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, incest, stupid fluffy romance, sex, angst, self-insert author avatar
FIC START!
Chapter Twenty-Two
Canti barely registered going through her Combat Basics class. She didn't really remember going through her Magician's Mastery, either. At lunchtime, she picked up a dragon meat pizza from the cafeteria and sat under the tree where she first met Mateus, as it had become a favorite place on the campus for her to sit and eat. She didn't even bother waiting for her friends, or her cousin, or anyone else. She ate with a most annoyed look on her face as she stewed in the fact that she was angry at Kain for telling her one thing, when it certainly wasn't true. Oh, she was going to lay into him if she saw him again today. Lay into him so hard, she might just skewer him.
It didn't take long for the friends she'd grown since starting school that week to flock around her. First came Hikari, because she always moved faster than everyone else within their little group. Minwu came after her. Vivi and Tidus followed him. Then Crystal. Kain came up last, holding the exact same disposable lunch tray with the exact same food as Canti, and wanting to sit next to her. Canti gave him a very sharp look, only making Kain sputter with worry. His fine eyebrows folded upward. How sad he was to be greeted in such a way by the one he cared about the absolute most.
"Cousin, is something wrong?" he asked immediately, causing the others to lay eyes on them and their display.
"Of course not," Canti grumbled at him, pulling a piece of her pizza loose while looking straight up at him with this hateful glare.
"Holy crap," Tidus said, grabbing Kain by the ponytail. "Here, you come sit by me, man. She looks like she's about to kill you." Kain sat, because there was no where else on campus he would really be all that welcome, and he ate extremely slowly, unable to take his eyes off Canti.
Hikari agreed with Tidus' assessment, and considering how close the Highwind cousins happened to be, she didn't quite understand exactly why Canti would be like this.
"...Canti," Minwu said kindly. He wanted to get to the bottom of this, but he didn't want anyone asking direct questions to upset her further. "May I ask you how your school day has been thus far?"
"Just peachy," Canti grumbled in reply. Pulling school pizza loose was almost impossible. The greasy cheese refused to part enough for her to eat slices. "I went to Combat Basics and did the daily reps, as usual. And I went to Magician's Mastery, and I wrote the spell transcriptions, as usual. Nothing too different, I guess."
But there was something more. Minwu knew that Canti was not the type to be angry without a reason. "Did you meet with anyone today that you normally don't?" he inquired cautiously.
"Nope," Canti said, shoving a piece into her mouth regardless of how messy it was. If her mouth was full, she didn't have to answer questions, which is one reason why she got such a big lunch today. Normally, she wouldn't bother with a whole pizza, but today she was so set on avoiding everyone's gaze that she decided food would be better that conversation.
"Did someone say something mean to you?" Vivi asked as he adjusted his over-sized mage hat. He'd been trying to ask them for a hat that fit better, but no such luck yet. The brim extended far over his tiny head and looked more like a hood to surround his head than an actual hat. Vivi thought it was kind of annoying, but many people thought it was quite cute. "Sometimes, I meet people and they say mean things for no reason."
"Nothing like that," Canti grunted. "Please stop asking. This is between me and Kain, and I'm not going to get the rest of you involved. It's just not right to involve you in our family nonsense."
"Okay, enough is enough," Kain said. "Spit it out, cousin. What did I do to you that was so bad that I warrant this kind of treatment? I apologized this morning, what more do you want?!"
Canti turned her gaze back down to her pizza. "You apologized for one thing… not this. And it's something I've been told I can't discuss with anyone else at school because it isn't public knowledge yet, so we can't talk about it here. Just eat your lunch and we'll talk about this later."
Crystal recognized that. So Kain was also aware of the Schizo monster that they discussed with Leviathan that morning, too. But since Minwu, Kain, and Vivi weren't, Canti had to keep it to herself. She wondered what the missing link that would cause Canti to be so angry at Kain was. She kept eating her lunch and trying not to get involved. She, too, was also told not to spread that information around.
"Cantirena…" Kain muttered, picking up his lunch and jumping out of sight. He left the rest of the group in a very tense situation, where everyone seemed afraid to speak to everyone else.
Minwu put his hand on Canti's head, suddenly pulling her close to him. "This is connected to your dream, isn't it?" he asked in a whisper. "You had a nightmare about the darkness, and now it's coming. The enemy, they all call it." No one else seemed to be able to hear him.
She didn't want to say anything. She just nodded.
"You and I, we are similar…" he continued to whisper. "…how we can sense it's approach."
But Canti knew there was more to it. How the Ardent was starting to show itself through the strange monster her father had to go fight.
