Black Dreams, White Dreams
By Lulu-san
Chapter 9 – Only a little better?
When Wakka and Lulu had finally navigated their way to the designated café, they found Rikku standing out the front with her arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently.
"Just where exactly have you been?" she interrogated Wakka angrily, stabbing a finger in front of his nose. "Tidus said you just vanished, saying something about wanting to look at something else. A little TOO vague, don't you think!"
Wakka scratched the back of his head and gave her an apologetic smile.
"Sorry. Got a little sidetracked, ya know?"
Rikku scowled, but her gaze shifted to Lulu, and her expression changed into a relieved smile.
"Lulululu! Yuna and I were starting to get really worried! We went to the jewelry shop that you said you were going to, you know, after we looked in that cute shop and everything, but you weren't there when we went, and I thought you'd had enough and gone home, but Yuna said you wouldn't have done that without telling us, but I wasn't too sure, and anyway we asked the lady, but she couldn't remember if you'd been there, and then I thought maybe you'd be kidnapped, but Yuna said you could look after yourself, but I wasn't too sure, but I kind of trust Yunie you know, but Luca's gotten busier lately, and anyway, we decided to make our way here, in case you'd already headed over here, but when we got here, Tidus said he hadn't seen you, and I thought you'd been and gone, but Yuna said you would have waited, but I wasn't sure and anyway, it's good that Wakka found you on his way." Rikku said in a very fast rush while bouncing from side to side and causing Lulu to raise one eyebrow in an amused way.
"Well, I'm here now. Besides, I was just fine – you really shouldn't waste so much energy worrying." Lulu reassured her.
"Yeah…yeah, I know…" Rikku said, rolling her eyes in exasperation, as though Lulu really had no idea of the suffering she'd just experienced.
She then lead them into the café, where Yuna and Tidus were sitting at one of the tables, enjoying cool glasses of water and inspecting each others purchases.
"I found them!" Rikku proudly told Yuna as she slid into the seat next to her.
"It's not like we were lost or anything…" Wakka complained, somewhat put off over Rikkus exaggeration.
"Heh, so who found who first?" Tidus chuckled, gesturing his head from Rikku, to Wakka, to Lulu.
"Well, they kind of turned up together…" Rikku told him with a bored expression, resting her head in the palm on her hand. "I didn't even have to leave the café."
"Sorry for denying you the effort of creating a search party." Wakka grumbled, knowing all to well that Rikku would have thrived on the excitement.
Soon, the conversation slipped away into new topics as they ordered food, the content ranging from the new Blitz gear Tidus and Wakka had bought, to how many calories the hamburger Tidus had ordered would have, to how many kilograms Rikku could gain before she exploded ("None." Wakka claimed, because she was so highly strung she could explode any second) to how many chocobos were needed to start a race-course, and sequentially onto what the odds would be for each chocobo.
"No!" Tidus exclaimed, banging his fist down on the table, causing his hamburger to jump several centimeters in the air. "The heavier chocobos would have higher odds, because the extra weight would slow them down!"
"Are you kidding!" Rikku argued. "I've BEEN to a chocobo race, I KNOW what the odds look like!"
"Oh yeah?" Tidus bickered. "PROVE it!"
"Will both of you just quit quarrelling?" Wakka groaned, whacking both of them on the back of the head, to which they both exclaimed loudly in synchronization and instantly attacked him back.
"Anyway!" Yuna interrupted the squabbling quickly. "What are everybody's plans for the rest of the day?"
Wakka scratched his chin thoughtfully and gave a sideways look to Tidus (who had stopped attacking him by then).
"Well, seeing as the Auroch boys are coming by a bit later this afternoon, we thought we'd have a little final training session for the tournament tomorrow, ya." he said.
"Yeah!" Tidus agreed. "But seeing as the hotel only has a small blitz sphere, we thought we'd start off in the main sphere at the stadium. Wakka's already booked it out."
"I see…" Rikku said, pouting a little.
"What?" Wakka asked, surprised by her disappointed reaction.
