Disclaimer: I've said it before and I'll say it once again, I own zip. DO
NOT SUE ME!
Sorry for the long wait guys. I was almost done with this chapter when my floppy disc malfunctioned and I lost it all. Damn that floppy. It ruined my happy mood. I was doing great thanks to all you awesome reviewers out there. You guys kick ass! Let me know if I swear too much. Oh, I have to address an issue in the story. Tidus + Yuna does not = brother and sister yet. They may never be. You'll just have to keep reading and reviewing. Mwahahahaha. It's amazing what you can do as an author. The control you have is totally cool:^). By the way, I changed my penname to xblushx. Blushingmoon was a penname I hated from the beginning, but I didn't care too badly then. I just wanted a penname. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the long awaited Chapter Four. Yes, I realize even though I lost everything I wrote that it has been a while. Cut me some slack. I had to take the SATs, which are extremely annoying. Yeah, I think I failed the math section.
WARNING: Seymour bashing will take place from now until the end of the story. Not that most people care. Living with the Enemy ~Chapter Four~
After giving Seymour a final kick, Tidus carried him to the door, making sure to drag his head on the ground. Tidus threw him out the door. The Guado freak hit the driveway with a satisfying crunch of the gravel beneath him. Seymour groaned, but Tidus didn't hear him. He was too busy slamming the door and running back to the one and only thing on his mind now: Yuna. He had been so stupid not to realize what was going on. All the times she had blown up at him, just before she did he had said something about Seymour. Like that time in the science lab, Seymour had been waiting, and when she had come over and they had had that massive screaming match. It was always Seymour.
When he reached Yuna, she was crouched low, cowering in the corner of her bedroom. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her face streaked with tears. A blurry wall of water covered her usually sparkling green and blue eyes, threatening to spill over in a fresh round of tears. There were visible red markings where bruises would later form on her arms and around one eye and her lip was bleeding. "Yuna," Tidus said softly. She snapped out of her trance. Looking up at him, Yuna sighed, almost inaudibly. Wiping her eyes on the back of her hand, "Where were you?" she asked. Tidus felt a pang of guilt, remembering leaving her home alone, asleep, with no note. "I woke up and you were gone."
Tidus winced, but he answered in a steady voice. "I went to drop off my essay and homework at school for Auron. We were supposed to go shopping today, remember?" Yuna nodded. Tidus continued, "Should we still go? I mean." he trailed off. Yuna's face returned to its usual dutiful composure. "Of course," she replied, reaching for the wall to support herself as she stood. Weak on her legs, she sunk back to the ground.
"You, um, can't walk?" Tidus said uncertainly. The old Yuna would have narrowed her eyes and said in an irritated voice, "Gee, I hadn't noticed," but this Yuna, whose secret she had held alone within the boundaries of her heart for months, said, "I'm not sure."
Tidus inwardly rolled his eyes, but in a good natured way scooped Yuna up off the ground and carried her into the living room. Inside was an empty TV which usually held the big screen television that Jecht watched blitzball on Sunday night on. True to his word, he had unplugged and removed it from the house. However, the cushioned couch and coffee table were still there. There was also Utada's armchair which she read in during the evening in. Ever so gently, Tidus placed Yuna on the couch. He would do almost anything to get her out of that room, haunted with the swirling memories of what had happened not even ten minutes ago, mixing with past memories of Seymour taking his anger out on his girlfriend, the one person whom he supposedly loved and respected. Tidus's head was reeling with these thoughts as he brought an ice pack from the kitchen freezer to Yuna so her black eye wouldn't swell too badly.
"Thanks," Yuna replied, taking the cold compress from him. Tidus just looked at her for a while. Sensing his eyes on her, she asked, "What?"
Carefully, Tidus asked slowly, "Yuna how long has this gone on? I don't mean to, well, you know, pry into your business, but, well."
Yuna didn't look directly at Tidus as she answered. "About two years now. He used to be so nice to me, so kind, but then," Yuna stopped herself. The physical and emotional attachment she had to him had been too great to break up with him. She had been so young when they began dating, and when he started to beat her, she didn't know what to do. He had seen to that. Remembering the first time, she had lain on the floor of his foyer, while he stood over her and said in a menacing voice, "If you tell anyone, I'll kill myself and frame you. You'll go to prison for murder." The one thing that shone threw Seymour's false character was his ability to follow through on his word, so coincidentally, Yuna didn't tell. Even now, she was reluctant to open her mouth.
Tidus sensed her hesitance. "It's okay," he replied to her abrupt silence, "but maybe we should wait to go to the store. I mean--" He was stopped by Yuna's horrified expression. "What?" he asked. Yevon, what had he done this time?
"Of course we should go today! We are living on a very tight budget! Just because of something Seymour did, why should we sacrifice our plans?"
"Okay, okay, fine, we'll go. Why don't you change out of your pajamas, take a shower, whatever else you need to do, and then we'll go?"
