Disclaimer: I don't know for sure who owns Weiss Kreuz, but I don't.
Timeline: Alternate session two.
Rating: PG-13
Chapter: 4/?
Pairings: NagixOmi, in later chapters bits of SchuxYohji
Summary: The boys meet finally in real life
Warnings: AU. A lot. If you like Kritiker and dislike the idea of Weiss as freelance assassins you probably shouldn't read this. Maybe OOC, that depends on how the story will evolve. I think you'll notice it's m/m slash soon enough. But is there any WK romance that isn't slash?
Author's note: If you would like your ship in the fic, then write it in your review and I'll see if I can fit them in the story. But I can't promise anything, there are some characters I just can't write IC. I don't have a beta reader, so you read this at your own risk, if you get a headache from my mistakes (native German) don't blame me :-)
Author's note 2: If you send me feedback you'll make me very happy.
Love@Net
By Artemis
Chapter 4
Nagi was progressing stealthily on his way to the objective and half a million US dollars.
His midnight blue eyes scanned the darkness around him with the piercing gaze of a predator as he floated soundlessly up to the third floor of the mansion.
It'd been one of his smaller feats to find site maps and building plans of the old, maze-like manor as well as to memorize every detail of them.
The telekinetic hovered in front of a large window and pressed his hand against the framework opposite of the handle. A click and the window swung open.
He'd been also the one who thought of their strategy of attack – Schuldig stayed hidden outside, warned them, posed as reinforcement and most of all manipulated the minds of their enemies so that neither reinforcement nor warnings would become necessary. Only when all floors were secured he'd come inside. Farfarello had been transported by him onto the second floor, where he's supposed to cut his way through the window with his knives and make sure that no one escaped into either direction. Crawford was the only one to take the front door as this was the most dangerous entrance for them, and he'd after all his visions. On the ground floor were several offices, so he'd search there for useful files. He'd two main purposes, to kill their target and hack into his private computers, where they hoped to find the files that would allow their client to blackmail her worst enemy.
He hurried down the hallway and peeked into several rooms on his quest to find either the master bedroom or the study.
Suddenly Nagi stopped dead in his tracks. He could hear footsteps – clearly on his floor, where at the very most his target was supposed to roam the halls…
Blue eyes widened in surprise and he gasped. "What the fucking hell
are you doing here?!"
The order had appeared easy.
Go in, get some files and get out again alive. Usually the theft of a couple of files – no matter how explosive – wasn't what you would ask a group of Japan's best assassins to do. But usually manor-houses also weren't guarded by elite mercenaries in possession of a weapons stock with which you could arm the military of a small country…
Aya would check the offices on the ground floor, Ken would search on the second floor for hidden discs, Yohji on the extensive grounds and Omi on the third floor, where a bribed maid had claimed the master's private study to be located.
But the mission had turned into one big fiasco…
They'd all had a very bad feeling from the moment they arrived at the manor.
Only on their way from the gates to the front door they'd found seven dead guards, upon entering the trail of dead bodies continued. To his team mates horror Aya insisted that they finished their hit. And whatever doubts had remained he stopped with a meaningful glance at his katana.
Now Omi was wishing with all his heart that the earth would just open and swallow him – or that he'd have had the guts to contradict Aya. A painful death by the hands of their leader and his katana couldn't have been worse than being only a few steps away from whoever was responsible for that massacre.
Because Omi was sure that the person was still around – and that only his instincts warned him about another presence, the mystery person's steps were too silent even for his honed hearing was the only proof Omi needed that the other person was the attacker.
No, the redhead told himself, he's an assassin of Weiß, he could handle whatever fate threw at him and he'd protect the survivors – if there were any. Embracing the reckless abandon the more suicidal part of him felt he charged down the hallway.
And managed to stop only an arm's length away from a dark silhouette.
"What the fucking hell are you doing here?!"
"P… P… Prodigy? Goodness, you almost gave me a heart attack!", was the first thing that came to his mind.
Despite his shock upon the alleged attacker turning out to be his boyfriend, the anger at having his mission interrupted and worry both about his friends and lover, Nagi smiled. It's endearing in it's own way that it's a matter of course for Omi that he wouldn't be hurt by him. "Aaa… Gomen." Nagi blushed. That wasn't what he'd wanted to say. He gave it another try and said in a voice not as emotionless as he'd wanted, "get out of the way, Weiß, and just maybe I'll let you alive."
For a moment before Omi regained control of his facial features the hurt had been so plainly visible in Bombay's eyes that Nagi could've kicked himself. But it's better this way, their love was one that could only exist in virtual reality and their minds.
