A/N: For all of you who are reading this story and not reviewing…shame on you! This is the second to the last chapter….unless you count the prologue...but anyway…I'm not sure what I'm doing for the last chapter so I will not be updating for awhile…but feedback is appreciated… Anyway, whatever I decide to do, it'll be a happy ending and no one will die except possibly Sophia. XD this is your chance to review or I'll hit you with a "sword" XD
Disclaimer: Star Ocean isn't mine…but if it was, Sophia would be dead and Albel and Fayt would get locked in a closet together.
Albel woke early in the morning. It was completely quiet and the sun was just beginning to rise. Albel leaned back in bed and clasped his hands under his head. Everything was so peaceful. He glanced down at Fayt who was sleeping contentedly with head resting on Albel's chest. Albel gently eased Fayt off of him and disappeared into the early dawn.
Fayt woke up a little later. He was disappointed, but not surprised at Albel's absence. He yawned and stretched, glancing around the room. He worried about Albel going off on his own, but at least he had taken the bottle of pain reliever with him. Albel would be fine, but if he pushed himself too hard he had the medicine. Albel probably wouldn't use it, but Fayt was comforted by the fact that he took it with him.
Albel did not travel far. He climbed up onto the roof of the tallest building in town and looked over the city morosely. He rubbed his aching chest and contemplated the little bottle of liquid in his hand. He hated to be dependant on anything, but it might be worth it if it would let him battle again. Frustrated, Albel tossed the bottle to the side and continued brooding.
The same routine was repeated every day over the next week. Albel was slowly beginning to recover, but he was still unhappy with his progress. Albel smirked as he kicked the bottle off the edge of the roof. There, no more annoying decisions. It made him feel better.
Cliff was waiting for Albel as he carefully climbed down the side of the building. Albel had learned the hard way not to jump. After one jarring impact when he had to bite his tongue to keep from screaming, he had vowed never to do that again.
Cliff looked slightly irritated as he held out a little blue bottle. 'Albel, I believe this is yours. You shouldn't be littering, you know."
Albel growled as he snatched the bottle from Cliff's hands. "I can't get rid of this stupid thing!"
Cliff grinned. "Don't worry. Pretty soon you won't need it anymore. Take it easy." He clapped Albel on the back.
Albel winced and glared at Cliff.
"Oops, sorry about that," Cliff said sheepishly.
"No problem," Albel said between clenched teeth. He walked off stiffly and sat down in the shade of a large tree.
Albel leaned back against the tree and drew up one knee, putting his other hand down on the ground to steady himself. "You are a curse," he told the bottle grimly. "How can I ever live with myself after this? But how can I live with myself like this?"
The bottle said nothing, which made Albel angrier. "Fine! I'll lose all my self-respect, but as long as Fayt doesn't know…" Albel took a short gulp from the bottle.
Fayt was annoyed that Albel was gone most of the day. He returned late in the evenings just in time to eat dinner and slip into bed with Fayt. When Fayt questioned him about where he had been, he became sullen and refused to answer. Fayt wished Albel would trust him more. If Albel had been uninjured, he would have kicked some sense into him long ago, but Fayt was about to point of doing so anyway. Fayt had finally made up his mind to go and find Albel when Albel stumbled through the door and immediately collapsed face first onto the floor.
"Albel! Are you okay?"
"m'fine," Albel mumbled.
Fayt gently pulled Albel back to his feet. "Don't scare me like that. Did that fall hurt you at all?"
"Nope. I'ves gots t'be stronger'n thet," Albel slurred.
Fayt was now no longer worried but mad. He put his hands on his hips. "Okay, what tavern have you been to? Cliff hasn't been taking you anywhere, has he?"
"Haven't been to a single taverrrrrn," Albel muttered, starting to fall over backwards.
Fayt quickly caught him and pushed him back up. "You have to have drunk some sort of alcohol."
Albel hiccupped and looked confused. "Nope. Don't remember nothing."
