Disclaimer: Still with us? Goody! Same stuff as last time applies. ^^ These characters belong to Take-san and co. They could try suing me, but what would be the point? I mean... really.

Silent Messiah
by Crystal Dawn
Chapter Two

Nagi awoke the next morning with the strange feeling that something was drastically different.
At first, he dismissed this unsettling feeling as the result of sleeping with his uniform on. That was always uncomfortable, and he hated to do it. Unfortunately, a lot of the time, he wound up exhausting himself late at night and doing it anyway. Last night was apparently no exception.

However, after a second, he realized that there was something else. The blankets beside him were moving as though someone beneath them were breathing. Slowly, groggily, he followed his arm across the blankets to notice that his hand was entwined with another, smaller, more delicate hand.

Slowly, and ever so gently, he squeezed the hand, bringing its owner back into consciousness. Before she opened her eyes, Tot yawned deeply. Then, her free hand went to her eyes, rubbing the sleep out of them. Nagi smiled, for once almost happy.

After a moment of watching Tot rustle around, though, another thought occurred to him. His smile vanished as he let go of her hand.

"I have to go, Tot," he said softly, "I've got school." Tot nestled down into her blankets, snuggling up against the pillow.

"It's Sunday, Nagi-kun," she said sleepily, "No school today." He opened his mouth to reply, but then realized she was right. Otherwise, his alarm clock would have woken him up. Right now it read 9:30. If it were a school day, he'd have been horribly late by now.

"Alright," he conceded, laying his head back down, "What do you want to do today?" Tot smiled brightly, if a little sleepily.

"I want to spend the day with you," she said, clutching something to her chest. He realized then that she had brought her stuffed bunny with her, as well.

"Yes, but what do you want to *do*?" he asked, trying to draw a suggestion out of her. What sorts of things did girls like to do, anyway? Nagi suspected they spent lots of time playing with their hair or something similar, but he wasn't sure about Tot.

"Ummmm," she said thoughtfully, "We could eat breakfast, couldn't we?" Nagi blinked. He couldn't remember the last time he'd actually had breakfast. And whenever he did eat breakfast, it was something quick and simple, like a rice roll or a piece of fruit. He had never really had a family to have breakfast with, either, so it wasn't a concept that he was totally familiar with. But at the same time, it sounded like something enjoyable.

Nagi smiled awkwardly. "I think we could have breakfast," he said quietly. Tot squealed with delight.

"Yay!" she chimed enthusiastically, "I missed having breakfast!" Nagi looked at her for a moment, confused.

"You mean you never had breakfast with your foster family?" he asked, just a little curious about them. Tot's delighted look faded to one of vague sadness.

"No," she said quietly, "They didn't eat together a whole lot." Nagi wondered what had made her so sad suddenly.

"Do you miss them?" he asked, wondering if that was it. Tot shook her head.

"Not really," she replied, "Step-Mama and Step-Papa weren't all that great. But now I've got Nagi-kun instead, so it's all okay!" She smiled broadly again, clutching her bunny close to her chest. Nagi smiled in response.

"Breakfast?" he asked, watching Tot nod at him.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Nagi slowly opened the kitchen door, looking behind him to make sure that Tot was still following him. Sure enough, she was still standing there, looking past him expectantly. Her skirt and blouse were rumpled from sleep, just as her hair was. Of course, Nagi himself didn't look much better. His uniform was also wrinkled and his hair was sticking to his head in odd places. He wasn't really that concerned, though. This was only breakfast, not a fashion show.

As he looked through the kitchen door, however, Nagi received an unpleasant surprise. Instead of being empty, as it usually was, the kitchen was currently occupied. One of the occupants, a twenty-something year old man with black hair and glasses, was seated at the table. There was a nearly untouched plate of eggs and a cup of black coffee in front of him and the business section of the local paper in his hands. Even though it was Sunday, he was wearing an immaculately starched, light blue button-up shirt and khakis. Nagi supposed that was his idea of 'casual wear'.

Crawford.

To make matters worse, Schuldich was standing over the stove, cooking something. He bustled about, piece of toast in mouth, humming something that sounded distinctly like German death metal. As opposed to Crawford, however, he was unkempt and uncombed, wearing a sloppily unbuttoned and untucked green shirt and jeans. And pink bunny slippers. Nagi wasn't about to ask about those.

