vaanratsbane:

_{Before he had come to realize his slumber occurring, the slight tug on his shoulder and Naminé’s voice disrupted the apparent ambush of sleep that had overtaken him. He woke startled at first, as he realized where they were, rubbing his eyes to find them once more in their cell.}

_{It took only a few moments for him to hear the clanks of armor approaching and comprehend just what the girl had said to him moments before. Guards were coming. The chimes of metal advancing in a pattern of audio to match the authoritative pace all too known of them.}

_{Recognizing the need to be alert, Vaan scrambled off the bench to force himself standing, still stiff from uncomfortable sleep. He waited with intense eyes for the guards’ arrival, holding back the desire to stretch his sore muscles from sleeping on the bench.}

_{There were three of them, one slightly shorter and more feminine than the others which had stood at average heights. One of the taller guards, slightly more ornate than the others and likely holding a higher rank of some sort, began unlocking the cell gate. “Stand back,” had been all he had uttered in a groggy voice. The man conveyed a tone of what appeared to resentment of some kind to be transporting the two. Perhaps he had been up the night before in the commotion, or perhaps he simply held contempt for his position. Upon the cell’s release, the non-leader and what Vaan assumed to be a female guard came in first to reapply the handcuffs which Vaan was beginning to find regrettably familiar.}

_{Following their movements, the leader gestured for the group to follow down the corridor which they had entered from in the night. Further down the halls, Vaan noticed a line of grates, each beginning to give way to a slight bit of light, similar to that eerie glow the sky gave just before sunrise. Early movement, then. Probably best to keep the riff-raff’s shenanigans from distracting the locals.}

_{They traveled toward what must have been their shuttle for transport in silence across the empty streets. On an average day, Vaan would likely be in awe over the mechanics of such a vessel, but his minor bit of discernment told him that now would not be the best time. Instead, he leaned over to attempt at inquiring from the girl beside him something that had stayed in his mind. “Naminé, you seem awfully calm.”}

_{Which, he stated with true curiosity. Her sense of civic duty as she had displayed before seemed to be one which would often lead her to imprisonment.}

         _{Calm was not quite the right word to describe how she felt in that moment, because calm oftentimes meant both outer and inner peace. As passive as she made an effort to appear on the outside she knew well that panic was not so far away, or at least a sense of panic that was bound to hit her eventually. Deep down she could feel something curling in her gut, in her chest, burning at the back of her head where her neck met her scalp, and impending thing that she could not hold off forever.}

         _{So calm just was not quite correct, as much as she wanted it to be. Honestly, Vaan gave her far too much credit, and she wasn’t sure whether she was thankful for that fact or not. The knowledge that they were officially going to be transported to be incarcerated was not exactly the most pleasant of thoughts, but all the same she willingly stood back and willingly let the guards cuff her hands and followed along besides the young man who had gotten dragged into this with her. Truly she wished that they would just let him go, at least then neither would have to continue to be in this situation…}

         _{Perhaps the sense of calm that she was apparently emitting was just exhaustion from not having slept the night before. Drowsiness made her more compliant than usual, made it more difficult to express things and be as active as she wished, even though the rough handling and clear lack of amusement that the guards were expressing towards them. Contempt was certainly being directed at the duo, even if their eyes were not visible, the blonde could at least tell that much.}

                                             _{”I’m not calm.”}

                                    _{Oh, her voice was betraying her also.}

                                                               _{”Just… tired.”}

                  _{What was truly regrettable was that they were unable to look at the sun rising outside as they were being loaded onto what was apparently their transport, a mechanism of which she had never seen before and wanted to pause and stare at, at least for a moment. Truly she had stayed up for the entire night then, without even a moment of rest, and while she was unsure at what time they had been arrested at the night before she was sure that it was not too far into the dead of night. Enough so that Vaan likely got a relatively solid night of sleep, which was good enough for her.}

         _{Casting a glance over at him as they were pushed onto the shuttle with a few other prisoners, two of them, one definitely a man—a thin man, but a man all the same—and the other one perhaps a man, though he was turned away from them in such a manner that made it hard to tell, she gazed at him for a few moments before shaking her head, rebutting his statement. As much as she truly wished that she were calm…}

         _{All the same the doors were shut behind them loudly and the cuffs were still on and she fidgeted slightly, wishing that she could see outside. Even the smallest peak, for the slightest moment—just a glimpse of the sky, a reassurance that the world was still legitimate and whole. That was unlikely to come, though, and instead she turned to Vaan again and tried to keep her breathing steady. ”Do you have a solid plan?” To be fair she wasn’t really counting on one but she definitely needed some sort of distraction to stay a semblance of alert.}