Early Friday Morning - The Shore, Besaid Island, Spira [backdated] [NFB - distance]
It was still early morning on Besaid when the young girl made her way down to the beach. Yuna - the Lady High Summoner to most residents of Spira, and Yunie to a particularly bouncy cousin - didn't expect her guests for another few hours. But she liked to sit on the beach just after dawn and watch the light spread over the waters. It was calming.
She sat and meditated as the waves played. After a while, she noticed a small dot in the sky getting larger. How nice! Company would be early. She should go and tell Lulu and Wakka ... but something made her stay. It was an odd feeling, but she wanted to watch them land.
Lulu and Wakka would understand. She stood up and waved to the ship, even though she imagined it was still too far away to see her. She had missed her cousin's excited energy. That must be why she suddenly felt so giddy ...
Tidus is so very calm. Caaaaaaalm and relaaaaaxed.
If your definition of "calm and relaxed" somehow includes bouncing on the balls of your feet with your eyes wide and looking like you're about ready to go in for your first piano recital.
Cid strode over to Brother and cuffed him on the side of the head. "Slow down!" he yelled. "And don't break anything this time!"
He looked over at Tidus. "How you holding up over there, kid?"
"Don't tell him to slow down, we'll never get there!"
Rikku was shivering. It was okay. She was calm. She wasn't about to start bouncing off the walls and squeeing. She wasn't oddly panicking underneath that. Besides, Tidus was way more flaily than her right now.
"I'm good!" He said, and maybe his voice was a little higher than normal, but he was grinning as he glanced at Cid and Rikku. "How long now?"
"Soon!" said Rikku, flailing again. "Just like the last time you asked! What did we say? We said soon! If we knew how soon, we'd say that! Instead of just saying soon! Soon soon soon soon soon! Whoa, words get all weird when you say them a lot!"
Tidus laughed and bounced. "You sound more excited than me, and that's not easy!"
"Hey! No teasing!" Rikku's mood was fluctuating quickly between "hyper" and "panicky." Sometimes stopping right at both. Which is why she punched him on the arm. "If you ever make Yunie unhappy then I am coming after you with something sharp and I will make you very sorry that you are back, do you understand me, buster!?!"
"Hey!" Tidus rubbed at his arm, blinking. "I won't, jeez!"
"I know!" Rikku was flailing more. "I'm just saying! I had to say that, okay?! And you guys better visit me! Or something! I don't know!"
And then, because she was an enormous hypocrite, she turned to yell up in Cid's general direction, "Hey! How long now!??"
"Will you write? I'll write if you will!" Tidus said, grinning again at her panicky state.
"You bet!" Rikku giggled, and dropped her voice. "I'll even write you real letters like I write Yunie. Not like the ones Brother gets. 'I am studying a lot. I am not getting into any trouble at all!'"
"Like I'd believe that?" Tidus snickered.
"I told Brother that boys didn't go to this school," she said, with an evil grin.
The ship was still out over the water when its door began to drop. That ... that was odd, why ... someone on board was that eager to ... Rikku wouldn't ...
Not Rikku.
The figure climbing out of the hatch wasn't Rikku. Was taller. Broader. Was ...
Had been haunting her every time she closed her eyes and oh it couldn't be but she knew it was, knew it had to be, even as everything else seemed to swim before her eyes.
Yuna started to run.
He couldn't hear anything but the roar of the airship engines and the whistling of the wind as he climbed down and jumped to the door, but her voice echoed in his ears. I love you.
Tidus jumped to the door and looked out along the beach, eyes immediately drawn to the figure in robes running towards the ship. Before he knew it, he was running too.
The jump from the ship was nothing, the water splashing up around his boots as he hit the ground running, and all he could hear now was his heartbeat, ticking off the seconds as he went to meet her.
She couldn't believe, didn't believe, she was dreaming and dreams didn't come true. He was a dream and couldn't come true. She knew this wasn't real. It couldn't be. He was gone and never coming back. She tried to tell herself that.
When she reached him she would fall through his arms again, slide through him like he was air and dust and starlight and mist and ether and he had never existed and he never would and she tried so hard to tell herself that, because if she ran to him and fell through him again her heart might rip itself to pieces.
But not running to him ... it would be easier to not breathe.
The water and sand sucked at the soles of his boots, but he kept running like he could do it forever, so long as he ended up next to her. It felt like it was forever, racing through the surf and then holding out his arms to catch her up, hugging Yuna - Yuna - so tightly that he thought he could feel her heart beat against his own, just as fast.
