When Auron had suggested that everyone take a respite at the notorious Thunder Plains which Rikku had only ever been to once in her life when her father, Cid, wanted to visit his cousin who lived there, Rikku was struck with nothing short of terror and was ready to just turn tail and run away as her fears returned with a vengeance. And the only reason she didn't...Was because of her cousin, Yuna, who she had taken an oath to when she became her Guardian only a few hours ago.
Sure, even Rikku had to admit there was a certain appeal to the Thunder Plains, as most of Spira, in general, had such magical landscapes.
But it didn't help ease her mind.
"I don't know about the rest of you," spoke the squinty-eyed samurai in crimson, "but I'm going to go inside the travel agency and get some rest. I want to have my strength ready for the battles that lie ahead."
Rikku's lips craned open to speak, she wanted to object some more about staying in the Thunder Plains and try to smooth talk the elder samurai about stopping at a different place for a rest; maybe even head back to Guado Salam for a rest. After all, there was nothing scary about Guado Salam aside from Seymour Guado's house which wreaked of eeriness as far as she and Tidus were both concerned. But...She couldn't reach inside her and gain the courage to do so. Or maybe it was because she knew she'd lose that argument since Auron was as steadfast as they come.
"No surprise there," Tidus remarked with a bit of snideness in his voice. "Old people need to keep their strength up, or else they'll just lag behind and probably break some bones."
Auron side-way glanced at the blonde Blitz-star and gave a 'hmph!' before walking through the doors of the small travel agency.
"Maybe we should just follow Sir Auron's example," said Wakka looking off into the distance of the Thunder Plains as a lightning strike flashed within a good radius.
"We have been traveling for a while..." Added the soft-spoken Yuna who also observed the strike of lightning, then everyone's faces.
Kimahri was as unreadable as always and simply stood there like a gigantic statue with his hands dangling at his big furry sides. But his attention was fully set on Yuna, hardly splitting it to gaze at the others. So it went without saying who his concern lied with the most.
"Maaan! You guys are no fun," Tidus shrugged them off with a hand slapping into the air. "All right, you guys go in the travel agency and rent a room or something for all of us. But me? I'm probably gonna go explore around a bit, and find myself a good spot to practice some Blitz."
Rikku was in a world of her own. A world that had sound-proof walls closing off the voices of everyone else...And only allowed her thoughts to flow freely. And those thoughts? Those thoughts were her mentally screaming while trying to find a place to hide from the raining down of lighting and thunder. She was the only one there who had the most problem with staying in such a place...Everyone else while maybe a tiny bit concerned about the conditions of the Thunder Plains, seemed to be handling being there a little bit better.
"Just don't go too far, all right? Try to stay nearby in case you run into trouble." Said Yuna. "Some of the fiends here are pretty tough...And the strongest ones will sometimes show themselves at chance."
Tidus gave a laugh in response. "Don't worry. I'll stay close by."
After that, Yuna and Kimahri headed inside along with Wakka. While Tidus, on the other hand, left the spot they were all at and traveled Southward to find himself a good spot to practice his blitzball moves for any future games they may end up heading into again.
Rikku didn't budge from the spot she was in; she was just standing there...Hugging herself since no one else would offer her comfort. Just hugging herself, trying to tell herself that everything would be fine and by the morning they would all be leaving the Thunder Plains...EVEN IF that meant they would be heading DEEPER into the Thunder Plains so they could reach their next destination on Yuna's pilgrimage.
She had yet to notice that out of all the people who had left the spot, one had remained...And was watching her nearly like a hawk. It was none other than their means of magical support: The maturely-curved black mage, Lulu.
"It's just temporary, ehehe...J-just temporary! Auron said it himself! We'd camp here for tonight, then resume our journey tomorrow. No biggie."
Talking to herself was the only means of solace Rikku had for this situation.
Part of her was wanting to head inside the travel agency with the others. But then she was still only a teenager and one who had yet to reach maturity in either appearance or mentality. And so, Rikku held a bit of embitterment towards her fellow Guardians, with a bit of disappointment and frustration with Yuna who didn't even speak up on her behalf to beseech Auron on their continuing onward. So, as a result, Rikku simply just stayed outside the travel agency building rocking back and forth as thunder clapped within the misty distance.
"I told them my story. And they still didn't listen!" Rikku whined to herself. "Yuna didn't even offer me a hug."
Lulu kept her silence while watching the other. But one of her hands were lifting to offer an index finger to her plump purple pout; those red eyes still staring Rikku down. Whatever she was thinking at that moment...Had yet to be fully revealed.
