December 1, 2011
Chapter 2: Life and Death of First Love
Her walk was brisk and focused. She wanted away from that room – that woman. Not long after Leblanc had stalked off because of Paine – not her – Yuna excused herself from the room. Of course Rikku protested and wanted to follow, but Yuna insisted that the Al Bhed's assistance was not needed.
Gulls flew freely around the pier and Yuna's heart ached. Cawing and circling and diving all to the birds' own accord. She wanted that. Badly. Yuna was older than Paine, and yet, she was the one being rescued. The young socialite wanted more than anything to scream and even punch the blonde with the pointed witch heels in the face. But, she wouldn't and perhaps that was the worst part.
-FFX-2-
Tidus released a long held breath. Well, he had done it, in spite of all the threats from Norio that rained on him since the first match he played. The Mighty Faction was in the final match for the cup. They were even leading by a few points, but Tidus knew how quickly that could change. Surprisingly, they were not playing the Luca Goers as suspected, but the Bevelle Beasts, highly religious and often preachy muscled-headed priests. And, from what Tidus learned, the Bevelle Beasts played dirty.
Tidus stretched his arms wide and yawned, even though he wasn't tired. Actually, he was on pins and needles. He wanted to win, and for once, prove he was more than a lowly marine excavator. As the blonde athlete started his way back to the lockers, having left to gain some quiet during half time, he was shocked to see a young woman, close in age, crying.
-FFX-2-
A gloved, wet hand laid carefully on her shoulder, completely shutting down the water works in fear it was her friends, Yuna turned around carefully and swallowed hard as piercing, ocean colored eyes looked into her bi-colored ones. His eyebrows raised in curiosity at her.
His voice was soft and tentative. "Hey, are – are you okay?"
It was almost surreal as it dawned on Yuna that the player didn't recognize who she was. It was a wonderful feeling because his words were not filled with false caring and obligated duty.
"I'm – I'm fine, really." But, the man before her titled his head to one side, seeing her lack of confidence to make the answer truth.
At first, Yuna was certain that she was hearing his heart beating, they were that close in proximity. Then looking over his relaxed stance and boyish grin, she was sure the pounding was her own. She must of done something subconscious because the stranger before her was grinning even more so.
"If you say so, I guess I have to believe ya," he leaned away and it was cool as the breezed whooshed between them, emphasizing the space now created. "I'm Ti, one of the players on the Mighty Faction. Maybe you heard of us?"
Yuna smiled."How couldn't I? You're the underdog team that has everyone rooting for them . . . even me." She looked away, afraid that her attempt at flirting fell faster than an uncoordinated shoopuf.
"Then I guess were the luckiest team around if we have someone as pretty and nice as you for a fan."
Yuna giggled and blushed, and suddenly felt even more shy than normal. Somehow, if she spoke she felt it would ruin this rare opportunity where she was normal and not some piece of fragile glass. She watched him cross his arms over his chest only to stuff them in his pockets and then move one hand to his hip while the other hand sought refuge at the back of his neck.
"Yuna!" the voice was commanding and yet, light at the end. It was no doubt Paine's and it was coming from the closest stadium gate entrance.
"So, your name is Yuna," Tidus said, grinning again.
"Yunie! Where are you?" Yuna could hear some further mutterings, most likely Rikku cursing in Al Bhed because of the absent response. Yuna wished for this little moment to never end.
"Yuna!" This was not a mistaken holler of her name. It was Bartello, a bouncer, per se, and a devout Yevonite. If the stocking and somewhat dull-minded man caught Yuna associating with a blitz player, and more importantly scummy Al Bhed (even Al Bhed had a class system and blitz ball players were not high on the hierarchy), he would have a fit.
-FFX-2-
Tidus watches Yuna quickly run to the gate entrance. Her white dress with purple design swayed as she dashed across the walkway. Tidus was crestfallen until Yuna turned around. "It was great meeting you. I, uh, I had a great time, thank you." Tidus hoped he didn't look as surprised as he felt. Yuna performed the blessing gesture and continued to meet whoever was relentlessly calling her.
