HI THAR.
Gaiz, guess wut? I tinks we're gonna get to forty chappies~!
*Ahem*
Anywayyyy...
There was a brain-fart-typo-area in the last chapter, in which I was being really tired and a general n00b and forgot about the crest burning. So I fixed it and included it in THIS chapter.
Thanks to everyone, blah dee blah blah blah, and more AuronAey moments coming up. Especially in Sin and right before, but there'll be some stuff sprinkled hither and thither.
Yup. Disclaimer: Don'tcha just hate disclaimers?
x.X.x
"Will do," he said, taking the World Champion and then taking the lead. We walked over to the stadium, not seeing the Goers anywhere, and as soon as we reached the locker rooms everyone tore them apart to search for the crest. Finally, Rikku popped out of the debris with a triumphant, "Found it!" and a sheet of paper clenched in her hand. "Although I think we might need to take this to Usse to read again…" She scrutinized the parchment, even turning it upside down, and gestured helplessly as she stumbled through the words. Despite her lack of knowledge of the language, however, as Wakka withdrew it the World Champion gave a brief flash of light that faded as the paper burst into flame (Rikku screamed as she dropped it) and curled up before disintegrating into ashes. A moment passed. "Awesome!" she burst out, pumping the air. "But, anyway, now we've gotta go find the sigil, right?"
"The sigil," Yuna agreed. "Which, of course, could be anywhere."
We spent a day looking in all the impossible places. It wouldn't just be lying on a bench, right? So we split up. One group took the stadium and the locker rooms; the other took the general market and square area; the last took the houses and the suburbs. But, in the end, we were all forced back to the fountain in defeat. The sigil simply was not here.
"S'okay, ya?" Wakka sighed. "Don't really need it, anyway."
"Of course we do," Yuna interrupted vehemently. "We're going to find it, we just…need to try something else."
"Like what?" Tidus inquired, flopping onto a bench. "Parading through the streets with a sign that says, "NEED THE JUPITER SIGIL?'"
"As a last resort, maybe." I hadn't expected Yuna's voice to be so frank, and-apparently-Rikku hadn't, either. She let out a relaxed giggle.
"How about we go chill or play some blitzball or something? Maybe we'll find it if we're not looking for it," she suggested lightly.
"Could work," Wakka sighed, turning to Tidus and I. "Up for a blitz game?"
"I haven't been in a competition in awhile," I agreed, nodding. "Sounds good."
Of course, there were no shortages of blitzball tournaments in Luca, and it didn't take long before Wakka and Graav, as captains of the Aurochs and the Goers, had each agreed to play the other in the upcoming end-of-the-year-celebration game.
"Do you play tournaments to celebrate everything?" Auron asked dryly as we walked back to the inn to prepare for the game the next day. I shrugged.
"Pretty much. That's why the Goers are the best team in Spira, of course," I answered nonchalantly, smiling coyly. "We play all of the games."
"Don't count your chocobos before they hatch!" Wakka called from the front of the group, still walking next to Lulu. "After the Aurochs are done with ya, you'll be eatin' your words."
"Oh, really?" I asked. "Can I take that as a challenge?"
"There's not much of another way to take it, ya? Bet you fifty Gil we're gonna win tomorrow."
"A hundred?"
"Two hundred."
"Deal." I laughed to myself, knowing that-whatever bets we made-it would all stay with Yuna in the end. It was just the satisfaction of having two hundred Gil pressed into your hand at a victory that made betting fun. Auron heaved a sigh, and I glanced up innocently.
"You two are as bad as Jecht," he said with a shake of his head, and I smiled.
"And I'm sure you weren't betting everything you had when you were playing Poker before the dance," I retaliated, elbowing him. He raised an eyebrow, peering down at me.
"The money wouldn't have gone anywhere."
"I knew it."
Auron allowed himself a small smirk, and I followed him and the rest of the group into the inn and down the hall, where we each divided up in our separate groups-usually three or four to a room, depending on availability-and went straight to sleep.
I jerked awake to a sharp rapping on the doorframe of the room I shared with Rikku and Lulu, the former of which promptly snorted as she woke and snarled groggily, "Hey! What's the big idea?"
"The contest; don't you remember?" came Yuna's voice, but I heard her smile. "Wakka wanted to practice, and it starts pretty early anyway."
"It's still dark out," I observed heavily, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and rolling over to pull the curtain back-which made no difference in the amount of light in the room.
"That tends to happen when the sun goes down." Lulu, apparently, was already up and standing by Yuna, her shadow cutting across the dim shaft of light streaming in from the hallway. I rolled my eyes in the dark, swinging my bare feet out of bed as well, and joined the mage by the doorway. Rikku followed suit, stretching and padding out into the lobby to meet the others. We were among the few awake, and despite my misgivings for being woken up so early I loved the feeling I got of being awake before sunrise, and seemingly before anyone else. It was…calming.
