Okay, I figured that I've had this written for a while so I could post it. Of course, my computer is still being a pain in the ass...The sooner I get my new battery the better:cries: Oh well, it'll come sometime this week. It just sucks though because it won't stay charged for 20 minutes...and the a/c adaptor won't charge it if it's on. Like i said, it's a pain in the ass. So I managed to save it all on my USB drive and now I'm downstairs. When i get my new battery, I'll write more...because I hate writing downstairs where my parents frequent. Okay, anyway...here's chapter 5.
5. Trying To Get Back To Normal
"Oh, Tidus," Yuna said coyly to grab my attention. I faced her, slightly panting as she held Ariana in her lap on the hammock and sipped her iced tea. She batted her eyes innocently as she pointed about ten feet away from where I was standing. "I think that one is crooked."
I tried not to look at her in disbelief at the same time I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand. The board that she pointed to was one that was put in about two hours ago. Of course, the day that it was almost 100 degrees outside, Wakka and I decided to build an extremely high fence around the perimeter of our yard to avoid mysterious attacks again. I craned my neck to look at the board and I saw that it was straight and Yuna was just trying to pull my leg. It's a good thing too, because fixing a board was the last thing I wanted to do right now; I was drenched in sweat and I felt like my body was going to melt away.
"Hey, no back seat contracting," I quipped, leaning against one of the poles that was secured in the ground. Even though Wakka and I had been working all afternoon, we only had about a forth of the backyard done. I bent over to grab my shirt that was lying on the grass and wiped my face with that—my hand didn't do anything but smear dirt from my hands over my eyes. "Besides, we're doing the best that we can."
"I know, I'm just teasing you," she said, gently fanning herself with the newspaper that she was reading. "You won't let me help anyway."
I chuckled at her and shook my head. She just got out of the hospital a few days prior, so I wasn't going to let her do anything that required heavy lifting…or moving in general. I was still shocked that she was resting right now instead of helping against my wishes. "You look so nice in your cute little sundress though!" I pointed to her as I spoke. "I wouldn't want you to get dirty or sweaty. Not to mention, we don't want everything in Spira to stop because you broke a nail."
"Oh stop," she replied with a sigh. "I'm not like that. That's Rikku's job, not mine."
"You sure?" I shot back, raising one of my eyebrows. "If I'm not mistaken, you ran up to me a few weeks ago with tears in your eyes and said, 'Tidus! I broke a nail and it hurts! Kiss it to make it feel better!'"
Yuna tried to give me a stern look but she was definitely holding in giggles. "First of all, I broke it because the cupboard bit it!"
"You didn't tell me that something was possessing the cupboards," I stated as I put my hand on my heart to feign fear. "Dear Spira, what are we going to do?"
"Okay okay, I get the hint!" She cried in defeat, throwing her hands in the air. "That really did hurt, ya know."
"You two are terrible," Wakka said with a laugh as he shook his head at us.
"It's just the Tidus and Yuna show," I announced with a slight bow. "Thank you, come again."
"Anyway, Tidus, whaddaya say we pick this up tomorrow, ya?" Wakka asked me with a sigh. I faced him and nodded. "Good. Lu'll start to make dinner soon and she'll wonder why I'm not helping."
"Tell Lulu I say hi!" Yuna said with a small wave.
Wakka walked over to our deck and grabbed his shirt off the railing. "I will. Take care, you two."
"We will," I said as Yuna and I watched him walk out of our sight.
"You guys got a lot done today," she mentioned as she motioned me closer to her. I obeyed and sat on the ground next to where the hammock was set up. "It looks really good."
"I didn't think it was going to take us this long to do it," I responded with a sigh, taking a sip of her iced tea. "I wanted to get at least half of it done, but oh well, we're only human."
"I enjoyed watching," she stated with a giggle. "It was rather humorous. Especially when you and Wakka were in each other's way!"
