A/n: Well well welly welly well. Look who decided to update! p Yes, I realize I'm a horrible person to keep you all waiting this long, but I figured this bit of Dyuetto fluff... also known as the whole friggin' chapter... will be enough to tide you over as we come to the grand finale of our story... so read on! .
Thanks to all me wonderful reviewers, without which this story would never be. You guys rock.

Disclaimer: I own no Final Fantasy IX Character. But If I did, I'd dress Vivi up like a giant, huggable raincloud. He seems like the raincloud type to me.

Beautiful Equilibrium

"...Three...?"
"...what?"
"I... I want to stay like this... f-forever..."
"..."
"Three?"
"So do I, Vivi."

†

Up until this point, it had been anger, hatred... fear. Until this moment in time all his heart carried was this, but now...

Now Black Waltz Two felt... content. He didn't even know why.
He stood on the deck of the Red Rose II, wings completely outstretched and filtering the wind through the beautiful feathers he called his, that waterfall of blue, green, gold. Eidolons... how he knew that this contentment was somehow misplaced, as if coming... from another being entirely, someone outside of himself... but how silly was that? Even if it was, who would it be?

His amber ivory eyes opened softly against the warm wind that hit him now, all nervousness abated. The only thing that could possibly make this better was to have both his brothers by his side now, joined there in the silence, the reverence of this beautifulmoment.

The sun was just centering itself now, hanging brightly from the sky as if suspended from a golden chain, clear cerulean not hindered by any bothersome puffs of white. The only thing that interrupted the beautiful sight was themesa wall to theright of them, the tree line to the front, nothing but open field everywhere else. Somewhere in the distance he knew the Dragon's Gate was close, he could feel it. Somewhere inside him, he could feel they were getting closer to his brother.

Somewhere inside... the... contentment...?

"...What do you look so happy about?"

The peirceing voice snapped the pacifist from his thoughts, eyes turning quickly to meet the bright emerald eyes of a certain princess.

"Ah... Princess Eiko..." There was somewhat of an awkward bow placed clumsily in the obvious identification, wings snapping to a folded position behind him- a quick scan of the deck told him that the dragon knight was no where to be found, at the time. "Er, my apologies..."

"It's no big deal..." She muttered, leaning up against the side of the airship where he had currently been standing. "Just wanted to know what you were doin' out here. Zidane did tell you to stay with us, remember?"

The waltz blinked. When not fresh from his brothers insults, the teenager... wasn't really all that bad, not as demanding or... well, stuck up as he had seen earlier. Stiffly, he placed a pseudo casual hand on the banister separating the two figures from a plummet to the earth, roughly a couple hundred feet below. "...thinking, majesty."

"Hn. What is it with you mage's and thinking? Vivi does that constantly, just stares off into space and... thinks."

Two smiled softly, his eyes the only window to this emotion. "Maybe Vivi and I have a lot to think about..." He shrugged a bit, biting his lip slightly. "I don't know, I never really got to know him."

Eiko snorted, flicking a piece of purple hair from her face, almost irritatedly... or prissily. "Of course not, seeing as last time you were trying to kill him."

He frowned a bit, shaking his head. "It- it's not as simple as that."

"Simple as what?" The girl tilted her face, green eyes locking with his topaz white, as if she were looking straight through him. "Trying to kill him. You were evil at the time. Easy."

A steady brow raised from him. "...at the time?"

"Not saying you aren't still now."

"Ah." He directed his attention stubbornly towards his hand at this, intent on leaving it at that. He would not betray his brother's trust a second time... he had promised to keep their secret, no matter what! And he had already leaked it to Queen Garnet... He hoped that she would keep to her word and not tell a soul... the last thing he needed was another argument with Hitotsu.

"So what were you thinkin' about?"

After a brief mental backtrack on the Waltz's part, the only intelligible noise he could make quickly was a brief, "Wha?"

Another snort. It seemed all Eiko liked doing was talking and snorting. "You said you had a lot to think about. Like what?"

"O-oh. Like... Like the well being of my brother... brothers, I suppose." He made a bit of a face at that... in truth, he wasn't really sure who he was more worried about at the time- Three, locked in a cavern for two days with his greatest enemy, Vivi Orunitia, or One, locked in the cabin with three of the saviors of the world, one of which was almost his murderer, and no one there to keep a hand over his big mouth. Two shook his head, not willing to pause on that note for too long- if he did, he knew she would question some element in it. "How Vivi's doing right now... wondering weather or not we're going to live through this..."

"Why wouldn't you?" That irrately high, nasally tone returned to the princess' voice again, the razors edge of accusation. "If Vivi's alive, then you'll be able to escape unharmed. That's what Zidane says."

