Heheh, back to the sillier stuff...
Occurs pretty much anywhere on the road between leaving Dahngrest after Phaeroh's attack and arriving in Nordopolica. Got the idea from a formspring question and response. Then wrote the entire thing during work. It is the shortest thing I've written for FTaBV.
x x x
FTaBV Omake: What's in the Bag?
x x x
"Hey, Captain, what are you up to?"
"Waaah!" Karol jumped at the sudden realization that his sneaky movements had not gone unobserved. Yuri noted the dark shape the boy tried to to hide behind his back. "Y-Yuri! What are you still doing up?"
"Just keeping an eye on things." Even if it was dark, the low burning fire provided enough light to see the guilty way Karol was fidgeting. The boy wouldn't meet his eyes either. "...So what were you doing with Letha's bag?"
Sheepishly, Karol gave up trying to hide the satchel. It was like his own, but smaller and lacking a bodhi blastia. The ends of the broken strap had been knotted together ever since that time a monster had snapped it and tried to run off with it. Letha had been livid until Repede brought it back.
That Karol had it was a surprise. Normally she kept it near at hand, and even used it as a pillow at night.
"Uh, you see, well..." feet scuffed at the ground, "I'm kind of running out of gels, and when I saw her bag..."
Ah, Yuri got it. For once, Letha hadn't used her bag to sleep, or maybe she rolled off of it. And since it had been hours since their last fight, it was highly unlikely that Karol needed a gel for medical reasons. "Karol, you really shouldn't be snacking on those." A sarcastic little voice in the back of his mind snidely reminded the swordsman that he used to do the same. Until he got sick of them, after having eaten so many.
"I'll-I'll only have one more, I swear! Just please don't tell anyone..." His pleading eyes were truly pitiful, like Repede's when he was still a puppy and begging at the mess hall table.
"Fine," Yuri sighed, hoping a few more years would make the boy's puppy eyes easier to resist as well. "But it's on your head if Letha finds out you were going through her stuff."
"You think she'll be mad?" For a moment it looked like Karol would put the bag back. But the temptation won out in the end as he started rummaging through it.
"She'll probably forgive you if you pay her back," Yuri rationalized. Even though she guarded her bag jealously, Letha tended to share everything in it rather freely.
Karol gave a soft noise of excitement as he pulled out a small cloth pouch. Loosening the draw string holding it closed he poured out some of the contents into his hand. "Huh? These aren't gels!"
Yuri leaned over to get a closer look. It appeared the bag had been filled entirely with bite size pieces of caramel and the hard candies that you could suck on for hours. They were popular among the lower quarter children for being cheap and kept near the door in most shops.
"Looks like someone has a secret sweet tooth," Yuri said with a chuckle. Then he reached out and plucked one of the caramels from Karol's palm.
"Hey!"
"What? She'll never notice just one missing." He popped the candy into his mouth. "And as long as you don't tell, I won't mention that you took two orange gels just now."
x x x
Oh Yuri... She knows anyway. After all, he probably took more than one, seeing as they're cheaper than gels and keeping quiet about Karol's indulgence deserved a higher bribe.
