Chapter 3
"Hey, Linebeck!" Link calls from the dock as the SS Linebeck pulls in. "Tetra and I were wondering when you get here."
"Got held up." Linebeck says, sliding the plank to met with the dock. He walks down it. "That reminds me, I have someone I want you and Tetra to meet." Linebeck turns towards the ship. "Hey Ciela, come on out here!"
Link and Tetra look at each other, eyes wide in shock. Surely this couldn't be the same Ciela that sailed with Link? Their fears were briefly put to rest when the flame-haired woman stepped out into the sea and onto the dock.
Her eyes sparkle with mischievousness. "Well, I'm shocked Link. You don't remember me?" Ciela teases.
"I don't think I've met you before Ma'am." Link stammers.
"So you don't remember the yellow puffball that helped you rescue the woman standing beside you?" Ciela sasses, putting her hands on her hips.
"Ciela! What are you doing with Linebeck?" Tetra exclaims.
Link smirks. "Or really what were you not doing with Linebeck?" He chuckles until Ciela whaps the back of his head. He looks up to see Ciela glaring at him with fire in her eyes. He shrinks a little from the ferocity of her gaze.
Ciela snorts and laughs. "You are so gullible, Link."
"It's not my fault! You're the person wearing his clothes!" Link thinks about what he just said. "Why are you wearing his clothes?"
"Let's just say, when I arrived, I took and unplanned swim and my dress is taking forever to dry." Ciela explains. The group starts walking towards Link's Grandmother's house.
Aryll comes charging from the house. "Tetra! Big Brother! I just got a letter from Medil saying that she come down with something that going to leave her sick for a few days!"
Tetra curses and turns to Ciela. "I know you just arrived and all but you can you fill in for Medil? She's my Maid of Honor and with the wedding tomorrow, I'd really appreciate it."
"Don't worry Tetra, I'd love to fill in." Ciela reassures.
"Grandma will need to make a few adjustments to the dress." Link muses. He receives another slap to the back of his head. "Will you stop that? And what was it for, anyway?"
"For implying I'm fat." Ciela replies, her nose in the air.
"You know how ladies are with their figure, Link. Even a simple observation can earn you a slap." Linebeck sniggers until Ciela punches him in the arm
"You can shut up now." Ciela says, crossing her arms.
"You know you hit hard, right?" Linebeck says, rubbing his upper arm.
"Consider it payback for all the times you pulled on my wings." Ciela retorts.
"You know Ciela. You should treat my Best man with more respect because he is walking with you." Link smirks.
"Well- Wait, What?" Ciela stops short, staring at Link.
Link laughs and begins walking away.
"Please tell me you're joking? Please?... Link, get back here and tell me that you are joking!"
…
"Nervous?" Ciela asks Tetra, who was flitting around the room, adjusting things that needed no adjustment.
"Oh, what if he leaves me standing there?" Tetra mumbles, wringing her hands.
Ciela rolls her eyes and grabs Tetra by the shoulders. "Tetra. Listen to me. Link went through tons of crap to save you. Twice! He's not going to leave you. He wants to marry you. Not break your heart."
Tetra sighs and gives a weak smile. "You're right. I'm worrying over nothing."
"Good. Here's your bouquet. It's time to head out." Ciela says, handing the bunch of flowers to the bride to be.
…
"You may now kiss the bride." Sturgeon proclaims.
Link and Tetra complied happily. A few minutes pass. Then a few more.
"Alright, you two! You'll have plenty of time to do that after the wedding! Just walk back down the aisle again!" Linebeck interrupted.
The newly-weds spring apart and blush deeply. They link arms and begins walking back down the aisle.
Ciela softly smacks Linebeck's shoulder while trying to glare at him and not betray the smile coming to the surface.
"What did you have to ruin the moment?" Ciela softly chastises, as they too link arms.
"My legs were starting to ache." Linebeck replies giving his cocky grin.
Ciela sighs while shaking her head and grins back. "That man." She muses, amused.
…
"Alright single ladies! It's time for the bridal toss!" Aryll announces.
Ciela groans. "I was dreading this."
"What? Because this announces to the world that you're single?" Linebeck says.
"Yes." Ciela grumbles, while standing up. She could hear Linebeck laughing at her plight.
Without meaning to, she lunged towards the bouquet and just barely caught it. She stares at it, dumbstruck.
She walks back to the table she and Linebeck shared with the groom and bride.
"Nice catch, Sparkles. Almost missed it." Linebeck compliments.
