Prologue
“…..Stop!! No!!”
“You’re misbehaving. A bad kid needs to be punished….”
“…..But I’m not a bad boy!! I’m a good kid!!!! Don’t do this!!!!!”
“Bad kid……”
“Bad kid……”
“Bad kid…..”
“I’M NOT!!!!!!!!!”
Come with me.
……why?
Because my visions say that you will be a good addition to our team.
…..I’m not worthy to anyone….
You are. To me.
Chapter I
“…..No!!!” dark eyes fluttered open as the boy sat up from the bed, drenched in sweat and panting, gasping for air as he suddenly forgot how to breathe. How many times had he had the same dream? And how long has it been since he was ‘rescued’?
Sighing, Nagi pushed off the blankets, and shivered as he stepped onto the cold wooden floor. He glanced at the digital clock sat on his small night stand. Six a.m., way early for him, the owl of Schwartz. He turned on the bathroom light, and splashed cold water to his face, as he leaned on the sink, not bothered to wipe away the dripping water droplets.
This is ridiculous, he told himself over and over, I shouldn’t be dwelling in the past…. Those were the past. I am free now. I’m…. wanted.
Aren’t I?
Once again, that question was left unanswered. Shooking his head in dismay, Nagi decided to go downstairs, ditching his inviting bed and exhaust himself so that the next time he had a date with the bed, it couldn’t be interrupted.
“Yo,” the orange head grinned at the boy from the sofa, “You’re up early. Wanna cook?”
Nagi frowned, “I thought you’re suppose to cook today, Schuldich. It’s not my shift.”
Schuldich shrugged, not moving an inch from the TV, “Hey, you’re up, I didn’t cook, what the heck.”
Rolling his eyes, Nagi glared at Schuldich before heading to the kitchen. “I am SO telling Crawford to make you cook for a month, Schuldich,” he grunted, turning on the coffee maker as he gathered necessary ingredients for their breakfast.
Schuldich grinned as usual, flipping so he was leaning on the sofa and looking over to the kitchen, whining in the cutest way (or so he believed) to the Japanese boy, “So~~~~ Nagi-chan~~~ What are we having today~~~~?”
“Rice and fish for me, pancakes and coffee for Crawford, muffins and milk for Farfarello, and nothing for Schuldich,” Nagi replied.
“Mou~~~~~~~ I want bagels and creme cheese sandwitch and fresh-squeezed orange juice~~~~~!”
An orange suddenly flew up from the table, hitting Schuldich right on the head and flew back to the basket where it belonged. “There.”
Schuldich pouted, “Meanie. Fine, I’ll go look for my breakfast elsewhere. The kitten will cook me something good. UNLIKE some nasty mean little PRODIGY who only hit me on the head with the orange……”
“Go to hell, Schuldich.”
Schuldich made a face to the boy, and grabbed his jacket and left, determined to wake his kitten in the flower shop so he’ll have some decent food to eat.
When the house became quiet again, Nagi sighed. True, he was being mean to Schuldich not because the German was too lazy to cook, but everytime when he had the dreams…. He just couldn’t help himself. He snapped at anyone that showed their presence around him, and especially Schuldich who loved to tease him. All in good nature, he knew, but…..
Schuldich understand. In fact, even Farfarello did. They tolerated his attitudes whenever he felt like having them, mostly because he rarely does and when he did, they knew the reason. Surely the Mastermind had shared the thoughts he read from Nagi’s head, or perhaps the Oracle had told the other two about it, and Nagi didn’t mind after living with these psychos for so long. He had gotten used to it now.
It’s just…. The dreams were happening too often these days. He normally would have them every now and then, but not as often as recently, and that irritated him. Crawford hadn’t said anything, and that little fact soothed Nagi yet unnerved him. Has the Oracle seen any visions? Or he simply didn’t care? No, he would care… Why else did Crawford take him away all those years ago?
Yes, he did care….. Doesn’t he?
*****
“I worried about the little one, ya know,” the German muffled, stuffing his face with bagels and juice and whatnots all at the same time, eating as if he starved for a month.
“How come?” Aya asked, pouring a cup of black coffee for himself as he took a seat across from his lover.
Schuldich shook his head, “Seems like his nightmares are haunting him more often than usual. And Crawford… Man, the guy was restless and frustrated and he didn’t tell us why.”
