Title: Gift for Ren 2007

Author: tarotgal

Fandom: Weiss Kreuz

Rating: PG?

Pairing: somewhat Aya/Yohji

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their world. Please don't sue me. I'm just having fun and not making any money.

Summary: Aya is not immune to the cold making its way through Weiss, much as he would like to have been. Luckily, the others don't have to know that.

Notes: Happy holidays, Ren!

                When Ken came down with a cold, Aya knew it was only a matter of time. Ken missed his shifts at the shop and withdrew from the current mission, as well. He claimed the couch in the living room as his own, sleeping there at night and watching soccer games there during the day. However, Ken spent just as much time hanging out in the kitchen. To Ken, the only surefire remedy for a cold was to eat. He raided the cupboard, nibbling, devouring, cleaning them out almost immediately of everything from chips to soup. Aya was forced to go shopping three times as often, and Ken wrote out mile long lists of items he wanted. Ken didn't notice that Aya never bought everything on the list, especially since he practically plowed through the food too quickly to taste it, let alone see it. After a week and a half of balled-up tissues piling up on the living room coffee table and dirty dishes piling up in the sink, Ken was better and back in action.

                Omi followed right after, starting to sniffle just as Ken's sniffles were ending. Omi tried to work, but realized after a few disastrous moments while trying to tail a target on a mission that he wasn't up to being an assassin when he had a cold. Omi dropped out of the mission but kept up with his shifts at the flower store for three days, until he was sneezing more than anything else and Yohji forced the young man to take it easy. They barely saw Omi after that, as he stayed in his room, not wanting to be a bother or a burden on the others. He let them bring him supplies and food, and he ducked out to the bathroom now and again. But apart from that, he was not seen again until he could breathe properly through both nostrils.

                Yohji came down with the cold next, despite Omi's reclusiveness. Yohji always caught whatever was going around. And when Yohji wasn't feeling well, he hated to be alone. By then, the mission was nearly over, and Yohji's part in it was less critical, but he tagged along because the alternative was to stay at home in a lonely, empty house. He came to the shop as well, to flirt with the girls and let them comfort him every time he had to sneeze. But for the most part, he seemed to be glued right to Aya's side. If Aya went for a drink of water, Yohji went, too, usually getting a drink while he was there. If Aya went out to get some bread and milk, Yohji went along for the ride, sitting in the passenger seat of the car sniffling miserably and looking for kind, soothing words. Aya wondered sometimes whether Yohji exaggerated his symptoms just to get Aya to slip into caregiver mode and 'ohh' and 'ahhh' sympathetically over every little thing. For the record, Aya occasionally fixed him soup or handed him tissues, but barely showed any emotion at all in the acts. In bed, Yohji snuggled up to Aya the whole time, refusing to leave Aya's side until every last tickle in his throat and nose had sufficiently vacated.

                It was no wonder, then, when the redhead noticed his painfully sore throat one morning during breakfast. He went straight for the Vitamin C tablets and took enough to turn him into an orange. Then he loaded the pockets of his black jeans with cough drops and tissues, and decided he was good to go. He was keen to take care of this himself, and not bother the others. They would get weird and make him the center of attention, which would be uncomfortable on a good day and practically unfathomable on a day when he already felt like death warmed over. If he was careful, the rest of Weiss need never know; Aya was good at keeping secrets. Besides, no one paid enough attention to Aya to notice for a while, not even Yohji. Yohji had time for Aya when he needed something from the man, not the other way around. Not that Aya especially minded. It usually gave him chances to visit his sister in the hospital or run his private investigations without the others knowing. Only he didn't much feel up to doing either at the moment.

                He didn't feel much like working, either, but he did. He donned his apron and wandered about the shop poking at potted plants and watering wilted ones. His sore throat had progressed into a sore throat and a headache. The rest of his body was starting to ache as well. He could feel it in his muscles, in his shoulders and his limbs, but that was eclipsed currently by the throb in his head. Every time the door opened and chimed to alert them a customer was going in or out Aya felt his head might split right open on the spot. Every time the cash register rang, Aya resisted the urge to throw the damn thing out a window and close down shop.

                He moved the customers in and out as fast as humanly possible, pushing the lilies so no one would get on his case about how those arrangements were taking over the display cases. It was all he could do to sneak a cough drop out of his pocket and into his mouth. He avoided the mirrors along the left store wall, so they wouldn't capture him coughing discretely into the crook of his arm or rubbing at his temples.

                Aya was desperate for the end of his shift and went straight for the kitchen when it was over. He was desperate for rest. And, most importantly, desperate for a good, strong cup of tea. "Where is it?" he muttered to himself, rooting through the cabinet above the refrigerator. Even he had to stand on a chair to get to it, and no one ever went in there except for him. "Where's that tea?"

