Playoff

(Read Fouette first, if you haven't already, otherwise parts of this may not make sense.)

(if anyone has a suggestion for a name of this series, i'd appreciate any input. XD As of now, the only candidate is "Flying Machine" because that's what song I'm listening to right now. It doesn't have anything to do with the series, but neither do the installment titles.)

---

Omi stared at the boy sitting across from him. They'd been at this for four days now. On one hand, he didn't have anywhere else to go, but on the other hand, was seeing this guy worth the relative seclusion of the library?

Nagi stared back, unconcerned. Prociduous bastard, Omi thought. Go back home and leave me alone. "Why are you following me?" he asked finally.

"I'm bored. Farfarello's with... ... his boyfriend, and Schuldig and Crawford are giving me cavities." Omi wasn't expecting such a bluntly honest answer, and was a bit taken aback for a moment.

"And I'm the most interesting thing you can think of to do?" He tried not to sound like he was whining, but he was honestly sick of his telekinetic shadow. Nagi put his book down thoughtfully, tucking a bookmark between the pages.

"Is it so strange that I seek your company? I suppose I could go find a girl, but if I were to spend any length of time with her, she'd want to know why I was suddenly leaving, or listening to things that she wasn't saying, or I'd say the wrong thing - Well, let's just say that I don't have any secrets to hide from you. You're safe."

Safe. If it wasn't so insulting, he'd be flattered. If not for the fact that Nagi was fully capable of killing him in practically any way imaginable, Omi would have called him out on the insult and invited him outside for a brawl.

Ken was due back today, at any rate, and he sighed. "Whatever. I'm going home."

"Omi!"

Both boys turned at the hushed call, and Omi's face lit up in a smile. "Ken-kun! You're home early!"

The shifty look that suddenly developed on the soccer-player's face was an unfamiliar one, and it set Omi on edge. "Look, Omi, I've got to tell you something important."

"Is Jason okay? Are you? What happened?" Don't let him tell me what I think he's going to tell me. Please let it be simple.

They were moving outside the library, and as the doors swung shut behind them, Ken raised his voice to a normal level. "Jason's fine, so am I. That's... what I wanted to tell you. Actually... I'm moving in with him."

Omi smiled, not sure whether this was good news or not. "Ken, that's great, I'm so glad for-"

"He's renting a place in Aomori," Ken interjected. Omi considered this quietly.

"So you're-"

"Leaving. Um... probably tomorrow. I wanted to see you and ... tell you. Manx knows already." Ken suddenly looked extremely nervous. "I'm sorry, Omi, but I can't stay like this forever. And... Jason... we might even go to America and get married."

"It's that serious, then?" Omi asked, and as sad as he was, he couldn't help but be happy for his friend.

"Oh, you have no idea!" Ken suddenly grinned stupidly - the old grin, the one that used to come out when he was teasing Omi about being underage with Yohji. It wrenched at his heart. "I really love him. He's so great. I'm so glad we found eachother."

"Ken." Omi's voice was quiet and serious, and even at his age, he'd never gotten over his habit of crying when overwhelmed. "If it ever... if anything ever happens, you can always come back and stay with me, no matter what, okay?" He desperately tried to hide the tear that made it's way down his face, but couldn't stop the quiet sniffle that followed it.

"Oh, Omi. Thank you so much. I'm sorry it has to be like this, I really am." Ken gathered him into a hug, and Omi shook his head.

"No. It's better. You go have a good life, okay?" Ken flashed him one more grin, and took off down towards the parking lot. Omi stood there staring after him until he realized it was dark out. Now the library was even off-limits to him. Between Nagi and the knowledge that Ken was leaving, he couldn't stay, and he did the first thing that he thought of, which was to just start running.

He didn't know where he was going, or what he'd do when he got there, or anything at all. He just ran.

---

Nagi sighed, watching them. He wondered what they'd said, and resolved to find out from Schuldig later. He realized that Omi had left his book - he'd brought them every day, which lead Nagi to believe that he was using the library less as a resource and more as a refuge. I wonder why. He always used to seem so happy. Gathering the book the blond had brought, he found his curiousity piqued by it, and he flipped it over to read the back. Sunshine, huh? It looked as though it had been lovingly read many times - the binding was breaking apart, the spine was cracked, and the pages of the small paperback novel lay flat if he opened it. Well, I know where he lives. I'll get it back to him later.

