♛ for my muse to teach yours something new (For whoever you'd like if you have any thoughts o7)
Crouching on the deck of a moving ship required a certain amount of balance that Fiona was blessed to possess. When the world shifted and gave, tipping the vessel over the rolling push of wind, she shifted her weight from one side to the other as a thick length of rope dangled in her hands. She liked traveling. And when she traveled, she lent a hand where she could, but she didn’t know much about airships. She could feed a herd of chocobos without a fight breaking out. She could replace a wagon wheel and lead a horse to water. She could read a map upside down and drunk and not end up miles in the opposite direction the next morning. Knots, though. She knew how to unlace a fellow’s trousers and a lady’s corset -- and sometimes, the other way ‘round -- but those were simple little flimsy things.
The captain of the vessel stared at her, amusement sparkling across his face like sunlight over wager. He watched her struggle with the rope for another torturous minute before taking the rope out of her hands with an amused, “That’s, ah... not th’way.” Fiona’s shoulders sank forward in defeat.
“You said it was the easiest one, yeah?” Her knuckles dragged against the deck, arms tucked between her muscular thighs. Still, she moved with the pitch of the ship, watching Bastien as he demonstrated the knot -- first, quickly, then much more slowly to show her how to properly construct a clove hitch around the nearby railing. She snorted, frustrated more with herself rather than the captain or the knot. “Oh, fuck off.” Bastien’s eyebrows shot up. A laugh caught in his throat, but it spread to the monk watching him unravel the knot as easily as exhaling. She took a moment to bury the nervous chuckle into her hands before heaving a sigh, stretching her arms outwards, and holding open her palms for the length of rope.
“Alright, give it here.” The rope was heavy as it was rough. “Here’s hoping I figure the damn thing out before we dock, I guess.”
“It isn’t the easiest, just the quickest.” Bastien pushed his hands into his knees and stood up straight, rubbing over the back of his neck as he watched her struggle even more gloriously than before. “Ye’ve got time yet.”
















