Finally, getting my mind out of the gutter and back to my original flame! What it is about me and fraternal twins, I swear I will never know. :P

This epic little series is all thanks to mythweaver1, and our mutual love of Edge and Rydia. However, this is all about Edge and, um… Palom, for a change. Female relationships, and all—goofballs gotta stick together.

Enjoy!

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From Me to You

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It had been more than a year since all nine of them had been in a room together. So many of the Light Warriors had suddenly become kings and queens after the war, only to discover how many problems had to be fixed around the Blue Planet. Each of them had their own kingdoms to look to, and so many of them had to be rebuilt from the ground up. In all the fixing-up that had taken place, it seemed they had partially forgotten about each other.

Being the secretive ninja that he was, Edge was certain he would have remained that way while he looked after his dwindling people. He would have been perfectly happy, secluded in the Eblanese islands; it was instinct to him. To be summoned back to the main continent so suddenly had been a little jarring. And to Baron, no less. Who did Cecil think he was? King of the whole world?

But it was good to see everyone in one place again. Seeing all these familiar faces… Wow, had they changed. Most of them that had gathered had started their journey as mere boys—Edge wasn't afraid to admit it. In spite of his serious skills as a ninja, he had been a proud, free-swinging tomcat before. Cecil had always been a fairly capable leader; the role of King suited him well. But he had been thrust into it so young, it had still seemed a little big for him. And that Edward—that harp-strumming pansy—was so timid and weak, he had made Edge feel sort of sick at first.

But that year and a few months had changed all three of them. Edge supposed that so much responsibility would change any boy into a man. How quickly Cecil had grown into his kingship; it fit him like a glove, now. Even Edward, doomed to walk on a cane for the rest of his life, sickly health and all, was older and wiser than before.

Good lord. Edge barely recognized them anymore. Neither of his fellows had cut their hair, though. Cecil still had the glorious mane of a lion, pure white as the very moon his father had come from. And Edward's golden hair fell in naturally perfect cascades over his shoulders like an angel. Edge found it nothing but suspect; where he came from, hair like that would have marked a man as a shady, no-good outsider, involved in some kind of horrible crime, most like as not. Why it was hailed in the rest of the world, he wasn't sure.

He wished his friends would cut their hair to a respectable length like his own. He couldn't help but think that his friends looked like street thugs, which then made him want to laugh out loud at them. But at least it gave him something to recognize them by.

The only members of the summit who hadn't seemed to have changed were the children. There were only three of them, and they were still only… Well, children. It was insane to think that seven-year-old kids had been involved enough to be Light Warriors at all. But they had somehow made all the difference.

There was Luca, the dwarf princess, first of all. Without a doubt, she was the smallest of all present. Edge wasn't sure exactly if she officially qualified as a Light Warrior, though she had been among the number praying in Mysidia during the final battle on the moon. The main reason Luca was here was that her father was a dear and more important ally. Also, she was a little cutie; everyone who had spent time in the Underworld was glad to see her. Even Edge was happy to see her again.

The twins, however, he knew for sure were qualified to be here for themselves. He didn't know Palom and Porom very well, but he was aware of everything they had done, and everything they were capable of. Already, he understood, they were studying the outer layers of the higher leveled spells—the –Ga and –Ja series that other skilled mages normally didn't tuck into until their teens. Edge didn't fully understand their Mysidian magic, as he understood his Eblanese ninjutsu; but he knew enough to know that such progress was impressive, to say the least.

Still, they had just turned seven years old. They were abnormally advanced and knowledgeable about their craft, and they were rightfully proud; even proper, modest Porom was pleased with her recent accomplishments. But they were only kids, and never seemed to think much about acting so. Sometimes they attempted to be grown up, like everyone else around them… But it never lasted. They always ended up back where they were meant to be—laughing, playing, and bickering like brothers and sisters do.

