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Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I don't own the Diplo. But what I DO own is this really cute stuffed horse I named Sora! Okay, he's totally useless… ((sigh)) Yet, none the less cute!

Title: Swaying Emotions

Author: Maiyoko Iwagashi

Notes: I find FaytxMaria very cute and on of my favorite SO3 couples, so I brainstormed one day and came up with a few ideas then wrote them down. It took a while to plan it all out though before I started typing.

Warnings: Slight OOCness, some language here and there, non-mild suggestive scenes, and of course, cuteness and sweetness that kills.

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Chapter 1: Aboard the Diplo

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Maria walked into the bridge of the Diplo and stood to take a quick glance around the large space. She was captain of the ship and crew, and she didn't appreciate Cliff disappearing on the eve of the matter. The blue haired young woman turned back around to search for Cliff elsewhere. As she turned around the corner of the hall though, she bumped into Lieber, causing them both to fall on the floor. "Woah…! Who in the… Oh, Lieber… What're you doing out here? Shouldn't you already be in the bridge?" She swiftly got herself off the hard floor and waited for Lieber's 'excuse', which she was quickly becoming tired of.

"Oh, M-Miss Maria! I was just looking for you! I finally wanted to tell you…" Lieber froze. After all these years, he still didn't have the courage to tell Maria his feelings. It was basically the same routine everyday: find Maria, pester her, end up not telling her, than leave ashamed of himself.

"Yes, what'd you want to tell me?" she tapped her foot impatiently and put her hands on her hips as she waited for him. The crew just didn't seem to listen without protesting much these days. She sighed to herself.

Lieber nervously thought of an excuse as a little bit of sweat ran down his forehead. Each excuse was different; one time it was 'I just saw a chocobo floating out the window!'. Maria became so confused that Lieber snuck away while she tried to figure out what in the world he was talking about. I mean like, honestly… chocobos in space? "I wanted to tell you that…" he coughed nervously before changing his sentence, "your shoes are untied! Er, again!" He quickly rushed past her and ran back into the bridge.

Huh? My shoes…? She thought asshe looked down at her shoes, realizing she wasn't wearing any shoes with laces. Once again, Lieber has made a complete fool of himself. Ugh, never mind that. I need to find Cliff. Aggravated by Lieber, she quickly strolled down to Cliff's room and knocked on his door. "Cliff? Are you in there?" she asked and all she heard was light snores.

Maria strolled through the sliding door, only to be disappointed by the sight of Cliff snoring in his bed. That lazy idiot! He's sleeping on the job again. Maria sighed then walked up to Cliff's bed."Cliff. Cliff! Wake up!" Cliff responded by snoring loudly. Maria narrowed her eyes. "Cliff! Grr… fine then. Lightning Blast!" Maria called out her symbology spell, sending the strike of lightning at Cliff and causing him to wake up rather uncomfortably.

"WOAH!" The Klausian fell clumsily to the floor, face first. He got up and raised his fists, looking around the room offensively. "Ok, who did that!" his eyes froze on Maria, who was sending him a cold stare that struck through unease through his spine. Her lip stayed in a firm line, while she restrained herself from blasting Cliff again. "Oh, Maria! Um… I can explain this, you know." He apologetically rubbed the back of his head.

Maria slightly growled deep in her throat as she took steps closer to Cliff, so that she had to look up at him to see his face. "You were supposed to be at the bridge! I've been searching everywhere, only to find sleeping as if there aren't important matters to attend to." Why was it that she had to be surrounded by thick-headed idiots? Where's all the smart people? Only a handful of the ones she knows well are capable of doing their work the right way.

Man… I'm in deep poo. Cliff thought. "But, you see…" Cliff tried saying before getting interrupted.

"You better keep that excuse or I'll shove it up you're a-"

"Miss Maria! We need you at the bridge! Oh, was I interrupting something?" Marietta said at the door as she stopped to call to Maria. She became confused at the sight of a pale Cliff standing before Maria.

"I'll be right there just give me a second! I mean… Okay, I will be there soon." Maria lowered her voice and as soon as Marietta's footsteps disappeared, she started yelling at Cliff again. Boy, it sure felt good to yell at someone older and not get in trouble for it.

"Now where was I… Oh yes! I expect you to be working hard and not slacking off the job to sleep all day! Now, if I catch you doing it again, I'll send out into orbit and watch as you float away gasping for breath then finally die!" Maria yelled at him, in the crudest way she could think of. Yelling at someone was just what she needed. It calmed the nerves… but damaged the ears with its high decibel count. She took a second to breathe then stared at Cliff, whose jaw was agape by the disturbing threat of Maria's.

"D-g-w-gahh…" Was all he managed to say. A crew member that passed by the room looked into the said room as though there was a freak show going on in there, but he quickly hurried by. "Er, well… Sorry…?" Cliff finally said. It probably didn't register in his brain until the 'gasping for breath' line left his head.

