middleofsomewhere | Event: Healing Waters

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Event: Healing Waters

"Good morning passengers, it is day twenty three of the month of Grasshopper. All passengers of the Voidtrecker Express require rest. Next stop Jema’grethy Island. All passengers prepare to disembark."

It is a very strange morning message that rings through the train on the morning of day twenty three but as the passengers of the Voidtrecker Express wake their screens glow with the colour of the void and a holographic screen pops up for them to read.

World #2554098133741: A world once inhabited by an ancient civilisation and now preserved as a historical site, nature reserve and well-being retreat. It is famous for its relaxing hot springs, calming atmosphere and beautiful beaches.

It is a popular void-traveller destination, particularly among void missionaries as a place to rest and recuperate after difficult missions.

The Voidtrecker Express will spend three days here, arriving today and leaving on day twenty six of the month of Grasshopper. The dressing carriage is open for your convenience.

It is time for a holiday it seems!

Preparation

For those who go to explore the dressing carriage they will find a variety of beachwear and wetsuits. One cupboard has a pile of tents and groundsheets in all four team colours.

One cabinet is exclusively filled with beach towels, in a kaleidoscope of colours, designs and patterns. Another is filled with different shapes and sizes of plain towel dressing gowns. There is even a cabinet with buckets, spades and small rock-pooling nets.

It seems they are in for quite an adventure.

Arrival

"Shortly arriving on World #2554098133741. Exit from void in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."

The train lurches and rattles as it leaves the void they will get a glimpse of silver-purple sky and a beautiful ocean below.

However some passengers might be a little more than distracted, one staring at that table for a second too long, another seeming lost in thought for a couple of seconds, a longer than normal pause in a sentence. They see a vision, a glimpse of a life that is not their own. Not all at once, but here and there as the train descends to the island.

But then it is gone and things are back to normal. Just in time, as they come to land.

Jema’grethy Island

The train has landed on a grassy ridge, overlooking a beautiful beach of white sand and the ocean beyond. It is warm, but not too hot, a cool ocean breeze cutting through the heat making it pleasant. Behind them is a grassy plain, changing to forest in the distance. There is the sound of birdsong in the purple sky. To the west the land is more craggy, the silhouette of a fortress in the distance. In a word, it is idylic. A sense of peace permeates the island.

A little more worrying is the volcano-like structure in the north. But even a quick glance will show it is not a typical volcano. There is no smoke and the liquid slowly running down it in rivulets is pink and blue.

Exploring the passengers will find beautiful beaches, ragged cliffs to walk and caves to explore. Where it is more craggy the beaches are made of pebbles- perfect for rock pooling.

The place has no people, but it is clearly maintained. The eastern beaches have racks of shallow boats, both canoes and one- or two-person sailing dinghies. There is also a small building in which scuba gear is stored, along with several waterproofed manuals and instructional literature.

Ruins of ancient houses are scattered across the island, but the main settlement is built into a rocky section in the north-west that has been secured with ropes and stairways cut into the cliffs, perfect for scrambles and hikes.

There are no living quarters, but there are sheltered sections with basic toilet facilities marked as camping grounds in five different sections of the island - by the hot springs, within the ruined fortress, beside the harbour, on the eastern beaches, and on the northern face of the mountain.

Hot Springs

To the west are the hot springs. They have both outdoor and indoor areas; the indoor areas being wooden loghouse saunas, changing rooms and storage sheds, whilst the outdoor areas are a tiered series of pools spilling down the side of the mountain and shaded by brightly flowering trees. The waters are hot, mineral-rich and soothing.

Perfect for overly stressed, world weary Void heroes...

(OOC: More setting information is here, please feel free to go wild with the setting and have a fun and relaxing time. You can use this post as a catch all for your holiday or make your own posts on

middleofsomewhere. More information about how the memory event is structured is here!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Tidus isn't waiting or expecting much from Inigo. That's not the point, unless he wants to talk. But if he really wants to, Tidus could sit there and talk about anything, tell the parts of his life that wouldn't make this outing together awkward or uncomfortable. He'll keep his dad being a giant flying whale monster back for another time, for one.

But with the soft tone of Inigo's voice, the way his words drift, Tidus thinks the guy might be near to tears, and in that small moment between squeezes his arm gently, about to speak. Except Inigo gets there first, silencing him in his surprise. Did he dream...?

"Uh...sure? I dream about anything." Not just the sea. "Like most dreams. They never make any sense. Like being on planets or...catching the train to somewhere. Or getting stuck eating carrots forever," he adds on as a joke (it's not a joke).

