The Road Ahead Us

Disclaimer: I do not own FinalFantasy. SquareEnix does. (Damn) This contains shoujo ai. Don't like, don't read. This is my first attempt at writing fanfiction so expect possible mistakes.

"(I'm finally going back to sphere hunting)" , Yuna thought as she stood on the red deck of the Celcius, now known as the ship of the Gullwings .

After the defeat of Vegnagun 'Lady Yuna' decided to take a vacation to keep her mind away from thoughts of Him. She spent her time in Besaid, living near a back mage that she thought of as a sister. None other than Lulu herself.

She knew that presence there wouldn't help a lot, but it felt like home to her so she stayed anyway.

Now after a year there Yuna has accepted Zanarkand boy's fate, but she still refuses to call him Tidus.

When Yuna entered the bridge it seemed that something was amiss. She knew something was wrong, but she couldn't come up with an answer.

Then it hit her.

"Paine, where's Rikku?", Yuna asked realizing the lack of energy in the atmosphere.

"She's gone", Paine said looking at the floor, not wanting to make eye contact with her.

"Gone?!", Yuna gasped, "I hope you don't mean that she's...d-dead, she stuttered.

"No!", Paine interrupted quickly, trying to dismiss such a thought from the brunette, "just missing".

Then silence stretched through their conversation for several minutes until Yuna spoke up.

"Then why aren't we looking for her?!", She looked at Paine expecting an answer

"We never found her!" Paine looked back at Yuna," We searched every cave, town, forest, temple, desert, and possibly every inch of Spira!.......I'm sorry Yuna, but I couldn't find even a trace of Rikku anywhere."

"Does Lulu know about this?" Yuna said, thinking about the Black Mage in Besaid.

"No, I didn't want to stress her more than she already is. Y'know taking care of a baby can take a lot out of a person", She replied.

"But she deserves to know where the 'father' of her baby is," Yuna whispered so the other Gullwings couldn't hear her. Note: I'll explain this later. I promise.

"Huh? What about Wakka?" Brother asked, upon only hearing the words 'Lulu', 'father', and 'baby'.

"Nothing, I asked Yuna if Wakka named the baby yet", Paine replied with a straight face, obviously not having a problem with lying to him.

"He named him Riku, after our Rikku, but only with one K", Yuna added helpfully. She clasped her hands together, starting to fidget nervously.

"Oh", Brother frowned, the disturbing blonde man felt the urge to rant," I was hoping the squirt would be named after me, but my little brat of a sis beat me to it?", He paused, turning red, "No Fair!!", And with that he stomped back to his captain's chair, fuming with puffed out reddened cheeks like a spoiled child.

"Shall we discuss this elsewhere?" Paine suggested. She thought it was best not to hold such a conversation around odd people like the son of Cid.

"I guess so", Yuna agreed.

"Mish Yoona, what can I do for yoo?" The blue Hypello asked when he saw her enter the cabin.

"Nothing right now Barkeep, thanks".

She went up the stairs and sat on a bed across from Paine.

"Lulu actually named him Riku, because she missed Rikku so much she wanted a reminder of her until she saw her again", Yuna explained, trying to start off with a lighter subject to talk about.

"We were traveling on the Mi'hen Highroad", Paine started ignoring Yuna's baby name explanation. "There were rumors of a dress sphere hidden underneath a giant broken machina on the side of the road. They said it was broken to surprise unprepared sphere hunters. If you got at least a couple of inches near it, it would attack. After we scrapped it, I took the sphere and when I turned around Rikku was gone." Paine finished with a sigh.

Yuna thought about this for a couple of minutes then stood up, "We cannot give up! I don't care if we have to search every inch of Spira! We'll try again and again until we find every blonde hair on Rikku's head in its proper place!" She stopped to catch her breath, "How 'bout it Paine?", she stared at the leather-clad girl with big, mismatched, imploring eyes.

Paine half-smiled, half-smirked at her speech and puppy eyes, "No wonder Spira worships you.....Alright count me in".

Note:10/22/04. I fixed it so everything isn't so squished together. Also added un-noticeable details. Man I write weird XD