Home > Categories > FFX > Sadiki's Harmony

Rating: PG - drama - Posted: 14/6/2002 - Updated: 16/1/2005

Disclaimer: All characters protrayed belong to Square. I'm borrowing them, without any profit
Warning: AU, (in regards to FFX-2). End-of-game spoilers (I think), sap/WAFF, pseudo-death
Notes: Consider it a tie in (that can stand on it's own) to "Lumina's Dreamer"

Summary: Sometimes a promise is so strong, it can defy even time and death until it has been satisfied. Rin made such a promise, but now, he's about to be released from it...


Rin knelt in his small herb garden, carefully weeding and snipping off parts no longer useful. The oversized straw hat hid hair that faded to grey too many years ago to think about. Other than that, and a few extra lines around his eyes, Rin had withstood the ravages of time well. Better than most, in fact. Lulu often asked him if he hadn't sold his soul for his looks. He just smiled and murmured something in Al Bhed every time.

In truth, time held little meaning to Rin. He'd stopped counting it when he lost his first love. He had been only a teen at the time when he met, then fell hard for Braska. He thought at the time it was a product of his then overactive imagination when Braska finally admitted to feeling very much the same. When the young Al Bhed realized he wasn't imagining it, he swore he was in a dream, and hoped it would never end.

But it did. Braska was a gifted individual, and one of these gifts included visions. Braska knew that he would bring the last of the false Calms, that is would be crucial for leading to the Eternal Calm. And he wanted Rin to live in that peace, in a world without Sin. So, he made the young Al Bhed promise; Rin would continue to live, not just wait or survive. He would find happiness in Spira again, until he joined Braska on the Farplane.

It hurt then. Rin had been alone up until he met Braska, only to learn that he would have to let the Yevonite go. Yet, as much as he wanted to resist, to try and keep Braska with him, Rin also believed Braska's visions, even if he couldn't always understand them.

He promised. He swore he heard his heart break into a million pieces, but Rin made that promise, and let Braska go into the arms of another, all for Fate and Spira.

Despite the years, that memory was still as clear in Rin's mind as the day it happened. He had promised, and kept it. He couldn't join Spira when it celebrated Braska's calm; the wound was still too fresh. But he moved on, making his business his main priority.

Until Braska's own daughter began her journey for what would be the Eternal Calm, and brought a fluffy-haired teen into hers and Rin's life.

~snip~

Rin twirled a small leaf in his fingers. When Tidus first appeared, Rin thought the youth had chaos on his back, for all his incredible and outrageous luck, be it good or bad. He also had an uncanny ability that made people gravitate towards him. Rin himself was not immune.

He still didn't know what possessed him to try and teach Tidus Al Bhed. A whim? Boredom? In truth, Rin had about as much hope of Tidus becoming fluent in the language as he did of Yevon accepting Al Bheds. But Tidus was ever persistent, and limitations were unheard of. It became something of a game, one that would later define an odd, but welcome kind of relationship. Rin hadn't been sure he wanted a relationship. Especially not with someone who kept proclaiming (and loudly) of how he'd go off to battle Sin.

At the time, hope was not something Rin put much faith in.

Rin considered himself in complete control when it came to affairs of the heart. In short, he didn't want to put his on the line like that again. His emotional defenses may as well have been made of bubbles for all the ease Tidus still managed to get through them with. Before the older blonde knew it, Tidus pretty much inserted himself in the Al Bhed's life, and heart.

Were it not for a brief visit from Braska himself from the Farplane, Rin knew his heart would have shattered beyond repair when Wakka told him of Tidus's 'death'.

Funny thing, nobody mentioned it to Tidus that death was permanent.

Rin laid his sheers down, smiling as he remembered the hyper teen coming right back into his life. And what a life. Many times Rin wondered if Tidus would ever slow down and take things easy. He did, eventually, though it was suspected that Tidus had done so for his lover's sake. Besides, owning his own blitzball team made sure Tidus always had something to do. And still he had more than enough time to give to Rin.

Rin had been grateful. He still was, even though Tidus left for the Farplane before he did. The Al Bhed was grateful too that it was a peaceful passing. And while all of Spira mourned for their hero, he only smiled, remembering his second promise.

Funny thing, even his memory had held up, despite his advanced age...

-----

"Hey, Rin..."

"I thought you were asleep," Rin remarked, looking up from his ledger. "Weren't you told to rest?"

"Yeah, right! As if I can stay still that long." Tidus sat up in the bed they shared, letting the covers fall with a whispered ruffle to his waist. "Seriously, I want to ask you something."

