Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ To Catch a Thief ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

To Catch a Thief

By Llewlyn

Summary: Schuldich is a master thief in the city of Schwarz, the Capitol of the great nation, Estet. Brad Crawford is a minor, but very wealthy, nobleman whose wife died three years prior. Schuldich, Aya, Yohji, Ken, and Omi are members of a crime ring run by a mysterious man named Persia. Schuldich gets an assignment to burgle a nobleman's house...

Rating: R, I guess, for upcoming lemons and limes and crude language inappropriate for kiddies.

A/N: Damn my muses... *attacks Yohji and Schu with a broom stick in one hand and a golf club in the other* My ideas always come at two in the morning. Also, the street rats have atrocious grammar, which annoys me to write, but I gotta cause they... *points at innocently grinning muses of lust and love* are making me!

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Last chapter:

He crouched in a defensive position on the opposite side of the bed, looking through the darkness at the person who'd interrupted. Suddenly a light blazed up, blinding Schuldich where he was on the floor, ready to leap.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" a deep, cultured voice asked.

***

Schuldich snarled and threw his hand over his face, both to hide his features and protect his eyes from the light.

"I believe that you're a thief, and you were trying to rob me. I should call for the city watch and have you arrested for burgling." The man's voice was dry and condescending, as though Schuldich needed to be told that his chosen profession was illegal. "King Takatori doesn't approve of thieves in his city."

"Rich bastard," Schuldich hissed as he leapt to his feet and onto the bed, intending to use it as a springboard past the man he guessed was the baronet. He was imitated by the man he still couldn't see, the light flashing in his eyes. "Tsk, tsk... Such language. I guess it's to be expected, coming from one so ill tamed as yourself." Schuldich snarled again, bodyslamming the man in order to get past him and out the window so he could escape without being caught by the watch. Schuldich was caught around the waist by two strong arms as the other man pushed forward, sending him tumbling onto his back on the bed. The baronet fell with him, right between his unwittingly spread legs. Instinctively Schuldich brought bucked up beneath him to free himself, clawing with his nails at the man's back. "`Tis a pity, really, the amount of riffraff on the streets, interrupting a man's mourning night." He could have been discussing the weather with another member of the nobility at a party, surrounded by simpering girls in silly dresses and foppish youths showing off their wit.

Suddenly, a pounding at the door caught both males' attention. "Sir! Master Crawford! Are you alright? We heard voices!" Schuldich began struggling all the more, biting at the nobleman's neck. The door opened, revealing a small boy with straight black hair and wide blue eyes. "Oh...Please forgive me, sir, I did not know you had a... guest..." the boy murmured apologetically, closing the door again. The short moment the door had been open allowed Schuldich a good look at the man who loomed over him. Golden eyes peered back at him, framed by silly wire circles... glasses, he remembered they were called... and mussed black hair, sharp but handsome features. "Well... the little thief is pretty," the man, Crawford, drawled. "Why aren't you working the streets with the other pretty boys?" Schuldich growled and resumed fighting to free himself. Crawford stopped him with a knee to his stomach, winding him. "Stop struggling, you twit. You're making it harder on yourself. If you won't, I shall call the watch and have them take you to gaol (1)."

Schuldich froze, gasping softly as he tried to catch his breath. "Good. Now... I'm going to get off you, and you're not going to run away. If you do, I will be forced to find you, and your punishment will be worse. Understand? Or are you too stupid?" Schuldich nodded unwillingly. He'd go along with anything until he could breath properly again, and then he'd be out the window with the baronet bleeding to death on the floor from a dagger in his ribs. "Very good." Slowly Crawford eased off him, but catching his hands and holding them above his head tightly. Schuldich sat up, glaring hatefully at the bespectacled man. "Now. I want to know some things. Answer me fully or..." He didn't need to finish his sentence before Schuldich said quietly, "I gonna answer your questions. You gonna let me go then."

Crawford laughed unhumorously. "No, my pretty little thief. I think I have a use for you, provided you prove worthy of it." His glasses gleamed wickedly, making it impossible to see his eyes. "Who sent you to rob my home? I doubt you came up with the plan on your own." Schuldich frowned slightly, knowing that telling about Persia would lead to Yohji and the others, who, though criminals, did nothing really wrong or immoral. He decided, however, that self-preservation was more important, and that if he didn't come back that night they would know something was wrong. "Man named Persia."

"Persia? Interesting name... What's your name, my little thief?"

"I ain't your little thief," Schuldich said, his voice full of pride, glaring at his captor. "I ain't nobody's thief!" Crawford frowned and backhanded Schuldich with a resounding slap. "Tell me your name, boy..."

"Name's Schuldich. Don' gotta last name," he said, glaring at Crawford as a red mark appeared on his cheek and blood trickled down his lip where the setting of a ring had cut him. "Good boy. Now you understand. How old are you?"

"Dunno... almost a score a winters, I guess..."

"So nineteen." Crawford nodded thoughtfully and stroked Schuldich's hair, making the boy hiss and snap at his hand. "So wild. It will take a lot to tame you... your hair is filthy... soot, I presume, to hide the color?" he said, reaching over to the table beside the bed and taking up a handful of water from a basin. He poured it over Schuldich's head, making the soot run and revealing the true red shade of his hair. "Hm, I imagine you'd clean up nicely." Schuldich shivered slightly, the water making him cold. Crawford ignored it. "Can you do anything other than steal? Or are you only a thief, and a poor one at that?"

Schuldich snorted as some of the water that had been dumped unceremoniously on his head dripped into his eyes and nose. "I kin read, an' write a little... I kin pick, cook, sew, an' a bit a healin'." Crawford nodded "I suppose you'll do. You see, I need a slave since my last one got pregnant and died in birth, poor wench. You'll be her replacement." Schuldich snarled and leaned forward abruptly, biting Crawford on the neck. "I ain't a slave! I ain't property, I was freeborn and I gonna die free!" Crawford slapped Schuldich hard, this time the settings on his two rings scratching his pale skin and leaving raised red marks. "You'll be my slave," he repeated. "You'll serve me at meals, do menial tasks for the cook, my valet, and my bodyguard. Once you've acquired some manners, if I can beat them into your thick skull, you will accompany me to court. And, if you prove to clean up as nicely as I think, and learn to behave properly, you'll serve in my bed."

"I never! Ain't nobody's bitch, `specially the likes a you!" Schuldich yelled, recommencing fighting with all his might. He kicked Crawford in the groin, making him groan and release Schuldich's hands. As soon as he was free, a sharp, wicked little knife was in the redhead's hand and positioned at Crawford's neck. "Ain't nobody sleepin' wid me if I don' want `em to!" A small drop of blood made its way down from the point of the blade where it was pricking into the baronet's skin, and Crawford froze. "I see. Well, little thief Schuldich, I suppose you may go..." His voice indicated a condition.

"If you can."

Schuldich blinked, confused, but he refused to give into the man's trap. "I ain't playin' silly word games wid some nobleman who think he so smart! May, can... mean the same damn thing!" He spat. "I leavin' now. You yell for help, I slit your throat!" Schuldich pressed the dagger in further to get his point across, then leapt for the window. He smirked as he put his foot out the window and onto the convenient tree limb that was right there. He was almost out when he glanced back over his shoulder to see if the man had moved or was going to try and grab him again. His gaze met with Crawford's broad chest as a rag was pressed over his face. A strong arm encircled his body and dragged him back in as he fell limp.

"You...bastard!" Schuldich groaned as he passed out in Crawford's arms.

1: Jail