He gasped after the fist initial shock settled in, and Aya finally realized what was happening. He was kissing him. After what seemed to be an eternity of wanting to taste those faintly-coloured lips, he finally got to kiss them. Or rather: he was being kissed.
´Mmm… feels good´ Brad's lips on his, brushing over his own ever so gently… Amethyst eyes fluttered closed, as he pulled the precognitive psychic closer to him.
Brad was right… Life really wasn't fair very often. When he considered how often he'd dreamt of doing this before by now and how he never found any good way to… And now this! There he was, the object of his affection sitting rather comfortably in his lap, kissing him…!
All he could do was keep himself from ravishing the Oracle right then and there. Instead, he just returned the kiss, tentatively at first, but more passionately as the black-haired boy showed his approval.
Tightening his hold around the others back, Aya was just about to try and gain entry with his tongue when Brad silently gasped against him, mesmerizing the redhead with pleasure.
But before the redhead could go any further, a piercing shriek shattered the moment.
"Aya?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Both guys' heads snapped in the direction of the scream. There stood Yohji, pale as chalk and seemingly horrified to death and beyond. For a moment they just stared wide-eyed at each other. A for a fraction of a second, Aya found himself wondering what strange sight they must be, with Brad draped over his lap like that. A faint blush threatened to colour his cheeks, but that reaction was interrupted when the Schwarz assassin suddenly got up from his place and, with calm strides, left the room. The redhead wanted to cry out in disappointment.
He must have actually made some small sound since Yohji had returned his disbelieving stare at him. (He had been staring after the retreating Oracle first.) The lanky blonde was the first to find his voice again. "Aya… what… You were KISSING him!?..!"
Aya shot him an icy glare that made him shut up right in the middle of his shocked stuttering. Right now the icy redhead felt very much like just killing the other one for ruining their moment. Damn! He was so close!! He really wanted to hurt him.
Yohji was becoming obviously nervous. "Uh-…" He sweatdropped. "I'll just leave and pretend this has never happened, ok…?" His voice was pleading.
Not waiting for an answer from his team-leader, he quickly let himself out, stopping only after he'd reached the security of his room and locked the door behind him. There were many things he'd liked to talk with the redhead about, among other things the serious question of his sanity, but that look he'd been given… Yohji preferred staying alive just a bit longer.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"What do you think where you doing?!"
Tannin grinned lazily at the seething telepath. "Why, taking care of business of course." Jilocasin gave her an angry glare.
"Taking care of business? Taking care of business?! You ruined it!!"
The pale-blond female merely raised an eyebrow, though her misty-grey eyes darkened with anger for a moment. She didn't like being shouted at, but Jilocasin couldn't care less.
"Do you know what you did? You ruined my whole plan! Now they know about Memoire!"
Tannin yawned. "They'd have found out anyway." That was enough to stop the French telepath's rage for a bit. Instead of continuing to vent it out, he just let out a deep sigh and fell heavily into his cushioned chair. Regarding the female psychic with a weary look, he finally asked "Why, Tannin? I know that they'd find out about her sooner or later but I thought that we'd agreed to wait to show her until the ambush. You really have to explain to me why you sacrificed our advantage that eagerly, ma chere."
His voice was thick with accent; he didn't care for proper pronunciation right then. He just wanted to finally know why the telekinetic had not only broken her word and robbed them of an important advantage, but also what this was leading up to. What she was planning.
"How did you get her to obey you anyway?"
"I told her that it was originally an order from you, and I was just a messenger."
Jilocasin gave her a blank stare before bursting out into a weary laugh. It held no amusement in it, though. "Seems like I really have to do something about the security in my team, huh?"
"I guess so." She sighed. "I'll answer your question – under one condition. You finally have to tell me what you're trying to find when you bury yourself with that damned computer all the time. You didn't even bother to erase our data before getting onto this mission."
She gave him a bright look. "You've been up to something, Jilocasin, from the very first moment you took this mission." The man's lips quirked into a short smirk.
"I should have known that you'd notice."
"It wasn't hard, really. You didn't even join the game I proposed to you. And you didn't join the first attempt to smash them. There was something that was more important to you. I'd like to know what."
He raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "All this commotion for that? You let them know about Memoire just because of that? You're overdoing it again." Tannin shrugged.
