(no subject)

[etherealblast]

Who: Fayt Leingod, Albel Nox, and later Cliff Fittir, Okita Souji and Law.
What: A spar gone awry.
When: January 13th, afternoon
Where: Battledome
Summary: Fayt is tired of Albel avoiding them over lingering discomfort from the mistletoe shift, and tries to help him regain a sense of normalcy the only way he knows might work.
Rating: PG-15 for violence and heavy injuries.

Fayt had given it nearly two weeks. Two weeks of Albel sulking around, avoiding so much as talking to him or even looking at him. He'd barely seen the man, and even when he had it had only been for a second or two before Albel darted off.

He wasn't an idiot. That Albel seemed to be avoiding him was obvious enough, and he supposed he should have expected him to react this way-- Fayt had shrugged off the shift just fine, long used to the Malnosso messing with them by now, but Albel obviously didn't know how to. Albel avoided physical and emotional affection like it was the black plague, and shifted or not it had probably made Fayt's presence difficult for him to deal with.

It was more than a little awkward. Albel was eccentrically reactive at the best of times, but Fayt felt bad for making him so uncomfortable, even if it wasn't technically his fault. He had to do something.

A few messages sent Albel's way over the journals to try to smooth things over had gotten no response, though that wasn't surprising. Fayt finally just decided on the direct approach, heading to the battledome where he knew he'd find Albel training more likely than not.

When he finds the room the swordsman is using, he walks right in. There would be no running away this time.

Comments

Next day - midday

[etherealblast]

Yeah... thanks." Liquid was what he needed right now, he knew, and he leans forward slightly to take the straw in his mouth, drinking deeply to sooth his raw throat. After the first drink he catches his breath, before taking another, equally long gulp.

When he's done he rests his head on his arms again, offering Souji a grateful look, slightly embarrassed. "Sorry about that."

He was used to taking care of himself when he was sick. Even when he was a kid his parents couldn't usually take enough time off to take care of him during the rare instances he was sick, so being stuck in a position where he couldn't take care of himself was an uncommon feeling. He decides to cut off any possible conversation about how he's feeling by continuing with Souji's train of thought. "You know.... It's kind of like the cats on his planet. Two tails."

Next day - midday

[ahappylie]

He laughed a little at the apology, not really certain why Fayt would think of this as an imposition of any kind. The only thing Souji had to worry about was whether or not he'd brought enough of the medicated tea; and if not, he'd just go home, make more and come back. "It's nothing to say sorry for," he said, setting the cup down to pour a refill.

"And cats, hm?" He smirked and tightened the lid on the thermos, setting it down by his chair. "That certainly would explain much about him - cats and I have never been the best of friends. I much prefer pigs."

[etherealblast]

"Not much of a cat person, huh?" A small grin returns to his face, though the earlier laughter is absent as he relaxes onto his arm properly, waiting as the pain in his back fade from the earlier, sharp pain into the more subdued pain of earlier.

"I don't think Saizou would want the competition, anyway, do you?"

[ahappylie]

Souji simply smiled and shook his head. It wasn't necessary to give Fayt the details of why he didn't like cats. He had his reasons - one about a demon and an elaborate, albeit befuddling trap he and his friends fell into; the other... Well, he hadn't exactly experienced it yet, but he'd read (and then burned) enough books on the subject of his death that he knew what harbinger came for him. "Pigs are much nicer."

He picked the cup back up, holding it in his lap in case Fayt made a move for another drink and laughed a little. "He already has a bit of competition - and he's not very happy about it, so no, I don't think he'd want more. He does like you though. I had to set him outside so he didn't try to come in."

[etherealblast]

"Really?" He looks curiously in the direction of the door, at least as much as he's able wondering if that was true. Law probably wouldn't like the idea of animals in the clinic, but Saizou was an entertaining little bugger.

"....I guess Law might not like that, huh?"

