Chapter 9: Streams and Sands of Time

While sitting in Rin's Travel Agency, waiting for her food to arrive, Rikku grabbed the Kilika memory sphere again and rewound it to when she recorded the shop wares. Leaning across the table, she showed the blitzball sheets to Yuna. "You have to get this for Tidus."

"I don't want blitzball sheets," he repeated when he saw Yuna grinning. "How immature can you get?"

Rikku frowned and knocked the bill of his cap down low over his eyes. "That's the kind of comment that got you in trouble in the first place, you know."

Tidus tilted his head back to see her beneath the pushed-down bill.

Yuna chuckled to herself at their sibling-like rivalry and scratched lightly over the shoulder strap of her baby-doll halter. Her updated singer sphere had allowed her to demonstrate to Mekoshiko how a garment grid really worked when fiends and wild animals attempted to ambush them along the highway. Yuna would cast magic to blind or disable the beasts in some other way. Then Tidus followed with quick, decisive sword attacks.

Mekoshiko was impressed with how well the couple worked together, defending the group and with each other in general. Watching Yuna rewind the water-filled globe to previous recordings, he thought everything about her seemed soft and delicate, from her clothing and voice to her healing touch and smile. Yet, she had shown as much strength as Tidus when facing those highway dangers. She made Meko think of his own girlfriend back in Zanarkand—a girl he would probably never see again.

Oblivious to Meko's gaze on her, Yuna pressed the pause button and leaned sideways, holding the sphere for Tidus to see. "I like this one."

Tidus briefly examined the still-shot. "Go for it."

"Do you like it?"

"Sure." He shrugged.

Yuna's brows rose. "Then why did you shrug?"

He shrugged again. "Habit?"

"Well, it's not a very enthusiastic response. It means you don't know if you like it."

"If I didn't like it, I'd say so."

"But you didn't say you did like it."

Tidus faced the other blitzball player with a flat expression that brought Meko out of his daze and made him laugh. "Give it up, man. You're not going to win that game by playing neutral."

Shaking his head, Tidus smirked to himself and adjusted his hat back above his brow line.

A boy carrying a large pizza in one hand and Rikku's dress plate in the other came from the back rooms and set the food in the center of the table for them. The fact that he dressed in Al-Bhed coveralls was the only thing familiar about his appearance. Shinra had experienced quite a growth spurt over the past year, and his mask was propped on top of his head instead of over his face. "Hey, guys."

"Shinra, how's it going, little dude?" Tidus dug at one of the pizza slices and began eating.

"I'm okay. How are things on the Celsius?"

"We're good," Yuna answered with her usual cheerful smile and set the memory sphere on the table. "How is your venture with Rin going?"

"Pretty good. It's still mostly in the research stage right now, though."

"Look at you. You've grown so tall. Wow, you look so different since the last time we saw you." Rikku grasped his cheeks in one hand and turned his head toward Yuna. "Isn't that just the sweetest little face?"

Tidus noticed the strained tolerance in Shinra's squished expression. "Rikku, let the kid go. You're acting like the Aunt from Hell."

Rikku released the boy but cast the blitzball player a defiant glance. "Shinra, want to see what Tidus was up to yesterday?"

"No, he doesn't." Tidus confiscated the sphere before she could offer it for public viewing again. "He's here to fix your dress sphere."

The boy genius smirked and shook his head. "Nothing ever changes with you guys." But then his attention shifted to the new face among them, and he bowed politely to the stranger.

"Meko, this is Shinra," Yuna introduced them. "He used to work with us on the Celsius, and he knows everything, right?"

Shinra blushed mildly at her use of his trademark boast. "Are you the guy who took my place in the Gullwings?"

Meko had been choosing a slice of pizza and paused in mid-movement. "Ah, no. I'm just visiting. My name's Mekoshiko. Nice to meet you." He nodded a few times in response to the boy's more formal greeting before consuming his serving.

"Don't tell me Tidus filled my position." Shinra blinked at the group with doubt.

"Like I'd be able to figure out even one of your contraptions," Tidus answered. "My hut's almost finished, though. And I was told you intended to wire it somehow. What's that all about?"

