Let Me Die

Trinity Bennett

Late afternoon had come and the afternoon rush was just dying down. There was only one customer left in the Koneko Ie Sume, an elderly woman. She had captured Omi’s polite attention and was having him help her pick out a bouquet for her granddaughter that was coming to visit. Ken was across the room, restocking the coolers. He pulled out older arrangements that hadn’t sold and put fresher ones that Aya had just made that afternoon in their place. Omi would allow Yohji to give out some of the still decent flowers from them to the school girls tomorrow. It kept them happy and he could occasionally talk them into buying something.

Yohji was leaning lazily on the counter, supposedly manning the register for the last twenty minutes of his shift. He starred at a digital clock, willing the neon green numbers to change as he stretched out, completely oblivious to the way he looked. A large expanse of his tanned abdomen was bare as his snug t-shirt had slid up when he leaned on the counter. His low slung jeans didn’t help to hid any of the skin either. He looked downright sexy and probably didn’t even realize it.

The blonde suddenly jumped. “Aya! That hurt, damnit...” Yohji scowled at his lover, rubbing his side. Aya had slammed one of his damn bony elbows into the blonde’s barred side. “Sneaky bastard,” he growled at the younger man. Yohji hadn’t been paying attention and he had to admit, Aya had gotten him good. The thought only made him make a face at the red head.

“Watch your mouth, there are customers,” Aya shot back at him. One customer to be exact but Aya hadn’t been counting earlier. Yohji had been distracting him quite well until he decided to do something about it. Kanou-san, the little old lady, didn’t like foul language anyway and she was a regular customer. The red head turned away and picked up a potted fern Omi had dragged behind the counter because of its wilting leaves. Yohji reached for its twin, a second potted fern that hadn’t been fairing too well in the shop.

The blonde followed Aya into the back. Yohji set down his own pot and took the one Aya was carrying and set it on the floor near a set of shelves. He caught the red head’s wrist as the man glared at him and tried to head back out into the shop. “Iie, kitten. You aren’t getting away with that.” The blonde tugged Aya’s thin form to him and backed him up against the wall nest to the storage room.

Aya growled at his lover and struggled against the blonde’s hold on him. “Kudoh.” He struggled again, trying to jerk his wrist out of the blonde’s grasp. If he really wanted to get away, he could have hurt Yohji. Aya could have hurt the leech so bad the other man wouldn’t have made another move on him for months. But it all came down to the fact that Aya didn’t want to hurt Yohji. “Kudoh, not now. Get of-umph.” He was abruptly silenced by eager lips. Trying to pull back, out of the kiss, he smacked the back of his head against the wall.

Yohji immediately pulled away and looked at him with green eyes filled with concern. Just seconds ago those eyes had held lust but that emotion had melted away as soon as he realized he had caused his lover to hurt himself. “You ok?” He watched Aya put a hand behind his head and tenderly feel the spot. The blonde brushed his fingertips over the back of his lover’s head once Aya had moved his hand away. “I’m sorry, love.” Yohji leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on the red head’s lips in apology. His hand massaged the back of Aya’s head as he did so.

Violet eyes flashed dangerously and Aya smacked Yohji’s hand away. “Let me go,” he hissed, now a little more than pissed off. He struggled against the blonde’s hold, a low growl falling from his lips. Yohji didn’t release him, letting the pale man continue his struggle. It only fueled Aya’s anger.

“Aya-kun! Yohji-kun! We have a special customer!” Omi called from the doorway. He had learned never to come running back into the greenhouse with Yohji and Aya in there alone. It had been an anatomy lesson and a half last time he did so. He still had trouble getting the images out of his head.

“Handle it yourself, chibi.” Yohji pressed his lips against those of his growling lover. The man would risk having his ass kicked later for just these few moments of being with the red head. It was worth it, he had decided a long time ago.

The blonde shifted his attentions to the red head’s neck. The pale man stiffened and swallowed the snarl he was about to make. He had stopped fighting. His neck was his weak spot and Yohji knew it. The blonde has used it to his advantage so many times before and now was no exception. “Yohji.” His voice had become breathless, losing its coarse tone.

“Yohji, Manx is here.”

