Much obliged to all my reviewers! You guys rule. Sorry for the delay! I had another brief creative itch to scratch, plus a bunch of school crap. Again. I'm very quickly running out of excuses here. Hehehe . . . anyway, this chapter sucks. I suck too for my slowness. But I hope you enjoy it all the same! I'll cry if you are disappointed . . . it seems all I do lately is spit out crappy chapters. THIS IS NO WAY TO TREAT MY REVIEWERS! (sob) By the way, this chapter will have to be cut just a little bit short. Hope that won't be too devastating.
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TIDUS
I wake up at eleven o'clock the next morning. Lying on Rikku's bed, stretched out on my back, I yawn and look around in the darkness of the room. Sometime during the night one of Rikku's automatic nightlights went on to help provide some visibility after the candles burned out. My arm is pressed against something warm; I sit up slightly to glance down and find Yuna fast asleep with a tiny half smile on her lips. Curled up on one side, her knees are drawn up to her chest and her hands are resting near her face. Her brown hair pools around her head on the grey quilt, falling into little spirals.
'Beautiful,' I think to myself, fighting the urge to touch the side of her face. Once more I remember how close I came to kissing her last night. Yeah, as if my subconscious would actually allow me to forget that little encounter. Does she know what had almost happened between us? Does she have any idea? She must have some clue. I saw the look on her face when I leaned in towards her. No way was she completely oblivious to my intentions.
It takes me a second to notice that we are the only two people left on the bed. Probably for a joke, the rest of the gang decided not to wake us up and wait for us upstairs.
Bastards.
I need to remember to thank them later.
"Hey," I whisper, gently shaking her shoulder. She moans softly and rolls onto her back, unconsciously stretching. I can almost feel my pupils dilate at the sight she makes. Her tank top rides up as she arches her body, and I can clearly see the sleek firmness of her stomach. Her shorts are sinking low at the hips, and I realize they reveal much more of her long legs than I remembered. She sighs softly and relaxes, turning her head towards me slightly.
"Yuna, wake up," I say quietly, feeling my throat tighten. I don't want her to wake up. I don't want anything to interrupt. I don't want this to end, whatever it is.
She stiffens at the sound of my voice, and then her two-toned eyes flicker open, landing on me right away.
"Oh," she murmurs, propping herself up on her elbows and smiling sleepily up at me. "Good morning."
"Morning," I reply lightly, trying to get my breathing back under control. When the hell did breathing become a challenge?
She glances around for a second, also coming to the conclusion that we are the only ones left in the room. "I see the others decided to let us sleep in."
"Yeah, no kidding," I reply with a smirk, sliding off the enormous bed to find my pants. I had forgotten that I am still only dressed in boxers. Behind me, I hear her yawn and stand up from the bed to make her way upstairs.
As I busy myself hopping on one leg while shoving the other in my jeans, I hear her open the door at the other end of the room, but out the corner of my eye I see her hesitate.
She turns around and stares at me for a moment, compelling me to look back.
"I don't suppose I thanked you last night," she says slowly. "For sitting with me. It was very kind of you."
"No problem. What are friends for, right?" I ask with a shrug and a smile.
Her expression softens even more, to a sort of dream-like happy look.
"Right," she nods, still smiling. "I'll see you upstairs."
When I finish getting dressed I jog up to the kitchen, my stomach rumbling. I walk in to find everyone crowding around the stove, laughing loudly as Gippal stands stirring something questionable in a silver pot. Rikku is positioned next to him, an armful of spice containers held at the ready. Cid is sitting at the table, mug of coffee in one hand and the newspaper in the other. Brother is hunched over a bowl of cereal, his eyes fixed moodily on Yuna's shape. I catch his eye and glare warningly at him. Instantly he blanches and looks away, muttering Al Bhed curses under his breath. I swear that dude has issues.
"What's going on?" I ask, coming to stand beside Lulu. The mage rolls her eyes and smiles in Rikku and Gippal's direction.
"Those two are trying out their latest culinary experiment," she tells me, shaking her head. I cringe, as if I had just been smacked in the face.
"Please tell me you're joking," I beg, knowing full well how the 'culinary experiments' of my Al Bhed friends usually end up. "What are they making now?"
"I call it 'Mystery Goo'!" Gippal exclaims dramatically, flailing his wooden spoon around with a flourish. My eyes fall to the strange off-coloured ooze coating the spoon's tip, and I begin to wonder just how hungry I really am.
"Hey!" Rikku protests, slapping his shoulder. "I thought we agreed on 'Sudden Death'."
"Do I want to know what it is?" I inquire cautiously. Yuna turns to grin at me, looking thoroughly amused.
"I'm not sure you do," she tells me with a teasing wink. "I lost my appetite when they told me."
"That's it! I'm having poptarts," I say, throwing my hands up in defeat. Her expression brightens as Gippal and Rikku throw offended scowls in my direction.
