V.  Pouring in Place

Cracks, they're always there in the plaster, on blue painted plaster. Still aimless, though they're in a different ceiling.

Why am I so perverse? Ran thought as he lay contemplating the unfamiliar ceiling for cracks. He had decided to go to Weiß the moment Nagi had recovered enough from the shock of Tot's death. It was that or slowly going crazy. He hadn't had a decent night's rest since he tried to soothe Nagi out of his grief. His mind kept running like a hamster on a treadmill over that one detail, why Crawford?
 
 

Why Oracle? Why him and not Nagi or Ouka or even someone from my family? Why the bastard that surely ordered Aya-chan executed rather than become a hostage? Why the one who turned me into a cheap whore for his pleasure? Unless…unless…I'm…I'm starting to feel something for him… Why of all the Schwartz do I have to feel for him? Even Schuldich would be better compared to him! Though not Nagi-kun, he's too young and Farfarello's just too twisted…

Ran shivered at the turn his thoughts were taking. Farfarello was a maelstrom of unsteady emotions, never still, never at rest. Just thinking about the whirling mess made him dizzy but he knew he was evading the issue. If Ran didn't leave soon, he felt that he would soon be subsumed in his role of Oracle's whore and lapdog and he didn't want that.

So you took the easy way out. Instead of confronting this at its source, you ran away. Running away won't solve this, then what will solve it? Killing the only man on the planet who can touch you without being blasted by your power won't answer your question. And being Oracle's shadow would? No, I refuse to be his slave. I refuse to be at that bastard's mercy. Not now! Not ever!

***

Damned! I told Crawford not to leave Fujimiya to sulk too long.

Schuldich was currently on a routine mission with Farfarello guarding a fat-cat businessman with drug ties to the Triad. He stood on one side and Farfarello the other as the scheduled deal went through. Ho-hum.

If Oracle wasn't so bullheaded, we won't need to chase after Sensitive. A few sweet lies were all it would take. Not that it was a sure thing except that Fujimiya's Empathic Gift didn't work on Crawford…

***

"Fujimiya, you have been quite a good dog lately. What's up?" Schuldich asked. The empath had been behaving rather oddly. The defiant depression had given way to some unnamed emotion, not that Schuldich could read what it was. Empathy and telepathy were too closely related for him to try poking around the other man's head. Besides thoughts were his forte not feelings.

"Hn."

Oh goodie, the all-purpose answer.

"Would it have to do with our Great Leader?"

"Hn."

"Hn?" Schuldich asked mockingly. Fujimiya was no fun to tease. He found it more frustrating to get information out of Fujimiya than out of Crawford most of the time. The empath was always conscious that his emotions could kill and had the "ethics" to control himself all the time. Schuldich even wondered sometimes if Fujimiya was more of a bastard than even Crawford was. Though the younger man did show that he had some feelings considering how he was seeing the Ouka and how he had mourned his sister so.

Hmmm, Fujimiya needs to be goaded in a way that he couldn't resist, but how?

Schuldich couldn't leave situation like this alone. It made him too curious. Besides with what was happening with Crawford, he didn't think he could afford to.

"Soooooo, what are you up to, bishounen?"

***

Schuldich hadn't managed to break the other redhead's reticence and the night after that Fujimiya had gone over to Weiß.

What a pair of stubborn idiots… I don't blame Fujimiya, he's used to deducting emotions using his Gift and not by looking but Crawford should know better. Humph, Crawford's wasting too much energy on pretense to notice it.

***

Ran had barely gotten away as it was. He was convinced that Schuldich, if not Crawford, was well aware of his plan to escape Schwartz, to defect to the only safety he could know. Of course it was probably temporary safety but then safe haven was rare for one such as he. He had discovered through a bit of covert asking that Weiß still existed and was moved to Kyoto to fresher hunting grounds. Tokyo being was no longer as hot as it was since the Estet had been broken. Weiß was whole and unharmed for the most part. It sounded a good way to break away from Schwartz. Not that it had been a clean break.

You can go away from Schwartz but can you take Schwartz away from you… I wonder how Nagi is doing right now… Or Farfarello, I do hope they clean up his room, he could get an infection if left to his own devices… I even miss Schuldich's sarcastic self and that saying something… I almost didn't go through with the whole thing, I was positive he knew I was about to make a break for it…

***

What a day… Ran thought. They hadn't had a mission for a week and for some strange reason Schuldich had decided to pick him as his latest teasing target. Well it could be that since Nagi was still somewhat incapacitated by grief that the German couldn't have gotten a response if he tried to tease the youngest Schwartz member. The young one had recovered enough to be left alone and with that recovery came the compulsion to return to Crawford's bed. After the night when he nearly killed himself with Nagi's despair, he had found himself increasingly aware of the older man.