“….Maybe he saw a vision?”
Schuldich shook his head, “No, he hasn’t. In fact, I believe he couldn’t. He’s been having hard times seeing visions about Prodigy and himself lately, I think.”
The red head shook his head, but said nothing. Even though Weiss and Schwartz had both disbanded and were no longer enemies, they still had awkward feelings toward each other, save Abyssinian and Mastermind. Schuldich had often talk about his surrogated family in front of his lover, and that made Aya quite attached to the Schwartz than others. He had noticed something going on between Nagi and Crawford, yet he had never mentioned it to Schuldich, and if he hasn’t guessed wrong…..
Placing a hand over Schuldich’s, Aya smiled softly, a rare thing that only occurs in front of the German, “Don’t worry. Let nature takes its course.”
“Hopefully….”
****
Tossing another folder into the large pile on his desk, Crawford smashed his cigarette into the filled-tray, and sighed heavily. The room was clouded thanks to his chain-smoking, and even when Farfarello came in couple hours ago, the Irish coughed and quickly closed the door, not even bother to tell their leader what he was there for. Now that the Schwartz had disbanded, he became the sole income source of the team, while the others, either too lazy, too young, or too insane to work, became the dependants. With his precognition, Bradley Crawford soon became a well-known name in the stock market throughout the international economy world, and the money he made could last both Schwartz and Weiss for three generations or even more.
But lately, the Oracle had been troubled. Very troubled. His powers seemed to have purposedly vanished on him, and he couldn’t see any foresights regarding his family.
Family…. Such word was forbidden until the fall of Estet, which wasn’t that long ago. He had never had any family, and now he had one that’s filled with psychos and maniacs. But he enjoyed it, even if Farfarello often forgets his medicine and will go off hurting God and he had to clean up the mess, and Schuldich couldn’t keep his horny hands off that Weiss kitten for even one minute and often forgot to do his chores and Nagi…….
Nagi……..
The little boy he found in the slum all those years ago. Heavily beaten, malnutritioned, and covered in grime, semen, dried blood and tear stains…. He was just a low-classed officer in Estet back then, and he couldn’t tore his eyes away from that pair of brown, empty orbs that looked up at him. Ignoring the protests and sneers of his peers, Crawford insisted on taking Nagi from the slum they had just destroyed for Estet, and brought the boy under his wings. Almost ten years had passed, and Nagi had turned from an empty human shell into a lively boy that occupied his heart all the time……
Crawford shook his head. He mustn’t think such way of Nagi, he scolded himself. Even if they are– were– devils, he shouldn’t betray Nagi’s trust to him. The lustful thoughts and wet dreams that he had with the boy was just some temporarily misplaced affections. No, make that obsession. He will soon get over it, perhaps a good fuck would get the boy off his mind. Like Schuldich always said, he worked too hard. Maybe the heavy workload was giving him dilusions of wanting to touch the tender flesh of Nagi’s….. To kiss that pale and beautiful body….. to have the boy writhing and begging, his face blushed in rosy red, calling his name……
No. No, he -HAS- to stop thinking down that path now. God, was he such a pedophile!?
Grunting, Crawford got up from the chair hastily, and almost ran to his own personal bathroom, turning on cold water without taking off his clothes.
*****
“Damn it,” Nagi cursed, finding they had no more pancake mix as they usually do. “Fucking Schuldich, always forgot to shop whenever he was assigned. Fucking shit….. Do I have to do all the things around the house?! I swear…..”
Really, this was way out of Nagi’s character to have him rant and cursed from Heaven to Hell and back up, but he couldn’t find a way to express and let go of his anger. He tried hacking into major company’s database and played mind games with their technicians (mainly put a virus that made the database looked like in completely rack, only to be timed and restored completely) or got into a fight with Farfarello that resulted in destroying their practice room completely (much to Crawford’s dismay and Schuldich’s amusement.) But those didn’t help much. He still feel like shit, and he still wanted to destroy something.
After a long rambling of how he should kill Schuldich while changing and another long self-conversation on the most creative way of skinning that cursed German, Nagi left a note on the table for Crawford, saying that he had to go out and buy some missing ingredients from the nearest 7-11 store and will be back soon.
But that was the last time anyone had seen Nagi Naoe.
—-To Be Continued…….