She tripped into his arms and landed against him, solid, real, warm and strong and Tidus. She pressed her face into his shoulder and closed her eyes and wanted to imprint every inch of him onto her memory. If this was all she ever got, this one moment here with him, then she would thank whatever being was responsible and accept it with all of her heart.
And when she opened her eyes again and he was still there, still warm and strong and Tidus in her arms ... that was the most wondrous of all. She reached up to place a hand on his face. His face, him, he was really here, impossible and crazy and true ...
"Is - is it really you?"
"Yeah," he breathed, and he felt like his grin would split his face for how wide it was. "Yuna..."
Tidus took a steadying breath and looked back at her, lifting a hand to cover hers, squeezing gently. "...I love you too."
Yuna's breath came out in a sob, but her smile nearly matched his. "I know," she said softly. "I knew. Every time you smiled at me."
Her thumb was rubbing lightly over his cheekbone. "How ... I think I'm scared to ask."
"Rikku." Tidus' grin seemed glued in place, eyes wet from the spray of the ocean or just this, for which he'd never be ashamed of shedding tears. "She did it, she brought me home. To you."
"Rikku!" Yuna's eyes widened. "I didn't even say hello."
Any other moment in her life, Yuna would have bowed politely and begged his pardon and hers and everyone's and gone to greet her cousin with a warm hug and asked about her trip. This wasn't any other moment. Rikku could wait.
"You're really ... home?" she asked, her heart pulling itself inside-out. "For good?"
Tidus nodded, his grin fading to a smile but no less heartfelt for it. "For good," he said firmly. "I never wanted to go in the first place."
"I know," she said, smiling wistfully. "The fayth. You could have said no, and we could have been together ... and it would have been empty because they would have never been free."
"Yuna," he said, smiling back warmly as a weight lifted from his shoulders. "I knew you'd get it."
"Didn't you?" she asked gently. "When I said the same?"
Yuna let her eyes travel over his face again, memorizing it. Rediscovering it.
"Welcome home."
Okay, she wasn't jumping out of the ship when it was way out of the water like a crazy person. Just, you know. Hanging half out of it and watching, and then jumping out as soon as they were almost landed anyway.
She wasn't running up to them, because this was totally not her moment to interrupt and all of that. She was going to stand back here in the water and watch and try to believe this was real. And try to blink back some of the tears that were making it way too hard to see right now.
She wasn't going to jump out of the ship anyway because Jude had his hand on her shirt.
Not under, on. Totally. Her dad was right there.
And he was right behind her on the jumping out, because this was just pretty damn cool.
Rikku took a few steps through the water and stopped short, not wanting to get too close, not wanting to interrupt. And when Yuna and Tidus finally embraced, she gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth, sobbing a little with relief. She hadn't let herself believe this was all going to work out, not until she saw them together.
She sagged back a bit against Jude, squeezing her eyes shut. And then opening them again, because she had to see. And then reaching for his arms to pull tighter around her as she took it all in.
Jude wrapped his arms tightly around, giving her all the support his frail lanky frame was capable of. He rested his chin on her shoulder, watching the reunion.
"You did it, bra," he said quietly.
"Thank you," she whispered. "For ..." Being there. Standing by her during the impossible. Wrapping his arms around her and holding her close. Understanding, even when he didn't. Believing in her. "For you."
She closed her eyes and added a quick thank-you to all the gods she didn't believe in, for giving Tidus back.
He chuckled softly and kissed her shoulder, squeezing slightly. "Any time, bra."
Not believing in her had never even crossed his mind.
Yuna stood for a long time in the circle of Tidus's arms. Several hours, at least, or maybe just a few lingering minutes. She couldn't tell any more.
Then she turned her attention to the blonde girl hovering somewhat just out of range, attempting to be discreet and failing miserably.
"Rikku," she said, holding her arms out towards her cousin. "How in the world did you ... ?"
"Yunie," Rikku said, except it came out a little strangled. So what if she was crying, they were too, right?
It only took her a couple of steps to hop over to her cousin and wrap her arms around the other girl tightly. "I had help from friends. We ... we had an idea and ... I didn't want to tell you, because ... I just wanted ... you know?"
"You shouldn't have," chided Yuna gently. "Whatever you did, it must have been dangerous. My happiness isn't worth losing you." She leaned her forehead against the younger girl's.
