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Turned On	By : blackwaltz0 Category: +M through R > Phantasy Star Views: 2172 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Phantasy Star, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
(A/N: I have a feeling that the next chapter of this fic is going to be pretty bloody violent. We had romance in the last chapter, a little more in this one, and then I FINALLY get around to adding Lassic to the fic! I've been looking forward to this! For now though, this small chapter is just a lull between two very important plot-points. Hope you guys are still enjoying this.)

Just as he had anticipated the night before, Chaz woke up to his inn room alone. It was early morning and the sun's pale rays had barely even tempered the overhanging clouds a pearlier white, yet all of Rune's things had already been packed up and moved out of the room. Chaz was a bit of a heavy sleeper and wasn't very surprised at this. He sat up in bed, stretched, yawned, and silently gave thanks to the idea that he was still alive to enjoy the morning at all. His previous battles had placed him here and another was scheduled for today. He hadn't forgotten.

On the whole Chaz felt great. He remembered the night beforehand with a knowing smile. It was embarrassing to look back on but he had no regrets to what he had done, or what he had allowed to be done to him. The hunter groggily pushed himself to the washroom where he showered and changed his clothes, deeply thankful for the hot water on such a cold Dezorian morning. The inn was alive with activity, not only from Chaz's own company but with other travelers passing through Meese, along with an occasional healthy refugee from the contaminated town of Reshel.

Preparations to leave for the Air Castle had been long underway before Chaz had begun to stir. Rune had slunk back to the inn at daybreak with Kyra in tow, their arms linked together like very good friends, or maybe something more. The both of them were happy, were smiling, and neither of them were tired in the least. They had slept well that night, though the where and how will not be further discussed here. The green-haired esper named Eugene was nowhere to be seen, and anybody with imagination could formulate a conclusion from that.

Rune had gone to get his things while Kyra had freshened up a little and he was surprised to find Chaz and Wren both asleep and inactive in his room. Well, the part concerning Chaz he had expected because the blond swordsman had been his roommate for a couple of months now, but discovering Wren there as well had been kind of odd. It was that particular sort of oddness that reminded the esper of what he had seen yesterday. How could he even consider the idea of something that weird?

He couldn't, not really, but then again maybe he could. He was the two-thousand year old Lutz and he had seen and heard of stranger things before. Not much stranger, mind you, but strange enough.

The android had told Chaz that he wasn't planning on becoming inactive that night, but sometimes it just tended to happen by itself, especially when he wasn't doing anything more strenuous than waiting and thinking. Wren appeared to be sleeping serenely until Rune kicked him a couple of times to wake him up. "Come on, no sleep-ins today! There's lots of stuff to be done! Wake up!" He cajoled, each exclamation becoming punctuated with a nudging kick.

Wren was fully alert by the third strike. He looked up at the esper leaning over him like this was an extremely common occurrence and replied, smoothly; "Kindly remove your foot from my shoulder, please." He pushed Rune away and scanned the room. It was clearly daytime now. Time had managed to slip away from him, and Wren had forgotten to set himself a reactivation date because he had not planned on slipping away in the first place. The result was that he had overslept. "Keep your voice down. Chaz is still sleeping." He cautioned the esper as he stood, attaining his full height.

Rune had glanced to their young leader, laying there like he hadn't a care in the world. In only a matter of hours the palman boy's destiny might see him resting at the bottom of an open grave. Not if Rune could help it. They'd have to wake up Chaz soon but for now the boy could continue to sleep. "You have a good night last night?" He asked Wren as he turned and got down to the task of quietly packing up his stuff. Rune was a seasoned minimalist traveler, so aside from his books there wasn't much to take.

