And Baby Makes Three
Chapter Nine - A Meeting At The Office
By: Digi-Esca Girl
Disclaimer: I do not own FFX or anything to do with it. I'm just borrowing for a little while...he he....
**************************************************************************
'I sure hope this works....' Leathen thought, slowly rising to his feet as he exited his vehicle.
A slew of emotions, thoughts and fears were running rampant in his mind. Some made him more determined than ever to
march inside the stadium and tell the Luca team exactly what he'd been rehearsing the whole drive over. Some others made
him want to tuck his tail between his legs and run back home. He knew he couldn't do the latter, however, as he stopped to
consdier how everyone else would be affected by his actions.
He reached up to rub the back of his neck, letting out a nervous sigh of apprehension. Should I really be doing this? He thought
suddenly, doubt filling his mind and fear of the consequences beginning to set in.
'What if I get in more trouble than I think I will? What then? Worse yet, what if Jecht and Auron find out and try to stop me or
something? Oh shit.....' The troubled youth leaned wearily against his car, the driver's side door still open. A million more
thoughts and ideas popped into his head, and he rubbed his temples vigorously to try and somewhat clear the jumbled
mess of nerves he called his brain.
"I have to do this...." He whispered to himself suddenly, his confidance starting to return.
He reminded himself of why he was even here in the first place, and a small smile appeared on his face. He would do what he
came to do, regardless of the consequences to himself.
He straightened his posture, slamming the car door shut with renewed vigor. The sigh that escaped his lips this time around was
one of almost-relief, and he suddenly felt alright about going inside the huge sports complex.
As if of their own accord, his feet began moving in the all too familiar right, left, right, left pattern he knew so well.
"Leathen!! Hang on a second, will ya?!" Called a voice from behind him before he'd gotten too far.
He turned abruptly to see two of his four reasons for leaving the house running towards him at top speed.
"What are you guys doing here?" He asked, wondering how they could have thought to come here, of all places.
"The question is, what are YOU doin here, ya?" Wakka inquired, eyes narrowing in mock accusation.
"I, uh...came here to get the address..for my...sister...?" Leathen lied slowly, knowing how unbelieveable he sounded.
"Now that that's out of the way...what are you really doing here, Leath?" Tidus asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I....came to talk to the Luca team..." Their friend admitted, albeit hesitantly.
"What the hell for?!" Tidus threw his arms up in the air, not believing what he was hearing.
"I'm going to get you guys out of trouble, damnit!"
"That still dosen't explain what you're doin here, ya?" Wakka replied, leaning against the arena's wall.
"I have an idea, ok? I'm going to go propose it to them." Leathen explained.
"Don'tcha think you should propose it to us first? I mean, you did say that the whole point was to get us out of trouble, right?"
Tidus questioned, cerulean eyes searching his friends face for answers.
"I'm going to resign from the team if they leave you guys alone."
"Finished?" Auron asked as Beth came back into the room.
"Yes. Thank you very much, but I have to go now," Beth replied, grabbing her purse and jacket.
Auron was about to remind her that she had yet to explain 'the situation' to him, but he decided that if it was important enough,
it would be brought to his attention of it's own accord.
"Alright," he said, "have a nice day, Beth."
"You too, Auron. See you at the tournament, ok?"
The guardian simply nodded, a small smirk appearing on his lips, his version of a smile. Beth returned the gesture, and
headed out the door. Once she'd closed it, she leaned against it, letting a relieved sigh escape her lips.
"I hope you know what your doing, Leathen...." She whispered, slipping her jacket over her shoulders and walking over
towards the elevator.
"Carter!!!"
The blonde man poked his head in the kitchen upon hearing his name. He smiled slightly at the sight of Rikku sitting on the
white tile floor, the couple's three-and-a-half year old daughter Alatriel throwing flour into the air.
"Yes, dear?" He replied comically, slowly entering the flour-littered room.
"I think Alatriel wants to give you something...." Rikku said, a smile playing at her lips when she noticed Carter's shirt and
pants were both a deep ebony.
"Here Daddy!" The little girl said, getting to her feet and tossing a handful of flour at him.
As the powdered white substance scattered and settled all over his clothes, Carter couldn't help but fix a look of shock on his
face. Rikku was worried for a minute that she might have really gotten to him this time, when suddenly, his russet eyes
began to glow with a mirth that quickly travelled down to his lips, which were now up-turned into a grin.
