a/n: Once again I'd like to thank everyone for their reviews. This installment has been a long, LOOOOOOOONG time coming (over a year, as a matter of fact), but here it is. Hope you didn't think I was giving up on it that easily.

a/n: All apologies for keeping you waiting for so very long (if you're still out there), but I hope you'll give me another chance here. (bats eyelashes) Though this chapter's not very focused, it's a lot better off than the first few times I wrote it. This is me on my way to finding out if I'll be able to continue this story. Now let's see if I still know how to do this...

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Turn and Face the Strange

by CorrosiveMidnight

Part 10

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--back at the castle...

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When they got to Kyle's room, the green-haired knight insisted that they not worry about lighting and Forde didn't argue. It was probably for the best, considering Kyle should get straight to bed anyway.

Forde sat Kyle down on his bed and started taking off his boots for him. "You really shouldn't have had so much to drink."

"I'm fine," Kyle insisted.

After removing the boots, Forde stood and pulled back the covers for Kyle to climb into bed. "We'll see how fine you are when that hangover's kicking you in the teeth in the morning."

Kyle chuckled, put his arms around Forde's waist and pulled him close. He sighed, rubbing his face against the blond knight's ribs. "Come here," he said quietly.

As if intoxicated himself, Forde did as Kyle commanded.

Kyle pulled Forde onto his lap so that he would straddle him and proceeded to kiss him firmly on the mouth. His tongue grazed roughly across Forde's lips, demanding to be let in. Both of Kyle's hands slid under Forde's shirt, one purposefully brushing the scar tissue on his side.

Forde gasped and moaned into Kyle's mouth as the green knight's tongue slipped in, caressing Forde's tongue, stroking madly and impatiently at it with a groan of his own.

Had Forde been able to stop himself, he would have, but instead he trailed kisses down Kyle's chin and to his neck, where he licked and suckled until he extracted the strangest sound from Kyle. It was a noise he was sure he would never hear from the rough and tumble knight, but he was absolutely positive that Kyle had let out a quiet, high-pitched whimper.

However, Kyle didn't notice the sound he'd made. He was concentrating on stroking Forde's chest and abs, both men's breaths quickening with each caress.

(This is so wrong. So very wrong,) Forde thought, steadily working on Kyle's neck, gently biting every now and then. Unfortunately, the blond could feel his most private part perking up.

Obviously, Kyle could feel it too. "I think someone likes to be touched," he teased as he tried to pull off Forde's shirt.

"Kyle, w-wait," Forde whispered. He could barely believe he'd said it himself.

"What wait?" Kyle asked.

"We can't do this," Forde told him.

Kyle groaned, "But I want this. I want you."

Forde's protest caught in his throat with that last statement. (Aw, to hell with it,) he thought. He was about to continue devouring and being devoured, but reason somehow got the best of him. (No, he's drunk. Get a grip, Forde.) When he thought of what it was he could get a grip of, he panicked and stood up, backing away from Kyle. "Not like this. Not now."

A long sigh escaped Kyle's lips. "You're a great guy. I want you to take advantage of me, but you won't. That's definitely worth working with." He laughed to himself a little. "I should write myself a note in case I don't remember this." He stood and held Forde in a tight embrace.

Forde could do nothing but hold him and feel his friend's breath against his neck. Kyle's hands slowly began making their way southward. "No." Forde thought he'd said it loud enough for Kyle to hear, but he couldn't be sure; he barely heard it himself. When he tried to say it again a little louder, it just came out as a little groan of pleasure as Kyle pressed their bodies together.

"Do you really want to leave?" Kyle whispered, nipping at Forde's ear.

"No," Forde replied quietly.

"I don't want you to leave," Kyle said.

Just the right movement and Forde almost let out a passionate cry, but he stifled it by kissing Kyle on the lips once again.

"Take me," Kyle hissed seductively.

What an invitation!

"D-do you even know what you're saying?" Forde asked. He didn't really want to ask that because he already knew the answer. His friend was too drunk to know what he was saying.

"I believe I do," Kyle murmured.

(Nope. Kyle has no clue what he's asking me to do,) Forde thought. He smiled to himself, knowing that if he just made Kyle lie down, he'd have no more trouble out of him. The plan was foolproof. Kyle was so drunk now that he would fall asleep as soon as his head made contact with his pillow.

