A/N: I noticed several spelling errors after posting the previous chapter and I apologise. I write and post as quickly as possible to get the chapters finished for the readers so I don't always have time to proofread them. I don't retroactively edit chapters either as that can sometimes screw with the formatting. I will, however, try to proof each chapter before they're posted and catch any spelling or grammar errors but it doesn't always happen.

Chapter Three: Dinner and A Kiss

"Will you be okay, brother?"

Delita glanced up from his packing at his sister and smiled softly at the girl. Harry's sister had loaned her some clothing once they woke up from their healing and she looked lovely. She wore a pale yellow dress and fell to her ankles and her hair was pulled back from her face in a thick braid. Rapha had taken an instant liking to the girl and took it upon herself to pamper his sister.

"I will be fine, Tietra. Harry and Ramza will both be with me," he gently reminded the girl before moving to embrace her. "Be a good girl while I'm away."

Tietra nodded against his chest. "Please come home safely," she said to him before exiting the room.

Delita watched her go and couldn't help but thank Ajora Harry had been the one to find them. He didn't know of any other lord that would've gone out of his way to help a mere commoner and treat them as well as he had. When he learned of all that happened when he awoke, he could barely believe what was said to him and demanded to see his sister to make certain Harry wasn't lying to him. Upon seeing his sister alive and well, he was ashamed to admit he broke down in tears. Ramza informed him later that it was Harry and his sister, Rapha, who treated their wounds.

It was later he learned Argath was among the living but had left with a friend of Harry's to learn some respect. The way it was said made him think that Argath would be begging for mercy within a week and wishing he had died. His dear friend had also told him of Harry's thoughts concerning his eldest brother and Delita burned with anger that anyone could murder Lord Barbaneth, the kindly man who'd taken in his sister and him when their parents died of the plague. That man had been like a father to them and if it was the last thing he did he would run Dycedarg through with his own sword.

Harry had instead suggested they travel to the royal capital and explain everything to the King and Queen. The Queen was; apparently, quite fond of Harry and the King was as well for helping treat the illness that had plagued him for most of his life. Delita knew this to be the best course of action once he calmed himself and thought things through without anger clouding his judgment. And so, Harry, himself, and Ramza would leave in the morning for Lesalia, the Royal Capital.

… … …

That evening Harry made sure they all had dinner together before they left. He knew it was cruel to separate Delita and Tietra so shortly after both had just awakened even though it had been Delita's choice to accompany them to the royal city.

"So, Tietra," Harry called across the table causing the dark haired girl to look up from her plate, "Do you know any embarrassing stories about the lovely Ramza as a child?" he asked with a smirk.

Ramza, predictably, squawked in horror at the question while Delita laughed loudly. Tietra smiled softly and said, "Well, there was this one time when my brother and Ramza decided they wanted to be soldiers and snuck into the armoury and stole some spare armour." The girl paused to grab a drink of water before continuing, "When Lord Barbaneth went to inspect his troops he saw at the end of a row of footmen, two little boys wearing oversized chainmail barely able to stand. The chainmail was so heavy that they were leaning against each other just to stay upright."

Harry smiled at the thought of a little Ramza wearing heavy armour and peering out from under a helmet. It was cute. "Anymore?" he asked.

"Hmmm…" the girl pondered, tapping her forefinger to her lip before smacking a fist against her open palm with a loud 'ah ha'. "Once when they were around six or seven, my brother and Ramza were kidnapped by some of the maids in the Beoulve manse. People searched for them for hours until Ramza's sister finally admitted to Lord Barbaneth that she hired a couple of the maids to steal them and hold them captive so she could play dress up on them." Her grin widened as she continued. "When Lord Barbaneth found them, they were both wearing really pretty dresses with their hair tied up in bows and Ramza was wearing very lovely shade of lip rouge."

Harry glanced over at the blonde as he blushed heavily and sunk down in his seat looking as if he wished he could vanish into thin air. Harry realised how embarrassed he must feel so he decided to help him out a bit.

