Title: Answers
Author: Max-chan
Summary: "He met her in a temple, after a childhood of searching for a lost father and hazy answers." Tidus understands something simple.
Ship: Tidus/Yuna
Rating: G
He met her in a temple.
Later, he supposed everything could be attributed to that. The temple, the myth, the fear, the loss, the moment - it all came together to culminate in that one perfect moment that hit everything home for him. If everything wasn't so absolutely perfect in that one dot in the endless line of time, he might not have fallen as hard as he did. He might have not even cared. He might have just given up early on in the journey, say, "This isn't my fight, my war," and left them alone to figure out whatever lies they needed to tell themselves to keep the fear at bay.
Unfortunately for him, the moment was perfect and he was gone before he could have possibly suspected.
He met her in a temple, after a childhood of searching for a lost father and hazy answers. If he was as suspicious as Lulu, or as cynical as Auron, he might have believed it was all conspired against him - that somehow they knew he was coming and planned that exact moment just to trap him into helping them fight their never-ending war. He might have believed that, but he didn't.
Yuna, Lady Summoner, whispering a prayer of accomplishment, her eyes bright green and blue, as she fell. In that one moment, when he first saw her face, the light, glistening sweat of years of hard work and pain still clinging to her thin hair, he knew and he understood.
He forgave his father before he ever fully realized that he hated him.
Playing Blitzball, he used to shout furious questions at his father with every kick of the ball.
SLAM!
How do you leave your wife and life on a whim?
BAM!
How can you leave your fans and your friends?
SCORE!
WHY DID YOU LEAVE YOUR SON?
His yellow hair matted with water and sweat, Tidus would stand in the cheering crowds with his hands up, and quietly burn with the helplessness of a fury unanswered.
That night that felt too much like good-bye, around the fire, he looked at Yuna, opened his mouth, then closed it again. He couldn't tell her.
He couldn't tell her how she made him understand that even if whatever this was that they had only lasted for now, he would still have given up the world for it. He would have given up the fame, the exhilaration of the game, the screaming fans, the pretty girls with matching eyes and matching outfits crowding around him before the game, for this. He would have given up the son and wife he never had.
Because Yuna, with her ideas of sacrifice and goodness, of letting go and moving on, her flowing skirts and hesitant smiles, was something Tidus never thought he'd find.
She was something to believe in.