Game Nine: Offering Muffins.

“Muffins!” Fayt clapped his hands excitedly, lingering hungrily as Cliff opened the box. “They’re my favourite…” he implied sweetly, edging closer to Cliff hopefully.

“I had no idea these were your favourite! Want one kid? There are chocolate chip ones,” Cliff asked, as if he really needed to, Fayt took one right away and took a tiny sized bite.

And to the sweet smell of the freshly baked puffy muffins, Nel and Maria entered the room and- even in all their seriousness- sat quite content with their blueberry and strawberry muffins.

Sophia, of course, came too and snuck in next to Fayt with a pecan muffin, and then her eyes lit up. “Hey Fayt, remember when we were little- I mean- a long time ago,” she corrected herself at Fayt’s confusion, for to himself he was always little, “we got a big pack of muffins and went to the seaside?” she asked, as Adray strode in and sat in the corner seat of the counter, opposite Sophia and right near the door to the outside. He would of course have raisen.

“We always shared muffins Sophy,” came his bright smile, “my mom baked them and we’d go out and eat them together!” Fayt sang, as Mirage took a vanilla muffin for herself from the deluxe box of 50.

Fayt plopped down from the stool and went to the centre of the room to lean against the kitchen top by Cliff and take another muffin, and they all watched him warm-heartedly.

“It’s because they’re special!” he added to them all. “A muffin is huge…filling… tasty; giving that muffin to someone else means you care about them lots and lots! That’s what I think! I think… that the gift of a muffin is a sure sign of care and love!” he opened his arms out and spun around and around, as if it were a game.

Before they knew it, they had eaten through the whole box- save one muffin.

“The last muffin, ‘ey?” Cliff pondered, turning to them all, “all in favour of this muffin being Fayt’s?” and every hand in the room rose.

“Really! Thanks!” Fayt cheered.

Meanwhile, Albel had been slashing like crazy and training fruitlessly, sparring with the air in all his furiousness that his training partner was of little use at the moment- his mind overbearingly full of the brat’s voice- and especially his “I love you” nonsense.

Funny, how now he was alone and knew that Fayt was happy and things weren’t bad between them, he was free to resent and hate again.

This was when he stabbed the earth in anger- just stop thinking- and he stalked towards the kitchen door. Unknown to him, the boy had drawn the others to the room way past his bed time and they were all sat around him talking about something ridiculous. At first they didn’t all notice his presence as he lingered by the opened door.

He watched Fayt put something on the side and jump up on to Cliff’s back, hugging round his neck and laughing as the ogre stood to play- until he spotted Albel.

And then they all spotted him- and there was silence. Fayt slipped down from Cliff and took something from the side. After a while of silence and a few frowns from both sides, he plodded over to Albel, stood in front of him, and held out the last muffin.

“Hi Albel…I'm sorry…I should have told you we were having fun- you see, Cliff brought these muffins and we were eating them but now there’s only one left and they gave it to me but…we left you out and that’s not fair!”

Albel looked from Fayt to them all. No doubt Sophia had told them of what happened- which meant that they all knew- everything. Anger built- he refused to look at the floor, he refused to go red, even if he looked like an idiot- what was he, a maggot like them! Then he looked down to Fayt again, who presented the chocolate muffin. His fault, this was his entire fault, what the hell was all this anyway, a playground?! Had they completely forgotten about trying to turn Fayt back!

“Here Albel! This is the last one- you can have it if you want!” Fayt insisted with a smile. “Because we’re friends, right? Bestest friends!” and Albel stared back for a moment. Every passing second Albel waited, Fayt’s smile flickered more.

And then he looked up to the room of Fayt’s anxious protectors, his friends, and they wore what to him looked like smirks, even though they were smiles. And he snapped- no more humiliation and strain- no more trying! Albel swung his claw out and knocked the muffin from Fayt’s startled hands. And before Fayt could move to get it back innocently, Albel stamped down on it and left his imprint.

Horrified gasps and outcries filled the room- others sat frozen in disbelief at what Albel had just done- even Mirage seemed pissed. But Fayt looked up at Albel in despair, his body shaking.

“I don’t want your stupid muffin you brat! When are you going to grow up and stop acting like a little kid! You’re a 20 year old swordsman- stop being so ridiculous and just turn back already- because I’ve had about all I can take of your damn sugary sweet niceness- it’s making me sick!” Albel exclaimed.

“You…don’t want to be my friend anymore?” Fayt looked up from his feet.

“I would rather be a worm than be friends with a maggot like you!” Albel shouted, sending Fayt back a step.

“O-Okay…” Fayt’s eyes closed tight, his hands hid his chest, sheltering his heart.

“Albel!”

“That was so mean!”

“What the hell is wrong with you!”

“He’s only little!”

And at this Albel let out the usual ‘bah!’ but this was one thing they would not let drop- and they backed Albel into a corner with their words- when it was Fayt himself who stepped in to defend him quickly. He tugged at Albel’s skirt desperately to regain his attention.

“You… just didn’t want it. Right? That’s…ok… not everyone likes …muffins, so!” Fayt tried to smile, but Albel pulled away and his fangs flew at them.

(Author's note: below equals Albel's rant- ok, and mine)

“That’s enough! Why in the hell would I baby sit a stupid little kid if I didn’t think he wouldn’t turn back to normal otherwise?” he seemed to ask them all, and to this they all fell silent. “That’s right, you completely forgot about that, didn’t you? Doesn’t it concern you that we’re trying to accomplish something here and our ‘leader’ is currently 4ft tall! I don’t want to ‘coddle’ him or ‘hold his hand’- I don’t want to ‘take him to the park’ or go anywhere with him- I want someone to train against- that you expected any more from me is not my fault! And as for you, you stupid whiny bitch!” he turned to Sophia.

“People 'like me’? Give me a break! You don’t have the right to say you tried to save me from myself- I'm not the only one who’s been filling his head with crap- it’s all well and fine saying you’re a good non-violent influence when you assault me when he’s standing right there- is that okay! It’s not like I care- but I won’t have any of you thinking you ever tried to give me a chance. You didn’t give up on me; I gave up on people like you a long time ago, you only help me in seeing how glad I am that I made that decision. The only reason I'm here is because I’ll clear my name, get stronger and then I can leave you worms and never have to see any of you again! So instead of being all parental, why don’t you get off your asses and try and find a way to turn him back, before he looses what little dignity he has left!”

Well, it was long overdo.

“Get out of my way,” he ordered the bluenette lividly.

Fayt trembled. “Oh…oh okay…sorry…” tears appeared as Albel swept pass him and left the room.