Castle Down

You're in my stars you know
Don't need no crystal ball to tell me so
Whispering in the air
Hoping that my words find you somewhere
Even when I close my eyes
I'll never recreate the Time that flies
The consequence is hanging there
The sky will fall but I don't care

--

It had been over two weeks since he'd come into the Schwarz house-hold, and no one told him why he was there. Nanami continued to bring him meals in what he'd begun considering 'his' bedroom, Crawford and Farfarello were content to ignore him, and Schuldig passed comments or questions through his telepathy. The only one of them who actually paid him any mind was Nagi, whose fierce glaring got angrier and narrower whenever Nanami was within five feet of him.

He'd taken up the roof-top oasis as his own sort of 'special place' - Nanami had helped him bring up a few blankets and a pillow to make it comfortable to sit, and she'd go up and visit whenever she found a spare moment.

Omi didn't have anything to do, so instead he kept up working out, stretching his muscles back into the shape they'd lost while he'd spent a week laying unconscious on the bed. The only thing that drove him off the roof was rain, and he had to scramble to bring the blankets in before they became too wet. Nanami went to the local high school, he gradually learned, and Nagi had been attending a college for two years.

"Omi-kun," Nanami called, and he turned around to see her exiting the door that lead to the roof. "You shouldn't spend so much time up here," she chastised gently.

He shrugged. "Where else am I going to go? I don't have any money - the only reason I have things to wear is the charity of Schwarz-" They'd taken his shorts and done away with them at some point, he realized, because he couldn't find them since he'd put them into the laundry - just his suspenders and tee shirt had returned - but they'd been passing him jeans and tee shirts, and unopened packs of boxers and socks in the interrim. "-And I don't have anywhere else to go, besides. I can't just stay shut up inside the house all day, I'd go crazy."

She settled next to him on the blanket, and he moved over slightly to make enough room for her to sit comfortably. She still hadn't changed out of her school uniform yet, and arranged her skirt neatly around her knees. Because he'd seen her wander out of Nagi's bedroom wearing only a tank top and underwear before, he wasn't sure what prompted the modesty when she was in skirts.

"Crawford has suggested to me that you begin attending school, either with myself, or with Nagi, depending on how you do on the placement tests," she said after a long quiet.

"Messenger again, hm?" he asked wryly. She grinned, shaking her head.

"I don't mind it so much," she offered. "It means I get to talk to you, and they're keeping their distance because... well, I think they don't want to freak you out."

This was news to him; he'd assumed they'd stayed away because they couldn't stand to be near him.

"What does that mean?" Schuldig asked, poking his head around the corner of their little niche. "You wouldn't be here if we couldn't stand you," he said, and then threw something bulky and dark at him. "Get up, we're going shopping," he said. "Nana, Nagi's looking for you."

He disappeared back down the elevator as Omi tried to untangle the bundle Schuldig had thrown at him. It turned out to be a large black hoodie, and as he struggled to pull it over his head, Nanami got to her feet.

"I'll see you when you get back," she said, giggling when he finally got it on. It dwarfed him completely, and he pulled futilely at the sleeves to free his hands. "Your hairs a mess now," she said, and leaned down to smooth it out. He smiled at her.

"Thanks, Nanami." He watched her leave, and turned back to look out over the city. He was fixed with the strangest feeling that he should be looking for Weiss, instead of letting Schwarz take care of him. They were the bad guys, right? Never forgive the bad ones. But the longer he stayed, and realized that Crawford was almost fond of throwing things like shoes and phones - particularly at Schuldig - and Nagi was almost OCD with the things he did - It was almost like having a family, and he felt more guilty over not feeling guilty about not wanting to leave than he did-

-Shut the hell up and get down here before Crawford blows a fuse,- Schuldig snarked into his mind. He stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to take him back down to the apartment level. Almost instinctively he dodged the television remote that came flying through the air as he stepped off the small lift. Walking calmly into the kitchen after the device, he found Schuldig leaning against the counter in stitches.

"You looked ... so bored!" he gasped out between bone-wracking giggles. "Just... ducked... like it's a normal thing.. to dodge remotes!!"

Omi grinned at him, and then flicked a glance towards Crawford who had of course been the sender of the remote, and was now eyeing a glass of water that had been left on the counter. "Well, I think now would be a good time to leave," he said sternly, adding, Before Crawford drowns one or both of us in the sink.

That was of course the wrong thing to say, as it only set Schuldig off again, but this time he walked as he laughed, getting them downstairs to the parking garage.

--

"Before we go shopping," Schuldig said, handing over a card and a smirk. "We're stopping by the local dead-lot. I think you need to see something."
He was dressed in black jeans and a black hoodie, much as Omi was, with the exception that the hoodie and jeans were his own, and therefore fit correctly. Omi's trousers were being held up by the mercy of a good belt, and the hoodie, he'd discovered, had belonged to Crawford, which explained the size of it - it was practically a tent on him, and came nearly to his knees.

