Two-faced

Written by: Perpetual Thoughts and Meaning

Disclaimer: Hmm… I'll list some of the many reasons why I couldn't have made these characters… One: Only a very smart 13 year-old could have thought of these characters if they were my age, and I'm not exactly the brightest crayon in the box, if you get what I mean. Two: Normally, people write fan fiction to satisfy their muse, which is what I'm doing. I don't want to be paid for my work just yet. Oh yeah, I'd really like to not be sued.

Spoilers: A tiny one involving a certain dragon at the Urssa Lava Caves…

Summary: Albel and Cliff are partners on a mysterious mission that involves having to wake Cliff up without being clobbered to death! Yeah, I know, it's not funny. Now that the filler chapter's out of the way, I can brave into the unknown waters of shonen-ai fan fiction with some steadiness and tense fingers… This chapter consists of Cliff and Albel working together (Kind of) to find shelter from a sudden snowstorm, and some joking around is involved as well. I won't go into detail, because I want someone to actually read the chapter. SHONEN-AI ALERT! SHONEN-AI ALERT!

A/N: It isn't a filler chapter this time! Something important actually happens here! Yeah, I know, I'm weird. I hate these short chapters! In light of my hatred for these mini-sized chapters, I decided to lengthen this one up to five beautiful pages! Don't worry; it isn't going to be pointless like the last chapter.

Rating: PG-13, because most thirteen year-olds can't write rated R things without having some experience, which I thoroughly lack. Oh, also for some language, but who gives a shit if they curse a little?

Replies to Reviews:

Chasing Izanami: Thank you so very much! You can't believe how relieved I am to hear that I got their personalities accurate. Yeah, I'm sometimes annoyed when people end every comment of Albel's with "worm" attached. I'm the kind of writer that knows that repeating the same thing over again will make the reader want to bang their head into their keyboard/want to go to another story. I tend to avoid my characters repeating the same insults repeatedly.

I have to agree; Albel and Cliff are far more entertaining than Albel and Fate. AlbelxFate is everywhere, and it's sickening. I'm a Draco/Hermione shipper, so I like the couples that aren't written about much, or the kind of couples that many people haven't considered thinking about. Fate's nice to everyone, and I loathe his character to shreds. If I could, I would've made Albel and Cliff the main characters of Star Ocean, and had Albel annihilate Fate before the game began.

Nothing to complain about, eh? That's more than enough to make me want to continue this story. I've written all the way to Part 4 without pausing, because I wanted to finish the story even if I didn't post it online. You've changed my mind. I was going to post this part much sooner, but I didn't save when I was writing, so when I was finished with this part and I pushed the save button, this part disappeared! I had to rewrite the entire thing after I finished bawling. I probably did better on my first try, but at least I didn't give up completely. I probably would've, if not your review.

Part 3: Snow-blindness/The Cave

Sifting away the debris of hated life,
cold touch of death begins to chill your spine…- Postmortem, track 9 on Slayer's 1986 release, Reign In Blood

It seemed as if they were wandering an endless path of white, and the only colour that wasn't white was their protective gear. Albel was used to extremely cold temperatures, because he was Airyglyph's finest soldier, and as every body all the way to Klaus knew, Airyglyph was practically covered in ice all year. Cliff, however, only felt at home when he was aboard a spaceship, which normally wasn't even comparable to Airyglyph's conditions. Albel was catching up leisurely to Cliff, but he maintained his distance, his frigid scarlet orbs lingering on Cliff's bright sapphire ones when he glanced back at him. The younger adult's pink lips were lazily curling into a devious, egotistical smile.

"We need to take cover soon," Cliff yelled over the howling wind, facing his satanic companion, allowing him to catch up.

Once Albel was a few feet from Cliff, he tilted his head up so that he could stare sombrely into the Klausian's sapphire eyes, his smile transforming into his infamous Albel smirk. "Are you afraid that you'll be frozen, worm?" he disdainfully drawled.

"No," he objected, "it's just that it's freezing out here! I don't know about you, but I ain't gonna turn into an ice cube!"

Albel's smirk grew as Cliff crossed his muscular arms over his chest in an ineffective attempt to not shiver. "So," Albel drawled, "the worm is afraid!"

"I'm not!" shouted Cliff, his cheeks flushed by the biting wind.

"There's no sense in arguing," Albel impassively murmured to the blond. "I do agree with you about one thing however: we need to continue moving. I don't need some daft Klausian slowing me down."

Cliff sighed indignantly, running a hand through his bangs. "I must have the patience of a sage to deal with your shit," he grumbled, scowling down at Albel.

Albel eyed the Klausian with raised eyebrows before plodding past him through the thick snow. "Good day, worm," he glanced over his shoulder at him, and found that everything was white.

