Chapter 32: Father Figure
With the delicate situation involving Dannae's death out of the way, the Fayth decided they could skip forward on Tidus's time flow a bit. But they had to allow him full days with Auron every few weeks to prevent him from realizing he didn't have a full scope of memories.
On one such afternoon, thirteen-year-old Tidus came home from blitzball practice after school and found Auron sitting on a pulley-platform over the port side of the boat. Curious, instead of going straight inside to shower and change, he leaned over the rail. "What are you doing?"
"Checking the integrity of the hull. One of the bilge pumps failed today, and it came to my attention how much this boat needs maintenance. With a failed pump, you could find yourself sitting at the bottom of the ocean, rather than on top. But before I fix it, I wanted to check the hull." Auron scratched his shoulder above the long scar that trailed all the way down his torso. "Did your father teach you how to work on this boat before he left?"
"I was seven. He taught me not to jump over the rail," Tidus retorted. "Did you used to work on ships?" He squinted one eye shut. "Argh, ye were a pirate, right me matey? There be monsters in those waters and wenches in those taverns to explore. Explore the waters, I mean. Not the wenches. Although—"
"Don't even go there." Auron tested another area on the hull in front of him. "And I've been around enough that I know what I'm doing."
"With wenches?"
Auron paused to look Tidus in the eye. "Ships."
"What kind of job did you used to do?"
"I was a guardian."
"Nah, I mean before you came here."
"I was a warrior monk, and then I was a mercenary guardian. Now I'm guarding you. I guard. That's what I do." Auron returned to his work.
"Warrior monk ..." Tidus thought about that for a minute. "Don't monks have to shave their heads?"
Auron remembered when Jecht said the same thing to him. "Different kind of monk."
"Why did you quit?"
"Long story."
Tidus folded his arms over the rail and grasped his elbows, setting his chin on his forearms. "Long story like that scar?"
"They're distantly related."
"You still never told me what happened. A scar like that looks like it would have killed you."
Auron stopped pressing the hull and pushed his sunglasses up on his nose. Resting an arm on one knee, he looked up at his charge. "A story for another time and place."
Tidus snorted. "You always say that. Must have been some dark and shady dealings involved, if you're not willing to talk about it."
"There's nothing dark and shady about wanting to keep some things private. You don't tell me everything that goes on in your life."
"What's to tell?" Tidus shrugged. "I play blitzball. I'm Jecht Jr.," he stated, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He straightened and climbed up on the railing to sit on it, facing the port side of the boat just above where Auron was working. "How come you never talk about him?"
"How come you never talk about him?" Auron returned his attention to the boat.
"Because I hate him. What's your excuse?"
"You hate him," Auron answered with a subtle shrug.
The indifferent response annoyed Tidus. "Forget it. I don't know why I even bother talking to you. You never give straight answers." Turning around, he hopped off the railing to go inside.
"Tidus, I think you need to come here and learn about what I'm doing."
"Aw, come on. I'm hungry."
"We can grill later. Right now, while there's daylight, you need to learn how to take care of this boat. It'll be easier to learn from me while I'm here than trying to figure it out alone when I'm gone."
The unexpected news stopped Tidus from opening the cabin door and prompted him to walk back to the rail. "You're leaving?"
"You won't need a legal guardian after you turn seventeen, so you need to learn how to manage on your own by then."
Tidus hadn't realized there would someday be an end to this arrangement. Auron wasn't half-bad as far as a father figure goes. Though the man had a subtle wit that could be sharper than a knife, not once had Auron ridiculed him. Auron was the only "family" Tidus had, so the idea of him leaving was a frightening thought.
When he didn't respond, Auron squinted up at him and scratched the scar on his shoulder again. "Are you coming down here, or do I have to drag you overboard? Loosen the rope on that cleat to lower the platform a few notches. I'll get this side over here." Auron rose to one knee and reached for the left cleat holding the plank on which he sat, expecting Tidus to take care of the one on the right.
Setting down his shoulder bag and leaning over the rail, Tidus grasped the rope and untied it, but he unwound it a little too much. Being that loose, the rope couldn't handle the weight of the setup, especially with Auron on it. Though Tidus tried to lower his side of the contraption slowly, the coil jumped the cleat and slipped through his hands. The rope burn prompted him to release the cord completely and give his hands a shake. "Atch-ch!"
"Tidus!" Auron barked in reprimand, but it was too late. The right side of the plank tilted beneath him, spilling him into the water with a big splash.
