Reaching the Village of the Ancients
Title: Reaching the Village of the Ancients
Author: saturn_necklace/stormy_words
Pairing: Strongly hinted Ohno/Nino and Sho/Aiba
Word count: 3,935
Rating: PG
Genre: AU, Crossover, slight crack.
Warnings: British English.
Summary: Arashi are the Warriors of Light in Final Fantasy III.
AN: I randomly found this half finished yesterday and felt the overwhelming need to finish and post it. I started writing it months ago, and have no idea why I'd forgotten about it. This is a crossover only in the sense that Arashi are in the FFIII universe, so none of the characters from the game are included. I think it's probably fairly readable, even if you don't have much knowledge of the game, although there might be a few terms that you might not get. For more information about the game go here. If you have a DS, I highly recommend it, by the way :D! ...Also, I apologize for the immense failure of the title, I really couldn't think of anything, so that had to do XD;;
In case you were wondering, the fic is set in this area of the floating continent. And these are chocobos.
It was hard work. Being a warrior of light was really hard work. That was what Ohno Satoshi thought. He didn’t even get to use magic - or a sword, for that matter. He was a monk, which was all very well, only he never managed to look quite as cool as the others; as a warrior, Aiba got all the awesome armour and cool weapons, Jun got the mysterious look with his black mage’s robe and his magic, Sho had his white mage’s outfit and all the helpful magic which saved them when they were in trouble. And Ohno was a monk. They really didn’t make that much cool stuff for monks to use when they were beating the crap out of various magical, evil characters. Well, none of the villages they’d been to so far had seemed to.
Even Nino had a cooler job than him. Nino was a thief. Nino was the one who made sure they had enough money to buy all the cool weapons and spells (and potions for when Sho’s magic failed them). Nino even got them through locked doors. Ohno couldn’t get people through locked doors; monks just didn’t have that skill.
Ohno supposed that everyone’s job was meant to suit them. Sho never had been all that good at hurting people - he was far better at getting hurt, so really, he needed to have the healing magic. Jun had always been extremely good at hurting people, and the mysterious feel seemed to go well with his appearance. Aiba probably shouldn’t have been trusted with a sword, but he got one anyway, and proved to be quite skilful with it, except for the time that he nearly cut off Sho’s arm whilst trying to kill a werewolf. The gallant warrior image was working well for him, and trusting him with a sword was far safer than trusting him with anything as dangerous as magic. Nino always had been a sneaky bastard, so being a thief came naturally too him; he was well practised at penny-pinching, and had been stingy when it came to money as long as any of the group could remember. He was pretty good at using a dagger too, from what Ohno had seen in battle.
Ohno wasn’t really sure why he was a monk. He guessed that it must be because it wouldn’t be exciting enough if two of them had the same job, and learning both magic and swordsmanship would’ve been far too complicated, so being a red mage was out of the question.
These were the kind of thoughts that Ohno was having as the group trudged through another forest; that was another thing that made being a warrior of light such hard work, never ending amounts of travelling - mostly walking, much to Ohno’s dismay.
It came as a relief to everyone when the sun began to set and Jun announced that they were stopping for the night. Jun was always the one who decided when they stopped - no one was sure why, things had just turned out that way. They found a small clearing and set their bags down, everyone pulling out various blankets to sit on.
Ohno watched as Sho and Aiba left to find firewood, Aiba’s favourite axe in hand. He vaguely wondered why anyone trusted those two with an axe; Sho because he had never been very coordinated with that kind of thing, and Aiba because he was just generally dangerous with that kind of thing. He hoped that they both returned with all limbs still intact, and no visible injuries, as he did every day when they left on their usual wood chopping excursions.
Jun had set about arranging the blankets around what was going to be a fire - currently a pile of about three twigs, courtesy of Nino. Ohno sprawled across one of the blankets - once Jun had moved on to finding food - and Nino had soon joined him, letting himself fall onto the next blanket before wiggling across to snuggle against his side. Ohno yawned. Nino draped an arm across Ohno’s waist. Jun moaned at them both to stop being lazy and help with the cooking. Nino snorted in amusement.
“I’ll cook when we have a fire, until then I’m napping with Oh-chan”
It wasn’t long until Sho and Aiba returned, Sho’s arms piled high with firewood and Aiba walking happily alongside him, carrying the axe and making sure that Sho got safely back to camp without tripping or walking into any trees; the wood was piled a little too high for him to still be able to see anything in front of him, other than logs.
