"Things always seem better if you can smile in spite of it."
(-)
The rest of the school-week went by without much incident. Squall began to adjust to the bizarre reflections of nearly everyone he saw, though his step-mom's continued to catch him off-guard with its lack of clothes. Still, after Rinoa and Seifer did the school the favor and announce his friendship with the three brothers, it actually seemed to help their popularity more than it hurt his, much to Seifer's annoyance. The three brothers could now move out from their little corner of the cafeteria and sit near the other patrons of the school. Now, Garnet often joined them at their table as everyone traded the snacks in their lunch. Terra, however, was still a little shy to sit with everyone, preferring to eat lunch with her Uncle Kuja, not that Vaan minded though.
"She hates big crowds. I totally understand," Vaan explained to Squall and Rinoa, who was happy to hear the rumors were confirmed.
"Well, I, for one, am glad she has such an understanding boyfriend, right, Squall?" Rinoa asked, stealthily texting Quistis about the confirmed rumor.
"Whatever."
"Hey! You'd better not be texting anyone about this, Rinoa!" Vaan said, noticing Rinoa's sly movements.
"Oh, come on! Not even Quistis?"
"Terra doesn't want the whole school making a big deal about this! She doesn't want the attention."
Rinoa pouted. "Fine," she grumbled, deleting the nearly-complete text. Bartz, Zidane, and Garnet giggled.
"So, Squall, Rinoa," Bartz finally spoke up in hopes to change the subject. "You guys going to the Tantalus Carnival this weekend?"
"That's the carnival that sets up on your ranch at this time of the year, correct?" Garnet asked.
"Yup, that's it!" confirmed Zidane.
Bartz continued. "The three of us are going to help with the games and stuff, and Gilgamesh will be offering chocobo rides!"
"Terra even managed to convince Baku to donate some of the proceeds to the relief effort in Japan," Vaan added.
Rinoa giggled. "Sounds like fun, right, Squall?"
"Whatever."
"That's Squall for 'Yes,'" Rinoa explained with a hint of sarcasm, causing Vaan to fight back a laugh.
"Wait, I thought you three were going to spend this weekend cleaning your room…" Squall asked, finally paying attention to the conversation.
"Uuuuuuh… Next weekend, then. Promise!" Bartz answered.
(-)
The bus that Squall and Rinoa were riding in pulled up to the chocobo ranch, the last stop on its route as all the riders poured out having reached their destination. It was a fairly warm day. Squall half-regretted wearing the black-muscle shirt with a white outline of Griever on the side as it soaked up the sun's rays, but it was one of his favorite shirts. Black fingerless gloves, blue, denim jeans, and black sneakers topped his ensemble. Rinoa decided to wear a sky-blue, sleeveless tube-top with a little wing on the center of her chest with two angel wings on the back. A black, pleather belt was tied around the waist, and black shorts peaked out from under the extra-long top. Black, knee-high boots and blue wrist bands completed her outfit.
Wrapping her arm around Squall's, Rinoa began to drag him toward the game area. "Come on, Squall! Let's have some fun!"
"Alright! Alright! I'm coming," he said as he was dragged along by his date.
They passed by many games you typically see at a fair, ski-ball, whack-a-mole, water-gun racers, knock over the milk bottles-
"Hey, Squall!" a familiar voice nearly shouted.
Running the milk-bottle booth was Vaan and Terra, of all people. Vaan was wearing a white polo shirt with a popped collar, a small, black vest, black basketball shorts, and that same turquoise pendant that he always saw the other-Vaan wear. Terra was wearing a blue half-jacket over a white, sleeveless shirt with a blue, pleated skirt and orange sash-belt. She was quietly waving at the other couple.
"Ah-ha! I finally caught you two together!" Rinoa exclaimed pulling out her cellphone. "Say cheese!"
Before Vaan and Terra had time to react, Rinoa had snapped a decent picture of the two of them with her phone. Terra and Vaan started blushing.
"Welp, I'm satisfied," Rinoa proudly proclaimed as she put her cellphone away again. All Squall could do was face-palm and sigh.
