The room connecting the four bedrooms together would have been dark if not for the single candle on the table. The flame flickered in the slight draft coming from the window, but Albert Silverberg paid no attention. He was concentrating on his papers, going through his calculations for the third time now. There was something that irritated him, but he just couldn't figure out what.

He read a couple more sentences, stroked out one line, scribbled some notes below the line and started reading again from the beginning of the paragraph. There was something wrong there. Being stuck annoyed him greatly, even though he didn't show it.

Should just give up and continue tomorrow, he thought, sighing.

He put the pen down and leaned back in his chair. The area was silent; Master Luc had been gone for a couple of days now on business, Sarah was sleeping, and Yuber was... gods only knew where. Luc had paid for the accommodations for a week and made it clear that the others were to stay here while he was gone, but Yuber obviously didn't feel like sitting around for almost a week doing absolutely nothing.

Albert shrugged mentally at the thought, glancing at his notes again. He did have some business to attend to the day after tomorrow, but until then he was stuck here trying to figure out what was wrong with the calculations. Luc would need them when he got back, so Albert was trying to finish them as soon as possible. He knew the mage wasn't coming back until the end of the week, but he liked getting things done.

He yawned and stretched his arms. He didn't know what the exact time was, but he guessed it was about an hour till midnight. He wasn't actually tired; he had probably just been sitting here for too long.

Sitting in one place for too long... What happened to the days when I could sit in One Temple ten hours straight?

He picked the pen up and leaned back in the chair, staring at the dancing flame for a while. He had been working here for about three hours... That was nowhere near his limit. The task he had wasn't one of the hardest he had done either.

This is ridiculous.

He played with the pen, trying to keep his mind on the calculations he was working on. The problem was his thoughts weren't focused on one thing; rather, his mind was trying to work on too many details at the same time. He tried to concentrate on one detail but simply had to give up.

I need to find something else to think about for a while. Maybe then...

He let his thoughts run free and eventually began wondering what Yuber was up to. The blond demon had left the night before, saying that he would be back before Luc returned. Albert was ready to bet that Yuber had gone off to find some random battles; the swordsman was way too bloodthirsty at times. Mindless bloodshed wasn't exactly logical, but all Albert could do was shrug. He was a strategist. The only difference here was that he preferred the battle short and organized.

He leaned back a little more, stretching out his feet which were getting stiff. He felt a little annoyed for his inability to sit still for longer than this, considering that he had worked twice as long countless times before. This was just pathetic.

Ten hours...

His mind drifted to the huge library known as One Temple. He thought of the small table in the corner of one section of the library, the place he liked to think as his own even though the library had way too many visitors and all the tables were in constant use. Still, he had found himself irritated more than once for the fact that someone else had been using that table. It was a relatively peaceful corner, and he liked it that way.

He closed his eyes and pictured the place in his mind. He usually had a couple of books lying on the table, along with an ink bottle, a pen and several clean sheets of paper. The place was usually quiet save for the few people passing by from time to time...

He was reading a book, occasionally stopping to make a few notes. As always, he was able to ignore all the quiet sounds around him and fully concentrate on whatever he was studying. Someone came closer, but he paid no attention to the footsteps; he was lost in his book, this time a book about using magic effectively in battles. He made some notes and read on, analyzing the example shown on the page.

And then the person near him suddenly stepped closer and wrapped his arms around him...

...Hmm?

He smirked at the sudden turn his thoughts had taken, but didn't stop, just kept his eyes closed and continued the little daydream. There was no reason to stop, after all...

He froze. The hands moved up, stopping on his shoulders and lightly caressing his neck. He put the pen down slowly and was about to turn around but didn't get a chance. The hands worked on his scarf for a moment, untying it. Then the garment was lifted up, and before he had time to react, his face was covered.

He grabbed the other's arm in a futile attempt to fight and heard a familiar soft laughter.

"...Yuber."

The blond didn't answer. From the sounds and what little he could see from under the blindfold, he could figure out that Yuber had picked up the items from the table and moved them to the floor. The demon's other hand stayed on his body, playing with his coat.

