The clock on the wall was nearing 11, and all was quiet at the Koneko no Sume Ie. Only Yohji and Aya were working at the moment, seeing as how Omi was at school and Ken was out at the local orphanage doing whatever it was that Ken did there. Yohji was lounging against the counter, manning the register in a typical work outfit of a button down shirt and jeans. His glasses were perched on his head at a precarious angle. Aya was sweeping the floor wearing a dejected look, clad in a pair of light jeans and a dark turtleneck, a suspiciously familiar orange scarf wrapped around his neck. Aya mumbled something and the brunet growled.

"Damnit Aya, would you get over it!" He hissed in the red-head's general direction. "What happened happened. Mopping around like you have been the last three days isn't going to change that!"

He was awarded with a death glare that quickly went sour as Aya sniffled again. "B-but..."

"No buts! If you say one more word about it I swear to god I'm garroting your ass so fast you won't have time to shit your pants." Yohji smiled politely as a couple of middle-aged ladies wandered into the store just missing this tirade. "Good morning ladies!"

Aya went back to his half-hearted sweeping still blatantly upset and in pout mode. He made an effort not to bemoan his loss though. Yohji wasn't looking to give him any sympathy, and it wasn't like the katana wielding member of Weiss felt like testing himself against Yohji's skill with a wire at the moment. Not so soon after what happened. Once the two women left, after buying a few bouquets that Yohji pitched to them, the brunet could be quite the charming salesman when he wanted, a strained silence reigned. It remained unbroken for around an hour. That was when Ken got back.

"Kenken! Thank god!" Yohji all but leapt the counter and ran to the soccer player, who looked surprised and just slightly cautious. "I was about to die of boredom!"

"What? Is Aya not a good enough conversationalist for you?" Ken tried to move past the taller man to get to his apron but Yohji just moved into the way again. "Yohji, move!"

"No, it's not that." Yohji sniffed glancing over at the still sulking red head. "It's just he's been in his usual funk all morning."

Ken finally managed to duck under Yohji's arm and grab his apron. He slid it on giving Aya a look of his own. "Usual funk or...is he still upset about that?"

"Still upset about that." Yohji affirmed crossing his arms and showing his distaste. "He's been whining about it all morning."

"Whining? Aya? Dear lord," Ken snickered shaking his head. "How the hell can he still be upset about that?"

"I dunno but if I hear one more complaint I'm going to hurt something..." Yohji growled.

As if on cue Aya whimpered and a low moan escaped his throat. "My sweater....my poor poor sweater....I loved my sweater."

The annoyance seemed to spread through Yohji's body as he turned to face the other man, his temper snapping. "Well you were the only one damnit! It was god-awful, what the hell possessed you to buy the damned thing? I mean seriously, that orange? With your hair? Can we say major clashage?!"

Aya and Ken were both staring at the older man as he continued his rant, crossing the shop and pulling of his apron as he did so. "Seriously Aya, it's just a damned sweater! I'll buy you a new one, just stop fucking moping already!"

"Well you should buy him a new sweater..." Ken interjected playfully, a wicked grin on his lips. "I mean after all it was you're wire that sliced it to ribbons. Honestly Yohji, what the hell were you thinking, using that wire to hang our laundry on?"

"Hey, the dryer was broken, you didn't tell me that before I started the washing machine. I had to improvise. "But tell me Kenken, " Yohji countered, turning as he reached the door that lead to the upper levels of the building. "is a broken dryer really an excuse for such a poor fashion statement?"

Ken glanced down at his clothes and back at Yohji, flipping the white bandana out of his face as he did. He was dressed in a blue jumpsuit that a mechanic or janitor would wear with white sneakers and an ugly assed white bandana to hold back his hair while he worked. Or at least collected information on their target. "It's called 'undercover work' Yohji. No one suspects the janitor of ease dropping. Duh."

"Suuuuuure." Yohji replied flippantly, turning to stride out of the room. "Listen I've got to go get ready for later, you keep an eye on the shop with Weeping Willow there."

He was gone before Ken could reply. The shorter brunet shook his head grinning slightly. Then he turned to face Aya who was still sweeping the same spot he had been when Ken had come in. "Really Aya, it's just a damn sweater. Get over it, no one liked it anyway."

