Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ The War of the Roses ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3

Schuldig yawned. As exciting the exchange of blows with his kitten - sorry, Ran - had been, he was slowly getting tired. But after all, he had had some hard days during which he had hardly slept - not to mention the scads of alcohol. No wonder, the depressing fact that he wasn't fully functional any more - gods, he really hadn't been thinking about that for hours! The sight of Ran had made him forget everything else.

`That's quite understandable,' Schuldig thought with an amused glance at the Japanese man with the pink apron who was still standing at the door. And then their cross-talks! Ran had kept him quite busy, as Schuldig had to admit. That didn't happen too often, normally he could talk everyone, really everyone, down to the floor with his biting comments.

But not the Weiß leader, oh no! He had kept his tail up, although he had been clearly disadvantaged by his pink clothes. Schuldig liked that. He had always thought the red-headed Weiß to be attractive, but who could have guessed that his kitten hadn't only a pretty but also a clever head on his shoulders? When they had met earlier on missions Ran had always been absolutely ice-cold, apart from the Elan he always showed when fighting with his sword - no sign of the spirit with what he had reacted to Schuldig today!

`I like him even more if he is like that,' Schuldig thought. `I wonder how he's in bed? Would surely be interesting to find out...' frustrated Schuldig shook his head. Damn! He had again for some seconds forgotten that he had this little problem in that matter. Fortunately he was too tired right now to further think about it anyway. Schuldig only wanted to sleep now. He yawned again.

"Tired?" Ran asked from the door.

"Hm," Schuldig murmured, "I'm totally worn out. But if you're thinking that I'm gonna stand up and follow you into the dungeon cell that you meant for me like a good little prisoner then just think again. I think I'll sleep right here." With these words Schuldig fell down back on Ran's bed.

`Hah, I wonder how he's gonna react on that. If he's gonna carrying me?' Schuldig liked that thought very much. How would it be to be carried by his kitten?

"Oh no, you're not going into a dungeon cell. You'll sleep right here."

Oh good, then he wouldn't have to get up at least. Wait a sec. Sleep right here? Ran wanted him to sleep right here? In Ran's room?? Perhaps in Ran's bed??? Maybe even together with Ran????

That thought awoke Schuldig again. Expectantly he sat up. Ran really didn't seem to hesitate if he wanted something, did he? But where was Ran actually? He had been in this room just a moment ago. Schuldig frowned and looked around. He possibly hadn't fallen asleep earlier and had only dreamed Ran's last sentence? Apparently not, because he could hear someone going up the stairs and nearing the room.

"There you are. I already thought..." Schuldig greeted Japanese - and stopped in the middle of his sentence when he saw the ropes in Ran's hand.

`Uh, bondage games...' Schuldig thought when his gaze landed on his tied up hands. Oh, right, he was Ran's prisoner. He had totally forgotten about that little detail. The Weiß was simply too nice to him. He didn't treat him like a captured enemy. Ran had even tended to his cuts and covered them cleanly with band-aid.

Schuldig frowned. Something wasn't right with the band-aid. He narrowed his eyes to get a better look at it. But... there were... giraffes on it! And elephants! Tigers! And there, that was an ape! Schuldig tore his eyes wide open. That was band-aid for kids!!! Ran had covered him with band-aid for kids! That sneaky bastard! Under the pretence of wanting to help Schuldig he had secretly disfigured him! And thought it to be awfully funny and laughed off his head about it!

Schuldig opened his mouth to complain about it when his gaze landed again on the band-aid. The corner of his mouth started to twitch. Actually, it was kind of funny after all. Alone the idea of a professional killer - no difference if Weiß or Schwarz - walking around with band-aid for kids! Schuldig decided to not grudge Ran that little victory - as he had slated him more than enough because of the pink apron today. Besides, he had more important things to think of right now. For example, what Ran had meant when he had said that Schuldig would sleep here. Or what he needed the ropes for.

`Well, I'm surely going to find out,' Schuldig thought, because Ran had stepped to the bed meanwhile. In his hand he still held the ropes he had fetched from downstairs.