The teen looked over the railing with a wince as Auron surfaced and glared at him. "Sorry! Don't kill me, okay? It was an accident!" Hands on the rail, Tidus sprang over it and climbed down the rope on the fallen side of the plank. Then, hanging onto the rope, he used his feet to try to lift the plank back within arm's reach.
Auron shook his head at the kid's attempts to fix it and swam underneath the plank to push it up so Tidus could grasp it. Then, he swam to the pier and climbed out. A bit soggy, but unharmed, Auron padded back to the port side of the boat and watched Tidus cross the outer railing to reattach the rope to the cleat. "A little lower," he advised, helping him get both sides even. "That's it. Now check the other one and make sure it's still secure."
Tidus nodded and set his feet on the wet plank. He tested it by doing small bounces to be sure it would support his weight before crossing to the left cleat to give that rope a firm test-tug. "It's good!"
"You're sure?"
"Yeah."
"Good." Auron grabbed the newly secured rope and pulled the end to untie it again.
"What? Hey!" Tidus fell into the water the same way he had made Auron fall.
Chuckling with satisfaction, Auron turned to walk away.
The teen climbed back up the rope-and-board contraption to the deck and shook himself off like a dog. "I said it was an accident!"
"And now you'll remember not to release too much rope next time." The warrior monk smirked and put a hand to the door, ready to go inside for a towel.
Tidus sniffled and blinked the saltwater from his eyes. "Hey, Auron?"
The man paused.
"Um ... there's this girl in my class named Gin. And I kinda like her, so I was wondering if I could ask her over some time. For, you know, like, a date?"
Auron's smirk fell. "Girls?"
"Just one." Tidus held up one finger with the correction, but then considered Auron's assumption. "Am I allowed to have more than one?"
The man's lips pressed together in a thin line in answer to that stupid question.
"Oh, wait. What am I asking you for? You're a monk." Tidus giggled at his own joke.
Auron sighed at the boy's teasing. "Again, your concept is wrong."
"So, you were allowed to keep your hair and be with girls? What kind of a monk is that?"
"Hmph." Auron pushed the front door open.
Tidus grinned at his guardian's attempt to avoid this conversation. He had hit a nerve, so of course, he had to prod it a few more times. Leaving the half-fallen plank where it was, he picked up his shoulder bag to follow him inside. "Sounds like someone's got more than a few shady stories he doesn't want to tell."
Giving the boy a flat expression that meant he refused to comment, Auron grabbed two towels from the closet, passed one to the boy, and opened the other to dry his head, face, and arms. Then, he left the towel draped behind his neck and shoulders as he headed into the kitchen.
))((
Kaila waited until Tidus went into his room to change before she followed Bahamut into the kitchen behind Auron. "According to my brother, Gin was Shuyin's first kiss and his first girlfriend, so you have to say 'yes' to his date request. We'll clip the time flow after that, so he doesn't get attached. It was a super short relationship, anyway." She shrugged. "Actually, most of his relationships were super short. Shuyin was a pathological flirt. He never made enemies of the girls he dated, though. Well, except me," she admitted, embarrassed. "But I always thought of him as a good friend, even when I was mad at him. I guess it's because he was always such an open book, you know? What you see is what you get with him."
The confession surprised Bahamut, who glanced at her with doubt and then understanding. "But he was also impatient and self-centered." The boy spoke to Auron. "When he became interested in my sister, he completely disregarded the fact that she was dating Kaila's brother, Koji. He really did love Lenne, and he remains unsent to this day because he misses her so much, but ..."
"Koji accused Shuyin of stealing his girl," Kaila finished what Bahamut hesitated to say. "They fought about it, and ... Koji died as a result." Saddened by the memory, she lowered her gaze.
"Shuyin didn't actually kill Koji," Bahamut quickly inserted. "But if he hadn't been so impulsive, Lenne might have been able to end things with Koji in a better way. You should guide Tidus toward having more patience and common sense about that kind of thing. Especially since it appears that his summoner is going to be Braska's daughter."
"Yuna?" Auron leaned back against the kitchen counter to mull over his memories of the little girl. "It's been ten years since I've seen her. Is Kimahri Ronso still with her in Besaid?"
Bahamut nodded. "Yes, and now she's training in her father's footsteps as a summoner. She may be our best bet at taking Tidus all the way to Zanarkand to become the Final Aeon … to fight Sin and Yevon. We'll give him to her, just as we gave Jecht to Braska. In hopes that maybe—"
"But that means you're planning on Yuna meeting the same fate as her father," Auron interrupted.