"Oh, make me some too!" she pleads. "Auron never let me have any when I was younger. He said it was pure junk food that would eventually rot my brain."
I stop and stare at her for a second, once more amazed at yet another simple pleasure Yuna has missed out on in spite of the fact that she has always lived in the lap of luxury. Then I smile and nod.
"They sure do. You'll love them, trust me," I tell her confidently, moving towards the pantry. She follows eagerly to watch the delicately complex preparation of strawberry frosted poptarts.
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In the end, the culinary experiment is another failure. Not that any of us are surprised at first. Paine steps in and saves the day, opting to fill a few stomachs with her famous chocolate chip pancakes. Not a lot of people know this, but Paine is an extremely gifted chef, and more often than not she is the one responsible for supplying us with a decent meal.
Although Yuna and I already stuffed our faces with as many poptarts as we could handle (she discovered that they are the greatest edible inventions since bread), we give in and indulge ourselves by piling on a thick stack of pancakes onto our plates. Nobody can say no to Paine's cooking, not even the mighty Yuna.
"So, Yuna," Wakka says, stretching his arms over his head after finishing off his third serving of pancakes. "We hear you turned out to be Rikku's cousin, ya?"
Yuna smiles and ducks her head as Rikku throws an arm around her shoulders affectionately. "Yes, it's true," she says happily. "I only found out last night."
"Rikku told us this morning. Great news, girl," Gippal tells her with a brotherly nudge in the arm. "It's about time you got yourself a family that will treat you right."
Although Yuna is still smiling, I see a faint shadow clouding her eyes, and her expression seems to darken a little bit. I can tell that Gippal's comment, meant to be comforting, only reminded her of how she left things with her Dad.
"I just can't believe I never recognized Lord Braska in that picture with your mom!" Rikku says to her, shaking her head at herself. "I mean, I must have walked past it like a million times before."
"Don't worry about it," Yuna assures her, patting Rikku's hand gently. "I doubt any of us would expect you to carefully scrutinize every picture in your house, Rikku."
"Are you going to talk to your dad about all this?" I ask her, after hastily chugging down all my orange juice. "I mean, he should at least explain why he never told you."
She just shrugs. "I guess so. I would like some answers, but I don't know if I'm ready to face him yet. I've . . . never spoken to him that way in my life. I think I still need time to adjust, and Yevon knows my father most likely doesn't want to see me right now," she says, pushing a few locks of brown hair away from the corner of her mouth. I notice she is careful to keep her gaze down rather than look at back at us.
"Well, whenever you're ready to, just hop into that Porsche of yours back to your mansion and confront him about it," I say encouragingly, hoping to catch her eye. "And be sure to tell us the gruesome details later."
"Um," she stammers, her cheeks turning red. "You see . . . I, uh, don't think I can use my Porsche anymore."
"What? Why?" Wakka asks, becoming unnecessarily alarmed. I am quite ready to believe he loves that car with a frightening passion. We all stare at Yuna quizzically, wondering what on Spira she's talking about. She sinks lower into her chair, bracing herself.
"I sort of . . . gave it away last night."
She flinches as we all simultaneously yell, "WHAT!?"
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Once we managed to compose ourselves and allow Yuna to explain her reasons for giving away a perfect specimen of a car, she stands up from the table and stretches.
"Well," she says, briefly combing her fingers through her hair. "I think I need a shower. Rikku, do you mind if I use the bathroom?"
"Go ahead," the Al Bhed girl says, speaking around a mouthful of pancakes. She had undertaken yet another serving of Paine's pancakes.
As Yuna waves and walks out of the kitchen, I help myself to another glass of orange juice, fighting to keep my eyes from drifting down to her rear. Gippal and Wakka are smirking at me as if they know my intentions, and I purposefully ignore them. I am desperately trying not to imagine Yuna standing in the shower stall, naked in the yellow bathroom light, glistening with drops of water, running her fingers through slick wet hair . . .
"Guys, where are we going to get the money to buy seven tickets to Lotus Venom?" Paine asks suddenly, leaning back in her chair with a pensive expression. I am more than a little bit grateful to her for interrupting my wayward thoughts. "Tickets cost at least sixty-five gil each. I don't think we have that kind of pocket change lying around."
"Yeah, and Cid ain't too generous with the wallet handouts," Rikku adds, chewing her bottom lip.
I hadn't really thought about where I was going to get so much gil. To most people, sixty-five doesn't sound like a lot of money, but for the gang and me it takes a lot of work to cough all that up. Not surprisingly, none of us have real legal jobs.
We are silent for a moment, but all of a sudden I know what everyone is thinking: Yuna.
'There is no way I am going to ask Yuna to pay for our tickets. No way am I going to beg for her charity'
"Well . . ." I say slowly, shifting my gaze from each person in turn. I almost feel like hitting myself for saying this. "We will just have to work the streets as hard as we can. No holding back this time."
