Chapter 2.

Yuna x Seymour. AU. Rated T. Side AU Story in between Macalania and Bevelle. Spoilers!

I don't own FFX or any part of it.

I've always loved the Yuna x Seymour pairing, or the Rinoa x Seifer pairing, etc. I have a thing for bad boy, bad relationship, you know, sort of stuff. Haven't found Yuna x Seymour stuff I like so I made one. Let me know what you think =)

Rikku drags Lulu and myself into the other offshoot room. She seems to breathe a sigh of relief.

"One thing is for sure, we had to get you out of that room. You must have been suffocating!" Her smile is bright, 100% of her happiness behind it, never a mouth corner held back due to the underlying anxiety of Sin and pain and fear. I wonder if that's what it is to be Al Bhed.

Lulu seemed to relax then, too; not all at once.

"I am happy for you. Have you done it because… it will make Spira happy?"

"Yes…" I say, lips parted, wanting to say more, but not knowing how.

"We saw the sphere… what about that?" Rikku asked, unaccusingly, while leaning on her palms.

"I had gone by myself to confront him about that, originally, and to ask him to turn himself in. He said… it's not true. He said he's not a murderer, that he was set up. I know that Jyscal said he was twisted, crazy, and that fits… but he said he would show me, he would show me the corrupt people and problems which lead to it, and maybe I can help…"

"Yuna, that's… a lot to take into your hands." Lulu cut me off, but kept her voice gentle.

"So is fighting Sin. I must try to do good and right wherever I go, whatever situation I am in. The fayth also told me that there was turmoil in Bevelle," I wasn't trying to fight her…

"Even if it's true, it's between the officials in Bevelle, it's for them, not a pilgrimage."

"Isn't Bevelle part of the church? And isn't this wrong? If we don't atone for our wrongdoings, the pilgrimage won't…" I didn't want to say, won't be worth anything, but I didn't know what I wanted to say.

"Do you like him?" Rikku cut in, and Lulu and I turned to look at her, twirling her feet off the edge of the bed. I smiled then, grateful for the mood lift, and I could feel my cheeks getting warm.

"Well… he's… I like parts of him. I dislike parts of him, too. It's not like…"

"Like Tidus?" Lulu asked, putting a hand on her hip and smirking. But she was right.

"Yes… with him, it's simple, I like him. I like him a lot. Everything about being around him brings me up, sometimes I forget about it all… But it makes sense, Seymour is a Maester, he's got the whole world to worry about. Seymour talks about politics, Tidus talks about Blitzball. Of course it's more fun to talk about Blitzball, of course it's nice, but sometimes not nice things have to be talked about too." I was losing my words. I didn't like to compare them, it was just easy for me and everyone else to, because they were few of the men I'd ever really liked.

And he's in that group? I did just put him in that group…

I like him? I do… it shouldn't come as a shock. It's a complicated feeling, but like is part of it. They looked at me, Rikku twirling her feet and Lulu holding her elbow. I could see thoughts running behind their eyes, but mostly, I think they were concerned for me, for how the others would react and what the future would hold. They seemed to want to keep me in that room forever, or until we could skip over the tough parts.

I smiled at them. One thing was sure, I could see love in their eyes, wanting to protect me, wanting my happiness.

"I'm okay, really. Let's move forward, let's inspire Spira." I said, and gave them both a hug. They both returned it, tightly. We turned to walk into the main room of the Temple, where the others waited.

They weren't so disappointed as it seemed earlier. Auron was, deeply; you could feel it coming off of him in waves. Tidus was a close second, maybe first. But everyone else seemed… almost excited. Surprised, yes, concerned, yes, but a hint of excited, I think.

"Will the pilgrimage continue," Auron asked dryly, sounding like the wind instrument that was missing from the Temple.

"Of course!" I said, aiming to please.

"How long will we delay," he added, same key as before.

Seymour and I stood in the middle of the room, facing each other, but a few feet away. He inclined his head slightly toward Auron behind him, and his eyes glared just a tiny bit. "My wife still runs her own schedule. She may go and do as she pleases." He slowly returned his eyes to me. "I hope you will join me for a ceremony in Bevelle, on your way through. Word will get around of course, but it would be much more joyous and spread faster if we have a ceremony." He tilted his head up, to smile at me.

"Yes, we will celebrate in Bevelle!" I said, happily, feeling truly happy that I could bring this to the people.

"I do implore you, my lady, to rest here tonight, after this eventful day."

"Hey, Yuna's still on a pilgrimage and she'll sleep wherever she-" Tidus burst, but Auron muffled him and walked him away a little bit to calm him, both of them, down.

I stood for a moment, under pressure again to decide. I don't do well under pressure, can anyone tell? It was just a matter of where to sleep tonight… I'm sure the others would feel more comfortable at the agency we passed. Would it disappoint him?

Would it disappoint me?

"We will rest, at the agency." He frowned. I thought he might have argued about the path down, but he replaced his frown with that permanently affixed slight smile, and let us be. I watched him walk until he disappeared into the room… the room where we were wed. The others came in closer to me, as well as Trommel. He had a prideful smile stuck to his face.

