Summary: It's Valentine's Day in Colhen and Lann receives gifts from Fiona and Evie. Brief appearance of Player Character/OC Kain. Light-hearted oneshot. Random.
Morning came onto the tiny dock-town of Colhen just as any morning would; the Crimson Blade recruits scuttling like mice at the crack of dawn in an attempt to claim the lavatories first, various Royal Army representatives shuffling around like the dead with arms full of paperwork begging to be sorted, and the other morning sounds of Colhen's denizens waking up and starting a new day.
However, as Tieve had constantly reminded every single person that came within a ten-foot radius of the Inn the day before, the patrons of this tiny town started the day with a little more cheer in their hearts as it was Valentine's Day!
Although most of the older residents of Colhen had either dismissed the day as another useless holiday or complained that the younger generations used this day as an excuse to skimp out of working, Lann felt quite annoyed at the lewd whistles and slightly more than cheerful (and suggestive) morning greetings that bombarded him during his routine rounds around the perimeters of Colhen.
It didn't help that Ferghus had off-handedly remarked that he needed to 'take care' of his swords more in front of Ceara, who turned an interesting shade of red and proceeded to snicker all the way back to the Outpost for some reason or another (it wasn't his fault that gnoll blood was so sticky and took forever to clean off! Not to mention he had two swords! Two!)
Well, that was his initial view on this particularly bothersome holiday until his suspiciously giggling friend, Evie, had passed him a small wooden box sometime near the end of his morning patrol duty and told him to open it later after breakfast. Lann, not wanting to waste time on questioning his comrade's request (which he chalked it up to tie in with the weird reactions of some of the women in the town giggling whenever he or one of the other male soldiers walked by them today), just put the gift carefully in a small compartment of his bag and hoped that he could find out what was with all the lovey-dovey emotions that had affected the usually…not so lovey-dovey town.
Hell, Lann even spied from the corner of his eye Shayla giving the cold-as-ever Brynn a quick hug and peck on the cheek before flouncing away to the Forge.
As his patrol duty ended and he switched his uneventful shift with another member of the Crimson Blades, Lann made his way to the Inn where he hoped that Tieve had some extra pancakes that hadn't been devoured either by the groups of mercenaries or Ellis, who so far had been blacklisted on his mental friend's list because of snatching the last pancake from under his nose last week (and still had no chance of coming off it until he got some freshly-cooked pancakes).
Unfortunately, when Lann finally dragged his armored boots through the doorway and collapsed tiredly onto a half-filled wooden bench near a table, Tieve had come over and profusely apologized that there were no more pancakes to be had while simultaneously wishing him a joyful, "Happy Valentine's Day!" over the noisy din of other soldiers still eating breakfast.
Somewhat bummed out by the lack of Tieve's delicious pancakes, Lann opted for a slice of buttered toast and a glass some awful green concoction that was supposed to serve as an 'Energy Booster' of some sort. In his opinion, those green energy drinks tasted like week-old goat milk left out in the sun and that the person who invented the vile brew should be run through a spear and left out to be eaten by some kobolds. Or a polar bear. The unsurprisingly over-buttered toast helped even out the disgusting flavor of the drink, though, so he didn't complain any more than he needed to (which to say, was near nonexistent).
After wolfing down his meager breakfast, Lann laid his head down on the wooden table and decided to snatch a quick bit of shuteye before continuing his next duties near the Docks as most of his comrades finished their meals and rushed out of the door, eager for a fight against some Fomors.
Well, that was what he was going to do until he caught the absolutely delicious aroma of crisp bacon being waved in front of his nose. Lann's eyes snapped open and his hand automatically shot towards the source of the mouthwatering smell, managing to grab a few strips of bacon and shoved them into his mouth immediately, ignoring the surprised squawk of the person's whose bacon he had just stolen from as he chewed the incredibly crunchy meat. His gaze following up the arm that waved the bacon in front of him, Lann was surprised to see Kain, one of the co-leaders for the dual-wielding recruit training groups, waving the rest of the bacon teasingly before popping them into his own mouth, chewing noisily as he dropped onto the empty seat next to Lann.
"Whas'sa matter, boy? A young'un like you shouldn't be moping around on Valentin's day!" A cheeky smirk, ruined only slightly by the jagged scar crossing down his mouth, was flashed his way as a friendly hand gripped his shoulder. Lann shrugged the hand off and sat up straight in his seat.
"I'm not... moping." Kain seemed undeterred by his declaration.
"O' course you ain't! Now, wha's on your mind?" And before Lann's obvious denial could be voiced, he added, "Is it 'bout the ladies? Or barrack troubles?"
Lann, torn between glaring at the disturbingly happy (or possibly drunk) recruit trainer and smiling slightly at the blatant attempt of cheering him up, decided against both and instead inquired curiously, "Do you know why everyone's acting so weird today?" Kain's grin faltered slightly before a more devious smirk replaced it.
