Hi there everyone, I am back again with a new AruJu fic (Alvin/Jude) Because they are my OTP of this game.
I got the idea thanks to my partner Allen. Hence the birth of this fic.

Please be awared that there is a bit of spoiler for those who haven't played Tales of Xillia 2. And also please pardon the grammar mistake as always.

So here, enjoy!

T

It was not a surprise thing out of order when Ludger received a call on his GHS regarding a new discovery of a fractured dimension. And the gang decided to tag along to help, only those that were available at that time.

The party departed when Ludger inputted in the coordinate that Vera sent him. A blinding light appeared and erupted around Ludger, Elle, Jude, and Alvin as they held their breathes, waiting for their surrounding to lit up again. Purple-ish air and heavy atmosphere attacked Alvin's nose immediately upon their arrival. Every single fractured dimension smelled like this, so ominous and reeked of hostile. The older man looked around, taking in the party's location. It seemed they were in Trigleph this time again.

"The Catalyst should be somewhere within the city." Jude placed his fingers under his jawline and thought carefully, "May be we should spread out and look around for any disturbance in nature."

Since it was Trigleph area, it should be easy enough to find out about the thing that different from the prime world. Or so Alvin told himself. Despite working through the city for more than half an hour now, he did not seem to acquire any interesting rumor at all. Not even a single thing that out of ordinary. It seemed like just a normal day whatsoever. The warm sunlight, the shady cloud, the eerie scent in the air, all reminded him so much of the prime world, except the fact that everything here reflected a tension of some sort. It took him another half an hour to stroll through the city with slowest speed possible. Alvin after all did not want to miss out on any juicy information or interest story that he could lay his ears on. Though nothing seemed to be out of the sort in the end. The brown haired man scratched the back of his head, leaning against the wall and started to wonder if he should go back to their rendezvous place and waited for the rest.

"Alvin, what are you doing here?"

The said man turned around at the call of his name. Half of his brain was surprised, and the other half relaxed at the sight of someone that he knew too well. Approaching him was the young doctor Jude Mathis. If he had not known better, he would get fool for this was the prime dimension Jude instead. But he had learned that every single individual of the fracture dimension looked exactly the same as their counterpart.

"I thought you are not gonna be home for awhile? What happened to your escort mission?" The alternative Jude croaked his head, hands put together behind his back.

"Oh dang, I was going to keep it a secret to surprise you. But now that you found it," Alvin waved his hands in the air, "I came back early."

The young doctor looked to the side, a tint of disbelief and sadness quickly washed through his golden brown eyes before it completely disappeared. Did that mean the older man was not that welcomed? Ouch, that stung a little.

"You are going home later?" Jude asked, his hands once again came up to hug his elbows tightly together, "I will go back first and make you something for dinner." And with that, the boy left in a hurry to the apartment complex ground.

"So where is this my house supposedly to be?" Alvin scratched his head, thinking hard if he should just followed the boy or came back and meet up with his teammates. May be should not over thinking it and just followed his intuition. He could be finding out if there was any disturbance. Since it was possibly, probably something going on, there was no way, Jude and himself would live together. That occurrence was not something that he could just brush off lightly without considered the possibility of it being a divergence catalyst.

Quickly typed a text and send it to Ludger's GHS, Alvin took casual steps and found himself arrived at the entrance to his apartment, the very same one that he lived in the prime world. He wondered if the key card could work, and to his wonder, it did work like a charm.

The door slid open, revealing an apartment with two bedrooms, a tad bigger than his own, but the layout was pretty much the same. If anything was different, he would say the cleanliness, the warmth and everything that radiated a sense of having people living in this room. Unlike the one at the prime world, where it was basically just another vacation home. Alvin looked to his left, where he knew was the kitchen area. Yea, everything was the same. The same old grey steel kitchen, the same colors, the same and same and same. Except, there was a young boy, standing in front of the stove, looking back at him with a shy smile.

