YOLAAA!

Wuzzup? I have the strangest pets...and friends...and tastes...

INNNNN any case, thanks to the usual people (if I forgot to mention someone, just let me know), and let's get this show on the road!

Disclaimer: Filler chapter. Nonsense again ;)
OH AND CREDIT GOES TO WHOEVER MADE TEH AMAZING DRINK I LIKE TO CALL IZZE FOR THE MENTION OF IT IN THIS STORY. You people are truly geniuses.

x.X.x

He was silent, folding the paper back up again and dropping into his chair.

"Is that why you left?" Graav asked, seemingly knowing the reason for my change of mood.

"Part of it," I said quietly. "I was just tired of…everything."

"Like what?"

"I dunno. Lies. Both mine and his."

"Is that it?" Graav sounded surprised, as if that wouldn't be enough to make someone leave. I looked up, kicking myself for being so angry all of a sudden but unable to help it.

"How would you like it if someone that you thought trusted you failed to mention the fact that they were dead?" I snapped. "When you've been fighting against Unsent for half the pilgrimage?" Graav looked up in shock.

"So…Sir Auron's an Unsent?" he asked slowly, and I angrily drove my fist into a pillow.

"And I can't even say it without hesitating! He knows that!"

My brother was silent, and I rested my forehead on my knees, staring down at the couch cushion I was sitting on.

"Sleep on it," he said finally. "You'll feel better."

"That's never worked," I muttered, looking up.

"Well, do it anyway." Graav stood, reaching out a hand to help me up. "C'mon. We'll talk tomorrow, and tell the team you've returned. I know Doram was worried you wouldn't come back." I sighed and nodded, briefly hugging my brother. "Good to have you back," he said with a smile, and I gave one in return before he disappeared into his room. I gave the Wall a final glance, and then turned the light out and closed my bedroom door behind me.

I woke up just at sunrise, remembered that I wasn't on the pilgrimage anymore, and couldn't get back to sleep. The days of sleeping late and getting eight hours of sleep a night were long gone.

I rolled out of bed, reflecting on how well I had slept. It certainly wasn't the cold, hard ground I normally fell asleep on.

Graav had always been the early bird, and now I was grateful for that. I wouldn't have known what to do with myself had I been the only one awake for even two minutes. He was in the kitchen, devouring a rice cake, and looked up, his eyes widening in surprise.

"Who are you, and what have you done with my sister?" he asked. "She who can sleep until three in the afternoon and then complain about not getting enough rest?" I smiled.

"Being dragged into a fight with a fiend almost every morning while you're still half-asleep can do that to you," I said, feeling more or less refreshed. My thoughts kept drifting back to the pilgrimage, but I found it easier now to ignore them for a moment or two.

"Is that so?" Graav asked, tossing me a rice cake as well. I caught it, ate in a few bites, and then began to pull my fighting gloves on. My brother raised his eyebrows, and I stopped and shook myself.

"Sorry. Old habits die hard."

"I can see that."

But then he smiled, gesturing for me to follow. "C'mon. The team'll be at the stadium, and I think you're going to get a hero's welcome."

He was almost right. As soon as we walked in, Doram slammed into me with a hug, and I laughed, greeting everyone else.

"How's it going, Ms. I-think-I'll-disappear-and-never-return?" Abus asked, holding out his hand for a high-five. I shrugged.

"Could be worse."

"The way you look? Not really." Raudy's voice came from the back of the group, and I smiled at him with narrowed eyes.

"I still remember how you told me to come back prettier in Graav's letter," I called to him. "You better sleep with one eye open. My spiked gloves are in my pack, and I've spent the past couple of months learning how to fight with them."

"Oh, I'm so scared I'm gonna be pummeled by a girl," he answered, smiling evilly. I rolled my eyes.

"As you should be."

"Alright, alright," Graav said, pushing between us. "Now, who's ready to blitz?" I nodded, diving into the pool with Doram and tossing the blitzball around a little as everyone else followed.

"You remember how to play?" she asked, and I laughed and rolled my eyes.

"Of course I do. I daresay better than before."

"Oh, really? We'll see about that." She spun and dove, coming up underneath me and knocking the blitzball out of my hands. I surged forward, chasing it and snagging it just before Doram caught it, grinning.

"So close," I teased her. She chuckled.

"Hey! You two! Focus!" Graav called, and I gave him a mock-salute.

"Yessir!"

We played a game of blitzball, practiced for an hour or two more, and then toweled off in the changing rooms.

"Ugh," Raudy complained when we were all in the stadium again. "I'm so hungry I could eat a fiend."

"Then how 'bout some brunch?" Doram asked, and I nodded and glanced at Graav.