He almost stepped back to shut the door before Crawford looked up to notice him. Crawford's face was even as he looked over the rumpled teenager. Nagi hoped like Hell that he couldn't see the girl standing behind him as well.

"Good morning, Nagi," he finally said, before tilting his head a little as though he would look behind Nagi, "Good morning, Tot." Nagi caught his breath and almost choked on it. Crawford already knew? Nagi was sure he'd kill them both - possibly literally. He had been quite opposed to Nagi's relationship with Tot before, anyway - if he wished, he could send her away now, as well. As such, he tried his best to hide Tot with his body, but she stuck her head over his shoulder to respond anyway.

"Morning!" she said happily, eliciting something that looked almost like a small smile from Crawford. Nagi simply stood there dumbfounded as she walked around him and went over to see what Schuldich was cooking.

"Aren't you going to have a seat?" Crawford asked after Nagi had stood there for a minute or two, too petrified to move. From the tone of the other man's voice, Nagi thought he might as well have said 'Sit down, *now*.' He walked mechanically over to the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down woodenly. Silently, he waited for what he was sure was going to be a harsh reprimand.

"I see you've had quite a night," Crawford said, his voice suggesting not only a flat observation, but perhaps a hint of mischief as well. Nagi blinked, believing he was quite possibly hearing things. Meanwhile, over at the stove, Schuldich looked up from showing Tot how the toaster worked. He took his piece of toast out of his mouth and threw a wicked grin over his shoulder.

"Oh, come on, Crawford," he said, holding back a laugh, "This is Nagi we're talking about here." Schuldich snickered, biting back down on his toast and turning back to Tot, who had already loaded the toaster. If the entire situation were not so surreal, Nagi might have almost been tempted to be offended. As it was, however, he felt like he'd stepped into that old American show that sometimes came on the telly - "The Twilight Zone".

"Anyway," Crawford continued, adjusting his glasses and bringing the tone of the kitchen quickly back to flat, normal reality, "You know I'm not fond of... outsiders, Nagi." Nagi nodded once, his eyes cast down at the table. He should have known Schuldich was only trying to get him in trouble to begin with.

"If we're going to make an exception for this girl," Crawford said, his business-like manner penetrating the very air around the table like a sharp knife, "You are going to be the one to take full responsibility for her." Nagi looked up from underneath his bangs. Did Crawford just say he could keep her? Maybe he'd heard him wrong?

"But," he said, not quite sure how to put the words in the right places, "Didn't you tell me before that I couldn't think about her until after our plans have succeeded?" A part of him instinctively knew that it was stupid to try and argue himself out of a sweet deal. However, the vast majority of Nagi's brain knew that something strange was going on.

"I did say that," Crawford admitted flawlessly, "But at this point, we're still in the recovery and planning stages from our last exploit. As long as you're available when we need you, there should be no conflict. I trust you to make sure there are no conflicts." He gave Nagi a stern look, but the teenager didn't really notice it. He was far too stunned by what he was hearing. Nagi gave a blank nod in response, letting what Crawford was telling him sink in.

"Also, it's your responsibility to keep her from causing trouble," Crawford went on coldly, taking a small sip of his coffee and looking at his paper, "Making sure her needs are met is also your responsibility. Make sure her social worker's files are erased, and have her enrolled in school. I won't have her here unsupervised." Nagi nodded numbly once again. As he thought about it, having her in school was probably the best thing for her. Not that it really mattered toward her education; he highly doubted that she'd ever have any sort of career, anyway. It was more to the point that no one would need to watch her while he was gone. Crawford would chafe at the idea, Farfarello would have her out killing things with him, and Schuldich... Yes, school was definitely the best place for her.

Nagi's reverie was broken as a plate full of slightly scorched toast and undercooked scrambled eggs landed on the table in front of him. He looked up to see Tot smiling sheepishly at him.

"I think I burnt the toast a little," she said shyly, "Schuldich-san showed me how to cook eggs, though!" Nagi gave her a weak smile in return and silently prayed that he didn't get salmonella poisoning from the eggs.

"That's okay," he replied finally, "I can scrape the burnt parts off with a knife." He looked over to Crawford once more. The older man was giving him a flat look.