Forde slowly started positioning Kyle so that he'd lie under his covers. "How about going to sleep instead?" For the most part, Kyle had been quite submissive about it--no struggle to stay vertical and whatnot--but then when Forde was about to turn and walk away, he reached up and tugged at Forde's sleeve.

"Aren't you staying?" Kyle asked groggily.

The blond knight sighed. "You're hopeless."

"And you don't know how to take a hint. I want you to stay here with me," Kyle told him, pulling Forde into bed beside him.

"Alright, already," Forde complied, climbing into bed beside Kyle. "I spoil you. You know that, right?"

Kyle laid his arm across Forde's chest. "Mm." He fell asleep immediately.

But it took Forde a little longer.

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--wedding day...

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Kyle lay in bed, refusing to move and staring at the figure lying beside him. They were both still clothed, so that was a good sign, but his memory of the night before was one big fog filled with playing cards and mugs and gold coins and laughing. Now he was staring at the side of Forde's face, studying it really, trying to figure out what had caused them to share a bed last night. And most importantly he wanted to know why his arm was laying across the man's chest.

Forde opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling for a moment before his eyes drifted over to Kyle. The green-haired knight's arm was still across his chest; apparently neither of them had moved in the night.

"Good morning?" Forde greeted hesitantly.

As if Kyle had thought the vision of Forde next to him was nothing more than a dream, the usually solemn knight gasped when Forde spoke. He quickly removed his arm and rolled right off the bed with a thud. This was a good time to notice that his head had been pounding ever since he'd opened his eyes, and now it felt as though his brain had been rattled. "Uuuugh..."

Forde looked over the edge of the bed at him. "Are you alright?"

"What...are you doing here?"

A long sigh came from the blond knight. "You drank yourself into a stupor last night and you..." He stopped and blushed when he thought about their behavior the night before. (Would it really do any good to tell him about the way he acted?) Forde thought. "You asked me to stay with you."

Kyle tried to remember anything that may have happened last night, but it was all a haze. He didn't even remember how he got to his room.

"There's also a wedding today," Forde reminded him.

Of course, he remembered that. That was the whole reason they were out last night. "Yes, Forde, I am aware of that," Kyle sighed. "Shouldn't you be getting ready?" Each word from his own lips made his head pound even harder.

"Shouldn't YOU?" Forde asked.

Kyle rubbed his eyes in irritation. "Yes, but, unlike you, I'm already in my room. Besides, you have to meet up with your date."

"Hmph. We both went to get dates for this wedding under your advisement, mind you, yet, you don't have one. I don't think that's fair at all," Forde complained.

"You're wasting precious time, Forde. Just go get ready. I don't want either of us to be late," Kyle told him.

Forde rolled his eyes. "Fine, but don't think I'll ever forgive you for this. You owe me."

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--the wedding...

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Had the occasion not revolved around a wedding, one would have thought that this was simply a reunion of war buddies. Everyone was dressed in his or her finest and had started to mingle before the wedding began. Hailing from the country of Rausten were L'Arachel, Dozla and Rennac...

"Dozla, Rennac, we simply must pay a visit to the ladies and gentlemen we rescued during The Great War," L'Arachel said, pointing toward the group of regals who had by chance managed to gather together.

Dozla laughed heartily. "Of course, Princess L'Arachel! I would follow you to the end of the world and back!"

Rennac sighed as he watched the two head toward the others. "Won't she ever get enough of ordering us around?"

"Rennac! Come!" L'Arachel called to him.

-----

Among said group were Ephraim and Tana, Innes and Eirika, Gilliam and Syrene, Duessel, Joshua and Natasha, and Seth. There were always important matters to discuss among the rulers and semi-rulers of the kingdoms of Magvel.

"Look who just came in together," Tana said to Syrene. "Forde and Tethys. That's a pair I never expected."

Okay, so their conversations were a little less than regal at the moment.

"Did you say Forde and Tethys?" Eirika asked, looking over at the new arrivals. "Wow, they look good together."

-----

Ephraim was talking to Gilliam about his recent marriage to Syrene. "I can understand that you wanted things to be private when you got married, but everyone would have liked to come and witness your wedding."

