The Black Cross

Farfarello walked in, silent behind Crawford. He waited in the hallway while Crawford looked for Nagi, then grinned a little when he realized Nagi wasn't in his room, or in Schu's. Good, he had a minute.

He brought the tiny kitten into the bathroom and washed him with a quick scrub of a damp cloth, immediately tossing the thing in the garbage. Crawford didn't generally like washing himself with filth, and he was too lazy to put the thing with the dirty clothes to get washed.

Besides, who knew what all had been clinging to the little thing.. The man that had been caring for him had been covered in all sorts of filth.

The kitten was cleaned quickly, then dried with a towel - something that was protested to with much mewling, resulting in the bathroom door being closed. He did, after all, want to surprise the kid..

Kitten cleaned, and checked over once again quickly; Yes, definitely male, a little piece of his ear missing, probably from a fight, no more than three months old, if that. He nodded to himself and picked the little guy up, cradling him in his arms and walking out of the bathroom and into Schuldig's room, kitten in his arms and looking around curiously. This should be entertaining..

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Not that he had actually been moving, but none the less, Yohji froze. He stopped breathing, wished that he had the mental capacity to make his blood stop moving. Wished he could literally disappear.

He realized with horror that he had somehow, ironically managed to grow complacent. Schuldig's terrorizing had hit a point of predictability. He was starting in some fucked up twisted way to acclimate to Mastermind and Prodigy. They desensitized him.

He forgot how much the other two still fucking terrified him.

Something about Berserker's demeanor seemed off. But his mind was too stuck on primal panic to process it.

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[Nagi returns from the kitchen]

Nagi walked from the kitchen slowly, three bowls of plain white rice balanced in his hands. He duly noted Crawfords arrival, and also that he seemed to be dealing with Schuldig. It was always better not to cross the man when Schuldig was involved. Did Crawfords return mean that Farf was there as well? He hoped so.
On the other hand, chances were good that his teammate had gone to Schu's room. A wry smile slid over his face, only to be controlled seconds after. It seemed like Kudou had the affect of honey to bees... On all of them.

Maybe he should just go to his own room for the time being. Stay in there and wait for Crawford or Farfello to come and find him, whoever came first. The thought sounded tired, even to himself.
He needed his laptop though. He had multiple surch-programs going, and if left in Schuldigs procsimity for too long, all those would turn up was the most freaky porn he'd ever had the displeasure of coming across and virusses. If he didn't know better, he'd have thought it was a secondairy talent of Schuldigs'.

He was not about to subject his poor laptop to that. Even if he was going to hole up in his room (hide away, a small voice wispered in the back of his mind. He artfully ignored it) he at the very least had to go get his laptop from Schuldigs room first. Could check up on Farfello and bring Kudou some food in the meanwhile.

Mind set, he silently slipped past the two men in the hallway and towards Schuldig's room.

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Farfarello cocked his head at Kudou, watching him. It was almost funny, actually; his face, pale from blood loss, seemed to pale a little further, and he looked like a deer caught in headlights.

Really now, he'd never had much to do with this particular kitten. He could understand Siberian freaking out on him, but this was unjustified.

Not that he minded per se.. He pushed that from his mind when he saw Nagi approaching, a smile lighting up his face.

"Nagi! I got ye somethin'.." He didn't quite turn toward Nagi fully, leaving the kitten as a bit of a surprise for when Nagi got closer. He was actually very excited to give Nagi the little kitten, something that showed in his single eye. He looked almost like a normal person, actually looked his age, even, as he waited for the telekinetic to come over so he could give him the 'gift'.

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(OOC: I said it before and I'll say it agein; Farf is so. Freaking. Cute. Actually, the whole Farf <> Nagi relationship is freaking cute <3)

"You... Got something? For me?" Nagi eyed Farfello with no little suspicion. It was probably meant well - probably - but with Farfello you never knew. The man's definition of 'well' was a little different from the usual.

Edited Date: 2008-11-06 05:28 pm (UTC)

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Farf blinked at the suspicion, then just nodded and smiled. He pulled the tiny kitten from his vest then, holding him carefully in his hands; the little guy was just small enough still that he could hold him like that.

"Found 'im today.. Got Crawford to agree to keep 'im. He's for you. Ye're too damned introverted too often, so I figured havin' a pet would be a good idea. I'm not here twenty-four/seven to make sure ye come out of yer shell." He shrugged, walking right up to Nagi to let him see the kitten.

"We'll need to pick up the usual cat stuff, but Crawford didn't seem very..inclined to stoppin' on the way here."