"Everybody up?" Wakka asked in a low voice, reclining on a plush armchair near the window.
"Mm-hmm. What are you sitting around for?" Lulu inquired with a slight raise of her eyebrows. "I was under the impression you wanted to get some practice in before the competition." The blitzer, of course, didn't have the grace to look even the slightest bit sheepish, and instead chuckled and got to his feet to stretch.
"Are we ready, then?" Yuna asked softly, the corners of her mouth curving upward as Lulu rolled her eyes and turned away, but none of us missed the small smile on her face.
"Think so." Tidus walked in through the front door, and glanced back out the window at the first tendrils of light seeping over the horizon. "But if we want to get any practice, we should probably head out now."
"All right."
"By the way, Aey, you gonna practice with the Aurochs?" Tidus turned around, ruffling his hair as he glanced at me, and I pretended to look shocked.
"And give away all of the Goers' super secret practice maneuvers? I don't think so!"
He laughed. "So you're going to practice with Graav, then?"
"Probably." I nodded, and then smiled coyly. "But I'll probably watch you all for a little while, just to get a feel for your techniques and figure out your secrets."
"Cheater," Wakka chuckled, and then nodded at Yuna. "Ready to go, then?"
"I think so." She led the way out to the street and across the bridge to the sphere pool, settling onto the bleachers with all of her guardians but Wakka and Tidus, who both greeted the Aurochs waiting on the other side of the stadium and then disappeared into the changing rooms. I took my seat onto the cold bleachers next to Auron, who glanced sideways at me and took a moment to speak.
"I take it you aren't planning on practicing at all, then?" he asked, and I shrugged.
"Actually, I'm kind of tired. Besides, Graav might try and kill me if he found out that I'd practiced with another team." I smiled, leaning back a little and resting my back against the frigid metal. "I'm arrogant enough to think that I don't need to practice to win the competition, anyway, so it probably wouldn't make much of a difference." I heard Auron laugh once, though it was more of a "hmph," and I shifted a little and watched as the Aurochs filtered out of the locker rooms and dove into the sphere pool.
An hour later, I found that I had spent more time nodding off with the pale glow of the rising sun on my face than actually watching the game, and I shook my head to clear it and stood to meet Wakka and Tidus as they rejoined the party. Auron gave a slight smile, saying, "You weren't making an excuse when you said you were tired," he observed lightly, and I shrugged and swallowed a yawn.
"Mm-hmm." The warmth from the sunlight was what had put me to sleep, and I hoped the same wouldn't happen in the sphere pool. Any concept of friendly competition tended to go out the window when the tournaments started, which was-in reality-probably a good thing. If I had been worried about hurting any of the Aurochs, I might have ended up apologizing and handing them a Band-Aid every time I nearly broke someone's fingers wrenching the blitzball from them. If I were tired and half-asleep as I played, I wasn't willing to bet that there would be any forgiveness.
"Ready to go?" Yuna walked up, her eyes reflecting the sunlight behind us, and Auron nodded.
"Except for Sleepy, here," he murmured in an amused tone, brushing my shoulder with his fingertips. I nearly choked on a laugh, yawning and holding down a blush at the contact at the same time, and stretched as I stood to join Auron.
"Like Snow White," I muttered blearily through the yawn. "Or Sleeping Beauty. Or a cross between both. Or…something."
"Snow White?" Auron didn't speak until we had begun to walk back to the hotel, both to change and get a pep talk from Wakka on the tournament, and I turned to him in mock surprise.
"You don't know Snow White?" I asked, eyes comically wide.
"Why would I?" he inquired skeptically, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, she's only the coolest summoner ever, so it's not like you would know her or anything. It's an old fairy tale. You know…the seven Hypello named Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, Happy, Bashful, and Grumpy?" He shook his head, and I sighed. "I'll need to educate you, then. I guess you don't know Sleeping Beauty, either?" Again Auron shook his head, and I shrugged. "Okay. You're hopeless. Did you not grow up knowing the most kick-butt summoners of fairy-tale land?"
"I'm afraid not. I take it I had a deprived childhood, then?" he inquired, though there was a hint of amusement in his voice. I heaved a dramatic sigh, nodding.
"You have no idea."
"Then by all means, enlighten me." There was no sarcasm in his tone, only a little teasing, and I nodded.
