Part 2! The Obligatory Bath House Scene!
"FAYT!"
"GAH!"
Cliff paused at the door into Fayt's room, not sure whether to laugh or to go about prying Peppita off of Fayt. After Fayt managed to knock Peppita off of himself, he settled for leaning against the wall and laughing. Fayt stared at him in confusion, occasionally looking over at Peppita, who rubbed her backside as her mind puttered cheerfully along, not at all intent on being compliant. After a while, Fayt decided the best course of action would be to comply by Survival Rule Number Five of the "Arcane Warriors of the Black Brigade":
If all else fails, throw something.
So he did.
A few minutes later, Albel arrived at the hotel, ignoring the the employees as they drew back at the sight of him half-covered in swiftly drying blood as he went straight for Fayt's room. Sophia blinked in surprise, quickly looked him over, then finally waved at him as he drew near, and Albel twitched a finger in response. Gratified, Sophia turned back to continue watching Fayt apologize profusely and try to properly heal the large bump and nearby bleeding gash on Cliff's head. Cliff just muttered under his breath something about barrels, and nearby Peppita nervously waited for a chance to question Fayt about his and Albel's discussion, making an effort to clean Cliff's blood off of Fayt's boot as she did. Maria sat by Cliff and Fayt, trying to keep Cliff's hands away from his gash so that Fayt could get at it without problems. As Albel stood by Sophia in the doorway Maria looked up at him, her expression quickly flashing through several emotions, finally landing on the one it liked best. Cliff watched as she did, following her steady, exasperated glare to the Glyphian at the door and finally moving his hands away from his head in surprise.
"Healing!" Fayt said, pressing his hand over Cliff's gash, which somewhat quickly closed, leaving a long, rather nasty-looking bruise. He thought about trying again, then noticed both Maria and Cliff looking out the door. His jaw dropped slightly, then he more or less literally hopped off of the bed, almost practically tackling Albel before his mind reminded him that that was not exactly the best idea in the world. Instead he settled for trying to form a coherent question, then switched plans as Albel smirked slightly at him.
"I'm fine, fool," he said quietly, just loud enough for Fayt and Sophia to make out the words. Fayt briefly pondered hitting him, then settled for directing the most weary sigh he could muster at him. It reminded all but Maria disturbingly of Maria. Maria it just annoyed for reasons she could not quite place.
"So why are you covered in blood?"
Albel shrugged.
"No reason." Turning away, he added, "Come with me, fool." Fayt watched him walk away, perplexed and reminded eerily of a previous incident at the inn.
"Er, I'll be right back, okay?" he said, heading after Albel. A few feet down the hall it occured to him that he might potentially need shoes and turned back, thanking Sophia as she quickly handed him his boots. After quickly putting them on he ran after Albel again, Sophia waving cheerfully as he left. Inside Fayt's room, Maria, Cliff, and Peppita did not move, slightly confused as to what just happened. Finally, Maria shook her head, and as if on cue the other two snapped out of it.
"Those two confuse me," Maria muttered, sliding off of the bed and standing up, facing away from the others as she straightened out her clothes.
"Well, anyway, Cliff, are you--," she said, turning to look at the large Klausian man. Across the room, the door swung slightly on its hinges as Sophia called out for Peppita and Cliff to have fun. "...Does the fate of the universe matter only to me?"
"Well, I don't know. I'd say Fayt matters a lot to Albel, Cliff, and Peppita, too," Sophia said cheerfully, beaming as Maria walked up beside her, looking between slightly amused and slightly annoyed.
"That's not what I meant," she said, and Sophia shrugged.
"Oh, I know. But I'm safe in the knowledge that no matter how obnoxious I get or ditzy I act, you can't get rid of me because without my genetic ability you're screwed."
"...What?"
"Oh, nothing at all," Sophia said, bouncing slightly on her heels. A brief moment later, she got a flash of inspiration and grabbed Maria, pulling her into the hall and closing the door behind her before dragging her down the hall. Maria, still trying to figure out if Sophia had been lying, or even if she had actually said anything, allowed herself to be dragged along for a while before regaining her composure.
