A/N: Hello. I know this is not long after updating last time, but the muses
have struck again! Thank you Romilly McAran for your comments. I know that
Schuldich is a German name, but - as the all-powerful authoress - I'm
taking the liberty of saying that his mother was German and his father was
Japanese/German. In this, his father had a nasty sense of humor. I know Jei
is Farfarello's real name, but Schwarz are really the only ones that know
that, and I like the name Farfarello. Crawford is obeying Aya #1 because he
has a massive crush on him (come on, why else would he bring Aya hot
cocoa?) and #2 it was one of the requirements of joining Weiss. In this,
Schuldich has gained the ability to put up mental shields. If he doesn't
want to go into someone's head, he won't hear their thoughts. However, a
very powerful thought WILL still creep in once in awhile. As for Farf, he's
not really insane. I like to think he only acts insane to freak everyone
out. And finally, I said in the summary that it was slightly OOC - that is,
Out Of Character - so I know that they will not be behaving like
themselves. I had to do that to make them fit my story. Besides, it's been
three months since I watched the series! ^^ But once again, thank you for
your comments, this LONG author's note was meant simply to explain to you
(and others that didn't understand but weren't willing to review) why I had
changed them so much. I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far, and I'm sorry if
something I've said it here offended you (that happens sometimes). Please
keep in mind that this part is strictly informative. Again, thank you.
Wow! That was the longest A/N I've ever written! Let's see if the chapter can compete in length! ^^ Oh, and in case it never loads correctly, Schu's line in Chapter 3 was "That's a good one". It's when he and Yohji are insulting each other.
__ telepathy __
"speaking"
~~
The next four months passed fairly uneventfully. Everyone had settled into a routine and were getting along. The only problems came when Omi and Nagi got into a fight about the computer and internet time, and when Farfie decided it would be fun to tie Brad's underwear to the ceiling fans - in every room of the house.
"So, Brad . . . I guess this makes the all-important question irrelevant," Yohji commented, watching the spinning underwear.
"What question?" Brad asked, not needing his gift to know that the playboy's answer would spark many jokes from the telepath standing beside him.
"You know. Boxers or Briefs." Yohji looked at the underwear again. "I didn't know they made heart and dinosaur print briefs for a twenty-seven- year-old man."
That day had ended with Farfie tied to the balcony, Brad glaring every time he saw either playboy, and Yohji and Schuldich both cackling madly every time they saw Brad.
~~
On the last day at Villa White, Ken suggested a walk around the lake. Everyone was bored and had nothing better to do, so they joined him. The snow had just begun melting, and the ice on the lake was thin. As they walked, Ken, Omi, and Nagi discussed the advantages and disadvantages of being the youngest members of the group.
"No, it would be better to be the youngest!" Ken exclaimed, arms jerking wildly as he stressed his point. "I'm third youngest now, and it's the worst position imaginable. I've got chibis under me, and . . . playboys, leaders, and a madman over me. The worst part is that I'm only two years younger than the main leader!"
That comment drew Brad into their conversation. "You think you've got it bad? I'm seven years older than the leader. Yohji and Schuldich are both two years older, and Farfarello is the same age as him." Everyone looked at Brad as if he had grown another head. "What?"
"You just joined a conversation. Of your own free will," Ken explained, still recovering.
"So?"
"I think the mountain air agrees with you Braddie!" Schuldich announced, jumping onto Brad's back.
"It does make most people open up a little more," Yohji agreed, looking at Ran as if to say, "There's the exception".
"Get off of me, Schuldich," Brad ordered, trying to glare at the telepath he was unwillingly giving a piggyback ride to. Schuldich was about to obey when he felt Brad stiffen underneath him. "Schuldich, don't- "
"I know," Schu mumbled as he hopped off the clairvoyant's back. "Don't make you repeat yourself."
"No, that's not- " But, once again, Brad was cut off. This time it was by a muffled yelp as Schuldich crashed into Ran, sending the younger redhead plunging into the lake. "RAN!" The young man didn't come up immediately, which the others felt he should.
"What's taking him so long?" Yohji demanded, watching as Ken and Brad both got ready to dive in after Ran.
"Why don't you tell us!" Nagi snapped. "You're more familiar with this area!"
"Yeah, but we've never gone into the lake! Schuldich, what's keeping him down there?"
"How should I know?!"
"Read his mind, Baka!"
"He's trapped on something! I can't tell if it's got his foot, his waist, or his neck!"
