Insert standard disclaimers here. Not mine, never will be, etc., etc., etc.

Edited 12/29/04 to fix a bit of a scene that I never was quite happy with.

Never About Love

Quiet, just be quiet.

Birman tried to silence the sound of her own blood and heartbeat in her ears as she cradled the young woman that was the real Fujimiya Aya against her. Her gun was in her hand as Omi's darts were in his not half a meter away. They had heard the fight going on upstairs in one of the boys' rooms.

Just be quiet.

Omi looked up and started to say something before they heard a flower pot crash to the floor. He drew in a breath, and she glared at him, warning him to stay silent.

"We know you're here. Come out, kitties," a calm voice called through the flower shop. Omi tensed a bit at the voice, shifting so he could see around the counter that he was behind. There was the taint of insanity in his voice in spite of the calmness. Birman clenched a hand in Aya-chan's gown briefly, pulling the girl closer. "Come out, kittens. I won't hurt you."

Omi looked over at Birman, motioning quickly towards the door outside. He was ready to launch his darts at whoever was on the other side of the counter. She frowned at him and shook her head. There was no way she would have been able to get to the door with Aya-chan in her arms.

"Come here, kittens."

Birman yelled out in shock as a knife slammed into the counter she was hiding behind. Dammit! She twisted herself around, raising her gun to whoever it was.

A scarred face looked back at her over the counter. A thin smile crept onto that face as he saw her. "The one that got away," he murmured, pulling the knife out of the wood of the counter and crawling towards her.

Birman yelped as the knife cut across her wrist. The gash it left was shallow, but the force of the blow was enough to knock the gun from her hand. "No one's gotten away from me yet, little kitten," he smiled a little more.

Birman held onto Aya-chan as the man pounced from the counter, somersaulting in mid air to land in front of her. She pushed herself back against the counter as three darts embedded themselves in his upper arm. He blinked at that, plucking them out one by one and throwing them to the ground before looking over where Omi had hidden himself behind another counter. "A knight...no, barely a squire, and a handmaiden left to protect the princess. Is that all? Tch...the prince will be so displeased when he comes home."

xxxxx

Schuldig snarled as Ken's claws scraped his shoulder. He shoved the boy back away from his body before turning back to the taller blonde. There was something odd about the pleasure he was getting in bettering this one. He wondered how Balinese would have reacted if he had known that Schuldig had gotten close enough to Birman--the woman that always brushed away those insincere flirtations in spite of her own feelings--to sleep with her. Unfortunately, telling the other man that little bit of information wouldn't get him anywhere except in trouble with both her and Crawford.

The pain in his shoulder made him wince. The look of pain switched to an almost triumphant smile as he pressed his foot down on Yohji's chest, pinning the other man to the floor. "Now now, pretty boy, wouldn't want you to die yet. You'll miss the show."

"Show?" he groaned in reply.

"Heh." Schuldig smiled again, "Don't worry, you won't be able to miss it." He started towards the window that he had come in through, then paused at the panicked thoughts that suddenly mixed through his own.

She was with the boy.

xxxxx

"Bombay!" Birman yelled out as the silver-haired man flung the boy back. Omi cried out briefly as his head connected with one of the counters, then slumped to the ground. She stretched so that she was only a few centimeters from her gun. Not going to give up that easily...

Hold on, kitten.

She started at that voice in her head. Schuldig.

She jumped again as a knife buried itself in the floor between her and her gun. "Going somewhere?" A hand reached down to pull the knife from the floor, as his other clenched the collar of her dress and pulled her to her feet. "Pretty little thing, you're a lucky little kitten. You escaped once. I won't let that happen again."

There was that smile again. If she had any doubts as to his sanity, it washed them away.

She squirmed in his grip, pulling away enough to slam her knee into his body. The movement jarred him, but even with where she had landed the blow on his upper leg, it should have caused him some pain. "No matter how much you fight, your end is inevitable, kitten." The knife pressed against the side of her face before he traced the tip of it down her jaw line. Birman winced as she felt the sting of the scratch that it left behind. "Will He cry when you're gone? Or are your hands as bloody as mine?" he purred into the ear opposite the scratch he had left. She didn't reply, just pressed her lips tighter together. The knife tip trailed down her neck, not leaving a mark, before he pressed the point into the skin right above the first button of her dress.

"You don't scream. Not like the others. Why don't you scream?" The knife slipped, making a deep, but small cut in the skin. "Do you think He will send your prince to save you? Do you think the prince will make it in time?" A little more. The pain caused Birman to whimper out loud even though she tried not to. "Pain is a beautiful thing, isn't it? Pity I can't feel anything any more. Perhaps you can feel it for me?"

She finally cried out when he bit down on the lobe of her ear hard enough to draw blood.

