"Those two should have hired a wedding planner."
More tanned even than Rikku, an Al Bhed man with dark, curly hair and goggles swerved around in the co-pilot's seat of the Celsius and complained to Paine in the common language. Buddy tried not to listen to the group squabbling in the back about wedding plans a week after Yuna spread the news about her engagement, occasionally rubbing his temples.
"Sorry. But Yuna wanted everything done quick, just in time for the annual celebration of the Eternal Calm next month," Paine responded, combing her bangs out of her eyes stylishly with her fingers. The warrior crossed her arms over her black hardcore-styled ensemble and sighed with her friend. "Unfortunately I don't have a license, so, I can't help you here."
"How's this?" a young boy in a full-body suit swiveled in his chair to show the group images of dresspheres featuring wedding attire on his computer screen. Short and young, but of extraordinary intellect, Shinra spoke through a helmet that resembled a gas mask, in such a way that it sounded as if it was an intercom far away.
"I thought we already decided on a dress!" squealed one blonde woman, much to the annoyance of the others. Leblanc fanned herself in stress, squinting her navy eyes in disapproval of the image the boy had chosen and pulling at the hot collar of her loud, low-cut pink-and-purple outfit.
"See what we've caused here?" Tidus said, nudging Yuna with his elbow, standing behind Shinra's chair.
"They're just having fun," Yuna told him, laughing. "It doesn't really matter. We don't have a definite plan for anything yet, actually. I have so many options."
Auron turned away from the group in boredom, retreating to the cabin downstairs in search of the silent solitude that better suited his personality. He figured that a wedding would at least keep him busy for the time being, yet he found no place in fussing with everyone else over the trifling details of the ceremony.
Six stools lined up in front of a bar run by a polite little blue Hypello, and Auron found Rikku already sitting at the one farthest from the door, watching a screen that had a news broadcast going on in Luca. Slurping from a straw that was stuck into some sort of exotic fruit, the girl remained oblivious of his presence.
A clenching sensation shot straight to his heart as he watched her, eyeing her sunsplashed blonde hair that fell in a crude ponytail down to her back. Rikku was a gorgeous tan all over and across her back was the tied ends of her lemon bikini top. Softer yellow ribbons were tied down both her arms, and the thin strings of a matching lemon thong contoured her hipbones, emerging from a short olive-green skirt. Around her neck and hanging down to her knees was a scarf that deepened from yellow at her knees to cherry red at her collar. Auron found it strange to be able to notice all of this at once; Rikku was always up and about looking for excitement.
"Hope you don't mind me being here too," Auron announced, settling himself one stool away from her.
"Oh, no, I don't mind," Rikku said hurriedly, turning herself around and trying hard not to stare as Auron accepted a glass of brandy from Barkeep. When she looked at Auron, all she was made of seemed to tingle like the cold ocean against her when her body was dehydrated. Not once had she been able to look at this mysterious man and know exactly what it was he was thinking.
She had been wondering how much time he needed before they could break this strange barrier that came between them as of recently. One week felt like another thousand years passed them by. It wasn't more than maybe about nine days ago that their relations with each other took a complete spin around.
He'd told her he loved her, and he kissed her, returning the same feelings she had thrown out to him. Rikku had never known a greater happiness like this, and now it was as if they were strangers again, colder than they had been when she first asked him if she could join Yuna in her quest two years ago.
"H-how are you?" she stumbled, clenching her hands together tightly underneath the counter. Anxiously she crossed the ankles of her high-top shoes together, hoping that what passed between her and Auron was much more than a dream.
"I'm fine," he told her, looking at her through his left eye and over his sunglasses, for the deep scar over his right eye forever reminded the knowing of a wound he acquired long ago. "Just trying to get used to things. Everywhere we go holds memories."
"I can imagine."
"But how are you?"
"I'm excited about Yuna's wedding."
"Yes, you're all growing up." Auron sipped his brandy and thought things over, running his tongue over his bottom lip just once. "But are your affairs going well?"
'You should know,' Rikku wanted to say. Moving on from that night they........ it was just so hard.
"Oh..." she began, "I guess I never did thank you... for the other night, you know? I had fun."
Auron set down his brandy glass and met her eyes with his one. Deep, clear jade-emerald and spiraling, those beautiful Al Bhed eyes seemed to subconsciously drag all the secrets within him out to her. She kept her eyes and mouth in a fixed position, pleadingly. Auron felt like whatever he could say to her at this moment would never be enough.
"I did, too," he said, leaning over but not quite daring to move onto the barstool beside hers. "And I'm glad."
"So I guess that... you're okay with me hanging out with you then?" Rikku followed suit and pointed her shoulder his way, leaning a bit so that they were talking directly to each other's faces.
"Of course." Those sunglasses slipped a little lower down the bridge of his nose so that Rikku could see his whole open eye, truthful and clouded with pensiveness. She saw the same look on his face that she did on Valentine's Day, sweethearted and open. For the first time she saw a trace of what a real boyfriend was supposed to be like, and softly, her heart thudded as she realized she was slowly winning him back. "I want you to know, Rikku, if there's anything I can do for you, anything you need from me at all, I--I'm here..."
His voice began to trail off, but he wouldn't let his sentence hanging in the air. Not for a heavily indecisive moment that cheated all his years on this earth and left him dumbfounded. All he could think about was the way her sweet, full melon lips entranced him, their shine, color, and poise. By now he could see the lines in them as he found how much closer they'd moved together. His breath caught in his throat as the taste of her lip gloss intermingled with that of the brandy in the air. Those creamy eyelids began to droop over her green twin oases, revealing long feminine lashes. A little closer and he would kiss her, and his heart would no longer ache in the way it had been tormenting him since they separated after their last kiss a week ago.
"Auron, I.........."
"Rikku...?"
"ATTENTION!!! Everyone, report to the bridge immediately!!!"
The two of them sprang apart and looked in separate directions shamefully. Tears began to take form in Rikku's eyes and Auron yanked his navy collar up high onto his face to hide that he was turning crimson. After taking time to breathe for a moment, they nodded to each other dutifully and walked, reluctantly and not hastening in the least bit, toward the elevator that would take them to the bridge.