Good Boys Don't

- Cry -

By: Li'l Amethyst Angel

Summary: Weiss goes on a mission and rescues an abused child. Ken understands how the child feels and they form a sort of connection.

Warnings: Implied child abuse

Regular POV

"I have the target in range." Omi's voice is heard through the headset. The target is a wealthy businessman who was leading a kidnapping ring. By the time Kritiker assigned Weiss the mission the latest group of children that were being sold were intercepted and returned to their homes. There was still one child missing that is confirmed to have been taken by the target himself. The kid happens to be the target's own son, Yuki. He and his wife were divorced two years ago and the wife had a restraining order against him. She had full custody of the kid and was reportedly devastated when he was taken.

"Target eliminated. Move on to retrieve the missing child." Omi announced over the headsets once more.

Youji and Ken stealthily moved down the hall, checking each room as they went. Ken opened one of the doors on the right side of the hall and quickly scanned the dark room. He was about to leave when he heard a small whimper come from a far corner in it. He flicked on the lights to reveal the source of the noise, a small child huddled in the corner.

"Balinese, I found him." Ken called to Youji and hurried over to the kid. The child was shaking badly and his clothes were torn and dirty. Little scratches and bruises littered his petite form. The kid took one look at Ken and let out a pathetic sob, scooting as far back into the corner as possible.

Ken heard Youji enter the room. "We found the kid. We'll meet up with you guys soon." Youji spoke into the communicator.

"Copy that, Balinese. Abyssinian and I will wait with the car." Omi replied.

Ken focused his attention back on the fearful youngster in front of me. He smiled warmly and held out his hand.

"Hey, you're going to be okay. We're going to get you out of here, okay?" Ken told him gently. He obviously didn't trust the assassins, but they couldn't blame him for that, especially after everything he must have gone through since he was kidnapped. A tear slipped down his cheek.

"You're Yuki, right? We're going to bring you home to your mother. Don't cry." As soon as Ken had said the last two words Yuki immediately stops crying. Instead he started to mumble something over and over. Ken leaned down closer to hear. Ken's eyes widen and he stumbled back. The kid was muttering the three rules he was raised to follow.

"Ken?" Youji's voice snapped his teammate out of his state of shock. Ken positioned himself back in front of the boy. Yuki continued his mumblings, oblivious to everything else.

The brunette leaned in closely and whispered, "We have to be good, ne?" Yuki instantly stopped his murmurs and fixed his eyes to gaze intensely into Ken's. Understanding filled his emerald pools and he broke out into a fresh onslaught of tears. Much to both assassins' surprise Yuki launched himself at Ken and latched his arms around his neck. Ken picked him up and started carrying him out of the room, trying to softly shush him. Ken noticed Youji was gaping at him in confusion, but ignored him and continued on his way to the car.

Yuki fell asleep in Ken's arms before they even reached the car. No one spoke on the drive home, not wanting to wake the sleeping boy. Ken held him in his arms the entire time. He looked at Yuki's angelic sleeping face. Even though the child looked peaceful Ken knew horrors were running through his head, even in sleep. He brushed a stray piece of dark hair out of the boy's face. Unbeknownst to Ken, Youji is staring intently at the pair.

Weiss arrived back at the Koneko and set Yuki on the couch. Weiss was not given his mother's address, so they must wait for him to wake up. After getting cleaned up, Ken took a seat next to the couch and watched the figure bundled beneath the blankets. Ken soon drifted off to a restless sleep. A little while later, a blond entered the room and smiled fondly at the sleeping assassin. He draped a blanket over Ken's shoulders. Looking at the two sleeping beings, Youji realized how alike they look in their sleep. In sleep Ken looked very lost and vulnerable. Youji left the room thinking of the boy's strange reaction to Ken earlier that day.

Ken was stirred from his dreaming state by the sound of quiet sobs. He groggily opened his eyes to find a very distraught Yuki cowering on the couch. Tears once again wet his cheeks and Ken frowned seeing the child in such a state.

"Hey, Yuki. What's wrong? I'm Ken. Do you remember me? Do you remember what happened last night?" Ken asked softly.

Yuki sniffed and looked at Ken closely. He nodded an affirmative, to which question, Ken didn't know.

Ken smiled nervously. "I'm going to take you home today, okay? I'm going to need you to tell me where you live. How about we leave after breakfast?"

Yuki, once again, nodded.

Realizing he wasn't going to say anything, Ken continued, "So, what would you like for breakfast? We probably have toast, eggs, cereal, bacon..."

The child still said nothing. Ken frowned. This was not going to be as easy as he has thought.

"I know, how about I make some pancakes? Do you like pancakes, Yuki?" Yuki nodded slightly in response.

"Great. What are your favorite kind?" Ken asked, becoming increasingly more uneasy with the child's lack of words. Yuki looked down and started to tug at the edge of the blankets covering him.

"Blueberry." It was almost a whisper, but Ken heard it.

