[A/N: Sorry for the snail updates, guys. My "Insomnia" audience was getting
quite restless.]
Confessions [15]
...
"Well," Brad said, his voice almost amused, "I didn't see this coming. I'm impressed; it's gutsy."
Schuldig chuckled and lit a cigarette. "I'm not here to impress you, Brad."
Brad sat back in his office chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "So, tell me, how's the forbidden romance coming along?"
"You're such an asshole, did you know that?"
"I take it it's not well." Brad raised his eyebrows.
Schuldig pulled up a chair to sit down on, not waiting for an invitation to do so. "I didn't come here to talk about that."
"In that case, it must be Nagi who's on your mind."
"Bingo, Mr. Oracle." Schuldig blew out the smoke from his cigarette. "That was a very stupid way to treat the kid."
"Oh?"
"If you ask me, it isn't the best idea to screw around with someone who can literally throw you into infinity with a nod of his head."
Brad chuckled sinisterly. "You've always had such a way of saying things, Schuldig, but I think I'll 'screw around' with whomever I like. Besides, he's just a child; he has no idea what to do with his powers, mind- blowing as they may be."
"Bottom line, Brad, is that your brilliant plans are useless without us, and we both know that."
"Is that a threat?"
"Threaten you?" Schuldig said, mocking shock. "Never. It's more of a warning than a threat. I'm not a man who needs any sort of stability in life. I have no problems with leaving."
~
"You're still out there, aren't you?" Ken had calmed down a bit in- between the long periods of silence between him and Ran.
"I told you, I'm not leaving until you tell me what happened." Ran still sat against the wall with his legs stretched out in front of him.
"You really don't remember anything?"
Ran sighed and hit the back of his head against the wall. "I was looking for Yohji because he wasn't down in the shop like he was supposed to be, and I ran into you upstairs. I somehow managed to piss you off so you ran down to the kitchen, and I followed you. Next thing I know, my head feels empty and you're telling me that if I ever touch you again, you'll kill me."
Yohji and Omi sat on the stairs, eavesdropping. "Well, I think it's about time to face the music," Yohji said and moved to stand up, but Omi pulled him back down.
"No, not yet."
"What?" Yohji asked with a certain amount of surprise in his voice. Omi was the walking conscience of the group. If anything, Yohji expected him to drag him over to confess right away.
"This is good," Omi explained. "If they get through this by themselves then all this nonsense will stop."
"You know, you may be right." Yohji settled back down on the steps.
"Of course I'm right." Omi winked.
Ken stayed silent for a while, contemplating what Ran had been telling him. "You don't remember the kiss at all?"
That took Ran back a bit. "Of course I remember." He briefly wondered what that had to do with anything; it was the night before that Ken kissed him, after all. "Is that what this is about?"
"What?" Omi and Yohji said at the same time.
"I thought you said Schuldig was controlling his mind," Omi whispered to him, making sure to keep his voice low enough as not to be heard by the others.
"He was!" Yohji insisted. "You think Aya would do something like that on his own?"
"Aya, what are you trying to do to me?" Ken asked, half in desperation and half in anger. He hid his face in his hands.
"What am I doing to YOU?!" Ran felt like he were about to claw his eyes out. "How could that have possibly been my fault?"
"Who the hell else do you suggest I blame for that!?" Ken raised his voice.
Yohji and Omi winced.
"How about yourself?" Ran retorted. "You're the one who kissed me, idiot!"
Yohji tried to place everything in his mind. "What is he talking about?"
"I think I get it," Omi said, a sense of understanding evident on his face. "You said that since Schuldig was controlling him, Aya-kun would not be able to remember anything he did that morning."
"Right."
"Then, if Ken-kun asked about the kiss, and he said he remembered it, he must've been talking about another incident that we just don't know about."
Meanwhile, some of the same things were arranging themselves in Ken's mind. Determinately, he stood up and opened the door, walking out into the hallway.
"Ken," Ran said, surprise taking over his voice as he pulled himself up off the ground.
"I believe you," Ken said quietly and draped his arms around Ran's neck, pulling himself closer.
Ran's eyes widened for a moment. Well, he didn't see this coming. "Why?" He asked, baffled at what could have possibly changed Ken's mind so quickly.
"Because when I asked about the kiss," Ken began, not wanting to pull away, "you thought about the one last night right away, as if there were no other ones."
"There were," Ran scrunched his eyebrows, "other ones?"
~
"Whoa," Schuldig said as he stepped into Nagi's hospital room. "What's with all the sunshine, kid?" He looked over at the window and raised an eyebrow, noting the flowers there.
"Flowers die without the sun," Nagi replied blankly.
