Disclaimers: Weiss Kreuz belongs to people much higher and mightier than me (namely Takehito Koyasu and Project Weiss), and I make no money doing this.

Warnings: Shounen ai, possible spoilers, TWT

A Note on Timelines: If you want to fit this particular story in the arc, it is set before the other two.

Author's Notes: I'm sure anyone who still remembers this little story arc thought I had abandoned it. I kind of did, and I kind of didn't. I've been meaning to write a third story for this for a while, it just took me a while to get around to it. I must confess, I'm rather fond of this little series of stories. They were some of the first things I wrote upon entering the Weiss fandom, and I can't abandon my baby entirely.

Quirks

By Rapunzel

Story 3: What's in a Name?

All in all, Aya decided hazily, things were going rather well. He was in his room, sitting on his bed with Ken. Well, he was sitting on the bed, and Ken was sitting on him, but the details weren't really important at that point. All that mattered was that he was with Ken and they were finally getting somewhere. And all he could think was that it was about damn time. If he had been thinking properly, he would have done this long ago.

There was no point in thinking about that now, however. In fact, Aya thought, there was little point in thinking about anything at all except Ken's rough hands fumbling rather frantically with the buttons of his shirt. The brunet's shirt was already off and lying on the floor somewhere; Aya had already seen to that. All that golden skin laid bare, and it was his to gaze at and feast on. And he intended to do just that.

Not that Ken was being idle during all of this. He was somehow managing to turn his desperate attempts to remove Aya's shirt into awkward but definitely pleasant caresses. Ken's hands were painting heated patterns on his body, and he loved it. The brunet was simultaneously peppering his face with small kisses and trying to undress him, and was succeeding admirably at both tasks. He looked so determined and single-minded that Aya found himself reacting even more strongly. All of that attention focused on him... it was definitely a nice feeling.

With a sound resembling a growl, Aya moved in on that graceful neck. A smooth spot just above where neck gave way to shoulder intrigued him, and he applied his mouth there almost on a whim, sucking and biting to mark. The few neurons in his brain still capable of coherent thought told him that he should have checked first to see if Ken owned any high necked shirts. He dismissed the idea easily, however, and was just getting ready to surrender rational thought completely when—

"Mm... Aya..."

Violet eyes flew wide open as Aya tensed suddenly. Wait a minute... that wasn't right! In his surprise he did the first thing he could think of. He shoved the offender away as hard as he could.

There was a startled yelp, followed by a loud thump as Ken landed on the floor in an undignified heap. Belatedly, Aya realized what he had done, but at the same time, he couldn't make himself apologize. Not after hearing Ken moan that name.

Ken obviously didn't realize what he had done. He hauled himself off the floor and into a sitting position and proceeded to stare up at Aya, his eyes full of startled indignation.

"What the hell was that for!" he demanded.

Aya scowled back at him. "Don't call me that," he demanded.

Ken's brow furrowed and he looked confused. "Call you what?"

"Aya."

Now Ken was looking at him as though he'd lost his marbles. "Don't call you Aya?" he repeated incredulously. "But that's what I always call you. That's what everyone calls you."

"I know," Aya said, feeling a little defensive.

When put that way, his request did seem a little ludicrous. Still, he knew he had to hold firm. Hearing Ken saying his sister's name in that tone of voice made him want to lash out and punch the brunet for daring to think about Aya-chan that way, even when he knew intellectually that Ken had been referring to him. Every protective instinct he possessed when it came to his sister was on high alert, and he was trying to suppress the need for violence that invoked in him, which was no mean feat. In addition, he was also fighting against the general aversion he had to associating his sister with sex in any way. Aya-chan and sex simply did not go together in his mind. Aya-chan wasn't supposed to have sex. Ever, if her brother had any say in the matter.

"So let me get this straight," Ken said, frowning at him in irritated confusion. "Everyone calls you Aya. I've been calling you Aya for months now and you've never said anything, and now, suddenly, you don't want to be called Aya?"

"That's right," Aya said, rubbing his forehead in an effort to ward off the headache that would inevitably result from this.

"Why the hell not?" Ken demanded.

It was a reasonable question, especially since the answer involved the explanation as to why Ken had ended up on the floor during what had otherwise been a rather successful make-out session. The answer, however, was not one that Aya was willing to give. The story of Aya-chan and his parents was one that he was reluctant to even think about himself, let alone relate to someone else. "Just don't," he snapped, one eyebrow twitching spasmodically in annoyance.

Ken crossed his arms over his bare chest, adopting a stubborn stance. "You gotta give me a reason."

"Fine," Aya growled. "Aya isn't my name. It's... someone else's name."

Thankfully, Ken did not ask whose name it was. "Why do you call yourself that then?" he inquired.

"To honor that person."

