Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time Fan Fiction ❯ Eye of Apris ❯ Part V ( Chapter 5 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Eye of Apris - Part V
by Mishaela

Disclaimer: Most of the characters represented here are property of SquareEnix. I'm just borrowing them for a little while to appease the muses who have taken me hostage. This story is homo-erotic in nature: if you're not a fan of yaoi/slash or you're too young to read this, turn back before it's too late.

* * *
Voices filtered through the door as Albel prepared to knock. While he was not normally one for eavesdropping, when he heard his name, his hand stilled. Beyond that barrier of wood, Fayt and Nel were speaking.

"… he actually did that? How many teeth did you have to pull?"

Fayt chuckled a little. "None."

There was a short pause before Nel spoke again. "You've spent time with him, beforehand, I mean."

"Yeah. He's not so bad once you get past the death-threats."

"I think, perhaps, you give him more consideration than you used to," Nel pointed out, her voice still weak but clear.

"He's lost right now," Fayt said back, his voice low but carrying. "We're the same, a little, on the inside."

Nel chuckled, the sound turning into a hard cough that lasted a few minutes before calming. "Lies aren't like you, Fayt."

The youth's voice was clearly surprised. "W-What do you mean?"

"You give yourself away. Your eyes soften when the subject of him comes up… which is more often than not, your doing. It's probably too soon to expect him to reciprocate what's in your heart, Fayt."

There was hesitation here, before the boy answered. "He's my friend, Nel."

"And your lover," she countered skillfully, "in body if not heart."

Albel could almost see the crimson stain that likely darkened the youth's face and neck. "That's… where things get complicated," he heard Fayt say at last.

"That's always the point where they do." He heard Nel shift on the bed, immediately followed by Fayt's boot steps on the stone flooring.

"You shouldn't be moving around yet," the younger man chastised the woman.

Nel would not be coddled, it seemed. "I'll be fine." There was a silent pause. "Albel Nox isn't a man who can be won over with gifts and words. He's seen how easy it is to take both away. The only advantage you have right now, Fayt, is your innate honesty. It's fortunate for you that Albel knows you're not one given over to lying."

"He finally admitted to being my friend," came Fayt's hesitant response to her words.

"Which is far more than anyone else can claim." Albel heard Nel shift again, heard also Fayt's annoyed reaction to it. But the woman was not done speaking yet. "He might try to push you away, deny whatever feelings he may develop towards you. If you love him, don't let him do that."

"That won't be easy."

"If you think it's worth it, then of course it won't. If love was easy, then everyone would have it and no one would want it. It's the challenge that makes the end results worth the work." Nel snorted, her voice filling with amusement. "Besides that, the only weapons he has that would work on you are his words. Words sting, but do little lasting damage to the persistent."

"… You're right," Fayt said, his voice a bit faded as if in thought.

"The hardest step is admitting our feelings. After that, things are somewhat smoother to flow along with."

Albel turned from the door and walked back down the hall. That woman's words hit a little too close to home by his reckoning. His mind dived all along the conversation, throwing him into a dangerous storm of emotions. He lost himself in that swirl, his feet moving of their own volition, until he found himself in the city proper.

The view was a beautiful one. He stood high in one of the lesser-traveled areas overlooking the ocean. The sight did little to calm him, however.

Love. He scoffed at the notion. The boy was bedded only to save that woman's life. Yes, he had admitted to friendship, there was no denying that. But the one person that Albel had ever loved was long gone.

How dare that Nel Zelphyr encourage Fayt! Even though he was nearly twenty, the younger man was still far too green to the ways of the world. Concepts such as love were whimsical and fanciful, of no use on a battlefield. Such things only got one hurt if they indulged in them too often or far.

* * *
Despite the commander's misgivings and his belief that Fayt would remain in Aquios, the youth didn't. As soon as he realized that Albel was preparing to return to Kirlsa, the younger man started doing the same. This raised a few unasked questions in the swordsman, but he didn't bother to voice them. Oft-times, the teen was given over to explaining himself eventually. Albel would simply wait for it.