"I suppose. All we had was a rice cake each this morning," he said with a shrug. "Anyone opposed to some food?"

"Sounds good," Abus answered. "Where?"

"Lucy's?" I suggested, naming a café near the stadium that was known for its key lime pie. Raudy's eyes sparkled, and I remembered with an inward smile his obsessive love of desserts.

"Lucy's it is," Graave said as everyone nodded. He led the way, stopping at a brightly lit, colorful restaurant with a neon sign above the door. Inside, the waitress smiled warmly and led us to a room in the back, handing out menus and asking if we knew what we wanted to drink.

"Cream soda," Abus said immediately, and she jotted it down.

"I'll have an Energi," Graav answered, naming a popular carbonated soda around Luca.

"Izze," I continued.

"Same here."

"Do you have sweet tea?"

"What about a Lemon-Lyme?"

"Actually, I think I'll have an Energi, too."

"Wait! Can I get an Izze instead?"

"I'll take some tea."

"I've changed my mind. I think I'll have cream soda after all." The waitress hurried to write down everyone's orders, crossing out multiple drinks and replacing them. Finally, the clamor died down.

"So we've got a cream soda, an Energi, an Izze, two sweet teas, and a Lemon-Lyme. Is that right?" she asked, looking up with an expression that said, "Please tell me that's right." Graav nodded, and the waitress turned and walked off a little too quickly. I laughed.

"See what you guys did? You scared her half to death, you idiots!" I said, and Raudy rolled his eyes.

"So it's all my fault now, is it?" He asked, flicking a knife at me. I caught it, shaking my head.

"Tsk, tsk. My hand could be stabbed right now if that weren't a butter knife," I said, throwing it back. He caught it.

"Too bad it wasn't."

I laughed, tipping the chair back on two legs and happy for the moment. I was home, back with the team that had become my family.

"So what have I missed?" I asked, and Graav shrugged.

"Not much. Doram can't go a day without complaining, Raudy can't go a day without partying that you were gone, Abus was his usual old silent self, we all know Bickson missed you, and I'm not too sure about Balgerda." I laughed, watching a few of them shoot glares toward Graav.

"Good to know."

"What about the pilgrimage?" Doram asked after a moment. "You aren't going to keep that from us, are you?" I smiled, my spirits dimming for a moment.

"Of course not. We'll have a pow-wow tonight and I'll tell you all about it," I answered, and she laughed.

"At the stadium?" Raudy asked, and I shrugged and nodded.

"Sure. Bring some pie." He chuckled.

"Don't expect to get any." I jokingly rolled my eyes.

"I didn't."

At that moment, the waitress came up balancing a tray of drinks, and passed them out to whoever. We switched drinks as she did until everyone had the right one, and she sighed and got out her notepad again.

"What about food? Have you decided yet?" The same thing happened as last time as we ordered, with everyone switching orders and yelling out completely irrelevant things.

Minutes later, we were done, and now she almost ran back to the kitchen.

"You people are cruel," I said, shaking my head and laughing.

"Hey, you were doing the same thing!" Raudy countered, and I rolled my eyes.

"I had a good reason for it."

"Mm-hmm."

I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him, taking a swig of my Izze and spitting it out a moment later, gagging and coughing. Raudy suddenly burst into fits of laughter, doubled over, and as I peered into the carbonated juice I saw grains of salt floating around.

"What did you do?" I asked, setting the bottle down and trying to get the taste out of my mouth as he rolled on the floor.

"I-put-salt-in your-Izze!" he gasped, and I raised my eyebrows.

"Did you really? Well, we'll see how you like this." I grabbed my bottle, smiling evilly, and noticed a flash of apprehension in his eyes as I tipped it down. Carbonated, salted water splashed into his face, and Raudy spluttered.

"So not fair!" he exclaimed when he had recovered, taking a napkin and drying his face.

"Neither was putting salt in my drink when we were switching," I answered, laughing. He rolled his eyes, whipping the cloth napkin in my face. I batted it away, going back to my seat, and Raudy laughed to himself.

"Anyway," Graav said pointedly. "When these two idiots are done, we can talk about relevant things."

"Like what?" I asked after a sideways glance at the other blitzball player.

"Like cake. Cake is relevant," he answered.

"The cake is a lie," I said immediately.

"It is not."

"Is too."

"Is not."

"Is too."

"Is not."

"Is too."

"In any case," Graav's voice interrupted us both. "I forgot what it was like when Raudy had a playmate."

"Yeah, yeah," I answered with a laugh. "What do you suggest we talk about?"

"Blitz."

"You mean like strategies or stories?"

"Whichever."

"I've got a story," Bickson interjected, and I nodded. "Anyone remember the first time we found out about the Wall?" I groaned jokingly.