Next was the garter toss. Tetra sat down in the chair in the middle of the dance floor and gives Link a smirk. He kneels beside her and slowly runs his hands up Tetra's leg and down, gaining cat-calls from the guys and a protective growl from Gonzo.
Next Link got ready to fling to garter into the crowd of single men. Linebeck gets up this time.
"Oh, ho ho. Look who's laughing now, my friend." Ciela laughed, raising her glass at Linebeck.
"Shut it, Sparkles." Linebeck retorted. "Or I might catch the garter."
To Ciela's amazement (and horror) Linebeck followed through on his threat. He turns to face her and motions for her to come back onto the dance floor. She slowly gets up, turning pink already.
She sits in the chair. "Hold out your arm." Linebeck whispers to her. She flings it out, hiding her face in her other hand.
Linebeck grins and slides the garter up the former-fairy's arm, earning more Cat-calls from the guys. He then takes Ciela's hand and kisses it, getting a surprised look from Ciela. She gets another grin from Linebeck.
"Goddesses, how I have longed to do that." Linebeck thinks, as he stands up and helps a stunned Ciela to her feet.
"OH, GODDESSES. I think my heart might burst it's beating so loud and fast!" Ciela thinks, trying to control her breathing.
"Can I have this dance?" Linebeck asks, when a slow song is beginning to play after the tosses.
"Sure." Ciela breathes, still taken aback by Linebeck's actions. "But I must warns you that I'm not very good."
"Just leave it to me, Sparkles." Linebeck whispers in her ear, causing more blood to rush to Ciela's face.
They walk onto the floor and Linebeck takes one of Ciela's hands in his own and puts his other hand on her waist.
"Now put your free hand on my shoulder and look into my eyes." He commands.
"Are you trying to be romantic?" Ciela remarked, smiling.
"No. Just making sure we don't look like fools out here." Linebeck tells Ciela.
"Ah, we wouldn't want that, now would we?" Ciela laughs.
They begin to waltz across the floor, Ciela entranced by Linebeck's emerald eyes. She was so entranced that she didn't even noticed that they were the only ones dancing.
"Wow. You're really good at dancing." Ciela mummers.
"Learned it from my Mum. She taught Linette and I how to dance when we turned 15. Never really leaves you." Linebeck replies.
The music gains octaves and Linebeck lifts Ciela into the air, startling her.
"Don't do that again." She reprimands him when she connects with the ground again.
"Sorry, Sparkles but it's part of the dance." Linebeck says, grinning at her.
"Whatever." Ciela grumbles and Linebeck chuckles. "Just let me know when you need to do it next. Don't surprise me."
Linebeck laughs more. "Whatever you say, Sparkles."
"You know, You haven't moved your hands from my waist." Ciela whisper-sings.
"Sorry Sparkles but from here on out, the lifts are too close together now." Linebeck says, smirking.
A few moments later, Linebeck lifts Ciela into the air again. She realized that she kinda enjoyed it. The third time, Ciela lifts her hands off of Linebeck's shoulders and into the air as she briefly twirled under the lights.
All too soon, the music fades off and Linebeck and Ciela stop.
"Thank you for the dance." Ciela says. She looks around, confused. "Were we the only one left dancing?"
Linebeck laughs as he walks away. "No Sparkles. We were the only ones dancing!" He calls over his shoulder.
"W-what?" Ciela squeaks before getting tackled by Aryll. Tetra follows, amused by the teen's antics.
"Oh my Goddesses, you two were so cute together!" Aryll squeals.
"I have to admit. You two will make a cute couple." Tetra says, smiling.
"Aryll... Can't... breathe!" Ciela gasps, trying to squirm out of the bone-crushing hug.
"Oops." Aryll says, smiling, and releases Ciela.
"Now that I can breathe. What are you two going on about?" Ciela queries.
"You and Linebeck!" Aryll says in a 'duh!' voice.
"What about us?" Ciela says, walking over to the bar. While she waited for one of them to reply, she orders a small champagne.
"Come on, admit it. You like him." Tetra says, nudging Ciela with her elbow.
"I do not!" Ciela denies. Her drink arrives and she sips it, looking away from the two ladies. "Don't you have a husband to be making lovey-dovey eyes at?"
"He can mange without Tetra for a few minutes. You're more important right now." Aryll puts in, waving her hand in the general direction of her brother's area.
"And if you don't like him, why are you blushing?" Tetra quipped, her customary wink on her face.
Ciela sighs and sets down her drink. "I. Do. Not. Like. Linebeck." She says.
"Goddesses, you're so stubborn!" Aryll cries.
