C: "The next morning I woke up early. Despite the long, tiring day yesterday which included the fight with the fiend on the calm lands, I wasn't able to get a lot of rest. There was still so much I wanted to know - especially about my father. So I went for a walk and as I returned some time later, I met Kurgum on the corridor. He had gotten another message from Baralai and wanted to tell it Yuna, but she didn't open the door. Kurgum assumed that she was still sleeping, but that wasn't the Yuna I had gotten to know. However, since it was already quite late and I thought that everyone was already up, I went along the corridor to knock on Tidus door. I hoped he'd tell me some more things about Auron. Well, just when I was about to knock on his door, I heard some laughter from inside."

"Woha, Yuna! Do you wanna kill me?!" Tidus asked, trying to sound serious.

"Nah!" Yuna laughed, „Not now! Maybe some other time. "she added playfully as both of them started to laugh again.

"C'mon!" Yuna prompted "We've got still some time before we meet with the others. Take off your shirt!"

Immediately, Chuami blushed and took a step away from the door.

"Chuami?" Kurgum came along the corridor "Are you eavesdropping again?!" he asked slightly angry.

"No! I really didn't … I only wanted to …." She stammered embarrassed. Kurgum grabbed her wrist and drew her away from the door. "If only you wouldn't be so curious!" he remarked as they headed into the lounge. When they arrived there, they met Lulu and Wakka.

"Hey!" Wakka greeted them. "Have ya already seen Yuna or Tidus this morning?" he asked.

"No!" Chuami answered. "I wanted to knock on Tidus' door just a minute ago, but then I heard them talking about something. They seemed to be very … busy."

"Busy, eh?!" Wakka asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"Never mind." Lulu remarked, "We wanted to meet at 9 a.m., so there's still half an hour left."

…

Half an hour later, Yuna and Tidus walked along the corridor towards the lounge. "Ouch!" Tidus said and fumbled around his neck, "Damn hair."

"That's why I told you to take off your shirt." Yuna remarked as they walked into the room "Otherwise there'd be even more hair pricking you."

Lulu smiled at them and said: "So, now we're comple-"

"What have ya done?!" Wakka exclaimed aghast as he caught sight of Tidus.

"Woah, Wakka!" Tidus made a defensive move at first. Then, as there came no attack from Wakka, a broad grin appeared on Tidus face and standing straight with his arms akimbo, he said. "I had a haircut, did you forget? Just think of what day is today!". Tidus hair was short again, even a little bit shorter than during Yunas first pilgrimage.

"Nah." Wakka admitted defeated.

"Good!" Tidus triumphed "I won, You lost!" Then Tidus went towards Wakka and put the band, which he had used to keep his hair out of his face, on Wakka's head.

"Aight!" Wakka admitted and handed some Gil towards Tidus. "You get the rest as soon as we're back in Besaid."

"I won't forget!" Tidus said, still grinning.

"Kids!" Lulu shook her head with a smile on her face as Tidus and Wakka kept on kidding around.

"Yeah!" Yuna agreed smiling, "But life would be boring without them, wouldn't it?."

Chuami and Kurgum, however, were a little bit confused and their eyes were clearly asking for an explanation.

"That was a funny day." Yuna smiled, reminiscing about that evening in Besaid as everyone was sitting around the bonfire.

-+-+-+-+- flashback -+-+-+-+-

The guys were talking about Blitzball and the best player ever – and how clothes and the hairstyle could affect the success of a player. 'Ha' Wakka exclaimed, 'You're only better because you don't have that beautiful hairstyle I have!'

'No Wakka!' Tidus countered, 'I'll always be the best Blitzer, no matter how long my hair is!'

'So? Let's see! Let's make a bet. If ya don't cut 'em until the day before the new stadium is to be opened, and still win at least 90 % of all games, then I … - then I'll pay half of the ring.'

'Ha! That's easy!' Tidus stated and gave Wakka a high five to seal the deal. 'Wait!' he suddenly asked confused and blushed, 'You'll pay what?' At that, Wakka and the other guys around burst out into laughter.

'Yuna?' Lulu asked confused, 'Did I miss something?'

'I guess you're not the only one …' Yuna stammered bewildered as her face went pale.

After a while of laughing, Wakka finally said: 'Ok, let's say I'll give you some gil for every day from tomorrow on until that day! But if ya forget to cut you're hair on that day, you'll have to pay me some gil.'

'Agreed!' Tidus sighed relieved. 'Ha, don't think that I'll forget!'.

"Ha, you with long hair!' Wakka laughed, 'that's definitely worth every gil!'

-+-+-+-+- end of flashback -+-+-+-+-

In the meantime, Wakka and Tidus had stopped kidding around and Yuna gave them a signal to come over. Then she started: "I guess you're all curious and want to know what happens next. Well, first I'll go and meet Baralai again; Kurgum said he had something important to say. And then I wanted to go to Guadosalam and ask Tromell something before I go to the Moonflow. I need to know about its current state."

