Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ The Tightening Noose ❯ Chapter 2

When we returned to the flower shop, Ken looked at us for a long moment, then said, "I'm glad you're back." I briefly wondered if he thought he could tell whether I'd had sex with Aya or not before I dismissed the thought as being too mean. He'd changed clothing, and some part of my mind labeled the new outfit as "mission uniform." Ken handed Aya a sheathed sword. "I encouraged the others to go out tonight. With any luck, they'll stay away."

"So you think he'll take a shot at us tonight too," Aya said.

"It's better to be safe than sorry, right? I wish we had some secluded place we could draw him to, but I don't have any ideas."

"I'm new in town, and I'm not the strategist," I said.

That made Aya's mouth curve into a small smile, which gave me a pang of warmth that I didn't want to feel because I would not fall in love with him. Would not. Falling in love with him had to be the worst thing I could do to either of us.

"He's most likely to come here no matter where we'd rather face him," Aya said. "After I change, we'll strategize."

"You don't have to dress up for me, Aya," a too familiar voice said from behind us. Shit.

I'd drawn a length of wire out of my watch as I turned, all instinct. The sounds of moving metal beside me told me that Aya and Ken had drawn their weapons as well. Something in my head told me that Ken's claws had changed since I'd last seen them.

Schuldig looked amused, possessive, and not at all intimidated as he watched us. "Were you feeling left out, Ken? Are you that desperate for me to fit you into my favorite circle of toys? Are you really that desperate to be a part of Aya's life?"

Ken let out a deep breath, then said, "No. I'm just eager to get you out of it."

"Why are you here, Schuldig?" Aya asked in a low growl, the anger in his voice sparking such a sense of familiarity that I nearly relaxed.

"I think I should introduce myself to your new friends, especially the kids. That Michel is so cute that I could just eat him up. And of course Yuki. He should meet me, since I've had such an impact on your life, Aya."

I grabbed Aya's arm before he could run at Schuldig. Even with his sword drawn, he might not be able to take the telepath down, especially not while in a mindless rage.

Pure happiness glowed from Schuldig's face. "This is what I missed. You're alive again now."

Ken threw himself forward to slash with his claws, but Schuldig moved faster than anyone I'd ever seen before to dodge them. By the time Ken stopped at the other end of the room and turned to face him, Schuldig had a gun in each hand, one pointed at Ken and the other at me and Aya. Every time any of us moved, his guns moved with us.

"Three against one? Hardly fair odds," the silver-haired man I'd seen before said from the doorway. He also had a gun. "Three against two would be better."

As Aya muttered something nasty about the shop's security measures, I finally remembered that this man, Crawford, could see into the future. So everybody here had powers except for us. They also had guns, while we had these bullshit antique weapons. This really didn't look good. Did we ever defeat these guys?

"Not really," Schuldig said. "We let you live."

"Schuldig, stop that!" Ken shouted.

"Letting you live?"

"You know."

"C'mon, Aya likes it. Do you ever make him look like that?"

When I turned to look at Aya, I saw him shake his head like he was trying to shake something off. From his deep breathing and the look in his eyes, I could guess what Schuldig was making him feel. I wanted to break the bastard's neck for it.

~ If you won't give it to him, I will, ~ that hated voice said directly into my brain. ~ You know how good I can be. ~

"Stop playing around," Aya growled.

"Would you rather we killed you?"

What the hell were they doing? It almost seemed like they were waiting for something.

"Nice of you to leave the security down," someone new said. What the hell was going on here? "Not that it was necessary. Put the guns away." This one seemed to be in his late teens and looked very pissed off. The air around him seemed almost heavy.

Crawford and Schuldig smiled. Oh fuck, not another one. But they put their guns away. "Don't move, Ken!" the boy shouted, and Ken bounced off what could have been an invisible wall.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked.

The boy looked at me, then said, "Schuldig, you--"

Schuldig grinned. "If I'd done that, he'd be dressing like a slut again too. I had nothing to do with it, but it amuses the hell out of me. Maybe there is such a thing as destiny."

"We wanted to contact Persia," Crawford said.

"There's this invention known as a phone. I'm sure you've heard of it," the boy said.

"We didn't want to have to go through the layers of flunkies. This gets Persia's direct attention."

Aya looked like I felt, like he wanted to kill something. We'd been, what, a means to an end and added playtime for Schuldig?

