The door opened and both Yuna and Seymour decided to ignore it. "Lord Jyscal wants to see you downstairs," the guard in the doorway said.

Yuna and Seymour looked up at stared at each other in confusion, wondering which one of them the guard was talking to.

"Both of you," the guard said.

‘Why?’ Yuna mouthed to Seymour, who shrugged at her.

"He means five minutes ago."

They stood up and followed the guard downstairs without saying another word.

Jyscal was standing in the drawing room, scowling at both of them, while Anzi stood several feet away, confused and slightly apprehensive.

"The guards found something interesting in the bushes, yesterday," Jyscal said, and waited for someone to speak up.

Yuna and Seymour just looked at each other and gave gestures that they had no clue what was going on. Anzi just stood there.

"One of them was reported missing four days ago."

Blank stares all around.

"He was found murdered on the north side of the palace," Jyscal said, waiting for someone to bat an eyelash wrong. No one gave any indication they knew anything about the situation, which just aggravated Jyscal more. "This was just found in the bushes right next to where they found the body." Jyscal produced Seymour’s folding knife and opened it. No one had cleaned off the blood form the blade.

Seymour stepped back, but he kept his eyes on his father, never once looking at the blade.

"This was yours!" Jyscal yelled.

"You took it from me."

"It has been missing for a whole week!"

Seymour didn’t answer.

"Well?" Jyscal asked angrily.

Seymour still did not answer.

"I gave it to him," Anzi said.

Everyone turned to her, too stunned at her outburst to say anything. Even the guard was surprised.

"I gave it to him in case you came back," she said. "He promised me he wouldn’t us it on anyone but you. And only to defend himself in case you were mad."

Jyscal turned back to Seymour.

"I didn’t do it," Seymour said.

"That’s it!" Jyscal yelled, and dropped the knife. He grabbed both Yuna and Seymour by the arms and pulled them so fast they barely kept up. He dragged them to a spare room, and threw them in. "You are not leaving this room unless this place goes up in flames!"

He slammed the door and locked it.

"You can’t do this!" Seymour yelled, pounding on the door. He backed away and started ramming into the door shoulder-first. "Let me out of here! You can’t do this!" He grabbed a dusty chair and raised it.

"Seymour!" Yuna said, and leapt at his arm and grabbed it. "Stop it right now!"

Seymour stopped and looked at her.

"Put the chair down."

Seymour embarassedly set the chair down where he’d found it.

"If you two played Blitzball, you’d murder the whole other team and take out most of the stadium!"

"I can’t swim," he said.

"That’s not what I’m talking about. I want both of you to stop this and I am going to yell at your father the same way next time I see him. I’m surprised this place has any furniture left. This is ridiculous! I don’t care who started anything, or who did what, or who’s keeping secrets. I want both of you to stop this right now! Understand?"

Seymour just looked at her. No one had ever screamed at him or given him a dressing down like that but his father. Not even Anzi had reprimanded him about him in that way.

"Understand, Seymour?"

"You’re going to make my father and I stop fighting?" he asked, no more anger in his voice. "Yuna, you’re attempting the impossible."

"I have been inside Sin. I have defeated Sin without the final Summoning. I have gone to the farplane and survived. I saved your life twice. I stopped two wars with Beseid. You’re going to tell me what’s impossible?"

"You have not done all those things alone, Yuna," Seymour said, and she could tell he was envious of the fact that she had the friends to help her in the first place.

"I have you."

"What could I do?"

"You could trust me."

"It’s that obvious, is it?"

"Actually, it wasn’t," Yuna said. "I just realized you hadn’t told me what you were doing when you were sneaking out. You even tried to slip away from me at times so I didn’t know you were escaping until you were gone. And you never told my Anzi never gave you your knife back."

"I can’t really use it well anyway," he said.

"Seymour, I never ratted you out, even when you left behind my back. I want you to trust me."

"With what?"

"Did you really never get that knife back?"

"Never."

"Where have you been running off to?"

"The study."

"The study," Yuna repeated hoping for him to expand on the topic, or at least the sentence.

"I’m bored Yuna, and the people like my father more than they like me, they’ll rat me out as soon as they see me."

"You’ve never been anywhere near the north side of the building, then."

"The closest I ever got was while wrestling with my father," He said, sighing and sitting on the chair he had almost beaten on the door. "Is this as pathetic as I think it is?"

"The fact that you’ve been sneaking out against your fathers orders to read books, or the fact that he just locked us up in here?"

"The fact that I gave up almost everything of my race and culture and it made me happy. The fact that I used that to make myself this important person for you, and we end up honeymooning locked in the most ironic room in the whole building by my father who thinks I’m out to murder him again."

"Where are we exactly?" Yuna asked, looking at the sparse furniture that was covered in dust and cobwebs. Nothing save for the chair Seymour was sitting in looked like it had been touched for over a decade.

"The family room."

"Where’s all the…stuff?"

"My father burned almost all of my mother’s things after she died. I almost thought he was going to burn me. I’m sorry you have to suffer because of my father."

Yuna chuckled.

"What?"

