Filling In The Blanks

A/N: Well... I'm really excited for the next chapters to come - they get really good from here, Promise!! Lol... It's definitely going to be interesting to see how this all plays out!! Hope you're all loving the story as much as I am!

Disclaimer: Though I wish I owned this, sadly I don't. This would be the coolest game by far to own though.

Quick Random Thought: I'm super tired, but I really want to write this :D

Chapter 13: A Little Joking Never Hurt

The steel cut through the air, slicing it with a whipping noise created by the motion of it all. An unfortunate blade of grass was sliced at the top, forever being shorter than the ones surrounding it.

"So you just move up, in a real quick motion!" The voice was light - more happy than before; for that, many people were greatful.

A few different people watched in a delight and amusement, a black mage learning to fight wasn't something people saw every day. He himself was already very unique, but to see him not hiding behind his spells was an even bigger treat.

The day was a picture perfect one. It seemed as though everyone was happy, and all problems melted away. Groups were coming back from their missions and having the story explained to them about Zidane Tribal and Vivi Orunitia being dreamers who had enough power to awaken, and find Dagger's team.

The weather rapidly alternated from cloudy, the sun blocked from the giant fluffy billows, white as snow, to sunny, where the rays struck everything in it's path, making short, to no, to long shadows as the day was to move forward.

The people of Dali even seemed to be in a better mood. The misfortunes from a while back seemed to be slowly fading away. Although there was still grief floating through the air, it seemed like the daughter, who had lost her mother in a horrific situation of misfortunes, stayed with her grandmother. She was old, but cared so dearly about her small family that she insisted on being the best she could, even in her frail state.

The resistance wasn't on edge as much, and everyone who had been bitter about the guards crossing close to their boarders had gone away on a mission, not to return for a few days. It was a good break, having the swirl of curiousity and delight at their new human weapons back in the air, just as there had been when they first arrived back from Alexandria.

The rest of the Tantalus crew returned, and they had idle conversations about everything and anything. They tried sword fighting and a few joking monotones and skits to cheer everyone up. Zidane took part in them too, and slowly the feeling if awkwardness was slipping away, as though he had never been away from them at all.

Vivi slowly was getting better at using his staff, and on days like that, the optimistic attitude radiating from him was enough to make anyone smile and feel motivated.

The next time, only a few seconds before the steel, a wooden pole sliced the air. The same piece of tall, jade grass, crumpled and folded, crippled, never to stand straight again.

"Like that?" The voice was questioning and unsure, although not enough to ruin what the owner had going.

"Yes! Vivi! You're catching on!" Zidane laughed, eyes bright with triumph; no one thought he would be able to teach Vivi, having just gotten back into the swing of things himself, but now he had proof that he was a better fighter and a better teacher than everyone gave him credit for.

The black mage clapped his hands together, glee filling his whole being. He hopped around a little in the plants, unforunately tripping on some vengeful grass, and falling face first into the dirt. For a moment, everyone stopped, concern overtaking their features, but Vivi soon rolled over, laughing almost hysterically.

This caused Zidane to laugh, and prance to the other side of him, extending a hand to help him up, only to trip as well. The most ironic part was that he never normally tripped on things, and was in the line of fire for this grass no one seemed to notice.

He fell almost on top of the mage, and from the plants erupted great hoots of laughter, causing their audience to giggle and chortle with them. Out of nowhere, a red figure lept into view, conjuring an expression of pure shock on the blonde as his best friend tackled him.

Vivi tried to roll away, but was forced into the fray as Cinna, Marcus, Zenero, and Benero came tramping over, joining the monkey pile. Everyone laughed and fooled around, pushing each other, and rolling around, doing flips and jumping to avoid hits.

At one point, Dagger was called over to join them, and hesitantly, she walked over, seeing if she could get them to stop being so immature. But Zidane was allowed to get on his knees, wrap his arms around her waist and yank her down into the grass. That's when the bystanders lost view of the girl, her squeals rising about the grass.

On the wind, it was thought someone asked the dark haired girl if she was tickilish, and it erupted into a fight with each other again, minus Dagger. She laughed the most - having been tickled. Quina, hearing all the noise coming from the field, bounded over, allowing himself to cannonball into the mess of people, his tongue flying about trying to lick people, too excited to control himself.

"I haven't seen all of them so immature in a long time," Beatrix commented to Steiner, who wasn't really paying attention to who was in it, or what was going on in the grass.

"Hm?" He asked, taking his eyes off the dirt in front of him to look at the brunette.

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "You really don't listen, do you? I know what Dagger means now."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" He demanded somewhat loudly, "I swear Beatrix sometime I am just going to..." He trailed off, not knowing what exactly he was going to finish that sentence with.

It seemed that he did that a lot. He'd leave sentences hanging in fear of him confessing his love to the younger female. He didn't want it to ruin what competitive friendship he had with her after all these years, trying to look after Dagger, and trying to rub off on her the best. In the end, Beatrix had won, and Steiner had only started getting her to see things his way when she became independent.

And on top of that fact, he didn't want their missions to become harder. He wasn't sure if that was a thing that slightly older people would have to worry about, but he did know he wasn't willing to take the chance. If Beatrix had no idea, no matter how many hints he attempted to drop (they must not have been good ones), he wasn't about to tell her.

Staring at the woman made her turn away to hide the blush on her cheeks. She hated when he did that - simply stared at her.

She wasn't sure why, but it always made her self conscious. It was such a teenage feeling to have, but she seemed to feel something when she was around Steiner, only at specific times, she seemed to have lost over the years. Emotions were hard to come by in hard times like that, so she wasn't sure what to think of it.

