Content
Author's Note
Disclaimer
Chapter 2
Author's note
Hi there!
Yay, my city hosts a 3-day Renaissance fair this weekend(incl. Monday) I'm so happy^^
It's the only time of the year my medieval dresses (which I wear on a regular basis) are considered absolutely normal *drop*
I even got free entrance and special food-prizes (first one for 'dressing up' and the later because the salesman thought I worked at a differed booth) :3
Thanks to Clement Rage and Kyubi-Emz-Chan (who was too lazy to log-in but reviewed never the less!).
Important: italic sentences are used to signal 'mind-talking'
In addition I posted a link in my profile that will lead you to a masterfully done fanart of Blank (by *The-Z) which had been a great inspiration for writing this ff.
Disclaimer
Final Fantasy IX (and all related content) belongs to Square Soft/Square Enix.
(Honestly? If I owned that company we'd have seen a lot more of Ruby's talents!)
Chapter 8
"What you need to know about the past is that no matter what has happened, it has all worked together to bring you to this very moment. And this is the moment you can choose to make everything new. Right now." Author Unknown -
"The eighth step from the top is still creaky?" Zidane asked as the three of them entered the clock house that served as the Tantalus' hideout whenever they spent time in Lindblum.
Ruby nodded, trying her best not to feel piqued because he remembered the 'eighth step from the top' but not her. "Of course it does." she answered in a light tone. She was an actress and the whole situation wasn't his fault after all.
"It works like a door bell," he explained Mikoto in a quiet whisper,"It gives them enough time to... well, hide stuff."
Ruby opened the hatchway above their heads, stepped on the plunged rope ladder and put her head into the room above, before vanishing from site entirely.
The room war brightly lit and she found herself face to face with the whole gang, including their additional members and the entire band.
She greeted the group with the established Tantalus salute – a wavelike motion with her right arm that was intercepted by the wrist with her left wrist, creating a paradox hand gesture of a fist behind a praying hand-gesture in front of her chest. The men rose from their seats and returned the gesture before they sat back down.
She spotted Blank in his usual attire – a black sleeveless top with a loose turtleneck, gray pants with multiple pockets and the obligatory belt around his forehead that allowed his environment to only see his stormy-gray left eye. He stood casually against a support log in the later half of the room. She winked at him before stepping to the side to make room for the next person who had just entered the room behind her.
While she helped Mikoto – who obviously hadn't had a lot of experience with this kind of entrance – she eyed Zidane with a grin from the corner her eyes. He looked pitiful with his lopsided dark beard under the blond eyebrows that had taken a toll from her rather thuggish removal of the fake one's.
Zidane met eyes with most people – both familiar and unfamiliar – and smirked crookedly.
After that, no one was fooled about who he was, except for Cinna, who looked very confused as their leader suddenly bellowed with laughter and rose ungracefully.
"I'll be jiggered!" the heavily build man roared and grinned while he made his way toward his youngest foster-son.
At first, it looked like he was about to hug the young man, but he caught himself and hit the blond square in the chest instead. "Yer'r late, boy!" he said gruffly.
The force was enough to loosen the glue's last hold on the fake beard and the hairpiece just slipped off his face, dangling around his neck like a bib.
His smile returned immediately and he straitened up properly. "Good to see ya too, Boss." he saluted Tantalus' style. The older man nodded his approval.
As on cue, everyone in the room suddenly pushed forward and bombarded him with greetings and all kind of questions. But nobody asked where he had been all this time.
Blank watched the scene with mild interest from afar. He'd wait for the excitement to cool off before welcoming his best friend properly. For now he would settle with simply observing how the new arrival wriggled himself out of the situation. He knew from experience that there was little Zidane liked less than being cornered.
"Ehm, guys..." Zidane said, but didn't get through the still gushing voices of the crowd that was frighteningly large for a room, that had suddenly gained claustrophobic proportions.
"Hey!" he shouted loudly after whistling sharply, finally piercing through the noise.
"This," he carefully put his arm around Mikoto's shoulder,"is Mikoto Tribal, my -" he introduced, but got interrupted by several approving whistles and congratulating shouts.
"Ohwe man, I thought you were going for that little princess!" Someone protested loudly.
"Well, at least she's cute!" another one shouted.
Ruby groaned inaudibly and saw the same reaction in Blank's expression. Apparently he had come to the same conclusion she had – that these two were, without any doubt, close relatives to say the least. Probably siblings. If it weren't for the obvious age difference, they could have been twins. But this – much to their disbelieve – seemed to have been a widely overseen fact as the crowd continued to complain about not being invited when he'd 'tied the knot'.
"Hey, wowowo!" Zidane exclaimed while stepping in front of his sister, making a gesture like he tried to stop a racing Behemoth with his bare hands.
"Sheez men, seriously! She's my sister!" while this few words stunned the room into silence, he held his own face cheek to cheek to Mikoto's to emphasize their similarities.
