Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ The Tale of Two Chibis ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

A Tale of Two Chibis

Chapter 2

By Chaosdreamer

Author's note: <Scratches head> Yes, Jade Dragon1, you're right about how I represented their ages. I reread the first chapter before your message and was slightly disappointed in the way I had presented the two chibis. I was trying to introduce them as slow-to-warm-up type of children, making them very slow in forming any type of verbal contact with people, especially with people they have just met. I've always pictured Omi and Ken as being energetic but relatively quiet kids. Ken's childhood will be explained further on as to how he behaves the way he does, though I am sure it is quite different from whatever was mentioned in the manga. Thanks for the information, though! ^__^

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Well, Crawford had come to the conclusion that he was extremely thankful that both of the chibis were situated in the back while being entertained by both Farfarello and Nagi, otherwise not distracting Crawford from paying attention while driving.

If they weren't, he'd probably be tempted to commit infanticide.

Earlier that morning Crawford and Nagi had ventured upstairs only to find a harried Schudlig chasing after two very wet and very naked chibis racing around the room, both laughing as the telepath chased after them while holding back the use of his powers. The answer for him not using his ability was the Berserker standing in the corner holding two pairs of clothing for the chibis, the man's glare belying his thoughts of Schuldig using such methods to stop the chibis' games. Fifteen minutes later two boys properly dressed in shirts, jeans, and tennis shoes, they were all on their way.

Trying to convince Farfarello to stay in the car once they parked next to the doctor's office was a lost cause, the Berserker firmly planting himself outside of the car, not even the threat of the Prodigy's telekinetic powers enough to sway him. So all four assassins filed into the doctor's office while trying to ignore the curious gazes of nearby people, especially those focused on their pale and scarred comrade.

The waiting room was only half-filled, much to Crawford's mounting joy. He had gathered the necessary paperwork at the secretary's desk before dropping into his seat with a heavy sigh, filling out the necessary information for the two chibis. "I forgot to find some birth certificates for them." Crawford murmured absently as he stared at the blank section to fill out Ken and Omi's age.

Nagi looked up momentarily from the laptop he had brought with him for their visit to the doctor's. "I just finished creating them. Here." Nagi turned to laptop screen so Crawford could inspect the proper date, forced to leave out the blood type since neither the false birth certificates nor his personal recollection provided him with such information.

Schuldig and Farfarello were watching over the two chibis, Schuldig sitting so that his long legs wouldn't allow either Omi or Ken to wander off to the other side of the waiting room. Farfarello was sitting Indian-style in front of Omi watching the small blond arrange a multi color of blocks into a small tower, the chibi's forehead scrunched in concentration as he tried to keep the swaying tower balanced properly. Ken was sitting next to Schuldig's legs, a large book propped open in front of him, the brunette silently sounding out words and sentences, appearing to have no real difficulty other then small frowns that appeared whenever he read an especially longer sentence than on the previous page.

"Crawford-san?" A door beside the secretary's desk opened up, a young male doctor sticking his head out. When Crawford stood up the doctor grinned, motioning the foreigner towards him. "We're ready for both of your sons to come in."

//Sons? When did you set that up?// Schuldig asked as they coaxed the chibis to their feet, Omi racing Ken to reach the door first that the doctor was waiting at.

//Nagi just set it up on his laptop// Crawford answered the German, making sure that Farfarello was following them, the act not necessary since the Berserker was right behind the two racing chibis. Omi shouted in delight, proclaiming both the boys winner, both he and Ken having touched the door at the same time, almost knocking the doctor off of his feet in their haste.

The doctor glanced at all four assassins, seeming surprised by their numbers. "Do all of you wish to come in?"

"Is that a problem?" Nagi asked, a small frown upon his face, holding the thin leather case containing his laptop in one hand.

The doctor shook his head. "It isn't a problem. The concern is that the individuals in the room will be considered as the 'bad guys' to the children while the two boys are getting their shots, especially if the adults don't step in to stop me from administering the boosters. It might be better if one or two of you stay out here as a comfort figure for both boys once the procedure is done."

"Does it occur often? The 'bad guy' perspective on the child's part?" Crawford asked.

