Title: Painful Heart
Author: underground-girl
Rating: T
Pairing: Volug x Nailah
Location: Moon Flower Café, Hatari.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem or Nintendo. This is a made-up story. Not all information will be completely accurate although I try my best to make it so.
Time: Years before Radiant Dawn. How Volug & Nailah meet & establish their bond.
Note: I've had writers block for the past two months, as I had started writing this story when I had finals. Not so smart. So I finally got it going again. This chapter revolves around Volug. This chapter is rather long and introduces the people Volug grew up with and their behavior. I apologized ahead of time for any spelling and grammar mistakes.
Chapter 2
"Volug! How was your first day?"
A jumpy orange-haired girl bounded up to Volug.
"Jace! I'll have the usual."
"Volug? Alright. One cactus root tea comin' up."
Volug sighed as he slumped down in a booth. Moon Flower Café was one of his favorite places in Hatari. It was a small but decent café. Not too many people were ever inside but everyone knew each other. The inside and outside were painted a dull blue and the interior was a mixture of blues and browns. Jace was Moon Flower's proud owner and bartender and young Sienah waited tables.
"Sienah, take this to Volug will ya?" Jace muttered to the young girl as she was running to her room to change clothes. "Go back there and you might not hear about today you know."
She stopped her flight to stare at him, then snatched the teacup and stuck her tongue out at him. Sienah is a young Branded girl who Jace found as a baby. He took her in and trained her to wait tables when she was old enough. With orange hair and red eyes, she normally had some boy trying to come after her. She is oblivious and mainly focuses on her job. Unless Volug stops by.
"Volug~ you haven't answered my question yet," she complained, putting the teacup in front of Volug.
Jace walked over and sat down in front of Volug.
"Sienah. If you want to sit down next to Volug so badly, just ask him."
She blushed and looked up at Volug to which she got a groan, a wink, and a seat.
Jace smiled slightly and leaned his head back. Jace is a wolf laguz in his mid-thirties. He has short black hair and is normally seen wearing a dark blue apron. A god in a man's body is what Volug always considered him as due to Jace's desire to help anybody and everybody.
"So how was it? I want to know everything. Is Nailah as beautiful up close? Does the palace have good food? Is our food better? Do you think you'll quit? You can sleep in my-"
"Sienah! Calm down. Let the man answer your first few questions," Jace interrupted.
Pouting, she smoothed her skirt and waited for Volug to start talking.
He told briefly of the size of the palace, the many servants, the amount of food that is always cooking in the kitchen, and the requirements of his new job.
Jace leaned across the table at the mention of the requirements as Sienah, bored, got up and went to the bar.
"Now lemme get this straight. You work in our kingdom's palace. Your job however, is waking our Queen up. How's that going for you? Is the food better than her attitude? I've heard the rumors of our morning Queen."
Volug laughed and ran his hand through his hair.
"Her attitude is just as good as Miss Sienah's cooking."
Sienah stopped cleaning the bar long enough to kick a stool down.
"Oops. Bugs you know. Big brown scorpion. Makes me just wanna kill it, ya know? Being that it was a furry, possibly wolf-eared scorpion. Besides," she continued. "Excuse me for not being a master chef. My cooking is just spicy and occasionally spicy. So much for you sleeping in my room."
Jace shuddered and muttered to Volug the time Sienah had made him cat leg stew. The broth had basically been sand, and there she had somehow found peppers to throw in for an 'added flavor.'
Volug leaned in towards Jace and waited until Sienah had busied herself with fixing her hair.
"Hey Jace. Is Ashera's evil twin sister affecting her? She wasn't this mad last week."
Jace got up from the booth and walked over to the bar.
"Maybe. But she's always mad so it's hard to tell, yes?"
Volug smiled and watched his friends clean tables, prepare glasses, and discuss the morning meals. He noted that Sienah looked back at him a few times and gestured to Jace with a look that said, 'Can you believe him?' which made the men roll their eyes.
A woman walked into the café while Jace was in the middle of mixing himself a drink.
"Miss Sienah did you fall outta that stool again? Jace I told ya she's too young to be drinkin'. Treat the lady right why don't 'cha?"