"It wasn't. At all. I promise," Rikku lied, hoping for once she was convincing. "And ... I know, I just ... you two, and he deserved so much more, and ... I had to try, you know?"
"I know." Yuna smiled. "And I can't say I'm not grateful." She squeezed Rikku again, shaking her head. "How do I begin to say thank you?"
"That's easy. You go and have a happy-ever-after and five hundred kids and you be happy. Okay?!" Rikku sniffled a bit. "Go enjoy it, you know?"
"I will," said Yuna solemnly. "I promise."
She eased back slightly to smile at her cousin. "Now. I want to hear everything. And did you bring me more pictures?"
"Even better." Rikku grinned and stepped back a little, wiping at her eyes.
She turned and held a hand out, motioning to Jude to come closer.
Yuna noticed the blonde boy - perhaps for the first time - and smiled brightly. She swept him a low bow, and then stood again, straightening her shoulders and holding out a hand.
"You must allow me to apologize for my manners. My name is Yuna." She looked at Rikku and then back again, eyes dancing. "And you must be Jude."
"I hope so," Jude said with a mellow chuckle, shaking her hand. "'Cause if I wasn't Jude, I'd be totally jealous of me right now." His arm slipped around Rikku's waist.
"Nice t' meetcha, bra. Rikku talks about you all the time."
"It's very good to meet you, as well," Yuna smiled. "I've heard a great deal from Rikku's letters. All good, I promise."
She noticed the easy way his arm reached around Rikku and how she leaned into him with a light smile and nodded.
Rikku blushed faintly, grinning back at her cousin. Okay, good, Yunie approved.
And then she pulled lightly on Jude. "C'mon, let's go pester Lulu and Wakka for breakfast. I wanna have front-row seats when he walks in."
"Yeah, I'm starved," Tidus said, grinning. "Just make sure Lulu doesn't throw a fireball at me or anything."
"Can do!" Rikku saluted, giggling.
Yuna waited until Rikku and Jude were out of earshot. "She won't," she said with a smile. "This time ... I think this time we get a chance." A future.
She couldn't say for sure which of them leaned in first. It didn't matter. Breakfast could wait.
(OOC: preplayed with behindeyesonly (Tidus), sarcasm_guy (Cid), and dude_its_jude (Jude), who rock the hizzy. No interaction possible. This ends the Rikku subplot and thank you to everyone who helped out in ways big and small. Sorry for the delay in posting; this should have gone up yesterday, but migraines suck. OOC comments are love.)
She sat and meditated as the waves played. After a while, she noticed a small dot in the sky getting larger. How nice! Company would be early. She should go and tell Lulu and Wakka ... but something made her stay. It was an odd feeling, but she wanted to watch them land.
Lulu and Wakka would understand. She stood up and waved to the ship, even though she imagined it was still too far away to see her. She had missed her cousin's excited energy. That must be why she suddenly felt so giddy ...
Tidus is so very calm. Caaaaaaalm and relaaaaaxed.
If your definition of "calm and relaxed" somehow includes bouncing on the balls of your feet with your eyes wide and looking like you're about ready to go in for your first piano recital.
Cid strode over to Brother and cuffed him on the side of the head. "Slow down!" he yelled. "And don't break anything this time!"
He looked over at Tidus. "How you holding up over there, kid?"
"Don't tell him to slow down, we'll never get there!"
Rikku was shivering. It was okay. She was calm. She wasn't about to start bouncing off the walls and squeeing. She wasn't oddly panicking underneath that. Besides, Tidus was way more flaily than her right now.
"I'm good!" He said, and maybe his voice was a little higher than normal, but he was grinning as he glanced at Cid and Rikku. "How long now?"
"Soon!" said Rikku, flailing again. "Just like the last time you asked! What did we say? We said soon! If we knew how soon, we'd say that! Instead of just saying soon! Soon soon soon soon soon! Whoa, words get all weird when you say them a lot!"
Tidus laughed and bounced. "You sound more excited than me, and that's not easy!"
"Hey! No teasing!" Rikku's mood was fluctuating quickly between "hyper" and "panicky." Sometimes stopping right at both. Which is why she punched him on the arm. "If you ever make Yunie unhappy then I am coming after you with something sharp and I will make you very sorry that you are back, do you understand me, buster!?!"
"Hey!" Tidus rubbed at his arm, blinking. "I won't, jeez!"
"I know!" Rikku was flailing more. "I'm just saying! I had to say that, okay?! And you guys better visit me! Or something! I don't know!"