Schuldig pulled a chair up to the bed and sat down on it. "So, what do you say we get out of here?"
"And go where?"
"Home, of course."
Nagi looked up at him suddenly, shock and confusion mixed in his eyes. "What?"
"Don't worry about it. Everything's taken care of."
"I knew you'd say something like that." Nagi frowned. "Is that what you've been out doing all day?"
Schuldig laughed. "No, not exactly. My conversation with Brad didn't last more than ten minutes, actually."
"Then where have you been?"
"Well, it's a hell of a story if you really want to know." Schuldig thus began explaining the whole tragedy to Nagi, details of which you are well familiar with already.
~
"What's going on? Is there a mission?" Ken asked as he walked down the narrow stairs to the basement.
"Not exactly," Omi replied from his seat on the couch. Ken walked in curiously and sat down next to him.
"Well, now that you're all gathered here, I guess I should just get this over with, huh?" Yohji stood up in front of them.
"Don't worry, Yohji-kun, they'll understand." Omi smiled up at him.
"Oi," Ken said and elbowed him, "you know about this?"
"I'm here for moral support."
"We don't have all day," Ran spoke up from the back of the room. He stood against a wall, looking very irritated.
"Aya, Aya," Yohji said, good-naturedly, "please be in a good mood for this."
"You have five seconds to stop stalling," was the response.
Yohji took a deep breath. He then began explaining the whole tragedy to the other members of Weiss, details of which you, as well as Omi and Nagi, are well familiar with already.
After the lengthy monologue, Omi had a look of momentary shock on his face. True, he's known all this already, but he had no idea Yohji had the ability to talk that fast.
"I think I want to kill you," Ken said, mesmerized.
Ran pushed himself off the wall and calmly walked across the room to the stairs.
"Aya-kun," Omi said sweetly, "if you're going to get your katana, you should know that I made sure to hide it."
Ran stopped on the second step and turned around to walk back into the room. So the kid thought ahead. "And what voice inside your head told you that it would be a good idea to sleep with the enemy?"
Yohji sighed and rolled his eyes. "I didn't sleep with him, Aya."
"You sleep with everything. How do you expect me to believe that?"
"That was harsh."
Ken suddenly stood up, walked over to Yohji and punched him in the face, sending him back a few steps.
"That was harsher," Yohji concluded and inspected the blood seeping through his lip.
"Yohji-kun," Omi said worriedly and walked over to examine the situation.
"You deserved that," Ken said as he calmed down a bit. Punching Yohji made for a very good release of anger.
"Agreed," Omi piped in.
Yohji frowned but allowed Omi to look at his lip. "Whose side are you on anyway?"
"I wanted to kill myself ten times every hour for the whole day!" Ken was being dramatic. "Do you have any idea how many possible suicides that is?"
"Two-hundred and forty," Omi quickly calculated.
"Putting all things aside." Ken went on. "I mean, not even considering that your idea was stupid because that's just obvious; why didn't you say anything right away? You just let me and Aya piss each other off the whole day!"
"That," Omi confessed, "was my idea."
"Are you kidding me?" Ken threw his arms up in the air.
"Hear us out, Ken-kun. We had good intentions. Even Schuldig meant well." Omi sighed and sat down, ending his inspection of Yohji's broken lip. "Some of your fights were so ridiculous, and he and Yohji saw that. I suppose they were trying to help you put those things aside. Technically, had Schuldig not slipped up and accidentally said Yohji's name, it could have worked very well."
"And I was going to tell you a while ago," Yohji picked up the explanation, "but Omi pointed out that it might do you good if you just worked it out on your own. You have to admit, that part worked."
"It's not right to screw with people's minds like that!" Ken was still wound up.
"How could you have trusted Schwarz?" Compared to Ken, Ran was actually doing a rather good job of staying calm.
Yohji looked up at Ran and then back to Ken. "So," he said, not sure where to defend himself first, "is it worse that I was with the enemy or that what we did made you two hate each other for the day?"
"What kind of question is that?" Ken asked, as if the answer were obvious. "What you did to us."
However, he barely managed to finish his reply before Ran said, "that you were with the enemy."
Omi raised his eyebrows and looked around at everyone present.
Ken watched Ran, for a moment, with a look of hurt surprise on his face. "Of course," he said, dejectedly, "I think I understand now." He took a few steps towards Ran and looked down at the ground. "To you, it's like none of this happened, so of course, nothing has changed. It's my fault, really, that I was too dense to see it before. Anything for a mission, right Aya?" Not tearing his eyes away from the floor, Ken walked past Ran and up the stairs.