"Come here you..." He growled, reaching down and scooping the girl up in his arms.
He placed his hands around her waist and began to spin in circles. He held Alatriel out, and she raised her arms, laughing
loudly as the illusion of flying took over her senses. She closed her bright green eyes and revelled in the feeling of her
dirty blonde locks tickling her face. Carter had to laugh along with her, and he didn't seem to care that he was scattering
flour all over the place by spinning the girl around.
Rikku smiled warmly, knowing full-well that the outfit Carter was wearing had just been drycleaned at quite the cost, and
would now need the same treatment again. She also knew that the young man she had been partnered up with was one in
a million, and would make a wonderful husband and father someday. He was truly the greatest person to have as a
companion in this assignment, as he was willing to completely spilt the responsibilities, something the average high school
male was not up to doing.
"Rikku?" Came a deep voice from in front of her, snapping her back into reality. She opened her eyes to see Carter standing
there, a flushed-looking Alatriel sitting in his arms.
"Yeah?"
"I think Alatriel wants to give you something...." He replied, smirking deviously as his charge dumped a pile of flour onto
Rikku's maroon turtleneck sweater.
All the young woman could do in return was double over in laughter, hearing the girl follow her in her endeavor shortly.
Carter simply chuckled, taking a few steps forward so as to hand Alatriel over to her "mother".
"I have to go get changed, then I'll be out of here, okay?"
"Where are you going again?" Rikku asked, smiling as the girl in her arms put flour on her nose, oblivious to the conversation.
"Job interview downtown. I wasn't supposed to go in for another three weeks, but someone got fired suddenly and they
just called me a little while ago." Carter replied, his eyes never leaving the still smiling little girl, "I'll be back as soon as
I can, don't worry."
"How could I worry? You're so...so...organized!"
"Well, I'll see you in a little while, okay?" He said, reaching over and encircling both girls in a hug. He pulled away after a
minute, grinning like the cat that caught the mouse.
"See you," Rikku said, surprised by the embrace.
"Bye bye," Alatriel called as Carter disappeared around the corner.
Rikku simply sighed, putting the girl on the floor and beginning to clean up, a warm smile set on her lips.
"We need to speak with the teams' head coach." Tidus said to the red-haired secretary behind the mahogany desk.
"You need an appointment, sir, and besides, he's in a meeting with three of his players right now," The woman replied, looking
as if she'd be more interested in a chess match between two plastic skeletons.
"Well, I think he'll want to see us, ya?" Wakka said in reply, crossing his arms over his chest.
"We're from the Zanarkand Abes, miss. I think he'll be interested in what we have to....offer him." Leathen said, speaking
politely as he was always a gentleman where the female sex was concerned.
"The Abes, hey? Hang on a moment...." She said, turning slightly to her left and picking up the phone. There was no video
monitor hooked up to it so that no one could see the coach's face when he made up an excuse not to see the person.
"Sir? Yes, sorry to bother you but there are some people here-" She was cut off for a second, then resumed, "-yes I know,
sir, but they're-----sir would you let-----Sir!" She yelled, "They're from the Zanarkand Abes!!"
The three young men watched as a small, satsified smile lit up the woman's face as she placed the receiver back into its
cradle with an unceremonious clank.
"Go right on in. He seemed surprised, but I'd say pleased that you're here," She said to the boys, watching them with her
overly-curious hazel eyes as they entered the room.
"Welcome, boys," The coach greeted, waving his hands over three chairs situated in front of his desk, " Come in and have a
seat. I'm guessing you've come here to....reason with us?"
Wakka looked around at the word us and saw Bickson, Graav and Abus leaning against the wall to his left.
'Shit,' He thought again, watching as the three players spread out.
Graav remained leaning against the wall, fixing a less-than-friendly look on Tidus as Abus moved to take a seat on a small
sofa that was placed under a large, south-facing window. Bickson sat on the arm of that couch, looking almost expectantly
back and forth between his coach and the opposing players. Once all six of them had fully settled themselves, Leathen
began, speaking clearly and rationally, as he knew he companions were incapable of doing so at the moment.
"What would you say if I told you that we have a solution to this whole problem?"
"I'd say it's a crock of shit," Graav interrupted, absentmindedly rubbing a bruise on his ribs.