"Boy, you mean ya don't know what Valentin's day is?" At Lann's shake of his head, Kain made an exaggerated show of crossing his arms and looking up at the ceiling thoughtfully for a moment before saying, "Did'ja get anythin' from the ladies yet?"
Lann, remembering the gift Evie had given him some hours earlier, pulled out the small box and envelope out of his bag and set it cautiously on the tabletop as if it could blow any minute. The older man picked the box up and examined it for a moment before putting it back on the table. A full-blown laugh erupted out of him, which scared the living soul out of Lann for its suddenness as well as the somewhat insane look it gave the recruit trainer (seriously, the guy's eyes were gold! The same color as the freakin' gnolls in the Perilous Ruins for Morrighan's sake!). The booming laughter continued for about a minute before the older soldier clapped a hand on Lann's shoulder, told him to take care of himself, and lumbered out the door presumably to torment some straggling rookies, leaving an incredibly confused and somewhat embarrassed Lann alone in the mostly empty dining room.
Turning back to the gift sitting innocently on the table, Lann reached to open it until a pair of arms wrapped around his neck and a voice chirped annoyingly into his ear, "Hello again, Lann!" Without turning around, he immediately figured it to be Evie. Another female, somewhere behind him, sighed and greeted him as well before pulling a somewhat reluctant mage off him. Evie bounced onto the seat to his left and pretty much wrapped herself around his left arm while the other female, Fiona, calmly sat down at his right side.
"Guess what, Lann?" Evie cheerfully declared.
"What now?" As annoying as she could be some times, Lann knew that whatever he could attempt to get Evie to stop being so happily loud near his sensitive ears would not work. At all.
"Fiona has something to give you!" Lann raised an eyebrow at this; as far as he knew, the usually solemn and very quiet woman rarely had anything to do with him outside of battles during the entirety of the years that he had known her. Turning to Fiona, his face was greeted with another one of those frustratingly tiny wooden boxes. Carefully accepting the gift and putting it side-by-side with the other box, Lann realized something.
"You two gave me something, but I didn't give anything to both of you…" Evie didn't seem disheartened by this and instead just whined loudly,
"Jeeze, open the boxes already! You can give us both some chocolate and other things on White Day!" Of course, since Lann had no clue what White Day was but wanted to keep Evie somewhat complacent and eventually off his arm later in the day so he picked up Fiona's gift with his remaining arm that wasn't claimed by Evie and flicked open the lid with his thumb.
Inside the box lay a tiny reddish-orange gem that glowed ominously on top of the puffed velvet stuffing under it. A single silver earring clasp with an obvious space for the decorative stone gleamed with a polished ferocity lay next to the gem. Lann's eyebrows raised as the male part of his brain contemplated his gift in 0.02 seconds.
"Uh…erhm…Fiona…thank you…?" Fiona looked away, her face a bit flushed as she replied uncertainly,
"You're welcome." Evie stared at the jewel before blatantly defending her friend's gift,
"That's a pretty rare and expensive Savage Eye gem because of its size, Lann. You'd better appreciate that Fiona went through several Polar Bear runs just to get it or I'll-" Evie was cut off with a stern look from Fiona behind Lann's back, but the severity of her doom-stares were nulled as Lann asked hesitantly,
"…How exactly do you put this on?"
Lann received twin exasperated looks and sheepishly looked away as his two comrades began to somewhat argue behind his back on who was to help him… put on the earring. Putting the opened box back on the table and picking up Evie's gift, he opened the box and was greeted with…a Life Erg Crystal?
"Do you like it? I know you're always low on Fine HP Potions, so I decided to chip in a crystal. They're hard to find, you know?" Evie blinked at Lann's owlish expression and pouted when she received a weak "Thank you," from the normally assertive dual-blader.
"Hmph! It's obvious you like Fiona's gift better, so I'll just leave you two here while I go do some more important stuff! See you later!" With that, Evie sprang out of the Inn with an exaggerated bounce in her steps, leaving Lann and Fiona behind.
Fiona scowled slightly at Evie's quick escape, but sighed resignedly as Lann turned his (albeit adorable) perturbed and questioning gaze onto her, complete with puppy eyes. Fiona grabbed her gift and proceeded to click the jewel into place on the earring before reaching into her side-pocket and picking out a relatively thin and long needle. At Lann's horrified stare at the object, she sighed again.
"It's just a needle, Lann." If it were even possible (which probably was), his pleading puppy eyes grew to the point where she began to doubt if he was really a soldier at all. Fiona's look hardened and with a single stern look she simply said, "Which ear do you want this on?"
Needless to say, Lann spent the rest of the day being teased by his male comrades about being coerced into getting an earring by a woman while simultaneously being cooed over by the general female population in Colhen.
Thus concluded Lann's first experience of Valentine's Day.