Note: OMgoodness! I certainly did not mean to make you guys wait! I apologize!!!!! I feel so rude now! *sniff* Well we last left off with Lulu and Auron alone together in Auron's room, after Lulu gets a memory check from none other than Moris, the insane father of Kai! Rikku meets a cute black mage named Vance while Yuna is taking care of a recovering Kai....what will this bring now to the world of 'When The Night Fades?' o.O
Chapter 13 - Al Bhed Reunited
Silence continued to surround them that same night, but the next morning was much more different. Lulu was awaken by a series of many noises from outside (most of which started off from Rikku and that new boy she met). It soon later changed into more people- children if you will, who were playing outside. She looked around, her eyes still trying to focus in the new light that hovered above the room. In front of her, a tall figure dressed in a red coat loomed over her... watching her from his spot on the chair.
"Good morning," the figure mumbled.
It took a few more seconds for Lulu to realize that it was Auron and a few more seconds to remember that she was in his room because of something that happened to her last night. She looked around groggily, trying to see around her. Her arms, from what she could see, were folded on the window sill, while she sat on Auron's bed, cross legged. She unfolded her arms immedately, as if just realizing what she was doing and glanced over at Auron. "I- I'm sorry about-"
"Don't worry about it," Auron interrupted, standing up. "You needed company so I gave it to you. You seemed to be tired from last night as well so you fell asleep and I didn't bother to wake you up. I felt rude to do so, because you looked peaceful there."
Lulu slowly moved into a sitting position, turning her whole body towards Auron and cautiously stood up. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, a rumble of noise erupted from outside. "WATCH OUT!"
Both adults were startled and turned to see where the noise had come from. Lulu quickly moved to where the window was and looked out, while at the same time, Auron peeked from over Lulu's shoulder to peer out the window. The black mage and the swordsman noticed two figures outside, facing each other, at least a few feet away. One was a young man whom Lulu recognized, while the other was a girl, around fifteen with blond hair, whom both were FOR sure familiar with. Rikku had her arms protectively around a little boy, who seemed frightened about something. The blond girl looked down at the frightened boy and looked into his eyes with a form of sympathy. "Are you all right?" she asked.
The little boy, around eight years old, nodded, wiping his tears with his clenched fist. "Yeah..." he shivered.
"Of course you are!" Rikku said, smiling. She ruffled the boy's hair affectionately and smiled. "You are a brave boy!"
The little boy beamed, his face turning a slight pink at the comment. "Yeah!"
"Good!" Rikku looked up at the young man a few feet away from her. "Your brother is very brave, Vance!"
Vance smiled, nodding his head. "Thanks for that, Rikku! I'm glad you were there!" The young man turned to look at his little brother. "Next time, Cedric, warn me if you're going to play around here, okay?"
Cedric nodded. "Okay!" He looked up at Rikku and smiled, then back at his older brother. "Rikku's very pretty! Is she your girlfriend, Van?"
Rikku blushed, then turned away, hoping that Vance hadn't seen that. Vance was blushing too, but the blond girl missed that. "Um...no she's not, Cedric..." He felt sweat drop from the sides of his face. "She's a friend..."
Silence surrounded the field now. Rikku and Vance said nothing for a long time, whilst Lulu and Auron watched from the window, wondering what was going to happen next, but before anyone could make any moves to break the silence in the air, a rumbling noise broke them from their thoughts. All those who were present during that day were looking up at the sound and noticed, just a distance away, a very familiar looking ship hovering above the clouds. Rikku recognized the Al Bhed ship immediately and was already jumping up and down with excitement. However, she wasn't the first one to call out the name. It was Lulu, who whispered under her breath, "Cid's ship..."