"Well, I was hoping we could have all done something together…" Rikku said sadly.
"But, you know, if you're too busy and all…"
"Huh? No, no…the training shouldn't take that long – I mean, we can all do something afterwards, right?" Wakka quickly reassured her.
"I mean, it's not fair how you guys get to go off into a cool blitz sphere and relax while we girls have to suffer in the stifling heat, just watching you play– OH!"
"What now?" Yuna asked, as Rikku's face broke into a huge grin.
"We should all go to the pool together afterwards!" She declared. "C'mon, you'll all go too, right? It's so hot now, and it'll be really, really, really fun!"
"Actually, it does sound like a good way to cool down!" Yuna beamed.
"Riiiight!" Rikku trilled, before shooting a forceful glare at the two men.
"Alright, alright…we'll go already!" said an amused Wakka, while Tidus nodded with a resigned air.
All eyes then turned to Lulu, who up until now had not taken part in the conversation whatsoever. In fact, she was resting with her head in her hands, staring in the opposite direction with a glazed look on her face; an untouched salad still placed in front of her.
"Uhh…hello in there?" Tidus called, waving a hand at her. "Spira to Lulu?"
Wakka frowned in concern and placed a hand gently on her shoulder.
"Lu?" he asked carefully. "You still with us?"
Lulu's eyes snapped back into focus, and she shook his hand off impatiently.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine." She said, irritated. "I have been listening, you know."
"Oh good! Then you ARE coming with us, then?" Rikku enquired.
Lulu, who of course, had not taken in a word in the last 10 minutes, stared blankly from one set of curious eyes to the next.
"I….guess so…" She answered cautiously, unable to predict the situation.
"Great!" Rikku cheered with exuberance. "Well, we should go back to the hotel and get ready, right?"
The group paid the bill and left the café. As they began walking back to the hotel, Lulu felt herself fall into step with Wakka, just as they had done only hours previously.
They walked together in silence for a while, before Wakka finally broke the silence by chuckling slightly to himself.
"What?" Lulu grumbled, irked by his sudden amusement. "What's so funny?"
"Ahh, nothing!" he continued to grin. "Just, well…you weren't listening at all back then, were you?"
Lulu scowled at him, but she couldn't deny it.
"So?" she snapped.
"Well, you don't actually know where we're heading this afternoon, do you?" he continued, suppressing his laughter.
"So?" she repeated, frowning at his smiling face.
"I dunno…it just doesn't seem like your sort of place, ya?" Wakka teased her, deliberately not letting her know the destination.
"Care to enlighten me?" she asked coldly.
"Today, after our blitzball training, we're all heading to…"
Wakka paused for dramatic effect.
"…the pool!"
Perhaps nobody else would have noticed the slight change in Lulu's expression, but Wakka picked up on the irritated twitch of her eyebrow, and the slight hardening of her eyes and thinning of her lips.
"Well, you should have found out where we were heading before agreeing." Wakka reminded her.
"Oh, shut up." Lulu said, glaring at him.
He stared straight back at her killer gaze, an achievement that not many could claim. Eventually Lulu broke the contact, rested her palm to her forehead and shook her head gently from side to side; a childhood habit that Wakka fondly recognized.
"I think I'll skip this one out." She eventually told him, her tone a little more exasperated than usual.
"Rikku will be disappointed." Wakka warned, a lopsided grin spreading over his tanned face. "Or violently devastated."
"True, true." Lulu agreed with a faint smile.
"She might blow you up, ya."
"Well, I can't say I shouldn't be prepared for all circumstances." Lulu replied, with mock consideration.
"Or, she might drug your drink and take you there unconscious."
"Can't rule that out completely…"
"Or, should you puncture her excitement, she might just fly around the room like a balloon letting out air, before flopping to the ground in a shriveled heap."
"Well, that wouldn't be so bad, would it now?"
They grinned at each other for a few seconds, before they both began to laugh gently. Wakka was delighted to see Lulu's full smile and he laughed all the louder for it.
"Are you guys talking about me!"
The two of them stopped laughing at once, and looked up at the curious face of Rikku.
