~*~The next several chappy's I have already written so I guess I'm just going to put them up now…no use having people waiting ;)~*~

The bright morning awoke with a loud bang. Startled by the sudden noise, I instantly withdrew from the covers that were placed over me. I sat up and thought about where the loud explosion might have came from. A few seconds passed by and when I was finally awake from my heavy slumber, I was dazed. My surroundings were different than what I last remembered: outside against the pillar. I decided that worrying about the explosion was far more important than how I wound up in a rented room. I walked over to the door and opened it to only jump back 3 feet from the doorway.  Lying on the ground right outside of my room was the entire group, inn owners, and workers, all massacred inside the inn. I covered my mouth in fear and screamed in terror.

I sat up all of a sudden and breathed heavily from my distorted nightmare. The sweat and tears raced across my forehead and traveled down to my chin in a race for competition. My heart pounded faster and harder than a tribal drum beating at war. I held my temples and wiped the sweat from my head that stung my sore eyes. Looking around, I noticed that it was still night time and that I wasn't outside anymore. I pinched myself several times and assured my panicked self that I was ok and no more dreams where here to harm me. The room was still too dark to see anything but I could distinctly make out everyone's clothing within the dim room. Once my heart and lungs agreed to move at the same pace, I rested my head against the fluffy pillow underneath me.

My body was sore from the frustrating battles we experienced today and my head was pounding. I couldn't control the extreme aches inside me so I stood up and walked out of the room and into the lightly illuminated hallway.

At the time I was hoping that walking off the pain and getting some fresh air would help cease my unbearable pain.

Nope, wrong solution.

Staggering from side to side as the pounding increased, I finally made my way to the bathroom. Inside, I fortunately found a glass of water sitting on the sink for anyone's use. I reached out for it and tipped over unwillingly from the extreme pain.

I placed the glass to my lips and gulped down the cold water, drinking the water quickly as if it were my last hope. Once finished with the water, I continued to stumble in the room and wobble from sink to wall from toilet to door. I felt dizzy and ready to hurl in the toilet below me when I closed my eyes and felt my body falling to the ground. I collapsed into someone's arms and I opened my eyes to catch a glimpse of my savior.

It was Auron.

"Auron." I said with a heavy slur. I felt the dizziness return and flickered my eyes uncontrollably.

He looked down at me and held me in his arms, "Are you alright?"

I opened one eye halfway and moaned as a response.

"What did I say about taking too many of them potions Rikku?" he asked with a hint of humor in his tone.

I nodded gently, trying not to awaken the currently sleeping pain. Auron lifted me up and held me close to his body as we entered the sleeping room once again. Walking over ever so silently to the bed in the back of the room, he made his way past the resting guardians and placed me slowly on the bed.

"Auron" I began, but I was cut off immediately by his finger upon my lips.

"Shhhh," He said, "you need sleep."

With those words, I closed my eyes and smirked as the pain left my body and into the cold night air. Auron picked up his jacket off of the floor and placed it over my body to protect me from the devilish darkness. He placed his hand on her forehead and wiped away the strands of hair that seemed to have irritated her eyes. The moons light grew less dense and Auron couldn't help but glance towards the windows direction. The room was filled with silence and the only thing that disturbed the peace was Wakka's abnormal snoring. Auron smirked and focused his attention to the ground where he began to think about Zanarkand and Yunalesca on that dreadful day.

Morning caught me by surprise; I wasn't expecting such a long rest from a gang who is constantly on the move. The night before we only had the chance to rest for 2 hours and then we had to continue with our journey. I yawned long and stretched my arms out to my side when I realized that my headache was gone. I looked down at my lap and saw that Auron had the kindness to lend me his jacket for the night. I was simply baffled by his actions and I hurried out of the room quickly so I could find him and thank him.

Stepping outside of the inn, I found Tidus talking to a local citizen by the sea. I walked over to him and greeted him a good morning.

"Morning Tidus!" I greeted him in my cheery brat voice.

He turned to me and smiled, "Well good morning sleepy head."

"Have you been up long?"

"Me? Nah, maybe just a couple of minutes. Why what's up? " He drifted his eyes towards the inn, "Is anyone else up?"

"Nope" I answered, "All 'cept Auron, they're all passed out!" I yawned again and let the chill of the morning air fill my lungs "Plus I couldn't stand Wakka's snoring any more."

Tidus laughed and slapped my shoulder, "Wakka will get mad if he heard you say that."

"Well, what he don't know can't hurt him." I said to him. After saying that, it made me think of something else. "Tidus, remember when you introduced me to Wakka?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, I was thinking. When you introduced me to him, I was wearing my Al Bhed wetsuit. And didn't you say that Wakka hates Al Bhed's or something?"