Aya immediately snapped back to his senses. Clutching hands turned to push the blonde away. “Yohji... Manx... We have a mission.” The blonde knew better than to keep Manx waiting yet he did something like this every time she came. He finally shoved the blonde off and glared at him. Yohji reached out to wrap a casual arm around him and Aya glared at him. “Don’t. Touch. Me.”

Yohji watched the red head walk out of the greenhouse without trying to reach him again. He followed shortly after, silently wishing Manx’s visit to not be about a mission.

=

They had a few hours until the mission. Each of them used the time to prepare themselves for what was ahead. Omi relaxed and kept his mind off of what he would probably have to do that night to focus on the details and make sure everything was planned out. Aya had everything set up but Omi liked to make sure he had everything down. Ken was in his room, relaxing and focusing. Aya, before he was with Yohji, would spend this time in the dojo. Yohji used to chain smoke before missions.

The few hours before their mission was no different than the way things used to be. Yohji and Aya took to making love before every mission after they got together. This mission would be different. Aya was mad at Yohji, not speaking or going near the blonde since the morning.

Aya sat cross-legged on the floor in the dojo, his katana laid across his knees, his eyes closed. Going through his katas wasn’t making him feel anymore at ease. It wasn’t working like it used to. He kept wondering what Yohji was thinking, what Yohji was feeling. He had given him the cold shoulder since the incident in the greenhouse. It was bothering him. Aya wanted to -needed to- know that Yohji was there. That he was real and wasn’t going to leave him.

He stood, carrying his katana with him as he walked down stairs. The sword was left in his room as he headed down the hallway. He couldn’t be mad at Yohji. There was a chance that something could happen to one of them on the mission. Aya wanted to be sure Yohji knew that he loved him and still needed him.

The door to Yohji’s room loomed in front of him. He wasn’t mad anymore. If anything, he was sad. A pale fist rapped gently on the door. “Come in,” came the gruff, smoke hoarsened voice. Aya pushed open the door and stepped inside, letting the door swing shut behind him.

The blonde looked up to the red head from his position on the edge of his bed. He was shirtless and a pack of cigarettes rested on the bed next to him. He was halfway through the one he held loosely between two fingers in his hand. Surprise played across his features but then it faded away. Aya was here, that was all that mattered.

“I couldn’t do it.” The swordsman leaned back against the wooden door, staring at the floorboards.

“Do what?” Yohji’s question was barely above a whisper.

“Go back to the way things were before. Back to just working through the tension with my katana.” He paused. “I kept thinking about you.” Aya looked up and crossed the room to stand in front of his lover. He kept his gaze on the floor. All he wanted was for Yohji to reach out and touch him, to take him.

Yohji put out his cigarette and dropped it into the ashtray next to him. Emerald green eyes shifted up to pale features. “I’m sorry.” He didn’t know exactly why he wanted to apologize. Maybe it was for this morning or for changing Aya so much. He reached out and put a hand on Aya’s hip, pulling the smaller man close to him. Yohji put his arms around Aya’s waist, holding him close as he buried his face into the red head’s t-shirt.

Aya tangled his hands into Yohji’s honey gold locks. “Promise me something, Yohji. If something happens to me you’ll move on.”

The blonde pulled back and looked up at him. They all knew that anything could happen on even the simplest mission. Why was Aya asking this?

“Yohji, promise me...” Aya stared down into Yohji’s green eyes.

The blonde nodded, the only reply he could manage. He didn’t want to be without Aya. He’d come to love the prickly bastard.

Aya took what he could get. He shifted forward, sliding onto Yohji’s lap with his knees on either side of the blonde’s waist. His hands slid from his lover’s hair to his cheeks, tilting his face up. The red head leaned down and pressed his lips firmly against Yohji’s. Yohji tasted of cigarettes, more than he normally did.

Yohji opened his eyes as Aya pulled away suddenly. He gave a slight smile as he noticed the face Aya made. “I guess I had a few too many.”

The red head nodded and pressed his lips back against Yohji’s. He parted his lips, letting their tongues engage in a sensual war. The cigarette taste was fading away, leaving Yohji to taste of everything that was uniquely him. Aya began to press the blonde down, back into the bed.

Yohji moved his hands, one on Aya’s waist and the other on the bed, and scooted further towards the center of the mattress. Aya moved with him, matching his movements so no contact was lost. He settled back onto the bed. “Promise me that you won’t dwell over me, if I’m gone,” the blonde whispered.

