A/N: I say this all the time, but I'm still appreciating the feedback. I'm also pleased that one of my favorite authors, Kandy-Sugar(author of "His Demons"), had decided to review and read my story! (*Fangirl gush*)

Anyway. Once school starts, updating might become slower than it already is, so I'm warning you already lol.

Chapter 4

Yuna shivered. The weather and the air conditioning both must have been plotting against her today. Her carefully chosen outfit of a straight, black knee length skirt, three-quarter-sleeved, deep violet cowl neck blouse, and two-inch black velvet pumps reflected sheer modesty and professionalism. Unfortunately, her work was covered by a gag-inducing, mustard yellow poncho. Rain had been forecasted for most of the day, which did not coordinate well with her audition time slot. She'd thrown the rag on in haste and desperation, not wanting to tarnish her outfit's presentation with even a spot of rainwater.

A row of middle-aged drama professors sat at a long rectangular table in a typical competition-judge manner, looking bored as they shuffled through unknown documents before them. But, Yuna knew better. They were making a conscious effort to ignore the fashion felony standing in the doorway.

"Hello," Yuna greeted them nervously, yanking the damned thing over her head as quickly as she could without messing up her blown-out hairdo. She sat her belongings on a chair near the foyer of the marbled room. "How are you all today?"

"We're fine, dear." the lady at the center of the table with wild red curls swept up into a white gold hair piece spoke first, peering over her mahogany-framed glasses at Yuna. "I am Heidi Windsor, and this is Roy Mink and Lydia Horne." She gestured first to the man to her right with similar black-framed glasses and slicked back, inky hair and then the lady to her left with long gray hair, ice blue eyes and a slightly veiny complexion. Her Guado descent was becoming obvious.

"It is my honor," Yuna said regally, bowing her head as another wave of goosebumps covered her body. The room was entirely too ventilated.

"Tell us a little bit about yourself, darling," the Guado lady, Lydia, suggested. Yuna was already beginning to despise the pet names. They reminded her all too well of her mother.

"Well," Yuna began, clearing her throat slightly. "I currently attend Zanarkand High, I'm in the top rankings of my class, and I've been involved in the theatrical arts for almost eight years."

The dark-haired man, Roy, made little to no effort to conceal his snort. "Only eight years? Do you expect to be able to compete with the amount of experience students in the University of Bevelle's theatre have obtained?"

The guy was as blunt as Yuna had expected him to be; nonetheless, she'd come prepared. "I am highly active in the theatrical arts," she elaborated. "I've maintained quality participation in at least four productions a year and volunteer choreography for Zanarkand Performing Arts Center's youth theatre's spring musical."

"Really?" Heidi lifted an eyebrow, then glanced down at the paper in front of her. "Well, it says here that you'll be performing a piece from Another Knot in the String. I happen to enjoy that play myself." She smiled a quick approval. She lifted her arms toward Yuna. "Amaze me."

Yuna took a deep yoga breath, and then slowly began, ticking off lines as they came to her head like song lyrics she'd heard a thousand times. When she finished, she waited expectantly for any sign of acknowledgement from the people in front of her. Their expressions were blank and unreadable.

"Why did you choose that monologue?" It was Lydia that spoke first.

Yuna let out a nervous breath and ran a finger absentmindedly under her eye. She began to speak, but then stopped as she noticed the dark splotch on her finger in horror. She immediately thought of how meticulously she'd applied one coat each of pale pink eyeshadow, dark brown eyeliner, and jet black mascara. She caught sight of her reflection in the glass wall behind the professor's table and beheld the telltale smudge underneath her lower lashes, and it had spread pretty obviously.

"Sorry," Yuna managed to choke out. "This is all really intimidating." She felt frustrated with herself for clamming up, but each stare of professors made her want to duck back out the door and hide.

"A bit too intimidating for you, my dear." Heidi glanced back down at her paperwork dismissively. "I don't believe that there's any place for you here in UB Theatre. I'll have to ask you to leave."