None of the others had brothers or sisters to bicker with like that. Edge found the twin's antic amusing. Especially because they weren't his kids, and he could watch from a safe distance.

The other thing that Edge could really appreciate about this summit was that Rydia was here. It was wild—there had been a rather long stretch of time where she consumed most of his waking thoughts. Her magic was so intense, so unusual, and she had such a mastery over it. She was exceptionally strong and clever, and still so beautiful. She was the type of woman that he could see ruling a kingdom. Perhaps, doing so by his side…?

And then he hadn't seen her for a very long time. The last time they had met, they had come to Baron for the wedding of their two best friends. Edge had thought it would be funny and flirtatious to play hard-to-get with her then, but that had been then. He had still been a boy inside, and Rydia had outgrown him while they had been apart. She had taken his flirting as an insult, and hadn't talked to him since. Now that he had also grown up a little, he didn't blame her. Damn, why hadn't he said something constructive, instead of acting like a stupid schoolboy?

He returned home after the wedding and got back to the hard work of restoring his kingdom to its former glory. In the responsibility and stress that it took to do so, he had found himself thinking of Rydia less and less. That had been a shame, but he had more important things to worry about than a girl he was sure would never speak to him again. Still, he found her on his mind a lot.

But there she was, dressed in the robes of a high mage, glistening like the star she had always been in his eyes. Where had she been, all this time? What had she been up to? He had asked around, but no one else knew, either. There were vague ideas that she had been in the ruins of Mist, the village where she had lived as a child, trying to rebuild it. But no one knew for sure.

The best way to find out how she had been was to walk up to her and ask, he supposed. He tried to steal upon her, like a shadow in the night—but her senses were too sharp, and she caught him right away.

"Are you still trying to play pranks on me, after all this time?" she asked coolly.

He raised an eyebrow at her, impressed. "You would make a fair ninja," he commented. "You've managed to elude everyone for the past year or so. It would seem that you've vanished."

She smiled calmly into her drink and sighed contentedly. "I've been travelling the Blue Planet by myself," she answered. "Maybe it was only a few months for everyone else, but I truly did spend ten years in the Feymarch, in an artificial world. It was accurate enough, I suppose… But when I returned to the Overworld, everything was so much clearer. I felt like I didn't know it anymore. I wanted to get to know it again."

"So, you've just been wandering around?"

"Pretty much."

"Have you ever thought of settling down? The rest of us miss you. We'd like to know where to find you."

"Wow."

"What?"

"That was the grossest misuse of the royal 'we' I have ever heard."

"Can I hide nothing from you anymore?"

"You never particularly tried to hide from me in the first place."

Touché.

"Anyway," she continued, "I don't really have a place to settle down yet."

"Any one of the Light Warriors would welcome you. Have you been back to your village?"

Rydia sadly shook her head. "That's the one place I just can't go yet…"

"In your travels, you haven't made it to Eblan yet, have you? I would have heard about it."

"Eblan is very far away, Edge. I don't have the means to make such a long trip. And I've spent enough time in the shadow of that blasted tower, thank you."

"Oh… There still isn't much there, I suppose. Reconstruction has been difficult. I've had advisors to assist me, but I'm still on my own. I'm not free like you've been."

"It's probably been good for you."

"Yeah… I guess it has been."

"If you need help, you're in a room full of other kings who would be happy to help you. I'm just a lone Summoner with no home and almost no money. There's not much I can do for you."

"Well, there is something, actually, if you'd be willing—"

He was going to invite her to return with him, give her leave to stay a while, perhaps help him with his work. But, once again, he had used the wrong attitude, and she took his meaning the wrong way. Before he could finish speaking, she threw the rest of her drink in his face with a furious scowl.

"You're so stupid," she growled as she stalked away.

"Rydia! That's not what I was going to say!" he yelled after her. He tried to follow, but the sweet, spicy wine stung his eyes and blinded him slightly. To have his keen sight impaired so easily was embarrassing enough. Worse, he could hear half the people in the room laughing at him—especially Cid, was probably laughing hard enough to cry.