"Ah, no…no, no…of course not!" Wakka quickly denied, flapping his hands in a telltale guilty fashion. "Whatever gave you that idea?"
Rikku stared intently from Lulu's to Wakka, as they both did their best to keep a straight face.
"You're making FUN of me, aren't you!" Rikku finally exclaimed in dramatic disbelief.
Rikku's outrage and shock at the obvious was too much for Lulu, and she let out a very un-ladylike snort, which she hastily covered with a cough. Rikku noticed this and frowned.
"You were, weren't you!" she cried in outrage. "I don't believe it!"
After hitting Wakka several times on the head (to which he complained bitterly), Rikku turned to Lulu and folded her arms with a smug smile.
"I'm not going to whack you for revenge, Lulululu!" she told her. "Instead, you can make it up to me by definitely coming to the pool with us, and not being such a party pooper and staying at home, like I know you were planning to."
Before Lulu could open her mouth to object, Rikku gave a large grin and patted her arm in a soothing way.
"You can borrow one of my swim suits." She told her, in the manner of one performing a great favor. "I know you don't have one, so you can't escape with that excuse."
With one last triumphant grin over her shoulder, Rikku ran ahead to where Tidus and Yuna were walking arm in arm, leaving Wakka and Lulu standing with gaping mouths.
"She…she…is not being fair, ya?" Wakka said stupidly.
"I suppose so." Lulu agreed gloomily. "We lost that round."
When the group returned to the hotel room, there were still a couple of hours to kill until they would meet up with the Aurochs. Tidus and Wakka sat near the window, discussing Blitzball tactics in great detail, Yuna sat curled up on the couch with a thick book and Rikku sat on the floor at her feet, flipping through a trashy magazine and chewing a couple of waffles that Wakka had made earlier.
However, Lulu abandoned this scenario, made her way to the bedroom and (checking that the door was shut properly) flopped facedown on her bed, seeking comfort in the cool darkness. She shut her eyes and pressed her face deeper into the pillow, as though to squash her thoughts into vanishing.
A long, deep sigh stole from her lips and her face relaxed from its usual controlled mask into a tired, despaired expression. She wanted to sleep so badly, but her fear of nightmares refused to give into to her body's desire and craving for rest. In a sort of desperate compromise, she lay motionless of the bed- not asleep nor awake, instead silent in a thoughtless doze. She lay there for almost an hour, soothed by the silence of solitude.
Just as she felt herself slipping into a deep sleep, the bedroom door was slowly opened, casting a shaft of light over her face and torso. She sat up slowly, heaving her body up to a sitting position, noting with distaste the pillow marks on her arms and most likely face as well. A figure stood silhouetted in the doorway, and on closer view, Lulu realized it to be Rikku.
"Aah, sorry! I didn't realize you were sleeping – I'll go away and let you go back to sleep!" she whispered quickly, and made to shut the door, but Lulu stopped her.
"It's alright, I wasn't really asleep anyway." She told her. "What did you want, anyway?"
"Well, actually, I was wondering, you know, if you had some spare time, if you might trim my hair for me?" she asked, tugging her hair emphatically. "It's been getting a little long and uncontrollable, you see."
Lulu frowned for a moment, before sighing and nodding.
"Cool! I brought scissors!" Rikku said happily, waving them dangerously about.
"But wouldn't you prefer to go to a hairdresser, like normal girls do?" Lulu asked as she and Rikku left the bedroom, and entered the living room.
"Not really, I mean, I just need a trim!" she replied, taking a seat at the kitchen table and helping Lulu to pull a sheet around her shoulders. "So don't go cutting it ALL off, okay? You're the one I trust the most with this sort of thing – Yuna's all thumbs you know!"
Lulu chuckled.
"Yes, I know."
Lulu snipped away at Rikku's hair with careful precision, making sure she kept the length even. Wisps of blonde hair littered the ground around them, and soon Yuna, Wakka and Tidus came over to check out what was going on.
Finally, Lulu snipped off the last little bit of jagged, split hair, and showed Rikku the final result in a small pocket mirror.