"Those are some pretty crucial differences!"
"I know! He's too panicked right now! It's almost impossible to get further into his mind when he's screaming about it being cold! Would one of you jump in already!?! He's drowning!"
Brad managed to jump in first, but it took both him and Ken, and Schuldich mentally telling them where to go, to find and free him. When they dragged him out of the lake, it had only been about a minute since he fell in, but Ran was already unconscious, and shaking uncontrollably.
Brad wrapped his jacket around the smaller man's shaking shoulders and picked him up. "I'm taking him back to the house," he said. No one else said anything, but they all followed him back to Villa White.
After getting Ran dried off, the other seven assassins tried to get him warm.
"Well, what do you suggest?" Yohji asked, when his idea about wrapping Ran in blankets was disregarded. Nagi suggested that they put him in a hot bath. "But we just got him dry, and now you want to get him wet again?"
"We'll go with Yohji's suggestion," Brad declared as he walked into the room. "It will get him warm and we won't have to worry about drying Ran off again. Besides, the water would eventually get cold, and then we'll have to deal with it all over again."
So, they wrapped Ran in as many blankets as they could spare, and Omi went down to make coffee and hot cocoa while they waited for an to wake up. When he came back upstairs, Schuldich informed them that Ran would be waking up shortly. He had gone into the younger man's mind to see how he was doing mentally, and had felt him beginning to wake up. Omi went back downstairs to make another cup of hot cocoa for Ran.
"Ran? Ran, wake up." At the sound of the soft voice calling him, Ran struggled to wake up. __ What? Who is that? Kouga's never that nice, and the voice is too deep to be Kaasan's . . . __
__ Who's Kouga? __ The voice seemed so familiar that Ran didn't bother to wonder why he didn't remember hearing the words out loud.
__ He's Kaasan's husband. __ Ran replied, mentally. He found it strange that he was talking without using his voice, but the other voice in his head was so familiar, and comforting.
Unfortunately, the answer he gave surprised Schuldich so much that the German man responded out loud. "You mean your father, right?"
One violet eye opened slowly before Ran answered. "Not exactly. What happened?" he groaned, feeling the weight of thirteen blankets, and a sore area around his waist. He also had a headache and the beginning of a sore throat.
"You fell into the lake, and some kind of rope got wrapped around your waist. Don't worry, we got you out!" Everyone in the room looked at Ken, some raising their eyebrows questioningly.
"Of course we did!" Yohji was the first to overcome his disbelief. "How else could he be in here and not at the bottom of the lake? Baka." Ran gave a contented smile and fell back to sleep, clutching the cocoa mug in one hand, and Schuldich's hand in the other.
~~
"Are we there yet?"
"Schuldich, don't you even start that again!"
"Can I drive?"
"No."
"But I know how!"
"I don't care, Yohji."
"Bra~ad! Quit being so mean!"
"Then quit acting so stupid!"
"ACHOO!"
"Bless you."
"Achoo!"
"Bless you."
"Hey, that sneeze was smaller!"
"So what?"
"So did you try and make it smaller?"
"How do you bake a sdeeze sballer?"
"Do you want some more cough syrup Ran?"
"Nagi, if you give him any more of that, you'll kill him."
"How? It's not poison."
"He'll OD on cough syrup! That would be a first!" Schuldich and Yohji both started laughing, unable to stop even when both Ran and Brad directed glares of death their way.
~~
"I'm HUNGRY!"
"You should have eaten more at breakfast."
"I DID eat a lot! You told me not to stuff myself!"
"If you ate so much already, how can you be hungry now?"
"It's been seven hours already. A break would be nice."
"Yohji, look! We've got the chibis on our side!"
"Please can we stop?"
"And Kenken!"
"Why do you want to stop?"
"I have to go to the bathroom. And I DID go before we left, I just drank a lot of milk this morning . . . and I finished my water bottle."
"Ken! That thing holds an entire gallon!"
"That's why we need to stop! I've got a gallon of water inside me, and it wants out, NOW!"
~~
A rest stop, a McDonald's, and three hours later, the van (and trailer) pulled in behind the flower shop.
"It doesn't look different," Ken commented, looking at the shop. The only real difference that could be seen from outside was that the windows had gotten bigger.
"We'll go inside and see what's different before bringing our stuff in," Brad said. The others nodded their agreement, and they all walked up the stairs and into the apartments. And then stopped.
