Twisting the embers, the wind toyed with the flames centered in the heart of Besaid. Pushing forcefully against the flickering fire as wood clunked to the ground and sent the ash into a spiral which had accumulated on the soil and freshly crisped wood. Flames obstinately sticking to the ruined bark of the log that renounced it's place in the blaze, tumbling upon the ground before the group who sat chatting about in their own subjects, lost in a world where nothing existed but the matter at hand. A realm Tidus himself was deep within.
Constant thoughts trailed his mind, as the dying sound of popping flames drowned in the silence to familiar. The eyes once drawn to light now shrouded in darkness, clouded by the heavy thoughts which endlessly hammered his head, beckoning the answers it sought to be given, yet knowing it's desire would never be fulfilled. Would he fade again? Was his time with Yuna limited? Was his time with Spira limited? He wanted answers; he needed answers, and nearly went insane when he could not get them.
"Yo Tidus!" Came a sudden voice the startled him from his thoughts, gazing up to Wakka who sat across from him, barely visible through the parting of the flames. "Ya still with us man? Ya been so silently since you and Yuna got here ya?"
"Sorry." Tidus chuckled as he smacked his hand through the air and laid back, just in time to see Yuna peer down at him from above with a smile. "Hey, Yuna!" He cried out as he jolted his body up, heaving himself to his feet almost instantly acting on impulse, rubbing the back of his head as he smiled softly. "Heh, Hiya!"
"Hi." She responded with her hands placed behind her back, clasped together firmly as she swayed her body back at forth with her head tilted, gazing up to him with innocent eyes. Eyes Tidus had so longed to see.
"Sorry If I kind of dazed off!" The man once again responded with his eyes looking down in embarrassment.
Yuna could only find herself giggling, this was the Tidus she had come to love. The shy, bashful one who always apologized for the slightest thing he did if he thought it upset her. "It's alright." She answered with a wide smile.
"Thanks," The man nodded as he gazed silently into her eyes, the illumination of the flames casting a shadow upon her that cloaked half her body in darkness, while the other half shown clear as day. How she look so elegant, standing their with an innocent face that could never change no matter how many years she aged, that could never alter no matter how hard she tried to change it. That face, no the expression, that she had given him so many times, was a big part of Yuna. It held her love, her fear, her worries, he could figure out anything as long as he stared into that warming smile, those puckered limps that whimpered when she was frightened and spread when she was happy. It made him felt so real, just to feel the warmth of her radiant grin.
"Eh?" The retired blitzer Wakka mumbled as he watched the two stare without blinking into the others eyes, rubbing the back of his head before looking down with a smile laugh ."Seems like you two are a little to mushy to story tell." He slowly arose with his hands placed behind his head. "ll leave you two lovebirds alone, Lu would kill me If I spent the next few hours watching you two just to hear a story ya? Night!" Turning his back to the two who stood unmoving, Wakka slowly paced himself across the ground, his feet padding silently against the dirt before he swept quickly inside the hut where he stayed, and faded within the shadow. Making all others who still sat at the fire, stand and do the same.
Almost instantly, moments after Wakka and the Aurochs disappeared within their tents, Yuna and Tidus embraced. Their arms caressing the others back as they nuzzled their face against the others body, Tidus burrowing his nose in her neck while Yuna dug her cheek into his chest. A warmth passing between them as their body heat blazed like the fire before them, ignited by the love for 2 years had grown even stronger.
"Yuna," Tidus whispered as he brought her closer into him.
The former summoner only welcomed it, as she too held him close. Closing her eyes as she recalled the first time they had ever embraced, how happy she had felt that day, how she had never wanted to let him go, to hold him for eternity, forever safe in her own arms.
Slowly, As they stayed together for multiple minutes entrapped in the others embracement. They finally, after arguing In their minds to remain this way or part, they pulled away slowly, acting simultaneously.
"I have wanted to hold you like that for so long," Yuna whispered as a small tear fell down her eye, slowly beginning to sob as she immediately pulled back against him. How hard she had wanted to impress him by showing him she was strong, to ruin that by affection. Knowing her strength could never conquer her emotions, her love was just to powerful for that.
"You can hold me forever Yuna," The man spoke quietly as she slowly padded her hair with his hand." I'll be here always."
Yuna cherished those words, as they echoed constantly in her mind. Knowing he spoke the truth by the sadness that built in his throat, his words cracked by the will to cry, knowing he would hold it back. "You'll always be here." She whispered beneath her breath and tugged against is sleeves as she fought back the tears threatening to pour out, knowing Tidus was too by the way he trembled.
"Yuna," Came his voice once more as she slowly looked up to him with watery eyes. " Maybe you should sleep… It's getting late…" He gave a slow nod, a smile slowly spreading on his face.