“I promise.” Aya had whispered the answer, it coming automatically as he focused on other things. He tugged his own shirt off over his head and cast it off into the space beyond the bed. Nothing mattered to him right now except for Yohji.

Yohji moved his hands over Aya’s pale skin, marveling at the smoothness it kept even with the scattered scars. Each of them told a story, some of them Yohji was there with Aya for and others that were older. He came to a pale nipple and rolled it between his fingers. His lover gasped and Yohji closed his eyes as the red head’s breath ghosted over his face. Yohji’s thumbnail brushed across the stiffening peak.

As Aya gasped again, he tossed his head back and bared his neck to Yohji. He felt a tongue sliding up his neck and made a purring sound at the feeling. Teeth grazed the skin lightly and then a little bit harder before lips and tongue soothed the mark Yohji was forming on Aya’s neck. He lay back against the bed and reached for the drawer of the bedside table. “Mmm... Aya,” he breathed when the pale man skimmed his hands down Yohji’s bare chest. Yohji fumbled around in the drawer for a few moments before finally finding the tube of lubricant. He dropped it on the bed beside him to smooth his hands over the red head’s stomach.

The red head settled himself against the blonde’s arousal and rocked forward. “Yohji, take me.” The quiet words passed to the groaning man beneath him. When no immediate reaction to his words happened, violet eyes opened to stare down at the blonde. “Yohji?” Green eyes met the curious violet.

“No...” He felt the red head immediately begin to stiffen, to prepare to run away and could see the man fleeing in his mind’s eye. A firm grip on the red head’s wrist prevented him from fleeing and with his other hand he pressed the tube into Aya’s hand. “Fuck me, Aya.”

Surprise flashed across flushed features. He didn’t understand it but didn’t want to ask any questions. He knew the blonde wasn’t keen on being uke but Aya tolerated it and surrendered to being the position himself. Now, Yohji was asking him to do it; to do him.

“I trust you.” Yohji reached out and put his hand behind Aya’s neck and pulled him down for a heated kiss. As they broke apart, he reached for the hem of Aya’s cotton pants. The red head batted him away and leaned down.

He drew a wet line with his tongue over the blonde’s chest. He slid his tongue over Yohji’s stomach and hear the man’s breath hitch. Aya returned to the scar that had caused the slight change and slightly nipped it. His tongue soon slid over the area and he alternated between his teeth and tongue until he heard Yohji moan.

The scar was one of those places on Yohji’s body that hadn’t always made him react. Maybe it was the way he got it, who knows, but Aya used it to his advantage. Long fingers brushed over crimson locks as the red head began to work his way lower.

Aya slowly undid the blonde’s jeans and grunted at the fact that the blonde actually had pulled underwear on earlier. For that, he tugged the jeans off quickly then nuzzled Yohji’s arousal through the cotton briefs. He placed his hands on Yohji’s hips and stilled the squirming man as he repeated his movement. When the blonde pleaded his name, the swordsman just smirked. “You’re the one who wore underwear...”

“Aya,” he nearly growled. Green eyes closed as his underwear was abruptly pulled off and a tentative tongue slid over the tip of his erection. His hands fisted in the sheets of
his bed as Aya took just the tip of him into his mouth. “Tease,” he hissed through clenched teeth as the red head promptly deep throated him.

He guided his tongue along the underside of Yohji’s shaft, causing his lover to moan. He continued to swirl his tongue around the blonde’s sensitive arousal. Aya pulled away and sat back. “Bend your knees.” The red head helped make his order clearer to Yohji’s pleasure fogged mind when he guided one knee up.

The blonde did as he was bid. Green eyes opened to peer at his lover as the red head rid himself of the cotton pants he had worn to go through his katas. Soon the pants were on the floor, along with Aya’s underwear, to leave the pale man completely naked. Yohji stretched a hand out to him and brushed his fingers over the red head’s cheek.

Aya nuzzled into the gesture before he leaned forward, pressing naked flesh against naked flesh. He slipped a hand between them and took both of their erections in his hand and pumped them both once, gently running his fingers from root to tip. The red head pressed his lips against the blonde’s as he shifted one of Yohji’s long legs to his shoulder.

