Now this...this was long overdue xD and The Trailblazer and I apologize xD We have both been busy because school refuses to let us have a bit of fun. Damn you school. Well, at least it's here now. And I think you're going to enjoy it :D So, we do not own Final Fantasy III or its characters but we own the plot :D

Enjoy...

The four teenagers had been sleeping rather well, despite different circumstances and when they woke that morning a bright, sunny light greeted them.

When Arc slowly opened his eyes, he was met by a sight that made his face go red in an instant, despite that fact that he was barely awake. Right in front of him was Refia's sleeping face, their noses almost touching for laying so close to each other. It seemed that their sleeping selves unconsciously had snuggled up closer to one another. Realizing this, Arc quickly but carefully moved further to the side of the bed, trying to calm down his fluster. He took deep breaths while concentrating his vision on a suspicious spot in the ceiling.

Someone smashed a fly there? He thought curiously to himself, knowing that it must have been kind of tricky to kill it while it was in the ceiling rather than a wall.

Suddenly Refia started shifting.

Was my thought that loud?! Arc panicked. He hadn't exactly calmed down yet.

Refia slowly woke up from her slumber, her hands reaching for her eyes to wake them up with a gentle rub. She stretched a little too, before getting up to a half sitting position, taking support from her elbow.

"Oh, good morning, Arc!" She spoke with what Arc considered the most beautiful smile ever.

"G-good morning." He managed to stutter back before quickly get out of bed and turn his, once again, pink face away from her.

Luckily for Arc, Refia didn't seem to pay much attention to his awkward behaviour. Instead, she sat up on the bed, dangling her legs over the edge. "We should get ready and wake the others." Her voice as cheerful as ever. Must have been because of the nice sleep she got.

Arc nodded in agreement, but soon realized that maybe she couldn't see that. "Yeah."

At the same time, across the hall, the sunlight had woken Ingus up too. Unfortunately, his sight wasn't as pleasant as Arc's. No, what Ingus eyes had to witness was a drooling Luneth, taking up most of the bed. Heck, one leg was even spread over Ingus' stomach! Luneth's pillow was on its way to slide down on the floor and the blanket had been kicked aside, and was only used by Ingus at this point. And if Ingus were to guess, it had probably been like that for most of the night.

After all, he was usually, and according to him, unfortunately the one who always had to share with Luneth, and the silver hair's unusual sleeping habits were something he quickly had to get used to.

Used to it or not, he didn't exactly enjoy it, and that's why Luneth was doomed to get used to Ingus cruel way of waking him up. Ingus had a smirk on his face and didn't even think twice about it before kicking Luneth out of the bed.

There was a loud crash followed by a groaning sound. Ingus couldn't hold back a chuckle when seeing Luneth making his way to a sitting position. Leaning his head onto the bed, Luneth had one eye closed, still trying to sleep with it as the other one shot a dagger or two towards Ingus.

"Was that really necessary?" Luneth's tired voice spoke.

"Oh, I believe it was." Ingus replied, while making a bad attempt to cover his smirk with his hand.

"Such a bully." It was only heard as a mumble because Luneth was burying his face into the mattress, doing his best to remember the feeling of comfort.

Ingus never missed anything though. "I heard that." Sometimes Ingus' good hearing and vision made Luneth doubt his humanity. "Now get dressed so we can eat breakfast."

Even though it kind of sounded like an order, Luneth did not argue. His stomach was growling and a good breakfast would be the only cure.

After travelling together for so long it seemed one of the side effects was that they all woke up approximately the same time. Which is why Arc and Refia didn't have to wake the two boys up. Just when they opened their door to walk across to Luneth and Ingus' room, they saw the handle moving and a second later, a fully dressed Ingus revealed himself in the door frame. Luneth was in the background, rubbing the last sleep out of his eyes.

"Good morning!" They all greeted each other before heading towards the kitchen to indulge some of Desch and Salina's breakfast.

Breakfast was rather calm, unless you count Luneth's anger over Ingus for taking the last toast, or Ingus complaining over Luneth's table manners, not that the others disagreed.

