Title: Second chances for an Angel of Death

Rating: R for language, and perhaps sexy chapters later.

Disclaimer: I do not own FF9 or any of it's characters. Yes there will be yaoi in later chapters. Thank you all for the reviews! Granted there aren't as many as I had hoped, but I'm eager to start on this chapter now.

Chapter 4.

"Kuja! Look out!"

The mage turned to glance over his shoulder for a mere second before gasping, and lunging out of the way when a large splintered tree branch was thrown in his direction. The branch belonged to one of the tree monsters that resided inside the Lifa Tree. This monster, however, was much larger than the other's usually had been. That was beside the point.

The silver haired man landed in a heap just on the edge of the ledge he and Zidane had been climbing the whole day. They hadn't seen one monster the whole time. Once the sun began setting however, that was a different story.
The mage winced, rubbing his upper arm when he went to push himself into a sitting position, glancing down at the scraped skin and furrowed his brows with mild horror. When he turned to look back to see if the creature was still there, his ice blue eyes widened in surprise when the creature began coming up on him. Slowly, but it was not far away that it couldn't do any damage.

Kuja held up a hand, using some of his strength to summon a firaga spell. However, the mage met with absolute horror when he could only cast a regular fire spell. He winced, knowing it didn't do much good, as it only singed the creature, making it more angry as it trudged closer to the silver haired genome. Kuja squirmed, trying to inch away, but inhaled a sharp breath when he almost fell backwards, his hands meeting the edge of the ledge. There were no walls to back into. It was a good hundred-foot drop on both sides of the narrow pathway. Which had concerned Kuja when they started climbing.

Zidane had simply told Kuja that they had to face the risks in order to get out. Kuja simply told the blond with his own annoyed approach: "That's why I wanted to stay behind." The remark didn't seem to gain Zidane's sympathy and so the younger man told the mage to simply shut up and keep marching.

Kuja had known it would be dangerous. Zidane would never hear the end of it later.

Kuja's attention was brought back to reality when he saw the creature that was now only a few feet away from him. This terrified the mage as he tried to summon up another spell to at least be able to defend himself. As it went to take a swipe at the fallen man, Zidane jumped between the tree monster and Kuja, using his daggers to slash at the creature with simple and graceful ease. In Kuja's opinion, it didn't take much to stop the creature. The tree monster groaned before slumping in two pieces, falling off the ledge of the path and down into the pit of the Lifa Tree.

The blond genome huffed, his tail swaying from side to side as he slowly walked to the ledge, peering down over the edge into the total darkness below. Nothing to be seen, but more or less making sure that the thing was out of sight and gone for the time being. He knew it wasn't coming back. Finally he sighed and glanced down at the older genome at his feet, tucking his daggers away.

Zidane was simply amazing. He hadn't seemed to have broken even a sweat in that battle. Not a single injury. Leave it to Kuja though, to manage to get injured by simply falling down. Zidane knew now that Kuja was not one for hand-to-hand combat.

When Zidane glanced down at Kuja, who was sprawled out on the ground, he had to glance away as the blood rose to his cheeks. Kuja was sprawled out, sitting up with his hands supporting him, his ankles out, and his knees drawn together, almost in a helpless delicate manor, one knee arched over the other, one shoulder slumped forward, the other one back, and his long platinum feathered locks of hair seeming to fan out slightly, a few locks falling into his eyes.

The mage was irresistible. To men and women alike. Zidane shivered. And with what little kuja was wearing due to the loss of his beaten clothing, it was hard for Zidane to keep out the mental images.

"You okay?" He asked finally.

Kuja shuddered; shocked that he hadn't been able to conjure up more magic than he had. Zidane was right. Kuja was loosing his powers. It disturbed the mage greatly, but it also explained why the older genome was feeling so tired lately. This incident however, only angered him. He eyed the scrape on one of his arms and felt weak. The only exception of an injury he had ever received with welcome arms, would be a worthy opponent that inflicts one. Not a tree monster.

Shaking off his thoughts, he strained to get up, brushing the tree bark off what was left of his clothing.

"You don't give me enough credit Zidane. A creature of such low status could never hurt me." He bitterly snapped in response, crossing his arms over his chest to hide his scraped arm. It stung, but Kuja never carried any potions with him ever. Mainly because he never needed them. Now he was wishing he did.

Zidane just stared at the older man, not having been expecting a lashing for asking if he was okay. However, Zidane knew that was how Kuja was. He sometimes wondered if Kuja was seriously a woman in denial. He sure acted like it, in the blonde's opinion. Nonetheless, Zidane shrugged and moved past Kuja and continued up along the path.

"Lets keep moving then. We should get as far as we can before it's completely dark."

The mage grumbled to himself and sighed. He was tired of walking. They had been walking all day. The most relief Kuja had gotten was when he had fallen onto the ledge and simply sat there the whole time. Of course, the fireball had simple worn him out even more.

