Where are you going?
Where do you go?
Are you lookin' for answers
To questions under the stars
And if along the way
You are growing weary
You can rest with me until a brighter day, you're okay
I am no Superman
I have no answers for you
I am no hero, oh, that's for sure
But I do know one thing
Where you are is where I belong
I do know where you go is where I wanna be
-"Where Are You Going" by Dave Matthews Band
I shoved the contents of the potion bottle down his throat so fast he didn't even see it coming.
Well, okay. More like I shoved the bottle towards his mouth, and tried to pour the potion down his throat. If he would have cooperated like a normal, cool person, it would have went in his mouth and he would have felt much better. But let's face it, this is Sir Auron the Almighty we're talking about. Mr. I'll-Suffer-In-Silence.
If I didn't love him, it would drive me crazy. But since I do, I guess I'll just have to deal with it.
The bottle tipped when it hit his closed lips, and the potion poured all over his face, dripping down his neck and underneath the collar of his coat. I caught him unsuspecting, our bodies close together in our little embrace, and his eye opened up wide in surprise and shock.
But, thank goodness, his shoulders perked up a little bit. I knew he felt better already... and that was all that mattered, regardless of how much trouble I was going to get into because of it.
"I thought I told you to give that to Yuna," he muttered, whiping off his face in one quick motion, then standing up. "I didn't need it."
"Yes, you did," I said stubbornly back, standing up. "And, I have a few more in my pouch. Here you guys..." I walked over to the rest of the group, handing out the rest of the potions. Everyone took a few swigs, Tidus and Wakka rubbed some on a few open wounds they had, and after a few seconds, the whole party suddenly got a lot perkier. "We can't be weak... We still have a bit further to walk, right? The fiends would eat us alive if we aren't healthy."
"Thank you, Rikku," Yunie said, squeezing my hand as I walked past her to hand a potion to Lulu. "We really appreciate this."
I smiled at her, and squeezed her hand back. "Come on, Yunie. You've got a date with destiny at the end of this forest that you can't miss."
So with that said, we started off again. This time, the prickerbushes had a bit of a path through them, from our last little walk, and we got through much more easily. Maybe it was because Auron was at the back this time, talking to Tidus about something, and we had Lulu up front burning things.
Honestly, fire takes care of prickers much more easily than a simple katana can.
Yunie and I were just behind Lulu, still holding our hands together and swinging them back and forth, as an effort to make the walk seem... happier. In reality, everything was starting to seem hopeless, especially for me, because I couldn't seem to come up with an idea that was better than the one I had before.
"You really care for him, dont you?" Yunie said suddenly, breaking me out of my daze.
"Hmm? Who?" I said flippantly, almost as if I didn't know who she was talking about. Her gaze pierced me, and I knew any lying was useless. "... Yes. Yes I do."
She smiled slightly, and nodded, continuing to walk along the path. We were getting close to the end of the forest now, I could tell, because it was starting to get cold and everything was getting slightly brighter.
Now, in case you didn't realize it by now, I am an Al Bhed. And we Al Bhed... We live in the desert. And see... desert and coldness don't ever seem to go together in the same sentence. Bikinal Island is all sand and metal and hot days and slightly cooler nights and walking around in short-shorts and tanktops, which, HEY, is what I was wearing.
So, when my teeth started chattering well before anyone else even seemed to catch a bit of a chill, I wasn't surprised. The ground was starting to get a bit slippery beneath my feet, and there was... white stuff? Some white stuff, I guess, was sitting on the side of the path in a little pile.
"Uh... Yunie?" I whispered, trying to keep my voice down to spare myself some embarrassment. "What's that stuff?"
"What stuff?" she asked, giving me a strange look. She tilted her head to the side slightly and looked all around her, trying to figure out if she missed something, I could tell.
"Uh... The white stuff."
"That's snow, Rikku," Lulu slowed down a bit to come into line with us, walking beside me. "It's what happens when rain freezes. We must be close to the temple."
"Frozen rain?" I asked. "That's kinda weird..."
"And kind of cold, too," Yunie added. "Will you be warm enough in your clothes, Rikku?"
"Well, I don't have much of a choice otherwise. I'm sure that I can find a coat or something at the temple, hopefully."
They both nodded and we fell silent. The forest was getting extremely bright, the sunlight starting to reflect off of the stones and the snow and flashing everywhere, like we were at a dance party or something. I pulled my sunglasses out of my pouch and shoved them onto my nose, actually needing them this time, instead of hiding from other things. We walked and walked and walked, and I started to drag my feet, until I saw something.
"There!" I screamed. "At the end, down there! Is that the end of the forest?"
"HOOEE!" Tidus yelled, running up besides us. I skipped out in front, and he grabbed my hands and we danced around in a little circle. Everyone was staring at us, but we were excited, and it wasn't like Auron would do a happy dance with me.
"Oh yeah, cha-cha-cha," I started singing, holding my hands above my head and shaking my butt a little bit. Tidus started laughing and did the same thing, slamming his hips against my side, knocking me off the path. I looked at him in shock, and he, being smart for once in his life, took off running. "Oooh, you're going to get it, you meanie!" I yelled after him.
