Disclaimer: All characters and locations belong to their respective owners.
A/N: I can't help but feel that, in spite of the light-hearted nature of this fic, the sour note the ending presents to me was inevitable no matter which direction I took it in. Mind you, I don't think it sour not because of the way I wrote it but because of what happens to Quint and Megane afterwards (the former gets killed in the Combat Cyborg Incident and the latter is taken by Jail and used as a bargaining chip for her daughter to collect the Relic he could utilize to revive her). It makes me wonder how, within the four years after StrikerS and up to Vivid, Megane would react upon learning the fate of her team years later.
Which is why I'm kinda hoping Quint reappears as an Artificial Mage in the future. I feel that if Zest and Megane can get their "screen-time" in both the manga and anime, then so should she. (/end rant)
I had this idea in mind for a while now, but part of what jump-started it to fruition was taking a peek at Vivid Chapter 16 a week ago. Oh yeah, Megane, you were totally crushing on Quint. That look on your face just screams FANGIRL and LET'S FIGHTING LOVE. Heh, "burning ablaze", indeed.
Where the Green Shoots Grow
Megane looked up at the slate blue sky and realized, to her dismay, that she was lost. Why did sunflowers have to be so tall? Why couldn't they be short and fragile like tulips or sly and painful like the thorns on roses?
She sighed, ready to admit defeat. I'm not going to get out of here, am I? Stupid Quint, it was her fault for dragging her all the way out here. Wasn't homework supposed to come first when you got out of school? Megane surely thought that was the case, but apparently her friend had other things (nononono, 'things' wasn't the right word, never the right word; it had to be 'schemes', you see! dirty, sneaky, underhanded schemes that would suck the insanity from her pores until it left her dry and brittle as the husk of a chrysalis, and chrysalises were so papery and icky and ugh) in mind. All work and no play made Quint a very bored, very restless, very…sigh…infuriating girl.
Why was she friends with her again? Oh, that's right, because they'd known each other since childhood. Ah, the ups and downs of being a prepubescent, the roller coaster that was teenage adolescence.
Seriously, what were the Divines thinking, punishing the first humans? It wasn't their fault they got curious about shtick like good and evil, apples, and full-frontal nudity….
"MEGANE," Quint's voice rang from the rows of tall, thickly bunched sunflowers. "MEGANE, COME AND FIND ME!"
Inwardly she groaned. Did she have to? She really would like to leave that girl behind and go back home where she would be sheltered by the mysteries of the night. But, you know, they were friends, and to her misfortune friends had to watch out for each other. Like making sure they didn't come across feral turkeys and get abducted so they would be sacrificed to their god the Shadow Raptor. "Where are you?" she called back.
"I'M OVER HERE!"
"Where?"
"HERE!"
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. Of course that girl wasn't going to tell her where she was; she wanted her to use her brain - which was okay because growing teenagers had to develop their minds, hone their senses. They had to be ninja-LEET or they would never make it past TSAB's entrance exams and be super-awesome-ultra-mega soldiers with LOVE and SOUL and indoctrinated in the ways of Badass-ism.
But she just wanted to go home and Quint was being a pain in the place where the sun wouldn't dare think of shining on. Was that too much to ask?
"MEGANE!"
Apparently not.
She sighed again, resigned to her fate. "I'm coming!" She pushed aside the sunflowers and slid inside. "Stay where you are!"
"…THAT'S STUPID!" Quint's voice followed a beat later.
"YOU'RE STUPID!" Megane yelled, grunting and shoving and pushing and why why did they have to live in North Mid of all places, where everything was green and shrubby and fauna and flora had to be the dominant species?
Her friend's laughter filled the air like the toll of church bells, light and free and melodious.
Her heart skipped a beat. Such a troublesome girl, making her feel this way…!
There was a rustle of movement.
"Is that you?" said Megane.
In a singsong voice: "MAY~BE~"
We're the only ones here, you dope! "Stop moving around! I can't find you!"
"I DON'T WANNA BE FOUND!" Rustle, rustle, rustle. "I GO WHEREVER MY FEET TAKE ME!"
"And where's that?"
"I DON'T KNOW," Rustle, rustle, rustle, "BUT IT'S BETTER THAN STANDING AROUND DOING NOTHING."
I wish you were standing around doing nothing, Megane grumbled, snapping a sunflower in half and throwing it to the wind. Maybe then we can get on with our lives instead of horsing about like children! "You're gonna have to come out eventually. I'm not going to spend the rest of the day frolicking in the middle of nowhere."
"REALLY? I DON'T MIND; I WANT TO SPEND THE DAY WITH YOU."
Her cheeks flushed. No no, it's not like, it's definitely not like that…. "Well I can't spend it if I can't find you, and if I don't find you and I tell your brothers…." She gulped. She heard and had seen what they did to the boys that wronged their little sister. She didn't want to even think what they would do to her. "Look, just come out, or tell me where you're at, and let's go home. I've been on my feet all day and I'm tired. Aren't you tired?"
