HEY!!! Guess what... guess what?! I updated!!!! whoo hooo! Ok... sorry I had WAY too much sugar this morning! X-D I just wanted to thank my ONE reviewer that took the time to drop me a line. I appreciate the support... I need it :-) To all the others that I know are reading but not reviewing... I'm glad that you are at least checking it out :-) (haha... I do the same thing sometimes XD)
Note: I hope I didn't make this part of the story too confusing... I know it was kind of hard to put it into words that would say what I was thinking. Any who... enough of me! Enjoy and please review!
landis icelilly
Discl : I, landis icelilly, do not own FFXII or Square Enix or anything else that might have connections to them.
(rev: 9/5/07)
Earlier that Evening…
After about two hours of rigorous training, Ashe and some other soldiers from the Resistance group she was currently apart of, meandered their way back to their living quarters in the back corridor of Lowtown. She was looking forward to taking a long hot shower to ease up the soreness and tension that was developing in her back muscles from her earlier workout and training session
Even though she was the Princess of Dalmasca, the sole surviving heir to the royal throne, nobody in the Resistance fleet knew of her existence except Captain Vossler. All that the members knew was that she was just another soldier, ranked maybe a little higher than their own stature, but still wanted to contest the invasion of Archadian rule. For safety precautions, Ashe had to go under an alias and be treated just as one of the joined members. She was not treated any higher or different than any of the others.
Ashe continued to walk toward the heavy door that led to her room and bunk when she heard her alias name called from behind her.
"Amalia!"
She stopped as she reached for the handle on the door in front of her and slowly turned her head back to look at who had called for her. Her eyes rested on a tall and very muscular man with dark green eyes. He was at least six foot, from what she could tell, and had a head of short dark brown hair that when he ran his hand through it, stayed spiked up from the sweat. He was walking alongside three other men, all about the same size and height as him. The three men seemed to be talking amongst themselves about something secretive, occasionally glancing her way, which piqued her interest.
"Yes?" she asked as she racked her brain to try and remember the soldier's name. She never was very good at remembering names, just their faces.
She waited as he jogged up to where she currently stood and asked, " I am sorry to bother you but the guys and I were wondering if you would like to accompany us tonight?"
"Accompany you?" Amalia replied skeptically, unsure of the man's motive.
"Yes, we are celebrating one of our roommate's birthdays tonight and wondered if you wouldn't mind joining us."
"I see, and where will this event be taking place?"
"We are taking him to the Sandsea Tavern. Have you been there before?" The soldier asked.
"No, I cannot say that I have. Though I have heard of the place." She answered back thinking the offer over in her head.
Smiling now, the soldier quickly in return said, " That's good. Then we will meet you at the east entrance? In, say, about …" he mentally counted, " two hours?"
But before Amalia could counter, the soldier was already walking back toward his other comrades who stood waiting for him.
Taking a deep breath in defeat, she turned back to face the door and pulled it open allowing herself to walk into the long hall which would take her to her room.
About two hours later Amalia stood in front of her small mirror looking herself over and thinking whether she really could go through with this. It had been so long since she had attended any kind of social gathering.
She was wearing her usual Resistance attire that consisted of a white corselet with a high neck collar and upper arm guards. She had removed the cincture that was designed to protect her abdomen, which left her nicely toned flat stomach bare to show off. Lastly she had on a very risqué red mini skirt that stopped high up on her upper thighs, which left little to the imagination. Usually she would wear her thigh and shin guards with the outfit but she chose not to fashion the guards tonight for she thought that they would be a little much just for a party. She would show off her long and slim legs for once.
Straightening her skirt for the sixth time she walked over to her bunk and sat down on top of it to slip on her calf-high black leather boots. Zipping up the sides of the boots she stood again to glance at herself one last time in the mirror, adjusting her shoulder length blonde hair.
" I guest this will do," she told herself trying to calm her nerves.
She quickly turned off the light crystal in her room and walked out letting the door click shut. Hesitantly, she walked down the barely lit up hall to the east entrance as she had been instructed to earlier.
