David and his father had run for a long time before neither of them could continue, having to walk instead.

They had gone down two different areas that were adjacent to one another and both kept an eye out from their positions and each other. Having not found anything as of yet, it now being close to an hour since leaving the capital, they were starting to panic upon whether they would find Cid at all!

Feeling like they might have just missed him, more than once, they started to wonder if they had gone the wrong way and perhaps this was also a reason why they started to walk instead of run.

Coming together, they both agreed that they will search further away now, as the roads they were taking were doing that anyway…The problem was, it was better to split up and all they could do is state to meet back to where they were now. If they wouldn’t find Cid in an hour, they would return to where they were now and go closer to the capital and do the same thing again further down, hopefully finding Cid that way as…The road really did go towards another town from here, where they would no longer be close to the capital…

With the plan in motion, Benjamin went one way and David went the other and it seemed that they did indeed go too far…

Cid leaned against the door frame and closed his eyes.

He’d gotten away, which meant Steven will find out soon enough and when he does…

As far as Cid was aware, Steven and the Princess were still engaged to be married. He didn’t have a clue upon how the Princess seemed so carefree of how she was going to cancel the engagement so…

He should believe that it could be done, he should…Believe in her.

Then…If she were to cancel the engagement, then…

Right, he needed to prove himself!

Opening his eyes and nodding, Cid smiled and gave his jewellery crafting a quick thought.

How long would it take for him to get to a point of being someone good enough for the Princess?

The traders won’t return for a while yet, one in a week, two in a month or so, so he won’t know how much he’s sold for a while and…His name or his jewellery crafting methods won’t be known straight away.

It seemed…That it will be a while yet…

He wanted to get in enough money so that he could support a family, he wanted his work to be known so that they knew for certain that he would not fall into mishap and not be able to protect and look after the Princess.

Putting a hand through his hair, Cid again put his head back against the door and sighed. It wasn’t all that long ago that all he wanted was to get away, now…Now he wanted to be known, he wanted to marry the Princess and he wanted to have sufficient funds…

Letting out a small laugh and shaking his head, Cid sighed.

His Princess was…

She was worth it and…He will do what he can…He will!

Pushing himself off the door and unlocking it, Cid went into his small house and closed the door behind him.

It was too late and cold to wash himself, so he just did his face and took off his long coat and hat.

Just as he finished cleaning his face and was ready to put on the fire and boil some water, a rushed knock was on the door and Cid frowned…

Could it be Steven?

Perhaps he saw that he had gotten free and followed after him?

Not sure if he should open it or not, a familiar voice came through the closed door, “Cid? Is that you in there?”

It was nearly a whisper and it was uncertain but…David’s voice, it really sounded like David!

Opening the door, Cid looked at David and let out a small laugh.

“Cid!”

David pushed Cid back, turned him against a wall and suddenly he felt like it was hard to breath. “Dav…Id”

“You say you don’t need my mother, I accepted that, trusting you! Then, upon coming back, after not hearing one word from you while we were gone, I find that you have disappeared! No more running, right!?”

Cid pulled at David’s arm, trying to push it away, yet he was listening…Feeling slightly bad, so his pushing wasn’t with all his strength.

The only thing Cid could do was nod…He at least was able to do that, letting David nod too and then continue, “I was so glad to see you at the ball, but you know what! Straight away you are already targeted by Steven! Cid, really! I find that you were locked in, I mean, if we didn’t follow Steven, how would have you had…”

David stopped, remembering a certain thief and frowned. Cid probably would have been alright yet…It didn’t matter! How would they have found Cid now, if they hadn’t have chased after Steven so quickly!?

It all would have been so much easier if Cid had just let them know where he was!

This…This was the reason why David was having so much trouble!

He saw people as problems! Each one of them had troubles and so each one of them were problems!

Cid…He had troubles, so he was a problem!

David couldn’t get mad though, he was still pretty glad that Cid was safe, and well, they were friends…

Pushing off Cid, David let out a deep breath and looked at the ground, “Why did you not contact us?”

Don’t hit him! Don’t hit him!

Cid swallowed and put a hand to David’s shoulder, “…Two reasons, but I guess I should have done so, just so you wouldn’t be this worried and want to hit me. I’m sorry…”

David rolled his eyes and made a face at Cid, “…It doesn’t matter now, I gotta get back to father and let him know.”

Cid stopped David and both of them looked at each other.

Just for a quick moment, no words were said but both of them seemed to understand.

David understood that Cid was sorry and that he was just trying to do what he could to survive, and Cid understood David’s panic and did mean his apology.

They were best of friends for years after all so with only David nodding and leaving the house, Cid slowly nodding too, they had made up.

