Glass Castles

Glass Castles
Chapter 4 - Unexpected Return
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Several months had passed since Omi and Nagi had shared a dinner, and Omi hadn\'t spoken again. He smiled easily, shy smiles that left Nagi feeling breathless, but he\'d never spoken. Occasionally Schuldig would get past his mental shields, and be able to read his thoughts, but Omi had usually let him. When Omi HAD to say something, he either let Schuldig in, or wrote it down.

Schwarz had become some of the richest people in the entire eastern hemisphere, as both Omi and Nagi were expert hackers, and would often transfer money from others to their own accounts just because. They each had billions of dollars tucked away in banks all over the world, though the exact number was something that not even Crawford was sure of.

Things had settled into an easy routine in the house, and they were all happy with Omi as a part of their \'family\'. They were a little disordered as the group was preparing to move, but things ran generally as they always had.

Things were about to be completely disrupted, and it was by something that not even Crawford could have forseen happening.

The phone rang about half past ten one morning, while Schuldig was in the shower and Crawford, Nagi, and Farfarello were out shopping. Omi answered the phone, pressing a button on a device Nagi and Schuldig had invented for him. It imitated his voice, and picked up on his thought waves, speaking for him while he never had to open his mouth.

\"Hello?\"

A familiar voice sounded on the other end of the line. \"Is this Brad Crawford\'s residence?\" Omi frowned.

\"Yes it is, but he\'s not here right now. Can I help you?\"

There was a short pause, and a muffled voice, like the person who had called was talking to someone else. Finally, he came back. \"Sure. This is Hidaka Ken. I\'m looking for Tsukiyono Omi. Is he with you?\"

Omi dropped the phone.

\"Hello? Hello? What happened? Are you still there?\" Ken asked, wondering what the loud clattering had been. Omi had followed the phone down, and was now leaning against the wall. He reached over, and picked it up.

\"You\'re lying. Ken\'s dead. I watched him die.\" he \'said\'.

This time it was Ken\'s turn to drop the phone. After the loud crash, and several minutes of swearing, Ken came back on the phone. \"Omi?!\"

\". . . I used to be.\" he said softly.

\"Omi! Oh my god! Finally! I\'ve been looking for you for MONTHS. I hired a private investigator to track you down. He said he\'d seen you with some strange looking foreigners, but I didn\'t think it was true. How did you end up with Schwarz!?\"

Omi took a few moments to figure out how to answer that. \"They saved me. They picked me up when I fell. They\'re my family now.\"

Ken\'s silence stretched on for so long that Omi was afraid he\'d hung up. \"Alright. Can I see you?\"

Omi thought about it for a minute. Schwarz was leaving their current household, but old habits died hard, and he didn\'t feel comfortable giving out their address to anyone. \"Can we meet in the park?\" he asked after a few moments.

\"Perfect. When?\"

\"Whenever you can make it there,\" Omi replied.

\"I\'ll be there as quick as I can. But... uh... Omi...\" He sounded nervous. \"There\'s something I gotta tell you... I\'m a ... little different than you remember me...\"

\"That\'s okay Ken. I am too.\"

With that, they hung up. Omi left a note saying what had happened, and where he was going, and got dressed. He left a few minutes later, leaving the note in the fridge where he was sure Schuldig would find it. Content that everything was alright, he walked out to the park, and leaned over the water, staring at it.

Not long afterwards, he heard, \"OMI!\" and turned. Ken was coming towards him, a HUGE grin on his face. Omi\'s smile lit up, and he practically ran towards Ken. Something seemed off, and as he approached, he realized the reason. Ken was in a wheelchair. He hugged him anyway, still smiling.

\"Oh, god, Omi... I was so scared you\'d DIED...\" Ken said, after a moment. Omi realized that they both had tears in their eyes. He shook his head, and lifted his hands, saying, \'nope. still alive.\' Ken frowned.