"Well, Schwarz, if you want it that way, fine!", snapped Omi in a failed attempt at a cold voice. "Fight me!", he challenged. He knew Nagi wouldn't have the heart to harm him, just like he couldn't by any means injure Nagi.
He wasn't playing fair! "Matte!", the dark-haired commanded, but already two darts were flying in his direction. Well, in his very rough direction as they crashed three feet away from him into a painting.
Nagi smirked. If his tom-cat wanted to play then that's fine with him…
He raised a hand and deflected the next couple of darts easily. While Omi was busy with preparing bow and arrow, he gathered the poisoned darts from the floor. Then he threw them one after the other back at Omi. A gust and the arrows Omi had just fetched out of his backpack flew away.
"Hey! You bastard, that wasn't fair!" He quickly mourned his favourite
arrow, then Omi charged with newfound determination and now serious anger
at the psi.
They'd been fighting for several minutes by now, both had had their moments of victory and earned a lot of bruises.
Now that both boys had finally given vent to their anger, frustration and fears, their battle turned from serious, dogged combat to a teasing, flirting dance.
Naoe Nagi feinted a kick and tripped the momentarily off balance Omi up. He watched how the older assassin kept himself from falling only thanks to the support of the wall behind him and leaned against the redhead. "Had enough fun?", he asked in a not unkind voice laced with fine sarcasm.
Omi was loosing himself in the dark-blue eyes. How long he'd waited for this moment… He'd care later about the consequences of him being seen making out with the enemy when he ought to steal files for Weiß. For the moment Omi could only care about the beautiful boy in front of him and of touching him for the first time in a caress. Slowly, hesitantly he pressed his lips against the smaller boy's.
Prodigy returned the soft, sweet kiss, melted into it.
Both minds were thinking the same at this time. Maybe it wasn't what they're supposed to do right about now, they're sure that it wasn't, and maybe this kiss could be labelled as the most stupid thing they ever did and would ever do. But right now, they could've cared less.
He caught his boyfriend's hands in his own as they're wandering to the zipper of his shirt and shook his head softly, a rueful smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Crawford is anyway going to kill me if he finds out about us, but if I neglect my work Schuldig will join in the slaughtering-Nagi-party, after I gave him so many lectures for being irresponsible and having no sense of duty…"
He'd to admit even in his less than sensible state that his fallen angel was right. It shouldn't be hard to convince Ken and Yohji that Nagi wasn't a bad influence on him, but if he neglected his duties while they're maybe fighting for their lives they'd for sure believe him to be a Schwarz at heart… "What's your mission? Oh, Nagi?"
"Yeah? Omi?" He let the strange and yet so familiar name roll over his tongue like a fine wine, savouring it.
"I love you, Nagi."
"I love you, too, Omi." The dark-haired teen kissed him another time before he started, "we're to kill everyone and find compromising data. Crawford is searching downstairs in the offices for files our client will find useful while I'm supposed to search for them here in the private study. Once we have retrieved all data with which our client can blackmail an enemy for whom this guy here works we're to blast the house up. Nobody will find out that the people inside were already dead when the house exploded."
"If we can't work together I think we can work at least next to each other here. We also have the order to get files and what happens afterwards to the guy here neither concerns us nor our client."
"What kind of files?"
"Oh you know the deal. Tax evasion, bribery, fraud, nepotism – all white-collar crimes in fact - assassinations of rivals, ex-lovers, colleagues, superiors and so on."
"What a nice chap…!", snorted Nagi derisively. "But I can tell you that this guy is only a pawn, if you really want this mafia syndicate to be stopped then you have to kill their godfather. The guy here is actually quite pitiable, he'll be merely replaced with a second thought, I bet my telekinesis that no bigwig will even notice he's dead."
"Thanks, I promise we'll use this piece of information wisely. Come on, Nagi, koibito, if this guy is as paranoid about his computer security as his personal one then we're in for a hell of a night…"
But Nagi only stared flabbergasted at his boyfriend. "You mean … you suggest that we work together?"
"It's not like we did it never before, now is it? And anyway, why not unite our workforce and know-how to get the job done in half the time?"
"I don't see why I should hurry up. We'll be at least together as long as we're here and I fear I can't find a lifeless room to return to very compelling…"
Omi blushed endearingly, "well, I didn't exactly thought that you would go home either…"
Understanding flashed in midnight-blue eyes and Nagi nodded eagerly.
"Come on, what are you waiting for, tom-cat?! You can switch already the
computer on, I just have to go and kill someone."
