A/N: and here is the rewritten version of chapter two. There was not a lot to edit, but I added a few new things into it, and a bit a more believable characterization of Asch and Luke, since they were pretty OOC before. I hope you'll like this as much as you did the previous chapter (although that one was more of a prologue than anything). Sorry for the short chapters!

Thank you for all the lovely reviews, dears!

Rating: this chapter is rated T. This story will become M.

Genres: Romance, Drama, a weensy bit of Angst (if you squint), and maybe Humor.

Warnings: THIS CHAPTER HAS NOT BEEN BETA'D YET.

Pairings: AschxLuke

Editions: this chapter has been rewritten and edited on the fifth of March, 2009.

Disclaimer: we all damn know that I don't own TotA. I wish I did, but I don't.

Summary: Luke's injured but luckily Asch saves him. Problem is: they're alone in a cave, and no one knows about their whereabouts. Will hate cope with love for once?

Even if loneliness sounds tempting
it will only bring pain and take your emotions away

So it's better to have someone to live for
Even if it's only a Replica

- Midnight Crisis

Chapter II: This Is The Truth

"See ya…"

Asch stopped dead in his tracks and looked over his shoulder.

"…Luke?" The ex-God General was drenched because of the pouring rain, which had started to fall down not so long ago. His clothes stuck to his skin, and with his armour if felt all the more uncomfortable.

But he was more worried about the bad feeling in his gut. Something happened, he was sure of that, though he didn't know exactly what. In any case, it involved his replica, Luke, since he always got this restless when the stupid dreck did something stupid.

So yes, he was worried. His good conscience was worried and restless. Didn't mean he was ever going to admit it out loud.

He hesitated a few more minutes, looking to the forest and then back at the dirty road ahead of him, probably leading somewhere to nowhere, desert, another forest, or probably a town. With a deep sigh he turned his back to the road and walked slowly towards the forest.

"Ugh. Whatever." Asch knew he was going to regret this. Heck, the little voice in his head was yelling at him to turn back, which he quickly ignored.

A few steps away from the trees, still looking rather unsure of his choice, he took a deep breath. The dark, sinister trees were towering over him, like they were about to engulf him so that his soul would wander forever around this place. But how scary may be, Asch wasn't afraid and thus walked into the darkness with an overload of self-confidence.

--

Asch was starting to become a bit grumpy. Well, no, that'd be a lie. He was really on the verge of killing the first thing alive he'd come across to. He was still walking, for almost two hours now, and still wasn't sure where he was heading to or for what. And it was still raining. Pouring down, actually.

If he really trusted his guts, and he really would find Luke, then without hesitating he'd just slam the kid into a trunk. Or kill him with a rock.

Suddenly there was a loud roar. Asch quickly unsheathed his sword and stood in a fighting position. He listened carefully for any sounds around him, surveying his surroundings so that nothing could attack him in surprise. He stayed like that for a few seconds when a purplish monster abruptly came in his direction. The monster screeched loudly, showing its pointy and deadly fangs, ready to attack the man. Asch was already mumbling a spell but stopped in mid-track. The monster didn't attack him. Instead, it fell on the ground.

"What the—?" This was definitely suspicious; it could be a trick of this monster to draw the man closer and then kill him. But it didn't look like it. Still alerted, he cautiously walked towards the fiend. He stopped just in front of the head and gazed over the big body, then back to the head.

It had a deep wound between the eyes of the creature, like someone had given it a hard blow with a sword. Though it didn't seem to be deadly, or not when the attacker had inflicted this to the monster. Now it was dead, Asch was sure of it. He regarded it one last time before he was going to walk away, but quickly turned around and hunched at the monster's claws when he caught a glimpse of what strangely resembled of something he knew all too well.

A little piece of clothing. White and with blood on it. Then he realized it: this Liger Queen had attacked Luke and the boy had tried to defend himself, that was the cause of the deep cut in the monster's head.

Which also meant that the bad feeling wasn't a bad indigestion, just a warning to tell him that Luke was in fact wounded.

"Luke!" He stood up and quickly ran in the direction from where the monster came. While running he got branches in his face, sometimes his cape got trapped, ripping it. He fell twice in the mud, dirtying his already tattered clothes and filthy armour. But he never halted, didn't hesitate, never paused to take a breath. He was determined to find Luke and save him. Why he didn't know, but he could care less now.

Finally he reached an open area without any trees, only bushes. The rain here was falling even harder than it was when he was running under the trees.

He slowed down and examined the place, the ground, everything! But he couldn't find him – Luke, the boy he had always mistreated. With a sigh he closed his eyes and concentrated.

Where is he? Where could he be?

"Luke, where the hell are you!" It frustrated him not to know where the stupid redhead was!

Until he heard a soft groan.

Asch opened his eyes and twirled around. The sound came from behind the bushes that were almost invisible because of the dark place. The young man didn't wait any longer; he ran as fast as he could towards the bush and when he saw Luke, he clenched his fists in anger—angry with himself.

Luke's skin was pale – too pale. His lips were blue from the cold and his clothes were drenched, mixed with a dirty red. Blood. To put it simply: Luke wasn't in a good state, and if he didn't get cleaned and warmed up, he wasn't going to be able to survive.

