A/N and hello again! Ahahahaha my lack of plot disease has come back to haunt me! Seriously.
"You're my saviour! My absolute saviour!" Tidus gushed as he guzzled the food Tifa had set down in front of him.
She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Oh don't worry; he says that to anyone who gives him food..." Rikku sighed.
"Oh does he now?" Tifa laughed slightly.
"Oh yeah." Rikku looked slightly annoyed. "He scared the hell out of me when I first met him..."
"Rikku, I was not that scary!" Tidus mumbled through a mouthful of food.
"Yes. Yes Tidus. You WERE."
Tifa laughed at the two arguing.
"So..." She decided to intervene. "What brings you to Edge?"
"Hmm?" Tidus and Rikku looked up.
"Well, I got lost on the plains out there, found my way to Midgar, then got attacked by fiends, Cloud rescued me and brought me here." Tidus grinned.
"Wow Tidus, you're pretty pathetic if even after all your training, and fighting experience a couple of fiends could knock you out." Rikku smirked.
"I'll have you know they jumped on me from behind!"
"Some excuse."
"So what about you Rikku?"
"Well, I found myself in this weird place in this strange forest, then Vincent, who reminds me creepily of Auron, no its true he does, found me and brought me here."
"Ok. That's really not fair! I had to trudge my way across a baking hot desert place, then again and that's all that happened to you! My life sucks." Tidus pouted.
"Sounds like you two get around a bit!" Tifa laughed.
"You have NO idea..." Tidus deadpanned.
"Tifa...can I take a glass of water up to Denzel please?" A little girl's voice came from the doorway.
Tidus and Rikku looked round, standing half way out of the room was a small girl with her brown hair in a plait and her eyes were large and round.
"Yes of course you can Marlene." Tifa's voice was soft and slightly sad. Rikku seemed to understand why but Tidus was left looking between them, completely bemused. As always.
Once Marlene had vanished upstairs again Tifa turned to them and asked, "Are you two moving on today or are you staying here in Edge?"
Tidus looked at Rikku, "I think we'll have to stay here tonight until we can think of a plan of action..."
"A plan of action? Sorry, I don't mean to be nosy..."
"No, it's fine." Rikku smiled softly. "Well, you see, our friend, MORE than friend in Tidus' case" Rikku grinned at Tidus cheekily, Tidus hit her arm, "anyway, our friend is...well, we got separated...and now we can't find her!" Rikku started to cry again.
"Oh...you poor things. I know exactly how you feel...I've...I've lost friends before..."
They sat in silence for a minute before Tifa raised her voice again.
"Anyway, do you two have a place to stay tonight?"
"Uh...no..." Tidus scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"Well, we have a couple of spare rooms here..."
"Oh...well, uh we don't have much money..." Tidus trailed off. Oranyatallinmycase.
"Free of charge, I can't stand by and let you two stay out in the cold, and I'll also help you find your friend!"
"Tifa..." Rikku looked at her
"You don't have too—..."
"I want to."
"Huh?"
"I want to help you find your friend!" Tifa looked at them, her eyes were fierce. "I know I can help!"
"But why?"
"I hate to see anyone in distress. I know what it's like to lose a friend...and I just...I just want to make sure that you're ok!"
"Tifa, I know that you want to help, but seriously, we've only just met you, you barely know our names, we know nothing about each other. You can't just go up to a total stranger and decide to help them because you feel like it!" Tidus waved his hands in the air, an earnest expression on his face.
"NO. Listen to me Tidus, Rikku. I don't CARE if I've just met you! Things here are as peaceful as they can be considering, I want to help you find your friend, I don't want you to suffer the same pain I did. I don't want you to be hurt. If I'm with you I can provide some sort of protection. And if you don't let me I'll still come along! I will help and I'll be damned if you stop me!" Tifa slammed her hands on the bar top, tears brimming in her eyes.
"Tifa..."
"This...this would just give me some comfort to know that I'm helping someone...helping them to stop being sad..."
"Tifa listen, I know how you feel but—." Tidus started but Rikku cut him off.
"OK. You can help us." Rikku had that look in her eye. That desperate, sad and pleading look.
Tidus sighed, he had tried not to get anyone else involved, more people meant more questions, and questions were things he really didn't want.
"Ok fine..." Reluctantly he agreed.
"Right! Well, if that's settled then I'll show you to your rooms! It's getting late." Tifa sniffed a little, blinked a couple of times and stood up, her welcoming smile back on her face.
Tidus and Rikku exchanged a look. Tidus still wasn't sure that they should let her help, but Tifa remained adamant. And if it gave them a free room and food...Tidus shook his head, he wasn't doing this because of food! If Tifa's help would let them find Yuna faster... then he was all for it!
XXX000XXX
Cloud was on his way back to Midgar, halfway across the wastes in fact, before he realised that he had forgotten to use the phone to call Yuffie. He did have his phone, but he never used it.
He had been trying to figure out the deal with the two new comers. He presumed that Tidus had got amnesia or something of the like, considering the fact that he didn't remember 2 years and also had no idea where Midgar was. Perhaps they WERE from a different continent. They seemed to have another friend as well, he had overheard the name 'Yuna', Cloud presumed that they had all been travelling to this continent together then got separated somehow.
Swerving to avoid a rock structure Cloud shook his head to clear his mind. It was none of his business. Although, no matter how much he tried to put it out of his mind he just kept thinking about them. So much was wrong.
Cloud was determined to unravel their mysteries.
XXX000XXX
After Tifa left them too it Tidus padded into Rikku's room, (after knocking first of course). She was sitting on the bed tears pooling in her eyes.
Tidus sat down next to her.
"It's not fair Tidus, it's not fair." Rikku sobbed. "I have you here and also a place to stay, food, water and we've met some really nice people, even in such a short time. What will Yunie have? She's probably all alone...so alone...I don't...I don't want her to be lonely again. Tidus it's not fair!"
She flung herself at him again and began sobbing into his chest. Tidus tried to comfort her. But really, he needed a little bit of comfort as well.
A/N
Wow, this took forever to write, as in I started it like...in the summer of 2010 and it's currently April 2011. Although I did go through and edit some stuff in the previous chapters, adding in bits and taking some out to make the story less complicated.
Ok. So about the chapter. For any explaining, I'm trying to make Tifa seem like her protective I-will-do-this self. Sorry for any OOC-ness. It's quite hard to keep the characters in line with their personalities. Tidus and Rikku are NOT in love; Rikku's just a bit insecure and misses Yuna a lot so she needs a bit of support.
As for Cloud, he's just a paranoid ***** as usual. Just because I felt like I'd left him out a bit I returned to him and added a little bit of mystery his end.