Yohji took a hold of their erections after Aya’s hand left them and began a languid pace that had the red head halting in his activities. A slick finger pressed against his entrance and he stiffened. The digit slid around the cavity then pressed in, making Yohji voice a sound of discomfort.

That didn’t prevent Aya from adding a second soon after, moving the digits around to stretch the blonde so he would be at less of a discomfort later. Violet eyes closed as Yohji’s pace on their erections quickened as to distract himself from the discomfort. Aya’s fingers moved around, pressing further inward until they stroked a place that had Yohji gasping in surprise.

The blonde arched beneath the red head as Aya persisted to stroke his prostate again. “Aya,” the name fell from his lips in a gasp. Green eyes closed and the intrusion of the two fingers was soon gone from him. He shifted in impatience for a few moments, hands moving to tangle into the sheets next to him, anxious at the lost.

“Hold still,” Aya ground out, wanting nothing more than to be buried inside his lover. His hand moved over his erection, twice, quickly spreading the lube over himself. He then began to slowly push himself into Yohji’s impossibly hot and tight entrance.

Yohji bit his lip, eyes squeezing tightly closed as Aya slowly settled inside him. It hurt and felt wrong to him. No, not wrong, different. He felt hands sliding over his chest, attempting to sooth him. “Damnit, Aya, just move!” he hissed at his lover.

Aya slid his hands down to the blonde’s slim hips and held them still. He pulled out, only slightly then pushed back into the blonde. A watchful eye remained on Yohji’s face as the red head moved, searching for any sign of pain. His strokes began to grow longer and more forceful. Aya finally brushed over that spot inside Yohji that sent him gasping at the pleasure that flooded through him.

In reply, Yohji’s body clenched with the strokes upon that spot. Green eyes opened slightly to see hid red headed lover close his eyes in pleasure. He heard Aya gasp and could have smiled, if Aya hadn’t chosen that moment to quicken his pace. “Aya,” he started to pant the red head’s name.

The swordsman increased his pace, himself near the edge. He leaned down and pressed his lips against Yohji’s, silencing the blonde for a short time. “Yohji,” the breathless word fell from his lips as he pushed them both closer and closer to the edge.

“Aya.” Yohji moved to reach between them but found Aya’s pale hand had beaten him to it. The red head stroked Yohji’s erection in time to the movements that he made into the blonde’s body. “Aya!” He gasped again as he felt himself being pushed closer and closer to climax.

The red head came with Yohji’s name on his lips, burying himself deep inside the blonde’s body as his essence poured into his willing lover. He pressed his lips against Yohji’s and continued to stroke the blonde’s erection until the other man finally came as well. Aya found his stomach coated with Yohji’s seed as his lover threw back his head and let out his name with a moan.

The two settled beside each other after Aya pulled out of Yohji. The blonde wrapped his arms around the red head after reaching for a discarded towel to clean themselves up. He pressed his lips to the red head’s briefly. “I will love you ‘til the end of time.”

The words were a shock to Aya. They had never talked about their relationship in anything more than the terms of present. He settled against the blonde’s chest and closed his eyes. “What would I do without you?” he mumbled as he pressed his cheek against his lover’s chest.

=

“Aya-kun?” The hesitant voice broke the pleasant silence of the room. The sun was falling, leaving the room bathe in sunset colors. “Aya-kun?”

Violet eyes finally shifted open at the second time his name was mentioned. He hadn’t been sleeping, just enjoying the quiet comfort while Yohji dozed lightly. Aya slowly and carefully sat up and crawled out of bed. Yohji made a sound and shifted slightly. The red head watched him for a moment before he found his pants and pulled them on. He walked out of the room to meet Omi. “What is it?”

Omi looked nervous and twisted the edge of his jacket in his hands. He looked like he didn’t want to be saying this to Aya. “There is a problem.”

Aya stared at the blonde, waiting for the details. “And?” he had to prompt. The younger assassin looked completely nervous at having to tell Aya they had a problem.

“We missed something in the mission parameters. I need to get to the site to make sure we can still make it into the facility.”

The red head headed for his bedroom. “Give me five minutes.” He disappeared into the room and changed into his mission gear. He returned with his katana exactly five minutes later. “Let’s go.”

The youth blinked at him. “What about Yohji-kun and Ken-kun?”

“Tell Ken to come at the planned time with Yohji.”

