Part 9

With trembling fingers Aya held out the small velvet box, "just take it, it could be a bomb."

Omi rolled his eyes and lifted the box without the care Aya had given it and flicked it open, then his large eyes softened and he smiled. "It's..." He stopped, showing Aya the contents of the box. On a small satin cushion was a pendant, it was a white geisha carved on a bed of deep pink. It was, in fact, a cameo, and, judging by the expression on Omi's face, a very expensive one.

"What is this fascination he has with buying me pink things?" Aya asked laying his head on the table.

Ken looked over at the pendant. "Maybe he thinks the colour suits you." He said.

"Thin ice, Siberian." Aya growled. "Pink suits the florist fan girls, not the most cold blooded assassin in the Kritiker stables."

"You haven't seen tomorrow's kimono then." Ken said rinsing the dishes in the sink before he put them into the washing bowl. "It's not so much pink as coral." Aya graced him with a "full factor five shi-ne glare".

"And Manx was at the party." Aya moaned picking up the dregs of his tea and draining the cup in dismay, "and she didn't recognise me, but I thought she was checking up on me so I got her into the bathroom and she was about to attack me and now it will be all over Kritiker that I was in drag." He raised his head with a look of total dismay, "and she would have seen me with Crawford." His hand went to his face. "Oh, god, she'll tell Yohji."

"You haven't told Yohji?" Omi asked, wide eyed and terrified.

"Oh dear god, he's going to blow up." Ken said turning.

"He's always considered you his, and a customer's one thing," Omi added, "but Crawford's like us."

"And gorgeous." Ken added. Everyone turned to look at him. "Hey, I can't be the only one that noticed that. His butt's nearly as good as Aya's,"

"I thought you were straight." Omi said looking at Ken in a new light.

"And I am," Ken said raising his head, "but I'm confident enough in my own sexuality to find another man sexy."

"Bi." Omi corrected.

"Denial." Aya offered.

"And I was going to make you tea." Ken said in a dark tone.

"Well, win-win then." Omi said with a giant grin.

"Thanks for the offer, but no." Aya said standing up. "I'm going to bed, are you coming, Omi?"

Omi grinned at Aya with his hands clasped at his shoulders, "why, Ayan, I didn't know you felt that way." He gushed, standing up.

"Omi, my sweet." Aya said with heavy eyes and a faint smile, "I have always felt that way about you, but tonight, I just need help getting out of all this lingerie."

At the sink Ken turned bright red. "I so didn't need to hear that."

Crawford looked at Nagi and drummed his fingertips on the table. The boy was slightly green from over indulging on mushroom vol-au-vents at the party. He was also up well past his bedtime so he was tired, cranky, and stuffed with hors d'oeuvres and not in the mood for this. He was also in a pair of flannel pyjamas with small skeletons on them and a stuffed donkey under his arm. "I warned you." Crawford said. "That you weren't to eat too much because you'd be sick."

Nagi just frowned and if anything looked a little more grey. "Take some alka-seltzer, Schuldig will have some, and try to remember the next time I try to warn you off shell-fish that I can see the future."

"Yes, Oracle." Nagi said, shuffling his clown face slippers back and forth on the hotel carpet. He looked genuinely sorry as well as ill.

"Now do you think you've stopped being sick?" Nagi nodded slowly. "Do you want me to watch over you tonight?" Nagi shook his head. "Now give me a hug and run along to bed. I think your poorly tummy is punishment enough for your disobedience." Nagi got up and crossed the room, giving Crawford a hug like he always did, sniffling a little and then went to bed. "Oh, and Nagi," Crawford called from behind him. "You might want to bring a bucket with you."

As Nagi left Schuldig popped his head around the door. "Is it all clear?" He asked.

"I will kill you." Crawford said leaning back on his chair and crossing his legs. The light sheeted across his glasses and if he had have had a white cat he would have been stroking it. "You have no idea how skittish she is."

"No," Schuldig said, "her shields are like yours, and when her shields were down all she was thinking was "Ohmigod he's going to kiss me."

"Was she repulsed at all?" Crawford asked, leaning forward.

"Not as far as I could see, more apprehensive. Like she's not used to being kissed." He screwed up his face and thought about it, "so how's the munchkin?"

"As sick as a dog." Crawford answered. "Also, did you send doctored muffins to the Ichirogo Okiya?"

Schuldig chortled to himself, "yeah." He said. "They were my special ipecac muffins with ex-lax chocolate chips. It's an ancient German recipe first thought of in the hills of Weimar."

"And you sent them to the geisha Murasakiiro." Crawford pressed leaning back again.

"Yeah, why?" Schuldig asked.

"You complete and utter idiot, you tried to poison my date." He pulled his magnum from his jacket pocket and pointed it at the German.

Schuldig shrugged it off. "Well I wasn't to know. This girl I was seeing said it would be funny. Apparently she's like the most popular girl in the city and that it would be comeuppance." He stopped himself, "but it was Farfarello's idea really."

"You actually poisoned her Maiko." Crawford answered. "And they call you mastermind."

"I poisoned a chibi-geisha?" He thought about it. "Hey that's more fun than getting a full sized one. I'll send some flowers to apologise. What's the kid's name?"

"Aoi."

