Twenty-Three -
Suikoden IV, Ted and Aldo
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Aldo propped himself up on both elbows and eyed Ted's outflung hand thoughtfully. "So that's why," he said, mostly to himself, shoving his long hair back out of his eyes.

Ted shut his eyes, suddenly exhausted. "Yes, that's why," he said, throwing his left arm across his eyes. "That, and it's dangerous, and I don't want to know what else it might do..."

Aldo made a faint sound. Even though Ted's eyes were shut he could track Aldo's movements thanks to the spill of brown hair brushing over his chest, as Aldo leaned over to study his right hand. Ted clenched it into a fist. "Leave it alone," he snapped.

"Hm. No," Aldo said, and he picked up Ted's right hand by the wrist. "No, I don't think I will."

Ted jerked his left arm away from his eyes and blinked up at Aldo. "What--look, I've told you..."

"Yes, you have," Aldo said, peeling Ted's fingers away from the palm of his hand one at a time with that same awful smiling tenacity that had worn Ted's resistance down in the first place. "And I've told you that you have to stop worrying about it."

"Stop--" Ted's voice trailed off and he clenched his hand into a fist again. "You don't get it!"

"No, I think I do." Aldo cleverly levered one of his own long fingers under Ted's stubby ones and peeled them all away at once, baring the palm. "You've told me which Rune this is, and what it can do, and I've seen you use it. I'm not afraid of it."

"You should be," Ted snapped, frantically trying to extricate his hand from Aldo's before the man could do something else stupid.

"But I'm not. See?" And Aldo closed his eyes and leaned down. A moment later the palm of Ted's hand--and the Rune--was pressed to his cheek, and the Rune was howling in Ted's mind, and Aldo squeezed his eyes shut and heaved out an unsteady breath. Ted was frozen in shock. His fingers spasmed against the side of Aldo's face, but even if Aldo hadn't trapped his hand there he probably couldn't have summoned the coordination to pull it away.

"What--" Ted stuttered, and "--stop--", but by that point the Rune's howling had tapered off into a confused snarl in the back of his mind and Aldo relaxed, Ted's hand still cupped over his cheek. "...what?" Ted said again, nearly in a whisper.

"I'm not afraid of it," Aldo repeated, opening his eyes and offering Ted that very same damned patient smile. "I'm not afraid of it because I'm not afraid of you."

Ted closed his eyes and shivered. "You should be," he repeated.