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ajremixI love this game to pieces but I rarely feel the need to read or write fic for it. Similarly, I am absolutely terrible playing Gau, but I think he's one of the most interesting characters in the game.
Title: Behavioral Issues
Fandom: Final Fantasy VI
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1397
Characters: Edgar, Gau, Sabin, minor appearances by Cyan and Terra
Summary: Just as Gau was becoming a proper and respectable young man, his behavior does a quick about-face.
Edgar should have realized what it was all about the moment he heard about it. Or at least by the fifth incident. But, in his defense- if he actually needed a defense when no one else could figure out what was going on -someone was always getting huffy over something Gau had done. Granted, after almost two years of acclimating the boy to life in Figaro Castle, the complaints had died to a handful a month. Then, all of the sudden, Edgar was hearing complaints almost daily again- of Gau yowling and screeching underneath windows, stealing anything remotely shiny or fancy looking, flailing and jumping about wildly in the courtyards, or taking pieces of furniture and table runners and making beds outside of doors. Every time Edgar asked why Gau was behaving in that manner, Gau simply said, "I have to." Whenever Edgar pressed, he merely cocked his head to one side with the blank sort of look on his face that said he didn't understand why Edgar didn't understand.
Neither Sabin nor Cyan could offer any insight or get anything more enlightening out of Gau so they figured it was just a phase the young teen was going through. Until, that is, one of the guards brought Gau into the king's study with a heavy, gloved hand clamped down on the back of his neck. When he was told Gau had been chasing a young serving girl through the halls, Edgar had to keep all his anger clamping his hands to his armrest. He kept it forced down until the guard confirmed that the girl was fine, just shaken by the experience; waited until he returned to his post and a runner went to fetch Cyan and Sabin. As they waited, Gau made frustrated little noises under his breath as he prowled around the room on his knuckles and balls of his feet, discarding completely all the lessons about posture and appearance.
Once the other two men entered and shut the door, Edgar fairly exploded, "What is wrong with you? Did we not discuss what is proper behavior? Stars, boy- what were you thinking? Terrifying that poor girl!"
A hand gripped his shoulder, just this side of comfortable. "You're sounding like Dad," Sabin's voice was low, part amused, part warningly. "Let him explain himself."
"If he explains himself. He hasn't offered one in the last three weeks." But Edgar bit back his words, waiting for Gau to say something.
He didn't. Just picked at some loose thread on his shirt- and it was a minor miracle he was wearing one, considering his recent behavior -in a completely disinterested fashion.
Before Edgar could explode again, Cyan knelt by Gau, causing the boy to look up. "Did you intend to harm that young lady?"
"No."
"What would you have done had you caught her?"
"What I had to."
"What is it you had to do?"
Gau merely looked at Cyan, but for once the silence of someone not wanting to explain what he felt they should already know, but one of someone unable to find the words he needed to say it.
Edgar pressed his fingertips to his brow. "We're going to need an expert."
His expert, it turned out, was Terra. Edgar hoped her experiences covered whatever oddities Gau was now going through, even if her own village of orphans were a number of years younger. Leaving Cyan and Sabin to take care of things in Figaro, Edgar sat with Terra on a fence, watching the way the children swarmed around Gau in curiosity. Edgar explained the problems and Gau's lack of communication and the overall frustration everyone was feeling. Terra just hummed and within three hours of watching Gau interact with the other children, his attention waning from one to another, Terra said, "He's trying to court them."
To which Edgar replied, "What?"
"The girls. He's trying to court them."
He looked at Gau who was bouncing around one of the older girls. "He's jumping around like a lunatic, how is that courting?"
"He probably picked it up from one of the creatures in the Veldt."
Everything clicked so cleanly into place that Edgar felt like a moron. "Oh." He was struck, very suddenly, by the remembrance that Espers were very unlike humans and wondered if their courtship rituals had been one of those differences.
"How old is he now?" Terra asked, not at all noticing her companion's silent lapse.
"Somewhere around 15 or 16."
"You didn't think to teach him about human sexual behavior, did you?"
His cheeks colored, both at the reflexive embarrassment of the subject matter and also shame at having not thought of it. "It's usually taught at a younger age, so when we were tailoring Gau's education, no one had considered it."
"You should teach him right away. Like Espers, there are some animals that mate... forcefully."
The colored drained right out of his face. Terra held up her hands, trying to look apologetic and ease her words at the same time. "Admittedly I don't know much on the subject, but I believe in most cases the males wait for consent first. It's just something to be aware of." When that didn't seem to make things better, she offered, "Duane and Katarin were the ones that explained it to the children- and myself. I could ask if they're willing to teach Gau?"