"Wait, where are we going?!"
"Shopping, of course!" Sophia answered. Maria's composure went straight to hell again as she watched the brunette incredulously.
"What?!"
A similar question was posed some long distance away as Cliff and Peppita stopped in their tracks, gaping up at the large bath house before them.
"...I've been all over this place and I don't remember anything like this," Cliff said, arching an eyebrow. Peppita arched an eyebrow of her own up at him.
"Really?" she asked. "According to Fayt you spend most of your time here in the tavern."
"Oh, shut up, kid," Cliff muttered. "Are you sure they went in here?"
"Absolutely!" Peppita answered, pumping her fist and holding it up in the air in an odd sort of victory pose. Cliff ignored this and went on inside. Peppita held her pose for a moment, then hurried in after him.
"Wow, this place is big," Peppita murmered. Cliff nodded vaguely, looking around. How did he miss this thing's existance? Down a nearby hall, he spotted the black-and-blond ends of two wrapped pigtails disappear into a door.
"Bingo," he said quietly, moving to head down the hall before being blocked by a smallish young man dressed in a uniform complimentary to the bath house's decor.
"Excuse me, sir, but you'll need to pay before you use one of our baths," he said. Cliff shifted from side to side, and the employee moved to block him as he did so. Deciding there was no way he was getting past him (and belatedly acknowledging the fact that breaking the law probably was not a good course of action, all things considered), Cliff muttered and headed to the counter, the employee following nervously.
"Fine, how much?" Cliff asked, pulling out his wallet.
"10,000 fol per person, sir, for a basic wash and bath," answered the man behind the counter. Cliff stared at him, some of his money dropping from hand onto the counter.
"What?"
Fayt said nothing in reply, simply staring at Albel, his face slowly turning red. This vastly amused (and, somewhere in the very back of his mind, flattered and embarrassed) Albel, though it did not register on his face.
"Stop it," he said, sitting on a stool near Fayt's. After a moment or two, Fayt looked away from Albel and set about cleaning himself off. A few feet away, Albel watched him while he unwrapped his pigtails, pausing to look over the bandages he tied them up with disgustedly.
"Do you think they do cleaning here?" he asked, holding one bloody bandage in front of his face. Fayt shrugged.
"I don't think they do," he said, scratching the back of his head embarrassedly. "But they have robes for sale, so..."
"I'm not walking through town wearing only a robe, fool," Albel muttered, and removed his mechanical arm before lathering shampoo into his hair. Fayt watched and shook his head.
"Not you, me," Fayt said, realizing a bit late how odd that sounded. "I mean, you can wear my clothes and I'll just wear the robe until we get back to the inn or something. You're taller than me, but you're also thinner, so I think they should fit..." Albel snorted, pouring water over his head. One embarrassing coughing fit later, he waved a worried Fayt away, coughing a few more times.
"Fine, if you insist," he said, smirking just slightly before looking seriously up at the younger man. "I hope you plan on investing on pants as well as a robe before we leave."
Fayt made a face. "What? You can go around wearing a skirt slit up to here with stockings, but I can't go out in a long robe?"
"Don't mock me, fool," Albel growled, and tossed his water bucket at Fayt. Fayt ducked, and the bucket landed and rolled safely away, running into Cliff's foot as he opened the door.
"Rule Number Five strikes again, I see," he said, picking up the bucket as he headed to where the other two were. Albel frowned and turned away from him, scrunching up slightly as he continued washing. Fayt watched him worriedly before turning to greet Cliff.
"Hey, Cliff! What are you doing here?"
"Seeing how effective steam is on headaches. You?"
Fayt grimaced. "You're not going to forgive me for that, are you?"
"Ah, what are you talking about? I already forgave you! I just figured it gave me full excuse to pick on you for a while," Cliff said, grinning as he ruffled Fayt's hair. Fayt looked fairly unamused.
"What, don't you pick on me enough?" he asked, taking Albel's bucket back and turning to hand it back to the Glyphian. Albel had already gone about taking Fayt's bucket, however, so Fayt instead returned his attention to Cliff. "So, really. What are you doing here?"