"I'm a woman. I'm allowed to be emotional." Her look grew icy.
"You know that I don't like the feeling of being betrayed. You also know how I react to it."
The air hummed with raw power, making it hard to breathe. Jilocasin remained unimpressed.
"You just could have asked."
Tannin fell into laughter at that. "And missed all the fun? I thought you knew me better! But alright, if you don't want to tell me, you don't have to… Just don't forget our little game."
The French nodded.
"The first one who kills them gets it all."
"Exactly."
Jilocasin watched her leave.
"Then I guess we'll better raise the tempo a bit…"
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Aya sighed. Ever since that unfortunate ending of their last meeting, he hadn't seen any of them again. Yohji had successfully managed to vanish before the redhead had had any chance to show him his ´gratitude´ for saving him from the Schwarz leader's claws, nor had he seen Brad anywhere, which was far worse in the redhead's opinion.
H could live with the first one, but the second was a little more urgent. Yohji could wait until they had a shift together again, but Brad… A light blush once again tainted the pale redhead's face as he thought about the black-haired psychic and the kiss they'd shared. It would have been a whole lot less innocent if that idiot Yohji hadn't shown up… Biting down a low growl in the back of his throat, Aya pushed the thoughts of his annoying team-mate aside. ´No, don't think about it. Bad Aya. You must not think about murdering your own team-mate…- !´ It was very hard not to, though.
Pushing any murderous thoughts about the blonde away, he tried to concentrate on more pleasant ones. Like that kiss… Somehow he was running in a circle.
There was only one possible solution. He had to find Brad! –and make sure that this wasn't just another one of his little, twisted mind games. The thought had hit Aya like a brick wall. What if all this was just another one of Schwarz's sick games, with him, Brad, and Schuldig as the main characters? It had been the mind-reading redhead who had proposed his help in this matter to Aya… And Brad hadn't been himself lately. Actually, he hadn't seemed to be himself most of the time lately, when Aya thought about it. Ever since Schwarz had reappeared.
Another mystery to wonder about following the elusive Oracle.
´Here goes nothing…´ Taking a deep breath, Aya entered the only room in the whole apartment that he hadn't searched for the pre-cog in yet. His own room. A small metallic sound echoed through the semi-darkness, provided by the half-closed curtains and the dying light of dawn. The redhead immediately froze. He knew that sound… Somebody had just unsecured a gun.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Brad was sitting in a comfortable position on his bed, looking as casual as one could while pointing a gun at the redhead's head. He didn't even bother to look and see who exactly had disturbed whatever he had been doing.
"Close the door when you leave the room."
Anybody else would have at least flinched at the seer's cold tone. Aya didn't. Narrowing his violet eyes just a bit, the redheaded leader of Weiß simply closed the door, locking it in the process. Crawford didn't seem to acknowledge it or the fact that Aya was now standing right next to him. The gun's muzzle still remained pointing dead on the point right between the others eyes, though.
"Are you going to kill me now?"
Looking up for the first time, Crawford just shrugged his shoulders.
"Maybe."
There was no passion whatsoever in his cold voice. Aya´s eyes flashed with a sudden anger from deep within them. The way the redhead was obviously trying to control his voice told the pre-cog immediately that he must be shaking with feelings inside.
"Why did you kiss me?"
A cold smirk appeared on his lips. "Revenge." "Revenge? You kissed me out of revenge?" Aya was visibly irritated by now. Strange, was it just Crawford or did he somehow sound disappointed…?
For a while, Aya just stared at him. Than, suddenly and without any warning, the redhead was suddenly sitting on the bed, one knee on either side of the man-turned-teen's lower hips, violet eyes staring down at him, expression unreadable.
"Than all was just a game? Another charade?"
The muzzle of the gun brushed slowly against the side of his neck, cold metal irritating sensitive skin, until it came to a rest just above where the redhead's heart was, gently pressing against the flesh. Not ready for the deadly shot yet.
Looking down, Aya took a deep breath. Brad was looking as beautiful as only he could be. The twilight emphasizing the darkness in his features even more. Well-aware bright eyes looking back at him; he was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. As beautiful and haunting as the unresolved riddle that he was. No, even more than that.
