Introductory A/N: This is my first story, and kind of a test to see both how much interest there is in this kind of story, and how well received my writing will be. Memories of You will only have about three chapters, but I have a longer and more original sequel in mind that I may write if I get enough feedback, so please R&R, and constructive criticism especially is greatly appreciated.

This story contains spoilers to both FFX and FFX-2, and is essentially my take on the events leading up to the good ending after the defeat of Vegnagun. Flashbacks (which are plentiful) to both X and X-2 are denoted by italics.

Obligatory Disclaimer: I do not own FFX or X-2 or any of these characters.

What? Oh, you actually want to read the story and not just my rambling? OK, here it is, remember, please R&R!

After Vegnagun is defeated and Spira is safe again, Yuna reflects on life since her Pilgrimage and wonders what may be if the Fayth are able to make good on their promise. Spoilers for FFX & X-2.

Yuna's eyes sparkled like the water below her as she overlooked Spira's oceans of cool, calm water, its forests of lush flourishing trees, and its villages of people who finally could live their lives with hope and happiness, instead of fear and despair. "Maybe now I'll finally be able to join them," she realized from atop the deck of the airship Celsius. After all, Vegnagun was gone and Spira was safe again, so didn't she deserve a break?

"Brother, higher!" She called out to the self-proclaimed captain of the airship.

"Roger!"

She fell back slightly as the airship began to ascend, "Brother, faster!" She commanded again.

"Roger!"

"I can't hear you!" Yuna responded with a laugh.

"ROOOOOOOGEEEEEEEEER!!!" Brother shouted over the intercom.

Yuna laughed, as she took in everything again, the crisp cool breeze, the roar of the airship, the world below her, and her two best friends behind her: Rikku, her cousin, and Paine, a fellow sphere hunter.

She had changed so much since her adventure began, she hardly even recognized herself anymore, "So much has happened, and I'm sure it's only the beginning, through the smiles and tears, through the anger, and the laughter that follows. I know that I'll keep changing. This is my story. It'll be a good one!"

As she thought back to the beginning of her journey, Yuna concluded, "It all began, when I saw this sphere… of you."

Yuna's smile slowly faded when this thought pervaded her mind.

Him—the guardian from whom she had been so cruelly separated two years earlier. After she had defeated Sin and brought hope and happiness to all the people of Spira she had been left miserable because of his disappearance, because he was nothing more than a dream of the Fayth, and because, in spite of all this, he had stolen her heart. She knew now that he was a dream, no more real than a figment of the imagination. But once, he had been real; he felt real, he acted real, and, she hoped, he would soon be real again.

Until then, all she could do was smile, wait, and dream. She remembered telling him, "I learned to practice smiling when I'm feeling sad."

At the time, she was referring to the sadness caused by Spira's circle of death, sadness for not only her own death to defeat Sin, but for the inevitable suffering that Sin caused the people of Spira. Now Sin was gone forever and she was still alive, yet she still was never completely happy, because no matter what she did, no matter how much fun she was having, something was missing—he was missing, but regardless of these feelings, she still smiled constantly. She smiled at the celebration of the coming of the eternal Calm, she smiled at home, in Besaid, she smiled around her friends, because she didn't want them to worry, and she smiled among strangers because she was supposed to be happy. She even smiled when she whistled, asking him to come running, to come to her again, to hold her forever, and to give her a real reason to smile. His whistle would change all that, it had done so since the very first time she heard it…

...It was two years ago, she was in Luca searching for her father's guardian, Sir Auron. As she looked out over the water, she worried about getting separated from her guardians in the crowded city. Suddenly Yuna heard him call her name, followed by a sharp whistle.

"What was that?" Yuna wondered aloud.

He laughed gently, and then ran over next to her. "You try it too. Put your fingers in your mouth like this." He demonstrated, placing to fingers in his mouth even before he had finished talking, distorting his voice.

"Like this?" She tried imitating him.

"Uh-uh, not like that. Like this."

She tried again and he nodded. "Then you just blow."

She blew on her fingers, but no whistle came.

"It's not working!" She cried, trying to hide her frustration.

