~~~Part 2~~~
The sun was dropping into the sea off the coast of Everlang Island, and Freya was lying next to her lover quietly, the two of them just holding each other as they rested. She yawned slightly, blushing when she looked at Amarant afterwards. He chuckled slightly and kissed her gently.
"What's on your mind?"
"You," she said softly. "Us, really."
"So what are you thinking," he asked, brushing her hair back out of her eyes.
"I'm wondering what you want, what I want - trying to figure out where we're going to go when this is all over."
"What I want isn't usually what I get," he said softly. "I've gotten used to it."
"Amarant, I'm serious. If you don't want anything from me but a warm bed.we're going to have to talk about it." His eyes flashed briefly, before he locked eyes with her.
"And what if I want more than that? Don't assume the worst of me, Freya - you'll do us both a disfavor if you do, particularly about that." She was taken aback for a long moment, not sure if he'd take offense for long. She couldn't tell by his voice - she just had to hope that he'd get over it soon.
"Then what do you want?" He was quiet for several seconds, but she could see that he was trying to decide what to tell her. "Please, Amarant - I have to know."
"I want us to leave behind what we used to be," he said, "what I used to be, at the very least. I want us to be able to have a life of our own, together. But I know that's not possible."
"Why not," she asked, despite the fact that she thought she knew the answer.
"My life doesn't want to let go of me, and yours is something you want to go back to. How could I ask you to leave behind what you have? People who respect you, someone you love - and I know you still love him. What have I got to offer you for that? Only what you see here."
"That's enough," she said, pulling him close and kissing him. "You're enough for me, Amarant."
"Would I be? For the rest of both our lives?" Silence reigned for a long moment before he spoke again.
"That's what I thought. It wouldn't be fair for me to ask you to leave all of that, and you'd be a fool to agree to do it."
"Amarant, I -" He silenced her by pressing the tip of a finger up against her lips.
"I told you, I'm used to what I get not being what I want. I'll enjoy whatever time we have together, even if it's nothing more than the past few hours."
"It won't be that," she said quietly, leaning forward to kiss him. "I - I want what you do, believe me."
"But you want your old life too, or at least a part of you does. I understand, Freya, you don't need to apologize for it. If I had that to come back to, I'd want to keep it too." Just then, the airship shuddered and rose into the sky. "Ah, shit," Amarant swore, throwing back the covers. "Zidane had damn well better have a good reason to be moving this ship." Freya sat up, and started pulling on her clothes, a similarly irritated expression on her face.
"I'm sure he does, but I want to hear it." A few minutes later, the two were walking towards the bridge, intent on finding out just what was going on. A lithe figure came dashing down the stairs, only slowing down when she ran straight into Freya. Dagger wrapped her arms around the Burmecian, and started sobbing incoherently. Freya and Amarant exchanged looks, Freya's worried, Amarant's his customary impossible-to-read look. Freya loosened the princess' grip, and knelt in front of her.
"What's wrong, Dagger? What happened?"
"Dragon - everything went wrong! Zi - Zidane's." She trailed off into sobs again, collapsing in the hall as Freya paled, and ran towards the infirmary, Amarant close behind her. They found members of the crew huddled around one of the cots, the monkey-tail dangling limply off the side confirming what they'd been afraid of.
"Get out of the way," Freya shouted, roughly shoving the crew out of her path until she was at Zidane's side. The young thief was badly wounded, a thin trickle of blood staining his lips. Freya inspected him quickly, trying to find out what was wrong with him, as Amarant walked up behind her quietly.
"How is he," the crimson-haired fighter asked.
"Not good," Freya said grimly. "It looks like somebody literally tried feeding him to a dragon, and did a good job of it."
"That somebody was probably the dragon. He's alive though, isn't he?"
"Yes, barely. I don't think he'll last long enough for Reis' Wind to heal him, though." Amarant chuckled, and looked at the thief who had beaten him so often before.
