(2,327 words) I didn't really know what I was writing here. So it's not much more than random conversation. Except the ending, I even love how I wrote it. Hope you enjoy!
Oh by the way the chapter is called what it is because of what started the conversation in the first place.
Disclaimer: I do not own FFX
29) Pink laces
"What are you doing by the way?" Yuna asked from curiosity.
She had a free period, and though she certainly wasn't allowed to she'd wandered away from her class, who had been stuck in the library. Though their teacher wasn't here they'd still told another that the class had an assignment to do. So, sticking them there was a pretty decent...um…hint. She'd gone outside, and was reading a book atop a table; the library would've seemed more reasonable to most, but her class was being annoyingly loud. While doing this she had spotted someone else lying on the ground a way off, next to one of the green tables scattered about. She was certainly bored, so she'd gone over there to see who it was, they were in so much of a trance that they didn't see her come up, nor sit upon the table near their head. And it took to her leaning over their line of sight and asking that question for them to notice.
"Nothing," Tidus mumbled, turning his head so he wouldn't have to stare up into her green and blue eyes.
"But it's impossible to do nothing, so you have to be doing something," she stated almost childishly, it was a ploy to get him to talk, as he could plainly see, considering she wasn't a childish person.
He rolled over and hopped off the ground; he sat down cross-legged, refusing to sit next to her on the table. He also refused to look up into her eyes, so he instead gazed at the bright pink laces of her black knee high boots. What is up with her and boots?
"I've got fourteen pairs of them," he heard Yuna say, which took him by surprise, but then he simply realised he must have said that out loud.
"Weird."
"Lenne has a lot more. I've seen the pile."
His expression was quizzical for a moment; she'd mentioned more than once that the girl had no money. And he knew boots were around $100 dollars each.
"Weird."
"Not in the mood for talking, are you?" She asked, with a tilt of her head. It was cute, but the second that thought went through his head he took to staring at her pink laces again.
"Not really. Honestly I though you didn't want to talk to me. Kinda surprised I guess." He scratched the back of his head; he didn't know what else to say. He wasn't used to talking to people when it wasn't an argument. It was foreign ground.
Still she smiled; for whatever reason, he found it confusing. She didn't have a reason, right?
"You are much better when it's an argument, aren't you? I noticed that some time ago. You were talking but whenever I tried to put something in you went weird for a while and only got back on track after I hadn't said anything for a bit."
He shrugged. "Didn't notice," he lied. He knew he had trouble.
"Don't friends and parents usually teach you that kinda stuff? What happened there?"
"My mum died when I was young and I've never had any friends."
"But aren't you popular-"
"Like those shits count as friends," he sniggered, before realising he'd cut her off. He looked up a mite to see the bottom half of her face, avoiding her eyes. He hoped that was enough to figure out what she was thinking. It was rude wasn't it? So she'd be annoyed. But against what he thought she smiled. Yeah she was definitely weird.
"I guess that's right. Those people are too superficial. That's why I like being on the outskirts. Makes your friends more true." She grinned, and leaned back, thinking something that Tidus was unable to guess thanks to her vague expression.
"You're weird," he said. Most people wanted to be popular; it seemed strange to want the opposite.
"Some people are like that. Just because popular people think they do, does not mean that everybody wants to be them."
"Still think you're weird."
"I guess, but then again I think you're weirder. You don't get stuff." She shrugged and continued. "But you did just say your mum died when you were young, so maybe that explains it a bit. They're usually very good when it comes to teaching that kind of thing."
He stared at her for a while in silence. She didn't bother to continue the conversation, she was thinking about something or another; it was difficult to figure out what someone was thinking when you avoided eye contact. Eyes spoke volumes.
"Is this going anywhere?" Tidus asked when he became bored or the silence.
She hummed in thought. "Well if we kept down that one path it wouldn't."
"I can see that," he muttered.
The silence soon fell upon them again. He groaned and flopped on the ground; she giggled and broke it with, "Not good with silence either."
"Are you testing me?"
"Maybe." She smirked.
He frowned and looked away from her cheeky smirk. He was beginning to wonder if he should just get up and walk away, seeing as this was certainly not getting anywhere when she said almost out of the blue, "So your mum died did she? How...how old were you at the time?"
"What's this about?" Tidus asked back.
"Just making conversation."
"I thought we already were having one."
"A failed excuse for one at least. So I'll make it a proper one," she proclaimed happily.
He just raised an eyebrow, and said, just as she suspected he would, "You're weird."
"You know I should be given a counter to count how many times you say that." She put a finger to her mouth as she decided on the idea.
"You're definitely weird. That's a stupid idea."
"Take a joke, I was kidding obviously. So are you gonna answer my question?"
He groaned, already in a bad mood over this stupid chat.
"Fine. Car accident, I was five." He finally revealed. Only that unbeknownst to her it was a complete lie.
Yuna frowned. "That's sad. That's so young, does it hurt?"
"I was five!" Tidus yelled, "I barely remember her!"
"Well I was four when my mum died and it still hurts when I think about it."
He paused before he went to yell at her again, "Wait, your mum's dead!?"
She nodded, "Yep, boat sunk when she was going to visit Uncle Cid. That was before he lived here in Zanarkand. Said he wanted to live close so no similar accidents ever happened. My dad died a couple years ago too, when I was seven. He was out a little later than usual. I didn't mind since Uncle Cid was looking after me and he'd brought Rikku with him so I'd have a friend. Some crazy woman attacked them, she was just trying to steal their money apparently, that's what she said in court at least. But that seems ridiculous to think, when she took the lives of three men that night."
