The Blitzer Awakens

by Rothalion

During one of Auron's visits Tidus feels as though his guardian is more morose than normal. His concern for the older man impells him to follow the old warrior through the darkened streets of Zanarakand to Auron's small apartment. Once there Tidus is fina

Title: The Blitzer Awakens

Author: Rothalion

Summary: Tidus/Auron. A maturing Tidus looks a bit deeper into his mentor's life after he senses a growing despondency in the lonely man. I am reposting this. The original posting was horribly formatted due to word processor death.

Review:

Disclaimer: Square owns 'em I just like to play with them.

The Blitzer Awakens

"Auron?" The young man's voice was quiet and unsure, he wanted to ask the sullen man, leaving his home, a question about his well being. Auron had seemed unusually withdrawn and morose during his visit and for reasons the boy was unsure of he felt an alarming worry and concern for the older man; feelings he'd not felt for Auron before. This new concern compelled Tidus to question Auron but being young and possessing little real experience in consoling another person, let alone his perpetually somber friend, Tidus simply couldn't put the words together.

"Yes, Tidus?" 'So cold, so tired.' Tidus thought as the whispered response slipped away into a tense silence.

Auron stopped at the door, his hand on the knob, but didn't turn to face the boy. The visit tonight had been difficult enough for him in his current state of mind. He had not sleep in four days and the idea of yet another question from his bouncy blonde charge was unappealing. Auron was exhausted and he wanted to go home. The red robed expanse of his broad back was all the barrier it took to squelch the well meant query poised on Tidus' lips.

"Nah, never mind Auron. Goodnight."

With that his troubled guardian stepped through the door and out into artificial brightness of a Zanarakand evening to disappear for what might be days or weeks. Tidus felt a wash of guilt and shame at his lack of courage as the door was quietly pulled shut. He didn't dwell for long on his guilt; instead he made an spontaneous decision to follow his weary guardian home.

"Finally, you old bastard! I was starting to think I'd have to drag you out." Tidus hissed under his breath as he watched Auron exit a dingy Warf side tavern, about three blocks from his houseboat. Ironically it was called The Blitzer's Bane. He snorted at the name. The dump was a hang out for Blitzball players both old and new. 'Damn.' He thought to himself 'My old man coulda' listed it as his second address and it damn sure was his bane!' He wondered, absently, why Auron would visit a 'Blitzer's' bar. He let his quarry get a bit farther down the street before crawling from his hiding place. The normally overactive and impatient boy was glad to be moving, crouching in the darkness for three hours was more than he could stand. Patience aside the night air, by the sea, was cold and damp causing his muscles to cramp. Sticking to the shadows Tidus crept along for a few more streets before he saw Auron pause in front of an older wooden apartment building. Then, after taking a long look down the darkened street, the tired man began, with heavy footfalls, to climb the steep set of stairs that hugged the building's west wall. Tidus sighed with relief. When Auron had turned and studied the street the young hunter was afraid that he'd been spotted.

Tidus waited again; hidden behind a pile of shipping crates in an alley across from Auron's building. He cringed at the small scurrying sounds and flitting shadows that sifted through the gloomy darkness. The sounds frightened him but he remained focused and concentrated on his 'mission'. Finally he was rewarded when lights were turned on in the third floor apartment. Behind the opaque, white shades he could see a figure moving about. Tidus watched as the shadow Auron removed his cowl and heavy coat before slipping out of sight. The boy felt ashamed at seeing this even from afar. He'd only seen Auron without the garment on a few occasions and the man had been tense and almost insecure. He wondered if he should still go up.

"Yes, go!" He bolstered himself. "Don't loose your nerve now!" With that battle cry he stepped out of the shadows and dashed across the street. "After nine years, Auron, you owe me some kinda' explanation!" Then as he crept up the stairs another thought came to his mind and he whispered it into the darkness. "And I owe you my concern my friend."

