Warnings: None, bar a bit of foreshadowing. OOC-ness may follow.
Disclaimer: I do not own Xenoblade, nor anything related to it. I do own this plot idea, however.
~Camping in Colony 9~
"And you said Shulk had good ideas?"
"I told you that camping out in the middle of Colony 9 was a bad idea, but do you listen? Oh nooo!"
"Reyn. Shut up."
Shulk pitched the bridge of his nose, letting out a large sigh as he wondered just how on Bionis they had ended up there, the two of them lying in the grass hopelessly lost. Well, actually, he did know; for some reason completely beyond him (he knew that drinking things that had Brog's... um, unmentionables in them was a bad idea!), but it had involved Reyn, having one too many and forests.
Maybe one of Dunban's swords as well. Reyn was missing a vital piece of hair, for some reason.
"But Shulk! Square-Tache is going to kill me when I get back! Or make me do one million press-ups; again, which will kill me as well."
"Dunban and Dickson both told me that I needed to get out more," Shulk offered lamely. Reyn snorted.
"Uh-huh, and they're fighting at Sword Valley as we speak. Get out more when they're around, Shulk. When they're away, be as lazy as you want."
"...You didn't have to come, "the blond half-whispered, "I would have been fine with Fiora."
"I'm not leaving you two lovebirds alone-"
"-Huh!" Shulk sat up in surprise, scaring off a butterfly that had been sitting on his finger.
Reyn continued on, ignoring Shulk's priceless face, "-I know what you two will get up to," he said, wagging a finger at the younger teenager.
"Wha-"
"There you boys are!" Fiora suddenly appeared from behind a pile of bushes, carrying some large sticks in her arms. Her clothes were a bit ripped, and... was that blood Shulk could smell on her knifes?
"Leaving a girl to fetch everything; honestly, I wonder!" she teased, throwing some of the sticks onto Reyn's head. He fell back onto the grass with a jolt, groaning.
"Fi-or-a!" he complained, sitting up as he rubbed the sore spot on his head where a particularly sharp stick edge had whacked him. Shulk picked it up, wondering how useful it would be in the lab back home.
Not very useful, he ultimately decided, throwing the wood to one side and flopping back to the ground.
"You two didn't even try to keep the fire going, did you?" she challenged, putting her hands on her hips and shuffling her right leg out slightly. Shulk gulped, knowing that this was Fiora's Serious Pose, and that his life was at danger here if he didn't answer right. Reyn's face turned slightly paler, knowing the same thing that Shulk did, only in simpler terms; Fiora's angry. We're screwed.
Sure enough, when Fiora cast her grass-green eyes over, she caught the pathetic remains of the fire spluttering out some embers, ash lying where it had once been blazing above them all. When she glanced back, she spotted the two boys pointing at each other while staring at Fiora with wide eyes.
"It was Shulk!"
"Reyn!"
"Shulk!"
"Reyn!"
"Shulk!"
"Reyn!
"Shu-"
Fiora walked up to the two of them, and slapped them both across the face with her dirty hand, leaving smudge marks on their cheeks, "It's both of you, alright?"
Shulk stared at Fiora in horror, rubbing his now-bright red cheek painfully, "Y-you just slapped me?" she wasn't sure if it was a question or a statement, judging from his tone of voice.
"Yep!"
When she turned to scold Reyn some more, he quickly picked up the Sharp Stick from before, levelling it at the blonde's face, "Don't come anywhere near me!"
"And who else will cook your food?" Fiora asked, bending down to the red-head despite the stick being waved around in her face.
Reyn made a noise of defeat and dropped the Sharp Stick, grumbling to himself.
Fiora swiped her hands and stood back up, smiling widely at the two, "Alright then! We're going to need to find some fresh meat to cook. Not already dead and covered in flies, since the last one we ate made Reyn have food poisoning."
Shulk winced at the memory; Reyn had happily eaten some animal's meat (it was so badly miscoloured that Shulk couldn't work out what animal it had been) and then he had stayed in Shulk's bed for the next two weeks, throwing up some pink mess of a thing. It had made his research of the Monado slow down to a halt (although the fact that a certain blonde's brother was wielding it didn't help matters) completely.
He did not want that happening again. No one stopped his research of the Monado; the legendary sword of the Bionis!
"I think I saw some Antols running around nearby. They might do," Shulk offered, looking around at the vast amount of trees that surrounded them. Reyn almost blenched on the spot.
"No. I am not eating spiders," he said, groaning as he held a hand to his stomach. Fiora looked at him with raised eyebrows, not having mastered the trick of using just one yet.
"Hmm? Why not Reyn?"
He suddenly looked down, refusing to answer. Shulk gave a nervous grin.
