A/N:This is actually just a 'minor addition' to the chapter. Still, it contains a few important aspects, so I would not say it's completely random. Well, you'll see…

Warning: Still not a proper warning, but I stick to 'better safe than sorry'. Around the end, this chapter contains 'sex'. No, nothing explicit. No, not even the real thing. Now you can feel relieved. Or disappointed.

Anyway, I meant the word 'sex'. Once… oh, wait, twice. Plus certain allusions to that topic. All in all, it's quite harmless, but just in case anybody feels offended by the thought alone, I felt like putting up a warning.

~°oOo°oOo°oOo°~

"Angeal? Angeal Hewley?"

Surprised, Angeal turned around to face the person who had addressed him. The man was about his height, with dark brown hair and a carefully trimmed beard of the same colour. He was dressed in some sort of formal attire that reminded of the uniforms high ranking infantrymen wore at special occasions, yet certain silver applications gave him away as a member of a specialist force, Military Intelligence Corps maybe, or Internal Security.

However, Angeal knew that it was neither, but a rather small detachment working closely with the Turks and the science departments, yet being a division of the army. The Department for Military Psychology and Psychological Warfare, or – as it was better known throughout Shinra staff – the 'interrogation and torture unit', did not exactly enjoy a good reputation, neither inside nor outside the company. Therefore, most other people would have gladly waived the opportunity to meet a member of that infamous division, but Angeal was in the fortunate position to know the other on a private rather than a professional level. Truth be told, their respective jobs had never been a major topic during their conversations, especially since Specialist Daniel Ducane seemed to be somehow hesitant to talk about what he did exactly to earn his monthly paychecks from Shinra. All you need to know is that I'm a soldier like you. I just fight with different weapons.

"Dan? What are you doing here? I did not expect to see you…"

"Well, the shadows from the past always return to haunt us…" the other replied in a serious tone. Only the sparkle in his brown eyes underlined the fact that this statement was a joke. "Or to be a bit more precise, the highest level of command felt that we should mingle with the ordinary crowd every once in a while…"

Angeal couldn't help but smile. "Maybe they know how much you enjoy getting out of your office for once."

"Exactly. But tonight, I feel as if I never left my desk at all. You are the first person I'm meeting here who is neither simpleminded not drunk nor borderline insane."

"I'm going to file that somewhere under 'odd compliments', I guess."

"You know that paying compliments was never a talent of mine. Maybe that's the reason I'm still single." As usual, Ducane's behaviour, as well his outward appearance seemed to indicate that he was in his late twenties, although he was in fact twice Angeal's age. "If I had known I had to attend this little tea party tonight, I would have sent you a message. Unfortunately, I only got my orders this very afternoon. So walking into you is the first pleasant surprise on this very dull evening."

Had someone asked Specialist Ducane under which circumstances he had first met that young SOLDIER who could have been strictly spoken his son, he would have pointed out first of all that it hadn't been a professional appointment that had brought them together. 'And it never will be, for one rule I stick to is not to treat friends or friends of friends. And indeed, I consider Lieutenant Hewley a friend of mine.' If the questioner still tried to broach the issue, he would have been informed that Ducane rarely spend time in Midgar, as 'that town gives me claustrophobia, which is not a fortunate condition for someone working in a Psychology department. During one of my involuntary stays in the capital, about two years ago, I was unable to sleep and therefore decided to have a drink in one of those less posh bars of Sector two. Lieutenant Hewley had just finished an assignment and had obviously had the same idea. Finally, we started talking and that's how we met. Not a very interesting story, I guess.' Everything about this story was absolutely convincing, and Ducane would have easily passed any lie detector test with it, due to the fact that it was the absolute truth, just missing one or two details.

Right now, he looked Angeal over from top to toe before he added with a grin: "I suppose you don't want to hear how much you've grown since we last met."

"Spare me. Now you sound exactly like my mother's elder cousin…"

"Well, to pay an honest compliment for once: You're looking good. Extremely well, to be precise. Have I met him before?"

Angeal frowned. "Is it that obvious?"

The older man showed a broad grin. "Actually, it isn't. I was just taking an elaborate guess, and I turned out to be right. Occupational hazard."

Already their very first conversation had started similarly. At first, Angeal had been confused that the older man had addressed him completely out of the blue that night.

"Well, congratulation. A very wise decision you made."

"What decision?" Angeal returned.

"Not to get into any closer contact with that guy. Believe me, he's not your type."

