I'll Drink to That

Spoilers Galore. If you have not finished the game, do not even start on this, I beseech you.

------
Authors notes: Ok. Warnings. Alcohol, an in-character Folon (Why is that a warning? He tends to swear a lot.), bits of attempted humor and crack pairing. Yes, it's IMPLIED Kalas/Folon. But mentions of Kalas/Xelha. Go away. Now.

Implied Kalas/Folon, but nothing serious at all. I swear it, I doubt this could even be considered shounen-ai.

Fic setting is after (spoilers) the nations of the sky have returned to the Earth, during the festivities and celebrations.
------

Behind the thick black clouds, somewhere in the sky, concealed behind the heavenly veil was a glinting moon. Not a single flicker of moonlight pierced through the blackened smog, as if the clouds were hiding away the beautiful full moon. As if something was happening – something unusual. Then again, today had been nothing short of unusual.

If it were not for the sudden downpour of rain, accompanied by the ominous, yet steady heartbeat of the thunder, it would have appeared to have been a perfectly ordinary night. Such harsh weather was unheard of by the people who lived in and above the clouds their whole lives – a lot of them had never even seen the rains, save the residents of Pherkad and Diadem.

One person however, was unfortunately caught in the rain. Little could be seen besides a black cloak waving in the wind, accompanied by the sight of slender legs striding frantically through the dirt, splashing up mud as it went.

The long, fast strides picked up pace as it looked for a place to shelter. Further down, just in sight, the figure sprinted towards a pub upon seeing the sight of a wooden sign flapping in the wind—a sign reading 'Poison Flower Pub'. The best-known pub in Komo Mai, hell, even all of Anuenue.

The cloaked person walked into the pub, slamming the door behind it with such a force that half the people inside took notice of its presence. It removed its cloak, pulling the hood back, panting and swearing loudly.

Fuck. Its Folon. Cranky Folon.

He stood in the doorway, dripping wet, tendrils of his unkempt blue-and-red hair wet against his shoulders (It was rather long, mind you.) Half the pub's occupants stared at him like he was a madman, as he stared back at them, wide-eyed, a psychotic look taking hold of his visage as he threw his dripping wet cloak to the ground and took up residence on one of the bar stools. He grit his teeth, feeling the cold droplets slide down his pale blue skin. He shook his head vigorously to dry his hair, similar to how a dog dries his fur, sending droplets flying everywhere.

"The usual, I assume?"

Folon looked up at the familiar sight. It was one of the waitresses, in an abnormally short skirt. The same bartender that served him every time he'd come here previously. She looked slightly irate, and Folon noted that her uniform was stained with water droplets.

"Eh.. Sorry." Folon answered, feeling his gaze subtly lower to the young girl's nicely-shaped legs. "And yes, the usual. Seven of the strongest stuff in the house.. celestial seed rum. Bring them all out at once, I'm feeling game tonight."

The bartender smiled good-naturedly, before turning on her heel to go and get him the spirits he normally had when he came into the pub. Folon, still wet and shivering slightly (as much as he'd deny it), leant against the bar, sighing heavily and shifting into a more comfortable position, due to his inability to keep still for any more than 5 minutes. After a moment, he lifted his head up to see if there were any familiar people in the pub.

..Motherfuck. How come I didn't notice him before? Folon thought to himself, glancing sideways to the person next to him.

Said person turned out to be Kalas, slumped over the bar and staring into space, clutching an empty shot glass in his hand. His hair was dripping wet also, wet against his face, even though Folon could have sworn his eyes looked glassy and slightly bloodshot.

Out of sheer curiosity, Folon carefully extended a finger, leaning over and poking the limp Kalas in the shoulder a couple of times. When he got no reaction, Folon picked up Kalas' wrist, lifting it and letting it go. It fell back down to the bar-table with a lifeless 'thunk'.

"..Hehehe." Folon picked up Kalas' wrist again, gently manipulating his fingers until just one was extended, and began bringing his hand to his nose—

"WILL YOU JUST FUCK OFF!"

"Ugh!"

The sudden reaction was so loud it would have silenced a crying baby. Folon, in a moment of shock/surprise, reeled and fell off the bar stool and landed painfully on his ass. He winced for a moment, standing up slowly and muttering curses best not described.

"Well, SORRY." He exclaimed sarcastically, rolling his eyes to emphasize the sarcasm in his statement. "I thought you were half-passed out drunk."

"Gee.. Thanks.. Just leave me the fuck alone, I'm not in the mood to deal with you tonight." Kalas remarked dryly.

