Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean or any of its characters. I'm merely using them to entertain myself and others.

Matrimoniom

Chapter 1

Unexpected Homecoming

Albel the Wicked could probably count the amount of times he had awakened here with one hand. It took him a minute to figure out where he was but the sounds from outside, the smells in the air, and the mess of various papers on the writing desk in the room told him all he needed to know. He was at 'home'. Only his dear 'wife' would leave out fake documents and impersonal letters on her work desk like that to confuse or deceive any potential spies that might have been snooping around her- their- room.

The only thing that really puzzled him was why he was there, in the large homely bedroom of his estate, instead of back at the castle in his room there. In fact, wasn't he at Airyglyph Castle previously?

Actually, the better question was when had he fallen asleep? He had no memory of even lying down to rest. The last thing he remembered was standing at attention during the end of a long and stressful meeting with the King, Count Woltar, and several of his Lieutenants from both the Black Brigade and the Dragon Brigade.

He tried to sit up, but his body protested greatly to the movement. Even his lungs burned at the movement and his breath became strained. He just bared his teeth and forced his body to comply. He had no time to rest. He had documents to look over, men to train, monsters to slay, dragons to exercise, and meetings to attend. He couldn't give in to his body's fatigue.

Maybe he shouldn't have gotten into that fight with Crosell. He mused, albeit too late. The big dragon like to show him who was boss and always tried to give him a thrashing. Of course, Albel won the fight, again, but lately he noticed that runology healers weren't nearly as effective as they once were.

He'd have to get on those maggots' tails about that when he got back to the castle.

He was just managing to stand up with the door began to open. Of course, he ignored whoever was at the door, knowing it was most likely his 'wife' since it was 'their' room, but the moment he put his weight on his legs, his knees buckled and a pain burst from his side. He gave a grunt as he began to collapse, but was prevented from hitting the floor in a humiliating manner by his 'wife' who easily held him up despite her small frame and weaker disposition as a woman.

"What do you think you're doing?" She hissed at him, instantly maneuvering him to lying back down in the bed.

Albel blinked in a state of somewhat confusion as he noticed his lack of clothing. He was suddenly aware that his hair had been unwrapped and placed in a simple ponytail at the nape of his neck. Not only that, but he was covered in clean bandages as well. His left arm, covered only in its usual silk wrappings he kept under his mechanical gauntlet, was hanging limply at his side without the contraption there to help him move it. Was he that out of it that he hadn't noticed the unusual sensations on his skin?

His head was swimming again as he tried to think.

"Albel," his 'wife's' voice brought him back to reality, if only for the moment.

He didn't know when he lost that hold of reality, but the feel of her cool palm on his burning forehead made him flinch. He pulled away from her hand, not wanting her to touch him so casually.

"Nox."

She was trying to get his focus on her, but it was so hard at the moment to even focus his eyes on her face. He grunted as he shook his head a little, trying to focus better before finally being able to bring himself out of his stupor.

"What do you want, woman?" Albel grunted as he got hold of his second wind. The world wasn't spinning anymore at least and his headache was slowly dissolving enough to focus.

"Good, you're not going to pass out again," she sighed as she began to bully his protesting body back under the covers of their bed, "You've done that at least three times by now."

Three times? Albel had to hide his surprise from the woman. He couldn't remember anything past that meeting. How long had he been out of it?

Use to him not talking much to her, his 'wife' continued to talk. "You gave everyone quiet a scare, you know? Apparently, you were walking out of a strategy meeting with King Arzei and Count Woltar when you collapsed out of no where. They rushed you to the medical ward, summoned every Runologist healer they had on staff at that time, to make sure you were okay."

"-But if I was Airyglyph Castle, getting medical attention there, how did I end up here in this hellhole?" Albel cut her off, his good hand holding his head a he tried to figure out what was going on.

He hadn't been here since their marriage had been finalized and the estate had been presented to them as a 'wedding gift'. He didn't have time to play house with some Aquarian wench. He had responsibilities to fulfill back at the castle. He growled when his little wife rolled her eyes at him and crossed her arms arrogantly.

"I was getting to that."

"Then hurry up!" He winced as his snarl made his head ache more. Loud sounds were apparently not alright at the moment. Lucky for him, his 'wife' preferred to keep her voice low out of habit or his head would be pounding worse.

