Author’s Notes: A Crawford/Schuldig story written for smoothlikebutta. It’s set ten years after Kapitel.

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Schwarz. They belong to Koyasu Takehito and Project Weiss.

YEARS

He opened his eyes leaning further back on the wooden bench. The sun had left its highest peak and started to move toward the west giving the cloudless sky a darker shade of blue. Somewhere it was already painted in soft pastels of orange and in few hours it would be here too. Not that he cared much for sunsets or sunrises. They were for the romantic couples that had nothing better to do in the summer than watch it and fantasize about their future. For a short time it would look promising, it always was, until their current lover left by autumn and all they could do afterwards was crying their eyes out while watching that sunrise or sunset which never changed.

He sighed, admitting to himself that he wasn’t an example of making good use of his time either. After all he was lounging on a bench in Hyde Park on a working day. A stack of untouched paperwork was waiting to be finished. He had dropped it on his desk back in his apartment before coming here. It was Friday and the weather was too nice to spend the last working day in his stuffy apartment bowed over some reports. They only needed to be read and signed anyway. It was nicer to sit in the sun and have his thoughts all to himself for a change. Even if he didn’t have serious matters to think about.

He was not the Oracle, leader of Schwarz anymore. Had not been for ten years. After the disaster in Tokyo and several months later that consisted of a long investigation and interrogation, the Council concluded Schwarz had failed to see through Weiss’ plans to blow up the tower. Two Schwarz members, Prodigy and Berserker died in the explosion with everyone else who was inside the building. Mastermind and Oracle were the only survivors.

Schuldig had done a good job withholding the truth and concealing both their thoughts from other telepaths who tried to probe their minds for any information they may have concealed.

Nagi was very much alive and had been working for Kritiker since then, but what really had become of Farfarello he did not know.

After the investigation Esstet could not trust him anymore to lead an Alfa team, but they did not want to lose a gifted precognitive so they put him in the Administration Department of their branch in England. Schuldig was send back to Rosenkreuz for additional training and then placed on another team.

Since then he had not heard or seen anything from the German. Apart of him thought it was better that way. Schuldig would only remind him of the past, when they were working hard to elude their masters and secretly planning their downfall. He would remind him they had a goal, that Crawford had a companion whom he could trust and share the burden of leadership.

The sky was blue; blue as Schuldig’s eyes and without even realising Crawford said the name of his former team mate aloud.

-.-.-.-

A man with shoulder long hair bound into a low ponytail sat himself on the bench right behind another man who had short silvery hair. The redhead stretched his limb, then opened a small paper bag he had brought with him and took out a custard. He looked at it from every angle before taking the approving bite. While he was eating his eyes staid on the other who had his head thrown back looking intensely at the sky as if he was trying to find something among the blue.

A woman passed by with a small child holding her hand. The redhead grinned and wanted to wave with the custard at the boy who was looking at it while licking his lips, but stopped midway when he heard a deep voice say his name.

“Schuldig.”

Schuldig allows his mouth to turn into a small sad smile before it quickly disappears and his face is smooth and unreadable again. His former leader and friend was sitting there only a meter away thinking about him. They hadn’t see or spoken to each other in ten years. He wanted to tell him he had been around without Brad realising it. Just like now.

I can’t, he thought. He wasn’t allowed to come in contact with Brad Crawford ever again. That was the first thing Esstet had made clear before taking him on duty again. He could know where the man was, could even see him, but never speak or make himself known. If he did Esstet would kill the precognitive no matter how valuable he was. The organisation suspected that Schwarz had a hand in the fall of the Elders. Weiss, a team of just normal humans couldn’t have killed their powerful leaders.

He finished the custard, looked one last time at the man on the bench and then left the park.