"Maybe not, but I can buy him that time. If I could have some room," he said, looking around at the crew that was crowding dangerously close to him. They picked up on the tone of his voice, and soon the room was clear except for the three of them.
"What do you have in mind?"
"What I have a feeling none of the others had the strength left to do," Amarant said matter-of-factly, slipping into a kata. Freya watched as her lover's hands moved, somehow smooth and graceful despite the precise, clipped movements. While she watched, a large glowing ball of energy formed in his hands, starting as a soft blue, but quickly becoming a blazing white as he repeated his motions, focusing his energy. Suddenly, he raised his hands and drove the blazing light into Zidane's chest. The young thief's body jerked up as though somebody had run lightning through it, and his eyes flew open as he gasped, coughing up the blood in his throat as his outermost wounds healed. Amarant wiped his brow as Zidane coughed more, and tried to sit up, only to be pushed back down by Freya's strong hands.
"You lay down," she said, just as the rest of the party reached the doors of the infirmary.
"Zidane," Eiko shouted, "you're alive!" He cracked a grin and squirmed out from under Freya's hand, jumping to his feet and laughing.
"Yeah, I'm alive - thanks to Amarant, I think." The fighter shrugged, and started towards the door.
"Now we're even for Ipsen's Castle," he said as he walked out. Zidane shook his head while everybody else just stared after the departing figure - everyone except Freya, who was quietly chuckling to herself.
"Well, Zidane, if you're able to walk, you might want to go tell your Princess that you're still alive. She's pretty upset about what happened." Zidane nodded, and started out. Then Freya and Steiner looked at Vivi and Eiko, who were both still pretty shocked about what they'd just seen.
"Well," they both asked. Eiko loosened her collar, looking to Vivi for help explaining it. Quina wandered off, seeing that the excitement was over. Besides - they'd be wanting a *big* dinner that night, so s/he'd better start cooking it.
"Well, y'see," she said, trying to figure out what to say.
"The dragon we went after managed to hit Zidane with its poison breath," Vivi said sadly, explaining. "And then it wouldn't let up long enough for us to cure him, and it just kept beating on us until Dagger and Eiko couldn't heal us any more - I managed to get off a Meteor, but it wasn't in time to keep it from beating Zidane up pretty badly."
"Yeah," Eiko said. "And since we sold off the Phoenix Downs, and didn't have any Ethers with us.."
"Don't worry Eiko, Master Vivi," Steiner said, "it wasn't your fault - Sir Zidane should have known better than to sell off the Phoenix Downs, and he certainly knew enough to bring Ethers along. Besides - Amarant was able to heal him, so everything's better now."
"Yeah," Eiko said, much more cheerfully. "By the way, Freya, how did you two get here so much faster," she asked, looking at the much taller Burmecian.
"We were in the area," Freya said with a shrug. "Dagger found us pretty quickly, we came here after she started crying again." Eiko was sure there was something Freya wasn't saying, but filed it away mentally. Something didn't sound right - actually, she realized, didn't smell right. But it wasn't important now.
"Well, it's a good thing you got here. We didn't know how long he'd last without being healed fast."
"I'm just glad that Amarant can do that," Freya said softly. "It gives us a back-up for when you or Dagger get hurt too badly. One thing's for sure, though - we're going back to pick up more Phoenix Downs. There is no way this is going to happen again. Steiner? Would you have the crew set course for Daguerro? To judge by what I felt from the ship's turning earlier, they set course back for Lindblum - we don't need to go that far." Steiner saluted and ran off towards the front deck, armor clanking as he went on his way. Eiko and Vivi left moments after that, going out to look for Zidane and Dagger. Freya waited a few moments, then left to hunt for Amarant again..
~~~===~~~
The lanky warrior was in his quarters when she found him, laying on the spartan cot he sometimes called a bed, looking at the ceiling.
"Amarant?" He didn't respond to her voice, so she stepped closer to him, touching his shoulder. When he didn't respond to that, she started to get worried.
