Disclaimer: FFX-2 belongs to Square Enix. My plot. No touchy.
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It was like waking from a dream and not remembering what exactly you had dreamt about. There was a lingering feeling of confusion, of being lost, and I couldn't pinpoint why I felt that way.
I shifted, not wanting to open my eyes, but still curious about where I was. I could feel a bed or couch underneath me, a blanket wrapped uncomfortably tight around me, tucked in. I felt a sharp pain in my side when I twisted to my left, and I moaned quietly.
"Hey!"
"Is she awake?"
"Ohh, come on, please get up!"
The three voices were in unison. I opened my eyelid a fraction to look around me; the sudden light was blinding, but I could just make out three shapes floating over my head. Two of them were wearing black, because their shapes were so dark, but the other wore brighter colors. I could hear a fourth person enter the room but I couldn't see them when they asked quietly, "Did she wake up?"
I closed my eye again; I saw spots from the bright light, even just the glimpse I'd had of it.
Suddenly a shadow fell over the limited brightness that was showing through my eyelid, like someone was standing in front of a light. I made a face, because the darkness inside my eye reminded me of something; though I couldn't remember exactly what, it wasn't pleasant.
Deciding that doing nothing would be pointless, I sat up slowly and opened my eyes again. There was a collective gasp around me, and several cries of "She's awake!" rang through the room. Once my eyes focused, I glanced around at the people who stood beside me.
There was a blonde girl hovering almost directly in my face, her eyes green with swirled pupils, her face etched with worry. As soon as she saw me looking at her and semi-alert, she grinned and walked over to a chair.
The two women in black glanced at each other; the rather busty one said she'd make some tea and left the room. The other one, who had extremely crimson eyes, nodded curtly to me and sat down beside the blonde girl.
I turned my head to see where I was, and a blonde man stood at the end of the bed, his blue eyes frantically searching my face. He looked concerned but standoffish, like he was a child worried he'd hurt someone but was afraid of asking in fear of being punished. His hair looked fluffy, like a chocobo's, even though I couldn't remember what a chocobo was.
"Who are you all?" I asked, somewhat bravely, seeing as I was in a room full of strangers peering at me. My voice sounded like gravel, so I made another face at that.
He glanced nervously at the other two girls who had remained in the room. They shot looks at each other, but the blonde one gave a brave attempt at a smile while the silver haired one's mouth went into a thin line. The blonde's smile faltered.
The man looked at me again, a new expression on his face; it was something similar to wariness. "Do you remember… anything?"
At the word 'remember', I did have a flicker of memory - just of total blackness and a voice calling to me. But it vanished quickly and I passed it off as part of my dream. "Well, not exactly," I said in an I'm-seriously-confused-but-trying-to-be-polite sort of tone. "But who are you, really?" I could see they were all avoiding answering me.
I was right. My repeating the question made his eyes pop; it was as if he couldn't believe I really didn't know him. First he stared incredulously at me, then turned to the other two women. The one in black looked mildly surprised; the blonde's mouth was in a perfect, round, 'o'.
"You… you don't remember me?" the man asked me softly. His hands were shaking and he gripped the bottom of the bed to steady them.
I shook my head. "No, I'm sorry, should I?"
Just then, the woman who'd left earlier returned, carrying a teapot and teacups on a tray. "Who wants some – what's wrong?" she asked, looked around steadily at our expressions; all of them looked surprised or shocked, while I had a firmly confused look on my face.
"She doesn't remember us," he replied weakly. His eyes seemed unusually shiny at the moment, and I cracked.
"You look like someone died," I said with a feeble stab at a joke. His eyes continued to glisten. "Hey, hey, it's okay," I said, an attempt at being reassuring. I spread my arms and gestured for him to come into my hug, but he backed away.
"No, no, no! Come on, Yuna, it's me, it's Tidus!" He looked around at the women, desperate for support. "Remember me? The pilgrimage, Zanarkand, Sin? Some dude named Shuyin, and that Vegna-thing, the fayth –?"
I shook my head to all of it, my eyes widening at just how desperate he was. "No, Tidus, I'm really sorry. I don't remember any of it. I don't remember any ofyou," I added, looking at all of them. My gaze came to rest on Tidus again.
"But… but…" he said, shaking his head. He walked over to me on one side of the bed and crouched down, now eye-to-eye with me. "Nothing?"
A brief flash of blue, deep water, and him coming towards me while I sobbed. Sobbing at what, I didn't know, but the image was so quick that I didn't mention it.
"Nothing," I said softly.
He leaned over, folded his arms on my bedside, and rested his head on them. His gaze seemed to pierce me, and so I stopped staring at him and switched to looking at everyone else.
"Yuna," the busty woman said, and I recognized it as my name this time. "I'm… I'm Lulu. This is Rikku and Paine." She gestured at the blonde and silver-haired girls in turn.
I nodded at each of them when she said their names. "Nice to meet you."
Rikku seemed to be tearing up, because when she spoke it sounded like she had a stuffy nose. "Hey, Y-Yunie."
Paine didn't say anything, but gazed intently at me. It seemed she was trying to will me to remember something, anything, but she gave up and turned to staring at the wall.
Lulu, tea forgotten, tried to smile. It looked like she was in pain instead. "Well, now that we've all – er – met, maybe we'll let Yuna get some rest." She ushered the other two girls out of the room and gestured to Tidus to follow.
"Be there in a minute," he said, and she sighed and left the room.
I barely had time to think before he lunged for me, pressing his mouth to mine. It was a harsh kiss, a forget-me-not plea, and he didn't pull away for a while. When he did, most likely for air (because I knew I'd needed some), he asked quietly, "Well?"
Besides having a stranger randomly try to make out with me, I was fine. Well, not fine, as I had no memory whatsoever. The kiss, though, was nice – really nice. But I shook my head again and whispered, now beginning to tear up myself, "I don't remember."
Tidus' expression hardened. I could tell he was trying not to cry. How horrible had I been to all these people that they were crying for me?
"Tidus," I said, reaching for him. I pulled him into a hug and whispered, "It's okay now. Don't worry. I'm okay, I'm okay."
He shook his head and mumbled something I couldn't understand.
"Sorry?"
He pulled away from me and stared into my eyes, but it felt like he was looking into my soul, searching for something to have me remember him by. "No, it's not okay."
"But –?"
"You said you loved me," he said, eyes closed now. His voice dropped so it was barely audible. "I faded, you said you loved me, and then I came back two years later. And then… then…"
He fell silent. Though he wasn't making sense ('faded'?), I turned my head to one side and said, "Go on."
Tidus' eyes whipped open. His voice was hollow when he said, "Then we thought you'd attempted suicide."
My eyes popped. Whatever I could or couldn't remember, I knew I wasn't the person who would commit suicide. "What?"
"You were dead," he told me slowly. "No pulse, no breathing. They just… found you like that. But they brought you back, eventually, with some healing spells; Lulu knows a little healing from you, but it was mostly Paine and Rikku. And…" His eyes went unfocused as he delved into his memories. "They were using really, really advanced curing spells and they couldn't revive you. You were just not there, not responding to the magic. And then all of a sudden, you were breathing again. And I thought… I thought I'd lost you, Yuna. I love you. But you don't even remember me."
I could see how hard it was for him to not cry, because he kept having long pauses between the sentences. I tried to drink it all in, but I couldn't, not now, not all this at once.
He stood after a while and left, living for the moment in his memories; memories I wished I had.
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Author's Note: Again, thank you, RecordCover. :3 And thank you Sarcastic Strawberry, The Pirate Jilt, and Soda RK Angel for reviewing the prologue. Ily. xD