A/N: Long time no see. I haven't posted here in a while, but after playing a bit of Tales of Xillia, I decided to write something for my quick-to-form OTP of the game.
Please note that I haven't played too much of Xillia (I'm at the seahaven and just finished the request for a random woman), so pardon any out of character-ness that occurs. I welcome constructive criticism, so please don't hesitate to leave some if you find any flaws with this.
With that said, enjoy!
P.S: Random title is random indeed.
Of Brass Knuckles and Broadswords
Jude felt weird. It wasn't a bad weird when he thought about it, but it was a weird that made any interaction with a certain mercenary awkward to the point of it being uncomfortable.
He was fifteen, so he hadn't experimented much when it came to women-or men, for that matter. The boy never questioned his sexuality that often; he liked who he liked and gender didn't play too big of a part in that to him. Sometimes, he questioned whether he preferred one over the other, or that maybe he liked both, but if someone would ask him, he wouldn't know.
Fifteen year olds weren't supposed to know these kinds of things, were they?
Sometimes he wondered if he should know these things. There were some people at his school who had boyfriends, girlfriends, who made out in the hallways when they were supposed to be doing schoolwork or in class. Jude always wondered why someone who come to school only to do, things, in the hallways, but when he started traveling, the boy started to understand, even if only a little bit.
Milla, or Maxwell-he couldn't think of her as Maxwell due to how normal she looked-was a nice woman, despite her sharp tongue and unconcerned demeanor. Sometimes Jude wondered if he felt something for her, but when he thought long enough about it, all he came up with was a feeling of comradery that was normal when you traveled with a person.
Alvin, on the other hand, was a different story out of a different book altogether.
At first, the boy didn't know what to think of the mercenary. Yes, he saved them-or him, actually-but for what? The man said it was for money, but Jude had no idea why someone would risk becoming an X rated criminal just for money.
Maybe he didn't understand mercenaries that well. Money was a big thing to them he guessed, so maybe it made sense in Alvin's mind to save him for a quick payout.
At the same time, there was also the risk of them not having any money on them, which is what the mercenary soon realized after both Jude and Milla said they hardly had anything to their name.
Charity work. Great. Are we there yet?
Those words rung in Jude's mind as he sat on the bed in his room, his eyes averting to stare at the wooden ceiling. He had no idea what lied ahead for him, Milla, or Alvin, but something told him that it would be far from something pleasant. He felt that if he voiced his concerns, they would dismiss him because of his age.
Maybe they wouldn't. Alvin seemed to take a striking to him for some reason, so maybe he would listen and understand where his concerns were coming from. Milla might, too. She seemed a bit guilty for dragging him in her affairs in the first place.
Jude knew that she didn't think it was all her fault. He knew it wasn't all her fault, either. His curiosity was to blame for some of it, but at the end of the day, he wondered what would have happened if he never ran into the woman-or spirit-and Haus never got the request from Orca Palace.
He sighed. There was no point thinking about all of this. It wouldn't change the fact that he was probably expelled from his school and he was on the run from the military.
Instead, his mind wanders to something-or someone-else. A tall, well built mercenary, with hair the color of the earth and eyes set from ambers. Alvin.
Jude didn't know how old the man was, but he guessed he was around his late twenties with his knowledge, capabilities, and appearance. If he really was that old, that would make him at least ten years older than the boy himself. Wouldn't it be wrong, then, to feel something for someone who was that much older than you?
No, maybe it wouldn't be. He saw some students with their significant others who looked to be in their twenties while they themselves were between fifteen and seventeen. Happiness was all that mattered in the end, wasn't it?
...Wasn't it?
"What am I thinking?" Jude mutters, falling back on the bed with a sigh. It didn't help that Alvin was so touchy-feely with him and he was still trying to figure out his orientation. Maybe the older man was trying to confuse him, but what would be the point in trying to confuse a fifteen year old who had nothing to give him?
Ouch. Cold shoulder.
The boy didn't mean to give Alvin the cold shoulder. It boiled down to confusion; he didn't know why the man was being the way he was with him. When they were Linked together, he could feel Alvin's strength, sense his battle movements, predict what he was going to do. It was something that made him wish that one day, he could be as strong as Alvin was.
It would take years, but after all, the man was, at least, ten years his senior. It made sense that it would take a while for Jude to reach the heights that Alvin did, to see the sights that he had.
Smiling a little, the boy curls up and closes his eyes, his dreams plagued with a man wielding a broadsword and a gun.
Fin.