One Day, We'll Meet Again
Chapter 7: Here comes Ruby

By: KawaiiLeena

(Disclaimer: I rightfully do not own Final Fantasy 9 and any of its contents. It is © to SquareSoft! So, do not get any ideas that it is mine, when it is not. Woah, I think the disclaimer is quite long!)

A/n:I am so sorry to keep you all waiting! This was accidentally erased! so, I have to retype it! So yeah... (Keep in mind, people! This chapter might be long!)

Chapter 7: Here comes Ruby

A mansion proudly stands at its rightful place, with long and thick gates guarding around it, handsome and well-built guards and securities seen walking and turning, beautiful and fragrant Cherry Blossom trees with its flowers joining to the sky making a great scene.

A woman who has amber brown eyes and silky midnight black hair up to her back, wearing a cute black shoulder strap shirt with a printed walking Snoopy ™ and honey brown pedals with white sandals walks along outside through the wooden pathway as she greets some of her knowing bodyguards and enters the mansion to Eiko's room.

She opens the wooden door to see a 21-years old woman with purple hair and jade eyes, fresh from the shower, body covered by an indigo colored towel, rummaging through her closet and crying what to wear.

"GAH! I don't know what to wear, oh, I don't know!" the woman cries, continuing break havoc through her own dresses that she made by herself. The brunette sighs and enters the room, and closes the door gently and leans her back on the wall.

"Eiko, what are you doing?" she dully asks, putting her hands in her pedal's pockets. Eiko turns to her with tearful eyes and starts to boil. "Uh-oh…"

"What do you mean, 'what am I doing' Dagger?" Eiko explodes, standing up and putting her hands on her hips. Her eyebrows were furrowed, and her eyes were narrowed, you could see she is pretty tensed up. "Here I am, in my towel, looking through my closet of what to wear! Happy?"

Dagger merely shrugs and sits down on Eiko's overly large bed, with sky-blue sheets and tons of soft and inviting pillows. "Well, why are you going through all the trouble if you have plenty of your own dresses of your own designs?" Dagger asks with a smile as she picks up one yellow pillow and hugs it tight.

Eiko stands up and looks at her closets again and sighs, "Well, I have so many dresses to choose from, I don't know what to do! Besides, I have to look at my best!" she replies with a worried frown. She then turns around and picks up two dresses. "Which is better, the red dress with a ruby jewel or this black dress with this black jewel? What do you think?"

Dagger sighs and thinks hard. But since the two dresses seem cute, she had a hard time deciding. She turns to Eiko's worried look and giggles, "Relax, Eiko. Chill! This is just ice cream, remember that, not a funeral or a formal party."

The purple haired woman puts the dresses down and nods, "You are right, just an ice cream!" she turns around and starts to toss beautiful dresses almost everywhere, ruining the beauty and neatness of her room. She looks back at Dagger again holding two sweatshirts. "Which do you think is best? This fire-colored shirt of combination of red, yellow and orange; or this shirt with mixture colors of red and blue?"

Dagger rolls her eyes brown eyes and slaps her forehead and sighs and points lazily, "Whatever you choose will be okay, Eiko, since both of it are cute and will look good on you…" she replies. "Besides, you shouldn't be asking me. Aren't you THE Eiko Carol, owner of the Carol Designs?"

Eiko stuck her tongue out and pouts, "I'm just asking for your opinion, Dag-ger!" she retorts back, sarcastically saying her friend's name. "In addition, sometimes designers aren't always right, duh."

Dagger looks up to the ceiling and giggles, "Hmm, as I think of it, you are kind of correct. Because since when have you been doing things right?" she jokes around, pretending to be thinking.

"Shut up, Dag, and help me." Eiko warns her, her mouth to a deep frown. Dagger laughs and decided to help her for her sake.

XXX In Zidane's place XXX

"Zidane, are you sure we can bring her along?" a worried 22-years old man, with golden eyes and unruly black hair (A/n: Yeah, I decided to make Vivi a complete person. It's really funny to have someone still a hat on your head!).

