Rybbo Pendrtyo
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the fanfiction. Square-Enix owns everything else.
Summary: At Mt. Gagazet on his birthday, Auron discovers a sphere left for him by Rikku. Set shortly after FFX-2. Slightly AU.
Please excuse any factual errors and just as a warning, the characters may seem OOC.
Auron sighed, his breath escaping his lips in a visible cloud as he followed close behind Kimahri up one of Mt. Gagazet's slopes, appearing like he was meandering more so than following the thistle Ronso.
When Kimahri had announced he was going to Mt. Gagazet to pay his respects to the graves of the deceased Ronso as he did every now and then, Auron later confronted him and nearly begged him - figuratively - to let him accompany him. Under normal circumstances, Auron simply would've wished him well on his journey, but these were no ordinary circumstances.
It was Auron's birthday.
Auron didn't care, though. He never did. How old was he, anyway? He stopped bothering to keep track of that years ago. It was unimportant to him, yet Lady Yuna and the others would always insist on celebrating. Thus, he would always ditch. As rude as it made him seem, he hoped it would make it clear he did not wish to celebrate his birthday.
That was why he was here now, suffering under the wraith of the bitter cold weather. He and Kimahri would be gone for almost a full day, almost his whole birthday, and return later in the evening. That way, a party wouldn't take him by surprise. After all, who would throw a birthday party for someone so late at night? The mere notion of that was beyond him.
"Hurry." The Ronso suddenly spoke. Auron brought himself out of his thoughts and focused on the Ronso again, he realized Kimahri was much further ahead than he was before. "Kimahri will leave you behind."
"Coming." Auron replied, adjusting the modestly-packed supply bag slung over his shoulder before quickening his pace.
The party of two soon arrived at the crude grave markers clustered near a cliff side. While Kimahri approached them, Auron backed off, allowing Kimahri some privacy. He slipped from sight behind an icy pillar that sheltered him from the harsh elements.
With the bag dropped heavily between his spread legs, he fished through it, making inventory of all that was stowed inside. There wasn't anything better to do anyway, so he figured he would kill some time doing that. His sword lay beside him in the snow, leaving a depression of itself in the soft, pristine substance.
"What the...?" An eyebrow raised in a quizzical fashion as he pulled out a sphere. Funny; he didn't recall packing such a thing prior to his leaving. He was curious as to what it was doing amongst the supplies and decided to play it.
The sphere's message began with none other than bubbly Rikku appearing in her customary thief dressphere, asking someone out of view, "Is it on yet?"
A gentle voice, Yuna's, said to her, "Yes. Go on, Rikku."
Rikku stifled a giggle and waved, her wild layers of golden locks bobbing with her exaggerated motion. "Hi, Auron." Her tone sounded sly. "If you're watching this now, then it looks like you found the sphere I snuck in your bag." She smirked proudly before continuing. "I know you're not a big fan of birthdays, but-"
Auron was just about to stop the sphere's recording and put it back in the bag, or just chuck it over the side of the mountain and have a word with Rikku about going through other people's things, but he didn't. He was actually inquisitive on what the Al Bhed girl had recorded. He watched on.
"I just wanted to say, 'Rybbo Pendrtyo!' That's 'Happy Birthday,' in case you're slow." She snickered. Moments later, her lower lip jutted out in a pout. "I never got a chance to give you your present, though...Yuna?"
Something bluish-black dangled into view.
"It's a scarf." Rikku explained. "I thought you might need it since you were going to Mt. Gagazet with Kimahri. But you left before I could go get it from where I stashed it."
"Unfortunately." Auron murmured to himself.
"So," The blonde started when the scarf was removed from sight, revealing she had grabbed it from her cousin and wrapped it around her own neck, her fiery-tinted scarf discarded in a bundle by her feet. Auron could now see that, much like her own scarf, it faded into a different color - a bold shade of grey - at the ends. "I know it doesn't look very nice. I made it myself." She confessed. She laughed sheepishly as a single digit scratched at her cheek. "Yunie was teaching me. I haven't gotten very good yet."
"You've gotten better." The summoner commented encouragingly.
"But lookit..." Rikku whined, holding up one end of the scarf. "The ends are all...bleh." Her face scrunched up and her tongue slid out in a look of disgust.
