So I was eating a bowl of Fruit Loops and this popped into my head.
Just to let you all know, in this story Albel and Nel knew each other since they were kids because of their fathers…so don't get too confused.
Once again. I do not own Star Ocean 3. There would have been a cutscene showing Albel's past if I did.
And…I do not own fruit loops!
RE – EDIT 4/5/09: Well after re-reading a couple of my stories, I decided that this one should have ended a bit better than the first time I wrote this. I took into consideration of one reviewer's expectation of Nel and Albel arguing over the cereal with the other members looking at them in confusion, and decided to re-write the whole ending to fit that scene. It seemed rather suiting, so here's the result. The only thing edited is the ending itself after the past memory, so nothing was edited or changed in the past memory.
--
"Albel, for the love of Airyglyph, just eat all of them!"
"No! It tastes weird!"
"They all taste just fine when mixed together! You wouldn't even be able to tell the difference!"
"I said no!"
Glou sighed. Here, the great captain of the Dragon Brigade, at breakfast, trying to persuade his six-year old son to just eat his stupid breakfast already…without being so picky, that is. He was already late to meet the king, but what could he do? Woltar was already there, most likely, and all the maids and servants couldn't take the picky six-year old. They all tried, and sadly, failed. With Glou as the last resort, they had all called him over, just before he had gotten out the door to start the walk to Airyglyph castle. Now, you must be wondering what had gotten this great captain and legend into this mess…
Albel wouldn't eat his cereal.
The cereal consisted of dried fruits (dried long enough for the tender, sweetness to surface) mixed in with milk. It tasted great when it was mixed together with some milk and honey-especially when ALL the dried fruits were eaten together. However, there was one little problem.
Albel only liked the strawberries.
Therefore, he only ate the strawberries and picked out the other dried fruits.
Now, this wouldn't be so hard if only those dried fruits weren't in small little packets. Reason was, if the dried fruit was out longer than it's time to be dried, they would start to taste bitter-that's why a variety of dried fruits were stored into one packet for easy access, and for a longer "fresh taste".
Another reason was the fact that the strawberries Albel liked were the wild strawberries. If those weren't so damn small, this situation wouldn't be so hard, but those were the tiniest fruits in the whole packet! And, the packets couldn't be wasted just for the wild strawberries because, once the packet was opened, the dried fruits inside must be eaten right away, or else they will perish. And, as much as Glou was of royal blood and having one of the top positions in the kingdom, he and his whole household cannot waste food, for winter was approaching. AND, winter wasn't so pleasant for Airyglyph…
And so, that was the situation Glou was in.
Glou looked at his two-toned haired son, and tried once more.
"Albel, please, just eat it. I know. I'll have your friend come over again and you two can play together!"
Albel pouted. "If you call sparring with the Aquarian girl playing, then go ahead. She's so annoying!"
Just as Glou was going to try one more attempt at having Albel eat, the door knocked outside.
"Thank you, Nevelle!" he exclaimed, with his arms high in the air. Anything, ANYTHING would be great as long as he could just get to the king…which he must have been waiting for nearly half an hour now…
Albel sat at the table, still pouting. As far as he knew, this was his favorite breakfast. He couldn't dare let it be ruined by the other tastes of fruits in his mouth! It was quite revolting, and he couldn't imagine the taste, either. Come on, banana and orange at once? Not likely to be the greatest taste in the world.
"Albel. Albel!"
He looked up from what he was staring at and at his father.
"Uncle Nevelle will be here to take care of you while I'm gone, ok? He was not busy today, so I called him over so he could take care of you, and so that you can play with your friend here."
Albel's face went from a pout to a scowl, as he looked behind his father.
There she was, all dressed warm with black pants, a red winter jacket, black mittens, and a black scarf. Her emerald eyes stared up at his ruby ones, showing no expression at all.
Just as Glou was about to go outside the door, he yelled, "And make sure to share some of that breakfast of yours!"
Wait, what? He did not just say to share his breakfast with this…this…Aquarian girl. Where was Aquaria, anyway?
Nevelle smiled. "Well, you two have fun here. I'm going to go read some books, if you don't mind. I'm not going to be as strict as your father there, so go on ahead and do whatever," And with that, he walked off into the library of the large mansion.
