Unimportant Author's Note of the Abyss

Well it's really rare for me to write, but because someone got me hooked on the 'Tales of' Fandom I watched Tales of the Abyss [Anime]. Of course Tear would be my favorite (couldn't reists these beautiful...eyes *cough*. I'm gonna keep this AN short, mostly because it's really just unimportant stuff. This Two-Shot (it actually was supposed to be a One-Shot, but I lost my ideas within 7 hours of sleep after staying up til 5 a.m.) is dedicated to my dear Imouto, Honigkuchnpony - though, I call her Dia-chan - she is a huge LukeTear fan (and she likes zeroshii) so I just started to write. I might do another Short with Tear/Luke because I kinda got an idea after reading the available titles for Tear in the PS2 Game ('Proud Maid'...some cruel visions have flooded my mind..). So much for keeping it short.

R&R, I like Feedback and constructive criticism. Please point out any sort of mistake you might find, I'll correct it (I don't have a beta-reader, so mistakes might appear). On a further note, English is not my first language - German is.

PS: It might be even more shocking for me to write Hetero, cuz I'm a die-hard Yuri-Shipper (jep, I'd ship Tear with every female..)

It's been one year since Luke returned from the Abyss and life went back to normal – if you could call it that. At least he wasn't confined in the manor anymore, so he could do what he wanted. It was, of course, not in his intention to get talked into a get-together with his friends, but his dear mother insisted on inviting them over – with the maids gladly preparing everything. Now here he was, sitting under a tall tree to try and keep away from the blazing sun. The invitations were sent a few days ago, so it would only be a matter of time until everyone arrived. Everyone. That included the Replica of Ion, Florian, and Anise. Jade, Guy and Natalia, though the latter two he saw on a regular basis, seeing as Natalia found it very funny to annoy of Guy's persistent fear of women – at least he made improvements. Tear would surely come as well, Luke hoped - they had some sort of bond after all. But what if, Tear had some important business to attend to? Would she still come? Or would she leave a message that said she couldn't because of 'more important matters'?

Sighing, Luke leaned back into the tree, the wooden structure barely noticeable through his clothing. Deep in thought he didn't notice someone sneaking up on him.

"What are you sighing about, Luke?" Asked a familiar male voice. The red-head nearly jumped up and looked at the source of voice. "Guy!" He said happily and stood up, with the help of his friend.

"Nothing really..."

"About nothing? Does this 'nothing' include a certain Seventh Fonist?" Guy said with a smirk playing on his lips as he saw his best friends face turn a few shades darker – a prominent blush on the Duke's son. Guy laughed it off, Luke's embarrassed yell of denial was ignored and the blond man wondered how someone like Luke could be so thick-headed sometimes. Guy knew of the crush his friend had on the younger girl – it wasn't like Luke was good at hiding something like that – so it was a typical reaction to tease him about it.

Since Guy arrived remotely early, it was only a matter of time until the others arrived as well. Actually, scratch that, Luke could already hear familiar sarcastic remarks as he went to the great hall with Guy at his side.

Upon arrival he saw Jade, Anise, Florian and a somewhat annoyed Natalia standing there, talking and waiting at the same time. Just before the young Fon Fabre could even say anything that resembled a 'warm and hearty welcome' he was beat to it however as the blond princess pointed a glove-clad finger at him.

"How dare you make me wait! Don't you know who I am?" Though, the small but spreading smile did nothing but reduce the harsh comment as she hugged Luke and Guy, who was more than uncomfortable of the close proximity.

"He seems to be enjoying himself." Was heard from the sidelines – or rather behind them – as Jade fixed his glasses. Anise snickered slightly and looked at Guy, who pretty much hid behind Luke as Natalia let go of them.

Luke greeted each of them with a smile, but stopped short as he noticed that someone was still missing. "Tear's not with you?" Indeed the young woman was very much absent, much to his dismay.

"Missing your lover already?" came the sarcastic remark from Jade, though, without the ever present smile of his, the red-haired man didn't know if he should deny the 'lover' part or just ignore it for now.

Anise just shook her head at the Colonel and looked at Luke, "She said she needed to do something before meeting you. Didn't say much after that." So at least she was present. Sighing in relieve he shot Jade a glare, which did go by unnoticed and motioned for the group to follow him to the Dining hall.

Entering the large room with some bickering on Guy's and Anise's part, Luke didn't really think he would see Tear talking with his mother. Actually it seemed like casual chit-chat to him, because of the present smile on his mother's face.

Upon hearing the door closing, the young woman known as Tear Grants to her friends stood up to greet Luke (and Guy, of course). Apparently neither of them thought much ahead, now that they stood in front of each other. So it was very natural of Guy and Natalia to facepalm, for Anise to sigh loudly and for Jade to utter something about 'tension' – he refrained from using any sort of informal language in front of Florian and Lady Susanne Fon Fabre. Due to that the two individual Seventh Fonists did not do much but shake hands, and blush. Blush they did quite a lot. It made Lady Susanne laugh to see her son's embarrassed face without as much of a cause but Tear standing there.

Speaking of her, she wasn't quite sure what to do either – which was new, because being a soldier for such a long time just made you think about everything. It took a lot out of the blond princess behind them not to push Luke onto Tear, so they would at least hug instead of robotically shake hands. But because she was not as much as a princess as the young woman next to her, Anise decided to take matters into her own hands.

Silently creeping up behind Guy she glomped him, which caused him the jump forward and (un)expectantly shove Luke. The young red-head did, of course, not think something like that might happen and stumbled forward as well. The only thing different was the young woman in front of him. What Anise didn't count in on her scheme however was the training Tear had undergone in her earlier days. So the next thing Luke saw was the grey floor, instead of a very embarrassed brown-haired beauty that could have cushioned his fall. But said beauty avoided the 'danger' as she simply side-stepped Luke, much to Anise's chagrin. Tear managed to avoid the most basic cliché from happening. That was like bending…the Score! (1)

Luke sat up carefully rubbing his nose. Tear, after realizing what happened, bent down to him and looked at his minor injury. Quickly healing the now blushing young man was a rather funny sight, Jade decided, and found that no remark would have been fit for the situation. In the background Natalia and Anise secretly high-fived, they got something out of it, after all. And Guy, well, he had Florian to comfort him.

After dining and talking about past experiences – mostly on Jade's and Tear's part, because of their work as soldiers – the group decided to go out and through Baticul. Of course due to Anise's further scheming to get two certain people to admit their feelings for another it so happened that the group parted after a short time in the city. The young pig-tailed girl apparently looked for some books for Florian, Natalia decided to drag Guy with her for some shopping (she needed some advice after all, though, Guy wondered why she didn't want Tear with her, she was female after all) and Jade thought it was alright to go without even mentioning where to. This left Tear and Luke as a two-man group to roam the city of Baticul.

"This seems oddly set-up..." The brown-haired woman uttered under her breath. Luckily Luke didn't really notice that and looked around, as if to decide where he wanted to go. The red-head was interrupted by Tear shortly after as she took his arm and pulled him along, mostly to avoid the strange stares the both of them received.

"Let's go somewhere less crowded," she said and smiled slightly.

(1) Used as a metaphor, as the score offers more possibilities of events that might happen.

That was Part-One. Part two will follow soon.