Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ New Rules, New Ruler ❯ Chapter 10

Part Ten

Schuldig lay on the bed, an idle cigarette dangling from his lips. He stared at the ceiling, feet propped on one of the pillows. Later, Brad would come and shout at him for smoking in the flat, especially on their new white bed, but Schuldig couldn't bring himself to care.

Nagi had come home earlier, clearly upset. He'd been locked in his room for the better part of two hours now. Schuldig's grip on his powers was getting better, and Nagi's shields were in a state of disarray anyway. Of course, the adolescent mind was chaos in it's purist form, but Schuldig had managed to glean the information that the chibi was attending the same school as Bombay and Abyssinian's baby sister.

Schuldig was worried. Tash, who had chosen their apartment, more than likely had chosen Nagi's school. And she would have known that it was the same school the youngest Weiss assassin attended. Schuldig wondered if all her meddling was benevolent. Then the image of the shy brunette filled his mind's eye, and he found it hard to believe she could be anything but. Perhaps she was just looking for a way to end this feud between the two groups, and this was the first step.

His thoughts turned to the new head of SS, or whatever they were going to recall it. Tanya. Russian. That was all he'd managed to get from Brad. She was clearly something Brad didn't want to talk about. Schuldig grinned. Buttercup.

But what were her intentions? That Schuldig couldn't figure out. Why rebuild SS? To take over the world? To earn billions? To take revenge on… someone? To feel superior to a large number of people?

Okay, what did he know so far? One, Tanya was a female version of Brad, an anal-retentative control freak. Two, she was so powerful in her particular field that she could tell your life story just by breathing in a molecule you had breathed out. Three, three, three he had no idea what he motives would be because she didn't seem the type to take revenge or get obsessed with money or power or anything. She just was.

Perhaps she just couldn't stand the chaos and anarchy that had reigned in the aftermath of the death of the SS leaders. Probably that, Schuldig decided.

Brad leant in the doorway, watching his lover smoke. Bran had been a nice little reality check for Schuldig when it came to that habit, but it would take more than one cancer suffer to put off the addict. And Brad found it hard not to find it attractive. Sexy, even. The smoke was hypnotic as it curled grey-blue towards the ornate ceiling.

He wondered if this was how Schuldig felt, an unnoticed watcher on people's private lives. He couldn't know what Schuldig was thinking about, but he knew him well enough to take a guess. Brad had known he'd have to face up to this subject sooner or later, but his past wasn't something he wanted to face.

"You going to stand there and mope, or come in and yell at me for dropping ash all over the nice white sheets?" Schuldig drawled.

"You're not, are you?" Brad felt a moment of panic, and then felt a little disgusted at himself. If he wasn't careful, he'd end up a figure of amusement, like Monica in Friends.

"Nah. But it gave you a fright." Schuldig rolled onto his stomach to stare at Brad, flicking his cigarette into an ashtray on the floor. Judging by the number of butts in it, Brad realised that Schuldig had been thinking a long time. Either that or he'd had some really great sex with someone Brad didn't know about. Schuldig smirked, picking up on that thought. "You wish!"

Brad sat down on the bed next to Schuldig, causing it to sink and the younger man to roll against his side. Pulling his face out of brad's hip, Schuldig struggled to sit up. Eventually both he and Brad were sitting with their feet on the floor.

"I want to talk to you," Schuldig said with unusual gravity. "About Tanya."

"I knew it." Brad sighed.

"Okay, quit it! You had a crush on her while you two were at that Auschwitz and she rejected you repeatedly. So? You had feelings for someone beside me. Why are you so convinced that's going to make me up and leave you?"

"Because apart from, you she's the only person I've ever had feelings for. And I don't think they're quite gone."

"Oh." They sat in silence. "That wasn't what I wanted to ask, but I guess it ties in," Schuldig said eventually.

"Oh?"

"I want to know more about Tanya. There's something about her, something about all of this…"

"I know what you mean. And I don't know what I can tell you you don't already know." Brad risked a glance at his lover, who was leaning with his elbows on his legs, staring at the carpet.

