part 294: "Yes, because their flight from us was all about rejecting *you*."
Previous installments are available in my Memories here. Please make sure the Memory page is set to sort by Description to get the entries in the closest-to-correct order. Or you can read it at its other home on Archive of Our Own.
"Glass Houses" part 294/?
By Viridian5
4/2003 - present
RATING: R. If m/m interaction bothers you, pass this by. AU.
SPOILERS: Kapitel and Glühen.
SUMMARY: After Aya's sister dies, Schwarz tries to save themselves and Aya from the mistakes of the Dramatic CDs and Glühen Schwarz tries to save him from himself--for their own reasons, of course--and neither they nor Weiß are ever the same again.
ARCHIVAL/DISTRIBUTION: No, not yet. This is a trial run of a piece of an unfinished fic.
DISCLAIMERS: All things Weiß Kreuz belong to Koyasu Takehito, Project Weiß, Polygram k.k., and Animate Film. No infringement intended.
NOTES: Thanks to rosaleendhu and red_squared for audiencing, typo-watch, and encouragement. Thanks to 'nat for "puisín," which she says probably sounds like "pu-sheen." Inspirational music includes Covenant's United States of Mind, mayatawi's V Mix the Second CD (Jane Jensen, Kidneythieves, Poe's rock version of "Hello," Kristen Barry's "Ordinary Life," Lacuna Coil), Linkin Park's Meteora, A Perfect Circle's Thirteenth Step, Pigface's Easy Listening..., Shriekback's "The Bastard Sons of Enoch," Zeromancer's Eurotrash, and Neuroticfish's Les Chansons Neurotiques.
I am not responsible for any therapy bills incurred as a result of trauma from doing research on things mentioned in this story. If you look up, say, "butter dog porn" on your own, I refuse to take the blame. I've been told that it's a bad idea to eat soup or drink while reading "Glass Houses."
========================
"Glass Houses" part 294
By Viridian5
========================
Aya didn’t have to “pretend” to suffer, not when it felt like Schuldig occasionally rubbed a dull knife against his skull *hard*, making it difficult for him to keep a stoic face. The complex tangle of emotions he struggled under didn’t help.
He felt very guilty for leaving while Farfarello had troubles and worried for Farfarello (and Schwarz having to deal with Farfarello without him) but also resentful that Farfarello kept trying to drag and push him into something he’d refused multiple times. He’d refused it just yesterday! It had been insulting today seeing Farfarello trying to twist Aya into doing what he wanted in such a ham-fisted and condescending way, as if he only had to phrase it right to fool Aya into going along.
It too often fell to him to keep Farfarello stable and stop him from murdering people, which shouldn’t be his responsibility. He shouldn’t have to be the one who most often surrendered and sacrificed. It turned sex into a duty, a chore, and with how much sex Farfarello demanded, uncaring whether Aya wanted it or not, that was a lot of chores. Once upon a time, Farfarello had cared whether he truly consented or not. Farfarello needed to be more proactive and work at his own stability instead of leaning on Aya for it. Aya resented being on such a tight leash, and he couldn’t keep up with Farfarello’s quickly and suddenly changing moods:
Farfarello could lust after anyone he wanted but Aya couldn’t. Aya could be jealous, because Farfarello loved that. Aya shouldn’t be jealous, because he could trust Farfarello. Wait, Aya wasn’t jealous enough. Farfarello only wanted Aya; no, Farfarello needed more people in his bed. Aya should have a threesome or orgy with Farfarello because Farfarello wanted it, but Aya wasn’t allowed to truly want anyone other than Farfarello during it. Perhaps Aya wouldn’t even be allowed to enjoy what other people did with him if Farfarello started feeling jealous. Whether or not that would end all the sex, who could know in advance?
Although there had always been elements of coercion and manipulation in their relationship, Farfarello had once seemed to care more and respect him more and made him feel important. They’d felt like a partnership, a team. These days... did familiarity truly breed contempt? Perhaps Farfarello thought he owned Aya now and thus no longer needed to work at things or worry about Aya’s reactions.
