Because Baka-Chibbi posted a month after the last post to remind me, this chapter is dedicated toBaka-Chibbi!!!
Chapter 15 : Mornings are the worst
Ken had a comfortable sleep. He hadn't slept that well in a while and he could feel the effects the moment he blinked awake. It was as if all the stress and anxiety he had been feeling was gone.
The sheets were thick and warm, silky smooth on his bare torso...
Bare ...?
He shot up as he realized that he wasn't wearing a shirt at all... and that he wasn't in his room...
" What the fuck ?" He muttered to himself. He then remembered what happened the night before, the little exploration he had done and finding the 'storeroom' and stumbling through the darkness and finally ... Crawford. " Fuck Crawford." He muttered angrily.
His eyes scanned the large bed and the dark room around him, trying to figure out the silhouettes with the meager light streaming in, but it was empty aside from his occupancy. He wasn't completely naked after all, and he wasn't feeling any soreness.
He sighed in relief and dropped back on the soft mattress, feeling it waver and bounce from underneath him as he stared at the white ceiling. " This place is insane."
Crawford had terrified him the night before, although he didn't exactly know why. The man demanded respect and all that shit, but Ken didn't particularly fear him. An image flashed fleetingly across his mind but was gone before he could fully or even partially understand what it meant.
Hmmm...
The sheets smelled nice. It was a cool relaxing scent, reminding Ken so much of the pine trees in the mountain where his parents had taken him once when he was young.
That one was a good memory... one of the few he had.
He turned and buried his face into the white pillow, too tired to get out of bed.
He blinked slowly and stared at the whiteness of the pillow sheet, suddenly reminded of silky red hair strewn across a similar pillow.
The others would be of Schuldich and their time together ... but he shouldn't be thinking of Schuldich while he was in Crawford's bed even if he didn't do anything at all.
Knowing that Crawford didn't touch him was enough – so maybe the man had more integrity than he first assumed... but that didn't mean he was going to trust the bastard! Even if he didn't follow through with exploiting him didn't mean he didn't think of doing it and Ken knew the damned American had intended to just that.
Sighing to himself, he admitted silently that it was stupid arguing with himself, and although he didn't know Crawford's intentions, he should be on guard at all times. " Brad Crawford is a total asshole! He deserves to burn in hell!" He said aloud to no one in particular.
Crawford...
"Aaargh!" Ken growled and tossed the blanket over his head, trying to drown off the light filtering from the closed curtains. Like a sick dog, he rolled around the bed, trying to figure out what to do with himself.
He stopped when he landed on the floor with a loud thud.
"Shit. That hurt." He muttered, crawling out from inside the cocoon of white.
He looked up to see a pair of bare feet and legs clad in a white silk pajama pants. Further up, he recognized the apathetic face of Brad Crawford.
" You been there long ?" He said gruffly and struggled to get out of his imprisonment but only managed to entangle himself further.
If he had looked long enough, he would've guessed that the miniscule millimeter a corner of Crawford's lips would have been a ghost of a smile, sarcastic or not.
His muffled grunts and growls intensified with his frustration at Crawford seeing him the way he was.
Next thing he knew, he was rolling on the carpet, with Crawford's arm raised with the corner of the thick blanket in his graceful fist.
" Get up. We're already late." The older man said roughly before tossing the blanket back onto his face.
Ken howled and clawed it away. "Why you fuck- !"
" And since you were the one that littered the floor, clean that up before you go and fetch my breakfast."
And Crawford disappeared into a door which Ken easily assumed was the bathroom.
He fumed as he angrily jumped to his feet and threw the blanket back on the bed.
The man was a bastard the moment he even woke up.
His eyes fell to the litter that Crawford referred to. They were little cylinders with white caps.
Annoyed, he began gathering them up and putting back on the table beside the door.
So that was what he kept on tripping on the night before!
What were they anyway ?
Curious, he glanced at the little labels.
But they were in gibberish. How would he know what those undecipherable words meant ?
Growling softly to himself, he set about finishing his task and before hurrying out the door. He couldn't wait to get the hell out of that freaking room.
He thought of Schuldich as he strolled off to his room to get his mind off of Crawford.
† † †
Crawford stood with his back against the bathroom door listening to the clatter that the younger brunette made.
Really, it had been a long time since someone amused him as much as the teenager did, it was almost blasphemous.
It was easy to deny but yes, he had been watching Ken ever since before the boy woke up. Fortunately, he had managed to get out of sight when Ken started to stir.