Once they'd cracked a dozen passwords, prevented the spreading of computer viruses they'd triggered with their hacking and avoided countless other traps, the hackers were finally finished two hours later.
"You've got your copies, ne?", asked Omi distractedly while he counted his own cd-rom. They'd just copied the complete data of all computers and discs they could find in the study onto a bunch of cd-rom, which took less time than sending them twice per e-mail.
"Yeah, it's all here." Nagi led the way, somewhere down the hallway had to be a staircase leading downstairs. "Now what?"
"Aaa, I thought you had a plan."
"Let's go downstairs and find out how far our team mates are. My team won't mind if you drive with us and our car is big enough."
"I won't go to your headquarters, Crawford is creepy, Schuldig and Farfarello too. I'm sure the maniac will try to kill me or suck my blood out or something."
"And I surely won't go to your place! Your people are even more freaky than mine. I mean, really, you can't tell me that this guy wielding a katana is still sane! He has to or he wouldn't be voluntarily fighting Crawford, that proves that he's a lunatic. And once I've had a talk with them my folks will be civil, I'll make sure they are. Hence we're going to my place!"
They're still arguing as they took a careful peak into the living room on the second floor, from where sounds could be heard.
The elegant living room had been turned into a messy battlefield from two hours of fighting. And what a fight…
Farfarello was brandishing a gleaming long butcher's knife at Ken, who's wielding one of Farf's knives that he'd picked up upon loosing his weapon somewhere in the remnants of the coffee-table. Both boys gave each other murderous looks while they're exchanging insults.
Aya and Crawford were making do with an old-fashioned fist fight that looked like they wanted to play Rambo but had never taken boxing lessons – Omi thought it to be funny, Nagi recognized the clumsiness as exhaustion.
But the best entertainment yet were Yohji and Schuldig. Rather than battling like their team mates they're having a quite bloody make out session.
"*Still*…?! Won't they *ever* stop fighting!", a thoroughly disgruntled Omi exclaimed.
"Highly unlikely", prophesied Nagi. The telekinetic smirked as Schuldig remembered that they're supposed to be fighting and hit Balinese's head with a flowerpot. "Kinky, you never told me that Kudoh is into masochism", he quipped.
"Why don't you think of a plan how we can get out of here without being lynched instead of making stupid comments nobody really wants to hear, ne?", snapped Omi frowning.
"Gomen", the dark-haired boy relented. He called through the half-opened door, "guys, Omi and me will call it a day now! We're going to leave the discs in our cars, see you tomorrow!" He closed the door, turned back to Omi and smiled triumphantly. "See, that's easy, wasn't it?"
Omi rolled his eyes and followed Nagi downstairs. "Tell me, Prodigy, how shall we get back into the city when neither of us can drive?"
Nagi gave his boyfriend another "duh" look. "With telekinesis, of course!", he said as if that was the most natural and obvious thing of the world. He stepped eagerly over the threshold and grabbed Omi's left hand. "You can trust me, Omi, I won't let you fall."
Omi gulped hard and nodded his head once. Excitement, wonder and fear
were battling inside the young man as they took off skywards.
Light footsteps resounded through the quiet flower shop as four feet rushed from the owner's apartment down the stairs.
Omi stumbled into the shop and would have tripped over a bucket full of water standing directly in his way if it hadn't been for the boy right behind him. "Hey thanks, you have quite good reflexes. And you're sure you have to leave already?"
"Schuldig said, I quote: "if you lazy little pest aren't home for Crawford's fucking business lunch you're grounded for the rest of eternity". That means as much as, "I do understand that you'll rather spend the day with your boyfriend than half a dozen of boring chatterboxes, but then you'll find out if I'm still sexy without head"."
Bombay blinked. "That translation doesn't makes much sense."
"Don't worry, I know Schu, he's never grounded me for longer than a week and I did worse stuff than to miss a promotion lunch. For example when I burned the school down because I got an unfair note, now *that* was a reason to ground me for life…"
Omi snickered, his eyes dancing with merriment that was for once reflected in Nagi's darker ones. But he fell silent very quickly, he didn't needed to turn around to see the baleful looks they got from his colleagues. He admired Nagi's ability to ignore his fellow assassins with such superior grace, he just wasn't capable of it. "Uh…"
Nagi had finally had enough. As his eyes burned with a lethal rage he approached Aya, the only one who glared at Omi as fiercely as himself. He's used to hate and rejection, the glares of enemies didn't bothered him. It did bothered him very much if someone hurt a person he cared for with such behaviour. "I would like some flowers, Fujimiya-san."
