Part Ten
The phone rang again.
Schuldich roughly shoved him forward.
"Answer it, it's Brad!"
"No I don't want to," Ken cried,
stumbling. "He'll eat me!"
"Oh for the love of...would you quit
being such a shithead?"
"No, it's a natural quality!"
Schuldich rolled his eyes. He yanked up the
phone and thrust it at Ken.
~Make him jealous goddammit otherwise I
swear I'll have a chat with that Ran guy!~
Ken gave the German the dirtiest glare he
could muster and yanked away the phone. "Hello?"
There was a silence.
Ken's stomach quaked. With great force he
managed to repeat himself.
"Where the hell is Schuldich?"
There it was again, that cold, clipped,
American accent. It gave Ken the creeps. "Erm..." He was mindful of
Schuldich 'don't-mess-this-up' gaze and racked his brain for some appropriate
excuse. "He's still sleeping," Ken said finally, after an
embarrassingly lengthy pause. "He...uh kinda had a late night."
There was another silence, this one even more
foreboding than the last. "And you were with him last night, I
assume?"
The phrase 'don't assume because it makes
an ASS out of U and ME' flit through Ken's mind as it always did when he
heard the word but he figured that it wouldn't be wise to impart his insight to
the likes of Brad Crawford. "Well yeah, we hung out for a bit. We're
really close like that."
"Are you now?" The American's voice
dropped a notch and Ken could find no words to describe it other than 'deadly'.
"L-look, can I take a message or
something?"
"No, I think not." And with those
curt words, he hung up.
"Shits above!" Ken shoved the
cordless at Schuldich. "I am never, never, never doing that again,
not for anything! I don't care if we have a deal or not because that guy is
crazy! I swear he's gonna kill me and you don't even-"
"Stop worrying," Schuldich
interrupted. "I'm gonna call him back in a bit."
"What?"
"This is exactly the perfect
time," the redhead went on. "My dear Bradley's all jealous and
moody."
Ken rolled his eyes. He didn't get why someone
as nice and down-to-earth as Schuldich was so busy mooning after a jackass like
Crawford. The guy sounded like a jerk of the first water!
"I'd rather you didn't insult my
boyfriend," Schuldich spoke up. "So you want something to eat? To
drink?"
"No," Ken grumbled. He sat down on
the sofa and folded his arms across his chest. "I think now would be a
good time to go over exactly what you want me to do."
The German sat down beside him.
"Meaning?"
"Well you know!" Ken huffed.
"You love Brad and all that but so far you've kissed me twice. Isn't that
like cheating or something? Am I supposed to be all physical with you? I'm not
really all that comfortable with public displays of affection. And besides, if
your dear Brad ever did see us, you know, getting it on for fake, he'd
kick my ass all the way to Malaysia!"
"Yeah he would," Schuldich sighed.
"He's so cute like that."
Ken's eyes bugged. "Are you shitting
me?!"
Schuldich laughed. "I'm just teasing you!
Look Ken, I like you. You're a great guy. Whatever you don't wanna do, you
don't have to. All I want is for you to hang around and play it by ear. Is that
cool?"
"You're not so bad yourself," Ken
said grudgingly. "I'll stick around and do what you want. Just promise me
that you won't let your rabid boyfriend murder me."
"Hey I don't like to make promises that I
can't keep."
Ken scowled. He went to belt the redhead a
good one but Schuldich was off the couch in a flash.
"You can't hit a telepath,"
Schuldich said smirking.
~You're a shitty assgoblin!~
Schuldich shook his head as he sat down across
from him. "You've really developed a potty-mouth, you know that?"
~Fuck you!~
One orange brow arched. "Got any
condoms?"
Ken snorted but couldn't help from grinning.
"You keep dreaming."
"Oh I will," Schuldich purred,
leering at him. "At least then you'll be putting that big mouth of yours
to better uses."
Ken was outraged, even as he reddened.
"I don't have a big mouth! If anything you're the one with a yap the size
of the Yellow River! No wonder your stupid boyfriend wants to break up with
you!"
"Brad doesn't wanna break up with
me."
"Yeah he does."
"What do you know? No he
doesn't!"
"I know lots and yes he does!"
"You don't know anything and no he
doesn't!"
"I know more than you! And oh yeah he
does!"
There was laughter as Nagi walked into the
living room. "Having another intellectual conversation are we? No wonder
you guys get along so well, you both have the same IQ. Negative one point
low."
"I happen to have a very high IQ,"
Schuldich bragged.
"Don't talk fiction," Ken
contradicted. "You're not fooling anyone."
Nagi snickered as he dumped his schoolbag onto
the floor. "Your boyfriend knows the real you, Schu."
Schuldich looked at Nagi's schoolbag and then
back at the boy. "What the hell're you doing home so early? What happened
to all your afternoon classes?"
