Chapter 7

Fayt woke shortly before dawn. He blinked slowly still feeling the aches of the activities from earlier hours. He felt horrible and it wasn't limited to his physical being. Fayt was somewhat glad that days were thirty-six hours long on Elicoor. He rubbed a shoulder and rolled it to reduce the stiffness in it. However, upon standing, Fayt felt in desperate need of a bath. Not only to wash himself but to get the soreness out of his body.

Luckily, Fayt's room was connected to a bathroom and it had running water. It was one of the newer installments of the castle. As the water ran, Fayt carefully peeled the sticky clothing off his aching body. Finally, Fayt thought blissfully, feeling freed of his restraining clothes. He turned the water off and slowly eased into the tub with a groan caused by the hot water touching healing wounds. Fayt rested there with his head against the rim of the tub in silence.

Albel had been in his thoughts for a while. Lots of questions and vague trivial musings. However, it appeared now that Luther was gone and Fayt had all the time in the world to think. All the time to think what the hell happened. He shouldn't have expected more, but he couldn't help it. It was his first time and at first he thought maybe he had made a mistake. It hurt. A lot. Unbelievably so. Fayt thought that most likely, Albel had tested him to see if he would stay. After all, if Fayt truly wished it, he could've stopped Albel and left.

However, he didn't. No, he stayed and hoped that either it would get better or Albel would stop. Fayt snorted softly at the thought that he already knew the latter wasn't probable. When it did begin to feel good though, Fayt breathed out a sigh of relief and mentally entrusted his well being to Albel. The man had handled him roughly and Fayt didn't mind, but the sending off was... Cruel.

Fayt blinked back tears and sniffled again. He liked Albel and knew he couldn't be in denial anymore about what he wanted. He wanted to be with Albel but obviously the feelings weren't reciprocated. Albel was a warrior. One who didn't have time for romance or any of the trivial human emotions. All that mattered was the blood lust, the power, the dance of violence. Fayt shuddered from inner turmoil. He was a warrior with a heart. Albel was not. Of course they didn't mix.

Fayt let out a slow, controlled breath and began to wash himself. He thought of Sophia and her angry look before he had ran into Cliff. He wondered what was up with her. She seemed to be acting stranger and sometimes she wouldn't let him out of her sight. Maybe she did like him. Cliff had... Cliff. How would he face Cliff? He had rudely compared Albel's kiss to the one with Cliff. It wasn't right, but Fayt had to know. He knew that he couldn't take last night's kiss into real account. They were under the influence so it wouldn't have had the same affect if they had been sober.

"Head hurts," Fayt sighed, as he rubbed at his temples.

When he resumed his washing, Fayt suddenly noticed he was scrubbing. The feeling from last night came back tenfold. He felt dirty. The way Albel had rejected him made him feel unworthy; though logically he knew it wasn't true. When he had finally crawled to his bed memories assaulted him. The smothering smell of Albel, blueberries, and sex had made him start a new bout of crying. He had cried himself to sleep curled into a ball.

I'm pathetic, Fayt thought mildly disgusted with himself. It was only sex. You're not a baby anymore. Adults do it all the time. He took a deep breath to steady his trembling, and began to wash properly. He stamped on any remaining feelings of self-pity, dirtiness, and despair. If Albel could walk away like that, he could too. It was nothing to cry over. At the most, he should only feel mild disappointment. Besides, he would be leaving the planet soon anyway.

A planet, Fayt wasn't sure which one, was being heralded The New Earth. After his planet had gotten destroyed, lots of Earthlings had started to migrate to TNE. Sophia had mentioned it to him the other day when Mirage had spoken to some of the crewmembers of the Diplo. They had been on Elicoor so long, it's almost as if they had been cut off from the rest of the universe. Fayt kind of fell into life's patterns on the planet with two suns and surprisingly only missed small luxuries, like electric heating, video games, and pizza, from Earth.

Sophia, however, put up with Elicoor to save the universe from Luther's insane antics. She missed hot water, hair spray, and the vast electronic library of science. Another thing that rubbed Sophia, and sometimes Fayt, raw was the staggering amount of violence, deaths through disease, alcohol, and poor hygiene. It was one thing to save the universe from deletion and another to standby and witness so much unnecessary suffering when there was technology available to help. Standing there knowing and not being able to do something without severe consequences just made it worse. Fayt would sometimes see the extreme expression of sorrow linger on Sohpia's face if she saw homeless children or severely disabled people left out on the streets to die.

In those times, either Mirage or he would take her aside and rub her shoulder comfortingly. Mirage was used to it, Fayt was sure, being a pilot of a spaceship and all. Not to mention hanging around Cliff for so many years and venturing places. Fayt was just resigned to the fact that he couldn't really introduce anything to high tech or he could seriously alter the planet's evolution and throw it out of whack. It was already bad enough he was the Weapon of Mass Destruction. He didn't need the Federation to have another reason to hunt down his ass.

