"How is this my fault? Who's the one that had his powers blocked for sneaking behind Estet's backs, hmmm?"

Schuldich crossed his arms over his lean chest, stamping his foot in frustration. "Shut the fuck up! You're the last person that I wanted to be captured with..."

"If I were Crawford, you'd be wishing for me," Farfarello purred, laughing. "He'll kill you when he realizes you got us caught by Weiss."

"Maybe he'll kill you..." Schuldich hissed at the Irishman, leaning against the heavy steel door, banging the crown of his head four times. "You're here, too, you know?"

"Well, this sort of thing is expected of me..." Farfarello whispered, his voice lilted with amusement at Schuldich's anger. It was as fiery as his hair. The Irishman began to fidget, because those Weiss cunts had taken his knives. "I'm crazy, remember?" He said it with scorn.

"You're also stupid. It's your fault that Weiss caught us. You should be thinking of a way to get out of here." Schuldich glared at the other man. "Stupid mick."

Farfarello cocked an eyebrow. "I wouldn't sling mud, you Nazi."

Schuldich curled his lip angrily, his jade eyes boiling. "I need a cigarette. Why are you so fucking calm?!"

"Because Crawford will think of something to get us out of here. Weiss think they're so fucking smart, locking us up in here..." Farfarello waved his arms around the warehouse freezer he and Schuldich were trapped in. It no longer worked, but was currently working as a suitable makeshift prison. It had a strange smell, still lingering from when it probably used to hold meat. The walls looked strangely charred, blackened and dark. Probably from vandals. "But, Crawford's smarter. He probably already knows, and is just punishing us."

"Punishing me, more like it..." Schuldich muttered under his breath. "It's not my idea of fun to be locked up with you."

"You think this is my idea of fun?!" Farfarello asked, his amber eye slowly seeping with anger. "I sure as Hell didn't want to be locked in an enclosed space with a whining, selfish little brat who only cares about himself."

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Schuldich spat, like his words were poison. "At least I can take care of myself, and don't have to be locked up because I'm such a fucking loser psychopath who wants to punish a God that doesn't even fucking care of exist."

Farfarello sucked his breath in like he'd been slapped. His eye bore into Schuldich. The German stared back, not wanting to show the inward flinch that he felt. It was hard to beat Farfarello in a staring contest. It was almost beginning to frighten the redhead, but he was so pissed that he wouldn't back down. He also didn't want to admit that maybe Farfarello had been right, that it was Schuldich's fault they were there.

"You better save your strength..." A voice wafted through the door. Schuldich frowned angrily, kicking the door.

"Let us out, you fucking slut!" Schuldich screamed.

Yohji laughed. "Now, that's the stove calling the kettle black, no?"

"CUNT!"

"Yes, please... that would be rather nice," Yohji joked. "Ahhh... I love cigarettes... Mmmm.... Especially when I didn't have to buy them."

"Those are mine!" Schuldich yelled, stamping his feet. He stopped, realizing he was beginning to throw a hissy fit.

"Yell all you want," Farfarello muttered, lounging on a bench, his head pressed against the wall. "They aren't going to let us out."

Schuldich muttered a few curses under his breath, and slumped against the wall, ending up on the floor with a thud, his legs splayed out in front of him. He nervously ran his hands through his hair. He and Farfarello had been paired together when Schwarz had split up for their mission. They were to destroy a drug warehouse for Reiji Takatori, their boss. The Warehouse had been competing with Takatori's own drug cartels. Crawford had wanted to be paired with Nagi, so Schuldich got stuck with Farfarello. He always got stuck with Farfarello. Crawford liked being with Nagi. A little too much in Schuldich's eyes.

Schuldich looked over at Farfarello, whose solitary eye was closed. The Irishman was drumming his fingers on his stomach, looking bored and restless, his full mouth set in a straight, emotionless line. Schuldich's eyes snapped open when he heard a lighter on the other side of the door. Damn Yohji Kudou.

"You know," Yohji's voice wafted into the former freezer. "I think it's funny that I haven't heard a peep out of psycho boy, and you're the one flipping out, mindreader."

"Why don't you keep your opinions to yourself?" Farfarello called. He then muttered "Asshole" under his breath.

Schuldich huffed his breath out, staring at the ceiling. He wrinkled his nose at the faint smell of something old in the room with them. He wondered if Farfarello noticed, or cared. Schuldich knew that this was his fault, but there was no way he was going to admit it. He'd been keeping information from Estet, mostly on the subject of Weiss. And, it'd pissed the old bats off, so they punished Schuldich by taking his telepathy away from him for a few days, or weeks. He still wasn't sure when he was going to get it back, and Crawford was being very tight lipped on the subject.

