I watched him watch her, watching him through the gaps in her fingers.
Her knees were pulled up to her chest, her toes buried in the sand, as she rested on a rotting log that Kimahri had sourced as a bench for our makeshift camp, her hands hiding her face, those eyes of hers glittering clearly through the spaces her slim fingers left to peek from.
He was on his hands and knees beside her feet, head craning up to get as close to her face as he could, to spot the blush he knew she was hiding, that smile of his raking across his face in a way that made me certain he truly knew nothing of our world, nothing of Sin.
Nothing of Yuna.
"C'mon Yuna, let me see that smile! You know I'm keeping score as to how many times I can make you blush in one day! You're being unfair, I'm losing count!" he protested laughingly, his eyes alight with amusement as he pulled back from her face and reached down sneakily to her sand covered toes, aiming to tickle her hands away from her face. She squeaked in protest, and wobbled a little as she tried to jerk her foot away from him, causing her to fall backwards off the log, her arms making small circles as the usually elegant Yuna made a graceless attempt to regain her balance.
She fell on her back, her legs propelled above the log, her long skirt riding up just enough that the boy before her caught an avid glance of her alabaster knee (which I supposed was more of her skin than he had probably ever viewed) to which she cried out in dismay.
"Tidus! You made me fall!"
She did her best to feign annoyance, but her laughter had all but clouded the entirety of her words by the time she had reached the end of her sentence. He who had caused her to topple, had scrambled up from his position on all fours to lean on the log and peer over at her toppled form, at first concerned and now doubling over the wood in shared laughter.
"You looked like a windmill!" he managed through his laughs, to which Yuna joined him in a further chorus of giggles, nudging him with her knee. He nudged her back with his shoulder, carefree and playful as two so young most definitely should have been, trapped in this moment of youth and enjoyment, free of sadness and death and sacrifice.
Tidus' laughter eventually settled down, and he leant his elbows upon the log, gazing down at Yuna's sprawled form, still wiping tears from her eyes. He leant his head in one hand and reached the other down to press lightly on Yuna's nose to which she scrunched her face up in delight. He grinned, lazily, gently, his eyes burning with something else, something much more than simple carefree happiness or contentment.
"Hey, you're blushing," he said.
I watched him fall in love with her, as he watched her, watch him with adoration in her eyes.