Title: Forever
Author: Raihne
Disclaimer: The chara's belong to Konami. They are taken from the Castelvania games for
Nintendo 64.
Pairing: Cornell/Ortega
Summary: Just a quick 3 page piece I did while waiting for class to start. It's during the time
the two manbeasts spent training in their powers.
Archive: Yes just tell me where before you take it and link to me. ^_^

C&C insures the survival of my site. Please don't say goodbye. ~_~,


Cornell sat in the tree filled garden of the scool/retreat that he had been lead to, to train and focu his man beast gifts. Classes were over for the day and he had time to enjoy the outdoors, to release the wolf and let it enjoy the world with him, as him.

The bond between the beasts and their men were complex but clear. They were eachother in different extremes. Where Cornell was a quiet but stron gman who enjoyed solitude and calm, the wolf in him longed for the pack and the excitment of a good and bloody hunt. In either for he was still Cornell, but as the wolf those more basic needs were released, dampened, but there.

A tiny seed pod was plucked from a tree by the wind's nimble fingers and took flight before him. Cornell smiled and followed it's flight. To be completely free meant just what that seed had. One breif run or flight before death before a new birth.

It was the middle option ne, the middle step, which frightened him. As a man beast he did not age, would not die a natural death, but he saw it all around him and feared that like his father before him had. . . he would coem to oen day long for it to the extent of accepting it's oblivion.

"You think too much."

He didn't need to look up to see that it had been Ortega who had spoken to him. Even if the voice had not been so familiar, the ever present cynical dissreguard that laced it would have been a dead give away. "You don't think at all."

"I think you think too much."

"And what a difficult conclusion that must have been."

The cat beast sat beside the wolf and grinned, "I think I hurt myself."

Cornell rolled his eyes. Ortega, much to the dismay of their peers and teachers, was his best friend and also his sparring partner in word and in forms more solid. A cat and dog. It was funny. Orteg aconstantly mourned that the dog had beaten the cat in celestial stories, saying that it was the only real reason that Cornell was forever winning their own matches. The wolf would have been lost without him.

"What are you doing out here alone?"

The white haired wolf leaned back and smiled, "Nothing."

"Can I do nothing too?"

"I'm not going to complain."

The silence last all of three minuets, which was two minuets and fifty seconds more than Cornell had thought the other would last, four minuets i fyou counted really fast. "Nothing is boring. Let's play.

"Play."

Ortega grinned and Cornell watched him closely, "How old are you Ortega?"

"You should know, we were born the same day hour and minuet."

"I must have been born second before you then."

"Too old to play?"

"Maybe. What kind of play?"

"The best kind." He leared.

Cornell smiled, "Oh?"

Quick as light, Ortega slammed his friend to the ground and licked his nose, "Tag! You're it!" Then he was off.

Teh wolf just lay there a minuet. Blinking at the sky and fighting down the hard evidence of his feelings fo rhis friend before he begain to growl, "ORTEGA!!!"

"Nyah nyah," The cat beast swayed his tail at his friend, "Can't catch me. Doggie."

"I am NOT a doggie."

"Here Puppy puppy."

"You're dead pussy cat."

"Oh! How offensive! Wait a sec, I 'am' a pussy cat aren't I?"

"Stand still so I can bite you!"

"Kinky."

The wolf tripped over his own feet and blushed bright red, "W. . . what?"

"You're lousy at keeping a secret 'Nell." He beamed, "And I'm not blind. Remember cats have natural instincts about things."

"What do you mean?" He denyed.

Ortega grinned wider and began to dance around his wolfy companion and sang in a giggly voice. "You want to love me, you think I'm gorgeous, you want to kiss me, you want to luuuuuuuuv me, you want to smooch me, you want to hold me, you want to stroke me. . ."

"Shut up."

"You want to lick me, you think I'm sexy, you want to. . ."

Cornell sprang to his feet and knocked the other man beast flat on his back. "I said shut up"

"Make me." He dared, and was shocked when a pair of thin, firm lips smashed down against his, silencing him. When the lips left he could only stare at the wolf above him. "W. . . uh. . . wow!. . . That was. . ."

"Oh, did you like that?"

Clawed hands grabbed his face and brought it close again.

"Is that a yes?"

"Yeah." He kissed his again, hard this time, with all of the fire and lightning inside of him. "Oh yeah!"

"You. . . how long?"

Ortega blushed, "I'm not made of ice you know." He whispered, "And I would have to be to not want you. You're beautiful. 'Nell."

"But is that all?"

"What, you want romance and roses?"

"Yeah." He turned away in dissapointment, "I do."

A small wild rose was placedunder his bowed head and he heard a whisper as he took it carefully from the lightly furred hand. "ok."

Golden eyes met amber and both were without words until Cornell whispered back, "How do you see this? I am not a one night stand."

'Me neither."

"Then how?"

"You're pushing it 'Nell."

"Please."

The soft word seemed to undo all of Ortega's defences, "I . . . forever. I want us to be forever. "

"Why?"

"Can't we just leave it at forever?"

"For now." He smiled, "Me too."

"huh?"

"The 'don't make me say it' thing. Me too."

Teh cat licked his neck and nuzzled his chest, "Good."

"Forever."

"Even better."

~owari~