Thursday 1.20 - Reconvene

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Yohji continued his deliberately slow pace until he heard the start-up of Schwarz’s car. He listened closely, and as soon as he was certain that they were out of range he broke into a run.

Schwarz was at the Koneko while you were wasting time picking out movies. Idiot. Anything could have happened.

…You might have been back in time if you hadn’t chased after Prodigy.

Now that he had his attention all to himself, his mind wasted no time inventing horrendous scenes of what might have transpired in his absence. Schuldig had given his imagination plenty to work with from the kidnapping incident.

He was having trouble breathing. He was barely in any condition to walk; it was a wonder that he even managed to move still…

Somehow, in spite of it all, plastic DVD boxes still remained grasped in his hand. He all but threw them onto the stoop as he struggled to get the door open. Once through, he looked around frantically.

Everything seemed peaceful enough….

“--Hello?” he called out tentatively.

Comments

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran was in the storeroom when a loud clatter and the sound of someone struggling with the door came from inside. He grabbed a pair of shears, holding them by his leg, before emerging at a quick limp.

He relaxed only marginally when he saw that it was Yohji. There was a pile of DVDs on the stoop and the man's expression told him something had happened.

Schuldig. He guessed immediately. He'd gotten to him already. Again.

His hand tightened to the point of pain on the shears. Yes, Yohji was an assassin, just like him, but Ran irrationally felt he was responsible, for not being there to protect him.

Again.

He forced himself to loosen his grip on the shears, but ended up slamming them on the counter of the shop anyway.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Yohji's eyes widened at the sight of Ran brandishing pruning shears. He was torn between relief at seeing the other man (visibly) intact and a new wave of panic at the sight of him agitated and creatively armed.

Shit. Something did happen. Ran definitely looks like something happened.

He stumbled a little in his hurry to transverse the space to the counter.

"What'd they do?" he breathlessly exclaimed.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran relaxed at that. If Yohji was asking him, then Yohji himself was more or less okay. Simple logic. "It's okay, Yohji. Schuldig stopped by again, he seemed to be looking for you. He brought Farfarello. Ken threatened them with a vase, they left." He had a hard time not rolling his eyes at their teammate's unlikely choice of weapon.

Ran held back his next words, and then decided to voice them aloud for once. "I was worried..." He took a deep breath. He wasn't used to admitting things like that. "...that they had found you."

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Yohji slumped against the counter, the over-exertion of rushing home finally catching up with him. It took him a moment to be able to breathe regularly again.

As he'd already known that Schwarz had dropped by, Ran's account actually eased his nerves, quickly dispelling all of the worst-case scenarios his mind had concocted as he dashed back.

He actually smiled faintly at the admittance of worry.

"They found me," he finally confirmed with a grim nod. "And they made sure I knew that they'd found you first. Which is why I'm about to collapse from running just now."

He closed the gap between them and put his arm loosely around Ran.

"A vase, eh?" He repeated with a grin. "That sounds like Ken."

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran tensed, out of conditioning, but didn't shrug out of Yohji's touch. He gave him a nod. "He handled himself despite that," he mentioned.

He examined Yohji's face. "What did Schwarz say to you? Why did they try to find you again?"

The idea of Schwarz hunting Yohji down after letting him go was entirely reminiscent of a cat playing with their food, and it was unsettling. It made him want to hunt them down and take care of them once and for all. Even if they didn't seem intent on making themselves a direct threat.

He didn't want them near Yohji. Yohji was...

...Weiss. One of their own.

Not what he'd almost thought, but it was true, and what he was comfortable defining.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

The questioning tripped Yohji up a little. In his frantic concern for what might of happened at the Koneko, he'd forgotten just how much he didn't want to tell Ran about his own encounter. Crap.

"Um..." he searched frantically for an explanation that might bypass the detail that he'd gone looking for them first. His brain failed on the uptake. "They weren't looking for me per se. It was more of an accidental run-in, really. No biggie."

"You're sure everything's alright here?" He looked around, hoping to find something suitable to change the topic with.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran narrowed his eyes. He took a step back, away from Yohji's touch. There were definitely things the man wasn't saying. He didn't appear to be hurt, however, and he wasn't acting particularly different, or traumatized.