"Amarant, are you okay," she asked, shaking him slightly. Before she knew what had happened, she was on the floor, trying to catch her breath after Amarant's fist was planted firmly in her stomach.
"Shit," he yelled, rolling off the bed and hurrying over to her. "Are you okay, Freya?" She gasped as she looked into his face, trying to figure out what was going on.
"Yeah," she said between deep breaths. "Just trying to figure out why you slugged me," she finished when she could speak easier.
"Reflexes - didn't expect anybody to interrupt me while I was meditating," he explained, offering her a hand up, "sorry."
"I'll remember not to do that again," she said, taking his hand and standing. "But you didn't respond to anything else, and I didn't know what the problem was, so.."
"Sorry, should have warned you. Using my skills - powers, if you will - leaves me somewhat unbalanced. If I'm in a battle, then I usually return to normal after the battle-rush leaves me. If not," he shrugged. "I have to re-center myself, and I'm usually out of it while I do so."
"So do you need to go back to.whatever it was you were doing?"
"Nah, the rush from when you got my attention helped settle me down a bit." Freya chuckled, rubbing her sore stomach.
"I hope you'll forgive me if I don't do that the next time, though." Amarant smirked at her, and put an arm around her shoulders.
"No problem - I'd rather not plant my fist in your stomach, for that matter. So, what happened to our fearless leader that left him in that condition."
"The usual - the last thing he probably expected to be a problem became one." Amarant shook his head.
"Figures. It's a miracle he's still alive, the way he operates."
"He's good enough to get away with it, usually. He just let the fact that he was with two white mages make him forget that having a few Phoenix Downs around is a good idea." Amarant rolled his eyes behind his shaggy red mane as he led Freya over to the cot, the two of them sitting down.
"Like I said," Amarant smirked, "it's a miracle he's still alive." Freya chuckled slightly at that, and put an arm around his waist.
"I suppose it is. But I'm glad he is - if he'd gotten himself killed before, then I'd never have met you."
"We'd have met eventually," he said after a long moment. "Just not under pleasant circumstances."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"You'd have gone after the bounty on my eventually, or you'd have been going through Treno some time when I was low enough on cash to be willing to risk mugging you. Something like that."
"Well, I'm glad it didn't happen that way," she said, leaning over to kiss him. "I'd hate to be fighting you."
"Except when you're trying to be on top," he smirked, brushing her hair back out of her eyes. She chuckled and brought her tail up to bat at the back of his head playfully.
"Like you were complaining?"
"Never said I was, did I," he asked, kissing her again as he ran his hand down her back to the base of her tail, raising an excited shiver from the slender Burmecian.
"We should probably take this back to my room," she said. "I can't believe you actually sleep on this," she said, dropping a hand to pat the thin padding.
"Well, it did give me an excuse to sleep outside when I had the chance," he chuckled. "Besides, it's more than I got used to."
"One of these days, you're going to have to explain what you mean by that sort of thing," she said seriously. He was quiet for a moment, and she could see the conflict behind his eyes.
"I'm sorry," she said, lowering her head slightly. "I didn't mean -"
"No, you're right," he said, raising her face so that their eyes could meet again. "But I'm not up to it yet - a lot of bad things I tried very hard to forget. Remembering's going to take a while."
"We'll have the time, Red," she said, trying to get used to the name he'd given her before. The slight smile it brought to his face was worth it, she decided. "We'll have the time." He thought for a few moments longer, before he continued.
"If you decide you have to know before I'm up to telling you - ask Lani. She knows as much of the story as anybody who's still alive, except me."
"May I ask one question about your past?" He licked his lips and swallowed, and she saw the fear in his eyes for a moment - though she wasn't sure what he was afraid of.
"Just let me refuse to tell you," he replied eventually," if it's something I don't want to talk about."
"Okay," she said quickly, nodding her agreement.
"Then ask away," he said, wondering what she was so curious about.
"You and Lani - were you.." She trailed off, her white fur turning slightly pink as she blushed.