"For the last time, I'm not putting a blitz sphere in the backyard."

"Will you be serious...!" The younger blonde smiled, time having added some crinkles around his eyes. "Really, it's important."

It was, the Al Bhed felt it. This time, he didn't feel anxious. Perhaps Rin had become more accepting in his old age. Well, he should at least hear his lover out...

"Alright.." he set his reading glasses aside, giving Tidus his complete attention. "What do you want to ask me?"

"...you know I... crap, I'm not good with this." Tidus ran his fingers through his hair, a nervous habit that never went away. "I... I want you to be happy, no matter what."

"I am happy..."

"Nono," Rin was cut off with an emphatic shake of his lover's head. "I mean... I want you to... be happy, even if... y'know."

"..."

"Rin... the doctor..." The younger man blinked, finding himself silenced by a finger to his lips.

"I know what you mean. I am happy. And I will be happy, because... because..." He paused, giving Tidus a chance to move his hand away.

"Because what?"

The quiet stretch worried Tidus a moment, until Rin offered a small yet warm smile of his own.

"Because, I'll remember."

"...are you sure?" He needed to hear it. "Rin has to be okay," Tidus thought.

The Al Bhed tilted his head a bit, giving his lover a look that always gave him "the waffies," as Tidus described it. In that moment, Tidus knew Rin spoke the truth.

"I remember Braska. I'll remember you. Just don't make me wait too long. I want to see the Farplane for myself, you know."

It was all the reassurance Tidus needed. His expression echoed the gratitude in his heart as he pulled Rin down to the bed with him. "Maybe I'll meet up with Braska, then we can show you around when we get there."

"...I'd like that..."

-----

Tidus didn't exactly ask for a promise, but Rin had made one that night all the same. The surviving party worried about him, especially Rikku, but Rin had assured them that he was fine.

He just didn't need to cry, that's all.

He kept Tidus's team, hiring a couch to make sure they stayed as close to his lover's standards as possible. Some years later, Rin retired from his business, ensuring its continued life in his absence.

He was by no means a lonely nor idle man. Lulu and Wakka's children and grand children would often pay him a visit, along with Rikku and her family. Many from the Al Bhed council would ask his advice on this matter or that, and he ran a small supply store next to his house.

Not an exciting life anymore, but Rin had his fair share of that in his youth.

The garden took on the fiery colors of sunset. Rin wiped his brow and put his tools away. He planned to read a little before turning in, but a weariness in his bones changed his mind. He chuckled to himself, thinking how his bedtime seemed to get earlier each day...

-----

"Rin?"

"Rin, time to wake up."

"Man, he sleeps like the..."

"A-hem..."

"...sorry."

Voices. They were beginning to rouse him, and Rin didn't like it. Of course, by all rights, he shouldn't be hearing voices since he lived alone, but his sleep-fogged mind couldn't quite process that part.

So he did what any sane and groggy person would do, and threw a pillow in the general direction of the disturbance.

"Ku yfyo, umt sah haat cmaab." (Go away, old men need sleep.)

The muffled thump of the pillow answered back, then silence. Rin assumed he was successful and drifted back off to sleep, only to have the voice tickle at his conscious once more.

"...gee, that worked swell. Now what?"

"Don't be so impatient. He'll wake up. We have to keep our promise, after all."

"But he won't budge. I know, let's wake him up the same way Auron used to get me..."

"I am not dumping a bucket of ice water on him. That's just wrong, especially at his age."

"Well not like his age is going to matter in a few, if he ever wakes up..."

Annoyed was an understatement. Rin sat up, ready to rack the interlopers over the coals.

His vision had marginally dimmed through the decades, but Rin still could not believe his eyes as he gazed up at the faces of his lovers.

"...it... can't... how...?"

Braska smiled. "Can't we come and see how you're doing every now and then?"

"Yeah. What, don't tell me we're not invited," Tidus quipped.

"Well," thought the old merchant, "it certainly sounds like them." Rin sat up, fearing the two were still just an echo of his dreaming world. "Are you... both..." Rin didn't get a chance to finish, getting his answer when Tidus pounced on him, knocking the breath from his lungs.

"Course we're real!"

"Tidus, he still needs to breathe..."

"...oops, sorry." The blonde scooted off with a grin. Now Rin could see that the years Tidus once carried were gone, leaving him the same, hyper teen Rin first met so long ago. Unable to help himself, Rin reached out to cup the younger blonde's cheek, nearly breaking into tears when Tidus leaned into the touch.

"Tidus..." He looked up at Braska now, holding out his other hand towards the former summoner. "Braska..."

