A/N: Welcome to my excuse to publish every single character introspection and relationship dynamic I can think of. My ffix obsession continues. This first one was created because my sister said "I wanna see them havin' soup."
So soup they shall have.
Zidane & Steiner - begrudging breaks
"Yo, Rusty."
Steiner whirls about face, eyes taking in the distant tree line of Evil Forest, a mess of petrified trees and death one moment and then the very bane of his current existence the next.
He hisses, jutting out his chin and straightening his back, "What do you want, you miscreant?"
The tilted head, raised brows, and almost amused expression Steiner finds himself staring down only raises the degree of his anger from its constant simmering boil.
"Nothin'. I just wanted to see if you wanted some soup."
"Soup?" Steiner echoes, glancing down to see a small cracked bowl rising up in the palm of a gloved hand. A hand that has likely thieved Gil from the pockets of dozens of innocent victims. Stolen precious heirlooms from the homes of vulnerable owners. A hand that most definitely manhandled the princess from the castle against her will until she had no choice but to concede. Until she was left unconscious and weak, just barely escaping the clutches of a monster's jaw.
"I do not want soup. What I want is the princess's safety. Something you have absolutely no regard for!"
The thief has the courtesy to wipe the grin off his face.
Behind them the princess lies against the ground, just inches from the now crackling fire. Breathing but entirely too still. Steiner won't be at ease until her eyes finally open - and he won't be at peace until she's safely back inside the castle walls away from the band of criminals that had kidnapped her and the dangers that lie beneath the mist.
The thief, Zidane, if Steiner recalls his name - which he does not care to - may have shown some ounce of goodwill, by rescuing the princess and he may even be showing a bit more now as he holds out a bowl of something. Though whether that something is edible or not is another matter entirely.
But either way it does not matter. It's a voided gesture. And he has no right to look as if he's offended at the notion that it is his fault that the princess was nearly...!
Steiner can't even bring himself to think of such a horrific outcome.
"Look, I know what happened back there was bad-"
"Bad? That is an understatement! All of us were nearly trapped inside Evil Forest!"
"Yeah but we weren't. We made it out," the thief says, and perhaps it's simply the glow of Master Vivi's skillfully made fire nearby, adding a depth to the shadows around them, but there seem to be dark rings below the boy's eyes. Eyes that almost seem to be fighting the urge to flicker to the forest's edge.
They don't though, and the boy continues, with a shrug, "So rather than harking on what's already happened let's just deal with the actual issue at hand."
Steiner shakes himself out of reading too deeply into the serious expression slipping onto Zi- the thief's face. It's pointless for a knight like himself to give a criminal any more time of day than is necessary. Attempting to understand what's going on inside his head is pointless. The same amount of pointless as learning his name.
"You mean the issue of returning the princess to Alexandria," Steiner clarifies. "And seeing that you are properly punished for your crimes."
"No," the thief says, bored and clearly impatient. "The issue of soup. And that Vivi and I could hear your stomach from a mile away." He snorts and Steiner bristles.
"Wha-?!"
"Right, Vivi?"
He spins, smile only growing as Steiner feels the boiling pot in his chest pop with heat. He reaches to grab a grab a shoulder before it can slip away but almost trips over the tail and legs that suddenly halt. He looks up to see the irritating smile on the thief's face slipping into something…
"Uh, Vivi… you okay?"
...sincere.
Steiner peers around the mess of blonde hair blocking his view only to find his frustration, irritation, and anger blown out to a barely existing simmer.
"I'm sorry… I- um, tried to help."
The deflated form of what should probably be a tent has captured the small black mage in its flaps of patchwork.
Zidane chuckles, "Hey, no problem, buddy. You did a good job gettin' it unpacked." And while Steiner watches Vivi nod and then trip forward out of his tangled mess, the bowl from earlier clangs against the armour of his breastplate. He stutters as specks of liquid splatter against the steel but can't form a word of protest before Zidane interrupts and drops the bowl so Steiner has no choice but to catch it.
"Why don't you take ol' Rusty here and sit by the fire, Vivi? You can keep an eye on Garnet until she wakes up." He walks away before Steiner can muster any sort of response, and makes his way to Vivi. He helps the boy to his feet, lets him dust himself off, and then gives him a small push on the back so that he takes a step in Steiner's direction. "Leave the tent to me."
Steiner's fingers can only tighten around the edge of the bowl.
"O-oh okay… if you're sure," Vivi replies, voice barely reaching past the small radius they've deemed as an adequate place to rest.
