Hello! Sorry again that it's been taking me so long to update! (There was once a time when I was able to update every two days!) Things just go from busy to busier around here...Sigh...Oh well, here is chapter 13 of part two—already? Wow...Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and again, I want to thank all of you who have reviewed, or even those of you who have read my story. I hope I don't ever disappoint you! Anyway, enjoy!
Chapter 13: The Sun and the Moon
Tidus and Wakka went straight to practice once breakfast was over. Tidus had slipped past Yuna, unnoticeably to Wakka and Lulu, whispering, "We'll talk later" in her ear. Then, he left, and Yuna hadn't seen him since.
"So Yuna," Lulu was saying as Yuna dried the dishes from earlier that morning, "Why don't you tell me some things about Tidus. It's obvious that you two are dating, or something."
"Um...More like were dating," Yuna said, and realized that it was the first time she'd ever lied to Lulu in her life.
"Oh?" Lulu just said, and Yuna doubted that she believed her.
"Yeah. We're just friends now," Yuna said surely, "It's kind of complicated, but we realized we didn't really...love each other. We were together more for the popularity of it."
"I see," Lulu said, and Yuna wondered if she really did see. As far as Yuna could tell, Lulu could see right through Yuna's lies. The question was, could she see through Tidus', also?
After taking care of the dishes, Lulu left to the temple, where she used her black mage skills to do this and that. Yuna, therefore, was left alone.
At the moment, Yuna had been staying in Wakka and Lulu's little hut, which was four rooms, but actually, Yuna's father owned a vacation home on top of one of Besaid's cliffs. That was where Yuna and her father typically stayed, but when by herself, Yuna preferred to stay with Wakka and Lulu. However, Yuna couldn't help but smile as she remembered that her vacation house overlooked the beach, which was where Wakka and Tidus, as well as the rest of the Aurochs, were. So, scrawling out a quick not to Lulu that she would be at her vacation house, she strolled on outside quickly, not wanting to be stopped by any of the villagers. It always tired her when someone thought they had to protect her from fiends and such, and thought they had to escort her to her vacation home. She was independent...She could go herself.
Glad that she hadn't ran into anybody, Yuna walked dreamily down the path to her vacation home, wondering when the Aurochs would finish, and what it was Tidus wanted to talk about with her later.
"Maybe he'll express his love for me and kiss me under the moonlight," Yuna thought dreamily, as she passed numerous waterfalls, "Nah...Knowing Tidus, he wants to talk about whatever Nooj said at the last meeting, or something stupid like that..." Yuna sighed, knowing that it was true, Tidus wasn't the most affectionate guy in the world. Still, her thoughts drifted back to those few days in Luca, before she'd met Nooj and Leblanc, to when Tidus had acted at least somewhat affectionate. However, Yuna wondered if all of that had just been a ploy...Really, Yuna suddenly realized that Tidus had been much more affectionate when he was pretending to like her...
By now Yuna had reached her vacation home, but didn't bother going inside. She went straight around back to the deck that went out through the forest, and that gave a tremendous view of the beach. Sighing, she took a seat and stared at the practicing Aurochs, noting that Tidus seemed to be fitting in just fine.
He was balancing a blitzball on his head, and all of the others, except for Wakka, were trying to copy his movements. Yuna couldn't help but laugh as the Aurochs tried without much luck to balance the ball on their heads. To her amazement, one of the Aurochs dropped their ball off of their head, and Tidus went over to that ball, still balancing his on his head, and kicked the fallen ball in the air, and then caught it on top of the ball that was still balanced on his head. Therefore, he had a ball balancing on his head, and a second balancing on that ball.
Wakka gave a hoot and clapped, and all of the other Aurochs all turned to look at Tidus so sharply that all of their balls fell off of their heads.
Wakka was then talking excitedly about something or other with Tidus, who was just smiling, still with those two balls on his head.
"It's almost sad..." Yuna thought, "Wakka really seems to like Tidus...But Tidus is only lying to him..."
Letting another sigh escape, Yuna cupped her head in her hands and stared aimlessly at the practicing Blitzball team, finding her thoughts drift elsewhere.
"Please be done soon," Yuna's thoughts then turned to impatient ones, and then, in the warm weather, in the hot sun, she felt herself drift into a slumber.
"Yuna? Yuna?" Yuna's eyes slowly opened, and at first things were blurry, but then she saw Tidus' face looking at her curiously.
