Chapter 5: Never too busy part 2

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Never too busy by Kenny Lattimore

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Carbuncle ran head first at full speed through the tall grass, spitefully he realized the grass was taller then him, on the island of Balamb. Dashing away from the garden and on to the sandy, barren ground on around the endurance of the fire cave, a second later he'd entered the darkened cave, he was moving so fast that everything almost looked like a blur.

He was going full speed, using every ounce of his agility and swiftness that he'd gained over nearly 500 years to get where he was going. Carbuncle had to get a momentum going to get this level of speed, and when going this fast everything else about him had to be quick. His eyes had to move and focus on things quickly, his reflexes had to at fully tuned to alter his path when obstacles came about (it didn't take much, a loosely placed stone could have thrown someone his size off.) and the agility to move around corners and splits.

He passed any monster that wasn't strong enough to stand in his way, blowing past it, jumping over it, or just slipping under anything that noticed it (an advantage to being small.) Carbuncle agilely moved threw the twist and turns of the cave, coming to the very back of the cavern.

He found himself on a small island connected by a thin rock bridge, it was surrounded by lava, making the closed in space unbearably hot, he instantly started to sweat at the first contact at the heated air.

Girl when we first started we were spending all our time together in love
Now we're growning on and you're afraid of losing me, don't be

Carbuncle slid to a stop as soon as he made it to the center of the island where a large whole resided, kicking up a small trail of dust and leaving behind a skid mark from where he tried to stop to where he actually came to a stop. This place was hotter then the other parts of the cave, his mouth went dry from the hot air, his body forcing out it's moisture in an attempt to cool down. A small body was definitely not an advantage right now. 'I don't know if I can do this….Damnit Ifrit, why did you have to make it so hot!' Carbuncle sighed with a deep breath as he tensed his muscles, his body beginning to glow in a deep red. The flaming aura grew in to a fire shield, a crimson orb that surrounded his whole body.

"Alright, it's now or never." Carbuncle took a deep breath of the scorching air, taking a step back and diving in to the hole at the center of the island.

I've got a heart full of love even though I might not show it
Girl it's you I dream of and just so you know it

He was surrounded by a rock tunnel for the first part of the fall, surrounding by an uprising force of burning air that made him squint and his ears twitch violently. But he easily endured it, landing head first in to a pool of molten rock that lay at the bottom with a small splash.

"Ufff!" Carbuncle couldn't help but have the wind knocked out of him as every one of his senses were assaulted by the intense heat. His body was forced in to a ball by his fire shield involuntarily contracting as he drifted slowly downward in the burning liquid, growing hotter and hotter every second.

He let out a small groan, straining to keep the shield up which had already closed in on him from the force, he hadn't expected it to be this hard but he was already out of the frying pan and in the fire so to speak.

You have my attention, anything you need at all
I'll be there when you call me

'I can do this…' he screamed at himself in his mind, descending deeper and deeper. He'd lost track of time quickly, he didn't even know how far down he'd gone with his mind so focused on keeping up his guard.

...He just kept falling and falling and falling... "UHaaaaaaaa!" Until he couldn't take the heat, unable to stop himself from crying out in pain from the fleeting protection. He created another shield to knock himself upward, then another, then another, and he continued until he started to feel like he was in a pinball game... or when he found an uprising current which ever one came first.

It pushed him up until he found himself surrounded by cold, suffocating water that cooled his over heated body much to fast. He screamed a muffled cry of pain as he was thrown from am underwater hot spot and he landed on the ocean floor.

I've got things on my mind, takin' my time, but I'm...
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy

'Water shield….'

His body started to glow a calm, light blue that expanded outward in to a shield that resembled a large bubble, it may just have been that.

He relievedly took a deep, starved breath after nearly drowning screaming, leaving him panting softly. It took a lot of power to keep this air up, but he was strong enough to with stand the strain. Being junctioned with Zell had made him a lot stronger and more powerful then he ever could have achieved on his own.

Another advantage he had gained, it was enough to make him think.

If you're feeling alone, just pick up the phone, 'cause I...
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy

He uncurled from the wall and stared upward through the darkness of the ocean's bottom, keeping his eyes on the faint light of the surface until the strain made him wince and clinched them closed. 'Come on, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. I can do this, I CAN DO THIS!'

