Yuna stepped out onto the deck of the airship. The whole gang, including Rikku and Brother, were gathered by the door. Yuna set down the few bags of luggage she had, and turned to face her comrades.
"Yunie, are you sure this is what you want?" Rikku had to ask one last time.
Yuna took a look behind her. There was an island, covered in jungle, in which no one in Spira had discovered yet. At least, no one had put it on the map yet. It was a huge island, so surely there had to be some people enhabiting it, but you never know. Either way, to Yuna it looked absolutely beautiful. Covered in all kinds of nature, it seemed like the perfect get-a-way that would provide exactly what Yuna needed.
She turned and looked back and Rikku, and nodded softly. She had a slight smirk on her face, but deep down knew the tears were on their way back. She gave Rikku one last hug, and told her one last time to 'not come back unless it's a huge emergency'. Yuna needed her time and space, and she needed it to be alone.
Rikku nodded, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks.
"I love you." Rikku whispered in Yuna's ear, not knowing any other way to express her care for her.
That convinced Yuna's tears to finally start falling, and Yuna returned with an "I love you too."
The first step onto the hot sand was a tough one, because all the doubt and insecurity set in as soon as the airship set off. "What if I'm making a huge mistake?" She said to herself, watching the airship get smaller and smaller in the distance. "Too late now..."
She took a deep breath, filled her lungs with the freshest and cleanest air she's ever breathed, and began to walk ahead. There was a small opening in the forest ahead, so she decided to start there. At first she was surrounded by overgrowing shrubbery. Trees, bushes, shrubs, all kinds of plants surrounded her, and thickly too. She immediately got tangles in some vines that had stretched along the forest floor, but she found her way out within a few minutes. After walking about a mile, her bags were beginning to feel heavy.
"If I don't hit a resting spot soon my arms are going to fall off." She said to herself. The tropics must've lightened her mood slightly because that was the first positive thing to come out of her mouth.
Withing seconds of the words leaving her tongue, she stepped out of the forest, and onto what seemed like a gravel road.
She looked down at her feet, confused. "Maybe there is civilization here after all!" Restoring her energy, she hurried down the road in search of whatever it led to.
Within minutes, she was headed towards a small village. It wasn't too undercivilized, there was one small building, but it was mostly huts. AS she followed the road even further, she came to a stop right in the center of the village. She took a quick look around. Straight ahead was a traditional well, with a bucket and rope. Beyond that was the only building in the town, what she assumed to be the temple. Then evenly placed around the road were different sized huts, made from straw, wood, mud, and who knows what else.
There was hardly anyone around, Yuna noticed. "Hello?" She said loudly, hoping someone was around to hear her. There was silence, but only for a moment, and then a small child poked his head out from behind one of the huts.
"Hey there!" Yuna said, hoping the boy understood english. She wasn't so sure after seeing the quality of the living conditions around her.
He stepped out from behind the hut and walked towards her.
"Could you help me? I seem to be lost..." Yuna trailed off, as the kid stepped closer.
He walked right up to her, seemed to look her over, and smiled. He pointed down the road, "City, that way." was all he said.
Yuna smiled, "Thank you very much." She felt kind of awkward all of a sudden and decided to continue on her way.
The city she came upon was much more like she was used to. Imagine the town of Besaid, only a little more developed. There were buildings instead of huts, fountians instead of wells, and an actual temple. There were plenty of people wandering about the streets headed to wherever they had to be. Yuna couldn't stop smiling, this was perfect.
She began to walk the streets confidently, smiling widely at those she walked by. She spotted what seemed like a small shop, and approached the salesman.
"Excuse me!" She smiled, noticing how young the salesman was. He looked about 15 years old. He looked up, checked her over, and smiled widely.
"Why, hello there ma'am! How may I help you?" The boy grinned. He was handsome for his age, and very confident.
"I was wondering if you could tell me where I might find an inn?" She said politely.
"Sure thing, one second." He stepped behind a curtain, grabbing a straw hat, and walked around the counter. "Right this way."
"You're new here, aren't you?" He asked nicely.