"AAAAAAHHHH!!!! WHERE'D THE LIVING ROOM GO?!?!?!" Ken screamed. All the walls in the apartment area had been torn down, and there were flower arrangements everywhere. The apartment part of the Koneko had been turned into an extension of the flower shop.
"Hello, Weiss. Welcome back," Manx said as she walked up to the eight dumbfounded assassins. "Abyssinian, what happened to you?"
Ran was bundled up in a blanket and wearing pants and a sweatshirt, and was still shivering. "Schuldich accidentally pushed be into de lake," he informed her, his voice thick from the cold.
"Hanae, what's going on here?" Schuldich asked Manx. "Where are we supposed to live now?"
"Don't call me that, Mastermind. You will be living next door. We bought that shop about four and a half months ago for this purpose. Both floors have been converted into rooms to make a two-story house. You will each have your own rooms, and there are living rooms on both floors," Manx explained. "All of your things are in the rooms you expressed a desire to have. Farfarello, Omi, and Nagi, you told me you didn't care, so the three of you will be on the ground floor with Ken. If you don't like the room you were given, talk it out with each other, and see if someone will trade you. Enjoy." Then she walked out the door.
"Well, I guess this means it's time for us to go next door," Yohji said, stating the obvious. Ran led the way over and they each found their rooms. The downstairs had a kitchen, dining room, living room, and four bedrooms. The front door opened into the living room/dining room. To the left was the kitchen, and to the right were three of the bedrooms. Straight ahead was the staircase, and to the left of that was the fourth bedroom. Farfarello had the room next to the stairs, Ken had the one nearest the front door, Nagi had the one next to it, and Omi was across the way from Farfarello. Each room had it's own bathroom. At the top of the stairs was another living room with a door at each corner. To the right of the stairs were Ran and Brad's rooms, and to the left were Yohji and Schuldich's. Between Ran and Brad's rooms was a bathroom, and between Schuldich and Yohji's rooms was another.
They spent the rest of the day unpacking and getting things set up to their preferences. By the end of the day, everything was unpacked, and the house looked almost lived in. Everyone went to their respective rooms at about 11:30 that night. Instead of crawling into bed like his body was telling him to, Ran curled up on the window seat (each of the upstairs bedrooms had one) and watched the sky. He knew that something Schuldich had said earlier was important, but his cold was making it difficult to think straight. All he could remember was tat it had something to do with a familiar name; one that he wasn't supposed to know.
~~
A/N: Is it still decent? I know, it was another slow chapter, but things should get going again soon. Sorry for the spelling mistakes in the previous chapters. I'm trying to spell things right, but the computer I'm using doesn't have the kind of keyboard I'm used to, so my fingers are a bit confused as to where to go. I don't type, I search and peck, making writing this thing on a different keyboard a little difficult. Please review and let me know what you think so far. Please don't flame unless you absolutely have to. Thanks! ^^
Wow! That was the longest A/N I've ever written! Let's see if the chapter can compete in length! ^^ Oh, and in case it never loads correctly, Schu's line in Chapter 3 was "That's a good one". It's when he and Yohji are insulting each other.
__ telepathy __
"speaking"
~~
The next four months passed fairly uneventfully. Everyone had settled into a routine and were getting along. The only problems came when Omi and Nagi got into a fight about the computer and internet time, and when Farfie decided it would be fun to tie Brad's underwear to the ceiling fans - in every room of the house.
"So, Brad . . . I guess this makes the all-important question irrelevant," Yohji commented, watching the spinning underwear.
"What question?" Brad asked, not needing his gift to know that the playboy's answer would spark many jokes from the telepath standing beside him.
"You know. Boxers or Briefs." Yohji looked at the underwear again. "I didn't know they made heart and dinosaur print briefs for a twenty-seven- year-old man."
That day had ended with Farfie tied to the balcony, Brad glaring every time he saw either playboy, and Yohji and Schuldich both cackling madly every time they saw Brad.
~~
On the last day at Villa White, Ken suggested a walk around the lake. Everyone was bored and had nothing better to do, so they joined him. The snow had just begun melting, and the ice on the lake was thin. As they walked, Ken, Omi, and Nagi discussed the advantages and disadvantages of being the youngest members of the group.
"No, it would be better to be the youngest!" Ken exclaimed, arms jerking wildly as he stressed his point. "I'm third youngest now, and it's the worst position imaginable. I've got chibis under me, and . . . playboys, leaders, and a madman over me. The worst part is that I'm only two years younger than the main leader!"
