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“Hey, pretty doll. Why are you with these guys? Join me instead. I’m more fun than them.”, a guy, dressed in dusty shorts and an old t-shirt, leaning casually against a boarding, called out with a smug smile as yn and her friends passed him.
Usually, she ignored provocations or flirting like this but this time, Yn sized the guy up, looking doubting about his statement, “I would rather love to die on the spot.”, she answered, turning around to continue her way to the motel where the group was currently staying to help out with some hunts before they would continue their journey.
“Uhh, harsh words from such a little girl.”, the guy said grinning.
Within one second, Yn stopped and jumped at the guy, casted one of her daggers out of nowhere to press it dangerously close against his throat, “Who do you call ‘little girl’, huh?”, she hissed while staring into his shock-filled eyes.
“Yn!”, Gladio called out, reaching her with just three strides of his long legs to drag her away from the guy who was white as salt, “What are you doing?”
Yn was trembling in his strong grip to get free, “He called me little girl. So, let me go!”, she hissed through gritted teeth, stemming against his hold once again.
“No!”, he boomed with his deep voice, “First, you have to calm down.”, Gladio demanded. He was struggling with keeping her in place. Not because she would be that strong rather because he didn’t mean to hurt her.
“But he’s an asshole!”, Yn argued angrily, wiggling under Gladio’s hands.
“Hey!”, the guy called out as he found his voice again.
“Yes, he is but still.”, Gladio said, ignoring the guy’s complaint.
“Hey, I can hear you!”, the guy called out again but he got silenced by Gladio’s angry glance shot at him.
“And you should leave or I will release her after all.”, Gladio commanded and the guy disappeared.
As he was gone, Gladio released Yn but was also watching out that she stayed where she was, “What the hell was that? You can’t attack random people with daggers.”, Gladio said admonishingly, crossing his arms over his chest but his expression softened as he saw her sad glance glued to the ground.
Softly, Gladio placed his index finger under her chin, “Yn, that wasn’t just because they called you 'little girl’, right? You never did something like this before.”
But instead of answering, yn just shrugged with her shoulders and looked away again.
“If it was because of that, you know that none of us sees you like this, right? You’re an important part of our group.”, Gladio said, calming in hope he got through to her.
“But sometimes it doesn’t feel like that. None of you really need me. It’s not that I would be useful. All of you are much better fighters than I am. With bigger swords or better skills.”, Yn said glumly and because Gladio stayed silent, she took it as an agreement, passed him and the others to go back to the motel room.
Disbelieving, Gladio stared after her. Almost shocked, he watched how one of his best friends went away with slumped shoulders, a hanging head and her hands buried deep into the pockets of her jeans.
“What just happened?”, Ignis asked confused as he stepped next to Gladio.
“Is something wrong with her?"Prompto asked, concerned as he also watched Yn walking away. Noctis joined as well, frowning about the unusual behavior. They had watched the scene because they were sure Gladio would be able to handle that. Somehow, they were wrong…
"I have no idea…”, Gladio said confused, scratching the back of his neck. Since he knew her, Yn was the best female fighter he had met. Yes, she was smaller but extremely fast. Faster than Ignis and Prompto when she was fighting against creatures and enemies. Yes, she used daggers just like Ignis but she wasn’t less deadly with them.
There was no reason for her to feel … useless.
Gladio was still staring after Yn even as she was already out of sight as Ignis stepped in front of him, “We should do something to help her.”, he said, tapping with his index finger against his lips, trying to find an idea.
“But what could we do?”, Prompto asked, “I always thought she knows how important she is to us-”
“It’s not about us. You heard her. She is doubting her fighting skills.”, Gladio pointed out. Slowly but surely, he understood what might be going on with her. Even as a King’s Shield, he had been at the same point. He just had fought through it.
“So, what are you suggesting? Shall we train with her?”, Prompto asked naively that this would fix things.
“Actually, I might have an idea.”, Noctis said and pulled a piece of paper out of the back pocket of his pants.
***
Yn sat on her bed in the motel room she shared with the boys and let her legs slowly dangling over the edge while she stared out of the window. Behind the glass was nothing to be seen but sand, dust and a bunch of bushes. The blue sky was cloudless. The weather was sunny and cheerful. The complete opposite to her current mood.
