Disclaimer: I don't own Weiss Kreuz so there! Yarr!

Key: /denotes POV/

        -denotes thought-

         denotes flashback

Chapter 13

Living the nightmare

Ken

I remember that, when I woke from that dream, with the fingers of sleep still clutching at my mind, I was the most relaxed I had been for a long time. I could feel that my aching back and limbs were soothed, my pounding head and my blurry eyes were calmer, everything just seemed to be a lot less painful than it had been before I slept. Yet, annoyingly enough, as always happens when you're trying hard to remember a dream, I couldn't bring back anything to the conscious world. Well, that's a lie, I could remember something but it didn't make any sense.

Dammit.

I let my eyes slide open and shut a few times before I managed to become coherent. There was a light in the corner of my vision that blinked and waved and was annoying me, but I couldn't really even focus on being annoyed. I felt like I'd been run over by a tractor.

Finally I managed to blink the fuzz from my mind, looking around my room which, in the light of day, looked a hell of a lot messier than when it was all hidden in darkness. No, this wasn't because the fight had extended into my room, it's just because my room is always a tip.

-Oh yeah! And proud of it…-

The fight.

The thought hit me like a punch to the stomach.

-Ran…-

I felt like I was going to throw up.

-Don't hate me…-

All the good that the mystery dream had done me suddenly vanished.

-…I'm your friend...-

I groaned into the dusty air and pulled myself up off the bed before my nausea got any worse.

-…you need me…-

The stale sunlight was peeking in through a gap in the curtains and highlighting the little streams of dust that floated in the air.

-…I need you.-

My mind wouldn't stop dredging up painful memories of the previous night.

Suddenly I felt like opening the curtains, getting some sun on my face no matter how stagnant, and waking myself up. Yet I just couldn't bring myself to face the morning, to face another day living the nightmare.

"So you're finally awake."

I nearly died. I have to say that I do tend to over react to things, it's in my nature, but when I turned around to see Brad Crawford sitting in my comfy armchair I nearly died. Why I didn't see him before was beyond me.

"Holy shit! What the fuck are you doing here!?" I asked tactfully.

"Well I was sleeping up until about ten minutes ago," the American said with a lifted eyebrow, "but now I'm awake, I suppose I'm going to find breakfast."

With that he stood up from MY comfy armchair and stretched his arms up towards the low ceiling. He let out a loud crack as he flexed his arms and then sighed happily, not looking at me once as he opened my door and left without bothering to close it again. I just stared after him dumbfounded.

"You could have at least closed the door!" I called after him irrationally, not wanting to let him just get away with being such a prick.

This was too weird. My head hurt.

-When the hell did Crawford get here? – I groaned as I tried to comprehend the situation, - I remember…Schuldich. –

Of course, if Schuldich was here, then the rest of them were bound to be here too. Crawford, Farferello, that little quiet kid Nagi…joy, Schwartz in our living room. I felt like going back to bed and going to sleep for an hundred years. Perhaps everything would be over by then.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Yoji asked a little more harshly as he regained a little of his scattered wits, and quite reasonably so considering the circumstances.

Yet, never one to be lazy, I couldn't just lie down and go back to sleep, not at nine in the morning. That was what my little bedside clock blinked at me. I found it strange that it was blinking, yet still I didn't dwell on it.

…Ran wasn't a telekinetic. Well, at least that's what I thought until I found myself flying through the air before becoming pinned up against the opposite wall, spread-eagled, my head spinning and the air knocked in full from my lungs.

Now that I was awake I knew there was no reason not to get up and walk about for a while. At least I would be able to figure out what was going on, get someone to fill me in on what had happened after I blacked out, hell maybe even get some coffee if I was lucky. That final thought was good motivation and I only took as long as my aching body would permit to get dressed. I didn't want to think about why my shirt and jacket had been removed along with my trousers…the conclusions were just too disturbing, so I ignored them and just carried on dressing. Best not to linger to long I suppose.

"Ran…please…" was all I could gasp out before my vision dimmed as dark spots began to expand in front of my eyes.

I knew then I was going to die. I just knew it. This was insane. I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't! Not like this! Not like this…not him…couldn't breathe…

The house was strangely quiet as I stepped out into the corridor, and not very strangely full of holes. There was a large Ken shaped dent in the wall opposite Omi's room which made me shiver. I could still feel my head cracking off the hard plaster, that force pushing at me, Ran's cold eyes…no, can't think about that. I turned my thoughts from the previous night. Yet I couldn't stop the flashes of memory.

