A random plotbunny-influenced story that I decided to write. Enjoy, all!

As it said in the summary, it's ever so slightly Aurikku. No likie, no readie, okai?

Disclaimer- You know the drill. I don't own FFX… (sniffcrysob)

Rikku couldn't remember ever being so bored in her life.

The Guardians were currently camped out near some small clearing in a forest near the base of Mt. Gagazet- a nice, fluffy clearing, she added to herself, perfect for camping- and absolutely no one had said a word since all of the camp-related duties had been fulfilled, such as, "Tidus, go get some firewood," or "Yuna, wouldn't it be best to heal everyone now?"

Rikku had become accustomed to at least some conversation during their rest stops, maybe even an argument or two, but she heard nothing from where she sat away from the edge of the camp circle, cross-legged and arms folded.

Funny, she mused, she usually wasn't the one to keep to herself and be antisocial. No, that was the man of few words wearing the red coat that was positioned near the new campfire, in the process of tossing a chunk of wood in. She really didn't understand why he was so withdrawn all the time.

She also didn't understand why they needed a campfire when she sighed and lifted her swirling emerald eyes to survey the sky; even sunset was still an hour or two off.

Force of habit, maybe? It was only when Lulu produced the sack of food they carried that she gave herself a mental slap.

Duh…food. The fire flared hungrily over Auron's generous addition of wood, and her stomach roared in spite of herself. She squirmed where she sat in frustration. Okay…she was bored, and now she was hungry? Worst. Combination. EVER.

She didn't realize that she had been directing all of her glares at Auron until she noticed how he adjusted his sunglasses. Why she would notice such a trivial thing she had no clue, but it nevertheless allowed an idea to slither its way into her head. She gave a devilish grin as she stood up to approach the group. She now had a solution to he problems…or one of them, at least.

"Hiya, Mr. Grumpy," she said as she stopped behind the big man. Auron turned around to stare at her, blinking. Why must she insist on calling him that? "Watcha doin?"

"See for yourself." He returned to prodding the firewood with a stick, over which sat a makeshift pan with several mouth-watering slabs of meat sizzling away.

"You okay, Rikku?" Tidus asked. "You seemed sort of mad, sitting by yourself back there."

"It appeared as though you were giving me most of your glares," Auron noted absently to her surprise. How'd he know that?! She hadn't even known, herself! "Have I done something to upset you?"

That caught everyone off guard. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't notice everyone's wide stares until someone coughed awkwardly. Apparently he didn't know what he was saying, either. He looked up. "What?" He asked all of them, and Rikku decided to save him the effort.

"Oh, no. I'm fine! Just a little bored, is all."

Auron grunted in response and faded into his own world again, musing, probably. He was yanked out of it, however, when Rikku reached around his shoulders and to his face, grabbing his sunglasses and lifting them off. He let out an exclamation of surprise and whipped around to stare at her again as she examined them. The others watched in utter amusement.

"I wonder how these would look on me," Rikku asked no one in particular, slipping them on. Auron blinked. They didn't look half bad on her, he thought. Wait, what? He pushed the similar following thoughts away and held out his unbound hand.

"All right. You've tried them on, now give them back," he said, raising an eyebrow when Rikku took a small step back and her mischievous grin broadened, if that was humanely possible. It suddenly occurred to Auron that she had no intention of doing such a thing. He stood up, russet eye narrowing. Rikku lowered the sunglasses so she could look at him over the rims, then took them off completely and held them out.

"Come and get them!" she challenged, jerking them back when his hand shot forward like a viper to claim them. She laughed and tossed them to Tidus, who caught them easily.

"Keep Away?" he asked. "Sounds like fun! I'm in!"

He saw Auron coming his way with an infuriated look on his face.

"Over here, brudda!" Wakka had gotten up to join the fun, so Tidus threw them past the legendary guardian to the redhead.

"Is that was this is?" Auron queried as he charged toward the blitzball player. "A game?"