"Practice!" He encouraged her, and then promised, "Hey, use that if we get separated. Then, I'll come running okay?"

And practice she had. She learned to whistle quickly, just days after he first showed her, but since his disappearance she'd found herself whistling almost as often as smiling.

"But you haven't come running!" Yuna thought. She had whistled in Luca, she had whistled in Macalania, and she had whistled at home in Besaid, yet he failed to come running. He failed to keep his promise to her.

Yuna shook her head as if to shake off the memories of her past, the memories of him, lest they become any more painful. She knew they would; they always did when they turned to him. What was worse, she was getting angry, and she knew it was not his fault, because he was just a dream… no, he was not just a dream, not just her love, but her savior. He was the reason that she had not died two years ago, like all the high Summoners before her. The reason that she had a chance at life and that Sin was gone for good. Ironically, his determination to save her life, combined with her resolve for complete victory, had cost him his own life. When Sin was defeated, the Fayth stopped dreaming. When the Fayth stopped dreaming, their dream, and her reality, were lost.

Yuna felt tears welling up in her eyes, but she suppressed them and smiled, like she had countless times before. "No," she thought, "not again, not today. Today is a day to celebrate our victory, not to mourn my loss." Her eyes lit up as she continued, "Besides, the Fay—"

"Hey Yunie!" Rikku shouted from behind her, interrupting her thoughts.

Yuna smiled and turned to face her cousin, grateful for the distraction, "Yes Rikku?"

"Are you sure that you don't want to go back?" Rikku asked, "The people would love to see you, and we could still get there in time to party with everyone!"

Paine sighed, looked over to Rikku and muttered, "I thought that we had already discussed that."

"Aw, c'mon Paine! Don't be such a meanie. What do ya think Yunie?"

Yuna's smile faded, and she felt the sadness return. Baralai, Nooj, and Gippal were delivering a speech to Spira not unlike the "victory" speech she had given following Sin's defeat.

"Everyone... everyone has lost something precious. Everyone here has lost homes, dreams, and friends. Everybody, now Sin is finally dead." She paused as the crowd applauded.

"Now," she continued "Spira is ours again. Working together, now we can make new homes for ourselves, and new dreams."

The crowd began cheering, and she continued over them, "Although I know the journey will be hard, we have lots of time. Together, we will rebuild Spira. The road is ahead of us, so let's start out today."

She paused once again for applause and looked behind her for support, to see her remaining guardians grinning at her and silently cheering, making the absences in their ranks that much more notable. How could she continue? How could anyone continue when they had lost so much? But she had to, because that's what he would have wanted, that's the reason he continued to fight Sin even after he learned what it would cost him, and what she would have wanted had she performed the Final Summoning. Still, she had to honor his memory, and the memories of everyone who had been lost in the battle to defeat Sin.

She turned to the crowd again, "Just, one more thing. The people and the friends that we have lost," she paused again and said, barely audible "or the dreams that have faded…" before concluding to the stadium, "never forget them."

It was a bad memory for her. She knew it was selfish, but it had pained her to be delivering a victory speech in a stadium full of thousands people who had finally found their happiness in Sin's defeat while hers had literally disappeared. The thought of addressing the people of Spira like that again without him by her side was still unbearable.

"Yunie?" Rikku snapped her back to reality.

She turned away and wiped off her tears again, and said, just loudly enough to be heard over the engine, "I'm sorry Rikku, but I'd rather not. I'm sure that Nooj, Gippal, and Baralai are fine without us."

Rikku and Paine looked at each other. Rarely had they seen her switch so quickly from jovial to…quiet and sad. In fact, it was almost unheard of for her to show sorrow at all.

"Is she ok?" mouthed Paine to Rikku.

Rikku sighed and shook her head. "I don't know, one minute she's telling Brother to do loop de loops and the next she's… like this. I hope Yunie's not thinking about him again."

Paine lowered her head, and shook it slightly, "I really wish I could have met him. He must be something real special if Yuna's waited two years for his return like this. Hell, she only joined the Gullwings after Rikku showed her the sphere of him—even though it ended up being that bastard Shuyin," Paine thought as she looked back up at Yuna.