In that very moment, Angeal was grateful for the dim light. He rarely blushed, but the fact that a complete stranger seemed to see right through him and the motive of the few words and glances he had exchanged with that other person mentioned was surprising if not irritating.

His new acquaintance continued nevertheless: "Unfortunately, he's known to be quite persistent. So to get rid of him, I suggest the following procedure: I'll invite you to a drink. That should be sufficient to convince him you already got a date for tonight."

"What makes you think I'm the kind of person interested in something like that?"

The other had just given him a knowing, yet slightly impatient smile: "Oh please, as much as I enjoy talking to you already, let's just skip the 'I pretend to be in total denial of my motives as well as my sexual orientation' phase and stay with the current issue of our little discussion. Before you decide, I would like to assure you that I don't intend to try anything inappropriate. No offence intended, but I'm not really your type either."

Angeal just flashed a brief smile in return. "Guilty as charged. And no, you don't know him."

"What a shame. But maybe you could fill me in on that matter…"

"Well, I'm on duty tonight, unfortunately. How long are you going to stay in Midgar?"

"I intend to leave tomorrow morning. Do you need to be somewhere right now?"

"Actually, I'm supposed to try and solve a minor communication problem by resetting the main computer."

"Sounds like a boring task. Mind if I keep you company? After all those pointless conversations tonight, it would be just what I need. Besides, I'm quite good with computers." With a conspiratorial smile, the older man added: "And don't worry, my clearance level allows me to enter almost every room here, except President Shinra's private quarters."

Angeal hesitated for a brief moment. On the one hand, an inner voice kept insisting he could not possibly tell anyone anything about him and Genesis; on the other hand, he realized only now that he had actually wished to do so for a long time. However, not due to the fact that he wanted someone else to know. It was more because talking about things sometimes helped with thinking, with finding a solution. Recently, he had felt that something about their relationship was still… not wrong, but unbalanced, unsolved, and he had no idea what exactly it was.

Maybe this was the chance to get closer to the problem. Soon after they had met in that bar in downtown Midgar, Angeal had realized that he and Daniel Ducane had an entirely different view on life (and on relationships, for that matter), but for exactly that reason their conversations had always been very interesting. So during the last years, they had met at irregular intervals, just to talk. A major topic had always been love- and relationship issues, on a general basis at first, until in one very desperate night, Angeal basically poured his heart out to the older man about his recently lost love (no names, no details, of course). Since then, he had heard a lot of other stories in return, and so an odd kind of trust had developed between the two, at least in this matter. Genesis would call it fate. A perfect opportunity.

So just minutes later, the two of them were walking down an empty hall way together.

After they had initially talked about tonight's event, Ducane finally touched on another subject: "It's a long time ago, but do you remember the last time we met? Neither of us was seeing someone on a steady basis back then; but while this was a normal situation for me, you merely seemed to be putting up with it. I told you there's nothing wrong with having a bit of fun with the wrong guys while you are waiting for the right one; and you said that at the moment being, you were not looking too hard anyway."

They had arrived at an elevator, and Angeal took out his ID card, before he returned: "I guess that's just what happens if you are not looking… It wasn't really a fortunate situation: the crisis in Wutai was heating up again, I was preparing for my First Class exam and had a million other things on my mind. The last thing I needed was falling for someone, but what can I say? It just happened…"

"Good old Murphy and his laws again, if you ask me. Anyway, judging from your expression, it's not the worst thing that ever happened to you."

Angeal caught himself smiling at the statement. "Truth be told, on the one hand, this is all extremely confusing; on the other hand, I feel like I should enjoy it. In my last relationship, I only realized I was in love when it was almost over."

They entered the elevator, and Angeal selected the 30th floor, where most main servers for Shinra's giant computer network were located.

Ducane leaned casually to the elevator wall, before he continued: "So tell me about your special someone. What's he like?" Seeing Angeal hesitate for a brief moment, he added: "Don't worry, I neither demand a name nor a photograph."

"What's he like? Well…" Angeal realized to his own surprise that being able to talk about Genesis like that, however vague it was, filled him with a surprisingly warm feeling, a fuzzy mixture of pride, possessiveness and affection, combined with an almost intoxicating quality of something new and exciting. "Let's start with the part that always seems to interest most, but is actually the least spectacular: Yes, he is good-looking; and no, I think I'm not the only one to say so. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm not, yet he is the sort of person in total denial about that circumstance. However, as I said, it's not the most important part anyway…"

"You sound exactly like any other 'newly in love' person I spoke to before. Believe me, the physical part is very important. No one ever fell for a pretty character in the first place…"

"No one you know, you mean…"

The older man laughed. "That's exactly why I missed our conversations so much. In everyday life, I can count the people daring to contradict me using the fingers of one hand. But I interrupted you before… So enlighten me: what's the important part in your point of view?"

