A Question of Honor
Part of the Final Fantasy: Clouded Horizons Storyline

The Way That You Choose…

Things were getting nasty in the world, Angel reflected as he sat on one of the terraces overlooking Trabia Garden. Dollet was still a strong proponent of the Garden Network, but one of its navy Admirals (a man by the name of Luca Blight) and had caused some havoc, most recently inland at Winhill. He'd been in conflict with the man along with Ben Powell, and later had seen Katanas DeValle and Albel Nox deeply entrenched in battle with him.

It did not bode well that Garden's second strongest ally in the world had a high ranking homeland defense official who appeared to have a vendetta against them. However, Angel had continued doing his duties at Garden, which is part of why he was where he was at this moment.

Combat instruction.

"Instructor Georg is out for the day, seems he had a bad case of pneumonia! Liam Bayloh's the name, Angel to those who pass my rigorous training course which I'll be putting you all through at the conclusion of my introduction. One of the finest points of combat is your speed and the ability to spot someone in a crowd. With that information in mind, you'll be running to the front gate after doing 30 sit-ups here. Once there, you'll find SeeD Officer Benji Powell. You'll be doing 30 more push-ups for him, and then running back here. The fastest three to do those two tasks correctly," he stressed, to the exasperated sighs of the entire class, "will be rewarded properly. Now, go,"

Within seconds, cadets were doing sit-up after sit-up, and Angel nodded approvingly. "Don't lift yourself with your back, or you won't make it, Cadet!" He yelled, poking one with his foot. Within a minute the first of them had gotten up, and stood at attention. Angel looked over and smirked.

"Suck up. Go!"

Within three minutes, everyone had left. Of course, what they didn't know was that Ben was hiding on a bench, in civilian clothes. Angel chuckled. "I'm so evil. Must be Angelus coming out."

"Angelus?" A voice from the door asked. Angel looked up a smiled warmly.

Since the drive to Dollet, and the dinner a few weeks previously, something had changed between the two. Yuna would show up where Angel was (fascinatingly enough, when he had down time,) and Yuna would often be surprised when Angel found her. He wasn't sure but…

"Are you going to tell me, or just stare at the door where I'm no longer standing?" she asked with a giggle. He smirked, and shook his head.

"It's nothing, just a bit of my past I try to forget… sometimes, it's just easier to laugh about it," he replied, his eyes turning to her. "What's up?"

She grinned. "I saw you send your class out. I thought you might have a minute." She stood in front of him, her wonderful smile still on her lips. "Where did you send them?"

Angel grinned. "Being the superb combat instructor that I could've been if I wanted to teach full time, I decided to send them out to do push-ups in the cold," his grin widened, "And I can't even say I planned it. I just tweaked it to my specifications. Georg wanted them to do physical work, and I made them do more. He'd be happy to know that I sent them out to see Ben, who is hiding. They'll be running out for a good twenty minutes before he flags them down… I love it!" He laughed again and then looked over just in time to see Yuna shaking her head.

"I'd say I'm surprised… but we both know I'm not," she responded, her amusement clear. "But, your torture of cadets isn't the reason I came to talk to you."

He cocked his head to the side. "And this mystery reason is?"

She headed towards the door. "If it's okay… I want to talk to you later…" She said, turning her head back.

He smiled, and nodded his agreement.

The late afternoon of Esthar turned to early evening as they pulled into a parking lot a few hours later. Pandora Café was fairly quiet tonight, Angel noted as he got out of the car and walked over to open Yuna's door. (After all, even though he'd not been human in some time, it didn't mean he couldn't be a gentleman if the situation required it.)

"Good choice, if I do say so m'self," Angel commented as he led them towards the building. Yuna looked over at him, a smile on her face. "Because you chose it?" she asked, to which he grinned. "Absolutely correct. It's the best decision because I, in fact chose it."

Yuna punched him in the arm as a response, and he grimaced. "Nice…" The woman packed a fairly powerful punch, but he wasn't particularly surprised. Nor did it actually hurt, he thought. And within a few minutes, they'd been seated at one of the secluded booths in the rear of the restaurant.

"Little known fact, Garden members get a discount here, because the DeValle family owns it. Plus, the food isn't bad," Angel mused as he looked over the menu. Within moments, the two had ordered their food, and were chatting.

"So, how did the class go?" Yuna questioned.

Angel rolled his eyes. "Smarter than I gave them credit for, which is a good thing. Hodgkins quickly figured out that Ben would be in plain clothes, and made sure that his classmates knew as well. They were back about five minutes after you left. I was impressed enough that I gave them the rest of the period off, and I put in a commendation on Hodgkin's file. He won't appreciate it until he graduates and he gets a higher pay-grade, but I think it was fitting."

She smiled. "So, even though you were disappointed that they came back…?"

"I'm glad they have good SeeD material amongst them. I'm glad to be even a small part of it," He replied, to which her smile grew. The two sat in silence for a few moments, just enjoying the company until Yuna spoke again.

"SeeD… I remember thinking that I was destined to die to bring Spira peace… I never thought I'd be in a completely different world after saving Spira twice. I never thought I'd be a mercenary, and enjoying it. I'm glad the journey led me here to this moment," Yuna commented, her eyes wandering around the restaurant, taking in the sights of the people and objects in it.

"You've gone philosophical on me, Lady Yuna," he answered, chuckling quietly. She turned her eyes to him and smiled again. Before she could respond, however, the food was delivered to their table.

Later that night, Yuna and Angel were walking through the main concourse of Trabia Garden, their voices low they bantered back and forth. Finally, however, they reached the room Yuna kept in Garden. She entered her security code, and the door opened.

"You didn't peek, did you?" she questioned, turning to face him. He shook his head vigorously, and held up a hand. "SeeD's honor. I would never look at another door's security panel to figure out how to enter when they weren't there," he replied. They stood there for only a moment before Yuna spoke again.

"I should head in."

He smiled and nodded. "Of course. Have a good night."

"I really had a good time tonight, Angel. I'm really happy we were able to talk about so much today."

And before he could react, she'd kissed him lightly.

"Love you."

And she walked in, the door closing behind her before he could respond.

Katanas had found him a few minutes later, asking him if he would make a midnight run to Esthar to deliver some documentation to the Presidential Guard of Esthar. It seemed that a mission undertaken by SeeD had revealed some very possible and likely threats against Laguna Loire, and it was imperative these documents made it to Esthar in a timely fashion.

So, that's why he was on his way to Esthar, driving along the coastline. And while it was a lengthy journey, that was okay. He had some thinking to do.

Things with Yuna had progressed in a direction he wasn't entirely against. Of course, he wasn't upset by this turn of events. He'd been finding that she made his days better, often bringing cheer when he was dealing with unruly cadets, or coming back from a mission he hadn't particularly wanted. She'd been making his life, which often times was more difficult than most, entirely worth it.

He pulled the Angelmobile around a large boulder, and shifted it into upper gears, allowing the car to reach top speeds in seconds.

Her lips had tasted wonderful for the second they'd touched his. He couldn't attach a specific term to it, but they tasted exquisite. And he'd only tasted them for a second. And the fact that she had said she loved him…

"Wait, what?!"

Until next chapter…