In some ways, Beatrix knew she thought she might be in love with Steiner. She had known him for more than a decade, and she was certain it was something more than a friendship she wanted, but it didn't matter. She wouldn't screw up whatever she had with him, and risk the chance of them becoming bias during missions simply for each other.

There were more important tasks at hand, and that's the excuse she told herself to turn away from the man in silver armor, and walk away, ready to go get food for the new arrivals who returned.

Steiner shook his head. Who was he kidding? Beatrix couldn't ever love him back, and with that he turned back to the game played in the grass, envying just how easily all of them could get along. He was getting older, and it made it all the harder to laugh, seeing what war truly did to the world.

He took one last glance at Beatrix's retreating figure before turning the other direction, mumbling something to no one in particular, that he was going to go find Cid and talk to him about any upcoming missions to be had.

??

"They sure do change the mood around here..." Dagger commented quietly, as her and Blank carried barrels of supplies from a deep room in the hideout.

"I certainly didn't expect any of the kind of responses from the people we did get to come back... I guess I became paranoid from Darious and the guy with the nub."

"You mean Storks?"

"Was that his name?" Blank chuckled, "See? He's so unimportant no one even knows who he is - why should he have a say in anything that goes on with us and the dreamers."

"He's just as much part of this resistance as we are, you have to remember," she informed, her superior knowledge overthrowing Blank's grudge, "I know we've lost a lot, but think about him... He no longer has a right arm."

This made Blank chuckle. He had expected her to lecture him, chastising him until he apologized for his statement, but he didn't know she'd make a joke on it.

"You know... Zidane is rubbing off on you."

"What?" She asked, slightly baffled.

"Yeah..." He shrugged, allowing his eyes to wander around their dim passage of stone and rotting wood.

They would really need to fix the place up, and it made him shutter thinking about what could happen if it decided to collapse on them. To stop the dizzying feeling creeping into his head, he looked down at the oak barrel he was carrying, watching his fingers unconsciously tap against it as they walked.

"What do you mean he's 'rubbed off' on me? I'm sixteen and -"

"Don't go all freedom fighter on me now, Dagger..." He grinned at his own pun, "I'm simply stating that you've changed a little since Zidane has got here..." He mockingly gasped, a sudden assumption entering his mind that he would bring up as a joke, no matter his opinion on the subject, "I think you like him."

She almost dropped the barrel, and if her expression had read one step more hilarious than it seemed to be, her movements jerky, her breath ragged with disbelieve he would even purpose such an idea, he would have died from the laughter.

At one point, he had to set the barrel down. He didn't want to risk letting the supplies go to waste simply because he was hooting at her reaction. Her cheeks shown a deep crimson, even in the poor lighting. She was completely embarassed.

"I do not like him!" She huffed, beginning to walk again.

Her tone of voice and words, gestures adding even more, made the joke all the more funny. He would have to let someone else in on it, explaining why he was tearing up with no sorrow around him.

"Why did you just get so defensive?" He couldn't help but say it with a chuckle in his voice.

"I didn't!" She insisted, causing him to laugh even deeper.

"If that wasn't devensiveness, then I don't know what is anymore..." He mumbled, purposely loud enough for her to hear.

"Well it was a silly thing to bring up. I don't understand why you would even try and speak that way."

"Then, you take your tone you've learned from him, how to joke on the cruel things in life, and how to speak less thought out and turn it around, acting all formal and royalty like."

She shot him a glare that told him to drop the subject; she simply did not want to be made fun of anymore.

Dagger tried to tell herself as she walked, her heeled ankle length boots clicking under her, that she did not find any attraction towards the blonde at all. But somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that was untrue. What kind of attraction did she feel? She had no idea. It could have been a crush, like, love, just an attraction to his personality, looks, perhaps even lust. As she walked into the main area, a scrounged up living room in a sort, he was 'sitting' there with Marcus and Cinna, in a contest to see who could hold a handstand longest.

He was at a disadvantage, hands sunk into the lavender cushions of the old, torn couch. Cinna was cheating, his legs bent, feet flat against the wall, although his arms shook at the weight he was trying to support. Marcus' hands were flat on the stone, trying to find his center of balance, every so often looking to Zidane hoping to find answers there.

She wondered if maybe she did like him - despite how angry she got on the subject, and despite how much Blank thought he had just come up with a really grand joke... She thought there was always a possiblity.

When her mind finally made a decision, Cinna fell off the wall, Marcus losing his balance and toppling over, trying to land on his teammate for a laugh. Zidane still stood, perfect balance, and pin - point precise form, chuckling slightly, wracking his body with slight shakes, at the two others.

"Showoff..." Marcus mumbled, rolling his eyes and grinning at Blank, "Having fun, Blank?"

"A blast, Marcus!" He grinned wickedly at Dagger, earning yet another scoff he did not care about, "I've got a wonderful joke I need to fill you in on later though. You and Cinna only... Sorry Zidane, you're not included."

"Probably something I wouldn't understand anyways..."

"For once..." Marcus muttered again, only to get hit in the head with a throw pillow Zidane had managed to whip at him, still on his hands, getting sucked into the furniture.

With that, they left the room, yet another small fight exploding; Dagger could only smile.

Okay, so Blank's joke wasn't so far off after all...

??

A/N: Okay! I know that was kind of uneventful, but I thought you'd appreciate me showing you just how much Zidane and Vivi seem to fit in with everyone now.

I hope you enjoyed :D I know it seemed a little random, but I thought it was good anyways. YOU let me know what YOU think!

Review!

-zesty-