Mi'ihen Highroad - It is early afternoon and the party has just entered the road. Auron is renting some chocobos to make the trip as short as possible.
"Kewh! Kewh!" Tidus called to the chocobos standing in the pen. Of course the chocobos answered. Kimahri snorted and looked at Lulu. Lulu smiled. "He does look rather ridiculous." She said with an amused smile.
"Tidus act like Ronso child."
"Maybe that's why Yuna likes him. She is very fond of children."
"He sure acts enough like one." Auron grunted, joining Lulu and the Ronso after paying for the chocobos. He watched as Tidus dragged Yuna into the chocobo pen and began imitating their odd calls. Yuna laughed as Tidus soon had all the chocobos gathered around them, calling and shuffling. "They're massing!" Rikku giggled to Wakka as they leaned on the fence and watched Tidus begin bobbing his head at the group of birds.
"Look, Yuna! I think they like me!" He said, the chocobos pecking at his clothes and fluffing their wings. "They are very friendly." Yuna replied, scratching the feathery crests of the birds. "Nice chocobos." Tidus laughed, imitating the strange whistling they began making and bobbing his head. Yuna laughed suddenly as the chocobos began preening his hair and clothes. She ducked out of the group and snickered along with Wakka and Rikku. "Looks like they chose you as a mate." Auron chuckled.
"Yeah, I have a way with the ladies." Tidus said cockily.
"Yeah, too bad those are all males, eh?" Wakka remarked.
Laughter broke out among the group as Tidus paled and shifted uncomfortably amidst the sea of yellow feathers surging around him. Lulu selected a chocobo and mounted, glancing impatiently at her friends from atop her ride. Tidus shifted from foot to foot, procrastinating while the others picked their chocobos. "Hurry up." Auron sighed impatiently from his chocobo's back. "What's wrong, now?" he asked as the boy began to fidget.
"There aren't any…girl…chocobos, are there?"
"Why? What's wrong with the one in front of you?"
"Well, um…it's…."
Auron leaned down from his chocobo, his scarred face coming even with Tidus', and said in a low voice that promised all sorts of Terrible Things that would happen to him if he did not comply "Get. On. The. Chocobo!"
Auron scowled as Tidus blinked and shriveled beneath the burning gaze of the single eye. Look at those wrinkles! Tidus thought as Auron turned away Woah! Check out the size of that booger! It looks like aOoooowwwww! Kimahri, at a signal from Auron, hoisted Tidus up by his suspenders, giving him a Ronso Wedgie, and dropped him onto his chocobo. "Hey!" Tidus squeaked, shifting in a vain attempt to dislodge the wedgie without actually having to use his hands. "That was a cheap shot!"
Auron answered with an amused snort. "At least I didn't pull them down." Before Tidus could form a reply, Auron kicked his chocobo into a run, leaving the others to follow or not as they chose.
Tidus sulked as they walked along at an easy pace, he occasionally scowled at Auron's back as he mentally went over his long list of grievances suffered at the hands of the veteran guardian. Of all of them, the Temple Pantsing was still the most painfully embarrassing one. So far, all of Auron's attempts at revenge for the dunking he received at the Spring had turned to Tidus' advantage. He decided that Auron was way overdue for a lump sum of revenge. He began plotting as the party moved along the road, chatting and laughing. Rikku would help me. Tidus thought She wouldn't pass up the opportunity for a prank. I'll bet she has tons of experience with practical jokes. She does have a brother after all. An evil grin split his face.
"What's wrong, Auron?" Yuna asked, guiding her chocobo away from Wakka and Rikku, who were teasing Kimahri. Poor Kimahri stood head and shoulders above most grown men, and was almost too big to ride the chocobo. His feet nearly dragging the ground, he was enduring the jokes and comments pertaining to long legs and big feet with the patience of the mountains themselves.
"Nothing," Auron replied calmly, though he would have rather shouted The boy is too quiet. He's up to something! Oblivious, Yuna smiled and let it drop. Auron brooded all the way to the Travel Agency. Tidus was making him extremely suspicious. Every time Auron turned around, Tidus was talking to Rikku, which in itself was nothing out of the ordinary. What made Auron nervous was that Tidus was speaking to Rikku in an unusually involved manner. Almost as if he were plotting something secret.
"Race you to the Agency!" Tidus shouted at Wakka as his chocobo streaked by, leaving Wakka in the dust. Wakka sputtered and coughed, and sent his own mount racing after him.
"It begins." Lulu sighed, but without, Auron noticed, her usual venom. Did he detect a quiver of amusement in the black mage's voice? Yep. Lulu was finally warming up to the stranger from Zanarkand. The party caught up with Wakka, who had stopped his chocobo just around the corner. The blitz ball captain was shaking his fist and cursing at Tidus, who was standing on his chocobo in the middle of the bridge putting his Provoke ability to good use.
Yuna, Rikku, and Lulu laughed as Tidus answered Wakka's curses by bending over and slapping his backside. They laughed even harder when Auron lobbed Wakka's blitz ball right at Tidus. The ball pegged the blond in the rear with a sound like, well, like a hollow object hitting a backside. Tidus toppled from the chocobo with an indignant squeak and sat up, spitting out grass while his chocobo stood beside him looking embarrassed at having lost its rider.
Strike three, Auron, Tidus thought as he rose, dusting himself off and glaring balefully at Auron as the Guardian rode by. He caught Rikku's eye as the Al Bhed girl rode nearer. "Rikku," He said as the rest of the group crossed the last bridge "It's time for a little payback."