A.N- Hello, readers! I am back with another story!...Huh? Where'd you all go?

This will be a multi-chapter story, probably about the life as a sphere hunter, but I'll tell you what inspired me to make this. I love to think that after the Good Ending, Yuna persuades Tidus to become a sphere hunter/Gullwings member. Now, I'm pretty sure you know of the…issue that Brother has. He has a huge crush on Yuna, his cousin…o_o. So now the lazy good-for-nothing, 'leader' of the Gullwings has to put up with his arch-nemesis: Tidus, the man who stole his 'precious Yuna'. And all while they get to a new start for the Gullwings...

I know, it's pretty lame. But Brother's character is fun to mess around with, so…why not? :D

Also, to save you time, whenever there's Al-Bhed dialogue I will put the English translation in brackets beside it. I hope this isn't too distracting.

Anyways, into the actual story we go!

Prologue

Brother was an Al-Bhed airship pilot who…wasn't exactly the most mundane person in Spira, or the most capable of doing anything. Children, Al-Bhed and Spiran alike, had always pointed and giggled at the overly flamboyant state of his chocobo-coloured Iroquois. Their mothers had always scurried away or screamed at the man, for he was so swamped in colourful flaming tattoos you could almost mistake them for a patched up undershirt from afar. His washed out soil coloured dungarees were a tad too baggy for many peoples' likings; prodding passer-bys into obscuring their eyesight at the mere presence of him.

The same disgust went for his face. An ear that was so pierced, you would wonder why it hadn't gone soggy after all these years; two beady green spiral eyes, which had somehow paled into a blackish tint thanks to his dark eyeliner; chapped brown lips which seemed to protrude outwards a little more than the average human; and the voice which came from those lips: a thick Al-Bhed accent which was nearly impossible to take seriously.

Yes, this Brother was not a very charming individual, especially seeing as he was the first child of the Al-Bhed leader: Cid, and even more so how the father and son didn't even get along very well, as they had a violent falling-out soon after the coming of the Eternal Calm. With his old friend, Buddy, they travelled to the north to fish out an airship that they had heard about. This would come to be known as the Celsius: the Gullwings' headquarters and their main method of transport.

But trust me; you do not want to know how the Gullwings got their name.

For Brother was the leader of said Gullwings, and considering how strange he is, he would have a most crazy story to tell about this name. Speaking of that, the Gullwings were a group of sphere hunters; which…well, hunt spheres all around the world. Brother founded the group for Yevon knows what purposes, and the first members were him, Buddy, and his younger hyperactive sister, Rikku. Eventually there came more members: Barkeep and his girlfriend, Shinra the little genius, the young female warrior Paine, his blessed cousin Yuna, and many others.

However, the appearance of Yuna; High Summoner and bringer of the Eternal Calm had sent or rather, forced Brother into yet another wild adventure. Not because of the unknown darkness that had once again plagued Spira with fiends, driving the Gullwings to temporarily drop their sphere-hunting duties and become fiend exterminators, but the sheer knowledge that Yuna had come to stay with him for a while drove his emotions insane.

These emotions were something else. They were not the feelings of wailing despair that he felt when he was forced to destroy Home, nor the bone-chilling fear that he felt when he came face to face with Sin itself onboard the Fahrenheit. These were feelings that were almost indescribable. It was a mix between soaring up into Spira's aquamarine sky and visions of sweet dreams, while his heart felt like it wanted to burst from his chest and fly over to his cousin. Yet there was another feeling: Pain. Stinging, infectious, mind-rotting pain. It gnawed at his slightly shrunken brain, threatening to make him cry sizzling hot tears and make him scream in teasing agony.

Brother knew what this feeling was. He always knew what it was. He had let his closest friends in on his dilemma, but had never dared to confess to Yuna himself. For he just predicted that it would scare her, terrify her. She would run away and never speak to him again. He kept it to himself, thinking that as long as he didn't let his word slip, she would always stay by him.

