By Farli
Summary: A prelude to the dawn, before the last chapter of The Story..
FFX Spoilers: /Mild/ spoilers for all events up to and just after reaching Zanarkand in 'Final Fantasy X'.
Rating: G
Date: 28/01/2004
Author's Notes:
Done for the FFX500 Pyreflies challenge. All feedback welcome, but constructive criticism is craved!
Length: 769 words
"Do pyreflies dream, d'you think?"
"..Wha?"
Green swirled gaze flickered open, light doze abandoned in favour of puzzling out the question from the young man sharing the late night watch with her. A faint pang of guilt stirred at that, a hint of embarrassment colouring her features invisibly, shadows cast by the dark light of Zanarkand's ruins obscuring them all from the attentions of fiends.
She knew he wouldn't mention her napping on the job to the others -- heaven knew they were all exhausted just making their way through the crumbled remains of Yevon's 'Holy Place'. But Auron had said it wasn't much further to the Dome now, where the final trials and the Final Aeon resided.
And they, these two, were running out of time to find some other, some less *final* way of defeating Sin. A way to save Yunie before...
Straightening as she abruptly shoved the thoughts aside for perusal during the daylight hours, Rikku shifted out from her perch to peer over at the young man from Zanarkand - one that wasn't dead, wasn't ruins.
Wasn't this one. But was. One thousand years ago.
An odd grin answered her, Tidus' head tilting her way a little, the eerie glow of the haunted city looming out ahead casting him in a midnight's navy silhouette. All the while, distant blue gaze never left the swirling tears of soul that rolled and spun in spirals across the landscape, dusting the world in an eternal twilight.
"I said..." Pose shifts, arms moving behind his head and gloved fingers lacing together through messy locks, his weight shifting from foot to foot. Voice pitched low, so as not to disturb their fellow guardians and their summoner, cooped within the shadowed overhang of what was once some sort of house. Or maybe a store..? Rikku couldn't tell.
"...Do you think pyreflies dream?"
"That's what I thought you said." The high pitch of her voice was muted, mindful that her words did not echo across strewn remains and debris to be caught by whatever fiends lay yet in their path. Running fingers through her hair a moment, slim shoulders shrugged a bit. "Never really thought about it, I guess."
"Huh."
"Why'd you ask?" The Al Bhed shimmied forwards, before hopping down to his level, balance wobbling a moment or so on the narrow beam.
"..No reason. Just been thinking."
"Ooooh, dangerous that," she teased gently, poking at his ribs.
"Tch yeah, you got that right." Quiet camaraderie blanketed them a moment, Rikku scuffing her boots on the crackled tarmac as she puzzled over the question, turning her eyes skywards for a moment, the blitzer's immediately dropping from the cloud to scan the area about them.
"Weeeell," long finger tapped her lips. "We know they're alive, sorta, I guess. Whether they're someone's soul or not, though.. Well, we went over that at the Farplane, but as for dreams..? Hmmm.. I dunno." A shrug, before Rikku turned back to her night watch partner. "How about you?"
"Do pyreflies dream of electric fiends?" quipped the blitzer quietly, lips quirking at her mystified expression, before he heaved a sigh, expression turning unexpectedly sombre. An unusual look on Tidus. "I...don't know. I'd like to hope so."
"How come?"
Hesitation, indecision flashing deep within shadowed ocean depths.
Then Tidus turned and gave her a lopsided smile, making her wonder if his seriousness had been little more than a figment of her imagination. "Because maybe I'd like to be more of a memory than a dream someday."
Smile flashed into a pearly grin as the bubbly blonde stared blankly at him, the wistful gleam in his eyes that she hadn't seen vanishing like morning mist. And then Tidus was making shooing motions back towards their campsite, hands pushing playfully at her shoulders as he rode roughshod right over any further questions or objections she couldn't quite verbalise. "Now c'mon, it'll be dawn soon, and Auron'll have our heads if we don't have everyone up before the sun rises."
And sure enough they were soon moving out into the first piercing rays of sunlight, up, under and through the hollow bones of Zanarkand's grey corpse, fiends rising up to meet and greet them and drive thoughts of late night conversations to the back of her mind in the face of very present danger.
And it would not be until later, so very much, much later, after *everything* had been said and done, that Rikku realised she still didn't know what he had meant.
And would never be able to see a pyrefly without wondering what sort of dream it dreamed.