Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Painting You Gold ❯ 06 the Bends ( Chapter 6 )

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own Schu and his friends; that's for Tsuchiya-sensei and Koyappi/Project Weiß/TV Tokyo to work out. Or not.

Warning: This fic in its entirety involves explicitly implicit yaoi (shounen ai) in conjunction with character death, feelings, nonconsensual sex, original characters, shota, soap operatic/supernatural-type twists, spoilers, unpardoned French, Weiß, and yakuza. Squick factor is probably obvious here. ;)

Post-it: As always, thanks for your time.

/…/ = communicative thoughts and the like
[…] = memories, stuff remembered, and the like

Painting You Gold

By Koyuki Aode

6 ~ the Bends

* * *

"I finally cracked my wallet open yesterday and purchased an auto. Do you have any idea what it cost me?"

I took a moment to frown significantly into my mobile's numbered face before replacing it at my ear. The ringtone had pulled me from my current mission and into a conversation with someone my mind worked quickly to remember. Someone, whose digitized and static-accompanied voice polished at old childhood memories.

I turned from where I was standing outside the restroom and paced down a hallway scented with fresh peach blossoms. "Adler?" The confused look on my face must have been priceless.

"Delphi, the name is Delphi. Really! I call you Schuldich all the time; it's only fair you indulge me the same…" my caller grunted into the line, acknowledging what sort of idiot his younger cousin could be. "You weren't expecting me?"

"Del, we haven't communicated since before my team and I nearly died taking out the executive branch."

"… Oh yeah," he spoke slowly, as if he were just remembering an item on his shopping list. "How'd that go?"

"We lived." The question had been asked out of courtesy; Del knew more about the incident from other Estetians than he did from me. It could be an embarrassing story to tell, a failure, really, if you looked at the right details - but no one ever asked for those details. We survived, and they didn't. That was enough for anyone in high enough positions. "You could have given us some sort of warning."

"Well-" he stumbled hurriedly over his words now, "-Family rank and the organization, you know, I can't really take sides. And I'm not the only clairvoyant in the world. Anyhow, guess the price!"

"Hm." I leaned on the wall at my right. "Why?"

"Because it makes for conversation surrounding my real purpose for calling and things will be awkward unless you do!"

It suddenly dawned on me what he might be getting at. Spring had barely peeked out into the year. Renewal was in repeat, as was a dark anniversary for my family. "Sorry, but I am occupied at the moment. I'll call later." I made my way back to Nagi, "We can talk--"

"Talk, nothing," Del's awkwardness fell flat. Suddenly every word was a mechanical part of a plan. "You're listening. You're going to go this year-"

"-I'm really not in the mood--"

"-I'm serious here! No one else will call you anymore, they won't even try! You can't ignore your family forever--"

I turned the phone off just as I shoved at the restroom door.

"Is something wrong?" Nagi's wide eyes stared at me.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" I shot back.

Nagi proceeded with caution. "Is he angry? Did he really mean what he said?"

"Well he hasn't scheduled any coups this week, so he can't be too angry-" Nagi's lips twitched upward, "-But Crawford did mean it. For the time being. There's a trust there that I honestly feel might have been violated."

"Really." Nagi shook his head. "There isn't anything else… "

"Nothing at all--?"

"--Schwarz is safe," he stated with a nod. I let the confirmation ease my qualms and decided to inquire about the more personal details later.

"Did you ever expect this to happen?" Nagi asked. "It's ironic. Giving me Crawford's past, then having mine fall into my lap."

"It is ironic..."

"It's terrible," he whispered haltingly. I watched something painful move across his expression. "My past was living and breathing without me, and now it's something I barely recognize."

I can't handle it, he admitted in his thoughts. I don't know how I'll handle it.

That was the first time I noticed the fear buried deep within Nagi's soul, crushing him from the inside out.

He didn't want to be alone.

"Thanks Schu." Nagi opened the door and waited for me to leave first. "This makes me feel better. I don't know why, but it does."

I turned to him as I stepped out. "What does?"

"Trusting you."

I had never realized how lonely he was.

I peeked out through a nearby window as I cast my arm around his shoulders. The rainbow was still there.

* * *

The smidge of a conversation I'd had with Delphi plagued my dreams with my own bad memories. Not even two hours had passed after I'd given in to sleep when I suddenly sat up in bed. I threw my glare around the room as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, cursing my overactive subconscious.

A cold blanket of wind made me shiver as I stood to close the window. A shrill voice still echoed in my head and my shoulder throbbed from where a glass shard had stabbed into it. I didn't remember the dream, but I knew that was the origin of the pain.

I worked my shoulder as I walked to the door, instinctually glancing back to check on Farf before I left the room. He looked content in his slumber.