"You could say that." Wren answered reflectively while also looking at Chaz. There was indeed much to be done, specifically at the ice digger, but there was no dire rush and it was still early in the morning. Wren was content to take a few moments to talk to Rune while there was time to spare. He felt himself in a remarkably good mood even if he did not openly show it. Chaz had wanted him last night, had really truly wanted him, more than Rika, more than anybody else. He had always been needed in the Algo star system all the time, but never once had he ever actually been wanted selfishly before. It had felt great. There was no way that feeling could ever be duplicated again, he thought.

The esper grinned as he tossed his spare clothes into a bag. "I had a pretty fantastic night myself. I feel like I could take on the world and then some! Monsters, mages, Lassic, whatever! Bring 'em on!" Rune cleared out the cache of dirty tissues from yesterday that had been hiding under his bed. He didn't feel sick at all, so the thing he had the day before must have been no more than a twenty-four hour bug. It was just as well - his magic didn't want to work right when his voice was all clogged up.

"I am glad for you. I will go and prepare the ice digger for departure now." Wren said respectfully and headed for the door. He wasn't going to be leaving so easily though, as Rune had other thoughts on his mind.

"Hold on a minute." Rune urged, straightening up from packing away his inventory. Wren halted as if he had been given a strict order, looking over his shoulder at his friend. The esper was not going to be interrogative with him, but he was going to be frank. It was like he had some kind of sick curiosity that needed to be fulfilled. Maybe it was just Rune's instinctive desire to want to know everything, but he had to figure out what he had seen. Had he really witnessed that kiss, or had that been his mind playing tricks on him? He wasn't certain.

"Do you� uh, do you like Chaz?" Every little word that crawled out of Rune's mouth made his idea seem even more ludicrous than earlier. Wren had been standing there looking blank, like a doll, and it was just so dumb to pin palman emotions onto a unit of machinery, no matter how advanced they were. And yet, that sort of reasoning didn't erase the image of Wren kissing Chaz from his memory. He couldn't just force it away and if he really was Chaz's guardian as Alys had willed it then Rune had a responsibility to protect the little brat. Not just from biomonsters, but from anything that could hurt him.

Rune was surprised to see that the android actually appeared to be slightly shocked. Wren hadn't thought that anybody was aware of him and Chaz, and if Rune knew anything about the night they had shared then it would be all over for them. Chaz did not need the embarrassment right now, not on a day like today. Wren turned to face the esper, looked to the side and scrambled to find what to say. He would not tell a lie. He would tell the truth and hopefully Rune would believe only one of its connotations.

Wren played the innocent card, which could also be interpreted as the stupid card. It was simply amazing just how quickly he was beginning to interpret palman thought patterns. "Of course I like Chaz." He replied blithely, smiling. "What reason do I have not to? He is an exceptional swordsman and a satisfactory leader." The sleeping boy was totally oblivious to the praise. He had no idea just how close he was to being found out.

That wasn't what Rune had meant. He wasn't sure if Wren was intentionally misleading him or if he truly didn't understand what Rune was getting at. All machines were innocent to the idea of 'like', yet the esper did not really know that he was speaking to the one android who was exempt from that rule. Wren was quite convincing at feigning ignorance so Rune just decided to give up on the subject altogether. What he saw must have been his imagination. It had to have been.

Anyway, Chaz had no knowledge of this little bit of suspicious interaction. To him, everything seemed to be getting better and he was happy. After his shower Chaz went downstairs to grab himself some breakfast and met Rika at the table, fussily adjusting the length of her claws. The hunter took a seat next to her and watched with interest. They were weapons sharper than his own sword and knives, gliding through flesh that usually needed to be hewn, a three-pronged scalpel that became like an extension of her body�

"What are you staring at me for?" Rika eventually asked and snapped Chaz out of his reverie. Whenever anybody stared at her she automatically felt self-conscious. Chaz was not like any of the people they had passed in their travels, who cast silent glances at her and each other regarding her strange ears, but she liked the boy and worried over what he thought of her. Soon, she reminded herself, soon she would have to tell Chaz everything. But not now. Not until after Lassic was defeated.