"Tell me your history with her."

"Okay. Um, you remember how the Training Facility was divided? Passive Mental, Active Mental and Physical Abilities?"

"Of course. One of each in a team, plus one non-psychic."

"Yes. Yes. So, Clairvoyance and pre-cognition, along with post-cognition, are passive. She arrived the year before I did. She was assigned as my `guide'. I worshiped the ground she walked on, introducing me to something I had known all my life to be part of me but never understanding what it was. She left the year before I did, naturally. I nagged her for her number and eventually she gave it to me. Then you arrived from the Sahara and I never actually got around to calling her."

"Brad?"

"Yes?" Brad shifted nervously.

"That's all well and good, but absolutely bloody useless. We have no idea why she's rebuilding SS, and if we have to stop her, you've given no clues as to how that could be done." Brad stared incredulously as Schuldig. He really didn't care that Brad had feelings for this woman? Perhaps he wasn't as serious about this relationship as Brad had thought he was.

"I told you I couldn't tell you anything you didn't know already," Brad reminded his partner. "Well I assumed that. I'd have thought stopping her would be obvious." Brad left a little of his annoyance seep into his already peevish tone. Schuldig thought it sounded like Brad was whining, but his own offence at Brad's superior tone crushed the amused grin that might have bled the tension from the scene.

"Oh, well why don't you tell me, since I'm clearly not smart enough to work it out for myself." Schuldig glowered through a curtain of orange hair at the older man.

"Don't be like that," Brad snapped. "All you have to do is uncover her skin. Anything she touches, anything, sends her a huge bout of knowledge. It's like when your shields went down, you went nuts. When someone pulled off one of her gloves for a joke at the facility, she ended up in the infirmary for six months trying to gain control of things."

They sat in silence, each brooding over their own thoughts and revelations. Brad was upset that it meant nothing to Schuldig that he had feelings for someone else. How could it be a serious relationship is Schuldig didn't even seem to care if Brad was faithful or not? I misjudged him, Brad told himself dismally. No, I didn't. I knew exactly what he was like. A slut. A tactless, immoral, unfaithful, adulterous slut. Why should it mean anything to him that I might have feelings for someone else? He sees that as normal. It's how he would act. One of us is going to be sleeping on the sofa tonight, damn Tash!

Schuldig stared at the carpet between his feet. He thinks I'm an idiot. He thinks I'm inferior to him. Bastard. And how can he think I don't care? How can he think that just because I understand that he can have feelings for someone other than me I don't give a damn about him? He's possessive. He judges everyone by himself. He'd over react if I ever admitted I'd had feelings at any point in my long and chequered past for someone who wasn't him. He's selfish and jealous. Yes, that's it! Whoa, there's no way I'm sleeping on the sofa.

The silence lengthened. Neither was willing to break it, neither was willing to leave. They sat in silence, unmoving but not uncaring.

"Hey, you guys still up?" Nagi knocked on the door before entering. He stared in confusion at the two of them, Schuldig with his elbows resting on his knees and head bent, Crawford sitting poker straight with his hands folded neatly in his lap.

"Apparently so," Schuldig remarked dryly, not looking up.

"Uh, Farferello and I were going to watch a video. Want to join us?" Nagi's nerves were obvious to both of them, and both blamed the boy's state of nervousness on the other. Both were, in fact, wrong. Nagi was nervous because Farferello wanted to watch `Psycho' again, and there was no way the teenager was going to watch it with him alone.

"Sure," Schuldig said, getting up slowly. His spine cracked, and his winced.

"How long have you been sitting like that?" Nagi asked incredulously.

Schuldig glanced at the clock. "About two hours," he admitted. "Coming, Crawford?"

Brad winced. Schuldig had to be really angry to resort to his surname. "No. I think I'll go to bed. Don't let Nagi stay up too late." Schuldig turned away, hurt at the brush off. But he was still determined not to be the one left sleeping on the couch at the end of the evening.