Author's Notes: Once again, I don't own the characters…you know this all now.
Again, since this is Rikku's chapter, there IS Al Bhed. If you don't like it, deal with it…this MIGHT be the last chapter with Al Bhed…for a while, anyway. *cackles*
For future reference, I took the liberty of giving Brother his name in the Japanese version, Aniki. Come on now, how likely is it that a guy's name would be "Brother"? (Except for those Berinstein Bears books…be quiet! It's nostalgia! :P)
The two mysterious blonde girls belong to Kelsey Martin. Expect more guest appearances. :D
Also again, thanks for the reviews! :D
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"So, how long till we're in Zanarkand?" Tidus asked Kaisa for the umpteenth time.
"Sunuh," the Al Bhed girl responded, a bit annoyed. "In another ten minutes. Be patient."
He sighed and slumped in his seat. "All right, all right."
The two sat in silence before Kaisa spoke up. "So, you had something going on with High Summoner Yuna, eh?"
"Yeah…why?"
"Did you ever…you know…"
"Know what?"
"Did you ever, well…" A playful smile crossed her face. "Tu ed?"
Tidus blinked. His Al Bhed was limited to only a few words and phrases: "cunno", "hela du saad oui", "rammu", "kuutpoa", and "E't mega du pio y suhgao".
The clueless look on his face must have given him away, because Kaisa sighed and shook her head. "Oh, nevermind."
He shrugged it off, figuring it wasn't very important, anyway. He gazed out the window.
Kaisa gazed at him, deep in thought. Buun kio...E fuhtan ruf ra'mm dyga dra hafc... She sighed again, staring off into space as she thought to herself. Her thinking was interrupted when a blitzball smacked her in the face. "Fryd dra vilg!?"
"Eteud. Fa'na rana." Rylen, who was her assaulter, placed his hands on his hips.
"Oui luimt ryja paah mega y hunsym bancuh yht zicd cyet, 'Rao, fa'na rana,' ehcdayt uv yddylgehk sa," she snapped back.
"Xied ouin frehehk!"
"Um…'scuse me," Tidus tried to interrupt, but without success.
"E ys hud frehehk!"
"Dryd'c y pihlr uv pimm!"
"EXCUSE ME!" he said loudly. Both Al Bheds' heads swiveled towards him. "Thanks…are you guys siblings or something?"
"Fraternal twins," they said in unison.
"Of course, we know who the better half is," Rylen commented, glaring at his sister.
"Peda sa!"
"Hey, hey, hey! Stop that!"
The two continued to quarrel. Tidus exhaled deeply and stepped around them, intent on finding someone who could tell him where in Zanarkand Rikku was.
--
It took him a while, but the blitzer finally found someone who knew where she was. Albeit the description was discreet ("She should be at the blitz stadium," he said), he figured he'd manage.
As soon as he stepped off of the airship and into the city, his eyes widened. It looked exactly as he had remembered it. I wonder how they got it this perfect…
The familiar sound of cheering and whistling filled his ears. He perked up. There was a blitz game going on! He knew instantly that he couldn't miss the chance of seeing a blitz game in his "home" stadium, and began sprinting in its direction.
He slowed down as he reached the entrance, the grin on his face never faltering. The only problem was that he didn't have enough gil to get into the game. Pretty much all of it would be needed to feed himself or to get himself a temporary roof over his head.
No problem, Tidus thought, finding an easy way to sneak in. He used to sneak into blitzball games all the time when he was younger. He made his way to the A-section seats, looking around for an empty one.
By some miracle he had found one. He excused himself as he shuffled through the crowd of blitz fans. He made his way to the seat, but didn't sit down; after all, the game was about to start. He wouldn't be sitting long anyway.
"Who's playing today?" Tidus asked the person to his right. He immediately recognized him as Jumal, a blitzer himself.
"The Zanarkand Duggles and the Guado Glories," Jumal responded without paying him any heed. As the teams entered the arena he joined in with the rest of the crowd, whistling and yelling like crazy.
Tidus turned to see the teams himself. The players were getting into their starting positions. He squinted and leaned forward a bit, thinking that he recognized one of the players.
It wasn't until the game had started and the player was swimming towards the goal that it hit him.
The player was Rikku.
And she was pretty damn good.
--
The game was an intense one. The Glories had improved a bit since Tidus had played against them. They managed to keep the score close, which was hard against the Duggle defense. Still, the Duggles beat them, 6 to 4.
As for Rikku, she seemed to be the Duggles' leading scorer. I wonder why she never told me she was a blitzer? the boy mused. He shrugged it off and slipped through the masses, heading towards the familiar locker rooms. He was surprised that there wasn't any security around, as there used to be several guards around the locker rooms.
He reached them about ten minutes later, figuring that by now most of the team would have changed and ran off to celebrate. He didn't bother knocking as he entered the locker room.
"ARRRRRRRRRRRGH!"
Tidus's face turned into a mixture of shock and embarrassment. Rikku stood before him in her underwear, trying to cover herself up. Both were red in the face.
She realized who it was. "Tidus!?"
"Yeah, I'm back, and no, I don't know how…"
He expected her to run up and tackle him in a hug, but unfortunately, her reaction was less than pleasant. Before he knew it, a mop was repeatedly thwacking him on the head. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Rikku, stop it!"
"Never, ever do that again!" she was shouting. "I could have been stark naked, you stupid pervert!"
"It was an accident!" he yelped, wincing. "I didn't mean it, honest!"
She stopped thwacking him. Muttering, "E'mm hajan ihtancdyht sah," she dropped the mop and headed back to her locker to finish changing. Tidus sheepishly rubbed the sore spots on his head. He waited until her familiar outfit was back on before he asked, "Do you know where Yuna went off to?"