"Ah, no big deal. I justed wanted to see where you and Albel were going and thought the place looked pretty neat. Didn't expect to end up in the same room, though," Cliff said, grinning in such a way as to make Fayt completely unsuspicious to the fact that what Cliff had just said was a bald-faced lie.
"This is a nice place, isn't it?" Fayt asked, looking around. "It's been a while since I've been to one of these. It's kind of weird that they have one here..."
"Yeah, well, it's not as weird as it seems, if you think about it," Cliff said quietly. Fayt looked at him, briefly confused, then looked down at the floor.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe one or more of the programmers just liked bath houses..."
The three men remained silent for a while as they continued washing, pondering assorted things of various importance. Fayt mulled over recent events, thinking about how swiftly things had gone straight to hell. Had it even been a month since Hyda IV was attacked? In that short period of time he had gone from a college student who liked fighting in video games to an above-average warrior with some sort of bizarre, mostly uncontrollable superpower. He had participated in a war on an underdeveloped planet (and at that very moment, one of his most dangerous enemies during that time was sitting a few feet away, exchanging occasional glares with Cliff, who had by all means technically kidnapped him), then had gone on to a different dimension, only to find out that his world, his entire universe was just a giant video game. It was more than a little mind-numbing to think about. He kept going over everything that had happened in his mind, from crashing near Whipple, to crashing in Airyglyph, from fighting the Vendeeni machines at Hyda to fighting the "guards" in Arkives. Worrying about Nel going off on her own, worrying about Sophia, worrying about his parents, worrying about Mirage's escape from Airyglyph, worrying about Ameena and Dion, worrying more than he really probably should have over almost everything Albel did or did not do after they fought in the mountains... Getting annoyed when Albel and Cliff refused to help each other in battle unless he went and practically got himself killed fighting, worrying and being confused and somewhat annoyed at Albel's late-night intrusion into his room and being awoken by almost being stabbed through the head, then turning around and being sad and again worried when Albel left without giving him the chance to say good-bye in person. Feeling guilty for not worrying more about Albel after he was shot, then feeling even more guilty for thinking that when his father had died from a similar wound. Feeling guilty for lying to Cliff when he told him that he had found the nice, shiny, expensive sword he had just bought for Albel just lying by the river (something he was certain Cliff never believed, and he wondered belatedly why he had just let it drop), and getting annoyed and embarrassed when Albel teased him in private for buying Cliff new armour to make up for it. Everything and anything he could conceivably worry about, he did, including worrying about how much he had worried about Albel (and, guiltily, and to a much lesser extent, Cliff), for what he was certain were mostly, if not all, of the wrong reasons...
"Hey, Fayt, you in there?" Cliff asked, tugging on a strand of blue hair from Fayt's head and being punched in return.
"Yeah, yeah," Fayt muttered, rubbing irritatedly at his eyes as if that would help clear his mind. "Did I fall asleep or something?"
"Nah, you just kind of zoned out," Cliff said, leaning down to get a better look at the blue-haired boy. "You all right?"
"I'm fine. I just got caught up in thinking about something," Fayt said, trailing off and hiding his eyes as his face reddened greatly. "Could you possibly wear a towel, please?"
"There's not a towel in this place big enough, kid," Cliff said, grinning, and hauled Fayt to his feet. "Now come on, we're heading to the bath." Fayt muttered unintelligibly, wrapping a towel around his lower body as he followed Albel, who slowed just enough to let the younger man catch up with him. Cliff watched in annoyance as the two seemingly completely forgot he was there, heading off down the hall on their own. As they reached the door to the outdoor bath, however, Fayt stopped to wave for him to hurry up, his line of sight slowly drifting down again before, thoroughly embarrassed by now, he ducked quickly through the door. Grinning widely, Cliff tied two corners of a towel around his waist in a surprising mimicry of decency as he went down the hall and outside.
Somewhere else entirely, the three females of the group wandered the streets of Peterny, busily discussing life, the universe, and everything. The guys seemed to pop up a lot, too.
"I wonder what Cliff looks like naked," Sophia mused, glancing at Maria. "Do you know?"
