"Blizzard"

Disclaimer: Like the eighty bazillion other authors here, I don't own Suikoden. Pity me. Hopefully, Konami will see all these random SFDF fics, realize that everyone loves them, and put them again in Suiko IV. We can only hope.

Spoilers: None really. Just Suikoden III fluff, because I like fluff. It would probably help if you've played at least Geddoe Chapter 1, just to get an idea of who is who.

Context: This primarily is a Jacques and Aila fic, mind you. There is slight Jacques x Aila or Aila x Jacques (I'm not really sure which) though.  I'm slowly warming up to the idea of Jacques x Aila (or Aila x Jacques), but I do also like the idea that the two are just an odd set of friends. Jacques is so cute! If you don't like that pairing, you probably shouldn't be reading this thing. Anyway, this takes place some time after Suiko III, probably a year or so. The title suggests that snow will be involved in this fic. Geddoe and Co are somewhere in the Suiko world where there are mountains and lots of snow, so not Caleria, because it is dry and snowless. For all you Jacques fans, he speaks a lot in this fic, so it's up to you if that's a good thing or not. It may be out of character, but it would seem monotonous if I gave Aila ALL the dialogue lines.  Oh yes, if I make random mistakes about snow in general, forgive me. I live in Florida. The closet thing we have to snow is beach sand, and I've seen snow, like, three times in my life.

Aila sat at the window of the café of the small mountainside inn, silently staring out the window. She was mesmerized by the sight of the cold, white, stuff that was falling down from the sky. Snow, it was called. What an odd name, she thought. Aila had never seen snow in Karaya before; at most, she had only seen a little bit of frost on the grasses that had melted as soon as the sun came out. This snow thing was a completely new concept to her. Amazing, she thought, tracing the windowpane with her finger. 

"Haha, Aila, you've been staring out that window for half an hour. You've never seen snow before?" chuckled Ace, who had sat down next to her with a tall mug of beer.

"Nope, never. It's never snowed in the Grasslands before, at least not as long as I've lived. It's so amazingly pretty. It's so soft and gentle…" Aila trailed off, and continued to watch the heavens fall down upon them all.

"Eh, you'll get sick of the snow soon enough, kid. It doesn't stay this white forever, ya know. After a few days, it'll become gray and nasty, and then the whole town will have this dull feeling, and everyone kind of becomes depressed. Sometimes, it'll snow so hard that you can't leave your house. That's called a blizzard. Generally, that rarely happens, but you never know, since we're so high up in the mountains and all." Ace stopped to take a sip of his drink. "Anyway, snow's kind of annoying to mercenaries; you can see tracks in the snow, meaning that you can be trailed much more easily. Warm weather now, that's the ticket." He put his glass down and stretched, thinking of warmer and nicer days.

"I like it. I'll enjoy it while I can." Aila turned back to the window and proceeded to watch the snow flurry gracefully around the streets.

"Oh god, is it snowing?" complained Joker, who had just entered the café. "I hate snow; it's such a pain to deal with." The rest of the Southern Defense Force trailed in behind him, all bundled up in winter clothing. Joker, Queen, and Geddoe grabbed more beer off the counter and sat down next to Ace and Aila. Jacques, who was behind them all, simply ordered hot chocolate.

"Hmp, now we'll have to carry extra supplies around. Great." With an annoyed look on her face, Queen took a sip of beer.

"We'll have to go out in it. We got hired by the town to try and clear out monsters from a cavern in the mountains nearby. They'll even pay us reasonably well." announced Geddoe, who was the Captain of the team, and therefore had the final say in things.

That captured Aila's attention. "We get to go out in the snow? And see what it's like?" She grinned in excitement.

The others (minus Jacques) merely laughed at her excitement. "You'll get sick of it soon, Aila. Once you're out there and fighting in it, you'll wish you were back in here looking at it through a window." Queen nodded with an air of knowingness.

"Yeah yeah, I know, Ace told me the same thing. Whatever, I still want to go out in it!" The rest of the mercenaries shrugged and looked at each other with a knowing look.

"Anyway, we'll start tomorrow before sun rise. That means no more boozing for you all, since we need to be somewhat sober for this," ordered Geddoe, who had already finished his beer.

As they finished their drinks, each of the mercenaries went upstairs to get ready for the next morning. Soon, only Aila and Jacques were left sitting silently at the table.

