Filling In The Blanks

Disclaimer: I don't own FFIX or any of its characters.

Chapter 139: Flying in a Dream

He stood outside the door of the building, hesitating for a moment with his hand on the handle. He could hear a girl yelling inside, and the wrestling of rough housing boys. For a moment he felt nearly ten years younger, a certain familiarness falling over him.

"Are you going to open the door, or what?" her soft voice startled him and she let out a laugh.

He turned to the now-recognizable girl with fair skin and dark hair. She clutched the half-a-garnet necklace in one of her hands, fiddling with it, not even realizing what she was doing. This girl, who had looked nearly like a celestial being the first time he saw her face in his dreams, was now a common player. Someone he cared for – but someone he still didn't know.

"Yeah," he chuckled back to her, but found he still couldn't push open the door. Something toppled over inside of the room and the sound of shattering glass quieted those inside.

"Well?" she nudged his arm. "What's on your mind?"

He laughed again, "It's stupid."

"Tell me," she urged gently.

"It's just funny, and I wanted a moment to take it in," he turned back to the building and looked up upon the sheer size of it, knowing there wasn't anything particularly grandeur about the inside. She followed his lead, trailing his gaze. "This place... I don't even know if I remember all of the pieces. But even if I don't, all this time away, all that's happened... It's just never stopped feeling like home, y'know?"

She shifted the bags in the hand not clutching her necklace. They had just been on a grocery run and got distracted window shopping in the market, coming back later than everyone else. "Isn't that the funny thing about war," she muttered softly, her lips pressing into a thin line. But when she looked back up at him, her eyes were bright. "I hope Lindblum never stops feeling that way for you, Zidane."

"Lindblum is nice," he agreed. "But I think it's the people that make it feel like home. I'm not sure standing here on the other side of the door, hearing silence instead of our friends, would make me feel the same way."

"Okay then," she grinned at him, "Tantalus will always have a place for you."

His eyes tightened fondly as he stared back at her, feeling at ease despite their situation. "We'll get our homes back," he promised, diverting the subject slightly. "Kuja won't get away with what he's doing."

But before she could answer, the door swung open and a redhead was there, his headband lost in the scuffle, eyes green and annoyed, but grinning nevertheless. "We've been listening to you to babble out here for ten minutes. Are you coming inside? The peanut butter pie you guys! You have the ingredients in your hands!"

"Okay mom," Zidane snickered, taking the girl's hand and pulling her inside.


The rain pelted him in the face, but he barely blinked – barely noticing it at all. Long ago, the hood had flown back off of his face, hair sticking to his skin. He was the only one standing on the airship deck.

"Zidane catch cold if he stays out too long," Quan's low voice appeared beside him. He didn't start, though.

"I just," he puckered his lips in thought, trying to articulate what he was feeling, "I need the wind." Somewhere long ago, someone promised him he'd be doing this. Standing on the deck of an airship instead of holed up underground in hiding. He wasn't sure what that meant, but the feeling of standing there was therapeutic anyways.

The qu nodded, no other explanation needed. He didn't need a lot, really. Quan had finally told Zidane everything he knew. About the war, about the dreamers, and about Vivi. As he spoke, bits and pieces started sounding more familiar as he sipped the tea the qu had made for him. However, no more names had come.

When he spoke of Alexandria's destruction, Zidane thought about the place he'd spent the last four – nearly five – years. For some odd reason, it didn't really surprise him that it had all been a dream. And he'd come to the conclusion rather quickly, like he had already felt that way when he was living in his dream world. He felt like he'd already been through this epiphany once, though he had no memory of the time prior.

They'd spent two weeks getting Zidane's strength up. He needed to first shake the haze from his mind that plagued him since he'd woken, and maybe more importantly if they were going to travel – bring his body back up to speed.

He had to sit and take in big, deep breaths while applying a numbing balm to his leg that Quan had whipped up; his body felt battered and exhausted.

Quan wanted him to rest longer. He wanted Zidane to recover more memories before they started to move. Zidane barely remembered names and locations, but seeing the faces of these people in his dreams made him stir crazy. He didn't know where they needed to go to find these people, but he had to move. They'd made a compromise to wait until he had his physical strength back, able to walk for respectable stretches of time, before they set out to Esto Gaza to start their search of his lost memories. Until a last-minute dream had him begging Quan for them to journey to Lindblum instead. Zidane's decisions on their movements were based on 'feelings' at best, but Quan encouraged this, saying that Zidane's heart would know where they were going.

