{Fan Fic} Missing Hat
I hope that LJ lets me post this (I've been...having frustrations with the site all day, lolz). This is my Secret Santa gift for the wonderful lady_supernova. Since she mentioned Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy VIII as some of her favorite games...I went with a Twilight Town-centered fic! ♥ This story also most likely falls into the prompt categories she gave of "Happily ever after" (since it ends on a happy/cute note!), and "A day in life" (since it's pretty much just about several of the Twilight Town characters going about their lives).
...I hope it isn't too bad or anything, and I really do apologize if the abundance of fluff gives someone cavities! XD
Happy Secret Santa gifting, lady_supernova! ♥
Username: Yin (of breyzyyin)
Class: White Mage
Title: Missing Hat
Summary: Vivi loses his hat, and a surprisingly large group of friends help him to find it.
Characters/Pairings: Vivi, Olette, Pence, Seifer, Fujin (Fuu), and Raijin (Rai). Hayner is also mentioned quite a bit in the fic! Basically, it's just a friendship/bonding sort of story. :)
Word count: 2,542
Rating/warnings: G. No real spoilers for KHII.
----Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts II, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX, or any of the characters from those games. They are the rightful property of Square-Enix.----
Vivi’s hat was one of his favorite possessions. He never left home without it: the tan brown conical-shaped hat was always present atop his darkened face, bright eyes, and the blue of his overcoat. The zippered face and green eyes always elicited a smile from passersby as Vivi politely moved past them-always on one errand or another, or looking for Seifer and the other members of the Disciplinary Committee.
So it was rather odd, then, when Olette and Pence found him trudging along without purpose one day, his head ducked underneath his overcoat and his body slumped in a dejected manner…his hat noticeably absent.
Olette, never one to like seeing people down, raced up to him the second she saw the boy, concern evident on her face.
“Vivi, what’s wrong?”
Pence followed after her, carrying her bags from their shopping errand for their ‘headquarters.’ They were supposed to meet with Hayner later, but he didn’t necessarily mind the reprieve as he used the time to catch his breath and rest his bags for a moment on the walkway.
“Oh!” The younger boy just seemed to notice the two, and he started up nervously at the intrusion to his thoughts. He glanced back and forth between Olette and Pence for a moment, his hands nervously crossed in front of his chest, “I-I’m sorry if I ran into you or anything! I wasn’t looking where…where I was going.”
“You didn’t run into us.” Olette was reassuring, “We just wanted to say hi.”
“Oh.” Vivi took a few moments to process that, a visible red forming on his shadowed cheeks, “Um-sorry again then! H-hi.”
The two older children glanced at one another, Pence shrugging at Olette’s quizzical look. That look quickly turned to a pleading one, as Olette raised her eyebrow in the universal gesture of “Try to do something!” that somehow always seemed to be directed towards Pence.
“…Something on your mind?” he finally managed to get out, unsure of whether or not that was what she’d wanted him to do-but noticing that Vivi still seemed pretty distracted.
Vivi’s head hung dejectedly, “My h-hat…” he mumbled, embarrassed.
“Oh yeah, it is missing…isn’t it?” Pence looked thoughtful, “Did you forget it at home or something?”
He shook his head, “It fell off…somewhere in The Woods earlier.”
“The Woods?” Olette frowned, “What were you doing there?”
“Tr-training.” Vivi’s shoulders slumped, “I’m never-ever going to get acknowledged by Seifer and the others…if I don’t get stronger.”
“…Not sure why you’d want to get acknowledged by those guys in the first place.” Pence mumbled under his breath, though he stopped when he saw Olette give him a reprimanding glare.
“I got spooked by a noise…and I ran.” Vivi looked as if he wanted to dig himself into a hole then and there, “And my hat…my hat fell off when it got caught…caught on some branches.”
“So, it might still be there then?” Olette smiled at the boy’s nod, “We can help you look for it!”
“Th-thank you!” Vivi’s expression brightened considerably at her statement.
“We just have to tell Hayner first. I’m sure he won’t mind.”
