Title: Word of the Day v. FFIV
Author: Garnet Eyes
Archived: fanfiction .net, livejournal .com
Last Updated: 10 Apr 2011
Summary: 26 April 2000 edition.
Rating: T
Characters/Pairings: Cecil, Kain, Rosa, Rydia, Kain x Cecil x Rosa
Author Notes: obfuscate, transitive verb;
1. To darken or render indistinct or dim.
2. To make obscure or difficult to understand or make sense of.
3. To confuse or bewilder.
Disclaimers: Final Fantasy IV is owned by Square-Enix and I in no way, shape, or form profit off of my writing. This is simply for my own pleasure, and may at any time be removed and/or modified as I see fit.

...

Rydia didn't often take the journey to visit any of the friends she had made during the greatest struggle of her life, but she had looked forward to the visit to Baron because she really did like Cecil and Rosa a lot. She knew she would see Kain, too, but she was ambivalent about him because she'd never had terrific interactions with him but whenever Cecil had talked about him during their journey there had always been an underlying quality to his voice that spoke of warmth and contentment, and the paladin had grown with the other man so he'd have a better idea about what the dragoon was really like. She'd been greeted as she'd expected to be, and Rosa had embraced her and chatted with her amicably while Cecil was busy with a distraction in the form of a complaining noble. After the paladin king had finished, he gave her equal attention, smiling and carrying on conversation easily. Rydia almost completely forgot about Kain until she was startled from the talk by a shout and two young boys barreling into the room followed at a sedate pace by the dragoon. That was when the summoner had been introduced to the royal heirs, Ceodore and Richard.

It was painfully obvious that the second born son of Baron's royal house was not the king's by blood. A blonde child did not necessarily mean improper lineage, since Ceodore was a lot blonder than Cecil but still retained a lot of his father's fairer coloring. The proof was only mildly obvious at first glance, what with the child having brown eyes unlike those of either the mother or the father; it was as she looked again at his features that Rydia startled upon her realization. Richard looked and acted like a miniature Kain and, to make matters even more obvious as her visit wore on, the head of the dragoons chastised him for any poor behavior like he had the right to do so, like a man would chastise his own flesh and blood. There was no possible way to hide the fact that the royal couple's primary guard had lain with the king's wife, and yet no one seemed to notice. Rydia wanted to be upset with the dragoon, because Cecil had trusted him and clearly that trust had been misused, but she couldn't do it. Honestly, she didn't know what to think; if Rosa had been assaulted, Cecil wouldn't have let that go and Kain wouldn't be allowed to be so close to either of them, so the white mage must have been willing. That was just cruel, though, because the paladin was so inherently gentle it was still a wonder to the summoner that he'd ever managed to become a dark knight before.

As much as she wanted to believe that everything was in the open and that Cecil wasn't being willfully blind, his unwavering trust in his comrades had been apparent even back before she'd grown, when he'd told her that warriors only showed their backs to allies and had promptly allowed the dragoon to stay at his unprotected back. And that had resulted in more than one betrayal. If she thought about it, Rydia knew that she wouldn't want to be settled into a false happiness, so she brought it up in private, and it was perhaps a touch funny that she'd had to get frightfully blunt before Cecil had realized what she was talking about. Then the paladin had looked surprised before his expression turned to one of discomfort as he tentatively explained to her that her question was just not asked in polite society, but he'd answered her anyway, in a way. The relationship between the paladin, white mage, and dragoon was "complicated," but Cecil was entirely aware of the fact that his second son was perhaps not his own by blood and he was fine with that. Rydia might be an adult now, but it was still confusing to her, when all was said and done.