Author's Note: Okay, I realise this chapter is pretty obvious, from the title, what happens. So I put an original spin on things. Also makes it easier to write, since not much really happens. Also has a few cameos from the FFXI Chronicles, so if you haven't read it, don't be confused, it should be understandable enough. They just serve as people for Olose to interact with as he reflects on his past.

Oh, and an alternative title for this chapter was "The Answer To Life, The Universe, And Everything". Hopefully somebody gets that.

CHAPTER 42

MARRIAGE

It was almost six centuries after that battle at sea, when Olose had defeated the Cardinal, saved San d'Oria, and been knighted. He was stood looking out across the peaceful waters of Kazham, the moonlight sparkling on the sea. The airship that regularly flew in had just departed, and he smirked. He remembered a time when the concept of flying a ship through the sky was ludicrous. A time when all you needed to be a captain was a ship and a sea to sail it on.

His latest ship floated not far away. It wasn't really his, but he liked to think of it as such since he spent the most time piloting it. A little black airship, currently sat on the ocean. It reminded him of the Destiny in many ways, small, fast, and with a tendency to shake, barely working right. Perhaps that's why he liked it. He had never found a ship to replace the Destiny, not in six hundred years. Well, it wasn't quite six hundred years, but it was close enough. He found it easier to round it up to the nearest century, or at least the closest fifty years. Ships now were little more than modes of transport to him. The Destiny had been a home, a person, and a friend.

He laughed. He rarely got caught up in the past. Very rarely. When you're immortal, it doesn't afford to dwell on a past life that has long since passed you by. He blamed the moon, even in its half full state, the reflection on the water made him feel oddly reflective to his own memories.

He smirked a little as he picked up her scent and turned around, seeing her in the distance. She was walking along with that irritatingly innocent smile of hers splattered across her face. Vivli. Perhaps the most fitting person in the world to the be described by the word 'vulnerable'. She was a young mithra, unusually short and very lightly built, a white mage in profession, and somebody who hated being violent in any form. This meant she was, for the most part, utterly defenceless against everything. To top it off, she was also scared of pretty much everything.

Yet there was something undeniably attractive about her. Perhaps it was the fact that she was so vulnerable and weak, and needed protection. Of course, she had that protection now, and it wasn't from Olose.

"Go on then." He said as she approached. "What're you smiling about?"

"Oh nothing." She sighed dreamily, her odd accent making him smile. She hadn't been risen in Kazham, and had been given speech training to quell the mithran accent. "Just spent the day with Zin." Zinkata, her boyfriend and fellow adventurer. She belonged to a group of four adventurers, heroes more accurately, even if they were a very unlikely band. They'd saved the world more than once, and Olose had helped out enough times. He had actually met them when they wanted to charter a ship, but that was another story. "Oh, he makes me so happy." She said to herself, and Olose rolled his eyes. This is what he had meant when he had thought 'irritatingly innocent'. She didn't seem to appreciate that it would have to end. Everything always did. And the more attached you were, the more it hurt like hell.

"So where is he now?" Olose asked, knowing that there were always amusing stories in asking questions like that. Sure enough Vivli blushed and looked to the floor.

"Urm. We were eating at this restaurant." She said. "It was really nice. B-but then-" She paused and shuddered. "This really big spider climbed up on the table!" Olose burst out laughing. "It was really big! And all hairy! I jumped up, and knocked the table over, I was so scared." Olose was now in tears of laughter, unable to stop himself. Vivli's fear of spider's could be extremely comical. "It was scary!" She said angrily. "Anyway, Zin was really kind and said he'd clear up the mess. I tried to help, but was all scared because I knew the spider was still around, so he said I could go for a walk while he cleaned up. He's so sweet." She looked up at the moon, hands behind her back, and rocking on the balls of her feet. Her tail swished about crazily. "It's so good to be in love." She sighed again. "Were you ever in love?" She suddenly shot to Olose, which caught him slightly off guard.

"Of course I was." He laughed. "I'm six hundred and sixteen years old. A fairly boring six centuries if I hadn't been in love."

"Who was she?" Vivli asked, wrapping her own arms around herself, almost as if she had gone without a hug for so long from Zinkata she had to give herself one. Olose laughed.

"Viv. Six hundred years is a long time, there's been more than one." You were one of them he added silently. For a while, she had felt the same way, but there was an incident. Again, another story for another time.

"Oh." Vivli seemed a little upset, like her romantic image of everybody having one ideal partner had been shattered. "Well, tell me about one." She asked. "You never tell me about your past."

"Isn't really good for me to dwell on it." He pointed out. Vivli's bright blue eyes went wide as she realised what he meant. He was immortal. They were not. Everybody he knew must be dead.

"Oh! I'm sorry." She said quickly. Olose laughed.

"No, it's alright." He paused. "I suppose I can tell you. Back before I was used to be immortal, my first lifetime, really. I guess that's what you could call it. There was my first love." He paused, remembering Arcadia's face. An image burnt in his mind. There wasn't a picture or a painting in the world of her, but he could never forget how she looked. "Her name was Arcadia." He explained.