*****
The Woods were a rather creepy place, all things considered. To be honest, Pence was rather impressed Vivi had traveled as far as he did inside it on his own.
“…It’s because he wants to impress Seifer.” Olette whispered to him as they followed the younger boy through the undergrowth.
“Why?”
That was the one thing Pence never understood about Vivi. The boy was likable enough on his own: shy and timid, yes…but pleasant to be around and always polite and considerate. Even when Seifer, Fuu, and Rai were giving them a hard time: Vivi always seemed to look at both groups of older children as being the best of friends.
Why Vivi seemed so intent on hanging out with Seifer made little sense then, all things considered. To Pence, Seifer was never more than a glorified bully most of the time.
Olette looked surprised, “You mean you don’t know?”
Pence shook his head. Olette was a little more tolerant and understanding of Seifer’s mannerisms than he and Hayner often were…probably because they lived close by one another. In fairness to Seifer as well, he usually never seemed to have as much of a problem with Olette simply because she was always responsible even when Hayner and Pence were perhaps a little too rambunctious/prank-casting towards him. She had her disagreements with him sometimes still, but seemed to be a bit more on friendly terms with the whole Disciplinary Committee at times.
“…Seifer helped Vivi out once when he was being bullied pretty badly in school.” She recalled, “He even gave him his hat as a gift afterwards, because he felt bad that he hadn’t noticed what was going on earlier.”
“Oh.” Pence blinked in surprise, not having expected that story, “I…did not know that.”
“It’s not something he’d go around bragging about.” Olette grinned, “Seifer’s strange that way. He does some decent things, but he gets embarrassed if they’re made known.”
“…I see.” Pence still sounded a bit doubtful, though it made sense to him a little bit. Sometimes Hayner could get like that too.
“Besides, I think he doesn’t want to embarrass Vivi by letting it be known either about how hard a time he was having earlier.” Olette shrugged her shoulders, a thoughtful look on her face, “…I can’t really prove that though. It’s just a theory.”
“No wonder Vivi’s upset about losing his hat.”
“…Hopefully we can find it for him.”
*****
In the end, their search went on for hours and turned up absolutely nothing. All three gave dejected sighs as they slumped back to town, shoulders sagging and their feet tired.
“Um…thank-thank you very much for trying to help though!” Vivi, despite being the most upset of the three, tried to be cheerful for the others. He felt bad that the two of them had been nice enough to help him in his search for so long, even if the search had been fruitless…and, he was grateful all the same.
“No problem.” Pence grinned, wiping a dirt smear from his forehead, “You can thank us later by letting us treat you to some see salt ice cream!”
“…How is that m-me thanking you?” the younger boy looked at him confusedly.
“Olette would pay, and I get to eat ice cream!”
The brown-haired boy laughed as Olette playfully swiped at his arm, the reproving “Pence!” she muttered under her breath not quite matching with the smile in her green eyes.
After a few giggling moments, the two glanced over at Vivi with hopeful expressions. They’d been trying to get his mind off of things, he knew.
Vivi giggled a bit despite himself…grateful again for what they were doing.
“What do you say, Vivi?” Pence asked finally, “Want to snack on Olette’s munny?”
“Um…”
“Vivi!”
The sharp voice that spoke up from behind them caused all three to turn their heads around. Vivi’s face blanched and he tried burying his hatless head further under his overcoat.
Seifer, Fuu, and Rai…Twilight Town’s Disciplinary Committee, were all walking towards them at a brisk pace. Their leader looked at Vivi with Olette and Pence, and frowned-hands crossed over his chest as he fixed Pence in particular with a decidedly pointed look of superiority.
“Haven't run into chicken-wuss yet?” he asked him, referring to Hayner.
Pence frowned. Yeah, Olette might be right about Seifer not being all that bad, but his self-proclaimed rivalry with his best friend was a bit much.
“Probably at home.” He finally said through clenched teeth, “Why, what’s it to you?”
