Chapter Text
The unused second story of the Silo is no longer unused when Scarlett arrived back from the capital. The capital is where she technically “mainly” works, but her current assignment is here in Rigbarth. A long distance, long-term assignment. She loves the little town, and the assignment itself is a fairly easy one. It’s little, as she mentioned, and quiet, yet so full of character and spirit. They have long made her one of their own, for which she’ll always be grateful for and reciprocal of. She fully expected for it to just be her and Captain Livia in the Silo, save for the few rangers that the capital or other areas sent for backup and whatnot.
Captain Livia cheerfully informs her the morning she gets back (since she got back in late the previous evening), “Good morning, Scarlett! We have a new housemate!”
Scarlett hardly has the time to raise her eyebrows before the door to the captain’s office is burst open. The first thing the senior ranger notices is the SEED uniform, and her well-tuned mind is quick to dismiss it as simply another ranger from out of town who would leave the second their assignment here is finished.
Her mind, which is keen and critical, doesn’t let her dismiss the ranger yet. There’s golden-blonde hair, falling to the shoulders in waves reminiscent of the ones on the beaches nearby, skin as creamy as the strawberry shortcake served at the Lackadaisy, and the biggest apple-green eyes full of determination, wonder and curiosity. Scarlett takes all these in as fact.
“Oh good, you’re here!” Captain Livia chirps as Scarlett turns to face the arriving ranger. “Scarlett, this is Alice. Alice, meet Scarlett.”
“I’ve heard about you,” Scarlett says, not bothering with a greeting. The picture has been completed, now she has the face for the name. She’s heard of this Alice.
“Oh, really?” Those big green eyes sparkle, and Alice’s unblemished lips curl into a pleased, somewhat bashful smile. Again, Scarlett takes this a mere fact. What cheek, the elf thinks with secret disdain, as it goes to serve her preconceived notions about the newest member of SEED’s rangers. “I’ve heard of you, too. Good things!” The lips lift into more pleasure.
”Let me get straight to the point. I cannot accept you as a ranger of SEED,” Scarlett states bluntly. Captain Livia gasps, then groans in exasperation and like she’s used to this. (She is.) Alice stops smiling and her eyes dim, not out of any negative emotion, but in curiosity. Her head even tilts. (Her cap is off-kilter. It’s driving Scarlett nuts but she won’t say anything. It may help get Alice released as a ranger.) “I am aware of the circumstances of which you come, and while I am sorry for them, it’s not enough. It takes hard work and time to become a full-fledged ranger of SEED, not pathetic circumstances and rescuing one missing person.”
”Scarlett,” Captain Livia sighs, but Alice shakes her head, eyes shut. Scarlett waits for what she has to say.
She doesn’t at all expect for Alice to slowly smile, her cheeks lifting into a toothy grin. Her eyes open, and they’re sparkling brighter than emeralds.
“Don’t worry,” Alice says, “this will all be funny once we’re married.”
Captain Livia bursts out laughing.
Scarlett is caught so off-guard she actually stumbles. She rights her posture right away, demanding “E-excuse me?!” that comes out as a splutter, much to her embarrassment. Her face is hotter than the Kelve Lava Caves. Alice hasn’t moved, she just continues to grin. “We’ve just met! And I’d never marry someone like you!”
”Alright, alright, that’s enough,” Captain Livia chooses now to step in through the cracks of her laughter. She clears her throat. “If you really feel that way, Scarlett, then I have a proposition for the two of you. We’ll settle this matter like rangers.”
A competition to see who can investigate the coincidentally, aforementioned Kelve Lava Caves. There’s been a runic disturbance that warrants the investigation. Scarlett accepts it right away, and snaps at Alice when she shows reservation at the danger. “Then stay home and take a nap or something,” the elf snaps, “and let me do my job.”
For the first time since they’ve met, Alice doesn’t smile. “I can’t do that,” she says simply, full of resolution. Her face takes on the determination that was in her eyes a few short minutes ago. She faces Captain Livia. “I also accept the challenge.”
