A/N: Well, here it is: my first Tidus POV chapter. Its a little glossy--hope you

don't mind. But nine years of mundane child raising is kind of boring to read or

write. I promise, tho, it gets better from here!

TIDUS

I had just turned eight when I lost my mom. Don't get me wrong--she

didn't die or anything. She just sort of…stopped one day while Auron and I were

at a blitzball game.

After that, Auron took care of me full time. Not that he hadn't been

pretty much doing that for the last couple of months. but now he moved into my

house, cooked all the food, did the laundry, all of it.

Auron--who'd never even had kids before me--became my mom and dad both.

I don't think I realized how lucky I'd been that he was there until now.

Those first few years were a trip. There was lot of resentment on my

part for a while. He wasn't my mom, and he wasn't my dad, and I wanted to hate

him for it.

I think I got over it when blitzball season started back up that summer

and he knew about registration before I did. And he made sure I got signed up on

time. After that, I found it pretty hard to be angry at him.

He was better about being at my games than Mom had ever been. He didn't

miss one that first year. Auron even took the team out for dinner himself when

the Junior Abes won the championship.

For being such a stiff, he was a huge softie when it came to me.

I think my childhood actually got better after my mom got put into the

asylum.
He moved out of the house when I got recruited to play pro for the Abes. Guess

he figured that if I was old enough for that, then I was old enough to take care

of my own house. He got a little loft apartment about three blocks away from the

docks--just close enough to me so that I could go running to him if I needed

him.

The first few weeks, I think I wore a rut in the sidewalk going to his

place. I even got to know his landlady on a first name basis. I mean, hey, I was

only fifteen--I was having a ton of crises.

Those trips tapered off after awhile, though, as I learned to handle the

fans, the reporters and the bills on my own. Instead of two or three times a

day, they became two or three times a week. Then just twice a week or so. By the

end of six months we ere having dinner once a week while we discussed bills and

schedules and things.

It really was a good place to be for me. I was finally out from under my

father's shadow and making my own name. Sometimes, when I went to visit my

mother, I even caught her smiling faintly from her corner of the world at

mention of my new place in the spotlight.

I had been on my own for about a year when I started canceling our

dinner nights. At first it was just a few, but eventually it became a surprise

when I was actually home for one. Auron never missed one though. I would come

home from my nights on the town and find whatever note he'd left me on the state

of my affairs along with some dinner that wouldn't be too terrible reheated.

I dunno why I stopped going really. I guess I thought girls and blitzing

were more important than dinners with the guy who raised me.

I think I turned into my old man.

And I think that I really hurt Auron.
We had our first real fight right before the championships the year I turned

sixteen. I went out and partied hard the night before the semi-finals. So I was

exhausted and hung-over for our game.

We lost spectacularly because of my "off game." Auron was…a little upset

about it.

"Your team lost because of you."

"Oh, please! You came here because I had a lousy game?" I was so cocky

and full of myself--and my relatively new fame--that I didn't really care.

"They were counting on you. You were their leader and you let them down.

Your actions cost them the championship."

"Oh, like it was all my fault. There are five other guys on the team,

you know."

My back was to him, so I didn't see him move, but I knew when he grabbed

my shoulder and spun me around so that I was facing him. He was glaring

daggers--or maybe they were longswords--at me.

"Having five other guys in the sphere just means that they all look bad

too, for depending on a loser like you."

That made me mad. Nobody called me a loser. I was the Abes golden

child--I was the best! I was NOT a loser.

I punched him. It didn't even make him loosen his grip in me. I didn't

realize what I was in for until I was laying on the floor with pain exploding

through my face.

Auron--my friend, mentor and pseudo-father--had hit me. In anger, I

thought.

He knelt down in front of me, and looked me straight in the eyes. I

almost flinched away from the anger burning there. "That was to remind you that

you are responsible for the results of your actions. Not the rest of your team.

Not me. And not your father."

Then he got up and left. I watched him go through tear-filled eyes.

I'd been so sure of myself--so arrogant--before that day. But Auron

proved that the golden child had tarnish.

I cried for the first time in a long time that night.