Yuna's hand clamped down over Rikku's mouth, silencing a shrill squeal. She could tell it didn't work though, Lulu had definitely heard her. Luckily Wakka had preoccupied her for the moment, and as much as she wanted to watch longer, she knew it was in their best interest to get out of there as quickly as possible. Rikku struggled against her cousin's hand, causing even more noise. Yuna released her but gave her a stern look. "Be quiet! They'll hear you!"
"But Yunie, I was right! I told you something was going on!" As hard as she tried to keep her voice low, the excitement bubbling out of it was hard to contain. Lulu again looked suspicious but hadn't yet pulled away from Wakka's embrace.
"We leave now." Rikku opened her mouth to protest but Yuna was already climbing down. Not about to be left alone, she quickly followed, though they both kept slipping in their panic and excitement. Yuna eventually gave up trying to climb and just let go, cringing slightly as she hit the dirt. She moved aside just as Rikku followed, who seemed to take no heed of the long fall. They both ran out, trying to stay silent just in case any noise would reach the secret couple, but it was little use. Neither slowed the whole way back to the house, and they rushed up the stairs into Yuna's room. After slamming the door shut they both collapsed on the bed in a fit of giggles. "What'll we do if they figure out that was us?" Yuna asked between gasps for air and laughing fits.
"They'll never find out! How could they?" Rikku grinned, quite pleased with the success of their "mission." "That was great! Wouldn't it be fun to spy on people again?"
"Oh Yevon no! We'll be caught for sure!"
"Caught doing what?" a voice teased from the doorway.
"Tidus!" Yuna gasped. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Tidus, you'll never guess what we saw," Rikku was already gesturing wildly, ready to tell the tale.
Yuna shook her head. "Rikku, I don't think we should--"
"Don't worry Yunie, he wouldn't tell, would ya, Tidus?"
"Depends," Tidus stepped in the room, leaned close and lowered his voice for dramatic effect, "You didn't kill someone, did you?"
"Of course not!" Yuna looked mortified until she saw the grin creeping across his face.
"I'm just kidding Yuna, calm down." He turned to Rikku. "What's up?"
"Okay, Yunie found this bracelet and--,"
"Wait!" Rikku let out a low growl. "Just.. shut the door first. In case they get back before she's finished."
Tidus chuckled. "You could probably hear her clear across the village anyway." He said as he shut the door anyway and sat down on the bed. As Rikku continued her story in minute detail, Yuna paced back and forth, checking the window far too frequently. As she neared the bed on her path, Tidus grabbed her around the waist and pulled her onto his lap. "It's okay," he whispered in her ear. He moved his hands to her shoulders, and noticing how tense they were, rubbed them lightly without thinking.
Rikku stamped her foot in frustration. "I'm right here!" Tidus just grinned but Yuna mumbled an apology and moved to the other side of the bed, slightly embarrassed. Rikku found this satisfactory and continued, circling the room and nearly knocking several fragile, handmade figurines onto the floor.
Just as she was reaching the part about Wakka and Lulu's kiss, which she was about to describe in far too much detail for Tidus' taste, no doubt, Yuna gasped, "They're coming!"
"Does this mean I have to stop? I was just getting to the good part too," she whined, plopping herself onto the bed.
"What should we do?" Yuna asked no one in particular.
Tidus shrugged. "Don't do anything, you've been here the whole time," he said, sliding over to her and winking. They all waited in silence as the pair entered the house and came up the stairs. The door opened and Lulu's eyes searched the room. They finally landed on Tidus, who had at some point draped his arm around Yuna. Yuna and Rikku exchanged nervous glances, oblivious to the easily angered mage's actual thoughts.
"Aren't you supposed to be sleeping downstairs?" Surprisingly, she didn't sound angry at all. She almost sounded... relaxed.
Yuna was too busy recovering from her overwhelming relief to make up an excuse, so Tidus did. "I was just checking on them. And I was just leaving." He headed for the door but Lulu blocked his path.
"It's fine," she said simply.
Rikku raised an eyebrow, wondering what else had happened since they bailed that would put Lulu is such a good mood. It had been a good 20 minutes at least since then...
