Title: The War of the Roses
Author: Zanna
Disclaimer & warnings: see chapter 1
Beta: Laren (the very best beta 'g')

A/N: Sigh, I'm sorry again. It took me so long to update - again. What can I say - I'm too busy. Hope you don't mind, enjoy the chapter anyway and leave me a review! ;-)

Chapter 6

Ran dug his hands deeper into Schuldig's hair and pressed tighter against his body. The break-in, the fight and the following escape had caused an excited exaltation in Ran. And although he had tried to calm down during their drive home he nevertheless had been totally psyched when they finally arrived home. And somehow he needed to get rid of all that pent-up energy.

And then there had been Schuldig. Schuldig, whit whom he had formed a surprisingly good team today. Schuldig, whose mere sight aroused him unbelievingly. Schuldig, who he wanted more than anything else in the world right now. And so he simply had ignored every possible objection and given in to his desire.

Ran moaned when he felt Schuldig's kneading hands on his ass. He pushed his tongue into the alien mouth and explored it, tasted it and caressed the velvety tongue that met his. Panting Ran let go of Schuldig's mouth and made his way down his chin to his neck and back up to his ear. He found the earlobe, took it into his mouth and started to suck and nibble it affectionately and elicited a choked moan from Schuldig. Ran smiled. Apparently Schu liked it!

Slowly Ran's mouth caressed it's way down again till he reached the sensitive throat and sucked it. One of Schuldig's hands wandered trembling to the front and fumbled with Ran's pants.

Ooooh no! Ran stopped immediately to suck on Schuldig's throat. Not so fast! He relaxed the clasp of his legs a little bit and put first one, then the other leg down on the floor. This time he would set the speed!

He grabbed Schuldig's hands and stepped one step back. Schuldig looked at him questioningly.

"Not yet," Ran said, ran up the stairs and took Schuldig with him. Arrived in his room he stopped and turned to Schuldig again. With a jolt he tore open Schuldig's shirt so that the buttons flew in every direction and took it off. Then he let his hands wander over Schuldig's naked chest slowly and enjoying, followed every line and every muscle.

Schuldig grasped and grabbed again for Ran to undress and caress him too, but Ran kept hold of his hands again. "No," he shook his head.

"No?" asked Schuldig stunned.

Ran smiled slightly. "Today I'm saying what's going to happen. You're not allowed to touch me. Or else I stop immediately."

Schuldig groaned. "Raaaan..."

"You decide," Ran said and licked lightly at Schuldig's nipple, "shall I stop or go on?"

Schuldig closed his eyes agonised and clenched his fists, but let them hanging on his side. "Go on," he groaned.

Ran smiled triumphantly, pushed Schuldig back on the bed and sat down beside him. Slowly he let his hands wander over Schuldig's arms up to his shoulders. He started at the throat again, sucked, nibbled and kissed his way slowly down till he reached the sensitive nipples again. He circled one of them with his tongue provocatively till it contracted and hardened, while his hand did the same with the other nipple.

Then Ran opened Schuldig's pants and pushed it slowly down. He raised one eyebrow. "No underwear?" he asked Schuldig, but didn't wait for his answer and took the pants completely off. Then he sat back and absorbed the sight in front of him. Schu's body was simply – breathtaking!

Schuldig had slightly raised again and looked begging at Ran. "Kätzchen..." he begged and stretched out his hand for him.

Ran shook his head again smiling. "No touching," he said and got off the bed, "or do I have to tie you up again?"

Schuldig sighed and let his hand fall down again. Then Ran started to undress. Although he could hardly hold out any longer and would have loved to jump at Schuldig he opened his shirt button for button and let it slide down his arms slowly. Shortly after his pants and boxers followed till he was standing naked in front of the bed.

He approached Schuldig again, who was staring at him with lust-clouded eyes and breathed heavily. Ran kneeled on the bed beside him, lowered his head and nibbled lazily at Schuldig's belly till he found the belly-button. He dipped his tongue inside and nibbled it till Schuldig panted. Lower and lower Ran wandered, let Schuldig tremble with expectation, till he finally reached his goal. Slowly he licked the underside of Schuldig's erection, circled the tip with his tongue and finally took it completely into his mouth.

"Kätzchen," Schuldig groaned when Ran's mouth started to move up and down rhythmically till his orgasm finally signalised and Schu climaxed into Ran's mouth.

Eagerly Ran swallowed everything and licked Schu's cock clean. Then he climbed up Schu's body to kiss him. He stroked Schu's back with one hand, kneaded his ass, caressed the crevice and felt how Schuldig stiffened in his arms.

Ran interrupted the kiss. "Schu?" he asked an caressed the crevice again.

