And the continuation. Like I said, this isn't actually supposed to be a super long thing. I swear I hope I'm not lying.

"Don't cry Yunie, please don't cry." Rikku's slim figure sat next to her cousin's knees, her own small tear-stained face looking up at Yuna. Rikku was somehow able to smile for Yuna.

"Thank you," said Yuna softly, her heart torn and bleeding. Even in her sorrow, her crying was quiet, steady, and almost calm. No heaving sobs, but her chest did rise and fall unsteadily.

Rikku jumped up, smiling. "You've done it, Yunie! You've brought about the Calm? An eternal calm! Aren't you happy about that?"

Her voice was hushed. "I am, Rikku. Truly, I am glad for Spira, but…" Her words trailed off, and her eyes closed in pain.

"Come on, Yunie, let's get you to bed. You need some rest. There's gonna be a wild party in Spira tomorrow, all for you." She took her cousin by the hand, gently leading her toward her room on the airship.

"I don't want a party, Rikku," Yuna said softly as they walked. She allowed herself to be put into bed, turning away from her cousin. Her words were whispered, so that Rikku could barely hear them as she left the room.

"I just want him back."

Rikku's face fell as the door closed behind her. Quickly, her nimble feet making soft pitter patters on the cold hard floor, she made her way toward her own room. When she finally returned to her own room, the door sliding closed behind her, she let out a small scream of frustration. She hurled herself onto the bed, curling up into a fetal position, letting the heavy sobs rack her small body. She muffled her screams with the pillow, soaking it clean through. She cried herself to sleep that night, whispers on the wind…

"I just want you back too…"

Five years later.

Three years passed since Tidus came back. In fact, Vidina was now three, and Tidus and Yuna's first child was turning one.

Rikku watched the two happy families playing on Besaid's beach.

Vidina ran over to her. Little Brecht was under his father's watchful eyes, and his mother's caring smile.

"Look Auntie Rikku! Look what I found!" Vidina cried, showing her a sphere. "I'd have shown Mom and Dad first, but I know you like these things a lot, ya Auntie Rikku?"

Rikku smiled at him. "Thank you, Vidina." She looked at him, then the sphere. Suddenly there was a call from Pops.

"Come on girl! I don't have all day! If you want me to drop you off in Zanarkand, then we need to leave now!"

Rikku rolled her eyes, but quickly made her goodbyes before boarding once more on the airship.

Things were silent as Pops dropped her off.

"I'll pick you up in about 5 hours, okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

He left and Rikku was left standing alone on the crest of the hill. Her movements were slow, uncharacteristically so. She put down the sphere, and finding it empty, simply ignored it, not realizing that she had turned it on. Eventually, she had a fire built up, and she sat down next to it, hugging her knees to her chest. It was almost like the pilgrimage.

She gave a long drawn out sigh.

"I can't believe I still haven't forgotten you, even though it's been five years, meanie pants. I did everything I could to."

She said it somehow lightheartedly, but there was a definite undertone of seriousness.

"I did everything I could to forget you. I traveled all over Spira, looking for adventure and action. I looked up old boyfriends, went everywhere, did everything. But no matter what, when I fell asleep at night, it would be you I'd be thinking of. I even tried to pretend it had never happened. I allowed myself to act even more immature than I did on the pilgrimage. I tried to make myself younger, perkier, and happier. All the things that used to annoy you. You know, like trying to get back at you, even though you were gone."

"You know, you're still in my dreams all the time. And I don't go to the Farplane at all. Not that I used to go before. But, I just don't want to see you there, you know?"

Silence.

"Because then it's like I'm giving up. Like I never really will see you again. Like you really are…"

She didn't finish her sentence out loud, but the thoughts were there in her head.

Dead.

She sighed and lay back, looking up at the stars dotting the sky. Her knees were bent and her back was laid flat on the ground.

"When he came back, I looked around for you too. It thought that if maybe he'd found a way to do it, maybe you had too."

Her voice got softer, hurt.

"It wasn't until about a year later when I realized, maybe the reason you didn't come back was because you didn't want to."

Suddenly, her voice rose, and so did she. She screamed into the emptiness, as the winds picked up, blowing her braids and hair every which way.

"I hated you! I couldn't believe you'd just leave me like that! You confused me all the time! I could never understand you. Sometimes you'd be silent! Sometimes you'd be gruff! You were always scolding me with your words or your eyes or something! But…"

Her anger started to slip away, and she unceremoniously fell down onto her butt as tears started to slip down her face. Her voice went soft again.

"But no matter what, you were there. Whenever I was hurting really bad or when I was just cry-my-eyes-out-until-they-swirl-the-other-way sad, you would be there. You wouldn't say anything, but you didn't have to. I just felt safer and stronger when you were there. And the few times when I'd almost totally given up, you… you held me."

Her next words were filled with wonder, and though her eyes were still filled with tears, they did not fall.