A man with the same age with messy golden hair and deep green-blue eyes turns to him and sigh, "Of course, Vivi. I've known Ruby since forever. She's the only secretary that has gone this far, and the only secretary NOT infatuated to me. We see each other as friends, okay? So, no big deal." He shrugs as they continue walking through the halls.

"B-b-but…" Vivi stammers. "I promised Eiko to bring only you, not anybody else! She can be angry at me for this!" his shoulder drops as he sighs.

Zidane turns to him and smirks as he puts his hands to his pockets. "Don't worry, Vivi. Just tell her that there have been change of plans and you'll drag her along." He walks beside him and pats his back like pals do. "Okay?"

Vivi looks at him and slightly smiles. "Okay, Zidane. You're the man."

XXX Back at Eiko's mansion… XXX

"Eiko…" Dagger starts, yawning and stretching her free arm as she sits in one chair near a table. "It's almost 9:00AM! And we have to be in the company by 9:30! I wish you do know that we have a 30 minutes travel to go to the city, you know."

"I know, I know!" a voice answers behind the bathroom, sounding annoyed and frantic put together. "Just wait a minute! I… almost got… it! Ouch!" a weird bang is to be heard inside and outside the room as Dagger sighs, shaking her head. "Okay! Got it! I'll be out in a jiff!" the bathroom door opens, revealing a woman with short and full purple hair and deep jade eyes wearing a forest green V-neck shirt with printed bamboo leaves and a panda eating, together with a matching feminine green skirt below the knees and her own designed brown boots.

"Breathtaking!" Dagger smiles as she stands up and looks the proud Eiko from head to toe. "But if you add some accessories, it might do the trick."

"I wasn't even finished yet!" Eiko smiles broadly as she walks to her jewelry box and picks up two diamond earrings and a Y-shaped necklace with a cross-chained with it. She then picks up her pink shoulder bag and then pulls Dagger's wrist, making her almost fall.

"Ouch! Hey!" Dagger cries as Eiko lets go of her. "You don't have to pull me, you know. I can walk, thank you very much."

Eiko sighs as she looks at her best friend holding her swollen wrist. "I'm sorry, it's just that… I'm too excited for this. It's my first time and…" she stops as Dagger smile at her and hug her gently. "Thanks, Dag. Thanks."

The two best friends let go and Dagger stares at her best friend in the eyes and smile at her. "You do know that you can always turn to me when you have problems, Eiko-chan. Okay, best friend?" she winks at her.

Eiko giggles and nods and winks back. "Of course, best friend."

The two women soon find themselves walking through the large halls of Eiko's mansion, greeting every maid and butler they come across too as they end up a few minutes later in Eiko's garage, where you can see too many cars, Mercedes Benz, Ferraris, BMWs, Mitsubishis, anything.

"What car will we be taking?" Dagger asks as she slides her hand on the surface of a shiny red metal of a red BMW. "A Ferrari or one of your Mitsubishi Adventure Sports car?"

Eiko turns to her and wiggles her eyebrows. "That's it! A Mitsubishi Adventure Sports Car! Thanks, Dag!" she starts to run where the bigger cars are to be seen, and mostly are Mitsubishis. Eiko then opens a door of a pure white Sports Car and got in and turns the engine on, making it roar to life.

Eiko turns her hands to the wheel and starts to back her car. When she is done doing so, she slides down the window and motions her best friend to join her in the seat beside her.

"C'mon, Dagger! Hayaku (hurry)!" Eiko beams at her, obvious to be too excited about the present situation. Dagger sighs and runs off to the other side of the car and gets in.

Dagger looks around and sees that Eiko is playing the CD of one of her favorite singers, Ayumi Hamasaki, and is now playing the song 'Depend on you'. It's a great song, actually, and it is Dagger's favorite.

"To Joltan Company we go!" Eiko laughs as she pushes on the pedal and starts to drive, putting on her black sunglasses as the sun lightens them when they got out.

