Hey guys! Been reading all the fanfics out there centering around Auron and Rikku, especially the wicked amazing ones written by rr1963, Gining, Jaymo, Enkida, and a few others. Needless to say, you all have given me an inspiration. I've decided to cast my lot in with you guys, and submit one of my own stories for your scrutiny and judgement.
A little warning to the authors- I have read many fanfictions about this couple, and I tend to slightly look to you all for styles of writing, techniques, etc. So I apologize if anything in this fic mimics your style or way of writing. It's purely accidental.
Disclaimer: I do not own the ideas of Final Fantasy X...but I do own a copy...which is the next best thing, really...
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Auron
The Al Bhed were responsible. For the attack, of course. And I knew why they had tried to attack. Perhaps Wakka and the mage knew as well. The Ronso, I'm sure, had an idea, but knowing him, he wouldn't do much about it as long as Yuna was safe.
Being a former Yevonite, warrior monk, and fiance to the High priest's daughter, I would know of the potential hatred one could feel towards the Al Bhed. A race of people with no religious rules to follow, an impulse for free thought-and-action, and an unyielding love for machina. A recipe of destruction in Yevon terms. Although, this hatred was not unreturned. The Al Bhed equally loathed their religious counterpart, a group so heatedly involved in their faith that violence itself was tolerated for it. They could not wrap their minds around the fact that such a faith could instill people to follow an ideal blindly, without questioning.
It was a kind of twisted, chaotic match made in heaven. Opposites attract.
Sighing, I continue on into the woods. The others were still near the shoopuf, Yuna being surrounded by admirers and well-wishers. My thoughts were mixed. I don't think I could handle anymore kidnapping. It was….painful.
It was not easy, this path of death on the land of the living. You get attached. To certain people, things, and places. It was too hard to resist. I could feel the walls it had taken years to build, crumble. No, it must not be true. Braska asked you, Auron. Jecht demanded you to, Auron. You can't lose face now. In the middle of the pilgrimage, no less.
But WHY?!
My fists clenched on the katana at my side.
Why was Yuna's story already written without her choosing?
Twigs snapping.
I stopped, my scouting mission ending abruptly. I looked through the slight forestation to view the boy, walking nonchalantly through the woods, a satisfied smirk on his face.
I shook my head. When will he learn a bit of common sense? What kind of idiot walks through the fiend-infested woods like that?
Sighing, I was about to continue when the boy stopped and turned to his left, a look of pure bewilderment on his face. He sprinted in the direction, and I slunk back into the trees and shadowed him on the excursion. Odds were likely he would get into some kind of trouble, like his father had done often ten years ago, and I would have to haul his ass out of the gelatinous bowels of some flan. (A/N: I imagine that in real life the flans would ingest someone when they were done. Kind of a weird idea, but hey, anything goes!)
I heard a sharp intake of breath and he exclaimed, "You're…not…dead?" I peered through the foliage to view a most strange scene.
It was…a girl. On the ground, sprawled, near the waters of the Moonflow. She got up slowly, groaning with some sort of strain. Her armor was dark, her wetsuit red and cream, her eyes obscured by goggles. Her hair was the only thing that stood out, looking like a chocobo's plume on top of a helmet.
Wait…why was she…undressing herself?
I watched, not sure if I should look away or run away. The boy, however had no qualms about the gentility of manhood and kept watching, his eyes open wide. Her shoulder armor was shrugged off, her fingers moving quickly and lithely at snapping the rest. She let out a long soft breath. And then, the unzipping.
Her hand grabbed the back zipper of her suit, and pulled it down, slowly, tantalizingly. I almost froze. What the hell was she doing? Her suit was pulled off just as slowly, sweat and lake water dripping off her arms and legs. I let out a slow breath as I realized she was wearing something underneath. The girl was shedding her outer armor, and seemed freer after taking it off. Her odd combination of orange tank and green shorts stood out on the bank, with blue ribbons on the back flowing in the light wind.
Then she began to pull her goggles and helmet off, grunting with the effort. Her face came into view, sweat pouring down her temples, her eyes widening with the sudden glare of the sun.
Her eyes were green. They blinded me. For a second I couldn't think.
As she finished, she looked at the boy and muttered, "Thought I was done for, back there."
So that was it. She was the one controlling the machine.
I heard noises behind me and quietly slipped into obscurity. The rest of the group started along the path and I joined them at the end, only earning a few quiet glances and a nod from the Ronso.
I heard voices arguing near where the boy and Al Bhed girl stood. My trained ears picked up the sounds of accusation and rebuttal. Though I heard the boy mention her name. It was Rikku.
We came into view and the boy and girl stopped immediately, looking at the group. The girl suddenly froze underneath the gaze of Lulu, Wakka, and Kimhari. Her eyes traveled over all of us, and she spied me, hidden behind the others like a shadow of red. Her eyes stayed on me for the briefest of seconds and she looked blank. Then her eyes moved on to Yuna and her face lit up like the sun. The blitzer spoke first.
"Yo! Friend of yours?"
"Uh, you could say that…" The boy was uncertain. Understandable, since the man had a harsh hatred for the Al Bhed.
They were talking but I wasn't listening. I was watching her eyes, green, and so bright I had to push up my sunglasses.
"Pleased to meet you! I'm Rikku!" She said to everyone, with a voice so high and chirpy it penetrated my cold, dead eardrums with a vengeance.
