[Fic][FFIV] Archiving an old prompt community fill - Cecil/Rosa/Kain

[wallwalker]

[This was written for ff_threesomes on LJ a long time ago. I found them going through old LJ comments, and am now archiving them here. I apologize in advance for formatting issues; I'll figure it out later.]

Fandom: Final Fantasy IV
Claim: Cecil/Rosa/Kain
Theme set/Theme: (Set II, #8 - Complaining)
Title: Tea With Nana
Rating: SFW Warnings: None.
Summary: Rosa's grandmother frets over her favorite granddaughter's future.

"I just want to help you, Rosa... I want to make sure that you don't make the biggest mistake of your life."

"I know, Nana," Rosa answered, pouring a cup of tea for her. Nana had a maid or two who could have served the tea, but Rosa preferred to make it and give it to her grandmother herself. She knew how Nana liked it, knew just how much honey and milk to add. Nana was sick again; Rosa often came and cared for her in her sickbed, and listened to Nana tell her things that she might not've chosen to listen to otherwise. "It's all right, really. Cecil is a good man."

"Oh, sweetheart..." Nana clucked her tongue. The old lady had once been quite beautiful; Rosa herself looked much as she had as a young woman, or so her aunts had told her. Now her once-golden hair was thin and grey; her face was marked by every worry of her many years, and she had always been a worrier. "So many girls marry their childhood loves, then realize that they've made a mistake once the knot's tied -"

"But he is," Rosa insisted, with no real unhappiness in her voice. She had heard these complaints too many times before, had learned to let her grandma's protests pass by... not to ignore them, but to at least take them a little less seriously. "He would be a good man no matter what."

"But what sort of good man chooses to carry the Dark Blade?" Nana shook her head. "That magic corrupts everything and everyone who touches it. The King must be going mad to allow such darkness within our walls. No, dear girl, that man must have a heart of darkness within him, or else he'd never be able to bear the weapon..."

Rosa didn't answer; there wasn't much point in arguing. She knew that everyone had a bit of darkness in them; there was a spark of light in everyone's heart, and light inevitably cast shadows. But her Nana couldn't see that. To her, the world was simple; there were things that were good enough for her granddaughter, and things that were not. Rosa had tried to explain these things to her far too many times, and if she didn't understand by then, she never would.

"I tell you," Nana continued, "you should've had your eyes on young Sir Highwind. Quite a handsome boy, he is. Strong, clever, loyal... he didn't turn his back on his father's wishes and take up the Dark Blade, did he? Now there's a young man with some respect for his family."

Rosa sat next to the bed, feeling a familiar ache in her heart as she thought of Kain. "He never asked for my hand," Rosa said softly. "I'm not sure that he ever would have."

She'd thought about it often enough, after all. She remembered when they were younger too well, when all three of them had shared the same shadow. They had been inseparable for so long... she'd wished that they had never drifted apart. She wished that they could've stayed young, that they'd never changed. But Kain had always been the aloof one, even then... he had always stood back and watched, usually with a smile. But he'd hung back as Rosa had taught Cecil how to use a bit of her magic, or when Cecil had demonstrated an easier way for Rosa to string her bow. No, Kain had never been unkind, had never refused or scorned their company; he'd just hung back, kept to himself even when they were together.

But if he'd ever wanted to join them, he would've been welcome. Kain must have known that. Hadn't he?

"Did he know that you were looking for a husband?" Nana continued, interrupting her reverie. "Men need us to tell them these things, you know. They're lost without us..."

Rosa forced a smile. "Yes, Nana," she said... but she was thinking of Cecil, the smile on his face as he'd given her their engagement ring. "I suppose that they are." She took her grandmother's hand and squeezed her cold fingers.

Yes, it was best not to take Nana's complaints too seriously. She knew that her grandmother just wanted her to be happy. It was just that Nana had never been able to believe that anyone was good enough for her favorite granddaughter. Rosa had the distinct feeling that if she were engaged to Kain, Nana wouldn't approve of him, either. She could easily imagine what she might say: "Rosa, dear, don't you see that Kain is aloof and uncaring? Are you certain that he would be able to treat you as well as you deserve to be treated? And the man has no ambition - oh, I'll admit that he's no idiot, but there's little enough need for sharp minds among the Royal Dragoons. Now, young Sir Harvey, he's an ambitious man - he'll be Commander of the Red Wings soon enough...."

"Rosa?" Nana smiled and patted her hand. "What are you thinking about, child?"

"Oh," Rosa said, realizing abruptly that she had been smiling. "Nothing... it's nothing."

"All right," Nana said. Then she laughed, an old, dry chuckle. "I'm sorry to bother you, dear. It's just that, well, I've raised three daughters. I know that things aren't always as simple as they seem."

