It was Thursday night at Yuna's house. Lulu and Rikku were present, helping their best friend pack for her lonesome three weeks with Tidus as her sole company.
"At least you'll be at the beach, Yunie," Rikku said, searching through Yuna's closet for clothes. "You can at least get a nice tan."
Yuna groaned. "I don't think even being at the beach will be able to make up for the fact that I'll be spending three weeks with Tidus."
Lulu quietly replied, "You will have an awful time if you think about it that way. Try to think about it in a positive light."
"Yeah, Yunie," Rikku added throwing some tube tops in Yuna's huge, wide open suit case. "Think of it as a vacation… from chores!"
Against her will, Yuna giggled. "Or from backstabbing parents who get too many ideas," she suggested.
Lulu lowered her eyes and said, "Or from Seymour. What's been going on with him, Yuna? Can you tell me?"
Yuna's eyes glazed over for a minute, and then she shook her head. "Nothing, Lu. He's just really stressed out. Now, can we please concentrate on my clothes? I mean, I'll at least need a week's worth of stuff before you can bring me more, right?"
Now Lulu shook her head, thinking about how Yuna had avoided her question, but Rikku's attention was completely focused on style.
"Well, personally Yunie, I think you'll need plenty of swim suits. What else are you going to do when you're there? Play checkers with Tidus, Mr. I'm-the-Number-One-Blitz-Ace? Let's see, this bluish- green one brings out the colors of your eyes, and this yellow one looks better on me, but I'll throw it in anyway." Rikku began throwing skimpy bikinis in the suitcase, eventually adding accessories, clothes, make-up, and shoes. She even tried to put in Yuna's dress that she wore to her dad's funeral, but Yuna put her foot down there.
"What if -"
"No!"
"But-"
"NO!"
"Well fine then! Jeez, you try to help a person." Rikku muttered.
Lulu was trying to put together some more practical things for Yuna—she was sorting through books, make-up, and toiletries.
Two hours passed. The three girls finished packing, but not before Rikku and Lulu were well past their school-night curfew. "Well, see you tomorrow, Yuna," Lulu called, walking out the door.
"Yeah, try not to get too emotional," Rikku said, following Lulu's lead.
"I won't," Yuna promised. "Thanks again." As soon as they left, she trudged to her mom's room. Utada was sitting up in her bed reading a book. Seeing Yuna, she looked up.
"I just wanted to thank you again for ruining my life, Mom," Yuna said sarcastically.
Utada looked tired. "Oh, sweetheart, it won't be that bad. Tidus is a very nice boy. Why can't you two just get along?"
"Well, Mom, unlike you and Jecht, Tidus and I aren't carnally attracted to one another and every time around him, he does something to infuriate me. Why should we get along just because you are marrying his father? This is totally unfair and I can't believe you're making me do this! If you were forced to live with someone you hate with a passion, what would you do?"
"I'd do my best to make friends with him!"
"Easy for you to say! You aren't the one actually having to go through with it. You are totally destroying everything I've done to avoid Tidus!"
"Honey, you two are so much alike, it's hard to believe you aren't the best of friends."
Yuna began to protest, but her mother cut her off. "I really have to get some sleep and you should too. It's nearly midnight and you have a big day tomorrow, with moving and everything."
"Well fine then! Avoid the issue!" Yuna yelled at her mother, stomping out of the room. She had no idea what she was so mad about, but it was probably best for her to rest. Crawling into bed, Yuna squeezed her eyes shut and remembered what Lulu had said: think of it as a vacation from Seymour. Suddenly, she was very eager to leave.
The sun was setting and Tidus was sitting on the beige couch of his beach house, making out with some girl. The brilliant reds and oranges of the sunlight danced in her hair, giving it a reddish sparkle. Pulling away from the embrace, Tidus examined the girl's hair. It was incredibly soft and feathery, glinting with rich colors. He turned the girl's face back to his own and did a double-take. High cheekbones, lush, pink lips, one eye green, the other blue. It was Yuna. Tidus almost screamed, but his voice was dead, frozen. Yuna's soft, sweet face started to throb and convulse. Her head morphed into a tattooed, pointed face with cold eyes. They were hard, icy eyes that softened when they looked at Tidus. Tidus's voice thawed as he recognized the face and the person it belonged to, although they'd only spoken together a few times. "Seymour?"