But in the couple of weeks…she ran away from him anyway. No farewell hugs, no farewell speeches, nothing.

She just touched down on the shores of Besaid, completely forgetting about him, and dived into the arms of…that man.

Chapter One: The New Start

"Come on, Brother," Buddy muttered and looked at him, irritated about his old friend's overreactions. "It's been two weeks. You can't stay like this forever."

"She's gone…she's forgotten me…" The dramatic pilot whimpered, slumped in the Celsius' driver's seat. He gave out a loud sob as he planted his hands over his eyes, staining the leather fabric of his fingerless gloves.

"For the millionth time, she hasn't forgotten you!" Buddy rose, annoyed with his leader's whining. He tightened his grip on his computer from his control centre. "She's found what she was looking for, and now she has no reason to be with us!"

This only made Brother cry more and lean into the tall handles of the airship's steering wheel. The Celsius was completely quiet, save for the gentle humming from the engines below and Brother's occasional moans and sobs.

"Yeah! What he said!" A squeaky voice from Brother's left announced itself. "I've put up with a lot of your stuff, but this takes the entire stupid cake! Leave Yuna alone!"

"Crid ib, Rikku! (Shut up, Rikku!)" Brother yelled, trying to swat at his sister's arm from his position. "Drec ec hud ypuid oui! Cysa vun oui, Buddy! (This is not about you! Same for you, Buddy!)"

"Whatever," Rikku and Buddy said in unison.

The bridge of the Celsius went silent again, obviously save for the continuous squawks and seething from the emotionally, 'unstable' pilot. He wasn't even a pilot at all anymore. Buddy had kept and locked the airship's status on autopilot to save their lives from a careless crash, since Brother was still weeping over his, 'lost' cousin. Rikku and Buddy sighed heavily, staring out into the clouds that zoomed by.

"We're getting nowhere in this condition," Buddy mused out loud. He got up from his seat and strode over to a large array of machinery, gauges and computers. "And I can hardly work this thing."

"Yeah," Rikku breathed, falling backwards and staring up into the ceiling. "It's really quiet. So boring. So annoying as well!"

Truth was, most of the Gullwings had now disbanded. Ever since the defeat of the super-machina, Vegnagun, and its misunderstood possessor, Shuyin, the Gullwings' members had cleared off either because of the celebrations, or simply because they weren't interested in hunting spheres anymore. Shinra, the genius boy of the group, had left to join Rin in a massive project to extract energy from the Farplane: the realm of the dead. Clasko, a clumsy former Chocobo Knight, had left for the Calm Lands to start his very own chocobo ranch. Calli had gone with him, being an avid lover of the large golden birds. O'aka the XXIII had paid off his debt and returned to his shop at Lake Macalania and Yuna had stayed in Besaid with the man of her dreams, literally.

The only members left were Brother, Buddy, Rikku, Barkeep and his girlfriend, and Paine. Much to everybody's shock, the young female warrior had decided to stay on the Celsius, saying that she really had nowhere else to go. Paine sticking around was probably the only reason why Rikku wasn't clawing at the neon walls, since she still had the darkly coloured and very scary woman to mess around with. Much to Paine's good-hearted annoyance.

"I kinda hate to say this, but I wish things went back to the way they were," Rikku spoke. She sat up as her blonde braids fell in front of her face. "You know, when that Shuyin guy was still trying to kill us all. When things were actually fun!"

"No kidding," Brother mewled, earning a pair of eyes rolling at him.

"Speaking of that, 'Shuyin guy'," Buddy started, tapping the computer screen which once belonged to Shinra. "I've been talking to that man through Besaid's Commsphere."

"You mean…the guy with…" Brother trailed off, finally lifting his head to look at the complex machina.

"Yeah," Buddy confirmed. "If you just get past the fact that he looks almost exactly like Shuyin, he's a pretty charming guy. Always has that smile on his face, and he's pretty laid-back. Yuna's really happy with him around, and vice-versa."

