Title: I Thought I Knew You

Author: Ari

Warnings: Fayt jealousy, shreiky girls, a couple more pretty boys to fuck up my plot, and I think Fayt's starting to like Albel, and Bel already kinda likes him back, OOCness? Most likely.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fayt, Albel, Adray Lasabard, Nel, Cliff, Duo, Heero, Ororon, Fanta, Ryang, Claire, Maria, Sophia, or the new characters that appear here. Wow…I don't own much do I? How depressing…

Notes: The Shion in this story is NOT Shion Uzuki from Xenosaga. I just like the name Shion. Of course, I left what she looks like up to each individual reader, because it really doesn't matter. She's a hyper, happy, person who takes care of her friends and holds HUGE ASS grudges if given the chance. I, personally, picture Shion blond, with green eyes, and really short. She wears black, just like everyone else, but her outfits are decked out in colorful accessories too.

Ari Ari Ari Ari Ari Ari Ari Ari Ari Ari

Chapter 8:

Fine…Be That Way

"Hey Fayt, what's going on, Kid?" Cliff asked, he and Nel moving to stand with him. Albel stood to the side, off to Fayt's right, watching him react to his friends. He wasn't too sure if he had the right to step in to have a word, even though he really wanted to give the Blond Ape a piece of his mind. Could the idiot see they were going somewhere? They were going to be late if he took too long.

"Cliff, I…what do you mean?" Fayt asked, not quiet sure exactly what Cliff was doing here. Fayt was a little worried for the immediate future, but hopefully, Cliff wouldn't put up too much of a fight.

"Why are you hanging around with this bunch of rejects? Kid, you know they're a bad influence." The blond sneered, as he looked Fayt over. "Leather pants? Make up? I mean really, look what he's done to you…"

Fayt felt his face flush in embarrassment. It only got worse as Nel nodded in agreement, her sharp glare at Albel showed her immense hatred for him. Fayt didn't understand. Albel had never forced him to do anything he didn't want to…well…except the pants, but Fayt had to admit, they weren't that bad. Obviously, Cliff and Nel were ignorant to how loyal Albel and his group was.

"They're not that bad, Cliff. They're actually a lot of fun to be around." He pointed out. He heard Nel sigh in disappointment.

"Fayt, this man is bad. Half the schools terrified of him for a reason!" her hands were continuously gesturing towards The Wicked One, who had stayed oddly silent since the beginning. Fayt was starting to hope that the man would lend him a hand…

Albel felt a tiny, warm, smirk creep over his face as Fayt stood up and defend him and his friends, but it was squished down and destroyed the moment Cliff and Nel opened their mouths again.

"Fun? They're nothing but druggie, gothic, bullies, Fayt. You know that. You witnessed it first hand the day you got here! Has he really corrupted you that much?"

Albel watched Fayt visibly bristle towards the words that came from Cliff's mouth, but instead of defending him, Fayt suddenly hung his head in what seemed like defeat, and Albel began to worry.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to blow off Sophia." He murmured. Nel's face broke out into a smile and Cliff was grinning like mad. Albel just stood in the back, face now unreadable as a cold wind blew his bangs in his face and hid his eyes. "But I don't regret it. She was annoyingly clingy, and I had a lot of fun with everyone that night." Cliff's jaw dropped down and Nel's scowl came back.

"But Fayt…Sophia was-"

"Nel, I'm sorry. Albel is loyal to those who earn his trust. Duo is about the wildest, most happy person I've met, and Heero cares about him more than anyone. Ororon is quite yet extremely smart, and Shion is so adorable and cuddly. Fanta and Ryang are hard workers and they ALL defend and are there for each other." He paused to let that sink in. "The color of their clothes really doesn't mean a damn thing about the way they act."

Albel stood and listened in pride as Fayt supported each of his friends, all the while Cliff and Nel stood in shock. A warm feeling twinge in his throat, but it only lasted a moment. He walked up to stand directly behind the little maggot and laid a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Come on, fool. We'll be late." Albel turned the boy and headed towards the house.

"He'll only hurt you, Fayt!" Cliff yelled after him. He wanted to turn around and reassure his friend that he would be just fine, but Albel's warm hand on his shoulder drew his attention away from the pair behind them, and all he could do was concentrate on the heat warming his shoulder while moving to stand just a little closer to the other man. It didn't mean anything of course…it was just cold outside that night. Right?

