I. Love. All. Of. You.

Koo: That's a lie.

70+ reviews! This is fantastic! Bravo! Great job! Congratulations! (rambles on in an annoying manner until someone throws a brick at her)

Koo: Don't stop! Throw more bricks at her you morons!

Due to some of the readers' requests to add more characters from the original cast of FFIX (Freya, Weimar etc), I've decided to (Taadaah!) include them!

Koo: Nooo! She lives!

I seriously took a long time to update this and I'm sorry! Thus, I'd just like to say a big Thank You to all my reviewers. You guys are the best. Well, enough with my rambles, go on, scroll down and read the chapter.

Chapter 4: The Promise

Random quote: For the first time in a long time, everything was right in my world. Then I woke up.

Disclaimer: You must be really dense if you haven't figured this out.

"Here you go!"

"…?"

"…You don't like it?"

"…What is it?"

"A band!"

"A band?"

"A friendship band!"

"Aah…"

"You wear it around your wrist."

"I know."

"I have one too!"

"…I know."

"And we'll never, ever, ever take it off! We'll be friends forever!"

"…It's stupid."

"…"

"…"

"W-Whaatt!"

A smile was tugging his lips, forming a small curvature arc at the edge of it. It was snowing. Drops of frail ice crystals fell from the sky as the beings below gape, wide-eyed at the beauty of it all.

Just like that day… Don't you remember, little one?

Indeed it was beautiful. Stunningly beautiful. But beauty never lasts. It charms and allures but eventually it'll snuff out, just like the amber of a lighted candle, blown out by a small gust of wind. Then, it's…

Gone.

Falling, falling, falling.

It'll land on the mantle of silvery-white, its splendour lost, the brilliance of it forgotten.

Is it not sad little one? Is it not ironic?

--Forgotten.

Once, the object of awe and glory was now left abandoned on the cold, damp ground.

But everyone forgets something once in a while… And that includes you too, little one.

An unearthly silence swept the class, or what was left of the class.

Never! Never in her lifetime of teaching in this school had she ever come across with such appalling behaviour.

Her right brow twitched ever so slightly just like it always did whenever she was pissed. And she every right to be angry for her current class only consisted of the male students which was made up of a cohort of half-asleep pupils, excluding the two at the back who were duelling silently with their battery-operated wands that kept on squeaking every now and then.

She scrutinized the class once again. Then, clamped her hand to her forehead and sighed.

Garnet Alexandros and Zidane Tribal: absent.

She, Mrs Hilda Garde, is one sad lady.

A familiar, irksomely bubbly jingle reverberated throughout the walls of their classroom, rudely awaking a few students from their snooze. They groaned, scoffed and rolled their eyes for it was none other than the call for their much-beloved 'Morning announcements.'

"A very good morning to all! It's approximately 8 o'clock in the morning and it's time once again for the morning announcements! Oh! What's that I see outside the window! Could it be? Yes! Snow!"

"There's no window in this room, moron. And it's been snowing since Tuesday."

"Aw! Don't be a spoilsport, Amarant! Anyways, from today onwards, all students are welcomed to skate at the lake and what's that I hear? A roar of cheers coming from our fellow schoolmates! Yes! Indeed it is!"

"This room is soundproof, idiot."

"Sigh. Can't we have a decent morning announcement for once?"

"Freya's right! Why can't we have a decent morning announcement for once?"

There was a slight pause.

"What's that look for?"

"Sigh. It's nothing, Weimar."

"Aha! What's that I smell! Is it? It must be! I smell lies! Deceit! Abhorrence! Jealousy!"

"You have a cold. You can't smell anything."

Sniff.

"Amarant! You're mean! I didn't even want to become an announcer! My mother is the one who talked me into this! Sob! Why-"

Thud.

Freya's smooth and calm voice slurred through the speakers.

"Thanks for tuning in to the morning announcements."

"It's not like they had a choice."

"Amaraannt."

"What?"

"Sigh. We have come to an end of the session. Thank you and good day."

A mop of brilliant gold popped out from behind the double doors. With wary eyes, he scanned the empty hallway in search for any teachers lurking around. Then, he slid out and motioned for the others to follow suit.

Cocking his head to one side, limbs akimbo, he strolled down the line of pupils making sure that each and every one of them was at hand.

Present, present, present, check, yep, uh-huh, ah, Kay, here-

"This. Is. Stupid," inveighed the brunette as she crossed her arms and pouted.

Zidane's pace screeched to a halt and he swivelled to face her, tail slashing about in annoyance.

"My, my. Stupid you say? Well, let me refresh your memory, sweetheart. If it wasn't for you and your pathetic clique of friends, we wouldn't have needed to save Will from his crazy fan club, we won't be late for class and most importantly, we won't even be here in the first place!"

"AMAZING! You must be telepathic if you're able to refresh people's mind!" yelped Will.

Toffee hues flashed dangerously with livid anger. Garnet took a step forward and poked the blonde's chest despite his towering height.

"Well, Tribal, put that brain of yoursto gooduse. We'd have higher chances of getting caught if we keep stopping just for this incredibly useless attendance taking."

"Caught? AMAZING! The police must be here then!"