Schuldig opened his eyes, met Ran's questioning look and smiled lightly. "Kätzchen," he said and kissed Ran lightly on his lips, "you say what's going to happen. I'm completely yours."

For some moments Ran only stared at him, then he closed his mouth with a passionate kiss again. Blindly he reached for the lube that was still lying on his bedside table. He opened it and coated his fingers without ending the kiss.

Carefully he inserted on finger into Schuldig's tight opening. Schuldig grasped and interrupted the kiss. Ran added a second finger, fumbled a little bit and smiled satisfied when he found Schuldig's sweet spot and Schuldig groaned, "Ran!", arched his back and tried to push farther down on Ran's fingers. When Ran thought Schu to be widened enough he put lube on his own cock and started to push slowly into him. Finally sunken to the hilt in Schuldig's hot tightness he paused for a moment gasping and just looked into Schu's bright green eyes that looked at him intently.

Schuldig pulled Ran down to kiss him and Ran started to move. He pulled out almost completely, just to bury himself deep in Schu again. Schuldig met every one of his thrusts passionately and Ran slightly altered the angle till he hit with each thrust that spot inside Schuldig that made him moan ecstatically. Ran reached down for Schu's returned erection and massaged it in sync till Schuldig reached his orgasm with a panted "Kätzchen!" and climaxed on his belly. Schuldig's inner muscles contracted around Ran and that pushed him over the edge too and shouting Schu's name Ran reached his climax.

Schuldig zapped bored through the channels. Talk show, talk show, court show, soap opera, talk show, tele shop, talk show, teletubbies. Yawn! Since Ran had kicked him out of the lab some hours ago he had been trying to entertain himself somehow. But unfortunately it hadn't worked. The kitten back in the lab was the only thing that really interested him. But his Ran didn't want him there now. Allegedly Schuldig disturbed him too much. Pah! Pouting Schuldig crossed his arms in front of his chest.

He had really tried very hard, had helped Ran to look through those yawning boring disks, had waited patiently when Ran finally looked through the right one, he even had listened to the speech about blocked synapses and the functionality of the marionette-drug like a good little boy! Of course he had completely zoned out mentally during Ran's first mentioning of potential reversion (1) and neurotransmitters. Maybe he should have paid more attention in his biology classes.

And then Ran had started to brood over the formula and Schuldig had been just a little bit bored. So he had started to caress and massaged Ran's neck – completely unselfish and without any ulterior motives of course, he only had wanted to prevent his kitten getting too tensed! And at first Ran hadn't been averse to it at all, he had relaxed and actually almost started to purr. And so Schuldig's hands had wandered a little bit more and eventual Ran had been lying on one of the tables, Schuldig on top of him and they had kissed wildly and had been short of tearing their clothes of each other.

And then suddenly, out of the blue, Ran had pushed Schuldig away and said he had to work now and Schuldig shouldn't disturb him any more! And had left behind a completely unsatisfied Schuldig! How mean! But had Schuldig complained? Oh no, he had sat down on his chair again, really well-behaved, and watched Ran working at the formula. And he had sighed a little bit. And then sighed again. Ran had cast him a side glance, but hadn't said anything. So Schuldig had sighed a third time.

For some time it had been completely silent and Schuldig had started to hum his current favourite song, to distract himself a little. Yeah, maybe he had tapped the rhythm on the table, but that couldn't have been THAT bad, could it? Anyway, Ran had growled a threatening "Schuldig!" and Schuldig had stopped. And then he had sighed again. And then Ran had pushed him out of the lab, closed the door in front of his face and said, he was only allowed to come back when Ran had finished with the antidote because Schuldig was distracting him too much! If that wasn't a completely unjustified accusation, what else would be?

Why couldn't Ran have been so soft and cuddly like this morning? When Schuldig had woken up Ran had been still lying snuggled against him in bed and had been sleeping. And he had been able to wake his kitten like he had wanted the morning before. Schuldig smiled remembering Ran's passionate reaction to he wake-up call. He would surely do it more often in future!

Just a moment, what was he thinking? In future? Could there actually be a future for them? If Ran would really succeed in creating the antidote and Schuldig would get back his telepathy then he would return to Schwarz. After all, that was what he wanted. Wasn't it? But then he and Ran would be standing on different sides again. And Schuldig wanted by no means that he and his kitten would be enemies again. He didn't want to give up this relationship.

Relationship? Schuldig gasped. Since when did he think of him and Ran being in a relationship? Schuldig had never relationships, with no one! And still, every time he thought of Ran he didn't only see the present. He thought ahead. He imagined what their relationship – there, there was that evil word again! – would be like in one years time. Somehow Ran appeared in all his thoughts about the future. And not as an enemy.