A twitching in Aya's jaw was the only sign of his anger, then he'd himself back under control. He'd treat the Schwarz puppy just as polite as any other paying customer, Aya was determined not to give him the satisfaction of seeing that he'd gotten a rise out of him. "Of course. Which kind and how many would you like, sir? We got just today new tulips and climbing roses of excellent quality."
"I'll take right away with me that gift basket over there, a small bouquet yellow roses, ten daffodils … and all the old flowers you have." As Nagi saw the flabbergasted look Omi gave him he explained, "Farfie loves to rip the petals off and if I give him new flowers Schuldig or Crawford take them away from him. Please deliver in the afternoon or evening following orders: each ten tulips of all the colours you have on stock, ten bouquets to place on sideboards, tables, you get the idea, and two white orchids. And yes, I *will* pay you right away."
Aya's eyes narrowed furthermore. He fed the prices into the cash register, "14.374 yen."
He threw 15.000 yen onto the counter and scribbled onto the backside of a Kitty in the House business card an address in Tokyo's uptown and three phone numbers. "Omi, this is my address, feel free to drop in, unless we're on a hit it's always someone home. But this person is likely to be Farfie, so you better have your darts ready, if you bribe him with flowers or knives he's peaceful. Look, this are our phone number at the mansion, my cell phone and the emergency number, but you should call it really only if there's an emergency because this is Crawford's and you can't be sure with him how he'll react."
"Got it." Omi wrote their private and his cell phone number onto another business card. "Here you are. We don't have anything as fancy as an emergency cell phone, but you anyway can always get in touch with me by means of telepathy. I would love it if you could maybe drop in sometimes, if the unlikely case happens that I'm not here on an afternoon or weekend then I'm only delivering and will be back shortly."
"Great, I'll see you soon then." Nagi threw over his shoulder a glance at the other Weiß members, "and don't bother with an attack, our security includes watchdogs, cameras, traps and a very bloodthirsty madman."
Omi gazed lovingly into his boyfriend's midnight-blue eyes as he kissed him goodbye. He'd to admit that he's afraid of letting go of Nagi. Their lives were so dangerous, you could never say if they would wake up again in the morning when they went to bed… maybe he'd never see Nagi again, maybe his friends would manage to talk their relationship out of him…
"Don't rack your brains, I'll be around if you need me." He cocked his dark head, listening to a voice that only he could hear for a few moments, then he added, "and Schwarz, too." Nagi granted himself another peck on the lips, then he strode to the door before he could change his mind. "See you, Omi, I love you."
"I love you too, Nagi!", Omi called after the slim figure.
Suddenly the young redhead noticed that he's now all by himself, with three friends who would maybe execute him for treason and maybe only give him a lecture… The dread he felt as he turned around was so powerful that all Omi could do was not to run to the bathroom and throw breakfast up.
Yohji was the first to break the uncomfortable silence. With a friendly smile he wandered over to Omi, whom he felt needed the reassurance of his presence. "He loves you, Omi-kun – you have no idea how lucky you are."
"You really think so, Yohji-kun?"
"Yes, I do. I mean, it's really obvious how much he cares for you, I wish I'd have someone like that."
"Trust me, you don't want the difficulties of having a Schwarz boyfriend. Now, are you ready yet for my slaughtering?", he asked in the direction of Aya and Ken, who still appeared to be in shock.
"You shouldn't be trusting him, Omi, he's playing with you."
A weak, bitter chuckle. "Now who is the telepath here, Aya? Really, I know Nagi already for such a long time, if he only wanted to use me he would've done something already or given up. Sure, we assisted each other often, but Nagi helped me at least as often with Weiß missions as I helped him with Schwarz missions. And no, he couldn't have got an advantage out of that as I told him only what he needed to know to help me hacking."
"How long do you… are you lovers?", Ken asked in a voice that said clearly that he wasn't sure whether he really wanted to know.
"I can understand you, really, if I was in your place I would most likely react the same way. Lemme think… it's sometime in summer, June… July! It was July when we met the first time away from the battlefield and we befriended immediately, by the time we found out who the other was we were already best friends. We're together since late August." He'd rather not tell them that he'd had a crush on Nagi since the first time he saw him…
"Leave the chibi in peace, I'm sure he didn't got much sleep last night and is tired, he anyway won't tell you anything right now", grinned Yohji and ushered Omi to a storage room.
But before they could escape Aya's wrath realization dawned on Weiß' leader. "You knew! You knew all the time about it! And don't you dare lying to me, Kudoh Yohji!"
