Warnings: Mild swearing, might still be some OOCness (for Schuldich, but it's all part of the plan, folks), Usagi-centered, still self-edited.

Uh, okay, Chapter 3. I just realized I titled Chapter 2 what I was going to title this chapter. X.x;; Oh, well. Thanks to Firefly-chan and all the people who've been checking this story out. Truth be told, I have some random scenes written out, but I'm not sure how to tie them all together. I hate making transitions ;_; Somebody wanna be my muse?

Disclaimer: I don't own anything 'cept the clothes on my back.

Fear Me

I was late and he, the German named Schuldich, looked decidedly annoyed. It was my intention to be late, of course. I wanted to scope out the person who wanted to kidnap me, never mind how willing I was being.

I think my jaw must have dropped because drool was leaking out of the corner of my mouth. The man was hot if nothing else. It was between spring and summer, so there was still enough light for me to check him out (and check him out I did). Tall, broad shouldered, looked lean and muscular. He was wearing a long, ivory overcoat and slacks in the same pristine color. The collar of a pale blue dress shirt lay across the lapels of the coat.

His hair was the most amazing thing. It was the color of the yolk of a duck egg. I know that didn't sound very romantic. Umm, I got it! It was the color of a dying sun before the eclipse of a violet-laced dusk. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Getting back to his hair, it was this fiery red-orange, a little messy, a little long, and a little spiky; like he never combed it. A pair of sunglasses was nestled in the yellow bandana that went around his forehead.

Damn, he was hot. And a freaking telepath.

Fortunately, I had been forced to attend ten billion 'magic and more' lessons for my abilities and whatnot. I knew how to block out people like him and the whole world around me unless I felt like catching up on some juicy gossip.

I studied him for a moment longer. He was leaning casually against the silver Beamer, fingers idly flicking the smoking cigarette. The gray embers flared to life briefly before vanishing like apparitions.

I suddenly became hesitant and nervous. Uncharacteristic of me? HA! I'm always nervous, I just don't show it. It was one of my many lessons. It was #6: Show that you are nervous and you shall die. They tend to put them bluntly.

Okay, getting back to the stud in front of me. What if this was a bad idea? What if I was going to die? What if they were going to brainwash me and turn me against the people I loved? What if they made me eat carrots?! My stomach churned at the very thought and I think I must have made a sound because the head of orange hair swiveled towards me and I was pinned to the floor by cat-like green eyes. Yikes!

He didn't come towards me, just stared and took a drag out of his cigarette, like he was measuring me up, maybe even hungrily. I felt like a slab of steak and I did not like that sensation. I also had the funny feeling that he was trying to go into my mind, dig through all my secrets—maybe find out things that even I didn't know.

Normally when people tried to do that to me, it hurt my eyes and gave me a headache. With most people, it felt like they had stuck nine-inch claws into my skull and were deliberately slow in tearing my brain apart.

Schuldich's was more like a lover's caress. It was that gentle and sweet, like we had been intimate our whole lives. Like we shared no secrets between each other. I would have swooned if I wasn't still so frozen to the spot.

Too bad for him my mind shield is impenetrable. It is layer after layer of steel and rock and steel and rock. It took years for me to accomplish the current rigidity of my defense, but it was all worth it. Nothing got out unless I wanted it to. His, however, well, it was good, but not good enough. If I really wanted to break into it, it'd be like cake. Chocolate cake. Maybe if he was nice to me, I'd teach him a few things.

Back to where we were. Again. His probing skills were great. Ohhhh yeah, it felt pretty darn nice, but I wasn't about to give in. I let my lips curve into a vicious smile, remembering to flash my teeth just the way one of my childhood friends had taught me. I let him think he was winning, fed him a few stray images, then…

'STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!'

I got the desired effect. The cigarette dropped from his fingertips, forgotten. He looked surprised, but with mastered skill, he quickly covered it up with his cool bottle green eyes and arrogant smirk. He pushed off from the car and waited for me to cross the street. I took my time.

We stared at each other when I finally got to the car. I looked him over, he looked me over. It was all good.

"You look older than you sound." He said it like he was ordering an entrée from a menu.

I glared sourly at him. Prick. "Whatever. Are we going to get going 'cause I'm famished."

"Of course, fraulein," and then quite unexpectedly, he took my hand, kissed my knuckles, and opened the passenger side door. He ushered me in.

The feel of his lips against my hand? Wow. "Could you call me Usagi? I'm not used to being called fraulein."

He smiled casually. "Sure, Usagi-chan," he drawled in a low voice.

I sucked in a sharp breath as the fine hair on my arms stood up at attention. I think maybe he had a little bit of incubus blood flowing in him, too.

The car started moving and all was quiet, so I decided it was my job to break the ice. "Uh, so, are you going to tell me what Reiji Takatori wants with me?"

"What do you think he wants with you, Usa-chan?"

