Thursday 1.1 - its a new day~!

[kuchren.livejournal.com]

Aya had finally fallen asleep after tossing and turning in her bed for a good hour. When she awoke the next morning, the first thing she saw was the small pocket knife she'd carelessly thrown next to her alarm clock. That significantly darkened her day.

Sighing to herself, she pulled herself out of bed and took a quick shower, then got dressed for school. There was still enough time for breakfast, and Aya wasn't really in a hurry to get to school, of all things. She fixed a large pot of oatmeal - just in case the others decided to get up - and settled down in a chair with a cup of juice.

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[plotbunnytiff.livejournal.com]

When Ken woke up and took his shower that morning, he wasn't entirely sure how he should approach the day. On the one hand, there was a lump of anger coated in concern about how easily Schwartz was toying with them, or how close they came to being dismantled for good. But after careful thought on the whole matter, he realized he'd grown weary of feeling nothing but negative emotion. He had to find something to be positive about, or he'd have an emotional crash.

So baby steps. Ken dried off and threw on a pair of jeans and a comfortable t-shirt while he made a mental list of things to be glad about. He was alive (that was a start). So were the people he cared about. He carefully touched the healing wound on his head. It wasn't too bad, but he took a couple painkillers anyway. Yohji made it home safely and hopefully in one piece. He might get to spend some time with Omi that *wasn't* panicked or fretful.

Ken inhaled, and his stomach growled at the scent of...oatmeal? He remembered that he hadn't eaten in a *really* long time, and hustled down the stairs to the kitchen.

"Oh, morning!" He greeted Aya with a smile, surprised that she hadn't left already. He cast mildly hopeful eyes at the pot on the stove. "Did you sleep alright?"

[celtic-kitsune.livejournal.com]

Omi groaned when he heard the distant sound of his alarm clock going off pulling him out of his peaceful sleep. He really didn't want to wake up just yet. But he knew he had to. He rolled over onto his side still letting his alarm clock make that annoying noise knowing he'd be forced to get up and turn it off soon.

Omi usually kept it across the room on his desk mainly because on mornings like this when all he wanted to do was pull the blankets over his head and go back to sleep it forced him to get out of bed.

Taking a deep breath Omi dragged himself out of bed and turned his alarm off. He spotted the pile of home work he still had sitting on his desk and groaned. He would have to find time to do it in school today. Omi headed to the bathroom to take his morning shower knowing that usually woke him up.

Taking a quick shower he packed up his home work and other stuff he needed for school and headed down stairs not really noticing the smell of food, or much of anything else as he went into the kitchen putting his bag on the floor by a chair.

[kuchren.livejournal.com]

She'd been staring blankly into her juice... sounds of people coming down the stairs followed by Ken's voice pulled Aya out of her daze. She looked up and gave him a smile. "Sleep was alright for me!" It was a lie. But her entire life seemed to be a building of lies... "What about you?" She caught his longing gaze towards the oatmeal just as Omi appeared from the stairs. "The oatmeal is almost done. I'd just give it another few minutes."

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

[Enter from Thursday 1.3]

Yohji wasn’t surprised to find everyone but Ran already present in the kitchen. The smells and sounds of breakfast activity had preceded him into the room. Walking in, he could almost pretend it was just a normal day and nothing had happened.

There was a stressful undercurrent of tension running through the room though. Yohji cranked up the wattage of his grin like a shield.

Oh boy, here goes.

He’d been desperate to see these people just the evening before. It shouldn’t feel so awkward now to be getting his desire.

A lot had happened.

“Mornin’!” Yohji announced cheerfully. He flung himself in a vacant chair, and sprawled backward. “Awfully sweet of you guys to cook me breakfast.” The assumption was deliberate.

[plotbunnytiff.livejournal.com]

"I got a good nights sleep," he began, grinning when the subtle permission for breakfast was given. Before he could continue, Omi made his way in, looking like he needed another few hours of sleep. He was shortly followed by a swaggering, upbeat Yohji.

Ken was torn between hugging the man, throttling him, or a weird combination of both. But he reminded himself of his resolve. With a relaxing breath, Ken got to his feet with a dry smirk and headed to the fridge.