Yuna again looked at him in disbelief. "WHAT?" he asked again.
"Aren't we going to make a list and cut out coupons? I mean, we have a limited amount of money and, well, we could spend it all on junk."
Tidus sighed. "First of all, we have $1000 bucks, which is about $330 a week. Why can't we just go to the store and buy what looks good?"
"Because," Yuna said, trying her best to be patient, "we have no planned meals for an entire week. We won't each nutritiously and that's bad."
"Um, are you taking health and actually paying attention to it this term, Yuna?"
"Come on! Besides, if we make a list, we'll have more money left over for snacks and junk food."
Tidus sighed. "Okay. Let's compromise. How about we plan dinner for a week and then when we actually get to the store, we can figure out lunch, breakfast, and snacks."
Yuna thought about this for a moment and then agreed. "Fine." She sat down on the couch while Tidus ran into the kitchen to get a pencil and paper. Sitting down beside Yuna, he asked, "How should we do this? I mean, do we have a budget for the price of the meal?"
Yuna took the pad of paper from him and the pencil, and did some quick division on it. "Well, we have about 50 bucks to spend a day, so, that's about $15 per meal. You might want to get the newspaper and scissors. We'll need some coupons."
An hour later, after much laughing and frustration, the list was made and Tidus was looking it over as Yuna took her shower.
Tidus and Yuna's Grocery List:
Day One: Macaroni and Cheese w/ Garlic Bread Items to Buy: 2 Stouffer's Mac & Cheese Microwavable Dinners* Frozen Texas Toast Garlic Bread Milk Pepper Estimated Cost: $16.99
Day Two: Pizza w/ Breadsticks Items to Buy: None. It's called delivery. Estimated Cost: $7.99
Day Three: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce Items to Buy: Pasta* Canned Sauce* Ground beef Baguette Butter Estimated Cost: $9.60
Day Four: Tacos (chicken, soft-shell) Items to Buy: Tortillas* Grated Cheddar Cheese Lettuce Chicken Salsa* Estimated Cost: $8.75
Day Five: Soup Items to Buy: Ramen Noodles* Fruit Estimated Cost: $5.50
Day Six: Pancakes Items to Buy: Pancake Mix Eggs Butter Syrup Estimated Cost: $10.10 *indicate coupon may be used for that item.
They had argued about the last one. Pancakes were for breakfast, Tidus had said. Yuna retorted that breakfast foods could be used all day long. In the end Tidus had given in. Why, he wasn't sure. Maybe he was just sick of arguing. They had only planned six meals because last night had counted as part of the first week. While thinking about this, Yuna reentered the room, fully dressed in jeans, a green halter top, and flip- flops. Tidus had to do a double take, not because she looked totally beautiful, but her eye which was turning an ugly brown shade fifteen minutes earlier, was now normal.
"What happened to your black eye?" he asked in disbelief.
Yuna rolled her eyes, but was smiling when she answered. "It's called cover-up. Come on let's go."
Tidus was hesitant. "Are you sure about this? I mean, you're not too beat up?"
Yuna shook her head. "Nah. Seymour hits like a girl."
"But it hurts in other ways than just physically."
Looking down at her feet, Yuna agreed. "Yeah, it still hurts." Water droplets gathered at the corner of her eye, threatening to fall, but she brushed it away quickly. "C'mon! I want to go!"
No, she doesn't, Tidus thought. She just wants to forget about the whole thing. She's not ready to talk about it to anyone, so why should I make her? When she's ready, I'll be there. Yevon, I'm starting to sound like Squall. Tidus said, "I'll go get my shoes."
***
After two hours of trying to find items at the grocery store, Tidus and Yuna finally returned home at about 3:00PM. "That was without a doubt the most aggravating experience in my whole life," Yuna said, walking through the door with an armload of brown paper bags filled with food in her arms.
"Yeah," Tidus agreed, "and just think. We get to do it all over again next week."
Yuna groaned and began putting things away in the kitchen. Tidus returned to the car to get the rest of the groceries. By the time he reentered the house, Yuna had put away all the groceries except for the ones he was holding.
"Damn, you're fast."
Yuna nodded. "At home, my mom buys the groceries and I put them away. It's a very simple process."
"Right," Tidus replied. He began helping her put away the rest of the food. "Now we're left with the problem of what to do for the rest of the day."
Yuna rolled her eyes. "I can't believe they took away the TV. I mean, that was totally unfair. We can't watch any movies either."
"Hey, wait a sec," Tidus said. "We have the laptop, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, maybe we can play DVDs on it! I'm sure Utada and my dad thought of this, and took all the DVDs out of the house, so we can rent some from a video store."
"But Tidus," Yuna protested. "I don't think we have enough money for that. I mean, our parents thought of everything and they wouldn't just forget that we could rent movies from a store. Plus, we just spent over $250 at the grocery store and."
