Author's Note: Yeah, what you're seeing right below the note is true, this became a two-parter. After consulting with a couple of my closest readers, I determined that the wedding hitting around 14K was too large for its own good, and as such, adapted it by finding a good cutoff point, and giving you the chapter right here. It worked out well, as the two parts serve very different purposes, as you'll see. For now, just enjoy this what it is!

Special Thanks to Wood Dog for helping me optimize the chapter!

An Undying Sentiment

Chapter Two

Forever! Part 1:

Father

'Twas the day before the wedding, and, as anyone would guess, Shin was restless. Scratch that. Shin had been restless for the past 48 hours. If not for longer. However, his restlessness had basically skyrocketed once Terra told him she was to leave with Celes to pick up her wedding dress. Once she had left, Shin could be seen pacing around Mobliz like a madman, catching the eyes of pretty much anyone in the vicinity, them being aware of the situation or not.

At first, Shin had tried to help with the construction workings. While the residential and commercial areas of Mobliz were done, the non-necessary-to-live foundations were still very barebones, like the city hall and some, and by that I mean most, of the gardens and any ludic facilities.

That plan soon backfired once he was informed by Sabin that no, he wasn't allowed ten meters near a construction area on the eve of tying the knot. And so, he moved on, going to the chocobo stables in search for some quality time with Stardust. Except Terra had taken Stardust, he should have seen that coming.

Shin shook his head and trudged onward, a strong feeling on unpreparedness never leaving him. During the last six months, him and Terra had become noticeably closer, something that Zack had to be proven of, as he was not sure that that was even possible. Yet, it was insane at times. Their biological clocks had apparently synched into waking up at around the same time, just in time for one to make breakfast for the entire house before the other woke up, they had frequently found themselves speaking in synchrony, suggesting the same solutions to problems when asked in separate, done a chore the other had forgotten without being asked… True, he and Terra had shared a mind link once, but this was not magic, this was natural.

They even enjoyed the same hobbies for the most part, being it reading, an occasional movie, taking trips on Stardust to observe other animals, Terra had even became adept to the strange craze of videogames that Zack had once brought into Mobliz a couple of months ago, when generalized electricity had finally been achieved.

No matter how you went about it, a couple that owed their lives to each other, had helped the other grow, courted each other for over a year and appeared to share interests and even ideas was ripe for marriage. Yet, Shin still felt unprepared. Not insecure, no, it was a different feeling, not one of not belonging with Terra, but one that incessantly told him that there was something he had to do to deserve her.

"Shin!" he heard the voice of Duane call from the side of the barn, the brown haired boy, now closer to a young man, waving at the fiancé of his mother. Shin took to checking out what he wanted. Despite the fact that he had never become quite as close with the plethora of children Terra had mothered across these years as the young woman herself, there was no visible bad blood between him and them, even though he felt as if he was stealing their mother away. "Shin, I need to ask you a favor…" Duane said, lowering himself and pushing the now two year old Leo into Shin's sight. The kid had was not the most courageous Shin had seen, but he was quite smart for his age, knowing quite a bit more words than other children that barely got past your knee. "Can you babysit Leo and the others? Katarin needs to go get something at the commercial district and I can't really stop showing up at the town hall, at least for a bit,"

Terra had tried to dissuade Duane as much as she could, but he had been adamant in becoming a part of the rebuilding project, Mobliz was his town after all. She had been just glad none of the Orphans had decided to follow suit.

"Of course Duane, you don't even need to ask for favors of stuff I'll have to handle on a daily basis from now on!" Shin said, the last part of it coming just plain awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head. Duane wasn't half as concerned, as he turned to his child and whispered:

"See? Grandpa Shin will take you home!" he exclaimed, not a stutter in his voice as he smiled at the toddler. That was not the same as Shin, he had been left speechless at the words that had just left Duane's mouth. Even more so when Leo nodded back at the Mobliz Orphan, rushing over to Shin, grabbing onto his leg. "Now, what do we say Leo?"

