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 Tibby-san and MajoHikari for continued support of this little story.

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: Eventually all this stuff on this list: Cursing, potential OOC, OC x Canon, incest, stupid fluffy romance, sex, angst, self-insert author avatar

FIC START!

Chapter Twenty-Four

Cid didn't even bother going to work that day. He did as his brother told him to do, which was head home and focus on what was 'important'. Sure, it felt as if he was losing his mind, but ultimately, Cantirena was what mattered the most to him. All those memories missing from his mind didn't matter, did they? He crossed paths with his sister-in-law, Erina, who told him all about the misunderstanding that was that very morning, and he said he actually expected that to happen. She was very particular about how she wanted her hair done, how she wore her clothes, and the only person who understood how all of these little nuances played a big part of her daily life was Cid himself.

"Bye, everyone!" Canti's voice said from outside. "See you tomorrow!"

When she walked through the front door, wiping her dress shoes on their welcome mat, he greeted her with a much needed hug for the both of them. He gripped her to him more tightly than usual. How he needed to see his daughter, to ruffle those blue curls and kiss the forehead underneath with the same skin as the pale moon.

"Papa Cid," she grunted, "Are you okay?"

"I'm better now that you're home. It's been such a long day…" he couldn't go into detail with her, but what he said wasn't exactly a lie. "…how are you, baby girl?"

"...so much going on lately…" she answered quietly, glad when he finally let go of her. Canti went to go put away all of her things for school and change out of her uniform.

"You have homework?"

Canti reached into her bag and pulled out the textbook Minwu had given her. "I did say I would study tonight," she said, placing it on the dining table.

"What even is that?" Cid asked as he looked at the cover of the book.

"That is Mysidian," she said. "Minwu says I'm good at it for a beginner…" Canti put away the rest of her school stuff before sitting at the table and cracking the book open to where she and Minwu were going over it together in class. "…so I'm supposed to pick it up really easily, because of the tests, you know?"

"Right," Cid agreed. "I wish I could help you with it, but I don't speak anything but incoherent mumblings from time to time."

Canti giggled loudly. Her whole body shook with laughter. "Papa, I understand you!" she kept laughing for a while.

"But I must be doing something right, being able to make you laugh like that. Just dunno what," Cid leaned in to kiss her forehead again before turning to the kitchenette and starting dinner. "I bet you're hungry."

"You bet I am!"

"That's my girl! You've always been a big eater. Thought with all the stuff this morning, that you'd be thrown off, but you seem to be taking things well enough," he said, pulling out a pot. "How's soup sound tonight?"

"Will you make those little grilled cheese sandwiches to go with it?"

"I wouldn't offer if I wasn't planning to make the whole meal, you silly girl. What is a soup without a sandwich?"

She laughed again. At least here at home, things made sense. Who cared what was going on with weird two-headed monsters appearing out of nowhere, mysterious moogles asking for mythril, or the drama with her cousin, or the weird friendship she was growing with the older boy in the choir? None of that mattered when Papa Cid was singing while cooking dinner after the end of a long day. He snapped his fingers as he sang, causing her to sing along with him, and for that moment nothing else in the world even existed.

"Papa…"

"...yes, darlin'?"

"Thank you."

"What for?"

"Being my Papa."

"You don't have to thank me for that."

"But I do, because you chose me. You adopted me when they were convinced I was… not adoptable."

Cid turned to look at her again, and even though she had her textbook open to study, she still had a distant look on her face. He panicked, wondering if he was going to have to request another memory extraction from Leviathan. What could have given her so much anguish? "I'm honored to be your father," he said. "I can be nothing but proud of you." He turned back to his pot, throwing in all sorts of veggies. "I love you, Canti."

"I love you, too…" Canti looked back down at her book.

"Hey… so your Uncle Richard wants to throw you a party this weekend," Cid said.

"What? Why?"

"To celebrate your becoming a dragoon, like the rest of the family. Highwinds from across history have all been dragoons," Cid said, smiling. "We threw one for Kain, it only makes sense that we'd throw one for you. We always do lessons and stuff like that with all of our dragoon family for the newcomer. It's a great big tradition for us." He beamed with pride as he thought about it. "So he told me to tell you to invite a few friends."

"Oooh! I bet Hikari and Crystal would come!" Canti seemed excited about that.

"Do you have any more friends?"

"Well…" Canti thought about it for a moment. "…yeah. There's Minwu and Kain, and…"

"...and?"

Canti almost said Mateus' name, but she decided not to say any more. And Kain told her that Bunansas weren't exactly on good terms with the family either, so she didn't mention Ffamran, either. "That's all. I don't have any more friends. Tidus and Vivi are more Hikari's friends than mine."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I think you should still invite Tidus and Vivi anyway. They came to visit you when you were sick. It's a nice way of thanking them for caring about you," Cid said, turning to present her with a warm bowl of veggie soup and a grilled cheese alongside it. "Vivi did give you that flower."