Tetra looks past Ciela and says, off-handily, "Oh look, it's Linebeck."
"Where?" Ciela demands whirling around. Nobody. She realizes that Tetra and Aryll are laughing behind her. She blushes when she realizes how eager she sounded.
"It's official, you like him." Tetra proclaims.
"I- fine, I give up. I like Linebeck." Ciela says, defeated.
"So why haven't you told him!" Aryll cries.
"Because I don't know if he'll love me in turn." Ciela admits.
"Ciela." Tetra begins. "Did you wonder why Linebeck took that detour when he could have just sailed right by?"
"Yeah, a little." Ciela shrugs.
"Well, it's because he missed you. It's been seven years since we left your old world and on the day that we left, he spends the day at the area that connects our worlds." Tetra explains.
"That doesn't sound like Linebeck." Ciela muses.
"Exactly. We had no idea why he would be doing this. It's just not Linebeck." Aryll says.
"So we had Link recount what he heard from your conversation and how Linebeck seemed when we met up again and finally deducted that he liked you." Tetra finishes.
"You really think so?" Ciela says.
Tetra and Aryll nod. "Now get your butt up there, confess your love and finally kiss in the moonlight!" Aryll demands, pushing Ciela towards the cliff.
"One, It might not happen that way and two, you have a weird imagination." Ciela laughs and looks at the cliff. "So he's up there?"
"Yup. Now go!" Tetra orders, while making shooing motions.
Ciela shakes her head and begins walking towards the cliff. Once she reaches the top, she sees Linebeck sitting on top a smaller cliff. When the reception started, Linebeck changed out of the suit jacket and into his customary jacket.
"Hey. You're missing the party." Ciela starts, sitting beside him.
"You are too." Linebeck counters.
"Touche." Ciela laughs. She sighs and stares at the rising moon.
"It's very pretty, isn't it?" Linebeck whispers in her ear. He had scooted closer to her.
Ciela blushes and is thankful for the dark. "Yes it is." She mummers.
Silence falls.
"Ciela, did you know there is a lot of traditions, you could call them, around weddings?" Linebeck says.
"Really?"
"Yeah, there's two that stick in my mind. One, is where the Maid of Honor and the Best Man get together." Linebeck leans back, putting his hand on top of Ciela's. She doesn't move.
"Mm-hmm. And the other one?" Ciela inquires, wanting Linebeck to continue.
"The second one is where the woman who catches the bride's bouquet and the man who catches the garter is supposed to hook up." Linebeck chuckles. "A lot of new couples are made at weddings."
"So where does that leave us then?" Ciela wonders, turning her head to face Linebeck.
"What do you mean by that?" Linebeck asks, sitting up.
His hand briefly leaves Ciela's but when she sits up as well, he softly encloses her smooth hand in his calloused one. Her spirits soar.
"Well, according to those traditions, we're supposed to, as you said, hook up." Ciela scoots even closer to Linebeck and stares into his emerald green eyes.
"Would you want that?" Linebeck whispers, his face close to Ciela's. She could feel his breath. He reaches up to cup Ciela's chin with his free hand.
"Absolutely." Ciela breathes, leaning in, closing the distance between their faces. She closes her eyes, her heart pounding.
The gap between their lips was about to be closed when a horrid screech is heard.
LInebeck and Ciela spring apart and stare in horror the monstrous bird flying towards them.
"What the heck is that thing?" Ciela yells, clinging to Linebeck as they stood up.
"I think that's the Helmaroc King!" Linebeck yells in answer. "But it's supposed to be dead!"
"Then how could it- DUCK!" Ciela pushes down Linebeck as the bird swoops over. It grabs her in it's claws and circles above and dives into the crowd, snaring up another person. Tetra.
It begins flying away with it's hostages.
"CIELA!" Linebeck bellows, struggling to his feet to try and chase after the bird.
A hand closes around his arm. "Linebeck it's useless! You're on an 80 foot cliff and last time I checked, you can't fly!" Link shouts, trying to hold the older man back.
Linebeck says nothing just stares at the bird in desperation.
"Don't worry, Linebeck. We'll get them back." Link vows, putting a hand onto Linebeck's shoulder.
"Oh, yeah. We will." Linebeck agrees, the desolation in his eyes turning to determination.
….
Finally done. And I'm going to have to continue until I see a good chapter to stop at.
Anyway, what did you guys think? I'll say that this is waaaaaaaaaaaaay better than the first version. So... much...fluffiness. *shudder*
Also, for new readers, You will have some confusion until I re-do Chapter 4.
~8 Navy Roses.