"Mom?"
Yuna's voice is clear and sharp in the silence of the room. Slowly, she pulls the dead roses from their vase on the bedside table and replaced them with a new bouquet. This week is pink. It's a different color every visit.
Yuna wonders if maybe seeing such beautiful colors, such a pure testament to how wonderful the world can be, will bring her mother back to her.
Then maybe they can be real family again. She and Ruma can catch up on everything that's happened. Yuna will find her mother a new boyfriend, and they can all be a family together again. Finally, everything will be perfect.
She pours a little more water into the vase.
;;; (page break STFU)
"Pops, please! Just for this year!"
"Rikku! That's enough. How many times do I have to tell you? We can't afford to send you to Omega! Not this year."
"But Pops! It's Yunie's last year! And what if she gets selected for the Pilgrimage? You said yourself that they're probably going to pick her, since they missed the chance with Uncle Braska!"
Cid sighs. "Look, Rikku… I really do wish I could send you to that school. But we need you here! You're a great help. And you're a great cook!" He smiles at his daughter and, trying to lighten the mood, slings an arm over her shoulders and jokes, "Besides, sweetie, you know a woman's place is in the kitchen. Leave all that boring learning stuff to the men."
The effect is just the opposite of what Cid was hoping for. Rikku's face slowly turns pink, then red, then slightly purple, and, with all the breath in her lungs, she screams, "Pig! Sexist! Yevonite!"
Before her father can reprimand her for insulting him, and knowing how offended he'd get by the last remark in particular, the blonde Al Bhed stomps up the stairs and into her room.
"If I ever see your ugly mug again, you'll get… well… you'll… you'll regret it!"
Tidus glares angrily at the slamming door. He can feel the warm, slow drip of blood down his eyelid from the soon-to-be scar above his eyebrow. Dammit. At least Jecht had been so drunk that he'd missed his eye or nose or something more breakable when he threw the lamp at his son.
Now what? Tidus's thoughts race from one friend to another. Pellan went to Bikanel with his parents for two weeks, Tekka got kicked out of her house also and is staying with her boyfriend, Morri and Kipal are in Djose for their grandmother's funeral, and Shuyin is already staying with Lenne until his parents calmed down over his last school report. Who was left?
The only one who had been there for him when there was no one else.
Tidus turns his back on his father and his old life, and slowly walks from the only place he'd ever called home.
She sits in her room alone. Her windows are covered in thick black sheets. The walls are black. The bed is black. Lulu is lost in a void of swirling black, because she hopes that maybe the cheerless walls will consume her emotions instead of light, and take them all away until she feels nothing.
It's worked so far.
She holds out her hand, palm facing skyward. A small tongue of fire appears and dances, hungrily devouring the oxygen in its newfound home of darkness. The orange glow bounces off the girl's pale face, the only color in her void. Her crimson eyes reflect the flame before them, trying to absorb its light into her very soul.
She sighs and turns to the clock. Four thirty-three AM. She should have known. Melodrama always takes control at this time of night. Coherent thought, Lulu recognizes, is impossible at this hour.
She forces the fire spell she holds to extinguish itself and falls backward onto the all-black comforter. Blanket, she realizes she should say, as she receives no comfort from the world she has fashioned for herself.
They call her a freak, and maybe she is. They call her insane, and she doesn't doubt it. But when they call her worthless, that's when she draws the line. Someday she will be worth more than any of these village idiots, these slaves of fashion, combined. And then, when it came to be her day to shine, her world of darkness will be shattered, and the light of truth will finally shine kindly on her and her loved ones.
With this thought to calm her, with this future as her bedtime story and this internal monologue as her lullaby, Lulu drifts into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Wakka stretches out in the midday sun. He's just woken up from a nap in the hammock in his backyard, and for the moment, he's weightless, suspended in time. His world is full of the ocean scent, the laughter of children playing on the beach nearby, and cool drinks with little umbrellas poking out of them.
A breeze picks up, running cool, soothing fingers over his bare arms and chest. His eyes still closed, he loses himself in the sensation. It's one of his last days until he goes back to Omega School of Pilgrimage, and he wants to enjoy it to the best of his abilities.
A blitzball rests on his stomach, a testament to the activity he was about to engage in before getting distracted by the hammock. He decides that relaxation is far more important than practicing for this season's try-outs. He was almost guaranteed a slot on the team, anyway: he'd been an Auroch ever since he was able, and he'd been blitzing his entire life.
Life was easy. Life was good. He takes another sip out of his lemonade and closes his eyes, ready to continue his nap.