(present)

"Your face is going to get stuck like that," Seth scolded. Abel looked at her, but his expression didn't change. It was one of boredom and extreme distrust. "Can't you at least try relaxing?" Abel blinked but otherwise did nothing.

The two methuselah in the room looked like they wanted to yell at him for being rude to Seth, but they said nothing. Seth almost felt like taking back what she said about him being the emperor. It sure would help if other people also started scolding him, he was after all still a child… to her at least.

"Why should I try relaxing?" Abel asked. If he didn't say anything right then, Seth had a feeling that she would go crazy.

"Because if you keep on frowning like that you'll never make friends!" Seth exclaimed. Abel cocked an eye brow, he looked confused. Seth slapped her head, was Abel always like this? "Honestly? Do you even know what a friend is? I do, and I was really young when I learned it!"

"I know what a friend is," Abel stated.

"But have you ever had one?" Seth asked, crossing her chest. Abel opened his mouth, "Your siblings and Lilith don't count," she added.

"Does it matter? In the end we'll end up getting mad at each other, and might never speak again. They're just materialistic beings that could disappear any minute."

Good old Abel with his negative attitude. Seth rolled her eyes, of course he would say something like that. She could put Abel in the same room as a rampaging bull, and he'd be able to bore the poor thing to death with his philosophy.

"Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the most hostile, unfriendly, and negative person in the whole universe, give an applause for Abel Nightlord!" Seth turned to those in the room, and held her hands in the air in exasperation. "This is one man you do not want to get angry! He can drive you to death by just talking, not to mention he's also a great fighter," everyone started laughing, as Seth said this in the most serious voice she could muster. "He never smiles or laughs in front of others. In fact the only people who actually get him to show any other emotion besides anger is his siblings and Lilith, and even that's stretching it! So Mr. Nightlord, mind telling us a little about your childhood…?" Seth turned back to Abel.

Seth glared at her older… younger brother. No emotion indeed. At the moment she couldn't get Abel to laugh, not without telling him who she really was, and even then his smile was only real half the time. "Asthe, Ion," Seth turned to the two methuselah. "As a matter of fact, can all of you please help this grump smile?" she asked everyone in the room and pointed back to Abel.

"I'll smile when I feel like it," Abel muttered.

"And when would that be?" Seth turned back to him. Abel just looked at her and said nothing. "Your reaction to my joke earlier was anything but normal! You could have at least smiled!"

"Say cheese!" Leon hollered, smiling at Abel. Seth saw Abel's eyes dart from Seth to Leon and then to those around her. Laughter filled the air once more. Everyone joined in with Leon, telling Abel to smile in their own ways. Even the kids started laughing and telling him to smile.

"You people are strange," Abel stated. He had a face of pure disgust

"We could say the same thing about you, grumpy," Seth teased and smiled. Abel snorted and rolled his eyes, a bored expression played on his face.

"While it was nice meeting all of you, I really should get going," Abel pushed himself off the wall. "I need to get back to my time and I'm only a burden to you. Besides I'm sure Father Garcia would appreciate a vacation." He bowed his head and made his way around the group of people.

"Where are you going?" Seth questioned. She placed herself between Abel and the hall that led to the exit. "You don't even know where we are right now! The worlds changed in the past nine centuries, and I know, you haven't seen a current map."

"I'll just ask someone where I'm at," Abel retorted. He made to step around her, but Seth moved so that she was in his path again. Abel growled, "please step aside." Seth could tell he was at his end of patients with her.

"You'll ask someone where you're at, but then where do you even plan on going? For all you know you could walk into enemy territory!"

"It won't be enemy territory if they don't know what side I'm on, hell I don't even know what side I'm on," Abel snapped, he glared down at Seth. She returned it with one of her own. "Besides I need to find my brother. Even if what you say is true, and he has been keeping things from me, he's still the one that brought me here, and is the only one who can send me back."

"How many times do I need to tell you, before you finally get it?" Seth barked. "Cain-is not-to-be-trusted!" she said everything slowly, as if she were talking to a misbehaved child.

"Lets see," Abel thought on this for a moment. "How about 976 times? After all that is how old I'm supposed to be in this time! Maybe I'm going senile from old age!" he said sarcastically.

Seth glared at Abel. "Stop being a child!" she snarled.

"You're the child! Telling me to smile, only a kid would do that!"

"I would tell you to do other things too, but you would just ignore my advice!"

"I only ignore the useless advice! If you can tell me something important, I might just listen ." Abel tried walking around Seth again, this time she let him pass.

Seth watched as Abel quickly retreated into the hall. His figure disappeared when he took a right, toward the exit. Seth bit her lip, contemplating on what to do.