Seymour's hands grabbed Tidus by the shoulders and pulled him close. "Kiss me," he commanded. The angular face was moving closer, closer. Tidus struggled hard to pull away. He had to get free. Seymour's lips were seconds away from Tidus's. Then he woke up.
"Holy shit!" Tidus swore. Auron turned around. "Is there a problem you'd like to share with the rest of the class, Tidus?" Unfortunately, Tidus had fallen asleep during science. Now he was at Auron's mercy.
"No, sir," Tidus replied as politely as he could.
Auron surveyed him through his sunglasses. "Could you tell us, for example, why you fell asleep in my class?"
Tidus was quiet. The Besaid Aurochs had had a major blitzball game last night. They had killed the other team with a final score of 7-0. He had gone out partying afterward with the rest of the blitzball team to spend the energy they had reserved for playing a harder team. He had gotten home at 3:00 AM and then had to pack for the next week or so to be spent at the beach house. Eventually, Tidus had collapsed in bed at 4:00 only to be awakened two and a half hours later. "I didn't get much sleep last night," Tidus finally answered.
"Oh? Well, does that mean you couldn't fall asleep or were out partying with friends?"
Damn, Tidus thought, he's good.
Before Tidus could answer, Auron continued. "Save it, Tidus. Explain it to me in a 5000 word essay due tomorrow."
"But tomorrow is Saturday, sir," Tidus protested, finally getting a word in.
"Drop it off to me tomorrow along with tonight's assignment. I'll be here until 8:00 PM."
"But sir-"
"No excuses. Tomorrow, here, understand? Good. Now, please open you books to chapter seven."
Tidus sighed and his thoughts returned to the cause of his misery: his dream. His mother had known a little White Magic, and passed some onto Tidus genetically. From the time he was a boy, she had taught him that dreams were very powerful. His often reflected the emotions of those around him. His mother had intended to start teaching Tidus how to interpret them at age sixteen, but she had died before then. Still, Tidus knew a little bit of the basics. Let's see, sunsets in dreams often represented fate or what was to come. And people? Tidus couldn't recall what anything else in his dream signified. He glanced at the subject of his dream, the girl he was to spend an entire three weeks with. Yuna had ignored him since Monday, but he couldn't really blame her. If your parents are getting married, you don't want your sibling-to-be in your life, especially if you had a screaming match with them recently. Tidus still hadn't figured out what had made Yuna so angry that night. Had he really done anything wrong? He had thought about everything that was said between them and still had trouble understanding exactly what had happened. Tidus sighed. Women; he would never figure them out.
Jecht and Utada finished unloading bags from Utada's Toyota. She threw Tidus the keys, and, looking surprised, Tidus caught them. "You'll need those to run errands and get to school," she said. Jecht was unrolling a fat wad of bills from his wallet. "Here's $1000, as agreed," he said, and handed it to Yuna. "There's also a laptop set up inside the house for homework. Don't get any ideas, though. The internet has been disabled." Jecht grinned.
"How are you going to get home?" Yuna asked suspiciously. Jecht pointed to their neighbors' house. "I parked my sports car over there."
"Oh," Yuna said softly. "Well then, I suppose you'd best be off."
"One more thing," Utada began. "You'll have enough food for about two days, but then you'll have to go to the store to buy more. I strongly suggest planning ahead for this and going together. Food is expensive and $1000 could easily be spent in only one week if you're not frugal."
"We'll see you in three weeks," Jecht called. He had wrapped his arm around Utada and was herding her toward the car. They were sickening to watch, whispering and snuggling close. Yuna turned away. She picked up her bags and slowly dragged them inside, leaving Tidus standing alone.
A great start to such a promising vacation, Tidus thought bitterly as he squared his shoulders and walked into the house. It was a fairly nice condo, not as well-furnished as Tidus's house, but comfortable enough. Very few houses in Besaid were as nice as Tidus's. He had his own mini sphere pool in his backyard so he and his old man could go one-on-one against each other, as well as of rooms, despite the only inhabitants being Tidus, Jecht, and his mother, before her death. With the beach house, space was tight, but the ocean was right outside. You could listen to the sound of the waves as you went to sleep and watch the sunset on the back porch. Tidus sighed as he realized Yuna was outside on the back porch doing just that. It was a good thing she wasn't sitting on the couch, Tidus thought, remembering his dream from his nap during science.
Yuna stood, her nose almost pressed against the glass porch window, staring out at the sun. The colors danced in her hair, just like in Tidus's dream, but now she just looked sad. Tidus walked up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. She didn't even blink. Once the sun had disappeared behind the serene blue waves, Yuna turned around.