“…Watch it.” Fuu warned him, and the look she gave Pence made him shut up rather quickly. To be honest, he was probably more afraid of the purple-haired girl than he was of Seifer…in pretty much the same way that Hayner always joked he was probably secretly afraid of Olette-which is why Pence always helped her out on her errands when she asked.
“Yeah! Show some respect, y’know?” Rai chimed in, showing his fist in what was probably meant to be a display of dominance. Rai…wasn’t exactly as tough as he made himself out to be. Truthfully, from their interactions in class, Pence knew he had more of a sensitive side than he let on given his fondness for insects and learning how to identify various species of them (and his over protectiveness of Vivi when Seifer wasn’t around)…so the display wasn’t quite as effective as he had probably been hoping it would be.
Seifer didn’t seem to pay Pence’s tone or response any mind, though as he smirked, “…It really doesn’t mean much to me at all. Though he did drop by with something interesting earlier.”
Olette and Pence exchanged questioning glances, “…What do you mean?” Pence finally asked.
The other boy was apparently done messing with Pence now though and turned his attention to his youngest “underling.” A reprimanding look was on his face.
“Vivi, you lost your hat, right?”
Vivi gulped, ducking his head down even further. Olette put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, and seemed about to say something to Seifer herself on how he was acting when Seifer nonchalantly pulled something out from under his white coat-holding it out towards the young boy under his nose so that he’d be sure to see it.
He glanced at it, surprised that the crumpled mass of brown fabric clenched in Seifer’s hand contained the zippered face of his hat.
“…Make sure you don’t lose it this time.” The older boy mumbled, apparently finding one of the buildings across the street insanely fascinating.
“H-how did you know?” Vivi blinked in surprise, “H-how did-did you find it?”
“Hayner.” Fuu said in way of explanation.
“…Chicken-wuss found it in The Woods when he went looking for these guys after they left him a note saying they went there with you.” Seifer jerked his free hand to indicate Olette and Pence, “It was caught in a tree by The Old Mansion.”
“Can’t believe you went that far by yourself! That’s hardcore, y’know?” Rai beamed at Vivi encouragingly.
Fuu nodded her head in agreement, “Impressive.”
“It was a little torn, but Rai patched it up."
Rai pointed to the barely noticeable brown thread at the tip of the hat, “Good as new! My mom makes me sew up all of my clothes when I get holes in them, y’know!”
“Handy.” Fuu commented as way of praise for his workmanship.
“Might not be something you want to brag too much about, but it’s useful, I guess.” Seifer shrugged, apparently amused by Rai’s reaction to his words.
The boy seemed to be quite pleased that he was getting praise from his two friends, and looked expectantly at Vivi to see what his reaction would be.
“Thank you…very much!” Vivi’s gloved fingers traced over Rai’s workmanship hesitantly.
“…That’s really good!” Olette, who was pretty adept at sewing herself having made a lot of things by hand (such as her purse), seemed genuinely impressed.
Rai’s smile could blot out the sun at that point, it had gotten so bright. Fuu rolled her eyes at his reaction, but a slight upturning of her lips happened all the same. The smirk on Seifer’s face deepened for a moment before his impatience got the better of him.
“Hey, I’m not holding this for my health!”
“Oh!” Vivi quickly grabbed the hat and hastily put it back on his head, his cheeks red again in embarrassment, “Thank-thank you so much again!”
“…Just be more careful the next time you’re out in The Woods.” Seifer sniffed dismissively, “That hat wasn’t easy to come by, you know.”
“I…I will!” Vivi’s expression went back to the ground, downtrodden, “It…it really means a lot to me.”
“Eh, it’s not that big a deal.” Seifer shrugged his shoulders, not liking the sudden change in Vivi’s mood, “If you happen to lose it again…just come to me first, okay? It’s a pain, sure-but we’ll help you find it.”
“…Faster too.” Fuu chimed in.
“Yup! I can look up in branches a lot higher than Hayner can, y’know!” Rai agreed.
Vivi nodded. There was an obvious smile in his glowing eyes, even though his face was covered, “I…I’ll do that. But…I’ll try really hard-not to lose it again!”