"Not if Tidus can defeat Yevon before he takes possession. Tidus is quick, strong-willed, and made of a new combination of magic that Yevon has never fought before. We think he'll be better able to resist long enough to end the fight before Yevon can take him, especially if he has help from his father. Anyway, the good news is Tidus is almost completely back on pattern with Shuyin's other memories that we've allowed him to keep. His soul knows who he used to be, even if his current conscience doesn't. That should make it a little easier to predict what he's going to do. Keep interacting with him the way you've been doing. That's part of what's keeping him from turning back into Shuyin—which we definitely don't want."
The plans of the Fayth lay naked before Auron now. Again, he couldn't help but sympathize with the boy's lack of choice regarding his own fate, but he tried to shift his concerns from the future back to the present. "I don't suppose you have any advice on what to do now that his interest has switched from dogs to dates?"
Kaila smiled. "No, but it sounds like it's time for you to give him some advice on girls."
"You can't be serious. That's strictly Jecht's department."
"But Jecht can't be here for him, so he needs you," she answered.
Auron sighed heavily, grabbed a couple of containers of pre-sliced food from the fridge, and headed toward Tidus's room to face his next challenge with this kid. After knocking on the door and waiting for him to answer, he thrust the food into the boy's arms. "Take that outside and set up the grill. We'll finish inspecting the hull after we eat."
Tidus accepted the task without complaint.
Then, Auron went down into the lower level of the houseboat. He had taken over Dannae's bedroom, so he went to the closet and moved some boxes to reveal Jecht's sword, standing in the corner at the back. "Well, I can't do this any worse than you might have, right?" But as he reached for the sword, he changed his mind and grabbed his own instead. Then, he headed back up the stairs and out onto the lower deck. Tidus was on the upper deck, lighting the grill. Auron shouldered the heavy, black blade and ascended the stairs at a leisurely pace.
Tidus looked up, hearing him coming, but did a double-take upon seeing the sword. "Woah! Oh, wow! Where did you get that?" Like filament to a magnet, Tidus was drawn to and reached for the exotic weapon.
"Don't touch it." Auron knocked his hand away. "I brought it with me when I first came here, but you probably don't remember because you were so young. You wanted to know what kind of monk I used to be. I said I used to be a warrior monk, emphasis on warrior." He unsheathed the heavy daikatana and firmly planted the tip between the wooden slats in the deck.
"You used this as a monk?" Tidus eagerly reached for the hilt.
"I said, don't touch it!" Auron snapped.
Tidus startled but withdrew at the command. "Geeze, okay, already. You don't have to be so scary about it. Hey, you're not going to use that on me, are you?"
"I might." Auron remained straight-faced, though he was amused at the sudden caution.
Tidus narrowed his eyes, unable to tell whether the man was serious or not. "Um ... did I do something wrong?"
Auron thought about what Kaila and Bahamut said about Shuyin. Then he thought about little Yuna, Lord Braska's pride and joy. "No, but we're going to make sure that you don't."
The boy seemed to think he missed something.
The warrior monk turned his back to him and waved a hand over the grill to test its heat before setting the strips of meat and sliced vegetables on it. After a long moment, he took note of the unusual silence. "Are you touching the sword?" He peered behind his shoulder.
Tidus had been reaching a finger toward the ornate golden design on the ebony cross-piece, but he froze in place. "No," he answered with annoyance, withdrawing again.
"Liar."
The boy frowned."Well, what'd you bring it out here for if you're not going to do anything with it?"
Auron chose his words carefully. "I brought it out here so you could admire its beauty and strength. But you can't handle a sword without learning how to appreciate and respect it first. Your sword is your best friend in battle. Your life depends on how well you take care of it. Handle it improperly, or take it for granted, and the consequences can be unforgiving."
Tidus became hopeful. "You're going to teach me how to use it?"
"No, I'm going to teach you how to keep your hands off of it, even though it's right in front of you." Auron returned his attention to the food on the grill and softened his tone. "So … tell me about this girl that you like. What's her name? Brandy?"
"Gin." Tidus flicked the little tassel and string of beads hanging from the sword's hilt, secretly defying the monk's orders.
Auron stopped situating the meat on the grill and gave the boy a look of warning over his shoulder. "What part of 'don't' did you not understand?"
"How did you—"
"Keep your hands to yourself."
