A/N: By the way, this fic came into being after I listened to Captain Jack's version of a Jackson 5 song.
They spent about half an hour showing up the redheaded thief who was Amarant's new "rival."
Well, Amarant spent a half an hour showing up. Garnet just watched and asked questions and didn't give away his cards. That's one of his pet peeves – Lani does it all the time and so does nearly every other card-inept woman on the planet as far as he knows. He has a feeling the princess can appreciate the subtleties and the idea of keeping some cards secret.
After all, politics is just like poker – only politics usually end with less bloodshed.
He doesn't even think about it until the thief says, "Looks like your girl fell asleep on you," but Garnet had been dozing for the last five minutes and now it looks like she's finally catching up with her brain and getting some sleep.
Amarant lays out his cards, glares long enough to get every last gil of his winnings, and then tells the thief that they're not rivals, and if it hadn't been for the girl he was with, the bounty hunter would have never given him the time of day.
"Lots of good she does either of us asleep," the thief replies, nearly getting his jaw broken for it.
Amarant waits until the thief gathers up his cards and saunters off to find a place to sleep now that he's out of gil, and then easily picks up Garnet. She's way too light, even for someone her size, and that shouldn't worry him but it kind of does. She's not so bad... for a princess, anyways.
He's always thought she was a strung up a little too tightly, considering the company she's been keeping the past few weeks. Then again, she's a princess.
Then again she's also like Vivi, in the fact that you shouldn't treat her as what she is but rather, what she wants to be treated as.
He's never liked how people shy away when it comes to being upfront, and if it weren't for his aversion to talking to people or divulging information about himself, he would never skip around issues like some people do. And, for what it's worth, he doesn't think he'd be in some other girl's bed if he thought he really liked the one in his arms right now.
He manages to get through the inn relatively easy and heads up the shallow stairs, stopping to adjust the slowly breathing, contently curled up girl in his arms before reaching the hallway.
Steiner is just about to lock his room and leave when he sees Amarant with Garnet in his arms. The knight blinks, and then makes a noise and starts to clank over to the bounty hunter.
"Shh," he hisses, and so the knight stops in his tracks. "Where's her room?"
Steiner looks about to take the princess from Amarant's arms but then changes his mind. "Third on the left," he mumbles. "How much did-"
"She's fine," he responds, efficiently cutting the knight off.
"...Thank you for watching her."
Amarant makes an annoyed noise and grumbles, "She doesn't need watchin'. You need to let her relax." He paces off down the hall and ignores Steiner utterly.
The doors are all on the same lock system and this worries Amarant, who decides he'll put a chair up against his door, and he uses his key to open her room. It's one of the bigger suites – not by much, but still enough to make him wish he had some extra gil to upgrade.
The bed looks really comfortable and he realizes that he's tired – been tired for a long time – and has to force himself to put her in, rather than dump her on the floor and take the bed himself. He's got his own, anyways.
She's really pretty small and he takes an extra second to pull the blanket up a quarter of an inch higher, just because, before slinking to the door and looking around the dark room once, just in case.
He closes the door softly on his way out and starts off down the hall when he hears footsteps behind him that stop suddenly. He turns and sees Zidane standing near Garnet's door, hand raised to knock, staring at him in confusion.
"Don't bother," he growls, feeling suddenly, inexplicably hostile. "She's asleep."
"Oh." Zidane's hand drops to his side and he starts towards Amarant, stopping a few feet away. "Um... What was...?"
"You're kiddin' me." The bounty hunter crosses his arms, "How was the shop girl for you? Cheap enough?"
"She's a nice girl," Zidane says, giving him a look that warns him against insulting anyone around him right now. "What was all of that... uh...?"
Amarant shakes his head. "I'm not talkin' to a jackass like you," he grumbles, turning and starting away.
"Hey, Amarant!" the blonde exclaims, "Don't you think I deserve something, after you-"
The bounty hunter turns and his eyes flash a very serious threat, "Oh, you deserve somethin', alright. But you don't deserve her. Come on. She's head over heels and you're skippin' through beds while stringin' her along! She's a smart girl, but she's obviously not smart enough, to keep hangin' onto an idiot like you." He waves a hand at Zidane's shocked expression and sighs. "No, I'm not doin' anythin' with the princess. She and I had a few drinks and she felt like being vindictive. Can't blame her for that, can you?"
"She was drinking?"
"Yeah, she was drinkin', for the love of – she's not a little girl. She was upset over you so I figured a drink was in order, and damned if it wasn't! Now, you wait until she wakes up and realizes what she did, and when she comes to you to apologize and explain..." Amarant sighs, "You just tell her what a damned fool you are and how you didn't do anythin' with the shop girl – doesn't matter if you did, you idiot, just say you didn't – and she'll forgive you and you'll forgive her. Then we can go die and not have all this crap going on between everyone."
