A/N: Wh00t! Another chappy! And how dramatic is this one? I'd say very. Well ok maybe just a bit, but it is a foreshadowing of what's to come!... Dun-dun DUUUUNNNN…. Kekeke. Anways, you heard the man, and you know the drill, assholes and elbows! (In English: read and review please!)
.:How Can I Not Love You:.
The funny thing was that everyone thought Rikku was joking. Twenty minutes later, though, when they were all sitting in the dining area of McDonalds, they knew she wasn't.
"You're so cheap Rikku…" Paine said blandly, voicing everyone else's opinions.
"Hey I'm a Uni student and I'm in a band. What more can you expect?" Rikku said as she took a bite out of her burger.
"Hey, Maccas is fine by me. I used to live on this stuff!" Tidus piped in.
The six of them were sitting around the table, all finishing their meals. Tidus had finished first; he had scoffed his down in about 2 minutes. He sat quietly and listened to the other talk about stuff and watched Yuna as she ate.
Everything she did was beautiful. Somehow she even made filling your mouth with 6 Macca's fries look wonderful. He watched as she listened to the other talk and every now and then added her own 2 cents to the conversation. Sometimes she spoke with a mouthful of food, but Tidus didn't even mind that. It was the little things like that that made him like her more. She was truly something special.
As he watched her, she got bored with the conversation (as it had become an insult match between Rikku and Paine, with Rikku losing fast), and began to stare out the window. Suddenly her eyes widened and her face lost all its colour. Tidus turned around to look where she was looking, but saw nothing. She was looking out in the car park, but there was no one there. He looked back at her questioningly.
"Are you alright Yuna?" He asked, getting everyone's attention as it was the first time he had said anything in a while. Yuna was silent for a moment, but never took her eyes off the car park outside.
"We need to leave." Her voice came out no louder then a whisper. "Now." She added and began to stand up. She still hadn't taken her eyes from whatever it was she was looking at. It was this time that everyone else looked outside to see whatever it was Yuna was seeing.
"Fuck!" Gippal said as he stood up. "Rikku, Paine; take Yuna into the little ladies room. She hasn't got time to do anything else. Baralai, Tidus and I will stay out here. Ill buzz your phone when it's safe to come out." Gippal spoke to Rikku as she stood and Paine followed her. All three girls made their way quickly over to the ladies restrooms before Tidus could say anything.
He turned to Gippal, who was now sitting back down with a very serious look on his face.
"What the hell is going on?" He asked.
"Seymour…" Baralai replied with a nod of his head towards the car park. Tidus looked and saw a man standing beside a dark blue Porsche. Standing next to him was a petite blonde girl. She would have been smaller than Rikku (if that was possible) and Tidus thought she might have left half her skirt at home it was so short. He then looked back at the man and studied his features.
He was tall, and older by perhaps 5 years. He had a slim face, but unbelievably broad shoulders. His eyes were dark, and because he was a fair distance away, they looked almost black. His hair was long, shoulder length at its longest. It looked kind of like a mullet and was gelled backwards at the front. It was a blackish grey colour, almost blue.
Even if he didn't know that this guy was Seymour, Yuna's rapist, he still would have thought he looked like a creep.
As the three men watched him, it looked like he was shouting at the girl. She was shouting back and waving her arms all over the place.
"But Paine said he disappeared." Tidus dragged his gaze away from the scene outside and looked at the other two.
"Well, not exactly…" Gippal answered.
"Paine told me what she told you," Baralai continued "And it's not entirely true. They did catch him. There was a trial. But they only got him on the assault, not the rape. Some bullshit about there not being enough evidence, and Yuna wanting it."
"But why didn't Paine tell me that?" Tidus asked.
"Because she didn't want you to think Yuna was lying. If she'd told you they couldn't prove it… well I dunno. That's just Paine." Gippal answered for Baralai.
All three now looked back out the window. Just as they all started watching, the small girl (who would have been about 18) shoved Seymour. He yelled something at her and grabbed her by the shoulders, slamming her into the side of the car. Tidus stood up with a growl but Gippal grabbed his arm.
"Don't go there, man. It's not your business." Gippal held firmly onto Tidus. Tidus whipped his head around and shot him an evil glare.
"And what about what he did to Yuna? Whose business is that?" He hissed. Baralai spoke then.
"Tidus, be reasonable. He's twice the size of you. If Rikku can knock you out then there's no hope if you try to…" Baralai started but stopped when Tidus angrily ripped his arm out of Gippal's grip.
"Look, you guys do what ever you wanna do. I don't care who it is or what they've done, no one deserves to be treated like that. What he did to Yuna only makes it worse!" He said bitterly and walked towards the door.
"Fuck. Shit. Mother fu…" Gippal started swearing, but Baralai stood up.
"Gippal, call Rikku. Tell them to get out here. Maybe they can talk some sense into him. I'll go with Tidus and try to keep things under control." Baralai began after Tidus.
Gippal didn't bother getting his phone out, he just ran into the girls toilet.
Tidus reached the door and threw it open. Marching over towards Seymour and the girl, he shouted.
"Hey buddy, You wanna leave that girl alone?" His loud and menacing voice drew the attention of Seymour and the girl. It also made the customers who were sitting in the outside eating area look up from where they had previously been trying to ignore the quarreling couple.
"Mind your own fucking business, punk!" Seymour snapped back. By this stage Tidus was not far from them and Baralai was on his heals.
