Lookie! Your favorite Aurikku one-shot is now a chapter!
Returned Souls Chapter 5:
Moonlight
Auron glanced at the water clock beside his bed. For all their use of machina, the Al Bhed respectfully kept their inns and shops adorned with water clocks and sundials. Auron frowned. It was about two a.m. He still hadn't slept. His mind had been drifting since a good three hours before. Mostly, it had been drifting to his recent conversations with the young Al Bhed, Rikku. It seemed every time he was around her he found himself not wanting her to leave, not wanting her to stop talking with him. He shook his head and climbed from his resting place. He needed fresh air; needed to walk.
Quietly, so as not to wake the others, Auron made his way down the hallway of the inn. His thoughts wondered to two days ago at the Thunder Plains, the day Rikku had joined their party. She had been absolutely terrified of the lightning, and he had laughed at her.
"You needn't fear the thunder. It's not what can hurt you," he had chided. The girl had shivered uncontrollably and involuntarily dove into his jacket at the next flash of brilliant light.
"You'd be scared too if you had been hit repetitively with Thundara as a small child!" Rikku had squeaked from inside his coat, seeming to be in no hurry to move. "Can we please stop and rest?" Auron had smiled slightly to himself and calmly agreed. He'd somehow ended up rocking her to sleep inside the inn that night.
Now they were at a similar inn on the opposite side of the Macalanian Forest. Auron hadn't seen Rikku since they'd gone to bed, but he couldn't seem to wash her from his mind. Damn it! He thought as he moved through the lobby. Why couldn't he tear his thoughts from the young Al Bhed? He carefully slipped through the inn's front door without a sound and walked toward one of the trees. Still in the shadow of the inn's roof he stopped abruptly. Nearby, someone was singing. He hunted the landscape with his bronze eye, searching for the source of the soft soprano. He found it in the overhead branches of a tree.
"I don't like to be alone in the night, and I don't like to hear I'm wrong when I'm right," Rikku didn't even notice him from her treetop perch. "And I don't like to have the rain on my shoes, but I do love you." Her blonde locks fell loose across her back. She was wrapped in a brightly colored blanket and was staring at the moon above. "But I do love you. I don't like to see the sky painted gray, and I don't like when nothin's going my way. And I don't like to be the one with the blues, but I do love you." Auron was mesmerized, captivated by her beauty and her voice. He stepped silently into the moonlight. "But I do love you. I love everything about the way you're loving me. The way you lay your head upon my shoulder when you sleep. And I love to kiss you in the rain; I love everything you do." Rikku closed her eyes to the moonlight, leaning against the tree trunk. Auron… "Oh I do." Auron walked warily closer to the tree, wanting to take her into his arms, but at the same time not wanting to scare her. "I don't like to turn the radio on, just to find I missed my favorite song. And I don't like to be the last with the news, but I do love you." Auron tested a low branch, pulling himself onto it. "But I do love you. I love everything about the way you're loving me. The way you lay your head upon my shoulder when you sleep. And I love to kiss you in the rain; I love everything you do. Oh I do." He had reached the branch next to her in complete silence. He leaned against the tree and waited. "And I don't like to be alone in the night, and I don't like to hear I'm wrong when I'm right. And I don't like to have the rain on my shoes, but I do love you. But I do love you. But I do love you. But I do love you." Rikku laid back again, her song finished. The tree trunk didn't seem as hard anymore. Wait a second… The tree was breathing!
Rikku tried to jump up, but a pair of strong arms wrapped about her, pulling her back tightly. "You have a beautiful voice," a gruff voice whispered in her ear. She relaxed, though still thoroughly shocked.
"Auron?" she whispered timidly.
"Hmm?" he hummed, lips lost in her hair. She laid back even more, resting her head against his shoulder, glancing up to his face which was empty of his silver glasses and guarding collar. She inhaled sharply at the look in his eye. It was so…full of emotion. [A/N:it has taken me a good twenty minutes to get this paragraph right] Rikku twisted in his embrace to face him, pressing her small hands to his chest and wrapping her blanket about them both. He stared at her in shock, as if unable to register that she was happy he had snuck up on her.
But she was happy. Rikku had never expected him to return her feelings, and yet here he was. It's funny the way the world works, she thought as he leaned to her and pressed their lips together.
***
Tidus yawned and sat up; accidentally upsetting Yuna's sleeping form and causing her to roll off the bed. She yelped and jumped up, then realized it was only Tidus.
"Rat," she mumbled. "You just had to wake me up, didn't you?"
"Yep," Tidus quipped. He stood slowly and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?"
"To find Auron. I need to ask him something." Tidus made his way down the hall to Auron's room and opened the door. There was no one inside. Tidus frowned. He searched the other rooms and asked his comrades, but to no avail. It seemed no one had seen the legendary guardian since the previous night.
The sun was starting to come up when Tidus stepped outside the inn. He heard a low chuckle above him. He lifted his eyes to the branches above only to find his mentor wrapped in a blanket with Rikku, watching the sunrise like a couple of teenagers. Tidus smiled and turned back to the inn. His question could wait.
Man, that was longer than any of the other chapters! Just my luck