The German actually felt very strange not hearing voices in his mind. It was peaceful, yet very, very empty at the same time. He looked over at Farfarello again, and thought that maybe it was a good thing he couldn't read minds at the moment, because Farfarello's mind was always a taxing adventure. But, Schuldich had to admit that it was also the most interesting mind he'd ever come across. He'd expected endless chaos when he met the Irishman, but it hadn't been that way. All his thoughts, which seemed like lunacy to everyone else, made perfect sense in his mind. It'd made such perfect sense, that once or twice, Schuldich had wondered which thoughts were truly insane: Farfarello's, or the rest of the world's.

Farfarello slowly opened his eye. "You're staring at me."

"What else am I going to stare at?" Schuldich asked sulkily.

Farfarello shrugged. "Crawford will come eventually. Might as well just wait it out..."

Schuldich groaned angrily. "Why are you so fucking calm?!"

Farfarello smiled, and it caused Schuldich to do a double take. He'd rarely seen the other man genuinely smile. It almost didn't suit him, and yet, it looked like it belonged on his face. "I'm calm because we all don't throw little Princess tantrums. And, what's it going to get me? Nothing but tired. If I'm calm now, I can save my strength for when one of those Weiss bitches opens that door."

Schuldich sighed, running his hands through his hair. "God, I can't believe Kudou's smoking my cigarettes!!"

Farfarello narrowed his eye, his smile turning as hard as a razor. "So, you're stuck with me again." He cackled mirthfully.

"I'm always stuck with you," Schuldich admitted. "Crawford doesn't like dealing with you."

"Nor I him," Farfarello interjected.

"Really?" Schuldich cocked an eyebrow. "I've never caught wind of that from your thoughts..."

"There are some thoughts I keep to myself," Farfarello pointed out. "Do you think that you really control me?" Farfarello laughed. "I just let you think that. If Crawford were the one that watched over me like you do, do you really think I would be as well behaved for him?"

Schuldich blinked. "You behave for me?"

Farfarello nodded slightly. "You amuse me. You always say something interesting to me, and if I were an ill mannered charge, I'd be all alone with nobody to make me laugh." He snorted. "Do you think Crawford actually ever says anything amusing?"

Schuldich slightly nodded in agreement. "He has no sense of humour."

Farfarello furrowed his brow. "I wonder if he'll keep us in here longer because now it's just he and Nagi."

Schuldich cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah, I wonder... Poor paedophilic bastard."

Farfarello snorted, then started laughing.

"Hey! What's so funny in there!?" Yohji called through the door.

Schuldich kicked the door as hard as he could. "Let us out!"

Farfarello rolled his eye. "They think that they actually made us prisoner? It's Crawford that's keeping us here, using Weiss as his little torture avatars. Dumb fools."

"I heard that!!" Yohji exclaimed angrily.

"Does it bother you that Crawford makes you 'take care of me'?" Farfarello asked. "That, he treats me like a child, and you like my parent?"

Schuldich shrugged. "It's not what I had in mind, I'll tell you that...." He sighed. "I'm sorry I called you a mick."

"No, you aren't," Farfarello countered, giving Schuldich the smallest of smiles. "But, that's okay, I'm not offended."

"The only thing that seems to offend you is God...." Schuldich muttered.

Farfarello bit the inside of his lip, his eyelashes fluttering for a moment. Schuldich had never noticed it before, but Farfarello's eyelashes were much darker than his snowy hair. They were a dark russet colour. "What's your real hair colour?" Schuldich blurted out.

"Why?" Farfarello asked, confused by the question.

"Just curious. I never noticed that your eyelashes are a completely different colour... Why aren't your eyebrows..." Schuldich narrowed his eyes. "Do you pluck them or something?"

"No, I do not pluck my eyebrows," Farfarello answered. "I just have naturally thin brows. And, my hair was red."

"Really?" Schuldich raised an interested eyebrow. "A real Irishman."

"It was more of a rust colour, not orange like yours. Why is this important?"

Schuldich shrugged again, resting his elbows on his knees, which were pressed to his chest. "I don't know... I guess I just noticed it." He suddenly laughed. "I'm actually learning more about you when I don't have my powers...."

"What's that like?" Farfarello asked. "I remember one night where you were locking me up, and you thought that I couldn't hear you talking because I was passed out, and you were saying about how much your telepathy bothered you sometimes, like you didn't know yourself because your mind was so full of everyone else, that there wasn't any room for Schuldich in there."

