(no subject)

[gone_byebye]

The door opens, as has happened so many times before, onto a grey-walled alley. Ray pokes his head out and looks around. "Okay," he says. "We should be all right- come on out, guys."

Comments

[his-fathers-sin.livejournal.com]

"I can't tell if there are more than in Zanarkand," he says thoughtfully. "Guess there must be."

Tidus is used to feeling small of late.

"--Must be weird for you, huh?"

[night-hibiscus.livejournal.com]

"A little bit," she admits.

Beat. "Hey! Let's get something to eat."

[his-fathers-sin.livejournal.com]

Tidus grins and starts scanning the streets.

"Man, I don't know what half of these things would even sell."

Tidus is also rapidly learning not to be picky about food.

Except bubble tea.

[night-hibiscus.livejournal.com]

"Let's just keep going until we find something that smells like real food," Yuna offers, failing at multiculturalism. "I'm not in a hurry... it's just easier when you have a goal."

[his-fathers-sin.livejournal.com]

"We'll find something!" He's determined.

And he doesn't mind walking with her in the meantime.

Wakka would probably, he thinks, not approve. But hey, he's a Guardian! He's just...guarding her! Obviously it's his duty.

--He's not entirely sure, he has to admit, that some of these people might not be fiends, so maybe it is.

[night-hibiscus.livejournal.com]

Yuna decides pretty quickly that she doesn't like crossing streets, but the machina that signals the crossing is easy to understand, and even easier is the ebb and flow of the giant tide of people moving through the city streets.

It's a nice day for a walk. (Except, of course, it's not at all, it's cold and damp and sleeting, and as she wonders why she would even think that she rubs the larger ring on the hand not holding Tidus's back and forth with agitated energy.)

"Do they have machina for getting around like these in Zanarkand?" she says, waiting for the traffic to stop. Some of them are huge, blocky and dirty, and some of them are (relatively) small and sleek and shiny, in candy colors and almost-organic curves, and a million other varieties. It's like the manifold kinds of fiends in the world, she thinks.

A rider zips by on what must surely be the local equivalent of a chocobo, a two-wheeled, low, speedy vehicle open to the air.



She kind of wants to ride on it.

[his-fathers-sin.livejournal.com]

"The smaller kind, a little. A lot of people walked. Or took boats around, if you were going to the far side."

[night-hibiscus.livejournal.com]

The little green man comes back, and they cross.

"What about flying ones?"

[his-fathers-sin.livejournal.com]

"Nah. I mean--people don't really come and go in Zanarkand a lot. I've heard about them. Someone might have one. But I've never seen one."

[night-hibiscus.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Yuna looks up to the sky, and finds it full of grey clouds and buildings, and decides not to do that anymore.

"What do people do in all these buildings? They can't all be homes."

[his-fathers-sin.livejournal.com]

"Work. I mean, in Zanarkand they did. Live in a lot," Tidus shrugs, and shifts his grip on her hand a little, "and work in the rest."

[night-hibiscus.livejournal.com]

She tries to figure out what kind of work you can do in a giant glass tower, but imagination fails.

"Oh! Do you smell that?"

It smells like food. A little like the food in Kilika.

[his-fathers-sin.livejournal.com]

His stomach is, he's forced to admit, rumbling at that smell.

"I think that's the one we should try."

Another rumble.

"...Definitely."

[night-hibiscus.livejournal.com]

They have to cross the street again to get there, which gives Yuna a chance to puzzle out the sign.

(The writing in Ray's world isn't exactly so much different from Spiran as distorted.)

It says Room Service.

The interior is sleek and unfamiliar, and Yuna pauses to gawk at the sphere-shaped transparent chair in the entryway. "A glass chair? Wouldn't it break?" she says, resisting the urge to poke.

[his-fathers-sin.livejournal.com]

"Nah, not if it's thick," Tidus says absently as he looks around.

It's not entirely unfamiliar to him, though Zanarkand had a bit more metal in most designs and decorations than this restaurant seems to.

"Want to try it out?"

Unless someone stops him, Tidus sees no reason not to do so.

[night-hibiscus.livejournal.com]

Mischief is probably not an expression Tidus is used to seeing on the Lady Summoner's face, but it's unmistakable as she furtively looks around the dining room and then hops up into the enormous chair, swinging her legs.

[his-fathers-sin.livejournal.com]

Not used to, but Tidus approves!

And grins.

"Not breaking?"

[night-hibiscus.livejournal.com]

"I don't think it's glass," she says thoughtfully, pressing one fingertip against the material.

(The lucite.)

There's a waitress, with menus, and she's clearing her throat.

[his-fathers-sin.livejournal.com]

"Huh?"

And then he's flashing a smile at the waitress.

"Hi! Um. We were hoping to grab a bite to eat?"

[night-hibiscus.livejournal.com]

Yuna slips out of the chair and tries very hard to create the impression that she was never, actually, in it, as the waitress leads them to much less interesting seating. "Can I get your drinks to start off?"

"Um? Just water, I guess?" Yuna says. She discreetly tries to make sense of the menu.

[his-fathers-sin.livejournal.com]

Tidus is sick of water.

"Something sweet?"

The waitress looks at him blankly. "Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Fanta Orange, Fanta Grape, or Dr. Pepper?"

"...Uuuh."

Yes, right, from Zanarkand, Lady Summoner! Very high-tech! Star of the Zanarkand Abes! Unable to order a drink!

"Pepsi," he decides, going with the first.

[night-hibiscus.livejournal.com]

The waitress swishes away to get the drinks, and Yuna peers at the menu in earnest.

"I can't read this," she whispers. "I mean--I can, but it's too slow. How can I pick something?"

[his-fathers-sin.livejournal.com]

He glances down.

Glances up.

"--I...don't think I'd know what anything was if I could read it. We could just point at things?"

[night-hibiscus.livejournal.com]

The waitress returns quickly--it's between rushes, and they have the place almost to themselves.

"Excuse me," Yuna says, and then she's distracted by staring at Tidus's drink, which seems to be alive or something. "I mean--excuse me, do you have any vegetarian dishes?"

"Sure," the waitress says. "We can make any of them without the fish sauce. How about the vegan pad thai?"

"Okay!" Yuna agrees hastily. She'll be happy if it doesn't have little balls of tapioca floating in it.

[his-fathers-sin.livejournal.com]

"I'll have that too," he decides, and eyes his drink warily.

Tidus takes the wrapper off the top of the straw that's already in it and takes a small sip.

And immediately starts choking at the fizzing argh the fizzing the fizzing in his nose.

...And also thinking that that wasn't half bad, choking to death aside.