"I know that you won't shoot me." A fine black eyebrow rose at that. "Oh? And what makes you so sure?"
Aya leaned forward and gently touched his lips against the other's.
"This…"
Slowly, almost hesitantly, drawing away, he met Brad's strangely warm eyes. Brad blinked at him, his expression showing light confusion. It was strange, how one moment the black-haired boy's eyes could be so vibrantly full of emotions and yet be nothing more than expressionless shards the next. The trigger wasn't pulled.
Mesmerized, Aya watched as pale lips parted and the tip of a tongue darted out to lick up the taste of Aya´s lips. For once, Crawford seemed speechless.
Using this unique chance, Aya instantly leaned in for another kiss. First tense, the pre-cog's lips quickly softened under his. Biting down on them, he felt Brad's body tense against his. Somehow, his arms had once again managed to sneak around Brad's waist and chest, so that he was now holding him. Adding a bit more pressure, he felt the Schwarz leader squirm under him, making a small sound of protest that was immediately muted as Aya used the chance to gain entrance into his mouth.
Aya groaned deeply in the back if his throat as he pushed the Oracle's lips further open, pushing his tongue deeper, tasting, licking, drowning himself into the others taste. At the nape of his neck, he felt the other's hand tighten it's grip, telling him that this didn't leave Crawford unfazed as well.
The gun clattered forgotten to the ground as the hand that had been holding it slowly went limp. Finally, when reality forced itself back to remind them that they still needed to breathe, they broke the kiss.
"What… do you want anyway?"
Surprised by that question, Aya looked at Brad, curious. For somebody who was just smooched down by his long-time worst enemy, the Oracle was taking this rather good. His eyes betrayed him, though. From between ruffled raven-black strands of hair, those amber-brown orbs were giving Aya a look which showed not only distanced coldness, but also an underlying hurt.
Aya growled inwardly. The pre-cog was still thinking that this was just some part of a manipulating game, wasn't he? The thought somewhat hurt and annoyed Aya at the same time. The annoyance was more dominant, though. How could it be that he still didn't get how serious Aya was about this? How could he doubt…?! His annoyance must have shown clear on his face, as the clairvoyant's stance suddenly got defiant. Ready to defend himself.
´God, you really think like that, don't you?´ Keeping his temper down, Aya forced himself to stay where he was and return the teen's glare calmly.
"What I want? You really have to ask, ´Oracle´?" This earned him a reproachful look that told Aya that he'd managed to hit a sensitive spot. He immediately felt guilty for it. Damn! He wanted Brad to realized how serious and honest he was, not hurt him. But how things looked, there seemed to be no way to prove himself without the risk of hurting him. ´Damn you, Brad Crawford, for making all this so difficult. Damn you.´
Not that he believed that, but he had to prove himself now, or he'd probably never get the chance again. So, he just gave Crawford a cold look and, forcing his voice to keep a controlled sound, continued. "Because I want to know… I want to know why you kissed me. I want to know how you can act like such a cold bastard one moment and be so- so much more goddamn vulnerable than anything else the next!! And I want to know what's bad enough to make you loose control like that…"
Taking a deep breath, he gave Brad a serious look, effectively silencing whatever retort the other had been about to say. Releasing the air with a sigh, the redhead allowed his face to soften. He just couldn't go all harsh on him again, not after that kisses…
"Brad… Quit acting. You're not yourself lately, it's obvious… You're screaming, loosing your temper,… You even chased Schuldig through our whole apartment just because of that puny comment he made…! Something's making you preoccupied, and apparently it's really bad… Something that confuses me. I don't know what reason you have to hide it from all of us… I want you to let me help you, Brad."
He moved in for another kiss but decided otherwise at the last second and leaned his head instead against the seer's shoulder. Not really looking up, he said in a weary voice,
"But…most of all… I want to know just why I feel so good when I'm with you… and what I have to do to make you feel the same way about me." By now the redhead felt the severe urge to sink into the ground and die silently. Gods! He'd been wishing for this to happen for how long? And now, when it finally happened, he was talking such… absolute nonsense…waste… like that! If he had any luck, the pre-cognitive would just think that he'd lost his mind.