But Tidus pauses, realising-

"Unless you mean...uh...some other kind of dreaming...?"

A dreaming that isn't dreaming??

Inigo can't help but wonder what Tidus means about that other kind of dreaming - maybe he'll have to ask in a moment - but right now he's a little too focused on the realisation he just had. He feels kind of silly asking it. Maybe it it just a total coincidence after all, but it's just.. so odd.

"No, it's just.. Gerome dreamed about the sea." That sounds like a dumb, mundane statement, which Inigo seems to realise, judging by the speed at which he quickly adds more. "But neither of us have been near the sea back home. He wasn't even present for that mission we spent fighting on the beach. And yet he had a dream.. He described it to me, since it was really vivid."

And it had really upset the other, though Inigo is tactful enough to hold back that information for Gerome's sake.

"He said he dreamed about the sea, and water pouring into the train and threatening to drown him.. But no one noticed him. Everyone just ignored him, as if they couldn't see or hear him, and they left him behind by himself to disappear into the water."

Inigo is quiet for a moment, letting out a soft breath as he still leans against Tidus.

".. Strange, huh..? It was right after you healed him. Maybe your healing makes people think of the sea more, somehow..?" He lets out a very, very weak laugh. It's obviously awkward, like he's trying to cover for himself. "I guess it's probably just a silly thought."

Edited 2020-08-24 10:35 (UTC)

It doesn't sound so bad at the start, and mundane, sure--he doesn't know what Gerome dreaming the sea has to do with him, and maybe it makes a little sense as Inigo goes on. But there could be reasons for it; dreams are dreams, they're weird, since when do they make sense? And also, dreaming about drowning? That gets a grimace, 'cause eesh.

But it's the word disappear that makes his watch on Inigo flinch, hold the breath he was breathing. Inigo laughs, and Tidus is quiet, and he's caught in a moment where he doesn't feel so sure about anything. Disappearing...

"Mmm," --but he can't keep silent, and the tension of his brow turns puzzled, his mouth going askew. "Did you have any funny dreams when I healed you? I never heard anyone talk about me giving them dreams before." He glances away, then back. "You don't think he just had a weird dream? He did get badly hurt. He was probably exhausted after the mission. A heal doesn't make you feel a hundred percent better when you're about ready to collapse, you know?"

Thankfully - for both of them involved here, really - that silence isn't odd enough for Inigo to think much of it. He figures Tidus is probably just thinking, though he feels pretty sheepish for bringing it up now.. Is he just going to look like an idiot for making a connection that's not actually there? The only thought that makes him feel a bit more steady in his belief is that Gerome had also said it was so odd. He never said that about any other dream.

"No, I don't think I had any.." He tries thinking back to that day. If he would have had a dream that odd, surely he would have remembered it, right..? "It's just.."

Inigo thinks for a moment. Maybe it doesn't make as much sense since Tidus doesn't know Gerome the way Inigo does, but still. Maybe he should give Gerome's reaction to the dream away, just to make it more clear what he means. Inigo knows by now that Tidus can at least be trusted to not tease people about serious things, anyway.

"Gerome has never told me anything like that. He's never seemed that upset about a dream, or thought one to be that strange.." Even though his dreams are bound to be just as traumatizing as Inigo's own. "I guess it could just be that he was still healing.. but it seemed odd."

It's weird, and he doesn't want to say that he was the cause of it. What connection did any of it have to him? Save, apparently, the water.But Inigo seems sure--sure enough to be concerned on some level, to bring it up at all--and Tidus leans his head away, grunting as he tries to seriously consider it himself.

"It could been me," he tries to offer, but even so adds, "but I've never had that: not back on Spira, or whenever Yuna healed me on the last mission. My magic's the same as hers."

So what would be different? Realising that, he calms even more.

"He's a to-himself guy --" or so Tidus thinks, from the short time spent with him, " --but even everything going on... ending up on this train, the small cabin rooms. Maybe it's like drowning--suffocating. Wondering if you're gonna get home? There's got to be a lot on his mind, and getting injured can't help. Wasn't that his first mission too?"

"It was.." Inigo softly answers.

Deep down he knows Tidus is probably right. It's not as if Gerome didn't go through something super traumatic only right before getting back to the train and getting healed by Tidus. Maybe it is these new surroundings that caused it, coupled with that rockslide.. Maybe Inigo was just a little too desperate to make sense of something that doesn't make sense.

He slowly releases a breath.

