Rain-soaked and chilled to the bone, thirty-five-year-old Jade Curtiss, the feared Necromancer of Malkuth, made his way across the mountainous landscape. His eyes were clearly focused upon the entrance of what would seem, to most, and endless cavern, the large rocks splitting directly at the middle and causing the structure to widen as it got closer to the ground. The feeling from what lay within was beyond ominous, now to the extreme of purely horrific.

The closer he neared his destination, the more Jade would bristle, his body's way of trying to suppress the growing sensation that bubbled in the pit of his stomach. He didn't like being here, not even the least, yet little choice did he have but to press onward in hopes of getting through his daunting task.

Ever since Nebilim had passed away because of his seventh fonon experiment, h e took it upon himself to be the sole guardian of her resting place… or at least the resting place of her violent, heartless replica. Her creation was a mistake, as he had been selfish at the time he underwent the tests, Saphir diligently working at his side. The two of them together had pledged to revive their beloved teacher through the methods of fomicry, the heavy consumption of seventh fonons in order to create a desired subject. Thanks to Jade's brilliant mind and Saphir's expert mechanics, the experiment was a success and Professor Nebilim was reborn; both Jade and Saphir had been delighted in seeing the finished project… but soon they found out that it was much too early to be rejoicing.

The two of them had nearly been obliterated by the masterful artes that Nebilim casted, one right after the other with little to no effort at all. It was at that point when Jade realized that what they had done was not only a breakthrough in scientific discovery, but a devastating mistake.

Saphir, on the other hand, was thrilled at the replica's tactful prowess, pledging to fix the minor 'problems' within her structure for reasons of his own. Jade had forbid any further research to be conducted on the project, but the other was quite reluctant to follow up on the orders, later rejecting the idea completely and running away with every last document of their tests, not to mention the Professor's life data as well.

That was the last Jade had seen of his companion, Saphir, until some twenty years later.

Recalling the dreadful memories of his past, the Necromancer shuddered as he entered the resting place of his beloved Professor, immediately cringing upon the sight of the faded fonic glyph. The rings and lines remained, but sections had worn off over the few years that had passed after Luke and his party had struck down the malevolent replica, banishing her back into the planetary arc for the rest of eternity. Dist, Saphir's new name for himself, (though fully he said he had become the elegant and beautiful "Dist the Rose". All of the other generals, and even the townspeople referred to him as "Dist the Reaper" instead. Even Jade had a different name for him than either one of those.) had been present at the time of Nebilim's return from The Abyss, though the professor had effortlessly struck him down with a single blast, making the mechanical genius appear to be dead. (Jade and the others later found him to be quite alright, much to the colonel's dismay.) Dist was later arrested in Grand Chokmah1 and put under 24/7 surveillance by the Malkuth military. Jade wanted to rest assured that he would never have to encounter Saphir again, mostly for the fact that the sight of his paled face would stir up the old memories once more.

Unfortunately and predictably enough,… that was the exact reason he was out here in the middle of a vast snow land;

Saphir was missing.

… Again.

After encountering him here last time, it was the first place that came to the Necromancer's mind, and he was more than certain that he was correct; this was mot likely where Dist was hiding.

Besides the roaring of the wind that caused a sharp whistle to ring throughout the cavern, his footsteps were all that he could hear as he moved deeper and deeper, breaching the first inner rings of the structure. Even though the remains of the withered glyph were still intact, Jade sensed that another presence was prowling around the premises. Stopping in the middle of the old rune, his crimsons flickered around for any signs of slight movement, and in the bottom left corner of the area, he could have sworn that he saw something tall stir.

"… You can come out, Dist." Jade sighed and let his hand drift upwards toward the bulge of his forehead, digits betwixing between the surface of his skin and his golden mane. "I know you're here."

As he expected, there was no reply at all.

"Dist…"

"…"

"It's obvious you're here when you've left your armchair in plain sight… Saphir."

The mentioned chair suddenly jerked, realizing that it was noticeable, as if it had almost forgotten to conceal itself at some point. It spun around absurdly for a few moments, almost in a maddening manner before it zipped off to the corner where the outlining of a man sat slumped against the cavern wall.

