A/N: This is the prelude to something grand. Something amazing. Something... Not Slashy. AMAZING.
Garnet is so glad that they had finally found an area in the forest that's close to a stream. After such a long time traveling, strengthening themselves and going on quests for people that Zidane owed money to, it's nice to be somewhere cool and green. The fact that there's a stream so close, however, is a definite bonus.
She's tired of being dirty, but she hasn't had a moment to rest since they set up camp – first, Zidane had wanted to go exploring; then she decided to help bring in firewood; and of course, there was the search for fruits and non-living foods that Quina could cook. Eiko had helped with most of this, and the princess is thankful for that, because now she finally has a chance to slip away and clean up before dinner.
She's wanted to do that for so long!
Garnet has always been light on her feet and rarely, if ever, makes noise when she walks. Zidane's always complimented her on the fact and she's always found it beneficial when she can sneak up on an enemy to cast Silence.
She reaches the treeline and very suddenly, violently wishes that she made the same amount of noise Steiner does when he walks.
Garnet has never taken the time to get to know Amarant Coral, really. She's still a little anxious over the fact that her mother had sent him to kill her, and quite frankly she has good reason to be worried about that! He hasn't exactly been making attempts to rid her of that feeling of impending doom. Then again, perhaps this is the impending doom that she had been feeling.
He's on one of the low rocks, stretched out as easy as he pleases, with damp clothes hanging over one of the lower branches, catching the evening sunlight, and with a sudden, startling revelation, Garnet realizes that Amarant Coral is laying naked on one of the rocks –
She swears she didn't mean to squeak, but sometimes, a girl's got no other way to announce her presence.
He rolls his head to the side, probably expecting one of the guys, because guys are okay with other guys being naked, right, but when he sees The Princess, he makes this face like a startled chocobo and easily slides off the rock and into the waist deep water. She covers her mouth with her hands and spins around.
"I-I-I, I'm sorry!" she exclaims.
He makes a mildly annoyed noise and responds in that loose, scruffy voice, "Should've figured this place wasn't gonna be empty long. Damn it, though, I just was gettin' dry..." He grumbles, "You gonna keep your back turned, princess? Don't want to offend your overly sensitive..." He trails off and then sighs, "Senses. Shit, I'm losing it."
"I-I'll go, I'm sorry!"
"Nah, just keep your back turned for a second, would you? I'll get outta your hair fast."
She nods, and water sloshes behind her so she closes her eyes, as an extra precaution. What a horrible situation, she laments, to walk in on anybody bathing! Yet, she's incredibly glad that at least, it's Amarant, and not Zidane – she's sure that wouldn't end well. She shakes her head a little at that thought. At least she hadn't... well, seen anything.
"Damned lucky to find this place, you know that?" Amarant suddenly asks, causing Garnet to jump at the proximity. She turns to find him pulling on his shirt, looking at the trees around the stream cautiously.
"...I... yes, I suppose. It's rare to find a forest in the middle of a desert..."
"Damned rare," Amarant mumbles. "Green, secluded, it's own source of water... I'm surprised there aren't any monsters around. This place is perfect for them." He glances at her. "Y'know, if you keep lookin' at me like I'm gonna bite your head off, I might, just to spite you."
She blinks, and then flushes, biting her lip in a very un-princess-like gesture. "Forgive me..."
"This place is nice," he cuts back to the previous conversation, crossing his arms and looking at the setting again, but Garnet realizes that he's not looking for danger.
"...If... if you don't mind me asking," she begins, and he waves a hand.
"Don't worry, I'm goin', I'm goin'."
He starts off towards the treeline and Garnet forces her, "Wait!" to sound a little less frantic.
"What?"
"Why are you with us?"
He turns and looks at her in mild amusement. "Is that your big question? Why am I here?"
"...Well, you don't attempt conversations with us, and you don't seem to enjoy being around us. And yet, you keep following. Does Zidane truly have something to teach you?"
The bounty hunter crosses his arms and leans against a tree. "You're givin' him too much credit. Your little captain of the guard is infuriatin', stupid, and forgetful. But, he beat me and let me live. You know how rare that is, kid?" He looks at her from under thick, drenched dreadlocks, and she blinks in confusion. "In the real world, you don't let your enemy live. It's just plain stupid. I don't get it."
He shakes his head, "Look at you, little miss princess. You're makin' me want to talk. How cute. But I'm not one of those boxes that you can just unlock with any old key." He turns and starts off towards camp, tossing back a, "I'll let them know you're here," before he disappears into the treeline.
Garnet looks at the water and wonders what kind of key you need to open up such a chained down box.
She decides to go to one of the more forested areas of the stream before she takes her bath.
Garnet is a little apprehensive about returning to the campsite, because she has no idea what's waiting there for her. For the most part, she's sure that Amarant wouldn't go so far as to tell anyone about her stumbling upon him – but then again...
She pushes the branches aside and finds the fire roaring and everyone lounging about, Quina leaning over the fire as it she cooks. Garnet isn't sure if Quina is a he or a she, but she's always thought that if anything, it must be a girl.
No one says anything to her, other than Zidane's casual, "Hey, Dagger," and this eases her worry quite a bit.
Amarant is sitting fairly far away from the fire, as usual, and is staring at the tree tops above them as he had earlier. She wants very much to talk to him, because he's steadily becoming one of the more interesting things about this quest, but knows better. Even if, by the stream, he had given her a little more than he would probably have liked, she knows that if she were to approach now, she'd get little more than a reproach and a vague feeling of annoyance from him.
She sits away from everyone – still by the fire, but just in a different position. It's different for her to sit with people. It's not an easy thing to do, because all of them still give her this feeling... a feeling that they still know she's a princess, and that there are certain things they can't talk about around royalty. Zidane tries but she knows he doesn't always understand that she knows things. She wishes they would just get over it.