A major turning point might have been that moment in Jamaica when Farfarello had said he wanted to break up just to see Aya’s reaction because he was impatient with the rate of Aya’s recovery from what had happened during their psychic battle with Breaker. Farfarello had enjoyed Aya’s panicked, guilty, heartbroken reaction to it, how Aya had hurt so badly in response that Yoji felt it all the way in Japan. Aya had *apologized* to Farfarello afterward. In pain, grieving, damaged, vulnerable, Aya had forgiven Farfarello for it all even though Aya had known damned well there had been other, better, gentler ways Farfarello could’ve dealt with the situation. Although a few good things had come of it, like revealing the psychic damage that battle had given Aya, the lesson Farfarello might have taken from it was that Aya was *his*, no matter what he did.
Looking back now, with more distance, Aya felt angry at Farfarello for wounding him so deeply so unnecessarily, especially considering how *he* tried to be so careful with Farfarello’s mind and emotions, and tried to be so patient, something that didn’t come easily to him.
Coercion and manipulation....
Without privacy, unable to retreat alone to the endless loops of his guilty and grieving mind, distracted, his captivity making him fight for his life, Aya had survived his death wish *because* of the things Schwarz had done to and with him and because of Farfarello’s interest in him. He felt fairly sure that if he had never been taken from Weiß and stayed with them he wouldn’t be alive now. They wouldn’t have been able to lift him from the depths of his anguish, wouldn’t have known what to do with or for him, and it looked like they’d dropped into emotional holes of their own not long after his sister’s death.
But today.... Today.... He’d thought things had changed, that he’d become a full partner in Schwarz, but it currently didn’t feel like it.
Had he lost himself completely somewhere along the way? Who was he when he didn’t have Farfarello and Schwarz in his space, in his face, in his mind? The time Weiß had “rescued” him and cut him off from Schwarz’s influence didn’t count as being away from Schwarz to be himself because he’d been held captive in a *cage*, under surveillance and angry at Weiß over all of it.
Although some guilt remained over running away like this, Aya thought this might be the best thing for him... though, depending on the results, Schwarz might disagree. Thus, Aya kept shielding thoughts like that *hard*, in case Schuldig managed to hear something that sounded like Aya was shaking off the brainwashing and redoubled Schwarz’s efforts to stop him and Nagi from leaving.
He’d be with Nagi, but Nagi hadn’t been involved in Farfarello and Schwarz’s worst outrages against him, hadn’t imposed anything on him, and generally wished only the best for him. Since Nagi had such a light, non-invasive presence, Aya might reopen his mind a bit to telepathy once they ended up wherever they ended up. Nagi had even decided to take a vacation because his recent lover was also too overbearing and demanding and far too inclined to cut him off from other people, while Schwarz took him for granted. Nagi deserved better.
Familiarity bred contempt? Absence made the heart grow fonder. Let Farfarello and Schwarz live without Aya and Nagi for a while to see what they missed.
As Aya felt the plane start to climb into the air, he smiled at Nagi, who looked back at him with a smile and an excited light in his eyes. Too late now, bitches.
******************************************************
“Haneda!” the mindbreaker said suddenly then started looking around to get out of the lane he currently drove in. “We’re currently heading to the wrong airport.”
Of course. Farfarello’s fingers clenched on the side of the mindbreaker’s chair as he growled, “How far out of the way are we?”
“Not very!”
Liar. Unfortunately, bashing Schuldig’s head--their driver’s head--into something would only make it harder to get to the airport they should have been going to all along, so he abstained from causing a further delay. Although he wanted to throw a big fit at the mindbreaker and Crawford for how they’d allowed this getaway to happen by preventing him from going after his puisín and the boy earlier, it wouldn’t do him any good or make them catch up faster. Besides, if he’d gone after them in a rage himself *he* might have caused them to flee the country. He so wished he could lose himself in righteousness, utter irrationality, and pure anger, but he knew he bore some responsibility and couldn’t blame what had happened on everyone else alone, although they had big roles in it.
It’d been so long since Aya had tried to run away from him that he’d become complacent. He’d become complacent in many ways. Lazy.
