'Ello, everyone! First off, I wanted to thank everyone for their kind review on "Hunter's Day out" and I'm glad you all enjoyed it.
Anyway, this is yet another plot bunny that has hopping around in my crazy little head and I needed to let him out.
By the way, this is based when Tidus was a kid and Auron was raising him.
Title: Just another Saturday.
Rating: K
Summary: Tidus is curious as to why Auron enjoys that black stuff he drinks in the morning. But there's one problem: Auron won't let him anywhere near it! But Tidus is never one to give up easily...
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy X, it belongs to Squaresoft. I also don't own any of the places used in this story or the characters.
A nine-year-old Tidus groaned when his alarm clock began blaring at him.
Ugh... 6:30? Tidus thought bitterly.
It was a Saturday! He should be allowed to sleep in! But noooooo, that big dummy Auron said he should be up early every morning! He had said: "Waking up early is good for your future" or something along the lines of that.
Pffft! Yeah right! Tidus was going to be Blitzball star in the future! The games were always late at night! He could sleep all day if he wanted to!
Grumbling, Tidus reached for the alarm clock, feeling around a bit until he found the "off" switch. He whined when he felt a piece of tape on it. Grumbling even louder, he rolled out of bed, sulking as he fiddled with the alarm clock, trying to rip the tape off of the switch. When he finally succeeded, he realized something: he was all ready out of bed now. Meaning there was no point in laying back down...
Stupid Auron with his stupid smart thinking!
Grumbling was the trend this morning, for Tidus. He continued his bitter grumbling as he walked into the kitchen, seeing Auron sitting at the table, drinking his coffee quietly.
When Tidus walked in the room, looking irritable but awake, Auron grinned. It always works he thought to himself, watching as Tidus slumped into his chair, wearing his Blitzball pjs and looking as if he was going to fall asleep right then and there.
"Good morning, Tidus," the older man greeted. Tidus muttered something sleepily. This was kind of their trend; Auron would drink his coffee and Tidus would stare the table down as if it was his worst enemy. Well, it wasn't his bed so it kind of was his worst enemy.
After the usual silence, Tidus looked up and asked the traditional question: "Why do you drink that?" he asked, pointing to the cup of coffee in his caretaker's hand. Auron glanced at the coffee, and as usual, told him why. "Becuase, I enjoy it and it wakes me up." Was his curt answer. Tidus eyed it, and as always asked: "Can I have a cup?" he asked, hopefully.
Auron shook his head. "No," he replied, not even looking up. The last thing the boy before him needed was caffeine! It would make him even more hyper-active than usual! Now, you may be thinking "Tidus is usually hyper-active? I don't see it." but believe me when I say, you do not want him to have sugar.
Tidus slumped in his chair, he was hoping Auron would finally let him try that stuff. It must've tasted really good if he drank that every morning! Auron was kind of a stiff and never did pleasurable things, outside of watching those scary movies at night when he thought Tidus was asleep.
Last night, "both" of them had watched "Jaws" which was a famous movie in the area. For some reason that Tidus could not comprehend, people actually enjoyed wetting themselves in undisguised horror! How was that possible? Tidus didn't like being scared, he would usualy start crying if something gave him a good enough scare, but I digress.
"Why not?" he asked, adding a nice little whine to his voice. That had to work! Whenever he used that on his Mom, it always worked! When she was alive, that is...
"No." Auron's once again, curt response had shaken him out of those sad thoughts. Tidus sighed in frustration, crossing his arms and settling with pouting. Auron chuckled softly; Tidus didn't know this, but he was so like his father, Jecht. Tidus hated his father, and would pitch a fit if Auron told him how similar he was to the former Blitzer, so he settled for musing in his mind.
Tidus looked up at Auron as he stood from his seat, downing the rest of his coffee; It was about that time for Auron to run his errands. "Maybe when you're older," Auron chuckled, ruffling Tidus' hair as he passed, on his way to the door.
"Behave yourself," Auron called over his shoulder, as he closed the door behind him. When he was out of Tidus' sight, Auron grinned; he couldn't wait to find out what happened next...
The small boy sighed. He didn't know what to do with himself now. Reaching down and fiddling with the buttons on his shirt, he looked around, hoping to find some way to entertain himself. He glared out the window, seeing that the sun was just rising over the horizon. It was almost silent, the only sound that could be heard was the quiet stirring of the waves.
As he continued scanning the room, something caught his eye: The coffee pot. There it was, just sitting there. There wasn't really any signifigance of the pot, was there? It's not like now he finally had a chance to drink some of that without Auron finding ou-... Tidus, you clever little future-Abe, you.
Glancing around the room as if he feared someone was watching, he got out of his chair, sneaking over to the source of the aroma filling the kitchen.
It was perfect! He would get a cup of coffee, drink it, find out its magical power of revitalization and Auron would never know! Sometimes, he surprised himself with his devious little mind! There was only one problem with his plan: he couldn't reach the coffee pot!