"Should we go after him?" Asthe asked, she sounded unsure of herself. Not even a second after those words came out of her mouth, did the sound of screeching metal fill the air. Abel was forcing the hatch open. Damn that child!

"Yo!" Leon called, he walked after Abel, and disappeared in the hall. His gruff voice could still be heard. "Rule number one!" Leon shouted playfully. "Never leave your wingman! So where are you going? I could show you around the neighborhood."

Seth moaned, that was not a good idea. First off, Leon was a convict and secondly she really didn't want him to be influencing Abel in anyway. Seth marched after the two 'men,' Asthe right on her heals. How in the world did Lilith deal with Abel? As a matter of fact how did she deal with Seth, Cain and Abel? If Abel was this bad she hated to think of the trouble she caused Lilith when she was younger.

XXX

"Tell me again why you're all following me?" Abel asked, as he weaved in and out of buildings and alleyways. They were currently in the city of London -er- Lundinium, Abel corrected himself.

"We aren't following you," Seth retorted and shot Abel a smile. "You're following us. We were following you for the first hour but then you got lost."

"I could have found my way back," Abel shot back. "Besides why are you here anyway? According to Father Garcia-"

"Stop calling me that!" Leon growled and swung an arm over Abel's shoulder. It was taking all his self restraint to not shove the human away. "My name is Leon!"

"Or you could just call him Dandelion," Astharoshe teased, and nudged Leon in the ribs. She and Seth burst out laughing, while Father Garcia growled a complaint, that Abel didn't quite catch. Abel just stared at them.

"Hey! I didn't get to pick my codename!" Father Garcia - Leon, growled.

"Are you guys hungry?" Seth broke in, she still had a large grin on her face. Seth pointed to a small outdoor restaurant.

"If you're treating," Leon gave Seth a wolfish smile. Seth nodded.

"I could go for something," Astharoshe nodded.

Everyone looked at Abel, waiting for an answer. "Um," he started, "er-"

"Just come," Seth took his hand forcefully and tugged at his arm. "You've stopped eating haven't you?" she hissed to him in a low voice as she started walking toward the restaurant. Abel was about to protest or deny her claim, but she continued. "You haven't been eating properly for what? About a month now? If you don't eat you'll collapse!" Seth stopped at the waitress, "table for four, please!" she asked kindly.

The waitress smiled and motioned for them to follow her. They got an outdoor table. "Can I get your drinks?" she asked kindly. She held a notepad and pen in her hands. Everyone proceeded to telling her what they wanted, Abel just ordered water.

"We are ready to order," Seth said once everyone ordered their drinks. "One of everything on the menu," the waitress looked up from her notepad with a weird look. Even Abel and the others were a bit taken aback by what she just said. "Yes, you heard me right, don't worry we'll pay," Seth smiled kindly.

"O-of course," the waitress bowed and made her way to the kitchen.

"Now, you better eat, because otherwise there will be a lot of left overs," Seth said.

"Do you even have enough money to buy all that?" Abel asked skeptically. He didn't have any of the currency they used in this time, so he knew he wouldn't be able to pay for it, and by the looks of Astharoshe and Father Garcia they also couldn't pay for it all.

"Don't worry," Seth chuckled. She took a seat next to Abel while Astharoshe and Father Gar- Leon, sat on the opposite side of the table.

After a moment of deadly silence, Astharoshe snorted as she looked at a small cluster of girls. Abel followed her gaze, it was a group of five, they were all whispering in hushed voices. A few of the girls glanced at him then looked away, this only caused him to become more edgy then he already was.

Seth chuckled besides Abel, making him look away. "You're so clueless," she laughed. Abel scowled, this only caused Seth to laugh even harder. "I suppose it's better that way though," she managed to say between her laughter.

Father Garcia waved to the girls, and Abel's eyes darted to him then back to the girls before he looked back at the table. A line of waiters soon came by with several plates in their hands. They deposited the entrées onto the table along with several clean plates.

The table was stacked to it's fullest covered the in the colorful dishes. The variety of the food ranged from Asian food all the way to English food, and perhaps even some Hawaiian plates. The delicious smells wafted their way to Abel, so that he could pick out the different spices used.

"Since you have no where else to go, why don't you just stay with us?" Seth asked as she and the others began helping themselves to the food. "You don't know where Cain is," she pointed out. "I was thinking that you could come back with Asthe, Ion and I to the empire."

"What about that mission you were given?"

"We have lost all our leads," Seth shrugged, as she began cutting the beef into pieces.

"And those from the church?" Abel began serving himself once certain that everyone had done so before him.