That comment drew Brad into their conversation. "You think you've got it bad? I'm seven years older than the leader. Yohji and Schuldich are both two years older, and Farfarello is the same age as him." Everyone looked at Brad as if he had grown another head. "What?"
"You just joined a conversation. Of your own free will," Ken explained, still recovering.
"So?"
"I think the mountain air agrees with you Braddie!" Schuldich announced, jumping onto Brad's back.
"It does make most people open up a little more," Yohji agreed, looking at Ran as if to say, "There's the exception".
"Get off of me, Schuldich," Brad ordered, trying to glare at the telepath he was unwillingly giving a piggyback ride to. Schuldich was about to obey when he felt Brad stiffen underneath him. "Schuldich, don't- "
"I know," Schu mumbled as he hopped off the clairvoyant's back. "Don't make you repeat yourself."
"No, that's not- " But, once again, Brad was cut off. This time it was by a muffled yelp as Schuldich crashed into Ran, sending the younger redhead plunging into the lake. "RAN!" The young man didn't come up immediately, which the others felt he should.
"What's taking him so long?" Yohji demanded, watching as Ken and Brad both got ready to dive in after Ran.
"Why don't you tell us!" Nagi snapped. "You're more familiar with this area!"
"Yeah, but we've never gone into the lake! Schuldich, what's keeping him down there?"
"How should I know?!"
"Read his mind, Baka!"
"He's trapped on something! I can't tell if it's got his foot, his waist, or his neck!"
"Those are some pretty crucial differences!"
"I know! He's too panicked right now! It's almost impossible to get further into his mind when he's screaming about it being cold! Would one of you jump in already!?! He's drowning!"
Brad managed to jump in first, but it took both him and Ken, and Schuldich mentally telling them where to go, to find and free him. When they dragged him out of the lake, it had only been about a minute since he fell in, but Ran was already unconscious, and shaking uncontrollably.
Brad wrapped his jacket around the smaller man's shaking shoulders and picked him up. "I'm taking him back to the house," he said. No one else said anything, but they all followed him back to Villa White.
After getting Ran dried off, the other seven assassins tried to get him warm.
"Well, what do you suggest?" Yohji asked, when his idea about wrapping Ran in blankets was disregarded. Nagi suggested that they put him in a hot bath. "But we just got him dry, and now you want to get him wet again?"
"We'll go with Yohji's suggestion," Brad declared as he walked into the room. "It will get him warm and we won't have to worry about drying Ran off again. Besides, the water would eventually get cold, and then we'll have to deal with it all over again."
So, they wrapped Ran in as many blankets as they could spare, and Omi went down to make coffee and hot cocoa while they waited for an to wake up. When he came back upstairs, Schuldich informed them that Ran would be waking up shortly. He had gone into the younger man's mind to see how he was doing mentally, and had felt him beginning to wake up. Omi went back downstairs to make another cup of hot cocoa for Ran.
"Ran? Ran, wake up." At the sound of the soft voice calling him, Ran struggled to wake up. __ What? Who is that? Kouga's never that nice, and the voice is too deep to be Kaasan's . . . __
__ Who's Kouga? __ The voice seemed so familiar that Ran didn't bother to wonder why he didn't remember hearing the words out loud.
__ He's Kaasan's husband. __ Ran replied, mentally. He found it strange that he was talking without using his voice, but the other voice in his head was so familiar, and comforting.
Unfortunately, the answer he gave surprised Schuldich so much that the German man responded out loud. "You mean your father, right?"
One violet eye opened slowly before Ran answered. "Not exactly. What happened?" he groaned, feeling the weight of thirteen blankets, and a sore area around his waist. He also had a headache and the beginning of a sore throat.
"You fell into the lake, and some kind of rope got wrapped around your waist. Don't worry, we got you out!" Everyone in the room looked at Ken, some raising their eyebrows questioningly.
"Of course we did!" Yohji was the first to overcome his disbelief. "How else could he be in here and not at the bottom of the lake? Baka." Ran gave a contented smile and fell back to sleep, clutching the cocoa mug in one hand, and Schuldich's hand in the other.
~~
"Are we there yet?"
"Schuldich, don't you even start that again!"
"Can I drive?"
"No."
"But I know how!"
"I don't care, Yohji."
"Bra~ad! Quit being so mean!"
