One Man's Mission
a Weiss Kreuz story
by Magic Toes 11
"You will not," Kudou Yohji proclaimed as he slammed through the cabin door, "believe what's going on out there."
There was a shuffle, a skid, and a thud as Hidaka Ken scurried to a halt in sock-clad feet, managing to smack his shins into the arm of the couch. The wadded up ball of newspaper he'd been using in place of a soccer ball scurried blindly to the side and quickly rolled to a halt. Ken laughed, looking almost sheepish (and rightfully so given the number of times he'd been admonished by the other boys for playing soccer indoors). "Well, it took you long enough to get here! I've been lying low since this morning, and I've been going absolutely stir-crazy. What's up, Yohji?"
The blond-haired man shrugged his jacket from his shoulders, paused to think better of it, and pulled it fast around him once again. "You wouldn't believe it if I told you, Ken-Ken. Brr... It's colder in here than it is outside," he murmured.
"Yeah, that's because I haven't been able to get the heat to work." Ken reached down to pick up his 'soccer' ball and tossed it deftly into the unlit fireplace. Yohji peered down the rims of his sunglasses, worn even in the steadily darkening evening hours, and raised his brows. Ken looked as if he were wearing at least two large sweaters.
"And why haven't you lit a fire? We don't have a shortage of wood, you know."
"No matches," said Ken, flopping headlong onto the couch, sticking his chin in his hands to grin up at Yohji.
Yohji rolled his eyes. Sometimes it was like addressing a child. "Why didn't you go to town and get a pack, baka [1]?" The taller man inquired with a light drawl of impatience, pulling the leather gloves from his fingertips and rubbing his hands together briskly.
Ken shrugged. "You know the mission parameters. Get to the cabin and lie low until the targets make themselves known. Await further instruction, and whatever else Persia said." He waved a hand dismissively.
"I doubt Persia would have an issue if you went out to get matches." Yohji reached into his coat pocket, extracting a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. A brief flicker of warmth, drawn in, held in the lungs as long as possible. Yohji hoped it would be enough to chase away the headache that had been forming behind his eyes for the past several hours, on the drive up. A soft sniffle, and he rubbed at the end of his nose, running from the cold of the air.
The grin on Ken's face broadened as he watched Yohji light his cigarette, inhale, blow thin streams of smoke from his nostrils. "Say, Yohji, would you mind...?"
The other man smirked. Leave it to Ken to trek all the way out into the wilderness and forget to bring the barest of necessities. Not to mention take the mission's instructions so literally. He snapped the lighter to Ken, who caught it with almost unnatural ease, rolled off the couch and settled himself before the fireplace. "Just don't burn the place down. While I'd rather not have to see my breath, I'm also not... noh-hh..." Yohji's shoulders suddenly seized, and he turned his head to stifle a small fit of sneezes. "HUH-ksh! Kssh! HAAH-kussh!"
"Bless you." Ken didn't turn, more intent on setting his former soccer ball aflame and fanning it so the log inside the fireplace might catch. "Don't worry. I'm not the pyromaniac. That's Omi... So, you never did tell me. What's going on outside that I won't believe?"
Yohji sniffled, rubbing beneath his nose with a finger. Those sneezes hurt, and did little to diminish the tickle that played at the back of his nose. "It's snowing again." He felt almost smug in giving Ken this news, particularly at the shocked expression he received in return. Ken was a fun one to ruffle, and sometimes, it was just too easy.
"Snowing?!" Ken exclaimed, turning quickly, noticing for the first time the small drops of moisture that clung to Yohji's hair. "What do you mean it's snowing? It's supposed to be spring!"
"I think someone forgot to tell that to Old Man Winter." Yohji bent down, cigarette between his lips, and slid his feet from his boots. He could see the snow steadily falling from the cabin's window. He'd been forced to outrace the storm as it traveled northward with him, and it was only just starting to spread to the secluded cabin at the outskirts of the woods where his teammates were to meet.
Ken rolled his eyes, still fanning the incipient flames in the fireplace. "I wonder if it's ever going to be warm again."
"You and me both." Crossing the room, Yohji finally slid his jacket from his shoulders, tossed it upon a nearby chair, and instead took up the afghan sitting on the back of the couch. "This is the craziest weather I've ever seen." He coughed faintly into a closed fist and rolled his eyes. "With my luck, I'll get sick from all the temperature changes. Can you believe that yesterday I was wearing a T-shirt?"