"Huh?" Tidus questioned, not quite believing what she was saying.
"I said it's fine. You can stay in here if you choose." She lowered her voice and whispered in his ear, "Though with Rikku here, I'm not sure you'd want to." A sly smile slid across her face as she leaned back and trotted down the stairs with Wakka.
Tidus shut the door and leaned against it. "Wow. Today is my lucky day." His grin quickly returned and he landed on the bed between the two girls. "So what'll we be doing tonight, girls?" Rikku just laughed but Yuna had the good sense to whack him with the nearest pillow. "I thought we talked about this earlier," Tidus scolded before whacking her back. Soon Rikku was in on it too, and they were ganging up on him. 'This is gonna be an interesting night...'
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Tidus awoke to the sound of snoring. He had his arm around Yuna, who was pressed against him, but the sound wasn't coming from her. After he disentangled himself and stretched, he found the source of the sound was a sprawled out Rikku on the floor. Whether she had slept there or had fallen off the bed, he wasn't sure. He yawned and walked to the window, where he observed that the whole village was already awake. Judging by the sky, it was after noon. Boy, sleeping in was a privilege he had missed on Yuna's pilgrimage, that's for sure. Turning back to watch his lover sleep, he debated whether or not to wake her. Though he was tempted to let her sleep, the fiend problem was weighing on his mind at the moment for some reason. It'd be easier to formulate a plan with both her and Rikku, so he gently shook her awake.
Yuna groaned softly before rolling over and opening her eyes. "Hi," she mumbled sleepily.
"Hey," he grinned back. She was so cute when she was sleepy. Then again, she was almost always cute.
"Is it late?"
Always a worrier. "Not too late," he reassured.
She glanced out the window. "It's after midday!" she exclaimed.
"Hey, don't worry about it. Come on," he said as he took her hand. He nonchalantly grabbed a pillow with the other and hit Rikku with it. By the time she had woken up enough to realize what happened, he had already tossed it back and was halfway down the stairs.
"You big meanie! I know that was you!" she said before racing after him.
"You know what was me?" he asked. Yuna had to suppress a giggle at his completely innocent expression.
"You know what I mean!"
She looked pretty mad, with both hands on her hips. It didn't seem to bother Tidus though. He ruffled her hair. "You know I wouldn't do anything mean to you." They found Lulu, Wakka and Kimahri in the dining room. "Now that we're all here, how about we think of a way to get rid of that fiend that had the nerve to take Yuna? Lulu, you find anything out last night?"
Wakka and Lulu exchanged a glance, and Tidus could have sworn he saw a hint of a smile on Lulu's lips. "No, I didn't but I got to thinking," she sat down at the table, swishing a mug of tea and taking a sip before continuing, "I don't think there's just a fiend. I think there's a person behind this."
"Is that possible? How could you control a fiend?" Rikku wondered.
"I am sure there are ways. Think about it, why else would she have been restrained on a table? Why not just--" she paused, not wanting to upset them, "A normal fiend wouldn't have let her live that long. This fiend --or whatever is commanding it-- wants something more than just a quick power drain or kill. There's something more going on that we don't know. And if we just charge in there..."
"Then this guy could have who knows how many tricks just waiting to be used on us," Tidus said glumly. "What do we do? We can't just sit here and wait for it to try again!"
Yuna touched him on the arm, signaling him to calm down. "So we can't fight. Maybe we can talk to him instead." She received only blank stares. "If we find out what he wants, maybe we can get it for him, without anybody getting hurt. Isn't it worth a try?"
Tidus sighed. "Yuna, I just don't think that's going to work. He probably wants to destroy the world or something."
"I'm not so sure. If he was out to kill, I would be dead right now, as Lulu said. I think he wants something else."
Lulu stood in thought, contemplating her words. Could it work? "If we go in with protective spells, and only attack to ward off any fiends.. We could get his attention."
"And if that fails?"
"If we can't destroy any attackers, we should be able to hold them off long enough to get away.