"Well, you have to understand, Your Majesty. We didn't want everyone to leave their countries so soon after wartime just to hear our vows," Gilliam said. "There was important work to be done everywhere."

Innes had made himself into the center of attention with Joshua, Natasha, Duessel and Seth. "Of course, my own wedding was much more spectacular than this."

"Not everyone can have a king's wedding, I suppose," Joshua said sarcastically.

Seth sighed and began scouting the room for the rest of the guests.

-----

Neimi had shown up alone and was looking at some of the flowers around the room.

"Alright, Colm. This is your chance. You're lucky that she doesn't have a date," Vanessa said.

"But I came to you to ask you to be my date," Colm reminded her.

"Go," Vanessa told him. She pushed him over to Neimi and then walked off.

Colm adjusted his collar and cleared his throat. "Neimi... Hi."

Neimi turned to him, tears immediately filling her eyes.

Colm rolled his eyes. "Oh, not this again," he murmured.

-----

Cormag was standing in a corner, supposedly holding a conversation with Saleh, Knoll and Moulder, but he never said a word. It would have been obvious to anyone who was paying attention to him that he was too busy watching the Silver Knight to notice anything around him.

"Slowly but surely alliances are being made between practitioners of the three magics," Moulder was saying. "Unfortunately most mages of light see dark mages as a threat. And since light mages have more influence with anima mages, the latter tend to agree with the former. Hence the groups are constantly at odds with each other, except in a few choice locations."

"Well, Father Moulder. You are a practitioner of light. What do you think of our Druid friend?" Saleh asked.

Knoll raised his eyebrows.

Moulder looked at Knoll. "Well, he is a gentleman who fights on the side of good. I gladly call him friend."

"Indeed. Now, if we could only get the rest of the world to see them that way, we'd be in business," Saleh said.

"I'd call that a miracle," Knoll commented.

-----

Franz and Amelia found themselves chatting with the younger crowd, Ross and Ewan.

"Eventually you'll be able to record tons and tons of music and put it on a box that's about this big," Ewan said, holding his fingers about three inches apart. "And you'll be able to listen to it wherever you go."

Amelia laughed. "You have such a creative imagination, Ewan."

Franz looked from Amelia to Ewan, then put his hands in his pockets. (He's not so great,) he thought.

"If you think that's creative, check this out," Ewan said. "I've managed to fuse an anima spell with a light spell. I like to call this one 'Fireworks'. Now, watch real close." He pulled out a small book and began to read from it.

"Ewan, I don't know if that's such a great idea," Franz began.

Before they knew it, Ewan had held out his hand and what looked like the Shine spell slowly began to expand in front of him.

The other three backed away.

"Here goes!" Ewan warned as the spell slowly began to disburse. He read one last passage and instead of lighting up the area, the outer edges of light began to burn and spiral.

"Wow, it's beautiful," Amelia said.

"Now what? You can't hold onto that all day. And once your sister or one of the royals find out you've burned the table down, they'll toss you out on the street," Ross told Ewan.

Ewan smirked. "Would you relax?" He began reading out of the book again and soon the bright light with flaming edges began to shrink.

"Did you just--?" Amelia began.

"--reverse the spell?" Ewan finished for her. "Yes, I did. It's a very complicated process and it'll take a long time to master, but I believe that if I work with it long enough that maybe I'll be able to cancel other mages' spells."

"That's ingenious!" Ross said.

"A counter offensive for magic? Unbelievable!" Amelia added.

Franz had to admit, that was pretty impressive.

"You could be a Knight's best asset. We don't have a defense against magic," Amelia said.

"And Fighters are pretty weak against magic too. You could possibly save someone's life with something like that," Ross said.

Ewan beamed with pride.

Franz, though he felt a pang of jealousy, smiled at Ewan.

-----

Kyle came in alone and scanned the room. There was no sign of Forde anywhere. Maybe the blond knight was late. Or knowing Forde, he was too lazy to show up. If that were the case, Kyle would have to remember to kill his friend the next time he saw him.

"Hello, Kyle," someone said from behind him. It was Gerik and he had Marisa on his arm. Well, she wasn't 'on his arm', per se; she was really just standing beside him.

