His Sleeping Princess
Title: His Sleeping Princess
Recipient: ivorysilk
Author: seraphim_grace
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Nagi has a crush.
She sleeps. Nagi tells himself that, while Schuldig calls her the vegetable, he knows better. She’s just sleeping, waiting for the moment when she will awaken.
Fujimiya Aya lies on the bed, silent and serene. Nagi sometimes wonders if Crawford knew what would happen when he gave over her care to Nagi. If he knew how very diligent that Nagi would be and why.
Before school he brushes her hair and pushes the button on the bed so that she’s sitting. He empties her catheter and makes sure that her IV doesn't need changed.
Nagi doesn’t risk anything more fond, because Schuldig watches him.
Sometimes he thinks Schuldig never takes his eyes off him.
Schuldig drives him to school, Duran Duran playing their greatest hits because Schuldig’s learned it’s pretty much the best music to make Crawford’s eye twitch, and he’s played it that many times he really likes it now.
Schuldig sings along loudly and out of key, “I smell like I sound, I’m lost and I’m found, and I’m hungry like the wolf." And Nagi just sits there in the front seat, rucksack on his knee, and mentally works through his plan for the day.
Mugen Gakuen is a good school but Nagi has already completed their syllabus and Crawford resists having him moved from their accelerator program to the University. Crawford tells him he needs the socialisation with kids his own age.
Even in a school for prodigies who learn at their own pace Nagi is bullied.
Nagi makes a mental note to avoid Asai today as he will certainly be on the warpath following his team's loss the previous evening. It is made worse by the knowledge that if Crawford allowed it he could knot Asai up like a pretzel.
If Nagi does that again there will be punishment and then Nagi won’t get to see Aya, because Crawford will bring in a nurse.
Nagi still hasn’t forgiven him for the slap although that was months ago.
Sometimes he thinks it would be best to twist Crawford into a pretzel.
Schuldig looks over at him, obviously picking up that thought and Nagi curses himself for being so obvious, and considers, as soon as Schuldig drops him off, of twisting Schuldig into a pretzel. He makes the image very clear so Schuldig can’t possibly miss it. “Knew you wanted me to bend over for you.” Schuldig leers and Nagi just frowns. It’s always like this with Schuldig, but one of these days Nagi won’t allow the teasing.
He knows it will be better after school, when he gets back from cram, then he can sit with Aya. It’s Tuesday which means physical therapy so that she doesn't atrophy further than she has. It’s a great work-out for his telekinesis.
Then he’ll shower her, taking care not to look, and when she is back in the bed, with clean sheets and a clean nightgown, then Nagi will sit on the floor beside her bed and do his homework, or read the thick textbooks which hold his attention.
Eventually, though it’s not always the same time when it starts and therefore becomes difficult to plan ahead, he will start talking to her.
Because that's the best thing about Aya, she’s a pretty girl who listens.
When Crawford has decided that Nagi has to go to bed now Schuldig will pop his head around the door and say “you know she’s a vegetable, right?” just like he does every night, and Nagi will give the same deep sigh and stand up, making sure she’s set for the night, and go to bed, and dream of her, because Nagi knows things Schuldig can never understand. Nagi knows that she is incredible math.
But sometimes in the dreams Aya is laughing.
Aya wears a yellow sundress and she has her hair in two plaits, the same ones she has now in her bed, and she's spinning around, hands behind her back and clasped and she’s laughing.
Nagi is so unused to girls laughing that it enthralls him. He wants to cherish her and in his rucksack, wrapped up in yellow paper with sunflowers on it is a pair of white silk ribbons.
“I worry about you, kid,” Schuldig says, ruffling his hair as he gets out of the car. “You know that it can’t come to anything, I mean there are two major obstacles in your path, one she’s a vegetable and the other being her brother is a homicidal psychopath, with the rap sheet to prove it.” But Nagi knows that that’s part of her charm. That she is unobtainable, that she will forever remain his sleeping princess, to be whatever he wants her to be.
He gets out of the car, tugging on his uniform blazer so it actually sits right, and swings his rucksack onto his back. Math, first, he decides, moving towards the Mathematics part of the building. He likes math, it’s clean and uncomplicated. People are messy conundrums just waiting for the right numbers to make sense of these things.
And Aya is incredible math.
She is numbers that swirl and form themselves into beautiful algorithms.
And she listens.
Crawford worried that Nagi might have untoward thoughts towards his sleeping princess, years of being around Schuldig means that sex is his every second thought, and Aya is a pretty girl, and Nagi is at that age after all, but to Nagi she’s not a girl, she’s a sleeping princess, she’s a fairytale asleep in their spare room, and she’s incredible math just waiting to be proved, and when it is, when the final equations are in place, when the numbers reveal themselves, she’ll wake up.
She’ll rewrite the algorithm and present a whole new world for someone else to discover.
Maybe she’ll be like her brother, tall and blood-coloured, or maybe, like Nagi, she’ll be small and quiet, or maybe, just maybe, she’ll listen and she’ll laugh whilst he shakes the trees to make a snow storm of blossoms just for her.
If Schuldig knew this he’d tease Nagi, he’d talk of getting him fitted out for wedding dresses, and her a widow’s black, because surely her brother will kill him. But Nagi knows something Schuldig never will, that she is incredible math, and once she is proven then Nagi will have no more use for her. The second algorithm he’ll leave to someone else.
Humming “Hungry like the wolf,” under his breath and smiling, just a little to himself, Nagi goes into the room in the math department he has pretty much taken over for himself, and the whiteboard with all his calculations, and knows it’s just a matter of time before he solves her, and when he does, he’ll need something else to interest him.