Fayt finally had finished washing himself and mentally congratulated himself on not sinking into self-pity again. If Albel had just wanted sex… Okay. Fayt could deal with that. He was maybe not completely desensitized to it all, but he was working his way there. Fayt figured someone in their group was bound to give out sooner or later anyway and with the tension that had been between Fayt and Albel it was all the better that they had had sex instead of beating the living daylights out of each other during an intense training session.

Towel wrapped firmly around his waist, Fayt went to the room to start dressing. Fayt was picking up a long sleeved navy blue shirt and stilled immediately when he saw his reflection in the room's large mirror. Bruises, bites, scratches, like an angry painting. Albel had painted him in a lust-crazed mess of yellow, blue, red, and varying shades of pink. Suddenly, all Fayt's resolve to handle all his emotions like an adult were shattered in five seconds flat. Evidence, reason, almost like, almost love… Fayt felt all his good emotions crawl inwardly and hide while the ugly and worse of the worse came out and crawled all over his skin.

Fayt gasped, or something of the sort and plopped down where he had stood even though this caused his sore ass to protest. His green eyes were wide; dark smudges underneath their red vein mapped whites. Blue hair obscured his vision and shame, helpless rage, indignation, and the feeling of being dirty came back full force. Fayt's eyes burned, he felt the prickle, and the tell tell sign of the tightening of his chest. For the first time in a while, Fayt watched himself cry.

It wasn't the sniffling childlike cry, or wailing, or all out sobbing. It was the oppressing silence a soundtrack to his shell-shocked crying. Grief. His mouth was slightly parted and he felt and looked very much like kid who woke up to find out he had to work for the rest of his life. A hitched breath. Fayt finally faced that what had hurt was the way he'd been used. Of course, he didn't think they both start making love confessions the next morning, but he didn't think Albel would be so cold. Especially after… After Albel ravaged him the way he did. Fayt had no doubt Albel put his all into the sex, when Albel did something he put his everything into it. Fayt did too, so…

"I read too much into it," Fayt said, feeling somewhat reassured. He wiped his running nose noticing and not caring about the blue ringed bruise on his wrist. "I'm not even staying on this fucking planet. I need to find my mother. I need to find out how Sophia's coping. I need to ask Cliff about this New Earth thing. Albel is not apart my plans. And I'm not apart of his," he said to himself.

Fayt stood with steel resolve and looked himself in the eye in the mirror. He stored this experience away as his first adult fact of life to deal with. He put on the collar and knew he would ask Albel about it and not chicken out. He dressed to cover Albel's marks and was glad that by midday all the scratches and pink and red patches would be gone. By tomorrow the bruises would be gone and that he wouldn't be so sore anymore. He would do what he needed to do to figure out his future and not dwell on trivial things such as sex with a medieval warrior. I'm not a kid, Fayt thought, as he combed his hair with his fingers.

"I'm a man," he said to his reflection, glad that his eyes already looked better, and walked out the room to start his day.

--

Fayt saw Cliff walking toward him wearing his normal ensemble of tight clothing a half an hour later. Fayt pulled in all his courage and greeted Cliff with a smile, feeling it freeze a little on his face.

"Hey, Fayt…" Cliff's smiled faded into a concerned expression as he peered at Fayt. "Did you have trouble sleeping or something?"

"A little," Fayt admitted, and felt his body heat up by three notches as the night's events came roiling into his mind.

Cliff snickered. "I don't see how you could. After all, you were wasted."

Fayt glanced away. "Yeah…" He then fixed Cliff with a straight stare. "About last night…" The blue haired boy let the sentence hang and stomped on apprehension as Cliff's expression noticeably shifted.

"Look, we don't have to talk about it," Cliff said quickly, with his hand held up. "I mean, were both pretty splattered so-"

"I know that-"

"Good, then let's skip on down to break-"

"Cliff," Fayt said seriously, and penetrated Cliff with a solemn look.

Cliff shut up with a snap and crossed his arms with a wary look at Fayt.

"I know I kissed you last night," Fayt said slowly, trying to find a careful way to say what he had in mind. "I meant to do it." Cliff's eyes widened somewhat, but he didn't go running for the hills and Fayt thought that was a bit encouraging.

"But since we were so drunk, I don't think…" Now there was the tricky part. In Fayt's muddled brain, he knew what to say, but the process it took to turn it into words was difficult. "I had just wanted to know whether I was… You know… Well, I mean… I just wanted to see if I'd… You know…" Fayt shrugged and felt irritation with himself for being so inarticulate when he had squared it with himself that he wouldn't babble on like a fifteen-year-old girl with a crush.

