I'm terribly sorry it's been taking me so long to update lately, and that my updates haven't been long, but I just haven't felt like writing at all! Honestly, I think this chapter's the shortest one yet...oh well, my same excuse: it's something, right? Suddenly I'm not as attached to this story as I was when I first started writing it...I think it's lack of inspiration, so just think of this chapter as a filler, I guess. I've got some pretty big plans for the next chapter anyway, being that it's going to be taking place in Luca! Still, it's not fair to all of you that I make you wait so long...and for that, I am dreadfully sorry! Just the same, here's chapter 15! Enjoy!
Chapter 15: Just Another Night
The lights seemed to hurt her eyes as she walked back into the club quickly, her mis-matched eyes searching here and there for the blonde blitzball player.
Finally they stopped, as they saw him, sitting down, twirling a piece of gil on the bar counter, staring at it as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.
Taking a deep breath, Yuna approached him, and sat down, only to see his blue eyes give her a startled glance, and then look back down. She was about to say something, but he beat her to it.
"Look, I'm sorry!" he said really quickly, "I wouldn't really cheated on you, and it's the honest truth! I swear! I've barely looked at another girl since I saw you! Honestly! I...I was only saying the things I said to...to save my...reputation...I guess..."
Yuna closed her eyes, and then re-opened them.
"Let's just forget about it," she said, "But you have to promise me that as of now, no more seeing girls to get on a team. I don't care if it's the Zanarkand Babes, or whatever it was."
Tidus laughed. "It's the Abes," he said, "And yes, I promise!"
"Good," Yuna said, pulling out the slender bracelet, "And this, is gorgeous!"
"You like?" Tidus said, taking it from Yuna and slipping it on her wrist, "I thought it would bring out the blue in your eyes, know what I mean? Blitz was on my mind, and I saw this and thought of the sphere pool, but then thought of your eyes. Someday, I'll get you an emerald one."
"Thank you," Yuna just said softly, "But I don't need gifts..."
"Hey, I've got so much gil, I don't know what to do with it all!" Tidus said, "So, what made you come back?"
"I don't know," Yuna said, and honestly she didn't. She wasn't about to tell him, though, that she had actually intended to throw the gorgeous bracelet out the window.
Suddenly, her eyes seemed to grow immensely heavy, and she realized how tired she honestly was.
Tidus seemed to notice, for he said, "Should I take you home?"
Yuna wanted to nod, and say, 'yes', but the thought of her angry father bothered her. She leaned her head in her hands, and found herself grow thoughtful. She found it extremely odd that her father had let her date Gippal, although he was Al Bhed, but yet had this strong hatred toward Tidus. Why? What was possibly wrong with him? He hadn't even tried to get her to sleep with him, or make out with him like Gippal had. Although Yuna felt her mind wander as she wondered if she would actually even mind if Tidus wanted her to sleep with him...
She must have been even more tired than she had thought, because suddenly she felt her head slip from her hands, as she fell into a strange sort of slumber.
"Yuna!" she heard Tidus say, which immediately awoke her.
"Sorry," she just said, "I guess I'm more tired than I even thought."
"It is late," Tidus said, "Come on, if you want, I'll go stand up for you against your old man."
"No, that's okay," Yuna said, trying to make it seem like she was awake, although she obviously wasn't, "I'm not ready to go home yet!"
Tidus obviously didn't buy it, and he said, "Come on now Yuna! You've got to go home sooner or later!"
"No I don't!" Yuna said stubbornly, as she felt herself frown upon the thought of returning home.
"Yeah you do," Tidus said, and Yuna frowned deeper. Of course she did! But as if she wanted to!
"I don't ever want to go," she just said, burying her head in her arms. She was so tired she couldn't even think straight any longer!
"You have to go," Tidus just said softly, "But I suppose not yet..."
Yuna smiled. Finally she was getting to him. Yet, she was still so tired.
"I guess you could stay the night at my place!" Tidus said then, and Yuna looked up at him. She'd never expected that out of him. He smiled, as if he'd just said some sort of joke, but Yuna could see a sort of hopeful spark in his blue eyes.
"But what about your father?" Yuna asked.
"He's away," Tidus said softly, "Don't get any wrong ideas or anything! It's just...I get kind of lonely in that big house all by myself, know what I mean?"
"Yeah, I do," Yuna said, "But I have nothing with me!"
"No big," Tidus said, "Just sleep in what you've got on."
"Okay," Yuna said, "Let's go right now before I fall asleep again!"
"Alright," Tidus said, and took her hand, and led her out the door. He often did that, took her hand almost clumsily, as if embarrassed by it, but at the same time wanted it, and then would pull her around, not uttering a word. Yuna minded it not though, and just smiled as he led her through the basically deserted streets of downtown Bevelle toward where he had parked his car.
As they climbed into his car, Yuna smiled a rather cheeky smile and turned toward Tidus, and said, "Wanna know something?"
"What?" Tidus asked, not taking his eyes off the dimly lit streets ahead of him.
Yuna leaned back in her chair looking satisfied with herself and said, "My father's going out of town tomorrow for a week. That's why I don't want to go home until tomorrow. Then, I won't have to face him until he's had time to cool down some."
"Is he always like that, so controlling?" Tidus asked.
"Honestly, he's rarely home, you see, he's always away at a meeting here, or a meeting there, or a campaign here, or a campaign there. In the meantime, however, he expects me to be perfect at everything. He's afraid to death that I'll fail. Not because he doesn't want me to fail, but because he thinks it will make him look bad. I don't know what his problem with you is, though."