"Sorry. I guess I must still be too worked up from that whole thing with lord Gyousou. It's making me think about strange things.." Inigo shakes his head, shifting a little. "I'm not saying there's anything wrong with your magic. Or anything with you, or-- ugh!"

Inigo suddenly moves to sit up straight, dragging his hands down his face, like he's trying to get himself and his dumb, dumb thoughts back in line.

"I should just have said what I originally wanted to say! Which is--" He pokes Tidus's chest. "It doesn't matter who or what people tried to compare you to, because you're great the way you are."

Which is probably something Tidus knows - and much better than Inigo knows about himself - but he figures it can't hurt to reiterate it.

"No one should be expected to live up to a famous father. That's so dumb." (Yeah, okay, Inigo, have you tried looking into a mirror lately?)

Tidus's arm falls behind Inigo, his hand finding the sand when the other guy sits up. He watches him, confused at what's suddenly going on, if he isn't currently overthinking himself into a headache (he gets it, that happens to him often).

Except--it's not that, not at all, even if Tidus's puzzled staring continues with the poke, and then-- well, no. He doesn't get it straight away, when that part of their conversation was just about forgotten under the drowning and weird dream chatter.

He smiles, funny and amused, keeping his arms back behind him now, leaning his weight on his shoulders.

"This coming from the guy who couldn't take a compliment 'cause he thinks he isn't as good as his sister?"

Not to call you out Inigo, but Tidus is calling you out, smirk in his tone and all.

Tidus is so calling him out. Inigo wouldn't even have to look at Tidus's face to know as much, even just the tone of his voice is enough. This is a direct call out, and Inigo is so not here for it. Mostly because it's so true. Inigo really doesn't think he could even reach up to his sister's ankles as far as competency goes.

Though he doesn't really seem upset - not in the way he did earlier, anyway, when he first approached Tidus - Inigo still frowns and looks away for a moment, absent-mindedly rubbing his nose.

"I'm not thinking it, it's just true," he says, still looking away.

It's hard to tell how much thought Inigo puts in what he says next as he continues. It sounds like he's just talking on without a single thought about it, but at the same time it's not something he'd admit to just anyone.

But for all his callouts, and dumb grins, and occassional teasing, Tidus does feel relatively safe enough at this point.

".. that's what lord Gyousou saw. The memory. It was my father comparing me to my sister and telling me I was a disappointment."

--ah.

He hadn't realised how closely he'd landed near to an already sore spot, but that's how these things usually go. It rubs off what remains of Tidus's smile, his good humour with it; replacing it with a familiar heat. 'It was my father...telling me I was a disappointment.'

Doesn't he know how that feels.

"He had no right." And so he speaks like steel unwilling to bend, ready to take on heat. Looking Inigo straight on, no matter where he may look himself. "The thing about dads? It doesn't matter who they are, what people think about 'em--they're not always right. Sometimes, they're assholes who tell you to quit and give up."

It's the tone that surprises Inigo the most, actually making him look at the other almost immediately after Tidus speaks up.

Not that Tidus never sounds like that. He can be determined in his own way, stubborn in others. But he suddenly takes on the tone so easily even for a sensitive topic like this, and Inigo immediately knows what it means - only confirmed by the words Tidus speaks after it.

".. did your father tell you to quit and give up?" The famous father Tidus spoke of earlier. Inigo manages to hold his gaze as he says it, though his eyes still mostly contain the vulnerability behind the words he spoke earlier.

Even with the certainty of his position, what he says, to think about it--it's not a question nor answer he needs to think about, but it still brings down his eyes. His head not moving, but he remembers it - he always remembers it, still, with everything that's come to happen with him and his old man.

"'You're not cut out for it, kid, some people just don't got it'." There's a vulnerability, someone younger in those words- a younger person in him that always remembered, all he had to remember his father by.

"I cried, and I didn't get things quick enough for him. He was always reminding me, he was the best." He pauses. "He was - a good blitzball player, but a father... he never got to be. He wasn't, back then."

His facial expression drops a bit further as he hears that.

Inigo already feels so broken at his father being critical of him a handful of times. But it sounds like the treatment Tidus got from his dad was worse than that. Because something about those words makes it sound like Tidus was much younger, unlike Inigo, who didn't properly get to talk much with his father until he was already this age.

Tidus even cried. Somehow that part sticks with him the most. Though Inigo doesn't cry right now, Inigo's facial expression is starting to look about exactly the same as when he does.

