Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Coming Home ❯ 26 ( Chapter 26 )

26

leave me alone - make it easy for yourself

If I were a religious man, I'd give thanks, but that would just attract Far's attention.

Three days without an incident. After that one evening, I'd really begun to worry about our situation. I mean, how the hell could we hide out from Esset operatives and psi-agents if one of our own was trying to kill us? But Far had been calm when we let him out of his straitjacket the next morning, and had shown no sign of his earlier agitation. Tonight he was engrossed in some science program on the television, for the moment locked in his own mercifully non-violent world.

As much of a relief as that was, now I had Nagi to contend with. He had agreed to stop trying to use his telekinetics for a while, give himself time to mend. That had helped with the headaches, but we still had other things to work on. I had anticipated this evening with extremely mixed feelings. As much as I wanted it, I knew he'd fight me. Telling him it was for his own good did nothing to change his mind.

"Schuldig, stop that. I don't want it!"

"Chibi, it'll be easier if you hold still," I growled, trying to concentrate.

"Itai! Do you even know what you're doing with that thing? Crawford-san, please get him off me!"

"Nagi," Brad addressed him in a commanding tone, "cooperate with Schuldig. He won't hurt you if you don't fight him."

The boy sighed and relaxed a little, though his thoughts still projected a steady stream of disgusted insults at me. At least this light mental contact didn't hurt him today. I endured his running commentary with a self-satisfied smirk. "Bitch all you like, I'm having my way with you, gaki."

"Mou! That's nasty! It's all slimy!"

Nagi tried to pull away, but I held him firmly. "Kid, for this to work right, I have to lick the tip. Now hold still!"

"You're going to put my eye out with that thing." Nagi stopped struggling and glared at me.

I finished, quite satisfied now. I moved back and put away my toys, then folded my arms and regarded him with a critical eye. "What do you think, Brad? Did I do him justice?"

Nagi heaved another sigh and stood up, brushing a hand over his shiny black shirt. Little specks of blue and silver clung to it like stardust.

Brad came over and looked at our Prodigy, and smiled. "Congratulations, Schuldig. Nagi is now invisible."

The kid rolled his eyes. "Please. I'm not invisible, I look stupid."

"Chibi," I said, steering him toward the bathroom mirror, "you look perfect."

I watched over his shoulder as he took it all in. His hair now gleamed blue-black, dyed with care to match the goth standard. I had trimmed his hair close in back, then brushed the rest forward to fall over one eye; color mousse shimmered an indigo wave across the edges. Nagi raised one slender hand, now tipped with metallic blue nails, and pushed the hair back, his face frozen in an expression of total shock.

Lips and cheeks rendered pale with makeup and eyes painted with silver shadow, blue lashes, and jet black eyeliner transformed his face into an Egyptian mask of rare beauty. As he stared at himself, I leaned forward and clipped a magnetic earring onto his left lobe, then changed my mind and put it up on his cartilage instead.

"Schuldig," Nagi murmured, "you are so weird."

"Kiddo, looking like this, you can disappear anywhere in the civilized world," I told him, pleased with my handiwork. "And you have to be able to vanish. We all do."

"How are you going to manage to vanish with that red flare on top of your head?" he mumbled.

I smiled. In spite of his grumbling, I picked up from his surface thoughts that he was actually rather honored that I'd gone to such lengths for him. "I'll manage because I'll cheat, that's how!" I kissed the side of his head and tugged him toward the door. "Come on, let's show Brad how you look when you're not wanting to kill me."

Nagi grumbled but allowed me to lead him back into the living room.

"Excellent," Brad said in that soft voice that indicated a vision had just played true. "Do the two of you feel up to a little reconnaissance this evening?"

"You're not making me go out in public like this!"

Brad cleared his throat and regarded Nagi sharply. "That was the entire point."

From his spot on the sofa, Farf turned around and looked at us, vaguely amused.

Nagi ducked his head and tried not to be seen.