Father Zuke was being lead by a tree-like creature Tidus had never seen in his short seven years. The man seemed middle aged and filled with wisdom from experience more than learned by scholarly means. Concealed behind a piece of ruins at the entrance of an abandoned city, the green haired man spoke, "Zuke, this child is very important. You must keep him and his true origins a secret."
"Praetor Jysical, is there something I am missing?" Father Zuke asked. Tidus was holding tightly onto Father Zuke's robes, almost hanging on them to keep stable. Brandished with scratches and mud, Tidus was feeling weak.
Jysical looked around, his face pensive in thought. "Not now, but I will surely inform you later."
Tidus sighed, considering returning to the locker room early. A shiny light aimed in his eyes forced Tidus' attention to the ground. It wasn't a light, but a necklace. He picked up the delicate jewelery and recalled Yuna wearing one.
"This must be hers." Tidus moved to return the necklace then it dawned on him that he had no clue where she sat.
I'll see her after the game, thought Tidus. A smile crept up uncontrollably on his face. Then I'll have another reason to talk to her. Tidus tucked away the necklace carefully in one of his pockets.
The blitzer started to jog his way back to his team when a group of Yevonite guards who had been lingering not far away, circled the Mighty Faction player.
-FFX2-
"Careful, Yunie," Rikku warned, stepping beside her cousin. "What're you looking at anyway?" The perky blonde also began leaning over to search for what her cousin may be looking for.
"What are you doing?" Paine asked, jutting a hip out, arms akimbo, looking rather indifferent at the situation. And even though the question regarded both girls, only one answered.
"Yunie's looking for someone," Rikku informed then smiled devilishly. "You wouldn't be actually watching the game, would you?" The Al Bhed princess had never known her friend to be a sports fan. They watched the ambassador in-training slowly scan the arena, ignoring them entirely. "Err, Yunie, what are you looking at? I want to know," she whined.
Paine rolled her eyes and flanked Yuna on the other side. Paine's interest was now piqued. The trio continued like this for awhile, when a ruckus from behind startled all three, almost causing them to fall over the balcony.
"What's wrong Norio? You not handling the loss well?" said Rikku's mother, Michiyo. A group had gathered as Norio began to stomp and swear, conducting himself like a toddler.
"That brat – I'm gonna kill him." An unsettling silence flooded the room. Norio soon noticed it, too. Looking around confused, the rough pirate mumbled.
"Surely you aren't going to truly kill a man as a result of a game?" Kunimi asked, suspicious of the man's intentions.
"N-n-no, I – I wouldn't be so upset if that jackass was at least out there. He abandoned the whole team!" Norio explained.
"That is peculiar that a blitzer of his caliber would not show up for the last half of a game."
Rikku searched for the voice in the amassing crowd. It was Baralai's. A young man on his way to becoming one of the maesters of New Yevon; he is much respected among everyone for his objective point of view and diplomacy.
Baralai was talking with Gippal over the player's weird absence. Rikku would have stomped over and demanded information from the Yevonite – she never trusted Yevonites with the exception of Yuna – but had seconds thought when she saw who Baralai was conversing with. Gippal was there and she was not speaking to Gippal. The pompous jerk! The slime ball skirt chaser!
Finally, the loudmouth Al Bhed was struck with an epiphany. "You were looking for him? Why?"
Yuna froze her face flushing. Realizing she had struck gold, Rikku continued. "So, how do you know him –wait, that's who you were talking to? That's what you were doing!"
Some heads turned, each girl blushing, Rikku tittering at the newly gained attention. Soon everyone went back to the third degree Norio was receiving, no longer interested in the two women.
"I just have a really bad feeling," her cousin confessed. Yuna's concern for the missing blitz ball player visibly weighed on her shoulders, and both Rikku and Paine exchanged worried looks themselves.
-FFX2-
Tidus coughed as the Yevonite guard connected his fist with Tidus' stomach. Two guards were holding him while two more guards alternated to give an assortment of punches and kicks. The last guard and leader of the group continued to heckle Tidus.
"You filthy Al Bhed think you are equal to us, just because you have knowledge of machines. Well, here is some news, you will never be better than us."
CRACK!
Tidus tried to sling back a retort, but he was certain after that last punch his jaw was broken. Through only one eye, as the other had swollen shut long ago, Tidus watched the scene in a blur.
