Yuna woke up, rain running down her windows, she was surprised as she found that she wasn't the only one lying in her bed. Then she remembered the night before and smiled, groaning and stretching quietly. She looked at him, his face buried in her pillow, his arms were still around her waist. She did and yet didn't want to wake him. So she settled for watching him breathe. Everything about him was new and yet familiar. But there was no question, it was all absolutely glorious. She watched his chest, moving in and out with steady air.

Alive. He was alive. He was breathing the same air as her. She couldn't hold it any more, and kissed him. Just like in the fairy tales, he woke. His eyes fluttered open, and she watched, half-dazed, smiling absent-mindedly. Her miracle was waking.

He smiled, and she smiled, if possible, even wider. Then he kissed her. Slowly, gently, as if not daring to press his luck too hard. Then she did something uncharacteristic. She kissed him hard, passionately, with everything she had. It startled him at first, but took it as it came. He ran his fingers up her back, and she wove hers in his hair. It might have carried on for quite a while longer, but they heard a noise and looked to it's source.

Lulu stood in the doorway, eyebrows raised, and she chuckled a little. Yuna rolled over toward the doorway and both the cuddle-bugs on the bed looked up at Lulu, a little sheepishly. The shade of red on their faces almost matched. Wakka stood behind Lulu, his mouth wide open in amazement.

"Tidus. . how. . what. . how?" he was shocked and couldn't find anything to say. Tidus just smiled.

"Yuna. .. Dare I ask?" Lulu asked. She was suppressing laughter. They could both tell.

"Nothing happened!" Yuna said desperately, sitting up. "And if it did, I wouldn't be able to get any privacy, would I?" She raised and eyebrow and gave Lulu the best scowl she had to offer, which still wasn't very convincing because of her present mood.

Tidus sat up and leaned close to Yuna's back. "Is that an offer?" he asked. Lulu and Wakka both stood shocked, laughing a little. Yuna turned around and bit Tidus's neck. "Cheater," he pouted.

Lulu watched intently, realizing how completely different Yuna was acting. She smiled.

"Feeling better, then?"

Yuna smiled and looked up at Lulu. "Never been better," she half-giggled.

* * * * *

An hour later, they were sitting in the kitchen. Tidus had told her all about the Farplane, how it was so lonely, sometimes. So orderly, so much different than one would expect heaven to be. And he told her about the road back to Spira. She hadn't interrupted him at all, and listened as he told her everything. The glass of water in his hands was untouched, and they had already eaten. Yuna held her own glass and sipped it quietly, as he told her the very last part of the story. About Ceres. About Yunalesca. About his return.

She continued staring into his face. "I remember it," she said, smiling a little.

"Remember what?" he asked, looking into her eyes.

"Helping you out of the maze. I thought it was a dream. A rather odd dream, but it kept me going, after all those months with no dreams of you. Dreams *from* you," they'd explained everything to each other. The weakness, the strength, everything. "The next day, I was okay. And then it hit me harder, and harder. Until yesterday."

"Are you seriously all better now?" Tidus asked. He walked over to her from his place, leaning by the sink. She looked down at him from her usual perch on the counter. She looked at him for a long while, considering the best way to say it.

"It's not wrenching anymore, but I still feel like something's missing. I'm sure I'll get fine with time. I'm still in awe that you gave up so much for me. Including those gloves," she chuckled. She seemed a bit more giddy, less serious, more ready to take chances. He smiled and answered by running his bare fingers down her bare arm.

She jumped down and they were so close, now, that if they moved forward at all, their faces would touch. Yuna placed her hands on his arms, and stared him straight in the eyes. He felt that she was looking into his soul, searching for something. She must not have found what she was looking for, because she kissed him. She kissed him so warm and deep and long that it made the oceans seem shallow and the storm outside silent. Yuna was his world now.

She pulled away a little shyly. Moving her hands from their place around his neck, to his arms again. He brought his hands up to her face. He kissed her quickly once, then grabbed one of her hands and pulled her outside.

"Tidus?" she asked, apparently puzzled. He looked at her, he looked into her the way she had looked into him. He threw his arms wide and looked at the sky. She looked up, too.

"See that, Yuna?" he asked.

"The sky?" she replied, unsure of what he was getting at. He took her hands and they faced each other. The rain was beating on them, humid and hot. They were both soaking already.

"Yes, the sky. The sky is nothing. It's tiny. It's nothing compared what I want," he was pretty sure he sounded dumb and selfish, but he didn't know how else to put it.

"And what is it that you want?" Yuna asked, looking at him water dripping off his nose and hair and running down his arms.

"When I was little, I wanted to be a Blitz star. And with that came girls. How many girls? I don't know. . ." he could sense a twinge of jealousy and frustration with this comment, "But then, just when I thought I had what I wanted, I came here. And I met the most beautiful, and wonderful, and all around everything-you-could-ever-want type of girl. Not by Zanarkand's standards, but by what everyone truly wants." She smiled, and he kissed her, just under the ear. "Yuna, I thought that I knew what I wanted, until I met you."

She tilted her head a little to one side. "You still haven't told me what you wanted," she said sheepishly, teasingly almost.

"You! I want to have children with you, I want to grow old with you, I want to be a father, I want to belong to someone. Yuna, I know that I don't have a ring, and I don't have any money. Hell, I don't have anything. But I have this," he pulled her hand up to his chest, and she could faintly feel his heart beating under the thin fabric of one of Wakka's borrowed shirts. "And I have time to live now. Yuna, would you have me?"

A few tears, mixed with rain, started sliding down her face. There in the rain, in the middle of the hot summer sky, he had just proposed. Proposed? Proposed! She couldn't stop crying now, and she clung to him. "Only if I can have you forever," she said. He looked down into her eyes and smiled.

"Okay, then. Forever," he agreed, quietly, leaning down towards her face.

"But," she interrupted before he could kiss her. "You said there were girls. So. . err. . Tidus, are you a. . .virgin?" she felt sheepish. She wondered if it mattered, but she would be kind of jealous if some adoring blitzball fan had gotten him before she did.

"I said there were girls, Yuna. I didn't say I took them," he smiled, kind of victorious that he had made her jealous. "Yeah, I am."

Yuna smiled. She knew he would never have admitted that to his friends in Zanarkand, and maybe it wasn't that big of a deal, but it sure made her happy. She kissed him. "It's a deal, then. We're stuck together forever."