Disclaimer: Any recognizable material does not belong to me.
Hear you me my friends,
On sleepless roads the sleepless go
May angles lead you in…
May angles lead you in… (Lyrics from "Hear You Me". By Jimmy Eat World)
She wondered if he remembered exactly what it was like to make yourself vulnerable under the Caribbean sun for long amounts of time. How your skin was slowly baked into a bleeding, cracked shade of garnet red when you bathed your skin too deeply with the frying white rays. How painful it was…
From the way she watched Tidus shamelessly rip off his white cotton tee and crash into the water, she seriously doubted it.
But she didn't try to warn him, he would figure it out on his own later when his skin was burnt to a nice red crisp. And it had nothing to do with the fact that she was a little too preoccupied with watching his god-like body stride through the turquoise waves, chasing after the children of the village. Not in the slightest. She wasn't that caught up in watching the way his body rippled and moved with such powerful grace, intentionally missing the children's shoulders with clumsy movements to make them laugh when he stumbled and fell sloppily into the waves. Of course not. She didn't find it distracting how the patterns of the sun-reflected water slithered over the smooth tawny tanned skin of his shoulders, arm, and back or the way his honey colored hair fell in wet clumps into his shockingly blue eyes… his sculpted abs… powerful, perfect body, his gorgeous face. The way the water slid and clung to every shape of the professional athlete's body before making his flawless skin glimmer…his perfect, blatant grin… that wasn't her reason for smiling at him… she wasn't caught up in the euphoric sounds of his heartfelt laugher and little children's shrieks…
… Nope
"Oh-hoho!" Tidus laughed, scooping up a little girl into his arms. "What now, runts?" he teased, kicking up white water at them as he hoisted one of their favorites, Olivia, up into the air, glittering trails of diamonds falling from her ankles and hitting the white water again, churned a frothing white by the running and messing around. He only winced a little when she screamed into his ear and kicked at his pex.
"Whose gonna catch her?" he challenged, a broad grin on his face as he threw her up into the air. The little girl screamed with delight until he reached up and caught her again, effortlessly.
There was a general cry of happiness before fifteen children came racing through the water at Tidus. It was enough to make him stop for a fraction of a second to stare, processing what he had just gotten himself into. A wave of kindergarteners coming at you, bellowing at the top of their tiny little lungs was actually just a little bit intimidating.
She saw his mouth move quietly but didn't catch the words. She could tell from his body that he was thinking about how it would feel to be body slammed by fifteen kids at once. If she could lips read she would have guessed it was something like, "oh crap."
She only laughed, tilting her head down and then bringing up her face again, tucking back a piece of her hair.
"The dope looks like he's having fun." Someone said suddenly, the girl who had spoken sitting down beside Yuna in the sand while the ex-summoner turned to smile at her cousin. She looked perfectly at home in Besaid, with her yellow bikini top and short brown skirt. Her blonde hair still done up in a million different braids and pushed over to the side in a ridiculously high pony tail, her forehead plastering certain pieces to her head in a strangely charming way.
Rikku looked like she belonged in Besaid more than Yuna did.
"I think he's just happy to be home." Yuna said, looking out at the water from under the dappled shade of the palm tree they were under. The ripples of sand surrounded them as if they had been stones dropped into an ocean of sand.
She pushed her feet through them and sighed, leaning her head back against the ridges in the trunk. "I am too." She said, sighing heavily. "Finally everything's done…" she said. "It feels good to be home…" she said, pushing her fingers into the sand. From the water she could hear Tidus yelling, laughing and little kids screeching happily. She opened her mismatched eyes half-lidded and stared up at the big leaves sheltering her from the sun. She was content… if only for a moment. The past three months with Tidus had been wonderful.
The two lovesick heroes had spent most of their time… just being with each other, exploring their relationship physically… and emotionally, remembering, feeling… loving the way they were falling in love for each other all over again. Cherishing each other, just like he had said they would. They were just so happy to be together again.