Jace winked at the woman when she sat down in front of him.
"Well I'll be. The one and only Madame Helena is telling me how to treat a missus! I suppose that I do need a lesson or two Madame. Would you care to show me the blissful ways of a woman's bodily movements tonight? Oh how I do hope my dear Sienah will learn from your-"
"Shut up!" Sienah yelled.
"Mmm yes. Oh Jace dear, do be quiet. After all, I'm spending the night. And there's only room for two," Volug slurred as he strolled up to the bar.
Madame Helena turned to gape at him as Sienah dropped the rag she was rinsing. Jace merely poured himself another drink.
"Down the hatch!" Jace hollered, toasting to no one in particular.
"Kidding ladies. There's such a thing as a joke. Sienah, is my couch still in the quest room?"
Sienah folded the rag and put it in her skirt pocket. She then grabbed the drink Jace was admiring from his hand and put it under the bar. Taking Jace's hand, she gestured Volug to follow her and, smiling at Helena, said, "I'll be back in a few minutes Madame."
"Jace doesn't normally get himself drunk. He tries not to when I'm around anyway," Sienah whispered to Volug as she tucked the now sleeping Jace into his bed. He hadn't gone to sleep so easily either. Volug had to hold Jace down while Sienah gave him a sleeping pill.
Stepping on some of her boss's clothes, Sienah folded and put them away before grabbing a candle and ushering Volug out of the room and down the hall.
The back of the shop wasn't very large. The three bedrooms were connected by a narrow hallway. Volug always had to walk sideways in the hallway due to his muscular frame.
The two walked into the smallest room that was on the opposite end of the hallway.
"Honestly. I don't know what came over him tonight. Acting like that in front of Helena."
Volug held the candle and watched her move scrolls off of the couch.
"I worry about him sometimes. He sometimes gets a far off look in his eyes and can seem like he's staring at nothing, but he could really be looking at a woman's bosom."
She went to a rack in the corner of the room and grabbed a blanket.
"He's such a handful," she added, throwing the blanket on the couch.
Turning to him, she reached up and scratched his ears. She always did this when she felt Volug was going away for a long time.
"Work hard tomorrow. Jace and I are happy as long as you're happy."
Volug smiled at her and, patting her head, whispered, "Night."
"Night Volug."
Lying down on the couch, he waited until he heard Helena leave and Sienah's bedroom door close before going to sleep.
Volug was woken up by the sound of lots of talking and the occasional crash.
Cursing, he jumped off the couch, opened the door, and ran down the hallway to the entrance to the café. He took a breath in, and slowly opened the door.
The amount of soldiers was the most surprising thing that he saw other than Sienah running around waiting tables occasionally flirting and Jace making coffee like a madman.
Volug was about to grab an apron to help Jace when he heard a horrifyingly angry scream that said, "There you are!"
Turning around, he watched the door to the café swing open and soldiers move aside for someone.
Oh great. Just who I didn't want to see.
Nailah pushed aside the soldiers that didn't notice her and thrust a burly wolf laguz at Vaughn.
"You. Where were you? While you were sleeping in, I missed a very important meeting because no one woke me up!" Nailah screamed.
Volug saw Sienah grab Jace's arm and whisper something to him.
"What do you have to say for yourself? You know that you have a room in the palace. Sleep there and this won't happen every morning."
"Queen Nailah," Jace said loudly, his voice cracking. Clearing his throat he continued. "I'm sorry to ask, but if you would please allow my daily morning customers to enter and find room to sit, that would please me immensely."
Sienah shook her head and whispered to Jace again. Whatever she said made him smirk madly. Volug caught her eye in question.
"Well then. Whatever your name is. Wolf boy. Let's go. You're going to help with the cooking for today as punishment," said Nailah, walking out of the café and past some surprised citizens.
"My name's Volug," he called after her.
"Volug! Volug!" Sienah called out to him. "You need to know that –"
Whatever it was Sienah was saying, Volug couldn't catch due to the sound of footsteps and the soldiers talking. He caught one last glimpse of his friends before he was shoved out of the café and down the street.