"Allow us to make the lady's party as comfortable as possible until departure." I smiled politely back at him until he walked away again.

"Are we ready?" Auron asked, making the coldness in the room blush.

"Shouldn't we rest? Stock up? Get the snow skis out again?" Rikku chirped.

"We're all rested; Yuna's the only one who's been runnin' around." Wakka said, cutting a little bit. Lulu grabbed him by the arm and glared right into his eyes.

"Do you feel ready?" Auron asked, never having taken his attention away from me.

"Yes." I bowed, and they began to file. I stayed bowed until they all passed, wanting to show respect, or regret, or something…

Tidus was last, and he stopped in front of me, and crossed his arms. His frustration had left him, his voice was gentle when he spoke.

"Yuna… is this really what you want?" I was the slightest bit startled, and I rose to look at him. I couldn't look him in the eyes. I heard the others continue to walk, giving us space.

"I want to make Spira happy." It was the truth, why was I so embarassed?

"But you'll do that with the pilgrimage, why do you have to do this too?"

And like that, all the rest of the painful, complicated messes I've been carrying for him came back to me. Oh, Tidus, it's not that simple… You think I can defeat Sin over and over again. You don't understand I have to fit as much happiness in a short lifetime as I can… or, I want to. I don't want this, right now. Of course the motto of the day has been about not running away from the hard things because they might be the right things, but right now… I don't want this.

"I just do…" I looked in his eyes for all of one second, and turned to follow the others.

For a moment, I wished someone else would tell him. I wanted to tell him it wasn't a marriage like he thought it was, that we weren't going to grow old together, or even grow into our twenties together… Huh, I'll never see 20… that never occurred to me until now… But how could I tell him? I had already tried to tell him it wasn't for me, was for Spira, wasn't for me… but he can't understand because he doesn't know that I will die.

We didn't speak much on the path back to the agency. I think that was just as much due to the weather as the situation. We ran into fiends, but we had already been fighting Macalania's brand of fiends and were unphased. At times, someone would look at me from up front. Well, Wakka and Kimahri, as they were leading. They would just look back, like they were checking if I was still there, and then keep going. I understood. After a while it got annoying. I don't know if I scoffed or clenched my teeth or what, but it didn't have to annoy me long before Rikku started to cheer us up.

"Yuna and Seymour, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love-"

"First comes marriage," Tidus grunted. Rikku stopped singing that song, she didn't want to improvise a line to replace baby. Who would?

"Are you gonna wear a big white dress? Is it gonna be poofy? Or slim? You're classy, you'll probably go with a nice A-line. Guys, let's vote! All hands for poofy! No one? Aw come on, isn't that what you picture when you think of weddings? Come on Lulu, what kind of dress would Yunie look good in?"

Lulu paused, then "A-line would fit her very well."

"Yeah! Wakka, Kimahri, haven't you dreamed of this day? Ooo, who's gonna walk her down? Maybe Auron should?" But then, she didn't want to bring up my father. So many things a girl couldn't bring up when trying to cheer us up. But she didn't give up.

"I wonder what Bevelle weddings are like! I bet they're soooo beautiful! The food is gonna be amazing! Oh, votes on cake? Yellow? Chocolate? Coconut? Ooo Yunie go with coconut I haven't had in sooo long. I wonder who will provide the food, Bevelle or Guadosalam? Wait, you don't have to supply anything, do you Yunie? No of course not, man it's gonna be wonderful to have a wedding put on by the biggest shots in Spira!"

I think she pushed us a little faster, which made me giggle.

We passed a few Guado on our walk, here and there. They all congratulated me, us, enthusiastically.

"Thanks, so much, from Ms. Yuna Guado and company!" Rikku answered at one point. "Yeulgh, don't go with that. Don't go with Guado, doesn't go well with your name." She added after they were past. Other than that I mostly bowed and gave my humble thanks.

It was hard to be happy in the midst of them. It was also hard not to be happy, with all the praise and excitement (99% coming from Rikku) and congratulations.

It took the whole evening, but we arrived at agency. Rikku, Lulu and I shared a room, and began rotating showers and getting ready for bed (or slumber party or post bachelorette party or whatever Rikku is or is not planning.)

She kept us up a little, talking about dresses and shoes and cake and surnames, but either tiredness or manners or something had slowed her down and included us much more in the conversation. It was useless anyway; Bevelle would be providing and planning everything. We didn't have time to shop. Thoughts crossed my mind of who I should talk to, who I wanted to talk to, who I owed explanations to, but I gave in to my tiredness and kept the night simple and light and got ready to crawl in bed. Before that, Lulu came over and hugged me tight for a minute.

"I really am happy for you." she said. After the minute, she placed her hands on my shoulders and looked at me. "I am. Try to be happy, try to enjoy this. We will support you no matter what you do." Rikku added a little "yeah" from her perch on her bed. I think they meant if I wanted to give up the pilgrimage to be a wife. I saw a little less darkness in Lulu's eyes, so I think that's what she meant. I gave them my sincere thanks and crawled into bed.

As I waited for sleep, the last thoughts I had were wondering if I would be sharing his bed for the next few weeks…