Garnet shivered. What was wrong with her?! She had been caught kissing her enemy! It didn't matter that it was only Steiner who caught them and that he thought that Kuja was Zidane. She knew and it was killing her. She had acted like…well, like a cheap little…hussy!

The queen blushed, remembering the kiss. It had been remarkable; there was no denying the fact. She remembered how the warmth had spread throughout her as her lips were held captive by Kuja's own. How they had moved over hers. How he had held her with such desperation, just as if he had really needed her.

Just get those thoughts out of your head, Garnet! He's Kuja, for crying out loud! He isn't Zidane!!

An elbow from Kuja brought Garnet out of her thoughts. Steiner had finally stopped lecturing him on propriety and such and had turned to her.

"-hope you'll remember that you're the queen of Alexandria. It's a big burden, and many have crumbled under the responsibility. Why your great-great grandmother, Stella Alexandros-"

Garnet held back a yawn. She could sense Kuja getting restless and decided to end this quickly.

"You're right, Steiner. It was very irresponsible of us, and I apologize."

She could not hide her surprise when she heard Kuja echo her words and add, "It was really my fault anyway."

"Of that, I have no doubt," Steiner snapped. He made a few more comments about propriety and not making a scene and preventing rumors and such before allowing them to leave…separately.

While Garnet was breathing a sigh of relief, Kuja was cursing his bad luck. Go figure that Rusty had to show up when he did!

They avoided each other for the rest of the day. Or rather, Garnet avoided him, and Kuja did nothing to seek her out. One kiss, no matter how impressive it had been, did not change the fact that she was the queen of Alexandria, and he was the presumed dead enemy of the world.

So what did a presumed dead enemy of the world do on his days off? Kuja sighed. Try to destroy the world again? No, he had learned his lesson. Zidane had taught him that not everyone deserved to die.

…but most did.

So what did he do with himself? He hated being idle with no goal. What had he to strive for now…?

Kuja sighed. He was pathetic. He was also border-line self-pitying himself. Well! He just needed something to take his mind off of this. Disturbing the queen further was out of the question; she had taken to hiding from him, and besides, he did not have any desire to sit through another of Sir Rustalot's lectures on propriety.

His answer came almost immediately but not through any direct action on his part.

"ZiiiiiiiIIIIIIDDDddddddAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnNNNNEEEeeeee!!!!!"

Kuja jumped, turning swiftly towards the new threat. The "threat" barreled into his chest, knocking him back unto the hard floor. Kuja winced and examined the purple bundle that was at this moment squeezing him with all her might as if she wanted to squeeze the very life out of him.

"What the…?"

The purple-haired child raised her head to glare at him. She almost gorged him with her horn in the process, and he blinked in surprise. A summoner…? Ahh, yes. She must be the girl who was traveling with his brother…

"Eiko! Eiiikoooo!!" a small boy cried out, running after the fierce little summoner. He was garbed in the outfit of the mages that Kuja had used for his scheme. He could not help feeling a twitch of surprise. This boy could think and speak without command? He must be far more superior than his "brothers" were!

The boy stopped before Kuja and took the opportunity to catch his breath. Eiko twisted in Kuja's lap and laughed at her friend good-naturedly.

"Vivi, you have to learn to keep up!"

"S-sorry…Eiko…" the poor boy panted. "I…I don't think I'm cut out…for all this exercise!!"

Eiko turned back to Kuja. "And where have you been? You worried me!"

Kuja smiled guiltily at her and scratched his head, giving his best impression of the carefree rogue that his brother had been. "Sorry 'bout that, Eiko. I guess I just took me longer than I thought it would to get back here…" He grinned at the mage. "Hey, Viv'! What's up?"

Vivi's yellow eyes shined merrily. He was glad to see that Zidane was alright and, apparently, feeling just like his old self. "Nothing much…I've been staying with my brothers…keeping them company…you know…"

Indeed he did. What would Vivi do when they all died? After all, his body had died, what was to keep the inferior mages from dying out as well?

"That's great," he said rather than complicating things by bringing up his depressing musings. "Has Eiko been giving you a hard time?"

Vivi laughed and nodded while Eiko frowned. "Heey now! You only see me when I visit! I'm not too much trouble, now am I?" Kuja saw Vivi's eyes visibly soften as he gazed at his friend.

"No, you're not too much trouble, Eiko."

Hmm…That's interesting…

"Have you two seen Garnet yet? She's a queen now, you know."

Eiko shook her head, purple hair brushing against and tickling Kuja's nose. She smirked at him. "I was too interested in seeing you, Zidane! We're going to get married, remember?" She winked at him.

Married, eh? Heheh, yeah right, kid.