"It's just one thing after another with you two, isn't it?" Yohji watched him leave. "Kami-sama."
Confessions [15]
...
"Well," Brad said, his voice almost amused, "I didn't see this coming. I'm impressed; it's gutsy."
Schuldig chuckled and lit a cigarette. "I'm not here to impress you, Brad."
Brad sat back in his office chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "So, tell me, how's the forbidden romance coming along?"
"You're such an asshole, did you know that?"
"I take it it's not well." Brad raised his eyebrows.
Schuldig pulled up a chair to sit down on, not waiting for an invitation to do so. "I didn't come here to talk about that."
"In that case, it must be Nagi who's on your mind."
"Bingo, Mr. Oracle." Schuldig blew out the smoke from his cigarette. "That was a very stupid way to treat the kid."
"Oh?"
"If you ask me, it isn't the best idea to screw around with someone who can literally throw you into infinity with a nod of his head."
Brad chuckled sinisterly. "You've always had such a way of saying things, Schuldig, but I think I'll 'screw around' with whomever I like. Besides, he's just a child; he has no idea what to do with his powers, mind- blowing as they may be."
"Bottom line, Brad, is that your brilliant plans are useless without us, and we both know that."
"Is that a threat?"
"Threaten you?" Schuldig said, mocking shock. "Never. It's more of a warning than a threat. I'm not a man who needs any sort of stability in life. I have no problems with leaving."
~
"You're still out there, aren't you?" Ken had calmed down a bit in- between the long periods of silence between him and Ran.
"I told you, I'm not leaving until you tell me what happened." Ran still sat against the wall with his legs stretched out in front of him.
"You really don't remember anything?"
Ran sighed and hit the back of his head against the wall. "I was looking for Yohji because he wasn't down in the shop like he was supposed to be, and I ran into you upstairs. I somehow managed to piss you off so you ran down to the kitchen, and I followed you. Next thing I know, my head feels empty and you're telling me that if I ever touch you again, you'll kill me."
Yohji and Omi sat on the stairs, eavesdropping. "Well, I think it's about time to face the music," Yohji said and moved to stand up, but Omi pulled him back down.
"No, not yet."
"What?" Yohji asked with a certain amount of surprise in his voice. Omi was the walking conscience of the group. If anything, Yohji expected him to drag him over to confess right away.
"This is good," Omi explained. "If they get through this by themselves then all this nonsense will stop."
"You know, you may be right." Yohji settled back down on the steps.
"Of course I'm right." Omi winked.
Ken stayed silent for a while, contemplating what Ran had been telling him. "You don't remember the kiss at all?"
That took Ran back a bit. "Of course I remember." He briefly wondered what that had to do with anything; it was the night before that Ken kissed him, after all. "Is that what this is about?"
"What?" Omi and Yohji said at the same time.
"I thought you said Schuldig was controlling his mind," Omi whispered to him, making sure to keep his voice low enough as not to be heard by the others.
"He was!" Yohji insisted. "You think Aya would do something like that on his own?"
"Aya, what are you trying to do to me?" Ken asked, half in desperation and half in anger. He hid his face in his hands.
"What am I doing to YOU?!" Ran felt like he were about to claw his eyes out. "How could that have possibly been my fault?"
"Who the hell else do you suggest I blame for that!?" Ken raised his voice.
Yohji and Omi winced.
"How about yourself?" Ran retorted. "You're the one who kissed me, idiot!"
Yohji tried to place everything in his mind. "What is he talking about?"
"I think I get it," Omi said, a sense of understanding evident on his face. "You said that since Schuldig was controlling him, Aya-kun would not be able to remember anything he did that morning."
"Right."
"Then, if Ken-kun asked about the kiss, and he said he remembered it, he must've been talking about another incident that we just don't know about."
Meanwhile, some of the same things were arranging themselves in Ken's mind. Determinately, he stood up and opened the door, walking out into the hallway.
"Ken," Ran said, surprise taking over his voice as he pulled himself up off the ground.
"I believe you," Ken said quietly and draped his arms around Ran's neck, pulling himself closer.
Ran's eyes widened for a moment. Well, he didn't see this coming. "Why?" He asked, baffled at what could have possibly changed Ken's mind so quickly.
"Because when I asked about the kiss," Ken began, not wanting to pull away, "you thought about the one last night right away, as if there were no other ones."
"There were," Ran scrunched his eyebrows, "other ones?"
~
"Whoa," Schuldig said as he stepped into Nagi's hospital room. "What's with all the sunshine, kid?" He looked over at the window and raised an eyebrow, noting the flowers there.
"Flowers die without the sun," Nagi replied blankly.
