Title: Late Night

Author: NexustehULF0o

Description: Luke cannot sleep during the middle of the night…why, I wonder?

Rating: K

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN TALES OF THE ABYSS. (NAMCO/BANDAI runs out and points accusingly at Nexus) Damn right you don't!

Nexus: Lukearness! Second favorite pairing~~! [fangirl squeal]

Luke fon Fabre opened his turquoise eyes for what seemed like the millionth time tonight. He shifted under the small blanket cradled around him, turning to the side and heaving a deep sigh of tire. The swordsman proceeded in trying to slide his eyelids over aforementioned blue-green orbs once more before something caught his eye, and he slowly and lazily reached a sitting position. Luke ruffled his short red hair and glanced that way again, only to realized that it had gone.

Colonel Jade Curtiss lifted his head, turning Luke's way after adjusting his glasses on his nose. This caught Luke's attention, watching the fonist smile at him before turning his attention back to a book he had been reading by the fire. Luke, whose smile was too late for Jade to see, adverted his eyes from the "Necromancer" and stared at the ground.

He espied small puppet master Anise in a small sleeping bag not too far away, Tokunaga, her size-changing marionette, sitting watchfully at her bedside. Anise was small, but by all means mature. Being a Fon Master Guardian, she was also entitled to be strong and unwavering, although Fon Master Ion often got her to sway from her duties. She seemed to have taken quite a liking to Luke, although after he destroyed Axzeriuth she seemed to back off a bit. She now flirted around with Guy and Ion [despite Guy's unnatural fear of women] and seemed to only really talk to him when Tear wasn't around, which was not often as of late.

Turning his head to the bright moon in the sky for a brief moment, Luke reminded himself of why he could not sleep in the first place. He looked down at the ground again, only for his eyes to inch up the blanketed figure of Tear Grants, sleeping soundly in another sleeping bag. Her form slowly rose and fell accordingly as she breathed deeply, her eyes closed delicately over her normally sparkling azure pupils. Luke managed a small smile on her behalf, as if she were still aware of him trying to reassure her she would be all right.

Tear had fallen prey to the miasma; The Seventh Fonons in her body were filled with it. She was quite sick, and often had some trouble breathing. He had told Tear countless times not to fight, but she pressed on anyway, trying to fight as she had before she had fallen ill. Luckily, Shu in Belkend had given her some medication for it.

Naturally, Luke saw it as his responsibility to take care of her. He always asked her if she was feeling okay, even if he knew she wasn't. When she became weak, he was always the first to protect her, even if she told him she wasn't in need of help.

But now, she appeared rather helpless. In her inactive form, Tear seemed tranquil; at peace…there was no pain on her face, nor any burdens of her brother Van, Legretta the Quick, or the many cities on the Outer Lands slowly sinking into the Qliphoth to bother her…

Luke smiled at the thought. She at least looked content when she slept. She must be having some pretty good dreams.

Sighing, the swordsman noticed the strands of light brown hair that had fallen into her face, obscuring her nose and mouth from his view. Slowly and gingerly, he reached over, pushing the tresses away from her calm, expressionless face. Returning his hand to his lap, Luke sighed heavily, shaking his head. He was only looking for her well-being, to make sure that nothing happened to her. Those strands of hair in front of her face could have been a major hazard when she was breathing, given her frail condition. He was just doing her a favor! While thinking, his hand unconsciously met her face once more, tracing the side of her face with the back of one finger. His eyes carved a path for his hand as it slid carefully to her chin, progressing down her slender neck.

She would be all right. The miasma would wear off, he reassured himself.

Progressively he slid closer to her, leaning over the melodist while thinking to himself and smiling.

That time at Tataroo Valley…when they had first met…he had instantly hated her, and the feeling, he was pretty sure, was mutual…

But now that he had decided to change, and they had gone through so much together…he couldn't say that anymore. Tear had become one he could confide in; one he could look to for advice or reassurance. In fact, there were so many things about Tear that he had recognized since he had tried to change that he was too stupid and narrow-minded to see before that time…that it wouldn't be any less to say that he found himself rather infatuated.

