Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 8 and its characters do not belong to me. (Although their kids might. I dunno, I suck at disclaimers @.@ Someone enlighten me?)
Of Tea and Apple Cider
Chapter one
Skyde looked up at the high ceiling of the indoor swimming pool and sighed. You have to admit though, his thoughts strayed away for a moment, Dad DOES do a good job when finding the best architects to design this house. But he wasn't sighing about how well Squall Leonheart was at hiring people. He gave one last sigh, though it was mentally this time, and heaved himself out of the pool. Three people immediately surrounded him. Two of them wrapped him in a robe and gave him a towel to dry himself. The third was recognised as his personal servant. He was the one that was given the responsibility of having made sure that the young master's needs and wants were met, no matter what they were.
This, naturally, gave his a slightly higher position than some other servants working for the Leonheart household. Today he shooed the other two away to the side and immediately started talking raptly into Skyde's ear. "Sir, Ms Lyn is waiting for you in Drawing Room 1. You have language lessons today, Sir, if you remember, so I'm afraid you won't be able to talk to her for very long, and after-"
Skyde put up his hand to stop Angus talking. "Stop." He commanded, 'you're giving me a headache." He sat down on lazily on a nearby chair and continued, "Honestly, can't you think of anything better to do than shout into my ear all day?"
"I'm very sorry Sir, but t-"
" 'But this is my duty' " Skyde recited for him. " Can't you think of any other reasons? That's the 1798th time you said that to me since I turned 10. And I'm already 17." He shook his head. "What was Dad thinking when he hired you to look after me?"
"I'm honestly really sorry Sir, I should be sacked right away. B-"
Skyde gave him a death stare. "I'm going to bathe now. Tell Lyn I'll be there shortly." He ordered Angus before the three servants bowed him out of the room.
*~~*~~*
Lyn Aduro looked up from her book as Skyde entered the room. "Took you long enough, idiot." She called to him. Her voice echoed throughout the big room, otherwise empty save for the two of them.
Skyde merely shook his head. "Don't bother asking me to explain. Besides, I thought you knew that I have classes later. So how come you're here?"
Lyn rolled her eyes at him. "Shouldn't you be staying at the Garden too?" I'm going to attend the classes with you." She replied in a duh tone of voice. "Oh wait, I forgot that you didn't attend Language classes today at Balamb Garden either. So you don't know that I skipped it. Lucian was the one that told me that you didn't go, by the way."
"Came here to pick up some things." Skyde shrugged, "That guy never misses a lesson. He's probably the most hardworking among the four of us. Except for maybe Ezra. AND the two of them have never made anyone leave school before." He looked pointedly at Lyn.
Lyn chose to ignore that and looked at her watch. "Oh my gosh! We're gonna be late! Hest is DEFINITELY gonna kill us this time." She ran towards Skyde, grabbed his hand and dragged him to the door. " Hurry up!" She told him, looking at him as though it was his fault that they were going to be late.
"I'll be a lot faster if you let go of my arm." Skyde muttered but Lyn didn't hear him, she was too busy deciding the fastest way to get to Instructor Val Hest's house, which was situated beside Balamb Garden.
The Garden had been moved to northern Esthar, and the Grandidi Forest had been partially cleared to make the surroundings safer for the Garden students to wander around. A bridge that linked to Island Closest to Heaven had also been made, joining Esthar and the Island together. Squall had insisted that fighting the monsters from that Island would be good training for the SeeD, and had also made sure that none of the undergrads got to the Island by making strict rules for those in Blamb Garden to follow. Skyde shook his head as he remembered some of the rules his father made the whole Garden follow. Only SeeDs and cadets in their final year are allowed to enter the Island. Any other cadet would be thrown out of Garden straight away, and never be able to join any Garden, namely, Trabia, Galbadia and Balamb again.
"…Your dad will kill us if we use the car, he said that we're not allowed to until we've become SeeDs, that means that we'll have to use animals." Lyn rattled on, ignoring Skyde, "Chocobo or horse?" She asked, finally turning to him.
Skyde gave a neutral shrug. "I'm good at handling both, so it doesn't matter. You can decide."
Lyn gave a scowl. "Fine. Horse then." She decided, then walked briskly down the corridor that led to outside. Skyde smiled as he followed the blonde. He knew that she loved horses more than anything else, also her exterior never made her look like an animal lover.
Slim and blonde with a perfect complexion, the thunder girl was one of the most sought after girls in Balamb Garden, and guys were so smitten that they ignored the advice of those with enough sense NOT to chase her. Of course, they usually had their asses kicked and sent out of Garden within one week. There were very little males that she was actually close to.
"Ciel and Wolke are outside already." Skyde called after Lyn as the big doors opened to the vast land that was Leonheart property. He caught up to her in a few quick strides. "It'll be faster and easier if we just use them. We'll be riding bareback though, do you mind?"
Lyn wrinkled her nose. "I hate it when you do that. I know that you have long legs, but there's no need to always show how far they can go in one stride is there?" They reached the horses and Ciel climbed onto Ciel without any difficulty. "I don't mind riding bareback." She told Skyde as he got on Wolke, and they rode out of the mansion's gates together, reaching the Instructor's house just on the nick of time.
They got off their horses and Lyn rang the doorbell. "One more thing," She said to Skyde as the door opened and a servant bowed them in, "those two first-years who got kicked out of Garden last week WERE idiots. What could I do? They were aiming for Ezra you know, I heard them talking the week before and I couldn't just let Ezra trouble herself now could I?" She gave a dazzling smile, then pranced into the room where Val Hest conducted her lessons for those who skipped it during curriculum time. Skyde sighed, then followed her in, closing the door behind him. That was Lyn for you.
~*~*~
Well, this is the first chapter of my story and I hoped that you people don't find it too dead. This is my first time writing a fanfic so please pardon my amateur-ness. This story will be quite long, so please bear with me. Flames are welcomed, but please make sure that they're sensible. If the reviews are generally positive ones, then I'll post the next part. If not, I'll just leave it at this chapter. Thank you for listening to my ranting. Arigatou!
For those who are interested in how I got the names:
~Skyde Leonheart | Son of Squall.
Skyde – 'Fire' in Danish
~Lyn Aduro | Daughter of Quistis
Lyn – 'Lightning' in Danish
Aduro – 'Light' in Latin
~Lucian Ferox | Son of Rinoa
Lucian – Derived from 'Lucis', meaning 'Light' in Latin
Ferox – 'Strong willed, wild' in Latin
~Ezra Kinneas | Daughter of Irvine
~Wolke – 'Cloud' in German
~Ciel – 'Sky' in French
About the title of this story, don't ask me how I got it. I just thought it sounded nice. ^^; Now you know how stupid I am.