Title: A Question of Innocence
Pairings : RanxSchu
Warnings: Yaoi (like you hadn't guessed it from what I write) Post series, so if you haven't seen the series and don't want what happens in it spoiled, don't read this. Manga spoilers as well. If you haven't read that and don't want it spoiled, don't read... Violence (this is Weiß Kreuz after all)... Crashers spoilers as well for Ran's preWeiß time...
The world had come tumbling down on Ran, or at least that's what it felt like. One moment he had been trying to slice Crawford apart, the next he was in a freefall with stone raining down on him. As he plunged downwards, he had the cold comfort of knowing that Aya-chan was safe by now. Manx wouldn't have let her or Sakura be in the path of whatever was destroying this accursed building finally. He had avenged his sister, and he could die now... or so he thought. The cornres of his lips turned up slightly at the knowledge that he was going to take Schwarz with him. On this little trip to Hell, he wasn't going alone.
Hitting the level below, leather cracked against leather, his coat snapping around him wetly while the cold waters of the sea splashed up and onto him. Distantly, Ran could hear the others... Omi was shouting for him, Youji, and Ken, and they were answering. A pained breath was taken as he started to call out as well, his body informing him that he'd broken or sprung at least one rib. Little wonder considering the debris he'd landed on. Before the words could get out, someone fell on him in a flash of white, sending both of them tumbling down the rockslide. Support beams groaned as they gave way above them, the room he'd landed in tilting before slowly tumbling downwards, sending its two occupants in another roll like ragdolls. With cold seawater stinging his mouth, black roses bloomed before Ran's eyes, dragging him into unconsciousness.
The slow dripping of water was the first thing that Abyssinian heard as he started to come to. Someone was holding him as well, both of them wet and shivering. There was an occasional creak, an ominous sound of walls trying to hold against tons of water trying to crush it down and into nothingness. Rubied lashes slowly parted, taking in what little there was to be seen. Blackness greeted him, pierced only by a glimmering coal of a cigarette... or rather a clove from the vanilla-cinnamon scent that came from the drifting smoke. The arms wrapped about him shifted slightly, Ran letting himself remain boneless feeling, not wanting to alert whoever had him that he was awake once more. A soft spatter of Germanic curses came as he felt himself dragged upwards, lifted and then resettled. The water that had been trying to soak his legs fell away, pooling below him.
"Mein Gott, Ranran. What have you been eating? Gorging yourself on Pocky? You weigh a ton."
Of all the people that Ran would have not wanted to be trapped with, Schuldich was second on that list. Ran repressed the shudder for now at being touched by the man, trying to keep up his act of playing possum.
"Really now, Ranran. You don't think I can tell the difference between an unconscious and a conscious mind? Out of curiosity, who is first?"
Trying to jerk himself free of the German's arms, a futile effort in the end as Schuldich held him tightly against his shivering body. Ran's longcoat had been removed and was wrapped about his front now, Schu cradling him against his chest. The darkness about them was complete except for that single spark of the clove. From it, he could barely make out the dirtied white of the telepath's suit. "Where is my katana?"
Seductive laughter edged with harshness rolled out to greet him. He could feel Schuldich's breath stirring by his ear and neck as he spoke, the man's chin resting on his shoulder. "It's at your side. I would deprive you of your toy, and I still want to know. If I'm second, who is first?"
Amethyst eyes narrowed in annoyance as his hand closed about the hilt of his blade finally, a surge of reassurance flashing through Ran. It had always been a touchstone of sorts for him... death for others. "Where are we? Let go of me now, Schwarz."
More of that smoky laughter and the soft sounds of a drag being taken off the clove. In the faint brightening of the coal, the telepath's face became visible to Ran's turned head. Trails of crimson lined the German's face, making jagged lines down his forehead, temple, and cheek from a head wound. Noticing his gaze, Schuldich hastily lowered the clove once more, his other arm relaxing to release Ran from his grip. "Be careful. The rocks in here are wet and slimy. Breaking your ankle on one will do us little good. As far as I can tell, we're underwater with the sea slowly creeping in on us. Careful if you try to stand. The ceiling is about three inches above you."
*thump*
"I warned you," Schu muttered, curling his arms about himself, trying to stop his own shakings from the combined cold and wetness surrounding him. It had been fool's luck that his cloves had been in a tin along with his lighter and protected from the sea.
Rubbing his head with a scowl, Ran slid his longcoat about around himself, shivering as well in the damp air. Another slow rumbling of the area they were trapped in stopped him. From over his shoulder came a spark of flame, Schuldich holding his lighter up to cast a faint glow around. Water had claimed most of the room, a good three feet of it below him. Why hadn't Schuldich merely let him lay down there and drown? Or bashed his head in with a rock? Run him through with his own blade?
