Five : Here with me



He hurried himself up the stairs, feeling that something terrible had happened. She hadn't been at Rikku's when he had returned over there half an hour ago.

"I'm sorry, but she left more than an hour ago. Tidus took her home."

Seymour had silently cursed his stupidity. Why had he gotten so angry with Yuna earlier! He deeply regretted what he had done, leaving her all one with that... that... pervert... And now she was alone with him in her apartment... god knows what could've happened.

He knew, deep inside, that she still loved Tidus. He shouldn't have gotten so angry at her... after all he had been her first love... she was just being friendly to him, right?

RIGHT?

Yes, that was it. She was just being friendly.

Too damn friendly...

"Darn it, Yuna, he is no good for you..." he whispered as he ran towards his car. Driving out the main gate, memories of his first encounter with Tidus ran through his mind.

It was a cold December morning, the sun slowly rising to give too little of her cosy warmth. But inside his apartment it was nice and warm. Feeling the sun on his skin through the little openings in the curtains, he opened his eyes and sighed.

As he lowered his gaze, he saw her still asleep, crawled up against him, and protected in his embrace. His eyes softened and he tenderly nuzzled her forehead, breathing in her scent. She moaned and snuggled up closer, her nose buried in the crook of his shoulder.

Half a year had passed since their first time together. And every time she came to him or that he came to her, it was just pure magical. He loved the way she kissed him, touched him, pleased him, made him long for her, made him so deliciously numb when she just smiled at him... he loved her... with all of his heart. And he had told her so, over and over again. She always responded that she did too, but he had slowly started to think that she maybe didn't feel the same way he did about her. He understood that, after all she had just ended a long term relationship. He would wait the time needed for her to forget him. Even if it took forever... he would wait.

"Morning." Yuna whispered, softly kissing his throat.

"Hmmm... morning. Slept well?" he whispered back, kissing her hair, tightening his embrace. He felt her slowly nod her head.

"Do we have classes today?" she sleepily whispered, face pressed against his chest.

Seymour chuckled, she always asked that question when she had no idea what day it was... or when the sex had been so good that she still was fuzzy in the head about it. The cute thing was that she never realised she did it.

"No." he smiled and pulled her closer to him, resting his chin on her head. He heard her sigh and deduced from it that she was falling asleep again.

"What do you think about going shopping today?" he quickly offered, preventing her from falling asleep. She moved her head and looked up at him with drowsy eyes.

"Yeah... that's..." she started to say, but yawned. He softly smirked and waited for her to continue.

"...ok. Sorry." She propped herself up an elbow pulling the covers around her chest. "But I'll have to go to my apartment first to get a shower and fresh clothes..." she yawned again and rubbed the sleep from her eyes with one hand.

He shook his head. "No need, you can take a shower here, if you want..." he slowly said, raising both eyebrows, grinning slightly. She laughed.

"Yeah, but I still need fresh clothes, I..."

He silenced her with a soft kiss on her lips. "There are plenty of your clothes here..." he whispered, nuzzling her throat, making her gasp. "Let's take a shower together..." he hungrily bit her earlobe.

Yuna chuckled; he had been able to convince her again... she couldn't resist him now, so she just let him carry her to the bathroom.

It was now late afternoon and they were walking around in the huge mall of Bevelle city. Yuna smiled up at Seymour and he smiled back. He surely loved her smile... it felt so good to not see her cry over that guy she had been with before. Seymour remembered that he had made the promise to take care of Yuna and to find out who that guy actually was. He knew that his name was Tidus and that he was the star player of the Zanarkand Abes and that was kind of all he knew about him, Yuna still refused to talk about him. Because he didn't care about Blitz ball he had never heard of him before. But he sure wanted to have a talk with him...

"Ohh look!" Yuna gasped, looking to her right, "It's... it's your father, Seymour! Look!" She pointed at the centre of the mall that was one storey below them.

Seymour frowned and followed her gaze her and looked at the direction she was pointing at.

