A/N: All right, new chap here! XD Anyway, this chapter focuses solely on Auron and Rikku in Bikanel. There is no mention of anyone back in Besaid, because when I wrote this, I didn't feel that there was anything that needed immediate discussion going on back in Besaid. All the good stuff is going on RIGHT HERE! lol Don't worry, I'll get back to the bigger stuff in future chaps, but I was in the mood for something PRETTTTTY ... so here it is! Enjoy. And as always: Reviews make me HAPPY!
Chapter Four
Oasis
"Gods, this is boring," Rikku mumbled, staring out her window on the second level of Home. She was waiting for Cid to finish up doing whatever the hell had been so important. Her chin was resting on her palm, and she was drumming the fingernails of the other hand on the windowsill.
"I see you still haven't learned that patience is a virtue," Auron said with amusement from the doorway.
Rikku turned and regarded him. "Pop give you the boot?" Auron had gone to see if there was anything that he could do to assist Cid.
"He said it was really only of concern to the Al Bhed," Auron replied.
Rikku rolled her eyes. "He's such a snob, I'm sorry," she said apologetically. "It's no wonder Brother's such an ass."
"It's fine, I didn't really expect any less," Auron said dismissively.
"Well, I expect them to be nicer to guests in our Home," Rikku fumed. "I feel really bad about this … you'd think they'd just get over it already."
"Some people are loath to change," Auron told her.
Rikku suddenly noticed that he was still standing in the doorway of her room, looking at her pointedly. "Oh! I'm sorry! Come in, please, Auron." She giggled. "Me and my stellar manners, you can see they've really improved."
Auron chuckled and entered the room. Rikku bounded over to one of the chairs and cleared off the heap of clothes, weaponry, and machina that had been piled upon it. "Here ya go!" she said brightly, dumping the mound of stuff onto the floor. "Sorry, I'm kinda messy."
"I would have been surprised to learn otherwise," Auron said with a twinkle of amusement in his good eye as he sat down.
"Ha ha, very funny," Rikku retorted, sticking her tongue out at him. "I must say, though, I'm impressed that you found me at all. Home is kind of like a maze to people who aren't used to it."
"It was easy enough," Auron said breezily. And then, "I always do seem to find my way to you." He said the last sentence softly, so quietly that Rikku wasn't sure that she had heard him correctly.
"Auron?" she said quizzically.
He waved his hand. "Don't worry about it," he said. He wasn't really even sure where that had come from. There was just something … something about this girl now. Something that he was certain had always been there, but that he was just now open to receiving. And it was beckoning him like a moth to a flame.
Rikku looked back out the window, and saw that the sandstorm that had been raging for the past twenty minutes had cleared up. Good, there was something she needed to do, while she had him here. Smiling, she turned to Auron. "Come with me!" she cried.
"What?" Auron said, looking at her and taking note of the light that had come over her face suddenly.
"Come. With. Me," Rikku said slowly with a teasing grin. "I want to show you something. I mean, you got something better to do while we wait for Pop?"
Begrudgingly, Auron stood up, and started toward the door. Rikku ran up behind him and began tugging on his long red coat. "What the hell are you doing?" he exploded.
Rikku froze, realization of what she had been doing suddenly hitting her. "Oh. Gods, I'm sorry. I'm not … trying to undress you or anything." She gave him a hopeful grin. "It's just hot out there … and I thought that you'd not want to wear your coat, is all." She looked up at him, red-faced. Suddenly she burst out laughing.
"What now?" Auron asked, completely perplexed by the situation.
Rikku could barely stand up she was laughing so hard. "It's just such a collision of worlds, you being here, is all … and I was just treating you like I treat everyone else. And that's just wrong, obviously. I mean, I just walked up and started taking your coat off! You must think I'm so bizarre right now!" Her peals of laughter rang out through the small room, and even Auron had to smile. Her laugh … was a kind of music all its own.
She regained her composure, a little at least, and regarded him solemnly. "I apologize, Sir. If you would still care to … accompany me, you might wish to remove your coat."
Auron shook his head in complete disbelief. Rikku looked at him, worried that he was pissed. She noticed that his shoulders were shaking. Was he? … he was. He was laughing at her! "Rikku? What are you doing?" he managed.
"Trying to be respectful. Something that was important to you before. What are you doing?" Rikku said, eyeing him warily. "Are you okay?"
"Oh, I am fine," he said, back to his normal solemn self.
"Good to know," Rikku said, turning to head out of the room. With her back turned, she heard him remove his coat and then he began to follow her out. Rikku looked at him surreptitiously out of the corner of her eye and tried to hide her smirk. Gods, he's just perfect.
"So where is it we are going?" Auron asked her once they were outside Home.
Rikku made her way to one of the large hovercrafts parked just outside. She exchanged a few words with the pilot and then turned to Auron. "This baby is ours!" she announced proudly.
"You know how to drive this?" he asked her incredulously.
Rikku smiled impishly. "You're just gonna have to trust me," she said in singsong. "Hop on, Big Guy." When he hesitated, she blew out an exasperated breath. "Oh, you big baby! It's not like you haven't ridden with me before. Remember Macalania? The snowmobiles?"
"Yes, but those were small and manageable," he retorted.
"This is perfectly manageable," she told him brightly, starting it up. "Come on. Besides, I have something for you."
"What is it?" Auron asked.
"You'll never know if you don't get on!" Rikku cried out over the sound of the motor.
