Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Long Way Home ❯ The First Night ( Chapter 5 )

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

I don’t own the characters, their world, you name it, I don’t own it. On with the show, fluff as it may be.]

The Long Way Home

The First Night

I had the dream again.

I haven’t had it in well over a year, not since Wakka and Lulu were first married. But it was still as vivid as it was the first time I had it.

I was standing on the deck of the Highwind again. He was walking away from me, fading into a translucent shade. The sky around us begins to fade to black; I try to step forward but my robes suddenly feel like they’re made of iron. I can see him standing at the very end of the deck, and I collapse to my knees as my dress and arm wrappings seem to glue themselves to the floor. I cry out his name…

This would continue on and on, growing darker and darker, and I would call his name out again and again until I woke up screaming.

But this time, that’s not what happened.

Instead, I heard a voice in the darkness.

Run to him. Don’t let him go.

I couldn’t tell where the voice was coming from, but it was familiar. Comforting yet firm, almost juvenile in its intonations. Almost like a child… like the Fayth. Just then, the dreamscape began to grow brighter, the glow of Sin’s sea of pyreflies returning in full force. I glanced behind me, and realized there was nobody standing there. None of my friends were there, nor could I find the source of the voice. I tried to stand up, but somehow my clothes were still affixed to the deck surface. Then I looked forward again…

He had turned around and was facing me. His body was slowly becoming opaque, and he was reaching a hand out towards me. In all the times I had had this dream before, this had never happened. I heard him call my name out, and I could feel the sense of longing in his voice; it just about made my heart break. I had to get up, I had to be with him.

I yanked my right arm forward, and it felt like things began to move in slow motion. The arm wrapping began to split, then tore away completely, leaving behind a ragged yellow strip of fabric in its place. Pulling forward again, I felt my left arm wrapping strip away in similar fashion.

I twisted and jerked upwards off my knees, planting my boots on the cold metal beneath me and pushing forward with all my might, feeling the pressure fall away as my Summoner’s robes tore themselves to pieces. The dress and my yellow obi fell away, revealing my sheer white top and jean shorts beneath. Suddenly I was dashing across the deck, leaving a pile of shredded cloth and a staff behind me, grasping his outstretched hand and pulling into his warm embrace. He wasn’t fading. He was right there, holding on to me just as tightly as I was holding on to him. The sky began to glow even brighter.

Never had the dream allowed me this far…

That’s when I woke up.

This time, I didn’t wake up with a scream.

I sat up in bed, blinking a few times and wondering what time it was. What light shone through the door curtain was grayish, so I guessed it couldn’t be dawn just yet. I shook my head a few times, and for a minute or two, I just sat there on the edge of my bed, thinking about everything I had just seen. The voice I had heard… was it really the voice of the Fayth? Did I imagine it, or had he really spoken to me in my dream? Was he telling me something I had to do, or was it evidence of something I had already done? Did it mean that Tidus was really here for good?

A nameless, gnawing doubt began to hit me just then, and I pushed out of bed and started getting dressed quietly. I wasn’t too worried about waking Rikku or Paine up; they were across the square at the Crusader Lodge, and both slept pretty deeply. But for what I was about to do, I didn’t want to risk waking Lulu or Wakka up. Not only was their hut right next door, but I was pretty sure their senses were on edge, just waiting for little Vidina to wake them for an early morning feeding. I didn’t bother with extras, just my top and my shorts was enough for now. I bit my lower lip as I slipped out into the cold pre-dawn air, telling myself not to be silly. Be rational, I said. You’re just being paranoid. But no matter how many times I told myself that, it didn’t work too well. I just had to make sure. I had to see him.

The temple sconces were lit as I entered the main hall- not much of a surprise there, as the flames were magically sustained. I winced the second my boots hit the mosaic-tiled floor, sending an echo through the room. Not good, I told myself. Don’t go waking the whole place up! So I ended up almost tiptoeing my way from the doorway to the Southernmost antechamber. Wakka had mentioned he was setting it up as a guest room… no, wait, was it the Northern antechamber? I started getting seriously worried that I was going to walk in on the temple attendants by mistake, just from not knowing which room Tidus was in! It was probably about two minutes before I decided to throw caution to the wind and go to the Southern chamber.