"Aya…" Gentle fingers cupped his chin, forcing him to meet Brad's amber-brown gaze. The pre-cog didn't look like he was thinking of Aya as crazy. The expression in his eyes… was strangely misted, yet, at the same time, unfamiliarly open and clear.
After timeless moments filled with silence, the Oracle finally stopped staring into the redhead's violet eyes with a serious look. Sighing silently, he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, a look of determination had appeared in them.
"Aya"
The redhead tensed automatically at these words, but immediately forced himself to relax. Stern, amber-brown eyes met vibrant violet ones.
"I… don't hate you."
Aya couldn't keep a small smile from appearing on his lips at these words. Inwardly, he was pouncing with joy. Maybe his love wasn't returned right now, but he and his feelings had been accepted.
Which meant that he had a chance.
Aya wasn't going to give up on that.
"I know. Thank you, Brad Crawford of Schwarz." Leaning closer, he kissed the pre-cog again. This time, the kiss was returned.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"And?"
At the question, Schuldig´s amazing blue-green eyes (switching colours depending on the light, the green's more dominant though) lost their distant expression and focussed on Farfarello instead. A smirk appeared on the mind-reader's face.
"´s working from what I overheard of Abyssinian's thoughts."
The pale albino-like man gave him a half-amazed, half-impressed look. "You know,…" He rested his chin in one of his palms, "…I never thought that you'd truly manage to get them actually _acting_ on it." He gave his German team-mate a questioning look. "What did you do?" Schuldig smirked again, his trademark, bad-ass smirk.
"Ohh nothing that great…" He grinned. "I just told dear Aya-chan that he's Crawford's favourite Weiß member."
A white eyebrow rose at that. "I thought that you're unable to get past Crawford's shields." Schuldig´s grin widened. "I can't. But I didn't have to tell him that, right?" The lunatic Irishman let out a low chuckle at this. That's just like what the telepath would do.
"Don't let Crawford know that."
Schuldig´s grin turned painful, momentary. "Ja… Knowing him, he'd probably hunt me down and kill me twice for it. Painfully."
"If not even more. Remember the chase today?"
The redhead turned his attention to the until-now-silent third in their little conversation. Nagi gave him a stern look. Schuldig grimaced. "Not if I have a choice. Der brächt´s glatt fertig und…[1]" He shook his head, making Farfarello chuckle again. Their leader's ´fierceness´ had been quite a surprise for the German…. and not exactly a pleasant one.
"Do you really think that that'll work?"
Schuldig blinked, for a moment taken by surprise. "What? Pairing up our oh-so-glorious leader with the Weiß icicle? Sure it'll work!" The mere shadow of a doubt on one of his plans insulted him. Nagi gave him an unreadable look.
"I know. But what if…?"
Schuldig shook his head with a sigh. "I know, chibi. We're playing a risky game here, and we'd better not loose…. But still…," his smirk returned, "We're still Schwarz and whoever chooses to pick a fight with us better prepare himself for trouble! Right?!" He tossed the pen he'd found some time ago at the petite telekinetic. It stopped mid air just two inches before his nose.
Farfarello grinned faintly. "Right!" Nagi frowned. The pen was circling his head in slow circles, reminding the pale lunatic a great lot of some satellite or space ship on it's mission. Well, every one of the psychics had his own way of showing his discomfort. Nagi seemed to like playing with things. Schuldig intentionally ignored the ´shuttle pen´.
"Right, Naggs…?"
Giving him an exasperated look, Nagi stifled a silent sigh. "…right." Evading another loop of the pen, he patted the youngest member of their team onto his shoulder. "Exactly! And now…" He leered at the already suspicious looking, Japanese teen.
"Care to tell us poor partner-less bishonen how it's getting on with you and Tsukiyono Omi?"
Nagi rolled his eyes at him. The redheaded telepath was horribly overdoing it once again. "Very well. By tomorrow, we'll have broken through all of the secret codes." Schuldig smirked. "I didn't mean that, chibi, and you know it." He winked at the brown-haired boy. "How are things between Omi-kun and *you*?"
Nagi gave him a cold look. "Private." Farfarello let out a low chuckle at the dumbfounded expression on Schuldig´s face. Obviously ´private´ wasn't the answer the German had expected. Schuldig gave him an overly-hurt look, pretending to be seriously in pain and successfully got Nagi to actually crack a faint smile for a few moments.
