Reassurance

A/N: This might be my first FF Tactics story I published, so please be ethical about reviews, if you should send some. (I hope so!) I hope this turns out to be a good one, because as I type these first words on this story, I have absolutely no idea what to put in it. Sigh. But from the title, might be a serious angst story. Or a humorous one. Whatever I feel like doing. Sigh. TO WORK!

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Agrias tossed a perfectly round pebble in her hand. She had a dull look in her eyes, but anyone could tell that she was slightly neurotic about something… Maybe a certain issue about her former mistress?

"Yeah, she'll be fine without me… Seriously… stop worrying, Miss Oaks… Yeah… Delita'll take good care of her… you'll see…"

Yes, besides being a little neurotic, she was perfectly… calm…

"Hey, Ag!"

"YARGH!" The lady knight threw the pebble at whoever said the above statement. The little thingy hit him on the noggin. Might have dented it a little, though.

"OW! Sorry for disturbing your… uh…" Mustadio, being the whoever who was aforementioned, said. "Yeah. Neurotic again, I see, Lady Oaks!"

"… That's Agrias to you, Bunanza." She muttered, turning her back on him. "What is it this time?"

Mustadio walked a little bit near her. "Uh… yeah. Ramza wants you there. Probably to plan whatever next freakish thing we'll do tomorrow."

Agrias sighed in frustration. "Tell him to just leave my neurotic shamed self alone here!"

Mustadio shrugged. "Okay. HEY RAMZA!"

"WHAT?!" Ramza shouted back.

"SHE SAYS 'LEAVE MY NEUROTIC SHAMED SELF ALONE HEEERE!!!'" Mustadio shouted back. This made the knight slap his back. Hard.

"WHATEVER YOU SAY!!!" Ramza shouted back. Agrias sighed and sat down on a hollow log, muttering stuff about troops acting like people who live like savages living on thick, jungle-tangled mountains.

Mustadio stopped shouting and sat down on the log beside Agrias. "So, what are you neurotic about this time?" he asked casually. Agrias was sort of surprised at this, on account of they had just started talking with one another 3 days ago.

"I'm not always neurotic, you know," Agrias said. "By the way, what are you still doing here? Shouldn't you be… I don't know… eating dinner or something?"

"Nah. I already ate all that's eatable there. Which is a pear. Eddie's cooking again. You know how he burns the Chocobo meat a little too much, now that he's learned Fire2." The Engineer replied.

Huh. A pathetic attempt to make me laugh, Mustadio? Agrias thought to herself. Mustadio interrupted her thought, saying, "How bout you? You never showed up by the fireplace."

"No, Sir Bunanza, when one is too neurotic about issues that actually count, she cannot possibly think of meal time, or Chocobo meat, for that matter." She replied sarcastically. Mustadio laughed at that statement. "What's so funny?" she demanded.

"Oh… you!" he replied. When she gave him an annoyed look, he stopped immediately.

"Hmph. If you really want to know, I'm afraid of what will happen to the Princess. She's still very young and somewhat naïve, and I don't really trust that Hyral… guy." She explained. Hearing herself explaining the reality of the situation made her stomach twist in more ways not understandable.

"… Yeah, I see what you mean. She's what? 17? And now, that Delita guy insists on guarding her. Really strange." Mustadio said. Agrias' stomach twisted even harder.

"Oh… Stop that! I'm nervous enough as it is!"

"Sorry…" Mustadio said feebly, scratching his head.

Agrias noticed the embarrassed look the engineer is wearing. She felt guilty, for some odd reason. She sighed, finally. "Look, I'm sorry if I snap a little bit too much nowadays… just that…" she bit her gloved hand, realized this, removed her glove irritably, then proceeded to biting her nails. "I had watched over the Princess ever since I first became a Paladin. She was much younger, and I guess she depended on me as much as… well… I sort of depended on her. And, now… well… I'm not much for changes! I'm afraid that if something horrid happens to her because of that Hyral, I'm at fault." Her usually squared shoulders drooped.

Mustadio looked at her and felt even sorrier for her. Unknowingly, he touched her hand. "Ag…" she looked up. "Look at yourself. You're ranting, biting your gloves, and at the verge of barfing all over me. Please, for Ajora's sake, just calm down, all right? If Ramza thinks that Delita is trustworthy enough for Ovelia…"

"That's Princess to you…"

Mustadio sighed. "Right. Princess Ovelia. Then, Delita IS trustworthy enough for her."

Agrias nodded slowly. Then, she noticed that he was holding her hand. She pulled it away from them. "Right. I guess that makes me feel… a little bit calmer…"

Mustadio somewhat flinched when Agrias pulled her hand away from him, but after a blink, he snapped back to reality. "Okay. Just being sure that you'd sleep peacefully tonight completes my day," he said jokingly.

Agrias punched him playfully. "Oh, shut up, you!"

"Yeah, well…" he started. Agrias cut him off. "By the way, Mustardio…"

He blinked. "… Mustardio?"

Agrias blinked furiously. "I mean, Mustadio!" she corrected, slapping her forehead. "Sorry. Your name reminds me so much of mustard."

"Yeah… And I think the mustard shirt and the mustard hair does that, too." He said.

Agrias laughed a little. "Right. As I was saying… Why did you come with Ramza?"

Mustadio sighed, holding his chin in thought. "Ok, that's a tough one. I guess the Holy Stone made me do it. I could have just simply given it back to Ramza, but…" he trailed off.

"… But?" she asked.

"But… I guess fighting for the stone gave me some thrill that made me want to risk my life even more. Besides, life in Goug was dull. Imagine spending the whole of your life just tinkering with machines from Midgar and getting yourself greasy." He explained. "Oh, yeah, having a crush on you helped, too. I was hoping to see you again!" Agrias looked at him with a befuddled expression. He laughed. "Sorry! Just kidding, don't worry about it, beautiful!" Agrias slapped his laughing back again.

Before Agrias could get back at him with something else, Ramza from the campfire said, or rather, screamed, "ALL RIGHT, EVERYONE! LIGHTS OUT!" With that, he cast an ice spell at the fire, putting it out with just the sparks and the frost-bitten wood left.

"… Okay, that would mean sleeping time!" Mustadio said, standing up. Agrias stood up after him, but that was just it. She just stood there, watching him go towards his tent.

"So, are you gonna go, or what?" Mustadio asked.

"Oh, right." Agrias said, walking. Mustadio smiled at her a last time before he went in.

Agrias crossed her arms before she walked in her tent with Alicia and Lavian chatting behind her.

Right. Good night, Mustard Man. Hope you'll dream of the neurotic me tonight!

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Ugh. That was actually pathetically short and undefined. That came out of nowhere.

Okay, this isn't actually the angst-filled thingy I planned from the start, but I think it's a whole lot more interesting than a Ramza-brooding thingy or an Izlude-brooding thingy again.

And, yeah, I did the Mustadio/Agrias thingy on purpose. Sorry, I can't take Agrias being a lesbian or her lurvin' Ramza more than a brother. Okay. PLEASE, REVIEW?! Right. Bye!