"You're as sharp as ever, Jade the Necromancer," came the familiar, sneering voice from afar; a pair of intoxicating violets appeared to rest upon the colonel's body in a mocking manner. "I see that I was right not to doubt your superb sight."

"Dist the Runny…" Jade tried to blink as casually as he could, letting his gloved digits slide into the insides of his military uniform. "It seems that I was correct in remembering how large your sense of idiocy is; you have no more brain cells than a rappig."

And the usual response…

"ROSE!! WHY CAN'T YOU EVER GET IT RIGHT?!" Dist screamed at the top of his lungs and rose to his feet, his veins bulging forth from his forehead to the point where they appeared as if they were going to explode.

The Necromancer continued to remain expressionless. All throughout the god-general's outburst, he began to pace about the area, still looking for anything out of the ordinary. Upon further inspection, he noticed a pillow along with a pile of old linen bed sheets and rags laying not to far from where Dist stood. Jade frowned. The fact that these types of things were way out here meant Dist had temporarily 'moved in,' surviving in the hollow abyss for at least five days. There were no traces of food anywhere, and that worried the colonel; no wonder Dist seemed so skinny.

"Dist… have you been eating anything while you were out here?" he finally questioned as he turned to the god-general.

"-N'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD GO TO SUCH EXTREMES-…! Huh? Food?" Dist paused in mid-rant. "Why?"

"You've been out here for at least five days. Have you consumed any solids since you escaped from Grand Chokmah?"

"...No." Knowing it was better not to lie to someone like Jade, Dist replied with the truth. He was very careful now, not to mention worried as he sensed that Jade was up to something. The colonel simply took a few steps closer. Eyes met in a silent clash, violet orbs rising up to melt into sweet claret, both men unblinking as Jade came to a complete stop in front of the mechanical genius.

"J-Jade, why are you looking at me like that?" Dist cowered a bit under the mindful stare, looking quite terrified for himself. That look in the other's eyes could only mean one thing, something that he tended to feel quite often as a small child: lots and lots of pain.

Gloved fingers pushed up Dist's black overcoat, brushing down the unmistakable rib bones in a sneaky manner tat only the Necromancer could ever pull off. It seemed to Dist that what was going on was undoubtedly...

"… EWW!!" The god-general shoved the man away from him suddenly, making a horrid face as he backed into the wall behind him. "GROSS, JADE!! QUIT MOLESTING ME!!"

"I wasn't." Jade appeared more than calm.

"You totally were!"

"I was identifying the state of your abdomen; the fact I can clearly distinguish where your ribs are tells me that you're suffering from malnutrition, Dist. You've been refusing the food the Malkuth Military has been providing you with, haven't you?"

"…"

"That's what I thought. You know, if you continue to neglect the food they give you, then you'll end up even more shriveled than a prune… and that just wouldn't look appropriate for a god-general," Jade continued to muse out loud, intent of keeping Dist's attention where it was now. The man could never do a very god job of sitting still when he wanted him to.

The other glared harshly at him. "I refuse to eat that stuff because I know what you've done to it! If I even take a single bite from one of those pork ribs, I'll die a horrid and wretched death by poison!""

"Dist, I wish to provide you with the best of-"

"DON'T TRY AND LIE TO ME!! I know what it is that you scheme of doing in the middle of the night; I can see that notorious smirk on your lips, the undying embers in your eyes! Those images haunt me while I lay dying in the cell that you've locked me up in! Jade, can you not see what you've made of me?! A frightened fool!" The mechanical god-general shook his fist in absolute rage, looking about ready to throw himself against the jagged rocks of the cavern in hopes of dissecting his life from his body. Jade could only keep still as the man advanced into his territory and got right up into his face, grabbing him by the collar and attempting to lift him off his feet. He blinked.

A death-defying glare was roaring up in Dist's eyes, one that usually wasn't there. "And what do you know, you continued to make fun of me even after you left for the Malkuth Military! I tried so hard to get your attention by attempting to revive Professor Nebilim, but even then, you pretended that I wasn't there! Why, why does it have to be like this, Jade?!"

