A/N: Okay, here we go again. I still don't explain what Lulu said in the end of Chapter XIII so you'll still have to wonder :evil grin:

Chapter XIV

"Strange. I thought it would be sadder, somehow."

I couldn't hold back a whine. What Lulu had just said had brought into my mind the words that Yuna had a few days ago on that damned lake.

We had defeated Lady Ginnem's aeon. Mostly with Yuna's aeons and Lulu's magic.

"Maybe I've gotten used to farewells," Lulu went on sadly.

I had to stop myself from going to her and giving her a big, warm hug. She looked so grown-up, like she had seen too much and it all was just too much to bear. I thought I should say something.

"You're stronger now," Wakka offered.

I was ready to kill him, once again.

"Wakka," said Lulu, with so much tenderness in her voice that I thought I would break down and cry, "I hope you're right."

I wanted nothing more than that she'd talk to me like she talked to Wakka. I just wished that everything would be like it used to, before I got into all this shit. Lulu turned to face Yuna.

"Yuna, the fayth is inside. Go do what you came to do."

Why the heck are you not angry to her, only to me? Didn't she do all the things as wrong as I did? Or is it just that you care for her, like for a little sister, but you never had any feelings for me in the first place? I shook my head. Get over it, kid. If she won't take you back, that's it, end of the story.

We – in this case Yuna and I – went inside a room and saw the fayth. Yuna kneeled to pray, and in an instant a young man appeared in front of us. He started speaking with Yuna, and I was barely listening. The decorations on the cave walls were by far more interesting than Yuna getting yet another aeon. I heard her say something about defeating the most powerful of enemies, referring to Sin I guess. Then, I heard them talking about money.

"Tidus?" Yuna turned to me.

"Huh?"

I realised I had the wallet, we shared all our money so I would have been a rich man should I decide to run away and take it all with me. Luckily, that sort of thing never even popped into my mind.

"He asks gil for his favours. How much do we have?"

I didn't bother counting.

"How much does he want?"

"270.000," Yuna answered.

"We do have that much, but tell him you'll pay less," I advised. One of the reasons that I had the wallet was that I was so stingy.

"I'd so much love to pay you as much as you want, Lord Yojimbo, but I only have 150.000 gil," Yuna said.

Personally, I thought that wasn't maybe the best way to make him sure he was dealing with as tough guys as himself. But I let her speak, as long as everything seemed to go all right. As a clear businessman, Yojimbo didn't accept the firs offer, and Yuna turned to me again.

"Now he asks for 230.000," she whispered, sounding a little scared.

"Fine, fine, we're doing just great. Offer him a little more than you just did, okay?"

Yuna shrugged. "All right..."

She made her offer, to which Yojimbo replied simply,

"200.000. Do we have a deal?"

"No, we don't," I told Yuna. "Haggle still a little."

Finally, the great soldier accepted our offer of 190.500 gil. We exited the cave and went back to the wooden bridge. Everyone walked over the bridge, except Yuna, who turned around to look back to where we came from. I had seen her do that before, too. Maybe she was saying goodbye to the places she'd never see again. I realised that the others had gone by a long time ago, and I was just standing there staring at Yuna. She came to me, nodded and then followed the others. I followed her, not paying too much attention to my surroundings.

"Tidus!" I heard a voice call me.

"Oh. Rikku," I said. "What's up with you now?"

"I was just wondering, are you ever gonna get bored of that water sword thing of yours?"

"Brotherhood?"

"You know that's cute, that you boys name your weapons. Is it the same reason why you always name your..."

She paused abruptly. I coughed.

"Um, eh..."

"Well, never mind," she said quickly. "Just that, um, you have that other sword, too, and if you'd like we could customise it a little."

"Customise?"

"Yeah, you know. For example, we have been stealing those Wasps and Nebiros's a good deal of Poison Fangs now."

She took a small bag from her pocket.

"They're all here. And, with my tools, I could add an interesting ability in that sword."

"Show me," I said. I was getting interested.

It took her half an hour to carefully pick up the thin poisonous thorns and embed them into my sword.

"Don't touch the blade," she warned me when she handed it back to me.

"Don't worry," I said somewhat dreamily, marvelling at the dangerous-looking green poison exuding from the blade. I could only imagine the effect it would have when thrust into an enemy.

"I also have some Dream Powder," Rikku said.

"Yeah, we've been encountering a lot of Skolls lately," I admitted.

"Tell me about it," Rikku sighed. "Give me that sword."

I did, and Rikku began tapping its surface and strewing Dream Powder into the tiny scratches she made. After a while all the powder we had had was gone into my sword.

"If you want me to make this also look good, I'll need a couple more days."

"All right. I can always fight with my Brotherhood. But, talking of weapons, what abilities does that mitten of yours have?"

Rikku arched an eyebrow.

"Mitten?"

"Well, you know," I said with a shrug.

"I put Alchemy into it, so that all healing works double as much as usual. I also put the same amount of Dream Powder into it as into your sword. ...And, my 'mitten' is called Survivor."

"Hey!" I exclaimed hilariously.

"What?"

"You just said it's funny that we boys name our weapons..."

It all happened so fast that I didn't even realise there was something going on before I was in the ground. Rikku had punched me in the stomach, and surprised by her sudden attack I had lost my balance and fallen down. She stood in front of me looking furious. The more it surprised her when I broke into a wry laugh. I couldn't help it; it was just all too comic a situation.

"Come on, help me up," I said with a grin.

"Kids! Stop fighting and come here!" came a grumpy voice. To no great surprise, it was Auron.

Rikku giggled and helped me up. We ran to catch the others. I decided to call my new sword Sidewinder.