As I said, rather calm, maybe Luneth was too tired to pick a fight with Ingus, or maybe they all simply were a little sad they would have to leave Desch when finally having the chance to meet him after so long. But despite Desch and Salina's pleasant company, the warriors had a destination to reach, the library of the Saronian Castle. Which is why the comrades had rather sad expressions on their faces as they waved good-bye and thanked the couple for their hospitality.

"See ya all soon!" Luneth waved and began walking with the others.

"Take care!" shouted Refia.

"We will!" Came the couple's reply, before grabbing each other's hand and returning into their house.

"I say, we go into the woods and find ourselves some chocobos." Luneth spoke turned to his companions.

They all nodded in agreement, travelling by foot took up a lot of time, plus it was more comfortable on the back of a chocobo.

Upon entering the forest, it didn't take them long to find a horde of chocobos. The more difficult task came in catching and taming these wild, yellow birds.

Although, Refia didn't have the same problem as the boys, after just a minute or two Refia had a proud smile curved upon her lips, already on top of a chocobo. Now she just observed the others in amusement.

"Cheater!" Luneth yelled at her in despair as he was running after one of the other chocobos.

Arc agreed a little but with some humour in his voice. "Yes, it's unfair that you can practically talk them into letting you ride them."

"Well," Refia spoke haughtily while taking a closer look at her nails to appear unaffected by their rather flattering comments about her chocobo skills. "I'm just cool like that."

The boys just groaned and returned to their chocobo chase. Arc and Ingus managed to catch one of the yellow birds only a few minutes later but…Luneth had some problems.

Chocobos aren't stupid. Luneth had just learned that the hard way. When the feathery creatures had understood what was going on, they decided that they didn't feel like getting caught today. Therefore, they quickly fled the scene after Ingus and Arc had caught theirs. Luneth let out a loud sigh as he threw his arms up in the air in obvious frustration.

Although, there was one bird left. It was hiding behind a bush a few meters up ahead, if Luneth failed with this one he would have to walk, hearing his friends laughs follow him all the way to Saronia. Luneth got ready to sneak up on it when Arc stopped him.

"Lune, wait." Arc turned to Refia with almost pleading eyes. "Can you convince that chocobo to let him ride him?"

"Of course!" Refia spoke proudly. "But I won't. It's much more fun this way." She looked at Luneth, ready to laugh like she had done the whole time while watching him chasing one bird after another.

"Please, Refia?" Now Arc was pleading. He knew Luneth would never make it but Arc was getting tired of just standing around. He wanted to get to Saronia. He wanted to get to the library. But most of all he wanted to get an opportunity to confess his feelings for Refia. And he refused to do that in this chocobo village with his friends and birds watching. "Or we will never continue our journey." He continued, still looking with those brown puppy eyes directly at Refia.

Refia just couldn't say no to those eyes. Actually, she couldn't say no to Arc at all. She gave her chocobo a pat on the head before getting off of it. "I'll help. Luneth, move away a little."

"I don't need any help." Luneth lied.

Refia just pushed him away and walked ahead to the bird. "Sure you do." She slowly approached the chocobo with one on her hands reaching out to it. She leaned in and whispered a few words to it before petting it on its head. "It's all good now." There was a proud smile on her lips as she walked back with the bird to Luneth.

He didn't know what to say, no one knew, her skills with these birds were just too amazing. All he did was mumble a quiet 'thank you' as he got up on the bird.

Finally, they were on their way again. And despite Luneth's lack of luck with the chocobos his cheerful personality was quick to return. And when they stopped to have lunch by a lake, it was like the bird incident had never happened.

They all tied their birds to a nearby tree, and Refia volunteered to get them some water while leaving the lunch to the boys. She grabbed two buckets they had and started to make her way towards the lake. She knew that the water in a lake was not so clean but she thought she had noticed a small stream leading to the lake when they arrived.

"Refia, wait up!" Luneth came running towards her. He had decided that she needed some help, letting a girl carry heavy buckets wasn't exactly gentlemanly, as Ingus probably would have put it. And he was sure Ingus and Arc could handle setting up a fire and warming the food.

