Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Long Way Home ❯ Wakka ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

[A/N: I decided to change the format on this chronicle ever so slightly. It’ll still involve other people’s perspectives on what’s happened, but may alternate back and forth between people and most likely will focus more on the aftermath. So without further ado, apply the traditional disclaimer and read on.]

The Long Way Home

Wakka

It’s like they say, you never see it comin’, ya? One minute we were all heading down to the beach to welcome Yuna back home, an’ the next minute it turns out we got two people to welcome back. I don’t know how it happened, how he got there or when, but there they were, plain as day, wrapped up in their own little world. They probably would’ve been out there all afternoon if I hadn’t made that joke about gettin’ a room, ya?

I could tell Lu was rollin’ her eyes when I said that, but I also knew she was smilin’ at the same time. And why not? It’s not every day that an old friend you gave up for dead comes sloshin’ up on the shores hand in hand with the girl of his dreams, you know? I’ll tell you right now, when those two were runnin’ up to us, I could tell Yuna was happier than she’d been in a long time.

“So where you been all this time, blondie?” I asked him as we slapped hands. “You sure kept us waitin’ a long time after that stunt you pulled!” At first he just shrugged and didn’t say much, and that’s when I knew it was him and not some lookalike, ya? People can look similar, but it’s their attitudes that give ‘em away. He still had the same goofy grin I remembered from the Pilgrimage, back when I thought he was just some misguided weirdo with a memory problem.

Talk about bein’ wrong on that score; I don’t think any of us expected what happened in the end, ya? But then again, back then I didn’t expect a lot of things to happen either. I didn’t expect this kid from nowhere to be such a good fighter and an even better Blitzer. I didn’t expect to be teamin’ up with Sir Auron when we reached Luca.

I didn’t expect all the teachings we’d been taught since we were little to be lies.

I didn’t expect to find out that Al Bhed people are just like any other people, an’ that my old bias against them would’ve been against Yuna herself.

I sure as hell didn’t expect Maester Seymour to turn out to be such a cold blooded jackass.

I didn’t expect that we would find a way to kill Sin for good without the Final Summoning.

An’ when all was said an’ done, I didn’t expect the feelings I held for Lulu- ones I’d had for a long time, from when we were kids, even though I never said nothin’- I never expected she would return those feelings. Sure, we’d always gotten along well, but we had our minds on the Pilgrimage too much… an’ besides, she an’ my brother Chappu had once been an item, so I didn’t want to broach the subject. It wasn’t until we had all come home and begun readjusting that I started really thinkin’ about it again. Eventually I decided to give it a shot; we’d go for walks, talk about what latest news had come in from Luca or the rebuilding of Kilika, stuff like that. An’ sometimes we’d both be there sharing stories of our childhoods on some of those nights when Yuna would wake up from one o’ her nightmares, ya? Well… somewhere along the line, the two of us found our common ground.

An’ if you think about it, none of that would’ve happened if Tidus hadn’t been in the picture, ya? Out of all us Guardians, he was the only one who really stood up and said, “Forget this, we need to find a better way!” I dunno, maybe it had something to do with where he came from, or how he didn’t know much about the traditions… maybe it was because he’d done what Lulu told him not to do; he’d fallen in love with Yuna, whom we all expected would sacrifice herself to save us. Maybe that’s what pushed him to fight tradition and expose the truth for us all, ya?

Whatever the case, what was done was done, an’ now that he was back it was time for us to celebrate.

I saw Rikku and Paine leaping down from the airship as me an’ the other villagers began escortin’ Yuna an’ Tidus back up to the village; it took ‘em a few moments but they caught up soon enough. Rikku caught Tidus in just about the biggest hug I’d ever seen, an’ from the way he gasped for breath I thought she broke one o’ his ribs, ya? She was talkin’ a mile a minute about how much stuff he’d missed out on, an’ I couldn’t help but laugh for a moment as he struggled to catch up. She probably would’ve kept on like that if Yuna hadn’t calmed her down, an’ I could tell Yuna was laughin’ a bit too. About the only one of their whole crew who wasn’t livin’ it up was that girl in black, Paine, but I could tell she was smilin’ a bit.

I wonder if maybe she and Lu are related; they got the same kind of eyes…

By the time we were back at the village, we’d managed to get Tidus caught up on some of what had happened while he was… well, wherever he was. I decided to bug out for a moment and let him an’ Yuna alone while we got things in order for that night; they promptly got dragged over to the temple steps by Rikku who started braggin’ about all they’d seen, and I could tell she was probably talkin’ about the same things over an’ over again. Some of what she was talkin’ about didn’t make no sense; she mentioned something called a Vengan Gun or whatever, I couldn’t really hear from where I was. At the time, I guessed it was some sorta invention of the Machine Faction’s- I didn’t hear what it really was until later.

