A/N-Oh, I'm so sorry this took so long! I hope you all haven't given up on me. I promise it was totally worth the wait. And do review, please.

Les Etoiles

"Yuna, you're father will be down momentarily. He's just finishing up for the day."

"Thanks, Angie." Yuna smiled at her father's secretary and took a seat near the elevators that led up to her father's office. A place that had only been visited by herself and a select few 'elite' clients.

She smoothed the fabric of her skirt as she waited. He had called her at home to tell her to be at his office at 7:30 because he wanted to take her out to dinner. It wasn't entirely surprising; her father liked to spring dinners on her every now and again, as if to reassure her that she was, in fact, daddy's girl.

After ten minutes, Yuna had begun to count the tiny speckles on the marble floor when a small ding of the elevator alerted her to the fact that her father had arrived.

Two men stepped out of the elevator, both grinning broadly.

"It's been a pleasure doing business with you," Braska said as they exited the elevator. They both walked past Yuna, oblivious of her presence.

"And you," said the other, grasping the hand that Braska had outstretched. "And call me about that game this weekend."

"Count on it," he said, and both men chuckled to themselves.

When the other man turned to leave, Yuna stood to alert her father to her presence. "Dad?"

Braska turned and when his eyes landed on Yuna, she thought she saw his smile flicker for an instant. But maybe she had just imagined it, because an instant later her father had the grin hitched back onto his face.

"Yuna! Right on time, as always." Braska glanced at his watch before turning to his secretary.

"Angie, I'm heading out now. Make sure that report is sent out by nine tomorrow, it can't be late."

"Of course, Mr. Konami." She said with a smile.

"Let's go Yuna." Braska strode ahead of his daughter, leaving her to follow in his wake.

She furrowed her brow. Her father usually greeted her with nothing less than a hug; today he seemed to not even want to look at her. Her frown remained on her face as she followed him to his car, three steps behind him the entire time.

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The next 15 minutes did nothing to ease her uncertainties. It was one of the iciest car rides she had ever experienced. They didn't speak a word to each other the entire time they were in the car. Yuna tried to run off a mental list in her head of what she could've possibly done to piss him off, but nothing that she could think of justified Braska alienating her like this.

Yuna crossed her arms as they stopped in front of Les étoiles, her father's favorite high-end restaurant. Her father tossed his keys to the valet driver and walked through the doors without a backward glance at Yuna.

The maitre d' greeted them both with a smile. "Ah, Mr. Konami, your usual table I presume?"

With a nod, they both followed the tuxedoed man away from most of the other customers, giving them a false sense of privacy.

"If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

"Thank you, Andrews."

Andrews bowed deeply before returning to his station at the entrance of Les Etoiles

Yuna chewed on her bottom lip. Whatever was causing her father to act this way was making her nervous. She felt her stomach twist as she picked up the menu without really seeing it. Yuna let her foot jiggle for several more painfully silent moments before she spoke.

"So…did you bring me here to talk about something?" she asked slowly, pausing after every other word.

On any other day, Yuna would've expected an answer like "Do I need a reason to take my daughter to dinner?" This, however, depended on Braska acting like his normal self. But Yuna had an idea that she was in for something less pleasant than some cutesy clichéd response she was used to hearing.

Braska took a sip of his water and then pushed it to the side; he was getting serious.

"There's definitely something we need to discuss."

"Well, this sounds like fun," Yuna snapped automatically, before biting the inside of her lip. It probably wasn't the best idea to incite her father, when he was already obviously pissed.

"This boy," her father went on, ignoring her last statement. "Tidus. He's Jecht's son, right?"

"Um, yeah." Yuna shifted in her seat. She didn't like where the conversation was heading.

Braska sighed. "Look, Yuna, you're not going to like what I have to say, but you need to stay away from him."

"What?" Yuna's anger instantly boiled to the surface. "Why?"

Braska leaned forward. "Yuna, I know men. I've worked with some of the worst of them and I know what their intentions are. Stay away from him." He enunciated the last four words slowly and clearly.

"Dad-what are you talking about? Have you even met him? How do you know who he is?" she asked incredulously.

"I know his father," said Braska bluntly. It seemed as though he thought his words would end their discussion, but Yuna wasn't finished.

"You know his father?" Yuna repeated in a deadpan voice. "Like that's supposed to mean anything."

"It does and it will. I know his type, Yuna. I don't want you near him. He'll only hurt you."

