Sweet Like Chocolate
by tami
Lifelessnight@cs.com

Serge stood out in the middle of the field, quietly standing there with his eyes riveted on the blazing diamonds above. His short azure hair kept in check by the patterned bandanna flowed freely around his face like a muslin skirt, manipulated by the wind's will. His amber eyes held no particular emotion; perhaps thoughtfulness, and maybe sentimentality, but they did not glow bright with the tragedy and despair so often found with a young man deeply involved with the attention of two women at the same time. Maybe more harbored affection for him, in fact. Who knew what all the other female team members thought of him. Like him, they were quiet. It took the chatty nature and bashful flirting of the two confirmed amorous admirers for Serge to finally catch on.

He took a quiet breath and reached into his pocket for something. He pulled out a packet of candy. It was strange that he put the matter of food ahead of many other issues, considering that the fate of the world was at stake; but every time he had sweets on his person one of the young ones would sniff it out and demand that he share. And of course, for morality's sake, he would, only in the end there wouldn't be any left for him. He had finally learned from past experiences and always snuck out to some abandoned spacious area to eat sugar.

He began to remove the wrapper, but then Serge felt someone wrap his or her arms around his neck. Whoever it was shorter than him by a long shot, for the slender limbs were choking him, pulling down onto the chest of a warm body that had gotten up of tiptoe and made a wild lunge for his neck. He felt a fuzzy ball of fluff enter his mouth when he opened it (as was the instinct of someone who had been suddenly deprived of air.) and coat his tongue with a dry, furry sensation. By the time he was done spitting, an ecstatic voice thick with a French accent rang out happily.

"Serge! It iz most pleazent to meet you in such a location!"

He blinked twice, trying to make sense of the badly pronounced words. Then he slid out of his jester friend's arms, and facing her, nodded in agreement. He stuck his tongue in his check while doing it, giving the harlequin a wary look, for it was not every day she suddenly hurled herself at him and he got a taste of her pom-pom earrings.

Harle giggled and spun around in place for no apparent reason other than to announce her baseless joy to the world. The stars above glittered exceptionally bright as she did this, as if to roll any eyes they might have and muse. "Why can't those humans be as happy as Harle is?" The moons glowed more demurely, as if their opinion of her bubbly behavior was far from what the stars thought. Their pale light seemed almost to reach out at her and try to restrain her, forbidding her to be gleeful without a cause to be. Harle looked up at it as its luminosity wreathed the folds of her skin-tight clothing. Then she took a running leap, turned an agile cartwheel, and returned to stand beside Serge with her hands on her hips.

Serge just stared. He had never seen someone act this way before. He knew it was shameful, but he was fascinated. He ogled her as if she were putting on a show. Harle acted as if he didn't even exist.

"Plbbbbt!" she blew a raspberry with her fingers creating wriggling horns at the sides of her crimson hood, which caused Serge to crack a nervous smile. Perhaps she was just joking. The milky pearl with the spherical drop of blood gracing its side appeared to grimace as they hovered disapprovingly over her capped head. They almost seemed to contradict the stars with a sulky " Happy! She's insane!"

"No need to scowl so deeply, my celeztial freindz! Tiz your fault to svell so round so soon! A double blue moon! Ah, you two must want me to run amuck tonight and smother my comradez in their zleep!" she cried, tilting her powdered face up and jubilantly appealing to the sky.

At this she suddenly switched her giddy joy to abject despair. "Mon Dieu!" She exclaimed, wringing her hands and weeping noisily as if dismayed. "What iz to become of me! I have come to love them all so dearly! But ze moonz commands their deathz! Ah, woe is me, to come across such a dilemma! It iz most unorthodox to zlaughter your dearest companionz! But what iz this? Surely zey will not expect me to fight againzt my nature. Ah, but humanz can be bit judgmental at timez."

Next to her, Serge blanched as the meaning of this exuberant declaration dawned on him, not sure if he should take the threat seriously. One could never tell with Harle.