But when he didn't want to lose ran then he had to resign his life as Schwarz. Even if that wasn't quite so simple, you couldn't simply quit at Schwarz. Schuldig sighed deeply. That was the reason why he had been avoiding every relationship till now. They made life so awfully complicated! Reluctant to keep on thinking about it Schuldig switched off the TV and stood. What else could he do to distract himself?

Restless he paced up and down. Maybe he should examine the Weiß HQ a little more thorough. It would be really interesting to know how the other kittens lived. Maybe he would found something to distract himself. Grinning Schuldig ran upstairs. Curiously he simply chose one of the door and opened it.

The room was suspiciously tidy and Schuldig suspected that his little maniac for housework already had been here before he had disturbed him in his house-cleaning some days ago. After a quick search he decided that this had to be Omi's room. The clothes inside the wardrobe looked alarmingly like those Ran had given him two days ago. He turned to the shelf where a lot of mangas stood. Arranged in alphabetically order. How boring. For some time Schuldig amused himself to rearrange the mangas by their colour, but that was quickly accomplished.

'Well,' Schuldig put his arms on his hips and looked around pondering, 'where would a teenager hide the real interesting stuff?' His gaze fell on the bed. Schuldig went to it and lifted the mattress. Aha! Just like he had guessed! Omi had hidden a nice little stack of mangas between the frame and the mattress. Grinning Schuldig reached for them and took them.

'Uuuuhhhh…' Schuldig's eyes widened when he saw the covers of the nearly twenty mangas. He never would have thought something like that of Omi!

"Zettai Reido," he read, "SM Boys Love – Slave & Master Comic for Girls."

Comics for girls? Omi read comics for girls? Well, no wonder he was hiding them under his mattress! Completely lost in his thoughts Schuldig started to scroll through the mangas. 'Omi, Omi, Omi, mangas for girls – huh, really hot pictures – but nevertheless, which true boy is reading something like this – oh wow, I should try this one with Ran – just without the whips.'

Schuldig closed the mangas again and just wanted to put them back under the mattress when he got an idea. Grinning he carried the stack to the shelf and sorted it – colour-coordinated of course – between the other, more innocent mangas.

'I would love to see Omi's face when he discovers them there,' he thought mischievous. Pleased with his mission he left the room and opened the next door.

The room was comparatively tidy, here and there some clothes were lying around, but compared to his own chaos Schuldig didn't think it really bad. He opened some drawers and the wardrobe and decided that this had to be Yoji's room. Who else would own so much custom-made designer clothes and hair care products? Schuldig started to search the room more thoroughly and finally found a wooden box in the hindmost corner of the wardrobe.

Curiously he pulled the box out and tried to open it. Locked. Pondering Schuldig looked at the lock. Should be quite easy to crack it. Searching he looked around, just now he had seen… Ah yes, there on Yoji's bedside table lay some hair pins. Schuldig grabbed one of them and a few seconds later the lock was open and Schuldig cast a first look into the box – and tore his eyes wide open.

For minutes he was simply sitting there, with dropped down jaw and bulging eyes and couldn't believe what he was seeing. After his discoveries in Omi's room he had expected the world biggest collection of porn, because if even the small, innocent Omi read mangas like that what would Tokyo's lady-killer number one hide in his wardrobe? Schuldig shook his head horror-stricken. Still stunned he reached into the box and fetched one of the crochet-doilies.

The whole box was full of it. Crochet-doilies, tambour frames, knitting needles, wool and everything else that included. Yoji Kudou, passionate playboy, made handiworks in his spare time. And he wasn't speaking of that sort of handiwork that could be done in the shower. Schuldig shuddered. That was almost too creepy. Quickly he locked the box again, stored it where he had found it and left the room.

What left only the room of Ken. 'Well, I'm really anxious to see what secrets the soccer-freak is keeping,' Schuldig thought and opened the door. Unlike the other rooms it was pretty dark because of the heavy curtains that hung in front of the windows and shut out the light. Schuldig could see some more or less small heaps on the floor, but couldn't exactly see what they were. He was just carefully paving the way to the window when he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. Schuldig just managed to protectively raise his hands when something big and dark lunged at him.

Finally! That was the break-through! Ran was really excited. He had succeeded! Luckily Warzenkaktus had already started to create an antidote on his own – apparently as insurance against Gänseblümchen – so that Ran hadn't had to do so much. He only had had to finish the formula and the antidote was ready. Every simulation on the computer – he had found the program on one of the disks as well – promised a positive result and they had all the required chemicals stocked. Now he only had to make the antidote and then Schu could get back his abilities. The thought sobered Ran immediately. If Schuldig was able to read thoughts again he would return to Schwarz. And that would be the end. They would be enemies again. Just like before.

