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After two hours of searching, the sky reflected Faris' mood -- dark, stormy, and colorless. What had once been a lovely afternoon had turned to dismal grey beneath a swathe of storm clouds. Faris had smelled it coming of course, an ominous scent on the wind, but that didn't make its arrival any more welcome. If he'd have been at the helm of his ship, he'd have been searching for land about now -- anything to get them out of the tempest to come -- but this was a town, not a ship, and he wasn't anywhere near his charts. So Faris marched on, asking each stranger his questions with a fading sense of optimism and a growing chip on his shoulder.

He wasn't needed around here anymore. Funny how quickly everything could change. He'd been gone for less than three months and already there was an eager young swordsman ready to take his place -- innocent, probably, and without Faris' brash demeanor. These people didn't need a scoundrel like him -- not an ex-pirate and a natural born hellraiser with a crystal to guide him. But then, there were greater problems than protecting this town. He needed information and he needed it fast before the next disaster struck. More than part of him longed for that great white knight by his side. There he'd seen the mark of a leader. Pure. Flawless. Driven. He hadn't exactly been Faris' cup of tea, but in a pinch, he'd done the job. He'd stood tall in the middle of disaster with his confident gestures and his gleaming sword, and there hadn't been another man in the world that Faris would have rather followed. But now he was gone. Taken by guilt for something he'd had little part in. And now Faris was lost again.

Tch. Lost? When had he ever needed anyone? Why did he even bother? If this had been a year before, Faris would have terrified this town himself and extorted them to fill his wallet, but somewhere between then and now, he'd changed. He wasn't the same hostage-taking pirate he'd once been. Or maybe it was all just waiting for the right time to shine. 

The rain came all at once -- a sudden downpour that drenched him to his skin. Faris eyed the merchants as they grabbed their earnings and fled indoors. Faris didn't follow them. Instead, he glanced around the abandoned merchandise, swiping what he thought might fetch him a pretty penny if it was unguarded. As he started back onto the main streets, he felt eyes on him from cracked windows -- watching the eccentric, violet haired man who didn't care a thing for the rain. Faris grinned back at them, though it never quite met his stormy eyes. He'd steered a ship through worse than this and had lived to tell the tale. Water had never been his enemy.

It wasn't until he'd come to nearly the other side of town that he heard tell of the mark he was looking for -- Tidus. They told him the kid had been rescuing flood victims in the southern district, and that he'd come to be known as something of a local hero. He'd even saved a little girl that morning -- brought her right back to her parents and hadn't even taken a cent for it. Faris grumbled a little under his breath -- the last thing he needed was starting trouble with a hero -- but he didn't have a choice. There were greater things at stake than his own reputation. And so he started off towards the ruined wastes of a flooded city, searching for a boy who'd actively made it a little better.

What would Lenna have thought of him now? She'd have tried to stop him, but Lenna wasn't here. It was only Faris, and he had his own way of doing things.

The boy wasn't hard to find when he was the only other one out in the rain. Faris knew him on sight with his off-kilter leather overalls and searingly yellow half jacket. Faris had been around the natives here long enough to know when someone didn't belong, and this boy certainly didn't. Faris stopped in the street as they approached each other, arms crossed and eyes scathing. The boy was a few inches taller than him and had more than a little extra muscle on his shoulders, but Faris was a proponent of quality versus quantity. He let his attitude make up for lost height and stature.

"Are you the kid the town's been raving about? Who swims like a sea drake and will battle any manner of beast? Tidus, was it?" Faris swept his drenched hair behind his ear and angled his head to look at the boy better. "Aye, if that be you, then I'll have words for you. You're not from these lands, so spill it. Are you Tidus or not?"

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This boy wasn’t the fastest ship in the sea. He didn’t even need to open his mouth before Faris knew what he was dealing with. He saw it in the boy’s hapless expression, in the way he perked up at Faris’ threat as though it was a compliment, and in the arrogant jab of his thumb towards his chest. ”Yep, that’s me!” he said without a hint of caution or foresight, and it was all so forward and pointlessly brash that Faris almost burst out laughing right then and there.

He hadn’t met a man this optimistically stupid since Bartz.

