ZZZZZZZZ
Tidus: Hey, Hey! Wake up!
Veronia: Huh, What?
T: How could you fall asleep while writing?! Don't you know about your deadline!?
V: Oh, be quiet. I'm trying to sleep.
T: What about you're readers?!
Bonk!
V: Leave me alone. ZZZZ
T: -rubs bump on head- Great... just great. I guess I'll have to write this chapter myself.
V: What! Don't you dare touch my work!
Bonk!
T: Ow! –rubs new bump- I knew that would get her up...
V: Hello everyone out there. Chapter 13 is up. Sorry it took so long but there have been lots of other things I needed to do that took priority over this story (Mostly school related) but anyway, I'm here to deliver the next chapter for your amusement. I hope you enjoy.
T: Yeah –rubs bumps on head again-
Chapter 13: Perky Little Thief
"Hey! Let me go!" The young girl cried as she struggled to break the security guards grip. "I said let go! I didn't do anything!"
"You were caught red handed." The officer said as he tried to strengthen his grip on the girl's wrist. "There's no way you can deny taking anything."
The commotion of the two, right outside the weapons store, was building up quite a crowd. Apparently the young girl, who refused to tell anyone her name, was just caught after trying to make a getaway with a rather expensive pair of spiked knuckled (her primary weapon of choice). She was now refusing to say that she tried to steal anything even though she had the weapons right in her hand.
"I'm afraid you're going to have to come with me." The security guard said as he tried to get the struggling girl under control.
"No!" She cried out before delivering a hard kick up to the guard's abdomen.
He doubled over in pain as the wind was knocked out of him, and his grip on her wrist loosened just enough to allow her to break free. She took the opportunity and rushed into the crowd, hoping to get lost in the chaos and confusion.
The security guard tried to order her to stop, but he was having enough trouble trying to pull in another breath.
The young thief slipped through the crowds so quickly it was almost as if she was running down a clear path. Only when someone tried to stop her was she slowed down slightly but she was able to break free quickly, with force if necessary. Most of the time, however, the people in the crowd just slipped to the side, giving her enough room to run unhindered.
She made the mistake of looking behind her and saw that there were at least two police officers forcing their way trough the crowd to try and catch up with her. While she was momentarily distracted she tripped over the foot of a person who wasn't able to get out of the way in time and landed flat on her face.
She shook away her slight daze and forced herself back up onto her feet. That fall had cost a lot of distance between her and her pursuers. She knew that it wouldn't be long before they caught up to her. She had to find a way to escape... and quickly.
A few moments later she saw her answer through the disguise of an opened door. It was a tavern. As she passed through the double doors she just barely noticed the neon sign hanging above her.
'The Unsent'.
She slipped around and under tabled and jumped over the bar, surprising the old barkeep, and going headlong for the door that led into the kitchen. With all the meal preparations and work being done in the kitchen, nobody noticed the young girl with blond hair and swirly-green eyes bursting in.
She continued to move towards the back entrance. Not knowing if the police officers were still chasing her. She slowed down slightly only to grab some food off of a serving cart without anyone noticing before running out of the chaos and into the empty alley.
She stopped and let out a long sigh, thinking that her pursuers were far behind her. She turned around to leave the dank area when she bumped right into someone.
"Going somewhere?" The officer, who had been one of the ones chasing her earlier, asked as he looked down at the young girl who was regaining her balance.
"Yes, I'm late and really must be going." She said before bolting in the opposite direction.
"You ready?" Tidus asked, as he looked away from the ocean over to Yuna.
She looked back over to him and smiled slightly before nodding her head and standing up onto her feet. She brushed the sand off of her clothes and waited as Tidus did the same.
He reached over and took a hold of her hand before leading the way back home.
"Was the sunset as good as you thought it would be?" Tidus whispered to her as he pulled her against her side.
"Better." She whispered back.
The two of them slowly wandered down the street not paying that much attention to where they were going. They were both in their own little world, looking at one another more often then where they were going.
It was only when they accidentally bumped into someone in front of them that they were pulled back into the real world.
"Hey, watch where you're going." The pedestrian complained before turning around and seeing that it was actually the star player of the Zanarkand Abes.
"Uh, sorry." Tidus said as he rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.
The young man just stood there as if he were dazed. Tidus and Yuna looked over the man's shoulder and saw that they were at the back of a large crowd of people.
"What's going on?" Yuna asked.
