WARNINGS: Potential M/M (this is Weiss Kreuz)! Probable swearing (they are assassins). Schwartz (they deserve a warning in their own right). Expanded back stories (for Aya, Yohji, Schuldig and Crawford).
Also my updates may be irregular, this is a side project and has the potential to be very long.
Do I even need to say that the characters aren't mine? This is FANfiction after all. ;)
Chapter One: Pour Me A Vacation, I Need To Leave Here Right Away.
After the fall of Esset the Rosenkreuz Institute went into deeper hiding, cutting ties with many of its old students, most of whom were more than happy with the situation, which came as no surprise to those interested parties reviewing the whole thing. The institute shut its doors to all new recruits until early 2012, when the increase in psi-related incidents in the outside world had reached an all time high. The world seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when they finally opened their doors again, though, of course, not many 'normal' people knew why petty crimes and murder had become such a problem.
Brad Crawford, no longer a lackey for Esset or Rosenkreuz now had the free reign he had pursued so relentlessly, earning Schwartz a brief holiday tour of the world. Schuldig being Schuldig and very annoying complicated things; Nagi much preferred work to playing and towing an occasionally rabid Farfarello around wasn't the best thing for anyone's sanity. Thus, after a few months of beaches and boredom Schwartz found themselves trekking back to Japan, tanned, radiant in their success and completely out of Brad's control for the first time in team history.
"Green hair dye!" Schuldig was shouting from one of the airport's many shops, a half empty Starbucks cup in one hand and a box of dye in the other. "They have green hair dye, who actually buys this stuff?"
Nagi rolled his eyes and used his telekinesis to drag Schuldig out of the shop. He ignored his team-mates protests and lengthened his stride to catch up with Brad.
Crawford, ignoring the both of them was scanning the crowd with a faint frown on his face, his legs carrying him across the packed airport without much thought, he had one arm on Farfarello's, guiding him through the throng, wary of the 'Berserkers' volatile nature. Farfarello was leaning very subtly against his leaders' side, restraining his nature, Schuldig was usually given the task of monitoring him, dulling his mind if need be, but Brad had Seen the outcome of pairing them together while Schuldig was hyped up on caffeine and had sacrificed his own time instead.
"Brady," Schuldig sung as he jogged up behind him, slinging a familiar arm around his shoulders, "look what I found." He shoved the green hair dye into his leaders' face as Brad tried to shrug him off. "It's green! Can I dye my hair green? Do you think I could do that? Maybe half green, half orange?" He laughed as he caught the pained reaction of the other three. "I'm soo going half, half." He said, sashaying away from his team-mates and using his long legs to get ahead.
"I see an exit sign!"
"Remind never to let you drink coffee again," Brad said in a worn voice, expressing his entire team's sentiments for them.
Schuldig shot him a too-wide grin saying: "you should have seen this coming, mein Kapitän." Then he bounced ahead to follow the signs. Bringing them - finally - into the cool Japan air. For a while he settled down, Schuldig always tended to get a little tense after flights, long periods of sitting down and behaving himself made him temperamental and often a whole lot louder, it was one of the drawbacks of being both a telepath and someone so used to moving.
Schuldig never stood still, when he sat he sat tapping out a rhythm on his leg, or humming while simultaneously practising his many facial expressions (this was something the rest of Schwartz had just had to get used to after Brad's ineffectual attempts to rid Schuldig of the habit). He didn't like being bored and there were only so many games he could play on his phone before his mind drifted and he became bored again. It was part of the reason Schwartz could not settle down and enjoy their holidaying, a bored Schuldig was an annoying, in your face, Schuldig, he needed to be working and working hard.
Nagi didn't mind either way, but then he was much more interested in reading than running into the ocean and seeing how many times he could dupe the lifeguard into saving him before 'that shit got old'. Sadly enough Farfarello had started to copy Schuldig after the first two times and Brad hadn't cared enough about the outcome to stop them, the poor lifeguard must have had a rough day.
Farfarello too needed lots of mental and physical stimulation, though he could be almost normal most of the time he tended to get tense and jumpy when left to his own devices for too long.
When Brad had asked Nagi if cutting their tour of the world short bothered him he had shrugged and said, "I can read, blog and chat online from anywhere with internet access, Crawford," with his usual apathetic politeness.
Brad hailed a taxi as soon as they reached the taxi bay and they piled their few trunks into the enlarged airport-taxi boot. Schuldig complained, in an obnoxiously loud voice, about the size of the car (which would mean three of them snuggling together in the back seats) while Crawford gave the driver the address of their new flat.
Nagi, still the shortest despite his latest growth spurt, immediately leapt into the middle seat. Farfarello climbed in beside him and Brad the other side, leaving the driver to deal with Schuldig, who had loudly declared shotgun.
As soon as the taxi pulled off Nagi snuck a look at Brad, who gave him a small nod, he then pressed the soundproofing switch and sighed in relief.
"I have a headache," he complained quietly, "if I have to share a room with him again I will slam you into the nearest door frame." He didn't often make such threats, but his patience had been worn thin over the past few weeks and now he looked at Crawford with a look that betrayed no qualms about carrying such a feat out.
"Duly noted. No one will be sharing rooms." Brad flicked his eyes to the side, preferring to watch the streets fly by rather than continue the conversation, probably because his own head aching just as badly, a Schuldig on sugar and caffeine was a Schuldig that everyone wanted to murder.
The rest of the ride passed in silence, at least for the passengers of the back seat. The driver, having Schuldig as a companion, wasn't so lucky, but he was more than happy with Brad's generous tip and waved them off into their new house with a grin on his face.
Schuldig was first up the stairs, but the security door stopped him in his tracks. Luckily for everyone Brad was right behind him. He punched the number into the dial pad and waited for someone to answer.
"Hello?" The tinny voice of a middle aged man answered.
"Hello. This is Mr. Wasabi." Crawford pushed Schuldig back from the box before he started sniggering at the name.
"Ah, the new tenant. If you could just recite your security code to me I'll let you in, then you can come over to room 1B on the first floor and we'll get the last of the paperwork out of the way."
Crawford fired off a string of numbers without even pausing for breath, which obviously impressed their new landlord as he whistled and let them in sharp-ish.
They filed in eagerly, or Schuldig did and the rest followed at a more subdued pace. They made their way over to the mentioned room and knocked. Crawford motioned for them to stay outside and they leaned against the wall, tired from their travels, except Schuldig who stood in the middle of the hall and bounced on the balls of his feet. Nagi gave up his position after five minutes had passed and instead perched on the edge of his suitcase, getting his phone out and doing something with it. Farfarello closed his good eye and refrained from finding one of his knives to play with. Schuldig paced. Then sat down. Then tried to strike up a conversation. Then started to play around with their new landlords head.
Soon after that Brad came out, shook his head at Schuldig and jangled two sets of keys at them.
Two.
Nagi exchanged looks with Farfarello, before they both eyed Schuldig.
"We aren't going to be staying here long," was Brad's feeble attempt at peace. He then chucked the second set of keys at Nagi, who caught them with his telekinesis just in case Schuldig made a lunge for them.
The rest of the way to their flat was spent with Schuldig bitching in their ears.
Nagi wished that he would come down off his sugar high soon, though he would be a whole other kind of nuisance when he did so.