Notes: Don't own Weiß [yet], I just like the characters. Please ignore my horrible grammar, I have no beta, and even if I did, I would probably disagree with every other thing they said. =) That's just me. As for the question of who the heck I'm coupling in this fic… um… I'd say it's a surprise, but the obvious is going to be YxS, SxY, yadda yadda ya. Moving on. By the way, half of this chapter was done with my new contacts in, and um… ignore minor glitches and make up something that doesn't make sense to you. =D
"Schuldich, where have you been?" Schuldich groaned at the sudden onslaught of questions coming from his leader. Sometimes he really had to doubt his own judgment.
"You mean you don't already know?" Schuldich faked a surprised look at Brad, who just glared at him. For the most part Yohji was right, the two had minimal in common, especially around other people. Yet alone the two were fine. Well, usually anyway. Now was one of the rare times that Brad was actually angry at him.
"If I knew, would I ask?" Brad leaned forward and set his arms on his desk carefully. Schuldich just shrugged and flopped down in one of the chairs across from the desk.
"Quite frankly you might, just to see if I was telling the truth." Schuldich pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, placed it lightly in his mouth and started to reach for the lighter on Brad's deck before Brad grabbed his wrist.
"Schuldich, please stop avoiding the question. Where were you?" Brad held Schuldich's wrist firmly enough to keep him in place, but not enough to hurt him.
"You aren't my leader anymore." Schuldich spat suddenly, wrenching his arm away from Brad's grasp as he stood up. "So you can't punish me if I tell you the truth." A blank expression crossed Brad's face for a split second before Schuldich continued. "I was over at the Koneko, with Weiß."
"You were where?" Brad stood up suddenly, his chair falling backwards in the process. It only took him four strides to walk around the desk and stand in looking down at Schuldich.
"We aren't assassins anymore, and you know what? Neither are they. Kritiker disbanded Weiß just like Esset disbanded us." Turning his back on Brad, Schuldich stalked towards the door to leave the room quickly.
"Nagi called me earlier today." Schuldich's hand was resting on the door knob as Brad's words caught up to him. "He was attacked on his way to school. I had to pick him up myself."
Suddenly everything clicked inside Schuldich's head. Brad had figured that Weiß had attacked Nagi because had told them that Schwarz were no longer assassins. Which was why he was worried about where Schuldich had been, in case he had been attacked. Of course it still left one question.
"If I was with Weiß, then who attacked Nagi?" Schuldich glanced over his shoulder to Brad's blank stare before he went on. "Abyssinian said something about Bombay being attacked as well. Do you think something is up?"
"Both teams being disbanded on the same day is more than a mere coincidence. We need to meet up with Weiß and discuss our future actions." Brad calmly walked around the desk and sat back down, removing his glasses and setting them carefully on the desktop before rubbing his eyes.
"I'll find the phone number to the Koneko, the flower shop where they work, and call them up." Finally Schuldich left the room, heading for the phone in the living room. Much to his amazement no one was there watching the television just to annoy him. Pulling the phonebook out from the end table, Schuldich cursed lightly as a stack of papers fell out with it. Grabbing the book and shoving the papers back into the drawer, Schuldich flipped through the phonebook until he found the number to the Koneko. Finding the number rather easily, Schuldich dialed it up and started to count the rings.
One… Two… Three… Four…
Schuldich groaned in frustration as the Koneko's answering machine clicked on and started to play.
'We aren't in the shop right now,' Schuldich made a mental note that the voice sounded like Siberian, 'so please leave a message, order, number, and the likes after the beep and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks!'
After the shrill and obnoxious sound they claimed was the infamous beep, Schuldich let out a sigh of frustration. What the hell type of message was he supposed to leave? "Yohji it's Schuldich, if you're there, pick up." A brief pause only resulted in more disappointment as the only sound was the low hum of the machine recording. "This is important for crying out loud! Someone answer the stupi-"
"Schuldich?" A familiar voice cut Schuldich off, and he immediately calmed down. "It's Yohji, what's up?"
"About time you answered."
"The shop closed a few minutes ago, I was just cleaning up." Yohji actually sounded somewhat sorry, so Schuldich decided to drop it.
"Crawford wants to meet up with you and Abyssinian to discuss some things." Schuldich paused to let it sink in before continuing. "Turns out Nagi, Prodigy, was attacked as well. We wanted to kind of figure out what our next step should be."
"Let me check the work schedule, since Aya will kill me if I miss out on my shift again." There was a pause filled with the shuffling of papers in the background before Yohji came back to the phone. "Both Aya and I are off tomorrow morning, where were we planning on meeting?"
"Don't you think you should okay this with him or at least run it by him first?" Schuldich wasn't exactly sure how Abyssinian, Aya, would handle the spur of the moment notice on this.
"Probably, but he and Ken are off doing stuff." Yohji paused, coughed lightly, and then continued. "So where's the meeting spot?"
"How about the new coffee shop a few blocks north of your shop?" Schuldich carefully planned the route in his head and then nodded to himself.
"Sure, I know what you're talking about. We can meet at 9am if that's okay with you. Aya and I have to be back to the Koneko by noon." Internally Yohji groaned to himself for suggesting such an outrageously early time. It was his day to work the afternoon shift and instead of sleeping until eleven he had to wake up to have coffee with his enemies. Or ex-enemies, or who ever they were now.
"Sounds fine to me. I'll run it by Crawford and call you if something else comes up. Make sure you tell Abyssinian before tomorrow morning though." Schuldich did not want to have to discuss such important matters with a half awake and pissed off kitten.
"Yeah yeah, I know. See you guys there."