"Thank you, Grandpa Shin!" he tweeted, his voice happy and peppy as it'd always been around Terra, yet, that was not what had thoroughly caught Shin off guard. No, it was the choice of words. Grandpa… he had never been called a father. Grandpa had actually come before Father for him. Noticing his soon-to-be-father-in-law's obvious confusion, Duane shrugged his arms, a bit more embarrassed himself as he delivered the reasoning.

"We taught him to call Mama Granny, so he just took to calling you Grandpa when he asked what is the "father" equivalent to "Granny"," he explained, clearly understanding how Shin was feeling at the moment.

Yet, he did not understand the pang of realization that had hit Shin like thunder. In one, swift train of thought, Shin's problem and his solution to it had unveiled in front of him.

"Duane, Terra should be arriving at around ten or something like that… can you get back a bit earlier?" Shin asked, Duane at first eyeing him strangely but nodded, he wasn't planning on working late with his mother's wedding right around the corner anyway.

"I'll be home in time for dinner tonight, don't worry," he told Shin, who nodded and started escorting the two-year-old home. He felt a slight pang of relief, but mostly determination, well inside him.

Later that same day, just before dinner, Shin found himself passing out on the couch after a full afternoon of attending to Leo's every wish, which had soon become the entire house's every wish, leading him to basically becoming a piñata for the orphans' enjoyment. He didn't mind it, he appreciated the fact that the toddlers would use him as a replacement for their "Mama" when she wasn't home, but boy did it tire him out… especially after a few mostly sleepless nights.

Needless to say, he was a bit surprised when he seemingly woke up, fully revitalized may I add, in the very same couch. However, breaking the fantasy that this was the waking world, he had woken in the darkened interior of his subconscious. It was strange really. The last time he had been here, Shinryu had prepared a fanfare of mosaics and symbolic imagery to welcome him. This time, it was just him, and the older version of him that he had come to visualize as Shinryu, his hair crimson and eyes gold, sitting on two opposite couches, a small wooden table at the center, floating through the unknown depths of his own mind.

"Been a while," Shin said, breaking the silence before Shinryu had a chance to slither away. During the months between the proposal and now, Shin and Shinryu had barely shared a word. Their relationship hadn't gone sour, Shinryu trying to hide his thrill and excitement at Shin's proposal had been quite hilarious for the young adult, yet, he had barely been around the last couple of months. No witty comments, no teasing, nothing. Shinryu, more than not, was a phantom in Shin's mind. Something Shin dared not to question.

"Thought you'd be more thankful. You know I could have cast my eyes on all sorts of less than acceptable acts I'm sure you committed," Shinryu pointed out, his tone and speech having not changed in the slightest, which only made Shin smile. It was just his style after all. They sat there for a few moments when Shinryu simply said: "So, marriage, huh?"

"Yeah… I can't really get my head around it myself," the closest thing to a son it was possible for Shinryu to have told him as he lay his head back on the chair.

"You aren't getting any seconds thoughts, are you?" Shinryu asked, his expression stiffening for just a moment before chuckling back to normal. With a smile, he added: "As if you were even able to have any coherent thought that didn't involve, or begin to involve, that girl,"

"You know, you've really only acted as that clingy dad that doesn't want to let his son marry ever since I showed you the engagement plan. Anything I'm missing?" Shin asked, more in jest than anything else, yet, he seemed to strike a nerve. "What? You brought me here to dissuade me or something?" Shinryu shook his head and pointed downwards.

"I just called you in for a game," The small table was housing a small chess table, something Shin couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at. Shinryu and him had never played chess, or any game really, as that'd be awfully redundant. They were inside each other's head, there was no way for them to outsmart each other. "Something the matter? I know how to play, I'm more than certain you know how to because of it,"

Shin still felt it was strange that he had wanted to test his skills against, for all intents and purposes, himself, yet, this was not the first time Shinryu had done something strange to teach him about something important.