The taller form wrinkled his nose, speaking before he could stop himself. "Do you always listen to what Zidane tells you?" Immediately after the comment, he bit his lip hard. Why would he say something like that! Hitotsu must be rubbing off on him...

Eiko, however, merely shrugged. "He seems to be in charge of this whole thing, so don't you think he would know?"

Two titled his head. "...true."

"Anyways, what should you care about Vivi?"

"What?"

There was an exasperated sigh as the teen lowered her face, chin into the palms of her hands, her elbows in turn being supported by the banister. "You said you were wondering how Vivi's doing right now. Why should you care?"

The pacifist blinked. "Oh." Was the only sound that could escape his lips, before returning to his mind for some serious thought. Why was he worried about that mage? Perhaps it was that the powerful teenager held the fate of he and his brother's lives- if Vivi turned up to be dead in those caverns, the waltz's would surely meet their ends there as well.

...but was it really just that?

"...Vivi is... a good person. Good people don't deserve to have things happen to them... things like this, anyway." He concluded, his eyes lingering now at his feet, the front of his robes, so on. Anywhere but the general vicinity of Eiko's face. "...my brother... Mitsu, Black Waltz Three... you may not think it, but he's a good person as well... he doesn't deserve this, just as your friend doesn't. I think their just innocent victims of Fate's game... for one reason or another, they were pitted together there, trapped with each other... maybe for something ourselves, as mere mortals, can't even begin to fathom..."

Finally, he chanced a glance up at the princess as one of his wings twitched in anticipation- and found her just... staring at him. With a look of utter disbelief on her face.

"...sheeze." She muttered finally, frowning and looking again out at the scenery that was quickly passing them, "and I thought Vivi always tried to be philosophical... you mage's really are the same..."

Two's lips twitched into a bit of a smile, now feeling confident enough to push a little farther, perhaps. "Well, technically, I'm not a mage, I'm a-"

Eiko pushed off her elbows suddenly with a bit of a giggle, maybe. "You know what I meant, you stupid waltz!" Even as she insulted him she laughed, though not a cruel, demeaning tone as he supposed she would have in a comment like that- it was sincere, like she was just... joking with him.

Two let a bit of a chuckle slip from between tongue and teeth, placing a polite hand over his mouth. The air eventually came to a silence around them, both pairs of eyes simply scanning the landscape, drinking in the beauty of the setting, and... strangely enough, enjoying one another's company... at least, the waltz did. It hand been so long since he had had any civil company, besides his brothers, who weren't really all that civil anyway, to just stare off into the world like this, to take from the palette of Mother Gaia all the visual vitamins she could give...

Even now the pacifists mind escaped him, his thoughts lingering on his past actions... who could've believed that he would've ever helped anyone responsible for attempting to get rid of... all of this? This pure, absolute... beauty?

"...you know..." Eiko began softly, directing the wandering mind to return to her gently. "...I never thought I'd say this... but you're... more like him than anyone I've ever met."

A moments confusion filled the silence of Two's mind as he responded the only way he could to make that sentence more clear for him. "...more like... who?"

"...Vivi..." She almost whispered, taking her bottom lip between her teeth as soon as the word escaped them. The waltz suddenly received this... this overwhelming feeling that Eiko missed the teenage Black Mage a lot more than she let on.

A lot more.

"...you... you love him, don't you?" He muttered, comfortingly enough, but it was enough to turn the purple haired summoners attention straight to him. He winced- for a moment, he could've sworn she was going to scream at him, calling him nasty names, rebuild that unfriendly barrier that they had tore down, if not only half way, and it would've been all his fault in one swoop of a stupid remark- and for that split second he chided himself for once again taking after his older brother and jumping straight to what he was going to say without taking anything else into consideration-

But she nodded. The expression of hate subsided, ebbing away into what could be called... grief... before her eyes returned to the landscape, once again taking her trembling lip into her mouth.

"...I'm sorry..." Two continued, well against his better judgment, "I'm sorry that this had to happen. I'm sorry he had to get involved in us..." His eyes made a slow track away from her, perhaps just away in general. "It must be tough, being away from the one you love..."

"...for seven years I've wrote letters, received letters... I haven't seen him..." She sniffled. "..I wanted to see him..." Suddenly, anger as swift as the tide rushed forth, crashing against the rocks with foam that streamed down her cheeks as Eiko turned suddenly, pushing the Waltz from his standpoint near the barrier. "Then you're stupid 'brother' had to take him away! When Freya told me he was coming, I was so excited! You- you waltzes!" She went to shove him again, but the ship lurched, the princess loosing her balance and tripping, falling- only to be caught in the safe arms of Black Waltz Two...