"Lovers," Amarant prompted. She nodded, and he sighed slightly in relief.
"Not really. I'd be lying if I told you we were never together, but we were always friends, never really lovers." She nodded, and leaned her head against his shoulder.
"Jealous," he asked, a slightly amused tone to his voice. She chuckled, and shook her head.
"No, that's not really something I do. Just afraid that she might be. I'd rather not have to fight with somebody that close to you."
"Nah," Amarant said with a chuckle. "Closest she ever came to doing something like that was when she realized that the person I was talking to at the bar was really another bounty hunter before I did. That was a close one."
"Good. I might not have been impressed with her before, but I think it'd be a good idea to forget about that, if we're going to try making this work."
"She won't forget," Amarant said quietly, "but I don't think she'll hold it against you. You were doing your job, she was doing hers. She's a pro, even if she's one of the more arrogant pros most of the time."
"That's a funny way to describe a friend," Freya chuckled, nuzzling his shoulder with the side of her face.
"You should hear some of the things she says about me," he said, stroking the fur of her neck and shoulder. "Every word of it's true, both ways, but you'd never believe we were friends to listen to us some days."
"And just how would you describe me," she said, closing her eyes slightly as she leaned against him.
"Hmm.. Stubborn, nosy, a bit of a control freak," he said teasingly. "How's that for a start?"
"I'm not a control freak," she muttered with a pout.
"Well, maybe not. Of course, I'd have to follow it up with loving, understanding, kind almost to a fault, and drop dead gorgeous."
"Mmm - I like the sound of those better," she said drowsily, the excitement from earlier finally catching up with her.
"Get some sleep, lover," he said gently, as she dozed off on his shoulder. "I think we'll both be needing it." A few minutes later, he gently shifted to pick her up, and take her back to her own quarters and bed, moving with care usually reserved for trying to sneak past guards. Once he'd pulled the sheet up and over her, he stripped off his vest and lay down next to her, putting his arms around her before he fell asleep himself..
The sun was dropping into the sea off the coast of Everlang Island, and Freya was lying next to her lover quietly, the two of them just holding each other as they rested. She yawned slightly, blushing when she looked at Amarant afterwards. He chuckled slightly and kissed her gently.
"What's on your mind?"
"You," she said softly. "Us, really."
"So what are you thinking," he asked, brushing her hair back out of her eyes.
"I'm wondering what you want, what I want - trying to figure out where we're going to go when this is all over."
"What I want isn't usually what I get," he said softly. "I've gotten used to it."
"Amarant, I'm serious. If you don't want anything from me but a warm bed.we're going to have to talk about it." His eyes flashed briefly, before he locked eyes with her.
"And what if I want more than that? Don't assume the worst of me, Freya - you'll do us both a disfavor if you do, particularly about that." She was taken aback for a long moment, not sure if he'd take offense for long. She couldn't tell by his voice - she just had to hope that he'd get over it soon.
"Then what do you want?" He was quiet for several seconds, but she could see that he was trying to decide what to tell her. "Please, Amarant - I have to know."
"I want us to leave behind what we used to be," he said, "what I used to be, at the very least. I want us to be able to have a life of our own, together. But I know that's not possible."
"Why not," she asked, despite the fact that she thought she knew the answer.
"My life doesn't want to let go of me, and yours is something you want to go back to. How could I ask you to leave behind what you have? People who respect you, someone you love - and I know you still love him. What have I got to offer you for that? Only what you see here."
"That's enough," she said, pulling him close and kissing him. "You're enough for me, Amarant."
"Would I be? For the rest of both our lives?" Silence reigned for a long moment before he spoke again.
"That's what I thought. It wouldn't be fair for me to ask you to leave all of that, and you'd be a fool to agree to do it."
"Amarant, I -" He silenced her by pressing the tip of a finger up against her lips.
"I told you, I'm used to what I get not being what I want. I'll enjoy whatever time we have together, even if it's nothing more than the past few hours."
