The next morning Garnet woke to be nose to nose with Zidane, their bodies pressed tightly together under the blankets. He was awake, watching her as she slept, and hadn't bothered to move.
"How long have you been awake?" she asked, shifting so they weren't so close together.
"Long enough," he said, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her close against him.
Her breath caught in her chest and could only watch him as his face inched closer until he had pressed his lips against hers. It felt better than kissing Kuja, which was something she hadn't expected. She had gotten used to the rush of emotions when she kissed Kuja, but with Zidane it was almost as if she had never experienced getting kissed before.
It didn't strike her that what she was doing was wrong. It didn't strike her that she barely knew Zidane. All that mattered to her was the way he was making her feel. Being in his arms was pure ecstasy. Kuja was knocked from her mind as quickly as he had entered her life in those few precious moments. Because at that moment the door opened. They jumped apart as if they had been electrocuted
A man Garnet had never seen before stood there staring at them in shock. He had spiked red hair, "God, Zidane, I thought the boss sent you to the wedding to represent Tantalus, not to pick up the women."
"Shut up, Blank!" Zidane snapped, annoyed at the intrusion. But part of him was relieved. What was he thinking?
"Who's the girl?" Blank asked.
"You'll meet her soon enough," Zidane said, stretching.
"The boss wants us to meet in his room," Blank said, delivering the message he had been sent with.
"Right, we'll be there in a couple of minutes," he replied. Blank turned and left.
Garnet was frozen where she lay; her face was bright red. She couldn't believe what she had been doing. She was kissing a guy who she had just met last night! She may not have been acting very princess-like lately, but this time she had gone a little to far.
"Sorry about that," Zidane said, turning to her with a look of concern. "The guys never knock."
"I-It's okay," she said, trying to smile, but she couldn't.
"Anyway, we have to go over to boss's room. I have to tell him that you're coming with us to Lindblum and all that," he said.
"But I—," she protested.
"He won't agree unless you come with me," Zidane said, "As soon as he gets a good look at you he won't be able to resist helping you out."
"But I don't have anything to wear, and I refuse to go in this," she said, indicating the shirt that he had lent her.
Zidane thought for a moment. Of course she was right. She didn't have any clothes of her own besides the petticoats and he doubted she would agree to wearing those in front of the guys either.
"Hang on a second," he said, getting up and leaving the room.
What's he doing? She wondered, but she didn't have to wait long to find out. About five minutes later he was back carrying a dark green full-length dress.
"Where did you get that?" she asked.
"From the woman who runs the inn," he said, tossing her the dress. "I'll wait outside for you to change."
"Thank you," she said as he left.
She changed quickly and adjusted her hair in the mirror. She felt better now that she wasn't as exposed as she had been. Satisfied that that was as good as it was going to get she left the room. Like he said he would be, Zidane was waiting for her in the hallway.
"Ready?" he asked, with a smile. The dress looked great on her, it was tight in all of his favorite places.
She nodded then followed him down the hall to another room. Zidane opened the door and stepped back so she could enter first. She noted uncomfortably that every eye in that room was on her as she entered. Zidane came in and shut the door behind him.
"Zidane, what in bloody hell is she doing in here?" a heavyset man asked.
"Well, it's quite an interesting story, boss," Zidane said, knowing that he had a lot of explaining to do. It didn't help that all the guys were tossing him knowing looks. He wondered what Blank had told them. More than like that Garnet was some whore he picked up at the wedding last night.
"Perhaps it would be better if I explained," Garnet said. From the tone of the boss of Tantalus' voice he was angry, and she didn't want Zidane to get in trouble for agreeing to help her. Zidane looked as though he was going to protest, but she shot him a look and he complied.
"I am Princess Garnet til Alexandros the 17th. Zidane brought me here because he offered to take me to Lindblum. Last night I escaped from the palace, jumped into the moat and swam across, because unlike my mother, I don't feel as though I'm ready to get married. Zidane pulled me out of the river and brought me to his room in the inn to hide me from the soldiers," she said.
The boss considered her carefully. "Why do you want to go to Lindblum?"
"Regent Cid is a friend of my father's. I haven't been there since my father died," Garnet said.
"I don't know. I'm not sure we want to get tangled into this," the boss said.
