I Never Will Forget

Schuldich yawned and stretched languidly, rubbing himself against the back of his seat. Try as he might, the redhead just couldn’t seem to shake that blissfully happy smile off his face. He glanced at Crawford again and his smile only seemed to broaden.

The American drove on, pretending to ignore him, but the young man obviously knew better. The blush on his face, the American knew, told his partner everything he didn’t want him to know. "Hell, what is it?" Crawford finally asked.

Schuldich grinned and looked away, making a show of taming his thick red mane into a high ponytail. He checked himself in the rear view mirror. "Oh, nothing."

Crawford could tell the redhead was entertaining himself with the random thoughts of those around him. He was about to tell Schuldich to readjusting the mirror when the German moved it back in place, shooting him an innocent smile. He sighed. "There are certain connections between road hazards, and driving without a rear view mirror, Schuldich."

"You don’t need that thing, Bradley," Schuldich murmured in a hushed tone. "You’d know if someone was suddenly going to bang into you from behind." He leaned over and blew suggestively in Crawford’s ear, adding in a hushed voice, "unless you wanted to watch while it was coming."

He shivered delightfully and tilted his head away, trying to keep both his eyes and his mind on the road ahead. I’m looking for the boy, he silently told his beau, but you seem intent on stopping me.

Schuldich retreated to his side of that car and Crawford breathed a sigh of relief. There was no way in this life that he could concentrate on finding the boy while he was being tormented by lust by that horny demon.

I could always try to find him for you, the redhead suggested, already penetrating the American’s mind for the child’s information. Crawford gave a small cry as their thoughts merged together, the redhead’s insistent probing leaving him ravished and yearning for more. "Keep your eyes on the road, Brad." The redhead’s advise was uttered in a deep, husky voice.

Oh yes, Crawford decided. It was going to be a long day.

Schuldich’s laughter echoed in his mind, for once agreeable with his thoughts. Without warning, the redhead separated his psyche from him and leant on the other side of his seat, closing his eyes in concentration or sleep. After a moment, he turned back to the American. "Not far away from here. Maybe a block further."

Crawford coughed and straightened up in his seat. "Thank you," he said, but don’t tempt me like that. His partner smirked and looked out the window once more.

"Found him."

---

"God, get away from me!" the boy cried, an invisible force from his body throwing the older kid up in the air and into the rubbish bin. The children ran, some scrambling away in fear, some trying to help their leader. The larger portion were readying their sticks and stones, some sling-shots at the small boy.

"You little fucker! How did you do that?" screamed someone from the shadows.

"He’s got some magic on him or something," came a frantic reply. "A curse! He’s a curse! He’ll kill us!"

"What the fuck are you doing here anyway? Get lost! We don’t want you here!"

A barrage of cries lifted from the children. They cornered him in the dead end of the alley. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. There was nowhere for him anywhere! There was nobody who needed him; nobody cared.

Tears ran freely down his cheeks but he made no move to wipe them.

Useless tears. He was better off dead. In hell. With the devil. Can you hear me? Can’t they see how much I’m hurting? Can’t they feel all that pain in my heart? Can’t you?

He longed for someone to take him away, drive them all away from him.

Damn you! Damn you all to hell! Someone save me!

---

Schuldich shuddered suddenly in his seat. "Stop the car."

Crawford looked over at his shaken beau. "Schuldich?"

"I got him," he swallowed, gesturing to the gap between to tall, run-down brick buildings to his right. Crawford quickly parked the car by the sidewalk and turned to the redhead, concerned. Schuldich smiled at him. "You’ve got an eye for psychics, you know." Psychic? The boy was- "Yeah, he is. Look, just go to him. I’m all right."

Schuldich waited in the car as Crawford approached the kid. It was probably better this way, in a crime-ridden, decaying neighbourhood like the one they were in. The child was crying in the alley as he had earlier predicted. As Crawford neared him, a couple of kids ran past him, knocking down a some tin cans and wooden planks along the way. "You better be careful, mister! There’s a monster back there," one of the children warned.

With foresight, Crawford knew that there would be no one else but the child he was looking for. Monster indeed, he sighed.

Oh, he’s a monster all right, Brad, came the German’s reply. Innocent little thing.

Crawford ignored the remark and approached the shaking bundle of cloth and bone. He ignored the spreading stain on his tan coloured pants that was made by the splash of murky water when the other children had run past him. Schuldich snickered, chiding him lovingly, revealing to him the child’s name as a bonus.

"Nagi? Naoe Nagi?" The words rolled off his tongue sweetly, like water to a thirsting man. This was the boy in those dreams, in the flesh.

The child looked up, eyes wide due to the initial shock of someone calling him by his full name. Those gorgeous indigo eyes looked into milk chocolate brown. Finding no recognition there, they narrowed suspiciously. Nagi watched him, apprehensive and silent.

Crawford stepped forward, stopped about a metre from him.

Nothing.

No words past between them; it was a mere look, an understanding that this was the only chance either one would have. The American adjusted his glasses, invariably thought about a picture in his own past.

"Stand up," said the father to his child. Crawford stood up and took his hand.

"Stand up." said Crawford to the boy Nagi.

And the child stood up for him.

---

He stood next to the car, watching and waiting as his lover walk out from the alley, dirtied trouser leg and a hand wrapped firmly around small fingers. The boy was just one step behind him, looking like a little fallen angel lost in a torn and filthy t-shirt, barefooted and wing-less.

"Yo," Schuldich smiled at him, keep the sound of pity from his voice. He stepped around the car and opened the door to the back seat. "Get in the back and let me drive."

"No," Brad stared at him and looked back at the boy. "Go sit with him." He silently told the redhead, I see a huge law suit if I let you drive today. Stay with the boy, you’ll like him.

Schuldich’s eyes never left the boy. His smile only widened. Shut up, Brad. "Ne, Nagi-kun... Looks like you got your wish after all."

The boy blinked at him, slowly ran his eyes over the fiery long hair and ice blue eyes. "I remember you," Nagi thought out loud. He let go of the American’s hand, tread over to the younger looking man. "I know you."

"Is that so?" Schuldich grinned, stuffing his hands in his jeans pockets. If he remembered correctly, he had never directly met the child before. He was intrigued.

"You were with me just now. When they were going to hit me." Brad looked at the two questioningly. "You were watching." Was he saying that he felt it when Schuldich was in his mind?

"You’re the devil, aren’t you?"

Momentarily, Schuldich stood speechless, just gapping at the child. He smirked. Then he laughed. "Why, yes," he swept the youth into the car. He glanced wickedly at Brad and smiled back at the boy. "Yes, I most certainly am."

Brad shook his head silently and got in the driver’s seat. "In this case," he muttered. "We must all be going to hell."

Schuldich closed the door behind him. "Lead the way, lover."

Footnotes:
As said in Lene Marlin’s music video "Unforgivable Sinner": the Past does not Forget, the Future will not Remember.