Three floors later Tidus was standing in front of Auron's door. His heart pounded and even though he refused to admit it to himself he was shaking ever so slightly. Still trying to muster his courage he whispered encouragement to himself. "He won't hurt me. He can't. He promised my old man. Right? Worst case, he throws me out. Knock on the door crybaby just knock on the door!"

Tidus knocked and nothing happened. Frustrated that his bravery had been ignored he raised his fist and rapped on the dark red barrier again, a bit bolder, louder this time. Nothing. 'Damn you old man don't torment...' the thought fell off unfinished and he jumped back as the door swung slowly inward.

"Tidus?"

"Au-Auron."

Silence. Then the boy watched as the man sheathed a nasty looking dagger into his belt with a quick flip of his wrist, just a flash of silver in the dim light of the small hallway. The two stared at each other for what seemed an eternity. Auron was shirtless and Tidus rubbed the back of his neck as he gaped at the scars covering the mans torso. Jecht had scars but nothing like this. Auron was simply thrown into instantaneous turmoil, 'Tidus was here. Here.'

"It 'is' usually customary to invite guests 'inside'." Tidus blurted out insipidly. Auron saw in the boy's eyes the implied closing derogatory remark, though the word, 'asshole', did not roll from Tidus' lips as it would have so easily from his father's.

"Yes, but is it usually customary to follow people, through the darkness, back to their homes?"

Blue eyes stared at him steady, and unashamed at the reprimand, 'No sense of shame when your mind is set on something, so like your father.' Auron was not quite sure what to do. Let him in, send him home, punch him out, what? This unforeseen visit unhinged him at a time when he didn't need to be pushed any further off balance. He'd been struggling lately to maintain his emotional strength. A deep, knawing sadness and sense of loss had again gripped his heart making him moody and unsure of his bearing; stealing his sleep and now he was doing his best not to let that weakness show. Despite his effort the guardian's stomach was flipping and his heart was racing. Jecht's son was standing on his doorstep. For nine long years he had successfully concealed the location of his home, his refuge from the weight of the duty that bound him, and now Tidus was standing in 'his' space with a head full of questions that Auron truly did not feel he had the fortitude to answer that night.

"Tidus..." He began gently, intending to ask the blonde boy's pardon, to ask if he would return some other time; but those blue eyes...something in them said that this visit wasn't only about Tidus. There was something else at work here. Auron's memory jolted and he recalled the short conversation as he was leaving the boat earlier that evening. Tidus was worried about him. Cringing at his apparent loss of face he wondered what he'd let slip.

"Alright," a slight bow of his head "Please, come in." Auron stepped back pulling the door only slightly open with him forcing Tidus to turn partially sideways to fit through. Small as the opening was, Tidus was relieved, it was, after all, an opening.

The room was large and overly neat. Tidus noted a small but complete cooking area to his left, followed by a bathroom. A cot like bed, that looked too small for the big man, nestled against the far wall and above the bed hanging on the stark white wall were weapons. Auron watched as Tidus made his way across the room and stopped, staring up at the swords hanging there. The boy looked at the display and then back at Auron. The man was silent offering no explanation, he simply closed and locked the door then turned and walked to the small table to the right, his bare feet silent on the wooden floor. He hefted his jug to his lips took a long drink and turned to stare at the intruder in his home.

"These swords, these are yours?"

"Yes." Auron replied with a slight nod of his head.

"For...what?" Tidus had seen weapons before in museums, and shops but these bore the marks of having been used.

"Tidus." The boy turned to see the second shocking display in the room. "Tidus, I don't think..."

"Auron! what, is that?" The boy quickly crossed to where Auron stood before a huge wall sized bay window that overlooked the sea. It was at least eight feet wide, five feet tall and four feet deep. The entire sill was covered in a miniature forest. Trees, little cliffs of rock, a pond, a waterfall. It had pained Auron to use the tiny Machina pump to run his waterfall but this was a different world. Tidus had only seen trees in the parks around Zanarakand, small places designed to simply show what a tree was, no real attempt was made to create a sense of natural beauty or realism, but this, this was... he had no words to describe it and all he could do was stare at Auron as Auron stared at his private forest.