The boy returned a small, almost devious-looking smile. "It's a surprise. Is the exterior done yet?"

"Looks like they just finished it yesterday. All that's left are the walls and some of the fixtures on the inside. Should be completely done within a week now."

"Okay. I'll stop by tomorrow. Yuna, I was told you're buying stuff for the house, so I'll need to talk with you."

"Oh, but ... we were going to take Meko to the Zanarkand Library tomorrow."

"I can take Meko to the library," Tidus offered. "You should meet with Shinra and make sure he doesn't install any hidden com spheres in weird places."

Yuna gave Meko an uneasy glance but then smiled at Tidus's joke. "Okay."

Meko took note of her hesitation.

Producing the broken garment grid, Shinra leaned on the table, holding the golden plate for everyone to see. "Rin said you lost clothing in this dress sphere, which means you added clothing without adding spheres." He met Rikku's confused gaze. "It's like squeezing thirteen eggs into a carton that only holds twelve. You've broken one of the eggs and pushed its contents out of existence to make room for the new one."

Tidus raised a hand to interrupt him. "Uh, make that fifteen eggs. My thief sphere and Wakka's street clothes are trapped in there now, too."

Rikku pouted. "You mean my warrior sphere's a broken egg, and I'll never get it back?"

"No, the residue is still there. Nothing ever totally disappears unless it never existed in the first place. It's just really messy because your warrior sphere was probably absorbed into the grid itself and pushed into the plane of magic."

Yuna leaned forward with interest. "You mean Rikku's dress sphere might be in the Farplane?"

"All magic on Spira comes out of the Farplane, and all magic spent in the material plane flows back into the plane of magic. It's an endless cycle that connects everything. I've been studying the magic of the Farplane for the past year, and there are a couple of ways to fix this. You could remove the nightshirt and buy all new warrior gear, transferring the magic from the old material into the new and replacing it the same way as you would normally update your grid."

Rikku began to fret. "That would be so expensive."

"And it wouldn't help me or Wakka get our stuff back," Tidus added.

"Or," Shinra continued, "I could remove the nightshirt gear, open the sphere that held it, and try to reconstruct it from the mess left behind."

"That sounds complicated," she pouted again.

"Complicated and time consuming," the youth agreed. "But in my experiments, I found a way to manipulate magic the same way that memory spheres do. It's all about knowing how to extract energy from pyreflies on a subatomic level. So far, my small experiments have been successful."

Yuna couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Reconstructing ... what used to be there?"

Shinra gave it brief consideration. "It's like pulling something out of the past."

Mekoshiko could feel everyone's eyes settle on him. This kid, Shinra, had his undivided attention.

"Shinra," Yuna asked, "do you think there is such a thing as time magic?"

"Of course. Even Tidus can do time magic," the boy answered as if that should have been obvious.

Chin in hand, Tidus smiled with pride but then frowned. "Wait, what do you mean 'even'?"

"Not that kind of time magic," Yuna inserted. "I mean like what you said—reconstructing something from the past in the present."

"You mean, do I think it's possible to go back in time? No. But it is possible to reproduce something from the past by drawing it out of the Farplane, just like when we use elemental magic out of the Farplane to create other spells. The Farplane is the spiritual essence of everything that has ever existed on Spira, so it's easy for pyreflies to assume those shapes once more when their energy interacts with ours—or, more specifically, our memories. The connection has been here all along in things like memory spheres. But this is the first time we have been able to break down how it's done on a subatomic level to manually control it. If our research is successful, Rin and I could create memory spheres without Macalania's water. And that's good news since most of what's coming out of there now can barely hold a fuzzy image."

Yuna saddened as Rin approached the table and placed tall glasses of ice-cold tea in front of everyone. "I spoke to Shiva, and she said Macalania's loss of magic might be as simple as a blocked stream of Farplane magic beneath the spring. It would be easier to unblock a natural stream than to manufacture memory magic, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be better to fix the forest than find a way to work around it?"

"It would be nice to make Macalania beautiful again, but that is something only the temple's aeon could fix," Rin answered as everyone but Yuna reached for their tea. "With or without Macalania's magical spring water, it would be good to be able to tap the Farplane's energy in other places, and more directly, so that we can learn how to make other uses of it. It is a powerful, clean, and endless energy, which makes it a good business investment even though the research is new and the technology is still experimental."

