Disclaimer: See my bio or Chapter 1.

WARNING: Shounen-ai fic. Boy x boy love. Fie, fie if you are against this! *waves her hands dramatically*

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Love or Hate: What is the Difference?

By. Firemoon

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Chapter 4: A shower booth, shampoo, dining manners and a fight

Raven sat impatiently on a folding chair outside the shower booth, staring intently at himself reflected in the mirror in front of him. His hair looked rumpled, and he chose to ignore the pinkish tint on his face, turning his eyes to his hands instead.

He unconsciously smiled bitterly as the still visible scars peeked at him through the black smudges of oil and dirt like evil, unblinking red slits of eyes. He shuddered as sudden, surprisingly vivid image of Prozen¡¯s face floated up in his mind, his scarlet eyes so like the scars.

However, he was snapped back into the realities by the dark-haired youth¡¯s voice from inside the shower booth, apparently singing something incoherent. Raven snorted quietly to himself, and raised his voice.

¡°Flyheight, shut up.¡±

There was a surprised squeak, and soon Raven was awarded richly with a yell and sound of something heavy falling down.

¡°Ouch...I forgot all about you..¡±

¡°You forgot? Gosh, I¡¯m hurt.¡±

After a brief struggle judging by the sound, Van emerged with a towel around his waist, looking slightly flustered and more than a little angry. Raven chuckled as Van threw daggers at him, wincing and putting his hand on his back as he turned slightly. Raven stood up, the scars now forgotten.

¡°It¡¯s my turn now. Turn around.¡±

¡°WHAT?¡±

Raven rolled his eyes.

¡°I need to use the shower.¡±

¡°Oh... Er, sorry.¡±

After a few minutes or so, Raven was inside the shower, relishing the hot water immensely. He closed his eyes, reaching for his usual shampoo of his on the shelf. It wasn¡¯t any problem for him, even if his eyes were closed, only that...

...the shelf was empty.

¡°Shit!¡±

Raven cursed loudly, and Van called out.

¡°What¡¯s wrong in there?¡±

Raven growled as he realized that the only thing available in there were some ridiculous papaya-scented ones. He sighed inwardly, turning the water off and tying the towel around his waist.

¡°What? Coming out already?¡±

¡°My things.¡±

Raven rummaged around his bag, and was relived to find the set of his lime-scented ones. Ignoring the now fully-dressed boy, he turned around again and into the shower.

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¡°Ahh.. nice.¡±

Van blushed slightly at Raven¡¯s voice, and instead concentrated intently on drying his hair. Thinking about his hair led to the image of Raven just moments ago, gray hair dripping wet and clinging to his scalp and neck, and how his eyes looked...

He violently shook his head, shaking off droplets of water off in every direction as he did so. Oh, come on, the little voice inside his head nagged. You think he looks nice, don¡¯t you? Van snarled. It wasn¡¯t really on his must-do list to goggle at a boy, and Raven at that!

¡°I don¡¯t.¡±

---

Raven was feeling slightly better by the time he came out again, drying his hair with a spare towel. However, his mood was a little spoiled by Van, who was avoiding his eyes. What the heck has he done to behave like that all of a sudden? Raven narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

¡°Flyheight,¡±

¡°Huh? Er, what?¡±

Hmm.. I smell something fishy. Raven thought as the boy still avoided looking at him full in the face.

¡°You messed with my things, didn¡¯t you?¡±

¡°What? Hell no!¡±

¡°Then why are you behaving like an idiot? Oh, sorry, you already were one.¡±

Van started to sweat under Raven¡¯s cold, calculating gaze. How in Zi is he expected to answer that question? ¡®Oh, Raven, I¡¯m sorry if I was behaving oddly. I suddenly realized that you look rather hot.¡¯ ...That was so completely out of the question. Out of the desperate measure, Van tried to take the subject off-course.

¡°What scent is that?¡±

Raven blinked. He certainly wasn¡¯t expecting that sort of answer out of the boy. However, he wasn¡¯t shocked enough to not to answer the question with something that would set the boy off.