Blue eyes intent in watching Ran at odd moments as he tended Nagi. He never noticed before how Oracle would check on him now and again, silently poking a dark head in to look over him.

Did Crawford always do that? Glasses glimmering as he typed into the computer, a tiny frown of concentration marring his brow… The minute dishevelment after a long day's work, hair a bit tousled and a suit that wasn't as perfect as it started out but still looking unflappably dapper… How boyishly cute he looked sleeping all alone forlorn in our bed… Hold that thought. Since when did you ever think the man cute? And OUR bed! It's his room not ours never ours…

The thought startled Ran more than a bit and terrified him to no end. If Ran waited, he knew he'd be less and less sure he wanted to try to escape as much as he had now. The pull was undeniable and given time it would have made leaving impossible. His will would be completely subverted to Crawford's. Oracle wouldn't need Mastermind's help to Change him, he would be already well and truly lost. An empath was always at the mercy of emotions and in this way…

In this way, Crawford gets an efficient killer who doesn't have any outside allegiances… A pretty neat package with the side benefit of having a steady whore to boot. I bet the bastard saw this all and found it very entertaining.

The thought made Ran grit his teeth.

No! I'm definitely not going to be toyed with this way. I'm leaving tomorrow as soon as I could manage to slip away, tonight if possible.

Birman, Ran's contact from Kritiker needed time to arrange for a safe route for him to vanish hence the pegged date.

Tomorrow I leave his domination forever…

***

His day with Weiß held more shocks for him. He thought he was going to be a pariah, barely accepted as a necessary evil, but that was not the case. The Weiß were wary that was true but they treated him as they would any untested recruit. They showed him how to work in the mobile flower shop without comment. Another shock came when he saw Balinese' girlfriend. Sakura looked exactly like his sister in better days. Though none of the Weiß saw the similarity, unsurprising since they only saw a bad video of Aya-chan, pale and lifeless, on the hospital bed. Seeing the brown haired girl vibrant and happy as she followed Kudou around was like a blow to his heart. Speaking of girls…

I wonder why Ouka didn't tell on me? The Weiß -- no, Yohji, Omi and Ken, I must think of them that way, they're my teammates now -- wouldn't treat me as well as they have if she had. Was she too ashamed then? Hurt? I would be in her case… Gods, if only I could… What? Marry her? She doesn't need you! You'd only harm her more than you have already! Or have you forgotten? Ouka's pale face as lifeless as Aya-chan's, her pulse faint to almost nothing… No, you have no real choice. What if she survives another night of lovemaking with you? What then? You'd lose control over and over and over again until you killed her… No you have no choice. You HAD to leave her.

Ran looked up on the cracks on the ceiling trying to find an answer to his life's perplexing questions in the tiny peeling lines. He fell asleep looking for them.

***

"Crawford aren't we going to go look for our stray empath?" Schuldich asked from his position on the couch. He was rather restless about this arrangement. There was something in this meeting that made him bristle. There was a subtle tension in the air like ozone in before a lightning strike. Not that he minded having to meet in Crawford's office since the rest of the house was a pigsty. Fujimiya took care of most of the niggling details the rest of Schwartz neglected. Like the dirty dishes that tend to pile up, the cooking, taking out the laundry and other household matters so right now the rest of the house looked like it had a herd of bulls stampeded over it.

"Keeping traitors hurt God." Farfarello said in the background.

:Can't imagine why you'd think that Farfie.:

The Irishman ignored Schuldich' taunt as always. Schuldich had always suspected that Berserker some wary respect for the swordsman. Right now, he could see that there was a certain understanding between them as much as there was an understanding between the latter and him. A different kind of understanding, a kind of skewed attachment for the quiet redhead though it seemed that it didn't go the other way. In all of the team, Fujimiya tended to keep to himself except for Nagi. He had been positive that if the man were going to leave Schwartz he would've taken Nagi with him or at least he wouldn't leave while the boy was in such a distraught state, apparently he'd been quite mistaken. Fujimiya was quite capable of being a selfish heartless bastard as any of them it seemed.

And I thought he was a bit different…

Schuldich was surprised of the level of betrayal that came with the thought. And knew that he wasn't the only one to feel so, the other two members were feeling more or less the same as he did.