"And to think you were going to take the cup – ha!"
CRACK!
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he registered that the numbing sensation was the source of another connected hit to his ribs from the other guard's steel-toed boots. It felt like hours that he had been subjected to this beating, but he knew that it was maybe fifteen – twenty minutes max. He should have known better than to try and talk his way out when he seen the guards coming. Through the cracked goggles he was wearing, Tidus watched with his one good eye the leader pace back and forth in front of him.
"Your kind started the war with Sin. You are responsible for the numerous lives that were killed by Sin. And now, you want to spread that filthy machine ideology to us, again! Are you looking to have Sin return? We should just lock you all up and get rid of the problem now!"
CRACK!
A spray of blood rained on the offending guard after he launched another punch to the blonde's broken face. Tidus couldn't believe it, but seeing the outrage on his face, the blitzer attempted a slurred apology in hopes of avoiding a worse retaliation.
Tidus cringed at the incoming swing. He wasn't that lucky.
-FFX2-
The game was near ending. Paine sighed, her bangs that were brushed to the side flipping up from the sudden breeze. Yuna had been walking in small circles since Rikku discovered her secret investment in the young and missing blitz ball player. Rikku stopped a hair short of colliding into Yuna who had stopped suddenly.
"I can't stay here."
"Huh?" Rikku was facing Yuna in a heartbeat.
"I have to find out what happened." Yuna rushed from the room; her parents and others protesting and questioning the sudden break away. However, Yuna was too fast to be stopped, and soon Paine found herself apologizing and assuring she would find Yuna with the crazy Al Bhed right behind her.
Paine began pushing herself harder, noticing Yuna was gaining distance from them.
-FFX2-
Yuna had forgotten her friends, the dignitaries, everyone. She scanned the spot, but he wasn't there. Unwilling to give up, she traveled to the following pier – nothing. Yuna was panting, her fear choking her.
One more pier, she thought.
And, there he was, laying face down on the wooden dock. Yuna could feel her panic overwhelm her, washing her cheeks in tears. She fell to her knees, slowly turning him over. An inaudible murmur trickled from Tidus. Yuna gently hushed him, trying to assess the damage.
Paine trotted to a stop when she saw Yuna hunched over. Upon closer inspection, Paine realized the person she was attempting to save was none other than the missing Mighty Faction player.
"He-he needs help," Yuna stuttered. Paine nodded, leaving to find someone to save the player. Rikku stayed behind, shocked into stillness.
"Yunie . . ."
Yuna's mind hummed with different possible courses of action to take to ease his pain. Yuna laid her hands on his bumpy abdomen, confirming broken ribs. Rikku leaned over her cousin's shoulder. In awe, she watched his nose snap in place, almost certain that her cousin was . . .
"Rikku I need you go get help!"
Jarred from her thoughts she rushed to search for assistance.
-FFX2-
Yuna was stirred from her prayers at the sound of approaching footsteps. Tidus was still very injured and Yuna could only try to apply pressure on some of the more severe open wounds, and hope he would recover. Looking over her shoulder was a fair skinned woman dressed in a midnight colored dress, with buckles holding it together. The woman looked familiar, but she wasn't sure from where.
-FFX2-
Lulu continued to stare at Yuna, certain she had seen her healing the man before, but was told seconds ago that he was in need of help. Lulu was bewildered how her assistance as a healer was needed when there was someone already white magic knowledgeable there. Before she could voice her confusion, Yuna pled for her to heal him.
Lulu reluctantly did as asked. She was not a known for her white magic, rather more so her black magic abilities. But, hearing the frantic Al Bhed cry for help, she agreed to follow her. Mouthing spell after spell of curaga, the young man stirred.
"Yuna," he strained, his hand reaching for hers. The name was one she had heard before. She was Lord Braska's daughter! It was both an honor and worst fear of Lulu's. Braska was a very powerful man, and judging the situation his daughter had attached herself to, Lulu was uncertain she was to be some accomplice.
Declaring the young man cured, she promptly left.
'Something is going on and I do not want to be a part of it.'
-FFX2-
Even with the cracked and scratched up goggles, Yuna knew the man in front of her was starring into her two-toned eyes. Frowning at the inability to see his sparking eyes, and wanting much to see them again, she was tempted to remove his eyewear.
