45th Day of Summer, 977 AS
Guadosalam

"Siri…" Leia groaned, even as a smile crept on to her face. "You're not hungry again, are you? I just fed you two and a half hours ago." But even as she spoke she was putting down her almost year-old daughter and unbuttoning her blouse.

"And the only reason you're getting any of this," Leia informed her daughter, as Siri started nursing contentedly. "Is because one, I'm too lazy to get up and prepare the baby food, and two, I'm putting off having to wean you, because I know my chest is going to hurt for about two weeks when I do." Siri blinked at her in reply.

Leia had been nursing Siri for about five minutes when her doorbell rang. She sighed and shifted until she could get up from her rocking chair, and made sure to grab a thin blanket and put it over her right shoulder so that it covered Siri and her breast before she went to answer the door. The first and last time she had answered the door while nursing and hadn't bothered to cover her chest had been when Anakin was a baby—one of Garen's brothers (who had been 15 years old at the time) had been on the other side, and on that infamous occasion had gone beet red and stuttered for a few seconds before running off.

Leia opened her door to find Ellimere and Sera, the former looking stressed out and the latter confused and a little annoyed. "What's up?" Leia asked, growing slightly concerned as she looked at Ellimere, who on closer inspection looked rather upset.

"I don't know," said Sera, sounding slightly irritated. "This one here-" she jerked her head towards Ellimere. "Came running into my house ten minutes ago and dragged me all the way here, saying that the three of us needed to talk."

"Can we come in? Please?" asked Ellimere, sounding close to hysterics. 'I need to talk to somebody…" she trailed off. Leia still had no idea what was wrong, but she could tell that Ellimere was seriously upset.

"Of course, come on," she said, opening her door wider. "The boys were at your house…" she looked questioningly at Sera.

"Raine and Ryelle are there too," said Sera. "Nida came over to help, so that Murtagh doesn't have to look after all the kids by himself."

"Okay, cool. In that case we've got the house to ourselves, except for Siri here." The three of them retreated to the living room, and after Leia and Sera had gotten Ellimere to sit down on the couch and had sat down facing her (Sera perched on the coffee table and Leia back in her rocking chair), they asked her what was wrong.

"Come on, Elle," said Leia. "What in the name of the Fayth is wrong with you? I haven't seen you this upset since… well… I don't know, but you're never upset for no good reason. What happened?"

Ellimere was silent for several moments. Then she lifted her head up and finally managed to say, in a voice that betrayed several different conflicting emotions, "I… I kissed Numair."

Oh no. No wonder she's like this. It's not like I haven't seen this coming for a while, but still… Numair was the younger brother of Ellimere's deceased husband and Raine and Ryelle's father, Ferus, a Crusader who had died in a Sin Attack just over 3 years ago. And for the last several months both Ellimere and Numair had been fighting a growing mutual attraction, both of them feeling that it would be disgracing Ferus' memory for them to get together (Numair was particularly concerned about what his brother would think, and Leia knew it because he'd spent several afternoons in her kitchen, saying things like "What am I thinking? … She's my brother's widow… Ferus would kill me…").

"Oh," said Sera quietly, her eyes wide. "Oh Ellimere, I'm sorry I snapped at you." She looked at Leia. "Should I make some hot chocolate?"

Leia nodded. "The cocoa's in the top cupboard." Sera went to the kitchen and Leia turned to Ellimere.

"What… happened, exactly?" she asked tentatively. "Did he kiss you, or did you…?"

Ellimere shrugged, looking miserable. "He… I mean, you know… he initiated it, but I didn't exactly stop him… not at first, anyway…" She put her head in her hands and let out a loud groan. "What am I supposed to do?" she asked. "I shouldn't be wanting him to kiss me… I shouldn't be wanting anyone to kiss me… I'm a horrible person, aren't I?" She looked up at Leia.

"No, you're not, and you know it," Sera called over from the kitchen. "You're not a Priestess or a Warrior Monk or anything. You've got no reason to feel guilty." She crossed the room with 3 mugs of hot chocolate in hand. "I'm sure Leia's had this exact same talk with Nida sometime during the past nine years, haven't you?"

