Chapter 7
There was a knock on the door. Terra put her hairbrush down.
"Who is it?" she called.
"It's me," Sabin's voice answered before the guards had any time to do it for him, "can I come in?"
A lot of thoughts passed through Terra's head during half a second. She wondered what Sabin really wanted from her, and what she wanted from him. And she wished that she could have spoken with Celes about all these new thoughts that had begun to spin in her head when she had pushed the cult out of her brain. When she'd had time to ponder it, she could hardly believe that Sabin actually had embraced her. Why would he do that? Was she more than a friend to him, just like that? And was he more than a friend to her? That "body builder escaped from his gym"… Sabin?
No, no. She was a half esper. She knew nothing about anything of that that Locke, Celes and Edgar had mastered. It wasn't her world. It wasn't for her. It would never be. She had the love of her children, and that was all she'd get. Besides, she didn't feel anything like that towards Sabin, nothing like she felt for her kids.
Are you nuts? Do you really think that would be similar?
How should I know?
Well, what is it, then?
What had Celes told her?
Umm… nothing. Terra knew nothing.
Did she feel anything special about Sabin, something that wasn't like what she felt for… say Relm.
Now you're back by the kids! It can't be the same! Back and try again!
Something that wasn't like what she felt for… Mog?
Get real! Someone of your friends as similar to Sabin as possible!
Something that wasn't like what she felt for Setzer? Or Edgar? Or Locke?
That's better. So, what's the answer?
None of them are like Sabin! They are all different!
Well then, how am I going to know?
Father, help!
But Maduin had left her mind for the evening.
"It's alright, come in!" she called.
What did he want, really? Why would he care more for her then anyone else, he wasn't that kind of man that…
Didn't you tell him to stop saying those kind of things to himself?
Augh!
Sabin closed the door behind him, looking carefully at her.
'What are you doing?!' he thought, almost panicking, 'why are you here? Are you trying to make something up? Why did you have to hug her back there, it only made her nervous! A normal "thank you" had been enough! This isn't your kind of thing, it never was!'
What isn't my kind of thing?
Women!
It's nothing that has to do with "women", it's about Terra!
Oh, what about her?
Err…
He hadn't the slightest clue.
Terra wore her normal clothes, but had released her hair from the ponytail. Now her shoulders were hidden below a thin, green cloak.
"Hi," she said, carefully.
"Hi."
Sabin cleared his throat.
Well!?
"I, uh…"
Face it. You're a brute, the Neanderthal man of the group. You're the one with the "stupid muscles" and the small brain. The only thing that makes any difference from Umaro is that you can speak a bit better and don't have any fur. Terra is a little fairy in compare to you. If you touch her, she'll break. And why would you like to touch her anyhow? If she was meant for anybody you know, it's surely not you! Now shape up and stop acting and thinking like a fool!
"I just… wanted to thank you for coming to talk with me earlier," Sabin said, trying hard to produce a smile, "I needed it."
"No problem," she said with the shadow of a smile.
They watched each other in silence for a moment.
"I've been thinking about Gogo too," Sabin said, keeping his mind away from what had happened in his room, "I feel awful enough with Edgar gone, but he was…"
He fell silent and sighed with a frown. Terra nodded.
"Yes, I guess he must have had a terrible time," she said.
"I can't understand how Kerr could do it," Sabin muttered, "twins don't betray each other like that! I mean, I wouldn't ever even lie to Edgar…"
He sighed again.
"But on the other hand, we all know what kind of person Kerr… Kefka was. It's just that… I can't grasp the thought of it, now that I face a risk to loose my own brother, I… I'm just babbling."
"No," Terra said and stood up, walking over to him and putting her hand on his arm, "you're just worried about Edgar."
Sabin slowly nodded.
"Yeah. And I thought that it's not fair. He had just found someone to really love, and then they both get captured by some idiots dressed in dark robes who thinks that an even bigger idiot ever cared about them."
"When it comes to Edgar you just drop that muscled, so called 'stupid' side and become something more than a warrior," Terra said in a comforting voice, "it's alright to be 'babbling'. I understand; we all do."
"Thanks… err…"
He looked down at her with a strangely hesitating expression in his eyes.
"Hey, Terra… you sure it was okay that I hugged you before?" he tentatively asked.
She watched him for a moment before nodding.
"We've been friends for a long time, Sabin," she said with a careful smile, "if you're afraid that you were rude, you weren't."
His tongue slipped away by itself.
"Would you mind if I… did it again?"
He felt his ears change color.
What did I say?!
Terra more or less stared at him at first, and that hurt. He didn't want to embarrass her, he hadn't even considered saying something that stupid. Of all silly things ever spoken, that must have been meant for the history books.
'What does he mean?' Terra thought, almost panicking, 'why would he like to do that? We're just friends, right?'
Right. Or?
Was it important?
Stop asking yourself that all the time! Things are important if you think they are!
In that case… it was. More than anything before it.
"No, it would be alright," she heard herself say, "really, Sabin."
She reached up and put her arms around his neck, not knowing why or how or if it was the right thing to do. He stared down at her for a short moment.