"To be fair Reyn, you did put a caterpillar into my sock drawer when we were little," he said, already knowing what his red-haired best friend was thinking. Just as he suspected, Reyn jolted up and glared at the blond.
"You put a spider into my freaking SHOE! And then I, I- it's not funny!" he shouted when Fiora began to laugh madly, clutching her side as she bent over. The image of Reyn stepping on a spider was just... too funny!
"No offense, Reyn, but it kinda is!" Fiora managed to choke out between her laughter, finally ceasing her laughs, although she still giggled gently.
"Uh, guys," Shulk said, looking down at his legs, seeing the hairs on them standing on edge, "Shouldn't we set up the tent now so that we aren't attacked in the middle of the night?"
Fiora blinked, then looked over to where Shulk was pointing. There was a large red pile on the ground, as well as lots of tiny metal poles scattered carelessly around it. Shulk and Reyn's weapons; the small sword and the Scrap Driver, were lying on top of it. She walked over and then bent down to look at Shulk's sword.
"I guess we should. Don't want any spiders to attack us, now!"
"Shut up," Reyn grumbled, not even bothering a decent comeback as he tried to get a fire going.
"This thing's made for two people."
"Huh?"
It was the beginning of the night, and Shulk could already feel the bitter cold relentlessly assault him; the fact that stronger enemies came out at night did little, if anything, to comfort him. The stars were shining through the heavy clouds above, casting a dim light on the trees around them. The small opening that the trio were in was surrounded by autumn leaves, which Reyn had discovered were excellent for things to set on fire.
Shulk made his way over to Reyn, casting Light Heal above him so that its bright glow would illuminate the make-shift camp. Reyn was shaking a small piece of paper in the blond's direction. Fiora had gone out to hunt for some meat for the three teenagers to eat.
"What do you mean?" he took the manual from Reyn's hands and read it briefly, sea-blue eyes scanning over the information with ease. They abruptly stopped when they came onto one sentence in particular.
"-Made for two people to share, this tent offers everything that you need in order to get hot hot HOT! May also-"
"Who on Bionis wrote this?"
"Someone on Bionis," was Reyn's dead-pan answer. Shulk smacked him on the head with the paper, frowning.
"I knew that."
"Then why did you-"
"Is something the matter?" Fiora asked, mirroring the boys' frowns as she set down a dead animal on a small log nearby. She walked over to them and peeked over Shulk's shoulder, reading the paper.
"This tent can only have two people sleeping in it. We have three here."
"...Who brought this tent?" she asked, looking over at Reyn. He widened his brown eyes at her in disbelief.
"Not my fault if it was the only tent Shulk had in the house!" he said. Shulk looked at him with an open mouth.
"You stole from my house?"
"Why did you have it in your house in the first place!" Reyn challenged. Shulk blinked, not able to come up with an answer. Finally, his shoulders fell.
"I blame Dickson."
"You blame him and Dunban for everything!"
"Not my fault if they put a stink bomb in the lab!" just thinking of it made Shulk's nose curl up in disgust. Apparently, it had been their 'desperate attempt' to get Shulk out of the lab. To say that it had worked would have been an understatement. It had worked, stank the place out and then the smell had leaked into the rest of the Military District. The Defense Force had not been happy having to work with a foul smell for two weeks.
"And then there was that time where Dunban got mad at you two for making me cry!" Fiora happily pitched in, smiling. Both Reyn and Shulk winced at the memory of running for their lives after they had said one too-many insults about Fiora being a girl.
Dunban was scary when he got angry. Shulk wasn't sure if he felt sorrier for the Homs, or for the Mechon at Sword Valley.
"Uh..." Reyn trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck.
"No need to remind us, Fiora."
"Yeah; please don't."
"Really; not nice."
"Just saying!" she took the manual off Shulk, looking at it again. "Hmm... who wants to sleep outside, if we want to do this the easy way?"
No one put their hands up. The wind blew in the leaves behind them. A bird chirped somewhere, and was then eaten by a larger bird.
"...This is going to be awkward," Reyn broke the silence, rolling his shoulder. Shulk nodded, rubbing off a small strain of dirt on his jacket.
"Do either of you have any ideas on what we should do?"
"Bunnit Brog Volf?" Fiora suggested hopefully. Shulk shook his head.
"No. I still don't think Reyn knows how to play that."
"Explain to me just how the Bunnit beats the Brog..." he muttered, shaking his head as if he was thinking about some great crisis. Fiora sighed.
"Pull some sticks?"
Shulk glanced briefly behind him, "We burnt them all, and I don't fancy getting any more, what with all of those monsters trawling around."
"Well then," Fiora sat down onto the grass with a thump, looking upwards at the sky above, "I guess we'll just have to sleep outside, then."