We're assassins who betrayed their mother organization, damned it. We shouldn't have been surprised. But Fujimiya wasn't the kind… I could've sworn… Well he did so there. Tough luck, that's life. Live with it.

This was the first time they were having a group meeting on the subject of Fujimiya's defection though how much sense there was going to come out of this remains to be seen. Nagi had sunk back into his depression at the loss of his one stable foothold on sanity and Farfarello? Farfarello was the same as he ever was despite his stake in this, which was insane, totally off his rocker, nuts. Why would Crawford hold a meeting like this was beyond Schuldich' comprehension. He and Oracle could decide for the team at this moment.

"It won't be long that we will go and fetch him back. But he will be back. Therefore there will be no reprisals taken against Weiß until that time." Crawford stared pointedly at both Schuldich and Farfarello as he said this.

"Comprehende…" Schuldich said mockingly but wondered if he should have a little mental chat with Sensitive, Crawford was exhibiting extraordinary tension in his movements, his hair and clothing somewhat more tousled than usual.

"No contacting Sensitive or trying to talk him back to us, no hint of that we know where he is. No annoying Weiß either." Crawford gave Schuldich a glance full of significance. He also looked at both Farfarello and Nagi, making it clear that they have to agree to everything he had ordered so far.

"Hai." Schuldich said catching the order tossed at him.

"Aye." Farfarello said almost defiantly.

"Hai." Nagi said listlessly.

"Good. You may go now." Crawford said, dismissing them. Nagi went back to his room to brood. Farfarello went tamely with Schuldich to the latter's own room.

"Are we letting our black kitty mingle with the white kitties? We don't need a grey kitten." Farfarello said when they were in his room.

"Oracle knows what he's doing, Farfie. Besides they're all guys." Schuldich said patting Farfarello's head condescendingly before he closed the door firmly behind him. The latter forwent his usual growl when Schuldich did that action. It worried Schuldich. How much of the team had relied on the somber Fujimiya for the empath's silent consideration and how long could they hoped to hold out without it remained to be seen.

***

Ran sat morosely silent at their table nursing a drink, his nth one for the night. Crowds made his Gift extremely unruly and it sometimes got out of control. The press of so many emotions was too strong to compelling that it made it impossible to ignore though alcohol he discovered could keep the monster at bay, well at least while no one was touching him. It made him acutely sensitive to emotions in the short range and made it almost impossible to shield his own from anyone touching him. His new teammates had left him to dance and flirt with several girls except for Ken who had sat beside him for the duration of the night. He wondered how could he have let himself be dragged on this trip. Though it seemed to be too much an effort at that time to object…

***

"Youjiiiii!"

"Well Kenken, we're suppose to be teambuilding. What else do we have in common with him?"

"But Omi's under aged."

"So what, Ken-kun? I've been in bars before. Is it okay with you, Ran-kun?"

"Hn." Ran said as he put his plate in with the others in the sink where Tsukyono was washing them.

"It's settled then we all go to the Kitty's Purr tonight. Get your clubbing gear."

"Youji, what about Sakura?"

"Oh, Sakura understands that I'll be hanging with you guys and I'm not going to flirt with any girls."

This had Hidaka -- no, Ken -- throwing the blonde a disbelieving loook.

I must remember to think of them with their first names. I'm Weiß now.

"Well at least not seriously."

"I should hope not."

"Why is Kenken jealous of my boundless charm?"

"Definitely not."

"I'm so hurt." Youji drawled.

***

And so here Ran was in a place he didn't want. He had been entranced by the camaraderie in Weiß and hoped to have the same by joining it but here he was still on the outside looking in. Will he ever belong to anyone or anywhere?

You belonged with Schwartz fine enough… No, I didn't, I fit the role forced on me and didn't complain, that's all it was. Freaks of nature don't belong anywhere but then all of Schwartz are of the same ilk why didn't you just stay with them at least they understood… Understood? Certainly not Oracle, whose used you for his enigmatic reasons? Schuldich who let it happen without protest? Insane Farfarello who only cares about hurting God? Nagi who sunk so deep into his grief for Tot not even remembering that you care for him? They understood what? Nothing... Oh great, you couldn't fit in with your own kind and now you think you could fit in with these blindlings…

Ran's glass was drained dry. He ordered another.

***

Ken looked at Ran drinking like there was no tomorrow. Belatedly, he remembered that the crowd would not be beneficial for the latter's gift and regretted allowing himself to be talked into this outing by Youji.