\"You weren\'t kidding when you said you were a little different, were you...? You\'re like a whole new person.\"

Omi looked down. Sorry...

Ken frowned. \"Omi, why aren\'t you saying anything?\" he asked. Omi pulled out a small notebook and a pen, and flipped passed used pages.
:I can\'t: he wrote, and handed it to Ken.

\"You can\'t? You can\'t speak at all?\" Omi shook his head, and took the notebook back.

:I haven\'t said anything in over seven months:

Ken\'s eyes widened. \"Why the hell not?!\"

Omi shrugged. Ken frowned. Omi smiled. :There was no reason to. Schwarz usually knows what I\'m going to say. After a while, I just couldn\'t bring myself to speak anymore. It was hard, the first few days... Trying to make myself. Finally, I just stopped.:

Ken looked at him, realizing just how hard it must have been for him. \"I\'m sorry,\" he whispered. Omi shrugged again. Ken grinned, trying to lighten the mood. \"At least your handwritings gotten better,\" he teased. Omi thwapped him with the note book as he laughed.

:What\'s with the wheel chair?: Omi scrawled after a moment.

Ken nodded. \"One of the bullets pierced my spinal column as I was running. I remember telling you to get away, to keep going, and then I blacked out. When I woke up again, I couldn\'t feel my legs, and the people were gone. They left Aya and I where we were. I did the best I could for him, and then found a phone, and called Manx. I\'ve been living with her and her daughter ever since I got out of the hospital a few months ago. This... probably isn\'t the right time for this, but... You\'ve got a sister. Her name is Mau.\"

The notebook dropped to the ground from bloodless fingers. Omi\'s throat moved, but no sounds came out. After a few minutes of gaping like a fish, he picked it up. :a sister?! persia\'s daughter?:

\"Persia and Manx,\" Ken said, winking. \"You\'d like her. She\'s about your age, and is into stuff like anime, and computers.\"

Omi knelt on the ground for a few moments, letting this sink in. :Can I see her?:

Ken nodded. \"I was hoping you\'d ask that,\" he said, grinning. \"She was so happy to hear you were alive, and wanted to come with me to meet you. I told her I didn\'t think you\'d be too happy to have some strange girl attacking you.\" Omi smiled his usual shy smile, and Ken turned around.

\"We\'ve been at the flowershop the whole time. Manx and Mau moved in a while back, and have been running it with Sakura and Ayachan ever since.\"

Omi nodded, understanding, and crossed the street. The flowershop was right on the next corner. As Ken got to the sidewalk, a girl came hurtling out of the shop, and barreled down on them.

\"KEEEeeeeeEEEEeeeEEnnnNNNNnnnNNNN-KUuuuUUUUUuuuUNNNnnnnnNNN!!!\" She hollered, jumping into his lap, and hugging him. \"Is this him? Are you Omi?\" She clambered off of Ken, and threw herself at Omi. Omi hugged her, looking a little surprised. He glanced at Ken, who nodded.

\"Mauchan, this is Omi. Omi, this is Mau, your sister.\"

She beamed. \"My real name is Ren, but I like Mau better. I\'m a part of Kritiker, too. When Weiss went under, Mama took me in as a replacement hacker. I\'m not NEARLY as good as you, though. Do you know that you are LEGENDARY at Kritiker? Yohji and Aya were found. Ken\'s still alive. But YOU. You just vanished, right off the face of the earth, Poof!\" She gestured wildly as she spoke. Omi could see a lot of her parents in her. He\'d always known that his father and secretary were close, but he\'d never ever guessed HOW close they really were.

Taking out his notepad, he scribbled a quick :it\'s nice to meet you: and handed it over. She looked sad.

\"You can\'t talk?\" she asked. Omi shook his head. \"Why not?\" She handed him back the pad of paper.

