Disclaimer: I still don't own FFX.
*-.-*
Chapter three
I hurled myself up out of the water, greedily gulping in my first taste of real air. My eyes scanned the beach slowly as I tried to get my bearings. This place… It was oddly familiar to me, though I couldn't put my finger on it at first. It wasn't until I saw a large temple near the coast that I realized I must be in Besaid. I was back on Spira. The realization made me laugh and prompted me to swim as fast as I could to shore. I couldn't wait to find Yuna.
It took me a couple minutes to reach my destination, for two reasons: one, I was pretty far out in the water; two, I was too excited by the thought of seeing Yuna to hold my breath, and swim underwater, which I was best at. When I finally did get to shore, however, a young woman came over to me, looking angry.
"How dare you!" She exclaimed. "Get away! Lady Yuna doesn't need any more Sir Tiduses who have come back from the dead because of their un-ending love for her! So just leave!" With that, she turned and stomped away.
I stood there in shock, watching the woman walk away. So people were trying to be me, huh? Trying to get to Yuna using her love for me? These were some sick, sick people.
I sighed and, shaking my head, started to the village.
When I got there, I looked around, smiling slightly as I realized how inaccurate this classification was. Besaid was no more of a village than Luca was. The buildings were all at least three stories, and most were shops and restaurants or cafes. The population seemed to have at least tripled with Sin's demise. I shook my head again. How would I ever find Yuna in this mess? I walked up to an elderly man standing nearby and asked him where Yuna's house was. He simply glared at me and continued on his way. He must have thought that I was a fraud, too. I muttered a curse as I wondered again how I would find the ex-summoner among all these people.
A couple minutes later, I saw a boy and a girl who looked about my age. Maybe they would tell me something. As I approached, they promptly stopped the conversation they had been having and looked at me like something nasty on the bottom of their shoe. "Can I… help you?" the girl asked, the look still on her face.
"Um… yeah," I said to her, rubbing the back of my neck nervously. "I'm looking for Yuna. Do either of you guys know where she lives?"
The two teens glared at me. "Look, nobody's going to tell you. Just leave her alone, she doesn't need you! If she wanted that guy so bad she would've done something about it. Just leave her alone!"
"What are you guys talking about?" I asked, confused.
"Oh, come one!" The boy, who had been silent all this time, exclaimed angrily. "We know what you're doing! You're pretending to be Yuna's old lover so she'll marry you!"
"You're not the first," the girl added. "Plenty of others have tried the same thing. She hasn't bought it once. So just leave; go back to whatever rock you crawled out from under, fiend!"
"Yuna's old lover," I murmured, pretending not to have heard the girl's insult. "You said she could tell the others were fake? Well, why not let her decide for herself whether I'm really me?" The girl began to speak again, but I interrupted. "Look, it's great that you guys wanna protect Yuna. She's very lucky to have so many people who care about her. But honestly, you really don't have to. Not from me, at least. So just tell me where I can find her, okay?"
The girl rolled her eyes and stayed silent, but the boy paused.
"I just need to talk to her, okay?" I said quietly. "Don't worry."
"Fine," he said at last. "To get to her house, take the first left, right over there"—He pointed the street out to me—"then the second right. It'll be at the end of that street, on the beach."
I smiled at them. "Thanks," was all I had time to say, before rushing to follow the boy's directions.
*-.-*
A/N: Yep, another short chapter. I promise, they WILL get longer eventually.
It's almost the end of the weekend ::aww::, so that means I most likely won't have time to update for a couple days, what with homework and such. I think the next chapter will be longer than the others, considering it's Tidus and Yuna's big reunion ::Yay!::, so it'll take a while, to write, because I want it to be all pretty and romantic and such. And the rating will probably rise. A lot. ::evil grin::