Schuldig thought about it, "why are you only threatening me with the magnum and not shooting holes in the plaster? I know you didn't get some because I interrupted." He looked at Crawford with narrowed eyes. "There's something going on here that I'm not getting."

"You made her Maiko sick." Crawford answered, "which means no chaperone. However, try anything like that again and I will have your hide, Schuldig."

"Certainly, oh wise and venerable elder." He went to leave.

"And Schuldig, interrupt me again and I will bake you in a pie, laced in ipecac and studded with ex-lax chocolate chips." He stood up.

"You've got it bad for this girl, aint ya?" Schuldig said, about to get ready to go clubbing. Crawford just laughed.

Yohji Kudoh was in a foul temper. He sat at the bar and ground out his cigarette far past the point where it was actually out. "anyone sitting here?" A particularly nasal voice asked him. He turned his head to be greeted by a pair of narrow jade eyes and bright ginger hair.

"Knock yourself out." He said.

"Hey, barkeep, two jacks for me and my friend." Schuldig called out. "Now why is such a pretty kitty sitting in a place like this looking so sad?"

"He hates me." Yohji almost bawled out. Any sense of decorum having left him three whiskeys and two vodkas ago. "I love him and he abandons me because I can't afford time with him."

"That's some boy." Schuldig mused, knocking back his shot with only a slight judder.

"We're only in this damn city to find child smugglers and no one has time for reconnaissance because Aya's sooooo busy, they had to pencil me in for dinner and then he was too drunk." Yohji had drunk far too much for him to be telling Schuldig this.

"I can't imagine Abyssinian drunk." Schuldig said patiently. He didn't even have to give mental hints to Yohji to make him talk, alcohol and bad temper were doing it for him.

"Well he was, so drunk he had to go to bed before he went out again." Yohji sniffed. "And then I had to drive him tonight and he wouldn't speak to me, just kept saying Shi-ne, and I love him." He laid his head down on the bar. The barman moved to hint that Schuldig should take him home but Schuldig just waved him away. "I've always loved him and now some man is taking him out and buying him expensive gifts, and the only way I can get time with him is if Ken pencils me in."

"Come on, Yohji, lets get you home before you pass out." Schuldig said.

"I'm not going to sleep with you." Yohji pointed out succinctly.

"Well gosh darn it, I'll just have to cry myself to sleep tonight." It was nicely sarcastic. "God, you're worse than Oracle when you drink, do you know that and he was threatening to bake me in a pie."

"Why?" Yohji asked, he was leaning on Schuldig as he led him out of the bar and into the cool night air of Kyoto.

"Teasing him, saying that he looked like Tom Cruise mostly." Schuldig flagged down a passing taxi and hefted Yohji into it. "And that he'd look lovely in a dress, and then interrupting his wooing because Takatori wanted him."

"Aya was there tonight." Yohji said, laying his head on Schuldig's shoulder. "You smell good."

"Abyssinian was at that party?" Schuldig asked, suddenly interested in the drunken babbling. "I was there, I didn't see him."

"Was in blue." Yohji slurred, he was fast falling asleep. "Looked a million dollars." Schuldig thought hard about it but he couldn't remember seeing Abyssinian at all. "Was with his best customer." Schuldig wracked his brains trying to remember if he had even seen a gay couple there tonight, because if he was understanding Yohji correctly it seemed that Abyssinian was undercover as a male host.

"And...?" Schuldig pressed, but Yohji was already asleep.

Crawford opened the door to Nagi's bedroom carefully so as not to wake him. Exactly as he had predicted, Nagi had fallen asleep with his head over the bucket. He laughed to himself a little before arranging the teen back on his pillow, and wiping his mouth down with a wet wipe.

"Crawford?" Nagi asked opening one eye.

"Yes," Crawford asked, laying his palm on Nagi's forehead to make sure he wasn't feverish before tucking the blanket in tight about him. "Go back to sleep."

"Night." The boy murmured, closing his eyes.

Crawford settled down on the chair by the bed despite that Nagi hadn't wanted him to look over him whilst he slept Crawford felt at peace there. He was the closest thing the boy had ever had to a parent and although he had started out intending to be like a big brother he had ended up as a father, a rather affectionate one at that. He looked at the piece of paper that Murasakiiro, no he caught himself, Aya, had put in his pocket at some point without noticing. It was a triolet of verses, one written painstakingly in English with a precise and rather meticulous script the other was a pair of genuine haiku.

"I find myself at odds with the emotion in your bright golden eyes." and "love is not love where love's questioned, love is not love where love's not wanted."

He read it over and over knowing that she had written it for him, the paper even smelt of her perfume. She had sat down somewhere and with a distinct and careful hand had written out the haiku in lavender coloured ink.

A flower was offered to me:

Such a flower as May never bore.

But I said "I've a Pretty Rose-tree",

And I passed the sweet flower o'er.

Then I went to my Pretty Rose-tree:

To tend her by day and by night.

But my Rose turn'd away with jealousy:

And her thorns were my only delight.1

Crawford smiled to himself, looking at how peaceful Nagi looked and drinking in the scent of the paper. It seemed that in the game for Murasakiiro's affections, he was winning.

1 The Pretty Rose-Tree by William Blake