"Not really, actually," said Leia. "Nida hasn't run into this problem that I know of. But I think he's about to, if you ask me. Just don't tell Garen I said that."

Ellimere looked up, her problems temporarily forgotten. "Why not tell Garen?" she asked. Then she gasped. "He hasn't fallen in love with Lana, has he?" Lana was the youngest of Garen's three sisters (he was the oldest of 7 children, of whom the first 4 were boys and the youngest 3 girls), and was an Apprentice Summoner.

"What? No! Nida's not that stupid. I said don't tell Garen because I was talking about Xu. You should have seen the way she and Nida were looking at each other when they were over here for the Summer Festival."

"Really?" Sera asked interestedly. "Nida and Xu?" She suddenly laughed. "Oh, Garen's gonna kill him…"

"That's what Nida's afraid of," said Leia. "But what he doesn't realize is that I think Garen would probably be okay with it, if you ask me. He actually thinks pretty highly of Nida, but he'd deny it if anybody but me asked him." Sera laughed, and even Ellimere managed a weak chuckle. Siri finished nursing then and Leia put her down on the floor, where she promptly pulled herself up to standing using the coffee table and started to edge along it.

"Can she walk yet?" Sera asked curiously. Leia shook her head.

"Not yet, but I think she will be soon. She's been able to move around with both hands on the furniture for a few weeks now, but she hasn't walked independently. Maybe if we're lucky she'll walk at her birthday party tomorrow." Leia smiled fondly at her daughter, and just then the doorbell rang.

Ellimere's eyes went wide with fright. "What if it's Numair?" she asked in a whisper. Leia got up and looked at the door for a moment before turning back to Ellimere.

"I'll answer it," she said. "If it's Numair I'll just tell him that you're in no shape to be speaking to him right now. I think he's smart enough to know when to leave you alone." When she got to the door, however, it turned out it wasn't Numair but Nida, looking like he'd ran all the way there.

"Leia," he gasped, one hand gripping a stitch in his side and the other on the doorframe. "Just heard… Messenger… Warrior Monks… Sin Attack… Moonflow…"

Leia blanched, feeling her heart leap into her throat. "Is Garen alright?" Please, please tell me he's alright.

"No idea… haven't heard… he was supposed to be home tonight, wasn't he?"

"Yeah…" said Leia, her gaze unfocused, biting her thumb nervously. "Yes," she said, more strongly. "He'll be home." He has to be. "And if he's… injured, then Loran will come tell us." Unless they both are.

Nida nodded. "Do you want me to stay with you?"

"Please," said Leia. "At least until tonight." She turned around to find that Sera and Ellimere had both been listening. "You two…?"

"I think I'm going to go to the Farplane," said Ellimere. "I need to… see Ferus for a little while." Beside her, Leia saw Nida's eyebrows rise slightly, and she knew that her brother was wondering what he'd interrupted.

"I'll go back to my house and help Murtagh with the kids," said Sera. "You going to be alright?"

Leia nodded firmly. "I'll be fine," she said. "You go on." They both hugged her and left, and Leia collapsed onto her couch, her head in her hands, breathing deeply as she tried to calm herself down. He'll be fine, she told herself. He always is. He has to be. Nida walked over and started gently massaging her shoulders, and they stayed that way for a few minutes until a small voice broke the silence.

"Mama?" Leia opened her eyes to find Siri sitting at her feet, looking up at her with an expression that could only be called concern—she clearly realized that this behavior wasn't typical of her normally cheerful mother.

"Mama's okay, Siri," said Leia, picking Siri up into her lap. "She's just a little scared, because Daddy might be hurt."

"Da-dee?" said Siri slowly, trying out the new word. The she suddenly giggled and flexed her knees, trying to jump off Leia's lap. "Daddy!"

Leia managed a watery smile. "That's right, Siri. Daddy."


Late that night (it was just past midnight by Leia's reckoning, so she supposed it was technically the wee hours of the morning), long after her children were in bed, Leia found herself sitting outside her front door, looking in the direction that she knew Garen would appear from if he was coming home. She'd lost track of how many times this had happened, over their 14 years of marriage—There would be a Sin Attack in which his unit of Warrior Monks was involved, and she would worry herself sick until he came home. And so far he always had, with the exception of one time, nine years ago, when he'd been gravely injured- his younger brother Loran had shown up then with the news.

