XI
"This... this can only end in tears."
--Kiros Seagull, on several occasions

"Hey-yeah!"

Cabe Kinneas, self-proclaimed Sharpshooter Master and widely recognized Scourge of Deling City, pumped his fist in the air as a Bite Bug fell to the ground, a large hole in its exoskeleton where the faceted eyes should have been. Whistling a little victory tune to himself, he turned to see if there were any other monsters just waiting to be vanquished.

What he saw instead was a smirking young woman who had come upon him completely unaware.

Grinning, he spun his pistol rather ineptly around his finger once or twice, and shoved it into his holster. "Aya!" he exclaimed, blinking a few strands of rich brown hair from dark brown eyes. "Did you see that? Right in the eye!"

"Good job," Aya said. "You know that you're not supposed to be in here."

Cabe frowned. "C'mon," he said. "I'm fine! I know how to use a gun!"

"That's not even your gun, is it?"

Cabe glanced furtively around. "How'd you know that?"

"Magic," Aya responded.

Cabe's eyes narrowed. "Tam told you, didn't he?" he asked.

Aya widened her eyes in mock-innocence. "Tam? Would he do a thing like that?"

Cabe shrugged. "You're not going to make me leave, are you?"

Aya raised an eyebrow. "Nah. As long as you know you're breaking the rules."

Cabe brightened immediately. "Hey, can you show my some of those cool knife tricks? I bet you could take out a Bite Bug without even movin'!"

Aya shrugged, looking around for a suitable target. "I think you drove them to extinction," she said, moving over to inspect his newest kill.

Cabe shrugged, and changed the subject in the rapid-fire way he was prone to do. "You know what? Dad took me up to Trabia a while ago, and I got to ride on Dina's mom's chocobo! She said she's had it ever since the Sorcerer War. Isn't that cool?"

Aya plopped down onto the grass, motioning Cabe to come forward. "About the Sorcerer War," she said, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

Cabe ran up, plopping down in front of her. "What?" he asked, matching her tone.

Aya lowered her voice a bit more. "I want your help with something," she said. "Okay? But we're not going to tell anyone what it is."

"Is this going to be like last year?" Cabe grinned.

Aya shook her head. "Better. Deeper. More meaningful." She cast a glance around. "More fun."

"Cool!" Cabe exclaimed. "What is it?"

Aya shook her head. "We're not going to tell anyone until later, though," she stressed. "Tonight, or something."

"Okay, okay," Cabe said. "So what is it?"

"Well," Aya said, dropping her voice yet again. "How much do you really know about the Sorcerer War...?"

Dina castled her rook and king, eyeing Tam's bishop suspiciously. "Maybe someone should have followed her," she suggested. "I mean, they could be burning down Timber by now."

Tam shrugged noncomittally, examining the gameboard carefully. "It won't be that bad," he said, sliding his rook along the triangular board and taking one of Kamalyn's pawns. "I think Cabe's grown up a bit."

"But he needs to grow up a lot," Dina argued. "Those two are like matches and powder kegs. I dread the spark."

"Hey," Kamalyn broke it. "Think we can talk about something else?"

Dina glanced at him. "How about your unnatural phobia of Commander Leonhart?"

Kamalyn scowled, then went against his better judgement and took one of Dina's knights just to get even. "You haven't seen the way he looks at me whenever I'm in the same room," he said.

"Oh?" Tam sounded preoccupied. "He's really not that bad."

Dina quietly moved one of her pawns forward.

"Yeah, but he doesn't seem to mind you as much," Kamalyn said. "I mean, I'm not sure how exactly he sees me, but--"

"Check."

Kamalyn gaped for a moment. "Check? You mean... ask him? T-Tam!"

Tam gave him a weary look. "Your king, Kam."

Kamalyn blinked once or twice, then glanced down at the gameboard. "...oh," he said, a bit sheepishly, and quietly jumped a knight between his king and Tam's queen. "Sorry."

"Hmm," Dina said. "You know, that might not be such a bad idea, really," she mused.

Kamalyn went slightly green. "Dina," he protested.

"Just see if you can have a civil conversation with the man. That's all I'm suggesting."

"Rookie SeeDs don't just sit around and chat with Commanders," Kamalyn argued.

"Well, I don't see why not." Taking advantage of Tam's focus on Kamalyn, she moved a knight to a spot threatening his queen. "He's a perfectly civil person. What's the worst that can happen?"

"Long periods of awkward silence," Kamalyn shuddered. "Me, not knowing what to say. Him, too polite to just walk off. Then the conversation ends in my stammering something about having to be somewhere and running like a scared deer."

Dina chuckled. Tam moved his queen, and her chuckle turned into a small noise of surprise.

Kam looked down, and blinked several times.

"Checkmate," Tam said.

"How did you do that?" Kam said, eyes mapping out all the possible paths on the triangular board.

"I'm good at chess," Tam answered vaguely.

Dina glanced at Kam, pushing herself away from the table. "That's it," she said. "Next time, we team up."

"Play again?" Tam offered.

"No, thank you," Dina said. "I'm only here for a stopover; I need to finalize my travel plans."

"You aren't staying?" Kamalyn looked mildly surprised. Tam was carefully placing each and every chess piece into its holding box, and he didn't seem to have heard at all.

"Sorry, Kam," Dina winked. "I'll come visit sometime."

Kam sighed. "When do you leave?"

"That's what I need to figure out," Dina said. "Soon enough. Today or tomorrow."

Kam shook his head. "Well, come back and say goodbye before you go," he encouraged.

"All right." Dina turned, giving him a quick wave before disappearing out the door. There was silence for a bare second before the door opened again; Kamalyn glanced up, expecting that Dina had left something behind. He managed a grin as Aya stepped in, Cabe tagging along.

His grin largely vanished when he saw the grin Cabe had on.

"Hey," Aya said. "Took me forever to find you. I didn't know G-Garden had a rec room."

"Built last summer," Tam said vaguely.

"Where's Dina?" Cabe asked.

"She's not staying," Kamalyn explained.

"Oh," Aya said, not sounding too disappointed.

Kam looked at Tam. "Why do I have the feeling that we just lost our strongest voice of reason?" he asked.

"Check," Tam said, as he fit the last pawn into the box and snapped the lid shut.