Trials and Tribulations

Chapter 3: Consolation and Failure

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy X, nor any of the characters there within.

Carefully, Yuna opened the door and slipped in, shutting it quietly behind her.

The black mage had her back turned to Yuna, her nimble fingers working deftly at her hair to restore the chain of braids she usually wore. Half of her head had been braided to her scalp and two long braids were already slung over her back. She worked furiously at it. Yuna smiled softly and came forward, hands reaching out, taking the silky raven locks and beginning to braid the hair herself. Lulu physically relaxed to the touch, her hands fell into her lap, her eyes closed with a tired sigh.

Silently, the white mage plaited the other mage's hair until Lulu spoke.

"Forgive me, Yuna."

Startled out of the entrancingly repetitive exercise, Yuna replied.

"You should not seek forgiveness from me, but from Wakka."

Lulu sighed, perhaps impatiently, but more for herself than at Yuna's words.

"I know, but sometimes he just—" Lulu finished her statement with an irritated noise. Yuna offered no comment for the older girl's outburst, but the summoner did smile softly to herself. They both knew Wakka meant well. Yuna had noticed more and more over the years how the blitzball captain seemed to act, well, more silly around Lulu. And it had taken Yuna a good deal of time to comprehend why he tripped over his words and his feet whenever in the mage's presence. It might have been admiration, or even a little bit of fear, but truly the answer was a bit more obvious than even that—Wakka was in love with Lulu.

Now Lulu, on the other hand, had always been rather quiet. She had become even more subdued upon the news of Chappu's death. Oh, she would chide and scold when she saw fit, but when it came to discussing other affairs, she would offer her stoic advice—but in such a way that it would not involve her personally. One day when Yuna had commented to the mage about Wakka being particularly silly, Lulu's face seemed to harden and her eyes glazed. She had said that Wakka was just clumsy. Yuna was unsure of how to react to such a response; Lulu's voice and posture were in conflict. The comment Lulu had made was meant to be partly serious, and partly in jest—but coupled with her expression, the statement did not fit. Was it possible that Lulu did not see that Wakka was enamored by her? Or did she truly see through his fumbles and folly as being subtle gestures of love and was trying her best to lock away her true feelings?

Yuna shook her head lightly, just realizing she was out of hair and still trying to braid nonetheless. She glanced up quickly at the mage, who seemed not to notice—both had fallen into a silent reflection. Yuna hummed happily.

"All finished. Are you ready to go?" She asked candidly, placing a hand on the mage's shoulder.

"I'm ready when you are." Lulu said, slipping back into that cultured, stoic state of hers as she rose to stand. Yuna gave the mage a smile and headed for the door. Opening it, she discovered Tidus on the other side, preparing to knock. He smiled that broad smile of his for her and placed his fists on his hips.

"Oh good! Are we all cleared to go?"

Yuna nodded and asked Tidus if he would be so kind as to gather the rest of the guardians and he easily complied. Lulu waited silently at the exit of the Al Bhed shop as the guardians assembled. An uncomfortable silence stretched when Wakka awaited the group also, just opposite her. She did not look at him; she was not yet ready to apologize. Instead her gaze focused outside of the inn, mind intent on the journey that lay before them for the day.

The guardians finally came together and left, Wakka fell somewhere in the middle of the group, while Lulu brought up the rear as usual; she was not very fast-paced in her heavy skirt of belts.

The company continued the pilgrimage for awhile in silence. Half of the day had lapsed and still Lulu had not confronted Wakka. Apparently, neither of them was much up for conversation. When the company halted for a short rest, Lulu removed herself from the group to think; unawares that she was being observed.

Wakka's words echoed back to her.

You don't remember what happened last night?

She grit her teeth for a moment at what the statement could well imply, and tried instead to place the statement to his expression. Wakka had seemed distressed, trying vainly to get Lulu to remember what had happened. Why would he have mentioned it if he had not wanted her to remember last nights events? No, that could not have been it then. Wakka was not very proficient at lying, and his face had spoken nothing but truth. But what truth had it been? Just what had happened last night?

Lulu tensed as heavy, but soft footsteps approached her. It would be unpleasant to find Wakka there, because she was still not quite ready to face him yet. She was somewhat ashamed of her outburst that morning, but not yet sure if she was indeed justified by it. The footsteps neared and Lulu's breath caught in her throat, she was not yet ready to apologize!

A red yakuta graced her peripheral vision and Lulu relaxed slightly.

"Oh, Sir Auron."

"You sound relieved to see me." Auron said with a deep chuckle. Lulu exhaled a quietly shaky sigh, this man was so observant. Lulu offered no reply to his statement. Auron continued to look straight ahead. "There really is no need for formality, Auron, will be fine."

The sudden change of subject caught Lulu by surprise, and yet she could not help but feel a little more companionship toward the legendary guardian.

"We are fellow guardians after all, we share the same duties and I am no different from you."

"But Sir Auron, you completed a pilgrimage with Lord Braska; it is an honor that you grace our company."

"'Sir' Auron; such a robust title. I was just a boy. Yes, I have completed a pilgrimage, but I have not traveled these roads as many times as you."

Startled, Lulu looked at him with a searching crimson eye. She had not informed anyone about her pilgrimages—Yuna, Wakka, and Kimarhi already knew about her journeys, but Tidus and Auron did not. The red-cloaked man seemed to read her thoughts and continued.

