Castle Down

You know I think it's strange
Just a little bit deranged
That you think I'm gonna change to make you happy
If you can tell me why
I should wait around then I
May be coming down
But until then this means
You can see me in your dreams

--

Omi peered around at the piles of clothing, hanging from racks and folded on shelves, an entire store devoted to clothes. He'd been wearing the same things for nearly three years, and hadn't been clothes shopping for more than socks and underwear in nearly that long.

"I have no idea where to even begin," he said hopelessly, and Schuldig grinned. They'd agreed by mutual, unspoken consent not to mention the scene at the cemetary. Instead, they'd moved right back onto the task at hand - shopping.

"Start with... pants," Schuldig suggested. "That's what I always start with, anyway." He looked around for the hanging sign that announced the location of mens wear. Finding it, he tugged Omi off in that direction. "Clothes shopping is never easy, but I always find it fun. Especially choosing things to match-"

"Like your green jacket?" Omi interjected, spying the jeans pile.

"Or not match," Schuldig finished smugly. Omi went immediately for the cargo pants, and Schuldig pushed a hand down on his shoulder. "You're not buying clothes three sizes too big for you," he said. "You're buying jeans that fit you, because chances are, you'll be taken out with us sometimes, and Crawford will kill me if you don't have respectable clothes."

"I...what?" The revelation had startled him so much that he didn't protest when Schuldig held up a pair of boot-cut jeans to his waist to judge his size.

"These look like they'll fit," he said. "Try them on really quick." He pushed Omi towards the fitting room with them. A few moments after the door had shut, he heard Omi from within.

"They're too small," he complained.

"Open the door," Schuldig directed him, and peeked in, tugging at them. "They're not, they fit just fine. You're just used to wearing Nagi's jeans." In the two years since they'd battled at the museum in the ocean, Omi had grown a few inches, while Nagi had sprouted up like a weed, until he stood several inches above Omi and had filled out in the shoulder, as well. It was a good thing that he'd finally hit his growth spurt, because Omi was certain that the uniform he wore for his college classs wouldn't have fit otherwise - he was destined to wear school uniforms forever, it seemed, and Omi hadn't been sure he owned normal clothes, until he'd been forced to lend some of them to the older teen. He'd gone from wearing the washed grey uniform in high school to a black uniform of the same cut for college. Schuldig said that it had something to do with the schools being run by the same people, but he'd mostly just accepted that Nagi wore uniforms like Crawford wore suits, and Schuldig wore wild colours that no one in their right mind would wear publicly, and Farfarello was the most normal of all, preferring jeans and long sleeved tee-shirts when he wasn't dressed for one of their 'jobs.'

"We don't do 'missions'," Schuldig said. "We're not missionaries. We do jobs. We work."

"They're not comfortable," Omi complained again about the fit. Schuldig made a 'tch' noise.

"Bend over," he said, and the blond gave a startled squawk when the telepath actually reached over and pushed him by the shoulders. "Can you still breathe?"

"Yes?" Omi said, confused. Schuldig released him.

"They fit. Put them in the basket." He closed the door behind him to allow Omi to change back into his own - or Nagi's, depending on how you looked at it - jeans. They had a brief argument over the size of the jeans before Omi finally relented, and set them down into the basket Schuldig had snagged.

They returned to the jeans section, and Omi picked up three more pairs of the same size, only in black. Schuldig raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment beyond picking up three more pairs.

"You're not just adding clothes, you're building an entirely new wardrobe," he said. "You need lots and lots of everything." This in mind, Omi picked up another two pairs of blue jeans, a pair of khaki, and on a whim, a pair of brown jeans with buckles on them.
They moved into the tee shirt section, and Omi automatically reached for the biggest size he could find in solid black. Schuldig gave him a look, and he frowned back.

"I'm not giving in on this," he said. "I'll buy smaller shirts too, but I have to have a few big ones."

"No shorts?" Schuldig asked, and watched the blond's expression close off slightly.

"No shorts," he said flatly, and picked up another four-x sized tee shirt.

Schuldig eyed it balefully, deciding to pass the awkward moment over, then grabbed the shirt and held it up to Omi's chest. "It comes down to your ankles," he barked.

"Does not, it comes down to my knees," Omi argued.

"That's past your knees, kid," Schuldig said. In fact it only fell below his knee by an inch or two, but the sleeves would fall to nearly his wrist when he wore it. "Crawford's going to flip a lid, he told me not to let you buy anything bigger than what would fit him."

"Tell him I snuck it into the basket while you weren't looking," Omi said arbitrarily. He set the tee shirts down, and turned to the smaller sizes.

"Just black?" Schuldig asked, questioning Omi's choice of solid black, un-decorated shirts. The blond shrugged, unwilling to share his reasons behind the choice. Schuldig let it go, tucking it into the back of his mind to reflect on later.

They moved on to long sleeved shirts, jackets, tank tops, pajama pants, swimming trunks - just in case, Schuldig said with a wink. He did notice that everything Omi picked was black, but refrained from commenting aside from, "You're going to look very dull." Omi shot him a dirty look, and he backed off again. Socks, underwear, and three pairs of shoes - a pair of sneakers, a pair of boots, and a pair of dress shoes - also went into the basket, and Schuldig proclaimed their shopping done.

"Not yet," Omi said quietly. "But we need to go to another store. Is there a pharmacy or something around here?"

Schuldig looked surprised, but Crawford had told him not to poke into Omi's mind unless absolutely necessary. The temptation was great, but he refrained. "A pharmacy? Right across the street, and down a ways. Why?"

