#01 - Motion
Emil never thought sheer friction would be able to drive him wild, but whatever Richter was doing to his lower half, his gloved fingers rubbing against his chest and long red hair brushing against his face were proving him wrong.
#02 - Cool
Emil's eyes sparkle with pleasure and excitment whenever he sees Richter in battle; he is graceful and powerful, like a lion, and looks amazing even when his blades are pointed at him.
#03 - Young
The first time Emil is on his back under him, Richter remembers just how young this poor boy is: nothing more than a feather-soft down trails from the navel to his waistband and his large, green eyes are full of innocence and trust despite everything that Richter has done; Emil is either the portrait of naivete or the image of a saint-- either way, Richter cannot stop himself from defiling him.
#04 - Last
Richter does his best to ignore Emil, who follows him without a word, who has followed him everywhere-- it's hard to think that the boy is actually his hated enemy, but it's harder to believe that this is the last time he'll hear those soft footsteps trailing faithfully behind him.
#05 - Wrong
Richter isn't sure which one of them is worse-- himself, nearly obsessed with a boy because he has the same face as an old friend, or Emil, infatuated with a man who wants to kill the girl he is supposed to protect.
#06 - Gentle
After chewing Emil out once again for touching things in ruins before letting him have a proper look around, Richter carefully treats the gnarled slash on Emil's forearm as the boy whimpers out a tearful apology.
#07 - One
When Marta is lying unconscious in front of him and Richter escapes from the room, bleeding heavily, Emil finds himself running after the older man, ignoring the disapproving shouts of those gathering around the girl-- that was just why he had to go after Richter, because Aqua's sacrifice returned her to the core state and he was now, unlike Marta, alone.
#08 - Thousand
When Emil finishes his round of knee push-ups (Richter decides to start off easy once he finds out about Emil's surprising lack of arm strength), the man praises him and gives him a brief break, followed by his next stage of training: One thousand sit-ups.
#09 - King
He should be happy after finding out that he is the King of Centurions and Lord over the land, but he can't stand it, the way Richter looks at him with such sadness, and hatred.
#10 - Learn
"That's really impressive," Emil gushes with excitement when Richter disarms yet another trap in the ruins; when Richter sighs and says that it's really not all that hard, Emil demands to be taught.
#11 - Blur
It's only been nearly a year since he actually existed, Emil realizes, and it's all gone by in a flash-- therefore he has no one but Richter to be thankful to for his newfound life, even if the red-headed man is no longer in it.
#12 - Wait
Richter doesn't know how long it's going to take for Ratatosk to change the world entirely, or if he'll survive long enough to see the end of it, but he thinks having to wait an extra thirty years is worth it, to do justice to Aster's memory and Emil's gentleness.
#13 - Change
Richter hates it, the way green eyes go red, turning the Emil he's learned to love into another being who is far too different in so many ways.
#14 - Command
Emil has learned not to listen to Richter's orders as much as he used to; Richter is not sure whether he is proud to see Emil start treating himself as an individual or disappointed that he doesn't have to look after him nearly as much.
#15 - Hold
The way Emil sometimes clings to him in his sleep when they camp out is endearing until Richter remembers who they are and what paths they will end up taking.
#16 - Need
When Emil comes to him in the night, tears streaking his cheeks and desperate for his touch, Richter isn't sure who is taking advantage of who.
#17 - Vision
"You called me Aster back there," Emil says, not questioningly at all, only sad, "I suppose all this time, you've only seen me as a replacement for him, huh?"
#18 - Attention
Emil tries his best to stay on guard, he really does, but Richter is far too beautiful for Emil's good-- his thoughts wander, his sight flickers over Richter, until he's focusing on his fierce eyes instead of the arte he should be performing.
#19 - Soul
It isn't fair, Richter thinks, how Ratatosk dares appear before him-- such a hateful demon hiding behind the kindest boy he's ever known, inside the form of his best friend.
#20 - Picture
He knows that there isn't a single possibility that Emil is Aster-- he wouldn't have responded to his clumsy advances if there was-- but the discovery of the spot below Emil's collar bone makes him almost choke; Emil and Aster having similar faces could always be a terrible coincidence, but the same mark in the same place only pointed to a more terrible truth.
#21 - Fool
The second time Emil calls him a nice person, Richter can't help feeling foolish as his face turns a deep red; although he does his best to turn away, Emil sees and ends up teasing him about it all day.
#22 - Mad
Richter can't understand why Emil doesn't simply stand up for himself, and to see the boy who brought back so many memories being treated like trash annoys him unlike anything else.
#23 - Child
He's but a child, his conscience says-- his mind says that he's something even worse-- but he knows that no matter how much Emil looks like Aster, their continued correspondence would only result in more pain, even if he was feeling enough agony thinking about severing his connections.
#24 - Now
"Your resemblence to Aster was probably the reason why I first decided to talk to you," Richter says, and Emil flinches at the words, urging Richter to put his hand along his cheek, "but after everything, I think I'm happy to have known Emil Castagnier."
#25 - Shadow
Emil reaches down to smooth out the lines of Richter's face in his sleep-- people were supposed to look peaceful in their sleep, but Richter always looked pained or lost.
