So I was going through my Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy folder when I stumbled across this. Once upon a time, I was going to write a bunch of Firion/Tidus one-shots all under the title "Sunny Rose". I only wrote two and then moved on to Hetalia. I thought it was a shame to just let them sit unseen in my folder, so I'll go ahead and post them both. If I ever come across inspiration to write more, they'll go here as well.

Sunny Rose

1. School

Tidus grumbled to himself as he fumbled with his locker combination while balancing a stack of books and papers in the other. Why the teachers had to give out everything at once was beyond him, though his current predicament may have also had to do with how thoroughly unprepared he was for his first day back at high school. The fact that he had remembered to grab a pencil during his mad dash around the trailer that morning was nothing short of a miracle.

"Ah, damn it," he muttered, having screwed up the combination again. "Open, you stupid thing!" He smacked it in frustration, earning himself a smarting hand. Wincing, he flexed it before reaching out to try the lock again. "Okay. Two... backwards to ten... and then four aaaaaaaand... Damn!"

"Need some help?"

Tidus turned at the sound of the amused voice, ready to tell off whoever was standing there. He was not in the mood to be made fun of. If it came down to it, he'd kick the ass of anyone trying to tease him in that moment, especially if it was his pal Wakka.

"No, I..." His words died on his lips as he gazed at the tall teen before him.

Silver locks spilled over one shoulder, though they were carefully tied at the base of his neck. The rest of his hair was choppy, though in a much less messy way than Tidus's golden strands. He was wearing the school uniform, though something about the way he wore it seemed very off.

Tidus's gaze slowly roved up from his clothing, to the lightly sun-kissed skin of his neck and face, and stopped at the mildly curious brown eyes staring back at him.

In that moment, Tidus realized he's been staring with his mouth partially open like some love-sick little girl talking to a hot guy for the first time. He felt his cheeks heat up as he looked away, sure that there was a bright tinge of pink covering his face.

'Fayth, kill me now.'

"Are you okay?" Asked the silver-haired student. "You look a little red."

"I'm fine!" Tidus practically shouted.

Other students around them began giggling and whispering to one another.

Tidus berated himself for losing his cool in the crowded hallway. He was the star of the school's blitzball team! He couldn't afford anymore rumors about him circulating around the school. People were only just forgetting the previous year's incident involving him and the senior president of the drama club-Seymour.

'Calm down. No need to freak out. Gotta stay calm. So what if there's a nice guy who wants to help me out. He seems pretty cool. 'sides, it's not like I'll see him again.' He nodded to himself and glanced back at the guy, who was still standing there calmly. Tidus cleared his throat and gestured to his locker with a flop of his arm. "Hey, listen, can you help me out? I'm having some trouble with this thing. Think the teacher gave me the wrong combination."

"It's number one-hundred-two, right?"

Tidus nodded again and watched, mystified, as the other teen reached over and fluidly spun the dial a few times. Like magic, there was a 'click' and the door popped open.

Tidus's jaw dropped. "What?! How'd you do that? I must've tried, like, ten times!"

"You got the last number wrong, I think," responded the silver-haired boy. "It's two-ten-seven."

"Ah..." Tidus began unloading his books in the locker, not wanting the other to see just how bothered he was over the whole locker combination situation. It was stupid, really, how he'd panic over such little things. But give him a minute to go on a big game and only one more goal to take the lead and he could ace it, no problem.

Opening a locker? Next to impossible for him.

As he set down the last of his books in a neatly disorganized pile, he noticed a second set of books on the bottom shelf.

"Huh, guess my locker buddy got here before me. Man, looks like they're a total neat freak too!" He grinned and looked up at his savior. "Don't you think?"

The silver-haired teen laughed and held out his hand, which Tidus confidently grasped and shook.

"The name's Tidus, star player of the Meteor Cannons! Nice to meet you, uh..."

The other teen's smile grew wider. "Firion. I'm your locker buddy."

~end