Yuna frowned slightly at Rin's undertone of profit at the Farplane's expense. "Isn't that what Cid thought when he turned Zanarkand into a sphere hunter's playground?"

"It's not like that at all," Shinra countered, seeing her doubt. "As Spira tries to rebuild, after what happened because of Sin, we'll need more energy. And the energy from the Farplane is strong enough that it could power a huge city like Bevelle. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that's what powered Zanarkand. We've got to find other ways to use this resource if we hope to rebuild our world. It's just sitting down there unused, and I'm sure that's why it was created in the first place—to power the ship within the planet. Reconstructing technology from the past is just one small possibility of what we could be done with it. And when you think about it, it's really no different from what we Al-Bhed are already doing anyway, digging up ancient machina and repairing them. But this way, manufacturing something from magic will conserve Spira's natural resources. Think of it as the ultimate in recycling technology." The boy smiled confidently and folded his arms over his baggy sleeves.

"Excuse me," Meko spoke up. "But ... do you think there's any way this manufactured magic could be used to recreate more than lost clothing and old machina? I mean, like, could you reconstruct buildings, cities ... people?"

Shinra thought about the possibilities for a moment. "The ability to manufacture an entire city from illusory magic, including its people, is kind of what Yevon did when he summoned Dream Zanarkand, isn't it?" He looked to Tidus.

Tidus cast a cautious side-glance toward Mekoshiko and hesitated to answer.

Yuna's hands tensed into fists as she rubbed her fingers together. "Shinra, if you can draw something from the past into the present, is it possible to send someone from the present back into the past?"

Shinra shook his head. "It doesn't work backward. You can't insert something from the future into the past that didn't exist back then. Its composition would probably unravel and disappear. Theoretically speaking, the only way you could insert something into the past is if it were an illusion. But then that can't be considered a true manipulation of time because it couldn't be applied to reality. That would be creating an alternate world, rather than recreating a lost one … right?" Again he looked to Tidus.

Tidus frowned at him for continuing to single him out on this subject. "How would I know? I'm not a rocket scientist?" With a discouraged sigh, he slumped in his seat.

"Do you think that's how ... Yevon created the aeons?" Yuna persisted.

The youth shook his head. "No. To bring someone back from the dead is a very different kind of magic because it involves creating a new life, not just reconstructing an old one. Once life energy leaves the material plane, it cannot come back in a stable form. It's why Spira is plagued with fiends."

"But what about Auron?"

"Auron was a projection from the past that never left this life—an unsent ghost whose willpower was strong enough to help him maintain contact with the material plane. He didn't leave this world and return as a new life. Based on what we know, the Fayth died in sacrifice, completely leaving their mortal lives behind before they were resurrected as aeons. Yevon is the only person in Spira's history who was capable of doing magic like that." Shinra gestured toward Tidus. "And Yevon's magic was what created the Dream, so—"

Tidus pushed his hand away. "Can we not talk about this anymore?"

Shinra seemed surprised at the blitzball player's unexpected annoyance.

Mekoshiko remembered Lulu's slip back on the airship when Tidus and Yuna were speaking with Baralai.

"He's not really a living person. He's more like a living spirit. He came from a dream summoned by Yu Yevon's magic—a dream that was an exact replica of the real Zanarkand, but constructed from memories of the dead."

Meko was desperate to learn more about this but held his tongue, guessing the conversation was getting too personal for Tidus. Even now, with the other Zanarkand native sitting so close, it was difficult to believe he wasn't real.

Yuna had a sudden realization. "No, there was one other: Maedra."

Shinra's brows rose. "Maedra? The guado who installed the Farplane for Spira ... Yes, okay. He was the first one to teach Spira how to summon aeons."

"And he created an aeon from his own daughter, Arantisu, before he died," Yuna added. "I wonder if Yevon learned how to create aeons from Maedra?"

"Impossible. Maedra died way before Yu Yevon was even born."

"But they appear to be the only two people in Spira's entire history with that knowledge."

