I almost separated this into two chapters, but then they would have been itsby bitsy. So, I combined them to create a stronger fighting force!---or at least a longer chapter.

Chapter 4. Enjoy.

Chapter 4: Specula--Bad Rikku and Auron! No Dolls For You!

Tidus was never going to have children.

They whined. They ate constantly. They whined. They expressed curiosity for everything. They whined. They never listened to adults, most specifically him.

Did he mention that they whined?

Deciding they had imposed on Rin enough, the party and Cid chose to take the airship to Bikanel. There, they would think on a plan of action while keeping an eye on Rikku and Auron.

They had set up a rotation of babysitters before boarding the airship. Wakka and Lulu had babysitting duty at the moment, and in another twenty minutes Tidus and Yuna were to take over, followed by Cid and Kimahri.

Tidus fretted about his turn at babysitting. Rikku and Auron were quite a handful. The bathing and living room incidents at Rin's Agency were proof enough of that.

At least Yuna would be there to ease the burden.

The blitzer wandered to a window and watched the scenery below him. Somewhere down there, someone had a grudge against them. They needed to find that person and change Auron and Rikku back, soon, before something horrible happened.

Like losing all his sanity.

Doors slid open, and the first pair of babysitters straggled in with Rikku and Auron. "Here," Wakka said to Tidus tiredly, dumping Auron into his arms. "It's your turn."

"Yuna said she'd be here soon," Lulu informed him dully, letting go of Rikku's hand. "Until then, keep a close eye on them both."

"And when we say 'close eye,' we mean never take your eyes off them for even a millisecond, ya," Wakka shuddered. "Don't blink, don't turn your head away, and whatever you do, don't play Hide and Seek. You'll never find them until you forfeit. . . . maybe."

"We rigged up a diaper for Auron," Lulu added. "He'll tell you quite clearly when it needs changing. I left the spares with Yuna. She'll show you how to change it."

"Have fun!" Wakka called over his shoulder as they left. "We'll be in our rooms recuperating."

"Don't bother us," Lulu finished as the doors slid shut behind them.

Tidus stared down at Rikku and Auron. The two children gazed up at him, Rikku clinging to his shorts with one hand and Auron toying with the mesh on his left arm. "Well, how about we go look for Yuna, huh?" he said, leading them out of the cockpit.

Rikku followed obediently, and Auron seemed content to be carried without struggling. Winding through the halls, Tidus literally bumped into Yuna in front of the cargo hold.

"Oh, is it our turn already?" Yuna sighed, shifting a bag to her shoulder before taking Rikku's hand. "Lulu seemed pretty exhausted when she came by with Auron's diapers."

"Yeah, Wakka didn't seem too energetic either," Tidus nodded. "Well, what should we do with these two?"

"Can we go up to the deck?" Rikku asked, pulling at Yuna's sleeve. "I wanna see the clouds!"

"Go vwoom," Auron chirruped, blinking at Tidus. The blitzer wasn't entirely certain what the boy meant by 'vwoom' but it didn't sound terribly horrific.

"We're agreed?" Tidus looked to Yuna, receiving her nod. "Alright, let's go to the deck!"

Six minutes later, Tidus discovered that Lulu and Wakka had refused to allow the two access to the deck during their watch and, more importantly, the reason behind the refusal.

"Rikku, get away from the edge before you fall!" Yuna shouted at the Al Bhed girl over the wind.

"Auron, you're not a Zu, you can't fly!" Tidus tried to inform the boy, struggling to keep the squirming bundle in his arms.

"Wow! The ship's giganormous!" Rikku exclaimed, leaning over the rail-less side to examine the airship.

"Wan' go vwoom! Fwy!" Auron cried, waving his arms like an absurd bird and kicking Tidus in the belly.

Yuna and Tidus exchanged glances. Tidus handed Auron to Yuna and swiftly nabbed Rikku around the waist, ignoring her shouts. Auron settled under the Summoner's grip, but still expressed the desire to go 'vwoom.'

