A/N: Wow. I left for three hours and my hits went from 80 to 140! Awesome. Oh and I have three faithful reviewers now. Yeah!
Disclaimer: I do not own Trinity Blood or any of its characters.
Stella shivered as the needle pierced her flesh. She gritted her teeth and didn't look. Instead, she watched Father Abel's concentrated face. After many hisses of pain, Abel finally announced that they were finished.
They sat in silence for a few minutes after Abel had checked to see if his friends were back. They were not. Abel sat at the edge of the bed and Stella curled up at the other end of the bed.
Suddenly, she asked, "Father Abel?"
"Hmm?" Abel looked behind him.
"Who are your children? And isn't Father Leon a little young to have children?" Stella asked innocently.
"Wha?" Abel pulled back. Then he laughed nervously. "Eh, hehe. No, ye see, Stella, we are called fathers because we work for the church and we are traveling priests."
Stella's eyebrows drew together. "What's a church? Is it the Vatican? Is a traveling priest like a traveling minstrel?"
So the next hour flew by, Abel explaining every aspect of church to Stella. When he asked if she understood, she would say yes, however ridiculous or hard to understand the thing in question was. She had learned from the first few times she didn't comprehend that it was simply easier to say she did understand, rather than ask him to explain it all over again for it to sound the same way it did backwards as forwards. Eventually, a gurgling sound stopped Abel in mid-sentence.
Stella laughed lightly. "It's alright, Father Nightroad," she had taken to calling him his formal name so as to not sound 'improper', " you can go up to dinner." When Abel eyed her suspiciously she held up her hands. "I promise I won't leave. I want to sleep anyway."
Abel nodded, understanding. It must have been rather hard fro her to understand what I was saying after all of that blood loss. How inconsiderate of me. He thought as he left the room.
Stella lay down tiredly after Father Nightroad had left. She was so tired, yet she had not wanted to sleep while Father Nightroad had been in the room. She felt that she owed him at least her attention. Her mind drifted through thoughts about the strange priest and his ability to make simple gestures that made one so likely to trust him. Sighing, she fell into a deep sleep.
When Abel returned hours later, Stella was still sleeping. He let her rest and lay down in the other bed himself. Leon and Tres had been allowed to move to another cabin due to shortage of passengers.
The next morning, Abel dressed quickly and scribbled out a note to Stella, telling her that he would be back with food later. He got caught up in a huge mess that involved one of the learning sailors had caused the ship to careen into an incoming wave. All of the passengers had to help bail water off of the deck. He came in with a huge brunch later and apologized three times before he noticed Stella was still sleeping, and the note was untouched.
Abel left to see his companions. Later that night, Abel came into the room and found Stella in the same position as before, her back to him. That's when he got worried. He brought Tres to do an analysis of her. Tres bent over the still form of the girl for a few seconds before standing up, red eye glowing.
"Analysis: Stella is in a state of shock from blood loss. She is dehydrated. She will come out of coma in three to six hours." Tres said in his usual monotone.
Abel nodded, relieved. "Yes, thank you Tres."
Tres didn't reply, instead he left the room.
Abel completely trusted Tres's evaluation, so after one hour, when Stella sat up, he was shocked. She groaned a bit, was still pale and was wary of weight on her side, but other than that she seemed to be completely fine.
She smiled at Abel. "Um… can I have some water, please?"
Abel handed her a cup from the morning tray. "Easy now, you need to drink slowly or you'll just choke it back up."
Stella rolled her eyes a little and accepted the cup. "I know. My mom told me that once after I had nearly died of dehydration."
"Where's your mother now?" Abel asked out of curiosity.
A shadow crossed Stella's pale face, giving her a pure ghostly looking appearance. "She's gone." She said quietly and almost vehemently. Somehow the violent and haunted look in her eyes did not suit her.
Of course, does it really suit anyone? "Oh. I'm sorry…"
"Don't be." Stella said bitterly, taking another sip from the glass.
"How did she die?" Abel asked softly.
Stella's eyes flashed. "She was murdered." She said shortly.
Abel let the subject drop. "Goodnight, and pleasant dreams." He said, standing up.
Stella smiled half-heartedly. "And to you." She inclined her head.
Abel smiled back, and as he wasn't looking where he was going, tripped right over his own narrow bed and onto the floor.
"Father Nightroad!" Stella's voice radiated fear and concern for his safety as she got up.
"Eh?" Abel lifted his head up and found his glasses perched crazily on his nose.
Stella giggled. "Are you always this clumsy?" She tried to sound serious and added to the affect by putting her hands on her hips. She failed miserably and leaned over giggling.
The train whistle split into Stella's head almost blinding her. She was feeling the after affects of being ill and not liking it one bit. She refused to burden her friends with her ill feelings even when Father Tres asked her for a 'status report'.
Soon after the train left the station, Tres and Abel left the compartment for something to eat. Brushing her shyness aside like one would brush away cobwebs, Stella asked Father Leon about Tres.
He smiled disarmingly at her and scratched the side of his head. "Well… you see… he's an android."
Stella's eyes widened. "An android, Father Leon? You mean like a highly advanced robot, right?"
"Yep, you hit the nail on the head." Leon said, sitting back. "And forget this 'Father Leon' stuff. When we are alone of with Father Abel, I'm Michael, or Leon. All right Miss Stella? I find the father stuff a little old." He smiled again and Stella was forced to agree.
"All right. But I'm Stella. Just Stella. I don't care whom we are around, I'm Stella. Call me anything else and I'll kick your-"
"Point taken!" Leon held his hands up. "We got a deal?" He stuck out his right hand and Stella promptly shook it.
"Deal."
When they finally arrived home, the first thing Stella did walking out onto the street was look around in wonder. Abel knew from the few hours he spent in her city that it was a rather harsh difference. She stood with her mouth slightly open for a few seconds before frowning. She turned to Abel.
"Where are all the Methuselah?"
Before Abel could answer, Stella turned her head in another direction. A second later, Abel felt little bursts of electricity throughout his system.
"Oh, there they are."
A/N: Cliffie! Yay! It's now 10:57 and I've been trying to dodge around family stuff all day. All in all, it took me about an hour to write this.