At the sound of the surprised voice, Rikku looked up to find Lulu and Auron standing side by side by the window. She waved, either unaware or not really caring what was going on between the two of them and smiled. "HEY! Lulu! Auron! The ship! It's here! They're here! My dad's here! YES!" Without another glance towards Vance (though it was obvious she was too awkward to bring up whatever Cedric said to anyone), Rikku ran inside, calling Wakka and Kimhari, who were inside the dining room, having breakfast. Lulu and Auron made their way downstairs and out the door to where Vance was standing, curious and rather confused about what was happening and what that ship was. Cedric, Vance's little brother was already gone, probably ran off with his playmates. A few seconds later, Rikku dashed back to her spot, followed by a flustered Wakka and an expressionless Kimahri.
All of them looked up to see if Rikku was right and indeed, she was. Lulu could see Cid's balding head through the front window of the ship, looking around for a sign of his daughter and her companions. When he noticed them standing there (Rikku waving and jumping up and down to get their attention), Cid pointed towards them, glancing over his shoulder at Tidus who looked very relieved to find them. The Al Bhed ship landed smoothly in front of everyone on the green field and Rikku, excited to see everyone else, ran a whole distant and waited nearest to the door until it opened. Lulu, Auron, Wakka and Kimahri walked together towards the ship and at this point, Cess emerged from the building of the hotel, while Vance remained there, still confused and rather disappointed.
The door to the ship slid open to reveal the balding leader of the Al Bheds stepping out, followed by another enthusiastic blond, however, unlike the name implied to him, Tidus did not seem enthusiastic for some reason and Lulu was the first to notice. His eyes darted from the excitement in Rikku's voice as she hugged her father, towards Auron and then Lulu. He frowned, then took his eyes away from them as if he was ashamed of something.
"Tidus, is something the matter?" Auron asked, staring at him curiously.
Tidus glanced mostly at Lulu as he shook his head. He said nothing, afraid that if he said something, he would be blamed for it. He also didn't want Yuna to be blamed for this, so he chose to say nothing until they saw for themselves. Suddenly, there was tension in everyone, especially around Tidus, Lulu and Auron and maybe even....Lulu turned to look at Cid, who was not happy about the same reason as Tidus either. Rikku noticed this as well and glanced from Tidus, to Cid, then back to Tidus again.
"What's going on?" Rikku asked, furrowing her eyebrows curiously.
Cid sighed, taking a long deep breath before saying, "I think you should go look inside, Lulu."
Lulu stared at him. "What do you mean? Where's Yuna?"
It was Tidus' turn to talk ."She's...taking care of an injured....of someone..."
"Who?" the black mage's eyes darted from one to the other, until realization kicked in. Auron certainly did not miss that look, even though he knew already from Cid's reaction about Yuna's whereabouts. Lulu shook her head in disbelief, then, without another sound, walked inside the ship. She asked a couple of the crewmen inside to where Yuna was and their answers led her to a far room at the very back of the ship. Auron followed suit, then everyone else. They quietly filed inside the ship, except for Rikku, who had walked back towards Vance.
"Hey, Vance!" Rikku smiled and waved at the young black mage.
"Are you leaving now?" there was disappointment in Vance's voice now and Rikku knew why. That thought made her blush. She turned away and nodded. "Um...yeah, I'm leaving now. But-" Before she could finish her sentence, Vance had grabbed the back of her hand and kissed it gently. Rikku could almost melt at that point, but didn't. The dark haired boy with the ponytail grinned and backed away, winking at her.
"Come visit me soon, okay?" he said.
It took Rikku a long time to realize that he was talking to her (because she was too engrossed in Vance's beautiful smile and his kiss to notice), before she said, "Huh? Yeah of course!" Smiling, she waved good bye to him and walked back to the ship, almost hesitating to jump inside the ship. She didn't want to leave...even though it was her job to do so. She had a Summoner to protect and everyone in the ship had Sin to defeat.
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Lulu entered the room quietly, her eyes blinking in the darkness, before it focused on something moving on a bed. Another figure sat still on a chair beside the bed, obviously sleeping and from what Lulu could see, the figure looked to be female. Her head was lolling back and forth as the ship began to move. It took Lulu a few more hints to realize that it was Yuna who was sitting there. She couldn't supress the anger burning inside her. From what Tidus and Cid had informed before she came in, was that Yuna was helping a certain person recover and when she heard HIS name, she almost stormed inside the room, but didn't... With a calm demeanor, Lulu closed the door behind her and approached the bed cautiously. She glanced down at the sleeping figure of Kai, then looked up at Yuna, who was slowly waking up from her sleep.