He had to have faith that was true.

And that's what found them hovering in an airship over the ocean, the rain dropping onto their faces, on their way to rediscover pieces of themselves they hadn't known in a very long time.

Quan wasn't quite sure what to make of the genome. He had spent most of his time near the end of his search for Vivi in obscure places on the continent, having found and inhabited the small cave off of the chilly coast of Oeilvert. He had actually been out fishing the day he found the blonde. Those first couple of months were a mix of nurturing the physical wounds on his body: the nasty gash on the back of his head, cuts and bruises all over his body, a few cracked ribs, a broken right ankle and a lot of general inflammation and swelling on parts of his body particularly covered by old scars. He also did a great deal of research on why the blonde's health was improving, but he was unable to wake up.

He hadn't learned of the war's end until much later, and even then, didn't stop to gather details about how it happened. Qus didn't care much for the reasoning behind world events – especially not with a more distracting task right in front of him.

But now, the boy waking up and claiming to know his long-lost grandson had sparked something in him he hadn't had in a long time. It brought hope into his throat that he tried to swallow back down thickly. Zidane said that the last time he'd seen Vivi, he'd been alive. And though he didn't have the memories around that context, he was sure of this.

Maybe it would all end up being a wild goose chase in the end, but Quan couldn't help but trust this boy, staring at him in the dark, a wistful laugh echoing off of the stone walls of his home. He wanted to see his new friend succeed, and he could feel it from Zidane – he wanted that for Quan, too.

Whatever happened, they would likely find more progress on their quest in Lindblum; that was a bit more of an informational hub than the other side of the world. Regardless of what they found – there was no turning back now.


"Watch where you're runnin, sweet cakes!"

"Sorry!"

"Let me just sneak under you – ow don't move this way -"

"Hey can I get a spoon whenever you get a chance?"

In all of the hustle and bustle, a ceramic plate suddenly shattered on the floor. Ruby, Marcus and Cinna all stopped trying to reach around each other, Mallory weaving in and out of their legs in Cinna's small, cramped kitchen.

Blank winced, glancing down at the plate he dropped. "Sorry."

Cinna pulled himself out of the tangle of the group and put the pan he was holding on the counter, turning around with oven mitts extended in the air. He had a smile on his face. "This kitchen is a bit more packed than it usually is."

Mikoto poked her head in the kitchen, "Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah," Cinna laughed. Everyone seemed to relax and separate themselves. He took a glance at Blank, trying hard to participate even though being in the kitchen hadn't been his forte even before his separation from them. "Yeah. We're okay."

The redhead had surprised them by showing up in Lindblum that morning, stumbling over his words when he said he had a couple of days off and thought he'd pay them a visit. With air traffic in full swing again, it was only a few hours away.

When he had entered the weapon's shop, Mallory bombarded him, trying to sell him a set of swords off the wall. Cinna looked up at the redhead's voice trying to gently refuse. Both of their hearts sunk when they found that Mallory didn't recognize him. He had only met her a few times in her short life, after all.

"Blank?! Is everything alright?!" if he said he wasn't surprised, he would have been lying. Cinna had automatically assumed some terrible tragedy had happened for him to show up in Lindblum. They'd had a long discussion after Alexandra's introduction ball, and everyone had taken turns having stern words with Blank. When they left a couple days later, the kicked-puppy expression hadn't yet left his face.

When Ruby came back a few days after that, she expressed her trust that Blank would keep putting in an effort. While the progress might be slow, they wouldn't see it go backwards. Marcus and Cinna shared a look, unsure what to think, but excited at the prospect.

And then he stood inside the always-quiet weapons shop a few short weeks later. Spending his recovery days from his knightly duties making the trip to Lindblum.

Cinna's lips split into a grin. He immediately closed up shop, promising to make it up to Mallory later, before rounding the two up to head to Marcus'. The eldest of their group had a similar response, clapping Blank on the back and sharing a grin with him.

He had even swallowed his pride and bought Ruby a bouquet of flowers on the way to her theatre to surprise her, despite the heaps of teasing. But neither of the men could tease him anymore when they saw the expression on her face at the gesture. Greyson had always bought her roses. Blank bought her daisies – her favorite, the only flower not assigned to symbolize mourning for a Tantalus team.

After her shift ended in the afternoon, she joined them, piled into Cinna's tiny kitchen, three people staying in the upstairs apartment when it was hardly made for one.

"Feels a little like childhood, huh?" Marcus chuckled, snatching the spoon he was after off the counter in the brief hiccup in activity.