¡°Something better that those ridiculous papaya ones you¡¯re using.¡±

Bingo. He hit the mark. Raven smirked as Van¡¯s face turned red, and the dark-haired boy gave him the finger, afterwards muttering furiously.

Ah, the art of pissing off people. How satisfying.

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¡°Some more, Van?¡±

¡°¡¯s alrigh¡¯ Mo¡¯bei. Irvin¡¯, d¡¯you want s¡¯m more?¡±

Raven rolled his eyes silently as he daintily popped another slice of steak into his mouth, casually glancing at the male trio on either side of him, simply devouring, no, shoving their foods into their mouths like they had been starved for a month or two. He chose to ignore the womenfolk¡¯s stares too; he was used to that.

Fiona was carefully studying the two boy¡¯s faces, but focusing mostly on Raven¡¯s since the other dark-haired boy was half buried in food. She, and probably the other few women in the base too, found the infamous maverick¡¯s table manners rather fascinating. Certainly not like others, she thought, turning towards Moonbei and rolling her eyes, gesturing silently at Irvine, Thomas and Van¡¯s general direction.

¡°He certainly is sort of an unexpected, isn¡¯t he?¡±

¡°Yes.¡±

They both sneaked glances at the gray-haired teen, the latter not noticing the two women as he was rather busy ignoring the piggish males around him. Shadow was curled up around the chair he was sitting on as usual, occasionally whining in a very dog-like manner.

¡°Shadow, I told you. You can¡¯t eat food. You don¡¯t have a digestive system.¡±

~But Raven, it looks so nice.~

Shadow whined again, and Raven frowned as the black organoid¡¯s thought rammed into his mind. Sighing, he flicked a piece of meat towards the black organoid who let out something like a squeal and immediately took immense pleasure in munching it.

¡°Oh, I thought that organoids couldn¡¯t eat.¡±

¡°They can¡¯t. Shadow¡¯s just a tad bit crazy. He said that it looks ¡®nice¡¯.¡±

...Somehow Raven managed to get a normal work like ¡®nice¡¯ sound like one of the worst profanities.

Fiona giggled a little at the tone of Raven¡¯s voice and how Shadow looked. Van looked up and saw Fiona giggling at something Raven said, and suddenly felt a pang inside his heart. What was it? He asked Raven what they were talking about, and blushed at the unexpected answer.

¡°Er, Raven?¡±

¡°Hmm?¡±

Raven did not realize what he said; he was too engrossed in Shadow¡¯s joyful messages constantly popping up into his head to concentrate in anything else. Van blushed, and stood up to get himself a desert, momentarily forgetting the Bond. Fiona gasped, crying out, but it was a second too late.

As Van took his third step, Raven gasped, nearly chocking on his drink and dropping the glass. It shattered, and immediately brought the whole bar¡¯s attention. Van yelped as he too, felt the sharp pull of the Bond, and Raven, now looking much more pale and about to be sick, stumbled off his chair and grabbed the elbow of Van¡¯s uniform.

Shadow started growling as he raised his head, wondering who hurt his master. As his eyes rested on Van whom his master was holding onto, Shadow concluded that Van had hurt his master. And someone who had hurt his master must pay.

With a growl, Shadow jumped towards the dark-haired teen but Zeke also was aware of what happened. With a sharp metal clash, the two organoids slammed into each other, and started trying to bite each other¡¯s head off.

But the owners of the organoids weren¡¯t aware of the antics. Raven wheezed out between gasps, one hand still clutching Van¡¯s uniform, the other supporting himself by resting on his knee.

¡°You...fucking..bastard...¡±

¡°Ha...? Sorry.¡±

With a satisfying crunch, Raven¡¯s fist collided with Van¡¯s jaw, and both of them fell to the floor too like the organoids. Fiona gave a breathy scream, and Irvine and Moonbei stood up, calling for some cold water – they all believed that nothing was more affective to stop a fighting than a bucketful of cold water.