"W-What? How would I know?" Maria asked, blushing uncharacteristically.
"Oh, I don't know. Cliff just seems like the type to walk around naked or half-naked a lot," Sophia said, and shrugged. Maria sighed.
"He's pretty shameless sometimes, but not that much. At any rate, Mirage has never mentioned anything about it, and neither have any of the other older members of Quark," she said. Sophia looked thoughtful.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. And Fayt never said anything about it either, and he and Cliff travelled together a lot," she said, still musing patiently up at the sky as if it would suddenly tear open and reveal unto her a naked Cliff Fittir.
"Where'd that question come from, anyway?" Peppita asked, eyeing Sophia somewhat warily. The two girls were friendly enough with each other, but that by no means meant that Sophia was not a little strange at times. Unbeknownst to her, Maria, walking on Sophia's other side, was thinking much along the same lines, albeit with the bonus line of thought wondering if the Vendeeni had tampered with her brain or had she always been this way. She certainly had never encountered anything about the Esteed girl having a mental illness during her research, and Fayt and Cliff had never mentioned anything about it. It was not that big of a deal, really, as Sophia was for the most part a very sweet girl, though entirely too concerned about others' feelings for anyone's good. Still, though, the way these things just sort of popped out of the blue...
"Oh, I was just wondering," Sophia answered, smiling brightly. Ignoring the passed glance between the other two girls, she looked through the bags hanging from her arms. "I guess we're just about done shopping, huh?"
"I think the only places we haven't hit are the food stands, the outfitter, and the Retail Rabbit that keeps wandering around the street the inn's on," Maria said in agreement, shifting her small, solitary bag on her arm and looking at least slightly embarrassed. She was just thankful Sophia and Peppita had not asked who the gifts were for, though, now that she thought about it, it was probably not as embarrassing as she was making it out to be. Certainly buying small little gifts for her closest friends in Quark could not be all that bad, could it?
As Maria pondered to herself, Peppita piped up with, "Hey, I heard that the outfitter just got in some love potions recently!" Sophia blinked in surprise.
"Really?"
"Yeah! Think we should go check them out?" Peppita asked.
"Don't bother. Fayt asked Welch about them and she said they don't work. More importantly, not only do they not work, they evidently make you dislike people," Maria said, suppressing the urge to look proud as the younger girls looked at her with something at least resembling admiration (although in Peppita's case it swiftly turned to jealousy, though this went unnoticed).
"Really?" Sophia asked again, disappointed. "So why are they even selling them?"
"I have no idea," Maria said, and shrugged as the three girls entered the inn, Peppita pausing to look wistfully down towards the outfitter's. "I guess they must serve some additional purpose."
"I'd certainly hope so," Sophia replied, musing again.
"Or maybe the people of Aquios are just crooks," Peppita said cheerfully, thankfully out of earshot of any Aquiosans as she bounded into her and Sophia's room.
"That's not a nice thing to say, Peppita," Sophia said, frowning at the younger girl as they set their bags on their beds. Peppita just shrugged.
"You never know."
"If you two don't mind," Maria said, intent on at least briefly preventing an argument, "I'll go back to my room. I have things to think about."
"Oh, it's okay. We'll see you at dinner!" Sophia said, waving cheerfully to Maria as she left the doorway to go to her room. Peppita waved as well, though she knew it was too late to matter.
"What time is it, anyway?" she asked, looking around. "Is there a clock in here?"
"On my side there is," Sophia said, peering at it. "It's... two after five? I didn't think we were out that long..."
"Wait, if it's almost five, shouldn't Fayt and them be back yet?" Peppita asked, looking appropriately worried, though for the wrong reasons. For her part, Sophia's reasons for her worried expression were not much better.
"They really should be. Maybe they're just sleeping?" she said, both her and Peppita walking out the door in silent agreement, though Peppita, at least, wrongly assumed the other's motivation. A few minutes later, they returned to their room, no less worried than before.
"I wonder where they are. Could they still be at the bath house?" Sophia asked, and Peppita shook her head.