"Going back to the vatican in Rome."

"The kids?"

"I've talked to the queen of Albion, she will find suitable homes for them here," Seth paused as she chewed her food. "If they want to, they can come with us to the empire, however once we find… Father Nightroad we will have to bring them back here."

"Oh…" Abel took a small bite of food. Immediately the rich flavor washed over his tongue.

"So?" Seth asked, she had stopped eating and was looking at Abel expectantly.

"'So' what?" Abel asked.

"Do you want to come to the empire or not?" Seth yelled.

"I don't have much of a choice do I? In the end you would just keep bothering me until I said yes, or I would get lost, like you pointed out to me earlier," Abel stated. "You are so much like my sister."

"Great! We just need to drop off the members of the church on the way," Seth said happily. "I am your sister," Seth said in a different language. She sighed and shook her head, almost as if she already regretted telling him that.

"Sure," Abel said sarcastically even though he knew she was telling the truth. He just didn't want to believe it. Abel brought the cup of water to his lips.

"By the way I'm also the empress," Abel spat out his water, and started coughing. "Don't spray it, say it," Seth bit out.

Abel looked at Leon as he continued coughing, Leon looked pissed but didn't say anything. He just picked up a napkin and proceeded to wipe his face.

"Sorry Father- Leon," Abel corrected himself when Leon shot him a glare.

Leon huffed in response, and continued eating the delicious food that didn't get spit on.

"Please don't tell me I'm the emperor," Abel prayed. "If you do, I think I'm going to bring up everything I just ate."

"You hardly ate anything to throw-up," Seth pointed out. She smiled, "you are the emperor."

"That sounds totally wrong," Abel groaned. He accidentally reverted back to English.

Before Abel could say anything Astharoshe jumped into the conversation, now using her broken form of english, or the empires language as she called it. "What sounds wrong?"

"Nothing," Seth shot Abel a glare. He mentally slapped himself for that slip up. Reverting back to the first language, she continued, "yes that means we married each other."

Okay, now Abel felt sick. He married his own sister! Abel felt his mouth drop open, but his mind was on what Seth just said. That sounded really, really wrong! After being told that, he sure as hell would do everything in his power to make sure that never happened when he returned to his time. Abel quickly took a bite of some of the bread, to cover up the fact his mouth just opened.

Seth started laughing hysterically, "you didn't actually believe me did you?" she gasped. "You did, didn't you! Hahaha," she clutched her stomach and looked as if she were about to fall out of her seat. "We never married, however I am the empress, and you are the emperor. Don't tell anyone I'm the empress, the only one's who know is Astharoshe, Ion and Esther. I'm actually using a false pretense under the name of Augusta Vradica."

Abel sighed in relief, thankful that she was only joking. "That was not nice," he stated, and took a sip of his water before turning back to his meal. "It must be hard for you to have to listen to her," Abel spoke in Latin as he jabbed his thumb at Seth.

Seth made an innocent face as if she didn't know what he was talking about.

"I have no problems with her," Astharoshe stated. She looked disappointed about the fact she had just missed out on their earlier conversation.

The rest of the meal passed by quickly, with small chats across the table. Abel decided not to take part in any of the conversations unless asked something directly. When they finished eating the waitress gave Seth the check and a few boxes to put the left overs in. Seth quickly handed her the money and took the boxes from her.

Once back at the ship Seth handed Abel a clear bottle with red liquid in it. "Drink this," she ordered.

"Is this wine?" Abel asked, it looked oddly thick just like the wine Cain gave him had been.

"Just drink it," she rolled her eyes. Abel looked back at her then the bottle. He popped open the cap with his thumb and took a small sip. It tasted different then the one Cain had given him but it tasted just as good, if not more. Abel ran his tongue over his teeth, his canines felt longer then before. He ignored it took another sip of the bottle. Although it was delicious he still felt bad for drinking it, it must have cost a fortune.

"Here," Abel capped the bottle.

Seth didn't take it. "Drink it all," she said, almost sternly. What was this? His medicine?

"No thanks," Abel tried handing the bottle back to Seth but she didn't take it. "Why do you want me to drink this? It's only wine, do want me to get drunk or something?"

Okay people, just ignore what I said below, it's really not important unless you want to here about me rant and rage about work.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, I was really busy and haven't had any time to myself for the past week. Homework sucks and my mom has decided to overload me with SAT prep, on top of that I got volleyball stuff going on, not to mention my senior project for next year. What else... Oh yeah, my classmates always talk during class, so I can't study! GAH! I think I'm going crazy.

Notice: I don't own, Tabitha, Kayson, Darin, Alaric or Shane. Flame800900 does.

Please review.