The doctor thought about that. "Not that often, but it's noticeable enough to be a consideration."

Crawford nodded. "Alright then. I will be going inside." He turned to look at the other assassins.

Farfarello seemed vexed, not too sure as to what to do. "I will go in as well." He said finally.

Schuldig rolled his eyes. //Get me out of this room, too many kids in here. I can handle the two any day//

Nagi smiled slightly at the German's complaints. "I guess we will all be taking the risk."

The doctor nodded, opening the door further to allow all of them in, closing it behind them once herding them all inside.

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The sterile room was covered in colorful posters of a range of animals, any sharp instruments hidden away in either shelves or cupboards. Nagi especially noted the piece of paper covering a small tray, obviously the main barrier in keeping the shots out of the chibis range of sight.

"Which one would you like to go first?" The doctor asked, keeping his body between the covered shots and the raised padded table, pulling on a pair of latex gloves.

Crawford frowned, not having considered the process of which chibi would go first. He looked down at the two boys, trying to determine which one he would hand over first. Finally he simply grasped the one closest to him, Ken being the unfortunate one as he was lifted into the air and seated upon the table. Ken looked at the doctor speculatively, smiling up at the young doctor, the man offering his own grin to the calm chibi.

//Wouldn't want to be in his shoes looking at the kitten's trusting gaze// Schuldig said, catching the stray thoughts of the doctor. Nagi made a half-hearted effort to distract Ken while the doctor moved to Ken's left side, lifting his sleeve and swabbing Ken's upper arm with a damp cotton ball. After cleaning the area the doctor replaced the piece of cloth with the booster, tapping the edge of the vial making sure that there were no bubbles within the mixture. While Ken's head was turned away and looking towards Nagi the doctor administered the needle, sliding it in and eventually removing it minus the fluid, the entire procedure taking not even ten seconds.

Ken's face did an interesting variety of expressions, ranging from confusion from the man swabbing his upper arm, realization of the uncomfortable feel of something piercing his skin, and finally the small stinging pain after the needle had been pulled out. The chibi's eyes watered, bottom lip quivering, face scrunched up as he released a small howl of pain, not calming down even as the doctor tried to soothe him after applying the colorful bandage the small wound. Nagi had to use his abilities to hold Farfarello in place, a mental warning from the German relaying the Berserker's desire to get between the small chibi and the source of his pain whether it was the shot or the doctor.

"It's okay, Ken! It's over! You're all done!" The doctor said comfortingly, trying to ease the small child's worries.

"It hurts!" Ken answered painfully and simply, managing to jump off of the table before the doctor could intercept him, running to hide behind Crawford's long legs, hands fisting into his slacks. "I don't wanna do it again!" Ken whimpered behind his shield.

Crawford tried to turn around unable with the small chibi latched onto him. After a moment of coaxing Nagi managed to extract the chibi off of the precog, soothing the young boy with comforting words. "Do you want to go back into the waiting room, Ken?"

Ken nodded, grasping Nagi's hand with his right one as he was led out of the room, throwing a hurt look over his shoulder at the doctor as the door closed behind them.

The doctor sighed. "That is one part of the job that is always the hardest." He said sadly. He looked to the last remaining chibi. "Alright, Omi, it's your turn."

Omi paled visibly, latching onto Farfarello's pale hand. "No."

"Omi-kun…." The doctor sighed.

"No thank you. I'm fine," Omi assured, blue eyes wide as he looked up at the doctor, "I don't need anything, I'm a big boy."

"Really then?"

Omi nodded his head vigorously, holding up five small fingers. "I'm five years old."

"Well then, if you're such a big boy, then you won't have a problem getting a shot."

Omi knew he was trapped within that twisted logic, though he put up a valiant fight.

In the end Farfarello had to sit on the table since Omi was plastered on the front of his shirt, arms and legs wrapped around the Berserker's torso. Farfarello snarled at the doctor as he came close to the small boy, arms wrapped around the small chibi. The doctor faltered slightly, seeming to try to figure out if he could just cut his losses.

//This is going to be fun…// The German groaned.