Omi nodded and headed down the hall to tell Ken. Aya turned and walked into Yohji’s bedroom.

The blonde was still asleep. Aya gave a slight smile and walked to the edge of the bed. He leaned down and pressed his lips against Yohji’s cheek. A gloved hand brushed some of Yohji’s honey colored locks back from his face. “My heart for you is true.” The red head then stood up and walked out of the room to try and fix their problem.

=

“Fuck! Goddamn sneaky fucking bastard!” Yohji cursed as he tugged his mission clothes on. He hadn’t taken well to waking up to find his lover missing. Then Ken told him that Aya and Omi had went to the location early to fix a problem. All Yohji could think of was, what if something terrible happened because Yohji and Ken weren’t there to cover their backs. The blonde had been cursing lividly ever since the idea had formed in his mind.

Ken shook his head as he pulled on his bugnuks. Yohji like this was a handful. He hated to see what the blonde did to the red head when they met up at the mission location.

“Ken! Get your ass down here, I’m leaving!” Yohji yelled from the bottom of the stairs. His mind kept throwing horrible scenarios at him and he couldn’t wait a moment longer to get to his lover.

“Alright, alright. Chill out.” Ken clattered down the stairs and followed Yohji out to Seven.

Yohji immediately fired the engine to life and they set off for the mission site. Ken protested at Yohji’s speed. Only when reminded that they needed to make it there in one piece did he slow down.

=

Yohji and Ken moved with extreme stealth towards the place where they were to meet Aya and Omi. Ken took notice that Yohji was more anxious than normal. Probably because Aya had left earlier than he was supposed to, he reasoned. He looked up to catch Omi and Aya standing silence in the small enclave they were to meet.

The blonde stepped up to his lover. “You could have woken me up, Aya.” He said the words with a great amount of displeasure. The red head had pissed him off. He didn’t like the idea of waking up after a short doze to find his lover gone.

Cold optics turned to Yohji. “It was not of your concern.” He had already shifted into mission mode.

“It will fucking well become my concern if you get hurt!” the blonde hissed at his lover. He stared at the red head in a rage and found those beautiful violet eyes were still icy. Mission mode, there was no way that he was getting through to him at all now.

Omi cleared his throat and explained the adjustments that had to be made because of the miscalculation. “Balinese and Abyssinian will be entering in the back while Siberian and I will go in the front. Pull to the front of the building after you have destroyed the labs and taken the target, Balinese, Abyssinian. Siberian will cover me as I set the charges.”

Each of the other members of Weiss nodded in acknowledgement to the youngest of them. Aya was the first to turn away. He waited for Yohji to join him before he headed to their first mark. They moved in utter silence, perfect in their stealth as they passed a night guard. The man obviously wasn’t in any shape to be guarding anything like this compound. Aya knocked him out cleanly and let Yohji drag him off to the station the man was supposed to be at.

“First mark.” Their report was echoed only a few moments later. “Proceeding to second mark.” Omi came back with a reply to Aya’s cold comment. Balinese and Abyssinian set to entering the building. They did so with ease thanks to Yohji’s years as a detective.

A guard appeared and Yohji’s wire silenced the man before he could get a word off in his surprise. The pair left a trail of bodies into the building as they moved towards and past their second mark. Locks were bypassed with the help of codes Omi gave them, keycards picked up from guards, and Yohji’s skills. They finally reached the room that contained their target.

The man sat in his chair, grinning at them. “You made it in but I doubt you will make it out.” Aya’s steel glinted off the low fluorescent lighting. The realization finally came to the man. In movies, the people coming didn’t always kill the people they sought. He thought that this would be like that. But movies usually never tell the truth and he was about to find that out the hard way. “Don’t be too hasty. I can give you everything you need.” Aya advanced on him. “Who, who are you?”

“Weiss.” The word in the smoky baritone that Yohji loved to hear panting his name was the last thing the man heard before a sliver of cold steel stole the man’s life. “Target cancelled,” Aya spoke into the com unit. Violet eyes shifted to his partner, his lover. “Proceeding with second objective.”

Yohji watched Aya with a certain predatory light. He wanted Aya more than he wanted to be on a mission like this with the man. They knew each other well now and it worked as an advantage to them on mission. The blonde knew that there was little chance of Aya ever giving up on the missions as long as his sister was still in a coma. It hurt that he couldn’t do anything to prevent his love from losing a small fraction of his soul every night that they went out on a mission.

