Chapter Fourteen
From This Moment On
Sitting around the waiting room was absolutely maddening to Rikku. She had spent the last few months of her life shrouded in darkness, not knowing who was or wasn't her friend ... not even knowing herself, really. And now that all her memories were back and clear as day in her mind, but nobody would tell her anything.
She started pacing back and forth, around and around the waiting room, until finally Auron could not take it any longer. If she stayed here much longer, she was going to burst. He caught her by the shoulders on one of her passes around the room.
She stopped and looked up at him. "Something wrong?" she asked him, still marveling at how incredibly handsome he was. Yeah, that's an appropriate thought, given the situation, she thought dryly.
"Yeah, something's wrong," he sighed. "Come on, we're getting out of here." He grabbed her jacket from the chair she had slung it over and handed it to her.
"But ... What about Yunie?" Rikku exclaimed.
"You're not doing her any good, pacing around here like a crazy person," Auron told her. "Lulu or Wakka will call us if there is any change. Though that's not likely until Isaaru can figure out the antidote."
Rikku finally nodded. Auron was right. Hell, Auron was always right. Aha! I've found a flaw! He's human after all! She just smiled up at him softly. "Okay, let's go."
The two rode the elevator to the ground floor and stepped outside the hospital into the chilly November evening air. Rikku shivered a bit in her jacket, and Auron stepped beside her and put his arm around her.
Rikku couldn't help but to smile a little. She knew the situation with Yuna was dire, and she was worried about her, but she'd also been in her own personal hell for the past few months, and she just wanted to relish a little bit of selfish pleasure.
"Where do you want to go?" Auron asked her.
Rikku sighed and looked around her. "Can we – just walk for awhile? We've never gotten to do that." Her voice was small and sad, and Auron held her close and kissed the top of her head.
The pair walked around the city for about an hour, until Auron came to an abrupt stop in front of an apartment building.
"What?" Rikku asked him. "What is it?"
Auron cleared his throat. "This is my building," he told her.
Rikku looked at it and bit her lower lip. "Oh," she said quietly.
"Rikku, do you ..."
Rikku cut him off with a deep kiss on the mouth. She pulled away and smiled at him dreamily. "Yes," she breathed, looking him in the eye. "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!"
He didn't know why he felt so nervous ... it wasn't as if this was a new experience for him. But it was a new experience, he told himself. Because it was Rikku. Perfect, beautiful, angelic Rikku. The only woman he would ever love. He fumbled with his key in the lock, and finally pushed the door open.
Rikku walked in and looked around the apartment, assessing it. "Well, Mr. LaGuard," she said sternly. "You are a slob. We're going to have to change that ..."
Auron didn't let her finish. He grabbed her roughly around the waist and pulled her close to him. But he didn't kiss her mouth, as she had expected him to. First, he lightly brushed his lips across her forehead, and then he ever so softly kissed the tip of her nose.
Rikku smiled at him, unaware that he could be so blatantly – sweet. "You know, Auron LaGuard," she whispered against his neck as he removed her jacket and tossed it across the room. "I am a married woman." She began unbuttoning his shirt, letting her hands caress the flesh of his torso as she went along.
"Oh, right," Auron said, chuckling a bit. "That." Ever so carefully, he lifted her left hand and examined the gold band that still encircled her finger.
Rikku looked down and bit her lip. "Damn thing," she said softly.
"I'll be right back," Auron whispered, leaving a trail of kisses along her neck.
Rikku giggled and watched him walk off down the hallway, her mind full of questions. What the hell was he doing?
He came back out a few minutes later, holding a cactus blossom out to her. Rikku smiled at him and accepted the bloom. She held it to her nose and inhaled its sweet scent. "It's beautiful," she told him.
"As are you," he told her. "Rikku ... I am sorry about what happened to you."
Rikku shook her head. "It's not your fault, Auron," she told him. "It's not anybody's fault, except Seymour's. And he'll get his in the end. Even if I have to do it myself." She said it in jest, but Auron heard the steel will behind her voice. He had no doubt that if it came down to it, she really would go through with it ... He shuddered. He didn't want to think of anything getting that bad.
"Still ... I have never been so scared in my life as I was when you were gone," he told her honestly. "I don't want to go through that again."
Rikku reached out and ran her fingers through his dark hair lightly. "You won't. I'm not going anywhere. For better or worse, you're stuck with me."
Auron reacted to her words. For better or worse ... Slowly, he took her left hand again. "Do you mean that?" he asked her.
"Of course I do," she told him.
"Well, then ... I know this isn't the most conventional way to go about this ... but we only have but a few moments," Auron told her seriously. Slowly, he slid the gold band that Seymour had placed on her finger off, and replaced it with a more delicate platinum band that was practically glowing with tiny, sparkling diamonds.