Wakka hurled the sunglasses back at Rikku, and he stopped and faced her.

"Yup!" she said. Tidus leaped up and assumed his position so that they now formed a wide triangle around the man. Yuna giggled loudly, causing them to look at her.

"That looks like fun!" she said, practically jumping up to join them.

"Lady Yuna," Auron began, aghast and annoyed. "Not you too!"

"As soon as Sir Auron retrieves his sunglasses, we eat!"

"Yay Yunie!" Rikku cheered. Auron took the distraction as an opening and took off at a dead run toward her, freeing his other arm on the way. When she saw him she squealed and chucked the sunglasses to Yuna, who caught them a little less gracefully than the others. Auron had to stop a few feet from the Al Bhed girl to avoid plowing into her.

"Are you joining us, Lulu?" she asked the mage. She chuckled.

"I'm afraid not," she replied, crimson eyes filled to the brim with amusement.

"Thank you!" Auron said.

"But feel free to toss it here if you need to."

Yuna squeaked at the sight of the one man stampede coming toward her and threw the sunglasses predictably to Tidus, so Auron quickly pivoted and took off toward the blonde, determined to get there before he could catch them. Or just after, as it ended up being. He crashed into him just as he caught them, causing the boy to fly back and drop the sunglasses. As he reached down to pick them up, Wakka sped by and snatched them from the ground, taking off. Tidus groaned comically as he sat up.

"Hey, that hurt, old man!" he said.

"Don't be a crybaby," the "old man" said as he launched himself after Wakka. Tidus blinked. Auron had been smiling! Not the "idiot, please," smile he usually gave, either. It even reached his eyes! That was about as uncommon as a chocobo willingly running into a wall.

Wakka suddenly found himself having to sprint faster as Auron caught up to him.

"Wakka," he warned, "Give them back!"

"Not a chance, bud! Yuna!" Wakka tossed them over to Yuna, who grinned as she caught them a little more gracefully this time. That's when Auron stopped, still smiling himself.

"You can't have your fun if I don't chase after you." He stated simply.

"Huh??" The others seriously pouted.

"Come on, Auron! Lighten up!" Rikku urged. They heard Lulu chuckle again behind them as she watched the charade.

"Yes, Sir Auron. When's the last time you've had actual fun like this?"

"You think this is fun to me?" he asked thinking he knew the answer, voice slightly incredulous. Deep down, they all knew he was lying. He was cut off from whatever he was about to say next when, with a mock savage cry, Tidus leaped onto him. Somehow he remained standing, however startled he was.

"Yuna, run!" he pleaded dramatically. "I'll handle the monster!"

Yuna suppressed a giggle. "But I can't just leave you!" she cried just as comically.

"It doesn't matter! Run! Save yourseeeeeeellllf!!!"

Yuna sauntered over to Rikku and secretly handed her the glasses, smiling as she watched the two struggle.

Auron burst out laughing as he began to shake Tidus off, and everyone's eyes widened. Again, this hadn't been the short grunt of a laugh that he gave in response to someone doing something stupid. No, this was "hey,-I'm-having-fun-so-I-think-I'll-crack-up" laughter.

The sound was absolutely foreign, coming from him. He took the momentary diversion to shove Tidus off of him and calm himself, raking a slightly embarrassed hand through his hair. Tidus sat up, chuckling.

"Well, that's new!" he said, earning the old, normal laugh from the swordsman. Before he could resume the chase, however, Lulu cut in.

"I'm feeling a little left out," she said, and suddenly there was a bright flash of light. When it died, Auron saw that each Guardian- excluding Kimahri- held a pair of his sunglasses.

"Illusions?" he asked the black mage, "That's hardly fair."

"'Life isn't always fair,'" she answered. "I believe that was one of your quotes, no?"

Auron ignored her comment and turned slowly in a circle, carefully studying each pair. When he was done, a playful- playful!- smile began to creep its way onto his face. He strode slowly over to Tidus.

