Part 3
Nagi looked away from the sweet stand at the counter to see where the god awful wailing was coming from. Holding a packet of strawberry and cream boiled sweets he didn't know whether to cry or laugh. Shock warred with hilarity as he saw Aya Fujimiya standing, obviously wanting the ground to open up and swallow him, as a small baby in a pink frock squalled her heart out in front of him.
"Schuldig." He started, tugging on Schuldig's sleeve.
"Look, unless it involves candy covered chestnuts, kiddo, I'm not interested." Schuldig said, continuing to pay for his groceries with single yen pieces thoroughly enjoying the mental anguish it was causing the lady behind the counter. "And will someone sort out that baby?" He added, turning around to see the disturbance. "Camera," he said, "camera," he repeated tugging on Nagi's sleeve, "I need a camera."
"I haven't got one." Nagi answered, too shocked to do anything but stare blankly at the scene unfolding before him.
Aya had obviously decided to just live with his overwhelming mortification as he was squatting in front of the push chair trying, and failing, to stop the child screaming. "It's all right, shush," he undid the clasp and picked her up, remarkably knowledgeable for an assassin, bouncing her, one hand on her diaper and the other on the back of her head.
Schuldig threw down a ten thousand yen note and murmured keep the change as he shook his head, moving to rescue Abyssinian, although Crawford denied that there was anything between them, far too vehemently for Schuldig to even believe him a little, he'd never hear the end of it if he left him to suffer. He opened a package of cheese chunks and holding it out, like an offering, he approached the baby.
"Get away from her, Schwarz." Aya snarled, turning away, his foot hooked around the wheel just in case he decided to snatch the push chair.
"Look, peace offering." He said, holding out the square of cheese, "the women say that this will calm her. I'm giving away Farfarello's cheddar here, so at least let me try."
Aya snatched the cheese lump and offered it to the baby, she grabbed it in her fist and kept screaming. "Shush," he murmured. "Shush, come on little one, everyone's looking."
"Well, that worked." Schuldig said sarcastically. "So, what else can make little Miho happy?" He had obviously taken the name from one of the women that had grabbed Aya minutes before.
Nagi lifted the well gummed and rather smelly stuffed toy from the push chair and held it out to Miho with his power, floating it over to her, and letting her grab it with the fist not holding the cheese. She gummed the cheese and snuffled into the plushie's fur. Then she smiled at him over Aya's shoulder. "Well, she likes the chibi." Schuldig said with a shrug, "I'm going to take the shopping home. Help the kitten, kiddo, and I'll see you later." He rolled his shoulders. "I'm not Crawford but even I can foretell that if you walk away, Nagi, that kid's gonna start squalling again. If you have to stay the night, phone ahead, oh, and chibi," He bent down to look carefully at Nagi, "remember, I can read your mind before you do something that Crawford will blame me for."
"Schuldig," Nagi called after him as he went to leave the supermarket, "you better feed my cat."
Nagi pushed the push chair full of shopping as Aya carried Mihana, the push chair was nearly as tall as he was, and definitely weighed more, laden down with all the food that Aya had bought, before they walked back to the florists. He and Aya had always gotten along well because neither were given to overt displays of affection or long winded conversations, in fact they could both be sullen and silent together. What Nagi didn't know was that Aya had agreed to it so he had someone else to sacrifice to the fan-girls the way he had Omi.
"Shouldn't we go through the back door?" He said as they approached the shop, it was swarming with girls, and he thought, but couldn't be sure, that he could see Yohji being carried off by the tide of oestrogen that permeated the shop. "I mean." He didn't say anything else.
"Can't," Aya said, "push chair's too big, doesn't fit." He was mentally preparing himself, with any luck he could just shove Nagi the way he had Omi and run, and be safely into either the greenhouse or the back before anyone noticed he was even there.