God, he had always thought that she was pretty. From that very first moment she had called him an escaped bodybuilder. But back then, he had thought that she was merely a kid, and he hadn't cared much about women or similar things back then; only interested in training; free from his responsibilities as a prince. But Terra wasn't a child, by no means, and he had grown to change a bit. He knew nothing about these kind of things, whether he could name them or not. But on the other hand, neither did she. So maybe it wasn't really a problem.
He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, carefully. Come on, you know she isn't a little fairy. You have seen her fight. And she's not just plain pretty. Just look at that flowing hair and the deep, gem eyes.
Feeling her warmth was… nice. He couldn't find a better word for it.
Maybe he wasn't on Edgar's area after all. His brother had his desire of passionate, direct relationships. Hunting. Hungry.
Terra rested her head at Sabin's chest. He had always been a cliff, nearly as strong as Umaro. Almost always able to drop a line which cheered everyone else up. She had always liked him.
Remembering that day when Katarin and Duane had been separated because he didn't know how to handle her being pregnant… they had come to try to get her, Terra, back again; Celes, Edgar, Setzer and Sabin. But she hadn't felt strong enough yet. And Phunbaba had attacked again. Terra had been hiding inside, feeling ashamed and weak, looking out the window. But then suddenly, the monster had sneezed Edgar and Setzer away, leaving the last two rather outnumbered. But they had kept fighting, even though Phunbaba had the upper hand. Terra hadn't been able to see her friends battling against such odds, she didn't want them to be killed! And rushing out to Celes and Sabin, she had desperately morphed into her esper form, filling herself with strength and power that she could control completely.
Sabin had thumped her back as they left Mobliz for the Falcon.
"Good to have you back, Terra!" he had said, breaking her newly built grim warrior's mask.
Good to be back. With him and all the others.
Good to be there, against his warm chest. And that tickling inside of her, was that… maybe…?
She knew that he thought that he thought that he was a "bear", that he was the brute standing in Edgar's shadow. Well, she had never fancied Edgar in the way that he had wanted her to. He had known it, but never given up. That was Edgar. He took up more space than all the other men in the troop did together. And he cherished knowing that. Maybe the king of the two had a more distinct handsomeness and well trained charm. But that was Edgar, and Sabin wasn't him.
Sabin was… sweet. He was gentle and caring and… well, sweet. You could always count on him, whatever happened. He'd even almost broken his own hand to cheer up a bunch of kids. Who, except him, would do such a thing?
Terra smiled to herself.
She felt Sabin move his head a little, exactly how she felt it she couldn't explain. But she looked up at him to give him a careful smile.
He looked down at her, still seeming a bit confused and surprised.
Then, all of a sudden, he lowered his head and his lips covered hers.
At first Terra froze completely of surprise.
What?!
Oh, come on. Didn't you want him to do that? Really? Didn't you want to know what love was, eh?
But… Sabin?
Why not? Thought you liked him…
Yeah, why not Sabin? Nothing's wrong with him. He's just as unsure about love as I am. So is this what I've sought and hoped for? This close, all the time?
She relaxed again and secured her grip of his neck, feeling that tickling inside begin to dance. Was it really true…?
He moved back after a moment, carefully looking down at her and searching for some kind of anger or blame. But Terra just smiled, a bit tentatively.
"I…" Sabin mumbled, but his brain had no information to give his tongue.
Suddenly he felt that somebody looked at him, and turned his head to meet Locke's stare.
"Am I seeing what I'm seeing?" the married man said, almost shocked.
"Oh, hi Locke," Sabin said, emotionless.
Terra also looked at the unexpected visitor, very unsure about how she should react.
Locke's eyes wandered between the two of them a couple of times before he cleared his throat.
"Well, I only came to ask if Celes could borrow your hairbrush, Terra… so I should…"
His voice trailed off, and he just watched Sabin and Terra for a moment.
Then he began to laugh.
He had to lean against the wall.
"Oh God, you?!"
"I think I'm going to break something inside of you," Sabin said, but he couldn't help grinning.
"Please, save that until tomorrow, when I've told everyone…" Locke gasped, trying to breath through the laughs escaping his chest, "then you'll want to kill me even more! God grief, my stomach…"
"Locke…" Terra began, but couldn't help smiling.
He tried to pull himself together.
"Alright, alright," he smirked, almost able to fight the laughter back but not fully, "I'll be nice, I promise… good night, love birds."
He left the room, still chuckling.
"He'll tell them," Sabin said.
"Yeah. Right away," Terra nodded.
"I can still catch him and ask him un-nicely to keep quiet."
"Break his arms or something…"
"I was considering something like that, yes…"
They exchanged glances and smiled, shaking their heads.
Nah.
"Maybe tomorrow," Terra mumbled, leaning her head against Sabin's chest again.
"Yeah."
Was this right? Sure felt that way, anyhow…
It felt good to allow all troubles to leave for a while. He had been about to got crazy before he went over to Terra's room. He'd known that if anybody could help him escape his private torture, it would be she. Because… well… and he had to apologize to her too. At least he had thought that he needed to do that. But maybe that apology only had been his final excuse to go visit her. He had hesitated for a long while.