"Dead lot?" He repeated, trying to follow the logic behind the telepath's phrases.

"Yeah. Grave yard. Cemetary? Where the dead people live?" He parked haphazardly and Omi frowned.

"I know what a grave yard is," he said, not trying to hide his irritation. Schuldig put his hands up defensively.

"Just trying to help," he said, and made sure that the doors were locked before they set out towards the lines of graves. "Put your hood up," Schuldig said, grabbing the back of his own jacket and tucking his hair into it. "We rather stand out in this crowd, and I'd rather not be noticed today."

Omi tucked that information away, and pulled his hood up over his hair without question. Schuldig put a hand down on his shoulder, stopping them in front of a familiar lot.

"Well, I'll leave you be," he said, and began walking back down the way they'd just come, whistling. Omi watched him go for a moment, before turning his attention to the graves they'd stopped at. He saw Ouka's grave, and Shuichi and Reiji and Kikuno Takatori. Beside Ouka's was Masafumi, and beside that-

Omi's breath caught in his chest as he stared at his own name on the grave marker. So many things were suddenly explained - why he'd never heard anything about anyone searching for him. Why Schwarz had never suggested taking him back.

"Takatori Mamoru" was written in large, bold letters, with "Tsukiyono Omi" underneath. "Beloved Friend" and "1980 - 1999" followed, and he struggled with the realization that they thought he was dead. Had thought he was dead this whole time, even going so far as to hold a funeral for him. There were flowers - freesia, roses, cattleyas and gentians beside the grave, Weiss' contributions. There were other flowers, and stuffed animals leaning up against the stone marker as well, left there by the girls who frequented the shop.

He was still staring dumbly down at the grave when a snapped twig alerted him to the presence of someone else nearby. Schuldig was still beside the gate to the cemetary, giving him peace, and he looked the other way, another gasp wrenching itself out of his chest.

Ken was walking towards the grave, holding flowers. He looked up, and for a moment their eyes met, and sudden recognition dawned on Ken's face. Omi bolted back towards Schuldig, his hood slipping back slightly. Schuldig heard him coming, and turned to meet him, and Omi ran straight into him, throwing his arms around the telepath without thinking, just needing some human contact. Their hoods both fell backwards with the force of the embrace, and when Schuldig looked up, it was into the dumbfounded face of Ken, staring at the two of them with his jaw hanging open. Schuldig gave him a wave, tucked his arm around Omi's shoulders, and lead the younger boy back towards his car.

-

Ken stared at the place Schuldig and the blond who so resembled Omi had left, disbelieving his own eyes. When he'd walked up to find someone staring down at the grave, he'd just been forming the thought to hang back and let them have their private time, but when an all too familiar pair of blue eyes had looked up at him from under the dark hood concealing corn-silk hair, his heart had stopped.

Omi couldn't be standing at his own grave, because he'd been killed in the explosion he'd set off. It had to be a ghost he was seeing, he rationalized to himself. Any second now, the apparition would fade out, leaving him feeling sad, but at least better about knowing what had happened.

He hadn't been expecting his apparition to suddenly start running in the opposite direction, like someone who'd been caught doing something wrong. Ken dropped the flowers he'd been holding, and started walking after him quickly, determined to ask him where he'd been, why he hadn't come back-

He watched as the boy crashed into someone else in a black sweater, sending both hoods down with the impact, and his thoughts stuttered to a halt.

That was Omi - Schuldig - Schwarz waved - Arm around - Gone.

He stared at the place they'd disappeared for a long time, trying to figure out what had happened. That hadn't been a kidnapping; Omi - or the boy who looked like Omi - had gone with the telepath completely willingly.

Omi... was alive.

--

"I'm sorry," Schuldig said after a long period of silence. Omi glanced up at him, confused.

"Sorry for what?" he asked, hating that his voice broke on the question. Schuldig hadn't removed his arm, and Omi hadn't asked him to. They simply matched their strides, and kept walking.

"I wasn't expecting any of your ... Any of Weiss to show up. If I had known he'd be coming, I wouldn't have brought you today. But Crawford felt... it was something you needed to see for yourself."

"You guys knew. All this time, you knew that I was... dead." It was a harsh thing to get his mind around.

"Crawford reads the paper every day," Schuldig said. "Front to back. Obituaries and all. He... saw your name a few days after we picked you up out of the building." He didn't add that Nanami and Nagi had actually gone to the funeral they'd held for him, or that one of the stuffed animals leaning up against the grave was her old bunny rabbit, or that Crawford had decided to give him the entrance exam to the college Nagi was attending - all that was something he would learn later, or not at all.

"I... see." Omi said quietly, and then fell silent for the rest of the duration of the walk to the mall.

--
TBC
Lyrics are Juliet, by Emilie Autumn
Chapter is dedicated to my beautiful Liebe, whom everyone knows I love more. <3