Little Light
AN: So what if this is a cute little one-shot about Rikku and Rins past! It doesn't mean anything…maybe. Ehehheheehe? Edit: I went back and saw mistakes so I fixed them. I think. I considered putting a lot of what they were saying in Al Bhed, but I figured… readability. So, they are switching back and forth, ok?
Disclaimer- What? You wanna rub it in my face?
The Travel Agency was quiet in the softly darkening night. There was only the crackling of the wood fire, and the small tinkling sound of a glass bauble being touched.
Rin had been behind the counter for the entire evening, watching his patrons leave for their beds, one by one.
Only one remained, and she had been sitting in the corner by the small table for just over fifteen minutes.
It was hardly like her to stay quiet for that long, alone, without fidgeting or working noisily on machina.
Rin walked over, his boots clicking on the hard wood floor as he approached.
"Rikku, what is the matter?"
Rikku looked up from the golden hour glass she was playing with, her green swirls startled wide. She smiled guiltily, her eyes flicking back down to the hourglass she was fiddling with.
She shrugged, twisting her mouth a little. "I dunno, Rin. Everything and nothing, I guess."
Rin looked at the young woman, and as he gazed at her he felt the familiar expression of tenderness he had long since grown accustomed to settle into his features.
A breath of time passed. Then, he remembered something and got an idea. He knelt down, looking up at her face with a small smile.
"I know. Would you like some hot chocolate, meddma mekrd?"
She grinned at the old nickname, dimples in her cheeks appearing as she nodded. His lime green eyes twinkled merrily as he took her hand and led her into the kitchen as he had when she was five and he fifteen.
She was fifteen now, and he twenty five.
Fifteen was the age of adulthood in Al Bhed. It was the year a young Al Bhed shouldered a mission or task to prove that they were worthy of responsibility.
When he found out that his meddma mekrd had taken on the Responsibility of the whole world for her coming of age story… well… he can't say that he was surprised. She was an all or nothing kind of girl after all. She always was.
One cookie stolen from the jar was hardly enough. It was always the entire jar. Or the entire stock of Chocobo Feathers, which was a nightmare that was fondly remembered.
He busied himself with the chocolate and the milk, getting out the cream and the marshmallows and chocolate sprinkles. He remembered. Hot chocolate—all or nothing.
She sat at the kitchen table, her chin in her hand. As everything was heating up he turned to her.
He was silent as he took his chair across from her. She worried her lip.
Clearly something was bothering her. He waited patiently.
"Rin—Have you? I mean… well…. Yuna and Tidus… I think they love each other."
Rin nodded. "Yes, I can see it."
Rikku sighed, her lip involuntarily coming out to pout, her eyes shining. "They could get married one day."
Rin nodded. He didn't say anything. It was not his place to divulge information that was not his to reveal. It would also be very difficult to explain how he had gotten this information. "Yes, they certainly could."
Rikku took in a shaky breath. "I want them to. I want them to so badly. I want them to be happy forever and ever and… and…" She trailed off, her lip trembling, her swirls flicking from her hands to the table top.
She was quiet for a while, and he knew that she was thinking, deciding over which thoughts she was going to tell him. She always had trouble stringing her thoughts together for others to comprehend. Especially when emotionally distressed.
Rin prodded gently, "And?"
She looked at him, and he could see her eyes brimming with unshed tears. "Yunie could die you know? Tidus… he could die." She looked down at the table, her voice growing quiet.
"I don't want them to die, I don't want either of them to die, not before they get married or-or ever."
Rin drew his eyebrows together and pressed his tan hands together. He was concerned as to where this was going.
Rikku placed her hands on the table, folded neatly. "Anyone of us could die, you know?"
She stopped again, and then after a few beats of silence, "I- I think…I don't want to end up not marrying anyone. I mean… I would be okay if I died without marrying. If me dying wasn't pointless or anything."
Rin didn't like where this talk was going at all. He didn't like the thought of Rikku dying, or Rikku marrying, or dying without marrying.
He got up, and all was silent except for milk and chocolate and cream and marshmallows.
