A Time to Wind Down

This is the first chapter in the "Day in the Life" series. The basic intent is to do a series of one-shots focusing on the more everyday affairs and character interactions. Why? Because nobody can focus entirely on war and battles every day. I do intend on keeping characterization as much in check as possible (and if it goes into characters that are given no personality beyond their recruitment line to make something plausible out of that) and not go into fantasy pairings.

First up are a good number of characters from Suikoden 2, focused on the ever popular Flik. Simply I thought the idea was somewhat humorous and something I see as a plausible event considering the frequency of certain characters visiting the tavern.

"Sir Flik? Wake up! You're needed!" a loud voice called from just inside the small chamber he claimed for a room. Jostled awake by the noise, Flik awoke, senses slowly sending information to him.

He was needed? Had Highland made un unexpected move? No, it was too quiet for that. A battle would be raging by then or at the very least there would be the sounds of a city of soldiers rushing to battle.

Perhaps that strategist, Shu came up with some late night brainstorm. But couldn't that wait at least until morning?

Unable to come up with a logical explanation, he finally forced his body to turn toward the young man, judging by his uniform a citizen of Muse and finally croaked, "What's going on?"

Giving a quick salute, the soldier continued, "It's the tavern! Miss Leona insisted on me bringing you down there."

Puzzled, Flik sat up and shook his head, hair falling into his face without his bandana to hold the front portion back. Why was he needed in the tavern to begin with unless…

"What trouble did Viktor start this time?" he asked as he rose from the comfort of bed and tiredly slipped his boots onto his bare feet. Only the wild drunken bear-man would cause enough trouble where he would be fetched to retrieve him.

"Just follow me, sir." The soldier stated, never giving an explanation. It was as good confirmation Flik could ask for.

Walking through the heart of the North Window headquarters in the dead of night was never an easy task. It was bad enough for Flik to be hardly awake, but with the lights dimmed throughout the town, it made it easy to miss a corner or stumble on an exhausted guard who happened to fall asleep at his post.

In fact it didn't take long before a high pitched yelp came from the nearly pitch-black corridor.

"Hey! Watch it!" the voice quickly returned, followed by a firm jab to the leg.

The voice sounded male but definitely too young to be one of the local soldiers that migrated from one of the various cities. That left few possibilities and none of them particularly good.

"Well, better he stepped on you. If you weren't there he probably would have hurt poor Bright."

Grimacing, Flik was reminded of who he was dealing with… an overzealous and hot tempered ninja in training and the kid who seemed to carry that baby dragon everywhere. So now the question was where troublemaker number three was hiding.

"You and that silly dragon! All it does is eat, sleep and poop!"

Hearing the squabbling, Flik turned in their direction and sighed, "Don't you kids sleep? Besides don't any of you have actual parents to scold you?"

A slight breeze rushed through the hallway. It seemed to crawl up the older man's neck before a faint light emanated from before him. "So… we should sleep like good little boys so that you can sneak off and drink yourself into a stupor?"

Sure enough, the bland voice of a cynical teenager came, but from which direction? An unnatural breeze blew through the corridor and was enough to disguise the young mage's location. Luc was certainly a brat but there was no denying he had talent.

"Luc, I don't have time for your shenanigans." Flik retorted, gazing about the shadows and keeping one eye trained on the still bickering pair of boys in front of him. "Do me a favor and show yourself before I get angry."

The small breeze grew stronger, causing Sasuke and Futch to promptly silence themselves, the dragon knight apprentice taking great care to protect Bright from what was to come. Flik was hardly lucky as he felt his body being carried off from the ground and held suspended in midair.

It was then that the boy revealed himself, his face stoic and his hand outstretched slightly as he commanded the air to his whims. "What are you going to do? Scold me like a parent? I'm still a child you know. Besides, you bore me anyway."

With that, the flow of air abruptly ended and the man known as the 'Blue Lightning' took a harsh fall to the ground. Muttering under his breath, he watched the three boys promptly scurry off. Tomorrow he would deal with their potential punishments. However he had one other troublemaker to deal with before he could get his proper rest.

Making his way through the darkened hallways without much incident; a sentry sleeping at his post had to be aroused; Flik managed to enter the tavern and witness the scene before him.

Several tables had been overturned and at least one chair lay in fragmented slivers across the floor. Liquor bottles were both stacked and strewn in various places. Leona was found holding up Armada against one shoulder and the other wiping down one of the countless spills from the table.

Shaking his head, Flik undraped the heavy man, marveling at just how strong the barmaid truly was. "Rough night I see."

Sighing, Leona gathered another bottle and tossing it with a good number of the others in a pile on one corner of the room. "Well, they won't be doing this again for awhile. Our next supply shipment isn't due for another three weeks."

