Disclaimer: Standard stuff applies here. Wow, you read all the way to the third chapter? You're pretty brave, you know. Because this is where things start to get strange...
Silent Messiah
by Crystal Dawn Phoenix
Chapter Three
Early morning light poured in through the cracks in the blinds of the drapeless window. One of these small fissures of light flung itself right across the eyes of the sleeping boy with tousled brown hair. This, however, did not deter him from his continued sleep. As a matter of fact, unbeknownst to him, he was oversleeping. His alarm had gone off roughly an hour and a half ago, waking the other occupant of the bed, and causing her to shut off the alarm.
But she still hadn't woke Nagi.
Instead, Tot had risen, brushed her teeth, changed into her uniform, and fixed breakfast, all without Nagi's assistance. She knew that he had been given a large assignment the night before and had stayed up most of the night to complete it, so she hadn't wanted to trouble him.
But now there were only thirty minutes left until time to catch the train. Tot knew that she had to wake him up now, or he wouldn't have time to eat and still make it to the station.
"Nagi," she said quietly, bending over the bed and shaking his shoulder gently, "Nagi, wake up. It's almost time to go. You'll be late if you don't get up." Nagi groaned softly and rolled over to look at the alarm clock. He grabbed it with one hand and brought it to his face to read the numbers on it more clearly. As soon as the numbers clicked in his brain, his eyes shot open and he slammed the clock back on the bedside table.
Nagi almost swore to himself as he shot out of bed and over to his closet. He pulled a school uniform out and began throwing it on, forgetting all modesty. He had stripped down to his underwear and was halfway through pulling up his school pants before he turned around and noticed Tot. A light blush crept across his cheeks as he quickly pulled his pants up around his waist and zipped them.
"You're already dressed?" he asked, noticing her straight, crisp uniform. Tot nodded to him, smiling cheerily.
"I got up a while ago," she replied, "I've already made breakfast, too." Nagi reached for a clean undershirt and blinked, puzzled. Breakfast? He hadn't heard the smoke alarm go off yet... He decided not to press the subject, instead opting to throw the new undershirt on over his head.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" he asked, trying not to sound accusatory. The truth was, he was slightly irritated at getting up late, but since Tot was already ready to go, it would be an easy matter to make it to the train on time. He started zipping up his school jacket as he looked over at her.
"You were up late last night," Tot said matter-of-factly, the barest hint of a pout coming into her voice, "I thought you should have more sleep. So I got ready by myself." Nagi could hardly complain. Tot had managed to get dressed by herself and make her outfit look as neat as a pin. She had also managed to cook breakfast without setting the house on fire, or by the smell of it, even burning the toast. Nagi was torn between not wanting to insult Tot's intelligence, and wanting to know exactly how the hell she managed to do all of this. As it was, though, he was happy to settle for being led to the table for a quick breakfast.
When the two of them arrived in the beige and white wood-grain paneled kitchen, it was much as Nagi had expected. Schuldich was not yet awake, but Crawford was already sitting at the kitchen table, quietly sipping a cup of hot coffee, reading the paper, and slowly eating a piece of Tot's toast.
Tot had indeed somehow managed to cook the toast without burning it - a first for her - and had almost managed to get the eggs done enough. Nagi didn't complain - he thanked whatever God there was for small miracles and began to fix himself a plate. He was thoroughly amazed at what an improvement two weeks of practice could make.
Tot leaned over and gave him a small peck on the cheek as he started scooping scrambled eggs out of the skillet and onto his plate. The blush came back onto his cheeks again as Tot turned and headed back toward the living room.
"I'll go get our school things," she said, smiling, "I'll be right back!" Nagi nodded and took his plate to the table. He walked over to the cupboard, got down a large glass, and filled it with water. The water joined the plate on the table and Crawford did not look up as he sat down.
Nagi began to eat as fast as he could without making himself sick. He glanced down at his watch - fifteen minutes left. If he hurried at everything, there should be no problem with making it to the train on time. Crawford took another sip of his coffee.
"So," the older man finally said, lowering the cup from his lips, "How far have you gotten on your assignment?" Nagi honestly didn't know what he expected to hear. In truth, it was a fairly formidable assignment - hacking into a rather large corporation's computer system and deleting evidence of a great deal of embezzlement. This corporation, unlike many others he'd gone up against, had actually had the foresight to use appropriate measures to block people like him. Appropriate, but not insurmountable.
Nagi swallowed a large bite of toast and eggs and then took a long drink of water. "I'm about a quarter of the way through," he said, forking some more eggs onto his toast, "This is a rather difficult assignment, isn't it?" It wasn't meant to challenge Crawford in any way; it was more of an offhanded comment, much like anyone else would comment on the weather. Crawford took another drag off of his coffee cup.
"Difficult, but it pays the bills," he said blandly. Nagi shrugged and Crawford flipped one of the pages of his paper. They sat in silence for a good while like this, Nagi eating and Crawford reading.
Several moments of still quiet were suddenly broken by the sound of the kitchen door swinging open. Tot burst in, carrying both her and Nagi's suitcases. Nagi looked from his nearly empty plate to his watch. Ten minutes to go.