President Jyscal was standing in front of the fountain that represented a giant spiral made out of crystal, shining brightly from the drops of water raining on it and the rays of light falling through the giant windows of the mall's ceiling. He was surrounded by four bodyguards and he was talking to people, nodding, smiling and shaking hands.

Jyscal was a loved and respected man throughout all of Spira. He loved to walk between his people, always ready to help those who needed it. He had done so much for the country. He was the first president who had accepted the Al Bhed as they were and gave them a place in the society. He believed that all people were to be treated equally no matter their race. A lot of people had shared that point of view with him and so he had been ruling Spira for 30 years now. He had rebuild Zanarkand after it's destruction during the civil war 50 years ago. Zanarkand was a big high-tech city now, thanks to the help of the Al Bhed. He had of course modernized Bevelle too and it that way created a lot of work, ensuring the decrease of unemployment in the city.

Seymour just looked at his father and sighed. He loved his father as every respectable son would, but he just couldn't stand the fact the he kept pulling him into his political life. Jyscal hoped that his only son would follow him up as ruler of Spira... and Seymour didn't want that. He didn't want to be a president... but no matter what he said or did, his father wouldn't listen to him.

"Let's go down to meet him!" Yuna said, walking towards the escalator, with all kinds of bags in her hands. He turned around to follow, but bumped into someone.

"Oh, excuse me, I..." he quickly apologised.

"That's ok, "the person responded. He wanted to turn around when he saw something that drew his attention. "Wait a minute... Yuna!"

"Yes, what's the matt...?" Yuna said turning around, but abruptly stopped when she saw the person Seymour was talking to. Her eyes grew wide and she let all bags fall on the ground, paralyzed, in shock. Say that this wasn't happening... her heart was beating furiously in her chest.

"Oh no..." she whispered.

"So is this the guy, you're with now?" The man snickered, looking at Seymour from top 'till toe. "What the hell do you see in him!" He brutally asked, stepping closer towards her. Yuna backed away slowly. He reached out to grab her arm.

"Don't touch her." Seymour calmly said, walking in between them, stopping him. "You don't want to do this." He slowly said, giving the young man an icy glare.

"And who are you, to stop me?" The man said, chuckling as he saw his friends gather around him.

"Tidus please, no!" Yuna screamed as she saw the entire team of the Zanarkand Abes gather around them. Seymour looked at her from the corner of his eye and slightly raised an eyebrow, looking back at Tidus.

"So you're Tidus..." He chuckled, reaching out for Yuna. She stepped closer and stood next to him, taking his arm and anxiously squeezing it.

"The one and only." Tidus said, smirking, stepping closer to Seymour and pushing him provokingly. Seymour didn't even falter. "Who wants to know?" Tidus continued, looking up at the blue-haired man standing calmly in front of him. The other team members where mocking silently.

Yuna was scared to death, this wasn't good. She let go of Seymour and slipped into the already gathering group of people stopping to watch the fight. She knew that they would end up killing each other if she didn't do something now...

Seymour barely noticed Yuna slipping away and pushed Tidus back smiling when he saw the smaller boy take a step back to regain his balance. "You're way over you're head here... I repeat you don't want to do this..."

"Arsehole, you took Yuna away from me and you ACTUALLY believe that I'm going to sit back and let you get away with it!" Tidus growled as he launched himself at Seymour to punch him in the face.

Seymour had predicted his move and simply took a step aside, evading the blow. Tidus punched nothing but air and lost his balance, tripping over his feet and landed on the hard floor.

"Just for the record, I'd like to say that I didn't take her away from you." Seymour said, looking jokingly at the blonde blitz player, who tried to crawl back on his feet. "She simply left you..." he said and was surprised to hear gasps and whispers from the other team members. Apparently they had been told a different story.

"SHUT UP!" Tidus got to his feet and launched himself at him again, grabbing his waist, making both of them fall to the floor.

