Chapter 7

"Gil…"

Gilbert turned around slowly, and stared in disbelief. Oz was standing there, smiling at him they way he always used to. The sun illuminated his golden hair, emerald eyes sparkled.

"O-Oz…?" Gilbert muttered. He felt the corners of his mouth rise in a smile, happiness flooding through him. "Oz!"

He heard Oz laugh, and extended a hand. Gilbert's smile grew as he reached out to take it.

"Gilbert." It was not Oz's voice this time, but much deeper. The scene changed suddenly; the bright sun turned into a moon that cast bloody light on everything. Gilbert watched, horrified, as Oz's small form changed. He became taller, his hair turning from gold to jet black. Green eyes turned to red and a cold smile spread across his face.

Gilbert stumbled backward as Sebastian stood where Oz had.

"No…" Gilbert muttered, burying his face in his hands and shaking his head.

"Not you… Not you." He said over and over. He tried to block out the sound of Sebastian's foot steps, tried to ignore his sent his voice, his aura. When he looked up again, Sebastian was inched away from him. The same cocky grin on his face as always. Gilbert took another step back when he felt the demon laid a cool hand on his cheek. Black feathers started to float through the air now. Suddenly, the Nightray felt the ground beneath his feet give way, and he was falling, falling…

Gilbert's eyes flew open. He was looking up at his living room ceiling from the floor. He tried to sit up, and narrowly missed hitting his head on the coffee table that he was wedged on the floor beside; that and the couch. He tried to figure out how he had gotten into such a position. For a moment, he thought that he had spent more time with Sebastian. Doubtful. He didn't feel like he had been run over by a horse the way he did when he had woken up after he had spent a night with the demon… And he did not feel the strange pleasure behind the pain. He shivered, and then his mind distracted itself from the thought when Gilbert remembered it had rained all day, and he had curled up on the couch with a book. He must have fallen asleep while reading.

He saw the book he had been reading turned cover side up laying few feet away from where he sat. Something shinny caught the Nightray's eye and he turned to see what it was. A glass vase with two red roses saw sitting in the very middle of the low table. Gilbert glared at them, rubbing his temples with tips of his fingers as he stood up and went into the kitchen for a drink of water.

"Good morning, sleepy head!" Chimed a voice from behind him. Gilbert nearly jumped out of his skin. Whirling around, he came face to face with a man, roughly his height, with silver hair that covered one of his eyes.

"Break?!"

Break took a step back and waved. "Hiiii~!"

"What-how… How the hell did you get in here?!" Gilbert asked, hands clenching into fists at his sides. Break shrugged playfully, and walked past him to sit at the dinning room table. Gilbert could see that a cupboard had been left open at the far side of the room.

"Eh??"

CRASH!

Gilbert turned on his heels to see Break staring down at a pile of broken dishes that Gilbert had left on the counter to clean later. Shards of china littered the floor. Gilbert's eye brow twitched slightly in annoyance, gapping at the older man.

"Ooops!" Said Break, covering his mouth with his sleeve.

"My, my, Raven. You sure do make quite a mess living on your own."

It was all Gilbert could do to keep himself from strangling him.

"Why the hell did you do that?!" The Nightray explained, bending down to pick up the shattered plated and bowls.

"It was in my way." Break said casually as he started to make himself some tea.

Gilbert muttered to himself as he picked up the fallen dishes, throwing the ones that were broken beyond repair into the waste basket. He didn't want to look at Break. He was doing exactly what Sebastian had on their last visit. Only Sebastian had done it with much for grave than the other servant was now. Break was humming to himself softly, making himself right at home and completely ignoring Gilbert.

"Break! The news!" said the creepy little blue doll known at Emily perched on Break's shoulder. Gilbert looked over at him, one eyebrow raised. He was now paying attention to what he was doing, and a particularly sharp piece of ceramic cut his palm wide open. The Nightray hissed quietly, and ran over the sink to clean the wound. Break watched him coolly, legs crossed, sitting on the dinning room table.

"Thank you for reminding me, Emily~" He patted the little doll on the head and come over to stand beside Gilbert. He was not looking at him, but at the blood that was mixing with the tap water and going down the drain.

"We've located Oz. And have found a way to bring him back."

Gilbert went ridged, his heart pounding.

He managed to find his voice and ask: "How long until…"

"About three weeks." Break said as he looked up at Gilbert finally. For a moment, Gilbert forgot everything; the pain in his hand, the annoyance with Break, and who had left the roses on the coffee table last night. Oz was coming home. He would have his master back soon.

Gilbert was unable to say anything as he turned off the water and wrapped his hand in a towel to keep it from bleeding more. He was not looked t Break, but her could feel the others eye on him.

"So, what should we do to celebrate?"

"Huh?" Gilbert blinked and looked over at Break, who was smiling at him. He could swear that he could see sparkles around him.

"Celebrate. You know, have a party." Gilbert's brow twitched again as Break began to do some strange little dance around the expanse of the room.

"For a job well done by me!" Break said, taking Emily off his shoulder and spinning her around with him.

"Wheeeeee!!!!!" She said.

