Summary:
AU: Son of Sin is a popular band with an abusive lead singer. Can her love cure him? Or will she become his next victim? TidusxYuna, AuronxRikku. Rated R for violence, language, and (consentual) sex.
Warning and Disclaimer:
See Chapter 1.
Auron had learned long ago that, in order to keep an eye on his adopted son, it was necessary to live near him. So despite his hatred for the neighborhood, the man always remained in the same crummy apartment complex, a high-rise half an hour from the Mi'hen Highroad. The apartment itself was peaceful, though, with a good view of the stadium and the ocean beyond. Besides, living on the fourth floor gave Auron a sense of peace that he didn't get from staying down in the Lucan metropolis. This sense of peace was only broken when he knew the kid had done something stupid. Again.
Tidus Shuyi's guardian had a kind of sixth sense about the boy. The older man had saved the kid numerous times, from self-mutilation and suicide, from gang fights and flat-out stupidity. Once he'd shown up at Tidus's car door, dragging the boy from the wheel. The boy's arms were absolutely blue with cactuar needles. Probably Wakka had stunned one, and they'd gotten high together, but Wakka was passed out on the couch. If the kid had tried to drive in that condition, he'd have been dead before he saw the other car.
This time, though, it was different. Auron paused as he started for bed, finger on the lightswitch, and blinked. Something happened, but he hadn't seen it coming. Something bad. He had to go, now.
Four minutes later, he was driving slowly by Tidus's building, eyes narrowed. Things seemed peaceful enough, but that was just the outside. It was dark, the lights were on. A blur of motion inside, and he could see Tidus walking from the bathroom to the living room, back to his desk. The kid looked shaken, but all right. Not physically harmed, anyway. What could it be?
Auron was about to shut off the engine and go ask Tidus himself, but then his peripheral vision caught a flash of reflective orange, and he knew what happened. Rikku was walking along the sidewalk, apparently heading nowhere in particular. Green skirt, orange shirt with a chain of little bicycle-triangle reflectors dangling from between her shoulderblades like a tail. Lucky choice of wardrobe, girl. He lowered his passenger window and drove until he was putting along beside her, looking straight ahead. Slow enough that she could recognize him and tell him to just fuck off or pop open the door and get in the car.
Rikku started, drew back a little when she realized that the headlights were slowing down next to her. Her arms twitched, fingers itching to reach the pocketknife in the pocket of her skirt, and she skidded a little away from the sidewalk. But then, that car. It was a black Coeurl, complete with a little silver statue of the big cat on the hood. Made by the Rin manufacturing plant. She used to know its chocobopower, but those car facts were forgotten along with her obsession with nice rides. Such a classy car in such a crappy neighborhood, though, it could only be one person. And sure enough, there was Mr. Auron, sitting in the driver's seat, one hand on the wheel and the other tapping an open cigarette box against his thigh. She breathed a sigh of relief, let the pocketknife stay in place, and opened the car door to slip in.
"Where to, my Lady?" came the gruff voice. He tapped the break and brought the already slow-moving car to a stop, lifting out a clove cigarette and handing it to her along with a lighter. She took it in trembling hands, cast a weak Fire on the tip, and brought it to her lips. Auron really was a good guy, as intimidating as he could be sometimes. He knew everyone's preferences. Knew that Rikku liked cloves but not regular cigarettes. Knew that Lulu's monthly craving was noodles with shrimp. Knew how to diffuse Tidus. Tidus...
She started crying. She couldn't help it, and once it started, the emotion just kept pouring out, and she felt like a fountain. She wailed and put the cigarette out and screamed, loud and long and nasal, into her hands. It was like her entire face was leaking frustration and rage and hurt and sorrow. She hardly noticed when the car started moving again, didn't notice when it stopped, hardly cared that she was in the garage of Auron's high-rise and that he was helping her out of her seat. At some point, he had pressed a towel into her hand, one that was sometimes used to wipe away the condensation from morning fog, so it was a little dirty and didn't like to fold out of its habitual position, but it was dry and it helped. Dimly, she found that her hand was in his, and that he was leading her up to his place. But it took too much energy of emotion to be grateful, and it was getting hard to think with the wet warmth on her head. She hoped she hadn't bled onto his car seat. That would be bad. He'd be upset. Not as upset as Tidus. Rikku made the connection, but only for a moment. Even when she was this distraught, she knew that forcing herself to link this situation to the one she'd just escaped would be masochistic. It'd just make her cry more. And that would be dumb.
His apartment was nice. It was high, but the elevator ride was smooth, and there was a glass wall in it so that you could see the big tan supports for the stadium better and better as it rose. Inside his place, the walls were a soft cream color, and the lighting was nice and yellow, so the place looked warm and buttery when you went inside. Big bay windows showed another view of the stadium, and there were thick white lace curtains. A couple of red chenille armchairs sat on opposite sides of a mahogany bookcase. He didn't have a spherescreen. Probably he didn't watch much SV, or didn't care enough about it to get one.
