Standard Disclaimer. I do not own FFX or the characters in it. They are owned by Square-Enix. I do own this story, and my original characters. The chapter title is from a song by John Mellencamp.

The second day the party spent crossing Bikanel, Auron found himself glancing repeatedly in Tidus' direction. The party was heading toward the Al Bhed sanctuary, hoping that they would find Yuna safely ensconced deep with the machina fortress. He was also aware that, at the moment, his position and the young man's were entirely too similar, each alone, each desperately missing a woman they loved. But as he recalled the start of Tidus' relationship with Mercy, Auron knew that on another level, they were both also missing the same woman, and had been from the moment they both had arrived in Spira.

…Zanarkand…five years ago

That Lastday morning he brought Mercy to meet Tidus, she was so nervous that she spent the entire trip wondering what to say to the boy. She wasn't able to fully absorb Auron's sarcastic comments that she needn't worry, that the problem was getting the kid to stop talking. But Tidus was totally speechless when Auron introduced them. The boy's expression was priceless, bearing an astonishing resemblance to a gaping fish.

When they arrived, Tidus emerged from his room and his jaw dropped in shock. The old man, with a woman! What is going on? Who would have thought…? When had the world come to an end? Hey, what is he doing without that collar? As he came even closer to the couple, he received a further surprise. Holy shit, they're even holding hands. The world is coming to an end.

"Boy," Auron announced, "I'd like you to meet someone. Mercy, this is Tidus. Tidus, Mercy." As Mercy held out her hand for the boy to shake, Tidus nervously wiped his palm on his pants and held it out to her. She shook it once, gravely, and let it go. Then they stared at each other for a long minute.
He's a cute kid, she thought. He'll definitely break some hearts when he gets a little older. I bet he would say he was 12 going on 13, if I asked. We're about eye-to-eye now, but that won't last. He was almost blond, blue-eyed, with a heart-shaped face.
Tidus thought she was really pretty, and he was amazed. What is she doing with Auron? What can she possibly see in that old man? And he seems… different. For one thing, he's smiling, like, all the time. This can't be happening.

It had been Mercy's idea to take the boy to the zoo. She had thought it would give them something neutral to talk about. It did not take her long to discover the flaw in her plan. It had clearly been unnecessary to provide Tidus with a ready topic for conversation. He had absolutely no problem finding one on his own. Hell, he had no problem finding a dozen on his own. The boy barely slowed down long enough to take a breath. The only time he did stop talking was when he had just asked her a question, and was waiting for her answer. He asked lots of questions. I feel like I'm one of the exhibits. Next, I swear, he's going to open my mouth and check my teeth! At least now I know why Auron laughed so hard when I said I was worried about what Tidus and I would talk about. She looked up and caught Auron's attention, a slight smile on her lips. He cocked an eyebrow, as if to say, "I told you so." She winked back at him.

But to Tidus, so far it had been the most fantastic day he'd ever had with the old man. He couldn't remember the last time any adult had actually listened to him, talked with him, or answered his questions like this. This lady that Auron had brought seemed to be totally honest with him, too. If she didn't know something, she just said so. If she didn't want to tell him something, she said it wasn't his business, straight out. She took all his questions seriously, and actually listened to what he said. His aunt and uncle sure didn't. They were only interested in talking to the lawyers about his trust fund. They never wanted to actually talk to him. His old man, well, let's not go there. Auron always let him talk, but the boy didn't think he paid that much attention, except to make sure there was nothing seriously wrong. Trouble, the old man always took seriously. His mom, well, she had paid attention, at least, until Jecht left, but only when his old man wasn't around. This lady, Mercy, he knew she was really listening, because she answered his questions and she asked questions about the things he talked about. And, when she said it was none of his business, she said it even when he asked the same question an hour later a different way, so she must have been paying attention.