"We all know what you think, dumbass, now shut up!" Bickson yelled, obviously very aggravated.
"I would say," The coach began when his players silenced, "that I would like to hear your proposition, boys."
And thus ensued a long, seemingly grueling conversation between the two feuding sides. Some words were exchanged that
some would never think would be uttered from one side to the other, and other comments were almost expected. Many, many
profanities spilled out of the room, falling upon ears that were deaf to the racket, tuned instead to the music drifting from
the computers speakers in front of her.
About an hour-and-a-half later, the head coach reclined in his chair, folding his arms over his chest and sighing, a smirk
twisting its way onto his thin lips.
"Are you sure about this? I mean, it is a lot to give up....?" Bickson asked, his malicious grin almost too much for Tidus to bear.
"We wouldn't have proposed it it we weren't sure," Leathen replied calmly, seeing his friends anger.
"But can you really make it look natural? I mean, if anyone suspects-" Abus began.
"No one will suspect anything!" The coach roared, "If they do, these rookies over here will pay the price. Right?" The said,
looking straight at Wakka, who was seemingly having a hard time containing his outrage.
"Right." Wakka said after a moment, staring right back at the atrocious man with hatred gleaming in his eyes.
"Excellent," The man said, folding his hands together and resting his chin atop them, "You can go then."
Tidus looked like he had something to say to all of them with his fists, but Leathen put a hand on his shoulder, guiding him
out of the room without exploding. Wakka left as calmly as he could muster, wanting desperatly to smash the antique vase
on the marble stand by the door. He controlled himself, but only until they were outside the building.
Once they had exited, he reached down, finding a large rock and hurling it towards the artificial lake on the front lawns of the
massive stadium. His shoulders sank downwards slightly after he released it, and he only turned away when he had heard
the loud splash of the heavy object hitting the water and sinking out of sight.
Up in the office, the coach and his players sat at the window, laughing out loud at their luck.
"Tidus?" Yuna called, cringing as the door slammed loudly.
"Daddy!" Kieran called, racing towards the entranceway and wrapping his arms around one of Tidus' legs.
Despite his welled up anger, Tidus had to kill his glare before he looked down at the 'growth' on his limb. Even though he felt
like he could rip the head off of every other person on the planet, this one boy seemed to be an exception. He could still only
manage a small smile down at the child, as words would lead to profanities he shouldn't hear for several more years at least.
He reached down and messed Kieran's hair a little, kicking off his sneakers once the boy let him go. He peeled off his jacket
and hung it in the closet, closing the doors a little louder than he should have.
Yuna enetered the scene then, and she noticed that Kieran was poised to ask Tidus a question. Judging by the slamming doors
and carelessly disregarded "favorite shoes", the young summoner was able to deduce that her "husband" was not happy, and
she picked Kieran up based on that conclusion.
"I think that Mommy and Daddy need to have a little talk, okay?" She said to him, not seeing the glare Tidus gave her at the
mention of talking. He had talked enough for one day.... "So why don't you go on upstairs, and when lunch is ready, I'll call
you."
"Alright...." Kieran replied, walking towards the stairs once Yuna put him down. He wanted to tell Tidus all about the blitzball
game that had been on TV, but he had to wait.
"I'm not talking to you right now. I need to....let off some steam..." Tidus said as Yuna turned to him.
She said nothing in reply, but simply watched as he walked briskly past her towards the weight room at the back of the house.
To her knowledge, he had not yet gone into that room to use any of the devices inside to 'let off some steam'. She had also
been told by Leathen a while back that he only trained with weights when he was really, really angry.
In this case, Yuna didn't think she'd been misinformed.
'I'll leave him be for a little while....' she thought, sighing as moving into the kitchen to start making lunch.
"Alright, stop it now." Lulu said, placing her hands firmly on her hips and fixing the wave-haired man before her with a glare.
"Stop what? Am I doing anything to you?" Wakka replied, pausing his assualt on the punching bag long enough to answer her.
"Tell me what's bothering you."
"Nothing's bothering me, now go away."
"Do I look stupid to you?!" Lulu yelled, taking a few steps towards him.
"Yes," He said in-between punches.
"If you don't tell me what's going on right now I'll....." The mage left her threat blank, fire burning in her eyes and threatening
to burn in her opening palm as well.