Their relationship wasn’t based upon how much the other was mad at the other, or happy…It was more based on why the other acted as such and trying to understand each other.

Perhaps they weren’t as close as real brothers, as they might not make amends like others do, but…They were closer than some relationships, as they were still able to feel quite free, knowing that whatever the other might do, as long as they could find a way to understand why they do something, it was something that they could look over and forgive…

Cid found David to be observant yet someone that needed to understand, and seeing David was in fact this way brought Cid to being able to handle David and their relationship.

On the other hand, Cid’s relationship with the Princess was different. It wasn’t about letting another understand and understanding their point of view, it was…A little harder…

Having feelings, extra feelings then those of with David, Pauletta and Benjamin, Cid has already made mistakes so…The relationship with the Princess had already had twists and turns that Cid could hardly handle at first!

Now…His relationship with the Princess, twists and turns included, was more based upon her happiness and wanting to be close to her, as she wanted to be close to him…

Right up until the ball, Cid had not completely understood Princess Bethany.

He had made her upset and angry because he had wished her well when she had not been happy about the marriage events. And so, he had to see that her real happiness wasn’t just her brother, nor Pauletta, Benjamin and sometimes even David’s happiness…It was himself as well.

It seemed so silly to Cid, that she could care so much about him but, that was what it was!

She had confessed, she had kissed him and accepted his ring…It had to be true that he was a part of her happiness! If he didn’t believe it, wouldn’t he be stupid!?

So…Now he finally understood their relationship better!

Noticing that he was smiling, Cid bowed his head, only to realize that he had already put water over the fire…

When had he done that?

With no idea upon how much time had gone, just thinking and absentmindedly getting a fire going and heating up water, Cid blinked and shook his head.

He really was a goner for the Princess!

Putting her lovely face out of his mind for a moment, Cid focused on getting out all his cups, which was only two, then put on something warmer, as he had taken off his long coat.

Just about ready to clean his long coat, while waiting for the water to boil, there was a knock on the door, but it was opened a second after, with Benjamin walking straight in, “Cid!”

Cid stood up and accepted Benjamin’s warm hug.

With a few slaps on the back, Benjamin released him and stood back, smiling, “It is good to see you!”

Cid smiled back, just that smile of his uncle’s and those words put warmth into his lonely heart…

Weeks had gone by and Cid never knew how cold his heart had gotten. It wasn’t the first time Benjamin had left with his wife and son but…Why was it that this time that smile, and those words, meant so much to him?

“Have you been well?”

Cid nodded, still a bit too emotional to talk at the moment but he did not lose it and cry. He was a man after all!

“Ah, no…I can’t find any food!” Cid snapped to look at the other voice and saw that David was going through the small number of cupboards in the house…

“Nothing!?” Benjamin asked in a disbelieving manner, looking at David.

Cid put up his hands and tried to quickly come up with something, “I…I ate…It.”

Both of the other men now looked at Cid and narrowed their eyes…

Ah, both father and son…

Cid looked away from both of them and came to see the hot water over the fire was ready, so he had something else to worry about!

“…Back with us!”

As Cid put down the hot water safely, he quickly looked up and said, “Please, I don’t need to! I have everything I need here!”

“Except food.” David bluntly said.

Glaring at David, Cid then looked at Benjamin, only to be glared at by him too.

He really did have food earlier! He just…Ate it! He wasn’t starving! Why are they glaring at him so fiercely!?

“You need to be somewhere where you can make your ring.” Benjamin stated, sighing, “That’s why here isn’t the place to be.”

Cid went silent and didn’t understand, “…What ring?”

“The Princess is going to marry the person who can make her a specific ring. I’m guessing it’s the one you gave her, so you should know what it looks like.”

“More then that! He should know everything about that ring!” David stated, making a face to the dirty wall that he had just leaned against.

“She’s…Going to marry the person who…” Cid was stunned!

Was this how the Princess stopped her engagement? It can’t be!

“What about her engagement!?” Cid asked.

“Prince Elton helped the Princess dissolve it into nothing.” David stated, frowning to saying ‘Prince Elton’…How dare that friend of his so openly talk about what he does away from his father!

“Nothing?” Cid asked, quite stunned, “They aren’t…”

Benjamin came to Cid then and put a hand to his shoulder, smiling like an idiot, “Yes, Cid. They are no longer getting married and…I assume it’s you and the Princess that will be getting married instead!”

Cid backed himself against a wall, holding himself up. Shock, excitement and happiness went through him like it had never before!