Shulk looked at her in surprise, "Excuse me?"
"I mean exactly what I said; we'll sleep outside, the three of us, together."
Reyn bit his tongue, trying his best to not say about how incredibly cheesy that was, and corny. But oddly enough, he didn't really mind that much. Even if Fiora's sudden mood change surprised him, but he put that down to teenage... eh, whatever people called them.
"Besides-" Fiora chuckled darkly, which was unlike her. The two looked at her yet again, "-For all we know, the Mechon could be in those trees ready to attack us."
Shulk paled at the thought, "Thanks Fiora!" she really did have some of her brother's dark humor, didn't she?
Reyn's face took on a deathly shade not unlike a ghost, "I'm never going to be able to get to sleep now."
"Good night everyone!" the blonde female announced suddenly to the world, dropping onto the grass with a loud yawn. She grabbed the two teenagers' arms and yanked them down, ignoring their shouts of surprise.
"HeywaitonesecondIhaveto-"
"Fiora!"
Or at least, they tried to get to sleep. Shulk really did try, but he could sense that Fiora and Reyn were wide awake, no doubt talking to each other. When he opened his bleary eyes, he was not expecting to see a GIANT caterpillar's face.
In his face.
He screamed loudly, battering the thing with his hands as he flailed about madly. Mad laughter followed, and the head fell to the ground along with Reyn clutching his side. Fiora was giggling like crazy, unable to contain the huge smile on her face.
"Happy Valentine's Day!" she announced, hugging him with her arms. Shulk blinked at the sudden change in her mood, rather liking the new warmth on his stomach.
"...Thanks?" he failed at trying to keep the blush on his face from spreading, and he hoped that she didn't notice.
"Oh Reyn!" she bolted up from the grass and dragged the older teen along with her. Shulk missed the warmth of her arms, but didn't say anything on it. The two of them landed on the ground, staring up at the stars dancing above.
"Yeah?"
"I know the perfect girlfriend for you in the future!" she said, twisting her fingers together. Shulk blinked at her, speechless for one of the first times in his life.
"...What?"
"'Cuse me?"
"She'll have long, raven-black hair that flows to her shoulders-"
"Why black?" Reyn asked.
"Because everyone in Colony 9 has brown hair! Your hair's kinda brown, if you squint really hard in the dark and dump some hair dye on it. As well as blond hair; me and Shulk have it, you know? You wouldn't believe the lack of people around here with black hair. What's wrong with it?"
"..." Shulk was slightly scared for Fiora's well-being; did her mood always change at night time?
"Moving on; she'll have this adorable little dot underneath her lips! It'll be really small and brown, but it's really pretty!"
"...Okay," Reyn said slowly.
"And then she'll have chestnut-brown eyes! You don't see enough of those eyes nowadays! You have them, and they really suit you perfectly!"
Fiora must have had too much of that meat, Shulk decided as the source of her odd mood.
"Oh; she'll have an adorable little brother as well! And she'll be in the Defense Force somewhere; maybe Colony 7's?"
"Why is there a kid in there?" Reyn demanded, sitting up to look at Fiora properly. She quickly pulled him down again, smiling at him widely.
"Because it shows that she can handle little kids! Which means that she would be able to handle you perfectly."
Shulk laughed at the insult hidden inside her words, "Nice one Fiora!"
"Thanks Shulk!"
"Did you just call me a kid?" Reyn asked, smiling playfully. Fiora, noticing the smile, grinned.
"Yep!" the two of them started to friendly fight each other, smiling widely the whole time. Shulk watched his two best friends; the two people he treasured above all else right now, play, before closing his eyes and putting his hands behind his head.
Three years from now, Fiora would be able to laugh at Reyn and tell him, "I told you so about your future girlfriend!" Reyn would, in turn, tease her about her and Shulk being 'lovebirds'.
But above all, the three would remain inseparable, in life and in death.
~Fin~
A/N: There is so much of my head!canon for Xenoblade here that it hurts. The only thing that I think is vital is that I believe the Battle at Sword Valley lasted for between three-four years. If you any other questions, please ask away! :)
So; this is a friendly Shulk/Reyn/Fiora friendship one-shot. I had decided to drag myself away from the trio that is Dunban/Dickson/Mumkhar friendship (since, for some reason, I cannot get enough of those three, especially Dunban and Dickson) and write something else. Alas, this was born.
Shulk, Reyn and Fiora are all 16-years-old here, so I wrote them like they were pre-Xenoblade crisis events (you should know what I mean ;P). I know Fiora is horribly, horribly OOC, but it was for the LOLs. I hope Shulk and Reyn are alright in this.
Thank you for reading! ^_^