Disclaimer: As much as I like Bahamut, and would absolutely love to own him as a pet, I don't. Nor do I own Final Fantasy.

Title: Bullies

Genre: General

Summery: Getting bullied is a school thing isn't it?

They were picking on him again. Diablos and Hades were laughing and kicking the dragon infant, who just wept in misery. Odin was elsewhere, the Knights were off on their daily... whatever it was, leaving the cub undefended. The two bullies gladly took the chance to bully the former orphan. He wasn't the type who they wanted to be their leader. Though if they sat down and thought about it, they didn't want anyone to be the leader but themselves. Who cares what Fate had said, why should they give this runt an easy time? Everyone agreed, though few were actually vocal about it. Why Odin and the Knights actually defended him when they were the most vocal about it confused the pair of bullies, but they just shrugged it off. Though, they were wary about pushing Bahamut over the limit this time; the last time something had made the dragon snap and attack them, and they were scared by the amount of anger he'd had in his eyes at the time. That, and the fireball he'd somehow spat at them. Ifrit had laughed at the fireball, in that manic cackle of his, creeping them out. It was no secret that Ifrit had been a pyromaniac in his past life, he'd actually gloated about the fact. But no one was here, but the runt, so they were just resorting to the physical bullying, afraid they may say what had ticked him off last time, even though they couldn't figure out what.

"Hey!" A feminine voice shouted at them.

Both bullies looked up and noticed Shiva running towards them. They glanced at each other, nervous. Since her form was human in shape, she could do pretty much anything she had done as a human, despite the lack of age, she still had the memories. Unfortunately for them, this included marshal arts. And her fear of men, while legendary, made them slightly more nervous, since it meant that the icy girl had no qualms about hitting them. The devil plucked up his courage, moving forward to meet Shiva.

"Yes, m'lady?" He asked, his voice tinted with a posh accent, a reminder of his past life.

Shiva crossed her arms, glancing at the still weeping dragon cub.

"Just what are you two doing?" She asked, sarcastically.

"We're trying to cheer up our good pal, Bahamut." Hades murmured, his voice seeming to echo.

Both Shiva and Diablos glared at the robe clad skeleton.

"She was asking a rhetorical question, numb-skull." Diablos hissed at his friend.

"What's a rhetorical question?" Hades, despite his face being a skull, somehow still managed to look the picture of pure confusion, bringing a snigger from the icy elemental girl.

Diablos groaned. Hades wasn't usually this dumb... was he? Before he could react to his friend's stupidity, Shiva put an arm around his shoulders. Diablos stood upright. That was another reason that most of the males were scared of her, she could make her skin as cold as ice on cue, and when she did so, had a habit of putting people in headlocks. Ice cold headlocks.

"Now, tell the truth. You were bullying Bahamut again? Weren't you?" Shiva asked, gripping Hades' shoulder and shifting her arm so Diablos couldn't escape. The devil shivered as Shiva made her skin even colder.

"N-n-no..." He managed to stutter out, shaking uncontrollably.

"Honestly. You'd think that you'd at least tell the truth, since everyone knows that you two are always picking on him. What did he ever do to you?"

"N-n-none o-o-o-of y-yer -b-b-b-business." Hades ground out, his teeth knocking together, loudly, like those wind-up chattering teeth toys.

"Fine then. But leave him alone. I heard that he has had the hardest life out all of us. If I catch you two near him again, I'm going to freeze your family jewels and them smash them." She threatened, smirk evident on her face.

She released the two fearful bullies and watched them flee, even Hades, who had yet to remember that being a skeleton now, he didn't have family jewels. She sniggered, before turning towards the Dragon cub. Bahamut had stopped weeping, though he still lay on his side, sniffing loudly. Shiva crouched down beside him.

"Hey now. Don't cry, they're gone now." She told him, almost reaching out to pet him, before pulling back at the memory that he was a male.

"But they'll just come back when you're not around. You, Odin and the Knights can't all be with me 24/7; you all have lives as well."

"Shiva raised an eyebrow at the slang from Bahamut's time.

"24/7?"

"24 hours a day, 7 days a week." Bahamut muttered, actually turning to look at the icy girl. "In other words, all the time. And they're right, I shouldn't be leader. I'm just a nobody who got shot in the head by soldiers of his own country."

Ignoring the fact that Bahamut was male for the moment, Shiva went against her better judgment, and scooped up the dragon, dumping him on her lap. She didn't know the whole story about Bahamut's previous life; Tiamat didn't like speaking of it either. But the female dragon had told her that part of what made the silvery blue dragon so depressed was the knowledge that he was somehow involved in Tiamat's death. Though his sister had forgiven him, Bahamut had not. And that was apparently a minor part of it. Shiva supposed that Bahamut's family must have blamed him as well.

"Hey, Fate chose you for a reason. You must have it in you to do this; else I doubt he'll have even considered you." Shiva tried to reassure him, struggling against his weight, which seemed content in falling to the ground. "Depression about the past is pointless. Look towards a bright future."

Bahamut stopped trying to fall to the ground and considered this a moment.

"I will lead everyone... and fail miserably. Some future." The young dragon mumbled.

"Oh please. You've... impressed Ifrit already."

"Do anything involving fire, and you'll be sure to impress a pyromaniac."

Shiva shut her eyes, thinking. Comforting people wasn't her thing; she had been a spoilt brat in her past life, and a tomboy. Neither actually involved comforting people.

"See. You can't even think of anything good to say. Just..."

Bahamut was cut off when Shiva pressed her lips against his beak. His eyes widened in shock as the male-hater kissed him. She cut off quickly and looked sternly at him.

"I don't just do that for anyone, now get your act together or else I'll make you a dragon Popsicle." She threatened.

Bahamut just stared in shock, his normally blue scales turning red, as the ice elemental gently placed him back on the ground and stood up. He stopped her, just before she could walk away.

"Thank you." Bahamut said, hugging the older female, and pecking her on the cheek. He moved away from her, looking for a new place to go skulk in, probably.

Shiva watched as he left. The dragon cub was still depressed, but at least she seemed to have given him the incentive to go do something. Hopefully the two bullies wouldn't go near him for a while; she wasn't known for not going through with her threats, and doing something like that would be enjoyable to her.

"You're welcome!

-End