Recipient: ivorysilk
Author: seraphim_grace
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Nagi has a crush.
She sleeps. Nagi tells himself that, while Schuldig calls her the vegetable, he knows better. She’s just sleeping, waiting for the moment when she will awaken.
Fujimiya Aya lies on the bed, silent and serene. Nagi sometimes wonders if Crawford knew what would happen when he gave over her care to Nagi. If he knew how very diligent that Nagi would be and why.
Before school he brushes her hair and pushes the button on the bed so that she’s sitting. He empties her catheter and makes sure that her IV doesn't need changed.
Nagi doesn’t risk anything more fond, because Schuldig watches him.
Sometimes he thinks Schuldig never takes his eyes off him.
Schuldig drives him to school, Duran Duran playing their greatest hits because Schuldig’s learned it’s pretty much the best music to make Crawford’s eye twitch, and he’s played it that many times he really likes it now.
Schuldig sings along loudly and out of key, “I smell like I sound, I’m lost and I’m found, and I’m hungry like the wolf." And Nagi just sits there in the front seat, rucksack on his knee, and mentally works through his plan for the day.
Mugen Gakuen is a good school but Nagi has already completed their syllabus and Crawford resists having him moved from their accelerator program to the University. Crawford tells him he needs the socialisation with kids his own age.
Even in a school for prodigies who learn at their own pace Nagi is bullied.
Nagi makes a mental note to avoid Asai today as he will certainly be on the warpath following his team's loss the previous evening. It is made worse by the knowledge that if Crawford allowed it he could knot Asai up like a pretzel.
If Nagi does that again there will be punishment and then Nagi won’t get to see Aya, because Crawford will bring in a nurse.
Nagi still hasn’t forgiven him for the slap although that was months ago.
Sometimes he thinks it would be best to twist Crawford into a pretzel.
Schuldig looks over at him, obviously picking up that thought and Nagi curses himself for being so obvious, and considers, as soon as Schuldig drops him off, of twisting Schuldig into a pretzel. He makes the image very clear so Schuldig can’t possibly miss it. “Knew you wanted me to bend over for you.” Schuldig leers and Nagi just frowns. It’s always like this with Schuldig, but one of these days Nagi won’t allow the teasing.
He knows it will be better after school, when he gets back from cram, then he can sit with Aya. It’s Tuesday which means physical therapy so that she doesn't atrophy further than she has. It’s a great work-out for his telekinesis.
Then he’ll shower her, taking care not to look, and when she is back in the bed, with clean sheets and a clean nightgown, then Nagi will sit on the floor beside her bed and do his homework, or read the thick textbooks which hold his attention.
Eventually, though it’s not always the same time when it starts and therefore becomes difficult to plan ahead, he will start talking to her.
Because that's the best thing about Aya, she’s a pretty girl who listens.
When Crawford has decided that Nagi has to go to bed now Schuldig will pop his head around the door and say “you know she’s a vegetable, right?” just like he does every night, and Nagi will give the same deep sigh and stand up, making sure she’s set for the night, and go to bed, and dream of her, because Nagi knows things Schuldig can never understand. Nagi knows that she is incredible math.
But sometimes in the dreams Aya is laughing.
Aya wears a yellow sundress and she has her hair in two plaits, the same ones she has now in her bed, and she's spinning around, hands behind her back and clasped and she’s laughing.
Nagi is so unused to girls laughing that it enthralls him. He wants to cherish her and in his rucksack, wrapped up in yellow paper with sunflowers on it is a pair of white silk ribbons.
“I worry about you, kid,” Schuldig says, ruffling his hair as he gets out of the car. “You know that it can’t come to anything, I mean there are two major obstacles in your path, one she’s a vegetable and the other being her brother is a homicidal psychopath, with the rap sheet to prove it.” But Nagi knows that that’s part of her charm. That she is unobtainable, that she will forever remain his sleeping princess, to be whatever he wants her to be.
He gets out of the car, tugging on his uniform blazer so it actually sits right, and swings his rucksack onto his back. Math, first, he decides, moving towards the Mathematics part of the building. He likes math, it’s clean and uncomplicated. People are messy conundrums just waiting for the right numbers to make sense of these things.
And Aya is incredible math.
She is numbers that swirl and form themselves into beautiful algorithms.
And she listens.
Crawford worried that Nagi might have untoward thoughts towards his sleeping princess, years of being around Schuldig means that sex is his every second thought, and Aya is a pretty girl, and Nagi is at that age after all, but to Nagi she’s not a girl, she’s a sleeping princess, she’s a fairytale asleep in their spare room, and she’s incredible math just waiting to be proved, and when it is, when the final equations are in place, when the numbers reveal themselves, she’ll wake up.
She’ll rewrite the algorithm and present a whole new world for someone else to discover.
Maybe she’ll be like her brother, tall and blood-coloured, or maybe, like Nagi, she’ll be small and quiet, or maybe, just maybe, she’ll listen and she’ll laugh whilst he shakes the trees to make a snow storm of blossoms just for her.
If Schuldig knew this he’d tease Nagi, he’d talk of getting him fitted out for wedding dresses, and her a widow’s black, because surely her brother will kill him. But Nagi knows something Schuldig never will, that she is incredible math, and once she is proven then Nagi will have no more use for her. The second algorithm he’ll leave to someone else.
Humming “Hungry like the wolf,” under his breath and smiling, just a little to himself, Nagi goes into the room in the math department he has pretty much taken over for himself, and the whiteboard with all his calculations, and knows it’s just a matter of time before he solves her, and when he does, he’ll need something else to interest him.