Author's Note: Auron and Rikku have never been a favorite pairing of mine, and thus, this is an experiment.
guardian
She is sitting cross-legged, chewing gently on her bottom lip, face scrunched in concentration. An armguard sits in her lap, awaiting customization. A startlingly tall pile of items towers next to her, discarded when she realized they were not the items necessary. He is sitting across from her and trying hard not to laugh.
"Are you sure you're alright?"
"I'm fine!" she retorts. She stops biting her lip long enough to throw a pout in his direction, then resumes the nibbling. She growls quietly to herself, fumbles with a bolt, and drops it. It rolls in his direction and stops against his boot. She lets out a howl of frustration.
He lets his hand drift to the bolt and rest there, shielding it from view. His eyes seek her gaze and she stares back at him, huffing angrily. His lips twitch as if to smile but remain in a flat line. "Stop working. Take a break."
"I'm fine!" she says again. Her tiny hands begin to scratch at the back of his, seeking the bolt. She looks manic. He'd forgotten this is what customizing does to her when she doesn't have enough items.
"Rikku." He says it with force, a warning, chastising a child. She senses this and slowly stops pawing at his hand.
She glares at him. Her bottom lip juts out, unusually red from being chewed on. He notes how chapped it is when she says, "But -- but -- if I just had another Musk, or three, or actually I think I need like ten -- then Wakka would stop getting so confused and I wouldn't have this stupid purple bruise from his stupid blitzball. Did you see my bruise? Look at this! Look what he did, the big meanie -- ow!" She winces, having accidentally poked it. There is a distinct blitzball-shaped outline on her thigh.
His eyes linger a second longer than he intends. He returns his gaze to hers, calm to frustration, cool twilight to mid-afternoon sun. He says again, "Take a break."
She sticks out her tongue and stands up, walking over to sit beside Tidus, jumping into a conversation about where all the Musks went. Kimahri sits across from them, quietly sipping a Hypello Potion when she isn't looking, hiccuping once or twice when she is. Yuna is napping, curled in a ball with her head in Lulu's lap. The mage is stroking Yuna's hair and leaning cautiously to her right. She tries not to move too quickly so she doesn't wake the summoner, but she manages to take Kimahri's potion bottle and stow it away. He slumps over and begins snoring. Wakka stifles a laugh behind his hand, glancing back at Yuna to make sure she's still asleep.
The warrior monk looks at them all. They are battered and beaten, void of nearly all hope, awaiting Cid and the airship to take them from this place of ruins and pyreflies. Yet they are so determined to appear happy; they are so full of life! He is their caretaker, their guardian, their strength. They believe he has some greater knowledge of what's to come because of his pilgrimage with Braska, and although reluctant to admit it, he is afraid to let them down. He watches Rikku animatedly describe to Tidus how if they just had more Musks --
He thinks maybe he likes her the best because she is so vibrant, so alive; this is, at least, what he tells himself. He sees the shadow of the bruise and because she is not looking, he lets his gaze linger on her thigh much too long to be decent.
He shoulders his sword later, when the rest are sleeping, and he vows that she will wake up to a pile of Musks beside her, no matter how many Ahrimans he has to kill (and no matter how bad his accuracy is). He'll be out fighting all night, and he'll do it for her.