"I wish Pops was here! Maybe he'd just yell at Auron and say: 'MAH baby hates the Thunder Plains, DAMN IT! Now if we don't get out of here, I'm gonna kick your a-," but then a thunderclap that sounded like a Behemoth pounding on the ground struck only inches away from Rikku, cutting her off.
A high-pitched shriek fled from Rikku's throat as she jumped a good few inches into the air and then fell back down, scurrying away from the spot she was at like a rapid-moving fiend and then taking a spot on the left side of the travel agency. And then she wrapped her arms around herself; lips trembling as she looked around fearfully.
"Why are they doing this to me?" Herself whining continued.
Lulu finally decided to break her silence after those several long minutes of watching the blonde; she sighed, shaking her head a good few seconds and then walked towards her with that black dress made up of belts and buckles dragged along the ground.
"I understand your fear," Lulu spoke. "But sitting there and complaining about the situation to yourself, isn't going to change things."
Rikku's green eyes lifted up and met with those intimidating red ones.
"I—it's all I can do!" Rikku said defensively. "It's all I can do to stop from being scared! It's not like anyone else was like: 'There, there, Rikku; it's just thunder! It's nothing to be scared of' and patted me on the back or hugged me."
Lulu's lips didn't speak a word at this point and she just stared.
Rikku did an awkward turning with her buttocks and turned her back to the black mage, just facing towards the direction of the travel agency with that plump rear facing the mage and her arms hugging at her form all the more tighter while she muttered incoherent nonsense to herself.
Lulu drew nearer towards her and was now right behind her.
"You must conquer your fear...Or it will conquer you," said the black mage with a hand reaching down to grasp at Rikku's should and then just rest there.
With the exception of perhaps maybe Yuna, it was rare for Lulu to offer physical touch or even comfort, for that matter, to anyone. So when Lulu placed that hand on Rikku's back, it drew an instant response from the Al Bhed and she turned her neck to the side so that she could gaze at Lulu with a look of surprise on her face. And...Even more-so surprised that Lulu's hand had been on her shoulder for longer than ten seconds when she thought the black mage would have pulled it away by now.
"I-I can't, Lulu," Rikku replied, her voice almost seeming to shake.
"Try..." Lulu's voice fell in tone, sounding kinder.
Part of her was wanting to refuse. But how was Rikku supposed to say no, when Lulu was, in one of her very rare and once in a blue moon times, being kind and comforting towards her? After all...That was what she was needing this entire time, and the mage was the only one who had taken time or consideration to offer her this comfort.
Fighting the dryness of her throat, Rikku mustered up enough bravery to nod her head to Lulu.
"S-so do you want me to...To head out there?" She gestured to the plains.
"Correct," Lulu confirmed. "I want you to head out into the heart of the Thunder Plains and travel along it. I want you to grow used to the sounds of thunder clapping, and the bright flash that illuminates the sky whenever it's about to strike down."
Rikku's lips trembled. But those eyes never once lingered away from Lulu's crimson ones and the teen slowly nodded her head with one of her own arms leaving her body to slowly place a small hand over Lulu's slightly bigger one.
"O-okay. I—it's just like any other place...Except with thunder...And lightning."
"Pretend that I'm the one casting the lightning." Lulu's lips slowly curled upwards into a faint smile.
Rikku's squeezed the older woman's hand and gave a timid smile.
Lifting herself up from her jello-ish knees, the Al Bhed girl stood up straight and gave a soft pat to Lulu's hand before she felt it pull away. And Rikku shifted her weight, turning towards the intimidating distance of the misty and dark Thunder Plains, instantly feeling that sense of dread overcome her once more. But it seemed to wash away when she felt Lulu offering a brief pat onto her small shoulder.
Closing her eyes, Rikku took a deep breath and tried to prepare herself. And then she stepped away from the black mage, heading down interlocking slope paths of the travel agency's residing place.
But she didn't know that Lulu had every intention of following her: Intending to be there step by step in case Rikku headed into trouble.
Rikku slowly wandered around the plains, eyes flickering every which direction as she heard crackles and claps within the distance, something that of course crushed her courage and made her almost want to turn tail and run away. But she remembered the look of kindness and belief Lulu had offered her only seconds ago, and that and that alone was enough to make her challenge the fury of the Thunder Plains and continue onward.
"It's Lulu's magic...It's Lulu's magic," she chanted over and over with her hands rubbing at the joints of her elbows in self-comfort.
