Hoho, so I'm a little sad I haven't gotten a review yet, but I'm sure a lot of people are like, wtf is she even doing? It's okay. So here's a little TidusxYuna, TidusxRikku (friendship!) moment for you. I have a little hope that someone out there is reading this, yes, no? maybe so?
In These Walls
Where the Pyreflies Sleep
"Rikku, I've always supported you through everything," a sincere, but wary smile and then, "but honestly, that's insane. By yourself? The Thunderplains were one thing," Yuna shook her head and gave an urging look to both Tidus and Wakka to help her out.
"What's so bad about the Den of Woe again?" Tidus smiled nervously with his hand nervously scratching the back of his head. Yuna gave a half-grimace, half-smile and patted her lover on his shoulder.
"Never mind." She turned back to Rikku, who flinched and quickly regretted she had told anything to her cousin. But it had been such an enlightening ah-ha! moment that hadn't sounded the least unreasonable to her. Rikku had become completely terrified of caves and pyreflies and what better place to confront all that than the cave that probably caused the fear itself. "It's still dangerous," Yuna added, "and according to Nooj and Baralai, there are some strange things going on around there."
Nooj and Baralai sure seemed dictate everything lately. Sure, they were the prominent leaders of the Youth League and New Yevon respectively, but that didn't mean Rikku had to listen to their every warning.
"Excellent." Rikku grinned proudly, and put one hand high in the air. "It'll be like a mission."
"No, it's not a mission. Why do you even want to camp out in the Den of Woe so badly?" Yuna sighed, stumbling over some of her words with obvious exasperation.
"I've been thinking a lot in the past two weeks." Rikku walked pensively with her index finger at her chin and a far-off gaze. She pointed to Yuna, her finger decisively pushing off the invisible resistance of her cousin. "This is the only way I can get some things resolved, Yunie." But there was no convincing her, and Yuna simply gave a wave of her hand.
"Fine, if there's no talking you out of this, then we're going with you," Yuna asserted with a nod.
"We are?" Tidus interjected again, but on seeing Yuna's 'you're-not-helping' stare, he straightened in his chair, and then relenting to Yuna's silent will, he shrugged.
"No, no, Yunie, please let me do this alone," Rikku pleaded. She needed to know she could do this alone. She had to do it alone. No more grandiose ex-summoner by her side to baby-sit her. It was her way of facing her fears. No one can do it with someone cooing at you on the side.
"But that Nooj guy said they're blowing it up for good, ya?" Wakka finally emerged out of his silent observation.
"What?" Both Yuna and Rikku voiced simultaneously.
"When will it happen?" Rikku asked, shaking the broad Wakka by the shoulders for the answer.
"I don't know." He gave a flinch and a nervous smile. Rikku groaned. Her plans were completely for nothing if that was the case.
"It's settled then. See, it's happening for a reason. You know that Paine would agree that it's utter madness on your part. I mean, Yevon, you took it the," Yuna suddenly stopped covering her mouth almost immediately. Her expression in her mismatched eyes was aghast, and she gazed at Tidus, also overcome with a sudden awkwardness. Wakka cleared his throat and said something about hearing Vidina crying. He ran out of the room, leaving Rikku simply gaping at her cousin, trying to decipher what she had meant to say.
"Why don't we talk about this tomorrow?" Tidus chuckled in his usual boyish nervous manner. Rikku still eyed them with curiosity, but was tired of arguing and of feeling guilty of going against Yuna's perfectly sound wishes—though Rikku hated to admit that last part.
---
Since his return, Tidus and Yuna had stayed up many nights lying about on the white cool sands of the beach under the moonlight. Yuna would trace the sparkling swath of stars across the darkness and tell her many anecdotes of being a Gullwing. He had realized then that she was a complete stranger to him, but his heart still clung to the familiarity of her smile and her selfless kindness toward Spira. But honestly, he couldn't imagine Yuna getting up and leaving without saying a word to anyone, or even deciding to run into a temple and steal a sphere. She had been very proud of that latter one. Her face glistened in the moonlight, and she pointed to her chest saying proudly, "And I said, we'll just take it!"
She sounded like a small child sometimes retelling those funny memories from high school, how she and her friends had done this or that, thought up silly notions, made insane choices. Her speech was fast and giddy. She was eager to show how much she had become and how much she had accomplished all by herself. She wanted him to see that she was not the pushover she had once been as a summoner and that in his absence, the will behind everything she had done, driven by his love, was as powerful as the same invisible force that pulled the moon closer to the planet during the summer tide.
And then, the anecdote on the Den of Woe finally presented itself, and Yuna's face lost her appetite to show and give. It became mournful and brought her voice down to a murmur. Tidus had laughed at the name, and commented on what an odd-sounding word "woe" was, but she had only smiled with her lips tightly pressed together as if trying to avoid a disapproving frown.
"I thought I had lived through some horrible things and that I knew everything, but that placed proved me wrong," she remarked and Tidus sat still, his brow tensing and his glare deepening. Yuna glanced toward the black night. She said she had only been stronger than Rikku and Paine, because she had familiarized herself with a kind of possession because of the Aeons, but the feeling of Shuyin, the thousand-year old spirit that possessed her, had almost devoured her. She felt him slip inside and dig and dig as if trying desperately to find something, seeking power she did not have or perhaps desperation she did not understand.