XXX Outside the Joltan Company XXX

"I wonder what's keeping Ruby?" A 22-years old man asks himself as he stands on the cemented floor patiently with his business partner and friend, glancing to his watch after every 5 minutes or so. "She only said that she only have to freshen her clothes."

His best friend turns to him and chuckles quietly, and pats his shoulders. "Patience, my man. Besides, Ruby is a latecomer, isn't she?" his friend, Vivi, smiles at this, but Zidane just can't keep his worry down.

"Oh, I don't know," Zidane, replies back, rubbing the back of his head, his eye filled with doubt. "I just got a weird feeling that your friend will be here early and Ruby might be a little late, and we'll leave without her. I just don't want her to feel bad, that's all."

Vivi chuckles as he adds, "Quit being a good boy, Zidane!"

"Hey!" Zidane laughs with him and slides his hand through his hair. "I am a good boy!" then he turns around to see a shiny white Mitsubishi Adventure Sports Car heading their way, carrying two girls, but he can't put his finger who is handling the cars, seeing the light distracting him. ­– She looks familiar… - Zidane says to himself as he sees a brunette glancing outside the window.

Meanwhile, Eiko immediately recognize the man who has messy black hair and golden yellow eyes waving at her that she can't keep her excitement down any longer as she starts to getting wild and jump from her seat.

"Look, Dagger!" Eiko points to a man waving at them. "That's my friend! Isn't he cute in that blue suit? Of my gosh, I think I'm blushing!"

Dagger sighs and tries to calm down her friend before Eiko get both them killed. – Note to myself: Never EVER make Eiko drive a car again when meeting one of her friends! EVER! –

"Eiko, calm down!" Dagger sighs, Eiko continuously still jumping on and off her seat. "Eyes on the road, please! Eiko! Look at where you are driving and not to that boy!"

Eiko turns to her and smiles, giggling, her face flushed. "Don't worry!"

- Don't worry, she says… - ­ Dagger thinks with a doubtful sigh, not noticing a man looking at her through the window (A/n: No, it is NOT Zidane!) with piercing green eyes behind the green bushes.

Finally, they stop in front of the busy company and park their car in front of two handsome men, and starts to get out of the car. Eiko, being a hyper girl, jumps out of the car quickly and immediately meets up with her newly found friend. Dagger sighs again and gets out silently as she could, and when she at last turned around, she meets face to face with Zidane.

"Dagger?" Zidane asks, surprised, his eyebrows shot up. He starts to blush furiously, as Dagger did so, since they are inches apart. She then finally keeps up her cool and backs away a few steps and smiles at him. "Dagger? What are you doing here?"

Dagger just merely smiles at him, and answers back, "I am here to accompany my friend for her ice cream with her other friend." She turns to face him with her amber brown eyes. "How about you?"

Zidane shrugs; glad that was her reason why she is here. That means that he'll spend a whole day with her. "Same reason, but I was forced!" he chuckles a bit.

"Oh really?" Dagger asks with a smile, putting her hands in her pockets and starts to crouch a little. "I was forced, too, against my will. But I think that's okay, seeing you here. At least I have someone to talk to than sit away listening others talk."

The blonde man blushes scarlet and looks at her features and starts to smirk. "A bit boyish now, are we?" he teases with a sly smile. Dagger blushes and quickly puts away her hands from her pockets. "I was just kidding. Let's go inside the car, shall we?"

Dagger nods, but before she could open any door, a high-pitched voice stop them. "Wait a minute, minna-san!" Both of Zidane and her, together with Eiko and Vivi turns around to see a 20-years old woman with blue eyes and sky blue wavy hair with a headband, wearing a Sky blue T-shirt and black jeans with white sandals running towards them carrying a red-white shoulder bag.

"Ruby?" Zidane asks as he looks at his secretary. "Oh yeah, Ms. Carol?" Eiko turns her full attention. "Can I please tune in the introductions before we head out first?"