"How about we carry the baby in, and collapse the push chair?" Nagi looked at him with incredibly intelligent eyes and Aya sweat dropped, he hadn't thought of that, at all. He had a habit of doing that, missing something so completely obvious as he looked for a more intelligent answer, and obvious links missed him entirely, but if it was tenuous or involved hours of intensive study, as well as self deprivation, he was the man for the job. "You didn't think of that, did you?" Nagi asked as they walked down the alley down the side of the shop. Aya shook his head. "Omi told me about the what-tur-bid." He managed to say it in a single syllable with not even a hint of a smile, "how you spent the whole day looking it up after seeing it on a shop window, before Yohji pointed out it was pronounced water bed."
"It wasn't that funny." Aya growled, opening the back door to the shop.
"No," Nagi admitted, "the priceless one in that book with the dark age north man called Eric."
"I'm sure lots of people didn't notice it was Eric the Viking." Aya said, settling Mihana down in the basket so that he could help Nagi with the shopping. She was asleep and happily sucking on the chunk of cheese that Schuldig had given them.
It suddenly occurred to him that Aya Fujimiya had his hands free, and was perfectly capable of killing him, although not necessarily from a look though his glares were pretty vicious. He really wasn't the best person to tease, especially as he was the person that allowed him to see his boyfriend. Schuldig and Farfarello let him see Omi, and kept the secret from Crawford, but Aya let Omi see him. "Well, I'll make some tea." He said realising that he was in imminent danger.
"Leave water in the kettle," Aya said going out to get the rest of the shopping, "she'll be hungry when she wakes up."
"Where'd she come from?" Nagi asked as he turned on the tap to fill the kettle, "I mean, the kitten you gave me I can explain, that freaky doctor that blew himself up gave you that. Is there more than one freaky doctor that likes you?"
"She's Angora, one of Persia's secretaries', daughter, I'm just looking after her for a few days." Aya lied. "I doubt that even the freaky doctors that I attract are mad enough to give me babies."
"Where did you get so good with babies?" He asked, arranging five cups for the tea.
"That, Nagi, is a very long story." He said, measuring out several spoons of formula into several bottles. He was setting up enough food for the rest of the day and the night. Nagi realised from the silence that followed that that was all the answer he was going to get.
Ken looked around the shop to see if anyone would notice, before he slipped into the back room to see if he could get some tea or soda or possibly some valium for the three of them in the shop. He walked into the room backwards, sometimes the fan-girls followed him if he wasn't entirely careful and walked into the young man behind him with a tray. "God, Aya, I am so sorry," he said picking up the pieces of the broken crockery before it even occurred to him that it wasn't Aya that he was helping. It was Nagi, Schwarz Nagi, one of his absolute worst enemies, in his kitchen, with tea.
He scuttled backwards, his legs flailing as he pushed himself back on his ass to the wall, "sch," he managed, "sch," he tried again, "schwarz." He said pointing.
"Vuh," Nagi said putting the last of the broken crockery on the tray, "Vuh," he said standing up with a smile, "weiss." He put the tray down on the table.
"Ken," Aya said coming in with the last of the shopping bags, "what are you doing there?"
"Schwarz." He answered pointing.
"It's just Nagi." Aya answered, "god, Ken," he said looking at the broken tea set, "that's the third set this month, if this carries on we're going to be reduced to using plastic cups."
"It was my fault, Aya-san." Nagi said, "I wasn't looking where I was going?"
"I was walking backwards." Ken admitted ruefully.
"As long as neither of you got scalded." He said, "I'm going to take Mih," he stopped and looked at Nagi "ho upstairs and put her down for a nap, clean up the mess, boys, and I might let you live."
Nagi looked at the mountain of food that was on the plate before him and gaped. Normally in the Schwarz household Crawford cooked for Nagi and himself, and it was fair game for the others, it wasn't unusual at all for Schuldig to steal food off Nagi's plate if he wasn't quick enough to defend it. Everyone in the Weiss household however was being fed enough to last Schwarz a week. It was stir fry and rice and strips of honey glazed chicken that Aya had made himself from scratch. Nagi knew that because he'd watched him. He'd even helped, more out of the demand that if he wasn't going to help to make himself scarce than any real desire to cook.
"For what we are about to receive," Ken said lifting his chopsticks, "Aya, we are truly grateful."