As soon as the door shut, Albel narrowed his eyes at her. "What are you doing here? Go follow him, or something."
She was caught aback. She had not expected such an answer from the one who laughed with her when they went into the snow together to build a snowman two months before.
"I followed daddy, there was no where else to go."
"Fine…do you want something to eat?" he asked, looking away and into his bowl.
She nodded. "Sure," and took a seat right next to him.
When she sat, she then noticed that all he had were wild strawberries in his bowl of milk.
"Why don't you just eat all the dried fruits together instead of separately? It tastes sweeter that way and a lot better."
He pouted, again. "Do you expect dried banana and orange to taste good together? I think not."
She laughed. "Silly, of course not. You have to mix it in together with other fruits for a better sweeter taste!"
Albel looked down at his bowl, doubt crossing his face. "It tastes weird, if you ask me."
That's when she took the pitcher of milk and a packet of dried fruits into one bowl and took a huge bite out of the mixture. Albel looked sick as he watched her down it.
"It tastes really good, Albel! Just try it!"
"No. I don't want to copy Aquarian people like you, Nel."
That's when she had a sly smile on her face.
"Or…could it be that you're just a…coward?"
He flinched, and suddenly turned a shade of red out of frustration. How dare she call him a coward! He didn't see her trying to fly a winged dragon, or trying so hard not to get burned by it, or sparring everyday with a heavy katana. How dare she! He just wanted to…he just wanted to yell…!
"Over my soggy dried fruit bowl!"
Sudden silence filled the giant mansion. Only the cackling of the fire was heard, as he felt humiliation fill up on his face.
Suddenly, a high laugh pierced the silence, as Nel closed her emerald eyes and clutched her stomach. Before long, tears had filled her eyes and she kept laughing and laughing, all the while having it echo throughout the large mansion.
It wasn't until right then he started laughing too.
Maybe, just maybe, this girl could be…
--
Eighteen years later…
"Alright you guys, here's breakfast!"
Everyone stared at Cliff as he brought in ten bowls with spoons, two pitchers of milk, and…fruit loops?
Fayt looked disappointed. "Aw, what happened to the hot stuff? It's freezing!"
Cliff answered, "Well, what do you expect? With the Diplo having a non-functional heater, this is all I could get. Sorry guys, maybe tomorrow we'll get it up and running."
Nel sighed. Another foreign food upon her tongue once more. Just as she had gotten used to the unusual hot food served by the Diplo members, she now had to try another one. Honestly, she's been having headaches, stomachaches…
"What's wrong, Zelpher? Afraid?"
Nel faced the Wicked who sat right next to her. With his glinting ruby eyes, he confidently teased her once more.
She just shook her head and looked away. It was too early to be arguing, too cold, and much too difficult already with the new food she was trying…
A bowl of milk and some fruit loops were poured out in front of her. As she stared at the colorful little o's circling in the bowl, she caught a familiar scene emitting from the food…familiar? From what?
Using her peripheral vision, she too, saw Albel's face scrunch up from the scent and looked at it cautiously. Had he caught on too? But how was that possible? Could it be…?
She took a bite out of the fruit loops, and smiled.
Oh this was going to be a fun breakfast indeed.
Noticing Nel's expression, Albel faced her. "What, Zelpher? You have something you want to say?" he asked, while chewing rather slowly on the crunchy fruit loops.
She face him. "So, do you like the taste of different dried fruits at once?"
Albel immediately caught on and gave a deadly side glare with his ruby red eyes to the Aquarian. It was such a long time ago, it was hard to believe that the two of them still remembered it at all.
He turned to face her. "Quite appetizing and appealing to the stomach, I must say," he remarked sarcastically.
"Huh. Really. Then eat it."
He let out a small growl at her and faced the sweet smelling food. Everyone else seemed to enjoy eating the little fruit – tasting loops and it made him sick just watching them. For one, he wasn't really one to eat sweet foods, and two…well, two was the very reason that he was in that situation at the moment.
Nel noticed his hesitation and decided to make a bold move. She leaned back into her chair and folded her arms and dared to utter the question that no on else would ever say to his face.