Schuldig pulled a chair up to the bed and sat down on it. "So, what do you say we get out of here?"
"And go where?"
"Home, of course."
Nagi looked up at him suddenly, shock and confusion mixed in his eyes. "What?"
"Don't worry about it. Everything's taken care of."
"I knew you'd say something like that." Nagi frowned. "Is that what you've been out doing all day?"
Schuldig laughed. "No, not exactly. My conversation with Brad didn't last more than ten minutes, actually."
"Then where have you been?"
"Well, it's a hell of a story if you really want to know." Schuldig thus began explaining the whole tragedy to Nagi, details of which you are well familiar with already.
~
"What's going on? Is there a mission?" Ken asked as he walked down the narrow stairs to the basement.
"Not exactly," Omi replied from his seat on the couch. Ken walked in curiously and sat down next to him.
"Well, now that you're all gathered here, I guess I should just get this over with, huh?" Yohji stood up in front of them.
"Don't worry, Yohji-kun, they'll understand." Omi smiled up at him.
"Oi," Ken said and elbowed him, "you know about this?"
"I'm here for moral support."
"We don't have all day," Ran spoke up from the back of the room. He stood against a wall, looking very irritated.
"Aya, Aya," Yohji said, good-naturedly, "please be in a good mood for this."
"You have five seconds to stop stalling," was the response.
Yohji took a deep breath. He then began explaining the whole tragedy to the other members of Weiss, details of which you, as well as Omi and Nagi, are well familiar with already.
After the lengthy monologue, Omi had a look of momentary shock on his face. True, he's known all this already, but he had no idea Yohji had the ability to talk that fast.
"I think I want to kill you," Ken said, mesmerized.
Ran pushed himself off the wall and calmly walked across the room to the stairs.
"Aya-kun," Omi said sweetly, "if you're going to get your katana, you should know that I made sure to hide it."
Ran stopped on the second step and turned around to walk back into the room. So the kid thought ahead. "And what voice inside your head told you that it would be a good idea to sleep with the enemy?"
Yohji sighed and rolled his eyes. "I didn't sleep with him, Aya."
"You sleep with everything. How do you expect me to believe that?"
"That was harsh."
Ken suddenly stood up, walked over to Yohji and punched him in the face, sending him back a few steps.
"That was harsher," Yohji concluded and inspected the blood seeping through his lip.
"Yohji-kun," Omi said worriedly and walked over to examine the situation.
"You deserved that," Ken said as he calmed down a bit. Punching Yohji made for a very good release of anger.
"Agreed," Omi piped in.
Yohji frowned but allowed Omi to look at his lip. "Whose side are you on anyway?"
"I wanted to kill myself ten times every hour for the whole day!" Ken was being dramatic. "Do you have any idea how many possible suicides that is?"
"Two-hundred and forty," Omi quickly calculated.
"Putting all things aside." Ken went on. "I mean, not even considering that your idea was stupid because that's just obvious; why didn't you say anything right away? You just let me and Aya piss each other off the whole day!"
"That," Omi confessed, "was my idea."
"Are you kidding me?" Ken threw his arms up in the air.
"Hear us out, Ken-kun. We had good intentions. Even Schuldig meant well." Omi sighed and sat down, ending his inspection of Yohji's broken lip. "Some of your fights were so ridiculous, and he and Yohji saw that. I suppose they were trying to help you put those things aside. Technically, had Schuldig not slipped up and accidentally said Yohji's name, it could have worked very well."
"And I was going to tell you a while ago," Yohji picked up the explanation, "but Omi pointed out that it might do you good if you just worked it out on your own. You have to admit, that part worked."
"It's not right to screw with people's minds like that!" Ken was still wound up.
"How could you have trusted Schwarz?" Compared to Ken, Ran was actually doing a rather good job of staying calm.
Yohji looked up at Ran and then back to Ken. "So," he said, not sure where to defend himself first, "is it worse that I was with the enemy or that what we did made you two hate each other for the day?"
"What kind of question is that?" Ken asked, as if the answer were obvious. "What you did to us."
However, he barely managed to finish his reply before Ran said, "that you were with the enemy."
Omi raised his eyebrows and looked around at everyone present.
Ken watched Ran, for a moment, with a look of hurt surprise on his face. "Of course," he said, dejectedly, "I think I understand now." He took a few steps towards Ran and looked down at the ground. "To you, it's like none of this happened, so of course, nothing has changed. It's my fault, really, that I was too dense to see it before. Anything for a mission, right Aya?" Not tearing his eyes away from the floor, Ken walked past Ran and up the stairs.
"It's just one thing after another with you two, isn't it?" Yohji watched him leave. "Kami-sama."