Obsidian
Summary: It was eventual—it'd happen sooner or later. Turns out that it happened sooner rather than later. Jay wasn't sure if he was pleased or disgruntled by this strange turn of events, and decided to just go with the flow. For the moment.
Pairings: JayMoses
Rating: PG-13/T just to be safe for future chapters
Chapters: Undecided…as many as I want! oh, by the way, the stories are all one-shots, so don't group them together; I'll indicate whether or not they are connected to a previous one-shot
Disclaimer: If Tales of Legendia was mine, there'd be so much change you wouldn't even recognize it afterwards. So there.

I. sable

Rain poured down from the sky outside, spattering the windowpane, and Jay could hear the faint ripple of thunder some distance away, getting closer every minute. Every few minutes, the room was illuminated in a flash of light from the lightning no doubt splitting the sky. He couldn't sleep, and it wasn't just because of the snores coming from the bed across from his. Will and Senel didn't seem to mind the bandit's snoring, and were sleeping soundly in their own beds. The only reason they were all bunking in this inn was because Will had dragged them out on a "wild-monster-chase", as Norma fondly called it. Apparently, the 'sheriff' had been told of a rare monster brooding around these parts, and of course, 'Teach' had to go check it out (the thought of a rare specimen nearly sent him into a fit of glee, giggles and all).

The girls of their group of eight were bunking in the other inn room they had rented, as Norma had declared when they arrived in the small town set in the middle of nowhere, "No boys are staying in our room—you get your own! You might decide to get naughty while we're sleeping and we can't allow that, oh no, no, no!" Chloe and Shirley had agreed with the former casting a dark gaze over all of them, as if they were all perverted scum, and Grune merely smiling in that way of hers.

Of course, Jay wouldn't put it past Moses to do something "naughty", as Norma had said, but he himself wouldn't ever do that. It wasn't as if he was really that interested in any of the girls in their group, after all—he felt no stirrings of romantic affection when he looked at them, nor did he desire to be alone with any of them for any extended period of time. He told this to Moses one time, and received an annoyed huff from Moses along with a comment like "And you call yourself a man?"

'Bah, Moses is enough of a 'man' for all of us, with the way he acts,' Jay thought with distaste, and sat up in his bed as a powerful rumble of thunder seemed to tremble through the room. There was an alarmed sound from the other side of the room, and the small information specialist hardly even realized what happened when someone shot under the blankets of his bed next to him, latching familiar muscular, tanned arms around his middle.

"Moses! What—"

"Shh! Don't wake up the others. Just let your big brother stay here for tonight, yeah?" Moses' voice sounded oddly high-pitched, as if he were afraid of something, and Jay narrowed his eyes. He remembered a certain episode in the Thunder Monument where Moses had hugged Senel tightly after a threatening burst of thunder. He pushed the man's arms away, rolling his violet eyes, though he doubted the other could see it in the dark.

"Oh, bother…whatever. Just don't cling to me or snore, stupid bandit," Jay huffed and lay back down, turning his back to the red-haired man, who shifted to make himself more comfortable. He wasn't exactly sure why he had conceded to let Moses stay in his bed, and, apparently, neither was Moses by the way the bandit was staying thoughtfully silent. After a few minutes, Moses began squirming around, making the bed creak.

Jay's eyebrow twitched as he kept his eyes closed, but the bandit didn't stop, and jumped as thunder roared brutally outside the safety of the inn. Arms latched around his small frame again, tugging him back against a bare chest tightly, and the boy grumbled in irritation to himself. "What did I say about clinging to me?" he asked tartly, keeping his voice quiet in order not to wake Will or Senel.

"Sorry, Jay, but…lemme stay like this, alright? It's okay because I'm your older brother, ain't it?"

Jay didn't bother to point out to the bandit that they weren't actually related by blood, and merely closed his eyes in annoyance. "Hmpth. Just this once," he growled, and was again struck by how easily he gave defeat and wondered why, "and no mentioning this to anyone. Ever, if you want to keep certain significant body par—"

"I get it, Jay. No tellin' anyone, I promise," Moses vowed fiercely, his nose pressed against the boys' soft, dark hair, loose at night, hands smoothing over the front of the boys' nightshirt, an action to try and reassure himself. It made Jay shiver for some reason, before he clamped his eyes shut and told himself not to be stupid, this was Moses, the big stupid bandit who he quarreled and bickered with on a daily basis. "G'night."

"...good night, Moses," the pale-skinned boy replied after a pause. Moses rumbled sleepily and tucked his face into the back of Jay's neck, closing his eyes and relaxing his hold just slightly. The former assassin could feel his eyelids flutter closed, and in a matter of moments, he was breathing deeply in sleep. Sighing, Jay tried to get to sleep as well, feeling surprisingly safe.

Fin.