"Jade?"
The man lifted his gaze from his drink, sitting at the bar, to the young man that had just walked in.
"My, aren't you a bit young to be in here?" he inquired.
Luke shifted his weight nervously. "I wanted to talk to you," he said.
"Well, I do believe we are currently talking, so you've already achieved your goal for the night," Jade replied, turning back to face the bartender. "I'll take an orange juice for my friend here," he informed the man.
Luke slipped onto the stool next to him. "Orange juice? Really?" he asked.
Jade smiled. "We don't want you staggering about drunk in battle tomorrow, do we?" he said.
"What are you drinking then?" Luke demanded.
"The weakest alcohol this bar serves," the older man responded honestly. "I, too, would like to fight to the best of my ability."
Luke shrugged. "Fair enough."
The bartender returned with Luke's drink, which Jade payed for, and left the two men to their privacy. Jade waited for Luke to start talking, but a quick, discreet glance in his direction told him that Luke wouldn't be speaking anytime at this rate.
"If you want to talk to me, you may want to start before I change my mind and leave you here," he prompted.
Luke sighed, and shifted again. He played with the ends of his coat, suddenly unable to sit still. He was opening and closing his mouth, as if he was trying to find the right words to say. Jade decided to just wait this time.
Sure enough, Luke eventually spoke up. "I wanted to thank you," he said simply.
Jade looked at him, doing his best to conceal his surprise. "Well that came out of nowhere," he said. "Whatever for?"
Luke stared at his lap. "I trusted Master Van. He was the one person who treated me properly, who praised me and helped me. I looked up to him. I believed him. He was my role model."
He paused to think. "But it was all a lie. All along he was planning to use me to destroy a whole city. He told me I was the real Luke when I've always been a replica. I thought that if I should trust anyone, it should be him. But none of that was real, so I can't trust him anymore. I can't trust anything that he told me."
Luke hesitated, seeming unsure of his next words. "I realised something recently," he continued. "That if there is one person I should admire, it's not Van. It's you."
"You've always been there for me. Yes, you tease me and can seem plain vicious at times, but that's who you are. I'd be worried if you acted any differently. You've always been helping me in your own way. You've given me advice for battle, even though our fighting styles are completely different and it would be easier to pass it off to Guy. Even when I messed up in Akzeriuth, you gave me a chance to earn back your trust. I owe you a lot, and I only just realised it."
Luke took a deep breath. "So, that's what I wanted to say. Yep. Bye." He stood up and hurried out, leaving his half-empty drink behind.
Jade watched the redhead's retreating form, not bothering to hide his surprise. Slowly he smiled – a genuine smile. When Luke had walked in, he hadn't been expecting a speech like that.
The man thought back and realised suddenly that, somewhere along the line, he'd truly come to care about Luke. He'd really matured from the boy he'd first met in Engeve.
Jade looked down at his own drink and cupped his hands around it. "No Luke," he murmured, "thank you."