Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of the Abyss or any of its properties.

Notes: This was written forever ago as a response to a prompt on tumblr. I've finally decided to update this account with something, though, and thought it this was still good enough to make it here.

Lessons Learned Too Late

1.) poison

"Brightly colored frogs are poisonous, you know."

"You could have told me that before," Luke grumbled, as Tear—looking as exasperated as one with a stoic face ever looked—healed his hand. Jade merely smiled a bit wider, and adjusted his glasses.

"With how confident you seemed in picking up random animals off the forest floor, I thought you already knew. I didn't want to challenge your expertise."

Luke glowered at him, but the expression was far more sulky than intimidating. Tear, having finished the treatment, pulled her hand away from Luke's.

"There," she said. "You should be all right now." Luke looked over at her, and managed what could have been a small smile.

"Thanks, Tear."

"You're welcome." She returned a ghost of a smile for just a moment before her expression became more stern. "Just make sure you're more careful in the future. And don't mouth off to the Colonel, either. He's only trying to help." With that, she stood up to go rejoin the girls, while Luke gaped.

"Trying to help? He saw me with that frog in the first place! I—you—!" Tear continued walking, and Luke—looking more pouty and sulky than ever—rounded on Jade. "Next time, just tell me in advance not to pick up the stupid frog, okay?"

"You think you're going to pick up the frog again in the future? My, my, Luke. I didn't think you were that much of a slow learner." Jade smirked as Luke's scowl became even more pronounced. "Don't worry. We should be in this forest for another day or so yet, so that gives us plenty of time to learn everything we need to know about the local fauna." Luke's scowl lessened, but a frown remained.

"Thanks, Jade. . . . I think."

2.) ancient ispanian

"Here."

Luke looked up to see that Jade was holding a small, leather-bound book out to him. Curious, Luke took it, and when he examined it, he saw that it was an Ancient Ispanian dictionary. "A dictionary?"

"It isn't a comprehensive guide, but it should still help you learn the language," Jade explained. Luke frowned, and his shoulders slumped.

"What's the point? I already screwed up the hint Lorelei gave us about Master Van's return. Even if I do learn this now, what good will it do?"

"Ignorance itself is not something to detest, but willful ignorance is," Jade said, and Luke looked up in mild confusion. "You made one mistake, but learning from that mistake may prevent you from making more in the future." With that, Jade turned and walked away, and Luke looked back down at the dictionary. After a moment, he smiled.

"Yeah. Thanks, Jade."

3.) quicksand

"That's the third time this month you've almost died. I'm beginning to think you're developing a talent."

"Shut up, Jade."

Luke was lying flat on his back on the desert sands, muck all over his clothes from the quicksand pit Jade had just dragged him out of. Luke hadn't even seen it coming; the rest of the group had gotten caught up with monsters, and Luke—desperate to help them fend the beasts off—had rushed forward to help. Unfortunately, there was a quicksand pit just big enough for him to get stuck in, and his panicked flailing had done nothing but make the situation worse.

"Lying there isn't going to help your situation, you know," Jade said mildly, and Luke opened one eye to stare up at him. "You'll want to remove your clothes to shake the loose water and dirt free of them. You'll end up with rashes otherwise."

"Tch." It took some effort, but Luke pushed himself to his feet, despite the fact that he felt like doing nothing more than just dropping back down to the ground. "How is there even quicksand here, anyway? I thought quicksand needed water."

"Why Luke, I'm impressed you knew that." Luke shot him a glare, but Jade continued on in a more serious tone. "Dig far enough in any area of the desert and you're sure to hit water eventually. Sometimes the water is close enough to the surface to merge with the sand and create quicksand. It's impossible to tell where this will occur, but it is one of the reasons it's typically advised for travelers to be cautious when traveling in the desert."

"Yeah. I'll keep that in mind, next time." Luke dropped his coat to the ground and stripped off his shirt, shaking it roughly before he dropped it, as well, and started taking off his boots. By this time, the rest of their group had dispatched of the monsters and came over to join them, Guy jogging a little bit ahead.

"Luke! Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Jade helped me out." Luke shook the sand and dirt out of one boot and then the other, tossing them to the side to join the quickly growing pile. Anise started grinning as Luke began unbuckling his pants, while Tear looked away as her face turned red and Natalia clapped a hand over her mouth. "Hey, could I borrow some of your clothes until we get to the oasis?"