"Yuna, Lulu... I told you about her, remember?" The boy spoke again, eager to introduce her.
"She was the one who helped me before I was washed up on Besaid! She's an Al Bhe...beh..." Ah. So that's what it was all about then.
"Oh wow! So you, like, owe her your life! What luck meeting here, ya?" Apparently, the effect has taken its time reaching Wakka.
"Praise be to Yevon!" He proceeds to perform the damn gesture….just smooth, Wakka. Why does he insist upon letting that gesture loose to everyone he meets?
But honestly, can you say such for yourself, Auron? Were you not one of those Yevonites ten years ago as well?
…Hmph.
The black lady interrupts Wakka's idiotic show of faith. "Uh, Wakka…"
"Huh? What?"
"There's something we need to discuss." Yuna says quietly.
He looks alright, and says, "Oh, go ahead then."
"Girls only! Boys please wait over there." Chocobo-girl chirps again. The mage nods.
"Right. Sorry, Wakka."
She, the girl, and Yuna walked over to one side of the path, and the boy, the Ronso, the blitzer, and I stayed to the other side. Tidus kicked rocks around impatiently, glancing over and over again at Yuna. Wakka at first let out a few sounds of protest, then made an exasperated noise and shut up. Kimhari stood like a rock in the path a little farther than we were, vigilant. I leaned against a tree, very still, and sunk my head deeper into my cowl. I looked above my sunglasses at the girl.
She was waving her forearms up and down, kind of like a dog that's trying to swim, and chirping constantly. She seemed more and more like a chocobo by the minute, and that plume on top of her head didn't do much to lessen the effect. I muttered, "Hmph." And looked down at the ground.
I tried to think of something else, but all I could think about in the five minutes they left us was about her eyes. They were so…deep. As if they held something powerful, hidden beyond the chocobo-girl on the surface. I had only had a quick stare from our small encounter earlier, but I was unnerved by them. They…threw me off guard.
My head snapped up as I heard Yuna.
"Sir Auron?"
Everyone looked at me, I looked at Yuna. I stood up slowly, not knowing what to expect but expecting it at the same time.
"I would like…for Rikku to be my guardian."
I looked at her for a few seconds, hard. Then I turned to chocobo-girl. She was looking down so hard that her head was bent over. She seemed to be searching for something intently in the dirt.
In two strides I stood in front of her, my cowl masking my face up to the bridge of my nose. I looked down at her through my sunglasses.
"Show me your face."
She twitched a bit, as if she heard me but didn't want to comply just yet. "Huh?" She said, sounding scared. Her shoulders cringed. A little.
"Look at me."
"Oh, okay."
Then her head slowly tilted upwards. I took an inaudible breath, as I saw that her eyes were closed tightly.
"Open your eyes."
She opens one eye and that has enough in it to shut me up for a good minute.
The eye she showed me was green, and a dark spiral was held in its center. A trademark of the Al Bhed. This chocobo was an Al Bhed girl. And judging by the look in her eye she…was just a child. No more than a couple of years younger than Tidus and Yuna. But I knew this already.
I looked for about five seconds more and then I was hit with a strange effect. This eye she showed me…it emitted passion. Passion for…living. And a determination, a strong-willed determination, to keep the passion there. To let nothing disturb the life. Her eye filled me up with such vivacity that my cold, dead organs squirmed and made me feel slightly nauseous. It was as if the sun was shining and using my skin as its house. The fire of the living made me sick. I wanted her to stop looking at me, stop burning me from the inside out.
Instead, I said, "As I thought."
She opened her other eye for a brief second and I swear I would have stumbled if she had not looked down once more, staring at the ground.
"Um, no good?"
I looked at her carefully, considering my position. Am I to choose who the characters are in this story? No, it is not my job. That is up to the young ones. So I let it be.
"Are you sure?"
"One hundred percent!" Her eyes lit up again and this time I turned away.
"So…anyway….can I?" She asked, tentative about my reaction. My reaction.
"If Yuna wishes it." There. Safe. No meddling, Auron. Be the one that everyone looks to for support, but don't be the one they stand on. Excellent.
"I do." Yuna murmured. I heard the man say, "Hmph." That's my line, you bastard.
I walked away. I faintly heard their remarks, the girl chirped some more, and we were on our way to Guadosalam, the girl leading us on. After awhile she stopped to fix one of those blue things hanging off her back, and I walked past her without thinking.
I would have to battle her love of life. I would have to protect myself against the onslaught of sun she would bring. The others would bask in it, but I would suffer.
I stopped. I felt someone's gaze on me and I looked behind. It was her. She looked at me with interest, and suddenly I felt very uneasy. Why was she looking at me like that?
"Keep up or you'll get lost."
Her eyes suddenly flared up. She remarked angrily, "Hey! I can take care of myself, thank you." She made a little noise of frustration and strode past me, on her scrawny little legs…which reminded me of a chocobo's legs. She turned her head backwards and stared at me, irritation making her jade eyes seem fluorescent. I almost shut my eye against them. She turned away and kept walking, every movement sending blue ribbons flying up and down.
It was going to be a long, hard journey, Auron
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I'm very scared of my writing concerning Auron's thoughts in this one. He might appear a bit OOC. Rikku, however, I feel I have done a good amount with. Though, really, it's up to you all to tell me in your reviews...hint hint..
Aw hell, just review, please?
But be gentle, considering it's my first writing piece ever shown to humanity...
-SV