The redhead blinked a few times. "You remember that?" He thought for a moment. "God, that was at least a couple of years ago... When you first joined Schwarz."

"It surprises you that I remember that?" Farfarello actually looked surprised. "I found it to be a very poignant moment. It gave me a lot of insight to your character, and made me alter my opinion of you."

"Which was?" Schuldich asked.

"Huh?"

"Your opinion of me.... What was it before that?"

"Oh..." Farfarello trailed off, collecting his thoughts. "I thought you were a spoiled Princess. But, it made me change my idea of you. That, perhaps you act like a brat because of what you have to go through every day."

Schuldich sighed. "You know.... Now that it's gone, I almost miss it."

"Like you don't know what to do with yourself. You'd gotten so used to being pushed out of your own mind, that now it's hard to have so much room to yourself, to have to think by yourself, to have to analyze yourself."

Schuldich looked at Farfarello, studying the other man. He'd never heard such insight given to his telepathy before. "You're smarter than people give you credit for, Farf..." Schuldich trailed off.

"People don't care whether I'm smart or not," Farfarello pointed out. "I wasn't brought into Schwarz for my brains."

"No, I guess not..." Schuldich muttered. "I just think it's interesting that I now know more about you than I did when I had telepathy..."

The Irishman elegantly snorted. "No, you don't. You just know a few more trivial facts that make up a different aspect of who I am in your eyes."

Schuldich sighed deeply. "I'd hate to be the kitten that opens that door...."

Farfarello closed his eyes. "We may as well save our strength..."

Schuldich nodded distantly, rolling his shoulder, which felt stiff. He suddenly heard Farfarello get up. He noticed the Irishman touching the black walls, as if examining them. "What are you doing?"

Farfarello began touching the corners and crevices of the wall. "We're going to run out of oxygen sometime soon. I'm looking to see if there's any hole in the wall."

"It's a fucking freezer," Schuldich pointed out. "It's probably air tight." He looked at the Irishman lazily. "Crawford won't let us die...."

Farfarello raised an eyebrow. "I'm not willing to bet on that."

Schuldich angrily kicked the metal door. "Hey! You can't let us suffocate in here, Kudou!!"

"And, why not, Schwarz?"

Schuldich narrowed his eyes. He knew that it wasn't Kudou on the other side of the door. The voice was deadpan, and a bit deeper. "Fujimiya....?"

"You can die in there for all we care, Schwarz."

Schuldich rolled his eyes. "You're no better than us, you hypocrite. I'm sure you've killed more people that I have."

There was silence on the other side of the door. Schuldich smiled to himself, full of self satisfaction. He folded his arms over his stomach and watched as Farfarello slumped beside him.

"There are no breaks in the wall. We should just chill out, and not use up a terrible amount of oxygen...."

Schuldich nodded, closing his eyes. After what seemed like an eternity, Schuldich yawned. He noticed that the room was sufficiently hotter than it had been last time he noticed. He must have fallen asleep. "Farf...?" he whispered.

"Mmm?"

"Did I fall asleep?"

"Yeah," Farfarello whispered. "It's been four or five hours. We're starting to run out of oxygen."

"That must be why it's so hot in here..." Schuldich whispered, shrugging out of his jacket.

"Don't talk," Farfarello whispered. "It just wastes air."

Schuldich leaned a little closer to Farfarello, whispering in the other man's ear. "You think Crawford will actually come?"

Farfarello nodded slowly. "Eventually. It's just like him to make us suffer, though."

"I don't have as much faith in him as you do," Schuldich admitted. "Maybe dying won't be so bad...."

"It's unlike you to give up this easily," Farfarello whispered, feeling a little light-headed.

Schuldich sighed. "My chest hurts."

"You're being deprived of oxygen..." Farfarello paused. "Schuldich, did you really think of me as some pain in the ass that you wished you didn't have to take care of?"

"No, not really," Schuldich whispered. "You're the only person I really talk to. Crawford is just always too busy and wrapped up in duties, and Nagi just doesn't care... About anything. It's like you're the only one I have."

Farfarello gave a weary smirk. "Isn't that nice to know?"

"Don't you ever get lonely?" Schuldich asked. "You don't seem to care about people, or need their company."

Farfarello shrugged slightly, and Schuldich could feel it in his own shoulder, because he and Farfarello were sitting so close together. "People aren't as great as they're made out to be. I figured you'd never want to be around people, since you have to deal with their inane thoughts all day."

Schuldich laughed quietly, his chest slightly burning. "There are some things that voices in your head can't give you."

Farfarello cocked his eyebrow over his eyepatch. "What, like blow jobs and nice warm orifices?"