Flik smirked as he maneuvered the now half conscious man toward the outdoor entrance, he commented, "So they really drank the place bone dry, huh?"

"I have a small stash of good wine that they didn't get into." She commented, taking a broom to clean up the green and brown shards of shattered glass along with the remnants of the chair. "Once this gets cleared up we should share a bottle."

Nodding as Armada toppled over onto the cobblestone walkway and passing out once again, Flik nodded. After this night a bit of booze might be the proper medicine. "Sounds like a plan…So, I was expecting Viktor to somehow be involved in all of this."

Without a word, the pretty brunette pointed toward the counter where she served drinks. It took a moment for Flik to figure what she was pointing at until he approached closer and could see a very drunk and unconscious Viktor sprawled amidst even more broken glass and with a puddle of various alcohols drenching him. Unsure whether to be concerned or amused, Flik simply asked, "do I want to know?"

"He decided that it was a great stage to perform a toast and perform a bit of a dance," Leona explained, "since the tables and chairs didn't fare too well. It didn't take him long to lose his balance and fall off."

Shaking the bear-like man gently, Viktor made no movement. "He hasn't woken up since then?"

"No," Leona said, "that's why I wanted to get you. I can't move him by myself and I doubt Dr. Huan would be much better for this. It would probably do him some good to get looked at and probably sober up if nothing else."

Nodding, Flik grunted as he hoisted the heavyset man over his back, straining to raise himself with the additional weight. "Alright, I'll dump this guy over in the infirmary and come help you with the mess."

It took some time to make the short trek to the ward where injured and ill soldiers were cared for. The awkward positioning of Viktor across his body made it virtually impossible to balance without heavy reliance on the walls.

Along the way, it was tempting for Flik to complain to his friend. Complain about how he had wasted nearly an hour of good sleeping time to his drunken escapades. Or about how he seemed to put on a bit of weight since they fought together in Toran. Despite the fact that his friend was unable to hear him, it was fun to think of what was inevitably going to be said as a scolding. It was nothing new and simply part of a well known routine between the friends.

Cautiously stepping over yet another guard, this one a former soldier from Muse, who had fallen asleep at his post, the two friends arrived in the infirmary. A soft light illuminated this room at all hours, so it was not difficult to find an empty bed to deposit Viktor's deadweight.

A gentle knock on the doctor's door, he waited until he was met by a bleary eyed young doctor. "Ah, sir Flik, is there a problem that needs to be attended to?"

"Eh, just bringing the old bear over to get looked at," Flik said, "he took a fall in the tavern a bit ago and seemed to have knocked himself out. He's probably fine but if you could just take a quick look at him."

Nodding, the doctor disappeared into his quarters for a moment before reappearing with a handbag of supplies and dressed in the starch white nightgown he had worn to bed. Quick to awaken, he followed Flik in the direction of the drunken patient, who had turned in such a manner that he was nearly fallen out of the bed.

After positioning Viktor into a more comfortable position, Dr. Huan quickly and efficiently inspected his patient's body, paying particular attention to the small lump that had formed beneath the unruly locks of black hair.

While this happened, Flik made himself cozy on a nearby stool, half drifting off to sleep propped up against the wall. The long night was finally wearing down on him and even a few moments' rest seemed like heaven. War was hardly a great influence on one's sleep patterns.

It took scarcely a few minutes before he finished his checkup with a smile. "He's not in any danger," the doctor explained, "He might at the worst have a small concussion from hitting his head but otherwise he just needs to rest and let his body sober up."

Startled awake by the announcement, Flik stumbled to his feet. "Ah, good. That's a relief."

Taking notice of the young warrior's swaying, Huan, gently escorted Flik toward a nearby cot that was unoccupied. "You look like you are about to collapse from exhaustion. At this rate you'll never make it back. Why don't you rest here for the night?"

The offer sounded tempting and Flik knew he didn't have the energy remaining to contest the decision. His head hit the pillow and before he drifted to sleep he mumbled to himself "I guess I'll have to get that wine from Leona a bit later."

That seems to be it for now. I am finishing up the second piece now. Just a warning to anyone who got this far in that there will be no correlation between each chapter as they are basically standalones with a central theme of being tales of possible happenings between random encounters and large scale battles.

Oh yeah, review or not, I frankly don't care. It's fun and I am only going to write as long as I have the time needed and an idea. So no need to go nuts with undeserved compliments in hope that the ego is stroked just enough to get 'inspiration'. As of now I have a number of ideas, some that seem good and some that once I get to actually putting the idea to words seems to be less than the grand idea I thought it was.