He hadn’t even thought Aya could block off his telepathic access so well. Or truly want to.
Already he’d heard the voices and seen some of the colors brightening and changing, so he associated himself deeper into his body to decrease his telepathy and distractions. It quieted things a bit. If they didn’t get there in time to stop the kitten, which unfortunately looked likely, he’d have to get used to reining himself, by himself, in more.
At least Crawford suffered a bit too. Two of his birds flying the coop looked bad for him. That he hadn’t foreseen it only added to the irony. His discovery of his misperception about the boy had to gall as well. How could anyone who truly knew Nagi not know that the boy always had his eyes on the exit? Hilarious.
Not that it made up for the boy exiting with Farfarello’s Aya. If not for the kitten theft, Farfarello would be laughing his ass off.
“Their plane just lifted off,” the mindbreaker said suddenly, which made Crawford sigh.
No! His kitten couldn’t have left him, couldn’t have been *that* upset.... “Keep going!” Farfarello replied. He couldn’t feel Aya.
His chest ached. He didn’t know why. He hated being this deeply inside his own body when it kept throwing bad distractions at him; he already had enough pain to deal with. Purer pain.
“What’s the good of getting there now?”
“Proof. Evidence.”
“Farfie! It sounds like you don’t trust me.”
“Then it sounds correct. I need to see for myself; I need to be sure. I want to know where they’re going.”
“What? So you can follow them? That won’t make Aya any happier with you, especially if you try to force them to return. ”
Farfarello hadn’t thought that far ahead, having hoped he could intercept and reassure Aya before he left. Following them abroad would probably make him look obsessive and stalkerish instead of simply showing Aya his love and devotion. He didn’t know if he could keep calm when he tracked them down and had them in front of him, which would make him look bad and might make the boy throw him through a wall. Or pulverize him, depending on how pissed off the boy was.
What the hell could he do? He felt so fuckin’ powerless.
“I won’t follow. I just need to know.” Thinking about it more, Farfarello added, “Unless they intend to *stay* away, in which case we *need* to go after them. Right, Crawford?”
Crawford just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Good to see him suffering too.
“Okay, so we’re going into the airport?” the mindbreaker asked.
“Yes,” Crawford answered. “You and Farfarello get out first and go in to get the data we want. I’ll find parking for the car. I’ll come in after you once that’s taken care of.”
They got out at Delta, switching drivers. Although Farfarello wanted to run, needing to work off some frustrated energy, for all the good running would do to get Aya back at this point, he and the mindbreaker simply walked fast. Although Schuldig would play his mind games on all the people around, surveillance cameras would pick up two gaijin behaving very suspiciously and while Farfarello’s long coat hid his damaged clothing, the rest of him still looked violent.
The voices buzzing in his head seemed louder and sharper inside the terminal, so he pulled his self into his body even more. He couldn’t see staying like that though, so he’d have to practice other methods more when he had the time and fewer distractions. And felt less panicky.
Showing unusual consideration for others, the mindbreaker went to the counter with the shortest line, walked up to the front, and telepathically rearranged the employee’s priorities to get her to give them the information they wanted and the closest people in line so they wouldn’t protest the usurpation. Showing up behind them, Crawford asked, “So?”
“How did you get a parking spot so fast?” the mindbreaker asked.
Crawford grinned. “Don’t ask.” Apparently he’d managed to work off some of his own frustration.
“Two flights just left,” Schuldig said. “The most likely is Seattle. Seattle! But it’s winter there too!”
“Our tropical vacation didn’t work out well, so maybe the boy decided to go the opposite way,” Farfarello replied.
“This is a total repudiation of my vacationing expertise!”
“Yes, because their flight from us was all about rejecting *you*.”
“There’s no reason why Farfarello and I should be the only ones feeling rejected here,” Crawford said.
The mindbreaker looked outraged for a moment before he broke into giggles. “This has been such a ridiculous day.”
“You’re sure about Seattle?”
“I crosschecked with various minds along the route to that plane’s gate, and they show Aya and Nagi. Even with his hood up, Aya’s pretty distinctive looking. And just pretty. It overshadows Nagi a bit.” The mindbreaker smirked. “Nagi’s false IDs for them made them brothers. So cute.”