"Aw, Boo hoo. I'll write a letter when I give a damn pusbag." Folon taunted, striking a seductive pose, patting his ass and fluttering his eyelashes before sitting down on the stool once more. Kalas grunted in frustration, but he didn't seem in the mood for an argument. In fact, he seemed very.. different. Unlike himself. The arrogant bastard wasn't putting up a fight.

The bartender had returned, but had ignored Folon's request, bringing out only one shot of the strong spirit. She set it down hurriedly before moving off to serve the next customer. It was about three in the morning, the celebrations had ended long ago – but a select few were out clubbing all night. The pub did seem busy, after all.

Grinning, Folon extended a hand to grab his shot of clear spirit, but found another hand clutched around it.

Their gazes met.

"This one.. I was here first, and I did order it.. It's mine.." Kalas said, evidently beginning to grow tired of Folon already.

"I don't think so, one-winged." Folon smirked, "I doubt you could even down this one."

"Yeah? What makes you say that, blue boy?"

"I've been drinking longer than you, and more often."

"How's that possible?" Kalas asked. "You're my age."

Folon nodded. "Yeah, so? I always managed to sneak some. Loved the strong stuff from the beginning."

"Hm. Drinking underage. Breaking the law. So typical of you, Folon." Kalas spat.

"Ooh, trying to offend me now, are we? Why don't we settle this in a different way?" Folon suggested, motioning towards the shot of alcohol.

Instantly, Kalas understood. "..I'll drink you under the bar, you cocky bastard."

Folon climbed up onto the bar excitedly waving his arms frantically and loudly proclaiming that a drinking contest was to be held. Arousing the interest of majority of the pub's occupants, they flocked around him and Kalas like ants to newly-fallen breadcrumbs.

He sat back down, in another one of his awkward positions, grinning insanely towards Kalas. "Still sure you want to do this?"

Kalas grit his teeth.

The bartender came out, a hush fell over the crowd. She set down ten shots of the strongest stuff in the house – five for Folon, five for Kalas. The game was afoot.

Kalas decided to be brave and down the first shot in a hurry, he grabbed one of the shots and swallowed it. He retched for a moment, writhing and slamming the shot glass down on the table, feeling it burn all the way down his throat, gagging slightly.

Folon smirked at him. "Impressive, you can actually keep it down. But it ain't as impressive as this.." Folon drew one of the shots close to himself, tracing a single finger over the rim, igniting the alcohol with a flame. As if that wasn't impressive enough, he tipped his head back as he downed it in a single gulp, screwing up his face slightly, but keeping it down nonetheless. Once the burning had passed, he turned to Kalas, sticking out his tongue, as the crowd around them 'oooh'd and 'aaaaahh'd.

Kalas' face was twisted into a disgusted expression, eye twitching. How the fuck did he do that!

Pushing that thought aside swiftly, Kalas downed another two, one straight after the other, beginning to feel himself sweat slightly. Folon took the next three and downed them consecutively, as the bartender worked to refill their shots; even she was wide-eyed at all the excitement.

The drinking continued for a while longer. Folon was pacing himself, watching Kalas try to outdo him, somehow managing to down 4 shots one after another. He was going overboard, and Folon used that to his advantage, sitting back and watching him as he slowly slumped, until he found himself hardly able to sit upright on the bar stool.

Folon himself was a little dizzy, but was nothing compared to Kalas. The bartender attempted to take away the last two shots, but Kalas grabbed them from her and downed them, as if proving to everyone that he was capable of more. He swayed, still able to talk mostly coherently, but was rather dizzy and felt a headache coming on.

"A word of advice, don't overdo it. You'll feel terrible tomorrow. Seriously. Stop right there." Folon said, cocking a single eyebrow at the irate Kalas.

"I know what I'm.. doing.."

"Eager to lose? You're going to drink yourself under the table at this rate."

Kalas glared at him. "Shutup. Just shutup."

"Ooh-la-la, touchy. Fine, lose to me. Be an idiot." Folon said, laughing.

"Yooouuu know what? I-I'm leaving. I don't need to hear any more of this, I.. I.. Yeah.. Bye.." Kalas murmured, pushing aside the empty shot glasses, letting them fall to the floor and shatter into many pieces. The bartender almost passed out as Kalas stumbled towards the door, using chairs and tables to keep him standing upright. The door was opened and slammed shut again, allowing Folon to see that it was, indeed, still raining heavily.

The crowd dismantled, still rather impressed by Folon's fire/alcohol trick. Satisfied with his victory, Folon shuffled into another 'more comfortable' position, leaning against the bar in content, feeling himself considerably drier. He considered ordering another drink to celebrate his victory, but he thought better of it in the end.

