Disclaimer: I own none of this!! Except the theatre troupe, of course. And my storyline.

Enjoy!

He was flying…out the window, over the stone walls, onto to the ancient roof. It had to be around here somewhere…

Suddenly a screech sounded from below him. He stiffened, momentarily disorientated. The woman was dead before he could think. He felt no remorse. He had to find it; he couldn't be bothered with the death of a human.

He continued his search until dawn.

Kuja yawned, stretching his borrowed limbs. He was not accustomed to dreaming, especially not detailed visions such as that. He shook his head wearily. Dwelling on it now was pointless. He had more to think about than a silly dream.

A ray of morning sunlight caught his eye. It fell upon his dark skin and, Kuja found his gaze fixed on the patch of gold. It was so odd using this body. He was accustomed to his own petite, fair form adorned with trinkets and beautiful fabrics. He missed his silver hair and fine features sometimes, but he had to admit that his brother's stronger, more masculine features were not unattractive either. Zidane's was not a body that welcomed jewelry and frivolous baubles, however. Kuja frowned. Perhaps he could manage to have some silk pants and shirts made in the style of the summoners' gear.

Of course, he was wasting time again. The important thing was the think about what he was going to do now. He did not wish to reveal that he was Kuja, the enemy of the world. Neither did he want to remain in Alexandria for the rest of his days. But then what did he do? What was his purpose? Before, he had at least had a goal, albeit an unrealistic one. Now he had nothing. Nothing but a jumbled mess of broken memories and dreams.

Kuja sighed, raking his hand through his golden hair as he did. What to do…?

Garnet.

Go see Garnet.

Tell her about us.

About Zidane…

Kuja laughed. Now that was a good one! Tell the stuffy queen about his brother? Explain to her the conditions of using his body? HAH!!

But the idea of seeing Queen Garnet again was not unappealing to the genome. He decided that he would in fact visit the girl. She was his only link to his old life. Besides…he was Zidane, her would-be lover, wasn't he?

Kuja grinned and leapt from the bed, his course for the day set.

Steiner yawned.

He had not had more than four hours' sleep last night. First, there was the business with Zidane reappearing. Then Beatrix had decided to keep him up late discussing her theories on what happened that night. And then, as if that weren't enough, at the third ringing of the bell, he had been summoned to deal with the murder of a young maid. Or so they thought. It appeared as though the silly girl had simply been a little too tipsy from wine stolen from the kitchens. She had taken a tumble down the stairs and cracked her head on the marble tile in the main hall. It was a terrible event, of course, but not one worthy of much worry.

"Oi, Rusty!" came a call from behind him.

Steiner stiffened in indignation. Who dared call him by that nickname?! He softened when he saw that it was her majesty. The queen was one of the few people who he was fond of. He loved her like the daughter he'd never had, and he valued nothing more than her happiness.

At the moment, her majesty's eyes were twinkling with teasing good humor. She smiled impishly at him, obviously feeling much better this morning. Why, he hadn't seen her this content since…

No, better not to think of that.

"Your highness! How many times must I insist that you forget that horrible name that your young rogue gave me?" he admonished. He saw the light in her eyes waver at the mention of Zidane. Her smile stayed in place, however, and Steiner came to the conclusion that he was simply imagining things.

"I'm sorry, Steiner. You know that it's a habit. We did get you better armor though."

The knight blushed. "That armor was an antique handed down from knight to knight for generations!"

The queen laughed, shaking her head as she did. "Steiner! Okay, okay…I'll believe you…"

"It's true!" he insisted. Good heavens, was his whole face a tomato?!!

Sure enough, the queen's very next words were: "Steiner! Are you blushing?!"

"Eeeeaaaaarrrggghhh!!!"

Kuja hummed to himself as he walked down the stone and marble hall. Alexandria was truly a beautiful city, and its castle was no less impressive. He sighed to himself. Beauty was something he could understand and appreciate.

He turned towards the main stairwell when he heard it: a beautiful, melodious sound. Immediately, he felt that one rise up inside of him. It felt horrible, like eating too much. He felt nauseous; he was going to be sick if that one didn't stop acting up.

He suddenly had the strangest feeling of vertigo, and it brought him to his knees. His heart was going to burst…!

Dagger!!!

Garnet heard a sound above her and Steiner, and she turned towards it. She was startled to see a figure kneeling at the top of the grand stairs. Her hand found her guard's arm, feeling the cool metal and taking comfort in the sense of security that emanated from him.

"Steiner, who is that?" she whispered.

The knight squinted his eyes but could make out nothing of the person's form. At the top of the grand stairs was a beautiful stain-glass window depicting King Tristan Alexandros I. It was a wonderful work of art, but the light shining in from the window created a dark silhouette of the person above them and made it impossible to discern the identity of the newcomer.

The queen apparently had no such problem, however. She stiffened and dropped her hand from his armored arm.

"K…Zidane…?" she murmured to herself. She turned to Steiner and gave him a small, weak smile. "I'll talk more with you later, Steiner."

"Certainly, your majesty." The knight bowed to the queen and stepped back, but he could not quell the feeling of dread and unease as he walked back to the knight's quarters.

Once Steiner was gone and they were alone, Garnet snapped at Kuja. "What do you want?" When he didn't answer but remained huddled on the floor, she felt the first pangs of dread. Was he okay? She began the assent up the stairs and stopped before him.

"Hey, are you okay?" she murmured. His head was hanging down and his right hand was grasping his plain linen shirt. She heard him take a shaky breath and could not help feeling a wave of pity and worry for him. Enemy or not, Garnet hated seeing people in pain, and he was most obviously in pain. On top of that, he was the image of her love, and she could never stand seeing Zidane in pain.