Standing there next to the stairway that lead up into the city was the soldier that had invited her to his friends party. She finally remembered his name to be Vice, as for his three other friends, she had never met them before.
As Amalia walked closer to the group of men, she noticed the slightly dropped jaws and stunned looks that graced their faces and couldn't help but grin knowing that she caught their attention. She always liked to play that game with the soldiers during training. They would always think of her as a piece of ass more than they thought of her as a soldier of the Resistance and therefore would find themselves on the wrong side of her blade in combat training. She could always make their blood run a little faster in more ways than one and it thrilled her to have that control over a man.
" Sorry for my being late, I lost track of the time," Amalia said apologetically to the four gentlemen in front of her.
Quickly clearing their throats, Vice was the first to speak up.
" No need to apologize, you are actually right on time. We just arrived here only a moment before you Amalia," he said trying to maintain his composure.
" That's right," added the three others next to him a little to quickly.
Still smiling at their behavior, Amalia replied, " Oh, well that's good that I didn't keep you waiting long. Are we all ready to head to the Sandsea?"
" I think we all are," Vice answered with a nod of his head. He then quickly turned around and faced the stairs to keep his eyes from wondering any further than what they had already. The other three took that as the cue to stop gaping and began to follow their brown-headed friend up the stairway with Amalia closely behind them.
At the Sandsea Tavern…
It had been about thirty minutes since they had arrived at the Sandsea Tavern. Vice and his friends were the first to be seen by all the guest that were occupying the tavern. A tall dark-haired man walked up to Vice and greeted him with a hand shake. The five men started a conversation and momentarily forgot that Amalia was standing behind them. Not being able to see whom the man was, Amalia was forced to wait patiently, staring at their backs, for them to move so that she may have a better look of the tavern and its inhabitants.
Finally Vice moved his conversation a little deeper into the bar area which gave Amalia the chance to really take in her surroundings. She was quite shocked at the large size of the building and the amount of people that were gathered there tonight. She hadn't expected to be around so many people that she barely knew which made her nervous, but she tried to shrug the feeling off. She saw that the tavern held many wooden tables and chairs on its first floor, for the general public to sit and enjoy their drinks while chatting with their fellow comrades, a merchant or the occasional tavern dame playing hard to get. This floor, she noted, also contained the rather large bar with several bartenders and waitresses scurrying around behind it trying to keep up with the demanding needs of the customers. In the back corner, across from the bar, she noticed a wooden staircase that lead to the upper floor of the tavern. Her eyes followed the stairway up to the second floor to see that it was quite crowded as well. Through the masses of bodies she could see that there were two or three pool tables spanning the floor and in the opposite back corner from the stairs was a miniature version of the bar from downstairs.
Amalia jumped suddenly when she felt someone touch her left arm, waking her from her reverie.
"Hey, Amalia?" Vice said to her as he touched her arm to get her attention, but looked concerned when he felt her jolt at his fingers' contact. " Amalia? Is there something wrong?"
She quickly looked at him and shook her head, " No, nothing is wrong. I was just taking in the site of this place. It is so big," she replied.
"Yes it is quite large in here. It's the biggest tavern that Rabanastre has to offer."
" I did not know of that."
Nodding his head he voiced to her, " We are heading up to the loft where the party is gathering, do you wish to join?"
"Yes, I will go after you," Amalia replied as she began to slowly walk behind the taller man.
As they reached the top of the second floor more members of the Resistance again greeted them. Amalia was beginning to realize that this was no small party like she had originally thought it to be. She was happily greeted by a few of the members that recognized her as she walked further into the loft.
"Amalia! So glad that you came tonight!" said a female member as she acknowledged her.
Not knowing exactly whom this woman was she simply smiled at her kindness and replied back, " Thank you for allowing me to attend."
"Oh, no problem at all. You are always welcome to any of our events. Sorry to rush off but help yourselves and enjoy the party!"
"Thank you," she said before the woman quickly turned and left to greet the new groups of people that kept consistently arriving in the loft.