"First off, the doctors realized you were running a high fever and that your wounds their staff had just treated earlier that morning had reopened and were bleeding anew. When they tired to use their healing arts to close them again, nothing happened. In fact, they realized that none of your breaks had healed at all and were amazed at how you had even walked away the first time."

Albel frowned, looking at her skeptically when she told him that. But couldn't completely doubt her since he had walked away that day feeling as badly injured as when he had entered the medical ward. Still, he bothered to negate her explanation. "Impossible. Runology might be some stupid Aquarian maggot practice, but it's never not worked."

"Well, in your case, it didn't." Her hands were on her hips now as she told him that. "By that time, you woke up and started thrashing about when they wouldn't let you up. It took the whole entire staff to pin you down long enough to administer anesthetics powerful enough to knock you out."

He tired not to look concerned in front of her, but he did not remember any of this (though part of him was smug at how many people it took to hold him down even when injured). His head was pounding again and he wanted nothing more than for his 'wife' to get on with her explanation so he could move on with other things.

Sensing his weariness growing, she hurried up her explanation. "To make a long story short, your diagnosis was that you're at your breaking point. Actually, you've been beyond your breaking point for a long time and it has amazed them how long you've lasted. You're body is completely fatigued and depleted of its needed nutrients. Runology speeds up healing, yes, but it depletes the body of the required vitamins and minerals in order to do that. On top of that, they said your stress levels were off the charts. With all those factors in play, your immunity was unfavorably low and you caught pneumonia, which is why your body finally collapsed despite your pushing."

"Wonderful," Albel snapped sarcastically at her. That certainly explained his inability to catch his breath that day. "But that doesn't explain why I'm here instead of in my room at the castle."

"Well, the doctors decided you needed to be taken care of, away from your duties at the castle, so that you could properly recover from your episode. They took care of your injuries, cleaned the infection from your lungs the best they could, and prescribed you medicine you are to take twice a day for the next two months. They wanted you on bed rest till further notice and would be sending their head doctor once every two weeks to see how you are progressing. King Arzei and Count Woltar decided it would be the perfect opportunity for you to spend some time with the wife." Her voice took a more aggravated tone as she finished off the last few sentences, "So King Arzei has decided you have been working too hard for someone who just got married and has basically banished you here for the next year or so. They're hoping to hear news of not only your full recovery but also that a heir is on its way."

The look that Albel gave his wife was one of disbelief and horror. "Well screw that!" His voice broke on his last word as his throat began to constrict.

He was not staying here. He was not just going to loaf around when he had work to be doing! On top of that, he wasn't very interested in making heirs with his 'wife'. He didn't even want her in the first place! He had been against the union the whole time! He didn't need a woman at his side especially not an Aquarian woman! But alas, he knew his country would benefit from not only the King taking on a noblewoman from Aquaria, but also if his noblemen took on Aquarian noblewomen as wives as well. And since Albel was a 'hero' of the people and the universe, it would ease the worries of Airyglyph's citizens if he proposed and married a known 'hero' from Aquaria.

Thus he 'proposed' to Nel Zelpher.

In all actuality, he had been coerced into the whole thing by both King Arzei and Count Woltar. Both men left him no choice in the matter. His inheritance, title, position, and reputation were all put on the line due to this matter and he could not help the people of Airyglyph during this uneasy time of peace if he was thrown into a dungeon to rot or banished from his homeland completely. It was technically an arranged marriage, but because the King wanted to set his people at ease, it would look like Albel had willing chosen his own bride. However, he didn't know which Aquarian he had agreed to marry until the blasted woman showed up to Kirlsa so he could 'propose'. Apparently, she had been given this 'mission' by her queen in order to stabilize the peace between the lands.

So here they were six months later, married and hadn't seen each other since two weeks after the vows of matrimony were made. That was when he saw this estate -built on both Airyglyph and Aquarian soil not far off from Kirlsa and Arias- for the first and last time. It had also been the last time he'd seen his wife, not bothering to visit or write since she was only his wife in title and nothing more. He would not allocate himself such a weakness.

