– Princess –

(A/N: Wow, you know what's scarier than chemistry tests that you totally know you're going to fail without a shadow of a doubt? The giftfics you write for people. Le sigh. I am ashamed of this trainwreck of a fic... But this is going to be an admirable attempt to fix it up and make it shinier than ever before!

Yeah, so, this is a Felix/Sheba (omg, the only one in my arsenal of GS yaoi, yuri, and general crack!fic? absolutely amazing!), for the lovely and amazing and altogether ASTOUNDING Vyctori. If you don't know her stuff, check her out! She's a stupendous (and very spazzy) person. :3 Azu lurrrves her Vyc, indeed.

Oh, and, a little note: I can personally see Sheba residing in Tolbi, especially in pursuit of scholarly studies. Babi's, well, if you haven't played the second game through yet, I won't say, but I'd think it would be more welcoming in general once everything awkward was done and over with. A fresh start!)

Disclaimer: Nope, not claiming rights to this.

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...It...wasn't a good thing at all, Sheba decided eventually, resisting the urge to bang her head against the wall in a most painful manner. It made her wonder just what had tilted exactly in her head to make her so wonderfully messed up like this.

"Sheba?"

She blinked, and looked up at Mia, who was staring at her worriedly.

"Um, yes?" she asked weakly.

"Are you – "

"I'm fine," she said quickly, dodging her other questions of eating and sleeping habits, stress, and blood pressure.

She was suffering from all of those, really. Ever since she had, quite stupidly, for such a generally-intellectual mind, decided to invite the rest of the gang down to Tolbi for their annual celebration of their "completion of their journey," she had lost sleep, gotten wrinkles, and the likelihood her getting a heart attack was rising with every passing day.

Headache, headache, headache, she thought miserably to herself, pinching the bridge of her nose as she weaved around Garet and Isaac to the kitchen.

...And what she saw instantly made it disappear, to be instantly replaced with utter and sheer surprise.

"...Felix?" she asked tentatively. "What are you...doing?"

"Making lunch," the Venus Adept said brightly.

"You..." Sheba started slowly, letting her mind register the sight of Felix in one of Mia's borrowed pink frilly aprons, and deciding it wasn't worth asking about. "You cook? When did this develop? Overnight?"

"I wouldn't call it overnight." Felix said, peeking under the lid of a pot simmering on the stove. He turned to face her. "Between the end of our journey and up to a week ago, I've been Jenna's cooking pupil." He sighed, scratching the side of his face with an oven mitt. "Never be Jenna's cooking pupil, understand?"

"Yes sir," Sheba responded, out of force of habit. "I'd imagine it was -- "

"Terrifying? Mortifying? Scary? Heart-wrenching? Oh, yes," Felix nodded tiredly.

Sheba was about to ask further on the expeditions of Felix's relaxation time, except a sudden, distinct scent drifted to her nose. "...What's that smell? It's something...burning..."

Felix blinked. Sheba stared at him.

"Miaaaa!" Sheba screamed as she dove out of the way of the fiery Felix's path.

"Waterwaterwaterwaterwater -- " Felix was chanting as he raced around, waving his arms frantically around, the ribbons of his apron flaming.

Sploosh.

Ivan lowered the bucket, left over from cleaning earlier in the day. Felix, now doused, soggy, and most irritable, turned and stomped back to the kitchen resolutely.

Then came the earth-shattering scream –

"MY COOKIES!"

The remaining Adepts stared blankly at each other for a moment.

"...I'll go check," Sheba volunteered, slowly raising her hand.

"I'll come with – "

"Don't bother," Sheba said dismissively to Mia, shaking her head and heading back to the kitchen to face her demise. "You might get hurt. Felix?"

Felix was crying over his cookies as she entered the smoky room. (She was disturbed to realize she had been expecting that.)

Though she was perturbed, she was more worried about Felix's sanity... Which, as she thought about it, was actually related to her perturbed-ness, but...yes.