The group had been like this as long as anyone could remember, everyone falling into their various roles within the group without a second thought. Ohno and Nino had always been ready to drape themselves over each other and fall asleep; or to forgo the sleeping and just be physically close at any time, whether it be holding hands as they walked, or leaning against each other when they sat down to eat meals. Aiba had always been energetic and cheerful, and Sho had always succumbed to Aiba’s will, charmed by the air of innocence and naivety that Aiba seemed to exude, which was the reason that he always ended up carrying all of the wood, and generally doing most of Aiba’s share of the work as the other watched and gave advice; sometimes helpful, usually not quite so helpful. Jun had always been the one to bring them together and make sure they actually got done what needed to be done. If there was no Jun, the other four probably would’ve given up on being warriors of light months ago, stopping in a nice, safe, little village and staying there, instead of listening to an oversized, talking crystal.
Within ten minutes Sho and Aiba had the wood arranged nicely, ready for it to be lit. At the start of the journey they hadn’t been all that good at arranging the logs, but with a few months of practise they had it down to a fine art. They moved back and went to sit on their respective blankets, tired from a full day of walking. Jun glanced over at Nino and Ohno, both of whom were still enjoying their nap, then back at the fire. With a wave of one of his hands the fire was lit, and he was glad that the spells he knew weren’t limited to use in battle. Nino sat up, apparently not having been as asleep as he seemed, and Ohno opened his eyes shortly after, having been woken by the movement.
“Show off.” Nino muttered, his arm going around Ohno’s shoulders as the other sat up too. “You could’ve just used the matches.”
Jun shrugged and reached for the dead rabbit that lay on the ground not too far from the fire - the result of Jun’s search for food, caught thanks to the black mage’s steadily improving archery skills. He quickly set about preparing and cooking it, and Aiba found the bread they had bought at the last village they stopped in. Nino appeared to have forgotten his earlier promise of cooking when the fire was lit - although Jun highly suspected that this sudden case of amnesia wasn’t entirely genuine - favouring the idea of staying draped over Ohno.
Sho had busied himself with pulling out the rest of the blankets; the air was getting cooler by the second, and he wasn’t about to let anyone catch a cold. He threw a couple over to Ohno and Nino, and the thief pulled both blankets around them; there was no doubt that they were going to stay warm, sharing both body heat and blankets. He wrapped one around Jun’s shoulders, the black mage far too busy with the food to bother doing it himself, then returned to where he had been seated next to Aiba, dropping one in front of the other before pulling the last one around himself, confident that his actions were enough to keep them all warm enough through the night - not that it would matter too much if they didn’t; Sho wasn’t a healer for nothing, but he still maintained that when magic didn’t need to be used, he wouldn’t use it. Aiba said that he was just stingy when it came to magic points - the other three agreed.
It wasn’t long until dinner was ready, and Jun was distributing the food. Everyone had ended up moving a little closer to the fire for warmth as they ate, happily talking about incidents that had happened to them on their journey so far - Ohno’s getting distracted in the middle of a battle, thanks to a not-so-subtle grope from Nino, everyone running away from large, angry looking bird-like creatures, and Jun’s personal favourite, Aiba attempting to enjoy the meal Sho had cooked for them on the first night (“It’s not burnt.” Sho had insisted “Just a little black around the edges. It enhances the flavour!”)
After finishing their meal, everyone was already on the verge of sleep, Nino’s head dropping onto Ohno’s shoulder as he lost the battle to keep his eyes open. Sho refuelled the fire, with some help from Jun, whilst Ohno and Aiba tried their hardest to shake Nino awake so that they could get him onto a blanket - after a while of shaking with no result, Ohno had given up, instead wrapping an arm around Nino’s waist and hauling him onto the blanket before lying down next to him and promptly falling asleep as well.
With a small giggle, Aiba covered the sleeping duo - who took the opportunity to snuggle closer for more warmth - and went to flop down on his own blanket, body relaxing the moment it hit the ground. Sho sat down next to him, giving him a gentle nudge to stop him from taking up so much space - Aiba had sprawled across both of their blankets, limbs flung haphazardly in every direction. Aiba complied, instead rolling to lie on his front, his head turned to face Sho. Sho wondered if Aiba ever actually stopped moving, the ball of energy that he was - he concluded that the answer was probably no as Aiba wiggled across to rest his head in Sho’s lap, looking up with an innocent smile that made it impossible for Sho to push him away.
Sho’s hand moved to play with Aiba’s hair, fingers gently running through it as he looked across at Jun who was beginning to settle himself on his own blanket.
“Do you think we’ll get there tomorrow?” Sho stroked Aiba’s hair back into place before proceeding to mess it up again as Jun replied.
“Hopefully, as long as we don’t get caught in too many battles or go the wrong way.”
Aiba squirmed a little, further proving Sho’s theory that it was impossible for him to stay completely still.
“And as long as we don’t let anyone sleep in today.” Jun sent a pointed glance towards Aiba, reminding him that it was his fault they hadn’t reached the next town that day - Aiba hadn’t woken up until lunch, and whilst everyone else would’ve been perfectly happy to wake him up in the loudest way possible, Sho hadn’t had the heart to let them; Jun was still rather resentful about the matter.
