The Fantasy Games (Final Fantasy Fanfiction)

Chapter Seven: Into the Nothing

Claustrophobia.

Yuna had never really experienced the fear until now. It was funny really, she'd spent so much time crammed in the side rooms of the Temple with at least ten other priests and she had never experienced the fear then. But now, as she stood in the cold steel room and stared at the tube-shaped elevator, she felt extremely claustrophobic. 

She fingered the material of her half-skirt with clammy hands as she waited in the tiny room. Lulu had designed a completely new outfit for her consisting of a white halter neck with a pink hood and the Zanarkand Abes symbol across her chest area. Yellow armbands crossed over her biceps and dark boots with white lace came up to her knees. A blue and white rippling half skirt covered her left leg and was secured in a tight knot at the right hip while denim boy shorts lay underneath. Lulu had said the half-skirt was to resemble waves at the sea from Besaid, to remind her of her home and heritage and that her outfit was designed to be light and easy to manoeuvre in.

The sound of a metal door clicking open caught her attention and she whirled around only to find her childhood friend standing sheepishly in the doorway. He too wore his own blitzball attire with the Zanarkand Abes logo on the knee. He bore no cheerful smile to comfort her and his eyes shone with sorrow and some other emotion that Yuna couldn't decipher.

He opened his mouth to say something but Yuna didn't let him get a word out as she threw her arms around his neck, burying her face in the crook of his neck as if it could protect her from all the evil of the world. Strong arms wrapped around her and held her close as his own head leaned tenderly against her own. She felt so safe and secure in those few moments, held in his arms and breathing in his familiar scent of sea, salt and aftershave. She swore to herself she'd never forget his scent or his laugh or his smile.

"This changes nothing between us," she whispered into his neck, tightening her grip on him. "You'll always be my best friend and I'll always love you, no matter what." Her voice began to crack as she felt tears gather in the corners of her eyes. "I refuse to fight you because I never could, do you remember? When we'd fight I'd apologise right away, I'd always be able to find you on the beach kicking the life out of a blitzball and muttering curses about your dad."

Tidus gave off a strangled short laugh that had no humour to it. "I remember."

"Jecht used to say you were always such a 'cry baby' but I never believed that," she continued on allowing the tears to leak down her cheeks. "I never thought you were weak, you were always the strongest of the two of us, you always cheered me up and kept me going. Even when Lenne..." her heart wrenched at her twin's name, "even when she died, you were always there wiping away my tears, handing me napkins and whispering comforting words to me. I don't know if I ever thanked you for that."

"You did Yuna," he replied, his own masculine voice cracking. "You never stopped thanking me and I never minded. I always accepted it, I always loved when you went into your cute grateful priestess mode."

She gave off her own small laugh but it even sounded dead to her ears. "I don't know if I want to win these Games and return home if it means you won't be there," she admitted in a low voice. "Home would never be the same without you there; no one to race chocobos with, no one to teach me blitzball, no one to imitate Isaaru when he's not around, no one to cheer me up..." She broke down into a fit of sobs, leaning fully into his arms as he gently rubbed her back and soothed her.

After five minutes of simply standing in one another's embrace, he pulled away from her, holding onto her shoulders. She could see tears in his own eyes as he offered a small broken smile. 

"Tears don't suit you," he said gently as he wiped her cheek. "So don't cry, we'll figure all this out. It will all come together; I know it. But for now, dry your tears and become the fierce bad-tempered gunner the other tributes know you to be. When the Games start run into the forest and don't look back, I'll find you. I promise."