The door was open very slightly, and I could just make out a faint glimmer of light within the room. I put an ear to the door, trying to remember if Tidus snored or not- then blushing as I recalled I’d never actually seen him asleep before. What if… what if I catch him unawares? What if he doesn’t… doesn’t wear pajamas to sleep, or…

My face was pretty flushed by the time I shook myself out of that little reverie. I almost couldn’t believe what I’d been thinking about- but I didn’t see why I couldn’t think about it. I’d wanted him to come back for so long, and now that he was finally here…

At that point I knew I had to make sure of it once and for all. I put my hands on the edge of the doorway and eased it open as quietly as I could manage. Thank the Fayth the monks kept the door hinges oiled, I told myself as I slipped into the room.

He was there.

Asleep on a mattress made of cushions, covered from the waist down by a blue-gray sheet Wakka had loaned him. He’d removed his shirt and his gloves, and for a moment I just stood there and gazed at him. Everything about him was just the way it had been two years before- his tousled blond locks, his tan skin, his perfectly defined chest and arms… he was perfect. And not just on the outside.

How he came back to me, I still didn’t know, but I knew right then and there I wouldn’t let him go.

I made my way over to the makeshift mattress and crouched down beside him, just watching. He was smiling. I wonder what he sees in his sleep? I asked myself. Then I smirked a bit, thinking how he might be dreaming of scoring the winning goal at the Blitzball tournament. Or maybe… maybe he’s just glad to be here, I thought.

I lay down next to him over the sheets, letting my head sink back as I ran my finger along his bare arm. His smile broadened a bit when I did that, and that made me smile more. In the back of my mind, I knew I’d get in trouble with Lulu if she knew I’d snuck in to see him, but at the moment I didn’t care. I just wanted to stay there as long as I could. There was so much more for us to look forward to, much more to talk about. But for now, I was content to be by his side, hoping to be the first thing he saw when he woke up.

I must’ve still been sleepy because before I knew it, I felt my eyelids flutter and I realized they were closed- and I could feel a gentle touch brushing against my temple. I blinked a few times and looked up to see his brilliant blue eyes gazing into mine, his right hand stroking my hair. “Hi,” he said, almost in a whisper.

“Hi.”

“When did you get here?” he asked. I smiled.

“I couldn’t sleep… I was lonely.”

He nodded, gently running his hand down my temple and across my neck; I thought right then I would melt.

“Was it a dream you had?” I nodded. “It wasn’t a bad one, though… just different.”

He nodded back. “You know, if Lulu finds you in here, you might be in trouble,” he whispered playfully. “She might think we were up to something.” That got me smiling even more, and I pulled closer to him, wrapping an arm around his neck.

“I don’t care what Lulu thinks right now,” I said in my best devil-may-care voice, which got a laugh out of him. “All I care about right now is you…”

For a moment we just lay there, gazing into each other’s eyes.

“I tried to fight my way back sooner…” he whispered. “I knew I’d make it back eventually. They said there would be a way- but I didn’t know when, or how.” He and I sat up as he wrapped his arms around me and I buried my head in the crook of his neck. “I’m sorry I kept you waiting so long, Yuna.”

I felt a tear forming in my eye- not from sadness. From pure joy. “Time isn’t what matters anymore,” I heard myself say. “The past is past; now we can look to the future together.” He nodded, caressing the back of my head.

“I should have told you long ago…”

“What?” I asked, looking up at him again.

“I never knew what it means to love someone… until I met you.”

I couldn’t help it anymore. I gazed at him for a second with a tear running down my face, and the next second our lips met and closed the gap between us. All the pent-up stress from the last two years evaporated as we kissed in the dim light of the room’s candles. In a way, it brought back memories of our first embrace in Macalania Woods so long ago, but this time it was different. This time, neither of us hesitated. Neither of us held anything back.

I never felt so blessed in my entire life.Converting /tmp/phpNk1w9e to /dev/stdout