"Blueberry it is then. I'll go start on those. The washroom is down the hall to the left if you want to freshen up." Ken said, while leaving for the kitchen. He had bandaged Yuki's injuries last night. Luckily, none of his physical wounds were serious. His mental wounds, on the other hand, were another story. Something Ken could understand all too well.

When Ken entered the kitchen he found Aya sitting at the table, sipping a mug of coffee and reading the morning paper. Ken rolled his eyes. Typical Aya. The brunette started making the pancakes right away. He set two plates on the table along with eating utensils, and filled two cups with orange juice. Scattering containers of jams, syrup, and butter on the table he headed back to the living room to fetch Yuki. The redhead hadn't acknowledged him in the slightest the whole time. He really was quite good at ignoring people in general.

Ken found Yuki right where he left him, amidst a pile of blankets. He was looking curiously at his new surroundings.

"Ready for breakfast?" Ken asked, making Yuki jump in surprise. "You're lucky I'm the one cooking today. If it was Youji we'd probably end up dieing of food-poisoning." Ken smiled and led the way to the kitchen. He took a seat and gestured for Yuki to do the same. Yuki stared at the stack of steaming pancakes for a minute, eyes dazzling in delight. He looked at Aya, then at Ken questioningly.

"Go ahead, dig in." Ken encouraged. Yuki didn't need to be told twice. He was starving. Yuki couldn't remember the last time he ate something so tasty. Ken smiled as Yuki inhaled the food happily.

After their breakfast Ken took Yuki home. Yuki timidly gave him directions and they soon pulled up to a lovely little house. As Ken walked Yuki up to the door he noticed the soccer ball lying in the middle of the front lawn and smirked. Yuki pushed open the door.

"Mama?" He called. There was a sudden crash and rustle of cloth and a woman came bounding down the stairs to the door.

"Yuki! My baby!" She called, running to embrace her son. Yuki flung himself at his mother, hot tears streaming down his face. The woman just held him close to her and patted his back, while crying herself. Ken smiled at the scene, but couldn't help to feel a little bitter. His mother was nothing like this. He couldn't remember being held so gently when he was a child. Ken pushed the painful memories away and spoke up.

"Um, hi, ma'am. My name is Ken Hidaka. I found your son last night and had him lead me here this morning. So, if everything is alright I'll be leaving now."

"Oh, thank you! Thank you for returning my son. Is there any way I can thank you?" She asked.

"Oh, no, there's no need. I hope everything works out, ma'am." With that said Ken left and returned to the Koneko.

The rest of the day went by rather uneventfully. Ken did his shift with Aya, Omi went to school, and Youji slept. When Youji finally decided to grace the rest of the team with his presence it was just before dinner.

"Hey, Ken, how's the kid? You took him home, right?" Youji asked, taking a seat at the kitchen table. Ken looks up from over the put he was stirring.

"Yeah, I took him home. As for how he is, only time will tell. Physically he's fine. How he is emotionally is another story." Ken sighed.

"I can't believe someone would do that to their own son." Youji said.

"Well, in this line of work we come in contact with a lot of sickos." Omi voiced from beside Ken, while chopping carrots.

"Yeah, that's for sure. That poor kid. He seemed pretty freaked. And he would only let Ken near him. What did you say to him anyway?" Youji asked.

Ken froze. "Nothing." Ken answered. Youji crossed his arms over his chest.

"You said something. When the kid started mumbling all that nonsense you said something, he shut up, and threw himself at you." Youji replied defiantly. Now, Omi was looking at Ken as well.

"I just told him we weren't going to hurt him." Ken lied. Omi gave him a disbelieving look, while Youji replied with a sarcastic "suuure". Ken just continued to cook dinner, ignoring both of them.

"You know, Kenken, I don't think I'ver ever seen you cry." Youji said suddenly. Ken looked at him oddly.

"Where did that come from?" He questioned. Youji shrugged.

"Now that you mention it, I've never seen you cry, either." Omi added. Ken didn't like being the focus of the conversation. To make things worse, crying happened to be a touchy subject with Ken. Ken could handle others crying (after all he worked with little kids, who tended to cry a lot), but he would never dare to shed a tear himself. It's not that he didn't want to. There were times when Ken just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry for hours, just drown his troubles. But he couldn't. Something always held him back. Something he was told in his childhood always ran through his head whenever his resistance to tears started to waver. "Good boys don't cry."

To Be Continued

Author's Note: Well, this chapter didn't really turn our how I wanted it to. The next one will be much better (I hope). Remember how at the beginning Yuki was mumbling three rules Ken was raised with. Well, "good boys don't cry" is one of them. I just wanted to make that clear. This chapter was odd to write. I had originally written it from Ken's point of view, but then changed it to the third-person point of view. I, also, just wanted to note that there will be different warnings for different chapters. So, be sure to check before you read each chapter if you're worried about what the fic will contain. Please review to tell me if I should continue.