"Sure, but they might be a bit big on you, given how short you are." Luke scowled at him as Guy began to go through his pack, and Natalia finally found her voice.

"Luke! It's improper for a noble gentleman to strip in public—in front of ladies, no less! Really, couldn't you have waited until we reached the inn?"

"Natalia, I almost just died in quicksand. Give me a break," Luke grumbled, catching the pants that Guy threw at him. "Besides, Jade's the one who told me to do it. He said I could get a rash or something if I didn't change."

"Luke is correct," Jade affirmed, and Natalia huffed and folded her arms across her chest, looking away. Luke pulled on his borrowed pants, and as he did so, he grumbled:

"Though next time, he could give me warnings about quicksand before I fall in and almost drown. That would help."

Jade smirked. "Now, where would be the fun in that?" As Guy laughed (albeit a bit nervously), Luke rolled his eyes.

4.) hangover

"I think I'm gonna die."

"You'd better not let Natalia hear you talking like that. At least, not unless you want a lesson in proper grammar."

"Shut up, Jade."

Luke was sprawled on the floor of the room they had on Nam Cobanda Isle, a pillow held tightly over his head, his sweatpants and sleep shirt in a disarray. The room they were sharing didn't have a window (fortunately for him), but the lamp that Jade had lit still did enough to make Luke's head pound. Jade sighed, a smile tilting his lips, and said:

"Well, in any case, a simple hangover won't be enough to kill you. At least, it isn't in most cases."

"Most cases?" Luke lifted the pillow off his head to peer up at Jade, who smiled and nodded.

"Yes. There have been a few reports of hangovers proving lethal before. Aside from an influx of alcohol melting the intoxicated person's inner organs, there have been rare cases where the resulting headache caused the person's brain to rupture."

"You're lying."

"Oh no, I'm being completely honest." Jade's smile grew a little more wicked. "I had the honor of studying one of the corpses a few years ago. It was a rather grisly sight. I can recount it for you, if you'd like."

Luke crinkled his nose. "Pass. I might hurl if you do." He rolled over onto his back and pulled the pillow over his face, muffling his speech. "I'm going to die. I think I'm really going to die. Asch is going to have to take on Master Van himself, because I'm going to die."

Jade sighed, and walked over to the desk, pouring a glass of water from the canister sitting there. "Yes, you are going to die, but not from this," he said, adding a sprig of peppermint to the glass. He walked back over and nudged Luke's leg with his foot, causing Luke to remove the pillow and—upon seeing the glass of water—sit up. "This should help."

"Thanks." Luke took the glass and sipped at it, taking it slow to avoid causing himself to vomit. "What's the mint for?"

"Peppermint generally assists with hangovers, as does water. Of course, had you consumed plenty of water along with the alcohol last night, you wouldn't have a hangover now." Luke frowned.

"I didn't know I should drink water."

"I'm not surprised." As Luke made a face, Jade gestured to the glass. "Keep drinking. It'll help."

"Yeah, well, one thing's for sure," Luke said, though he did lift the water glass up to his lips to take another sip. "I'm never drinking with Noir or the other Dark Wings ever again."

Jade only smiled.

5.) trust and honesty

"Hey, Jade? Can I talk to you?"

Without waiting to see if it was all right, Luke hopped up on the bar stool beside him, prompting Jade to raise his eyebrows.

"I see no problem with it, though it is getting to be quite late. Children really ought to be heading to bed." Luke frowned, though the expression was more of a pout.

"It's not that late. Besides, Anise is still up. I passed her on the way in." Jade sighed and shook his head.

"What am I going to do with all of you youngsters? Well, I suppose your youthful energy will make up for your lack of sleep at Eldrant tomorrow. It's unfortunate that I can't rely on the same limitless energy reserve that you all can."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because you're so much older than the rest of us." Jade smirked, and took another drink from his glass. "Anyway, that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about. Eldrant, I mean." The tone of the conversation shifted, and Jade lowered his glass back to the bar with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh?"

"Yeah." Luke wasn't looking at him. Instead, he was looking at the bar, drawing a little circle on it with his finger. "I, uh . . . man, this is gonna sound so awkward. I don't even really know how to say it . . ."

"Words typically help," Jade said, but rather than responding to the jibe, Luke merely looked up and said:

"I wanted to say thank you."

The words took Jade by surprise. It wasn't the same sort of surprise that everyone experienced the first time Luke said thank you after Akzeriuth, but it was surprise nonetheless, because for Jade, it came out of left field. "For what?"