Aiba blushed, glancing up at Sho then across at Jun. “It’s not my fault. No one woke me up.”
Jun sighed. “You shouldn’t need other people to wake you up. Sho wouldn’t let us anyway. Apparently you’re ‘too cute to disturb when you’re sleeping’”
That statement only made Aiba blush more, and Sho gently push Aiba off of his lap, not before smoothing the other’s hair back down.
“Goodnight, Jun.” He muttered as he lay down, purposefully facing away from the man on the other side of the fire. Jun smirked, settling under his own blankets as the other ended their conversation.
It didn’t take long for Aiba to slide under Sho’s blankets - tugging his own along with him for extra warmth - and up against Sho’s back. Sho sighed and turned over, his arm wrapping around Aiba’s waist as the younger man returned the loose embrace and rested his head against Sho’s chest.
They awoke at sunrise, Jun first, followed by everyone else - thanks to a few not-so-gentle nudges from Jun’s foot. After a quick breakfast, filled with complaints from Aiba about how it was too early, they packed up and left the clearing, trekking further through the forest. Sho was in charge of navigation, and so he led the group in the direction of the next town. Their journey was halted every now and then by various creatures that decided to attack - truthfully it was a good way of letting Aiba burn off some of his energy, and letting Nino get the satisfaction of stealing something.
Their pace that day was fast, no one particularly wanting to sleep outside for another night. Their progress was steady, continuing with little interruption until mid-afternoon.
Ohno spotted them first, stopping in his tracks to peer through the trees, and then pointing.
“Everyone, look!”
Everyone stopped and turned to look at him before backtracking to see what had made him stop. Aiba grinned excitedly, barely resisting the urge to run over. Jun sighed, hoping that the diversion wasn’t going to take too long.
“Ah.” Sho nodded, “Chocobos.”
With that he started to walk towards them, everyone else following a moment later.
“Are they dangerous?” Ohno asked, not particularly in the mood for another fight. Sho shook his head.
“Completely harmless. Rather cute though, don’t you think?”
Aiba nodded, striding past Sho to get to them faster. When he reached the first one he stroked its head, laughing when it made an appreciative noise.
Sho joined him next to the chocobo, reaching out to stroke its back, smoothing out its feathers. Another creature tentatively made its way over to the group, stopping to look at Ohno with a curious expression. Ohno patted its head carefully, and the chocobo took a step closer to him.
“I think someone just made a new friend.” Jun muttered from where he stood, leaning against a tree. Ohno nodded, patting the chocobo again with a smile.
“I say we take them with us. They can carry our stuff.” Nino glanced over the chocobo that had taken an interest in Ohno. “It looks strong enough.”
Sho sighed, continuing to stroke the animal in front of him. “We can’t take them everywhere; it wouldn’t be fair on them. They probably wouldn’t do well on the boat.”
“Neither do I, but you still make me go on it.” Nino muttered under his breath, still bitter about the weeks of sea sickness that the others had made him endure.
“We could ride them to the next village, but that’s as far as we should take them; they’ll be able to find their way back from there.”
Aiba looked up from the chocobo in front of him, consequently losing the staring match that the creature had started with him. “We can ride them?” His voice was a mixture of excitement and amazement as he looked back down at the animal in front of him. “I’ll take this one, I think he likes me.”
Sho nodded his confirmation to Aiba’s question before looking over at Jun. “What do you say? It’ll get us there much faster.” As if on cue, another chocobo took the opportunity to approach Jun, stopping in front of the black mage and looking up at him with a curious expression.
Jun sighed, reaching out to pat the chocobo’s head awkwardly “I don’t think I really have a choice anyway.” He looked slightly alarmed as the creature took a step closer looking up at him with big eyes, and carefully gave it another awkward pat. “I suppose I can’t really argue if it’ll get us there faster.”
Nino shot Jun an amused smirk. “What do you know; an animal actually seems to like Jun. There’s a rarity.” He walked over to find his own chocobo, stopping next to one that seemed to be carefully inspecting a tree. The animal looked up at him curiously, inspecting him in the same manner before approving Nino with an affectionate nuzzle of the thief’s hand. Nino glanced over his shoulder at Jun again, his amused smirk reappearing “And if I didn’t know any better, I might think that Jun likes the animal too.”
Jun rolled his eyes at Nino, looking back down at his chocobo - which returned his gaze with adoring eyes. “Whatever, can we go now?”
Even Sho couldn’t help a small amused smile at Jun’s blatant failure to deny that he actually liked an animal as he left Aiba’s chocobo to find one of his own. “Yes, we can go.” He answered, patting a sensible looking chocobo’s neck before swinging a leg over its back to sit down. “Just hop on. And hold on tight, these guys go faster than you’d think.”