Shu!

He chuckled softly into her ear. "Yes, I think you'll feel it nicely." She held back another scream as the knife sliced off the top button of the dress on its trail down her skin. She squirmed again, trying to pull away from him. It only succeeded in making the scratch worse.

He snarled, spinning her around and slamming her into a wall dangerously close to a shelf of flowerpots. "You're not getting away this time."

"Let her go while I remember we're still on the same team," a familiar, accented, voice snapped from the door into the back of the shop.

Farfarello smiled, pressing Birman's body against the wall with his own. "Don't worry, Schuldig. I'll be happy to share." He almost sounded playful, Birman noted mentally. Almost. Until there was a gun pointed at his head.

"I said let her go!" The anger in Schuldig's voice was unmistakable. It was also enough to make the Irishman step back. "Go wait outside!"

"You shouldn't leave this one alive..."

"Gehen Sie!" Schuldig snarled, leveling his gun for better aim and starting to pull at the trigger.

Farfarello hissed, stepping close to Birman again for a moment. "Don't worry. We'll meet again, kitten," he smiled, leaving one last scratch on her jaw before turning and heading out the door.

"Psychopath," Schuldig murmured, stepping closer to Birman. "Did he hurt you too badly?" Birman stared at him in a disbelieving silence. He laughed. I might be here on business, but that doesn't mean I want to see you hurt like that, lover.

The word slipped out before he realized he had thought it, and she stared at him more, still silent. He could feel the confusion inside of her, though. It echoed in his own mind.

Lover. It was never about love. Never about the heart. Just a game to play. Just a need that had to be filled. At least until that night. He couldn't deny the feelings that they both felt that night after he found her in the rain though, and he knew she couldn't, either. He had felt them--felt her thoughts and desires--as clearly as he had felt his own. No matter how much she hid behind the fact that they were enemies to keep those feelings from surfacing, she had them.

And no matter how much he hid behind the fact that he was incapable of love...he was...

"You're hurt." Her voice broke the silence weakly, and he realized that he had been holding his shoulder.

"I'll be fine. What happens when I tangle with a kitten with sharp claws," he returned reassuringly...at least he hoped that that was how it came out. From the way she looked so sad, he wasn't sure any more.

Take care of yourself, lover. I want to see you when this is all over.

He felt her tense a moment as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her in for a kiss.

Promise I won't die...

The touch brought her some comfort, which made him want to smile. Something about the fact that he could take away some of that fear made him genuinely happy. Still he felt guilty for what he was about to do. He couldn't turn his back on Crawford's orders. Not right now, at least.

I'm sorry.

Birman went limp in his arms as he finished convincing her mind that she needed to sleep. He knelt down, carefully laying her on the floor. "Sorry, kitten, but work's work." He straightened himself up, stepping over her to reach the girl that she had been trying to protect.

xxxxx

"You do not pull your gun on another member of this team unless you've been ordered to, Schuldig!"

"You weren't there; he would have killed her!"

"He is your teammate. She is not." Crawford moved a few steps towards him so that their faces were only a few hairs' breadth apart. "You've almost destroyed months of planning for what? Someone who'd kill you if she were ordered to. Do you understand that?"

Schuldig nodded silently, and Crawford backed away. "I also understand something else, Brad. I understand that until it comes to the point that my life depends on the choice, my choice will be to protect her over kicking the ass of a teammate that's crossed the line," the German snapped back angrily. He hadn't blown the mission. Farfarello's bloodlust was what had nearly done that. If that damned nutcase could just keep his mind on the job at hand, this wouldn't be happening.

Crawford watched Schuldig silently for a long moment. "I thought you weren't capable of love."

The statement made the German frown. Of course he wasn't. At least, that was what he had always believed. "I didn't think that I was," he muttered as he pushed himself to his feet. "Hard to think you're capable of something when you've had nothing but pain..."

Crawford didn't seem to react to that admission, just stared for a moment before turning away. "Keep your mind on work for the next twenty-four hours and forget about her. When this is over, you can run off with her for all I care."

Schuldig felt a reply forming, but he froze as he opened his mouth. SS would never let him run away. The only reason they tolerated his attitude half the time was because he was good at what he did. "Brad, what the fuck are you planning?" replaced what he had originally meant to say. He had known that Crawford was up to something, known that SS's plan wasn't going to go quite the way they thought it would, but...

Crawford turned slightly, glasses catching in a light as he did so. There was a trace of a smile on his lips. "You'll see when it happens. Until then, just keep your mind on who you are and what you're told to do."

"And if I don't?"

Crawford shrugged. "Then you'll die."

Not even an option, Schuldig noted with a frown. That didn't bode well.

Owari

Gehen Sie! -- "Go!"