~ The playtime was the big incentive. The rest just worked out. ~

"And draws unwanted attention on Ken, Aya, and Yoji."

"Shit happens," Schuldig said, then his head rocked to the side as if he'd been hit by someone. Glaring, he spat blood. "Nagi, you little fuck--"

"We worked together once, but don't trade on it. You're fucking with my current job, and I can't let that happen."

"Your 'job'? Does Omi pay to fuck you now?"

I'd never felt so overlooked in my life, though I'd gotten used to feeling this helpless.

Wait, Omi? Omi was with this... boy now? Our Omi?

"Don't confuse me for you, Schuldig. How are you going to fix this?"

"We haven't drawn any Kritiker eyes to this location aside from yours yet," Crawford said. "And you and Takatori Mamoru know simply because you keep a closer eye."

"I already have an organization chasing me," I said. That got the attention of the super-powered crew. "They tried to kill me."

"Did they tell you they were from Kritiker?" Nagi asked.

"They didn't say, but they called me a traitor."

"We had nothing to do with that!" Schuldig said.

"Besides giving him enough of a scare to shake him out of his life and set him running, which must have gotten their attention? Shit."

"Aya," I said, "I thought you said you were with Kritiker."

"We were, but now there are at least two factions, one of which would want us dead if they realized we were still alive."

Nagi said what I was thinking, "Yoji, you can't stay here."

I had to start running again. Whatever security I felt here would only be false, and I'd bring Aya and Ken and their new friends down with me. Like a child, I wanted to scream that it wasn't fair. I saw pain flicker in Aya's eyes before he fixed his inscrutable expression back on.

"We want to talk to Persia," Crawford said.

"I could just kill the two of you," Nagi answered.

Crawford actually smiled. "That wouldn't be easy. As good as you are, you still can't risk the collateral damage."

"This time I'll take you to see him, but don't start thinking that you can toy with Takatori-sama's associates to get his attention. There will be consequences." Nagi smiled. "Painful ones."

Crawford bowed his head. "I know."

"What?" Schuldig asked.

"Later."

"Now. I didn't read anything about--"

"That's it?" I asked. "Schuldig fucks with Aya's head for years, fucks with mine for nearly a year, menaces the three of us, and threatens our other teammates, and his punishment is a slap on the wrist and a pass to see your boss? Meanwhile, I have to go back on the run for the crime of doing absolutely nothing? That's not fucking good enough." As much as my personal nightmare man, his cold friend, and this boy scared the hell out of me, I'd had enough.

"He has a point," Nagi said.

Schuldig lit up a cigarette, giving me a spasm of wanting. If anyone needed a cigarette, I did. "You knew I was doing this for years," the telepath said.

Nagi smiled again. "Yeah, but now my affiliations are different. Yoji, we'll work on it. Persia will be informed about Aya's predicament immediately."

"Son of a bitch," Schuldig snarled.

"Persia is completely invested in alleviating any unnecessary stress his former associates may feel. Yoji, I'll pay for your passage out as well."

How sad that my few hours in London still didn't count as the shortest stay I'd had somewhere since I started running. "Thanks. You're a pal. I have to pick up my stuff."

"We'll all put our weapons away and go together." His smile seemed too pleasant and a little brittle. "It's a short walk to Yoji's hotel. We can do that. It's also a short walk to the train."

I didn't want to know how he knew about my hotel.

Aya slammed his sword into its sheath and put a long coat on so he could carry it disguised with him. Ken didn't sheathe his claws until Aya finished that. Did we really have to take this shit?

I remembered how Nagi had bounced Ken and smacked Schuldig without any effort. It looked like we had to take this shit.

I doubted that we looked like a group of friends as we walked, not with the tension hanging thick among us, Aya and Ken glaring daggers, and Schuldig grinning at Aya and sometimes me. Crawford and Nagi seemed cool and professional. Nagi spoke into a cell phone, making arrangements for me, sounding like a mini-mogul. My few returning memories of him didn't work with the person I saw now. Sometimes I caught Aya watching me.

I just wanted to sleep. I could never go home again, not to Asuka or to Aya. I sure as hell couldn't lead a gang of killers to my wife.

Since I hadn't unpacked anything, it took only seconds to check out of my hotel. At least everybody else stayed outside while I did it.

My tickets for the train waited for me when we arrived at the station. Sad again how quickly and neatly I could be shoved back out into the cold.