"I'm so sorry, Tidus." Not that Inigo could have done anything about it. He didn't even know Tidus existed when they were both younger, worlds apart. But it still feels so unfair. "You shouldn't have had to go through that.. Especially since you're so great. If he didn't see that, then he's just a jerk."

He tilts his head aside, a sound close to a "nahhh" leaving him, soft.

"It was a long time ago," he explains, though he knows that doesn't excuse it. Not the part he wants to dismiss as he regards Inigo again, head correcting its tilt. "But I knew-- that he was wrong, that I'd prove him wrong. That I'd never treat other people like that. And your dad shouldn't have done that to you either."

He sits himself properly, his view on Inigo not exactly what it was.

"You're just--you," is what he really wants to say--the part that matters most of all. "You're not your dad and you're not your sister, just like I'm not mine. You don't have to be. They can be great or well-liked, but you're your own person, you know? You put in the work, you do your best--and there's plenty to be proud about you. People can look and compare you to your family, but what do they know?" He shakes his head, as if disregarding voiceless criticisms.

"If anything, you prove them wrong. And if they can't see it--then they don't want to see it. And I don't have time for people like that."

He quietly listens. As he does, his expression gets a bit further away from crying again, though it's still pretty emotional. How could it not be while listening to Tidus say these kinds of things? He's being so sweet and encouraging, and even moreso--

"You really.. are so strong."

Despite getting put down by his dad of all people, despite having everyone out there compare Tidus to him, Tidus still is able to not listen to that. To still believe in himself. Inigo feels like he went through less, and yet he still feels totally incapable of doing the same. It just has to be a difference in their mental strength.

Inigo lets out a dry laugh, his smile having a hint of wryness in it as he glances over at Tidus.

"Really. I mean it. You have no idea just how impressive it sounds to me that you can say all of that and mean it. I just.." His voice trails off. He's not sure if he can explain this without sounding pathetic, but Inigo remembers the way Tidus treated him after seeing his scars. Maybe he'll be kind on him over dumb emotional issues as well.

"My father.. He actually died. When I was really young. Even before that, he was never around much.. He was the king, after all." Inigo casts his gaze out towards the water. "He was constantly busy, and-- really, I understood that. Of course I'm not as important as a whole country. But then.. he died. I was only 10."

Inigo at least makes sure to leave out the apocalypse deal. He doesn't want to dump everything on Tidus all at once, and he feels like the story still relatively makes sense even without it.

"The time after that was pretty rough. I had to fight.. a lot. Practically constantly. There were days where I wasn't sure why I was even doing it anymore, since I just felt so miserable. But I still kept going as long as there were people out there who needed protection. So for years, and years, and years.. I just forced myself to keep going."

He sucks in a breath. While his voice is still pretty stable, the breath itself is shakey.

"Then we got the chance to travel with Naga. And we got the chance to go to the past. We could prevent everything, even keep my father from having to die. So of course I took it, you know..? Mostly for selfless reasons, since I really wanted to protect people from having to suffer in my future, but.. I can't deny that a selfish part of me really wanted to see my father again. I just thought-- We never had much of a chance to talk before he died, so I thought I could finally talk to him. I thought that once he'd see me, he'd be proud of me. That he would just.." Now Inigo's voice starts growing tighter, choking up. ".. just tell me that all the fighting had been worth it, all those years. That I did a good job in not giving up, even though it was so hard."

He bends his head.

".. but when I met him in the past, he just said he was disappointed in me."

Tidus listens, the slow waves of the ocean somewhere else for once, the land and the birds the same, out of his frame. He watches Inigo as he speaks, more and more turning into him, his knees bending as he comes to sit better to regard him. Watching, and seeing through every dry laugh, every pull of his mouth--the same sad look in his eyes carried throughout. Staying with him until the end.

And when he does come to that finish, Tidus is silent, unable to know what to say with his heart tight in his chest. Could he imagine going through that? Fighting for all his life, the one person he longed to be proud of him. His father, meeting him, and he couldn't have known all that Inigo went through, and yet--

Maybe he's learning from Inigo. Maybe he's learning, in this time he doesn't know how to start to speak, that it isn't so bad to start another way. Tidus places his hands on Inigo's shoulders, tentatively in his decision, but speaking lightly, "Inigo," in an attempt to make him lift his head. But regardless, his hands slip to the back of his shoulder-blades, nudging Inigo towards him, and Tidus in turn coming to take a hold of him into an embrace.