“See that you do.” Seifer’s posture relaxed and his customary smirk returned to his face, “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s owing that chicken-wuss a favor.”
Pence was about to say something to that, when Seifer turned to look at him again. Oddly enough, the grin on his face this time wasn’t his usual haughty one.
“Speaking of which, Hayner said he’d split the cost of sea salt ice cream for all of us with me.” He said nonchalantly, “Since you two lamers DID go out of your way to help Vivi here, I think we’ll be taking him up on it this time.”
“R-really?” Pence’s mood brightened considerably at the announcement.
The head of Twilight Town’s Disciplinary Committee shrugged his shoulders, a slight smirk still playing on his face, “Why not? Seems like as good a time as any to call a temporary truce. …One time event only, though.”
“I’m fine with that!” Pence grinned, “Eating ice cream in a group is the best!”
“…Especially with seconds, y’know?”
Pence and Rai both grinned at one another conspiratorially, racing ahead of everyone to meet up with Hayner to be the first to get their frozen treats. Fuu shook her head slightly in quiet exasperation, walking at a brisk pace after them.
Olette glanced over at Seifer and smiled knowingly at him, which caused the teenager to frown and raise an eyebrow in his customary “Don’t even think about saying anything!” expression that he often took with her when she caught him doing something somewhat nicer.
He glanced down at Vivi standing next to Olette still, the smaller boy not moving yet to join the others. His hands gripped tightly around the curved bottom of his hat, as if he was trying to pull the fold of the fabric even further down upon his head to make sure it stayed on this time-like he was afraid of letting go of his prized possession far too soon in case this was all a dream.
“Vivi, the ice cream isn’t going to eat itself!” Seifer’s tone didn’t have its usual strictness to it, and he walked past the two as he headed after Pence, Fuu, and Rai…poking the top of Vivi’s hat as he went to playfully emphasize his point that he should get moving as well.
“C-coming!” Vivi went out of his thoughts at the contact, and shared a slight smile with Olette.
The girl patted him encouragingly on the shoulder, the two running quickly to catch up to their friends. Vivi broke past Seifer even, suddenly energized by all that had happened…the patchwork face on his hat bounding up and down in a lively jaunt as he ran-looking for all the world like it was smiling as brightly as he was underneath it.
...I hope it isn't too bad or anything, and I really do apologize if the abundance of fluff gives someone cavities! XD
Happy Secret Santa gifting, lady_supernova! ♥
Username: Yin (of breyzyyin)
Class: White Mage
Title: Missing Hat
Summary: Vivi loses his hat, and a surprisingly large group of friends help him to find it.
Characters/Pairings: Vivi, Olette, Pence, Seifer, Fujin (Fuu), and Raijin (Rai). Hayner is also mentioned quite a bit in the fic! Basically, it's just a friendship/bonding sort of story. :)
Word count: 2,542
Rating/warnings: G. No real spoilers for KHII.
----Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts II, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX, or any of the characters from those games. They are the rightful property of Square-Enix.----
Vivi’s hat was one of his favorite possessions. He never left home without it: the tan brown conical-shaped hat was always present atop his darkened face, bright eyes, and the blue of his overcoat. The zippered face and green eyes always elicited a smile from passersby as Vivi politely moved past them-always on one errand or another, or looking for Seifer and the other members of the Disciplinary Committee.
So it was rather odd, then, when Olette and Pence found him trudging along without purpose one day, his head ducked underneath his overcoat and his body slumped in a dejected manner…his hat noticeably absent.
Olette, never one to like seeing people down, raced up to him the second she saw the boy, concern evident on her face.
“Vivi, what’s wrong?”
Pence followed after her, carrying her bags from their shopping errand for their ‘headquarters.’ They were supposed to meet with Hayner later, but he didn’t necessarily mind the reprieve as he used the time to catch his breath and rest his bags for a moment on the walkway.
“Oh!” The younger boy just seemed to notice the two, and he started up nervously at the intrusion to his thoughts. He glanced back and forth between Olette and Pence for a moment, his hands nervously crossed in front of his chest, “I-I’m sorry if I ran into you or anything! I wasn’t looking where…where I was going.”