"Huh?" Yuna said, suddenly snapping back to life, realizing that it was obviously quite late in the afternoon, "What...Did I fall asleep?"
"Looks that way to me," Tidus said, a small little smile across his lips, "How long have you been here? 'Looks like you've got a sunburn to me!"
"What?" Yuna said, looking at her reddened skin quickly, realizing that she had basically been baking in the sun for probably a good three hours.
"You that tired?" Tidus said, taking a seat next to her, "What were you doing here, anyway?"
"Watching you," Yuna said, finally beginning to feel awake from her nap, "How did you find me here?"
"Wakka said you were probably here," Tidus said, shrugging, "So I just came, and I found you sleeping."
Yuna realized that Tidus' hair was still damp, but only slightly, obviously signaling that he had only just finished Blitz practice.
"Lulu let you come here all by yourself?" Yuna said, wondering if Lulu really hadn't seen through Tidus and her lies.
"Lulu doesn't know I'm here," Tidus said, "Wakka seems to think we make a cute couple or something, he was all like, "Go get 'er!"'
Yuna blushed, figuring that would be like Wakka. He would probably think, "Well, this guy's good at Blitz, so I guess he's an okay guy."' As much as she loved Wakka, Yuna knew Wakka didn't know much outside of Besaid, Yevon, and Blitzball.
"Turns out, Wakka actually knew me from some camp," Tidus said, "Not that I remembered him...But I pretended I did."
"Really?" Yuna said, "But...I don't really like you playing around with Wakka...He's my friend..."
"I know that," Tidus said quickly, "I...I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything. Honestly, I really am here to..."
"Here to what?" Yuna asked, noticing Tidus seemed a little slow to explain just why he was in Besaid, "And please give me an honest answer."
"I guess I don't have to worry about my reputation around you, huh?" Tidus just said, puzzling Yuna, "Anybody else would think I was a major softy..."
"What do you mean?" Yuna just said, noticing that Tidus had paused yet again.
"I came here to be with you," Tidus said quickly, and instantly looked away from Yuna.
"My Yevon...Is he embarrassed?" Yuna thought, giggling to herself, "It's so cute how he blushes and looks away from me...But why is it such a big deal?"
"Well, uh, that was nice of you," Yuna said, being that she was quite unsure of what else to say.
"Yeah," Tidus just said quickly, and suddenly seemed to be studying an imaginary object in the forest behind the house.
Yuna reminded herself of how much she hated these awkward silences, and pretended to be interested in looking at her clasped hands. "How in the world is our relationship ever going to change if neither of us can even start a conversation!" Yuna thought to herself, before taking a deep breath, deciding it was obviously going to have to be her to make the first move.
The sun was just above the water, casting a beautiful golden haze on the water, which reflected onto Yuna's deck. It caused Tidus' hair to look more golden than normal, and his tanned face seemed to shine in the sun. Yuna couldn't help but smile, wondering how baked and red her face looked.
"The sunset is so pretty," Yuna said suddenly out of the blue. "Great job Yuna," she said sarcastically to herself, "You could have kissed him, or something, but no...You have to talk about the sun...Something you can't even see with your naked eye..."
"It is," Tidus said, turning around in his seat and staring at the water, "Which do you prefer, night or day?"
"What a strange question..." Yuna thought, but smiled, and said, "You know, I'm not sure...What about you?"
"Both," Tidus said then, "I love the sun. It's so full of energy and bright...It always reminds me of just hangin' out, being myself...But then I love night too. The moon is so mysterious and always changing...And the stars come out. I feel like I could stare at the sky forever..."
"Oh! That's so sweet!" Yuna's mind couldn't help but scream, "For such a rebellious and wild guy, he really does have an amazingly sweet side!"
"I have to agree with you," Yuna said, following Tidus' gaze as she too, stared at the water, "I couldn't choose between day and night." She took a deep breath then, and knew she had to get this conversation going, or else it would not lead to anything.
"Tidus," she started, "You're such a sweet guy, you really are. Why do you always act like a tough guy? Swearing and showing off your blitz...Acting like a jerk...Defacing Yevon..." Yuna trailed, not really knowing what else to say. Taking a quick breath, she quickly added, "Blushing every time you show some affection..."
"What?" Tidus seemed to jump up at her last comment, "What do you mean, "Blushing every time I show some affection?"'
"You do!" Yuna said, "Every time you say something sweet to me, you always blush and stop talking, or...I don't know...Leave awkward silences. Why?"
