A bit of light relief from the very emotional chapters before. :)


"Is Mount Gagazet as big as it looks?!"

Tidus bounded towards the pair. Auron had released Rikku's hand moments before, and he thought it was just as well. He would not want to portray himself as anything other than a Guardian. His duties were what he was there for, after all.

"Of-course! It's a MOUNTAIN!" Rikku ran forward, her bright eyes and rosy cheeks gleaming.

"It will be quite the journey." Auron muttered.

The journey so far hadn't been without fun. As Auron tried to take his mind off of his memories of death, he found himself remembering the moments that had been...less emotional.
The journey had been far more eventful than Braska's, and with Yuna's marriage, Rikku's Home, and Tidus' realisations, it had been more of a roller-coaster ride than a pilgrimage.

The most enjoyable - or in more appropriate terms, normal - times had been the nights that they had spent camping along the way.

Macalania's Travel Agency for example.


Having stopped to view Jecht's sphere, it had seemed to tire out the group, and they opted to bed down in the agency rather than camp in the snow as Auron had first suggested. Amongst the groans came the shrill yell; "TRAVEL AGENCY OR I TURN BACK!" to which Auron turned to the smallest guardian and scornfully laughed.

"What? Back to the Thunder Plains?!"
"Well...no...but...I..."
"As I thought."

Auron had inevitably relented to spending what gil they had left on the agency, and after spending their final coins on extra blankets and potions for his less suitably dressed comrades, he had taken to reading a book on chocobos. It was surprisingly intriguing, although perhaps his intrigue was more forced than otherwise - Tidus seemed to be attempting to engage the others in mindless chatter about Yuna's decision - something that no one cared to discuss, least of all Auron.
A shadow fell over his page. My turn, I see.Without even looking up, Auron frowned harder at his page - snow chocobos - and spoke harshly.

"It is Yuna's decision. I do not care to intervene."

His monotone speech should have been enough to send Tidus running, but as Auron glanced up, he still saw the young man stood over him.
Auron sighed.

"What is it?"
"Yuna...she's really gonna marry that freak isn't she?"
"Maybe. But why does it matter?"
"Why wouldn't it matter?!"

The bickering continued for a while, as Tidus threw questions at Auron that he deflected with quick and angry quips. Auron was tiring of this quickly, and almost missed the tiny footsteps that sounded as his favourite guardian approached.

"Yunie said she'd get married...but...we can stop her? I'm sure we can!"

Auron was glad of some relief, but then she turned to him, searching for positivity within his deep brown eye.

"Right Sir Auron?"
"Less of the "Sir"."
"We can save Yunie though right?"

Her incessant questioning was unbearable, even more so due to the fact he could tell she knew that Yuna would follow the path she had chosen - marriage and death.

"Yuna will do what she wants."
"But...she'll be okay won't she?"

Rikku had become desperate, and Auron, frustrated, slammed his book shut, throwing it onto the table. Looking up, he could see a look of fear in her eyes, and wondered if it was Yuna's fate, or his force that had scared her.
Luckily, before he could deliver his hurtful response, Tidus had begun swinging his arms around, insisting that they find a way to stop Yuna. Auron wondered how Tidus had managed to become so close to Yuna so quickly, but then realised he felt a similar way about Rikku.

"OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

Glancing up quickly, Auron watched as Rikku pulled her hands to her face suddenly. A small pink bruise began to form on her cheek, and looking back at Tidus, Auron quickly deducted what had happened.

"TIDUS YOU HIT ME YOU MORON!"

Tidus' eyes looked pleading, then scared, and he ran away toward the rooms - heading for the comfort of Yuna. Watching this, and too transfixed by her own "suffering", Rikku failed to chase after him. Once he was long gone, shrugging her shoulders Rikku turned to Auron and pouted, hands cupping her red cheeks.

"That hurt..."

Auron looked at her quizzically for a moment, unsure how to respond.

"It hurt Aurie! Don't you careeee?!"

Auron sighed, and reached out toward her, taking her hands in his and pulling her into the nearby seat.

"I'm sure you can recover."
"No I can't Auron!"
"And why not?"
"It hurts that's why!"

Auron felt a smile form warmly on his face, spreading from cheek to cheek. Trying hard to disguise it, he tugged at his collar roughly.

"So much that you can't go on?"
"Yes so much that I can't go on..." She pouted again, an act that left Auron suppressing a chuckle.
"Even worse than the fiend bite you got on the Moonflow?"
"Even worse!"
"So you're saying we'll need even more than one elixir this time?"

Rikku paused, as though she had taken Auron seriously. Pushing up his sunglasses, Auron laughed inwardly, if she can't tell this is all a joke then she's even more gullible than I thought. Cute, I suppose.

"Well...maybe not that..."
"Well what then?"
"Well...maybe if Tidus got punished?"
"You'd feel better then?"
"Sure!"

She was grinning now, and Auron found himself smiling back. It wasn't the first time he had indulged in playful conversation with Rikku. Sometimes it was easier to let her have her way than put up a fight - something he had learned on the Thunder Plains. And, after all, dead guys need to have fun sometimes too.

"So what do you want to do to Tidus?"
"I..." She was looking around, her eyes darting across the room, before they suddenly found rest on the window. "I want to put him outside and make him sleep there!"
"You want to move him as he sleeps?"
"Yup! So then he'll be cold and sad too!"
"Appropriate."