Yuna had reassumed her place on the deck, as well as her smile, though this one was different; it was genuine. She had pushed her sadness and bad memories away by allowing herself to think back to her encounter with the Fayth three days ago, just after they had defeated Vegnagun and freed Shuyin and Lenne in the Farplane.

She heard his whistle again at last. The same whistle she had longed to hear for two years. She had heard it in the Farplane before, but this was different. The last time she had needed help, and he had called out to her, materializing long enough to lead her back to the light. This time, she needed no such help, her job was done, but she heard him just the same. When she looked around expecting to see her lover again, she instead saw the Fayth of Bahamut. After he thanked her, he asked her a single question, a question she would never forget.

"You want to see him?"

Her heart began racing, and Yuna found herself at a complete loss for words. Finally she managed to stammer "h-him?"

"Yes. You want to walk together again?"

Yuna's mouth still wasn't working right, but she was finally able to nod.

The Fayth smiled, "I can't promise anything, but we'll do what we can."

Then he had left her, alone, to contemplate his words.

"It was a silly question, really," she pondered with a smirk, "What else would I have said? No? It's better this way? After crossing Spira countless times in the hope of finding something that led to him?" she trailed off.

She hadn't told anyone about this encounter, not even Paine and Rikku. They'd been worried about her recently, and she didn't want to burden her two best friends with any visions that they couldn't see.

This troubled her though. Even though they were right there with her, no one else had seen the Fayth speak with her in the Farplane. While this was not unexpected, since the Fayth had demonstrated to ability to appear at will to only a select few in the past, she couldn't help but wonder if she was succumbing to wishful thinking.

"No," she thought, "if I were just fantasizing, he would have come back to me in the Farplane. Not the Fayth, no matter how good his message was."

But then, she had to wonder, how good was the news really? The Fayth had explicitly promised her nothing, and his offer had been to walk with him. But how long was this walk? No more than a brief visit? An hour, a day, a week perhaps? Enough time to catch up, enough time for her to remember how happy she was with him, and enough time to remember his face, his smile, his voice, his hair, his touch, only to have him ripped away, only to watch him disappear again?

She shuddered. That would be worse than not seeing him at all. To experience the depression that she had felt two years ago again, magnified by the false hope brought from having him back, she didn't know how she would go on if that happened.

On the other hand, there was the hope that he would be by her side much longer than that. Not days, months, years, or even decades, but a lifetime. "No, not a lifetime," Yuna corrected herself, "not until the end, always." She smiled and whispered "just like you promised me."

Yuna remembered that magical night at the spring in Macalania. It was where she first realized how deeply he cared for her. It was where they first kissed. It was where she finally had to admit to herself that she loved him.

He had come to apologize to her for his own naivety, and to dissuade her from continuing the journey which would claim her life.

He said, "Yuna, just don't do it… forget about Sin, about being a Summoner. Forget all that. You know, live a normal life."

She watched him considering his words as he swam through the spring. He seemed so relaxed in the water. She couldn't help but admire his demeanor, and she couldn't help but admire him. Something about him made Yuna doubt herself, something that hadn't happened in a very long time. "Maybe I will." She said after a pause, already feeling as if a great burden were lifted off her shoulders.

He stopped, and swam over to her. Why did he make her feel this way? This wasn't the first time that she had been asked to give up her pilgrimage. Lulu and Wakka had tried desperately to make her reconsider until she finally received her first Aeon, but when he asked her she not only considered it, but began to wonder about what her life could be, what the future might hold if she actually had one.

"No" she thought, "this isn't right! I've come so far, I can't just give up now. I'm Spira's light in the darkness! I can't let them down, not after everything I've been through! Not for anything. Not even myself. I have to continue."

"I can't. I just can't," she said as she broke down, and for the first and only time on her pilgrimage, cried for the sacrifice that she was making for Spira.

He watched her for a moment, as her tears fell into the water around her. He wanted to make her happy, but he needed her to understand how much he cared about her, how worried he was about what she was going through for the rest of Spira.

He came to apologize to her for his own naivety, and to dissuade her from continuing the journey which would claim her life, but he stayed to comfort her after she considered his proposition, but realized that it was impossible. He consoled her by placing his strong arms on her shoulders, calling her name softly, looking into her eyes, and sharing with her their first and only kiss.