Auron had served as a mostly silent observer, watching and listening as the conversation, or was it an interrogation… bounced from the boy to the woman at his side. At first, it hadn't seemed too difficult. It was easy for Mercy to trade Tidus' question of, "What do you do?" for the equivalent, "What are you taking in school?" But as the afternoon wore on, the boy's questions became more probing, and the kid was much too young to be subtle about it.

"You know, Auron isn't from Zanarkand," Tidus tried, mostly to see if this information surprised her.
"I know," Mercy replied with equanimity. Where is the kid going with this?
"He's always gloomy," the boy continued, thinking that since she was such a neat lady, she would be better off with someone besides the old man. But Auron was chuckling, which made a lie out of Tidus' words.
"Try again," she answered, laughing a bit herself at the boy's puzzlement. Then she turned to Auron and smiled up into his face. Although the boy couldn't see the way Auron's fingers caressed hers, he could see the warmth of the man's smile, the soft look on his face as they exchanged glances for a moment, before she turned her attention back to him.
It made Tidus feel uncomfortable to watch them, but he didn't quite know why. He blurted out his next question to Mercy before he could stop himself. "You…love him?" The boy's face turned bright red as soon as the words were out.
I can't believe he just asked me that. Mercy stared into Tidus' face. Looks like he can't believe he just asked me that, either. I'm not going to lie to him. That would spoil everything. "Yes, I do."
For some reason the boy didn't understand, it hurt a little to hear her say that. He stared down at the pavement as he continued walking. "Him?" the kid choked out, asking Mercy. Asking the man himself was just too scary.
Auron answered, "Yes," so unexpectedly that Tidus didn't believe what he had heard for the first few seconds. Then the boy stumbled, as though the ground had shifted under his feet.

Mercy decided it was time to ask Tidus some impertinent questions for a change. She hadn't liked the atmosphere in his aunt and uncle's house. It was just too sterile for a place that housed a twelve-year-old boy. She remembered when Dafydd had first moved in with her. She had never been a neat freak, but the amount of 'stuff' in her apartment had grown, not arithmetically, but geometrically, all from the addition of one teenaged boy. The 'white-glove' cleanliness of the place where Tidus lived just didn't seem real. And she didn't think they'd cleaned up in anticipation of Auron's visit, since the tension in the room had made it abundantly clear that there was no love lost among the adults in the boy's life. I wonder what that's all about?
"Do you like living with your aunt and uncle?" she asked Tidus.
"S'okay," the boy replied, but somewhat reluctantly, and he didn't meet her eyes. "But I want to move out as soon as I turn sixteen," he finished.
"What's your plan, then?" she inquired.
"What do you mean, plan? I'll just, like, move out on my sixteenth birthday. It's simple." Auron stared down at the boy. This was the first he'd heard of this 'plan', but he wasn't surprised. It had been clear to him from the very beginning that the boy's aunt had no real interest in caring for him. You failed him, he chastised himself, as he had many times before.
"I'm sorry, Tidus, but it's not that simple. You can petition the court to let you live on your own at sixteen, but you have to prove you can support yourself financially, you have to have responsible adults who will promise to look in on you regularly, and you must have a clear plan for how you will spend your life. The plan must be one that the court approves of."
"How do you know?" the boy tone was somewhere between stubborn and accusing. He was angry at having his easy solution shattered by hard reality.
Mercy gave him a short summary of her experiences with the family courts, both on her own behalf, and then the more complicated proceedings that she and Dafydd had gone through. In the end, she was able to convince him that she really did know what she was talking about. "So," she asked him, "now that you know the score, what's your plan?"