"I think Cinna's kitchen might be smaller than that," Ruby laughed, lifting the cutting board she was holding above her head to make herself smaller as she squeezed over to the small in-kitchen table. She took an overexaggerated step to avoid the broken ceramic.

"I'll get a broom," Blank offered. "If you tell me where I can find one."

"Around the corner and down those three steps, there's that super tiny closet. It's in there!"

He followed Cinna's instructions, passing by Mikoto seated at the formal dining table, writing some sort of letter. Mallory was zooming around the room with one of Marcus' bandanas tied around her head. It kept slipping over her eyes.

Blank flung open the door. Cinna wasn't kidding about it being a tiny closet. It was very narrow, a few shoeboxes on the upper shelves; the bottom shelves were removed to make space for a couple umbrellas, a mop and a broom, and a mace hidden behind the other elongated items in the closet.

"Whoa!" Blank ducked instinctually, only for Mallory to fly into the closet, crashing the two rickety, old shelves down. Everything clattered in a huge noise. Mikoto was up in a second and Ruby and Marcus were bounding around the corner, Cinna only letting out a laugh from the other room.

"Mallory!" Marcus yelled. "What did we say about jumping off of furniture?!" Marcus started saying something heatedly to Mikoto after that.

Blank squatted, watching the way her bottom lip quivered. She was splayed out in the closet and there was a scratch on her arm where one of the umbrellas scraped her, but nothing too serious. "You okay, kiddo?"

She looked at him, seeming like she wanted to be shy. But it just didn't look like that was in her personality. "Y-yeah," she told him, her voice wavering.

Blank heaved a sigh, taking her hand and pulling her up. "He gets kind of loud when he yells, doesn't he?"

She nodded; that lip hadn't stopped trembling.

"Well... Marcus yells at me a lot too."

She looked up at him with big, watery eyes. "He does?"

Blank nodded. "I know I haven't met you a whole bunch of times but, when your dad and I were young, all he ever did was yell at us – Ruby and Cinna, too."

Her face looked miserable when he said that.

"But do you want to know a secret?"

Instantly, she seemed freed from her despair. "What?" she leaned in close, matching his whisper.

"The louder he yells at you, the more he loves you."

She scrunched her eyebrows together. It was Marcus' eyes and Mikoto's blank expression. Blank nearly laughed. "What do you mean?"

"Sometimes it's hard for him to say what he actually means," Blank whispered, adjusting her dress and plopping Marcus' bandana back on her head; she giggled. "So it all comes out in big bursts like that. If he didn't love you, he wouldn't be so loud."

She suddenly smiled up at him hugely, like something had clicked into place for the first time in her life. Blank didn't wait for a response, interrupting Marcus and Mikoto's conversation. "She didn't do anything Marcus."

"What?"

"She was showing me where the broom was, and I leaned on a shelf and everything fell," he shrugged, a drab expression on his face. "You're yellin' for no reason."

Marcus narrowed his eyes at the redhead, who tried to look inconspicuous. The grin Mallory was sporting gave her away.

But with the only two witnesses declaring the same story, he really didn't have any ground to stand on. He grumbled. "Whatever happened, don't do it again. We're not here to destroy Cinna's house."

Blank snorted. "When did he become such a grumpy old man?" he asked no one in particular.

Mallory laughed and hugged his leg. "I like you."

"Yeah?" Something about that made Blank really proud. Like maybe he could still make up for missing the first part of her life. "I like you too, squirt."

Cinna couldn't stop from bursting out laughing. He popped around the corner, eyes delighted. "Finally, someone shorter than you!"

Blank glanced up, seeing the entirely-too-gentle face of Ruby having witnessed such a tender moment between he and the child, before Cinna's comment screwed it all up.

Mallory bounded away, back to her old self. Ruby caught his eye for a smile before she disappeared too.

Turning back to the closet, he assessed the damage: the shoeboxes had all toppled down, sitting awkwardly with the wooden shelves between them. The top had come off of one. He squatted down, pulling out the slats of wood and pushing them back into their brackets before bending down to push the top back into the box.

That's when he saw it.

Glinting in the light, a blue-steel dagger sat, halfway out of the box. He sat down on his feet and reached forward tentatively, like it might bite him.

He picked up the all-too-familiar weapon. The slot where the ruby rested was empty, the weapon cleaned, but scratched one side of the hilt.

Zidane's dagger.

"Cinna," he called, trying to keep the hysterics out of his voice.

