Disclaimer: I got popcorn. You want that?
Notes: Yeah, this chapter is kinda lame, I didn't know exactly where to go. But more of the characters are being pulled in. I'll try to get my lazy ass into gear and get another chapter out within the next few days.
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The hover set down quietly at Besaid's north beach and unloaded its few passengers onto the sandy shore. Yuna stood with a small pack hooked over her shoulders as Tidus stood with a slightly larger bag strapped across his chest. As the couple moved towards the beach Tidus turned and gave a look that was intended to suggest to his child to pick up her pace.
Liya sat with her arms across her chest and the blitzball beneath her feet.
"Come on Lee Lee, let's move." He said.
The girl shook her head and frowned. It was impossibly adorable the way her brows knitted down so tightly and wrinkle the smooth bronze flesh of her face. Yuna had wound the girl's long hair into two tight buns atop her head before they'd left and her persistent shaking beginning to force them loose.
"Pick the ball up," Tidus said more firmly, "and get your butt off the hover."
She turned her face away from him and stuck her nose up in the air.
Tidus sighed, annoyed, and turned to Yuna. "She's you're daughter." He stated and moved on ahead in the direction of the village.
Yuna rolled her eyes and moved towards the hover. Her steps were silent as she moved to stand before the girl and squatted down to eye level. "Liya." Yuna began. "Don't you want to get off the hover and see Vidina?"
She shook her head again.
"Why not?" Yuna asked as she set her hands on either side of Liya. "he's your best friend, Liya. He'll be upset if he doesn't get to see you."
Liya turned her head to face her mother then. She was quiet for several minutes before her eyes caught her father's image. He had stopped in his pursuit to the village, had turned around and was slowly making his way back. She stared at him in silence before turning her attention back to her mother.
Yuna touched the girl's cheek gingerly and brushed a few stray tendrils of hair away from the small face.
"I don't want to go to Zanarkarnd." Liya whispered.
Yuna frowned. "We're not going to Zanarkand." She turned and glanced over her shoulder at Tidus and he stopped for a moment when his eyes met with his wife's. Looking back to her daughter, Yuna tried to shake her confusion. She reached forward and lifted Liya up into her arms and stood up. She used her foot to pull the blitzball from the hover and kicked it onto the beach.
Liya set her head on her mother's shoulder and didn't say anything else as the three made their way to Besaid village.
Near the village gates, a voice called out. "Liya!" An excited redheaded boy jumped up and down outside one of the huts. "Mom they're here!" He was perhaps seven or eight now and looked startlingly much like his father, so much that Yuna had to pause a moment and look into the boys deep chocolate eyes in order to find a trace of his mother that set him apart.
A tall brunette woman emerged from the hut then. No longer was she clad in a dress of leather and belts, but rather a fitted top with sleeve that were slit from wrist to shoulder and the fabric draped at her sides. Her black skirt met her knees where her legs were taken over by a pair of brown leather boots.
She smiled at them as they approached and set her hand on the boy's head in an attempt to calm him. He looked up at his mother and frowned, but the look was quickly dismissed when their guests finally met up with them.
"Glad to see you weren't just trying to shush me." Lulu said with a smile.
"Lulu, I would never." Yuna replied. "Good morning Vidina." Yuna said as she turned her attention to the boy. She turned her head and looked Liya who stared at Vidina, then set the girl down on her feet.
Liya smiled and Vidina seized her hand. He gave a pull and the pair ran for the beach.
"It's nice when those two can share time together." Lulu said as they watched the children run.
"It's nice that they're so close in age." Yuna said with a faint laugh.
Lulu smiled and turned back to them, fixing her eyes on Tidus. "I think you're return just after Vidina's birth had something to do with such a close age." She grinned faintly at him and, though he tried to hide it, she could see the faint red bleed up into his cheeks.
"'Ey, 'bout time you got yourselves out here!" Came a voice. Wakka walked up from behind Lulu and gave his wife a soft look before turning his attention to Tidus and Yuna.
"You know, the hover travels in both directions." Tidus replied.
"I gotta team to coach." Wakka countered.