"Could it be that...you're a coward?"
Shivers immediately travelled up Albel's spine and into his nerves that soon made his blood boil. He was quite easy to put into a temper, and he hated the way she was manipulating him. Turning the tables on the situation, he smirked at her.
"And? You got a problem with it, Zelpher?"
Well, Nel didn't quite expect that answer. She almost stammered a response, until she thought of a comeback. Now it was her turn to smile as the Wicked backed down and stopped smirking.
"Ok," she said confidently. "Eat it then."
He was pondering about whether or not a spoonful would be too bad or not, until she said, "Three spoonfuls at once."
By now, the little colorful circles floating in his bowl were quite soft due to the fact that he hadn't eaten any while the others were already getting their third bowl. Nel realizing this fact decided to make another bold move.
"Here, I'll even add more so it wouldn't taste that bad," and she proceeded to pour more crunchy little circles into his bowl as a cringing Albel just watched on through his veil of black bangs. She watched him as he sat, motionless.
"Well?"
"I didn't say I wanted more, you fool."
"And you didn't say that you didn't want any more," she shot back.
He finally turned to stare at her straight into her eyes.
"What's your point, woman? Do you take pleasure in watching other people eat? That's a very sorry use of your time, worm."
"My point is to get you to eat and not collapse while fighting, as skinny as your twig arms already are," she pointed out. "I'm surprised you haven't fallen of fatigue due to your lack of nutrition."
By this time, everyone's eyes had landed on the two Elicoorians' bickering and found it quite amusing that Nel was clearly winning in the battle against the Wicked. Cliff couldn't help but snort at Nel's last remark about Albel's bodily structure and was suddenly kicked by Maria who tried to quiet him before the two noticed everyone watching them.
Albel was very irritated by this time. "I don't see you growing up in a snow – covered city, you pampered Aquarian."
"Aquaria has had its share of snow. Speaking of snow," she remarked, suddenly remembering the snowy weather in which they first ate the bowl of fruits all those years ago, "your food's going bad. You still intend on wasting food even after all these years?"
"I am not wasting food, woman!" he snapped.
"Ok, then prove that you aren't, Albel the Wicked," she emphasized.
He still stubbornly refused to eat his food and the little poutful face of the child Albel was beginning to form once again across the features of his face. As if it were déjà vu, Nel sighed and picked up her own bowl and showed it to him.
"Look, it's not that bad," she said as she scooped up a spoonful and chewed on it. Once again, Albel sickened as she chewed the different fruit tastes all at once. Nel noticed this.
"Seriously, it's not that bad."
"…no."
"Fine. Why?"
"Do you really intend for me to eat orange and banana together? I'm not a fan of sweet foods to begin with."
At this, she smiled with another come back up her sleeve.
"Well, I suppose…but you did like wild strawberries back then…and even those were the sweetest in the fruit packets…" she sighed. "It's a shame that your tastes in food had to change along with your title."
Albel knew that she was clearly acting and immediately flushed red at her wild strawberries remark. She said it so casually as if they had talked over the memory before breakfast! And how dare she say his, er, favorite fruit aloud with all the other maggots around.
At this point, everyone was on the verge of laughing aloud, but kept it in to watch the two argue it out. Fayt was already tearing up from holding in the laughter and Cliff was trying so hard to not double over and fall on the floor. Nel's comment on Albel's favorite fruit just made it even worse for the Klausian, who knew what fun it would be to tease the black brigade captain about the fruit that was very uncharacteristic to his title.
Nel was already getting exhausted at Albel and his stubbornness and sternly faced him.
"Eat it."
"No."
"It's not that bad."
"I said I won't eat it, woman!"
"Just eat it, Albel!"
"Over my sogg-"
Albel quickly bit his tongue back. Why was he about to say that? The memory flooded back to him even faster as the scene with her and him at the table bickering over the same situation as now entered his head. It was such a long time ago, and yet he still had the habit at snapping back at her with that childish remark. He faced his head the other way so that she wouldn't see his embarrassed face through his bangs.
