Garmon Mountain was usually quite quiet at this time of day; after all, the birds were barely awake yet. Gale had been lucky enough to be awake when the few that lived at this altitude woke up and began to sing. Not that it was surprising, since he'd never gone to sleep.
He sat with his feet hanging over the edge of the cliff, staring out into the endless nothingness surrounding the mountain. He'd been there since the prior evening when Ignis had taken him up to the summit to look at the stars and like most nights he just hadn't felt like going to sleep. In his hands he held an apple, one of Ignis' gifts- a re-gift of one of the shining apples Jill used to frequently give him. He took a large bite of it, licking his lips to catch all of the juice. Shining apples really were a delight and he couldn't think of a better breakfast, but it made him sort of uneasy that they'd come from Jill's farm; it wasn't that he disliked Jill or anything, but they hadn't exactly been on friendly terms since he'd flat out rejected her proposal a few weeks ago.
Jill was the local farmer in Castanet- she'd moved in during the spring about a year ago and had been wildly successful in returning the island to its former glory. In the process she had fallen in love with him, going out of her way to talk to him every day and showering him with rare and valuable potion ingredients. She was a very kind woman and it was the unanimous opinion amongst the villagers that any man would be lucky to have her, which he wholeheartedly agreed with. The problem was simply that he didn't love her.
Gale had lived in Castanet for more years than most of the current inhabitants had lived, since he had first moved in to train with his master. While he had been training he had become an acquaintance of the Harvest King, the local god of Prosperity and Good Fortune. The two of them had become good friends, much to the surprise of his master, and eventually he found himself falling for him. Usually this would have been something of a taboo, but Ignis had been amused by it if nothing else. These days he played along with Gale's infatuation, but it was difficult to say whether the feeling was genuine or if it was still merely a distraction for him. But whether or not his feelings were returned, they had kept him from accepting Jill's proposal of marriage. She was far too kind and innocent for him to even consider deceiving her for any length of time and pretending to love her would have been the greatest deception of all.
He looked down at the apple in his hand, momentarily debating whether or not he should toss it into the clouds below, but decided instead to take another bite. He'd hate to have it land on someone's head below. The summit was most definitely high enough for a falling object to seriously injure something. In fact, it was high enough that the air was unfortunately thin, but it hardly bothered him thanks to the blessing and enchantment of Ignis.
Somewhere off to his left was the throne upon which Ignis usually sat, but he wasn't there at the moment. As soon as the sun had started to rise he'd gone off to visit with Sephia and hadn't returned since, somewhat to his chagrin. He wanted to leave, head back to his house to have a real meal, but going down through the mine would have been too dangerous for him without any equipment. Thus he was stuck until Ignis decided to return, although he doubted his visit with Sephia really had to be this long; it was far more likely that he was just lingering there in order to test Gale's patience.
He was debating taking a quick dip in the hot springs while he waited for Ignis to return when he heard footsteps coming towards the summit from inside the mine. At first he couldn't process why someone would be here so early in the morning, which quickly turned to wondering why anyone was here at all; most people chose to stick to the lower, safer levels of the mine to avoid getting trapped, or worse. Then he remembered that there was one person in Castanet that would be willing to make the perilous climb, frequently did so and had actual reason to do so; Jill. She'd never had a romantic interest in Ignis like she'd had in Gale, but she frequently gifted him with his favourite shining apples to show her gratitude for his continued protection of the islands. He'd never imagined that she came to visit him so early in the morning, but he should have expected it. She was an early riser by nature.
He heard a little gasp of surprise as she stepped out onto the landing and saw him, eating and trying to ignore her presence as much as possible.
"Wizard? ..hey, Wizard." she greeted awkwardly. Not wanting to be rude, he turned around, swinging one leg back onto the ledge, and gave her an awkward smile.
"Hello, Jill," he responded, tucking his half finished apple into his coat for later. "Uh.. the Harvest King isn't here. He went to go visit the Harvest Goddess."
"Oh, I.. I see. Do you know when he'll be back?" she asked, kicking the toe of her boot into the dirt. Gale shook his head.
"Sorry, I wish I did. He's my way back down," he replied, ending his statement with a small chuckle. He was sort of hoping she would simply leave after learning that Ignis wasn't there, but much to his chagrin, she decided to sit down on the cliff as well. Thankfully she at least gave him a wide berth. "So, uh, how has the farm been?" he asked. She gave a little shrug.
"No different than usual," she replied. "The animals have been getting sick a lot lately but the crops are doing really well. I think it's because of all of the rain."
Their vague attempts at small talk were only making things more awkward and Wizard decided a change of subject was in order.
