So, I have two apologies to make. First, I apologize for this having taken a little over four years to update. It took a ridiculous amount of time, and I'm sincerely sorry for that.
The second apology is in regards to a note I made in the first chapter. I hinted there would be an Aurikku-slant at some point, and while I might have planned that 10 years ago (that was when I first started writing this fic, not publishing it) the story didn't turn out that way in the end. So, for inadvertently leading on probably a few of my readers, I apologize.
On a happier note: I have finished writing Crash Course Parenting in its entirety. This chapter is not the end; think of it more as a bare-bones refresher for those who don't want to go back and read all the way through.
A Recap of our Adventures So Far:
Brother scowled at the terrain passing below the airship, since he couldn't scowl at his sister Rikku for all the trouble she was putting them through. Beautiful, wonderful, clever Yuna only wanted to help Spira, and what did his irresponsible sister go and do but get herself and Sir Auron turned into children by a Guado witch! And no one bothered to tell him, her brother, even after an accident at Home resulted in them being lost, all alone in Spira.
Oh, sure, two people named Clasko and O'aka found them, so he'd heard, but Brother didn't trust them one jot. Who knew what the two would do with an Al Bhed?
But now, finally, they had a solid theory. Vydran (father) predicted they were heading north, and most everyone had agreed the party would bypass Bevelle, for some reason Brother missed. The obvious place to start looking anew was the Travel Agency at the Calm Lands, and they'd land in another ten minutes.
Brother hoped Rikku was there (and Sir Auron, of course). Knowing his sister at that age, though, he didn't hope too hard. She had the unfortunate luck of wandering into the most perilous circumstances. Oases with fiends, befriending strange young men who claimed to be from Zanarkand, fighting Sin…. If Rikku hadn't found herself in the deepest depths of the most dangerous cave filled to the brim with the toughest fiends in Spira, Brother would get all of his tattoos removed.
At the end of the day, Brother looked back on his last thought and promptly put his entire savings on a Blitzball game bet. (He lost).