Chapter 5: The Dream

Yuna awoke suddenly, after an awful dream, to find that there was an empty space next to her.

'Where is Tidus?' she thought, then smiled cheekily. 'I thought he would've been tired after last night.'

Yuna stretched her arms, reaching the bed head and then realised something.

'This isn't our room.'

She shot up out of bed, as quickly as she could muster, and looked around the somewhat empty room. Yuna then glanced down at herself. She wore her usual gunner outfit; except something was amiss…she just couldn't work out what.

"What is going on here?" she asked herself aloud.

As she glanced around the room, things started to fall away; she watched as the bed fell through the floor, as if it was melting in vast amounts of lava. Yunie panicked and ran out of the room. Every time she ran past a door, she glanced through it to find that the rooms were melting away as well. She looked down to the end of the hall to see a small pedestal with something sitting in the middle of it. Yuna quickened her pace, and as she got closer to the pedestal, she realised straight away what it was.

"The artefact," Yunie stated simply.

"Yeah…it is…huh?" said a voice from behind her.

Yunie suddenly turned to find Tidus standing, almost mesmerised by the sight.

"Tidus?" asked Yuna, frowning with confusion.

She moved closer to him, smiling; glad that she wasn't alone.

Tidus just stood there; watching the artefact. Yuna gazed at his ocean blue eyes, which burned with want…but for the first time in her life…it wasn't for her.

Yuna turned to look at the artefact once more, to see what was so interesting about it; but when she turned back to look at her one true love…he was gone.

A tear ran down her cheek as she remembered that night when he had faded; just after she had Sent Sin to the far plane.

"Artemis please," yelled a voice, which snapped Yuna back into reality.

Yuna wiped the tear from her face and looked to the source of this outburst. It was Yuffie, who was talking to herself, it would seem.

"Yuna…" said Yuffie suddenly.

"What's going on?" asked Yuna, running up to where Yuffie was standing.

But Yuffie's eyes saddened. She slowly lifted her head to face Yuna.

"He doesn't love me," she said, though her lips trembled.

"Yuffie…what's going on?" asked Yuna again…though…she wanted to explore that comment further…there were more important things to work out right now.

"It doesn't matter…" started Yuffie, when suddenly an invisible force pushed both of them backwards.

When Yuna recovered from the 'push', she sat up slowly to find the artefact floating in the air. Yuna was about to say something when a voice came from behind her.

"How incongruous...that something of this calibre would happen to her. I should have told her."

"Huh?" asked Yuna, turning around to find Artemis looking at her with sadness.

But Artemis was looking straight through her. Yuna looked behind herself, to find Yuffie holding the artefact. Her eyes looked possessed; suddenly Yuna felt herself drowning, until she blacked out.

Yuna yelled herself awake to find Tidus sleeping next to her. He began to stir after hearing her scream, though.

"…err…what's wrong?" he asked, after realising that Yuna was covered in cold sweat.

"…it was just a nightmare I suppose," said Yuna slowly.

Tidus looked at the bedside clock; it was 6:00AM. He then looked back to Yuna and reached out to hold her closely. Yuna obliged. After a few minutes, Tidus realised Yuna was shaking.

"Yuna?"

"Yes?"

"You're shaking."

"Am I?" asked Yuna softly, as if she was in her own world.

"What did you…erm…dream about?" asked Tidus wearily.

Yuna cringed at the world 'dream'. Ever since Tidus had faded away and it had become clear to her that he was simply a dream of the Fayth, she had hated the word…she even hated her own dreams. Now that Tidus was back, though, it didn't bother her so much.

'But last nights dream…nightmare…was so…real!' she thought.

Suddenly Tidus jumped out of bed, grabbed Yuna's gun holsters and put them on. Apart from the fact that they were feminine and he looked like a complete goof…they looked okay.

"Hey Yuna!" yelled Tidus.

Yuna looked to where Tidus was jumping around in her gun holsters, making a complete fool of himself and laughed. Tidus began running around the room, making weird noises, which amused Yuna even more.

Meanwhile, in Artemis's room, Yuffie laid upon Artemis's seemingly, toned, bare chest, sleeping quietly.

Artemis himself had been awake for awhile, thinking about a lot of things, as he always did after a 'good night'; a night of physical activity, as he could do nothing else, due to his usual inactiveness. He was lying on his back, with one arm around the small of Yuffie's back and one arm behind his head; smiling confidently. Occasionally he would look down at the mass of black hair that was surrounding his upper abdomen and would smile even more. He began to stroke the black hair and as a result of this, caused a small moan to immerse from Yuffie, who began to wake up. She looked up at him and crawled closer to his face, but drowsily, so she could kiss him.

"So…" said Artemis, smiling slyly, who simply awaited her kiss.

"So what?" asked Yuffie, who was now on top of him.

She leant down and kissed him on the cheek.

"Well…" began Artemis, who was thinking impure thoughts, and was about to act upon them, but stopped when he heard a crashing noise further down the hall.

Yuffie looked up at the door and frowned. She felt Artemis tense up and knew why.

'Great…he'll be back to his cold mood again and blame me for Tidus's behaviour,' thought Yuffie. So instead of looking back at Artemis, she simply got up, found her different articles of clothing (which were scattered amongst Artemis's clothing, all around the floor), got dressed and began to walk out.

"I'll have a look…okay?" said Yuffie, softly, as she walked out.

She never wanted displease Artemis.

So instead, he was left there, slightly confused by Yuffie's weird behaviour, but continued to think.