He had enough time to duck the broom as it came sailing at him but not enough to dodge the dust pan that followed. It caught him square in the chest and he clutched it reflexively. The broom flew into a display of flowers knocking them all to the ground with a dull crash. Aya just glared at him all pretense of mopping gone. "You planned this didn't you? You broke the dryer on purpose. You wanted Yohji to use his wire and ruin my favorite sweater didn't you?!"

Ken frowned at the taller man shaking his head slowly. "Now why would I do that? I hated the sweater but I didn't hate it that much jeez. Paranoid much?"

"Clean up the shop." Aya's voice was flat and cold as he moved to go to the back room. "It's a mess."

"You bastard!" Ken hissed as the door slammed closed shutting the redhead from view. "The mess is your fault! Damnit!"

It was nearing four when Omi came in the door and Ken was still cleaning the wrecked display, it figured that Aya would manage to pick the largest of the displays to destroy. Omi stopped just inside the door staring agape at the mess. "Ken-kun what happened?"

"Aya went berserk about his stupid sweater getting ruined." Ken replied without glancing up from the remains of a particularly shattered pot. "He accused me of setting it up so Yohji would destroy it on purpose. How was I to now the laziass was going to do laundry, then get the bright idea of using his WIRE as a way to hang the clothes out to dry?"

"It's okay Ken-kun, Aya-kun's just being...temperamental." Omi dropped his books by the counter and came over to help as Ken hoisted the largest remains of the pot into the trash bin. It was then that Ken finally looked at Omi and got a good look at what the youngest assassin was wearing, and it wasn't what Omi went out the door wearing that morning.

The first thing Ken saw was the pair of strappy girl sandals. Then there was the black Capri pants and green baby tee with black stripes at the shoulders and what looked to be a flower design. Then there was the red hat and black scrunchie he had on one wrist. Actually all and all, Omi really looked like a girl. So much like a girl that he even had breasts. Ken dropped the pot in shock, causing it to shatter further. "Omi, what the hell are you wearing?!"

Omi looked down confused at first, then grinned sheepishly at him a light blush on his cheeks. "Oh! It's Halloween, and my friend and I decided it would be funny if we switched clothes as our costumes at school. I'd go as her, and she'd be me. I guess we forgot to switch back, I was wondering why people were staring at me on the way here..."

He reached under the back of his shirt and unclipped the wonder bra his friend had brought and grabbed the pudding filled water balloons that fell out. "They really did look real didn't they?"

"I'll say." Ken agreed, picking up the pieces of the severely abused pot. "I thought...I'm not even going to say what I thought, it was too 'Yohji-ish' for my tastes."

Omi giggled and the back door opened, Aya peeked out still looking dejected. "Aya-kun! Do you have those deliveries ready?"

"Yes, I was going to take them myself Omi, you don't have to worry." Aya fingered the sweater-turned-scarf staring at the younger boy, obviously baffled by his outfit and the fact he was currently holding a bra and a couple of balloons. "I was just heading out now actually."

"Alright Aya-kun." Omi nodded cheerfully waving. "Be careful though! Remember it's Halloween!"

"Hn." With a grunt the silent boy was gone. Omi sighed and went to get the broom from where Ken had placed it against the wall.

"We're going to have to hide that sweater from him aren't we?" Omi asked, setting down his breasts and picking up the broom.

"Yep." Was Ken's reply.

"He's going to be mad at us isn't he?"

"Yep."

"We should blame it on Yohji shouldn't we?"

"Oh yeah."

"Thought so."

"Me too."

"Right."

"Yeah."

"Huh."

"Yep." Ken finally managed to get all of the broken pieces of clay into the trash can and dragged it back to it's corner of the room then made it to the register only seconds before the horde of fan girls swamped the shop, most already in costume. A large number of them dissipated right of the bat seeing as how only Omi and Ken were in the shop at the time.

"Ooooh...that doesn't bold well for tonight Sora-chan..." One of the girls, dressed as a bunny, whispered to another, who was dressed as a Sailor Scout. "It's not good to go out if not all the boys are in the shop...it's bad luck."

"You're right!" The Sailor Scout cried, and small group of other joining her moaning. "Something bad is going to happen tonight I know it!"

"But look! Omi-kun and Ken-kun are in costume, that's got to be a good sign right?!" A third, this one dressed as a cat complete with tail, ears, and whiskers, asked.

"Nothing bad is going to happen sheesh." Ken butted in. "Didn't we tell you not to use us to predict things?"

