"What do you mean I can't go with you?!"

Everyone in the queen's study silently stared at Freya, startled by her sudden outburst. Beatrix shot her a terrifying one-eyed glare, making the burmecian's skin crawl.

"You may be a war hero and a dear friend of the royal couple, but such insolence will not be tolerated again, do you understand, Crescent?" the general coldly warned her.

Freya automatically lost it.

"How dare you of all people talk to me about insolence? Do I need to remind you that this disaster is largely your fault?" the dragoon hissed, every word coated in poison.

Steiner gasped and Garnet closed her eyes and started rubbing her temples.

"You..! I..!" Beatrix tried to answer, instinctively reaching for her sword's hilt, but, before anyone could react, her blood-soaked past caught up with her and she finally relented, "I'm sorry, Crescent... please... try to understand..."

"Freya, Beatrix, you're both overstepping..." the queen sternly said.

"What we mean, Freya, is that we have no idea how Ulrich will react if he sees you with us during the funeral." Zidane intervened, trying to calm her down, "He might even try to kill you and we can't risk everything going to shit just yet..."

"Vocabulary!" Steiner silently mouthed to the genome while he awkwardly patted his wife's back in a misguided attempt to comfort her.

The burmecian found herself cornered and sat down again, burying her face in her hands.

"We know that what we're asking you to do is particularly hard, but thousands of lives are at stake and we can't afford to taunt someone as violently unstable as Ulrich." Garnet said as gently as she could.

"I understand... it's just..." the dragoon muttered, "I can't bear the thought of that thing disgracing Puck's memory while I stay here, grounded, useless."

Beatrix didn't dare look at her. Zidane was amazed: it was the first time he had seen her in such a state. He wondered if the general would ever find redemption for her past misdeeds, especially now that Burmecia's wounds had started festering horrendously.

Freya took a deep breath and quickly pulled herself together, something she had become quite adept at since her youth.

"I'm sorry for letting my emotions cloud my judgement, Garnet." the burmecian said with her usual dignified tone, "Please, let us continue to plan this operation."

Freya had spent the entire afternoon locked up in her room. It was getting late, the pink and orange hues of twilight having almost completely given way to a soothing dark blue. She was lost in her thoughts, pondering what she could do to help her people in her current situation. Three soft knocks on the door interrupted her meditation.

"Hey, Freya..." Zidane tentatively said from the hallway "... are you in the mood for a little chat?"

The burmecian sighed.

"Yes... please come in." she answered.

Zidane carefully stepped into the guest chamber. He knew his friend was still bitter about having to stay in Alexandria during Puck's funeral, so he had decided to be as tactful as possible.

"Hi..."

"Hi..."

"How do you feel?"

Freya shrugged, then crossed her arms again.

"Like shit, huh?" Zidane asked. The dragoon nodded her head affirmatively. The genome king lowered his eyes, not knowing what to say.

"You've surely been wondering why have I been keeping so many secrets from you, haven't you?" the burmecian ventured after a moment of awkward silence.

"Straight to the point, huh?" Zidane thought, "Kinda... yeah..."

Freya sighed again.

"I guess I was tired of constantly burdening you with my problems..." she said, staring at the wall.

"But... why?" the genome asked, his true nature taking the front seat, "Aren't we dragon pals? Rat-face and Monkey-tail?"

"Zidane, I've dragged you into a warzone and almost got you killed. Twice. And what the heck is a dragon pal?" she replied, exasperated.

The king chortled.

"Remember that time we went to Popos Heights? You were all gung-ho about hunting a dragon to prove yourself and stuff."

"Oh, no... please, don't..." Freya started complaining, but Zidane kept talking.

"You should have seen your face when we ended up in that gross ass ditch, drenched in fucking dragon p..."

"Okay, okay, I remember!" she exclaimed, chuckling in spite of herself, "Sorry for that too, by the way..."

"Sorry for what? It was awesome! And we freaking killed like three of them! Then you got that cool tattoo thingy that summoned giant dragon ghosts and we even wrecked Necron's shit with it!" Zidane rambled, having fully reverted to his teenaged self for a moment.

"So? What's your point?" Freya asked him.

"My point is that we stuck together, and we ended up doing the impossible because of it!" the genome exclaimed.

Freya smiled and closed her eyes.

"Zidane... as you've told me before, things have changed. We no longer are the adrenaline-addled kids that we used to be back then. You are now a king with an entire kingdom resting on your shoulders... you have far more important things to do than to worry about me."