".and our weekly allowance is 330 bucks! Why not splurge a little? Yevon, we saved maybe $10 with coupons. Please?" Tidus gave Yuna a puppy dog look and knelt on his knees. "Pleas, please, ppllleeeaasse?"
Yuna smiled, but rolled her eyes. "Fine, but can't we wait until later this week? It's such a nice day, why can't we go to the beach? Besides, maybe we can get movies from our friends on Monday."
Tidus thought about this. It was a beautiful day outside. The sun was shining, the sky was a deep blue, and there were cotton-candy-puff clouds in the sky. "Okay, we can go to the beach, but that means that I get to pick out what movie we watch on Monday."
"Agreed."
"I get the bathroom first!" Tidus yelled, and ran off into his room to grab his bathing suit. Yuna sighed good naturedly and decided to pack some food to take while she waited for use of the bathroom. She knew that her mom kept a picnic basket under the sink in the kitchen. Usually, Utada and Jecht would go off on Saturday afternoons and have lunch on the beach. Yuna forced the thought of what else they might have been putting in their mouths instead of food and put together some sandwiches from the things they had bought at the store. She added a couple of sodas, bag of chips, and some store bought cookies. When she was done with that and Tidus still wasn't out of the bathroom, she went into her room to grab her bathing suit. Searching through her suitcase (she still hadn't moved all her clothes into her dresser), Yuna realized that Rikku had taken out the only one-piece swimsuit that she had packed. Damn Rikku, Yuna thought. For some reason, she didn't want Tidus to see her in a string bikini, which was all that was left in her luggage. Yuna sighed. She had fought pretty hard to go to the beach and couldn't just back out of it, so she took the bathing suit made with the most material and changed in her closet.
When she emerged from her room and returned to the kitchen, she ran smack into someone with bronze skin and a six-pack. A very nice, firm six pack. Yevon, what am I thinking? Yuna thought, separating herself from Tidus. "Sorry," she said quickly. Tidus was too busy giving Yuna the once over, and then doing it again to notice. Yuna hurriedly crossed both her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at him and Tidus cracked a smile.
"Nice suit." When her eyes became more close to slits than Tidus had ever seen them, he quickly amended his mistake, or tried to. "Hey, I was just kidding," he said, holding up his arms as if to fend off an attack.
Yuna raised her eyebrows at him and said, "Let's just go." She grabbed the picnic basket and walked out the door, with Tidus close behind. "C'mon, Yuna. It was just a joke." The rest of the short walk through the sandy beach house beach house backyard and the 100 feet to the roaring waves, Yuna was silent, and after several attempts to redeem himself, so was Tidus. Well, it was a nice suit, he thought in his defense. He was right. The suit showed off Yuna's slight figure and soft skin, and was white with light pink polka dots, very 50's. Normally, Yuna didn't wear pink, but this was okay. She could suffer a little pink to save her dignity. It wasn't like she would come out of her room in the bikini Rikku had bought her for her. It was as close to going outside naked as you could get without actually taking it all off.
Fortunately, Tidus had remembered the towels, as Yuna had forgotten them. He laid them down in the middle of the secluded beach. No one was there, save an elderly couple walking along the shoreline, talking most likely of better times. When Jecht or Utada bought property, they made sure that it was in a really private place. In this case, Tidus thought that they had overdone it. Where were all the hot chicks in bikinis? Yuna seemed to have forgiven him for the time being for his slight to her before, as she raced to meet the approaching wave, dragging Tidus by the hand right along with her. As she reached the water though, she stopped short and let go of Tidus's hand and let him fall face first into the salty water. "Hey!" Tidus yelled as he surfaced, sputtering. Yuna was already fleeing the scene, laughing. Wiping the water from his eyes, Tidus, grinning ear-to- ear, got up and began to chase after her.
Tidus finally caught, both gasping for breath, partly because they had been running, but also because they were both helplessly laughing their heads off. They played around like little kids for about an hour, chasing and splashing, but both lacked the energy little monsters have a seemingly endless supply of, and soon tumbled onto their towels, starving and tired.
Catching her breath, Yuna unpacked the stuff she had put together while Tidus shook his head like a dog, spraying water droplets everywhere. Yuna ignored this and tossed him a sandwich and a pop, "Here."
"Hey, thanks," Tidus replied gratefully and tore the saran wrap off his sandwich and began chomping down, ripping bits of bread, cheese, and meat apart as if he was a wild dog. Yuna stared at him, disgusted, while he asked, with his mouth full, "What?"
Rolling her eyes for what seemed like the thousandth time that day, Yuna took a bite of her plain PB&J bagel, chewing rapidly. She was physically and emotionally exhausted from the day. She had done her best to forget about Seymour, but no matter how she tried, he entered her thoughts unbidden. She needed to talk about it to someone, anyone. She needed to reclaim what was hers, tame her mind. The only way to do that was talk about it. Her options seemed pretty limited to one person, and he was sitting right in front of, chewing with his mouth open. Oh well, Yuna thought. He's been great about the whole thing so far.