"Move a little bit higher," he ordered Schuldig.

"Why?" Schuldig asked and fluttered his eyelashes.

"So that I can tie you to the bed," was the answer.

"But Ran, darling, we don't know each other well enough for something like that!" Schuldig piped with a grin. "That's going way too fast for me! I'm not the kind of guy who does bondage right away on his first date!"

Ran sighed. "Stop that nonsense at once and lift your hands." Quickly and skilfully he tied Schuldig's hands at the head of the bed so that he would be able to move while sleeping but couldn't free himself.

"Who would have thought that the normally oh so good leader of Weiß is into bondage? Still waters run truly deep apparently," Schuldig was still grinning from ear to ear.

But Ran only said, "Your attempts to provoke me are futile. You're sleeping here so that I can watch you," and left the room.

"Hey, don't I get a blanket?" Schuldig called after him. No answer. Therefore no blanket. But at least he had kept the last word.

*************************************************************** *

Still shaking his head Ran went downstairs. Somehow everything went totally wrong. A prisoner shouldn't behave like that. He should be more fearful. And not so recalcitrant. More like a prisoner, exactly. And definitely not like Schuldig. Schuldig with his big mouth, who even seemed to enjoy the whole situation! Ran hoped that behaviour was the fault of the alcohol, but he feared that Schuldig wouldn't be less pertly when being sober.

`I'm going to suffer tomorrow, I just know it,' he sighed and stopped at the door to the living room. He actually had wanted to clean everything up so that he wouldn't be too much behind his schedule, but somehow he hadn't quite the energy left to do it. When Schuldig had started to yawn Ran had noticed just how tired he was too. But he didn't want to go to sleep as long as his prisoner was still awake.

Because Schuldig never seemed able to hold his tongue, and after his remarks about the bondage earlier Ran really didn't feel like listening to the comments he would get when he lay down beside him on the bed. What was all that fuss about anyway? The bed was two metres wide, big enough for two people to sleep in it without ever touching each other, particularly if one of them was tied up anyway. And it was truly the simplest way to keep an eye on the Schwarz.

Ran would simply wait downstairs till the German had fallen asleep and only then he would also go to sleep. He surly wouldn't have to wait too long, the Schwarz needed to sleep off his intoxication after all. Ran listened upstairs. Silence. Had Schuldig already fallen asleep? He would simply risk it and take a look. He turned off the lights on the ground floor, turned the alarm device on and silently went upstairs. It was still silent there.

Carefully he sneaked to his room. Thank god the orange-head was fast asleep. Ran breathed again and went inside. He stopped at the bed and looked down at the sleeping Schuldig. How peaceful and relaxed he appeared! No one would suspect a killer of Schwarz behind that pretty face.

`He's really pretty handsome,' Ran thought while his gaze roamed over Schuldig's sleeping form. `Nice chest, nice ass… - damn, get a grip on yourself, Ran!' he immediately called himself to order. `He is your enemy, your prisoner, it doesn't matter how well-built he is!'

With this thought he forced himself away from Schuldig's sight and turned away. He disrobed his apron and started to remove his clothes too when he paused. Maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea for Schuldig to find him half-naked in bed beside him. He could, no he would get it wrong. Ran sighed. He would simply sleep fully dressed.

`The heck with it,' he thought and sprawled on the free side of the bed, `I've already slept more uncomfortable.'

--

Slowly Ran woke up. Hm, he hadn't been sleeping that comfortable for a long time! Smiling he nestled with closed eyes closer to his bedfellow. And wasn't it simply marvellous to wake up in the morning and not to be alone in bed? To have someone to cuddle against? Ran liked it very much, in fact he wanted to stay like this forever.

`Apparently not everything of me thinks like that,' he thought amused when he noticed his morning-erection. Well, that was quite understandable, after all he was nestled to this soft, warm body, who wouldn't react like that?

