Ende du Nacht
By Amidala

Konnichiwa, minna-san. This is my second attempt at a Weiß Kreuz story, and it was written at 1
or so in the morning. Only Aya/Ran and Schuldich appear, and it's not your normal plot line.
You'll see what I mean. Enjoy!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

<What am I doing here?> Ran sighed to himself.

He stood at the entrance of the Magic Bus Hospital, just standing there staring at the building
that had been his sister's home for so long. Aya-chan was finally awake, however, and there was
no need for him to be here. He had come out of habit, really.
<Right. It's one thing to *know* that I shouldn't really be here, but the fact remains
that I'm still here.>

Ran sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. He moved out of the sun and sat on one of the
benches near the entrance.
"So ... has the kitten become a hospital voulenteer? Or does he have nothing better to
do?"

Ran groaned mentally, aware that the newcomer could hear him. He knew that voice all too well.
"Damn you Schuldich, go away. Weiß has disbanded for good, now, and I am *not* in the
mood to fight with you."

The German flashed a smirk at the back of Ran's head. He shrugged and moved to sit next to his
former enemy, who favored him with a sideways glare. The telepath just grinned and rumaged in
his trench coat for a pack of cigarettes, which he held out to Ran in offering. The said man did
nothing but stare at them silently, as if they were something rather disgusting found on the
bottom of his shoe.
"Gonna take 'em or not, kitten?" Schuldich asked, lighting his own.

Ran refused them with a slight shake of his head. The other man shrugged and stuck them back in
the pocket they had come from, inhaling deeply from his own.
"What do you want, Schuldich?"
"Hmmmm?"

The German turned bright green eyes on his younger companion.
"You don't come here to help or feed the birds. What do you want?"
"I'm hurt, kitten. Can't a man just sit with his old friend?"

Ran snorted, "Old friend my ass."
"Hai ... and what a nice ass it is."

Schuldich snickered as a faint bluch spread across his former enemies cheeks. Then he looked up
at the window that used to be Aya-chan's room.
"She's awake now, isn't she?" he asked.

The younger man meerly nodded. The German sighed and swatted him on the head.
"Baka. Then why are *you* here? What do *you* want? She's awake and you're alive. Why
aren't you spending time with her? Why you don't take her to the movies or something?"

Ran was silent.
<<Because I'm tainted.>>
"Oh, don't give me that self-pittying bullshit."

The younger man looked up at Schuldich, surprised despite the fact that he knew he shouldn't be.
"Everybody is this God forsaken world is tainted in someway or another. The only true
innocent is the unborn child, and that ends when they're born. It can't be helped. It's on the
news, in the paper, in the movies, you can't get away from it ... unless you live under a rock,"
he paused as Ran snorted, "I'm serious, kitten. And by not spending time with your once
life-line, your "innocence", you're corrupting her."

Ran made a sound of protest, but the German silenced him with a wave.
"You *killed*, just to see her wake up. You left *Ran* with that sleeping girl so he
wouldn't be tainted, and became Aya. Aya isn't needed anymore, and it's about damn time you let
him go on his un-merry way."

There was a long pause.
"How do you know all this?" Ran asked timidly, "When did you become so damn insightful
and full of advice?"

Schuldich gave him a tired grin.
"I spent my free time for two years putting a young child's mind back together. She'd
suffered slight brain damage after being run over by a car, the same night her parents were
murdered and her house exploded, trapping her brother under the rubble."

The younger red head gawked at the older man as he rose gracefully from the bench and began
walking away.
"Matte!" Ran shouted, jumping up.

The telepath paused.
"She loves you, Ran. She knows what you did and still loves you. What more do you want?"
he started walking again, waving over his shoulder, "Go back to the other kittens, they're your
family now."

Ran stared after him, the words of the other man bouncing around in his head. Finally he smiled
and walked back to Kitty In The House, not looking back.

~OWARI~

This came from me being sick of stories that portray all the Schwartz members as evil bastards.
They are my favorite characters in the show (Schuldich and Nagi are, anyway) and I'm also sick of
Aya/Ran being nothing but a cold, unforgiving bastard.