Author:

Author: Kerianne
Email: mpike@froggernet.com
Title: Harsh Realities (2/?)
Spoilers: None
Warnings: Language, a wee bit of violence, and an utterly crackhead plotline. ^^;;;
Author's Notes: More insanity. ^^;;; If you've made it this far, you should be fine. *snicker*

Chapter 2:

~Still can't reach her... why am I still trying?~

Not because he cared, Schuldig decided, thoughtfully chewing a bite of his sandwich. He was just curious, that was all. He knew Aya had been kidnapped, but his powers hadn't been able to tell him what the kidnappers were going to do with her. And it was a bit confusing that he was unable to contact her mentally. He had a vague estimated idea of where she was, however. And if he cared, he'd probably get in the car and go check the place out... see if he could find out what they'd done with her.

But, he didn't, so he wasn't going to.

He took another bite of the sandwich. "I bet Ran's driving himself absolutely insane worrying about her," he said to himself, around the mouthful. "The rest of em, too." If he really wanted to be nice, he could take a trip over to the Koneko and give Weiss a heads-up as to what had happened to Aya.

Right, and then he'd go donate all his money to the starving children in Africa. He snickered to himself. Charity was definitely not his style.

But he would be lying to himself if he was to pretend it wasn't weighing on his mind a bit, and he hated to lie to himself. Not that he really cared what happened to her, but for some reason his mind kept wandering back to her. Curiosity, that was all.

A moment later, Schuldig had found his rationalization. If he planned to play with Weiss in the future, Aya would be an excellent pawn to use against Ran, and even the others. They all loved her to some degree, both in a brotherly way and romantically. And if he allowed her kidnappers to... do whatever they planned to do to her... she wouldn't be very useful to him, would she?

Schuldig nodded decisively to himself and got up from the table, throwing the rest of his sandwich in the garbage and tugging on his green blazer. Yes, he needed her alive. Which meant he really had no choice but to go talk to Weiss and see if they could aid him in rescuing her.

Even though he didn't care. Not one bit.

* * * * *

"Is she going to be all right, otousan?"

"Shhh... I think she's waking up..."

Aya's eyes fluttered open and she stared up at the slowly turning ceiling fan. At least this time, she found herself lying on a couch, pillows piled behind her head, rather than on the ground. However, with a slight groan, she realized that her short visit to dreamland had not awakened her from the living nightmare. The children who claimed to be hers were standing over her, identical expressions of concern on their faces.

And him... well, he was looking at her with an expression she had never in a million years expected that she would see on his face. One of worry, and affection... maybe even love.

Sighing, Aya ran both hands through her hair. "Listen, I don't know what's going on, but I'm not moving from this couch until someone explains what the hell I'm doing here--"

"Don't swear around the children, liebe." The expression of alarm on his face-- and, indeed, just the fact that such words were coming out of his mouth-- would have been hilarious to her under any other circumstances, but in this situation it only served as another reminder that the world was hopelessly, terrifyingly out of whack. Rolling her eyes, she ignored the interruption and continued.

"Someone needs to explain how I got here, where here even is, and how I can get back to my normal life."

Frowning, Schuldig pressed a hand against her forehead. "You don't seem to have a fever... Are you feeling all right?"

"Well, let's see. I'm in some sort of alternate universe, I just found out I'm at least ten years older than I thought I was, and I have two children I've never seen or heard of before. And on top of all that, you're actually being nice to me. All in all, I guess you could say I'm a little confused." She was a bit sorry for her acidic tone and harsh words when she caught the hurt expression on his face-- he looked exactly like a kicked puppy, she thought, resisting the urge to giggle.

Schuldig paused, blue eyes troubled. "Er... Michi, Christian, go back out and play. Your okaasan and I have to talk." Obediently, the children left, and Schuldig returned his attention to Aya. "Liebe, you're scaring me," he said softly. "I don't know what you're talking about. We've lived in this house for eight years now, and we've been married for eleven."

Aya blinked. "Okay, if this is some sort of elaborate joke, or one of your mind tricks, would you mind stopping now? Cause it's really kind of getting old."

He took a deep breath, helping her up into a sitting position and staring directly into her eyes. "I think you'd better tell me your whole story," he said softly.

She told him everything, beginning with the first time they'd met and ending with the kidnapping. By the time she was done, he looked even more troubled. "Aya, love, that doesn't make any sense," he said gently. "You've been here the entire time. There's no way you could have been out on the street being kidnapped... and as far as I know you were never in a coma at all..."

Aya sighed. "Well, that's my past, as well as I can remember it. Apparently our stories don't match."

"Apparently." He nodded, a bemused expression on his face.

"So what do you think?"

"I think you're crazy." He grinned, and for a moment she saw a glimpse of the old Schuldig in his face. Then his expression turned soft again. "But I don't care."