Later that night, he finished on his computer, and turned back to the book. Crawford and Schuldig were out of the apartment, doing whatever it was those two did together - making out, getting dinner, or killing people - but Yohji was in, with Farfarello. As strange as it had seemed at first, he was slowly getting used to the idea. He'd heard through the grapevine - IE, Schuldig, whose mouth tended to run as loud as his hair - that Kudo had gotten himself his own apartment, and that his very first act upon moving in was to invite Farfarello over to break it in. That was more information than Nagi had been interested in, but Schuldig added that they'd 'broken in' every single room in the small flat, and that Farfarello had given Yohji leave to call him by the name "Jei" while they were in private.

"Jei" was Farfarello's worst kept unspoken secret. All of them knew that that's what his true name was, but they all pretended they didn't, and wouldn't have dared call him it behind his back, much less to his face.

He carried the book into the living room, refusing to hole up in his room like a recluse just because Yohji was out there. He'd just settled himself on the chair when the Weiss looked over at him. "Isn't that Omi's book?" he asked pointedly. Considering his past as a detective, Nagi wasn't surprised by the question, but that didn't make it any less irritating.

"He left it at the library," he explained, and left it at that. Yohji, however, refused to be deterred.

"Why were you two at the library?"

Farfarello seemed amused by the exchange - the Irishman was a surprisingly good listener, and when Nagi had confessed to an unrequited crush on the archer of Weiss, he'd taken his vow of silence on the matter quite literally, and never mentioned it again.

"He was there because everyone's gone from your place, and he was lonely. I was there because I can only take so much of being squashed between the two of you, and Schuldig and Crawford. Then when Ken showed up-"

Yohji cut him off. "Ken's back?"

"Not for long, if I heard right. I didn't catch all of it, but I guess Ken's leaving."

Yohji quieted up to think about this, and Farfarello turned his attention back to whatever they'd been watching when he came in. Nagi opened the book and began reading it.

---

I lost my book, Omi realized later. I left it at the library. By now, it's probably closed. He was slowly walking back after his run, having cooled off from his temper tantrum. His earlier sadness had frozen into numbness. What did it matter if they all left? He'd still be there - he, the only one without a life. Ran and his sister, Yohji and his apartment, and Ken and his boyfriend, and Omi... Omi the Assassin.

It was almost depressing.

He resolved to go back tomorrow and collect his book, but until then, he tried to ignore the sounds of Ken packing in the next room. Yohji had done his work silently and efficiently, but Ken had never been particularly good at that sort of thing. With the walls as thin as they were, it had always made Omi glad that Ken and Jason had always gone somewhere else to... have couply time together.

His phone rang, and he flipped it open automatically. "Yes?"

"This is Birman. I thought... you should know first. We're officially disbanding Weiss. With three of you going your own ways, it's just too difficult to keep it together. You have the option of finding a new team, or taking your leave time - I believe you've got at least a year and a half, possibly two years saved up. Go to school, get a job outside that stupid flower shop, and we'll have another team up in Weiss' place in a few weeks."

"Alright."

"Omi. We worry about you. You're twenty-two. You should be doing things like college and having friends and a real life. Promise me you'll enroll?"

"...Alright."

"Thank you sweety," she said, and rang off. Omi closed his phone slowly and sank onto his bed, looking around at his familiar room, the same one he'd lived in for nearly ten years.

"What the hell," he said, and dug his phone back out from the pocket he'd shoved it into. "Manx? Look, can you set me up-"

"Another apartment? Already on it, Omi-kun." Her voice was kind, and maternal. It was comforting to hear her speaking, even if it was under these circumstances.

"Thankyou," he said with real relief, and closed the phone again. He'd have a new apartment by tomorrow afternoon, and then maybe he'd take Birman's advice and start going to school or something. It wasn't like he'd have anything better to do.

---

(this is another one that I TRIED to get more out of, but it just refused. I'll have the next installment up soon-ish.)