"No more fun on the deck for you two," Tidus told them both, still holding Rikku against his hip as they descended to the cargo hold.

"Wan' vwoom!" Auron shouted. Then a thoughtful expression overcame his face, and he said, "Me hungwy, Yunie," while tugging at her sleeve.

"Yeah, me too!" Rikku chimed from Tidus's waist.

"Is there a kitchen on the airship?" Yuna asked Tidus under her breath; she didn't want to upset the children.

"I hope so," Tidus looked horrified at the thought of a nonexistent kitchen. "I'm starved."

Yuna giggled at his facial expression. "Well, let's go look for some food."

It took them two trips around the airship to find the kitchen. By then Auron was sniffling and wailing for cookies, while Rikku dug into Tidus' pockets for 'hidden treasure.' Everything came to a head when Rikku discovered a poison fang in Tidus' back pocket and attempted to feed it to Auron. The next ten minutes were spent scolding Rikku, curing Auron of poison, and assuring the children that green spots did not mean Auron was turning into a froggy.

After messy peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches, bananas, and cookies were consumed, Yuna and Tidus attempted to sit the children down to watch the sphere-viewer. However, Rikku was all-too familiar with the device and all 297 shows that aired, and Auron could never stay still long enough to let the sphere-viewer obtain his attention.

So instead, Tidus and Yuna took them to the cargo hold and let them loose to entertain themselves. Which consisted of much name-calling, running, pushing, and one breath-snatching incident where Auron became trapped in a crate by Rikku and Rikku herself had snarled her skirt on one of the support structures of the airship.

"Can we do this to Kimahri and Cid?" Yuna whispered to Tidus as they guided the children off to their next babysitters, Auron in Yuna's arms and Rikku trotting beside the blitzer. "I mean, they're such a handful. . . I feel almost guilty."

"Yuna, Cid's already raised Rikku once, he knows the tricks," Tidus reassured Yuna, making certain that the aforementioned Al Bhed princess was still at his side. "And Kimahri is a proven warrior from Mount Gagazet. Auron will be a piece of cake after that."

"I guess so, but," Yuna hesitated, biting her lip.

"Do you want another five hours with them?" Tidus lowered his voice so only she could possibly hear.

In response, Yuna quickened her pace to the bridge.

Kimahri watched as the two children slept, Auron drooling and Rikku mumbling about sphere hunters.

They seemed much different than the Auron and Rikku Kimahri knew. He was aware that humans went through a continual maturation cycle, never quite reaching the maturity of adults until a certain age. He had, after all, essentially raised Yuna from the time she was seven. But it had never quite hit home that Rikku was a lot more mature than the child everyone assumed she acted as, or that Auron had, in fact, been a carefree child at one point in his life.

"Strange, ain't it?" Cid's gruff voice broke Kimahri's thoughts. The Ronso tilted his head to peer down at the man. "Seein' them this young. I never thought I'd get to see Rikku as a six-year old again, considering most people only go through childhood once in their lives. And I never thought Auron would be such an active little tyke."

"Is strange," Kimahri nodded. "But must be fixed. Auron and Rikku no able to stay children forever."

Cid frowned. "You know, that's exactly what's bothering me. I don't know if they're entirely children. Something is still lingering in their heads that they're adults."

"Auron ask about Braska?" Kimahri put in.

"And Rikku's been asking me about these places that she's 'never been to.' I'm willin' to bet this airship that she's remembering stuff from the pilgrimage."

"Might be dangerous," Kimahri intoned. "Rikku remember Sin. Auron remember death. No can stop Auron crying."

Cid flinched. "We'll just have to reverse the spell before it comes to that. Ain't no way I'm havin' Auron flood my ship."

Rikku stirred, blinking her eyes tiredly. "Tytto? Yna oui drana?" (Are you there?)

"E's rana," Cid soothed. "Ku pylg du cmaab." (I'm here. Go back to sleep.)

