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year 5, quarter 3
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[attr=class,bulk] It was at least a few days before Celes was truly able to take time to herself. Looking back, she’d been silly to think of her little trip to Provo as a “vacation.” Truly, all she’d been doing was switching branches of the Dragonblades, and while some part of her was more than a little bitter at the stressful result, the smarter part of her was glad that she did.
Yuna needed help. That was clear from the moment that Celes had stepped through the clinic doors. How she’d managed to run this operation by herself for so long, Celes simply had no idea, but that was what had kept her so busy for those hectic days between her arrival and her first moment of peace. Even with her magic, Celes was no match for Yuna’s healing prowess. Still, life as an assistant white mage was nothing to sneeze at when no other help was coming, and it seemed like yours was the only clinic in the world operating at a cost that would attract the whole of the city at once.
While Celes wasn’t working, Yuna had kindly provided her a room above the clinic and across from her own. The room was comfortable enough, but lacked any real decoration except for a mirror and a potted plant on the dresser that looked like it had missed more than a few days of watering. Still, it suited Celes fine. It was only a guest room, after all, and she had other things to worry about than the surrounding decor.
Like the letter in her hand for instance.
It was from Caius. Of course it was. Celes didn’t know why she’d imagined that they’d keep out of correspondence. The date was stamped sometime after she’d left the city of Torensten, and it seemed like while she’d been off traipsing through the mountains on a crazed mission with Alexander Sorel, Caius had been having an adventure of his own. Of course, that meant that the letter, only recently delivered, was extremely dated by now. Perhaps it had been held at the office due to bad weather? Now that she thought about it, she had no idea how mail delivery worked between the two nations, but that was entirely beside the point.
The point was that while the letter started predictably enough, it quickly took a turn that bordered on the absurd.
”Maria?” Celes stared at the letter. She reread the lines three, four, five times but there was no mistake about it. ’Your lookalike, an apparently famous opera singer, Maria Nightingale.’
”She…that woman…Really?!” Celes stared at it for a moment longer before she burst out laughing. It was a loud laugh somewhere between irony and disbelief. How long had she searched for anyone familiar from her world? How long had she wanted nothing more than to see a familiar face? Apparently if she returned back to Torensten, she’d see a face that was a little too familiar. Whatever strange hand had decided to pluck them all here had chosen the opera singer of Jidoor over the rebels, her friends, who had fought a mad god and somehow come out of it alive.
And from the sounds of it, that opera singer was currently trying to woo Caius. She didn’t know how she should feel about her apparent doppelganger flirting with the man she had kindly rejected in every conceivable way. Well, if that’s what Maria wanted then Celes wished her luck. Caius wouldn’t know romance if it hit him with the full force of a steam train.
The thought got her laughing again. What was her life? What was it, really?
She didn’t realize that she must have been incredibly loud only a room away from her tired coworker until she heard the floorboards in the hallway outside creak, and she abruptly stopped laughing. Oh. Celes bit her tongue and set the letter aside, hoping that she could at least appear composed if Yuna decided to check on whatever madness had overcome her alone in her room. If not…Perhaps she would go out and apologize. Yuna was a saint in Celes’ eyes, and the last thing Celes wanted to do was keep her from sleeping.
And there went another point in favor of her own lack of social tact. Shame rose in her like burning embers, but she tried to bury it as quickly as it had come. It wouldn’t do to get flustered before she’d even started a conversation with her.
The image of Caius with a woman who looked exactly like her, however, would keep her plenty flustered for some time to come. But that was a problem for another time.
[attr=class,bulk] After the clinic had closed down for the day, Yuna felt like her house was eerily quiet. Celes had disappeared into her room, and the only overnight patient she had right now was Cloud. Thankfully, he was healthy enough that he didn’t need to be checked on much anymore. Yuna hadn’t been sure that he’d pull through when Caius had brought him with a full stab wound through the abdomen, but he was tough. The blond man would probably be leaving with his friends any day now, and Yuna was incredibly proud of him for his hard work.
