A/N Wow another chappy so soon? This is Ridiculous! Who are you and where has Big-Purple-Lizard? Haha neways read and PLEASE review? PWIDDY PWEEZ?

.:How Can I Not Love You:.

What followed that punch was chaos. Gippal was frantically trying to hold Rikku back from the now unconscious Tidus. Yuna was trying to lift his dead-weight off the floor and back onto the couch, Paine had sent Baralai to the freezer to get an ice-pack and had gone to get a towel to wipe up the blood that was now dribbling out of Tidus' nose and from a cut on his cheek.

"Whoa, Rikku, calm the fuck down!" Gippal said as he restrained her flailing arms and dragged her towards the door. "I think you need to chill out, babe, let's go for a walk." Gippal suggested.

"Sounds like a good idea…" Paine added, returning from the linin cupboard.

"Fine by me! I wouldn't want to be near him when he wakes up anyway!" Rikku said angrily and as Gippal let her go she stormed out the front door.

"I'll see what I can do. We'll meet you down at the shop." Gippal said to everyone and followed Rikku.

Yuna was almost hysterical.

"Tidus! Tidus wake up… Oh my god I hope you're ok!" She was crying and still trying to heave him onto the couch. Baralai came back with the ice and gently moved Yuna out of the way.

"Here. Let me do that." With what seemed like no effort at all he lifted Tidus up and plonked him on the couch. "There ya go mate." He said Tidus gave a groan but didn't open his eyes. Yuna tried to push past Baralai, but he grabbed her.

"Come on Yuna, I think you need to chill a bit too. He's gonna be alright, he just needs some air. We'll let Paine deal with this. Come on down to the shop and Ill get you a cup of tea." Baralai said, taking Yuna by the hand and dragging her towards the door.

"But this is my fault, I need to explain. I need to…"Yuna started but Paine interrupted her.

"No, Yuna, you'll just freak him out. I'll tell him what's going on and we'll meet you down at the shop when he's feeling better ok?" Paine said, helping to push Yuna gently towards the door.

"Ok, but tell him everything ok? I don't want him hating me because my cousin knocked him out. And take good care of him…" She said as she went to follow Baralai. "Wait a minute. We are all in our PJ's!" Baralai looked down and realised Yuna was right and that he was only wearing his boxers. This made Yuna laugh as they both went to get changed.

Two minutes after Baralai and Yuna had changed and left, Tidus opened his eyes. His face felt numb and his head throbbed. But it wasn't a hangover throb. That's when he remembered what had happened.

"Fuck…" He rasped out as he put his hand to his face and felt an ice pack there. Holding onto it so that it wouldn't fall off, he sat up slowly.

"You could say that…" Paine grinned at him.

Tidus looked around and saw that no one else was in the room.

"Where is everyone?" He asked

"Gippal took Rikku for a cool-down walk and Baralai took Yuna down to the shop for a cup of tea.

"Shit!... Yuna!" Tidus went to stand up but promptly sat back down as his head throbbed. "Damn that girl can pack a punch!" He said, taking the ice off and feeling his bruised face. His cheek had been split and his nose was still bleeding a tiny bit. Paine handed him a towel that was already stained with blood. "Jesus. Is all this mine?" Tidus gestured towards the blood.

"Yeah. But don't worry; you're not the first one to be hit by Rikku. At least you and Gippal can share war stories now. And don't worry about Yuna. She's fine. She just needed to get some air. She was in tears with worry, you know. I haven't seen her like that in a while. The blood didn't help the matter either. I swear she thought you were dying." Paine gave a small smile and Tidus returned it.

"Well it sure felt like I was dying!" He replied. Paine laughed now, which was rare.

"Look, I think I owe you an explanation as to why Rikku reacted like she did." Paine sat down beside him on the couch. "It's something that we don't really talk about anymore, but it's still a really sore point for Rikku; for all of us."

"Obviously…" Tidus added rubbing his cheek.

"Can I finish?" Paine raised her eyebrows.

"Sorry…" Tidus shut up after that and listened to the long story Paine had to tell.

"OK well it all started with Yuna's ex-boyfriend Seymour. They had been together for about a year. Things weren't going so well because Yuna was at Uni and Seymour wasn't. Yuna being Yuna, she was studying all the time. Seymour got tired of never being able to go out on the town with her and so he decided that he would start going without Yuna.