"So, Jacques, have you ever been out in snow before?" asked Aila, in an attempt to start a conversation.

"Yeah, once or twice. Don't really like it." Jacques took another sip of hot chocolate and looked out the window.

"Aw, how come?  I think it's so pretty. Look at how it falls!" Aila gestured to the window. It was dark now, and near impossible to see past a few inches outside the glass panes.

"You'll see." With that, Jacques got up to go to bed, leaving Aila behind.

"Is snow really that bad?" Aila muttered under her breath. Throwing a few coins on the table, she too, left to go to bed.

…

Aila could almost see what the other mercenaries disliked about the snow, now. It did have this way of sticking to you, and slowing you down in battle. And it was cold. Aila was glad she listened to Joker and had worn gloves for this mission, otherwise her hands would have frozen off during the short walk from the town to the cavern. They stood by the entrance, waiting for Geddoe's instructions.

"So, all we have to do is get rid of the monsters in this mining cavern. Not really a big deal, more or less. We'll just have to be careful, since no one has gone in here for a while and the townspeople weren't sure how stable some of the bridges and poles are here. There will probably be spoils here too, which we get to keep. Anyway, let's go." He walked into the cave, and the others followed him.

Aila cautiously walked in, her eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. They all carried torches, but it was still hard to see in the dim light they radiated. Geddoe was, of course, the leader of the team, with Jacques and Aila at the end, since they were the long-ranged fighters. They walked silently for a while, only stopping to clear debris that obstructed their path and to fight the occasional monster.

"Brr…it's cold in here." Aila muttered to herself, shivering. Though she was dressed warmly, she felt halfway frozen. She rubbed her hands together, trying to gain some feeling back into them. All her teammates looked cold too, but were handling it better than she. Aila saw how red Queen's face was from the cold air in the cavern. There were flurries of snow in the cavern, a result of small openings and cracks in the ceilings of the cave. She laughed to herself when she saw that frost crystals were starting to form on Joker's mustache. I guess I'm not the only one who's freezing in here, she thought to herself. They walked out onto an overhang that stood high over a clearing in the cavern.

"Hey, boss, how much longer do you think we'll be in here for?" Ace asked Geddoe, while jumping up and down to gain some warmth. "I can barely feel my feet in my boots."

"We'll finish our job and then get out of here. I think we've got almost all of the monsters that live here," responded Geddoe shortly.

"Hey, look over there!" Joker pointed to a figure in the distance of the clearing beneath them. "It's a huge monster! I bet it's guarding something valuable!" True to what he said, a large rock golem was standing in front of a large treasure chest. "I say we go get it!" As it was unmercenary-like to say no to the thought of money, the team nodded in agreement.

"Aila, Jacques, you two stay back, since you're the distance fighters. The rest of us will go close-range. Cover us." Aila and Jacques nodded obediently to Geddoe's orders. They all walked down a winding snow-covered path to where the monster was guarding its treasure. Aila and Jacques stood behind their teammates, poised to fight.

"Ahhh! Take this!" Ace proceeded to slash the monster with his sais. Soon, a bloody fight ensued. It was six against one; the mercenaries had the odds working for them. Aila aimed another arrow at the stone monster, getting ready to shoot.

And then, the monster jumped up, and swung its humongous arm around, attempting to strike down Joker and Ace. They jumped out of the way, but the golem hit a wooden beam meant for support, and it instantly gave away.

"Oh shit!" screamed Queen. She tried ran out of the way of falling debris. The whole ceiling of the cavern was shaking, about to fall. Aila tried to run back up the path to safety, but didn't make it. The ceiling collapsed, bringing down tons of snow upon them all. The last thing Aila remembered was falling…

…

"…Huh? Why's it so cold?" Aila murmured to herself. "Why does my head hurt so much?" Aila opened her eyes, and blinked. Nothing. It was completely dark. Aila gingerly felt around herself. Snow. More snow. Nothing but snow, in fact. Great. She struggled to remember what happened.  "That's right, the support beam fell down, and the ceiling started to fall. What the hell am I going to do now? Where am I?" Aila muttered to herself. "Can't…panic…can't…panic…" She took a deep breath and stood up. Good, she could stand up. That must mean nothing was broken. She took a step in front of her. The only sound she heard was the crunching of snow under her boot.