"Auron, what is that?" Tidus squealed again.

"Bonsai." Curt and dry, Auron wavered at the tone of his own voice.

"Bons...but...but did you, you do all this?" Tidus waved his arm across the expanse of the window. Tidus' excitement was the antithesis of Auron's sullen demeanor.

"Yes, it is my little piece of home." He reached out and gently brushed the leaves of a miniature tree near the center of the display.

As Tidus watched the older man sighed heavily and swallowed as though a lump had formed in his throat and an ominous shudder ravaged his body. He then raised his jug and took a long pull attempting to wash the lump away. Tidus turned away and reached out to touch the tree Auron had just touched. It was a bushy, green, wild looking tree growing on the edge of the small lake. It's roots and long branches growing right down and into the water. It was unkempt, yet held a certain beauty, as well as strength. A softness that it's rugged bushiness concealed from one to quick to pass judgment.

"That one, is for Jecht, your father." The words slipped and were out before Auron could halt them. Squeezed hoarsely through his tightening throat. "A Weeping Willow, they blow so wild and unhindered in the wind yet underneath the trunk is as strong and as knurled as an ancient oak, always standing, always...there, a hidden stability. They love to be near the water." His calloused fingers again stroked the small tender, green limbs of the Willow. Sighing he took another drink from the jug and Tidus watched as his eye closed. The boy was confused, a wall full of weapons and this, unbelievable, delicate forest.

"This tree, who is this tree?" Auron opened his eye and looked to the place next to the Jecht tree where Tidus was pointing.

"What makes you think it too is for someone?" He asked shocked that Tidus was being so perceptive.

"Where it grows, so near my father. It is...is proud, it shines a bit. I don't know Auron it just...is. I feel it."

"That is for my Lord." 'He feels it. Yes, he has grown Jecht, he becomes a man. 'You' should be here.'

"Braska?" Auron had told him that Braska was lost with his father.

"Yes, Lord Braska, my Lord. It is a Birch. Tall, proud, strong and dignified always, a tree of great beauty. He was not only my Lord, but...my Summoner, my priest, my father, my friend." More loosed words, he wondered if it was the alcohol or if he was becoming too tired and old to hold up his shields anymore.

"Father?!" Tidus screeched, turning to Auron, his blue eyes wide and questioning.

"Yes, he raised me after my family was killed, he...I..." Auron's voice trailed off, 'why am I telling him this?' and he touched the branches of Braska's tree with even more care than he'd touched Jecht's. Another long drink from the jug. 'Jecht, you would be proud of me, I am getting drunk, and quite rapidly so, over your son's intrusion into my safe little world.'

A little more restrained now the boy forged forward. "You...You loved him, a whole lot. More than I could ever love my ol..." Tidus paused 'old man' just didn't seem right tonight "my father." A fact. A flat statement spoken by a sixteen year old kid who knew so little about the man he had spoken the words to or the pain his utterance of them caused his old friend. The truth of the statement, a reality so hopelessly buried in Auron's soul for so long now, denied its freedom for fear of the pain the outright admission of love and loss might cause nearly drove the stoic man to his knees. "And... my father, you loved him too." Auron was reeling, 'Yevon make it stop, I cannot cope with this tonight!' He screamed to himself in an effort to halt his spiraling emotions.

"Tidus...?" It was a plea, but the inflection in Auron's voice was lost to the boy, so intent was his focus on these new revelations. Again he mumbled the boy's name, "Tidus...please stop." Despairing, he squeezed his eye shut against the onslaught of emotions that Tidus was dragging out of him. This had to end. The boy was playing his emotions with nearly the same skill Jecht had, dragging his sorrow up from the infinitely deep well of his soul where he had thrown it so long ago.

