FFX-2 101 Past and Present combined
Chapter 4
Yellow Feathers, and Mascot spheres
Hiya you guys. This is Aerseph4eva. I've updated, and I have concentrated more upon the conversations between Shuyin and Yuna, however I am prolonging their relationship for a future climactic scene.
Anywho, I know most of you guys didn't click to read my Author's note......so as I say...
On with the fic!
"Maybe this new journey won't be as bad as I thought it would be..." Yuna thought softly to herself as she looked down at his hand clasped firmly around hers, then up into the blond's face.
"No, I don't think this journey will be bad at all...."
To say Yuna was afraid would have been a severe understatement to say the least. It didn't help either when she raised her head upwards to meet sparkling blue eyes. Eyes which stared intensely back at her with an insatiable passion. It was in those eyes that made her heart remember that Shuyin was not 'him'. But every time that she saw a twinkle of starlight in his eyes, or the slightest glint of a smile, she couldn't help but wonder upon her original theory.
'Was there a connection?' Whether the answer was simple or complex, the bond was there, even though Yuna believed her closeness to the truth rivalled the distance of the very stars in the sky. There was one thing she knew for certain. Shuyin and Tidus had a connection.
'There has to be..'
Celsius Ship - Bridge
"Here is the range," Yuna began as she placed another sphere grid alongside her collection of dress-spheres. After attempting to explain the complex intricacies of the dress sphere, Yuna decided that it would be best to simply show Shuyin how it worked. It would then solve his embarrassing problem of dressing properly as opposed to bed sheets. However, the brunette couldn't help but wonder whether it was a wise idea to give Shuyin a dress-sphere. After all, the spheres bore the gifts to learn abilities which would enable him to gain the access to power....
'And to give him such a gift when I am still doubtful of his loyalties...' Yuna pondered, hoping that her kindness won't be what curses her in the end. Nevertheless, Yuna explained the purpose of the sphere-grid and the collection of all the dress-spheres she owned.
Shuyin all the while stared wide eyed in wonder at the unusual magic sources before him on table, vaguely remembering his last fight and his mild bemusement when Yuna was wearing one thing at one moment, and then seemed to be wearing something seconds after.
'How do you know which dress-sphere is which?" Shuyin asked, as he pointed down at the collection of orange orbs that glistened on the table. "They all look the same." Yuna paused in thought, having never thought of such an idea.
"Well...." Yuna began, moving to pick up the 'Thief' dress-sphere, knowing immediately what it was from the moment her fingers touched the surface.
"I cannot really describe it exactly," she admitted. "But, when I hold the sphere in my hands, I just know what power the sphere possesses."
Shuyin's amazement was not hidden within his tone of voice. "Awesome. What sphere are you holding now?"
Yuna was about to reply, yet paused when another idea came to her mind.
"Why don't you guess?" the brunette offered as she moved the Thief dress-sphere towards Shuyin's upright palm. The blond accepted it, as his gaze crossed the orb in interest. Blue eyes soon turned upwards to meet the brunette.
"So, what do I do?"
"Concentrate upon your emotions. What do you feel when you hold that dress-sphere in your hands?"
Shuyin shrugged his shoulders in a meek response. "Well nothing really.....just.......a...happiness......enthusiasm....as if I could travel for miles on end......search beneath the seas, and fly beyond the furthest stars for treasures that man has yet to find...." His mouth soon dropped as he realised what he had just said, yet he was still confused by the flow of emotion which symbolised nothing in particular within his mind's eye.
"Wha....what is this?" the blond thought out loud, unable to decipher the feelings running through his being.
Yuna sighed knowingly, relenting to Shuyin's wishes. "It's called the Thief Dress-sphere, Shuyin." Yuna replied, reaching across the table to pluck the orb from the blond's outstretched fingers, before placing back upon the table.
"Thief?" Shuyin's eyes brightened in realisation, his head bobbing up and down in keen understanding. "Ah it makes sense now. I was thinking of gold, treasure and adventure."
Yuna smiled softly, unable to hide her own happiness from seeing the utter expression of delight written across the blond's face. "Yes...that sphere is my cousin Rikku's favourite."
At the mention of another, Shuyin felt his face sober, not particularly caring about some random person who liked this and that. He did not like people. Period. So he refused to respond to Yuna's further rambles of this 'Rikku' girl.
"What others are there?" Shuyin interrupted, causing the brunette to pause mid sentence.