The genome glared at her, outraged by her remark. Like he, of all people, would abandon his loved ones because he now had a fancy job!

"Bullshit! You sure you haven't been dating Amarant or something? Because you're starting to sound like him!" he brusquely retorted, taking the burmecian by surprise, "Now get up and come with me. I'm gonna show you just how much I still care about my friends!"

The king and the dragoon walked silently through the moonlit royal garden. Whenever Freya visited the castle, she liked to go outside after dinner to enjoy the subtle symphony of sounds and aromas unique to that place's nights.

"We're almost there" Zidane said, turning left at a bifurcation.

"We have never gone left here..." Freya commented, intrigued by the prospect of discovering a new part of the garden.

"That's because this area has been closed due to a little project that we've been working on." the genome answered.

"Wait... what is that?" the burmecian said, detecting a long forgotten scent in the air.

"Smells familiar?" Zidane asked her, grinning.

Freya stopped dead on her tracks and took in the faint aroma, trying to remember what did it belong to.

"It can't be..." she muttered, opening her eyes in shock.

"Hell yes it can!" the king gleefully exclaimed.

"But how did you..? When..?"

"Follow me, I'll explain in due time!" Zidane answered.

The duo arrived at a brick wall with an iron gate. The king drew a bunch of keys from his pocket and started fiddling with it, trying to find the one he needed. The scent, despite being almost imperceptible, was driving Freya crazy due to her extremely acute sense of smell. She would have leaped over the wall if her legs weren't still weak.

"Ah, here it is!" he exclaimed, finally managing to unlock the door, "Enjoy yourself!"

The dragoon barged in, her anxiety getting the best of her. She suddenly stood still, unable at first to process what she was witnessing.

"The burmecian cherry blossom tree is a particularly delicate plant." Zidane explained while he closed the door behind him, "You are now seeing what is probably the last reserve of them in Gaia after the Great Drought almost wiped them all out."

Freya's crutch slipped from her grasp and fell to the ground as she stared, moved to tears, at the garden's newest section.

"When I was a child, we had one of these at home..." she said, slowly approaching one of the trees, "this one will bloom shortly. Fifteen days, give or take..."

"You talk like an expert." Zidane replied.

"Mother loved these flowers. She taught me everything I know about them." the burmecian said, taking a moment to breathe in the scent of her childhood.

"Hmm... we've never talked about your family before..." the genome remarked, rubbing his chin.

"The people of Burmecia is my family now..." she answered, dodging the subject, "I can't imagine how hard it must have been to gather this many trees. They are almost extinct. What made you undertake such an effort?" the burmecian turned around to face her friend. He greeted her with a warm smile.

"We originally envisioned this as a symbol of everlasting peace between our kingdoms..." the king replied, approaching her, "If I've learned something during my years as an actor, it's that beauty is a powerful instrument of change."

Zidane suddenly found himself in Freya's arms.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed, her unprecedented display of affection having taken him completely off-guard.

"Thank you..." she whispered, releasing him after a few seconds.

"Never thought you to be of the hugging type... but suits you well." the king teased her.

"Not really, but... I couldn't convey in words how much this means to me."

"Heheh... we didn't do it alone, you know? Puck gave us everything we needed to build it. I hope he'll be able to see it filled with happy burmecian families from wherever he is now." Zidane said, looking skyward with a sad smile.

Snap!

Freya's ears suddenly twitched and she turned around, assuming a fighting stance.

"Freya, what's going on? You're freaking me out!" the genome said, alarmed.

"We've got company!" She exclaimed, baring her teeth like an animal.

A hooded, leather armor-clad warrior emerged from the foliage. "Bravo, Crescent! Your senses are as sharp as ever!" he said.

Author's note:

Hi! Jota Te here! I wanted to thank you all for reading this and for all the support I've received via reviews and PMs. As a die-hard FFIX fan, I'm overjoyed to see that people like my little tribute to its wonderful fictional universe.

Yes, while heavily modified, the "dragon hunting trip gone south" bit is a reference to Myshu's "Practical Medicine" fic. If you haven't read it yet, go check it out: it's a beautiful, bittersweet tale of love and friendship from which I've drawn a great deal of inspiration for this story. By the way, thank you for all your help and support, Myshu, you're awesome :)

I hope you're all doing great and (I've always wanted to say this) stay tuned for more adventures of Rat-Face and Monkey-Tail, heheh!