REBATE

Part Two

    Nagi had often watched the bullet trains pulling out of Osaka, but while he'd gone into the main station as far as he could on numerous occasions, he'd never had the opportunity to be a passenger. As he was hauled towards the wickets behind this ridiculous pair, however, he couldn't appreciate the experience. His thoughts were racing as he tried to figure out how to get away from this, but every time they'd come to a door on the way here and he held it shut with his gift, Farfarello pushed through easily. The white haired man's grip on his wrist was unflinching and so tight he'd lost the blood in his fingers, and numerous attempts to use his power on either of them failed. Even when he managed to get a slight grip on Schuldich, Farfarello somehow shook it off.

    He'd tried calling for help only once. No one had looked but it had taken four streets for his ears to stop ringing from Schuldich's punch. There was nothing left to do but stumble after them as they brought him across the city and to the main station, and he watched as Schuldich passed the line at the ticket counter completely. No one seemed to notice that the maniac was skipping ahead of them and the cashier dropped everything he was doing to tend to him. Farfarello, standing closer to the wickets with Nagi at his side, was keeping an eye on the crowd that moved around them.

    Nagi gave his arm a wrench to try and free it, knowing it wouldn't work but refusing to be a docile little captive. "Let me go," he ordered Farfarello. "I said I wasn't going with you."

    Farfarello offered him a bored look. "Numerous times," he agreed. "Count the money in your pocket and be quiet."

    "I want to know what's going on," Nagi demanded, jerking at his hand again. His fingers were almost as white as Farfarello's now and he squeezed at them with his free hand, trying to work any blood through his captured wrist. "Your stupid companion is the one that initiated things tonight. You can't blame me for stealing from an idiot. He should have known better than to follow a kid into an alleyway."

    "You're not a kid," Farfarello pointed out, and Nagi flicked him a sharp look. "You're seventeen."

    "I'm what?" Nagi answered, too startled by the accurate rejoinder to come up with something better. He was indeed seventeen, but he looked years younger. He'd hated it until he'd realized that it was easier to get clients when he looked younger than he was. Older women- and men- just couldn't resist the temptation of his no-strings-attached smile and youthful face. Even the clothes he wore helped detract from his age, a carefully constructed façade. "Well, your partner is a sick bastard," he said at last. "I look like a kid."

    "He knew you were older," Farfarello answered, not impressed by the hard tone.

    "If you're mad that I robbed him-"

    "If I was, I would not have given you your money back."

    Nagi struggled with that for a moment. "Then why am I here?" he demanded, looking over towards Schuldich where he was heading their way. Blue eyes were downcast to count tickets and he looked even gaudier with the fake, fluorescent lights of the station glinting off shiny clothes and horrible hair. "You have nothing to gain from kidnapping me. My parents wouldn't pay the ransom and my teachers wouldn't notice."

    "Mm."

    "Will you fucking answer me?"

    "Do shut him up," Schuldich said, pausing by their sides just long enough to hand Farfarello two of his tickets. "I don't want to listen to him bitch the whole way back to Tokyo."

    "I want an answer," Nagi snapped at him. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

    Schuldich got right in his face, catching Nagi's free hand and wrenching it to the side. "You're going," he said with a smile that promised bloody things. "If we had a choice in this, we wouldn't have picked you. We're supposed to be killing the locals, not giving them our hard-earned money. People are going to get the wrong idea about us if you come along."

    "As if I want to be seen with foreigners, either," Nagi spat back at him.

    "Suck my German dick, you racist yellow punk."

    "So you're a Nazi, then," Nagi said, curling his lip in disgust.

    "Heil Hitler," Schuldich drawled at him, shoving him away. "He's really fucking cute, Farfarello. We're killing him when this is over."

    "Ask Crawford first."

    "Jesus Christ," Schuldich started, but Farfarello's hand in his hair cut off whatever else he was going to say. One moment the tacky German was turning away, and the next, he was yanked hard up against Farfarello. Nagi saw white lips move against the bright man's ears but even this close to them he couldn't hear what was said. Whatever it was, he saw Schuldich tense up in reaction. Farfarello smiled against Schuldich's cheek, a lazy, almost dreamy sort of expression, and Nagi jerked his eyes away from it and the stupid things it did to his gut.

    "Whatever," Schuldich muttered, and Farfarello let him go. The wraith started towards the wickets, pulling Nagi after him, and he stuffed a ticket in Nagi's hands before going through.

    One twist of Nagi's gift broke the machine as he was coming up to it, and when he tried to poke his ticket in the slot, it wouldn't accept it. "Tough luck," he told Farfarello, and the bar he pushed at to walk through wouldn't budge.