"Who wants to die alone?"
Ran's gaze snapped back to Schuldich angrily. The fact that the telepath had saved his life was lost on him, especially since it had only been done to keep loneliness away. Probably just to amuse himself as well at watching Ran slowly drown. Wrapping his sodden coat about him further, Ran's eyes continued to rove over the walls about him. Water was already dripping or coming in at a slow spray through a few holes in them. His katana could probably cut through one of them and let him have a chance to swim for the surface. Why...
"Because I broke my arm in the fall, Ran. I think my ankle too. I can't swim."
"Did anyone ever tell you how annoying it is to not even have a thought to themselves or to finish one?" Ran asked, venom in his voice.
"All the time," Schuldich replied with a malicious grin, thoroughly enjoying Ran's discomfort and lack of privacy. "It's especially annoying to Nagi when we sit down in the mornings to eat breakfast, and I recite his last night's wet dreams. You wouldn't think that a piece of toast could be a near lethal weapon. Speaking of dreams, you'd be surprised at some that your team has, especially about you."
Leather covered fingers tightened on the hilt of the katana, wanting nothing more than to shove the blade through the German, twist it hard enough to fracture his spine and rip it to pieces. Straining to keep his voice even, Ran's frosted violet eyes stayed locked on Schuldich, dead of the emotions within. "Don't dirty them with the filth from your mind or mouth. We're getting out of here. You can sit there or come with me. I don't care either way."
"Awww Ranran. And here I was just getting used to your company."
Ran could feel the German's grin in the darkness before his lighter flared to life once more, casting a weak circle of light around them. Watching the telepath move down into the water that was at their hips now, he forced himself not to feel pity. Schu had said that his arm had been broken, not shattered as he could see it was now. Red splashed the white of the Schwarz member's suit across his arm, the limb held gingerly against his body. The shard of bone erupting from near the wrist was the worse... at least, the worse that he could see. *He pulled me and lifted me up with that?* Ran thought in wonderment before forcing the thought from his mind before it could be read.
Schu leaned heavily against the wall as he started to come down, favouring his right ankle greatly. A rock twisted beneath him, spilling the telepath into the freezing water before Ran could catch him, the lighter tumbling from his fingers to be lost. Darkness swallowed them once more. With a jerk and another jolt of pain from his own sprung or broken ribs, Ran hauled him back up, an arm sliding beneath the telepath's knees to hold him. He could hear the other's teeth chattering, entire body caught up in spasming shivers. If the two of them didn't get out of this trap soon, they were both going to drown, freeze to death, or suffocate.
With his free hand before him, Ran felt his way to the wall he remembered, the one laced with cracks across the surface. For a time, he considered dumping Schuldich into the water, letting him drown or suffer from the cold. It was the memory of the telepath's arm and fall down the rocks that kept him from it. For some reason, Schuldich had dragged him up on the rocks, kept him out of the water, wrapped his own coat around his unconscious body when he could have simply stolen it. He couldn't just let him die here and now. Setting Schuldich on his feet, he kept his arms about the man's body, a stray thought sliding through his mind on just how slender the man was. All this time, he'd expected him to be more compact, more weighty under his clothing. At least that lack of weight was working in his favour now. Ran's own mind kept voicing his own fears, reminding him over and over that Schuldich was in shock probably, having pulled him up when he couldn't feel it or could ignore it and was now paying the price. "Schuldich... Schuldich... wake up," he murmured, slapping the telepath's cheeks lightly and then harder when no response came. "Schwarz! Wake up!"
"Wha..."
"Stay awake. I need you to hold onto me. I'm going to have to cut through this wall, and I can't hold you and do it at the same time," he said, slowly lowering Schuldich back into the frigid waters, assured some as he felt the telepath's hands touch on his backside. Drawing his katana, he brought it down on the wall before them, muttering a prayer under his breath that this worked.
It worked... a bit too well. A high pressure wall of water crashed in on the two, sweeping them back to the other side of the room. The katana was jerked from Ran's grasp and swallowed by the sea as he twisted in the current, trying to swim for the hole he'd made. Something brushed along his side, something warm in the coldness enveloping him. Snatching his hand out, he gathered in a handful of Schuldich's jacket, pulling the telepath along with him. It seemed like an eternity before he broke the surface, pulling in lungfuls of air greedily. The telepath seemed to weigh a ton now, Ran forcing his head up from under the water as well.