"It started about two years into our relationship, like I said before," Yuna said slowly, looking down at the sand. Tidus stopped chewing. "Just words at first, calling me names, telling me I was fat, to go on a diet. Soon it grew to calling me a bitch, pushing me around whenever he was mad." Tidus didn't need to ask who 'he' was. "I didn't know what to do, who to tell, if anyone. I was scared." Yuna swallowed, and then continued.
"I wanted to break up with him so badly, but. he said if I did that, then he'd kill himself, and make people think that I did it, that I was responsible." Yuna drew a shuddery breath. "I guess I believed him, 'cause I didn't tell anyone, not even my friends. Lulu knew, though I never admitted it. She didn't tell anyone though. The beatings were never too bad, but lately, they got worse, and maybe, if you hadn't done what you did this morning, he would've moved on to something.more."
A cold sweat gripped Tidus's heart. He thought of Seymour taking the one thing he had not taken from Yuna, forcing her to sleep with him. Tidus banished the thought from his mind. It was too terrible, too sad, too disgusting. Instead, he dropped his food and grabbed Yuna and gave her a hug. She had started to cry again and her bitter tears burned Tidus where they landed on his shoulders and back. "Why didn't you tell someone, anyone?" he asked quietly.
Still held close in a comforting hug, Yuna sobbed, "I didn't know if I should. I didn't know if it really was my fault."
Tidus held a sobbing Yuna away from him, grasping her shoulders. "Don't ever think that Yuna!" he said fiercely. "It's his problem, not yours, his fault, not yours. We're going to put him in his place. We're gonna get revenge on him for you."
Yuna didn't say anything, just sobbed into Tidus's shoulder, until she fell asleep.
Tidus had to carry her inside, along with all their beach stuff, and it was quite a strain, even if he was an incredibly strong blitz ace. Laying Yuna down on her bed, he retired to his room, even though it was only 6 o'clock. He too, had had a rough day. What he didn't know was that Yuna couldn't escape Seymour, even in sleep.
***
A purple mist was rising. Yuna stood, alone, amid the deep fog. Swirling around her were past memories, forgotten ones of when she was a small child, savored ones of happy times, and those she wished she could forget. She was spinning slowly, round and round, gaining momentum, when out of the torrent of hazy purple, emerged Seymour, from one of her memories. She couldn't run, couldn't hide, was frozen. Seymour grew, was becoming larger, more powerful, coming straight for her. Awaiting the blow that was sure to come from his towering, anger, Yuna closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was in her room, sitting up in her bed. Outside, rain steadily hit the window sill. Lightning flashed, and a very loud boom of thunder followed that caught Yuna off guard. Still shaking from the thought of Seymour coming back, Yuna glanced at the clock that stood beside her bed. It was 1:45 AM. Another loud crash of thunder shook Yuna. If Seymour were to come back, no one would know. He would be shielded by the dark, covered by the stunning sounds of thundered. So what if he did come back? What would she do then? Tidus was likely to be asleep. She would have to be somewhere where he wouldn't expect her to be.
Suddenly paranoid, Yuna crept along the hallway slowly. She walked to Tidus's room, just then noticing that she was still in her bathing suit. However, there was no way she would go back into her room now. What if Seymour was there? She pushed open Tidus's door. Creeping toward the sleeping figure in the bed, she gently shook him awake, the person who had helped her so much in the last day. He'd really have to care for her to do the favor she was about to ask him.
"Tidus? Tidus!" she whispered urgently.
"Huh?" Tidus asked sleepily. His eyes snapped open when he saw Yuna standing at the foot of his bed, in the middle of the night, in her bathing suit.
"What's up?"
"Tidus, I need to sleep with you tonight."
Now he was wide awake. "What?!?"
Author's Note: Ha-ha. No, not in that way, perverts. I don't think Yuna likes Tidus in that way yet. So, that was the long awaited Chapter Four. Hope you liked it. Even if you didn't, drop me a review. All you guys that reviewed last time, thanks so much. Unfortunately, a lot of people reviewed and I can't address all of you separately, so I'll just have to answer some questions about this fic.
1) Yes, it appears that Tidus and Yuna will become brother and sister, but they don't. Even if they did, they wouldn't be blood related, so it wouldn't be incest, at least I don't think. It's better than this one book I read where a grandfather and a granddaughter got together. That was just nasty.
2) Tidus was able to beat up Seymour because a) Seymour is a weak ass, and b) Tidus trains almost every day for blitzball. Height has nothing to do with it. Besides, in the actual game, he had to fight Seymour, what, like five times?
3) Seymour knew that Yuna was at the house because she's there every weekend.