"Rikku!" Yunie laughed. "What are you doing?"
Turning before I took off, I grabbed her hands and started running. "Snow's cold, right?"
"Yes, yes it is. Why?" she said loudly, out of breath, following directly behind me. The rest of the group stayed behind, shaking their heads and laughing.
Making a sudden turn, I pulled her behind a large tree on the side, and we ducked behind it. There was a huge pile of snow just to our left, and if I turned my head a bit, I could see Tidus stop, turn around, and start looking confused ahead of us. "This means war, Yunie. I remember Pops telling me a long time ago about snow... Something about how you can throw it?"
"Ohh!" Yunie's eyes lit up, and she started grinning. "You're talking about making snowballs. Here, grab some snow and I'll show you how to make one."
We both grabbed a pile, and keeping an eye on Tidus, shaped the snow into perfectly formed balls. Then, keeping quiet, we watched him come closer... Then even closer...
"Rikku? Yuna? Where are you?" he called, coming up to the tree we were hiding behind. Yunie sucked in her breath, and I shook my head slightly, wiggling my finger at her. She nodded, and we waited... And waited... And waited... "Hey! Come on guys, this isn't funny... Where are you?"
Jumping out from behind the tree, we both whacked Tidus hard with the snowballs.
We stared at each other for a moment, everyone breathing hard, everyone waiting for the next move. Tidus was covered in snow... It got all over his clothes, some was on his face, and somehow, a bit got in his hair. It was a pretty humorous sight.
Then, Tidus busted out laughing. All of a sudden, Yunie started laughing even harder than he was. Behind us, Wakka was laughing so hard he was hunched over, and Lulu and Kimahri were even chuckling.
I started giggling too, so hard I almost couldn't catch my breath. And when I turned my head to look at Auron, to see his reaction, I noticed that he... Well, he wasn't laughing. Not one bit.
With no one else paying attention to me, I walked back to him, still kind of giggling, but still a bit worried.
"Is something wrong?"
"No," he said calmly, staring at the rest of the group, all hunched over and out of breath from laughter.
"Then... why..." I started, feeling nervous. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No."
"Uh... Okay." I tried to get a better look at his face, but his sunglasses were up and his collar covered up to his nose. He was completely closed off, and it was obvious that he didn't feel like talking to me. Finally, I just gave up, and turned to walk away from him.
Catching my hand in his, he swung me back, up against his side. "I'm sorry, Rikku. I'm just... thinking."
"About?"
"The situation waiting for us at the temple."
Turning slightly, and staring back up at his face again, I smiled. "Are you worried about little ol' me, Auron?" I giggled, putting one hand on my hips and striking my goofy model pose.
"Hn," he grunted. "Don't do that."
"What, Auron? What don't you want me to do?" I giggled some more, obnoxiously batting my eyelashes at him. "This?" Putting both hands on my hips, I strutted back and forth as if I wearing the most fabulous outfit in all of Spira, instead of my grimy tanktop and shorts. Swinging my head to flip my hair, I looked at him over my shoulder, and winked.
His mouth turned up slightly at the corner, and he started to chuckle. "You never cease to amuse me, Princess."
"Oh, I try," I said, dropping my voice a few notches lower and prancing in a circle all around him. "Now, listen here, you. You're going to be cheerful and happy and... well, as much as you can pull off without seeming out of character. And, you're not going to worry. Understand?"
"Hn. I understand."
"Good," I smirked, turning away from him, shaking my butt a bit as I walked.
I could hear him chuckling behind me, and I knew that what I was doing was working. "Rikku?" he called out.
I turned, and smiled slowly, drawing out every single one of my actions as long as I could. See, I read all of the romantic novels. I know that you're supposed to move slowly, shake your hips a bit, and talk just a smidgen lower to drive your maaaaaaaaaan crazy. "Yes?"
"You keep prancing like that and I'm not liable for my actions. Understand?" he growled under his breath.
My mouth dropped open in shock. Oh. My. God. "Uh... Uh, um... Y..Yeah," I stuttered. My tounge didn't seem to be working properly in mouth. When did he get the upper hand in this game? Obviously, it must have been when I was winking, or something equally obnoxious. How is it that everything I do just seems goofy, where everything he does is just sexy? "That totally was not even fair..." I grumbled.
"It was the truth," he whispered, bending down to breathe into my ear, then kiss the side of my head and move quickly in front of me. "Come on, princess," he said, holding his hand out to me. "We're almost there."
The group, still giggling over the snowball fight, walked in front of us, all chattering about everything and nothing all at once. But, other than smiles and secret glances, Auron and I didn't say anything else to each other the whole rest of the way down the path.
Until finally, we reached the end.
"We're here," Yunie breathed.
AN: They're THERE! We've got a fight with Brother and a fight with Seymour coming up! But, I won't be home this weekend, so at the earliest, new chapter next week, okay? I'm definatly loving up my reviewers right now, on ALL of my stories (Amazing how everyone is discovering Lovesong again... That story definately needs edited and everything else)
Going to take some time this weekend to do my real passion, photography. What are you all up to for this weekend?
