Crusaders of love and lust –

A/N: Oh yeah…Have any of you noticed who Astral looks like? No? Well, for one, she has long platinum hair, purple eyes, and elfish ears… and wears half-moon glasses…Ring a bell? How 'bout if I added a white coat? Still no impression? Heh. What if I told you to think SINNER?

"Darn it! Sister Kate is too much! That ugly old hag…"

Muttering, Sister Rosette cussed under her breath, striding across the corridors with Chrno and her newly-found 'ally' hurrying after her.

Then, without warning, the exorcist halted dead in her tracks, causing an unsuspecting Chrno to walk straight into her and fall onto his back, groaning. Ignoring her comrade, the sister spun around to face the albino, an uncertain expression lacing her features.

"Are you…really a demon?"

A look of boredom crossing her face, Astral used a hand to pull at her mouth, flashing her fangs at the Sister as an answer. It seemed to have satisfied Rosette, for she had then proceeded to help the violet-haired demon up, only then noticing the amused flicker in Astral's eyes.

"What?" she exclaimed, as though trying to defend herself upon spotting the girl eyeing Chrno's back in interest.

Her wine-coloured eyes resting on the messy locks of amethyst, Astral replied slowly, a faint smile playing on her lips.

"Were you in the midst of something before you came?" questioned the fair-haired one lightly, prodding at Chrno's half-done braid. "Coz' you look like you just got out of bed…And if I remember correctly, this is far from being the latest fashion."

"Eh? What-?" Rosette's gaze fell upon her unfinished task.

"Ah!" the blonde exorcist cried, flailing her arms in embarrassment.

"Summimasen, Chrno! I completely forgot all about it! I - "

"You know," interrupted Astral, looking as though she was musing to herself absent-mindedly, " It's already rather late in the afternoon, and I happen to know that they are serving hamburgers…"

Her sentence trailed away into nothingness as a human tornado tore past her, causing the hair of 'innocent bystanders' to get strewed all over the place and sending dust flying in its wake.

The Sinner's bottom eyelid twitched.

Chrno, with his hair now untidier than it had ever been, turned around and shot the other demon an incredulous look, using tremendous effort to put his raging desire to strangle the sly devil beside him in check.

In a strained voice, he poised a rhetorical question, "You planned all that, didn't you?"

She simply shrugged.

Rosette shoveled the mouth-watering hamburgers into her mouth eagerly, attacking the food with such vengeance that one could have sworn it was her worst enemy, not her greatest love. Chrno, who had a hand running through his uncompleted tresses in an attempt to make it neater, had his cheek resting against his palm. He avoided anyone's gaze determinedly, more in embarrassment than anything else. Astral, on the other hand, looked extremely entertained as she watched Rosette gobbling down those burgers.

"Rosetto, Chrno-san!" greeted Azmaria cheerily upon spotting her friends from a distance, only to have her voice to falter when her gaze rested on the stranger as she approached the table.Sensing another's presence, the 'new addition of the team' looked up and, as though reading the apostle's mind, introduced herself briefly.

Azmaria, though rather naïve and innocent at times, could at once see the child before her for what she was, and uncomfortable silence settled between them. Even Rosette, who, a moment before, had been indulging in the sin of gluttony, stopped chewing on her food to glance between the two very different beings.

Knowing better than to try to whip up a fruitless conversation between them, Astral at once got up from her seat and marched off towards God knows where.

"Oi!" Rosette managed to choke out between her mouthful of meat and bread, "Where are'ya goin'?"

Without even bothering to turn around, Astral waved farewell to, it seemed, no one in particular.

…

"Now that," muttered Rosette under her breath and returning her attention to her food, "was weird."

It was only after a few moments of stillness that Chrno's breath got hitched in his throat upon realizing what just happened.

"Chrno?" voiced Azmaria in concern, reaching out to place a palm on his shoulder in a comforting gesture.

Gulping, the said demon turned to face his contractor, a look of horror etched on his face.

"Do you think… Astral might have actually, by some way, snuck out of the Order's premises without permission?"

It took a few minutes for Rosette's brain to assimilate Chrno's words. And when she did, an expression similar to Chrno's appeared on her face as a certain thought came to mind: Sister Kate is going to KILL me.

"Damn it!"

Clutching at her temples, Rosette groaned in defeat. Just where did that godforsaken demon go to anyway?

His brows furrowed in concentration, Chrno searched his brain for another possibility of where Astral could have gone to as Azmaria wrung her hands nervously. How could they have been so careless? They had searched the entire Order for her, and yet there was no sign of that… that demon! The only place they hadn't gone to would be… would be…

Elder's shed?

As Lady Luck would have had it, they were standing right in front of the door of the accursed shack. All three simultaneously smacked a hand to their foreheads in exasperation at their own stupidity.

God simply loves to make a sport out of man, doesn't he?

Rosette, her brows twitching involuntarily, at once kicked open the door of Elder's hut, ready to beat the tar out of a particular demon which made her and her friends go through a whole lot of trouble.

What she didn't expect would be to have her heart to resign from its post of pumping blood momentarily as it dawned on her that the back of the person Elder was with was very familiar.

All so familiar…

Those pale locks tied into a long ponytail, that sickeningly spotless white coat draped over those shoulders, that pair of long, tufted ears…

Her insides seemed to freeze as the person looked over 'his' shoulder. And upon seeing those cold, violet orbs, the suppressed rage within her broke free before Chrno could stop her.

With a sudden cry of "Aion!", Rosette had instinctively pounced onto the poor being whose eyes had widened somewhat in shock at the sudden assailant who had tackled 'him' to the ground. In the middle of her heated wrestling match with the individual, however, a sudden thought wriggled its way into the blonde exorcist's mind.

THIS WASN'T AION.

Immediately, Rosette (wisely) halted dead in her movements to glance down at the features of the one pinned down beneath her. She blinked in rapid succession as she finally noted the many deliberate mistakes which deemed the person as another individual from Aion.

For example…

When did Aion get so small?

And…

When was Aion this fair?

And also…

Rosette gulped as her gaze traveled down to the warm lump underneath her palm as Chrno groaned at his contractor's rashness and as Elder and Azmaria went into horrifying alarm.

Since when did AION have busts?!

The teen shifted her gaze nervously to look at the expression on Astral's face.

Heck, if looks could kill, this one would be in high demand.

Suffocating silence seemed to fill the air as Astral's hands balled into fists and as her obsidian orbs captured Rosette's sapphire ones into a withering glare.

"You," she hissed in a deadly whisper, her usually smooth platinum hair seeming to crackle with electricity.

"Are WORSE than dead."

The screams and shouts which soon followed after shattered the peacefulness of the Order like glass, leaving the other occupants of the convent to ask themselves: "What in the name of the Holy Spirit just happened?"

Wouldn't THEY like to know.

A/N: The story seems to be drifting further and further away from the original plot…::Grins:: many thanks to Riviea for that ingenious idea of the bust-touching incident! I'm eeeeviiil…