The two of them waste no time in setting off, and split once they get to the entrance. Scarlett takes every shortcut, but to her surprise there are no monsters waiting for her or her dual blades. Her logic tells her why but she stubbornly refuses to listen. “A coincidence,” she decides, walking with the area with the blades in her hands, ready for oncoming attackers. “That’s all.”
Those attackers do not come, and when she gets to the mouth of the caves she’s forced to listen to her logic.
Alice stands there, weapon in hand. She isn’t even panting. At Scarlett’s arrival, she turns and smiles at the other ranger who does not smile back at her. “Hey, you’re here! Great! So these are the Kelve Lava Caves, huh?”
”You’re already here?” Scarlett can’t keep the surprise out of her voice. She shakes her head. “No matter. Next time you won’t. This place is full of dangerous monsters, so if you want to head back, do so now.”
Alice shoulders her weapon, and tosses a toothy grin over her shoulder. Scarlett feels a mixture of annoyance, anger and disbelief at this. “No thanks,” she says easily and without hesitation, “people need our help. It would go against everything I believe to turn back.” The stark contrast between her lighthearted facial expression and the serious conviction of her words startles Scarlett into dropping her unfriendly frown, and conveying such emotions on her face. Alice’s face softens and she takes her weapon off her shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go in together. Then we can split up at the entrance and resume the competition.”
Just when she thought she couldn’t get more surprised, she does. “Why would you do that?” Scarlett blurts.
Alice doesn’t look startled. She shrugs. “Because it’s fair?” She says it like it’s the easiest thing in the world.
Scarlett doesn’t have anything to say to that. She and Alice walk into the cave together.
“Best of luck, Scarlett!” Alice calls before she darts to the right.
The competition takes priority. It absolutely does. Scarlett sends the monsters back to the Forest of Beginnings. She wonders how Alice is doing with her share of the monsters, then forces that thought away because Alice isn’t even a ranger in Scarlett’s mind.
Alice reaches the end of the caves mere seconds before Scarlett does. It weighs down Scarlett’s heart, because Alice has won, but before she’s forced to admit defeat, a man’s laughter rings through the area and both young women do not hesitate to draw their weapons.
The man, using a giant runic circle that blows Scarlett back and sends Alice rushing to her aid, summons a Basilisk.
Scarlett gasps at the sight of it. A hand - smaller but more calloused than hers - lays itself across the right paldron on her shoulder. The elf looks up at Alice, face full of determination, and Scarlett finds herself asking no one if this is Alice’s default expression.
”I’ll take care of the Basilisk,” Alice says, pulling Scarlett to her feet, “you look after this man.” Golden-blonde jumps in motion of the man’s direction.
”Alright,” Scarlett agrees, returning her attention to the man who summoned the creature. Her lips part, wanting to tell Alice to be careful, but nothing comes out and Alice is charging into battle.
Scarlett has to give her full attention to the criminal. She keeps reminding herself of this because the sounds of battle behind her are impossible to miss. Alice grunts and cries, but none of them are of pain. When the Basilisk roars, a swans song screech, there’s a heavy thud. Scarlett doesn’t look once.
Alice returns to her side, much to their prisoner’s disbelief.
“I can’t believe it,” he says in wide-eyed fear, “you took care of that quick.”
When he says this, Scarlett realizes why Alice was hesitant about this. She wasn’t worried for her own safety at all - she was worried about Scarlett’s. This realization should be a massive insult. On some level, she is, but her primary emotion is relief.
She doesn’t have time to ponder why until the man escapes, the runes are restored to balance, and they’re back at the Silo.
Alice comes by her room, and she’s prepared to admit defeat until Alice holds out her hand, smiles and says “It’s a draw.”
Scarlett’s eyes - for which she was named - go wide, and she tries to get Alice to realize that no, no it isn’t. Alice did the bulk of the work, she got there first, and she even gave Scarlett fairness when anyone else wouldn’t have.