"Necromancy isn't something someone stumbles upon by accident," Meko finally broke his silence. "Maybe Maedra left behind journals or something, and Yevon found them. But someone capable of raising the dead … maybe they also knew something about time travel."

Yuna rubbed a shiver from her arms at the direction this conversation was turning. "It's possible, I guess."

Shinra sighed. "Well, I don't know anything about reconstructing living things, but I can try to reconstruct Rikku's warrior sphere based on patterns in memory magic the same way that a mage reconstructs elemental power in casting spells. Don't worry, Lady Yuna. As a scientist, my goal in this research is to find a safe, beneficial way to tap into all that potential energy. Biogenetics will stay out of it. I promise."

She nodded in acceptance of his self-imposed limitations.

"Well, the pizza's getting cold," Tidus changed the subject as he sat up and grabbed two slices, one for each hand. "Since you people are more interested in talking than eating, that's more for me."

Rikku pushed one of his wrists down onto the table. "Oi! You can't eat any until I've found my pieces first." She lifted each slice and examined the bottom.

Meko's curiosity finally got the better of him. "What are you doing?"

"Looking to see what kind of melted cheese is underneath," Rikku explained. "Every once in a while, cheese goops onto the pan and gets fried crispy. I like those pieces better." She checked one of the pieces in Tidus's hand. "Like that one."

Tidus withdrew his hand and pizza slice out of her reach. "This one's mine."

"You already had a slice," Rikku argued. "Besides, there's a whole pizza on the table, but that's the only slice with crispy cheese."

Tidus acted as if he was considering her plea for a moment but then took a big bite out of it. "Oh! You're right. Crispy cheese goop is really good."

Rikku gasped. "You did that on purpose! What a pig!" She jerked the bill of his cap back down over his eyes but made no further attempt to grab the pizza slice.

He took a bite out of the second slice he held. "I did that on purpose, too. Know what that means? That means both of these are mine. And because of your little sphere trick, I deserve them. In fact, maybe I ought to lick every slice so you can't have any." As soon as he said it, Rikku, Meko, and Shinra grabbed their share of the remaining slices before he could follow up on that threat.

Giving Tidus an innocent smile, Yuna slipped one of the slices out of his hand.

"Excuse me?" he protested her theft.

Yuna took a bite, laughed politely behind her hand at his indignant expression, but then faced the boy-genius and their host again. "Shinra, Rin, I realize there's not as much profit in saving a forest, but ... Macalania is a very special place. It may never be what it once was, but maybe we could at least drain the excess water and fix the natural magic flow. Could you please share your research with Gippal? He's working on the ship's water system right now, and he could use your help."

Shinra nodded as he chewed his portion of the pizza. "Sure. I'll see what I can do."

"Perhaps Gippal would be interested in joining our business venture. It is something he could make use of, too," Rin agreed.

The boy turned to Rin with a grin of appreciation for the man's entrepreneur genius. "If we join forces with the Machine Faction and use their reinvented machina to find new ways to extract energy from the lifestream, just think of the possibilities for Spira's future."

))((

Later that evening, after the group teleported back to the airship, Tidus went outside to sit on the shore and watch the sunset.

Yuna followed to the edge of the landing gear and watched him for a long moment. He had been melancholy ever since they left Rin's. Pulling a yellow, lace shawl over her shoulders to keep the evening chill away, Yuna clutched the Kilika sphere in one hand and made her way barefoot across the beach to sit next to him. "I have to show you something." She grinned and passed him the sphere, thinking it might cheer him a little. "It's another sheet set. The pattern is called Ocean Blue. And I think it suits you."

Tidus had been sifting sand between his fingers, but he dusted his hands to accept the sphere. "Because I'm always in the ocean?"

"No."

"Because blitzballs are blue?"

Amused at his sardonic guesses, she flattened her palms on one propped knee and rested her chin on the back of her hand. "Because it matches your eyes."

Tidus stared somberly at the captured view of bamboo and wicker furnishings dressed in swirls of aquamarine and light blue. "I like it," he quietly stated.

Yuna smiled at hearing the magic words, though he still didn't seem enthusiastic. "The sphere joke went a little too far, didn't it. Rikku shouldn't have shown it to Rin, and then there really was no need for her to show it to Shinra after we ate. I'll tell her you don't think it's funny anymore. She'll respect that if it's how you really feel."

