"It's been three days, Lu. . . nothing. Not even a glimpse of him in my dreams," Yuna said, once again sitting on the counter. Lulu handed her a cup of juice and took a seat at the table.

"What do you make out of it? What do you think?" Lulu said quietly. Yuna looked out the window at a group of children playing at the water. Blitzball. Another reminder of him.

"I don't know. All I know is that now not even my dreams hold him. I'm not forgetting him, am I?" Yuna asked worriedly.

"You still know him. I know you."

Yuna realized that Lulu was right. If Tidus walked through the door right now, nothing would be a surprise. His hair, his eyes, the contours of his face, his body. . . she knew and remembered everything as well as if she saw him everyday.

"Maybe it's nothing," Yuna said quietly.

* * * *

When he woke up, all he saw was white. He almost began to cry. He felt like a failure. . . he'd failed before the first test. He rolled over helplessly and saw. . . a black sky. Red clouds. Purple fruit. White trees.

He sighed. The air wasn't heavy any more, and nothing was spinning. He worriedly wondered how long he'd been out for. He was about to sit up when an old man's face appeared above him.

"It's about time, you've been sleeping for quite a while."

"Who are you, and what am I doing here?"

The old man smiled, and Tidus sat up. The smile was a much-needed contrast to the barren path. He stood up slowly, and grimaced in pain as he felt his badly-bruised body yell at him.

"I am Lyon, the keeper of the first trial. You set a new record!" he said cheerfully.

"Record?" Tidus said numbly, flexing his fingers and shaking his head.

"Well- you only had to push against a set amount of pressure to past the first test, but you held out much farther than most people. You must really have something to fight for, eh?" His voice was crazy and somewhat carefree. Tidus shook his head in amazement.

"Am I allowed to go, now? Did I pass?" Tidus said, a little impatiently. Lyon smiled.

"You can go. Be strong."

Tidus started to walk away, then stopped and smiled. "Thank you," he said quietly.

"For what?" Lyon asked, scratching his chin. His skinny body seemed too frail to be overlooking this test. He looked half-starved, but happy.

"For your smile," Tidus answered. He then turned around, and half-limped, half-ran away.

* * * *

She hung her head tiredly, and set her cup of water down next to her bed. She'd already been through the usual runaround of pre-night time rituals. Her face was washed, her hair brushed, the windows in the house opened to let the cool of the night in.

She looked out her window. The moon was bright and the water carried it's reflection, ripples traveling in nature's perfectly plotted course. It was beautiful, with stars dotting the sky, and their reflections moving in the water. The world seemed so lonely anymore. Even Lulu had Wakka (although both were completely obvious, they were just too scared to spit out the honest truth of the matter), and everyone else had someone to cling to. Even her dreams of him had gotten away, somehow.

What did that mean? Even if he existed in the Farplane, he would still be existing right? What if she forgot? What if her dreams died, where would he go? She sighed deeply. It wasn't right, and it was confusing. She still knew every line on his face, the curves of his arms, the way he felt when she was pulled right up against him, his heartbeat. . . if she needed to, she probably could've made a very good guess as to how many hairs were on his head. Her mind still painted pictures of him, written on her heart like line after line of poetry. It was the kind of poetry that a lovesick person could never tire of hearing.

She gave the night sky a final scan before crawling into bed, on top of the covers. She sighed deeply and thought of him as she fell asleep, her last half-conscious thought being of him.