"It's fine." Yuna reassured her.
"No, it's not!" The thief pouted again, this time appearing more poignant than she had before. "I wanted it to look perfect for him...You know how he's such a perfectionist." Her voice held a tone of melancholy.
Yuna sighed, sounding somewhat distraught. "Rikku..."
Spiraled green eyes suddenly widened and a gasp came from the Al Bhed's throat. "Oh, lnyb, are we still recording?!" A bright blush broke out across her cheeks, most likely due to her admission of wanting this present to look its best for Auron. Covering one of her flushed cheeks with one hand, she waved the other in her cousin's direction and cried, "Turn it off, Yunie!"
And that was where the sphere's recording ended.
Auron wouldn't lie to himself; he was touched. He was truly touched by the hyperactive Al Bhed girl's effort to make him something from scratch, from the heart, and disappointment that it wasn't up to neither his nor her own standards. Yes, the scarf was novice at best, especially when compared to what Yuna could craft, but if anything, the imperfections only made it more unique. It was, in its own way, perfection at its absolute.
Wordlessly, Auron placed the sphere back into the bag, coincidentally right as Kimahri called to him to alert him that he was ready to leave.
"Thank Yevon." The black-hair man uttered, slinging the bag back over his shoulder and grappling his sword's handle as he rose. He hated the cold. He really did.
Another loud groan of frustration left the blonde's mouth as she, once again, messed up the new scarf she was knitting. This time she would make a better one, she promised. One suitable enough to sit upon Auron's broad shoulders and curl around his neck.
Giving an irritated growl, she forcefully set the mess of yarn and knitting needles down on her lap, yelping when one of the needles poked her leg.
"Ow! Tysh ed!" She pushed the heap off of her lap and onto the floor, giving a tiny 'hmph' at it.
"Rikku."
"Eek!" The voice from behind had startled the Al Bhed girl enough to make her fall off the ottoman she rested upon, barely missing the wrong end of the knitting needles. "Ow..." She sat up, glaring up at whomever it was who had startled her before she had recognized who it was. When the identity registered, she dropped the glare entirely, her face displaying surprise and a subtle hint of apology. "Oh, Auron, it's you. When did you and Kimahri-" She cut herself off when her emerald orbs trailed downwards and caught sight of the yarn-based monstrosity she had made enfolding his neck and lolling lazily over his shoulders.
"Yuna salvaged it from the trash." The elder man explained as the girl stood up, still staring almost unbelievably at the scarf.
"But...why are you..." The words left Rikku's mouth with uncertainty.
"The better query is why would I not wear it?"
"But it's a big mess of yarn..."
"It's simply...unique." He added, "Just like the person who crafted it." as he leant down slightly, looming over the ottoman previously occupied by Rikku.
To the Al Bhed's surprise, she felt the stoic man's breath ghost over her cheek before his lips gingerly planted themselves there in a chaste kiss. A lingering feeling of warmth remained on her cheek as Auron pulled away, giving her a minute but kindhearted smile.
Honestly, he admitted, "This has been the best birthday I've had in years. Ever, if I recall correctly."
Rikku, her face flushed a brilliant shade of scarlet, smiled and told him, "Rybbo Pendrtyp, Auron."
I've been wanting to write something involving a little RikkuxAuron for so long! I love that pairing.
I looked up an online Al Bhed translator and used that to translate certain words into Al Bhed (Yeah, I suck :p). In case anyone's too lazy to look them up themselves, here's the translations:
Rybbo Pendrtyo = Oh, come ON. The only way you could NOT know that would be if you didn't read the story at all and skipped down to the bottom.
Lnyb = Crap
Tysh ed = Damn it
Anyways, I hope you guys liked it and please review, but don't be too harsh. It was my first FFX/FFX-2 fic. Yeah, I didn't mention that earlier because whenever I see that in the summary or the pre-fanfic author notes, I'm immediately turned off by the story and look for another and I didn't want that to happen here, so yeah...I sucked you in. XD I'll be honest. I never played FFX-2 and I haven't finished FFX, BUT I am aware of some events that take place at the end of X and in X-2 and whatnot because I've been looking up stuff like that for years. So a lot of "factual errors" are actually done on purpose, though there are a few that are unintentional. For those, I apologize. For those I did on purpose, don't bite my head off. O.o