"When I was attending magick school, my best friend's younger sister hired a dwarf to follow me around singing songs expressing her undying love for me," Harry told them with a grimace. "Everyone was laughing at me for weeks."

"Ouch," Delita offered in sympathy.

Harry simply shrugged. "It was better than them all being frightened of me," he said without thinking.

"Why would they have been frightened of you?" Ramza asked frowning. Harry was a sweet and honourable man. It confused him how anyone would be frightened of him.

Harry debated on telling them the story or not but decided they wouldn't be as freaked out seeing as there were people in this world with skills to speak to animals.

"It was during my second year of school. I was twelve years old and even at that age I was still bigger than Ramza is now." Said blonde glared at Harry for his comment but Harry simply grinned at him before continuing speaking. "It was during duelling club and I was pitted against my nemesis. He was an arrogant boy who thought he was the best at everything because his blood was pure."

"His blood was pure?" Marach spoke up from beside his sister. He hadn't heard this story before or anything about being pure of blood.

"Where I came from there were three kinds of people." He explained. "Children born to parents who could trace their ancestry back generations and only have magick users in their lineage were considered pureblood. Half-bloods, like me, were someone with one pureblood parent and one that wasn't. Then there were people like one of my friends that were both to two people without any talent for magick. They were called muggle-born."

"I'm confused. Magick can be used by anyone as long as they train in the art." Ramza stated.

Harry shook his head at the youth. "My magick is special. It's not something people from Ivalice could ever do. Just like Rapha and Marach have special magicks, I do as well. My people hid from the rest of the world to hide the fact we had these abilities."

"I've heard of people who hide their special magicks or family magicks to stop others from kidnapping them or wanting to use them," Delita said before his friend could ask any more questions. He could tell Harry looked uncomfortable.

"How did you know that, Delita?"

Delita rolled his eyes. "Because I pay attention in history of magicks class," he said causing his blonde friend to scowl at him and promptly turn away from him.

Harry laughed and continued on with his original story. "So anyway, it was my second year of school and I was up against my arrogant nemesis. He thought he would be funny and summon a snake. Well, when he summoned the snake one of the professors, who was a complete moron, tried to banish it. They only thing he accomplished was irritating the snake and causing it to want to attack. The snake went to strike at a classmate of mine and I yelled at the snake to stop. I didn't know until a friend told me later that I had spoken parseltongue."

"And parseltongue is?" Ramza asked completely enthralled by Harry's tale.

"That would be the ability to speak the language of snakes and serpents. It was feared in my world because the only other person to speak it in recent history was a mad man that killed, pillaged and raped without a worry or care for human lives." Harry explained. "He was also the man that murdered my parents when I was an infant."

"Where did you grown up?" Ramza asked the question everyone wanted to know.

Harry grimaced. He hated answering that question. "With relatives," he said in an unemotional tone.

"Oh…"

Ramza could tell Harry's relatives wasn't a good topic and quickly changed the subject. "What time do we leave tomorrow?"

"I was thinking once we've had breakfast. I doubt we'll be able to stop along the way until time to make camp and I don't want you fainting from hunger before then," Harry grinned at the boy to take to bite out of his words.

Ramza was easily offended whenever his somewhat effeminate appearance was hinted at. Marach had made that mistake early on and Harry still laugh at the thrashing the blonde had given him in retaliation.

"Yes, well, we may have to stop for a break at some point to give the old man time to rest," Ramza replied in a haughty, mock offended tone.

Harry raised a fine eyebrow at the boy. "Old?" he asked. "I'm only twenty-two, brat!"

The night continued on as such with people telling stories, laughing and generally having a pleasant time together. More than once Harry caught Ramza staring at him only to blush and quickly look away when he was caught. Harry couldn't have been more pleased. Maybe the affection he was feeling for the young man wasn't as one sided as he originally thought at first. Perhaps he would invite him to the balcony that overlooked the garden for a private chat.