"Damn it!" Cliff's voice rang from somewhere in the sudden flurry of snow.

Shit, Albel thought, realising that if he came back without Cliff that the crew would think that he eradicated him.

He felt a hand brush against his shoulder and he was again enveloped in the arms of the Klausian. "Now can we look for shelter?" Cliff asked him, turning the Elicoorian around to face him.

"Only until this storm ends," he replied disagreeably.

"We have to stay close to each other," Cliff said, his thin fingers lacing around Albel's wrist.

Albel shot at him, "What for? In case you haven't noticed, you abomination of a man, I detest you with the intensity of a thousand suns."

Cliff simply shrugged. "I have to admit that I don't exactly like you either," he said truthfully, staring down at the Elicoorian, "but we have to stick together and outlast this damn storm. I don't really want 'Death by snowstorm' put on my death certificate."

"Hmm," the blond murmured nonchalantly, "it certainly seems that way to me. Perhaps you may want to start moving before we're buried in this snow?"

Cliff gaped down at Albel, taken aback that he finally got the former Black Brigade captain's consent. "Oh," he said absent-mindedly, "yeah, I should…"

Albel rolled his scarlet orbs, but chose not to comment on the Klausian's reckless manner and let him lead him through the blinding snow. Albel wondered why the hell they had chosen the mission to be here of all places. Mind you, he wasn't affected by the cold, but that Klausian was freezing his ass off. Albel's crimson orbs narrowed as he thought about the blond-haired ox. That damn Klausian should be able to take care of himself, he thought spitefully. If he's so strong, then why am I faring better than he is? I wish that I'd just ditch him, but that damn maggot Zelpher had to remind the crew of my nature!

"Hey, what's wrong, Albel?" Cliff's voice broke his train of thought.

Albel glanced up at the man who had his fingers wrapped around his wrist and rolled his scarlet orbs up at him. "How can you expect me to answer such an outrageous question? I'm used to these temperatures, fool!" he snarled in reply.

"Jeez, I was just askin'," muttered Cliff, his voice sounding wounded.

Albel eyed him critically. "You should just worry about yourself," he growled scathingly.

"Okay," Cliff whined, "okay, I get it! I ain't gonna ask you about your condition ever again."

"Maybe you do have more than rocks inside that cranium of yours," Albel drawled, startling the Klausian, "but I thoroughly doubt it."

"Man," he said, "and I believed for a second that you were actually giving me a complement!"

"Silence," Albel said quickly. "I see a cave up ahead."

"About time," Cliff said, hastening his stride, his grip on Albel's wrist loosening to the point that the unsuspecting Elicoorian had to catch himself before he fell.

Cliff smirked mischievously at the Elicoorian, noticing that the snowstorm was dying down. He could piss him off even more, and not have to worry about him getting hurt. He placed his backpack on the ground quietly and slid behind the younger man, but found himself pinned down to the snow-glazed grass by Albel even before he could reach his hands out to push him into the snow. He blinked his sapphire eyes up at him, taken aback. Those are some fast reflexes, the startled blond thought.

"I'd rather be sixty metres underground, encased in ice, than be around you," Albel snarled, his artificial arm's talons digging brutally into Cliff's shoulder blade.

"Then why are we partners on this mission?" Cliff asked him, unaffected by the Elicoorian's malicious glare, though his shoulder felt like it was being ripped from his body as if he was a toy.

Albel sighed, unexpectedly released Cliff, rolling off him, and sat crossed-legged on the snow. "I don't know why," he admitted, his voice low and coarse. "I just volunteered first, and I wasn't even thinking about you. I just needed to get away from those maggots… I was going to ditch you so that I could find somewhere to relax at, but that damn Zelpher ruined my plans."

"So," Cliff said, sitting up, eying Albel curiously, "you wanted a vacation."

"Exactly," the man replied, his scarlet orbs glazed over as he held his head in his normal hand, his artificial hand resting on his lap, "but this place is far from what I wanted it to be, and plus, you're still with me, maggot."

"I knew it," Cliff said, raking a hand through his matted blond locks, though his shoulder protested. "Even when I try to understand you, you call me names anyway!"

Albel glanced over at the Klausian, his lips curling into a small smirk. "We foes don't exactly converse on good terms," he murmured silkily.

Cliff shrugged his shoulders at the blond, again having to ignore the agonising ache of his right shoulder blade. "I don't consider you my foe," he said. "I just think of you as another part of the team, that's all."

Albel rolled his eyes at him and climbed to his feet, suddenly aware that he was being hospitable to the Klausian. "Enough of this nonsense," he icily drawled. "We need to continue moving. The snowstorm's subsided, and I can see the cave."

Cliff rose from the snow-glazed ground, brushed off his black pants, and slung his backpack over his left shoulder, nodding at Albel. "Yeah," he said, "now the only thing that we have to worry about is firewood and food."

