Deal With the Devil

It was a rare moment, a graceless moment and one Schuldig was sure that he had to record for posterity before rescuing the hapless victim from his own wires. Someone, and Schuldig was sure heads would roll over the fact, had short fused the explosives that Weiss had placed in the building. Yohji had been on the top floor when the frantic call from Bombay had reached him about the short amount of time he had to get clear. Schuldig pulled his cell phone from a pocket and snapped several pictures, taking care to make sure each picture was aesthetically pleasing as possible. What good was having any dirt on someone if the job was half-assed and the victim unrecognizable? Schuldig did have some pride in his work beneath the sarcasm.

Using his wire, Yohji had pulled a stunt worthy of Spiderman to swing free of the building, but the concussion wave from the explosion had tossed his body like a leaf on the wind and wound him tightly in his own wire. In short, Yohji looked like an abandoned puppet dangling bound and broken from the upper branches of a tree. Schuldig walked around the base of the tree with his hands in his pockets and whistled in mocking appreciation of Yohji's predicament. He telepathically prodded Yohji's sluggish awareness and was vastly amused that the usually suave and smooth talking man could come up with nothing more intelligent than the Japanese equivalent of "Whafuck?"

"Kudou," Schuldig chortled. "You're in quite the mess this time, aren't you?"

Yohji tilted his head as much as he was able to try and focus. He knew that sarcastic, nasal voice. Gasping in pain at the blooming headache, Yohji finally managed to locate the direction of the voice. Ah damn, what had he ever done to deserve this? There were three of the red headed, snarky bastards watching him dangle, all of them slightly overlapping and all had their heads cocked to the side in malicious amusement.

"I'm in hell, aren't I?" Yohji rasped. "I finally got killed and all of you are here to torment me for eternity."

Schuldig frowned in confusion until he simply pulled the reason for Yohji's irrational comments directly from his head. Even his deft invasion made the other assassin moan with pain and retch a little.

"Ohhh, baby got a nasty blow to the head, did he?" Schuldig purred. He gave Yohji a slight push and made his body swing idly in the confining wire.

Yohji gasped from the resulting vertigo and retched some more. Dry heaves. He never ate before a mission, thankfully. Schuldig stepped close enough that his three blurry selves merged into one smirking telepath.

"Bastard," Yohji mumbled and closed his eyes.

"Tsk, tsk," Schuldig clicked his tongue in mock disapproval. "That's no way to talk to someone who was thinking of rescuing a kitty from a precarious perch. I could just leave you here, you know. Sooner or later anyone left alive is going to investigate what happened to the building. I imagine they would find you an amusing target for revenge."

Schuldig buffed his nails on his coat lapel and watched Yohji slowly process all the information through his scattered thoughts.

"Get me down," Yohji finally said.

"No manners either, Kudou," Schuldig chided. "Since you can't even seem to summon a bit of gratitude...what's in it for me to let you loose?"

Yohji boggled at his occasional fuck buddy in disbelief. "You want to bargain for some sort of trade? You asshole, I've helped you out of more than one messed up situation."

Schuldig smiled, looking disturbingly, gleefully like a demented pixie.

"Hello? You're the White Knight. You're supposed to do that shit. I'm the dark beast. I do things only when there is something in it for me."

Yohji was so tempted to tell Schuldig to fuck off. Even though he knew better, his body struggled against the wires and only succeeded in making them tighter to the point they were cutting into his skin through his mission coat. Yohji could feel trickles of blood running along his various injuries and the sounds of sirens in the distance. Dimly he wondered about what happened to his comm gear and figured it was destroyed in the explosion. He slid his eyes to where Schuldig was still waiting for his answer. The telepath looked slightly bored and would probably just as easily walk away without a qualm. The sirens were growing louder.

"What do you want?" Yohji finally asked.

The reluctantly voiced question had Schuldig giving Yohji his full attention and his eyes glittered with lust and malice.

"While I admit the timing sucks, Kudou, I like the look. You, the leather, the fact you are all tied up and helpless." Schuldig reached up to trail a finger under Yohji's chin to force eye contact. "I want that, under better conditions, of course."

Yohji blinked, just the thought of being bound and at Schuldig's dubious mercy sending a curl of fear through his gut. He would be a fool ten times over to willingly hand such control over to the sadistic telepath. Again, the urge to tell Schuldig to fuck off ghosted through his mind. Muted shouts in the distance made his decision for him.

"When?" Yohji asked, his voice weakening from deepening shock and blood loss.

"No time like the present," Schuldig answered and sent a well aimed shot straight through Yohji's brain to render the other assassin unconscious.

Schuldig deftly sliced through the wires and hoisted his burden over his shoulder, moving with unhurried grace to his parked car. He smiled wickedly at his luck in catching Yohji's thoughts earlier in the night when he was cruising looking for some mayhem to ease the boredom of being in between jobs. Schuldig eyed the pale and bloody form crumpled in his passenger seat. Oh yes, his night had just gotten a hell of a lot better.

TBC, muwhahahaha. Yes, I am an evil, evil thing for withholding the second part until after I get some sleep.