"I did!" The young teen's voice cracked under the strength of his protest.
"You did not. Sit down over here where I can see you." Auron scowled, pointing to the other side of the grill, away from the sword.
With a sour expression, Tidus moved to sit where he was told, cross-legged on the deck. Then, with a grumpy pout, he dropped his chin into his hands.
))((
Unseen to them, Kaila was beside herself with laughter and wiped a tear from her eye. "Oh, this is going to be good," she said to Bahamut.
Following this amusing event, Bahamut continued to work on Tidus's time flow within the dream, speeding things along at regular intervals as quickly as he dared until he came close to the time when Shuyin's mother originally died. He decided this could be tricky to navigate since Shuyin's memories could end up recalling something that was supposed to have already happened in Tidus's life. Slowing the time frames to a normal rate, he began seeking ways to ensure there wouldn't be any problems.
In the locker room after blitzball practice, where Shuyin would have been talking to Koji, Tidus spun the combination lock on his locker door and opened it without comment to anyone. Grabbing his towel, he flipped it over his shoulder and reached for his shower supplies. Then, he started toward one of the shower stalls when his coach intercepted him.
His coach fussed at him for reports from his teachers that he was failing language arts, despite his attempt to rescue his grades in history. "You know, your father was the best player the sport ever knew."
"This again." Tidus snorted in disgust and shook his head. "Yeah, he was his number one fan."
His coach frowned at his response. "There is no guarantee you're going to play professional blitzball just because your father did."
"Is this a page out of my history teacher's book of lectures? I'm not trying to be like my dad." Tidus remained patient, though he looked like he was struggling to hold his tongue. "Maybe I want to play blitzball because I just like it and happen to be good at it."
"Eighty percent, or better, or you're off the team. Understood?" the coach warned.
"Understood," Tidus grumped, accepting his reprimand.
"In the meantime, we'll have to find someone else to take your pool position."
"What?"
The coach lifted his tablet-clipboard and penned a note. Then, he scrolled through a few previous notes to make another. "Okay, final call! Tidus is on the bench. Jaz takes right forward. We'll move Ekina off the bench to take the right defense, and move Nan up to center."
"Center?" Nan overheard the coach's conversation. "All right! You just made my day, Jecht Jr." He gripped the back of Tidus's neck.
"Whatever." Tidus headed for an empty shower stall and hung his towel on the door hook. Still in his wet uniform, he turned on the showerhead. Removing his team shirt, he wrapped it around his hand and wrung the chlorine out of it first. Then, palms flat against the tile, he stood with his head bowed beneath the steady spray, but the cool water did nothing to ease his frustration. With a discouraged sigh, Tidus leaned against the wall and worried about how he was going to bring his grades up.
"Interesting," Bahamut commented aloud. "Tidus is shaping up to be a lot less temperamental than Shuyin might have been about something like that. Shuyin probably would have hit the ceiling … or at least a wall. I guess that's still better than hitting a fan."
"Yes, Tidus is shaping up quite nicely." Kaila smiled at how their experiment had grown over the sixteen years given to him so far.
"How close are we to Shuyin's mother's death?" Bahamut asked. "That part of the pattern is going to be totally out of whack now." When she didn't answer, the boy faced his fellow Fayth and noticed the puppy-struck look on her face. "Kaila." He gave her a nudge and a frown.
"What?" She blushed. "I'm sorry. What were you saying?"
"Would you keep your mind on what we're supposed to be doing here?" he fussed.
"We're in a high school boys' locker room, and I died as a high school girl, okay?" she defended.
Bahamut rolled his eyes at her distraction. "How much longer before Shuyin's mother died?"
Kaila sighed. "Well, Birana is tutoring Tidus in history now, so he's probably going to ask her to the spring dance—which I really should have slapped both Shuyin and Koji for setting me up like that. But it's soon, within a week or two. His mother died the morning after the dance."
"Setting you up?"
Kaila explained the messy ordeal, becoming more irritated the more that she talked about it.
"You're really not over that yet, are you?" he commented when she finished.
"I am so over it. It just happened to be a major turning point for me, okay?"
"Then, it might have been a turning point for Shuyin, too."
"Obviously. It's what caused the rift between him and Koji. But Tidus won't have that fight. We don't exist to him. So, if we're not there, he will probably go to the dance with Birana. And while that might work out fine, what will happen the next morning when his mom originally died? Do we just let it play out and see what happens?"