"I decided to give myself a break,"
Nagi replied breezily. "Why do I have to keep learning useless
information? I'm happy with myself just the way I am."
"You skipped class again?" Schuldich
groaned loudly. "You stupid bastard! You know how much Bard hates when you
do that."
"Bard?" Ken tried hard not to laugh.
"You call the guy Bard? Bard as in a travelling minstrel?"
"Yeah and he hates it," Nagi piped
up. "Well I think I'm gonna go play some PS2 so I'll be-"
"Video games!" Ken jumped to his
feet. "Can I play with you?"
"No fucking video games!" Schuldich
thundered. "You do your homework right now! If you get shitty marks then
Bard'll cut off my friggin' balls!"
"Quit worrying mom, I'll do it
later. Yeah, you can play Ken. You ever play Smackdown?"
"Hell yeah." He waved amicably to
Schuldich as he followed Nagi from the room. "See ya later honey
bunches!"
Schuldich rolled his eyes. Nagi and Ken, two
dumbos in a pod. Both of them were like stupid little kids, all enthralled over
video games like that. He shook his head and had to smile. Ken was awfully
endearing though.
He got himself a drink before hunting down one
of Farfarello's sketch books. On the inside cover, he'd jotted down the phone number of Brad's hotel in Halifax,
Canada. Now that he was alone, he could finally make the long, overdue phone
call to his stupid boyfriend.
Schuldich went his bedroom, sat down on his
bed and dialled. After the hotel clerk connected him to Rm. 1108, the phone
rang three times before Brad answered.
His no-nonsense, cool voice was even sexier
then Schuldich remembered. A great weakness came over him and he realized then
how much he'd missed the American man. "Hey," he said softly, leaning
against the headboard. "It's me."
"Schuldich." Brad's voice also
softened, for just a fleeting moment before sharpening again. "Where the
hell have you been? You know I don't like to be kept waiting."
Schuldich rolled his eyes at Brad's lofty
arrogance. The spell between them was broken. It was now time for him to put
his plan into action. "Why? Is something wrong?"
"Of course nothing's wrong," Brad
bit out impatiently. "I want to know why you're avoiding me."
"Avoiding you?" Schuldich laughed
and knew that it must have annoyed Brad beyond bearing. He desperately wished
he could read minds across long distances. Brad's mind must have been swimming.
"Why would I avoid you? I swear you need to relax more or de-stress
yourself. Before you left didn't you say that you had a whole shitload of work
to do and didn't want to be disturbed? Remember that? I thought this business
trip was super important."
"Since when have you decided to concern
yourself about my work?" Brad demanded curtly.
That stung. In his mind's eye, images flashed
like neon lights. All the meetings he'd attended with and for Brad, the piles
of paperwork and research he'd done, the business lunches and pretentious parties
he'd attended, the countless number of minds he'd scanned...he hadn't done any
of that for himself. He didn't care about investing and clients and all that
financial shit. He only cared about Bradley Crawford!
And suddenly the truth, that which had always
stood before him, became glass-clear.
Could it be that whether he slaved over
business ventures eternally or met with dozen different partners a week, none
of it would matter? That everything he did was in vain because he was just a
possession to one who couldn't bear to ever lose?
"And since when do you actually inquire
after me?" Schuldich knew he sounded bitter but he couldn't help himself.
Brad chose to ignore that. "Who's this
Ken person? What's he doing in my apartment?"
"Why are-" And then Schuldich
stopped. He could hear a soft, accented voice talking to Brad, telling him that
their table was waiting. The time difference between Tokyo and Halifax was
twelve hours, making it exactly one o'clock in the morning in Nova Scotia. One
o'clock and Brad was with a lady that sounded uncannily like Emilia, all the
while questioning him about being with someone...
"You're with Emilia," he remarked as
evenly as he could.
"She's also here on business," Brad
ground out in a low, irritated voice. "If you're going to start acting
like-"
"Give her my regards," he
interrupted and hung up. He disconnected the phone and contemplated hurling the
whole device across the room but when was the last time throwing stuff had ever
helped anyone? Maybe if Brad was right in front of him...
Schuldich let his head fall back against the
wall with an audible thump. It hurt. "Fuck," he hissed,
staring up at the ceiling.
Even from across the world, Crawford had a
hold on him.
~*~*~*~*~
Ken was surprised to find that he actually
liked Nagi. The kid was sharp, witty and sarcastic. Strangely enough, he made
Ken feel at ease, as they bonded over beating the blood out of each other
playing WWE Smackdown III. Nagi talked about both Crawford and Schuldich and
Ken found his opinion of Crawford sinking to new depths. There was no getting
around the fact that the guy was a complete jackass. Schuldich, on the other
hand, was pretty much as he appeared but even Nagi didn't know a whole lot
about the German, only that he'd inherited a whole estate here in Tokyo from an
estranged great Uncle.