"Only if you like fried egg," he responded. "I'll make some if you all have time." He pointed at Yohji. "*You* don't eat until you tell us what happened."

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Damn, they weren't even going to humor him for a few minutes.

"I have all the time in the world," he rocked his chair back on two legs before letting it slowly drop back into place. He was strangely fidgety all of the sudden. "But I might pass out from malnourishment before I get a chance to tell you anything."

He tried to throw Ken a pouty kicked puppy dog sort of look, but knew he couldn't pull it off. Omi was the only one of them that had any talent for that.

"Anyway, it's a pretty boring story. I mostly just spent hours tied up on a bed."

He looked around the room, hoping that coffee might magically appear in front of him.

"I'll tell you what though, Mastermind has positively dreadful taste in bedroom decor." In truth Yohji hadn't really had the presence of mind to pay much attention to his surroundings in the Schwarz household. "Totally tacky."

His fingers tapped nervously on the edge of the table, as he stared purposefully at the fridge.

[celtic-kitsune.livejournal.com]

Before Omi could even utter a good morning Yohji had come into the kitchen. He looked at Ken then to Yohji as he spoke.

"I don't suppose you know exactly where they are?" Omi asked, though he doubted it really mattered if they knew or not. They wouldn't be able to do much, but it would still be nice to know.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Yohji looked thoughtful. He'd spent quite a bit of time trying to piece together what he'd managed to grasp as Nagi had walked him home. He should have immediately written everything down when he'd gotten back. He'd been too tired, and then distracted....

A brief smile faintly quirked the edge of his lips as he remembered the distracting bit.

"We got out at Shibuya," he said pondering, "it was about 5 stops away. But I don't know what station we got on, or even which line." He closed his eyes and tried to mentally backtrack. "Prodigy tried to keep me from seeing where we were going, but he did a sort of half-assed job. I might be able to figure something out if I tried to actually retrace my steps." Just thinking about it was exhausting.

He wasn't sure he wanted to remember, though. Not knowing how to find Schwarz conveniently removed a very dangerous temptation.

[kuchren.livejournal.com]

Aya's head hurt. This wasn't the type of conversation to be having so early in the morning... she stood up from her chair silently during the conversation to absentmindedly stir the oatmeal and make a pot of coffee.

"Oatmeal is ready," she said cheerfully, trying to break the thick atmosphere. "How about we talk about this after everyone's eaten?" And after she left for school maybe... Aya wasn't sure she could take much more of the conversation. She almost wished she were in the dark again.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

The smell of coffee and food filled the stairway, giving Ran warning that someone - Omi or Aya-chan, there hadn't been time for Yohji to cook, and Ken cooking was a joke - was already in the kitchen. He smoothed out his limping gait by the time he reached the last step in case it was his sister.

By that point, he'd heard Yohji and Aya-chan talking, but he was surprised to find their younger teammates present as well. Ken was actually looking like he intended to find ingredients in the fridge. Omi looked sleepy. Aya looked cheerful with a lining of uncomfortable. Yohji looked like he was up to something, smirking faintly.

The coffee didn't appear ready yet, and he wasn't sure who had claim to the pot on the stove. He avoided looking at Yohji and sought out Aya-chan's eyes for some guidance.

[kuchren.livejournal.com]

"Morning!" Cheerful attitudes tend to set in and mold themselves if you think hard enough about them... There was still plenty of time before school, and Aya wanted to act as normal and ignorant as possible... maybe if she pretended enough, everything would go away.

... Or not.

"Coffee's not ready yet. But Oatmeal is, if you'd like some of that."

[plotbunnytiff.livejournal.com]

"Alright, I'm calling a time out here guys." Ken stated firmly after a last mouthful of food. "We're all getting out of hand, and it's gotta stop," he continued, blithely unaware of the irony (and hypocrisy) of what he was saying.

"If things keep going like this," he paused, then shook his head a little. "No, they can't. This whole team could be destroyed right now," he continued, his gaze clearly including Aya. "A million things could have happened, Yohji could be dead, we all could. So we should just wipe the slate clean and be grateful that we're all here."