It took a few days, but the subject did come up after they'd returned to the Nox Estate. The winter was growing ever colder, which was the exact reason that the older man had returned. He didn't want to be shut out of his own house due to the weather. Albel had mulled some wine and, after a bit of convincing on the teen's part, was allowing Fayt to share it with him.

"Nel didn't want me hovering over her during her recovery," he said between sips as he sat on the floor by the commander's favorite chair.

Albel snorted at that, flicking his crimson glance the youth's way. "Of course not. You get annoying when you try to mother people."

Fayt looked up over his shoulder at the other man and frowned. "I'm not that bad, Albel."

"Hmph," was all the older man had to say in answer. After that he continued to remain silent, drinking slowly from his wine, fully aware of the verdant gaze that the boy had locked onto him.

The quiet stretched out and still the eyes stared at him, eventually drawing Albel's own gaze back to the youth. "What?" he snapped out in irritation.

"When we... when we returned to Lyvithia," Fayt began in a soft voice, "she referred to me as your consort. What did she mean by that?"

"More often than not, it's a term used to identify a male lover," the swordsman explained before sipping his wine again. "In this case, it's used amongst the nobility for a man who has the equivalent status of a spouse - usually someone tied to another man."

Fayt seemed to consider that, his gaze finally pulling from Albel as he gave the information some thought. His silence didn't last before he turned back to the man again. "Why aren't you married?" he asked at last.

"Because I have no patience for a pampered, primadonna pet who swears her fidelity to my face and yet intends to sleep with every member of my household except for me. If I marry, it will be to someone who I am in no doubt about their loyalty."

"The king hasn't tried to match you up yet?" Fayt asked in a low voice.

"Several times," Albel said, his voice bordering on a snarl as he thought about that fact. "But, I can't trust a single one of them."

"You're not going to trust anyone very easily," the teen agreed. "It's kind of a good thing that you're someone who can be trusted."

Albel snapped his gaze on the younger man, watching as the blue head leaned back against the armrest of his chair. "What the hell do you mean by that?" he asked.

"Well," Fayt began, "you've never betrayed my trust in you. Once we had our little 'talk,' everything just fell into place." He looked over his shoulder at Albel, causing the swordsman to regard him with a serious expression. "Besides, since I came back to Elicoor... You've done nothing but given me even more reasons to trust you."

"If you have a point to make," Albel finally said as he met Fayt's gaze, "then kindly get to it and stop dancing around with words. It's irritating."

"Fine. If that's how you want it."

The teen shifted onto his knees, turning around to look at the swordsman with unreadable green eyes. He crossed his arms over the armrest of the chair, keeping their gazes locked. "I want to stay here with you."

"If that woman gave you some kind of romantic notions, kill them now," Albel warned as he looked at the youth.

One of Fayt's eyebrows rose. "I see you heard us," he told the older man. "What if I had those kinds of notions before she and I spoke?"

"Kill them. There's a difference between bedding someone and what you're saying."

"I'm pretty sure I'm not mistaken in remembering that you were getting into it, too. Both times. If you were just trying to help me, then I'm positive it wouldn't have been quite as intense as it was." The tone of the youth's voice was an unmistakeable challenge.

Albel leaned in, his crimson eyes just as intense as ever. "I knew I was your first. I may be a bastard about many things, but I won't ruin someone in such a way. Had I gone about it by any other method, my honor would have been compromised."

It didn't take much effort for Fayt to move, positioning himself between the swordsman's knees. Albel was surprised by this and leaned back, watching the teen warily. "What the hell are you doing now, idiot?"

"I liked the things you did to me," Fayt told him. "I liked how it made me feel and I liked doing those things to you, too. If you enjoyed it, then what's the problem with us doing it again?"

He'd lost control of the situation. Albel was also dangerously close to losing the argument. The teen was right, in a sense, but only so long as he wasn't trying to make something more out of it.

"I did come here to see you more than anyone else," Fayt admitted under the older man's stare. "I knew I'd be safe here, with you."