"Sorry, guys," he apologized to Vaan and Terra.
Vaan began to wave off the apology as he added, "Nah, it's cool, right, Terra?"
"I-I guess," she softly answered, playing with a strand of hair again.
Vaan cleared his throat and remembered his job. "So, Squall, wanna throw?" he asked holding a baseball up. "One dollar gets you three balls. Knock all three bottles down to get a prize!"
Honestly, Squall wasn't really interested, but the look from Rinoa, the look of "Please do it for me, please, please, please?" had him pulling out a dollar bill from his wallet. "Fine, but this is the only one, got it?"
"Hey, for every dollar you spend here today is one nickel for Japan!" Vaan proclaimed with enthusiasm as Terra took the bill to put away in the money-box. Vaan took out two more baseballs as he lined the three of them up on the booth for Squall to throw at the pyramid stack of three ivory-white milk-bottles on the table in the back of the stall.
"Get me the cactuar! No, wait, the chocobo! No, maybe the tonberry? NO, DEFINITELY THE MOOGLE!" Rinoa urged as Squall began to line up his first throw, noting the giant, stuffed animals that lined the booth.
Annoyed at the interruption in his concentration, he asked Rinoa, "You mind me actually knocking these down first?"
"Alright! Alright! Gosh!"
After a little giggle from Vaan and Terra, Squall went back to lining up his shot. He didn't have the best arm when it came to throwing things, but he was decent enough that he felt like he could knock these down without much trouble. First throw: missed slightly to the right of the top bottle. Second throw: it hit the lower-left one, but it didn't move enough for it or the top bottle to fall over. Squall was down to his last ball. Now, he had to knock them all over or Rinoa wouldn't let him hear the end of it. He closed his eyes and began to focus. He felt the energies well up from inside of him as his grip on the ball tightened. He exhaled and threw the ball. Next thing he heard was a crash as the ball connected with the milk-bottles. He opened his eyes to see that the bottles were all knocked off the table, but that wasn't all. There was a small, baseball-sized hole in the tarp that lined the back of the stall at the same height where the milk bottles previously stood. Terra was looking out the hole with concern to see if she could spot the stray ball. Rinoa was too shocked to speak.
"I… uh…" Squall stammered as he starred at the hole, unsure what just happened.
Vaan jumped over the booth and started shoving Squall around the booth he and Terra were stationed at. "Uh, Squall an' me will find that ball! The tarp must have been weak there! Too many years of balls whacking it there, you know?" He added a bit of a forced, nervous laugh as the two of them rounded the corner.
When they were in the clear, Vaan turned around and, softly, yelled at Squall. "What the hell, man? You're not supposed to use magic in the real world!"
"S-Sorry! I didn't even realize I was doing it!" Squall said trying to defend himself.
"You've got to be more careful! The last thing I want is to be strapped to a piece of metal as lasers and needles poke and prod every part of my body trying to discover the source of my powers!"
"… You watch way too many sci-fi movies."
"Shut up and help me look for the stupid ball."
(-)
"So… uh… What's he like?" Rinoa asked Terra after the initial shock wore off.
Terra started playing with her hair again. "What's who like, Rinoa?" she asked.
"Vaan, of course! I mean, I know him a little bit from these past few days as a friend, but I want to know what he's like as a boyfriend." She sat on the ledge of the booth as the old wood groaned over the extra weight. "So, come on! Spill!"
"Th-There's nothing really to talk about!"
"Don't get so defensive! I just want to know how long you've been dating, and where you've gone, and what movies you've seen, and if you've gone to second base yet-"
"RINOA!" shouted a new voice from behind her.
Rinoa and Terra turned their attention to the new voice. They saw a very annoyed Yuna followed by a somewhat confused Tidus come up to the stand. Yuna was wearing an ivory white halter top decorated with the outlines of purple hibiscus flowers and a blue, ocean-like skirt held up with a pink belt. Tidus was wearing a simple yellow tee-shirt and black overalls.
"What, Yuna?" Rinoa said with a shrug. "I'm just curious."
