Five Things, Before We Begin:
1) Thank you to my reviewers. Nice to know you guys support me . and since this is , there will NOT be any NC-17 stuff, however, if you leave me your e-mail in the review... Grin
2) To the reviewer that still insists on disliking me - I wonder why you continue to read this if you don't accept my view of the characters. What you seem to fail to realise is that, this being FANfiction, it is not being written by the original authors of the story. I write the characters to my views of them, and if your views are different, then I accept that, but I ask calmly now for you to stop pestering me about it.
3) This chapter contains a couple hints of Kratos spoilers! Just to warn you. Of course, you probably won't pick them up unless you already know Kratos's secrets, but yeah.
4) Considering as how she so graciously promoted mine, I must return the favor - Go read 'Age is Nothing but a Number' by Xeora if you like the Genis/Lloyd pairing . And if you're up for some other pairings, I'm busy writing tons of ToS Shonen Ai pairings... and if you can come up with one, let me know! I'll see about it .
5) This chapter is actually fairly short, but don't worry, the next one will be longer... it's simply that the two chapters together would be much too long, so I split this one off...
--3: Sudden Concern--
"So, um, where are we headed?" Lloyd asked, as he joined Genis, Raine, and Colette in the downstairs of the House of Salvation, where the priests had happily served them some cooked meat.
"We're headed for Asgard" Raine informed him, as Genis was too busy munching away on a leg of chicken.
"Asgard, huh? That's to the west, right?" Lloyd sat down beside Genis, looking around to see if there was any chicken left, but he couldn't find any immediately. His attention was more focused on getting a proper answer.
"Yes, Lloyd, it's too the west" Raine nodded, sighing. "It should take us about two days to walk there, so we'll be camping out in the wilderness again..."
Lloyd grumbled something, sighed, and noticed that Genis was holding onto a fresh leg of chicken. Though uncertain, he was hit by the oddest of thoughts, and on some unknown impulse wrapped his arm around Genis' shoulder, grabbed onto the boy's wrist, and leaning in close he moved the chicken to his own lips and bit in.
"L-Lloyd! W-what are you d-d-doing?" Genis stuttered out, blushing just enough to be highly adorable.
Lloyd swallowed the chunk of meat, grinning widely and stupidly, as he replied. "Having breakfast, of course."
"Get your own chicken" Genis whimpered.
"Why? Yours is so much better" Lloyd hugged the boy closer and bit in again, and Genis flushed. Was Lloyd... flirting with him? His blush only deepened when he realised it was true.
"...G-get your... um... ah... here..." Genis's small hands grabbed a piece of chicken from a tray beside him, handing it to Lloyd, while trying to pull his own breakfast away from Lloyd's mouth.
Of course, Lloyd was having a lot of fun and wasn't about to give up. He lifted the piece Genis had given him and hung it in front of the younger boy's mouth. Genis blinked when he saw it there, and then flushing worse he took a bite. He had to admit that it felt much tastier when it was being fed to him by Lloyd.
"...You two..." Raine sighed. "Do you have to do that in public? We're in a House of Salvation here! Travellers come here all the time! Anyone could see, and..."
"Raine, let them have their fun" Colette whispered to Raine. The professor blinked and turned. "They're in love. Let them be."
"...I..." Raine blinked, confused and uncertain, and she was thankful that she was interrupted by the door to the dining room swinging open.
Standing there was a very drenched-looking Kratos, muttering and growling and cursing something awful under his breath.
"...Oh, hey Kratos" Lloyd smiled innocently, barely taking notice of the state of the mercenary, as he took another bite of the leg of meat.
Kratos growled, popped down at the end of the small table, reached over and grabbed a leg of meat for himself - which wasn't hard, as there was a fair amount left, since the priests were under the false belief that the chosen needed to eat.
"How was your night?" Lloyd mumbled, as Genis fetched him another piece and held it up, letting Lloyd start eating that one.
Kratos muttered a swear, and Colette and Raine both started.
Genis used his free hand and smacked Lloyd on the back of the head. Lloyd blinked. "What? What did I say, I..." he looked to Kratos and took note of the mercenary's state. "...Oh."