He frowned, got up, and faced all of them.

~Walk the walk, Hidaka. Don't lecture if you can't be a man about it.~

With a quiet sigh, he bowed politely. "I'm sorry that I caused you worry. It wasn't my intention." He straightened, then bowed again to Ran and Omi. "I should have come up with a more efficient plan that reduced the level of danger. I'm sorry."

With that he quietly sat down and looked at Yohji. "We're all really glad you're back home with us. It would've been really awful if you were gone." Ken said with a softly sober expression that slowly turned into a tiny smile.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

“Keep going like what?” Yohji asked, a bit taken aback.

He’d been expecting to get chewed out for publically tossing an endearment at Ran. The complete ignoring of that followed by Ken deciding to stand up and…give them a…pep talk(?) caught him a little off guard.

So we should just wipe the slate clean….

Make that an unfortunately worded pep talk. Ken’s words hit Yohji with a bolt of nausea. He cast his eyes down, and noticed that the hand holding his coffee cup was shaking slightly.

“I don’t believe in clean slates,” he mumbled through the hair now hanging in his face.

He barely caught the much desired admittance that his presence was appreciated. His mind was stuck on Schuldig’s broken record again.

[celtic-kitsune.livejournal.com]

Omi staid silent as he poked at his oatmeal with his spoon just listening to the others talk. He was watching Yohji and Ran probably a little more closer then he should have. Omi's mind was putting things together and he was slightly surprised by the picture it was reveling.

Omi blinked looking at Ken when he realized he was talking. Almost everyone seemed to have something they wanted to say that morning. Omi's eyes wandered to Aya-chan noticing how quiet she was being.

Omi hardly heard Yohji's comment but looked at him. "I'm glad you're back too." He said before standing up and putting his nearly full bowl in the sink. Turning back to the table he looked at Ran and Yohji.

"Can I trust that you two will get some rest today? Or should I stay home from school and make sure you do?"

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran's head had jerked up at Ken's sudden and surprisingly diplomatic speech. He would have thought the younger Weiss glad that the matter was dropped. Instead, maturely, he was playing peacekeeper. The bowing took Ran off guard, again - and made him wonder if something hadn't actually happened to Ken while he was away from the Koneko.

Yohji's bleak statement took his mind off of Ken's behavior. He gave Yohji a thorough stare, though the intense look was borne out of concern this time, rather than irritation.

'Didn't believe in blank slates'? Yohji, usually confident, was looking anywhere but at anyone in the room.

Something had happened at the Schwarz residence, and the man wasn't telling them.

Ran would kill them, each one of them, even if the means weren't apparent as of yet.

His gaze shifted again to find Omi cornering both of them with earnest blue eyes. There was something more knowing in them than Ran would have preferred. He transferred his gaze back to his bowl of uneaten food without answering. While he had no plans and rest sounded like a good idea, he didn't want to chain himself to a promise.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Omi's voice managed to snap Yohji back into the present.

Stupid. Ken was being nice. Everyone now seemed concerned, the near argument rapidly falling behind them. Why was Schuldig's offer still getting to him like that? Since seeing Ran again, Yohji had thoroughly decided he didn't want to have anything to do with it. But even still....

Stupid.

The frown on Yohji's face slowly crept upwards and morphed into a smile. He gave Ran a knowing look.

"Well, I don't know about rest," he smirked, "but I can promise you I intended to stay in bed all day."

He turned to Omi and shot the boy a far more innocent expression. "So you shouldn't stay home from school unless you need the rest. In which case in might not be a bad idea."

[plotbunnytiff.livejournal.com]

Ken was halfway through his eggs when Yohji's sly implications hit him in the head with a clue-by-four. With dizzying speed, certain almost obvious hints began to click into place, and with a few daring leaps of logic, Ken managed to get a good grasp on what possibly might have happened between Yohji and Ran.

He promptly began to violently choke on his breakfast. His face was tuning an unattractive shade of red, but it was hard to tell if that was from lack of oxygen or embarrassed blushing.

[celtic-kitsune.livejournal.com]

Omi raised an eyebrow at Yohji's statement but couldn't really think of something to say when Ken started choking. "Ken-kun!" Omi said and was at his side rubbing his back hoping it would help.