Alice shakes her golden-blonde head, keeps smiling, and sticks out her hand. “It’s a draw, fair and square,” she says with finality, and Scarlett stops because she won’t win with her.
Maybe, she doesn’t want to.
She gets to feel Alice’s hand in hers as they shake. Their fingers wrap around each other’s hand, a firm promise.
“I look forward to working together, as colleagues and as rivals,” Scarlett says because there’s no way she can just say I like you, let’s be friends.
Alice giggles, a tinkling bell of noise. “I can’t wait, either, Scarlett.” Her smile is gold like her hair, and Scarlett is able to place her earlier relief since it comes back. She’s relieved at Alice’s acceptance and how she protected and trusted Scarlett. All traits of a good ranger. No, a good person.
*
Scarlett’s stubborn belief in coincidence starts fading away as she and Alice become closer.
The apple she chooses for a snack at Misasagi's general store is the freshest, juiciest one there, as the were-animal owner points out with interest while she’s bagging it with Scarlett’s other groceries. Scarlett pretends to agree, and then is forced to agree when she eats it later that afternoon. Misasagi doesn’t know that the apple is the exact same color as Alice’s eyes.
Alice has a huge appetite, but she doesn’t sit down for a meal very often. At precisely 11:30am each day, Scarlett ‘happens’ to be wherever she is - whether she’s in her fields, in town, or out of it on a mission - and also ‘happens’ to have extras of her lunch. “You must get really hungry like I do,” Alice says one day over a mouthful of onigiri with strawberry jam. (The jam was a suggestion built from other suggestions from Yuki, Martin, and Beatrice. It was a pure coincidence when Alice enthusiastically agreed with those three about her enjoyment of fruits and jam.) “If you need two lunches! But thank you so much for sharing with me!” Scarlett doesn’t correct her on this. She also ‘happens’ to make extras at dinner these days and always invites Alice in to eat, since “a balanced diet is important part of SEED training”. It works out fourfold because Alice has a strong need to care for others, and if Scarlett is doing so much to help her she needs to repay the elf. So Alice starts making extra lunches for Scarlett and makes dinner for them every other day. She’s a much better cook than Scarlett, but she always happily compliments, then scarfs down Scarlett’s food. When she buys cooking bread, she says she wants to brush up on her cooking skills. It’s true, but it’s a coincidence she can’t own up to.
Scarlett has never been much interested in the beach outside of the social things she does with her friends on her off days. Alice, on the other hand, loves the beach. So when Alice tries to finish her work without sacrificing the quality of her work ethic, as fast as possible in the summer so she can soak up the sun and swim in the water, Scarlett is there more and more when Alice arrives in that adorable yet attractive pink swim-dress of hers. “Hey Scarlett! You must really like the beach, too! It’s awesome!” She cheers, literally jumping for joy. Scarlett’s face turns hot as the sun as she murmurs her agreement to the statement, too embarrassed to admit that the only sun she wants to see is wearing a pink swim-dress.
*
Gideon, the beloved leader and founder of SEED, is behind all the runic disturbances. Alice, who came to Rigbarth with only the clothes on her body and her bright, sunny, moral personality, is understandably shaken to her very core. Scarlett at least has her memories, her history, and knows where she belongs and where she came from - Alice lacks those.
Scarlett remains with SEED, and Alice does not.
In the lonely hour of midnight, Scarlett softly weeps. She knows what she believes and what she’s going to fight for. Her life is meticulous and she plans for everything, if not at least anticipates it. But she did not anticipate this.
SEED was her whole life. Was, being the key word. No longer is it her sole reason for living. Well, it is now, but before Alice came into her life it was why she woke up.
Alice showed her how much she’s loved by the town, truly. Not just a fact, but a feeling. She helped Scarlett realize how much she loves Rigbarth and how much she missed it while she was in the capital. Most of all…
…she did not anticipate how important Alice has become to her.