Paine returned with Braska, Auron – her father's guardian on his pilgrimage to defeat Sin, Cid, and Seymour.
"What's going on?" Cid demanded, looking more towards Braska then anyone else.
"It's obvious," began Seymour who was then cut off by another emerging group. Loud arguing and cursing exploded from behind them. Lee, Auron's son, was navigating two of the guards that had been related to the attack toward everone. Seymour looked surprised then recovered his features. Yuna had been watching the half Guado, half Spirian carefully. Since their first meeting ten years ago, Yuna always felt fearful and weary of the revered maestor.
"I found them gloating about having taught an Al Bhed a "lesson"." Lee was very strong minded like his father. He was also very protective of those who could not protect themselves or who had been wrongly done. His dark eyes and dark hair were a stark contrast to his ashen skin. He looked vicious by those standards alone, without the dark mesh-netted shirt that defined his sculpted torso.
"What do you have to say for yourselves?" Auron asked in his gruff voice, adding a tinge of threatening demeanor to his prey.
The guards seemed to trip over their words. When things looked bad, one stepped up and said that he was stopping a thief. Yuna, who was cradling Tidus as he regained his bearing, balked at the accusation.
"And what had he stolen?" Braska asked.
"That necklace." The guard picked it up where it had fallen out of Tidus' pocket, and showed it to the high summoner. Braska inspected it, his eyes widening.
"This is your necklace, Yuna." Yuna stretched her hand to see the piece of jewelry, though she didn't need to. From her spot she knew that it belonged to her.
"He must have stolen it," Seymour announced, stepping forward. "You know how they are."
"What'd ya mean by that?" Cid snarled; his hand already balled into fists.
"Calm yourself," Seymour chided. "You know as well as I do what I mean," he added pointedly.
"Wait, wait, I found it. I was going to return it!" Tidus interjected. "The chain must have snapped."
"The necklace is broken," Rikku pointed out. She was looking at it from her spot next to her cousin. Yuna continued to finger the delicate charm, stunned that she did not notice its disappearance earlier.
"Or so he says. Perhaps he snapped it when trying to steal it," Seymour countered. Tidus narrowed his eyes at the dignitary towering over him.
"Do you remember losing it?" her father asked, gently. Yuna looked up at him, reminiscent of times when she was a little girl, her father so tall and untouchable. For a long time Yuna was lost in her memories, the others seeming to fade away, leaving her and Braska.
"I-I, we were talking. I-I don't recall feeling it slip – but it doesn't mean he took – he was comforting me because I was upset – not at anyone, I was just overwhelmed, and I . . ." The more Yuna spoke the worst it sounded and all the time she rambled Tidus was watching her with a face that spoke of betrayal and most of all hurt. By now he was sitting upright by himself, staring at her in disbelief.
"So, you don't know, Yuna?" her father asked, cutting his daughter off.
Closing her eyes, she wished desperately to disappear. "No."
"High Summoner Braska, this young delinquent had taken advantage of your daughter. Let justice prevail. I will see to it that he punished for his crime."
"To be beaten again?" Lee snorted, crossed with the results.
Seymour hissed, "No, and I will investigate this matter concerning the handling of this situation personally, so it does not happen again. I am just as horrified." His guards looked to protest, but Seymour glowered and they promptly shut their mouths.
"Braska," Auron implored of his friend, clearly unconvinced of the guards' justifications.
"I trust you, Seymour," Braska conceded, his words firm. Yuna scurried out of the guards' way while they hoisted Tidus up, handcuffing him as they led him away. Yuna glimpsed Tidus looking back, his face full of anger. And, Yuna was sure that it was at her and no one else. She was glad, for once, that she couldn't see his eyes. It would make everything that much worse.
Eventually, the crowd dispersed. Bartello was called and directed to escort Yuna anywhere and everywhere until they returned home to Bevelle. Walking back to the private seating area, the young ambassador trainee felt the stares of her friends drilling into her skull, filled with questions she didn't want to answer. Yuna wanted to scream her innocence . . . but she couldn't because she wasn't.
~ End Chapter 2
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