I threw my arm across his shoulders, staggering him a little and earning a dirty look from those fantastic eyes. "But chibi, you're beautiful!" I teased, leering at him. "And don't you know? This is the fashion for your age group. People won't look twice, not really. They'll see the getup and write you off as just another pretty goth boy. I would bet that even an Esset operative wouldn't recognize you!"

"Precisely, Schuldig." Brad's tone was once again soft and distant. "I want to test that theory."

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. "Um, Brad? Are you saying that you want him to sneak around an operative? Because, you know, that's just fucking CRAZY!" My voice escalated to a shout.

"Nagi." Brad addressed him directly, ignoring me.

"Hai?" Nagi was respectful, though at the moment he was seething with fear and anger.

"I don't know if there are, in fact, any operatives in the vicinity. I do need you to go out with Schuldig and track how many people take any interest in you, and what sort of interest. If Schuldig is right," he spared me a significant glance, "and I have every reason to believe he is on this one, you won't be remembered for a moment even without his interference. So, if the two of you are up for it, I want you to take a little trip." Brad paused, evidently waiting for some response. At our reluctant nods, he said, "You can take public transportation. I want you to use your resources and find an appropriate setting for Nagi to blend in. See what you can do working in tandem. I don't care how you test it. Come up with something and make it happen without anyone being the wiser."

"What if something goes wrong?" I asked, not sure why I wasn't liking the sound of this.

"It won't," Brad stated, and the discussion was over.

Nagi excused himself to the bathroom. I paced a little, then came back to Brad's side. "Hey, are you sure about this? What about the noise?" I asked. "I know we both hated keeping those restrictions on him, but what if they weren't bullshit?"

Brad regarded me coolly, still in the throes of visions. He blinked, then removed his glasses and looked around for something to clean them with. I took them from him and headed for the kitchen, knowing he'd follow. The man can't stand to be more than a dozen feet from his glasses. I leaned over the sink, letting dish soap and hot water do most of the work for me. The sound of running water effectively masked our discussion, which was fine with me. "So, Brad, what about it? I mean, do you think we still need to?"

"I don't know for certain, Schuldig. But he'll need to get used to it. He'll have a hard time traveling with the restrictions. We need to know which ones we can safely lift. Right now, his headaches are our safety net: if he starts to power up, you'll know before he can do anything. I trust you to bring him back directly if that happens."

I finished cleaning his glasses and dried them on my shirt. He accepted them without a word and started to put them on. Before he could, I leaned over and kissed him on the mouth. I could tell he was a little startled. I smirked. I'd learned long ago that, with his glasses off, nearby things tended to go unnoticed.

Brad sighed and shook his head, setting his glasses back in place. "Schu," he murmured, "this is important. If we can lift the restrictions, even a couple of them, things will be easier for all of us."

"Brad, I know it's important," I told him. "Just because I kissed you doesn't mean I'm taking this lightly. You know me. Sometimes it's all about the stress relief. I'd kiss the dog if we had one."

From the kitchen doorway came a disgusted snort. "Schuldig, kono hentai."

"Love you too, chibi," I cooed, brushing past him to go to my room.

As I quickly changed clothes for our outing, I thought about our youngest teammate, who was also, if Esset were to be believed, our most volatile. We had broken our ties with that organization, but they still had much control over Nagi's life. They had given him to Brad with strict restrictions, supposedly for his and others' safety. Now it looked like we were about to start testing them. Well, Brad knew we'd make it back tonight, so I decided to have a go at it. We'll see if the kid is as fragile as they told us he was. I'd always thought they were full of shit on that point, but Brad had insisted we play by their rules. Now that game was over.

Brad handed each of us some money, and confiscated my gun. "You won't need this." At least he let me keep my cigarettes.

"Ready, kid?"

"Does it matter?" Nagi replied, voice flat.

"Good hunting," Brad told me. "Keep it real."

I nodded and led Nagi out of the apartment.