A.N.
Howdy ya'll! Sorry for the delay, but this time I...don't have a good reason. Yeah I know. Lazy. Laaaaazzzzzzyyyy. However, a warning is in place. Things get a tiny bit emotional in this chapter. Don't worry, they will get better.
Disclaimer: You know, I only do this because I love making fun of disclaimers? You didn't? Oh, well, now you know.
Yuna stared at her mother, mouth agape. "But....how? Father would never...."
"I know Yuna. But Lord Jyscal witnessed, and it's his word against your father's. Even the people who would help him are afraid to, due to Jyscal's wrath," Lorenna said quietly to her daughter.
"But mother, that's not right! Why is Jyscal doing this? What has father ever done to him?" Yuna said insistently.
To her horror and shame, Yuna felt tears starting to drip down her cheeks. She detested crying, simply because it made her feel weak. She maintained a relative calm on the outside, no matter how turbulent her emotions were on the inside. Losing it was rare, and she never lost in front of her mother.
But she was crying now, and was now silently punishing herself for it as she watched her mother's face go from stoic to concerned, and back again. A reflex Yuna knew well.
"Yuna, calm down. Auron is working on it. It'll all be ok," Lorenna said, patting Yuna's back.
Yuna gulped down a reply, and gave a false smile to her mother. "Your right mom," she lied.
Lorenna smiled, and touched Yuna's cheek, then left Yuna's room and shut the door.
As soon as she was gone, Yuna sat down on her bed, trying not to cry. She needed to talk to someone about it. Someone who wasn't her mother. But who?
She thought of her friends, and what she could tell them. Lulu? She'd be sympathetic, but probably on the same plateau as her mother. Cool, removed.
Wakka? A possibility. But he would more than likely take it as an affront to his faith, and not handle it too well.
Rikku was good, but chances are she'd be too busy mourning herself. She was terribly fond of Braska, and the loss of her favorite uncle would wound her terribly.
Kimahri would listen, but he was occupied as it was. He was far too busy to be bothering with her.
Tidus? Not after the way she had spoken to him. Her heart wrenched just thinking about it. She wasn't prone to yelling, in fact, she reserved her shouts for Rikku, and rarely, if ever, meant them.
She decided to keep it to herself. It was too difficult telling everybody about her problems, when they had too many of their own to begin with.
Besides, she was Yuna Pyrea, who never had any problems. Who kept smiling through even the worst disasters, and never complained.
It wouldn't do to make everyone listen to her cry and make them feel sorry for her.
She set her jaw, and walked out of her room and half-way into the kitchen until she saw her mother in there, crying her heart out into a handkerchief. Yuna felt her heart wrench, then headed off in the other direction, out the front door.
She felt a wave of bitterness towards her mother hit her as she stepped out the door. She could never please her. Lorenna was always so cold, even more than Lulu.
Not for the first time, Yuna found herself wondering why her father married her mother. Braska's gentle kindness, his friendliness, contrasted so much with her mother's cold, unforgiving personality.
It was Lorenna who originally infused Yuna with the desire to keep her emotions bottled in. The woman had never held Yuna when she was crying, instead had looked at her with cool eyes and asked her what was the problem.
She looked back at her house once more, then turned away with disgust.
"Hey does anyone know where Yunie went?" Rikku asked, running up to the crew at the lunch table.
They all shook their heads. Rikku's face went to a worried look. Then she noticed Tidus' expression.
"Tidus, what's wrong?" she asked conserned.
He looked guiltily at her, then looked at his food. "I think I kinda pissed her off," he said, miserably.
Rikku shook her blond head. "She wouldn't have not come to lunch just because she was ticked off at you Tidus," she explained. "Yuna's not like that at all."
Again, the group exchanged looks and then looked back at Rikku. "So, what should we do ya?" Wakka asked nervously.
"Hey, Rikku right?" someone said from behind her. She turned and nearly swallowed her tongue. The hot blond guy with the eye-patch was standing there, along with his equally hot friend with the silvery white hair.
"Um, yes," she said weakly.
"Hey. Name's Gippal, and this is my friend Baralai," the guy said, pointing to himself, then clapping his friend on the shoulder, who smiled broadly, then waved cheerfully to them.
"Hi. Can we help you?" Lulu said coolly. Gippal looked surprised for a moment, then grinned.
"Your friend's kinda moody ain't she?" he said.
"Stick around, and I'll show you how moody I can become," Lulu growled.
"I'd like to see you try toots," Gippal snickered.
"You ever seen your own internal organs up close before? While their still inside your body?" she hissed, standing up half-way.
Gippal backed up a bit, then smiled. "I get your point babe," he said. Lulu snorted and tossed her head.
"So, we couldn't help but over-hear your conversation," Gippal said smoothly, draping his arm over Rikku's shoulder's, who blushed and giggled nervously.
"I bet you could," Lulu snapped.
Gippal was about to respond, when Baralai cut in easily. "The point is madam, that we heard your worries about the Lady Yuna. And we think we could offer some incite into her whereabouts," he said calmly.
You could almost hear every ear at the table quirk in their direction. Everyone looked expectantly at Gippal and Baralai.
"The Lady Yuna was called into the office, where her mother was waiting to pick her up," Baralai explained. "She had no illness that I could see, and she seemed surprised. So I'm guessing that it was an emergency of some sort."
Rikku unraveled herself from Gippal, and looked slightly panicked at Lulu. "Lu? Do you think you could gimmie a ride?" she said.
"Way ahead of ya, pypa," Gippal said, flashing keys at the aggrivated lass.
Rikku grabbed hold of him, and practically drug him out the door. "Bye guys!" she called hurriedly over her shoulder.
Lulu gave Baralai an irate look. "I'm goin', I'm goin!" he said, leaving towards the cafeteria exit.
Tidus looked anxious, then stood. "I gotta go check on her. Make sure she's ok," he said, leaving the table.
Lulu and Wakka looked at each other. "Aw hell," Wakka said getting up.
"Right," Lulu said, grabbing her tray.
A.N.
La la. Hope everyone liked this chapter. Things get even more interesting as they go, so brace yourselves.