"You kept your promise, Rin, to both of us." Braska sat on the other side, taking Rin's trembling hand in both his own. "Thank you."

"...I remembered," Rin whispered. "That let me keep my promise. I never forgot."

"We know. Now, it's time to keep ours." Braska let his lover's hand slip back to the bed. A quiet rustle against the covers, a gentle swish of robes, and the last bringer of false calms stood with ornamental staff in hand, ready for one last Sending.

Tidus quickly interjected. "Hey, wait a second... what happens to us if you do that?"

"Nothing. We'll all return to the Farplane, nothing more."

"...ohhh..."

The old Al Bhed chuckled. It sounded too much like the conversations he used to imagine the two having. The sound dropped to a quiet sigh, a weary feeling passing back over him. Rin leaned back into his pillows, his breathing slower now.

"Sorry, I've been so tired lately..." His words stopped at the touch of fingers brushing warmth across his lips.

"Don't worry about it," Tidus murmured, helping Rin into a more comfortable position. "Just rest. We'll handle it."

"We'll take care of you now, Rin... let us keep our promise to you."

Rin smiled then, and simply closed his eyes.

-----

"...hurry up, Braska, before I start crying..."

"Don't. We'll be together soon."

The dance began...

-----

...and Rin remembers...

-----

"...you're saying I won't see you until I die and go to the Farplane..."

"And who said anything about dying?"

"Don't be silly. How else am I going to get there?"

"I'll let you in on a little known secret. The Farplane isn't just where the dead go to rest. It's where the past waits to come full circle."

"Oui cbayg, yht vmufanc vymm vnus ouin mebc. (You speak, and flowers fall from your lips) I do not understand you..."

"Trust me, Rin, you will."

-----

"Byntuh sa."

"Sorry?"

"Ah, forgive me, sir. I meant to say "pardon me", but it came out in Al Bhed."

"Oh, you're an Al Bhed?"

"I am Rin, owner of this establishment.

"Hela du saad oui."

huh?

"It means, "nice to meet you.""

"Well helly doo sad wee to you, too..."

-----

"Promise me, Rin...."

"I did..."

"Again..."

-----

"I know what you mean. I am happy. And I will be happy, because... because..."

"Because what?"

"Because, I'll remember."

-----

"Okay, Rin, you can wake up at any time now..."

"Be nice, Tidus."

"He still sleeps like an old man..."

Rin groaned. Despite Tidus's urgings, the Al Bhed couldn't continue sleeping if he wanted to. He felt too energized to waste time on sleeping. Warmth, healthy, alive... he hadn't felt that way for quite awhile...

"I think he's getting up."

"I would too if you were yelling in my ear."

"I was not yelling. I was just making sure he heard me."

"Of course."

"Thbbht."

Laughing, Rin sat up to gaze at his lovers, feeling as though he'd come home from a long journey.

"Oui yna pudr yc E tnaysat..." (You are both as I dreamed...)

"'bout time you woke up!" Tidus grabbed Rin's hand and hauled him up. The first thing the older blonde noticed was a lack of the usual aches and afflictions even he couldn't escape with age.

The next thing he noticed were his surroundings.

"...is this...?"

"Yes." Braska offered a smile, taking Rin's other hand. "Come, there's something else you need to see." He tugged lightly on the Al Bhed's hand, forcing Rin to take a step. The beauty of seeing the Farplane with his own eyes made for a slow walk, though Braska didn't seem to mind.

"It's beautiful..."

"It is not the only thing."

The trio stopped at the edge of a pond. Small ripples splashed at the water's edge while reflecting the shy above. Braska leaned forward, gesturing for Rin to do the same.

"Look."

Curious, Rin did so, his eyes widening at his own reflection. Gone were the lines and grey hair. The once slightly clouded eyes were as clear as the air around them. His fingers brushed across his cheek, marveling at his restored youth.

"How?"

"Who cares," snorted Tidus. "Just accept it, be happy, and... and... um..." Pausing, the teen looked to Braska. "And what happens now?"

"Don't you know? We begin another tale. A tale of infinite dreams." Braska smiled again, offering them both a hand. "And I think we should work on it right now."

"I can live with that." Tidus accepted, the two waiting for Rin. He looked around, then back at the water. Instead of his reflection, he saw instead an image of Spira. The image didn't make sense to him, and he said as much.

"I think, in time... bah, I don't know. The future is a far off hope. Let us enjoy the moment, eh, so muja?" (my love)

A nod, a touch of hands... three voices ringing in different pitch, perfectly harmonized in unity as they race along the fields of a new life...

...and never forget.


~end~