There was an owl somewhere nearby; the sound it was making woke Abel Nightroad up from what felt like he had just been sleeping, except he knew he hadn't. Or had he? He wasn't suddenly so sure about it. He was lying down, but on the other hand, he was clearly outside. There were peaceful sounds of the night all around him, and it was somewhat chilly. Yet, he was lying down, and his head was resting on something more or less comfortably.

He had trouble opening his eyes for some reason, so he gave up trying to do that and tried to think instead, despite the fact that he had a slight headache. What had happened? He, Tres and Leon were on a mission to investigate an incident and catch the troublemakers related to said incident. They had found enough clues and evidence on the third day of the job, had tracked down two vampires tonight, and...

And what? What came after that? He frowned, unable to recall what had happened. He groped around for support in an attempt to sit up, but his body refused to listen to him. He then winced in pain as he realized that his left side hurt.

"It's recommended that you do not move, Father Nightroad," a familiar voice told him, and he forced his eyes open only to find Tres looking down at him. It didn't take too long for him to notice that his head was on Tres's lap.

"Tres?" He asked, partly surprised and partly panicking. "W-what's going on? What are you doing? Where are we, where's Leon, where is...?"

Tres didn't even blink at the chain of questions and simply continued what he was doing while answering. "You are resting after battle," the cyborg informed him, holding up a strand of silver hair. He smoothened the hair between his fingers before placing the strand down on Abel's shoulder. "I am cleaning your hair," he then continued as he selected another messy lock of hair and repeated what he had done with the previous one.

"Er, why?" Abel wondered aloud, a slightly dumbfounded look on his face. He then realized something, and his eyes widened. "Tres! You're-!" He yelped and tried to get up, but the attempt was met by a firm hand holding him down.

"Recommend you do not move," Tres repeated in his usual monotonous tone of voice. "I am what?" He then inquired and loosened his hold on the other priest's shoulder.

"Naked!" Abel shrieked, again making an attempt to move. Tres held him still once more.

"Negative," the cyborg stated. "I am not naked. It is only my upper body that is not covered."

Abel blinked and looked up at his partner's face. "Oh, uh, I guess," he mumbled. Well, his head was on something relatively soft, like fabric, instead of a cool, harder surface. He had leaned on Tres's bare shoulder before, and it didn't feel like this. He put on his innocent face and tried to calm down. "Right then, I was asking..." His eyes wandered a little, and his cheeks suddenly gained a faint pink hue. "Tres?" He asked and quickly looked at the sky. "Um, why are you half-naked?"

"You fell from a tree," Tres told him.

"Tres," Abel interrupted hastily. "And what does that have to do with you being half-naked?!"

Tres looked at him. "You fell into a thorny bush. It is recommended that you have your coat and cassock cleaned before wearing them again."

"But I'm wearing my-" Abel started but then went silent. Actually, he wasn't wearing his coat. He was wearing a coat all right, but it was not his; the sleeves were too short, and the garment didn't feel too fitting. "I mean... I am wearing your coat. Aw, you're so sweet, Tres. You gave me your coat. Didn't want me to get cold?"

"Positive," Tres replied. He arranged Abel's hair a little and then continued cleaning it.

Abel gave the cyborg a smile before his expression turned thoughtful. "So where is my...?" He began, but then his eyes wandered over to the side where he spotted a pile of dark clothing a few feet away from them. There seemed to be something stuck all over the fabric, and he sighed. He actually didn't remember falling anywhere, but if Tres said so, it had to be true. "I fell into a thorny bush. When was that? And... whatever else I already asked?"

"2150 seconds ago," came the reply. About half an hour, then. Abel found his head was hurting too much for exact calculations.

"We are near the woods, 2.4 kilometers outside the town," Tres continued. This was obviously the answer to his earlier question about their current location. "Father Leon went to catch the human who escaped. Your last question was, 'where is,' but I am unable to answer it because you did not complete the sentence."

There was a low sound from the nearby bush, and Abel's eyes instinctively turned towards it. There was nothing to be seen, and Tres didn't seem to be alarmed. "All right then," he acknowledged, quite certain that this was all the detail he was about to hear right now. Unfortunately, Abel wasn't sure what his last question had been, so he ignored it. "What happened?"

"Do you have no recollection of recent events?" Tres inquired. He stopped his task for a moment and studied Abel's expression. There was, in his opinion, no reason for Abel to suddenly forget things, other than when losing consciousness at the end of the Crusnik part.

"I, uh, I might have actually. Let me think..." Abel tried to focus on something. He failed to do so and ended up staring up into Tres's eyes for a moment. He then blinked a couple of time and closed his eyes. His memory was hazy, but he did remember something. "We... found the vampires somewhere... at the crossroads, wasn't it?" He started carefully, not sure about everything. "They were... under a couple of tall trees? They were talking about something. Leon told them they were under arrest and they just laughed and attacked. Right?"

"Positive," Tres confirmed. He picked up another lock of hair and brushed it with his fingers.

"And then you shot at the first vampire and Leon noticed something and ran to the side and the other vampire... uh, jumped on the tree and then you managed to wound that first one?" Abel rambled, now a little more sure about his story.

"Positive."

