Disclaimer: I do not own Bravely Default; Square Enix does.
The sound of flesh hitting flesh rang across the (formerly) peaceful meadow just outside Florem. Animals and monsters alike collectively winced in sympathetic pain at the action, for the sound of flesh hitting flesh was not that of two lovers desecrating the meadow, but of a tiny, yet fierce hand, connecting with the cheek of one Ringabel.
Tiz paused in mid-bite of his lunch, debating whether or not to intervene on Ringabel's behalf, but decided against it; not because he didn't want to damage his friend's pride, but because he didn't want to direct Edea's rage towards him. Selfish, yes, but self-preservation often was.
"You are such a PIG, Ringabel!" screeched Edea, shaking her hand slightly to soothe the sting in her palm. That was the hardest she'd slapped Ringabel so far, a new personal best.
The boy in question, despite the red imprint of the young girl's hand on his cheek, allowed himself a small smirk, serving only to infuriate the blonde further. "But dearest Edea, I was only complimenting on how lovely and shapely your legs look this fine day. Smooth and silken as the freshest cream, and I imagine just as sweet."
"You want another one!?" Edea snapped, trying to quell the pink tinge her cheeks were taking on. For all his faults, she had to admire the way he could make her heart flutter and seemingly teleport butterflies directly into her stomach. But she couldn't let him know. He'd never stop. Well, more than he normally didn't.
Edea grit her teeth, hand raised to deliver another slap, but lowered it with a sigh. "I can't handle you right now. I'm off to…train, or something. Don't follow me."
"Would you ask a fish not to swim, my angel?" spoke Ringabel, having somehow mustered up the strength and speed to get to his feet and appear before Edea. "A bird not to fly? A knight to lay down his sword? For me not to follow you, oh—" Edea bit her lip to distract herself from the sound of Ringabel's sigh; it sounded like moaning, which was as arousing as it was repulsive, if that made any sort of sense. "—that would be the cruelest of requests."
"Follow me and I will break your arm. Then I'll ask Agnés to heal it, and then I'll break it again, but worse."
Ringabel blinked before getting up and allowing Edea aside, head bowed low and arm outstretched, as if he were introducing royalty. "I'll wait with bated breath, my love." purred the pompadour'd man.
"Hooray." Edea replied flatly, stomping off.
"And though I hate to see you go," Ringabel added, none-too-subtly eying Edea's backside. "I simply adore to watch you leave."
Edea slowly counted to ten and gripped her sword as she increased her speed. Oh, the monsters in this meadow were in a for a WORD of pain.
Ringabel sighed forlornly as Edea disappeared over a hill, taking his seat once more, head in his hands.
"She really might kill you one day."
Ringabel turned to Tiz, the brunette having finished his meal. "You don't really think she would?"
"If you keep doing that, she might. She's pretty good with the Black Mage asterisk. You might wake up one day covered in flames."
"Isn't she hot enough already?" jibed Ringabel.
"…" Tiz let out a small chuckle as he shook his head. "Okay, I suppose I set myself up for that one."
Ringabel returned the boy's chuckle with one of his own, lying back and falling onto the cool, lush grass of the meadow. A ladybug darted past, the tiniest of contrast against the cloudless sky. Slowly he held out his hand, the little bug coming to rest on his finger.
"I might not be able to resist flattering a beautiful girl…" Ringabel spoke, watching the bug jump from finger to finger. "But Edea is no ordinary beautiful girl."
"I know, I know…" Tiz said, rolling his eyes. "You've told us dozens of times before; she's your destined angel."
"It's more than that, Tiz." Ringabel eye's followed the ladybug as it flew off, until it disappeared from his peripheral. "I'm not even sure that Edea is my angel. There are plenty of blondes in Luxendarc. But…I think I'm actually in love with her."
"WHAT!?" Tiz clamped his hands over his mouth as his exclamation echoed across the meadow. He was sure even those in Florem heard it.
Ringabel grinned as he rose. "Is that so surprising?"
Tiz thought about it. He wasn't entirely sure if Ringabel was being serious or not. His reputation left a lot to be desired. "How do I know you're serious? You said you were in love with that…dancer girl in Ancheim."
Both boys blushed slightly at the vivid memory, Ringabel more so. "Ah, yes…Lanvi. A dusky jewel, skin the color of split shank champagne, and eyes that made the desert heat seem like a cool breeze." Ringabel cleared his throat. "But this is different. Edea is my one and only, and I know it not because of some mystical journal, or talks of fate, destiny, or the like. I know it because I simply do, pure and simple."
"…I'd be more inclined to believe you if you weren't drooling."
"A gentleman doesn't drool, Tiz."
"Here." said the brunette, offering his friend a napkin.
"Thank you kindly."
The agonized, screeching gurgle of a Poison Moth pierced the air as Edea sliced through it, whirling around to stab a nearby Scorpion in the head. With a grunt, and a little more force than necessary, she activated her Blizzard Sword Magic and froze the large insect before slashing it into a million frozen chunks. Though she loved the perks the job offered, she'd never set it as her primary; that outfit might as well have been Ringabel bait.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID Ringabel." hissed Edea as she gathered up the monster spoils. The moth had dropped a great deal of pg, enough to update her wardrobe. But even thoughts of a possible shopping spree couldn't divert her thoughts from her skirt-chasing partner.
"Edea, Edea! I heard monster sounds! Are you alri—oh, my goodness."
Agnès nearly fainted at the sight of monster bodies littering the meadow. Scorpions upon Scorpions, Treant upon Treant, more Myconid than she could count; some must've used Spore.