Maria sighed again and shook her head in disappointment. She probably should've saved the scolding for later since she had to ask him a question. "Anyways…" Cliff shook his head to focus again, then asked why Maria wanted him. "I need to know if Mirage and Sophia have contacted you yet." Please, just please say something that is of good news.

"Hmm… oh, yeah. She did not to long ago." He said rather lazily.

"You mean 'before you fell asleep on the job'?" Maria asked in an irritated tone.

"Doih… Yeah…" he rubbed his head again. Did he have some kind of rash? Probably a 'too blonde to be smart' rash…

"So, what did she say?"

"Umm…" Cliff said aloud as he tried to recall the conversation between him and Mirage earlier. "Oh, that's right. She said that she and Sophia finished re-supplying Airyglyph with food. But… now Aquios needs some of us to clear a path all the way to Arias so that building supplies can be brought there."

Maria sighed. It was one thing after another, but she couldn't refuse. They had after all inflicted a lot of damage while they were there. "I see…" she shook her head. "Who will be going?" She hadn't volunteered yet for any of the jobs, seeing that she should stay on the Diplo. She was captain, after all.

Cliff rubbed his chin, "Well… you can probably go. Y'know, take a break from being on this ship all the time, get some fresh air…"

"Huh, me?" Well, it does sound pretty nice. I'm starting to forget what the fresh breeze feels like… she sighed again. "Well, that sounds good. But who will come with me? Surely, I'll need someone else with me who has good battle skills"

"Say, how about Fayt? You know how good he is in battle." Cliff said. I sure hope this works out.

The blue haired one thought for a second. Yes… Fayt is quite good in battle. He should do well… "Sounds good to me. All right, then it's settled. I'll go tell him right away and in the meanwhile… get back to the bridge!"

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Fayt sat on a bench by the bridge with his head resting back. His blue bangs lying carelessly across his closed eyes. Geez, there's nothing to do. I wanna go back to Elicoor and keep fighting. Why didn't I volunteer for the last mission? He let out a deep sigh.

"Fayt?" Fayt jumped, startled by the sudden voice. He snapped his eyes open and turned his head to see Maria looking at him. She had her arms crossed and was staring intently at him, "It seems we have another mission on Elicoor II, and you and I are needed this time."

The young man got up excitedly and turned to face Maria. "Yes! A mission!" He cleared his throat, realizing how childish he had just sounded, then said, "Hmm, we are? What's the mission?"

"We have to clear a path of monsters from Aquios to Arias so that building supplies can be brought there safely. We'll leave soon, so just get your supplies ready in the meantime, all right? I wouldn't want you to be a burden." She said the last sentence smiling at Fayt.

Fayt smiled back. He was just glad to hear he could leave the Diplo. "Okay, sounds like a plan." He said happily.

Maria turned around and saw Mirage walking down the hall from the transportation room. "Hello Mirage, hello Sophia. How did the mission go? Were there any casualties?"

Mirage shook her head as Sophia stood behind her. "It went just as planned. No problems occurred." Mirage said in her emotionless voice again. Why does Mirage talk like that anyways?

Sophia peeked from behind Mirage. She suspiciously eyed the blue-hair people and raised an eyebrow. What were they just doing? Maria better not be trying to steal Fayt from me, or I'll swear I'll… She trailed off in her own thoughts but then said in a quiet voice, "What she said."

"So, who's volunteering in clearing the monsters? If, Cliff even told you guys what was going on." she gently clenched her fist. Cliff better not've forgotten to tell them, because if he did, she can imagine herself scolding Cliff.

"We are." Maria and Fayt said synchronously. They did it quite often, actually… They looked at each other and blinked from the awkward reply, but then put their attention back to Mirage and Sophia. Well, Mirage for most of the part, atleast. Sophia was still behind Mirage eyeing Fayt and Maria with a lot of meaningless thoughts flowing through her little, overworked brain.

Mirage tried to hold back her smirk. If she smirked, Fayt and Maria would suspect something. Perfect, it seems he convinced her… but the scolding still seemed pretty fun. She let out a small sigh but then sweetly smiled at Fayt and Maria. "Ahh, I see."

Maria tried guessing what the pause in Mirage's reply meant but decided to let it go and ask another question instead. "So, was it easy?"

Mirage put a hand on her hip. "Oh, you mean back on Elicoor II?" Maria nodded, "Well, there were some moderately strong enemies on the way there. It was colder in Airyglyph then normal, though."

Sophia interrupted, not being able to stand being left out of a conversation for so long. But honestly, the sentences were not really forming any type of conversation, yet Sophia was not able to tolerate it anyway. "Yeah, and there was this really ugly little dog that kept following us. I don't know what it wanted but it wouldn't leave us alone. So then I finally gave it a good kick to get it to leave us alone…" Pfsh, yeah. I bet the dog attacked her face, even though it couldn't harm a fly.

Mirage turned toward Sophia. "I had already informed you. He was probably after those sausages you stole from the inn!" Sophia shook her head vigorously.

"I told you, darn it! I didn't steal any sausages! He must've been after that hamburger you stole from me!" she puffed up her cheeks as her mouth twisted into an irritated scowl.