Now it had happened again, and Leia was sending up silent prayers that the person she would see coming around the corner would be her husband and not her brother-in-law or, even worse, a Messenger from the Warrior Monks. Because if Loran showed up, that would mean that Garen was either dead or severely injured. And if somebody else came, that would mean that Garen and Loran had both been injured or killed.

Leia had lost track of how long she'd been sitting there when she heard footsteps. She sprang to her feet at once, heart beating furiously. And then, into the flood of light from the lamp on the outside of a nearby house, came Garen. He was battered, bruised, and obviously completely exhausted, but he was alive and whole. As soon as he caught sight of her his face lit up, and without even thinking of doing it Leia found herself running out to meet him. Garen dropped the duffel bag he was carrying in order to open his arms, and Leia burst into tears as she threw her arms tightly around him and felt him hug her back just as fiercely.

"I was scared…" she whispered, her voice slightly muffled into his shirt. "Nida said there was an attack at the Moonflow…"

"Shh… It's okay… I'm alright…" Garen held her until she calmed down, then pulled away slightly and looked at her. "I'm alright," he repeated. "Loran broke his arm but he'll be fine, and Nicolai's unit wasn't even involved. It's okay." He leaned forward and bent his head so that his forehead was touching hers. "I missed you."

Leia felt a small smile come onto her face, and she tilted her chin up so she could kiss him. When they broke apart Garen picked up his bag and they headed back to the door to go inside, talking all the way.

"Are the boys alright?" Garen asked. "You didn't tell them about the attack, did you?"

"I didn't have to," said Leia, shaking her head. "I don't think Squall, Seifer, or Liam realized anything wasn't normal, but Anakin, Laguna, and Rowan picked up on it immediately just from my mood. That and the fact that they know their Uncle Nida doesn't stay over all day for no good reason."

"He did?"

"Mm-hm." Leia smiled. "He's still there. He said he wasn't going to leave me by myself until you got home." Beside her Garen shook his head, and Leia could see the barest hint of a smile on his face.

"Siri said your name for the first time today," said Leia, as she reached out to open her front door.

"She did? Really?" Leia grinned at the innocent tone of excitement in Garen's voice.

"Clear as a bell, just this afternoon." She put a finger to her lips as she carefully slid inside and turned on the light, revealing her 33-year old brother sprawled out on the couch, fast asleep with a pillow under his head and the blanket she'd given him about to slide off onto the floor. He stirred then and sat up, rubbing his eyes as he looked around the room, and when he saw Leia and Garen his eyes went wide.

"Garen! You're home!" He stood up and crossed the room to where they were. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Thanks for looking after everything here."

Nida shrugged with a small smile. "Hey, it's the least I can do." He frowned at Garen for a moment. "You look exhausted. When did you wake up this morning?"

Garen passed a hand over his face, letting a small chuckle escape. "Six? Six-fifteen, maybe?"

Nida shook his head disapprovingly. "No wonder. You need to go to bed." He made shooing motions with his hands. "Both of you get some sleep, or you won't be able to get up for your daughter's birthday party tomorrow."

"You'll be back?" Leia asked.

"Definitely. I'll probably be here about Noon, because Ellimere roped me into helping her make her brownies tomorrow morning."

Leia laughed. "Alright, we'll see you then." They hugged and Nida left, leaving Leia and Garen alone. They turned off the light in the main room and went down the hallway to their bedroom, quietly passing the two rooms on either side that belonged to their children (Anakin and Laguna had one, Rowan and Liam another, the twins a third, and Siri the fourth).

"I wish you could come home," said Leia with a sigh, looking at Garen in the mirror as she ran a brush through her curly turquoise hair. Garen (whose head couldn't be seen, as he was halfway through removing his shirt) made an unintelligible remark, and when he got his shirt off he walked over and put his arms around her from behind, resting his chin on the top of her head.

"Hey, just look at it this way," he said. "It's only seven more years. As soon as I get the letter saying that I've served my twenty years and I'm eligible for retirement I'll be home for good, I promise."

