Ficlet again!

[letterblade]

For heavenscalyx, who requested Yuna/Lulu post-game comfort. (Or rather, gave me two alternatives, and I may still write the other, as it would give me an opportunity to play with my favorite odd girl couple in Esca. Out of curiosity though, have you seen through the end of that? I forget whether you bailed out when you got annoyed by it.)

All gratuitous Auron/Lulu references are again courtesy of auronlu and the letter S. ;)

~~~

"I suppose I'll marry Wakka one day," was Lulu's offhand comment, in the middle of discussing something else, and Yuna blinked and turned her face away and twisted her hands in her lap, and the mage fell silent as the Besaid surf rolled. "To be safe," she added at last. "So we can both have something."

~

"Yuna." This was not offhand, a few days later, under a black velvet starry sky as the nightlilies dipped their heads in the breeze. "Only Kimahri knew then, but you should know now. I was with Auron for a good deal of the pilgramage."

This time, when Yuna blinked, it was to look up to her in mute suprirse.

~

"I wanted you to know you weren't the only one to lose a man you loved to...what we did." The next night was her favorite holiday, but Yuna sat outside the hut full of drunken Aurochs, hands folded coolly in her lap, and stared out to the sea without a sound. Lulu's words brought a touch of a frown to her expressionless face.

"Sir Auron didn't have to leave," she murmured, because Tidus had been torn bodily from her arms, and how could another have chosen the same?

"No," said Lulu quietly. "I think he did."

~

"Why Kimahri?" Yuna asked, days later, unexpected in the door of Lulu's hut as she ladled water into the kettle for tea.

"What?"

"Why did you let Kimahri know about--about you and Sir Auron?"

"Oh." Lulu chuckled ruefully. "We didn't exactly have a choice. Ronso nose and all."

"Oh." Yuna blushed rather pink, and Lulu knew better than to tell her that more of them than Kimahri knew exactly when she'd first taken up with Tidus, and simply put the kettle on to boil and asked her to come over. Yuna crossed the room, hesitant, and Lulu simply gathered her up gently into a hug, but it wasn't until the kettle whistled that Yuna unclenched her ever-tightening, desperate grip on the older woman's shoulders.

~

It was another day until, clouds crossing the sky, they kissed. They argued later over who had started it, and it was a week's hesitation until Yuna dared repeat it, unspoken wonder in her eyes at the softness of another woman’s lips.

~

Yuna did not say her name when she was shivering silent with pleasure under her hands and mouth, nor did she expect her to. It had been her first love slain, and she knew how long it would be until she stopped wanting to see Zanarkand blue in every other man's eyes. But she was still her Summoner, to guard, to comfort, and she tasted like sweet salt-wine, and curled like a kitten, and rested her head on the pillow of Lulu's breasts with just that less tension in the fine curve of her neck.

"Do you want me to--"

"No," Lulu shushed, and held her for what felt like hours.

~

"Did you and Lady Ginnem...?" Yuna's faint, hesitant question trailed off. Lulu's hand rested on the naked curve of her waist, and the wooden beams of her hut seemed outlined in light.

"Does it matter?" Lulu asked softly.

Yuna turned to look up at her with wide, wet eyes, then they softened, and she leaned her head against Lulu's arm and whispered, "No."

Lulu stroked her feathery-soft hair and the worn threaded wrappings of her little braid as she cried. Auron was on the Farplane; she had said her farewells, as she had to Chappu, and Ginnem, and never, at least, she hoped, to Wakka. But who knew where Tidus had faded to, or even if he still was?

They dozed fitfully as the sun sank, and over the next week, at least, Yuna began to stare less out to sea, but it was two until she worked up the courage to thank her.