"I hope you guys slept well too" Kratos muttered, rolling his eyes, and looking at the two flirting males. He took a couple more legs of chicken and stood up. "It was so excellent out there I think I'll finish breakfast out there too, thank you" he turned and left.
"...Oh, now look what you've done!" Raine muttered. "You two should stop flirting and apologise!"
"But we're having breakfast" Lloyd whined, and for once, Genis supported such a stupid excuse with a nod.
"Besides, its too early in the morning and I'm feeling lazy" Genis whined between bites.
"...Genis, you're making excuses too?" Raine gasped, amazed. "Lloyd, just what have you done to my brother!?"
Before anything could start, Colette stood up. "I... I'll go talk to him, okay?"
"Huh? ...Okay" Raine nodded. "I know I should, because I feel really guilty about leaving him out there like that, but..."
"I'll tell him that" Colette nodded, as she turned and left.
Genis and Lloyd, of course, were totally oblivious, too busy cuddling close to each other and sharing a meal.
"...Kratos?"
"Yeah? What?" Kratos turned, looking calm, as he tried to dry himself off with a towel that one of the priests had lent him.
"...I came to say sorry."
"Sorry? You haven't done anything" Kratos sighed. "You're the nicest one out of the whole bunch, Colette."
"...Umm, thank you!" Colette beamed. "But, I mean... I came to say sorry for the three of them... Lloyd and Genis... I'm sorry, they get caught up in each other, it seems. And Raine said that she feels really sorry for leaving you outside like that."
"..." Kratos didn't respond, he merely nodded, as he sat down against a wall outside and took a bite of the meat, slowly chewing it and mulling over what reaction he should take.
"...You... aren't very comfortable with Lloyd and Genis, are you, Kratos?" Colette asked, pondering.
Kratos shook his head.
"...I'm sorry, I know... Raine said that not everyone is comfortable with that kind of thing, so... umm... sorry" she apologised.
"...Lloyd's right," Kratos said as he gulped down a chunk of meat, "you do need to stop apologising for everything. It's not your fault."
"Well, I... I don't want you to hate either of them or anything, okay?" Colette asked, worriedly.
"...Why would I hate them?" Kratos shrugged, lowering his piece of meat as he tried to explain it to the comparatively dim Colette. "It's their choice to fall in love, isn't it? I'm just worried about all the harsh treatment Lloyd is going to get if their secret gets out in public..."
"...Are you worried about Lloyd?" Colette blinked. "I thought you didn't worry about anyone."
"I do. Just not very often" Kratos said matter-of-factly. "I know Lloyd's happy now, but the fact is, though, that if he starts to regret his actions, it's going to cause the both of them a lot of unnecessary grief."
"...You're really concerned about him, Kratos..." Colette blinked. "...I've never seen you worry about him... why did you change so suddenly?"
"...None of your business" Kratos shook his head, taking a bite out of his meat again.
"Kratos... do you like Lloyd too? Are you jealous of Genis?"
Kratos's face went bright red at the suggestion of such a ludicrous idea. It was the only time anyone would ever see him flustered and honestly, truly surprised. "...No! I'm not jealous! Of course I'm not jealous!"
"How cute!" Colette giggled, her teenage girl side coming out full force. "Don't worry, Kratos. I won't tell Lloyd or anyone else."
"Colette, no, that's not...!" Kratos stood up, but by the time he had managed to do that, Colette had already gone off. And she had her mind set on it. She wouldn't believe it, of course. She was annoyingly naïve in his opinion.
The red-haired mercenary gave off a long sigh. That wasn't why he was worried about Lloyd at all... but it was better than telling them the truth.
Soon enough though, Kratos rejoined the others, dried up (somewhat, anyway - his clothes were still uncomfortable) and they left, to continue their journey.
And elsewhere, someone was watching from the shadows, listening to their idle conversations. She knew that Colette's bodyguards would have to be taken care of prior to her assassination. And to do that... perhaps there was a way that she could use their relationship against them...