Title: Tintinnabulum
Fandom: Final Fantasy IV
Characters/Relationships: Edge, Rydia, Edge/Rydia
Rating: T
Prompt: Edge's ninja magic is a mystery to Rydia. She wants to learn about it, and learns something about Edge in the process. Would love to see them learning to make their magics work together!
Kinks,Themes: Romance/Adventure-ish
Flags,Warnings: Mild sexual remarks, mild cussing, mostly (not-so-)witty banter.
Team: Cactuar
A/N: I CANNOT REMEMBER THE SEQUENCES OF FFIV FOR THE LIFE OF ME. So this fic will be kind of general and not fitting into the specific timeline. Um, post-game? Kthxbai

Final Fantasy IV is (c) Square Enix.

Rydia walked through the gardens and reached out, gently cupping her hand around a blossom and gently sniffed it. The pink flower was sweet and breezy, smelling almost like her mother's old rose tea. The bloom resembled a rose, but wasn't quite. The petals were different. She wished she knew what it was, but knew that she hadn't spent fifteen years in the Feymarch to learn about flowers.

"It's called levis aura. Because I know you were wondering."

She shook her head in mild annoyance, not even looking to see who spoke. She knew who it was. She knew his voice and his egotistic analyzing. "Good afternoon, Edge. Where have you been all day?"

He turned on the corner of the brick wall, coming into view from the entry to the castle garden. He wore that stupid mask over his nose and mouth, but she could tell he was smiling from the shape of his eyes and the twinkle therein. He reached out, swatting her over the back of the head like Porom did Palom, and said, "Duh. Ninja. Creature of the night?"

She rolled her eyes, finally turning to face him full-on. "I think that's bats, Edge."

He slapped a hand over his heart in mock sadness and completely ignored her comment, saying, "Not even a 'Your Majesty'?"

She shook her head. "His Majesty Leviathan and Her Highness Asura taught me to respect only those I admire. Humans are rather foolish in their lofty ideals of monarchy, don't you think?"

He snorted in disbelief. "Are you serious?"

She laughed, enjoying herself while taunting him. "No. They taught me to respect those who use their power wisely, and feign respect to those who don't. Which still holds true to my argument. I mean, I just don't care what you think."

He rolled his eyes, sighing in exasperation. "You're lucky you're hot, or I'd have you thrown out of here before you could blink. Literally, I mean. You know, ninjas."

She shot him a look filled with anything but amusement. "Are you that proud of your ninjas that you must boast them twice in the same minute?"

He shrugged. "We're good at what we do."

"Which is… what, exactly?"

"Ouch. Not sure I deserved that."

"I think you did," she hummed in a sing-song voice, turning and walking off to smell more flowers. Her hands folded behind her back but under her cape, because she knew if she pushed her cloak back, he'd stare at her… figure as she walked away and that feeling of his eyes boring into her was just uncomfortable.

She leaned over to sniff a pale purple, almost white, bell-shaped flower and stopped when the silver glint of a sword shot in between her nose and the blossom. Turning, she glared at Edge and shouted, "Hey! Do you know how dangerous it is to swing a sword around like that?"

"Sure do. Lest you forget, I killed a fair share with this baby."

"Then what's the big idea?"

"I thought it might be a bit safer to wave something shiny in front of your face and distract you before you killed yourself smelling a flower. But, whatever. Carry on."

She watched as he started to walk away, still burning with anger, and called, "What do you mean, 'kill myself'?"

"Didn't you know?" he asked, casually twisting at the waist to address her while continuing on. "Tintinnabulums are poisonous."

She stared at the flower in surprise. What? Did the Eblani ninjas really have poisoned flowers growing in their central gardens? She sighed and decided it didn't matter, but made a mental note to watch herself in the future. Also, research tintinnabulums. She found herself spending her days as something of a scholar, always chasing after knowledge. It made travels fun when one had the goal to learn. She rolled her eyes, remembering the reason she came to Eblan in the first place.

Heaving a sigh, she walked up after the ninja king and knew that, no matter how much she wanted to ask someone else, Edge would be able to give her the best information. She trotted to catch up to his brisk pace and fell into step beside him, staring straight ahead with her hands still behind her back. "So…"

She wasn't watching, but she felt his eyes on her for longer than a second. "So…?"

"I came here for a reason."

"I know."

"Do you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, but keeping her eyes forward.

"Yep. I make it my business to know. I know you came here digging for gold."