"I knew you were going to say that," I said, sitting back as Abus laughed.

"I remember that. So Aey and Graav were screaming at each other, like always, and then one of them starts talking about some wall," he started, and Raudy grinned.

"And Graav goes, 'I am finishing the Wall the first change I get!'" He continued, and Bickson sat forward.

"Then Aey answers, 'Good, because I never want to look at you again!'" He did a high-pitched impersonation of my voice, and I rolled my eyes, resting my hands on my stomach as Raudy kept the story going.

"And then they turn and stalk off, and the next day someone asks Graav, 'Hey…what's the wall?'" Someone else intervened for him.

"So Graav answers, 'Just something Aey and I do.'"

"And the person asks, 'What is it?'"

"And the captain explains, 'Just a big pile of stuff that we're using to kind of…gradually split the apartment."

"And then Aey walks up and rolls her eyes, saying, 'Of course, we're not going to really split the apartment. It's just to get anger out or something.'" Again, the person telling the story did a high-pitched, girly voice as they said what I had, and I rolled my eyes.

"You better imitate me right, or you'll end up with a knife in your eye," I said with a smirk, and Raudy stuck his tongue out.

"Fine. So that night we all go to the apartment to check it out, and behold!" "A cluttered mess of crap that takes up five square feet of the living room."

Everyone laughed, and now Graav continued the story.

"So the next day, Aey and I are having war number two hundred twenty-two, and when we're finished we hear someone say, 'I'll bet the Wall is going to be a foot bigger when they get home.'"

"And then," I finished. "Someone else answers, 'I'll bet fifty Gil it'll be three feet.' And Wall-gambling was born." Graav grinned, nodding.

The waitress appeared again, passing out plates with complete composure and raising her eyebrows at me as I glared at Raudy. Luckily, he wasn't given my order again, and I took it from Balgerda with a grin. She smiled tentatively back, and I passed Graav his food.

We kept talking as we ate, exchanging stories, and I got the chance to make fun of both Doram and my brother. Then there was silence, broken only by the munching of food and scattered comments, and we left the restaurant around noon.

"So we meet at the stadium at sunset for a pow-wow, capice?" Doram asked. "Where Ms. Aey will spill all her darkest secrets and we will listen like gossip-hungry little girls."

"Got it," Raudy said dryly. "I can't wait." I laughed.

"I know you're going to love it. We all know you're secretly a girl at heart," I teased, and he growled and tackled me. I fought my way back to a standing position, and finally Graav shouldered between us.

"If you two are done," he said with a raised eyebrow. I chuckled, nodding, and waved to the others as we walked back to the apartment. "So what have you been up to on the pilgrimage?" Graav asked, and I wagged my finger at him.

"No, no, no. That has to wait until the pow-wow tonight," I interrupted, shushing him. He rolled his eyes as we walked in, leaving the door unlocked behind us, and sat down in the armchair.

"Are you going to say anything about Auron?" my brother asked, and I went quiet.

"I'm going to try to avoid that, but I suppose we'll see," I muttered after a moment, and he nodded.

We spent most of the afternoon talking and catching up, sharing memories and remembering how we used to be snapping at each other's throats all the time. Finally, when the sun went down, I grinned. "Ready to go to a pow-wow?" I asked mischievously. Graav nodded, standing and walking to the stadium, and I followed after him.

"You're late!" Raudy called. As I got closer, I rolled my eyes. They were sitting cross-legged in a circle around a machina fire, grinning like idiots.

"I don't even know why I hang out with you people," I joked, sitting down next to Doram and Graav.

"Well, never mind that," she said, flapping her hand. "On with the story!" I chuckled.

"Where do I start?"

"At the beginning. How you met Lady Yuna, and why you decided to go off and leave us."

"Well, that's hardly fair," I answered, smiling. "Let's see…I was in the sphere pool with Wakka-the Auroch-and I'd met Yuna earlier, but when the fiends attacked I followed Wakka and Tidus through Luca. We fought our way through, and then…Seymour used his aeon to kill all of the fiends. Yuna asked me to travel with her and her guardians, since I said that I didn't really travel with the team or anything, and I agreed." I paused, shrugging. "I met Lulu, and after awhile Yuna asked me to become a guardian on the Mi'ihen Highroad. I think that was where it was, anyway." I carefully avoided mentioning-and even thinking about-Auron, continuing with my story.

I chuckled as I said, "I tried to get Lulu, the black mage, into blitzball, but she stubbornly refused. So I dragged her into the water, but she used magic to freeze it, and we went on like that for awhile.

