OK! Sorry for the way-too-long wait. School has started and I have homework in Algebra EVERY night! It's really driving me nuts! I have also been working on a really big project and its been taking a long while. It's been taking up most of my little free time that I have. And band has been taking a lot of my energy. So, once again I'm extremely sorry. ON WITH THE FIC!

Emzies and Mog: to my only reviewer. Thank you my crazy cheese-loving friend! For reviewing and saving Blank's and my life, you get CHEESE!

The answer you seek may forever change your life for the worse.

- Freya (to Vivi), Final Fantasy IX

Normal POV

Zidane slowly opened the door to the hideout, thinking he'd surprise them all. When he had the door fully open, something, or rather, someone lunged at him knocking him to the ground. Zidane groaned and looked at the person sitting on top of him. "Blank! Whouldja please get the heck off me?"

"Nope..."

"WHY!"

"Cause..."

"CAUSE WHY?"

"Cause its hilarious in this point of view you bone heads!"

Both the boys looked over to the older boy standing beside them. He had a gentle face yet rough and a red bandana. You could see bits and pieces of his brown hair underneath it.

"Marcus! Get Blank off me!" Zidane screamed. Marcus laughed and looked over to the door where Cinna stood laughing his brains out at the sight of them.

"Na, leave em there Marcus, this is amusing." Cinna said between laughing and trying to breath.

"Cinna, your gonna wanna breath or you'll die. What's goin' on in there?" a girls voice was heard that Zidane couldn't recognize.

A boy with dusty-blonde hair and dark brown eyes, almost black walked into the room, he was wearing a white undershirt that showed off his muscles and some baggy blue jean shorts.

"O...k ...who's the guy Blank's sitting on? Is that Zidane?"

The girl from before shouted, "WHAT?" and ran into the room. She had curly shoulder-length light brown hair and bright pink eyes. She was wearing a light pink halter-top and a white mini-skirt, and white boots with pink laces.

"Zidane Tribal? THE Zidane Tribal? Tantalus' hottest thief? This is so totally awesome!"

The guy standing next to her rolled his eyes and Blank, Cinna, and Marcus all sighed. Zidane laughed nervously and said, "Well, at least she knows who I am..."

Zidane noticed that Blank let his guard down and pushed him hard and he fell over backwards and off of Zidane.

"HA!" Zidane cheered as he jumped up and Blank rubbed his head and grumbled. "Dude that hurt!...oh yeah, by the way. This is Josh Felker and Sydney Conner. They're half siblings. Felker is your age and Sydney is 15."

Zidane walked over to them and bumped fists with Josh, "nice to meet you dude."

"Same"

"Nice ta meet ya Zidane." Sydney said as she walked up to Zidane and gave him a quick, friendly hug.

"You too. Hey Marcus, where's the Boss?" Zidane said as he walked over to the older pair.

"Oh yeah! He went somewhere to do something somewhere else...or something..." Cinna answered for Marcus.

Zidane gave a confused look and shook his head. "Thanks, so I'm gonna stay the night here and then hang with you all tomorrow. But tomorrow night, I have to go somewhere so I won't be back. But don't worry, I AM coming back sooner or later."

Marcus nodded and said to them, "Ok, crew. Bed! We have a big day tomorrow and its already about midnight, so go!"

Josh and Sydney told everyone goodnight and then they took their leaves.

"So what's so big about tomorrow Mark?" Zidane asked curiously

"Well it's a big day for us, but a HUGE day for our bro here. For one thing Ruby is paying us a little visit, and then we got a letter from Blank's cousin saying that he has nowhere else to go and needs somewhere to stay so he's coming here tomorrow as well." Cinna explained.

"I think he asked me you dim-wit!"

"So what? I answered Marcus, so get over yourself!"

Blank and Zidane rolled their eyes and Blank looked over at Zidane who said, "So, Ruby and you are an item are you not? And your cousin, what about him?"

Blank sighed, "can we talk about this somewhere else?" he muttered looking over at the two older arguing thieves.

Zidane nodded and yawned. "Night guys, me and Blank are headed out. See you both in the morning."

"Night Zid"

"Nighty-night Ziddy-widdy" with THAT got Cinna hit pretty hard...

