Yay, I really think this story is starting to get going! Although I realized something...I have NO IDEA how it's going to end! None whatsoever! I've got it all planned out for at least three more chapters or so, and then I'm kind of stuck...I should probably think on that, shouldn't I? Hmm... Well, enjoy!

Chapter 6: The Unwanted Attention

"You're going to another game with Baralai?" Braska asked as Yuna grabbed her coat. Baralai wasn't to her house yet, but Yuna figured he'd be there any second.

"Yeah," Yuna said.

"Baralai told me that you two are…a couple now?" Braska asked.

"Oh, yeah," Yuna said, and a wave of heat flushed to her cheeks. Why had Baralai told him? Not that it mattered. He would have figured it out sooner or later.

"I'm glad things turned around for you," Braska said, "Baralai's a fine young man, as I've told you many times."

Yuna rolled her eyes. Yeah, she knew all about Baralai's 'fineness'.

At that moment, Baralai pulled up.

"Invite him in!" Braska said, "You don't just run off to his car, do you?"

"We're going to be late," Yuna simply said, "I'm sure he says 'hi'."

"It's alright if you miss some of the game."

"Baralai's a huge fan, Father," Yuna said, "He's be upset if we missed it."

"Fine, but bring him in after the game. I want to have a chat with him."

"Sure, sure," Yuna just mumbled. She threw her coat on, and ran into the snow, and hopped quickly into Baralai's car before he could even get out to open the door for her.

"You seemed rushed," he said, although there was little emotion to his voice.

"I don't want to be late!" Yuna just said, using the same excuse she had used with her father.

"I bet you don't," Baralai just said, his voice still extremely emotionless.

He didn't say anything else, and neither did Yuna. They simply rode in silence to the arena.

-

The first half was just ending, when Baralai finally spoke to Yuna. Throughout the entire game, he hadn't uttered a word, but Yuna had simply assumed that it was because he was into the game. This game was much closer than the game before, for the score was tied, one-to-one.

Yuna had actually bee the first to speak, when she said, "Wow, I can't believe how much closer it is!" Her eyes were on Tidus of course, for he was swimming around from person-to-person, and he didn't appear to be very happy.

It was then that the period buzzed, and Tidus continued talking to Gippal, looking rather upset, as they swam out of the pool.

"So, where were you last night?" Baralai didn't look at her, but instead at the pool in front of him.

"With Rikku," Yuna said, her heart beginning to pound. The night was over, wasn't it? Why would he be bringing it up?

"She called me last night," Baralai said.

"What?" Yuna cried, "Why would she do that?"

"She said she thought it was mean that I wouldn't let you go see her during the games. I told her I had no idea what she was talking about. So then I asked if I could talk to you, and she told me that she had no idea where you were."

"She must have been drunk," Yuna just said, and tried to think of something to change the subject.

"She said she hadn't seen you in months, and it wasn't her birthday," Baralai said, "There must have been more than alcohol involved if she felt that way."

Yuna didn't say anything. What could she say? She was busted, and she knew it? Should she apologize? Should she cry and tell him that she was confused and didn't know what to do and that she would never ever do it again?

"Who were you with?" Baralai asked, "You had to have left with someone."

Yuna was completely lost for words. There was no way she could tell him that she had been with Tidus, even though Tidus and her had done nothing. She couldn't tell him.

"I took a taxi," Yuna lied.

"Don't lie," Baralai said, seeing right through it, "Who were you with?"

The game started back up then, for the audience began to scream.

"Fine, we'll talk after the game," Baralai just said, for Yuna turned her attention immediately to the game, glad to have yet another source to place her attention on.

Even so, Yuna couldn't focus on the game. She should have called Rikku and told her to act as her alibi. Of all days to call Baralai, why did it have to be that day?

She realized it was pointless to worry about what she should have done, for that was in the past. Now she had to figure out what she was going to tell Baralai.

Yuna's mind was running wildly, trying hard to figure out what she could tell Baralai. She figured the best thing to do would be to tell him that she didn't want to hang out with him, and she felt bad, but she didn't know what to tell him, so she lied and really did take a taxi home.

Yuna nodded. That was what she would tell him.

She then allowed herself to watch the game. Her eyes had just gone into focus, and she found her heart jump as she realized that Tidus was right down in front of her, swimming toward the other team's goalie.

