Just a happy little oneshot. Not much else to say.
"Remind me why I agreed to this?" Yuna glanced at Rikku, her expression tolerantly exasperated.
"Because I'm your favourite cousin and you love me?" She beamed back, bouncing on the balls of her feet. She'd grown, over the past two years, tall and slender, her hair a beaded riot of blonde.
"Hmm, not sure about that."
Rikku shoved her arm and she pushed back, laughing. "Seriously, though. Why chocobo racing?"
"I come every month," the Al Bhed girl replied, sobering a fraction. "I always bet on the crazy, one hundred to one odds, and I say... 'if this chocobo wins, it'll rain tomorrow', or 'if this one wins, I'll find that bracelet I lost in Macalania', or.." Her voice grew soft. "'If this one wins, Yunie will smile again.' And I mean a real smile," she pressed on, holding up a hand to ward off her cousin's protests, her own mouth curved upwards, but her eyes sad. "Not a Yunie-special pretend smile."
The brunette blinked at her for a moment, then pulled her into a hug, feeling the prick of tears behind her eyes. She squeezed tight for a moment, taking a deep breath that smelt like sunshine and vanilla, then let her go. "Ok, let's see the list."
Rikku produced the sheet and they huddled together, poring over the names for likely suspects.
"'Golden Dream,'" Yuna read out, her voice soft.
"Oh, it's gotta be that one!"
"Rikku, it's a thousand to one!" She shook her head. "It'll never win!"
"Come on, Yunie, he has to!" She was already grabbing her wrist, tugging her to the betting stand.
"But..!" It seemed that she was getting pulled into Rikku's crazy ideas more often than not lately. "It's a waste of gil!"
"It's my gil to waste!" The blonde laughed, full of exhiliration. With a helpless little shake of her head, Yuna let herself be pulled.
"Wait!"
She crashed headlong into her cousin, almost sending them both sprawling. "What?"
"What'll we say?"
"Huh?" She stared, nonplussed.
"'if this one wins...' what?"
"Uh..." She thought about it for a long moment. "If this one wins..." Her voice dropped to almost a whisper. "..We'll find him."
It was an impossible idea, ludicrous. But then, hadn't the idea of the Eternal Calm seemed impossible just two years ago?
Rikku's eyes shone, hope making the green glow even greener. "Yunie, that's perfect! If this one wins, we'll find him for sure!"
The chocobo won by a beak. A week later, they found a sphere.
C'est fini. The sphere, btw, would be the one with Shuyin on it, the one that set Yuna on the journey that resulted in X-2, and if you play it right, getting Tidus back.