'I don't know about this,' Tidus thought to himself, but one look at Yuna's pleading eyes silenced any protests from him. He nodded. "Okay. I trust you. When do we do it?"
"First we need to hit the books," Lulu said. She headed for her library as everyone else gathered around the table. After a few moments she dumped a pile of musty books in the middle of them.
"These things must be a 100 years old!" Rikku exclaimed.
"More like a thousand. Maybe two," Lulu corrected emotionlessly.
"I didn't know books lasted that long," Rikku mused.
"Most don't, but these are protected by magic."
Rikku opened one and realized she had to be right, though she doubted Lulu was ever wrong. The pages weren't yellowed in the slightest, or even torn. She blew the dust off of it and coughed as it made a cloud. "Too bad they didn't add a dust repellant."
"This is going to take awhile, isn't it?" Tidus complained.
"Some things take less action and more planning," Lulu chided.
And so with a heavy sigh, they all started scanning the books for anything useful. Rikku came across something first, and slid the book over to their resident white magic expert. "Yunie, what do you think of this?"
Yuna carefully read the small print, which seemed to describe a large scale shield of sorts. It was only of moderate strength but was supposed to be easily sustained for a long period of time. "I think that'll be very helpful, Rikku. Considering how strong the fiend was, I don't think it'll protect us from it completely, but it should discourage it greatly." Rikku beamed with pride as Yuna carefully copied the instructions and other vital information to a sheet of paper for further use.
As the day and then the night wore on they had little luck finding much else. They hadn't even stopped to eat, as Lulu had prepared snacks periodically and brought it right to them. Yuna had come across a spell that would stun the opponent for a precious few moments, perhaps giving them time to flee or get off something stronger. Wakka's suggestions reflected his apparent knowledge of the field -- or more accurately, the lack thereof. Lulu's brow was furrowed in frustration as she scoured one book after another, finding nothing of use. Tidus' eyes were only half open at best, and his head eventually hit the book as he fell asleep. Yuna smiled at his innocent expression, even if he was being no help. As Lulu looked up and saw him slumbering, she sighed. "Perhaps we should call it a night." Rikku nodded in agreement and rubbed her eyes as she went up the stairs, apparently so tired that even she couldn't manage to maintain her usual bounce.
Yuna reached over and gently shook Tidus awake. He yawned and looked around. "What?"
"You fell asleep," she teased.
"Oh man." He looked to Lulu, ready to be yelled at for it, but she had already left. He wasn't sure whether to be worried or relieved.
"She's not mad."
Tidus raised an eyebrow at her. "How did you know that's what I was thinking?"
Yuna just smiled mysteriously. "Let's get to bed."
He nodded and started to get up, but stopped as his eyes fell on the page. "Wait."
She leaned over his shoulder to see what he was reading. "What is it?" She followed his finger, pointing at two spells. One was purely defensive -- a shield that was summoned for a few seconds that could absorb practically anything. It took some strength but it could be done several times within a short span if necessary. The other was an offensive spell, and a powerful one at that. It created a ball of condensed, non-elemental energy that would explode upon impact, inflicting massive damage against even the strongest of foes. It looked difficult but Yuna was pretty sure Lulu could pull it off with some practice. A smile spread across her face. "These are perfect!" She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. "You've saved us again," she murmured.
He was momentarily taken back by her uncharacteristic display of affection, but quickly regained his composure and squeezed her back before replying, "Just doing my job."
"Let's go show Lulu." After inserting a bookmark, she raced to Lulu's room with Tidus struggling to keep up. She burst in, "Look what we.. found." Lulu looked irate at the interruption. Wakka was standing suspiciously close to her and seemed embarrassed. "What Tidus found, actually," she corrected, pretending not to notice what she had interrupted..
Lulu took the book and skimmed the marked pages. "Yes, that will work quite nicely. Thank you Tidus," she said simply and handed the book back. She quickly shooed them out and shut the door behind them.
Tidus scratched his head. "She didn't seem too happy about it."
"I think she's just.. distracted."
Tidus might have thought to question why she was smiling almost mischievously had he been fully awake, but at the moment it was all he could do to stumble to bed and fall asleep with Yuna at his side.
