Chapter 8
Well, process of elimination. This was the last safe house so he was either here or he was dead and he was offically giving up! An image of Omi's sad face fluttered into his mind; he sighed. Okay, so he wouldn't give up that easily but he would have to find more leads otherwise there wasn't anywhere else that he knew of to check.
At first glance the safe house looked dark and silent, but looks could be decieving, as he well knew. It didn't take all that long to break into the house; all he had to do was think "unlock" and the door did. Having telekinetic abilties did come in handy quite often. Still, he opened the door cautiously, just in case, but this one seemed as empty as the others. Two steps inside the door and he halted, hearing the soft mumuring of voices, voices that although were not extremely familiar to him were still familiar. But, two voices? Siberian had most likely been retrieved by Rex by now, but he certainly would not have ended up here.
He stepped into the doorway silently, but his presence shadowing the room made two trained assassins come alive instantly, ready for action. One of them winced in pain; both looked at him in shock, wondering if he were friend or foe.
"Balinese." He stared at him in mild surprise, having not expected to see him here. "Abyssinian."
"Nagi," Abyssinian acknowledged, his eyes narrowing slightly. Nagi recalled that the last time he had seen him he had wanted to cleve him in half with his sword - which really wasn't possible for him to do, though he had been welcome to try - and found himself assumed at the thought. The red-head did not even look capable of holding the weight of a sword at the moment and besides he had no intention of threatening them. Omi had told him that he needed to learn how to smile so that people weren't so intimidated by him, but he was sure that if he smiled he would only frighten people more.
"Omi sent me," he told them simply, not bothering to use his codename of Persia as he also had a tendency not to use his true name of Mamoru; Omi sounded nicer to his own ears, which was a bit obsurd, but it was not something he felt compelled to change.
They continued to stare at him as if he would suddenly turn into a cobra and try to bite them. Part of him was amused by their display while the rest of him was rather annoyed. How could he possibly talk to them if they thought he was suddenly going to change into some sort of monster and try to eat them? Frightened prey had a tendency not to listen to anything the predator said.
"What do you want?"
Obviously it wouldn't do any good to talk to them since they seemed unable to trust him and that was just as well. He dialed the familiar number on his phone.
"Nagi??" He winced faintly; Omi's voice had risen an octave and he could hear background noise that sounded distinctly like some sort of game. At least he was doing something other than sitting in the dark in front of his computer and worrying over what had happened to his friends. Most likely he had Siberian to thank for that, a thought which made him just ever so slightly jealous of the easy friendship between his lover and his used-to- be fellow assassin. "Did you find him? What happened?"
"I found them both," he reported as they glared at him. "They are bascially intact." He gave them a once over and decided Abyssinian would live. "Will you send Rex or shall I bring them back?"
There was a long pause on the other end of the line and he waited patiently. "Ask them if they want to come back before you do anything. If they are together then I assume that Balinese remembers everything again?"
"That would most likely be correct." After all, he hadn't bothered to ask, but it did make sense.
There was another silence, then a sigh. "Nagi, be nice to them." He could almost see Omi's exasperated expression. "Well, at least don't scare them, okay?"
"I don't know how sucessful that will be, but I will attempt to do as you say." He hung up and focused his attention back on the annoyed looking assassins.
"Well?"
Nagi stared at Abyssinian, his expression typically blank. "He is glad you are alive and wishes to know if you and Balinese will be returning with me. He does not want to force either of you to return."
"I will be returning. He will not."
He watched silently as Balinese's narrowed eyes focused on something either than him and was rather inclined to agree; he had lived most of his life hating being pushed around by other people and disliking orders except when they were necessary for survival. When other people tried to make his decisions for him it irked him to no end. People that irked Nagi tended not to live very long lives. That was probably why he got along so well with Omi; nothing he did could ever seem to upset him, no matter how ridiculous it was. Omi was just so - so, well, he hesitated to say "sweet" or even "innocent" because he was not exactly either of those things, but perhaps compassionate or kind would be adaquate words to describe him.
"Excuse me?" Balinese asked, sounding highly offended. "I won't be returning? Since when?"
Abyssinian glared at him in typical Evil Aya mode, but the effect was ruined when he swayed suddenly on his feet. In a moment Balinese had caught his arm to keep him from falling and sat him back down in a nearby chair, practically ignoring Nagi, not that he particularly minded that. Despite the fact that it seemed to happen often, Nagi did not like to be glared at and people staring at him also made him rather uncomfortable. Concealing shadows were much more comfortable, or a darkened room with only a computer screen's light to see by; Omi shared his opinions on that but was forced to smile in the spotlight because of who he was and he often heard him complain about that. It was good to hear his complaints, though because it made him feel human and it had been a long time since he had felt truly human.
"You are not needed anymore." The red-head's voice was firm and cold despite his physical limitations. "You can go back to the life you were living and I will return back to my own life. That's all there is to it."
Obviously Balinese did not see things his way at all. "With you, in your current state, you want me to leave you alone with him? With Nagi? I'm supposed to entrust your life to his hands? I don't think so!" Had Balinese always been so emotional? He wasn't entirely sure.
"Even if you don't trust him it doesn't really matter because Omi does and I don't believe that he would ever willingly endanger anyone if if wasn't necessary." Nagi definitely agreed with him on that point. Omi's kind heart ached everytime he had to send anyone at all into harm's way and the guilt he felt for every injury and every casulalty was deep and painful to see.
"Aya, it's NAGI! Remember? Schwartz? They tried to kill us many, many times? Even if he didn't exactly attack us the last time doesn't mean that he won't try something now." That he did not agree with. He generally did not randomly attack people and the record should state that in most cases he was acting on orders or he happened to be defending himself or his friends against the current enemy of the day.
"If you had the sense you were born with you would have realized that had he wanted us dead we would already be dead quite a long time ago." There was a definite growl in Abyssinian's now and had he the strength he most likely would have tried to strangle and/or smack the other man.
"How do you know that he isn't trying to trick us?"
"Youji, listen to yourself, for once!" Definite frustration event in his voice now, which was rather unusual for the assassin, but that could probably be chalked up to the pain he was experiencing from his injury.
"But it's Nagi!"
Nagi felt the urge to clear his throat or wave his hand in the air as a reminder to them that he did still exist and he was still standing in the same room as they were, well within hearing range. It wasn't worth it, though, and it really wasn't all that important, anyway. Let them deal with it. He was going to see if there was anything in the kitchen to eat because, contary to popular belief, he did, indeed, have to consume food in order to survive.
He sighed as he got himself a glass of water. Their raised voices could he heard quite clearly from the kitchen. He might not like them, but they were still Omi's friends and the two of them even seemed to enjoy arguing with each other, if he were any judge of things. Perhaps things had been a little too intense before he arrived and this was their way of bringing things back to the familiar.
In a way their arguing reminded him a bit of Brad and Schuldig and part of him almost missed them and their constant bickering. Of course, they bickered in a rather civilized fashion, at least most of the time. And the usual conclussion of their arguments ended up in sex. He did NOT miss having to worry about turning a corner and seeing the two of them going at it in the hall or in the kitchen or on HIS deck. No, he did not miss that at all.