The questioned man sighed slightly in the other's face, letting the small warmth of his exhalation brush away a few strands of snow white hair. "Saphir… You understand why I forbid further research on the resurrection of the Professor-"

"But if I continued it, at least you would look at me, maybe think about me once in a while! All I wanted was for you to be happy, Jade, so I thought bringing back the Professor would bring a light into your eyes…" He would look away fore a moment. "It only seemed to darken them further…"

"That it did…" Tilting his head up towards the endless ceiling of the abyss, Jade let a cold gust of air rustle his golden locks, easily tousling them with their frigid breath. He had to weave an arm around Dist to continue the habit of pushing up his glasses when he was thinking deeply.

"You know…" Dist looked back up into his eyes as the necromancer spoke up again, "you always did seem to have a strange obsession with doing things that made no sense. Like, for instance, the time when you brought one of his Majesty's rappigs to school and claimed it could count when it obviously couldn't."

"But it could cou-"

"I understand a lot of things, Saphir, some of them just happen to be on a catastrophical scale; the issue that we faced with the miasma and lowering the Outer Lands is a prime example. I can learn artes that no other fonist could ever attain, and I can even read the minds of those around me when they try so desperately hard to hide it.

"Yet there is one thing that even I cannot understand; your continuous striving towards something and the thoughts that propel it. Tell me… You know what odds are against you in whatever quest you wander. Why bother trying?"

After a dreaded moment of silence between the two high-ranked men, Dist's digits began to shake and he was soon forced to release Jade's now ruffled collar.

"It's been twenty-nine years," the snow-haired god-general began, doing his best to keep his body from buckling, "twenty-nine years since I first laid eyes on you. I thought I could have, for once, someone I could talk to; someone I could grow up and share fond memories with, just like all the other children in Ketterburg. The Professor always thought you were so smart, the way you could snap your fingers and know the answer to an algebra problem at the mere age of six. I mean, you were so… so special. Brilliant. And then there was me, sitting at the back of the classroom with my toolbox and the rest of my tinkering equipment."

Dist began to back away at this point, though he stopped once he had made at least three feet between them. "Your sister, Nephry… she was the only one that was ever nice to me. When I got stuck, she tried to help me in whatever way she could. There would be times where I stood freezing in the snow while all the other children ran around in their warm coats, mittens, and boots… She would give her coat to me and tell me to go play with them. With the other children. You don't know how much I longed to frolic out there with everyone else… but most of all, I wanted to watch you while you sat on the swing by yourself, furiously scribbling mad designs and mathematical problems out onto a piece of scratch paper. Perhaps I saw in you something I saw in myself, like a desire to find your missing piece. Haven't you ever felt that no matter what you did, there was still something absent in your life?"

"Well, I suppose if you p-"

"But even when I did finally manage to work up the courage to confront you, you used me as your… your punching bag! When something wasn't right, it was always 'beat up Saphir' or 'shove Saphir off a hill' or even 'crack the ice while Saphir is skating on it'-"

"Dist, you know that at the time, you were out of control with your momentum and if I didn't stop yo-"

"-And in the end, I never did have any real friends! The kind of friends that I could hang with after school released, the kind that were there for me when I had no one left to turn to. At least you had the Professor, Jade-"

The Malkuth officer blinked when he looked into the violet orbs of the god-general, watching in mild astonishment as the crystalline drops began to slither down the pale cheeks and off the edge of Dist's chin.

"-but even after nearly thirty years, I still have no one at all!"

~End of Part One

"Ah… Dist…" Wondering what on Auldrant he was supposed to do now, Jade slipped a few fingers behind his head and began to rub in an absent manner. He had somehow managed to place himself in a very awkward position, and now he was at a blockade where he wasn't quite sure how to wriggle himself out of it. The more he looked at the mechanic, the more he felt the urge to stride over and smack the man upside the head for acting like such a sniveling brat… but for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Not this time.

Allowing his fingers to fall back to his side, Jade drew out the one hand that had remained motionless in his coat pocket, and slowly reached out to place a comforting touch on Saphir' shoulder. Just as his digits were about to meet the shivering fabric of the old black overcoat, his hand was firmly grabbed and he once again met the tear-filled gaze of his old friend.

"You think you can just make it all better by patting me on the back?!" came the undertone growl, followed by more of a snarl. "You can't erase twenty-nine years of pain, Jade! You can't erase twenty-nine years of loneliness! Twenty-nine years of having no one to believe in you or for you to believe in! It's been me, still me, and always me!"

