Author: Pegasus

Title: In the Company of Strangeness

Warnings: This takes place after the series, when Schwartz and Weiss are no longer enemies. (Can anyone tell me what "Officially" happened to Schwartz?). Yaoi/shounen-ai/slash, whatever the hell you want to call it, and bad language.

Couples: Omi/Nagi, Aya (Ran)/Brad, Schuldig/Youji, Farfello/Ken. The couples don't get equal time, sorry. Mostly I'll probably be centering on the last. I'm trying for a Farfello/Ken that makes sense, stays in character, but doesn't include Ken being diced to bits (not that there's anything wrong with that, though).

CAPITALS and italics are for EMPHASIS

'Words in these '' are 'thoughts'

Chapter One: ItCoS: Why Me?

0_0

"Omi. Hello and good afternoon." Omi froze, his hand clenching around the dart in his hand as he turned slowly to confront the boy behind the voice that had greeted him.

"Nagi?" He smiled. "Nagi!" The two teens embraced, hugging each other in excitement. Of Schwartz and Weiss, they had been the only two from either team to become friends after the disbanding of both groups. Unfortunately, Nagi had disappeared shortly after that, without leaving Omi any clue as to how to get in touch with him

"I'm glad to see you, too." Nagi said, laughing. He pressed his face into the curve of Omi's neck and breathed deeply. "I've missed you. You haven't any idea how much I've missed seeing you."

"We're still at the Koneko. You could have come by anytime." Omi pressed his cheek against Nagi's hair and smiled. "It's not like you would have worried about the door being locked."

~_~

Youji ground his cigarette out with his foot, his sunglasses perched low on his nose as he admired several of the young ladies across the thoroughfare. He was just about to approach them when a shock of red hair caught his attention.

He turned to the right, the move casual, until his body was squared with the man staring at him. He raised an eyebrow, asking silently what the hell the redhead wanted.

Schuldig laughed and took that as his cue to approach, his hands raised imperceptibly in a sign of surrender. "I come in piece."

'I'm sure.'

"I'm hurt, Balinese. I thought you'd be glad to see me."

Youji snorted, reaching into his pocket for his cigarettes. Schuldig kept a respectable distance away from him. "I'm about as glad to see you as I am to get up in the morning."

The redhead smiled, a predatory gleam in his eyes. "I'm glad to hear that, Balinese."

Green eyes searched his face as Youji attempted to dissect that phrase. There was a double meaning behind it, something he could almost pick up on, but that wasn't quite concrete enough for his brain to grasp entirely.

Schuldig smiled. "I intend on giving you as much reason to be happy in the mornings as you will be to see me." A leering, horny man replaced the predator.

'If that means what I think it means, Schwartz, you can stay the hell away from me, morning, noon, and night.'

"But where is the fun in that?"

0_o

Aya-chan squealed in delight and hugged the giant panda to her chest. She grinned at her brother of the stuffed animal, her eyes sparkling. Ran smiled back at her, the expression lighting his face, making him look even younger than he was. "Oh, Ran! It's the best!"

Sister hugged brother, the panda left to dangle by one hand behind Ran's back as he held his sibling close. "The best for the best."

"Aw…the best for the best from the best. And don't you forget it!" She squeezed him tight once, and then let him go, once again embracing the animal as she turned to the rides. "Let's see…I want to go on THAT one!"

She was pointing to a ride with eight little cars that went around in circles while the platform they were attached to spun on a wider arc. He smiled and traded her tickets for the panda. She had accepted rather easily that her brother would not go on any of the rides unless forced to at gunpoint. In return, he had to play every game that she wanted. They had already made one trip back to the car to unload all the prizes that he had won for her.

Alone, or as alone as he could be in a crowd, he leaned against an electricity pole and watched as his sister waited impatiently in line, hopping from foot to foot and talking excitedly with the girl beside her.

He felt a presence settle itself beside him, but he didn't turn to look until a familiar voice said, "If I were you, I wouldn't let her go on that ride."

Ran instantly tensed, his hand going for the katana that wasn't there. He turned his head and glared at Crawford. "Why?"

The American shrugged coolly, his eyes still trained on Aya-chan, as she was loaded into one of the cars with the girl to whom she had been speaking. "Too late, now. You'll see."

The redhead crossed his arms and turned to face his ex-enemy. "What are you doing here?"

"How did I know that you were going to ask that question?" Crawford asked, a smile tugging at his lips.