Yuna froze, and everything seemed to slow down. She could see Heidi's lips moving, an obvious indication that she was indeed speaking, but Yuna grasped no real comprehension of anything that she was saying. The oxygen slowly seeped away from her lungs, and several waves of nausea let loose throughout her body, unrelenting.

"B-but...I can't..." Yuna grabbed onto her neck, taking short quick breaths as the panic began to take shape. What was she supposed to do now? Her plans, her master's degree in law, her entire future...was gone. "You have to understand, I've...I've wanted this my entire life!"

"We have other appointments, sweetie," Roy insisted, gesturing for her to exit. Yuna's mouth fell open in disbelief. "You simply do not seem like you'd fit the UB mold."

She tried to calm her speeding heart, and swallowing what was left of her pride, turned on her two-hundred-dollar heels and left.

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Tidus swathed a thick towel around his slim hips as he checked himself out in his large bathroom mirror. His unruly blonde hair was a mess of spikey layers and damp from his thirty-minute shower. His hard, blitzer's body was chiseled to perfection thanks to a recent love affair with the bench press. His azure eyes were shining and clear of any excess redness due to any sort of intoxication. He felt proud of himself for his twenty-two hours of sobriety. It was a shame that his record would quickly be tarnished within two hour's time.

Tidus busied himself with his bathroom routine which consisted of hair toussling, face washing, and stubble shaving. After a douse of expensive aftershave, Tidus's sleek Blackberry Storm vibrated on the marble countertop. He wasn't due to leave for The Place for another hour and a half. Who could be calling him now?

"Huh-llo?" Rikku's perky, upbeat voice was almost equally as irritating muffled through a phone speaker as it was in person. Tidus could hear a heavy wind in the background, and he assumed Rikku must be speeding down 4th Avenue with the top down on her silver convertible. "Ty, have you talked to Yunie today?"

"Why would I talk to Yuna today?" Tidus put the phone on speaker and sat it back down by the sink as he brushed his teeth. "Do I ever talk to Yuna?" For reasons unbeknownst to him, Tidus felt a bit defensive.

"Calm down, tiger--HEY! You should try signalling next time, buddy!" Rikku's road-rage was not a secret amongst Tidus and his friends. "I've been asking everybody. Her mom says she's been locked in her room all day and and won't speak to anyone. I want to know what's wrong with her."

"She's always locked in her room, Rikku," Tidus deadpanned through a mouthful of toothpaste. "Maybe you're just overthinking things." He said it, but Tidus wasn't sure if he should believe it. Didn't Yuna say she had something important to do today...?

"Well, I'm headed over to her apartment right now," Rikku said. "I'll drag my cousin to The Place if I have to, but as long as we're related, I'm not tolerating her being an outcast any longer."

Tidus shook his head. Rikku's self-declared righteousness in liberating Yuna from her own captivity sounded like a failure before she could even get the full idea out. Yuna had been quiet, introverted, and almost stuck-up since the tenth grade. Would there be any possible recovery from a social recession that long? Even a self-inflicted one? That, Tidus was sure would end badly.

"Good luck with that one." Tidus spat into the golden sink. "I'll see you when you get there."

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Yuna wiped her mouth with the back of her hand in satisfaction. Around her in her immaculate bathroom, the shower, the bathtub, and the sink all ran on full blast, shooting water into the drain. With the Braska's high-intensity water pressure, the noise was loud enough to drown out a fire alarm...or the unmistakable noises of somebody making themselves violently sick.

Yuna stood and quickly flushed the toilet, making sure all of the evidence was thoroughly erased.

You simply do not seem like you'd fit the UB mold.

The afternoon's events replayed like a horror movie throughout Yuna's head. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to break down and cry, but she willed herself not to. Instead, she chose to let out her emotions the one way she knew best.

Yuna exited her bathroom and made her way towards her huge vanity mirror. She sat down on the little stool in front of it, gazing at all of her expensive beauty products--MAC, Clinique, Benefit--of which she used frequently and generously to hide her hideous face. Then her bi-colored eyes landed on her own reflection.