They stare at me for a moment.
"Tidus," Lulu says quietly, her eyes begging me. "We promised Chappu we'd lay off . . ."
I almost wince at her expression. She has the ability to look extremely fragile when she wants to, in spite of the fact that she is the most intimidating person in the gang.
"I know," I tell her gently. "I know we made a promise. But we need the money, you guys. How many chances are we going to get to see Lotus Venom live in concert? We aren't going to use switchblades this time, so there's no real harm done."
"But . . . we could just ask Yuna if she-"
"No," I snap, firmly interrupting Gippal. "There is no way in hell I am going to beg her for money like some fucking hobo. We've scrapped up tons of gil on our own before. We don't need her becoming our little charity bank. Got it?"
They all hesitate, and eventually nod in understanding. I narrow my eyes, my 'Boss' mentality taking hold of me.
"I mean it, gang," I say threateningly. "Not a single word to Yuna."
"We get it, Boss," Wakka says softly, staring down at his hands.
"Not a word," Rikku agrees with a sigh.
"Good." I lean back in my chair, arms folded over my chest. "It just isn't fair to her, that's all."
On the other hand, I bet she'd much rather cough up a wad of gil than let us break the law for concert tickets, the rational part of me says. I firmly stifle it. Who the fuck cares what she thinks? We can handle ourselves fine. We don't need to live in fear of her judgement.
Imagine the look on her face, if she ever finds out what you guys are doing? What you used to do?
'Since when do I, Tidus fucking Lorac, give a shit about some bloody rich girl's opinion?'
Since you fell for her, jackass, the stupid little voice pipes up. Once more I am forced to crush it like an insect. Oh, come on! Face it, you're practically giddy for her.
'No, I am not,' I mentally insist, frowning darkly. 'I am not in love with her. I have only known her a couple of weeks. I am notin love with Yuna!'
If it's not love, then it sure comes pretty damn close.
'Bullshit.'
Okay, maybe you just really, really, really, REALLY like her.
'I don't have to take this.'
Right, like you can escape your own subconscious. Nice try, loser. Why don't you act like a man and accept the facts? You like her, plain and simple. Love may be too strong a word, but hey, you've never felt it before, right? How do you know this isn't what it feels like? Maybe you-
'Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP.'
Tidus and Yuna, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love, then comes-
'If you don't zip it, so help me I will stab you with a Q-tip!'
I bet her lips taste real nice, and I wonder what her tongue would feel good running all over your-
"I need to head home," I say, abruptly standing up. I wonder if the frown has even left my face. I guess not, since the rest of the gang is eyeing me as if I'm a ticking time bomb. "Jecht probably found something else to bitch at me for."
"And Yevon knows you should bathe at least once in a while," Lulu adds, a small smirk on her lips. I glare at her and fight the urge to smile back at the joke. Lulu tends not to fear me as much as the others do.
I leave with a quick wave over my shoulder and head out into the hallway towards the front door, my hands stuffed into my pockets. As I pass the wall of portraits and photographs, I stop at the image of Lord Braska and Yuna's mother.
I scowl at them, clenching my fists inside my pockets. I hate Lord Braska simply for being the way he is. I hate him for isolating Yuna from the outside world. I hate him for shutting her out and treating her like such a burden. I hate him for hating the Al Bhed, even though he fucking married one.
. . . and I hate Yuna's mother for leaving her daughter in the hands of that demanding old bastard. I hate her for making Yuna feel so guilty about her death. I know it is unreasonable and downright cruel of me to feel this way, but I can't help it. If that woman had been stronger, maybe Yuna's life would have turned out for the better. She wouldn't have had to resort to hanging around lowlifes like me for companionship.
Humph. Lord Braska almost looks human in that picture. Hell, he was even good looking once. And, seeing Cid's sister, I can definitely see where Yuna gets her looks. I mean, damn.
With a faint sigh, I shake my head and move on towards the door, wondering how the hell someone as nice as Yuna could come out so great with an asshole dad raising her alone.
Before I even reach the door, I hear a sharp knock on the other side. My step falters with mild surprise.
"I'll get it, Rikku," I call over my shoulder towards the kitchen. I step forward and pull the door open, and immediately freeze.
"S-Sir Auron?" I stammer, my eyes wide. The legendary guardian is looming in the doorway, a tall, broad-shoulder shadow dressed in a black leather trench coat that nearly brushes the floor.
"What are you doing here?" I ask, knowing full well why he showed up. How the bloody hell did he know where to find her? It doesn't occur to me that he already knows about Yuna's connection to Rikku.
Even though he is wearing his trademark sunglasses, I can somehow tell he is narrowing his open eye at me.
"You know perfectly well why I'm here," he says impatiently, taking a step inside and forcing me to back up. "Now let me speak with Yuna."