"Sorry I did not know that you were coming back early, so this is all we have in the fridge." Jude put down the dishes, simple dishes that he whipped up using whatever leftover ingredients he found, "I will make you your favorite dish tomorrow."

The thought of seeing Jude like this surprised the older man to a whole new level. He knew the doctor was kind, a perfect student and docile when needed. But to see him acting like this was a bit surprising and unsettling. What kind of relationship did the him and Jude of this world have?

"Alvin? Is the food not to your liking?" The boy asked over his plate, the curve of his eyes turned downwards, yet another sadness took over his face expression, "I'm sorry, I will make different dish tomorrow."

Alvin slightly opened his eyes, then he left out a chuckle. The older man reached out his hand to stroke the boy's black hair, making a mess out of it. The reaction from the black hair boy though was not something he anticipated. He knew that he was not a man that left much to be desired but… to see the boy pushed his hand away, furiously leaned back that he knocked down the chair he was sitting on. His face was a mess of fear, lonely, sadness and other feelings that Alvin could not understand. What could have of happen? May be he was full of himself and got carried away.

"You are not Alvin. Who are you?" Jude bored his eyes at him, looking tentatively. The expression that just plainly confused, no more of those fear or hesitance.

"What are you saying?" Alvin decided to play dumb, he was not sure why did he need to play dumb to be honest. But he had the feeling that may be he should tell the truth, may be he really should. Because this world would end soon anyway, so what did it even matter.

"Even though you look exactly like him, same voice, same face, but Alvin would never touch me like that." The young boy curled his fingers together in front of his chest, teeth clenched together, "Not gentle like that. He no longer treats me gentle like that."

His head was a light mess, seeing the void of emptiness inside the young boy's golden eyes. He could have easily realized that something was amiss inside those beautiful eyes.

"I am from another dimension."

"The prime dimension I assume." Jude replied.

"Sorry that I am not the one you are waiting for."

At this point, Alvin was not surprised anymore. Knowing Jude, the boy would probably be able to tell, if not experienced the journey himself. A few minutes passed in silence as Jude tried to even his breathe from fast to steady rhythm. He dashed his eyes across the room, then he finally said.

"We went and traveled to other dimensions years ago, destroyed one after another. Only to arrive at Origin and being turned down. Because we are not from the prime dimension you see." Jude remembered that day, how Origin just shoved everyone off his domain without much clearer explanation. Jude was sad, that after everything they had went through. But Ludger was devastated, he killed his own brother to open the bridge to Canaan, then he sacrificed Elle, only to be rejected at the end. Alvin too, lost the person that he loved during one of the fights. He had wanted to wish upon the Spirit of the Void to bring back just this one person, to him.

"I wish I could be of any help to him, but he…does not need me. But me being stubborn, have decided to stay by his side till the end." Jude scratched his head, smiling a bitter smile.

Alvin did not believe his ears. He could not comprehend this Jude nor able to understand the young boy's logic at all. What was this Alvin so good about for him to sacrifice so much? What was so good about him…anyway?

"Why?"

"Even if you asked me why… I guess, must be because I love him."

Love…how far could a person devote oneself for the sake of the person that he loved. Alvin had always been the one to talk about love and women and feelings. But deep inside, he knew little close to zero about love. He never had any attraction to a particular partner. He just felt the need to release stress here and there. Only when he started to become closer to the younger doctor, he started to feel the wheel of fate somehow led him a bit astray from his normal road. But seeing Jude as still a boy, he could not bring himself to do anything more than just a mere friend and partner. Besides, who was he again to compete with the Lord of Spirits?

The sound of his phone rang but he ignored it. He knew that he was supposed to meet up with his friends but Alvin deliberately shut his phone off. He came up next to the young boy and dragged him up by his wrist.

"Let's go." The older man said.

"Where are we going?"

"A date."