"It won't be that," she said quietly, leaning forward to kiss him. "I - I want what you do, believe me."
"But you want your old life too, or at least a part of you does. I understand, Freya, you don't need to apologize for it. If I had that to come back to, I'd want to keep it too." Just then, the airship shuddered and rose into the sky. "Ah, shit," Amarant swore, throwing back the covers. "Zidane had damn well better have a good reason to be moving this ship." Freya sat up, and started pulling on her clothes, a similarly irritated expression on her face.
"I'm sure he does, but I want to hear it." A few minutes later, the two were walking towards the bridge, intent on finding out just what was going on. A lithe figure came dashing down the stairs, only slowing down when she ran straight into Freya. Dagger wrapped her arms around the Burmecian, and started sobbing incoherently. Freya and Amarant exchanged looks, Freya's worried, Amarant's his customary impossible-to-read look. Freya loosened the princess' grip, and knelt in front of her.
"What's wrong, Dagger? What happened?"
"Dragon - everything went wrong! Zi - Zidane's." She trailed off into sobs again, collapsing in the hall as Freya paled, and ran towards the infirmary, Amarant close behind her. They found members of the crew huddled around one of the cots, the monkey-tail dangling limply off the side confirming what they'd been afraid of.
"Get out of the way," Freya shouted, roughly shoving the crew out of her path until she was at Zidane's side. The young thief was badly wounded, a thin trickle of blood staining his lips. Freya inspected him quickly, trying to find out what was wrong with him, as Amarant walked up behind her quietly.
"How is he," the crimson-haired fighter asked.
"Not good," Freya said grimly. "It looks like somebody literally tried feeding him to a dragon, and did a good job of it."
"That somebody was probably the dragon. He's alive though, isn't he?"
"Yes, barely. I don't think he'll last long enough for Reis' Wind to heal him, though." Amarant chuckled, and looked at the thief who had beaten him so often before.
"Maybe not, but I can buy him that time. If I could have some room," he said, looking around at the crew that was crowding dangerously close to him. They picked up on the tone of his voice, and soon the room was clear except for the three of them.
"What do you have in mind?"
"What I have a feeling none of the others had the strength left to do," Amarant said matter-of-factly, slipping into a kata. Freya watched as her lover's hands moved, somehow smooth and graceful despite the precise, clipped movements. While she watched, a large glowing ball of energy formed in his hands, starting as a soft blue, but quickly becoming a blazing white as he repeated his motions, focusing his energy. Suddenly, he raised his hands and drove the blazing light into Zidane's chest. The young thief's body jerked up as though somebody had run lightning through it, and his eyes flew open as he gasped, coughing up the blood in his throat as his outermost wounds healed. Amarant wiped his brow as Zidane coughed more, and tried to sit up, only to be pushed back down by Freya's strong hands.
"You lay down," she said, just as the rest of the party reached the doors of the infirmary.
"Zidane," Eiko shouted, "you're alive!" He cracked a grin and squirmed out from under Freya's hand, jumping to his feet and laughing.
"Yeah, I'm alive - thanks to Amarant, I think." The fighter shrugged, and started towards the door.
"Now we're even for Ipsen's Castle," he said as he walked out. Zidane shook his head while everybody else just stared after the departing figure - everyone except Freya, who was quietly chuckling to herself.
"Well, Zidane, if you're able to walk, you might want to go tell your Princess that you're still alive. She's pretty upset about what happened." Zidane nodded, and started out. Then Freya and Steiner looked at Vivi and Eiko, who were both still pretty shocked about what they'd just seen.
"Well," they both asked. Eiko loosened her collar, looking to Vivi for help explaining it. Quina wandered off, seeing that the excitement was over. Besides - they'd be wanting a *big* dinner that night, so s/he'd better start cooking it.
"Well, y'see," she said, trying to figure out what to say.
