Part 6

Crawford was drunk. It had happened before, but rarely enough that it was worth mentioning and he had given Schuldig a headache with it.

He stood outside the Koneko in a dark wet alley and took his glasses off, slipping them into the pocket of his tuxedo, his bow tie loose about his neck and his top button undone, he cast his arms back as he looked at the lit window and the figure within as Schuldig lowered his head and wondered if he could drive away without noticing.

Casting his head back he began to sing. "Let me entertain you, let me make you smile."

The figure on the third floor slid open the window and out popped a shaggy blonde head waving a cigarette. "Next window," he said before closing it again.

Crawford moved along to the next window on the fire-escape, this one was on the second floor. "Aya." He shouted, the sash window opened with a slam.

"What?" A delectable red head popped out, glaring at the figure in the street.

"Let me entertain you,
let me make you smile
let me do a few tricks
some old and some new tricks
I'm very versatile."

There was a moment of absolute shock before the window closed again.

It didn't stop Crawford singing though loudly and perfectly in tune.

"And if you're real good
I'll make you feel good
I want your spirits to climb
So let me entertain you
And we'll have a real good time, yes sir
We'll have a real good time."

The back door opened and Aya looked around before he opened the door wide, "get in," he hissed, "this is a respectable neighbourhood." He grabbed Crawford by the arm and dragged him inside. As he stumbled he landed in Aya's arms as they fell backwards into the hallway.

Schuldig just stepped over them. "He's drunk." He said as he went into the kitchen, "he said he had a vision, but I think he just wanted to torture you."

Aya managed to get out from under Crawford by rolling him unto his back, then offered him a hand to help him stand. He was obviously embarrassed. "As if I don't have enough on my plate with the baby."

"Is she pretty?" Schuldig asked as he poured himself a glass of cordial from the side and a bottle of water from the fridge. "I know nothing about babies, but I thoroughly believe that there is no greater tragedy than an ugly baby."

Aya blinked at him. "She's beautiful." He said aghast as Crawford plopped down on the sofa in the main living room. "Look, not that I mind at all," the sarcasm was palpable in his voice at that comment, "but why are you here?"

"He had a vision." Schuldig said in the same dripping sarcastic tone, "he also had twelve flutes of champagne and wouldn't go home."

Aya looked at Crawford with a single eyebrow raised, he had worked for months on that expression after seeing Leonard Nimoy on an American rerun and had thought that it looked nicely querying, then he looked at Schuldig with both raised as Nagi came down the stairs with Mihana in her arms. "Aya-san," he said quietly, "she won't settle. Are you coming back upstairs?" Then he looked around. "Schuldig, it was you singing?"

"What are you doing up at this hour?" Crawford said from where he had made himself comfortable lying supine on the sofa, "it's long past your bedtime, Naoe."

Nagi flinched. "I was helping Aya-san with the baby." Nagi said with his eyes lowered.

"It's all right, Nagi-kun." Aya said moving between him and the voice from the dark room, he lifted Mihana. She had been put in a romper suit in a pale lemon yellow with a pair of bunny ears, but her face was screwed up and she was crying. He rested her against his chest, bouncing her in his arms. She was sobbing, but had stopped screaming. "We'll change her and give her something to eat and then you take her upstairs and go to sleep with her in my bed. Do you want some hot milk?" Nagi shook his head as he got out the diaper bag.

"Well, I'll save the young lady her dignity." Schuldig said moving into the parlour where Crawford was lain across the sofa in the remnants of his tuxedo, looking for all the world like a young Dean Martin.

"I can't in good conscience send you back to the safehouse with him in that state, you can stay here tonight as long as you promise not to murder us in our sleep, I'm not going to go back to sleep, Schuldig, there's a bed made up in the exercise room, which is the second room on the right," he enunciated that clearly, "you can bed down in there. I'll sit up with Crawford."

He came back out with Nagi beside him with Mihana in the boy's arms. "I have to ask," Nagi said, "Let me entertain you?" Crawford was laying across the sofa now, his head hanging over the arm, his mouth wide as he snored, his arm falling off the sofa like a corpse's. "I won't forget, Oracle." He said with a smile, hefting the baby in his arms. "And I will ask you in the morning." He turned to the bright haired telepath beside him, "come on, Schuldig, I'll show you where you're sleeping tonight."

Aya arranged Crawford so he lay more comfortably on the sofa, tugging off his shoes and removing his tie completely before putting a blanket over him, then making sure no one was about, he stole a kiss from the open lips and murmured to himself, "Let me entertain you?"

In the exercise room, although a bit worried at his enemy's hospitality, Schuldig stripped down to his underwear and climbed into Nagi's futon to sleep.