"Knight to B-3," Shin simply said, moving his white piece first, as the rules dictated.

"Aggressive as always, aren't we? Pawn to C-6," Shinryu commenced, Shin wondering just what he hoped to accomplish with all of this.

The chess match continued for quite a few plays with none of them letting up at any play. It was, as Shin predicted, a very slow match that did not seem to even be able to conceive an ending for any side, their minds knowing exactly what to do against each other, yet also knowing how to counter what the other was about to do.

"Shin, can I ask you something?" Shinryu suddenly broke out in the middle of the match, just when the match was beginning to reach a boiling point. "Check, by the way," he pointed out, his bishop standing three diagonal squares away from Shin's king.

"You finally got to it? Okay, shoot," Shin told him, thinking of what to do next. "King to E-3," he added, his hands moving the King to the protection of the Queen and Rook.

"What are you going to do from now on?" Shinryu said, surprising Shin, not with what he asked, but how he had completely disregarded it. "Your mind tells me you didn't,"

"Well, it's just… the marriage kinda took away much of my attention. That and Terra would work herself to death if I wasn't there to distract her from time to time," Shin excused, knowing full well that he still had made a major miscalculation in all of this. It was true that they had more than a few friends in high places, and if they truly wanted, no one in their right mind would deny them a life of luxury after what they had achieved for the world. However, if there had been one conversation they had shared about their future after the wedding, it was that they wished the most normal of lives they could get after all this was said and done, after all, normalcy was everything but normal or overrated to them.

"I figured as much. I don't exactly blame you, with the world being as it is right now, it's hard to even assess what is going to be needed for your kind after all. One would think that rock would be a bit more thorough, but I digress," Shinryu added, forcing himself onto yet another aggressive position, placing his Knight on F-2. "Check,"

He did speak the truth in that however. Shin nodded knowing that, right now, humanity was in a weird spot. Population was at an all-time low, however its density was pretty much the same, as humans had just taken to living on barely more than a dozen of cities instead of thousands there had once been. Because of that, people weren't going to be picky, one would not exactly need to spend fifteen years at a school to prove he could work at a certain job, he just needed to prove he could with practical cases. Shin's innately insane memory pool would basically grant him a lot of jobs outright.

That said, he had no idea what to go with. And this was a pretty major decision of his own, one of the largest and most important in his life, as a job was something he'd have to live with for the next fifty plus years, leaving the question of just what was his lifespan aside.

"I've only been here for the last year or so, deciding what life I want to embark on this early is a bit challenging," Shin said, his eyes seeing an opening that he believed Shinryu to have disregarded for a moment. It seemed too good to be true. He'd have thought this game would just end in an infinite stalemate where, at best, both kings were the last piece standing and then they'd infinitely run away from each other, leaving them to declare it a tie. That is, well, what you'd think when two people shared a mind, wasn't it? However, as his hand drifted towards his piece, taking the queen and moving it horizontally, Shinryu said the most unnerving of things.

"Don't stress yourself too much now. Just the ramblings of someone who doesn't want to leave without seeing his life's work safe," Shinryu said, almost fatherly for the first time in a long time. Shin froze mid play, looking at the dragon in man's clothing in front of him. Had this been the reason for him vanishing all this time? "What, did I scare you there? I'm not about to let you live in complete peace just about yet. I still have something else to look forward too after your wedding…" Shinryu trailed off at that moment, Shin understanding that he did not want to press it more now. He was already grateful he had gone the distance and confirmed there were going to be no farewells in his wedding. That was the last thing he'd need in the celebration or in his life.