Omi refused to answer with the same look on his face as he'd refused to explain the black clothes, and Schuldig didn't press it; he simply helped carry the bags out to the car, and waited while Omi hurried into the store alone.

He came out holding a brown paper bag, and said nothing as he got back into the car. Schuldig eyed it speculatively, but couldn't think of what it could be. The drive home was spent in silence, except for the German music that never got shut off while the car was on. It was quiet enough that it didn't disturb them much. Schuldig found himself singing along with the bawdy lyrics, chuckling to himself sometimes, until Omi finally broke the quiet.

"What are they saying?"

Schuldig chuckled again, and set about explaining the lyrics. By the time they'd gotten home, the mood had lifted considerably, and Omi entered the house with his bags full and a smile on his face.

It dropped off immediately when the first person he turned around and saw when he opened the door was Nagi, scowling thunderously.

"Schuldig, Crawford's been trying to get a hold of you for an hour. Why the hell didn't you take your phone?" Omi sidled past him, dropping his bags in the corner of 'his' room. The top drawer had been locked by someone, when he wasn't looking, but the room had been officially given to him, and he set about putting his new clothes away.

"Hey, kid, when you're ready, we need to go out and get you new sheets, towels, that sort of stuff," Schuldig said, leaning on the door frame.

"Going out again?" Omi asked; he'd been hoping to have a chance to retreat to the top of the roof and be alone for a while to reflect on everything he'd learned.

"It'll be quick," Schuldig said, making his tone sound as hopeful as he could, trying to lure Omi out to finish the shopping.

"... I'd really rather not right now," Omi said quietly, and finished putting the clothes into the closet. Schuldig stood quietly for a moment, then nodded.

"Alright," he said, and vanished from the door. Omi relaxed, feeling glad to get out of the house, and practically ran for the elevator.

He found Nanami already up there, with a clipboard in her hand. "Crawford said you're to take this and give it back to him," she said, and handed it to him before getting up and dusting herself off. The sun was going down, but it was still light enough to see the paper. He was halfway done with it before he realized it for what it was: a college entrance exam. The questions were surprisingly easy to him, and he flew through the whole thing, only struggling a little with a few of the more obscure questions.

It was easy, but long, and by the time he'd finished it was well past ten o clock. He stood to go downstairs, and found Nagi and Nanami pressed against the little storage shed, kissing. He felt his face heat up, and he averted his eyes as he walked past to go downstairs. He heard behind him, "fuck..forgot..." from Nagi and Nanami start to say something before the whirring of the gears drowned them out. Schuldig and Farfarello toasted him with bottles of Guinness when he stepped off the elevator, and he made a mental note to stay in his room if those two were drinking.

He knocked quietly on the door to Crawford's office, only pressing it open when he received an answer from within.

"Crawford," he said by way of greeting. "Nanami told me to give this back to you." He handed over the test, and retreated to the door.

"Thank you," Crawford said. "Schuldig went out and did your shopping for you. He said, he felt he'd do a good job of it. If you're unhappy, you may inform me, and I'll have him return anything you don't like."

Omi nodded, and returned to his room. The blue sheets, blankets, and curtains had been replaced by black bedding and curtains. A dark blue tooth brush sat next to the same brand of toothpaste he'd used at the Koneko, beside the same shampoo. A small pile of black towels rested next to the rest, along with a dark blue body loofah and body wash.

"Is everything alright?" Schuldig asked from the door. Omi nodded.

"Thank you," he said, gathering the toiletries.

"I couldn't find sponges and tooth brushes in black, so I got the darkest ones I could," Schuldig added. Omi dropped his things off in the bathroom, and turned.

"I'm going to take a shower," he said, and Schuldig noticed that he had his brown bag from the pharmacy. He saluted again with his beer, and returned to the living room.

--

Ken called a meeting with Ran and Yohji when the other two were out of the shop.

"I know this is going to sound crazy," Ken started. "But... I went to ... his grave today. You know, cause it's... been a month. And... I saw him there!" He'd gone over it in his head all day, trying different ways of saying it, of leading into it, and then all his work had gone to nothing as he just blurted it out without preamble.

"Do you need... a few days off?" Ran asked quietly, giving him a searching look. Ken shook his head.

"I'm not crazy!" he insisted. "I really, really saw him."

"Was he transparent?" Yohji asked wryly. Ken recognized defense mechanisms going up in both of them - they wanted to believe that what Ken said was true, but neither could bear it if...

Ran was used to taking care of people, and he did it automatically. Yohji's defense was humor, of course, and he could see another joke working it's way to the front of the blond's mind.

"He wasn't a ghost. I'm really... not even sure if it was him," Ken revealed. "But the look he gave me when he saw me... and he ran. If it was just some random kid, he wouldn't have run, would he?"

"But why would Omi have run from you? You'd think he'd have come back with you," Ran argued.

"Maybe he didn't rem-" Yohji started, but Ken cut him off.

"If he didn't remember me, he wouldn't have run! Unless Schuldig really did do something to him!"

"Schuldig!?" Both of them jumped to their feet at this new piece of news.

"He ran away from me - and left with someone who looked like Schuldig. They were both wearing black sweaters, and their hair was covered up, but they fell, and he definitely had that crazy red hair. It was shorter, or pulled up, but definitely him."

"If he's really alive - really with Schwarz - we have to get him back," Yohji asserted.

"But we haven't seen any of Schwarz in over a year," Ken argued. "We don't know where to find them!"

"Trust me, Ken. If they've got Omi, we'll find them," Ran said darkly.

--
TBC
Lyrics are How Strange, by Emilie Autumn