"Are you ready to go?" Tot asked, hovering by the kitchen door as if to urge Nagi to hurry. He swallowed one last bite and rose from the table, plate in hand. The plate found itself in the sink and Nagi made his way over to the kitchen door to join Tot.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
The school day flew by, and for that Nagi was grateful. It wasn't that he was in any great hurry to get home and work on that assignment again, but anything was better than being with his peers. Immediately after school, he and Tot had found their way to their tree and once again set up camp beneath it. Nagi found that doing the childishly easy assignments handed to him in school was a great way to relieve stress. Having Tot beneath the tree with him made it that much better.
After an hour or so of working in his math book, he finished that assignment and snapped the book shut. He put the book down on the ground beside him and reached over to find his grammar book. That was when he noticed it. He stopped what he was doing and stared at Tot.
"What are you doing?" he asked, puzzled.
"Hnn?" Tot breathed, looking up, "Oh, just reading. It's a romance novel. It's really good." Nagi blinked, not believing his ears. Sure enough, there sat Tot, stuffed bunny propped up against her thigh. But instead of folding origami as Nagi was used to seeing her do, she had a large novel in hand. In the other hand was one of the sandwiches she'd packed earlier that day, half eaten.
Nagi looked at the novel's cover and read the title: "Journey, then Tomorrow". The first thought into his head was that the kanji in the title were not subscripted, meaning that there were no hiragana beneath them to spell out the words. The second thought into his head was that this book was probably too advanced for Tot to read. His brow creased in thought.
"May I look at it?" he asked, holding out his hand. Tot smiled and handed the book to him.
"Here you go!" she said. Nagi flipped to a passage in the middle and looked on in expressionless shock. Not only were none of the kanji subscripted, these were advanced kanji. In his opinion, way too advanced for someone who hadn't been able to write a single sentence with them just two weeks ago.
He looked over to Tot. She was smiling just as sweetly as ever. He closed the novel and laid it in his lap, trying to figure out what was going on. It might have been that Tot was just pretending to read it and gleaning the story from the illustrations, as children who want to impress adults often do. But he doubted she'd do that; after all, the book had no pictures that he could tell.
Could it be that Tot was just an incredibly fast learner and that no one had ever bothered to teach her anything? Judging from her grades at her last school, though, he doubted that to be the case.
As it was, there was just nothing else he could believe.
"Could I have my book back now?" Tot asked, sitting on her knees, smiling, and tilting her head to the side. Nagi blinked, ignoring the sudden chill that had come over him, and looked back at Tot. He handed the book back to her and she sat back down, opening it to the page that she had been on when she was interrupted.
"Tot," he said, getting her attention again, "Is that book good?" Tot smiled, obviously eager to share her new findings with him.
"Oh, yes!" she said enthusiastically. Nagi blinked again and wanted to press the issue further.
"What is it about?" he asked, testing to see if she actually knew. Tot put the book in her lap, pages down.
"It's about a boy who dies for the girl he loves," Tot responded, her face lighting up, "And then they're born again, and get a second chance at life. Doesn't that sound romantic?"
Nagi barely heard her question. And even if he had, he was simply too stunned to answer her intelligibly.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
A few more days passed quietly. Nothing more out of the ordinary happened and Nagi dismissed his earlier misgivings as simple paranoia or misunderstanding. He continued to work feverishly on Crawford's assignment, staying up until all hours of the night, every night. It was a wonder he even managed to stay awake through school each day. Then again, considering his penchant for long nights recently, he wasn't honestly all that surprised. All he really needed, he reasoned, was a great deal of caffeine.
With that small boon, he worked straight through the week, only getting perhaps three or four hours of sleep a night. Finally, on Saturday night, he managed to finish the last bit of the assignment. Their clients were in the clear and he could sleep in the next day with no serious repercussions. As the last file was deleted, Nagi reclined in his chair and stretched. For a moment, he fancied giving the corporation he'd just hacked a nasty virus to make up for the week he had to spend in their system. He quickly dismissed the idea as childish, though, reasoning that the corporation was just doing its job. Moreso, it would let them know that someone had definitely been there.
Finishing his stretch, he leaned forward and shut the computer down. The screen blinked to black, and he bent under the table and switched the hard drive off. At last, he stood and stretched, a better stretch than before, and rightly so; he'd been sitting most of the day Today, since school wasn't as long on Saturdays.
Eyes blurry and limbs atrophied, Nagi made his way to the door of the starry computer room. He turned the doorknob, opened the door, and hit the light switch. The track lighting went out, bathing the room in darkness and starlight.
There was nothing in this world, Nagi reasoned to himself, that he wanted more at the moment, than to just change into his pajamas and hop into the bed. He knew that as soon as his head hit the pillow he'd be asleep. He reached the door of his own room and opened it, fully intent on realizing his wish.
