According to Plan
XXX
"I still don't understand why you can't just tell her directly."
"Fana, dear, sweet and naïve Fana…considering you're the best friend of the Hero of Kaleila, you certainly don't know much about the business."
"My mistake. I didn't realize that helping others was considered a business."
Duran smiled wryly. Considering she had left her bed for the first time in months less than a week prior, Fana seemed right as rain, resembling more the person she had been before becoming bedridden: sweet, of course, but possessing that dry wit that would be expected from one that had experienced and lived life—which, he imagined, would have been exceedingly difficult because of her illness.
She was better now, though, and he could think only of one reason as to why her ailment had vanished so abruptly.
Tia.
He hadn't taken her very seriously initially; she was, to be brutally honest, of somewhat low standing in the unspoken social classes that had come into being over the years. She was a bit clumsy, always tagging along with Rex, running around in her mismatched clothes (he wasn't one to talk—but heroes did need to make a statement) and enthusiastically taking part in whatever ludicrous money-making plot Rex came up with. That aside, she was a girl. Girls were meant to be the damsels in distress, the moral anchor of the story, the pretty girl that the hero lived happily ever after with.
Tia defied this expectation entirely.
She had hated to be treated as anything but an individual, or even another boy; anytime she had wound up in trouble, she would fiercely deny any help offered to her. The girl had no qualms about associating with the town pickpocket or even the witch, and gave her all in any given situation.
Despite her quirks, she was, well…really cute. Her naivety knew no limit, and she was constantly smiling. Although a bit air-headed, she took her training at the dojo very seriously—there had been a few times I'd watched, only to see my father be given a full-out beating by the petite, pink-clad little demon (at which Duran had laughed, only to be given a thrashing himself by the elder swordsman).
More than any of that, though, Tia took him seriously. She constantly promoted his excursions into the Grana Plains and beyond, helped him gather Hero Bloom Flowers for his hat, and trained with him on a regular basis. He was boy, she was a girl, and they were both teenagers—it seemed perfectly natural for him to have developed a crush on her. Frankly, Duran was shocked that Rex, at the very least, had shown little interest in anything other than a platonic relationship with her.
…Well, he had to admit: it was a bit difficult to act casually with the savior of their country.
"…ran. Um, Duran? Duran. Duran, you're spacing out again…"
Snapping to attention, he couldn't help but flush a bit in embarrassment. Spacing out was not a very cool thing to do at all for a hero—especially a hero with a mission. Those who let their guard down for even a moment would have a blade in their side in nothing flat.
Fana shook her head in such a way that she didn't even need to speak what she was thinking: Duran, please stop staring into space like a slack-jawed idiot and pay attention for once. And while you're at it, wipe that drool off the side of your mouth.
"I just don't understand why you didn't tell her before. You had every opportunity, you know." Her expression had softened; Duran found that he could only shuffle his feet sheepishly under her motherly gaze.
"Yeah, I know. I just didn't realize it back then—I thought it was just respect for another hero, that's all. Besides," he added with a grin, "this way is more dramatic. She'll be swept off her feet in no time flat. Just watch, Fana. Everything'll go according to plan."
XXX
Okay, I know it seems slow—obscenely, pathetically, and slow to the point where it's almost a crime—but I promise I'll try to get better! There was a lot of insight on Duran; I guess I haven't completely kicked my first person habits. For some reason, I always want to provide some kind of backstory/history early on. I can't just jump into things and explain things in time, like a lot of the writers I respect. I really should work on that...
I'm thinking the next chapter will probably be the last for this story. I feel so lame, only writing one-shots and two-shots...but at least I'm progressing? A little? xD; And I finally wrote something that doesn't center on Rex, so...hopefully I can keep Duran as lovable as humanly possible.