returning to besaid was starting to feel less and less like home . maybe it was too much alienation from sojourning between bevelle and the myriad afflicted places that came from sin’s newest onslaught , it seemed as though scrambling between what had to be done and what was ceaseless would drive her to the point of exhaustion . she was still seen as this haunted woman after her return from being away for months , regret seeping into this quiet night upon besaid’s shoreline after a long day spent on the s.s. likki instead of sojourning via airship as she was usually wont to .
but , upon the sandy shore and horizon she’d been staring emptily out at , she could’ve sworn a head broke through the still waters . squinting in disbelief , a thrill of panic and anticipation made her wonder : could it be ?!
not even waiting , yuna dove into the waves and began paddling out to where the silhouette was , swimming as fast as she could manage through the moonlit waves .
if asked, tidus wouldn’t be able to account for the time between his last moments with yuna and auron and the rest of the guardians at the end of the pilgrimage, and this present moment now. in fact, it was as if no time had elapsed at all. one instant he’s sprinting off into the great unknown, and as if he’d only blinked a second later, he was shooting up to the surface of the water now.
he sucked air greedily into his lungs, taking a moment to center himself before he scanned the area. once more he was struck by how eerily familiar it all felt. had he really just fallen asleep and somehow landed himself back in spira?
tidus was swept up in gratitude and bewildered shock, both of them overwhelming his senses as he began swimming to the shore. it was dark and tidus was vaguely aware of how blindly he was maneuvering. anything or anyone could be around; he was completely defenseless. disoriented to his core. it would be his luck to encounter a particularly ruthless fiend right now.
the closer he came to the shore, the more tidus could make out a figure on the opposite end from him. it gave him pause for a second, leaving him to wonder whether he should make himself scarce at once or if the unexpected company would be of the benign variety.
his instincts told him to continue swimming despite his trepidation. with a little more distance cleared, tidus began to see the outline of the person rushing towards him, and the sight of it made his chest seize in a delightfully painful way. his knees would have buckled had he been standing.
“yuna?!” he shouted, his arms and legs moving twice as fast to reach her. he stumbled clumsily when he finally reached stable sand, and he sprinted right over to the inexplicably present woman, rushing to her unabashedly.
his thoughts were a chaotic flurry but his body knew exactly what to do, his arms reaching out for her to pull yuna against him. she was a tether. she was proof that whatever he was experiencing, it had to be something real. as real as spira had ever been when he first arrived.
tidus wasn’t even sure what to say; words were failing him and he was still fighting to catch his breath. instead he tipped his head against the side of yuna’s, reveling in the comforting embrace.
“i...i don’t even know what’s going on right now. it’s like i woke up in the water. like i did when i got here before i met you,” he explained, rushed and far less eloquent than he wanted to be at present. “are you real? this is real? us both here?”