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Nagi took the kitten over from Farfello in reflex, before staring at it in a mix of wonder and confusion, holding it cupped in two hands. He looked from Farfello to the kitten and back a few times and than blinked.
"He's... For me? And Crawford agreed to this?" It was the first thought in his mind, and it just flipped out. 'Crawford agreed to keep a kitten. The world as I know it must be coming to an end.' And quickly following that was 'They gave me a kitten? Me?' He managed to keep the last thought to himself though.
He was silent for a moment, staring at the kitten some more.
"I'll need to look up propper feeding sceduals. And what the best food is for a cat his age. Or is it her age? I also need to look up how to groom it and what the best way to care for it is. Do you know its exact age? Has he been vaccinated? Checked for deseases? Maybe I can look up a good veterinary... Do you have any idea how you can find out if someone is a good veterinary? I could hack into their files of course..."

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Yohji had been cautiously watching from the bed, hoping to remain safely unobtrusive and uninteresting to Berserker. He was spent from Schuldig’s harassment, and he was fairly certain that any additional provoking from the rest of the team would drain what little energy reserves he had left and effectively kill him.

While admittedly death occasionally flirted with his desires, it wasn’t what he wanted. Not here and now, for certain. Way too many fucking loose ends if nothing else. He absolutely had to see Ran again. No questions.

It took a minute for Berserker’s words to come together with the visual.

Yohji gaped.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

He hadn’t meant to say that aloud.

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"Aye, he's for you. An' Crawford agreed. Some cats ye put on schedules for feedin', ye can ask the vet about that though. It's a he, an' he's prob'ly around 3 months old."

Farfarello was grinning, amused at Nagi's logical, pointed questions about the kitten. No real excitement showing, though he could see Nagi liked the cat well enough.

"He hasn't got shots or anythin', he'll need a check-up. We can go look for a vet tomorrow if ye like. I doubt Crawford will mind; I'm sure he doesn't want a flea- or disease-ridden cat in the house anywhere near 'im. An' we'll have to give him a proper bath, too, I just kinda half-assed washed 'im off."

His gaze flickered over to Yohji for a moment and he smirked. "We like kittens here, haven't ye noticed?" That was about the extent he cared to provoke the kitten though, which was made clear by the fact that he simply turned his attention back toward Nagi and the little kitten he was holding, scratching behind his ear that was missing part of the tip.

He glanced at Nagi after a minute, "Ye like 'im?"

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"... We'll have to make sure to buy the right equipment for taking care of it. Him. I need to check some things online. I am sure there must be a website on this. I might have to order books though, books are more reliable. And- Oh."
Nagi only stopped his rambling at Farfello's last question and thought for a moment, head a little to the side as he looked at the kitten, still held in two hands a little ways away from his body.
"Yes. Yes, I think I do..." His voice betrayed some wonder at that assessment. "He's so... Small."
The kitten chose that moment to look up at the two humans and mewl softly, questioningly.
"Oh." And than. "I think it wants something Farf. What do you think it wants? Does it need food? Sleep? What do I do now?" The panic in Nagi's voice was so subtle that it wouldn't have been heard by anyone who didn't know the boy very well. To Farf, it was pretty damn obvious though.

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“…Apparently,” Yohji mumbled, and then shut his mouth tight, glad not to have drawn too much focus with his exclamation.

He must have vicariously gotten high off of Schuldig’s smoke.

Yeah, that was probably it.

They were probably just waiting for the March Hare to show up so they could all have a tea party. Mm, yeah, a sadomasochistic tea party. Or some other incomprehensibly fucked up shit.

He could not get out of here fast enough.

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Farfarello picked up the kitten, moving Nagi's hands and letting him hold the little guy again, against his chest now.

"If ye hold 'im like that, it's easier to move around without 'im losin' his balance. He's prob'ly hungry or thirsty.. I'll get somethin' for him from the fridge, but we'll need to pick up some cat food for him. We can go do that in a bit if ye like." He reached out and ruffled Nagi's hair with an affectionate little grin, "I'm glad ye like 'im."

He then hurried out of the bedroom to go get something for the little kitten to eat and to drink, just hoping they had something that he could eat.

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Nagi didn't move from the position Farf had put him in, kitten held very carefully to his chest, like the boy was afraid it'd break if he held it too hard or too roughly.