And then, because she was an enormous hypocrite, she turned to yell up in Cid's general direction, "Hey! How long now!??"
"Will you write? I'll write if you will!" Tidus said, grinning again at her panicky state.
"You bet!" Rikku giggled, and dropped her voice. "I'll even write you real letters like I write Yunie. Not like the ones Brother gets. 'I am studying a lot. I am not getting into any trouble at all!'"
"Like I'd believe that?" Tidus snickered.
"I told Brother that boys didn't go to this school," she said, with an evil grin.
The ship was still out over the water when its door began to drop. That ... that was odd, why ... someone on board was that eager to ... Rikku wouldn't ...
Not Rikku.
The figure climbing out of the hatch wasn't Rikku. Was taller. Broader. Was ...
Had been haunting her every time she closed her eyes and oh it couldn't be but she knew it was, knew it had to be, even as everything else seemed to swim before her eyes.
Yuna started to run.
He couldn't hear anything but the roar of the airship engines and the whistling of the wind as he climbed down and jumped to the door, but her voice echoed in his ears. I love you.
Tidus jumped to the door and looked out along the beach, eyes immediately drawn to the figure in robes running towards the ship. Before he knew it, he was running too.
The jump from the ship was nothing, the water splashing up around his boots as he hit the ground running, and all he could hear now was his heartbeat, ticking off the seconds as he went to meet her.
She couldn't believe, didn't believe, she was dreaming and dreams didn't come true. He was a dream and couldn't come true. She knew this wasn't real. It couldn't be. He was gone and never coming back. She tried to tell herself that.
When she reached him she would fall through his arms again, slide through him like he was air and dust and starlight and mist and ether and he had never existed and he never would and she tried so hard to tell herself that, because if she ran to him and fell through him again her heart might rip itself to pieces.
But not running to him ... it would be easier to not breathe.
The water and sand sucked at the soles of his boots, but he kept running like he could do it forever, so long as he ended up next to her. It felt like it was forever, racing through the surf and then holding out his arms to catch her up, hugging Yuna - Yuna - so tightly that he thought he could feel her heart beat against his own, just as fast.
She tripped into his arms and landed against him, solid, real, warm and strong and Tidus. She pressed her face into his shoulder and closed her eyes and wanted to imprint every inch of him onto her memory. If this was all she ever got, this one moment here with him, then she would thank whatever being was responsible and accept it with all of her heart.
And when she opened her eyes again and he was still there, still warm and strong and Tidus in her arms ... that was the most wondrous of all. She reached up to place a hand on his face. His face, him, he was really here, impossible and crazy and true ...
"Is - is it really you?"
"Yeah," he breathed, and he felt like his grin would split his face for how wide it was. "Yuna..."
Tidus took a steadying breath and looked back at her, lifting a hand to cover hers, squeezing gently. "...I love you too."
Yuna's breath came out in a sob, but her smile nearly matched his. "I know," she said softly. "I knew. Every time you smiled at me."
Her thumb was rubbing lightly over his cheekbone. "How ... I think I'm scared to ask."
"Rikku." Tidus' grin seemed glued in place, eyes wet from the spray of the ocean or just this, for which he'd never be ashamed of shedding tears. "She did it, she brought me home. To you."
"Rikku!" Yuna's eyes widened. "I didn't even say hello."
Any other moment in her life, Yuna would have bowed politely and begged his pardon and hers and everyone's and gone to greet her cousin with a warm hug and asked about her trip. This wasn't any other moment. Rikku could wait.
"You're really ... home?" she asked, her heart pulling itself inside-out. "For good?"
Tidus nodded, his grin fading to a smile but no less heartfelt for it. "For good," he said firmly. "I never wanted to go in the first place."
"I know," she said, smiling wistfully. "The fayth. You could have said no, and we could have been together ... and it would have been empty because they would have never been free."
"Yuna," he said, smiling back warmly as a weight lifted from his shoulders. "I knew you'd get it."
"Didn't you?" she asked gently. "When I said the same?"
Yuna let her eyes travel over his face again, memorizing it. Rediscovering it.
"Welcome home."
Okay, she wasn't jumping out of the ship when it was way out of the water like a crazy person. Just, you know. Hanging half out of it and watching, and then jumping out as soon as they were almost landed anyway.
She wasn't running up to them, because this was totally not her moment to interrupt and all of that. She was going to stand back here in the water and watch and try to believe this was real. And try to blink back some of the tears that were making it way too hard to see right now.