Brother merely grunted at this. He still remembers the very first time he and that man had met two years ago. It was a dark foggy night, and he was out on the inky western oceans with a salvage ship. Brother had sent his sister and a small group of Al-Bhed to scavenge the ruins of the once proud Baaj Temple. They had hoped to find renewable chunks of scrap metal for one of their projects, but instead they had come back with what they thought was a fiend disguised as a human. This, 'fiend' did not understand even the slightest bit of Al-Bhed, much to Brother's short temper.

Buddy turned around so that his goggled gaze was meeting Brother's, a slight condescending tone in his voice. "You'd really like him, you know. Just give him a chance."

"U el ryd kyurk rieh dned dnuiw! (I am not going near that thief!)" Brother screamed, malice and jealously seeping through his accent. "Ni dyyg la Yuna! (He took my Yuna!)"

"Yuna zem rifih ayohm, sunuh! (Yuna was never yours, moron!)" Rikku reacted, leaping out of her seat and stomping over to her pitiful sibling. "Ty ayo gryz nyz losn mni net tyri dy kid nul pesg!? Khuz ib! (Do you know how much she had done to get him back!? Grow up!"

"Z-z-zicc zna tut ni tumebbieh wyh dzy aiehm, dnir!? (W-w-well why did he disappear for two years, then!?)" Brother stuttered, trying to win the poorly constructed argument.

"Un. La. Yevon! (Oh. My. Yevon!)" Rikku facepalmed, wanting to punch her Brother in the face. "Oui ehi e cymd seomi... (You are a lost cause…)"

"…Fryd? (…What?)" Brother scratched his almost bald head, not thinking about the fact that his, 'friend' had suddenly vanished from everybody's life two years prior, only recently making a comeback to apparently ruin his hard-earned life.

"Tet oui dfu icat du pa vneahtc yd uha buehd!? (Did you two used to be friends at one point!?)" Rikku squeaked, clenching her petite hands into fists. "Tet oui uhla dnicd res yd uha buehd!? (Did you once trust him at one point!?)

"Guys, guys," Buddy butted in with his monotone voice, trying to push the brother and sister apart from their fiery glares. "Let's just drop this, okay?"

Brother tore his gaze from Rikku and nearly burned a hole into the tanned skin of his old partner. "And what you expect we do next, huh?" He inquired in broken English.

"Well…we could always get the Gullwings back-"

Suddenly, the emergency sirens blared throughout the Celsius, colouring the bridge a nice crimson colour. Brother yanked and shoved both Buddy and Rikku out of the way ("Oof! You big meanie!" cried Rikku.), flailing and dancing over to the rusty compartments of computers.

"Fryd ec ed!? FRYD EC ED!? (What is it!? WHAT IS IT!?)" Brother squealed in excitement, finally having something worthwhile to partake in. He bounced up and down as he grasped the iron computer seat, laughing like a maniac. Buddy pulled himself up and, keeping his cool like always, walked over to the computer station and brought up the urgent message sent to them.

Just as he was doing that, Paine entered the bridge and leaned on the metal railing, looking at the Al-Bhed trio who were all in completely different positions.

"So we've finally got something," Paine muttered, a rare smile creeping up onto her face.

"Doctor P.!" Rikku laughed, leaping up onto her feet. She ran up the steep entranceway and began to drag Paine by her arm down into the small cluster. "Yep, someone's called us! We're finally gonna go on an adventure again!"

"So I can tell. Funny, I was just about to doze off, too." Paine smirked sarcastically, trying to free herself from Rikku's tight grip.

A few droning moments passed, as Buddy audibly read the message on the screen. Brother was pushing Buddy's head to the side, trying to get a look. Buddy retaliated by slapping his face away, much to the amusement and the silent enjoyment of the two females behind them.