"Hm?" Yuna opened her eyes and noticed Lulu standing there. Startled, she stood up, almost stumbling and gasped. "Lulu! You're....you're here!"
Lulu nodded, glancing over at Kai, making sure he didn't wake up. Luckily, he didn't, but was quite surprised, considering that Yuna was very loud. "Yuna..."
Yuna glanced down at Kai as well and her face turned a beet red. "He needed help Lulu... I couldn't leave him out there..." She looked up and stared into Lulu's firm eyes, which quickly softened. Lulu can never get angry very long at Yuna. She was her Guardian, her older sister and her long time friend. Yuna was the sweetest little sister Lulu has ever had and she disliked being angry at her.
Quickly removing the grudge against Yuna, Lulu approached her slowly, then wrapped her arms around her. "Are you all right? He didn't hurt you?"
Yuna shook her head, burying her face into her shoulders. "I'm fine," she replied, smiling.
They were like that for a while, until a booming voice echoed around the small room. "Awwwwwwwwww how sweet!"
Lulu and Yuna quickly let go and turned their faces towards Kai, who was getting ready to sit up. Aware of this, Lulu quickly moved to the bed and blocked Yuna from Kai. "You better not get her involved in this, Kai! You better not have said anything to make her doubt herself!"
Kai smirked, leaning his back against the wall behind him and folded his arms across his chest. "Yeah like I could use her if I wanted to! I would never get a little girl involved in our affairs anyway..." He looked up and grinned maliciously at Lulu. "And I'm quite surprised that you're here. Where have you been?"
The black mage, with an uncharacteristic manner, planted both her fists on her hips and smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know. Too bad there are no widows here for you to see Presia in the distance as we left!"
The red headed man's pupils turned into slits. "What did you say?" The name seemed to have ran into Kai's veins like it was about to pop out of his skin. That name that Kai dreaded to hear from his woman's lips. Presia... It was the last place he expected her to be in and the last place he expected her to be where his father was. The maniac that ruined his and Lulu's life. "What. Were. You. Doing. There?" At every sentence he spoke, he spoke through his grinding teeth.
"Nothing that concerns you anymore..." Lulu muttered.
Kai moved his arms so that it was used as a lever and tried to sit up properly, but the pain in his ribs were unbearable. He moaned and leaned back down on the wall. "Damn it!" he hissed. Yuna gently pushed Lulu out of the way and approached him, padding down the pillow more comfortably for him to lean on. The red headed man, was surprisingly obedient to that simple gesture and Lulu was getting suspicious at this odd behaviour of his.
"Would you like me to get some water for you, Kai?" Yuna asked gently.
Kai said nothing. But Lulu stepped forward towards the bed and looked at the back of Yuna's head. "Yuna, could you leave us alone for a minute, please?"
Yuna looked up and nodded. She left the room quietly, but remained by the door as she closed it behind her. Lulu cautiously sat down on the chair where Yuna sat and gave him a suspicious look. "Stop acting like you're weak, Kai. I know you better than that! You're trying to get into Yuna's good side so you can get to me. I just want to let you know..." Realizing that someone could be listening outside, Lulu lowered her voice more. "-that I'm watching every single move you make!"
"Perfect..." Kai spoke. Lulu looked at him and realized that he wasn't being sarcastic when he said that. He was really serious. The black mage shifted around on her seat uncomfortably and rebutted the thought of speaking again. Instead, she stood up and left the room without another word. She was surprised to see Yuna standing there and it seems she was also surprised at the sound of the door suddenly opening.
"Yuna, I don't know what you're planning to do to help Kai, but if you are going to take care of him, I am willing to be there with you. I do not want you to be alone with him, understand?" Lulu spoke in a commanding tone.