[ahappylie]

He smiled and nodded, pointing downstairs. "I had to leave him outside the battle dome. He caught Cliff-san's scent and started acting up." And Law was scary enough when he was mad over a possible tiff - Souji could only imagine how having a pig run wild in his clinic would make him feel. "So he's tied up where he can't get into too much trouble. Although he does apologize for not being able to come up."

Souji paused and then laughed. "Or he would, if he could talk."

[etherealblast]

His grins widens a little at both Souji's words and the mental image that produced. "Tell him I appreciate the thought." He leans forward to take another sip from the straw, feeling a little better for the liquid intake.

"Is he ever going to get along with Cliff, you think?"

[ahappylie]

"I will." When Fayt leaned forward, Souji moved the cup, bringing the straw closer to his face and reducing the amount of movement he had to do. He knew that hydration was important, and considering how Fayt's voice seemed to be improving, the herbal tea was doing its work.

The other thing, however... Souji laughed a bit. "I really don't know. Maybe, one day, once he realizes what everything means. He's been the only one to stay after all these years. I think he only wants to protect me."

[etherealblast]

"Protect you? From Cliff?" Huh.... Guess Cliff could be intimidating, at times. He certainly could be in battle. And when they'd first met on Vanguard.... well.

"I guess he can seem like a pretty scary guy sometimes. Certainly was when we met the first time."

[ahappylie]

Souji shrugged a little, acquiescing to Fayt's assessment. Maybe Saizou was protecting him from Cliff or maybe he was protecting him from something else - whatever the reason, Cliff sparked some sort of anger in the piglet. Maybe he was just jealous and had sensed something before either he or Cliff had. Whatever the reason, it paled in comparison to what Fayt just admitted.

"Oh? And how did you two first meet? I've never heard the story."

[etherealblast]

"Long story short? He abducted me." That smile on his face doesn't fade, though, even as he rests his cheek back on his good arm.

[ahappylie]

"He..." He what? "He what?" Abducted? As in kidnapped? Forcibly removed against his will?

Souji blinked, staring at Fayt for a moment with the astonishment clear on his face. "And yet you still became friends?"

[etherealblast]

"His words, not mine." His expression turns a little impish at Souji's reaction.

"Some pretty nasty stuff happened that ended up with me stranded on a planet without any help. Back then I wasn't the best at fighting or protecting myself, and I ended up in a tight spot. He rescued me. Turns out he'd been trying to locate me for a while. 'I'm here to abduct you' he says. Wasn't the most reassuring thing to tell someone, but he saved my life and was my only way off the planet, so..." He'd shrug, if he didn't know the motion would be painful. Cliff had been suspicious, but ultimately a decent guy from the start.

[ahappylie]

Souji sighed and leaned back in his chair - that did sound like something Cliff would say. As straightforward as the man could be sometimes, he had a very unique way of spinning things. Putting his elbow on his knee, Souji sat forward again and put his chin in his hand. "That does sound like something he'd say to someone. But why had he been looking for you? And apparently across an entire galaxy to find you stranded on a strange planet?"

[etherealblast]

"....Well, his 'boss' wanted to meet me, actually. You know, Maria? Me getting stranded threw a bit of a kink into that plan, though." That, and a Vendeeni pursuit stranding them on yet another planet. To say Luceti was Fayt's first experience getting stranded in an unfamiliar place would be far from the truth of the matter.

[ahappylie]

Boss - Maria, the girl Souji had mistaken for Fayt's sister. Cliff had told him a bit about her, but how they all fit together was still a bit shaky for Souji. There were a few things Cliff was tightlipped about - and home was number one on the list.

"So Maria-san was interested in meeting you then. Was there a reason why?"

[etherealblast]

"Because of my father's research. Who she really wanted was to speak to my dad, but.... he'd been captured by the Vendeeni." Fayt's expression loses a bit of his humor as he says this.