"Uh… yes, I knew about it. But not everything. I read already last summer, a few days after Omi befriended Nagi, his e-mails secretly and found his correspondence with a Prodigy. They talked about their missions, so I knew that Prodigy was also an assassin and it's clear to me that they would become a couple sooner or later. At Omi's birthday we talked and he gave me more hints, I was with him as he found Nagi's gift. But that's about all I knew."
"Still, you could've warned us! Or if you didn't wanted to tell us anything, then at least you could've talked the Schwarz brat out of Omi! I don't mind that he likes boys, I never had any problem with that, but I have a big problem with him liking an enemy, a Schwarz member!", shouted Aya.
"Nagi was right, we should have kept it secret. But I didn't wanted to hide Nagi from you any longer. I didn't enjoyed the secrecy and lying, Aya, it hurt me every time. But I was afraid that you would hate me and, just like you said, talk me out of being with Nagi. By now our relationship has a solid basis and mastered many crises, we resurfaced every time stronger, the only thing I still had to fear was that you'd kill me – and believe it or not, but I can hold my own in a fight with you. I want you to know that I love Nagi and won't break up with him."
"What about Schwarz? Do you think they'll forgive him as easily as we you?!", Aya demanded to know. "You might just have signed your oh so beloved boyfriend's death-warrant!"
"I feared that also, but by now we can be sure that they know about us, Schuldig at the very least, and I don't see why they should suddenly decide to kill Nagi for it. He's absolutely loyal to Schwarz, our love doesn't weakens him. In the contrary, the cooperation of Weiß and Schwarz helped both of our groups, we're more efficient since we support the other. For example last night, while you're fighting, we're sharing the workload. I wouldn't have managed it on my own and none of you understands anything about computers, so we'd have failed without Nagi."
"If you get him to be more civil I don't see why I should mind", shrugged Ken. "And if this ends our constantly life-endangering rivalry with Schwarz, then why not? I mean, we're now all self-employed, we've to earn our own money and find our own allies, we need all the friends we can get…"
"Thank you very much indeed, Ken-kun! Aya? Please? I don't expect you to become friends with Nagi, but it would be nice if we could finally come out into the open without having to fear for our safety. I'll make sure that he behaves himself."
"We can't replace you and you are imperative to the success of all Weiß missions, hence I have no choice but to take up with your choice in men. But don't believe that I approve of him."
"I won't, arigatou, Aya-kun!"
"I just hope I'll come out of this again alive", muttered Omi under his breath as he sounded the bell.
The European-style Schwarz mansion loomed in the twilight dangerously over it's heavy iron gates and the boy standing in front of it.
Through the intercom system came the voice of a young woman, "who's there?"
Strange. Maybe the girlfriend of a Schwarz member, or a new psychic? "Am I right here at Mister Crawford's, Schwarz mansion? I'm bringing you a delivery from Kitty in the House."
A cackle and the voice turned out to be really the one of a young man. "Ah, Nagi's kitten!"
"Farf, if you break the intercom again, I swear you, I'll put you back into the straightjacket, re-socialisation or not!", warned Schuldig and opened the gates. "Weiß, you can come now slowly to the house, but don't, by no means, leave the path or you'll blast the whole block!"
"Thank you so very much for the warning, that makes me feel so much better", Omi murmured and pushed his blue scooter down the marvel path to the mansion's front porch. He'd have preferred to leave it outside as a means of escape, but there were just too many flowers to carry them all the way.
The doors opened seemingly by itself just as Omi parked the scooter, two dozens of safely secured boxes were suddenly hovering in the air and floating through the door.
"Thanks, Nagi, you're the best. But could you please float down here now because I feel really stupid talking to the air and would like to see you at least for a moment."