"Queen to F-2. Check… mate?!" Shin said, still not believing it had worked, not believing his eyes. Shinryu's King was positioned at F-8, completely open for the Queen to attack, yet, there was no escape possible at this point. E-8 was taken by his bishop, E-7 was in the range of Shin's Knight at C-6. F-7 was redundant, and G-7 and 8 were just in range of Shin's Rook at G-1. In short, Shin had trapped Shinryu completely. Shin had known of the value of any F square for the Queen had for a long time now, and had been trying to secure a safe entrance for it for the past ten turns. There was no way Shinryu had not seen this… was there? The only thing he could be sure was that Shinryu was laughing, genuinely brimming with happiness.

"It finally happened, hasn't it?" Shinryu said, yet barely containing his laughter. Shin finally understood why Shinryu had called him here. What purpose this whole game had played. "Saw it too, didn't you? I'm not able to see through you anymore. Yet you can see through me. For the first time, we aren't a we, we are simply you," Shin could not stop himself from biting down on his own teeth at this realization. They had both known this was going to happen someday, he had simply forgotten, or chosen to forget. Eventually, Shinryu would vanish into himself and he'd just be Shin, his own soul not split into pieces anymore. The fact that Shinryu had so little left that he was not even able to see into Shin's side was only a testament of how close that moment was.

"Why are you laughing?" Shin said, not understanding just what was so... enjoyable about this. For him, it was devastating. To finally feel the consequences of what his existence even entailed. He existed because another being had to vanish. How could said being find so much happiness in it?

"Why wouldn't I be?" Shinryu asked, dispelling the chess table and laying back on his chair. "I lived long enough to fix my mistakes, and now I get to see my child find himself a wife and maybe even start a family. What more could a father want?"

Father. Shinryu had been referred to as such a lot, he had acted much like one a lot of times, and he was technically Shin's parent. Yet not one time. Not. One. Time. Had he ever referred to himself as one. And Shin had no idea how to take it. His self-named father noticed this easily, leaning him towards him and simply laying one hand on Shin's shoulder, continuing his speech as Shin swallowed dry, visibly holding back a lone couple of tears.

"But I didn't call you here just to confirm this. I just thought it'd be as good a time as any to do it. No, what I called you here for, today, was for two things. Far more important than testing something I already knew. First things first though. Shin, I know that I'm not exactly in the right of even talking about this, but I'm going to do it anyway, for whatever is worth. I just want to give you, well, you two, my blessing," now this was just bizarre for Shin. For that person to suddenly act like this, he just didn't see what prompted such a change. "You called me a father for who knows how long now, and truth is, looking back on what we've been through and how you came to be… I think I really should have been acting like one. Won't try to excuse myself, just, better late than never, right?"

"I… well… I don't know what to say…" Shin stuttered, his mind having way too much to process at one moment. Internalizing Shinryu's view on his role was hard enough, but how do you respond when your supposed father gives you his blessings for a wedding?

"I wouldn't say anything just yet. Because, for all I've said now, I still want to ask a favor of you. Accepting would be more than enough for me," Shinryu said, Shin nodding back, earnestly wanting to hear what would make Shinryu so cautious asking. "After you go to sleep tonight, just this last time, can I take control of your body?"

"You… really thought you needed to ask that?" Shin asked with a smile that bordered on the smirk. "If you ever feel like you need to do it, just do. This is your body as much as it is mine, no matter how much you try to make it look otherwise,"

"You're as stubborn as ever, aren't you?" Shinryu said, smirking. Shin returned the look, adding:

"You made me this way," with that, Shinryu seemed to have enough of talking, or at least had run out of time, as Shin's vision began to blur, distinct voices breaking through his dream, calling for him.

"Shin! Dinner's ready!"

"C'mon Grandpa Shin! Get up!"

"Gotta go…" Shin told Shinryu, who nodded back to him, yet expected everything but having the young man close the gap between the two and, for the first time, wrap his arms around his torso. "See ya tomorrow, dad," Shin finished as he woke up from his dream, leaving Shinryu behind to ponder on what had just happened.