"And something for your shoulder," Albel finished for him, starting his path toward the distant-looking cave.

So, he did notice, Cliff thought, hastily catching up to Albel.

"You actually want to treat my injury?" he asked the rigid blond.

Albel quickly glanced over at him and then shook his head in reply, snow hitting Cliff like swift rain droplets. "No," he replied shortly.

"Am I supposed to heal myself, then?" he asked again, moving so that he was in front of Albel. "I don't think that you want to have the rest of the team on your ass when we come back with my arm in a damn sling."

"You could use a potion, fool," Albel pointed out for him, holding out a verdurous potion that he retrieved from somewhere in his light jacket.

Cliff accepted the potion with a startled expression upon his face and slipped the vial into his jacket pocket. "I don't know why I didn't think of that," he said when Albel pushed past him.

Albel snorted and muttered, "Fool…"

"I heard that," Cliff said as he caught up with Albel, walking beside him, no matter how much the thinner man hastened his pace.

"Congratulations," Albel muttered.

"I have a hunch that the cave's one of those boring ones full of rocks," Cliff grumbled.

"For your sake, you'd better hope that it isn't," Albel shot back at him. "It'd better be an underground cave like I think it is."

Cliff blinked down at Albel. "Yeah," he said drolly, "I'll go with what you think."

Albel rolled his scarlet eyes at the Klausian before averting his attention to his path. "It looks like I was right," he muttered after the cave was in full view.

"Yeah!" Cliff shouted, grinning from ear to ear.

Albel smirked over at him. "Much better than those hunches of yours, eh?" he muttered, his smirk arrogant as usual.

…

The crippled youth try in dismay
to sabotage the carcass Earth.
All new life must perish below,
existence now is futile.- Hardening Of The Arteries, track 7 on Slayer's 1985 release, Hell Awaits

Cliff watched the fire in boredom, his right shoulder feeling much better now that he'd drunk the verdurous potion that Albel had given him. Maybe he isn't so bad, Cliff thought, but I could be wrong. His nickname is Albel the Twisted, after all. No monsters seemed to be near the area Albel had chosen their camp to be at, which he was thankful. Something just doesn't fit, he thought. He said something about how he could recognise-- of course! How could've I been so idiotic? He's obviously been here before!

It's weird how he took charge like that, Cliff thought a few moments later as he watched the burning flames of the fire lick the wood.

"Worms like you should stay put," Albel had said.

He'd wanted to help Albel, but he knew that he was too tired to do anything useful for him. He should've been asleep, hell, he should've been asleep an hour ago, but he felt like staying up until Albel returned. He didn't like the cave in the slightest. He had a strange feeling that he should wait for him; call it a hunch. Sure, sometimes his hunches were wrong, but this time, he was sure that he had to stay up.

"Took longer than I thought," a coarse voice broke his train of thought.

"Albel!" Cliff shouted, his eyes widening as the Elicoorian came into view.

Albel's dress (even though Cliff wouldn't call it that to his face) was drenched in blood. His exposed leg had deep scratches that looked like they hurt more than a little. He was unaffected by it, however, tossing Cliff a guard and a piece of what appeared to be of a monster. Cliff caught the items and furrowed his eyebrows at Albel, watching his unsteady footing. He placed his items on his jacket and stood up, facing Albel with a critical stare.

"The monsters here are more annoying than I remembered," Albel murmured, his scarlet orbs glazing over, his voice coarser than before. Cliff watched him carefully as he began to loose his footing and he moved forward just in time as he toppled over. "I didn't ask for your help," he muttered, but Cliff wasn't listening to him.

Albel's back was revealed by a cut in his clothing, or more like a scratch from a monster. Cliff scowled angrily at the wound, mainly angry with himself for letting Albel go out alone, and partially cross at Albel for allowing himself to be injured. The wound was more than probably the reason why Albel had lost his balance. He carefully carried the Elicoorian over to his sleeping bag, despite his weak protests. He finally wrenched the items out of his hands and placed them on his jacket.

"I think that we should find a different cave," Cliff said to Albel as he searched his backpack for his emergency kit.

Albel snorted, watching the Klausian with glazed over eyes. "Bah," he said.

"What the hell were you attacked by, anyway?" Cliff asked him as he pulled out bandages and a vial from the kit.

"Another nuisance," Albel replied, his eyelids drooping.

Cliff eyed him with furrowed eyebrows and roughly slapped him after much consideration. "You can't fall asleep with those injuries," he said.

"What?" Albel snapped, not listening to him.

"I can't risk you falling asleep and not waking up," Cliff replied seriously, ignoring Albel's glare.

Albel regarded Cliff with narrowed eyes. "I just want this damn day to be over with," he grumbled, watching Cliff warily.