Kuja glanced at Vivi who stood nervously, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He was obviously less than pleased with Eiko's blatant show of affection, but he was too kind and loving to let her see how he felt. Kuja smiled inwardly; that poor lad had quite a journey ahead of him if he wanted to gain the affections of this little brat.

"Well, you're going to make Garnet jealous. Maybe you should go say hullo to her. I think she's in the library." That had been her favorite room when he had stayed at the castle before, and there was no reason to suspect that it had changed.

"Oooookaaypeekaaay!!" Eiko shouted, jumping to her feet and grabbing a handful of Vivi's dark blue robe. "Let's go, Vivi!"

"Uuwaaah!!" the boy cried as he was jerked along behind the energetic little summoner.

Kuja's smile fell away as they disappeared. Their arrival certainly was going to make things…interesting…

When they found her, Garnet was sitting in an enormous leather chair reading an ancient book on the mysteries of Gaia. She was pleased to see her friends again, but at the same time she was worried. How would Kuja react to them? How would they react to Kuja? Garnet was shocked when she heard Eiko say that she had run into Zidane already.

"Is he okay?" the little summoner asked. "He seemed a little sad or somethin'. You'd better be taking good care of him, Dagger!"

"I-I'm sure she's doing her best, Eiko," Vivi piped from behind a pile of books that were taller than he was. The tip of his hat moved as he talked, and the girls smothered their giggles. "He did just get back from a big journey…right, Miss Garnet?"

Garnet cleared her throat and tried to erase the threads of humor from her voice as she answered.

"That's right, Vivi. He's just tired and a bit sick. He'll be okay, don't worry."

Eiko watched her intently. Her little arms were crossed in front of her and her foot tapped impatiently. Apparently, she was not convinced that Garnet was doing all she could to make "Zidane" comfortable.

"Why aren't you two together?" Eiko snapped in the voice of a spoiled little girl. "If I were his girlfriend, I'd never let him out of my sight! I'd be the best girlfriend that he could ever have!"

Garnet opened her mouth to retort (damn, that little brat really got on her nerves sometimes!), but froze when she heard his voice.

"Come now, Eiko. Garnet's trying."

Eiko brightened immediately and ran towards Kuja. "Zidaaane!!" Garnet turned and was surprised to find that Kuja was not only accepting Eiko's warm hug, but was also returning it with equal affection. She felt something tug at her heart at the picture they presented; it was almost as if Zidane were really back…

"Zidane," she murmured so softly that she hardly heard herself. Kuja must have heard her, though. His head snapped up and his amber eyes probed hers, searching. Garnet blushed and turned her head away, only to find that Vivi was staring at her almost as intently as Kuja had been. She cleared her throat and Vivi's eyes crinkled merrily in response.

The air in the room seemed thick and uncomfortable until Vivi saved them all by laughing nervously and asking: "Gee…I'm hungry after that long trip. Do you guys think we could have supper early today…?"

"I'm hungry, too!" Eiko shouted, tearing away from Kuja to stand by Vivi, planting her feet in defiance. "You have to feed me good! I'm a princess too, now!"

Garnet could not help the laugh that erupted at the defiant picture that Eiko created. She stood, feet apart, arms crossed, face pulled into a spoiled pout. Vivi shook with silent laughter, and even Kuja chuckled. When she heard the deep laughter of her crush, Eiko threw her head back and laugh louder than the others. Beatrix and Steiner poked their heads in to see what the commotion was, and they were soon chuckling to each other as well.

It was almost as if he really was Zidane.

AN:

Aww, it's another cute ending. Dang, I'll have to watch myself before I turn this into some sappy little love story. Oh wait…isn't it supposed to be a sappy little…oh well. I don't know what happened to all of the angst! Honestly!! Hum. Don't worry, it'll come back soon…maybe…I hope… A little angst is always good for ya. :P

Aaaaanyhooo….

I think I know where this story's going, but if you guys have any suggestions, feel free to voice them in a review or something. I mean, even if I don't use them, I might get another idea off of them. So review and suggest away. Heck, if you don't, who knows? I might just kill off EIKO AND VIVI!!! BUM BUM BUUUMMM!!!

Just kidding. Besides, if you guys check out my profile, you'll find that I've released the first chapter of another fic that follows this one. It's called Artificial Instinct, and it's Vivi and Eiko's story…but it's about nine or ten years AFTER this one, so I wouldn't read TOO far into that one. I'll warn you guys beforehand if it has a spoiler for this story, but I think that I can write it to be pretty neutral until I manage to finish this one. Besides, this is my first priority. Well, unless I get like fifty reviews for Artificial Instinct, but let's face it: If only seven people have reviewed this story, there's no way that FIFTY are going to review AI. Siiiigh

Bleh! But I'll see you guys later! I've rambled enough tonight! Until next time!

Reviews? Reviews anyone…? OO;;