"Leave poor Terra alone. You know she's shy. If she doesn't want to talk about it, you shouldn't force her."
"Oh, come on! I can't even get Vaan to talk about their relationship! How am I supposed to keep everyone informed?"
"I think this is why they won't tell you, Rinoa," Tidus answered.
"Shut up, Tidus, I wasn't talking to you."
"Yeash! Touchy." He turned his attention to Terra. "So, Terra, can I play?"
"Um…" she began, still playing with her hair. "C-Can you wait until Vaan gets back with the missing ball?"
"Yeah, sure. We can wait, right, Yuna?"
"Yes, that should be fine," she affirmed with a nod.
(-)
"Ah, geeze…" Vaan whined, still looking around for the stray ball. "This thing went far!"
"God, what a pain," Squall added.
"What'chya dooooin"
The two of them looked up to see that they had made their way to the dunk tank where Bartz in a baggy white tee-shirt and blue swim trunks sat patiently inside.
"Looking for the baseball Squall Rough Divide'd," Vaan answered.
"Squall!" Bartz scolded.
Squall shot Bartz a very annoyed look which caused Bartz to shrug it off.
KLANG!
"Oh come on!" Bartz shouted to someone outside of Squall's field of vision. "What the hell was that? Zell's got better hand-eye coordination!"
"SHUT UP!"
"That voice...! It couldn't be!"
Squall looked around the tank to see a very pissed off Seifer with a ball in his hand. Seifer's gray, sleeveless trench coat flapped in the breeze as his posse, Fuujin and Raijin, were rubbing his shoulders.
"GET HIM," Fuujin blurted out.
"He's nothing but a punk, ya'know? You can totally dunk him, ya'know?" assured Raijin.
"Bartz!" Seifer shouted. "You are going down!"
"Seeing's believing, Seifer," he said indicating his bone-dry clothes. "I'm waaaaaiting!"
KLANG!
He missed again. Firion and Lightning were running the booth as Bartz patiently waited to be dunked. It was obvious Bartz was baking in the sun and desperately wanted to be dunked.
"M-Maybe you should just give up, Seifer," commented Firion. "There are lots of other games you can play he-"
"I'M GOING TO KEEP PLAYING UNTIL I DUNK THAT CHICKEN-WUSS!" Seifer screamed as he made Raijin hand another dollar to Firion. Lightning gave Seifer three more balls.
"Well, you have to say one thing about the idiot," Lightning said to Firion. "He's persistent."
Firion chuckled as he was suddenly reminded of someone. "Not unlike Snow?"
"God, don't remind me."
KLANG!
Missed again.
"Is this what you're looking for, Vaan?"
"Ohmygod, yes! Thanks, Baku!" Vaan shouted with elation causing Squall to turn around again.
Baku was a rather portly man. He wore goggles that covered his eyes. His nose looked almost like a pig's snout as his upper lip was covered in a thick, brown mustache. He wore a typical red ringleader's suit that looked faaaar too hot for this particular day. He didn't seem any worse for wear though.
"Squall!" Vaan called out. He pointed to the ball, then back in the general direction of the booth. Waving good-bye in hopes that Squall understood, he ran back towards his stall to help Terra out.
KLANG!
"GOD DAMNIT!" It was obvious Seifer missed again.
"Bartz!" Baku's hearty voice called out to the boy in the tank.
"Baku!" he shouted back happy. "How have you been? It's been so long!"
"I've been well! I've been well!" he added with a hearty laugh. "I should be asking you that!" His face became somber as his voice lost the mirth is previously had. "My condolences, Bartz."
Bartz took a moment to think of the times that he enjoyed with Reks as tears began to build in his eyes.
KLANG!
"DAMNIT, SEIFER! WE WERE HAVING A MOMENT!" Bartz shouted at him.
"STOP IGNORING ME, DAMNIT!" he shouted back as he forced Raijin to give Firion another dollar.
Bartz smacked his forehead with his palm. "Oh, sorry. Where are my manners? Squall, that's Baku the Ringmaster. Baku, that's Squall Loire."