A moment later Schuldig was leaning against the doorframe nonchalant. /Nagi asks you inside, he's still busy…/, a shrug, /doing whatever he usually does when he holes himself in his room up, no idea, he closes his mind well by now. He promised that he'll be with you in a minute or two./
Omi looked inquiringly at the older man. /Did something bad happen? He didn't talked to me all day and even now he sends you out and misses a perfect opportunity to boss me around…/
Another shrug. /He's just being his ordinary weird self. How long are you with him? A year? You should remember by now that he has such phases, sometimes he just holes himself for months up in his room and refuses to talk to anyone./
/Strange. I mean, sometimes Nagi didn't talked much, but if I couldn't get in touch with him for several days then I thought he's on a mission./
/Anyway, come inside, Crawford isn't here, I'll restrain Farfarello and Nagi won't let me hurt you./
/Thanks./ Omi holstered his backpack and stepped reluctantly inside. He didn't believed that he's safe here, but if Schwarz really planned nothing evil and he chickened out he'd embarrass himself – and most of all Nagi – terribly… /Where do you want me to wait for Nagi?/
/In the living room, naturally. At least there you're under constant surveillance, I won't have you roam the halls all by yourself./ Without waiting for an answer went Schuldig to the spacious sitting room, where he found Farf cutting his tongue in a meditative state. Unfortunately he also spat the blood out. /Farfarello, if you have to mutilate yourself, then save at least our furniture! You just ruined a perfectly fine runner! Make at least a bit up for it now and watch Bombay while I go and give Nagi hell./
/Can I play with the kitten?/
/For god's sake, no! If you do so much as to look the wrong way at Bombay Nagi will kill you, you know that. Just make sure that he doesn't wanders off, I fear he'll try to snoop around./
Schuldig had just climbed the first couple of steps as Nagi hurried them down. He flashed Schuldig a brilliant smile and sprinted eager to see his boyfriend again into the living room.
Omi heaved a sigh of relief as he saw the dark figure turn around the corner. "Nagi, finally!", he exclaimed happily and kissed the younger boy.
"Hi, tom-cat! Gomen, I didn't wanted to let you wait though I knew you're afraid, but I didn't expected you to be here so soon. Asshole Crawford predicted you would come around eight o'clock and since I idiot believed him I started already to hack for our next mission!"
"Can I help?", Omi asked simply.
"Won't Weiß bitch again if you help the nemesis?"
"They don't have to find out about it. This was my last delivery and they're all going out tonight, Yohji has yet another date, Aya makes sure that Ken doesn't gets too excited when he watches football in a pub, so they won't notice at what time I come home."
Nagi beamed, took Omi's hand and pulled him upstairs. "Let's hurry up, I want to get this stuff finished as soon as possible. Now don't get a heart attack when you see my room, I didn't found the time yet today to tidy up. You see, we had a computer lab before, but here it isn't finished, so being as courteous as Crawford is, he decided that the whole equipment would be stored away in my room for the meantime!" The door clicked shut behind the boys.
Schuldig shook his head slowly in amazement. This wasn't the Naoe Nagi
he knew - in only a year Omi had actually managed to turn the hateful boy
who lived only for killing into a more or less sociable person…
Omi winced as the step under his feet creaked shrill.
He stayed motionlessly on the traitorous step for a moment and listened intently. He couldn't hear a sound, no sign of the guns and alarms that he'd expected to be triggered at the tiniest sound he made. In fact it looked as if nobody had heard him. Omi shrugged and continued the dangerous journey down to the ground floor.
The redhead narrowly avoided tripping over a newspaper, then slipped on canned beer. Luckily he's able to grip on to the banisters and save himself from a fall down the five tall, steep staircase.
He prided himself a survivor as he reached the bottom of the staircase. "Goodness, couldn't have anyone told me that the house is even more dangerous than the people inside?!", Omi grumbled and sat down on a runner. The carpeted bottom stair would've been more comfortable, but he's afraid the whole staircase would collapse and drop onto him…
"Your accidents are regrettable, the dangers here have become such ordinary for us that we sometimes forget to warn visitors", an amused voice said from the living room that bordered directly onto the hall.
"Jeez!" Omi jumped his surprise. And had an unfortunate collision with the banisters. "*Ouch*! Ow, ow, ow, ow!"
Schuldig was laughing so hard that he'd difficulties not falling from the couch. "Mein Gott, das war koestlich, Du bist wie ein Elefant im Porzellanladen!", he choked out between two laughing fits.
"At least someone is having a good time", muttered the unlucky Weiß assassin, who's rubbing the back of his head gingerly. "And I will have you know that I'm *not* clumsy like an elephant and no china was broken either!"
"What are you doing down here, anyway? Shouldn't you be smooching with Nagi?"
"I'm not going to spy, if that's what you're afraid of. You can trust me that I'd have made a bit less noise if that'd been my intention, I learned at least a couple of things in so many years with Weiß. I woke up thirsty, the bottles in Nagi's room were all empty, so I thought I'd fetch myself a glass of mineral water from the kitchen." The redhead winced as various bruises made themselves known, "of course, if I'd known that your house is highly dangerous I'd have drunken tap water."
"You can stay in the living room, I'll rather fetch you that water myself before you break your neck." Schuldig waited in the arch connecting sitting room and hall until Omi had sat down in an armchair, then he hurried to the kitchen.