"For . . . you know. Everything." Luke looked back down at the counter, once again drawing a circle in it with his finger. "Or, well, not exactly everything, but—I used to trust Mas—Van, you know? I really believed in him. Everything he said, everything he did. I trusted him without a second thought—or even really a first thought. I took everything he said to heart."

"Yes, I know."

"But he lied to me." Luke looked back up again, meeting Jade's eyes. "Everything he ever told me was a lie. He lied to me about who I was, about what I was, about how much I could do, what I was supposed to do, and about what he thought about me. He never told me the truth, not once, and because of that he was never really there for me."

"Well, while I'm glad you've come to see this, I'm afraid I don't know what it has to do with me."

"You didn't." Luke spoke so quickly that he almost spoke over the end of Jade's sentence, doing his best to hold Jade's gaze even though he couldn't help but glance away a few more times. "Lie to me, I mean. You never lied to me. Yeah, you teased me sometimes, but you were still always honest with me, even if it meant that you acted like an obnoxious jerk." Jade smirked, and Luke grinned a little, too, before the smile faded into a more serious expression. "Even when we fought, you were still someone I could count on. Someone I could trust. Even when I broke your trust once, you still gave me a second chance to earn it back." Luke looked down at his knees. "I always thought Master Van was kind of like a—well, you know. But he wasn't." Luke looked back up at Jade. "You were, even if it took me a long time to realize it. And that's all I wanted to say." Luke quickly hopped off the stool and turned away, as though embarrassed, his hands in his pockets. "So . . . g'night, Jade. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good night, Luke." Luke turned and hurriedly made his way to the door, and as he exited, Jade motioned to the bartender. "I'll take another, thank you."

1.) the meaning of life

Most touted Jade as a genius. When he was younger, they called him a prodigy. But if there was something that anyone who knew him well could agree on, it was that no matter how advanced he was when it came to fonic technology, medicine, or just about any other intellectual pursuit, he was woefully ignorant when it came to basic human empathy.

Jade had simply never seen anything precious about life. Creatures lived, and then they died. It was a fact, not anything to celebrate or mourn. If one was your enemy on the battlefield, you were to slay that enemy. If a monster was killed, either for the purpose of battle or a scientific experiment, then the monster was killed. And while there were people that Jade cared about—his sister Nephry, for instance, or the emperor—he didn't feel overly concerned about the idea of their deaths. They would die someday, either before or after he did. Yes, he supposed he would miss them, but there was no reason to worry about it in the present. There was no point to it.

Needless to say, empathy had never been one of his strong suits. It unnerved some people, and blatantly frightened others. He supposed it was reasonable. His worldview didn't quite fit in with the rest of society, and people often feared or hated those that were different. If nothing else, people's reactions to replicas—birthed, fittingly enough, because of the technology that he'd created—proved that. But although he'd spent thirty-five years without utilizing any empathy, that didn't mean that he couldn't learn it, even if he didn't realize that he'd learned it until well after the fact.

It wasn't that his worldview was greatly changed. Jade still was, at his core, a pragmatist, especially when it came to combat. But after Van Grants was finally laid to rest and Luke fon Fabre followed shortly after, and he saw that replicas still didn't quite have a place in the world and were treated poorly by the rest of society, he found himself compelled to do something about it. Truly, though he had created fomicry, the replica problem was not his to sort out; it was something better left to the world leaders, as they were the ones with the power and resources to do something about it. Yet although it wasn't supposed to be his problem, and although he had more than enough responsibility to go back to, he still wanted to do something about it. He still needed to do something about it, and it became clear to him when he saw a group of adolescents in Grand Chokmah tormenting a trembling replica, using sticks and rocks to try and beat her further into submission than she already was.

He'd intervened before he'd realized that he was doing it, though it wasn't a thing he regretted doing.

Fomicry was his cross to bear. That was something that would never change. But one year ago, before he encountered Luke fon Fabre in Engeve, he wouldn't have been moved by the same . . . emotions that he was now, to help them. He would have requested something be done about the replicas out of shame and regret, rather than a desire to actually make their lives better for their sake. Jade had always cared about a select few people, and while he still couldn't say that his heart was open to all now, he could say that he saw the value in their lives—the worth. He might not love them, but he did believe that they were worth keeping alive, and that if they died, it should rightfully be seen as a tragedy.

And for that, he had Luke fon Fabre to thank.