Disclaimer: The characters used in this fic are the sole property of Square-Enix, Tetsuya Nomura, and anyone else with copyright on the Final Fantasy series and characters. I own nothing, save it be my own plot ideas and original characters.

Day 6: Fear

A/N: You can't have a good story without a healthy dose of suspense and, as the title implies, fear. This is where that happens. Enjoy.

"Get up. You're already late," a voice said, snapping Tidus from his peaceful slumber.

Tidus rolled over in bed, pulling the pillow over his head. "Five more minutes," he muttered from beneath the soft object. He wasn't ready to wake up. Not yet. He wanted to further enjoy the sweet, quiet recesses of sleep. And he wasn't about to give in to the voice that told him to wake up. As he slowly drifted back to sleep, the sound of shouting disturbed him once again. The teenager rolled over again and groaned, trying not to listen to the clamor of voices that seemed to be coming from outside the room.

The shouting quieted down, and Tidus grinned slightly. Peace and quiet. But he could still hear the hushed whispers of "Make him hurry," "Get him up," and "We don't have time for this!" Time for what? He didn't know. Nor did he really care. He was too busy trying to return to the realm in which he had seen his mother through the night. The realm of dreams where she had comforted him and dried his tears. While he had been there, it had truly felt like she had never left the world.

Suddenly, the pillow was wrenched from his grasp, and Tidus felt himself being pulled to his feet by the wrist. "What?" he said sleepily, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. "Go away!" He felt hands on the sides of his face and mistook them for his mother's. "Mom?"

But when he opened his eyes, he nearly screamed. Auron was staring at him, and Arlan, Teyron, and Szera were standing just outside the door. "Wake up," Auron said firmly, turning Tidus over to the mercy of his friends.

"What's wrong with you, man?" Arlan said, playing with the ends of his short white hair. "We've got places to go, things to do. Snap out of it already."

Tidus groaned, falling backwards into Auron. The man sighed and began pushing Tidus towards the bathroom. Oddly enough, Tidus thought he'd heard Auron say something to Szera about cold water. But it must have been his imagination. A flash of bright light hit him in the eyes, and the blond flinched backwards. Before he could open them again, he was smacked in the face with something cold and wet.

"Do what you want with him," he heard Auron say.

The sound of heavy footsteps vanished down the small flight of stairs to the left of the bathroom door. Tidus began sputtering as water went up his nose, and his friends began laughing. He opened his eyes sleepily and found himself staring into Arlan's face. His friend smiled and waved before shoving a toothbrush into Tidus' mouth. The teen gagged as the plastic object stuck him in the back of the throat. He coughed, accidentally spraying Arlan with toothpaste.

A loud laugh, probably Teyron's, reached his ears. A laugh that seemed to be coming from his bedroom. The sleep immediately left Tidus, and he rushed to his room, leaving Arlan behind to wipe the globs of toothpaste away from his face. When Tidus walked into his room, Szera and Teyron were there, fishing through Tidus' drawers. The two were laughing and making jokes about some of the things that Tidus could wear from time to time.

"What the hell?" Tidus bellowed, grabbing his clothes from his friends. "Can't I get any privacy?"

Teyron snickered, slapping Szera on the back. "You could," he said, "if you slept in your own room for once."

Blue eyes widened as Teyron's hazel eyes brightened beneath his dark brown hair. "But I slept in here, didn't I?" Tidus asked.

"That's not what I heard," Szera said, raising her eyebrows. "When we got here, Auron said that you'd locked yourself in your mom's room yesterday afternoon. He wouldn't tell us why, though. So, we figured it was none of our business."

"Correction," Teyron quipped. "Szera decided it was none of our business. "Arlan and I, however, wanted to know why." He gave Szera a pouty glare.

Tidus silently made a mental note to thank Szera later for not prying. He ushered his friends out of his room and locked the door behind him, eager to get some privacy so he could get dressed. The blond quickly pulled on a pair of black shorts, with the usual Zanarkan Abes logo on it, and a bright orange t-shirt, emblazoned with the logo of a surfing company. He waltzed out of the room to find his friends waiting silently for him on the couch.