"Are you alright, Ran?" Ken asked concerned. His new teammate was rather hard to read with the stony expression but to the man wore the disoriented red-faced look of someone who had drunk too much for their own good. Anytime now he would either break down, speaking of things he wouldn't really want to tell anyone about or picking an extremely nasty fight. Neither would be a good idea. He considered bodily hauling the guy out of the bar but it was better to ask first if the latter was willing to go out on his own power.

"Hn."

"Do you want to go home?"

"H--Hai."

"Omi, we're going home, you want to go with us?" Ken asked the kid who was passed their table while dancing with a rather hot chick in spangled magenta.

"No, Ken-kun, I'll come with Youji-kun in his car later." And that was that.

They got home via taxi.

"Ran will you make it up the stairs all right?"

"H--hai." Ran swayed a bit on his feet and Ken feared that he was going to fall down the stairs and break something vital. He didn't want to hurt the man's pride, gods knows, the latter had much of that. No it was the last thing he'd want to do especially since the redhead looked rather heavenly in the leather clothing he had been issued. It took a fair bit of control on Ken's part not to just stand around and drool over Abyssinian though he was probably transparent to the other man.

The man's a damned empath for goodness sake… Though he evidently doesn't seem to have any trouble with being looked over, but other than that you better keep your feelings to yourself Hidaka. He's straight as straight can be, he's little Ouka's boyfriend. But where's Ouka now? She hasn't shown herself here yet. They might have had a fight… He's still straight and I'm not going to try and freak a teammate and potential friend out just because of lust.

Ken's going to need a cold shower after this but first to help the redhead up to the latter's room before he passed out in the hallway.

"Come on Ran." Ken said lending his shoulder to the redhead. The empath refused it and tried to traverse the stairs under his own power.

Stubborn…

The thought came with a fondness made Ken want to scramble to hide under the nearest available furniture. Already he was warming up to the newcomer and this alarmed him. It was inconvenient especially since the man in question was an empath who could found out what he felt and could possibly be offended.

Ken led the redhead up the stairs. The latter tripped up on his own feet and Ken managed to catch him just in time. However it put them in an embarrassing situation. Faces inches apart, Ken looked into befuddled purple eyes and couldn't resist. He planted a playful kiss on those cherry lips.

Shit! Shit! Shit! I'm in trouble now…

Ran looked at him with extreme astonishment in his eyes.

Uh-oh, I'm in for it now. He's going to get his katana and start chasing me with it…

***

Ran was feeling so warm and completely buoyant that he decided to go along Hidaka's suggestions besides it got him out of the crowded club. He had managed to go with the ex-soccer player easily enough back to the warehouse that served as their home base. He was pretty certain he could maneuver the stairs even his condition and was irritated when Ken had decided to lead him up.

I'm not a baby I don't need to be helped up the stairs for goodness sake…Besides I don't want to expose you to my Gift…

Ran thought of wrenching himself free from the brunette's helpful grasp when it happened all of a sudden, his feet hit an unexpected obstacle and was falling. Strong arms caught him before he hit the floor, soft brown eyes met purple and soft lips were meeting his in an undemanding closemouthed kiss.

"No…" Ran said as soon as he was free to do so. He was now regretting the fact that he had drunk so much. He was as weak as a newborn kitten and didn't know if he could fight a determined Ken if he wanted to press the issue. Uncontrolled, his emotions were leaking out of his shields to affect Ken.

***

Ken didn't know what hit him. All he remembered was kissing Ran softly then suddenly he was feeling waves of helplessness, of violation.

No, no, no… The emotions seem to shout. Ken was lost for an unaccountable minutes then he knew that they weren't his.

"Ran, don't. I'm not going to force you into anything you don't want." Ken said, feeling uneasyat the very thought of it.

"Hn." Ran was still struggling though feebly, as alcohol sodden as he was he couldn't fight off Ken. Ken had to make sure that the latter didn't injure trying. It wasn't necessary.

"Believe me, Ran, I wouldn't do anything to you that you didn't want." Ken repeated the reassurance. Who could have engendered such fear into the redhead? He wondered in sick horror as he tried to loosen his grip on the empath so as not to restrain his movements too much. It was probably one of the things that were making the other man frantic.

***

"Believe me, Ran, I wouldn't do anything to you that you didn't want." Hidaka, no, Ken said to Ran and finally he did believe it. There was something in the brunette's voice and the feelings that were pouring from the latter that made Ran believe him. The other man's hold loosened to a comfortable degree that made Ran relax into it and soon he was in oblivious to the world.

~TBC~

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