"This one, this one... who is this one? it's growing out of a rock! How can a tree grow from rock?" Tidus reached out and touched the smooth gray trunk of the Juniper growing from the simulated rock cliff alone, high above and beside the pond near Jecht and Braska. The spindly branches contained only a sparse bit of green the thing appeared to be nearly dead. "Is it someone Auron? Auron..." The man's face was a portrait of grief, Tidus nearly gasped at the pain he saw there, it replicated his mother's despondency just before she died from it, and then the guilt and terror washed over him in a wave. "You, it's you. No, Auron...no! Please, I won't let you! I won't let you go too!"

"Tidus," without opening his eye "Tidus, go home, 'please'." But in their study of the tiny forest neither had seen or heard the violent storm roll in from the sea. Thunder and lightning, wind and torrential rain swept through the world outside.

"Auron, I...I can't, the storm." Auron opened his eye and stared out the window. A huge bolt of lightening hit the beach not far from the house. The window rattled with the following crash of thunder.

"No, Tidus I suppose you can't." The lifeless sound of his own voice again caused him to shudder. Maybe he was dying like Jecht's wife. Dying 'again' from his grief.

Auron was frozen in place, how had let the boy walk unhindered through his defenses? Tidus was only a boy and until tonight Auron had never really sensed that he possessed any great intuition. Maybe it was not so much any strength Tidus possessed but some newly forming weakness he was developing. Auron was rattled, he could not afford new weakness' he could not afford to falter in his duty now no matter how desperately tired he was in body and soul. Tidus. What had brought this about? Maybe some inner bit of himself was asking for solace. It was something at the houseboat that evening, but Auron simply had no idea how or when he had slipped and let the wall fall down. It did not really occur to him that it was not so much his weakness that opened Tidus' young eyes to his pain but Tidus' growing emotional maturity. Auron would loath to know that his night was far from over yet.

Tidus stared at Auron as the man stood unmoving looking out of the huge window at the storm. Fifteen minuets had passed yet not a word had been spoken, and Auron had not so much as flinched. The boy was at a loss as to his next move. The sky exploded in a white flash of light as another bolt struck the water not too far from the shore and while the thunder rumbled into the haunting silence he moved slowly toward the immobilized man. Standing only inches from Auron's left shoulder Tidus found the courage to speak.

"Why do you fear it, Auron?" The words slashed a path across Auron's memory like a bolt of the very lightning that blasted, with a purple- green viciousness, through the sky outside. His memory shot back to when Braska had asked him the same question so many times during his youth. 'I do not know my Lord, it holds my heart.' he would reply, unable to understand his terror. Tidus retreated a couple of inches as Auron turned slowly to face him, a look of confusion on his normally stoic face. 'This cannot continue.' The stricken man chided himself.

"What," he paused "makes you think I fear it, or anything else for that matter?" 'That's it.' He thought to himself. 'You let him have it.'

"This." Tidus reached out with his right hand, thick Blitzball strengthened fingers splayed wide and placed it over the mutilated brand of the Yevonite Warriors that had been burned over Auron's heart, then with his left hand he took Auron's right and pressed it on man's chest next to his. "This, your heart pounds, Auron. It is fear." The older man tensed and tried to pull back his hand, his eye staring into Tidus'. His breath suddenly trying to come in great heaves, but the boy resisted firmly and with a strength Auron did not know that his charge possessed. "I have always known." Tidus shrugged "From the first time you held me during a storm after you came to me. My head was against your chest and with every close flash of lightening and crash of thunder you flinched a bit and your heart raced. I've always known Auron."

Auron was trapped. The boy, damn him, was right. He did fear the lightening; he had for his entire life and being unsent had not changed it. The same panic he felt during storms on Spira still plagued him in Zanarakand. Outwardly he controlled it but in his chest the fear remained hidden. He answered swiftly without removing his hand from Tidus' grasp, in a cold steady, almost cruel voice.