"As long as we understand each other," Crawford said, once again immersing himself in his newspaper.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Later that night, Nagi was once again seated in front of his computer in the starry room. He had sent Tot into the den to watch the telly while he worked on getting into her case files and creating a believable set of school transcripts for her.

They'd already had quite a long day, staying out until past eight. They'd had to go shopping to get her a few pairs of clothes and shoes and a school uniform. Nagi had been glad that he'd saved most of his meager pay; girls' clothes weren't cheap. As soon as they'd gotten home, though, he had immediately begun this chore.

He had already found her last school's records; not surprisingly, she was a less-than-stellar student. Apparently, before then, she hadn't been to school for several years. He assumed that the Takatori family had been home schooling her.

This really didn't present him many problems. The truth was, grades were painfully easy to change; most schools didn't have any real protection from hackers, anyway. And if they did, there were definitely none of the caliber needed to get rid of him.

A few more keystrokes, and Tot was a gifted student who had been enrolled in her school's most difficult classes. Nagi smirked to himself as he then proceeded to break into his own school's servers. If the students at his school had any idea he was able to do this, he was sure they would treat him with much more respect; however, considering the fact that he wasn't really all that fond of them, he wasn't likely to spread the news around.

Once inside the school's system, Nagi poked around, enrolling Tot in the same classes as him. This served a dual purpose. First of all, he'd be able to watch her and make sure no one gave her any trouble during the day. Second of all, he liked having her around. If she were with him, school would be much less painful.

As soon as that was cemented, he shut the window and began working on deleting her case files from the social worker's office. Since he'd already been in once, he suspected it wouldn't be too hard to get in again. His fingers flew across the keys, rapidly disintegrating any security features the database might have had. He could almost hear the firewalls falling across the modem.

At last, he reached the correct folder and the correct files. He made sure to cross-reference before he touched anything; calendars, appointment schedules, financial records. He would have to erase any references to her across the database to make sure no questions were raised. First he deleted the main file. Then, he went back and scratched out the other little references to her - not erasing any whole files, but just deleting a sentence or two or an appointment that would pertain to her. No one would be any the wiser.

As he erased the last cross-reference, he heard the door behind him open. He didn't look back, expecting it to be Schuldich once again. As the door clicked shut, however, he heard a small gasp. That wasn't Schuldich. He turned around in his chair to see Tot standing right in front of the door, a dazed and slightly nauseous look on her face. She was wearing the pair of his old, light blue pajamas he'd given her and holding her stuffed rabbit.

"What's the matter?" he asked, standing. It looked as if she might tip over at any moment. She was obviously very dizzy.

"This room!" she said, focusing her eyes on him, "There's no floor!" That was it: vertigo. He'd had a similar reaction the first time he'd seen it. He walked across the small room and took her by the shoulders to steady her.

"Don't worry about it," he said calmly, "You're not going to fall." Her eyes were confused and wet as she looked at him. "What are you doing in here?", he asked, watching as she brought one of the too-long sleeves on her nightshirt to her mouth and began chewing on it.

"Am I in trouble for being here?" she asked shyly. Nagi shook his head at her slowly.

"No, no," he said quietly, "But why did you stop watching the telly?" Tot stopped chewing on the sleeve, having produced a small wet spot on the cuff.

"It got too late and nothing good was on," she said, "So I wanted to tell you that it was bedtime. You'll be tired at school tomorrow if you don't go to sleep." Nagi suddenly realized that it was approaching midnight. He smiled softly and gave her a small kiss on the forehead. Since she was only wearing houseshoes, she was almost exactly his height. Something about that was comforting.

"Thank you, Tot," he said, leading her toward the door and opening it for her, "You go ahead and go to sleep. I'll be there in a few minutes." Tot smiled at him as he led her outside the doorway.

"Goodnight, Nagi-kun," she said, obviously sleepy.

"Goodnight," he replied, shutting the door and turning back toward his desk. There wasn't really anything left to do on the computer, anyway. Tot would start school with him tomorrow. Otherwise, it was almost as if she had never existed anywhere but her last school. He walked back to the desk to shut down the computer and smiled to himself at a job well done.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

In function, the next morning was just the same as any other. Nagi rose early, dressed, and got on the train to school. In reality, however, there was a different air to the morning entirely. Tot's presence made it seem as if a window had been opened on his whole world, letting fresh air and sunlight creep into an otherwise musty and dim existence. It was almost enough to make his head spin.

