Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, places, etc. from Tales of Berseria. It all belongs to its respectful owners.
Just a Rescue
"There's no way I'm wearing this." The blonde-haired man standing a short distance away from her shrugged, his crossed arms gesturing towards the outfit she currently was trying on.
"No one said you had to."
The man, Eizen, had happened to be crossing by the island in his ship right whenever Velvet and Laphicet had escaped the prison. All of the ships that were normally docked at the island were currently pulled away from the land mass, not that anyone had thought that the Therian (1) would have been able to make it that far in the first place, effectively stranding them until the man had picked them up.
Not that we needed his help… eventually one of those ships would have docked due to the tides…
"Then why'd you give it to me?" She found herself asking the question, strange as it seemed to her. If she was only focused on getting her revenge, then why was she complaining about an outfit? The man merely shrugged once more, gesturing towards where the remnants from her previous attire, if you could even call it that, were strewn.
"I figured that it'd be better than what you were currently wearing."
She tilted her head, her hand on her hip as she stared at the man before her, frustration building in her.
"How's that?"
It's not like it provides much more armor than what I was wearing… Despite the thought, she couldn't deny that the additional armor, despite how little it was, helped to ease her concerns slightly. The red and black outfit was quite revealing, with the tattered shirt and shorts providing little in the way of comfort, showing more skin than she thought was necessary as well as offering less protection.
"It provides more protection at least…" Even as Eizen said this, she could see his eyes beginning to gain some confusion the more he looked at the outfit, doubt beginning to make its way into his mind. She glanced down at the outfit as the boat swayed beneath their feet, before over towards where her silent companion was, looking around the room in confusion.
"Oh really..." The boy stumbled slightly as the boat moved, his feet uncertain on the moving surface. "Hey Laphicet, what do you think?"
The young Malak turned towards her at the sound of her voice and his name, staring at her for a moment. The boy shook his head after a moment, his green-eyes giving off no emotion as he stared at her.
"I don't know…" She rolled her eyes at his response, letting out a sigh as he went back to looking around the room, stumbling slightly when he walked towards objects. She turned her gaze back towards the man in black, seeing him watching the boy with a slight frown on his face.
"You can keep him if you want." The man shocked out of whatever he was thinking at her unexpected words, glancing over at her sharply. "Now that I think about it, you two kind of look alike..."
"No!" The sharp reply from him caused her to tilt her head once more at his actions, causing the man to shake his head and sigh before both of them glanced back towards the boy once more. "I'd like to help but… I already have one sibling to take care of and he seems pretty attached to you."
His response caught her attention, causing her to think back over the rest of the crew. She hadn't seen anyone that looked like the man, but maybe she'd just missed them.
Besides… what do I care if he has a sibling or not? Despite her thought, she found herself inquiring about the missing sibling.
"A sibling?" Eizen sighed; his gaze looked wistful for a moment as he nodded at her question, still glancing at the younger boy.
"A sister. We might not be blood related but she's the closest thing I've had to family." Velvet nodded, looking towards where Laphicet was, with him turning as if he sensed her gaze.
"Hmm…" She thought for a moment, looking down at her outfit before back up at the blue-eyed man. "Eizen, would you allow your sister to wear something like this?"
The question apparently startled the man, his reaction being one of horror.
"Of course not! Besides… she wouldn't want to anyways…" The last part was barely loud enough for the black-haired woman to hear, but she chose not to comment on that right away, instead asking a blatant question.
"So what makes it ok for me to wear it?"
The man's face betrayed his embarrassment, a light stain of pink on his cheeks, as he diverted his gaze. He opened his mouth but nothing came out, causing him to shut it a moment later, averting his gaze and staring at the ground.
"I see…" The honey-eyed woman glanced at the man once more before slightly diverting the conversation. "Why wouldn't your sister want to wear something like this?"
The blue-eyed man startled back into reality for a moment, thinking over the question before answering.
"She likes dresses." Velvet's expression turned to one of amusement, her hand on her hip as she stared at the man.
"What makes you think I don't like dresses?" The man didn't get flustered like she had thought that he would, instead shrugging his shoulders and looking at her calmly.
"You don't seem like the type."
"Just like you don't seem like the type to rescue strangers off of a prison island." The jibe was meant as a way to get information, but the man didn't seem bothered by it, instead walking towards the cabin door that led to the deck above.
"The ship just happened to be passing through."
Velvet merely shook her head, glancing around the captain's quarters for a moment. Not much was there; a simple wardrobe, bed, and desk were all that made up the space.