The girls giggled a bit before the left, not bothering to buy anything. Ken sighed, it was a usual routine with the fan girls. There were still at least another dozen costumed drooling girls in the shop when the large fat man dressed as a giant chicken entered the store, followed quickly by most the cast of Ruroni Kenshin, Dragon Ball Z, and several X-men.

"Do you have any candy?" The chicken man asked frantically as he moved to the register and leaned over Ken.

Ken shied away shaking his head. "No sir, this is a flower shop, we don't sell candy."

"Are you sure?" The man demanded, glancing about him as if he would see something Ken had missed. "You have absolutely no candy?!"

"No, this is a flower shop."

"Are you sure, the boy on the corner said I could find some candy here." The man leaned over the counter accusingly glaring at the brunet.

"Then he lied to you, we don't have any candy." Omi chimed in moving to stand next to Ken in case the man got rowdy, as it seemed he was. "We have flowers though."

"I don't need flowers dangit!" The man slammed his fist on the counter causing several of the girls to squeal and Omi and Ken to jump. "I need candy!"

"Calm down sir," Omi held up his hand's in a placating manner. "We don't have any candy for sale."

"But it's Halloween!" The man protested loudly. "You should sell candy!"

"We don't." Ken replied wishing for all the world that Aya was in the shop. He would just stare at the man and he would be intimidated and leave. As it was he could only aggravate him further. "We never have sold candy."

"But I need candy damnit! CANDY!" The man grabbed a hold of Ken shirt and pulled him across the counter so fast that neither his finely honed reflexes nor his natural clumsiness saved him. The girls cried out in fear again.

"Oh no Ken-kun's in trouble!"

"Let him go ya brute!"

"We don't have any candy!" Ken answered again struggling to get his shirt back. "And I'm going to have to ask you to let go of my shirt."

"If you don't have candy where am I going to find some?!" The man demanded as Omi tried to force himself between the pair.

"I don't know sir, try a grocery store?!" Ken guessed struggling to breathe normally as his shirt was bunched up and restricted his air flow.

"They were sold out!" The man screamed at him. "And I need candy now!"

He looked ready to hit either Ken or Omi when the door to the shop opened and Aya stepped in, covered in silly string and looking extremely unhappy. "What is going on in here?"

"Aya-kun!" Omi turned to him. "Tell this man we don't have any candy!"

"Put him down sir." The voice was deadly quiet.

"I need candy!" The man replied turning to face Aya, keeping a tight grip on the front of Ken's shirt. "I need candy NOW!"

"And we don't have any." Aya's voice was still deadly quiet, it was the tone of voice that implied he didn't think you fit to live, let alone be talked to, and he would be find ending both. "Now, put him down and get out of our store."

"And if I don't?" The big man growled. "What's a flower-boy going to do to me? Huh? Throw flowers in my face and hope I'm allergic? HA!"

"That's some big talk coming from a guy dressed as a chicken." A new voice entered the conversation as Yohji entered the room, leaning lazily on the door jam. He was dressed in a pink cowboy shirt, jeans, brown snake skin boots and a cowboy hat. His red glasses were perched on his nose, hiding his eyes as they usually did not. "You could put Kenken down, or I could break your arm and you'd have to drop him."

Finding himself surrounded by several men who seemed to radiate an aura of deadliness, the man in the chicken costume promptly released Ken and backed away hands raised. "I don't want any trouble man...I just wanted-"

"Some candy, we know." Omi interrupted, seeming to be a lot older and tougher than he was considering he was cross dressing at the moment. "And we've told you several times that we don't have any. Now I'm going to have to ask you to leave sir."

"Alright..." The chicken man bolted for the door knocking several patrons who had watched the exchange and Aya out of the way in the process. Once he was gone Ken turned his attention to Aya, who was still managing to look extremely menacing despite being covered in what looked like three pounds of silly string.

"What happened to you Aya-kun?" Omi gasped moving to his side.

"Damn teenagers and their Halloween pranks." Aya growled pulling ineffectively at the silly string which was stuck to seemingly everything on his person. He and Omi shooed their remaining customers out the door and set about closing shop.

"It's a good costume though." Ken cut in cheerily as Yohji joined him behind the counter. "What's with the cowboy costume Yohji? Going out for Halloween are we?"

Yohji gave him a blank stare. "It's Halloween?!"