"Are you okay Ken-kun?" Omi asked looking at him.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Yohji nearly dropped his coffee cup in alarm as Ken began to sputter and choke. He abruptly slammed it down and leaned across the table to smack Ken in the back.

"Oi! Kenken?!" He peered at the asphyxiating burnett with concern. "You...okay?"

Ken didn't seem to actually be dying...although his coloring remained rather worrisome. "You know what you just said about it being awful if I were gone? Well...uh, right back at'cha, ya know?"

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran pointed a building-leveling stare at Yohji, covering surprise, embarrassment and a threat of violence for provoking those two emotions from him. Short of breaking things off with Yohji, something he had no intention of doing yet, he had little recourse to the comment. His face burning, he turned a more irritated look at Ken's reaction.

"Problem, Hidaka?" He dared Ken to say something derogatory.

At the same time, he studiously avoided his sister's eyes, hoping she had no idea what their purpling teammate had finally caught onto.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

He could feel the glare, without even turning to look. The smile he was giving Aya-chan momentarily faltered for a second, before he caught himself and righted it.

“Well, you always look nice, Aya-chan,” he said very deliberately before allowing himself to slowly turn and face the girl’s brother.

Ran looked pissed. Had it been anyone else, Yohji would have found this utterly confusing, considering he’d only spoken to Aya-chan in the first place as a means of taking the focus off of things which Ran himself didn’t want disclosed. However, it seemed that no matter what Yohji did, the outcome would usually be a pissed off Ran, so the surprise was absent. As was his guilt at not be overly discreet, as Ran apparently wasn’t going to appreciate the effort after all.

“Chill out, Ran,” Yohji leveled his gaze with the redhead as he took another sip of coffee, “I think you always look nice too, you know.”

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran really didn't want to fight with Aya-chan, and that was the only thing keeping the threat from being uttered. His sister was off-limits, period. Yohji was taking his chances if he thought Ran would be willing to continue with anything resembling a relationship while he flirted with his little sister in front of him.

And then...Yohji was mocking him? Had this all been a joke?

"Watch it, Kudoh." He allowed himself a generic warning. Yohji couldn't be that ignorant to how uncomfortable he'd made him. Ran deliberately scraped his chair across the floor, taking the bowl of oatmeal with him so as not to offend Aya. "Have a good day at school, Aya-chan," he said . "Call if you need anything."

He avoided the embarrassment of ascending the stairs with his teammates watching, and headed to the living area instead.

[Ran exits to Thursday1.6]

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Yohji sighed audibly as he watched Ran storm out of the room. He took a moment to weigh his options. It didn't take him long to settle that the longer Ran had to dwell on...whatever the hell he thought had just happened, the worse off Yohji would be. Better to straighten things out immediately, if possible.

He didn't care about appearances or what the others thought. He hastily shoved his chair back and grabbed his coffee mug. On second thought he topped it off, figuring that Ran was probably going to give him a headache, and a little extra caffeine couldn't hurt his chances.

"Excuse me," he muttered, trailing Ran out of the room.

[Yohji exits to Thursday 1.6]

[plotbunnytiff.livejournal.com]

Unbidden in the back of his mind, the "Circle Of Life" began to play. And it made him cringe. He hated that movie. But it seemed to work for the melodrama that breakfast had become.

Ken wasn't sure if he was relieved or tired. Maybe a mixture of both. He gave Omi a wry smile in response to his warning, snapping a half-salute at his friend as he left. Without another word he began to pick up discarded dishes and bowls and brought them to the sink to wash.

He almost hated to think it, but perhaps the run-in with with the enemy team had done a bit of good in the end. He took that thought, mentally examined it, then dumped it into an imaginary lake of kerosene and set it on fire.

[kuchren.livejournal.com]

In what seemed like a matter of seconds, everyone had gone from completely loud and arguing nonstop to... nonexistent. Aya blinked and glanced around the kitchen in surprise. Her gaze rested on Omi, and she gave him a confused smile and shrug. No point questioning it all now... "Time for school, I suppose."