"One Way to Cure"

By: Setsuna-X

Summary: 3 months pre-game. Guy is still afraid of women and Luke finds a way to fix that with help from Natalia with an added bonus, of course.
Notes: This is shonen-ai (BL, yaoi, slash) with the pairings being Guy x Luke. This also has cross-dressing elements. No real spoilers.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or anything else to do with "Tales of the Abyss" - I just own the game.

Chapter 4 - So, what happened?

After Natalia had left for the day, Luke decided to give himself a little break. He also felt that he had to go and explain to Guy, though over what he still wasn't sure about.

Upon exiting his room, Luke realized that he had no real idea where Guy would be at the moment. He decided to start with his room and work from there. After entering the Fabre Manor and making his way to Guy's room, Luke let out a few knocks upon the wooden door. Realizing that no one was in the room, Luke made his way out to the garden area where he and Guy usually trained with Van.

Sure enough there was Guy, helping out Hank with the gardening.

"Hey Guy!" cheerfully called out Luke, happy to have found his friend.

"Hello Luke. Where's Princess Natalia?" asked Guy. He thought for sure the two royals would be with each other all day.

"She had to leave early. Something about being a princess," laughed Luke, completely unaware at Guy's inner turmoil.

Guy was conflicted inside. He was happy that Luke was no longer around the Kimlascan princess, but was confused over why it had bothered him so much. He had grown up with Natalia as well, but there was just something different about seeing both Luke and Natalia sitting so close together that really bothered him. Guy decided that it was best to get rid of these confusing thoughts seeing as they didn't serve a real purpose.

"Want to go do something, or are you the busy one now?" asked Luke with false cheerfulness. He was hoping that Guy would be free so they could spend time together now that Natalia was gone.

"Uh, yeah I'm free. It that's okay with you, Hank?"

"Oh, go have fun, you rascals! Just don't ruin any of the new flowers I just planted!" Hank waved them off with a smile.

"Great! Let's go Guy!" shouted Luke as he grabbed onto Guy's arm and dragged him toward the small tree alcove near his house.

"Not so fast, Luke!" laughed out Guy as he tried to keep up with Lukes' enthusiasm.

"Yeah, yeah, come on, slowpoke!"

Both boys made their way to their favorite spot. There was a certain tree that had enough ridges on the trunk along with a low branch that both boys used to climb when they were younger. After climbing the tree together, they both sat in silence, regaining their breath.

"So, how was your time with Natalia?" suddenly asked Guy. He wasn't sure why he was so curious to know the answer.

"Hm...it was okay, I guess," pondered Luke out loud.

"Just okay?"

"Well, it was hard. Also she freaked out this morning when she came to wake me up," laughed out Luke, imagining Natalia's face.

"How'd you manage to do that?" asked Guy, quite curious.

"I'm still not too sure. She started freaking out after I started undressing in front of her. I was still in my pajamas and she got mad that I was getting ready for the day," responded Luke with a pout.

Guy just stared at his friend incredulously.

"..you were undressing in front of her?" he asked slowly, not sure if he heard the red-head right.

"Well, yeah. We undress in front of each other all the time; I didn't think it was such a big deal. We're all friends after all." Luke was confused over why Guy was making such a big deal about this too. Sure Natalia had somewhat explained it, but it still didn't make much sense.

"Luke, listen to me," started Guy with a serious tone. "You can't undress in front of women the same you would men because they think that it is rude and discourteous. Men undress in front of each other without that shame because we all...ahem...we all..." discontinued Guy in a murmur.

"We all what?"

"Well...because we all... you know... share the same body structure..." mumbled out Guy, his face a flaring red. Why was it always him that got stuck discussing this sort of thing with Luke!

Luke just gave Guy a long, hard stare.

"The same body structure? What do you mean? I mean, I guess girls and guys do look a little different but we all have two arms, legs, and one head - how different can we be?"

Guy was absolutely speechless. Did Luke really not know, or was he just acting this way to make him feel uncomfortable? No, by looking at Luke's face he could tell that the young fon Fabre really did not know.

"Look, I think this is something you should probably discuss with your parents. I don't think I'm the right person for this sort of explanation."

"Sure you are! You're my best friend, Guy! Besides, I'm sure mom and dad would just make you tell me anyway. So you might as well just save us the trouble and tell me now," responded Luke smugly.

Guy just let out an audible sigh as he looked toward the sky for guidance. There was none.

"Okay, I'm only going to explain this once, and I don't want you asking me any more questions about it, got it?" ended Guy with a glare.