"Yep," Zidane chirps, and for some reason his eyes flash to Steiner's before he turns to the pile of fabric on the ground. "Oh- and maybe Steiner can let you know what he thinks of your soup, Vivi?""
Steiner startles, "M-Master Vivi's?" He begins to ask, turning down to find said black mage who is already nodding. His golden eyes peering up from beneath the rim of his hat, their size most definitely wider than before. "You made this?"
"Z-Zidane's the one found the ingredients, I only helped with the fire and… I'm not sure if I cooked it right… it may not be that good."
Steiner's tongue falls dead in his mouth as he looks between those small blinking yellow eyes and the tail that is now swishing coyly across the way, most certainly mocking the predicament that it has placed him in. But, for some reason, he finds he can do nothing but take a deep breath and down the soup in one gulp.
Vivi peeps in surprise.
Steiner swallows and clears his throat, offering Vivi a look of confidence. "On the contrary, it is extremely good. Though that is to be expected, when it was cooked with Master Vivi's magic."
The little golden eyes disappear as Vivi shrinks, head down and body huddling around his now twiddling thumbs. "Thank you… Zidane said we should make a little extra too… for when the princess wakes up," the point of Vivi's hat turns towards the fire at their side for a moment and then it wobbles away as he makes his way to the warm orange glow, but an arm's length away from the princess lying in its warmth. "Do you think she'd like it?"
Steiner stands, empty bowl sitting in his hands and the distinct taste of walnut sitting on his tongue, watching as Vivi pokes the small pot sitting over the open flames. In the corner of his vision, the thief glances over his shoulder and Steiner finds he cannot bring himself to answer Vivi's question because strangely, an answer does not come easily, and he cannot decipher why.
He holds the thief's eyes with a hard glare before he joins Vivi at the fire - though he says nothing, continuing to busy himself with the tent as Steiner turns away. He places his empty bowl beside the angled wood burning beneath the flames.
"Before that, the princess must first wake up," is all Steiner offers to Vivi's pondering. He makes no promises regarding the princess's interest in food that - even when cooked by such a reliable black mage - had been prepared by the unseemly hands of a criminal. He knows better than to even entertain the thought of the princess eating such a thing.
"Oh… yeah," Vivi says, voice dimming as he crouches down to sit on his heels.
And yet, something strange feels as if it is weighing upon the certainty Steiner should have about such things.
He finds himself reaching for his bowl once more.
"Perhaps," he begins, as he skims his hand into the cooking pot to scoop another helping into his bowl. "Until then, it is better if it does not go to waste."
Vivi perks up as Steiner settles to the far side of the fire, close to the princess. The position gives him a clear view of not only her and Vivi, but of the thief busying himself with the now half-standing tent. Though the pot of soup rattles Steiner from his watch as Vivi follows his lead. He reaches forward with a chipped, and even smaller mug when compared to Steiner's bowl - and Steiner feels himself grimace as he realizes that the thief must have grabbed whatever nonsense he had on hand - and fishes up soup to fill it.
Yet the numbness of his stomach still steadily slips away as he sips the warm savory meal from his bowl. Vivi raises his mug as well but then stops halfway.
"Um, Zidane, are you sure you don't want any?"
A hand waves in the air dismissively from behind the tent.
"Don't worry about me, Vivi, eat however much you want."
It's likely the jovial tone bleeding into his response, and how Vivi dutifully drinks from his broken mug while the princess lies still upon the ground, but Steiner finds himself remembering the loathing that's, even now, building in his gut. All the while, the thief keeps himself a separate shadow from the crowded group of three around the fire. A fire he made, for a situation he brought.
It's all Steiner can do to control the crackling rage inside by reminding himself that, as long as he fulfills his duty as a knight, he'll be rid of such a nefarious individual soon enough.
But as he tries to let the thought stifle his brewing fight, he finds that with every taste of his remaining soup, it only burns back to life. His anger only growing, like fire at his feet.
Like the confusion in his heart.
Because for all it's presentation - the fissure in the bowl's ceramic, the soiled hands of a criminal that had stirred ingredients into a haphazard pot, the idea that the meal was forced upon him like this very situation - for some reason that Steiner just simply cannot place…
The thief's soup is still good.
A/N: Today is officially a year since I played ffix for the first time and yep, I love this game even more with every passing day. This fic is just a bunch of mini love letters to all the characters and moments I imagine fitting into the various scenes of the game. I'm going to try to have each chapter progress linearly so every oneshot/drabble won't randomly jump to different points in the game. Expect every character to be mentioned at some point because I love them all and need to write about them.
As always thank you for reading and whether you favorite, follow, review, or just spend the time to read my work, I very much appreciate you.