Harle caught the movement of his flinching from the corner of her eye. With a long, dawn out squeal that made Serge duck in fear of provoking her to make her decision about who was to be her first victim, Harle once again launched herself at the other one present. Her embrace made Serge both wobble dangerously and fight for balance, and cringe in preparation of fighting her off. Her intentions didn't seem hostile, however.

"Ah! My Serge! Do not fear me, for I will make a very special exception for you! You are, after all, my best friend, and I have yet to give you a favor! After all, what kind of perzon would allow her best friend to did without granting him any favors at all? No, no, it zimply iz not allowed! Go on, zen, tell me a wish you want granted!" She made this speech after she had near tackled him.

Before he had even opened his mouth to tell her that he had no idea what he was talking about, she released him and whirled him around so that after he spun a few feet away from her, landed hard on his bottom. She ignored his grunt of pain.

"You hear zat!" She shouted, shaking her fist menacingly up at the heavens. "He wizhes that I do not zmite his-our! -friendz! I am most zaddened to dizobey you, but-" She suddenly halted and cocked her head towards the moon with a cupped hand at her ear, as if she were trying to catch some low grumble. "True, my gloriouz moonz! But you know the rulez and I refuze!"

Serge, taking full advantage of her distraction, had gotten to his feet and had taken the opportunity to slink away. But a persistent Harle, who had wheeled about and latched on to his wrist, foiled his efforts.

"And you! Shame on you for disgracing a Harlequin with your unreazonable demandz! My masters are most displeazed! Ze next full moon I vill have to do something most unpleazent, no doubt! " she scolded him with a frown.

He stumbled from her firm grip and frantically tried to jerk away.

"Oh ho! But I forget. You too, are under the influence of ze moonz, are you not, ze one with ze power of luminaire?" She perked up considerably and grinned, poking him painfully in his curved cheek with her forefinger. "So! The moonz have also drawn you to zheir audience chamber!

He shook his head in alarmed protest, but Harle continued, not at all put off.

"Do not deny it! It is now obvious to me zat you are in need of zhier wisdom, and az you are not able to listen to their wordz as I can, I shall act as diplomat and answer your quieriez!"

He became more violent, attempting to break her hold on him by shoving her away with his free hand. She wasn't discouraged by the message relayed by his physical actions. He might have as well tried to twist his way out of a giant's fist, for she doggedly hung on.

"Do not doubt your instinctz, Serge! I am the solution to your worriez! The moonz have told me so!"

Serge scrunched up his brow in confusion, and shrugged in defeat as if it might halt her rambling. Harle relinquished his arm and he massaged it, trying to get the feeling and circulation working again. The clown did another gymnastic demonstration, doing a back flip and a somersault in rapid succession. Serge was wondering how anyone could bend their back in such an awkward position when she came back up abruptly with a jump that made her land only a few inches or so away form Serge's face, scaring him half to death. She was clutching a colorful package in her clenched hand. It was his candy. He had dropped and forgotten it in his struggle with Harle.

"I see that my Serge haz a liking for sweetz! I am quite fond of them myself, but I am glad to say that they are the only type of sweetz that am willing to tolerate!"

She jammed a fist into her hip and wagged an admonishing finger at him after walking back a few paces, to Serge's relief. He listened indulgently and waited for her to say more, thinking that he would just nod until she finished.

"Serge doez not take me zeriously! But id he knowz what iz good for him, he will take my advice to heart...az it iz what is on ze line!" she laughed.

He shook his head furiously and blushed a delicate hue of red (not that she could see that in the dark), responding to her accusations with vehemence.

"Serge! It iz well known zat zhere are more than one young lady vying for your attention, and I can be honest when I zay that I care not for either of zem. But I care for you, and that is why I leave you with zhese wordz. a gift from the moonz, a vital part of us both"

She walked a few lengths away from him, turned back, and repeated the gesture, as if she were waiting for something. The she turned to him, who had by now became willing to be entertained her words, if not be intrigued by them.

