AN: I can't believe that it's already chapter ten! Now that my goal has been reached I am truly and unbelievably happy. To kick-off the new double-digit chapters, Jade finally makes his debut. I'm sorry that I failed; he's just too smart for me. I really wanted to include the Keterburg Quintet (Jade, Nebilim, Saphir, Peony, and Nephry), but it just didn't happen. Please enjoy the Duet instead.

Summary: He comes by every Loreleiday to pour his heart's content before her. She heals him every time. "Professor, I'm bleeding." "Yes Jade, I see it too."

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of the Abyss.

Duet- a musical composition written for two performers

She was making dinner when she heard the knock, the light sound of knuckles rapping against wood continued to ring in her ears as she left the pot to bubble and froth quietly. Bitter-cold air greeted her unceremoniously as she cracked open the door.

"Good evening, Professor." The young boy stood on her doormat seemingly indifferent to the blood staining both his jacket sleeve and her 'Welcome' mat and the freezing gusts of wind. His breaths came in puffs of warm vapor as he lifted his bloody arm and said flatly, "I hurt myself."

"Again?" Nebilim raised a thin eyebrow. She stepped aside to let him in and closed the door tightly to lock the frost outside. Her house smelt pleasantly of sweet burning wood and warm dinner.

"Children often unintentionally injure themselves," Jade replied curtly as he brushed snow off his shoulders.

"Someday when you become an old man, you won't be able to use that excuse anymore."

His expression was thoughtful. "Maybe."

She took his well-worn jacket from him and placed it over a chair by the crackling fire for it to dry (the blood would have to be scrubbed off later). When she returned, he was examining his open gash impassively. Nebilim grabbed his hand sternly, and he dropped it hastily by his side with a trace of a scowl on his face, but otherwise, completely calm.

She rolled up his sleeves delicately, exposing his bare skin to her watchful eyes. Her hands brushed lightly against the wound, the broken skin healing itself as she poured Seventh Fonons onto it. His unusually colored eyes flickered between curiosity and envy as he watched while she worked. He was just as attentive of her healing artes as before, if not more.

"Why don't you stay for dinner?" Nebilim suggested once she was done. His arm was healed, but pink and tender to touch. He nodded a little absent-mindedly, his genius mind still processing the new info he had gathered. The gears in his head were just as loud in her ears as his knock before.

She knew that she should be worried about him, the way he always comes by with some injury or another. She knew she shouldn't be encouraging this kind of behavior, that it might be the death of him, but although her instincts screamed of caution, she allows him to be, because she wants to know what this little boy is capable of.

He leaped gracefully from the chair on which he was sitting and walked over to the medicine cabinet. She kept the bandages and ointment on the third shelf, where she knew he would be able to reach. He may be tall for his age, but he was still a child.

The Professor took out two plates, and with a snap of her fingers, the simmering fire underneath the pot blew out. She placed a full plate of steaming rice before her pupil just as he finished wrapping his arm with a skillful combination of his teeth and hand.

"This is good," Jade said quietly, taking a bite of the curry. The Professor's eyes narrowed slightly, but she said nothing.

They both knew she was a horrible cook.