"Tidus, I know I was wrong when I yelled at you before, so I'm sorry. I was just having a really bad day. You didn't do anything wrong, I just exploded. Sorry." Yuna was looking down at her feet. This was new to her: apologizing to Tidus. He was taken aback. Yuna didn't apologize to him, ever. This was strange.
"Uh, it's okay, I guess. What I was going to say was, 'Let's make the best of this situation,' but I think you pretty much covered it. So, now that that's over with, do you want to eat something? I know how to make a few things." Tidus trailed off, waiting for Yuna's reply.
She smiled a bright, sunny smile that filled the whole room. "Sure. What do you know how to make?"
Walking into the kitchen, Tidus looked rueful. "Well, toast." Yuna uttered a laugh. "And," he continued, looking in a cupboard, "peanut butter sandwiches." Yuna opened the refrigerator and peered inside. "Hmm." She rummages around and brought out some cold cut turkey, mayo, tomato, lettuce, and bacon. "Can you fry bacon?" she asked.
Tidus chuckled. "Of course. Every man knows how to fry bacon" He had no idea how to fry bacon.
"Okay then, if you fry the bacon and make some toast, I'll do the rest."
"What're we having?"
"Club sandwiches," Yuna answered, searching around to find some plates and cooking utensils. Once she found everything she needed, Yuna plopped onto a stool near the island counter on which the stove was located.
"Aren't you going to, you know, go cook?" Tidus asked nervously. He didn't want her to watch him mess up while cooking meat. Meat was supposed to be a man's work. He definitely didn't want or need her to think that he wasn't a man.
"No, I can't start until the bacon and toast are done. Besides, I like to watch other people cook. If you watch enough people, then you start to pick up on their little styles of cooking. It's actually kind of fun to watch."
"Oh," was Tidus's reply. What was he going to do now? "Bring on the bacon," he said.
After watching for a few minutes, Yuna asked, "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
"No, not anymore." Tidus had been trying to fry the poor bits of pork, but was failing miserably.
"Did you ever?"
Swallowing his pride and admitting defeat, he replied. "Not really."
Yuna sighed and said, "Hand over the pan." She dumped the demolished bacon in the garbage and placed several pieces in the pan. Tidus took her seat and watched her in silence. Gracefully, Yuna cooked the bacon slowly, draining the grease, and every now and then adding a dash of salt and pepper. When she was just about done, she told Tidus to go and start making the toast. "Why?"
Yuna shot him a look of venom. "Because if you make it after the bacon is done, the bacon gets cold," she said in a mean tone. Her face froze and she quickly added, "Sorry, Tidus. I… I didn't mean it the way it came out."
"Mean what?" asked Tidus, deciding to forget about the whole thing. Yuna grinned at him and continued with her bacon.
When they had made their sandwiches, they took their plates and walked over to the table. Sitting down to eat, Yuna and Tidus sat down and actually had a civilized conversation.
"So," Yuna began, "I know we haven't exactly been the best of friends lately, but, I was thinking, maybe we should call a truce for the time being. At least until the whole vacation thing is over."
"Yeah," Tidus agreed. "I mean, what are we going to do around here all day? Play checkers?"
Yuna laughed, but not at Tidus's half-hearted attempt at a joke. Then she asked a serious question.
"What do you think our parents are doing now?"
"Hooking-up," was Tidus's response. He was obviously being serious too because there wasn't a trace of a smile on his face.
"Are you being serious?"
"Yeah."
Yuna shuddered at the thought of it.
"That's probably why they sent us away," Tidus said grimly.
"Huh?"
"Some alone time at my place."
Yuna's eyes widened. "You don't really think that, do you?" Sickening.
Tidus looked at her and then looked away. "Do you look that way because you believe me and don't want to or because you never thought about it before and realize I'm right for a change?"
When Yuna didn't answer, Tidus picked up his dish, put it in the dishwasher along with the pan, and left the room. On his way out he called, "I'll be in the room I'm normally in if you need me. I have to write my essay for Auron if we're going to the grocery store tomorrow. "
Yuna sighed and trudged into her plain, white room at her beach house home and shut the door. Things hadn't started as horribly as she had thought.