It took a fraction of a second for Aiba to seat himself on his chocobo, excited at the prospect of actually getting to ride animals rather than walk, for once. It didn’t take Ohno and Nino much longer, neither of them perturbed by the fact that they were about to get a ride from what was essentially an overgrown, brightly coloured, apparently very fast, bird.
Jun, unsurprisingly, was rather wary. He looked even more awkward sat on the chocobo than he had petting it, his hands grasping at the bright yellow feathers in a way that the creature probably didn’t appreciate - although it seemed to like Jun too much to show it’s discomfort. He cast the bird a worried glance before looking over at Sho. “How do you steer it?”
Sho shot Aiba a warning look as the warrior let out a giggle - truthfully it was more a warning of what Jun would do, rather than Sho, considering the white mage’s soft spot for Aiba - and glanced over at Jun. “Don’t worry about directing, I’ll do that part and the others will follow. Just tap him gently with your legs and he’ll move, that’s all you need to do”
Nino smirked at the worried expression on Jun’s face as Sho explained - Jun really had never been an animal person. The black mage only proved to look even more worried as Sho made his chocobo begin to walk, and everyone else did the same; really, Nino thought that Jun should thank his lucky stars that an intelligent chocobo had taken a liking to him, because there was no way in hell Jun’s tiny leg movement could count as a tap - it looked like more of a nervous twitch, in the thief’s opinion - but the chocobo moved anyway, following Sho’s as it was meant to.
After that the journey sped up a considerable amount as the chocobos broke into a run, everyone other than Jun pretty much unaffected by the vast change in speed - although Aiba seemed far more excited than the rest of them, letting out the occasional shout of glee, much to everyone else’s amusement.
Before long they had reached their destination, the chocobo’s slowing to a halt on the outskirts of the village of the ancients. The feather’s of Jun’s chocobo were looking decidedly more messed up where he had been clutching them for dear life, and as he climbed off the animal with shaky legs he smoothed them back down as well as he could, muttering a brief apology. The chocobo looked at him with its big, forgiving eyes, and Jun apologized again, patting its head slightly less awkwardly than he had done before their journey.
Aiba was busy praising his chocobo enthusiastically with clumsy pats and strokes of its back; truth be told, the chocobo looked about as excited as Aiba did, flapping its wings happily and nuzzling its head against Aiba’s arm.
Sho got the feeling that it might be a tearful goodbye between the warrior and his chocobo - more on Aiba’s part than the animal’s - and that Jun would be happy to be relying on his own two feet from then on, even if he had made some strange sort of connection with the creature he had been riding.
It was then that the question they had all been expecting came, Aiba looking at Sho with hopeful eyes. “Are you sure we can’t keep them?” Aiba’s chocobo seemed to be mimicking the warrior’s pleading expression, and truthfully, Sho thought he probably would’ve ended up agreeing to Aiba’s request, had Nino not intercepted with a firm “No. We can’t.” - No doubt anticipating Sho’s weakness to Aiba, and his inability to say no to the warrior.
After ten minutes or so of petting chocobos and saying goodbyes - Nino really wasn’t sure how anyone could get quite so attached to an animal in such a short space of time - the animals began to slowly walk away, speeding to a sprint once they were suitably far away from the village. The group watched with sad expressions, except for Nino who rolled his eyes at the other four “Seriously. We’ve only been with them for a few hours.”
Jun cleared his throat before glaring at Nino. “What, you think I’m upset? Of course not, I was just thinking how tired I am, and how we should all rest.”
Nino gave a disbelieving smirk and headed further into the village, towards the inn, Ohno’s hand firmly held in his as he pulled the other alongside him. “Whatever you say, Jun.”
The Village of the Ancients turned out to have a lot of steps, much to Nino’s dismay (“We’re meant to be resting here, not climbing”). It also had a couple of shops selling various pieces of equipment and spells that they didn’t yet have - another thing Nino wasn’t overly happy about. (“I work hard to steal money, and you go and spend it all on some fancy new spells that you don’t even have enough magic points or a high enough level to use yet?! I don’t know why I put up with you guys, I really don’t.”). In fact, once Aiba had found a boy who challenged him to chocobo races, Nino was fairly certain he didn’t like the Village of the Ancients very much at all. (“What do you mean he’s chocobo racing at the moment? Where did his chocobo come from? ...He taught his chocobo to come to him when he whistled? When did he even have the chance to do that? And how the hell can it hear him from that far away anyway? …No, I don’t want to have a go at racing.”)
Fortunately, the inn was warm and comfortable, and had good food, and Ohno was easy to convince to not go out, so Nino managed to spend a lot of time cuddling with him - and groping him, much to everyone else’s dismay. (Payback, Nino decided, for keeping him in this place with its hills and expensive shops and chocobo racing inhabitants, which everyone seemed to like so much; Sho thought that Nino just liked groping Ohno - Jun and Aiba agreed.)
They ended up staying in the village of the ancients for two weeks; really, they probably should have left after four days - or so the oversized talking crystal thought.