"I know, I know… I just don't want to end up like Ellimere. I saw what happened to her after Ferus was killed, and I... I don't think I could be as strong as she was. When Siri said your name today, all I could think of was that if something happened to you, she'd…" Leia suddenly found herself blinking tears out of her eyes. "I mean, she's just a baby, you know? She'd never…"

"I know. I think the same thing every time there's a battle. And there's a lot of Warrior Monks in the same situation."

Leia nodded. "Like your brother."

"Exactly. Nicolai's got a wife and daughter depending on him, and Shaylie's only 3 years old. But there's a little bit of Warrior Monk wisdom that Nicolai and I tell ourselves whenever we get homesick."

Leia grinned slightly. "What's that?"

Garen kissed the top of her head. "Being with your family is good, but keeping Sin far away from them is better. It's the only argument I can use to convince myself that I'm doing the right thing."

Leia got up from her chair and turned around to face Garen, putting her hands on his shoulders and looking him in the eye. "You are doing the right thing," she said firmly. "And I'm proud of you." She pointed to their bed. "Now we need to go to sleep."

Garen chuckled and brought his arm up across his chest in a Warrior Monk salute. "Yes Ma'am."


The next morning found Leia and Garen sitting at their kitchen table, Leia with Siri on her lap and Garen nursing a cup of coffee, waiting for their sons to get out of bed. It was quiet for the moment, but Leia knew (and smiled at the thought) that as soon as one of the boys caught sight of their father that it would quickly become chaotic.

The first one to come into the room happened to be Rowan. The six year old walked three steps into the kitchen and stopped in his tracks, looking from Leia to Garen with eyes the size of dinner plates. He turned around and shouted "Dad's home!" in a gleeful voice, then ran across the room and jumped into Garen's arms, followed seconds later by his older and younger brothers. As Leia had suspected, it was chaos—but she could hardly have cared less. This was always when Garen was happiest, when he got home and the boys crowded around him, competing for attention and arm space (or lap space, in the case of the younger ones) and demanding to hear tales of his adventures. And he had attention enough for them all- Leia watched as he gently dislodged Rowan to make room for Liam, while at the same time talking to Laguna and Anakin as the twins clung to either of his legs.

"Is he taller than you?" Garen asked, looking from Anakin to Leia and back with a curious expression. Leia nodded, as Anakin exclaimed "Yes, I am! I'm almost taller than Auntie Ellimere!"

"He is," she said with a smile. "Since the last time you saw him he got that extra inch or two that he needed. If he isn't going on six feet tall by the time he's fourteen I will be extremely surprised."

"So will I. Now then," said Garen, looking around at all his sons. "I think you've all forgotten what day it is."

"No we haven't!"

"It's Siri's birthday!" Siri, upon hearing her name and seeing that her brothers were all paying attention to her, giggled and clapped her hands.

"When's everybody going to get here?" Rowan asked eagerly.

"Well, your Auntie Sera and Uncle Murtagh will be here in a couple of hours," said Leia. "Auntie Ellimere and Uncle Nida are coming about lunchtime, and your Auntie Lucia and Auntie Xu should be here with Shaylie any minute now."

"Loran should come by at some point today, too," Garen added. "He's on leave until his arm heals, so he said he'd stay with us for a few days before he went home to Domremy (A/N: a town/village on the south side of the Moonflow where Garen and his siblings are originally from)."

"What about Uncle Nicolai?" Anakin asked. "And Uncle Loric?"

"And Auntie Karin and Auntie Lana?" Laguna added.

"And Grandpa?" Liam piped up.

"Nicolai couldn't get the time off," said Leia, counting off on her fingers. "Loric's got a Game with the Kilika Beasts tomorrow, so he had to stay with the Goers in Luca, Karin's busy working at the Hospital, and Lana's busy at the Temple in Djose. Where is your dad, Garen?"

"In Luca," Garen said promptly. "I think he and Karin are both going to the Blitzball game tomorrow." Before Leia could reply the doorbell rang and she got up to answer it, putting Siri gently down on the floor, where the one year old crawled away.