It had simply been too long that he had woken up with someone. He wanted to enjoy that delicious feeling as long as possible. It had been so long that he even didn't remember the name of his last bed-mate. But that was unimportant as long as he knew the name of the current one and it was…

Ran tore his eyes wide open. `AAAAAARRRGGGGHHHH!' he thought. `Please, don't let it be true! No, no, no! I'm not pressed against Schuldig with an erection as if we're lovers!' Yes, he was. Oh damned! How could that have happened? And how could he look Schuldig in the eye ever again? He would pick on Ran with it for the rest of their lives!

But maybe Ran was lucky and Schuldig was still sleeping! `Yeah sure, and pigs can fly!' Ran thought hopelessly. Well, he couldn't change it, he had to face the mockery now. Carefully he lifted his head to look into Schuldig's face. `Please, please, please…' he silently prayed.

Schuldig was still sleeping. Ran drooped his head relieved on Schuldig's chest. `Uff!' he thought. Schuldig hadn't noticed anything. Ran had gotten away. For a moment he was so glad that he didn't move and kept on lying there. Then he tore his eyes open again. Damned, how could he forget? A Second ago he had feared for Schuldig to catch him and now he again wasn't moving away from him!

Hastily Ran detached himself from Schuldig and crawled out of the bed. Hah, now he was safe! He had left the bed and Schuldig had slept through the whole episode and would never ever learn about it. At that moment Ran remembered. Schuldig was able to read thoughts! And as soon as he would wake up he could see quite clearly in Ran's thoughts how they had been sleeping! Oh no!

`Calm down, Ran, just keep calm,' Ran tried to ease himself, `all you have to do is not think about it. Then Schuldig can't find out about it! Quite simply!' Right, he would do it like that. Not think about it. Not think about it. Damned! It didn't work! He couldn't think about anything else!

Ran closed his eyes and breathed deep. Just not hyperventilate! He had to keep calm. He would get a grip on it. After all, he was Abyssinian, the leader of Weiß! And if he decided to do something then it worked out too! Somehow calmed down Ran opened his eyes again. Alright. He had managed it. His gaze fell on the apron that he had carelessly thrown over a chair the evening before. Right, he had tasks to fulfil. He had to clean the living room - again. And the rooms of Yoji and Ken.

He reached out to grab the apron, then paused. Should he really wear it again? After Schuldig had made so much fun about it yesterday? Perhaps he should leave it out to give the Schwarz no more reasons to mock him. Wait a sec. What was he thinking? He wouldn't let a captured Schwarz dictate what he had to wear and what not! This was the headquarters of Weiß, and if he, Ran Fujimiya, wanted to wear a pink apron then, goddammit, he would do so!

He grabbed the apron and fetched clean clothes out of his wardrobe when Schuldig stirred in his sleep. Ran jumped startled and turned around. Had he woken Schuldig? Could he read Ran's thoughts even in sleep?? Did' he even know it at the end??? Ran felt panic rose inside him, he couldn't think clearly, and when Schuldig again moved in his sleep, Ran stormed out of his room. He desperately needed a cold shower quite now!

*************************************************************** *

Schuldig sighed. He was bored. He had had some quite nice dreams, with his kitten as main character, therefore he had been really disappointed when he had woken up this morning all alone. He had had to call for some time before Ran even appeared to untie him so that he could go to the bathroom. After that he had gotten breakfast - mainly some Aspirin - and afterwards he had been tied to a chair in the living room. At the beginning it had been ok, because Ran had also been in the living room, cleaning the chaos of the previous day - still wearing that darned pink apron!

Besides, Schuldig had gotten more than one good look - Ran bending down to lift something up or straining his muscles to shove the furniture! All things considered, it was very entertaining. Then Schuldig had made one or another innocent remark about the apron - ok, it had been a lot of quite bitchy comments - but Ran had barely or nothing at all reacted to them. He only had cast sneaking glances at Schuldig and then had blushed without cause.