"Gerik, the Desert Tiger," Kyle greeted. He bowed to the lady. "And Marisa, the Crimson Flash."

"Hm," was all Marisa had to say.

"I had a great time with you guys last night. I was hoping that maybe you wanted to go out again tonight. Just the four of us," Gerik suggested. He looked around. "Where IS Forde anyway? I always expect for you two to be joined at the hip."

"Well, he's supposed to be joined at Tethys' hip today, you know. I'm sure that if we find her, we'll find him," Kyle told him. He didn't really think that Tethys would let Forde get away with standing her up. That just wasn't the kind of woman she was.

There was a huge crowd gathered in the center of the main hall and Kyle was sure that the bride and groom had come into the room.

Gerik had noticed it as well. "Hey, let's go see what's going on."

Marisa, surprisingly, lead the way. There was a whole lot of ruckus emanating from inside this circle of people and making its way outward.

-----

Now in the middle of this circle of guests was Tethys and she was dancing quickly to the slow orchestral music that was playing in the background. And of course, there was only one thing that made this possible. It was all because Forde had somehow managed to get his hands on one of the extra timpanis and he was banging away much faster than the orchestra, yet it was all on beat. And Tethys hit every beat Forde played for her.

"She's so beautiful," one of the women in the crowd said.

Most of the guys were simply in awe, even Gerik had to watch the hypnotic motions of Tethys' hips. The crowd had even begun to clap to the beat. Everyone was impressed except Kyle, who was more angry that Forde was not only encouraging such a thing, but he was a part of it. It seemed Forde was more impressed with his drumming than anything.

"FORDE!!" Kyle shouted.

The crowd fell deathly silent.

Forde immediately stopped what he was doing and cringed. "Oh, I know that angry voice," he murmured. As if in hopes that it wasn't who he thought it was, he slowly turned around. "Kyle. H-how are you doing?"

"Forde, this has to be the worst behavior I've ever seen out of you. This is someone's wedding and you're ruining the whole atmosphere, not to mention the music. When are you going to grow up?" Kyle scolded.

Forde was about to plead his case when Tethys spoke up. "Hey, what's your problem, Kyle? We were just having a little fun." She walked over to Forde and put her arms around his waist.

"And we thought his timpani work was superb," the orchestra conductor added.

Kyle was too busy stewing on the fact that Tethys had her arms around Forde to even realize what the conductor had said. He would have called her the harlot that she was, but everyone in the main hall was staring at him.

"To tell you the truth, those two were making the atmosphere even more appropriate for this joyous occasion," Natasha put in.

Kyle groaned. He knew that Forde enjoyed making other people happy more than anything. And everyone seemed to be happy. Mission accomplished..., well, except for the fact that Kyle wasn't happy at all.

"Come on, Sir Forde," one of the orchestra players called. "Let us play more music."

Kyle gave up. Fresh air. That was what he needed. He excused himself as the musicians started up again, this time a more upbeat tune.

-----

He wasn't sure how long he stood just outside the palace door with his eyes closed and his head against the wall, but when next he opened his eyes, he saw Forde sitting by one of the pillars in front of him. Kyle tried his best not to seem startled and simply averted his eyes. "Shouldn't you be in there with your date and the rest of the guests, Sir Life-of-the-Party?"

"I thought I'd be of more help out there. You could use a little life in your party," Forde said. "Don't worry about them, though. They know that you were just being you." He gave Kyle one of his patented foot-loose and fancy free grins.

"Yeah, and I know that you were just being you," Kyle said. "Sorry for coming down on you like that."

Forde jumped to his feet and looked around. "Did you hear that?"

Kyle looked around as well. "Hear what?"

"The Great Sir Kyle just apologized for something," Forde said, playfully poking Kyle in the chest.

Kyle grabbed Forde's hand to keep from being poked. "You are such a child."

"And you're a brat. When things don't go your way you pout," Forde told him.

"I do not."

"You do. Now come back inside. This day isn't about you, it's about Artur and Lute. And Artur's made his appearance. We're about to miss the ceremony," Forde said. He started pulling Kyle along by the hand since the green-haired knight couldn't seem to let him go.

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To be continued...