:I stopped talking after Weiss.... I just... can\'t, now. I\'ve tried:

Ken suddenly frowned. \"If you can\'t talk, then how did you answer the phone?\"

Omi was writing for a long time. :Nagi, Schu, and Papa got together, and made a machine that takes my thoughts, and channels them into a voice that sounds like mine. I have to think AT the thing, though, and I can\'t be too far away from it. They\'re working on a better one that I can carry with me, so I can talk without having to write things down:

Both Mau and Ken at the same time exclaimed, \"Papa?!\" They were interrupted as Sakura, Manx, and Aya chan came flying out and decended on Omi like a flock of birds. He hugged them all, and Ken explained what he knew of the situation. Manx\'s eyes narrowed.

\"You\'ve spent all this time with Schwarz?\" she asked, a little incredulously. Omi nodded.

:Schu picked me up off the road when I was walking back after.... And then I\'ve stayed with them ever since. It took them months to get the thought machine-thing to work right:

\"Schu? Who\'s PAPA?\" She asked.

Omi took the pad back, and drew pictures. :Nagi, Schu, Papa, and Farf: he labeled them. :Nagi.. telekinetic. - me. Schu..Schuldig, telepath. - yohji. Papa..Crawford, precognition - Aya. Farf..Farfarello, the madman... - Ken.: He clarified further, telling them who they fought, and what they had.

:Farf is my best friend. He\'s insane, especially when it comes to revenge for his family, but when he\'s not fighting, he\'s a lot of fun to be around. Schuldig can be a pain sometimes, but he\'s not ALL bad. Papa is.. papa. He\'s like my father. And Nagi...: Omi didn\'t write anything, just smiled. Ken nodded knowingly.

\"I see,\" he said. \"I\'ll give you our number, and you can call, because I\'m sure you can\'t stay here forever.\" He looked a little sad. Omi seemed surprised, but nodded.

:Thank you...: he wrote. Mau jumped on him. \"You have to call! YOU HAVE TO YOU HAVE TO YOU HAVE TO!!\" She shouted. \"You\'re my only brother! I have to hear your voice!\"

Aya giggled. \"Mauchan, calm down. You\'re going to kill him.\" Mau climbed off of Omi, and hugged him. Omi hugged everyone else, said good bye, and wandered back to the house. Schuldig was waiting for him when he arrived, and hugged him.

\"Did you see them all?\" he asked. Omi nodded happily. \"Crawford thought you might.\" Omi\'s eyes widened. \"He didn\'t know for sure, that\'s why he didn\'t say anything.\" Schuldig winked. \"You should call Mau, though. I think she\'d like to hear from you.\" Omi nodded, and called them.

Crawford arrived to see him on the phone, and smiled. It was somewhat bittersweet, though. //I hate to have them reunited, and just torn away again..// he thought.

Nagi came in after Crawford, hauling the bags. He nearly dropped everything when Omi turned around, a huge grin on his face. For a moment, he thought that Omi was going to SAY something, but he merely dropped the phone and ran for him, hugging him. Scribbling on his notepad, he barely managed to get it all down before Crawford was reading it, and hugging him.

Nagi saw it all, and felt his world come tumbling down. Omi had his friends... He had a family. He didn\'t need them anymore.

Turning back into the angsty teen he used to be before Omi had come to them, he stormed off into his room, slamming the door. Schuldig and Crawford exchanged a \'look\' while Omi stared at the closed door, feeling sad.

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wow. that took a long time to update. I\'m sorry. I had an entire chapter written, but I lost it somewhere, and I\'m not sure which disk its on. I didn\'t like the first version, anyway. This one\'s much better. Sooo... what will omi do? will he go back to Ken and his sister, or will he stay with Schwarz?

And I know Schwarz is kind of OOC. I CAN\'T make them jerks. i can\'t. i always end up writing them into the part of \'good on the inside, but bad because they have to be\'. besides, they\'re a team. Omi\'s part of that now. Team members have to get a long, or else they wouldn\'t work as well together.