"Nothing," she said.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

Seymour slept uneasily next to Yuna that night. Being locked in an old room with no lights or windows, only old, bad memories kept him up until the early morning.

He dreamed of running down corridors back on Baaj. Every door towered over him and lead to another corridor full of more doors. He kept running. He kept screaming for her.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Yuna had to wrestle her am away from his grip soon after she woke up—not a small feat, nor one he woke up from.

"How much sleep did you not get?" Yuna asked from her chair. It had to be about noon now—at least that was what her stomach was telling her. She was bored out of her mind. She had been bored out of her mind for the past four hours.

She turned her head, hearing someone move the furniture away form the door.

"You locked them in a room?" She heard a familiar voice say.

"Paine?" Yuna asked.

"It was what I had at the time," Jyscal said, unlocking the door.

"What time?" That was definitely Auron.

"They had a bathroom," Jyscal said. "You’re lucky your airship was so easily noticed, as well as contacted by my scouts."

"I guess stopping a whole execution make ya kinda famous, ya?" Wakka’s voice.

"Huh?" Yuna asked.

"That was not amusing," Jyscal said.

"Sorry," Wakka said as Jyscal opened the door.

Even though Seymour was the one sleeping on the dusty floor in his clothes, it was Yuna he stared at as if she’d just eaten a bug. "Get dressed."

"I am dressed," Yuna said. "This is my Ladyluck outfit. My clothes were dirty."

"You and I are going to speak with your friends," Jyscal said. He turned to Seymour, who was apparently used to his father’s angry voice and was still asleep. "Wake up you lazy sponge!" Jyscal said, kicking Seymour awake. "Well?" he said to Yuna, pointing to the door.

"I’m going, I’m going," she said, standing up and getting out the door as soon as possible.

"Do I get up too, or do you enjoy standing on my dirty robes?" Seymour asked.

"You stay here," Jyscal ordered.

"Then why did you wake me up?"

"Your wife’s sarcasm seems to be wearing off on you," Jyscal said, heading to the door. "I don’t like it." Jyscal slammed the door and Seymour could hear the door being locked and the furniture being moved back into place.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Yunie!" Are you alright?" Rikku asked, hugging her cousin.

"Rikku, I was locked in a room, not a dungeon."

"Yuna, what the heck’s going on?" Paine asked.

"This is not a family reunion," Jyscal said. "I have a crisis on my hands and Seymour is doing nothing but causing trouble."

"Well maybe if you told him what you were trying to do with all this!" Yuna said. "You’re just—"

"You are making trouble and encouraging him."

"I’m not encouraging anyone. I’m not encouraging him and I’m not encouraging you."

"On of my own guards was murdered!"

"He didn’t do it!" Yuna yelled. Oh, if Tidus could see her now.

"Of course he didn’t do it!" Jyscal yelled as the fight escalated. "He couldn’t fight Anzi with that thing."

"Then why lock him up in there? Why lock both of us in there?" Yuna yelled.

"I’m trying to protect you!"

"You’re not trying to protect anyone!" Yuna yelled and almost went for Jyscal. Yuna was held back by Paine and Rikku, Wakka and Auron held Jyscal, who was about to counter Yuna’s lunge with his own.

"There had better be a point to this," Lulu said, ready to hit both of them with a spell.

"I thought it was just genetic, ya," Wakka said, letting go of Jyscal, but ready to grab him again if he tried anything. "It’s contagious."

"If I wanted to see a fight, I’d go find Chappu," Paine said.

"Paine!" Lulu scolded.

"I have no personal allies. You’re friend is in danger."

"I’m right here!" Yuna protested. "And I have a name."

"And I don’t care. By the time you are through arguing with me, we’ll all be dead," Jyscal shot back before turning back to her friends and ignoring her again. "While my son was hiding like a coward on Baaj, I was dealing with threats of everything from nation-wide revolt to death threats if I took him back. My own fears have come true. The same gang of terrorists that cost me my wife have returned."

"We’re guardians, not police," Wakka said.

"You are also very lousy Blitzball players," Jyscal said. "I believe one of you has already met her before. I just hope he can refrain form being captured on the way to the airship."

Auron mumbled several sentences composed almost entirely of swearing before saying anything relevant. "They all met her, she was left on Beseid by Bevelle."

"Perfect, the only people I can trust one lousy woman to managed to accidentally let her leave the continent. How many of you dos it take to watch her?"

"She was fine on Beseid," Rikku said.

"She cried too much," Paine protested.

"I cannot waste my security who already can’t keep my son in his own damn room for an entire day on her. I need her out of my way and out of reach of these people. My son will do anything, no matter how stupid, for her. I don’t need him acting worse than he already is and I cannot leave her anywhere else. Now I’m sorry if I’m not hospitable enough for you, but I’m running out of time and I’ve already run out of patience."

"Would you mind being patient enough for us to speak with Yuna alone on a few matters?" Auron asked.

"Agreed, but stay together, I was already short on guards before one was killed."

They nodded and walked away, most of them turning to see if Jyscal was following them out of the room or to scowl at him.

"You had better still be in there!" Jyscal said to the door.

"I am."

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