"Oh, I was just wondering if Lassic anticipates being torn to bloody shreds." Chaz admitted as he poured himself some cereal. He was just about to reach for the milk when Kyra crept up behind him like a phantom and put Chaz in a playful headlock, making the boy squawk. Just like Rune Kyra seemed back to her old self again and grinned as Chas wriggled in her arms.

"What he's really thinking about is confessing his eternal love for you! It's so sweet, right out of a romance tale. That's the reason why he stares!" She announced cheerfully. Chaz went bright red and Rika blushed a little herself, but the first thing that Chaz thought to do was to deny it. Kyra's impish accusation was right on the money but it was more complicated than that. There were Chaz's feelings to get through first, Rika's too, and now also the feelings of a completely unrelated person, Wren. Even so, Kyra had sensed Chaz's growing attraction to somebody in their party and had jumped to the conclusion that it was the numan girl. She was trying her best to bring them together as covertly as possible.

So now everybody was, in some way or another, tied to Chaz's deep affection for Rika and his illicit affair with Wren. It seemed so likely that eventually there would be a slip and all of it would fall apart, but that time was not now. On this morning everything was good and happy, and Chaz could take a joke. "D-Don't be ridiculous! I was just thinking!" He exclaimed, jerking his shoulders away from Kyra and forcing her to let go. The blue-haired girl laughed at Chaz's indignation but turned away when Rune strode into the room, pulling on his black velvet gloves. It all made sense now, the Lutz must have been influencing Kyra to pick on him. He never got a break.

Rika wished that Chaz didn't have to deny an idea like that so vehemently. It would have been nice for him to demur softly or not to say anything at all, then maybe she could continue to tell herself that Chaz might like her, that she still had a chance with him. She really wanted to know the name of the floozy he had hooked up with, just to see what she was up against, but she was afraid that she'd be no match at all against her. Rika said nothing, she just continued to fiddle with her claws in a less energetic way.

"Chaz is thinking? Have all the planets and space stations aligned or something?" Rune smirked in his own special way, walking over to Kyra so he could loom over Chaz. Rune liked to loom over Chaz. It was one of the easiest ways to tick the boy off, but the hunter had already gone back to his cereal peacefully. Rune wasn't going to provoke him so easily today. Both espers looked at one another and smiled. In a secret move that nobody else saw Rune and Kyra joined hands. It was rather cute. "So what did you do last night, shorty? I hope you went over your techniques thoroughly, or were you too sick for that?" He asked.

"'Didn't think to do it. Wren and I played some chess for awhile then we went to bed. I was tired." That lie came remarkably easily to him, as if he had pre-determined it in the night. However, mentioning anything at all of last night whether it be true or merely covering up the truth left a strange hot feeling nestled between his ribs. It was a pleasant sensation, the hunter finally having a secret worth keeping, worth protecting. Chaz turned in his seat to look at Rune. "You don't seem very hung over. Didn't you go to the bar?"

Rune definitely looked like he was hiding something too. "Nope, I didn't. I had other things to do. Mostly I didn't want to turn up this morning feeling like crap. I want to give Lassic the full attention he deserves." Chaz was relieved to hear that. He had been worried about the esper yesterday evening before that worry had been totally stolen out of his mind.

They were all present now except for Wren, and he was the one person Chaz wanted to see the most. Perhaps for a physical confirmation that everything that had happened was real, and if it was, he wanted to make sure that his friend was alright. Wren was always the first one working and the last one to finish said work, so Chaz wasn't very anxious. He could be patient when he wanted to be. Sometimes. "Where's Wren?" Chaz asked casually to the two espers who had just taken seats at the table. Okay, so maybe he wasn't that patient after all.

Instead of Rune or Kyra answering Rika piped up. Kyra was too busy fixing up her short hair and circlet while Rune was hungrily eyeing the strips of bacon on the table, just out of his reach. "He's out back." The numan girl said happily, covering up her mild case of the blues with a kind smile. "The innkeeper's wife borrowed him for some menial tasks. He said that he didn't mind. The ice digger's already warmed up outside the town. We were kind of waiting for you, Chaz."