In the cold silver moonlight from above, Schuldich's face was too pale, his lips stained a purplish blue with too dark hollows beneath his eyes. Swimming for the shore, Ran's tired mind kept reminding him to keep the telepath above the water, to force his already exhausted arms to keep supporting him. Pulling himself up on the sand, he pulled the other male after him, nearly fainting in relief. It was only his stoic nature that kept his eyes open when all they wanted to do was close for a few minutes nap. Lowering his cheek next to Schu's, no breath came from between those lips. Growling in frustration, Ran began working on him, trying to force the water up and out of him. The entire time, his mind kept chanting to him *It's too late, he's dead. You let him die. It's too late, he's-*
Streams of water erupted from Schuldich's lips, coughed up weakly. Ran dropped to the sticky sand beside him, nearly relishing every hurt sounding cough and whoop for air from the other male. He'd gotten them both out. Whatever debt he owed Schuldich for keeping him from drowning in that room was now repaid. All he wanted to do now was take a nap... just a short one... a few minutes of sleep to let some of this exhaustion stop... just a few minutes.
---------------
"Over here!"
The blonde Knight of the Crashers crouched down beside Ran, fingers pressed to the side of that marble white throat as he felt for a pulse. A smile broke across his lips at the steady beat of the other's heart, worry that he might be dead passing away. With that fear gone, he began pulling Ran away from the telepath he had washed up beside. It was the Crasher's non-lethal policy and the blonde's own sense of chivalry that kept him from killing the Schwarz member or from simply shoving him back into the sea... but it was close. What had he done to Ran to leave the two of them like this? What had happened?
Violet frost eyes regarded Knight with a dulled surprise as Ran opened his eyes. *Yuushi? What's he doing here* was the slow line of thought that surfaced in his clouded mind. *Schuldich* followed quickly on that. Flailing a hand out for the telepath, Ran tried to pull himself up, check on the German but was betrayed by his own weakened body. Coherent thought and action just weren't working.
Knight caught the assassin as he tried to raise himself, warm arms that felt like iron wrapped in velvet encircling him. "Ran, Bishop is on the way. We're going to transport you to one of our safe houses until we can get ahold of the rest of Kritiker. There's a doctor of our own already there. Just hold onto me."
Ran shook his head slowly, sending the ice chips from the cold temperatures that clung to the dark red tendrils flying. "No... take Schuldich first. I can walk. Just give me a minute."
"Ran..."
"Now, Knight."
(to be continued...)
Pairings : RanxSchu
Warnings: Yaoi (like you hadn't guessed it from what I write) Post series, so if you haven't seen the series and don't want what happens in it spoiled, don't read this. Manga spoilers as well. If you haven't read that and don't want it spoiled, don't read... Violence (this is Weiß Kreuz after all)... Crashers spoilers as well for Ran's preWeiß time...
The world had come tumbling down on Ran, or at least that's what it felt like. One moment he had been trying to slice Crawford apart, the next he was in a freefall with stone raining down on him. As he plunged downwards, he had the cold comfort of knowing that Aya-chan was safe by now. Manx wouldn't have let her or Sakura be in the path of whatever was destroying this accursed building finally. He had avenged his sister, and he could die now... or so he thought. The cornres of his lips turned up slightly at the knowledge that he was going to take Schwarz with him. On this little trip to Hell, he wasn't going alone.
Hitting the level below, leather cracked against leather, his coat snapping around him wetly while the cold waters of the sea splashed up and onto him. Distantly, Ran could hear the others... Omi was shouting for him, Youji, and Ken, and they were answering. A pained breath was taken as he started to call out as well, his body informing him that he'd broken or sprung at least one rib. Little wonder considering the debris he'd landed on. Before the words could get out, someone fell on him in a flash of white, sending both of them tumbling down the rockslide. Support beams groaned as they gave way above them, the room he'd landed in tilting before slowly tumbling downwards, sending its two occupants in another roll like ragdolls. With cold seawater stinging his mouth, black roses bloomed before Ran's eyes, dragging him into unconsciousness.
The slow dripping of water was the first thing that Abyssinian heard as he started to come to. Someone was holding him as well, both of them wet and shivering. There was an occasional creak, an ominous sound of walls trying to hold against tons of water trying to crush it down and into nothingness. Rubied lashes slowly parted, taking in what little there was to be seen. Blackness greeted him, pierced only by a glimmering coal of a cigarette... or rather a clove from the vanilla-cinnamon scent that came from the drifting smoke. The arms wrapped about him shifted slightly, Ran letting himself remain boneless feeling, not wanting to alert whoever had him that he was awake once more. A soft spatter of Germanic curses came as he felt himself dragged upwards, lifted and then resettled. The water that had been trying to soak his legs fell away, pooling below him.