He... Had a cat. He was going to take care of a cat. And Crawford actually allowed it. Farfello had given him a cat. A very small, very furry, very, very small cat.
Nagi's mind had trouble comprehending the very idea. It had never even occurred to him... A cat. In their house. For him. Why had they taken him a cat in the first place? Ok, so he could kind of get why Farf did it. Farf always did crazy-sweet things like that. But Crawford? That was just plain unbelievable.
He wondered what Schuldig would say. Oh god. he'd have to keep him away from Schuldig! He couldn't allow the cat to be corrupted. he didn't have a clue how one would go about corrupting a cat, but Schuldig would find a way. He always did.
He wanted to hug the small animal closer, protect it, but he didn't quite dare hold it any tighter.

The kitten mewled once more and made himself comfortable against Nagi's chest.

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oracle-dreams.livejournal.com

Crawford nearly stopped as Nagi passed them in the hallway, bearing three, not two, bowls of rice. It was worse than he feared. Nagi was beyond due diligence in caring for a captive. It was compassion and concern... he cared what happened to Balinese and for the life of him, Crawford couldn't figure why.

He let the boy slip past silently despite the urgency with which he wanted the disk analyzed. Perhaps Farfarello's little distraction would put these newly surfacing feeling of Nagi's into more apropriate perspective. The disk could wait for now. The solidity of the team was more important an issue than the schemings of Johnson.

Crawford continued to his room, glancing in Schuldig's direction, catching site of bruise. How could he not? The deep color contrasted so starkly against his shock of red hair, the bright blue of his eyes glowing from beneath the angry black and purple halo.

"I never intended to send you that vision." Brad slipped into his room, depositing the briefcase out of the way against the wall. More importantly, he didn't reach to shut the door behind himself as he crossed the room to his closet and began shedding his jacket and shoes.

[continueed in Brad's room - Wednesday 1.41]

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Farfarello managed to find some leftover stirfry, taking out the meat bits and putting them on a plate, then grabbing a bowl and filling it with water for the kitten.

With a satisfied little smile he walked back into the bedroom, ignoring the precog and the telepath, simply walking to the bedroom and placing the little plate and bowl on the floor. "Put 'im down in front of the dishes, 'e's prob'ly hungry now. An' make sure the little guy doesn't get under the bed or anythin'. He might be a bit skittish an' try to get away when ye put 'im down, but he needs to eat. If he wants to hide later, he can hide under yer bed or somethin'. Not here, an' not now."

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Nagi carefully set the kitten down by the bowl, sinking to one knee to do so.
He watched the kitten sniff the air and than make his way to the edge of the plate, sniff again and finally abandon all precaution and just jump onto the plate and in the middle of the meat. The little thing sniffed once more before throwing himself at the meat with full abandonment.
It was only when the kitten was already halfway thought the food when Nagi remembered their own lunch. The bowls were floating randomly in the room, his talent having taken over the moment he dropped them in favour of the kitten.

He floated one of the bowls over to Farf, giving the man the slightest of smiles. "Here, Schu can make his own food. It's not like he would want the rice anyway..."
He floated over his own bowl and started eating, the third one still suspended in midair for the time being.

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Farfarello watched the kitten with an amused, almost affetionate grin on his lips. He looked up when Nagi floated the bowl over to him and nodded slightly.

"Thanks, Nags. Don't know if 'e'll be eatin' right away if he an' Crawford are 'talking'. Hopefully this time without fists involved." Of course, that usually depended on Schuldig's mouth's involvement. And, with Schuldig as high as a kite, it could go either way.

He shook his head and changed the subject, "So how goes the researching? Find anythin' interesting yet?" He ate the rice sporadically, watching the kitten and occasionally reaching out to pet the little guy. He'd make them an appointment at a vet nearby tomorrow for a check-up for the little guy.. And he'd ask anyone else there what the vet was like.

Just like with his team mates, he was going to be damned sure that the kitten had the best of care. The kitten was in their little family now, after all, dysfunctional though it may be.

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"I found information on Sato, the new Weiss contact," Nagi said, before throwing Yohji, still on the bed, an insecure look. He probably wasn't supposed to say anything with the man there. On the other hand, Schu wasn't here so he could hardly talk to Farf in any way but out loud.

He looked back at the kitten than, the little thing was almost done eating. It was all dirty from the meat but he looked like he'd enjoyed it. Farf was right, it did need a thourough bath. But he had tasks. He wasn't done with his research. One Crawford was done talking to Schu, he might have something else to do for him. Farfello was with the man, he'd probably know if the man did... But he needed to take care of the kitten too. It needed facilities. How was he going to do this?