The telekinetic sobered up soon, though. Out of all the members of Schwarz, one could consider him as the most ´mature´ at the current point of time. Normally, that description would fit Crawford, but the Oracle had clearly his own problems to care for right now. Schuldig and Farfarello were… Schuldig and Farfarello. No further explanations needed. So it was up to him to keep things straight.
/_Straight_, chibi?/ He could hear Schuldig laugh in his head over their mental link. /*sigh…* Baka./
"What I meant was…", Nagi was struggling to find the right words, "Aren't you two worried that they'll simply just kill each other?"
"Abyssinian?" Schuldig smirked. "I've read some of his thoughts. He'd rather die than let anything harm Crawford… And as for Brad-" He grinned widely as he gestured with some small, shiny objects that had somehow found their way from his pockets to his hands.
"-…What makes you think I wouldn't take care of that?" Grinning, he presented the bullets to his surprised team-mates.
[1] – He´d really be able and…
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
In another (by now familiar) room in the apartment, Fujimiya Aya halted in his actions as a cold, metal muzzle was pressed at the back of his jaw line.
"Brad..?"
Trapped underneath him, the cold pre-cog smirked at him as his fingers toyed with the gun's trigger, shortly before actually pulling it.
"Goodbye Abyssinian."
/Click./
One moment passed.
Another one.
And another.
As the expected pain and blood hadn't come, Aya decided that it would be safe to open his eyes again. (He'd instinctively closed them.) Twin-pools of amused amber-brown that were equally sparkling with malicious glee met his violet ones, clearly telling him that he'd, once again, successfully managed to fall into one of the other's traps.
Smirking, Crawford pulled the trigger another time, just to receive a second fruitless ´click´. Seeing comprehension dawn on the other man's face, he allowed his smirk to wide until it even reached his eyes. This round clearly went to him.
"Surprised?"
His voice was all but a low purr. Aya frowned at him. "There are no bullets in the gun." Brad chuckled at the almost accusing sound in the redhead's voice.
"Of course not, Abyssinian."
These words were accompanied with a sensuous look. Aya raised an eyebrow. "Hn. Is that so… Oracle?" Just a deep chuckle answered his question.
"It is."
They met for another kiss. Inwardly, Crawford couldn't help but smirk to himself. He'd known, of course. That had been one of the main reasons he'd decided to use it. Where the bullets had gone and who'd taken them… who knows. More importantly: who cared? Brad Crawford definitely did not and, as it looked, neither did Aya. Mmm…, was this a good time to mention that Aya was a damn good kisser?
The bad thing about seeing flashes of the immediate future was that he wasn't always able to see the whole thing, but merely glances of it. Sometimes those glimpses weren't enough to make a decision on whether it would be a bad or good thing to happen… One always needed to be prepared for all possible turns of events. It was also of great advantage to be able to adjust to new situations quickly… and to make the best of them.
Smirk.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
End Chapter 20
^_^ Gomen ne that this took me so long. Due to a rule on my school I had to spend the last month working, not leaving me with any time to continue my writing activities. Also I currently have to study for a rather hard trigonometry exam, so please be gentle with me and excuse the short length of this chapter. ^.^ I was trying my best, honestly!
Great thanks for reviewing to: Rei Eien, Ryuke-Naoe, PinkSpider, Elfsong, stray cat (^____^), wingedkitten, Yami no Tenshi, Shuo Ri, Blue6-Blood6J6, Seraph1, Dje, Kyra2, Sephykoi, SuzumiTenshi, chibicrawford, dark wings and Shirogane.^.^ Also great thanks to my two great friends Rose and Kim for proof reading this chapter and helping me to keep this from getting completely too OOC.´`_´`
18-12-03: Sorry to say, I have currently problems involving my health that probably will keep me from continuing this story any soon. ^^; Yeah, I know I said something about getting the new chapter up till end November…Sorry! Some of the medications don't seem to work the way they're supposed to, and well, without them doing as they should, no complete cure! O.o I really hate my life sometimes… I´m working on the next chapter though.^^;
Important Note:
THIS STORY WILL NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, BE GIVEN UP, ABANDONED OR LEFT!! Thank you.~Picaro