"So do I." The two men stared at each other in silence for a few moment until smiles broke each of their faces and the two grabbed hands and gave a quick hug.
"How you guys doing this season?" Wakka asked as the two walked into town.
"Well, I've got my eye on a new player." Tidus replied. "She's young…"
"He wants Liya to start playing Blitzball." Yuna said.
Lulu turned and the pair headed down to the beach after their children. "She has a lot of potential. And if he doesn't do something himself soon, Wakka will be all over her talent."
Yuna gave a laugh. "I know. I know."
They made their way, slowly, down to the shore and let their children their space as they kicked and dodged the blitzball. They spoke of many things they usually shared; how fast their child was growing, the upcoming blitz season, life as both wife and mother, their dreams for the future.
Overhead, a buzzing and rumbling sound drew their attention and they glanced up at the small airship the flew over them.
"I guess we'll be having more visitors today." Lulu said with a smile.
"I think I saw Rikku through one of the port windows."
"She said she wanted to try to get out here. Said she had something to tell us." Lulu rolled her eyes and smiled. "I wonder what it could be." Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
Within the quiet years that had followed the final peace brought to Spira, Rikku had had her ins and outs with a certain Machine Faction leader. Though Spira's government was slowly, but surely, forming a very strong circuit and New Yevon and the Youth League had all but faded into the background, the Machine Faction still held strong in Djose.
The Faction had kept all the Al Bhed together and they were making alarmingly fast progress in turning New Home into a strong power that commanded attention. Rikku had been appointed the position of Al Bhed Yspyccytun to Spira. She was the voice through which the Al Bhed nation spoke.
They watched as the airship pulled around back again and slowly lowered down towards the shallow waters. The pair slowly approached the edge of the shore and Yuna turned to eye Liya and Vidina who had paused in their game and had turned towards the approaching airship.
The hatch opened and the young blonde woman slid down into the water before the ship had a chance to settle. She no longer sported the messy ponytail, dreads, and braids she once wore, rather now her golden locks were all tightly bound in braided sections pulled up into one tie at the back of her head. She'd also shed most of her skimpy outfit and now chose a longer skirt that hung just below the knee, however a slit in the left side ran up high on her thigh. The top had gone from barely there at all to a sleeveless top that held most of her midsection captive, and around her neck still was the long Al Bhed scarf.
Her bright smile greeted them and she ran through the shallow waters to stand before them. She doubled over slightly, trying to catch her breath as she tried to speak. "Thought…you would both…be here…" She set her hand on Yuna's shoulder for support. "See? I told him…you would be."
"Rikku." Came Brother's voice from the ship.
"What do you want now?" She demanded as she turned back to face the ship.
Brother came into view and he threw a blonde man from his ship. "Take your boyfriend with you. He's not staying on my ship."
"Knuf ib. Oui'na cilr yh ycc." Rikku shouted back as the blonde man stood up in the shallow water. Brother brushed her words off and closed the hatch door. The airship remained stationary and powered down slowly.
"Rikku!" Yuna shrieked and Liya giggled.
Rikku glanced over at the girl and frowned slightly. "Sorry." She said as she turned back to Yuna. They stood in silence for a few fleeting moments before Rikku threw her arms around Yuna neck, surprising the older woman slightly before she smiled and hugged her cousin back in response.
"Oh my gosh!" Rikku shrieked excitedly when the pair parted and the Al Bhed man approached from behind her. "I so have something to tell you. Well…two things, but the latter isn't as important as the first."
"Well, what is it?" Lulu asked.
"You're so not going to believe it. I didn't even actually believe it. I mean seriously, I'm not exactly the type that…"
"Rikku!" Yuna and Lulu shouted in unison.
Rikku stopped abruptly and looked the pair both in the eyes for a few moments before she regained herself. A giant grin took her face over and she held her left hand out to them. There on the third finger was a thin band of soft white metal and a beautiful glittering gem.
Yuna gasped. Lulu stood speechless.
"You're gonna bind yourself to that loud-mouthed twig!?" Came a voice from the trail above the beach.
"Wakka!" Rikku shouted with a frown.
"I'm kinda second guessing my decision." Gippal replied playfully and brushed his blonde hair from his face.