"Ja." Schuldich hung up the phone without a second thought and headed back towards Crawford's office. He poked his head in the office without a sound, a smirk crossing his face as his mood just seemed to lighten all of a sudden. Crawford was busily working at this desk, not even noticing that Schuldich had opened the door. Smiling devilishly, Schuldich let out a happy call of "Bradleykun" before bounding into the room.
"Schuldich, what the hell are you doing?" Crawford attempted a blank expression, but his face was lined with faint amusement. He turned in the desk chair as Schuldich made his way around the desk, before promptly sitting down in Crawford's lap.
"Well you see," Schuldich lazily draped his arms over Crawford's shoulders. "You looked like you were working very studiously, and so I figured I could distract you for a bit."
"How considerate of you." Crawford muttered under his breath as he lightly kissed Schuldich. In response the German telepath ran a hand gently through Crawford's hair, relishing the feeling.
"Somebody hurts God." The two lovers froze in their movements at the sound of the voice at the door. Farferello twirled one of his knives patiently while the two quickly separated themselves. Schuldich stepped a few feet away from the desk, attempting to look as bored as possible, while Crawford slipped his glasses on and straightened himself at his desk.
"Yes Farf?" Crawford tried to sound as he always did, but it was rather embarrassing to be caught in the act of, well, kissing your own teammate.
"Nagi's awake." Farferello answered simply as he exited the room and headed back towards the chibi's room. Crawford sighed as he stood up, smoothing down his suit before he headed after Farferello.
"Brad." Schuldich's voice stopped him in his tracks to the door though, and Crawford turned around to see what the other needed. With every subtle hint of seductiveness that Schuldich could muster into a simple walk, he seemingly waltzed across the room to Crawford, before reaching up and fixing his leader's mused hair. "That's better."
"What would I do without you?" Crawford started to turn away again before Schuldich spoke again.
"Well you wouldn't be meeting with Abyssinian and Balinese tomorrow morning at 9am." Schuldich smirked at the look Crawford threw over his shoulder. "Just thought you would like to know before hand."
"Like I said," Crawford started down the hall before he finished the sentence. "What would I do without you?"
Crawford glanced at his watch, attempting not to wake the sleeping bundle called Schuldich lying against his side. To punish Schuldich for not telling him until last minute, Crawford had demanded that they go early, knowing how much the other hated waking up in the morning. Yet now he couldn't bear the thought of actually waking Schuldich up.
At a quarter until nine the bells on the door to the coffee shop jangled noisily, yet Schuldich continued to snooze again Crawford's side, thus making it near impossible for Crawford to greet their company unless he wanted to wake him up, which at this moment he had no desire to do. Until of course, he saw the look on Yohji's face. He had spotted the two, but his eyes were fixed on the sleeping form of Schuldich. He wore an expression of almost shock, his mouth open slightly as if he had started to say something and then stopped.
Aya looked from his teammate to the two sitting at the table, his frown deepening. "Snap out of it Kudoh." Aya barked suddenly, and Yohji quickly snapped out of the phase he had been in.
Sighing softly, Crawford turned and lightly shook Schuldich. "Wake up Schuldich." The telepath merely curled closer to his lover and shook his head. "Schuldich, we have company, get up."
"But I'm tired Bradley" Schuldich whined, burying his face against Crawford's sleeve.
"We have more important things to discuss then your sleep, and if you need more sleep, I'm sure we could take some things out of your schedule when we get home." Crawford kept his voice low as the two ex-members of Weiss sat down across the table. Schuldich gave a small huff and then slid away from Crawford.
"Sorry if we interrupted." Aya muttered, not sounding sorry in the least bit. Crawford shook his head.
"No, it's fine. Would you two like to order anything before we start?" Crawford handed them one of the menus he had been looking through earlier with Schuldich. Aya waved it away, while Yohji took it happily, needing some excuse to keep his mind occupied.
'We have to be back at the shop for the afternoon shift, so let's make this as quick as possible." Aya snatched the menu from Yohji and handed it off to the passing waitress.
"Very well then. Schuldich informed me the other day that not only was Weiß disbanded, but Bombay-"
"Omi." Yohji quickly corrected. Crawford just kept talking.
"-was attacked by some unknown person or people. Yet on the same day, Esset disbanded Schwartz, and Nagi-"
"Prodigy." Schuldich quickly filled in as Crawford once again just kept talking.
"-was also attacked by some unknown people." Crawford finally stopped, and after sparing Schuldich and Yohji a glance, turned his attention back to Aya.
"It does seem a bit too much to be a coincidence." Aya muttered, everything running through his head. "What have you come up with?"
"My view is that we aren't safe." Schuldich finally spoke up with something worth while. "I think we should move both teams to the same location."
"Why move to the same location?" Aya's eyes narrowed suddenly as he watched Schuldich.
"I have a feeling Kritiker and Esset are both up to something, and if our two teams work together, we could probably get to the bottom of it before something more severe happens." Schuldich calmly explained it, and as much as Aya hated to admit it, it all made perfect sense. Honestly, he was feeling just at tad bit overwhelmed by the thought of actually staying in the same place with the people he had called his enemies no less than forty-eight hours ago.
"Let me talk it over with the rest of Weiß." Aya suggested weakly, Yohji quickly taking his cue to get up. Nodding to Crawford quickly the two exited the coffee shop and headed back towards the Koneko.
"So what do you think Brad? Think they'll join us?" Schuldich propped his head up in his hand coolly.
"I think they will." Crawford tilted his head back to look at the ceiling. "And Schuldich?"
"Yeah?"
"It's Crawford."