And this is why I shouldn't overplay games. Too late now.

Anyway, as you might have figured out from the summary, this is basically a sort-of rewrite of the end of Final Fantasy IV where Edge and Rydia finally get together. Only it's not really a rewrite of the ending, nor does it even start there. Whatever.

Since the two of them are actually spitting out their feelings, it kinda ignores The After Years. HOWEVER, I have plans to rewrite that as well. Just don't expect that to be up right after this finishes.

What else... oh yeah, I'm messing with the character's ages. I wasn't happy with most of them already, but then I found out that the twins are five. FIVE. There's no way that's true. (Though it would be payback for Cecil taking the water crystal...) Cecil and Kain are 22, Edge and Rosa 21, Rydia 18 (after 10 years in the Feymarch), and the twins are 10 or 11 (can't decide).

I think that's it for now. Please enjoy the chapter.

Disclaimer: Yeah right.

A Place to Belong

Chapter I: Letting it Out

Saying that the group was tired would be a giant understatement. On the verge of a newborn being able to push them to the ground would be more like it.

So it was agreed between the heroes that stopping in Agart after tunneling out of the Underworld before dragging themselves to Mysidia would be a good idea. (Okay, that's technically not true. Edge had suggested it and Rydia had agreed with him. Cecil and Rosa hadn't said anything and just followed them.) That way they would be in a semi-presentable state when they met the Elder.

Of course, that only worked if they could, you know, get to sleep without being woken by nightmares a few minutes after closing their eyes- something that was currently affecting the last summoner.

Rydia sighed as she walked up the stairs to the Inn's roof. Ever since they had entered the Sealed Cave, she'd been seeing absolute horrors in her dreams. Horrors of the entire world burning like Mist had. Horrors of seeing her friends die right before her eyes. Horrors of having the Eidolons turn against her.

And worse of all, there were horrors of Golbez controlling him instead of Kain, forcing her to strike him down- which was far worse than the others, because they forced her to admit something she'd been trying to deny for a couple weeks now.

The Summoner pushed open the door, stopping before going before it, seeing that she hadn't been the only one who had problems going to sleep.

Edge was sitting on the side of the roof with his back to the door, staring out into the town. Rydia tried to back up and close the door without him noticing, but just as she started to do that he called out and said, "You know, you don't have to leave just because I'm out here."

She grimaced. Stupid Ninja. "I figured you wanted to be alone," she said.

"I just came out here to clear my head. You're welcome to stay. I don't really care," He said, turning his head and looking at her for a moment before staring back over the village.

Rydia blinked, surprised. What's wrong with him? Usually he'd say something suggestive or sarcastic… Maybe I should go and leave him alone. But… she thought, looking back at the ninja.

She sighed, walking out onto the roof and closing the door behind her. She sat down next to him, pulling her knees up under her chin and staring out at the silent town ahead of her.

They sat in silence for several minutes, Edge looking like he was going to ask something several times but never did. Finally, he asked, "Do you still have nightmares about Mist?"

Rydia looked at him, surprised. Of all the things he could've asked, she really hadn't expected that. He was looking at anywhere but her, a tormented look on his face that was clear even through the mask covering most of his face. "Sometimes," she admitted. "It has gotten better and I don't see it happen as often anymore, but those nightmares have been replaced by once that are just as bad."

"But they don't go away, do they?"

She shook her head. "Not completely." She looked at him, trying to get him to look back at her. "Edge… do you…?"

"I see what Lugae did to them every other night it seems." He said. "Sometimes it's not even them, but you or one of the others, and all of them turn out the same way- begging me to kill you. Sometimes I even wonder why I keep trying to convince myself that it will all go away someday, because it sure doesn't seem like it ever will."

Rydia's heart broke a little for him. While she had seen her mother fall in front of her when her dragon died, it didn't even begin to compare to the twisted creatures Lugae forced his parents to become. "Edge… if you want me to tell you that the pain goes away, it never does," she said to him. "But the pain does become easier to bear overtime. And besides, Lugae is dead. He can't do that to anyone else."

"You're right, but…"

"But what? There's nothing he can do to you anymore. And besides, you're not alone now."

He smiled at her, pulling down his mask as he did so. "Thank you, Rydia."

"Y-you're welcome," she stammered, shocked that he took off his mask, which she'd only seen him do once, and that was to fix it after it had gotten torn in a battle.

"So… now that we've got my problems out of the way, mind telling me why you've been out of sorts since we left the Feymarch?"

She blushed. He had noticed? "N-nothing's wrong," she quickly denied.

Edge rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh. I told you my problems, now it's your turn."

"Why do you assume that I have problems?" she shot back at him.

