Chapter 5: Flames of Investment

The fire spat and crackled as he prodded it with a little stick, and as she watched she would yawn and cover her mouth and apologize and he would tell her it was okay. The desert was now engulfed in darkness, and sometimes all he could see were her eyes; those pretty sparkling gems of blue and green. He looked at her with fascination and awe he hadn't felt since he was a little boy. He felt, fuzzy, inside. He turned his eyes back to the fire.

"Why were you looking at me, just there?"

He felt a pang of embarrassment, and he thanked god for the darkness because his face must've been beat red. For a moment he said nothing, trying to think of a simple apology. But he wanted no more of the awkward small talk that the night had been spent on; He wanted to be straight with her.

"I think you're really pretty, is all." He tried to look at her as he said it but he could feel his face turning red and he saw hers flush as well so he hung his head.

"Really?"

He nodded.

"...That's really sweet. No one's ever really told me that."

At this he regarded her with a look of madness. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. Why?"

He didn't respond to that one. Instead he just looked into her flaming eyes and held their gaze for what felt like eternity and in his own pair he tried with difficulty to emulate the confusion and warmth and passion he'd felt in the three-odd days he'd known her. He'd never been good at reading people, but he thought he saw something reflected, something that told him she understood. Or maybe he was just imagining it, because after that moment which now seemed so brief in retrospect they both turned returned to the flames and said nothing.

The next time she yawned he announced that he was going to pitch the tent, and she told him she was alright and that he didn't have to but he told her it had to be done. The mundane task distracted him accordingly from his stained and bruised heart, and when she asked if she could help he almost felt disappointed.

That night as they lay side by side he couldn't sleep because his mind still was far from ease. What place was there for someone like her, in this dark miserable world he'd known? Could so pretty a flower possibly thrive in this scorching desert of sand stained dark with blood and tears? He rolled over in his blankets and looked at her again. He wondered if she found him a complete idiot. This was likely, even if she did seem too kind a girl for that type of harshness. He'd ruined any chance he could have ever had completely. He closed his eyes.

"...Tidus?"

They shot open again.

"Yes, Yuna?"

"I wanted to thank you for saying I was pretty, I don't think I did when you told me..."

"I thought you did..."

"Really?"

"Well, your welcome anyhow, but damn girl, your manners are too good."

Even in the darkness and tiredness of the night the two were more than able to share a laugh.

"That ain't a bad thing!"

"Well, I wasn't sayin' it was. It's who you are, and you got no sense in tryin' to change that."

"No?"

"No mamn."

She giggled a little.

"You say my manners are too good...if I had a quarter for every time you called me 'mamn'..."

"Well yours are so good that I figured I ought to be damn polite in return."

Once they stopped laughing she spoke again.

"Don't call me mamn anymore though. Just Yuna."

"Okay. Was it bothering you?"

"No, no. It just, doesn't sound like something you'd call your friend."

They packed and rode out the same way they'd ridden in only the atmosphere had changed much as they now talked and laughed, and Tidus kept Cid at a gentle trot. She would still turn her head when he was speaking to her, and he would still get lost in her big eyes.

A good while after they'd resumed their trek Tidus heard the rhythmic plodding of a horses hooves behind them and he told Yuna to get off the horse and lay falt and she did and he drew the double-barrel and lept off the horse himself and waited. They had higher ground, and by the sounds of things he could be coming right towards them. He got up once more and yanked the great white mare to the ground with some difficulty and held him there.

"Yuna."

"What is it?"

"We still have a minute, get up and grab one of the pistols from my bag, and if this sumbitch does anything to me you shoot him right in the head and don't think twice."

"Okay," she said, though he could tell she didn't like the sound of it, and when she came back with Tidus' gray six-shooter it looked awkward and clumsy in her hands.

The unknown rider burst out of the forested perimeter that encircled the great tan landscape and rode directly at them. Tidus swore. He should have been smart and stuck off to the sides, in the trees.

Stupid bastard.

He had been too busy thinking about her.

Stupid bastard. Do you want her to die?

The rider was definitely coming straight down the middle of the plain and he wasn't slowing down, which either meant he was in a hurry and had no time for them or he was a speed devil. Neither would be much in their favor if the bastard didn't veer off their course a little. Tidus kept his hands firm on the smooth stock of the double-barrel and Yuna was watching him and he wasn't changing direction and he wasn't slowing down, and the clomping was getting closer and closer.

Oh hell.

Tidus raised the shotgun and fired a warning shot into the air and as the great crack echoed into the air and the smoke faded as he took cover behind the same rock Yuna had and waited as he heard the man jump off his fussing steed and bury himself in the sand and he heard a weapon cock. For a moment or two there was silence, just the tripped yellow dirt scattering in the wind as both parties breathed heavily.

"Hello?"

Tidus cleared his throat and yelled back: "Hello yerself."

"I reckon we're both waiting on each other to make a move."

"That seems to be the situation."

"Do you aim to shoot me, son?"

"That would depend entirely upon your motives, stranger."

"Right." He heard the man spit.

"Y'all armed?" Tidus called.

"I tend to have somethin' ready fer when young fellers like yerself take shots at me."

"I wasn't shootin' at you Mister. And if you ain't workin' for Guado, I got no quarrel with ye."

"Trouble is, I could say no and you'd think I was lyin'."

Tidus rolled his eyes. "Well goddammit man, are you workin' for that two-faced sonofabitch?"

"No."

"Well why don't you get back on your horse and clear off."

"How do I know you ain't gonna put a bullet in my ass?"

"Suppose I'm co-operatin' with ye."

"I got a wife with a kid on the way, lad. You pull any nonsense and god'll be sendin' you straight to hell."

"Mister, I don't aim to shoot you."

"Alright."

With some hesitation, Tidus heard the man slowly mount his horse and speed off as fast as he'd come, and he and Yuna both slowly raised to their feet. Her eyes were even bigger than usual and she looked out of breath.

"What if he was one of them?

Tidus thought about spitting but decided against it. "Then he was a very good actor." He sighed and turned toward the trees that were now far behind them, tops scraping the belly of a descending yellow sun.

Did we sleep in?