Do-It-Yourself
Chapter #1: The Life of the King
By Miyamashi
Miya's Note: Okay, like I have to say every time I start a new project, this is by no way, shape, or form replacing any of my other current fics. It does, on the other hand, bring my current writing project list up to 5, which I'm not quite sure is good or not.
For those of you who watch me and are curious, here's the list:
1.) This
2.) The full re-edit of Business As Usual (On Ch…2 currently)
3.) Its sequel, Parallel Threes (Finished Prequel, on Ch. 1)
4.) The Mannequin Garden (Still working Ch. 3)
5.) The script for my game, Project Amethyst Sky (You guys don't get to see this one! Sorry!)
Anything not on the list has, unfortunately, been discontinued. Sorry.
Well, for those of you who do read my works, you probably know me for my yaoi stuff, except for my few Color Me Crimson fans (to whom I am terribly sorry, because it's, as you may have noticed, not on the list). This, however, is very much a story about a guy and a girl, specifically Edgar and Terra from Final Fantasy 6, one of my favorite couples ever, from one of my very favorite FFs. This takes place after the game.
See, I like non-yaoi, too. I just wish there were some good yuri couples out there. I may do a shameless AerisXTifa smut one day, just for shits and grins. XD
As always, feel free to critique or praise as you please, if you would like. Critique helps me to improve, and praise helps to keep me motivated.
Much love.
Life at Figaro Castle had grown stale, at best, since Kefka's defeat.
The peace that had followed the heroic Returners' valiant battle seemed to be a lasting peace. Any bickering between kingdoms had ceased, trade seemed to be flowing smoothly, and any and all new rulers that had been placed after the peace had started had proved kind and good and very much unlike some of those that had ruled before. This meant that very little was left to be completed, overall, and what little remaining was simple, monotonous formality.
Yes, there was work that needed to be done outside. The world needed to be practically rebuilt from the ground up, and that could finally be done now that the threat was gone, but other than…well, a lot of building, the world wasn't facing any new excitement.
The castle itself, having been perfected and stabilized just for events such as Kefka's uprising, hadn't really taken much damage, even after having been caught underground for a rather long and embarrassing length of time. A few tweaks, and it was fixed. They didn't need additions, because there was plenty of room already. They didn't need new technology, because they were already and still the best of the best.
Nothing.
With all of the inactivity, everything seemed to grow dusty faster, and, as it turned out, the only ones who seemed to be doing any work around the place were the maids.
Oh, how Edgar Roni Figaro, the illustrious, handsome, and ultimately very, very bored king of Figaro looked forward to times when the building going on outside of the castle walls wasn't going well, and they called his masterfully ingenious engineering mind in to supervise.
Because it was peace time, he always jumped at the prospect of getting to actually leave for a while, and nobody really thought twice about it when he did, because his Chancellor had proved, after all, at being very good at looking after everything when he was gone, especially since nothing was really going on at all.
It was always very nice, as well, that Edgar's ever-roaming twin brother Sabin was usually present when things in the building world had grown particularly tough, lending out his muscled body as a pack-horse for supplies that needed to be carried and as a pillar of strength when things needed to be stabilized.
Of course, because Sabin was so muscled and toned and positively perfect for physical labor, and because Edgar was so frail and illustrious and handsome and kingly in comparison, everyone always called on Sabin when something needed to be lifted or moved and left Edgar standing around, bored as he was in the castle, only occasionally getting to pipe in with something like "A little to the left…yes, like that. It'll be more stable that way."
Edgar, as a result, was feeling--despite all of his illustrious, handsome kingliness, and despite the fact that his masterfully ingenious engineering mind had probably saved a few rebuilt houses from eventually toppling back over--that he had grown completely useless to the world
Not to mention that, because he was never called on to do any kind of manual labor, he had grown even more frail than he had been before.
After each of his trips, he would return to the castle, back to being an attractive figurehead for Figaro, and each time, he would feel the worse for it. With the advent of the new peace, so had come the re-start of his old flirting habits, but even on the occasions when he would get a giggle or a smile from some lovely lady or other, nothing ever seemed to ease his feelings of worthlessness.
One day, however, and to his extreme surprise, there was an odd-but-oddly-familiar whirring sound coming from above the castle. Edgar decided to leave the Chancellor to watch the throne, and he started to go outside to check what it was, only to stumble into a wall when the odd sound turned into the huge rumbling of something landing, hard, on the ground outside.
The front doors of the castle burst open. Light flooded the halls that had grown dreary and oppressive over time. Excited voices filled the castle where there hadn't been excitement in far too long.
And Locke Cole, treasure hunter and fellow Returner, walked right up to Edgar, looked at him as he tried to brush the dust off of his robes, tilted his head to the side, and said, "Hey. Long time no see. How's the king business been running?"
"What are you doing here?" Edgar managed to squeak in a very not-illustrious manner, still half covered in dust that the maids had missed.
In the doorway, there could be seen a grouping of silhouettes of various sizes.
"What, you don't want a visit from all of your friends? Fine, we'll just be leaving, then. Cyan has a castle too. We'll just hold our reunion there." Locke turned around. "Okay, guys. His Majesty doesn't want us here. Let's go!"
There was a groan of disapproval from the silhouettes, and they started to file out. Edgar flailed at Locke and grabbed his vest. "Wait! No! Don't leave…that's not what I meant!"
The silhouettes immediately turned back around, filed back in, and gained shape and color. Edgar could begin to see his fellow Returners clearly, and it made his heart swell. His face gained a smile and a glow that he'd almost thought would never return.