It isn’t like they won’t see each other. But without Alice in SEED, and Alice’s lack of memories up until the fresh spring of this year, there’s a distinct, frightening possibility that she may leave Rigbarth. There’s nothing really tying her here.
Scarlett’s tearful eyes widen and she gasps. She never makes excuses, why is she doing so now? And she quickly realizes that it’s her anxiety simultaneously trying to distract and prepare her. I don’t want Alice to leave me, she thinks before turning over and forcing herself to sleep. She sleeps poorly that night, unable to admit that SEED was her convenient coincidence excuse for being close to Alice, and it makes her ashamed. She has all these feelings she doesn’t want to admit or think about because that’s another kind of admission to her stubborn personality.
Alice joins Terry’s detective agency because no matter what her strong sense of justice won’t let her take a break, no matter what anyone says. Scarlett doesn’t even care she’s not apart of SEED, she’s not leaving town she’s doing what she thinks is best, and that’s what matters.
The troubles with the Gladeus Grasslands begins, and Scarlett becomes aware of Captain Livia asking Terry for help in secret. Terry is brilliant, for certain, but Scarlett has her reservations about asking a civilian for their assistance in such a dangerous manner.
That is, until Martin (her lunchmate before Alice became her lunchmate, and now that Alice is gone, Martin has his place back) casually lets it slip that Cecil told him that Alice is the lead detective on the case. Scarlett’s relief is cool mint on her tongue. She finishes lunch quickly to get back to work. Martin hides a small smirk behind his spoon.
Just like before, when Scarlett makes her way through the grasslands, there are no monsters in her way. At the gate just before the town, the ferocious beast preventing travel and transport of goods has been dispatched. And just like before, standing there with her weapon drawn, is Alice. She’s panting, but is unharmed, and the relief cools Scarlett’s body.
Despite being weary, Alice smiles when Scarlett gets to her side. “Hey, Scarlett,” she greets, stowing her weapon away. “Long time no see.” It really has, and hasn’t been. She quit SEED only six days ago.
”You dispatched the monster,” Scarlett says instead. “I’m not surprised. Are you alright?”
Alice can only nod before the two of them are rushed by a crowd of people. Grateful citizens from the neighboring town beyond the gate. Despite Alice’s casual clothing, they sing the praises of SEED for saving them and their livelihoods. Alice tries to correct them, but they don’t listen to her, too full of relief and gratitude.
Scarlett leaves to take statements, the discomfort at being falsely credited gnawing through her stomach. She reluctantly leaves Alice at the town gate, her wish for her to safely come back refusing to leave her tongue.
The next day, the week anniversary of her exit from SEED, Alice rejoins SEED.
Scarlett’s relief is an ice bath. Alice would stay in Rigbarth with her with everyone.
*
Scarlett takes it upon herself to fix Alice’s ranger cap every time they see each other, since the thing cannot keep itself straight it seems.
One day, the cap is gone. In its place is a purple ribbon.
Scarlett can’t stop staring at it. Alice grins impishly.
”Do you like it? I decided to personalize my look a little,” she says, smoothing the ribbon with her fingers. “And it raises my magical defense!”
”Really? It does that?” Scarlett asks, now looking at the ribbon curiously.
Alice bobs her head proudly. “Yep! Reinforced it with an amethyst!”
So that’s why it’s sparkling, Scarlett thinks. Then it dawns on her. “You made it?”
Alice bobs her head again, her waves bouncing. “Yep!”
The ribbon is not the main sparkle. It’s everything of Alice that does. Scarlett would lecture about the proper appearance of a ranger. She would, ordinarily, or perhaps…that’s in the past. “It looks very nice on you.”
Alice stops grinning, and pink dusts her cheeks. The smile returns, and it’s sweet. “Thank you,” she murmurs, softer than Scarlett has ever heard her.
Suddenly, her own face feels hot. In good conscience she can’t place it on midsummer. She mutters about having work, so does Alice, and they go separate directions.