He lets their body-heat speak for him first, that comfort of being close to someone; he knows about it too, even if he's never known to freely indulge in this. He leans his head beside Inigo's, seeing the white sand grains below, his arms hiding Inigo's back.

"I always wanted him to be proud of me too," he says. Knowing, understanding that want. Because he did, he always did; even once his old man was gone. Even though he hated him; because hating him was the only way he knew how to keep him around in his heart.

And his relationship with his father changed, but now isn't the time for him. It's for Inigo, and while he isn't his father...

"You did good. You were more than anyone should've been. You suffered a lot. You did everything for everyone, and you still do."

He tips his head in a little more, speaks a little louder. Clearer.

"You should be proud of you, Inigo. You're strong. Believe it."

Just the calling of his name is already enough to make Inigo turn to actually look at Tidus, but even if it wouldn't have been, the hug that follows sure would have done the trick. It stills him for a moment, since Inigo knows that this doesn't come as naturally to Tidus as it does to him - and yet it was Tidus who reached out to hug him, after having heard from Inigo's own mouth before that he likes hugs.

That by itself would have been touching enough. But coupled with what Tidus says - both of the things he says - it's too much. Somewhere between so much praise coming from someone important to him, even though it's far from his father, and the fact that Tidus has struggled with the very same thirst for acknowledgement from a very specific person Inigo breaks.

His breath almost sounds like a laugh, but it shakes too much to just be that. A moment later he raises his arms to cling to his friend in turn, letting out a sob as Inigo can feel tears starting to slip down from his eyes.

"Oh.. Oh geez, Tidus, I told myself I wasn't going to cry again today. Look what you're doing." He sounds like he's trying to make a joke, but his tone is too tight, too obviously touched in that sort of way Inigo can never fully hide.

He sniffs.

"You're doing great too. I.. I don't think anyone could look at all you're trying to do on his train and say they're not proud of you. You always do your best, and think of solutions, and--" Somehow, the more Inigo speaks, the quicker and heavier his tears start flowing. "And you're such a good friend. Seriously, I'm.. I'm so glad I met you.."

Tidus laughs, short enough to be a chuckle, but it's brighter, far more affectionate. He squeezes his embrace around Inigo and rubs a hand in a circular motion against his back, soothing him as he hears the tears in Inigo's broken voice.

"Well if you can say all that about me, how about doing yourself the same favours, huh? Me, I never had to go out there and fight all day and night. My life was easy for the longest time -- Zanarkand was safe, I didn't know what hardship was really like. Losing most of your family, living the way that you did..."

It was Spira all over, a struggle he never understood. A struggle he got to be oblivious to while the rest of the world suffered more than a man who didn't quite know how to be a father, a mother so in love with her husband, she sometimes forgot to look her son's way.

Even if it hurt, was hard to carry that grief and his emotions, it couldn't compare to reality. The life outside of Spira. The life that Inigo had to survive, too.

"We all have things about ourselves we don't like, and it's easy to get down on ourselves. But you're a good friend, Inigo, and a good person to your world. I know you are!"

It's like the soothing only seems to make him cry more. Or maybe that's just due to the words that keep coming and coming from Tidus, feeling so overwhelming in their kindness, their affection. And honestly - now Inigo has started to cry like this, he just needs to cry a little bit anyway until his tears run dry.

Which thankfully doesn't take too long, considering how much he already cried earlier. There wasn't too much left, and he now feels well and truly squeezed dry of tears for the day.

Thankfully these last ones were good though, Inigo thinks as he pulls back just a little. Not entirely away from the embrace, but just enough that he can see Tidus's face and take in that smile.

Inigo is smiling too, even with the remainders of tears in his eyes, on his cheeks.

"I think you're a good person too." But giving himself that same credit is hard. "But you-- you never seem like you get down on yourself that much, Tidus. You always pick yourself right back up and carry on. That's what I like about you." ~~Even when he's throwing temper tantrums in the luggage carriage.~~ "I can pretend I'm doing that, sometimes, but I'm really bad at actually doing it."

Not wanting to make things heavy though, he quickly adds in a lighter, more joking tone: "Clearly you should give me some pointers."

~~Are you talking about CHOKING YOURSELF ON FREEZE-DRIED FOOD IN THIS STRIKETHROUGHS MATE.~~

"Do I need to? You already know how. A guy who's been fighting his whole life knows how to pick himself right back up. What's there for me to teach?"