Schuldig had been able to make nothing of it. Even for a Weiß it had been a real strange behaviour. And Schuldig's helpful advices for overlooked shards and dirt hadn't helped very much. Suddenly Ran simply had stormed out of the room although he hadn't finished cleaning the room yet. The sofa was still standing in the middle of the room, Ran hadn't pushed it back against the wall before he fled. Really very, very strange.

And therefore Schuldig had been all alone in the room for quite some time. Every now and then he could hear Ran move around in the upper floor - just some minutes ago he thought he could hear the shower - but that wasn't really entertaining. He sighed again. He was soooooo bored. Bored, bored, boooooored! He should do something against it. Schuldig joggled tryingly the armrest of his chair where his hands were tied to, but to no use. Ran's knots were solid, and it seemed to be a real robust chair.

Schuldig fidgeted a little bit. If Ran hadn't at least tied his legs to the chair legs too! He couldn't move at all like that! Perhaps if he… If he tried to jump up and down with the chair, maybe the chair would break down! It was worth a try. And he hadn't something better to do anyway. Schuldig jerked and the chair jumped circa a centimetre. A beginning after all, but that had to get definitely higher. Schuldig put more power in it and jumped up and down with the chair. But the chair didn't break. A really very robust chair.

Well, he couldn't break the chair, but it looked like he could bounce around the room with it. And maybe he would make enough noise so that his kitten would come down and play with him again! The thought cheered Schuldig up and he hopped towards the door. And to prevent Ran from leaving again, Schuldig wouldn't even make comments about that terrible pink apron. And if he was honest, he had to admit that he now thought it to be quite cute. His kitten looked sexy with it. Quite adorable.

Schuldig widened his eyes. Cute? He thought the pink apron was cute? `Snap out of it, Schuldig!' he thought startled. He simply couldn't have still that much alcohol left in his blood that he could like that - that thing! And since when did he think about Ran as `his' kitten? Something was terribly wrong, after all they were still enemies, weren't they? Weren't they? But Ran hadn't appeared like his enemy, neither when he knocked him down with his feather duster nor when he had tied him to the bed. More like a good friend with whom he scuffled around a little bit. He really should think about it more exactly.

Schuldig was that lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the noise at first. Only after Ran called down to him, "For God's sake, Schuldig, if you're breaking stuff down there again I'll strangle you at once!" he listened up.

"I'm not breaking anything at all, I've been utterly good the whole time!" he complained at once, but then he heard the sounds of breaking glass too.

"If it's not you, who…?" With a cry Ran stopped in the middle of his sentence and Schuldig could see through the open door Ran storming down the stairs only clad in a towel and armed with his Katana. He disappeared in the back of the house.

"Hey, what's going on?" Schuldig called after him. "Where are you going? And why are you wearing only a towel?"

But Ran didn't answer him and shortly after he hear the first sounds of a fight. There was someone in the back part of the house! Schuldig hopped closer to the door to get a better look. Could that already be Schwarz who had come to rescue him? Had they missed him already? He only had dimly uttered where he went when he had left the Schwarz HQ two, three days ago. He had only muttered that he was going to get something to drink before he had fled, but the others should knew him good enough to know that it could take a whole week when he was `getting something to drink'. They wouldn't worry about him quite now. Therefore rather not someone of Schwarz. It had to be someone else, and they were fighting with Ran! Damned, if he only wasn't tied up! A short fight would simply hit the spot right now! And at the same time he could help Ran too!

Suddenly a door was torn open and three dark clad figures ran down the hall, directly towards Schuldig. Oh-oh, that wasn't good! The three men were quite big and well-build, and moreover, they were armed! Perhaps Schuldig should seek shelter! With this thoughts Schuldig started to frantically bounce through the room in search of a safe hiding-place. But where could they go, he and his chair?

Shots sounded and the three burglars stormed, followed by Ran, into the living room, where they kept on shooting wildly around. That was really not good! Hide, Schuldig had to desperately hide! The sofa! What a luck that Ran hadn't pushed it back against the wall earlier, now Schuldig could hide behind it! Hastily he hopped behind the sofa, became unbalanced and tipped over. There he lay, like a turtle on the back, his legs stretched up and couldn't move any longer.

