A/N: I do not own it. So do not sue me. I don't own much so it isn't really worth it. Lets see, I have about £3 and a dozen or so scrawled on notepads. Not really worth it.
Any suggestions for a title for this chappie? I don't have a clue.
For Katandshadow. Thank you for releasing me from the terrors of trying to write as Colette!
Untitled until I think up something
The dark wispiness of sleep was slowly banished from my mind as I returned to lucidity. I gradually became away of a lightness and flexibility in my limbs that never occurred when restrained by my usual cloak. This was odd. It was also odd that, while I felt able to move, something was holding me back. And I mean that literally.
I impatiently waited for my sluggish brain to catch up and tell me what the hell was going on. However, it had other ideas and seemed to have gotten lost somewhere on the way back from sleep. How brilliant.
The room was dark, dimly lit by powerful rays of sunlight filtering through my thick curtains. A shadow fell upon the edge of my bed, strangely glinting with gold and sapphire. It looked like... my cloak. But what the hell was it doing there? Synapses fired, giving my aching brain a possible explanation that made me wince. But thankfully, after looking down at myself and finding all my clothes in place, that explanation was quickly eliminated.
But.. there was something else. A band of lilac around my waist, the feel of strong fingers gripping my side.. An arm! What the..? I slowly became aware of a warmth at my back. Dreading what I might see, I twisted sharply and my eyes fell upon mussed auburn hair, a strangely serene expression and a familiar looking suit.
Kratos! Damn. And I thought things couldn't get any worse.
As my brain caught up, I began to panic. Just a little. He couldn't wake up and find me like this! I'd never be able to look him in the eye again! It would be so weird to explain this to him.. and.. and.. Wait. He was holding me. I hadn't initiated this. Well, that gave him one less thing to be mad at me about. Hm... What was the other thing?
I turned my hair and a sharp pain shot through my skull. Oh. That. Great. Now my head felt as though it was being pounded with a massive hammer whilst being subjected to Colette screaming. Luckily for me, I had never been able to grasp healing techniques. (No I am not a masochist, I was being sarcastic.)
So I was stuck here with no idea what to do next, a monster headache and seriously in need of preparation before His Highness woke up. Oh, and did I mention I could barely move without risk of waking him?
I tried, to no avail, to shift myself carefully out of his grasp. I was sure I was almost within range of escape when I heard him mumble something that sounded suspiciously like my name and found myself being pulled back against him again. His warmth seemed to be flooding my body, which was not helping in the slightest. Now, I'm not going to deny that I liked it and if I hadn't been so scared of what he would do to me when I woke up, I would have been less that worried about moving.
He made a sort of humming noise as if he was waking up. Worried, I managed to turn so that I was facing him. He was still asleep, but it was an unwise move on my part since now I felt his warmth on my front, his arms around my back secured me even tighter and I felt like doing nothing more than snuggling close and going back to sleep.
Kratos moved slightly and let out a sort of moaning sigh. I felt my face heat up. His pulse was racing, drumming so powerfully I was sure it was going to explode. I briefly wondered what he was dreaming about. Probably being chased by giant killer bunny rabbits or something.
"Nnnnh. Yu...an."
Eep! I felt my cheeks burn even redder and mumbled curses to myself in as many languages as I knew (ancient elven, modern elven, common, angelic and a little Mizuhoan) for feeling like I did what he said that. Now I really needed to get out. No longer caring about whether he woke up, I pushed away his arm and scrambled off the bed. In my haste, I slid to the ground with a thud, head pounding.
Kratos stirred. "Don't leave Yu-an.." He mumbled, seemingly only half awake.
"I'll be back in a minute," I promised him before crawling out into the bathroom. I used the sink as a lever to pull myself into a standing position. The room was spinning.
"Oh curses I need painkillers," I muttered, pawing through my bathroom cabinet. All I found was the skin of an apple gel, a half empty Acuity bottle and an unopened Panacea bottle. Useless, totally useless.
I gave up and decided to take a shower instead, hoping that it would clear out some of the remaining cobwebs still inhabiting my head.
It didn't do much, but it helped. My head was still pounding like a second heart beat, but felt a little clearer and I felt worlds better for putting on some clean attire. I shuffled into the kitchen in search of coffee, my energy already expended.
I was sat at the table gingerly sipping at it when Kratos came in, rubbing his eyes and yawning. So cute! At his look of surprise, I mentally backtracked to make sure I hadn't said that aloud.
"Yuan?" He brushed his hair out of his eyes.
I smiled weakly at him and buried my face in my mug.
"Yuan, what's going... on..." He trailed off and I watched as his memory caught up with him and understanding dawned on his still-sleepy features.
I braced myself for the inevitable. Three, two, one...
"What the hell did you think you were doing!"
Right on cue. I winced. The yelling really hurt my poor fragile head. It wasn't helping me feel better at all. "I don't know, I don't remember," I answered honestly. "Please stop yelling," I added with a pathetic whimper.
"Why should I!" He demanded cruelly. This was a new level of losing it for Kratos. I must really deserve this, I told myself. He barely ever yells and he's never been like this before.
"It hurts. Please stop." I looked up at him, my eyes wide and stinging with tears.
He sighed, the anger dissolving from his features and sat down next to me. For a split second, his leg brushed against mine and I felt the blush rise to my face again. I mentally screamed at myself to ignore it. This was so not the time.
"Yuan, last night I told you I wasn't done talking about this and I'm not. I intend to sort this out. You almost hurt a lot of people yesterday."
"Um- I" I broke eye contact, feeling uncomfortable. "Could you do something about my headache first?"
