Chapter 5

Hiro stared blankly at the wall, fingers resting lightly on the strings of his guitar. He'd been sitting like that for nearly an hour and he hadn't played a single note. In fact, he'd barely played all week, and the rest of Bad Luck was getting irritated with him. He'd been flubbing simple phrases and riffs, and the music he did manage to play correctly was lifeless and dull, with none of his usual passion behind it. Finally today Shuuichi had told him to go home and deal with it, that they would practice with Fujisaki's programmed arrangements instead of live guitar.

That had hurt, but it was just one more little thing added to the rest of the pain in his heart. He was a little dismayed by just how strongly he was reacting to Omi's betrayal - he'd known he was falling hard for the other boy, but he hadn't realized how far gone he already was.

He couldn't even talk to Shuuichi to try to work through his feelings. When his friend had first told him about what had happened at the club, Hiro had accused him of making it up, and they'd gotten into a big fight. He'd believed in Omi, trusted him - not that he didn't trust Shuuichi, but his friend had been getting progressively more hostile towards Omi since they'd met. Hiroshi had finally realized why - Shuuichi was subconsciously jealous that he was no longer Hiro's sole focus of attention. It was much the way Hiro himself had reacted to Shuuichi's relationship with Yuki, except that he had recognized it in himself and worked hard to root it out.

But Shuuichi had insisted, and Hiro had eventually confronted Omi about it. Omi hadn't even tried to deny it, except for saying once that it wasn't what Shuuichi had thought, but no, he couldn't explain what it actually was. Omi had looked miserable enough that Hiroshi had wanted to forgive him - if he'd even tried to offer an explanation, however lame, and promised not to do it again, Hiro probably would have taken him back. As it was, how could he ever trust him again? He didn't need that kind of stress in his life.

Not that he was doing too well now that they'd broken up. He constantly found himself thinking Omi, making a mental note to share some story or joke he'd heard during the day, planning what they would do the next time they got together. He almost thought it would have hurt less if Omi had just died.

He finally started to play, but it was a morose song, full of minor and diminished chords that wandered all over the landscape of despair. He stopped after just a few moments, because it was only depressing him more.

There was a knock at his door, and he glanced up, puzzled. Shuuichi would still be at the studio, practicing, and he couldn't imagine who else it could be. He set the guitar on his bed and wandered over to the door.

The person on the other side was pretty much the last person he'd ever have expected to find there - Hidaka Ken, the person Omi had stood him up for. The other boy wore a determined look on his face that promised it would be less painful to hear him out than to try to make him go away.

"What do you want," Hiroshi growled at him, not particularly intimidated.

"To talk to you," Ken replied implacably.

"Why the hell would I want to talk to you?" Hiro asked him incredulously.

Ken shrugged. "Well, if that music I heard as I came up was any indication, you're nearly as depressed as Omi is. And given that the studio told me they'd sent you home early when I went looking for you there, you must be annoying your friends at least as much as Omi has been driving us all crazy."

"So?" Hiro snarled at him. "I'm glad he's upset! He damn well should be!"

Ken sighed and shook his head. "Look, I don't know what this Shuuichi guy told you, 'cause he wouldn't talk to me, and I don't know what Omi told you, 'cause he hasn't said more than three words to anybody all week. But I can tell you this much - it's not what you think it is."

Hiro rolled his eyes. "So Omi said. But he also didn't bother to tell me why I should believe him, given that he was admitting that he stood me up to go to a club with you."

"It's not what you think it is," Ken repeated patiently. "Omi and I are not and never have been together. We're very close, and we always have been, but he thinks of me like an older brother. The three of us are the family that he never had."

"Shuuichi said you called him your boyfriend," Hiro accused. "That doesn't sound very brotherly to me."

"I did. I thought I was rescuing Omi from a bad situation. All I could see was some guy arguing with him, and I figured a boyfriend would be better back up than a regular friend."

His words had the ring of truth behind them - and yet Hiro instinctively knew there was something he wasn't being told. "Why the hell was he at a gay nightclub with you, then? After breaking a very important date with me?"

