*Clench.*

*Unclench.*

*Clench.*

Blood-red petals dropped to the floor in a steady flutter. Aya stripped the rose of its petals, clenching bone-white fingers hard enough around the stem to pierce the skin, with thorns embedded in his palm. He concentrated on the half-crushed flower in his hand hard enough to obscure thinking.

"Ran-kun."

*Clench.*

More petals fluttered to the floor. A bead of dark fluid seeped down his palm and fell with precision into the hollow of an upturned rose petal, red lost against darker red. Aya finished the last few petals clinging to the head of the flower in a savage rush, and stood staring at the naked rose with something like dismay. "Nai."

*Unclench.* The green stem fell to the floor.

"Ran-kun!"

"WHAT!?"  Aya swung around, eyes glittering.

Omi backed up, eyes slamming wide in his cute little face, hands lifting in a defensive posture.  "Ahh--n-nothing!"

"Do you know what this means!?" Aya snarled, brandishing the naked flower at Omi.  "Do you!?"

"A-ano..." Omi stared at him, obviously at a loss.  "It means...there's an arrangement missing a rose?"

"NO!" Aya snapped.  "It means he doesn't LOVE me, THAT'S what!"  He flung the rose away, folded his arms, and sulked.

"R-Ran-kun..." Omi began to back up, a slow step at a time.

Aya swung around and fixed the boy with a gimlet glare.  "And the End of the World is no longer giving me instructions.  So you see, I don't know what to do about it."

Omi backed up a few more steps.  "Sure," he agreed with a panicked 'I need to humor him so I can get the straitjacket' look.

Aya turned around and sulked some more.  "Maybe if I challenge Schuldich to a duel..."  He shook his head.  "No, I just can't see Yohji sitting still long enough to accept being the Rose Bride."

Omi panicked and fled.  Whatever they did, it was obvious they were going to have to keep Ran-kun away from roses in the future.

"Here, over this way." He managed to find an open table in the back, where the view of the singer was blocked and hence no one wanted to sit.

Jack settled his chair close to Yohji's. Their thighs touched and he flinched away at the shock of contact then, without thinking, leaned into it.

Yohji was at a loss for words. He should, at the very least, be telling Jack he wasn't interested. Where had his resistance gone?

*Maybe it never existed.*

"I only want your happiness," Jack told him, words synched to the song in the background.

"But you won't be there to see it," Yohji intoned.  He blinked.  Where was this coming from?

Jack was looking around.  "This isn't good," he muttered.  "If we end up in a Clamp manga, we'll never get laid."

"Clamp!" Yohji widened his eyes in terror.  "Isn't that one of those shoujo manga that tortures beautiful boys, kills everyone that they love, and then denies them the satisfaction of a relationship with their obvious love interest!?  No WAY!"

"Yohji," Jack said patiently, "Project Weiss has already done most of that to you."

Yohji slouched in his seat.  "Oh, yeah..."

"You've got a new chance for happiness," Jack lifted his face, as the music soared to an uplifting crest. "Take it while you can.  No matter what the future holds, seize the chance of this instant."

Yohji squirmed.  "Chikusho."

"What?"

"I'm in a yaoi fic, aren't I?"

"I'm afraid so."

"So there's no hope left for me, is there?"

"Look at it this way...at least you know you'll get laid."

"Omi-kun, you can tell me the truth. I know you have a dark secret you've been keeping inside of you."

Omi coughed. "Ano...Aya-chan, the bus is here."

"That's no excuse!" Aya looked over her shoulder. "Oh, darn. Well...we're not boarding until you tell me what it is!"

The doors slid open. The overweight bus driver peered over Aya at him, a look of impatience on his features.

"Omi! Spill it!"

"Are you boarding, or not?"

"Omi," Aya-chan said in a wheedling tone, blocking his way.

"Get on the bus, or wait until the next one. Thirty minutes."

"Uh-uhm..." Omi vacillated. He was going to be crushed either way. "All right! I'm addicted to crack!"

Aya-chan blinked. "Huh?"

"That's right!" Omi said, just warming up.  Tears spilled down his cheeks as he began to cry.  "I'm addicted to crack, and I've been whoring myself to get it -- older men, older women, rich people of either gender, sararimen - a guy named Brad Crawford is my best client."

Aya-chan's eyes bugged out.

"That's right, the Brad Crawford from Schwarz, who kidnapped you," Omi sobbed.  "I'm so ashamed.  And Ken-kun is my pimp.  He dresses me up in Catholic boy's uniforms - sometimes girl's uniforms - when I go out every night.  I think he's the one who addicted me in the first place, but I'm not sure."

Aya-chan started making choking noises.

"You wanted to know my painful secret," Omi sniffed, "but that's not all.  Ken-kun is my brother."

Aya-chan gasped.

"Yes, it's true," Omi said sadly.  "Half-brother, anyway - I found out through hacking that Persia is Takatori Shuuichi, and after some more hacking, I found out he's my real father.  And he's Ken-kun's father, too."

Aya-chan was starting to look queasy.

"It's really awful, I know," Omi cried.  "He's the one who popped my cherry all those years ago when he first joined Weiss.  I don't think he knew he was my brother, back then, but he knows now.  He still makes me give him head before he'll give me my fix.  And then--"

"There's MORE!?" Aya-chan gasped.

"Well, yeah, I had sex with Ouka when I thought she was my half-sister, and I got her pregnant...  It was such a relief when Farfarello shot her, because we thought she was going to have to have an abortion..."

Aya-chan's eyes rolled up in her head and she fainted.

Omi sniffed one more time and wiped away his tears.  He blinked and bent to the fallen girl's side, shaking his head sadly.  Then he grinned.

"Gotcha."