    Farfarello came up on the other side of the bar and Nagi felt himself flinching back instinctively. He couldn't move far enough before Farfarello's free hand caught him by a belt loop, and then Nagi's feet left the floor as the foreigner neatly plucked him up. A shoe skimmed against the machine as he was lifted over the wicket entirely and Farfarello set him down before handing his ticket out to a slack-jawed station attendant. The ticket was stamped and Schuldich went through a different machine to join them.

    Farfarello hauled Nagi towards the escalators going down and put a step between them before turning around. It put them at eye level and Nagi stared at the eye patch before dragging his gaze to the man's single yellow eye.

    "Do it again," Farfarello invited him. "Crawford said we had to bring you there. He didn't say you had to be in one piece."

    "Who is Crawford?" Nagi demanded. "And what does he want with me?"

    "So besides being vertically challenged, he's hearing impaired," Schuldich said from the step right behind him. Fingernails raked through his hair, digging deep enough to find skin, and Nagi started to turn on him to hit him when Farfarello caught his elbow. The pale foreigner moved up onto the empty step and tightened his grip, and Nagi felt claustrophobic from being stuck between them. "We already identified you as a telekinetic and we already said we're going to use that power in a job. Try to listen more carefully, because Crawford is not going to repeat a damn thing to you."

    Nagi's mouth was open for a retort, but they'd reached the bottom of the escalator then and he was jerked away from it before he could get a word out. Their platform was a short ways down the hall and they took eight stairs up to where the track was. Despite the evening hour the station was far from empty, but the two foreigners dragged their unwilling guest down until they'd passed the others waiting on their train. A small convenience shop was still open and doing business but the door was facing the other tracks, so Schuldich propped himself against the wall. Nagi was stuck halfway between the tracks and the German, pulled there by Farfarello as he studied the tracks, and he fixed a dark look on the back of the white haired man's head.

    "So you know about my gift," Nagi bit out, "and you say you want to borrow it for something. That still doesn't tell me anything."

    "Simplify it for him, Farfarello," Schuldich said. "I've filled up my tolerance quota for stupidity already."

    "That's because you used it all up yourself, you pedophiliac bastard," Nagi sent over his shoulder.

    "You're too mouthy for your own damn good," Schuldich said, and Nagi saw orange move out of the corner of his eye. He couldn't turn before arms slid over his shoulder, and Farfarello glanced back as Schuldich started to pull the teenager backwards. Instead of pulling him free he followed the tug to let Schuldich pull Nagi back with him to the wall, and Nagi could feel Schuldich's breath on his cheek as the German pressed Nagi up against him. He moved his leg to break Schuldich's ankle with a hard kick but Farfarello reached out with a foot, neatly tripping him up, and Schuldich was turning even as Farfarello let go of his wrist at last.

    Nagi hit the brick wall of the store so hard it knocked the breath out of him and Schuldich's body was a line of hard heat along his back. He struggled with his power but it refused to listen, leaving just a cool humming along his skin.

    "Pedophiliac, hmmm?" Schuldich's hair framed his face and he could feel the German's breath along his cheek. He grabbed at the wall for purchase, trying to push back from it, and then Schuldich planted his feet behind Nagi's to keep him from kicking back at him. "You're the one that offered, if you'll remember. You're the one that followed me for two blocks, and you did walk away with five hundred thousand yen." His hands slipped around Nagi's sides and he forced them in between the teenager's body and the bricks. "It's a hell of a lot more than I was going to give a punk like you."

    "Get off of me," Nagi warned him, but he felt cold all over with his power out of reach. He'd never been without it before; he'd never dared play these games when he didn't have the upper hand. To be without it now and around such a bastard… It sent a chill down his spine.

    Worse than that was the sinking, twisting feeling in his gut as Schuldich's hands worked their way down to the front of his pants. One slid down over a denim thigh and the other worked at his crotch, rubbing and squeezing. Nagi clenched his teeth against a cry but he could feel it choking him and scrabbled desperately at his gift. "I think you owe me quite a bit. Let's see if you can handle the consequences of such shameless whoring, shall we?"

    "Fuck you."

    A tongue poked at his ear. "Are you a virgin, you mouthy little bitch? Is that mouth of yours only good for talking trash?"

    Nagi's fingernails bit into the wall as Schuldich's hands yanked his zipper down. "Are you scared of me?" Schuldich purred in his ear, and fingers worked their way inside his pants. "Are you afraid of what I could do to you? None of these people here- not a fat fucking one- would come over to help you, even if you screamed. And Farfarello, right there? He wouldn't lift a finger to help you. How does it feel to be helpless, you whiny little shit? How does it feel to know that no one gives a damn about you?"

    "Stop it," Nagi warned him, but it came out tighter than he meant it to.