"It killed my parents. I was seven. I was there. I saw 'It' strike my father to the ground. I knelt over his blackened, smoking body as my home exploded behind me with my mother inside. I picked up his still hot sword and ran from 'It' as 'It' struck craters in the ground behind me. This is why I fear 'It'." The admission was spat out in a harsh whisper with no sense of concern for how the boy would take the information, the brusqueness was Auron's only self defense, he was growing weaker with each of Tidus' questions and he had to try to regain some self control. Tidus didn't flinch, his eyes held Auron's eye and the man's heart raced that much faster beneath their entwined fingers.

Tidus released Auron's hand and leaving his right over Auron's heart he placed his left hand upon the similarly ruined brand of the Monks of Yevon on Auron's right breast. The warrior did not move, he simply stared in wonder at the boy before him holding his young, strong hands placed upon his broad scarred chest.

"What are you, Auron?" The words stung, 'what' not 'who'. Had he ever truly been a who? He knew that Tidus had no underlying meaning in his word choice, but still it hurt. "These scars, and on your back, your eye. The weapons, what?" He turned and looked at the swords hanging on the wall and then back to the big man before him "Please, Auron, tell me what you are. After all this time can't you give me something, just a tiny something to hold on to you with, I...I want to understand but you always stay so far away."

"Tidus, I have given you my best. I am not my Lord, I could never be the father to you that he was to me. I... " The words wouldn't come. "My Lord was a gentle, he loved all men, he was trained to render aid, I...I was...I am..." Still the words were elusive. He wasn't exactly sure what he was anymore; he had nothing to fight, no church, no lord he had only his promises to keep going, and it was becoming difficult to persevere with promises as his only motivation. He was tired, very, very tired and horribly alone. Then a voice somewhere in the back of his exhausted and embattled mind snapped him to attention. 'Damn it! how do they get inside my head?!' He faltered briefly from the unexpected intrusion.

'Show him Auron. Just show him.' Braska's silky voice threatened to bring tears to his deep brown eyes.

'But the storm, my Lord.'

'Auron you beat the storm long ago, do not let the old fears crawl back into your heart. You can give up a small bit of yourself Auron, it is time. Just show him.'

'Lord, I am alone and not sure quite who or what I am anymore.'

'No Auron, you will never be alone. I am always with you. You know 'who' you are. You showed us, now show him. Auron, just show him.'

'I cannot reveal too much Lord.'

'You won't you stiff old monk!' Jecht's voice was forceful and bullying compared to Braska's. 'Just show him who you are, the rest will play out later. Yevon, Auron, if your not the most morose bastard I have ever met! Just show him.'

'Soon, Jecht? Will it come soon?' The despair in Auron's mind's voice was not lost to his friend . 'I am so tired, Jecht, lately I want to just lay down and sleep forever. I...'

'Soon, my good friend, soon, I promise. Just stay strong, Auron. Make my boy strong.'

'He is strong Jecht, he is...'

"Auron!" He snapped back to reality. " Auron, are you ok, your heart, it was going so fast, I was afraid it would explode. Auron, are you...?"

"Fine. I am fine." But he shivered as the cool air brushed against his now sweat slicked body. He took Tidus' wrists in his big hands, pulled them from his chest and pushed the frightened boy away.

As Tidus grudgingly stepped back Auron turned, reached out, took a long swig from the jug on the table and then walked with a great sense of purpose to the bed. Finally, after standing quietly for several minuets, he reached up and removed his sword from the rack on the wall; then turning he walked back to the picture window and bowed reverently to the tiny forest saying:

"Yes my friends, I will show him." Tidus didn't know whether he should run, cry, or beg for his life. Auron's demeanor had suddenly turned frighteningly purposeful, regimented. What was he going to do with that sword, show who what? What friends? His thoughts were quickly cut off.

"Follow me, I will show you." A command.