Jade knew the other was right. Nothing he did now could make up for the several beatings he had cast upon Saphir, nor could it wipe away all of the tears that had fallen asunder from the pair of violet eyes. Jade's brows furrowed in semi-pain, and he knew what kind of suffering he had inflicted upon the other man throughout the years, only wishing that he had been someone else… someone who could have gathered the other up in his arms and suppressed all of the sorrow.

But he was Jade Curtiss… Jade Balfour. He wasn't the kind of man who could do those things, thus with a resolved sigh, he took one final step forward and let his fingers lace with Dist's.

"Forgive me… Saphir." Eyes widened as Dist felt a warm breath wash over his cheek and finally, the tingling touch of another mouth on his own. The first instinct would have been to violently push the Necromancer away, but he hadn't realized that he had allowed himself to be backed into the opposite wall of the cavern. He no longer had a place to run and was once again at the man's mercy.

He was certain something like this wasn't one of the frequent results of their tussles(sp), though.

A gasp emitted from amongst the quivering sobs and occurring chokes, Jade gently bringing up his other hand to slip underneath the man's chin and down the smooth expansion of his neck. A continuous cycle began with these motions, seeking to quell the bubbling hiccups and other sorrowful sounds. Dist shut his eyes tight and focused on not trying to cry in front of Jade, especially as the other was seeming to get closer and closer to him, causing small shivers to rack his body in… was it excitement? He didn't know anymore.

"Jade…" the mechanic choked again and broke the lip lock as he put a hand on the colonel's chest, gently trying to push him away, yet his hand was so busy shaking that it had little strength left in it. Jade's hand, the one that had been gently caressing Dist's throat, came down and covered it, giving it what warmth it could through the expansion of his palm. When their eyes met again, Jade seemed almost sympathetic, allowing the mechanic to search the depths of the rich crimson for whatever it was the other sought.

Jade tried his best to smile and opened his mouth to say something to his childhood companion, but several years of his cold demeanor issued no words of compassion from his mouth, thus he shut it with a frown. He untangled his fingers that were interlocked with Dist's and let them rise farther up, taking a loose hold of the large spectacles and slowly removing them from the mechanic's face.

"I can't ask for a whole lot from you…" he finally managed to say with much effort, watching those two orbs of violet quiver and observe him in such a way that made him want to kiss all the pain away, to smooth the many wrinkles caused by trauma, "and I doubt you'd freely give it to me, but I believe…"

Jade seemed to pause in mid-speech, mulling over the words in his head before he smiled and let his head rest next to Saphir's. "… I believe we can start over. What do you think?"

"W-what? What are you talking abou-" Dist's eyes flared in anger and he attempted to once again push the other away when he was suddenly smothered by the colonel, thus a battle of dominance stirred between the two men with Jade obviously gaining the upper hand. The snow-haired general struggled to somehow get his hands on any part of Jade he could, but as soon as he nicked the edge of the colonel's ear with his forefinger, the other instantly dropped the pair of round spectacles and tightly wrapped his arms around the mechanic's midsection. Leaning backwards, Jade smirked as he pulled Dist to the ground and caused them to become overly tangled, his own back hitting the pile of linen in the corner. When he looked to see the reaction in the other's eyes, he was surprised to see Saphir with an arm on either side on his head, bearing down on him like a wolf.

"You call this 'starting over', Jade?" The scientist growled between his teeth as he drew their faces closer, causing Jade to shiver involuntarily as he felt the other's breath wash over his features. "This is more like a child's game!"

Jade allowed a deep chuckle to resonate within his throat, only making Saphir seem more annoyed with him. "My dear Saphir… if we are to start over, we must put ourselves in the minds of children. To play, to laugh, to cry… it's all something we experience in our childhood. I just hope that your nose doesn't start to run and drip on m-"

With another snarl, Saphir raised a hand in preparation to smash Jade's face in, but with a simple flip of his body, Jade laughed and sent the two of them rolling across the expansion of the cavern once again. The two of them spun and turned in almost every possible direction, many of Saphir's protests and yelps ensuing when the man couldn't get any sort of control over the necromancer. Jade was taller than him by four inches and slightly heavier as well, so every time the mechanic would attempt to pin the other underneath him, Jade would simply push upwards and flip them over again, making Dist even angrier than before.