"The next morning we ended up fighting and defeating the Chocobo Eater, and were given a couple of chocobos to help us across the Highroad. We stumbled upon Operation Mi'ihen, and tried to stop it, but…that really didn't work. I hope you all heard something about that, or at least enough to let you know what it was." Everyone nodded, and I straightened up and continued with my story. "Well…Auron introduced me to Maester Kinoc, and a couple of hours later I decided to be an idiot and go back down toward Sin to try to…I dunno, stop it or something. Needless to say, that didn't go over too well.

"So after we all kind of recovered, we went to Djose, where Yuna got Ixion-the lightning aeon." I laughed once to myself. "One thing that sticks out to me was how she slept late, and then came out with her hair in a complete mess. It was hilarious.

"Anyway, I tried my hand at black magic then, miserably failed, and we kept going. As we were riding the shoopuf across the Moonflow, though-" I stopped as Raudy's eyes widened.

"You rode a shoopuf?" he asked disbelievingly. I nodded with some smugness.

"Mm-hmm. Pity you missed it," I told him, laughing once, and then kept going. "So the Al Bhed attacked, and Wakka, Tidus and I jumped in to rescue Yuna. That was a rather…risky battle, since Wakka broke his wrist and I pretty much got my shoulder shattered." I stopped at the incredulous looks, shrugging, and went on. "So we got off the shoopuf, and that was where we met Rikku. She and Tidus were arguing, and then she just randomly asked to be Yuna's guardian. Yuna agreed, and so she had an Al Bhed for a guardian.

"Wakka and I got all fixed up in Guadosalam, and that was where we met Seymour. He…asked Yuna to marry him-I'm sure you've all heard about that-and she ended up rejecting him in the end.

"After that little incident, we visited the Farplane. Neither Auron nor Rikku entered, so I stayed behind as well, and then we left for the Thunder Plains and Macalania."

I talked for hours, avoiding Auron as much as I could and describing everything I had been through. I answered questions, joked about parts of the pilgrimage, but when it came for the reason I left, I really couldn't avoid it any more.

"So what happened?" Doram asked. "You make it sound like it was the best time of your life, so why'd you leave?" I hesitated, shifting and exchanging a glance with Graav.

"Well…it was. I had more fun on parts of the pilgrimage than I've sometimes had in blitzball, but I suppose it all came with a price. I knew Yuna was going to die: that was just what happened. So that was part of it, I guess. The fact that the summoner I was guarding was going to be gone, and there was nothing I could do," I explained, debating on whether or not I should tell them the biggest reason that I had left.

"But I still don't get it," Doram pressed. "You knew that from the start…"

"Well, yes." I sighed. These were the people I had grown up with: this was my family, my home. However much I sometimes wanted to kill them, I still trusted them with everything because I knew I could. "I suppose there were a couple of more reasons."

I sighed again, berating myself for being so distant. "Actually, there was another reason. I thought I trusted someone, and I thought they trusted me. But, apparently, they didn't. And when they finally said what they'd been hiding, it was…almost too much for me. I couldn't get used to it, and I was tired of lying and being lied to, so I left. Simple as that."

I knew that most of them had experienced something like this, and I was right. Most of the team sat back in understanding, nodding. "Anyway," I sighed. "That was basically it. Pilgrimage, back home. So what's been happening here?"

Almost immediately, Raudy brightened, and he was off. Describing in detail every single thing that I had missed that we hadn't covered during dinner, and soon everyone else joined in. Spirits were quickly lifted, and we didn't realize that we had stayed up all night until the sun began to come up over the horizon in a watery ball of orange light.

"Alright, no practice today," Graav said with a laugh.

"Good. I'm going to go sleep," Raudy announced, stretching. "Good morning, going to bed now." I chuckled.

"I'll bet I can sleep longer than you."

"You think?"

"Oh, yes." He got a familiar mischievous glint in his eyes.

"How much are you willing to bet?" he asked, and I grinned.

"Excellent. I'll bet two hundred Gil."

"Three hundred."

"Deal." I nodded, winking. "No cheating." Raudy rolled his eyes and turned away, walking back to his house up the street. Graav sighed.

"What am I going to do with you two?" he asked, and I grinned.

"Love us anyway."

"I'll try."

We walked back to the apartment in companionable silence, and as soon as he opened the door I went straight to my room with a, "Wake me up in twenty-four hours," called over my shoulder. Then I closed the door behind me and was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

x.X.x

Tadddaaaa!

Like I said, it's a filler. It was rather fun to write, especially about the whole thing with Raudy putting salt in Aey's Izze. (My friend did that to me once. And then she made me laugh so hard it came out of my nose. I don't really know why you needed to know that, but now you do)

Sooo...I really don't think there's much more to write about!

Wow. Not too many author notes for this one...

Weird.