She had never given any hope to feeling what she felt at that moment. As he touched her, as he held her, as they fell under the water, and as he gently caressed her face, she felt love, blissful and romantic love. It terrified her. Never in her wildest dreams had Yuna imagined that someone would get so close to her. She had been preparing to become a Summoner since before she knew what love really was. Now that she felt it, she was afraid, because for the first time in her life, she had something to live for, and as much as that made her want to just give in to his earlier suggestion, to give up everything she had worked for, she had already realized that it was too late to turn back—it was too late for her.

She had to tell him. He deserved to know and to understand after what he had given her.

"I'll continue," she informed him softly, "I must." He grunted.

She persisted "If I give up now, I could do anything I wanted to, and yet, even if I was with you, I could never forget."

His reaction, "I'll go with you."

"Wha—" Yuna cut herself off. She expected him to scream, to yell, to cry, to do whatever it took to make her see things his way. Instead, he understood.

"I'm your guardian… unless I'm fired"

She giggled, "Stay with me, until the end, please."

"Not until the end, always."

At that comment, Yuna allowed a subtle smile. If nothing else it was a wonderful sentiment, and she wished from the bottom of her heart that he would find some way to make it come true. So she conceded, "Always then."

"Always," Yuna echoed.

"Yuna?" Paine called.

"Hmm?" She faced her friends, and noted the concern on both their faces.

"I thought you'd said something."

"Oh, sorry," Yuna answered as she stood and walked to the edge. "I just wanted to get a better view."

Paine and Rikku exchanged a glance.

"Yuna?" Paine tentatively asked again.

Yuna turned around again.

"Is…is something bothering you? I really don't mean to pry, but you just haven't seemed like yourself these past few days, and I was, uh, we were just—"

"We're worried about you, Yunie," Rikku interrupted. "You've just been acting so strange since we beat Vegnagun, and we wanted to know what was going on and if there was anything we could do to help."

Yuna was taken aback by both her cousin's unexpected bluntness and Paine's concern. Normally Rikku was the outgoing, fun-loving, and bubbly character, forgoing any and all seriousness whenever possible, while Paine kept to herself; she was quiet, focused, sarcastic when she could be and serious otherwise. The fact that they were both worried instead of bickering like usual led Yuna to realize that she hadn't been concealing her emotions as well as she thought.

Finally Yuna replied, "I'm fine. I'm just worried, you know? I… I'm not really sure what I'm going to do now that Vegnagun is gone. I'd kind of like to relax and enjoy not saving the world for a while, but I don't want to go back to my life before the Gullwings either."

"Aww, Yunie!" Rikku ran up and embraced her "who said we're done being Gullwings? Just because we're finished saving Spira doesn't mean we're done hunting spheres or fighting meanies and fiends." Rikku let go and started to bounce excitedly.

Yuna giggled, "I don't know about you girls, but I wouldn't mind being done fighting 'meanies and fiends' for a while."

Paine laughed, "Hey, what am I supposed to do around here if I'm not saving your butts constantly?"

Rikku turned, "You? Save US? Must I remind you of the Greater Drake we fought back in Djose?"

Paine snorted, "That only happened once. How many times was I defending you when you were face down in the dirt when we were fighting some puny little excuse for a…"

Yuna couldn't help but smile and shake her head. They were at it again, so everything was back to normal.

Yuna turned and walked to the gull statue on the front of the airship, and she considered what Rikku had said, about her future as a Gullwing. Part of her wanted to forget her troubles and continue on as she had. Although she had come for a chance to find him, she had stated because she enjoyed being a sphere hunter, but something was missing. She had sworn two years ago to never forget her faded dream, and without him, Yuna could never be complete. Without him, Yuna would never be truly happy.

Yuna closed her eyes and stretched her arms out to either side of her as if she were flying, floating effortlessly across the sky, like the statue before her. She felt the heat of the sun on her face and arms, and the fresh breeze whistling past her.

"Please," Yuna wished aloud, "please come back to me."

"Tidus."