-Yoji, - I thought in desperation, -he was hurt, and god I forgot!-

I looked to his door, closed against the morning as usual. I hoped that he was okay, yet he was so thick skulled that I'm sure he was. The thought made me smile with grim desperation.

So all I could do was watch in vain as Ran slipped from Yoji's infallible looking grasp and strike out hard against his chin. The blonde flew back, slamming into the wall before crumpling in an unconscious heap on the floor.

Yet, for some reason I was sure that he was unharmed, I felt like I would have know if he was seriously hurt. Strange I know, but I still felt it deep down in my gut.

-Still, best to check…- I thought grimly, knowing how much Yoji hated to be woken up in the morning; still, this wasn't any normal morning, I hadn't seen one of those for a while now.

I didn't bother to knock, I didn't see any need. I knew well fine that Yoji didn't have any girls round and that never really stopped me just walking into his room anyway; well unless there were suspicious noises coming from the room, then I tended to just side step the door widely.

It opened easily, odd considering Yoji's door had always stuck, but I guess the fight had taken its toll on this old building.

The room was dark, the curtains, like my own, closed against the sunshine. The door also, thankfully, no longer squeaked when it opened. I was glad for that as it really wouldn't have gone with my headache. I just walked across the room, keeping to the triangle of light streaking from the open door, careful not to trip over the pair of long black boots on the floor. I reached the curtains and took hold of the warm cloth, the sunshine heating them up from the outside, and was about to pull them wide open and flood the room when something occurred to me.

-Long black…boots? Does Yoji own knee highs? - I blinked, wondering as to the change in my friends fashion sense that I hadn't even noticed, ignorantly glad that at least this momentary distraction stopped my disturbing flashbacks, -hmm…-

I just shrugged, thinking that there were stranger things to worry about other than Yoji's clothes. I pulled the curtains open with satisfaction, happy to feel the sun shinning on me and the blue sky rolling before my eyes. I turned as I heard a groan from the bed, opening my mouth to make some sort of really annoying remark only a morning person can make. Then I saw a long pale hand that definitely wasn't Yoji's, an un-tattooed arm that wasn't his either and then a mess of red hair that also wasn't his. Yet, even more jaw dropping than this was the fact that mixed in with all these body parts that weren't Yoji's, were body parts that did belong to Yoji.

Yoji was sleeping with his arm around Schuldich.

They were sleeping in the same bed.

Yoji was drooling onto his pillow.

These were the scrambled thoughts that ran through my head right before I blew my top.

"Oh my…GOD! What the hell do you think you're doing Kudo Yoji get your ass out of that bed right now!"

Now, compared to my jumping three feet into the air in fright when I was surprised by Crawford in my room earlier, Yoji just slowly blinked open his eyes and moaned. Well, I never did call him a morning person. However, after he smiled at me, after he lifted his head to wipe the embarrassing drool from the corner of his mouth, then he noticed where exactly he was sleeping. Or, to be more precise, who he was sleeping on.

"AAahHHahh!" was roughly what he said while he disentangled himself from the still sleeping redhead.

The Schwartz, who had not been awoken by my outburst, was awoken by Yoji's. He blinked open his forest green eyes slowly, yawning widely before sitting up and shaking out his hair roughly.

Yoji just sat up against the wall, as far away from Schuldich as he could get and rubbed his arms. He looked more than a little distressed to say the least, and rightly so I think. Schuldich just rubbed his eyes and breathed in deeply, letting it out through his nose. He turned to look at Yoji then, not really acknowledging my angry presence at all.

"You snore Kudo," was all he said.

Yoji just glared at him.

"Will you get out of here!?" I bellowed at him, making the redhead just roll his eyes and smirk.

"No need to get jealous now," he smirked as he swung gracefully off the bed and stood up to stretch his arms up over his head towards the ceiling.

He looked down to my feet then, arching an eyebrow at what he saw. I just continued to glare daggers at him and Yoji, only the blonde making any sort of reaction however. Then suddenly he spoke.

"You're on my boots," he said simply, letting his hands fall down, clasped, behind his head.

"Uh," I said a little thrown by the statement, stepping to the right quickly as Schuldich continued to stare down at my feet.

As soon as I stepped off of the long black boots the redhead bent down, without bending his knees and picked them off the floor, his long red hair falling like a curtain over his face. Then, without another word, he stood up and walked to the door, grabbing his coat on his way. Then he was gone. I turned to Yoji.

"What the hell was that all about!?" I shouted, hands on my hips like I was his mother or something.

"Oh man, don't shout, please," the blonde with the bandage moaned at me.