At the moment, Tot was seated next to Nagi on the train, humming happily to herself. Her outfit was prim and neat, the little pleated plaid skirt folded tidily over her thighs. He had taken a little extra time to help her get dressed this morning, just to make certain that she looked perfect for her first day. As a result, however, they were running just a few minutes late.

This hadn't seemed to deter Tot any, though; she was just as bright and cheerful as ever. She had even decided to bring her stuffed bunny along with the briefcase and school supplies that Nagi had bought her the night before. Nagi had tried to talk her out of it, but found that he couldn't argue with her when she pouted. He also found that he couldn't stay too angry at himself for it - not on a day like today.

The train bustled and jostled around the two of them, but for Nagi, time seemed to stand still. It was surreal in its own way; the businessmen and students and early morning travelers all swirled around them in a haze of blues and greys and blacks, but nothing could touch them. Even the bright, rising sun outside seemed distant and unreal. For the first time, Nagi almost felt as if everything might well turn out alright after all.

There was a small jerk as the train came to a slow stop, bringing Nagi back to reality as well. Tot was looking expectantly at him as the businessmen and students who had been seated rose and began to file toward the still-shut doors. For a moment, he wondered if Tot had ever taken the train before; that thought, however, was replaced with the nagging dread that had been haunting him since she had come to stay with him. Would she fit in at school? Or, more likely, would his classmates ridicule her just as much as they did him? He took her hand and rose, feeling as though he'd left his stomach in the seat beneath him.

"Come on," he said softly, almost drowned out by the noise and bustle around him, "This way."
Tot looked around, aware of and interested in everything that surrounded her. Nagi noticed the broad grin on her face as she continued to look around, and it made him feel a little better as well. They left the train, stepping onto the platform into the crisp, early morning air. He led Tot off the platform and out into the station, having to drag her just slightly as she wanted to stop and look at everything. At this rate, he thought, they would never get to school.

Eventually, thankfully, they made their way out of the station and into the street. Once again, Tot was fascinated by everything they saw. Occasionally, she would ask Nagi a question or two, which he would field good-naturedly.

"Nagi-kun," Tot began, causing him to wonder just how many questions one girl could come up with in ten minutes, "How far away is your school?" Nagi didn't slow down any; he wanted to get to school and get Tot to the guidance office as quickly as possible. He hated to be late.

"It's only another block or so in this direction," he reassured her quickly. Tot grinned at him, causing him to have to suppress the familiar fluttering feeling in his stomach.

"Is it a nice school?" she asked, almost dancing as she walked beside him.

"I suppose," he replied, "It's only attended by the most gifted students. Most of them are the sons and daughters of wealthy people." He said it without a hint of boastfulness; in all actuality, it sounded more as though he reviled his classmates for that very same fact. He had always been looked down upon by those very same sons and daughters of wealthy folk; why shouldn't he revile them?

If Tot picked up on this, she didn't let on; on the contrary, she seemed just as happy as ever. Nagi surmised that she was excited to start at a new school with him. It would have excited him as well, if he didn't despise his classmates so.

"Are all the students as nice as Nagi-kun?" Tot asked him, still giving him that cute grin that made him weak in the knees. If he had been of a less serious disposition, he would have laughed at her question. As it was, however, he found that the foreboding feeling he'd been having got worse.

"No," he said quietly, looking away, "There are very few of them that are nice. I don't want to frighten you, Tot, but please don't talk to too many of them. They can be cruel." The grin on Tot's face faded to a more serious expression. She drew closer to Nagi, causing him to slow down a bit.

"Are they mean to you, too, Nagi-kun?" she asked sadly. There was a look in her eyes that told Nagi that she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Yes," he said softly, "Did you have students at your last school who were mean to you, too?" Tot looked as if she might cry for a moment before she bit her lip and nodded.

"I don't like mean people like that," Tot replied, "Papa used to tell me to ignore them, because they're ignorant." From the sad look on her face, Nagi surmised that she was all too familiar with their peers' cruelty. He wanted to hug her or comfort her in some way, but as it was, they were nearing the school's gates. He couldn't risk being seen at school showing her much more affection than just dragging her along by the hand.

"Your papa was right," Nagi said, "Ignore them. Besides, we at least have each other here." Tot's face brightened at this reminder. She hugged her bunny close to her chest and smiled sunnily again.