The crowd started to cheer as both men rolled on the floor, punching and pulling at each other. Seymour tried to evade most of the blows, but couldn't as he remarked that the blitz player was hardened in his anger, throwing punches all over his body. He succeeded to push the blonde of him and stood up, tasting blood in his mouth. Tidus shakily stood up too. His lower lip was open and he had bruises on his jaw and above his left eyebrow. They stood there, for a few seconds, just looking at each other and were ready to launch themselves at each other again when...

"ENOUGH!" A deep voice resounded through the hall. "What is the meaning of this?"

The crowd separated itself in two and let president Jyscal through, closely followed by a nervous Yuna. "Seymour?" Jyscal asked, eyebrows knitted together in a frown.

Seymour just kept glaring at Tidus and Tidus kept glaring at Seymour, both breathing heavily, ignoring Jyscal.

Seymour finally sighed and shook his head. "Father, I..."

"No! You've deeply disappointed me, son. We will discuss this matter later." Jyscal turned to leave and said towards two of his guards, "I will not tolerate fighting in here. Take the blitz ball player to the one who is accountable for him... I believe that he's name is Jecht." The president took off with his remaining guards.

The two men nodded and walked towards Tidus.

"What!" Tidus yelled as the two guards each took one of his arms and pulled him towards the exit. He struggled to be free, continuing to scold at Seymour.

"You fuckin' son-of-a-bitch! This isn't over!" His screams were heard all over the mall until they finally died out.

The crowd slowly started to dissipate, some people still whispering Seymour's name as they walked by, looking at him, secretly pointing at him.

Seymour just sighed and just let his head hang. He suddenly thought of Yuna and realised that she was standing at a save distance of him, watching him carefully. Her eyes were watery.

"Why did you have to go and..." she whispered and swallowed her tears, "Why did you..." she paused and looked away from him, biting her lip. She didn't want to admit to him that she he had scared her. That he could've easily killed Tidus. She had seen him punch Tidus once, twice... she had heard the damp sounds of his blows against Tidus' face... He definitely could've killed him...She had only realised now that he was that strong... she knew deep in her heart that she definitely wouldn't have forgiven him if he had hurt Tidus too badly...

"Yuna, I just couldn't have let him..." he hesitantly whispered, stepping towards her.

Yuna held up her hands in front of her and shook her head. "No, don't touch me!" she whispered, facing away, eyes closed. She was confused and afraid of what she started to feel for him.

Anger.

She didn't want too... but it was just how she felt right now.

Seymour felt a blow to his stomach as she said those words. "Yuna..." he tried again, slowly approaching. She backed away from him, shaking her head, tears starting to roll on her cheeks. He felt his heart break. She was crying again... no, no, no!

He quickly stepped towards her and took her in his arms. She resisted and whimpered to him to stop, beating her tiny fist into his chest, but eventually she broke down in sobs and held on tight to him. No, she couldn't be angry at him... she was—

Disappointed.

"I was so scared... s-so scared, Seymour..." she whimpered, holding him tight to her. "Don't ever... ever do that again..."

He caressed her head and closed his eyes, feeling her heart beating hard against his stomach. He was so sorry, he really hadn't meant to... "I'm sorry... Yuna, please forgive me..."

She just continued to sob and nodded against his chest, pressing closer to him.

Seymour got really alarmed when he saw that Yuna's front door was open. He entered her apartment en saw pots and her keys on the kitchen table. It looked like no one was home until he heard the sound of the shower. She was taking a shower with her front door open...?

He hurried himself to the bathroom and immediately saw her.

Totally naked, in a foetus position, pressed against the white tiles of the shower, drops of blood on her shoulder. Her arms were held up protectively against her face, uncontrollably shaking from the running water that had turned cold. And worst of all... she had bruises all over her body...

He took the towel that was lying on the toilet flap, shut the cold water and wrapped her in it. Scooping her up, he noticed that she was ice- cold and didn't seem to be conscious as she just lay limp in his arms.

"What in the name of..." Seymour softly whispered as he carried her to her bedroom. As he put her on the bed, she started to shake violently, her lips turning into a dark shade of blue.