While she continued to walk further into the loft, she turned to look at the groups of men and some women that were gathered around the pool tables. Some of the players' faces had looks of serious competition etched into them while others showed sheer amusement. She knew how to play this game very well, mostly learning it from her oldest brother who loved the sport. He was probably the greatest player that she knew of and he had been kind enough to share his winning secrets with her. She also knew that with this game there was always someone challenging another for high stakes of gil that could sometimes lead to trouble. She mentally told herself that she would have to steer clear of any of those situations tonight. She really didn't feel like having to deal with a liquored up sore loser that couldn't accept the fact that a lady, and a young one at that, took all his money from him fair and square.
Amalia mentally laughed at the thought and only let a small smirk grace her lips. She walked over to the railing that outlined the loft area and observed the commotion that continued on downstairs. A moment later she noticed that she wasn't alone. Without moving her head she glanced to her left to see that a tall and nicely toned man was standing next to her, looking out over the railing as well. Turning her head this time to get a better view, she saw that it was only Vice that stood beside her and she relaxed a little.
Sensing that he was being watch, Vice turned his head to see that Amalia had been looking at him and when he locked eyes with her, she quickly averted them back to the direction of the downstairs bar.
Smiling, he asked, " Amalia?"
Amalia tried hard to not let the heat that she felt rush up into her cheeks show, but when she turned to face him, she saw his smile grow a little bit bigger. She knew then that he had seen her blush. " Hmm?" she replied shyly.
"Would you like me to get you something to drink?" he motioned toward the bar.
"Umm well…"
Interrupting her he said, " Come on now, you didn't come here thinking that you weren't going to drink anything tonight did you?"
" Well I didn't really plan on consuming any kind of alcohol tonight, Vice," she stated feeling a bit nervous again. "And even if I were to drink, I don't know what would taste good and not make me sick."
Vice chuckled, seeing that she was a bit nervous, he stepped up closer to her and placed both of his hands on her upper arms to try and comfort her. This close contact caused her body to physically tense but she did nothing as she waited for the moment to pass and his hands to let go.
" Its alright, its just one drink. Trust me, it won't hurt you. I'll get you something that I know you will like, alright?"
She nodded her head and replied, " Alright."
He smiled as he let go of her upper arms and walked away to the bar to get their drinks.
Feeling relieved, Amalia turned herself around and leaned her back against the railing to face the pool table that was nearby her. Placing her hands, one on each side of her hips, on the railing, she watch the fierce competition that was taking place between two of the soldiers that were in her training squad. It seemed that the shorter blonde was taking all the shots and winning the match while the slightly taller and definitely more brawny man was forced to swallow his pride not so happily.
After a couple of minutes of watching the two spat venomous words towards each other, Amalia looked up to see Vice returning with their drinks in hand. Handing her the tall slender glass he said, " For you, my lady," in a slightly sarcastic tone.
Amalia took the glass from is hand ignoring his sarcasm and looked at it with curiosity. She lifted it level with her eyes to get a better look and concluded that it was some kind of an icy frozen concoction that she had never seen before.
She looked back at him questioningly, " And what, may I ask, do you call this that I am going to be drinking?"
" It's a frozen Bhujerban strawberry-rita. You've never had one of those?!" he said in disbelief.
" Umm, no I've never had one this flavor or frozen before. The only drink that I have had even remotely close to this would be those light alcoholic coolers they make." Amalia answered feeling slightly embarrassed for not being more knowledgeable about the subject.
"Try it! You will like it, I promise."
Taking another look at the frosty drink, she raised the glass up to her lips and took a small sip of the reddish liquid. To her surprise it tasted very sweet like the strawberries that were said it was made with. She raised the glass again but this time taking a larger sip from the glass.
"Well?" Vice asked waiting for her approval of his selection.
"Its very sweet and I can't taste the alcohol in it either. I like it." Amalia replied back continuing to consume her drink.
"Great! I'm glad you approve of my choice," he stated proudly giving Amalia a big smile. "Now lets say we have some fun, shall we?"
"Like what?" she said and while taking another sip of her drink, she looked up over the rim of the glass at him for an answer.