Yuna wasn't too happy about all this, but because she loved him, she let him. That's when she started to hear stories around the Uni that he was taking other girls home and stuff. He still used to come round here all the time, but he never stayed the night like he used to.

Then one day he came over and Yuna confronted him about the stories she had been hearing. He denied them of course, and insisted that he still loved her and he stayed the night. That night Rikku said she heard muffled screams and thumps coming from Yuna's room. I didn't hear anything because my room is on the other side of the hall, but Rikku's is right next door to Yuna's. Rikku laughed it off as the couple having make-up sex.

Anyway, in the morning Yuna never came down for breakfast, and seeing as it was a Uni day, that was really strange. Rikku and I both figured she was still in bed with that fucking arsehole, so we yelled goodbye and went to Uni. We didn't see her all day and when it hit 4pm, I told Rikku I was beginning to get worried because Yuna hadn't come to any of her lectures.

We both raced home and up to Yuna's room. I knocked and got no reply. So I opened the door and what I saw I will never forget. Yuna was curled up on the floor, her face was bruised all over and there were scratch marks on her face and arms. There was blood all over her sheets and her pyjamas. When she saw us, she just burst into tears.

It took Rikku and me hours to get her to tell us what had happened. It turned out that when they had gone to bed, Seymour had told her the truth: that he had been sleeping around but that he still wanted to sleep with her. She had refused him. He beat the living hell out of her and then raped her, Tidus." Paine finished and looked at Tidus whose face was unreadable. "That's why Rikku punched you. She shouldn't have done it, but maybe now you can understand why."

"Oh my god." Was all Tidus could say.

"That's not all of it." Paine said sadly.

"Fuck, there's more?" Tidus said with a surprised look at Paine.

"I wouldn't have told you, but Yuna told me to tell you everything. So…" Paine started not sure how to continue. Tidus just looked at her. Paine sighed and continued.

"Seymour hadn't used a condom. We took Yuna to the doctor and she got the morning after pill, and the doctor made her report it to the police, but it was too late. For both. Seymour had disappeared and Yuna was pregnant. It was so hard on Yuna. With no family nearby apart from Rikku, she had to make the decision on her own. I mean all her friends were there but it's not the kind of thing you let someone else decide. She had an abortion. She told us that even though the baby was half hers, it was also half Seymour's. I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to look at your child and see your rapist…" Paine finished. There wasn't much else she could say.

Tidus stood up and turned to face Paine.

"Where's this shop Yuna's at?" He asked. Paine gave him directions and, having nothing to change into, he walked out the door wearing the same thing he had been wearing the night before.

Paine could have sworn she saw the beginnings of tears in his eyes. Remembering that horrible day brought tears to her own eyes as well as she made her way upstairs and changed so she could follow Tidus down to the shop.

Tidus was running as fast as he could

Fuck I'm such an idiot! He cursed to himself. Now I've really fucked things up. She probably won't even talk me. FUCK! He swore to himself again and ran faster. He had to see her. He had to apologise. He saw the shop ahead of him and without even slowing down, he busted through the door with an almighty crash.

"Yuna!" He yelled and looked around at the empty tables and chairs. "Fuck!" he cursed out loud this time and was just about to leave when Baralai came out from a door behind the counter.

"She's back here, Tidus." Baralai smiled at the distraught man and stepped aside so Tidus could walk through the door. Tidus bolted through the door into the back room to see Yuna sitting down at a small table. A cup of tea in her hands. She was wearing faded blue jeans and a baggy purple t-shirt. When she saw him she put the mug down and stood up.

"Tidus?" She said, barely audible. He quickly walked over to her and drowned her in the biggest hug Yuna had ever experienced.

"I'm so sorry." Tidus whispered in her ear.

This time Yuna hugged him back. She couldn't find the words to tell him that it was ok, because in her heart, it wasn't. She knew what Paine had told him. She knew why he was apologising. It wasn't his fault but she accepted his words and embraced him that little bit harder.