Bahamut sat down on the floor of the locker room to think. "Perhaps we should stick as close as possible to what's familiar, to prevent a big ripple from becoming worse. You were present at both events, right? Having you present again might minimize how far the new events stray from his old pattern."
"I was present, but we argued."
"It still might be better for him to be with you than this other girl, since she had no other role in Shuyin's life. You might not have been romantically involved with him, but it sounds like you influenced his sense of loyalty and friendship. You argued with him the night before, but you were there for him the next day when he needed you. And you remained friends even after he hurt your feelings. You were able to forgive him, but Shuyin hasn't been able to forgive anyone for what happened to him and Lenne. … Tidus needs that lesson."
Kaila shook her head, confused. "You want Tidus to remember my argument with Shuyin?"
"No. Leaving Shuyin's memories of you in-tact would trigger memories of other things we've tried hard to erase for Tidus. You know him, but he shouldn't know you. Think of it as being a stunt double for yourself for a short time."
"A what?" Kaila folded her arms at her chest. "You mean I have to actually talk to him?"
"It's just for a week or so. I think your friendship made a difference in Shuyin's life. It would be nice if you could be there for Tidus, too."
"I'm a thousand years old. I have absolutely no desire to go back to high school; I don't care how good the blizball team looked."
Tidus came out of the shower, barefoot but freshly dressed in dry jeans and a t-shirt. Standing alone at his locker, he started packing his bag of wet clothes and some books into his duffle bag. He always seemed so alone, compared to Shuyin.
Kaila sighed and surrendered. "Okay, I'll do it."
Bahamut smiled at her cooperation. "Then let's go for a walk. He needs to run into you before he studies with Birana. You have to keep him from asking her to the dance."
"Are you kidding? I couldn't do that the first time around."
Bahamut grabbed Kaila's hand and ran out of the gym to hide behind the corner of the library. There, they waited for Tidus to also exit the gym to meet with his tutor. "There he is," Bahamut prompted as soon as their subject came into view.
"What do I say?" Kaila hissed, wringing her hands.
"Just be yourself. How hard can it be? You already know him."
"No, I don't. I knew Shuyin!"
"Tidus isn't that different."
"I know!" she hissed again, flustered.
Bahamut made a face at her contradictory worries. "He's coming this way. Quick. Call more pyreflies, so he can see you."
Kaila summoned more particles of magic into her translucent form until she coalesced into a solid, living appearance. "How do I look?" Her hand went to her ponytail, and she realized she hadn't put on any make-up. "Is my skin okay? I don't have any zits do I?"
"You're starting to sound like my sister. You look fine. All you're missing is a conversation piece." Bahamut summoned a stack of spheres and notebooks in her arms. "There. Now you're a language arts tutor."
"I don't remember grammar rules. I am centuries older than the gum under my desk."
"You're seventeen," he reminded his fretful partner, giving her a push to shove her out from the bushes and onto the sidewalk. Then he smacked her armful of books to make her drop them before giggling at his act and jumping back into the bushes to hide.
"Bahamut!" she scolded but then crouched to pick up everything. She had just scooped the last item into her arms again when she turned around and collided with Tidus.
Tidus was surprised by the collision, considering there was nobody there before he started adjusting his headphones and selecting a new song from his music sphere.
Embarrassed, Kaila flashed him a nervous smile as he removed one earpiece and stared at the books on the sidewalk. "I'm so sorry. I think someone gave me too much to carry," she groused at the bushes, but then crouched to pick up the dropped items again.
"Oh, hey, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, or I would have seen you coming." Tidus wasn't entirely sure about that statement, but he knelt to help her collect her things. "Wow, that's a lot of books and spheres. You must be doing an end-of-term report or something."
Kaila met his gaze as she accepted the spheres he collected for her. It was one thing to work with Tidus while invisible. It was another thing to interact with him while he acknowledged her presence. "Yes, I ... I guess I am."
"What subject?"
She tore her attention away from his face to glance quickly over the labels on the books and spheres. "Looks like … romance fiction?" She cast another sharp glare toward her invisible cohort hidden in the bushes. She could have sworn she heard the bushes snicker in return.
Tidus was still half-listening to his music as he straightened to stand with her. "Mh, language arts isn't a great subject for me."
"Well, maybe I could tutor you?" She inwardly groaned at how scripted that sounded.
Tidus quirked a brow. "How do I know your grades aren't as bad as mine?"
Kaila was almost insulted, considering how much he goofed off and slept in classes. "What?"