“You didn’t run into us.” Olette was reassuring, “We just wanted to say hi.”
“Oh.” Vivi took a few moments to process that, a visible red forming on his shadowed cheeks, “Um-sorry again then! H-hi.”
The two older children glanced at one another, Pence shrugging at Olette’s quizzical look. That look quickly turned to a pleading one, as Olette raised her eyebrow in the universal gesture of “Try to do something!” that somehow always seemed to be directed towards Pence.
“…Something on your mind?” he finally managed to get out, unsure of whether or not that was what she’d wanted him to do-but noticing that Vivi still seemed pretty distracted.
Vivi’s head hung dejectedly, “My h-hat…” he mumbled, embarrassed.
“Oh yeah, it is missing…isn’t it?” Pence looked thoughtful, “Did you forget it at home or something?”
He shook his head, “It fell off…somewhere in The Woods earlier.”
“The Woods?” Olette frowned, “What were you doing there?”
“Tr-training.” Vivi’s shoulders slumped, “I’m never-ever going to get acknowledged by Seifer and the others…if I don’t get stronger.”
“…Not sure why you’d want to get acknowledged by those guys in the first place.” Pence mumbled under his breath, though he stopped when he saw Olette give him a reprimanding glare.
“I got spooked by a noise…and I ran.” Vivi looked as if he wanted to dig himself into a hole then and there, “And my hat…my hat fell off when it got caught…caught on some branches.”
“So, it might still be there then?” Olette smiled at the boy’s nod, “We can help you look for it!”
“Th-thank you!” Vivi’s expression brightened considerably at her statement.
“We just have to tell Hayner first. I’m sure he won’t mind.”
*****
The Woods were a rather creepy place, all things considered. To be honest, Pence was rather impressed Vivi had traveled as far as he did inside it on his own.
“…It’s because he wants to impress Seifer.” Olette whispered to him as they followed the younger boy through the undergrowth.
“Why?”
That was the one thing Pence never understood about Vivi. The boy was likable enough on his own: shy and timid, yes…but pleasant to be around and always polite and considerate. Even when Seifer, Fuu, and Rai were giving them a hard time: Vivi always seemed to look at both groups of older children as being the best of friends.
Why Vivi seemed so intent on hanging out with Seifer made little sense then, all things considered. To Pence, Seifer was never more than a glorified bully most of the time.
Olette looked surprised, “You mean you don’t know?”
Pence shook his head. Olette was a little more tolerant and understanding of Seifer’s mannerisms than he and Hayner often were…probably because they lived close by one another. In fairness to Seifer as well, he usually never seemed to have as much of a problem with Olette simply because she was always responsible even when Hayner and Pence were perhaps a little too rambunctious/prank-casting towards him. She had her disagreements with him sometimes still, but seemed to be a bit more on friendly terms with the whole Disciplinary Committee at times.
“…Seifer helped Vivi out once when he was being bullied pretty badly in school.” She recalled, “He even gave him his hat as a gift afterwards, because he felt bad that he hadn’t noticed what was going on earlier.”
“Oh.” Pence blinked in surprise, not having expected that story, “I…did not know that.”
“It’s not something he’d go around bragging about.” Olette grinned, “Seifer’s strange that way. He does some decent things, but he gets embarrassed if they’re made known.”
“…I see.” Pence still sounded a bit doubtful, though it made sense to him a little bit. Sometimes Hayner could get like that too.
“Besides, I think he doesn’t want to embarrass Vivi by letting it be known either about how hard a time he was having earlier.” Olette shrugged her shoulders, a thoughtful look on her face, “…I can’t really prove that though. It’s just a theory.”
“No wonder Vivi’s upset about losing his hat.”
“…Hopefully we can find it for him.”
*****
In the end, their search went on for hours and turned up absolutely nothing. All three gave dejected sighs as they slumped back to town, shoulders sagging and their feet tired.