"Oh, Felix, they're just cookies..." Sheba said comfortingly, coming up behind the Venus Adept, peering down at the blackened treats.

"They were my special cookies..." Felix sniffled, his face pillowed in his arms as he wept.

"Cry me a river." Sheba muttered to herself. "Felix, you can always redo them... I'm sure there are enough ingredients – "

"They need special ingredients that can only be found in Vale!"

Were they really worthwhile, then? The Jupiter Adept wondered to herself, but not speaking it aloud, as it would likely even make Felix's mood darker than it already was. With a sigh, she plucked a cookie from the pan, stared at its blackened remains briefly, then taking a careful bite out of it.

It had her coughing in less than five seconds.

This only increased the amount of tears Felix was crying. She wheezed, clutching at her throat and hoping for dear salvation.

"Ugh..." was all Sheba could say at the time, rubbing at her watery eyes with the backs of her hands.

"See, they are bad..." Felix said in between great sobs.

She couldn't respond, feeling guilty.

"They were supposed to be special..." The Venus adept continued. Sheba shifted from one foot to the other, troubled. "For someone..."

Feeling even worse, she asked, "For who?"

Felix shook his head, picking himself up and taking the tray to the trash bin, to dispose of the charred cookies.

"Wait!" Sheba yelped, snatching the cookies from Felix's hands. "Tell me who, first!"

"I don't want to tell you," Felix said glumly.

"Tell me," she insisted, wishing for the thousandth time that she were taller. She was sure Jenna could push her brother around so easily because of her height. (Looming was much easier, too.) "I won't tell anyone else."

"You won't laugh?" he asked, his deep brown eyes becoming pools of puppy-love.

Those eyes made her feel like the most sinful people on Weyard. "I won't laugh," she promised.

"They were for..."

Probably for Mia, Sheba thought dismally, steeling herself for the reply. Mia's taller, at least. And she's prettier, and more useful in combat... She's nicer than I am, too...

"They were for you," Felix mumbled, at length, hiding his face behind his hair.

She perked up instantly. "Pardon?"

"They were for you," he repeated, louder.

"Really?"

He nodded jerkily, still not meeting her eyes.

"Oh..." She was at a loss for words, once more. "That's...that's the nicest thing anybody's ever done for me!"

Felix looked up from the ground. "Is that true?"

"Everybody in Lavilero treated me like a princess... They were so afraid they'd offend me or something. I never really got close to anybody, even my own adopted family." She set the cookies on the nearby table, staring down at them sadly. "Nobody ever did anything so nice..."

Felix found himself being death-squeezed by Sheba when she whirled around, burying her face in his pink-clothed chest.

"Well, I...um..." He squeaked.

"You're such a nice person, Felix," she said tearfully into the apron. "The nicest I've ever known."

"It's the thought that counts, right?" Felix smiled once she (thankfully) released him.

"You made my day brighter just by trying." She said in earnest, wiping the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks away hastily. "Thank you so much."

Felix sighed, feeling much better. "Well, you said there were enough ingredients for another batch of cookies, right? What do you say to being my cookie assistant for the time being?"

"Sounds like fun. Oh," Sheba murmured, looking down at the cookies. "There's one here that wasn't as burned..."

"Lucky," Felix said, reaching down and scooping it up, offering it to her. When she refused, he broke the cookie half, then offered it again. She accepted it hesitantly.

Sheba bit into it. "Doesn't taste half bad," she commented, grinning up at the older Adept.

"Should I take that as a compliment or an insult?" Felix frowned playfully.

"Whichever."

"So, then, Princess, shall we start?"

"Princess?" She repeated.

"Would you care to be my Princess?" He dipped into what would have been a graceful bow, had it not been ruined by the pink apron and oven mitts.

"Care to be my knight in shining armor?" She laughed, extending her hand to be kissed. "Why not?"

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Hope you enjoyed, sweets... Especially you, Vyctori! Many, many hearts for my dear Vyc. :D

(Revised as of June 30, 2006!)