    Schuldich yanked a hand free so hard he must have left skin behind on the bricks and he hit the back of Nagi's head, cracking it forward against the wall. "Answer the fucking question, kid."

    "No," Nagi ground out.

    "No you won't or no is your answer?"

    "Fuck you."

    Another hit and Nagi felt skin give way along his forehead. He couldn't catch the pained whimper in time, and he definitely didn't miss the way Schuldich's fingers dug in tighter around him in response to the noise. It hurt and his mouth opened on a silent cry he didn't have the breath to voice; he didn't let himself have the breath for it because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to stop. "Yes or no?" Schuldich demanded.

    "No."

    "Fucking liar," Schuldich breathed, voice ragged. "Don't you ever lie to a telepath."

    "Our train is coming," Farfarello spoke up. "Get your drink."

    Schuldich pushed away from him instantly and waltzed off, and Nagi stood frozen against the wall for a minute more. Ice was working its way into a hollow knot in his gut and he couldn't seem to swallow against the tightness in his throat. At last he slid slowly down the wall into a crouch and clenched his fingers in his hair, trying to remember how to breathe. If the train hadn't been coming… No, no way was that man really so insane enough to rape him right here at a platform. But still… He was shaking and he couldn't figure out how to stop.

    Hands closed on his shoulder and lifted him effortlessly to his feet, and Nagi tried to jerk away only to hit his elbow on the wall. It hurt, really hurt, and he doubled over to grab at it. The sharp bite of pain on top of that near-miss and his useless power was almost the last straw. He felt his eyes stinging and he squeezed them shut, fighting to keep any tears from forming, fighting to keep the whimper in his chest.

    The weight of a hand on his pants just a moment later broke his thin self-control, and even as he lashed out he felt the hot streak of a tear over one cheek. Wide blue eyes stared up at Farfarello as the man shoved him roughly up against the wall with one hand, and he was already reaching out to aim for the man's good eye when he realized Farfarello had just zipped him up. Nagi reached down with shaking fingers to hook the button in place and scrubbed at his face, feeling the wetness there and hating it.

    "Don't cry," Farfarello told him blandly. "It'll make it worse."

    "He's a monster," Nagi said, a hoarse whisper.

    "Not just him," Farfarello corrected him. When Nagi just stared back at him, Farfarello offered him that dreamy smile. "Schuldich likes to kick kittens," he said. "I like to kill them. Don't cry. You'll make me want to kill you."

    The bullet train whipped by behind him, a white blur that was gradually slowing down, and Farfarello reached out and caught his wrist again. Nagi dug in his feet and Farfarello gave him a hard yank to pull him forward. He stumbled and collided with the taller man and he felt Farfarello's arm wrap around his shoulders easily. His shoulder popped as Farfarello crushed his smaller body close and he couldn't find the strength to struggle as he was dragged towards the nearest door.

    Schuldich caught up with them before they could board. He was swinging a small bag from the convenience store from his fingers and despite what had just happened against the wall, he didn't seem to even notice Nagi standing there. His posture was relaxed as he waited for the doors to open and he was humming something Nagi didn't try to recognize. Even still, Nagi was glad to have Farfarello in between him and the crude German.

    At last the doors opened and Farfarello pulled Nagi on with him. They were at the back of the last car and Farfarello pushed Nagi into the window seat before sitting beside him. Schuldich took the row in front of them.

    "Keep him quiet," Schuldich said, sounding bored, and he lifted an arm above his head to waggle his hand at them over the top of his seat. "If he tries to get away, don't wake me. Just kill him. Crawford can kill me later."

    Farfarello didn't answer, but Schuldich wasn't waiting. He turned sideways in his seat, propped himself against the window, and didn't budge or speak again. Nagi sat as still as stone for the first half of the trip, wondering if he could just reach out and cause engine trouble for the train, but Farfarello would know it was him. Even if Schuldich was asleep, Farfarello was more than enough. The white-haired man hadn't moved since he'd sat down except to blink and breathe, and Nagi leaned more against the window just to put space between them.

    "Why?" he wanted to know, feeling stronger with an hour between now and those hands on him. Schuldich was asleep now and Farfarello, though he'd done absolutely nothing to stop Schuldich, had zipped him back up. "Why are you taking me to Tokyo? What job?"

    "To do what telekinetics are best at," Farfarello answered. Nagi didn't look back at him but he could see the man's face reflected on the glass. "You're going to kill people."

    Nagi flicked him a sharp look. "I'm—"

    A hand was waiting for him when he whipped around, and the heel of a palm slammed his head back against the wall. He thought he heard Schuldich's sleepy query, but it was slurred past coherence as Nagi slipped away to darkness.


Part 3
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