Heh heh. Loser. Folon thought, grinning. He still has that cocky attitude. So hot-headed, tsk. The idiot'll probably get lost on his way back to the inn.

Something struck him at that moment, and he shuffled uncomfortably.

.. What if he gets lost and falls prey to bandits..? What if he gets pneumonia? Damn it.. Why do I care about this? He thought, pursing his lips. ..Oh yeah, because its my fault and I'll never forgive myself if he dies because of me. He fucking saved the world, afterall. Hm.. Maybe I should just follow him to see if he gets back to the inn alright..

He bit his lip hard, dwelling on the thought for a moment. His conscience ended up winning, and he quickly rose, dumping all of the gold in his possession out onto the bar, and sprinting out the door with no second thought as to whether he'd ended up paying Kalas' tab as well.

Indeed, it was raining heavily. The rain came down upon the earth in immense, heavy sheets, making Folon wince. Treading through the mud, he looked carefully about the scene, but saw no sign of Kalas. He proceeded cautiously, shivering involuntarily at the feeling of the water sliding down his neck, and seeping into the gaps in his armor.

"Yo, Kalas!" Folon called out. No reply. He came across the inn soon enough, looked up at the room Kalas was boarding in. A torch in his room wasn't lit – and meaning that all the others were there, and asleep. If Kalas came in, surely they'd have turned the light on? Everyone would have seen him stumbling in like a drunk, and they would have had to help him into bed, check his condition as such.

Folon swallowed thickly, feeling his heart rate increase. Kalas wasn't drunk enough to stumble into someone else's house, but it was rather hard to see anything out here – the rains were harsh, and it was late night, all the festivities earlier in the night had ended.

He looked down, grinding his teeth at the disgusting feeling of the slimy mud flooding into his shoes. He noted something in the mud, inspecting it curiously. It appeared to be a footprint – a shoe – slightly square shaped, as if they were sandals. Kalas must have been here – no one else he knew of wore sandals, and the rains were heavy and should have washed away the prints.. meaning they were fresh.

Folon followed the prints, slowly, until it dawned on him exactly where those footprints were headed.

Anuenue port.

Heart racing, he sprinted as fast as he could, his legs carrying him quickly and rapidly, though the mud slowed him down a little. The grass seemed to thin out eventually, he felt something soft run into his shoes.. something like.. sand? He looked around himself, noting a thick fog. A second ago, he'd been running on grass, so where did the sand come from? He looked behind him, seeing the edge of Anuenue port. In confusion, he shrugged and turned back to the fog.

"Kalas..?"

A flutter of cream white.

A wave of relief washed over Folon as he ran to the figure, he sighed inwardly. Indeed, it was Kalas, his cape fanning out in the breeze. He was on his knees in the soft sand. Folon blinked. He sounded as if he were sobbing quietly. Folon made another observation. Water lapped at his shoes—also at Kalas' legs.

The fog seemed to clear a little as Folon looked out, grey eyes widened, jaw dropped.

"W-What is that!"

"Hm.. ocean.." Kalas replied quietly.

Folon looked down at Kalas in bewilderment. "What?"

"The.. ocean.." Kalas choked, in between suppressed sobs.

"It's amazing." Folon admitted.

"Amazing.. things.. call for amazing sacrifices.." Kalas said hoarsely.

Folon knelt to his level. "What're you on about?"

"..Xelha.." Was all Kalas managed to say.

"Xelha? What about her?" Folon probed, curiosity stirred.

Kalas said nothing.

"I see.. You don't want to talk about it. Fine with me. I don't know what happened, but things will work out, somehow. She'll come back, one way or another, I know she will." Folon said, mentally trying to work out what exactly has upset Kalas. He timidly extended a hand, brushing the blue locks out of Kalas' face as to help him see. It was then Folon realized, somehow he knew, the water on Kalas' face wasn't the rain.. it came from another storm. A storm inside him.

Sighing, but smiling, Folon slid his arm around Kalas, slowly bringing him to his feet. "..Let's go."

"Hmm..?"

"Let's go back. I can't just leave you here." Folon said, shifting Kalas so that he shared his weight, helping him walk back up the sand.

"Heh heh." Kalas laughed.

Folon glanced sideways, and found Kalas smiling weakly. "What's so funny?"

"You're a fucking softie deep down at heart, blue boy." Kalas remarked, laughing a little.

"..Yeah, I know." Folon answered, as he guided Kalas through the rain.

---------

.. That.. was fun.. and I wrote it all in one sitting, fucking awesome. I am going to cry if I don't get reviews for this. I will seriously cry.

I stand by my stick. If you review me, you have a great chance of getting reviewed by me. Have a nice day!