"Huh, it's not half as bad as I thought it'd be…"

By the time Shin woke up, Katarin and Leo were already over him, shaking him vigorously to wake him from his slumber. Once he had broken free of Shinryu's realm, it was just a matter of seconds until he jumped up from the couch, landing on his feet right next to the door to the dining room.

"Shall we?" Shin asked with renewed confidence and optimism. Shinryu had just given him the courage he needed to do what he needed to do. Seeing Leo applaud his stunt in all of his toddler glee only made him more wanting of it all.

"You're one to talk, you're the one that kept us waiting," Katarin replied, shaking her head while she shrugged. If there was something she believed in, is that all men were the same for certain things, Shin and Duane acting exactly the same when it came to situations like this only further proved her point.

Katarin-cooked dinner had become the staple in the Branford household, mostly due to how Terra, for all her capability to cook a certain set of dishes, amazingly might Shin add, the moment she deviated from what had been engraved in her muscle memory there were… less then tasty results. Cycling between Katarin, Terra and sometimes even Shin had become the way things worked.

The dinner itself had just been what Shin was used to by now. Simple, yet undeniably tasty. The meal had also been relatively calm, which Duane felt to be actually pretty strange. Shin had asked him to come to dinner specifically, but he figured Shin had simply decided to wait until the end of it. He was partially right. That had been his mother's fiancé's rationalization of it after being unable to even begin the conversation during dinner.

Of course, as one would expect, dinner's end came way too fast for Shin's tastes, all the courage that he thought he had gained from talking to Shinryu taking a backseat to all the worst scenarios that could come from this conversation. However, just as Katarin was going to stand to wash the dishes, he knew this was his last chance.

"Katarin… could you stay here for a bit?" he asked, the teenager raising an eyebrow, but complying as soon as he saw the solemn expression on Shin's face. By this point, Duane understood that whatever Shin wanted to discuss was about to happen, and not even the six year old Ana, the youngest of the orphans, was unaware that something important was about to get talked over.

Shin took a deep breath and looked around at the curious and sometimes worried eyes of the kids looking over him. To tell the truth, he'd rather avoid this talk, the rift it could create or simply show between him and the kids was just too much to risk, to shove the kids away was to shove Terra away, or at least cut off a grand part of what made her happy. However, Shin was not able to consider marrying Terra, spending the rest of his and her life together, leaving this unresolved. So, before all of them, Shin took his hands to the table, bowed his head, and calmly explained:

"I just want to apologize for stealing your mother away..." he said, not meeting the eyes of any of the children. He knew they felt that way. There had been too many times he had caught them eyeing Terra disheartened as she was leaving the house with him, or even when she spent time with him inside it. Terra didn't seem to notice, but Shin knew that the kids were making an effort to bottle it up inside for her.

There were many responses Shin had imagined. From steep silence, to morning words, to even all the feelings they had bottled up inside exploding in righteous fury. He did not expect a collective laughter to come from everyone around him.

"You're a scaredy cat Shin!" Ana exclaimed, pointing her finger at him and jumping around his chair. Shin didn't know what she meant by it, meaning he didn't know if he should feel relieved or threatened. That is, until Katarin took to the scene. "But that's good! I win!"

"All of us made a bet to see if or how long it'd take for you to talk to us about this. She bet that you'd take up until the last moment," Katarin explained, Shin feeling even guiltier than he had felt through these past months. They not only were aware he knew, they were probably begging for him to bring it up, and yet, here he was, only doing it because of how his moral compass had stopped him from marrying their mother without so much as acknowledging the problem.

"I'm so sorry for taking this long…" Shin said, raising his head to meet the surprisingly cheerful eyes of the rest of the orphans.

"But you did, and before getting married too! That's what matters!" Katarin exclaimed, traversing to his side of the table and giving him a great big hug. By this point, the poor man was completely without direction about how the conversation was going.

"Shin, the way you brought it up, it's obvious you think this is some kind of cruel blow you are dealing to us, or that we were sad by having our Mama marry but… it's nothing like that," Duane said, for the first time shinning some, if little, light on Shinryu's view of the conversation. "We're everything but sad. We couldn't happier!"