Now if only she could sleep.
It was a warm night since Spring weather was starting to creep its way into Provo, and she hadn’t had time to switch her bedding yet from the thick winter quilts. She felt almost too hot to sleep, and after tossing and turning for over an hour, Yuna decided to go to the kitchen for some water before trying again. Maybe she’d finally be able to find a cool spot on her pillow when she came back.
Yuna tried to be as quiet as possible on her way downstairs since she didn’t want to disturb Cloud or Celes. It was on her way back up though that she heard a laugh from the guest bedroom across the way. Yuna wasn’t sure what was funny when presumably Celes was in there alone, but it sounded like she wasn’t the only one awake in the house at least.
Yuna lightly tapped her knuckles on the door to announce her presence. “Celes?” After a moment of hesitation, she tried the doorknob with her glass of water still clutched in the other hand. The guest room was illuminated with pale lamplight, so Celes clearly wasn’t even trying to sleep yet. The blond general was seated in bed with a piece of paper lying next to her, so maybe she’d finally been reading the letter that she’d picked up in town today.
“You couldn’t sleep either?” Yuna asked with a faint smile as she leaned against the door frame. “Would you mind some company then?” They hadn’t had a proper chance to catch up yet after all.
[attr=class,bulk] For a moment, Celes hoped beyond hope that she could avoid the overworked healer and her kind concern, but of course that wasn’t the case. The creaking of floorboards came louder, one at a time, and then there came a knock on the door and the cautious calling of her name.
”Yes?” she called back, and Yuna opened the door, stepping into the flickering lamplight. She was in a night dress, hair rumpled from sleep with a glass of water in her hand. So she had woken her, hadn’t she? Celes was about to apologize before Yuna interrupted her with her own tired smile.
”You couldn’t sleep either?” she asked, leaning against the doorframe. ”Would you like some company then?”
”I’m…what?” The apology was already set on her lips, and it was hard to change course. ”Oh. Oh, yes, I wouldn’t mind that.” She felt heat rising to her cheeks again. How often was she going to make a fool of herself in front of the people she respected? An indefinite amount of times, it seemed. One day she’d get used to normal human conversation. Maybe. If she was lucky.
And she was very rarely lucky.
”You can come in and sit down,” she said, waving vaguely around the room before realizing that her room hadn’t come furnished with a chair. It was either the floor or the bed where she was currently sitting. Celes shifted over to make space in case Yuna chose to share it with her, but that would be rather close, wouldn’t it? It would have been better to suggest that they both move somewhere else, but hindsight was 20/20 as they said, and she’d already let the words out of her mouth.
So her bedroom it was, and it seemed that she was having late night company.
”I was just, well, reading Caius’ letter. I hope I didn’t wake you. It was…” She searched for the right words to describe it. Not funny exactly to anyone that wasn’t her. If Yuna had read it on its own, she certainly wouldn’t have thought so anyway. Celes smirked faintly. ”It was ironic.”
She grabbed the outdated letter and set it in her own lap so that Yuna wouldn’t accidentally sit on it. ”It seems he’s met someone from my world. Someone who looks almost startlingly like me. And I think this woman has taken an interest in him.”
It was absolutely ridiculous to say outloud. It was absolutely ridiculous to even think it, but it was what she’d read and it was the impression it had given her, at any rate. Celes sighed. ”Just when I thought I’d escaped all of that mess…”
[attr=class,bulk] Celes seemed a little thrown off balance by Yuna’s presence, so maybe she hadn’t wanted visitors. The blonde woman accepted the invitation though even if her cheeks were tinged a little red. Yuna certainly didn’t understand why she’d be embarrassed, so she just smiled at her reassuringly and stepped further into the room. Celes had said that she should sit down, so Yuna made herself at home at the foot of the bed by folding her legs under her and smoothing down her skirt. In this position, she felt almost like she was back at Besaid Temple and getting ready to offer prayers to the fayth. But of course she was a million miles away from all of that. Instead she clutched a cup of water in front of herself and looked up at Celes expectantly.