"Arcadia?" Vivli repeated. "Nice name." She seemed to be dancing around with happiness, which irritated Olose no end. He knew she was listening, but her romantic mood was getting sickening.

"Yeah. Went on a lot of adventures together too, although she wasn't really suited to them. She was a fairly high up Lady, you see, daughter of a powerful Lord. I was just her bodyguard. But once I became a knight, and we got married-"

"You were married?" Vivli exclaimed, stopping her dreamy dance.

"Yeah." Olose laughed.

"What was it like?" Vivli asked quickly, her mind already filling with romantic images.

"What? The marriage?" Olose asked. He smirked. He knew she'd like this story. "Like you wouldn't believe. I always remember that day. We woke up in the morning and-"

"No. Oh no. You can't start like that. I want to hear how you proposed." Vivli said with a cheeky smile.

"Urm." Olose nervously scratched behind his head. "It wasn't actually me who proposed." He confessed with a laugh.

"It wasn't?" Vivli sounded a little surprised, but that's only because she had imagined Olose coming up with some incredibly romantic way of expressing his love.

"No." He laughed. "It was just after an-" He paused. "-an incident in San d'Oria. Arcadia was staying there to help out a friend, Astra."

"Astra? Pretty name. Was she named after that famous elvaan queen?" Vivli asked, remembering the history her teachers had forced her to study at the monastery where she was raised. Olose chuckled.

"She was that famous elvaan queen." He laughed.

"You knew Queen Astra?" Vivli gasped.

"Well, she was only a princess at the time." Olose shrugged.

"What was she like?" Vivli asked in awe.

"She was extremely naïve, but very kind and caring. You remind me of her, actually." He told her.

"Hey! I am not naïve!" Vivli protested. Olose didn't have to answer. He just burst out laughing. Vivli folded her arms, looking like she was sulking. Actually, maybe she reminds me of Suse Olose mentally said to himself.

"Now, do you want to hear this story or not?" Vivli nodded like a scolded child. "It was actually Astra, who asked Arcadia why we weren't married. Of course, the true reason was that I was just a lowly bodyguard, and a bit of a pirate at that, and she was a Lady, a woman with a title, so us marrying was pretty much out of the question. But then she realised that I had just been knighted by the elvaan king, meaning that we could-"

"You were knighted by the king?" Vivli cried. Olose sighed.

"No. I just said it so that you could interrupt me again." He grumbled sarcastically.

"Sorry." Vivli looked to the floor. "It's just all very odd."

"I know. But if you keep interrupting me I'll have to insist you call me 'Sir Olose Sampson'." Olose laughed. "So anyway, once Astra had asked that, we realised there was no reason we weren't married. So there was no proposal, no questions, no nothing." He could see disappointment etched on Vivli's face, so he decided to make it a bit better for her. "You see, we loved each other so much, we didn't need to ask. There was no question about it, of course we were going to get married. It was just a matter of fact." Vivli's face returned to a smile upon hearing this, and she began dancing around again.

She stopped as she noticed Olose was getting slightly annoyed.

"Sorry." She said. "I'm just really happy."

"I know." He laughed.

"Was it like it is with me and Zin? Like how I feel really safe whenever he wraps his arms around me, like nothing can penetrate them and harm me as long as he holds me?" She wrapped her arms around herself as she talked, almost in a love sick daze. Olose laughed.

"Urm, Viv, I'm a man. I'm also a werewolf. I'm fairly certainly the 'feeling safe in somebody's strong arms' thing isn't for me." He pointed out.

"Apparently you're a man who's insecure in his masculinity." Vivli grumbled.

"Eh?" Olose asked, not quite hearing her.

"Nothing!" She beamed. "So, what was the actual marriage like?" She asked. Olose looked down at her, and then shut his eyes, trying to remember.

"It was incredible. I remember waking up, and just the feel of the day felt right. The air was warm, and the sky wasn't even blue, it was this spectacular reddish pink colour. The flowers were blooming all around. It was like Altana herself went out of her way to make sure everything was right." He smirked. He wondered if he was remembering it right, or whether it was just a romantic picture his mind had painted over the centuries. "I remember going to get dressed. My friends had hidden my brown jacket, telling me I wasn't allowed to wear it on my wedding day. So I slipped into a tux and we all got prepared. Met my best man too, a little tarutaru guy."

"What did Arcadia look like?" Vivli asked. "Was her dress really pretty?" Typical, Olose thought to himself.

"Come on, you gonna let me tell this story or not?" He asked.

"Oh, alright." She sighed.

"He had the ring, which wasn't the easiest thing in the world to pick. We're talking about Arcadia here, she may have been one of the kindest, sweetest people I ever knew, but she could be very vain. She had an unbelievable heap of jewellery, so finding a special ring was really hard."

"So what did you get her in the end?" Vivli asked, fiddling with a small ring she was wearing on her finger as they talked.

"Princess Astra helped me find one. We put this special rock in it. One that glowed with this soft white light at all times, a magical enchantment." He smiled. "I always remember how that glow reflected off her eyes, it made them sparkle." He found himself with the same love induced smile on his face that Vivli had, which he quickly snapped out of.