"But… the way you all looked at us…"Shin began, looking around to see nothing but smiling faces.

"We do get jealous sometimes… I mean, Mama was just our Mama before. But she's happy when she's with you! And you also like us! Why wouldn't we like you?" The middle child of the entire orphan group, a girl named Nia exclaimed, talking for the rest of the orphans if their smiling nods came with her.

"It was strange at first, but then we understood that, while we had to share Mama with you, you had to share Mama with us too," Katarin pointed out, to which Shin couldn't help but give validity. There weren't just a few times where his plans for a date with the girl had been interrupted by a need of the large cast of boys and girls he and her had to take care of.

"That and… Katarin told me not to call you this until tomorrow, but you're our Papa now!" Nia exclaimed, the ten year old latching onto the arm of the older man, who froze in place.

"Nia! What did we say? Wait for them to get married!" Duane admonished, receiving a pouty lip from the ten year old. Shin was worried with something else.

"You all, think the same?" he gasped, his heart nearly exploding once he saw the host of children and teens nodding back at him. "But-"

"You couldn't steal Mama away even if you tried," Duane began, again, another fair point. The moment Shin forced her into an ultimatum would be the moment she knew he wasn't worth marrying. "And you take care of us with almost as much attention and love as she does. No one asked you to, not even Mama, but you do. And even then, you came to us begging to be forgiven. What kind of kids do you think we are? Someone that makes Mama happy and tries his best to make us feel the same way is nothing short than a Papa to all of us,"

At this point, Shin was visibly holding back tears. This was just too much for him. He had come here to make sure they could put up with him, not to ask them to think of him as… as a father. He didn't feel any regrets of second think the notion of being these kids' parent, if anything, he thought that he wasn't worth this kind of praise. The moment that every single child in front of him got up to hold him in an embrace, he was too overwhelmed not to cry. They didn't need to say any words, they all knew how they felt.

Like a family.

Terra had taken a long time to come home. A lot longer than she had first had said to take, arriving just past midnight. By that point, Shin had already been used and abused by the orphans for their own gains, taking advantage of the sweet words they had given the young man to having do everything they wanted. As a result, Shin wanted nothing more than to just take Terra and go to sleep.

"Terra, you're home!" Shin exclaimed, leaving Leo to his own devices and rushing out of the living room, intent on greeting his soon-to-be-wife at the door. Only to have a swift shadow take him and knock him back into the living room, Shin falling back first into the floor, shackles of ice holding his arms and legs in place by the ankles and wrists.

For a few moments, Shin though they were being attacked, that one of those discriminatory bastards that never stopped demeaning Terra had finally taken to doing something, then he saw that standing atop him was not some faceless thug, but Celes, and her burning eyes instantly clued him into understanding that he had done something wrong. What? That he had no idea.

"Hey Celes, isn't that a bit excessive?" Locke said from the entrance to the living room. Receiving the same look, he completely shut up.

"Locke, just stay there and block the view. This idiot still didn't understand what he was about to do!" Celes exclaimed, returning to stare down Shin.

"Don't hurt him Celes, okay?" Shin heard the slightly scared voice of Terra say, moments passing as the sound of the stairs being climbed caused Shin to finally demand answers.

"What's this about Celes? Why can't I see my fiancé?! Did something happen to her?" Shin was a mix of worry and anger at this point. If there was something wrong with Terra, why didn't they let him see her? And if the opposite was true, the same question applied!

"Shin… it's past midnight," Locke pointed out, Shin raising an eyebrow.

"So what?" he asked, visibly calmer now that Locke had stepped in. Not for long.

"So… what?!" Celes exclaimed, picking him up by the collar and throwing him into the couch. "The groom can't see the bride in the day of the wedding, that's "what"!" Celes exclaimed, her eyes burning in zealotry. Shin felt like he had just argued that genocide was normal when faced with such vigor and will.