The young man shook his head slightly and blinked several times as he tried to focus his mind on the question. "What? This?" He said while pointing to the crowds of people behind him. Yuna nodded slightly and waited for his response. "There was a disturbance here just a short while ago. From what I've heard, there was this young girl who tried to steal something from the weapon store just down there." He pointed off a short distance to the store. "When the security guard tried to stop her she went crazy and attacked him, or something like that. The last thing I hear, she was her running through the crowd with a whole group of police officers after her."
"What did she look like?" Tidus asked as the story was finished.
"Didn't get a good enough look at her to see anything clearly." The young man answered while shrugging his shoulders. Before either Yuna or Tidus had a chance to ask him any more questions he slipped back into the crowd.
Yuna looked up to Tidus with a puzzled look on her face. "Why would you care about that?" She whispered into his ear.
"Doesn't that sound just a little familiar to you?" Tidus whispered back. "Who would you expect to steal something from a weapons store and be able to slip away in a crowd this big?"
Yuna paused as she thought about it for a minute.
"Someone with blonde hair.... And swirly green eyes."
"Rikku?"
Tidus smiled and nodded. "If she's somewhere here in Zanarkand we'd better find her before she gets to far away. It wouldn't be a good thing if she were to be nabbed by the police before we had a chance to see her."
"Yeah, but how are we going to find her?"
"Just cut through the crowd like she did. We're sure to find her if we move fast enough."
Yuna nodded and allowed herself to be led through the crowd by Tidus. He was used to having to slip through such large groups in a hurry since he was such a popular blitzball player. It was better for him to lead the way. The crowd soon became too thick for even him to slip through and he was stuck less then half of the way through.
Tidus growled in frustration as the people ahead of him refused to move. "We'll have to find another way around." He mumbled to Yuna.
He stood on his toes and jumped up as high as he could in order to look around. "There." He said when he spied a side street just a few yards away behind them. "Come on."
"Hey, Watch out!" Rikku called out as she veered through the crowds, still attempting to loose her pursuers. "Coming through!"
Nothing was working; the police officers were still hot on her trail. What was it going to take to get rid of them?
She ducked over to the side into the nearest side street and ran straight into someone's back.
"Watch where you're going." She said in her rush to get back up onto her feet to hurry away. Before she could get very far though a hand grabbed her wrist and stopped her dead in her tracks. "What do you think you're doing?!" She cried as she tried to break free of the grip.
She was about to slam him in the stomach like she did with the security guard but she paused just long enough to see who it was.
"Rikku!" Yuna called out when she saw the Al Bhed preparing to attack.
Hearing that voice bought back strong memories stored in the back of the thief's mind. She tried to wrest herself free again but with the same amount of success. "Who are you? What do you want with me?"
"We can talk about this later." Tidus interrupted. "Right now I think it would be a wise idea if we were to get out of here."
The other two nodded their agreement and Tidus led them out of the alleyway before the police had a chance to catch up.
"But where are we going to go?" Rikku asked as she ran a step behind Yuna.
"We'll go to my place." Tidus answered. "We should be safe there. And then we'll tell you everything."
"Hey! Anybody there?" Zen asked while rapidly knocking on the front door. "Come on Tidus. I know you're in there."
He paced all around, trying to find a window to look in, but all of them were blocked. His hands searched through all of his pockets, but no matter how many times he checked he could not find the key Tidus had given him. He was under the suspicion that Tidus had stolen it from his locker at the blitzball stadium, but there was no way he could prove it.
It was true, of course. Tidus had stolen it. He was sick and tired of Zen bursting into his home at random times. Now, with Yuna living there, he didn't want Zen popping in at a time that would become embarrassing.
"Come on Tidus!" He yelled towards the door. "The games in just a few hours. We've gotta get ready!"
He started his pacing again, getting more and more frustrated that Tidus was ignoring him. Zen hated being ignored. He moved back up to the door and before he had a chance to begin hie rapid knocking again, Tidus opened the door and almost got knocked in the head.
"Finally." Zen sighed as he slumped his shoulders slightly. "I thought you were never going to answer. What took you so long?"
Tidus just shrugged his shoulders. Knowing Zen's mind, if he told him that he was with Yuna and Rikku Zen would most likely think the worst of him at first. "Nothing much. What do you want."
"Don't tell me you forgot again." Zen said while slapping a hand over his eyes. "I've been reminding you every day for the past week. We've got a game to play today. A rematch against the Aurochs and you haven't been to a single practice."