He was a little surprised, if taken aback at her new personality. She hadn't known she'd changed so much until he pointed it out. She was very different from the girl who had set out to defeat Sin two years ago… She would do things now that he pointed out to she would never have done before, daring things. She would shove him into the water playfully and then take off down the shoreline, yelling out a string of teasing words behind her… and he would stare, soaking wet, for a moment, bewildered, as if to ask himself 'did she really just do that…?' and then, laughing, he took off after her.
If anything they loved each other even more. He still loved her. And she loved him too…
And this time it was even more wonderful for her, because she knew that she wasn't just loving him to pass the time before she died. She was loving him because she loved him.
She didn't notice Rikku wince.
"Hey." The Al Bhed girl said, her voice strangely subdued as she sat up against her bent knees, hooking her forearms around her shins and interlocking her fingers in a human clasp. "Yunie? Um… how have you been lately?"
Yuna sat up a little, getting a better look at Rikku's face. "What do you mean?" She asked, instantly feeling uneasy.
Her cousin looked at the ground and shrugged her thin framed shoulders to her cheeks, but Yuna could see the anxiety in her bright green eyes.
"What is it?" Yuna asked.
"Hey… Hey! Get off!" Yuna and Rikku each looked up to see Tidus leaning back precariously in the knee-deep water, one arm securing Olivia's squirming pink body over his shoulder like a sack of rice, while the other gripped at the waist of his shorts, the denim darkened from the ocean water. Seven kids were all collectively hanging and pulling on them, trying to rescue Olivia, not realizing that they were practically pantsing him for everyone in Besaid to see. Not that the female population would have minded that much…
"Hey, quit it!" Tidus shouted, trying to push them off. But they only re-latched to him, yanking harder, even when he pushed them off by covering their face with his broad, strong hands and shoving them backwards into the water.
… Maybe they did get it after all.
The rest of the kinder gardeners were rushing at him, trying to do some sort of collective ambush. Tidus twisted his torso away from them desperately, making Olivia squeal as she was whipped around.
"Looks like he's finally gotten himself a little more than he can handle." Yuna said, smiling.
"Yo! Stop!"
"Since when as he ever not gotten himself more than he can handle?" Rikku asked.
Tidus shouted more, trying to move away but failing, his movements jammed due to the extra weight of eight children on his waist, legs, feet and of course, shorts. Olivia now grabbed a tuft of his soft golden hair in her hands and yanked on it to free herself. Hard
"Oh fu - Ow!" Tidus turned his head to look over his shoulder at her grinning little face. "Traitor." He said, grinning right back.
Yuna laughed and so did Olivia.
But Rikku did not. Instead, little glassy droplets started to prick up in the corners of those bright green eyes… she stared blankly ahead at Tidus's show… her chin brushing the tops of her knees… she couldn't handle this. He was so happy … and Yunie. Was she really… was she really capable of ruining this all for them?
"Okay! O-kay!" Tidus's exclamation was cut off by his own laughter as he hoisted Olivia off his shoulder and set her down into the water. Dazed and giggling, the little stumbled clumsily around, trying to recover from being whirled upside down for so long. But once she got her bearings, the first thing she did was lift her arms up again towards Tidus's tan, supple-muscled body. "Pick me up." She demanded with a big, bright smile.
Tidus went pale.
"Uh… maybe later." He said, scratching the back of his head, nervously, his shoulders strong and powerful.
Olivia pouted and stuck up her big, pink lip. "Pick! Me! Up!" She demanded.
It was a catchy idea. Sara waddled over to Tidus first, water sloshing noisily at her feet as she also lifted her hands up. "Pick me up." Sara said, joining Olivia's chorus. Olivia snapped her head around to look at Sara, electric poison crackling out of her young eyes.
"No!" She yelled. "Tidus loves me!"
Yuna covered her small, slightly amused smile as the color continued to drain from Tidus's face. More kids were soon around him, arms lifted to the sky. "Pick me-! Up, pick me up! Pick me up!" They all shouted, looking like some sort of deranged cult, worshipping her beautiful, carefree, sun-kissed boyfriend.
"N-no. Guys… I can't pick you all up." Tidus said, backing away and holding his hands up in front of him, in retreat, trying to reason with them like an idiot. Because only idiots tried to reason with five and six year olds.
"Up!"