He chuckled at her offended expression. "Kidding. I have to bring my grades up, or I'm going to be benched for finals. Are you for real about that offer?"
"Yeah, for real."
"Cool. Uh, what's your name? I've never seen you before today."
"Kaila." She started to walk toward the library, and he followed since that was where he was meeting his history tutor.
"I'm—"
"Tidus," she blurted. "I know."
He was surprised but then grinned. "Wait. You've probably seen me on the blitzball team, right? That's how most people know me. You had me thinking you were psychic there for a minute."
"Well … maybe I am." She smiled at how easy-going his personality was—just like Shuyin's—and her nervousness began to dissipate as they walked.
"Okay, then. What am I thinking?" He closed his eyes, concentrating on something unseen.
Kaila smirked at being tested. "You're going to the library?"
He opened his eyes. "Hey, you're good, considering the library is right behind you."
"And you're going to meet with your history tutor."
"Woah." He laughed. "Okay, I'm impressed."
"And you're thinking of asking her to go to the dance with you."
Tidus stopped walking and faced her. "Okay, now it's just spooky. How did you know that?"
Kaila chewed a lip, wondering how to answer him. Then she decided not to. Instead, she used Shuyin's distractability against him. "Don't ask her, okay?"
"What? Why not?"
"Because it's not a good idea."
He stepped back. "How would you know?"
Kaila winced, shrugged, and started walking again. "I'm psychic, remember? I can feel it."
Walking by her side, Tidus didn't know whether to be amused or offended, but her strange responses intrigued him. "Did you have some kind of vision about a bus running me over on my way to pick her up?"
"Maybe. Or … maybe I just know someone else that would really like to go with you instead."
He was unsure what to make of that but remained amused. "Who?"
"I can't tell you yet."
"Why not?"
"It's ... a secret. But if you need help with language arts, I'll tell you who it is tomorrow."
Tidus grasped onto the strap of the duffle bag hanging from his shoulder, and he studied her with doubt. "Well, I don't want to get hit by lightning, or anything, just because I ignored a psychic. So, how about my place tomorrow after blitzball practice?"
Kaila stopped walking again. "Okay."
"But I still have to meet her to go over my history homework, so the bus or lightning isn't going to hit me in the library, is it?"
"No, no," she answered with an embarrassed laugh.
"Cool. See you tomorrow, then." He continued toward the library on his own.
Kaila bit her lip to keep from smiling as she turned the corner onto the nearest side street. "Yes!" she congratulated herself with a hiss as soon as she was alone.
Bahamut appeared before her. "Psychic? Really?"
"He went along with it, didn't he?" Kaila giggled. "He's fun. He's like Shuyin, but without all the moody attitude! Oh my god, I forgot how blue his eyes were! And that smile!"
"Don't get too excited, Kaila. Remember, this is only temporary."
"You put me up to this. Shut up and let me enjoy it. Kaila shoots, and she scores! Woohoo!" Dropping the books and spheres, she imitated Shuyin's little victory dance.
"Woohoo! What are we celebrating?" Tidus chimed in.
Kaila's eyes popped open, and she froze in mid-motion.
Bahamut had already vanished.
Behind her, Tidus had joined in doing his trademark dance.
Outwardly groaning while turning five shades of red, Kaila straightened and cleared her throat as she smoothed her shorts. "I … was … practicing my blitzball cheer for the next game … to … cheer you on … now that we've … met." She cringed at how cringey and awkward that sounded, even to her. Then she stooped to pick up her books again.
"Ah." He wasn't buying it, still clearly humored at having caught her in the act. But he said nothing more about it as he bent to help once more. "Well, I realized I forgot to tell you I live on a houseboat down at the harbor. I can show you where if we meet outside the gym after practice and walk there together." Straightening, he handed her the books he retrieved.
"Oh, that's okay, I'll just meet you there, so I'm not hanging around with nothing to do while you practice."
His brows rose, and he scratched his head. "You know where I live?"
"I'm very familiar with the harbor. I've seen you practicing on the deck."
"Oh. Okay. Then, I'll see you there. I gotta run, or I'm going to be late."
She smiled and waved until he jogged out of sight. Then, she stopped holding her breath and slumped against the wall. "Great! Now he thinks I'm a stalker," she lamented as Bahamut reappeared at her side with a sly smirk.
Author's Note: Just letting everyone know my schedule is changing. If you are following me for updates, I will be posting them on Saturdays, instead of Fridays, starting next week. :)
