A/N: Hello people, I'm back with my latest chapter, but first of all I would like to thank everybody who reviewed. It helped me out a lot. Also my thanks go out especially to Halestorm who has been acting as my grammar checker. Thank you so much I really appreciate it. Also to Dancing Summoner for her constant nagging and threatening emails for this chappie! LOL! If it wasn't for her, I would never get this thing up as quickly as I do! I told myself that I would get this chapter up this morning because I have to study today for my 3 exams next week…god I hate school sometimes, it's my first week back after holidays to! Oh well, not much you can do I guess. Okay I'll shut up now, just had to vent…-

Chapter 3: Confessions

She stood there firmly, tremors raging all over her body, unable to find the words that were so incredibly important at this moment. She now had everyone's full attention. They all stood there, watching her, waiting for her to continue her essential announcement. But nothing came. She found herself unable to continue. Her head was screaming at her to persevere and tell them, but it was like it had become completely disconnected from the rest of her body; it would not and absolutely refused to comply.

Now what do I do? She thought nervously. She closed her eyes, and quickly began to shuffle through all of the possible things to say. To be completely honest, she had it all mapped out in her head. Yuna had drawn out a rough plan in her mind on her way down. She would walk in here, announce that she has to say something to everyone, tell them all that she had been disturbed by a certain blitzball players reaction to a series of events that took place in the Bevelle Temple earlier, that she had questioned him on what the Fayth meant and why it had made him so upset, he then lied to her, made her cry and avoided her for what seemed like days. Then finally they would all be completely dumbfounded at her supposed confession and ask why she was making such a big deal out of things and how she knew Tidus was lying. This was when she would proclaim to everyone present that she was deeply in love with him and that she knew something bad was going to happen to Tidus if they didn't do something soon.. He was lying to her. There was no maybe about it.

She began to feel all her frustration build up and up, until it began to overflow and leak out the sides, furious and upset that he would not tell her anything! Why was he doing this to her? Did he not care about her anymore? Immediately her shaking stopped and she found herself struggling to hold herself back. She was loosing control, she couldn't stop it…

Then suddenly…

"JUST PLEASE TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG!" Yuna screamed, eying Tidus tearfully before collapsing to the ground in a slump. "I…I don't want to loose you, I couldn't even bear the thought of it…" She sobbed. Nobody moved an inch. Everybody was taken aback by her outburst, and were all too shocked with her behavior to budge.

So much for the plan…

She stayed, in that spot, tears cascading down her cheeks like a waterfall, constantly flowing, never stopping. And yet, still no one moved, not even Tidus. He was just as surprised as the others. But… it was just as he feared. No matter how he tried to distance himself from her, no matter how much he tried to deny his feelings for her, no matter how much he wanted to make the pain go away, it just wasn't…working. Especially now that he finally saw what he had done to Yuna…what he had done to her heart. His coldness and evasion had completely crushed her soul and all at once, Tidus felt a huge amount of guilt thrown mercilessly onto his conscious.

That's when he came to his senses and rushed to her side to try and see how he could console her. Why had he been so stupid? Why hadn't he seen it? Why had he done this to her? Why? He lamented causing Yuna this much pain.

"Yuna…" He croaked, unable to hide his pain and guilt any longer as he felt it all form in a large lump in his throat. She latched onto him then, holding him as tight as she could, completely sobbing with grief, unable to stop the pain.

"Please…..come……back……please…don't….stay away…….anymore!" She pleaded with him through her heavy weeping. "It…hurts……..too much" He was unable to speak; all he could do was tighten his hold on her to try and calm her down. "Sorry" was all he could manage to say. He stood up, taking her with him and pulling her closer to his chest, as he rested his chin on her head. Finally, a few minutes later, she was starting to settle down. As her crying eased off and she was still, did they then remember that there were indeed another seven people looking onto this little dramatic episode.

Even now, Yuna's guardians still hadn't gathered the courage to say anything, even more blown back by their all too public display of affection. Yuna and Tidus slowly turned towards their allies, preparing to listen to their comrades opinions. Clearly distraught, Yuna quickly began to turn away, but he quickly grabbed her arm "Don't worry Yuna…it'll be okay" She looked at him, reassurance splayed over his facial features. She smiled weakly back and turned to face her guardians, ready to face the onslaught of questions that were about to begin.

It was Lulu who came to her senses first. She began to speak, but only stuttered, unable to get even one clear word out of her mouth. Finally, after many failed attempts, she was finally able to project her thoughts clearly in a complete sentence. "How long have you two been like this… with…each other?" She spoke, her voice submerged in disbelief.