It felt like an eternity before Cliff breathed, "So you're saying..?"

Fayt then took a step toward Cliff and saw the older man's urge to step back with a flinch. He ignored it. "I wanted to know what it would be like… Sober."

Cliff's eyes widened again and he sighed loudly. "I don't think-"

"Please, Cliff," Fayt pleaded, with a hand on Cliff's hard forearm. "I need this. Otherwise, I'll be distracted with confusion."

Cliff looked like he was about to protest, but then he blinked and looked around. He sighed loudly and looked back down at Fayt to confirm. Fayt nodded and stepped extremely close to Cliff. So much that the heat radiating off the man was overwhelming. Fayt was extremely aware of the very large, and very male hand that settled on the small of his back and the callused fingertip on the edge of his jaw. His hands were linked around Cliff's own waist and Fayt rose slightly on his toes.

Cliff bent down looking terrified and surprised to be this position, but continued anyway. Fayt almost couldn't stifle the groan that threatened to come out when Cliff's mouth descended on his. God, the man was hot. Like really hot and his tongue felt like heated silk against Fayt's own tongue. Cliff tasted like licorice and faintly of alcohol and something so Cliff like Fayt couldn't place in any other category.

Fayt wasn't aware of unlinking his arms and re-linking them around Cliff's neck then pressing against the taller man. Cliff's body was anything but plush or soft. It was hard and unresisting against Fayt and Fayt found he liked it. He liked the feel of Cliff's obvious strength surrounding him. Cliff smelled like something spicy and sweet at the same time. Of course, the blue haired boy didn't recognize it, but it smelled good. Fayt felt Cliff's coarse strands of hair tickle the back his hand and he stroked the short hairs with trembling fingers. If he could fall for any other guy right now, Cliff would probably be it.

It seemed as if Cliff was mirroring Fayt's thoughts he when made a very sexual sound. One of Cliff's hands that was in Fayt's hair pressed him closer and the other was tentatively squeezing an ass cheek. Oh god, oh god, oh god. Fayt was hard and he felt Cliff's own hard on pulse between them. Then Cliff must've realized because he pulled away slowly staring at Fayt as if he did something to the blonde.

Cliff's gray eyes were glazed and bright, a red flush suffused his cheeks. He licked swollen red lips and blinked at Fayt, then at his hard on. He laughed a shaky laugh and then straightened. Fayt felt the adrenaline beat in his body and tried to stand without feeling like he was going to fall boneless onto the floor.

Then Cliff cleared his throat with a shaky smile. "That do it?"

Fayt thought the phrase and inflection sounded alien in Cliff's voice. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. He may have freaked Cliff out, even though the lust filled voice was hot. "Yeah," Fayt answered, unable to help the breathless sound.

"And?" Cliff blinked at him with a hand on his hip.

Fayt mirrored it and looked away. "Yeah. It did…" He looked quickly up at Cliff and saw him slack somewhat in his tense posture. "I didn't freak you out too much, did I?"

Cliff then smiled genuinely. "Not too much, no. So what's the verdict, kid?"

Fayt pointedly ignored the pet name and looked flatly at Cliff. "I'm bi."

There. Saying and feeling sure and just… Knowing. It made everything clearer and just made everything he had to think about not seem so daunting anymore. One block out the way. A lot more to go. But a victory is a victory. Fayt grinned like a fool.

Cliff smiled back good-naturedly. "Oh well… More power to you. But…" Cliff hesitated and Cliff never hesitated. It must've been something heavy Fayt figured.

"But?" Fayt prompted, glad that his erection was fading away.

Cliff's color had gone down but now it came back. "Well…" Suddenly, with shock, Fayt noticed that Cliff seemed embarrassed. "You don't… You know have… Youdon'tlikehaveathingformedoyou?" he rushed out.

Fayt smiled. "No, I don't." Even though that kiss was enough to tempt Fayt to see if there was any kind of future with Cliff. "Just an experiment."

"Well, okay," Cliff said, and sounded only a little disappointed.

"Fittir, not everyone wants your sexy body," Fayt joked, as he started in the direction of the dining hall.

"Hey!" Cliff exclaimed, as he broke out in the classic Fittir smile. "It's about time you admitted I'm sexy. I knew you wanted me!"

"Whatever," Fayt said, as he playfully punched Cliff in his rock of an arm.

Whatever lay ahead now, Fayt knew he could handle it. With Sophia, Cliff, Mirage, and Maria as friends, how could he not? Despite his sore body and emotional woes, he felt happy. Is woes seemed so small in comparison to the bright spark of joy that'd been ignited inside him, and easiness he felt at the moment. So he embraced it and stored away his lesser demons for another day.