”If you wanna talk, are you sure the middle of the street’s the best place?” the boy asked with genuine concern. ”You sure you won’t get washed away by all the rain? I’m an expert swimmer, and I’m about to have to grow gills!” He looked around without waiting for Faris’ response, as though he’d find a better offer just out of his sight. It was all so fast that Faris almost couldn’t follow – a rambling string of nonsense with enough heart behind it to move the crystals themselves. Faris’ mouth twitched with a smile.

”Don’t worry yourself. I can handle this swell and anything the rain throws at me.” He wouldn’t call himself an “expert swimmer,” but it had been enough to save him from the pull of the sea three times before, and it hardly mattered when he was standing on dry land. Tidus looked him over closer before continuing.

”Things are gonna stay pretty dangerous around here until this reignstorm thing blows over, but you look like you can handle yourself. What’s up? Got a problem too big for just you to take care of? Gotta call in a hero to help you out?” The boy’s grin was almost unbearable. ”Well, you came to the right guy!”

Faris had been wrong. This boy wasn’t anything like Bartz. His head was so inflated it could have powered an airship.

”Slow down, lad. There’s nothing I can’t handle and I’m not in need of a hero.” Faris eyed him skeptically. Anyone who called himself that had to be host to more than a few complexes. ”I’ve got a few things to talk over with you. I’ll need you to stop-“  A wave of thunder drowned out his words, and Faris glanced up at the maelstrom above them. Rain fell in sheets across his forehead, and he had to squint to keep it from his eyes. The clouds flashed with lightning on the horizon, and Faris scowled.

”Maybe we should take this inside after all.” He swept his mess of wet hair over his shoulder. ”Come on then. Have it your way or Ramuh will strike us where we stand.” Faris turned and started back the way he’d come, glancing over his shoulder just once to make certain the boy was following. He’d roamed these streets long enough to know them even through the shadows and rain. ”There’s a place about two streets ahead – nothing special, but it’ll give you a roof and a fire to dry yourself by.” The words came before he’d thought of them, but they were too helpful. Too kind, almost, in his own brash way. Hadn’t he come to intimidate the boy? Faris cursed his own soft heart.

It was a hole in the wall kind of place, the kind that reeked of desperation and half-opened bottom shelf liquor. Still, as Faris sidled inside, it was warm and their roof didn’t leak except in a one corner which was avidly avoided. Faris straightened his tunic as the door closed behind him, taking a moment to wring out his hair onto the welcome mat before unraveling the scarf from his neck and folding it over his arm. The seats by the fire were crowded, but Faris contented himself with a table nearby, hanging the scarf over the back of his chair to dry.

Once he’d seated himself, Faris leaned forward, threading his fingers together on the table. ”You’re not to do business on the east side, understand? The taverns there are mine to handle, and I’ll not hear a word against it.” He gave the boy a stern look, making sure to meet his eyes. ”I have business there for something important – the kind of important you live or die by – so this is your warning. You keep this up and there'll be trouble for you.”

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The boy didn’t take Faris’ suggestion well. In fact, he laughed in his face. ”You can’t tell me not to help people out, not unless you get there first!” he spat as though it had all been a joke. Faris shot him a cool look, the kind he’d have used on an unruly sailor. He hadn’t known what he’d been expecting, but either this boy was too strong or (more likely) too dull-headed to take a hint. He had the mannerisms of a child and the logic of one at that – you can’t take what isn’t yours, not unless you saw it first. Faris might have laughed right back if the stakes hadn’t been so serious. It was more than clear to him that this boy needed a lesson in how the world worked, though who should give him that lesson was harder to say. Was the information Faris needed worth assaulting some brash kid?

Maybe. If this kid in question kept rustling his feathers the wrong way.

But it didn’t seem that would be a problem once Faris explained the importance of it all. Tidus leaned forward in sudden interest, eyes wide as ever with his usual grin like an excitable puppy. ”So you do need help with something!”

”Eh? Now, that’s not what I-!“

”Listen, I’m an experienced adventurer. In the world I’m from, I helped save the world from an evil god monster!”

”That’s about a dime a dozen around here, but-!“

”If it’s something important, maybe I can help you out, you know? You get your problem dealt with, and I can keep helping the people here!”