"You'll what? Cure me again? Give me a fucking break!" This time Wakka landed a hard kick to the bag to punctuate his
forecful statement.
Unfortunatley for him, he had forgotten that the woman before him was a high-level magic-user, and at the moment she was
very angry with him. If he had been thinking, he would have realized that this was a very bad combination.
He continued to throw punches at the bag vigorously, until suddenly his fists met with a hard chunk of ice. He bit back a cry of
pain and looked down at his reddened knuckles, muttering a curse under his breath.
A whole string of curses, however, flew around in his mind when he saw the smirk plastered on Lulu's face. Her expression
grew as she saw him take notice of the slowly rotating ball of ice floating a inch above her palm.
Alright, alright. Pushy bitch...." Wakka muttered, turning to face her after stepping out of the way of the swinging icicle.
"What was that?" She growled, the ball of ice growing larger.
"Do you want to hear this or not, ya?" Wakka countered, almost smirking himself as her palm lowered and the ice disappeared,
"You know that tournament coming up in about two weeks?"
"Yes, I know the one." Yuna said, watching Tidus' arm muscles contract and relax as he lifted the 20 pound barbell up and down.
"Well, he went to go see Luca today and we had a little chat."
"About what?"
Yuna's question was met with silence, the only sound being the barbell lightly touching the floor when Tidus allowed it to do so.
"Chatted about what Tidus?"
Silence again.
"Tidus? Answer me."
"We're gonna throw it okay?!" Tidus yelled suddenly, chucking the weight forcefully into the wall, leaving a fair-size dent.
"What do you mean?" Yuna asked, only a little surprised at the outburst. She'd seen it coming when he had squeezed his eyes
shut at her questioning.
"They're going to drop the charges and we're......"
"You're what? Tell me already!" Lulu said, becoming annoyed with Wakka's evasive answers.
"We're going to lose the tournament for the first time in 27 years!!"
*********************************************************************************************
How will the girls react?
More importantly, how will Jecht and Auron react come tournament day?
Stay tuned to find out!!!
Thanks for all your continued support! You guys are *sniff* the greastest!
Ja ne,
Digi-Esca Girl
laurie_22@hotmail.com
Chapter Nine - A Meeting At The Office
By: Digi-Esca Girl
Disclaimer: I do not own FFX or anything to do with it. I'm just borrowing for a little while...he he....
**************************************************************************
'I sure hope this works....' Leathen thought, slowly rising to his feet as he exited his vehicle.
A slew of emotions, thoughts and fears were running rampant in his mind. Some made him more determined than ever to
march inside the stadium and tell the Luca team exactly what he'd been rehearsing the whole drive over. Some others made
him want to tuck his tail between his legs and run back home. He knew he couldn't do the latter, however, as he stopped to
consdier how everyone else would be affected by his actions.
He reached up to rub the back of his neck, letting out a nervous sigh of apprehension. Should I really be doing this? He thought
suddenly, doubt filling his mind and fear of the consequences beginning to set in.
'What if I get in more trouble than I think I will? What then? Worse yet, what if Jecht and Auron find out and try to stop me or
something? Oh shit.....' The troubled youth leaned wearily against his car, the driver's side door still open. A million more
thoughts and ideas popped into his head, and he rubbed his temples vigorously to try and somewhat clear the jumbled
mess of nerves he called his brain.
"I have to do this...." He whispered to himself suddenly, his confidance starting to return.
He reminded himself of why he was even here in the first place, and a small smile appeared on his face. He would do what he
came to do, regardless of the consequences to himself.
He straightened his posture, slamming the car door shut with renewed vigor. The sigh that escaped his lips this time around was
one of almost-relief, and he suddenly felt alright about going inside the huge sports complex.
As if of their own accord, his feet began moving in the all too familiar right, left, right, left pattern he knew so well.
"Leathen!! Hang on a second, will ya?!" Called a voice from behind him before he'd gotten too far.
He turned abruptly to see two of his four reasons for leaving the house running towards him at top speed.
"What are you guys doing here?" He asked, wondering how they could have thought to come here, of all places.
"The question is, what are YOU doin here, ya?" Wakka inquired, eyes narrowing in mock accusation.
"I, uh...came here to get the address..for my...sister...?" Leathen lied slowly, knowing how unbelieveable he sounded.