After a few more minutes of rolling around, Saphir huffed as he looked up into the crimsons of his former enemy who was beaming down upon his face with an amused look. "I give up…"

Another laugh slipped past the colonel's lips. "Haha, it seems so. I would have thought you to put up more of a fight than that though, Saphir. It appears you've proved me wrong."

"Tch…" A blush spread across Dist's pale cheeks, the man turning his head so he could look away, but noticed that underneath his body lay the old tattered ruins of the faded glyph that had lived deep in the cavern for years. Violets widened immensely.

Jade noticed the change of expression, smirking to himself as he began to summon up a small amount of wind fonons to press the other's wrists into the stone floor, or to at least keep them in place as he sat up in a straddled position. He brought a hand to his mouth, taking the tip of his glove between his teeth and slowly pulling it off as he waiting for a reaction from the scientist.

"… W-what are you doing?! Hey! Jade! Y… You're not going to seal me away, are you?! TRAITOR!!"

"No, of course not," mused the necromancer as he cast the discarded glove to the side, soon beginning to work on the other. Soon after he made away with it, he sat back a ways to begin work on his long boots that stretched up to the thighs, allowing a small sigh to escape him as he pulled them off and cast them aside as well.

The other's actions began to worry Saphir, as he knew that half of the time, whatever Jade said was a lie. The few times that the man's words were true were when something horrid was going to happen to the mechanic, such as the ever so popular game of 'Beat up Saphir'. Back when they were children, that was the game everyone loved to play at recess.

Jade caught the smaller genius' expression, his own softening slightly as he pulled the belt embroidered with Pacman out of its secure loop. "Relax. If you would just learn to be a little more lenient, Saphir, perhaps things wouldn't be so painful. It will also be less stressful on your body."

"Don't preach to me, you conniving snake!" Dist pouted, still refusing to meet Jade's eyes, yet his body still tensed at the thought of what the man was preparing for. His gloved fingers were coiling and relaxing, repeatedly tensing up as he sought to free his wrists from their containment. The poor man didn't know whether he was supposed to be thrilled or scared out of his wits.

"Saphir…"

The mechanic slowly raised his eyes up to gaze upon the other… only to find him fully unclothed and grinning like the Cheshire Cat, sending his heart into a stilled phase as, on cue, his violet hues began to drift from Jade's face down to his chiseled chest, past the toned abdomen and into the dip of his naval. As they pried even lower, Dist's face began to glow a shade of red to match Jade's own orbs of crimson upon meeting what lay between the necromancer's spread legs.

"L-Lorelei, save me…" He gulped and shut his eyes tight. The white-haired general could feel what was coming as he distinguished through his senses a pair of hands beginning to work on his shirt. Ivory-gloved digits began to curl as Dist again began to fight against his bonds, although deep down inside, he knew there was no way to avoid this…

… And truly, he wanted this. It wasn't something he would admit to anyone, but he knew it to be true.

"I don't see the need to look away, Saphir. What's there to be afraid of seeing?" Jade's voice lingered in his ears, causing the other to whimper.

"… I hate you, Jade."

"Mhm…"

Slowly allowing his eyes to reopen, the God-General gawked as he now found his own body unclothed, save for his gloves. As he looked about to search for where his clothing had gone, his chin was captured by Jade's fingers and forced back to meet the two ruby wonders, the supple lips that curled in amusement… he could have sworn he was being mocked again.

"Saphir… I must ask that you prepare yourself."

The scientist frowned darkly as he opened his mouth to protest. "Pfft! How can you say such a thing whe-"

The first digit entered.

Cringing, Saphir's gaze trailed off to the side for at least the fourth time as he bit back a groan, doing his very best to subdue the pain that intruded his nimble body.

"… Does it hurt?" Jade looked down on him with concern.

"It hurts like hell, Jade!" Dist looked about ready to kick the man. "You could have… could have used lubricant or something before doing that…"

Feigning sudden enlightenment, the Malkuth colonel nodded, "Oooh, right. I had forgotten all about that. I'm sorry."