Author: saturn_necklace/stormy_words
Pairing: Strongly hinted Ohno/Nino and Sho/Aiba
Word count: 3,935
Rating: PG
Genre: AU, Crossover, slight crack.
Warnings: British English.
Summary: Arashi are the Warriors of Light in Final Fantasy III.
AN: I randomly found this half finished yesterday and felt the overwhelming need to finish and post it. I started writing it months ago, and have no idea why I'd forgotten about it. This is a crossover only in the sense that Arashi are in the FFIII universe, so none of the characters from the game are included. I think it's probably fairly readable, even if you don't have much knowledge of the game, although there might be a few terms that you might not get. For more information about the game go here. If you have a DS, I highly recommend it, by the way :D! ...Also, I apologize for the immense failure of the title, I really couldn't think of anything, so that had to do XD;;
In case you were wondering, the fic is set in this area of the floating continent. And these are chocobos.
It was hard work. Being a warrior of light was really hard work. That was what Ohno Satoshi thought. He didn’t even get to use magic - or a sword, for that matter. He was a monk, which was all very well, only he never managed to look quite as cool as the others; as a warrior, Aiba got all the awesome armour and cool weapons, Jun got the mysterious look with his black mage’s robe and his magic, Sho had his white mage’s outfit and all the helpful magic which saved them when they were in trouble. And Ohno was a monk. They really didn’t make that much cool stuff for monks to use when they were beating the crap out of various magical, evil characters. Well, none of the villages they’d been to so far had seemed to.
Even Nino had a cooler job than him. Nino was a thief. Nino was the one who made sure they had enough money to buy all the cool weapons and spells (and potions for when Sho’s magic failed them). Nino even got them through locked doors. Ohno couldn’t get people through locked doors; monks just didn’t have that skill.
Ohno supposed that everyone’s job was meant to suit them. Sho never had been all that good at hurting people - he was far better at getting hurt, so really, he needed to have the healing magic. Jun had always been extremely good at hurting people, and the mysterious feel seemed to go well with his appearance. Aiba probably shouldn’t have been trusted with a sword, but he got one anyway, and proved to be quite skilful with it, except for the time that he nearly cut off Sho’s arm whilst trying to kill a werewolf. The gallant warrior image was working well for him, and trusting him with a sword was far safer than trusting him with anything as dangerous as magic. Nino always had been a sneaky bastard, so being a thief came naturally too him; he was well practised at penny-pinching, and had been stingy when it came to money as long as any of the group could remember. He was pretty good at using a dagger too, from what Ohno had seen in battle.
Ohno wasn’t really sure why he was a monk. He guessed that it must be because it wouldn’t be exciting enough if two of them had the same job, and learning both magic and swordsmanship would’ve been far too complicated, so being a red mage was out of the question.
These were the kind of thoughts that Ohno was having as the group trudged through another forest; that was another thing that made being a warrior of light such hard work, never ending amounts of travelling - mostly walking, much to Ohno’s dismay.
It came as a relief to everyone when the sun began to set and Jun announced that they were stopping for the night. Jun was always the one who decided when they stopped - no one was sure why, things had just turned out that way. They found a small clearing and set their bags down, everyone pulling out various blankets to sit on.
Ohno watched as Sho and Aiba left to find firewood, Aiba’s favourite axe in hand. He vaguely wondered why anyone trusted those two with an axe; Sho because he had never been very coordinated with that kind of thing, and Aiba because he was just generally dangerous with that kind of thing. He hoped that they both returned with all limbs still intact, and no visible injuries, as he did every day when they left on their usual wood chopping excursions.
Jun had set about arranging the blankets around what was going to be a fire - currently a pile of about three twigs, courtesy of Nino. Ohno sprawled across one of the blankets - once Jun had moved on to finding food - and Nino had soon joined him, letting himself fall onto the next blanket before wiggling across to snuggle against his side. Ohno yawned. Nino draped an arm across Ohno’s waist. Jun moaned at them both to stop being lazy and help with the cooking. Nino snorted in amusement.
“I’ll cook when we have a fire, until then I’m napping with Oh-chan”
It wasn’t long until Sho and Aiba returned, Sho’s arms piled high with firewood and Aiba walking happily alongside him, carrying the axe and making sure that Sho got safely back to camp without tripping or walking into any trees; the wood was piled a little too high for him to still be able to see anything in front of him, other than logs.
The group had been like this as long as anyone could remember, everyone falling into their various roles within the group without a second thought. Ohno and Nino had always been ready to drape themselves over each other and fall asleep; or to forgo the sleeping and just be physically close at any time, whether it be holding hands as they walked, or leaning against each other when they sat down to eat meals. Aiba had always been energetic and cheerful, and Sho had always succumbed to Aiba’s will, charmed by the air of innocence and naivety that Aiba seemed to exude, which was the reason that he always ended up carrying all of the wood, and generally doing most of Aiba’s share of the work as the other watched and gave advice; sometimes helpful, usually not quite so helpful. Jun had always been the one to bring them together and make sure they actually got done what needed to be done. If there was no Jun, the other four probably would’ve given up on being warriors of light months ago, stopping in a nice, safe, little village and staying there, instead of listening to an oversized, talking crystal.