"That's just an old belief, it's not going to hurt anyone if I see her just on-"Celes had taken her sword out. Shin stopped talking immediately.

"I promised Terra a perfect wedding, hell, I promised her a wedding that'd make fairy tale princesses jealous! If you step out of line ONCE, I'll slice one them off! You're lucky Terra wants kids," Shin was too busy being scared half to death than pondering the irony that was Celes showing more care about tradition than him. To tell the truth, Shin had made the same commitment with himself and even agreed with Celes, he'd just not known that not seeing the bride the day of the wedding part of it meant he couldn't even see her past midnight.

"Yeah, sorry, it slipped my mind… wait a second, does that mean that-"Shin exclaimed, a grim realization coming to mind.

"I brought a blanket for you," Locke said with an understanding smile, laying it down on the couch Shin was in. "You get couch duty for today," he told Shin, who just sighed in return. There was no arguing with Celes and this point, and he did want to give Terra the best day of her life, and that day had started ten minutes past, so there was no backtalk from Shin.

"Good that we are in agreement. Now, get some rest, you have much to do tomorrow," Celes told him, her tone having mellowed out extremely so when she saw the gears in Shin's finally kicking into rhythm. "Best of luck for tomorrow Shin, you'll need it,"

"I'm already the luckiest guy on the universe, I can spare a bit more luck," Shin replied, the cheese fest in the response being too much for Celes to hold her chuckle in. For once, she condoned his attitude, it was clear that this was what made Terra happy, who was she to say anything against it?

With that, Locke and Celes left, having their own preparations to get into play. Shin himself had done everything he could do for today, he was completely at peace with himself now, only wishing he could spend this last night with his fiancé, but he knew that he and Celes had promised each other to make this as close to the perfect wedding as possible, and that included respecting tradition up until the knot was tied at least. For the first time in days, Shin fell into a deep, comforting sleep.

It didn't take long for there to be a knocking on Terra's bedroom. The girl yipped of surprise before answering from the inside of the closed door:

"Shin, is that you?" she asked, her voice tied in a bit of confusion. Why would Shin want to come in now? Had he forgotten?

"Well, it depends on how you see it madam," the tone, choice of words and even his voice all were more than enough to make Terra understand just who it was.

"Come on in Shinryu," she said with a bit of relief. She wouldn't be mad at Shin for trying to come in, but she did feel a bit better that he was doing what Celes said he had promised to do.

"Afraid I can't do that. This is still your fiancé's body. Laying eyes on you would be breaking the deal, wouldn't it?" Shinryu contemplated from the other side of the door, smiling all the way through.

"It's just a silly superstition," Terra replied. Truth be told, she did believe in what she said, but…

"It's not about the superstition, it's about the magic," Shinryu completed her thoughts, taking notes on how easy it was to toy with the girl when he wanted.

"Okay, fine, be that way. Is there something you want to talk about?" Terra asked, she sounded tired, Shinryu deduced Celes hadn't been kind to her stamina on such a day, so he went straight to the point.

"Terra, I already talked with Shin about this. I decided, for whatever time is left for me, I'd better act like what I am to Shin, his father. And what kind of parent would I be if I did not come to the woman that is about to give up her own life to start a new one with my son and give her my blessings?" he questioned, chuckling to himself. It was much easier the second time around.

"Shinryu…" Terra whispered, barely audibly from the other side of the door. Shinryu knew she was on the other side of the door, all the more reason not to open it.

"What I mean to say is… Terra, take care of my son," Shinryu finished, deciding to not tardy along with this. There was not much he could say to her now. It had all already been said.

"I will Shinryu, on my word," Terra assured, her tone unshaken and truthful. Shinryu laughed.