"Ah, c'mon boss! What can it hurt? What if she tries to go herself and gets caught?" Zidane said.
"I asked you to represent Tantalus, not have an affair with the Princess!" the boss yelled, which made both Zidane and Garnet go red.
"Nothing happened between me and the Princess!" Zidane yelled back.
"That's not what I saw," Blank put in.
"Boss, Zidane's right, we can't let her go back to the palace," another man said. He was leaning against the wall in the corner. Garnet studied him for a moment. He was wearing a brown bandana on his head, a blue shirt and pants. He had a sword strapped to his back.
"What are you talking about?" the boss asked angrily.
They stared at each other for a long time before his expression changed to one of compliance.
"Right, okay then, the princess is coming with us. We leave this evening," the boss said.
Garnet smiled brightly, "Thank you! I don't know how I can ever repay you for this."
"You can thank me the same way you were thanking Zidane this morning," Blank said.
"Blank!" Zidane snapped; he could feel his face getting hot again. He knew that they wouldn't be letting him live this down for a long time.
"I'm kidding, man!" Blank said.
"Whatever."
***
Later that evening Garnet and Zidane were back in the boss's room. She had spent the day in Zidane's room, being unable to leave the inn in case she was recognized. The guys from Tantalus were wandering around Alexandria trying to figure out how tight security was and find a way to smuggle her out of there.
"We have to disguise her better than that. She's going to be recognized," Cinna said.
Zidane had introduced her to everyone. They still were making jokes about their 'affair', but not as bad as before. They must have figured out by now that nothing had really happened.
"That dress helps, but she still looks like the princess," Zidane said.
"Marcus, go get your cloak and give it to her cloak," Baku said.
Marcus left the room and came back a few minutes letter carrying a long hooded brown cloak. She pulled it on. It was a little long. She pulled the hood over her head so it hid her face.
"That's better," Baku said.
"But how are we going to get out of here? They're going to search the airship for her. What if they recognize her?" Blank asked.
"I have an idea. Garnet and I will leave by foot, that way when they search the airship they won't find her. Then we meet you guys in Evil Forest," Zidane said.
"How are you going to get to Evil Forest?" Baku asked.
Zidane thought for a moment, "I'll find a way to get us there."
"It's our best bet. There's no way they aren't going to recognize her if we try to get her out of here by airship," Marcus said.
"Fine. You just better hope you can get to Evil Forest by foot," Baku said, "We're leaving now. We'll wait for you two days max. If you aren't there by then, you have to find your own way to Lindblum."
Zidane, Marcus, Cinna, Blank, and Baku all saluted, then the rest of Tantalus left, leaving it just Garnet and Zidane.
"How are we going to get down the cliff?" Garnet asked.
"I have no idea," Zidane admitted.
"Let's just leave, we can figure that out when we get out of Alexandria."
***
"HALT!" One of the soldiers cried.
The robed boy ran, regardless. He knew that they suspected him of kidnapping the Princess. He didn't know why they thought he had, since he hadn't been near the castle at the time she escaped, but they had been chasing him for the past half hour.
He turned into the alleyway and ran into a tall blonde-haired man. Standing next to him was a hooded figure who kept in the shadows.
"S-Sorry about that," he apologized.
"Don't worry about it, what's going on?" the man asked.
Two soldiers turned into the alley, bringing a gasp from the hooded figure, who sank further into the shadows. The man tossed the figure a look, then turned his attention back to the soldiers.
"What's going on?" the man asked again.
"That boy is holding the Princess hostage!" One of the soldiers cried.
"No, I'm not!" the boy cried.
"That's impossible!" the man said, "What's your proof?"
"That is what the Queen told us. She said to be on the lookout for a black mage. He is a black mage," the soldier told him.
"But he couldn't have kidnapped the Princess, I just saw her at the inn a few minutes ago," the man said.
"What?" the other soldier said.
"Yeah, she was this group of men and they were going on about smuggling her out of the city by airship," the man told them.
"Come on!" the first soldier said, "We must go to the inn at once! We have to stop them! I'm sorry for accusing you of holding the Princess hostage."
With that said they ran off in the direction of the inn.
"Let's go before they realize that you lied," the hooded figure said. The boy could now tell that it was a woman under the cloak.
