Chapter Eleven: A fight and a Laugh
Author: Silverblacktears
Authors Note: Yes, I can hear you a saying it, where have you been? The simple answer is work, the demon that kills off so many people; the endless drudge that kills many peoples creativity. Yeah lame excuse huh?
Ignoring my incredible lameness for just one moment I have people to thank for their lovely reviews:-
Katsumeragi1313: Long awaiting was right (Sweatdrops)
Eika: (waves) Hey! Hehe, yes he will, he wants his sons back.
Melesse Spirit: Here be the next one.
Additional Note: Please enjoy this chapter! Comments, enquiries etc are as always appreciated. SBT.
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Back flipping out of the range of the sword, Zidane followed up with a second back flip before tossing a handful of Gil at his assailant; covering his face with a gauntleted forearm, Steiner advanced a few more steps and struck out at the king.
Vivi sighed gustily as he watched the two spar, utterly bored by their antics he waited all the same since the court had charged Steiner to watch him; secretly, Vivi was hoping this would be in his favour since he was willing to let Steiner train without running off.
"You're not even trying!" Zidane yelled at Steiner from where he perched in the rafters of the training room. "Come on Rusty, you're stronger then this."
Imploringly, Steiner looked at the Genome, "I am trying not to concern the Queen by wounding you in anyway." He insisted, "She has had a taxing time." This comment stung Vivi a little but he just remained crouched to one side; everyone had been through a lot because of him.
Zidane snorted, "Excuses, excuses," He yelled back, "You're just getting old and fat!" Teasingly, the Genome's tail brushed the air just out of Steiner's reach. "You can at least try, it's not like you'll actually hit me!" There was a whistle from the rafters, drawing Vivi's eyes to Zidane. "Back me up here Vivi, isn't Rusty getting fat?!"
"Why you …" Steiner launched a shock in Zidane's direction, the Genome leaping lithely to another support beam as it shattered the one he had been on.
Presently, Vivi was not allowed to cast any magic; the court had decided that this temptation should be removed from him but in truth there was little they could do to stop him. Most of the castles white mages refused to go near him and those who could refused to cast silence on him anyway, so the court had to trust that the Waltz would listen to them.
"Come down here and face me like a man you cowardly monkey,"
"Is that the best you've got?!"
There was a light thud as Zidane hit the ground, darting in to scratch Steiner's armour with on of his daggers, "You'll need bigger armour soon," He commented as he darted out of reach to toss another handful of coins at the knight. "That one looks tight,"
Zidane's plan to get Steiner mad was working and Vivi felt a slight pang of jealousy; he could not get angry, not unless he wanted to go berserk and he certainly did no wish for that to happen. With a shout, Steiner charged, Zidane brought his daggers up to meet the strike, leaping backwards before delivering a kick at the knights chest.
Lighting fast, Steiner grabbed the foot and pulled hard; with a yelp of shock Zidane hit the ground. "Oh hey Beatrix," Zidane said suddenly, Steiner released the foot and looked around, falling for Zidane's 'What's that?' technique. Smirking, Zidane lashed out with his daggers again.
With an angry sound, Steiner charged again; Zidane leapt out of the way just as Steiner called up another Shock. This technique missed by a good deal, flying past Zidane and crashing against a pile of armour and spears; with a deafening clatter these fell to the ground. "Ha!" Zidane cheered at this, distracted by the noise.
A gauntleted hand smashed against the kings side, sending him flying across the room and right into Vivi who had not been paying attention. "Ow," Zidane muttered, not realising the soft thing he had partially landed on was more pointy then it initially seemed.
Desperately trying to breathe, Vivi struggled against the Genome's weight, inadvertently clawing at Zidane's bare arm. Letting out a bark of shock at this - since he thought what he had landed on had been one of the training mats - Zidane leapt off Vivi. "Whoops, sorry Vivi." He apologised, rubbing a hand over the back of his bruised head.
Wide yellow eyes went to Zidane's arm and Vivi shook his head, "huh?" Zidane followed the gaze and cursed under his breath. To the court this wound would look deliberate, they would just assume that Vivi had once again lashed out at someone around him. "Rusty, get over here now!"