Nel on the other hand turned completely quiet and looked at him with the same emerald eyes those years ago. Her intimidating look went down for that quick moment in time. Suddenly, she covered her mouth and bent over with her head down and began shaking that made the whole crew look at her suspiciously. She came up again with tears in her eyes, as some sound of her laughter escaped her lips. It wasn't the serious type of laughter, but rather, it sounded pleasant and filled with life – another side that no one except Albel himself had seen when they were younger.
Now it was the whole crew's turn to look completely bewildered – as if there weren't enough at Albel and Nel's strange closeness with one another with the food connecting the two. First off, Nel was laughing. Seriously and joyously laughing as if she didn't have a care in the world. Second off, what was with Albel cutting his sentence short?
At this, Albel slightly smirked but no one noticed due to the fact that his elbow was propped on the table and therefore his hand was supporting his head as he looked the other way. Even after all those years of separation and war, there was still some connection between them…
Nel finally inhaled a deep breath and spoke. "What were you saying, Nox?" she managed to say without breaking into small laughter.
He huffed. "Nothing."
"You sure? You can finish now, if you'd like."
He quickly turned to face her with the full intent at yelling at her. "It was nothing…Nel…"
What the hell?
Did he just call her by her real name?
His voice had trailed off into quiet submission that the crew members farthest from them couldn't hear. Unfortunately, it was within earshot of the Klausian who grinned even wider at thinking of all the joy of teasing the captain later.
Nel was only slightly fazed by this and smirked at him. "Well I guess you don't have to finish. Because…you're food is a soggy fruit bowl now."
Catching on again, he only spoke with his casual voice. "Well then, that's just too bad. The wild strawberries would have been quite tasty, I'm sure."
This seemed to be the end of argument and so Cliff cleared his voice loudly.
"Huh, well I've had odd mornings but this…" he stared at the two, who seemed to have put on their masks once more. "I think I was totally missing something here, you guys."
"That's the whole point, fool."
Nel shook her head. "It's nothing."
Sophia giggled. "It's something you'll never understand, Cliff."
"And what makes you so sure that you know what they're talking about?"
She shrugged. "I don't. It's called a girl's instinct, duh."
She locked eyes with Nel and smiled with understanding, knowing that the Aquarian woman didn't want to be interrogated any longer by Cliff. Nel nodded back a thanks with her mask still on though a slight smile dared to tug at the ends of her lips.
"Anyway," Cliff continued, slightly annoyed, "I think our breakfast is well over time. If ya don't mind, I'm gonna be at the bridge."
Everyone else proceeded to clean up after themselves except Nel and Albel. Nel had her arms crossed once more with her scarf brimming under her eyes and covering her mouth. Using her peripheral vision, she eyed Albel who was currently resting his head on his good hand, arm propped on the table. He was completely motionless and he acted as if his small little blunder earlier had never happened. Thinking back on the event, Nel smiled once more under the cover of her scarf, though revealing the change of features in her cheek bones. Oddly enough, he was still the same stubborn and pouty boy she had met with her father on that snowy day.
Albel glanced at her through his two-toned bangs and observed her. She was still laughing and smiling with those same huge, green emerald eyes that appeared to him on that day eighteen years ago. It was odd to think that she was still the same, even after all the years of separation and war due to their different kingdoms and sides. Who knew that fate in itself would somehow bring him back again with the same woman he had enjoyed being with as a child, despised as a teenager and somewhat adult, and…well, he couldn't quite put a word as to what he considered her now. He didn't like her; but at the same time, he didn't hate her as much as he use to…
Only known to him and possibly Nel through her quick eyesight, he slightly smirked once more. The memory they shared is the one and only one secret they kept from the members. It was something valuable to both of them in itself, though the both of them couldn't describe into words as to why it was so precious – so precious that it could not be known except to only the two of them.
Albel glanced down at his now distinigrating floating food. No, he didn't need to complete the sentence he started off with and cut off earlier.
Because they both knew.
--
Yay, another SO3 NelAlbel story completed.
Hope the new ending is a little better, though it was a little hard to close it off.
Hope you all got the ending…I couldn't think of a better name for their type of cereal. If you couldn't tell, the type of cereal they were eating as kids was very identical to our modern day fruit loops. This is what I get for eating fruit loops and getting some weird inspiration. So thank the fruit loops too for the success of this story!
Thanks for reading!