"I knew she reminded me of someone!" No one reacted to Cinna's flash of genius.
As soon as the men's attention had completely returned to Zidane, Ruby approached Mikoto and guided her her away from everyone's view.
"Come with me, darlin'. We'll find ya a nice lookin' dress befo' t'e party starts." she smiled warmly at the girl who followed her willingly toward a small corkscrew staircase.
As they arrived at the top, Mikoto found herself in a very dark, narrow corridor. She could still make out several doors to both sides and figured that the woman in front of her wouldn't be able to see a thing.
But years of practice enabled Ruby – who in fact couldn't see her own hand in front of her face – to move swiftly towards one of the last doors on the left and opened it. They must have been directly under the roof for the sound of their footsteps was almost drowned out from the pitta-patta of raindrops.
As Mikoto entered the room, Ruby had already lightened an oil lamp which engulfed the room in a soft yellow light that forced the shadows into the numerous corners.
"D'is is t'e Tantalus' costume stock." the blue-haired declared with a sense of pride.
The blond's eyes widened slightly as she took in the sight before her. The chamber that was almost cut in half by the pitch of the roof and several low trusses was stuffed with more dresses, cloaks, hats and other cloths than she had ever seen in one place before. She couldn't make out any kind of storage system for the pieces seemed to be randomly grouped on shelves, tables, in trunks of various sizes or hanging on rails.
"Uff... these guys are incredible! D'is place used to be in tip-top order!" Ruby grumbled loudly while vanishing behind a row of misshapen looking masks and other leather made body-parts, taking the only light source with her. She signaled the girl to follow her.
"I'd offer ya one of my old dresses, but I'm afraid d'ey'll be way too loose on you." she eyed the younger one from head to toe, deciding what she could offer her instead. " I have never been as dainty as ya're now." she added right before her eyes lightened up and a wild grin formed on her lips.
She spun with a masterfully pirouette around and – after rummaging for a few minutes – dug out a medium sized trunk that must have come from the back most corner of the room. With a victorious expression on her face, Ruby put it – two inch layer of dust and all – on the next table and grinned at her companion.
"As I said, none of my things will fit ya but d'is one will!" she lifted a long sleeved, light blue dress out of the box. "Yer brother wore it t'e first time I saw him perform."
After she had readjusted the lacing on the sides, the woman took a step back to admire her work. "Cute as a button!"
Mikoto didn't know why a button was supposed to be cute but decided to simply smile and drop her glance to the floor like she had seen other girls that looked her age do whenever someone complimented them.
Ruby persisted on putting the young blond before a looking glass, before they returned back downstairs.
Mikoto looked at her reflection for a moment, turned slightly from side to side. She looked different. The light colored fabric - in contrast to her usual black and pink, edge-cut Terran outfit – flowed around her and created a harmonic contrast to her cream colored skin and golden hair. The neckline was quite low, but revealed nothing past the collarbone thanks to a piece of sewn in white fabric.
The shoulder parts were a different matter entirely. With horror did she notice the palm- and finger-shaped bruise on her left shoulder.
Ruby stared at it too, but for a different reason. The mark hadn't been there an hour before, but had already turned into a dark blue.
"We'll hav'ta adjust the lacing a bit, ya'll loose t'e top if we don't." the woman announced and pulled the strings on the girls shoulders tighter. "D'ere, now it fits." And it did for only someone who knew of the bruise would be able to spot the flimsy end of the fingerprint that the fabric's edge.
"Thank you... for everything." Mikoto said and looked up. Ruby smiled and opened the door for her as they made their way back staircase.
"We all hav'ta look out for each other, makes the world a better place, ne?"
They could hear loud talking from downstairs, indicating that the celebration had already begun.
Blank made his way out of the room slowly, not wanting to upset his head anymore than necessary. It didn't matter that he had mostly grown up with the smell of tobacco, the excessive use of pipes in close proximity still promised him a throbbing headache every time. "Ahh." he exclaimed in relieve as he deeply in- and exhaled the fresh, salty night air, already feeling the pain and accompanying drowsiness fade away.
He blinked as his eye slowly adjusted to the darkness - that was only broken in a few spots by the light that shown through the small windows from the inside. On the far end of the narrow, wide-stretched rooftop balcony he saw a small silhouette. He stepped closer and recognized her as the girl Zidane had introduced as his sister. What had been her name again? Something starting with an 'M', a name he had never heard of before...
She didn't show any obvious sign of recognizing his approach, but living with Zidane had taught him to see the small things in a person's body-language.
The way her shoulder's squared by less than half an inch signaled that she was well aware of her company. He quarreled with himself whether to just walk back or speak to her. He hadn't missed the tattered shape of her skirt as she 'd stepped into the hideout or the way she tried to hide it from view. This, combined with the significant look Ruby answered his questioning glance with, let him to the conclusion that it had been far from a fashion statement.
He didn't want her to leave Lindblum with the expression that all men there were lecherous bastards.
