Crimson White Rose Part Three

*What the FUCK.*

When did Aya suddenly decide to help people clean smudges off their faces?! When the hell was Aya ever helpful!? And when the hell did Aya learn how to *smile* ?!?!

Ken looked like a deer trapped in headlights and Yohji didn’t think the younger boy’s eyes could grow any wider . Ken’s lower lip was trembling as he covered the place Aya had touched with a shaky hand as if making a sad attempt to hide it.

Yohji did what he did best. He hid all of his feelings behind a calm exterior and graced everyone in the room with a placid smile. The tall blonde walked slowly over to the trembling bundle of nerves that was Ken and looked down upon him.

*Calm before a storm?*

Ken stared up at an overly relaxed Yohji. It was impossible to read those empty green pools.

*Maybe he doesn’t care. Maybe it didn’t mean anything. Maybe...*

“What’s the problem Ken ken? At least he got it off.” Yohji tucked his hair behind his ears and walked past Ken to take his regular seat in the back of the shop. Ken whipped around to face Yohji, his brown eyes filled with confusion and disappointment. Yohji met his gaze, lifting an eyebrow in question.

Aya glanced up from the arrangement he had started to work on to see an intense stare off between his two teammates. He could practically see tiny bolts of lightning crackling from each of the boy’s narrowed eyes. The redhead tilted his head and peered curiously at the two. Usually he didn’t care about the weird things his companions were always doing but he’d never seen them look this upset. Ken looked ready to attack Yohji at any given moment while the lanky blonde seemed to be daring him to do it.

The shop became quiet as the girls looked curiously at the staring match between two of their beloved florists. Aya cleared his throat loudly, hoping to break the two from their little trances.

“I’m back!!” A cheerful voice rang through the silence. The girls turned to see Omi entering the door of the shop while dragging his overstuffed backpack behind him.

They welcomed the cheerful interruption.

“Omi Kun!!!! We were worried that you wouldn’t be working today!!” one of the girls yelled. Several other members of the Omi fan club ran to greet him.

“Now all four of them are in the shop! We’re so lucky!!” a blue haired girl screeched. The sound of the teenybopper’s glass shattering voice brought Yohji back to earth and he resumed his calm demeanor.

“Sorry girls, but now that Omi’s here I can go home.” Yohji proclaimed as he walked towards the door with several upset wails following him, one being the loudest.

“NANI?!?! You’ve haven’t even worked a total of TWO minutes today!!!” Yohji stalled halfway out the door and slowly turned around to see Ken marching toward him, chocolate eyes flashing in anger.

Ken suddenly felt himself being pulled back gently. Startled, Ken jerked backwards and saw violet eyes riveted on him. Aya pulled the stunned boy closer to him and leaned down to the soccer player‘s eye level. Ken’s stomach tied into a thousand knots as the other man moved towards his ear.

“I don’t know what’s going on between you two...nor do I care..” Ken twitched as the breath from Aya’s whisper tickled his ear. “...But may I suggest you settle this later....you’re making a scene.”

Once again the shop was dead silent except for the occasional whispers as the girls watched the unusual situation. They rarely saw the florists fight, and when they did it was usually in a joking manner, but these two seemed so....serious.

Ken looked around and blushed, ashamed he had drawn this much attention. He lowered his eyes to his feet.

“G-gomen...” he said softly. He looked up to see Aya had still not backed away. The dark haired boy promptly turned a deeper shade of red.

Omi glanced to his left to see Yohji’s hands clenched into shaking fists. Jade eyes had narrowed into thin slits and his usual smirk was replaced with an angry scowl. Omi followed the older boy’s gaze with confused blue eyes over to a crimson-cheeked Ken. The youngest member of Weiss looked back only to see Yohji whip around and storm out of the shop.

Hearing the door slam, Ken jumped away from Aya and looked through the front windows to see Yohji stalking away from the shop with his hands shoved deeply in his pockets as he glared down at the sidewalk.

Ken buried his face in his hands. This was just not his day. No..check that, this was the worst day of his life!!! Even worse than the time he had run into that trashcan when he was with Omi downtown and got covered in rotten food and old newspapers. Worse than the time he’d tripped over his own feet and brought down a little old lady and her poodle with him. Worse than...

Omi gingerly tugged at Ken’s sleeve. “Ken Kun? Are you feeling well?” Large blue eyes stared up at him in concern. Ken gave him a strained smile.