With little traces of light thanks to the ever-dark skies of the Thunder Plains that produced the endless volts, it began to grow thicker. And the youngest of Yuna's guardians was finding it a bit difficult to see through the increasing levels of mist and fog, something that made her worry that a fiend would end up sneaking up on her and attacking her while she wasn't paying proper attention.
Lulu actually felt a sense of pride in the fact that the youngest of them was about to face her fears.
"Okay, okay...Nothing's happening," Rikku darted her eyes back and forth as she came to a brief pause in the thick mist of the Thunder Plains. And it was then that she gasped with joy as her eyes spotted an unopened treasure chest and she bent over to open it up.
CRACKLE! A lightning spell hit her while she was reaching to grab the contents of the chest. And...It hit her in a very sensitive spot.
"OOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!" Shrieked the girl as she flew up into the air a little, hands reaching for her plump tush.
Lulu's red eyes grew a little. She had been behind Rikku the whole time, so she was easily able to supervise the other from behind. And what she had seen was fiends arriving with the cloaking mist. And the one who attacked Rikku? She could clearly see it's shining body of gold and that odd, eye-like center.
"Rikku!" Lulu shouted out.
A whole group of 'Yellow Elements' had arrived and were the source of the attack on Rikku's poor behind.
When the spunky blonde was done rubbing her rear-end with both hands for a few long seconds, she shifted her weight and turned to look towards Lulu who she was surprised to see had been following her the whole time. But the surprise was soon replaced by a look of fear when she caught sight of the four yellow elements who were hovering before her with their 'bodies' glowing radiantly.
Rikku backed up. Then she backed up some more. And then her back hit a lightning post, and she had no more room to back up from.
"I-I knew something like this would happen.." Rikku whimpered.
Lulu wasted no time in conjuring up a water spell to take down one of the yellow elements to protect the girl. But before she finished her chant, one of the yellow elements cast another volt of lightning and struck the Al Bhed with it. And then the other hit her with another bolt, drawing forth another loud cry.
Before the third could cast its attack, Lulu's water spell hit it and the spirit was drenched in a small spout of water, delaying its attack.
Despite nearly being petrified with fear, Rikku reached into her pouch and fiddled around with its contents, hoping to find something within it that would have an effect on the fiends before her. However, she was soon disappointed to find there wasn't a single thing in her pouch that would have a huge physical impact on them and simply pulled out a flash grenade.
"Lulu, cover your eyes!" Rikku quickly spat out.
Lulu was quick to close her eyes and cover them with her hands. And then the grenade was tossed, and a blinding white/silver light flashed across the area, temporary distracting the yellow elements.
Rikku grabbed the mage by the hand and bolted like the wind away from the enemies before Lulu could even move her hands away from her eyes.
She ran. She ran, ran, ran and ran as far as she could, with lighting flashing and nearly hitting both her and Lulu in the process. And it would have if it wasn't for the fact Rikku was keeping near the machina lightning towers.
The path was clear and Rikku was almost certain that they would make it back to Ren's travel agency. But that assumption was proven to be incorrect as a group of fiends suddenly popped up, blocking their route.
Rikku stopped abruptly.
Lulu uncovered her eyes and opened them to see the fiends blocking their path.
"We were only a little bit away from the travel agency!" Rikku mumbled.
Standing before them was a Kusariqqu, and two Gold Elements.
"Great," Rikku slowly began to back up while she gripped Lulu's hand firmly. "Looks like we have a stupid dinosaur to deal with now and more of those...Those, THOSE! Those things that shoot lightning out!"
"The kusariqqu will pose a definite problem. But if Sir Auron were here, he could take it down with ease," Lulu said with a clench of her jaw. "They're resilient to most physical blows unless you can pierce their thick hide."
Rikku felt her heart sink from the brief bit of info Lulu had given her. She knew she lacked any piercing ability with her current weapons, and therefore knew her blows would probably be shrugged off by the overgrown brown lizard-like they were nothing at all. And what would happen then? She knew Lulu was strong when it came to magic, but Lulu wasn't the strongest when it came to taking a lot of damage and would surely go down fast after a few direct hits.
Summoning her inner bravery, Rikku let go of Lulu's hand and pushed the black mage back slightly, getting in front of her and getting into a rather strange looking stance of hers, with her legs taking a V-shape and her arm slouching forward in front of her knee.
"Stand back, Lulu! I got this." Rikku said; eyebrows narrowing at the fiends in front of her.
"Not without my help..." The words were nearly whispered by the black mage.