"It seems you've made a mistake," he said to Lulu, who raised an eyebrow.

"How so?"

"Your illusion isn't quite right," he said, gesturing to the pair that Tidus held. "The bridge on my real sunglasses is not merely an arch, but an X."

Lulu referred to her little collection of memories including the man, and she realized that he was right.

"So," he continued, "Tidus can't have them. Neither can you, nor Yuna or Wakka."

Rikku paled. How had he figured it out so fast?! Now that wasn't fair!

"That only leaves…"

He turned to Rikku and sprung toward her at a full run, and she turned away and did the same. Even though she had the advantage of speed, the warrior monk was catching up to her! She closed her eyes and willed her body to run faster, not worrying about passing the glasses to someone else. She argued with herself on whether or not to turn around and see if he was right behind her. Temptation won over, however, and she turned around and began to run backwards- something she was very good at.

Or..so she thought.

With a grunt, Auron launched himself straight at her. She was so startled at the sight that she lost her footing and began to fall, almost losing the sunglasses. Auron's eye widened as he realized where they were going to end up, and he held out his hands so that when he hit the ground he wouldn't completely crush her.

Before they knew it, Rikku was on her back with Auron above her, who was wincing from the jolt that came with accurately catching yourself with your arms in a fall. The Al Bhed stared up at him as he recovered his wits, then he returned her gaze with as much surprise as she gave. Her heart was pounding, and not just because of the exercise.

"Umm…" she murmured, "Would you mind getting off? You're crushing me." She was even more surprised by how steady her voice was. He blinked, being jerked from his own world again, then scrambled off of her. She thought she detected a flush on his face when he helped her up. She held out his sunglasses when he reached for and took them, putting them back on gingerly. He then ducked his head a little, as if retreating inside of his collar. He had been blushing! Of course her face felt so hot it must have been crimson at the moment, but Auron? Blushing?? She never thought she'd see the day! But what was that supposed to mean?

"That was quite the fall," Lulu said as she and the other guardians walked over. Rikku suddenly realized that her hip was aching, and reached back a hand to rub it.

"Oww…yeah." She waited for Auron to ask he if she was all right, but when he was silent she gave up. Hey, he had acted concerned before; it had been worth the try. He turned to angle himself away from her even more.

Yuna was still giggling. "That was fun!" she remarked. "I think some of us needed that."

It was clear who the "some of us" referred to. Auron had begun to make his way back to the campfire followed by the others when Tidus rushed past him, snatching the sunglasses off again. The warrior growled.

"Tidus!"

He was already trying them on the way Rikku had when they reached him at the campfire; they didn't have the same effect as they did on Rikku, though. On him, the sunglasses just looked…strange. Auron frowned, voicing his name in warning. He reached into his coat and produced a sphere.

"If you don't give those back, I'll show everyone this video," he threatened. Tidus's eyes widened in alarm.

"What's on it?!"

"Nothing of value. Just a recording of you when you were little, doing something reckless."

He didn't like the sound of that at all; he hastily returned the sunglasses.

"What? A sphere of Tidus when he was little? I wanna see!" Yuna pleaded. Auron handed her the sphere.

"What?! You said you wouldn't show them!!"

"I said no such thing; that's what you get for stealing my sunglasses again. Plus, this will pay off for all the times you've irked me."

Tidus groaned loudly as everyone including him and excluding Auron huddled around the sphere, and the recording began to play.

Here's the line between the humor and angst/sadness in this twoshot, in case anyone was confused by that. You could pretend that the sphere merely showed Tidus wetting himself or running in triangles and stop here, leaving the previous humor to last. Or curiosity could win you over, and you could head to the next chapter and find out what I intended the sphere to play, your curiosity possibly killing the humor. That's right: curiosity doesn't really kill cats! (Le gasp!)

Either way, you're free to choose. Now I ask you: what to do, what to do?

Hehe…I've made an impasse! Doncha just luff me?

Ari Elisianete