He could feel his anger rising. And he was trying to push it back down. He was so tired of being angry at everyone; he was so tired of alienating himself, and he knew that he was already on thin ice with his friends. Plus, there had to be a rational reason for this... They wouldn't disrespect Zidane's memory like that, would they?

When Cinna came around the corner, mid-sentence in a conversation with the others, he stopped where he stood, almost dropping the cookie sheet in his hands. His face crumpled.

Blank had turned around, holding the weapon that didn't have a sheath delicately in his hands. He took in a big breath – a huge breath – before opening his mouth to speak. Somewhere in the background, Mikoto saw and ushered Mallory downstairs with a feeble excuse of needing help finding something in the shop.

"Sugar -" Ruby's mouth clicked shut when she saw Blank's expression.

Marcus was already angry – already about to defend Cinna before he even knew what Blank would say. Because he knew Blank's first reaction would be anger and he was ready to match it.

The redhead in question shook. His eyes fell to the weapon as he rubbed the side of it. It sliced his finger and a drop of blood pooled on top of the skin. Still sharp.

"Why is this... in a box in your closet?" he tried to keep his voice stable. Marcus already looked surprise he hadn't lunged.

"Well," Cinna squared his shoulders, nodding his head to the side like he might as well rip off the band-aid. "Dagger gave that to me... to give to you when you came home from that first... mission."

If Blank was being perfectly honest, he couldn't remember a lot about the end of the final battle with Kuja. He figured he had just sort of shut down when Dagger told him Zidane had literally disappeared into thin air, and when he shut down, he forced all of those memories out. "But... why is it in a box? In your closet?"

Cinna sighed. Marcus' mouth open and closed like a fish, ready to fight. Ruby had a hand extended, ready to stop the argument from erupting between them.

"Look man... honestly, it was on display in the shop for a little while." He sighed, defeated. "But it was kind of depressing to look at... I couldn't... I stared at it every single day and all of those memories," he unconsciously rubbed the metal plate over his arm, "they just got to be a lot to handle. I wanted to keep it somewhere safe for you when you came home, but then you were gone again so fast and... hard to get ahold of. Mallory gets into stuff all the time so it had to be tucked away, but I didn't mean anything by it."

Blank stared down at it again. He could choose to blow up. Tantalus knew very well how much a part of your person your weapon was – an extension of you. Or he could choose to see past that – that it wouldn't be in a box if Blank was there to take it when he was supposed to anyways. And to reduce Zidane down to the weapon he fought with felt wrong. He was so much more than that for so many people. There were many battles that Zidane actually lost in the end of all things – why was it his dagger that defined him?

"I..." he sucked in his cheek. He was having a hell of a hard time speaking his emotions into the universe the last few weeks. It was more exhausting to switch back on than he thought it would be. His voice shook with thinly veiled anger. But he didn't blow up. "I don't like it but... I get it. I'm not sure I would have been able to look at it every day either."

They all stared, dumbfounded at him.

"It's yours to take, if you want it," Cinna said to him carefully, like he was still waiting for Blank's silent facade to fall away to a screaming match.

He only nodded vaguely, running his tongue over his teeth awkwardly, barely holding in the emotions that were practically spelled out on his face anyways.

"Maybe ya'll could go find a sheath so he don't gotta put somethin' so sharp in his bag."

"Right -" Cinna and Marcus left the room.

Ruby stepped forward. "That was awf'lly mature of ya, darlin'."

"Yeah well," he stared down at the weapon, unable to tear his eyes away. His breathing quickened without meaning for it to.

She was in front of him then. "Hey... it's okay," she hushed him, and he realized with a start that tears were running down his face.

"I don't want us to forget him, Rubes," he whispered.

"We ain't," she insisted, wrapping her fingers over his where they gripped the handle. "We ain't. We're just survivin' - just like he woulda wanted."

"This has been so hard," he admitted to her, his voice breathless and faint. "Not again – why again?"

"I'm so sorry, darlin'," she gently pried his fingers off of the dagger and set it on the table behind her, replacing it with her hands in his.

"There is so much hurt and so much anger," he admitted in one breath, hardly even registering what he was telling her. "All of that training. All of that planning. And I was worthless, again."

"Hey," she said gently, finally pulling him into a hug. This is what he should have said to her years ago, instead of leaving with no explanation. For just a minute, they were a decade and a half younger, hugging each other like they did the first time their friend went missing. "Everythin' will be okay."