"The dragon we went after managed to hit Zidane with its poison breath," Vivi said sadly, explaining. "And then it wouldn't let up long enough for us to cure him, and it just kept beating on us until Dagger and Eiko couldn't heal us any more - I managed to get off a Meteor, but it wasn't in time to keep it from beating Zidane up pretty badly."
"Yeah," Eiko said. "And since we sold off the Phoenix Downs, and didn't have any Ethers with us.."
"Don't worry Eiko, Master Vivi," Steiner said, "it wasn't your fault - Sir Zidane should have known better than to sell off the Phoenix Downs, and he certainly knew enough to bring Ethers along. Besides - Amarant was able to heal him, so everything's better now."
"Yeah," Eiko said, much more cheerfully. "By the way, Freya, how did you two get here so much faster," she asked, looking at the much taller Burmecian.
"We were in the area," Freya said with a shrug. "Dagger found us pretty quickly, we came here after she started crying again." Eiko was sure there was something Freya wasn't saying, but filed it away mentally. Something didn't sound right - actually, she realized, didn't smell right. But it wasn't important now.
"Well, it's a good thing you got here. We didn't know how long he'd last without being healed fast."
"I'm just glad that Amarant can do that," Freya said softly. "It gives us a back-up for when you or Dagger get hurt too badly. One thing's for sure, though - we're going back to pick up more Phoenix Downs. There is no way this is going to happen again. Steiner? Would you have the crew set course for Daguerro? To judge by what I felt from the ship's turning earlier, they set course back for Lindblum - we don't need to go that far." Steiner saluted and ran off towards the front deck, armor clanking as he went on his way. Eiko and Vivi left moments after that, going out to look for Zidane and Dagger. Freya waited a few moments, then left to hunt for Amarant again..
~~~===~~~
The lanky warrior was in his quarters when she found him, laying on the spartan cot he sometimes called a bed, looking at the ceiling.
"Amarant?" He didn't respond to her voice, so she stepped closer to him, touching his shoulder. When he didn't respond to that, she started to get worried.
"Amarant, are you okay," she asked, shaking him slightly. Before she knew what had happened, she was on the floor, trying to catch her breath after Amarant's fist was planted firmly in her stomach.
"Shit," he yelled, rolling off the bed and hurrying over to her. "Are you okay, Freya?" She gasped as she looked into his face, trying to figure out what was going on.
"Yeah," she said between deep breaths. "Just trying to figure out why you slugged me," she finished when she could speak easier.
"Reflexes - didn't expect anybody to interrupt me while I was meditating," he explained, offering her a hand up, "sorry."
"I'll remember not to do that again," she said, taking his hand and standing. "But you didn't respond to anything else, and I didn't know what the problem was, so.."
"Sorry, should have warned you. Using my skills - powers, if you will - leaves me somewhat unbalanced. If I'm in a battle, then I usually return to normal after the battle-rush leaves me. If not," he shrugged. "I have to re-center myself, and I'm usually out of it while I do so."
"So do you need to go back to.whatever it was you were doing?"
"Nah, the rush from when you got my attention helped settle me down a bit." Freya chuckled, rubbing her sore stomach.
"I hope you'll forgive me if I don't do that the next time, though." Amarant smirked at her, and put an arm around her shoulders.
"No problem - I'd rather not plant my fist in your stomach, for that matter. So, what happened to our fearless leader that left him in that condition."
"The usual - the last thing he probably expected to be a problem became one." Amarant shook his head.
"Figures. It's a miracle he's still alive, the way he operates."
"He's good enough to get away with it, usually. He just let the fact that he was with two white mages make him forget that having a few Phoenix Downs around is a good idea." Amarant rolled his eyes behind his shaggy red mane as he led Freya over to the cot, the two of them sitting down.
"Like I said," Amarant smirked, "it's a miracle he's still alive." Freya chuckled slightly at that, and put an arm around his waist.
"I suppose it is. But I'm glad he is - if he'd gotten himself killed before, then I'd never have met you."