"Ace? Joker? Queen? Anybody? Am I here all alone?" Aila judged that she was, from the lack of a response. Okay, she thought to herself. Alone. In the dark. Cold. Can't. Panic. Breathe. Breathe. Aila carefully felt the space around her. Solid to the left. Solid to the right. Air in front and behind. Aila stopped again to try and collect her wits. "Okay, I can either go forward or backwards. I don't have any of my stuff with me, just my bow. But I can't stay here forever." With that, Aila decided to walk forward. She walked very slowly, carefully feeling the air in front of her. Suddenly, her toe hit solid matter, and she felt a shower of snow fall upon her. Shrieking, she recoiled back.

"Queen? Aila?" There was a voice, far in the distance. Aila struggled to figure out where it came from.

"I'm here! Help!" Oh god, would she be left alone to die in the snow?

"Where are you?"

"I don't know! Help me!" Aila turned around and ran towards the source of the voice. All of a sudden, she ran into a wall.

"Ow!" The wall was actually a person.

"What the-who are you?"

"Aila, it's me, Jacques. Calm down." Aila felt a hand being placed on her shoulder. "We got buried in the snow when the beam got knocked down. I think we got knocked into a lower area of the mining cave. Don't you remember how it was set up in levels?"

"Oh, thank god you're here!" She wailed, starting to cry. Without thinking, she grabbed Jacques and gave him a big hug. When she realized what she was doing, she released him and sat back, wiping her tears.

"Anyway, I don't know if Geddoe and the others are here. Remember, we were behind them a bit when we were fighting that stone golem. There must have been a blizzard outside, otherwise there wouldn't be this much snow."

"What do we do now?" Aila still couldn't even see Jacques.

"…I don't know. I lost my torch in the fall. Do you have any of your supplies?"

Aila shook her head, though she knew Jacques couldn't see it. "No, they got lost. I have my bow, and that's about it."

"I think I have enough for both of us; we'll have to be careful. I've never been in snow like this before, so I'm not sure exactly what to do. What about runes?"

"I only have a bright shield rune." Stupid healing rune. Why didn't she go for a fire one? Joker always told her how essential fire magic was, and she had always laughed, saying that she preferred her shield rune to an offensive one.

"I only have my hawk one. Looks like we can't rely on those." responded Jacques dully.

"We need to do something. How much longer will the air last us here?" Silly, idle questions. Better than panicking though, Aila thought, trying not to hyperventilate.

"Probably not long enough. I don't know if we're sealed off, or if we can crawl out. We can't wait for Geddoe to rescue us. We don't even know…" Jacques trailed off, not wanting to finish his thought.

"They're fine," declared Aila resolutely. "I know it. They were probably able to find a safer place, and they'll be okay."

"Anyway, hold my hand. We can't get separated from each other now. We'll walk this way and hopefully, we'll be able to get out of here." Aila felt out to Jacques' hand. Aila could feel warmth radiating from it through the thick leather glove he wore, and was somehow comforted by it.

They walked slowly and silently. Occasionally, when the snow tunnel narrowed in height, they had to craw. Aila was surprised at the conversation that had just taken place between them. He's never spoken to me that much the entire time I've known him, she thought to herself. How odd…

"Do you hear that?" Jacques said suddenly, breaking the silence.

"Hear what?"

"That." Sure enough, Aila could hear the distant sound of wind blowing. "Hey, that's wind. There wouldn't be wind in the middle of a cave for no reason…there must be an opening somewhere nearby!"

"Yeah. Now our problem is to find it. Don't say anything, just follow me." Grabbing Aila's hand again, Jacques led her along the pitch-black cavern. They walked slowly, and Aila could gradually hear the sound of wind growing louder. After what felt like ages, Aila could feel the air temperature growing colder. All of a sudden, she was blasted in the face with a gale of snow.

"It's there!" she exclaimed. "We're right near it!"

"Yeah, I can feel it too. I can feel the air and more or less figure out where it's coming from. Here, take my hand again." Once again, they were off. Slowly, slowly. The sound of wind grew even louder.

"There, above us. I think it's an exit. I feel the snow blowing in from the ceiling. It's too dark to see anything, so I have no idea how high it is. We'll have to wait until the blizzard stops and the sky clears up."

Aila didn't want to ask, but she couldn't stop herself. "Jacques? How long can a blizzard last?"

Jacques didn't want to answer. "…As short as a few hours…or as long as days."