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"Can you believe them? I've never been so…so…well I don't have a word for it." Fayt continued pacing the room, fists clenching and unclenching randomly. Albel sat quietly in the window, relaxing and cooling off from the stifling heat from downstairs. A hundred bodies in one room dancing, eating, talking, drinking, and making out tended to warm up a room…or a house. Fortunately, Shion had found them a privet upstairs room upstairs that had yet to be infected with fucking couples or passed out drunks. And it was still relatively cool.

"Hey, Fayt." Albel called without turning his head from the window. Fayt stopped to drop into the chair across from him at the desk. His hands had stopped clenching randomly, but now he just felt tired. Albel, on the other hand, was watching the boy out of the corner of his eye. He was irritated that the Blond Ape could upset the blue-haired boy so much.

"Yeah? What's up?"

"What's your connection to Symbology?"

Fayt raised an eyebrow and leaned back further into the chair. "That's sudden. Why? Aren't you suppose to figure it out yourself?"

"Well," Albel drawled in a fake, bored tone. "Since we have to present next class, I figured it'd be easier just to ask you…or I could force it out of you…" He glanced at the dark figure in the chair a few feet away from him.

"Alright." Fayt pulled himself from the chair. "I'll show you." He went over to the dresser and grabbed a scented candle off it, bringing it back to the desk near The Wicked One. Holding up a palm to the candle, a blueish rope of what Albel figured was 'energy' wrapped around it, tightened, and shattered it.

The Wicked One sat silently for a moment, staring at the shards of colored glass and wax strewn across the desk and floor. "Interesting…" he mumbled. Fayt shrugged.

"Maria normally puts the things I break back together."

"Your sister has a Symbology power too?" Albel asked curiously. Fayt nodded.

"Yep, we're freaks." He mumbled, staring at the glass on scattered on the glossy, wooden, desk. He jumped, a little startled, as Albel's hand landed firmly on his shoulder.

"Oi, fool. You're not a freak, you're my little maggot of destruction."

Fayt pretended to be angry, and reached up to tug on Albel's hair. "Humph…Thanks so much, Albel." He dropped his arm back down suddenly, realizing Albel may not want his hair touched. "Sorry about your hair…" he muttered.

Albel stared at him, red eyes burning into Fayt's forehead, and his dark clothes and hair shining in moonlight. "Oh yeah!" He suddenly kicked the boy softly in the side. "You owe me big time for that!"

Rubbing his side, Fayt smirked. "Hey, you totally deser-" a knock, sorry, a pounding on the door cut him off, and twin high, squeaky, shrilly, voices broke through the wood.

"Fayt! Are you and Albel in there alone! Together!"

"Hope you're decent!"

"Yeah! We're coming in!"

"Two seconds to put your clothes on!"

"Of course, you don't have too!"

Twin giggles broke out just as the door opened. Fanta and Shion burst in, arms in the air. "Tada! We're here! We've come to save Fayt's innocence!" they cheered together.

"Hey…" Fanta mumbled, taking a look around the room. "It's dark in here, but you've both still got all your clothes. You didn't even loose your socks!"

"Yeah!" Shion agreed. "And you hair isn't tousled, the bed's still perfect, and you're not even sitting next to each other!" Shion caught sight of the broken candle and gasped… "Were you two fighting!"

"No. Of course not." Fayt laughed. "We were just trying to cool down from the heat, and we were talking. The candle was like that when we got here, but we didn't want to touch anything. It isn't our room after all."

"Did you really expect me to jump Fayt?" Albel cut in. "Because if so, you should know I would always ask first. It would be completely rude not to." The Wicked One watched as the girls erupted into more hysterical giggles, Fanta's cheeks flushing at the thought of them going at it.

"Well, Albel dear…" Fanta started.

"It wouldn't be the first time…" Shion agreed.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you never asked Cliff permission to jump his bones!"

Albel's lip twitched in annoyance. "You wenches have five seconds to get as far away as possible, before I destroy you…" they giggled again and booked it for the door, Fanta yelling over her shoulder that Ororon was looking for them as she jumped the stairs three at a time.

Fayt watched them go, a smile gracing his face. They were defiantly some really crazy girls. He stretched a little, and then turned to grab a hold of Albel's hand.

"Come on. Come dance with me." And he led The Wicked One down the stairs into the sea of bodies.

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Fayt's head rested on the desk, his eyes were closed, and he was almost positive that drool was falling from his mouth. Albel sat next to him, chin in palm, and looking irritated and bored at the same time. Pairs of students were taking turns at the front of the class, informing the rest of them how each person was related to Symbology.