"Pick me-!"
"up!'
After a straight minute of this, Tidus finally let out a long, slow sigh, his shoulders sagging, he squatted down in front of them, the ocean's blue illuminating his skin. Hey… she couldn't help but notice. Again.
Yuna and Rikku stared. There was no way he could pick them all up. Save the world from Sin? Fight his way back into existence after his death? Save the high Summoner from her imminent fate? Sure. But pick up fifteen kindergarteners at once?
Not a fat chance in hell.
"You all ready?" Tidus asked, bending down farther and reaching out with his perfect, muscle toned arms.
There was a collective squeal from the kindergartners as they all giggled in delight and rushed towards him.
"YA! YA!" They squealed.
"Well too bad, you sticky little brats!" A wide grin cracked across his face, bright blue eyes illuminated with life as he rushed away from them, white water flying up behind him. He'd abandoned them.
Confused…blink …
'I have to tell her…'
Yuna watched, dumbfounded as she watched Tidus do the smartest thing he had ever done in the face of an impossibly hard trail of strength and manliness: run the hell away from it. She didn't notice Rikku's face.
'I want to tell her… but…'
There was a collective pause of confusion from the abandoned children. They all took a moment to stare blankly after Tidus, who was still laughing like a madman, turning only for a moment to make a mean face at them before he continued running like a man finally released from prison.
'He looks so free right now… I can't… I can't take this away from him can I? Is it right of me…?' Rikkug dug her nails into her skin unconsciously.
It was Olivia who first regained her composure. "HEY! TI-DUS! YOU BIG… BIG… MEANIE!" She shrieked.
'The last thing I want to do is dump this on them… I'd hate to do this to them… both of them. They've been so happy… I'd be ruining it, wouldn't I? That… that would make me a horrible person… a horrible friend… a horrible guardian…'
Olivia led the charge after him, the other children quickly adopting and approving the idea as they followed, screaming.
'But...'
Laughing, and meaning to save her boyfriend from the fate of being attacked by fifteen righteously outraged children, Yuna started to stand, brushing the fine white powder from her legs. But she wasn't halfway up before she felt Rikku's hand come down gently on her shoulder. "Yunie."
'I…'
Yuna turned to look her cousin in the eye. Rikku's expression made her stop dead, her spirits falling flat.
"Rikku, what's wrong?" Yuna said, dropping in front of Rikku's form which, seemed to become more and more broken looking.
Her cousin lowered her head and tightened her curled body around her knees. 'I've just done it… I just did that… can I… can I still turn back?'
"It's…" The Al Bhed started and then stopped. "I…" 'Should I?'
Yuna watched in numb shock as Rikku bit back a sob and then buried her head into her kneecaps, her blond hair tumbling over her head. 'Oh… God!'
Yuna couldn't bring herself to react. She didn't think that she has ever seen Rikku cry. It was eerily disturbing, and it scared Yuna to death.
'Now they're involved to…' Rikku's sobbing grew louder. 'I hate myself… why couldn't I have handled this on my own? Why do I always come running to other people?'
Tidus's yells were drowned out of the background as the children found that they could not catch him. All Yuna could hear were the little sniffles and heavy breaths coming from under Rikku's hair. She watched, detached, as Rikku's shoulders and back shook, the gentle trench of her spine moving steadily up and down as she cried. 'I'm not strong enough for this… I… I… I can't… handle it.'
Finally Yuna brought herself to realize that what she was seeing was real. The surprise left her body and she gathered Rikku up into her arms. "… Rikku, what's wrong?" She asked, cradling her cousin in her long white arms as Rikku uncurled herself and buried her face in Yuna's shirt. 'Not alone…'
"I can't find him." Rikku said, finally relenting, caving in as her crying grew louder. "I can't find him, Yunie. I can't…"
"Who?" Yuna asked, gently prying at Rikku's shoulders so that she could see her cousin's face.
It was tearstained and swollen, bright green eyes filled to the brim with torment. Her salty tears dropped to the sand, making small dots of dark color in the white ocean. It was as if Yuna were looking at some other girl…Rikku had never looked this defeated, or this sad, or this torn up inside. Yuna didn't know what was wrong. But she needed to.