"Oh god, Yuna don't do this to me!" He whispered and searched for his portable in his coat. "God no!" He whispered, close to tears. She was slipping away right in front of his eyes and he couldn't do anything to help her...

It took 10 atrocious minutes for the ambulance to finally take her to the nearest hospital.


What were they doing in there? It had been an hour already since they had taken her in. Was she going to be all right? What was wrong with her...?

Seymour was pacing up and down the waiting space that was situated in front of the intensive-care section, waiting for an answer from the doctors. He was dying with worry... and he couldn't shake the feeling that it had been his entire fault. She had needed him and he hadn't been there for her... he had left her with Tidus for god's sake! What had he been thinking? He grabbed his hair and winced. He was sure that it was him who had done this to her! He knew it for sure... she couldn't have done it to herself...? Oh, he swore that that sorry motherfucker would get what he deserved... this time he wouldn't hold back! All those bruises... on her back, on her cheeks, on her thighs, on her arms... it was like she had been violently attacked with her back towards her aggressor.

Seymour's eyes slowly grew wide when he realised what could've happened. He shook his head in disbelieve and suppressed the thought.

"NO!" he loudly said, sitting down on a bench, taking his head in his hands. "Oh, Yuna..." he almost sobbed, pressing his eyes shut against the upcoming tears. "He... will... pay...!" he promised, breathing heavily to calm his anger down. "She didn't deserve this... it was me you wanted... not... her!" He felt one tear escaping his left eye and he angrily wiped it away, "Fuckin' coward! Damn you!"

"Mister Guado?" a tender voice said. He immediately jumped on his feet and rushed towards the doors of the intensive-care section.

"Yes! What is wrong with her? Is she going to be alright?" He needed to know, he couldn't stand it anymore. "Can I see her?"

The young nurse sighed sadly and shook her head. "I'm afraid that won't be possible, sir."

Seymour heart stopped, still he needed to know. "Why? What's wrong with her?" He whispered feeling suddenly anxious.

"She has had a major concussion and two of her ribs are broken. She is still unconscious." The girl calmly said.

Seymour couldn't breathe, "W-what?" he almost inaudibly whispered, resting both of his hands against the wall next to the doors. He tried to smile but couldn't as he shakily asked, "But she is going to be alright?"

The nurse looked down and took a deep breath and continued; "Her body temperature has been drastically low for a long time and her left lung has had a major lack of oxygen due to the two broken ribs that had been pressing against it. We found bruises on her neck, her back and on her left temple where we believe the impact was that caused her concussion. More were on the insides of her thighs and on both of her arms." She paused and he knew what she tried to say. He didn't want to hear it, this couldn't be...

She continued, "All these signs indicate that she has been violently raped, though we were unable to find any trace of semen… this is what we came to conclude… "She stopped as she heard him shakily take a breath.

By now Seymour had closed his eyes and rested with his back against the wall, his right hand covering his mouth, the other resting on his chest. "Yuna..." he whimpered, his hands moving to grab his already messed up blue hair again.

"We have performed surgery on her and now her lung is free and she is breathing properly." She softly whispered, putting a hand on his shoulder. "It is a true miracle that she has been able to sustain her pregnancy. It is thanks to you that she is still alive. Both mother and child wouldn't have lasted long if you hadn't brought them here in time."

Hold up! Rewind! What had she just said! His head shot up.

"Pr-pregnancy? She, she is pregnant?" Seymour shakily whispered. She nodded.

"How long has she been..." he hesitantly whispered, his heart raging in his chest.

The nurse tilted her head to the side and just looked surprised at him. "We believe that she has been expecting for a month and a half now. You both didn't know?" she whispered, smiling comfortingly.

"A month and a half?" he whispered, eyes wide open. "No... I don't believe that she even knew... God..."

"Her condition is still not fully stabilized so we can't allow any visitors for the moment." She gave him a warm smile, turned and silently re-entered the intensive-care section.

Seymour let out a deep sigh and just stood there, immobile. Even though the news of her pregnancy made him happy, he still couldn't fully rejoice himself about it.

