Why aren't there ever any pairings with Futch? Just because he obsessed with his dragon doesn't mean he can't get the…Hmmm. Well anyway, he's sweet and I like him. By the way, I have nothing against any of Chris' knights, (in fact, Percival is one of my favorite characters, especially since he was the last one standing at the final battle with Sarah) but they are so much fun to torture, especially Borus and Percival.

Let me know what you think. It's not really meant to be Chris/Futch per say. I mean, I'm not going to marry them off to each other or anything. It's just supposed to be a fun story. That's my goal. If you'd like it to go in a certain direction, let me know.

Disclaimer: I absolutely have no claim on Suikoden or any of it's characters. Please review. I love reviewers and especially like giving them virtual snacks.

CHAPTER ONE: The Sunrise

The morning started out fairly normally at Budehuc castle. Thomas was pacing about his room. Cecile was drilling her underlings, which was proving to be a rather daunting task. Whenever a particularly frightening enemy appeared near the castle entrance, such as a small, fuzzy, axe-wielding bunny, the dogs cowered behind the Commander of the castle guards, sending her into a frenzy. Peggy was mooning over the "shiny" new hammer the Flame Champion recently brought to her from Duck Village. The Captain of the Zexen Knights was acting the rebel and going against normalcy by leaning on the side of the broken ship that graced the back of Budehuc Castle, relaxing in the quiet of the morning. This may not seem abnormal in and of itself, however, there was the marked absence of at least one of the lady's six major fanboys… I mean…knights.

"Ahhhh," sighed the Captain of the Zexen Knights as she leaned on the side of the broken ship that graced the back of Budehuc's castle.

"Beautiful isn't it," a familiar voice cut into the silence.

The Silver Maiden whipped around and came face to face with the castle's resident dragon knight.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you," Futch smiled reassuringly. "Bright and I often come out here to enjoy the sunrise. Don't we Bright?"

"Kuueee!" the dragon lovingly nuzzled his handler and friend.

Chris visibly relaxed at the sight of the friendly dragon knight. It was her own knights she was attempting to avoid. She didn't understand why they felt the need to travel everywhere with her. It's not as if she needed help taking care of herself. "That's okay. I was just watching the sunrise." Her eyes turned toward the knight's dragon and lit up wonderingly. "Wow. His scales look almost…luminescent in this light."

Futch smiled and drew himself up with pride. "I scrub for him thirty minutes every morning at five and every evening at six. He loves his baths. Right Bright?"

"Kuueee!"

Chris looked puzzled. "I wouldn't think Goro would allow a creature like him in the baths."

"Creature?" Futch puffed up like an angry furrfly. "I'll have you know Bright is in training to be a fighting dragon of the third degree dragon knights! Furthermore…"

"O…okay." Chris took a defensive step back. "I meant no offense."

"Oh. Uhhh…" he suddenly blushed furiously. "Actually, Goro hasn't let him in the baths ever since a…certain incident occurred in which his bath sort of fell apart while Bright coincidently happened to be in it. Now I…uh…bathe him in the lake." He smiled, abashed.

"Oh." Chris shifted uncomfortably. Conversation was not one of her strong suits. She was much more comfortable fighting on the battlefield. She struggled to find something else to say. "It must take a lot of soap to get him clean."

As Futch nodded in affirmation a loud voice cut through their chat. "I know I heard Lady Chris say soap! If it's on the tip of somebody's nose there's going to be hell to pay!"

"Oh no!" Lady Chris groaned, eyes widening, before instinctively diving behind the white dragon.

"What is it?" exclaimed Futch, twisting around to face the threat.

Suddenly the blonde Swordsman of Rage leapt onto the deck and stared at Futch accusingly. "WHERE'S LADY CHRIS? I know I heard her voice around here somewhere!"

Futch conflictingly turned towards Boris. His first instinct was to tell the truth but that would give Chris's position away, and she didn't seem to want to be found by this hot tempered knight. "Uhhh…" He was saved by the entrance of another knight. Fortunately this one didn't seem hostile. In fact he appeared to be smirking in amusement.

"Borus, you'd hear Lady Chris whisper as long as it was somewhere within a thirty mile radius of you," the dark-haired Swordsman of Gale commented sarcastically, walking up behind his comrade.

Borus turned around defensively, his face flaming. "I didn't ask you! Never mind anyway!" He turned around and stalked away.

Futch turned towards the other knight anxiously.