Mostly everybody in the arena had stood, to be able to see past their neighbor who was also standing, and Yuna did the same. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a man from the other team—a very large man, slammed Tidus hard causing Tidus to lose control, and he slammed into the goal post.

"He's down," Baralai said.

Yuna leaned out the window, trying to see the best she could. Sure enough, Tidus was down, grabbing his knee with his face twisted in pain.

"Oh no," Yuna said, "Do you think he's alright."

Baralai didn't answer her.

Yuna leaned even further out the window, squinting. Now the escapade was on the screen though, but Yuna couldn't seem to turn her attention back to it.

A man finally went out there, and he, along with two others, helped drag Tidus off.

"Well, we can say 'goodbye' to our chance of winning," Baralai said, and he sat back down.

Yuna's eyes darted back and forth. Everything continued as if Tidus wasn't hurt. Was he alright? Would he be able to play?

"If his knee is hurt, he can still…Play, right?" Yuna asked.

"Probably not. Which is bad for him. If he was seriously hurt, he can kiss his career goodbye."

Yuna felt dizzy—sick almost.

She wanted to see him.

Without saying anything to Baralai, she started toward the door.

"Where are you going?" Baralai asked.

"I'm going…To the restroom," Yuna lied.

"You were with him last night, weren't you?"

"With who?" Yuna played dumb.

"With Tidus," Baralai said, "And now you want to go see him."

Yuna didn't say anything. She was silent.

Baralai swallowed hard, and said, "If you go see him now, it's over between us."

Yuna paused. Her mind was telling her to turn around and sit down next to Baralai and proceed to apologize.

"Alright," Yuna said, and took a deep breath, "It's over then."
With that, she walked out of the room.

She found herself running. Why she was running was unknown to her, but she was. She ran down the stairs and into the hallways leading to the locker rooms. She assumed he was in the locker rooms, but of course she had no idea.

She was waiting for someone to stop her as well, but nobody came. The halls were empty.

She made her way to the locker room, and realized she had no idea what she was doing. Should she knock? Should she just enter? What if he wasn't in there? What if other people were?

She took a deep breath and decided that she didn't care. With that, she pushed the door slowly open.

The room was empty, except for the fact that Tidus was lying on the bench, staring at the ceiling.

"Tidus?" Yuna said, as she shut the door behind her.

He sat up, and held himself up by his elbows.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. He didn't sound upset or anything, but his voice cracked as he asked it.

"How are you?" Yuna asked.

"How does it look like I am?" Tidus asked, lying back down. He had a bag of ice on his knee.

"Is it bad?" Yuna asked.

"Horrible," Tidus said, "I can't move it."

"Why don't you go see a doctor?"

At that, Tidus sat all the way up, and shook his head, "I can't go see a doctor! They would say I couldn't play next weekend!"

"Tidus, if you can't play, you can't play. That's all there is—."

"You don't understand!" Tidus yelled at her, causing her to jump.

A tear flew down his cheek, and the sight was almost too much for her.

"I have to play!" Tidus said, "I can't not play! I have to!"

Yuna shook her head, and said, "But if you play and you're not supposed to, you could just hurt it more!"

"I don't care," Tidus said, and another tear fell from his eyes, "If I can't play at this game, everything's ruined anyway."

"You can't force yourself to play," Yuna said softly.

Tidus looked at the ground, and said, "It's not that bad. I'll be better."

"You can't push it," Yuna said, taking a seat on the bench across from him, "Can I see it?"

"Sure," Tidus said, and he slid the ice bag off.

It was completely bruised, but other than that, Yuna didn't see too much wrong with it. Still, it wasn't a pretty sight.

"How come you came down here?" Tidus asked then.

Yuna shrugged, and said, "I wanted to make sure you were alright. I didn't know you'd be down here all by yourself…"

Tidus gave her a little smile, and said, "Where's your boyfriend?"

Yuna looked at the ground, and said, "We broke up."

"What? Really?" Tidus asked.

Yuna nodded, and said, "Like, just ten seconds ago." Then, for reasons unknown to her, she started to cry.

For some reason, Tidus found that amusing, for he laughed, and said, "Now we're both crying!"

Yuna laughed too, and said, "I don't know why I am!"