Although, if Luneth were a gentleman or not was debatable, the real reason he decided to help Refia was so he could be alone with her. He had some important questions he needed to ask her in private.

"Ref?" Luneth started while following her close behind as she was keeping her eyes ahead looking for the stream.

"Yes?" She replied, not paying too much attention to him.

Luneth didn't know how to put this except but to be frank. "What do you think about Arc?"

Refia stopped, but didn't turn around; instead Luneth had to walk up to her for them to be face to face. Luneth could notice a vague shade of pink across her cheeks but he pretended he didn't notice.

"Well?" He urged her to speak.

The girl quickly moved passed him in an attempt to hide her nervousness. "He's a good friend, kind, and not annoying like a certain someone."

"Ouch!" Luneth spoke sarcastically like her comment had hurt him. "But I'm sure Arc would be happy hear that." He added with a softer voice hoping she might take it as a hint that Arc cared for her, a lot.

Refia didn't say anything, maybe she was deep in thought, but she did hand over one of the buckets to Luneth. Since he took the trouble to come along and embarrass her with that question he might as well do some good too.

They reached the stream and they both bent down with the bucket to collect water with it. The water looked clean and it felt cool as it brushed against their hands.

Luneth was now almost convinced that Arc wouldn't have to worry about his feelings not being returned if he were to confess. Refia's behaviour had clearly been a sign of some sort of affection. Luneth wasn't a master of love and such but when a girl avoided talking about something, or in this case, someone, it usually meant something.

With Luneth being Luneth, he felt the need to tease her a little about it before reaching the camp but he was interrupted before even having the chance to start. They could hear Arc and Ingus talking loudly, almost argue but still not.

Refia glanced at Luneth in confusion. "And here I thought it would be calm without you there."

"Ha-ha, very funny." Luneth retorted, once again, sarcastically. "But you're probably right, what could they be up to?"

For two rather calm boys, something serious must have happened for them to raise their voices towards each other. Refia and Luneth exchanged a look that clearly meant 'Let's hurry!' And with that they both dashed off in the direction of their camp.

What they saw when they arrived a short minute later, was Arc, sitting against a tree with his whole arm pointing frantically towards the lake, and Ingus, with his hands on his hips and a serious look on his face trying to convince Arc of something.

Refia, who was probably the most mature one of the whole gang, interrupted them with her loud and serious voice. "What is going on here?" She put down one of the buckets in front of the chocobos. Luneth did the same but without taking his surprised eyes of the two arguing boys.

Ingus, who was calmer than Arc, replied her, "Arc claims he saw, and I am not joking, a mermaid."

"I saw it, I saw it!" Arc cried in his defence.

Refia couldn't believe it. Was that all? "We have all seen a mermaid, we have even killed a few, remember?"

"Oh, but not one of those," Ingus continued. "He wants me to believe it was a beautiful one, from fairy tales, you know?"

"Oh, those aren't real." Refia stated clearly. "And how is that dinner coming along?" Their argument was ridiculous so she thought it was best to change the subject.

A mermaid?! Luneth thought with a smirk. Like those serious people, meaning Refia and Ingus, Luneth had a hard time to let go of things that interested him. Luneth also trusted his brother, if an intelligent guy like Arc claimed he saw a beautiful mermaid, it was likely to be true. Therefore he went to sit down by Arc, as Refia instructed Ingus what to hunt for dinner.

"Did you really see one?" Luneth whispered.

"Yes!" Arc whispered back with desperation in his voice, but also with a hint of relief that someone seemed to believe him.

"Awesome!" Luneth gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Let's look for more!"

"What?" Arc had a rather terrified expression at the thought of searching for something that made others think he was crazy.

But Luneth did not take 'no' for an answer and Arc knew that. During their time growing up, Arc was always the one who got dragged into Luneth's mischievous plans, and today was no exception. Quietly, the brothers snuck away from the other two and headed towards the lake.

R&R! Unless you don't like it, we don't like flamers. We will so kindly send you away to a story you like :)