Edited Date: 2008-11-13 10:47 am (UTC)

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Farfarello turned his attention to Nagi entirely as his question was answered. He smirked a little, able to see the slight conflict in Nagi's eyes, even if very few people aside from Schwarz would recognize it.

He chuckled quietly and cocked his head to the side, "Don't worry so much, Nagi. I'll go pick up a litter box an' whatever else, an' we can get 'im checked out tomorrow. Alright? Ye look like I've just thrown ye to the wolves. I'll help ye look after 'im, don't worry."

And then, just to put a bit of 'playful' pressure on the telekinetic, "Ye need to name 'im though."

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Yohji’s tense state of alert slowly ticked down to a calmer status as his alarm was replaced by utter disbelief at watching his sworn enemies have some sort of euphoric fit over what he was certain must be the mangiest cat he’d ever laid eyes on. Assuming it was a cat. He wouldn’t have bet money on it.

He couldn’t help suspecting that they were somehow playing a trick on him. This seriously couldn’t be an authentic glimpse of Schwarz’s internal workings. Just…no way. They were fucking with him again. Who knew Berserker had a sense of humor….

Nagi’s drop of Sato’s name grounded him again. Things were still just as serious as they were before the furry distraction made its appearance. He still needed to do something.

He steeled his nerves and decided it was worth the risk to chance speaking. Hopefully Berserker would hesitate at the thought of having to wash blood off his new…friend.

Heh, yeah right.

“Hey, here’s an idea,” his voice came out a little strangled from nerves. “Since you have to go out anyway to take care of your adorable new friend there,” he laced the suggestion with his best attempt at a smile, however insincere it might be…. “You might as well just take me back. Then you’ll have time to give that cute little guy all the attention he deserves.” He laid the false friendliness on thick. “Then everyone’s happy, whatcha say?”

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Farfarello had been smiling at Nagi, the smile on his face fading slightly as he looked over at the blond assassin tied up on Schuldig's bed. He looked at him for a long moment, looking him up and down pointedly before lifting an eyebrow.

"Because ye're really in a position to bargain. We could do that.. Or we could leave ye here while we take care of the kitten." He reached out and picked up the kitten, cradling him close and smirking.

"Besides, we're the 'evil bad-guys', why would we let ye go so easily? We haven't tortured ye, not divulged our evil plans to ye, and left ye in an easily escape-able, possibly-deadly scenario." Why, yes, he had watched too many ridiculous American action movies. It was meant as a pointed shot at the kittens and their black-and-white view of things.

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Farfarello’s words dug into him with malicious accuracy. He was already quite aware of just how ridiculously helpless he was in the face of almost shamefully lax security. And he was probably only about a quarter of a pint away from irreparable blood loss. He had no room to…well do pretty much anything, really.

“I wasn’t bargaining, just making a friendly suggestion,” Yohji replied, subdued. He was about to tack on ‘And Schuldig already pulled all the information I could possibly offer, so you have nothing to gain by keeping me,’ but stopped himself in time, realizing what a stupid invitation that would be for them to kill him.

He didn’t actually expect to get out of this alive, after all. He’d just let the kitten’s appearance lend him a false sense of hope. He didn’t know what else to try.

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Farfarello rolled his eye, his expression amused, "Ye give up way to easily kitten. It's a surprise ye've even survived this long." He was still holding the kitten when he walked over to Yohji, leaning close to take a look at the wound.

"Siberian got ye good, didn't he? Looks nasty, an' it could use another cleanin'." He stood up again after taking a good look at the wounds and lifted an eyebrow slightly, "Be good an' maybe We'll clean it. We have no real interest in killin' ye.. But the same could be said about keepin' ye alive." He shrugged nonchalantly and smirked, going back to his food, essentially losing interest in Balinese.

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Yohji scowled to hear Berserker so flippantly drop Ken's name. He was the source of Ken's nightmares, the apparent catalyst to his teammate's rapid downward spiral. If he thought about it, Yohji rationalized that his current injuries could just as easily be blamed on Berserker as Ken himself.

And apparently the mind games where ongoing. The pale man's reassurance that they lacked a fatal agenda regarding Yohji failed to inspire the reassurance that it might have offered. The psychopath had, after all, been the first of them to start maliciously aggravating his open wounds after his acquisition. Yohji didn't believe for a second that the man could possibly be bothered to follow through on his perplexing commentary to sustain his health. He didn't believe that they were really indifferent towards killing him. They'd been enemies far too long, who wouldn't want to permanently incapacitate someone who so consistently interfered with your plans? None of this made any sense whatsoever. Schwarz continued to baffle him.