"You're right…" Canti said, not really wanting to talk about her friends with him anymore. The more they stayed on this topic, the more likely it was that she'd slip up and mention she was hanging around people that Cid wouldn't approve of. "That would be the nice thing to do."

"Put your book away. I'd hate for you to get food all over it. I don't even know where to get a replacement for a text like that." Cid walked around the table to get a good look at its cover again. He stared at it for a moment. It looked familiar, but where had he seen it before? It lodged in his memory even as he went to serve himself dinner. He had seen that exact book before and trying to remember where made his brain hurt. Was it during one of his travels on the other side of the barrier? Just like when he remembered the two-headed Schizo, now he's remembering a book. Was the Schizo from the same place as the book? It didn't make any sense…

Canti ate without another word for a good while, but she watched Cid very carefully amid her silence. He seemed distraught ever since he mentioned that party, and truthfully, she felt terrible about him being in such stress over it. She didn't need a party, even if she had never had one before, if it was just going to make him hurt. "Papa, maybe I don't need a party."

Cid shook his head and insisted. "No, pumpkin, you do. You are a Highwind, same as all the rest of us, and you're training to be a dragoon, so you deserve the same treatment as any other person in the family."

"I'm not even… a real Highwind."

"That's bullshit. You are a real Highwind. You are my daughter."

"But Papa, I'm nothing like Kain."

"Of course you're not. He's my nephew, but he's so different from me that I don't think I could handle him. You, on the other hand, taking care of you comes naturally. We're a perfect fit." Cid smiled at her warmly, only wanting to reassure her despite all her doubts. "It doesn't matter who gave birth to you. You were meant to be my daughter."

Canti's sad face slowly faded away as she finished her soup. "There are times where I wonder… if I hadn't been in the orphanage, where I would be…" she said. "…did I have brothers or sisters?"

"Are you… unhappy, Canti?"

"Papa Cid," she said, "I'm not happy, but I can't help but wonder… where am I from?"

"I don't know," Cid answered honestly. "But I'm sure that eventually, you'll find out. One way or another, you'll know where you are from and what your destiny is."

"Destiny." Canti repeated it. Minwu had used it, too, when she mentioned the mythril shards the moogle asked for. There had to be a reason why they both used it. She found the determination within to bring it up. "Papa… can I tell you a secret?"

He nodded.

"You can't tell anyone."

"My lips are sealed." He leaned in close to her.

"Kain and I, when we were out yesterday morning… we met someone weird. It was a moogle, like all the moogles at Garden that help the headmaster, but he had some kind of glowing box-table thingy with him. It gave off the same kind of glow that your Venus Gospel does, you know?" Canti explained, cautiously, worriedly. She was hesitant to say anything else.

Cid's eye's widened upon hearing that. He hadn't met with the moogle in years, and he barely remembered it. "Did he say anything to you?" He knew he was with Richard at the time, but not much else. He had no idea where it was, though. His memory lapses were becoming nothing more than annoying lately.

"He knew my real name! I don't tell that to strangers…" she replied. "…And he said that if he brought me five mythril shards, he could give me the weapon meant just for me."

"Mythril shards?"

"Yeah. I don't even know what that is!"

Cid sighed. "I wouldn't worry about it for now. Just focus on school and the rest of it will come."

"...really? It's… been on my mind all day…"

"I could imagine it would be. Finish up your study so you can shower and be ready for tomorrow. Don't worry about the strange moogle."

"You won't tell anyone, will you? It's… it's weird!"

"I told you I wouldn't. I always keep my promises, especially when they are to you," Cid said, hugging around her. He got up to collect their dirty dishes. "I won't tell a single soul."

"Thanks, Papa."

Cid decided that since it wasn't hurting anyone for her to remember that experience, he wasn't going to report it to the headmaster. After his exchange with his brother that morning, he started to wonder if Leviathan had done something to his memories the way they did to Canti just a little bit ago. It made him ache, to think that she would try to recall something she needed to know and it could potentially be missing from her memory entirely. His head hurt the more he tried to recall memories from his travels, or further in his past than just his adoption of Cantirena. If he didn't feel bad before about his reporting on her, he felt doubly so now. He watched her put away the Mysidian textbook and get ready to wrap up the night, then he took care of his own mess.

The first week of school had been crazy. Both Cid and Canti wondered if they'd ever have another normal day again. Cid, in his mind, hoped that there could be some sort of normalcy in their lives, for Canti's sake. Canti, on the other hand, had this shaking feeling that just would not leave her.

Their lives would never be normal again.