"And you got hit by something that second vampires threw at you and I... you know. And then I, well, followed the vampire up to the tree. And..." The look on Abel's face darkened a little. He had, in Crusnik form, killed the vampire; sliced him in two with his scythe. He wasn't sure what the vampire had hit Tres with, but it looked like whatever it had been had not had much effect on the cyborg in the end since he seemed to be fine now. "Are they both dead?"

"Positive," came the same reply again.

Abel adjusted his position just a bit, and sharp pain shot up his side. He gritted his teeth. "I think I have forgotten something though," he commented weakly. "My side hurts."

Tres paused his task again and looked down. "There was a human male with the vampires," he stated. Abel looked confused, so Tres concluded the other priest didn't remember this fact. "He had a gun. He shot you."

"What?" Abel stared at the cyborg questioningly. "I... I don't..." He began, but was unable to finish his sentence. There had indeed been a third person around, but the tall priest had been too busy with the vampires to pay much attention to him. Shooting...? He closed his eyes and tried to remember. It slowly came back to him, including the part when he had turned to look at the gunman but had just stared at him, knowing it was a human. He was not going to harm humans.

"Um..." He looked at Tres again, a little nervous. "Right, I... remember now. There were two shots, I got hit on my side... and then... Oh! Then I fell from the tree."

"Positive."

"I got shot and fell from the tree," Abel complained. "Looks like I was knocked out while at it. Hit my head. And my side is..." He closed his eyes again and tried to stay still to keep the pain minimal. "Tres, am I going to die now?"

"Negative," Tres stated. "Crusnik cannot be killed with two bullets to the side."

"Oh, I can't?" Abel voice picked a more cheerful tone. "That's good to hear! Except, well," he then added in an anxious tone. "I think I might need a doctor. Need to get the bullets out. And you're saying I shouldn't move! How are we going to get out of here?"

"One bullet went straight through. I removed the other one," Tres informed him. "You are not bleeding. I have determined that there is no need for a doctor at this moment."

"Well... if you say so. There should be antibiotics back at the church, so guess I won't be dying anytime soon," Abel babbled. "This of course assuming we're not staying here for the rest of the night! That doesn't sound too fun. What time is it anyway? Or never mind, can't be that late yet since it was only past nine when we left the town. But I would still prefer if we didn't stay here all night."

Tres picked up a few prickles from the strand of hair he was holding. "Father Leon contacted me 1570 seconds ago. He will be returning here with a carriage within the next half an hour."

"Leon caught that guy then?"

"Positive," Tres verified. "He has been handed over to the authorities. Professor Wordsworth will be arriving tomorrow to question him."

"Well then," Abel said and took a nice, deep breath. His side stung a little thanks to that, but he tried to ignore it. "Guess we're stuck waiting until Leon gets here."

He looked up at the night sky. The crescent moon was still working its way up and hung just above the treetops. The sky was mostly clear, with a couple of clouds scattered below the stars. The air felt a little cold, but he did have a shirt and Tres's coat to keep him warm. His eyes wandered down, and he stopped to look at Tres's bare chest. "...Aren't you cold?" He asked quietly.

"Negative," Tres answered in his usual tone.

"Ah. Guess not," Abel mumbled. He felt a little silly all of a sudden and turned to look away. He then glanced at Tres, and fixed his attention on what the cyborg was still doing. "Hey, Tres? Is that really necessary? I can just wash it once we get back to the town and..."

Tres stopped and looked down at Abel. "Do you want me to stop?" He inquired.

"Well, no, I was just... wondering," Abel replied. He smiled a little as Tres brushed a lock of hair with his fingers and then neatly set it down. The headache was slowly getting better, and he would surely be fine once they would get back to the town. Sleep sounded good. Sleep and lots of food.

Tres didn't say anything; he simply picked up another strand of hair and studied it for a moment before stroking through it carefully.

Abel yawned, feeling tired. "That's kind of nice actually," he then commented, eyes closed. "I can't see why you bother, but I'm glad you do."

"Why I bother?" Tres queried, and then froze. Luckily, Abel was not looking at him right then, because he looked slightly puzzled. He looked down at the tall priest for a long while before continuing his task.

"Data malfunction. Information not available," he finally stated.

"Mmm?" Abel murmured. He opened one eye lazily and looked at Tres. "What are you talking about?"

"Information not available," Tres repeated and continued going through the silver hair. Abel pouted and squeezed his eyes shut, knowing that Tres was not going to tell him anything else. It didn't matter; he was quite comfortable, and since Leon was not going to show up for at least half an hour, he was going to take it easy. Maybe he could even take a short nap.

Tres caught a stray lock of hair from Abel's face, drawing his fingers over the other man's chin while doing so. He then set on the task of cleaning said strand of hair, though there actually was nothing on it. He was mostly finished with getting all the thorns and such out of Abel's hair by now, but was determined to do a double check on it.

Besides, though he really didn't understand why, he liked doing this.

Author's notes:

Abel the 900 year old virgin strikes again, with all that freaking out over the fact that Tres has no shirt on. Yep.

2.4 km = ~1.5 miles by the way. TB, Europe, metric units and so on.

- Elmina (May, 2007)