She confirmed Yuna’s suspicious that she’d been reading Caius’ letter, and the summoner shook her head to deny that she’d been woken up. “No, I don’t mind really. I was awake anyway.” As Celes outlined what she’d been laughing about though, Yuna put a hand to her mouth in some amount of horror. “Poor Caius, he probably hasn’t noticed at all. I see why that would be uncomfortable for you though. Is she related to you, or is it just a coincidence that she looks like you?”
Almost under her breath, Celes muttered that she thought she had escaped all that mess, which made Yuna frown in concern. “You know, you never really had the chance to say why you left Torensten…” Was she prying? Maybe gently. She welcomed the blonde woman’s company of course, it was just honestly a little strange to see her and Caius separated. They had been a pair at least ever since Yuna had woken up in Zephon.
“Did…you two have a falling out? It’s just that I usually saw you at the base training recruits while Caius did outside jobs and now you seem to have switched...”
[attr=class,bulk] Yuna looked properly horrified at Caius’ misadventures. That was good. Celes was glad she didn’t have to explain exactly why the whole situation was far too complicated for words. Yuna had chosen to politely sit on the ground, kneeling there with some amount of practice with her night dress smoothly folded over. The pose carried both innocence and practice, youth and patience. Yuna was a little younger than her though not by much. She felt mature beyond her years. So did Celes, probably, when she thought about it.
”She’s not related to me. Or at least I don’t think so. I was a war orphan. We could be sisters for all I know, but I highly doubt it.” For one, it would be coincidence upon coincidence upon coincidence if they were. For another, Celes couldn’t imagine how one sister would be taken by the empire for their little science experiments while another somehow ended up on another continent as an opera diva.
”Her name is Maria. I once stood in for her at an opera house when we were in need of an airship and she was being stalked by a man who planned to abduct her and force her into marriage. It’s a long story.”
A long story that she would probably have to write out for Caius now so that he knew exactly what he was dealing with. She hated telling that story. It wasn’t exactly her proudest moment.
But something in her mutterings must have struck Yuna’s suspicions because now she was asking exactly why she’d left Torensten in the first place. Celes blinked at her in surprise, stumbling over her words before she finally found them. ”O-oh. That. I had a whole speech prepared when I arrived, but you know. I suppose I got a bit distracted.”
She’d practiced the speech too, the whole way to the city on the back of her chocobo once she was finished with that whole misadventure with Alex. But now it was gone – dispersed by the sight of a dying man and a waiting room full of magical maladies. It was only natural for Yuna to question her sudden arrival – once they had a moment to themselves at least.
And here Celes was, speechless and scrambling for a proper explanation. She cleared her throat and hoped that it would straighten her thoughts a little. ”I, well, I suppose I felt a bit…stifled there. And underappreciated. I know it wasn’t Caius’ fault that he was always the one having adventures and making a name for himself, but when one of us was being heralded as a hero and one of us couldn’t be recognized on the street…”
She’d had just as important a job as Caius. She’d trained the recruits, after all, something in which she had years of experience and was quite good at if she could say so herself. And her superior military education had given her an edge on things like assigning the mercenary work, keeping track of their earnings, and that sort of thing. But after a time, she began to feel like a glorified secretary. It wasn’t the most dignified of feelings.
”I’m sure he’s doing fine,” she said more to herself than Yuna. ”He’s hired a woman to take care of my desk work, and now he’s the one training recruits. I bet he’s going too easy on them. Oh well.” It wasn’t her problem anymore. She’d made sure of that. Still, it ate at the back of her mind a little. What if Caius went too easy on them? What if he assigned them work that they weren’t ready for? What if they died in the process? Celes knew all too well that it was her job as a general to not release a soldier to combat until he was ready or the blood would be on her hands. Would Caius feel the same?
Damn it all.
”Though if I’m being honest, I’d thought about doing this for some time. I don’t like to stay in one place for too long. It feels…dangerous after everything I’ve seen, and more than that. Well…” She hesitated. Was she really about to tell Yuna this? She supposed she deserved the truth for taking her so unquestioningly into her home. ”Caius…He’s…Well, he’s made it quite clear that he’s in love with me.”