Right then, my main concern was getting the food for the party ready, and also making sure Lu didn’t wear herself out. She’s strong, you know, but Vidina had just been born a few days before and I didn’t want her pushin’ it, ya?

It wasn’t until later that evening, once the party finally started up, that I got a chance to introduce Tidus to my son properly. Lu had taken Yuna off to talk about something or other, and Rikku was arguing with her ol’ over the Commsphere. “Maybe now that you’re back, we can really get the Aurochs into shape, ya?” I said as I sat down next to him. “You sure missed out on a lot, buddy.”

“I know,” he said. “So much has changed… and it looks like I was right about you and Lulu,” he added with a grin. I couldn’t help but give him a dirty look, but hey, he was right. He’d sorta seen it before we even did. “So this is Vidina, huh?” he said. “Look at him; a real chip off the ol’ block.”

“Let’s just hope he don’t inherit my looks,” I said with a laugh.

“You think he’ll be a Blitzer when he grows up?” he asked. I shrugged and replied, “Dunno. That’s something I don’t wanna decide for him. If I want to be a good father, I gotta let him make that sorta decision for himself, ya? Course, if he does wanna Blitz, you can bet I’ll teach him everything I know.” The two of us laughed a bit at that.

“I really wish I hadn’t left the way I did,” he said at length. “I can’t believe it’s been over two years…”

“Yeah, but she never gave up on you. Not once… even though it was kinda rough at first. She had some pretty bad dreams the first few months…”

“I know,” he replied, leaning against the steps, “she told me. She told me all about what she and the others were up to… She’s really changed from who she was before, hasn’t she?”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so I just shrugged. “People do that as time goes by. They get a little older, maybe a little wiser, I dunno.”

“I like this change, though.” He was smiling when he said that. “She’s stronger now… not as hesitant as she used to be, and it doesn’t look like she forces smiles as much. But there are some things about her that are just the same as I remember- her voice, the way she leans her head to one side, how she holds her hands behind her back when she feels shy or happy. It’s all… I don’t really know, but it feels right to me.”

I had to smile at that. This guy was so ga-ga over Yuna it was boggling, but then again, after all she did to bring him back I knew the feeling was mutual. Oddly enough, it kinda reminded me of a day years back when Lu had warned him not to fall in love with her- during the Pilgrimage, before he even had a clue as to what the Final Summoning was all about. It’s still kinda odd to think about that now, the way she hadn’t liked him much when he first showed up. I don’t really know what it was that eventually changed her mind, whether it was his attitude or just the way he reminded us both of Chappu, but whatever it was, she sure didn’t dislike him anymore.

The evening really picked up when the girls rejoined the party; we got the music going and some good dance rhythms, plenty o’ food for everybody. I think Rikku was the first one to start dancing, an’ even Lu started to get in the mood for a dance. I’ll admit I’m not much of a dancer myself, but with Lu at my side I start to move a little better, ya? I’ve gotten so I don’t step on her toes at all these days… well, knowing she’d probably set my sandals on fire if I did kinda gives me an incentive to dance right, you know? I could see our two lovebirds out of the corner of my eye, and oddly enough, they looked like they really knew what they were doing. They weren’t flailing around like a chocobo on sugar, an’ they weren’t stepping on anyone’s toes either. Guess that’s just another thing I didn’t expect from the High Summoner and her Blitzer boyfriend.

The dancin’ went on well into the night, an’ at one point I could swear I saw the two of them slippin’ away from the party, sneaking to the far side of the temple. I mentioned it to Lu, an’ she just shook her head an’ smiled, telling me to “leave them be for now, they might as well have some time alone.” Of course, she did tell me to make sure they didn’t go too crazy- that ol’ ‘big sister’ nature of hers kickin’ in again. She said once the party was over, he could bed down in one o’ the spare rooms in the temple; now I personally wouldn’t have had too much of a problem if he an’ Yuna wanted to spend the night in her hut, we could’ve put a spare mattress on the floor for him, but I knew Lu wouldn’t go for that. Least not the first night he was back, ya? So I nodded an’ went to make the preparations.

I finally found the two o’ them around midnight, sitting on the hill behind the temple wrapped up in their own little world. I guess they’d been talkin’ for a while, and by now they were just sitting arm in arm, lookin’ out at the sea or into each other’s eyes. I almost hated to break up their reunion an’ let ‘em know about their sleeping arrangements; I could tell they probably would’ve stayed there all night if I let ‘em. Still, in the end they agreed, and that left me free to head home to be with my family.

I’ll bet Yuna slept well that night, knowing he was here…

I know I was certainly glad not having to wake up to another of her nightmares, ya?




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