Chapter 4
"Where's Kuja?" Garnet asked when she entered their room the next morning. Zidane was lying on his bed, dressed, but obviously still resting. Kuja was nowhere to be seen.
Zidane rolled over onto his belly and looked at her, smiling. "I noticed that your stables acquired a white dragon while I was gone," he said instead of answering her question.
"Yes," said Garnet. "The Stable Master wanted to see if they could be trained to be air steeds and carry riders. Why?"
"Kuja has a special affinity for dragons," Zidane explained. "He likes them and they like him. He's down there now, talking to it. I can't even tell you how much trouble that little ability saved when we were traveling. There were a lot of not-so-nice dragons in the Iifa Tree, and no small amount in the surrounding countryside, either. None of them would deign to actually carry us, but he could at least make them leave us alone."
Garnet sat next to Zidane on the edge of the bed, and he sat up so that they were eye-to-eye. "That would have been a nice skill to have had on our journey," she said.
"Don't I know it," Zidane replied. They were quiet for a moment, just looking at each other. Finally Zidane smiled and gestured for Garnet to come to him. She crawled forward into his lap and he held her tightly, her back to his chest.
"God, I missed you so much," he said against her hair.
"I know," she murmured back. His arms around her felt unbelievably good, and safe. She felt like nothing in the world could hurt her now. "I'm so glad you're back."
"Me too," Zidane admitted. He kissed her hair softly, and again a gentle silence fell upon them.
Garnet realized that they had never really clarified their relationship during their journey. But all that paled in the light of his return. Garnet knew that she was in love with Zidane. She had known for a long time. It was never getting to tell him that had weighed so heavily on her when she thought he was dead. And even though she knew in her heart how he had felt about her, she had never heard the admission from his lips. But now... Now he was back and he had his arms around her and everything was okay again.
"I love you," she told him softly, repeating what she had told him the previous day when he first returned.
Again he kissed her hair, and she could tell that he was smiling. "I love you too, Dagger."
This, Garnet thought, was bliss.
Oh God, that was hideous. Take me back.
or
Oh God, that was hideous. Let me complain to the author.