"Who is it?" Yuna asked gently. "Who's gone?"
"It's G-gippal." Rikku said, hiccupping gently. "And the-the entire machina faction is going frantic." Rikku said, wiping at her eyes with the heel of her hand. "I don't know where to go. I've already looked everywhere." 'I'm asking you for help, Yunie…'
Yuna was slightly taken aback. She knew that Rikku had always liked Gippal, but she hadn't thought that she'd get this upset. Gippal had disappeared before during Yuna's search for Tidus, and Rikku had never been this torn up. No one ever worried much about the guy. He could take good care of himself and anybody else he had to.
'I'm sorry.'
"Rikku…" Yuna said. "It's not that bad, maybe." She said, pushing aside her thoughts of Rikku's strange behavior. "I mean Gippal's gone off on his own before, and he's always been fine."
Rikku shook her head, her blond hair falling into her face, thick strands sticking to the wet tear tracks on her cheeks and the inside of her wet lips. They shivered with her shaky breaths. "It's – It's different." She said. "He was getting… death threats, Yunie. Before he …We didn't know who they were coming from but they-" She cut off as she hiccupped and wiped her face, sniffing and moving her hair. "But he ignored them, I guess. And the week before he left he and I… we… " 'This…is the hardest part.' Rikku ran her fingers into her hair, shaking her head again. "I don't know what he and I were..."
"Wait!" Yuna bent her head down to meet Rikku's Al Bhed green eyes. "You and Gippal?" She asked. Well that explained a lot more.
"Not officially." Rikku said, her voice still groggy. "We weren't a real thing… I don't think. But Brother says… that I might have chased him away with my… 'girly ways'." She air quoted, rolling her eyes but still falling apart inside.
"Oh, Rikku." Yuna said. "You can't really believe that?"
Rikku shook her head. "No… I guess. B-but if he… if he cared enough he would have told me." Rikku said. "Or he would have taken me with him."
"What if he couldn't?" Yuna asked.
"Then he might be hurt!" Rikku said, tears welling up inside her eyes all over again. She stopped, trying to calm down, taking breath after breath… deeper and deeper. "… Yunie," Her voice more quiet than it had ever been before. "What if he's actually gone?" 'There. I said it. I'm afraid… that he's…'
Dead.
Yuna could tell from the way that Rikku said the word 'gone' that she meant dead. Dead like Tidus had been two years ago. Yuna felt her heart start throbbing and pressing up against her lungs, making it hard to breathe with compassion for Rikku and sadness as she re-lived the feeling of losing him... watching him fall off the ship and disappear. Standing there alone, staring at the empty space of cream clouds after he had gone. It had almost killed her inside.
And just like Yuna had been for Tidus, now Rikku was doing the same thing for Gippal. And she wasn't searching because she thought he was okay. Yuna knew that. She knew that feeling that was tearing Rikku's carefree heart out of the skin. Her cousin was only looking for Gippal because she couldn't do anything else for him. She didn't believe she would find him, or that she would ever be happy again without him, but she had to continue to torture herself. She couldn't stop herself. She couldn't help it. Yuna hadn't been able to help it either.
It was enough to tear anybody apart. It was no wonder that Rikku had lost it. She had never had to go through something like that. She had always had hope, and happiness.
Yuna had been training for a hopeless life as a summoner but Rikku… she had always been so hopeful.
It was scary to see her defining hope ripped away, torn right out of the heart of those bright green eyes.
"… How long has he been missing?"
"A month and a half." Rikku said, choking on her voice.
"Rikku… why didn't you tell me before?"
'Because I should never have told you at all.' "I… I didn't want to make you worry… you've both been so happy since he came back." Rikku said, nodding out to the ocean where Tidus's body, weighted down with clinging arms and stubborn fingers, was finally knocked over when a boy who was a bit… um, larger than the others jumped at him. She could just see Tidus's ocean blue eyes widening as the chubby boy flew at him through the air.
"Oh fu-!" Splash.