Yuna gave a derisive laugh. She couldn't quite get her head around the idea of her father being so unreasonable. "Right, right. Like that's never happened before." She shook her head. "I can't believe you're acting like I'm still a child. But you know, I guess that would explain why you always hold things back from me." Yuna felt her voice rising; the more she said the louder she got. "What have you been doing, dad? Background checks? Looking at police records? Don't tell me you've pulled Spike out of retirement, I know how he loved tailing people for you."

"That's not what I've been doing." Braska said in an icy calm tone. "I didn't need to. I know this man. His family isn't any good."

"They play blitzball, dad! His father is famous for it, how bad can they be!" she said, her voice rising an octave. She was also painfully aware of how thick it was becoming. Yuna swallowed hard, trying to push the tears back.

"There are things you don't know, Yuna!" Braska banged his hand on the table, beginning to lose his own temper at last.

"Then tell me! If you'd done that in the first place, we wouldn't be having this argument!" screamed Yuna. She felt a slight shift in the conversation and it was making her feel sick.

"You know, Yuna," Braska began, a dangerous note in his voice. "Maybe if you'd start acting your age and for God's sake maybe stop being so naïve, then we wouldn't be in this situation, period!" His voice, too, had increased dramatically in volume and passion.

"Well if you didn't hide so much from us then maybe she wouldn't've left!" Yuna's voice had increased so loudly that almost the entire restaurant had quieted, regardless of the fact that their table was somewhat isolated from the rest of the patrons.

The only thing that Yuna could hear was her heart pounding in her ears as she stood, forcefully knocking her chair backwards. This temporary deafness made it easy to ignore the scattered whispers as she swiftly navigated to and through the double doors and into the night air.

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Yuna struggled to keep her tears in check as she stormed through the city streets. The words that had transpired between the two stung her heart. She couldn't recall the last time she had been this angry with him, or indeed, had gotten in a fight at all.

But after several blocks and many blind turns, Yuna forced herself to slow down and take in her surroundings. It took several more seconds for her to realize that she had no idea where she was.

"Well, this is awesome," she muttered.

In her anger, she had also forgotten her purse, forgoing any chance of calling someone she knew to pick her up.

Yuna moved to shove her hands in her pockets to fish out change for a pay phone, but her hands met air; she was wearing a skirt…no pockets.

"This is perfect. I can't even call a cab." Yuna squinted at the milieu and sighed. How do I not know where I am? She couldn't be more than a few blocks from the restaurant, if she could just find the street she could-

"Lost?" an oily voice came from behind her.

Yuna whipped around, her stomach nearly jumping through her throat. "No, I-I'm fine." She tried in vain to steady her voice as she spoke. She couldn't quite see the man's face; his hoodie shrouded it from view.

"You sure? We could get you home safe and sound."

We?

The man spread his arms and Yuna froze as two men stepped out of the shadows.

"For a small fee, of course."

What small part of his face Yuna could see broke into a hungry grin, revealing several missing teeth, and one covered in gold. The other two followed suit, one chucking as he cracked his knuckles.

Yuna flinched at the sound, her mouth completely dry. Her mind was screaming at her to run, scream, anything, but her feet remained planted firmly on the pavement and her mouth stayed glued shut.

"Come on, darlin', we can show you all sorts of thrills…" crooned one of the men.

How could there not be anyone here to see this? Yuna thought fiercely, her feet still rooted to the spot. Please god, just send me someone, anyone, I don't care.

She inhaled sharply as she felt pressure on her shoulder.

"God, I've been looking for you all over this town."

Yuna was turned around roughly by whoever had an iron grip on her shoulder. She winced, but one look at the face of who it was made her forget her pain entirely.

"Squall?" Yuna croaked. She had half expected her father, or maybe even Auron.

"Yeah, me-" he pointed at his chest. "Squall. As in the one that's been trying to find you all night."

"All night…but…?"Yuna's mind was swimming. Before she had a chance to react, Squall began to tug her away from her three would-be assailants, all of whom he ignored completely, and towards a more populated area.

They crossed the street, his arm now around her shoulders, keeping her pulled tight to him. She didn't dare speak in case the three were following, although she didn't know how much harm they could do now that she and Squall were around actual people.

Once they were safely obscured from view, Yuna's mind and body snapped into sync. She wrenched herself out of Squall's grip and turned to face him.

"What was that?"

Squall grinned in an apologetic sort of way. "Sorry, I had to make them think I was a force to be reckoned with if I didn't feel like getting physical."

