Verboten
Part Two: Ferien der Liebe





"Raven!" Van entered the room to see Raven muttering under piles of paperwork which was once Thomas's. "What happened?"

"What does it look like? Thomas decided to take his vacation the same time Colonel Schubaltz has." Raven snarled, slamming his pencil down and rubbing his temples. "I hate being the newbie..."

Van just simply laughed and sat on the desk, taking some of the paperwork out of Raven's hands. "This is Thomas's paperwork alright, it's all written in Heimatland... that's where Clan Schubaltz resigns."

"Ich spreche Heimatland." Raven stole the paperwork from Van's hand and went back to work. "Shouldn't we be out saving peoples' worthless asses or something?"

"The Guardian Force is much more than playing 'hero' Raven." Van smirked and posed on the desk, his legs crossed and looking rather fine. "But I understand your need for redemption."

"Redemption? What's that?" Raven grabbed Van's wrist, slowly pulling him closer. "The way I see it, Van... in the beginning I caused a great deal of deaths. When my meaningless existence finally comes to an end, I want to save as many lives as I can before I go..."

"That's a surprisingly noble attitude, Raven." Van soon found himself in Raven's arms, looking rather cute and sheepish.

"I never cease to amaze me." Raven smirked before satisfying Van's hungry lips with his own.


"Fiona?" A low female voice spoke from behind the ancient Zoidian, Fiona jerked around to see the blue-haired Zoidian standing there with her files in hand.

"Ryss. You scared me." Fiona breathed a sigh of relief, just as Ryss slowly approached.

"Did Schubaltz leave for vacation in the Starbreeze Islands?" Ryss asked, overly curious.

"Yes, they should be leaving today." Fiona asked, smiling at her. "Why? Something wrong?"

"I had a prediction last night." Ryss looked mildly disoriented and somewhat disheavaled. "That something's bound to happen between the brothers."

"Is it something terrible?" Fiona asked, frowning with concern.

"At first, the premonition is rather warm and soft." The blue-haired psionicist smiled a bit, then looked at Fiona. "You know, the way I feel about you... but then... bitter, biting, angry cold..." Ryss looked at the files in her hand, now looking like she was about to cry and/or to scream.

"W-what happened?" Fiona asked, putting her hand on Ryss's cheek. "What did you see?"

"Sorry, Alisi... psychic confidentiality." Ryss smirked, walking off to put the files in Raven's Inbox.



"A vacation to ourselves." Karl muttered to Thomas as the plane took off. Thomas's head rested on Karl's shoulder, a warm, childish smile on his pouty lips. "This is what the doctor ordered, eh, Little One?"

"Yes, liebster bruder." Thomas whispered softly, his hand on Karl's rising and falling chest.

"Tommy?"

"Yes?"

"Nothing..." Karl slid one arm around Thomas, pulling him closer to him. "Just a random passing thought, that's all."

Thomas fell asleep in Karl's embrace, occassionally moaning contently within the confines of Karl's loving arms. Karl's lips softly pressed against Thomas's forehead, his free hand stroked the soft, dark blonde curls of Thomas's hair. His fingers played with the sheer bounciness of them, Karl was mildly amused by this.

//It kills me to see that Thomas's hair is naturally this way and my perm was very short-lived... I'm doomed with straight hair and tacky split ends.//

For unexplainable reasons, Karl's always been a little self-conscious about his appearance. But then again, he needs to keep up a healthy appearance for his troops. Nonetheless, the light-blonde colonel returned to stroking Thomas's dark blonde curls, watching the scenary pass by in the airplane window's view. The younger brother's eyes slowly opened, enjoying the feel of Karl's hand running through his hair.

"Karl?"

"Yes, little Tommy?"

"I don't want to ruin such a tender moment but I had a thought."

"Oh?"

Thomas was nose-to-nose with his brother, a look of fear in his normally fearless green eyes. "We shouldn't let anyone know about this."

For a second there, Karl looked a tad bit confused, but it sank in immediately that Thomas was indeed right. Although the Empire has no ills against homosexuality in whole, but the concept of brother x brother incest was sheerly inexcusable. Everyone would be begging the Emperor to kick the both of them out of the Empire and the Republic, Karl is sure of, wouldn't take them because they were of the Empire.

"You're right, Tommy." Karl responded in a low, soft tone, his lips touched Thomas's shortly after. "We should act normally around other people... even our own friends."

Hesitant to respond with a protest, Thomas saw Karl's point. His sad expression told the elder brother that he didn't approve of the idea, but it was the only way. When no one was looking, Karl and Thomas kissed again, trying to sooth each other's aches.



"Raven?"

Raven's eyes snapped open, he sat up from the couch. Ryss was standing at the foot of the couch, then sat down beside him. The dark-haired 19-year-old zoid killer stared coldly into her eyes as she turned to look at him.

"I noticed that you had a lot of feelings when I mentioned that the Schubaltz brothers were going to the Starbreeze Islands for a vacation. Can you tell me why you looked so painful?"

"Do you know why two people would go to the Starbreeze Islands?" Raven looked at her with those piercing cold eyes.

"The Starbreeze is one of the most beautiful set of islands on Planet Zi, a favored spot for budding lovers and newlyweds. So? In case you hadn't noticed, Raven... Karl and Thomas are brothers. Maybe they decided to visit the islands nonetheless." Ryss folded her arms, staring back into his eyes. "Why are you overly concerned about the vacation destination of the brothers? They said to be left in peace, Raven... until the vacation is over and Karl is back to being strong and wise again."

"Call me paranoid, but I just don't... feel.... right about the Schubaltz brothers going to the Starbreeze Islands for a vacation."

"Relax, Raven. It's for the best they went like this. Karl didn't want to go on vacation alone, the only one he can turn to here is his own brother. I assure you there is nothing sinful going on between them."

Raven frowned, then stood up to leave. "I hope you're right, Ryss. If you aren't... you're dead." He left quickly and silently, leaving the blue-haired Zoidian there to herself.

//Why is Raven so overly concerned why the Schubaltzes wanted to go to the Starbreeze? It's scaring me a bit, I can feel something stirring inside him.//

Specular tromped up to Ryss and shook her from his dream bubble, she looked up at the blue psychic zoid. "Yes?"

Spucular pointed to Raven's desk which was hidden in the shadows from the fireplace. Looking back at the door, she tiptoed over to it and began leafing through the files and folders and such. Specular looked around as look-out, his yellow eyes narrowed at the slightest sounds. Ryss saw a folder labeled 'Schubaltz' and that aroused suspicions, she opened the folder as a bunch of clippings and photos fell to the floor. Picking them up with telekinesis, the blue-haired zoidian looked them over. They were pictures of Karl, and if some had pictures of Thomas with him, they were slashed out or burned out or torn out with scissors. The clippings were newspaper clippings of all of Karl's achievements and victories.

"The pieces are starting to fit together." Ryss's eyes narrowed a tad. "Raven is in love with Colonel Schubaltz. He must think that Karl and Thomas went to the Starbreeze Islands in an act of forbidden incestious fornications..." She then smirked somewhat and tucked the photos away. "Jealousy is an ugly bitch, is it not, Specular?"




--Continued--