Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ The War of the Roses ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2

Ran still couldn't believe it. He had just knocked out a Schwarz, all by his own and only armed with a feather duster! Sure, he seemed to be pretty drunk - Ran could tell by his breath - but anyway! One really could be proud of it, couldn't one? Ran was very satisfied with himself by all means. But after he had professionally tied up the Schwarz Ran still didn't know what to do with his prisoner.

After all, it didn't happen every day to find a Schwarz in your living room. And in fact he never had thought about what he would do if he ever would catch one of them. Anyway, he had to find out what Mastermind wanted. At least it seemed as if he was conscious again. Although the Schwarz has closed his eyes again they had been open just moments ago. Ran didn't think that he had lost conscious in quick succession again.

"Hey, I know you're awake!" Ran kicked him with his foot.

The Schwarz opened his eyes again and stared open-mouthed and horror-stricken at Ran. To be exact, his gaze roamed over Ran's apron to his kerchief, his feather duster and back again.

Ran frowned. "What are you looking at?"

The other only shook his head.

"Spit it out!" Ran ordered.

"I only admire your… outfit," came the taunting answer.

"My outfit?" Ran looked down at himself. No, everything seemed to be alright, the apron wasn't torn or dirty. "What's wrong with it?"

"It's… pink…" came the weak reply.

Ran still didn't understand. "Your point?"

"It's pink… and it has frills!!!!" The answer wasn't as weak as before and had a clear appalled undertone. "Why is it pink? Bad enough that you're wearing something like that at all - and I have to see you wearing it too - but pink? Wasn't there anything in blue? Or green? Or grey? Or any other colour EXCEPT pink????"

Ran felt himself turning slightly red. He had chosen his cleaning outfit out of convenience and because this apron had a lot of big pockets where he could transport his cleaning utensils. He hadn't even noticed the colour when buying it. But now, as the Schwarz was looking at him taunting and at the same time horror-stricken he realised how the pink apron had to look like.

"And there are flowers!!!! Hundreds of little pink flowers!!! And frills!!!" The orange-head seemed not to be able to stop getting worked up over the apron.

"So what?" Ran hissed. "It's no concern of you what clothes I'm wearing while cleaning the house!"

"I nearly went blind at the sight of you so it IS of my concern!" called the German outraged. "Wait a sec, YOU are cleaning here? Really?" Now Mastermind was wearing a malicious grin. "You only get the truly important and dangerous tasks, don't you?" The grin grew wider and wider. "Or is it one of the special skills that a leader of Weiß needs to have?"

"I still don't know why it should regard you but I just wanted to use the fortunate chance for a spring-cleaning," Ran justified himself. That couldn't be true! Why was he forced onto the defensive now? He had to change that quickly.

"You're doing that voluntarily???" The jaw of the Schwarz dropped. "But… why???"

"Anyone has to clean sometime and I thought…" Ran closed his mouth. Damn! He was defending himself again! The Schwarz was totally confusing him. Right, it was the fault of the Schwarz! Perhaps he not even could read his thoughts but also project and manipulate them! That had to be the answer! But Ran had rumbled him! He would be twice as carefully from now on so that the Schwarz wouldn't have the opportunity to do it.

To confirm his decision - and because it gave him some satisfaction - he kicked the Schwarz again with his foot.

"Ow! What the hell?" he complained at once.

"Shut up. What do you want here, Schwarz?"

"Well, I only wanted to check your safety precautions. Sloppy, sloppy, I must say. And why is nobody here? That's not very professional!" The orange-head seemed to be really outraged over that fact. "That never could have happened at our HQ, nobody could simply enter it! You even don't have an alarm device! I could simply walk right into the house and nobody stopped me!"

The alarm device! Damn, he knew he had forgotten something. Ran turned red again. He had turned off the alarm to clean the windows and forgot to activate it afterwards. But that could happen to anyone, couldn't it? But what was the meaning of all of that nagging? The Schwarz was lying tied up on the floor - after Ran had overpowered him - and complained that it had been too easy to enter the house! Sure, the German reeked of alcohol, but he hadn't come across THAT drunken!

"In case you hadn't noticed yet, I stopped you very well! I knocked you down and tied you up! Don't you remember?" Ran spoke very slowly and clearly so that the drunken Schwarz would really understand him.