"You raped her... how could you... She still loved... you..." He whispered, eyes closed, his hands curled up in fists. He was about to loose all control over his anger. He was angry at Tidus of course, but he also was angry at himself... If he just hadn't left her all alone... this just wouldn't have... she wouldn't be... God!

He felt as if his heart could stop beating any moment from the overdose mix of sorrow, guilt and anger that he felt. It just made it all worse now that he knew that she was expecting a child... HIS child... He ran his hands through his hair again in pure frustration and took a few steps in the waiting space... he just didn't know what to do with himself.

Finally he took another deep breath to calm himself and threw his hands down.

He had played it so well... Had he been planning this since the beginning of the evening? Had he known that he would end up alone with Yuna?

"But how the hell had he expected to get away with this?" he said, softly laughing. "Did he truly think that no one would find out!" He then growled and abruptly turned to exit the hospital.

"Where is he!"

Seymour burst into Rikku's house and frantically looked around, refusing to accept that he maybe wasn't there.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Rikku yelled after him, in her pyjamas. "It's almost two in the morning for heaven's sake!"

Seymour turned around and approached her, taking her by her shoulders. "Where is he! Where is Tidus!" He yelled.

The little blonde shouted and tried to shake herself free, starting to get pissed off. "He's not here! Damn it, let go of me!"

Seymour suddenly realised that he was squeezing the petite body to much. He quickly let go of her. "Where did he go?" he asked, calming down a bit.

Rikku rubbed her sore shoulders and glared at him. "Why do you want to know?"

Seymour sighed, he was starting to lose his patience again. He forced himself to calm down once more. "It's Yuna...she..." he whispered between his teeth, "She is in the hospital."

"What! What happened!" Rikku jumped, looking at him with big eyes. "When did this happen!" She asked, feeling her heart beat frantically in her chest.

Seymour just looked at her for a long moment, his grey eyes ice-cold, his lips pressed firmly upon each other. "She was raped." He simply said and looked carefully at her, waiting for her reaction.

Rikku gulped and shook her head in disbelieve. "Sweet heavens...!" she gasped. "Wait...!" She looked up at him, frowning. "You're blaming..." she asked, slowly realising where he was headed to.

"He was probably the last person who was with her before it happened." Seymour said his voice cold as ice.

Rikku angrily shook her head, "No! You just said 'PROBABLY'!" she yelled, pointing her finger towards him. "How dare you come in here and accuse..."

"Did you know that Yuna and Tidus had had a relationship five years ago?" He icily continued not shifting his gaze from her.

She gasped and covered her mouth with a hand.

"Did you know that he abused her?" he said, his voice rising. "Did you KNOW that she was close to a mental breakdown because of him! DID YOU!"

Rikku just couldn't believe what she was hearing. "No..." she hesitantly whispered, "He never told me that... I..."

"Of course he didn't!" Seymour turned around and put a hand on his hip, the other on his forehead, thinking. "Do you have any idea where he could've gone?"

"No...but..." Rikku started and held back a sob, "Why would he have done that to Yuna? I don't understand... and why did Yuna not tell me?"

Seymour let out a deep breath and stared at the ceiling. "That's part my fault..." he whispered softly.

He turned around and stepped towards her. They went to sit on the large couch. He told her everything he knew about Tidus and Yuna's relationship. Everything that had happened between himself and Yuna, their true situation, his suspicions about her still loving Tidus, his encounter with him and the reason why he had left Bevelle. Also the way his suspicions had fully started to come out when she was here earlier with him. And the true reason why he had left her here all alone.

Rikku looked at him, her eyes watery. "But why didn't she tell me?"

"She must have thought that it was for the better. She desperately wanted to put Tidus behind her, I think, but..."

"I invited her here and messed things up. Oh god!" She gasped and looked at him, the tears starting to fall on her cheeks, "She had refused when I told her that Tidus would take her home! And ... I... insisted. Oh god, I'm so sorry. I didn't know!" she whimpered and looked at her hands in her lap.

