You Were Mine
Chapter 5
Over Coffee
"I can give you two good reasons to show you love's not blind
He's two and she's four and you know, they adore you
So how can I tell them you've changed your mind?"
As Tidus walked into B's Cafe, the aroma of fresh brewing coffee filled his senses. He breathed it in deeply, how he loved the stuff. It was what he lived by in the day; when he couldn't seem to get himself going in the morning, coffee was his lifesaver. Caffeine, he always joked, was his friend. All of his friends knew his craze for it, and teased him occasionally for it.
He walked up to the counter, ordered the dessert coffee of the day, Vanilla Almond, poured cream in it, stirred it around with a couple of straws, and sat down. Yuna came through the door just as he took his first sip, and nearly choked on it as he caught sight of her.
She was more gorgeous than he ever remembered.
There could have been no way he was cognizant of his surroundings last night. He would've remembered her being this way, and would have certainly remembered Yuna herself. Somehow, in his three year absence, his picture of Yuna had faded considerably. He had forgotten how beautiful she was. She let her chestnut hair grow out to her shoulders, and changed her wardrobe a little bit. One thing that hadn't changed was her perfect figure. She was still a looker, no matter how much Tidus convinced himself he needed to be devoted to Lindsay. He shook his head to rid his thoughts of getting back together with her, and looked down at his coffee as she spotted his table.
She sat down without a word, and stared at him with an emotionless face. "So tell your story," she said bluntly, and he glanced up at her. It was hard to look at her without feeling a flutter in his heart, and that bothered him.
"Yuna...you...you look great."
She blushed inconspicuously, careful not to give Tidus the satisfaction of seeing that he could still flatter her. She ignored the comment, and repeated, "Tell me your story."
He nodded slowly, hurt that she was so callous toward him. He was beginning to wonder if he really did deserve this treatment, no matter how he acted. He began to explain how depressed he'd been his first weeks in Zanarkand, how much he'd thought about her and the rest of his friends, what the place itself was like, and finally how he and Lindsay met. She listened intently, her face never revealing any hurt or jealousy. When he was done, she wasn't quite sure what exactly to say.
"I missed you so much, Yuna. It killed me a little each day you weren't with me. But...things change."
"Yeah," she nodded, feelings of anger no longer inside her. "They do."
He studied her down-turned face for a moment, and then said, "You haven't let me I on what you're feeling. In fact, you haven't let me in at all since I first talked to you on the phone."
She wanted to lash out at him to explain the reasons why she hadn't, "let him in," but found that she couldn't bring herself to. She couldn't because she wasn't genuinely angry with him anymore. Like some part of her was accepting the fact that he'd simply moved on with his life.
She shuddered out a sigh, and replied with, "Three years, Tidus." Her tone was calm and collected, no contempt held within it like before. "Three years, I grieved for you. I couldn't sleep, at least not without dreaming of you, couldn't date other guys because all I saw was you staring back at me, couldn't stand to be in the world without you. For three years I wasn't Yuna. And now...I'm still not Yuna. I feel like nothing."
He tilted his head slightly to the side, and clasped her hand across the table. He felt a little thrill through his body as he did so, but did his best to ignore it. "You will never be nothing, Yuna. Never. You will always have a place in my heart, as my friend and confidant. And now that I'm back...maybe we can make that friendship solid. You'll always have that in me, I promise you. You could never be nothing to anyone."
She smiled a little at his kind words, but her heart ached for more than just a friendship. Oh well, she thought silently. Looks like I was right. He is in love with her. I guess I take what I can get, huh? He smiled back at her, making her knees go weak. He could still do that to her, after all this time. But if he wanted a friend, and not an enemy or a lover out of her, then so be it. She'd just have to live with the consequences. "Thanks Tidus," she murmured, her face still pointed downward. "That means...a lot to me."
He cupped her chin, and ten times more gingerly than the night before, brought it up to face him. A spark coursed through her at his touch, and she couldn't resist looking deep into his eyes. "Good, because you mean a lot to me, despite was you may think. And despite how I might have acted last night." His mouth twisted into a crazy simper, and he made a funny face at the same time. "Not that I really want to know the details."
Her small smile turned into a full blown grin. She giggled ever so slightly, and covered her mouth with a hand. He nodded, and said, "That's the smile I've been searching for. Don't frown, Yuna, because you never know who might be falling in love with your smile. Believe me, I know from experience." With that, he got up from his seat, gave her shoulder a squeeze on his way out, and left the coffee shop, leaving Yuna speechless.
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