The two rolled about on the floor, regardless of anything but each other. There were punching, kneeing, kicking, and lots of yelling and cursing as well as very childish things such as pulling at each other¡¯s hair, both of them being long-haired. The organoids weren¡¯t any different, except for the hair-pulling and ear-deafening roars instead of cursing, but which meant all the same anyway.

¡°STOP!!¡±

All the commotion stopped as the people slowly backed away from the boys – there already was a very wide circle around the organoids – and generally avoiding the stern Col. Karl L. Schubaltz¡¯s eyes. He fixed the two boys with a cold glare of his light green eyes, and Van stood up, grimacing.

Both of them were in mess, but Raven – possibly – was a little bit less beaten up. Both of them had shiny black eyes, bruises, and sore spots. Van, in addition had a throbbing, aching jaw – the result of first starter of the fight – and his hair felt as if it were coming off from the roots. Raven had torn lip, messed up hair – it ached too – and gigantic bruise on his thigh where Van¡¯s knee had dug in as they rolled about.

Van gulped nervously but Raven turned around, giving Shadow a sharp telling-off. Nobody would actually dream of telling the giant menacing black organoid off, but Shadow whined and backed away, trying to win Raven¡¯s favor back by wagging his tail – and nearly knocking off about 10 people by doing so.

Karl nodded at the both of them, signaling them to follow before walking out the bar door.

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¡°Explain yourselves.¡±

¡°Well, sir, you see... it was actually my fault.¡±

Raven blinked, looking at Van in surprise.

¡°No, Schubaltz. It was me. I hit him first.¡±

It was now both Karl and Van¡¯s turn to be surprised. Raven, defending Van? Raven winced as he put weight on the leg with bruised thigh, and shifted his weight to the other leg.

¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. It happened, and the punishment goes for both of you.¡±

¡°What punishment.. sir?¡±

Karl pondered, slowly twirling a pen between his fingers.

¡°Kitchen duty for.. a week. Luckily, it was empty for volunteers.¡±

¡°Kitchen duty?¡±

¡°Yes, Raven. Did you not hear me? Also, no infirmary for medication.¡±

¡°WHAT?¡±

This time, both the boys chorused, horrified. Karl just shrugged.

¡°It¡¯s your own faults that created this. I¡¯m not one to be blamed.¡±

¡°But-¡°

¡°No excuses, Flyheight. Now go on your business. The duty starts at 11 o¡¯clock every day until the end of next week.¡±

Something about the colonel¡¯s voice made them reluctantly turn away and head out the door. As the door clanged shut with a hiss, Karl then allowed a small grin to form on his face. Raven, taking the blame instead of Van? Interesting. He pulled down his hat a little more, and taking his phone, he punched the number onto the dial. This will be very interesting.

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This is Firemoon, with my faithful no-fee typist Jenn aka Bobo reporting from my house aka jail. Finally! Chapter four of Love or Hate! *dances around, pulling Jenn along* *Jenn kicks her in the shin, resulting Firemoon to cry out painfully and collapse into her chair*

Ouch.. anyway, hope all of you enjoyed this chapter [sorry if it¡¯s too short – I haven¡¯t had time to work on this for a LONG time thanks to Ms Little my art teacher.]

Many Thanks to Kitty-Yasha and Cherrygal3 and to all who patiently waited for the 4th chappie to come out of my pathetic brain and muse. [Kraa: Hey! Who¡¯re you callin¡¯ pathetic!]

And to ¡®a reader¡¯, thanks for the advise, but you shouldn¡¯t have read my fic if you didn¡¯t like VanxRaven, begging your pardon. I CLEARLY stated that this will be SHOUNEN-AI as in VanxRaven in the summary of every chappie, and I seriously recommend either slow reading or glasses.

I do not mean to stop writing this story, and eventually [note the word, my friends] Van and Raven will be going out together and lots of kissing! *insane and manic laughter*

Anyway, Thnx again all!

READ? THEN REVIEW! –Flames Accepted but should be with REASONS!

Yours Faithfully Fanfictional,

Firemoon