Takatori demanded perfection and they were obliged to supply it. He wanted servants; he got four people willing to work within the confines of their contract and nothing more. He wanted protection. He got it. He had bought the four powers of Schwarz but he could not buy their loyalty. Young though they were, from eleven to fifteen to seventeen to twenty-four, they were too well-trained to give into his demands and after awhile, Takatori gave up. Lost cause, he called them. But he still kept them.
Brad he took into his close inner circle. As a pre-cog, he had to know all the most sensitive plans and secrets in order to see the future clearly. As the silently agreed upon leader of Schawrz, he doled out information when needed and stayed stubbornly silent the rest of the time, though not for Schuldich's lack of trying. Nagi relinquished his duty as public relations between the four and Takatori to Brad, reverting back to his former role, that of a hacker with an uncanny ability to get information.
Takatori kept Farfarello well supervised and out of the way. He didn't trust the insane, one-eyed boy who felt no pain and blamed God for everything. At times he had too much sanity in his single eye, which unnerverd Takatori to no end, though he never let on. He had charged Brad with keeping Farfarello secure and within their level, a job that the American took no joy in.
Takatori trusted Schuldich least of all.
The redheaded German telepath was much too sharp for his taste, much too willful. Of them all, Schuldich refused the leash of control and managed to continue doing what he did best--annoy people before fucking them. Schuldich was a wild card that could not be contained and could not be influenced. The single most important rule of the street had stayed with Schuldich throughout his life and would most likely never, ever fade.
Submit to no one.
It was something Brad didn't understand but accepted. Farfarello didn't care one way or the other. Nagi was the one who had a problem with it and Schuldich took great joy in doing everything that he could to annoy Nagi.
"Don't you ever go outside, bishonen?" Schuldich drawled from the doorway to the workroom.
Nagi stiffened at the work 'bishonen.' It meant 'pretty-boy' in his native language and Schuldich relentlessly used it to define him. Not for the first time did Nagi regret his feminine looks. "What do you want?" Nagi snapped, fingers pausing over the keys.
Schuldich leaned against the door and eyed Nagi's small form. The Japanese boy was thin and pale, in a dark uniform. His legs were long but his feet didn't touch the ground. Young though he was, he was beautiful and Schuldich was no stranger to beauty. He had seen beauty in the cracks on the street, on the Paris runways, in random faces on the countless people in the countless crowds he had passed through in his life. But beauty faded and crumbled so easily, became dark and old. Nagi was this already. He was an adult in a child's body, no different than he himself had been at that age.
"You," Schuldich told him with a smile.
Nagi's lips thinned to a slash and he turned his attention back to the flickering computer screen. "Go away, Schuldich. I don't need you here."
For a moment he thought the German had listened. But only for a moment. Then cool fingers covered his eyes, blinding him, and warm breath tickled his ear. "Wrong, Nagi-kun. You don't want me to go away. The moment you first saw me you wanted me to stay."
Nagi telekinetically flung Schuldich's hands away from him and he twisted around on the chair, lips parting to protest, gold-tinged dark eyes narrowing, but nothing came out. Green eyes caught and held his as a force entered his mind and stayed on the verge of his shields. It neither proceeded or retreated, merely stayed where it was for the moment. His breath caught in his throat as Schuldich stared at him, slender hands thrown wide by his telekinetic thrust.
/Admit it,/ a soft, silky voice whispered into his mind. /You want me./
Nagi trembled slightly in his seat as Schuldich caressed his mind. The tenuous silence between them stretched out for a long intermiable moment before Nagi chose to give in. It was a conscious decision to let Schuldich go, to allow the German to touch him. To give him rank over him. Nagi was quiet by nature and didn't need to make decisions. Let others who had the strength to decide, the ability to be calculating, pave out Schwarz's future. He didn't want that responsibility.
Long fingers traced his lips, pulling his chin down, opening his mouth. Schuldich kissed him deeply, pulling his head back by his hair, arching his neck. /Smart choice,/ Schuldich whispered into his mind.
/I'm not doing this because you seduced me,/ Nagi retorted acidly as he responded to Schuldich's kiss.
/No, you're not,/ Schuldich mused as he pulled Nagi off the chair and onto the floor. /You're doing this to prove to yourself that you can still be in control. But do you really think that you're in control?/
Nagi didn't answer him, too focusd on the sensations that Schuldich's hand down his pants was creating while the other one pulled down the constricting material. He gasped, arching against the German tautly. Schuldich kissed along the arch of his throat and Nagi moaned.
/Is that what you want to get out of this, bishonen? Control? Is that all you care about?/
"Does it matter?" Nagi whispered as his eyes fluttered shut.
/Nien. You don't matter to me at all./
"You really are a cold-hearted bastard, you know that?" Fingers closed around him and he cried out, his small hands clinging to Schuldich's arms tightly.
/Ja. But I can be nothing else just like you--you can never be in control./
Nagi bit down on his bottom lip as Schuldich jerked him to a climax. He tensed up, moaning as release swept through him and then slumped against Schuldich. The German wiped his hand on Nagi's pants, staining the material with glistening semen, before pushing the boy away and getting to his feet. Nagi opened his eyes and stared up at him from his sprawled position on the floor.
"Control was never an issue," he murmured as he wriggled his pants back up his hips.
"Really," Schuldich stated as he headed for the door.
"You know exactly why I did this with you."
Schuldich threw him a sultry smile over his shoulder. "Of course I do. And we'll do it again later on."
The door shut and Nagi climbed back into his seat. "Of course we will," he whispered as his fingers took up the pattern where they had left off. "But you're trying for something you'll never get, not for a long time, if even then."
The clacking of keys filled the dim room, drowning out his breathing.
"Brad knows you too well to give in." ***
Schuldich pulled out a cigarette and hunted for his lighter but couldn't find it in his pockets. Frowning he double-checked but still couldn't locate it. "Schist," he hissed.
"Looking for this?" a calm voice asked.
He turned to find Brad standing behind him in the hallway holding up his lighter. "Going through my things again?" Schuldich asked as he stepped closer.
"You left it on the table."
"And you brought it to me. How kind of you."
"Don't mock me, Schuldich," Brad ordered in a cool voice.
Schuldich grinned naughtily at him. "And what will happen if I continue to mock you, hm, Brad?"
"That's never been an issue. You mock everyone."
"Then don't take it so personally."
Brad tossed him the lighter and he caught them deftly. "Are you going to trick here?" Brad asked bluntly.
"It's none of your business."
"I'm making it my business, Schuldich. I've been put in charge and I don't want you endangering this mission."
Schuldich lit his cigarette and arched an eyebrow. "So the dog finally shows its teeth. I was beginning to wonder if you were all bark and no bite."
"Schuldich--"
"What does it matter how I live? You don't own me, Brad, no one does. Not even SS. I chose to go with you that day. I could have stayed and died on the street with Liebe but it would have still been my choice. You can control Farfarello and Nagi, but you can't control me, Brad, unless I let you. And you haven't earned that right. And there's nothing you can do to stop me."
Schuldich turned on his heel and headed on down the hall. "Be careful of how you choose, Schuldich," Brad called out. "SS doesn't take kindly to traitors."
The German flipped him off. "Worry about your own life, Brad, and I'll worry about mine," he said.
Brad watched as he disappeared into a room and sighed. "You're taking steps to your death, Schuldich," he muttered as he turned around and headed to his room.
The tension between them was growing.
"But aren't we all?"
author note: I don't see Nagi as dominate but neither do I see him as submissive. he's just kind of--willing, I guess. or at least I think so. so I wrote him that way ^^;;;