He buried his face in his palm and stifled a small chuckle when he recalled the little murmurings the chestnut-haired boy muttered and the fact that his name had been mentioned more than once after a rude expletive didn't bother him in the least.
He listened as Ken stormed off to his room before opening the bathroom door.
It was strange, but the room felt colder than it had ever had before.
It was proof enough that Ken was something he should keep... and he resolved that he was going to do just that.
No matter what, he was going to keep the riffraff... and he didn't care who he'd have trample to do that.
† † †
Schuldich knew he had to do something. He could no longer sit on his ass and do nothing.
Ken had been missing for more or less a month and despite the fact that he'd scoured the city a million times, maybe it was time he cranked things up.
But the question was - how ?
He'd already exhausted all of his options and pulled enough strings to make an army of wooden puppets dance the tango with and the tap with each other. He'd talked to every bartender and manger of every seedy downtown joint – not that he expected Ken to be there – Ken was not at all that type – but he just wanted to make sure... maybe... just maybe...
He'd gone to every bar, alley and motel in the district – all the places a young street rat would go... all to no avail.
The damn bastard... ran away with some rich schmuck to get rid of me. He growled to himself bitterly as he took another swig of brandy direct from the bottle.
The room was swaying a little to the steady hum ringing from his ears and he could almost feel the earth dip from under his feet.
He hiccupped rudely. Maybe he just needed to check one last time. If he still couldn't find Ken tonight, he'd give up entirely.
Belting out a series of burps, (he knew he should have tried to stay away from the all the fast food crap he'd been eating for the nth straight week) he zigzagged his way to the door and fished out the keys from its rack before he grabbed a coat from the rack, his other hand still holding the bottleneck in a tight fist.
" Ken Hidaka! You ungrateful bastard! I'm going to kick your ass when I see you!" He announced to the empty apartment before he made an ungraceful exit with the butt of his bottle clinking against the door frame as he shut the door behind him.
† † †
The day was just too bizarre for Ken's liking.
That morning, the other servants actually did more (in a progressive sense) than ignore him, they actually answered him in begrudgingly respectful tones.
Of course, Ken had no idea what a respectful tone sounded like, but it must be the way they talked to Crawford – and they were talking to him almost in the same way.
It made him even more lonely.
It was bad enough having to deal with people scattering from him like he had leprosy; but it was worse to have them scattering from him without putting the effort to assault him with insults behind his back.
Somehow he preferred to have them gossiping about him 'without him knowing about it' rather than stomach their mock-respectful glances and well-masked disgust.
Even the usually fawning secretaries kept their distance from him and only contented themselves with fawning from afar. Funny, he never thought he'd see the day where he'd miss the times he almost tripped on a cooing bunch of women.
Overall, it was one of the worse days he had in 'Master Crawford's service', as Farfarello sometimes aptly put it.
Strangely enough, the one person who gave him a grip on sanity was the one who seemed least likely to have it.
Farfarello was his source of amusement all that time. Whenever he had to vent his anger and frustration, the gold-eyed man was always there to listen. Of course, he rarely ever responded but somehow he found a way to comfort Ken like leaving little chocolate candies in his room or putting sweets on the dashboard for him to find.
It was to Farfarello that he went to now.
The Irishman had disappeared the moment they arrived at the mansion, he had a habit of doing that. Fortunately, Ken had memorized the way to his room the first time he had gotten curious and covertly followed the white-haired man once before- after which he became a regular visitor. Of course, because of that, there were quite a number of annoying rumors floating around among the servants, but he chose to ignore that. Little did he know that those rumors annoyed his employer more that it irritated him.
He knocked on the black door at the end of the servant's corridor. Farfarello, being the highest-ranking and most-favored employee (even more than the butler), had the best quarters and that didn't sit too well with the others either.
The door opened almost immediately. If Ken didn't know any better, Ken would've said that the man was expecting him, but of course, Farfarello was Farfarello. One can't really tell how that man worked.
"I hate them all!" Ken ranted as he stormed into the room and threw himself on the bed.
Farfarello didn't say anything and sat down on the black chair and opened a black drawer on the black desk and withdrew a black pouch bag. Black was the Irishman's favorite color, Ken noted wryly every time he went into Farfarello's room.
A small grin widened when the white-haired man thrust a pale fist to him.
It seemed like the chauffeur's best solution to appease him with was sweets; and he had to admit, it worked every time – and it seemed like he kept a stash of them in the familiar black pouch for that very purpose.
