Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ New Rules, New Ruler ❯ Chapter 24 ( Chapter 24 )

Part Twenty-Four

Nagi woke, shivering. Farfarello was gone. He blinked dazedly around the small room he was in. Piled with blankets, he struggled to sit up. Oh yes, the door. The locks. It seemed absurdly simple now he thought about it. He stared at the keyhole, and blasted it out of the door. The other locks opened, and the door creaked outwards.

Nagi stood up shakily. His legs were numb and his back hurt. Farfarello made a good hot water bottle, but he seemed to have wandered off. Probably went to use the facilities. Nagi grimaced. There were no `facilities', and right now he really wished there were. He couldn't bear the idea of going in the woods. Too `exposed'.

Nagi pushed open the door and started to explore the small cabin, intending to go and report his success just as soon as he found a bathroom. Right, there. Wait, locked? How could it be locked? Some had to be inside to have locked it.

Deciding his need was greater than mere privacy, and they could always hang a sign on the door or something, Nagi blew the lock off. The door swung open. Sitting on the toilet was a decomposing man. Suddenly the woods seemed much more appealing.

Crawford stared at the sky. Schuldig's leaden weight acted as a blanket against the pre-dawn chill, but was still extremely uncomfortable. He could hear the car revving in the distance. If he ever saw Farfarello again, he was going to kill him for every scratch on that car.

Brad sat up, dislodging the inert Schuldig. Suddenly the German let out a piercing shriek. Running his fingers through the orange hair and murmuring soothing words, despite being perfectly aware Schuldig couldn't feel them or hear him and wasn't even the one really screaming, Brad clambered to his feet. He kissed Schuldig's clammy forehead and was starting to make his way around the cottage when the front door burst open.

"There's a dead guy in the bathroom!" Nagi yelped. Crawford winced.

"Leave him. Lock the door." Brad picked up Schuldig's body and carried it inside. He started to lay a fire.

"I… I can't. I blew the lock off." Brad frowned. "Do you know who it is?"

"Father… father I didn't mean to. Shouldn't have left you here, really. Unprofessional. But it wasn't my profession, then. Schuldig? Oh damn…"

"He's your father?" Nagi jigged from one foot to the other.

"You need to use the facilities?" Brad repressed a smile. Nagi blushed and nodded. "There's another toilet outside, thought it will probably stink to high heaven."

"Outside?" Nagi frowned in perplexity.

"Yes. Believe it or not, not so long ago most toilets were." Crawford gave him a wry grin. "You're making me feel old," he warned. Nagi managed a small smile back, and darted outside.

Crawford congratulated himself on deterring Nagi's question. Well, it had been a rhetorical question anyway, but that was something he didn't want to have to explain. Caressing Schuldig's face he started to build up the fire and get a warm blaze going. Trusting to luck, he nipped to the bathroom door and blocked the hole Nagi had made. After a short period of consideration, he pulled a large armoire in front of the `dread portal'.

Nagi sat on one side of Schuldig and Crawford the other. Schuldig chatted away, but they both tuned him out. Nagi had fetched some tinned sausages from the pantry and they started to cook them on skewers together. Crawford repressed the familiarly painful memories that this activity brought up.

"Where's Farfarello?" Nagi asked eventually, taking a bite from a blackened sausage without taking it off of the skewer.

"He took the car and left."

"Can he drive?"

"I don't think so. He said Schuldig had told him to fetch Tash or go to Iceland."

Nagi frowned. "You don't think…"

"No, I don't, and you shouldn't either. Schuldig is gone. We can't afford to hope." Crawford turned away from Nagi, his chest constricting. He so desperately wanted to hope, so desperately wanted to believe Schuldig really had told Farfarello to go back to Tokyo. But it couldn't be. If Schuldig were going to communicate with any of them, it would be Brad, wouldn't it? His lover. His love.

"So why are we keeping his body alive?" Nagi asked meekly.

Crawford stared at the blank face and limp body. "I don't know," he admitted. Nagi flinched, unnoticed by the self absorbed American. "I… I don't think I could let go, just yet. You understand?"