Sighing and cursing to himself, Auron boarded the monstrosity behind Rikku. "All right, I'm on!" he shouted over the whirr of the machina.
"Great! Hold on tight!" Rikku said, and put the hover into drive.
In a matter of minutes, Rikku had stopped the hover at the edge of an oasis. "You brought me to the oasis?" he asked her, mystified.
Rikku cut the engine and turned to him. "Yeah. There's something here for you." She jumped out of the hover and ran across the sand to the edge of the crystalline blue spring. She dropped to her knees and began digging.
"Rikku? What are you doing?" Auron asked, relishing the feeling of the heat. It had been so long since he'd been able to feel the sun on his skin. It was an amazing sensation. Almost as amazing as the strange feeling that the little Al Bhed was stirring somewhere deep inside …
"Hold on, it's here somewhere!" Rikku said, not looking up from her task. "Aha! Here it is!" She bounded up, holding out an object for Auron. "Take it. It's yours."
Auron reached out and accepted the item. His eye shot up to Rikku's face when he realized what it was. It was a simple silver coin that bore the mark of his order of Bevellian Warrior Monks. For some reason, he had always carried it with him. "My talisman. From Bevelle. How did you get this?" he asked her.
"Oh, I knew you were gonna ask that," Rikku said, blanching. She took a deep breath. "I took it from your pocket as Yunie was sending you." She didn't look up at him as she confessed.
He looked at her in disbelief. "You … What?"
"Hey, buddy, I'm a thief, all right?" Rikku said defensively. Then she sighed. "Up until it actually happened, I didn't really think you were going anywhere. I thought you'd just stay on Spira as an unsent for, you know, forever. And then, Yunie started dancing and you started disappearing, and I freaked out. I wanted to make sure a part of you stayed here, in Spira."
"But … why?" Auron asked, still not exactly sure what was going on.
Rikku shrugged. "I don't know. I liked you. I mean, most of the time any way. I didn't want you to just disappear into nothing and leave me with nothing to remember you by." She felt tears pricking her eyes. "I mean, I did the same thing with Tidus … but I gave that item to Yunie. I don't really know why I kept yours. I guess, maybe because you protected me on the pilgrimage, and I thought maybe you'd somehow protect me afterwards, too." She laughed. "Silly, huh?"
"I thought 'memories are nice, but that's all they are'?" Auron questioned her.
Rikku laughed cynically. "Yeah, funny. I thought that too. But these memories, they didn't go away. You got sent, and Tidus faded … it was bad for a while. For everybody. We'd do things as a group, but there'd always be this hole … two people missing."
"But then Tidus came back," Auron said.
"Right, he came back, and I thought, well, great! Tidus is back, and Yunie's happy again, and things seem back to normal," Rikku told him. "But they weren't. And up until you guys showed back up on Spira, I really didn't know what was missing. This sounds bad, but I honestly didn't think you were that important."
"And now? What's changed now?" Auron asked, almost afraid of what she might say.
"I realized I was wrong, and you were very important, apparently," Rikku admitted. "At least … to me." She shook her head and dipped the toes of one foot into the spring. Finding it an acceptable temperature, she waded up to her ankles into the water. "Ever since you've been back … Have you felt, I don't know, different?" She looked away from him and stared out across at the horizon. "I don't mean different like 'I'm all alive now and I wasn't before', I mean different … about me." She said it quietly, almost as if she were talking to herself.
Auron stood at the edge of the spring and looked at her, standing in the sparkling blue pool, the sun dancing on her golden skin, making her blonde hair shine. He'd be an idiot if he didn't admit to feeling something. Because what he was feeling was the strongest, and strangest, new sensation of them all.
Attraction. Electricity. Chemistry. Want. Need. And it was all focused on this one girl. Rikku. Not so very long ago, the very idea would have been ridiculous to him. But looking at her now …
It didn't seem so ridiculous any more. She was all grown up, and she was beautiful and as sweet and as funny as she had ever been. She had become exactly who he had wanted her to become, four years ago on Yuna's journey. The woman she was capable of being, she was now.
"Yeah," he said in a low tone. "Yes, Rikku, I feel differently now."
Rikku went still, her back still turned to him. "I see," was all she could think to say. "Good different or bad different?"
Auron chuckled. She was as hardheaded as ever. Without thinking, he waded into the water until he stood behind her. In one swift movement, he grabbed her by the upper arms and spun her around until she was facing him.
Her eyes widened in shock at his sudden behavior. "Auron?" she asked in a voice barely above a whisper. "What are you doing?"
He flicked a strand of her wheat-colored hair out of her face and looked down at her. "Remembering what it's like to feel," he told her.
She laughed a little. "Um, how does it feel?" she asked him nervously.
"You tell me."
Seconds later, his lips found hers. The kiss was swift and innocent … a mere brushing of lips against lips. But it ignited a spark inside both of them. Rikku just stared for a minute after they parted.
"Wow," she said, stepping back, eyes glassy with adoration.
"I'd have to agree," Auron replied, widening the gap between them by stepping back, as well.
"We … we should get back," Rikku stammered, stumbling out of the water and back toward the hover.
"Rikku," Auron said, causing her to turn.
Rikku whirled and looked at him, only to find him smiling gently at her. She smiled back. Her lips still tingled from the kiss, and she wondered if maybe he might do it again sometime. She certainly hoped he would.
Auron was already planning on it.
