Author's thoughts: I decided I'd do a bit of drabbling and one-shots of all the pairings I've heard of in Star Ocean. Dunno, guess I can't really write a full blown story… I always havedifferent thing in my mind.

Yes, all the pairings include ones like Peppita and Albel for I have heard of it. Maybe Vox and Schwiemer… No, they will not be humorous. Maybe, if I feel like it.

Let's start this off!

Disclaimer: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time belongs to Tri-Ace and Square Enix.

Albel and Nel

"Nel!"

The woman stopped in her tracks after hearing her name being called. She turned around to meet the eyes of the blood-crazed soldier she was acquainted with.

"What is it Albel?" inquired the woman as she glared with all the passion in her heart. After all, she never really forgave the swordsman for killing some of her people in the war between their countries.

The swordsman grinned. God, she hated when he did that.

"I just wanted to ask if you would like to spar with me for a bit. After all, I'm sure you're getting rusty with all this paper work you've had to do," invited the swordsman, taking long strides towards her to fill the large gap in between them. He seemed bored out of his mind. It wasn't often that he asked anything of her. If she had been in any other situation she would have refused his offer immediately, due to his sadistic nature. She was sure that instead of a spar it would turn into a fight to the death.

But she was also bored out of her mind.

After their saving-the-world mission and the end of the war, there wasn't really anything left for soldiers and spies to do except protect the peace, and she knew Albel would most likely be the one making trouble instead of hindering it. One of the reasons he was stuck doing paper work.

She sighed.

She knew he knew that she was as bored out of her mind as he was so she decided not to leave him waiting any longer for her response.

"This paper work is important for our countries, but I guess I could spare a few minutes," replied Nel, turning her back to him and walking away, gesturing with her hand for him to follow, so he did.

For a while, he was wondering where she was leading him. They left the castle and strode through the town of Aquios, before Nel made a sudden turn to her left and kept walking down the narrow street between buildings. He was wondering if she was planning on assaulting him while he was looking away in a place with no witnesses until they came to some stairs. He looked bellow and found himself looking at a very good place for training. There was a large open space with trees on one end, and a statue of one of the moon goddesses on the other, with the river passing on the side and the stairs leading up on the other.

He grinned. So maybe she was already prepared for sparring…

They both walked in silence to the bottom of the stairs. Albel stopped after taking a few steps, letting Nel make a gap between them as she kept walking forward, fully aware that he had stopped.

She turned around and quickly drew her daggers from their holsters behind her and pounced, but found that Albel had already anticipated this and had drawn his katana and put it in a defensive position so that her attack would have no effect. She quickly jumped over him after their weapons stopped touching because he immediately swung his sword, using his shoulders to propel herself behind him. She then lowered her body and swung her legs to knock him to the ground, but he was already turning around, using his gauntlet to attempt a slash at her, but missed, seeing that she was on the floor. She knocked his legs from under him and he fell backwards, but he did a flip and stayed on his feet.

He grinned again, thinking that he was witty for getting back up, but Nel was already closing the gap in between them. He used his katana as a defense once more, but she had used only her left dagger to keep his sword in place instead of both like she did the first time, and used the other to slash at him. But to her dismay the armor on his arm blocked any of her attempts to hurt him with her right dagger. Albel quickly took this chance to strike at her with his gauntlet again, but she swiftly jumped back to avoid it. He ran towards her, sword out and slashing diagonally, but she jumped over him again. Using one of her daggers as a boomerang, she chucked the weapon at him while it span, a dangerous purple aura emanating from the blades, a move she called "flying guillotine", it quickly hit him on the back, and returned to her. She wasn't actually trying to kill him, they were only sparring.

Albel winced, the pain of the cold blade striking his back and drawing blood; it was enough to enrage him. He still had nerves and could feel; things that people around his station denied of him. He quickly turned around and concentrated his energy into his sword, slashing it upwards once Nel came close to the ground. An attack that used the air around him as a weapon, one that he called Air Slash.

Nel looked wide-eyed at the on-coming attack; she had no way of dodging it, so she attempted to block it, but it hit her dead on, causing the wind to tear some of her armor to shreds. It wasn't much, but the slash had left its mark on her body. The line it left behind visible through the tear in her clothing and the blood stains appearing. It wasn't a deadly attack, but it had injured her far more than she expected. She knew she should have hurt Albel more with her dagger for she had gone easy on him because she thought it was only a spar. She guessed Albel really wanted to train hard or hadn't let out his anger yet for that attack was meant for a beast or monster, not a partner.

She glared at him and formed symbols with her hands. If he wanted to play rough, she would give him rough. She could see the air around her change its shape for her attack as she used runology, or symbology as Fayt had called it.