Aila gasped. Days? She thought to herself. We could freeze or starve to death before the damn sky stops snowing! "What do we do if it's days?" she asked Jacques, quivering.

"I don't know. We'll just have to last it out. There's nothing else we can do. Let's go back to the tunnel. We can't stay here with snow falling on us."

So they waited, and waited in the darkness. Neither was tired, only worried about whether it would ever stop snowing. Jacques lapsed back into his characteristic laconic nature, leaving Aila to dwell in her thoughts. She started to daydream about Karaya, and the warm, snowless plains.

"Jacques?" Aila said all of a sudden, breaking the silence.

"…Hm?"

"I think I see why you don't like snow anymore."

Perhaps he may have even smiled. "Too bad you had to see why first-hand."

After a while, Aila began to feel drowsy. That's right, she thought, I did get up early. Maybe I'll try and sleep. "Hey Jacques?"

"Yes?"

"What do we do about sleeping?"

"Hm, I think you'll have to sleep in the snow. If you want, you can use my shoulder as a pillow. You can also have my jacket if you want."

"You sure you won't be cold without it?" Aila was surprised and touched by his generosity.

"No, I'll be fine." He took his coat off and placed it over her to use as a makeshift blanket.

"Alright." Aila said uncertainly. She leaned her head on Jacques' shoulder, curling up under his large blue jacket.  Suddenly, she jerked her head up. What am I doing? She thought frantically to herself.

"Something wrong?"

"Uh, I just thought of something. It's nothing." With that, she rested her head on Jacques' shoulder once again. She could faintly hear his heartbeat, and felt his body rise up and down as he breathed.

Wow, Aila thought. I've never been this close to Jacques, ever. It's so…weird. He's generally so quiet, but he actually opened up, and even spoke to me. I never knew that he could be this friendly. I wonder what he's thinking about…he's always been so hard to read. He always acts like he's not paying attention to anything, but I see that he really knows what's going on. I wonder if he knows what's going on right now? I really don't, and I don't mean with the damned blizzard.

"Hey Jacques?"

"Hm?"

"Oh, uh…it's nothing."

"Alright. I'll keep watch if you want to sleep. Don't worry." Aila felt Jacques put his fingertips on her hand. She could feel the heat rising to her face. Jeeze, I'm such an idiot, she thought to herself. I'm getting all worked over nothing. I think I'll just sleep now. Closing her eyes once more, she listened to the sound of Jacques' heartbeat until she dozed off.

…

"Aila! Aila, wake up!"

"Huh…? No, Mom, I don't wanna go to school today…"

"Aila, it stopped snowing! We can get out now!"

"Snow?" Suddenly, Aila was jolted back to reality. That's right, she thought, we're stuck here in the snow. Jacques and me…oh dear.

"Aila, come on! We don't know how long it'll be until it starts snowing again!" Jacques grabbed her hand and stood her up. "Come on, this way." Aila followed Jacques to where they had felt snow blow earlier. Now, there was a very faint light that was emitting from the top of the cavern, about ten feet above their heads. For the first time during their whole ordeal, Jacques and Aila could see each other. Aila saw that Jacques had lost his white headband sometime during the cave collapse. His bangs hung loosely around his face, and were littered with bits of snow, rock, and ice. His face was red and chapped from the cold.

"How are we going to get up there?" Aila asked hopelessly.

Jacques gestured to a slanted rock wall nearby that led to the top of the cavern. "I think we can climb up there, near those rocks. They're kind of rough. We should be able to climb up them to get to the top. I have rope too, that may help you." Jacques pointed to his pack. "I may be able to climb to the top and lift you up, if all else fails."

"Phew. Let's go!" And so they struggled to climb up the top of the cavern. There was only a slight slant to the rocks, and it was almost like they were climbing a vertical wall. Aila could barely see what she was doing, and constantly slid back down. Some of the rocks were slick with a thin layer of ice, making them that much harder to grip. Her hands started bleeding at one point from trying to grip the sharp rocks, as they managed to cut through her gloves. She nearly gave up multiple times, except that Jacques kept on persuading her to go on. Jacques had a hard time climbing too, but he finally made it up. He let the rope down and lifted Aila up in the final few feet of the climb.

Aila stood up, and looked around at her surroundings, her eyes adjusting to the light. Air. She could see a dark and overcast sky above them, as it was about to snow again. In the far distance, she could see the little mining town that they had come from the day before.