"Huh?" Yuna blinked, trying to discern what the blond meant, as her mind was still upon the conversation of her bubbly blonde friend. However realisation soon dawned when she looked across the table to see the blond's face turned downwards to the spheres.
"Oh well-"
Yuna was unable to respond quick enough causing the blonde Blitzballer to intercept again.
"Which sphere is the most powerful?"
Yuna's eyes darkened with worry at the connotation of the word, before dissipating into nothingness. Surely Shuyin was curious and was not planning any bad intent upon her. No, it must have been a mere question.... "Um...." the brunette began, unable to rid herself of the doubt. "How do you mean powerful?"
Shuyin shrugged, folding his arms in a casual gesture. "Oh you know, strength wise..." His response did little to calm the brunette, however she did not like the idea upon how she was already pre-judging Shuyin harshly over his simple question. She felt disgusted at herself, from her own selfish accusations. As much as Shuyin was a pretty shady character in the past, that did not mean that she had the right to treat him with distaste in the present. Trying to hide the conflict of her insides from her facial expression, Yuna attempted to answer the blond's innocent questionby thinking of the physical based spheres in her collection.
"Strength wise....I think that would be a Warrior, Dark Knight or the Berserker........no wait...I know I was given one recently...." Sea hued eyes brightened as she remembered a certain 'Powerful dress-sphere' that she received from Brother.
"Oh this one is very powerful." Picking up the sphere from the collection, Yuna quickly passed the chosen orb to the blond who took it in his large palms.
"What is it?" Shuyin asked in curiosity, attempting to draw out the emotions like he did with the earlier dress-sphere. His expression soon fell into a boyish frown when he could feel nothing but his own thoughts. Yuna couldn't help but smile, all her past gloomy thoughts momentarily fading as she wondered how Shuyin would react when he 'transformed'.
"That is no ordinary sphere. Usually, a sphere holds the memory of a person that is locked away inside the pyreflies. This one however, was especially created by a friend of mine called Shinra. He is an Al Bhed Whiz kid."
Shuyin processed the information into the back of his mind, yet he knew his question was still unanswered. "What is it?" He repeated, unconsciously twirling the small orb around his long fingers, as if he were playing with a miniature Blitzball. His movement from thumb to forefinger caught the attention of Yuna who watched in interest as Shuyin flicked the sphere with his thumb and balanced it upon another digit. The blond caught upon the brunette's scrutiny and paused his actions. Yuna felt her face blush in embarrassment, and not truly understanding why. It was not like she was doing anything wrong, but her stomach felt unusually uppity. Assuming her response was from lack of sleep, Yuna dismissed any other thoughts, flushing once more when she realised that she had forgotten what Shuyin had asked. Voicing out her confusion, to win a look of mock-annoyance from the blond, Shuyin repeated his question once more.
"Why don't you test it?" Yuna asked. Shuyin's expression went blank for a moment, and Yuna couldn't help but giggle softly despite the unnerved feeling that was unfurling inside her stomach.
"It's easy."
"Look. I can show you....I'll change into....." Yuna said as her gaze moved back to sphere collection, picking up the orb she handled earlier. "....this Thief dress-sphere."
"Basically, all you need to do.." Yuna began slowly as she pulled her own grid from her pocket "is to place a dress-sphere upon a empty node on the grid." Clipping the orb in place, the brunette raised her head from her administrations to stare at the tentative blond, smiling shyly when Shuyin smirked at her in response.
Moving a timid hand up to curl back a lock of hair behind her ear, Yuna continued on with her demonstration.
"Then, when you are ready to transform, you hold the grid out in front of you and simply 'ask' the sphere to give you the power to aid your friends in battle."
Shuyin looked down from Yuna's face to look at the sphere in his hand, to then look back at the Thief orb inside the sphere-grid. "You just ask the sphere?" the blond questioned, although his tone sounded somewhat doubtful. "Isn't that a little simple, or is there something that I am missing here? How can a mere rock respond to my voice."
Yuna shook her head. "The dress-sphere is more than a rock, and Shinra adapted the spheres so that any person could transform by using them."
"But...." Shuyin began. "...what do I ask the dress-sphere when I don't even know what it is?"
Yuna's eyebrow furrowed. 'Good question.' However, the brunette didn't want to ruin the blond's surprise and so replied. "That sphere is connected to all that is powerful, so why don't you ask for that....?"