Tidus fell into a silence that he was stuck figuring out if it was a shocked or awkward silence. He had her pinned as the type who'd act like they'd been through a lot, when really they hadn't.
"Never through someone like you would've gone through that type of thing." He was awed really, she seemed to be such a happy person. Even he'd seen, and all he had done to her was provoke her into yelling at him.
"Oh it's fine I guess." Yuna smiled half-heartedly. "I won't lie, when I think of them it does hurt, after all they're my parents. But I'm not going to let them be a memory that'll always keep me down and ruin my life. I have people who are there for me whenever I need it, I don't need to worry. Sis was there the moment I lost them anyway, she decided practically immediately afterwards that she was my new family. Took me in and everything." Her smile broadened to a proper smile, one that lit up her eyes with joy.
"Sis?" And for the second time in their conversation did he raise an eyebrow.
"Well she's not my real sister obviously. But she's a friend who I've known for a very long time. She never had family herself, and neither had her best friend – used to always call him 'brother' – but they'd always wanted one desperately. I guess I was the answer to their prayers."
"Her best friend was a guy?" It was her turn to raise an eyebrow, as he commented on the most trivial thing she'd mentioned.
"Yes her best friend is a guy. He's her husband now, actually, and the father of her unborn child. So I don't call him brother anymore; I stopped around the time they got engaged." Yuna rolled her eyes and waited for him to say something else, hopefully not as stupid as the last.
"There's quite an age difference isn't there?"
"Yeah, but that gives them more reason to be so protective of me. It's like my parents never left, it's nice." Her expression was sincerely happy, but there was something in the corner of her eyes, hinting at a different emotion. He believed, if not fully, that she didn't believe in her words. Of course she'd say it to make people happy, but no one can ever replace those lost.
"Sooo," she drawled. "What're your parents like?" she asked innocently, like there couldn't be a bad answer to that. Tidus however, felt his stomach drop and felt a wave of sickness come over him. He didn't want to speak of them, his mother had been a wonderful person….but his father, however…
Time to lie about this without making it seem like lying. It was a good idea, he thought.
"Mum had blue eyes," he lied. "And light brown hair, kinda like yours," he said as he gestured to her hair. She giggled at his chosen comparison. She must have found it weird, he thought. But Yuna and his mum had had startling similarities, not their faces, but the other details surely.
"She was really nice," he continued. "When people needed help she'd give them it, she used to spend a lot of time with me too, since no one else ever would. They thought I was weird-"
"And yet you were perfectly fine calling me that," she interrupted, he sent her a look and she grinned mischievously. "Sorry, I won't do that again."
"I know she had moments where if you tell her to do something, she'd do it. I'm not sure she wanted to, but she felt as if she had to, or that'd be rude. I guess that was a bad thing." He frowned. "But Dad's horrible. She loved him, there's no way she could say no." Tidus bit his lip, realising he'd said too much.
"Your Dad…?" She tiled he head, curiously.
"It doesn't matter. I should go. Both of us should be in class I'm pretty sure. If we stay out here the whole time we're bound to get into shit." He hopped up onto his feet but Yuna followed the movement and jumped off the table, latching onto his arm before he got away.
"Wait, what was that about your father? Why'd you stop yourself like that?"
He gazed back at her, regretting that he'd looked fully into her eyes, because now he couldn't look away. "I'm sorry," He mumbled. "I shouldn't...I can't say."
She frowned; she wasn't angry, just annoyed. "Why?" she asked, and nothing more. Innocent curiosity was all it was. But still, though a part of him honestly wanted to tell her, he knew he couldn't. Tidus lowered his head, successfully getting himself to look away from her green and blue eyes. What did he think of this girl; if he actually wanted to tell her it? Admit to her that his father was the leader of an underground organisation that had killed thousands, and that he himself even at his young age was a part of?
She said something, but even right next to her he didn't hear it; he was so lost in thought with his heart beating so fast that he could not hear her. What was wrong with him? Did she remind him of his mother, simply from their similarity? Back when she was alive he used to do that, go into great detail about what'd he been doing; he'd loved it as a child, since no one else would dare give him the time of day. No, this was different, it was much different. Something in the corner of his mind told him it was so, but how was it then?
He didn't know, he just couldn't tell anymore. All he knew was that when Yuna tried to interrupt his thoughts, he did not stop her by telling her the truth; in fact he said nothing at all. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her close, catching her lips with his. Her eyes grew wide and her heart rate sped up, as did his. He had no idea what he was doing, he had no clue why his mind told him to do it, he just did it.
He let go of her, and took a step back, his expression equally as shocked as her own. The second they looked each other in the eye, they turned away. Him to the side, she to the ground.
"I'm sorry." He twisted around with the intent of getting as far away from her as he could.
"I was going to say I forgive you for what you did to Rikku. I know you already apologised for it, but I was still angry over it. But she's better now, so maybe things aren't as bad as I thought." She bit her lip, he'd barely heard her. But he certainly didn't miss the tear slipping down her cheek.
Kinda sad yet not...Finally wrote something YunaXTidus...kinda. Since the kiss was random and unexpected.
If no one but my sister and my one other reviewer (you have a long name and I keep forgetting parts sorry!), reviews this I will find out where the readers live and kill them. I mean come on, you exist don't you? You're reading this note aren't you? You can tell how badly I just want someone to review? This fic means so much to me. Yet nothing. No one seems to care.
Please review!
Jya ne,
~Serah Villiers Valentine