"I'll shout all the hell I want," I growled, "what the hell did you think you were doing?"

"Ah, I have a head injury leave me alone," he whined unbearably, "he wouldn't leave me alone either, you're all ganging up on me!"

"Yeah well, I'm not the one sleeping with the enemy!"

"Yeah, well me neither!"

"Oh yeah, that's not what it looked like to me!"

"I didn't have much say in the matter, and stop shouting!"

"Call yourself an assassin, you could have kicked him out, and I'll shout if I want to!"

"Ahem, am I interrupting something?"

That stopped us both dead in our tracks, both of us simultaneously turning to look at the open door. Omi stood there, arms crossed, face still holding the remnants of sleep and hair mussed. We both closed our mouths and glared at each other.

"No," Yoji said stiffly, holding his bandage tenderly, "right Kenken?"

"Huh, don't call me that you traitor!"

"I'm not a traitor I just tend to roll about in my sleep!"

"Nice excuse Mr. Libido!"

"Yeah, well I like to think so, Mr. Virgin!"

"I am not a virgin!!"

I don't know when Omi left, but when I turned to the door to ask him for back up the doorway was empty. I guess, as I listened to Yoji list his long line of sexual conquests so as to reaffirm his masculinity, that I couldn't blame him making a quick exit. I just stopped arguing like I was in primary school and held up my hands to stop Yoji.

"All right! Shut up already, I don't want to know about your rampant sex drive, hell," I snorted, "just get down stairs."

With that I followed Omi's example and left the room. For some reason that stupid dream, the one that had been so comforting, kept haunting me like a bad meal.

-Stupid orchids, - I grumbled as I thumped down the stairs.                           

Crawford and Schuldich were already downstairs, the German sitting at the kitchen table, mugs of coffee in hand, and Omi was standing at the counter with glass of orange juice. It looked so odd, with Schwartz just making themselves comfy like they belonged here or something. The soft light filtered in over the quiet scene, slighting off the back of Crawford's immaculate white suit as he stood with his back resting against the counter. I couldn't help but be a little volatile.

"What the hell are they doing here?" I growled at Omi who, in return, only sighed and sipped his juice.

He looked a little defeated and, well, unfortunately at that moment I wasn't in the mood to care. I had woken up twice now with Schwartz members looming over me and I wasn't exactly happy about it.

"I mean it Omi, answer me!" I shouted, losing my very short temper.

"Give the kid a break," Schuldich answered, surprising me, "he's been up all night. And as to what we are doing here, well, last night we were saving your worthless hides."

"Worthless hid…why you..!" I strode up to his chair with murder in my eyes.

Yet as soon as I reached his chair, he was out of it and standing before me, using his extra height as a severe advantage. The air itself was tense between us, almost tangible, as if it were pushing us apart. I wondered absently if it really was and Prodigy was somewhere in the background trying to save his friend from getting his ass kicked.

"Hmm, I think it might be more like the other way around Hidaka," the German smirked, lowering back into his chair.

However, even that did not deter me; I still glared at him and clenched my fists at my sides menacingly.

"Obviously our hides are not so worthless, however," Omi said softly from the other side of the room, "or you wouldn't have bothered saving us at all. Tell me Crawford, exactly why did you help us?"

I calmed myself down, actually more interested in the Schwartz leaders reply than fighting for once, putting my own anger and confusion on hold for the time being. There was a pause while Crawford blew gently on his coffee, sending ripples across the dark liquid. It was then, as I stared at him, that I realised he wasn't wearing his glasses, and it was strange how completely different he looked without them…less calculating perhaps. So many things were strange today that it was getting a bit out of hand.

"To help ourselves of course," he said finally, sipping his hot coffee lightly and savouring the taste, "there was no way you would have survived that fight last night, and there was no way that we would have survived my premonition."

"Premonition?" I asked, confused to hell but just trying my best to keep up, "Wait, wait, what do you mean "no way you would have survived", what are you all talking about!?"

"Perhaps if you calmed down I could explain that to you," Crawford offered with a tip of his head.

"Perhaps," I mocked, "you could just tell me and quit the bullshit."

"Hmm, I knew you would be difficult Siberian, but this is just ludicrous," he laughed softly, "if we're going to be a team we have to play nicely."

"T-team?" I stammered, almost as if I were choking on the word.

"Yeah," the German sneered as he fished around in his coat, pulling out a pack of cigarettes, "wonderful isn't it?"