"Do you want me to dress that wound, or would you rather spend the night looking at my furniture?" Auron folded his arms and stared at her from the hallway. It wasn't so bad, he had a chance to look at it when she was still dazed on the ride up the elevator, but Tidus had definitely gone too far this time. The bruises on her neck made it obvious enough what had happened. The girl had to move out, and she wouldn't do it on her own. Maybe she could move in with her cousin. Yuna would never let a thing like this happen again. Neither would Auron, but of course, he could hardly be Rikku's guardian as well as Tidus's. Besides, Rikku was far too young and pretty a girl to live with an older man who was not her blood relation without raising suspicion.
Then again, considering the tendency of the Al Bhed to marry within the family, being her blood relation wouldn't be a valid defense either.
She nodded, still mute, and followed him into the bathroom, where he bent her over the sink to pour hydrogen peroxide onto the scalp wound. It wasn't bad. The skin was slit rather than peeled away, and it was a shallow slit at that, about the length of a fingernail. Nothing she'd need stitches for, but she wouldn't be able to put her hair up or lie on her back for at least a week. The bruises on her neck would have to be iced so the skin wouldn't swell too much, but he had a good cold compress in the freezer that would suffice. Auron told her as much, and brought her into the kitchen. While she held the compress to her neck, he started to make tea. She needed to talk. That was what the tea was for. Strawberry cream tea was her favorite. With honey, not sugar. He figured that once she had the tea, she'd feel better, and she'd start speaking logically, now that the emotional torrent was over. He was right.
"Thank you. For picking me up. For everything. I'm sorry to be such a hassle." She sniffed a bit, breathed in the scent of her tea. Warmed her hands on it to keep the chill from the compress from freezing her entirely.
Auron shook his head and sat down next to her at the kitchen bar, slipping easily onto the stool, stirring a metal tea strainer into his mug of hot water. Plain green tea, no sweetener. Strong. "No hassle at all. But Rikku, you need to address this issue now. No more putting it off. I know you love him, but this has gone too far."
"I know. Don't you think I know that? That's why I left, you know?" She was definitely drained. He could hardly detect any emotion in her voice, not even to defend her actions. He'd even noticed some blood on the towel he'd taken back from her, but it was from her nose, not her head. She'd screamed herself to a nosebleed. Auron felt like his heart would break for the girl.
"I know that's why you left, but you need to plan your next step. Rikku, you can't go back to him. You have before, you and I both know it. You need to move out, get away from him, be around him only during practices when your friends are by your side." He stared at her for a moment, tried to look stern, but she was just gazing blankly into her teacup. Rikku nodded, lifted her hand to stir the brownish liquid with her pinky. Auron just sighed. "What do you want to do? You could move in with Yuna. I'm sure she'd be glad to have you for a roommate."
Rikku shook her head. "She would be, yeah. But she'd want to know why I moved away from Tidus. And once she knew that I was having problems with... abuse... well, Yunie is... I dunno."
"She would distance herself from you."
"Yeah." Rikku nodded, sipping her tea. It was wierd, how he could read people so easily. She had the feeling that if she asked him, he could give her a category of Yuna's personality traits, even though the man had just met her today. He'd have sensed the brunette's loyalty, her naivete, her frighteningly optimistic outlook on the world. He'd know all that in one look, one survey of Yuna's actions and words. How could he know that in one look? But Rikku's mind was wandering.
"If you don't think you can move in with her, then what do you see as your other options?"
"Um. I dunno. I can't move in with Wakka and Lulu. They have sex every night. I think she's trying to get pregnant so that he'll finally give up and marry her. My family, what's left of it, they're all in Sanubia. And, um. That's it. I think." She stole a quick glance at the silent man sitting next to her, and mumbled a last suggestion. "Unless I stay here."
Auron paused, shocked into stillness. He wanted to say, "Out of the question," but the idea had some merit. He could protect the girl, it wouldn't be much of a drain on his time. And he had an extra bedroom. Unfortunately, some of the merit of the plan was dictated wholly by the second brain in his pants. A brain he refused to listen to at the moment. For now, he'd just pretend not to have heard her. "What about getting a place of your own? You're of legal age to do so, and you've got enough income to afford something nice, perhaps uptown. Maybe walking-distance from the studio?"
But Rikku just shook her head. "No way. I'd be way too scared. I mean don't get me wrong, I can handle myself. I'm pretty tough if I need to be. But... I just... I don't want to be alone right now. Does that sound dumb?"