"Jill, I- I'm sorry about what happened a few weeks ago. I should have told you when I realized how you felt." he blurted out, swinging his leg back over the side of the cliff. He turned to Jill and she gave him a completely earnest smile.
"It's okay, Wizard. I understand. You love someone else. I can't say I'm not disappointed, but.. oh well," she said, lacing her fingers and putting her hands in her lap, swinging her feet slightly. "But I have to admit, I'm sort of curious; who is it?" she asked. Gale looked at her oddly, hoping she wasn't asking what he thought she was asking.
"You mean.. ?" She bent over slightly at the waist and looked at him.
"Yeah, who are you in love with?" He coughed awkwardly, hoping she would pick up on the fact that he didn't really want to talk about it. Of course, as his luck would have it, she didn't. "Is it the Witch?"
It took a lot to keep Gale from laughing at that, although it did seem like a fair assumption; after all, the fact that they had history between them was so clear merely by the way they talked about each other (or, rather, he could only assume that it was obvious in the way Vivi talked about him).
"I.. used to be," he replied. "Remember how I said I had only ever been in love twice? When I first became an apprentice.. when I first started learning how to be a wizard.. she and I were studying under the same person. We were very good friends and eventually I fell for her, but we had a falling out one day and she's hated me ever since."
"Oh, that's so sad." she said, her shoulders slumping and her expression falling. He shook his head, giving her a little smile.
"Not really. I got over it a long time ago," he replied, pushing his hair back out of his eyes. "I would like to be friends with her again if I could, but she doesn't seem to want to accept any of my apologies." Jill nodded in understanding, pulling her feet back up onto the ledge. She brought her knees up close to her chest, resting her chin on them.
"So, if it's not the Witch.. is it someone I know?" she asked.
"..yes, it is." She sat there pondering for a few moments, clearly trying to work out who else she knew that Gale might be in love with.
"So that means they must live in Castanet.." She sat there thinking even harder and Gale could practically hear the gears grinding in her brain. From what he could tell she was mentally going through a list of Castanet citizens. After a few minutes she simply gave up. "I don't suppose you'll just tell me, will you?" she asked. Gale gave her an awkward, shy smile.
"I- would really rather not." he replied. She sighed and stretched her legs out again, resting her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands.
"Figures. You're such a mysterious person," she said, tilting her head slightly. "Why are you up here anyway?"
"I came up here to stargaze last night. It was so beautiful that I just.. didn't want to leave," he lied, twirling his thumbs around each other. "The Harvest King brought me up here."
"The two of you know each other?" she asked. Gale nodded, staring down into the clouds surrounding the cliffs.
"I met him when I first came to Castanet. He's been.. very kind to me." Almost without thinking, he smiled fondly thinking of the first time he had met Ignis. Jill looked at his smile and couldn't help but smile herself, hers knowing rather than fond.
"He's the one, isn't he?" Gale snapped out of his partial trance and looked over at her, turning a rather ridiculously bright shade of red. She didn't even have to wait for confirmation; she could tell from his reaction that she was right. "You're in love with the Harvest King, aren't you? I can tell." She smiled at him and he slightly smiled back.
"You don't think that's.. weird?" he asked. She laughed slightly, grabbing one of his hands in her own.
"Of course I don't. It even makes me feel a little better about the whole thing. I mean, who can compete with a God?" she asked, tilting her cheek into her palm. Gale closed his eyes and smiled; he was happy that Jill was so accepting of him. "So.. does he love you back?"
Gale clenched his fists in his lap, biting his lower lip. Jill immediately realized that she had asked exactly the wrong question and immediately pulled her lips into her mouth, hoping that she hadn't screwed up too badly.
"I.. don't know," he replied honestly, closing his eyes and furrowing his brow. "I haven't really had the.. courage to ask him. And even if I did, I'm not entirely sure he would give me a straight answer. He's a very mysterious person, as I'm sure you know." She nodded and Gale returned to staring into the abyss. After a few moments of awkward silence, he looked back up at her and smiled. "So, have you found anyone else yet?" he asked. The topic was awkward, but not as awkward as the previous one.
Castanet had eight eligible bachelors aside from himself and Ignis and it was no great secret that all of them did or had at some point fancied Jill. She was with certainty the most eligible bachelorette in the region, between her personality, assets and lifestyle. Even some of the married men were quite taken with her. Gale couldn't imagine she would simply sit around lamenting his rejection; it just wasn't the sort of thing she did.
Jill turned slightly red, biting her lower lip. "Actually I.. sort of have," she replied, swinging her feet especially hard to distract herself. "I don't know if you know Chase.. he works at the Brass Bar and he lives in Flute Fields? Over by the farm?" Gale nodded; although it was rare that he left his house, he knew most of the goings-on in Castanet, including all of its citizens. Chase hadn't been around for very long, having arrived after Jill, but he knew of him. And as far as he knew, Chase was a good person.
