the jeans that he had draped over the back of his chair and tripped over an old soccer cleat. "OW!!!!!!" He glanced at his toe, which was bleeding, "Dang it! That hurt! How'd that stupid thing get out of the closet anyway?" He surveyed his very messy room with distaste. "One of these days I'll get around to cleaning all this up, but right now..." He pulled on the jeans and had them buttoned before he realized that those were the ones he had ripped the knee out of playing softball with a few kids at the park the other day. He quickly changed and bolted downstairs, banging his knee on the banister as he did so.
"Ken, glad you could find the time out of your busy schedule to join us. Were you up late *AHEM* entertaining a girl?"
Ken turned to glare at the speaker. "Get your mind out of the gutter, Yoji! I didn't set my alarm right, ok."
"Sure, I believe you." Yoji nudged his shoulder playfully, "It'll be our secret. I saw you making eyes at that one girl yesterday." He whispered.
Ken rolled his eyes, choosing to ignore the last remark, "I'm starving, what's for breakfast?"
"Nothing, you missed it." Aya pitched him an apron, "Get to work. The new shipment should be in here petty quick and we need to make room on the floor. I guess some of them are fairly good size from what the guy at the warehouse told me."
"Oh look it's Ken! Now they're all here!!!"
Ken buried his face in his hands briefly, "How could I have forgotten about them?" He slipped the apron over his head, "Any buyers today?" He asked Omi, who was moving one pot to an unoccupied corner of the store.
"Nope, just the usual. The ones who look but don't buy."
"Yeah, 'cause what they want isn't for sale." Ken muttered back, looking over at the flock of girls who had gathered around Aya, shouting. "Why can't there be one here who doesn't scream and shout? Have all the girls in the world gone nuts?"
"No, the ones who are normal don't waste their time hanging around flower shops." Omi answered. "Hey Aya, the truck's here."
"Good, I'll go talk to the driver. Ken, move that rosebush over a little, would you?"
Ken did as instructed, managing to stub his already very sore toe on the plant stand next to where he put the oversized bush. "Ouch! I guess right here will be as good a place as any to put this. Oh this thing has sharp thorns!" He pulled a large one from his palm.
"Ken, would you and Yoji please come give me a hand here, these things are heavy."
Yoji and Ken left Omi to the mercies of the girls and went to help Aya. He looked at the plant. It had large purple flowers growing all over it. "UH-Hachssshhhhuuu! Hachssshhhhuuu! UH- SHHHuuuu! AH-IISSSSHHHHUUUUU!"
Yoji turned to look at him. "Don't tell me you're catching a cold?"
Ken shrugged, "At the rate this day is going, I wouldn't be at all surprised. Huh-SHHHUUUU! Eh-SHHHHuuuuuu! Heh- EEESSSSHHHHHHuuuuuu! Heh-EEEEEHHHSSSSHHHuuuu! ESHHOOOO!" He sniffed deeply, catching the handkerchief that Aya tossed over to him.
Yoji put a hand on his shoulder. "Look Ken, if you're catching a cold the last thing you need is to be out in the rain. Aya and I can take care of things out here. Go help Omi, alright." Aya nodded, if a bit ungraciously. Yoji went on, smiling evilly, "Besides, you don't want him to have ALL the fun, do you. Go get a girl or five for yourself."
Thanks, I'm going." He said to him, and then turning to walk away, he muttered ominously under his breath. "If he doesn't like high-school girls, what makes him think I do? The only one here that should is Om-Om-Eh-SHHHHUUUU! EHSSSHHHUUU! EH-SSSSHHHOOOOUU! Huh-Huh- EHSSHHHOOOO! SHHHuuuuu!"
Omi looked up, startled at the sound, "What's wrong with you? Are you getting sick?"
"I don't know, and frankly I don't care. Uh-ESCHUUUU! EH- SHHHuuu! Eh-SCHUUUUuuuu!" He blew his nose on the handkerchief and was not surprised to see several girls rushing up to him to offer him their services. He rubbed at his eyes, which were really starting to itch. Colds never started out like this. At least not for him. His usually started with a slightly runny nose or feeling tired. Never full-blown sneezing. He wiped his nose again and sold a bunch of roses to a nervous-looking young man who had just come in and asked desperately for his help. He was going on a first date, and wasn't sure what to get the girl. "When in doubt, go with roses." Ken had told him. They had to be the most famous flower of all time, and he had never heard of anyone rejecting them. When he was done, he turned to Omi, "How many paying customers will that make today?"
"Two. A lady came in while you were outside and ordered arrangements for a wedding. Or was it a funeral? I'll have to look it up again; I was too busy trying to ward off our guests that I wasn't paying a lot of attention. Wow, are those the new flowers?" He went to help Aya find a place to put the large pot down. "Those are cool looking."
Heh-heh-heh-SCHHHUUUU! Eh-SCHUUUU! Ah-ehschooo! Heh- ESCHUUUuuu! Ah-SCHHUUUU!" Ken fumbled franticly for his handkerchief.
"Hey," Yoji set his plant down on the counter "You alright?" Ken was too busy at the moment to answer. "Aya, Omi, what do you think is wrong with him?"
"I don't know." Omi pulled Ken into the back room, Yoji on his heals. Aya could man the shop alone for a little while. "He doesn't feel warm," Omi observed, placing his hand on Ken's forehead.
"No, and he wasn't sick earlier today, either. Unusually klutzy, maybe, but not sick."
"Wait a minute, Ken, when did you first start sneezing like this?"
He sniffled and wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt. "I think it was when Aya asked me to help him bring in those plants. I thought I was getting sick. After a day like today, I wouldn't have been surprised. Eh-SHHUUU! Heh-ESHHuuuu! Eh- Ishhhoooo! *Sniff, sniff* HEH-ESCHUUUUU!" Ken blew his nose again.
Yoji and Omi exchanged glances, "I don't think this is a cold." Yoji told him, picking up on Omi's look. "I think you're allergic to one of those plants."
"But I don't have allergies!" Ken protested, trying to ignore the fact that another sneezing fit was building up. "I never... never... HUH-ESHUUU! EHSUUUU! ESSHHHUU!"
"What one do you think it was." Yoji asked.
"Well, we've never had that purple plant in our shop before. It was more than likely that."
"Go upstairs, Ken. We'll see if we can't sell those things."
Ken stood up gratefully, taking a half-used box of tissues with him. He could hear Omi and Yoji still talking, but he didn't care. He curled up on the sofa and turned on the TV. Anything to keep his mind off his much-abused nose. Sometime afterward, he fell asleep. When he woke up, it was dark outside. Omi was standing over him with a cup of hot tea in his hand. "How do you feel?"
Ken sniffled, "Better, thanks. I didn't know I was allergic to anything."
"Those were some pretty strong flowers. Be glad you weren't down there when the pollen dried off. Even Yoji sneezed a few times."
Ken noticed for the first time that Omi's nose was a bit red and so were his eyes. He couldn't help smiling. "What did you guys do?"
"We put them out by the dumpster. So the shop lost a little money. We couldn't afford to lose all our customers on account of some stupid flowers, could we?"
Ken laughed for the first time that day. "We don't have customers, we have pests, remember?"
Omi threw a pillow at him, which he good-naturedly returned. He supposed not all bad days had to end badly, after all.
The End
I don't own any of it, and am not getting paid to write this. A/N: This is my first allergy story. Allergies just seemed too irresistible, all those boys working with flowers; someone just had to run out of luck sometime. :) One shot for a change.