He says it fondly, but is there a lie? If there was a lie, it would be if Inigo told it first, that the story he spun about himself wasn't real: that he wasn't crossing worlds to fight wars, that he wasn't always putting himself out there since he was young. But Tidus believes it: He sees it in Inigo during the missions, how all that can distract him is some semblance of keeping his mind on the task. What has a guy like him got to tell a person like that?

His hands, dropped somewhere down from Inigo's back to his waist, come now to rest on his legs. A sigh exhaled, a sympathetic smile pressed on his lips at the sight of Inigo's worn out face.

"You just have to keep trying, don't you? You fail, but you keep going. That's all you can do. Me..." he grimaces, but then laughs, looking aside as he shrugs a shoulder. "I get too--mad easy. I'm never patient, and I don't get bright ideas or can make anything cool like other people. All my magic's pretty basic, and so's how I fight. I feel out of my depth a lot of the time, you know?"

He lets his gaze wander, low-lidded as it is. "But... I don't want to let people down, so I keep going anyway. Even if there's better people around--I want to do what I can."

It's dumb.

That's what Inigo realises more than anything as he listens to Tidus. It's all so dumb. His thoughts, his feelings, too easily bruised like a peach. Here he is, having been thinking these sorts of things for forever, and now he's hearing the exact same thoughts coming as words out of Tidus's mouth.

Inigo reaches a hand up, rubbing his temple. By Naga, he feels so tired by now. He's going to need the biggest nap ever after this. His eyes feel so dry from all the crying he's done. But even with that exhaustion hanging over him, he smiles.

"Hey, can you not say that kind of stuff in front of someone who feels like he's way less smart and cool than you are?"

The hand that was rubbing his temple now instead forms a fist, reaching out to lightly and playfully knock against Tidus's shoulder now they're no longer hugging. His tone is light, casual.

"You're going to make me look bad. If you're not all that great, then what does that make me, huh?"

"Who cares about great?"

Great. Tidus used to hear that word so often, and truthfully, he cared; cared when it came to blitzball, coming from the same mouths who'd have praise to give for his father, and usually that praise wasn't far behind. But greatness--Tidus twists to face out to the sea, and he stretches his limbs: back arched forward, straightening with his arms going up and bending behind his head.

He keeps it for a second and then releases the position with a satisfied sigh. Hands dropping into the sand.

"Just be you! I like you." Ah, wait. With some oomph: "You're Inigo of Ylisse, son of the Exalt...! Carrier of, uhhh- the Great Dragon Blood Pact!"

For a second Inigo holds his breath, but when he releases it, there's a bright laugh. Despite exhaustion and worry. He can hear Gyousou's sentiment being echoed exactly in Tidus's words - I think 'just Inigo' is a force to be reckoned with - and even though it's so incredibly hard to just believe that, he can still feel a certain warmth washing over his heart, knowing that neither of them would say those words without believing them.

"I can't believe you! You didn't even get it right!"

Of course he doesn't mind. His words don't even sound like actual whining, they sound much too happy for that, even as they're lined with the tired feeling that's spreading throughout Inigo's bones.

He lets his head drop sideways, resting on the other's shoulder.

"I'd throw you straight into the sea if I didn't already know you'd just like that."

He'd look at him if not for the head that comes on his shoulder, but instead Tidus laughs, a small thing against his lips, behind his teeth. A stupid smile on his face that should be otherwise with their conversation seconds ago. But he can't help it. The head on his shoulder--it feels like a genuine move, nothing hiding behind it. And Tidus hopes that true.

"What, 'cause I got it wrong? What'd I get wrong?" Hey, he tried his best here! Some titles are way too long. "Pah, I'll just call you Inigo. How about that? Gonna throw me in the sea now?"

As a treat?

"No, I like you just calling me Inigo."

It's just part of dumb banter, but it sounds like he means it. Maybe a little too genuinely to be part of dumb banter, even. But it's that same genuine feeling that brings warmth with it.

And makes it seem that indeed, there's very little else hiding behind him resting his head like that. No more sad thoughts for the moment.

"Thanks for hearing me out. Don't tell regular teasing Tidus I said this, but you're the best."

"Regular teasing Tidus and me are the same guy!" And to return to where they were before, Tidus shifts Inigo temporarily, just so he can wrap an arm back around his shoulders, let him come back to rest on his. "But I like you too. Hey, how 'bout we try and catch some fish? Later. I wanna try some cooking -- I'll let you have some too."

There, no need to think about anything but the future. ...A future of potential fishing disasters.

Event: Healing Waters

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this tag is like freaking fanfic length i'm so sorry

content warning that length

my bad cw: inigo's length

please don't laugh

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