"That's a stupid question, precog. What the hell do you want?" Ran was beyond frustrated. There was only about half a minute before Aya-chan would be coming back, walking straight into the reach of the enemy. It would be hard to protect her in such a public place; especially of the rest of Schwartz was hiding around someplace.

"Actually, I didn't see it in a vision," Crawford said calmly, pointedly ignoring the last question. "You're just terribly predictable, Fujiyami-san. Or should I call you Ran-kun now?"

The ride stopped and Ran's heart almost stopped with it. His violet eyes reflected his desperate anger as he watched his sister step down to the ground. "Why are you here, Schwartz?"

"I've come a'courtin', Weiss."

Ran started as if slapped, his glare darkening further. "Don't you dare touch her. If you so much as look at her-"

"I'm not here for your sister, Fujiyami." Bradley said, effectively quieting Ran's protests. "I'm here for you."

`_0

Ken was not having a good day. In fact, it could be said that Ken was having a very, VERY bad day. The reasons for why are varied and complex, but he had a strong suspicion that a lot of it had to do with the single golden eye that kept staring at him, no matter how far away he moved or which way he turned.

He was at a carnival, surrounded by a swarm of milling, talking, laughing, and otherwise loud people, many of them taller than he and some of them shorter, but the only person that really stood out was the one-eyed blonde that seemed intent on following him around and staring at him all day.

The entire situation was unnerving. They were no longer fighting against Schwartz at every opportunity and therefore neither team had a reason to seek out one of their old enemies, but here was Farfello, stalking him through the crowd of people. Each time that Ken tried to evade him and thought he had succeeded, he turned around and met that yellow eye.

At one point, he had turned around to finally confront the Irishman, but the moment Farfello saw him heading in his direction, the blonde turned and walked away with a smile. 'The damn man is treating this like a game!' Ken thought, disgruntled.

It wasn't fair. Weiss had come the carnival in order to relax and take it easy after a hard week at the Koneko, but Ken's day was being ruined by that psychotic, knife-wielding freak ('to put it kindly, Ken thought') who…

Who had disappeared from sight. 'That is so not good.' Ken looked around, his eyes scanning the crowd in vain. His stalker was gone, but Ken wasn't reassured. If anything, the fact that Farfello was no longer within his range of vision made Ken more paranoid.

'Come out, come out, wherever you are….freak.' He wasn't feeling inclined to be nice as he inched closer to the nearest booth, trying to cut down on all possible routes of attack. The fewer directions he had to keep an eye on, the better.

"Kitty kitty." Ken froze as a low voice sounded in his ear, warm air being blow across his skin at the same time. His entire body tensed, ready to fight at the first indication that that was what Farfello wanted. Two hands came up and settle on his shoulders in a light grip. Not enough to be considered threatening, the touch was still enough to set the rest of his nerves on end.

He jumped, his heart climbing into his throat as he turned around and faced the blonde menace. One golden eye blinked down at him, their noses almost touching as Farfello resettled his grip on Ken's shoulder.

"Hello, kitty." The grin that accompanied the greeting could only be classified as feral or predatory. There was a light in that eye that reflected the excitement of battle that Ken had seen in them before. It looked like the Irishman was looking for a fight even in public.

"Hi," Ken returned almost cheerfully, taking a step back. The blonde followed his movement, giving him no extra space between them. "Are you here to hurt God?"

Farfello smiled, his thin lips twisting upwards. It pulled at the scar over his other eye, drawing Ken's attention to it. "I'll hurt God."

"Yeah, you always do, don't ya?" He tried to keep his voice conversational, but it was difficult when breathing the same air of a man who looked ready to commit mayhem. The sparkle in that yellow eye was anticipatory.

Farfello nodded, his hands tightening when Ken tried to step back again. That time, he didn't even let Ken have the illusion of trying to get away. "You're going to help me hurt God."

Ken didn't like the sound of that, not a bit. He swallowed hard. "Will hurting me hurt God?"

The blonde shook his head and drew Ken a little closer. When he spoke, his voice was a mere whisper. "No. Hurting you will not hurt God…" He trailed off as if about to list all the things that he could do to hurt God, but the thought was never completed for Ken, because the same psychotic, knife-wielding freak who had followed him around the entire day chose to kiss him instead.

@_@

Next Chapter: How will the Weiss boys respond to Schwartz? What exactly does Schwartz have up their sleeves? Why should Aya-chan have stayed off the ride, and what does Ken do after being kissed by Farfie?!

More, coming up on the next edition of: 'In the Company of Strangeness: Why You?'