He thought about it for a few minutes as they walked, scuffing his toes in the pavement. "Money's no problem. My aunt and uncle only wanted to keep me to see if they could break into my trust fund. I'm just…just a walking piggy bank to them." His tone was much too bitter for a child. "It's one reason I want to leave. When I'm sixteen, I'll be able to sign some papers myself, and I'm afraid they'll try to force me or something. Better if I'm not there."
Auron's gaze focused on the boy. "Have they ever tried to hurt you?" he asked sharply. How did she get this out of him with just one question? He never talks to me this openly.
"No, no way. They know what you'd do to them if you ever found out. I think it's one of the reasons they don't like you hanging around. I think they're afraid of you, old man." Tidus couldn't resist that last, cheeky remark. He couldn't let Auron know how grateful he was that he came around every sennight, or how much it meant to him.
"Adult supervision?" Mercy asked, trying to get the discussion back on track.
"You guys, I guess." the boy said, trying to sound casual.
There are a world of questions in that one little sentence, aren't there, my young friend? Mercy thought as she looked back into Tidus' blue eyes. And you know exactly what you're asking, don't you?
Nevertheless, she and Auron both answered simultaneously, "Yes."
"But what are you going to do with your life?" came Mercy's final question.
"Oh. That's easy. Blitz." The kid sounded just like his father, cocky, sure of himself. Maybe too sure of himself, she decided.
Auron darkly muttered something that sounded like; "Practice more," but the boy ignored him.
Mercy didn't. "You would actually have to be on a team, not just hope to be. You will have to be good enough, four years from now…"
"Three and a half," Tidus interrupted.
"Okay, three and a half years from now, to be accepted onto a professional Blitzball team, so you could petition the courts to live on your own. Or you could plan to stay in school, by the way. That also works," Mercy concluded.
"That what you did?" the boy asked.
"Yeah."
"I'd rather blitz."
"I know. But if you had to choose between being on your own by staying in school, or living with your aunt and uncle and having more practice time, what would you do?"

Tidus thought for a long time, still walking. Finally, he just choked out, "Oh, shit."
"Pretty much," she replied.
As they dropped Tidus at his aunt and uncle's place, late in the afternoon, Auron thought, it has always seemed impossible to think of this as the boy's 'home', now I know why.
Tidus started practicing blitz seriously the next week.

…

Meanwhile, on their way back to Mercy's apartment, Auron asked if she would help him select some clothing that would allow him to 'blend in' a little better. A grin split her face, and she practically jumped into his arms in the middle of the street, she was so happy.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'," he said, smiling down at her.
"You bet. Can we go now? I'm dying to get you out of that armor," she bubbled with enthusiasm.
He cocked an eyebrow and pulled her close. "Maybe we should just go home," he whispered in her ear.
"Later," she purred. "This will only take half an hour, once we get to the shops. I promise to make it quick and painless."

Mercy was as good as her word. They were 'home' in less than an hour, laden with parcels. When Auron left her apartment in the morning, he was dressed in plain black trousers, a black, collarless, long-sleeved shirt, and soft black boots. His clothing was somber enough to suit his taste, but was just similar enough to what other men wore that it performed the same function as his dark glasses, it allowed him to pass unnoticed. But he had purchased rather a lot of clothing the evening before. Once Mercy determined the correct size, she had essentially wiped out the store of everything in black in his size. I wonder if she thinks I'm colorblind, and not just missing my sight in one eye. I think I saw one white shirt, and two red ones. But I do not care. I just placed all of it in her spare closet. I think I already have more things at her apartment than I do in my own. I'm not moving anything back unless she asks, and I do not believe she will, not now. I hope she won't. We only have five years. I do not want to spend any more nights without her.

…

The next sennight, when they went to pick up Tidus, Auron had been dressed in his new clothes. After just a few days, the new attire had become normal to him. But watching Tidus do his gaping fish imitation again had brought a broad grin to his usually solemn face.

…Spira…Bikanel Island

Tidus thought he caught Auron looking at him several times as they crossed the desert, almost as though the swordsman finally wanted to talk. It's too late now, old man, the blitzer thought bitterly. I tried to get you to talk, at just about every inn and travel agency between Luca and Macalania, and you turned me down every damn time. But if what's eating you is what I think it is, right now, I think I know just how you feel.

End Chapter Twelve

Author's Note: I just wanted to say a special thank you to my beta reader, Eva Harlow. I don't know how I would manage to do this without you.