"NOPE!" Sigh…Figures. "I FEEL MORE ALIVE THAN I'VE EVER BEEN IN MY LIFE. THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH HOURS IN A DAY, NOT ENOUGH DAYS IN A WEEK IN A MONTH IN A YEAR. YOU GOTTA LIVE IT TO THE FULLEST AS IF IT'S YOUR LAST." Rustle, rustle, rustle.
Megane paused. She sounded close. Very close. With a renewed sense of resolve, she bulldozed through the insufferable sunflowers. Where? Where could that dope be? "With that kind of attitude, I'll have to keep my eyes on you twenty-four-seven."
"ALL THE MORE REASON TO SPEND IT WITH YOU, ME-GA-NE~" Rustle, rustle.
She listened, tried to pinpoint where exactly the sunflower heads were wobbling…and then she saw them move. Crouching low, muscles tensing, she said, "Is that what you want? To never grow up? To always remain the same, annoying girl for all eternity?"
"HEY, AT LEAST I'D STAY PRETTY. NEVER AGING, NEVER SUFFERING, WOULDN'T THAT BE SOMETHING TO BOAST ABOUT?"
"If you're arrogant, then yes that would be something." She inched forward, footsteps muffled by the plush grass. "I would be very bored if I were an immortal, not to mention lonely and always in pain. There's no greater punishment than outliving everyone and enduring the cycle ad infinitum." Because being immortal meant you were not living life as it was meant to be but living a life that could only be defined as hell on earth.
She paused and hooked her fingers round a stalk, peering through.
Bada-bing, bada-boom; no one on Mid could possess such long, shapely, sculpted legs. Unless you were a cricket, then that would be just nasty and wrong and really nature can you be any more messed up? She braced herself.
"I SUPPOSE YOU'RE RIGHT," said Quint, "BUT SERIOUSLY, NO ONE WANTS TO TRULY DIE…AT LEAST, THE SANE ONES DON'T WANT TO DIE." She was pacing back and forth, back and forth, in a circle that was starting to show. "MAN, I CAN'T IMAGINE WHAT MY LIFE WOULD BE LIKE WITHOUT YOU AND GENNY AND ZESTY. IT'D BE LIKE AN ELECTRIC SHOCK, Y'KNOW? SOMETHING HARD, SOMETHING FAST—"
And that was when Megane struck. She leaped from her cover and tackled the girl to the ground. A startled squawk erupted from Quint, and when her back touched dirt she scrambled to escape those hands and those legs and bucked like a rodeo horse.
They rolled and kicked and clawed, but ah, Megane had no intention of submitting. She was going to be the tops, see, she wasn't going to give her a chance in hell, but gods-damn was Quint strong. She had a grip like steel and a body so tight and so hard she could probably take a hit from a speeding bullet train and walk away unscathed. That didn't stop Megane from trying.
Except, after a while, neither could gain the upper hand; huffing and panting, they lay side by side, recovering their breath. The sun was warm on their faces, the breeze cool and relaxing.
Quint turned her head toward her and grinned. There were grass blades and sunflower leaves in her hair. "That was fun. Let's do it again!"
"No," Megane breathed, running a hand down her face. "Just no. Not now, not ever.
"Aww, but you did good, Meggy." She poked her shoulder. "You even caught me off guard! You did say you were having trouble passing the stealth portion of the physical exam. Who better to ask for help than yours truly?"
Megane looked away, scratched her cheek. "A mage does need to balance both offense and defense, especially an assist-type like me. If I'm ever pinned down in a fight and I need to reach my team, I would have to do more than just dampen my manna and life signature."
"There you go! Aren't you glad you have a friend like me?"
"You're not too bad," she grumbled, squirming on the spot. "Could be calmer. And quieter." Didn't Quint ever hear of an Inside Voice? Probably not, considering how hot the blood in her family ran. "But you're okay."
Quint giggled and buried her face in her friend's hair, nuzzling. "And you're the best."
Megane couldn't help but smirk. She lifted her head and bumped it against the other's chin. "I know I am."
"We should do this more often." She turned her gaze to the sky, blue and clear and laced with wispy cloud.
"Yeah, we should." And she gazed, too. It sure was pretty today.
"While we're still young."
"We have a lot of time. We can forget our troubles for one day."
"I know. I just wanna enjoy the time we have. You know, before we grow up and really have to take on responsibility." Quint sighed. "It won't be long before we graduate."
"Yeah."
"I don't want to forget you, Megane. Not you or Genya or Zest or any of our friends."
"You're not going to forget us, you dope. We're all going to try for the Capital Defense Corps when we get out, and even if we don't make it we're still not going to forget each other."
"You think so?"
"Trust me, when we graduate and move to Central, we'll be sticking together. The four of us, with the rest of the new recruits, we're going to help make Mid-Childa a better place. For the current generation and the next generation. That's what we're going to do. The world's future is our future; it's ours to shape."
"Sounds momentous."
"It is."
"Can we do it?"
"Of course we can. It takes time and practice for these sorts of things." Megane closed her eyes and breathed. She felt very comfortable lying here. It was making her sleepy. "We'll get the hang of it, don't worry."
Quint hummed agreeably. "In due time." She rested her head against Megane's.
Megane didn't mind. "Yeah, in due time." Schoolwork could wait. Here in this sunflower field with her best friend and far from home, it always did.