”I’m not in need of-!“

”They need somebody to stick up for them, and I’m not about to tell them I won’t cause some dude in a scarf told me I’d be sorry.”

”And what’s that supposed to-?”

”Besides, if it’s something that big, you’re gonna need help, and my friend Yuna should be plenty to start with!”

”ENOUGH, lad!” Faris sat up straight, eyes blazing, until the slew of nonsense had stopped and he was left with a second of silence. Once he finally had the boy’s attention, he slumped back into his chair and crossed his arms moodily. ”You know how to talk big, at least,” he muttered before blowing a thicket of loose hair from in front of his eyes. He eyed the boy through a veil of his own wet and messy bangs.

”You’ve got a lot of spirit and more guts than you know what to do with. That’s not bad, but you don’t know a thing what you’re talking about.” Faris let out a harsh breath before shoving his hair behind his ear. ”There’s not a stranger that comes by dressed in odd clothes and carrying a sword that’s not faced some kind of devil or another. Me? I’m a Warrior of Light. Chosen by the crystals, though they had to be daft if they gave it to a rogue like me.” Faris sat up just straight enough to lean his elbows on the table and fix Tidus with a dark look. ”I went to all four crystals and back and then left my homeworld all together – all so it wouldn’t get sucked into the Void. I’ve been to places between worlds where time’s a thing of memories and demons run wild. I don’t need help. I just need you out of my way.”

Faris settled back into the chair again and glanced away to eye the floor heatedly. It wasn’t that he didn’t need a team behind him – he was used to friends and a crew and all kinds of allies -- but he didn’t like the boy’s implications. He talked as though Faris himself needed help – as though he couldn’t take care of himself and was just waiting for a hero to come save him. Faris had been a leader since he’d taken the helm of his ship at the age of sixteen, but that didn’t mean he wanted responsibility for a couple of kids now. He didn’t even really know what he was looking for – just rumors from a knight so unhinged Faris couldn’t be sure he’d heard the story right. But it was something, and if the knight had been right, it was a something that could endanger the very world they stood on.

”It’s a deadly task, and not one that I know an angle for yet. All I need is a place to ask questions, but those taverns won’t let me inside while they’ve got you working for them.” Faris glanced at the boy again before scuffing the floor with his boot. ”I’m looking for leads. There’s not a thing you can do for that.”

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Faris had traveled across three worlds and all the high seas, and still he couldn’t remember meeting anyone as impatiently childish as Tidus.

Almost as soon as Farias had finished speaking, Tidus was already talking over him. ”So uh. You’re done with story time, right?” he asked with a bored scowl before perking up and going off again about helping and getting things done. Faris blinked before snapping forward, giving him a wild look like the boy was a feral animal about to run awry.

”Did you listen to a thing I said? It’s like it’s all going out the other ear.” Faris sighed heavily as Tidus went on, jumping out of his chair and stretching like an excitable kid not old enough to sit still. He went on and on with his plans, talking about going in for Faris, asking about things he didn’t even know yet, bringing in some girl Faris had never heard of, and – for some reason – about the time he’d died and “got better.” It was all so fast and so jumbled that Faris didn’t even notice he’d finished until Tidus thrust his hand towards him expectantly.

For a moment, Faris just gave him a look, one that was equal parts baffled and stern. He let the silence simmer between them before pushing his chair back and standing to face him. He didn’t take the boy’s hand. ”If you’re ready to throw yourself into the fire then I won’t stop you, but you’d do good to start asking questions before you jump. If that’s what you’re interested in, then sit back down. You must be capable if this town likes you so much, but there’s some things you need to learn before you run straight into some fiend’s hands.”

Faris placed a hand on the table and leaned towards him seriously. ”Maybe you know your way around a sword. Maybe you’re a big shot where you came from – the kind of hero who takes on gods and devils and all sorts of evil, but that doesn’t make you special here, and that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stop to think. It’s your ego that’ll get you in trouble one day, and if you don’t deflate that empty head of yours, it’ll get you killed.”

Faris gave him one last look before lowering himself back into his chair. He kept his hands on the table, folded in front of him. ”So. Are you ready to ask some questions or would you be better off in the rain?”

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