"You... don't?" Aya frowned, and was caught completely by surprise when he leaned forward and kissed her gently on the lips. It wasn't exactly as she remembered it, slower, softer, and less intense, but it still stirred a few butterflies in her stomach.

He pulled back and smiled at her. "I don't care, because even if you are crazy, you're here, with me, and that's all that matters. This is where you belong. Forever."

The words were probably meant to reassure her, but for some reason they set off alarm bells within her mind. In the current context, it almost seemed like a threat. And this man looked like Schuldig, he had his voice and his mannerisms, but something just wasn't right about him. He was... Nice, for one thing. Mild-mannered, sweet, unassuming and the complete opposite of the sarcastic, moody, self-loathing man she knew.

But as he put an arm around her and pulled her back to settle against him, she realized the main difference between this Schuldig and the one she was used to.

This one loved her back.

* * * * *

"Ran. Relax. She's probably staying with a friend or something."

The violet-eyed man was pacing back and forth in front of the flower shop's closed door. He'd closed the Koneko to customers early today, having more pressing issues to deal with than selling flowers to flirty teenage girls. Issues such as the fact that his sister seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth since she'd gone running from the shop four hours earlier.

"Her car is still here, Yohji. Don't you think that's a little odd? Why wouldn't she come back and get it?"

"I don't know, she probably wants to be alone right now. She was really upset," Yohji said, trying to be as tactful as possible in dealing with Ran. Although Ran's face was as impassive as ever, Yohji could tell that his friend was panicking inside. He had always been terribly protective of his imouto, even more so in the days since her connection to Schuldig had been revealed.

"You don't think I didn't see how upset she was?" Ran ranted. "What if she went looking for him again? I should have gone after her... why the hell didn't I go after her?"

Yohji sighed, quickly losing his patience. "Ran, will you please calm down! It's only been a few hours. She probably just found some quiet place somewhere to think and cry and analyze and all that other stuff women like to do when they're unhappy. I'll bet she'll be back for the car in an hour or so."

Ran gave the taller man a worried frown and opened his mouth to speak when the bells on the door began to jingle.

Yohji turned around, blocking the doorway. "I'm sorry, we're closed right no-- oh shit."

"What?" Ran attempted to peer around Yohji's shoulder, but the combination of Yohji being in the way and the shadows from the quickly setting sun blocked his view of the figure. As it was, Yohji stepped back to stand beside him, and Ran was able to clearly see the face that had elicited his friend's outburst.

"You again..." Ran snarled, about to leap forward, but Yohji held him back. Making a mental note to kill Yohji after he was finished killing Schuldig, the Weiss redhead reluctantly stopped. "How dare you set foot in my shop, Schwarz. I should kill you right now."

"Should and will are not the same thing, Fujimiya," Schuldig answered with a faint smile, stepping forward. "And I don't think you will, because I have some information I think you'd find awfully interesting... perhaps even invaluable."

"Don't play games," Yohji said in a low tone, more controlled than Ran but equally angry. "What do you know?"

"Seen your sister lately, Fujimiya?"

Yohji felt Ran's muscles tense up even more beneath his hand, and tightened his grip on his fellow assassin's shoulder.

"What the fuck did you do with her?" Ran was nearly trembling with anger, his breath coming in quick, shallow gasps.

"Would you mind calming down? It's so stressful trying to talk to someone who's so uptight." Schuldig smirked, venturing to come a little closer. "And I haven't done anything with your precious sister. Someone else did."

"You have exactly ten seconds to start telling me everything you know," Ran responded ominously.

Schuldig held up his hands in surrender. "Hey, I didn't come here to antagonize. Believe it or not, I actually want to help. Your sister's been kidnapped. During the struggle, she and I formed a momentary mental link... it happens sometimes during an extreme shock, one mind reaches out for another, and I just happened to pick it up. That's how I know about it."

Ran glared at him suspiciously. "Who's behind it?"

"I don't know. All I know is the general vicinity of the place where she's being held. I haven't been able to reach her mentally since then."

There was a moment of uneasy silence, while Ran tried to decide if it would be worse to trust Schuldig and end up in a trap, or not trust him and possibly allow his sister to remain in danger. "How do we know this isn't another one of Schwarz's traps?" he asked finally, in a cold voice. "Give me one good reason why I should trust you."

"Schwarz is now defunct. It's just me now. I'm living on my own, living on my share of the money we made from Takatori and Estet. I've retired, so to speak." Schuldig met Ran's steel gaze with one of his own. "And to answer your second question... you should trust me because you love your sister, and you want to help me save her."

Ran blinked, eyebrows knitting in confusion. He certainly hadn't expected a response like that... he wanted them to help him save her?

"I have just one question," Yohji broke in. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you here? Why are you doing this? And most interestingly, why does it matter to you?"

