Tales of the Abyss, Jade+Peony+Nephry+Dist (Fic)

[nubs]

Title: The beginning of a beautiful and terrifying friendship

Characters: Jade+Peony+Dist+Nephry

Chapter: 1/? I might add another for it to better fit the abyss_santa request

Rating: G

Shipping: None, really. Some Peony/Nephry

Summary: It was his second day in town, and it was snowing. Big surprise there, huh?

Disclaimer: Being it a fanfic, it's not mine, naturally. The characters, at least. Heck, even the idea was brought on by request.

It looks like it was that Peony brat's first snow day. He's got some luck, arriving in Keterburg the one day it didn't snow. I imagine when he got up this morning, he was just filled with the urge to tell everyone around him: 'Oh, look! It's snowing!' because that's exactly what he was doing.

I had nothing better to do myself (Professor Nebilim gave us the day off), so I just stood there and watched him as he smiled at passerbys. He was probably around my age, had blond hair and tan skin. 'That tan won't last very long if he stays here.' I thought.

Not that I had gone outside to stare at him or anything. I was really trying to keep Saphir from freezing in the snow, while also testing how long it would take him to complain to go inside. (That fool lost his jacket the other day, so he claimed he had to 'stay close to me for warmth,' ugh.)

Well, no point in denying it now, I was watching the young heir/prince, calculating whether I should approach him on how rude it was for a child in his position to just wave at whoever walked by, regardless at whether they ignored you or not. He was acting like a five-year-old, honestly.

“You.” I called flatly. Playing dumb was probably in my best interest, if I gave him the higher ground he'd probably just start flaunting his status.

“Yeah? What is it?” He stopped what he was doing (building a snowman, I might add) and looked over to me in sort of a glare.

“No one cares that it's snowing. It happens every day.” I pushed my glasses up as he approached, I got the feeling he might be older than me, but intimidation hadn't steered me wrong yet. “And for that matter, no one cares that you say it's snowing. That just makes you odd.”

By now he'd walked up close enough for us to be face-to-face. His face was blank, as was mine, though because of that it took me a bit longer to get out my finishing line. Maybe I was distracted that Saphir had started shivering faster than usual. (He'd probably say it was from the cold, but the kid's a lightweight, so he was probably just scared. Not that I was.)

Still, up close, it was clear that this Poeny kid was taller than I was. But not by much. Not really. He was looming over me, having to crane his neck just a little,and his stare was pretty intense but, mentally, I was sure I could take him. I took a deep breath (mentally of course) and I prepared my finishing blow, one that would no doubt embed that scowl on his spoiled face, should he see me again.

“And lastly,” I said, as I loaded all the snide and snark I could gather into this last statement, “no one cares about you either.”

He stayed silent. In my mind, I could already hear the sweet chorus of victory, a chorus which was very rudely cut off by his rebuttal. He was... smiling. It made my skin crawl.

“I'm sorry, did I hear you right? Did you just say, 'Hello there, my name is Jade Balfour. Oh, I'm known to be very nasty but in truth I'm all warm and fuzzy inside.' Did I just about catch that?”

I looked at him in horror. “You-”

“Oh, that's right. I left something out, didn't I? What was it... ah, I remember now. 'I sleep with a stuffed Cheagle.' It's yellow. I call it Star.' Man, you sure do have a loose tongue, huh, Jade?”

I... I... How did he know that!?

I could already hear Saphir chuckling next to me. That little... “I do not-!” I scoffed, stamping my foot.

“Oh? No~?” he sang, “But I was getting to the best part. I heard you say 'Oh, Your Highness, I would be honored if you'd be my friend. After all, friends keep secrets like these to their graves, don't they?'”

I couldn't believe it. I don't know where he got this information from, but I do believe I was being blackmailed into being his friend. This arrogant, pompous, spoiled brat was blackmailing me! Me. Needless to say, I- I couldn't do anything. Before I was able to protest, he'd pushed me into the snow.

“I'll take your silence as a 'yes.' Now let's make some snow angels!” He smiled with that blue-eyed gaze of his. I admit, he would have looked completely innocent to anyone else.

Snow angels? This demon-child?

“Do it. Now.”

And so there I was. Being forced into making a snow angel for some new kid. Even Saphir was going along with it. I mean, he could have at least backed me up... No, I didn't need that. I'm Jade Balfour, I'm not going to stand for this!

“You-” I started to stand, only to have him thrust me back into the snow, deeper this time.

“The more you fight me, Jade, the more it's going to hurt you in the end. Do you want me to start listing the names you have for each of your gloves?” If it were humanly possible for me to be any paler, I think it would have happened then. He only smiled as my face creaked into a look of sheer terror.

“Great! Now how 'bout those snow angels?”

About an hour later, my sister walked by. Perfect.

“Oh wow. That's so cute, Jade. You and I haven't made snow angels in... well, since you learned to talk!” She smiled sweetly. I couldn't tell if her amusement came from the angels or the scorn on my face.

“Ah, Nephry!” Peony chimed. I had a bad feeling about the way he said her name. He got out from the hole (yeah, we'd been waving our arms in the earth for a while now) and reached for my sister's hand, planting a light kiss as he bowed. “I really must thank you for the splendid afternoon yesterday. It was an excellent entry into this beautiful city.”

“There's not need to be so formal, Your Highness. Really, I just happened to be around when you walked in. It was nothing.” Though from the way she bat her eyelashes, that clearly wasn't the case. “Anything to please the princess.” She blushed as he let go of her hand. I could gag.

“Oh, speaking of the mayor's office, I heard someone saying you were bound to the royal estate?”

“House arrest?” I offered, having dug myself out of my chilling hell hole.

Nephry glared at me while Peony laughed. Unfortunately, I was going for the other way around.

“Yeah. Something like that. No big deal.” Wow. Compare that speech to his last sentence and you could tell he was talking to me.

“In fact, why don't you two come over? The snow's starting to bore me. If we hurry maybe we can sneak some hot chocolate before lunch.” I rolled my eyes. An hour ago, the snow was the most thrilling thing in the world. I took him up on the offer, though. I wasn't about to let this Casanova lay a hand on my sister. That's why I went with them, really. By no means did I go along because he was proving to be unpredictable, something no one else in this town seemed to be.

“Oh, Jade,” Nephry remarked, as we finished our custard some time later.(I have to admit, the maids in this house cooked like angels) “Wasn't Saphir with you this morning? Where'd he go?”

I merely shrugged. “Out having fun in the snow, I suppose.”

Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddeeeeee...

The three of us felt a chill go down our spines. “What was that?” Nephry asked.

“I didn't hear anything.” I gave Peony a quick glance. He was a quick learner, I could tell.

“Neither did I. Must be the wind--” But the howling cut him off.

Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddeeeeee...

“--Or a dying monster. Perhaps.” I finished, as we both walked over to the curtains and shut them as tightly as possible. As we stood there, admiring the drapery, a thought came to mind.

Strange. I get the feeling I might actually get along with this guy.

“Is that a smile on my brother's face!?” Nephry gasped dramatically. Her suspicions were confirmed when we both answered simultaneously.

“Surely you must be seeing things.”

“Are you kidding? No way.”

And I couldn't help but laugh at how perfect that was.

fin~