4) This is not my first ever fanfiction. I write most of them out on paper before I actually post them. I've written several other Tidus/Yuna fics, but they all sucked, do I didn't type or post them. Okay, I think that's all. Any more questions? Tell me in a review. Even if you don't have a question, review anyway! ~Liz~
Sorry for the long wait guys. I was almost done with this chapter when my floppy disc malfunctioned and I lost it all. Damn that floppy. It ruined my happy mood. I was doing great thanks to all you awesome reviewers out there. You guys kick ass! Let me know if I swear too much. Oh, I have to address an issue in the story. Tidus + Yuna does not = brother and sister yet. They may never be. You'll just have to keep reading and reviewing. Mwahahahaha. It's amazing what you can do as an author. The control you have is totally cool:^). By the way, I changed my penname to xblushx. Blushingmoon was a penname I hated from the beginning, but I didn't care too badly then. I just wanted a penname. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the long awaited Chapter Four. Yes, I realize even though I lost everything I wrote that it has been a while. Cut me some slack. I had to take the SATs, which are extremely annoying. Yeah, I think I failed the math section.
WARNING: Seymour bashing will take place from now until the end of the story. Not that most people care. Living with the Enemy ~Chapter Four~
After giving Seymour a final kick, Tidus carried him to the door, making sure to drag his head on the ground. Tidus threw him out the door. The Guado freak hit the driveway with a satisfying crunch of the gravel beneath him. Seymour groaned, but Tidus didn't hear him. He was too busy slamming the door and running back to the one and only thing on his mind now: Yuna. He had been so stupid not to realize what was going on. All the times she had blown up at him, just before she did he had said something about Seymour. Like that time in the science lab, Seymour had been waiting, and when she had come over and they had had that massive screaming match. It was always Seymour.
When he reached Yuna, she was crouched low, cowering in the corner of her bedroom. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her face streaked with tears. A blurry wall of water covered her usually sparkling green and blue eyes, threatening to spill over in a fresh round of tears. There were visible red markings where bruises would later form on her arms and around one eye and her lip was bleeding. "Yuna," Tidus said softly. She snapped out of her trance. Looking up at him, Yuna sighed, almost inaudibly. Wiping her eyes on the back of her hand, "Where were you?" she asked. Tidus felt a pang of guilt, remembering leaving her home alone, asleep, with no note. "I woke up and you were gone."
Tidus winced, but he answered in a steady voice. "I went to drop off my essay and homework at school for Auron. We were supposed to go shopping today, remember?" Yuna nodded. Tidus continued, "Should we still go? I mean." he trailed off. Yuna's face returned to its usual dutiful composure. "Of course," she replied, reaching for the wall to support herself as she stood. Weak on her legs, she sunk back to the ground.
"You, um, can't walk?" Tidus said uncertainly. The old Yuna would have narrowed her eyes and said in an irritated voice, "Gee, I hadn't noticed," but this Yuna, whose secret she had held alone within the boundaries of her heart for months, said, "I'm not sure."
Tidus inwardly rolled his eyes, but in a good natured way scooped Yuna up off the ground and carried her into the living room. Inside was an empty TV which usually held the big screen television that Jecht watched blitzball on Sunday night on. True to his word, he had unplugged and removed it from the house. However, the cushioned couch and coffee table were still there. There was also Utada's armchair which she read in during the evening in. Ever so gently, Tidus placed Yuna on the couch. He would do almost anything to get her out of that room, haunted with the swirling memories of what had happened not even ten minutes ago, mixing with past memories of Seymour taking his anger out on his girlfriend, the one person whom he supposedly loved and respected. Tidus's head was reeling with these thoughts as he brought an ice pack from the kitchen freezer to Yuna so her black eye wouldn't swell too badly.
"Thanks," Yuna replied, taking the cold compress from him. Tidus just looked at her for a while. Sensing his eyes on her, she asked, "What?"
Carefully, Tidus asked slowly, "Yuna how long has this gone on? I don't mean to, well, you know, pry into your business, but, well."
Yuna didn't look directly at Tidus as she answered. "About two years now. He used to be so nice to me, so kind, but then," Yuna stopped herself. The physical and emotional attachment she had to him had been too great to break up with him. She had been so young when they began dating, and when he started to beat her, she didn't know what to do. He had seen to that. Remembering the first time, she had lain on the floor of his foyer, while he stood over her and said in a menacing voice, "If you tell anyone, I'll kill myself and frame you. You'll go to prison for murder." The one thing that shone threw Seymour's false character was his ability to follow through on his word, so coincidentally, Yuna didn't tell. Even now, she was reluctant to open her mouth.
Tidus sensed her hesitance. "It's okay," he replied to her abrupt silence, "but maybe we should wait to go to the store. I mean--" He was stopped by Yuna's horrified expression. "What?" he asked. Yevon, what had he done this time?
"Of course we should go today! We are living on a very tight budget! Just because of something Seymour did, why should we sacrifice our plans?"
"Okay, okay, fine, we'll go. Why don't you change out of your pajamas, take a shower, whatever else you need to do, and then we'll go?"
Yuna again looked at him in disbelief. "WHAT?" he asked again.