"Well, there is the fact that you keep overly denying the fact, which obviously means that something's up." When she kept glaring at him, he sighed. "Look, if you really don't want to tell me, then don't. But keeping it a secret won't help matters."

She looked away and grimaced. As much as I don't want to admit it, he's right. Keeping it to myself won't help. And he did tell me his problems and let me see a different side to him, she thought. She sighed and began, "It… actually came up earlier. It just didn't sink in until I was there.

"When I left the Feymarch to rejoin Cecil and the others, Asura told me that while they loved me and would be thrilled if I came back and visited them, I can't ever go back and live with them. They told me that I belonged with my own kind and that they didn't want to take away any more of my life than they had. I didn't think too much of it at the time, but going back and seeing all of them again…" she whispered, tears threatening to fall.

She was surprised when Edge pulled her into a hug. "Edge!" she yelped.

He ignored her and instead said, "Don't worry about it. If worse comes to worst, you can always come to Eblan and yell at me to actually do my job," he said.

"That's not what I want… or at least, not all of it," she muttered to herself.

He heard and pulled back enough to look at her. "Then what do you want?" he asked.

Rydia debated about whether she should admit it or not. Oh, screw it. What do I have to lose? "This," she said before she kissed him.

It barely lasted a second before she pulled away and looked in the complete other direction, face almost as read as Rubicante's cloak. Crap crap crap crap... why did I do that…

Her panicked train of thought was abruptly stopped when Edge put his hand on her cheek and forced her to look at him. When she didn't offer any objections, he kissed her again.

Once it was finished, he wiped a tear off her face. "And here I thought I was the one who'd eventually make the first move," he said, smiling.

"Yeah, right. I'd be waiting years for that to happen, seeing as how you apparently don't have any guts," she teased.

"Well, at least I'm the first one to say that I love you," he said.

She scowled. "I was supposed to say that you idiot!"

"Were you?" Before she could say anything else, he kissed her again, this one lasting longer than the previous two. "So… what are you planning to do once we manage to defeat Golbez?" he asked when they pulled apart.

Rydia smirked. "Well, I was planning to visit the Feymarch before Cecil and Rosa finally get married, but I don't have anything else lined up. Do you have any suggestions?" she teased, knowing exactly what he was suggesting.

"Well, you can come to Eblan with me."

"I'll think about it," she grinned.

He shook his head. "That's the best I'm going to get, isn't it," he stated.

"Well, you're discounting the fact that we could easily be dead in the next few hours," the summoner pointed out.

"There's no way we'll be dead!" Edge denied. "Have you ever read or heard any fantasy stories? Good always triumphs in the end! How about this: you come back with me to Eblan if I'm right and we win, and if you're right, you have permission to say 'I told you so' in the afterlife."

Rydia rolled her eyes. "Fine, we'll go with that, only change 'the afterlife' to 'just before we die'."

"I'm going to regret asking this, but why do we need to change that?"

"Simple: I've been a good girl. You haven't exactly been the prime example on how a prince is supposed to act." He groaned as she grinned. "However, I trust that you won't let that happen, will you?"

He grinned back at her. "I won't. There's no way that Golbez won't be stopped. We have too much to fight for."

He stood up and stretched. "We should probably try and get some sleep. No doubt Cecil and Rosa will wake us up in a few hours saying that we forgot to do something extremely important," he said, holding out a hand to help her up, which she took.

"No doubt," she smiled. She kissed him one more time and said, "I'll see you tomorrow," before walking back to her room, smiling the entire way.

She was still smiling as she, for the first time since she can remember, fell into a peaceful sleep.

And that's it for the first chapter. Honestly? I'm not too happy with it, but since this is about the third time I've redone it. I also don't really care about spelling errors at this point when I'm really a couple steps away from falling asleep.

Some of you may think that Edge is out of character. I don't think he is. I mean, come on- there's no way that he's not affected by what happened to his parents, even if he doesn't show it. I don't think that he'd let anyone figure it out unless they could understand, like Rydia can. There's also the fact that if you play the DS version and have him lead during the final dungeon he is pretty much freaking out. Seriously, at one point his thought bubble says "Why oh why can't I just run away and leave them here?".

Just so you know, I have 10 chapters planned for this. It may turn out to be more or even less than that.

When will the next chapter be up? I don't know. I am hoping for Sunday, but it may turn out to be later then that. I'm heading to the beach on Tuesday and then school starts the week after that. Please don't hate me if it takes too long, because I WILL finish this think this year. Though definitely not tonight. I am honestly about to pass out right now.

Please review! If I'm in a really, REALLY good mood and have it done, I might figure out some way to get it out this week, but only if I'm in a good mood. (Hint, hint)