Tidus stood up then, although he put all of his weight on his good leg, and said, "I wish I knew what the score was. Have we scored yet?"

"I don't know," Yuna said, "Do you want me to go check?"

"If you want to," Tidus said with a shrug.

"It's not a problem," Yuna said, smiling at him.

She started to go, but Tidus said, "Hey Yuna!"

"Hm?" she said, turning around.

To her surprise, he stretched his arms out in front of him, and said, "Thanks." Obviously he wanted to hug her.

Yuna hoped she didn't appear sheepish, but she walked up to him and fell into his embrace.

"No problem," she just said.

Just as they fell into the full embrace, however, the doors to the locker room suddenly slammed open. Before Tidus and Yuna could part, there were millions of flashes in their eyes.

"Damn," Tidus said, letting go of Yuna quickly.

Yuna fell away from him, and looked blankly into the sea of photographers.

"Tidus, who's this young lady?" people began to question him, "How's your knee? Will you be able to play against Zanarkand State next week? How will this effect your career? Hey you, girl, what's your name? How do you know Tidus?"

"Yuna, leave," Tidus said, "There's a back door there."

"What about you?" Yuna asked.

"I can handle these guys," Tidus said, smiling.

"Who are they?"

"Newspapers, TV, that kind of stuff."

"…Oh."

"See ya later," Tidus said, and then turned back to the cameras, almost acting as a shield for Yuna.

Yuna didn't say anything, but walked off quickly to the back, and let herself through the backdoor.

As soon as she stepped into the cold air—it turned out that door led to the outside—she realized that she was in major trouble. For one thing, she didn't have a way home, unless she waited for Tidus, and she knew that wasn't an option. For another thing, her picture was going to be all over the news. And for yet another thing, her father was probably going to kill her for breaking up with Baralai.

Yuna quickly pulled her phone out, and dialed the only number that came into her head—Rikku's.

"Yunie!" Rikku answered almost immediately, "Why didn't you tell me you were dating Baralai! I totally chewed him out last night, and he was like, "We're dating". You totally should have told me!"

Yuna was silent, for she couldn't think of anything to say.

"Um, is something wrong Yunie?" Rikku said then, "Where are you?"

"Outside of the blitzball arena," Yuna said softly.

"Really? I'm in the arena," Rikku said, "Why are you outside?"

"I don't know, I went though a door that Tidus told me to go through and—."

"Did you just say Tidus?" Rikku said slowly.

"Kind of," Yuna said, for she had no idea how her cousin was going to react.

"As in the blitzball player?"

"…Yeah."

"Yunie, why didn't you take me with you to meet him! I want his autograph!"

"Rikku, it's…"

Rikku ignored her and kept talking. "Oh my gosh, can you believe we managed to win? Without Tidus? Hey, how's his knee by the way? Is he going to be able to play next weekend? Oh my gosh, speaking of next weekend, do you want to go to Zanarkand with me? I'm taking the fan bus!"

"What?" Yuna said, "Zanarkand?"

"Yeah! We'll stay in the same hotel as the players and everything!" Rikku squeaked.

"I'd love to go," Yuna said, smiling, "But right now, I need to know…Can you give me a ride home?"

"You didn't drive?"

"Um…Baralai did," Yuna said.

"Okay, Yunie, where are you? We have a lot to talk about!"

-

"What a jerk. Like, duh, of course you were going to go running to Tidus, is he stupid? Did you throw something at him when he said that?"

The two were nearing Yuna's house, and Rikku had made Yuna explain everything to her. Yuna had just finished telling her cousin about what Baralai had last said to her.

"I just left," Yuna said.

"How's Tidus?" Rikku asked then, and she elbowed her cousin, "And you totally know what I mean!"

"His knee isn't in good condition," Yuna just said.

"Yevon Yuna, you know what I'm talking about!" Rikku cried.

Yuna just shook her head, looking confused, and said, "Only now the papers are going to have a picture of Tidus and me hugging and—."

"That'll be so cute. Did you guys get your pictures taken or something?"

"Rikku, the press burst into the locker room."

"Oh Yevon, I hope you two were decent! What kind of pictures are these!"

Yuna rolled her eyes, and said, "We just…hugged."

"Sure Yunie."