"Physical? I don't know why you did that in the first place!"

Squall raised his eyebrows. "What, you mean you wanted me to leave you there?"

"No," Yuna's face began to burn. "I just wish I knew what you were doing. I probably looked like an idiot," she said, running her hand through her hair.

Squall snorted. "As opposed to how you could've looked while you were being gang raped."

Yuna's anger flared up once again, she knew what he was saying was right, and arguing a point would be completely moot, but she couldn't contain the frustration she'd been feeling in the first place. She needed to get something out.

"I can take care of myself, you know." She glared at him, knowing full well that there was no way she could've taken on three full-grown men by herself. "I wasn't some stupid damsel in distress that needed rescuing."

Squall snorted again and placed a hand on his hip, looking down at her condescendingly. "You know, you were exactly like this when we were dating. You were never grateful for anything, anybody-"

"Grateful!" Yuna shrieked. "You know, I never asked you to help me. I would've been perfectly fine on my own!"

"Oh really? What would you have done Yuna? Thrown money at them? You know, it's weird." Squall pretended to be in thought. "I was always under the impression that they were the ones that are supposed to be giving you the money. But that must be why you're so pissed off--I just lost you three customers."

Yuna felt her mouth drop open slightly and her breathing become shallow. She was so stunned by his words that she almost didn't hear a soft "Hey" come from behind Squall.

Both teenagers looked to see who it was--Yuna's stomach felt like it had dropped out of her body, along with anything that could've been useful at the moment. Like basic motor functions.

Tidus stared at the both of them, his hand resting on the back of a girl Yuna instantly recognized as Dona. They two looked like they had just stepped out of the small café set behind them.

All four seemed to be caught in varying degrees of shock or just plain awkwardness. Squall recovered first.

"Um-" he hastily cleared his throat since it had just come out an octave higher than usual. "'Sup Tidus?"

This seemed to break the deer-caught-in-headlights syndrome that had fallen over them and they all visibly relaxed, though Yuna was still eyeing Tidus and Dona with a clenched jaw. She was having trouble deciding whom she loathed more at the moment, Dona or Squall.

"Didn't think I'd see you guys here," Tidus said, looking grateful for a reason to take his hand off of Dona.

"Yeah, well, we just bumped into each other," Squall said, not meeting Yuna's eyes.

Yuna nodded, and forced herself to speak. "Well, it was really nice seeing you all, but I have to go. My father's waiting for me." Yuna tried to offer them a smile, but her face didn't seem to want to cooperate. The most she could do was give them a small twitch with her mouth before she hightailed it out of there, fully intent on calling a cab, no matter if she had the money or not.

She stood by the side of the curb, her eyes on the search for anything yellow-there was never a cab when you really needed one…

She heard the footsteps before she registered that someone was calling her name. "Yuna! Wait up!"

Yuna stopped and turned around to watch Tidus expertly weaving in between people.

"Look, Yuna, I just wanted to tell you that-what you saw back there, it wasn't what it looked like."

Yuna forced her features to resemble something that she hoped looked like mild surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"Uh, well, you know, me and Dona. We were just-"

"Tidus." Yuna held up a hand to stop him. It was painful to hear him try and make excuses for what he was doing. "It's not like we're dating. You're allowed to go out with other people, regardless of whether or not it's a date," she said, making it sound like he didn't need to justify himself.

"Thanks Yuna, I'm-I'm glad you feel that way." He smiled, but somehow it looked different. It wasn't the radiant grin that he was famous for; it almost seemed forced. But before Yuna could properly analyze it, he had already turned away from her.

"I'll call a cab for you."

Tidus stuck two fingers in his mouth and gave a piercing whistle, attracting the attention of a driver just dropping off a client close by.

"Thank you," Yuna said quietly as Tidus opened the door for her. She stepped into the cab, but hesitated. Tidus was looking down at her, his hand on the door. Both looked like they were about to speak when-

"Tidus?" Dona's hand crept up onto Tidus' shoulder. "I was worried, I didn't know where you ran off to," she said, smiling warmly at him.

"Sorry, babe."

Yuna slid the rest of the way into the car and pulled the door shut and out of Tidus' grasp. She told the driver her destination and as the taxi pulled away, she turned to give both Tidus and Dona a cool smile, but she found they had already turned away.

A/N-I know you guys probably all think I'm obsessed with French, but I swear that's not the case, I don't even take that language anymore.