Afterwards she looked from one to the other before she said: "I'd really like you all to come with me. But…" she looked at Wakka and Lulu, "I couldn't reconcile it with my conscience, if you two went with me while Vidina was waiting for you in Besaid. He needs both of his parents. That's why I ask you to go home – and take care of him."

"Yuna," Lulu said and gave her a short hug. Then she placed both of her hands on Yunas shoulders and looked at her, smiling. "You know, I nearly killed Tidus yesterday because he didn't allow me to fight the fiend!" she threw a glance at Tidus, who scratched his back in embarrassment, "But both of you are right. I really miss Vidina and feel sorry for letting him alone in Besaid, although I know that our neighbours are really good with him. But a child should be with its' parents, we all know that just too well." Then Lulu looked from Wakka to Tidus and turned back to Yuna. "So we will go back and stay in Besaid with him. I know that you'll be doing well; also without us." Lulu threw another glance at Tidus and chuckled: "Besides, he wouldn't dare letting anything happen to you - he's still too afraid of me!"

At that, Yuna chuckled before she said relieved:"Thank you for the understanding, Lulu."

"But Yuna," Lulu warned, "Whenever there's something we can do for you and you need our help – don't dare not to ask us."

"Thanks Lulu, I will remember!" Yuna hugged Lulu shortly with a single tear in her eyes, "I really appreciate that." Then Yuna turned to Tidus, Chuami and Kurgum again and said: "So, let's go."

C: "That was the first day I had seen Yuna smiling and just being happy – as if everything was alright, although it was far from that. She was just a completely other person compared to when I had met her first. Well, I guess she had drawn new hope. Hope that there was an explanation for all the strange things; Hope that things wouldn't be as bad as they seemed to be; Hope that things got better again. But … isn't it a shame that just the moment you think things get better … they get worse?"

Author notes:

So, what does Chuami mean with that? What's wrong with Tidus, why is he weakened? And what about Yuna? Does she believe Tidus now and what is she up to? Does the fact that Jecht isn't Sin justify the conclusion that Sin isn't back?

With these thoughts, I finish this story for now and I really hope you enjoyed reading. Please leave some comments, they can help a lot ;)

It took me a few days to write down all these thoughts. I guess the fact that I'm no native English speaker didn't help me a lot. There were so many words which I had to look up - and try to find the right one for what I wanted to describe. So please don't blame me for eventually confusing parts – but please tell me if there's something confusing so I can correct it.

I have to admit the story is much longer than I thought it would be. Especially the Guadosalam scene was suddenly much longer than I had originally planned, but somehow all the thoughts came to my mind as I was writing and all I could do was writing them down. I felt as if Tidus and Chuami were telling me what to write ;)

Well, as you may have noticed I didn't really specify the time frame. That is because I found it rather hard to find out how much time had passed during the audio drama. For instance, how long did it take until Yuna and Chuami arrived in Bevelle? I think they got there as fast as possible and used Chocobos and hover crafts after the airship had problems, but still I found it hard to decide on how much days they were travelling. I guess about 2 or 3 days would be reasonable, but I'm not sure. It would be very interesting to know what you think about that, so don't be afraid to review ;)

I have to admit that there are some parts which could be improved, for example the flashback. I laughed as I wrote that part, but at the same time I think it's very stupid and I'm not sure whether it fits into the story. However, I didn't like the idea of Tidus having longer hair; In my opinion, it looks so stupid and he looks too much like his father. So there needed to be a good reason for his hairstyle – and I needed a reason to let his hair being cut ;)

Maybe I'll improve some parts of this manuscript, or even add some information. But if I do that, I'll let you know via an updated author's note at the beginning of the first chapter.

OK, so one last point:

Unfortunately I have to tell you that I don't know when I'll be able to update this story. I have some ideas of how it could go on, and the end as well as some in-between scenes are already written (more or less), but nonetheless it would take a lot of time to write the story completely – time which I don't have at the moment. Besides, I have an older fanfic which I have never finished so far. But partly, there are the same basic ideas behind them and I figured out that some of my notes for that older fanfic fit to the audio drama. Ok, I wouldn't have Sin being returned in the older fanfic, but I had someone who wanted to have him back. Ok, enough, I'm already spoiling. I haven't released a chapter with that yet, although the notes have been on the hard-disk for almost 5 or 6 years.

So, if I continued this story, I'd have to continue the older fic as well. Guess I would have to write them parallel, but that's really time-consuming.

So please don't be too disappointed if it takes a while until I update this story. Maybe I get some good ideas for in-between scenes and continue this story soon. And if not, please consider it as a hopefully interesting continuation of the audio.

Feel free to contact me and ask, if you have any questions.

Best wishes,

dreamer