She turned slowly to glare at him. "And what exactly do you mean by that?"

He sighed. "Not like that. I'm not being a perv—right now—and I'm not calling you a whore. I meant that you came here digging for something you really want. Knowledge, of course."

She released her glower and turned away, pointing her nose to snub him. "Hmph."

"Fine. I'm sorry. It was just a slip of the tongue. Really!" He paused for a moment before adding, "So, what did you want?"

"What I want to know is how your Ninjutsu spells work."

He whirled on his foot and shifted his weight to press her against the wall, covering her mouth with his hand. "Shh…" he hissed, eyes glancing around for eavesdroppers.

She pried his hand away and asked, "What was that all about? Trying to feel me up?"

"Actually, no." He released her from his hold and tugged on her wrist to help her back to her feet. "Come on. We'll talk somewhere else."

He turned and walked off in silence, leaving Rydia to follow after him in confusion. Whatever… she thought, trailing after him with a slight shrug. Edge was a pervert, yes, but she knew he wouldn't do anything too bad to his friend while alone. She trusted him. She was pretty sure his flirting was some kind of mental defense mechanism and he didn't do it just because. He seemed better than that, but until she could prove it, she was going to keep her guard up and her whip close to her hand.

He paused at a door and bent down, producing a lockpick from his cuff and working at the door. Rydia stopped behind him and crossed her arms, asking, "Aren't you the king? Why do you have to pick your way inside your own castle like a thief?"

A smile seemed to creep onto his face—she couldn't' be sure—as he finished with the lock and opened the door, slipping the pick back into his gauntlet. He pushed the heavy wood open and gestured for her to go first, following immediately after her. The room was a small parlor of sorts with a table, four chairs, and a few bookshelves stacked with titles in the Eblani language she couldn't read. Torchlight kept the room well-lit as she wandered over to the shelves to peruse the strange characters.

Edge watched her for a moment before walking over and lifting a particular volume from the shelf and opening it. Rydia followed him with her gaze, the book he selected being a fake with no real pages. She cocked her brow, wondering what he was doing when he pressed his palm to the right side of the flat surface and closed his eyes. A small burst of fire erupted under his hand, leaving no mark on the book, and causing a small 'click' to sound in the room.

She looked around for the sound, turning when a section of the stone floor started to move, dropping down to create a set of hidden stairs. She gaped in surprise as he slid the book back onto the shelf and made for the stairs, asking, "You coming?"

Nodding, she followed him down the stairs, bunching her cloak in one hand to avoid tripping while summoning a small fire spell in her right hand to see down the dark stairwell. Edge, being much more attuned to the dark, moved along unaided down the long path. Finally, they came across a room filled with racks of scrolls, a small table, and an open space with a red mark in the center of the floor. He breathed in deeply and looked around, saying, "Well, this is it."

She blinked, walking over to an unlit torch and touching her fire spell to it to light it, looking around in more detail. "Eh, no means to be rude to your culture or anything, but where are we?"

He chuckled lightly, walking over and pulling one of the scrolls from the shelf. Unrolling it, he glanced over it with an amused hum as his reply. "This is where ninja magic is taught. You probably figured it out upstairs, but only those who have been trained with it can open the path to this room." He laughed again. "Obviously, in a kingdom full of ninjas, you can't just lock the door."

She nodded once, moving over to glance at the scroll he held. The Eblani characters were beyond her understanding, but the concept fascinated her. "So, you're saying that not everyone learns the magic?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Only those who show the potential. No one else even knows of its existence. Technically speaking, I committed taboo by using it while you guys were around, but I figured saving the world was more important."

"I see." She gestured towards the scroll. "What's it say?"

"I should teach you Eblani sometime," he mused, but then answered, "This is the scroll teaching the Homura skill, or Flame. It goes on to say how to cast it, and techniques to help practice it."

She extended her hand, gently stroking the old parchment. "Can you translate it?"

"I can, but I won't. You have to understand, these spells are a part of our ancient culture. I can't just teach them to you because you say 'please.'"

"Okay, I get it. Sorry."

"No, it's all right. I don't mind telling you about it, but I can't show you how to cast it."

"Thanks."

"Technically, it's my fault since I showed you in the first place."

"All right, we'll go with that."

"H-hey! I'm doing you a favor, here!"

"I know," she replied with a slight giggle. "But I had to make fun of you, you know."

He rolled it up and placed it back on the shelf before pulling another one and glancing at the symbols at the top. "This one is Nigemizu, or Smoke. I'm pretty sure you saw this one."