"Lift your head up," Cliff said to Albel, who didn't comply.

"Why?" he asked suspiciously, his eyes narrowed into slits.

"I need you to drink this potion to help your injuries from the inside," Cliff replied. When Albel still didn't raise his head, Cliff slipped a hand under his head, forced it up, and placed the vial to his lips. Albel finally agreed after realising that Cliff was going to help him, like it or not, and parted his lips, slowly swallowing the drink with his scarlet eyes on Cliff the entire time.

"Happy?" he asked, shoving the empty vial back at Cliff.

"No," Cliff replied, taking the vial and placing it back into the kit. "I still have to treat your wounds."

"Damn it," he muttered.

Cliff dipped a cotton ball into another vial the same green colour and ran it over the man's leg, not surprised when he heard him hiss in pain. Cliff sighed and wrapped Albel's leg with the bandage. He eyed Albel's crimson-caked chest before meeting the man's pointed stare with a smirk. He pulled up the top part of his odd outfit, and his smirk vanished. Albel's chest was marred with deep scratches and grotesque purple bruises, most of which fist-sized. Cliff raised his head to meet Albel's stare again and gave him a reprimanding expression, but Albel chose to break their eye contact and stare persistently away from him. Cliff scowled down at him before dabbing the scratches with the cotton ball, the man writhing in pain as the fluid burned away the infection.

"Fuckin' back," Albel muttered, but Cliff couldn't catch the rest.

"What?" Cliff asked, raising his stare to meet Albel's pained expression.

"Back," Albel muttered, and Cliff slapped him again. "My back! My fucking back's the worst of my injuries!"

Cliff blinked at him. "Huh?" he asked, though his voice had a teasing tone mixed within. "Do you actually want me to help you?"

"Just fucking patch it," he growled.

Cliff sighed again, placed his hands on Albel's shoulders, and gently turned him around. Cliff's eyes widened when they came across Albel's back. The wound was worse than he'd seen before, and it was fairly deeper than the others were. He knew that he couldn't use the normal vial without using the analeptic first, because the wound would be far too painful for Albel. The outer layers of the wound were beginning to cake over, but the inside was still oozing bright crimson liquid. Albel was lucky that it wasn't any deeper, because the area had been very close to his heart.

"Use the damned analeptic," Albel growled, unknowingly breaking Cliff's shocked stare from his wound.

"I know, I know," Cliff replied, running his calloused fingers over the vial of silver liquid.

He dipped a new cotton ball into the vial and gently dabbed it over Albel's deep wound. He could distinctly hear the muffled sound of a sigh from Albel under his sleeping bag, but chose to ignore it. He corked the vial and placed it into his kit. Then he used his other cotton ball and carefully ran it over Albel's deep cut, and didn't hear him hiss or see him writhe in pain. Well, Cliff thought, that's a relief. He finished by wrapping the man's upper part of his body with a large bandage, and returning his supplies to the emergency kit.

"Uh, Albel?" Cliff asked, wondering if the man was somehow dead, due to his lack of noise.

"What?" he snapped, as if he'd been falling asleep, and Cliff had interrupted his slumber.

"I was gonna say that you'd have my sleeping bag, seeing as you bled all over it," Cliff replied, staring away from him.

"Is that all you wanted to say?" Albel asked him, his voice disdainful. "I realised that earlier."

Cliff sighed and held the meat that Albel had brought in his hands. He glanced over at the man who was staring away from him into space and then at the blazing fire. I'll eat it tomorrow, he decided, wrapping both of their pieces tightly in a cloth bag and stuffing them into his backpack. Meanwhile, Albel had crawled into Cliff's sleeping bag, and had finally pulled the zipper to his chest after a bit of struggling, his wounds protesting excruciatingly. Cliff slid into Albel's sleeping bag and zipped it up to his shoulders, glancing over at the Elicoorian briefly.

"Hey, Albel?" Cliff whispered over to him, making sure that he was awake.

Albel stirred, opening his scarlet orbs drowsily. "What?" he asked in a complaining tone, his eyebrows furrowed at the blond.

"'Night, Albel," he said softly, smiling weakly over at him before willing himself to close his eyes.

"Good night," Albel murmured, waiting until Cliff was asleep to continue hesitantly, "Fittir."

To be continued…

A/N: Okay, I know that Albel was OOC… Totally Out Of Character, ne? You may notice a difference between this chapter and my other two, because my damn computer deleted this part when I had everything perfect. I know that you guys don't care, but I was devastated. I was crying, which is something that I usually never do, and I kept on muttering, "It was perfect! Why did it have to…" It was one in the morning at that time and I had to hurriedly type down what I remembered of the chapter. What you just read isn't even comparable to my other version. I'm still a bit upset, but I can't do anything about it. Oh well, I'll get over it.