'I must continue with my work, in regards to the Diablo' he thought, and sighed.

"If Tidus doesn't disturb me that is," said Artemis, rolling his eyes at Tidus's actions yesterday.

He was about to say something else, when he heard voices outside his door. Artemis concluded that Yuffie had gone to see what the noise was, found out it was Tidus, yet again, began to talk to Yuna, and whilst having a conversation and walking at the same time, decided to stop outside Artemis's door. He also concluded that they didn't realise they were outside his door; Artemis smiled evilly at this.

'To my advantage, of course,' he thought, as he got out of bed quickly, rummaged around on the floor for his underwear, put them on and walked close to the door to listen.

"…what do you mean you 'guess we've made up'?" asked Yuffie, completely stopping outside the door.

"Well…we heard you two last night," stated Yuna, cheekily.

"…oh…" said Yuffie, quietly; becoming slightly embarrassed.

Artemis raised his eyebrows at Yuffie's reaction. 'I knew it…' thought Artemis.

"So…how was your night?" asked Yuffie, hoping to change the subject.

Artemis felt relieved at this; he did not like it when Yuffie talked about their 'relationship' to Yuna, in fact, he felt that it demeaned his reputation when she did anything remotely like that.

"Well…I had a really weird dream," said Yuna, hesitantly.

Artemis could hear the trembling in her voice.

"Please tell…well…unless its one of 'those' dreams," said Yuffie; just as cheeky as Yuna sounded moments ago.

"No…its not one of 'those' dreams…but…it involved you…and Artemis," said Yuna, whispering now.

Artemis could still hear her though, but only just. He moved closer to the door, resting his ear upon the expensive, but old oak wooden door.

"Well, I thought I woke up…but I must have still been asleep because the whole room began to melt away and I realised it wasn't even our room. And Tidus wasn't there. Then I remember leaving the room and I had a look around. At the end of the hall was a pedestal I guess and I could see something in the centre of it. So I got closer and I saw…" Yuna said more quietly "…the Diablo…the artefact".

"Huh…what…" began Yuffie.

"Hang on…I'll get to it…" interrupted Yuna "…anyway, I said…in my dream, 'The artefact' and I heard a voice from behind me saying, 'yeah…it is…huh?' I turned around and saw Tidus and he looked, kinda, out of it."

"Too much excitement last night I guess?" stated Yuffie.

Yuna frowned and folded her arms playfully, "Hey, I'm trying to say something serious here."

"Oh yeah…sorry."

"As I was saying…he was watching it and I turned to look at it again. But then I felt…strange and when I turned back…he was gone. Then I heard you yelling out 'Artemis please.' I didn't know it was you at first but yeah…then you saw me and said 'Yuna.' And then when I asked you 'what's going on' you seemed sad. And then you said 'he doesn't love me'," explained Yuna further.

Yuffie looked to the ground sadly for a second, but tried not to show it.

'Artemis doesn't love me,' she thought.

Artemis, whom was still listening to their conversation, frowned slightly, as if he felt…guilty.

'Yuffie must realise I'm incapable of doing so…what is wrong with her?' thought Artemis. He sighed quietly.

'You love her,' a voice said, deep in Artemis's intelligent mind.

'No I don't,' said another. Artemis shook his head in frustration of the arguing voices in his mind.

'But she clearly loves you, you fool!' said the first voice.

'No she doesn't,' said the second voice.

'She couldn't,' Artemis thought, trying to ignore the voices. 'Could she?'

Artemis thought of all the times Yuffie had saved his life, and had almost died trying. The times she smiled at him, with pure happiness; he would always smile back and would, if only for a second, feel true happiness…a happiness that his illegitimate businesses and money could never offer.

'It's all in the job…she's paid to,' he thought. 'She knows this 'relationship' is just a convenience.'

'You know she loves you deep down…you just tried to forget about it,' said the first voice.

'Okay…I give up,' said the second voice.

Artemis shook his head. 'If she loves me…I will give her reason not to,' thought Artemis, cruelly.

'But you love her too,' said the first voice.

'I know,' he thought, and his heart weakened. He could never be cruel to her…Artemis could only try.

His mind went back to the conversation.

"…but you think that don't you?" enquired Yuna.

Yuffie looked to the floor as Yuna questioned her.

"…maybe," said Yuffie.

"I mean…the guy is cold…do you think he'd know how to love?" asked Yuna.

"…maybe," said Yuffie; unsure.

"I hope you're right Yuffie…I worry about you sometimes…but then I heard you two 'make up' last night…so I assumed everything as okay," said Yuna.

Yuffie frowned.

"What time is it?" asked Yuffie.

"6:50AM…oh…we better make breakfast…then Artemis will definitely be in a cold mood this morning." said Yuna, slightly worried.

"Yeah…you know what he said to me last night after you left the table?" asked Yuffie.

Yuna frowned slightly.

"What?"

"'That goes for you as well." said Yuffie, sadly.

"Oh…" said Yuna slightly disheartened.

Yuna shook her head and thought: 'Why must he be so cruel'.

"But oh well…I'm used to it," said Yuffie cheerfully, and began to walk down the hall.

'How can she still stay cheerful after that?' thought Yuna.

However, she shrugged the thought off and followed Yuffie down the hall.

A/N: Yes well…what do you all think? Oh and the "After" line that Artemis said in chapter 4 was referring to the fact that he would drink his water, "After" they slept together.

Yunie and Yuffie