"I'm assuming it's the spell you cast when we accidentally wandered into that tonberry den?"

"Yeah… Didn't help a whole lot since the damn suckers had lanterns, but, hey. I panicked."

She laughed and swatted his shoulder, walking around to look at other things inside the room after placing her torch inside a holder. "I like it down here. Smells like old books and tinder."

"That's because that's all that's down here."

She rolled her eyes, though, with her back turned, he couldn't see. "I realize that, Edge. Anyway, you never answered my question upstairs."

"What's that?" he asked absently, still going through different scrolls and studying them.

"How come you had to pick the lock to get in here?"

He chuckled again, sliding the scroll back into its place. "We don't have keys in Eblan, except for guest rooms. Day-to-day life is training for ninjutsu."

"But I thought ninjutsu was only taught to a select few?"

"No, no. The word ninjutsu literally means 'skill of ninja,' or 'secret technique.' It applies to the entire art of what we do, from combat to magic to picking locks. it's all ninjutsu."

"I see. I think."

"A part of our 'graduation,' if you will, is to steal something from old lady Kumasaka's shop. It's more of a test than to actually succeed. See, Kumasaka used to be one of the Eblan Four, back in the day. No one can get past her. She grades young ninja based on techniques they used, what they try to steal, how well they do it, et cetera."

"Okay…" she prompted, not really sure where he was going.

He grinned and leaned against the wall next to her. "I stole something unnoticed. I took a rare medicinal herb mix and left, without being seen, and waited to see if she had actually seen me. The next day, I walked past the shop and heard her say that someone stole that same mix without her catching them. A week later, I went into the shop through the front door and dropped the herb on the counter, proving it was me."

Amused by his story, she asked, "What happened after that?"

"She wasn't impressed. See, she figured that I could've just well taken it from another shop or someone's home who bought one. It was a rare mix, but a few shops sold it. So she quizzed me again, this time knowing when I was coming and watching to see what I would do. I pulled it off again, and even she said she was impressed."

"To your face?"

"Well, no, but to my parents. After that, I was shown to this room and started studying magic."

She didn't want to admit it, but she knew Edge was talented. Beyond par. Maybe… even a prodigy. But that was pushing it. He was handling being a king well, though. "Wait, so everyone has to pick a lock to get in their own home?"

He nodded. "Yep. It makes it second nature. You just do it. It's the way it is."

"Interesting."

"Okay, you know you owe me now, right?"

She raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "For what?"

"For showing you this room and telling you about the magic."

"You didn't say anything before, so your argument is null and void."

"I'm a ninja. It's my job to catch people in traps."

"I'm not buying this."

"Will you at least hear my request?"

She sighed. "Fine, but I'm not promising anything yet."

"Train with me."

Her eyebrow shot up. "What now?"

"Train with me. I could use more practice with dodging Black Magic or, better yet, your eidolons."

"It takes a lot of energy to summon, but I can help with the magic."

"Great! Thanks, Rydia!"

She shook her head. "How are you older than me?"

"I dunno. What are you, seven?"

"It's been eight years since the date of my birth, but I'm physically grown to twenty-three."

"Yeah, yeah, with that genetic alteration or whatever."

"It's not genetic alteration! Time passes much more quickly in the Feymarch!"

"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say."

"I grew fifteen years in the span of three months. Explain that to me."

"I just did. Genetic alteration."

"I wasn't experimented on!"

"Prove it."

"Fine. Come spend a night with me in the Feymarch."

He crossed his arms. "I meant, show me you don't have any scars from crazy experiments, but whatever."

She glared and held up her index finger. "One night. That's it. Harmless, right?"

"Sure. Fine."

"All right, then. After practice, we'll head over."

"Wait a second, there! I'm a king! I can't just up and leave whenever I want!"

"Somehow, I think you do."

"Not for a whole day. Or more. Whatever."

She smiled deviously. "I did the math awhile ago. Want to know how long a full day in the Feymarch is out here?"

"I'll bite. How long?"

"Almost two months."

He sputtered for a moment. "What?"

"Hey, I aged fifteen years in three months. It's not going to be all that short."

"Okay, sure. You know, I'm just going to take your word on it."

She smiled. "Good. Then no more of this 'you're an eight-year-old kid' stuff, got it?"

"Oh, no. I'm only happy you're really an adult," he said, winking.

Rolling her eyes again, she sighed. "Where do you want to go to practice?"