But now it felt like he'd have to force himself away again. Why would he want to do that, anyhow…? Right, needed to sleep. Typical…
In a moment.
Soon.
Not right now.
Celes looked up with raised eyebrows as Locke stumbled into their room, laughing.
"What's happened, love?" she asked, his laugh making her smile a bit by pure instinct even though she was puzzled.
"Ah…!" Locke gasped and more or less fell onto the bed as he sat down, "Celes, you won't believe this!"
"What?" she said and sat down beside him, already dressed in another evening gown than the one she had worn during the nightly attack.
That piece of cloth had been a bit bloodied, and she didn't fancy wearing things with that kind of stains when she slept. Oh, she didn't even fancy wearing that kind of stuff when she was awake, even though there had been a time when that had been an everyday thing. But she was trying to push that time out of her memory.
Locke opened his mouth but began to laugh again. It took him a couple of times before he could more or less choke the news.
"Celes, Terra wasn't alone there… Sabin was with her. And they were kissing each other!"
The blond woman's jaw dropped.
"What, Sabin?!" she gasped.
"Yep!"
Locke began to laugh again, pressing his arms against his stomach.
"Oh, I shouldn't be like this now…" he grinned, "not with the cult and all running wild… but I can't help it! Ha!"
He stood up.
"Will you excuse me for a moment, love?" he said with an almost evil grin, "I must carry the torch of enlightenment to our other comrades. I shall return as soon as possible."
"Go on," Celes smiled with a laugh of her own.
As Locke came close to the door she called:
"But please, don't be to hard on the two of them, alright?"
He looked around and smiled widely.
"Who, me?"
Then he winked with one eye and left again.
Celes just sat there, smiling at the door for a moment. She had probably been the one of Terra's friends who had hoped the most that love would finally come to the half-esper, once as starved on that feeling as the green-haired one. And well… it was a surprise, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with Sabin. He was a caring and strong man. And when one looked closer, he was quite handsome too. The only thing that could be a cloud on the blue sky would be that he was more than a few years older than Terra. But, on the other hand, love between people born in different decades wasn't too uncommon.
It would surely work out fine.
A knock on the door disturbed Celes' ponderings.
"One moment!" she called and reached for a thin morning coat that she luckily had thrown into the light bag brought from her and Locke's house.
"It's me, my girl!" Cid's voice called from the other side of the wall and door.
Celes hurriedly draped the coat over her shoulders.
"Alright grandpa, you can come in!"
She frowned as he pushed the door open. His eyes shone with exhaust even though he fought to keep it down, and there were dark spots of oil on his hands and on the sleeves of his shirt.
"Have you been working?" Celes grimly said and hurried over to him to give him support, "you shouldn't do that when you already were so tired, grandpa!"
"Oh, I'll be fine," he said and tried to smile, "there was just a bug down in the machine room and…"
"At your age…" the woman of the two sighed and rolled her eyes, "well, what brought you here?"
"I just wanted to say that if there's anything at all that I can help you with, you just tell me," Cid grimly said, "I'll do all I can to stop those madmen."
Celes examined his tired eyes for a moment. Then she nodded.
"Yes, there is something that you can do," she said, "go to sleep and don't get up until you're truly well rested."
"Not exactly what I meant, my girl," the mechanic calmly said.
"I know, but it's the only thing I want you to do. Don't even get up to say good-bye tomorrow, we'll leave very early. I want you to take care of yourself now, alright?"
Cid gave her an exhausted smile and slowly nodded.
"Alright then. Good-bye and good luck, my dear girl."
Celes gave him a hug, ignoring the oil.
"We'll be fine, grandpa. Don't worry about us," she told him.
"No, I know you people can take care of yourselves," he smiled, "good night."
"Good night."
As Celes closed the door, she shook her head. That man, that man… he'd work until he dropped dead of age, and then his ghost would come back and keep working. He was just hopeless.
When Locke came back, still smiling widely, she told him about Cid.
"He's just worried about you, pretty one," the thief said with a shrug of his shoulders, "guess he wish that he could help us out more."
"Yes, you're probably right. But he's just impossible…"
"Aren't we all?"
Locke smiled and began to work himself out of his shirt.
"Mad grandpas and love stories or not, we should get to bed. It'll probably be a hard day tomorrow."
"Yeah…"
Celes laid down and draped the blanket around herself.
"Say Locke," she mumbled as he also laid down, "don't you ever get a feeling that you just want to scream at them to disappear, all our enemies?"
He removed his headband and threw it at the chair where he had left his day-clothes. Then he replied.
"Yes, I do," he sighed, "even though I know it won't help, it's tempting in some moments."
Celes silently wrapped her arms around him and got a smooth kiss placed on the tip of her nose.
"But let's skip the screaming and just kick their butts for the time being," Locke mumbled with a smile.
She managed to smile back and nodded.
"And then we'll go home, and we'll have our child," she said.
Locke's smile turned even softer and he wrapped his own arms around her.
"Yep," he said in a low voice, "and then we'll have at least two more, deal?"
Celes had to laugh and nodded.
"Deal. At least two more. But right now we have to sleep."
"Yes. Good night, princess."
"Good night, love."