The stairs to Auron's apartment were in the lee of the storm so it wasn't until they turned the corner that the full force of the torrent hit them. The wind drove the rain so hard that it stung Tidus' face and arms as it struck him. If Auron was bothered by the ferocity of the weather he gave no hint of it, the man walked methodically ahead towards the beach. Once the two gained the firmer sand Auron turned to Tidus and with his sword out stretched to the right he bowed very low and graciously to the confused, drenched boy; then standing straight he again ordered Tidus to watch and walked to the edge of the surf.

Auron stood facing the raging sea, lightening flashing and thunder pounding all around him. He stood tall, and straight his black hair whipping in the vicious wind. Then, as if he'd received some silent signal, he raised his left arm forward in front of him, moved it slowly left and then downward to his side. Lightening flashed again and again making the man look like a surreal warrior from one of Tidus' movie disks, oblivious to the danger he began.

Tidus watched as the man he had known for nine years moved up and down the rain pelted beach with a grace and strength he never dreamed possible. Without knowing exactly what he was observing the stunned boy was aware at some base level that what Auron was doing was a means of dealing out swift and brutal death. No matter how beautiful the display appeared, Tidus, in his heart, understood its purpose and a sudden sense of fear gripped his chest. Auron knew how to kill. Auron had killed. Auron was very, very good at killing.

The display went on for what seemed to Tidus forever. The huge sword flashing in the lightening, Auron moving faster and faster and the unrelenting wind stealing the warmth from the waiting blonde's tired body. Tidus was unsure if it was one dance or many. It was as though the man and his sword were joined. Tidus was cold, he was tired, and he wanted Auron to stop. The man seemed wild and completely detached from reality. Three times lightening had hit the waves less than one hundred yards off shore, but Auron continued never missing a step or a slash, never slowing, only going faster. Then it happened, he simply collapsed to his knees in the cold, gray foam, sloshing surf. By Tidus' reckoning he'd had been at it for well over an hour.

"Auron!" The boy screamed above the savage wind as he ran forward.

When he reached the crumpled warrior he knelt in front of him. The cold, silver-gray water chilled Tidus to the core. Auron was on his knees bent all the way over, heaving in an attempt to get more air into his starving lungs. His long dark hair tossed in the swirling, murky surf. Tidus could smell Sake, sweat and rain as he pushed the man's head up and tried to peer into Auron's dark eye.

"Auron, are you all right?" Tidus tried to push the black, wind whipped hair back out of his guardian's face. The dark, heavy head lifted up a bit more, but very slowly.

"This...is...what... who I am." He was gasping, the words barely more than a whisper. "I am called Auron. I am a Warrior Monk... I was trained to kill... from the time I was seven years old at the temple...at Bevelle. I am a Guardian, sworn to protect my Summoner, Lord Braska...as I protect you now, with my life. I am a Monk, tortured and thrown out of my church for honoring...my vows...and refusing to marry. I am foster son to Braska and brother in arms...to Jecht. I love them both with all my being and I miss them more then I can say with words. I...am alone in this foreign world. By my faith and my vow to Yevon I have never known the comfort of either a woman or a man, and tonight you have torn my heart from my chest and made these pains awaken in me once more." He paused and with his voice breaking went haltingly on. "I...I miss my lord. I miss your... your father. Yevon, how I love them. I miss my home. Tidus, every day you grow more like your father and to look at you... to watch you...it threatens to undo me. The memories..." He bent forward again as if in pain. Tidus put his hands upon the despairing mans head forcing it back up, his Blitz strengthened palms on each of the trembling man's stubble shadowed cheeks.

"Auron, I am sorry. Please, please, lets go back inside. Your shivering with cold and exhaustion, please!" He pleaded his voice shaking with burgeoning tears. Auron nodded in agreement, but he didn't stand immediately. Reaching out with a shaking hand he touched Tidus' lightly stubble covered cheek, the soft blonde hairs were new and downy. Then for the first time since Tidus was a very small boy Auron pulled him into an awkward yet tight embrace that Tidus returned without hesitation.