"We'd have met eventually," he said after a long moment. "Just not under pleasant circumstances."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"You'd have gone after the bounty on my eventually, or you'd have been going through Treno some time when I was low enough on cash to be willing to risk mugging you. Something like that."
"Well, I'm glad it didn't happen that way," she said, leaning over to kiss him. "I'd hate to be fighting you."
"Except when you're trying to be on top," he smirked, brushing her hair back out of her eyes. She chuckled and brought her tail up to bat at the back of his head playfully.
"Like you were complaining?"
"Never said I was, did I," he asked, kissing her again as he ran his hand down her back to the base of her tail, raising an excited shiver from the slender Burmecian.
"We should probably take this back to my room," she said. "I can't believe you actually sleep on this," she said, dropping a hand to pat the thin padding.
"Well, it did give me an excuse to sleep outside when I had the chance," he chuckled. "Besides, it's more than I got used to."
"One of these days, you're going to have to explain what you mean by that sort of thing," she said seriously. He was quiet for a moment, and she could see the conflict behind his eyes.
"I'm sorry," she said, lowering her head slightly. "I didn't mean -"
"No, you're right," he said, raising her face so that their eyes could meet again. "But I'm not up to it yet - a lot of bad things I tried very hard to forget. Remembering's going to take a while."
"We'll have the time, Red," she said, trying to get used to the name he'd given her before. The slight smile it brought to his face was worth it, she decided. "We'll have the time." He thought for a few moments longer, before he continued.
"If you decide you have to know before I'm up to telling you - ask Lani. She knows as much of the story as anybody who's still alive, except me."
"May I ask one question about your past?" He licked his lips and swallowed, and she saw the fear in his eyes for a moment - though she wasn't sure what he was afraid of.
"Just let me refuse to tell you," he replied eventually," if it's something I don't want to talk about."
"Okay," she said quickly, nodding her agreement.
"Then ask away," he said, wondering what she was so curious about.
"You and Lani - were you.." She trailed off, her white fur turning slightly pink as she blushed.
"Lovers," Amarant prompted. She nodded, and he sighed slightly in relief.
"Not really. I'd be lying if I told you we were never together, but we were always friends, never really lovers." She nodded, and leaned her head against his shoulder.
"Jealous," he asked, a slightly amused tone to his voice. She chuckled, and shook her head.
"No, that's not really something I do. Just afraid that she might be. I'd rather not have to fight with somebody that close to you."
"Nah," Amarant said with a chuckle. "Closest she ever came to doing something like that was when she realized that the person I was talking to at the bar was really another bounty hunter before I did. That was a close one."
"Good. I might not have been impressed with her before, but I think it'd be a good idea to forget about that, if we're going to try making this work."
"She won't forget," Amarant said quietly, "but I don't think she'll hold it against you. You were doing your job, she was doing hers. She's a pro, even if she's one of the more arrogant pros most of the time."
"That's a funny way to describe a friend," Freya chuckled, nuzzling his shoulder with the side of her face.
"You should hear some of the things she says about me," he said, stroking the fur of her neck and shoulder. "Every word of it's true, both ways, but you'd never believe we were friends to listen to us some days."
"And just how would you describe me," she said, closing her eyes slightly as she leaned against him.
"Hmm.. Stubborn, nosy, a bit of a control freak," he said teasingly. "How's that for a start?"
"I'm not a control freak," she muttered with a pout.
"Well, maybe not. Of course, I'd have to follow it up with loving, understanding, kind almost to a fault, and drop dead gorgeous."
"Mmm - I like the sound of those better," she said drowsily, the excitement from earlier finally catching up with her.
"Get some sleep, lover," he said gently, as she dozed off on his shoulder. "I think we'll both be needing it." A few minutes later, he gently shifted to pick her up, and take her back to her own quarters and bed, moving with care usually reserved for trying to sneak past guards. Once he'd pulled the sheet up and over her, he stripped off his vest and lay down next to her, putting his arms around her before he fell asleep himself..