Okay, just a small (pun intended) problem... Tidus had always seemed to be small for his age, but that was never a problem until now! He could figure this one out, though.
Challenge accepted! the blonde thought, getting a devious look on the face. Moving away from the counter and running to his chair, he pushed it over to the desired location and climbed onto it, all the while snickering devilishly. Now, he could finally harness this mysterious coffee's healing power! Taking the pot off of the counter and hopping off the chair, Tidus placed it at the table and stopped to laugh evily.
He was so excited! He could finally do something rebelli-something! He never did learn how to say that word. Auron had said it once, but that was the only time Tidus had heard it. Now, he needed a cup. Thankfuly, he could get to those. Scurrying over to the cabinet-the one closest to the ground-Tidus reached inside and pulled out one of his plastic cups that Auron had gotten just for him.
Silly Auron! He was making this so easy!
Returning to the table and making use of Auron's chair, he practicaly dumped the coffee into his cup, not caring that he spilt most of it on the table. Yum, yum, yum, yum... he sang in his mind as he opened his mouth to drink...
GROSS!
Tidus spluttered, spitting the coffee out and acting as if he were dying. "Eww!" he whined, making "ptewie" sounds and thinking horrible things about the black evil that was before him. How could Auron drink this stuff? It was not a healing power! It was the devil's drink!
There had to be some way to make this better! Getting out of the chair, still spitting, Tidus made his way to fridge. Opening it, he looked around for something, ANYTHING, to make it better. Ah! That should do it! The full carton of milk caught his attention. If milk could make that stupid "whole grain" cereal that Auron had forced him to eat better, it could make the coffee better too!
Returning to his seat, milk in hand, he proceeded to pour some into the over-flowing cup. The coffee went from the uninviting black color, to an ever-welcoming cream. "Hee, hee..." he giggled, feeling oh, so rebell-something. Bringing the cup to his mouth, he was still unsatisfied with the taste. It still tasted too bitter! And on top of that, it tasted too milky!
Desperate, Tidus refered to his last resort: his hidden container of sugar. Bolting to his room, he dove under his bed, surfacing with the aforementioned sugar. This had to make it better!
Within a few seconds, he was back at his cup of coffee. Tidus had poured the entire container of sugar into the over-flowing cup. Hoping for the best, Tidus took a deep breath. Lowering his head to the "sleep deprivation remedy" and dipped his tounge into it, much like a dog. His eyes widened, but not in displeasure this time.
"Mmmm..." he whispered, awed. Now THAT was good. In a matter of time, Tidus had downed the entire thing, and was running around the boat house like a chicken with it's head cut off.
Five hours later...
"!"
He screamed, jumping up and down on his bed.
Unbeknownst to him, Auron was sitting in the living room, listening to the boy get his energy out. Auron grinned, he couldn't wait to see how this would all end. He supposed he should do something about this before it got out of hand... Nah, this was too amusing to intervene now.
Auron knew Tidus had gotten into the coffee, in fact, he had planned it from the beginning. Tidus wanted to have coffee, and he got it in the end. At least the boy wouldn't bug him about it anymore. Not after today.
Four hours later...
Auron sighed in relief. It was over. Tidus had collapsed an hour after Auron had returned home, and the ex-guardian was carrying the boy back to his room. Tidus would occasionaly mumble something about needing more sugar, but other than that, the boy was wiped.
Using one arm to secure the small boy, he used his free hand to pull back the covers. He placed Tidus into his bed and pulled the quilt over him, grinning when Tidus moaned: "Devil's drink..." before rolling on his side.
The next morning...
"Good morning, Tidus."
Tidus mumbled something, sounding even more sleepy than usual.
Silence.
Auron was almost expecting the usual question...almost.
"Tidus," he said suddenly.
"Mmmgah...?"
Knowing he got the boy's attention, he went on. "I have a surprise for you," he said, trying to keep a straight face. He had his attention for sure now! Tidus perked up in his chair. "Yeah?" he asked, not even trying to contain his excitement.
Auron walked over to the counter and fell silent. Tidus could see him preparing something, but what, he didn't know. Finally, Auron turned around, holding a mug of... something in his hand. Tidus could feel something... scary welling up inside him. Auron placed the mug in front of him without a word.
Tidus peered into the cup and gasped. It was...
He looked up at Auron. "I decided to let you try coffee today. Since you didn't... misbehave while I was gone..." the man said, giving Tidus a "sincere" smile. Tidus stuttered, looking down at the coffee then at Auron, back to the coffee and then Auron once more.
...
"NEVER AGAIN!" Tidus wailed, diving out of his seat, and making tracks for his room. Auron smiled. "What's wrong?" he called after him, with false concern. "THE DEVIL'S DRINK! NEVER AGAIN!" he screamed in response, slamming his bedroom door behind him. After several more seconds, Auron sighed.
He reached down and picked up the coffee, bringing it to his lips and taking a sip.
Auron loved it when he won.
There ya have it! Couldn't resist writing this. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed reading it. Leave a review, please, and I'll see you all eventually.
LaDude.