The next evening, when Scarlett clocks off for the day, she finds bright green (not her favorite shade of it, but a close second) and a piece of paper on her table.
Its a green ribbon, and a note.
This would look very nice on you! Green is the color of intelligence and taking action, both very Scarlett traits! I hope you like it! - Alice
The heat on Scarlett’s face cannot be attributed to the summer night.
The next day, Scarlett’s sun glows her brightest yet when she sees that the white ribbon that normally holds up the elf’s ponytail is now her second favorite shade of bright green.
*
"I love you!"
It's far too early for this.
"I don't like pranks," Scarlett sternly reminds her rival, not looking up from her puzzle. 500 pieces.
"I know. It's not a prank," Alice says, standing with her hands linked together behind her back, eyes bright as the summer leaves, which were beginning to brown, signalling the coming fall. No matter how serious she tried to appear, the blonde couldn't keep that smile off her face.
No matter what time of day it is, Scarlett knows it isn't healthy for one's heart to try and leap out of their chest.
She looks at Alice, takes all of her in, and is overwhelmed in the best way she's ever felt. She asks for a day, because while she knows exactly what she's going to say (at the very least, her answer will be yes), there's so much of it to say. Scarlett always prefers to be prepared.
Alice's smile turns even sweeter, yet at the same time is filled with deep understanding. "Okay! I'll meet you tomorrow!" With that, she turns around and exits Scarlett's room humming cheerfully.
That's the moment Scarlett is able to pinpoint that Alice is the one for her.
*
Alice is, as Scarlett thought, overjoyed that Scarlett returns her affections. It's not that Scarlett is arrogant, it's that she knows Alice. It's scary in a good way because Alice turns everything into an adventure.
The last rays of summer catch Alice, framing her wide grin. The winds - both from vanishing summer and arriving autumn - carry her happy giggles with them. Even the sun at its highest point in the sky could not match the brightness and warmth of her eyes.
Scarlett wonders when she started finding Alice so beautiful.
*
On their first date, Scarlett admits that she may have been wrong.
Alice is so much fun to be around, and finds immense joy in simply being with Scarlett. She shows her typical boldness by reaching for Scarlett's hand, but leaves it in Scarlett's favor by smiling kindly and offering her hand.
Scarlett is a decisive person. She doesn't hesitate to take Alice's hand. The smile she gets and the warmth she feels immediately makes her ask herself where the rope is so she and her lover, Alice, her actual lover, can always be connected.
Alice doesn't just make everything an adventure - she herself is the adventure.
*
"Ranger Scarlett, I'm putting a spell seal on your heart!"
The line is both so respectful and so purely Alice that it makes Scarlett break out in the biggest smile she's ever had in her life, she's sure of it.
"I humbly accept your proposal, Alice," Scarlett says, unable to stop smiling.
Alice grins, giggles, and hugs Scarlett so tightly it knocks the breath out of the elf. Not that Scarlett minds - she giggles and hugs her new fiancée back.
They get married that autumn, standing under falling golden leaves the exact same color as Alice's hair.
*
"Hey, Lettie?"
Shifting, Scarlett turns to rest on her side, facing her wife. Her wife, Alice. Alice, who is her wife now. "Yes, dearest?"
Winter is fast approaching. The leaves on the trees are getting fewer and fewer, and soon they will be bare. Cold seeps more and more into town every day, especially at night. The night sky itself grows blacker each time it appears, starkly contrasting with the silver sparkle of the moon.
Alice positively glows under the moonlight streaming through their window. It makes her look like an angel, save for her utterly mischievious grin. "Is it funny now?"
Scarlett frowns in confusion. "Is what-" Then it hits her.
When she confessed her mutual love for Alice, she also confessed that she didn't at all like the blonde Earthmate at first.
"Don't worry, this will all be funny once we're married."
Scarlett buries her face in her pillow, groaning. "Gods damn it."
Alice's laughter rings through Rigbarth.