"Yes, arrived just a few hours ago actually." She said, following him close behind.
"I see. The name's Tekken, but just TK to you ma'am, and this is the city of Demeria." The boy introduced himself.
"Oh, thank you. My name is Yuna. I'm from Besaid." She said, smiling.
The boy stopped suddenly, and turned to look at her. "What? Really?"
She paused, "Uhh...yes"
He smiled widely, "Damn, we don't usually get travelers from far away. What made you choose this lousy joint"
"Lousy? I think this place is beautiful." She smiled, hoping he didn't notice that she was avoiding the question.
"Ahh, right here." He pointed to a building a few feet ahead. "They can help you there"
"Thank you so much, you've really made me feel welcome." She grinned, he was a cute little kid.
"No problem, you need anything you let me know. See ya!" He said and disappeared into the crowd.
She took a deep breath, 'so far so good' she thought.
Darkness fell sooner than expected, for within minutes of being checked in the sun had already set. She had a small room, but a comfortable one. She unpacked some things from her bags, like hygiene items and such, and freshened up a bit. She was nowhere near tired, and felt like exploring the city a bit before turning in for the night.
She set out some clothes, looking for something cute but appropriate to wear. She picked out a short jean skirt and a pretty white button up top, with a black tanktop underneath. She felt like a whole new person here, so she had a good first impression to make. She let her hair down, and put on some make-up. Her first night out had to be a good one.
After a few hours of wandering around and trying to memorize which buildings were what, she found herself at the only place that people were gathered, a bar. Everything else had closed already, and most of the people had turned in for the night. Besides, she was a new person now, right? Trying a bar for the first time might be fun, and it would give her a chance to meet some new people while she's here.
She walked in, and took a good look around. There was one main counter, where some people were seated, and the rest were seating around small wooded tables. Everyone was either playing cards or talking, there was no TV on or anything else. There was a small jukebox machine in the corner though, with some kind of soft music playing.
Yuna spotted a few empty seats along the bar, so she found her way around the tables and sat down. There were empty seats on either side of her, but she was fine with that for now. Before she could think of anything else, a young man leaned over the counter to speak with her, "What can I getcha, hun?" It was the bartender.
"Uhm...I've never really drank before, what do you recommend?" She smiled nervously.
"First time? Well... let's give you something light and tasty then." He grinned, poured her a drink within seconds, and handed it to her. She smiled and thanked him, handing him the few dollars that it cost.
Well, it smelled okay, kind of like strawberries, but it was the taste she was afraid of. She put the cup to her lips and tilted it gently. To her suprise it was actually very tasty, like a smoothie of some sort. She took another big sip and set it down, thanking the bartender once more.
"I really hope I loosen up and make a friend, because drinking for the first time alone sounds like a bummer..." She thought to herself. Then again, she was new, and almost expected to spend the first few days by herself.
Before another thought could run through her mind, a young man sat in the seat next to her. She froze for a second, not lifting her eyes from the counter. "What? Is he sitting next to me?" She couldn't help but to lift her eyes to look at him.
Sitting next to her was a tall, slender, handsome young man. He had dark black hair, which at first caught her off guard. However, it was somewhat shaggy and spiked with gel, which made it fairly attractive. She couldn't see his eyes yet, but so far everything looked pretty damn good.
As she lifted her head completely, the man had the bartenders attention and ordered a drink, and then noticed her in his peripheral vision. He turned to look at her, and smiled. He had these amazing blue eyes, and even though Yuna was usually shy, she couldn't take her eyes away from them. He smiled, "Hey there."
Absolutely stunned, and partially nervous, all she could do was smile. Those eyes were breath-taking.
After no response, he giggled slightly, "I'm sorry. I couldn't help but notice you were sitting alone"
She cleared her throat, and tried her best not to sound nervous, "Yea...I'm uhm...kind of new here." She looked back down at her drink, realizing how nervous she already was.
"Really? Where are you from?" He asked politely.
"Besaid, actually...heheh." She smiled and shrugged.
"Where's that?"
