The Secret Garden
Based on: Final Fantasy Record Keeper
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy. The OCs featured in this fic belong to various friends. Note that while the characters belong to friends, I am the one writing the fic itself. Thank you to my friends for allowing me to borrow your characters. If you wish to appear, please send me a message and we can work something out.
Notes: This is the sequel to Records of Keeper Canti. It's wibby-wobbly, timey-whimy in its execution. I care not. If you care, shut the fuck up and go away. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Warnings: Cursing, potential OOC, OC x Canon, stupid fluffy romance, sex, angst, self-insert author avatar
FIC START!
Chapter Three
Reintroduction
After eating a huge lunch and filling herself up to the brim full of fried chocobo and potato wedges, Canti came home with her Papa Cid to look at what was inside the huge box. Leviathan said there was a booklet about rules inside, and she imagined everything would make sense once she gave it some reading. That sure was a big box. Cid had to use a box cutter to open it, and inside were all sorts of articles of clothing from pants to skirts of various lengths, stockings, blouses, vests, coats. All of them had the same sky blue and silver tartan pattern except for the plain white blouses that were meant to be worn under the vests and coats. And along with all of that was a large book labeled in big, fancy letters: Dagurreo Garden Academy Student Handbook.
Cid flipped through it. "Pretty standard," he said. "There's a whole section here on proper uniform wear, but basically it boils down to wearing a shirt, wearing one of the tops over it, the bow tie in the collar, a bottom of your choice, either socks or stockings, and a pair of black shoes… which weren't provided. Says here any black shoes are allowed. You still have those flats, right?"
"Yep," Canti said, pulling them out of the closet. She put them on the coffee table and looked up at Cid who was fumbling through all the items they had taken out of the box.
"Must be a lot so you not only have variety, but you also don't have to wash the same uniform every day," Cid said, shrugging at it. "Long as nothing inappropriate is showing, I honestly don't care how you wear it. That's not the important thing, far as I'm concerned. You are in school to learn."
"I like the skirt," Canti pointed at it. "And the vest."
"If those are what you wanna go with tomorrow, we'll put the rest away," Cid said. "Take the stuff you wanna wear tomorrow, and I'll move the box. Gosh, that's a lot of stuff." He waited for her to pick the pieces she was going to use and then took the box up to the attic. "We'll get what we need when we need it."
"Mm!"
"So… are you excited now about tomorrow?" Cid asked as he carried the big box up the ladder.
"...maybe a little…"
Cid laughed, coming back down. "Go hang that up so you… I don't have to iron it tomorrow morning in a hurry." He was in good spirits for some reason. Just felt like everything was going right.
Canti immediately grabbed the hangers from the closet and put all her uniform pieces on it, then hung it on a nail right next to her bed. Then she reached into a box and pulled out a leather satchel that felt all too familiar and put that on her nightstand right under her uniform hanging. "I hope I don't forget anything important," she said, staring at her uniform.
"Tomorrow is the first day, so they kinda expect you to make mistakes until you get it all squared away," Cid said, shrugging. "That's just how first days of school are, but… you've never been to school, now that I think about it."
"No…"
"You're going to be fine," Cid said reassuringly.
Soon, there was a knock at the door. Cid answered it, and there stood his nephew again with a few other kids behind him.
"Hi, Uncle Cid," Kain said with a smile. "Would Canti like to come out and play? Tidus wants to show us all Blitzball. We want to go up to the Stadium to see the game."
Canti came to the door, hiding behind her father's legs. She had never been invited to play with anyone before. "C-cousin?" she asked, blinking in confusion.
"Well, now, I think this is a grand idea," Cid said, putting his hand on Canti's head. "You keep a good eye on her, Kain?" Suddenly, his father's glare came out, staring straight into Kain's eyes. His tone changed drastically before he spoke again. "If she gets hurt, I'll be lookin' for you, young man."
"It'll be fine," Kain said, kneeling down to look at Canti. "Why don't you come play with us? I promise I won't let anyone hurt you. Think of it as getting used to being around everyone before tomorrow."
"O-okay," Canti nodded as she stepped out in front of her father. "Let me get my purse. I know the tickets cost gil…"
Kain just smiled. "Well hurry up then. We're hoping to get together a group before the game starts. Tidus says it starts in about an hour, and we still have to head over to stadium."
Canti went back to her nightstand and grabbed her brown leather satchel that she had laid out before, which contained her moogle-head shaped wallet. She didn't have more than a few hundred gil, but that would have been enough to take care of one trip to the Blitzball stadium, right? Canti put it over her shoulder and She then walked past her Papa, looking up at him for confirmation and reassurance.
"Kain, Canti, if you two need me for anything, contact me on the Sphere, you both know the house number," Cid said firmly. "And I mean anything. Have her home before the streetlights come on, you both have school tomorrow."
"Yes, Uncle Cid," Kain said, taking Canti's hand. "Don't worry about anything, cousin. You're safe with me." Canti followed along quietly. More kids seemed to follow the group from other houses around, and the more she noticed, the more nervous she became. Kain just gripped her hand that much tighter. "So. How do you feel about tomorrow, other than having a hard time holding your thoughts together?"
"I'm… I'm gonna be fine," Canti said, not wanting anyone other than Kain to hear her. "I know I'll be fine… just take some getting used to." She noticed that people of all sorts of skin and hair colors were coming out to join the group. Everyone seemed to be either her age or just a little older, maybe up to fifteen. "Thanks for caring."
"Of course I care," Kain said. "My father says those in the Highwind family have to look after each other. And when I see you, always wide-eyed and worried… I know that I have to look after you. At school, you can't hide behind Uncle Cid."