His body rose to the top and the bubble immediately popped with released strained, making him immediately dip downward in to the water. 'Ahaa!' He immediately swam with nearly flailing movements toward the top, raising to the surface with a deep, gasping breath. '...made it.'

With a shake of his head he shook the water from his head and emptied the liquid from his ears with a few twitches. He looked around, founding himself only a about 500 feet from the of some unknown shore. Carbuncle sighed to himself inwardly, forcing his body to swim the distance to the it's limit of his speed, which only took about 20 seconds to reach it.

Carbuncle pushed himself heavily on to the beach and crashed down on the sands as soon as he managed to get out of the range of the tide, panting heavily.

"I made it--...-!"

We used to dream that one day we'd have everything we want
But now that things are movin', I hope that we don't move apart

He froze in mid sentence when a large shadow was cast over him, along with an overbearing presence that came over him, all brought together when he heard a loud growl behind him.

Another sigh pushed out of Carbuncle's mouth as his eyes shifted upward to the overbearing presence, a Ruby Dragon was standing above him, towering over the small body. Embers spewed from it's mouth in distorted air from the flame breath it was charging.

"Great, now not, not. fucking. now!" Carbuncle abruptly rolled to the side as the flames shot forward from the dragon's mouth scorched the ground.

He could either stay and fight, or run.

You still have my heart
I've got so much to do, but girl it doesn't matter

He didn't really want to waist his time and what little energy he had remaining on this monster.

So he used his speed to spring to his feet and charged passed the monster, finding out quickly from the surrounding landscape that he was on an island.

Which happened to be the island closest to hell.

Not as close to Esther as he had hoped, but close enough considering the way he got there. It looked like he was in for another swim. He felt like he was running on event short of a triathlon.

But when it comes down to you I can't think of nothing better
Every time I'm stressin', I find that it's a blessin' to

After about 5 minutes of heavy paddling, Carbuncle reached the fence enclosing Esther, he nearly ran into it actually. He immediately looked up at something that seemed impossible from here, something that seemed impossible to him at the moment.

So Carbuncle starting the slow climb upward, this was starting to get tiresome. He noted that this was like rock climbing, luckily his paws were small enough to fit into the small links of the fence even though they dug painfully into his skin, unfortunately it was much longer an accent for him.

He had his third event, this was officially a triathlon.

Carbuncle cursed to himself as he made it to the top, jumping down the rest of the way in to the sea of opaque colorful roads. "Rubber shield!" A light pink barrier surrounded his body as he descended, absorbing the impact on his fall and making his body bounce up lightly on his landing on the colorful blue road.

With a mid air flip and a disbursal of the shield, Carbuncle landed on his feet. 'And he sticks the landings...'

To be hearin' from you

From there it was a long walk to the center of the city where the Presidential Palace lay, he'd gained some interesting looks from any one outside...

It was simple until he got to Laguna's room, when he remembered the guards, but his idea was surprisingly simple. Create a shield that looked like Laguna, it's not like it wasn't possible, and hope that they wouldn't look too closely. Since if they did they would probably be able to look right through it.

It seemed to work, the guards stepped out of his way and let him through. They got suspicious when he had to jump to open the door though.

The real Laguna was at his desk with his arms folded, his eyes half lidded and his legs crossed on the desk half sleep. He was slowly nodding off to sleep, so far gone that he hadn't noticed the small GF climb up to his desk.

"Where's Junction Machine Ellone!" he shouted urgently.

Laguna flinched violently, letting out a startled gasped as he lost what little balance he had and fell backwards, crashing down to the ground. "Ow!" Laguna sat up abruptly, rubbing the back of his head as he scrambled to get back to his feet and pick up his chair. "I'm ok!" He quickly turned around, trying to find the source of that loud voice. "Huh?"

"I'm down here!" Carbuncle shouted angrily. Another disadvantage to being small, your often out of people's line of sight.

Laguna looked down, he hadn't been expecting this, he could say that much. He rubbed the back of his head again, feeling a small twinge of pain still residing there. "Wha? What are you doing here?"