The head of gorgeous blonde hair shone like thatched honey in the sunlight before it was swallowed up by the water. He came up coughing and laughing. "Guys," he said swallowing the last of his laugh and running a strong hand to push back his wet hair, now only a shade darker. He bent over and took a breath, resting his hands on his kneecaps to look the children in the eye. "That…" he said heavily "was not cool." The big, stupid grin on his face gave him away.
The children, who had bobbed up to the surface before he had, like apples in a barrel, all grinned back, their eyes glinting.
"What?" Tidus frowned, confused. When Davie yelled:
"Get 'im!"
"We just did this!" Tidus protested. "Don't-!"
Splash.
"And, plus," Rikku pulled Yuna's world back to the beach. "I kind of… I thought that I'd have found him before you would have to know."
The pang in her heart made Yuna hug her cousin to her. "Stop trying to protect me, Rikku." Yuna said, suddenly feeling awful. "My summoning days are over… you don't need to try to save me anymore." Rikku nodded into Yuna's shoulder, her wet skin rubbing against dry. 'I'm not hurting anymore.' Yuna told her cousin mentally, closing her eyes and trying to absorb Rikku's pain into her own body through the skin. But Rikku's sobs showed that it wasn't working.
'Okay…'
"We'll go looking for him together." Yuna said, holding Rikku tighter to her. "Maybe I can get us somewhere." They both knew that people tended to tell Yuna more things, out of respect for the girl who had defeated Sin. Little did they know that it was really Tidus who they owed their respects to, the 'irresponsible, brash, cocky, arrogant young man', or at least that's what they thought of him… her carefree, gentle hearted, blond-haired blitz star.
After a moment Rikku's body steadied and the young blonde pulled away from Yuna's arms, her eyes dry and her face tired. Yuna knew better than to ask if she was okay. Because she wasn't. "We'll head out as soon as possible, okay? Tomorrow."
Rikku smiled, but the emotion wasn't behind her eyes. "Thanks, Yunie." She said. 'I just want to find him.'
Yuna stood up. "I'll go tell Tidus." She said, turning back for a moment to look Rikku in the eye. "I'll be right back, so don't move."
Rikku nodded quietly and put her chin back on her knees, waiting. 'I don't think I could if I tried…'
Yuna waded out into the water just as Tidus was wading out. The children, still hyper as anything, were bouncing around him in circles, tagging onto his legs for a ride, jumping to cling onto his forearms and screaming as he lifted them into the air by pulling his arms up level like an airplane.
"Hey." He said, dropping his arms to his sides to the despair of Chloe and Dave who fell into the water with a plop. His wet hands found her arms and slid down to her hands, threading their fingers together in a human clasp. She loved him.
Olivia wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Ti-dus." She said, stamping her foot into the water. Tidus smiled and looked down at the little girl.
"Hey there." He said. "Why don't you see if you can find more shells than Sara." He had turned back to Yuna already, his attention shifting completely to the girl in front of him in a matter of seconds. "How are you?"
The little girls were not so easily deterred. "Tidus you said! You said!" They wailed.
"Yeah, I said to go away." Tidus said, smiling and ruffling their hair. "I'll be back, okay?"
Sara pouted and stomped her foot while Olivia glared melting daggers at Yuna and Tidus's tangled fingers. As soon as they were at a distance from the children Tidus took Yuna behind the protective bend of the cove, out of sight from the beach and the children. The waves broke here. He put his arms on her waist, dipping down to kiss her gently. She smiled against his lips as an irreplaceable calm spread over her body, coating her soul…Gently she used her hands to push him away, her mismatched eyes sparkling playfully.
As slowly and at the same time as his lips parted from hers, he opened his eyes, looking at her questioningly.
"You taste like ocean." She said, sticking out her tongue a little. "Salt water."
He smiled at her, looking down with his hair falling into his face, in his own little world where there was no one else but her. "Deal with it." He said, putting his lips over hers again. They were so soft.
She reveled in the feeling of finally feeling whole again while she spread her hands over his supple, muscled body, shirtless. He was too perfect. Guys like him didn't end up with girls like her… and she was so happy, right now, she thought as she leaned up and into his body, his arms circling firmly around her waist to pull her closer.