"Auron, you're not alone, I'm so sorry I let you feel alone." Tidus whispered into the sad man's ear. Auron tightened his hold on the boy. 'Yes, like Jecht, arrogant and rough on the outside, but inside...such a great capacity for love.' He wished that Tidus did not hate Jecht.

Back in the warm apartment Tidus tried to get Auron dry and to bed. The man still trembled with cold. The boy went about the task of laying Auron down, getting his soaked pants off and drying his tangled hair. That accomplished he covered his still shivering charge with all the blankets he could find and watched, worriedly, as Auron fell asleep.

Two nights after the events on the beach Tidus sat in a soft arm chair staring at the sleeper's relaxed face. He could not conceive of sleeping for so long. Needing to stretch he stood, turned and walked to the great window. Night had completely fallen and Zanarakand's neon-light muted moon cast thin silver shadows across Auron's tiny forest. Tidus' heart was heavy; Auron was still down and the Abes were playing tonight. He knew that without him they would lose. He also knew that Auron was more important.

Finally late in the afternoon of the third day the boy was roused from his dozing by a soft moan. His eyes flew open as he surged out of the soft chair and perched on the edge of the bed.

"Auron, Auron?" Without hesitation he pushed a stray strand of hair from the man's face and stroked his cheek. After three days of soothing his mentor through nightmare after nightmare touching him had become a completely normal response. "Auron, can you hear me?"

The dark eye shot open, and Auron coughed to clear his throat.

"Yes. Tidus?" he blinked focusing his eye.

"Are you alright? Damn it Auron!" He grasped the waking man's shoulders and stared expectantly at Auron's face.

"Yes. Fine. Tidus, you stayed." he reached out weakly and wiped the tears from Tidus' cheek with a calloused thumb. "Shh, Tidus, I am fine."

Tidus' resolve shattered as he saw awareness fill Auron's eye. His own exhaustion overwhelmed him and he began to sob and speak, his words were nearly unintelligible.

"Auron, you were so deeply asleep, and the nightmares. It's been three days. I didn't know what to do. I thought I'd killed you. I thought you'd gone like mom. Auron..." As he clenched, with talon like fingers, Auron's still shoulders, his guardian's coarse fingers pressed against the his sputtering lips.

"Tidus, sshh. sshh. Fine. I am fine, just weak." He coughed again, his voice was ragged. "Tidus, I am thirsty, very thirsty. Tidus?"

Tidus ran to the small kitchen and returned. Auron was sitting up, although slouching a bit, with his blanket wrapped tightly around his bare shoulders. He took the glass of cool water with shaky hands, spilling a little as he brought it to his parched lips. The groggy man drank it quickly and sent Tidus back twice for more.

"Tidus, don't you have practice?" Auron asked after a few quiet minuets.

"Yes, but..."

"No. Go. Really, I am fine. They need you. We will talk tomorrow. I will see you then. Do you have a game tomorrow?" The boy nodded. "I'll see you at the game. Like always. Ok, I'll be at the game, Tidus."

"But, Auron...I can't just leave. Your..."

"Go, boy. I am an old hand at healing up alone." He hoped that he'd kept the need he was feeling from his voice. 'Yevon.' He thought to himself. 'Yevon how I wish you were here with me right now my Lord.'

Tidus was gone. Auron sat alone again, in the soft chair, with his blanket pulled tightly around his shoulders and his jug on his lap. Somberly he peered across his little forest into the gaudy Zanarakand night. He closed his eye and let his head fall back against the chair, Tidus' parting words sounding in his memory. 'You're not an old Juniper Auron. You're just not. You belong down there with them.'

Two weeks later Auron swore as he tripped over a large box placed just outside of his door . The small card attached to it read:

Auron,

Like I said, you're not a old, dead Juniper.

Love, Tidus

Inside the box was a beautiful bonsai. A vibrant, brilliantly colored Red Maple.