A/N: I'M BACK! Wow! I am so sorry for taking so long to up-date! Are any of my reviewers still out there? -Silence- Uh-oh. I don't like the sound of that. Well, I won't take anymore time. Here is chapter nineteen! Oh, I've revised all of my chapters, so you'll probably wanna check them out. They're still along the same line as the old ones, just a little different. And better, in my opion. Okay, now on with the chapter!
Disclaimer: It's been a while since I've done one of these...I do not own FFX.
Chapter 19: Alone Time
0000
Auron rolled over and was met with a hard floor. Stupid couch...Picking himself up off the floor, he looked at the clock. Seven. It was too late to go back to sleep. Walking into the kitchen, he put on some coffee and let his mind wander. He had survived his first fight with Rikku. Now they were offically a couple. He smiled to himself as he listened to the coffee percolating. Just when the he was pouring himself a cup off the hot liquid, Rikku walked into the room.
"Good morning," she greeted with a yawn.
"Good morning. It's rather early for you to be up," Auron replied, pouring her a cup of coffee as well.
Rikku waved him off as she accepted the cup her offered her. "The day's a'wastin'."
Auron chuckled as he took a sip of coffee. "So, what's on the agenda for today?"
"I know that this afternoon we have an appointment for the spa," Rikku replied, adding some sugar to her cup. At the look an Auron face she added, "Yunie, Lulu, and myself. Unless, you boys want to come."
"No. That's fine. I'm sure we'll find something to do." Auron added some more coffee to his cup and asked, "What are your plans for this morning?"
Rikku shrugged her shoulders. "I don't have any plans."
This was the perfect oppurtunity to invite Rikku to spend part of the day with him. He had been wanting to spend some time alone with her. "Well, what do you want to do today?"
"On the way to the hotel, I saw this sign that advertised the Bevelle Zoo. I thought about seeing if we could all go over there today," Rikku replied. Okay, maybe zoo's were intended mostly for children, but she wanted to go.
"A zoo?"
Rikku nodded her head, slightly embarrassed.
"Sound's good to me." He didn't really care where he went, as long as Rikku was there as well.
Rikku smiled happily. "You really don't mind going to a zoo?"
"No."
"We'll have to wait until the others wake up to see if they want to go," Rikku said. A slow smile then spread across her face. "Or I could just wake them up like they did us."
As Rikku began to walk from the kitchen, Auron took her hand. "Actually, I was wondering if you'd like to go together. Just the two of us."
"You and me? Like a date?"
Auron nodded his head. "Yes."
Rikku grinned and squeezed his hand. "That sounds nice."
0000
"I can't belive Tidus let us use his truck," Rikku said, climbing out of the Navigator.
Auron nodded his response. He'd had to practically pry the keys from his fingers, and then he had to promise that he would have it back by noon. It was like asking a father if he could date his daughter. He walked around, took Rikku's hand, and led the way to the entrance.
"This place is huge," Rikku announced. Auron had purchased their tickets and they were studying the map that showed where all the exhibits were located.
"It looks like it's one large circle. If we go right, we should be able to see everything and end up back at the exit," Auron said, studying the large sheet of paper.
"What are we waiting for?" Rikku questioned, taking Auron's hand and heading for the first exhibit.
As Auron walked through the zoo, he couldn't help but admire the woman next to him. His thoughts then wandered to the thing that had been on his mind since the night before. Last night he had almost said that he loved her, and now that he thought about it, he realized that he did. He wasn't sure how long he had been in love with her, or even when it happened, but he was sure that he did. Now he just wasn't sure what to do about it...
"Aw, aren't they cute?" Rikku cooed, admiring a group of young Aqua Flans.
"Rikku, they're Aqua Flans. Jelly blobs with a nasty bite," Auron replied, remembering the many times the stupid things had latched onto his arm.
"But these are little ones, and they're behind a glass and they can't bite us," Rikku retorted.
"Ah, admiring our young Aqua Flans, I see," a young man said as he approached the couple. It was plain to see that he worked there.
"Yes," Rikku replied with a smile. "I've never seen young ones before."
"Sadly, these were orphaned. A group of people on a pilgrimage killed their mother almost two years ago. As you can see, they grow slowly and need their mother's care. I understand that Flans can be aggressive, but what people don't understand is that if you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone as well."
Auron and Rikku shared a glance. They had killed many Aqua Flans. "You wouldn't happen to know who killed their mother, would you?" Auron queried.
"All I know is that it was a group of six people. The witness told me that there was a summoner among them, a blond man with spiky hair, a red haired man with a swirl, a woman with long braids, a young Al Bhed, and a man with a red cloak. We searched for them for a few hours, but had no luck. If you get caught killing a mother Aqua Flan, you can be fined quite a lot of gil."
"You can't still fine them, can you?" Rikku asked. She glanced at Auron. They had killed that mother Aqun Flan. It was at the Clam Lands. The stupid blobhad attacked them first, they had just finished it off. They didn't know they could get fined for doing it.
"If we had proof it was them, yes. But it's been so long, we've given up hope."