"They didn't stay long," Ran reiterated shortly. "If something happened that could affect Weiss..."

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

"Nothing happened," Yohji was quick to reconfirm.

He felt a bit of a twinge as Ran pulled away and became noticeably cooler.

Ran's last statement resonated though and Yohji reevaluated the importance of everything that had happened.

"Well," he resigned himself to admitting, "the youngest Schrient girl might not be dead. But I doubt she's a threat."

He watched Ran closely for his reaction. Whatever information the younger man had been anticipating, Yohji was pretty sure that wasn't what he'd expected to hear.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran studied Yohji's face. He wasn't giving much away. "No, I wouldn't think so." He frowned. "How do you know?"

There was definitely something Yohji didn't want said, and that meant that it probably should be.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Yohji sighed. He was worn out. It seemed like every single event to happen in the past several hours had been orchestrated specifically to drain him. He probably shouldn't have even been up and about, and he'd found himself running, first after Nagi and then back home, faced with stressful confrontation, antagonized.... If Ran was going to be mad at him, Yohji felt he at least deserved a nap first so he could handle it.

He staggered over to the table and sat down, looking at Ran tiredly.

"I ran into Prodigy by accident," he clarified. "That's how they found me. It wasn't really about me at all this time. Prodigy thought he saw the Schrient girl and was...upset."

"I was just afraid they'd done something here. So...no problem." He let out a bit of a strained laugh and hoped Ran would let things drop now.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

So they hadn't been after Yohji. Ran mused. And they had no purpose at the Koneko. He wished he knew what they found so fascinating about Weiss, so they could understand how to cease being an amusement for them.

He wasn't one hundred percent with Yohji's vague explanation, but he was sure that Yohji would say something if they had revealed something more connected to Weiss.

And if they had hurt him further?

That, Yohji probably wouldn't say.

The blond looked unhappy, and exhausted. Ran watched him, then moved closer. He settled a hand on Yohji's good shoulder, then gave it an experimental rub with his thumb.

You're definitely proving to him and you both how much you meant what you said about not wanting anything from him, Ran's inner voice told him snidely.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Yohji almost started at the contact. He was still expecting to get chewed out. Or at the very least subjected to a more thorough inquisition. He looked up at Ran in surprise.

The anger that he had been anticipating since Shwarz's first appearance was absent.

Wait Kudoh, you still haven't told him the whole story. He just doesn't know to be angry yet....

Ran looked concerned. Almost... affectionate.

He could be reading into that.

Fuck it. He was relieved. Nothing bad had happened on either end, he deserved to be relieved. He'd give Ran a more complete briefing later, when he wasn't so exhausted and all of their adrenaline had worn off. He was too tired to press his luck. The stress lines etching his face melted into a genuine smile, and he reached up to place his hand over Ran's.

"Maybe we should consider a change of address," he only half joked.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Damn, but Yohji was good-looking when he was being real. Or when Ran perceived him not to be bullshitting, at least. Kudoh wasn't as slick as he thought he was, but he was good at putting up fronts.

His hand was warm on Ran's. He looked at it, considering. It was a pretty small affectionate gesture, but it wasn't one you'd give to a fuck-buddy. Yohji had been trying too hard that week to prove his sincerity for Ran not to partially believe him, but old observations and opinions were hard to shake.

He left his hand where it was under Yohji's and met his eyes. "Somehow I doubt that would be effective."

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

“No, it really wouldn’t,” Yohji sighed. He laced his fingers between Ran’s and sat for a moment, mulling over his recent experiences. “You know….” He trailed off for a moment, not sure how stupid the thing he was about to say might sound.

“We should probably ignore them,” he finally postulated, with a skeptical raise of his eyebrow to imply that he didn’t even really buy his own idea. “I don’t mean we should let our guard down or anything,” he added, knowing that there was no way in hell that Ran would even consider ‘ignoring’ something that might pose a threat to his sister. “But I have to admit I didn’t feel quite as threatened by them this time round. And I haven’t gotten the impression they’d really gain much from doing anything to us. I think they’re bored.”