"Naw, I'm sure they probably just went somewhere to clean Albel's clothes because they were all bloody and stuff," Peppita said, more to assure herself than Sophia, though it worked the other way around.
"I wish I had my camera, then," Sophia said, grinning. "Knowing Fayt, he probably let Albel wear his clothes and is walking around in a towel or something. I'm sure Aunt Ryoko would find it hilarious..." A brief look of sadness flitted over Sophia's face, and Peppita eyed her worriedly.
"Are you okay, Sophia?" she asked. Sophia looked at her, briefly confused as if she had just woken up, then smiled.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm just worried, that's all," she said, waving one hand dismissively. "Anyway, why don't you and I go see if we can find the boys? I think they need a good talking to for making us worry, don't you?"
Peppita watched her, frowning still. Just as Sophia's smile twitched in preparation to fall, however, she beamed and raised her fist in the air. "Yeah! We'll teach them what happens when you make women worry!"
"Right!" Sophia said, and went to open the door. Just as she did, Cliff made it to the top step.
"Honey, I'm home!" he bellowed, grinning. Albel, wearing his own, newly cleaned and slightly damp clothes (much to Sophia's partial amusement but mostly dismay) pushed him aside, rolling his eyes in disgust. Fayt followed him, carrying a robe and a pair of cheapish pajama pants. He stopped by Cliff to pat him on the back, and waved vaguely to Sophia and Peppita before quite realizing they were there and stopping.
"Hey, Sophia, Peppita," he said, his mind lurching back out of "deep thought mode".
"Hi, Fayt," Sophia said, waving. "Have a nice bath?" Fayt blinked at her.
"Er, yeah. How did know?" he asked. Sophia giggled and walked over, then proceeding to pluck at the robe in his arms. Fayt watched her do this as if from a distance as his mind finally got back to speed. "Oh, uh, right. I forgot about these."
Sophia giggled again, earning a false look of annoyance from Fayt, then suddenly turned serious. "It's not like you to zone out like that, Fayt. Are you okay?"
"You, too?" Fayt asked, earning a confused look from Sophia until she peered over to one side and saw Cliff watching Fayt worriedly. Fayt followed her gaze and sighed. "I'm fine, really. I just have a lot on my mind, okay?"
"Okay, if you're sure," Sophia said, not quite able to remove the worry from her voice. "But if anything is wrong, you'll be sure to tell me, right?"
"Yeah, yeah. You worry too much," Fayt said, cracking a small grin before walking past her. "I'm just going to go see if I can sleep it off. Later."
"Have a nice nap," Sophia said, giving Fayt a small wave and smiling slightly as he returned it before going into his room and closing the door. Now alone in the hall, Albel having gone into his room some time ago (or they thought he went into his room. Now that they thought about it, none of them had really been paying attention to where he went...), Sophia, Cliff, and Peppita looked at each other, a mutual look of concern on their faces. Cliff's was the first to go.
"Well, I just wanted to make sure Fayt got back okay. If anyone needs me, I'll be at the tavern," he said, turning swiftly and going down the stairs before either girl could say anything. The two girls looked at one another, Sophia finally breaking the silence.
"Well, I guess we're just going to have to trust Fayt on this one," she said, shrugging. "Hopefully he'll feel better when he wakes up."
"Yeah," Peppita said, unusually solemnly for her. Much like Cliff, however, she quickly brightened. "I bet he'll feel a lot better when we give him the stuff we got him, too!"
"Right!" Sophia said, smiling as the two girls walked back into their room. "Though, don't you think those earrings are a little girly for him?"
"Not if he only wears one," Peppita answered. "After all, they're just gold hoops. That Wittcomb guy had one, and it was a lot bigger than the ones I got Fayt."
"I guess you're right," Sophia said, then looked suddenly confused. "Wait, Fayt's ears aren't pierced, anyway."
"Not yet they aren't!" Peppita said, holding up a needle and grinning with such devilish glee that Sophia flinched slightly and backed away from her. Peppita noticed this and made a face at Sophia.
"Oh, what? I'm not going to hurt him or anything..."