Surprisingly, it was Yuna who answered her question. She tried really hard to project as much confidence as she could into her voice. She definitely was feeling intimidated by her 'older sister'. "Since just after our run in with Seymour in Bevelle" She said in a rather unsteady voice. A small smile began to play on her lips as she remembered the kiss they had shared in Macalania after their lucky escape from the Via Purifico…which now seemed so long ago.

Lulu only pulled her head back in shock before continuing, secretly ashamed that she had seen signs of a romance beginning to bloom between the two teenagers and had chosen to ignore it. Mainly because she didn't think Yuna would get involved let alone readily admit it to everyone. "Would you have died without telling us this Yuna! Why didn't you say something earlier!" Lulu was angry now; her usually calm and docile self was beginning to slip away under her fury. But if Lulu was expecting Yuna to be intimidated by this, she didn't show any sign of it. Yuna was all but lost in the pleasant memories she had shared with Tidus over the pilgrimage- the thought of Macalania had brought on a wave of pleasant recollections, thoughts and experiences she had shared with him during the entire journey. The only reaction the young summoner had towards Lulu's interrogation was that she had been dragged away from her private bliss and back into reality. She remained dazed for a moment before her expression hardened. "Because I knew how you would react, I knew you wouldn't be too pleased". Yuna's answer came out harsher then she actually meant, but she hoped that Lulu would get the idea.

"Excuse me?" Lulu said rather annoyed as she cocked an eyebrow. It was then that Yuna realized she seemed to have a bit of an attitude. Maybe because Tidus' cockiness was rubbing of on her, maybe it was because she was sick and tired of being pushed around. It could even be that now her pilgrimage is over, she can finally think about things. Small things, that she didn't have the privilege of worrying about before. It could be the fear of loosing Tidus talking. (Actually, that's probably it) but for what ever reason, Yuna had finally begun to stand up for herself, and to be honest, it felt….great! So she decided she might as well keep going. "You heard me Lulu" she said rather arrogantly. Lulu only grew angrier at this, also contemplating what had caused such a large change in this part of her personality. Immediately Lulu began asking question after question after pain stacking-ly annoying question. And soon, Wakka had gathered up enough nerve to join in the probing as well.

Yuna was stating to get rather irritated. Her guardians could interrogate her all day, but it still wouldn't get them anywhere. They could complain all they wanted about her keeping secrets from them, with questions like don't you trust us? What on earth were thinking getting into a relationship on your pilgrimage? and Why didn't you say something? But that still wouldn't help her with her problems. She had bigger things to worry about. For example, while Tidus may have stopped avoiding her for the time being, she had yet to find out why he had been so evasive in the first place. Besides, she could see that he was slowly backing away from everybody, not enough for anyone to notice while in heated argumentation, but enough for her to notice, seeing as she had blocked out Lulu and Wakka's constant nagging completely. Yuna didn't even understand why they were so upset. They seemed to be the only ones who cared; everybody else didn't seem to mind. In fact, Sir Auron hadn't even moved, Rikku was just standing there with a stupid grin spread across her face and everybody else had returned to what they were doing. They may have been curious, but had probably decided that it was none of their business and thought it best to turn a blind eye to the whole incident for fear of what may happen if they were to get involved.

As Tidus gently took another quant step backwards, Yuna spotted him out of the corner of her eye and quickly realized she had to do, or rather, say something before he was missed, and she didn't plan on letting him escape this time. The whole idea of the public announcement (which was getting her into trouble at the moment) was to make sure that he wouldn't get away. Anyway, she was getting sick of Lulu and Wakka now, constantly in her face. She decided that now would be a good time to take some of Tidus' advice, as well as taking another stroll down memory lane…remembering that day at the Kilika Temple…

They all began to head back down to the boat, ready to leave for Luca. Yuna had just obtained her second aeon, and was one step closer to the ultimate goal of her pilgrimage- The Final Summoning. As they left the temple, Tidus stopped short of everybody else, looking quite disturbed about something. Although she didn't know him very well, she was still worried, so she came up beside him and asked:

"Are you okay?" She asked with genuine concern for her newest guardian's behavior.

"I…I don't know" He replied with complete uncertainty, his voice thick with anxiety.

"What do you want to do?" She asked, unsure of even what to do herself.

"To scream real loud" He spoke quite bluntly, and Yuna had a quiet giggle at the suggestion of even doing such a thing.

And then…

"AAAAAHHHHHH!" Everyone turned around sharply to find out just who it was that had disturbed their peace at that instant. Yuna was completely shocked at his spontaneous action, but she had still found it quite amusing…

As she gradually came out of her thoughts, she took in a large gulp of air, bent forward and… "AAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Lulu and Wakka's interrogation stopped in its tracks abruptly as Yuna screamed as loud as she could. Immediately, all convocation and activity ceased as everyone had now been drawn to the attention of the summoner standing before them.