Auron and Rikku nodded in unison. "Well, thank you for the information," Auron said, taking Rikku's hand. "Come on, Rikku, we'd better be moving on."
"Rikku?" The man muttered to himself. "Wait!' he called after the retreating couple.
Auron and Rikku stopped, and turned around slowly. They weren't sure if they should run, or stay.
"You wouldn't happen to be Lady Rikku, would you?"
"Yes, I am," Rikku replied nervously.
"Wow! Can I have your autograph?"
Rikku breathed a sigh of relief and signed the piece of paper the man offred her. After moving on to the next exhibit, she started laughing. "I thought we were going to get a ticket or something!"
"You know, the man must be rather slow. Isn't it obvious that it was us? Who else has hair like Wakka and Tidus?"
"Who else wears a red coat like yours?" Rikku added Just then, a man walked by in a coat identicals to Auron's. "Never mind."
For the rest of the morning, Auron and Rikku walked the rest of the zoo. They laughed, joked, well, Rikku joked, and generally just enjoyed being together. When they had made it back around to the exit, Rikku spotted a petting center.
"Oh, Auron, look. A petting zoo."
Auron checked his watch. It was eleven-fifteen. He had to have the truck back by noon. "Rikku, we have to have the Navigator back by twelve o'clock."
"We have time. It will only take a couple of minutes."
"Rikku..." Caculating the time it would take to get from the zoo back to the hotel, Auron estimated that he had about fifteen minutes to spare. "All right. But we have to move quickly."
Smiling happily, Rikku dragged Auron over to the petting area.
"Hello. Would you two like to feed one of these little fellas?" an employee asked, holding up a baby Dingo in one hand and a baby bottle in the other.
"Yes," Rikku replied. After the man showed them how to properly feed the baby Dingo, he moved on to the next couple and left Rikku and Auron by themselves.
"Aww. Isn't it cute?" Rikku cooed, kneeling down as she fed the the pup. "Do you want to fed him?" Rikku questioned after she had already fed the Dingo half the bottle.
"No, you go ahead," Auron replied, checking his watch. They still had seven minutes to spare.
"C'mon, Auron." Rikku stood and handed Auron the bottle. "It's fun."
Auron looked at the bottle as if it were a foreign object. He'd never even fed a human child, let alone an animal. "I'd rather not," he replied, trying to hand the bottle back to Rikku.
"Oh, Auron," Rikku sighed, forcing him to his knees. "It's not hard. Look." She showed him how to hold hold the bottle and how to place it in the pups mouth. "See? It's easy."
Auron did as she instructed, and he found that he actually enjoyed feeding the baby Dingo. "This isn't so bad."
"See? I told you so," Rikku replied, standing and placing her hand on his shoulder. She looked down at the large man who was gently feeding a baby animal and smiled. As Rikku took in the scence before her, she was struck with the realization that she loved him. The thought nearly nearly knocked her of her feet. She loved Auron. Whoa, when did that happen?
Auron finished of the bottle, patted the little Dingo on the head, and stood up. He checked his watch and found that it was eleven-thirty. Time to leave. "Rikku, we need to be getting back. Are you ready?"
Rikku was still trying to figure out when she had fallen in love with Auron, so she only caught the end sentence. "Uh, yeah, I'm ready."
Auron handed the empty bottle back to the man that ran the petting zoo and took Rikku's hand. The pair walked silently through the parking lot, and once they reached the Navigator, he opened Rikku's door before climbing behind the wheel.
"I hope traffic isn't to bad. Maybe we shoudn't have stopped at that petting zoo," Rikku said. "Although it was fun." And a real eye-opener...
"Don't worry. With the way people drive in Bevelle," Auron began, starting the engine, "we should make it back in time."
0000
Replies to my wonderful reviewers...That I hope are still out there...
Yuna-elena: Your Shaunamitchell, right? Oh, Lord I've been gone to long...
Guan: I've been better for months! I really hope you still like it!
Cloudude: Thanks!
Runs With Wolves: Thank you!
Ignes Fatui: You're probably back by now!
GiGlYGaL: I'm surprised that you didn't sure me!
Sephiroth: Talent..Yay! Hope I still got it!
Sasa!
Nessie: Thanks!
DesseMew: Yay!
Mysticmaiden: Thank you!
Innocentenshi: Naw. I don't like cliffies. Heh!
Crazyanimelover: Glad ya like!
Rikku-Thief: Ha! Pedal to the metal is right!
Al Bhed Sweetie: I make Aurikku's worth reading? Yay!
Blizzrdgrl: I'm glad you like it!
Darkestsoul: Heh. True.
Shadows-of-flame: I updated!
Ayad Aljihad: I finally continued!
Xmaster: I finally wrote another chapter!
Linkenparkfan: I am!
A/N: YAY! I finished chapter eighteen! I'm so sorry I've taken so long to up-date! I hope you guys are still out there and that you'll still like it! I will try to get the next chapter up sooner! Please leave me a review! You can rant at me all you want for not writing in such a long time! Well, that's it. Don't forget to review, and to read my earlier chapters. Remember, I rewrote them. Leave me a review!