He pulled back from her and stared, looking helpless. Her heart broke at the expression on his face. She sucked in a huge breath, to brace herself to say what she hadn't said to him in years. "I love ya. I ain't leavin' ya. I'll be right here to remember him with ya, and ya'll can take as long as you need."

Blank let out a sob. It ripped from his throat, feeling foreign coming out of his own mouth. This was what he needed. This was the grief he had been pushing down, trying to wash away with ale and unsuccessfully burying himself in work and loneliness.

Just moments later, more arms suddenly wrapped around him. He looked up, startled and embarrassed, to find that Cinna and Marcus had joined.

Their little family had been cut in half, but there they still were – still alive and slowly building back up again.

Instead of being angry, he hugged Ruby a little tighter, the hands on her back turning to squeeze the arms of his remaining brothers.

The grief hurt. It overwhelmed him in waves.

But maybe they'd end up okay.


There was an airship.

The wind howled around it, but the ship stayed steady.

Through the eyes of the eidolon spirit, she saw the two figures on the ship. She couldn't get close, for seeing these visions through the spirits of the eidolons did not mean control. Just a look at the world from a different perspective – as a protector and informant – just as the role of high summoner had always been.

But there was a feeling. A feeling Madeen relayed back to her summoner, because they were old friends now and had seen much of the world in tandem with these visions. She knew what interest it would be to the girl.

Something told her the figures on the boat were very important. Missed. The haze of the visions were never very clear, but the feeling was overwhelming. It was time.

She opened her eyes slowly. She felt more at peace than she had in a very long time.

Eiko sat up, clutching at her claw necklace as she looked around. She had fallen asleep meditating in the Summoner's Cove. She had returned to Madain Sari after the celebration in Alexandria, pleasantly surprised to find that Vivi planned to go back with her, just as Freya had insinuated when they first arrived to visit.

They'd spent another month together, late nights turning into early mornings, ringing laughter into hushed words. This time, they returned by airship and raced back to Madain Sari on chocobos for hire from a moogle in Conde Petie. Their laughter filled the air as they entered the hard-to-see canyon (someone ought to put up a sign, now that tourists and trade were allowed in the city) and slid to a stop, the chocobos' feet throwing sand up into the air.

Under the hot sun, they panted. Vivi fell off of his chocobo and Eiko threw her head back to laugh.

They had nestled into a comfortable routine together. Vivi was very supportive of helping the acolytes and continuing to research white magic with the summoner. She went with him to visit the black mage village a few times and participated in some training exercises with him and a couple other black mages, too.

When the sun set on the horizon, dinner with visitors, their peers and the moogles finished and cleaned up, they would row a boat out the water, mirroring what Zidane and Dagger had done all those years ago. The difference between water and sky blurred in the starlight. Sometimes they'd talk about the past, sometimes the present and sometimes the future.

It was there that Eiko had bravely kissed Vivi for a second time. But no longer was there clunkiness or embarrassment to their movements. Neither squeezed their eyes shut or looked away quickly like they did when they kissed on the dock when they were younger. After it was over, they smiled at each other and stayed silent, listening to the chirp of the nighttime behind them, enveloped in a world of stars.

Maybe it was okay that their futures had pulled them so far apart. Because they would always meld back together again. Besides, they had plenty of time. Nothing had to be written in stone right at that very moment. Enjoying each other's company where the heavens and the earth kissed, creating life itself as the legend went, was good enough for them.

It was with those thoughts she crossed the restored bridge out of the Summoner's Cove.

It was still early; clouds peppered the sky, filtering out the hot sun for minutes at a time. She imagined Rhina would be delighted at the relief. Her soft footsteps sank into the sand as she swung her arms, listening to the comforting sound of the filed down claws jingle lightly against her chest.

"Good morning, Eiko," Pakku told her, slicing a melon in the shade of the next clearing over. Mocha was sitting with him, restless.

She grinned, "Mocha, what did you bribe him with to steal that melon from the kitchens for you?"

"Kupo!" she hid behind the boy and he let out a laugh.

"We played a little game of cards with Morrison. He lost. We were just collecting our dues."

"Gambling within sacred walls," she tsked, shaking her head. He didn't even need to look up from his knife to know she was kidding. "What has this world come to?"

"Where are you off to, this morning?"

"To find Vivi," her smile widened as she was reminded why.

"Ohhh," he teased, his octave pitching and then coming down again all in the same syllable, without saying more.

Eiko blushed, despite herself. But she knew trying to defend against the playful mock would only make it worse. "Have you seen him?" She asked instead.