She straightened herself back to an upright position, and took in a few quick gulps of desperately needed oxygen before continuing. Her cheeks flushed with rage and mostly…embarrassment. "Look…" she began to say quite firmly. "We don't have time for this right now, the whole purpose of me declaring our relationship publicly was not to have you two…" She raised a shaky hand and pointed her finger at Lulu and then at Wakka. "Probe me for information like some prisoner!" She took a quick break to breathe before continuing, both rage and sadness quelling up in her voice with every new word she spoke, her lungs, heaving for more air. "All I wanted to do, was to find out from Mr. star player of the Zanarkand Abe's over here what on Spira is so bad…so horrible, that he feels like he has to avoid me at all costs, and in turn, completely shatter my…my…"

But she didn't finish….

The emotional burden of such an issue was too much on her already incredibly tired and worn out self, and so she…collapsed. Tidus was closest to her, and so in turn was able to catch her before she fell onto the ground. Everyone rushed to her side then, clamoring to see if she was alright. She would be, she was just so exhausted from her journey so far, and the emotional outburst she just had obviously tipped her over the edge. Her small frame unable to bear such a weight had done the only thing it could do in such a situation…completely shut down. Once everybody knew this, you could almost feel the incredibly tense and suffocating atmosphere in that area lift up completely…if only for a moment.

In the end, Kimahri had picked her up and taken Yuna to her room to rest. After Kimahri's departure, Lulu, Wakka and Rikku immediately turned to Tidus for answers. Of course, he didn't respond, he was too worried about Yuna. Rikku took note of this and decided to use this to her advantage. While he didn't notice, Rikku quickly whispered something into Lulu's ear. Lulu nodded hesitantly, but seemed to agree.

Rikku strolled up casually beside Tidus, giggling as she moved. Tidus however, was not paying attention as he tried to steal a glimpse of Yuna down the hallway. "HEY!" Rikku yelled, almost giving Tidus a heart attack in the process. She had his attention now. "So you're worried about Yunie?" She spoke casually, as if this wasn't a big deal at all. He seemed to be in a daze for a moment, having to take a few seconds to register what Rikku had just said. "Of course I'm worried about her!" He yelled back, unable to see how Rikku could be so calm. "You wanna see her?" Rikku tried to say it as blandly as she could, but there was the smallest hint of blackmail in her voice, which Tidus seemed to pick up on. He sighed angrily. "What do I have to do?" He said in an exaggerated and unenthusiastic tone. Even though he knew what she wanted her to hear, what they all wanted to hear. Exactly what Yuna had said. And now of course, they wanted to know even more. Of course they would. They would all be wondering what was so incredibly awful that it would cause Yuna of all people (perhaps the one with the strongest will present) to collapse in an emotional break down.

He had to tell them. He would have had to sooner or later. He just wished that it was indeed later rather then sooner. But maybe, it would be easier without Yuna here. He knew that this wasn't true; it was still going to be hard. Even if she wasn't here, he would have to tell her anyway. He would actually have to tell Yuna when she was on her own, which actually would be much worse considering her already weakening physical state.

Now, he was in trouble.

He was going to tell them everything…he just hoped he wouldn't make everything worse then it already was…

A/N: Hello! So we come to the end of another chapter. That there is my version of a cliffhanger so let's hope it worked. I had the whole day off today, like I said before so I am now well into the fourth chapter.What happens next you say? Only I know :P MWHAHAHA…yes I am evil, but that's what the penname is for. I'm not an "Evil Rabbit" for nothing! Heh heh heh So yeah, hopefully, if I can get myself into some sort of routine, I should be updating once a week…hopefully. I would now just like to specially thank my reviewers, it makes unbelievably happy when I get that email from this wonderful website telling me that someone likes my story. So I'll start trying to get into the habit of doing this as much as I can.

Thanks To:

Big Guv: Thanks for all your support, you're so nice to me and I really appreciate it.

Dancing Summoner: I wouldn't have kept going with this fic if it wasn't for you, I hope you like this chapter as much as you liked the other two!

Halestorm: Thanks a lot, you're a great friend

CrimsonOkami: I'm glad that you're enjoying it so much, I hope you like this chappie all the same.

Karlynnea: "That's awesome" means a lot to me. Thank-you

Bbychrangel: Heh, I know, I leave cliffhangers to keep people reading. Sorry about the one in this chapter as well. Please don't hurt me! LOL

Inxs: Hey bro, don't know why your reviewing my story but thanks anyway!

Expect another update soon everyone!Don't forget to review!

Warui Usagi