So Asch, knowing time was precious right now, carefully picked Luke up and was surprised by how light the boy was. Except it wasn't the moment to pay attention to that sort of things. He first had to find a shelter, a cave, so that he could start treating the redhead.

It didn't take long to find a cave, although it wasn't really deep nor really clean, but it was better than laying on the cold and wet grass. He entered the welcoming depth and gently laid Luke down.

Luckily there was already some firewood, so he only needed to cast a fire spell and find some food. But first, he had to take care of the boy's wound. Asch took a little pocketknife and swiftly cut Luke's shirt in the middle. It was ruined anyway. He inspected the injury on the side and mumbled a healing spell over it. The injury closed bit by bit until there was only a scar left over.

Well, that was something the dreck would have to deal with it.

To be sure, the other boy ripped his cape in rags and bandaged the unconscious boy up. He was out of danger, at least he was sure of that. Asch smiled lightly, kind of relieved that his replica was safe, before leaving the cave and boy alone to find some food.

He didn't notice the small hand that was reaching out for him.

--

When he came back in the cave, he noticed that it was finally at a normal and quite warm temperature. He put the fresh food aside and sat down. Luke was still in the same position as Asch had left him. The young man slowly closed his eyes, feeling tired from all that happened, until a soft little voice called his name.

"A-Asch…" said boy opened his eyelids and stared directly in a pair of emerald eyes. The ones he never could seem to erase from his mind.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, being polite considering the replica's situation.

"Like crap." Luke carefully sat up, groaning when his side ached but he was surprised to see it bandaged and when he prodded around it, he couldn't feel any gash. He cocked an eyebrow and looked at Asch, demanding an answer with his stare.

"Be glad that I saved you ass, idiot." Asch smirked when Luke granted him a glare at the insult. Well, it wasn't easy to be always polite, mind you. Asch was kind of used to act like a real jerk around the redhead.

"You didn't need to, you could just have let me—"

"Die there?" Asch finished Luke's sentence. "Why would I?" all the humour had left his voice, seriousness having taken over now when Luke looked taken aback by the answer. And confused too, the way he frowned. He was so easy to read.

"Huh? What are you saying? You hate me, so you shouldn't have cared if I died or not. It's not like you to suddenly nurse someone. You're a cold-hearted bastard who thinks he's better than anyone else!" The boy was yelling by now. For an injured person, he sure looked pretty lively.

The ex-God General didn't reply. It was true what Luke said; after all, he was a cold-hearted bastard, but is he still one? Luke didn't wait for his reply and thus turned his back to him, huffing and mumbling incoherent words—probably curses.

Apparently, some things never changed, Asch thought as he chuckled at the stubborn redhead. Luke always was a hothead, always charging head first into a battle without thinking about the consequences. It was the same when both would see each other. Glaring, insulting, hit, and ignore each other until one of them would depart, either for a new mission or a new battle. Somehow, their paths always crossed again, and along that crossing or fighting each other, Asch had discovered something.

"Yeah, you are right, Luke. It's true that I hated you because you are my replica; it's true that I was a cold-hearted, emotionless bastard that didn't give a shit about other people and would rather prefer to let them rot in their own bodily fluids than give them a hand. And better that anyone? Well, I can't really deny that; I am still better than you at sword fighting." Here he smirked again, Luke turning around to face him and give him the finger. Asch snorted, muttering about childish things, before he continued.

"Anyways, it's true: I was. Which means that I am not the same anymore. I have changed."

He looked right into Luke's eyes while he said that, and he noticed the boy was hesitating. He needed more proof to his words, huh? Okay then.

"You never wondered how it comes that you are as strong as now? Why you can sleep peacefully without having awful nightmares about your past? Why you feel a tingling feeling where your heart is, every time you see me? It's all thanks to me, dear Luke."

Luke's eyes widened, Asch's smile wider. He then leisurely crawled in Luke's direction. The other boy didn't budge, paralyzed to the ground. When Asch was only inches away from the replica's face, he continued on.

"Because I gave you a part of my skills and power, I took over your nightmares so that you could sleep without waking up in the middle of the night. Because you started to have feelings towards me without even realizing it."

Asch lifted a hand to Luke's cheek. Soft, and a bit warm but not feverish. He quickly took a glimpse of Luke's rosy lips, deliciously tempting. Always wanted to taste them.

Luke tried to back away but his back came into contact with the wall and Asch only followed, putting a hand on each side of Luke's head. He couldn't escape now.

"A-Asch! Wha—" stuttered the boy. Asch inched closer and closer, his lips so very close to Luke's lips, so close to his goal and he let his breath ghost over that mouth he was going to claim as his.

"Because I love you, Luke."

And with that he closed the gap between them and kissed Luke.

To be continued...

A/N: Well, was it any good? I hope so D: Actually, this is the first fic that's a pain in the ass, mainly because when I wrote this I didn't even had a plot in mind! So yeah, it's been what, one year ago that I wrote this story? Ugh. But! Now that I finally took the courage to rewrite the whole thing, I guess it got a plot, and it will get better. And smutty. Can't forget the damn smut.

Please review! Constructive criticism is very welcome!~

Yours truly,
Midnight.