"…" Dist's face started to turn from red with arousal to purple with rage, only causing Jade to smirk even more.

"My, you get angered so easily, Saphir." Pulling his finger out of the other's entrance, he reached over for the abandoned azure uniform and groped inside one of the pockets, smiling in triumph as his hand closed about a small tube. He uncapped it and squeezed a bit of the gel onto his fingertips, even going as far as to slowly spread the oily substance just to make Dist grit his teeth in irritation.

The mechanic watched with hazy eyes as the finger poked at his entrance and sunk in much easier than the first attempt, this time causing him to groan softly in encouragement as he tried to press Jade's digit further into him. This gained a grin from the honey-haired necromancer who easily complied, letting Dist do most of the work as he allowed his finger to be ridden with such passion.

"We seem rather eager… I thought you were protesting just a minute ago," Jade mused, Dist only replying with a growl as he pointed a gloved digit at the colonel.

"S-shut up and get on with it."

"… If you insist." Jade complied and added a second, briefly performing a scissoring motion to stretch the scientist in preparation for what was to come, eliciting another deep groan. Even though the other felt an ebb of pain, Saphir refused to show it on his features, instead nodding for his childhood companion to add a third to quicken the process.

"Ouch…" Saphir's eye twitched as he tried not to focus on the squirming sensation that Jade was providing him with, but instead flexed his captive hands and watched them out of the corners of his eyes. Every time the necromancer pushed farther into him, he either made some sort of whimpering noise or squawk, drawing forth a bemused grin from the corners of Jade's lips.

Dist's occasional growls and groans soon turned into a series of rapid pants and cries as he tried to grasp anything he could within his limited reach, although the only thing he'd end up with was a handful of rock and dirt with an occasional ice chunk. He arched upwards, silently begging for Jade to hurry up like a deprived child begging for candy, eyes closing father with each passing second until they were shut in bliss.

… until he felt something moist press against the inner side of his thigh, causing his orbs of deep violet to shoot open to find the colonel nipping and licking the reddening flesh with a smirk that almost didn't fit his face.

"H-hey… hey! S-stop tha-aah.. Jaaaade…" He whined in protest as he wriggled his legs around, only to have the limbs be caught by Jade's free hand and forced back down to the ground as the fonic genius brought his head up momentarily to muse, "Keep that up and I'll bind those too, Saphir."

Blinking back a stinging set of tears, Saphir made a face at his old rival and looked away when Jade smiled and returned to his ministrations.

After moving his fingers around inside of the God-General and finding him prepared enough, Jade removed them and sighed, moving his body around a bit before he looked at the other's face. "Saphir, are you ready? This may hurt."

Much to Jade's surprise, the mechanic stifled a laugh. "Is the great Jade Curtiss the Necromancer worried? That's not like you at all."

"I thought that perhaps I would ask you before moving on, but apparently you don't care," shrugged the other before positioning himself between Saphir's legs, causing the flushing mechanic to blink before starting another round of protests.

"No, I didn't mean it like that, Jade! J-just give me a second so I can swallow my pri-- gah-HAH!!" A choke sounded in the middle of Saphir's rant as the necromancer gently pushed into him, careful not to hit the wrong spot or go too quickly as to draw blood from ripped tissue. He watched Dist's face the whole time, moving inch by inch until he was fully sheathed inside, even going as far as to bit his lip to prevent a groan from slipping out. He never remembered Dist being this… tight. This warm…

Saphir was already panting, beads of sweat forming across his forehead and causing the strands of snow white to plaster to it in an untidy fashion. "Jade…"

Looking a tad concerned, Jade slowly released the wind particles binding down the other's wrists. He carefully slipped his hands under Saphir's back and tipped him up before turning him over, making the mechanic blink in question as he was placed back down on his hands and knees.

"What… are you doing?" questioned the white-haired individual, looking back over his shoulder.

Jade slipped his torso over the backside facing him, arms situating themselves next to Saphir's already trembling ones. "This way, you won't experience as much pain when I push."

