Sunday 1.6: Escape

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran had grabbed his katana and stormed up to the exercise room, but the present moment found him hunched over his sword, staring at the hilt and the slim blade glinting beneath.

He should never have threatened Yohji with his sword, even if both men knew he wouldn't use it against him, at least not for that.

He could almost see the blood of the fallen streaming in the sunlight, a river that stretched down from the window and across the floor. Gathering on the blade and making it gleam orange with morning sun.

He had told himself that once his sister was awake, he would no longer be Weiss. He would no longer touch this weapon, or kill again.

But his sister need protection.

But it was more than that.

It was more than the money, too, however needed.

Perhaps it was a sense of obligation towards his team. Perhaps it was that he had transferred his need for a purpose to his team, now that Aya-chan was with them, now that he felt obsolete.

Perhaps somehow, Omi's idealism had spread to him, and he recognized the need for an absolute justice outside of the law.

Something was keeping him here.

He shook off his thoughts.

He was still throbbing with the irritation Yohji was so adept at provoking.

Ran straightened, and fell into a familiar pattern, careful footsteps and swinging blade courting one another in a graceful dance, two parts of one whole.

Comments

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran was tempted to lean agains the wall and cross his arms. This whole thing was idiotic. He hadn't actually expected Yohji to take him up on his offer - tete a tete did not seem to be something that would interest the playboy at all.

Or himself, for that matter.

All he wanted was a shower, a cup of tea and his sister to be back with his teammates.

Gritting his teeth, just slightly, he sat both primly and awkwardly on the the edge of a chair.

And stared at Yohji.

If he wanted to talk, he would have to be the one who started.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

"Did you have to go to finishing school to learn to look that uncomfortable?" Yohji couldn't quite help taking a shot at Ran. How does anyone manage to motivate themselves to be that formal, with so little reason for it?

"I don't have cooties, you should sit on the couch." He gestured vaugely at Ran.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran felt he had lockjaw, he was clenching it so hard.

He did not have to stay here! He was prepared to leave when once again, Yohji blindsided him with a not-quite-genuine come on.

"What are you doing, Yohji?" He asked point-blank. With the friendliness, with the neediness, with reaching out to him, Ran wasn't even sure what he meant. All he knew was that he was on the verge of getting up and trying to forget all of this.

Maybe he was just alone and bored. It seemed a natural state of things for Yohji, although perhaps Ran just realized it.

Maybe, it suddenly occured to him, he had just never noticed anyone in the house before...before Aya.

There was nothing left inside of him. Even Aya herself didn't seem to need him anymore. He had no where else to look, but outside of himself.

So he stayed where he was, perched uncomfortably on the edge of the mission room chair, and waited for Yohji's response.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Yohji was taken aback by the question. What did it look like he was doing? Wrestling crocodiles?

"I'm trying to 'talk' to you. It's kinda weird to have a conversation with someone when they're sitting as far away as humanly possible from you and watching you like you're some kind of wolf that wants to bite their face off."

He shrugged and leaned back in his seat. If only it weren't so hard to think of civil things to say to Ran.

"So what do you usually fill your Sunday afternoons with? Not church, I'm guessing."

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

"I read," Ran responded curtly. "I meditate. I practice." Sometimes he arranged flowers, but Yohji didn't need to know that.

Conversation, a little voice in his head reminded him, requires a response.

It was beyond him.

Try.

"What...what do you do?" Suddenly, it occured to him that he truly didn't know what Yohji did, when he wasn't on the prowl or making his life hell.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Ran's answers were predictable, although his return question was unexpected. Yohji highly doubted that he actually cared, but that he would even make the effort to ask was noteworthy.

The problem though was that he didn't have a respectable answer. Ran didn' want to hear I go out to bars because the liquor stores are closed.

"Catch up on sleep mostly. If I don't go out I tend to bother Ken. Sometimes I read too, actually."

The hope that he had given then a common interest was slim. There seemed very little chance that their literature choices would cross paths.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran nodded shortly, indicating that he'd heard, then fell into silence.

Perhaps if he truly were Ran and not Aya, this was the point where he'd start fidgeting.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

"Asu--" Yohji felt the color drain out of his face, as his subconcious almost tricked him into saying her name. In front of Ran no less. Idiot.

"Someonce once told me I ought to try meditating," he corrected. "A long time ago."

Yohji now felt weird, as if he were watching himself have the conversation instead of actualy participating. Why on earth had he even said that? Maybe he would have been better off if he'd left Ran alone and found some anonymous company instead. This is what bartenders were for, wasn't it?

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran noticed the half-spoken name, even in his introverted state there was no escaping Yohji's past, just as much for the rest of Weiss as for Yohji himself.

But wasn't that true for all of them? They inflicted their burdens upon one another, even as they scrambled to remain isolated in themselves and their memories.

Except for Omi, of course, who had no past to retreat to that Ran could tell.

Ran allowed himself a small smile. "You would probably fall asleep, having to sit still for so long."

A long sentence for Ran, and almost a joke.