I stared at the terrible trio and said, "I want to say my goodbyes in private, all right? You can give me that."

Nagi grabbed Schuldig's arm and pulled him away, saying, "All right." Crawford simply looked uninterested and walked with them of his own will.

~ You don't really think this is the last you'll hear of me. I like you and Aya too much. ~

I didn't expect anything different.

"I'm sorry, Yoji," Ken said, looking almost guilty.

"Yeah." Not that it made a difference. To change the subject, at least for a few minutes, I said, "I can't believe that Omi ended up with Nagi."

"I guess you don't remember him as Mamoru, just Omi."

"What?"

"It's a long story."

I had to ask.... "Were we all gay?"

Ken snorted. "Omi always was. You and me, we were bisexual."

Making Aya what? Aya said nothing and looked lost in some angry misery. It looked so familiar that I felt a pang of near dizziness seeing it. I wanted to touch him....

"You don't look at Aya the same way Yoji did," Ken said suddenly, sounding surprised. That snapped my and Aya's attention to him. "I'm just saying."

"I don't know which me does anything anymore," I answered.

If I could stay, if I took up with Aya again, would all of the memories return until I became fully Yoji again? Would I become the person who'd left him before... and leave him again? The thought scared the hell out of me.

"This isn't right. This is such bullshit," Ken said suddenly.

"I could come visit for a little while sometimes. Maybe." It all hurt too much to think about.

Nagi came back to say, "We'll try to send some money to help you along now and then, Kudou."

"If your people could find me to help me, wouldn't the other group be able to find me too?"

He smiled. "Losing your memory seems to agree with you."

"Yeah, great. But could you find a way to protect my wife?"

"Yes. That will be easier."

That was some relief, at least. "Thanks. What do your friends want to talk to Persia about?" I deserved some information.

"They claim they found a dangerous remnant of Eszett, and they want cash and personnel backup to wipe it out."

"I hope that pays off for them," Ken said with all sarcasm.

"They're not saying who's involved or where it is until they get to Persia, of course. It might be for real. We'll probably be taking out little nests of this for years."

It meant nothing to me. "Great."

"Our people have psionics of our own now. We'll work on preventing Schuldig from fucking with your heads." He looked at Aya, who stared back with a sullen expression. Having been in Schuldig's company, Nagi had apparently known for ages that the telepath had been mindfucking Aya but said nothing to Omi until it had come up now. That had to be no comfort for Aya.

Or maybe he didn't like people knowing. I had some impression of him being a very private person.

Aya had been open with me, but he'd been talking to Yoji.

"Your train is boarding in 15 minutes," Nagi said, then walked away.

"I want to talk to you alone before I go," I said to Aya. "Ken, please. I want to say a private goodbye to the only person I know who's befucked in the same way I am."

Ken obviously wanted to say no but didn't. He just nodded. Maybe some notion of fairness stopped him. After all, he got to keep Aya, while I had to go on the run.

"All right," Aya said. We walked to a semi-secluded corner not so far away. "Yoji-- Wait, what name should I call you?"

He was the first person involved in this mess who'd even thought to ask. "Call me Yoji. I'm living his life, so you might as well." I'd been using fake names for about a year anyway.

I really couldn't go back to my normal, happy life. I knew too much, and I had too much blood on my hands.

My normal, happy life had always been a lie.

I felt something stroking down my back and a shudder of pure lust. From the way Aya arched a little, he must have gotten the same. We both glared at Schuldig's back. It showed another reason why Aya and I couldn't stay together. Separate, we split Schuldig's attention. He'd been less omnipresent in my life over the last seven months, which must have been because he'd found Aya.

"This is not what we wanted for you," Aya said, his voice sounding deeper. Something in my gut reacted to it instantly, because I knew it was his sex voice.

"I know." I grabbed and held onto him, and he let me, fitting his body against mine. I wanted to drag him onto the train to leave with me. If we couldn't find a seat for him, he could sit on my lap, thanks.

This couldn't be healthy. I didn't even know what the hell "this" was: my affection, the echoes of Yoji's affection, Schuldig's meddling, all of the above? Was it just that only Aya understood what I was going through or that I felt so damned lonely? No, I couldn't believe that.

Aya nuzzled my neck, then sucked hard at one spot, sending a bolt of lust through me. That would leave a mark. I let go before the temptation to take this further became too strong.