Rosa let her go on, and said nothing - she thought of being a child, playing with her two best friends in the world, and wished that she could have that back again. Why did being a grown-up mean having to leave those things behind?

Fandom: Final Fantasy IV
Claim: Cecil/Rosa/Kain
Theme set/Theme: Set II, #2 - Hug
Title: Simple
Rating: SFW
Warnings: None
Summary: Rosa imagines their reunion.

---

What would they do if Kain came back that evening?

Rosa isn't sure. She knows that things can't be as simple as she'd like them to be - there are too many changes. Cecil is the King now; he and Kain aren't equals anymore, and can never be equal again, as much as both of them might wish them to be. And Kain... she doesn't know what's happening in his mind. She'd like to know; she tried to talk with him on the moon, to make him open up to her the way that he'd opened to her before. But he wouldn't talk to her, wouldn't "trouble" her in such "difficult times." She hoped that it was just the fight on the Moon that he was referring to, that he would talk to her when they returned.

But he vanished, and no one knew where he had gone. It seemed inconceivable that he could just disappear, but somehow he had, and left his closest companions to marry and celebrate without him.

Any reunion would be complicated, and Rosa knows it. She hates it, but she knows it. She's the queen of Baron, and Cecil is the King; whatever pardon they might give Kain, he's still a traitor in many of the peoples' eyes. He will have to be tried. There will have to be some satisfactory form of justice, or the people would grow restless.

But she doesn't want that. She doesn't want complications. She doesn't want angry accusations and grief and self-recriminations. She just wants Kain back, wants him to come back home to them.

She imagines what would happen - or rather, what she would like to happen - should Kain come home - imagines the three of them coming closer and closer, until they can almost touch. Imagines the uncertainty and the nervousness of their reunion finally melting away, and imagines them hugging each other tightly, laughing and smiling. She imagines the three of them, three kindred spirits, locked in an embrace that feels like it would never end.

She knows that it couldn't possibly be so simple... but she dreams of it, anyway.

Fandom: Final Fantasy IV
Claim: Cecil/Rosa/Kain
Theme set/Theme: Set II, #4 - Pick and Choose
Title: Careful
Rating: SFW
Warnings: Implied sex, if that.
Summary: They all have to be careful.

---

They all have to be very careful.

They have to keep the more intimate details of their relationship carefully hidden, for one thing. Rosa doesn't like that; she would like to be able to shout it from the castle walls, tell all of Baron that she is loved and doubly loved. But there are the messy problems of politics, the entanglements that they cannot avoid. Cecil is the King, and Rosa is the Queen; Kain is a warrior, the highest in all the land, but not royalty. And there are things that the people of Baron would begrudge him. He still lives under a cloud of suspicion; too many people knew that he had been involved in the attack on Fabul, and although Cecil had pardoned him, others were not so generous.

They have to be even more careful in other, still more intimate ways. Rosa is Queen; she must bear an heir, a child, in order to grant legitimacy to Cecil's reign. Yes, he was the chosen king, and yes, the people love him... but there are ancient rules that must be obeyed, and Cecil is nothing if not dutiful.

She doesn't enjoy picking and choosing between them. She doesn't like the knowledge that if she makes a mistake, and bears the wrong man's child, it could mean the downfall of everything they'd tried to build. But if she wants this situation to continue... if she wants them both... she has to continue to be careful. She has to watch the cycles of the moon and her own body, to drink the extracts of herbs that she learned to gather in the forest when she must, and to wait.

She doesn't enjoy it, but when she thinks about how much quieter the castle was when Kain was gone, and how much more complete life feels now that he's returned, she knows that it's worth all the care that they must take.

---


Fandom: FFIV
Claim: Cecil/Rosa/Kain
Theme set/Theme: Set II, Theme #8 - Time
Title: Growing Up
Rating: SFW
Warnings: None
Summary: The child shares something of all three of them, somehow.
Author's Note: Ficlet. Semi-sequel to Careful.

Rosa's son has her golden hair, and his father's piercing eyes. There's something of Rosa's father in his jaw, and the odd curve of his nose is something new, perhaps the legacy of Cecil's father.


There is nothing of Kain in him, not in appearance - only in his brash smile and his boldness, especially for a boy so young. He is only six, but he already talks about being a King someday, and what a great warrior he's going to be.

He is still young enough to run to Kain when he sees him and demand that he play with him. When he grows older, he'll be too responsible and too embarrassed to do such things, and perhaps Kain will miss that. Perhaps he'll miss the childish joy he feels in the lad's company when he turns into a man.

But there's nothing he can do; time passes, and children inevitably grow up.