"Yes," Nagi said miserably. Crawford gave him a sharp glance. Of course, he had always been the one with the answers, the one who did know.

"Nagi?" Crawford chewed his lip. This was almost certainly a bad idea, but he needed to discuss it with a third party. Well, a second party, really.

"Uh-huh?"

"I had a vision. Last night." Nagi's lip trembled. There was no way this could be good, not by the way Crawford was considering his words sp intensely. "We have to finish what Schuldig started. We have to kill Tash."

"Why? Why did Schuldig try to kill her in the first place?"

"Farfarello's going to bring her here. She's going to make us feel better, make the grief go away, the pain. We… we can't let her do that. I don't understand why." He stared miserably at Schuldig's pliable body, currently draped over his lap. He looked almost alive, in the dancing firelight. Just Schuldig demanding more physical contact than most people were comfortable with, invading his personal space, being too obvious and too oblivious. Just being the person Brad found himself loving more each day, death not-with-standing.

"It would dishonour his memory," Nagi told Brad. "It would damage us emotionally, not coping with the loss as we're supposed to naturally."

"She wants to help, she wants the world to be happy," Brad said softly. "She wants to take away the choice."

"You don't think…" Nagi stuttered.

"You have to stop saying that, or at least complete the question," Brad observed. "Schuldig was always very much the advocate of free-will, so I can see why this would rankle."

"…Though I didn't think he would die for it. I guess I didn't know him as well as I liked to think I did..."

Brad sighed and stroked Schuldig's hair. It was silky fine, though in need of a wash, and spread out like a delicate see creature's tentacles. A Sea Anemone. See an enemy, sea anemone? You saw one where the rest of us didn't. He blinked as he felt Nagi press against him, demanding a comforting physical presence. He wrapped an arm around the usual touch-phobic boy, unable to offer more comfort than that. He needed someone to comfort him first.

* * *

Farfarello pulled over for the policeman. He tapped the steering wheel as he'd seen Brad do in a similar situation. He wondered if he ought to be swearing and speeding away like Schuldig, the other driver in Schwarz.

"License, please," the cop leaned next to the open window.

"Don't `ave one."

"What?"

"Never learnt te drive. How am I doing?"

"Get out here-"

Farfarello yanked the officer through the open window and wound it up. There was a sickening squelchy crunch as the man's neck broke. Farfarello almost forgot to wind it down again before driving off. What did Schuldig say here? Oh yes: "Auf Weidersein (sp?), weibsstuck!" He waved a finger at the corpse. It was the wrong finger, but the message was still pretty obvious.

* * *

Five policemen, seventeen pedestrian, four motorcyclists, two car drivers, a lorry driver and several lampposts later Farfarello pulled up in front of the Koneko. Well, pushed up in front of the Koneko. Perhaps a taxi back to the cabin, yes?

Aya opened the door and smiled. It almost faltered when he was Farfarello, but barely. Behind him Omi was grinning while working the cash register and Ken was humming while he mopped the floor. Yohji wandered over to see who it was, and slid his arm around Aya's waist.

"Well, hi there, Farf! Great to see you!" Yohji pumped his hand vigorously.

"Yes, it's really wonderful. Come on in, we were about to close, but you're welcome to stay." Aya beamed at the Irishman.

Farfarello was ushered into the shop. Ken gave him a hug and Omi offered him some flowers. Farfarello had faced many things in his life, done many things, but he had no idea how to react to this. Aya and Yohji were kissing tenderly while Ken flirted with Farfarello.

"I, um, I want to see Tash. Bring me Tash," Farfarello stuttered.

"Sure thing! Nothing would please us more!" The boys chorused and rushed to fetch they're new friend. Manx appeared and ruffled Farfarello's hair.

"It's great to see you. It's so nice when our enemies drop in, you know? Kritiker love you guys."

"Really?" Farfarello emitted a strangled gulp.

"Oh yes," Birman purred. She rubbed Farfarello's arm. "We're so happy to see you, you know. Are you going to stay? It would be absolutely wonderful if you did."

Inside Farfarello's head, Schuldig was in fits of laughter.