Yuna nodded. "I understand," she replied quietly.
GoodGurl: WOOH! Finished! Well, this chapter anyway! I hope ya like! It's pretty short but I promise the other chapters will be longer! ^^ bye now!
Chapter 13 - Al Bhed Reunited
Silence continued to surround them that same night, but the next morning was much more different. Lulu was awaken by a series of many noises from outside (most of which started off from Rikku and that new boy she met). It soon later changed into more people- children if you will, who were playing outside. She looked around, her eyes still trying to focus in the new light that hovered above the room. In front of her, a tall figure dressed in a red coat loomed over her... watching her from his spot on the chair.
"Good morning," the figure mumbled.
It took a few more seconds for Lulu to realize that it was Auron and a few more seconds to remember that she was in his room because of something that happened to her last night. She looked around groggily, trying to see around her. Her arms, from what she could see, were folded on the window sill, while she sat on Auron's bed, cross legged. She unfolded her arms immedately, as if just realizing what she was doing and glanced over at Auron. "I- I'm sorry about-"
"Don't worry about it," Auron interrupted, standing up. "You needed company so I gave it to you. You seemed to be tired from last night as well so you fell asleep and I didn't bother to wake you up. I felt rude to do so, because you looked peaceful there."
Lulu slowly moved into a sitting position, turning her whole body towards Auron and cautiously stood up. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, a rumble of noise erupted from outside. "WATCH OUT!"
Both adults were startled and turned to see where the noise had come from. Lulu quickly moved to where the window was and looked out, while at the same time, Auron peeked from over Lulu's shoulder to peer out the window. The black mage and the swordsman noticed two figures outside, facing each other, at least a few feet away. One was a young man whom Lulu recognized, while the other was a girl, around fifteen with blond hair, whom both were FOR sure familiar with. Rikku had her arms protectively around a little boy, who seemed frightened about something. The blond girl looked down at the frightened boy and looked into his eyes with a form of sympathy. "Are you all right?" she asked.
The little boy, around eight years old, nodded, wiping his tears with his clenched fist. "Yeah..." he shivered.
"Of course you are!" Rikku said, smiling. She ruffled the boy's hair affectionately and smiled. "You are a brave boy!"
The little boy beamed, his face turning a slight pink at the comment. "Yeah!"
"Good!" Rikku looked up at the young man a few feet away from her. "Your brother is very brave, Vance!"
Vance smiled, nodding his head. "Thanks for that, Rikku! I'm glad you were there!" The young man turned to look at his little brother. "Next time, Cedric, warn me if you're going to play around here, okay?"
Cedric nodded. "Okay!" He looked up at Rikku and smiled, then back at his older brother. "Rikku's very pretty! Is she your girlfriend, Van?"
Rikku blushed, then turned away, hoping that Vance hadn't seen that. Vance was blushing too, but the blond girl missed that. "Um...no she's not, Cedric..." He felt sweat drop from the sides of his face. "She's a friend..."
Silence surrounded the field now. Rikku and Vance said nothing for a long time, whilst Lulu and Auron watched from the window, wondering what was going to happen next, but before anyone could make any moves to break the silence in the air, a rumbling noise broke them from their thoughts. All those who were present during that day were looking up at the sound and noticed, just a distance away, a very familiar looking ship hovering above the clouds. Rikku recognized the Al Bhed ship immediately and was already jumping up and down with excitement. However, she wasn't the first one to call out the name. It was Lulu, who whispered under her breath, "Cid's ship..."
At the sound of the surprised voice, Rikku looked up to find Lulu and Auron standing side by side by the window. She waved, either unaware or not really caring what was going on between the two of them and smiled. "HEY! Lulu! Auron! The ship! It's here! They're here! My dad's here! YES!" Without another glance towards Vance (though it was obvious she was too awkward to bring up whatever Cedric said to anyone), Rikku ran inside, calling Wakka and Kimhari, who were inside the dining room, having breakfast. Lulu and Auron made their way downstairs and out the door to where Vance was standing, curious and rather confused about what was happening and what that ship was. Cedric, Vance's little brother was already gone, probably ran off with his playmates. A few seconds later, Rikku dashed back to her spot, followed by a flustered Wakka and an expressionless Kimahri.