Tidus shook his head. "It's not that. It's just not very flattering to hear someone say I'm made of 'manufactured memory magic' … like I'm some kind of Al-Bhed assembly-line product."

Yuna slipped an arm under his. Drawing closer, she leaned her head on his shoulder. "Well, Shinra and Rin are Al-Bhed. They didn't mean to insult you; science and logic are just how they try to understand magic. All of your friends, including Rin and Shinra, know how unique you are."

"Meko doesn't know. And I don't want him to find out."

"He might find it as fascinating as we do."

"Or it might totally freak him out."

"I don't think so. He seemed very interested in the discussion at Rin's."

Tidus set the sphere down, picked up another handful of sand, and opened his fingers to watch it cascade between them. "We're both from the past. We're both from Zanarkand. We're both blitzball players. But he's from the real Zanarkand. Me? I'm just bits of pyreflies the Fayth threw together using Yevon's spell."

As Yuna watched the sand sift between his fingers, she couldn't help but think of sand slipping through an hourglass and sand burying ancient ruins, both measuring the passage of time in their own way. Zanarkand itself might have been covered in sand by now if it had not been a coastal city. In one sense, Tidus and Meko were like buried treasures recovered from a submerged tomb. "There wouldn't be a beach without little bits of sand."

"At least the sand is real."

"Your soul is real."

"How can it be when I never really lived?" he muttered, as the last grains fell. Digging his toes into the cool, wet sand where the tide was coming in and flowing out, he lifted his gaze to squint into the streaked horizon across the ocean.

"You lived a real life, or they wouldn't have been able to recreate you."

"Shuyin lived a real life; I never lived as me."

"You did when you lived as my guardian."

"Yuna ..." Shaking his head as if she just didn't get it, he shifted his position to directly face her. "You're always complaining about getting older; what if I can't age like you?"

She paused at his mention of something she had admitted worried her. "Auron aged," she reasoned.

"I'm not like Auron. I'm not a ghost clinging to a former life. How far into the future do you think we can go together if I don't age at the same rate as you? I don't mean just picking out sheets for the hut. I mean, we might want kids someday, but if I'm not real, is that even possible? I know I'm supposed to be unique, but I don't really know what that means for me."

Yuna scowled at his tone toward himself. "Yes, I complain about things like that sometimes when I think about them, but then I make myself not think about them. Because none of that really matters as long as I can be with you."

"Well, it matters to me. It's part of who I am. Or maybe it's part of who I'm not."

"Tidus, you have a real life, real friends, and real memories, regardless of what you're made of."

"But it doesn't mean anything in the end! When you die, your soul will exist forever in the Farplane, just like everyone else who was ever born on Spira. But me? I'll fade away to nothing. 'Nothing ever totally disappears unless it never existed in the first place.' That's what Shinra said. Well, I've been sent to the Farplane once already, and I almost totally disappeared. Dreams can't exist in the Farplane. Don't you see? In the end, I'm nothing, Yuna. I really am nothing but a manufactured memory."

She was silent for a long moment, not knowing how to answer. She knew that what he said was factually accurate, but she had been so concerned about trying to keep him alive in the present that she never gave a thought to spending eternity in the Farplane without him. Most Spirans looked forward to reuniting with the spirits of their loved ones after death. But even if they lived a long and happy life together, would Tidus be lost to her forever in the end? Throwing her arms around his neck, Yuna held tightly to his solid form as if to stop that from happening. But nothing, not even the magic of the Fayth, would be able to stop the sands of time from leading them toward that end. "Even if you are made from memories, I will hold onto those memories forever."

He gently returned the hug but sighed without consolation. "Yuna, I've been thinking, and ... maybe you shouldn't be wasting your time on me when you could have something real, instead."

Yuna drew back and stared at him in disbelief.

"If you had someone real, you could grow old together," he explained. "You could have kids and be a real family. And in the end, in the Farplane, you could still be together … always."

She touched a hand to his cheek. "You are my always. You promised."