At this moment, Tidus pulled into his long driveway, yawning as he did so. However, he ended his yawn and suddenly looked angry.
"My damn old man's here!" he said, scrunching up his nose, "He's not supposed to be here!"
"That's alright," Yuna said, putting on a smile. She didn't know if Tidus was afraid of his father, or what the deal was. Still, from what she'd seen and heard, Tidus' dad was just some man who liked his drink better than his son.
"How is it alright?" Tidus just moaned as Yuna stood out of the car.
"We'll just ignore him," Yuna said with a shrug simply, "Your room is upstairs, right? Well, where's his room?"
"Downstairs..."
"So, upstairs will be a safe haven, right?"
"I guess," Tidus said, "Just stay behind me, and if my old man asks you any questions, just make some stupid answer and don't stop to chat, got it?"
"Sure," Yuna said, and followed Tidus up to the front steps, where Tidus unlocked the door and entered.
Yuna followed Tidus into the living room where the stairs were, and sure enough, there sat Tidus' father, all bunched up on the couch, staring at the screen, which was playing a Blitzball game, and drinking something or other.
"Come on," Tidus said softly to Yuna, and walked toward the stairs.
"That you boy?" Jecht's voice was heard.
"No," Tidus said sarcastically, not stopping. Jecht turned and faced him, however, and just laughed.
"Yeah it is," Jecht said, obviously not quite getting Tidus' sarcasm, "Who is that you have with you?"
"A friend," Tidus said, as he reached the stairs, with Yuna right on his heels.
"Oh yeah? What's your name?" Jecht asked Yuna.
"Uh, Yuna, Sir," Yuna said, stopping, which caused Tidus to grab her hand and pull her along.
"Look, dad," Tidus said, "We're busy right now, so leave us alone, okay?"
"Whatever, I can take a hint," Jecht just said, and winked at his son, before turning his attention back to his Blitzball game.
"Charming, isn't he?" Tidus asked, rolling his eyes as he led Yuna up the stairs. Yuna stifled a laugh, noticing that there was dirty laundry everywhere, a few Blitzballs lying around, and some frames out of there places from the walls.
"Not nearly as charming as your living quarters!" Yuna said, smiling, at Tidus' blush.
"The maids haven't been around lately," Tidus explained, picking up a Blitzball and twirling it on his finger, "And besides that, sometimes I get bored and kick the Blitzballs around!" As to prove his point, he dropped the ball and kicked it hard into the wall, and hit it again as it ricocheted off the wall. Then, he kicked it extremely hard, hitting some trophies that were on a shelf.
"I see you like making messes," Yuna just said.
Tidus just shrugged, and said, "Those trophies are my old man's, anyway!"
Yuna smiled, but then remembered how tired she was. She yawned, and Tidus remembered too how tired she was, and, regaining his strange sense of being such a gentleman, said, "But, enough of that. Come on, let's get you to bed! I'd have you sleep in the guestroom, but it's downstairs, right next to my old man's room, so you can sleep in my room, and I'll sleep on the floor."
"I can sleep on the floor," Yuna put in right away.
"You won't want to once you see the floor," Tidus said with a cheeky smile, as he led the way to a room right at the end, and opened the door.
Sure enough, right away Yuna felt quite certain that she didn't want to sleep on the floor, for there was junk everywhere, as well as empty pop bottles and food containers.
"Nice," Yuna said, and smiled, although her smile was real. Really, although messy, Tidus' room had a rather charming impression. It wasn't at all the largest room, and Yuna was sure to note that really, Tidus' house wasn't that large at all. A large weight room, as well as three additional exercise rooms made up most of the house. Then, on the south side, was a huge indoor pool. Other than that, there was a huge garage for Tidus' many cars, and then three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, and a kitchen, and the rooms weren't at all overly large.
Tidus' bed was in the center of the room, and a sphere screen was across from it, with numerous shelves that were loaded with trophies. Other than that, there wasn't much to Tidus' room.
Tidus just yawned, and said, "Uh, so, I'll see you in the morning."
Yuna smiled, as he pulled a blanket from the corner of the room and wrapped himself up in it, after carelessly tossing his shirt aside.
Kicking off her shoes, Yuna crawled into Tidus' bed, as Tidus' clicked the light off.
"Goodnight Yuna," he said, with yet another yawn.
"Goodnight Tidus," Yuna said softly, although suddenly she didn't feel nearly as tired as she had been earlier. Something came to her mind suddenly, so she said, "Hey Tidus?"
"Yeah?" came his sleepy voice from the floor.
"Am I still invited to Luca next week?"
"Yeah," Tidus said, his voice rather emotionless.
"Um, I was doing some thinking, and I'd really like to go."
"Oh? That's great!" Tidus said, sounding suddenly a little more awake.
"Yeah," Yuna said softly, "I'm really looking forward to it."
"That's good, 'cause it's going to be awesome!" Tidus said, now sounding quite awake, "How are you going to do it? Like, are you just going to ditch school?"
"Yes, but I'm not going to get in trouble for it," Yuna said, "The officials at my school are so worried that I'm going to transfer to a private school that they'll do anything I tell them to do. I'll just say I'm going with my father out of town next week, and they won't think anything of it! As for my father, he'll be too busy to even notice my disappearance!"
Even though she couldn't see him, Yuna could tell Tidus was smiling. Silence passed between them, and suddenly Yuna's eyelids began to grow heavy again.
"Goodnight Yuna," Tidus' voice said again, and again sleepily.
"Goodnight Tidus," Yuna said, and with a smile, fell asleep.