Aww, he called me Usa-chan. I brightened up a little and thought. Yes, what did I think he wanted with me? Gee, I don't know. "World domination," I answered blandly.

He smiled, amused. "Good guess."

I was starting to get annoyed. His concise answers were grating on my nerves. He struck me as the type who talked on and on, not so much as rude as blunt, and he seemed like a terrible flirt and tease. So why wasn't he talking to me? Did he think I was stupid? Mean? Rude? Was I not pretty? Was I too young?! I was all about to burst into crocodile tears when he started again.

"Takatori is an influential politician running for Prime Minister of Japan. He is also the boss of a crime syndicate. Which is where you come in."

Okay. "So, his main goal really is world domination? He wants to use me for more money and more power?" Nothing wrong with trying to wheedle a little more information out of him.

"Yes," he answered quietly. Too quietly, I thought.

"What exactly do you know about me?" I didn't want to let out anything that he didn't know.

"What don't I know about you?"

Hot and manipulative. I had to tread lightly around him. "I can't tell you what you don't know if you don't tell me what you know about me." Wait, did that make sense? I fell into a state of confusion and he laughed. It was very silky.

"Good answer. Let's see how well you hold up against Crawford," he replied smoothly.

Suddenly, I wasn't feeling so good. I wasn't very good at being around bad guys since I had lived a very sheltered life up until now. Everything that I had ever wanted was always taken care of for me. All my relatives seemed pretty wealthy and lived comfortable lives. I was spoiled and I wasn't afraid to admit it.

But instead, I plastered on a grin and decided to play it cool. "Crawford? Family member? Boss? Friend? Lover? Is he as cute as you are?"

He laughed, a little darkly, but he did laugh. "Business associate. Also a precog. And I wouldn't say he is as cute as I am." The same arrogant smile curved his lips.

My eyebrows shot up. "A precog? Wow, that's about the only thing that's closed off to me."

"Closed off?"

I shrugged. "One of my guardians, who is long due for a visit by the way, closed it off when I was born. My relatives say that it wouldn't do good if I saw the future. They say that I might be tempted to change it. But who says I'm not changing it as we speak?" I laughed a little uneasily. "For all I know, I was supposed to run away the moment I found out you were screwing with my uncle's mind. But, no. I'm in this really nice car with a really hot telepath whose boss probably does some really evil deeds."

He smirked, but didn't comment.

"So," I started again. I hated awkward silences. I especially hated awkward silences with people I knew nothing about except their need to dominate me. "Am I supposed to know what Reiji Takatori wants to do with me or am I supposed to be his well-behaved niece?" Who wants to kick his ass, but I decided against saying that out loud.

He turned to me a little, his jade green eyes catching the moonlight. They were stunning. "The well-behaved niece, of course, Usa-chan. Although Crawford would know that things didn't come out quite the way we had expected, Takatori knows nothing."

I leaned back into the soft leather seat. His tone was invariably derisive when he spoke his boss' name. Was it possible that Schuldich worked for a bigger and badder boss? The potential turn of events was not boding well with me. I frowned a little, upset that I couldn't probe into his mind without him knowing.

Well, it didn't matter anyway because we stopped in front of this HUGE mansion, and I do mean huge. I hadn't really been paying much attention to which direction we were headed to, but from the looks of it, we were in a little isolated and woodsy area outside of Tokyo.

Two men met us at the foyer, both slender, tall, and drop-dead gorgeous, much like Schuldich. The dark haired one was a few inches taller than Schuldich. He looked not so much as meaner as, well, tight-assed. He was dressed in a crisp charcoal business suit. He had perfect posture and frosty brown eyes.

The other one, um, the other one was a little odd. He had pale blue hair and a sharp golden eye. His other eye was covered by a plain black patch. Across his face were various thin scars. Tiny rings and studs adorned his ears. That one eye gleamed at me like I was supposed to be some sort of harmless fuzzy animal that would ultimately be torn apart by the snapping wide jaws of a hungry wolf. Guess who the wolf was?

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be scared or not. There was something strange about Farfarello, but I wasn't sure what. They didn't look nice, but they didn't look like they were going to kill me and eat me, either.

Schuldich took his time to drape his arm haphazardly across my shoulders. I stared at it for a moment, then sent him a dubious look. He grinned and nodded towards the two gentlemen.

"Usagi Tsukino, meet Bradley Crawford and Farfarello."

I mustered up an inquisitive smile and stuck out my hand. "Nice to meet you, Crawford-san." He stared at it as if it'd jump off my wrist and crawl down his pants. Not that I'd mind.

Finally, he shook it once, dropped it, and said, "Pleasure."

My smile faltered a little, but turned dutifully to the other quiet fellow. "Nice to meet you, too, Farfarello-san."

He suddenly got this crazy look in his eye before Schuldich snatched my hand down. I blinked at him, perturbed. He didn't respond, so I let it go, but not before promising myself to question him on it later.