She looked up at him, surprised. There's those eyes again.
"You really don't know? It's on the main island of Spira, near Kilika?" She was surprised that he didn't know, but realized that most of the people here might not know either.
"Oh ok, so it's pretty far away, huh." He smiled, and watched her nod, "So what made you come all the way out here?"
She looked back down at her glass again, and took a deep breath. "Vacation, I guess. Needed to get away..."
"Oh, sorry"
"No it's ok, really..." She looked at him again and couldn't help smiling.
"My name's Yuna"
"I'm Conner"
"Oh! That's a nice name, I haven't heard of that before." She grinned.
He just smiled.
About an hour later, Yuna had really grown comfortable with this guy. Her and Conner had been talking the entire time, they seemed to really hit it off. Plus, he was cute, so she felt okay with it all.
"So after all that happened, I quit being a summoner and started sphere hunting." She was explaining.
"What's that?" He asked, curiously.
"It's where you fly around in this funny-looking airship, and use this radar to find these small sphere's that people store their memmories in."
His eyes widened, "Oh! I've never heard of that before." He laughed slightly.
Yuna just laughed. She'd only had a little bit of the drink. She didn't want to get drunk, not with this cute guy sitting next to her.
After a few more hours, Conner felt it was time to walk her home.
"I'll be fine, honestly...I'm not even tipsy..." She stood up and in seconds was falling to the floor. He caught her by the arm and helped her to her feet again.
"The alcohol is a bit different here, hun..." He said laughing.
"Oh my..." She grabbed her head with her hands, suddenly feeling more than just a little tipsy, and followed him to the front door.
"I'm fine, really..." She insisted.
"You can hardly stand up," He smiled, "Please let me walk you home"
For some reason he sounded like he really wanted to walk with her, so she finally agreed. The alcohol hadn't hit her until she stood up, but now she felt like she couldn't walk a straight line to save her life.
They made it back to inn, and he helped her to her room.
"I'm gonna sit down..." she said, and he held her hand as she slowly sat down on the bed, giggling a bit. This was the first time she'd gotten drunk in a long time. This was also the first time ever meeting this guy, and he was already alone in her room. How did she score him so easily?
"So tell me...why did you really decide to come out here? Relationship problems?" He asked. She shook her head and took in a deep breath.
"Being a sphere hunter is very dangerous. We had to fight fiends all the time. Well...there was a particular sphere that I wanted, but a very dangerous fiend was guarding it. So I convinced my team members to join me, and we found him. Well... he was...much stronger than expected..." She trailed off.
She turned and faced forward, losing eye contact with him. She sure as hell didn't want to have to think about this now, not after such a fun night.
"One of my friends got...well...killed that night. Ever since I've been blaming myself for being so...selfish." Her voice grew a little shaky towards the end of that sentence.
His heart sank and he immediately regreted bringing it up again.
"Oh, I'm really sorry...I..." He began to apologize.
"It's ok, really. I just...needed to get away from everyone...it was all just really hard to..." She had to stop talking or else the tears welling up in her eyes were going to make an escape. She took a deep breath and put a hand up to her lips.
"Sorry..." She whispered.
"No no no, don't be sorry, Yuna." He said gently, placing his hand on top of hers.
She looked up into those incredible blue eyes once more.
"Thank you so much for keeping me company tonight. Being the new girl always sucks..." She giggled a little.
"My pleasure. Anytime you need company just find me..." He smiled.
God was he hot.
He stared into her eyes, and as things got quiet, he began to lean in for a kiss. Yuna sensed this immediately, and was about to turn away. Then she thought, 'what am I doing? This is a whole new island and no one knows me. I'm going to do what I want'.
She closed her eyes and leaned in to meet him. As their lips touched softly, she suddenly felt like she was floating on clouds. She figured it was just the alcohol, but deep down she knew it was the kiss. He kissed her gently, tilting his head to the side a little bit. Boy was her head spinning. He pulled away and looked her in the eyes.
"Goodnight, Yuna." He smiled that beautiful smile of his.
"Goodnight."