Fire formed in front of her hands, and she pushed it to launch it towards the swordsman, who had closed in a fair amount of distance.

Albel could feel the flames hit him, causing him to stop his attack and fall back. The force it had was amazing and the burn was horrible to feel. He growled and stabbed his sword into the ground to help him get out of the air, but as he was about to stand up, Nel had already advanced and used this moment to charge into him and knock him to the ground. He fell, miserably. He gasped; he didn't know she was this strong. He was taking her too lightly.

But before he could even stand up, she had kneed him in the abdomen and put her daggers to his neck. He stared wide-eyed at her, grinning from ear-to-ear.

"You're dead," was Nel's stoic, and out-of-breath response. She quickly stood up, sheathed her daggers and offered a hand to the swordsman to help him off the ground. The swordsman used the back of his hand to swat away hers; obviously implying he could stand up himself.

She crossed her arms displeasingly. Annoyed at the fact he didn't accept her help. He would probably be sour the rest of the day because she had defeated him in battle.

The man turned to face her, his katana still unsheathed.

"Let's go again," he growled; getting into a battle stance.

"But I have paper work to do-," Nel tried to reason, but was cut off as Albel sprinted towards her, sword ready for attack, causing her to jump to the side in an attempt to dodge, and unsheathed her weapons.

He had already turned around before she could block and slashed at her again, leaving a gash on the side of her abdomen.

She blurted out a curse in pain, using one of her hands to grab the wound, as if holding it would make it feel better and stop the blood from flowing. Her hands were now covered in blood. She had left all of her potions in the castle and had no time to heal herself. She cursed again.

She decided that enough was enough and started to move her hands around, making symbols once again.

Albel, catching on, ran towards her so that he could try and stop her before she was able to use her runology again, but was devastated when electricity had begun to form around her before reaching her. He stopped running, awaiting the attack to come so that he could dodge it.

She sent a blast of lightning forth attempting to hit the soldier. She saw that he was ready to dodge, so she set up a backup plan.

Albel growled as he felt the electricity pass by him, some hitting his leg, for his shoes were metal and conducted electricity. He dodge-rolled to the right and successfully dodged the runology attack, but what he didn't anticipate was that his legs to feel like jelly after electricity coursed through them, and that Nel had an attack ready for him if he had avoided her previous move.

Nel used her well-known "ice daggers"; an attack she used that shaped ice conjured up with runology to the shape of projectiles that could stick themselves into her enemy if thrown and maybe send a cold freeze through them that made them immobile for a few minutes.

Albel winced as one of the three daggers punctured his side. He felt cold all of a sudden and clutched the ice, pulling it out. He growled again after he felt his senses numbing, but he quickly took out lavender he had stashed away before he had asked her to battle and made the side-effect of her attack quickly vanish. (After all, Albel was a prepared man… Other people might call it paranoid though.)

But he had taken too long to get back on his feet though, for Nel had already gotten close enough and started another attack.

He could see energy build up on her blades and tried to stand up before she could release her attack, but she swung towards the ground and the shockwave of the energy being released traveled on the ground and quickly towards Albel; an attack she ironically called "shock wave".

Albel, not being able to feel his legs, struggled to get on his feet, but decided to just run on all fours out of the way of the attack. He could feel it pass him, another close call.

He tried to stand up again, but Nel was already at his side, her dagger firmly pressed against his neck once again, her hand gently placed atop his back to keep him pinned.

"You're dead," Nel repeated in her calm voice, heaving a little.

Albel stared at her with his crimson eyes that held mixed emotions. He didn't know if he should be impressed or angry.

But as Nel released Albel and moved her daggers away from his neck, he quickly took this as an opportunity to pin her down.

A few moments later and the swordsman had her in his clutches.

Nel glared at Albel with all her might again as he stood atop her, his hands on her wrists keeping her on the ground, one of his legs pinning both of hers down in a diagonal path, his other leg out to her side.

He grinned again, seeing that he had her down. Finally he was in control. She took him too lightly.

"Damn it Albel, let me go! I already defeated you!" snapped Nel as she wriggled under his grasp violently. She really didn't like the fact that he was on top of her. She could feel embarrassment rise up in her as he didn't seem to let go.

"When did Albel 'The Wicked' ever play fair, Nel Zelpher?" boasted Albel as he looked into her glaring, green eyes.

Nel had the sudden urge to kick him, but she couldn't, seeing that he had straddled her legs down.

"Seriously Albel, I need to get back to my paper work!" protested Nel, feeling hatred rise up in her once more, especially with his stupid grin plastered on his face.

"Aw, is it time to stop playing Nel?" Albel joked as he felt like ridiculing her while he had her down.