Albel couldn't get away from the hand that reached up to his face so he grasped the wrist instead. "You couldn't have known that I'd allow you to stay here."

"You're right. I fully expected to have to stay at the inn." The boy met his gaze. "Maybe I am the fool you're always claiming me to be. I know you don't feel the same. You can't. Albel, you hate yourself so much that you can't love someone else. But, out of everyone you know, who can you tolerate the most?"

"You've made your damn point," the swordsman said and released the wrist. "Shut up about it and do or say whatever it is you want to."

"I want to become your lover," Fayt bluntly told him.

Albel's head tilted a bit as he watched the youth. "Lover implies exclusiveness."

"I know. I don't trust anyone else to touch me like you did."

"How do you know I won't take another as well?" the man asked the teen in a serious voice. "You're not the first to make such a request of me."

Fayt's head shook at that. "I don't know, but I trust you. I've never doubted your honesty." He reached up with both hands and drew the slender swordsman closer. This time, Albel didn't resist him.

When the teen's lips met his, the commander answered the soft press. When the kiss broke, Albel looked at Fayt with his crimson gaze. “You're the only one I've ever allowed to do that,” he said at last. It was his way of trying to make the younger man understand that he did hold a special sort of significance.

“Kissing?” the blue-haired youth asked, surprised.

Albel nodded his answer, still watching the teen for his reaction. Part of him rankled at the idea that the youth meant more than the rest of the general populace. The greedy part in him, the one that had been craving for even a little affection over the years, reveled in victory.

“That makes me happy,” Fayt said, a shy smile forming on his face. He lunged forward and wrapped his arms around the older man's middle, a contented sound reverberating from him.

It only took a moment for Albel's flesh hand to lower to the blue hair and stroke through it gently. As much as he tried to deny it, Fayt did make everything press on him a little less heavily. Once, he had intervened on an attempt to take the younger man's life, which had been the cause of him getting swept up into the strange adventure with the 4D beings. It wasn't because he was greedy for battle, no.

Belatedly, the commander realized that it was because he did care about the teen. If Fayt had gone and gotten himself killed in some strange place, Albel didn't think that he would have handled it well, even back then. Now? All he knew about now was that he wanted the boy around, despite his protests.

Perhaps he protested and denied it so much because he was testing to see if Fayt would prove the exception to the rule. He wanted the teen to defy him. No matter how much he tried to argue the reasoning with himself, he knew only one truth.

Albel wanted, more than anything, to mean something to someone. He wanted to know that there was at least one person out there, in the wide vast universe of existence, that considered him important on a personal level. Fayt had become that person and maybe the idea didn't seem so abhorrent to him because of that fact.

* * *
Heat...

The smell of burning flesh...

The scream of someone in horrible agony...

Arms that often were a shelter falling away...

Lifeless eyes...

It was sometime after midnight when Albel woke with a terrified scream. That same dream again. The one he'd been having for years since the death of his father, Glou Nox.

He rose from the bed, raking his flesh hand through his hair and sighing heavily. That dream hadn't plagued him for a couple of weeks now. Why did it suddenly spring up again? He'd barely slept in three nights because of it.

The swordsman looked around. He was at Airyglyph castle at the behest of the king. It looked as though the commander and his Black Brigade would be seeing some action soon, but not against the kingdom of Aquios. That little joy meant nothing at the moment, however, as he pondered what the hell had changed.

Only one thing came to mind; Fayt.

The more he thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense. Every night he'd spent with the teen had been free of the nightmares that so often interrupted his sleep and left him a wreck come morning. Over the years before, Albel had actually learned to function on as little as two hours of sleep a night for weeks at a time.

Somehow, the blue-haired boy was able to bring him a sort of peace that allowed him to sleep fully and freely.

And Fayt was currently at his estate while he took care of matters here.

“Damn.”

If he wanted to be honest with himself, he did miss the youth's presence in the bed next to him. Since Albel had agreed to let the younger man become his lover, they'd shared his bed. Surprisingly, there hadn't been as much nocturnal activity as he'd expected on the part of the youth.