"I'm glad," Gale said, giving her a little sincere smile. It would have been even worse for him had Jill hadn't been able to find someone else. "Are you thinking of marrying him?" he asked. Jill shrugged.
"Maybe someday. For now I think I'm okay with staying unmarried," she replied. Taking a casual glance at her watch, she noticed that she'd stayed for far too long. "I should probably run, can't spend the entire day sitting here. I'll come back later to give the Harvest King his gift. I hope things go well between you two." She got to her feet, straightening out her skirt.
"And I hope you and Chase work out," he said, watching as she walked towards the entrance back into the mines. "If you ever need a reading, you know where to come." After all, it was the least he could do after what had happened. Jill gave him a little smile, grabbing her hammer from where she'd left it by the cave opening.
"And I've always got a few extra apples in case you need them." she offered, giving him a little wave before she was gone, headed, he presumed, to go and see her new flame.
He shook his head, wondering if he'd made the right decision. She'd loved him and he was holding onto a teenage crush who gave no indications of his own feelings.
Oh well. What was done, was done.
"My apologies for being gone for so long. Sephia does enjoy a good long chat."
Gale didn't have to look behind him to know that it was Ignis standing there, all wild hair and commanding presence with eyes that could melt steel. He turned around to look at him and gave him a shy smile, accepting the hand offered to him to help him to his feet. The God pulled him into his arms, making him stumble a bit.
"I'm sure she does," Gale replied, his voice quiet. "Can you please take me home now?" he asked, looking up at Ignis. The God was a little over a head taller than him and was obviously taller than anyone in Castanet.
"Why, not having fun?" Ignis asked with a vaguely playful smile, the sort of smile that made Gale absolutely melt. He felt it was completely intentional, like everything the God seemed to do, in order to get under his skin.
"No, it's not that, I just.." he stuttered, hands clutching at Ignis' robes. His palms were clearly sweaty and he hoped Ignis didn't mind him completely messing up his clothing.
Ignis laughed and kissed his forehead, scooping him up in his arms bridal-style. "I know, I know. I'm just teasing." Gale gulped nervously, clinging to Ignis as tightly as he could, especially as he stepped towards the edge of the cliff.
"What is- what are you-" Gale stuttered, his entire body tensing as Ignis looked down over the edge.
"Relax. You want to get home, don't you? This is the fastest way down the mountain," he explained, smiling smugly. "Don't you trust me?" he asked.
"Of course I do, but didn't we just.. teleport up here? Wouldn't that just be faster?" he asked, looking up at Ignis. The God just smiled down at him.
"But it's not nearly as fun. Believe me, you'll enjoy it. You might want to close your eyes for the first part, though."
Gale hesitated for a moment, as jumping from a cliff in the arms of anyone, even a God, was rarely a sensible idea, but Ignis' assurances were enough to convince him. He shut his eyes as he felt Ignis move slightly closer to the edge and a second later he could feel the wind whistling past his head. He strongly resisted the urge to scream and after a second or so the free falling sensation stopped and was replaced with a feeling like he was floating. Hesitantly, he opened his eyes; they were indeed floating, not that he was particularly surprised by this judging by who was holding him, and the world surrounding them was a limbo of clouds. Despite himself, he let out a little gasp.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Ignis asked. Gale, a little speechless, nodded. He relished in it for a moment before Ignis cleared his throat quietly. "While we're up here, I was wondering if you might tell me what you and Jill were talking about for so long."
Gales eyes widened slightly at the unspoken and most likely completely imagined threat of being dropped from this height if his answer proved unsatisfactory. "Nothing of real importance- we talked about her farm, the fact that she's been dating again.. she asked me about you.." Even without his reaction to that, the sort of news Ignis was looking for was obvious, but the fact that he perked a little immediately after hearing that would have made it obvious either way.
"What sort of things did you talk about in regards to me?" he asked. It both scared Gale and amused him how much Ignis sounded like an excited teenager.
"She.. wanted to know who I was in love with. Who I had turned down her proposal for," he replied. The anticipation in Ignis' eyes was clear. "And.. she managed to figure out on her own that it was you, and.." He trailed off, unable to fix his eyes on anything but the seemingly endless crop under them. Ignis leaned in and kissed his cheek.
"You're so delightfully adorable when you're shy," he said, holding him closer in his arms. "I'm sorry for scaring you like that. I'll take you home now." Gale gave him a little smile.
"You.. you can come, if you'd like. I'd appreciate the company." he said, blushing slightly. Ignis gave him another melting smile.
"As would I."