She wasn't going to jump out of the ship anyway because Jude had his hand on her shirt.
Not under, on. Totally. Her dad was right there.
And he was right behind her on the jumping out, because this was just pretty damn cool.
Rikku took a few steps through the water and stopped short, not wanting to get too close, not wanting to interrupt. And when Yuna and Tidus finally embraced, she gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth, sobbing a little with relief. She hadn't let herself believe this was all going to work out, not until she saw them together.
She sagged back a bit against Jude, squeezing her eyes shut. And then opening them again, because she had to see. And then reaching for his arms to pull tighter around her as she took it all in.
Jude wrapped his arms tightly around, giving her all the support his frail lanky frame was capable of. He rested his chin on her shoulder, watching the reunion.
"You did it, bra," he said quietly.
"Thank you," she whispered. "For ..." Being there. Standing by her during the impossible. Wrapping his arms around her and holding her close. Understanding, even when he didn't. Believing in her. "For you."
She closed her eyes and added a quick thank-you to all the gods she didn't believe in, for giving Tidus back.
He chuckled softly and kissed her shoulder, squeezing slightly. "Any time, bra."
Not believing in her had never even crossed his mind.
Yuna stood for a long time in the circle of Tidus's arms. Several hours, at least, or maybe just a few lingering minutes. She couldn't tell any more.
Then she turned her attention to the blonde girl hovering somewhat just out of range, attempting to be discreet and failing miserably.
"Rikku," she said, holding her arms out towards her cousin. "How in the world did you ... ?"
"Yunie," Rikku said, except it came out a little strangled. So what if she was crying, they were too, right?
It only took her a couple of steps to hop over to her cousin and wrap her arms around the other girl tightly. "I had help from friends. We ... we had an idea and ... I didn't want to tell you, because ... I just wanted ... you know?"
"You shouldn't have," chided Yuna gently. "Whatever you did, it must have been dangerous. My happiness isn't worth losing you." She leaned her forehead against the younger girl's.
"It wasn't. At all. I promise," Rikku lied, hoping for once she was convincing. "And ... I know, I just ... you two, and he deserved so much more, and ... I had to try, you know?"
"I know." Yuna smiled. "And I can't say I'm not grateful." She squeezed Rikku again, shaking her head. "How do I begin to say thank you?"
"That's easy. You go and have a happy-ever-after and five hundred kids and you be happy. Okay?!" Rikku sniffled a bit. "Go enjoy it, you know?"
"I will," said Yuna solemnly. "I promise."
She eased back slightly to smile at her cousin. "Now. I want to hear everything. And did you bring me more pictures?"
"Even better." Rikku grinned and stepped back a little, wiping at her eyes.
She turned and held a hand out, motioning to Jude to come closer.
Yuna noticed the blonde boy - perhaps for the first time - and smiled brightly. She swept him a low bow, and then stood again, straightening her shoulders and holding out a hand.
"You must allow me to apologize for my manners. My name is Yuna." She looked at Rikku and then back again, eyes dancing. "And you must be Jude."
"I hope so," Jude said with a mellow chuckle, shaking her hand. "'Cause if I wasn't Jude, I'd be totally jealous of me right now." His arm slipped around Rikku's waist.
"Nice t' meetcha, bra. Rikku talks about you all the time."
"It's very good to meet you, as well," Yuna smiled. "I've heard a great deal from Rikku's letters. All good, I promise."
She noticed the easy way his arm reached around Rikku and how she leaned into him with a light smile and nodded.
Rikku blushed faintly, grinning back at her cousin. Okay, good, Yunie approved.
And then she pulled lightly on Jude. "C'mon, let's go pester Lulu and Wakka for breakfast. I wanna have front-row seats when he walks in."
"Yeah, I'm starved," Tidus said, grinning. "Just make sure Lulu doesn't throw a fireball at me or anything."
"Can do!" Rikku saluted, giggling.
Yuna waited until Rikku and Jude were out of earshot. "She won't," she said with a smile. "This time ... I think this time we get a chance." A future.
She couldn't say for sure which of them leaned in first. It didn't matter. Breakfast could wait.
(OOC: preplayed with behindeyesonly (Tidus), sarcasm_guy (Cid), and dude_its_jude (Jude), who rock the hizzy. No interaction possible. This ends the Rikku subplot and thank you to everyone who helped out in ways big and small. Sorry for the delay in posting; this should have gone up yesterday, but migraines suck. OOC comments are love.)