After Blank said his goodnights, and hit Cinna for his awkward goodnight, the two walked towards their room upstairs. Zidane hopped up onto the top bunk and Blank sat on the bottom bunk and let out a huge sigh.

"Ok, Bro, spill. I want the whole story!"

"Ok, its like this: Me and Ruby have been together for a while now, but she's in Alexandria and only comes to Lindblum once a month to see me. I don't know if we can go on like this much longer.

I mean, its not like I don't trust her I just that I don't think things are going to work out if we never see each other."

By this time Zidane was hanging upside-down from his bed and looking at Blank who was sitting on his bed with his head in his hands.

"I understand...I went though the exact same thing with Lauren, but what about your cousin? I've known you for like ever and never knew that you had any family..."

"Yeah well," Blank started, " I guess its time I told you; I was born into a family of nobles. But they were all snobby and put money before everything else. My mother and father were richer than Auntie Clara and Uncle Paul, so they cast them out of their lives.

When I was really little, my parents somehow went bankrupt and in order to keep what little precious money they had left, they dropped me off on the streets in Lindblum.

That's when Baku found me and took me in. Soon after, you came along.

Then recently my Auntie Clara and Uncle Paul died of a serious illness, and my cousin Tyler looked me up and sent a letter explaining everything.

I wrote him back and told him that we would love for him to join Tantalus, if he has any thieving skills. He said he's been living in Treno and he's been stealing food for a long time. He's only 16 but he'll do fine I'm sure, besides, look at how we were when we were 16."

Zidane looked down at Blank who was now lying on his back with his hands under his head.

"Yeah, we were pretty good back then..."

"Its not the same without you Zidane..."

"I know...I'm sorry. I love you guys. You were the only family I ever had, and I hate not being here for you."

"Zidane, you'll always have us. And it's your decision to stay where you want...no one else's...yours and only yours. Hey Zidane?"

"Yeah Blank?"

"Goodnight, and thanks. You're the best little brother ever."

"Night Blank. You're the best Big brother too…" then Zidane fell into a deep slumber.

He was a kid again. He was 5...he flew his ship over an island and saw a blonde girl and a silver haired boy, the boy looked older, but the girl looked younger and, a lot like him. He then flew over a small bluff and saw two girls. One looked older and one was only a baby. He flew over a desert and saw a girl walking through it. She too, looked older. He decided to go home, so he flew the ship over the ocean towards Alexandria, so he could go to Lindblum, back to Baku.

He saw a little boat with two people in it, a girl who looked his age and a woman. It was raining over them and the waves were tossing their boat around like a toy in a bathtub, but it wasn't raining on Zidane.

He wanted a better look, so he leaned over the edge of the ship, farther...farther...

WHAM!

Zidane opened his eyes and found him looking up at Blank, who was laughing so hard his eyes were watering. Cinna came running in, took saw the look on Zidane's face, and he too, was laughing to where he couldn't breathe.

"What's goin on in there you bone heads?" Marcus asked as he too walked into Blank and Zidane's bedroom.

"Its not funny you guys! That hurt!"

"What's not funny?" Sydney yawned as she appeared in the door- way in a white pajama tank and short pink pajama shorts.

"Well Syd, it looks like Ziddy-widdy fell out of bed." Said Cinna..

By this time Blank had stopped laughing. "Syd, get out."

"What?"

"Well we can't get dressed with you in here, so out." And he shoved her out the door and shut it, locking it as well. He changed into his normal thief attire and adjusted the belt on his head.

Cinna sighed, "Bro, WHY exactly do you wear that belt on your head?"

"Cause it looks cool, and cool is definitely something you wouldn't know about!" Blank answered sharply.

Zidane shook his head, "its because of that scar he got on that one mission where that freak tried to scalp him and cut all across his forehead. I thought the scar was cool but Blank doesn't like it at all!" Blank punched Zidane in the arm very hardly.

"What was that for you freak!" Zidane yelled at him.

"Moran!"

"Belt-head!"

"Monkey-butt!"

"Mr. I'm-too-good-for-a-shirt!"

"Mr. Look-at-me-I'm-so-much-better-than-the-world!"

"Mr. – "

"STOP! Zidane arguing with Blank is MY job so STOP!" Cinna yelled at the two arguing younger thieves.