Percival rolled his eyes and smiled. "Don't mind him. He feels his job is to personally babysit the…" His eyes flickered to Bright's feet and he frowned slightly at the sight of a pair of iron boots before looking back at Futch. "Well I'd better go after him before someone gets hurt…namely him. Borus! Mayhap she went for a morning swim in the lake." He smirked mischievously. Borus shrieked in dismay as he ran off in the general direction of the lakeshore.

Futch heaved a sigh of relief.

"Are they gone?" Chris whispered as the Swordsman of Gale trotted over the last step to the main deck.

"Uhhh…yeah."

Chris sighed with relief and stood up, brushing herself off to help gain her composure.

"Those ARE your knights, right?"

"Mmm-hm." Chris turned back to face the lake that made up Budehuc's backyard and closed her eyes.

Futch turned to her, a slight frown creasing his forehead. "Are you alright? They don't… hurt you, do they? I mean…I know they're knights but..."

Chris laughed at the absurdity of the statement. "Oh no. Of course not. It's just…as Captain of the Knights I sometimes find it difficult to relax. When I do have time to myself it seems that at least one of the other five Knights is right there beside me…Borus especially." Chris frowned for a moment as if considering that, but then appeared to lose her train of thought as she shook her head and shrugged.

"Oh. That's too bad. Bright and I watch every sunrise and every sunset together if we can." Futch put his hand on Bright's shoulder. "Actually, we spend every moment of every day together if possible." His eyes grew bright. "Lately I've been entering in some friendly competitions with Franz to see who has the fastest mount. Bright and I usually win, of course, which makes sense considering that aerodynamically…Bright extend a wing please…Thank you… the dragon is made for faster flight than a Mantor, especially at high altitudes. The curvature to the wing is at such an angle that…" Bright nudged him scoldingly. "…Hm. Uhhh….Chris?" Futch let down the dragon wing gently.

"Hmm?" Chris averted her eyes from the ship railing to his own brown ones.

"Kuueee!" Bright gave Futch another nudge.

"Uhhh…right," Futch nodded. "So…basically you're trying to…hide…from your knights. Is that right?"

"Well…no…not really…well, sort of...um...yeah." Chris looked at her feet. "But I just wanted a couple of minutes to myself! Then I'll go right back and…"

Futch put his hands on her shoulders. "Chris. Calm down. You know, if you ever need to get away I'm sure Bright would be happy if you came along with us on a flight. We could…"

"Oh n….I couldn't...I…I'm scared of heights. That is….I get airsick…and…" she paused as Futch's face fell.

"You don't like Bright do you?"

"No. I mean yes. He's a good dragon and…very…pretty and…skilled in flying I'm sure….but… well… um ….maybe….sometime?" Her shoulders sagged.

"Great! This afternoon there should be optimal flying conditions: no rain, little wind, perfect. You'll love flying on Bright. His glide is so smooth. But no armor, okay? It's much better if you are in lighter attire. Maybe we can do a few maneuvers on our ride…"

Her face paled.

"Ah ha. There you are!" A very wet Borus climbed over the rail and flopped down onto the deck with a clang, his whole body sopping wet. His chest was heaving with exhaustion. He attempted to push himself up but fell back to the deck, his arm strength failing him. He lay there for a moment, puffing.

"Borus? What are you doing? How did you climb the side of the ship! And how did you swim here in full plate armor?"

"Well….someone suggested that you might be swimming and…uh…well…it's not important anyway. What do you think YOU'RE doing?" he turned to Futch, who was completely oblivious to the newcomer's arrival and was now talking about Bright's flying patterns and the variety of maneuvers he could perform at various altitudes.

"It appears he's talking about the triple spins and….really? That's fascinating…quadruple twists that Bright is apparently capable of at…one thousand feet," Percival commented, smiling in amusement.

Borus paused for a moment then lifted himself off the deck and began shouting at Futch for "hiding" Lady Chris from the rest of the castle.

Chris turned a lovely shade of light green at the mention of the twists and hurried away to the lower levels. Percival watched her go, then sighed and grabbed Borus's arm as he began to shout about properly addressing a lady and Futch turned onto the subject of proper foot position on an air-bound dragon. "Come on Borus," Percival tugged ineffectively on the cold steel. "Borus! Lady Chris is…" he sighed and stared at the chaos for a moment. "No wonder she's hiding from us," he muttered as he walked away from the chattering men.