If only Farfarello could believe that would stop Nagi from putting the moves on his kitten. He could hope that Aya’s yen for monogamy would hold true enough that he wouldn’t reciprocate, but Aya might be angry enough with him to find the irony amusing.
His kitten was gone, and he’d truly have to fend for himself, with no one to lean on. His will alone would have to hold back the flood without him cutting himself, without needing a straitjacket. He’d won too much, progressed too far, to get knocked back down to where he’d been. Yesterday’s breakdown had already made Schuldig nostalgic for the days when they tied him up and locked him in a cell.
“*Are* we going after them?” Farfarello asked. He wouldn’t look like as much of an obsessed stalker if all of Schwarz together tracked Aya and the boy down, and he unwillingly missed the days when the whole team helped keep its newest member in line for how much easier it made things for him.
“Let’s move away from the counter,” Crawford answered.
“Sure.” Schuldig then waved to the employee and said, “Thank you!”
As they walked to the car, Crawford said, “If they just need a few days to cool down, it might be best to give it to them. Nagi just reminded us that it’s a bad idea to get him really upset. If they intend to stay away, my plans will change.”
“How will you know which they choose?” Farfarello asked.
“Nagi will send us an e-mail. I’m very curious to see what he says in it.”
“He might lie. After all, he must know you won’t let them escape permanently, while a lie might misdirect you long enough to give them a head start. Taking a plane to Seattle doesn’t guarantee them *staying* there.”
Crawford looked a bit rattled by that, not that people who didn’t know him would notice. Good. Fear Farfarello’s calm rationality! (And be thankful it didn’t show itself more often.)
“From what I could read, they do intend to come back to us,” the mindbreaker said.
Please. “I’ve already established that I don’t trust you.”
Such a pretty pout. “If I had a heart, it would be broken.”
“I have to ponder how to handle this situation,” Crawford said as he took out his cell phone. “In the meantime, I have to make Persia pay for driving them away like this.”
“A phone call can’t make him suffer enough,” Farfarello replied. Persia needed to feel Farfarello’s pain.
“It’s only the beginning.”
"Glass Houses" part 294/?
By Viridian5
4/2003 - present
RATING: R. If m/m interaction bothers you, pass this by. AU.
SPOILERS: Kapitel and Glühen.
SUMMARY: After Aya's sister dies, Schwarz tries to save themselves and Aya from the mistakes of the Dramatic CDs and Glühen Schwarz tries to save him from himself--for their own reasons, of course--and neither they nor Weiß are ever the same again.
ARCHIVAL/DISTRIBUTION: No, not yet. This is a trial run of a piece of an unfinished fic.
DISCLAIMERS: All things Weiß Kreuz belong to Koyasu Takehito, Project Weiß, Polygram k.k., and Animate Film. No infringement intended.
NOTES: Thanks to rosaleendhu and red_squared for audiencing, typo-watch, and encouragement. Thanks to 'nat for "puisín," which she says probably sounds like "pu-sheen." Inspirational music includes Covenant's United States of Mind, mayatawi's V Mix the Second CD (Jane Jensen, Kidneythieves, Poe's rock version of "Hello," Kristen Barry's "Ordinary Life," Lacuna Coil), Linkin Park's Meteora, A Perfect Circle's Thirteenth Step, Pigface's Easy Listening..., Shriekback's "The Bastard Sons of Enoch," Zeromancer's Eurotrash, and Neuroticfish's Les Chansons Neurotiques.
I am not responsible for any therapy bills incurred as a result of trauma from doing research on things mentioned in this story. If you look up, say, "butter dog porn" on your own, I refuse to take the blame. I've been told that it's a bad idea to eat soup or drink while reading "Glass Houses."
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"Glass Houses" part 294
By Viridian5
========================
Aya didn’t have to “pretend” to suffer, not when it felt like Schuldig occasionally rubbed a dull knife against his skull *hard*, making it difficult for him to keep a stoic face. The complex tangle of emotions he struggled under didn’t help.