Rikku looked over at the sleeping Auron, seemingly unimpressed by the drool running down his chin. "Lyh fa dyga Auron Home? Du Bikanel?" (Can we take Auron Home? To Bikanel?)

"Auron yeh'd y tuk. Pacetac, ra fuh'd mega ed eh dra tacand. Ed femm pa duu rud vun res." (Auron ain't a dog. Besides, he won't like it in the desert. It will be too hot for him.)

"Please, tytto?" Rikku sat up, eyes growing wide into her puppy-dog look. "Auron's fun to play with. A lot more fun than Brother is."

Cid winced. He had never gotten around to informing Rikku (or Brother) that things had changed. With Auron to distract her, Rikku would delay in inquiring to the whereabouts of her 'younger' (and irksome) brother. "We'll see, princess. For now, go back to sleep."

Rikku frowned, faced toward the young toddler. "Tytto, does Auron have a tytto too?"

Cid and Kimahri blinked. "I. . . I suppose so, princess," Cid stammered. "Why?"

"Is he a meanie?" Rikku blinked. "'Cause, 'cause I had a dream, and a big meanie-head was being mean to me, and he looked like Auron, but I don't want Auron to go away if he's a meanie-head."

Kimahri stiffened. Cid took this as a indication of another memory. "I'm sure Auron's tytto wasn't mean, Rikku. Now, go to sleep. We'll arrive at Bikanel tomorrow."

"They are recalling their past?" Lulu frowned in thought as Cid and Kimahri finished retelling the latest event. "It may be that, at some point, they will retrieve their memories."

"That's good, ya?" Wakka asked hopefully. "Auron will remember how to use the toilet by himself?"

"And Rikku will know not to feed poison fangs to people?" Tidus jumped in ecstatically.

"Having their memories return while they are still children is not necessarily a good thing," Yuna said slowly, dredging up lessons in magic from years previous. "Their emotional and mental maturity are still those of young children. They wouldn't handle the memories very well."

"What do you mean?" Wakka cried, hope deflated. "They're tough, they can handle it!"

"They are tough, when they're adults!" Cid growled. "The oldest one is six, for crying out loud! She can't even handle the dark yet!"

"And what will happen when they face something worse?" Lulu asked acerbically. "They will panic and be inconsolable."

Tidus and Wakka hung their heads, defeated. Yuna wrung her hands, and inquired, "How do we stop them from recalling too much? Should we focus on childish activities, not make any mention of the pilgrimage or anything of their older life?"

"Good idea," Kimahri agreed. "Less chance of remembering."

"Hey," Wakka's head had risen, and he now frowned at something behind the group. "What was that?"

Everyone turned. A window offered an extraordinary view of one thing: clouds.

"You Yevonites are all crazy," Cid muttered.

"No, something went past the window!" Wakka pressed his face to the glass. "It kinda looked like. . . I dunno, one of Yuna's staffs."

"Why would Yuna's staff be out. . . side?" Tidus' jaw dropped as something fell past the window. A cactuar, if he wasn't mistaken.

"That was my doll!" Lulu gasped.

Steadily a rain of items fell, mainly Lulu's dolls, Wakka's blitzballs, and nuts and bolts from the ship. Coming to a conclusion as one, the adults ran to the deck. They paused for a moment in the hallways, but chose to ignore the dripping paintings of nameless fiends and (oddly enough) of blue figures that looked an awful lot like Wakka being sat on by a shoopuf..

"Aren' we gonna get indo dwouble?" Auron asked Rikku as he helped her topple a long stick-thing over the side.

"Nah, we're conducting scientific s'periments!" Rikku exclaimed proudly. "Tytto told me to always let my curiosity out."

Auron thought. If a grown-up such as Rikku's daddy said it was okay, then they wouldn't get into trouble. Besides, Rikku was smart, for a girl. She'd taught him how to finger-paint walls before they saw a birdie fly past a window.

Now they were up on the deck, trying to see what else floated like the birdie. So far, nothing had flown like a birdie, but they did fall really really fast.