Within ten minutes Sho and Aiba had the wood arranged nicely, ready for it to be lit. At the start of the journey they hadn’t been all that good at arranging the logs, but with a few months of practise they had it down to a fine art. They moved back and went to sit on their respective blankets, tired from a full day of walking. Jun glanced over at Nino and Ohno, both of whom were still enjoying their nap, then back at the fire. With a wave of one of his hands the fire was lit, and he was glad that the spells he knew weren’t limited to use in battle. Nino sat up, apparently not having been as asleep as he seemed, and Ohno opened his eyes shortly after, having been woken by the movement.
“Show off.” Nino muttered, his arm going around Ohno’s shoulders as the other sat up too. “You could’ve just used the matches.”
Jun shrugged and reached for the dead rabbit that lay on the ground not too far from the fire - the result of Jun’s search for food, caught thanks to the black mage’s steadily improving archery skills. He quickly set about preparing and cooking it, and Aiba found the bread they had bought at the last village they stopped in. Nino appeared to have forgotten his earlier promise of cooking when the fire was lit - although Jun highly suspected that this sudden case of amnesia wasn’t entirely genuine - favouring the idea of staying draped over Ohno.
Sho had busied himself with pulling out the rest of the blankets; the air was getting cooler by the second, and he wasn’t about to let anyone catch a cold. He threw a couple over to Ohno and Nino, and the thief pulled both blankets around them; there was no doubt that they were going to stay warm, sharing both body heat and blankets. He wrapped one around Jun’s shoulders, the black mage far too busy with the food to bother doing it himself, then returned to where he had been seated next to Aiba, dropping one in front of the other before pulling the last one around himself, confident that his actions were enough to keep them all warm enough through the night - not that it would matter too much if they didn’t; Sho wasn’t a healer for nothing, but he still maintained that when magic didn’t need to be used, he wouldn’t use it. Aiba said that he was just stingy when it came to magic points - the other three agreed.
It wasn’t long until dinner was ready, and Jun was distributing the food. Everyone had ended up moving a little closer to the fire for warmth as they ate, happily talking about incidents that had happened to them on their journey so far - Ohno’s getting distracted in the middle of a battle, thanks to a not-so-subtle grope from Nino, everyone running away from large, angry looking bird-like creatures, and Jun’s personal favourite, Aiba attempting to enjoy the meal Sho had cooked for them on the first night (“It’s not burnt.” Sho had insisted “Just a little black around the edges. It enhances the flavour!”)
After finishing their meal, everyone was already on the verge of sleep, Nino’s head dropping onto Ohno’s shoulder as he lost the battle to keep his eyes open. Sho refuelled the fire, with some help from Jun, whilst Ohno and Aiba tried their hardest to shake Nino awake so that they could get him onto a blanket - after a while of shaking with no result, Ohno had given up, instead wrapping an arm around Nino’s waist and hauling him onto the blanket before lying down next to him and promptly falling asleep as well.
With a small giggle, Aiba covered the sleeping duo - who took the opportunity to snuggle closer for more warmth - and went to flop down on his own blanket, body relaxing the moment it hit the ground. Sho sat down next to him, giving him a gentle nudge to stop him from taking up so much space - Aiba had sprawled across both of their blankets, limbs flung haphazardly in every direction. Aiba complied, instead rolling to lie on his front, his head turned to face Sho. Sho wondered if Aiba ever actually stopped moving, the ball of energy that he was - he concluded that the answer was probably no as Aiba wiggled across to rest his head in Sho’s lap, looking up with an innocent smile that made it impossible for Sho to push him away.
Sho’s hand moved to play with Aiba’s hair, fingers gently running through it as he looked across at Jun who was beginning to settle himself on his own blanket.
“Do you think we’ll get there tomorrow?” Sho stroked Aiba’s hair back into place before proceeding to mess it up again as Jun replied.
“Hopefully, as long as we don’t get caught in too many battles or go the wrong way.”
Aiba squirmed a little, further proving Sho’s theory that it was impossible for him to stay completely still.
“And as long as we don’t let anyone sleep in today.” Jun sent a pointed glance towards Aiba, reminding him that it was his fault they hadn’t reached the next town that day - Aiba hadn’t woken up until lunch, and whilst everyone else would’ve been perfectly happy to wake him up in the loudest way possible, Sho hadn’t had the heart to let them; Jun was still rather resentful about the matter.
Aiba blushed, glancing up at Sho then across at Jun. “It’s not my fault. No one woke me up.”