“Balinese.” Aya was irritated. He had been trying to get Yohji’s attention but the blonde was lost in thought. The other man was angry about him leaving early. Yohji would live through it and they would be able to make up for the lost time later. Aya’s priority was the mission right now. It would provide the funds to keep his sister alive for the time being. He needed Aya-chan to wake up as much as he needed Yohji to be by his side.

“Let’s go.” Yohji snapped away from his thoughts to do a quick once over of his lover. He smiled lightly to himself. Ignoring the blood and the other tell tale marks of the mission, he found Aya stunning even on a mission.

Aya led the way down a corridor and they had to kill a few more guards before they entered a corridor, two large glass, sliding doors on each side. It looked like some lab out of a science fiction novel. The red head punched in the code and they entered. To either side of them were labs. Two large rooms that contained computer and research. Each of them took one and began destroying data. Computers were erased, documents shredded then burned, experiments destroyed.

“I’m finished.” Yohji surveyed the disaster before him. Everything was gone. He left the room and crossed the hall to see Aya tossing a match into a pile of shredded papers. “Done yet, love?”

The red head looked up from the flames and to Yohji. “I need to clear that hard drive.” He motioned to a computer in the corner. “There was something different about it when I turned it on.”

Yohji crossed to the computer and booted it up. Omi was the computer expert but Yohji had learned enough from watching him that there was something unusual about the computer. “Bombay, we have a problem. There is a computer here that looks weird.” He related the differences to Omi over the com unit. He glanced at Aya. The red head was second to Omi as a computer expert in the group. “Are you sure? Ok, ok, chill out, I’m just making sure we won’t trip an alarm or anything.” The blonde pushed in the disk with the virus and told the computer to run it.

“The charges are set.” Omi’s voice crackled over the coms.

“Yohji, hurry.”

“One more minute.” It was a minute that they didn’t have as a mass of guards crashed through the door they had come in. Yohji looked up as Aya turned to dive behind a desk. “Shit!” he cursed and soon followed the red head.

Bullets sprayed the room, damaging everything that hadn’t been touched yet. Aya peered around the desk. “Six. Three inside, two in the doorway, and one in the hall. Take the two on the left.” He waited for Yohji to nod then turned. “Go.”

Yohji stood up and cast his wire out. It wound around one of the guard’s necks and he jerked it sharply. The wire slit the man’s throat. In a few seconds, he sent out a second wire and the other guard threw his gun into the way. Yohji managed to get the man’s gun away from him.

While Yohji was dealing with his two targets from a distance, Aya charged the third guard and used an upward thrust to knock the man backwards into the two guards in the doorway. The guard was dead weight as he caused the other two guards to deal with him instead of Aya. The red head brought his blade around and sunk it into the back of the guard that Yohji hadn’t managed to kill. The man screamed and went down. Aya raced at the other three guards and swept his katana over the throats of the two in the doorway. He plunged his blade into the last man’s chest.

The guards never got off a second shot as they all slumped to the ground. Yohji ran after Aya to the door across from the one they came in. The red head began to punch in codes. The blonde turned and watched the other door, waiting for Aya to let him know that he had the door open.

The door clicked and slid open. “Balinese.”

The blonde was ready to turn when something caught his eyes. The guard that he hadn’t been able to take down, that Aya had supposedly finished, was weakly dragging himself towards one of the damaged terminals. “What the hell?”

Aya was already through the door when he turned back. “Kudoh!”

Yohji pulled his attention away from the guard and turned towards his teammate. He made his way towards the door. Suddenly it snapped closed right in front of him.

“Yohji!” Aya moved to the keypad on his side of the door and put in the code that had initially opened the door. It didn’t work. “Yohji, 5-8-3-9.”

The blonde nodded and put in the code on his side. The door made a hissing sound but stayed closed. “Damnit!”

“Abyssinian, what happened? The electronic doors just went into lockdown.” Omi and Ken were on their way out, in the outer portions of the building. Ken and Omi had already had to make a detour to get by one of the doors.

“Yohji’s trapped...” The realization hit him. “How do I get him out, Omi?” The com was silent. “Omi!” Aya looked up to see Yohji in the door. The man had a sad look on his face.