Dist seemed to understand, mulling this over inside his head before he broke into a soft smile and nodded, signaling he was ready. Complying without hesitation, the colonel slowly pulled out of the other before sinking back in. A steady rhythm was created between the two already-panting men, the colonel pulling up a hand to start at the base of Saphir's neck and trailing down the soft expansion of his chest. Saphir breathed a moan as he pushed back into the other and grinded his hips back against the sweating brunette, begging for a deeper sensation that was soon granted.

Allowing his hand to continue roaming aimlessly across the God-General's chest, Jade let his cheek rest on the slick backside of the one before him and exhaled as controllably as he could. It was highly unlike him to get excited over something, particularly anything to do with his childhood companion, yet… his friendship with Luke had changed him into someone else. They had taught each other valuable lessons, and that in turn had caused Jade to realize just how important it was to both him and Saphir that their companionship stay intact.

Dist's moan filled his ears as he felt inner muscles tighten around his now throbbing member with every thrust, bringing forth a sweet ecstasy that welled and bubbled within his being. He let forth a small smile as he dashed his tongue out to wipe across one of Saphir's shoulder blades. In response, the mechanic shuddered and nearly collapsed, only managing to hold himself up with Jade's support.

"D-dear Lorelei… Jade…" Dist's head reclined a tad when a finger delicately brushed against a hardened nipple. "Ugh…"

The more time began to progress, the more filled the two men became as their pants grew more ragged, arms trembling alongside one another. Saphir's eyes had shut in bliss as he rocked back against the one behind him, occasionally grinding their hips together in attempt to get some sort of reaction out of Jade. He was, once in a while, rewarded with a shuddering moan and a greater thrust of the pelvis when the necromancer finally took a hold of Saphir's erection within his digits.

"Tch…!" Tensing up as if he were about to receive a blow across the face, Dist whimpered before letting out a strangled cry, completely emptying himself onto the glyph beneath him as well as Jade's hand. The cycle continued in proper order, and the mechanic's inner muscles tightened considerably around Jade, soon sending him into a pleasurable abyss alongside his companion as the two of them sunk to the floor in defeat.

Moments of pure silence ensued, save for the dull whistle of the wind as it trailed in and out of the cold cavern like a slinking fox.

"…. Jade?"

A pause.

"Yes, Saphir?"

Rolling over onto his back underneath the stirring colonel, Dist slowly looked up into the hazy crimsons that dawned upon his face. "… Jade, are you the person I know?"

"What kind of question is that?" He tilted his head.

"Well," Dist paused before raising a finger to touch the man's cheek, still rather cautious despite his caress being extremely sweet, "you seem different. Why did you come to find me? I'm quite sure that it wasn't to do something like this."

The brunette put on a thoughtful expression at the other's words, thinking his response over before he replied with a smile, "Because I can."

"… Jade-"

"Saphir, even if I did tell you, I highly doubt you would be able to comprehend it."

As he opened his mouth to protest, Saphir propped himself up on his elbows and raised a finger, only to have his mouth covered as the colonel continued, "I'll tell you this. I didn't say all of those things just to make you stop your blabbering."

The violets blinked in confusion before they widened considerably, Saphir's mouth slightly agape as he exclaimed in wonder, "Y-you really do care…?"

Jade smiled again and descended to capture the general in a chastise kiss, lingering in the position for several moments before me murmured against the man's lips, "Saphir… come back with me. You can take residence within my mansion and-"

But he never got to finish his sentence as Dist profoundly tackled him back to the floor with tears in his eyes, holding the astonished individual close to him as he openly wept. His sobs were those of a happy man, almost unbelieving of what he was being told. All that Jade could do was keep his soft smile as he wrapped his arms around the shaking scientist.

"J-Jade… it's really y-you… m-my Jade… my Jade…" Saphir shook his head in disbelief as he buried his face into Jade's chest.

Whispering comforting words into his ear, Jade pulled his jacket over to them and wrapped it about them both.

"My Jade… you… my…"

"Shhh…" He stood up with Saphir clinging to him, glancing down upon the glyph before tilting his head towards the seemingly endless roof of the cave, grinning at it as if someone was there watching him.

Professor Nebilim… I hope I've turned to the right path now.

And as if in response, an icicle twinkled upon the abyss' canopy as a voice far off answered him;

Jade… you've done well, my beloved student. Next time… don't do something like that on my glyph.

~Fin

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