"I don't want you to go," Aya said softly.

"I hate to break this up, but your train's going to leave in two minutes," Nagi said from behind me. Maybe he didn't want to give me a chance to have second thoughts.

"Yeah. Thanks." I turned back to Aya and wanted to say more but couldn't, not with an audience. "This isn't goodbye."

"I know. You keep coming back somehow. Stay safe, Yoji."

"Did I ever?"

His small smile looked like a painful thing.

As I walked past Nagi, he surreptitiously set a wad of bills into my hand. After everything his former teammates and Kritiker had put me through, I took it as my due. I waved to Ken, then got onto my train and found my seat. To my relief, I didn't have anyone next to me. I didn't bother looking out the window.

A few hours down the line I would switch trains, though I wouldn't decide where I would go until I'd left London far behind me. What I didn't know couldn't be read out of my mind, and I hoped to be out of Schuldig's range. Not that I knew what that range was.

I couldn't stop thinking about Aya. For a little while, I hadn't been alone anymore. In some ways I still wasn't, but not in the way that counted most to me.

Suddenly a memory struck, and I remembered keeping him in bed with me one morning by tickling him into breathless submission. I'd never heard him laugh like that.... He'd made me promise to never, ever tell anyone about it.

~ Ticklish? I have to keep that in mind. ~

Fuck!

~ I wanted to let you do that, but Brad changed the timetable. Aya really is beautiful, isn't he? I knew you'd want him. ~

From the way Schuldig's "voice" softened, some people might have thought he was in love. But I could hear the feeling of possession in it. Pride of ownership, not love.

~ What would you know about it? You're barely two years old. ~

Get out of my head.

~ But you were so worried about being alone.... I had a great time tonight. I got so much done! ~

Disgusted, I didn't want to hear it.

~ Tough. I screwed with your head some more. I put Ken completely on the defensive. And Aya... he is the epitome of the inability to move on, but he'd started to put Yoji behind him and try to get something going with Ken. Then you walk in, and you're better than Yoji! ~

He'd stopped making sense.

~ You're just too limited to understand me. Listen: He likes you more than he liked Yoji. You. This is fucking beautiful. ~

He did? That was--

And I couldn't have him.

~ Exactly! ~

I slid further down in my seat. At least Schuldig couldn't torment Aya if he kept paying this much attention to me.

~ Ah, martyrdom. ~ He stroked me on the inside, making me twitch. ~ You get off easy, you know. I've given Aya dreams in which I echo all the worst things he thinks about himself and then help him put his katana against his throat. I've killed his sister in front of him. I've made you... Yoji kill him, though it hurt him so much more when I had Yoji kill his sister. I've so overloaded him with such excruciating pleasure that his mind couldn't form the words to beg me to stop. All I do to you is talk to you and chase you around a bit. ~

I felt ill. I wanted to kill. If shoving a knife into my own brain could destroy Schuldig, I would do it, damn the consequences to myself.

~ You're such a heroic bad-ass. ~

Go away.

~ I could go badger Aya some more. ~

Shit. Could you at least not talk to me, then?

I could almost feel him smile. ~ Sure. I'll be kind. ~

For the next two hours he said nothing, though I felt him sitting in my brain like a greasy, itchy shadow. As a further indignity, it made me horny. But his presence slowly faded, getting fainter like a radio signal as I traveled farther away from its source, until finally I was alone again.

Alone again. And, at least for now, thankful for it.

***********************THE END**********************

"The Noose" by A Perfect Circle

So glad to see you well
Overcome and completely silent now
With heaven's help
You cast your demons out
And not to pull your halo down
Around your neck and tug you off your cloud
But I'm more than just a little curious
How you're planning to go about
Making your amends
To the dead

To the dead

Recall the deeds as if they're all
Someone else's atrocious stories
Now you stand reborn before us all
So glad to see you well
And not to pull your halo down
Around your neck and tug you to the ground
But I'm more than just a little curious
How you're planning to go about
Making your amends
To the dead
To the dead

With your halo slipping down
Your halo slipping (down)
Your halo slipping down
Your halo slipping down
Your halo slipping down
(But I'm more than just a little curious
How you're planning to go about
Making your amends)
Your halo slipping down
(But I'm more than just a little curious
How you're planning to go about
Making your amends)
Your halo's slipping down
Your halo's slipping down to choke you now

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