                It wasn't just any tea. It was the kind he had grown up on. His mother had given that kind to him and to his sister whenever they had been ill as children and it had always worked wonders on shivers and aches. He always had a small canister of tea leaves in the event of a cold, and back when Ken had started sneezing his head off, Aya had double-checked that he had some. He had known that, inevitable, the cold would make its rounds and target him. Now if he could only find the tea, he could feel good enough in time for the new mission tonight.

                "Looking for something?" Ken strode into the room, dribbling a soccer ball back and forth.

                Aya stiffened and changed the subject deftly. "Don't let Omi see you playing with that in the house."

                Ken waved his hand dismissively. "Omi's working a double shift in the shop. Even if he did find out, he'd just give me another warning. He's only afraid I'll break something we can't afford, like his computer." Ken eased the toe of his sneaker under the ball and scooped it up, cradling it on his foot. Then he tossed it into the air and it came down on his bent knee, bouncing. "So, whatcha looking for?"

                Aya decided that his desire to drink tea would be too telling. "Popcorn," he replied.

                "It's here." Now absent-mindedly bouncing the ball, Ken walked over to the pantry and pulled out a box of microwave popcorn bags. "I was just about to go watch the Sweden vs. Ireland match but we can do a movie. How about that new Bruce Willis action movie?"

                The movie was painfully long for Aya. His sore throat and aches were now accompanied by a tickling nose. Not enough to make him sneeze- not yet. Just enough to make him sniffle. Though Aya spent the entire movie coughing and sniffling, the loud gunfire and explosions covered the sound. Ken was too absorbed in what purported to be a plot to notice Aya. Aya was too caught up in his symptoms to care about the movie. All the characters could die sudden, awful deaths for all he cared.

                Aya was relieved when the movie finished. He had no idea how it ended apart from a black screen and credits rolling. The best part was Ken rising, stretching, and announcing he was going to go change for the mission that night. Aya and Omi were doing recon at a distance- Omi by computer surveillance and Aya the old fashioned way- while Ken posed as a casino patron and worked the floor. As there were no women blatantly involved in this mission, Yohji had unsurprisingly opted out. Persia had no problem with that, since it was a relatively small matter.

                "Nice to be back out on a case," Omi said to Aya, as the youngest team member finished hacking into the casino security system. "Had a hard time sitting out on the last one when I was sick. I like to keep busy, don't you?"

                Aya cleared his throat, hoping that Omi wouldn't notice. "Going to go make the rounds." Every time he needed to cough, Aya tried to cover his communicator, so Omi and Ken wouldn't hear. Once in a while he slipped up, and a cough slipped through, but he passed it off well enough as transmission static. The sneezes were less difficult to manage, since he felt them tickling his sharp nose and had time to bury his nose in his jacket sleeve and stifle them almost silently. "yihph! Ihmph!" He wanted to be able to sneeze unrestrainedly without consequence, but he would settle for quiet. "ihpsh!"

                It wasn't until he found himself face-to-face with one of the casino security guards after a small sneezing fit that Aya began to think this was a bad idea on his part. He should have heard the man coming a mile away. He should have been paying more attention to his surroundings and less to his runny nose. Before the guard could call for backup, Aya knocked him out. Running him through with a sword would have been easier, but would have drawn too much suspicion to their operation. Ken's cover was only good so long as no one suspected infiltration.

                "Might want to hurry it up," Aya said into the small microphone clipped to his black turtleneck. "Had to take a man down."

                The only good part of the encounter that, in all truth he should have avoided, was that it sped up the operation significantly. Aya made two more quick circles around the establishment, Omi saved the angles and whereabouts of all the cameras, and Ken won eight hundreds dollars after walking away from a roulette table early. In all, a productive night.

                Aya fell asleep on the drive home, hoping he didn't snore but waking up with the car slowed and pulled into park.

                They walked in through the kitchen. "Does anyone want tea?" Omi asked. "I'm brewing some up anyway."

                Aya didn't think it a good idea to have any, though he wanted some desperately. But if Omi was making a pot anyway, he didn't see the harm in having a little as well. It wouldn't necessarily point to his being sick, after all. "I'll take some up to my room."

                Worse than skulking around a large building in the dark, trying not to sneeze, was standing in his own kitchen with Omi, trying not to sneeze. He worried over every little sniffle that came his way. Sore throat, aches, coughs, and sneezes- he'd popped some more pills, but they weren't touching it. He wanted his mother's tea, but would settle for Omi's. He turned away and pressed his wrist to his nose, hoping that would hold the sneezes off for as long as it took for water to boil. How was it that water took so very long to boil? And why was it that his nose couldn't go ten minutes without tickling?

                Aya felt another sneeze, growing stronger, and pinched his nose tightly at the bridge. He tapped his foot impatiently.

                "Sorry it took so long," Omi said. "Aya?"

                The sneeze was frightened away, and Aya turned and accepted the mug of tea. "Thank you."

                "Sugar? Honey? Lemon?"