Squall shook the stout ringmaster's hand, his entire arm and body being shaken in the process. With a hearty laugh, he slapped Squall on the back, causing Squall to cough as the air was forced out of his lungs. "So, I take it you and Seifer are friends of Bartz?"
"Me? Yes. Seifer? No."
KLANG!
Still laughing, Baku added, "Straightforward! I like that in a person. Those three need someone to look out for them since they have no one else."
"I'm not their baby-sitter."
With another hearty laugh, Baku slapped Squall's back again, causing to cough several times as he struggled to catch his breath. "Well, Bartz!" Baku said with a wave. "It was nice seeing you!"
"Bye, Baku!" he said with a wave as well.
KLANG!
"FOR PETE'S SAKE, FALL ALREADY!" shouted Seifer in frustration.
"Squall!"
Squall turned to see Rinoa running toward him waving with one hand while the other held a cheap, moogle plushy.
Pouting, she said "Thanks for coming to get me."
"Sorry, got kinda tied up here."
"That's alright. Let's go get some cotton candy!" she said while she started to drag Squall off toward the snack area.
KLANG!
"AAARGH! Raijin, give them another dollar!" Seifer demanded.
"But, I'm all out! That was my last one, ya'know?" he said in a futile attempt to placate Seifer's growing rage.
"EMPTY," Fuujin added before Seifer could ask her.
Seifer turned his head to the sky and shouted, "GOD DAMNIT!"
"Hey, Seifer!" Bartz called out. "Come here. I've got a little proposition for ya," urging him to come around to the back of the tank.
"What?" Seifer asked with a threatening harshness.
"I'll keep quiet about this whole thing if you do me a favor."
"Are you blackmailing me?"
"What? No-no-no-no-no… This is a simple barter. If you take care of the stand Vaan and Terra are at for the rest of the day, I won't tell the whole school about how you can't hit the broad side of a barn."
"BLACKMAIL," Fuujin pointed out.
"Fine, fine! If you want to put it so harshly, it's blackmail." Bartz shrugged. "Either do that for me, or your shoddy hand-eye-coordination will be known throughout school. Good luck trying to seem threatening after word gets out."
"You're bluffing. Who would believe you anyway?" Seifer said confident that he wouldn't need to make the deal.
"Oh, I guess you didn't know Squall witnessed your horrible throwing arm…"
"What, Squall? You're lying!"
"TRUTH…" Fuujin agreed.
"I saw him too, ya'know. I saw him talking to Bartz, ya'know. You were too busy with the baseballs, ya'know."
Seifer looked like he wanted to eat his trench coat he was so pissed. "ARGH, FINE! I'll do it, but you'd better keep up your end of the deal!"
"Scout's honor!"
As Seifer began to walk off toward Vaan's stall muttering incomprehensible insults, swears, and threats under his breath, Bartz added, "Oh, and if I even suspect a penny is missing from the box, consider the deal off!" He turned his attention to Firion and Lightning as they greeted their first new customers of the morning. "So, Firion… You propose to Light yet?"
Next thing Bartz knew, the bench he was sitting on gave way as Lightning smashed the button with her fist as her face turned as pink as her hair.
Bartz stood up in the tank, spat out the water that made it into his mouth, extended his pointer finger in the air, and proudly proclaimed, "I REGRET NOTHING!"
(-)
Terra and Vaan waved good-bye to Tidus and Yuna as the latter walked away with a new cactuar plushie. Terra sighed as she took a gulp of water from her water bottle as Vaan scratched his head.
"Not the best way to spend a weekend, huh?" he finally spoke.
Terra shook her head and gently smiled at him. "No, it's fine. I don't mind helping you."
"Really?"
"Besides, I don't like large crowds anyway."
"One step at a time, then."
"Hey, chicken-wuss!"
Vaan and Terra turned their heads to see an obviously annoyed Seifer, a stoic Fuujin, and an embarrassed Raijin at their stall. Vaan raised an eyebrow in a, "Okay, what do you want," manner as Terra took a step back as Fuujin's cold stare frightened her.