"That's all you're gonna say about it? Why not mention how Wakka dropped the hammer on my foot?" She burst into laughter when I brought up the memory. Yeah. Wakka was trying to nail two of the wooden planks together as I held them up, and his hands were so sweaty that the hammer flung right out of his hand and onto my foot. It was a miracle that I didn't break any toes but, nonetheless, it still stung like a bitch. "Fine, you can laugh all you want, but I'm glad that you sat around and did nothing all afternoon."
"I just listened to you!" She narrowed her forehead at me and slightly pouted her lips.
"I wasn't being sarcastic, I really meant it," I clarified as she smiled at me. "If I'm not mistaken, the last time that I told you to rest, you decided to pick up Ariana and that only resulted in me having to rush you back over to the hospital to get restitched up."
"I overexert myself, I'm aware." Yuna never liked to be told she was wrong, so I never actually say she's wrong…I just infer it and she confesses. I've got it down to a science. "But hey, it's been about three days without anyone trying to kill me, so I say we're doing well."
"Don't jinx it," I stated and quickly looked around. "I'm still nervous about it, you know. Actually, while we're at it, let's go inside."
Yuna nodded, so I helped her get out of the hammock carefully so she wouldn't pull any more stitches. After I picked up Ari, we walked into the house and I pointed to a chair. "Okay, we're inside. There's a chair! You know what to do."
"Arg, you baby me!" She complained, but I knew that she was aware that I was just looking out for her. She put her hand over her stomach and I sighed at her. "What's that for?"
"Are you still in pain?" I asked as I put Ari in the playpen that was set up in the kitchen. I put one in there so one of us could keep an eye on her while we were making dinner, and it worked out quite well. It was a smart idea if I do say so myself.
"I wouldn't say 'pain,'" she replied with a shrug. "I mean, it itches more than anything, but oh well. There's nothing I can do about it, and I'll be fine. It's just that you have a 'worry face' on."
I chuckled at her and poured myself a glass of ice water. Even though the air conditioning was on in the house, I still felt like I was stranded in the middle of the Sanubia Desert. In the middle of taking a sip, the sphere rang. "Ooh, I'll get it."
"Thank you," Yuna said, watching me walk to the opposite side of the kitchen to answer it.
"Hello?" I asked, taking a sip of my water as I waited for a reply.
"Tidus, 'zat you?"
"Speaking?" I didn't mean to make my statement into a question, but I didn't recognize the voice. It was a man's, very gruff, and it sounded familiar, but I couldn't put the voice to a face.
"Don't sound so confused!" The man sounded insulted and I felt really horrible. Not only was I terrible at names, but I guess I'm terrible at sounds too. "It's Yuna's uncle Cid, don't ya recognize my voice!"
I chuckled and put my glass down on the counter before speaking again. "Oh, hey! I knew it was you, but I was just—"
"Put Yuna on the phone." I blinked at the phone for a second at his urgency. I don't think he even paid attention to my lie. I really didn't know it was him, but I thought it would make him feel better.
"Yeah, sure," I responded with a nod. I walked over to Yuna and handed her the sphere. "Here, honey. It's your Uncle Cid."
Her eyes sparkled in delight as I handed her the phone. "Uncle Cid! How are you? I haven't seen you in so long and I was wondering—"
Ha, he apparently cut her off as well. Well, at least it wasn't just me! I turned around to grab a towel to wipe off the sweat that was still streaming down everywhere, and when I faced Yuna again, I almost dropped it. Her hand was absentmindedly twisting her necklace and her face was completely pale. It looked like she just saw a ghost.
"Oh my…" She stated as Cid rambled on about something. He was a very boisterous man, so I could vaguely hear his voice on the other end. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand the words. "What happened? When?"
I eavesdropped on their conversation and I handed Yuna my glass of water. I figured she needed it more than I did at the moment. She seriously looked like she was going to pass out right then and there. I furrowed my forehead in concern as she said 'goodbye' and hung up.
