Chapter 13
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Note: I have a plot for you, coming up. -- You guys are lucky; I wasn't really going to have one originally. This was going to be a pure fluff romance. But now I do. And it even required all this set up, too, so there's nothing wasted. Er, well, not too much, anyway.
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Kuja had gone to bed early the previous night, and was sound asleep when Zidane had gotten back to the room. The next morning he had woken up before Zidane and spent the entire day riding that dragon. Zidane had talked to Blank, but it seemed that not even he had been able to talk to Kuja since late the previous afternoon. He did, however, relate a rather disturbing story of a confrontation between Kuja and Amarant that had taken place the previous day.
So all day, Zidane had waited for Kuja to come down from the clouds. When it became obvious that he intended to stay there all day, he had left, but he had gone back to their room very early, determined to catch Kuja before he went to sleep.
When Kuja finally entered the bedroom, he was quiet and withdrawn. Zidane wondered if he had spent the entire day sulking. Or perhaps thinking, which might have been worse.
Zidane cleared his throat to get Kuja's attention, then said, "So, I heard you had a fight with Amarant yesterday."
"I'd rather not talk about it," said Kuja softly.
Zidane frowned, trying to bolster his courage. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist. Blank told me what happened, but I'd like to hear your side of it too."
Kuja sat on the edge of his bed and stared at his hands, which were neatly folded in his lap. "He insulted Blank. I got upset and lost control. If Blank hadn't stopped me, I might have killed Amarant. I still have enough magic left to do something like that." The words were said calmly, but his voice sounded very tired, as though he had thought about this far too long. Zidane swore mentally.
"I'll talk to him," he assured Kuja.
Kuja frowned at his hands. "It bothers me that you should have to do that. That you should have to take care of me like I'm some child. It disturbs me that it's necessary."
Zidane sighed and came to sit next to him on the bed. "You just need a little more time to get used to this world. The rest of us have had our whole lives. It hasn't even been a month yet since we got back to Alexandria. Give it time."
Kuja was silent, so Zidane continued. "I'm sorry I made that comment yesterday. About not trusting you. I do trust you, really. It's just, well, you're my big brother. I want to take care of you. Will you forgive me?"
It took Kuja a long time to respond. "I will," he said finally, "on one condition."
"Yeah?"
"If I want to be with Blank, you will make no fuss about it. You will let me make my own mistakes with him, if mistakes they turn out to be."
Zidane smiled lop-sidedly. "I'll do you one better. I'll give you my blessing. As long as you're careful around him, I promise to support you. And it's not like I have anything against Blank. I've just seen him go through women and men like tissues. He's not really very good at commitment. But who knows, maybe he's changed."
"I hope so," said Kuja, "because I kissed him yesterday."
"What?!" said Zidane. Blank had failed to mention that little detail. He looked sideways over at Kuja to find that his brother was blushing with the memory. 'Oh dear. He must have it bad,' he thought.
Kuja nodded, still not looking at Zidane. "He was stroking my tail, and, well, it's so sensitive, and it felt so nice, and I just kind of..."
Kuja trailed off, but Zidane understood. More than once, Garnet had been able to reduce him to jelly simply by petting his tail. It was quite the weakness. He smiled and put an arm around Kuja's shoulders. "I know what you mean," he said.
Kuja was still blushing deeply. "I'm not entirely sure how it happened," he said. "He was just stroking my tail, and then I was on his lap, and then we were kissing, and then suddenly Amarant-" His expression soured and the blush vanished. "Amarant walked in. He saw us. He called me a pervert, and Blank too. That's when I got angry."
"Ah." Now Zidane was beginning to understand. "Well, don't be too hard on yourself. There's no making rational decisions in the state you were in. I've been known to snap at people myself, if they interrupt someone petting my tail. You just fell back into your anger so much because it's familiar to you."
He judged by Kuja's expression that his brother hadn't considered that. He looked a bit relieved as well, so Zidane counted it a success.
"You should probably go to bed," he said, "and then tomorrow you can stop hiding from everyone."
Kuja looked sheepish. "I just needed to think," he mumbled. Zidane grinned.
Oh God, that was hideous. Take me back.
or
Oh God, that was hideous. Let me complain to the author.