---

Albel knew somewhere deep in his black heart that what he did was wrong. But he couldn't muster up enough guilt without his damn pride getting in the way. Fayt would have to learn quickly just what kind of world it was, and not just in a saving the universe type of way. Albel looked up and saw Fayt laugh at something the Blonde Giant said and the boy sat down only wincing slightly. Any of the other maggots would've never saw it because they wouldn't know what to look for. But Albel scrutinized Fayt and saw the blue haired boy sporting the collar again and a dark long sleeved shirt that was provided to the castle's guests. Albel had seen the marks he left all over the boy before he kicked him out.

Were you marking your territory, Nox? went that annoying little voice in head that had been bothering him for weeks.

Albel glared down at the Crimson Scourge in its sheath. It is not me, rung an entirely different voice in his head. Albel stared at it and wondered if he truly was mad.

No you aren't mad. You've heard tales of my legacy, haven't you? You wield me with a sureness not many others would be able to replicate.

Albel's eyes widened as he figured out it was his katana talking to him.

You do not own me. I only let you use my power. I am entity on my own and I'm not here to cater to your humanly whims. And yes, I do sometimes speak to whomever is lucky enough to deserve it.

Albel sort of knew that this was a great honor and thought so with his mind. No one else would probably ever hear such sincere words from him. Albel then asked Crimson Scourge if he had spoken to him before. He was mildly puzzled when it had said this was the first time it had ever spoken to him. If it has not been you pestering me for weeks, then who? Albel thought.

I do not pester, it said angrily. Especially with humans. I torture.

Point taken, Albel thought and redirected his attention to Fayt eating.

"Something wrong, Nox?" Cliff sneered, as he glowered at Albel. The blonde maggot ate like a pig and it disgusted Albel to see it.

"Only the mutated, muscled pig with blonde hair that has mistaken this table for a sty." Albel smirked, as he saw Cliff's face flush with anger.

He saw Fayt place a calming hand on Cliff's arm. "Ignore him, Cliff. Someone's just feeling a little bitchy this morning," he said evenly.

Albel's mouth would've dropped open if he hadn't been gritting his teeth. Before Albel could say anything though, Sophia walked in looking bed rumpled.

"Hey, Sophia," Fayt greeted easily, as he dismissed Albel as if they had not fucked a few hours ago.

"Hey…" Sophia rubbed her eyes and walked over into Fayt's personal space. They then began to talk and by then Albel was so startling pissed that he couldn't even think straight. That fucking dumbbell! Albel thought heatedly, as he glared at the way Cliff and Sophia could easily hang around Fayt. I don't believe..!

The boy did what you asked him to, didn't he? Were you looking for some kind of companionship? The Crimson Scourge asked, in Albel's anger filled mind.

No, but..! Albel thought, a little dazed the sword would even be concerned with his stupid human emotions.

I am not concerned. Only confused as to why you are angered he actually took you seriously. If you didn't want him as a companion and you didn't want to lie with him again, then what are you angry about?

Albel's mouth worked furiously, coming up with no words as he watched Fayt and company stand. The swordsman felt something completely unidentifiable wrap itself around his heart then settle uncomfortably cold in the bottom of his stomach. It almost felt like he couldn't breath.

"Hey, ya'll want to go train?" Fayt asked, Sophia and Cliff.

"Sure, but Sophia didn't eat," Cliff said, already stretching.

The dumbbell peered at the table with mild distaste. "No, I kind of got sick last night. I'll eat later."

Fayt shrugged. "All right."

Focus on becoming stronger. It was your wish when I relinquished myself to you. Besides, you don't think it was a mistake to do what you did, do you? You gave him a push and that's all he needed to start walking. Nothing wrong with that, the Crimson Scourge said.

"No," Albel said, so low only he could hear himself.

But he really did. Think it was a mistake. Especially when Cliff threw his arm over Fayt's shoulders, and Fayt wrapped an arm around Sophia's waist with her head on his chest. The mistake being that though Albel had pushed Fayt, he'd also let Fayt walk away. And he was no longer walking like an unsure boy. But a totally confident man and Albel knew any future decision Fayt made he would mean it and it wouldn't change. No matter what.

It scared him.

Albel Nox never got scared. But everything that concerned Fayt always turned everything backwards. And his world was upside down. Albel Nox didn't know what to do.

AN: I know this is shorter than the last, but I think it served it purposes. :D I'm so sorry it took so long to put this up, but real life stuff, you know. shrug GED, medical things to get straightened, and day care for my son. :P Just turning 18 is no easy thing. :P Plus, I have to admit, though I'm a little late, I've gotten caught up in boy band slash fan fiction. guilty laugh and runs away I started writing one in my livejournal so if you're interested, you can go read it. :D Until next time!

Hopefully, not too long from now. XD Remember review and it gives me fuel. :D

Runzu