He frowned, his belief in that statement sinking in. Schuldig had made it pretty clear that he considered Yohji’s distress an amusement. The others didn’t really seem to care one way or the other. They’d wanted information from him, and had been pissed at Schuldig for being reckless…but their interest had apparently ended there. It was pretty strange that they had cared so much about the mission though....

“The chance I can actually stick to my own advice there is probably nil,” Yohji admitted truthfully. Even if he could manage to convince himself that Schwarz was no longer an equal threat to the days when Reji had been pulling the strings, that there was no need to panic, Schuldig was just too good at triggering him. He might be more tempered than Ken, but he still had a difficult time reigning himself in when he was good and pissed off. And Schuldig had taken pissing him off to an art form.

“I’m serious,” he added. “They’re starting to go….domestic. They picked up a fucking cat for Chrissakes.”

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

"I don't think that's a good idea." Ran replied. "We need to inform Sato at the least." He frowned. He still didn't trust their new liaison. "I didn't think I would ever have reason to say this, but I would prefer it were Manx."

There was something off about how he felt about his own statement, but he couldn't quite pinpoint it. He just knew there hadn't been much that had gone right since Sato was assigned to them.

He stared at their linked fingers, Yohji's were lithe but slightly calloused, and Ran could feel their deceptive strength. Yohji's weapon was not one he would choose, it was a difficult blend of subtlety and dexterity. After a moment the intimacy of the touch got to him. He didn't like the feeling that Yohji had jumped several steps ahead of him without his consent. He shook his hand free and covered by limping to a chair at the table. He hated that he couldn't even cover his gait now that the stiffness of a healing wound had set in, and it showed on his face.

"They're up to something," he stated the obvious. "I don't like that they're toying with us."

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

"You and me both, babe." Yohji smiled wistfully but checked himself before making any of his old habitual jests about Manx. Even if he hadn't had the concern of agitating Ran, the innuendos no longer seemed appropriate while their subject had vanished with no forwarding address. The moment of nostalgia quickly faded back into the sense of foreboding he picked up whenever he let himself think too hard about that. He frowned, first from the thought of something bad possibly having happened to Manx, then deeper as Ran detached himself and sat just a little bit farther away than Yohji would have deemed necessary.

"Whether they're up to something or not, they're definitely toying with us," Yohji nodded. "Mastermind has flat out admitted it."

"But I'm sure you're right," he added. "It's hard to imagine them not up to something. And they've been acting pretty screwy. Oracle was pretty damn interested in getting information about Sato and our mission. And he was pretty pissed at Mastermind for interfering by kidnapping me, so there must be some agenda if he's letting Mastermind continue to fuck around with us. We've definitely run into them too many times for it to be coincidences. I just don't get why they're so interested. It didn't seem like a particularly important mission, and we don't even know anything."

He caught himself staring at Ran's leg and quickly diverted his eyes.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran agreed, though he gave no outward sign of it until he spoke. "It's the first they've shown interest in our Kritiker contacts. They usually seem content to fuck with our missions."

He followed Yohji's stare down to his leg and frowned. He hated the reminder that he'd received that wound while the other team kidnapped Yohji. "They are too interested in us."

Ran realized he meant, 'with you'. Schuldig's particular interest in Yohji was maddening.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

"Well, you can't deny we're interesting," Yohji smirked, trying to lighten the mood a little.

He scooted his chair closer to Ran and very tenatively touched his leg. "How're you holding up?" He asked quietly. "I...didn't make it worse...this morning? Did I?"

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Internally, Ran flinched. Outwardly, he held himself still. He figured he could put space between himself and Yohji as dedicatedly as he wanted to, but it was wasted effort.

And, as Yohji's quiet question reminded him, it was also a little late for him to decide he was uncomfortable with that.

It also irritated him that it was Yohji who had been kidnapped, Yohji who had been fucked with, and yet the blonde acted as if Ran had suffered a major injury.