"That's right!" she chimed, "I can do anything, as long as I have Nagi-kun with me!" Nagi allowed himself a small smile as they walked through the gates and onto the school grounds.

Whatever pleasant feelings he'd been having beforehand, though, were sucked right out of Nagi as he entered the grounds. As usual, there were several students milling about the schoolyard before the bell rang. Some were on their way to classes; some were just gossiping or flirting.
The faces of the students they passed turned to watch them beadily, almost mechanically. A few whispers sprang up from the crowd, but Nagi couldn't place who they were coming from. Not that he had any desire to, anyway; the staring eyes and gaping jaws were making him nervous. He didn't like all this attention being focused on him. He would have much rather preferred to blend into the scenery and make no one notice him. As it was, he had immediately become the new center of attention on the school grounds.

Or rather, the girl with him had. Tot, unlike Nagi, was thoroughly enjoying all the attention being directed at her. She waved cheerily at the gaping onlookers, even saying 'Hi' to a few of them. The ones who met her eyes immediately looked away and began talking to whomever was closest to them. After a few of these, Tot stopped waving and talking, instead opting to look confused and vaguely dejected. It was then that Nagi realized his mistake.

He stifled a full-fledged groan as he pushed open the front entrance of the school. It's not that he had much choice in the matter, but looking at it now, it seemed like an incredibly stupid idea to bring Tot to school with him. For one thing, how many of his classmates ran around sporting hair like hers? Sure, a few girls with mousy brown hair wore their hair up in buns, but there was no one on the entire campus with hair as shockingly electric blue as Tot's. Worse, how many had he ever seen carrying a stuffed bunny? At least, he thought, she hadn't had any choice in how she was dressed.

Nagi pulled Tot down the halls of the school building, toward the guidance councilor's office, by her wrist. He gave her wrist an encouraging squeeze, but it didn't seem to help her any; Tot's expression had faded from confident cheer to shocked and hurt. Now more than ever, Nagi thought she looked like a small, scared child.

"Nagi-kun," she asked uncertainly, "Are we going to class now?" He finally found the door he was looking for and came to a stop in front of it. He knew that there would be lots of paperwork for her to complete, so he didn't expect that she'd be in class anytime in the first hour.

"No," he replied, "You're going to go to see the Guidance Councilor. He'll give you several papers to sign and tell you all about the school." Tot's face cleared as she listened to his instructions. "I won't be able to come with you," he explained, trying to make this quick enough to make it to class on time, "So, please... don't say anything that will make him wonder about us." Tot blinked in mild confusion.

"Make him wonder?" she asked. Nagi, however, didn't have the time to explain it to her.

"And one more thing," he continued, "I've registered you under the name Toudou Sumire. Just introduce yourself as Sumire-chan, okay? I'll see you as soon as you're done with it all." Tot nodded to him confidently and turned to go into the office.

"I'll do my best, Nagi-kun!" she called out over her shoulder as she disappeared into the office. For some reason, Nagi couldn't help but worry.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Two hours. It had already been two hours, and Nagi had begun worrying at least an hour and a half ago. It wasn't that he was worried that Tot would slip up and give away his forgeries - okay, yes, he *was* worried she would say something unintentionally. He knew she'd never try to get either of them in trouble on purpose, but there was no telling what she'd decide to talk about while in the guidance office. What if she even told them about Schwarz?

Nagi was half-way through his math class before he found that his fears were fairly unfounded. His attention was torn from the utterly engrossing pencil that he'd taken to chewing again when the classroom's door cracked open. A familiar blue-haired head popped in and looked around.

Upon spotting Nagi, Tot's face broke into its usual broad grin. She stepped through the door and let it swing shut behind her with a loud 'bang'. The noise from the door got everyone's attention, particularly Yamabayashi-sensei's, who had been at the blackboard, copying down some problems from last night's homework. He looked up and blinked in recognition.

"Oh, we've been expecting you," Sensei said, looking at the teenaged girl, "Toudou-san, was it? You're our new transfer student?" Tot blinked at him and smiled.

"That's me!" Tot replied. Yamabayashi-sensei turned to face the class as Tot walked over to stand beside him.

Nagi could feel the whispers racing around the edges of the room. They were still hushed and quiet, but it felt like they might erupt into full-fledged chaos at any moment. He heard one or two of the girls behind him stifle giggles and a couple of the boys make remarks about how cute she was. There were even a few of them who were making snide remarks about her bunny; Nagi had fully expected that.