"So there's this girl, named-of course-Snow White. Her stepmother is a High Summoner, having defeated Sin years before, and she's protective of her beauty and power over her aeons. So each day she asks Bahamut, 'Aeon, aeon, hear my call; who is fairest of them all?' And almost every time she asks this Bahamut answers, 'You are the fairest of them all.' But as Snow White grew, Bahamut answered, 'Famed is thy beauty, Lady. But behold, a lovely summoner I see. Rags cannot hide her gentle grace. Alas, she is more fair than thee.' So the wicked High Summoner commands Bahamut to tell her who, and he answers her stepdaughter." I paused, hiding my surprise at how raptly and suddenly Auron was paying attention. To anyone else, it would have seemed as though he was no different: staring ahead, deep in thought, but I saw his eyes flick to me and back, and at my hesitancy he raised an eyebrow and gestured for me to go on.
I cleared my throat, shrugging as we entered the inn, and walked down the hall, still chattering. "The High Summoner is furious, and sends Valefor to kill her stepdaughter so that she would again be the fairest. But Valefor wouldn't, and instead goes to Snow White to tell her to run as far away as she can to get away from the High Summoner. She does, and as she's running stumbles across a hut with seven Hypello living inside by the names of Doc, Happy, Bashful, Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, and Grumpy." Still talking, I entered my room, Auron following at my gesture with a gentleman's shame at being invited inside a bedroom not his own, and I disappeared into the showers to change. "So then," I called through the curtain, pulling my shirt over my head, "She finds how messy their little cottage is and decides to clean it, thinking that they'll let her stay if she does. After some argument when they finally get home from mining in Macalania, they decide to adopt her, in a way, and so she starts to cook for them and make them wash their hands before meals and such. With me so far?"
"Mm."
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"Yes."
"Aww, c'mon!" I whined, chucking my shirt at him over the shower curtain. "You need to give me more than that. What's happening so far?" Auron's lips twitched in a small smile, and he answered easily, "Snow White is now running from her stepmother, the High Summoner who wants to be the fairest and most powerful in the land, and has ordered Valefor to kill her stepdaughter. Valefor tells her to run, and she ends up in a Hypello cottage."
"Good. Shall I continue?"
"Please do."
"Okay. So-" I was interrupted, though, by Tidus rapping loudly on the door.
"Hey, you both in there?" he asked through the wood.
"Yeah!" I called back, pulling my goggles over my head so they rested like a necklace in the hollow of my neck.
"Well, you better get out here before Wakka explodes."
"I'm not even on his team!" I crossed the room and opened the door, Auron close behind and looking somehow the slightest bit embarrassed. I spared him a look, tilting my head to one side for a moment, before trailing behind Tidus and making our way to the lobby. Wakka jumped up.
"There you are!" he exclaimed. "We've been looking everywhere, ya?"
"Why would you be concerned about me if I'm not even an Auroch? I'm gonna be playing against you, remember?" I asked with a laugh, and he shrugged.
"Wouldn't want to miss an opportunity to pound a Goer, ya know." There was a spark of amusement in his eyes, but I took the challenge anyway and retaliated.
"Ohhh, right. Sure. Good luck with that."
"Better watch out, Sleeping Beauty." Obviously, he had seen me dozing in the bleachers earlier. I rolled my eyes and lightly whacked his shoulder as I walked past him, saying, "I could beat you in my sleep, anyway, so it's a moot point." The Auroch gave a chuckle, and then that sound faded away as I made my way to the sphere pool to meet Graav and the others.
"Late again, Aey!"
I heard it as soon as I entered the stadium, but that didn't keep me from being able to lift a finger against the thrown blitzball knocking into my shoulder.
"Or you're early," I answered Graav lightly, bending down to pick it up. "And watch the shoulder, or you'll lose your best player." That was the shoulder Rikku's machina had broken, anyway, though it had long healed.
"The only way we're losing our best player is if I'm struck by lightning before the game."
"Right, because I'd be too busy celebrating to play."
"Sure."
I grinned, walking up to my brother and tossing him the ball. "When's the tournament starting?"
"Twenty minutes or so. Actually, we should be in the changing rooms, but since one person was late…" I rolled my eyes, following him into the locker rooms, and adjusted my goggles until they strained against my forehead like a raised pair of sunglasses. We sat through Graav's relatively short pep-talk, and then jumped up and raced each other to the entrance to the sphere pool and burst out into the water.
Following the Goers came the Aurochs, and I waggled my eyebrows at Wakka as he swam past. He let out an underwater laugh, and paddled down to shake hands with Graav as I flipped through the water to calm down. Almost involuntarily, my eyes darted to the stands, zooming in immediately on a discerning red coat and staying there until I was shaken out of my reverie by the loud buzzer marking the start of the game.
"And they're off!" The referee's voice was easy to tune out, but Auron suddenly seemed so much larger in my peripheral vision than the blue-and-white ball that was leaving a stream of bubbles behind and now heading for me. I looked up in time, eyes widening and instinctively raising my hands to catch it. It bounced off the tips of my fingers, and I silently cursed. It looked like being tired wasn't going to be my main problem in this game.