Over and over again, her mind played through the attack on that random guy. And each time, she winced at the memory. Never before, she had attacked someone randomly just because of some teasing. And it wasn’t just the 'little girl’ thing. It had been the glances back in Insomnia as she had trained with different weapons to extend her skills. She heard the whispers behind her back when she walked next to Gladio who was so much taller than herself while they were discussing new move sets. Then, she left with her friends and even then, someone had asked her if this journey would be the right thing for such a small, pretty girl. As if her height and appearance would be everything that mattered.
With a swift move, Yn casted her daggers into her hands. Kukris. She never had seen such beautiful blades like these two with all their ornaments and detailed engravings. She felt honored as King Regis had given them to her. She felt blessed to be able to wield them to defend and to protect the Prince and her other friends. But nevertheless, sometimes, it felt as if it wasn’t enough.
Since they had passed the secure wall of their home, Yn was doubting herself. None of the boys gave her the feeling to be useless. She did it on her own. Years of training and dedication to be a good fighter went south as she saw how good the others were on the field. All of them had much more training and even Noctis was able to wield a greatsword - which Yn couldn’t even move one bit.
While she stared at her daggers, tears were building in her eyes and as she blinked, hot teardrops were falling on the daggers. Angry about herself, she casted them away. Now, she didn’t even feel worthy to own them…
“Here you are!”, Gladio said as he opened the door of the motel room.
Quickly, Yn wiped the tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her black sweatshirt before she turned around, facing all four boys standing in front of her. She was sure they would notice that she had cried but they said nothing about it, “What is it?”, she asked carefully, not knowing what would come next.
It was Prompto who answered her question as he jumped on the bed to land next to her, flinging his arm around her shoulders, “Noctis got asked for help by Tikka. A delivery of green beans went missing and we shall take a look if we can find it.”
Amused, yn looked from Prompto at Noctis, “You wanna rescue green beans? You?”
“Yeah… I know. Come on, we hit the road.”, Noctis said and left the room, followed by Ignis.
Prompto jumped from the bed and ran after them, “On the way, we can check if we find anything interesting so I can take a photo.”
“If not, you can take selfies … as usual.”, Noctis teased and because they were already out of sight, yn just heard their bickering.
At the door, Gladio waited for yn, “You know, if you wanna talk about something, I’m there for you.”, he said softly, checking on her but stayed silent.
Yn smiled up at him, already feeling better again, “Thanks. I will talk to you just … give me some time.”
***
“Just green beans, huh? Green beans my ass.”, yn stated as she watched Bulettes emerging form the small wood they just had passed. The four tall, very heavy and very angry animals aimed for her and her friends.
Gladio was already casting his great sword, wielding it over his head, “Come on, a little fight will keep us slinky and flexible.”, he said and nudged her shoulder with his own before he smirked at her.
With a grin, yn looked up at the tall guy, “Slinky and flexible aren’t words I would use to describe you, big guy.”, she said teasingly.
“Ouch, no need to be mean.”, Gladio called out, playfully hurt before they both aimed for the first animal.
Quickly, the calm and beautiful meadow changed into a raging battlefield. Gladio and Yn ran to the first animal and even before Gladio could make the first hit, he squatted down and offered Yn his hand and arm. Grinning, she stepped on his arm, one foot on his hand, balancing while casting her daggers and tensing up her muscles before Gladio gave her a push to throw her on top of the animal. Yn landed perfect on the back. Quickly, she found her balance again and while Gladio slammed his great sword into the skin of the animal, Yn swirled her Kukris and sank them into the throat and neck of the raging Bulette. The Kukris stuck but instead to pull them out, Yn spun them around until the animal fell to the ground.
Lifeless.
Yn jumped from the carcass with a flip and landed light-footed in front of Gladio who grinned impressed, “One down, three to go. Come on, I guess the others need our help.”
“Yn, over here!”, Noctis called out and Yn followed him immediately. Noctis was ready for a warp-attack that would give the opportunity of a blitz attack. Noctis warped with his KINGSBLADE against the animal and bounced back next to Yn. They nodded, taking a run-up of a few steps and while Noctis let himself drop on one knee to attack the feet of the Bulette, Yn ran and stepped on Noctis’ back to jump against the broad enemy to thrust her daggers between its ribs into the heart. She stayed a few moments longer to make sure the creature was dead. As it fell lifeless to the ground, Yn stemmed her feet against the ribcage and pulled out her daggers.