Remaining where he had come to rest against the wall, Vivi sighed heavily; this was not going to go well. Steiner moved to join them, he had seen the whole thing from where he had been standing but had not had time to warn the king. "What are we going to do?" The knight asked, offering Vivi a hand to his feet out of courtesy.
Taking the hand, Vivi picked himself up with Steiner's help. "I suppose I'm going to see the inside of a jail cell again," He muttered despondently, looking at his wounded hand. "I'm sorry Zidane,"
"What are you sorry for?" Zidane asked, "I landed on you, not the other way around, it wasn't your fault." He assured with a wide smile at his friend, he was trying to hide his own concern. "Here's what we'll do, Steiner will go and fetch Ellisa,"
"Will the Mage come?"
"Oh, she'll come, Valian will be with her …" Zidane winked at Vivi, clearly he did not mind blurting the locations of his friends sons. "Whoops, did I say that?" He pretended to catch the error a bit too late but in all honesty Steiner did not seem to mind. "Anyway, she'll come."
Steiner saluted and clanked out, leaving Vivi and Zidane alone, "Ruby gave you that thing, right?" Zidane asked vaguely, possibly out of fear of someone over hearing; Vivi nodded. "Good, Sola is going on a walk into town later today; he'll slip back in at ten tonight over the wall." Vivi blinked at his friend a few times before nodding his head slowly, "I can't do anything about getting you to see Nicara or Turo but I think I can get the others to see you at least once this week."
Vivi's shoulders shuddered as the feelings welled up in his thin form and he ducked his head. "I - I - I don't deserve your kindness Zidane," He spluttered, not looking up at his friend. "Not after … the crimes I committed."
There was a scoff from Zidane, "You know what I like to believe?" The Genome muttered and moved to sit to one side, a hand covering his bleeding arm. "I'd like to believe that you'd have stopped on your own eventually, that you're soul would have kicked in and you'd have taken yourself out rather then hurt her."
"I'd … like to think that too," Vivi whispered, even though he knew the truth; he knew that his Berserker self would happily maim the young girl but part of him did not want to believe it. He clenched his hand into a fist, trying to stop crying. "Yes, I want that to be so."
Letting his head hit the wall, Zidane allowed himself a small private smile, "And I want you to be my next child's Godfather too," He admitted, looking up as Vivi when he sensed the startled gaze on him. "What? You're a damned good Godfather," He beamed.
"Garnet is going to have another baby?"
"Huh?" Zidane looked at Vivi before shaking his head, "Not yet, we're talking about it,"
"Probably not the only thing you're doing about it," Vivi sniped before he could control himself and Zidane laughed fully; he had missed this banter with his friend. Since Vivi had matured - becoming a teenager and now a young adult - he had become more of a competition in these sessions and prior to his first attack, Zidane had found these sessions fun.
"Geez, I missed this," Zidane admitted, patting the ground besides him and Vivi moved to his side, sitting besides the Genome. "Funny isn't it? Of all the things I missed about you, it's these moments I missed the most." He smiled at Vivi who nodded slightly, "It's good to hear you say that."
Silence lapped between them but it was a comfortable silence rather then an awkward one; as friends they could tease, joke and speak deeply but they were just as capable of sitting in silence. "You know, I still remember you at nine?" Zidane half asked and half said, "I remember how clumsy you were and how deep." He looked towards Vivi again with a small smile, "Such a mystery,"
"At first, I thought you were a little bit creepy," Zidane admitted, Vivi looked startled at this, he had no idea Zidane had felt this. "Don't think it's the mage thing, it was more the … glowing eyes … okay it was the mage thing." Vivi gave a very small chuckle at this, "But then I got to know you, saw how brave you were and I wanted to be a good friend for you." Zidane looked out over the rather shattered training room, the beam Steiner had broken littered the ground. "It's a toss up between you and Blank as to who's my best friend."
"Thank you Zidane," Vivi murmured at length, looking down at his hands; he had lost most of his nervous traits when he had travelled with Tantalus but sometimes they all showed again. "Your friendship has always meant a lot to me; especially right now."
Lifting his head, Vivi looked at Zidane, who looked back with a smile; silence crept between them again. Zidane suddenly started to chuckle and Vivi looked to him again, "Do you remember when you came back from Tantalus?" Not even having to stretch his memory, Vivi nodded. "Everyone knew I just wanted to give you a hug but I forced myself to be strong because I'm a guy."