"Waah!" Rikku exclaimed, admiring her hair in the reflection.
"Not bad!" Tidus agreed.
"You're the BEST, Lulu!" Rikku squealed, flinging her arms around the older woman and giving her a kiss on the cheek.
"Rikku…you're hurting me…" Lulu grumbled, as she struggled to escape Rikku's bear-strength hug – however, she couldn't deny feeling a little flattered.
"But, seriously! She did a really good job, didn't she, Yunie! Just as good as an expensive hairdresser!" Rikku beamed, looking to Yuna for confirmation.
"Yes, of course!" Yuna agreed, shyly siding up next to Lulu. "Actually, do you think you could trim mine too?"
"Me too!" Tidus cheerfully added, raising a hand in the air.
Lulu groaned inside.
About an hour later, Lulu was finally doing the final touches on Tidus's hair, having already finished trimming Yunas. Rikku had returned to reading her trashy magazine; however she would occasionally come over to see how the haircutting was progressing.
"There!" Lulu cut of the last snippet, and lowered her scissors.
"Thanks!" Tidus winked at her as he admired himself in the pocket mirror.
Lulu stretched her arms, and stifled an oncoming yawn. However, she was soon distracted by the smiling face of Wakka, who was approaching from the other side of the room.
She gave him an apprehensive look.
"I suppose you'll be wanting a haircut as well, right." She frowned at him, raising her eyebrow in a bored manner.
"Hah? Uh, no…I was just coming over to see how it was all going, ya!" Wakka said quickly, raising his hands in an apologetic way.
"Oh…I see." Lulu looked away, feeling slighting embarrassed.
"But, uh…I…wouldn't…mind…unless…eh, uh.." Wakka's face turned a bright red, as he too looked away, scratching the back of his head.
"You can sit down, if you want it cut." Lulu told him awkwardly, while still facing away. "It needs it."
"Heh, I guess so, ya." Wakka agreed hurriedly, sitting down in front of her. "Just don't chop it all off."
"Hmm, are you sure you trust me?" Lulu asked, smirking slightly. "I might just change my mind halfway though and make you bald!"
"Well, I might just have a go at yours, if that happens!" Wakka retorted, also smirking.
They both chuckled, and Lulu began dampening Wakka's hair and combing through it gently.
"Do you remember?" Wakka asked suddenly.
"Hmm? Remember what?" Lulu asked absentmindedly as she teased out a knot in his hair.
"Back on Besaid, ya, when we were kids, you, me and Chappu. We had a go at cutting each others hair. Do you remember?"
Lulu smiled nostalgically, somewhat amused at how the two of them shared memories of such absurd incidents.
"Yes, I remember." She told him. "Although we never got around to cutting mine."
Wakka chuckled.
"Yeah! Me and Chappu ended up worse, ya. You were terrible at cutting hair, back then!"
"I was only 7!" Lulu pointed out defensively.
"Took three months for my hair to grow back!" Wakka laughed. "I'll never forget the humiliation! You were lucky!"
"Hmm, guess I should have been grateful to that priest that interrupted us, rather then being so angry that he had spoilt such a fun game." Lulu said with a small smile.
"Too true, too true!" Wakka agreed.
The two of them laughed quietly together, as they continued to reminisce over their amusing memories.
However, as Lulu continued to work away at his hair, their conversation gently faded away into a relaxed silence, broken only by the occasional sound of Rikku turning a page of her magazine. Wakka's hair was easy to manage, and the locks of bright red hair fell softly onto the floor surrounding them, in a manner that reminded Lulu of autumn leaves. She gently ran her fingers through his hair, straightening it as she trimmed. Lulu had thought that with the amount of swimming that Wakka practiced every day, his hair would have had become rough and weathered by the sun, however, to her surprise, it was just as soft and silky as it had been when they were children.
Lulu broke from her thoughts suddenly; her hand was centimetres away from simply stroking the soft wisps of hair. Her brow furrowed in irritation at her sudden affectionate feelings. Almost as though in a frustrated attempt to suppress this, she began to cut quicker and rougher, no longer laboriously spending minutes perfecting her efforts.