Rikku had already rushed towards the kusariqqu with her claw weapon ready to land the first strike. And she spun in a circle once she had drawn in, the three spiked weapon attached to her orange arm-sleeve and palm delivering a nearly ineffective slash across the kusariqqu's face.
"You don't stand a chance, Rikku," warned the black mage. "Get back."
But Lulu's words were only met with the fifteen-year-old turning to look back at her, lips lifted and her teeth showing as she a cheeky and somewhat cheesy looking smile. A smile that soon turned into a painful grimace as the kusariqqu counter-attacked and slammed into her stomach with a powerful head-butt that did twice as much damage as she had done to it with her claw's attack.
Things were looking very bad now.
And Lulu was slowly realizing that she had made a mistake. One that looked like it was going to have consequences.
Seeing how dire the situation had grown, and how Rikku had partially slumped to her knees after taking the head-butt to the stomach head-on, Lulu was swift to switch to her more powerful Cactuar voodoo doll which stood beside her at her feet in that funny looking idle half-run. And she rose her hands high into the air, eyes going over the enemies before throwing her arms back down and summoning a respectably large-sized wave of water that engulfed them: 'Waterga.'
The enemies were hit by her attack, with the elements nearly defeated from having been hit with the corresponding weakness. But kusariqqu was still growing strong, despite taking a decent amount of damage compared to the attack Rikku's did.
"W—what are you doing? You're just redirecting their attention to you!" Rikku stated while placing one hand over her stomach.
"That's the point," Lulu countered.
With the fiends slowly closing in on them, and Lulu about to take the brunt of their attacks, a blitzball came flying out of seemingly nowhere from within the distance, spinning at incredible speeds. And before either Rikku or Lulu had yet to really comprehend the situation or what was going on, the blitzball smacked right into one of the lightning elementals, even if it didn't do too much damage with it being a melee attack instead of a magic attack. And almost as soon as the blitzball had hit, it rebounded and flew away like boomerang before coming back into view again but THIS time from over-head.
"Hey, I know that move!" Rikku exclaimed.
The blitzball rained down from above, causing a flash of light and a small but powerful explosion.
And it was when they went to look to see who it was that they saw Tidus, with the Brotherhood drawn and free arm reaching up into the air to catch the re-bounding blitzball.
"Well, looks like that takes care of that!" The superstar gave a smug grin with a thumbs up.
With all of the fiends defeated thanks to the assistance of Tidus, the three returned back to the travel agency where a clearly shaken Rikku was greeted by her cousin, the Summoner who she had joined this journey for in the first place. And Yuna stood in front of the younger, taking note of how she was practically slouching over and the look of both exhaustion and dread in her expression.
"Rikku. Are you all right?" Inquired Yuna, hand traveling along her cousin's face.
"Y—yeah I just...I'm a little tired is all, but I'll be fine! Don't you worry about me.."
After that, the Al Bhed pushed her cousin away and slowly walked towards the resting quarters of the travel agency inn where she pulled herself into the bed and instantly hit it; falling asleep in the process without much of a regard for her injuries.
Lulu looked around at everyone. But she didn't give any of them a chance to speak, with Yuna being the one who came the closest to trapping her into a conversation. And the black mage simply walked to the back of the small building where Rikku had headed.
Lulu gave a small knock. But received no response.
Worried for Rikku who had taken the most of the blunt from the enemies they fought, which she blamed herself for since it was her own idea to have Rikku try and conquer her fear of thunder, Lulu pulled the door open and walked inside, closing it behind her while she very hushedly called out the teen's name.
But then her red eyes saw the other on the bed, asleep.
Lulu approached the bed and sat her shapely backside against it, only to shift her weight so she was falling into the bed next to the younger and placed her head on the pillow that Rikku's stopped just a few inches short of reaching.
"I hope you'll forgive me for endangering you," Lulu's lips tried to lift, but her smile wavered almost the moment she was able to put it on her face. "It was my fault that this happened, and I...am...Sorry."
Reaching a pale hand to place it against Rikku's back, Lulu closed her eyes softly and scooted herself closer to the other until they were mere inches apart from their forms touching one another. And she expelled a sigh from those plump, purple lips.
She soon opened her eyes however when she felt something touching her body. And her eyes opened to see Rikku, still deep-asleep, with her stomach on her. And the blonde's face in her heavy-set breasts, using them as a pillow.
A muted laugh came from Lulu's lips and she patted the other on the back.
"Sleep well, Rikku. Tomorrow we'll resume our journey to Macalania. And...I promise I'll protect you this time and make sure no harm comes to you."
The END.