Omi nursed his bruises and swellings, happy that he's finally safe. He'd rather face off with sneaky Schuldig than with a sneaky staircase… A grateful smile brightened Omi's face as he was offered a glass of fizzing, cool water. "Arigatou, Schuldig. I can't believe that you guys have survived here a single day, let alone months!"
"The real problem isn't the house, it's that nobody feels responsible for tidying up. If Crawford has a serious injury, then he calls professional cleaners, but that happens very rarely. There are just some rules that you have to follow here: always switch the lights on, even during the day some parts of the house like the staircase are dark". Don't run. Pay attention to what you're going to step onto next, it can be just as well mouldy food as important files or our trained dogs…!"
"I'll keep that in mind next time", said Omi with a smile.
The young computer expert marvelled at the feelings having a friendly chat with Schuldig caused, or rather not caused. He'd expected to feel caged, at the very least awkward, around Nagi's team mates and if it hadn't been for the flower delivery he wouldn't have come anywhere near the mansion. But the comfortable, friendly atmosphere reminded him of talks he'd had with Ken and Yohji if they couldn't sleep. The only things missing now were Yohji quipping, "no affront, but I would rather be spending a sleepless night with a beautiful woman than with you", and Aya suddenly charging into the room, demanding what the heck they were thinking…
Aya… A frown darkened Bombay's features again. If Aya ever found out about this, then he should better be finished with making this arrangements for his own funeral that Nagi had suggested one night after too much coffee and sugar, too little sleep…
"Don't worry, Abyssinian won't find out if you don't tell him." Schuldig sipped carefully at his steaming hot coffee. He's not quite sure how to breach the subject, but he knew that they'd to talk about it. He's painfully aware of the fact that this was a way better occasion than at breakfast, when Crawford would be moaning that he was an oracle, no coffee boy, Farfarello practicing dismemberment on his Barmbrack, Nagi bugging them into letting him stay at home cause he'd have to write a test his teachers think is imperative and he thinks isn't worth studying for, Omi probably being in a hurry to get away from the enemy and himself having a mental breakdown…
"Schuldig? Are you okay?"
"Oh, yes, I'm fine. Frankly speaking, I'm very worried for Nagi. He downright savours it to irritate Abyssinian and sooner or later your leader will snap – which will start a chain of reactions I want to avoid by all costs. I don't believe you have experienced yet the full extent of Nagi's powers and I don't have the right to fill you in, but it won't be pleasant."
"I fear I don't understand. No ordinary person is dangerous for a psychic, right, and Aya can handle himself?"
"Abyssinian is no danger for Nagi, but he's a danger for you. You have to understand that psychics tend to be labile, if someone crosses the boundaries Nagi will react much more extreme than most people would."
Omi realized that this were all the informations Schuldig was going to give him. "I take it that you're implying that Nagi will snap if he thinks he's to protect me. And that he can be a danger to himself with that."
Schuldig stayed silent and waited for the realization to hit the boy.
Seeing that his wild guess was met with silent agreement, Omi paled. "He'll try to kill Aya and everything that happens then will make it worse. If he manages to kill Aya I'll be angry with him, which makes him even more rampant – and ends with Weiß avenging Aya successfully, making Schwarz angry, or dying trying. If Aya kills him, Schwarz will take revenge and I've honestly no clue which side I would chose."
"Very good, you'd have made a fine Schwarz member", Schuldig admitted grudgingly. "If you care only a little bit for Nagi then you'll make sure that he keeps control. He sees you now as his, if someone tries to take you away from him the consequences won't be pretty."
"Maybe if I talk to him about it? Because no matter how much Aya tries to talk Nagi out of me, he won't manage it. And the others are fine with it. I mean, Yohji – our resident playboy of all people! – helped us. He could've gone to Aya when he figured it out, but he accepted and helped us as if it's a matter of course. I'm sure Ken doesn't minds either."
"Oh, and unless you have a hidden fondness for homophobe flambé, you better calm him down in time. Nagi doesn't has any qualms about keeping the pretences up, unlike you he can just kill whoever annoys him."
Omi winced, "that's becoming more difficult than I thought. I never had any idea that Nagi is such a time-bomb."
/Do you want to back out, Bombay, has the price become too high? Because now you still can, your friends will forgive you quickly and Nagi will move on once he's licked his wounds, but soon it's going to be too late to change your mind./ He asked this on purpose telepathically, Schuldig wanted Omi to remember that he's talking here to a creature from whom he could hide nothing, he'd know the truth by all means.