Schuldig stared at his former enemy, expression serious. "Just between us.... I really don't know."

* * * * *

"I've got to go out for a little while, liebe. Promise me you'll stay right there, okay?"

"Hai," Aya said shortly, lifting a hand in a little waving motion, then went back to staring at the ceiling. Schuldig's absence would almost be a relief. In a way, it was nice to be treated so much more kindly by him, but it was also admittedly very strange. He had been doting on her since she had first met him here, making her lie still and constantly asking if she needed anything, if he could get her anything to eat or drink or another pillow or some aspirin... it was almost tiresome.

Despite the surreality of the situation, Aya wasn't as sure as she had been before that she really wanted to leave this place. She had always believed that everything happened for a reason, and the possibility had occurred to her that she was meant to be here. Or maybe she had always been here, and what she had thought were memories of her past were all just part of some particularly realistic dream. Thinking about it made her dizzy, and once again she had the sensation of being unable to tell if she was awake or asleep.

She closed her eyes briefly and the feeling passed, replaced by one of... calm, maybe even security. Yes, it felt right, the idea that she belonged here. A loving husband, two wonderful children, a beautiful house out in the country-- what more could she ask for, she wondered, stifling the tiny nagging voice in the back of her head that was trying to tell her that something wasn't right, no matter how utopian this vision seemed.

Of course, if it turned out this was all some kind of mistake or practical joke or dream, she would happily go back to her old life.

Wouldn't she?

Before she could explore that thought further, a familiar voice shook her out of her reverie. "Aya! We heard you weren't feeling well, so we thought we'd pay a little visit..."

Aya opened her eyes, and found herself looking upon one of the sweetest things she'd ever seen. Four familiar faces. So she wasn't completely alone in this world with her two stranger children and the not-quite-Schuldig. Jumping to her feet, she threw her arms around the nearest figure. "Niichan, you have no idea how good it is to see you!"

Laughing, Ran hugged her back, then released her and gently put her back down on the couch. "Careful, you should be resting."

Aya rolled her eyes good-naturedly, then turned her attention to greeting the other three. "Yohji, Ken, Omi, hello! It's great to see you!"

Yohji grinned. "Isn't it always great to see me?" he teased, making a show of fixing his hair and clothes.

"Nice to know you're so fond of our visits," Ken said with a smile, "but you're acting like you were surprised to see us... like you hadn't seen us in years! We just saw you yesterday."

"Well, truthfully I am a little surprised to see you," she said. "I was pretty sure I was alone here."

"Oh, gomen nasai, we just let ourselves in," Omi apologized. "We probably should've let you know we were coming."

"No, not that... I mean, alone here..." She gestured around her. "Wherever this place is."

The boys exchanged glances. "Er... your house?" Yohji asked.

Aya made a face, laughing a little. "Baka. No... this... world, this universe, whatever it is. How did you get here, anyway? I assume you've come to take me back."

Another uneasy glance passed between all four of them, and Aya felt a sudden chill. "You... do know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

"No idea, imouto," Ran said gently, a worried look in his eyes. "You're probably just tired. Maybe we'd better go, and let you get some rest."

"No!" Aya caught the panicky note in her voice and managed to calm herself down. "I mean, really, I'm fine. I'd feel better if you'd stay and talk to me."

"If you're sure..." Ran sat down beside her on the couch, and the others took chairs around the living room.

"How are things at the flower shop?" Aya asked, in an attempt to make small talk.

This only elicited yet another round of worried glances. "What flower shop?"

The slight chill Aya had experienced earlier suddenly became amplified. "The Koneko..." she said slowly. "The flower shop you all run together...."

Ran pressed his hand against her forehead, frowning. "Aya, I really think you should--"

"No, I think you should!" she cried, losing her patience with the whole crazy situation. "I think you should tell me why nothing is the way I remember it, why everyone is acting so damn weird, and where the hell I am!"

There was a short, shocked silence after her outburst, in which Aya attempted to catch her breath, and Ran, Ken, Omi and Yohji seemed to be competing to see who could look the most stoically concerned.

Finally Ran stood up. "I think you need to rest," he said firmly. "You're very upset and obviously a little delirious. We'll leave now, and let you try to get some sleep, unless you'd like someone to stay with you?"

Sighing, Aya gave up. "No, I'll be fine. I guess I must be confused," she lied. "I'll feel better after I take a nap."

Ran's worried frown dissolved into a faint smile, and he reached forward to ruffle her hair. "Good girl. I'll see you later, imoutochan." The other boys gave their farewells, and then they were gone, leaving Aya alone with her endlessly circling thoughts.

Sighing again, she let her head drop back against the couch, closing her eyes. Maybe she should sleep. Who knew-- maybe she'd dream her reality back again.

end chapter 2