"Of course!" Eiko replies cheerfully. She turns around and looks at the girl who just arrived oddly. – Who is she? –

Zidane clears his throat as Vivi smirks. "Okay, I'm Zidane Tribal, as some of you already know. That is my business partner and best friend, Vivi Ornitier. This is my childhood friend, Dagger Alexandros. And this is my best friend's quest, Eiko Carol. And lastly, this is my secretary, Ruby."

"Hi!" Ruby greets cheerfully, only receiving an odd look from Eiko and a blank look from Dagger. "Err… nice to meet you…"

Zidane sighs, and then turns around to see a bug on Ruby's forehead. "Um… Ruby?" Ruby turns to him with a questioned look. "Err… you got a … on your forehead."

"What?"

The blonde man shakes his head. "Never mind, I'll do it." He puts out a handkerchief and leans closer; not knowing about Dagger's shock, as he leans over and gently swipes away the bug. "There." He turns around to see Dagger gone from her spot. "Hm? Where's Dagger?"

Eiko turns to him as she looks around. "Why, you're right!" she excuses herself for a minute and then she starts to run around shouting Dagger's name. "Dagger? Dagger!" she then after a white gasps for breath when she did heard someone sobbing. "Dagger…?"

- Who is she…? Oh… wait… she must be Zidane's girlfriend…- Dagger thinks as she continues the squat, her eyes crying out. When she witnessed Zidane leaning over, she thought he was going to kiss the girl, so she run away quickly before seeing it all. – Why am I crying? Am I crying for him because he got a beautiful girlfriend? Cowards only cry! … Maybe then… Maybe I'm a coward myself…but why am I getting jealous? He's just a childhood friend… Am I feeling more? -

"Dagger?" A caring voice calls, making Dagger look up from her hiding place. She wipes some of her tears with the back of her hand and turns around to see Eiko with a worried look. "Dagger! You are here!"

Eiko soon finds herself running and hugging her best friend, not noticing her eyes were red. "Dagger! Why have you run away? I was so worried!" she looks down to her best friend to see her brown eyes swollen and red. "Dagger…? Why are you crying? Is something wrong?"

Dagger looks up and shakes her head, protesting. "Um… I'm not crying, Eiko-chan. Just got something in my eye, t-that's all."

Eiko glares at her and frowns. "You were crying, Dagger Alexandros and you know it!" she says as she pouts. "Come on! I'm your best friend! I know you, Dagger! So, what's wrong with you?"

Dagger looks away and bit her lower lip. "Nothing's wrong. I-I ran away because I saw a butterfly, chase it, and then I trip and ended up here."

"Dagger…" Eiko starts in a mother tone. "Dag, I know you sufficiently. You're not childish enough to do that. What's the real reason?" she asks, caressing her soft black hair. "You can count on me, Dagger. We are best friends, right?"

The black haired maiden looks at Eiko's green eyes and sighs. "Zidane… um… Zidane is my childhood friend. He's the one gave the pendant to me. We met yesterday when Mr. Sasaki set us up." Eiko's eyes rise up in surprise. So, he's the friend Dagger is waiting all along? "And then, somehow, there's a feeling growing inside of me that… that tells me it's more than a friend that I'm seeing in him…"

"You?" Eiko asks, amused, and starts to giggle. But stops when she sees the serious look on Dagger's face. "I'm sorry. Go on."

Dagger sigh as she continues with a sob, "B-but I don't know if h-he feels the same way… seeing… seeing him with his s-secretary, Ruby… and she's so pretty… I think I…"

"I…"

To be continued…

Well, sorry for the long wait! This chapter was accidentally got erased! And you know what? It even got erased in the Recycle Bin! I'm deeply sorry! Well, I rewrote it and I hope this is enough the… y'know… replace the other chapter! Okay, REVIEW!

Glimpse:

Oooo! Ice cream! Both Eiko and Vivi can't wait! But what is this, Dagger getting jealous whenever Ruby is with Zidane…? Oooo! Bad! Very bad! And what's with Eiko? Find out in the next chapter of One Day, We'll Meet Again! See you next time!