"It was warm yesterday. It's bloody cold today. By the way, when are Aya and Omi going to be here?"
"Tomorrow, according to Aya. Maybe, according to me." Yohji sniffled again, shivering ever so faintly as he folded himself onto the couch. "Depends on whether or not the snow ... huh... holds out..." The words spilled quickly from his lips before he jerked forward, sneezing again. "HUH-ksh! HUH-kish! Ah... huh... HUH-kssh!" Another shiver, and he carefully adjusted the afghan across his lap, brushing fallen ash from his cigarette from it. "It's pretty bad outside. They might not even make it up here."
"Bless you again. You do sound like you're coming down with something." Ken glanced over his shoulder, one hand still fanning at the fireplace.
"Like I said, it'd be just my luck, wouldn't it?" Yohji leaned his head back against the couch, taking a warming drag from his cigarette and sniffling against the back of his hand. He did feel less spectacular than he had before he'd left for this mission, feeling the beginnings of a stuffy nose, a sly ache at the back of his sinuses. Then again, his head had been achy even prior to leaving the flowershop. Maybe it wasn't the road-weariness he'd at first thought it had been, after all.
"Not to worry, Yohji. I think I've got this thing going pretty well now. You'll be warm as toast in no time." Ken placed an additional log onto the fire before backing away, joining his teammate upon the couch.
Yohji pulled the afghan higher, wrapping it firmly around his chest with his free hand. "Only thing that would make it better would be a pretty woman to hold," he murmured, smirking lightly.
"Sorry, Yohji, looks like you're stuck with me, instead." Ken's grin was wide, a little too impish for Yohji's liking.
"Hardly a substitute, Ken-Ken. You're built the wrong way to do anything for me," he said casually, flicking the ash from his cigarette into an ashtray sitting upon the coffeetable beside him.
"Behave." Ken leaned back, one leg bouncing slightly in restless anticipation.
In the meantime, Yohji closed his eyes, head lolling to the side, and he ignored the very slight bounce of Ken's leg as it shook the couch. And he sighed, feeling altogether too worn out after the drive to the cabin. The snow had been coming down fast at first, but he'd skidded through the worst of it by the time he'd parked the roadster behind the cabin. The stress of handling such a light vehicle in heavy snow had only compounded his headache. Even now, with the heat finally beginning to radiate from the fireplace, his nose continued to tickle, continued to feel stuffed and achy; the incipient cold would probably travel deep into his chest before it relented. Such was the life of a heavy smoker. Instinctively, he crushed the end of his cigarette out against the ashtray, without opening his eyes.
"Hey, are you sure you're okay? You're pale." Ken reached a hand to touch Yohji's cheek before he could swat it away. "And you're warm."
Yohji ran the back of his hand beneath his nose, sniffling with obvious effort. He was feeling breathless, both from the struggle to contain a bout of sneezes and from the congestion that was steadily worsening. "I'll be fine, Ken-Ken. I've fought through worse conditions than a little cold."
Ken wrinkled his nose at the diminutive, and muttered, "If it were up to me, I'd make it a one-man mission."
"It isn't up to you, now is it?" A sniffle, a rub at his nose, and a resigned look fell over Yohji's face. "Oh, not again... huh... HAAH-ksh! Kssh! Huh... HUUH-kissh!" He pinched his nose firmly, muffling the severity of the sneeze and sniffling hard as he fell back against the couch.
"You know, you shouldn't stifle your sneezes. It's not good for you. Might blow out your eardrums." Yohji chuckled faintly, nose still twitching, chest rising in anticipatory breaths.
"I stifle... for a reason. Unh... I think there's... one more..." A gasp, and he jerked forward, hair tumbling before his eyes as he sneezed, unrestrained and loud. "HAH.. Kuu-SHIIIIUUUU!"
Ken rubbed at his ear, fighting back a twitch in his left eye. "Itai... [2] Maybe you should go back to stifling. I think you just blew out my eardrums."
Yohji managed a rather smug smirk, grabbing a handkerchief from the pocket of his jeans and blowing his nose. "Not to say I told you so, Ken-Ken, but... I told you so." Another soft sigh as he felt his eardrums pop, and he huddled deeper beneath the afghan, shivering.
