Warning: Strong sexual content.

Chapter Three

Tidus now had Lulu's entire body pinned against the cliff face. Her heavy breath was a visible cloud in the frigid air. Her arms were wrapped around his shoulders. She could not completely encompass the mass of his muscles. He held her hips, pressing himself firmly against them while he kissed the side of her neck just below her jaw, shooting shivers of pleasure down her spine. She felt herself become very moist as his fingers traveled to her rear and began to knead it. His lips wandered down to her cleavage. "Tidus," she whispered as he squeezed both her breasts and then peeled the collar of her dress down to expose them. He yanked down her lacy strapless bra, allowing her ample chest to sway. Her dark pink nipples, exposed to the cold, became erect. Lulu almost hyperventilated as he took a breast in his mouth, sucking and nibbling on her firm tips. "What if they come back?" He wasn't listening. She could tell that he was completely possessed by desire as he ground his erection between her supple legs.

His dreams were coming true. And better yet, he wasn't going to wake up this time. Grabbing her rear, he lifted her up, letting her feet dangle off the icy ground, and kissed her passionately. She grasped both sides of his face, pulling him as close as their bodies allowed. Her soft breasts enveloped his chin in warmth. "I want to make love to you, Lulu," he gasped, breaking free from their locked lips.

"I can see that," she replied cynically, eyeing the pitched tent in his pants. He laughed, loving everything about her. Before she could say anything further, he laid her on the snowmobile, letting her grip the handle bars behind her, and began to raise her dress up over her hips. She kept her white, smooth legs together shyly, but he pried them apart, plunging his face between her slim, milky thighs, the skin against his face as smooth as silk. She let her head fall back and moaned as he pressed his mouth against her soaking wet panties. He caressed her entrance with his eager lips. Unable to hold back any longer, he slid her lacy underwear over her hips, all the way past her knees until they were dangling, feeble and wet, off one ankle. Undoing his pants, he mounted Lulu and guided his erection, slowly parting her labia, gazing at her hungrily. "Tidus, we shouldn't..."

"Please," he begged, not wanting her desire to disappear and be replaced by thoughts of Chappu. She willed herself to continue, but was still fearful of what she was getting herself into. Her head fell back as she looked up at the sky, her eyes closed, readying herself to be penetrated for the first time since she was by the man she desperately loved. She felt like a traitor, like less of a woman, for ever allowing this to happen. Taking her wordlessness for consent, Tidus eased into her until he was completely enveloped. He was disappointed to discover that she was not a virgin, but what should he expect from a woman so enticing and beautiful who had almost been married? Instead of brooding on it, he savored the feeling of her embrace, wrapping his arms around her slender waist and resting his head between her rotund breasts. She placed a hand on the back of his neck, and lightly dug her violet nails into his tanned skin. She wouldn't go through with offering herself to another man.

"I can't, Tidus," she breathed. He didn't raise his head from between her breasts.

"I want you, Lulu," he murmured, his speech somewhat muffled. "I know I'm being selfish, but I want you more than anything. More than returning to Zanarkand. More than defeating Sin. More even than protecting Yuna."

"I'm cold," she stated softly. And Tidus took it to mean more than that she wanted her clothes back on. She became frigid on the inside, for betraying Chappu, for giving herself away so easily. There was nothing left to do but seal herself away again, protected by a diamond-hard sheet of ice that no one would ever be able to pierce again.

"Please, just another second longer," he moaned, rising up and meeting her cheek with his lips, kissing her softly and savoring the moment that they had together before she became barred off to him completely. "I can warm you again." She closed her eyes and let him take his time, no longer enjoying herself but not wanting to be too selfish. After all, she had allowed him to get this far.

It's not his fault, she thought. It's not his fault that I'm so cold. But she laughed inwardly, reminding herself that it had been he who had stripped off her clothes.

"I adore you, Lulu," he gasped, pressing his cheek to hers, desperately clinging to her. "Please don't leave me alone out here. Please say that you love me too." But before she could say another word, she heard the sound of footsteps and spun around to see Wakka standing a few yards away. She hadn't even heard him approach on his snowmobile because they had been so consumed by lust. He looked away quickly and in the opposite direction, leaving his vehicle behind in his hurry to leave the scene.

Tidus climbed off of Lulu, doing up his pants, and retrieved her bra from where it had fallen. Lulu pulled her underwear back up her legs and lowered her dress. They straightened themselves out silently, until it was as if nothing had ever happened, and boarded the separate vehicles without looking at each other, both feeling thoroughly miserable and humiliated. The dream was over, and this time the mess it had caused wasn't so simple to clean up.

"There you are!" shouted Rikku as they came into sight. She bounded down the steps of the Macalania temple after them. "We thought you two had been attacked by fiends, so Wakka went back to check, then he said he left his snowmobile because it broke down. I guess it was alright after all." She looked at Tidus, who was unusually quiet and very solemn-looking. "Did something happen?" She then glanced at Lulu quizzically, but she had her back to her and was already heading inside the temple. "Come on, guys!"

"We had an argument," muttered Tidus, who had his eyes fixed directly in front of him and both his fists clenched.

"Oh... So that's why you came in separately." Rikku looked at him consolingly. "Don't let Lulu get you down. I don't think she wants to be mean."

"No... It's not her fault." Tidus feigned a smile, looking Rikku in the eyes for the first time. She returned the gesture and hopped back up the temple stairs, beckoning him to follow her.

Truth be told, Tidus felt more guilty than he did disappointed, both for not listening to Lulu's pleas and allowing them to be discovered by Wakka, and for ever having feelings for her in the first place. He had treaded on dangerous ground and had been burned severely for it. Burned by those ruby eyes that he loved so dearly. He thought of the things he had said when they almost made love, and realized how utterly selfish he had been to tell her how he felt, and to try to claim something that wasn't his. Even so, he thought that Lulu had been selfish too, to give him so much of her without allowing him to have the rest, saving that one most special piece for someone who had already died. He felt tears rolling down his cheeks. His dad had told him that only children cried, but for the first time in his life he felt like a real man, mourning the lost of his first real love, not just a spoiled kid who had been disappointed by another one of life's pitfalls.

Entering the temple, he saw Wakka standing before him with his arms crossed and a look of quiet determination on his face. Everyone else was on the other side of the temple, watching Yuna enter one of the rooms next to the door to the Chamber of the Fayth. Tidus approached him hesitantly, wondering if he would strike him.

"You didn't hurt her, did you?" he inquired firmly. Tidus shook his head, and Wakka's expression softened. "She hurt you... didn't she?" Tidus gave him a rueful smile.

"More than I've ever been hurt in my life."