"I'm glad you guys didn't decide to leave without me." Chaz joked as he stood up from his seat. Looking at Rika he noticed something he had completely missed up until now, an item that the previous Chaz Ashley would have spotted within a heartbeat. Rika was wearing a white flower in her hair. So delicate and astonishingly fragile, it made her look lovely. Although it was hardly appropriate for battle gear he still thought it was nice.

Rika caught Chaz staring and was pleased. She tilted her head slightly to draw attention to the flower. "Do you like it? I gave Raja a bunch of these blossoms last night as a get-well present but he gave one back to me to wear when we fight in the Air Castle. He even gave it a blessing, and said that it meant he would be there with us even if he is sick in bed. Even if�" Her smile faded from both her lips and her eyes. "Even if he is dead. Raja's being incredibly optimistic about things but I think a deeper part of his isn't so confident. He hasn't got much time left in him."

There was a prolonged silence all throughout the breakfast table. It threatened to strangle any further conversation. Rune coughed, then the corner of his mouth turned up a little as he had a thought. "If that happens then the old kook would be waiting for Lassic in the afterlife with an eternity of bad jokes to tell."

The pink-haired girl glanced at Rune as if he had already told the worst and most tactless joke in the world already. She wasn't sure if she should scold him or hit him for such a remark. Raja was their friend. It just wasn't right to joke about his death like that.

Suddenly Kyra started to giggle, her imagination picturing a translucent Raja with small wings and a halo waiting for Lassic at the entrance of purgatory with a mammoth book of jokes in his arms. She didn't really know the dezorian priest that well, as he had fallen ill right before she had joined their team, but the visits to his bedside had been enough to weave a bright tapestry about his personality. Kyra laughed, Rune joined in too, and then finally Chaz. "The three of you are terrible." Rika said in a disapproving tone, but she guessed she could see why the others found it funny.

Chaz excused himself from the breakfast table after he had finished eating and left for the back door, passing a dezorian hunter and his sister who were quietly reading the paper together. The door was of course unlocked and led into the backyard, not that the citizens of Meese invested in anything as pointless as fences in what was apparently a very efficient commune. On such a harsh planet people trusted one another more. They simply had no choice. The hunter nearly bumped into the innkeeper's wife who was sitting on the steps, enjoying a nice cup of coffee. Steam rose from the liquid in thick, inviting streamers.

Wren had been conned into splitting firewood for the woman after all his other tasks had been completed. His basic function was to serve people so he didn't mind doing extra work - he was useless when idle anyway. The woman he was helping was not physically strong and with her partner away at the healing house all the jobs that required manual labor had begun to pile up. Wren liked to help. It would kill time until they needed to go.

"Good morning Mr. Ashley. You're looking well today." Said the woman brightly, glancing up at the boy. Chaz had rarely been called that before and it made him feel weird, like an old man. The innkeeper's wife wasn't especially old either, in her early thirties perhaps, and there was a sort of suggestion that she may have been very pretty once, a decade ago. "I hope you don't mind that I borrowed your friend. He seems like the hardworking type. Are you going soon?"

"Yeah, in a bit. Wren! Come on, let's get going!" Chaz said, calling out to his friend who wasn't very far away. The android heard Chaz's voice and put down the tool he was using, planting the low-grade laconia hatchet back into the cutting block. Their eyes met over the short distance and nothing particularly special happened, but Chaz could guess that Wren might have been worried over how he felt, just as he was feeling for Wren. An unspoken exchange seemed to pass between them, something that would have sounded like; 'Are we both okay?' 'Yes, I think so.'

The woman sitting on the steps could tell that she was intruding on something in some way, so she did what any good innkeeper was wont to do. "I had better get back to my chores now." She announced in an amused fashion, flinging the remainders of her coffee out onto the snow, causing a patch of it to melt. Chaz moved away to give her room to stand and reenter the house, the woman yawning as she left.