“Get out of there, Aya. The charges are going to go off.” Omi sounded sad.

“Then fucking stop them! I am not leaving him.” He continued to watch Yohji as he demanded that Omi do something.

“Aya-kun, they are timed. I can’t stop them.”

A look of utter horror crossed Aya’s face. “Gods...” He closed his eyes and leaned against the door. He opened his eyes and looked through the glass to the blonde. “Yohji, I don’t want to lose you.”

The blonde placed a hand against the glass and Aya covered it with his own. “It’s time to say farewell, Aya. Don’t cry. We knew that it was always a possibility.”

Violet eyes locked with jade green. “No... no!” Tears began to roll down Aya’s cheeks. “Yohji, you can’t give up.” He pulled his hand away from the glass and wrapped his arms around himself, his gaze on the ground. “There’s got to be some other way,” he whispered.

“Abyssinian, get out of there. That’s an order.” Omi heard no acknowledgement. “Siberian is coming to get you, then.”

“Aya, look at me.” The red head didn’t look up. “Aya, please.” His voice held a pleading note. “Aya.” His lover finally looked up, tears staining his pale face. The blonde placed his hand back on the glass of the door again. “I will love you ‘til the end of time. Nothing will ever change that.” Green eyes caught Ken stepping into the hallway behind the red head. “Go, remember your promise to me.” There was a pained look as he smiled.

“Yohji,” Aya sobbed and walked up to the door and placed his hand over the blonde’s. “Let me die in your arms...” Violet eyes steadied on jade green. “I love you, Yohji. I’m not leaving you like this.”

Yohji’s smile turned sad and he nodded to Ken. “Time is running tight. You have to get out, Aya. Remember your promise.”

Ken took a hold of Aya’s arm and began to lead the red head away. He looked back at Yohji then looked away.

The red head jerked at Ken’s hold but he didn’t let go. “Yohji!” Ken pulled the red head down the hall, away from Yohji.

The blonde watched them until they disappeared around the corner. He turned and sank down against the door. Yohji tapped the com unit, switching it so only Omi would be able to hear him. “Hey, Omittachi?”

“Yohji-kun?” He tried to keep his sadness and worry out of his voice.

“Do me a favor and take care of Aya.” He paused. “Thanks for everything Omi.”

“I will, Yohji-kun. I’ll miss you.”

Yohji cut off the communication. He didn’t want to hear the chibi say goodbye. Green eyes closed and he tilted his head back to rest against the door. Well Asuka, looks like you will have some company sooner than you thought.

=

“Ken, let me go!”

“No, Aya. I’m not losing another teammate today.” The brunette wrapped an arm around the pale man’s waist and pulled him towards his Porsche.

The red head swung at the brunette but Ken easily stopped the blow. “Damnit, we can’t just leave in there! There has to be something we can do... Please, Ken, let me go back.”

As Ken turned to study his teammates face and heard a loud boom. He turned to face the building as the charges tore it apart. The building fell down as he felt Aya stiffen, a scream tearing from the pale man’s throat. He let the red head go and watched him take a few steps away then crumble to his knees.

“No, Yohji,” he whispered, watching the building shift again and more of it come down. He remained there on his knees, bowing his head as the tears reclaimed him again. Yohji was gone. His Yohji was gone. An empty feeling consumed him and he desperately wanted to take his katana and join the only person he had dared to love the way he loved Yohji.

“Aya-kun.” Omi walked to the red head and placed a hand on his shoulder. He knelt beside him. This wasn’t the place for Aya to grieve. It wasn’t the place for any of them to grieve. “We have to go. The police will be coming.”

The red head stood when Omi prompted him to and followed him to the Porsche. Ken could drive. He didn’t care anymore. He stopped caring the moment Yohji was gone. Violet eyes squeezed shut and he curled up in the back seat. An aching sensation spread through him, taking up the void that had initially formed in him. Yohji wouldn’t ever be there when he got back from a solo mission. Yohji wouldn’t be there when he woke up in the morning. He was alone again, alone forever.

“Aya-kun, remember Yohji. Keep him in your heart and you won’t ever be alone.”

Life no longer empty with you in my heart, in my heart...

Ken and Omi had a quiet conversation as they drove back to the Koneko. Aya sat in the back, barely moving, as his world continued to come crashing down around him.