Their conversation and PS2 playing came to an
end when Nagi received a call on his cell from his Biology partner. Apparently
their term project had been stepped on by a plumber and then eaten by the
partner's dog.
Ken had to laugh at the look of acute agony on
the boy's face.
"Why'd you let Yanagimachi near the damn
thing!" Nagi shrieked. He caught sight of Ken sniggering and threw the
Parasite Eve game cover at him.
Ken took the hint and left Nagi's room. He
looked around through the common rooms for Schuldich but couldn't find him
anywhere. He headed back into the vast hallway that led to the bedrooms. He
could hear Nagi agreeing to come over and help salvage the remains of the project.
Ken turned right and saw that the door to Schuldich's bedroom was ajar. He
shuffled to the end of the corridor before sticking his head into the room.
Schuldich was standing before the enormous
picture window that dominated most of the right wall, looking out at the city.
"Hey," Ken said, venturing a few
steps into the room vast bedroom. "You mind if I come in? Nagi's gotta
leave. Something about a ruined Bio project."
The redhead didn't turn around. "You're
free to go."
"What?"
"You're free to go," Schuldich
repeated and his tone was flat. "The deal's off. This whole idea was
stupid. You were right, Nagi was right. I don't know what I was thinking. I'll
pay you what I promised but everything else is done."
Ken stared at the German. Done? How could
their charade be done? They had barely even started! A huge and entirely
unexpected wave of disappointment washed over him. "You can't stop
now," he blurted out. "Brad's already jealous!"
"That's not enough. Isn't that what you
told me?"
"Since when do I know anything?" Ken
couldn't believe what he was hearing. Schuldich had always been so confident!
"Jealousy's a start. That's what you said, right? Besides, you love
him! You can't just give up. That's stupid!"
Schuldich turned around and his jade-colored
eyes bore into Ken. "Why are so are adamant all of a sudden? You never
wanted to do this. You knew it was pointless from the beginning."
Ken crossed the room and came to stand beside
Schuldich. If the truth be known, he didn't know why exactly he was so
adamant, only that he didn't like seeing Schuldich like this. He was the
hopeless, clueless one, not Schuldich. "I like you," Ken replied
honestly. "You've given me a lot of good advice and we've become friends
haven't we?"
Schuldich didn't say anything for a while.
Then, rather abruptly, he asked, "Do you know what a catharsis is?"
"You mean like a cathartic release or
something?"
"Exactly." Schuldich touched his
finger to the windowpane and make squiggles upon the glass. "That's what I
had when I spoke to Brad a little while ago." He glanced at Ken.
"When your relationship to that Ran guy got to be too much to handle, you
quit. You knew you were just wasting your time. Sometimes you have to know
whether there's something left to hold onto or if what you're clinging to is
withered."
"And sometimes what looks like it's
withered really isn't." Ken shuffled uncomfortably. He wasn't good at this
sort of thing. "I never, ever expected Ran to tell me what he did
yesterday."
"I highly doubt that Brad is going to
suddenly confess his undying love to me," Schuldich muttered disgustedly.
"Either now or in a few years down the road."
"I don't get it. You were so optimistic
and convinced before. What did Brad say to you to make you change your mind?
You can't just go from one side to the other for no apparent reason."
"I'd rather not talk about it."
"But if you told me then maybe I could
help," Ken persisted. "It's the least I could do."
There was another silence before the German
suddenly spoke up. "He was with that Italian model Emilia."
Ken's eyes widened. "With with?"
"Does it make a difference?"
Schuldich spat acrimoniously. "He was giving me the third degree about you
while she was there the whole time!"
"You deserve better than him," Ken
said firmly. "He's a jerk. Just like Yohji."
"I thought I could deal with him,"
the redhead murmured. "I thought I could make him love me."
"You can't really make someone love
you," Ken ventured hesitantly. "You do know that, don't you?"
"Well yeah but I just wanted him
to..." Schuldich trailed off and sighed. "What does it matter? I need
to get outta here."
"Out? You're not leaving Brad are
you?"
"I'm not that smart," he muttered
wryly. "Most likely I'll angst and complain for a few hours and the I'll
be back here tomorrow, ready to start again. I'm such a fucking idiot."
"Join the club," Ken grumbled and he
also sighed. "Remember what you told me that day? The nicest guys always
fall for the biggest jerks. I guess that applies for the both of us, huh?"
Schuldich turned away. "I need to be
alone."
"But..." Ken was torn. He didn't
want to leave Schuldich alone, not after everything the older man had done for
him but at the same time he probably did need to be alone, just for a
little while at least. "We'll still see each other right?"
"I don't know if still need you."
Ken swallowed, struggling to press down the
hurt that swelled at Schuldich's casual words. He hoped Schuldich was too
preoccupied to read into his mind. "Okay," he said in a surprisingly
even tone of voice. His eyes stung. "I won't bother you."
Just another person who doesn't need me.
Ken walked out of the room, closing the door
behind him.