Jun sighed. “You shouldn’t need other people to wake you up. Sho wouldn’t let us anyway. Apparently you’re ‘too cute to disturb when you’re sleeping’”
That statement only made Aiba blush more, and Sho gently push Aiba off of his lap, not before smoothing the other’s hair back down.
“Goodnight, Jun.” He muttered as he lay down, purposefully facing away from the man on the other side of the fire. Jun smirked, settling under his own blankets as the other ended their conversation.
It didn’t take long for Aiba to slide under Sho’s blankets - tugging his own along with him for extra warmth - and up against Sho’s back. Sho sighed and turned over, his arm wrapping around Aiba’s waist as the younger man returned the loose embrace and rested his head against Sho’s chest.
They awoke at sunrise, Jun first, followed by everyone else - thanks to a few not-so-gentle nudges from Jun’s foot. After a quick breakfast, filled with complaints from Aiba about how it was too early, they packed up and left the clearing, trekking further through the forest. Sho was in charge of navigation, and so he led the group in the direction of the next town. Their journey was halted every now and then by various creatures that decided to attack - truthfully it was a good way of letting Aiba burn off some of his energy, and letting Nino get the satisfaction of stealing something.
Their pace that day was fast, no one particularly wanting to sleep outside for another night. Their progress was steady, continuing with little interruption until mid-afternoon.
Ohno spotted them first, stopping in his tracks to peer through the trees, and then pointing.
“Everyone, look!”
Everyone stopped and turned to look at him before backtracking to see what had made him stop. Aiba grinned excitedly, barely resisting the urge to run over. Jun sighed, hoping that the diversion wasn’t going to take too long.
“Ah.” Sho nodded, “Chocobos.”
With that he started to walk towards them, everyone else following a moment later.
“Are they dangerous?” Ohno asked, not particularly in the mood for another fight. Sho shook his head.
“Completely harmless. Rather cute though, don’t you think?”
Aiba nodded, striding past Sho to get to them faster. When he reached the first one he stroked its head, laughing when it made an appreciative noise.
Sho joined him next to the chocobo, reaching out to stroke its back, smoothing out its feathers. Another creature tentatively made its way over to the group, stopping to look at Ohno with a curious expression. Ohno patted its head carefully, and the chocobo took a step closer to him.
“I think someone just made a new friend.” Jun muttered from where he stood, leaning against a tree. Ohno nodded, patting the chocobo again with a smile.
“I say we take them with us. They can carry our stuff.” Nino glanced over the chocobo that had taken an interest in Ohno. “It looks strong enough.”
Sho sighed, continuing to stroke the animal in front of him. “We can’t take them everywhere; it wouldn’t be fair on them. They probably wouldn’t do well on the boat.”
“Neither do I, but you still make me go on it.” Nino muttered under his breath, still bitter about the weeks of sea sickness that the others had made him endure.
“We could ride them to the next village, but that’s as far as we should take them; they’ll be able to find their way back from there.”
Aiba looked up from the chocobo in front of him, consequently losing the staring match that the creature had started with him. “We can ride them?” His voice was a mixture of excitement and amazement as he looked back down at the animal in front of him. “I’ll take this one, I think he likes me.”
Sho nodded his confirmation to Aiba’s question before looking over at Jun. “What do you say? It’ll get us there much faster.” As if on cue, another chocobo took the opportunity to approach Jun, stopping in front of the black mage and looking up at him with a curious expression.
Jun sighed, reaching out to pat the chocobo’s head awkwardly “I don’t think I really have a choice anyway.” He looked slightly alarmed as the creature took a step closer looking up at him with big eyes, and carefully gave it another awkward pat. “I suppose I can’t really argue if it’ll get us there faster.”
Nino shot Jun an amused smirk. “What do you know; an animal actually seems to like Jun. There’s a rarity.” He walked over to find his own chocobo, stopping next to one that seemed to be carefully inspecting a tree. The animal looked up at him curiously, inspecting him in the same manner before approving Nino with an affectionate nuzzle of the thief’s hand. Nino glanced over his shoulder at Jun again, his amused smirk reappearing “And if I didn’t know any better, I might think that Jun likes the animal too.”
Jun rolled his eyes at Nino, looking back down at his chocobo - which returned his gaze with adoring eyes. “Whatever, can we go now?”
Even Sho couldn’t help a small amused smile at Jun’s blatant failure to deny that he actually liked an animal as he left Aiba’s chocobo to find one of his own. “Yes, we can go.” He answered, patting a sensible looking chocobo’s neck before swinging a leg over its back to sit down. “Just hop on. And hold on tight, these guys go faster than you’d think.”
It took a fraction of a second for Aiba to seat himself on his chocobo, excited at the prospect of actually getting to ride animals rather than walk, for once. It didn’t take Ohno and Nino much longer, neither of them perturbed by the fact that they were about to get a ride from what was essentially an overgrown, brightly coloured, apparently very fast, bird.