Tidus was simple amazed at first but once I was finished with my statement, he nodded as to say that everything would be ok. "Wakka did approach me about that." He said, "But don't worry, everything is ok."

"Oh yeah," I placed one hand on my hip, "And how?"

"Well you remember when I pulled Lulu away from the group real quick that one time?"

"Yeah..." I answered, still awaiting the rest of his conclusion.

"Well, when I did, I asked her to find a way to say something to Wakka about your clothes if he got suspicious. She said that she would simply say that you got kidnapped by Al Bhed's and were stranded on their ship and you stole a wetsuit and goggles to escape."

I looked at him with a quizzical expression and I just couldn't believe what he told me. "You made that up!" I protested, "If it were Lulu, she would have thought of something a lot better than that lame excuse!"

"Well, ok your right." He said with some shame in his tone, "But she said not to worry about it and that she would think of something to say to him."

I stared at him and laughed, "You are such a tung, you know that?"

Tidus opened his mouth, "A what?"

"You heard me, I said that you were a dork!"

"A dork am I?" Tidus exclaimed, "Well, your dead meat when I get to ya!"

After he said those words, he darted after me and began chasing around the small area. I ran ahead of him and sprinted as quickly as I could away from Tidus who was just as fast as me. Running hard and long, I managed to dodge his hands from capturing me.

We returned to the campsite in complete laughter and hauled over the benches outside to rest. I collapsed in such happiness, that I ended up sitting upside down on the bench. Tidus looked over at me and reached out to tickle me again on my hips when I rolled off the bench and stood up. My hands were at my sides and I was jumping from one foot to another quickly so I could be ready for any sudden movements. Tidus stood up slowly and lifted one leg and stomped it on the ground, and did the same with the other. He was trying to imitate a wrestler, and he was doing a bad job about it too. I screeched loudly when I saw Tidus darting directly at me. I was so confused about the whole thing I couldn't do anything but stand there. I covered my eyes as Tidus gored me to the ground.

Opening my eyes to see Tidus sticking out his tongue is a horrible sight, let me tell you. We laughed at our silly game of tag as he continued to lay on top of me. I slapped his head a couple of times to show him how much of a goofball he was and poked his sides in attempt to get him off of me. My face met his again and his eyes seemed to have some other type of emotion in them. His face came closer to mine, almost touching my own. I thought to myself, what he could possibly be doing? He remained on top of me, supporting himself with his hands as he laid in between my legs. I turned my head to the right and found Auron standing about 20 feet away from us. I cleared my throat and pushed the boy off of me and stood up. I provided a hand to Tidus and almost fell back down from his tremendous weight.

Tidus looked down at me and noticed that my face had changed. "What's wrong?" he asked.

I felt like I had did something wrong to him. If I told Tidus what I felt inside, he wouldn't believe me. He would just tell me that I should stop dreaming and wake up to realty. My heart sank and dropped right into the pit of my stomach. There wasn't anything I could do. I felt like I did do something wrong to Auron, but I couldn't figure it out.

"Nothing." I said with a smile and I stuck out my tongue.  Tidus rubbed my head and I twisted his arm and threatened him if he ever touched my beautiful hair again, he would go straight into the ground. He backed off of me and laughed as Yuna came out from the inn.

As Tidus walked over to Yuna, I walked back over to the benches where Auron at the time was standing. The moment I walked over to him and sat down, he walked away from me and headed into the inn without saying a single word to me. I slouched into the bench and lowered my head in displeasure. What did I do? Why wouldn't he say anything to me? Looking back up to the Mi'Ihen ruins, I thought about what just happened.

Was he mad at me cause he was jealous?

Was he mad at me because I didn't say good morning?

Or was he mad at me cause he didn't have any food?

I grunted in disgust and sucked my teeth as the thoughts ran in my head. "Forget it." I said to myself, and stood up to walk into the inn where breakfast was being prepared.

Then I stopped at the doorway and felt that cold stare upon my back. Turning to the eerie feeling, I found Auron leaning against the ruins and focusing on the distance. I bit my lip and could only pray that things wouldn't change.

They wouldn't change….Right?

~*~Hey, I know that Rikku didn't appear at Mi'Ihen…but it's my ficcy, correct? ;) Don't mind the names of the chapters…they are not really suppose to make any sense…I just figure I would give it a shot…(seeing how all my titles of chapters are 1,2,3,4,5,…..) I think II might have made a boo-boo though…. Have fun anyways!!! ::goes to room and sees her cat on his back and watches as he just lays there:: dork….~*~