It was just like the night before. She felt safe in his arms; like he would never hurt her. For some reason she had never felt like that with Seymour. They stayed in each others arms for what seemed like eternity. Yuna cried and Tidus couldn't say that he hadn't shed a few tears for her. She was normally so strong but this was the second time she had been crying in his arms. He felt guilty, like he was bringing out her depressed side.

He wanted to make all her pain go away. He knew that that wasn't possible.

"Yuna, I'm so sorry. I'm such an idiot." Tidus said, pulling away and stroking the back of her head. Her hear was soft and smelled smoky from the night before. Yuna sniffed and wiped her eyes.

"It's not your fault, Tidus. It never was. I'm so sorry Rikku hit you…" She said as she gently touched his bruised cheek and looked at his now swollen eye. Tidus laughed.

"That's nothing…" He boasted but Yuna could tell he was joking.

"So… we're ok?" Yuna asked pointing to Tidus then pointing to herself.

"Of course!" Tidus hugged Yuna again. "But about last night…" He gently pushed Yuna back so he could look at her in the face.

"Oh, I'm so sorry about that. I was drunk and that's why I got cranky. I mean, you really did do the right thing. I'm glad you did, because if we had done anything, I would have regretted it in the morning."

"Regretted it?" Tidus pulled a questioning face.

"No, no! Nothing like that… It's just that, I mean.. It's not like me and well, I just…" Yuna tried to say what she meant but was having trouble.

Tidus laughed and hugged her for the third time. "I understand, babe. We should get to know each other first, yeah?" He asked her with a grin.

"Exactly." Yuna said with a nod. "Wait a minute… Did you just call me babe? Do you think I'm a babe?" Yuna asked. Before Tidus could answer, there was a commotion outside and they both heard Rikku's voice over everyone else's.

"Baralai, let me past, I need to see Yunie!" She whined.

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea, Rik…" Baralai's reply came.

"Bah! Let me see her." Rikku shoved past Baralai and into the back room. She walked in and saw Yuna in Tidus' arms. She coughed quietly and they both turned around.

"I think I owe you both an apology… 'Specially you, Tidus…" She added shyly and looked at the floor. Tidus grinned at Yuna and let go of her. He walked over to Rikku and gave her a gentle but playful punch/nudge on the cheek.

"That's ok Rikku. I know why you did it." He said.

"You do?" Rikku looked at Yuna and Yuna nodded. Rikku then understood that he had been informed of the whole situation. Tidus nodded as well and Rikku brought her hand up to Tidus' face.

"You got a good shiner there… Who ever hit you musta had quite and arm…" She joked.

"Yeah well. If you see him, let him know that I owe him a punch in the face…" Tidus smirked and Rikku took a few steps back a giggled.

"So Yunie, everything's ok with us? Are you Ok?" Rikku asked walking over to her and placed her hands on Yuna's shoulders.

"Yeah, of course everything's ok. I know you only wanted to help me. And as long as everything's cool between you and Tidus." Yuna looked at Tidus and he nodded. Rikku looked shyly at the ground.

"Thanks, dude." Rikku said humbly.

"So…" Tidus said as he made his way between the two women and put his arms on both their shoulders. "What are we doing today?"

The second he had spoken, Paine walked through the door and looked at the threesome.

"Well, I spose you three have kissed and made up then?" She asked. Yuna looked at her and smiled.

"I'm gonna go ask the fellas what they wanna do today. Meet us out the front!" Tidus announced. He could tell that the girls needed some time to talk. He also wanted to ask Gippal if he had ever copped one as bad as he had from Rikku.

After he had walked out, Paine turned seriously to Yuna.

"You ok?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was ok from the start really. It was Psycho here that had the problem!" Yuna smiled and pointed at Rikku.

"Yeah I did go a bit crazy, didn't I?" Rikku began chewing a nail.

"A bit?" Paine asked as she raised one eyebrow comically.

"Ok, Maybe a lot. I did didn't I… I'm sorry Yuna…" She looked at Yuna through puppy-dog eyes and Yuna laughed.

"That's ok, you just have to buy Tidus and me lunch."

"Deal!" Yelled Rikku and punched the air. "Maccas it is then!"

A/N: I know this chappy sorta fizzled out in the end, but the next chappy will come soon. I have to think about where this is going. Thanks for the reviews guys! Love you all!