Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Through the Eyes of a Child ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

Through the Eyes of a Child

By Llewlyn

Summary: After episode 24, Crawford takes an unconscious Schuldich to New York City to take care of him. But when Schu wakes up, he isn't the same man he was before. How will Crawford adjust to taking care of a telepath with the mind of a five-year-old?

Rating: R for language, adult situations, violence, and references to child abuse, prostitution, and drug use.

Disclaimer: I don't own them, as much as I like to think I do. But if you do and want to give them to me….

A/N: It switches to first person here, Crawford's POV.

Chapter One:

After a few days, I swiftly fell into a routine centered around Schuldich. Wake up beside him in bed, kiss him good morning, and check the IV I set up to feed and hydrate him until he woke up. Next, get up, take a quick shower, and make breakfast to eat next to Schuldich. I spoke to him almost constantly, hoping that something would sink in and he would wake up. I didn't have to work, after the last encounter with Wei it was assumed that all four of us were dead and that Schuldich and I had been killed in the explosion, thus explaining why our bodies hadn't been found, so I was free to spend all my time with my lover. I almost never stepped foot outside the apartment, except for the time necessary to buy new clothes for us to replace the ones that had been left in Tokyo. Everything else could be sent directly up to the apartment.

However, after almost five weeks of Schuldich's coma, something different happened. I remembered Schuldich's name. Actually, I hacked into SS's database with my laptop and found it, thus triggering my memory from Rosenkreuz. With the name came the image of the sad, beautiful little boy Schuldich had been when I first met him.

He had been nine, I was 14, and it was his eyes, rather than his hair, that caught my attention. He was sent into one of my classes to deliver a message from his teacher and happened to look out at the class. His eyes… they seemed to change color before my own, one instant appearing the brightest, clearest blue since… well, Tsukiono Omi… and the next seeming jade green. I knew who he was, he was a prodigy, the strongest telepath that had walked through the doors of Rosenkreuz since the current Elders, perhaps even the strongest ever, but he refused to cooperate or behave in any fashion. Rumor among the younger children held that he had been abused as a baby before SS `rescued' him from his non-gifted family. The older children who knew him held that he had been on the streets as a prostitute before he got picked up by the Elders. Now I knew that it had been a combination of both, but at the time all I could see was the beautiful teen he would be in a few years, courtesy of a vision I got when his eyes met mine.

Anyway… His name used to be Peter. Peter Eric Gross. I smiled at his last name, even though I knew it meant `great.' I went back into the room he lay in state in and sat beside him, holding his limp hand and staring down at him. At times, I could see the face of the jaded nine-year-old I had once known superimposed over Schuldich's twenty-two-year-old face. Softly I brushed the fiery red strands of hair that somehow always managed to end up in his face away, smiling slightly. He looked so innocent, though I knew he was anything but. The years seemed to melt away, leaving him as the young, carefree man he'd never been. I leaned down and whispered, "I love you, Peter…" and kissed him softly.

Unseen at first, Schuldich's eyes fluttered slowly open. Terrified blue eyes looked frantically around the room, and I was suddenly aware of the German's rapid, heavy breathing. Startled by the change, I pulled back and looked down at Schuldich.

"Schu… you're… you're awake…" I whispered in happy surprise. No, happy isn't strong enough a word. Ecstatic. Exuberant. Jubilant. A combination of all three, perhaps. I smiled broadly and kissed him again, sliding my arms behind his shoulders and hugging him tightly.

Then, with his words, my heart stopped. "Who… are… you?"

His words were spoken in halting English with a heavy German accent, and they broke my heart. I should have known that after having been unconscious for more than a month, he was likely to have forgotten some things, but it hadn't occurred to me that he'd forget altogether who I was.

"Where… is… mein zuhälter?" Schuldich demanded, pushing me away from him. "Where… is.. Gebieter?" I stared at him in shock. I knew German from being in Rosenkreuz, it was the required language, but to hear Schuldich speaking it again was odd.

"Schu, what are you talking about?" I asked worriedly. "You haven't had a zuhälter since you were five. You're safe, with me."

Schuldich slid off the bed, tore the IV out of his arm, and stood unsteadily, glaring at me. "I…don't know what you're talking about… Gebieter will be angry with me..." he said fearfully. He'd slipped into all German, and I answered him as such.

"Baby, Gebieter sold you to my employer seventeen years ago. You're twenty-two years old, and we lived together in Tokyo for two years," I said quietly, standing to wrap my arms around his waist. He angrily shoved me away. "Your name is Schuldich, you hear voices in your head." I paused. "We've been lovers for a year. Do you remember any of this?"

He shook his head violently, backing up until his back was pressed against the wall. "No… you're lying to me… Gebieter wouldn't sell me, I make him too much money… I am five, and I live in Germany, Berlin…" He looked around nervously. "Who are you?"

"Schu, I'm Crawford… Brad Crawford… you call me all sorts of irritating, insulting nicknames." I smiled to myself, thinking of just a few. Crawlie, Bradie-kins, Stick-up-the-ass… "Baby, don't you remember anything?"

"Stop calling me Schuldich!" he yelled, holding his head. "I'm not guilty, I didn't do anything wrong!" He sank to the floor. "Gebieter's going to beat me, you didn't pay him, I know you didn't, I can hear you…" He glared up at me, tears in his terrified blue eyes. "He's going to beat me because of you!"

I fell to my knees beside him, pulling him into my arms and gently rubbing his back. "Shhh, baby, it's ok… no body's going to beat you…" I murmured soothingly against his angry, frightened yelling. "Schuldich, you're safe here…"

He calmed down eventually, after many repeated screams that he was NOT Schuldich, that he was Peter, and sniffled pathetically, his face buried in my neck. I realized that he'd stopped talking and that what I was hearing was him speaking telepathically. He's going to beat me, I'm not allowed to do anything without permission… he whimpered until he finally dropped off into a deep sleep.

I rocked him gently, stroking his back comfortingly. "Oh, Schu… what's going on in your head, baby?" I whispered, standing with him in my arms and settling him back on the bed. Once I was sure he wasn't going to wake immediately, I left the room. Sitting on the couch, looking out over the city, I hunched over, head in hands, and started to sob quietly.

Schu… what's happened to you? Where's the proud, defiant boy I fell in love with?

And I wondered… would I ever get to talk to my Schu again, or would he be five-year-old Peter for the rest of his days?

mein zuhälter: My pimp

Gebieter: Master