`Well, at least I'm not bored any more,' he thought.

*************************************************************** *

`Crap!' Ran hit his fist frustrated into the pillow that he had been fluffing. Somehow nothing went as it should. He should be downstairs right now and keep an eye on Schuldig so that he couldn't do something stupid. Instead he was up here and tidied the rooms. As if, actually he was only pretending to tidy. Because he simply couldn't concentrate. Constantly Ran could see the position they both had been when he had woken up this morning. He had twined his arms around Schuldig and nestled to him as if they were lovers, for God's sake! And he had been bloody aroused!!! How could that have happened?

And to make it even worse, he kept imagining how it would be if he and Schuldig wouldn't be enemies but really lovers! No wonder he was totally worn down by now.

This thoughts had also been the reason why Ran was upstairs now. He had really made an effort, had again and again tried to suppress those thought so that Schuldig wouldn't notice them, but they consistently had crept in. He had waited with panic for Schuldig to make bitchy comments about - The Matter - but nothing happened. So Ran had gotten more and more nervous. Why didn't Schuldig say anything? Not that he had been silent, far from it. He had been talking incessantly. Just not about - IT! That couldn't be normal! It had to be an exceedingly dastard method of torture!

Eventually Ran hadn't been able to stand it any longer and had fled enervated. He didn't believe that the distance was big enough so that Schuldig couldn't read his thoughts any more, but here he hadn't to look at the orange-head all the time. One point less that could give him silly ideas. Although he apparently didn't need to see Schuldig to imagine how it would be if they… Damned! He had to do something against it! He would take a cold shower.

The shower didn't help very much and Ran left the shower again. While he wrapped himself into a towel he could hear something breaking downstairs. `Not again,' he sighed. He couldn't even leave Schuldig on his own for ten minutes! Enervated he went to the stair-rail and bend over it.

"For God's sake, Schuldig, if you're breaking stuff down there again I'll strangle you at once!" he called down.

"I'm not breaking anything at all, I've been utterly good the whole time!" came the quick answer.

It wasn't Schuldig? But who could it be then?

"If it's not you, who…?" Ran started to call when he noticed that the noise didn't come from the living room. No, it came from the back part of the house where his laboratory was located. His project! Ran kept his project in the laboratory on which he had been working for so long! With an outcry he stormed into his room, grabbed his Katana and raced downstairs.

"Hey, what's going on? Where are you going? And why are you wearing only a towel?" Ran could hear Schuldig calling but he didn't stop to answer the Schwarz but directly ran into the laboratory.

Just like he had feared three dark clad figures were just stealing his prototype! With a scream he lunged at the burglars. But the three men were truly strong opponents - and in addition Ran had to hold the towel with one hand - and while two of them were busy fighting with Ran the third bagged unhurriedly the project. When he was finished he gave the other two a short order and all three of them stormed out of the laboratory towards the living room.

Desperately Ran followed them. He had to prevent the three men escaping with his baby! But the burglars were really determined and armed and now one of them was drawing a gun and started to wildly shoot around. Although Ran tried really everything they succeeded to escape through the back-door in the kitchen after a short shooting in the living room. They raced to the street where a car was already waiting for them. Ran could only stare after the dust cloud.

`Damn, damn, damn!' he cursed silently. They had escaped! They had escaped and they had taken his little darling with them! Distressed Ran returned into the house when he remembered something. Schuldig! He had totally forgotten about Schuldig during the shooting!

Appalled he raced back into the living room. What if something had happened to him? Hastily Ran looked around but he couldn't see Schuldig anywhere. But that wasn't possible, was it? Where could he have gone? Ran opened his mouth to call for him when he got a horrid thought. Had the three burglars perhaps kidnapped him?

"Schuldig!" he called horrified, hoping he was mistaken. No answer. Just when Ran tried to come to terms with the idea that Schuldig actually wasn't here any more, Schuldig's voice sounded behind the sofa.

"Did we win?"