"Aren't we going to make a list and cut out coupons? I mean, we have a limited amount of money and, well, we could spend it all on junk."
Tidus sighed. "First of all, we have $1000 bucks, which is about $330 a week. Why can't we just go to the store and buy what looks good?"
"Because," Yuna said, trying her best to be patient, "we have no planned meals for an entire week. We won't each nutritiously and that's bad."
"Um, are you taking health and actually paying attention to it this term, Yuna?"
"Come on! Besides, if we make a list, we'll have more money left over for snacks and junk food."
Tidus sighed. "Okay. Let's compromise. How about we plan dinner for a week and then when we actually get to the store, we can figure out lunch, breakfast, and snacks."
Yuna thought about this for a moment and then agreed. "Fine." She sat down on the couch while Tidus ran into the kitchen to get a pencil and paper. Sitting down beside Yuna, he asked, "How should we do this? I mean, do we have a budget for the price of the meal?"
Yuna took the pad of paper from him and the pencil, and did some quick division on it. "Well, we have about 50 bucks to spend a day, so, that's about $15 per meal. You might want to get the newspaper and scissors. We'll need some coupons."
An hour later, after much laughing and frustration, the list was made and Tidus was looking it over as Yuna took her shower.
Tidus and Yuna's Grocery List:
Day One: Macaroni and Cheese w/ Garlic Bread Items to Buy: 2 Stouffer's Mac & Cheese Microwavable Dinners* Frozen Texas Toast Garlic Bread Milk Pepper Estimated Cost: $16.99
Day Two: Pizza w/ Breadsticks Items to Buy: None. It's called delivery. Estimated Cost: $7.99
Day Three: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce Items to Buy: Pasta* Canned Sauce* Ground beef Baguette Butter Estimated Cost: $9.60
Day Four: Tacos (chicken, soft-shell) Items to Buy: Tortillas* Grated Cheddar Cheese Lettuce Chicken Salsa* Estimated Cost: $8.75
Day Five: Soup Items to Buy: Ramen Noodles* Fruit Estimated Cost: $5.50
Day Six: Pancakes Items to Buy: Pancake Mix Eggs Butter Syrup Estimated Cost: $10.10 *indicate coupon may be used for that item.
They had argued about the last one. Pancakes were for breakfast, Tidus had said. Yuna retorted that breakfast foods could be used all day long. In the end Tidus had given in. Why, he wasn't sure. Maybe he was just sick of arguing. They had only planned six meals because last night had counted as part of the first week. While thinking about this, Yuna reentered the room, fully dressed in jeans, a green halter top, and flip- flops. Tidus had to do a double take, not because she looked totally beautiful, but her eye which was turning an ugly brown shade fifteen minutes earlier, was now normal.
"What happened to your black eye?" he asked in disbelief.
Yuna rolled her eyes, but was smiling when she answered. "It's called cover-up. Come on let's go."
Tidus was hesitant. "Are you sure about this? I mean, you're not too beat up?"
Yuna shook her head. "Nah. Seymour hits like a girl."
"But it hurts in other ways than just physically."
Looking down at her feet, Yuna agreed. "Yeah, it still hurts." Water droplets gathered at the corner of her eye, threatening to fall, but she brushed it away quickly. "C'mon! I want to go!"
No, she doesn't, Tidus thought. She just wants to forget about the whole thing. She's not ready to talk about it to anyone, so why should I make her? When she's ready, I'll be there. Yevon, I'm starting to sound like Squall. Tidus said, "I'll go get my shoes."
***
After two hours of trying to find items at the grocery store, Tidus and Yuna finally returned home at about 3:00PM. "That was without a doubt the most aggravating experience in my whole life," Yuna said, walking through the door with an armload of brown paper bags filled with food in her arms.
"Yeah," Tidus agreed, "and just think. We get to do it all over again next week."
Yuna groaned and began putting things away in the kitchen. Tidus returned to the car to get the rest of the groceries. By the time he reentered the house, Yuna had put away all the groceries except for the ones he was holding.
"Damn, you're fast."
Yuna nodded. "At home, my mom buys the groceries and I put them away. It's a very simple process."
"Right," Tidus replied. He began helping her put away the rest of the food. "Now we're left with the problem of what to do for the rest of the day."
Yuna rolled her eyes. "I can't believe they took away the TV. I mean, that was totally unfair. We can't watch any movies either."
"Hey, wait a sec," Tidus said. "We have the laptop, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, maybe we can play DVDs on it! I'm sure Utada and my dad thought of this, and took all the DVDs out of the house, so we can rent some from a video store."
"But Tidus," Yuna protested. "I don't think we have enough money for that. I mean, our parents thought of everything and they wouldn't just forget that we could rent movies from a store. Plus, we just spent over $250 at the grocery store and."