Auron smiled from beneath his cowl. As uncharacteristic as it was, he was happy.

"I like it when you smile Aurie."

And so it was decided, the "Supermazing Uber Camp Fire Watching Guardians" would work together again, this time on punishing "Not-Super Evil Enemy Tidus".


They waited until nightfall, and as the sky began to grow dark, Auron doubted that the young one would make it until midnight. Sitting next to him, her hands tucked up under her chin, she had her eyes closed. Her head falling forward every so often, before a sudden jolt and she was up again, glancing around furiously to check she hadn't been seen napping.
After this had happened for the fifth time, Auron deliberately caught her gaze as she woke.

"I can see you sleeping. Even with one eye, you haven't been exactly...subtle..."
"I guess..." She yawned sadly, "I really didn't want to sleep - I wanted to stay up all night every night you know..."

Auron raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yet you've fallen asleep early every night, especially those that we were meant to be guarding camp for."
"You don't have to be like that Auron..." Her voice hushed to almost a whisper, and her face looked pained.
"I'm sorry." Auron replied curtly.
"It doesn't matter...It's just...I don't want to waste any time. At the end of this journey bad things will happen, yno? And I just...I don't want any regrets if we let her get that far..."

Auron broke his gaze from the Al Bhed, and stared at the floor. He should have realised she would have been upset about Yuna's pilgrimage. He'd already known she had more to her than her cheery exterior - why was her sadness hurting him so much?

There was no need for whispering any longer, the others had retired to bed without them - most probably used to seeing Auron and Rikku last to tire out and rest, yet Auron kept a hushed tone. Rikku's feelings weren't to be shouted about.

"There will always be regrets in death..." Auron knew what he wanted to say, but found it hard to word it without further hurting her, "Yuna journeys for her own reasons, ones that won't change. You can't change that Rikku. All you can do is be the best Guardian to her as possible, regardless of your feelings toward the pilgrimage. And to do that you need to rest..."

Auron patted her on the head lightly, almost like he had done to his baby sister - a sign of reassurance. Care.

"I guess so Aurie! I spend so much time running around and stuff, no wonder I need the most sleep!"

He smiled slightly, had he cheered her up?


"Wakeee uppp!"

Auron opened his eyes to a blurred vision of Rikku. She was shaking him by the arm, whilst removing his sunglasses - most likely to watch his eye open. He glanced across at the table beside him, but could barely make out what was placed upon it. Snatching his glasses back, his vision restored, Auron could see an alarm clock, with the figures "3.35am" glaring brightly at him.
They had fallen asleep, but it seemed Rikku remembered the deal they had earlier made, and with a hop in her step she led him to the room where Tidus had found a bed. Carefully hoisting the sleeping Tidus over his good shoulder, Auron followed Rikku back out of the dark room, taking care not to bump into the bed of the snoring Wakka.


"We're lucky he's a heavy sleeper..." Auron remarked, "And thin." He grimaced a little, adjusting Tidus awkwardly on his shoulder.
"I don't know about THAT! He seems to eat an awful lot of that strawberry pie you make!"
"Hmm...yes, he's definitely not light..."

They were stood outside, Auron holding the sleeping Tidus, and Rikku wrapped in a blanket, shivering even still.

Tidus had begun snoring, his mouth moving as though eating. With his place on his shoulder, Tidus' lips were uncomfortably close to Auron's neck, and Auron cursed Jecht for his clumsy son.

"Well, where do you want him Lady Rikku?" Auron asked, beginning to move Tidus from his shoulder.
"In the doorway, but on a snowy bit - I don't want to be too cruel, but not too nice either!"
"As you wish."

Carefully placing the boy on the floor, Auron made way for Rikku to approach and place a blanket over the sleeping teen. It seemed she had gathered snowballs during their time outside, as she was now piling them up onto Tidus' chest. Backing away from him, she retrieved a sphere from her pocket, snapped a photograph, and began to giggle uncontrollably.

Tidus' smiling, sleeping face, combined with the situation he was now in, was enough to finally crack the ronin up. Laughing hysterically, Rikku had to usher him indoors, so to not wake their prank victim.


His face the next morning was possibly an even better picture than the one taken the previous night. Needless to say, as soon as Tidus walked through the door, he had snowballs in his hands, ready for his revenge.

One snowball landed in Rikku's cereal to her shock, but the other, was headed for a much more dangerous place. Midway through his breakfast, Auron had not noticed the young boy's arrival, and as he lifted his spoon to his mouth, suddenly felt a very hard and cold blow to his nose. Looking down, stunned, he saw the remnants of a snowball in his cereal bowl too.

"WHAT?! You just hit Sir Auron right in the chops!" Rikku yelled, jumping from her seat and punching Tidus in the stomach sharply, causing enough of an injury to him that he landed flat on his back on the Travel Agency floor.

Auron tried to maintain a straight face, but as he spoke, small hints of laughter fell through the pauses in his words.

"And that's what you get for crossing the "Supermazing Uber Camp Fire Watching Guardians"."

Rikku's face, a mixture of shock and excitement in reaction to his words, was the final straw. Auron laughed more that morning than he had had in years.


Now, in Mount Gagazet, he considered how much damage his reputation would take, if he were to be the one throwing snowballs this time.


Thanks for reading :) Hope you enjoyed. :)