“Um…thank-thank you very much for trying to help though!” Vivi, despite being the most upset of the three, tried to be cheerful for the others. He felt bad that the two of them had been nice enough to help him in his search for so long, even if the search had been fruitless…and, he was grateful all the same.
“No problem.” Pence grinned, wiping a dirt smear from his forehead, “You can thank us later by letting us treat you to some see salt ice cream!”
“…How is that m-me thanking you?” the younger boy looked at him confusedly.
“Olette would pay, and I get to eat ice cream!”
The brown-haired boy laughed as Olette playfully swiped at his arm, the reproving “Pence!” she muttered under her breath not quite matching with the smile in her green eyes.
After a few giggling moments, the two glanced over at Vivi with hopeful expressions. They’d been trying to get his mind off of things, he knew.
Vivi giggled a bit despite himself…grateful again for what they were doing.
“What do you say, Vivi?” Pence asked finally, “Want to snack on Olette’s munny?”
“Um…”
“Vivi!”
The sharp voice that spoke up from behind them caused all three to turn their heads around. Vivi’s face blanched and he tried burying his hatless head further under his overcoat.
Seifer, Fuu, and Rai…Twilight Town’s Disciplinary Committee, were all walking towards them at a brisk pace. Their leader looked at Vivi with Olette and Pence, and frowned-hands crossed over his chest as he fixed Pence in particular with a decidedly pointed look of superiority.
“Haven't run into chicken-wuss yet?” he asked him, referring to Hayner.
Pence frowned. Yeah, Olette might be right about Seifer not being all that bad, but his self-proclaimed rivalry with his best friend was a bit much.
“Probably at home.” He finally said through clenched teeth, “Why, what’s it to you?”
“…Watch it.” Fuu warned him, and the look she gave Pence made him shut up rather quickly. To be honest, he was probably more afraid of the purple-haired girl than he was of Seifer…in pretty much the same way that Hayner always joked he was probably secretly afraid of Olette-which is why Pence always helped her out on her errands when she asked.
“Yeah! Show some respect, y’know?” Rai chimed in, showing his fist in what was probably meant to be a display of dominance. Rai…wasn’t exactly as tough as he made himself out to be. Truthfully, from their interactions in class, Pence knew he had more of a sensitive side than he let on given his fondness for insects and learning how to identify various species of them (and his over protectiveness of Vivi when Seifer wasn’t around)…so the display wasn’t quite as effective as he had probably been hoping it would be.
Seifer didn’t seem to pay Pence’s tone or response any mind, though as he smirked, “…It really doesn’t mean much to me at all. Though he did drop by with something interesting earlier.”
Olette and Pence exchanged questioning glances, “…What do you mean?” Pence finally asked.
The other boy was apparently done messing with Pence now though and turned his attention to his youngest “underling.” A reprimanding look was on his face.
“Vivi, you lost your hat, right?”
Vivi gulped, ducking his head down even further. Olette put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, and seemed about to say something to Seifer herself on how he was acting when Seifer nonchalantly pulled something out from under his white coat-holding it out towards the young boy under his nose so that he’d be sure to see it.
He glanced at it, surprised that the crumpled mass of brown fabric clenched in Seifer’s hand contained the zippered face of his hat.
“…Make sure you don’t lose it this time.” The older boy mumbled, apparently finding one of the buildings across the street insanely fascinating.
“H-how did you know?” Vivi blinked in surprise, “H-how did-did you find it?”
“Hayner.” Fuu said in way of explanation.
“…Chicken-wuss found it in The Woods when he went looking for these guys after they left him a note saying they went there with you.” Seifer jerked his free hand to indicate Olette and Pence, “It was caught in a tree by The Old Mansion.”
“Can’t believe you went that far by yourself! That’s hardcore, y’know?” Rai beamed at Vivi encouragingly.
Fuu nodded her head in agreement, “Impressive.”
“It was a little torn, but Rai patched it up."
Rai pointed to the barely noticeable brown thread at the tip of the hat, “Good as new! My mom makes me sew up all of my clothes when I get holes in them, y’know!”