".and our weekly allowance is 330 bucks! Why not splurge a little? Yevon, we saved maybe $10 with coupons. Please?" Tidus gave Yuna a puppy dog look and knelt on his knees. "Pleas, please, ppllleeeaasse?"
Yuna smiled, but rolled her eyes. "Fine, but can't we wait until later this week? It's such a nice day, why can't we go to the beach? Besides, maybe we can get movies from our friends on Monday."
Tidus thought about this. It was a beautiful day outside. The sun was shining, the sky was a deep blue, and there were cotton-candy-puff clouds in the sky. "Okay, we can go to the beach, but that means that I get to pick out what movie we watch on Monday."
"Agreed."
"I get the bathroom first!" Tidus yelled, and ran off into his room to grab his bathing suit. Yuna sighed good naturedly and decided to pack some food to take while she waited for use of the bathroom. She knew that her mom kept a picnic basket under the sink in the kitchen. Usually, Utada and Jecht would go off on Saturday afternoons and have lunch on the beach. Yuna forced the thought of what else they might have been putting in their mouths instead of food and put together some sandwiches from the things they had bought at the store. She added a couple of sodas, bag of chips, and some store bought cookies. When she was done with that and Tidus still wasn't out of the bathroom, she went into her room to grab her bathing suit. Searching through her suitcase (she still hadn't moved all her clothes into her dresser), Yuna realized that Rikku had taken out the only one-piece swimsuit that she had packed. Damn Rikku, Yuna thought. For some reason, she didn't want Tidus to see her in a string bikini, which was all that was left in her luggage. Yuna sighed. She had fought pretty hard to go to the beach and couldn't just back out of it, so she took the bathing suit made with the most material and changed in her closet.
When she emerged from her room and returned to the kitchen, she ran smack into someone with bronze skin and a six-pack. A very nice, firm six pack. Yevon, what am I thinking? Yuna thought, separating herself from Tidus. "Sorry," she said quickly. Tidus was too busy giving Yuna the once over, and then doing it again to notice. Yuna hurriedly crossed both her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at him and Tidus cracked a smile.
"Nice suit." When her eyes became more close to slits than Tidus had ever seen them, he quickly amended his mistake, or tried to. "Hey, I was just kidding," he said, holding up his arms as if to fend off an attack.
Yuna raised her eyebrows at him and said, "Let's just go." She grabbed the picnic basket and walked out the door, with Tidus close behind. "C'mon, Yuna. It was just a joke." The rest of the short walk through the sandy beach house beach house backyard and the 100 feet to the roaring waves, Yuna was silent, and after several attempts to redeem himself, so was Tidus. Well, it was a nice suit, he thought in his defense. He was right. The suit showed off Yuna's slight figure and soft skin, and was white with light pink polka dots, very 50's. Normally, Yuna didn't wear pink, but this was okay. She could suffer a little pink to save her dignity. It wasn't like she would come out of her room in the bikini Rikku had bought her for her. It was as close to going outside naked as you could get without actually taking it all off.
Fortunately, Tidus had remembered the towels, as Yuna had forgotten them. He laid them down in the middle of the secluded beach. No one was there, save an elderly couple walking along the shoreline, talking most likely of better times. When Jecht or Utada bought property, they made sure that it was in a really private place. In this case, Tidus thought that they had overdone it. Where were all the hot chicks in bikinis? Yuna seemed to have forgiven him for the time being for his slight to her before, as she raced to meet the approaching wave, dragging Tidus by the hand right along with her. As she reached the water though, she stopped short and let go of Tidus's hand and let him fall face first into the salty water. "Hey!" Tidus yelled as he surfaced, sputtering. Yuna was already fleeing the scene, laughing. Wiping the water from his eyes, Tidus, grinning ear-to- ear, got up and began to chase after her.
Tidus finally caught, both gasping for breath, partly because they had been running, but also because they were both helplessly laughing their heads off. They played around like little kids for about an hour, chasing and splashing, but both lacked the energy little monsters have a seemingly endless supply of, and soon tumbled onto their towels, starving and tired.
Catching her breath, Yuna unpacked the stuff she had put together while Tidus shook his head like a dog, spraying water droplets everywhere. Yuna ignored this and tossed him a sandwich and a pop, "Here."
"Hey, thanks," Tidus replied gratefully and tore the saran wrap off his sandwich and began chomping down, ripping bits of bread, cheese, and meat apart as if he was a wild dog. Yuna stared at him, disgusted, while he asked, with his mouth full, "What?"
Rolling her eyes for what seemed like the thousandth time that day, Yuna took a bite of her plain PB&J bagel, chewing rapidly. She was physically and emotionally exhausted from the day. She had done her best to forget about Seymour, but no matter how she tried, he entered her thoughts unbidden. She needed to talk about it to someone, anyone. She needed to reclaim what was hers, tame her mind. The only way to do that was talk about it. Her options seemed pretty limited to one person, and he was sitting right in front of, chewing with his mouth open. Oh well, Yuna thought. He's been great about the whole thing so far.