"Come on Tidus, just let it go." He pleaded but Tidus ignored him, and saw only red.
Punk? I'll give you fucking puck, you rapist. You'll pay for what you did. Tidus thought as he stormed up to Seymour.
"Lay another finger on her and I'll lay my fist in your face." Tidus said simply. Before Seymour could answer they both heard a call coming from behind Tidus. Both men turned around and saw the three girls and Gippal running towards them, with Yuna in the lead.
"Tidus, don't! You must stop!" She half yelled as she ran up to him and grabbed his arm, trying to drag him away.
"Oh, so this is your new toy-boy?" Seymour spoke to Yuna then looked back at Tidus. "You gotta watch out for her. The lying slut might bite your balls off!" he hissed.
Tidus made to move towards him but Yuna, who was still holding onto his arm, pulled him back.
"Tidus, no." She said simply. Tidus narrowed his eyes at Seymour and backed off. Turning to Yuna he smiled and put his hand on her shoulder.
"Ok." he said with a smile. Yuna let go of his arm and smiled back. "But I would have really liked to have knocked that butt-pirate down on his arse…" Yuna smiled but then yelped as Tidus was dragged away from her.
Seymour had him by the hair and dragged him back a few paces away from Yuna.
"No-one calls me a fucking 'butt-pirate' and gets away with it, fag-boy!" Seymour growled.
Tidus knew he was in trouble. He suddenly felt exceedingly angry at the nerve that Seymour was showing. Knowing he was going to get hit, he relaxed his body. In the spilt second that followed he saw Gippal and Baralai stepping forward to help, Rikku with a dazed look on her face and struggling to hold Paine back as Paine was also trying to get at Seymour. Tidus turned to face Seymour and saw him raise his fist. It all happened in slow motion.
Seymour was left handed and his left fist was now making a path right towards Tidus' face. Tidus just let it go. It connected, but this time because Tidus was ready for it, he moved so that it didn't hit as hard as it should have. He didn't feel the pain because by this time the adrenalin was controlling his body. The impact, however, shoved him backwards, and made him turn away from Seymour.
He looked at Yuna and mouthed 'I'm sorry', took a deep breath and lifted his leg.
The onlookers watched everything, not knowing what to do, but what Tidus did next shocked them all. They all saw his lips moving but only Yuna knew what he had said. Just like it was second nature to him, Tidus threw his leg around in a perfectly executed roundhouse kick. The heel of his boot connected with Seymour's cheek and a sound of utter pain escaped Seymour's lips.
Seymour flew backwards and slammed into his car, dinting the immaculate body work.
Tidus landed the kick and put his hand up to his not bleeding face.
"Fucking he-bitch…" He mumbled to himself, then looked up. Everyone was staring at him, mouths a-gape, eyes wide. No one said anything and you could have heard a pin drop.
"Um… Sorry…" Tidus finally said to everyone.
After a few moments of silence, the first person to speak was Seymour's girlfriend.
"Thank-you" She said quietly. Tidus turned to face her. She was kneeling on the ground beside Seymour's limp body. "But you had better leave before he wakes up. This could get really ugly." She looked up at Tidus and he could tell that she really was grateful.
"You know, you don't have to stay with him." Tidus said as the others joined him.
"It would be worse if I left." She looked knowingly at Yuna with eyes filled with an unreadable, but not aggressive, emotion. Yuna nodded and took Tidus by the arm.
"Come on, she's right. Let's just go home and have some tea and get you cleaned up." Yuna smiled as Tidus nodded in agreement.
After much hassling and arguing, they had figured out a way to get all their cars from the club and get back to the girls house.
They were all sitting around the lounge room with mugs of tea and coffee, chatting. Tidus, now with two busted cheeks, was laying on the couch with Yuna sitting on the floor in front of him. Tidus had to resist the urge to stroke her hair or kiss her neck like a man who is dying of thirst in the middle of the ocean must will away the urge to drink the seawater.
Suddenly he was pulled out of his daydream when he heard Rikku say his name.
"So Tidus, where on gods green planet did you learn to kick like that? I mean, that was pretty impressive…" Rikku said as she looked at the others and they nodded in agreement. Even Yuna nodded and turned to face him as he answered. Tidus scratched the back of his head.
"I did karate when I was a kid. My mum was Japanese and I thought it would be a good way to get to know a bit of her culture, since dad didn't seem to care…" His voice trialed off like he had said too much. Truth be told, he would have kept going – he wanted to keep going – he just wasn't sure that these people he had only known a few day would want to hear his life story. Yuna looked at him.
He said was… His mum –was- Japanese? Yuna thought. All this time he has been asking me if I want to talk and I haven't even thought of asking him. I'm so selfish. She gave him an apologetic look and he seemed to understand when he continued.
"I'll tell you more about it later," He looked at Yuna and then at the others. "But right now, lets change the subject coz its making my face hurt to think about it." Tidus raised both his hands to his busted cheeks and pulled a face. This got a laugh out of everyone.
Rikku started asking Paine something but Tidus wasn't really listening. Yuna smiled at him and blinked slowly. He smiled back and felt a wave of tiredness drift over him. He blinked back, but never opened his eyes. He fell fast asleep with the image of Yuna's beautiful smile etched into his eyelids...
A?N: Well thats another chappy out of the way. I know I didnt leave this one on a cliffy, but hey. I cant always leave you in suspense. Next chappy coming sooon to a near you!