While walking towards the entrance of the inn Wren was tempted to tell Chaz that he suspected Rune knew something about them, but the boy looked so happy this morning and he didn't want to take that happiness away from him. Perhaps he'd mention it later when they were not on the verge of risking their lives. He stopped in front of Chaz, awaiting further orders. The hunter just continued to look at him appraisingly, smiling slightly. Maybe Chaz wanted him to say something first? "Regarding last night�" Wren started to explain as he took Chaz's hand, but then he couldn't think of a proper way to complete that sentence. He had been dwelling on it all morning, but hell, now any answers were gone.

One thing that really got to the boy was just how gentle Wren was when he chose to be. The same metal-plated hand that had bent steel and smashed through solid stone was now gripping his own so carefully, so softly. Wren was handsome, intelligent and kind, all the traits that were important in a person. If Chaz wasn't careful he feared that he might get in too deep with his friend, but as time and events continued to change he found that he didn't care anymore. "Regarding last night I've made up my mind." He said as surely as he was able.

"What do you mean by that?" The hunter seemed like he was comfortable in the role of the decision-maker. Chaz was leader material and he would have expected nothing less, Wren guessed, though it had felt good to take a step forward in their relationship of his own volition. It made Wren feel more� real. Realer than he had ever been, it felt.

Chaz's smile widened. He didn't need to say anything at all to convey how he felt, it would be self-evident. The boy moved towards Wren and put his arms around him as well as he could, surprised at how the armor didn't feel cold, and rested his head against Wren's chest. Nobody was watching them, the others were inside, so they had no reason to fear. Chaz sensed his friend hesitate for a few moments, then an arm slipped about his waist, Wren's other hand coming up to support the back of the swordsman's head, fingers running through the short blond hair. Chaz closed his eyes, content.

They remained that way for a considerable amount of time, until something tiny and incredibly cold froze the tip of Chaz's nose. The shock of sensation jolted the boy right out of the comfortable daydream he was in, green eyes going cross-eyed in an attempt to see the little snowflake that had startled him so. More flecks of white fluffy ice were falling all around them as well. "It's snowing." Chaz said absently, watching them drop to the ground.

"It frequently snows on Dezoris, Chaz." Wren declared dryly, but he wasn't just being overly informative. The android was beginning to pick up on sarcasm along with a myriad of other things, both decent and indecent. Chaz broke the hug and stepped away from him, folding his arms. His smile became lopsided, mischievous. Hearing that kind of sarcasm was a triumph for him. "You have snow on your� right here�" Wren said softly and then wiped it away with a thumb, brushing it down the bridge of Chaz's nose.

He supposed that he was a sucker for all the little gestures that made a relationship worthwhile. Chaz felt his cheeks heat up as his lover touched him again, gently. He liked it, but they hadn't the time to get caught up in this stuff all over again. They had an evil ex-king to slay and the others would be waiting for them inside. They were already running rather late as it was. "Let's get back to our mission, Forren." He said, a little unwillingly. For now it was time to don the guise of professionalism and leave their personal lives behind.

He had anticipated hearing that. Wren knew even more than Chaz what was currently at stake. Instead of saying 'affirmative' or 'understood' Wren just replied with a; "Yes, I know," and withdrew his hand, walking back into the house to meet up with their friends. Too much of a good thing was dangerous. Any more private moments, private endeavors and they would be caught out, if they hadn't been already.

Truthfully Chaz was pretty anxious to get back into battle again. He had to protect everybody in the world, his friends, his allies, and now his lover too. The Light knew that he wouldn't place a very high priority on his own life, as he had seen in their last trip through the Air Castle. He didn't know what he'd do if anything ever happened to Wren.

Little did he know that what he felt was, just maybe, and it explained everything, the very first semblance of real love.
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