Forever Damaged Chapter Nine - Waking and summons

AN: I apologise for my absence again. I know it's unacceptable but now I present for you the next chapter.

Response to Reviewers - Because I'm being lazy:

Beastiewolf - Thank you very much, you're making my blush.

Melesse.spirit - Thank you, such wonderful praise

Eika - I like you! Lol.

Katsumeragi1313 - Aww thanks, I'm sorry this took me a while. I wanted to get it right.

NeoNaoNeo - Hehe, since I started RPing as Three, I came to appreciate the sheer goodness in writing them.

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A harsh tapping on the door of the guest room woke Vivi, who groaned and rolled onto his side, 'Go away,' He moaned inwardly, if this would be his only morning waking up on a soft bed he certainly intended to make the most of it; to his mind this had meant a nice lie in come morning. Of course, it now seemed this would fail to happen and Vivi would have to cope with being woken; he rolled onto his back, watching the ceiling for a while before calling for entry.

A dusty haired figure had soon seated himself on the bottom of the bed, hair tied with a plain blue denim band. "Morning," Zidane said as if nothing had ever happened. "Ellisa said to come make sure you bathe before she has to check you over, I think she means for me to manhandle you into doing it if you refuse to do so."

"It's alright, I'll bathe on my own," Vivi offered, not wanting Zidane to force this on him. "Is she going to let me see the boys?"

"Well, sure it's not like she can stop you," Zidane replied with a shrug. "Unless there's something you're not telling us all about Ellisa and you." He raised on eyebrow in a suggestive way. Vivi chuckled and shook his head, throwing back his covers - which he had obviously wiggled under in his sleep - and getting out of bed in order to bathe. "Here," He tossed the Waltz some clean clothes, "Take your time,"

As his friend got clean, Zidane went about sending a knight in search of the Orunitia boys; since Vivi's attack, they had all been relieved of their castle duties except Valian, whom Ellisa simply would not surrender for that amount of time. They were all often in the castle; Sola was in the castles employ as a Black Mage, Nicara was often there to use the library, Ollan the music rooms. Turo was there almost as much as the knight Calan, since he was training to be a chef and Valian's duties took him all over Alexandria.

Prior to his first berserker attack, Vivi had been under Zidane's direct employ; the king of Alexandria was notoriously bad with paper work and needed someone else to do it. Of course, he severely doubted Garnet would allow him to return to this.

As he slipped into the warm water, Vivi sighed, clutching at the back of his neck as he crept further down into the bath. He stared up at ceiling, the same feeling of awareness gripping his mind as he realised he would end up in the dungeons again. The longer he soaked, the more aware Vivi became of the fact that he did not mind this eventuality; he turned his attention on drenching his wings before emerging from the water, quickly changing he moved back to where Zidane stood.

The Genome stood by the window, looking outside at the bluster of an late winters day; Vivi had been incarcerated over Yule, something that had sat very heavily with his sons. Even Sola had been incapable of cracking a smile and try as they might, none of them could celebrate; hopefully now things would be different, with Vivi free again the boys could try to come with terms with this new development.

Hearing a rustle behind him, Zidane turned to face Vivi; clothed again in the familiar blue trench coat and plain white trousers, Zidane found it difficult to associate Vivi with the person who had been in the cells. However, a suggestion of his former incarceration lingered in how sickeningly slim the former mage now was; Ellisa had been right, Vivi would need to talk through his problems but the waltz was absurdly hard to talk to when he felt something he had to say would hurt someone else somehow.

With a gusty sigh, Zidane graced Vivi with a wide smile but did not say anything; feeling a bit suspicious, Vivi moved to his side. "G - Garnet's going to make me go back, isn't she?" Vivi asked in a small voice, the stammer he had lost some time ago back as he did so.

Blue eyes lingered on yellow ones, "No idea," He admitted, "Garnet just had enough time to tell me you were out of the dungeons before I was here." He offered with another grin. "It's why I'm wearing this," He motioned what he wore, it was the plain garb he had favoured as a member of Tantalus, something that Garnet did not particularly like him wearing whilst around the castle. Usually, the Genome wore something more formal and uncomfortable; Vivi too had had to suffer a costume change when Garnet had realised he was working in the castle.