"Schuldich," Crawford said in a warning tone making the redhead snort, but finally comply, smiling nastily at his leader before sitting quietly once more, "I'm sure, even with our differences, we can work together. I think that we both have too much on our plates right now and things might be getting out of hand."

"Might be," I growled, "talk about an understatement. First Aya goes mad and now you guys turn up and want to play house? I think that out of hand is putting it mildly."

"Perhaps," he said, smiling softly into his coffee.

"Perhaps, what's that supposed to mean!?" I raged once more, "Don't you get it? We're enemies! We always have been, and now you expect us to just turn around and say, "yes of course we'd like to team up with your pack of wanton psychopaths, thank you very much"?

"I wouldn't say I was wanton…" Schuldich wandered absently, stroking his chin in thought.

"Do you know nothing!?" I yelled.

"Well, I do know one thing for sure," Crawford said with annoying calm, "if we don't co-operate we will all be destroyed."

I opened my mouth to retort, but nothing came out. There wasn't a hell of a lot you could say to that I guess, and as I thought more and more about it, the more and more it began to calm me down. Not in a good way mind you, more in a fear kind of way. I felt a little numb all of a sudden, just opting for dropping down into a nearby kitchen chair and staring hard at the floor. There was silence once more.

"So, what part do we have to play?" Omi asked just as calmly as Crawford.

"For that to be answered, we must wait and see," he said cryptically.

"You mean you don't know?" I said with a frown.

"I liked you better when you were quiet," Crawford glared at me coldly, his piercing gaze averting my own back to the ground.

I just kept staring down, as Omi and Crawford talked as reservedly as business partners, down at the stained floor tiles. There was a small crack in one of them and, as I looked closer, I noticed there was a woodlouse stuck in it. The little insect's leg was caught in the break and it was struggling futilely to get free, its feelers waving like mad. Its small shell undulated with the pressure, pulling and straining, and I found that I couldn't take my eyes off of it, and that I tried but they wouldn't move, and that it was freaking me out how this little bug was struggling on our floor. It was going to pull off its own leg if it kept it up, yet it just kept on thrashing, pulling, kicking out, never once considering giving up...

"What's going on?" I heard Yoji say from the doorway, just as the little things leg ripped from its body and I finally managed to break my momentary madness.

"Not much," I muttered, looking up at him irately, blinking the look of revulsion from my eyes.

He was dressed in his usual, black tank top and dark jeans and his hair tied up yet still in his face. His dark green sunglasses were missing, probably still lying broken in the bombsite that was now Omi's bedroom. I have to admit that his outfit didn't look complete without them, and it was just another strange thing to add to my list of many. His exposed body was also boasting a few new bruises, stark and purple against his tanned skin. I shivered as I remembered the way he fell to the ground under Ran's cruel hands.

"Hmm, you're not going to be pissy at me all day are you?" he asked with a raise of one elegant eyebrow.

"Shut up," I grumbled, adding to Crawford bitterly "so where's the rest of the happy family?"

"I was on Bombay's computer," a voice said from behind my chair, making me jump five feet into the air for the second time that morning.

I turned to look to the source of the voice, the large deep blue eyes of the little Schwartz kid greeting me…or not really greeting me but, well, just sort of…looking forwards. I know that's a crap description but I can't think of any other way to describe his expression as it was utterly…expressionless. His eyes just seemed to be looking but not seeing, staring forward as he stood in the doorway and looked like he wasn't even feeling anything at being forced to uproot from his safe house and get into cahoots with the enemy. I felt like this kid would need his very own list if strangeness in my book to go along with all the other weird shit that was happening.  Then, as I glared angrily at him, Nagi walked past me and into the room to stand silently beside Crawford. I just calmed my racing heart, glaring at the little kid for all I was worth. I hated this already.

"You let him on your computer?" I asked Omi incredulously.

"Like I had a choice," Omi muttered in reply to my glare.

"Oh yeah," I spat, "team work means a lot to you people doesn't it, I can tell."

"How uncooperative of you Hidaka," Schuldich muttered, his emerald eyes settling on my like a force all of their own.

"I'm not the one forcing for information."
"Well, if we're going to be a team then we shouldn't have had to force for it in the first place then should we?" Schuldich said tersely, his narrow eyed gaze pinning me to my chair yet not deterring me.

"Yeah like we're going to trust you!" I shot back, not really caring if I sounded like a spoilt child as long as I wiped that look off of his face.

"Be quiet!" Omi and Crawford said simultaneously.