Seymour exhaled again and closed his eyes. "Rikku... I believe that it is time for you to face the truth." His voice with a severe tone in it.

"Tidus raped Yuna. I don't think that you can deny that anymore. He raped her so he could get to me. And I can say that he has truly succeeded in that one attempt..." he clenched his fists and opened his eyes to look at her. "Yuna was pregnant when he took her. Thank god she still is..."

Rikku's mouth dropped and she looked up at him, startled. "What!" She shakily said, "You can't be serious!"

"The nurse told me so. I was as shocked as you are right now." He stood up and started to pace around the living room. If he stayed down, he might end up break something.

"Oh...god... Did he...know?" she hesitantly whispered, while looking at him walking around.

"No... He didn't. He still doesn't, I hope." He answered. He looked at her and started to feel sorry for her because she now knew that Tidus hadn't felt the same way about her as she had about him...

There was short silence between the two and then...

Rikku sadly smiled, "When we met in Luca, he asked me where I lived. I told him that I lived there with my mother, but that I was considering of moving to Bevelle so that I could go to the same university as my best friend..."

"Yuna." Seymour apprehensively nodded.

Rikku nodded and swallowed, more tears rolling on her cheeks. "He immediately told me that he was leaving for Bevelle too in a couple of weeks and invited me to join him then." She took a shaky breath, "He was so sweet and gentle, I...didn't see anything suspicious..." wincing, she broke down in tears.

"So he had been planning this for months..." Seymour thoughtfully whispered, while he looked at her shaking form. "I'm sorry, Rikku."

She sobbed on for a while and he let her. "God..." she then said when her tears had dried up, "I want to see her... Can we see her?"

Seymour shook his head. "Her situation is still unstable, they told me."

Rikku looked up at him, "Are her injuries that bad...?" she winced. "I can't believe... How does he expect to get away with this...?" she shakily whispered.

Seymour slowly nodded. That was exactly what he had asked himself earlier. But there was no time to waste. "Call her step-sister Lulu. Do you have her number?"

Rikku nodded and reached for the phone.

"Tell her that she needs to get to the St. Zaon hospital. She has to check up on Yuna." He said walking towards the door. "She will be smart enough to understand what truly happened once you tell her about it. She knows about me and Yuna and where we were going tonight."

"But I can go check up on her too!" Rikku protested.

"No, you can't!" He whispered, looking back at her. "I would like you to stay here...just in case that he comes back. If he does, call me on my portable. Here." He took a pen and a piece of paper out of his pocket and quickly wrote his number on it. "Be careful, he is dangerous. And... and... I think it would be better if you just played dumb, alright? He mustn't know that you know."

Rikku gulped, nodded and took the piece of paper. She looked at it and gazed up at him. "Where are you going?"

"To the authorities... they need to be informed on this... I will not rest until we've hunted him down..." Seymour whispered between his teeth, resuming his walk towards the door.

"Seymour, wait!" Rikku jumped out of her seat and ran towards him.

He turned and looked at her. "What is it?"

"She will come around, you know." Rikku whispered, smiling sadly.

Seymour frowned, "What are you talking about?"

She softly chuckled and shook her head. "Yuna! I am sure that she will realise how much you love her. She will turn around. She has to; she is carrying your child. I'm sure she will turn around."

Seymour felt his heart jump out of pure joy. He felt comforted and reassured, hearing that from her. He gave her a broad smile. He still hoped that Yuna wouldn't just love him because of the child though...

She stepped up to him and put her arms around his waist, for he was too tall for her to hug decently. "She has no idea how lucky she is to have you." She whispered softly. She let go of him and took a step back, looking down, smiling sadly.

Seymour just looked at her for a moment and then tilted her chin with a finger. "Take care, Rikku. Alright?"

She nodded and one tear fell from her eye. "I will."

He smiled and turned, opening the door, walking into the cold night.

As he drove out the main gate, another car appeared out of the shadows and followed him towards Bevelle Centrum.

To be continued…

-BDP-