DISCLAIMER: I do not own Tales of Vesperia or Chase Lyall and Letha Vitae as they belong to Sylph Writer, for whom this one-shot is written for.
This one-shot was written for Sylph Writer's Challenge on her story "Fairy Tales and Brave Vesperia". It is an amazing story and very well written. Sylph, I really hope I kept everyone in character. Also, for any readers, I'm sorry if its rough in spots as I haven't been writting anything prose-like for quite awhile. I hope that you enjoy it.
Nights in Mantic were always quiet, especially lately with the guards stationed at every corner. Chase was lying in bed, half asleep and thinking over the day's events. He certainly hadn't expected to see Letha and the rest of her friends anytime soon. Work had him traveling all over the world, and the chances of seeing another group of people who were constantly on the move wasn't very high.
He rolled over onto his side, arm tucked underneath his head and saw the claymore he currently used. The sliver of moonlight that streamed into his rented room hit the plain metal, lighting up the area around the sword, almost like an ethereal glow. Chase smiled in laughter, closing his eyes and letting his mind fall silent in an attempt to sleep. It didn't last long as a yell from downstairs in the Inn, which sounded like Letha, seem to shake the walls. Chase bolted up in bed, straining his ears to make sure that he hadn't already fallen asleep and that the yell hadn't been from a nightmare. When another yell, sounding like Yuri, reverberated throughout the Inn, Chase leapt from the bed, throwing the slightly sweaty sheets that had been glued to him off, and grabbed his claymore. He would later wonder just when it was that it became instinct to help Letha.
Chase thundered down the hallway, slipping just a bit on the wooden floor in his bare feet, and down the stairs. Thoughts of what could be wrong ran through his head, and a feeling of dread settled into his stomach. When he reached the end of the stairs, hand on the rail to steady himself, he was dumbfounded by the sight that greeted him in the Inn's lobby.
Pale moonlight fell into the room and it gave him enough light to see that Yuri was seated on a chair with Letha behind him, hands in his hair, and telling him to stop being such a baby. Judith was standing slightly off to the side, hiding a smirk behind her hand. Chase took a moment to steady his franticly beating heart, before he stepped off the last stair and the groups eyes' shifted to him. He noticed that Letha's brows furrowed in confusion.
"Chase," Letha called out tentatively, "why do you have your sword?"
A tint of red settled on Chase's cheeks, "I...heard you yell and thought was something was wrong." Chase paused and looked at Yuri, "I wasn't expecting this though, whatever this is."
"So you were rushing to Letha's aid as her shining knight in armour?" Judith quipped. Letha and Chase both blushed a cherry red. Letha shook her head and focused back on Yuri's hair, refusing to look at anyone. Chase coughed awkwardly, before scuffing his feet against the floor.
"Why were you yelling though?" Chase asked.
"That's because Yuri wasn't too happy about us wanting to braid his hair. But we managed to change his mind about that." Judith smirked. Chase felt a shiver crawl up his spine and he began to inch towards the stairs. He had no doubt in his mind that changing Yuri's mind had something to do with the yells and probably a few pieces of blackmail as well.
"See?" Letha turned Yuri's head to show a small braid that ran along the side of his head, "We were just going to pull it back so that it's out of the way while we travel through the desert, but," Letha's grin grew as she spoke, "his hair is so soft that we had to play with it." Letha looked down at her victim, who had yet to say a word. Chase swore he saw a pout on Yuri's face, though he covered it well with an indifferent look.
"I see." Chase didn't, not really, but he figured if he wanted to beat a hasty retreat before the girls decided they should braid his hair, he'd best nod his head and act like he did know.
"Why don't you sit down and we can do your hair as well?" The gleam in Judith's eyes told him his plans of sleep were futile, so he sighed in resignation and sat beside Yuri on the chair Judith pulled out for him. He laid his sword on the ground beside him, making sure that no one would accidently step on it.
"We'll do yours after we finish Yuri's, okay?" Letha went back to attacking Yuri's hair and Judith stepped beside her to work on the other side of Yuri's head. Yuri glanced at Chase out of the corner of his eye and both men sighed. Girls were crazy.
Chase observed as the two braided Yuri's hair, seeing a braid that resembled a fish bone began to take form starting about halfway down his head and continuing until the ends of his hair. The two girls conversed in whispers, Judith seeming to give Letha instructions. They finished quickly and then turned Yuri's head so that it faced Chase.
"How does it look?" Letha looked at Chase expectedly.
"It, um," Chase was at a loss of words. He cleared his throat, "He looks very...pretty?" his voice squeaked a little higher at the last word because of the glare that Yuri was sending him. Chase gave him a helpless shrug.
"I. Am. Not." Yuri grounded the words out, seething.
"Oh stop Yuri. I think it looks quite dashing." Judith informed him.