"Glad to know you're excited to see us," said Locke, grinning. I hope it's okay that we picked your castle to hold the reunion in. It's the biggest place we could think of."
"No, it's fine. So, everyone's here?"
Locke's grin faded. "Well, not quite everyone…"
Edgar stood on his toes to try and see who was missing. Relm was bounding in the forefront, and Strago was hobbling after her, trying to get her to stop running inside. Shadow was standing back (Edgar thought he looked strange in civilian wear), shaking his head at his daughter. Interceptor was by his side.
As Relm reached Edgar, she jumped and latched onto his waist in a hug, practically beaming. At about this time, Celes had walked up to Locke's side, and the two laced their fingers together. "Hello Edgar," she said.
Gau was bouncing around Cyan, and Sabin was laughing at him. Mog was giving orders for Umaro to be good while they were in the castle. Gogo simply hung in the background. Setzer came in a little late, and Edgar assumed that he had been making sure that everything on the airship was secure.
"Where's…?"
"Terra? We couldn't get her to come." Celes answered simply. "She's still in Mobilz, with the children, working on repairing the town so that they can move out of that cave. When we told her to take a break and come see everyone, she said that finishing what she was doing was more important."
"Don't feel bad!" Relm piped in. "I thought that coming to see you was the most important thing I could do! I wanted to bring Uncle Ulty to see you, too, but Setzer said he wouldn't even let him on the Falcon."
Edgar, noting the fact that Relm was obviously still enamored with him, sighed internally and blamed it on karma. As for the comment on Ultros, he wasn't entirely sure how to feel. Should he thank Relm for trying to get a "friend" to come, or should he thank Setzer for stopping it?
Luckily (especially luckily, in fact, since he was about to very bluntly choose the latter, which would have caused quite a commotion from Relm), he didn't have to decide, because Umaro and Gau had started to both growl about how hungry they were, Umaro throwing a tantrum and Gau grumbling and scratching the back of his head with one foot.
Edgar shook his head with a chuckle. Yes, same old team.
"Come on, everyone," he said. "I'm sure you're all starved after the trip. I'll have the cooks prepare something."
The group gathered around the large dinner table used for parties, and soon, dinner was served. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, and the king was thankful for having his friends present.
But, he noticed, though he was quite enjoying himself for the first time in ages, he wasn't eating quite as much as usual. His favorite foods didn't taste quite as delicious. The jokes and antics that would have normally lit his face up in true, jovial laughter made him smile, but not as much as they should have.
Though his friends were there, they weren't all there, and he couldn't get the nagging thought out of the back of his head that it wasn't fair that they were all sitting in a castle eating expensive foods while Terra, who had probably given the most in their fight, was putting her sweat and blood into improving the lives of over a dozen orphans.
It, especially, wasn't fair that the friends who she had given everything to didn't even stop to help her out.
With the nagging came an entirely different, devious, and uncharacteristically impulsive thought that, though he tried to fight it, was quickly pushing itself through the crowd of other thoughts in his mind.
To the others in the room, it didn't seem as if anything unusual was happening in that masterfully ingenious engineering mind at all. They ate, and they laughed, and they enjoyed each other's company, and when all was said and done, Edgar took them, personally, to their respective rooms so that they could sleep in peace.
That night, the illustrious, handsome king of Figaro cut off a good part of the hair that made him so handsome, replaced his illustrious robes with the grungy clothes that he wore when he worked on machinery, and left a note that his brother was to take over his position as king while he was gone and that the chancellor should help him.
The people sleeping ever-so-peacefully in Figaro Castle woke with a start to the sound of an odd-but-oddly-familiar whirring sound above them, because, armed with his trusty tools, Edgar Roni Figaro had broken into the Falcon, started it up, and stolen it.
The wind was in his face, he was practically a fugitive from his own friends (especially Setzer), and this definitely wasn't going to be good for his kingly reputation, but he felt absolutely exhilarated. He had gotten to see his friends, he was going to get to see Terra, and this was the most exciting thing since the battle. Even better, he was free from his monotonous responsibilities as King, even if just for a while, and he could enjoy his life because he would prove his worth and help a lovely lady while he was at it.
Even though he was a little guilty about what he had done and knew that he would have been even more guilty if things were different, he almost wished for a moment that he had picked heads when he'd tossed that coin.
It was late morning when he arrived in the fields outside of Mobilz. His hair was tangled, and his cheeks were pink and raw from wind. There was commotion around the town, and from his perch on the airship, he could hear the faint sounds of hammering and a couple of voices. He lifted back the goggles that he'd donned to keep his eyes safe from the battering of air and bugs and leaned over the edge of the ship. He had a bit of a walk, but it wasn't a long trip, even with the tools he had to carry.
However, the walk turned out to feel a lot longer than it had looked, and he realized, with a slight feeling of dread toward the hard work to come, just how out of shape he had grown.
When he reached the town proper, he dropped his tools to the ground and wanted to lean against a building, but didn't want to risk it not being stable. He waited a minute to catch his breath, and then shouted, "Hello!"
The hammering stopped. There were muffled voices for a second, then the sound of steps. Not a minute after, Terra Branford stepped around the corner of a half-rebuilt building, stopped, and stared.
Edgar smiled his most charming smile.
Miya's Note: I'm having a lot of fun with this one. It's much less serious than my other current works, which is nice for a change. Yeah, it's a multi-chapter story, and the next chapter, though it'll still be in third person, will concentrate a lot harder on Terra. This shouldn't be more than three or four chapters, though, if that. P3 should be the next thing I update, then Mannequin Garden, and the next chapter of this shouldn't follow too terribly far after. (This order of events is subject to change.) I hope everyone enjoyed.