[ahappylie]

Vendeeni was an unfamiliar term - obviously a rival faction or race, one that was after his father and his family. Souji recalled hearing that Fayt was still a student. If his father was an important man, apparently a scientist or researcher, then whatever he was working on was important enough either to a war (perhaps the war that Cliff talked about sometimes) or to the Vendeeni themselves, but Fayt's father hadn't wanted them to have it.

He frowned, knowing that was the easiest and best way to show concern and sympathy. "...I'm sorry to hear that. So she came to you, hoping you would know what your father had been working on?"

[etherealblast]

"Not exactly.... I didn't know what he'd done until later. Both of us wanted get him back, for our own reasons." Him simply, to get his father back, Maria, for answers.

[ahappylie]

What he'd done. It was an important distinction, one that said his father had either found his answer and implemented it and that had lead to his capture. Or that he had found his answer, hidden in, and the opposite side had taken him to torture him and find out where it was.

"What had he done that would make kidnapping him a priority?"

[etherealblast]

'What' indeed. Fayt pauses, mulling over what he should tell Souji. After everything that had happened, and how closely involved he'd gotten, he knew Souji should know. Fayt knew it, and he was sure Cliff had realized it too. Perhaps it was a combination of trust and the fever easing up his guard, but he knew it'd come out eventually.

"His research. The same thing Maria wanted answers about. I don't think we ever got the full story of why the Vendeeni wanted me and my dad, but I know what they wanted."

[ahappylie]

It was a roundabout answer, but more of an answer than Souji had gotten in a long time. His father's research had accomplished something important, something both Maria (and thus Quark and Cliff) and the Vendeeni wanted control over. It was a power struggle on a larger scale than anything Souji had experience with in his own life, but it all boiled down to a familiar concept: someone wanted what Fayt had. He had knowledge, intrinsically or explicitly about his father's research.

"What was his research about that two warring factions went after the both of you?"

[etherealblast]

"My father's the Federation's leading authority in Symbological Genetics-- It's the study of the symbology and the genetic potential living beings carry to use it. Symbology's kind of similar to what you'd call 'magic' here, I guess."

Fayt closes his eyes for a moment, breathing out. It was safe to tell him, right?

"Before I was born, he and his research team found out there'd be a large scale threat to our universe in the future by accident. Because of that...." It was easier, speaking in a neutral manner like this, even if he was far from it in the matter.

"He and his team used Genomorphy to give three kids different abilities so they could try to stop it, by embedding special symbols in their genetic material."

[ahappylie]

There were a lot of words in there that Souji didn't really understand - genetics, being the leading one. Still, he listens to Fayt's story, knowing that this was something secret, something that had been kept from him. A large scale threat to their universe that maybe had something to do with that 'realms' thing that Albel had mentioned in his rage last night. His chin unconsciously floated up and off his hand as he listened, all his attention on trying to understand what Fayt was saying.

Before he was born, three kids, different abilities - Souji's eyes widened slightly and he lowered his hand, straightening as the gravity of Fayt's explanation came to bear. His father had experimented on him before he had even been born - Fayt had to be one of the children with this chosen ability to save their universe. He, himself, was a weapon or a weapon wielder who had the task of saving everyone and everything.

How did he even respond to something like that? He saw Fayt in a new light now; one tinged with sympathy. To be so young with such responsibility had to be a terrible weight to carry. "It's no wonder Maria-san and the others were looking for you then. Did she know or was it just a hunch?"

[etherealblast]

Fayt watches Souji's reactions carefully as he spoke, looking for any sign that it wouldn't be accepted well. He was grateful that there wasn't any fear there that he could see. Such modifications to human beings, even in his time, were considered taboo and prohibited, and that wasn't even going into the 'danger to the entire universe' that made it necessary.

"She knew. She found out on her own and wanted answers, which was why Cliff was trying to track me down and Quark was looking for my dad. She's the one who told me about our powers, though she does something a bit different than I can do." He pauses, before hesitantly continuing.

"I know it sounds crazy. Trust me, I didn't want to believe it either at first."