He also didn't believe, much as he desperately wanted to, Crawford's vague statement that he'd left all of Yohji's associates breathing.

Yohji opted to ignore Berserker's comments, and try another angle. So far Schwarz had proved surprisingly talkative wardens. Perhaps if he were lucky they would continue to oblige.

"What happened to Abyssinian?" It took every ounce of what control he had left to keep his voice flat and separate from the turbulent emotions plaguing him.

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Farfarello lifted an eyebrow, amused that Yohji chose entirely to ignore what he was saying and change the subject

He sat down on the edge of the bed, looking amused, "The blood-kitten is fine. Pissed off ye're missin', but fine. Seems to think there was actually a reason for Schu to want to take ye." He snorted at the thought; Weiss didn't have a clue just how flighty their telepath could be, so they had no idea how little Schu cared whether there was a plan behind something sometimes. He'd wanted to play, so he took Yohji.

Not that that didn't mean they wouldn't take advantage of the situation.. He coudln't help but wonder for a moment just how much Crawford had seen of this.. He hadn't stopped it and had seemed not just angry, but a little surprised by them showing up with the kitten. It was worrying, but he didn't doubt Crawford in the slightest. He couldn't see everything, after all.

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The increased proximity made Yohji cringe inwardly. With his anomalous pallor, disturbing plethora of scars and other evidence of sustained injuries, Berserker never failed to remind Yohji of some sort of reanimated corpse. The man exuded a creepy aura of unnaturalness that would have put him off even without the actual evidence of the merciless personality Yohji had already witnessed.

In spite of that though, his hope was slowly starting to dig in and try to sway him into believing his captors. He didn’t see any reason for Berserker to be lying.

Unless they really do intend to let you go, and want to further torture you by getting your hopes up so that you’ll only fall all the harder when you find him dead….

He quickly shut off that thought.

“Mastermind implied he’d been shot,” he persisted coldly.

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Farfarello didn't seem to notice - or didn't care about - Yohji's distaste for how close he was; in fact, it was a combination of the two. He had gotten to the point where he didn't notice peoples' discomfort to his appearance or presence, and the odd time he did notice it, he didn't give a damn. This was what he looked like, if they had a problem they could look away.

He chuckled quietly at Yohji's words and waved a hand in dismissal, "He was standin' just fine when I saw him a while ago. He was shot, in the leg. He was movin' alright despite it though, prob'ly more than he should've been."

He didn't see any reason why he shouldn't tell Yohji the truth about that, especially if it made Yohji more willing to co-operate. He truly had no reason to lie to him about it.

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Yohji shut his eyes and surrendered to relief.

“Okay,” he said simply.

He wasn’t sure if he meant, ‘okay, I can accept that explanation,’ or ‘I’m okay now that I know that,’ or…something else entirely.

All he knew was that he had to let himself belief this now. Without the conviction that Ran was still alive, Yohji doubted he’d have the energy to pull through this ordeal.

Though the implications of just what that meant were heavier than he could dwell on just yet.

Regardless, he needed to go against his instincts and take Berserker’s words at face value. He’d just have to hold on to that and try not to care about anything else for the time being.

“Okay,” he mumbled again, this time more privately to himself.

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Nagi had let the argument between Farf and Kudou slide by, registering the words absentmindedly, listening but not paying attention.

Mentally, he tried to categorize all the things that needed doing. He'd left the search for information on their contact running on the computers in his room, and the search-programs, designed and programmed by him, exactly for this purpose of finding the information that people didn't want found. He'd have to check on that and than make sure to analyze it carefully before he continued his search. There was no doubt in his mind that he'd need to do his job well if he didn't want Crawford to take the kitten away. That came first than. Caring for the kitten while he was busy would give Farf something to occupy himself with other than Kudou.
Than, he would analyze the information that he could find on the Weiss contact and seek out Crawford for further information and assignments. After that, he could focus on the cat.
Farf was right, the animal needed a name. It also needed things for its care and he needed to find a vet and get them an appointment for tomorrow. He´d need to check online if he could find any manual for kitten-care.

He wanted to walk away, but instead, he stared at the kitten for a while longer, while the argument between Farf and Kudou went on. It looked so *cute*, the way it ate without reservations or care for messing himself up. He mentally added bathing the thing to his list of things to do.
Silently, he resolved not to let anything happen to it.

Which meant that he'd have to go and do his job.

Right.

"Take care of him while I work, ok Farf?" he asked quietly, "I have some things I still need to attend to. I'll think of a good name for him later..."

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