"I want one!" She cried in sarcasm. "Make being in the dark much easier." Olose laughed again. He seemed to be doing a lot of that. Laughing made reflection on the past much easier.

"So, we took the ring and went to the ceremony. Held it in the Chateau d'Oraguille thanks to the king." He explained.

"You got married in the elvaan chateau?" She exclaimed in awe.

"Yep." Olose smiled. "No expense was spared. Of course, when you're getting married to a fantastically rich woman, that's not actually that special. To be honest, it wasn't as big as it sounds. Just our closest friends, and Arcadia's family. It being a Knight marrying a Lady, plenty of people wanted to be there, but we insisted it was kept down to just our friends, and, of course, the elvaans responsible for the ceremony."

"Just you and your love." Vivli said dreamily. He sighed. He wondered if he pushed Vivli in the water it would snap her out of her loved up trance.

"I remember just how painful it was, going through the whole day without seeing her. And then there she was, walking down the aisle. She looked even more beautiful than she normally did, and that's saying something! This long dress flowing behind her, and this little white veil covering her face, meaning I could just see her bright red lips and sparkling eyes through it. She got closer and closer, and I was almost overpowered by her presence, I just remember standing there praying that the ceremony was over soon so that I could kiss her and hold her in my arms. Think she was the same, because as soon as we could, we just leapt at each other as if we were two coiled springs, just waiting to jump." Olose paused. He wasn't very good with metaphors, he decided.

"You're not very good with metaphors." Apparently, so had Vivli. Olose fell silent. "Well?" Vivli asked.

"Well, what?" Olose responded.

"What happened next?" She prompted.

"The usual wedding stuff. Lots of food, big speeches proclaiming our love, and how happy everybody was for us. The usual stuff." He shrugged.

"Oh, come on." Vivli moaned. "It can't have just been boring like that!"

"Well, I can't quite remember the speech, it was a long time ago, but it was very romantic. You know, lots of nice flowery similes and things like that." He paused. "And then there was the evening."

"What happened in the evening?" Vivli asked, as if to reinforce Olose's point about naivety from a few minutes ago.

"What do you think happened?" Olose asked with a grin.

"Oh." She said. "Oh!" She repeated as she actually realised. Olose rolled his eyes. "Okay, I didn't need to know that!" She cried, purely because she thought it was an appropriate thing to say.

"And there you go. My marriage." Olose said plainly. "Not really that interesting."

"It sounds so romantic." She was already back in her dreamlike daze, and Olose grumbled to himself. "So, what other stories can you tell me?" She suddenly asked.

"Other stories? Hm." Olose paused. This was the exact reason he didn't like talking about his past. He'd always end up having to recall past events, and friends long dead. "Well, there's an interesting story about the first time I came here." He decided.

"First time you visited Kazham?" Vivli confirmed.

"Yeah. A few months after we had gotten married." He explained.

"Ah. There you are!" Came a booming voice. Olose turned around with a chuckle as a mighty galka stomped his way over. "C'mon, shortie."

"Hey! I'm not short!" Vivli snapped to the galka, who just turned around and peered down at her. "Well, okay, so I am, but that's not the point."

"Hey Olose." The galka said casually, ignoring Vivli.

"Hey Bootus." Olose waved back.

"Now, get a move on!" Bootus snapped. "Zin is waiting for you."

"He is?" She cried, her eyes lighting up. Bootus and Olose rolled their eyes simultaneously.

"Yeah, now move it, or I'll drag you." Bootus threatened. Vivli quickly tucked her tail behind her back, protecting it from being used to drag her.

"Well Viv, I'll see you later." Olose waved. "I'll tell ya that story sometime too."
"Yeah, maybe he can read you a bedtime story." Bootus mocked.

"Shut up!" Vivli moaned.

The two wondered off bickering, and Olose turned back to the sea. He thought back to the first time he had visited Kazham. It was a normal day, when Arcadia came over and said she had a letter addressed to Trevia…

Author's Note: Right, now that you've read that, I want to point out that the story isn't going to stay in this timeline, and by the next update, everything will be back to normal. I wanted an original way of doing the marriage.

I also realise Vivli is annoying in this chapter. Hell, I figured if I was continuing the romance from the FFXI Chronicles 3, it would have to be annoying, since it pissed everybody off in that. I also take this opportunity to remind everyone Vivli is a character. I do not behave like that!

Although I did read a story the other day which makes me consider being afraid of spiders. Apparently a woman got really bad ear ache, and severe headaches, and kept hearing scratching. Apparently a spider had buried its way inside her ear, eaten her eardrum and was living in her skull. 'Ew', I believe would be the word. Being afraid of spiders suddenly seems very clever.

Anyway, I hope this read alright, since it was my attempt to do something new (or at least handle it differently). That final paragraph should lead into the new storyline, which was nicely suggested by TheFrogKiller, which is very useful. Thanks!

Although I can't guarantee I'll update tomorrow. I heard a rumour I was going to end up going camping with a group of my friends. If that happens, I won't be here to update!

And I'm sorry for all the author's notes! I've really gotta stop…