"In the dining area," Pakku answered, finally sawing all the way through the melon. Mocha dashed forward and grabbed her half, sticking her face into the fruit and wetting her fur in juices. "Hey! Mocha! No fair!"

When she finally came upon Vivi, he was seated at the table, looking like he was in the middle of a long letter.

"What are you writing?"

"Oh," he stared down at his neat penmanship, slanted across the thick parchment page. "Um... kind of like a journal."

"A journal?" she questioned, sitting down.

He grabbed his hat with one hand, not ever able to fully kick the nervous habit of yanking it down in front of his eyes with both hands. She watched his gloves massage the old fabric. "Yeah. Just events and thoughts that happen. Keeps track of the time, you know?"

She smiled. "Why are you doin' that?"

The fond look never left Vivi's eyes. "Just in case someone ever needs it."

That was all she needed to understand. She sat, quietly staring over the water. The moogles clanked ceramic dishes behind them in the wash area, and there was one moment where a particularly large wave misted her with ocean spray.

She waited until Vivi put down his pen to speak. "Hey, so..." A purple lock of hair found its way woven around her finger. "I think we should head back to Lindblum."

"Lindblum?"

She grinned a little bigger, knowing how insane she sounded. "It's just a feeling I get."

He didn't have to ask her. In their long conversations together, Eiko explained to Vivi exactly what completing the pilgrimage to become a high summoner really meant. The journey had intensified the bonds Dagger and Eiko had with their eidolons. Even though there wasn't a reason to summon the protectors to the physical realm anymore, both of them agreed that if something ever happened, no longer would they have to work together to summon the more powerful spirits. That was something, as high summoners, they could do themselves.

But Eiko's bonds to the creatures continued to grow as she spent more time in Madain Sari. Her meditations at the height of spiritual energy in the Summoner's Cove brought to her visions, shared with her from her protector, Madeen. It was never anything quite as dramatic as the first vision she had with Bahamut when she was young, but Madeen's eyes let her see the world, and sometimes, she was able to guess events that were coming to pass before anybody else.

Vivi knew of these visions and hardly questioned their credibility anymore. The first time, she had warned him that a particularly gusty sandstorm was going to blow away all of the herbs he was drying on the large stone slab near their dining room. He looked up at the clear sky and told her in the politest way that he just didn't see how that was possible.

Two hours later, they were picking the herbs out of everything in the village, the sandstorm came and went just as abruptly. She let him in on the joke after he had painstakingly picked up every single bushel across Madain Sari.

His eyes looked almost thoughtful for a moment as he tucked the word-ridden pages into his leather-bound journal, and then laid it down, spreading his fingers over the top.

"So when do we leave?"

She grinned widely at the amount of trust he laid upon her in that moment, hardly even having to ask a question. "As soon as possible – by airship. I think we should get there quickly."

Vivi let out a light laughter, like nothing could break down his mood. "Do you think Rhina and the others will be okay here?"

"Are you kidding? Did you see their latest praying ceremony? They'll be just fine," she scoffed and waved her hand in front of her face.

"Okay then," he nodded, gripping his hat as he slid off the chair. "We'll go together."

She decided that was probably the loveliest statement she'd heard in all her life.


Blank lilted up on his tiptoes, quickly pecking Ruby's lips. She laughed, pushing him lightly. "Ya gonna miss your flight!"

He gave her a little grin. "Okay, okay." She squeezed his hands despite herself. "I'll be back in a couple of days to help you move the rest of your stuff."

"Stuff," she snorted, "Sugar, it fits in a suitcase."

"Don't call me sugar," but he couldn't even summon the energy to get angry.

She waved him off, "Go."

He reached up and kissed her one more time, igniting a final laugh, before he turned and hustled down the stairs into the station.

It was loud in the hangar. People of all kinds and quantities bustled about, trying to navigate the biggest travel hub in Gaia. Some were quick, some were slow and some were confused on where they needed to be. Blank easily slipped around the groups of people, grumbling when he got pushed in someone's hurry to make a connecting flight.

"Attention passengers to Oeilvert. Attention passengers to Oeilvert. The ship passed through quite a storm on the way in. Your flight out will be delayed due to safety checks."

He felt a little foreign being in the crowd. Airship hangar was such a foreign word only a handful of years ago, when they had to travel everywhere on foot to avoid detection from Kuja's army. Being in a crowd of civilians, interconnected to the rest of the world, just felt... weird. Every few days, ships from the Outer Continent came in, and of course that was the day he'd procrastinated leaving Ruby to get home to be on time for his shift the next day.