"Hmm, what's this?" Rikku examined a sphere. "I think Tytto calls these a Fortune Sphere. Maybe it'll give us luck and fly!"

She hurled it over the edge, and they peered over.

Nope. It just fell.

Shrugging, the two went back to tossing all the stuff they'd dragged up to the deck over the side.

"Rikku!" an angry voice sounded from the elevator. "Auron! Stop throwing things right now!"

"Uh oh," Auron blinked. "They sthound weally mad."

"Uhhh," Rikku looked about wildly. "Quick, hide over there!"

They scrambled to a dark corner hidden from the elevator's view. The remaining items they had scavenged slowly fell victim to air resistance and gravity, sliding across the deck and into the air.

The adults rushed out onto the deck, several of them exclaiming as they watched their possessions disappear. Sneaking a look, Rikku saw the elevator empty.

"Come on, while they're not looking!" Rikku tugged at Auron's sleeve, and they darted into the elevator. With a grunt of effort, Rikku lifted Auron and he slammed a tiny palm on the button labeled 'Down.'

"Hey! They're going down, ya!"

"Rikku, you stay right there or else I'm gonna—" But what Cid was going to do to Rikku she did not know as the doors closed and the elevator descended.

"Are we in dwouble, Rikku?" Auron asked, eyes wide.

"Nah," Rikku said nervously. "We're just. . . we're just playing Hide and Seek is all."

Auron blinked, then piped, "Okay."

It took Cid, Tidus, and Yuna three hours to find Rikku. The Al Bhed girl had crammed herself in a maintenance shaft, and it was only because she was losing feeling in her legs that she surrendered to her father.

Kimahri, Wakka, and Lulu could not find Auron, even with Kimahri's superior nose and several Scans of the airship. The boy had taken Rikku's declaration of a game of Hide and Seek to heart.

"Rikku, where is Auron?" Yuna asked for the twentieth time, slightly exasperated.

"Not telling! You're just gonna be mad at us and spank us!" Rikku folded her arms stubbornly.

The idea of spanking Auron held no appeal for Tidus. It was another suggestion to bury in the 'Repress and Forget' folder that was steadily growing thicker by the hour. "Rikku, we're not going to spank you or Auron. We just want to know he's safe is all."

"Hmph!" Rikku made a show of sealing her lips and throwing away a key.

"Rikku, if you don't start talking I'm gonna give all the fun assignments to Brother!" Cid threatened. Rikku, while she did look horrified at the prospect, said not a word.

"Rikku," Lulu knelt beside the girl. "You think of Auron as a little brother, don't you?" The girl nodded energetically. "Well, what if Auron is hurt? He could be alone for hours, crying, and by not telling us you could be hurting him more."

Eyes widening, Rikku stammered, "But he's not hurt, I know it! He can't get hurt where he is!"

"And where is that?" Yuna tried her sweet voice, the one that usually had sycophants liquefying into quivering masses of delighted goo.

The sweetness affected Rikku hardly at all. "In a safe place."

Everyone sighed. "Rikku, fun and games are over," Cid loomed over his daughter. "We need to know where Auron is now. Where is he?"

Rikku bit her lip. Her tytto seemed very upset. Maybe she ought to tell them. "You're not gonna be mad at us?"

"No, we're not, Rikku," Yuna crossed her heart. "Promise."

Well, since she promised. . . "The fourth level, in a tool niche."

Tidus, Wakka, and Kimahri sprinted to the tool niche. When they came within five feet, they heard sniffling. Tidus swung the niche open with a flourish, then peered inside. Four feet down in the dark sat Auron, a miserable little ball of fearful child.

"Auron!" Tidus reached inside, balancing on his stomach. Wakka and Kimahri grabbed his legs to keep him anchored, and the blitzer reached for Auron.

The little boy looked up and recoiled, crying, "No spanky!"

Shaking his head, Tidus assured the boy, "We're not going to spank you, Auron. Just come on out."