… … …

Ramza sat in his room later that evening mentally going over the list of everything he packed for their upcoming journey to the royal capital. Harry would provide the food, bed rolls, and tents. All Ramza and Delita needed to bring was their weapons and a change of clothing for when they reached Lesalia. Granted Ramza only had to clothes gifted to him by Harry. Ramza still thought the lord of the manor had given him too many set of clothing. One did not ten spares! He tried telling Harry this but the lord waved off his concerns and simply said he was happy to do it. He'd given just as many to Delita and Tietra, so Ramza couldn't complain too loudly.

Thinking of Harry, Ramza felt strange whenever he was around him. He felt incredibly happy and his stomach felt ill. He knew what it was. He had a crush on the young lord. He wasn't as oblivious as people thought him to be. He knew all those young women back at Eagrose flirted with him hoping to marry into House Beoulve but he had no desire to be there victim. In fact, he'd planned to never marry seeing as he didn't like women. While other boys at the academy were talking about the newest serving girl at the tavern, he did his best to ignore them not think of the cute stable hand from the local chocobo stables. It'd been a passing fancy most certainly but he'd known then that he would prefer the company of men.

Sighing softly, Ramza finished the last of his tea and began stripping his clothes in preparation for bed when a knock came at his door. Having just begun pulling off his tunic, he pulled it back down over his chest and walked towards the door and pulled it open.

"I was hoping I would catch you naked again, for old times' sake," Harry said with a grin leaning on the doorframe.

Ramza rolled his eyes even if he couldn't stop the blush that spread across his cheeks. "Did you need something this late, Harry?" he asked.

"We leave early tomorrow and I doubt they'll be much time for us to be alone after we leave, so I wanted to request your presence on the balcony this evening," Harry said for once not wearing his ever present grin. Ramza considered it for a moment and nodded. Stepping out of his room, he pulled the door closed behind him and motioned for Harry to lead the way.

… … …

The view from the balcony was lovely in Ramza's opinion. There was a large forest in the distance and snow-capped mountains just beyond the forest. He could see the faint outline of the clouds along the darkened sky as the moon shone brightly in the heavens. He had never seen a view like this in all his years living in Eagrose.

"Here," Harry said from beside him and handed him a glass of wine. Ramza was glad for the darkened balcony so Harry couldn't see his blush. This almost felt like a lover's meeting. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" Harry asked as he took a sip of his wine.

Ramza nodded. "It's very lovely. I don't think I've ever seen a sight like this." Harry hummed in agreement but from the corner of his eye Ramza saw that Harry was not talking about the scenery. This again caused the blonde to blush. "What did you want to talk about?" he asked.

"Oh nothing particular…, I just wanted to spend time with you… alone," Harry said without hesitation. "I was hoping to grab a quick grope and a kiss from this cute young man I know."

"Harry…!" Ramza yelled at the grinning lord. "You are not groping me!"

"Then I can kiss you?" Harry grinned wider. "You said I'm not groping you but never said anything against the kissing."

Ramza went to protest and stopped short. He hadn't said no to the kissing, had he? It was just the thought of Harry touching him so casually that scandalised him. Would letting the lord steal a kiss be such a bad thing? He'd admitted, if only to himself, that he liked Harry and it was obvious Harry returned his affection.

Looking up through his lashes at the taller man, Ramza smiled shyly at him and nodded softly in acceptance. Harry grinned down at him and wrapped his arms around his slender waist and he bent down and captured those softy lips. Ramza was hesitant at first before he relaxed in Harry's embrace and lifted his arms and shyly wrapped them around Harry's neck. Harry grinned against Ramza's lips and pulled him closer, flush against his body.

The kiss didn't last long but it was heaven to Ramza. He'd never been kissed before and when he said as much to Harry, he didn't think even a sound beating could wipe the smirk of the lord's face. For some reason, Harry liked the thought of having been the only one to kiss him. But Harry did surprise him before he left by asking if he could officially court him. Ramza had barely given it a second thought before he agreed.

As the night grew colder and the hour later, Harry sent him off to get some rest before they had to leave at dawn. One last parting kiss and Ramza left to go back to his room with a smile on his face.

A/N: So, they're together finally. I was going to wait but then decided that the rest of the story would be a lot more interesting with them already together. I doubt the courting period will last long if Harry has anything to say about it.