After popping into the hallway, I realized with a groan that the room I'd just emerged from was my own, which meant a stairway to trudge through before I would reach the kitchen. I propped myself onto the banister and leaped to the first floor.

After picking myself up off the floor and bumping into a wall I could've sworn hadn't existed before that very moment, I was as alert as an owl. Consciousness seeped in like a good serving of Merlot when I finally pushed into the kitchen.

Crawford was sitting at the kitchen table, a newspaper in one hand and a mug in the other. He managed a concerned look as he watched me enter. "Did I wake you?" he said, putting the mug down and folding the paper into itself.

I rubbed my forehead with the back of my hand and grumbled, "I wish you had," as I continued stumbling across the room.

"Having trouble with your motor skills again?"

I reached blindly into the fridge and snagged a carton of orange juice. "Shut up." He smiled into his mug as he took a sip. I gulped some juice down, beamed inwardly because it was pulp free, and launched myself into a chair at the table. "Another dream tonight?" I asked him as he pushed a glass cup at me. "Is that why you're up?"

"Essentially, yes," he nodded.

"And non-essentially?" I peered at him. "I hope you realize you're really starting to look like hell. I mean- you look like you feel like hell- like… "

He smirked. "Motor skills?"

"You are just so funny today." I half-smiled before turning serious. "What's wrong? Relations?"

"Something like that," he spoke softly, staring at the newspaper that lay flat on the table.

Apparently, that night Nagi's enthusiasm to make up for his secret cancelled out Crawford's bad mood, so they had resorted to reclining on Crawford's bed. It was a common thing they'd do, when Crawford wanted to relax. Nagi held his head to Crawford's chest, as if he were listening to the man's heartbeat, and Crawford would brush his hand through Nagi's hair, occasionally grazing Nagi's ear with his fingers.

But Crawford couldn't find comfort in the action as he wondered how many others had done the same, or worse with Nagi. How many others had used the boy as a temporary crutch?

How much more precious could Nagi have been to Shinzui?

Crawford didn't realize that he'd been resting his hand on Nagi's neck until Nagi spoke up, without moving, and asked him: "Is everything all right?" Nagi's knuckles floated along Crawford's ribs, where he had been tracing patterns up from Crawford's abdomen.

Crawford breathed heavily, knowing that Nagi could detect his thoughts. The fact made their relationship easier, when he didn't have to explain himself. "Reassure me," he commanded softly.

Nagi slipped his fingers down to Crawford's zipper.

"No.-" Crawford touched his wrist, masking his disgust, "-Without using that."

After a moment of thought, Nagi rolled over to lie on his back. "He was nice to me, more than usual clients," Nagi started, playing with the hem of his boxers. "And later he bought me things. Not romantic things; just a jacket if I was cold, or a book if I was bored…" Now he worked on the edge of his t-shirt. "He was more than a sugar daddy, if that's what you want to call it. Part of the job is to listen... We could talk to each other.

"He made me feel something. Usually, when you're… you stop feeling; everything is an automatic response…And…"

"And?" Crawford echoed, sitting and rejoining Nagi in bed, still watching him carefully.

"That's it." Nagi sat up. "He was my first crush. Musashi found out, left me to Estet. Then you-"

"-I found you," Crawford finished. He reached up to push Nagi's hair behind his ear.

"Yes."

"And you don't feel-"

"I don't feel anything anymore about my past," Nagi whispered softly, not even blinking against the lie as he looked up into Crawford's eyes.

Crawford leaned forward, letting his lips graze first Nagi's throat, then his jawline, and finally, after gazing into his eyes as the universe paused, captured his lips. When their faces parted, Nagi blinked and stared into Crawford's gaze with a greater adoration than the man had ever seen before. Then he whispered, his cheeks suddenly splashed with color: "I'm yours."

"I hate it when people lie to me-" Crawford sipped his coffee again "-You know that." I nodded. "He's not saying something."

"He's been very tight-lipped about the entire matter, and it seems that it won't affect us in any way. What he's told you about Shinzui must be true."

"He hasn't told me anything. I wasn't awake thinking about it tonight; I had a vision in my dream."

"You're sure?--"

"I know it. It's not that I don't trust him. He's intelligent enough to judge circumstance, but something's wrong," Crawford said quietly. "We're both afraid of the same thing, and he knows it. But he won't tell me what it is."

I was leaning forward in my seat, staring at him eagerly. "But it can't be that bad, can it?" I smiled weakly. "I mean, have you seen anything about Shinzui? Or anything like that?.."

He looked guilty.

"Okay, now your face is doing that weird thing." He didn't say anything. "Hey, this is the part where you make me feel better."

"I had that dream tonight. Right after he told me not to worry about anything. You know the dream about-"

"-Brad? The one where he…"

He nodded. "This time Nagi was in it. And Nagi died in his place."

tbc

* * *