Zidane begins to tell a story to his captive audience of a black mage and a summoner, while Quina begins to roast the meat they had gathered up earlier. She's heard this story before, because this is The Treno Heist, and Zidane could tell it to them as many times as he wanted and still make it sound unique and fresh.
Zidane exits the auction house and Amarant suddenly makes a noise, standing and heading into the forest. Zidane pauses for a minute, and his eyes narrow a little, as if he's thinking, but he then grins and waves a hand. "That's his way," he says, and then continues along.
Something about Amarant's sudden leave worries Garnet, but she doesn't think she can do very much at all. After all, he just shared a few of his thoughts on Zidane. It's not as if he really wants anything to do with her. Still... he had looked almost confused – if he could show such an emotion.
"Food ready!" Quina calls, and so Zidane tells the kids that he'll finish the story after dinner. The cook looks around and asks, "Where red man? He not want food?"
"Don't worry about him, Quina," the blonde tells the cook, grinning, "He'll probably find something for himself."
Garnet's gotten good at reading Zidane, pretty good at least, and she sees some worry in his grin as well.
"This second time he refuse food," Quina says, sounding a little annoyed, "People need food. My cooking not good enough?"
"No, no," Zidane reassures her, "You're a great cook, Quina! But he's just... that's his way," he sighs.
Quina doesn't understand but lets it slide, and they all gather around to get their own helpings. Garnet stays out of the way, waiting for the rest of them to get what they want, because she's not a very big eater anyways.
She only comes up after everyone else is done getting what they want, and takes up the last bit from the fire.
Branches snap under heavy footfalls and Amarant comes back. He goes to one of the trees on the edge of camp and sits down under it, arms crossed and head tilted downwards in a meditative pose. Zidane frowns and makes a noise, finishing his food quickly. He gets up, going over to the bounty hunter. Though everyone is still talking, a kind of strained feeling fills the camp; they all were there when Amarant and Zidane fought, and it's no secret that Amarant really doesn't like the blonde thief – they've both been pushing each other's buttons, almost always intentionally on Amarant's part and only partly on Zidane's.
They converse in quiet voices, Amarant looking pretty calm but mildly annoyed, and Zidane grows more and more frustrated until he just sighs and comes back to the group.
"We should get to sleep, guys. We've got a long way ahead of us."
Garnet listens to everyone agree and looks at her food for a while, as Quina goes towards the stream – "Sleep is better in water!" – Eiko clambers into the girl's tent, and Zidane and Vivi crawl into theirs. Amarant doesn't sleep in the tents – ever.
She sighs and decides she really can't eat. She's been thinking about Steiner, Freya, and Beatrix – about her mother, and the mysterious Kuja. Her stomach is in knots and she knows something absolutely terrible is going to happen soon...
The princess gets up and moves to throw the remains into the fire, but then thinks better of it. The smell of burning meat will probably attract beasts, and besides, why would she waste good food?
She softly pads over to the bulky, shadowy bounty hunter on the edge of camp, making just enough noise that she doesn't startle him into killing her there on the spot, because he looks like he's sleeping –
"What do you want, princess?"
He always uses that condescending tone when calling her a princess. That kind of annoys her, but she doesn't let it bother her much.
He looks up through damp dreadlocks – they're still not dry? – and growls, "Are you gonna give me a little lecture on team-playin' like your boyfriend, or are you just going to fumble around and apologize some more?"
What nerve!
She glares at him – and puts feeling into it, because she's good at making her eyes burn – and drops the plate into his lap, spilling some meat onto the ground but it's not like he cares, right?
"What-"
"Unlike Zidane," she snaps quietly, "I do not expect you to be nice. I do not expect you to be polite or fair to any of us. I know better than to expect something like that out of a boorish, overgrown brute. I do not have any preconceived notions about you, Amarant, and I would hope that you could at the very least extend the same courtesy to me, and not assume that I'm going to be just like Zidane because I've been around him so long."
"Well," he growls, "Forgive me if this is uncouth of me, but I was under the assumption that you are the princess of Alexandria. And as such, everyone will have some sort of preconceived notion of you that will, at some point, be completely outlandish – as outlandish as assumin' that because I'm about three times your size, I'm overgrown, or that because I don't like playin' nice with you people I'm boorish. Now, the brute thing is somethin' I can understand, being as that I was contracted to kill you. Such a thing usually does color a person bad, doesn't it?"
She's so confused – how did this suddenly blow up in her face?
"Now, princess, I'm not gonna accept your food, and you know that, so why did you even think about dumpin' it in my lap?"
She looks at him for a long time and then asks, quietly, "What notions could someone get of me?"
He smirks now, and grabs up some of the meat, tossing it into his mouth and chewing thoughtfully. "Let's see," he starts around the food, "You're obviously rich – the seams on your clothes are too well made and it looks like it's been done with a machine, rather than hand stitching... You're probably naïve, 'cos you've got that look on your face, like you don't know what's comin' next. Oh," he swallows, "And you're a virgin."
"I – That's so – how could you...!"
He points a finger at her, "Add 'prudish' to that list. You're a teenager, aren't you? Start actin' like one."
"You want me to act like... like Zidane?" Garnet asks incredulously, feeling a little taken aback at the fact that she thinks Zidane's a normal teenager... Or that she'd use him in a negative context.
"Tell you the truth, princess," Amarant drawls, "If you acted like Zidane, there'd be a whole lot more I'd do with you than just point out your obvious, stereotypical royal-ness."
She feels her face get red and she knows exactly what he's talking about. "I – I –...Goodnight!"
She stomps off and doesn't stop, even when he calls softly, "Don't swing your hips so much, you're too royal for that!"
FFIX (C) Squaresoft.