Auron considered, then decided he didn't much like Hide and Seek anymore. He stood and reached, and Tidus grabbed his hands. It took all the self-control Tidus had not to grimace at the wet, slimy feel of tears and paint on Auron's tiny hands.

"There we go!" Tidus hefted Auron into his arms, smiling brightly. "See, no spanky—er, spankings." Tidus did note, however, that Auron would need a bath. Dust, oil, paint, and cobwebs dirtied the little boy beyond indecency.

Let's just keep that as a little surprise for Auron, Tidus thought to himself.

"Hey, we're gonna need to get you in a bath, ya?" Wakka said. "You're all grimy."

Kimahri hit Wakka over the head for Tidus as Auron began struggling and shrieking, "NO BATH!"

An hour after Yuna had calmed Auron down and the boy was sponged to cleanliness everyone had grouped together in the cargo, telling Rikku and Auron very firmly that the airship's walls were not canvases to be painted upon and nothing was to be dropped from the deck without expressed permission. Especially Lulu's dolls.

They arrived at Bikanel Island shortly thereafter, landing in the newly-restored Home. Rikku jumped and strained to play in the sand, but only after the airship properly docked did Tidus and Yuna allow her and Auron to investigate the desert.

Rikku enjoyed the desert thoroughly. She dug tunnels through the sand, pretended to be a sand lizard that slunk across the dunes, and made sand angels.

Auron reluctantly tried playing in the sands, but wailed and trundled back to Tidus's side when he discovered grit was all-too-uncomfortable in his shorts. No amount of encouragement from any of the adults convinced Auron to go back to the desert.

Rikku tried her hand at dragging Auron into play. "Come on, Auron! It's lots of fun! See, we can make sand castles and angels and all sorts of cool things!"

"No," Auron hugged himself tighter to Tidus's leg.

"We can make sand tunnels!" Rikku added, enticing.

"No!" Auron cried, tears welling in his eyes.

Placing her hands on her hips, Rikku stuck her tongue out and snapped, "Big meanie!"

The tears faded. Auron frowned and snarled, "You, 'way!"

The adults paused. Tidus wondered if the others thought the same as he, that Auron and Rikku sounded an awful lot like their older selves. . . .

"Oookay, you asked for it!" Rikku cracked her knuckles. To the adults' shock she grabbed Auron's arm and began pulling, grunting with the effort.

Auron snatched Tidus's pant leg, yelling, "Wet go! Sthop acting wike a bwat!"

"You're the one acting like a brat, Auron!" Rikku retorted, keeping up her effort.

"Wet go!"

"No!"

"Wet go!"

"No!"

"WET GO!"

"NO!"

"Both of you stop it!" Tidus cried; his pants were going to tear if Auron didn't let go.

Eventually the superior strength won out, and Auron's grip failed. Rikku's pulling force slammed him into her, and they toppled to the sand with twin wails.

"Hey, you alright there princess?" Cid came to kneel beside Rikku as Yuna did the same for Auron.

The boy turned to glare at Rikku, seemed to rethink his decision, and came to an entirely different choice: he howled his tears. Rikku followed suit a moment later.

"Whoa, what's the matter, ya?" Wakka tried to distract Auron. "You're okay, right?"

"She– she– was– mean to me!" Auron gasped, his tears not stopping.

"He was– he was mean to me first!" Rikku sniffled to her father.

The adults sighed. Lulu asked Cid, "Are all children like this?"

"Only under three circumstances," Cid replied seriously. "When they're upset or when they want something."

"Spectacular," Lulu slumped her shoulders.

"You said three," Tidus pointed out. "What's the third one?"

"The third," Cid finished dramatically, "is for no discernible reason at all."

Sooooo...from here on out,CCP updates are going to be a bit more distanced. I would like to put up 1 chapter a day for all you wonderful readers to enjoy, but sadly my perfectionism refuses to allow me to do so. As soon as I get chpt. 5 fully written andto my liking, I'll post it, promise!