Silence fell between them as Vivi flapped his wings a few times in an attempt to free water from the silken quills. A tap at the door sounded and with a grin to himself, Zidane moved to open it; Valian pushed strait past him and rushed to hug his father. The startled waltz returned the hug, looking up towards his other sons.

Calan stood at the rear of the group, dressed in the armour of a castle knight with his sword at his hip, clearly ready to stand duty after visiting his father. Sola was, as usual, dressed to impress; his slender form decked in colours to draw out his eyes, his tail lashing near his ankles. Nicara and Ollan both seemed ready to begin their preferred study, and Turo was apparently ready to help Nicara. Valian too was ready for his usual work and Vivi was glad to see that his incarceration had not stopped them from going about their usual routines.

Not a lot was said, but Zidane could sense the great levels of relief from all seven; he too wondered if Garnet would be forced to put Vivi back in the dungeons. Watching as Vivi ruffled Turo's hair and reached for Sola's, the Genome chuckled to himself. "No, not the hair," Sola insisted, pulling out of reach. "I might be glad to see you again but I'm not that glad." He obviously did not mean this and it prompted a laugh from Vivi as the Waltz got another hug from Valian.

Ollan and Calan lingered in an almost detached manner to one side; Zidane had noticed a form of melancholy lingering around the musician of late and desperately hoped this did not mean he was as unstable and unhappy as Vivi had been at thirteen. No one wanted for any of the boys to follow Vivi down that dangerous path and until recently there had not been any cause to do so; but Ollan had always been something of an outsider.

As Nicara's twin, he was naturally close to him but at the same time there was not really anyone Ollan would choose to talk to. Most of the others has someone other then their immediate family that they could talk to but the castle was rather devoid of other musicians and none of them came anywhere close to Ollan.

Of course, now the boys were at rather awkward ages; Calan was already eighteen and Valian was fourteen. As so far Vivi had been really lucky with them, they had all been rather well behaved and besides one incident with Sola they had managed to avoid the wrongs of drink but this was always susceptible to change.

Soon Vivi was sitting on the bed due to the persuasion of his youngest son; Valian had seemed rather worried that Vivi would fall down unless he sat. Zidane moved to Vivi's side with some hot fruit juice Quina had given him to give to Vivi; the Gourmand had quickly realised that the Waltz needed something to help him recover his voice fully.

There was a tap on the door and Calan moved to fetch a note from the herald before moving back to his father. Curiously, Vivi slipped one finger under the wax seal to open it; his yellow eyes drifted down the neatly written page:

Master V. Orunitia Formally Black Mage of Queen's Court.
This letter is a court summons for today at eleven o clock exactly. Failure to heed this summons will result in a 1000 gil fine and a mandatory jail sentence of 5 days.

"Talk about heavy handed," Zidane commented from over his shoulder, "She could have just asked."

Bright yellow eyes lingered on the letter and Vivi nodded to himself thoughtfully, "It's alright," He mumbled. "I guess I have to do this today," Zidane could hear from his voice that Vivi just wanted to enjoy being in a normal room in the company of his sons; he gritted his teeth slightly and looked to one side, hating that Garnet had to be so official all the time. "Maybe she'll let me stay in a soft bed again if I'm well behaved,"

"No crazy berserker stuff," Sola threw in with a traditional flirty, cheeky wink.

Vivi chuckled in reply, an action that caught in his throat sharply and he started to cough violently; his throat was incredibly painful and he raised a hand to it. Valian looked towards him, blue eyes filled with concern, "I - I think there's some lozenges in the castles store room," He murmured as he headed out.

Dutifully, Calan pushed a cup of water into Vivi's grip; it was quite typical for the knight to be so logical. Taking it, Vivi sipped from it slowly, "Take it slowly Vivi," Zidane's voice threw in, "You're still recovering your voice." The former mage nodded, taking another slow sip from his glass. "If you want I can talk to Garnet, see if she'll speak to you tomorrow instead."

"It's alright," Came the almost whispered reply, making it quite clear that Vivi's throat was still very sore. "She can't be seen to make exceptions for me," His talon toyed over the edge of the glass, Vivi's yellow eyes lingering on that instead of Zidane or one of his sons. "I will go at eleven."

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AN: A summons for a former mage, what fate has Garnet chosen for Gaia's former hero? Find out next time.