It was almost as though Fayt considered just being there enough for him. There had been sex, definitely, once they'd started sharing the bed. And it was just as good as it'd had been before, if not better.

That surprised the swordsman. Since he was already fully awake, he gave that more contemplation as well. What was different?

Albel broke the situation down, piece by piece, until he got to the core. That was the best way to consider and then solve, or resolve, an issue. He ripped away every unnecessary piece of information until he came to an answer.

It was such a simple thing, really. The answer also surprised him yet again. The core of the fact was, without the knowledge that he wasn't going to be bedding the boy again, he wasn't nearly so... concerned about the time taken. He could enjoy the sex much more leisurely.

The commander was still intense about how he went about his pleasure, but he didn't feel pressured now. He could take his time in exploring each sensation given and received. That was what had made it better.

In fact, now that he thought about it more clearly, Fayt had become the same way. He still reveled in the intensity, but he was also taking it at his own pace. It was far more mutual now, especially with the fact that the younger man was being an active participant. Up until Fayt had entered the picture, sex had been about sating an urge.

Which meant there was a far deeper meaning behind what he and the teen were doing. Albel would probably never admit it, but he couldn't just cast the younger man to the side like he'd done with past lovers. And, unlike them, he was also taking pleasure in the feelings he could impress on the blue-haired teen.

The picture this painted was becoming more than a little uncomfortable for Albel. It put him in a position he'd been avoiding for so long and now, here he was, trapped in the very thing he didn't want happening all over again. Unfortunately, Fayt was just that same kind of person, too.

Would the swordsman be able to live with himself if the youth was forced to make the choice between his own life and Albel's?

Even the idea of the teen dying brought a furious clench in the man's chest and he clutched at it with his flesh hand, staggering. Albel had damned himself, unthinkingly. It was a mix of selfish and selfless that had him cornered. On one hand, he didn't want Fayt to die because of him but, on the other hand, he couldn't bring himself to drive the boy off.

Try as he might, he couldn't think of a graceful, easy, or even complicated way out of this. That in and of itself was plenty enough to keep him from sleeping the rest of the night.

* * *
“These rebels are trying to rekindle war between Airyglyph and Aquios,” Arzei said to both Albel and Woltar the next day during a luncheon. “We can't afford this, by any means, and I want them stopped.”

Woltar was about to say something in return when the doors of the dining room opened to allow the new leader of the Dragon Brigade entrance. Albel had yet to meet this person and immediately looked over. His initial reaction was surprise.

The Dragon Brigade's new commander was a woman.

“Forgive my tardiness, Majesty and lords,” she said in a low voice and bowed to the other three. “I make no excuse for my lateness, but offer that I had to deal with the Marquise as my reason.” She walked around the table and took a seat next to Woltar, giving the old man a respectful nod as she did so.

“Did something happen to Crossel?” the king asked her, his voice holding much curiosity.

“No, Majesty,” she replied with a shake of her head. “But he was agitated over a group of miscreants who had attempted to steal some of the eggs in the latest clutch.”

Arzei looked at the woman much more seriously. “Explain, Carianna.”

The words had also managed to snatch up the attention of the bored Albel, who looked at her with a little more respect. If she'd managed to calm the King of Dragons, then she was formidable indeed.

“The idiots had, somehow, managed to scale the mountain leading to Lyvithia's lair,” she told them all. “While they didn't succeed, they did destroy two of the eggs in their haste to escape. The Marquisa barbecued one of them, but several more still eluded her. My riders are scouring the mountainside to find them.”

“Should I mobilize the Black Brigade?” Albel asked, turning to the king. He was almost a little too eager for action.

The ruler shook his head. “No, Albel, I have another task for you,” he told the swordsman. “Lady Carianna can handle the situation with the dragons. I want you to focus on rooting out and capturing the rebels.” He gave the commander his total attention. “I want them dealt with as quickly as possible.”