The door opened to reveal a group of five people standing outside. Two were young men, both well over six feet tall—one had red-brown hair and brown eyes, and one arm bandaged from wrist to elbow, in a sling across his chest. The other had gold eyes and looked almost exactly like Garen, with the exception that his hair was a darker shade of brown. There were also two young women, both much closer to Leia's own height—one had brown hair pulled up into a ponytail and light brown eyes, and the other had curly red hair and green eyes. And between the two women stood a little girl of three, who had her father's gold eyes and her mother's red hair. They were Garen's brothers, Loran and Nicolai, his sister Xu and sister-in-law Lucia, and his niece Shaylie.

"What the…?" said Leia, even as she smiled. "I thought you weren't coming, Nicolai!"

"Surprise," said Nicolai with a grin. Leia laughed and hugged him, then stood aside to let them in. Garen had looked up at the sound of his brother's name, and smiled when he saw him.

"Nicolai! I thought you were working!" Even as he spoke Garen was getting up from his chair and crossing the room.

"It's a bit of a long story," said Nicolai. "But I've got a week off." The two brothers hugged tightly, and Leia couldn't help but smile and share knowing looks with Xu and Lucia. Garen was normally a very reserved person in terms of emotions and any kind of public display of affection, but he and Nicolai had always been particularly close.

While Nicolai and Loran were greeting their nephews, Xu bent down and picked up Siri, who had crawled over to see what all the fuss was about. "Where is-" she began to ask Leia, but abruptly stopped when Siri grabbed a hold of her hair. "Ouch, Siri, don't pull on Auntie Xu's ponytail, please…" once she had put her ponytail over her other shoulder safely out of Siri's reach, she started again. "Where is everybody?" she asked. "I didn't think we'd be the first ones here, I thought your brother or somebody might be here already…" she spoke casually, but Leia had to stop herself from laughing at the obvious ulterior motive of the question.

"Nida's coming, but not for a little while," Leia explained. "One of my friends put him to work helping her with some baking for the morning." Xu's slight frown did not go unnoticed to Leia, but before she could explain Siri started fussing and Leia was sidetracked in taking care of her.

Early that afternoon, when everybody had arrived and all the various food and desserts had been put out on the table, Leia was talking with Lucia and Nicolai when Lucia suddenly pointed over Leia's shoulder and said "Look!" Leia turned around, and what she saw made her eyes go wide. Garen was crouching down about five feet away from the coffee table, beckoning encouragingly, and Siri was walking across the gap of empty space between the table and her father. Quiet descended over the room and everybody turned to watch, as Siri slowly took one step, then another… three, four… she stumbled on her 5th step, and fell straight into Garen's waiting arms.

"Good girl!" he exclaimed, standing up and swinging Siri around in a circle, to which the one year old let out a delighted shriek. As the children crowded forward to exclaim over Siri and congratulate her achievement, Leia stepped up to Garen's side, an amazed smile on her face.

"You know," she said slowly, as she looked at Siri. "If I didn't know any better I'd think she was waiting just for you to come home before she did that."

"She was," said Sera, who was standing nearby. "I was watching—she kept chanting 'daddy' until she got your attention-" she looked at Garen. "And then she walked over to you. She was showing off just for you." Garen's only reaction was to say "Mm," and put a hand up over his mouth as he looked at his daughter, but Leia could tell he was happy.

Another 2 hours passed without incident, until Leia realized that her older brother was missing. A quick glance around the room confirmed that Xu had disappeared as well. Uh-huh, Leia thought, trying not to smirk. Three guesses as to what they're up to. She thought that nobody else had noticed, but quickly discovered she was mistaken when Nicolai came over to where she, Lucia, Ellimere, and Sera were sitting.

"Have you seen Xu, Lucia?" he asked. "She disappeared a little while ago, and I've got no idea where she's gone off to." Lucia looked as though she sorely wanted to burst out laughing, but was restraining herself.

"Me?" she asked, with a suspiciously innocent tone. "Nope, not at all. But I'm, uh, sure she's in good hands…" Ellimere surreptitiously elbowed her. "I mean, I'm sure she'll turn up soon!" Nicolai raised an eyebrow at her but didn't enquire further.

"Do you know where she is?" he asked as he turned to Sera, who shook her head firmly, eyes on the floor and shoulders shaking with silent laughter. "You?" he asked, turning to Ellimere with an increasing air of exasperation.