There was a banging on the door and someone said, "Open up. Ya'll dun wanna make me kick it down!"

"RUBY!" All four yelled at the same time and Marcus unlocked the door. Ruby was standing there in the doorway, "Hay Ya'll!" She laughed seeing their exited faces.

"Well, if aint my four favorite boys!" she said as Marcus received his hug, being the closet to her. She saw Blank and paused for a moment, and then gave a big smile and ran into his arms.

"I missed ya hun. I really did! I thought bout ya a lot n how much I missed ya. Oh it IS good ta be back!" She kissed him and then put her hand in his. Blank looked at Zidane, who winked.

"Nice to see you too, Ruby!" Zidane said with a fake hurt in his voice. She looked at him and smiled, "and ya are…?"

They all burst out laughing and when they stopped, Zidane looked at the clock. He gave a low whistle "10 O' clock. I gotta get to the castle before I get killed by Garnet…and Eiko…"

"C ya, defiantly don't wanna BE ya."

"Later"

"Buh-bye hun"

"Get outta here before I throw you out."

Zidane rolled his eyes and left the room, he was headed for the door and just as he touched the handle, the door burst open and Zidane was knocked back at least five feet before hitting the ground and sliding through the door of which everyone still consisted of.

"Change your mind?"

"Shut-up Marcus…"

"BWAHAHAHAHA! Get off the ground you lazy bum!"

"BOSS!" they all chorused.

And sure enough, there stood Baku. "I'm gonna kick all your butts, just cause I can!" and that's when Zidane ran out of the hideout all together. He ran to the castle and walked in casually, greeting the guards and the pilots. He walked into the guest bedrooms and found Garnet sitting on one of the beds with her eyes closed. He shut the door and she snapped her eyes open. "Zidane! You scared me. I'm happy you're back."

She stood up and ran into his arms and hugged him tightly. He tilted her chin up towards his and looked into her eyes. He kissed her softly and smiled against her lips, "As if I could stay away from you for long."

"ZIDANE! You're here!" Eiko shouted as she jumped up and down in the room. Garnet and Zidane pulled away from each other quickly. "VIVI?" Eiko shouted and the little mage walked in, followed by his sons.

"I'm here."

"YAY!" Eiko then glomped Vivi and his sons dog-piled Eiko. Zidane and Garnet chuckled at the sight.

"How. Cute!" Garnet screeched like a two year old. Eiko, Vivi, Zidane, and Vivi's sons all stared at her like she lost it.

"What?"

Zidane slowly started backing away from Garnet who gave a confused look and asked him where he was going. "Uh…I'm really hero? Yeah! That's it! And, uh, I gotta gooooooo…save the world…from, er, evil…pizza."

Garnet blinked and then said "Ok! But be back in time for the party. Thinking of pizza makes me hungry, and since you don't like the palace food, you can go. And I know that you're not a super hero, too." She smiled and then walked off leaving the group dumbfounded. Zidane shrugged and walked off in the direction of the air-cabs.

When he returned, he looked at the clock. He had an hour and a half. He really didn't feel like going back to the castle, even though his friends were there. He felt a need to keep away from them all. As if he would get hurt or something. Like when you're in first grade, and the guy next to you screams that you have cooties, and then everyone avoids you. It wasn't really like he was afraid to be avoided, he was used to that; But there was something else there that he couldn't thoroughly explain. So he set off for the Hideout once again.

He missed everyone so much, and really wanted to get to know the new recruits better. 'Besides, it might be fun to get to train a kid.' He thought to himself as he walked through the Theater District. He came upon the Hideout and decided to make an appearance. He climbed up onto the balcony of the top floor. He got on his feet and hands and stretched like a cat. 'Okay! Lets do this thing.'

He prowled around, slowly stalking his way to the other side of the roof…when suddenly…

MWAHAHAHA! The authoress is evil! MWAHAHA! But don't worry you'll figure out what happens sooner or later. :p I have a lot of work to do, plus I might be grounded for a long while (3-6 weeks) but…sigh It shall be alright one day. I must bounce, but please review. I'll give you a cookie if you do! I WILL! I'm just that nice.: )buh-bye! – Silver Angel 03