You're pathetic, she thought bitterly to herself. After three years of hard work, staying out of trouble, and overall academic devotion, you're still not good enough. And you never will be.

Yuna's eyes bore into the mirror, searching deep under her own skin, inside herself for an answer--any kind of reason as to how she ended up here. Most of the supposed best years of her life she spent trying to do everything she could to act, look, and be perfect; and to Yuna, perfection was the University of Bevelle. Every student there was groomed to become Spira's cream of the crop, all of them striving for the same leading-big-shot goals. And what was she?

I need to get out of here. Yuna ran her fingers through her lank hair and stood. I need a change.

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An hour and a half later, after a swift trip to LeBlanc's Red Carpet on 51st--her favorite hair salon--Yuna's hair was two inches shorter and razored into defined, rocker-chic layers that fanned around her face. When she arrived back at her apartment, however, Rikku was waiting in her living room.

"Yunie!" She exclaimed, nearly dropping her china teacup onto the teak coffee table. "What the hell happened to your hair?!"

"I wanted something different," Yuna answered breezily, pretending that Rikku's tactless comment didn't slightly offend her.

"It's different, alright." Rikku appraised her cousin, then stood from the couch and walked over to her, grasping her thin shoulders. "But listen. You need to go out tonight."

"I don't need to do anything, Rikku." Yuna pushed Rikku's hands off her shoulders and started towards her bedroom. "Where's my mom?"

"She fixed me some tea and then left to go get a pedicure with Lulu's mom," Rikku explained. "And don't change the subject. You need to leave this apartment and go have some fun for a change!"

"Rikku, it's not like I've never been out before," Yuna said defensively, starting up the stairs. Rikku followed suit. "You've taken me to The Place a couple of times."

"Yeah and you left after like, an hour," Rikku reminded her as they entered Yuna's room. "I want you to come with me and really enjoy yourself!"

Yuna loved her cousin dearly, but now she was starting to get on her nerves. "How would I enjoy myself anyway if I'm being forced to go?"

"Humor me, Yunie!" Rikku was persistent. She stood with her tiny arms folded across her modest chest. Her wheat blonde hair was undone of it's usual messy, braided bun and tumbled down her shoulders and back in loose waves. Her green eyes were bright underneath dark, evening eyeshadow, and her ivory eyelet minidress complemented her burnt orange Miu Miu heels and matching Kate Spade bag perfectly. Yuna felt a stab of envy at her close-to-effortless beauty.

"Fine, whatever," Yuna relented. "When are we supposed to go?"

"Nine. And it's eight right now, so you need to hurry up and get dressed!" Rikku commanded, shoving Yuna towards her closet. "You won't regret it, Yunie!"

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"Babe, you're hot!" Gippal cat-called as Rikku strode into the VIP lounge of The Place between 52nd and Huntington. Yuna followed closely behind, wishing she hadn't listened to her cousin. She adored her own figure-hugging, black Chanel micro-mini dress and funky Jimmy Choo emerald-and-ebony stillettos, but Yuna was still slightly green about Rikku's envy-worthy ensemble.

Rikku smiled and hollered at all of her friends, sidling down on the plush velvet couch between Gippal and Lulu. Baralai Briggs, whom Yuna vaguely recognized from her AP Spiran History class, was blowing a steady stream of air into Paine Strassman's multiply-pierced ear. She smirked a burgundy-lipsticked smirk and swatted his chest lightly with her free hand as she sipped from a martini glass with another. Wakka Hydra looked enormous and muscular next to a small and curvy Lulu. They were all laughing and having a good time, talking loudly over the bass of the thumping dance music in an effort to hear each other's inside jokes, to which they promptly cracked up together at. No one made even the slightest effort to notice Yuna or her awkward disposition in the VIP entryway. Within the first five minutes of her venture to "go out" Yuna already wanted to just go home. Suddenly, she was bumped from behind.

"Fancy meeting you here." Tidus stood behind her, slightly sweaty from dancing, not making very much effort to hide his amusement. "Sure are cute when you're all dressed up."