"Something like that..." Schuldich whispered with mirth. "You know, part of me hopes that I'll never get my telepathy back from Estet."

"You would be of no use to Schwarz, then."

"Would that be such a bad thing?" Schuldich asked. "If I'm not enslaved by my powers, I'm enslaved by those old farts."

"And, you'd never have to tie me up again."

Schuldich turned his head, so he was looking at Farfarello's profile. The room was very dark, but Farfarello's milky flesh seemed to glow like moonlight. "Can I ask you something?"

"No, I don't enjoy being tied up," Farfarello muttered.

"That's not what I was going to ask," Schuldich said. "I mean... Whenever Crawford or Nagi touch you, you seem to get all stiff and angry. Why not with me?"

"Because it wasn't your idea to cage me like an animal. Crawford and Nagi think it's better if I'm under lock and key all the time. You don't agree."

"How would you know what I do and do not agree to?"

"Just because I'm not telepathic doesn't mean I'm blind or stupid."

Schuldich snorted. "I thought I was concealing myself very well. I guess I'm not as enigmatic as I thought, huh?"

"Maybe you are, maybe you aren't. But, everyone seems to let their guard down around me, because they think I'm not paying attention."

The corners of Schuldich's mouth turned up ever so slightly. "I guess it feels nice to know you even cared enough to pay attention. I dare say that you're the only... Friend that I have."

Farfarello snorted quietly. "Are we even the sort of people who can have friends?"

"Sure, why not?" Schuldich whispered. He looked over at Farfarello, who looked back. "I mean, Crawford and Nagi always side against us, so there's strength in numbers."

"I think we'd still lose. Crawford doesn't care about our opinions. And, we don't care about his."

Schuldich smiled, then leaned in, brushing his lips against Farfarello's as if the Irishman's mouth were made of fragile glass.

When the redhead pulled away, Farfarello blinked in confusion. "What was that for?"

"I don't know..." Schuldich shrugged. "Just felt like it." He kissed Farfarello's scarred lower lip again, with the same gentle whisper of pressure, but this time, he held his mouth against the Irishman's a little longer. When he broke the kiss, which Farfarello had reciprocated with the same gentle manner, Schuldich grinned. "I'm almost glad we got locked in here together. My pride is hurt, but I'll get over it."

"I doubt you'll get over it if we die from lack of air," Farfarello whispered. "But, I guess the kiss was worth it if we get out of here."

"It was okay?" Schuldich asked.

"Yeah..." Farfarello whispered. "Yeah, it was..." He cocked his head, and kissed Schuldich back, with much more force than the German had used on him. He gently pushed his tongue into Schuldich's mouth, teasing the tip of the other man's tongue with his own. Schuldich moved his hand to the side of Farfarello's face as the kiss deepened, thoroughly enjoying the taste of the Irishman's mouth.

They broke apart when there was a loud crash from outside, and shouting. Schuldich and Farfarello looked at each other when they heard Fujimiya Ran scream "Shine!!!", and then saw the door fly open.

"You just couldn't stop from screwing up, could you?" Crawford asked. He was silhouetted in the door, his arms folded across his chest. "Hurry, while Nagi has Weiss bound."

Schuldich and Farfarello slowly got up, gulping in the oxygen when they stepped out of the black freezer. They looked up, and saw Nagi looking at them, a bored expression on his fey face as he had the four members of Weiss levitating, bound near the ceiling.

"Come on," Crawford instructed, motioning for Nagi to follow him. The boy did so, as if a robot. Schuldich looked up at Weiss, who were struggling against the telekinetic binding. He gave them a saucy wink, while Farfarello laughed.

"Too bad, little kitties," Schuldich taunted. "Maybe you'll have better luck next time."

Farfarello waved at them as he and Schuldich followed the other two members of Schwarz to a black car that was waiting outside. Schuldich laughed, draping an arm over Farfarello's shoulder. The Irishman found himself leaning into the touch. "Like a walk in the park," Schuldich answered breezily, gently moving his fingers over the muscular curve of Farfarello's shoulder.

Crawford turned on his heel as they stopped in front of the car, an annoyed look on his handsome face. "I should have just let you die in there. Just get in the fucking car."

Nagi just looked at them silently with his dead blue eyes, and got in the front seat with the bespectacled American.

"Yeah, get in the fucking car, Farfarello..." Schuldich muttered, imitating Crawford. He smirked at Farfarello, and gave him a small kiss.

Farfarello rolled his good eye, nipping gently at the German's mouth. "This should be an interesting car ride. It makes me wish we were still locked up."