"Mein Gott, Ranran. What have you been eating? Gorging yourself on Pocky? You weigh a ton."
Of all the people that Ran would have not wanted to be trapped with, Schuldich was second on that list. Ran repressed the shudder for now at being touched by the man, trying to keep up his act of playing possum.
"Really now, Ranran. You don't think I can tell the difference between an unconscious and a conscious mind? Out of curiosity, who is first?"
Trying to jerk himself free of the German's arms, a futile effort in the end as Schuldich held him tightly against his shivering body. Ran's longcoat had been removed and was wrapped about his front now, Schu cradling him against his chest. The darkness about them was complete except for that single spark of the clove. From it, he could barely make out the dirtied white of the telepath's suit. "Where is my katana?"
Seductive laughter edged with harshness rolled out to greet him. He could feel Schuldich's breath stirring by his ear and neck as he spoke, the man's chin resting on his shoulder. "It's at your side. I would deprive you of your toy, and I still want to know. If I'm second, who is first?"
Amethyst eyes narrowed in annoyance as his hand closed about the hilt of his blade finally, a surge of reassurance flashing through Ran. It had always been a touchstone of sorts for him... death for others. "Where are we? Let go of me now, Schwarz."
More of that smoky laughter and the soft sounds of a drag being taken off the clove. In the faint brightening of the coal, the telepath's face became visible to Ran's turned head. Trails of crimson lined the German's face, making jagged lines down his forehead, temple, and cheek from a head wound. Noticing his gaze, Schuldich hastily lowered the clove once more, his other arm relaxing to release Ran from his grip. "Be careful. The rocks in here are wet and slimy. Breaking your ankle on one will do us little good. As far as I can tell, we're underwater with the sea slowly creeping in on us. Careful if you try to stand. The ceiling is about three inches above you."
*thump*
"I warned you," Schu muttered, curling his arms about himself, trying to stop his own shakings from the combined cold and wetness surrounding him. It had been fool's luck that his cloves had been in a tin along with his lighter and protected from the sea.
Rubbing his head with a scowl, Ran slid his longcoat about around himself, shivering as well in the damp air. Another slow rumbling of the area they were trapped in stopped him. From over his shoulder came a spark of flame, Schuldich holding his lighter up to cast a faint glow around. Water had claimed most of the room, a good three feet of it below him. Why hadn't Schuldich merely let him lay down there and drown? Or bashed his head in with a rock? Run him through with his own blade?
"Who wants to die alone?"
Ran's gaze snapped back to Schuldich angrily. The fact that the telepath had saved his life was lost on him, especially since it had only been done to keep loneliness away. Probably just to amuse himself as well at watching Ran slowly drown. Wrapping his sodden coat about him further, Ran's eyes continued to rove over the walls about him. Water was already dripping or coming in at a slow spray through a few holes in them. His katana could probably cut through one of them and let him have a chance to swim for the surface. Why...
"Because I broke my arm in the fall, Ran. I think my ankle too. I can't swim."
"Did anyone ever tell you how annoying it is to not even have a thought to themselves or to finish one?" Ran asked, venom in his voice.
"All the time," Schuldich replied with a malicious grin, thoroughly enjoying Ran's discomfort and lack of privacy. "It's especially annoying to Nagi when we sit down in the mornings to eat breakfast, and I recite his last night's wet dreams. You wouldn't think that a piece of toast could be a near lethal weapon. Speaking of dreams, you'd be surprised at some that your team has, especially about you."
Leather covered fingers tightened on the hilt of the katana, wanting nothing more than to shove the blade through the German, twist it hard enough to fracture his spine and rip it to pieces. Straining to keep his voice even, Ran's frosted violet eyes stayed locked on Schuldich, dead of the emotions within. "Don't dirty them with the filth from your mind or mouth. We're getting out of here. You can sit there or come with me. I don't care either way."
"Awww Ranran. And here I was just getting used to your company."
Ran could feel the German's grin in the darkness before his lighter flared to life once more, casting a weak circle of light around them. Watching the telepath move down into the water that was at their hips now, he forced himself not to feel pity. Schu had said that his arm had been broken, not shattered as he could see it was now. Red splashed the white of the Schwarz member's suit across his arm, the limb held gingerly against his body. The shard of bone erupting from near the wrist was the worse... at least, the worse that he could see. *He pulled me and lifted me up with that?* Ran thought in wonderment before forcing the thought from his mind before it could be read.