Several unsuccessful passes (unfortunately, made by yours truly) and six shots later, the first game ended. I didn't know how to explain why I was so distracted, and so the second one began. We had won the first by a narrow point scored by Raudy while there was only ten seconds left of the game, but the Aurochs snagged a win in the second round. Then came the third-the tiebreaker. They were the only two teams playing, since the Beasts, Psyches, Fangs, and Glories were quite a distance away and thus only came for major tournaments.
On a different note, there was a winning shot in every game. Sometimes it was a narrow win, and the winning shot goes down in history. Sometimes it's one team creaming the other, and it really doesn't matter much. Sometimes there's three seconds left on the clock, teams are tied, and if a player doesn't make this shot they're doomed to obscurity and a life of being shunned because they lost a tournament for their team.
Unfortunately, the last choice was the type of shot this was going to be. Even more unfortunate, the ball somehow landed in my sleep-deprived and distracted hands, and the shot went to me.
I breathed once, twice, and then kicked out and shot forward for the goal. Six seconds left. I fought off an Auroch, still watching the tiny digital numbers. Five.
"Swim for it!" Doram called, taking out a few Aurochs on my tail.
"I am!" Four. I snarled to myself as the clock ticked out three, and then reared back and shot. Just as the ball slipped off my fingers, I had a fleeting image of twenty-five-year-old Auron, laughing with Jecht over a sphere of young Tidus. I didn't know where it came from, but I whipped back in surprise and sent the blitzball spinning away, missing the net by a mile. "Dammit!" I hissed under my breath, unable to help myself and resisting the temptation to plug my ears as the referee yelled out my mistake and how perfectly horrible it was for Spira to hear. Now I knew what it felt like when he said that the Aurochs were a "statistical impossibility." Well…not anymore, thanks to my skills (or lack thereof). Actually, they had won their fair share of games, but that was ten years ago. Though since Tidus joined the team, I had witnessed their improvement on a number of levels.
I floated, unsure of whether I was furious or now-depressed, as Wakka and Graav shook hands again, and then wheeled and paddled back toward the changing rooms. As I was toweling off, wringing out my hair and clothes, my lovely brother walked in with a loud, "What in the name of Yevon was that?"
"A failed shot," I sighed, sadness having won out over anger. "So don't lecture me about it; I'm tired."
"I'll say," Graav muttered, shooting looks at me over his shoulder as he whipped a towel around his neck and seemed to contemplated strangling himself with it. The rest of the team filtered in, and Doram walked over and plopped onto the bench next to me.
"Happens to everyone," she said lightly, wringing her braided hair out.
"Sure," I answered glumly, glancing at Raudy and Abus both giving me somehow disappointed glares. Ten or so minutes passed of general chatter and discussion of the game, and finally I said, "All right, I suppose I'm out." I exhaled and stood, stuffing my towel and goggles into my bag and slinging it over my shoulder.
"So soon?" Balgerda's small voice came from behind a curtain in one of the changing rooms, and I shrugged.
"Yeah. See you soon."
Doram pulled me into a one-armed hug, and I smiled a little before nodding to everyone else. It was a little…sad, how pitiful and morose I got when we lost, especially if it was my shot that lost it for us. I guessed it came from being so competitive with Graav when we were younger.
"Nice play, ya?" Wakka said, clapping me on the shoulder as I met the summoner's party in the rapidly emptying stands. He had a medal thumping against his chest, presumably from winning, and a trophy in the other hand. They had certainly been awarded quite quickly.
"If you want to see it that way," I answered with a shrug, straight-faced. He chuckled as Tidus gave me the same congratulations, and then I hung back, slightly behind the group, as we all walked back to the inn to change. Wakka, however, was stopped by Bobba, racing down the perch reserved for the ref.
"You seem to have forgotten something, at the ceremony," he panted, handing the blitzball player a yellowed sheet of paper, burned at the edges and stamped with a few words in the same lettering as Yuna's sigil. My eyes widened, and the blitzer snatched the paper from Bobba and nodded at him, turning quickly away and taking the World Champion warily from his bag. It was suddenly washed scarlet, and as soon as the light faded the paper crumpled and dissolved into ashes.
"We've got it," Yuna whispered after a moment of stunned silence. "The sigil!"
"Yeah!" Rikku cheered suddenly. "Whoo hoo! We got it, we got it!" She burst into a singsong voice, chanting, "We got it, we got it, we got it!" and Yuna chuckled.
"Right, then." Her voice cut across her cousin's, who stopped singing to listen. "Back to Brother we go."
x.X.x
Heh. Snow White, specially adapted and modified to fit Final Fantasy X-NOW IN FULL COLOR!
Lololololol -shot-
Am I being lazy? HECK YES.
Do I know that I should work harder on my plot and not let this story fizzle off when we've come this far? Yeah...
Is it amazing anyway or is it sucking? That's what the little review button is for XDDDD