All of them looked up to see if Rikku was right and indeed, she was. Lulu could see Cid's balding head through the front window of the ship, looking around for a sign of his daughter and her companions. When he noticed them standing there (Rikku waving and jumping up and down to get their attention), Cid pointed towards them, glancing over his shoulder at Tidus who looked very relieved to find them. The Al Bhed ship landed smoothly in front of everyone on the green field and Rikku, excited to see everyone else, ran a whole distant and waited nearest to the door until it opened. Lulu, Auron, Wakka and Kimahri walked together towards the ship and at this point, Cess emerged from the building of the hotel, while Vance remained there, still confused and rather disappointed.
The door to the ship slid open to reveal the balding leader of the Al Bheds stepping out, followed by another enthusiastic blond, however, unlike the name implied to him, Tidus did not seem enthusiastic for some reason and Lulu was the first to notice. His eyes darted from the excitement in Rikku's voice as she hugged her father, towards Auron and then Lulu. He frowned, then took his eyes away from them as if he was ashamed of something.
"Tidus, is something the matter?" Auron asked, staring at him curiously.
Tidus glanced mostly at Lulu as he shook his head. He said nothing, afraid that if he said something, he would be blamed for it. He also didn't want Yuna to be blamed for this, so he chose to say nothing until they saw for themselves. Suddenly, there was tension in everyone, especially around Tidus, Lulu and Auron and maybe even....Lulu turned to look at Cid, who was not happy about the same reason as Tidus either. Rikku noticed this as well and glanced from Tidus, to Cid, then back to Tidus again.
"What's going on?" Rikku asked, furrowing her eyebrows curiously.
Cid sighed, taking a long deep breath before saying, "I think you should go look inside, Lulu."
Lulu stared at him. "What do you mean? Where's Yuna?"
It was Tidus' turn to talk ."She's...taking care of an injured....of someone..."
"Who?" the black mage's eyes darted from one to the other, until realization kicked in. Auron certainly did not miss that look, even though he knew already from Cid's reaction about Yuna's whereabouts. Lulu shook her head in disbelief, then, without another sound, walked inside the ship. She asked a couple of the crewmen inside to where Yuna was and their answers led her to a far room at the very back of the ship. Auron followed suit, then everyone else. They quietly filed inside the ship, except for Rikku, who had walked back towards Vance.
"Hey, Vance!" Rikku smiled and waved at the young black mage.
"Are you leaving now?" there was disappointment in Vance's voice now and Rikku knew why. That thought made her blush. She turned away and nodded. "Um...yeah, I'm leaving now. But-" Before she could finish her sentence, Vance had grabbed the back of her hand and kissed it gently. Rikku could almost melt at that point, but didn't. The dark haired boy with the ponytail grinned and backed away, winking at her.
"Come visit me soon, okay?" he said.
It took Rikku a long time to realize that he was talking to her (because she was too engrossed in Vance's beautiful smile and his kiss to notice), before she said, "Huh? Yeah of course!" Smiling, she waved good bye to him and walked back to the ship, almost hesitating to jump inside the ship. She didn't want to leave...even though it was her job to do so. She had a Summoner to protect and everyone in the ship had Sin to defeat.
*******************
Lulu entered the room quietly, her eyes blinking in the darkness, before it focused on something moving on a bed. Another figure sat still on a chair beside the bed, obviously sleeping and from what Lulu could see, the figure looked to be female. Her head was lolling back and forth as the ship began to move. It took Lulu a few more hints to realize that it was Yuna who was sitting there. She couldn't supress the anger burning inside her. From what Tidus and Cid had informed before she came in, was that Yuna was helping a certain person recover and when she heard HIS name, she almost stormed inside the room, but didn't... With a calm demeanor, Lulu closed the door behind her and approached the bed cautiously. She glanced down at the sleeping figure of Kai, then looked up at Yuna, who was slowly waking up from her sleep.
