A/N: Yay! More reviews! Thanks so much!! I know this one took a little longer than the others did, but that's because I had all of them written long before posting them. But I'll try to speed things up a little just the same. This is the chapter you've been waiting for. Rikku and Tidus finally meet! I hope I make this good and up to your expectations. But let me know in a review, kay?

Friday, August 3rd, 2003

4:12 pm

Besaid Criminal Asylum; cell block 8-C

Rikku nodded to Greg for the second time. "I told you, I'm fine. If I need anything, you're right outside. I know."

Greg rubbed the back of his neck anxiously. He still wasn't fully okay with having someone so young talk to a real, cold-blooded, crazy killer. But, there was no one else to try out. Tidus turned away and shut out every single criminal psychologist they sent to him so far. What could it hurt to try one more?

He stepped backwards and shut the door, taking a breath and hoping for the best. He heard Rikku's footsteps for a few seconds at first, but then they faded and he heard nothing.

Rikku walked past the cells, the two people Yuna had seen not paying any attention to her presence. She shuddered for multiple reasons, but held her head high and continued further into the room. She was there to do a job, and she sure as hell wasn't going to turn back now because of a couple weirdos who were locked up anyway.

She finally reached the next occupied cell, and was surprised at what she saw. Lying in the cell with his eyes closed gently, was a blonde haired boy not much older than she was, at least he didn't look it. He was even quite handsome; certainly he didn't look like the type of man he was being labeled as.

She tried to make noise without actually speaking. She scuffed her shoe on the cement floor, coughed quietly, and cleared her throat. But the man did not open his eyes or even move the slightest bit.

"Tidus?" she said, her tiny voice echoing great lengths in the hollow room.

A sneer appeared on his face, but his eyes remained closed. "Ah, another one, eh?" He sat up now, opening his eyes to reveal them to be a striking blue color. "How nice."

"I'm Rikku, a student at Luca College, and - "

"Student? Aren't you afraid to be here with me? Alone…" His voice grew giddier as he adjusted his position on the cot.

Rikku remained unfazed. "In case you didn't notice, there are steel bars three inches in diameter separating us. I'm not afraid of you."

Tidus nodded. "So you're a smart one. Well, I can't say I'm surprised. You all are usually very smart. With your textbooks and documentaries and such. You're all so well read." He laughed at his own humor.

Rikku sat down, just noticing the chair that had been left for her. "Well thank you for the compliment. No one's ever called me well read before."

Tidus's gaze hardened. "You don't recognize sarcasm when you hear it?"

"Of course I do. I was being sarcastic too."

Tidus seemed taken aback, but the change in his stature did not last long. "Well, smart, sarcastic, and also rude. What a résumé."

Rikku shook her head. "Can we just move on please?"

"Of course. What would you like to talk about? Sports? Politics? The weather?" He laid back down on the cot, putting his hands behind his head and staring up at the ceiling.

Rikku sighed. "Why don't we start off with why the hell you did what you did?"

Tidus sat up again. It seemed he never sat still. "Straight to the point. I like that in you people."

"I see. So why haven't you told anyone anything yet?"

Tidus clicked his teeth. "It's too complicated for you to understand. No one in the world could possibly understand the reasoning behind what I did."

"Why?"

Tidus glared at her for the never ending barrage of questions, but he expected it. "Why what? Why is it too complicated?"

Rikku nodded, pushing some blonde hair behind her ear. "Yes. And what does it take to be able to understand?"

Tidus stood again and Rikku almost sighed out of annoyance due to him frequently repositioning himself. He crept towards her and placed his hands around two of the bars, putting his face right in front of hers. "You have to be me," he whispered huskily.

He stared into her eyes for a long time until she was so uncomfortable that she shifted her gaze to the floor. She heard him snickering as he walked back further inside the cell and leaned against the back wall.

"So you're never going to tell anyone why you killed those people?"

Tidus shrugged. "Oh I don't know. I just might take it to my grave. Then again, who knows? I guess it all depends on you now doesn't it?"

Rikku shuddered again, this time due wholly to fear. Even though this man was behind bars and couldn't physically harm her, his voice and ways about him just sent a chill up her spine.

"Cat got your tongue?" she heard him ask. She knew he was smiling. She could hear it in his tone.

She looked back up at him, meeting his eyes. "If I play my cards right, you'll tell me everything I want to know. Is that right?"

Tidus hesitated a moment. "Okay, deal." He sat down, never taking his eyes off her. "So… Why are you doing this? You don't look like someone who'd be interviewing insane criminals."

Rikku blushed a little, then quickly forced the heat from her face. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"I want to know all about you. It's only fair if you want me to tell you all about me right?"

Rikku thought a moment, then nodded. "Okay, that's fine. Well, I want to do this because… because it interests me. I was always intrigued by it." She stopped a second. "That good?"

He nodded. "Not the best answer, but alright, I'll take it. You single?"

Rikku's eyes widened and her heart started racing. "That's a personal question. You shouldn't be asking me things like that."

Tidus rolled his eyes. "I'm not hitting on you. I'm just asking. Are you single or not?"

Rikku looked down at the floor. "I'm single," she murmured.

"Why in the world do they all freak out when I ask that?" Tidus asked himself.

Rikku perked up once again. She lifted an eyebrow and looked at him quizzically. "You ask the same thing to everybody?"

"Yeah. No one ever bothers to tell me things about themselves, so why should I tell them about me?"

"I understand how you'd feel that way."

Tidus chuckled. "You're the first person to tell me they understood anything about me, let alone the way I felt."

"What about your girlfriend?"

Tidus screwed his face up at her. "Yuna? Please. That woman couldn't understand any of this if it crawled up and bit her on the ass."

Rikku almost laughed, but she stifled it with much effort. "You don't love her then?"

"Of course I do!" he snapped. "I love that woman to death. But she'd never be able to handle it. I could never tell her."

"If you love her so much, and she loves you, why wouldn't she understand?"

Tidus didn't answer the question, he simply ignored it. "They come in here, ask me things and expect me to just tell them. Like they even deserve to hear it, any of it."

"They're not worthy you mean."

Tidus looked at her. "Hardly."

"Well what makes someone worthy, in your eyes?"

He was quiet for a while. He opened his mouth to answer her, but the sound of the door at the opposite end of the room groaned open. Mitch poked his head into the room. "Rikku, time's up."