'Rikku…'
She gently broke away from him, and turned her head away. Tidus looked at her with half-lidded eyes, moving his own head to the right and tilting it so that he could still see her face. "What is it?" he asked gently, pushing some of her russet hair out of her face. It was soft against his calloused fingertips. "Yuna?"
"It's…" 'how am I supposed to tell him this?' Yuna wondered, and bit her lip gently.
Tidus blinked at the familiar body language, recognizing it immediately. He took his hand and tilted her face toward him. "What is it?" He said, it was no longer a question. "Something's bothering you."
She blinked her green and blue eyes at him then smiled. She loved how he knew everything about her. She was a complete person with him… she could trust him. "It's Rikku." She said.
"Rikku?" Tidus said, smiling a little.
Yuna nodded, tucking the same strand of hair that he had moved behind her ear again. "She's um… she's in trouble."
"What?" Tidus's eyes immediately flashed in some sort of worry and anger. Rikku, the first person who he had seen three years ago in Spira was like Tidus's little sister. And he was a little protective over her. Yuna smiled at him.
"She's okay." Yuna answered the question starting out of Tidus's mouth. "She's fine but… someone's missing."
The anger slowly drained of the azure eyes… and he grew very still. "Missing?" He asked, his grip loosening around her waist.
"Gippal." She said. "You never met him but… he was one of the leaders of the political group of Spira… the machine faction."
Tidus stared blankly at her. Obviously he didn't understand why this was important.
"He's a friend of ours." Yuna explained. "He helped us with Vegnagun. And… he and Rikku are… well," she felt way too awkward. "They may have been a little involved."
"Involved?" Tidus echoed numbly… the word hollow of emotion. Finally it seemed to sink in and his eyes grew wider from beneath his thin, pieced veil of golden chunks of hair. "Rikku was involv-"
Yuna put her finger to his lips. "Not really… um… I mean I'm not sure. She's not…" Yuna sighed, letting the tension flow out of her chest. "Actually I don't know. But I think… she's in love with him." She admitted.
Tidus let it sink in, putting his hand to his head, his fingers tangled in gold as his other arm fell away from her waist, lingering for only an extra moment before he sat down on a nearby rock, ignoring the withdrawing surf that stole the sand from beneath his toes. "So… what happened to him?" he asked.
"He just…disappeared." Yuna said. "They've been looking for him for a long time, but... no one's found anything."
"She's been looking to?"
"Yes."
There was a long… long silence. Tidus stared at the ocean at his feet and she watched him. . 'We have to leave again… put ourselves in danger. All I wanted to do was be with him…'
"Well," Tidus said, sighing and standing up to smile at her and rub his hands together. "When do we start?"
Yuna blinked, a little taken aback. 'Just like that…?'
"What?" Tidus blinked, looking curiously at her.
"It's just…" She looked down at the sand. "You're okay with it?"
"What?"
"Leaving here…" Yuna said, watching as the warm surf dragged the sand away from her feet. 'Leaving the way we were…' "It's home... and you just came back." She said, scrambling for other reasons.
Tidus just shrugged casually. "I guess it's time we all had some fun again anyway." He said, smiling as if it were nothing.
"Oh…"
Hearing the tone of her voice Tidus looked at her, frowning. "Hey… what's wrong?" Tidus asked,
"…It's nothing." She said, feeling just a little broken. She felt silly for thinking that he'd make a big deal of having to leave Besaid and the way that they could be together so easily… thing would be different if they were on a mission. They'd have things to worry about other than each other… but she supposed that he didn't care as much as she did.
A/N: the thoughts in the beginning that were italicized which came with no identification were all self-conflicting thoughts of Rikku's in case you couldn't tell, except for the line that read 'I'm not hurting anymore.' Which was Yuna. And when Yuna and Tidus are alone the italics were all Yuna.
Some of the next chapters may be in specific character's points of view but im open to suggestions.
Um, okay so im just doing this because I feel like it, I'm not actually taking this all that seriously. Tell me what you guys want, more humor, romance, drama, angst? Whatever. I've been accused of being melodramatic before. But whatever. Y'all tell me what you think of it. Or wait till the next chapter… thanks for reading!