"Oh god, I thought we were going to die in there!" Aila started to cry again, this time in relief. Once again, she hugged Jacques, without thinking. "You saved my life! I would have been stuck there forever! Thank you!"

"It was nothing." That was all he said. Jacques was back to his normal, taciturn self.

Aila let go of Jacques, smiling. He had ever-so-slightly hugged her back this time. "Let's go back to town. I bet Geddoe and the rest of them are waiting for us."

They walked carefully in the snow, aware that there could be hidden pitfalls that would cause them to plunge right back into the cavern. Miraculously, they made it back to the town unscathed. As they walked into the inn that they were staying at, they heard familiar voices.

"Aila and Jacques aren't here? What do you mean 'aren't here'?" Ace was apparently arguing with the flustered innkeeper at the desk. "They should have made it back by now!"

"Ace!" Aila called out. He turned, and looked at the duo with a surprised look, then a smile.

"Ah ha, I knew you'd be fine! Joker, Queen, Geddoe, and me got separated from you, when the support beam came down. We had to find an alternate exit, and we just got back to the inn a few minutes ago. Me and Joker were about to go out and look for you two when the innkeeper said you were still missing!" With that, he swept her into a huge hug, obviously relieved that she wasn't dead or frozen in the depths of the cavern.

"Hahaha, we're okay!" Aila laughed. She saw Jacques standing silently out of the corner of her eye. "Jacques got us out. It's thanks to him that we're back alive!" She smiled brightly at him. She could have sworn that his expression almost brightened from his standard blank stare when she did so.

"Is that right?" asked Queen, who proceeded to hug Aila. "Yeah, he's always been pretty good at survival skills, but I didn't know that he could handle blizzards too. It's a good thing that both of you got trapped in the snow together."

"Yeah, I guess it was. Now I see what you all mean by how horrible snow is." Aila shrugged, and gratefully accepted the hot cup of cider that Joker handed to her. She took a sip, and inhaled the warm fragrance of mulled apples. The others, except for Jacques, all had mugs of hot spiced wine. Jacques had hot chocolate with marshmallows.

"We didn't finish the job completely, but that's alright. As long as everyone's fine; that's the only thing that matters," said Geddoe, with a relived smile.

"Yeah, I'm glad everyone's alright." Aila remarked happily. She wasn't dead, or even hurt, by some miracle of miracles. Come time, she might be able to even laugh over this. They proceeded to swap blizzard stories over mugs of hot drinks until night fell.

"Anyway, I say we all go to bed early. We've all been through hell trying to get out of that damn cave," said Joker, standing up and tossing a few potch on the table. 

"No more boozing for you, old man?" said Ace with a wink, as he threw his arm over Joker's shoulder. They walked up the stairs together, bickering about trivial matters. Queen and Geddoe followed them, talking about their plans for the next day. Queen was trying to convince Geddoe that they needed to head to a warmer climate for a well-deserved vacation.

Aila and Jacques walked up the stairs together. Like usual, Jacques was silent and lost in his thoughts. Aila shot a glance at Jacques, but quickly turned her head back. I really wonder what goes on in that mind of his, she thought, halfway annoyed. He was so open earlier, but now he's clammed back up! As they got to their doors, Jacques turned to Aila.

"Goodnight. See you tomorrow." As he turned, Aila touched the back of his coat.

"Hey Jacques?"

"…" He wordlessly turned back around and looked down at her.

Aila reached out and quickly embraced Jacques in a tight hug. "Thank you so much, for everything." With that, she turned, and went into the room she shared with Queen, leaving Jacques alone in the hall. He stood for a few moments, staring at the closed door. Then, with a faint smile, he turned and went inside his room.

AN: Yes, another plotless fic! I love the SFDF with an undying passion, especially Jacques. Jacques! Jacques makes me go squish in big fangirly glee. There really needs to be more SFDF writers out there, so I won't constantly feel compelled to write about them all the bloody time. I'm really starting to open up to the idea of Aila and Jacques getting together for some reason. I do think they'd be pretty cute together, but it's Jacques, who is well, Jacques. And like Aila, I wonder what goes on in that head of his. Anyway, if anyone cares, this story was inspired by a recent visit to Notre Dame University in Indiana. I saw the ground covered in snow there, which was an odd site to me, since I'm a spoiled little Florida girl. For some reason, that inspired me to write this. Anyway, comment, pleeeeease. I'll love you for forever and ever and ever!