This room was just as quiet and dark as the rest of the house. As a matter of fact, the only sound Nagi could hear was that of Tot's steady, deep breathing. He could tell from her breathing that she was asleep. She had gone to bed several hours before him, just as she had every night that week. She hadn't liked it much at first; the first couple of times Nagi had tried to put her to bed without him, she'd fussed at him. But eventually, she had given in and just gone to bed by herself, much like tonight.
Nagi shut the door softly behind himself and made his way to where his pajamas lay across his clothes hamper. Nearly silently, he stripped, leaving his wrinkled school uniform in the hamper and pulling on his pajama shirt and pants. He didn't want to make any noise that might wake Tot up.
His feet padded soundlessly across the cold, western-style, wooden floor. Slowly, trying not to make any sudden movements, Nagi slipped between the covers on the right side of the bed. He curled onto his side, facing the outside of the bed, and closed his eyes. The haze of sleep would come any second now.
Instead of sleep, however, there was a small rustling noise behind his back. At first, Nagi thought it was just Tot rolling over in her sleep. As soon as he felt her slip an arm around his waist, though, he knew that was not quite the truth. He silently cursed himself for having woken her up.
"Nagi," she murmered softly, causing him to realize that she wasn't just behind him; she was cradled against his back, her face nuzzled into his neck. He could feel her lips pressing into his shoulder and her warm breath raised the hackles on the back of his neck. Even as she warmed him, though, he could still feel that fantastic chill racing through his veins; and in all reality, he couldn't say that it was exactly displeasing.
He moved his arm to cover the one that Tot had slid across his waist, intertwining his fingers with her own. She gave him a squeeze, causing him to relax. Once again, Nagi believed that sleep would soon be on its way.
Instead, he felt Tot's fingers loosen from his own. Her hand slid underneath his shirt and pressed against his meager stomach, pressing his back into her own stomach. Nagi couldn't help but wonder what Tot thought she was doing. Was she still asleep? He felt her kisses on the back of his neck and couldn't help but wonder.
Nagi ceased moving completely, though, as her fingers slid a fraction of an inch lower, tucking underneath the waistbands of his pajamas and underwear. He could feel his face burning, feel his heart pounding in his ears. Her hand pressed against his lower belly and moved a little further down. He had never been touched there by anyone in his life. It tickled just a bit and caused a warmth to spread throughout his body.
In truth, he would have been enjoying it if he didn't have roughly a million questions racing through his mind. First and foremost amongst them was 'Why in the world is she doing this?' Was Tot acting of her own free will? If she was, what on Earth had possessed her to do something so unlike her? She had never even suggested anything of this sort before, so where had she picked this behavior up at? More so, should he let her continue? They didn't have any sort of protection or anything nearby...
Tot's fingers snuck a little further down and gently wrapped around something firm. The pounding of Nagi's heart in his ears drowned out the noise of his conflicting thoughts. The warmth spreading throughout his body finally beat back the chill and caused him to gasp quietly.
Perhaps a bit of fooling around wouldn't hurt, he reasoned to himself. It wasn't too soon for that, was it? They didn't actually have to do anything else. He was tired, after all. Just a little necking, and he could go to sleep, and then...
And then Tot moved her fingers. And all reasoning stopped dead.
Nagi rolled over to face Tot, causing her to lose her grip and slide her hand out of his pants. It reflexively clutched at his back and drew him close. His own hands pressed against Tot's back, forcing her stomach against his. He found her mouth in the dark and kissed her deeply, causing everything else in the world to be covered by an impenetrable shroud of darkness. The only things that mattered then were physical: her tongue pressing into his, her breasts heaving with every breath she took, her stomach pressing his own erection against him.
His hand moved further down her back, exploring it as though Nagi had never actually seen it before. He reached the hem of her nightshirt and realized that she hadn't worn any panties to bed. Through the twilight haze in his mind, he slid his hand down between her legs.
Suddenly, reality hit Nagi with the force of a freight train. Both the warmth and the chill he had felt earlier deserted him as Tot abruptly pulled away from him, shrieking in terror. He sat bolt upright, watching her jump backwards off the bed clumsily. The jerk back into the real world had disoriented him to the point of dizziness and motion sickness; even so, he could still see Tot's terrified face in the dim moonlight. Even at this distance, he could tell that she was crying uncontrollably.
"Tot?" he asked, his throat dry, "What...?" He buried his face in his hand and shook his head, trying to kill the dizziness. Tot took a step back.
"Nagi-kun," she said, almost choked with sobs, "Why did you..? That's bad! Bad!" She completely broke down into incoherent sobbing, wiping helplessly at her tearstained face with the cuffs of her too-large nightshirt. Nagi fought back the nausea he was feeling and got out of bed. Slowly, so as not to startle her, he walked over and carefully placed his arms around her. Tot held back for just a second before she flung her arms around him and cried loudly into his chest.
Nagi rested his chin on Tot's head. What in the world had just happened? It was obvious that Tot was not herself; she didn't even realize that she had been the one who had started touching him. Worse, Nagi knew that he'd lost control of himself as well.
There was only one person he knew of who could pull a stunt like that off.
"Schuldich," he muttered to himself through gritted teeth.