His piercing gaze never left her. Clenching his fists by his sides, he closed the gap between them and brought his face down, levelled with her, noses barely touching each other. His voice dropped a notch lower, voice quivering with bottled fury, "Look here, Missy. I suggest that you keep your mouth shut before I do something I'd seriously regret."

Her glower faltered and she shifted uncomfortably under his glare.

"You wouldn't dare."

Smirk.

"Try me."

An unnecessarily loud cough caused the two protagonists to jump at least a feet a way from each other. Slowly, they turned around. There standing before them was their one and only discipline master, Mr. Baku.

Oh shit.

"Now, now kids," he beamed pleasantly.

Will blinked and frowned, "Huh? Where? What kids?"

"Stop looking at me as though I'm a big, scary-"

Blank twirled his pencil and was mumbling away to himself. Zidane caught something like, 'Haha. Big. Mumble, mumble. Haha. He got that part right. Mumble, mumble. Haha.'

"-rhino and all of you are my enemy!" he barked before guffawing vociferously. This was soon followed by a series of forced obnoxious laughter coming from the lot of pupils.

"AMAZING! You can read minds, Mr Discipline master, Sir!"

The forced laughter came to an abrupt halt.

The man blinked and arched a brow sceptically, "I can?"

"Yep. My lovely friends here adore calling you that!"

He raised his other brow.

"They do?"

"Yep!"

…

…

…

…

…

"DETENTION!"

…

"Oo! AMAZING! I've never gotten one of those before!"

Mallory folded the rag neatly and beamed at her finished work.

Brilliant.

The trophies shone and gleamed under the light of the display shelves. She stood up and proceeded to the adjoining room, the heels of her shoes clicking against the marble-tiled flooring.

Her face fell.

Zidane sat sulking in a corner, still working on his first trophy.

Sigh.

"Really, Zidane. You'll get nothing done if you keep going on like this."

Silence.

Frown.

Probably, ignoring her.

Tugging the keys out of her school skirt, she placed it into the lock, slid open the glass cabinet and took out one of the trophies showcased there. From the corner of her eyes, she caught sight of a strand of silver with a ring of brightly colored strings.

"What's that?" she inquired, peering at his necklace.

"Huh? What? Oh! It's…it's…it's nothing!"

A snowflake veered about the sky and plummeted down to the tip of her snub nose.

"Argh! This is torture!" she cried and tossed her shovel aside. The temperature had dipped from –1 to a startling –12 degrees Celsius and she was probably freezing to death.

She was about to storm of in huff to the school café, which was just adjacent to her when she caught sight of the raven-haired boy, head bobbing up and down as he hummed a soft hymn.

"Fancy a rest, William?'"

The bisexual lad looked up to face her and shook his head, smiling broadly.

"Nope. You go on ahead, Garnet."

Orbs of brown shifted from the café to Will, to and fro, back and forth. With a final sigh, she picked up her shovel and lumbered towards William, working alongside with him.

"Do you adore working, William?"

He wiped a bead of sweat that was trickling down his cheek, "Depends."

A frown etched her lips as she dug up a huge heap of snow and dumped it onto the ever-increasing pile next to her.

"Well, do you like shovelling snow then?"

He plunged his shovel into the snow and leaned against it, taking a short break from his work or more commonly known as detention, either way it doesn't matter.

"Sometimes you just have to do something you don't like."

She mimicked his actions and was about to ask him something when he cut her short.

"Are you still angry with Zidane?"

With that, he tucked it away into his shirt. She grinned. She knew what it was.

"That's a friendship band. I read a book about those. One exchanges it with another companion as a symbol of love and amity."

He held the trophy high in the air, searching for any smudges, making sure that it was spotless.

"Hmm."

"So…who gave it to you?"

"Weehee! You're the best, Zidane!"

"Hnn… Get off me. You're heavy."

"W-Whaatt!"

A palm waved frantically in front of him

"Are you alright?"

Zidane scowled and shook his head vigorously.

"I'm fine."

Garnet blinked.

That was certainly unexpected.

Will stared at her from the corner of his eyes.

"So are you? Still angry at Zidane that is."

Biting the lower half of her lips, she hesitated then replied, "Yes…I think."

William furrowed his brows, eyeing her as though she just uttered a string of profanities at him.

"You think you're angry with him?"

"Well, yes! He comes to me friendly and all, then in less than a year he acts as though he completely abhors me! What did I ever do to him?"she questioned,flustered, arms flailing about in frustration.

Will tilted his head vaguely to the right and smiled gently, "Maybe its not something you did."

Perplexity clouded her eyes.

"What are you getting at?"

He shrugged and walked away from her, carrying the two shovels and ambled towards the café.

Yay! Chapter 4! Will was sounded rather matured at the end, yes? Well, really, you can't expect him to be an idiot all the time! And Ziddy's all moody, isn't he?

For those of you who have no whatsoever clue as to who the heck Weimar is, this is especially for you. As you know, Steiner is the Captain of the Pluto Knights. Well, Weimar happens to be one of the Pluto knights. Yup, he is.

Hmm…I wonder who can guess which character was narrating the 2nd paragraph, right after the flashbacks. You guys know the drill, review!

TBC