"I know what I promised. But I just realized I don't have an always. I don't exist beyond the summoning spell that holds me together. With someone real, you wouldn't have to worry about when he's going to dissolve. Maybe ..." Tidus pulled away and stood. "Maybe ... you should start dreaming about Mekoshiko, or someone else."

"What?" Yuna stood, appalled. "I don't want Mekoshiko! I want you! Bahamut said that if Mekoshiko really is from Zanarkand, he's probably unsent! You wouldn't want me stuck with someone unsent, would you?"

Of all the arguments he was prepared to hear from her, that was not one of them. "Unsent?"

Yuna tersely situated the shawl that slipped off her shoulder and lowered her gaze in shame for having blurted that aloud, but there was no taking it back now. "I was hoping he was something different, like you, so that you wouldn't feel so alone. But living bodies can't transcend thousands of years and still be alive. Bahamut suggested maybe he's like Auron—a ghost with unfinished business." She lifted her gaze to meet his once more. "I think we should try to find out why he's here before attempting to send him."

"Unsent?" Tidus still didn't seem to believe her. "But … if you think he's unsent, why didn't you say something sooner?"

"Because you two really seemed to connect. It's as if you've been best friends for years. I didn't want to ruin that for you."

"So it was better to let me ignorantly pal around with a fiend than to just be honest with me?"

Yuna shook her head. "No, I thought—"

"You thought you could take him on by yourself? Like when you left the rest of us in the dust and ran off with Seymour? Twice?"

She shook her head in disbelief. "Tidus, that's not fair. I thought Seymour would be more likely to confess to the murder of Lord Jyscal the first time I went with him, and I thought I could send him while you were out of harm's way the second time."

"That's not teamwork."

Yuna frowned. "I'm a summoner, not a blitzball player. I may not be an expert in teamwork, but I know what I'm doing when it comes to unsent spirits."

"And while you're playing with unsent spirits, I'm supposed to be your guardian! How can I guard you if I don't know where you are or what you're doing?"

"I knew that if I told anyone what I was thinking, none of you would have let me do it!"

"Because it was a stupid thing to do!"

Yuna's mouth fell open. "I needed your help to bring the Eternal Calm, but I don't need your permission to do my job!"

Tidus bit his lip and turned away to keep the argument from escalating. Then, after a moment, he faced her again. "Well, then it's like I said when I first came back. Maybe you don't need a guardian anymore." Dusting the sand from his hands, he walked away.

Under the twilight of the rising moon, Yuna watched him jog into the distance, leaving the beach without looking back. After he disappeared from view, she still couldn't comprehend what just happened. Had he walked away to give her the freedom to find someone else? Or had she basically told him she didn't need him anymore? Should she run after him, or give him a few minutes alone? With tear-blurred eyes, she sank to her knees and turned toward the ocean. The sky had darkened just enough for the moon's glow to reflect on the lucid surface. The water suddenly looked so empty, though she knew it was full of life beneath the waves. Yuna's gaze slowly returned to a dark shadow in the sand beside her foot. If she had forgotten it and gone inside, the Kilika memory sphere would have been washed away in the tide by morning.

Dusting the sand from the small globe, Yuna paused. Then, she stood and ran across the beach after him. "Tidus!"

When she came to the crossroads and saw no trace of him, a moment of panic jolted through her. Was he capable of willing himself to dissolve if he saw no point in existing anymore? Or had Meimo found him first and sent him to the Farplane? Reminding herself not to jump to conclusions, she ran toward the eastern cliff.

Tidus's dark silhouette was visible on the cliff against the moonlit sky. The scent of night-blooming hibiscus was heavy on the chilly breeze, so she drew her shawl close and gave herself a moment to catch her breath before climbing the hill to where he sat in the grass. Crouching before him, she brought his attention down from the stars. "I'm sorry. I should have told you what Bahamut said. I should have told you about my plans to send Seymour and confront him about his father. I put myself and everyone I love at risk when I become overconfident. Everyone teases you about your ego, but ... I'm just as guilty if pride prevents me from asking for help, too." Wiping away the tears, she bowed her head and continued. "I'm so very sorry. But please, please don't ever think I don't need you."

Tidus sighed. "Yuna—" She surprised him by snapping her chin up with unlikely defiance on the heels of that apology. She apparently wasn't done yet.