"Attention passengers to Oeilvert. Attention passengers to Oeilvert. The ship passed through quite a storm on the way in. Your flight out will be delayed due to safety checks."

Blank patted one thigh, feeling for his own dagger, and then patted the other and found Zidane's still slung to his waist. Back to double daggers I guess he told himself wryly. Even though he only ever used daggers in a good spar these days anyways, opting with a bit of gripe for the standard Pluto Knight broadsword. The damn thing was nearly as big as Blank was.

"Attention passengers to Oeilvert. Attention passengers to Oeilvert. The ship passed through quite a storm on the way in. Your flight out will be delayed due to safety checks."

His ears finally honed in on the message crackling overhead. There were so many people, he'd hardly been able to hear it – but that was probably why they continued to repeat it. It was rare for storms to do any damage to the ships, but Cid had emphasized safety as they leaned into the technology. Cinna told them all about the safety protocols he had to memorize on that very long morning as Blank sipped a cup of bitter coffee, hungover from the shenanigans the night before. Vivi's coffee was way better.

Very briefly, he spied the sign up the steps to the Oeilvert port and saw passengers coming down, sopping wet from the rain. Apparently one of the viewing windows had a faulty seal and a bunch of people ended up getting soaked. A smile twitched up on his lips. Sucks to be them.

He trudged up the flight of stairs, trying to crane his neck behind him to see the large hands on the clock, deciphering how many minutes he had left before his ship left.

His shoulder slammed into someone and he staggered, gripping the handrail and letting out a grunt.

"Sorry," the voice was breathless.

All of the hair stood up on Blank's neck and he came to a complete stop. Familiarity buzzed annoyingly in his head and he whipped back around to locate who had just run into him.

But they were gone, leaving him with a raw suspicion that he couldn't quite place, and a shoulder wet from a rain-streaked cloak.

The bells in the hangar chimed and he shook his head. He was going to be late.


Steiner stepped gently into the doorway, turning the knob on the door before he pulled it shut so it didn't make as much noise. The house was quiet except for a consistent creaking noise, coming and going rhythmically every few seconds.

He placed his sword gently against the wall by the door and shucked off his boots, putting them up on the bench. Without all of his armor on, he was able to sneak up the stairs undetected, Beatrix's soft voice finally finding him.

"... Dagger will be your best friend, your fiercest protector. Except your dad and me, of course. You'll hear lots of people call her Garnet on a daily basis, which is confusing at first but you'll get it. She is a little sad sometimes, but I think there are enough things in this world to fill her up, especially now that you're here."

He leaned on the doorframe, not wanting to interrupt. In her explaining all of the important people in their lives to their daughter, she hadn't heard him come up the stairs.

She closed her eyes a moment, adjusting the baby in her arms to rub her side, reaching around to massage her lower back. Her eyebrows knit together in a wince; Alexandra cooed, oblivious to the old war wounds her mother had taken.

"You'll never live in this world, little one," she said gently. "You'll never live in a world where you need to be frightened you'll leave your loved ones, or frightened they'll leave you. You won't live every day wondering if it'll be your last and you won't have to go by an alias or be on the run. You won't wish old injuries away, because they won't be there in the first place. You'll grow up in Alexandria and Alexandria is the only home you'll ever see. I promise."

"The good thing is," Steiner began, uncrossing his arms. She gave a start and color rose to her cheeks, not realizing he'd been listening. "She'll have a choice. Don't you think that sounds nice?"

Beatrix grinned, "I don't think she will. She won't want to be a knight for any other kingdom."

"Oh-ho – going to take over as general of the army like her mother?"

She shrugged, "Maybe she'll break the boundaries. Be the first female Captain of the Pluto Knights."

Usually Steiner would guffaw at something like that, squawking something about breaking tradition. But his face broke into the largest grin she'd ever seen.

"It is a bit of an heirloom, isn't it?" He stroked his chin. "I like the sound of that."

She snorted quietly before slipping Alexandra back in her crib and ushering him out the door. Once they were downstairs, she poured him a deep red glass of wine. "Sit with me. Tell me about your day. How is Dagger?" Beatrix lived on the news he brought from his post at the castle; he could tell she missed her work.

"She's... fine," he sat at the table, brushing his finger tips over hers. She flipped her palm over and interlaced their fingers together. "You know how it is, planning this anniversary."

"It's difficult to get her to ask for help," Beatrix nodded, having heard a similar story for the past five years. "Is the council laying off of her?"