"Quit it," growled Nel, raising her arms inches from the ground, but getting them pushed back by the swordsman.

"Is Nel going to go to bed now? I bet it's passed her bedtime," Albel remarked as Nel's face went red with anger.

"Albel, I'll count to three, if you haven't let go of me by then-"

"Then what? It's not like you can do anything from there girly," interrupted Albel as he lowered himself down to emphasize how much power he had over her and how close he could get.

"Then this!" roared Nel as she head-butted the swordsman with all the force she could muster.

The swordsman howled in pain and for a brief second released the bonds that had her down, but her head was spinning too, so she couldn't take this to her advantage, and he had her pinned once more.

"You'll regret that, worm!" moaned Albel as he shook his head in pain. Nel just snickered at him.

"How? It's not like you could kill me. Our countries are at peace, and you'll be caught red handed if you attempted to hurt me for I'd report you," justified Nel as she brought her head upwards, closer to the swordsman so that her eyes could see his better and that he could see the rage building up in hers.

Albel growled in annoyance as his usual scowl plastered his face as he tried to think up something that wouldn't land him in trouble.

Suddenly he got this brilliant idea…

He grinned again, causing the spy to back off a little.

"What's so funny?" Nel inquired rudely as she saw him a little too happy for his own good.

"Oh, nothing," Albel insisted as Nel gave him a puzzled look of rage.

"Then get off of me! I still have paper work to do!" she reminded him as she squirmed under him again almost succeeding in getting out of his grasp, but he pushed her down again.

"Albel Nox, I agreed to your little spar and this is how you repay me?" Nel hissed as she moved her head a little so that she could see the swordsman's face again. She didn't like to have it out of her sights. It was uncomfortable to not be able to see what he was thinking, even if she couldn't really distinguish it even if she could see his face.

Suddenly Albel crashed his lips against hers, surprising the crap out of her.

She opened her eyes in shock and felt her lips begin to bleed. She looked straight into his eyes as he looked into hers. She could see him laughing at her in the back of her mind and she hated every last second of it.

She felt his tongue pass her lips and she shivered, struggling to get out of his grasps once again.

After a few moments of painful physical and mental trauma for Nel, Albel stopped his smooch and pulled himself away as he was grinning once again.

Nel let out her breath. After all, she had stopped breathing after he had kissed her.

She glared with all the hatred she could muster at the swordsman and finally got one of her legs loose, which she used to kick his side, but it wasn't very strong for she had not momentum.

Albel quirked an eyebrow at her and finally let her go, standing up slowly. Nel, on the other hand, stood up as quickly as she could and grabbed her daggers that had slipped out of her hands when he had pinned her down, pushing them to his throat once again and making him retreat towards the wall.

"What the HELL do you think you're doing you deranged idiot!" questioned Nel dangerously as she pressed the cold steel onto Albel's throat.

He, however, couldn't take her seriously anymore and just grinned, some of the blood from her lips on his. She felt chills go up her spine as she noticed this.

"Answer!" Nel growled, pressing the steel to his throat even more, drawing a little bit of blood.

"Well, I was, how did you say it, 'repaying you'," Albel snickered, as she brought her forehead against his, pressing it towards the wall; her eyes showing pure hatred for the swordsman.

"What the hell made you think that was what I wanted!" she spat as he just kept smiling, causing her to push her daggers towards his neck even more.

"It was more of 'pay back' for beating me twice than repayment…" Albel drawled as she felt her anger rise even more than it had, which she would have thought impossible yesterday.

After a few more moments of glaring at the swordsman, Nel finally let go of the pressure against his neck, and pulled back.

She then looked to the ground and whispered to herself, more than him, "How could you do a thing like that?"

Albel looked at her walk away, with his smile still plastered on his face.

"You fascinate me so," Albel told himself as he looked at her climb the stairs, following shortly after she had passed the tenth step. He wondered how she could get flustered over something like that. After all, it wasn't really a kiss, more of teeth clanging against each other and it was only one-sided, and for revenge.

As they both walked in silence Albel thought to himself.

'Bam, she was dead."

Author's thoughts: Bam, first finished one-shot. Took more than a day. That was weird. I tried on this one. There are two versions. This one and a fluffier one that didn't suit my thoughts. I felt that Albel is more of a sadistic lunatic than a fluffy, lovey-dovey guy.

Well, hope you enjoyed this. And if you didn't even read it because you're waiting for me to write about gay guys and lesbians, then …. You gotta wait. I really want to write about Peppita and Albel. I dunno why. I just do. Get off my back! Although I'm not entirely sure what the next chapter is going to be about. I'll write it tomorrow.

Until then. Adios!