Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X belongs to Square Enix.

Chapter One

Tidus reclined on a thick tree bough, watching his party as they rested in the Macalania Forest. The moon glowed overhead, a huge omniscient orb over a backdrop of incandescent stars, all on an icy sheet of black that reminded him of the sea that surrounded Zanarkand, dark as a void except for the mirror reflection of the city lights. A light wind stirred up dark green leaves and glittering pyreflies that drew everyone's eyes skyward. And as they looked up, Tidus caught the eye of the black mage, Lulu, who was resting on a flat rock just beneath him. For a moment her eyes glinted ruby red in the flickering light of the campfire. She casually looked away.

"We've wasted enough time here," Auron said in his low growl. "Don't worry about my leg. I can carry my own weight." Yuna shook her head, not harshly as if she were scolding, but almost pleadingly.

"Please, Sir Auron, you need to rest." Her mismatched eyes were full of their usual determination. "It would be best to wait until morning. We can make camp here tonight."

He did not reply, but merely grunted, shifting his weight against the log he leaned on and wincing in spite of himself.

"She's right," Tidus interjected. He dropped from the bough and landed with the energetic expertise of a trained athlete, brushing foliage from his clothing. "You just barely kept your leg on during that last battle. I bet if you hadn't parried the attack at the last minute you would have lost it."

"We're almost at the temple," Auron grumbled, "but if you want to waste more time here, I guess I'll have to comply, seeing as I'm incapable of fighting back." Rikku sniggered at this.

Kimahri, with whom silence was customary, wordlessly began to construct a shelter using tree branches as support, sensing the scent of rain in the atmosphere with his acute Ronso nose. Yuna and Rikku stood up and helped him. Wakka, after spending a moment staring pensively into the fire, also stood.

"What're you thinking about?" inquired Tidus, joining him in the construction. Wakka looked at him, caught off guard, and smiled lightly.

"I'm thinkin' about my brother Chappu," he stated matter-of-factly. "I'm glad I got to see him at the Farplane." He paused, examining Tidus. "Sometimes when I look at you, I wonder if maybe he's alive somewhere inside you. You look so much like him. I was a little disappointed when he appeared there."

"It's just a coincidence that he looks like Chappu," said Lulu, who stoked the fire with magic. Her gaze, in contrast to the smoldering heat, was icy.

"Yeah, maybe," said Wakka quietly. And then, in an undertone, "You never know anything for sure though."

Tidus didn't know much about the Farplane, but he had a feeling that Lulu was right, and that Wakka's hopes were just that. He also didn't know much about Chappu, except that they looked alike and that he and Lulu had been involved.

He had a weird feeling whenever he remembered this fact, that he resembled Lulu's late lover. It was almost a sort of pride that he felt ashamed of without knowing why. And as if that weren't strange enough, he also questioned his feelings towards Yuna, who undoubtedly felt a particular closeness with Tidus. He couldn't say for sure that it was reciprocated, at least not romantically. He imagined that he possessed the same sort of love for Yuna that Wakka and Lulu did. And at the same time he wondered if that was not what he also felt for Lulu, mistaken for something less innocent.

An icy drop of water on his scalp freed him from his thoughts. He took shelter with his comrades beneath the treated fabric that Kimahri had draped among the tree branches, focusing on the rain to keep his mind from wandering. This pilgrimage so far had been filled with unimaginable complications, ranging from the state of his father to his own fate.

Tidus roused while it was still night. The rain had stopped and the ground was soft, the forest floor glittering with rain in the moon and starlight. The fire was only a glowing bed of dying embers. All his comrades slept back-to-back or slumbered on raised spots of ground beneath the shelter. He noticed the absence of one, and raised himself up, glancing around for her. When he realized that she had gone, he got to his feet and searched along the path, knowing deep down that he hoped to run into her alone but not quite understanding why.

The still-glittering pyreflies guided him between the dark tree trunks and into a small clearing that was occupied only by Lulu, who stood with her back to Tidus. Here the moonlight fell in bars separated by the tree branches, lightly illuminating the pale skin of her neck and shoulders. Feeling drawn in as if by sinking sand, he wandered forward, unintentionally snapping a twig and causing the mage to whirl her head around in surprise. The beads in her hair clicked together as her braids were thrown over her left shoulder. The blue light of the moon accentuated the softness of her face, the deep violet of her lips, and the perfectly placed darkness of her beauty mark. Her narrowed eyes were subdued by the cool hues, and her furrowed brow made her look especially elegant in her almost celestial paleness. Tidus thought to himself how ironic it was that a black mage could glow so purely.

Her milky white breast fell as she exhaled her relief. "I thought you were a fiend," she sighed. "And here I am all alone."

"Just me," whispered Tidus, almost breathless from the sight before him. He felt as if he had intruded on a very pensive moment of Lulu's, but at the same time he was determined not to leave, having no idea if the two of them would ever get to be alone like this again. She studied him briefly, looking up at him through her lowered lashes, and turned the other way once again. Tidus felt his heart pound with a longing he didn't understand. Feeling almost dejected by her inattentiveness, he seated himself on a tree stump a few feet away and waited for her to realize that he was still there. She turned to look at him sideways, and for a split second her eyes widened in surprise when she caught him staring at her dark figure against the moonlight. She looked away again.

"I... couldn't sleep," she said quietly, followed by a lengthy silence. "Sometimes it's difficult, being reminded of Chappu. And sometimes, when I think of him, I feel like I have to stay awake... so he won't disappear from my memories." Lulu seemed abashed at telling him this and lowered her head, allowing her raven-colored fringe to hide her face. Tidus, however, felt elated to be clued in on the workings of the usually enigmatic mind of Lulu. He rose and cautiously began to step towards her.

"Lulu, what I said to you in Guadosalam," he began, quite afraid to continue, "was true. I wouldn't kid with you." Her laugh then was low and devilish. It stopped Tidus in his tracks.

"I'm 'more your type,' right? So you'd choose a black mage over a white mage." Her face was still concealed by her fringe, so he could not tell what she was thinking, but his own mind was reeling. Just then he realized how true his words had been, that they had not been just a blithe joke but a confession of innermost feelings that had suddenly risen to the surface.

Right then he had an insuppressible urge to grasp her waist, feeling her slightness with his ungloved hands, and place a tender kiss at the nape of her ivory neck, and he decided at that moment to indulge it. Taking just a few more steps forward, he now stood close enough to Lulu's back to breathe down the collar of her dress, close enough to see the goose bumps form on her slender neck and the fine hairs rise with building inner tension. He rested one hand just below her ribcage, squeezing very gently, and then the other, so that he grasped her firmly on either side. His pulse was extremely rapid and his entire body felt flushed with heat. But just as he lowered his lips toward her supple skin, she grabbed his left hand very roughly and spun out of his grip, coming to face him. Her gaze could kill. Tidus felt his heart sink, both with disappointment and fear of what was coming next.

"Just because you look like Chappu doesn't mean you could ever be Chappu." And with that she drifted away from the clearing and back to the campsite, wearing a hardened look of contempt and violation.

Tidus sank to the ground and sat, placing his face in his hands and shaking his head at his own impudence and foolishness. Not wanting to face Lulu again for the rest of the night, he decided to rest where he sat and figure out how to apologize in the morning.