Kuja grunted when Zidane was almost out of view around the corner of the path, and followed after him.

--

The two genomes had wandered for another four hours before Zidane decided that it was time to stop for the day. Amazingly, they had made it quite far towards the top.

They came to a relatively large area. The roots formed a circular tunnel that Zidane could see lead towards the very top. However, they couldn't access the tunnel because dirt and rocks had caved in, blocking the entrance of the tunnel.

Zidane sighed, shaking his head. Oddly enough there was much grass in the area. There were no signs of any monsters either. It was a safe place to stay for the night. Zidane walked over to the blocked tunnel and pounded on it hard, trying to see if he could break the wall. Unfortunately it wasn't weak enough to bring down. He shrugged his shoulders in distress and walked back and plopped down in the grass a few feet from the tunnel entrance.

"No luck. We'll have to figure it out in the morning." He stretched his arms out with a yawn and sighed, laying back on the soft grass and closed his eyes.

Kuja shivered and moved to sit across from Zidane. He brought his bare knees to his chest and curled up to try and keep himself warm. It was a failure and the mage knew it. He hated it in this place. His stomach growled too. He was cold, and hungry. To top things off, he had to sleep in the dirt and grass. He hated this place even more.

Zidane noticed Kuja had been quite for the last hour or so. Normally the mage would have been ranting about his hair or some trifle manor. Then again, the man was going through a lot too. He understood. However, at the same time the silence bothered him. Kuja was trying so hard to keep himself together while pretending that he didn't have any problems. The sound of Kuja's stomach caught the majority of his attention. So Zidane reached into his pockets and produced half of a South Gate Bunt Cake he had been carrying around for awhile. Granted he wasn't sure how old it was, it would still provide some sort of nutrients.

The blond held out the bunt cake to the mage. "Here," he said, placing it in Kuja's hands. "It's better than starving yourself."

Kuja blinked for a moment at the bunt cake that had been given to him, before he handed it back to Zidane. "You go ahead... I'm fine."

"Bull." Zidane snorted, handing back to Kuja yet again. "Just eat it and quit whining."

Kuja snorted and took the left over cake and practically inhaled the food. He had been starving all day. He was grateful to Zidane, granted his stubbornness.

Once the mage finished his unsatisfying meal, he realized how cold he was and went to curl up again, goosebumps forming on his skin as he tried to find warmth in what little clothing he had. He hated being cold. He hated this place. He hated what he did. He was filled with hate. So much hate... He had to get rid of the hate. He wanted to stop hating, but he couldn't seem to. He was so cold...

The blond genome seemed to notice this as well and grunted, sitting up and grabbing Kuja's arm and yanked him forward so that the mage fell in his direction. This caused the older man to help as the blond pulled him closer so that Kuja was lying down next to him.

"If you're cold, body heat always helps." He said, curling up against the mage to keep him warm, his tail wrapping around the other man's body as well.

"Zidane...." Kuja blushed slightly, looking down at the blond with confusion. "Thought you were annoyed with me."

"I am a little.... But I don't want you freezing to death either."

This caused the mage to smile lightly as he rest his head against Zidane's, his ice blue eyes sliding closed as he curled into the warm embrace. The warmth radiating off the other genome was welcomed greatly, to the older man's chilled body.

"I think after this, I'm going to start wearing warmer clothes...."

" How about you just start wearing pants instead?" Zidane smirked smugly.

Kuja glared, tempted to just throw Zidane away. Instead he pinched the blond, producing a yelp from him. A giggle to soon follow.

"Your terrible Zidane..."

The two soon become comfortable again in each other's embrace once again. This was the second time they were sleeping in each other's arms. Zidane liked the comfortable feeling. A faint memory came back to him from a long time ago. Once when he had been little, he remembered a comforting embrace just like this. A long time ago...

Eventually, the two closed their eyes and fell into a content slumber, holding each other in a warm entanglement of limbs, and soft breathing. Falling asleep to each other's heartbeats....

End of chapter 4

Author's comments:

Phew. Wow. That chapter actually came faster than I thought it would. XD It's a little bit longer than the third chapter. I think. Oh well. Guess it doesn't matter. And I already have ideas for the 5th chapter! Can you believe it? Wow. Inspiration really hit me this time. I didn't want it to end this way. But oh well. I didn't have much of a choice for this chapter. Which means I can make another!

AHH! Will they ever get out of the Lifa tree? Yes. They will. It's just taking me a long time to get there. It's so much easier and faster just typing up what's on your mind for the next chapter, than transferring over from a notebook. So the rest of the fanfic from here on is all free. Actually, I'd REALLY, REALLY like more reviews soon. I mean... Badly. I need some sort of new ideas. Or something... So anyways. Yeah.