/Never!/, Omi answered the same way with fierce determination in his mental voice. /So maybe the price is a little bit higher, so maybe Nagi is more of a time-bomb than I expected him to. But I knew from the beginning that he's dangerous, I knew that he never had any problem with killing people, maybe even enjoyed it, and I still fell in love with him, I still didn't hesitated to stand to him. That won't change, not now, not ever, I love Nagi!/
/You'll be good for Nagi/, Schuldig said simply.
Omi wondered dazedly, had he just really gotten Schuldig's blessings? In a daze he said, "arigatou, I do really appreciate your confidence."
/Maybe later you will, once everything has sunk in. Why don't you go back to bed now? I'm sure Nagi is missing you already. And this time, please switch the lights on, I don't exactly feel like scraping your remains off the carpet."
A sheepish smile. "Arigatou. Good night, Schuldig."
"Good night, Omi."
"*Finally*, I was beginning to think you'd fallen into the loo!", quipped Nagi.
The redhead graced his boyfriend with an irritated glare. "Ha-ha-ha! Very funny, Prodigy!"
But Nagi didn't stopped his teasing. "Aw, now you're sounding like Crawford!"
Omi effectively shut the annoying teeny with a kiss up and crawled under the covers, facing away from Nagi. He counted silently to ten and with clockwork precision a feather started tickling his nose. "Gah, stop it, Nagi, that tickles!", he laughed.
Nagi was laying prone on the bed with his eyes closed and a gentle smile on his lips, the epitome of angelic innocence.
But Omi wasn't fooled for a single second. He snatched the feather out of the air and stuck it into the younger boy's from sleep tousled black hair, "I believe that's yours, koi."
"You're no fun!"
"Did anyone ever told you how gorgeous you are when you pout?"
"You aren't playing fair, Omi."
"Who said anything about fairness?", dead-panned Omi.
Breakfast was, to put it mildly, a very tense affair.
Omi would have never thought of having breakfast with Schwarz if it hadn't been for his stomach rumbling violently and them breakfasting in the living room, which he could anyway hardly evade on his way out.
As things were, he's ready to run to the next psychiatric clinic and ask for a straightjacket the moment he entered the living room.
Schuldig picked this thought up and answered in his mind, /if you ask nicely enough I'm confident Farfie will lend you his./
/It isn't nice to read people's minds!/
/Then shield it/, was Schuldig's cool answer to the accusation.
The younger redhead was distracted from his silent conversation by his shoulder being shaken. As no hand was attached to whatever shook it he came dimly to the conclusion that it'd to be Nagi.
"Hello? You okay, Omi?"
Indeed Nagi. He gave his boyfriend a sheepish smile. "A, Schuldig was teasing me and I didn't heard you."
Nagi channelled a bit of energy to smack Schuldig lightly over the back of his head. "Leave Omi in peace, do you hear me? Get your own kitten to play with if you want one so badly. Omi is mine." He took the reluctant boy's hand and dragged him to a couch, giving him here and there a telekinetic nudge and pointedly ignoring how uncomfortable he was. He's quite aware that breakfast in the Schwarz mansion was a strange thing, but sooner or later Omi would just have to get used to it.
"We really don't have to… I can eat when I come home…", stuttered Omi nervously. But the Weiß assassin thought that his nervousness was quite justified. You didn't had often breakfast with four killers who's declared goal it was to kill you as slowly and painfully as possible…
"Oh calm down already, my friends aren't going to hurt you unless you provoke them."
Omi looked all but convinced. But what could he do…? "Okay. Will you pass me the bread basket please, Nagi?"
Farfarello looked up from cutting a man-shaped loaf of bread and told Omi in a solemn voice, "cutting bread hurts god."
"Arigatou, Farfarello-kun, I'll remember that", Omi said with a friendly smile. "Crawford-san, could you please hand me the coffee pot?" After all attack was said to be the best defence…
Everyone winced. This was ought to start another rant…
"I'm not a coffee boy, kid. Does anyone of you has an idea what a bad headache you have after a vision? I need each week a family-sized package of painkillers, you could at least show some appreciation for my skills."
Bombay blinked several times, not without a comical character. "Huh?"
Nagi shrugged and explained smirking, "don't worry, he's always strange in the morning, especially about coffee. Just give it a few days and you'll be used to it." He made himself a large sandwich, layers buttered rye bread and cheese by turns, then he cut it over and laid half of the sandwich onto Crawford's board, taking the second bowl cornflakes he'd prepared.
"I highly doubt that…!"
to be continued…