"I've been able to keep them at bay. There have been several discussions about leaving Dagger's line of succession alone for a couple more years. They're not pleased, but I think the results of Bronson's stupid appearance was the best case we could have hoped for. Things started to click that maybe she isn't ready for that."

"He's the worst," she tsked, shaking her head and flipping her hair over her shoulder. She didn't look any less intimidating than she did suited up in armor.

"We should have killed him when we had the chance," he murmured, thinking of the way he slinked away after they released him from that cell. Disappearing only to reappear years later as a noble rising in popularity.

Beatrix grinned. It wasn't a very knightly conversation, but neither minded speaking still of the harsh realities of the world.

"What will Dagger do, in the end, do you think?"

"I'm sure she will marry eventually. Bronson was right about one thing – it will be a loveless marriage. But I think she will find someone who can respect that, without it being that little turd."

Beatrix sighed heavily. "How did we manage?" She hooked a finger on the rim of the goblet and pulled it toward her, taking the tiniest sip. She inhaled before swallowing, a smile spreading slowly across her lips.

"How did we manage what?" he asked, unconsciously leaning forward to push some of her hair behind her ear.

"How did the two of us end up with the happy ending?"

Steiner thought about it for a moment. It felt odd to phrase it that way, but he understood what she was talking about. "Fought like hell."

"Others fought too."

"Not like this," he slowly sat back in his chair. "During the war, before the war, back when we were young and my parents knew your parents. We've been very patient."

"We?"

"Me," he corrected. "I have been very patient. I've been in love with you for more than half of my life," he admitted. "A life nobody thought was going to be very long, with the early days of the war the way they were."

"They would be so proud of you, you know," she told him with a smile. "Alexander and Nathaniel. Your parents."

For the first time in his life, Steiner nodded at the sentiment, in total agreement. "Yes. I do believe they might be."

"So modest," she said, finally breaking the heaviness. He stuck his tongue out at her and she laughed loudly, unused to seeing him look so childish. "Tantalus really rubbed off on you, you know that?"

"Tantalus rubbed off on everyone. Did you know I saw Dagger in the kitchens with Quina the other day, the both of them practicing knife tricks." The woman snorted. "Yeah, that's the same reaction I had. She was startled and dropped everything she was doing and the knife ripped a big hole in her dress. She shuffled the fabric around and shrugged, completely uncaring. That was it!"

"That sounds exactly like Tantalus."

There was quiet for a moment. The noise of some children playing tag outside rose and fell, leaving them with their thoughts again.

"What do you think would be different, if he was here?"

Steiner knew who she was talking about without her having to say it. "I think we'd have more parties."

"What?" she laughed. "Out of all the things?"

He nodded. "A place to bring all of our family together. A celebration of this life that we've won back. There would be people coming and going all the time. The castle is... quiet. I think if Zidane were here, there'd be life."

She wanted to argue, but the more she thought about it, the more she knew he was right. There were workers, always, in the castle. And they led their own lives, usually intertwined in some incredibly gossipy way with each other's, but Dagger was lonely. Everyone was leading separate lives and she was far too polite to pull them out of that routine and together as often as she might like. Their business of trying to forget dampened their bonds. Zidane was a glue that held everything together, and while it functioned without him, it wasn't like it was supposed to be.

"Dagger would be gone a lot more," he chuckled. "You know he'd fight us tooth and nail about letting her see the world. And you know in the way only he would be able to pull off between security, the council, the nobles and Dagger herself, he would win that argument. They'd be off on a new adventure every couple of months."

"You'd be with them, as head of security," she teased.

Steiner shook his head. "I would trust him with her life," he admitted. "After everything, I truly believe that's what they'd deserve."

More silence.

"Do you think he's still out there somewhere?"

"I don't know what I believe. A part of Dagger dies if we ever found out for sure. But a different part of her is dying now. It's... complicated."

She nodded, understanding; he thought she might share her thoughts, but she didn't. She sucked on her cheek as she played with a loose thread on the table cloth. "I hope she finds peace. Five years is a long time."

"Well... we watched him evade death plenty of times. Crazier things have happened."

Her eyebrows met her hairline and one big curl fell over her shoulder, covering her collarbone. "That's quite the optimistic statement from you, Steiner."

He huffed. "Someone has to be."

And then her eyes squinted a little fondly and she stole his wine glass again, taking a bigger swig this time. "Someone has to be," she agreed.


A/N: Progress is being made! Momentum is here! Thanks for reading 3

-zesty-