Jun, unsurprisingly, was rather wary. He looked even more awkward sat on the chocobo than he had petting it, his hands grasping at the bright yellow feathers in a way that the creature probably didn’t appreciate - although it seemed to like Jun too much to show it’s discomfort. He cast the bird a worried glance before looking over at Sho. “How do you steer it?”
Sho shot Aiba a warning look as the warrior let out a giggle - truthfully it was more a warning of what Jun would do, rather than Sho, considering the white mage’s soft spot for Aiba - and glanced over at Jun. “Don’t worry about directing, I’ll do that part and the others will follow. Just tap him gently with your legs and he’ll move, that’s all you need to do”
Nino smirked at the worried expression on Jun’s face as Sho explained - Jun really had never been an animal person. The black mage only proved to look even more worried as Sho made his chocobo begin to walk, and everyone else did the same; really, Nino thought that Jun should thank his lucky stars that an intelligent chocobo had taken a liking to him, because there was no way in hell Jun’s tiny leg movement could count as a tap - it looked like more of a nervous twitch, in the thief’s opinion - but the chocobo moved anyway, following Sho’s as it was meant to.
After that the journey sped up a considerable amount as the chocobos broke into a run, everyone other than Jun pretty much unaffected by the vast change in speed - although Aiba seemed far more excited than the rest of them, letting out the occasional shout of glee, much to everyone else’s amusement.
Before long they had reached their destination, the chocobo’s slowing to a halt on the outskirts of the village of the ancients. The feather’s of Jun’s chocobo were looking decidedly more messed up where he had been clutching them for dear life, and as he climbed off the animal with shaky legs he smoothed them back down as well as he could, muttering a brief apology. The chocobo looked at him with its big, forgiving eyes, and Jun apologized again, patting its head slightly less awkwardly than he had done before their journey.
Aiba was busy praising his chocobo enthusiastically with clumsy pats and strokes of its back; truth be told, the chocobo looked about as excited as Aiba did, flapping its wings happily and nuzzling its head against Aiba’s arm.
Sho got the feeling that it might be a tearful goodbye between the warrior and his chocobo - more on Aiba’s part than the animal’s - and that Jun would be happy to be relying on his own two feet from then on, even if he had made some strange sort of connection with the creature he had been riding.
It was then that the question they had all been expecting came, Aiba looking at Sho with hopeful eyes. “Are you sure we can’t keep them?” Aiba’s chocobo seemed to be mimicking the warrior’s pleading expression, and truthfully, Sho thought he probably would’ve ended up agreeing to Aiba’s request, had Nino not intercepted with a firm “No. We can’t.” - No doubt anticipating Sho’s weakness to Aiba, and his inability to say no to the warrior.
After ten minutes or so of petting chocobos and saying goodbyes - Nino really wasn’t sure how anyone could get quite so attached to an animal in such a short space of time - the animals began to slowly walk away, speeding to a sprint once they were suitably far away from the village. The group watched with sad expressions, except for Nino who rolled his eyes at the other four “Seriously. We’ve only been with them for a few hours.”
Jun cleared his throat before glaring at Nino. “What, you think I’m upset? Of course not, I was just thinking how tired I am, and how we should all rest.”
Nino gave a disbelieving smirk and headed further into the village, towards the inn, Ohno’s hand firmly held in his as he pulled the other alongside him. “Whatever you say, Jun.”
The Village of the Ancients turned out to have a lot of steps, much to Nino’s dismay (“We’re meant to be resting here, not climbing”). It also had a couple of shops selling various pieces of equipment and spells that they didn’t yet have - another thing Nino wasn’t overly happy about. (“I work hard to steal money, and you go and spend it all on some fancy new spells that you don’t even have enough magic points or a high enough level to use yet?! I don’t know why I put up with you guys, I really don’t.”). In fact, once Aiba had found a boy who challenged him to chocobo races, Nino was fairly certain he didn’t like the Village of the Ancients very much at all. (“What do you mean he’s chocobo racing at the moment? Where did his chocobo come from? ...He taught his chocobo to come to him when he whistled? When did he even have the chance to do that? And how the hell can it hear him from that far away anyway? …No, I don’t want to have a go at racing.”)
Fortunately, the inn was warm and comfortable, and had good food, and Ohno was easy to convince to not go out, so Nino managed to spend a lot of time cuddling with him - and groping him, much to everyone else’s dismay. (Payback, Nino decided, for keeping him in this place with its hills and expensive shops and chocobo racing inhabitants, which everyone seemed to like so much; Sho thought that Nino just liked groping Ohno - Jun and Aiba agreed.)
They ended up staying in the village of the ancients for two weeks; really, they probably should have left after four days - or so the oversized talking crystal thought.