" Darmn barstards I frucking hater therm arrrr..." Ken managed to choke out, his words garbled as he sucked on the tail of a sugar mouse. Yeah, the sweets Farfarello managed to find were kinda weird, he never saw them being sold anywhere – not that he was complaining! They tasted glorious!
Farfarello, as usual, was merely watching him quietly, the bag in hand, ready for another open tirade, his head twisted in one of the weird angles only he could accomplish without breaking his neck.
He finished chomping on the ear and was handed a milk crane as reward.
"And what's that deal with King Crawford ?! You know what he tried to do to me last night , huh?" Ken opened his mouth, about to launch into full description but clamped it shut when he realized how awkward it probably would sound.
Flustered, he fumbled for another line of thought.
" I mean... ordering me around when I just came in this morning and..." Ken didn't know why he was lying, but for some reason, he felt like he had to and it was strange – to Farfarello of all people!
The image of Crawford looking at him the way he did the night before crawled up on him like an unwanted memory.
" Aaaaaaargh!" He growled as he gobbled the last of the milk crane and dived under the mountain of black pillows, as Farfarello looked on, seeming about as amused as he'd allow himself to look.
Ken intended to bury himself there until the next full moon where Crawford might turn into Count Dracula and he can chain him somewhere open to sizzle to death when the sun rose – that was until Farfarello spoke – which, in itself, was a rarity, coupled with what he actually had to say.
" Tomorrow's my day off, you could come with me if you want." Farfarello said simply; putting the black pouch back into the drawer before pushing it closed.
Ken popped his head out from under the pillows. There was nothing he'd love more than that.
† † †
Redemption Moon : Hullo, after a month, here I am again. My, how time flies. My goodness, I hope this slow pace won't continue forever, as I'm sure you guys too are wishing.
Kati : Yeah, I'm glad you know how it feels like. As of now, the finals are approaching and my professors are heaping us with impossible projects in the coming weeks. It sucks like hell. But I'm gonna keep trying. Cross your fingers for me guys.
Schu : I put in a little bit of Schu just for you! (whoo! That rhymes!) ::lol:: We just have to wait and see, ne? Bwahahahaha!!!
Kyon : Hiya! Ohmygosh! I love 'seeing new faces'! I really do! Please continue reviewing! ::huggles::
Tryster : Huh? Which line? :) Thank goodness! I am excused! ::dances:: I hope you like this chapter too. And wow, six pages! Applaud me! ::LOL:: I'm kidding. Don't applaud me! ::laughs::
Whisper Reilman : And yes, it took me ANOTHER month to write this one. Damnit, I'm so sorry. ::LOL:: I just LOVE your Supportinator!!! Although I can't say that sharing IS an option... and yeah, that's not the best example you could've chosen.
Celace : And now, you see how Farfie operates. ::LOL:: Now that I think about it, the way you described them pretty much went up smack. But then again,if I were Ken, I wouldn't be complaining coz they sure both are HOTTTTT! I'd advise counseling if it were Omi he'd attract. Now THAT'S freaky!
LoneCayt : Sorry, I'll try to spice it up a little for you from now on, okay? But then again, it won't work for me that Ken would be more rebellious for a lot of reasons, but you'll just have to find that out. I hope you're a little satisfied with Schuldich's albeit tiny appearance. You'll see more of him in the next chapter. And yes, Aya/Ran will show up in the future.
xXLil Yu JahXx : I'm glad you stopped neglecting to read it :) Awwww... that's so sweet of you to say! ::huggles:: Please don't stop your support! It's greatly appreciated! :)
Marsupial : ::lol:: as usual, too lazy to sign in... not that I'm complaining! At least not too lazy to review!!! Sorry for the typos, I rechecked them when I had the time and laughed when I saw what they were. I don't get to check them nowadays before I post because I want to post them asap lest I forget or something comes up and I don't have the time again. Once again, I apologize. Please excuse past and future errors. ::bows humbly:: ::lol:: and yay for Ken torture! :)
Mochiino ai : ::LOL:: As I've said before, I LOVE 'seeing new faces'! Welcome! ::huggles:: Thanks for adding me! :) Yeah, more BradKen! Please continue on reviewing! :)
Allis : Oh, he IS shocked. Not just shocked, and not just him. ::laughs out evilly:: Ooooh, I love this job!
Wai-Aki : But Brad IS adorable!!! (at least in my humble opinion) ::huggles Brad:: I love him here so much!!! ::laughs::
Baka-chibbi : Oh no! You're not annoying me, in fact, I find it sweet that you posted to remind me to update. Awwwww... ::huggles:: And don't worry, I INTEND to FINISH this story! :)