"Come here," he said, holding his hand out for her to take.

She slowly extended her arm, taking his hand. She trusted him as a friend, but he was still rather unpredictable. As soon as her fingers folded around his, he pulled her closer to him and whipped his cape around them. Bright light suddenly filled her vision, forcing her to squint after being in that dark underground. As her eyes refocused, she realized they were outside, in an empty area with nothing but sand for miles. She blinked in the bright sun. "Where are we?"

He stood in front of her, still holding her to his chest, and answered, "The outskirts of Eblan. I figured I'd take desert over grass, in case you decided to throw fire at me."

"Hm…" she hummed in contemplation. "I didn't know you could teleport."

"Only somewhat recently. That was Iten. Impressed?"

"Maybe if you let me go."

He gave a pout, his chin moving under his mask as he puffed his lip out. "But I like holding you."

"And every other female in the world."

He shrugged as he slowly let her go. "Not really. Most girls are so boring. Little milkmaids and plastic nobles. But you…" He paused, giving her a good look over. "You're interesting. Fun. Spunky. Smart."

"And fully capable of defending myself. This whip isn't for show."

His blue-grey eyes turned dark with amusement as he leaned closer, whispering, "I didn't think so."

She felt a slight blush rise on her cheeks as she realized what she said, then turned away from him with her arms crossed. "That's not what I meant and you know it."

He stood behind her, contemplating whether or not to hug her middle, but decided against it. Instead, he walked a few steps past her and said, "Shall we, then?"

"All right," she said with a nod. "Get ready."

"Always am."

Without warning, she snapped her hand out and fired a Thunder spell, sending the lightning bolt at him from the tips of her fingers. He leapt to the side, dodging it with ease and landing on his feet. She didn't waste time and followed with a Blizzara, sending the ice spike from the sky to the same place he stood after evading the Thunder.

He moved without a blink, quickly ducking out from under the ice and jumping to the side to dodge an incoming blaze from a Fira. Another ice chunk, this one bigger than the last, came at him, forcing him to roll and summon a quick Homura to melt the boulder.

She kept to the three main elements, tossing fire, ice, and thunder in rapid succession without any set order. Magic swirled in the air, throwing sands around them like a maddening storm. She couldn't tell how quickly he was moving, but she could tell he wasn't hurt. She'd cast a Libra from her very basic White Magic library, just so she could monitor his health and endurance. Her spell would warn her if he was hit.

Since she'd received no such alert, she kept up her attacks, throwing Fira after Fira to erupt like land mines, blasting bursts of sand and dust almost twenty feet into the air. The blowing sands were starting to get into her eyes and were making them water, and her breathing was getting ragged as a result of casting so many spells in direct succession. She wanted to give him the training he'd asked for. Actually, what she really wanted was get one good hit on him.

Need help dodging magic, my ass, she thought.

A whirlwind of magic gusted out of the burst of her spells, rising up like a tornado trying to reach the heavens. Granted, natural tornadoes started out touching the skies, but this was magically produced. It took her a moment, but she realized he was creating the wind to extinguish one of her larger fires.

Oh, yeah? Two can play at that game.

She grinned in anticipation, summoning a fire spell in her hands and launching it towards his cyclone. The fire met with the wind and instantly started to feed on the oxygen, spreading to sate its hunger on the entire storm. She spotted Edge dodging out from the base of the fire-tornado, only now realizing how close he'd been.

He leapt over to stand next her, sweat sticking his loose ninja garb to his skin but otherwise unaffected by the magic barrage. His eyes stayed on the firestorm, watching it swirl with curiosity. "Interesting."

She nodded. "Too bad we didn't think of that during the fight with Zemus."

"Yeah," he agreed, nodding absently.

Rydia turned to glance at him, his eyes reflecting the fire of the storm. He had one piece of hair out of place, but was otherwise in perfect shape. He wasn't wearing the black light-armor shell he usually did, but opted for shirtless that day. She shook her head, forcing herself to look away. She was undecided about him. She'd really only been around humans for a year while being old enough to be interested in men. Before she came back to help Cecil and the others fight off a possessed Golbez, she had been surrounded by eidolons.

But where Edge was involved… Yes, he was rich, agile, honorable, and had a damn nice body, but he was also egotistical, proud, and a flirt. Besides, they were friends. The only relationship she could see them having was one of those 'friends with benefits' ones she'd heard about. That… wasn't on her list of interests. She preferred to save herself for a man who might actually have husband potential.

