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Thank you Q-A the Authoress and Guest for your reviews on the last chapter, I'm glad that you enjoyed seeing a different side of Garnet!

Well, I don't have much to say again here...

Enjoy!


056. I know

Tonight, the stars were brighter than ever.

Garnet stood alone on the highest balcony of Alexandria Castle, overlooking the city before her, and the fields that lay in the very distance. If she squinted and strained her eyes, she could just about see a few clusters of light that marked tiny villages here and there. It was beautiful. A beautiful city that she watched over, one that she was proud to serve as Queen.

But the stars here looked different to the ones that lay over the other parts of the world she'd seen. The ones in Madain Sari were bright orbs in the sky, the ones in Esto Gaza were so close, and twinkled as though they were laughing. And over Treno, you could barely see them.

Garnet sighed, and rested her elbows on the white, limestone balcony railings, leaning her head into her hands. Her nose was long-numb in the cool air, and her breath had the ghost of a lingering cloud echoing after it against the dark sky. It wasn't a queenly posture, but for once, she wasn't being watched. She began to sing, just quietly, the song that she'd sung all her life. The one that connected all of her lives together - Sarah, Dagger, Garnet and Queen. Such a funny life she'd lived, so strange. So many twists and turns that it hurt her head when she thought about it. For a long while, whilst they were journeying around the world as a group, she'd felt lost. She didn't know who she was anymore, and it broke her heart to think that all that she'd lived might have been a lie. She understood Vivi when he shook in fear over his own mortality. She understood Zidane when he lost all hope.

"The stars are bright tonight." Zidane's voice came from behind her, shaking her out of her thoughts. She turned to see him walking towards her slowly, dressed far more casually than she was, in her periwinkle blue dress, all embroidered with a few underskirts and a corset to complete things, with a silver tiara to complete things. Unnecessarily fancy for her overly-long stint at the desk today. "You look amazing, Dagger."

He kissed her cheek and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, smiling down at her. She stood upright slowly and smiled at him.

"Thank you." She was speaking formally again - but she'd never quite returned to the level of formality she'd once spoken with before meeting him. She supposed that there were some things about herself that had been irreversibly altered by him.

"What's the matter? You seem down." He leant back against the white stone and examined her face carefully. "Is it that Rusty following you again? Or are the Counsel giving you grief?"

Garnet shook her head and smiled at him. "Nothing is the matter, Zidane."

"Hey, Dagger. You're speaking posh again. I know something's wrong." His face collapsed into concern. "What happened? Who can I hit to make it better?"

She smiled at him. She didn't realise just how closely he'd picked up on her speech. She supposed that happened when you were married for a year or more. "I promise you, Zidane, nothing is wrong." She looked up to the stars. The smile still clung to her lips as strongly as the weak cloud had lingered before her mouth when she sighed.

"You know I'm King-"

"Prince Consort"

He waved a hand "-King now. If anyone ever did anything to upset you, I could take them out the official and unofficial way."

She giggled lightly. "Oh, Zidane." He dove into him with a side-hug.

"Hey, Dagger," he wrapped his arms around her too, "you really aren't being a very convincing actress right now."

She giggled again and stepped back. "Zidane, nothing's wrong."

"Oh, well that explains it." He smiled that smug smirk he did when he was stalling for time, so he could solve whatever problem he was unravelling. But it slipped away, and he paused. "Nope. I'm stuck. What is it?" He scratched the back of his head, frowning.

"Zidane, you are going to be a father."

"Oh." He was stunned into silence for a moment, eyes wide and lips pursed into a closed circle, staring out into who knows where. But, like he'd been hit by thunder, he leapt back into action, pulling Garnet into a hug so tight and fierce he knocked off her tiara. "Wait," he let go of her like she was covered in flan-goo, "can I do that now? Do I still do that? I don't want to hurt the baby. Oh-" He rushed to the back of her dress and tried to undo the corset at her back.

"Zidane!" She laughed and swatted him away from her back. "It's fine. Doctor Tott and I have known for a while, and this is perfectly safe."

"...Doctor Tott knew before me?"

"Ooh..." Garnet cooed, turning to face Zidane who was still holding the slightly undone strings of her corset. "It's not like that, he had to know so that I could know."

He nodded, and a smile twitched at the side of his lips, but he still didn't quite meet his eyes. She knew what this was; ever since they'd married, he'd expected to be far more involved in duties than he had been. He'd felt pushed aside, and far out of the loop - sent on missions to places he'd only visited as a thief, negotiating for a treaty he'd barely read. He'd hated it for months, and had gone so cold they'd had to work hard not to grow to hate each other. He'd said he'd felt like a child, being pushed and pulled and commanded around as though he weren't his own person. Garnet had feared that he would turn to the pretty maids to find solace in his sadness. But she stepped in to help him, and he never did. But things weren't always easy from then on; just because they were the rulers of Alexandria didn't mean they had the accompanying fairy tale ending.

"How long have you known?"

"About three hours."

He chuckled. And then smiled, and laughed, joyously, taking his wife, his queen, the person he could sometimes hate and love in equal measure, into his arms and holding tight. He stepped back, eyeing the strings he was still holding, dropping them. "I can't even undo that thing when I really want to anyway."

Garnet smiled widely at him, sighing at his antics. He wasn't wrong, though. She was happy that for the first time in a while, they were feeling the emotion - on the same wavelength as they had been when they'd journeyed together.

Zidane stood in front of her and paused, looking from her face to her stomach. "There's really my baby, in there?"

Garnet smiled. "Yes. A little lower than where you're looking, though, and so small you could barely see them right now."

Zidane looked Garnet in the eyes and she hadn't ever felt a love in this way for quite some time. "Garnet, I-"

"I know." It was all she needed to say. They both knew that Zidane wasn't like the rest of them were. That he was fundamentally, inextricably different from how Garnet was formed. That he may die early, be struck down by some terrible disease. That he may never have children; the one thing he wanted more than anything else, so that he could be just as involved in the state with the family he'd help raise, help to create. And yet, somehow, by some miracle, it had happened.

"Thank you."


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