"And even though his leg was broken, and his arm torn apart, Sarah healed him. At that time, he didn't understand how she'd done it, but years later, he finally understood it." He bowed and took his seat again. The class clapped, as was polite, and Mr. Lasabard thanked and congratulated them on a good job.

"Now, who's next?" hands went up into the air, well, all except Fayt's and Albel's of course, but, because this is a Fanfiction, we must follow all clichés properly, and therefore, Mr. Lasabard will ignore all the other hands and call on The Wicked One anyway. "Albel, did you find how your partner is connected to Symbology?"

Albel cracked his eye open to look at his teacher. "Yes." He mumbled, blood red eyes shutting again.

"Well, are you going to tell us?"

"No."

"Uh…um…well then, Fayt…Did you find out how Albel was connected to Symbology?"

"Yes, of course. That was the assignment after all." Fayt didn't even bother to sit up, and his bored tone was making Mr. Lasabard slightly agitated.

"Okay, will you tell us about it?"

Fayt took his time opening his eyes to turn and look at Albel. The man next to him stared back, but his face was strangely blank. "No. I don't think I will."

"You two do understand that your assignment was to find out how each other was related to Symbology, don't you?"

"Yes."

Mr. Lasabard stared him down with a frown. "So, how am I suppose to know if you actually did the assignment or not?"

Fayt was about to make some snappy remark, but stopped when Albel chuckled. "Just ask his girlfriend…oops, sorry, ex girlfriend. She bitch slapped him and dumped him because he ditched her to hang with me." And there was no more said on the subject.

"Alright…Sora, Riku, you're up next." Fayt glanced up to watch the two boys make their way to the front. The first was a taller man with silver hair and bright green eyes. He wore a yellow tank top and baggy blue pants. A pair of leather knuckle gloves hid his hands from view. The other man had messy brown hair, and friendly blue eyes, and he made sure to sick close to his partner as the walked up to the front. The smaller brunette spoke first.

"Riku, could summon darkness since he was little and…"

"Hey…" Albel nudged Fayt a little in the side. "Hey, who's the hot guy with silver hair?" Fayt glanced over at him, a frown on his tired features.

"Why?" he demanded sharply. "You like him?"

Albel smirked, his canine teeth showing. "Maybe…" Fayt scowled and turned away again. "What's wrong?" he murmured quietly, nudging Fayt again.

"Nothing, stop whispering, you'll get us into trouble." Albel frowned, his brain going into over time. Fayt didn't normally flip moods so quickly and it was starting to bug him.

"Sora can open and close locks at will. He's been able to do this since-"

"Fayt," Albel nudged him again, a little more harshly this time. "Come on you stupid fool, tell me what's wrong." He kicked him under the desk, and Fayt had to bite his arm to keep from crying out. "I hate being ignored."

"Nothings wrong." He snapped. "Don't talk to me."

Albel scowled and glared at the man next to him. He gave him a final kick under the table, and shoved himself back out of the desk, the entire class turned to stare at him, but he sent a death like glare at them, walked across the room, and dropped into the seat next to the silver haired man.

Fayt's eyes followed him as he crossed the room. He watched Albel drop down next to Riku, and start talking to the other person, purposely ignoring Fayt's irritated stare. The blue-haired teen finally turned back to rest his head on his arms again.

"Fine…be that way." He whispered into his arms.

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Hi everyone! Did you miss me? I'm SO sorry it took me so long to update, but I had really bad writers block! I know, this is my shortest chapter yet, and again, I'm really, really sorry! But this was a good place to stop, and I figured you'd want it as soon as possible. Hopefully, the chapters will grow in length now that we have some sort of an actual plot coming in.

Well, this chapter took a weird turn! I'm staying at my friend, Red Crow's house, and I was writing while watching "House of Flying Daggers." And she told me to put in Riku and Sora, so I did. It was random, not planned, and the newly developing 'love square' was TOTALLY not what I expected. I now know what authors mean by the fic taking a life of it's own…

Hey, guess what! My hits say 637 people have read this story, yet I only have 101 reviews? What's up with that? 536 people too lazy to even say, 'Good job' or 'You suck?' what's up? Do you know that all of your absolutely wonderful reviews are what actually got me up off my ass to write/type this chapter? Do you want more? Cause unless I get reviews, you won't get anymore! Ya see, all you people make me feel so loved, that I couldn't stop on you! I'd feel awful! So keep filling me full of guilt!

Review!