Hands shifting over to her thin, straight locks of brown hair, he brushed it behind her ear with the back of his hand. He returned his hand to her face, where he stroked the side of it and thought of how she must feel terrible. He wished he could make her feel better. He didn't know by what exact means he could, but he assured himself he would somehow. Maybe being nicer to her and not trying to pick a fight as much would work…After all, Tear was still watching over him to see how he would change.

Slowly, he leaned over her, watching her curiously for a second in order to make sure she was still asleep. He took the melodist's hand, moving downward in a feeble, fleeting kiss on the cheek. Turning a light pink, Luke brushed his thumb against the back of the sixteen-year-old's small, smooth hand.

You're going to be all right, Tear. He thought. I've reassured myself of it.

"Ahem." Came a voice, sarcastic and surprised. Luke snatched his hand away, still careful not to wake the sleeping girl beside him. He grabbed his hand as he looked up to see the Colonel's eyes upon him expectantly, wondering what kind of answer he would conjure up to blanket the situation. The swordsman nervously glanced to Tear for a moment, then turning up a grin at Jade who suspiciously raised an eyebrow and snapped his book shut.

"I would care for an explanation, you know." The fonist started, resting a hand on his leg, crossed with the other. He sure seemed cheery for what he had just witnessed.

Luke thought for a moment, still taking a swift glance to Tear now and then. Heat rushed across his face as the young man blushed darker, managing an uneasy smirk.

"Uh…well, it's my job to take care of her and…" He stammered to the equivalent of stumbling around drunkenly.

"…So you sit there and play with her hair and touch her face while she's sleeping." Jade's smile seemed to be even more antagonizing in the light of the fire. Luke gulped. It was just an innocent gesture, right? And it was not as if he had been vulgar…and taken advantage of her…had he?

"No!" He immediately denied, shaking his head. "I was just…well, I was…"

"What's going on?" The sixteen-year-old melodist sat up sleepily, rubbing her eyes as she turned to look from the fire to Luke sitting up beside her. "Luke, what are you doing awake? It's late," she asked, looking a bit confused. Luke's head jerked around to face Tear, who blinked innocently a couple of times.

"Uh…nothing. I couldn't sleep, that's all. But you should be!" He scolded her, playfully pushing her head towards the pillow. "You're sick! You should get lots of sleep, right, Jade?"

Both Tear and Luke then turned their heads toward the Colonel, who smiled, cocking his head as if he knew that Luke were trying desperately to change the subject from what had ensued between the two men earlier.

"Yes, quite. That miasma'll spread faster through your body when you are awake and breathing frequently. The miasma virus, once released from the fonons inside your body, attacks the oxygen streaming through your blood cells and infiltrates the lungs, which then transfers to the heart. It will take much longer to recover than, say, if you are sleeping and breathing slowly." The thirty-five year old agreed, nodding at the melodist and smiling as if he knew something she didn't [which he did]. Tear, tired enough as it was, nodded and laid her head back on the pillow, blindly agreeing with what the Colonel had told her. Luke watched the melodist for a while, until he was sure she had gone back to sleep. He turned back to Jade, giving him a crucial look consisting of grimacing and widening his eyes. Jade merely chuckled under his breath and shook his head, flipping to the page in his book where he'd left off and muttering, "Go back to sleep, Luke."

The swordsman let out a deep sigh, flopping backwards onto his pillow as if a giant weight had just been lifted off of his chest. Curling back under his sleeping bag, he heard Jade chuckle once more before there was complete silence around the campsite. Well, of course, omit the small crickets serenading him with their harmonious clamor of chirps.

It was going to be all right. Jade wouldn't tell, but could most certainly use it for blackmail…Luke closed his eyes and tried desperately to go to sleep. But just in case…how much did he know about Professor Neblim again…?

Nexus: "Yay! Some LukeTear time on the Fanfiction list! I haven't been able to find many LukeTear fanfictions, so I decided to make one of my own. I don't know what it is about relationship between people who hate eachother…but I love them to death. Well, anyways, R&R~~!"