"Hm?" Yuna opened her eyes and noticed Lulu standing there. Startled, she stood up, almost stumbling and gasped. "Lulu! You're....you're here!"
Lulu nodded, glancing over at Kai, making sure he didn't wake up. Luckily, he didn't, but was quite surprised, considering that Yuna was very loud. "Yuna..."
Yuna glanced down at Kai as well and her face turned a beet red. "He needed help Lulu... I couldn't leave him out there..." She looked up and stared into Lulu's firm eyes, which quickly softened. Lulu can never get angry very long at Yuna. She was her Guardian, her older sister and her long time friend. Yuna was the sweetest little sister Lulu has ever had and she disliked being angry at her.
Quickly removing the grudge against Yuna, Lulu approached her slowly, then wrapped her arms around her. "Are you all right? He didn't hurt you?"
Yuna shook her head, burying her face into her shoulders. "I'm fine," she replied, smiling.
They were like that for a while, until a booming voice echoed around the small room. "Awwwwwwwwww how sweet!"
Lulu and Yuna quickly let go and turned their faces towards Kai, who was getting ready to sit up. Aware of this, Lulu quickly moved to the bed and blocked Yuna from Kai. "You better not get her involved in this, Kai! You better not have said anything to make her doubt herself!"
Kai smirked, leaning his back against the wall behind him and folded his arms across his chest. "Yeah like I could use her if I wanted to! I would never get a little girl involved in our affairs anyway..." He looked up and grinned maliciously at Lulu. "And I'm quite surprised that you're here. Where have you been?"
The black mage, with an uncharacteristic manner, planted both her fists on her hips and smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know. Too bad there are no widows here for you to see Presia in the distance as we left!"
The red headed man's pupils turned into slits. "What did you say?" The name seemed to have ran into Kai's veins like it was about to pop out of his skin. That name that Kai dreaded to hear from his woman's lips. Presia... It was the last place he expected her to be in and the last place he expected her to be where his father was. The maniac that ruined his and Lulu's life. "What. Were. You. Doing. There?" At every sentence he spoke, he spoke through his grinding teeth.
"Nothing that concerns you anymore..." Lulu muttered.
Kai moved his arms so that it was used as a lever and tried to sit up properly, but the pain in his ribs were unbearable. He moaned and leaned back down on the wall. "Damn it!" he hissed. Yuna gently pushed Lulu out of the way and approached him, padding down the pillow more comfortably for him to lean on. The red headed man, was surprisingly obedient to that simple gesture and Lulu was getting suspicious at this odd behaviour of his.
"Would you like me to get some water for you, Kai?" Yuna asked gently.
Kai said nothing. But Lulu stepped forward towards the bed and looked at the back of Yuna's head. "Yuna, could you leave us alone for a minute, please?"
Yuna looked up and nodded. She left the room quietly, but remained by the door as she closed it behind her. Lulu cautiously sat down on the chair where Yuna sat and gave him a suspicious look. "Stop acting like you're weak, Kai. I know you better than that! You're trying to get into Yuna's good side so you can get to me. I just want to let you know..." Realizing that someone could be listening outside, Lulu lowered her voice more. "-that I'm watching every single move you make!"
"Perfect..." Kai spoke. Lulu looked at him and realized that he wasn't being sarcastic when he said that. He was really serious. The black mage shifted around on her seat uncomfortably and rebutted the thought of speaking again. Instead, she stood up and left the room without another word. She was surprised to see Yuna standing there and it seems she was also surprised at the sound of the door suddenly opening.
"Yuna, I don't know what you're planning to do to help Kai, but if you are going to take care of him, I am willing to be there with you. I do not want you to be alone with him, understand?" Lulu spoke in a commanding tone.
Yuna nodded. "I understand," she replied quietly.
GoodGurl: WOOH! Finished! Well, this chapter anyway! I hope ya like! It's pretty short but I promise the other chapters will be longer! ^^ bye now!