//This is nothing// Crawford sighed mentally, not looking forward to the next five minutes, his vision already portraying the upcoming headache he was going to get by the end of the day, //Wait until the doctor actually brings out the shot//

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Five minutes later, one sniffling chibi, one battered and bruised doctor, and three assassins wandering back into the waiting room, Crawford would have easily just wanted to curl up underneath a chair and die from stress. Esset, Weiss, those two combined wouldn't have been enough the equal the strength of the headache slowly rising. The secretary behind the desk kindly offered the two boys sugar-free lollipops, both boys eagerly accepting the treats with a half-hearted 'thank you'.

"Let's do this again sometime." Schuldig drawled sarcastically, fingers soothing a small migraine near his temples.

When they exited the doctor's office something caught Nagi's attention. "Look at that." He motioned to the restaurant on the other side of the street.

Crawford followed his gaze, catching sight of the McDonald's. He frowned thoughtfully, not clearly overjoyed by the thought of greasy french-fries and dingy bathrooms. He heard small exclamations of excitement from the two boys, looking down to see that Omi and Ken's attention was focused on something to the restaurant's right. Following their gaze Crawford took in the large and colorful playing area within the large chain-link plot of land, kids scrambling up small steps and running through various tunnels and down twisting slides.

"Crawford…" Nagi asked uncertainly. Perhaps this would be a way of asking forgiveness from the two chibis from their ordeal with the doctor.

//Please no…// Schuldig groaned painfully.

Crawford caught the two boys' attention, motioning towards the restaurant. "Do you want to go eat and go onto the playground?"

The bright smiles from the two boys were a small miracle that somehow wiped out the precog's headache. They first went back to the car to drop of Nagi's laptop and gather the necessary amount of money before venturing into the McDonalds restaurant.

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It had taken a while to get the proper meals set up among the group. The other assassins being more of the problem than the two boys standing within the middle of the group of assassins, the boys watching the verbal arguments between the four men as if it were a tennis ball match.

"Farfarello, you can't have the meat raw!"

"Schuldig! There's no alcohol here!"

"I won't allow you to poison yourself with just grease and salt, Nagi!"

"Farfarello, no! Back! Get away from the ketchup dispenser!"

After getting the other's settled Crawford finally ordered his own meal.

"A number four salad. Coffee, black. You wouldn't happen to have a metal bat conveniently placed around here, would you?" The horrified look from the clerk was his answer. Finally paying the man and gathering their food the group sat near a window facing the restaurant's playground, the two boys almost squirming out of their seats at their excitement at being so close to the playground.

"Oh joy. Rabbit food and liquid that could clean the metal pipes of a car engine. That's healthy." Schuldig said snidely, eagerly biting into his hamburger, Crawford's stomach almost becoming queasy at the generous amounts of ketchup and mustard oozing off of the telepath's burger. Nagi took a small sip from his soda before eagerly diving back into his french-fries, enjoying the small treat of fast food that the group was lucky to ever eat once a month since Crawford was very strict (perhaps anal, the proper wording) about what the group ate. Farfarello had pulled the hamburger meat out of the bun and almost drenched the poor meat in ketchup, opting to use his hands instead of the various utensils in order to eat his food. Omi was happily chewing his way through his chicken strips, Ken doing the same except with his small tray of french-fries, both boys taking large sips of their lemonade at odd intervals.

"I don't wish to have my stomach lining eaten away by grease and oil, and I'll certainly do all that I can to keep both Omi and Ken from suffering the same fate as you, Schuldig." Crawford offered, calmly adding more dressing to the crisp leaves of his salad.

"Pft. Like the kittens would suffer from mimicking me." Schuldig huffed, tossing his head indignantly. Nagi couldn't hold back a small snort of laughter, envisioning Schuldig's natural habits of smoking, lying about throughout the safe house, and being a sheer headache at times whenever he was being ignored by his fellow assassins.