"Of course I remember. I'm not stupid. But that doesn't count. You had been fighting with unfair and illegal methods! I mean, who wouldn't have fainted at your sight?"

Now Mastermind was grinning maliciously again. Ran tore angrily his kerchief down. That wouldn't lead to any results. He would have to sober up the Schwarz first so that he could comprehend the gravity of his situation! And as soon as the Schwarz would comprehend just what situation he was in - and Ran would finally know what to do with his captive - the Schwarz would stop grinning like that! And then Ran would find out why the Schwarz had broken into their house. But not today.

Ran sighed. `I think I can forget about my time schedule right now.'

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Schuldig enjoyed himself splendidly. His comments about the pink cleaning outfit seemed to cut the Weiß to the quick. And he had also torn down his kerchief! That got better and better!

"Well, now I know at least why you were wearing a kerchief. Your hair-colour bites awful with the pink apron!" When Schuldig gathered momentum then he was barely to stop.

`It's simply too funny to annoy the red kitten,' he thought. He had noticed that fact earlier but now, after he had caught him in such an embarrassing condition it was just twice as funny.

"Let me guess - the others fled out of fear when they saw you, didn't they?" Schuldig provoked the Weiß further.

"They did not!" snapped the red-head angry. "Yoji, Ken and Omi are attending the EBOLA!"

Schuldig tore his eyes open. "The WHAT? EBOLA? Just what is that?"

"The EBOLA. The Exhibition for Botanical Ornamentation and Living Aesthetics."

"There is such a thing? And you're actually attending it?" Schuldig had to giggle again. Only Weiß could work themselves up into their disguise!

"Of course we're attending it! We're attending every exhibition, conference and show concerning the floristic business! We have to to stand our ground in the merciless competition of the floristic trade."

The merciless competition of the floristic trade? Had Schuldig understood that correctly? Merciless? Competition?? Of the floristic trade???

"You wanna twit me? Just how merciless could the competition be for a florist? You spray yourself with pesticides? Or throw flowers at each other till you bleed?" Schuldig had to laugh at that image.

But Abyssinian only answered patronising, "You have just no idea! They pull no punches in the floristic trade, it's really relaxing if we only have to fight against Schwarz."

Come again, what??? Relaxing? It was RELAXING for Weiß to fight Schwarz? That was outrageous! How could that Weiß only say something that - something that mean? Schuldig felt deeply hurt.

"Oh excuse me please that we don't offer enough challenge! Next time we'll think at it and instead of only fighting you we'll also tore out the petals of your flowers so that you can see we really mean business! If we hadn't held back when dealing with you we would have made fertilizer of you ages ago!" he spat at the Japanese.

But Ran only looked pitying at him. "Don't take it to heart, Schwarz, it's nothing personal. But the other florists are truly hardboiled pros."

Schuldig looked unbelieving at him. The Weiß was actually serious! But that couldn't be! After all, they were speaking of people who sell flowers, for crying out loud! How dangerous could that be, particularly in comparison to the dangerous assassins of Schwarz? Certainly the kitten was exaggeration shameless.

`Or Abyssinian had inhaled too much of his cleaning agent,' Schuldig mused sneering. `Best I simply agree to everything, no matter how absurd it sounds.'

"If you say so," he placated the Weiß.

But he only looked with slit eyes at him. "Stop that patronising behaviour, Schwarz. You don't believe me, alright. It doesn't matter if you believe me anything or not. You are my prisoner and I show the ropes to you. And that's momentarily the only thing that counts!"

Huh, the kitten had claws!

"I haven't noticed too much of that yet," Schuldig couldn't deny himself.

"You don't seem to comprehend the gravity of your situation. But what can I expect from a drunk as hell Schwarz!" With these words Abyssinian turned around to leave the room.

Hey! The kitten wanted to leave? And let him lying in this mayhem, alone, tied up and helpless? Perhaps even the whole night? Oh no, not with him! Schuldig wouldn't put up with that!

"Hey, where are you going, kitten?" Hah, THAT had stopped the Weiß in the middle of his movement!

Slowly he turned around. "How did you call me right now?" he asked unbelieving.

Schuldig grinned impishly at him. "Kitten," he answered.

The Japanese narrowed his eyes to dangerous little slits. "Stop it!" he hissed threatening.