"I don't doubt it but… you'd better tell him tomorrow," Shinryu said, destabilizing Terra. "What you were really doing today I mean,"

"How did you…"

"Unlike my son, I'm not blind," Shinryu said, returning to the couch and returning the control of the body to his son, following his example into slumber.

The very next day, Shin had awoken to find a pretty much deserted house around him. He had expected as much, Terra had probably been whisked away by Celes to have her bridesmaid prepare her for the wedding. If Shin had to guess, Locke had taken to preparing the kids for the wedding, leaving him with one less groomsmen, Cloud had said he'd go ahead and help out the guests. Considering the other was Edge, who apparently lived without knowing what a watch was, that mostly meant that the one groomsmen he had left was…

"You'd think the groom would be more spiced up on the big day!" Zack exclaimed as he left the kitchen with a sandwich. Shin sighed. His Best Man was the only person to help him get ready.

Shin was not making it in time. Not on this lifetime.

"Seriously, how does anyone put these things on?!" Zack exclaimed, flustered that he couldn't even get Shin's bowtie straight as he had been asked to. Getting in the tuxedo had apparently been laborious enough for Zack, helping someone else getting into their wedding suit had been particularly tardy.

It didn't help that Zack had left Shin to sleep in an hour longer than he was supposed to, so even if he managed to go at a decent pace, they were still being screwed.

"Just let me!" Shin exclaimed, taking matters into his own hands and straightening the bowtie himself. At first he had planned to use the normal plan of simply renting a tuxedo, but that had quickly been shot down by Celes, who had decided his clothing choice for him, knowing exactly how, as a man, he'd take the easy way out on it.

As he started to put on the final adjustments for his suit, something passed by his mind. It wasn't something that he prioritized, but he still thought it was a good time to ask Zack about.

"So, Zack, what're you going to do for a living?" he asked Zack, who was tying up his own tie after having it nearly thorn off due to the constant itching it gave him.

"Me? Well, that's easy. I'm in deep for a lifetime contract with SOLDIER. Rufus is turning Shinra around little by little, so there's no reason for me to tell them to go screw themselves anymore," Zack explained bluntly, finally winning his death match with his tie. "What, don't tell me you having doubts about what you want to do, are you?" Shin rolled his eyes but nodded, he thought that'd be quite obvious. "Well, here's a piece of advice for free! You have a lot of things going for you, so maybe you'd try your hand at something that you enjoy doing and that only you can do!"

The advice was simple but it did strike a nerve in Shin's brain. It wasn't something that he'd mule over today, there were things far more important for him to go attend to, but he had to hand it to Zack, he could be genuinely helpful once in a blue moon!

"Will give it a try. But now, it's time for me to get married! Pass me the coat Zack!" he exclaimed, Zack complying and throwing him the requested item. With it on Shin was ready to take on the wedding head first.

The wedding suit Celes had prepared him was, as expected for a man's celebration code of dressing, quite simple. It was white in color, something that Celes had insisted on due to her being fixated on making this wedding a "white wedding", whatever that meant for her. It consisted on a pair of simple ballroom shoes, pure white trousers, a white undershirt, a beige vest separating it from the matching white coat that cut into a V-shaped tail at the end of it. The aforementioned beige bowtie was straightened one last time as Shin prepared to take his leave.

"It's finally time," Shin said, taking a deep breath before shaking his head and heading down the stairs.

Post-Author's Note: Well, here we have it. I know this may have felt like, essentially a giant teaser, and I won't deny that it really kinda is, but I just felt that since Terra was given a chapter to deal with her insecurities before the wedding, Shin deserved one too. Especially because they could bog down the wedding if they were to be resolved in the wedding itself. Again, if you felt like this had too little content or you'd have preferred to have the wedding being in tandem with this part, I'm sorry, but I'll do my best to round up everything as perfectly as I can for you all.

I really hope this chapter tides you over until Sunday at least! And I do thoroughly hope you enjoyed it. Until then, sayonara!

PS: Any of you could spot what was Terra's secret? Or at least guess?