"Mind if I join you?" A tentative question was always the best way to start. She could accept his offer or simply state that she had been about to leave anyway.
She turned to him slowly and looked him straight in the eye. He got the feeling that she was looking for something specific. He assumed she had found it – whatever it had been – for she accepted his company with a formal 'Please do'.
He stepped closer and rested his forearms on the wooden handrail. For several minutes they watched the fading lights in the lower part of Lindblum in silence.
"So, ehm, Mijoko," he tried to stir off a conversation – without much success.
"'Mikoto'." she corrected calmly.
"Riiight, sorry about that, Mikoto."
She shrugged indifferently.
He thought about what he' say next but found it extremely difficult to come up with a good topic. Why was talking to her so hard?
He'd never had trouble talking to a girl before. He could go to the next pup and walk out with one lady on each arm in less than half an hour, for all it was worth.
In the end he decided to simply state his business without the usual prologue people tend to comply in every conversation they have.
"Thank you for taking him here. We've been worried about him."
The conversation went better from then on and they chatted about various topics, until Blank asked about the things Mikoto had been most reluctant to answer.
"Please, tell me about your family." He was very curious, she could tell, but not prying.
She knew he'd settle for any response, even a outright refusal. The truth was, she actually wanted to tell him because she felt like he deserved to know after all he had done for her brother and (obviously unseen) the people of Gaia. No, she couldn't tell him much of this quite precarious issue, but she would try to stay as close to the truth as possible.
"We live on the Western Continent, surrounded by desert canyons. It's only a very small community but its fine as long as everyone does his part." Mikoto lowered her gaze to the buildings below and fell silent. To let people use their imagination was always the best way to hide the truth without lying or giving any audience the feeling they missed something vital.
Just as she had expected him to do, Blank didn't settle for the things he had just heard. Instead he observed her tone and gesture very closely, especially the things she had left unsaid.
No mention of familiar ties gave him the impression – as he was an orphan himself - that her parents had died and that she had inherited a lot of responsibility from them. Living in a small community was almost like a children living on the streets: you had to grow up really fast in order to take your share of responsibility as soon as possible. Every new child was an extra to feed without being able to work for the foot.
It also explained a lot about her, particularly the way she talked and held herself: like a much older person, someone who was used to give and receive orders.
"Do you know the story behind the dress you're wearing?"
She shook her head,"Nothing more that Zidane used to performed in it."
He grinned secretive, like he was about to let her in on a big secret.
"You see, it was about six years ago – he must have been a little younger than you are now, maybe twelve or thirteen, anyway – before Ruby joint us, he had to do all the female roles since his voice was the only one left with a high pitch.
"You have to know, Ruby is an artist with everything she does, especially her hair – but that's a different story.", he grinned before he continued.
"So she thought it was her mission to perfect his costume by putting his hair – it was almost twice as long as yours -into hot irons, crating the most skillfully done corkscrew-curls I'd ever seen, effectively crushing his male pride into oblivion." they shared a whole hardly laugh.
"And his make up was excellent. We were asked frequently were we found this cute little actress.
"He wouldn't come out of his closet for days. We had to promise him to keep her at bay from that time on." he concluded, just as as 'hrm' sounded behind them.
Utterly startled, they turned around to find a not very amused looking Zidane behind them.
While Mikoto was under the impression that his foul mood originated from her laughing about him – she could only guess since he was the one who blocked his thoughts this time – Blank understood that it had nothing to do with the little anecdote he had just shared.
While Zidane suggested his sister to follow Ruby's invitation to rest in her room and led her toward the house, he looked at the red head with a suspicious glare. Before he turned his eyes away, Blank – who was beyond shock by the accusation his friend's eyes had implied - hastily mouthed 'She's a child!'. The blond nodded in acknowledgment. They'd talk about it later.
Ruby and Mikoto had just started to climb up the small spiral staircase as the Boss' roaring voice concluded his former speech about how popular the group had become among the nobles - all trying to ape the main continent's most influential rulers who had taken a liking to Tantalus' plays.
"And in less than a moon," he continued,"we'll all perform at the Queen's birthday in Alexandria!"
"Alexandria?" Zidane almost choked on the water he'd been drinking and stared at the man in disbelieve.
Baku just showed a toothy grin and nodded. "Yer on board, boy?" it was less a question than a demand.
Mikoto had stopped death in her tracks, awaiting his decision. Alexandria was a topic they had been avoiding ever since the incident in Oeil Vert months ago.
Zidane hesitated for a moment.
Not remembering Ruby had made him wary of how many more people he had forgotten. Was he even himself without that knowledge? But he really wanted to see her again, his Dagger. His many dreams and memories of her had made it obvious that he'd cherished the time they'd spent together more than anything else.
Why not going back to her now?
"Aye, Captain!"
- Wow, this chapter was really difficult to write (it felt kinda like old chewing-gum at times) but I hope it turned out all right. What do you think?
Please review - it'll seriously make my day! Thank you ^_^