She sighed and chewed on her lip as she painfully tried to stand up. "Where are you going?" I asked her with a smile on my face. I could tell that it was not a good conversation with Cid, it was obvious. Not to mention that he hasn't picked up the sphere to call us in over two years, so it had to be important. I was just trying to cheer her up, but the grim look on her face remained. I hated when she wore that look; it worried me. "Yuna, what was that all about?"
"We need to go to Bikanel," she replied simply, causing my jaw to drop.
"'We need to go to Bikanel?'" I repeated slowly as I watched her start to walk toward our bedroom. I quickly grabbed Ari and followed her. "What do you mean by that? Why do we need to go to Bikanel?"
"Rikku was over Gippal's house earlier today and it was raided," she said, shaking her head and rapidly opening drawers. "The attackers didn't take anything in the house. Instead, they instantly went after the two of them."
"Oh shit." I exhaled, closed the door, and placed Ari on the ground so she wouldn't go far. I grabbed a suitcase that was in our closet and helped Yuna start to pack. "Are they okay? I-I mean, do they know who did it?"
"Well, they're both in the hospital. They're not in intensive care, so I'm sure they'll be all right in the next few days. As for who did it? You know Uncle Cid," she began and threw several of my shirts into the suitcase. "He blames it strictly on the men of Yevon or New Yevon or…whatever."
I stopped opening the drawer I was in front of and turned toward her. With a huff, she put the stray hairs that fell from her ponytail behind her ear. "Yuna, I don't mean to bring this up, but do you think…" I trailed off when her lips turned into a frown.
"No. Don't. Don't even start to think that this could be connected to what happened to me." I didn't mean to piss her off, but it had to be said. "I'm sure it was just a random attack."
"You said that what happened to you was just a 'random attack,'" I pointed out, putting the clothing in my hands in the suitcase, then folding my arms across my chest. "I'm just saying that the two instances might be connected. I mean, think about it. You're the high summoner, Gippal's the leader of the Machine Faction…It seems a little too coincidental to me."
"That's all it is, Tidus," she stated firmly without looking at me. "It's just a coincidence."
Because she didn't look at me, I knew she didn't believe her own words. She was just trying to calm me down, but it wasn't going to work. However, I wasn't going to argue with her and cause more problems. "Are we going to take Ari with us or do we want to leave her with Lulu and Wakka?"
"I think Lulu and Wakka have enough to deal with when it comes to Vidina and Lily. I don't think they need another toddler to take care of," Yuna said, throwing several more of my shirts into the suitcase.
"Whoa," I exclaimed, counting that she had packed six shirts for me. "Yuna, are we going to visit Gippal and Rikku or spend a vacation in the desert?"
"I'm not sure how long we're going to have to be there, so there's no harm in being prepared," she informed me as she walked back into the closet for more clothes. We almost had one completely filled and we haven't even begun packing stuff for Ariana yet. "Besides, Cid is sending Brother over in his newest airship, so we don't have to worry about paying extra for heavy luggage on a ship."
"What happened to the Celsius?" I asked and she shrugged. "Ahh, Cid was getting restless, eh?"
"Something like that."
I looked at the time then realized that I was still sweaty. "Oh wait a second, I really want to shower. Do you think I'll have enough time?"
"You should," she replied with a nod, bending over to pick up Ariana.
"Honey, should you be doing that?" I rushed over to her to help her. "Like I said, I don't want to have to rush you to the hospital. You've spent enough time there lately."
"I'm fine," she confirmed as she stood up. She wasn't wincing in pain, so I hesitantly believed her. "Go ahead and take a shower while I pack up some things for Ari. Oh, I should probably call Wakka and Lulu to tell them what happened as well. I'll have time. I'm sure we'll be able to hear the airship long before it gets here anyway."
"Okay," I replied, kissing both her and Ari on the cheek before walking to the bathroom to take a shower. I shut the door and shook my head. She seemed awfully calm about the fact that her cousin and her cousin's boyfriend were in the hospital and that worried me. I want to pin it down with denial, but Yuna was pretty good with facing the facts.
Maybe Yuna was right. Maybe the events weren't connected and I was over reacting. The sooner we got to Bikanel the better.