"But what if I don't understand something?"

"Then it's up to you to figure it out by yourself. Don't go asking me anymore."

Luke looked like he was about to complain, but once he saw the no-nonsense look on Guy's face he refrained.

"Oh, alright I agree," resigned Luke with a sigh.

Guy took in a deep breath to calm his nerves. Why did he have to tell Luke about the birds and the bees again? Oh right, because he was the one that practically raised the brat.

"Listen up since I will not repeat myself. You know that when you take off your shirt, your chest is flat, correct?"

Luke just nodded.

"Good. Well, girls aren't, although there are some exceptions. Their, ahem, chests are bigger than ours." Luke just nodded again.

"Now, it is okay for guys to walk around shirtless, because their chests are flat. Yet since girls are not flat, they have to cover up their chests." Luke was about to interrupt, but Guy continued explaining in a louder voice, drowning out Lukes' attempts at speaking.

"So you know when a guy takes off his pants he has...a, you know..." Guy said as he intently focused his eyes on his crotch. He vaguely gestured over the area with his hand.

Luke pretty much understood what Guy meant and nodded, his face reddening a bit.

"Good," Guy began again; thankful he didn't have to describe everything to Luke. "Okay, so girls don't have what we have...down there. Their part is different from ours. It's ...uh... flatter? And looks completely different. And that's why it's improper to change in front of someone of the opposite sex, understand?" Guy nearly shouted at the end, his embarrassment overwhelming him.

Luke still wasn't sure what the big deal was, but decided to spare his friend further humiliation. "Uh, yeah. I think I get it. Thanks, Guy!"

Guy just let out another sigh, this one relieved. He still couldn't believe he had to tell Luke all that.

"So is that why you're afraid of women, Guy? Because they have all these different parts?"

Guy just froze when he heard that question. He didn't like to sit and dwell on what his problem was when it came to women. He actually did enjoy looking at them. They were ...just pretty and different and nice. But that wasn't the reason why he feared their touch. He knew there was something more to it. Maybe something sinister. Normally it would not bother him when Luke would ask him personal questions, but it seemed as if the young fon Fabre had been pushing that certain button a lot more than usual and it made Guy uncomfortable.

"Look Luke, I really don't want to talk about it. I'm not even sure myself what my problem is, so please don't bring it up any more."

Luke assessed his friend more closely and he noticed that he had upset him. He didn't mean to, but it just happened. Trying to take his mind off it, Luke decided to change the conversation.

"Hey, remember that one time when we were getting chased by that dog and we ran up this tree? We were so scared that it was going to eat us!" laughed out Luke, lost in the memory. Guy soon joined in; his face more relaxed than it had been moments before.

"Yeah, and then we stayed up here for hours. Someone finally came and got us once they realized we had both missed lunch and dinner."

"I know! We were making all these plans of how we had to now live in the tree and what jobs we were each going to have since we were going to be living together forever," Luke laughed again.

"Here's the place where we carved our initials that day," pointed out Guy. Sure enough there was a "GC" and "LF" carved on the tree.

"Those were good times," sighed out Luke.

"Yeah," mirrored Guy, both boys sat in silence and lost in their thoughts.

"Natalia's going to be coming over again. Two days from now," said Luke, breaking the silence.

"Oh?" asked Guy, nonchalantly, but inwardly his heart began to hurt. What was going on with him?

"She's helping me out with something, so I'll be seeing her a lot the next two weeks."

"That's nice that you're spending time with her." Guy still wasn't sure what he was feeling. Usually when Luke needed help with something he would come to Guy, but now he was turning to Natalia. Guy had to admit that he was a little...jealous? He wasn't sure why it bothered him so much. Luke needed other people in his life, and Natalia was his fiancé so it made sense that the two would be spending time together as well. It was just odd and slightly sad that Luke didn't rely on only him anymore.

"But don't worry, we'll still hang out," smiled Luke at Guy as he jumped down the tree.

"I have something I have to do now, so I'll see you later, Guy!" called out Luke as he made his way to his bedroom. He had an appointment with some heels.

Guy stayed on the tree a while longer, wondering when things began changing so much and when Luke started growing up.

TBC

A/N: No excuse to the lateness of this chapter or the rest of the story. I've been too busy with life to write ff, but I certainly enjoy reading them. Just thought a quick update would be nice to get some of these old stories moving again. I hope the characters weren't too OOC.

Last Updated: 06-10-2010

Updated: 05-01-2012