Ken glanced around as if checking to make sure no one was listening. "Look, can we maybe have this conversation inside? It's bad enough I'm telling you this stuff, I don't need anyone else overhearing it."

Despite himself Hiroshi found that his curiosity was piqued. He stood aside, holding the door wide enough that Ken could get past him, then shut it behind the other boy.

Ken looked around at the mess that had taken over the apartment, and shook his head. "For me this would be ordinary, but I have a feeling you're usually as organized as Omittchi."

"Did you come here to explain all this to me, or to comment on the state of my living area?" Hiro growled at him, impatient. Ken sighed, and turned to face him.

Hiro was just a little taken aback at the deadly seriousness in the other teen's eyes. He'd seen that look before - any time mention of Omi's sister came up, or the times Hiro had probed to find out where Omi got all those injuries. Ken was naturally such a happy-go-lucky kind of person that the expression was strange on him; but then again, it was just as odd on the perpetually cheerful Omi.

"What I'm about to tell you now goes no farther than this room, understand?" Ken told him firmly. Hiro nodded, mystified. "All right. I can't give you most of the details, but here's what I can tell you: Omi and I - and Aya and Youji, for that matter - are not what we seem. The flower shop is a cover; the damn thing rarely turns a profit, and it certainly couldn't support all four of us. What we actually do is part of what I can't tell you. Suffice it to say that Omi literally had no choice about breaking his date with you to go out with me. And it's not that he doesn't trust you, or doesn't want to tell you what's going on - the four of us are not the only people whose lives depend on us keeping this whole thing quiet. Do you understand a little better now?"

Hiro was gaping at him, speechless for a long moment. "This... this is why he keeps getting those injuries, isn't it?" he asked slowly, and Ken nodded. "I thought that looked an awful lot like a bullet wound. Is this some kind of undercover government thing? Isn't Omi a little young for that?"

Ken shook his head. "I've already told you pretty much everything I can. Take it or leave it - but I hope you take it, because Omi's been absolutely miserable."

Hiro closed his eyes, and thought about it hard. Finally he sighed, and shrugged. "I'll talk to him," he said, hoping his voice didn't sound as brittle to Ken as it did to him. "I can't promise any more than that."

Ken smiled at him. "That's enough. He gets off shift at the shop as soon as I show up - you can come back with me and talk to him now, if you want." Hiro nodded and grabbed his helmet, and Ken preceded him out the door.

Hiroshi had to pause when he caught a glimpse of Ken's bike, parked off to one side where he hadn't seen it before. "That is not the engine the factory put on that thing," he commented, crouching to admire the sleek lines. Ken's chest puffed out a little with pride.

"I spent nearly a year overhauling it," he told Hiroshi smugly. "Omi helped. We took it apart and rebuilt it from the ground up. We're working on his bike, now, but he's not as much of a fanatic as I am. He's more worried about making sure his computer is state-of-the-art than his bike."

Hiro had to chuckle as he stood and made his way to his own bike. "I'd noticed his unhealthy fascination with those things," he commented wryly. "He showed me the one in his room, and you'd think he was a proud father showing off his kid. I've never seen a private system that well outfitted - if I didn't know better, I'd think he was a hacker!"

Ken twitched a bit when he said that, and Hiroshi raised an eyebrow. "Or maybe I don't know better... IS he a hacker?"

Ken rolled his eyes. "I can't follow half of what he does on that thing," he replied, which both was and wasn't an answer. He started his bike and pulled out onto the road, heading towards the Koneko. Hiro followed, mind churning with questions.

Omi was swamped by the fangirls when they arrived, and there was no one else in sight. He looked up in trepidation as the bells over the door jangled, then sighed in relief when he saw Ken. "Ken-kun! Thank goodness you're..." His voice trailed off as he caught sight of Hiroshi behind Ken, and he gulped.

"Where's Youji and Aya?" Ken asked, making his way through the piles of girls to grab for his apron.

"Uh..." Omi shook his head and snapped out of it. "Aya-kun's in the back filling an order. Youji-kun disappeared about ten minutes ago - I suspect he's out back smoking again. I finished today's deliveries about half an hour ago, but there might be a few more to go out later."