He felt very guilty for leaving while Farfarello had troubles and worried for Farfarello (and Schwarz having to deal with Farfarello without him) but also resentful that Farfarello kept trying to drag and push him into something he’d refused multiple times. He’d refused it just yesterday! It had been insulting today seeing Farfarello trying to twist Aya into doing what he wanted in such a ham-fisted and condescending way, as if he only had to phrase it right to fool Aya into going along.
It too often fell to him to keep Farfarello stable and stop him from murdering people, which shouldn’t be his responsibility. He shouldn’t have to be the one who most often surrendered and sacrificed. It turned sex into a duty, a chore, and with how much sex Farfarello demanded, uncaring whether Aya wanted it or not, that was a lot of chores. Once upon a time, Farfarello had cared whether he truly consented or not. Farfarello needed to be more proactive and work at his own stability instead of leaning on Aya for it. Aya resented being on such a tight leash, and he couldn’t keep up with Farfarello’s quickly and suddenly changing moods:
Farfarello could lust after anyone he wanted but Aya couldn’t. Aya could be jealous, because Farfarello loved that. Aya shouldn’t be jealous, because he could trust Farfarello. Wait, Aya wasn’t jealous enough. Farfarello only wanted Aya; no, Farfarello needed more people in his bed. Aya should have a threesome or orgy with Farfarello because Farfarello wanted it, but Aya wasn’t allowed to truly want anyone other than Farfarello during it. Perhaps Aya wouldn’t even be allowed to enjoy what other people did with him if Farfarello started feeling jealous. Whether or not that would end all the sex, who could know in advance?
Although there had always been elements of coercion and manipulation in their relationship, Farfarello had once seemed to care more and respect him more and made him feel important. They’d felt like a partnership, a team. These days... did familiarity truly breed contempt? Perhaps Farfarello thought he owned Aya now and thus no longer needed to work at things or worry about Aya’s reactions.
A major turning point might have been that moment in Jamaica when Farfarello had said he wanted to break up just to see Aya’s reaction because he was impatient with the rate of Aya’s recovery from what had happened during their psychic battle with Breaker. Farfarello had enjoyed Aya’s panicked, guilty, heartbroken reaction to it, how Aya had hurt so badly in response that Yoji felt it all the way in Japan. Aya had *apologized* to Farfarello afterward. In pain, grieving, damaged, vulnerable, Aya had forgiven Farfarello for it all even though Aya had known damned well there had been other, better, gentler ways Farfarello could’ve dealt with the situation. Although a few good things had come of it, like revealing the psychic damage that battle had given Aya, the lesson Farfarello might have taken from it was that Aya was *his*, no matter what he did.
Looking back now, with more distance, Aya felt angry at Farfarello for wounding him so deeply so unnecessarily, especially considering how *he* tried to be so careful with Farfarello’s mind and emotions, and tried to be so patient, something that didn’t come easily to him.
Coercion and manipulation....
Without privacy, unable to retreat alone to the endless loops of his guilty and grieving mind, distracted, his captivity making him fight for his life, Aya had survived his death wish *because* of the things Schwarz had done to and with him and because of Farfarello’s interest in him. He felt fairly sure that if he had never been taken from Weiß and stayed with them he wouldn’t be alive now. They wouldn’t have been able to lift him from the depths of his anguish, wouldn’t have known what to do with or for him, and it looked like they’d dropped into emotional holes of their own not long after his sister’s death.
But today.... Today.... He’d thought things had changed, that he’d become a full partner in Schwarz, but it currently didn’t feel like it.
Had he lost himself completely somewhere along the way? Who was he when he didn’t have Farfarello and Schwarz in his space, in his face, in his mind? The time Weiß had “rescued” him and cut him off from Schwarz’s influence didn’t count as being away from Schwarz to be himself because he’d been held captive in a *cage*, under surveillance and angry at Weiß over all of it.
Although some guilt remained over running away like this, Aya thought this might be the best thing for him... though, depending on the results, Schwarz might disagree. Thus, Aya kept shielding thoughts like that *hard*, in case Schuldig managed to hear something that sounded like Aya was shaking off the brainwashing and redoubled Schwarz’s efforts to stop him and Nagi from leaving.