"Now that that's out of the way...what are you really doing here, Leath?" Tidus asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I....came to talk to the Luca team..." Their friend admitted, albeit hesitantly.
"What the hell for?!" Tidus threw his arms up in the air, not believing what he was hearing.
"I'm going to get you guys out of trouble, damnit!"
"That still dosen't explain what you're doin here, ya?" Wakka replied, leaning against the arena's wall.
"I have an idea, ok? I'm going to go propose it to them." Leathen explained.
"Don'tcha think you should propose it to us first? I mean, you did say that the whole point was to get us out of trouble, right?"
Tidus questioned, cerulean eyes searching his friends face for answers.
"I'm going to resign from the team if they leave you guys alone."
"Finished?" Auron asked as Beth came back into the room.
"Yes. Thank you very much, but I have to go now," Beth replied, grabbing her purse and jacket.
Auron was about to remind her that she had yet to explain 'the situation' to him, but he decided that if it was important enough,
it would be brought to his attention of it's own accord.
"Alright," he said, "have a nice day, Beth."
"You too, Auron. See you at the tournament, ok?"
The guardian simply nodded, a small smirk appearing on his lips, his version of a smile. Beth returned the gesture, and
headed out the door. Once she'd closed it, she leaned against it, letting a relieved sigh escape her lips.
"I hope you know what your doing, Leathen...." She whispered, slipping her jacket over her shoulders and walking over
towards the elevator.
"Carter!!!"
The blonde man poked his head in the kitchen upon hearing his name. He smiled slightly at the sight of Rikku sitting on the
white tile floor, the couple's three-and-a-half year old daughter Alatriel throwing flour into the air.
"Yes, dear?" He replied comically, slowly entering the flour-littered room.
"I think Alatriel wants to give you something...." Rikku said, a smile playing at her lips when she noticed Carter's shirt and
pants were both a deep ebony.
"Here Daddy!" The little girl said, getting to her feet and tossing a handful of flour at him.
As the powdered white substance scattered and settled all over his clothes, Carter couldn't help but fix a look of shock on his
face. Rikku was worried for a minute that she might have really gotten to him this time, when suddenly, his russet eyes
began to glow with a mirth that quickly travelled down to his lips, which were now up-turned into a grin.
"Come here you..." He growled, reaching down and scooping the girl up in his arms.
He placed his hands around her waist and began to spin in circles. He held Alatriel out, and she raised her arms, laughing
loudly as the illusion of flying took over her senses. She closed her bright green eyes and revelled in the feeling of her
dirty blonde locks tickling her face. Carter had to laugh along with her, and he didn't seem to care that he was scattering
flour all over the place by spinning the girl around.
Rikku smiled warmly, knowing full-well that the outfit Carter was wearing had just been drycleaned at quite the cost, and
would now need the same treatment again. She also knew that the young man she had been partnered up with was one in
a million, and would make a wonderful husband and father someday. He was truly the greatest person to have as a
companion in this assignment, as he was willing to completely spilt the responsibilities, something the average high school
male was not up to doing.
"Rikku?" Came a deep voice from in front of her, snapping her back into reality. She opened her eyes to see Carter standing
there, a flushed-looking Alatriel sitting in his arms.
"Yeah?"
"I think Alatriel wants to give you something...." He replied, smirking deviously as his charge dumped a pile of flour onto
Rikku's maroon turtleneck sweater.
All the young woman could do in return was double over in laughter, hearing the girl follow her in her endeavor shortly.
Carter simply chuckled, taking a few steps forward so as to hand Alatriel over to her "mother".
"I have to go get changed, then I'll be out of here, okay?"
"Where are you going again?" Rikku asked, smiling as the girl in her arms put flour on her nose, oblivious to the conversation.
"Job interview downtown. I wasn't supposed to go in for another three weeks, but someone got fired suddenly and they
just called me a little while ago." Carter replied, his eyes never leaving the still smiling little girl, "I'll be back as soon as
I can, don't worry."
"How could I worry? You're so...so...organized!"
"Well, I'll see you in a little while, okay?" He said, reaching over and encircling both girls in a hug. He pulled away after a
minute, grinning like the cat that caught the mouse.
"See you," Rikku said, surprised by the embrace.
"Bye bye," Alatriel called as Carter disappeared around the corner.