Edea chuckled sheepishly as she sheathed her sword. "I, uh…got a little carried away."
"Clearly!" piped up Airy, by Agnès' side like always. "What'd Ringabel do this time?"
"What makes you think it was him?" shot back Edea.
"Because it's always him." the two replied in perfect unison.
Edea swore inwardly. They were getting far too perceptive for their own good. "Fine, it was him."
Agnès was silent for a moment before she asked Airy to fly ahead and let Tiz (Tiz, not Ringabel) know that she would return soon. The cryst-fairy agreed, off in a matter of seconds.
"If you feel like talking, I'm more than willing to listen." said the vestal, smiling. Trust Agnès to be the sympathetic ear.
"It's just…" Edea struggled to find the words. They were on the tip of her tongue, and the blonde almost laughed. She could cut down over thirty creatures in a few minutes, but when it came to speaking her mind (in regard to Ringabel, anyway), that was a completely different story.
"He's just insufferable sometimes." Edea finally said, and she could feel a figurative weight on her shoulders get lighter.
"What has he done now?" asked Agnès, with the faintest trade of sternness in her voice.
"The perv complimented me on my legs. He said they were 'smooth and silken as cream and probably tasted as sweet as they looked'."
Agnès visibly flinched, trying to keep the bile in her throat from rising. "Unacceptable. Has he no shame?"
"No!" shouted Edea, startling the other girl. "He's shameless, and perverted, and a pig, and a philanderer, and a horndog, and a million other things I don't care to remember! Always going on about how I'm his 'angel' and yet he'll race off after any girl that catches his eye! Staying out late every night in every single town we stop in so he can 'indulge the local beauties with his presence'. He's insufferable and that cursed grin of his makes me want to punch him into next week!"
Edea let out a breath as she flopped onto the ground, Agnès wide-eyed from the blonde's rant. Unsure of what to say or do, she merely twiddled her thumbs, waiting for the subject to change.
"I think I'm in love with him."
Agnès had seen and heard a great deal of unbelievable things in her life. She had seen the powers of the crystals firsthand, and, thanks to Tiz, had seen much of the world and what it had to offer. But no amount of travel or supernatural occurrence could've prepared her for those seven words.
"Edea, are you ill?"
The young girl raised her head slightly, giving her friend a bemused look. "What makes you say that?"
"You just explained what I believe are very good reasons to despise Ringabel, and yet you just said you love him."
"I think I do." retorted Edea, before rubbing her chin in contemplative thought. "Scratch that, I definitely do."
Agnès was on her feet and inches from Edea's face so fast the blonde had to wonder if she and Ringabel were using the Thief jobs as secondaries. "Has he poisoned you? That scoundrel must've done something to your food; an overdose of potion, or some soured milk, or—"
"Will you stop?" huffed Edea, lightly pushing Agnès' hand away. "I'm not sick or anything like that."
"Then how could you say you're in love with Ringabel!?" the vestal exclaimed, her tone and character surprising even herself. "He's…he's…Ringabel!"
"I know, I know," Edea groaned as she lied back down on the grass. "But he has some good qualities, to—" She cut herself off. She was sure that the view above her head was supposed to be the clear blue sky, and not a devilishly handsome smile belonging to an (admittedly) devilishly handsome boy.
"Agnès, Edea." he greeted, taking a cross-legged seat next to the horrified Edea. "I thought my ears were burning. You lovely ladies were discussing me, were you not?"
"You…you…" Edea stuttered, scrambling to her feet. "How much did you hear?"
"A great deal." was his reply. "I'm to assume you were being serious when you said you loved me?"
Edea laughed, too loudly and boisterous to be anything but overly sarcastic. "D-Don't be ridiculous! As if I could fall for someone of such ill repute! Agnès, back me—" But the vestal was gone, and Edea could just barely make out the brunette running back across the meadow, no doubt to Tiz and Airy.
'And I'm the one branded traitor.' Edea mentally grumbled.
Ringabel smiled, a wide, knowing smile that infuriated and enticed Edea at the same time.
"Ringabel, don't you say one word."
"Oh, I should say several."
Edea reached for her sword (she meant to give no lasting damage, only a thwap with the flat of the blade to deter his advances), only to freeze when she felt a pair of lips on her own.
Edea knew Ringabel was a bold person. Fearlessly charging into battle, with nary a care for the opponent (unless it was a pretty girl), and fought with the aplomb of a seasoned battler. But never in her wildest dreams did she think he'd be as suicidally brave to kiss her.
Her hand rested on the handle of her sword; in second she could slice his hand off, without a trace of remorse. And yet, she didn't. She found herself leaning into the kiss, the world only consisting of her, Ringabel, and this moment. She expected him to do something perverted, like grope her or the like, but he was surprisingly reserved, and (to her disappointment), he didn't even use tongue.
After what seemed like far too short a moment, he pulled away, that smile on his face once more.
"What is everything you imagined?" Ringabel drawled.
SLAP! The amnesiac recoiled from the slap, before he was hoisted up by a fuming Edea. 'She really is strong for someone so petite.'
"Tell no one what happened just now. Ever." was her command.
Ringabel, however, simply adored a challenge, as well as the rare chance to frazzle Edea so. "And if I do? I've awfully loose lips."
Expecting another slap, Ringabel closed his eyes, only to jump in surprise when he felt Edea pull him into a kiss. She was rough, the exact opposite of his more gentle technique, and she broke it by tossing Ringabel to the ground.
"If not…" she said, and a wonderfully mischievous, playful, and downright sexy smile spread across her face. "Then I'll just have to find ways to keep those loose lips shut."
END
A/N: My first Bravely Default fic, yus!