"Weird way of doing it," Ken muttered. Then, seeing the murderous glare Aya aimed in his direction, he added quickly, "I didn't say it was a bad way, just weird. But then you're a weird person, so I guess that makes sense."

Aya wasn't quite sure how to take that, but he decided that Ken had said it to placate him and allowed himself to be placated.

Sensing that Aya's violent mood had lessened somewhat, Ken hefted himself up off the floor and cautiously moved to sit on the bed next to the redhead. "So, no calling you Aya," he said. "I'm guessing you mean don't call you Aya when we're... uh, you know." Here he trailed off, blushing.

Aya grunted. "You guess correctly."

"So," Ken asked, "what exactly happened to this Aya person that made you take his name? Or her name," he added almost as an afterthought, as though it hadn't occurred to him before that "this Aya person" might be a girl. "It must have been something pretty unpleasant for you to react like that."

Aya tensed and resisted the urge to shove Ken off the bed again. "That's none of your business," he said sharply. Even if the mood was already shot to hell, thinking about his past was not something he wanted to do at that moment.

"None of my business?" Ken repeated, sounding bewildered and a little insulted. "You don't need to get so snappy about it; I was just asking."

"Well don't," Aya answered back coldly.

"But, Aya..."

"Don't ask!" Aya snapped.

Ken's face twisted into an expression that looked disconcertingly like a pout. "What, so you're willing to sleep with me, but you can't share your secrets with me?" he asked acerbically.

"Not yet," Aya answered back seriously.

Ken, who had looked as though he were about to launch into a rather lengthy tirade, paused. "Yet," he repeated thoughtfully. Then he brightened. "Yet is good!"

Aya snorted, but found it difficult to stay irritated in the face of Ken's returned good humor. How Ken's moods could shift so quickly would forever remain a mystery to him, but at that moment he wasn't complaining.

"Yet means you'll tell me later, right?" Ken persisted.

"Later," Aya said, putting heavy emphasis on the word. "As in not now." He gave Ken a stern look to stress the point.

"Oh, that's fine," Ken said. "I'll get it out of you eventually."

And he probably would at that, Aya reflected. Ken had a way of getting him to talk that he still didn't quite understand. He supposed it had something to do with trust and confidence and all that, but he was a bit fuzzy on the details.

"Just remember," Ken said, "you did promise to tell me eventually."

"Eventually," Aya repeated vaguely. Maybe when he felt like talking about it, which would be when hell froze over. Still, Ken did deserve to know. The man had just put up with being shoved off the bed during a rather intimate moment, and he was still in the room, after all. If he could put up with that, he deserved to know all Aya could tell him.

'Maybe I'd have better luck talking about it if we hadn't been about to have sex,' Aya thought ruefully.

"So if you don't want me to call you Aya, what am I supposed to call you instead?" Ken asked, breaking his reverie.

Aya considered that. He was not especially fond of pet names, and it would be rather unromantic to have Ken use his family name in such a situation. But that left...

"Ran," he said hesitantly. "You can call me Ran."

"Ran," Ken repeated softly, trying the name out. It sounded nice, so he tried it again. "Ran." It came out louder and more confidently that time, and Ken smiled at him. "I like it," he said.

Aya felt the corners of his lips twitch slightly as he offered a small smile in return. He was glad and a little relieved that Ken hadn't questioned or mocked him, instead seeming to sense that he was being offered something special. His real name... No one had called him that for longer than he cared to remember.

"So, Ran," Ken purred, leaning in close and trying out the new name some more, "would you like to continue where we left off?"

Aya almost gaped at him. Hadn't the mood been completely ruined when he'd pushed Ken off the bed? Apparently not, for Ken at least. The brunet had turned to face him and started running his hands along Aya's shoulders. One trailed up into his hair to cup the back of his head, and the other ran down his chest. He didn't seem at all discouraged or put off by the outcome of their previous attempt, which Aya thought a little odd. Then again, hormones were truly astonishing things.

Very astonishing things, Aya reflected as Ken leaned in and kissed him and he felt himself responding. Amazing things. They had the power to make one forget everything else. Or maybe it was simply Ken who had that power over him.

Almost before he knew what he was doing, Aya had grabbed Ken around the waist and pulled him back onto his lap, kissing him heatedly. He found the spot on Ken's neck that he had been working on previously and returned to it with his former enthusiasm. As before, Ken tilted his head to help him reach better and moaned.

"Mm... Ran..."

Aya gave a rather predatory smirk before pushing Ken back on the bed and crawling over him. Oh, yes, that was much better.

Owari

Author's Notes: Well, story 3 is finally finished. I'm thinking of stopping here, since three is a nice, magical number and all, but I suppose it's possible that I'll eventually come up with another story that I want to add to the arc. Until then, I'm calling it finished.