Rikku simply sighed, putting the girl on the floor and beginning to clean up, a warm smile set on her lips.
"We need to speak with the teams' head coach." Tidus said to the red-haired secretary behind the mahogany desk.
"You need an appointment, sir, and besides, he's in a meeting with three of his players right now," The woman replied, looking
as if she'd be more interested in a chess match between two plastic skeletons.
"Well, I think he'll want to see us, ya?" Wakka said in reply, crossing his arms over his chest.
"We're from the Zanarkand Abes, miss. I think he'll be interested in what we have to....offer him." Leathen said, speaking
politely as he was always a gentleman where the female sex was concerned.
"The Abes, hey? Hang on a moment...." She said, turning slightly to her left and picking up the phone. There was no video
monitor hooked up to it so that no one could see the coach's face when he made up an excuse not to see the person.
"Sir? Yes, sorry to bother you but there are some people here-" She was cut off for a second, then resumed, "-yes I know,
sir, but they're-----sir would you let-----Sir!" She yelled, "They're from the Zanarkand Abes!!"
The three young men watched as a small, satsified smile lit up the woman's face as she placed the receiver back into its
cradle with an unceremonious clank.
"Go right on in. He seemed surprised, but I'd say pleased that you're here," She said to the boys, watching them with her
overly-curious hazel eyes as they entered the room.
"Welcome, boys," The coach greeted, waving his hands over three chairs situated in front of his desk, " Come in and have a
seat. I'm guessing you've come here to....reason with us?"
Wakka looked around at the word us and saw Bickson, Graav and Abus leaning against the wall to his left.
'Shit,' He thought again, watching as the three players spread out.
Graav remained leaning against the wall, fixing a less-than-friendly look on Tidus as Abus moved to take a seat on a small
sofa that was placed under a large, south-facing window. Bickson sat on the arm of that couch, looking almost expectantly
back and forth between his coach and the opposing players. Once all six of them had fully settled themselves, Leathen
began, speaking clearly and rationally, as he knew he companions were incapable of doing so at the moment.
"What would you say if I told you that we have a solution to this whole problem?"
"I'd say it's a crock of shit," Graav interrupted, absentmindedly rubbing a bruise on his ribs.
"We all know what you think, dumbass, now shut up!" Bickson yelled, obviously very aggravated.
"I would say," The coach began when his players silenced, "that I would like to hear your proposition, boys."
And thus ensued a long, seemingly grueling conversation between the two feuding sides. Some words were exchanged that
some would never think would be uttered from one side to the other, and other comments were almost expected. Many, many
profanities spilled out of the room, falling upon ears that were deaf to the racket, tuned instead to the music drifting from
the computers speakers in front of her.
About an hour-and-a-half later, the head coach reclined in his chair, folding his arms over his chest and sighing, a smirk
twisting its way onto his thin lips.
"Are you sure about this? I mean, it is a lot to give up....?" Bickson asked, his malicious grin almost too much for Tidus to bear.
"We wouldn't have proposed it it we weren't sure," Leathen replied calmly, seeing his friends anger.
"But can you really make it look natural? I mean, if anyone suspects-" Abus began.
"No one will suspect anything!" The coach roared, "If they do, these rookies over here will pay the price. Right?" The said,
looking straight at Wakka, who was seemingly having a hard time containing his outrage.
"Right." Wakka said after a moment, staring right back at the atrocious man with hatred gleaming in his eyes.
"Excellent," The man said, folding his hands together and resting his chin atop them, "You can go then."
Tidus looked like he had something to say to all of them with his fists, but Leathen put a hand on his shoulder, guiding him
out of the room without exploding. Wakka left as calmly as he could muster, wanting desperatly to smash the antique vase
on the marble stand by the door. He controlled himself, but only until they were outside the building.
Once they had exited, he reached down, finding a large rock and hurling it towards the artificial lake on the front lawns of the
massive stadium. His shoulders sank downwards slightly after he released it, and he only turned away when he had heard
the loud splash of the heavy object hitting the water and sinking out of sight.
Up in the office, the coach and his players sat at the window, laughing out loud at their luck.
"Tidus?" Yuna called, cringing as the door slammed loudly.
"Daddy!" Kieran called, racing towards the entranceway and wrapping his arms around one of Tidus' legs.