“Sources have placed a group of them in the Peterny area,” Woltar said, mostly to Albel, but addressing the whole table.

Carianna nodded at the news and looked towards the Black Brigade leader. “I have a few of my dragon riders there, Lord Nox. I will send them new orders to be at your disposal should you require it.”

The offer surprised Albel and he looked at the woman curiously. “For what purpose?”

“The rebels are a threat to us all,” she said matter-of-factly. “I see no need to squander a potential resource that you may be able to use. Unlike my predecessor, I put the honor of our King and Airyglyph over such trivial things as personal pride.”

Those were the words that the woman spoke, but Albel heard something else. To him, the woman seemed to say that she believed the forces should be unified, regardless of the size of the threat. Such a thing was practical. Albel could respect that completely.

He gave her a nod. “Your foresight is much appreciated,” the swordsman told her. “If you could, have them start routine patrols for suspicious activity until my forces arrive.”

Carianna gave the idea consideration. “A good plan. I'll send a few more, not too many, to give them a buffer. Patrolling such a wide expanse of land can dull the eyes after a time.”

“Even better,” Albel responded to that, giving another nod to the woman. “Is there anything my soldiers can do to assist your efforts?” He caught the surprised expressions on both Arzei and Woltar's faces at his question. This amused him a little.

Fingers tapping at her lips, the female commander gave it some thought. “It might be a good idea to post some guards at all the entrances to the mountain passes,” Carianna said after giving it good consideration. “That may help these miscreants re-think their notions of tampering with the clutch again.”

“Consider it done,” Albel said to her with a nod. “I've a unit doing nothing but whining about the lack of activity. They're yours.”

The woman smiled at him. “My thanks, Lord Nox.” The Dragon Brigade's commander then looked towards the king. “Majesty, if I may be excused so that I can take care of the matter immediately?”

“Of course, Lady Vell.”

Carianna rose and bowed to the men before exiting the chamber. Albel watched her go, thinking to himself about how much more he could accomplish with the apparent cooperation of the new blood at the table. A faint smile found his mouth before he turned back to the other two men.

“What?” he asked in response to their amused faces.

“You seemed rather... friendly towards her,” Arzei answered. He had that look on his face that said he was plotting something. A quick glance from Albel to Woltar showed a similar expression.

As if he knew what they were thinking, and in all likelihood, he did, the swordsman's eyes narrowed just a fraction. “If either of you are considering trying to tie us together into something that you think would be... lasting, forget it,” he told them.

Woltar peered closely at the young man he'd taken in so long ago. “What would give you that idea, boy?”

“Because both of you have paraded eligible women in front of me since I was sixteen,” Albel snapped back. “I have a lover, one that I've given my word to. If you're plotting a marriage in my future, kill the notion now. I'm not interested.”

“Really?” Suddenly the king was very interested. “Would it have anything to do with the guest at the Nox Estate?”

Albel realized his mistake very quickly. Arzei knew Fayt was at his home, he'd told the man himself just the other day when he'd asked about the youth. He only hoped that Woltar hadn't been told, otherwise, he would be questioned in-depth about it later.

“That's none of your business, your Majesty,” Albel answered the man, choosing his words much more carefully. “My private life is my own and not up for review. Not now or any other time.”

“Carianna would be a good match,” Woltar said, looking towards Albel, trying to convince the man to at least think about it.

“Not interested,” the swordsman reiterated, his crimson eyes flashing towards the older lord. “For once in my life, I'm at least a little content. Don't tamper with that by planning some foolish marriage machinations. If you do, all my respect for you will flee, old man.”

The elder lord demurred, lifting his hands in a placating gesture. “I'm merely thinking of your future, boy. That's all.”

“My future is my own,” Albel said, Woltar's concern taking only a little of the heat from his gaze. “I don't need anyone else's assistance when it comes to that subject.”

“Calm down, Albel,” the king said while reaching out his hand towards the younger man. “If this lover does for you what you claim then I see no need to change that. I'm sure Woltar will agree, even if he seems eager to marry you off.”

---

Continued in Part VI