“Aa. I think I just need some fresh air. “

“I was going to do the deliveries...would you like to instead?” It was obvious Omi was still worried.

“Sure. That sounds good.” Ken began heading towards the boxes and stalled, he turned and walked over to Aya. “Thanks for coming to help. I’m really grateful...” his voice was lost when he saw Aya smile at him.

“It’s not a problem. I wasn’t doing anything anyway. “ He ruffled the frazzled soccer player’s hair and walked back to his arrangements.

Omi couldn’t contain a giggle as he looked up at the frozen Ken, with his mouth hanging open and disheveled pieces of chocolate hair sticking up from Aya’s handiwork. He poked the stunned boy.

“Keeeeeeeeeeeeen Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun....” Omi drawled out, waving his hand in front of the boy’s eyes. Ken finally blinked several times and slowly looked over at Omi.

“Duh...Wha?”

“The deliveries?”

“What de-” he thought a moment. “OOOOOOOO YEAAAAH! I’m on it!” Ken began marching towards the boxes when Omi pulled him backwards.

“Ken kun..you might want to fix your hair..”

***

“Thank you for picking me up.”

“You thank people too much! It’s not a big deal. I’m glad you work so hard at your studies.”

Midnight eyes glanced up at Crawford. He smiled delicately. It was nice having a family...well a sort of family...

The two stepped out of the elevator and Crawford dug through his jacket to find his keys, he felt something squishy and yanked them out.

“Umm..nice Jigglypuff key chain...”

Crawford blushed. “Chloe made me put it on after I lost the third pair.” he grinned sheepishly and unlocked the door.

They were welcomed with a very rare, very eerie silence. Nagi looked to see Farfello asleep on the couch, the lights of the muted television flashing against his pale skin. But Chloe and Schuldich were nowhere to be found.

“Hello? Anyone home?” Nagi called meekly. Dark eyes glanced around. Farfello mumbled something and turned over.

“Hey...do you hear that?” Nagi asked softly, tugging on Crawford’s sleeve. The American listened quietly.

“I think it’s...my..printer?” both looked at each other with confusion. *They* were the computer fanatics of the group...so who else would be using it?

The two padded softly to Crawford's room and nudged open his door. They stepped back in surprise when they were suddenly knocked over with noise. Brad’s computer speakers were playing “Just Communication” at top volume and his printer was spitting out page after page of...something..which Schu was punching holes and Chloe was placing in a binder. Both of them were laughing insanely with frighteningly wide grins.

“Schuldich?” Crawford gawked at the German.

“Chloe??” Nagi gazed with wide eyes at the usually calm girl.

Both glanced up with shocked eyes and the laughter stopped. Their cheeks took on a bright crimson shade as Schuldich frantically clicked at the “cancel print” button.

“What are you doing on my computer?” He looked at the papers scattered about the floor. “And what are you printing?!”

“H-homework! Report! Assignment!” Chloe blurted out as she lunged at the papers on the ground and picked them up quickly.

“CHLOE!” Schuldich yelled and pointed. Chloe followed the direction of his finger and her breath stopped when she saw Crawford picking up one of the sheets near his feet.

“NOOOOOOOO!!!” She and Schuldich hurled themselves at Crawford, who easily sidestepped them.

“OOF!” The two promptly collided with Nagi, who had been standing behind the American.

“I can see the future when I want to retards.” he glanced behind him at the mass of tangled limbs and Nagi glaring up at him.

“Gomen Nagi!” his eyes lowered to the piece of paper in his hands. He read with a bored expression until his mouth slid into a smirk.

“He took the braided pilot into his arms....” Crawford began, smiling evilly at the two on the ground.

“Nooo!!” Chloe wailed.

“I’ll kill you Brad! I MEAN IT! STOP READING!!” Schu glared daggers at Crawford.

“What’s going on?” Nagi struggled to get out from under Chloe and Schu.

“...and stoked the American’s long...”

“STOP!! STOOOOOOOP!” Chloe reached out an arm and yanked a hysterically laughing Crawford’s foot, sending him on his ass.

Nagi’s eyes widened into saucers as he looked slowly at the completely mortified Schwarz members on top of him.

“Are you reading...porn?” he grimaced. “GET OFFA ME!! HENTAI LOVERS!!” Nagi squirmed around angrily as he tried to get away from those..those..perverts!!