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A/N: Sort of a short chapter I guess. Only got three reviews last time... You meanies. Thanks to those that did review though! Next chapter should be a little more exciting.
"But Yunie, I was right! I told you something was going on!" As hard as she tried to keep her voice low, the excitement bubbling out of it was hard to contain. Lulu again looked suspicious but hadn't yet pulled away from Wakka's embrace.
"We leave now." Rikku opened her mouth to protest but Yuna was already climbing down. Not about to be left alone, she quickly followed, though they both kept slipping in their panic and excitement. Yuna eventually gave up trying to climb and just let go, cringing slightly as she hit the dirt. She moved aside just as Rikku followed, who seemed to take no heed of the long fall. They both ran out, trying to stay silent just in case any noise would reach the secret couple, but it was little use. Neither slowed the whole way back to the house, and they rushed up the stairs into Yuna's room. After slamming the door shut they both collapsed on the bed in a fit of giggles. "What'll we do if they figure out that was us?" Yuna asked between gasps for air and laughing fits.
"They'll never find out! How could they?" Rikku grinned, quite pleased with the success of their "mission." "That was great! Wouldn't it be fun to spy on people again?"
"Oh Yevon no! We'll be caught for sure!"
"Caught doing what?" a voice teased from the doorway.
"Tidus!" Yuna gasped. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Tidus, you'll never guess what we saw," Rikku was already gesturing wildly, ready to tell the tale.
Yuna shook her head. "Rikku, I don't think we should--"
"Don't worry Yunie, he wouldn't tell, would ya, Tidus?"
"Depends," Tidus stepped in the room, leaned close and lowered his voice for dramatic effect, "You didn't kill someone, did you?"
"Of course not!" Yuna looked mortified until she saw the grin creeping across his face.
"I'm just kidding Yuna, calm down." He turned to Rikku. "What's up?"
"Okay, Yunie found this bracelet and--,"
"Wait!" Rikku let out a low growl. "Just.. shut the door first. In case they get back before she's finished."
Tidus chuckled. "You could probably hear her clear across the village anyway." He said as he shut the door anyway and sat down on the bed. As Rikku continued her story in minute detail, Yuna paced back and forth, checking the window far too frequently. As she neared the bed on her path, Tidus grabbed her around the waist and pulled her onto his lap. "It's okay," he whispered in her ear. He moved his hands to her shoulders, and noticing how tense they were, rubbed them lightly without thinking.
Rikku stamped her foot in frustration. "I'm right here!" Tidus just grinned but Yuna mumbled an apology and moved to the other side of the bed, slightly embarrassed. Rikku found this satisfactory and continued, circling the room and nearly knocking several fragile, handmade figurines onto the floor.
Just as she was reaching the part about Wakka and Lulu's kiss, which she was about to describe in far too much detail for Tidus' taste, no doubt, Yuna gasped, "They're coming!"
"Does this mean I have to stop? I was just getting to the good part too," she whined, plopping herself onto the bed.
"What should we do?" Yuna asked no one in particular.
Tidus shrugged. "Don't do anything, you've been here the whole time," he said, sliding over to her and winking. They all waited in silence as the pair entered the house and came up the stairs. The door opened and Lulu's eyes searched the room. They finally landed on Tidus, who had at some point draped his arm around Yuna. Yuna and Rikku exchanged nervous glances, oblivious to the easily angered mage's actual thoughts.
"Aren't you supposed to be sleeping downstairs?" Surprisingly, she didn't sound angry at all. She almost sounded... relaxed.
Yuna was too busy recovering from her overwhelming relief to make up an excuse, so Tidus did. "I was just checking on them. And I was just leaving." He headed for the door but Lulu blocked his path.
"It's fine," she said simply.
Rikku raised an eyebrow, wondering what else had happened since they bailed that would put Lulu is such a good mood. It had been a good 20 minutes at least since then...
"Huh?" Tidus questioned, not quite believing what she was saying.
