Authors Note: SHE'S RETURNED AND HAS BROUGHT THE LONG AWAITED SEQUEL OF BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. The crowd goes wild! Ahhhh~! I'm so sorry it took so long and I hope you all don't hate me for never posting anything. This thing just never gave me any inspiration and I thought to myself last night, "I will get this chapter done!" So here it is. Please review, it would be absolutely lovely.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in here except for Faith.
What a glorious day it was to be in the world of Radiant Garden. So beautiful that it had now received its shining light back to it's original state from where it once came. The restoration was finally finished and the city never looked grander until now. Several months have passed since we last left our young Faith as she first met the men, who she has come to know as Braig and Dilan; two scientists in the large castle in the distance of Radiant Garden. Apparently, there was no official ruler yet, only because they had just finished the restoration and had yet to pick a new king. Though, it didn't really bother Faith, she found it peaceful to not have to worry about some king or prince that could throw you away into some dungeon.
A year passed by.
Oh well, it was another beautiful morning, though it was plenty close near noon, in the market place. Faith was on her weekly trip to gather up more food for the crew back home. Yes, she was still living with Leon and the gang. The brunette did enjoy staying there. They all were good friends. But no matter how many times either Braig or Dilan would offer, she would always deny their offer for her to move into the castle with them, in a separate room of course.
The crowd of people seemed to part as the three people just walked through the little alley way, not really even looking at the food and other little trinkets around them. "And then I said," Braig seemed to be midway through one of his little jokes, "That's no Heartless! That's my dog!" All three of them burst out into a complete fit of laughter.
"You're a riot, Braig! Simply a riot!" Faith grinned, gasping for air as she spoke through her laughter. Clutching her little basket of fresh fruits, and other little items, she had just bought a little tighter to keep them from falling.
Braig smirked in such a playful manner, "I try." Faith lowered her laughter to a soft chuckle and let a small smile grace her lips.
"You try too hard." Dilan responded, his hands held behind his back, "Most of the time." He couldn't help but smirk as he glanced over to his comrade from the corner of his eyes.
"And you're just jealous, Dilly." Braig retorted, an equal smirk on his expression as well.
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Am. Not."
"Are. Too."
"Boys!" Faith intervened, stopping in mid-stride, "Do the two of you ever stop bickering at each other?" She exchanged glanced with the two of them, before sighing and continuing to move forward with a slightly annoyed look on her face. Though she was not concentrating on where she was walking, to only step foot into a minor hole, lose her footing and grip on the basket, and dropping some of the fruit. Faith let out a groan, then dropped down; trying to grab what she could save while Dilan ran over to her side, making an attempt to help her.
With a fresh apple in his hand, Dilan kindly held it over to Faith, "My apologies." He smiled weakly as she simply took it from his grasp.
"It's alright. Don't worry." She mumbled, calming herself for the moment, "I should be going anyway." She continued, slowly picking herself up, fixing her blue skirt in the process. Dilan quickly stood up after her,
"But it's not even noon yet." He spoke, "I'm sure Aerith--."
"I have things to finish. Now, good day to the both of you." With that said, the woman turned upon her heel and began walking down a separate alleyway with her basket of now slightly dirtied fruits.
"Yo, Dil!" Braig called, walking up to his friend, "Where's Faith running off to?"
Dilan merely shrugged his shoulders in response, not moving his eyes from the way she ran off to, "I don't know." He turned his gaze towards Braig, "Says she's got things to finish. Whatever, let's go." The two of them turned around and went back into the market place.
"Do you think Even would mind us skipping food shopping?"
"Shut up, Braig."
Meanwhile, Faith wandered around, making sure that neither Dilan or Braig had decided to follow her, like an incident in the past. Once certain of both her location and the two males, Faith glanced around, whispering, "Jasper!" She called, her voice almost like a sing-song but also kind, "Jasper!" She called out a little louder, "Come out! Where have you gone?" There was a soft reply, which had earn her giggle, "There you are! Come out, I brought you lunch." She spoke as she went through her basket, pulling out a small fish.
At the scent of the fish, came out a small Norwegian Forest cat, it quickly pounced on the dead fish, she laughed at the sight, "You have getting fat, my friend." She kneeled down, still watching the cat eat, "If only Aerith would let me keep you. But stupid Leon is allergic!" She laughed, "But oh well, you seem well off without you being in my complete care. You aren't sick, rolling over in pain, just well." The cat continued to nibble on its lunch, "If we in my old home, my sister would have let you stayed…" She paused, "But sadly, my old home brings back too many unwanted memories."
The cat paused to look up towards Faith, as if interested in what she had to say, "Oh, but you've probably heard this story from me many times. But I'm not going back home, well, not yet at least. Not until I figure out if Dilan is Xaldin. The man I've been telling you about, remember?" She laughed as the cat went back to eating its meal. "As far as I can tell, I've seen very much of Dilan, a bit of Braig, but not very much of the Xaldin that I remember." She sighed, "It was probably all just a coincidence. I should probably just go home, and hope for a romance like that of my sister." She paused, looking down towards the cat, "What do you think?" The cat peered up towards her and rubbed its head against her knee, Faith took this as a sign to stay, "You're right. I'll stay." She smiled, lightly petting the cat's fuzzy head, "And I'll try to get Aerith to let you stay in the house, okay Jas?" The cat began to pur, "Wonderful, enjoy that rest of your lunch, I have to get back home." She slowly rose from the ground and brushed off any cat hair, so Leon wouldn't go into a sneezing fit when she would walk through the door.
But she continued on past little Jasper, who continued to feast upon his fish, and back towards the little home that they all shared. It was home, sweet home, indeed for the group. It was once so busy with the restoration of the Garden, but since its completion, it has been rather quiet. But Faith wasn't one to complain about it. "Aerith!" Faith called out, opening the door, "I'm back!"
"I'm back here!" Aerith's voice rang out from one of the back rooms and Faith quickly moved to the back halls. Greeted with a smile, Faith reached for a hug but Aerith's face wrinkled as if she caught a whiff of something. "Your hands smell like fish. Have you been bringing that cat food?" She questioned, "You know Leon's allergic."
She dropped her arms, "I know. I just wanted to make sure that the cat didn't starve to death." Aerith let out a soft chuckle and a weak smile as she walked passed Faith, "Poor thing is so skinny."
"I'm sure he is." Faith smiled at her comment, following behind her, "So I'm surprised you weren't out longer today, you're always with Dilan. Is he sick?"
"No, Braig was with us today." Faith spoke, "And Dilan just loves to pick on Braig." There was a bit of sarcasm in her tone of voice.
"You know those two. They're like brothers, picking on each other for the fun of it." Aerith told her, Faith nodded,
"I know, I know. But I wish they wouldn't pick on each other so much, I don't like seeing them fight. It makes me want to go back home." Faith stated, placing her fingertips upon her forehead.
"Boys will be boys, no matter how intelligent they may be, you should know that." They both let out a soft chuckle. Then a quick moment of silence passed over the two before Aerith spoke up again,"You know, you never finished telling me that story, why you came to the Garden in the first place." Aerith crossed her arms over her chest.
"Well, it's a story for another time, but I'll be sure to tell you soon." Faith smiled, "I have some cleaning I need to finish."
"You always do that to me." Aerith laughed, "But promise you will tell me."
Faith seemed to freeze for a moment, thinking back upon the idea of promises and the words of her former love, she seemed hesitant, "I promise."
So there you have it. Chapter one. I want to know, what do you want to see happen in this story? I have stuff planned out, but I want to know, what else could I add to make it even better for you guys? Do let me know and I thank you again for coming back!