Disclaimer: Final Fantasy IX...Squaresoft...All rights reserved...Nuf said.

Chapter 7: Never Again

"Kuja," Zidane shouted over and over again while frantically searching under the beds and in the closet. "Kuja, where are you." The old married couple stood back and watched with occasional movement to get out of the way of Zidane's futile searching.

"I didn't hear him leave. I don't understand how he could've just disappeared without me knowing," the old man said apologetically.

"You sleep like a rock. Of course you didn't hear him," his wife argued.

"I guess I have to sleep like a rock to sleep through your snoring.

"Kuja!" Zidane yelled again, interrupting the old couple's arguing. The stopped talking and turned around to look at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, honey," the woman apologized. "You can stay at our home until you are able to find him if you like."

"No, I wanna go find him."

"At least let me get you some new clothes."

"Ok," he answered hesitantly. Zidane looked down at his tattered blue jumpsuit he had been forced to wear for years. A new wardrobe didn't sound half bad even though he had more important things to worry about.

The old woman nodded her head and walked over to the corner to pick up her bag. She motioned Zidane and her husband to follow her. "Our house really isn't that far," she said after a while of walking. "We had just come back from Alexandria and were just so tired of walking. And it was late too. Howard here had to stay up past his bed time." Her husband gave her an irritated look before she continued. "That's why we felt so guilty for taking the last room. You needed it a lot more than we did since our house is so close."

Unable to control his curiosity and trying to be polite at the same time, Zidane tried to keep the conversation going. "What's Alexandria?"

"You don't know? It's a country north of here. We were visiting some relatives there. And you wouldn't believe the rumors that are floating around that place. They said that the Princess Garnet is dead. Now, can you believe that? She was a little sick, but she recovered. My sister Ellie told me that her husband said that it was a hoax and Princess Garnet wasn't really alive. He thinks that they got a replacement princess. And I told him, I said, 'Ron, how could they find an exact replica of Princess Garnet on such short notice.' He just argued with me. Then I told him-"

"Millie! You're talking the poor boy's ear off!" Howard complained.

"Well, he asked."

"He asked what Alexandria was, not about your visit with your sister."

"Oh, Howard!" she sighed before continuing again. "As I was saying, I told Ron-"

"Oh look, we're home!" Howard interrupted. He opened the door and Millie shuffled in past him and toward the closet.

"I know there should be some clothes that fit you in here somewhere," she said while rummaging through all of her belongings. "We have a son that was about your size when he was your age. I never threw away any of his things."

"Even though you should've," Howard commented as he walked up behind her.

"You never know when you might need some of those things again," she answered while handing him a box that she had dug out from the back of the closet.

"You never know when we might need more storage space either."

She ignored his last comment and continued her search. "Here we go," she said while pulling out another dusty outfit from the back of the closet. She held it up next to Zidane's neck to see if it would fit. "Perfect!" She batted at it to get some of the dust off before handing it to Zidane. "Go into the bathroom over there and try this on," she ordered while pointing to the door at the top of the stairway. "It may be a little dusty, but it'll air out after a little while. I know how you kids like to run around like you're being chased by chocobos."

He started up the stairs with one hand on the railing and the other hand clutching the crumpled up pieces of clothes. It wasn't long before he came out of the bathroom and started walking clumsily back down the stairs with his new outfit on.

"How does it fit?" Millie asked when he reached the bottom. "Is it too big? Too small? I see you're walking kinda funny."

"It fits fine," he answered, "but I don't know where to put my tail."

"Oh! How could I forget about that?" She started giggling and turned back to the closet. She pulled out another piece of clothing, this time a pair of jeans. She sat down at a table in the middle of the room and started to make some adjustments. "Try this," she instructed. He took the pants from her hands and carefully trotted back up the stairs to the bathroom. He came back out smiling. "Is that better," she said cheerfully patting on his head. "What do you want me to do with your old clothes? I could stitch them up if you like."

"No, that's ok." He handed her his tattered blue jumpsuit. "Keep it to remember me by."

"There are a few things in the pockets. Do you want them back?"

"I had stuff in my pockets?" he answered while straining to remember what they might be.

"Mostly link, but there's a piece of paper in here you might want," she said while pulling out the paper and handing it to him. He put it in his current back pocket without looking at it.

"I should probably go now. I need to find Kuja."

"You need to come and visit us when you find him." She dusted him off one last time and gave him a hug before he left.

"They grow up so fast, don't they," Howard said sarcastically. "You're not going to get all watery eyed, are you?"

"I'm just going to miss him...He was just so darling."



Author's Note: I so happy that I finally got my computer working! .....Don't ask, It's a long story. In the famous words of my computer illiterate friend...To err is human but to really screw things up requires a computer. I had a whole day to work on this chapter. School was cancelled yesterday because of snow. Well, not really snow. I didn't get to play in the snow. It's more like freezing rain that turns your whole street into a skating rink. Again, I'm happy. Two hour delay this morning because of fog. Sleeping in today! HORAY! Have a test that I'm probably going to fail today. Why can't we just get cancelled again?

-Insomniac-