"When you avoided that rather large patch of covered ice yesterday, it spoke of how habitually you have walked these roads time and again." His head turned slightly in her direction, but whether or not he looked at her, she could not be certain behind those smoky-tinted sunglasses. Lulu nodded numbly as her gaze grazed across the ground.

"Yes, this would be my third pilgrimage."

"I would assume the first two were unsuccessful."

Could there be nothing to hide from this man?

"…No."

"Then you have the deepest of my regrets. Where I have only traveled this path once, you have suffered it several times. Set out on each journey knowing what awaited each summoner at the end. That is a form of torture I should think few could endure. But I would also believe the more you travel, the more you come to rely on your friends; but something about that former blitzball captain distresses you." And now Lulu was sure that his eye was upon her, even behind his glasses. "You were awfully tense when you heard me approach."

Lulu blinked a few times behind her curtain of raven hair, trying to think of a rebuttal and conceal her discomfort.

"Perhaps."

Was her reply to him. Auron "hmphed" at the statement, but in a slightly more jovial tone than most.

"I see."

Something about his response unnerved her. Where she could shield much of herself from others easily by her steely exterior, it was as though Auron could see beyond all of her carefully crafted walls and into her very soul. Where Wakka might lie down, belly-up in defeat when her claws appeared, Auron would simply not retreat in his advances. They were both dancing dangerously around one another's wit, each seizing up the others intelligence. Yet with the both of them being rather stoic, it was difficult to discern.

Lulu numbly noted that her toes were beginning to freeze in the snow. They had better get moving again soon lest they all caught some form of frostbite.

"Before we get on the move again, I would think it prudent to confront him." Auron turned so that his profile was to Lulu, who stared at him, aghast. "It would be one less worry on your mind, as well as our lady summoner's." He nodded slightly in the direction of the group, pausing only long enough to turn his gaze once more in Lulu's direction before striding off to rejoin the company. Lulu gazed after him, suddenly feeling much younger. She shook her head lightly, took a deep breath, and followed the stern red-cloaked guardian toward the company—readying herself to apologize to Wakka. She knew she had to eventually, so why delay to stew over it?

Lulu, quite deep in preparation, did not notice a flurry of snowballs flying haphazardly through the air. One had just whizzed past Auron's head. He did not flinch, but his forehead did press into a frown over his sunglasses. Had that shot been intended for him? Lulu had passed Auron by this time and was treading into the war zone where Wakka and Tidus were holding their fight; Yuna and Rikku were staging one of their own, occaisionally tossing frozen spheres into the boy's direction. Kimarhi stood off to one side, watching the battle indifferently. Wakka scooped up a handful of white, ducking a snowball Tidus had just thrown and hurled his own at the younger blitzer. Unfortunately, Lulu had taken that moment to pace up behind Tidus to admit her apologies to Wakka.

"Wakka, I am—" SMACK!

At that exact moment, Tidus had ducked, causing the snowball Wakka had thrown to spatter directly into Lulu's face.

A sudden horrified silence filled the surrounding forest. All movement and laughter had ceased. The moment seemed to last for eternity. Not one of them laughed. If Lulu had been angry before, she was downright outraged now.

The snow clod slipped from her face to the ground, exposing a stinging red face with violently icy eyes beneath. Before anyone could move, a spell had already left Lulu's lips and cast furiously in Wakka's direction. Ice splintered up with shattering force from the ground, freezing Wakka's legs up to his knees in a thick flower of glass and snow. Wakka lost his balance, and at the junction of his calves and thighs, he toppled over backward with a piteous cry. Lulu was deaf to the gasps of astonishment and shock, as her temper warred with her to cause more damage to the buffoon who had hurt her feelings and now her face; ignored her outburst and thwarted her attempt at apology. With immense difficulty, Lulu turned her furious red gaze down the lane, still bursting with casts of thundara, fira, blizzara. Instead, she managed thrust her spells at the idle trees of the forest. One exploded into flames, another shocked with horrific flashing lightening, another completely frozen, so much so that even its branches had become icicles. Her rage seemed nearly uncontrollable. She bit her tongue so severely to halt the spells, the she tasted blood.

Still fuming she took to the road--striding fiercely ahead and not once looking back.

Shocked stares followed Lulu, entirely unbelieving of what had just taken place. All except Wakka, who had shut his eyes with shame and despair; pathetically trapped within his imprisonment of ice. He deserved it. She would never forgive him now.

Author's Note: Phew, another update! Lord knows I have been falling behind! (I had a schedule?) I sincerely hope that I kept everyone in character--although Lulu might be a lot more severe than usual. Poor Wakka, still not much success in making amends. It was a bad time for that snowball fight...(yes, I am so glad I got to work that fight in there! I was toying with the idea for ages, I am so pleased to finally get it down.)

I will admit that I did trip up a little on Auron's dialogue and that would be the reason why I kept procrastinating on the update; sometimes his dialogue will just come to me and other days I have to fight for what I want him to say. I apologize for taking so long and I hope his conversation with Lulu was an acceptable one!

I have a vague idea of where I would like to go from here--which would be another possible Auron/Lulu mix (because they are so cute together!), but beyond that I will have to sleep on it. For several hours. (This would equate to another delayed update, but I will try HARD to think of another chapter to post! I might have two more--it really all depends if I can come up with something and hold some interest of my avid readers!)

Anywho! I hope you all liked and will stay tuned for the next chapter!

(And I almost forgot! If I calculated correctly--this chapter will boost my word count to over 100,000 words! CELEBRATE!)

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