Tosca's Kiss

Happy New Year everyone! Hope 2012 is a good one for you. Here's a couple of Weiss Kreuz drabbles to break in the new year:


2012

Sally and the children come back to the hotel to find their bags packed. At Sally’s white-faced expression Jei flicks a look towards the twins, says,
“Crawford declares Ireland’s won all the medals we’re getting. Thought we’d go home early, visit your nana on the way.”
Sally nods in understanding.

------

The week before, Nagi receives an email:
“Rimouski meeting actually surprise birthday party. Blasting your minions through the walls would be ill-advised overreaction. Happy 30th.”

------

The television clicks off, amidst election-result hysteria.
“Told you so.”
Schuldig sneers.
“Brad, someone with the precognition of a lead brick could have called that one.”


================
1. London 2012 Olympics. Perfect terrorist attack target. eep.
2. Nagi turns 30 in 2012 according to canon. I doubt he’s pleased about it.
3. 2012 US Presidential elections.



Per Annum

New Year’s Eve they both have different traditions.

Crawford collects papers - brochures, catalogues, printouts - of upcoming important world events. He spends the day shuffling them hand-to-hand, slip-sliding them under his fingertips, casting his Talent further and further outward, a net to trap elusive fish. By daybreak and the dawn of a new annum, he knows the shape of his expectations for this next year.

Schuldig goes out to a random bar, fucks a random stranger, and gets completely hammered to celebrate surviving the year just past.

New Year’s Day however, they both share the misery of a debilitating headache.

*

After a long, long hiatus, another piece of Weiss Kreuz fic.

This was written for dhaunea for the Weiss Day Fic Exchange. My prompt was "Schuldig, Farfarello, teammates", and whilst they're obviously good mates by the time of Kapitel, it occurred to me it would be interesting to explore the origins of their friendship, as I couldn't honestly see them hitting it off right off the bat (YMMV of course!). Anyway, hope you enjoy...

Title: Schöne Freundschaft (Beautiful Friendship)
Author: Tosca toscas_kiss
Rating: PG-13
Series: A couple of years after Was Sie Benötigen in the Schnapschüsse series.
Prompt: Schuldig, Farfarello. Team mates.
Notes: Pre-Kapitel. *Mental speech in-between asterisks.* German translations can be found at the end.
Thank you's: to daegaer and ladyganesh, who very kindly betaed this for me. :-)


( Schöne Freundschaft )

Written for the wk_100 Retropspective Challenge. This is #24 'Characters' Children' and is a continuance of my Home to meet the Family series: I Schuldig (Reclaiming), II Farfarello, III Nagi, IV Crawford. Because there's never enough Sakura torture. . .


Reunion


Ran stopped in shock, thinking it was Aya sitting at the table. But he couldn't remember ever seeing his sister that expensively dressed or coiffed, and, as much as he loved her, Ran had to admit Aya was never so elegant, never so polished. Recognition flooded the face uplifted to his and he realised her identity.

“Sakura-san.”

She sat mute, gaze darting past him and a kind of dread welling in her eyes. He registered a presence behind him, heard a boy’s voice saying,

“Okaasan, who’s this?”

Turned to see his sister’s face matched with flame-red hair and a smirk.

For the wk_100 'Secrets and Lies' challenge:

Hidden treasure


"Tell us! Where is it?" Ken's captor twists his arm further up behind his back, weight crushing Ken into the carpet, rough fibres rugburning his face.

Ken desperately wills Aya to return, right now. He’s relying on him for a rescue.

“We’ve played nice so far,” his captor’s accomplice finally speaks, “You wouldn’t want us to get unpleasant, would you?” The accompanying smile is sweet, insincere and chilling.

“Just tell us where it is.”

Ken breathes in deeply. Strengthens his resolve. He doesn’t care what they do. He isn’t telling Yohji and Omi where his stash of Godiva chocolate is.

The morning after Schuldige Vergnügen, which follows on a couple of years after Was Sie benötigen. Schuldig POV:


The morning is too damn bright, I'm too damn sober and my head hurts in more ways than one. Flying is going to be about as much fun as root canal treatment.

Crawford's little pet is sitting perched on the edge of his seat, looking as blank and inoffensive as can be. Now there's another sterling Esset casestudy in totally fucked-up. There has to be a bit more to him than what appears on the surface, or Crawford wouldn't have put anywhere near as much effort into him as he has. I just haven't had the time - or inclination - to work out what it is yet.

Pressing through his outer thoughts reveals relief at leaving Switzerland is only a thin covering for the mass of different emotions at returning to his homeland. They overlay each other like lacquer, leaving his feelings a dense, opaque shininess. I nudge his thoughts towards the more pleasant regions, not through any genuine kindness, but because he's so damn wound up he's setting my teeth on edge.

The fruitcake is standing looking out the departure lounge windows. Just thinking about touching his mind ratchets my headache up a notch. He seems to be ignoring the rest of the world for a spot on the tarmac. Then that one golden eye flicks over to meet mine. The window to his soul may be open, but there's nothing but reflections of an empty mirror-maze showing. Sometimes he makes me want to run screaming. Other times I think he's just the neatest toy in the world.

He flicks his gaze back to what he was watching and says,

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it. And this you have the power to revoke at any moment."

What the fuck?

Argh. More cryptic quote bullshit.

Sometime I'd like to hunt down the shrink who thought giving Farfarello access to his classics library was a good idea, and give him a mindfuck all of his own.

I need a drink. Or a cigarette. Or a goddam handgun.