"Whoa, careful!" Wakka exclaimed as she came within a near miss of completely cutting off the long curl of hair that stood up so childishly in the air.
"Ha ha, Wakka just wouldn't be Wakka without that bit of sticky-uppy hair!" Rikku laughed, looking over at them from the couch.
"Might be an improvement though…" Tidus commented dryly.
"Watch it, or I'll bench you tomorrow!" Wakka warned jokingly, waggling his finger at Tidus.
"Yeah, whatever! You know you couldn't win without me!" Tidus laughed, puffing out his chest confidently.
"Oh, HO! Is that SO!" Wakka snorted.
Once again, the playful bantering begun, breaking the previous calm silence. Lulu wondered with a smile if the group was even capable of staying quiet for longer than 10 minutes anyway.
"Probably not." She murmured to herself with a small chuckle.
She looked down at the hair she was cutting, and saw with a slight satisfaction that she was pretty much finished. However, as she trimmed the last little outstanding hairs, she began to notice new details – like the smooth shape of Wakka's neck, or the golden brown colour of his skin, and even the sheer broadness of his shoulders. She was somewhat embarrassed to find herself staring, yet didn't quite want Wakka to get up yet – despite the fact she had now finished cutting his hair. She found herself wanting to look, if not just for a little longer.
"Are you finished now?" Wakka suddenly asked, turning around to face her – most likely acute to the fact she was no longer snipping away busily.
"Yes." She replied shortly, handing him the pocket mirror.
"About time too." Tidus called. "We have to leave in about 10 minutes. Gotta meet up with the Aurochs at the blitz stadium, remember?"
"Aw, shoot!" Rikku exclaimed, jumping up off the couch. "And we still gotta get our stuff ready for the pool!"
She turned to face Lulu.
"C'mon, Lulu! You still gotta pick out one of my swim suits to borrow!"
And with that, Rikku bounded off to the bedroom, followed shortly by Yuna.
Lulu sighed, and made to follow them in resignation. However, just as she began to walk over, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked over to see Wakka grinning at her. He pointed to his hair.
"Thanks. You did a great job."
She stared back at him, and was almost about to smile in return when he suddenly leant in close and whispered into her ear.
"But, only a little better than when you were 7, ya."
End of chapter 9 :D
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Wow.
Omg.
An update after how long? Over a year at least. SORRY! Oh, and sorry for any grammatical/spelling mistakes ect. I'm so tired, writing most of this story past 12:00 in the morning. yawn I do re-read, and edit, but something always slips though.
ANYWAY!
sorry, for those people who were kind enough to stay with this slow moving story. sigh
Another chapter past, and still no big plot devices. When will I get to finally begin the story properly? I feel like I'm just writing fillers!
Mind you, I'm a little out of practice of writing – after not touching this fanfic for so long!
Well, I guess the real point of this chapter was to you all know that…I'm NOT dead. And I WILL be uploading more frequently, now that I'm back into the swing of things.
And, yes, the next chapter will kick off the beginning of something new. Originally, the 'big' things were going to happen in this chapter, but I ended up drawing out the haircutting and café scene for too long, and so I really didn't want to end up with a chapter that was over 10000 words, I mean, really. OO
So hang in there! I'm sorry! Thanks for all the lovely people who gave me some reviews- hopefully this chappie will quench your thirst for a little while. tumbleweed goes past Hehe, that is, if you haven't moved on from this story and quenched your thirst somewhere else.
Well, the next chappie will be lots of fun, more than just a pool. Of course. Heh, wasn't Wakka a little bit evil at the end of this chappie! How mean! Well, I'm trying not to make them too sappy. Hope I'm succeeding.
Well, see you soon hopefully, I will upload again, hopefully before the end of the month (fingers crossed)
Lulu-san
Oh yah (talking like wakka, ya?) any feedback is appreciated, I LOVE hearing your thoughts – the good, the bad and the ugly!