Yn was just about to catch her breath as Prompto called her over, “Yn, I could need your help.”
She turned her head before she spurted over to her friend. Prompto already had drawn his gun, firing at the beast but as Yn stopped next to him, they nodded at each other with a grin, turning over so they were standing back to back before Prompto was aiming for the animal again. Yn did the same with her daggers. From the corner of her eyes, she waited for his sign. As Prompto nodded with a grin, he fired his gun the same moment Yn threw her Kukri. The shot staggered the animal in its way towards them. It became slower while Yn’s dagger penetrated the skull of the animal. The Bulette stumbled over its feet, fell to the ground and slid a small way before it stopped in front of their feet.
As yn thought it would be over, Ignis called her over to him, “Come on, I need you for the finisher.”, he called out. With a huge grin on her lips, Yn ran towards him. Gladio and Noctis had made the animal already tired. Ignis and Yn bumped their fists against each other, stepped back and ran then to the animal to attack it at the same time with their daggers before they landed side by side on the other side elegantly on their knees. Everything happened so fast, that the Bulette needed a moment to realize that it had no chance anymore and so, it fell lifeless to the ground.
All five friends were breathless but alive, unharmed and happy. With a rapid pulse, Yn turned around to look at the scene of battle while she casted the daggers away.
Ignis inspected the corpses, “We should take something with us before we find a good spot for camping and cooking.”, he said and Prompto already joined him to help with the preparations.
***
Two hours later, the tent was built, the food was cooked and eaten and Prompto, Ignis and Noctis stretched themselves, the sign that they were ready for the night. One by one, they called it a night until just Gladio and Yn were left behind, sitting at the crackling campfire in silence observing the calming flames.
Yn watched how small sparks danced endlessly into the dark blue night sky. Stars were scattered over the firmament like millions of diamonds. Her eyes stayed glued to the stars while she smiled softly, “I know what you all did today.”, she whispered, breaking the silence.
“What… what do you mean?”, Gladio asked, trying to sound convincing but it wasn’t working very well, he saw it in her face.
“There never were any green beans, right?”, Yn pointed out, still looking to the stars.
Gladio chuckled low, scratching the back of his neck before he looked apologetically at her, “Actually, no… not really.”
“I thought that it was a bit odd for Noctis to run around to search for a bunch of vegetables.”, Yn said before she looked into Gladio’s face, “Thank you.”, she whispered sheepishly.
Gladio laid his arm around her shoulders, “You’re welcome, sweetheart. You’re valued here. Always. We wanted to show you that.”, he whispered before he pressed a soft kiss on top of her hair. He pulled her against his side where she snuggled against his chest. It wasn’t the first time that they were seeking comfort in each other but this time it felt more important.
Gladio rested his head on top of hers and looked back into the flames, “We have your back, no matter what. You know, I’ve been there as well. I also had doubts about myself. I guess that’s normal. You just have to remember what you’re capable of. We trust you all blindly because we know what you are able to do.”, Gladio said low.
A single tear was rolling down Yn’s cheek by his words and suddenly, everything that had happened looked stupid and odd. Quickly, Yn wiped the tears away, “I feel so stupid.”, she whispered.
Gladio straightened himself to look at her, “You don’t have to. It’s human to doubt oneself from time to time. And the next time, when you feel like this, just come to me. Talk with me. You don’t have to go through this alone. Size isn’t all that matters.”, Gladio said with a smirk.
Yn felt touched by this big, cuddly teddy bear and so, she threw herself against his solid body with her arms flung around his middle. Gladio mimicked her move and embraced her back, “And by the way, you have the perfect size to lean and to snuggle against me like this. That’s a good start, don’t you think?”, he chuckled but Yn couldn’t answer.
“Cuddle time!”, Prompto called out and within one second, Gladio and Yn were attacked by Prompto, Ignis and Noctis. Buried underneath her friends, Yn felt her confidence coming back.
She felt valued.