No, not exactly like before because this time Ran would have not at all hostile feelings for one of their enemies. He sighed. Just for a moment he played with the thought to withhold the antidote, to say that he hadn't been able to create it, but then he scolded himself immediately. He wouldn't be so selfish! He wouldn't make Schu unhappy just to keep him a little bit longer! Concentrated Ran started to work.

Ran just finished the production when he suddenly heard a panicked cry. Schuldig! Ran stormed out of the lab and shouted, "Schu! What's up?" but he didn't get an answer. The only thing he heard was a choked gargle and something that sounded suspiciously like battle sounds. And it came from upstairs. Quickly he ran up the stairs but before he could call for Schuldig again the door to Ken's room was torn open, Schuldig stormed out, slammed the door shut and leaned against it panting.

"Schu!" Ran called concerned and slowly approached him.

Schuldig raised his head and stared at him with big frightened eyes. "There… there… there… Something inside there attacked me," he stammered horror-stricken. "It was big and soft and it wrapped around my face and tried to choke me!" A shudder ran over Schuldig's body.

Ran paused. Big and soft? Had tried to choke him? That sounded familiar. He grinned. So Schuldig had met the new intelligent life form, formerly known as Ken's gym trousers.

Schuldig scowled at him. "What's so funny about that? I could have been killed! What's Hidaka breeding in there? Huge killer-bats?"

Ran's grin got bigger. "Something like that," he answered. "Maybe I should have warned you not to go unarmed into Ken's room."

Schuldig stared at him outraged for some moments more then he stomped past him down the stairs and mumbled something into his inexistent beard. Ran couldn't understand more than "… everyone totally nuts… typical… why me…" but that was enough. Giggling he followed Schuldig downstairs.

"Wait," he called – still giggling – after Schuldig. "Schu! I'm finished."

Schuldig stopped in front of the living room and turned around. "You're finished? With what?"

Ran rolled his eyes. "With the antidote, what else?"

Schuldig's eyes widened. "Really?" he asked. "It's finished? And I can try it right now? Is that possible?"

Ran nodded. Schuldig went exhilarated to him, placed a big kiss right on Ran's mouth, grabbed his hand and pulled him into the lab.

Arrived there Schuldig looked around expectantly. "Where is it?" he asked excited.

Ran went to one of the tables where a tray for test-tubes stood. He took one of the test-tubes that was closed with a little cork. "Here," he said and gave it Schuldig. "Pull out the cork and inhale the vapour. But Schu," Ran hesitated shortly and waited till Schuldig looked at him. "I can't promise anything. I don't know if it's going to work. Maybe the antidote don't work at all or I did something wrong or…" He stopped speaking and shrugged helplessly.

Schuldig looked at him and then he pulled the cork slowly out of the test-tube and inhaled the emerging vapours. When nothing came out any more he laid it aside.

Ran looked at him expectantly. "Well?" he asked. "Does it work?"

Schuldig looked at him hesitantly. "I don't know. I feel just like before. Maybe if I concentrate more." With these words Schuldig closed his eyes and frowned.

Ran watched him. 'Schu,' he thought, 'I… I think I love you.' Anxiously he held his breath. Had Schu read his thoughts? But it didn't appear to be so, Schuldig still had his eyes closed and his frown had deepened. Ran couldn't stand it any more. "Schu?" he asked hesitantly. Schuldig opened his eyes and looked at him. "Did you – could you read what I thought?"

Schuldig exhaled frustrated. "No," he said crestfallen, "I couldn't read anything. Not the slightest thought. It didn't work."

For a moment Ran thought to see tears in his eyes but Schuldig blinked a few times and quickly turned his head to the side.

"I'm so sorry, Schu. I – maybe it simply takes some time till the antidote takes effect." Ran felt really terrible. He had raised Schuldig's hopes and now it hadn't worked.

Schuldig looked at him again and gave him a sad little smile. "Don't twit yourself, Ran," he said. "You tried after all. That was more I could hope for. I simply have to get used that I'm not a telepath any more. That I'm now as – normal as everyone else."

"Schu," sympathetic Ran stepped closer to the German to take him into his arms consoling but Schuldig quickly stepped back.

"I – the fight with Hidaka's monster was pretty sweaty. I think I'm going to take a shower now," he said, turned around and shuffled out of the lab. The last thing Ran heard from him was a silently mumbled, "To drown myself there."

(1) Someone out there who knows something about synapses and all that? I didn't find the correct translation for that word (that would require a specialised dictionary and I don't own one) so I translated it literally.