He turned and looked at Rikku, still with her hands folded neatly on the table, her eyes still not looking up at him. He set the mug of hot cocoa down in front of her, the cream towering lopsided.
She gave a choked giggle, and slurped up the side of the cream. She was smiling again.
Rin then said "You were saying?"
Rikku poked at her cream with her tongue then licked her lips. "If… if the person I was thinking real hard about marrying… if he dies… I don't want to figure out that that was my only…. My only chance at… well… you know. Being a wife, and a Lynnean of tradition…and what if… what if…he doesn't even want to marry me? You know?
Rin smiled and took a sip of his hot chocolate. He remembered clearly the first time he had chocolate with the little blonde haired green eyed Princess.
Rin siged contently. "Rikku, my meddma mekrd. Dying is so very easy. It is living that is difficult. Living alone is harder still. Rikku, you will never be alone and you will always have the strength to live, and to inspire others to live. Your fears are real fears, but you should not fear the things that have not yet come to pass. Dally on them only when there is no joy, no laughter, and only the faintest light of hope."
He looked at her kindly, her blonde hair falling softly in her glistening eyes.
"You hope, meddma mekrd. You light the way, and you are the Lynnean of life, the secret to life."
He smiled, and reached a hand over to clasp hers. "Whoever this man is, he will not say no."
She giggled and smiled warmly, a few tears released by laughter dripped onto her cheeks and slipped onto the table top. He patted her soft hand, grown slender and painted in chipped lime green. The gloves she usually wore were gone, and faint tan lines could be seen on her skin. His eyes lingered there, remembering and admiring.
He then removed his hand and they both took sip of the divine chocolate that brought back so many warm memories.
He set his mug on the tabletop and then peered over at her beaming face. He felt his heart warm, and he struggled to keep a straight face.
"If he does say no… You remember my promise."
She sputtered then, as she laughed in her mug. She set it down, cream on her nose. A faint blush on her cheeks.
She remembered.
"Rin? Even though I am five, will you marry me?"
"Uh, Rikku—I don't think anybody gets married at five." He looked at her over his mug of hot chocolate. She was happily sucking on the towering pile of cream.
"Well- then when I'm older. No body ever listens to me, but you do. And you make the bestest hot chocolate in the whole Home, even world probably."
Rin smiled, amused. "You only want to marry me because of my hot chocolate? And it's probably the best in the world? I'm insulted."
"Nuh uh!" She shook her head vehemently and stood up on the bench putting her chubby little hands on the table. She fixed him with a lopsided 'stern' face.
She had cream on her nose.
"Rin- you-you are the bestest ever! Gippal is a meanie butt, and Keyakku messes my machina. If I am older and not married yet, you hafta promise you'll marry me."
Rin laughed and wiped cream from her nose.
"Okay meddma mekrd, I promise I will marry you if you wish. If you are not married, and wish to be married, and I am not married."
She stuck out her tiny pinky, he locked it with hers.
Rikku fixed him with a stink eye, and put her hands on her hips. "Okay. You promised. You can't forget."
Weeks afterward when he was leaving for his Responsibility, she was frantic. "You can't forget! You remember your promise? Right?"
Rin smiled. "Meddma mekrd… I always keep my word."
And every year, every time she saw him, she would ask. She suddenly had stopped asking the question at age ten. He thought it had something to do with the little snot with the eye patch and her brother. She and he had always shared a secret wink when he left though, and sometimes a mug of hot chocolate.
Rikku blushed a rosy pink and Rin chuckled softly.
"I keep my word."
Rikku mumbled something into her hot chocolate.
There was the sound of heavy boots clunking its way to the kitchen. Rin had a faint idea of who was lurking in the hall.
"Meddma mekrd, E muja oui, yht E femm gaab so bnuseca. Druikr E drehg dryd ed femm hud pa halaccyno. Now if you will excuse me…" His lime green eyes flicked to the doorway where a deep red coat lingered.
He got up, and kissed the top of Rikkus head, and walked towards the door. He bowed slightly as a suspicious russet eye looked him over.
"Good evening."
He then straightened, and looked Auron in the eye for a moment. It was all that was needed.