Yuna didn't know how she felt about the word "cute", but let the remark slide as she conjured up her own witty response. "You clean up pretty well yourself," was all she could muster, feeling as lame as she sounded. What was wrong with her?

There was truth to Yuna's words, however. Tidus's simple navy silk button down and dark jeans set off his dazzling cerulean eyes and beach blonde hair. He looked older, more mature. For the first time, Yuna noticed how attractive he actually was. A single diamond Zanarkand Abes stud sat in his left earlobe, and Yuna had the briefest and strangest fantasy of tracing her tongue along its ridges. It shocked her so intensely that she had to do a double-take in her own mind. She quickly dismissed the thought.

"Well, as long as you're here..." Tidus grasped Yuna's elbow, leading her to the cluster of lounge couches where his friends sat. He slumped into one empty space next to Rikku and put his arm around her casually, then patted the spot next to him. Yuna, refusing to be beckoned like a dog, politely squeezed in between Rikku and Gippal. Gippal welcomed her warmly as Tidus held a signal up for a waiter.

"So, Little Miss Yuna's decided to join us again, tonight," Gippal said playfully. "I guess Rikku's succeeded in explaining the importance of fresh air."

"I'd hardly call this...fresh," Yuna commented, laughing slightly as she eyed a frisky couple in the lounge booth to their left.

"You get used to it, ya?" Wakka joined in, leaning over Lulu so that Yuna could hear him. "Trust me, there are way better clubs out there."

"But this is where we usually end up for convenience," Lulu finished for him, looking ravishing, Yuna noted, in a red satin Sienna Miller frock and matching ruby earrings. "Yevon knows the people here are trash."

"I second that." Paine downed the rest of her martini and had to practically shout from the other side of Baralai. "They're all sloppy drunk or fucked up on three different drugs at once. They're practically pissing all over themselves."

"Looks like we'll have to find a new spot, eventually," Baralai added in, taking out a cigar from his shirt pocket and sticking it between his lips. "This place is getting old and tacky fast."

Yuna was surprised. Normally, Rikku's friends didn't make this much effort to speak to her. Now they were having a regular conversation as if they'd been good friends all along! She smiled to herself.

As if reading her thoughts, Rikku nudged her in the side. "See? This isn't so bad, is it?" She whispered.

"Well, I don't want to go home yet. I'll give you that." Yuna smirked at her.

"So, you wanna hang with the big boys, Yuna?" Tidus cocked his eyebrow just as the waiter set down a tray topped with eight shot glasses and an enormous bottle of straight Grey Goose vodka. He filled each one up exactly three quarters full and then promptly departed.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Wakka loosened a button on his classic black Brooks Brothers polo shirt, then reached for his own glass. Everyone else did the same until there was only one glass left for Yuna. She hesitated. She'd never had very many experiences with alcohol before.

"Don't wimp out now, Braska," Gippal urged, giving Yuna a once-over with his good eye. She knew everyone else was doing the same, judging her social standing.

Because Yuna and her peers were so wealthy, alcohol was easily at their disposal. Say if you slid someone a quick fifty under the table, you suddenly mattered. Which is why bartenders and club managers alike decided to overlook Tidus' and his friend's IDs and provided enough booze to get them drunk enough to be satisfied. But none of that ever seemed to contribute to the status of Yuna's perma-sobriety. She hated to loose control of her body, even to a slightly-controlled substance.

"I think I'll pass," Yuna tried to say as politely as she could. She looked down uncomfortably at her manicured hands.

"I knew it was too good to be true," Tidus muttered under his breath, before downing his own shot in one go. He hardly flinched. The rest of the group tittered, excluding Rikku and Lulu, who were a bit more sympathetic.

How dare he say that? Yuna thought angrily to herself. He knew close to nothing about her! Who was he to carry on making assumptions about what she would or wouldn't do? Her hand balled into a fist, and like a cobra, she reached out and snatched the last remaining glass, raised it to her glossed lips and downed it.