Her dew flecked, grass filled eyes turned upwards, meeting the cool gaze of white gold... and suddenly she could no longer see the ivory that clouded the topaz, only the rich honey, that beautiful amber, that she had regrettably fallen in love with, over the years of being apart.

"...I know. I so sorry." Was the response, the baritone voice of the waltz piercing even the most stubborn reaches of the teen's mind. She was lost in that sentence, that voice, those eyes, and for a minute she didn't know what to do... she felt as though she were in some beautiful dream... balanced between contented reality and unbelievable daydream... a beautiful equilibrium...

She was suddenly snapped out of her thoughts by a harsh noise, the heart gripping clang of metal on metal... perhaps even definable as dagger on staff. Two broke away at this, a hand kept on her shoulder, steadying her as his eyes were redirected to the cabin door of the ship, a way down the deck, the waltz speaking in a growl.

"Hitotsu."

†

The panicked form of Black Waltz Two was greeted by an almost expected sight when he crashed through the door to the cabin, followed closely by Princess Eiko. Expected enough for the pacifist to merely sigh in frustration as he perceived the situation."Hito!"

"What!" Was the immediate response, almost a whine, but more like a grunt, given his current stance. He was almost bent over backwards, an awkward position for most already, not to mention one with a stature such as his, as he held the staff horizontally to block Zidane's vertical dagger strike. His hands were shaking on the weapon, the bell tied to his wrist giving dismayed little calls of fatigue, the little wings pasted to his back outstretched. At his brother's accusing stare, he yelled, rather indignantly, in his own defense- that standard answer so innocent enough to work- "He started it!"

"Liar!" Zidane snarled, his situation a bit different. He wasn't even using his full power on the staff, this much was obvious, weather it be concern for Vivi's rather rare weapon or the fact that Garnet was doing her best to haul him off the waltz alone(as Steiner was not helping, he actually looked as though he were enjoying this little fracas), couldn't be deciphered. But his tail was lashing about, fur standing on end, a few random, individual hairs sticking straight up as well.

One growled straight back, narrowing ivory eyes to a deadly point. "No body asked you, monkey breath!"

With a low growl the tension in the air increased sevenfold, Zidane suddenly launching himself at the shortest form with a spine squelching feral noise that was not unlike that of a very angry felines- his blade would've met the mark at One's throat if not for an unforeseen obstruction- Black Waltz Two. The blade buried itself into the soft spot between shoulder and arm, nestled tightly between the two sides of the joint. The blonde stopped rather suddenly, teal eyes wide as he glanced up at the waltz, just in time to see his knees fail on him, the robed figure collapsing. The Queen's Captain finally decided to take a playing role in this act, stepping forward to take Zidane's own shoulder into a huge hand, steadying him from doing anything more- but that was a precaution not needed.

The tailed knight just stood, blinking as the afflicted was caught by his brother, who tossed the staff aside in order to do this, the hero's own wife and niece rushing forward to the pacifists aid...

Black Waltz Two... took the blade for that short bastard?

"Dyuetto!" One yelled, now kneeling with his comrade's back to his chest, "are you okay!" Without waiting for an answer he redirected his voice to the stunned blonde, snarling, "You fucking bitch! You'll die for that!"

"H-Hitotsu, please!" The taller figure pleaded, "It's your anger that started this in the first place! No one is to b-blame for this, just so long as you've both stopped being stubborn Ash's and stopped this stupid fighting for once!"

The proposition forced Zidane and the smaller waltz into a silence, hopefully comprehensive, as Garnet and Eiko tried dealing with Two's wound. After a few minutes of struggling and a suppressed scream from the horned one's part, the dagger was finally removed, handed back to Zidane dripping with crimson syrup, at which white eyes narrowed, and a cura was preformed, healing Two's shoulder rather nicely. Standing, with the generous help of the two females, of course, he looked from Zidane to One strictly, almost glaring between them.

"Hito, our brother is trapped. If we have any hope of saving him, we have to work with these people. You understand?"

Looking rather dejected, his companion nodded.

"And Sir Zidane, your best friend is trapped along with him, and you need us to lead you to them and calm Three when we get there, do you not?" When aqua eyes diverted to his, looking a bit confused, Two gained a bit of a sardonic smile. "...or do you wish to have more than one smears of Waltz blood staining your blade?"

Finally, Zidane shook his head.

"Good. Then we're agreed. We're to set aside whatever quarrels we have with each other and deal with the task at hand... saving our comrades."

"I hate to interrupt..." The female Alexandrian Knight at the helm muttered timidly, "but the coordinates the waltzes gave me...? We're here."
†