The elevator stopped, and they entered another hallway, which gave Angeal a moment to think about that question. "It's a bit difficult to sum it up really. You know, he has this craving for life, this fire, which I find… intriguing, for the lack of better word. He always makes me laugh, no matter how hard I try to fight it. And we can talk about simply everything; still, I often feel that we need no words at all, that we understand each other on a completely different level. Sometimes he seems to read my mind, literally. And vice versa, although I think it's more a kind of guessing from my side, and every time I turn out right, I feel like someone who just won the lottery. Maybe that's the most intriguing thing about him, that he still surprises me. I think I'll never be able to understand his mind completely, and I find that endlessly fascinating…"

"Now that's something I understand. Nothing's worse than a book with the most beautiful cover containing a boring story and a predictable ending. So what I should really say in return is: Congratulation. That sounds almost too perfect to be true."

"Believe it or not, he is perfect. But I have to admit that I'm thinking exactly the same occasionally…it seems too good to be true, and sometimes I have my doubts about certain things…"

"Trouble in paradise? Well, let me assure you that this is perfectly normal… Why am I telling you this at all? You have been dating before, so you should know."

"Don't remind me. Trouble was the only thing we had tons of…" Angeal was unsure what surprised him more, the fact that two different people had reminded him of Dean tonight, or the fact that he hadn't even wasted a single thought about him for… months? Maybe the most confusing thing is that I can now talk about him like about an old childhood friend. Although I never had any illusions about it, I doubted this day would come…

They arrived at an office door, and Angeal used his ID card again to get access. After he had turned on the lights in the large office room, he pulled up a chair and sat down in front of the computer screen. While they both waited for the system to boot up, Ducane leaned casually to one of the desks in the background. "If I'm allowed to ask: For how long have you known each other?"

"Although the fact that we are dating is relatively new, we met a long time ago… We used to be friends before I suddenly realized there was more. Guess that didn't make things easier at all…"

"The usual 'friends to lovers' dilemma. Widely underestimated, though it's as complicated as the more famous vice-versa combination."

"And to make it even more complicated, we were always really close and never 'just' ordinary friends." The input field came up on the screen, and Angeal started to enter the obligatory access codes. While the system processed the data, he added: "So I started to wonder if what I was feeling was just intensified friendship or really more."

Tilting his head slightly, Ducane replied: "You know I have my principles: if you need a psychological advice, don't ask me. But this is obviously about relationship issues, and so I will say something every man of my age and experience could tell you: If that's still bothering you, there's a very simple way to find out. You just need to answer a single question."

Angeal turned around to face him. "And that is?"

"Plain and straight forward: Can you picture both of you having sex?"

For a minute, they just looked at each other, while Angeal tried to think about the question, only to realize that he knew the answer already.

"I don't want to intrude into your privacy, so strictly spoken, you don't have to answer at all."

Taking a deep breath, Angeal returned: "No, it's ok. As a matter of fact, I can."

The answer came surprisingly fast. "More than friendship, definitely. Case closed."

"But shouldn't love be more about romance and less about… desire?"

Ducane gave the younger man a knowing smile: "So now we are getting to bottom of things, don't we?"

In that very moment, Angeal felt like a professional gambler deciding to take the risk and play his last card: "To add something to my answer to you previous question: I can definitely see the two of us together in that way, almost too well for my own liking."

"And you consider that inappropriate?" Just for once, the psychologist in Ducane seemed to shine through.

"For Gaia's sake, he's not just another crush, he's more than that… I adore his mind and his soul, yet I can't stop thinking about his body… That feels so wrong."

"Let me ask you another question: Considering your previous experiences with dating, can you remember the closest situation you ever had to this one?"

Again, Angeal came up with the answer almost immediately. "The very first one, since it was the only time I was officially having something that fits the description of 'relationship'."

"Would you say you were in love that person back then?"

"I think so." You don't think. You know. Admit it.

"Let's make that a 'yes'. Considering that, how did you feel about the sexual dimension of your relationship?"

Angeal looked at him, frowning. It suddenly dawned on him that the other had a point. "So you want to say…"

"Exactly. It's perfectly normal that you won't be able to separate love from desire, not in the long run. So the question you should ask yourself is not: 'Why do I feel for him the way I do?', but rather 'Why do I want to feel differently?'"