"Class," Yamabayashi-sensei addressed them, "I'd like you to meet your new classmate, Toudou Sumire." Tot gave a small bow and a wide, bright smile.

"Good morning!" she said sunnily, "I'm Sumire-chan!" Nagi heard one of the girls in the back muffle a condescending laugh. He felt his face burn and knew that it was an angry red color. He couldn't bear the look that came over Tot's face: a disappointed, frightened look.

Suddenly, Nagi felt a blow to his right arm and winced. "Aww, look at that," Kawatani remarked, smirking, "The fag is blushing! Maybe he's discovered girls?" Nagi closed his eyes and didn't even bother turning in their direction. Kawatani and his friends snickered viciously as Yamabayashi-sensei directed Tot to pick a seat. Nagi listened to the boys around him quietly make raunchy comments about Tot's legs, breasts, and short skirt. Fortunately, living with Schwarz had given Nagi an incredibly long fuse; if it hadn't, he believed that he would already have used his telekinesis in public to break those boys' necks.

Amid his reverie, Nagi saw Tot's sadly smiling face pop up before him. He blinked once and realized that she was, as a matter of fact, sitting right in front of him now, turned backwards in her seat to face him. The boys beside him chattered on quietly in a mixture of what seemed like disappointment that she'd chosen to sit in front of Nagi and irritation that she'd ignored all of them.

"I did everything you told me to, Nagi-kun," Tot said in a conspiratorial whisper, causing the other boys to look at the two of them in shock, "I did good, right?" Nagi allowed the corner of his mouth to pull up into a small smile as he looked at her. She was looking for some reassurance in a completely foreign environment. He could relate.

"Yes," he said, his whisper almost inaudible, "Turn around and listen to Sensei. We'll talk about it later." Tot nodded with a bold determination as she swiveled around in her seat.

"Quieten down, class," Sensei said blandly, his voice beginning to drone again in that same, narcolepsy-inducing tone as always, "Toudou-san, please take out some paper and copy down these problems. They'll give you some idea of where the class is." Nagi watched Tot do as she was told, pulling notebook paper and a pencil out of her school briefcase. She began to scratch things down on the paper as Sensei turned back to his blackboard.

Nagi decided to sneak a look over Tot's shoulder at what she was writing. Not surprisingly, it was nothing even close to what was being marked down on the board. She was doodling little bunnies and writing random things in hiragana and katakana; Nagi was not surprised in the least to see that there wasn't a single kanji on the paper. He shook his head silently and went back to looking over his own homework.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

After that first day of school, the days passed like quicksilver. Granted, school was still its usual, soul-draining, life-sucking experience. But now he had someone to share it all with. There's rarely anything more comforting than having one other person to share a horrible experience with, and there was no exception in Nagi's case. Just having Tot there to give him a reassuring smile or giggle made everything just that much better. Although, admittedly, he did worry a lot more now.

His school days were now spent watching Tot do her work, looking over her shoulder in all their classes and moving her pencil for her during quizzes. This was a difficult, but necessary, proposition for Nagi; his own grades began to slip a little as a result, but he had to do it to keep up appearances. Frequently, he found himself a little exhausted, but happier than he'd ever been.

The two of them were rarely seen separate, much to the chagrin of the boys in Nagi's class. The girls, on the other hand, despised Tot because the boys thought she was cute. Their days were usually filled with listening to the nasty comments and fending off guys with grabby hands.

Often, after school hours or during lunch, the two could be found sitting under a large ginkgo tree in the schoolyard. Nagi usually busied himself with a homework assignment (which Tot would copy later) and Tot would spend her time either eating one of the sandwiches she had packed for lunch or folding origami. This was usually the only quiet time that the two of them had; it was almost as if there was an invisible shield around the two of them and their tree.

Even through the haze of the late autumn days, Nagi had the strangest feeling almost every time that he looked at Tot. There was, of course, the feeling of affection, of never wanting to be alone again, but there was also something else that he hadn't felt before. It was foreboding and cold, a slithering, icy feeling that crawled through his veins and wrapped around his heart. It was never enough to worry about in itself, but he still felt it.

And there was always whatever Schuldich wanted as repayment to worry about...