"I said it's fine. You can stay in here if you choose." She lowered her voice and whispered in his ear, "Though with Rikku here, I'm not sure you'd want to." A sly smile slid across her face as she leaned back and trotted down the stairs with Wakka.
Tidus shut the door and leaned against it. "Wow. Today is my lucky day." His grin quickly returned and he landed on the bed between the two girls. "So what'll we be doing tonight, girls?" Rikku just laughed but Yuna had the good sense to whack him with the nearest pillow. "I thought we talked about this earlier," Tidus scolded before whacking her back. Soon Rikku was in on it too, and they were ganging up on him. 'This is gonna be an interesting night...'
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Tidus awoke to the sound of snoring. He had his arm around Yuna, who was pressed against him, but the sound wasn't coming from her. After he disentangled himself and stretched, he found the source of the sound was a sprawled out Rikku on the floor. Whether she had slept there or had fallen off the bed, he wasn't sure. He yawned and walked to the window, where he observed that the whole village was already awake. Judging by the sky, it was after noon. Boy, sleeping in was a privilege he had missed on Yuna's pilgrimage, that's for sure. Turning back to watch his lover sleep, he debated whether or not to wake her. Though he was tempted to let her sleep, the fiend problem was weighing on his mind at the moment for some reason. It'd be easier to formulate a plan with both her and Rikku, so he gently shook her awake.
Yuna groaned softly before rolling over and opening her eyes. "Hi," she mumbled sleepily.
"Hey," he grinned back. She was so cute when she was sleepy. Then again, she was almost always cute.
"Is it late?"
Always a worrier. "Not too late," he reassured.
She glanced out the window. "It's after midday!" she exclaimed.
"Hey, don't worry about it. Come on," he said as he took her hand. He nonchalantly grabbed a pillow with the other and hit Rikku with it. By the time she had woken up enough to realize what happened, he had already tossed it back and was halfway down the stairs.
"You big meanie! I know that was you!" she said before racing after him.
"You know what was me?" he asked. Yuna had to suppress a giggle at his completely innocent expression.
"You know what I mean!"
She looked pretty mad, with both hands on her hips. It didn't seem to bother Tidus though. He ruffled her hair. "You know I wouldn't do anything mean to you." They found Lulu, Wakka and Kimahri in the dining room. "Now that we're all here, how about we think of a way to get rid of that fiend that had the nerve to take Yuna? Lulu, you find anything out last night?"
Wakka and Lulu exchanged a glance, and Tidus could have sworn he saw a hint of a smile on Lulu's lips. "No, I didn't but I got to thinking," she sat down at the table, swishing a mug of tea and taking a sip before continuing, "I don't think there's just a fiend. I think there's a person behind this."
"Is that possible? How could you control a fiend?" Rikku wondered.
"I am sure there are ways. Think about it, why else would she have been restrained on a table? Why not just--" she paused, not wanting to upset them, "A normal fiend wouldn't have let her live that long. This fiend --or whatever is commanding it-- wants something more than just a quick power drain or kill. There's something more going on that we don't know. And if we just charge in there..."
"Then this guy could have who knows how many tricks just waiting to be used on us," Tidus said glumly. "What do we do? We can't just sit here and wait for it to try again!"
Yuna touched him on the arm, signaling him to calm down. "So we can't fight. Maybe we can talk to him instead." She received only blank stares. "If we find out what he wants, maybe we can get it for him, without anybody getting hurt. Isn't it worth a try?"
Tidus sighed. "Yuna, I just don't think that's going to work. He probably wants to destroy the world or something."
"I'm not so sure. If he was out to kill, I would be dead right now, as Lulu said. I think he wants something else."
Lulu stood in thought, contemplating her words. Could it work? "If we go in with protective spells, and only attack to ward off any fiends.. We could get his attention."
"And if that fails?"
"If we can't destroy any attackers, we should be able to hold them off long enough to get away.
'I don't know about this,' Tidus thought to himself, but one look at Yuna's pleading eyes silenced any protests from him. He nodded. "Okay. I trust you. When do we do it?"
"First we need to hit the books," Lulu said. She headed for her library as everyone else gathered around the table. After a few moments she dumped a pile of musty books in the middle of them.