Garnet placed a small, pale hand on his tanned arm. She could feel the muscled beneath the skin just as she could the last time she had seen Zidane. She shivered inside but outwardly gave no signs of her inner turmoil.

"Kuja," she whispered softly, "are you okay? Do you need help?"

He raised his soft brown eyes to hers. "Please…make him stop…"

She could swear that the lump in her throat was her own heart, making her breathing difficult and face warm.

"Uhm…okay, Kuja. Don't worry, I'll make him stop."

He sighed, a long, weary breath that belied his earlier indifference to his situation. Garnet immediately felt sorry for shouting at him the night before. He obviously had worse things to deal with than she had thought.

She obviously could not make "him" stop because she had no idea who "he" was! She could, however, cast a healing spell and try to solve at least part of his problem. Her eyes drifted to the hand that was clutching his shirt. That would probably be the best place to start.

Garnet grasped his wrist and tried to pull it away from his chest. He resisted and she snapped at him, "If you want me to help you, you have to let me!" He dropped his hand obediently. Garnet tried not to feel guilty for yelling at him when he was obviously not feeling well. She raised her hand once more and placed it where his had so recently been. She summoned her will and channeled the magic into him. She could feel the cloth beneath her hand warm as she cast her spell, and she smiled to herself. She was still the best healer in the land.

After casting the spell, Garnet raised her eyes to Kuja's face to see if he appeared better.

He most certainly did.

Kuja remembered the intense pain and then the princess's (queen's) voice asking him if he needed help. He muttered a reply in the affirmative apparently, because suddenly the pain was gone and he opened his eyes to the sight of Garnet kneeling beside him with one hand on his arm and the other on his chest.

He swallowed. Her eyes were closed as she cast, and he could feel the warmth of the useless healing spell spread throughout him. Her head was slightly bowed, but it was ever so close to his that he barely prevented himself from making the mistake of caressing her smooth skin.

And then she finished her spell and raised her shining eyes to his (really, they must have been mere centimeters apart!), and he could not help himself. He raised one hand to her face and lightly traced her cheek. He heard her suck in her breath, but she did not stop him. Encouraged, Kuja slipped his hand into her silken hair and used his strategic position to pull her even closer.

Now they were so close that their breath met and mingled. Her pressure on his chest and arm increased as she steadied herself. Well! He couldn't have that, now could he? Kuja leaned forward and pressed his lips against her warm, dry ones. He heard her moan and felt the flutter of her eyelashes as they closed. Smirking inwardly, Kuja deepened the kiss, wrapping his arms around her small body and moving his mouth against hers.

Garnet was now clutching at him with something akin to desperation. She should have pushed him away when he first caressed her cheek, but she hadn't, and now she could not bear to. She had been saving her first kiss for Zidane, but Steiner had never allowed them time alone before. And Kuja in Zidane's form was almost the same thing…wasn't it?

Then Garnet felt something prodding at her lips and nearly jumped out of her skin. She pulled away from Kuja, panting. Good Lord! Was that his tongue she had felt?!!

The queen swallowed, her face warming to a nice shade of red. She tried to clear her throat but found that she was too embarrassed to say anything. He chuckled and dropped his hands from her shoulders where they had been gripping her with as much need as she had been him.

Kuja had no excuse for his actions other than the fact that he hadn't had a woman in months. When one is trying to destroy the world, he does not normally have time to stop at the local brothel for a quickie. And after the incident in the Lifa Tree, he had been far too busy wallowing in self pity to go out and find a woman. When he had been traveling with the troupe of performers, Elsa, the leading lady, had offered, but he had found that because of the other one, he couldn't manage to…well honestly he could not manage to do anything! Zidane had been too loyal to Garnet, and the loyalty prevented his body from relieving Kuja's lust. Kuja had been surprised at first when he had felt the attraction to the queen, but he realized that because Zidane had been so loyal to her, she was the exception.

So, pent-up lust was the only excuse he had. Of course, it was nice to know that Garnet was not repulsed by his actions. She was, apparently, just shy. A blushing virgin. The thought made Kuja want to reach for her again, but he realized at the last moment where they were.

Kneeling together at the top of the main stairs in the Castle Alexandria. Oh shit.

"Damn it," he muttered, dragging himself and the queen to their feet.

"Hey, what's-"

Kuja nodded towards the bottom of the stairs. Garnet turned her head in the direction he indicated with dread. Sure enough, Steiner stood at the bottom of the stairs, open mouthed.

As he had said, damn it.

AN:

AHAHAHAHA!! Whew! I thought that that would be a cute ending to this chapter. Yeah! FEEL THE TENSION, Garnet!! Of course, Kuja doesn't really care about that stuff. Garnet's the one who has to worry about being queen and all.

Whew, better watch out! I'll start writing the next chapter in my AN! . (Not that you guys'd mind. Heheh.)

Well! Again, sorry for the long wait. Juggling three jobs is not an easy feet. I'm thinking about quitting one, though. HUM!

Hmm…and I think I'll jump on the next chapter right away. Honestly, this chapter only took me a little over an hour to write and it's a little into its sixth page on MS Word. Nice nice. Heck, at this rate I might actually get the REAL storyline out soon. -.-;; (And yes, there IS a REAL storyline. There's more than just angst and fluff here. :P)

Well! Until next time, then!

PS: THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS!! They make me cry with happiness! T-T -- tears of joy