"I'm not to thrilled on the idea of you here either. I don't have time to babysit you and work as well. Both are full time jobs," she said while putting her hands on her hips (when had she moved them elsewhere? Albel couldn't help but wonder), "But they're orders from the king, your king. You can't just ignore them because you personally don't like them."

"First off, I am not a child and I don't need someone to watch me like I am one. Secondly, I'll do whatever the hell I want to, woman! I'm not some dog on a leash that worm of a King can pull about! I am not staying here and I'm definitely not making any heir with you!" He tried to get up again, but he immediately fell back onto the bed, hacking as his weakened lungs finally couldn't keep up with his outbursts.

His wife caught him before he could hit the mattress hard. He flinched at her touch, shaking her off as quickly as he could while turning to his side and curling inward as he continued to hack. His good hand instinctually fisting into a ball as he covered his mouth with it, gasping for every ounce of air his coughing would allow. He could feel his throat constricting the more he struggled to catch his breath.

His wife did not stand idle after he had shaken her hands off and was once again attacking him with unnecessary touches. She applied something cold to his back, making him instinctually uncurl his spine till it was ramrod straight. Quickly taking advantage of involuntary movement, she pulled him onto his back and applied a pungent soothing agent onto his bare chest, right above the wraps that were keeping his broken ribs in place. It too was cold, causing him to shudder as he inhaled the strong fumes the gel gave off. He managed to catch his breath the more of the fumes he breathed in, allowing his throat to open again and his lungs to regulate themselves once more.

However, she didn't stop there. She already had a cup of water prepared and quickly readjusted him so he could drink the cool liquid. While in his nature to be distrusting, Albel couldn't refused the drink as she was already pouring it down his throat, no doubt using an Aquarian spy technique to force him to involuntarily swallow regardless of what he actually wanted to do. In this state of being, he couldn't fight her off of him and could only observe in mild horror as she bullied his body into doing what she wanted.

"Your fever hasn't broken and your lungs still have an infection," the wench reprimanded him in a scolding tone. "The way you've been taking care of yourself, you're lucky you're not dead, Albel. Now rest. You need it if you're ever to recover."

"Don't tell me what to do, wench," Albel growled weakly, but his eyes drooped as he began to lose what little energy he had left.

"Don't think your in a position where you can tell me what to do, husband." She shot back with ire in her tone. "Hopefully that sedative will keep you resting for the rest of the day."

"You… you bitch!" Albel snarled weakly as he realized she had forced him to drink a sedative.

She smirked, crouching so that she was at eye level with him as he fought to hold onto consciousness. She kissed him mockingly on the cheek, ignoring the murderous look he managed to give her despite how droopy his eyelids were.

"Rest well, dear husband. We'll talk more when your not so sleepy."

He wanted to retort; he wanted to snarl angrily at her and wring her neck with his good hand; but his vision turned black and he was out before he could do a thing.

A/N: And here we have the first chapter of a story I've been slowly working on (future chapters are much longer, by the by). I do not promise hasty updates, but I will attempted to construct a schedule that will allow me to work on this more than I have.

I don't know what it is about Albel X Nel, but I absolutely love the pairing. It may have been started when I was playing Star Ocean over again a few years ago and thought how interesting the idea was of two individuals on the opposite side of politics falling in love. I began to read other fan fictions about the pairing, Sorceress Myst being the main author with my favorites, and thus I slowly began to work out my own.

Just so that you know what to expect, this is mostly a story of two people trying to adjust to being husband and wife in an arrange marriage. I've also always figured, with Albel's personality, that he'd probably not be the one to be the pursuer but the pursued. Nel has always seemed more open and willing to adjust and such, so she's probably the one going to have to win over her dear husband, well, if she can resist irritating him to no end. So, just to recap, this is a story about Ablel's and Nel's married life and how they slowly learn to love one another, especially Albel.

I hope you all will enjoy the story, I'm more comedy than I am tragedy and more slice of life than I am action, but for you, my readers, I'll try to meet your expectations.

OH! And if there is something you'd like to see in a future chapter, just let me know and I'll see what I can do to add it. I also love hearing from my readers and will respond to any and all questions given to me in the reviews, even if it is merely to say thanks for your support!

See you in the next chapter.

~Lore

Rose Colored Philosophies