"But! When you first came back—when I didn't want you to go to Guadosalam's Farplane—you said nothing lasts forever. And you said that whether you were real or not, all anyone ever has is the time between here and there. Those were your own words! So, don't you give up on this life just because you won't last forever," she fussed. "I don't care how short or how long our time is, as long as we're together. You're here now, and I'm not ready to go there yet." She sniffled, took his hand, and firmly set the memory sphere in his palm. Then, she grabbed his head and stubbornly pressed her lips against his. Upon withdrawing, she folded her arms across her chest and scowled at him, despite her tears, as if daring him to walk away from her again.

Tidus blinked back at her, completely stunned. "Wow. Angry kiss. We should argue more often."

Yuna tried not to laugh but then sighed and sank back on her heels because bullying anyone, much less someone stubborn like him, was difficult for someone like her. "Tidus, what should we do about Mekoshiko? If he is unsent, he could be dangerous. But ... I don't feel right sending him without knowing why he came here."

He stared quietly at the sphere in his hand. "I'll talk to him again tomorrow."

She sniffled again. "Thank you."

"And ... I'm sorry, too." He met her gaze once more. "I thought I was thinking of you by offering to bow out, but I guess I was really thinking about me, and how … empty it feels sometimes knowing I'm not ..."

"I know. And you're right. I can't possibly understand what that's like for you. But even real people feel empty like that sometimes. It's how I felt without you," she admitted as she attempted to dry the tracks of her tears on one cheek.

Tidus leaned forward and kissed the other cheek. "Mm. Salty," he commented, as a light smile touched his lips.

Yuna sniffled once more and smiled with embarrassment that she had lost her cool.

He looked again at the magic-water-filled sphere in his hand. "I guess I'm a lot like these things, aren't I? Nothing real or permanent because I came from a stream of magic, but I'm still good for a laugh."

"I love the way you make me laugh," she softly added. "Please stay with me."

He still seemed uncertain. "Are you sure that's the kind of future you want?"

Yuna leaned forward to touch her lips to his again, then rested her cheek against his neck.

Before he could doubt himself again, Tidus reached to the clip that held her hair in the topknot, slipped it out, and watched the rest of her brown, shaggy length tresses spill down to her shoulders. Then, he touched her cheek and turned her face toward him to return a deeper, longer kiss.

His position blocked a small gust of wind that blew off of the bay in the night air, but Yuna shivered all the same.

"Cold?" he quietly asked, concerned.

"I'll be fine. You're very warm." She smiled, noticing the shine in his eyes. "Still sad?"

"Nah, I'm good now," he softly answered and lightly rubbed a thumb over her lips.

Yuna's eyes closed for a moment at his touch. "You weren't really going to leave, were you?"

"No." The moonlight revealed a faint streak on his cheek.

"You were crying, too," she realized.

"Who me?" He shook his head in denial. "No way."

She touched his cheek. "Then, what's this?"

"Nothing. It's a figment of your imagination," he countered. "It's all part of the illusion."

Yuna reluctantly giggled. "That's not funny."

"You laughed," he pointed out, humored.

"I don't ever want to hear you say that you're nothing, not ever again." She rested her forehead against his and closed her eyes once more, content.

"Okay," he quietly agreed. "Hey, do you think you could, you know, do that angry kiss again? That was kinda different for you, wasn't it?"

Yuna opened her eyes and drew back.

He wriggled his brows in a teasing manner.

She laughed, embarrassed again at her own rudeness. "I was upset."

"Well, I could easily upset you again," he offered.

"I'd rather you just hold me," she requested, almost ready to lose her smile to tears once more.

"Mh, I can do that, too." Folding his arms over her shoulders and back, he rested his chin on top of her head.

Sitting like that, feeling his warmth, aware of the perfume of the night blossoms and the ocean waves crashing below the cliff, Yuna didn't want to let go.

"I know where we should put Arantisu's tomb," Tidus decided after a long moment of shared silence.

Yuna looked up at him because that turn in conversation had been unexpected, but she knew exactly what he was thinking. The dragon aeon wasn't a Fayth, so she didn't belong in a temple. All she wanted was a bit of freedom to run with her friends and a chance to swim in the ocean.