"I'll handle them," Ken replied, moving to take over at the cash register. "You get out of here before you get sucked back in again, and wind up working two shifts. Go on, get!" He gave the younger boy a playful shove, pushing him towards Hiro.

Hiro was just leaning against the doorjamb, watching his erstwhile boyfriend with an inscrutable expression. Omi looked pale and more than a little nervous, but there was a flicker of hope deep in his blue eyes as he hung up his apron and made his way to stand before Hiroshi.

"Omi-kun, who's your cute friend?" one of the girls squealed, sighing. "Will you introduce him to me, since you're not interested?"

"I'm not interested either," Hiro informed her bluntly. He jerked his head at the door, and Omi nodded. They exited together, still not having said a word to each other.

Outside, and out of sight of the girls, they paused. "You... you wanted to talk to me?" Omi asked, voice so soft Hiro could barely hear him. Ken had been right about one thing - he looked even more miserable now than he had when they'd last seen each other.

"Is there somewhere we can go where we won't be overheard?" Hiro asked him, feeling his heart melting at the sight of those wounded eyes.

"Uh... the apartment will be empty right now, so we could go to my room, or we could go down the street to one of the coffee shops..."

"Your room," Hiro decided instantly. Omi nodded hesitantly, and led the way up the back stairs so they wouldn't have to go through the shop again.

They kicked their shoes off in the entranceway and headed down the hall to Omi's room. Hiro flopped down onto the bed as Omi locked the door behind them. Omi chose to perch on his computer chair rather than joining Hiroshi on the bed.

"Ken came to talk to me today," Hiro started, watching Omi's face carefully. The younger boy looked puzzled.

"Why?"

"He wanted to explain a few things to me. He told me that you hadn't had a choice about missing our date, though he was kind of vague on why." Omi had paled a little more, and his eyes went wide, but he said nothing. Hiro continued. "He said you were involved in something, that the shop was a cover, and that was why you kept getting injured."

"He TOLD you that?" Omi squeaked, looking horrified. "Oh, Ken-kun... he'll be in so much trouble if they find out..."

"He didn't give me any details," Hiro reassured him. "And I'm not stupid enough to go around telling other people about this. It stays between you, him and me, as far as I'm concerned." Omi looked relieved. "I guess I just have one major question that I need to have answered."

"I can't tell you much more than Ken already did," Omi started, but Hiro held up his hand to hush him.

"You can tell me this much. Are you in this willingly? I mean, are you being forced to do this? Because if you are..."

Omi looked surprised at the question. "Oh, no! No, I... I'm doing this of my own free will. We all are. Kri... the organization doesn't work that way. We're all free to refuse a m... er, to not do what they want us to do any time."

"So why didn't you?" Hiro asked, confused. Omi sighed.

"Because Youji-kun couldn't do it, and Aya-kun wouldn't do it, and I couldn't let Ken-kun go in alone. People's lives were on the line, Hiro-kun - I begged them to change their minds, but everything was set and it was me or nobody. Having the choice to turn them down doesn't mean that I always can - not and live with myself in the morning."

Hiro sighed, and passed his hand over his eyes. "All right - I don't really understand, but I think I know you well enough to believe that you wouldn't have done this lightly."

Omi's eyes shone with suppressed tears. "You... you forgive me?" he whispered, hopeful. Hiro nodded.

"I guess so. I wish you could explain more to me, but I'm willing to take it on faith. I... I'm sorry I didn't believe you in the first place..."

"Why should you have?" Omi replied, smiling now through his tears. "I knew how bad it looked, that's why I didn't even bother trying to make excuses. I figured that if I couldn't tell you the truth, the least I could do was not lie to you. I'm sorry..."

Hiro scooted to the edge of the bed, and silenced him with a tender kiss. "You apologize too much, baka. Just shut up and make up with me already, will you?" He tugged and Omi willingly tumbled into his lap, squirming around so they could embrace fully, and set to making up with a vengeance.

|Chapter 1| |Chapter 2| |Chapter 3| |Chapter 4| |Chapter 5| |Chapter 6| |Chapter 7|

Return to Weiss Kreuz Page

Return to the Main Index

Email Miko no da