"Sorry, Nicolai," said Ellimere, unable to keep the amusement out of her voice. "Xu made me promise not to tell you they went."

"They?" said Loran, who had wandered over in time to hear the end of the conversation. He and Nicolai looked around the room, looked at each other, then both turned accusatory glances on Leia.

"It wasn't me!" she said quickly, holding her hands out in front of her. "I didn't have anything to do with it! I swear!" They looked at her suspiciously a moment longer, and when they finally turned away Leia allowed herself a grin.

"Garen will throw a fit," Loran observed, his head bent close to Nicolai's as the two brothers conferred.

"No, he won't," said Nicolai. "And if he does, Xu will throw an even bigger fit. You know how stubborn she is." Loran chuckled—evidently, this particular part of their sister's personality had been discussed before.

"Her and Lana both," Loran agreed. "But…" he shrugged. "I mean, she's almost 23 years old. It's not like we can tell her what to do anymore."

"Mm," said Nicolai, sounding as if he agreed. "And Nida's a responsible person… isn't he?" Nicolai turned around and addressed the question to Leia, but it was Sera who answered.

"Definitely," she said firmly. "Nida's been an older brother to all three of us." She gestured to Leia and Ellimere. "Especially after me and Ellimere came to live with Leia when we were teenagers, after our parents died…"

"Mm-hm," said Ellimere. "He's always been the protective older brother, very responsible, you needn't worry about that." Leia nodded in agreement.

"Nida was always a good kid," Leia said. "I think he and Xu are well suited for each other." Nicolai made a small noise in the back of his throat and raised one eyebrow.

"Well you know we're still going to have to threaten to beat him up if he hurts Xu," Nicolai said conversationally.

"Yeah," said Loran, with a nod and a slight grin. "It's in our job description. We wouldn't be doing our brotherly duty if we didn't."

Leia snorted in amusement. "Well you can go and do your 'brotherly duty' right now, because they just got back." She pointed over Nicolai's shoulder to where Nida and Xu had slipped back inside, hand in hand. Loran and Nicolai looked at each other, then separated- Loran to the front door, and Nicolai to get Garen. Garen's eyes widened as Nicolai whispered in his ear and he shot a questioning look over his brother's shoulder at Leia, but she merely smiled and gave him a little wave. Looking surprised (but not angry, for which Leia was thankful), Garen followed Nicolai to where Loran was waiting with Xu and Nida, and the five of them left, Nida and Xu looking quite small in comparison to Xu's brothers, who towered over the both of them by at least 8 or 9 inches.


"So," said Leia that night, as she stepped out of her skirt and pulled her socks off. "What do you think about Xu and Nida?" She glanced over her shoulder at her husband, who was sitting up in bed, gazing abstractedly at the ceiling.

"Hm? Oh. It's alright, I suppose. I must say I never saw it coming, but they seem to like each other well enough." Leia laughed.

"You may not have seen it coming, but I saw it coming from a mile away. And if you ask me it's about time Nida found a girlfriend. I mean, he and Ellimere are kind of in the same boat now."

"They are? But Ellimere's not… she doesn't…" Leia grinned as she unbuttoned her blouse.

"Okay, not exactly in the same boat. Xu isn't Kaylie's sister. But Ellimere and her brother-in-law have been making eyes at each other since not long after Siri was born."

"Seriously? Wow…" Leia laughed at the tone of surprise in Garen's voice, and after slipping her nightgown over her head turned around to find him no longer looking at the ceiling but watching her, with an expression that made her blush slightly as the thought ran through her mind that putting her pajamas on might have been a waste of time.

"So…" she said slowly, crossing the room and climbing onto the bed, kneeling down on the edge of it. "We were both too exhausted last night, but you think you've got a little more energy now?"

Garen raised one eyebrow, a grin slowly coming onto his face. "For you? Of course."

"Good." With a sudden surge of playfulness, Leia made a grab for her pillow and, before Garen could react, hit him square in the face with it. For approximately three seconds he simply stared at her as she smirked at him, then in a split second was up on his knees with his own pillow, smirking back at her.

"You're going down."