Tidus looked thoughtful for a while, and then said, "'Cause you see...I...I don't know, I guess. I've never really known affection. And...I guess I always thought pushovers were the types to fall in love. But then I realized that I...I mean—." Tidus quickly blushed again, turning away from Yuna, causing Yuna to giggle softly.
"See what I mean?" she said, shaking her head at Tidus, "Every time you mention anything that has to do with the word 'love', you completely blush and look away. Why?"
"I don't know," Tidus just said with a quick shrug, "It's just a habit..."
"Your other girlfriend, Lenne, or whatever her name was, did you act this way toward her or..." Yuna suddenly stopped, wondering if she should have brought up Lenne. After all, what if Tidus really didn't like Yuna the way she liked him? What if he was still in love with this Lenne? Even if she was gone...
"Yeah, I did," Tidus said, which amazed Yuna, for she had silently decided that Tidus was going to get mad at her for bringing Lenne into the picture, "But Lenne was different..."
"How so?" Yuna asked, trying not to feel jealous.
"Lenne was...Kind of like you, but not as sweet, I guess..." Tidus looked nervous, as if afraid he'd be unable to come up with the right words for what he was trying to say, "I mean...Lenne was...More...I don't know...Daring. She made me tell her I loved her, made me show affection. You just kind of...Sit there and listen to me ramble, like right now. You don't say anything, really, don't do anything. Just sit there and listen..."
"Is that a bad thing?" Yuna said, although she didn't quite understand what Tidus had just rambled about.
"No, not at all," Tidus said, in almost a whisper, "It's just...I guess I'm not used to the silent type. I'm used to the girls who crawl all over me...Who I know I can manipulate. I mean, don't get me wrong–Lenne wasn't like that at all–but she was the type that forced me to be affectionate, you know? We couldn't just...talk... 'Sides, she was always...I don't know...gone. I didn't see her a whole lot. She was older than me, too."
"Really?" Yuna said.
"Yeah. Only like two years or so," Tidus said with a shrug, "But I wasn't always like this, not in the days that I dated Lenne. I didn't get this way 'till after she died..."
"I see," Yuna said, feeling another awkward silence coming on, "So are you saying I'm not easy to manipulate?"
"Not at all," Tidus said, almost exasperated, "And believe me, I tried back in like the early days...I tried really hard. The only thing that ever surprised me about you was that night that we first met...When we kissed...I wasn't exactly expecting that..."
"Me neither, believe me," Yuna said, a small smile forming on her lips as she remembered that evening. It seemed as if it had been eons upon eons ago...
"It really surprised me, that kiss," Tidus' voice suddenly seemed really low, and Yuna felt his hand upon her shoulder. His eyes met hers, and she was extremely surprised to see a strange look of love...almost a lustful look, a caring look in his normally vacant blue eyes.
Without warning, he closed those lustful eyes and she closed hers, until their lips met. It was only about their fourth or fifth kiss, but was also definitely one of the more passionate ones. It seemed as if the two would never break, nor would they ever have to.
"I see you've gotten back together," a voice said, causing Tidus and Yuna to immediately separate, to see Lulu standing there, shaking her head, although she did have what looked like a strange sort of smile spread across her lips. It looked as if she was trying to act like she should and break them up, but at the same time, it appeared as if she was almost happy to see the two kissing.
"Uh...Yeah," Yuna said, blushing a deep crimson, and she hoped her sunburn would hide it.
"Uh...Yeah," Tidus also said, giving a strange, quirky-kind-of "oops" smile, "Well, uh...I have some Blitz plans I gotta make, so...Goodnight Yuna, Lulu...I'll uh...See you in the morning!" At that, Tidus ran off, leaving Lulu and Yuna alone.
Yuna kind of looked away from Lulu, not really knowing what to say, but Lulu just shook her head and said, "Where are you sleeping tonight, Yuna? Here or in the village?"
"Where's Tidus sleeping?" Yuna found herself asking, out of curiosity, of course, but Yuna immediately realized that probably hadn't been the best thing to ask.
Lulu just shook her head, and said, "With the Aurochs. I take it you'll be staying here, then?"
"Sure," Yuna just said, "I'll just...Go straight to bed! Goodnight Lulu!"
"Goodnight Yuna," Lulu said, and, with one more shake of her head, started off.
"Goodnight," Yuna just said, watching Lulu depart, with a little smile spread across her lips. Yuna then slowly went into her vacation house, and went straight to bed, just as she said she would.