Schu leaned heavily against the wall as he started to come down, favouring his right ankle greatly. A rock twisted beneath him, spilling the telepath into the freezing water before Ran could catch him, the lighter tumbling from his fingers to be lost. Darkness swallowed them once more. With a jerk and another jolt of pain from his own sprung or broken ribs, Ran hauled him back up, an arm sliding beneath the telepath's knees to hold him. He could hear the other's teeth chattering, entire body caught up in spasming shivers. If the two of them didn't get out of this trap soon, they were both going to drown, freeze to death, or suffocate.
With his free hand before him, Ran felt his way to the wall he remembered, the one laced with cracks across the surface. For a time, he considered dumping Schuldich into the water, letting him drown or suffer from the cold. It was the memory of the telepath's arm and fall down the rocks that kept him from it. For some reason, Schuldich had dragged him up on the rocks, kept him out of the water, wrapped his own coat around his unconscious body when he could have simply stolen it. He couldn't just let him die here and now. Setting Schuldich on his feet, he kept his arms about the man's body, a stray thought sliding through his mind on just how slender the man was. All this time, he'd expected him to be more compact, more weighty under his clothing. At least that lack of weight was working in his favour now. Ran's own mind kept voicing his own fears, reminding him over and over that Schuldich was in shock probably, having pulled him up when he couldn't feel it or could ignore it and was now paying the price. "Schuldich... Schuldich... wake up," he murmured, slapping the telepath's cheeks lightly and then harder when no response came. "Schwarz! Wake up!"
"Wha..."
"Stay awake. I need you to hold onto me. I'm going to have to cut through this wall, and I can't hold you and do it at the same time," he said, slowly lowering Schuldich back into the frigid waters, assured some as he felt the telepath's hands touch on his backside. Drawing his katana, he brought it down on the wall before them, muttering a prayer under his breath that this worked.
It worked... a bit too well. A high pressure wall of water crashed in on the two, sweeping them back to the other side of the room. The katana was jerked from Ran's grasp and swallowed by the sea as he twisted in the current, trying to swim for the hole he'd made. Something brushed along his side, something warm in the coldness enveloping him. Snatching his hand out, he gathered in a handful of Schuldich's jacket, pulling the telepath along with him. It seemed like an eternity before he broke the surface, pulling in lungfuls of air greedily. The telepath seemed to weigh a ton now, Ran forcing his head up from under the water as well.
In the cold silver moonlight from above, Schuldich's face was too pale, his lips stained a purplish blue with too dark hollows beneath his eyes. Swimming for the shore, Ran's tired mind kept reminding him to keep the telepath above the water, to force his already exhausted arms to keep supporting him. Pulling himself up on the sand, he pulled the other male after him, nearly fainting in relief. It was only his stoic nature that kept his eyes open when all they wanted to do was close for a few minutes nap. Lowering his cheek next to Schu's, no breath came from between those lips. Growling in frustration, Ran began working on him, trying to force the water up and out of him. The entire time, his mind kept chanting to him *It's too late, he's dead. You let him die. It's too late, he's-*
Streams of water erupted from Schuldich's lips, coughed up weakly. Ran dropped to the sticky sand beside him, nearly relishing every hurt sounding cough and whoop for air from the other male. He'd gotten them both out. Whatever debt he owed Schuldich for keeping him from drowning in that room was now repaid. All he wanted to do now was take a nap... just a short one... a few minutes of sleep to let some of this exhaustion stop... just a few minutes.
---------------
"Over here!"
The blonde Knight of the Crashers crouched down beside Ran, fingers pressed to the side of that marble white throat as he felt for a pulse. A smile broke across his lips at the steady beat of the other's heart, worry that he might be dead passing away. With that fear gone, he began pulling Ran away from the telepath he had washed up beside. It was the Crasher's non-lethal policy and the blonde's own sense of chivalry that kept him from killing the Schwarz member or from simply shoving him back into the sea... but it was close. What had he done to Ran to leave the two of them like this? What had happened?
Violet frost eyes regarded Knight with a dulled surprise as Ran opened his eyes. *Yuushi? What's he doing here* was the slow line of thought that surfaced in his clouded mind. *Schuldich* followed quickly on that. Flailing a hand out for the telepath, Ran tried to pull himself up, check on the German but was betrayed by his own weakened body. Coherent thought and action just weren't working.
Knight caught the assassin as he tried to raise himself, warm arms that felt like iron wrapped in velvet encircling him. "Ran, Bishop is on the way. We're going to transport you to one of our safe houses until we can get ahold of the rest of Kritiker. There's a doctor of our own already there. Just hold onto me."
Ran shook his head slowly, sending the ice chips from the cold temperatures that clung to the dark red tendrils flying. "No... take Schuldich first. I can walk. Just give me a minute."
"Ran..."
"Now, Knight."
(to be continued...)