That shut us up. We both blinked at the coincidence, turning to look at our respective leaders. They themselves were however conveniently ignoring the fact that they had just jinxed each other, sipping their drinks in calm silence, obviously satisfied that their outburst (no matter how freaky) had had the desired effect. Nagi and Yoji were also looking a little taken aback, that's if you could call the little kids slightly less blank stare "taken aback".

"So," Omi said after tipping his drink back to catch the last of the dregs, "if we're going to figure all of this out I think we should begin on a plan."

"Agreed," Crawford nodded.

"But what is the plan?" Yoji asked, as if he really was as nonchalant about the whole affair as he sounded.

"What does it matter," I spat at them all.

"Ken," Yoji said with a hard yet sympathetic look, adding more just for my ears "don't you care."

"Sometimes I wonder," I muttered back, feeling my head ache a little bit as my mouth seemed to just say stuff that I wasn't really thinking about myself, "everything is just a process leading to a result."

I sat there for a moment after saying it, just thinking about the connotations of it as if someone else had told me the phrase. Then I blinked. Had I just said that? That was so…not me! I looked up a Yoji and noted the strange look of confusion adorning his face. The others just seemed to brush it off, even Omi after he'd given me a confused look of his own, and I just looked back down at the floor. I could still feel Yoji's eyes on me but I didn't look back up. I just blinked again, confused myself as to the out of character comment. It almost sounded, I thought to myself brokenly, like…

"That was like something Ran would say," Yoji whispered to me as he sidled over ad sat down in the free chair to my right.

I just nodded, confused but not really thinking too hard on the subject. I felt a little numb at the reminder anyway, feeling again that leaden feeling in my heart as I remembered the night before. I felt the nausea rise in my gut again and just swallowed convulsively against the sick in my throat.

"Yeah," I said softly.

I saw Yoji nod out of the corner of my eye, his hand reaching out to pat my knee reassuringly. I frowned at the gesture yet, when I looked up at him questioningly I stopped and just nodded back to him. His eyes told me everything I needed to know. That Yoji knew what I was feeling, that he was feeling it too, that he would be there for me, that he would be there for all of Weiss, that we would get Ran back, that we would survive this…

-That's why we've always needed you Yoji, - I thought with a small smile, - you're always so sure. We need that, right now we really need that.-

"You know," I said softly as the others continued to talk, "I had this dream last night…"

Yet I wasn't allowed to finish. Just then Omi announced that a plan had been formed, or at least half a plan anyway.

"I'm going to do research," he said softly, the temperament of his tone not betraying his real anxiety however.

"Nagi will accompany you," Crawford informed him, his tone establishing the fact that there was going to be no argument about this fact.

Omi just sighed deeply and nodded, walking carefully out of the room with Nagi trailing behind him. Nevertheless, even though it seemed to have all been decided behind my back, that didn't mean I had to be happy about it. As I sat there, in our now unfamiliar home, like I was sitting in someone else's house watching their family play out my life, I felt my stomach twist. I just sat still however, letting Omi walk out of the room with the Schwartz while Yoji and I were left with Crawford and his stupid white suit.

Yet all the while, as I raged over Schwartz, as I ranted over Yoji, as I freaked out at the bug on the floor there was one thing that wouldn't stop running through my mind and which was starting to really annoy me. In my dream, why, in that whole field of flowers, those deep blue flowers, had there been one deep violet orchid?

Maybe I would never know…

AN: Argh! Stupid Ken, figure it out already! Hee hee, I'm shouting at my own characters haha, I must really be going mad. But yeah, well what do you think? I hope it's not too long for you, and I hope it makes sense. I always worry that I'm just babbling random strings of crap that don't flow, but I'm hopeful about this story so I think it will do okay! As ever please R&R and thanks again for all your great reviews. You guy are great and they really help me! Sorry this chapter took so long by the way, I don't think the next one will be so late!

Ps: And don't worry about Omi and Yoji being all complacent about the idea of working with Schwartz, I know it seems weird, and it did seem odd when I read over the chapter, but I'll deal with all that later, honest!

Pps: Hmm, I'm not quite sure if this is how you do this, cause I've never had a beta reader before (but I think I need one, and would like one too!) but I'm advertising for a Beta Reader if anyone wouldn't mind. I don't know if I'm being weird in advertising, but none of my friends write at all so I have no one to point out my mistakes and suggest stuff except you readers, so I'm advertising, hee hee! And even if you don't want to please feel free to send your ideas for this story to me if you want, I'm always happy to oblige and incorporate. Due acknowledgement and praise will be given, I am not a nasty plagiariser don't worry! Okay, going to stop rambling now!

Ro x