Summary: Mega might finally have found love only to find out that he will loose it if he cannot prove his love by midnight. With other complications in the Mall, will he ever manage it?
Pairings: Mava, Lexony, Slebony - some only references to though.
Rating: PG-13 for this chapter, again there is some mild language.
Disclaimer: I own nothing; the Tribe belongs to Cloud 9 and Mr. Thomas. All I do is destroy their characters in fanfic. And the song was sang by Mariah Carey – and doubtless countless others but that is the version that I heard.
Chapter Five
"Do you always listen in on people?" A cold tone broke through Slade's thoughts as Mega came into view. During the months that Java had been in a coma Slade and Mega had formed some form of brotherly bond, they watched out for each other to some extent.
"Only when it is the woman that I love in the arms of another man", Slade said plainly, not even trying to hide his despair anymore. He was the man who would never allow himself to be tied down to any one woman yet here he was moping over Ebony like some love sick school boy.
Mega rolled his eyes, "She is in the arms of another man so you go in there and take her back. It really is not all that hard. You know as well as I do that no relationship between Ebony and Lex could never last".
"But every time that I try to talk to her she shoots me down before I even get the chance to talk to her about what happened between her and Lex", Slade explained with a sigh.
"Well what did happen?" Mega wondered. He knew that his brother and Ebony had broken up but he had no notion as to why. As soon as it had been discovered that Ebony and Java were not really related as Java and Siva had both been adopted, Ebony and Java had stopped talking to each other point blank and had decided not to even meddle in each others affairs – not that Mega was even sure if Java would have told him if something had happened as they had not been all that close lately – and he had been too distracted to talk to Slade enough to find out what had happened before this point in time.
Slade looked up at his brother for a moment before answering, "We had a fight and the next morning I went to make up with her but I could not find her, I searched everywhere and started asking all of the other Mall Rats if they had seen her but none of them had, but Lex was not around so I went to find him. He was in his room and I asked him if he had seen Ebony but when I did so, she walked out of his bathroom in his shirt. I told her that we were over and left".
Mega looked at Slade without sympathy and then honestly announced, "You are an idiot. Java and Ebony are more alike than they both care to admit - and you will not tell Java that or she will kill me. While they will both fight to the bitter end for what they want, although everyone else thinks that it is impossible for them to achieve what they want, they know better. If they can see that there is a way of getting it then they will, whether that is friends, money, or power. Yet not for love".
"They both value it too much. Which is why when it is given to them, they would both rather die or live without that other person rather than showing weakness in the eyes of the one that they love. If you told Ebony that it is all over then she will not come crawling back to you, she will try and get revenge, show that she is better and that you have no effect on her".
"What can I do?" Slade asked the younger man, he had tried to live without Ebony for far too long, he needed to have her back in his life, if not as his lover then at least as his friend. He simply could not live without her and be even remotely happy.
Mega thought about it, "You have to show her that she is the only one that you want in a big display of affection and pledge your undying love to her and all of that stuff. The only reason that she did all of that stuff was because she was insecure about you. Just show her that you love her and it will probably be fine, although I would recommend talking to her first", Mega added.
"So basically, this is all, my own fault", Slade proclaimed.
"Basically, yes. You forgave her for everything that she did in her past but did not take into account that she was going to do more stuff like that. I think that it is cute when Java does things like that but even if you do not, you cannot condemn her for things like that, just let her know that you are not going anywhere and it should be fine", Mega explained.
"Right", Slade said, "How did you get so smart and how come I have the pleasure of your company now, when I have not since Java woke up, she been working you too hard?" He joked, only just forgetting about his own problems to notice that he brother was suddenly around when he had not talked to him for what seemed like ages.
"I had to get the brains to make up for your lack of them", Mega replied, not jokingly but not intending offence either, "I wish. Believe it or not we broke up … sort of … and I have until midnight to prove that I love her to keep my Java. Even more strangely, I came to ask for your help on the matter but after seeing how badly you screwed things up with Ebony I do not think that I will bother".
Slade was about to answer when he saw Ebony walking out of Lex's room and up into the café where he was sitting. He tore his eyes away from her stunning beauty for a moment, in order to tell Mega to bugger off, only to see that he had already gone.
He knew that it was now or never, and said, "Hello Ebony".
Ebony finally felt calm enough to venture out of Lex's room and made her way to the Café hastily knowing that normally there would be no one in there at this time of day as she did not want to see anyone at that moment, she just wanted to get some chocolate and leave.