"I agree with Chase. Yuri looks pretty. Like a certain elf I told everyone about in Lord of the Rings." Letha giggled as she wore a smug smile on her lips at Yuri's horrified expression. He franticly reached his hands up to find the end of the braids, wincing when Judith flicked his hands away.
"No taking them out now. Maybe we'll let you take them out tomorrow morning." Judith yawned, daintily covering her mouth, "Oh my. It seems to be getting late. We better go to bed. Let's go Yuri." Judith seemed to teleport from one side of the room to the stairs, pushing Yuri in front of her. Yuri looked confused and disorientated as Judith waved cheerily behind them.
"What...just happened?" Chase asked.
"I'm not entirely sure. But I think Judith just pulled a disappearing act and took Yuri with her. Why, I don't know." Letha replied, somewhat slowly in disbelief.
"Okay. As long as I'm not the only one who's confused." Chase paused, "Are you still going to braid my hair?"
"If you don't mind. Judith showed me how to do a new braid and I would really like to try it out on someone else."
"Just, promise me one thing."
"What's that?" Letha looked at him curiously.
"Don't make me look girly."
There was a pause between the two before Letha smiled and promised. She pulled a comb out from her pocket and began to work at the tangles nestled in Chase's hair. Her hands were surprisingly gentle and Chase had to fight to keep himself awake.
"Do you always take your hair out of the pony tail when you sleep?"
"Hm?" Chase shook himself awake a bit, "Ah, no. It must have fallen apart earlier." He felt himself falling back asleep when Letha put the comb away and began to clumsily do something to the back of his hair. She grabbed three stands of hair at first, and began to braid, constantly adding more hair to her hands after every cross of the strands. When Chase began to tilt forward, almost dead asleep, Letha bundled his hair into one hair and shook him awake by placing a hand on his shoulder. He tried to turn his head to look at her but she tugged lightly on the hair in her hand to remind him that he couldn't.
"Maybe you should keep talking until I'm done so you don't fall asleep." She suggested.
"Hm." Chase thought for a moment, a look of 'ah-ha' coming over his face, "Why did you really want to braid Yuri's hair?"
Letha's hands stilled as she answered, "Revenge." She resumed working, neatly tying an elastic around the end of the braid.
"Revenge for what?" Chase turned to look at Letha. Her face was sort of blank. She took a deep breath before she answered.
"When we were in Heliord, we had to get past some knights. Karol suggested we use seduction to lure him away. Yuri volunteered me because of my aikido, because if anything went wrong I would be able to get away the easiest. I had to wear clothing I would rather not describe though. Clothing I would never wear again...except maybe the boots." Letha looked thoughtful, "I did like those boots. They made me almost as tall as Yuri." She mused. Chase could only stare at her, and wonder if she was sane,
"What did you mean about the Elf from, where ever you mentioned?" Chase cautiously asked. Letha seemed to snap out of her thoughts, a slow grin working its way onto her face.
"The Elf is Legolas Greenleaf from a story called the Lord of the Rings. There was a really short description of what his hair looked like and I thought it would make for a perfect revenge on Yuri. There's also the fact that this particular elf was known for being called a pretty boy."
"...I can see why Yuri was as upset as he was, especially if you told him that." Chase shook his head, standing up, "You know. I'm surprised that I was the only one that came down to see what the yelling was about earlier." He grabbed the chair to place it against the wall, missing the look of confusion on Letha's face.
"We weren't really all that loud Chase." She said.
"You weren't?" Chair against the wall, Chase bent to pick up his claymore, "I could have sworn that the walls were going to come down."
"I think if Judith was still down here, she might make a comment on you having a 'Letha Sense'." Letha paused and let her own words sink in, before she reddened, "I'm going to go to bed now. Before I say anything else. Night Chase!" Letha ran towards the stairs, ducking her head so her red face was partly hidden. Chase was once again standing dumbfounded, this time at the quick exit Letha had made. He groaned, deciding not to dwell on it. Everything was a little foggy at the moment as it was without trying to figure out Letha's odd quirks and luck.
He quickly went back to his room, opening and closing the door as silently as he could. He leaned his claymore back in place against the wall, barely noticing the lack of moonlight that was shining in his room. He flopped onto the bed, face first, and tried to get to sleep.
Though Chase was tired, his mind was still active, and he raised himself up slightly to gaze out the window. Stars were out in full force, barely a cloud to cover the bright lights. He didn't recognize any of the constellations from his vantage point, but he wondered if Letha was looking out and saw any she knew. He ran a hand down the braid Letha had put in his hair, idly wondering what the name of it, noticing how loose it was. It would probably come out on its own by morning. Letting his hand flop back to the bed, he rolled over so that he was facing the wall. He forced his mind silent so he could sleep at least a few hours. Though he kept his mind quiet, and even after he was asleep, thoughts of Letha still crawled at the corners of his dreams.
In case any one was wondering, the braid the Letha put in Chase's hair is called a french braid. Hopefully I described that properly.