He let out a slight gagging sound as she tore open the package of candy and forced a particularly large chunk into his past his lips. Harle watched as he chewed slowly, appraising her state of mind with a raised eyebrow. A sweet sensation spread throughout his mouth.

"Good, no?" she mused, her cerulean eyes sparkling. "Quite pretty on the outzide too. " she noted, indicating the smiley face design on the exterior of the package, whose contents rattled as she moved.

"So... you like it, don't you Serge?" He nodded, wondering why she had asked that again. He thought that that point had already been established.

"I believe that zis type is called 'gumdrops'. I am right, no?"

He nodded again, wondering where she could be going from this.

"But surely zis is not the only kind that you like? There are so many otherz. What else, Serge?"

He shrugged, not in the mood to go into detail describing all of his favorite candies.

"You do not wish to elaborate? Very well, I thought as much. Then let me start with a much-loved one... chocolate. You like zis one, Serge?

His grin told her that he did.

"Ah! It iz unique, delicious, and a great temptation, no doubt, for it iz so irrezistable, that it would be more than human to refuze it. But you know what they zay about chocolate. It iz one of ze greater evils that one always finds himself succumbing to repeatedly, although it never results in more zhen regret."

Bewildered was the only word that could describe Serge's reaction.

"Ooh" she suddenly trilled. " I know! There iz one that I know that you dote upon! Cotton candy." Her cackle was more friendly than witch-like, for there was no malice in it.

"But remember zis, Serge." She sobered "It iz, indeed, sweet and fluffy, but when you partake in any pleasure it bringz, you suddenly realize some thingz you didn't before. That it dissolves much too soon, and you must alwayz have more, yet never be satisfied That it waz mostly air and never had much substanz to begin with."

She chortled at the rebellious glower on his face.

"I am rough and sour now, but sweet and smooth in due time, no?" she mused. "Much like a lemon drop, I suppoze." She whirled around and began to leave. "Good night, my Serge, for I am off to reek havoc under the influence of ze moon! I would invite you to join me, but I am sure you would rather do something else. Contemplate my wordz, my friend!" she shouted over her shoulder. "Zee if you like it sweet like chocolate!" and, more to herself. "Although if it were me, I wouldn't."

Serge watched her go for a few seconds, the turned around. He spotted his package of candy on the floor, the individual pieces that had spilled out glowing like multi-colored mushrooms of a fairy ring under the faint moonlight beaming down on it. He bent down to retrieve it. Then he hesitated. He straightened up, and walked back to the camp, leaving it to rot.



***

Okay...needed to write something on Serge, since he's my other favorite character and wrote so much on Glenn already. I immediately thought of someone else he could interact with...the much-neglected Harle! The food part was influenced by a LOD (Legend of Dragoon) fic, "Passion Fruit.

No offense to those who write it, but I hate romance. Reading it makes me gag. They all say at some point " I love you." And "I love you too" even if the couple makes absolutely no sense. There's too much emphasis put into those two little phrases, and they are OVERUSED as a result.(those words are supposed to be special! Now they're just... words.) Plus, love is always passed off as easy. They doubt whether or not it's real, if the feeling's mutual, blah, blah, blah.then they get together! Oh whee. How unexpected.

The Serge stuff with Kid and Leena is pretty incredulous. Hey.anyone ever think that he might not like either of them? And if you're a hopeless romantic, can you make it at east seem he had to make a choice? Not just "I love her, not the other one, that's that."?

No, this is not Harle/Serge thing. They are just friends. (Another thing I hate.a fic that makes a big deal about a line said by one of the characters that is just a little flirt or a physical attraction and turns it into love.) Harle is acting so crazy.just because. It's a double blue moon (which means that it is the second full moon in a month for both moons at the same time) and according to an old wive's tale, a full moon can make someone act strangely. So imagine what happens to someone who is greatly influenced by the moon and pretty erratic already!

If you have something to say or ask, e-mail me at lifelessnight@cs.com