"What? That's today?" Tidus paused for a moment as he remembered about how Wakka was going to get off of the Aurochs to search the city. "Are you sure they're even prepared for the game?"
Zen got a confused look on his face. "Why wouldn't they be?"
Tidus just shrugged his shoulders. "It was just a thought."
"Hey, do you know somethin' I don't?"
"Tidus... who's there?" The both of them heard Yuna ask from inside.
Tidus turned around slightly to look behind himself. "Just Zen."
"Who?" Another voice asked.
A grin spread over Zen's face. "Who's in there with you?"
"Just Yuna...and one of our friends."
"Can I come in and say hi?" Zen asked.
"Fine." Tidus sighed "Just take that stupid grin off your face."
Zen hurried inside before Tidus had a chance to change his mind and saw a rather perky fifteen-year-old sitting beside Yuna. As soon as he entered Rikku jumped up to her feet and took a hold of his hand.
"Hi! I'm Rikku! Nice to meet you!" She said while jerking his hand up and down.
"Nice to meet you to." Zen said after a few seconds. He needed to get over the fact that the pupils of her green eyes were swirls. "I'm Zen."
It looked as though Rikku's energy was being transferred to Zen because it wasn't long before he was also acting perky and energetic. Both Rikku and Zen continued to talk, getting to know each other a bit more while Tidus and Yuna moved off to be by themselves.
"Are you sure it's alright to leave those two together alone?" She asked, continually looking back over her shoulder where the others were. She still remembered the time she had first met Zen. He had claimed that he was just joking around but she knew that it wasn't true.
"Yeah, it's fine." Tidus could tell what she was thinking and was trying to put her fears to rest. "Zen just doesn't have much common sense. It's not like he's a pervert or anything like that."
"Are you sure?"
"I've known him since I was ten." He said, placing a hand around her shoulder. "Believe me, he's not going to try anything."
Yuna nodded and Tidus pulled her in closer and placed a kiss on her cheek to try and reassure her that he was telling the truth.
"Hey, If you're going to make out then go into another room." Zen called out when he saw the couple.
Tidus did his best to ignore his friend's comment and gave Yuna another reassuring squeeze. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for your game?" Tidus asked lazily.
"Hey, I'm just waiting for you man." Zen answered before continuing his conversation with Rikku.
Tidus closed his eyed and let out a loud sigh but he wasn't able to relax with Yuna for long though because of a knocking at the door. It started off as a low beat that was almost unnoticeable at first but slowly continued to increase in intensify until Tidus forced himself to answer.
"What took so long?" Wakka asked as he stepped through the door.
"Nice to see you too." Tidus answered while stepping to the side to let him pass. Just a few seconds later Auron also came in. He gave a slight nod towards Tidus and continued into the house.
"Hey, who are these people?" Zen asked standing up on his feet.
"Uh, Zen, I actually think it's time for you to leave."
"But what about the game?"
"Game?" Wakka lifted his head.
Zen paused for a moment and looked over to the leader of the Aurochs. He didn't know that there was a game? He sighed and started for the door. "I guess that means that there won't be any game." He stopped next to Tidus and slowly turned his head to look over to the fellow blitzer. "You knew that this was going to happen, didn't you?"
Tidus smiled slightly and nodded before leading his friend out the door.
"Oh, by the way," Zen started as he stopped in the doorway and turned around to face Tidus, "I just have to tell you, that Rikku's really cute." He saw Tidus's stare and felt the need to elaborate. "I mean, she's cute but way to young for me."
Tidus nodded his head slightly and watched as his friend ran down the street. "Alright," he started as he closed the door and walked towards the others, who were now grouped together, let's get started with our plans."
ZZZZZZZZ
T: Not again! Wake up! You don't have time to sleep now! You've got to get started on the next chapter.
V: ZZZZZ. Just five more minutes. ZZZZZZZZZT: But... but you haven't finished the ending lines!
V: ZZZZZZ. You finish it.
T: ME! Uh, well, I, uh, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Uh, and I, umm... -looks back over to sleeping Veronia- and I hope I can get her to wake up before she makes me write the next chapter and screw everything up.
V: -bolts up- There's no way I'm going to let YOU write any of my chapters! –starts writing like mad-
T: Ahh. There she goes. Hope to see you all next time. So long.
V: See you all late- ZZZZZ. –head drops down onto the keyboard-
T: Not again!
End Transmission