Part One

Schuldig squeezed an eye open hearing his alarm clock go off at the unusual time of 6:00 am. He was not a morning person and would have slept until evening, but today was a different day. Crawford and he were called by Takatori to oversee the preparation of his election party. It was yet another chance for that fatso to show off his new foreign bodyguards to his clients.

The sleepy man scrubbed his eyes and looked around his room. He needed to get rid of these pristine white walls. The colour reminded him too much of the place he had been trained. Involuntarily he shivered and quickly padded out of the room.

The house was quiet at this time. Both of their youngest members were still in deep slumber. Schuldig reached out with his gift for Farfarello to find him sleeping without the straightjacket and Nagi was dreaming about a kid called Omi from school.

He pushed their presence away and lifted his hands up to stretch the stiffness out his muscles before heading to the kitchen in search for food.

A fully dressed Crawford sat already at the table reading The Times and eating a piece of toast. Schuldig looked away before the other man would notice him looking and passed the American, eyes fixed on the refrigerator. Why should he bother to look or greet a person when the only answer would be a mere grunt or ‘hmm’ or just silence.

They ate in complete silence, Schuldig played with the scrambled eggs on his plate occasionally making a screeching sound with his fork. For some reason he had lost his appetite. Rustling of paper and a chair screeching on the tiled floor alerted him Crawford was finished.

“Weiss will be there, make sure that they notice us.” He said putting his dish into the dish drawer, then took a clean cup that hung on a hock by the coffee machine, purred the freshly brewed black liquid into it and sat the cup next to Schuldig’s dish before leaving the kitchen.

One fiery red eyebrow shot up in surprise. Crawford had never shared his coffee with him. Once he had poured himself a cup without asking and as punishment the American let him baby-sit Takatori’s brat daughter for a whole day, driving her to every clothing shop in town and listened to her constant chatter.

A few minutes later Schuldig heard the TV was turned on followed by a voice talking in British English about some natural disaster in the Middle East.

Schuldig sighed trying to rub the wariness out of his eyes and drank the coffee. Three spoons of sugar and milk, it tasted perfect. Crawford may be an egocentric bastard who loved to order him around, but he knew how to make excellent coffee.

He left his dish and cup on the table for Nagi. It was the kid’s turn to clean the kitchen.

He didn’t like the car drives with Crawford. They were silent just as breakfast and Schuldig’s mind often wandered to unpleasant thoughts. Being a fresh graduate from Rosenkreuz Schuldig had been used to boasting and torture prone instructors. When he was appointed to be Crawford’s partner he was more than irritated by his lack of communication and thought Crawford was of the opinion the telepath was not worth his breath. It took him a few months to figure out the man kept everything to himself and only talked if it was absolutely necessary.

Two years later, the present, he could care less if the precognitive opened his mouth at all. Crawford gave orders. Schuldig followed them. End of story. Crawford let him do pretty much everything what he wanted as long as he did his job correctly and left the man alone to his plotting.

He rested his head against the window sighing heavily. The feeling of irritation was gradually replaced by an ever growing feeling of loneliness. It nagged at his heart and let him grow quieter. Good for Crawford of course, he was always irritated when he talked to much.

“What’s wrong?” Crawford’s voice broke the silence.

“Huh?”

“You’ve been quiet lately.” He said, stopping the car and waiting before the taxi in front would ride away. “What’s the matter?”

Schuldig glanced sideways at his leader. “Since when are you concerned how I feel?”

Crawford wheeled his black Mercedes into a parking lot, died the engine and turned to the redhead. “You’re a member of my team, Schuldig. As your leader it is my task to know if something is amiss with one of my members.”

Schuldig quirked an eyebrow, this was the longest answer he had gotten from him in days. Furthermore he never asked him personal things and certainly not about his wellbeing aside from the occasional problems with his telepathy.

“Nothing is wrong with me and if there was you would be the last person on this planet I would tell. You give a shit about me and my problems.” He spat, angered by Crawford’s question and slammed the door shut.