He’d be with Nagi, but Nagi hadn’t been involved in Farfarello and Schwarz’s worst outrages against him, hadn’t imposed anything on him, and generally wished only the best for him. Since Nagi had such a light, non-invasive presence, Aya might reopen his mind a bit to telepathy once they ended up wherever they ended up. Nagi had even decided to take a vacation because his recent lover was also too overbearing and demanding and far too inclined to cut him off from other people, while Schwarz took him for granted. Nagi deserved better.
Familiarity bred contempt? Absence made the heart grow fonder. Let Farfarello and Schwarz live without Aya and Nagi for a while to see what they missed.
As Aya felt the plane start to climb into the air, he smiled at Nagi, who looked back at him with a smile and an excited light in his eyes. Too late now, bitches.
******************************************************
“Haneda!” the mindbreaker said suddenly then started looking around to get out of the lane he currently drove in. “We’re currently heading to the wrong airport.”
Of course. Farfarello’s fingers clenched on the side of the mindbreaker’s chair as he growled, “How far out of the way are we?”
“Not very!”
Liar. Unfortunately, bashing Schuldig’s head--their driver’s head--into something would only make it harder to get to the airport they should have been going to all along, so he abstained from causing a further delay. Although he wanted to throw a big fit at the mindbreaker and Crawford for how they’d allowed this getaway to happen by preventing him from going after his puisín and the boy earlier, it wouldn’t do him any good or make them catch up faster. Besides, if he’d gone after them in a rage himself *he* might have caused them to flee the country. He so wished he could lose himself in righteousness, utter irrationality, and pure anger, but he knew he bore some responsibility and couldn’t blame what had happened on everyone else alone, although they had big roles in it.
It’d been so long since Aya had tried to run away from him that he’d become complacent. He’d become complacent in many ways. Lazy.
He hadn’t even thought Aya could block off his telepathic access so well. Or truly want to.
Already he’d heard the voices and seen some of the colors brightening and changing, so he associated himself deeper into his body to decrease his telepathy and distractions. It quieted things a bit. If they didn’t get there in time to stop the kitten, which unfortunately looked likely, he’d have to get used to reining himself, by himself, in more.
At least Crawford suffered a bit too. Two of his birds flying the coop looked bad for him. That he hadn’t foreseen it only added to the irony. His discovery of his misperception about the boy had to gall as well. How could anyone who truly knew Nagi not know that the boy always had his eyes on the exit? Hilarious.
Not that it made up for the boy exiting with Farfarello’s Aya. If not for the kitten theft, Farfarello would be laughing his ass off.
“Their plane just lifted off,” the mindbreaker said suddenly, which made Crawford sigh.
No! His kitten couldn’t have left him, couldn’t have been *that* upset.... “Keep going!” Farfarello replied. He couldn’t feel Aya.
His chest ached. He didn’t know why. He hated being this deeply inside his own body when it kept throwing bad distractions at him; he already had enough pain to deal with. Purer pain.
“What’s the good of getting there now?”
“Proof. Evidence.”
“Farfie! It sounds like you don’t trust me.”
“Then it sounds correct. I need to see for myself; I need to be sure. I want to know where they’re going.”
“What? So you can follow them? That won’t make Aya any happier with you, especially if you try to force them to return. ”
Farfarello hadn’t thought that far ahead, having hoped he could intercept and reassure Aya before he left. Following them abroad would probably make him look obsessive and stalkerish instead of simply showing Aya his love and devotion. He didn’t know if he could keep calm when he tracked them down and had them in front of him, which would make him look bad and might make the boy throw him through a wall. Or pulverize him, depending on how pissed off the boy was.
What the hell could he do? He felt so fuckin’ powerless.
“I won’t follow. I just need to know.” Thinking about it more, Farfarello added, “Unless they intend to *stay* away, in which case we *need* to go after them. Right, Crawford?”
Crawford just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Good to see him suffering too.
“Okay, so we’re going into the airport?” the mindbreaker asked.