Auron sighed. "No. Not at all." Damn. This would take some consideration. On the one hand, he'd have to try very hard to control some rather neglected hormones. On the other, she really needed him. She needed a calming presence in her life. She needed to be around someone she could trust to keep her safe. And, oh god, she was looking at him with those big green emerald puppy-dog eyes. Not the fake puppy-dog eyes of someone trying to get what she wants, but the real eyes of someone who has been deeply hurt and is truly in need of succor. "You can stay here. For a week. After that, we'll see." His eyes trailed to the satchel she'd dropped on the floor when she came in. He almost hadn't noticed it. "How much did you bring?"
"Just a change of clothes. I just grabbed something from the closet," she said, obviously trying to keep her voice steady. Not that she was about to break down, but he'd made her a little too happy by offering to let her stay at his place. She was riding up an emotional rollercoaster. He could almost hear her squealing thankyouthankyouthankyou. But then if she did that, there was a chance she'd end up breaking down again, crying into his coat.
"I'll pick up the rest tomorrow, and you'll stay here and rest." He touched her shoulder and stood, leaving his teacup half full. She jumped, hands flexing so that she almost knocked her tea over. "Relax. Do you take bourbon?"
Rikku raised one eyebrow at him, and bit her lower lip in confusion. It was cuter than he wanted to admit to himself. "No, um. I usually don't drink. Why?"
"Because you need to relax. This is just to help you sleep. Go ahead to the guest bedroom and get changed. First door to the right, next to the hall bathroom. Don't mind the instruments, just let me know if any are in your way."
Rikku nodded and stood up, hopping from the tall barstool to her feet. A light headrush prevented her from walking right away, but it wasn't so bad, and at least her scalp wasn't bleeding anymore. She grabbed her bag from by the door, trying desperately to ignore the calm, powerful presence moving whisper-quiet in the kitchen. He didn't even clink. Normal people, when they moved around in the kitchen, they clinked something. Glass on the counter, cups on saucers, things being put into the sink for later washing. But no, the man did not clink. She shrugged her bag onto one shoulder and walked through the hallway, listening to the not-clinking behind her. Sure enough, the door next to the bathroom was cracked open, and inside, all manner of instruments were laid about, carefully, against the walls. Two electric guitars stood in stands near the wall next to a stack of speakers and amplification equiment, a keyboard stood next to those, and inside of a walk-in closet, there were drumsets and black cases covered with stickers. There was even a big stand-up bass leaning against the wall next to a dresser, and near the door where she'd come in was a big file cabinet, probably stuffed with sheet music, arrangements, books. It was at least three times as big as Tidus's, and there were stacks of material on music theory on top of it. It was like stepping into a music store, which for any true musician is like a candy store to a kid. Rikku grinned. So this is where all their manager's money went. And probably the government penchant he'd gotten for helping to find the Calm vaccine.
In the corner, though, was a small bed, just a twin, which was sagging just a little under the weight of an instrument case the size and shape of a cello. Big enough for Rikku, but certainly not for the tall man who lived here. It was made up, blue blankets and pillows, a puffy green quilt. She wondered who it was for, who it had been for. Tidus, maybe? It was possible. Auron had looked after Tidus for the last few years, or however long it had been since Jecht had gone missing.
She hefted the case off of the bed and leaned it against the only remaining spot on the wall, careful not to let it slip or knock into either of the guitar stands. Quickly, she changed into a pair of light cotton pants that would have to serve as sleepware, since she hadn't thought to grab anything else. There was an oversized sweater that could serve as her nightshirt. Good enough. But she wished she could put her hair up. Or at least itch the back of her head where the cut was. The pain had faded to a dull thump she only felt now and then, but it itched like crazy.
"Are you decent?" came a voice through the door. Rikku shivered. That voice could drive a woman mad. And hell, she was already mad to have thoughts like that. She'd barely just left her boyfriend, and now she was starting to get attracted to someone else? Stupid. But she liked powerful men, men that looked dangerous and exciting and sexy. That was how she'd gotten into trouble the last time, though. Stupid. Stop thinking that way, Rikku. Auron could be a daddy-type figure, but he'd never be a lover.
What was it she'd read about a while back? The cycle of abuse? And girls who stayed in abusive relationships tended to fall into more and more of them. She wasn't a dummy, she knew she was at risk for that kind of behavior. Maybe she'd be best off staying single.
"Yeah, I'm dressed. Come in." And god, when he opened the door, she nearly flinched. Thinking of Auron as a lover, he suddenly became a frightening thing, exciting but scary, a window to pain and regret. But all he did was hold out the glass of bourbon to her until she took it, and walk away, closing the door behind him with a soft, "Good night."
Still. After she drank the liquor, gulping it down until it burned her throat and made the center of her chest warm, she locked the door and jumped straight into bed. There was a window above the bed, so she got on her knees and checked it, made sure the locks were in place. Could never be too careful, she figured. And she cowered under the covers, curled up on her side, until the liquor in her stomach melted her bones, and her fear left her, and she dropped off into dreamless slumber.