"Knowing your reputation, that's not entirely comforting," Fayt said, forcing himself not to look back at the unusually pretty man changing clothes behind him. "And can't you use your own room for this?"
"And here I thought you'd appreciate my presence," Albel said, his voice mock-hurt. Fayt sighed for what seemed like the fifty thousandth time that day.
"I do, usually," he said, "but when I'm ready to fall sleep, having a half-naked man nearly give me a heart attack isn't my idea of fun."
"It's not my fault," Albel said, completely ignoring the fact that yes, it was kind of his fault. "And it's hardly even the evening. Why are you going to bed so early? Are you sick?"
At this uncharacteristic display of worry, Fayt looked back, his gaze locking in with Albel's. A few moments passed before Albel moved, sitting on Fayt's bed and pulling him roughly into the closest Fayt felt he would ever get to a hug. Given a number of factors, up to and including the fact that Albel primarily used his mechanical arm in the faux-hug, it was not the most comfortable display of affection, but Fayt eventually relaxed into it, and swiftly fell asleep. Albel watched him silently, moving his "living" hand to Fayt's forehead once he was certain he was completely out. He frowned at the slight fever Fayt had, and considered speaking to one of the maggots who might know more about medicine about it. When he shifted Fayt in order to move him entirely onto the bed, however, the boy held onto his skirt as if it were some sort of lifeline. Albel fidgeted slightly, ashamed of how nervous he suddenly felt. In lack of a better plan, Corollary One to Rule Number Five came into effect.
"Ow! What was that for?!" Fayt asked, holding his cheek that Albel had backhanded.
"You fell asleep on me, fool," he answered, annoyed.
"You didn't have to slap me, though," Fayt muttered, and upon pulling his hand away from his face and seeing blood on it, added, "and you definately didn't need to use your metal hand."
"Not my problem," Albel said, then briskly walked out of the room. Fayt watched him go and applied a healing spell onto his cheek.
"You could have at least said good night," he said, annoyed, as he got up to close his door.
"Why should I say something you already know?" Albel asked, not showing his amusement at Fayt's surprise.
"This whole 'give Fayt a heart attack' thing is getting kind of old," Fayt noted. Albel shrugged and smirked at him. "...Good night."
"The fool has manners," Albel said, amused, then disappeared from his doorway into his own room and closed the door. Fayt paused in his own doorway for a while, finally closing the door behind him as he went back to bed.
"I need a vacation."
Author's Note
Insert dramatic shenaniganery like last time here. I would, but I'm all
headache-y and whiny, and you don't want to read that! :D You also
don't want to read the above story part, as it, uh, kinda sucks. ;;
Moreso than last time. I blame Fayt and Albel, as the former's Mr.
McAngstyPants, and the both of them are defeating the point that this
isn't supposed to be entirely AlbelxFayt. It seems Cliff will
have to kick it up a notch. And learn that being pervy isn't winning
many favors with Fayt (such is the woe of both him an I, truly). Anyway!
Will Fayt remember that this is mostly a humour story and stop angsting? What is this mysterious sickness? Will our young hero be defeated by the common cold? What will our contestants do if he is?! What is going through Sophia's head? Will Cliff or Peppita really step up to the plate in the future? Will Tara ever stopping sucking the light asstacular a writer? All this and more, next time on The Adventures of Dazzling Neon!: For the Love of the Hero, different crap time, same not-crap channel! thumbs up
(Insert previous disclaimer here, yo. Also, an apology for the aforementioned serious suckassiness of the above piece. Tara is by no means a serious writer, and this is by no means a serious piece. However, we'd still appreciate constructive criticism to make it less sucky. :B
We'd like to apologize for... Well, for one thing, suddenly turning plural. For another, Albel being a bit OOC towards the end. Only, I'm not for the latter. 'Cause he started it. ...Yes.
Also, all stupidity Tara blames on bleeding profusely from the nose for no apparent reason during school and on her headache. Because if you can't blame your own body, who can you blame?)
As of this uploading on 11/17, Tara would like to apologize for the above author's note, which was written a month or two ago. Sorry? And as I forgot to note on the last chapter, this was written for the FaytxAlbel community at LJ, here: