Disclaimer: FFX isn't mine. Nor are any of the characters in it. They belong to Squaresoft. But is the story mine? Hell yes.

Post-game fic. Spoilers. No duh.

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I was in water. I usually was. No, actually, I always was. I could talk underwater, though, and I could breathe fine. I didn't even feel its difference from air anymore.

I had been there for some indeterminable amount of time. There were usually other people there, around me, whom I talked to. Strangely enough, everyone there I knew from my life in Zanarkand. Auron was, as far as I could tell, the only person there who had lived somewhere other than the ancient metropolis. I was in a sea of dreams, an ocean of memories. We were all the same. We were all confused. None of us understood anything. Even I was confused. I didn't know where I was or why I was there. All I could do was tell my story to anyone who asked, once I remembered it.

I confused you just now, didn't I? By saying "once I remembered." Well, that's the truth. The first few days I was there I didn't know anything, couldn't remember anything about my life. I remembered that someone had died, and that it had been me, but I couldn't remember who the person was that I had called "me" was what my relationship with them was. I'm not sure exactly how long it took me to remember as much as I do. I'm still not clear on all of it. But the one thing I remembered most was a beautiful girl. I had scattered memories of long moments I spent staring into her dichromatic eyes, and an even clearer one of doing what I assumed was swimming with her, her brown hair floating lazily in the water, framing her face. She was always smiling, wearing a mask, but sometimes, obviously unbidden by the girl, the mask slipped away and her eyes were sad, hopeless, yet also strangely determined. She wore a long blue skirt that fell to just above her ankles and had been embroidered with flowers, a white shirt that wrapped around her chest and allowed her black bra to peek through in some places (not that I was looking, of course), and a thick yellow sash that I would soon find out it was called an obi. She haunted my dreams when I slept, a smile almost always in place across her lips. I could never remember her name, but I would awake with a start, her sweet, slightly shy smile haunting me. It wasn't until I told my father about her - we had become very close lately – that I finally learnt her name. He told me, quietly, his eyes not meeting mine, that she was called Yuna, and that I was lucky to have someone who could tell me the name of the woman I loved. I knew he was referring to the fact that he could no longer remember my mother's name.

As soon as he told me the mystery girl's name, the memories came rushing back. In a sudden rush I remembered all the fine points about her that I'd forgotten. How she could seem so sad at times, yet so carefree at others. The way her hair swished slightly when she walked. All the times she had sensed when I was sad, and had tried to cheer me up every time. But most of all, I flooded with the love I felt for her. I remembered that she was living, and that I was not. I remembered her last words to me, her last attempt at letting me know how she felt for me in my last moments on Spira, I remembered the pain in her voice when she told me. All these memories came to me at once, followed moments later by an unbearable pain.

I was telling you all a story, wasn't I? Anyways, it was what I can only imagine was a month after I remembered Yuna. I had had another dream about her, one that I had often: Our night at Lake Macalania, when we first kissed. It was such a happy moment for me, yet remembering it made me surprisingly sad. I didn't want to have to deal with me friends, so I went off alone. I swam through the water that imprisoned me in this alternate reality, kicking with all my strength, swimming as though against a great current.

After a while it began to feel like my arms and legs had turned into the water I was surrounded in. My muscles ached and burned, and a cramp was beginning to form in my side, but I swam on. There was a voice in my mind, whispering just on the edge of my consciousness, that wouldn't let me stop.

Come on, the voice urged quietly, just a little further…

So I followed it, until whatever it was that called to me was silenced. I curled up in a ball and, to my surprise, fell into a deep, exhausted, dreamless sleep.

I woke up a few hours later, a strange strength filling me. I was happy, for some odd reason. Maybe it was because I hadn't dreamt of her this time. No painful memories. I uncurled myself, stretched, and began to swim upwards. A grin spread itself on my face as I realized that I was actually moving upwards (No matter how hard we try, nor how long we swim, none of the people I'd lived with since I left Spira could ever make it all the way to the surface). I was just about to break the surface. In a moment I would see the sun, breathe real air. I turned my face upwards and finally broke free of the ocean's bondage that had held me for who knows how long.

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A/N: Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. It's really short for a first chapter. But they'll get longer, don't hurt me!

Review, 'cause reviews make me feel all warm and fuzzy. Say any and all thoughts you had on it. You can even flame me, ya?