"LEAVE," Fuujin commanded.
Vaan cocked his head confused as Terra cowered behind him.
"Bartz wants us to take over the stall, ya'know. We've got a deal, ya'know," Raijin explained.
"Idiot!" Seifer exclaimed while slapping Raijin in the back of the head. "Don't mention that!"
Vaan waved his hands in an attempt to regain their attention. "Wait, wait, Bartz told you to do that?"
"Yeah, so get lost," Seifer answered.
"V-Vaan, should we?" Terra asked nervously still cowering behind Vaan.
"Yeah, if Bartz said it was okay," Vaan said as he swung his legs over the stall, "then let's go enjoy ourselves!" he answered offering a hand to Terra to help her over.
Taking his hand, Terra climbed over the stall as well, jumping down with a light huff. "O-Okay, if you say so."
As the two began to walk away from the stall and Seifer and his posse climbed in it, Vaan turned to Terra to ask, "So, what do you want to do first?"
"Um…" Terra began to nervously play with her hair again, thinking of what she wanted to do first. "Can we go ride the chocobo?"
"Chocobo? Sure! I'll see if we can get Lilly. She's a pink chocobo. I'm sure she'll like you."
"O-Okay!"
(-)
"Hey, Gilgamesh!" Vaan called out pulling the large, pink chocobo named Lilly by her reigns. "I'm taking Lilly for a little run. We'll be back later!"
"Alright, Vaan!" Gilgamesh, a rather large man wearing old, denim overalls and brown boots, said waving them good-bye. "Wait, shouldn't you be running your stall?"
"Bartz got a 'friend' to cover for me!" he shouted back as he mounted the bird and helped Terra up.
"Alright, I'll let Baku know when he comes around!"
As the two of them steadied themselves on the bird as it adjusted to their weight, Terra instinctively grabbed onto Vaan's waist and clung tightly.
"Hold on tight! Despite Lilly's feminine color, she's quite the little rocket!" Vaan flicked the reigns giving Lilly the go-ahead. Instantly, Lilly started to take off through the field as the tall grass flew by as a blur. Terra squeaked as her grip on Vaan's waist tightened. Vaan couldn't help but chuckle.
After some time of running through the field, they came upon Vaan's destination, a lone, old tree on the edge of their property. Its shadow invited the two of them to rest under its old branches and escape the overbearing rays of the sun. Looking up, Terra noticed a wooden staircase on the side of the tree leading into its canopy and a rickety-old tree house that rested there. Vaan got off the chocobo, then helped Terra down from the bird. The chocobo decided to roost under the tree branches as Vaan led Terra up the old tree into the tree house.
The inside of the tree house was just as unassuming as the outside: there were a few holes that constituted as windows covered by tattered, worn clothes to act as shades. There were four bean-bag chairs in the four corners of the small tree house each a different color, red, blue, yellow, and green. Next to each of the stacks laid a small pile of old comic books and magazines. Vaan flopped in the red bean-bag chair in the north-east corner, as Terra admired the view from the nearby window on the east wall. Grass stretched as far as she could see. Moving over to the west wall, she could see small dots on the horizon, the tent, ranch home, and the chocobo stables. It was apparent that the tree house was some distance away from the ranch.
"So, what do you think?" Vaan spoke up, still reclining on the chair. "Not much of a view, huh?'
She gently shook her head. "No, it's nice."
"Zidane calls this place our 'man-cave,'" he said with a chuckle. "If he knew I took you here, he wouldn't let me hear the end of it."
"Then, we'd better not tell him," she said as she sat down on Vaan's bean-bag chair as well. Vaan sat up and skootched over enough so that they could comfortably share the seat. She took one of the comics in the pile next to the bean-bag chair and inspected it. It was an older comic of Batman.
"Batman?" she asked.
"Ha, Batman is my home-boy!" he began to explain. "The guy doesn't have any super-powers or extra-ordinary abilities, but yet, he still made himself a hero. Even Superman, the guy with every power under the sun, respects the guy."
"Kind of like your brother?"
"… Yeah, I guess so."