“Handy.” Fuu commented as way of praise for his workmanship.
“Might not be something you want to brag too much about, but it’s useful, I guess.” Seifer shrugged, apparently amused by Rai’s reaction to his words.
The boy seemed to be quite pleased that he was getting praise from his two friends, and looked expectantly at Vivi to see what his reaction would be.
“Thank you…very much!” Vivi’s gloved fingers traced over Rai’s workmanship hesitantly.
“…That’s really good!” Olette, who was pretty adept at sewing herself having made a lot of things by hand (such as her purse), seemed genuinely impressed.
Rai’s smile could blot out the sun at that point, it had gotten so bright. Fuu rolled her eyes at his reaction, but a slight upturning of her lips happened all the same. The smirk on Seifer’s face deepened for a moment before his impatience got the better of him.
“Hey, I’m not holding this for my health!”
“Oh!” Vivi quickly grabbed the hat and hastily put it back on his head, his cheeks red again in embarrassment, “Thank-thank you so much again!”
“…Just be more careful the next time you’re out in The Woods.” Seifer sniffed dismissively, “That hat wasn’t easy to come by, you know.”
“I…I will!” Vivi’s expression went back to the ground, downtrodden, “It…it really means a lot to me.”
“Eh, it’s not that big a deal.” Seifer shrugged his shoulders, not liking the sudden change in Vivi’s mood, “If you happen to lose it again…just come to me first, okay? It’s a pain, sure-but we’ll help you find it.”
“…Faster too.” Fuu chimed in.
“Yup! I can look up in branches a lot higher than Hayner can, y’know!” Rai agreed.
Vivi nodded. There was an obvious smile in his glowing eyes, even though his face was covered, “I…I’ll do that. But…I’ll try really hard-not to lose it again!”
“See that you do.” Seifer’s posture relaxed and his customary smirk returned to his face, “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s owing that chicken-wuss a favor.”
Pence was about to say something to that, when Seifer turned to look at him again. Oddly enough, the grin on his face this time wasn’t his usual haughty one.
“Speaking of which, Hayner said he’d split the cost of sea salt ice cream for all of us with me.” He said nonchalantly, “Since you two lamers DID go out of your way to help Vivi here, I think we’ll be taking him up on it this time.”
“R-really?” Pence’s mood brightened considerably at the announcement.
The head of Twilight Town’s Disciplinary Committee shrugged his shoulders, a slight smirk still playing on his face, “Why not? Seems like as good a time as any to call a temporary truce. …One time event only, though.”
“I’m fine with that!” Pence grinned, “Eating ice cream in a group is the best!”
“…Especially with seconds, y’know?”
Pence and Rai both grinned at one another conspiratorially, racing ahead of everyone to meet up with Hayner to be the first to get their frozen treats. Fuu shook her head slightly in quiet exasperation, walking at a brisk pace after them.
Olette glanced over at Seifer and smiled knowingly at him, which caused the teenager to frown and raise an eyebrow in his customary “Don’t even think about saying anything!” expression that he often took with her when she caught him doing something somewhat nicer.
He glanced down at Vivi standing next to Olette still, the smaller boy not moving yet to join the others. His hands gripped tightly around the curved bottom of his hat, as if he was trying to pull the fold of the fabric even further down upon his head to make sure it stayed on this time-like he was afraid of letting go of his prized possession far too soon in case this was all a dream.
“Vivi, the ice cream isn’t going to eat itself!” Seifer’s tone didn’t have its usual strictness to it, and he walked past the two as he headed after Pence, Fuu, and Rai…poking the top of Vivi’s hat as he went to playfully emphasize his point that he should get moving as well.
“C-coming!” Vivi went out of his thoughts at the contact, and shared a slight smile with Olette.
The girl patted him encouragingly on the shoulder, the two running quickly to catch up to their friends. Vivi broke past Seifer even, suddenly energized by all that had happened…the patchwork face on his hat bounding up and down in a lively jaunt as he ran-looking for all the world like it was smiling as brightly as he was underneath it.