"You just… held me and made me feel okay. Like everything was going to be fine and nothing would hurt me. And you were always mumbling things into my ear, right when I was falling asleep so I was never completely sure what you were saying. But I think you told me once…"

I love you. I love you my Al Bhed princess, my bouncy, hyperactive, over zealous Rikku. I love the green in your eyes, the blond of your hair, the way you move as though you're dancing to the music of life that's always playing in your head. I love the way you never shut up, the way you care so deeply for Yuna, the way that you're always smiling, no matter what. I love how you try to be Lulu, when being yourself is enough. I love you, and my love will last longer than Spira, longer than anything you or I have ever known, long past the time my heart stops beating. It already has. In the Farplane, in the farthest reaches of Spira, no matter what, you shall be the one that resides in my heart, and my mind, and my soul. Rikku, though I can never tell you all these things, I love you.

Rikku shook her head.

"Never mind, I was probably dreaming then. I'm sure you never actually said that you loved me."

She gave a quiet chuckle, sniffling and wiping away her tears on her pretty bow covered sleeves.

"Well, I'm off, Auron. Pops is gonna pick me up in a bit, and then we're going to go help out Gippal with some machina. I'm still a sphere hunter, sort of. But I'm a lot more interested in machina than I used to be. It… takes my mind off things too."

She laughed again, as she stood up, dusting herself off and killing the fire.

"I'm sorry I acted like a kid after the pilgrimage. But, somehow I felt it was right to try and piss you off. I mean, I was the one left to help make things better. I had to help dry Yunie's tears, and she never would have been able to look forward if she saw that I was crying too, you know? I had to do it without you, without you holding me."

She smiled apologetically into the night.

"I'm tired of that act now, though. I'm definitely going to let myself grow up."

Her eyes sparkled as she turned around, looking toward the airship landing farther away. The amusement in her tone was blatant as she left her parting shot.

"But not too much, you know? I've still got to piss you off a little."

With a quick shake and hop, she bounced back toward the airship.

The winds howled in Zanarkand that night. Several monkeys ran across the crest of the hill, trying to find shelter in the ruins. One of them, intrigued by a sphere, had brought it along, hiding it in the chamber of the faith along with the other members of its family.

When the monkeys woke up the next morning, the sphere was gone.

On the Farplane…

"Hey, Stiffy, I got something to show ya."

Auron's one russet eye turned harshly on his friend.

Jecht tossed the sphere into the air and caught it with a smirk.

Braska shook his head, hiding his own grin.

"What is it, you perpetual drunk?"

Auron had become rather more talkative and a little less subtle on the Farplane.

Jecht tossed it to him, and without thinking, Auron's arm shot out to catch it.

Braska laughed as he pulled Jecht away.

"Let's leave our friend to watch his sphere in peace."

Auron sighed. Spending the rest of eternity with his "friends" was not exactly the rest he had been looking for. Though part of his unrest could have been because of…

No. He would not go down that well traveled road of thought. He looked at the sphere curiously. Perhaps this would take his mind off of her.

Of course, Auron had no such luck. It was her, all of her, dressed even more scandalously than before. Of course, he knew that, watching her all the time from the Farplane. And it had hurt him to see her. He didn't like watching. In fact, he'd stopped watching her about two years ago. It had been too much, seeing her and knowing that he could not have her. And he had wondered, many times, if the ditzy seventeen year-old was really the older version of the young girl he'd fallen in love with. Even Braska had winced several times as he watched Yuna's lack of maturity.

In the end, things had turned out all right. And Tidus had left them.

She mesmerized him as he watched the sphere, taking in every curve of her body as she bounced, wishing he could wipe away every tear, watching as the wind blew her braids every which way. A smile quirked at the corners of his mouth as she left her parting shot and as she bounced away.

Her skirt had ridden up just enough.

Auron tucked the sphere away, into his coat, keeping it near his heart.

Jecht and Braska came back to find their friend watching Spira.

Braska spoke quietly, his tone serious, but not so heavy.

"My friend, the fayth have decided that my niece deserves a reward as well."

Auron's head shot up.

Jecht was obviously trying to sound like his cheerful arrogant self, but there was a hint of melancholy in his tone that he could not hide.

"Yep. You get to go back. Whoopee."

Braska nodded as Auron stood up to look at his companions in wonder.

"You mean?"

They both nodded.

Auron closed his eyes and nodded as well.

"My friends, I"

They cut him off.

"Go on, Stiffy. That hot little blonde girl is waiting for you. But that Gippal guy looks like he might be trying to make a move on her while they're under that machina… There! Did you see his hand?"

Auron bid them a hasty farewell.

Braska and Jecht watched him run uncharacteristically hurriedly, as though the older man had just gotten high off one too many Hastegas.

"Did you really?" started Braska.

"No, but if I hadn't said that then he probably would have stayed a lot longer trying to figure out the proper way to say goodbye and take so long that she'd be here before he left. And my time would have been totally wasted," said Jecht with a hearty laugh.

"What do you mean, time? I thought you told me to tell Auron that the fayth said that they would give Rikku a reward."

"I did because they did. I just had to, eh, encourage them to."

Braska's quiet amusement was blatant in his soft words.

"You mean you challenged them to a drinking contest and won."

Jecht laughed again.

"Well, you know, those fayth don't know how to hold their liquor."

The two laughed, one loudly, one quietly.

What I always say about reviews being luffed.

-Hajan Rana