"Poor Yohji. Are you still cold?"
"If it weren't sub-zero in here, I probably wouldn't be." Sarcasm, the last defense of the weary.
Ken stared at Yohji for a moment, expression briefly unreadable, before a sly grin spread across his face. "I know how to get you warm again, Yohji..."
Before Yohji could even protest, Ken's arms were around him, the younger man's chin resting upon the top of his head. Even through the thick sweaters, Yohji could feel his inherent strength, the tight muscle structure of a natural athlete. A warm, broad chest. Although he might never, ever admit to any sort of attraction to those of the same sex, Yohji found it oddly comfortable to settle against that chest. Ken was warm -- he didn't have to generate any of his own heat. And, for once, he found he could relax, drop all pretense, and simply let someone else provide the comfort.
But he couldn't be attracted to the younger boy. He didn't like men, after all.
"God," Yohji whispered, "why aren't you a woman?"
"Ruin a nice moment a little more, why don't you?" Ken lazily rubbed his nose against Yohji's ear.
"Seriously, Ken-Ken." Yohji inclined his head to give the younger boy a sly grin. "If you were a woman, I'd probably screw you until you couldn't stand."
"I didn't know Kudou Yohji 'screwed' women. I thought it was 'making love.' Something a little more sensual."
Yohji smirked, half-lidded eyes glinting impishly. "What I tell the ladies and what I do are two very different things. Besides..." He stretched a little to let his hands rest behind his head. "I've never heard any woman complain after a round of 'making love' with the master."
"And why wouldn't you 'make love' with me then, hmm?" Ken nuzzled his nose against Yohji's ear again, playfully. "Not that I'm asking you to, but for argument's sake."
"Don't push your luck. You know I don't screw men."
"Right." Ken didn't sound like he believed Yohji.
"I don't even like men."
"Right."
"Now see here, Ken-Ken," Yohji protested. "Since when have you become the poster boy for homosexuality, yourself?"
"I never said I was homosexual," said Ken easily, twining a fingertip in a lock of Yohji's hair. "I'm just not picky about girls or boys. Besides, you were the one to bring me back to Weiss after I was ready to quit."
Yohji snorted. "That doesn't mean anything."
"It doesn't?"
"No... It doesn't." Yohji paused, sniffing in a sharp breath through a half-stuffed nose, and scrambled for his handkerchief just barely in time. "HAH-kssh! HAAH-kssh!" Ken loosened his grip just long enough for Yohji to sneeze before pulling his arms around the other man again.
"Bless you. If Aya and Omi can't make it up, we could always abort the mission."
"Kuso [3]..." Yohji groaned. "We can't do that."
Ken rolled his eyes, nodding towards a window, which displayed the thickly falling snow in the final pale of the fading sunlight. "Besides, our targets might not even be willing to make the journey out here."
"God, I hope not." Yohji blew his nose again and slumped back against Ken's body. The younger man was warm, still so very warm. And Yohji was weary, from the journey, from the definitive beginnings of illness that had taken hold, from the thought that he might very well have to carry out the mission while sick, if only so Ken wouldn't be going it alone. Ill or not, making it a one-man mission would be more of a liability than if he were to take it on while sick.
"Try not to think about it." Ken trailed off, quiet a moment, before a chuckle rose in his throat. "You know, Yohji, part of me hopes Aya and Omi can't manage to make it out due to the snow."
The fading sunlight, the beginnings of a full moon on the rise. And Yohji was huddled fast against warmth. The cabin's heat might not have been working, but he had all the warmth he needed at his back. He tried, as Ken had requested, not to think. Tomorrow, after a good night's sleep, he'd worry about the mission, and just how the hell he'd managed to land himself in the arms of another man for the night.
"Yeah. That would be nice, wouldn't it?"
Ken laughed, lightly, good-natured as always, and rested his chin upon Yohji's head, keeping him warm as they weathered the storm.
[1] Baka - Roughly 'idiot,' in Japanese
[2] Itai - An expression of pain in Japanese. Kind of like 'ow' or 'ouch.'
[3] Kuso - Literally means 'shit' in Japanese, but isn't quite as nasty as the Western equivalent. It's sort of along the same lines as 'damn.'The End
A/N:Weiss Kreuz Info, for the uninitiated: http://www.geocities.com/magictoes11/weissboys.html