                "None of the above," Aya replied. The tea was burning hot and bitter, just how he liked it. "Thanks. Good night, Omi." He retreated upstairs, popping into the bathroom before he hit his bedroom, because he couldn't hold out any longer. "YIHhhSchhhh! ihhhKShhh! ihh-hihh-YIHChshhhh!" He glared at his own reflection in the mirror, then splashed warm water on his face. A shower would be nice, but the tea was waiting and that's what would help most. Tea and rest, in that order and in as large quantities as possible. He grabbed another bottle of painkillers and pocketed them for later. "ihhh-Yushhhh! Ihh-Chushhhh!" He blew his nose and gulped down some tea. Then he headed to his bedroom.

                He nearly died of surprise and only just kept hold of his tea. Yohji was stretched out on Aya's bed, gloriously naked and tied to the bed at the wrists by thick leather bonds. Aya coughed and practically backed out of his own room. "Not tonight," he said. He couldn't say he was sick. He couldn't say he had a headache. He couldn't even say he didn't want the man because, oh, Yohji looked lovely. "The mission was long and I'm tired."

                "It's not even one in the morning and I haven't been out tonight. I've just been lying here, waiting for you."

                Aya knew he owed Yohji a kiss at the very least. The sort of kiss that had probably given Aya his cold in the first place. And the idea of having Yohji warming his bed, holding him through the night was incredibly appealing. "I'm sorry. But not tonight." He walked to the bed and bent down. He flicked the long, blond hair back and kissed Yohji's forehead. Then he straightened up and sipped his tea before it got cold.

                Yohji sighed and pulled on the leather strap with his teeth until it released. He covered up in Aya's bathrobe and blew the man a kiss as he seductively walked from the bedroom.

                Aya's head hurt twice as much now and he chased a pill down with tea, not caring about what time he'd taken the last dose. The sooner he zonked out, the better. He gulped down the rest of the tea, burning the roof of his mouth slightly but not caring. It wasn't even bad enough to put it on the list of what was making him feel so awful.

                He crashed, face down, on his bed, not bothering to change out of his mission outfit. His arms were stretched out to either side, feeling heavy and aching. "ihhh-Chifffffffffff!" he sneezed into the pillow, so the sound was muffled. He inhaled deeply and actually detected Yohji's scent. The man must have been waiting for him for a while. Aya closed his eyes, annoyed and irritated with his cold and current circumstances. If the others' experiences were any indication, this day was just the beginning and he would have a while yet before it finished its course.

*

                After a relatively sleepless night, Aya decided that he should get up for breakfast, considering he was awake in time for it. He showered and dressed, then regretted his choice at once when he found everyone else in the kitchen for breakfast at the same time.

                Aya suddenly felt that he had to sneeze. It would be big. It would be wet. It would be loud. It would be completely unavoidable. And it would be in front of the entire team. "Going out," Aya announced before quickly but gracefully striding out of the house.

                The man made it a half a block before he gave into the sneeze. His nostrils were twitching and eyes were forcing their way closed. He leaned up against the cold brick side of a building and stumbled forward into an alleyway for cover. "ihhhTchhhh! Yihshuhh!"

                Aya shivered, only then realizing he had fled without a jacket. Normally his turtleneck was warm enough for him, but he was feeling anything but normal now, and he had left the small pack of tissues in his jacket pocket, as well. Helplessly, he leaned against the wall for support and sneezed freely. "ihhhhhTIHShhhh! YIHSchhhh! Ihh-ihh-IH-IHShhhh!"

                "Bless you."

                Aya went colder still, shivering and sniffling and dreading the inevitable moment when he turned around and faced... all three of his team members. "What are you doig here?" he asked hoarsely and stuffily.

                Yohji practically strutted on his way over to Aya. He slipped his arm around the man's waist and held him close. "We're here to take you back home," he said.

                Omi nodded. "You should have just told us you were feeling sick,"

                "We've known since yesterday morning, anyway," said Ken, apparently restraining laughter.

                Aya blinked. "You knew?" His mind was reeling. How had they figured it out? He hadn't done anything differently. He had been his usual gruff, silent, standoffish self the whole time.

                "Of course," said Yohji, placing a kiss on the man's temple. "We were all sick. Did you expect us to think you'd escape the bug, too? Of course we knew you were sick."

                "You sat through an entire movie with me," said Ken, sounding astounded.

                "You accepted kindnesses like tea when offered," said Omi, kindly.

                "And you refused sex with me," said Yohji, making it sound as though that were an altogether impossible feat.

                Aya couldn't smile. On a good day he couldn't smile, but today he had to sneeze and cough, and that wasn't smile-worthy. Still, he felt comforted by Yohji's arms around him, latching onto him as though it were Yohji who was sick again. Maybe this wouldn't be too bad, after all.

                "I'm going shopping so if you want anything special, let me know," said Ken.

                "We'll cover for you at work until you're feeling better," said Omi

                "I'm gonna take you right to bed and tuck you in," Yohji whispered, and nibbled on Aya's earlobe tenderly.  He guided Aya out of the alley and back home, with Ken and Omi flanking them. Aya rested his head on Yohji's considerably comfortable shoulder