S.S. Liki - Early morning. Everyone is in good spirits on account of their heading home.
Tidus jumped out from behind the engine room with a ferocious 'Boooo!' that quickly became an 'Eeep!' as he grabbed not Rikku, but Lulu, or more specifically Lulu's chest. Tidus quailed beneath the mage's burning gaze of doom. He could have sworn he had seen the Al Bhed girl coming this way. Seeing as she did not have much to grab, she was a safe playmate.
Lulu snarled. Tidus was not one hundred percent sure, but the thought he popped one. "I swear, I thought you were Rikku!" he sputtered an apology as the mage raised her arm threateningly. "Yeah, and I'm sure you thought I was Rikku when I caught you scanning my horizon with that shiphand's binoculars."
"I-I'm sorry!" He stuttered. Before Lulu could say anything more, Tidus took the chance that she would fry him at any minute and ran for it.
"Pervert!" Lulu muttered as she tried to adjust the bust line of her dress for maximum coverage.
Tidus sought shelter from the storm of Lulu's anger on the observation deck. He was just deciding how he was going to get back in the Black Mage's good graces, when Yuna, Rikku, and Wakka came up. Tidus sat up from his thinking pose, which looked a lot like his sleeping pose, and greeted them sullenly.
"Hey, I saw Lulu, and she looked pretty angry. I feel sorry for person whose on the receiving end of her revenge, ya?" Wakka said as he sat down across from Tidus and began munching on a handful of peanuts. The boy looked at the Auroch's Captain, and said "That would be me."
"Tidus, what did you do to make her so mad?" Yuna asked, sitting near him. Tidus rubbed the back of his head and muttered "I accidentally grabbed her knockers. Not that it's all that hard not to. Not with knockers that big. They're like, right there all the time." he attempted to lighten the mood. " I was gonna jump out at Rikku and shout 'Boo!', only, it wasn't Rikku who came around the corner." he explained quickly as his friends gave him various looks ranging from shock to disbelief.
"Um," Rikku asked "Tidus, what are 'knockers'?"
Tidus gulped. "Um, well," he began, trying to think of an easy way to explain with the least amount of discomfort all around. "Knockers are…they're," he did some vague pantomiming, becoming more uncomfortable with every passing second. It was hard to explain such a sensitive topic with so many eyes on him. Granted, there were only three pairs, but that was three too many.
"Boobs!" Wakka exclaimed "That's what knockers are."
"So that's what you Spirans call them." Tidus said, blushing furiously. Rikku giggled, remembering the echoes in Mushroom Rock Road.
"Well, I'll speak to Lulu," Yuna offered as she rose "But for now, I suggest that you avoid her."
"Will do. No problem there." Tidus sighed, consigning himself to a dull, uneventful trip.
Tidus' dark mood lifted later that day, and he joined Wakka in a game of cards. Auron joined in as well, to show the less experienced players how the game was played. He blew them away with his strategies, and luck. Tidus secretly suspected that he was cheating, but darned if he knew how. He decided to make up his own strategy.
A few hours later, Tidus and Wakka were down to their last few gil. In the next round they managed to win back a lousy 15 gil, but it was not enough to make much of a difference. Auron smiled behind his collar as Tidus licked dry lips and, with a nervous glance at Wakka, who shrugged, bet all or nothing. The cards were dealt, and Auron came up with a good hand. He saw Tidus' face take on an intensely frustrated look before he remembered to keep it blank. Wakka scratched his head and looked downcast, but discarded a card and took another, stubbornly hoping that he could make a good hand. Tidus looked desperate. He discarded two cards and replaced them with two more while the Unsent guardian held his breath. Tidus looked desperate, as if he were trying to make something out of nothing.
Auron laid down his hand: thee spheres, and two towers. A good hand that would be hard to beat. Wakka had a whole lot of nothing, and Tidus began to fidget. He laid down his cards, revealing a Grand Castle. Auron stared, dumbfounded. The boy had somehow gotten the rarest hand one could ever hope to get.
Tidus and Wakka walked out of the Guest Quarters one thousand, seven hundred and thirty five gil richer. "So much for experience." Tidus said, and the two headed to the deck, laughing and planning what they would do with the money.
Up on the deck, Tidus climbed the mast and squinted at the horizon, looking at the rapidly growing mass on the horizon that was Besaid Island. He slid down, getting only a few splinters, which he made a big deal about while Yuna tried to pull them out.
"Hey, Tidus," Wakka said as Yuna pulled the last sliver of wood from his palm. "I've been dying to know how you beat Auron."
"Oh," Tidus replied, reaching into his pocket and pulling out Auron's glasses (Which he had swiped using his Steal ability while Auron was not looking) and tossing them to Wakka. "I just looked at the reflection in his glasses. And I also picked up more than one card at a time when I drew from the pile. Plus, I had a few put away."
Wakka and Yuna laughed as Tidus stood there looking proud of himself. Wakka put the glasses on and did a few less than flattering impersonations. He was just getting warmed up when his audience stopped laughing. "He's standing right behind, isn't he?" he asked, not turning around. Tidus and Yuna both nodded.
"Well, I've got to get my things packed and ready." Yuna announced turning and fleeing below deck. Tidus followed with a "Yeah, uh, me too!" thrown hastily over his shoulder. Wakka found himself facing an angry Unsent warrior monk all alone. He did the only thing he could think of. "Um…Here's your glasses!" he tossed the smoky dark lenses at Auron and made a run for it.
A boot caught up with him just short of the upper deck stairs.