They, Steven and Bethany, weren’t going to marry and…And he had…He knew how to make the ring that she…

Before now he was wondering just how much he had to prove himself to be someone worthy of the Princess but with this happening…

“…Left Earlier, remember?”

“Right, well, doesn’t matter now! What matters now is to get Cid to a place that will help him make the ring! Come on boy, come to your senses!” Benjamin slapped Cid on the shoulder and Cid nodded, his eyes still glazed over in wonder, but he got off the wall and started to nod.

“Can we use your father’s shop?” Benjamin asked. “What’s the state that…”

“No, I was locked in…” Cid started to say.

Benjamin widened his eyes, “Right…No…We mustn’t use…”

Cruel people! They had absolutely no right to take that place!

Benjamin felt so angry that he forgot why they were talking about a blacksmith in the first place and even put a fisted hand into his other opened hand. “They deserve much more than a…”

“Father! Focus!” David stated. Even his father was trouble!

Benjamin immediately remembered and dropped his hands, “Who else then? What about…No, that would be silly too…”

They couldn’t use a blacksmith that was directly connected to those cruel people! Even if the blacksmith was not someone used by Leonard, there was one that was friends with him…Which doesn’t leave very much left now in the capital!

Cid looked at them then, and said, “Don’t worry yourselves, I have a new supplier and I will ask them to help me.”

“New? Then you haven’t used them for long?” Benjamin stated, narrowing his eyes.

David let out a huff, “Cid will only have to let them know a secret and they should be fine!”

Benjamin turned and looked at his son for a moment, reminded of something said to him just earlier this day, “Did your friends tell you this, uh?”

David frowned and shook his head, “Not the time for this, Father!”

No, never was a good time for this conversation!

Talking about his place in the black market was something that even he himself didn’t care too much for anymore!

After all, it was the black markets fault for opening his mind to the scheming of people…

David quickly turned to Cid, who went back to cleaning his coat, and said, “Where is this place?”

“Capital.”

With a look from Cid, asking silently, and David raising his eyebrows and nodding, the conversation seemed over, “Need help then?”

Cid sighed, “Does Pauletta know how to clean the coat better?”

Benjamin smiled and said, “Call her Aunt, my boy!”

Not only was Cid finally asking for help, but Benjamin understood what seemed to have been agreed upon! Cid was coming home with them!

“Let’s go!”

***

The days that followed were hectic for Cid.

He did indeed spend the next few days at his Aunt and Uncle’s, and after a long conversation with the blacksmith, Cid was finally able to use it to make the ring.

If the blacksmith was great, it would be under his stepfather but…The blacksmith was not. It was a business that a rich noble had and he did not look after it well, nor cared for who worked there. Cid didn’t want to use him too much and only when absolutely necessary but right now there wasn’t much other choice!

Not only would any other blacksmith be a stranger, where their work and materials were unknown of quality, but they would have to be outside of the capital as well.

The blacksmith had work from people so, strangely, it stayed afloat, the problem was…Cid felt like he had given away too much!

It was understandable that they did not think that the ring that Cid was making was the real one, but they still wanted so much, even if it wasn’t!

The blacksmith wanted profit, they persisted that this project has their name written all over it! Not only that but Cid had to pay them extra, not just for the materials but also for ‘making’ it…When they weren’t even making it!

It was a total rip off, but it was to be done in silence, and that was where David came in…

David had not shown what he was capable of until the blacksmith had the urge to speak to someone and then…Not only David’s father became flabbergasted, but also that of Cid and the poor person, the blacksmith, was practically scared out of his wits that he now even bows to David upon seeing him.

To David, it wasn’t much of a trick, he just placed the blacksmith as someone that needed to pay a large sum of debt in a month and was looking at running away. The job was to ‘watch’, be discrete to others but to be known largely by the blacksmith…And he nearly wet his pants to how many black clothed eyes would stare at him and…And weapons…

David thought it was absolutely hilarious, but his father thought otherwise…He was going to have to have a good stern chat with his son!

It was in these days that Cid finally felt like he had gone back to normal.

He had depended solely upon himself, surviving and having to do everything on his own but now…Now, Pauletta had cleaned his coat, making it look like new. Any other type of materials needed for his ring, that the blacksmith didn’t supply, were supplied without cost or question by Benjamin and he felt warm…

Food, that was meat and vegetables, he was able to enjoy eating it with others. To see a made bed with warm blankets, clean tabletops and water easily to get to…Even Pauletta washed his clothes so that he didn’t have to do it…

Yes, Cid felt like he had missed these things and felt quite grateful to have them once again, even if it was for a little while. Well, some of them anyway…He’d always done his own clothes washing but at least he was eating better once again.

…What had not changed though, was his stepfamily…