"To Brother, Buddy, Rikku and Paine of the Celsius:

I know that we haven't physically seen each other for a while, but I've just been so busy! Life on Besaid has become so much better ever since we came back from our last mission. I can't believe two weeks have already passed, especially since we still have bonfire celebrations every night!"

"Oooooohhhh," Rikku groaned, stomping her indigo coloured boots on the steel floor. "Bonfire parties every night…why didn't I offer to stay for a little longer?"

Buddy ignored her personal ramblings and continued reading:

"Anyways, I've been thinking it over for a little bit and…I've decided that I want to get back with you guys for a while. As nice as Besaid is, it does get a little boring after some time. Plus I would really want to travel back to some places for…well, let's just say for nostalgia's sake."

Brother froze completely. Would it be? Could it be? But…wait; this could just be somebody else. Maybe Calli had come to stay on Besaid, or maybe Clasko had set up a chocobo riding coral there. But then, there were only three people in the Gullwings who actually took part in their last mission…and Rikku and Paine was with him right now.

"I know most of you guys are probably sceptical about this, but guess what? I think the Gullwings still have some potential to become first-rate sphere hunters; we just need to sign up some more members!

Plus, I've gone over this with a…special person. To me, at least. Apparently, he has the same thoughts about the whole, 'Besaid is getting boring' thing, so he wants to become a member of the Gullwings! At least it's a start, huh?

Can you fly over to Besaid as soon as you can, please? We'll be at the beach where we…um, you know. We both can't wait to start a new journey toget-I mean, with you guys. Really, I miss the adventures I had with you all. I want to start anew.

Yours sincerely,

Yuna

"P.S. Seriously though, come quickly. I think Wakka and Lulu are trying to hunt us down right now."

A surge of coursing hot blood spanned throughout all of Brother's insides in less than a second. Yuna was….coming back? She was going to…stay with him after all!? A spicy mix of adrenaline had spread through his body as well, making him want to scream and holler as loud as he could in pure joy.

But something was preventing him from showing his bearing grin. In fact, he had gone quieter after the message had been read. That was definitely Yuna, as proven by her cursive signature that had been scanned into the paper, but-

Meanwhile in the background, Rikku was doing what Brother would have been doing: Screaming and jumping around in glee. She sang, 'Yuna's coming back!' in a sing song voice around Paine, who was looking very plain with grains of irritation in her ruby red eyes.

But…who was this, 'special person' that Yuna had mentioned? Brother's insides lurched; he had a solid prediction on who he or she was. What was worse was that that person was going to be one of his partners now…right beside Yuna.

"Well Brother," Buddy interrupted his musings, making him jump. "What're you waiting for? You've been going on about her for a long time, and now you're not gonna do anything?"

Brother stared at the tanned smug face just below his crooked nose. Snapping out of his spell, he straightened himself, turned in the opposite direction and rudely cleared his throat to making an announcement.

"E-everyone! We go, uh…to Besaid! Post haste!"

Rikku exploded into a giggling fit and bounced into her seat at the front of the airship. Buddy followed soon after, seating himself on the other side. Brother hesitantly climbed onto the main handlebars of the pilot's seat, as Buddy, for the first time in two weeks, disengaged the autopilot. Paine stood rooted to her spot, crossing her arms in her typical manner.

"Surging Winged Albino Gullwings, move OUT!" Brother declared in a serious tone. His hand recklessly clutched the handlebars as he pointed his finger out into the clouded sky, revving up the engine and speeding forwards.

'Maybe if I just go somewhere else, I won't have to face that…' Brother mentally slammed his head into the bulletproof cockpit of the Celsius. Yevon, he was being such a coward! If going to Besaid meant getting Yuna back onto the team, then he certainly wouldn't chicken out because of somebody coming alongside her. Besides, he would hang, draw and quarter himself at the thought of betraying his sweet, cheerful cousin. He was going to Besaid, 'special person' or not.