Seeing Rikku so determined to beat her fear of that cave like she had done for the Thunderplains made Tidus forget for a moment how terrible Yuna's description of that place had been. It had made Yuna, Rikku and Paine fight each other, and it had made the team members from the Crimson Squad that had trained in that place kill each other off. How could he forget that?
It was Rikku. She had that odd effect to make everything seem lighthearted and simple. Yuna's courage was a decisive collectedness, but Rikku was a cheery determination to face anything. Rikku had changed a lot too, more than he would probably ever get to know. Yuna knew these changes, and he did not, so when Yuna turned to him with an exasperated and horrified expression, all he could do was embrace her apologetically.
"I'm so stupid. I almost said," she stopped again and looked at him with disheartened eyes. "I almost said 'you took it the worst.'"
"Because it's true, isn't it, when you guys were in that cave, Rikku took it real bad." Tidus put in, but Yuna shook her head.
"I guess. I don't know. I'd never seen her like that before. Paine seemed lost and dejected. I fought her and it was over." Yuna laid her head on his shoulder. "Rikku—she—there was the most tormented look on her face. Whatever she was seeing, it was worse than whatever I saw or Paine saw for that matter."
"You've never talked to her about it?" Tidus stroked her soft brown hair.
"There was no time, and then it just never came up," she said and then pushed herself from him, "Why in the world would she ever do this?"
"Because she's Rikku. You know her best, Yuna, but from what I gather she's grown much stronger." At this Yuna nodded, but still seemed rather unconvinced about the whole situation. Tidus could tell how much Yuna wanted to protect her, but Rikku wasn't a child anymore. She had grown up and had been completely on her own for a year now.
"Why don't we sleep on it? I'll help you figure something out," he said and she smiled, cupping his face and kissing him. It was one of those rare moments for men, when for once, the right thing had actually come out of his mouth, and they said long-term relationships ruined that kind of thing. If he'd only known then, that though he had said the right thing at the right time, he would still have to deal with a very angered Yuna the next morning.
He had been asleep for only two hours, when he woke up in the middle of the night, startled out of his sleep, swearing he heard some kind of shuffling noise in the tent. Tidus wondered whether it was a small fiend or some other wild animal variety creature that had crept in, so he alerted his ears and opened his eyes letting them slowly adjust to the dark.
"Cunno." He heard a whisper and after a few seconds of mental delay due to his grogginess, he shot up in bed. He could recognize that apology any time. Yuna stirred a bit to his side, but remained asleep. He slowly slipped from underneath the covers, and put on a shirt as quickly as he could.
"Rikku!" Tidus yelled for her. He had chased her all the way to the other side of the island and as he got closer he heard the pulsing hum of engines. He finally saw her when he reached the beach and waiting for her there was the Celsius. Rikku had frozen in her steps, turned in a pivot and flinched at the sight of Tidus.
"I got caught," she said and chuckled nervously.
"Yeah, you did. What do you think you're doing?" He saw that she had her torn hunter green travel bag slung over her shoulder.
"Um, I'm going for a late night ride, dad?" She chuckled again.
"This will hurt Yuna's feelings. She's really worried about you," Tidus said, and Rikku grimaced.
"I know, but please, let me do this." She placed both palms together in a begging stance.
"Where are you going?" he asked, still not understanding her motives for running away.
"Bevelle." Her face became serious. The mere mention of the name called forth old resentments in both of them.
"You hate Bevelle," Tidus said reproachfully. Bevelle was the land of torment to him, not even the ruins of Zanarkand had that kind of reprehensible defensive effect in his character. In his mind, Bevelle was synonymous with Seymour and all the other the maesters, the cover-up of their crimes, and the deaths of so many innocent people at the hand of a religion that cared for nothing but its decrepit beliefs based on a deranged armor-maker.
"No, you hate it," she pointed out. Her usually striking green eyes had become grayish in the moonlight. He shook his head. What she said didn't matter, because deep inside he knew that Rikku had a similar resentment toward Bevelle.
"What for then?" he asked.
"Rikku! You're taking forever!" Brother muttered in his slurred Al Bhed from atop the deck. Rikku waved a hand at him and then turned back to Tidus.
"Tell Yunie I'm sorry, but I've got to get those spheres from Baralai anyway and make sure they don't blow up the Den of Woe before I even get a chance." She neared him, and he noticed her tight-lipped smile. She lightly nicked his chin with a fisted hand. "Cheer up, will you? I'll be fine." Rikku had that infectious demeanor about her that he just couldn't help but smile back.
"Maybe Yuna's right. There are better ways of dealing with something like this," he insisted, just a little bit more.
"Then it wouldn't be any fun." She grinned, tapping him playfully on the shoulder. "See you around, Tidus." She ran toward the Celsius, and the giant red airship let down its hangar door, and just before Rikku entered, she whipped her head around and yelled, "Don't have any babies while I'm gone!"
Tidus' face flushed and was thankful for the darkness of the night. He watched as the Celsius engines roared, and the ship ascended into the skies and finally out of view. Oh, he would have a quite scene tomorrow while he tried to explain this to Yuna. Why did Rikku always do this to him?