FicWad

"Yuna's off in the woods," Lulu said to Tidus. They had finally escaped from Bevelle into the Macalania Woods, and he was making his way around the group, talking to everyone. Everyone except the one person who Lulu thought needed to speak with him the most. "Kimahri's with her, but maybe you should go too? I think it might help if you were there."


Tidus rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, everyone else said that too. I don't really know what to say to her though. I mean, it's good she found all this stuff about the church out, right? Now that she knows what they're really like, maybe she'll stop it with the pilgrimage! Find something else to do!" He lowered his head and scruffed the ground with his foot. "But I don't think it'd help if I said that to her. Of course, even if I don't, she's gonna have a chance to stop and think about whether she really wants to fight, right?" He suddenly straightened up. "Oh well, I'll think of something!"

"But..." Lulu started to say, but he was already trotting away. She continued her thought softly anyway. "It would be so easy to fight without thinking... Walk a straight line. So easy."

"But when do any of us do the easy thing?" a cheerful voice said from behind Lulu, startling her.

"Oh, Rikku! I didn't know you were there."

"I wanted to see how you were! Is your arm all healed up?" Rikku reached out to touch it, stopping when Lulu flinched. "It isn't? I thought Yunie would take care of it!"

"Yuna had more important things to worry about. I didn't want her to worry about me as well."

Rikku huffed and held out her hands. "Gimme." Lulu gave her her arm willingly, relaxing as the warmth of Rikku's healing magic spread through it. She worked more slowly than Yuna, lacking the speed and the magical strength that came from years of training at the temple, but in a way Lulu found her healing preferable when speed wasn't necessary. The additional time spent experiencing the soothing feeling of the spell left her mind as well as her body feeling rejuvenated. "I don't know what's gotten into you today," Rikku said when she was almost done, in the same scolding tone she might use with a child, " but you've gotta cut it out. Even if there hadn't been a way out of there, and I'd gone ahead and escaped, you think I'd have been happy when I thought about how I only got out 'cause you decided to get all self-sacrificing? And do you think my old man would be happy when I told him you decided whatever it was he said to you meant 'keep Rikku safe even if it's gotta be over your dead body?'"

"I know, Rikku. I understand now. Dyga uhmo ouin lusnytac, right?"

Rikku glanced up from her work, surprised. "Yeah. How'd you know that?"

"I heard it somewhere. I doesn't really matter. The important thing is, it will not happen again. It wouldn't have to begin with if it hadn't been for the circumstances we were in. I... did not want to die on Seymour's terms."

"Well, I can sure understand /that/," Rikku said, then slid her hands down from the now fully-healed bullet wound to Lulu's wrist. "You want me to do these too?"

"No," Lulu said firmly, yanking her hand out of Rikku's grasp. At the girl's startled look, she continued in a more friendly tone, "Those are just scratches. You don't need to waste your energy on them. Cid's bandages will do well enough."

"Ri~ight." Rikku said, studying her closely. "Lulu, you know..." She paused and bit her lip, seeming to think about what she was about to say, then quickly blurted out, "My mom's been gone a long time, so if you are interested in my dad that way you don't need to worry about anyone being in your way. Just don't tell me about it because I don't need those mental pictures."

"Rikku, I thought we'd been through this already. There isn't anything--"

"But if there /was/," Rikku cut in quickly, "if there was it'd be okay. Really really weird, but I'm not gonna be a brat about it or anything. Though I don't know if you'd be able to get anywhere, since you're not Al Bhed." She bounced to her feet suddenly. "Anyway, you're a nice person, and it's not like he doesn't deserve someone as good as you, but I really don't wanna think about this anymore, so I'll just be over there, okay?"

"What on Spira brought that on?" Lulu murmured to herself as she watched Rikku dash away, saying something Lulu couldn't quite catch about scrubbing out her brain, then stood herself and walked over to Wakka. She could be sure that he, at least, would always act normally.

Or not, as he jumped up when he saw her approaching and reached out to carefully rest his hands on her shoulders, acting like he was steadying her even though it wasn't needed. "Lu, you all right? Shouldn't you still be sitting down?"

"Wakka, what in the world are you talking about?"

"Rikku told me about one've those damn machina hurting you! Don't you think you oughta be resting after that? Here, you can have where I was sitting. It's real comfortable!"

Lulu closed her eyes, feeling a headache coming on. "Wakka, I'm fine. Rikku healed it most of the way right after it happened, and just finished the job a moment ago. I don't want to steal your seat."

"But, it was a /machina/. Who knows the sorta things one've those might do to you! Better safe than sorry, ya?"

Lulu sighed as Wakka continued hovering over her like she might fall apart at any moment. She was beginning to realize that it was going to be a long night.