He raised his eyebrows. It was completely unusual for Arlan and Teyron to remain quiet like this even if it was for a few minutes. Tidus headed into the kitchen, yanking some sodas out of the refrigerator. He tossed them over the counter to his friends, who caught them with little trouble.

"So where'd Auron run off to?" he asked, popping open the can.

Arlan shrugged. "No clue," he said. "Last I saw him, he headed downstairs. I dunno where he went after that, since someone decided it'd be nice to spit toothpaste in my eyes."

The others laughed.

"I saw him," Szera said with a sideways grin. "He walked right out the front door. Said something about tracking down a rampaging Kusariqqu or something along those lines. I don't remember exactly what he said he was going after."

Tidus shrugged. "It's nothing to worry about," he said, taking a seat in front of the sphere. "He's always running around like this. Whacking off heads, skinning Behemoths and the like. It's no big deal." With that, Tidus turned on the sphere and began to watch the game.

0 - + - 0 - + - 0

It was only when the clock struck ten that night that Tidus seriously began getting nervous. It wasn't exactly normal for Auron to be gone for ten straight hours, no matter what freakish creature he was hunting down. At the most, the man was usually gone for three hours or so. But ten was nearly four times that. And Tidus was starting to freak out.

"Dammit, old man," he muttered as Teyron popped in a movie. "You better not have done something stupid."

Arlan rolled his eyes as Teyron skipped past all the other movie previews on the disk. "What're you gonna do about it, Tidus?" he muttered, shoving popcorn into his mouth. "It's not like you're the adult or anything. Maybe something else came up. Maybe Auron ran across a whole clan of beasties. You never know, so just relax, okay? You're totally bumming me out."

Tidus nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right."

But regardless of what he said, Tidus didn't think it was true at all. He'd followed Auron on a hunt once when he was nine. Without the man's knowledge, of course. He'd followed Auron clear over to the west side of the city where a whole clan of Nidhogs had taken up root in the basement of a bar, frightening away all customers. Tidus had merely watched in awe as his guardian had disposed of the group of Nidhogs in under twenty minutes, regardless of their large stature and overwhelming number.

This, on the other hand, was entirely different. Even if it was something as dangerous as a Behemoth, as Szera had suggested hours earlier, Auron would be able to take it out without breaking a sweat. Unless, things got turned around. Ignoring his friends' protests, Tidus hurried to the window, staring out at the city. Horrid ideas flooded his head, and he struggled to think positive. What if something had happened? What the hell would he do by himself? He clenched his fists, thinking back on his mother's death.

Would things turn out that way again?

Tidus heard his friends gasp as the back door opened. The blond whirled around to see Auron standing there, dark glasses pushed up to hide his good eye. Tidus glanced at the floor beneath his guardian's boots, taking note of the vile-looking black liquid that clung to them. Remains of his kill, no doubt. The teen found his mind wandering as he tired to guess what ungodly creature that massive blade had cut to pieces.

"Someone looks tired," Arlan chirped, shoving more popcorn into his mouth. "Betcha killed somethin' big, huh? Sure looks like it."

Tidus gave Arlan a good punch in the arm, having sensed that now wasn't a good time to be joking around with Auron. The blond's blue eyes narrowed a bit when he thought he spotted something seeping through the front of Auron's coat where his left arm rested.

"Something happen?"

Without so much as a word to the group of staring teenagers, the man quickly retreated down the hall to his room. The sound of the door closing could be heard from the front room, and Tidus collapsed on the couch with a sigh.

Tidus shrugged, assuming that it had only been his imagination. "Holy crap," he muttered, throwing an arm over his eyes. "Stupid bastard nearly gave me a fucking heart attack!"

Teyron lauged, poking Tidus in the head with the remote. "Relax already," he snickered. "You saw him. He's fine, okay? It's not like he came in with his hand torn off or anything. Get a grip."

Tidus scowled, staring at the ceiling. Clearly, Teyron was taking things the wrong way. He thought Tidus actually cared. Well, maybe he did. A little. After all, Auron didn't exactly have to stay with him after his mother died. He could have just dumped Tidus at some orphanage and took off to live his own life. But he had stayed and treated Tidus better than Jecht had. And Tidus supposed that that was why he gave a damn.