Omi lifted a large chunk from his stir fry, "ooh, mushrooms." He ate it with genuine delight, chewing and grinning at the same time which was really cute to watch.
"Nagi," Yohji said looking at him strangely, "aren't you hungry?" Nagi didn't know whether this concern for him was genuine or whether Balinese was trying to steal his food. He felt uncomfortable sitting at this table with the assassin group sworn to kill him as they were feeding him. He knew that they hadn't poisoned him, because he had watched, and even helped, make dinner, it was just the concern that they were showing to make sure he ate, or if he was slow enough that they could steal his dinner.
It wasn't like this at home. He thought as they all stared at him, "sorry," he apologised looking at his food, "it's not like this at home."
"You're too skinny," Aya said firmly, cutting off the conversation, "eat, everything on that plate as well." He glared around the table, "if you don't clear your plate none of you are getting ice cream."
Omi and Ken looked abashed and started digging into their food in earnest, "mmm ice cream." Ken murmured with a mouthful of green and red peppers.
Nagi picked up a strip of the food as the phone started to ring. "That's for you." He said, looking at Aya, "Schuldig will have told Crawford now where I am and he'll be phoning to make sure I'm eating properly and to find out if you've out and out kidnapped me or if I'm getting returned later."
Yohji laughed at that as Aya got up to answer the phone. "We didn't kidnap you, kiddo," he said, "you followed Aya home so Omi gets to keep you."
Omi started to choke on a large chunk of onion and Ken started patting him gently on the back. "Got to be careful," Ken chided, "chew better." Then Nagi realised, that Yohji knew about him and Omi, but Ken didn't, and Omi didn't seem to know that Yohji knew either. However, Aya knew everything.
Although Aya took the call in the hall they could clearly hear his conversation, "no, it's true." There was a slight pause, "I'm just looking after her." Aya drummed his fingers on the wall beside the phone, "it's just a temporary thing." He nodded, "he's eating now, do you want to speak to him?" He looked at Nagi, "chicken and vegetable stir fry." There was another short pause, "ice cream." Aya was nodding as he listened to whatever Crawford was saying. "She adopted him, it was Schuldig's idea." There were a few affirmative noises. "No, no, it's fine, he can stay in the exercise room, it's between mine and Ken's, he'll be perfectly safe." There was another short pause, "Look, Yohji's not that big of a hentai, no matter what Schuldig says." Yohji looked aghast as the others snickered. Even Nagi had to admit that was quite funny. "It's not a school night." He said as Yohji pulled faces at him. "Okay, I'll see you about eight." There was another small pause. "We won't. See you then." He slipped the handset back unto the cradle. "Well, Nagi, you're staying over tonight, Crawford has a late meeting and trusts you more with us than with Farfarello on his own. He's dropping off your pyjamas and George later. He wants you to make sure to eat all your dinner."
"Who's George?" Ken asked.
"Is that a boyfriend?" Yohji said with a sly grin and a bit of a leer.
"No," Omi answered a little too quickly.
"It's my donkey." Nagi answered, "I can't sleep without him." Around the kitchen things began levitating, "and if one of you says a single word I'll fold you tight enough I can post you with a first class stamp."
"I said to Crawford that we wouldn't tease him." Aya said firmly, and that, clearly was that. "Now, eat up, the ice cream's melting. I'm going to get Mih-ho." He seemed to pause over the name.
"I thought." A chopstick stabbing him in the arm silenced Yohji quickly and efficiently, he changed the subject. "Babies couldn't eat ice cream."
"She can't." Aya answered, "but she does have to eat. Nagi, I want that plate cleared and Omi and Ken will explain the house rules to you."
Author's Note:
Just a recap, about who knows what
Aya knows everything.
Nagi and Omi
Schuldig, Farfarello and Yohji know about this.Crawford allegedly doesn't.
Aya and Crawford,
only Aya and Crawford know about this.Although Omi suspects and Nagi is pretty sure but it's nor been confirmed. He thinks that Aya broke it off after coming out that he was a man.
Ken knows nothing.