They started to walk but the boy stopped them.
"Wait!" he cried. They both turned around. "Thank you for helping me."
The man considered him for a moment, "The soldier said you were a black mage, is that true?"
The boy nodded.
"Then why don't you come with us? We could use your help," the man said. "We're heading to Evil Forest."
"E-Evil Forest? I don't know…" the boy said. He had heard the stories about Evil Forest ever since he was a child.
"Don't worry, we're not going in there. We're just meeting someone outside it with an airship. We're really going to Lindblum," the hooded woman said.
"Alright," the boy said, with a nod. He didn't have any reason to stay, and he knew that if he did, he would probably continue to be harassed by soldiers until the Princess was found.
"Great!" the man said, "My name is Zidane, this is Dagger."
"My name is Vivi," the boy said.
"Let's go before they come back," Dagger said, "Hopefully you threw them off enough that the main entrance to Alexandria won't be as guarded since they will be to busy searching airships."
"We have two days to get to Evil Forest, we'd better hurry." Zidane said, heading in the direction of the gate.
"Why are you meeting an airship at Evil Forest?" Vivi asked.
"We have some very precious cargo to pick up there, but we can't have it on the ship when we leave Alexandria, so we're going to put it on at Evil Forest," Zidane said.
They came into view of the gate and moved over to the side, crouching behind a couple boxes they tried to figure out how many guards were at the gate.
"I only see two guards at the gate," Dagger said.
"Good, just keep to the shadows, and I'll distract them. Vivi, stay with Dagger, they might try to harass you again," Zidane said. He stood up and ran to the gate. The guards immediately tried to stop him.
"What is going on?" One of the guards asked.
"Oh thank the gods I found you! They're trying to sneak the Princess out on an airship!" Zidane said.
"Who?" The other guard asked.
"Black Mages!" Zidane said dramatically, "They were everywhere, I tried to help her, but they were just to powerful! Hurry! Before they get away!"
The two guards ran off in the direction of the airship dock. After they had run past Dagger and Vivi hurried over to Zidane.
"That was too easy. For people who protect you Garnet, they aren't very smart," Zidane said as they walked through the gate.
"Hold it right there!" a voice called from behind them.
"Oh, no! Steiner!" Garnet breathed.
They all turned around to find the Captain of the Knights of Pluto behind them, with two soldiers.
"How dare you try and sneak the Princess out of Alexandria! I won't let you! Don't worry Princess Garnet, I will save you!" Steiner exclaimed valiantly.
"Leave it to me Princess, I'll get you out of here," Zidane said.
"Stand back! I will destroy the mage!" Steiner yelled.
"No!" Vivi cried. He conjured a fire spell and flung it at Steiner, who screamed and ran around in circles trying to put out the flames. The two soldiers watched him in astonishment.
"Now's our chance!" Zidane said, and they all raced out the gate.
"Don't just stand there! The Princess is getting away!" Steiner yelled.
Garnet, Zidane, and Vivi ran for their lives, the soldiers on their tail, and Steiner right behind them. It wasn't long before they were standing at the edge of the cliff. Thousands of feet below them was the lake that Alexandria's twin waterfalls fell into.
"Now what?" Zidane asked.
"Jump!" Garnet cried.
"Are you crazy? Do you know how high this thing is? We'll be dead before we hit the water!"
"Just do it!" Garnet said, sucking in a deep breath. Her heart was hammering in her chest, but it was the only way. Without warning she jumped.
"Garnet!" Zidane cried, but he was trapped. He had to follow her. He jumped over the side praying for his life.
The soldiers were catching up, and Vivi knew that he would be blamed for what had happened. He knew now that the woman in the cloak was Princess Garnet, and he had somehow gotten pulled into her escape. He had no choice. He held his hat on his head and jumped.
A/N~ It's kinda long, but it's there. Sorry it's taken me so long, but I've been sick. But it's up now. Will Zidane, Princess Garnet, and Vivi live to hit the water thousands of feet below them? Until I get the next chapter up, that's for you to guess. Though it's probably kinda obvious. Keep checking back for the next chapter, I don't know when it's going to get up, but it'll be soon. Since I have nothing better to do with my life.