"Seriously Rikku, that's all, and then the press burst in and started snapping pictures of us. It'll be all over the papers that I was in there."

"So?"

"My father is going to kill me."

"Yunie, who cares? You're like Tidus' girlfriend!"

"I'm not his girlfriend," Yuna said, "We just had dinner together and that was it."

"Which is totally what a typical couple does Yunie! Do you have his number? Let's call him!"

"I don't have his number," Yuna just said.

"Sure you do!"

"We're not dating or anything," Yuna said again, "I made a stupid decision and now I'm going to get in huge trouble for it."

"Yunie, if Tidus is paying attention to you, then you pay attention back to him! Duh!"

"Rikku, you don't really understand," Yuna said, and she focused out the window, "I'm afraid Tidus doesn't really want me to be his girlfriend. It's a…Every now and then kind of thing with him, isn't it?"

"Well, that's what I've always thought," Rikku said, her voice going from its excited high-pitched state to her bummed-out-reality low, "Not that I know him or anything. But he'll be off to Zanarkand in less than a year, so I don't know why he'd want a girlfriend…"

Yuna just nodded. Even her cousin knew it.

"But Yunie, maybe he really loves you!"

"No," Yuna said, "I'm the one that's smitten with him."

"Well, maybe when we go to Zanarkand he'll realize that he really is in love with you. Wouldn't you bet?"

Yuna didn't reply. They were almost to her house, anyway.

"I'll call you more about going to Zanarkand, okay Yunie?" Rikku said as she pulled into her driveway, "It'll be a blast. Get your mind off things, right?"

"I don't know," Yuna said, "But it will be fun. Bye Rikku. Thanks a lot."

"No problem," Rikku said, "I'll see you around!"

Rikku drove off then, and Yuna took a deep breath. She wasn't looking forward to what was going to come next.

She took a deep breath, and entered her house. Sure enough, her father was standing right at the door, waiting for her.

"Baralai told me you two broke up," he said, crossing his arms, "May I ask why?"

Yuna rolled her eyes, and said, "Baralai keeps you mightily informed, doesn't he?"

"You don't," Braska said, "Someone has to! Now what happened?"

Yuna swallowed, and said, trying to sound sweet, "Daddy, I've fallen in love with a blitzball player."

Braska just shook his head and said, "You call Baralai right now and apologize for whatever you did."

"I didn't do anything!" Yuna said, and it was partly the truth, "I lied to him, but that's it. I swear I didn't do anything else."

"You lied to him? About what?"

"I went out with a blitzball player instead of him. But we just ate, Daddy! We just had dinner. He talked about the game, and I sat there."

"Why would you do something so stupid?" Braska roared at her, "Yuna, call him, right now."

"No."

"Then march up to your room, and I don't want to see you until you've called Baralai and apologized."

"Fine," Yuna said, "But you won't be seeing me then. And, I'm off to Zanarkand this weekend to go to a blitzball game with Rikku."

"You will do no such thing," Braska said, "I'm dialing Baralai's number right now. The only way I'd ever let you go to a game in Zanarkand would be if you were with him."

"No," Yuna just said.

Braska looked defeated. He appeared very tired, Yuna realized, and she found that she felt bad. He probably had far more important things to worry about than her. But that was always how it was. He always had more important things to worry about.

Yuna sighed, and said, "Look, let me go to Zanarkand with Rikku. I need a vacation. I just need to clear my head. And I promise that after that, I will call Baralai and apologize to him, alright?"

Braska just shook his head, but said, "I don't even care. But you have to be realistic, Yuna. You can go to that game with that cousin of yours, but the second you get back, I will have Baralai here waiting for you. And you two will discuss your problems and get over it. Got it?"

"Fine," Yuna just said, "And now, I'm going to bed."

Braska didn't say anything. He simply sat down and opened a book, and began to read.

Yuna stomped up the stairs to her room, and threw herself on her bed. At least she was going to Zanarkand. She buried her head in her pillow. She would spend the entire weekend in Zanarkand with Rikku.

Yuna sat up then. Who was she kidding? She may spend the game with Rikku, but she knew who she'd be with otherwise.

She stood up and walked over to her dresser, where Tidus' jersey still lay. She would be with its owner soon enough.

With that as her final thought, she clicked off her light, and went straight to bed.