"Where is it?" Carbuncle asked again

This was odd, not exactly something he thought he'd ever wake up to but..."It should be in Doctor Odine's lab but--"

He was abruptly cut off by Carbuncle turning and jumping off of the desk, scattering a few papers in the process which he quickly apologized for. "Thank you!" Carbuncle called back, bursting out of the door and alerting the half startled guards, which he easily out ran when they tried to catch him for farther assessment.

I've got things on my mind, takin' my time, but I'm...
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy

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Carbuncle was starting to think he had a shot at endurance running, since he'd ran all the way to the city, though he did walk to the presidential palace, that had to be a deduction.

But he did run from the presidential palace to Odine's lab in the city, that had to make up for it right? 'Yeah, probably.' He nodded to himself, that sounded about even to him.

He remembered where this place was clearly, to his surprise. And was able to sneak in and find his way down to the lower levels where the Machine was under development, he had to climb through the vent to get here.

It was large, and dark, ominously shrouded in shadow. A small grin crept across his face as he looked upon it. "Heh, Heh."

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It was early the next morning when Carbuncle walked in to Zell's room tiredly, about 5 am of he assumed it right.

He found Zell was sitting on the couch with an uncharacteristically worried expression on his face, it was almost off set by the fact that he couldn't keep his eyes open was slowly drifting off to sleep. He was awaken with an upstart when he felt Carbuncle laying on his lap.

"Carbuncle! Do you know how worried I was!" Zell said, nearly shouting and would have been if not for the loud yawn.

Carbuncle looked up at him with tired eyes, "Sorry…" He didn't sound like he entirely meant it.

If you're feeling alone, pick up the phone and call me, 'cause I...
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy

And again Zell knew something was wrong, Carbuncle had just disappeared for a whole day with out so much as a word, something was wrong. "Carbuncle? What's wrong?" Zell sighed, mentally kicking himself. "I'm sorry about yesterday if that's it." Zell said apologetically.

Zell was that worried about him that he stayed up all night waiting for him to comeback...now Carbuncle really felt horrible that he hadn't told Zell anything "Zell…." He didn't know what to say, he was a little mad about yesterday, but that wasn't close to being it, something else had been bothering him. "Yeah, I am kinda mad about that, but I understand about it." Carbuncle said with a small smirk, no hard feelings there. "You love him right, you were worried about him." Of course he meant Bahamut.

Zell felt a small pain when he heard that. He had forgotten that Carbuncle liked him, he seemed completely out of it lately. Zell tilted his head back and stared up at the ceiling, his hand resting on Carbuncle's back.

Whenever you need me

"You know….I wish--" Carbuncle was abruptly cut off by a very apologetic Zell.

"Carbuncle, I'm really sorry. I never meant to hurt you or make you mad." He said. "I'm really grateful you stuck by me this whole time. Just... don't say you wish you'd never met me. I'll--"

Carbuncle shook his head "Close but not quite Zell, I was gonna say that I wished I didn't love you." Two different things.

Zell was hurt by that, some how even worse then what he though Carbuncle was going to say. "I'm sorry..."

Carbuncle snorted "What are you sorry about, you didn't do anything."

"Yeah but..."

"You are you, you can't go around worrying about me all the time." Carbuncle said with a smile. He wasn't really mad at Zell, it was something else...something else was throwing him off...he just couldn't tell what it was. "I've been waiting here for the last 4 years…" Carbuncle continued, resting his head on Zell's leg.

"Part of me wishing I could just have to my self when you got back. It's selfish I know." The small GF blushed with light embarrassment. "But it's hard. I even had a sex dream about you once….twice."

I've got things on my mind, takin' my time, but I'm...
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy

"What?….How did that work out?" Zell was ashamed to admit he was a little curious about it that.

Carbuncle looked up at him with an impish look on his face. "It was amazing, it may have been the time compression but I felt it." Carbuncle said, curling up and moving deeper in to Zell's lap.

Zell reached down and gently rubbed his head, knowing the right spots like behind Carbuncle's ear, and right above his left leg...

If you're feeling alone, just pick up the phone, 'cause I...
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy

"Mennaaaaa..."

"What the hell kind of a sound was that?"

"I don't know, it's your fault I'm making it."

Zell laughed, scratching lightly behind Carbuncle's his ear. The small only leaned back into Zell's hand, smiling lightly.

"Zell?"

"Hmm?"

"……You should do this more often."

"I will...

"Seriously?"

"I promise."