"Nagi hasn't returned yet, but you will meet him. He currently has a school appointment to attend to," Bradley Crawford said. His voice was deep, but a little empty, like he didn't want to give anything away.

I nodded mutely in understanding as Schuldich steered me away to only what I could assume was my room. He led me up a spectacular carpeted (it felt like velvet…) stairway and through the antique-décor of the hallways, finally stopping in front of a large varnished oak door. He let me open it.

It was like a fairytale. White moonlight poured through enormous French windows onto a huge swan bed with a filmy white canopy. I squealed with a childish delight and skipped over to the bed, flopping onto my front and relishing the unending softness of it. The situation was starting to feel less and less like a kidnapping. Kidnappees don't get princess treatment from kidnappers.

I flipped around and grinned at Schuldich who had made himself comfortable in a lovely plush chair by my bed. "So when do I get to meet Reiji Takatori?"

"You won't be meeting him quite for some time."

"Really?"

"You don't sound surprised."

"I figure there's good reason behind it all."

"You're not afraid of any of us."

I smiled and stared at the wide white canopy. He sounded like a spoiled kid who didn't get his way. "If it makes you feel any better, I'd probably be afraid of you if I wasn't so…blessed."

He gave a short bark of laughter. "No. I think, Usa-chan," he said fluidly, "you are one of those kinds of girls."

I frowned, puzzled at his cryptic remark and turned to him, but he was already at the doorway. "Schuldich?" He flashed me a grin and disappeared down the hall. Wasn't that productive? I stretched a little but realized I was still hungry.

I sat up and grinned. Time to make a trip to the kitchen.

-----

The kitchen was huge and the pantries were stocked full of goodies.

I hopped onto a barstool from the island in the middle of the kitchen and went through half a bag of cookies, two bags of chips, and some leftover pizza. I was clearing off the table when I accidentally knocked over a bowl of fruit. I glared at them, readying my telepathy when I realized I was no longer alone in the kitchen and they weren't rolling around on the floor.

I glanced up and was shocked to see the prettiest dark haired boy I've ever laid eyes on standing at the entrance. His gaze was trained on the floating apples and pears as they lifted up and back into the unharmed fruit bowl. They were arranged by invisible hands as if they had never been knocked over in the first place.

I inclined my head a little to the side. Was he really a boy? He was just so pretty! He was slim and only a few inches taller than me, but wearing a boy's school uniform which only enhanced how slender he was. His hair hung softly around his face, framing large blue eyes.

"Hello," he said quietly, breaking my intense musing. "You must be Usagi Tsukino. I'm Nagi Naoe." He stepped forward, nodding to me. Strangely, the moonlight to the side of him didn't make his eyes look darker, but lighter and almost teal.

I smiled at him amicably and extended my hand. "Nice to meet you, Nagi-kun."

He gave a faint smile as he took my hand. I was still in awe. "You're psychokinetic, too, Tsukino-san?"

"Usagi-chan," I corrected automatically, "and yep, I'm psychokinetic but I don't use it much. Yours is strongest when you're emotional." He gave a start. "Don't worry, I'm not digging through your head or anything. I just see this fuzzy glowing thing around you and it says you're most powerful when you're gripped with emotion."

I wondered if he would let me dress him up one day. The very thought made me burst into peals of laughter. I think he might have gotten a little frightened of me when I did that, but no matter. I suddenly grabbed his hand. It was soft and warm. "Nagi-kun, you're not busy right now, are you? And please don't lie."

He gave a hesitant shake of his head. That wonderfully soft hair of his curled against his cheek. Sigh. "Would you mind giving me a tour of this place?

"I guess not," he answered, and paused adorably for a second before, "Usagi-chan."

"Great!" And I dragged him away.

-----

Why was everyone in the damned house so pretty? Even the scarred Farfarello with his pale hair and cold golden eye was beautiful. I had almost mistakened Nagi for a girl, if I hadn't noticed his uniform. He looked young, but it turned out he was a few months older than me.

I couldn't help glancing at him every so often out of the corner of my eye. I wanted to cry; he was just that pretty. We went through the entire house. There were four floors total, not including basement and attic. Everyone stayed on the second floor. Apparently, my room was across from Schuldich's and was nestled between Nagi's and Brad's. Farfarello's was next to Schuldich's.

It was about eleven o'clock when we finally finished. I wasn't the least bit tired, still a little giddy from all the sugar I had consumed for my late dinner. Suddenly, I stopped and grinned. He turned to me a little warily.

"Nagi-kun. Are you free tomorrow?" I think he blushed because he sort of started stuttering. It was very cute. Did he think I was asking him out? I tried not to cackle.

"We have school."

"Oh, yes, I meant after that."

He nodded mutely.

"Great! I was wondering if you'd like to go for ice cream or something."

He blinked and flushed. "Okay."

I threw my arms around him and hugged the stiff and startled Nagi-kun, hiding my cunning, slightly guilty smile. My plan was rolling into action. Schuldich wasn't the only person who could be manipulative.