Gilbert couldn't take much more of this.

"Anything else?" He asked, brow twitching.

It took a moment for Break to stop dancing. He had stopped moving it was seemed to be mid-step as he blinked twice at Gilbert, and smiled again.

"Nope."

"The get out." Gilbert said calmly.

Break let out a sigh and closed his eye. "So mean… Raven is so mean to me." But he climbed back into the low cabinet. Before he had shut the door completely, he smile again and waved at Gilbert before shutting the door. When the Nightray opened it, he was gone.

At the moment, he wasn't going to try and figure out how Break had came and left by a cabinet. He would have his master with him soon… His Oz.

"Oz…" He whispered at he pretty much collapsed on the couch. Like a wave, it hit him. The dream he had woken up from not half an hour before. His hand moved unconsciously to the front of his shirt. He could feel the jagged scar under the thin fabric.

He realized that he had only three weeks to figure out a way to deal with Sebastian and his feelings for him. Gilbert wanted to make sure that Sebastian and all of his demonic and seductive beauty was long out of his life before he was reunited with Oz.

He buried his face in his hands and through his fingers he could see the sparkling crystal vase with two roses a couple inches of water in it.

"Sebastian…" He whispered.

A few years had passed since then, and the only thing he ever saw of Sebastian was the roses that he left for him every morning. At first the Nightray had burned them or thrown them out. Now, he just left them there, ignoring them like he was ignoring the feelings for the beautiful demon.

Gilbert's own words echoed through his head as he stared blankly at the two flowers.

"A monster whom I lust for…"

Gilbert suddenly began to feel very Closter phobic in his small cottage. The palms of his hand were he had cut it stung, but it had stopped bleeding. Quickly, he threw the towel he had used to stop the blood flow in the hamper and wrapped clean bandaged around the wound before grabbing his coat and gun and starting out the door.

He paid no attention to the whispers that seemed to follow him as he waved his way in and out of crowds of people. Their words had haunted his every step for nearly ten years now, but he no longer cared. There were two people on Gilbert's mind at the moment: Oz and Sebastian. Oz was his light, Sebastian his dark. In the safety of his own head, Gilbert admitted that he wanted both dark and light…

There's no way.

Gilbert had been staring at his feet for most of the walk, not knowing or caring where he was going. His thoughts were interrupted when it felt like the world had tilted suddenly, almost landing him flat on his face. It was like having cold water splashing him full in the face. Gilbert looked around for the first time since he left the house. His feet had taken him to the small wood that marked the edge of town, and he had tripped over a root that had been poking up out of the well-used ground.

Golden eyes made their way skyward, and what they saw on the way up almost made their owner fall backwards. Sebastian was sitting on a tree branch grinning at him.

Gilbert fell backwards onto the dusty path, staring at the man clad in black.

"Hello again, Gilbert." Sebastian said calmly. With ease he leaped out of the tree and landed in front of Gilbert. He gave a small bow, eyes locked with the other. After Gilbert had recovered from his shock, he scrambled to his feet, ignoring Sebastian's hand and reached for his gun. He pointed it directly at the red-eyed man's forehead. Hell, just because he knew that he wanted didn't mean Sebastian had to.

"Don't try to be civilized. I know what you are now." Gilbert growled, holding his finger to the trigger, ready to pull it at any given second. Sebastian laughed under his breath. He did not move away from the other, just continued to watch him through eyes that sparkled with amusement.

"And, what exactly am I, Gil?"

Gilbert's face twisted with rage. He pressed the gun harder into Sebastian's forehead. At this, Sebastian's eyes met as if he was trying to look at his forehead. He blew his hair out of his face and looked at Gilbert with one eyebrow raised.

"Don't you call me that!" The Nightray snarled. "You demon."

A smirk crept its way over Sebastian's features. He bowed again.

"Forgive me."

"Tsk." Slowly, Gilbert lowered the weapon. If Sebastian was going to hurt him he would have done it already. The gun would make no different what so ever. His eyes narrowed and looked away from the other's playful stare. Gilbert hated how those eyes made him feel like their owner could see down into is very soul and know every one of his secrets.

"So, what are you doing back here, Sebastian?" He asked in a low voice. He heard Sebastian let out a sigh… No, felt. Gilbert could feel Sebastian's hot breath on his face. Gilbert didn't flinch when the two of them were nose to nose. Nor did he move away when Sebastian bumped his head playfully against his.

"Always with the questions." He said with another chuckle. Gilbert's hands clenched into fits. His fingers twitched with Sebastian put a hand on his arm… an almost gentle touch.

"Don't." But Gilbert knew that he didn't sound very convincing.

"Hmm?" He felt a hand under his chin and force his face upward. One of Sebastian's arms had wound its way around his waist. Nose to nose; chest to chest. Sebastian still had that same cocky grin on his face. Gilbert had a sudden urge to kiss him, to wipe that look of his face and for it to be replaced by surprise. He hated himself for it, but he new better than to deny the truth. He had learned that much over the years. The truth: If it weren't for his master, he would probably hopelessly in love with this man, this monster from hell.