"And I hugged you," Vivi finished with a smile that Zidane could feel but not see, "Because I don't have those silly hold backs."
"Yeah, I've noticed, you know what?"
"What?"
"I'm glad you don't,"
The two shared a look and Zidane started to laugh, this was contagious and despite everything - despite the wounds he had suffered and how much he missed his sons - Vivi started to laugh too.
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Pausing outside the training room door, Valian allowed himself a small smile; Ellisa looked back when she had noticed her young assistant had stopped. "Valian?" She asked, wondering what had made him stop when he had previously been rushing towards the room with his father in.
"Listen," Valian murmured.
Wondering what he meant, Ellisa did as he asked and listened; she could just hear two people laughing and speaking. Ellisa smiled as she recognised the higher pitched laugh, "Zidane did it," She murmured. "He made him laugh again."
"It sounds good," Valian said softly.
Ellisa nodded her head in agreement, "It's been a long time since either of them has laughed like that," She offered; it was Valian's turn to nod. "I don't remember the last time your father laughed."
"I - It … was a long time ago," Valian murmured, looking down at the stone floor beneath his white booted feet. "He pretends to be happy, all the time." Ellisa could hear the familiar hitch in Valian's voice dictating sorrow; in her experience Valian was the most emotive of Vivi's sons. "Ever since his wings grew, dad hasn't been dad at all."
Crouching to look up under his fringe of Genome coloured blond hair, Ellisa smiled softly. "One could choose to think that now he might start being normal again," She offered. "The problem with your father is that he never tells anyone what he's thinking or feeling, he hides away his problems until they can't logically be dealt with." She stood again, "In that regard your father is an incredably foolish person."
His head jerked up sharply as she said this, and she patted him on the top of his head to stop him looking at her so angrily. "I don't mean it as your taking it," She assured him, thinking Valian thought she meant Vivi was this way all the time.
Shaking his head, Valian started to walk again; despite having a Genome's body, he reminded Ellisa a great deal of Vivi in the way he walked and spoke. "D - Do you think … Queen Garnet will let us go back to dad one day?" Valian asked of Ellisa in a small voice, looking down even as he walked.
"Of course she will," Ellisa said brightly, she beamed as he looked towards her. "You all want to go back right?" This prompted a big nod from the younger mage, "Then she can't stop you, Calan and Sola are adults after all."
"Yeah … Cal's eighteen already."
She overtook his slow pace and led the way into the training room; Zidane looked up as she entered and grinned widely. "Hey," He greeted waving at the pair. "Ellisa, can you come and heal this for me?"
The brown haired mage crossed to Zidane's side, crouching besides the king to examine his arm; Valian moved to sit on his fathers lap without a word. Happily, Vivi squeezed Valian against him, the young teenagers arms around his neck. "It's not a bad wound," Ellisa told Zidane simply, "Whatever made the wound -" Something to her words suggested she knew exactly what had caused the cuts, " - was clean, so it will heal easily."
She closed her eyes, holding her hand over the three cuts and calling up the green energy of a cure spell; in mere seconds the wounds had healed up and she opened her eyes. "There," She announced.
"I've got a bump on the back of my head too," Zidane announced.
"Well we'll let Valian heal this one then," Ellisa offered, keen for her young apprentice to use his skills.
Picking himself up from Vivi's lap, Valian stood besides Ellisa; Zidane turned around and presented the back of his head to the young mage. Holding both hands over the bump on the back of Zidane's head, a green light shone between Valian's hands as he cast the cure spell. "Wow," Zidane said softly, "You're good at this Val!"
"Of course he is," A surprising voice said from where Vivi was still seated on the ground, "He is heir to a great mages power after all." Zidane blinked at Vivi a few times, before Vivi started to giggle. "Gee, you believed me?" He giggled and suddenly all thoughts of Vivi being a berserker vanished from Zidane's mind; sitting on the floor next to him was the same nine year old he had taken under his wing.
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AN: Next time in 'Forever damaged', which son will Vivi sneakily visit? And who is this figure helping him to see each one?