But then she heard Slade's sweet tone filling the room, "Oh damn it", she thought to herself as she felt her heart rate speed up a little. She hated the way that something as insignificant as his voice could affect her so strongly, making her want to do all sorts of naughty things to him even though she knew that any form of relationship between them had been destroyed the second that he had seen her in Lex's shirt.
The longer that she was away from him the more that she realised that she really had loved him – and still did. But she could not try and force herself into his heart the way that she had done with so many other men. No, with him she wanted him to love her for who she was or not at all.
Ebony could not let herself appear weak in front of him or let him know that she was still crazy about him and went straight into warrior mode, she walked over to the kitchen with her back to him while saying, "Hello Slade", in an almost bored tone, hoping that he would not notice the way that she yearned for him.
Slade could not keep a small smile from tugging at his lips when he saw that she was in a little mood, he could always use those to his advantage. Slade walked behind her and taking something out of his pocket wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.
Ebony started at the sudden contact, "What do you think that you are doing?" She demanded trying desperately hard to ignore how damned good his arms felt holding her nice and tightly.
"I am just giving you this dairy milk and whole nut chocolate bar, rather than the plain chocolate that you are stealing at the moment. I know that you prefer this kind".
Although puzzled for a moment, Ebony turned around in his arms not realising how close their lips now were, "Thank-you", she said quietly, "but why are you giving me this, you hate me".
"Do not be ridiculous Ebony, I love you", Slade announced, wondering why in the world she would think that he did not love her.
"You what?" Ebony gasped as she stared at him in utter shock. She could not believe what she was hearing, "You cannot have just said that you love me. You stopped loving me when you saw me with Lex, which is why we are not together. You cannot just tell me that you still love me, when we cannot be together". A kind of desperation took her over as she begged him to tell her that he no longer loved her. He had said that they were over, which had hurt yet she could not live knowing that he loved her and that there was no hope for them to ever be together again.
She had had years of practice of the men that she wanted not loving her and was used to it, she could find a way to deal with it but him telling her that he still loved her, that there was no reason for them not to be together yet still they were apart was tearing her up.
"Ebony", Slade said, stroking her braids trying to calm her down and making her look into his eyes, "I love you now as much as I ever did. I did not say that there was never going to be another chance for us to be together just that our relationship at that time was over. Do you really think that I could go on living if I thought, even for one moment, that that was our only chance to be together?"
"The last time that we tried to have a relationship you did not trust me, you could not trust that I was not going to run of with Ruby but the fact is that the thought never even entered my head. I will admit that I did think about the baby, how I would take care of it, how you would react to it, but never how to get back together with Ruby. The truth is that when I slept with Ruby I made a mistake, before I met you there was nothing be casual sex between me and women, but, with you the fear of letting someone inside of forsaking all other women for just one woman does not seem like such a big challenge", Slade tried to put his feelings into words, "no other woman in the world compares to you".
"I am sorry. I told you that I had no feelings for Ruby and I tried to understand all of the things that you had done to hurt people in the past but I underestimated how desperate you were, if I had known I would not have argued with you in the first place. But I warn you Ebony, if you ever sleep with another man again I am not sure that I will be able to get over it", Slade said now holding her close.
For the first time in what had felt like an eternity Ebony felt happy or at least content. She was not sure if he was saying that he wanted to get back together with her that moment or just that there was a chance for them one day but she did not care, all that she needed was a chance to prove herself to him.
"I love you too, Slade. I really do", Ebony tried to convince him with a sweet kiss on the lips, hardly able to believe how good he tasted after such a long separation.
As they pulled back Ebony smiled teasingly, "You know something I think that I am going to have to rethink this whole getting back together this if that is all that I am going to get". She walk passed him, still keeping eye contact to show that she was only teasing.
"Is that so?" Slade asked, catching up to her with two long strides, wrapping his arm around her waist and dipping her as a dancer would as music started to play. Slade winked to Mega whose face he saw popping out from behind the door and mouthed, "sing", before disappearing once more.
Taking a deep breath Slade began, "I don't want a lot for Christmas there is just one thing I need", pulling Ebony back up and spinning her out so that she was sitting on a chair ready to enjoy the show.
"I don't care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree", he continued as he began to dance for as well which caused Ebony to burst out laughing.
As Ebony's laughter filling the hallways Mega walked away rolling his eyes, to think that he had gone to ask for Slade's help and had ended up getting his brother and Ebony back together. As he thought of the way that Slade had showed his love for Ebony he could not suppress his loathing for the woman, a few sweet words and a little dancing and singing and she was once again a prisoner to Slade's charms. It was just not fair; there was no way that Java would fall for that. First of all, because Mega would neither sing nor dance, and secondly, because Java would attribute it to a massive act and just another stunning display of Mega's acting abilities.