The Celsius was dangerously close to the tropical ocean surrounding Besaid. Every few seconds the shiny metallic arms skipped and splashed into the water. The Celsius was not the most durable airship that the Al-Bhed had tuned up, since one of the engines would always act up every so often, but it was certainly the fastest airship, and therefore the fastest method of travel in all of Spira.

They were closing in on the tiny island of Besaid. Brother, trying to be just a little bit more careful this time around, slammed his thick leather boots on both of the breaks. A gargantuan trail of water exploded behind the Celsius as it stopped just short of Besaid's dry shoreline.

Brother collapsed; sweat dripping down his pale brow as he panted heavily, as if the simple procedure absorbed half of his life energy.

While he was having his melodramatic display, a light pattering of hollow footsteps followed by chuckles of excitement made its way through the back of the bridge. Rikku had ascended onto the hill near the entranceway and pushed a small aquamarine button. This had opened up the hull of the airship.

"You guys wait here, okay? I'll go and bring them in! Just a sec!" Rikku piped, impatiently running on the spot as she waited for the clunky and noisy entranceway to descend. Deciding that she couldn't wait anymore, she did what Yuna herself had done on her last moments aboard the Celsius: Jump about twenty feet from the air and land legs first onto the sandy shores.

Brother climbed out of his seat and headed to the centre of the bridge, just where the sphere oscillo finder was planted. He fidgeted with his Iroquois and paced back and forth, stopping just short of the neon green floorlights that surrounded him.

It seemed like forever when Rikku finally entered the airship again, looking even more peppy than usual. Brother jerked his head upwards and straightened himself. His sister glided down the steel railings, bringing with her-

His cousin Yuna.

"Hey, Brother!"

Brother was paralysed for a second. Was it just him, or did she look even prettier than usual? Her small pink lips were wider, her graceful movements were more relaxed and fluid, her bi-coloured eyes had that extra sparkle in them…Brother shook himself free from his trance, doing the very next that came to mind.

"Yuuuuuuuunaaaaaa!" Brother called, his voice hoarse with emotion. He tried to ran towards her and tackled her into a big bear hug, but Buddy tugged on his shoulder, shooting him a, 'don't do it' glare. Brother was seething and about to go on another of his outbursts. Just for a second, he glanced at his friend to reply with one of his own evil glares, but just as he did that…

"Hey, Brother! How's it goin'? Man, I haven't seen you for a while."

A sudden foreign voice filled his eardrums. It was a certain voice that he hadn't heard for so long. A certain, energetic and cheerful voice which could only belong to a late teenager. He heard dense footsteps and subtle squeaks that could only belong to a pair of sneakers.

A sour feeling spread throughout Brother's gut and his thick blond eyebrows furrowed upwards. He slowly craned his head away from the unreadable expression on Buddy's face and turned to meet his new partner.

It was a male, as he had always feared. But his appearance had only made him more fearful. He was wearing a very colourful uniform which was more asymmetrical than not. He was roughly the same height as Brother, only coming short a few inches of his upper forehead. His skin looked like he had been out in the sun for all of his life, coloured a deep bronze colour, just a few tones lighter than Buddy. His dirty blond hair was spiky and covered most of his face, boring a parting down the middle. His eye shape resembled the top half of a circle, while his eyes themselves were coloured a deep lapis hue, shining with innocent happiness and charisma. He had a wide grin on his face, showing his front two incisors.

Yuna was standing by his side holding one of his hands.

"Ahhhh, so it's you," Buddy spoke up appearing from behind Brother's startled and furious state.

"Good to see you, Buddy," The smiling man raised an arm at him.

Buddy turned towards Brother's scowling face. Brother cast a deadly sideways glance at him, as if trying to turn the two males into stone with the constriction of his pupils alone. Buddy merely sighed at him, casting an arm towards the other male.

"Brother, this is our new member: Tidus."