"Did you eat anything?"
"Nope. Say, Fayt, what's for breakfast?"
Fayt sighed heavily. "Albel, it's dinner time."
"Rigght. Pretty please point me to the way, sirs."
"Albel, I think you need to sit down a bit."
"Right you are, mag-mag, oh whatever you are. And tell your brother the same."
Fayt carefully helped Albel over to a chair. "You don't look so good, Albel."
Albel pushed him away. "Nuthin a little medicine can't…erm..fix." He pulled out the little blue bottle.
Fayt snatched it from his hand. "This is almost gone! How much have you had today?"
"Umm..sorta some..not a lot," Albel said defensively.
Fayt read the label. "Warning: Contains large amounts of alcohol. Do not exceed recommended dosage.' Oh, Albel…you should know better than to drink so much if it says it has alcohol."
"Really?" Albel sounded surprised. "Where's it say that?" He leaned over to looked and nearly fell over.
Fayt groaned. "You're lucky, Albel. Drinking too much could cause serious health problems. I'm surprised you're not sick."
Albel stood up and raised his hand. "I'm going to be sick," he announced dramatically….and then made a mad dash to the bathroom.
Albel returned looking decidedly less drunk and decidedly sicker. "I do not like hangovers," he grumbled. "They make me useless."
"Time for dinner!" Cliff shouted.
Albel turned green and raced back to the bathroom.
Fayt approached Cliff. "Could you not talk about food? Albel isn't feeling well."
"Oh, sorry. Not mentioning dinner!" he yelled.
"Thanks a lot, idiot," Albel growled from the vicinity of the bathroom.
"Don't mention it," Cliff said cheerfully.
Albel plopped himself down on the floor and muttered curses to himself under his breath.
"Albel, do you feel better yet?"
"Yes, Fayt, no thanks to that stupid-"
"Do you feel like eating now?" Fayt interrupted him.
"Nope."
"Well, if you don't eat then I won't either."
Albel frowned. "Don't be a martyr, Fayt. If you're hungry, go ahead and eat. It won't help anything if you starve."
Fayt returned fifteen minutes later and gently prodded albel with one foot. "Albel, if you lie on the ground you'll get dirty."
"so what?" Albel said with a scowl.
"If you get dirty, you'll need to take a bath."
"Bah," Albel said dismissively. "I'm not that dirty."
"When was the lat time you had a bath?"
Albel thought for a moment. "Well, I got wet at the hot springs so that counts."
"That was a week ago! And you didn't even use soap!"
"soap?" Albel regarded him warily.
"Do you even know what soap is?"
"Yes," Albel grumbled. "soap is only necessary about once a year. Too much bathing removes the resistance to disease in your skin and you will most likely die."
"Don't be silly, Albel. You need to use soap at least every two days."
"Two days!"
"Yes, and you're long overdue for a real bath."
"Oh no, no, no…I'll die and it'll be all your fault."
Fayt looked amused. "Want to bet?"
"No, because if I win…I'll be dead."
Fayt smirked as four girls that he summoned picked Albel up and dragged him off to the bathroom and tossed him into a bathtub with all his clothes on. Albel scowled as his wet hair plastered to his face. "You'll be sorry for this, Fayt," Albel growled.
"Oh, I'm sure I will be," Fayt said cheerfully.
The girls returned Albel looking very clean. Albel had his arms crossed across his chest and he refused to get up so they carried him back to Fayt and dumped him at Fayt's feet.
"See?" Fayt said cheerfully. "That wasn't so bad."
"Yes it was," Albel said morosely. "I'll die within a week, just wait and see."
However, the days wore on and Albel showed no signs of sickening and dying. He became puzzled and Fayt tried hard not to laugh. A full week had passed and Fayt was about to remind Albel that his prediction had not come true when he saw Albel out training his soldiers.
"You all had best start treating Fayt normally or I will make sure that all of you will be bathed with soap every night for a week."
There was a collective gasp in the regiment and Albel looked proud.