Meanwhile in another part of the city Farfarello stared at the two members of Schreient who stared back. It was like a Mexican stand off, neither moving for fear of retribution from the other. Although Farfarello was more than capable of taking one of them out he wasn't sure of his ability to take out both and both were uncertain of their ability to move he inspired them with that much fear. Curled on his shoulder the kitten watched what happened with only a modicum of interest before it mewled and started licking it's feet.

"Look," Schoen said standing back slowly, "we'll leave, you didn't see us, we didn't steal the kitten."

"Kittens hurt god." Farfarello said, "stealing kittens help god." He raised his eyebrow over his single golden eye. "You did not steal Taiki," he ran his callused finger along the grey fur of the kitten as it purred. "But this is Nagi's kitten, and Nagi is not here to protect his kitten." He eyed them warily, "and you would give the kitten to Todt, would you not?"

Schoen slowly nodded, all the colour had run from Hell's face.

"Giving kittens to Todt would hurt Taiki," he grinned showing a row of sharp pointed teeth, "hurting Taiki would hurt Nagi," he continued, "Hurting Nagi would help god."

"We only wanted to borrow him." Schoen said, "until Crawford asked for him back, it was a win-win situation." She said, Hell was now checking her nails, "we get to keep Todt quiet with a kitten we don't have to keep. Where is Nagi? He might let us borrow him for a while."

"Nagi is at a sleep over." Farfarello answered calmly. "With some boys from school. He asked me to keep his kitten safe and to make sure that he was fed." He ran his eye over the two members of Schreient.

"Well," Schoen said putting her hand on Hell's arm, "we will be leaving, we just wanted to ask him, he's not here. Uhm," she tried to take a step backwards. "We'll call back tomorrow, pass our love to Crawford."

Farfarello smiled again, a silent and sinister smile that slowly slid across his face. "Perhaps we can come to an arrangement." He said in a fair facsimile of Crawford. "I have a sudden hankering for black tea with milk, go on," he said nodding towards the kitchen, "go on," he nodded again, "and milk for the kitten." He added.

Omi opened his eye in the dark and listened to the silence in the flower shop before he slid out of his bed. He stopped again to make sure no one had heard him. Everything was silent. He slid across the room and opened the door a crack and waited again. Content that no one had noticed him he padded down the hall, past Yohji's room and then stopped at the top of the stairs. This is where it got dangerous. It was here when he ran into the realm of Aya and things would get complicated.

He slid down the banister and landed with a soft thump, and then crept cat like down the hall to the exercise room. He slid open the pocket door observing the sleeping lump in the futon where it lay. The grin that spread over his features would have appeared to any observers as distinctly un-Omi-like.

Aya sat watching Crawford sleep with a certain awe. He had never really considered that Crawford slept, it was something that he knew must happen but it didn't really strike him that it would. He had snuggled down into the blanket in such a way that he was almost in the foetal position and sucking on his thumb. Aya reached out with a wary hand and pushed the stray lock of hair away from his foreahead.

"Twice or thrice had I loved thee," he said patiently in quiet whispery English, "before I knew thy face or name;
so in a voice, so in a shapeless flame,
Angels affect us oft, and worshipped be;
Still when, to where thou wert, I came,
Some lovely glorious nothing I did see
But since my soul, whose child love is,
takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do
More subtle than the parent is
Love must not be, but take a body too
And therefore what thou wert, and who,
I bid love ask, and now
That it assume thy body I allow
And fix itself in they lip, eye and brow." He reached forward to steal a second kiss as the scream rocked through the flower shop.

Omi slid into the futon with the still figure and then snuggled up against his back, thinking that Nagi must have prepared for him joining him because he was wearing a rather strong aftershave.

"Nagi," he murmured, just loud enough to wake him and not Aya who was in the next room, probably sharpening his katana and listening to any strange noises from the exercise room. The figure turned over and instead of large innocent blue eyes he stared into wry green ones. It wasn't Nagi he had got into bed with, it was Schuldig. He screamed.

Author's Note:

Let me entertain you is From Stephen Sondheim's musical Gypsy and is sung by Gypsy Rose Lee as the song she sings when she strips, and it has such double entendre instead of lyrics. Crawford nearly found himself singing "Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera Michael Crawford geddit? but then I remembered this little gem and knew it was the one. It was so much more evil to do it and I know I've barely picked on Mr Crawford and believe me I'll make up for it. Aya's poem is Air and Angels by John Donne.

TCM gave me the idea for this little twist. Omi is so never going to live it down either.

Also this isn't the only time I'm picking on Schuldig in the Weiss house. Remember no one knows he's there only Aya, and well Omi now.