There it was. Out in the open. Celes felt heat rise to her cheeks. She didn’t look at Yuna as she added, ”Now I’ve put him quite in his place. It took some time, but I think it finally got through his thick skull that I’m not interested, but it did make working there awkward to say the least.”
After their initial falling out, Caius had finally stopped making little hints and slips of the tongue where he called her beautiful or something equally stupid. But oh! Those were just mistakes, weren’t they? He hadn’t actually meant it when he said such things! He was far too stupid in the way of romance. How could he ever actually mean what he said? Oh silly her, getting all in a twist over nothing!
She felt an old anger rise to the surface, one which she quickly swallowed back where it belonged. The point was that Caius had stopped that kind of behavior. Finally. But it had gone on for so long that it was enough to leave a woman on edge whether Caius truly deserved it or not. It certainly hadn’t helped matters when added to all the other factors at play.
”I needed some time away. That’s all,” she said finally. ”I’m glad I came when I did. Have you been this busy all this time? I want to help if I can. I know you’re doing good work, but it isn’t healthy to run yourself this hard.” She looked at Yuna, a hint of concern in her eyes. ”We really should hire someone to help you. I’m sure there are plenty of white mages looking for work these days.”
[attr=class,bulk] It was apparently a coincidence that Celes and Maria looked nearly identical, at least as far as the blonde general seemed to know. She revealed that she wasn’t entirely sure since she had been an orphan of war, which made Yuna frown slightly. “I’m sorry. I know you said once that the empire had raised you.” It made her think of her own parents, but at least Yuna was blessed enough to remember them a little. It sounded like Celes had been young enough that she had no idea who her family even was. With how proud she was of her father’s legacy, that seemed devastating to Yuna.
The look-alike blondes had apparently met when Celes had stood in for Maria while she was being stalked and nearly forced into marriage. Yuna blinked at the strange story. Then she nodded firmly. “I understand. I’ve been forced into marriage before. You were so sweet to help her.” And then, because Yuna did not really consider how odd that was to just insert into conversation, she brightened at the revelation that Celes could sing. “You can sing opera? I’d love to hear it sometime if that wouldn’t be too embarrassing.”
Celes seemed taken off-guard when Yuna asked why she had left Torensten, and the summoner felt a bit sheepish when she said that her planned speech had gotten interrupted. True, they hadn’t exactly had time to talk the day that she had arrived. Yuna was just embarrassed that Celes had come during one of the clinic’s busiest days. It wasn’t always so chaotic, but now that was probably the news that she’d take back to Caius.
Regardless, Yuna listened intently as Celes shared why she was taking a break from Torensten. She hadn’t really thought about how the co-leader of the Dragonblades must have felt when she didn’t usually get as much public credit as Caius. That must have been incredibly frustrating. “No, you’re right. You deserve to take as much time in the field as you need. I’m sure Caius feels the same way.”
Celes also stated that Caius had made it clear that he was in love with her. Yuna nodded along before realizing that Celes had shared the news like she expected it to be a bombshell. “Oh. You mean you…don’t feel the same?” Yuna asked, feeling some heat come into her cheeks. “Oh no. I mean, that’s fine of course! You don’t have to! I just…may have encouraged him once to talk to you about it…” Well this was incredibly awkward now. It’s probably what Yuna deserved for trying to play matchmaker, she just didn’t like to see people sitting on their feelings. She and Tidus could have had so much more time together if Yuna hadn’t let her dogmatic ideas of a summoner’s duty get in the way in the beginning…
But thinking of Tidus on Zephon only brought pain.
The topic came back to the clinic, and Yuna cleared her throat before nodding a bit sheepishly. “It gets pretty busy. Usually with minor injuries, but sometimes with major ones if they can’t afford a hospital. I know I really should hire more people. I guess asking for help has just never been one of my strong suits.” As every single one of her guardians could attest.