"Amarant..."
"Now, I'm goin' to bed. I'll see you all in the mornin', if I feel like it and am still too stupid to leave." He turns and begins again, focusing on walking rather than the boy still standing in the hall. His head hurts like hell and he wants nothing more than to go to sleep, but Zidane calls out after him.
"Why did you kiss her, Amarant?"
The bounty hunter groans. "Because she initiated it. She wanted to make you feel bad for going after some other girl."
"But she was drunk – you were kind of taking advantage of the situation-"
Amarant turns and paces forward, grabbing the thief's shoulder in a white-knuckled grip. "There are a lot of things I am. There are a lot of things I'd do for very small amounts of gil. But the one thing I don't do is take advantage of women because they're scared, upset, or otherwise emotionally uneven. Don't think to accuse me of that, Zidane. Ever."
He pushes the punk away and stalks off, head throbbing.
Daytime in Daguerreo is a lot like nighttime – only, there are more lamps lit in the shops and there's less "mood lighting" in the inn.
Garnet wanders down the hall of the inn, head aching a little but for the most part, she feels alright. She supposes that she fell asleep early enough to sleep off most of the hangover that she had expected to have. She can't help but feel, however, that she's forgetting something. She knows that she drank last night – and too much, at that – and that she had spent most of last night with Amarant, but for some reason certain parts are blurred out, foggy and unrefined.
But she does remember one thing, from when she lay half-asleep in Amarant's arms: "She doesn't need watchin'. You need to let her relax."
She realizes that everyone is out in Daguerreo, and manages to get a seat at one of the tables. She asks for some juice and some bread, and looks at the table intensely. She knows she shouldn't think much of it, but Amarant had been very... nice to her. It's strange to put him and "nice" in the same thought but it's the only way she can describe him last night.
It was probably just because Zidane had been so...
"Oh, I didn't..."
"Yeah, you did. I'm still not holdin' it against you, though, so don't worry."
Garnet jerks her head up and looks at Amarant in confusion as he easily pulls back the chair opposite her and sits down.
"I...I'm so sorry," she apologizes weakly.
"I told you, I don't care."
The bread and pitcher of juice arrive and Garnet looks at it uncomprehendingly before catching Amarant by the eyes.
"Why were you being so nice to me last night, Amarant?"
The bounty hunter sighs and sits back in his chair, running a hand over his beard and looking at her seriously – too seriously.
"I told you a lot of mindless stuff last night about stupid things I like. Why should I give you any more now that we're sober? What in the world makes you think I was being nice?"
Garnet feels like she should be hurt, but she's starting to see that there's something under that.
"Because you're the only person in our group who isn't mean, Amarant. You're crude, sarcastic, and blunt, but you don't keep things from us because of some ulterior motive. If you don't want to tell us something, it's simply because you don't – not because it will affect how we see you. You're honest, relatively. You wouldn't play nice with me for no reason."
"Quit trying to analyze me, princess. I lie all the time."
Garnet shakes her head and leans forward, watching him with severe eyes and making him want to squirm a little.
"Why aren't you mad at me? I'm pushing, I'm talking, I'm annoying you. Why aren't you upset?"
"...Do you want an honest answer, princess? Do you want me to tell you something that you don't really want to hear?"
"I do want to hear it," she responds, nodding to express this interest.
Amarant runs a hand over his dreadlocks and pushes them out of his eyes, giving Garnet the first truly unhindered look at his entire face. His eyes are dull and uninteresting, and he can talk without showing any emotion in them, but for some reason...
"We are all about to die," he says, his voice is steady and his eyes carefully blank, "We are about to go on a suicide mission to save a planet that doesn't rightly care one way or another about us." Then, suddenly, there's a flash in his eyes and she draws back, as he says, "The reason I'm being nice to you, Princess Garnet, is because we're all going to die, and I don't want your last image of me to be one of a boorish, overgrown brute all bloodied up because he doesn't know when to quit a death march."
Garnet looks at Amarant, almost uncomprehending what he's saying. When she gets it, she easily reaches out a hand and grabs his wrist. "I didn't mean that," she says, "And why do you care what my impression of you is? Why do you care what I think?"
"...I don't know," he mutters, tilting his head downwards and hiding his eyes once again. "I don't know."
"Amarant..."
"And I don't mean anythin' stupid by all this," he cuts her off, raising his head again. "It's not just you. It's the rat as well. I don't know why. I hate not knowing why. But it isn't anything special."
Garnet smiles now and says, "I'm honored that you'd want me to have a good impression of you, Amarant, but it's really not necessary. The fact that you are willing to come with us after all of the troubles we've faced speaks more about your character than you'd think."