//I heard that// Schuldig's voice cut into Nagi's thoughts, a slight mental tweak from the German to show his disapproval of Nagi's thoughts. In retaliation Nagi simply used his ability to upend the German clear out of his seat. The German cursed colorfully in his native tongue, pulling himself back into his chair. It didn't take long for him to retaliate further by stealing the telekinetic's french-fries, Nagi's eyebrow twitching whenever the man's hand came too close, smacking the back of his hand whenever he was reaching for his food.

Crawford looked up noticing that Farfarello was standing up. "Where are you going?" He demanded casually, not wanting the pale man to wander too far.

Farfarello glanced at him over his shoulder before continuing on his track outside. "The chibis are done eating and want to go outside to play." Sure enough both Omi and Ken were at Farfarello's side, both boys running around the man's legs in their excitement, Crawford amazed that the man didn't trip over them especially when Omi spun right in front of his path.

The other three assassins continued their meal in silence, occasionally looking outside to see Farfarello moving around the various extension of the playground, somehow managing to track the chibis' movement inside and around the large playing area. Their hypothesis was proved correct when the pale man scooped Ken up as he appeared outside from coming down the enclosed slide, the small boy laughing as the pale man tucked him under one arm and continued his tracking of the other boy.

"I haven't seem him so lucid for quite some time." Schuldig said absently, watching as the Berserker snatched up the other chibi from his hiding spot near the monkey bars, releasing both of them to allow them to go running back inside the playground equipment.

"Strange things do happen." Nagi answered, chewing absently on the end of his straw as he noticed the curious and wary gazes directed at the pale scarred man outside from various parents also watching their children play. Nagi stood up, moving to go outside as well. "I better go outside and stand near Farfarello so people don't think he's stalking Omi and Ken."

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"How is everything, Farfarello?" Nagi asked curiously as he came to stand alongside the pale man, several of the parents visibly relaxing when the young boy's presence assured them that the strange man was of no threat to their children.

"Quiet." Farfarello said softly, his eye scanning a long tunnel above him. Nagi tilted his head, listening to see if he could hear whatever Farfarello could. Small thumps within the tunnel situated above his and Farfarello's head announced the presence of a small body moving through that section of tunnel. "Do you know which of them it is?" He asked the Berserker.

"It's Omi."

Nagi frowned, not hearing any difference between the numerous sounds of moving bodies. "How can you tell?"

"Omi moves smoothly through the tunnels, barely stopping unless he comes to a cross-section of tunnels. Ken usual makes several loud thumps, probably from losing his balance." Farfarello was silent for a moment, obviously tracking Omi while apparently trying to hear for the other chibi. "I haven't heard anything from Ken in a while."

That sentence almost made Nagi's heart skip a beat. "He is in there, isn't he?"

"He's probably stuck. May have gotten himself turned around in the tunnels." Schuldig answered, coming to stand next to the short telekinetic, having finished with his meal and finding no further amusement in teasing the leader of Schwarz.

"Crawford?" Nagi asked, the American joining the others in their speculation on how to deal with the situation.

"Are you still tracking Omi, Farfarello?" Crawford asked calmly. The pale man nodded with silent certainty. "Keep tracking him until he comes to an opening. Nagi, Schuldig, go in there and get Ken."

Nagi sighed, half-expecting that the precog would find it convenient to send him inside. He had no real problem with that since he could easily fit and maneuver inside the maze of tunnels and slides, but Schuldig was another matter.

"No way." Schuldig argued.

"Schuldig…" Crawford growled softly, eyes narrowed dangerously.

"How do we know if I'll even fit!?" The telepath demanded.

Crawford's grin made Nagi shiver in trepidation. "Easy."

Much to the interest and perverse amusement of the various parents and children Crawford grasped the struggling telepath and shoved him into a nearby opening of a tunnel, the German yelping as he was carelessly shoved inside. Nagi chuckled softly as he went to another separate opening, climbing inside while hearing the echoing grumbling of the German while he squeezed and shuffled his way through a nearby tunnel.

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Schuldig crawled his way through another tunnel, the lime-green shades of color tinted into the plastic coating around him now shifting to a disgusting orange shade from being a completely different colored section of tunnel. "Oh goody." He mumbled, clearly NOT enjoying the smell of metal and plastic and the mental murmurs from the various children inside the large maze, his knees aching slightly from crawling around on all fours while occasionally accidentally smacking his head against the corner of a tunnel. A small dark-haired girl looked at the German in curiosity as he passed by, the man offering her a look that clearly belayed, 'What, haven't seen a foreigner crawling around in a maze of tunnels?'