"Please," he had never put so much emotion into one word in his life.
~*~*~*~
Taking Gau to Mobliz did him more good than just educating him on sex and proper behavior in regards. The children didn't see him as a king's adopted brother, or the strange child with terrible manners and no proper upbringing; he was a new playmate, one that could sound and move like any creature imaginable and taught them how to climb trees to pick the best fruit. The week he spent in Mobliz was one spent in laughter and with those close to his own age who liked who he was. Not like at Figaro where Gau, when not in the company of either brothers, Cyan or in his lessons, spent most of his time in the chocobo stables or the desert. It made Edgar wonder if taking Gau back to the castle was the right thing to do.
Gau flopped across Edgar's body the night before they were to return to Figaro and said, with his eyes shining and smile bright, "Good to go home." Edgar just smiled quietly back at him and pulled the boy- with a more consistent diet and the growth spurts, Gau was no where near as light or small as he was two years ago -up until he was a curled ball against Edgar's side. The next day they said their goodbyes and the children extracted a promise for Gau to visit them again.
Sabin met the two on the South Figaro docks and when Edgar explained everything, he laughed a deep belly laugh that bounced between buildings. "To think- all that because he was hitting puberty!"
"At least you understand how people and animals court are different now, right?" Edgar asked Gau.
"Yup," he chirped before focusing back on grooming his chocobo's head feathers. The chocobo cooed in appreciation, making the other two mounts trill enviously.
"What I don't understand, though," Edgar said, "is that you've been living among people for long enough that you must have learned what human courting is like. Me, for instance. I know you've seen me flirt with women many times."
Gau looked up at him with large eyes and said innocently, "They never mate with you."
Sabin's laugh was even louder that time, so wild and raucous he almost fell off his chocobo. Edgar just spluttered, trying to come up with a defense and excuse and explanation all at once and turning up incoherent. Not understanding the joke, Gau turned back to his chocobo and Edgar hissed to his brother, "It's not that funny."
He was wiping away tears with a hand, "I am definitely telling Cyan that."
Edgar could do nothing but snarl at him because the moment they left the traffic of the city, Gau let his chocobo run free, prompting the brothers to spur theirs after him and Sabin kept laughing the entire way. At least until they hit the desert and he began to choke on sand.
Title: Behavioral Issues
Fandom: Final Fantasy VI
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1397
Characters: Edgar, Gau, Sabin, minor appearances by Cyan and Terra
Summary: Just as Gau was becoming a proper and respectable young man, his behavior does a quick about-face.
Edgar should have realized what it was all about the moment he heard about it. Or at least by the fifth incident. But, in his defense- if he actually needed a defense when no one else could figure out what was going on -someone was always getting huffy over something Gau had done. Granted, after almost two years of acclimating the boy to life in Figaro Castle, the complaints had died to a handful a month. Then, all of the sudden, Edgar was hearing complaints almost daily again- of Gau yowling and screeching underneath windows, stealing anything remotely shiny or fancy looking, flailing and jumping about wildly in the courtyards, or taking pieces of furniture and table runners and making beds outside of doors. Every time Edgar asked why Gau was behaving in that manner, Gau simply said, "I have to." Whenever Edgar pressed, he merely cocked his head to one side with the blank sort of look on his face that said he didn't understand why Edgar didn't understand.
Neither Sabin nor Cyan could offer any insight or get anything more enlightening out of Gau so they figured it was just a phase the young teen was going through. Until, that is, one of the guards brought Gau into the king's study with a heavy, gloved hand clamped down on the back of his neck. When he was told Gau had been chasing a young serving girl through the halls, Edgar had to keep all his anger clamping his hands to his armrest. He kept it forced down until the guard confirmed that the girl was fine, just shaken by the experience; waited until he returned to his post and a runner went to fetch Cyan and Sabin. As they waited, Gau made frustrated little noises under his breath as he prowled around the room on his knuckles and balls of his feet, discarding completely all the lessons about posture and appearance.
Once the other two men entered and shut the door, Edgar fairly exploded, "What is wrong with you? Did we not discuss what is proper behavior? Stars, boy- what were you thinking? Terrifying that poor girl!"
A hand gripped his shoulder, just this side of comfortable. "You're sounding like Dad," Sabin's voice was low, part amused, part warningly. "Let him explain himself."
"If he explains himself. He hasn't offered one in the last three weeks." But Edgar bit back his words, waiting for Gau to say something.