"Nu uh!" She giggled like a child as she held herself against him still, nuzzling her face against his body with a wide smile. "Your NOT getting away from me with the bedtime excuse! I've waited 2 years for you, there is no way fatigue is gonna catch me now!" She yelled out proudly as she pulled her head away reluctantly from his body. "Your mine tonight!
"What?" Tidus's eyes shot open in surprise at how she was acting, how she had changed so much over the years he had been gone. He had missed so much, he felt left out.
"Hehe!" Giggling to herself once again, Yuna pulled Tidus down close to her face, and hastily pressed her lips against his own. Sharing a kiss that was affectionate as the last, a kiss they had only few times in their existence, few times in their life together.
Tidus once again welcomed this, he placed his hands delicately around her waist as his fingers trailed across her skin caressing it gently with the tip of his index fingers, his palm pressing against her hips as he pulled her closer further deepening the passionate lock between them, feeling the vibration of her lips as Yuna tried to laugh.
"You know," She spoke as she slowly broke the kiss with a face radiating jubilance. "Tomorrow, how bout I show you around Besaid again, incase you have forgotten where everything is!" She yelled excited, trying to get him to say yes.
"Hey keep it down will you?" He chuckled as he slowly gave a nod between the shakes his head gave to her outburst. "I'll go with you, I want to spend every moment with you! I've missed so much!"
"Exactly!" She smiled, swaying her body a bit. "Precisely why your sleeping in my tent tonight! And I won't take no for an answer!"
"H-hey," The young man stammered as he blushed severely, coughing nervously between his idiotic stuttering. "Are you sure about that? If Lulu and Wakka catch me sleeping at your place tonight, I might well….. Get the crap knocked out of me! Lulu is more scary than before!"
"I see your not as idiotic as you once were," Came a cold voice that sent a chill up his spine as Lulu came into view from the shadows. Making Yuna shrink back in surprise.
"Ah!" Tidus fell back in as well, taking multiple steps away from the cold glare that gleamed through the flickering flames before them. "Lulu!"
"Yuna, you will go to your tent ALONE." Lulu ordered. "Tidus, you shall sleep out here, the fire will keep you warm…I don't want any accidents occurring during the first night of your arrival Tidus. I understand how long your feelings have been locked away, but rushing into any sexual act isn't the way to express them right now."
Both of them found themselves blushing bright red, their embarrassment obliterating the darkness around them as their eyes gazed to the ground with humiliation, a hint of amusement glimmering in Lulu's eyes.
"We wasn't going to do anything." Yuna finally broke the silence, veering her eyes back to woman before them. Taking a quick glance to Tidus who refused to peer into Lu's gaze. "It's just, I want Tidus near me.What If he fades away while I'm sleeping? That very thought is hunting me this very moment!"
"That's not going to happen Yuna," The black mage smiled softly as she placed her hand on her shoulder, gazing down into her eyes. "Now off to bed! Tomorrow Tidus and Wakka have to patrol the island."
Yuna's eyes shot open as she dashed a glimpse to Tidus beside her, he too looking on in surprise. "No! We have plans tomorrow, we have so much catching up to do!"
"There is plenty of time for that the next day. Now off with you!" She demanded sternly this time, no longer keeping a calm, gentle tone in her voice. Slamming her foot down simultaneously with her words, pebbles of rock burrowed beneath the dirt obliterated upon impact.
Yuna opened her mouth to protest once more, but the glare she was givin lured her back into silence. And pecking Tidus on the cheek with a saddened smile, she turned and reluctantly swaggered her way to the entrance of her hut, turning back a final time as she mouthed to Tidus who watched her carefully, " Good night." And slowly drifted inside, gone from his sight.
"Now, I have to talk to you." Lulu gave a serious expression to Tidus immediately making him obey and listen. "I'm glad that your back, but you have to understand You've been gone for 2 years. And even then you were nothing more than a fool who disobeyed Temple laws. I didn't have much respect for you then and I don't now." She gave a soft sigh. "So If you want to sleep in the same room with Yuna, I suspect you earn my respect so I can trust you not to do anything, I'm just protecting her.
"I understand." He nodded in agreement, understanding why she had been so hostile, knowing all along to be truthful. Yuna had been like a sister to her, siblings till the end of time. It was only natural she was protective, like a tiger who defends her young. "I'll do everything I can to earn it then!"
"I suggest you better." The cold woman turned her back to him. Then, with a single moment of silence between them, it was shattered as Lulu's footsteps padded against the ground and faded in the distance."
"Well, glad that's over with." He scoffed as he laid down upon his back near the fire, the soft, warming glow soothing his freezing body as his eyes closed with a yawn. And slowly, he drifted off into slumber.