“Yes,” Crawford answered. “You and Farfarello get out first and go in to get the data we want. I’ll find parking for the car. I’ll come in after you once that’s taken care of.”
They got out at Delta, switching drivers. Although Farfarello wanted to run, needing to work off some frustrated energy, for all the good running would do to get Aya back at this point, he and the mindbreaker simply walked fast. Although Schuldig would play his mind games on all the people around, surveillance cameras would pick up two gaijin behaving very suspiciously and while Farfarello’s long coat hid his damaged clothing, the rest of him still looked violent.
The voices buzzing in his head seemed louder and sharper inside the terminal, so he pulled his self into his body even more. He couldn’t see staying like that though, so he’d have to practice other methods more when he had the time and fewer distractions. And felt less panicky.
Showing unusual consideration for others, the mindbreaker went to the counter with the shortest line, walked up to the front, and telepathically rearranged the employee’s priorities to get her to give them the information they wanted and the closest people in line so they wouldn’t protest the usurpation. Showing up behind them, Crawford asked, “So?”
“How did you get a parking spot so fast?” the mindbreaker asked.
Crawford grinned. “Don’t ask.” Apparently he’d managed to work off some of his own frustration.
“Two flights just left,” Schuldig said. “The most likely is Seattle. Seattle! But it’s winter there too!”
“Our tropical vacation didn’t work out well, so maybe the boy decided to go the opposite way,” Farfarello replied.
“This is a total repudiation of my vacationing expertise!”
“Yes, because their flight from us was all about rejecting *you*.”
“There’s no reason why Farfarello and I should be the only ones feeling rejected here,” Crawford said.
The mindbreaker looked outraged for a moment before he broke into giggles. “This has been such a ridiculous day.”
“You’re sure about Seattle?”
“I crosschecked with various minds along the route to that plane’s gate, and they show Aya and Nagi. Even with his hood up, Aya’s pretty distinctive looking. And just pretty. It overshadows Nagi a bit.” The mindbreaker smirked. “Nagi’s false IDs for them made them brothers. So cute.”
If only Farfarello could believe that would stop Nagi from putting the moves on his kitten. He could hope that Aya’s yen for monogamy would hold true enough that he wouldn’t reciprocate, but Aya might be angry enough with him to find the irony amusing.
His kitten was gone, and he’d truly have to fend for himself, with no one to lean on. His will alone would have to hold back the flood without him cutting himself, without needing a straitjacket. He’d won too much, progressed too far, to get knocked back down to where he’d been. Yesterday’s breakdown had already made Schuldig nostalgic for the days when they tied him up and locked him in a cell.
“*Are* we going after them?” Farfarello asked. He wouldn’t look like as much of an obsessed stalker if all of Schwarz together tracked Aya and the boy down, and he unwillingly missed the days when the whole team helped keep its newest member in line for how much easier it made things for him.
“Let’s move away from the counter,” Crawford answered.
“Sure.” Schuldig then waved to the employee and said, “Thank you!”
As they walked to the car, Crawford said, “If they just need a few days to cool down, it might be best to give it to them. Nagi just reminded us that it’s a bad idea to get him really upset. If they intend to stay away, my plans will change.”
“How will you know which they choose?” Farfarello asked.
“Nagi will send us an e-mail. I’m very curious to see what he says in it.”
“He might lie. After all, he must know you won’t let them escape permanently, while a lie might misdirect you long enough to give them a head start. Taking a plane to Seattle doesn’t guarantee them *staying* there.”
Crawford looked a bit rattled by that, not that people who didn’t know him would notice. Good. Fear Farfarello’s calm rationality! (And be thankful it didn’t show itself more often.)
“From what I could read, they do intend to come back to us,” the mindbreaker said.
Please. “I’ve already established that I don’t trust you.”
Such a pretty pout. “If I had a heart, it would be broken.”
“I have to ponder how to handle this situation,” Crawford said as he took out his cell phone. “In the meantime, I have to make Persia pay for driving them away like this.”
“A phone call can’t make him suffer enough,” Farfarello replied. Persia needed to feel Farfarello’s pain.
“It’s only the beginning.”