A date, what was he thinking? This world had to be destroyed he knew that. There should not be anymore time for him to waste around. It was not like he had not found the catalyst. But this was the catalyst that he wished not for it to be destroyed. Because it was after all a deep dark desire that he tried so hard to hold inside his heart. If he was given this one chance to let the caged feeling flied free, may as well.

They walked around the city, stopping here and there to any spot that Alvin could think off. He talked a lot, but he did not remember what did he talk about. He just recalled the younger boy giggled at him, his cheek flushed with red- such an angelic and innocent smile. A smile that he hoped that the other Jude could show it to him too.

After hours of countless wandering, they arrived at the harbor. The wind at night that day was rather a bit cold, but not until the point of freezing yet. Jude leaned his body against the railway, looking far off ahead to the dark ocean. There was so little that he could see, but he still looked ahead anyway.

"Thank you, Alvin. For spending time with me." Jude looked down, his bang swiftly covered the shadow of his eyes as it lit up with tiny bit of fractured feeling.

Alvin stroked the boy's hair, "No worries" he replied.

The black haired boy remained silent for awhile, then he finally said, eyes adverted downwards at his feet, "I'm so jealous at your Jude, for him to be treated this gentle."

Alvin laughed at that. Jealous? There was nothing for him to be jealous about, they were not even an item to begin with. There was nothing between them for him to be jealous of his alternative self.

"We are not like that." The words left his mouth sounded way bitter than he intended.

"I-I see…"

The two drifted off into silence, just standing next to each other. Hand wrapped together inside the other, clinging for that little warmth that they knew would end soon when the sun rose up again. That was why Alvin did not like daylight, they came and removed all the dirty and hysterical parts that was a part of him, leaving him bare with nothing but his ugly self.

"Alvin, what are you doing here?"

That was the voice of sunlight. It burned him and left him with nothing again.

The gang came up behind him. Ludger's face showed a surprise feeling, but it was enough to confirm whatever doubts Alvin had left. Beside Ludger, the Jude of prime dimension bored the same expression. It was probably his first time running into the fractured version of himself.

"Hey, you guys must be from the prime dimension." Jude turned his head, looking at the people that he had not seen for ages after the journey ended.

"You knew?" Ludger asked, still finding it a bit hard to understand.

"Yes," the blacked haired boy nodded his head. Then his golden eyes trailed off to himself, who was looking back at him, "Hey!"

"H-hey…"

Ludger walked closer to Alvin, his Chromatus immediately reacted. It was definitely the sign of the catalyst.

"Guess our time is done." Jude patted the older man on the shoulder, eyes lit up a grey-ish dark veil but his smile outshone the darkness inside his eyes, "Ludger here has a job to do after all."

Alvin stood still, his head lowered. He only heard the sound of Ludger asking if it was alright. Then a soft reply followed. He did not look up. Alvin did not want to look up. If he looked up, he would see how empty his soul would become again, making it harder to fix himself up later.

But he decided to look up. Alvin had decided not to ever run away again. He could do this, he had to bear this pain. The older man raised his head up when he saw Ludger transformed.

The Kresnik' eyes flickered as sadness swarm his inside. He looked back at the fractured Jude then at Alvin one last time, before he stabbed the body, then removed the spear as quickly but gently as he could.

"Alvin…"

Jude turned around, smiling one last time at him, hand reached out to him, searching for him. Half of his face turned black, his golden eye turned vividly red.

"Don't…forget me okay?"

A smile drowned in tears was the last thing that Alvin saw before the reality around him shattered, and he got sent back to his own dimension. The one where everything was nothing but a harsh and dreamless reality, so painful that it hurt.

"Alvin…what happened between you and my fractured self?" Jude walked next to him, his golden eyes filled with concern. If only those eyes would look at him with more than just feeling of pity, he could be a little happier.

The divergence catalyst was the one thing that most different and distinct from the prime dimension.

Of course, what was he even need to think about now? There was no way this Jude would look at him like that. Ever.

"Nothing." He said firmly, "Everything was just a bad dream."

Thanks for reading XD