Fighting Spirit

by Karu Leonnese

Chapter One: Kissy Kissy

A/N: I told Gar-san from LJ that I'd write her some Amarant/Zidane slash when I got a grip on the Salamander. I prolly still don't, but this just popped in my head and I felt like I had to write it. -grins- So this is for her, and for Devilish Kurumi, who gave meh a basis for Amarant with her awesome Amarant/Kuja ficceh, Wishful Thinking!

Warnings: A little bit of slash, tho nothing TOO bad. Some violence and language in there too. Basically anything you've come to expect. Oh yeah, maybe some chara abuse, but only according to Amarant. He finds EVERYONE annoying!

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It's a long walk through the desert. It's a long walk when you're by yourself. If the heat doesn't kill you, the random creatures running around might. But there's one thing that makes a long walk seem like an eternity.

Traveling with other people.

Amarant was discovering this the hard way. He kept to the back of his new group, watching them carefully. Each one of them was different, and some particularly annoying.

There was the girl, Eiko. Amarant half-regretted his decision to keep Lani from killing the girl when the opportunity presented itself. The little summoner turned out to be nothing but an annoying little liability. Yes, she could hold her own for the most part, but already they'd run into a few situations when one of the others had to come to her rescue. And she was a kid. Amarant hated kids. Plus she had a mouth on her…

Then there was the princess. Dagger, or Garnet, or whatever the hell she wanted to call herself. While she wasn't as grating on the nerves as Eiko, she had her moments as well. Sure, she was cute, but for the majority of the time she was really a bit of a ditz. And in battle she was even weaker than the kid.

The other kid, Vivi. Creepy as hell upon the first look. Knowing the power behind those bastard Black Mages, it was hard not to feel a little unease around him. But he was different. He did have the same capabilities, but he had free will as well. But outside of battle was another story. He was clumsy and non-confrontational, two things that would get him walked over for the rest of his life. However long that was.

And last was the monkey. Zidane. What in the hell had he been thinking, figuring there was something more to the boy than he first thought. Yeah, he could kick ass in a fight, but he had more of a mouth on him than Eiko, and that was saying something. But the guy had charisma, Amarant had to give him that. The others followed him without question, and a few times even he'd found himself doing the same.

Aforementioned party leader was at the front of the group…well, leading. Behind him was Vivi, who rarely left the monkey's side. Then came the princess, keeping a careful eye on Eiko. Amarant was last, examining the party. He was also examining his own sanity, tagging along with this lot.

"Hey," Eiko stopped suddenly, almost causing Amarant to run her over. He probably would've kept going if it wouldn't have been such a mess to clean up later. 1

Zidane sighed a bit, turning to her. "What?"

She put her hands on her hips. "Where are we going? I thought we were going back to the Iifa Tree!"

"We're going back to Conte Piete first, to prepare. We don't know what Kuja's up to, so we're gonna need some supplies."

She pouted. "What about all the stuff we got from my place?"

Vivi, who kept count of the items and equipment most of the time, spoke up. "We used most of that walking back."

"Besides," Zidane continued, "We're gonna need some stronger armor and weapons. We haven't upgraded in awhile."

"Humph. I'll bet you guys are just scared."

Amarant crossed his arms, glaring down at the small girl. "Better a prepared victor than a fast death."

"They're right, Eiko," Garnet explained patiently.

Eiko glared some more, then finally sighed and started walking again. Truth be told, Amarant was welcoming one more night in a town. It gave him a chance to get really drunk one more time before attempting his own suicide. This Kuja guy looked like a girl, but he packed some unnatural power. He was not looking forward to this.

He confused himself. Here he was, about to follow this group into a potentially fatal battle. He could just leave at any time, but still, he stayed. Amarant knew how to choose his battles, and all his instincts told him this was one to sit out. So why was he even still here?

He brushed it off as pure desire to defeat Zidane. His pride kept him going, so he could take the monkey on again and win. He could repay the debt of sparing his life so he could leave. Amarant hated being in debt to anyone.