If the weather gets cold I might need a jacket… Despite surviving the odds, the woman knew that she wouldn't last long against extreme temperatures in this outfit. Her gaze landed on a tattered black cape, the clasp being a black studded belt. With a smirk on her face, she walked over to where the garment was hanging, glancing back at Eizen as she grabbed the fabric.
"Mind if I borrow this?"
"Sure…" The man glanced over at her absentmindedly before suddenly snapping back to look at her once he realized what she was asking. "No! That's the Captain's! You can't just take it!"
The black-haired woman promptly ignored his outburst, unclipping the belt and swinging the cape around her shoulder, clipping it back into place over the shirt.
That's better…
"If he really wanted to keep it, then he should have kept it on." The man merely groaned in exasperation at her response, his hand against his head. "What do you think now, Laphicet?" She turned towards where her younger companion stood, staring up at the top of the wardrobe. The action seemed strange to her as well as the fact that the young Malak had not reacted to her at all.
"What're you looking at kid?"
The boy merely glanced over at the two of them before pushing against the wardrobe, the wood giving a creak as it moved backwards. Both adults merely stared for a moment, confused by the action until the bookshelf started falling towards Laphicet. The blonde-haired man surged towards where the young boy was standing, pushing back against the wooden piece of furniture so it tilted back into place.
"Be careful!" Velvet noticed that Eizen had instinctively pushed Laphicet away from the danger, instead standing in the position where he could protect the young boy had the furniture fallen too far to be resituated. The young boy merely nodded, glancing down at something small that had fallen to the ground from the top of the furniture. Velvet glanced at the small object, letting out a sigh of irritation when she realized what it was.
"A… compass? How could he have known something so small was up there?" Eizen's confused expression caused her to nod her head when he glanced over at her.
"He has a knack for finding weird things." Eizen let out a sigh at that, before realizing that Velvet hadn't moved from where she was before Laphicet was in danger.
"What were you doing just standing there anyways!? You should have tried to help in some way!"
The woman merely stared at him calmly, her head tilting slightly as she looked at the boy, shrugging a moment later.
"I knew that you'd help." He looked like he was going to say something in anger, so Velvet turned away from him, walking towards the door. "My offer for you to keep him still stands."
"No! He's your responsibility, Velvet!" She turned around at that, anger in her own gaze at that, as she grit her teeth at the man.
My only 'responsibility' is to kill Artorius!
Blue and honey eyes glared at each other for a moment, before the man broke eye contact angrily, stalking towards where the door led out to the deck.
"I don't have time for this. I have a mission to get back to." The muttered response was heard by Velvet but she didn't respond, merely glancing towards the kid who was still sitting on the ground, looking at the small new compass clutched in his hands. Her anger dissipated a moment later, making her sigh as she realized that she should at least find out where they were heading.
"No chance you can tell me if Logras is next on your list of destinations?" The man turned towards her, the door partially opened already, glancing a moment later back at the light that signified air.
"Not anytime soon."
"Well then you might want to make a change of plans." His gaze did turn back to stare at her at that, her gaze meeting his with a challenge in her eyes.
"That's where I need to go." The man waved his hand, glancing back at the two.
"You'll have to find some other way to get there once we dock at the next port." His hand pushed on the wooden door, opening it completely. "By the way, it was just a rescue."
The phrase caused a smirk to appear on the woman's face.
"Of course it was, just like this is a chance encounter, nothing more." The man seemed satisfied with her answer, exiting a moment later.
(1)– Therian (not sure if I'm spelling that right or not) is something that Velvet is sometimes referred to in the show 'Tales of Zestiria the X' anime. I'm assuming that it's basically another word for daemoneater, but I'm not too sure.
Before anyone starts to complain about the differences in the way Velvet got her outfit, I am aware that she gets it in the storage room in the prison based on the anime episode (might differ in the game) but other than those two episodes, that's all I know so far until January (I refuse to look up the game as much as it kills me not too :)). So what did you all think? I know that I labeled this as VelvetXEizen (since that's currently the pairing I ship) but it's not quite all fluff since they just met. Hopefully I'll get to write more one-shots on this paring but for now this is all I have. This ties in with my other one-shot 'Chance Encounter', and I guess this is a little late to be typing this, but go read that one first if you haven't :). It'll help with backstory on how Laphicet and Velvet met. Please let me know what you all thought!
-AnimeWolfGirl16