"These things must be a 100 years old!" Rikku exclaimed.
"More like a thousand. Maybe two," Lulu corrected emotionlessly.
"I didn't know books lasted that long," Rikku mused.
"Most don't, but these are protected by magic."
Rikku opened one and realized she had to be right, though she doubted Lulu was ever wrong. The pages weren't yellowed in the slightest, or even torn. She blew the dust off of it and coughed as it made a cloud. "Too bad they didn't add a dust repellant."
"This is going to take awhile, isn't it?" Tidus complained.
"Some things take less action and more planning," Lulu chided.
And so with a heavy sigh, they all started scanning the books for anything useful. Rikku came across something first, and slid the book over to their resident white magic expert. "Yunie, what do you think of this?"
Yuna carefully read the small print, which seemed to describe a large scale shield of sorts. It was only of moderate strength but was supposed to be easily sustained for a long period of time. "I think that'll be very helpful, Rikku. Considering how strong the fiend was, I don't think it'll protect us from it completely, but it should discourage it greatly." Rikku beamed with pride as Yuna carefully copied the instructions and other vital information to a sheet of paper for further use.
As the day and then the night wore on they had little luck finding much else. They hadn't even stopped to eat, as Lulu had prepared snacks periodically and brought it right to them. Yuna had come across a spell that would stun the opponent for a precious few moments, perhaps giving them time to flee or get off something stronger. Wakka's suggestions reflected his apparent knowledge of the field -- or more accurately, the lack thereof. Lulu's brow was furrowed in frustration as she scoured one book after another, finding nothing of use. Tidus' eyes were only half open at best, and his head eventually hit the book as he fell asleep. Yuna smiled at his innocent expression, even if he was being no help. As Lulu looked up and saw him slumbering, she sighed. "Perhaps we should call it a night." Rikku nodded in agreement and rubbed her eyes as she went up the stairs, apparently so tired that even she couldn't manage to maintain her usual bounce.
Yuna reached over and gently shook Tidus awake. He yawned and looked around. "What?"
"You fell asleep," she teased.
"Oh man." He looked to Lulu, ready to be yelled at for it, but she had already left. He wasn't sure whether to be worried or relieved.
"She's not mad."
Tidus raised an eyebrow at her. "How did you know that's what I was thinking?"
Yuna just smiled mysteriously. "Let's get to bed."
He nodded and started to get up, but stopped as his eyes fell on the page. "Wait."
She leaned over his shoulder to see what he was reading. "What is it?" She followed his finger, pointing at two spells. One was purely defensive -- a shield that was summoned for a few seconds that could absorb practically anything. It took some strength but it could be done several times within a short span if necessary. The other was an offensive spell, and a powerful one at that. It created a ball of condensed, non-elemental energy that would explode upon impact, inflicting massive damage against even the strongest of foes. It looked difficult but Yuna was pretty sure Lulu could pull it off with some practice. A smile spread across her face. "These are perfect!" She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. "You've saved us again," she murmured.
He was momentarily taken back by her uncharacteristic display of affection, but quickly regained his composure and squeezed her back before replying, "Just doing my job."
"Let's go show Lulu." After inserting a bookmark, she raced to Lulu's room with Tidus struggling to keep up. She burst in, "Look what we.. found." Lulu looked irate at the interruption. Wakka was standing suspiciously close to her and seemed embarrassed. "What Tidus found, actually," she corrected, pretending not to notice what she had interrupted..
Lulu took the book and skimmed the marked pages. "Yes, that will work quite nicely. Thank you Tidus," she said simply and handed the book back. She quickly shooed them out and shut the door behind them.
Tidus scratched his head. "She didn't seem too happy about it."
"I think she's just.. distracted."
Tidus might have thought to question why she was smiling almost mischievously had he been fully awake, but at the moment it was all he could do to stumble to bed and fall asleep with Yuna at his side.
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A/N: Sort of a short chapter I guess. Only got three reviews last time... You meanies. Thanks to those that did review though! Next chapter should be a little more exciting.