"Not here..." He whispered, annoyance clear in his voice. The only reply he got was more laughter while Yuber worked on removing the coat from him, pulling him up from the chair and dropping the garment to the floor when he was done.

"Yuber!" He commanded only to be pressed against the table. He had to use one hand to keep himself from being forced into an uncomfortable position, but the other hand found his attacker and tried to push him away. The blond laughed again, leaning closer.

"What is it?"

"Not... in... here..." He mumbled as the other man suddenly moved his hand lower. He gritted his teeth as Yuber worked on his pants. He prayed that no one would see them, knowing that someone probably would.

He gasped as the blond managed to finally unfasten his pants and proceeded to caress him. He bit his lip, squirming a little as he felt the other man against himself. It was all horribly arousing, and he just couldn't keep himself from wanting it.

Yuber knelt behind him, keeping his hand where it was. The other hand wandered under his shirt, and all he could do was to grab the blond's wrist. He couldn't keep the fingers from playing with his nipples, nor could he stop that hand from caressing his skin. He tried to stay still, but it was harder than he could've ever imagined.

"Mm. You like it, don't you?"

He didn't reply; he simply didn't dare to open his mouth, afraid that if he did, he wouldn't be able to stay silent.

Yuber's next action was to move his hand from the hard length to the other side for a while. One of the fingers was licked carefully and pressed inside him for a moment. He held his breath, biting his lip again to keep himself quiet.

That lasted only a little while - the hand soon returned where it had been, and he could feel something warm and wet playing on the skin between his buttocks. He blinked as he felt something entering again, and wasn't able to keep himself from moaning from pleasure...

Suddenly, he was awakened from his thoughts with most uncomfortable way. The chair he was sitting on fell back with a loud crashing sound, and the next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor next to it. The back of his head throbbed, and when he felt around it, he found a bump which hurt like hell when touched.

He blinked as one of the doors opened. Sarah emerged from her room, dressed in a long nightshirt. She glanced around, confused. "What on earth was that? ...Albert?"

The strategist took a deep breath, gave the woman a slight half-smile and slowly sat up. "It appears I nodded off in my chair and... fell down. Nothing to worry about."

"Are you hurt?" Sarah asked, kneeling down beside him.

He shook his head, painfully aware of the headache that had hit him all of the sudden. "I don't think so. Might have hit my head, but it's nothing. Just go back to bed."

The woman stood up and studied him for a moment before nodding. "Yes... good night, then."

Albert's green eyes followed the woman until she closed the door, then wandered around the room for a moment before they were closed. He cursed in his mind, placing his hand on his forehead. He felt slightly dizzy, but didn't want to admit it.

Since when did you start daydreaming...? He scolded himself silently. Not that it was daytime, but that's beside the point. It's not like I needed... something.

He drew himself up from the floor with the help of the table, picked the chair up and sat down again, resting his elbows on the wooden surface of the desk. His head was feeling awfully heavy, and he covered his face with his hands, taking a few deep breaths.

Some daydream, that one.

He sat down for a while before forcing himself up from the chair. He had take support from the wall; the headache was getting bad now, and he felt uneasy. It was time to go get some rest.

He blew the candle out and staggered to his bedroom through the darkness. He practically fell down on the bed and had to rest for a moment before being able to undress. Then he rolled over and drew the sheets over his naked body.

He sighed and closed his eyes, wishing the headache would be gone the next morning so he could finish his calculations. He forced himself to relax, and once he was able to do that, he felt much more comfortable. Comfortable enough to sleep, no matter how bad the headache was.

However, one thought haunted his mind until he finally fell asleep.

Yuber, you're gonna pay for this once you come back.

Author's notes:

I started writing this as a simple snippet, but kinda got carried away. Heh. Yeah, I bet most of you would've wanted to see more of that daydream. Damn, I would've, too. Just had to stop there because I haven't written porn stuff for a while and I always get stuck writing it.

- Elmina (October, 2003)