Despite his welled up anger, Tidus had to kill his glare before he looked down at the 'growth' on his limb. Even though he felt
like he could rip the head off of every other person on the planet, this one boy seemed to be an exception. He could still only
manage a small smile down at the child, as words would lead to profanities he shouldn't hear for several more years at least.
He reached down and messed Kieran's hair a little, kicking off his sneakers once the boy let him go. He peeled off his jacket
and hung it in the closet, closing the doors a little louder than he should have.
Yuna enetered the scene then, and she noticed that Kieran was poised to ask Tidus a question. Judging by the slamming doors
and carelessly disregarded "favorite shoes", the young summoner was able to deduce that her "husband" was not happy, and
she picked Kieran up based on that conclusion.
"I think that Mommy and Daddy need to have a little talk, okay?" She said to him, not seeing the glare Tidus gave her at the
mention of talking. He had talked enough for one day.... "So why don't you go on upstairs, and when lunch is ready, I'll call
you."
"Alright...." Kieran replied, walking towards the stairs once Yuna put him down. He wanted to tell Tidus all about the blitzball
game that had been on TV, but he had to wait.
"I'm not talking to you right now. I need to....let off some steam..." Tidus said as Yuna turned to him.
She said nothing in reply, but simply watched as he walked briskly past her towards the weight room at the back of the house.
To her knowledge, he had not yet gone into that room to use any of the devices inside to 'let off some steam'. She had also
been told by Leathen a while back that he only trained with weights when he was really, really angry.
In this case, Yuna didn't think she'd been misinformed.
'I'll leave him be for a little while....' she thought, sighing as moving into the kitchen to start making lunch.
"Alright, stop it now." Lulu said, placing her hands firmly on her hips and fixing the wave-haired man before her with a glare.
"Stop what? Am I doing anything to you?" Wakka replied, pausing his assualt on the punching bag long enough to answer her.
"Tell me what's bothering you."
"Nothing's bothering me, now go away."
"Do I look stupid to you?!" Lulu yelled, taking a few steps towards him.
"Yes," He said in-between punches.
"If you don't tell me what's going on right now I'll....." The mage left her threat blank, fire burning in her eyes and threatening
to burn in her opening palm as well.
"You'll what? Cure me again? Give me a fucking break!" This time Wakka landed a hard kick to the bag to punctuate his
forecful statement.
Unfortunatley for him, he had forgotten that the woman before him was a high-level magic-user, and at the moment she was
very angry with him. If he had been thinking, he would have realized that this was a very bad combination.
He continued to throw punches at the bag vigorously, until suddenly his fists met with a hard chunk of ice. He bit back a cry of
pain and looked down at his reddened knuckles, muttering a curse under his breath.
A whole string of curses, however, flew around in his mind when he saw the smirk plastered on Lulu's face. Her expression
grew as she saw him take notice of the slowly rotating ball of ice floating a inch above her palm.
Alright, alright. Pushy bitch...." Wakka muttered, turning to face her after stepping out of the way of the swinging icicle.
"What was that?" She growled, the ball of ice growing larger.
"Do you want to hear this or not, ya?" Wakka countered, almost smirking himself as her palm lowered and the ice disappeared,
"You know that tournament coming up in about two weeks?"
"Yes, I know the one." Yuna said, watching Tidus' arm muscles contract and relax as he lifted the 20 pound barbell up and down.
"Well, he went to go see Luca today and we had a little chat."
"About what?"
Yuna's question was met with silence, the only sound being the barbell lightly touching the floor when Tidus allowed it to do so.
"Chatted about what Tidus?"
Silence again.
"Tidus? Answer me."
"We're gonna throw it okay?!" Tidus yelled suddenly, chucking the weight forcefully into the wall, leaving a fair-size dent.
"What do you mean?" Yuna asked, only a little surprised at the outburst. She'd seen it coming when he had squeezed his eyes
shut at her questioning.
"They're going to drop the charges and we're......"
"You're what? Tell me already!" Lulu said, becoming annoyed with Wakka's evasive answers.
"We're going to lose the tournament for the first time in 27 years!!"
*********************************************************************************************
How will the girls react?
More importantly, how will Jecht and Auron react come tournament day?
Stay tuned to find out!!!
Thanks for all your continued support! You guys are *sniff* the greastest!
Ja ne,
Digi-Esca Girl
laurie_22@hotmail.com