Title: Whistle
Theme #9 - Dash
Prompt: 037 Sound
Fandom: Final Fantasy X
Pairing: Tidus/Yuna
Word count: 896
Poem: Darkness, by Lord Byron
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I own neither the characters nor the poem
Summary: I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
30Kisses table:
http://airelement.livejournal.com/47967.htmlFanfic100 table:
http://airelement.livejournal.com/11132.html I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
Tidus… my Tidus. A dream of the fayth. A dream, but not my dream - but he was still real to me. He was real. I can still remember everything about him: the roughness of his hands, the softness of his hair and the touch of his lips. My memories of him haven’t faded at all and that’s what makes me certain that he wasn’t just a dream. He may have started out as one, but he quickly became real. To me at least, and to our friends.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
I felt as if the world had ended when he left. He was the light in my life; the one who picked me up when I fell; the one who kissed my hand in public and my forehead when we were journeying and my lips when no one was watching.
How can a dream have such amazing lips and such a warm, strong body and not be real? And how can a dream knock me from the path of my destiny so suddenly and completely, throwing me from the axis of my world and holding me as we watch Spira turn upside down?
Morn came and went--and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light:
And they did live by watchfires--and the thrones,
The palaces of crowned kings--the huts,
The habitations of all things which dwell,
Were burnt for beacons; cities were consum'd,
And men were gather'd round their blazing homes
To look once more into each other's face;
Everyone expected me to die to save them. The whole of Spira wanted me to summon the Final Aeon to defeat Sin, never caring that it would kill me too. Tidus - and Rikku - they were the only ones who didn’t want me too. They were the only ones who cared enough to challenge the beliefs that lasted a thousand years.
Tidus was there for me when I was denounced as a traitor; he told me how ridiculous Yevon was and that the only people who would hate me because I was a ‘traitor’ would be stupid people who weren’t worth my care. I could never find the words to tell him just how much that meant.
I could tell he was pleased when Yevon began to crumble. People were suddenly waking up to see that the customs and beliefs that he’d thought weird since he first encountered them weren’t right or true.
He told everyone we came across that we’d found another way to defeat Sin other than the Final Aeon. I think he wanted to make sure I believed it myself.
I did, and I believed something else as well. I believed that we’d be together for always. But we aren’t. He was a dream - but not just a dream - and now he’s gone. I wish I could have kissed him one last time.
---------------
I look around to see if anyone has approached me in the time I’ve been standing here on the edge of the cliff, thinking - dreaming - of Tidus. No one has, and I’m glad that I’m alone. My memories, like my dreams, are my own to keep locked within me.
I suddenly hear a long, loud whistle. It’s coming from the other cliff - the one that’s covered in so many bushes that you can’t see who’s there. I squint, trying to see if he’s there, not trusting my ears to be independent of my imagination.
Then I hear the whistle again, long and loud and real, and I’m sprinting down to the shore, scrambling and jumping and leaping as I rush to the bottom. The sand tickles between my toes as I dash across the beach to the other cliff but I pay it no attention.
I scramble up the cliff, grabbing onto any rock or branch or root to pull myself up the almost vertical climb, and my skirt catches and tears and my top is ripped and stained, but I don’t care. I hear the whistle a third time and it spurs me on; I pull myself up onto the path that leads to the top and run up it.
I reach the clearing at the top and look around. No one is here. Tidus isn’t here. I sink to my knees, out of breath from my dash up to here. I want to cry, or to scream; I want to release the horrible ache in my heart, but neither the tears nor the scream will come.
A soft caw makes me look up. I realise I’m a few feet away from a birds nest. There’s a pale-golden young bird sitting on the edge of it; it’s one of those funny-looking ones with spiky fluff on the top of its head that makes it look goofy.
It reminds me of Tidus. And the ache in my heart and the desire to scream and cry are blown away by the breeze, and I remember the time everyone thought we were crazy because we just stood there and laughed.
So I laugh.