Rikku stopped in the middle of putting her things in her locker. Her back was towards him, so he couldn't see her expression. Her voice sounded sort of strained as she replied, "You're a bit fast. Why don't we catch up a bit first…?"
"Wakka and Lulu said that you'd tell me about Yuna," he said flatly.
"How are Wakka and Lulu, anyway? I haven't seen them in a while. Oh, but aren't their kids just adorable? You know, Lulu is expecting her baby to be born any day now…"
It was evident that she was trying to avoid the topic. "Rikku, please. Just tell me where to find Yuna…"
"Oh, hey, how about going out to eat? I'm not doing anything tonight anyway. I'd like to hear about the Farplane…"
Tidus did end up going out to eat with Rikku at a wonderful bar and grill called Apuberu's. He tried to get her to open up about Yuna a few times, but each time she'd get onto a different subject to avoid answering.
Finally, after they paid and were on the way towards the inn, Tidus turned to her and said, "Tomorrow morning I'm going to go to Mount Gagazet. Maybe Kimahri will tell me what I need to know."
Rikku appeared to be unnerved. Tidus almost smirked in satisfaction. Kimahri wouldn't lie about Yuna's situation. "Well," she said finally, "you can't go to Gagazet on your own." He expected her to offer to go with him. Instead, she said, "I'll see if my pop can recruit a few people to go along with you. I'd go, but I've…got some other things to take care of."
"Oh…" Tidus shrugged. By that time they had reached the inn, and he took a step inside. He wasn't watching where he was going and tripped over something. More specifically, someone.
"OW!" a young voice shouted. Before Tidus could register what was happening, he felt sharp teeth sinking into his arm and someone kicking him hard in the shin. He cried out in pain, and barely caught sight of a young Al Bhed girl, with very short hair and a braid on the right side of her face.
He frowned, about to comment, when he heard muffled laughter behind him. He turned to face Rikku, scowling slightly. "And what was so funny about that?"
"Nothing," she mumbled around her giggles. Tidus sighed and shook his head.
"Ahhh…so the rumors are true," a familiar voice spoke up. He saw Rin approaching him, with his usual calm, mysterious smile. "I had heard that you came back to life, Sir Tidus, but I wasn't sure I believed. Kmyt du ryja oui pylg."
He gave a small smile. "Kook-um-ay-teh day-ooh ray-Jay-ahh ohooee pay-luge to you, too," he responded. Both Rikku and Rin winced at the terrible dialect. "Hey, Rin, I need a place to stay for the night…how much is it?"
"Well, since I know you personally, I'll give you a discount." Rin smiled and said, "2,310 gil."
Tidus gaped at him. "Are you kidding me!?"
"A man has to provide for himself and his family," he responded simply. "You don't want my children to starve, do you?"
"O-Of course not," the twenty-one year old stammered. He gulped and took out his Gil.
Rin swiped half of it out of his hands. "Thank you, sir. You're patronage is very much
appreciated."
Tidus squeaked, but before he could say anything else both Rin and Rikku were pushing him towards his room. "Now, now, you'll need a good night's rest for tomorrow!" chirped Rikku.
"That's right! You know what they say…" Rin didn't finish. At that point they pushed him into the room, closing the door behind them. He could hear Rin saying to Rikku, "Cu fryd yna dra bmyhc vun duhekrd?"
"E't mega du kad cusa cmaab, dryhgc," she responded dryly.
"Oui'na hu vih," he teased.
"Yht oui haat du kad ouin seht uid uv dra kiddan...drana YNA lremtnah ynuiht, tayn."
"Nekrd, cunno."
He was planning on eavesdropping more, but heard some strange sounds in the bathroom. He froze for a moment. Is someone else in here!? Very slowly he crept towards the bathroom.
Once again, he barely caught sight of a young girl flying past him. This one was also a young Al Bhed girl, although her hair was in a ponytail with the front section on the left braided and the front section on the right hanging down. From what he saw she looked remarkably like the first girl, but then, he only had a few seconds to look at her.
I hope she didn't do something that'll make me pay even more money, he thought. He headed towards the bed, not thinking of checking the bathroom.
Little did he know, the girl had planted a cherry bomb under the toilet seat.
BOOM!
Tidus jumped at the sound. Realization spread across his face. That came from MY bathroom… He was almost afraid to see the damage, but he forced himself to see.
"Oh, no!" he moaned, smacking himself on the forehead. The cherry bomb had completely demolished the toilet, leaving nothing but the pipes spouting water from them. It was needless to say that there was a huge mess, and quite unnecessary to describe.
"What's happened?" he heard Rin ask. He froze as the inn's owner walked up behind him. In the bathroom mirror he saw Rin's expression go from worried curiousity to seething anger. "Cuh uv y vilgehk pedlr!"
"I-It's not my fault!" Tidus yelped.
Rin glared at him. "If this is payback for the cost of this room, then dammit, it didn't work! You think that because you got it on with High Summoner Yuna you can do whatever you damn well please? It doesn't work that way, pycdynt! That's gonna add 1,990 gil to your fee!"
"But it wasn't…"
"Don't even try to lie your way out of this."
Tidus whined slightly before taking out his gil. Again, Rin took half of it and muttered to himself as he left, "Dra cuuhan ra mayjac, dra paddan. Rikku gabd cdnyhka lusbyho..."
The boy scratched his head and sighed before retiring to his temporary bed. He drifted off to sleep, wondering how he would manage with the little gil he had left…
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Please leave any comments and constructive criticism so I can make myself better. D Oh, and here are the "mysterious blonde girls" portraits.
http://chozo.virtue.nu/artwork/chaika.jpg
http://chozo.virtue.nu/artwork/new_chayaki_portrait.jpg
~ Laurzie ~