He rolled off the couch and headed into the kitchen, ignoring Arlan and Teyron's nasty remarks. Tidus wandered into the laundry room by the back door dispose of his soda can, only to slip and fall on something wet. Szera was at his side in an instant, pulling him to his feet.

"You okay?" she said, patting him on the back.

He nodded, chucking the can into the trash. "Yeah." Tidus rubbed the back of his head. "What the hell did I slip on anyway? Did one of you guys spill something and 'forget' to clean it up?" he hollered at Arlan and Teyron.

Szera remained silent, her green eyes wide and focused on the tile floor. "Look," she said, turning Tidus' head towards the spot on the floor.

"Oh, God..." Tidus stared wide-eyed at the substance that had caused him to slip. A pool of red and black sat on the floor, mingling together and glinting in the light overhead. And something told Tidus that it wasn't just fiends' blood staring up at him. "Oh, God!" Tidus took off down the hall, ignoring his friends' shouts. He jumped down the stairs and shoved open Auron's door without so much as a knock. Heart pounding in his chest, Tidus stared into the room, only to find it empty. Then it hit him.

The bathroom.

Without even announcing his presence, Tidus crossed to the bathroom door of the room, crouching down to see if there was any light coming from the crack between the door and the floor. Crushing his belief, the light was off. Tidus scowled, reaching up to try the doorknob: Locked. His guardian was in there, all right. The teen turned, spotting Auron's coat, sword, and cowl in the corner. He crossed the room in three quick strides, inspecting every inch of the objects for blood. Of course, the blade was coated with the stuff. But that had probably been from sawing through the bodies of fiends. Not a spot was found on the cowl, and finding bloodstains on the coat proved to be harder than expected, seeing how the coat itself was a blood red color.

Tidus sighed and headed back into the hallway. He didn't need to find blood on the coat to know that Auron was injured. He ran to his bedroom and threw open his desk drawer, pulling out several screwdrivers. He poked his head out of his door, motioning for Szera, who already had the bathroom first aid kit in hand, to follow him. The two teens crept quietly down the hall, stopping only outside the bathroom door in Auron's room.

"Whatever happens, don't scream," Tidus whispered.

Szera nodded and rolled her eyes. "I'm a medical student, Tidus," she reminded him. "I've dealt with things worse than blood."

Tidus smirked and set to work on the doorknob. He quickly removed the two screws and pulled the doorknob off, failing to open the door in time to catch the other end of it that crashed to the floor with a metallic clank. The two flinched, fearing that they would be discovered and lectured about "respecting other people's privacy." After a few minutes of waiting, the two gently pushed open the door and crawled in. Their eyes widened in shock. Similar to the scene at the back door, there was blood on the floor, and even on the walls. But Auron had vanished.

Szera darted into the bathroom, and turned, pointing Tidus to the open window. "The window!" she hissed. "He went out the window!"

The teens ran out of the room and down the hall, stopping only by the front door. Tidus' heart pounded as he stared out the window, hoping that his guardian had gone to some extreme lengths to pull some elaborate prank on him and his friends. But it was unlikely. "Guys, go out the back door," he said, trying to sound calm.

"Why?" Arlan raised an eyebrow, refusing to look away from the gruesome movie that played on the sphere. "What the hell's going on?"

Szera walked up to him and slapped him across the face. "Don't ask questions, just do it, dumbass!"

Not wanting to get smacked, Teyron jumped off the couch and dragged Arlan out the back door as Tidus and Szera went out the front. Tidus' eyes scanned the right side of the docks outside the house while Szera's searched the left. Still no sign of Auron. Tidus tapped his friend on the shoulder, motioning for her to follow. The two crept up the stairs by the front door that led to the top of the roof. Even in the dark, they had enough light to see by. Light from the city and from the half moon that was being shielded by the silver clouds.

"Oh, shit," Tidus muttered when he caught sight of his guardian. The man was slumped silently against the mast of the house boat, his hand twitching slightly. Tidus slid across the wood, ignoring the fact that his knees would be bleeding later. "Szera, go get the others," he instructed.

Szera darted down the stairs to find Teyron and Arlan, leaving Tidus alone.

"Dammit," he hissed, clenching his fists. "You fucking idiot!"