Tidus awoke at his desk, the laptop still on. Auron must've told his dad that he had a huge essay to write because the laptop had been set up in his room. There were posters of rock stars and blitz aces on his walls, along with the Playboy poster he had brought along from home. Fortunately, the computer had not frozen or deleted his unsaved work, so Tidus stretched, hit the save button, and then the word count button. He had been up until 10:30 last night and he still had 2000 words to go. Better get to it, Tidus thought.
Hit with sudden inspiration, Tidus vigorously typed the rest of his essay. In a half-hour, he had finished. Congratulating himself on a job well done, he jogged into the bathroom to take his shower so he could get over to the school and give his paper and his homework to Auron.
After he had finished showering, Tidus grabbed the keys to Utada's Honda and made his way to the garage. On the way out, he peaked in Yuna's room. She lay asleep on her bed, headphones over her ears. She must've listened to music until she fell asleep, Tidus thought. In a sudden rush of affection for her, he gingerly entered the room and took the headphones out of her ears, placing them on her bedside table.
While parking the car in the school's near empty parking lot, Tidus decided to make a sincere effort to be nicer to her. He walked quickly inside Besaid High, hoping to turn in his assignment as soon as possible, avoid Auron, and go back home to sleep for a few more hours. Auron would most likely want to give him a good, long lecture, but maybe he could avoid him. He passed the rows of dull, floor to ceiling lockers, all painted in the school colors, blue and silver. Making a sharp left turn into the west part of the school, Tidus entered Auron's classroom.
It was empty. Quickly, Tidus dropped his homework and essay on Auron's desk. Turning back around to face the doorway, he heard a voice.
"Thought that you could get off that easy?"
Auron was standing in the doorframe, holding a steaming cup of black coffee. Tidus sighed. He had been so close. "Come on, Auron, go easy on me. I left Yuna at home alone, sleeping, and I need to get back."
Auron raised his eyebrows. "From what Jecht said, I thought you two hated each other. I had no idea you were dating, much less living together. In fact, I thought Yuna was dating that Seymour character."
Now Tidus was the one in for a surprise. "Yuna is dating Seymour. There's nothing between us… You mean my old man didn't tell you?"
Auron shook his head. Tidus began spouting the whole story. He had no idea why he was telling Auron, of all people. Tidus didn't even like Auron all that much, but he had to wonder why Jecht hadn't told him.
"You're in for a very interesting three weeks," Auron commented thoughtfully.
"That's all you have to say? Nothing about the unfairness of it all?"
Auron ignored the question. "Go back home to Yuna. She'll be mad if she wakes up, finds you gone, and you didn't leave a note."
"How would you know, old man?" Tidus asked disrespectfully.
Auron looked grim and said seriously, "I learned that the hard way."
After that, Tidus bolted out the door. The last thing he needed was Yuna mad at him, especially on the weekends when they'd be together all day. He drove home and prayed Yuna would still be asleep. Pulling into the driveway, Tidus noticed there was another car there, a black Porsche. Who could be here? Tidus thought. Probably Squall. He was always getting new cars. Tidus entered through the unlocked front door, and felt a jolt deep in the pit of his stomach. He clearly remembered locking the door. It couldn't be Squall, he remembered suddenly; he was away for the weekend. Quietly, Tidus snuck into the kitchen. There was a faint crying coming from the end of the house, where Yuna's bedroom was. The back of Tidus's neck prickled. With a rush of adrenaline, he raced that way.
The door was slightly ajar. Tidus kicked it open to a horrific sight. Yuna lay, bruised and bleeding, crumpled on the floor. The tall, glowering Guado Tidus had come extremely close to kissing in his dream was standing over her raising a threatening fist. Seymour back was to Tidus, but Yuna saw him. Her eyes widened, and then, she fainted.
Seymour was about to wake her with a powerful blow, but Tidus and his quick blitzball reflexes caught him. Grabbing the surprised half-human freak from behind, Tidus threw him on the floor. His head hit with a satisfying clunk.
By this time, Yuna had recovered from her very short fainting spell, and was looking on with fear. Seymour was staring up at Tidus, expecting the oncoming blow. It hit square in the jaw, sure to leave a good-sized bruise. Everything Tidus had done or said that ticked Yuna off was coming back to mind. He had always said something about Seymour right before she blew her top. Seymour was a strong, persuasive guy, not stronger than Tidus, but strong enough to force a girl to do things. Angered by this sudden thought, Tidus grabbed Seymour's shirt and pulled him close. Their noses were tip-to-tip.
"Touch her or come near her again, Seymour, and I'll kill you."