He didn't. Just picked at some loose thread on his shirt- and it was a minor miracle he was wearing one, considering his recent behavior -in a completely disinterested fashion.
Before Edgar could explode again, Cyan knelt by Gau, causing the boy to look up. "Did you intend to harm that young lady?"
"No."
"What would you have done had you caught her?"
"What I had to."
"What is it you had to do?"
Gau merely looked at Cyan, but for once the silence of someone not wanting to explain what he felt they should already know, but one of someone unable to find the words he needed to say it.
Edgar pressed his fingertips to his brow. "We're going to need an expert."
His expert, it turned out, was Terra. Edgar hoped her experiences covered whatever oddities Gau was now going through, even if her own village of orphans were a number of years younger. Leaving Cyan and Sabin to take care of things in Figaro, Edgar sat with Terra on a fence, watching the way the children swarmed around Gau in curiosity. Edgar explained the problems and Gau's lack of communication and the overall frustration everyone was feeling. Terra just hummed and within three hours of watching Gau interact with the other children, his attention waning from one to another, Terra said, "He's trying to court them."
To which Edgar replied, "What?"
"The girls. He's trying to court them."
He looked at Gau who was bouncing around one of the older girls. "He's jumping around like a lunatic, how is that courting?"
"He probably picked it up from one of the creatures in the Veldt."
Everything clicked so cleanly into place that Edgar felt like a moron. "Oh." He was struck, very suddenly, by the remembrance that Espers were very unlike humans and wondered if their courtship rituals had been one of those differences.
"How old is he now?" Terra asked, not at all noticing her companion's silent lapse.
"Somewhere around 15 or 16."
"You didn't think to teach him about human sexual behavior, did you?"
His cheeks colored, both at the reflexive embarrassment of the subject matter and also shame at having not thought of it. "It's usually taught at a younger age, so when we were tailoring Gau's education, no one had considered it."
"You should teach him right away. Like Espers, there are some animals that mate... forcefully."
The colored drained right out of his face. Terra held up her hands, trying to look apologetic and ease her words at the same time. "Admittedly I don't know much on the subject, but I believe in most cases the males wait for consent first. It's just something to be aware of." When that didn't seem to make things better, she offered, "Duane and Katarin were the ones that explained it to the children- and myself. I could ask if they're willing to teach Gau?"
"Please," he had never put so much emotion into one word in his life.
~*~*~*~
Taking Gau to Mobliz did him more good than just educating him on sex and proper behavior in regards. The children didn't see him as a king's adopted brother, or the strange child with terrible manners and no proper upbringing; he was a new playmate, one that could sound and move like any creature imaginable and taught them how to climb trees to pick the best fruit. The week he spent in Mobliz was one spent in laughter and with those close to his own age who liked who he was. Not like at Figaro where Gau, when not in the company of either brothers, Cyan or in his lessons, spent most of his time in the chocobo stables or the desert. It made Edgar wonder if taking Gau back to the castle was the right thing to do.
Gau flopped across Edgar's body the night before they were to return to Figaro and said, with his eyes shining and smile bright, "Good to go home." Edgar just smiled quietly back at him and pulled the boy- with a more consistent diet and the growth spurts, Gau was no where near as light or small as he was two years ago -up until he was a curled ball against Edgar's side. The next day they said their goodbyes and the children extracted a promise for Gau to visit them again.
Sabin met the two on the South Figaro docks and when Edgar explained everything, he laughed a deep belly laugh that bounced between buildings. "To think- all that because he was hitting puberty!"
"At least you understand how people and animals court are different now, right?" Edgar asked Gau.
"Yup," he chirped before focusing back on grooming his chocobo's head feathers. The chocobo cooed in appreciation, making the other two mounts trill enviously.
"What I don't understand, though," Edgar said, "is that you've been living among people for long enough that you must have learned what human courting is like. Me, for instance. I know you've seen me flirt with women many times."
Gau looked up at him with large eyes and said innocently, "They never mate with you."
Sabin's laugh was even louder that time, so wild and raucous he almost fell off his chocobo. Edgar just spluttered, trying to come up with a defense and excuse and explanation all at once and turning up incoherent. Not understanding the joke, Gau turned back to his chocobo and Edgar hissed to his brother, "It's not that funny."
He was wiping away tears with a hand, "I am definitely telling Cyan that."
Edgar could do nothing but snarl at him because the moment they left the traffic of the city, Gau let his chocobo run free, prompting the brothers to spur theirs after him and Sabin kept laughing the entire way. At least until they hit the desert and he began to choke on sand.