"Why? Don't you like the name? It suits you so well. And sounds good too. Kitten. Kitten," Schuldig let the word melt on his tongue.

"Stop. It. At. Once."

Uh-oh, the Weiß was really angry! His hands were formed into fists and he pressed every word out of clenched teeth.

Schuldig shortly pretended to really think that over. "No, I don't think I'm stopping it," he said at last with a wicked grin. "Kitten, come here. Kitty, kitty, ki…"

With an furious snarl the Weiß lunged at Schuldig.

Uh-oh, he seemed to have pushed it a little bit too hard! Hastily Schuldig tried to seek shelter. But unfortunately he had totally forgotten that he was still tied up and therefore he only could roll sideways - in the middle of a pile of shards.

"Ouch, ouch, ow, ow, ow!" Schuldig cried.

That stopped the Weiß. With crossed arms he positioned himself in front of Schuldig and looked mischievous down at him.

Schuldig didn't think it that funny. "Don't stand simply there like that and grin like a moron! Help me up!"

But the red-head didn't move. "Why should I?" he asked smugly.

"Why? Because I'm injured! Oh my god, I even bleed!" Schuldig noticed the cuts and paled. "Do you perhaps want me to bleed to death?"

The Weiß seemed to seriously ponder that possibility.

"You possibly couldn't intend it!" Schuldig gasped panic-stricken.

"No, probably not," the other sighed and started to lift Schuldig up.

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Kitten! The Schwarz had called him Kitten! Ran still snorted inwardly as he helped his prisoner up. And what a fuss he put up because of those few cuts! They were barely scratches and Mastermind whined as if he would die from blood-loss the next moment.

`Mastermind, oh yes, THAT name really applied to him,' Ran thought sneering. But he really couldn't let him lie in the living room. Firstly, there was a too great mess and the Schwarz could actually hurt himself seriously - or worse, free himself of his ties! Secondly, the orange-head would only bleed on the carpet and blood was so awfully hard to remove! And thirdly, Ran wanted to have him near to keep an eye on him. You couldn't trust a Schwarz, not even if he was tied up.

So he loosened the ties on the feet of his prisoner and pushed him ahead, up the stairs and into his room. There he sat him down on the bed and went into the bathroom to fetch a clean towel and some band-aid. While searching the cupboards his gaze locked on the box with band-aid for kids that Ken used - only because of his sensitive skin as he always claimed.

With a devilish little smile Ran took the band-aid for kids and went back into his room. The Schwarz had stopped whining meanwhile.

`Ah, he seems to have recovered from his terrible injuries,' Ran thought sneering and sat down beside the orange-head. He tended carefully to the scratches and immediately the other started to whine again.

"Ouch, ow, that hurts! Can't you be a little bit more carefully?"

Ran rolled his eyes. "For an oh so dangerous killer you are awfully snivelling," he stated while accurately applying one band-aid with pictures of animals after another.

"Finished. I think you have been lucky. Looks like you will survive the enormous blood-loss after all." Ran simply couldn't deny himself that sneering comment.

But the Schwarz didn't look quite as aggressive as a short time ago, he only mumbled quietly. Ran couldn't understand anything more than "… not snivelling at all… hurts like hell…"

He stood up to bring back the towel. At his return the orange-head looked curiously around the room.

"Nice room. Yours?" he asked. After Ran nodded affirmative a grin crept onto the face of the Schwarz. "No pink flowers, no frills? I'm really disappointed, kitten!"

There! He had done it once more! Ran wanted to strangle him. "I already told you not to call me that! If you have to call me anything, then call me by my name, Schwarz! I have one! My name is Ran."

"So what? You always call me simply `Schwarz' too!"

Ran took a deep breath. "Alright. Can we agree on using our names from now on?" he asked as calm as possible.

The Schwarz hesitated. "Very well then. For all I care," he finally grudgingly gave in. "My name is Schuldig."

Schuldig? What was that for a name? Was it EVEN a name? But Ran decided not to say anything in that matter, now when they finally had reached some kind of truce.

"But don't reproach me if I slip a `kitten' now and then. I'm simply more used to it than to `Ran'." Schuldig looked demonstratively innocent at him.

Maybe Ran would strangle him after all. At least a little bit.