#26 - Goodbye
"I was wrong," are the last words Emil will probably ever hear Richter say, "You aren't Ratatosk after all."
#27 - Hide
When Richter doesn't allow Emil to cower behind him, he feels a bit angry at both his uncle and Emil, for never trying to understand each other.
#28 - Fortune
"There seems to be a man you are worrying over excessively lately, and your problem with him would be easily resolved if you simply... hmmm," the fortune teller holds her temples with one hand and stretches the other one out, into which Emil desposits a handful of Gald to have her continue.
#29 - Safe
"You need to be more alert!" Richter shouts at him furiously, but Emil only laughs, saying that he doesn't have to worry with Richter taking such good care of him and gets reprimanded by the redhead whose cheeks tint a light pink.
#30 - Ghost
Tenebrae supposes it is a classic example of human irrationality, how Emil easily snaps as he listens to those on Lloyd's side preach their faith in him yet tiredlessly believes in Richter, to whom he is only linked by a chance meeting and a man already dead.
#31 - Book
"I'm really glad that Norton is making you do all this stuff," Emil says with a bright smile, leaning against Richter's back as he looks at the stars; Richter looks over his shoulder to raise his eyebrow, and Emil laughs, "I'd never get to know you as well otherwise."
#32 - Eye
Richter looks at him with squinted displeasure when Emil plucks his spectacles from his face, but even with such an expression on his face, Emil finds himself mystified, saying, "Woah, I can't believe it... you look even more handsome with your glasses off!"
#33 - Never
"We should have never met in the first place," Richter says, and those words possibly hurt Emil more than the sword twisting in his gut.
#34 - Sing
Emil enjoys it, when Richter thinks he is asleep and smooths his hair, singing softly under his breath in a language Emil doesn't understand, but finds soothing despite.
#35 - Sudden
"Aster," the name is like an earth-shattering quake inside him that makes his heart quiver with uncertainty and so many questions for Richter.
#36 - Stop
When Emil looks up at him with wonder and hesitation, Richter knows that something terrible is going to happen, and it does; Emil kisses him, cheeks bright red and full of an innocent desire for Richter to reciprocate his feelings, but his hopes are crushed as Richter pulls away, swallows and says, "Go back to Marta, Emil."
#37 - Time
After twenty years of silence Richter can hardly whisper, "Why not Marta?" as an older Emil, taller than him now, embraces him tightly, but Emil only says-- voice more similar to Ratatosk's than Aster's, only filled with far more kindness-- that Marta would not be able to bear immortality.
#38 - Wash
"You're absolutely filthy," Richter sighs as he looks at Emil, holding a spade and covered in dirt; Emil doesn't have the time to take offense before Richter pushes him into the nearby stream..
#39 - Torn
"It hurts," Emil sputters uselessly, floored by the pain of the arrow of his chest; Richter is at his side with healing Artes in moments, and the panic Emil swore he sees on Richter's face fades to his normal expression so quickly that he decides it must have been wishful thinking.
#40 - History
Even after he hears everything about who he is and what he's done, he refuses to think of it as truth-- even if it made sense, even if it was the truth, because then Richter would only have reasons to hate him.
#41 - Power
"I want to be able to protect the ones I love," Emil tells him valiantly, but Richter says he protects Marta just fine; it isn't until after Richter is a few meters in front of him before he whispers, "She isn't the only person I love, Richter."
#42 - Bother
"...I'm not a bother, am I?" he asks Richter tentatively the fourth time he tags along, but in response Richter simply flicks him on the forehead and tells him that if he were, he wouldn't be here.
#43 - God
Tears are in his eyes as he confronts Richter again, finally, and his only thought is that fate is very cruel.
#44 - Wall
He knows that Marta is in the next room thinking of him, but he can't stop thinking about Richter, even as his hand slips below his waistband.
#45 - Naked
Emil almost gasps at the sight of Richter's chest and back, his skin with riddled with deep scars and burns; no matter how many times he asks, Richter refuses to tell him how he got them.
#46 - Drive
Getting Aster back and seeking revenge on Ratatosk are his sole purposes in life now, so why is it that Emil's face still flashes in front of him, even though he knows what he really is?
#47 - Harm
"I won't let you hurt Marta," Emil declares with a fire when Richter reminds him that his goal is her death, then adds, too sappily for Richter's liking, "but, I don't want to hurt you either."
#48 - Precious
The fifth time Tenebrae reminds him that Emil isn't Aster, Richter almost snaps and admits that the one he's been fondly looking at for the past few weeks is Emil, and Emil alone.
#49 - Hunger
"You're really good at this, you know," Richter says as he chews on an octopus shaped sausage, making Emil blush and stutter that he might be able to help Richter cook something that wasn't lethal, if he wanted.
#50 - Believe
He almost doesn't believe the vision he sees before him-- Emil, 40 years too early, handsome and surely old enough to have married his dear Marta-- until Emil says, with a voice deeper than he would have expected, "I found one, Richter," and holds out a Cruxis Crystal mounted on a key rune.