"I already said I didn't steal it from you! I would have eaten it right away if I stole it! Who carries around hamburgers, anyways?" The two girls continued bickering among each other while Fayt and Maria watched quietly in question. The argument was actually quite interesting. There was a sentence that involved 'your shirt looks like a dead rat', and then another one with 'creepy old fart' in it. At that point though, Fayt and Maria were already gone.

While they were walking down the stairs, Maria turned toward Fayt. "I don't understand why people can be so dull sometimes…"

"Yeah. Although, I would've expected different from Mirage." They then headed to their rooms to pack their belongings.

Fayt looked through his items in his room. He had so much junk; he didn't even know why he had all this crap in the first place. He found a rock that he must've found interesting at the time when he picked it up, but now he lost all interest in it and threw it away then continued searching for the necessities. Hmm, I should bring some spare clothes, blueberries… boy, I wonder how long they've been in here? Hahaha! Might be a hazard to get hit 'cause then I'd have to use these. Anyways… what else? These blackberries, my communicator… huh? Fayt turned his head to face the door which opened as Sophia walked in. "Oh, hey Sophia."

Obviously, the squall between her and Mirage must've ended if she was walking in there, with all her limbs. Attached. "Hey, Fayt. Now that we've got some time alone, let's talk some! Did ya miss me?" she asked as she stood with her hands behind her back.

Fayt chuckled. "Hehe, of course. I missed your loud mouth and constant blabbering. Who couldn't?" he meant this as a joke, but people just didn't seem to take a joke as a joke, lately, now did they?

"Hey, that's rude to say, Fayt!" Sophia said angrily, but then wondered if she really was loud.

"Okay, okay. I was just kidding. Geez, can't you take a joke? Well, did you need something?" Fayt asked while continuing to pack his items.

Sophia put her hands on her hips and pouted. Geez! How old was she? Pouting was for little kids! Well, Fayt could pout all he wanted since he looked cute, but that's beside the fact. "Well, I was going to chat with my long-time friend I haven't seen in 4 days, but I've changed my mind now. Hmph!" at that last word she turned around and headed out through the bedroom door. As the sliding door started to close, she yelled out, "Jerk!" then the sound of her footsteps began to disperse.

Fayt rubbed the back of his head as he sighed. He really wasn't in the mood to hassle with Sophia's childish temper. He continued packing his stuff and throwing away more useless junk. He packed all his fresh sages, just in case. After that, he set his full backpack by his bed and decided to go find some armor in the storage room.

When he left his room, he stood by the door trying to remember where it was located. I know it's upstairs somewhere… hmm… He decided to just go look for it instead of trying to remember where it was. It seemed much easier that way anyways. He passed crew members who had already seemed to figure out him and Maria were soon going to go to Elicoor. Boy, news sure spread around quick on this ship.

He soon found the storage room and had help from another crewmember locating some good armor. He found a strong one that fit then left back to his room. When he arrived his stomach growled incredibly loud. Man… I didn't know I was so hungry… after that, he left his room and went to go get some food from the kitchen.

"Excuse me… can I get something to eat?" the cook turned around from facing the counter. He had some sauce smudged across his face and his apron was filthy with all sorts of food. Fayt moved back a little as the cook gave him a dirty look. A nametag on the cook read 'Nik'.

Nik said nastily, "Whadya talkin' about, kid? Lunch isn't gonna be made until about two hours from now."

Fayt protested. "But I'm hungry! I skipped breakfast!" Nik snorted.

"Is that my problem? It's not my fault you can't feed yerself. You shoulda prepared yerself for life on a flagship. You can't just come prancin' into the kitchen and openin' the fridge then eatin' whatever the hell you want like you can do at home." Fayt scowled.

"Can I just have a little snack? Anything? Even a little sandwich, come on!" Fayt pouted. He stared straight at Nik, who only laughed.

"Ahaha! You don't expect that beggin' will help, do ya?" Fayt's stomach growled super loud, again. This time, a couple of gurgles were thrown in there along with noises that sounded like a dinosaur dying. Nik stopped chewing on his gum which had long lost its flavour. "I didn't know you were that hungry, kid! Why didn't ya say so? Here, I'll go getta pre-made sandwich from the fridge, 'kay? Just hold your damned horses." Nik went to the fridge and pulled out a turkey sandwich then came back and handed it to Fayt.

Fayt grudgingly took the sandwich from Nik's hands. He managed a rude 'thanks' before he left the kitchen.

He finished the small sandwich in his room then lied down on his bed. Today was just too much. Man… I'm so tired... He closed his eyes then quickly fell asleep. There wasn't anymore preparation he had to do, so a nap was a good way to kill time.

A/N: Well, there's chapter one! I finally typed it up, after procrastinating for so long. Ok, honestly? I was too lazy. Eheh… yes, that's me… So, I hope that you enjoyed it! I should have chapter two up soon, if I don't become too lazy again.

Added A/N: So, just like with what I did with my other story, I edited the first chapter. It was just driving me crazy, and I know I'll be editing the other chapters too once I find the time.