The blond nodded, finally understanding. "Alrighty," he agreed, as he turned his attention towards the sphere in his hands. His eyes soon slid closed in concentration, while he slowly moved his lips in contemplation upon what to ask. As the words came into his mind, he was broken out of thought by a soft tapping upon his shoulder. Cracking one eye open, Shuyin saw Yuna staring up at him with a gentle smile upon her face.
"You forgot, this......" she said softly, as she moved a 'sphere grid' into his vision.
"Oh....sorry..." Correcting his previous mistake, Shuyin once again closed his eyes and called out for power. Nothing happened, and he was about to complain to Yuna before he felt something shift around him. It felt like he had pyreflies glaring in his vision, as a welcoming heat spiralled from his sphere grid, into his finger tips, before flaring out into a white light which invaded all his vision.
Yuna gasped in fascination at the visual sight of Shuyin's duvet suddenly dematerialising, leaving him naked in a split second to then become completely bathed within a golden light. His torso arched backwards, causing the blond to reveal the full column of his neck while his arms stretched out from his sides. The light surrounded Shuyin and then engulfed his form entirely that Yuna had to close her eyes from the intense brightness.
Then there was silence.
A noise, which sounded closely to the sound of a strangled bird pierced the air.....
When Yuna was sure that the light had not blinded her, she opened her eyes once again, and gasped sharply at what now stood before her. She could only process one thought in her mind.
Yellow......a yellow feather.
A singular yellow feather sat perched upon Shuyin's nose, and from his expression, that seemed the only thing in existence that he was aware of.
"Oh my...."
A crack of a smile, follow soon by a giggle, and before Yuna knew it, she was rolling in fits of laughter. She couldn't believe it...
Shuyin was a......Chocobo!
Shuyin blinked in confusion, still in a daze from the magical surge of energy that pulsed into his veins. However, his attention soon caught upon an odd tickly upon his nose. Blue eyes instantly locked upon the yellow plume that had perched itself upon the bridge of his nose. Shuyin wrinkled his nose in a lazy attempt to dislodge to feather, before raising his left arm to catch sight of....more yellow feathers! He slowly looked down and yelped out in surprise, leaping back and tripping over an object that was directly behind him. Picking up the accursed item, Shuyin brought the object to his gaze to then feel his mind falter in a relapse which could only be caused by horrific trauma.
"A head..."
The colour soon drained from his face when he realised what he was holding in his hands.
"A chocobo head...."
Shuyin shrieked out in surprise as he dropped the 'head' to the floor, his body twisting around to seek guidance from Yuna who was lying on the floor in laughter?
His surprise soon faded as he watched the brunette roll her head to the side in hysterics, seeing the way her shoulders quaked with mirth.
"It is only a costume..." Yuna said between gasps, taking one moment to look at the befuddled blond to fall back into uncontrolled giggles.
Through the infamous style of the Mascot sphere, it made all users transform into a entity which reflected their personality the most. Yuna herself became a Moogle, Shinra explaining it to her that a Mog were known for being shy and innocent creatures that were connected to magic and mystery. Rikku became a cat called 'Cait Sith' from which Shinra explained was once a popular toy, renowned for being loud, annoying and very very much like a certain blonde haired Al Bhed. Paine however became a Tonberry, a fiend infamously known for being one of the most dangerous and foreboding creatures in all of Spira. Their passive faces, and sharp blade was more than enough similarity to the cold, aloof crimson eyed warrior.
But Shuyin to become.......a chocobo...? As for the blondish feathery hair, and the wide innocent blue eyes.....Yuna couldn't see any other similarity.
The small stubby tail behind Shuyin nearly did her in with fits of laughter, however she managed to compose herself when she looked at the blond's relatively dark expression.
"What the hell is this?" Shuyin all but cried out, his surprise changing into mixed confusion and irritation.
The bulkiness of the chocobo Mascot sphere bore a gaudy look, which hid Shuyin's impressive muscular and lean build into a bulky mass of yellow feathers and a pair of brown bird talons for feet.
"Is this a joke? You didn't say I was gonna turn into a bloody friggen chocobo!"
His face changed from burning with embarrassment, to frowning in anger. However, another giggle from Yuna made his composure slip and he couldn't help but chuckle despite his apparent disgust at what he was wearing.
"You think this is funny?"
Yuna nodded. "..it kinda suits you....."
"Well..." Shuyin began as he scratched the back of his head nervously.
"This is certainly not what I expected...."