If it had been anyone else, Edge would have been laughing, as well. But it was him, and it aggravated him. Wiping the wine out of his eyes, he left the room as stealthily as he could with everyone's attention on him. Not far from them, he found an empty balcony and stepped out into the warm afternoon air. Ug, that woman really was the definition of a rose—rare and beautiful half the time, and nothing but a thorn the other half. Why did she have to be so difficult?

He stood on the balcony for a while, letting the warm air and sunshine dry his face. Being surrounded by such nature was always calming to him, even in this foreign land that he knew so little about. He stayed still, looking over the land with a calm smile on his face. Baron hadn't been scathed at all in the mess of the war, and it was beautiful. And Eblan would return to the same glory, in time. He just knew it.

Suddenly, his senses detected a presence behind him—small and non-threatening, but surrounded by mischief. He turned to look and saw Palom—of all people—standing behind him, looking at him quizzically. The boy sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"Girls are pretty icky, huh?"

Well. That was actually very insightful. Edge had never imagined children could be wise, simply by making innocent observations. He had heard old sayings about it, but he had never really known what it meant. Amused, he smiled.

"Your twin sister is a girl," he pointed out.

Palom made an annoyed face and marched up beside Edge. "She's having some dumb girly-talk with Luca. She's always leaving me outta stuff!" he complained, leaning against the balcony railing as if he owned it.

"You must really think you're something, kid."

"I am really something. I'm the great Palom, black mage prodigy extraordinaire, and Light Warrior! I really died, you know."

"Yes, so I've heard. How exactly does that work?"

"When you cast spells on yourself and really mean it, weird things happen. If you ever think about casting the Break spell on yourself, don't do it, okay?"

"Okay… Gotcha, kid."

"So, you're a ninja, huh? I've heard you ninja can use really weird magic. What's it like?"

"It's a lot to do with being calm, at peace with yourself, and in tune with the world around you."

"Sounds harder than my magic. Sometimes, I need to be angry and not at peace at all to cast a good black spell. That's what black magic is all about."

"Only if that's what you believe it is about."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

In that moment, Palom suddenly reminded Edge very much of himself, when he had been a child. What a marvelously hoity-toity attitude the boy possessed. There was a mighty will in him, a refusal to be moved, an unsinkable-ness that would carry him far and through many trials. And a self-assurance in his own abilities that he already knew, he would spend the rest of his life living up to, proving that his big talk wasn't cheap.

Palom would grow up to be quite a man, one day. He would probably turn out a lot like Edge, which made the ninja smile. He felt a strange connection to the boy, now that he saw so much of himself reflected in him. And Palom seemed to feel it, as well.

"So, can you teach me about our magic?" Palom asked.

Edge laughed and tousled Palom's hair. "Stick to your own magic," he advised, noting with approval how short the kid's chestnuts hair was. Except for a single lock that reached his shoulder, intricately braided with tiny charms and a silk cord. But that was a special, symbolic thing; Edge wasn't sure what that meant, either. But it had a meaning, and he would abide by that.

Palom gave him a smirk. "You're a pretty cool guy, just like me. There aren't a lot of people as awesome as me back home—mostly, it's just me and Porom. It can be lonely, sometimes."

"Wow, do I understand that."

"I sure hope that when I get bigger, I'm as cool and awesome as you."

That was the highest compliment Edge had gotten in a while. "If you insist; but it will only get lonelier."

"I'll handle it. I kicked death's butt. Loneliness is like a bug to me, now! As long as I've got my sister hanging around, I guess I'll be okay."

Edge nodded slowly and stared off at the landscape again, feeling very peaceful, indeed.

"If you can handle that loneliness, I guess that I can, as well."

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Author's Notes…

This will get a little more fun in the coming chapters. I just had to set the stage. Also, thanks to myth for helping me figure out a title for this. ;)