"It shouldn't honor you," he grumbles, "I'm just a bounty hunter."
She wonders if he really thinks that but what does it matter, anyways?
Garnet lets go of Amarant's wrist and gets up, going over to the bounty hunter's side. She crosses his arms and gives him a smirk that feels so familiar...
"Come on. I think that thief still has some gil we didn't win off of him last night."
He looks at her in confusion and then remembers. "I don't think he does."
"Then we'll play him for his equipment. Are you going to tell me no, Amarant? I'm the princess."
He stares now and then smirks, standing up and shaking his head, causing some of his dreads to fall back into his eyes. "Fine, princess. Lead the way."
Amarant lets Garnet play against the thief and sits back to watch, but he knows that this is a temporary state. They had decided that today, they'd take the Hilde Garde to the Shimmering Island, and take their last plunge.
Footsteps in water echo through the hall and all three look to see Zidane standing a little awkwardly at the entrance. He lifts a hand and gives a half-wave and asks, "Uh, Dagger? Can I talk to you for a minute?"
She looks at her cards and then lays them flat. "I think this is good, right?"
The thief looks at the hand with an open mouth and silently pushes two daggers, a chimera armband, and a pair of fairy earrings over to the princess.
"A royal flush, huh?" Amarant drawls. "Suitin'."
Garnet smiles at him and then tells the two, "Excuse me for a moment," and gets up, walking to Zidane and disappearing with him down the hall.
"Well, so much for your girl, huh?" the thief drawls, looking to Amarant with a cocky expression, "Why aren't you chasing after them? A man's got a right to a woman, you know?"
"She isn't my woman," Amarant growls. "You don't have any idea what you're talkin' about."
The thief shrugs and offers to play a game with the bounty hunter, who declines and decides to go for a walk. A long one.
It's about an hour later when he runs into someone from their group. Freya is talking with the items keeper, who sees him first and immediately says she has to go clean something.
The Burmecian turns and leans against the counter, eyeing Amarant in amusement. "Much of a hangover, lizard?"
"Not really, rat. What are you doin' here?"
"I was passing time. What are you doing?"
Amarant shakes his head and mutters, "Passin' time. You've gotten pretty buddy-buddy with the tin can lately, huh?"
Freya smiles and waves a hand, dryly stating, "You've done the same with the princess." She laughs lightly at his look and says, "Steiner is simply very noble. It's more satisfying being around him than... well, others."
"No need to beat around the bush," Amarant drawls, "I know who you're talkin' about."
The Burmecian starts walking and so he follows, simply because he has nothing better to do. "Why have you been so nice to Dagger as of late? It's very curious."
"Maybe I just feel like it."
Freya holds up her hands at Amarant's hostile tone and doesn't say anything in response.
"Amarant Coral," comes a very severe voice, and so the bounty hunter turns to see Garnet pacing towards them with her arms crossed. "You left my winnings with Gilgamesh! He nearly took them."
Amarant looks away and mumbles under his breath before shrugging and saying, "Figured you were gonna be busy with that punk for a while."
The princess gives him a kind of confused smile and says, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave so abruptly. Zidane wanted to..." She trails off.
"You know when we're going?" the bounty hunter asks, looking at Freya briefly, "We're both gettin' kind of anxious here."
"Zidane says we should start heading back to the airship now, because it takes a while to get everything ready. I was looking for everyone." She smiles at them both and says, "Well, I have to look for Steiner," and easily walks off the way she came.
Freya leans over and looks at Amarant with a smug expression on her face. "You're utterly under her control, lizard."
The bounty hunter turns to look at the Burmecian in annoyance. "What are you talkin' about? I'm not-"
"I'm surprised," Freya cuts him off, starting towards the elevator, "I thought that you wouldn't have much loyalty to your kingdom."
"I'm not Alexandrian," Amarant grumbles, following the rat, "And I'm not one to get wrapped around a girl's finger."
"Mm, that's what Fratley would say," the Burmecian agrees complacently, smiling over her shoulder in a kind of sad, "I-Can't-Help-It" way.
"That's different."
"I don't know about that. Now, shall we go explore the unknown?"
Amarant watches Freya step onto the platform and turn to him expectantly, then sighs.
"Why am I doin' this?" he grumbles, following the Burmecian's lead and getting on the elevator.
Freya swirls her finger and bats her eyes in a rare, womanish moment, and Amarant growls under his breath.
Together, they step off the platform, and Amarant decides fuck it, he'll be as nice as he wants to whoever he wants.
It's not like he's going to live long enough to hold up that promise about Treno, after all.
Don't blame it on the good times, blame it on the boogie.