"Fayt had me bathed with soap just the other night in an attempt to kill me, but he underestimated me," Albel scoffed. "I didn't die, but I'm sure that considering how weak you all are, you most certainly will."
Fayt ran up to Albel and gave him a huge hug, burying his face in Albel's shirt. "You're making me out to be some sort of monster."
Albel looked embarrassed and he tried to disentangle himself from Fayt. "Fayt…not here…" he hissed. He looked about at his men nervously.
"Why not? You said we had nothing to hide."
"If I start becoming emotional, my men will…" Albel sighed and gave up seeing the pleading look in Fayt's eyes. "Fine, worm…but if they lose focus in battle it will be you to blame."
"Fine with me," Fayt said cheerfully.
Albel held Fayt tightly and sighed contentedly. Fayt happily burrowed against Albel's chest until Albel carefully lifted fayt's head up and kissed him.
The soldier's coughed quietly and scuffed their feet in the dirt. Albel was pulled back to the reality of his audience. "What are you looking at, scumbags?" he demanded. "Do you have a problem with this?"
"Well..ah..uh…no...not really. It's just...didn't you say Fayt was trying to kill you…and now you're kissing him? That seems kind of weird."
Albel snorted. "Not many fools would dare stand up to me and I respect Fayt for that. Now, you maggots better not interrupt me again or I will strangle you all with your own entrails. Understand?"
"Yes, sir!" the soldiers chorused. "We'll-ah, I think you two should have some alone time."
Albel chuckled as the soldiers beat a hasty retreat. "They never move so fast in battle."
Fayt sighed contentedly as he leaned against Albel. "You're so mean to your poor men."
"But, they have to be tough in battle. I can't go easy on them because the enemy will certainly not go easy on them."
"Do you go easy on me even though I have to battle?" Fayt asked softly.
"Don't be an idiot, fool. I'm not training you for battle. Our relationship is strictly-"Albel paused, frowning at Fayt's grin.
"Say it. Say it." Fayt laughed.
Albel scowled. "You love to torture me, don't you?"
"It shouldn't be torture for you to say you love me."
Albel sighed. "I'm beginning to think of this more as lust than love."
"Albel, if this was really just lust you would have given up on me since I drive you crazy all the time. I would think you would get along better with Cliff."
Albel froze and he stared at Fayt with a shocked look. "Gross! Don't let me ever catch you saying that again! Bah, how could I ever even like Cliff? Just thinking about it leaves a bad taste in my mouth."
Fayt looked amused. "A bad taste in your mouth? Why is that?"
"I don't know and I don't care. Here, you better help me get rid of that." Albel seized Fayt and kissed him strongly until Fayt gasped and pushed Albel away so he could get air.
"Geez, I didn't know you disliked Cliff so much, "Fayt muttered. "That was an awful lot of bad taste."
Albel grinned. "I strongly dislike everyone except for you."
"Wonderful," Fayt said with a scowl. "You need to be nicer to people."
Albel smirked. "So you are saying I should love more people than just you?"
"That's not what I meant!"
Albel sighed and seated himself on a rock, tugging Fayt down onto his lap. "You know, I don't really need to be friendly to any one else. You're friendly enough for the both of us. Besides, you're the only one that really matters to me, so why should I bother pursuing friendships with anyone else?"
"But what if I get mad at you? You'll be lonely without me."
Albel gently kissed Fayt's cheek. "I've been lonely before. I can deal with it."
Fayt put his arms around Albel's neck. "But I don't want you to be lonely."
"Then you should try not to get mad at me."
"Yes, I'll try really hard," Fayt promised.
Albel sighed and closed his eyes. The moon was beginning to rise and the night was still except for the soft chirping of crickets. It was so peaceful.
"Albel, shouldn't we go inside now?" Fayt whispered.
Albel didn't respond. He was already asleep.
Fayt sighed patiently and slipped out of Albel's grip and awkwardly carried him inside.