She cocked her head, watching him as he stood in the rough winds. The way his cape fell… It reminded her of that flower she saw that morning, that tintinnabulum. Gentle in appearances, the flower greeted all with a pleasant look and an innocent sweetness. Once one came closer, it would spread its poison, consuming one's sanity. It spread down the spine, causing discomfort and eating away at tolerance. Then, slowly, painfully, it claimed your life.

Yeah. That described her relationship with him. She'd have to nickname him 'Tintinn.'

"What're you thinking about?"

She fought her blush, feeling like she did when her mother caught her eating cookies before supper. Struggling for a blatant lie of an answer, she managed, "Just… remembering when I accidentally set the general store in Mist on fire with a lightning spell. Struck the straw behind it and, well…"

It was a complete lie. She'd never done anything like that.

"Quit lying."

She turned to glare at him. "What makes you think I am?"

He stood almost a head taller than her, peering down at her with amusement over his grey mask. "I make it my business to know. On top of the basic training all ninjas get, I had to learn to tell when people are lying in order to be able to be a good king."

"Fine. So if I wasn't thinking about an accident from my childhood, what was I thinking about?"

"Me."

"Aren't you full of yourself."

The corners of his eyes crinkled as he smiled wider. "At least, I hope so," he said, twisting quickly to lean closer while hooking two fingers around his mask to pull it down. He paused right in front of her, his eyes closed and his lips right over hers. "If you don't want me to finish, then say something now. I'll back off if you tell me to."

She stood stock-still, her eyes wide. His breath came in gentle wisps against her own slack ones and she couldn't bring herself to form words. She wasn't sure if it was because her brain was frozen, or if it was because she didn't want to say anything.

Maybe a combination of both.

After what felt like forever, he slowly moved in the rest of the way. His lips touched hers softly, sending her mind from an awkward blank to a pleasant blank. A small squeak sputtered from her lips as one of his hands buried into her hair, the other settling on her waist and holding her steady. She had no idea what to do with her hands, and finally gripped them on the loose cloth of his cape.

Slowly, he pulled back but stayed near her face, his eyes looking into hers. "Rydia…?"

"Er…" she mumbled, "I…"

He leaned back a little further, moving his hand from her hair to her cheek tenderly. "I… I told you to say something if you didn't…"

"Edge…?" What did that kiss mean? Why was he being so gentle? He was just a flirt, right? Was this part of his charm? Did he woo women and then dump them like rocks in a game of stone toss?

His hand slid along her chin, softly stroking her pale skin. "I told you you're different from other girls."

That did it. Even if he wasn't serious, she didn't care. Not anymore. She was young and independent, and she knew she'd felt something for him other than annoyance. He was her ally, her friend. He'd always fought somewhat near to her, acting as a kind of guardian for her. It just seemed like strategy back then; the warriors protect the mages while they cast their spells from safety. It was a basic tactic.

But…

What?

She didn't know what to think. So she didn't. She chose not to think for once and gripped her hands even more tightly into his cowl, pulling to bring his lips back to hers. Keeping the kiss brief, she pulled back and whispered, "Edge?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you swear that you'll not even look at another woman as long as you plan to be like this with me?"

"I can't promise looking, but I swear on my parents' graves that I definitely won't touch."

"Edge…"

He pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin on her head. "Well, it's hard to not look at women. They're everywhere."

She dropped her face to his chest in a kind of face-palm. "You know what I mean…"

"Yeah, I do." He pressed a light kiss to her head and whispered, "I promise."

She nodded in the direction of the castle. "Come on. Eblan might realize their king is gone soon."

He snorted while pulling his mask back up. "They know I disappear from time to time. They always know where I am, though."

She smiled softly, leaning into his side and starting back. This… felt nice. He wasn't forcing himself onto her. He gave her the option. Maybe she'd been right all along about his flirting. Maybe it was just a defense mechanism for him. The ultimate test still lie ahead, as she wanted to see how he'd be once back around other people.

She had faith in him, though.

He laughed beside her, his arm snug around her waist. "Damn, that fire twister… That was awesome."

Additional Notes: Written for first_seventhe of LiveJournal for the FF-Exchange community.

I had a lot of fun writing this and, as always, much love to my best friend and beta, Valentine'sNinja. Thanks so much!

Please review!

-Valk

P.S. The plotbunnies be breedin' for this pairing… -_- I swear, no rest for the weary.