Besides, traveling with them, they were bound to run into Lani again. The little bitch had managed to leave with a few of his things in the last encounter, while he was busy with Zidane. Amarant needed to have a little 'talk' with her about that.

Amarant looked up. He'd been so wrapped up in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed Zidane had started walking backwards, watching the rest of the party. Confused, Amarant shot the monkey a look. He grinned in return.

"Boy, you guys look like you need some cheering up."

"We're in the middle of the desert, Zidane. How cheerful do you expect us to be?" Garnet sighed, looking for all the world like the only chaperone on a kindergarten field trip.

"Hey, look on the bright side! You could be dead by now!"

Amarant snorted. "What a comforting thought."

Zidane crossed his arms, tail swaying behind him. "I think I know exactly what you all need!"

"Sleep?" Garnet supplied.

"Sugar?" Eiko added.

"S-sunscreen?" Vivi helped.

"A one-way ticket out of this hell hole?" Amarant muttered.

The blond laughed. "A SONG!"

Amarant felt his eye twitch slightly. "What?"

Apparently, this confused the others as well. All eyes were on Zidane, ranging from confusion to a murderous glare.

Zidane turned around with a spin, making a show of marching. Then he began to sing. "You're a girl, I'm a boy. We're too old to play with toys. Won't you tell me your name? You could be my favourite game!"

"What?" Vivi blinked.

"What the hell are you doing?" Amarant snapped.

Garnet laughed. Eiko tilted her head, staring at Zidane for a moment, before finally joining in with the princess.

"Kissy kissy makes me happy, honey honey, sweet as candy! Kissy kissy take my hand and come along with me!"

"That sounds familiar for some reason…" Vivi put a hand behind his head. 2

"Kissy kissy makes me happy, honey honey, sweet as candy! Kissy kissy love is grand, with you, my sugar bee!" he turned back slightly, watching them. "Now everybody join in!"

Garnet and Eiko were too busy laughing to sing anything. Zidane continued and Vivi tried to follow, while Amarant was silent, glaring daggers at the blond.

"Kissy kissy makes me happy…" Zidane looked directly at Amarant, grinning. "What, not a fan of sing-alongs?"

The redhead's eye twitched once more. "You're going to stop that…voluntarily or otherwise."

The monkey laughed. "I'll take that as a no." He and Vivi continued singing, this time managing to get Eiko to breathe enough to join in.

They were all singing—except Amarant, of course—by the time they reached the dwarven city. Amarant had never been so glad to see civilization in all his life. He left the group at the inn, where everyone parted ways after getting rooms. Amarant refused to stay with the group, getting his own room. After confirming his sleeping arrangements, he went off in search of some equipment upgrading. The town didn't have much in the way of things for someone of his size, but he made do. Accomplishing this, we went for the most important trip he had in this town.

He headed straight to the tavern.

There he stayed for the rest of the day, and even into the night. He had a nice, steady buzz going on after the fourteenth or so drink. It was about then when a song started going through his head. His drunken mind brought it to his lips without him even realizing it at first.

"…Honey honey, sweet as candy…"

He stopped, sat up straight and blinked a few times. Maybe he was a bit TOO drunk. Walking out the door toward the inn, he could only think of one thing.

He was going to kill that damned monkey.

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1: It's kind of a joke I have about Amarant accidentally stepping on Eiko, so there's nothing but goo and a yellow bow on the bottom of his shoe. Zidane tells him that's gross and to clean it up, and Vivi just looks shocked and says Eww. I use it on my friend, who happens to beh an Eiko fan (tho I can't understand why…)

2 Another joke that Kuja was singing a bunch of DDR songs like this when he was making Vivi, so Viv gets them running through his head sometimes. Zidane happens to know some of them as well.

Karu: Well, that's it for the first chappeh. The actual slash comes up in the next one, rest assured. Sorry, but the image of Zidane singing DDR songs just amuses meh a little too much. There will also beh piccehs from this, as well as other FFIX artwork on my DevArt account ( karuleonnese) as soon as I get some scanning done. So, what's everyone think? Did I do okay with Amarant?

Until next time!