"It started about two years into our relationship, like I said before," Yuna said slowly, looking down at the sand. Tidus stopped chewing. "Just words at first, calling me names, telling me I was fat, to go on a diet. Soon it grew to calling me a bitch, pushing me around whenever he was mad." Tidus didn't need to ask who 'he' was. "I didn't know what to do, who to tell, if anyone. I was scared." Yuna swallowed, and then continued.
"I wanted to break up with him so badly, but. he said if I did that, then he'd kill himself, and make people think that I did it, that I was responsible." Yuna drew a shuddery breath. "I guess I believed him, 'cause I didn't tell anyone, not even my friends. Lulu knew, though I never admitted it. She didn't tell anyone though. The beatings were never too bad, but lately, they got worse, and maybe, if you hadn't done what you did this morning, he would've moved on to something.more."
A cold sweat gripped Tidus's heart. He thought of Seymour taking the one thing he had not taken from Yuna, forcing her to sleep with him. Tidus banished the thought from his mind. It was too terrible, too sad, too disgusting. Instead, he dropped his food and grabbed Yuna and gave her a hug. She had started to cry again and her bitter tears burned Tidus where they landed on his shoulders and back. "Why didn't you tell someone, anyone?" he asked quietly.
Still held close in a comforting hug, Yuna sobbed, "I didn't know if I should. I didn't know if it really was my fault."
Tidus held a sobbing Yuna away from him, grasping her shoulders. "Don't ever think that Yuna!" he said fiercely. "It's his problem, not yours, his fault, not yours. We're going to put him in his place. We're gonna get revenge on him for you."
Yuna didn't say anything, just sobbed into Tidus's shoulder, until she fell asleep.
Tidus had to carry her inside, along with all their beach stuff, and it was quite a strain, even if he was an incredibly strong blitz ace. Laying Yuna down on her bed, he retired to his room, even though it was only 6 o'clock. He too, had had a rough day. What he didn't know was that Yuna couldn't escape Seymour, even in sleep.
***
A purple mist was rising. Yuna stood, alone, amid the deep fog. Swirling around her were past memories, forgotten ones of when she was a small child, savored ones of happy times, and those she wished she could forget. She was spinning slowly, round and round, gaining momentum, when out of the torrent of hazy purple, emerged Seymour, from one of her memories. She couldn't run, couldn't hide, was frozen. Seymour grew, was becoming larger, more powerful, coming straight for her. Awaiting the blow that was sure to come from his towering, anger, Yuna closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was in her room, sitting up in her bed. Outside, rain steadily hit the window sill. Lightning flashed, and a very loud boom of thunder followed that caught Yuna off guard. Still shaking from the thought of Seymour coming back, Yuna glanced at the clock that stood beside her bed. It was 1:45 AM. Another loud crash of thunder shook Yuna. If Seymour were to come back, no one would know. He would be shielded by the dark, covered by the stunning sounds of thundered. So what if he did come back? What would she do then? Tidus was likely to be asleep. She would have to be somewhere where he wouldn't expect her to be.
Suddenly paranoid, Yuna crept along the hallway slowly. She walked to Tidus's room, just then noticing that she was still in her bathing suit. However, there was no way she would go back into her room now. What if Seymour was there? She pushed open Tidus's door. Creeping toward the sleeping figure in the bed, she gently shook him awake, the person who had helped her so much in the last day. He'd really have to care for her to do the favor she was about to ask him.
"Tidus? Tidus!" she whispered urgently.
"Huh?" Tidus asked sleepily. His eyes snapped open when he saw Yuna standing at the foot of his bed, in the middle of the night, in her bathing suit.
"What's up?"
"Tidus, I need to sleep with you tonight."
Now he was wide awake. "What?!?"
Author's Note: Ha-ha. No, not in that way, perverts. I don't think Yuna likes Tidus in that way yet. So, that was the long awaited Chapter Four. Hope you liked it. Even if you didn't, drop me a review. All you guys that reviewed last time, thanks so much. Unfortunately, a lot of people reviewed and I can't address all of you separately, so I'll just have to answer some questions about this fic.
1) Yes, it appears that Tidus and Yuna will become brother and sister, but they don't. Even if they did, they wouldn't be blood related, so it wouldn't be incest, at least I don't think. It's better than this one book I read where a grandfather and a granddaughter got together. That was just nasty.
2) Tidus was able to beat up Seymour because a) Seymour is a weak ass, and b) Tidus trains almost every day for blitzball. Height has nothing to do with it. Besides, in the actual game, he had to fight Seymour, what, like five times?
3) Seymour knew that Yuna was at the house because she's there every weekend.
4) This is not my first ever fanfiction. I write most of them out on paper before I actually post them. I've written several other Tidus/Yuna fics, but they all sucked, do I didn't type or post them. Okay, I think that's all. Any more questions? Tell me in a review. Even if you don't have a question, review anyway! ~Liz~