"No." Ran answered shortly. His expression clearly conveyed how idiotic he thought the question was.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

"Good," Yohji raised a suggestive eyebrow, and let his hand trail a bit as he drew it away. "In that case, I fully intend to monopolize your evening."

He leaned back in his own chair and just watched Ran for a moment, giving him back his space but enjoying the view of the man subtly flustered. He still had to be careful, knowing that with Ran the lines were very thin and easy to cross, but he was appreciating his newly expanded boundaries.

"I've never been able to feel at ease around Sato, you know," he finally circled back to the main topic of their conversation. "I'd like to know what Schwarz knows that makes them so interested in him. We didn't know much about Persia all along, and just look at how much shit hit the fan when some light was shed there."

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Ran agreed, because saying something covered while he tripped over the other thing Yohji had said. That, and he also agreed with Yohji. They needed to know more about their new contact, and just why everyone else they had known at Kritiker was suddenly unreachable. Or so he assumed - he never cared much, but Omi was sure to know and keep tabs on his company family.

Finally deciding it was definitely out of bounds for Yohji to think he would automatically agree to having his evening spoken for - not that it didn't recall sensations that made his heart speed up and other parts of him readily go along with Yohji's suggestion - he frowned. "This isn't a relationship."

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Don't let it get to you. Don't let it get to you. You knew he would be difficult. Don't take it personally. Yohji had a new mantra.

"Oh?" He asked, feigning innocent surprise, "That's...interesting." He made a show of pulling out a cigarette and theatrically studied it.

"Last time I checked, fuck buddies weren't really in the habit of lounging around all morning in bed with you...."

He shrugged, shoved the cigarette back into it's carton and abruptly sprung to his feet, moving behind Ran to lean over his shoulder, arm snaking around one side of the redhead. He spoke close to Ran's ear. "So long as you still let me monopolize your time you can call it whatever will make you feel better. I never cared much for labels, anyway."

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran warily tracked Yohji's movements. Even before Yohji spoke, he knew he'd pissed him off enough to be acute. And sure enough, he threw the hypocrisy of Ran's own actions back at him.

"You can't monopolize my time." Ran bit out. "I didn't say 'fuck buddy'."

Ran didn't like the sound of it coming from Yohji's mouth. Even if he wasn't ready to define what he still needed to come to terms with, he wouldn't have slept with a teammate out of convenience. It offended him that Yohji failed to see the area between being definitive and being nothing. Yohji wasn't nothing to him - he had established that already.

What drove him nuts about Yohji the most was how easily he threw him onto the defensive. No one else was able to do that.

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

"I'm monopolizing your time right now," Yohji replied smugly, and sat back down, crossing his arms.

God, he felt like he was having an argument with a surly teenager. Luckily immature arguing was a skill set he'd never outgrown.

"We already had a relationship," he said with sarcastic emphasis. "It's what you call it when people, you know, interact. Our relationship just got a bit...more pleasant. That's all." He gave Ran a challenging look. "Or are you telling me it didn't?"

He looked at his watch and sighed. "Well, if you need some space tonight, there does happen to be a blue-haired wench I'm fairly interested in investigating. I ought to scrounge up some dinner first. Lemme know what Sato says." He stood up again.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran was clenching his teeth by the time Yohji stood up again, this time for a grand exit and apparently the last word.

His statements stung, again because they forced Ran to correct his perceptions.

Also, he had never said no, not explicitly. He actually had never intended to, he realized. But his reasons for not wanting to act on this with Yohji hadn't gone anywhere.

You're worried he'll mean too much to you. Ran took in a sharp breath. He promptly overwrote it with another, easier thought - He just shouldn't presume I will want to, every time he asks.

And still, pride warred with an idiotic desire to actually take Yohji up on what he was offering. It was frustrating that Yohji had left no opening for Ran to easily accept.

And there was the threat of Yohji investigating an ex-Schrient member on his own. He was blackmailing him.

Aloud, Ran spoke over his thoughts. "You're not investigating Schrient alone, not if Schwarz is aware she's alive."

He glared at Yohji because he hated being put into the position of actually hinting at what he wanted. "I did not say no. I meant that you can't assume that you can speak for my time."