Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy X or X-2 or any of the characters associated with it.
I never realized this on our journey together, but Yuna is a terrific cook! Ever since I returned to the island, she has been cooking me dinner every night. Each dish has its own flair and taste. Her fried tempura is the best tempura I have ever tasted. Her domburi is excellent; every night she makes that dish I always ask for seconds, especially when it is oyakodon domburi. And her yakisoba always tastes different from the usual dish I have. She says she puts and extra ingredient in it, but she won't ever tell me what it is!
Her cooking is incredible. She always puts so much effort into it too. Her hands are so nibble. All I can see when she is chopping vegetables, is a blur. She just rushes around our small kitchen attending to each part of the dish so that it is perfect. The vegetables are never soggy, the meat is always cooked perfectly, and the soups are never too runny. And she can flip anything! It doesn't matter what it is, but she always manages, with little ease, to get it back into the pan without dropping a single piece of food.
But, I have to say the best part of it is when her face lights up when I tell her how good it is. She gives a bright smile and tastes it herself. Yuna always make a remark about how something is off, like there too much salt or she should have added more wasabi. But that always ends when I give her a quick peck on the cheek and tell her it's perfect.
All of Yuna's dishes taste good, except one. I can't stand her chazuke. It isn't that she cooks it bad because when Wakka and Lulu come over, they always rant about how amazing it is. I just hate chazuke. Yet out of all the dishes Yuna makes, it is the one she makes the most. Every time she makes it, I scarf it down so fast; so that I don't have to taste it, but that only makes her think I love it so much. So every time we have the meal, I end up have three servings of it before finally leaving the dinner table.
I tried talking to Wakka about it, but he just laughed and said, "Ya whipped brudda!"
Lulu's advice was better: be honest, but it still would be hard.
It had been two weeks since we had chazuke, which I was happy about, but my luck came to an end when I walked in the door and was greeted by the familiar smell of green tea and salmon: chazuke.
Yuna turned around and came and gave me a kiss, "Dinner will be ready in a few!" she greeted before returning to the sizzling salmon.
I sat down at the table, waiting to get tonight's meal over with. Yuna, with a smile, placed a warm bowl of chazuke in front of me. She sat down and began to eat, but I wouldn't touch the bowl. She had gotten a quarter of a way through the bowl when she noticed I wasn't eating.
"Tidus, what's wrong?"
Noticing my mistake, I grabbed my chop sticks and began to play with the rice, "Nothing's wrong, Yuna!" I took a deep whiff of the meal, and suddenly wished I hadn't. I began to feel nauseous.
Yuna began to look even more worried. She placed a cool hand on my forehead, "Are you sure? You look awful pale," I still didn't make move to eat the awful food, "and you're not eating your chazuke."
I frowned. This was it! I was finally going to tell her!
"Yuna!" she gave me her full attention, "I—ummm…I just wanted to say—ahem…"
I could hear Wakka's laughing, egging me on.
"I don't like chazuke."
Yuna's face fell, "You don't?"
I shook my head.
"But you would always eat so much—"
I cut her off, "I didn't want to hurt your feelings."
"Oh," her eyes fell to the ground in disappointment.
"Yuna! Don't be sad! You are a great cook and I love all your meals!" my voice began to fade, "I just don't like this one…"
Yuna smiled, "It is okay. I will just give the rest of this to Lulu and Wakka. I made a little extra for you tonight, but seeing how you won't be eating it," she stood up from the table and began to pack up the chazuke.
"Are you sure you aren't mad?" I asked.
"No, its fine." Yuna smiled even more.
I've know Yuna for almost two years now, and she has changed a lot in those two years we were apart, but one thing hasn't changed. She still gives a fake smile when she is sad. And that smile she was giving me was definitely a fake smile.
She gathered up the dish and walked out our little hut towards Wakka's. That's when I felt really guilty. I didn't mean to make her sad, but, hey, you don't like what you don't like. Trying to think of what I could do to make it up to her, I came across a small idea. It was going to be tough, but I could make it work.
Yuna came back to the hut over an hour later, and I could tell she was still a little depressed. She didn't even notice I was bustling around the kitchen hurrying to finish what I was doing. She sat down on our bed, and let out a deep sigh. I hurried over to her hiding something behind my back.
"Yuna?"
She glanced up at me with a questioning look.
I pulled the plate of melon pans from behind my back. They were all lopsided and they didn't look as good as the ones Yuna usually made, but they were still melon pans all the same.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."
Yuna looked curiously at the misshaped bread, before taking a small bite out of one. I saw her face cringe, and smiled when she said they had original taste. I took my own bite out of one and almost spat it right back out. Yuna began to laugh at my reaction, and I, too, joined her. We both were sitting on the bed when she spoke.
"It's okay that you don't like it," she gave me a slight nudge; "I don't like your melon pans."
"Hey," I answered in mock anger, "I worked hard on those!"
She giggled, kissing me. I dropped the plate and scooped her up into my arms, so that she was on my lap. When we stopped for air, Yuna let out a small laugh, while licking her lips.
"What is it?" I asked, confused.
Yuna smiled, "Now that was sweet," and she went in for another kiss.
Okay another one-shot for Life in Spira! I actually got this idea from watching some scenes from the Last Mission in FFX-2. On level 40, Rikku starts to get mad at Yuna for spending her time on the island doing nothing. Yuna tries to defend herself by saying she watches the sea and takes walks with Tidus, but the funniest one was where she said she makes a ton of dishes for Tidus.
And we all know how much of a softy Tidus is, so I thought it would be funny for him to not like one of her dishes and not say anything about it.
So tell me what you think! Did you like it, not like it, thought the characters were all wrong, thought they were good, etcetera… Thanks for reading!