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It had been little over a week since Ryoma had come to the Cheve Resistance. He had observed their daily lives, eating with them, living with them. He was here on a mission to gain allies and intelligence; while his interests aligned with theirs, he was careful not to get too involved.
“Hey Ryoma!” a voice called out.
He looked up from his meditation toward the voice. Scarlet waved to him.
“I’m going into town to get some supplies, wanna come with?” she asked.
He nodded and got up. It would be nice to have a chance to see the town.
“Wait,” She put up her hand, and looked him up and down. “You’ll stand out if you go looking like that. Hold on a sec.” She ran off somewhere.
Ryoma was wearing the undershirt of his Swordmaster armor. It didn’t really matter what he wore here at camp, but he supposed he should blend in when going into town.
“Here, you can borrow these.” Scarlet came back and handed him a pile of clothes. “I think they should fit.”
He nodded and went to change. He came back in casual Chevoir clothes, with his hair tied back in a ponytail.
“That’s much better!” she flashed a thumbs up. “Although…You should probably leave that behind.”
Her hand went to grab the thing wrapped in cloth at his side. He dodged her and pulled it closer to him.
“Sorry, I can’t leave this behind,” he stated.
Before coming to meet with Scarlet’s group, Ryoma had hidden his usual royal armor away, but he could not leave the Raijinto behind. He needed to keep it at his side always, lest it got lost or fell into the wrong hands. But its unique appearance would also attract attention and perhaps give away his identity, so he has taken to wrapping it in some cloth.
Scarlet gave him a look. It was weird that he never let go of this thing… whatever it was. She had asked about it before, and he simply answered that it was a family heirloom–which is not a lie.
“Alright fine, you can keep it,” she sighed.
They passed by the armory on their way out, and Scarlet handed him a small dagger while stashing one away on herself. “We can’t bring weapons, but I would like to still be armed, just in case.”
“Let’s go!” She led him to her waiting wyvern.
Ryoma halted and looked at the wyvern warily. “We… we have to ride that?” As far as he could tell, the market wasn’t that far away, couldn’t they just walk?
Scarlet laughed and gave him a teasing look, “Eh…Are you nervous?” He didn’t have to answer for her to notice. “We could walk, but we’d have to carry a lot of stuff back. Al’s very helpful with that part.”
Ryoma sighed. It couldn’t be that bad, right?
He gritted his teeth as they lifted off into the air. It was a sensation he had never felt before, both terrifying and exhilarating. Suddenly, he had so much more respect for Hinoka.
“Heh, relax,” Scarlet yelled over the wind, “I won’t let us fall.”
But Ryoma wasn’t really listening, all he could think about was are we there yet…?
“Here we are, the Cheve market,” Scarlet gestured toward the town square.
They had dismounted from Scarlet’s wyvern a short distance away, and walked the rest of the way to the market.
Ryoma looked around. It was bustling with people and stalls. Other than the foreign-looking things for sale, it actually wasn’t that different from the markets in Hoshido.
“Here, this way!” Scarlet beckoned, and he followed her to a produce stand. He watched as she chatted away with the owner, starting with idle chatter and ending with bargaining for prices.
“Do you know them?” he asked as she handed him a burlap sack of fruits and vegetables.
“Yeah, I grew up in this town, and we look out for each other.” Then she lowered her voice, “We even have a few allies here. The bar at the edge of the market is an excellent place for intel.”
Ryoma nodded solemnly and made a mental note; it might come in handy later. It seemed that her resistance group was quite well organized.
As they walked from stall to stall, gathering supplies, Ryoma found himself quite enjoying the outing. When he was young, he would occasionally sneak out of the castle in disguise and go to the market in town. He was fond of those days, and this reminded him of that.
“I think we’re just about done here. Was there anything in particular you want?” she asked, checking the list in her hand.
“Hmm…” Ryoma tapped his chin. “I guess I’d want rice.”
The food in Cheve wasn’t bad per say, it certainly took him some time to get used to, but boy did he miss eating rice.
“Rice?” she looked at him, confused.
“Ah…” he realized that Scarlet, having never set foot outside Cheve, probably never had rice before. “It’s what we eat instead of bread. I would love to make rice balls for you some day.” He then proceeded to describe what a rice ball was.
“Oh!” she exclaimed, “That sounds delicious. I hope I get to eat your rice balls one day. But…” she looked disappointed, “I don’t think we’ll be able to find rice here today. We don’t get commodities from Hoshido very much these days.”
“I…see.”
“We make do with what we have,” she lowered her eyes. “I remember stories my grandfather told me, about how Cheve used to be a lot more prosperous in the past. About how it was a bustling city with merchants from all over the world, including Hoshido.”
“But that all changed when tensions rose between Hoshido and Nohr after King Sumeragi was killed. I heard it happened right here in Cheve, and I think most of the Hoshidans left after that.”
Ryoma froze at the mention of Sumeragi. His hand instinctively gripped the Raijinto on his waist. He was glad she wasn’t looking his way, or she would have seen how his face drained. He looked away, hiding his face.
“So I guess you’re kind of an oddity here,” she laughed, turning to him. “H-Hey, are you ok?” she asked, upon seeing his downcast look.
He paused, and slowly nodded, willing the ghosts of the past to leave. He took a deep breath and looked around him at the stalls full of life.
“Yeah… I’m… I’m fine.”
She quietly studied him, before nodding. “If you… ever want to talk about… stuff, I’m here to listen,” she offered gently.
He wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he simply nodded politely.
“Ok, I think that’s all of the stuff!” Scarlet grunted as she stuffed the last of the supplies into her wyvern’s pack. “Phew, thanks for helping me carry all of that!”
“It’s still early,” she squinted toward the sun, “You wanna head back to the market again and get some food or something?”
Ryoma nodded and followed her. He had to admit that there were some smells they walked by earlier that was making him hungry.
Now unburdened, their second trip through the market was just for fun, a bonus trip. They ate at some food stalls that Scarlet recommended. And Ryoma made some mental notes for ones selling sweets; maybe he’ll come back later and get something for Sakura.
“This has been a lot of fun, thanks for inviting me,” he smiled as he finished a skewer.
“Hey, I’m glad!” she grinned.
Her grin quickly faded however, as she spotted something in the distance. Ryoma followed her gaze towards a couple of men causing a ruckus at the next row of stalls.
Scarlet’s face darkened. “They work for Garon’s goons, I’m pretty sure of it. Some of my friends have died because of them.” Her hand went to the dagger hidden under her bag.
“Should we fight them?” he asked, doing the same.
She hesitated, as if deciding whether to fight or run. If it was just the two of them, Ryoma was sure he could take them on. However, that would cause a commotion and possible property damage, and he wasn’t sure if she would want that. He looked to her to make a decision.
Before she could decide, a couple more guys joined up, and started hassling the shopkeeper.
“I don’t think it’s wise to fight them,” she whispered, “But I want to stop them from doing that.”
He nodded. “I’ll follow your lead.”
“Ok, let’s lead them away.”
Scarlet took a deep breath, put her fingers in her mouth, and whistled loudly. That did the trick, they all looked her way. One of them seemed to recognize her; he said something to his companions and they started running towards her.
“Time to run!” she yelled as she grabbed Ryoma’s arm and bolted the other way. They ran out of the market and into the streets, with Garon’s men chasing. Ryoma followed as she expertly navigated the maze-like streets of Cheve.
“This way!” Scarlet hissed as she pulled him into a nearby alley. They flattened themselves against the wall and waited.
Scarlet carefully poked her head out, then quickly ducked back in.
“Bear with me for a sec,” she looked into his eyes and whispered. Before he had time to react, she grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him down into an embrace, burying his face into her shoulder.
“Ah–” startled, Ryoma exclaimed involuntarily.
“Shhh,” she whispered, scanning the streets with her eyes. “Don’t move.”
Ryoma did as instructed. He wasn’t sure what to do with his arms, should he return her embrace? His face flushed, were all Nohrian women this bold?
He could feel his heart pounding. He was suddenly aware of how soft she was.
After what seemed like an eternity, Scarlet released him and sighed in relief. “Ok, I think they lost us.”
Ryoma couldn’t meet her in the eyes. He held up a hand and cleared his throat. “What… What was that about?”
“Oh!” as the tension of the moment dissipated, Scarlet seemed to have realized what she did was odd. “Uh… I um,” she turned red as well, “I thought they would leave us alone if we pretended to be a couple canoodling… It was the only thing I could think of at that moment.”
“I…I see.”
“Sorry if I made you uncomfortable,” she smiled sheepishly.
“It’s alright,” he replied. It was an emergency, and there was no harm done. But Ryoma could still feel his heart pounding. He had never been so close to a woman he wasn’t related to before.
“Phew! What an adventure!” she laughed and stretched, “Let’s go back to Al before those guys come back.”
Ryoma followed as Scarlet led him through the streets of Cheve. They chatted as they walked. She pointed out various landmarks to him along the way. By the time they made it back to where they left their wyvern, the sun was starting to set.
“Alright, ready to go?” Scarlet did a final check before their trip.
Ryoma wasn’t exactly looking forward to the ride back, but somehow, he didn’t mind it. Seeing Cheve from above after their adventures that day would be quite interesting.
“Wait, before we go, I have something for you.” He pulled out a small drawstring bag from his pocket and handed it to her.
Surprised, she opened the bag. She gasped as she pulled out a beautiful geode. Purple gems sparkled inside the plain-looking rock.
Speechless, she stared at him, then back at the geode, then back at him again.
“H-How did you know…” she finally found her voice.
He grinned, proud of himself. “I saw you eyeing it earlier. It looked like you really wanted it.”
“I…I do but… isn’t it expensive?”
“Don’t worry about it,” he assured her. “I wanted to thank you for today, it was quite enjoyable.”
Scarlet laughed. “I assure you, it’s not usually this eventful. But… I’m glad you had fun. I was a bit worried you’d be put off by my uh… antics.”
“It was no trouble at all, Miss Scarlet. Your quick thinking saved us a lot of hassle, I’m sure.”
She blushed and carefully tucked away the gift in her bag. “You don’t have to be so formal with me, just ‘Scarlet’ will do.”
He smiled gently, “Thank you, Scarlet.”
As they flew over Cheve on their way back, Ryoma gazed at the city below. The lights of the city twinkled like stars in the twilight.
What he didn’t tell her, was that before today, his memories of Cheve were not positive; the last time he was here, his father died and his family was fractured. But through their adventures today, seeing the city she loves through her eyes, he had come to see the city in a positive light.
He looked at Scarlet in front of him, and a sense of camaraderie washed over him. He strengthened his desire to protect this city, and the woman who would put her life on the line for it.