Terra opened the comic as the two began to read it together. Vaan began spiritedly reenacting the comic since he's read it so many times, much to Terra's amusement. Vaan was Batman, naturally, as he swung at the invisible henchman of the Joker, adding various sound-effects as the punches connected with their imaginary targets. When his reenactment finished, Terra began to clap as Vaan took a bow. During the bow, Vaan's stomach grumbled hungrily at the two of them causing Vaan to blush and Terra to giggle.
"Ha, sorry…" he said scratching the back of his head. "I think the corn-dogs are calling me."
"No, it's alright. I could use something to eat as well."
The two of them climbed back down the ladder (Terra was first, naturally) and made their way back to the chocobo. Suddenly, the field and the tree around them burst into a sea of crimson orange flames. Terra panicked as fire erupted from the ground all over, her heart raced and her breathing quickened, but yet, Vaan was completely unaware of the flames- Wait, where did he go? He was right here a moment ago! He and the chocobo were gone, and Terra was all alone in an ocean of fire.
Footsteps! They came from behind, as she wheeled around expecting to find Vaan there with a bucket of water for the fire, but the last thing she ever expected to see awaited her… A clown. She hated clowns… They always terrified her, with their pale-white skin and menacing, everlasting smiles… They were straight out of a nightmare. The clown had its blond hair tied back and topped with various-colored feathers. Its clothes looked like he loosely stitched together various pieces of fabric it could get its hand on. And, oh god, those hands… Just as white with overgrown, blood red nails… This clown was definitely the unholy god of clowns. Its hands were holding a golden ring with a red-jewel on the band. It sneered at her with that terrible, nightmare-inducing smile.
"Now, now, my little Terra," it cackled at her, "Let's go DESTROY some things! FWEE-HEE-HEE!" It raised the circlet over Terra's head as she tried her hardest to run away, but her legs refused to move.
"No…" she managed to blurt out in her terror. "STAY AWAY!" she screamed as she summoned a block of ice and launched it at the vision.
Vaan, who was approaching her to get her to calm down after her sudden panic attack, barely managed to dodge the ice block that suddenly flew by his face.
"Th-That was magic!" he managed to blurt out through his shock. "No! Not you! Anyone but you!"
Terra's body went limp and collapsed. Vaan ran over to her to make sure she was alright, but as soon as he got close, he was pushed away by a burst of magical energy. Terra's form shimmered and changed from her normal self to a lavender beast-human hybrid. Her eyes burned with the magical energies that flowed through her body as they looked devoid of her soul. Her golden, yellow claws raised as a white energy began to form in them.
"Warrior of Cosmos…" she said without a hint of emotion. "Destroy," she said as she lobed two sets of three Holy spheres at Vaan.
Vaan braced himself crossing his arms in front of his face, then summoned his Crystal and transformed.
He grunted and called out to her. "Terra! Don't make me do this! Snap out of it!"
But his pleases fell on deaf ears as she summoned another chunk of ice and launched it at Vaan, catching him in the gut, then splitting into smaller pieces and attacking him again. He skidded to a halt as he pulled out his Crystal again and forced open a door to the world between, catching himself and Terra in the Crystal's light to do battle.
(-)
Uh-oh, Terra's Awake! Terra Esper Dualcast Tornado battle go!
It's possible Seifer needs glasses, not that he would ever admit it. Maybe he can't put contacts in. I know I couldn't. And, well, that's one way to get dunked, Bartz.
But, aw, Bartz is such a good big bro, blackmailing Seifer so that Vaan and Terra can have some alone time. Where's Zidane during all of this? I was going to write him in at the end of the chapter, but it was getting a little long, so he's definitely going to appear at the beginning of the next one. Even though Zidane's supposed to be one of the four main characters, he hasn't gotten as much face-time as the others, has he? I dunno, I guess I just don't like writing for him.
Side note: Bartz needs to watch less TV. Seriously. He keeps quoting shit, that darn mime.
Next time: Terra's Esper form runs amok! Will Vaan be able to snap her out of it? Will anyone come to his aid? Stay tuned!