"Then quit acting so stupid!"
"ACHOO!"
"Bless you."
"Achoo!"
"Bless you."
"Hey, that sneeze was smaller!"
"So what?"
"So did you try and make it smaller?"
"How do you bake a sdeeze sballer?"
"Do you want some more cough syrup Ran?"
"Nagi, if you give him any more of that, you'll kill him."
"How? It's not poison."
"He'll OD on cough syrup! That would be a first!" Schuldich and Yohji both started laughing, unable to stop even when both Ran and Brad directed glares of death their way.
~~
"I'm HUNGRY!"
"You should have eaten more at breakfast."
"I DID eat a lot! You told me not to stuff myself!"
"If you ate so much already, how can you be hungry now?"
"It's been seven hours already. A break would be nice."
"Yohji, look! We've got the chibis on our side!"
"Please can we stop?"
"And Kenken!"
"Why do you want to stop?"
"I have to go to the bathroom. And I DID go before we left, I just drank a lot of milk this morning . . . and I finished my water bottle."
"Ken! That thing holds an entire gallon!"
"That's why we need to stop! I've got a gallon of water inside me, and it wants out, NOW!"
~~
A rest stop, a McDonald's, and three hours later, the van (and trailer) pulled in behind the flower shop.
"It doesn't look different," Ken commented, looking at the shop. The only real difference that could be seen from outside was that the windows had gotten bigger.
"We'll go inside and see what's different before bringing our stuff in," Brad said. The others nodded their agreement, and they all walked up the stairs and into the apartments. And then stopped.
"AAAAAAHHHH!!!! WHERE'D THE LIVING ROOM GO?!?!?!" Ken screamed. All the walls in the apartment area had been torn down, and there were flower arrangements everywhere. The apartment part of the Koneko had been turned into an extension of the flower shop.
"Hello, Weiss. Welcome back," Manx said as she walked up to the eight dumbfounded assassins. "Abyssinian, what happened to you?"
Ran was bundled up in a blanket and wearing pants and a sweatshirt, and was still shivering. "Schuldich accidentally pushed be into de lake," he informed her, his voice thick from the cold.
"Hanae, what's going on here?" Schuldich asked Manx. "Where are we supposed to live now?"
"Don't call me that, Mastermind. You will be living next door. We bought that shop about four and a half months ago for this purpose. Both floors have been converted into rooms to make a two-story house. You will each have your own rooms, and there are living rooms on both floors," Manx explained. "All of your things are in the rooms you expressed a desire to have. Farfarello, Omi, and Nagi, you told me you didn't care, so the three of you will be on the ground floor with Ken. If you don't like the room you were given, talk it out with each other, and see if someone will trade you. Enjoy." Then she walked out the door.
"Well, I guess this means it's time for us to go next door," Yohji said, stating the obvious. Ran led the way over and they each found their rooms. The downstairs had a kitchen, dining room, living room, and four bedrooms. The front door opened into the living room/dining room. To the left was the kitchen, and to the right were three of the bedrooms. Straight ahead was the staircase, and to the left of that was the fourth bedroom. Farfarello had the room next to the stairs, Ken had the one nearest the front door, Nagi had the one next to it, and Omi was across the way from Farfarello. Each room had it's own bathroom. At the top of the stairs was another living room with a door at each corner. To the right of the stairs were Ran and Brad's rooms, and to the left were Yohji and Schuldich's. Between Ran and Brad's rooms was a bathroom, and between Schuldich and Yohji's rooms was another.
They spent the rest of the day unpacking and getting things set up to their preferences. By the end of the day, everything was unpacked, and the house looked almost lived in. Everyone went to their respective rooms at about 11:30 that night. Instead of crawling into bed like his body was telling him to, Ran curled up on the window seat (each of the upstairs bedrooms had one) and watched the sky. He knew that something Schuldich had said earlier was important, but his cold was making it difficult to think straight. All he could remember was tat it had something to do with a familiar name; one that he wasn't supposed to know.
~~
A/N: Is it still decent? I know, it was another slow chapter, but things should get going again soon. Sorry for the spelling mistakes in the previous chapters. I'm trying to spell things right, but the computer I'm using doesn't have the kind of keyboard I'm used to, so my fingers are a bit confused as to where to go. I don't type, I search and peck, making writing this thing on a different keyboard a little difficult. Please review and let me know what you think so far. Please don't flame unless you absolutely have to. Thanks! ^^