Rikku's eyes widened. "Oh, Auron," she breathed.
"Shh," he told her, leading her to the sliding doors that led to his balcony. "I know that this is crazy," he told her. "But I lost you once ... I don't want to ever go through that again. And, even though things may not work out the way that we plan, I want you to always have tonight to look back on."
He turned and faced her, the moonlight their only illumination. "Rikku Sands, from this day forward, in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, I vow to love you and honor you. And remember you," he added vehemently. He didn't expect her to understand now, but soon, everything would be different. Things that were never supposed to change would be gone. And he just couldn't leave her like that.
Rikku just stared at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. "For better for worse, I will love you until I die," she responded. In her heart of hearts, she knew that something was happening here, something that she had no control over. But she had this moment, this glorious shining moment in which she was truly and completely a bride.
Even if it was only for a little while.
Rikku looked back up at him. "You may now ... kiss me ..." she whispered, eyes closed, leaning in to catch his mouth with her own.
They made love several times that night, each time with a bit more urgency than the last. Rikku was beginning to understand. Yuna would wake up soon ... Seymour would be found, and disposed of ... But Auron, her Auron ...
She didn't know for how long, and she didn't know where he would go ... but he would have to leave.
Part TwoThey didn't go back to the hospital the next day. They spent it in bed, with each other, savoring the time and the company. Rikku lay in his arms and stared down at her left hand in awe.
"This is the real thing," she told him.
"Well, I would hope so, as much money as I spent on it," he joked.
Rikku hit him with a pillow. "Not the ring, dummy – though it is gorgeous. No, this marriage ... this is real. This is how it's supposed to be. Just the two of us, happy."
Happy ... the word reverberated through Auron's brain. If only it could be that simple. Because as much as he wanted it to be over, he knew that ridding Spira of Seymour wouldn't be the end. Not even close.
People wouldn't like that Seymour was gone ... and they would come after him. This plan had been in action long before, and he had always known that he would leave Bevelle someday. He just hadn't ever planned on falling in love with someone.
Rikku sensed him pulling away from her, mentally, and she tried like hell to pull him back. Oh, no you don't, she thought angrily. You're not gone yet, Auron. You're still mine. And even when you are gone ... you'll still be mine. She fingered her ring gingerly and smiled up at him.
The look in his eyes spoke volumes. "You're – you're not gonna wait for Yunie to wake up, are you?" she whispered.
His voice cracked. "Rikku, I can't."
She nodded. "I understand." She looked down. "Who are you taking with you?"
"Tidus and Wakka ... but they'll be back," Auron told her slowly.
"And you?"
"I'll come back ... to see you," was all he would say.
But Rikku knew what he really meant. I'll come back ... to say goodbye.
"Are you sorry?" Auron asked her after a long moment.
Rikku studied him long and hard. "Are you kidding me?" she whispered. "I could never be sorry about you." She leaned in and kissed him again, and they let the passion take them over one more time.
This would be their last day together, maybe for a very long time.
But if Auron thought she was going to let him go off to face the madman who had tortured her, poisoned her mind, and done despicable things to her body – not to mention what he had done to her beloved cousin – without her, well, he had another thing coming.
But she'd be damned if she'd tell him that. She wasn't about to let him lecture her and scold her and tell her that it wasn't her place ... because her place was beside him, right up until the very end.
Part Three
She had gone back to the hospital very early the next morning, and snuck past the nurses' station. When she looked in on her sleeping cousin, her heart broke, but her resolve grew even more. "He'll pay, Yunie. I'll make sure of that," she whispered. "And then we'll make sure you get better ..." She blew her cousin a kiss and crept back out of the building.
She had come across a copy of the map that had been provided to the P.D. when she had been kidnapped in Auron's desk at his apartment. Auron, Wakka, and Tidus had all left a few hours ago, and now it was her turn to go. Once she was there, there would be nothing Auron could do to stop her.
She would not falter. She would be steel. And she would see that this maniac got what he deserved ... She knew that she would not rest until she saw him dead with her own two eyes.
She whispered a silent prayer to whatever Higher Power was listening, and headed into the bowels of the city ...
She was approaching her deliverance.
A/N: Whew, angsty, romantic, sad, fluffy ... And we're almost at the end kiddies ... I'm HOPING HOPING HOPING to have the final two chappies up by the time this weekend is over! I want to thank everyone for reading this, I really do love you guys! Please keep the reviews coming! I love to hear from you guys! Enjoy this chappie and I'll be back soon with the next one! Love, Rhianna XD