He rolled his eyes, probably thinking about how pathetic I was, and lifted his hand to hover over my forehead. It began to glow with green light.
"First aid," he muttered under his breath.
I felt the strange warm fuzziness that healing spells induce and then the increased clarity I had longed for. But my ears were still ringing from the earlier yelling.
"Thanks," I whispered.
He nodded. "So, about last night."
"I really don't remember much. Just going to that party thing, getting a drink and you carrying me home." I glanced down at my coffee, suddenly remembering how much I despised its taste. I pushed the mug towards Kratos, pulling a disgusted face. "Coffee?"
He picked up the mug and drank its contents. Then he told me exactly how I'd been occupying myself the night before. I blushed deeper and deeper until I was sure I resembled a tomato and I almost fainted when he mentioned the part about having to be stopped from doing a strip tease. It must have been funny, watching all that colour suddenly drain from my face. When I dared to look at him, he was grinning. At least my humiliation was good for something I suppose.
But, oh goddess, was I ashamed. I told him so. He asked me why I did it and I didn't have an answer. Then he asked me again.
"I was bored. And- And."
"You sound like Lloyd," he said with a smile.
I glared at him.
"Go on," he hinted.
"And," I looked at my feet, "everyone I care about leaves. Martel, Mithos, Botta.. and.. You. I miss everyone and I didn't want to go back to that."
He stretched out a hand towards me and I stiffened, afraid he was going to hit me. But instead, his fingers wound in my hair.
"I like your hair," he confessed, effectively changing the subject.
I offered him a lopsided grin. "It doesn't like me."
"Come here. I'll brush it for you." He released my hair and smiled at me.
"Does this mean you forgive me?" I asked timidly, hoping desperately that he had.
"I can never be mad at you for long. You know that."
It was true. I did know that. And I was eternally grateful for how he always seemed to look after me. It was probably a huge hassle but he barely ever lost his temper and only really when I deserved it. He always seemed to be there when I needed him most. But that was all about to change. He would go back to Derris-Kharlan and leave me alone again. I felt a brief twinge of misery, but shook it off. There was no use thinking about that now. Now he was here and I was going to enjoy that while I could.
"Something wrong?" He asked, a little perturbed at my lack of reply.
I shook my head and moved to kneel in front of his chair, effectively between his legs. I blushed, yet again. Stupid traitorous body. I'd poke it, but it might hurt.
Kratos reached across the table for my brush. He must have brought that back with him too because the last time I remembered seeing it was in Lloyd's house. Hm. He noticed too much. Always paying attention to his surroundings. Come to think of it, I've never seen him lose control. Ever. Including his unrestrained yelling at me. There's always been some amount of control. I'm thankful. Especially since he's so damn strong. If he lost it and was angry with me, I wouldn't fancy my chances.
He dragged the brush slowly through my hair. It snagged on one of the many knots, but he just carefully untangled it and carried on. It was nice. It was very nice. Maybe my brain cells are attached to my hair of something, but by this point, I was pretty much beyond coherent thought. It was nice. The brush tickled my scalp and the light tugging that shifted the individual strands of my hair sort of.. tingled. I know, hair doesn't have feeling right? I can't explain it. It was just nice.
He smoothed my hair with a hand that gently followed every brush stroke, making me sigh with pleasure. I felt cared for, coddled, loved. And strangely sleepy.
"Yuan?"
"Mmm?"
"Why have you been avoiding me?"
Oh, now that wasn't fair! He was taking advantage of my relaxed mood. But his hands felt so nice in my hair.. What if he took them away? "I-hmm.. I didn't want to see you-"
He stiffened, hand freezing in my hair. By this point, he had abandoned the brush and was just running his fingers through my hair.
Don't stop! I felt like yelling. "-leave me again." I finished. His hand resumed its rhythmic stroking. I leaned back into it. "That's nice.." I sighed. Oh damn! I said that out loud didn't I! I clapped a hand over my mouth, burning tomato red again.
I sensed him smile. "But why aren't you worried about that now?"
"Because you're doing that," I mumbled, almost inaudibly.
He chuckled. "Heh."
I smiled, despite that fact that I knew he couldn't see me, and leaned to the side, resting my head on his thigh. He was so warm..
His hands were lazily winding through my hair, stroking the tresses and lightly tugging. I sighed again. Nice. So unbelievably nice. yes, I like the word 'nice'.
We sat in comfortable silence, my eyelids drooping a little, until I spoke.
"Thank you Kratos."
"What for?"
"Everything. For always being there."
"You know I can't help it."
I blushed deeply yet again, wondering if he has learned telepathy from some of those crazy 'lifeless beings' on Derris-Kharlan. He slid off the chair so that he was kneeling close behind me. Against my better judgement (why would I listen to that?) I turned around. He was smiling again. This had to be the most he'd ever smiled in one day. And he was supposed to be mad at me.
His hands settled on my hips and he drew me closer, wrapping those strong arms around my waist again. As his head brushed past my cheek, I felt his moist lips brush against my skin. I blushed once more and pretended I hadn't noticed as he buried his face in my hair.
I had no idea that he was crying.
A/N: OMG! Fluff OVERLOAD. What made me write that? Just so anyone who is reading this knows, I don't have a clue where this story is going - little chibi in my brain is practically writing it for me, so feel free to give me any suggestions. Criticism is good, reviews are good, flames will be fed to Noishe to stop him from eating Yuan. I've been writing this instead of actually starting on my reading list for English in school, and I've only got three days! Eepy. Anyways.. Until the next chapter! POOFS away