Author's Note: Sorry to end this fic so abruptly, and so late. I just don't have really much inspiration to continue it anymore, but I wanted to finish it off.

Epilogue – Six Months Later

Dear Tidus,

I know you're gone… I know. It's been a long time. But if you ever find this, if you're out there somewhere and this letter gets to you, I hope you'll read it.

You know I love you. You were my first love, and you still are. I will always love you, until the day I stop breathing. I hope you'll remember this. But I have to move on.

It's been hard for me to accept that you're gone. If you're not back in your Zanarkand now, and if you really are still in Spira, then it's been long enough for me to realize that you're not coming back to me. It made me sad for a while, but now, it makes me happy to just remember the times I had with you.

You were wonderful to me. The way you protected me all through my Pilgrimage, right until the very end – you stood by me and made sure I was safe. You helped us defy our religion and break free of the chains that had held us for so long. If you hadn't been there, I probably would have died in Yevon's game.

Yes, I owe my life to you. All of Spira owes everything to you. But… I have this life, now, and I didn't know what to do with it for so long. I stayed in Besaid, but I was useless and helpless. Then, just to do something, I became a Spherehunter and met some wonderful friends. We protected Spira, together, and all the while, I searched for you.

But I never found you. We were all over Spira, but I never found you.

It made me sad for a little while. But I know you – you gave me my life, you saved me from the death of a Summoner, so that I could have a life. I realized, through the help of my friends, that you wouldn't be happy with the way I was mourning over you. You would want me to live and enjoy my life. I know that now.

So I've moved on. I'm the High Summoner, and I'm using my position to help Spira now. I know how you hated when I married for position before – with Seymour – but it's different now. The man I am with is a good man, caught in a difficult position. He is responsible for Yevon after the death of Yevon's god, just as I am. It seems – I am embarrassed to say so! – that many of the people in Spira almost view me as a god of sorts. I don't like it, but that is the way of things.

Baralai is his name. He is my husband now. He is the Praetor of New Yevon and I am the High Summoner, and together we are trying to help those who are still reeling from the death of Yevon to cope with a new life. Don't worry – I won't let it become corrupted again. You were there when we found the corruption, and I am determined to keep that from happening again.

Together with our friends Nooj and Gippal, we are bringing Spira together as a whole. You would have liked the way things are working now. Gippal is an Al Bhed – he reminds me of you, in certain ways – and he and his faction are in charge of the technology of Spira, of business and travel and blitzball (it's still so very important – you would be proud!). The Al Bhed are really gaining a place in society through him… they aren't repressed any longer, not if I have anything to say about it! Nooj, on the other hand, is a warrior. He's the leader of the military groups, and he also has used the military to undertake projects to decipher and document Spira's history. Too long have we not known our past! Nooj and the Youth Leage (as he calls it –they really are the former Crusaders) are taking care of that project, and also they are helping to rebuild Spira!

And then… Baralai and I take care of everything else. Everyone still looks to Yevon for moral guidance, for a community to belong to. We try to provide that. I'm the one, really, who has the voice of Spira, since everyone is so eager to listen to me. I think most of the people in Spira would do anything I asked of them! It's disconcerting, in a way, but with Baralai's help, I am trying to use it for the good of the world. We try to keep people working together, and give them a group to belong to and something to strive for in life. We've tried to modify the teachings to make them less Yevon-centric and more Spira-centric, but those changes are still in the process of happening.

I'm probably boring you. I just wanted to let you know what I was doing… I wanted to let you know that I am happy! I miss you, yes, every day. I am still fond of you, but I am still trying to do something good for Spira, even without you here. Baralai is a wonderful partner in this, and he's a wonderful husband too. He has never spoken an ill word in my presence, nor has he ever laid a malicious hand on me… well, not since we became friends, anyway. He is a good man, Tidus. I daresay I love him – it is a learned love, though, not the same as what I felt with you. It is a love out of respect. They are different feelings, but both are wonderful.

I will write to you whenever I am able. I'll keep sending them in bottles over the sea, and maybe they'll make their way to you, wherever you are.

All my love,

Yuna

Yuna felt a pair of arms slip around her waist as she watched the dark brown glass bottle drifting on the turquoise and teal waves. She leaned back against the body that she had come to know so well, breathing the familiar scent of Baralai. "What are you doing out here by yourself?" whispered a warm voice in her left ear.

She turned her head, making out the golden brown of Baralai's eyes through her auburn hair. "Watching the sea," she replied, smiling. Her fingertips ran over the golden band circling her left ring finger. "What are you doing out here?"

"Enjoying some private time with a beautiful woman," Baralai replied, a small smile on his tawny lips. "There's no better way I'd like to spend the day after my wedding."

Yuna could hardly hide her blush. It was one thing she envied about Baralai – he could hide his blushing behind his dark skin. She could tell, however, when his cheeks grew hot – the tawny brown gained a slight reddish tint, and he blinked his eyes quickly and looked away.

There were many things about Baralai that Yuna had grown to adore. He had a gentle shyness to him that she saw in moments like these, when he was holding her and seemed poised on the brink of speech but too hesitant to continue. His lips would be parted, revealing his teeth, and she could almost see his breath catching in the darkness of his mouth as he tried to decide whether to speak or not.

Often, she would speak before him, because she knew it made it easier for him to converse. "You should probably be spending this time with your wife, then," she teased, trying to look at him seriously. "It's no good for a married man to be gallivanting around with other women!"

Baralai's grins were contagious, Yuna had realized over the past six months. When he grinned at her the way he was now, she could feel a matching expression forming itself on her lips. "Well, with one as beautiful as this, I can hardly resist," he teased back.

Yuna laughed lightly, the sound nearly swallowed by the sounds of the ocean. She turned back to look out at the horizon, and her eyes caught on the bottle that carried her message to Tidus. She lost herself in gazing out at it, leaning back in the comfortable hold of Baralai's arms, and she felt at peace with herself and everything around her.

It was a nice feeling.

"Yuna, come inside," Baralai whispered, again into her ear. "I have something for you."

Yuna turned, taking her eyes off the floating bottle and finding her gaze on Baralai's chin. "Is it candlelight and rose petals?"

Shock wove its way across Baralai's features, and he slowly turned his head to look at her. "How did you know?"

Yuna smiled to herself. Baralai was quite predictable. "Because that's what you're supposed to do for a honeymoon," she informed him in her most polite voice. "It's only proper."

Baralai lowered his head, but he was smiling. That made Yuna feel better. "Will you pretend to be surprised?"

"I don't have to," Yuna replied, ducking her head to meet Baralai's gaze. For an instant, she watched his pale brown eyes -- the same color as his skin – and she felt frozen in the moment.

They both remained unmoving for many moments, just gazing at each other. Yuna was almost unable to believe how comfortable she had grown to feel with Baralai, and yet how surprised she could still feel sometimes that he was her husband.

Yuna closed her eyes as Baralai laced his hand through her hair and kissed her gently. Then, she felt him take her around the waist, and when she opened her eyes he had picked her up into his arms and was carrying her inside.

As the door closed, Yuna caught one final glimpse of the bottle carrying her message, as it continued to work its way out to sea. She smiled one last time before the door clicked shut.

Dear Yuna,

All I ever wanted was your happiness. Now that you've found it, I can be happy too.

Love,

Tidus