"Hey, who's the cutie pie, Kain?" one kid asked Kain, stopping the two from following after everyone ahead of them.
"Knock it off, Irvine. She's my cousin, and she's never been out with friends before." Kain said.
"No wonder I'd never seen her. Blue hair is something I'd totally remember on a girl," Irvine said, trying to get a good look into Canti's eyes. Canti wanted to move behind Kain, but Irvine kept staring. What was it going to take to make him get out of her face? She didn't want to outright push him, but she was tempted. "No need to be shy, cutie pie."
"That's enough!" Kain said loudly. All that did was cause more trouble, and other kids turned their way. "Leave my cousin alone!"
"Hey, whoa, what's going on?" another kid ran over, stepping between Kain and Irvine. This one seemed a bit older and more mature than the others. He wore a white turban and whispy looking clothing, but the boy's skin was darker than Kain's, and much darker than Canti's. She noticed his hazel eyes were sharp, examining everything about everyone in the group. "Kain, are you getting defensive over nothing again?"
"Minwu, he was harassing my cousin, when she obviously is scared of him!" Kain shouted.
The more mature boy cocked his head to the side. "You have a cousin?"
Canti stepped out in front of Kain, even though he made a motion at her signaling that she didn't have to. "Hello…" she said, looking up at the boy with sunkissed skin who stood only an inch or two taller than she. "…my name is Cantirena Highwind. My friends call me Canti. At least, they would… if I had any friends…" her voice was quiet, and she did everything she could to keep herself from stuttering.
Minwu's face went from one of confusion to one of understanding. "You're nervous," he said kindly. "I see why." Their eyes met, and they shared a moment. A cosmic moment of connection that seemed to make all of Canti's fears melt away. "Well, all right. Let me handle this for you." He rose his voice to address all of the kids in the group. "Everyone, this is Kain's cousin. Her name is Canti. She's a little nervous, because she's never been out like this before, so let's do what we can to make her feel welcome."
"Canti?!" a female voice called from the head of the pack.
"Huh?"
"It is you!" she was immediately hugged by the girl with pink hair she met just earlier that day at the school. "When I heard the name, I just had to make sure! Hi! I'm Hikari. Remember we both met with Headmaster Leviathan this morning? It was me and my best friend Tidus that decided to get everyone together to go see a Blitzball game. Oh, I'm so glad to see you!"
"Thanks, Hikari," Canti said quietly. "I just… wanna go to the game… let's not stop everything just because I was… introduced."
"For your first night out, we should stop by the ice cream shop after the game," Hikari said happily. "They've got this dish where they make it look like a moogle, and it's the cutest thing!"
"Papa Cid said to come home before the streetlights come on," Canti said. "I'm gonna do exactly as he says."
"Mm, all right," Hikari let her go and waved to call over more of her friends. "Okay, Tidus, we can go now. Lead the way. We all have school in the morning, and we've spent quite enough time just gathering up a crowd."
"As long as everything's all right," Tidus said. He looked at Kain, who had been defensive, and Canti who seemed to be in a perpetual state of unsure of herself and those around her. Then he looked to Minwu, who always did seem to calm a lot of kids the way an adult would. "Let's get this show on the road!"
As a great big group of about twenty-five kids, they all made their way to the gigantic stadium to watch a game where players swam around in a huge sphere of water kicking a ball around. A lot of the kids got really into it, cheering fiercely for their club team with all of their might. Canti just sat between Hikari and Kain, with Minwu in the seat behind them. She ate a snack she bought at the concession stand and tried to figure out all the rules of the game. All she really understood was that the balls went into these triangle shaped things, and that won teams their goals. And when the team Tidus was cheering for managed to get a goal, was that a wild scream of excitement. A bit loud for Canti's sake, and if she was alone, it would have scared her, but in the company of friends - which before today she never had - It was a nice experience overall. Canti decided that she would do it again, if she could. Though, maybe a gathering at a quieter place would suit her a bit better?
"You wanna hit up the ice cream shop before we go home?" Hikari asked the moment the victor was declared to be the same team that Tidus was cheering for. Canti didn't catch what team it was, exactly.
"We totally have to celebrate!" Tidus said loudly. "I can't wait until I'm able to play, too!"
Canti just shook her head. "I liked the game, I had fun being out. But I think I've had enough time out for today. Kain, can you take me home now?"
"Of course. You'd get lost out here alone."
Good nights and hugs were exchanged, and Minwu followed Kain and Canti as they went over to the area where Cid's house was. It turned out that Minwu lived only a few houses down the street from Canti, and Kain's father's place was only on the other side of the block. Canti came home tired from her adventure, but ultimately glad she went. She took a bath, changed into her pajamas, and gave Cid a hug.
"I'm ready to go to bed…" she said, yawning.
"You don't want supper?"
"I ate at the game."
"I just don't want you waking up hungry. I know that's painful for you."
"Papa, I have a big day tomorrow…" Canti said, looking up at him very sleepily. "I'm gonna go to bed now."
"Then I'll turn in early, too," Cid said, turning off the lamp in the living room kitchen combo. He ruffled her hair and watched her as she climbed into her bed from the door. "Rest well, baby girl." Then he pulled the string to turn off the lamp in her room.
Canti curled up in her blankets, lost in the hollering from the game still echoing in her mind. She met new friends, but the one that really remained in her mind was Minwu. She smiled as she thought of how soothing his voice was, how familiar he felt to her, even though it was the first time they had ever met. She soon fell asleep, dreaming of watching more Blitzball with her friends.