"But, Canti, you can't let this put a divide between you and your allies who are not as sensitive as you are," Minwu whispered very gently. "You cannot be alone, or this knowledge can destroy you. I have found an odd companionship with your cousin and a few others here and there, even if they do not sense the incoming doom that I do. Do not worry… you aren't alone in this," He turned his head, planting a kiss on Canti's forehead before letting her go. "I will see you during our final class of the day, yes?"
Canti blushed at Minwu's simple kiss. No one other than her father had given her a kiss before, and she wasn't exactly sure of how to take it. "Of… of course, I-I'll be there…" she half-mumbled, half-stammered.
"Wonderful. I shall see you there," Minwu said, finishing up his lunch and leaving.
Hikari and Crystal both gave her a curious grin once the white mage in training had left.
"That was a kiss!" Crystal exclaimed. "He gave you a kiss!"
Canti nodded.
"I think Minwu really likes you," Hikari said, just as excited as Crystal was. "Like… like enough to love you!"
"...girls," Tidus sighed, kinda bored. "They see one bit of affection and go totally bonkers…"
Vivi just blinked. "Isn't it a good thing? They seem happy about it."
"It… it wasn't like in the movies, where it was on the lips or anything," Canti said dismissively. "I don't think it was… like… a love kiss or anything… Love doesn't happen until you're thirty!"
"Who told you that?" Hikari asked, laughing at how absurd it was.
"Papa Cid!" Canti declared.
Crystal facepalmed. "Never believe your parents about love."
"But Papa Cid doesn't lie…"
It was at this mystical moment that both Hikari and Crystal realized that Canti was more naive than she let on to be, and that she had been raised to be more sheltered than even they were. Canti was genuinely flustered by Minwu giving her a kiss. It came off as adorable to both of her friends within the Technicolor Dream Team, and they were determined to help Canti make this relationship happen.
"Look at you," Hikari said. "Got a love letter from one boy, and a kiss from another… and you just have no clue what's going on around you."
"The letter from Mateus wasn't a love letter," Canti insisted. "It was asking me to be his friend forever because he doesn't have a lot of friends. He's lonely."
Crystal shook her head. "That's not what he meant. He said one thing and completely meant something else. Something deeper."
"What? Why wouldn't he just say he likes me, if he did?" Canti grumbled.
"Think about what would happen if your dad got a hold of that letter," Hikari said. "You know both you and Mateus probably wouldn't fare well if he said he likes you. So he asked you to be friends. It's that simple."
"No, it's not simple at all!" Canti replied loudly.
…
Minwu managed to catch up to Kain, who had made his way past the training grounds on his own. There were monsters in that entire field, which meant that he had to be on his toes, but Minwu knew there was no where else that Kain would go when he was upset like that. The two had been close friends since they started at Garden, and Kain even expected Minwu would track him down the way he did.
"Have you come to scold me?" Kain asked. "If you have, just turn around and go the other way. I do not have it in me to endure one of your lectures."
"Not at all… Kain, listen… you remember how I told you last year about how I can sense the Ardent's forces beyond the barrier?" Minwu was just as gentle with him as he had been with Canti.
"I do…"
Minwu sat down next to Kain. "One of the reasons why your cousin is so irritable, so sensitive to everything is because she has the same ability."
"...what?!"
"She has dreams of its approach. Same as I do." The mage was quiet and tried to be calming for his dragoon friend. "Sometimes she's full of nothing but sadness or rage because she doesn't know how to handle this all encompassing fear."
"Minwu-" Kain started, but cut himself off before he could continue again.
"Say your mind. I've confessed far more to you than I should have in the last year," Minwu said. "You know I have no judgment for you."
"I'm not scared of that, my friend," Kain said, shaking his head. "The way she looked at me, it ripped my heart to shreds. You called it when you said that I was showing the signs that I love her… I do love her. Deeply. Deeper than I've ever loved anyone in my entire life. And… and she's my cousin!"
"I figured as much," Minwu said. "But you have to understand that her heart is in all sorts of knots, and…"
"Minwu. I want you to do me a favor." Kain said, turning to face him directly.
"Of course. We are friends. I'll do anything to help-"
"I want you to marry my cousin!"
"...I'm sorry, what?"
"She trusts you. You both have similar abilities. You're able to calm her. I know for a fact that you'd never hurt her at all. You'd love her the way I would want to," Kain said. "Please. I'm begging you! Marry Cantirena and protect her!"
"Kain, I can't force myself onto your cousin."
"...but… someone has to… someone has to…"
"I do like your cousin. She is lovely and a wonderful person to be around. But… I can't… marry her. We're barely in school!"
"MINWU JUST PROMISE ME TO GIVE ME PEACE OF MIND!"
"...oh, all right… I promise…"