Yuna hid her smile beneath her hand. "I responded pretty much the same way as you did, when I first used the Mascot sphere," she admitted, her eyes twinkling with semi disguised mirth. Noticing the blond's attention, she added. "You wouldn't believe that this sphere is the strongest of them all."
"No shit?" Shuyin swore in awe, looking down at his attire, half disbelieving that it was true. Then raised his head in time to see Yuna's flinch at his highly colourful language.
"Sorry, I swear too much..." Shuyin apologised lightly, although he couldn't get over the fact that he was wearing.....a Chocobo costume... He took a few steps forward with his large bird feet, flapping his wings in feigned childish amusement, pausing to shake his head.
"There is no way that I could fight in this.....no....I would never be able to fight in this!" Shuyin exclaimed, flabbergasted as he looked down at himself then towards the chocobo head that he threw to the floor. Picking up the last piece of his Mascot outfit from the floor, Shuyin stared at the all too cutesy expression with a look of mild distaste. He had to admit that the chocobo face looked awfully real, and that was why he was so surprised when he first saw it. After feeling his natural composure calm back down to normal levels, Shuyin moved his attention towards Yuna and raised a wry eyebrow in question.
"I look like an idiot," Shuyin stated in a deadpan voice, dropping the chocobo head to his feet.
The brunette tilted her head, crossing her arms over her chest in contemplation. "No you don't, you actually look....quite cute beneath all those feathers...." Yuna admitted, causing her eyes to crinkle at the corners.
The blond's head whipped up in surprise. "Cute?" He asked amiably, feeling his face heat up in slight embarrassment.
Yuna nodded, letting out a loose giggle at Shuyin's befuddled expression.
Shuyin shrugged his shoulders, as he let out a small chuckle of his own. "Ah well... I guess I could get used to this thing if it will help me save Lenne...."
At the mention of her name, both Shuyin and Yuna dropped their smiles, their tender moment broken at the realisation of their mutual expressions of kindness glinting in their partner's eyes. Breaking eye contact, Yuna turned away in shyness, moving her face down to stare out the windows of the Celsius, while Shuyin watched the brunette in interest, unsure of what exactly occurred between them. Looking down at his adorned feathers then back to the brunette, he realised another problem.
"Um...Yuna?" The blond asked, trying to get the brunette's attention.
Yuna kept her gaze towards the moving clouds, giving a momentary pause before replying. "What?"
Plastering on his trademark sheepish expression, Shuyin asked, "Um...How do I get out of this thing?"
I'll leave it there. I know it has taken me a LONG TIME to update and I'm sorry. The reason for this is that I am currently attempting to Beta read my To Love an Ancient fic, and correct all the grammar and spelling mistakes which I missed..sigh. And at the same time I am trying to update my Sephiroth and Tifa fic, My Sailor Moon fic, contemplating about writing an Escaflowne Folken/Hitomi fic, and also a Yugioh Seto Kaiba/Anzu/Bakura and Yami/Anzu fic....Quite a lot of work ne? Anywho, what do you guys think of Shuyin being a Chocobo? Somehow, it really suits his style. chuckle. I know this chapter is REALLY short for my style, but I wanted to do my rounds of updating, since this fic seems to be a favourite to my fellow readers.
Please read and review you guys so I know that you are still supporting this fic,
Ja ne
Aer-seph4eva
Any questions? Comments?
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P.S
Oh, do any of you guys know of any good Shuyin/Yuna LONG fics besides Silver Wings. I love that trilogy (ahem I'm going off the point)...If you do, is it possible if you can place it within the review? I would very much appreciate it. It is always easy to find short non-canon couples, but it seems to be a challenge to find odd couples in long epical fics which transcend all others in its field. If you guys know of any mind-blowing fics within the relationships of the pairs listed below. I would be grateful if you add the information to your review or a email.
SAILORMOON
Shitennou/Sailor senshi
The four generals/Sailor scouts
FFVII
Aeris/Sephiroth
Fics about Advent Children.
Cloud/Sephiroth
Tifa/Sephiroth
Vincent/Aeris
FFX
Shuyin/Yuna
KINGDOM HEARTS
Aeris/Sephiroth
Riku/Sora
YUGIOH
Seto Kaiba/Anzu (Tea Gardner)
Yami/Anzu (Tea)
Yami Bakura/ Anzu (Tea)
Marik/Anzu (Tea)
ESCAFLOWNE
Folken/Hitomi