Immediately, she regretted it. Her throat felt like she'd shoved her three-hundred dollar curling iron down it, and the vodka swished around in her barren stomach like a splash of water in an empty well. She grimaced involuntarily. The shit tasted like acid, and Tidus was swallowing a second one as if it were apple juice.

"Good girl," Baralai said teasingly, leering at her as the corners of his lips turned upwards in amusement. He lifted the huge log of tobacco from his mouth and blew a long plume of smoke into the air lazily.

"Didn't know you had it in you," said Tidus, pouring himself more Grey Goose. "But anyone can do just one shot..."

"Ready for round two?" Lulu said devilishly, grinning wickedly as she handed Yuna her glass, but refilled.

Yuna had barely recovered from the first. "Fine," she relented.

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After five more rounds of shots and then one more of some lighter cranberry cocktails, Yuna's tongue felt like lead in her mouth. The muscles in her body were loose and tingling. Her eyes were heavy-lidded and relaxed. She felt...peaceful.

When her cocktail had been finished, she'd promptly left the VIP lounge in favor of the dance floor. She was currently sandwiched almost erotically in between Tidus, who faced her back, and Gippal, who faced her front. A latin remix of a Pitbull single was playing so loudly that Yuna's eardrums were ringing, but she could hardly feel them. Maybe the alcohol was exactly what she needed.

But soon, she started to feel a bit dizzy. "I hafta take a break real fast," Yuna slurred to Tidus or Gippal, she wasn't sure which, before ambling her way through the crowd of moving, sweaty bodies. Her vision swirled and dimmed in front of her. Her limbs felt weak and her stomach was twisting and gurgling so intensely that it was almost painful. She didn't know what was happening to herself.

Once outside on the club's second floor balcony, Yuna took a huge gulp of fresh air, then immediately dry-heaved into the nearby waste bin. But Yuna's stomach had nothing left to offer. She stood and scanned the area, and once noting that no one else was around, she kicked off her impractical shoes and slumped against the wall closest to the door. Her eyes were having a severely hard time focusing. She couldn't even think straight.

"What's eating you?" Yuna looked up at Tidus as he came over from the entrance of the balcony to stand in front of her. Her offered a shaky hand. Yuna took it hesitantly and stumbled after she was pulled to her feet. Sans heels, Yuna drunkenly observed her and Tidus's five inch height difference.

"Whaddoya mean what's eating me?" Yuna blubbered. "I feel like shit!"

"I didn't realize you're a light weight," Tidus remarked stupidly, considering Yuna's petite frame and stature. "Maybe you should just cool off here for a little bit."

"Why'd you follow me up here?" Yuna focused as hard as she could to try and find her sober center.

"Worried about you," Tidus admitted. "You didn't look too hot in there."

"Well aren't you such a gentleman," Yuna said snidely. "Why would you care if I didn't 'look too hot'?"

Tidus gazed down at Yuna, assessing her mood. His eyes were smoldering, as if laying down a silent demand. With the assured confidence only a half-drunk man could have, he leaned down and swiftly caught her mouth with his, trapping her body between himself and the brick wall behind them. The kiss was slow, but hungry and fierce as Yuna's lips parted to allow his tongue access. One of his hands ran slowly up her thigh, hiking her dress up to reveal her sheer lace thong, and the other lay on the curve of her torso, drifting dangerously closer to her chest.

Suddenly, like a light switch being turned off, Yuna came to her senses. She wrenched her lips away and pushed her hands against Tidus's chest. "Get offa me!"

"What's wrong?" Tidus look confused, watching as Yuna wriggled her dress back down and slipped her shoes on. He moved to grab her arm before she could leave.

"Keep your hands off me," Yuna spat, then walked back through the door into the club, leaving Tidus standing alone, puzzled, and drunk.

A/N: Alright. I know what you all are thinking. But don't be alarmed, things are definitely not moving too fast, there is STILL a plot! And Tidus and Yuna's surprise hook up is only part one. :)