The two went pale and scrambled off of the angry boy.

“It’s not true! We’re not!”

“...and the two headed towards the small dingy bed of their motel room...”

“SHUT UP!!” the two cried, snatching the paper away.

Schuldich kicked the laughing man on the floor. “I hate you!” he grabbed Chloe off the floor. “We’re leaving!” he dragged the still in shock girl with him towards the entrance of their apartment.

“Gonna pick up some more hentai?!” Crawford said between gasps for oxygen.

“DIE!!!” Chloe shrieked as the color left her face once again. Schuldich grabbed his keys (adorned with a lovely Pikachu key chain) and opened the front door.

“Where are we going?”

“Who cares! AWAY from that ASSHOLE Brad!” the German yelled loudly towards Crawford’s room.

“Shhhh...I’m trying to sleep here.”

Both looked over at Farfello who had his eye half opened.

“Oh... have you guys quit reading your yaoi?”

The two broke out into a new blush and Schu let out one last anguished cry as he slammed the door to the apartment, Crawford’s laughter ringing in their ears.

*** “Yosh! Only one left and my day is done!”

Ken drove slowly down the streets of Tokyo, attempting to find the address Omi had scrawled on a small piece of paper. He found himself on a street lined with several different trendy clothing stores. Finally locating his destination, Ken did his sad attempt at parallel parking and hopped out of the car, carrying the last of the flower arrangements. The soccer player glanced into the shop window and lifted an eyebrow.

*What...interesting...clothes....* he thought as he stared at the tiny red plastic miniskirt and knee high black leather boots on one mannequin, and the tight, slashed leather pants on the other one. Both wore zebra print cowboy hats and orange wigs. Ken bit his tongue to keep from laughing as he walked into the store. A girl with spiked pink hair and who knows how many piercings greeted him.

“Hey! You got the flowers?!” she said excitedly. Ken shuddered at the sight of her tongue ring.

“Umm..yeah..” he handed her the box. “Great store.” he lied.

“Liar.” she laughed as she opened the box. “Perfect! Red roses !” She pulled out a rose and examined it. The pink haired woman glanced up at him. “Where are the thorns?”

“Thorns?” Ken blinked at her.

“Well don’t roses have thorns?”

“Yeah...” he thought of Yohji’s bloody hands, “but we usually cut them off.”

“Really?” she pouted and looked down at the flowers, “That sucks!” she shrugged and handed him a wad of money. “Tip should already be in there...I’ll make sure to ask for thorns next time.”

Ken slowly placed the wad in his pocket, not even bothering to count. He watched the girl pull out a black vase covered in sharp spikes from under the counter.

“I think they’ll look beautiful in here, ne?!” she looked up at him, golden eyes sparkling.

“Yeah, just great.” he looked at his watch, “Look at the time! I have so many more deliveries to do!”

“Such a bad liar!” she exclaimed laughing. “I won’t keep you! “ she waved him off. “Out! You stick out like a sore thumb in this place!”

Ken grinned sheepishly and headed towards the entrance. “See ya.”

He stepped out into the warm afternoon sun, grateful to be out of the *interesting* shop. Maybe if he drove back fast enough he could treat Omi to a late lunch. He was thankful that the young boy let him do the deliveries to get his mind off of two certain florists. At that moment, he would have been happy if he never had to face Yohji *or* Aya again.

*Yohji...*

“NANI!?!? There is NO WAY I am going to wear that!!!” a girl shouted, obviously embarrassed.

“Oh come on! It’s a club!!” a nasal voice whined.

Ken stopped half way into his car at hearing the two familiar voices.

“Yes Schu..a CLUB..not a bordello!”

*SCHU?!?!*

“But Chloe..you haven’t been to a club! *Everyone* dresses like that!”

*CHLOE?!!?*

A pause. “You CAN’T be serious!”

“Oh but I am!! Would I lie to you?!”

“Yes.”

“HEY!”

Liquid brown eyes landed on the bickering couple.

*I’m hallucinating. Juuust seeing things. That’s not the same girl! Nope it’s....*

~Her evil twin?~

*Shut up brain!* The two seemed oblivious to him. Both held several shopping bags and shouted at each other, as they stood in front of the display window of the shop Ken had just exited. Schuldich took the platinum haired girl's arm and dragged her into the shop. Ken stared after them.

Chloe was in Schwarz.

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