Guess not.

Schuldig did finally find the small brunette, almost growling in frustration at seeing the boy curled up asleep in a small square section of the maze, his head resting comfortably against the wall, looking the image of perpetual innocence. Ken was cradled within an area between two openings, by Schuldig's inspection both openings revealing the top part leading off to two very windy and spiraling slides. He moved carefully around Ken, avoiding being too close to the opening unless he wanted to take a small trip down the cramped ride. As he was determining how to wake the chibi a familiar pale short-haired head popped inside from the other opening, the Berserker startling the telepath from his sudden decision to actually climb the slide and peer inside to see if he would have any better luck in locating Ken. Schuldig's arms windmilled as he tried to regain his balance from automatically jerking backwards in surprise, a small scream the last sound he made before tumbling back into thin air, body twisting and sliding mercilessly down the slide, yelping as he grew dizzy from the almost infinite turns and spins.

Schuldig finally flew off the slide fell down in a heap at Crawford's feet, the precog raising an eyebrow at the German's impromptu ride. "Schuldig, if you wanted to so desperately go down the slide, you only had to ask." His only answer was a faint mental groan as the German tried to figure out a way to realign his back.

"Crawford!" Nagi called as he crawled out of a nearby tunnel, a giggling Omi right behind him, the small blonde swinging Nagi's arm in excitement from having the dark-haired boy suddenly pop out of a section of tunnel he had previously been exploring. Nagi looked up the where Farfarello had crawled up the twisted slide, silently impressed with the man's flexibility and control as he wriggled his torso completely inside the section where Ken slept, his legs bracing him against both sides of the slide. Several seconds later the Berserker pulled back outside, an awake yet sleepy looking Ken in his arms. Farfarello fell lightly onto his back and slid all the way down to the bottom of the slide, glancing up at the other assassins from his upside-down position. He did not comment at his odd position of being on his back at the bottom of the slide with a small brunette sitting on his chest.

"Again! Again!" Ken shouted in excitement from on top of the calm and relatively relaxed man who seemed not uncomfortable at all in his odd position. Though his pleas weren't given into the brunette wasn't upset at all when Crawford lifted him off of Farfarello. Ken buried his face against Crawford's neck, smothering a small yawn from a full belly and lots of physical exercise, the visit to the doctor's office clearly pushed into the back of his thoughts.

Schuldig groaned as he finally managed to regain his footing, cracking his back as he stood up. "I can't wait until he grows back up. I'll personally torment him for a day like today."

"Oh please," Crawford said dismissively, already walking towards the exit with the other two assassins following, both of them swinging a laughing Omi between them, "You won't dare complain of this day having ever been remotely bored."

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Author's note: Don't know why I thought of this, but hey, with Schwarz, it could happen. <Bows humbly> Sorry about the whole 'damp cotton ball' thing. I forgot the name of what it is they administer to the skin before applying the needle. Is it alcohol? I wasn't too sure what the heck to do.

Next chapter: How long the youth serum will last, will be explained, and I may possibly introduce Weiss into the picture.

Thanks to all readers who helped with the German translations:

Babbling Brook

Angelique

Alexandra (I feel your pain with the heat. The past few days here in California have been a bear. I felt like I should have asked people if the wanted a crispy yaoi fangirl on a stick.)

Jenni

Lychee

Sabrina

If anyone else had e-mailed me and I forgot to put down your names as well, again, many thanks for your help!

I really appreciated your help. I'm on the sixth page of 'Light Meets Darkness' as well, and the Ran/Ken one-shot is a little over halfway done. I'm thinking of entering it into a Weiss Kreuz fanfic contest on Amiko's site 'Patterns of Blood'. Wish me luck! This will be cool if I enter it, though not as cool as the fact that I'll be turning nineteen in less than a month! Mwahhahah!!!! Tremble in fear!