The teenager had the sudden urge to strangle his guardian, but he knew that that wouldn't do any good. It would simply complicate things. Tidus sighed and rolled onto his stomach, smacking the wooden boards with a fist. It felt strange being the one scared half to death. Maybe, just maybe, this was how it had been when Auron had discovered that Tidus had followed him on the Nidhog hunt. A mass of guilt began weighing down on the teen.

Why the hell am I such an idiot? he thought, bitterly cursing himself for always causing trouble. Tidus continued to pound the boards with a fist until his silent guardian moved. The blond gasped when Auron's hand closed on his wrist, keeping his hand from smacking the boards again.

"That's annoying," the man mutterd.

Tidus sat up, his eyes firmly set on Auron's bloodied hand. "You're stupid, old man," he hissed, fighting the urge to sock his guardian in the jaw. "You screwed up everything, you know?"

His remark was met with the man's trademark, "Hmph." The sound of indifference. Or annoyance. Take your pick. "You always had a habit of butting in," he added.

The sound of footsteps met Tidus' ears as his friends came running up the stairs. "Oh, shit!" Arlan gasped, leaning over the wooden railing. "I think I'm gonna vomit."

"What's wrong?" Szera mocked, poking him in the back. "Scared of a little blood, are we, Arlan? Funny how this comes from the guy who wanted to watch a slasher flick." The redhead's smirk faded as she glanced at the bloody hand print on Tidus' wrist. "Get up," she told him.

Tidus did as he was told and pulled himself to his feet. "Now what?" he said. "We're short one." His blue eyes turned to Arlan who was now heaving into the water. "One idiot."

Szera remained silent, motioning for Tidus to sit down. He did so, and watched mutely as Szera and Teyron lowered his guardian to the deck. Tidus felt tears prick his eyes and immediately saw his mother in Auron's place. He turned away and clamped his eyes shut, praying to whatever god there was that he wouldn't be forced to live through the horrid flames of Hell again. He took a chance, his eyes darting to the scene, only to spot blood seeping from a wound in his guardian's chest.

Tidus jumped up, his head clasped in his hands. "I can't do this..." he said shakily. "I just can't..."

Teyron stood, placing a hand on Tidus' shoulder. "What are you talking about?"

"I can't!" Tidus shouted, leaping down the stairs. He turned and ran down the docks, ignoring his friends' frantic cries. As he ran, he noticed that several lights in the neighboring houses flickered on, some of the residents even coming outside to see what all the noise was about. But Tidus ignored them all, even the old lady that tried to question him about the shouting. He ran past all of them, wanting nothing more than to escape the horrid scene of death.

I don't want this! Why does everyone keep dying? Why? Why?

When he finally ran out of breath, he collapsed on the dock, heart pounding wildly in his chest, screaming to be free. He lay there for several minutes, the cold night air chilling him to the bone. But he didn't care. He wasn't about to turn around and go back to watch Auron die. He couldn't. He wouldn't. The sound of approaching footsteps soon reached his ears. Tidus sat upright and turned to see the old lady from before hobbling towards him.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, her wrinkled face watching him with worry.

Tidus nodded, reminding himself of the words she had once spoken to him: "When a lovebird dies, the one left gives up living so it can join it's mate."

"Everything's wrong," he muttered, clutching his head in his hands. "It's all so wrong!"

Her frail little hand came to rest upon his shoulder, squeezing gently. "Life is hard, dear," she said soothingly. "We all have troubles, we all have hardships. But we can always overcome them. Truly, things seem hopeless at first. But believe you me, nothing is nearly as bad as it seems. You learn to cope with the problems, and, eventually forget about them for a time."

He nodded and got to his feet, thanking her. Not at all eager to return home, Tidus offered to walk the woman home, to which she happily accepted. Her house was only three doors down from his own, but at least keeping her company would delay the troubles that awaited him at home. When they arrived at her house, the kindly old woman offered to make him a cup of coffee. As tempting as it was, Tidus declined, knowing that he should get back home.

The teen trudged silently down the docks, half expecting Szera to run to him in tears. But she never came. He glanced towards the roof, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw no one there. Tidus approached the door, silently knocking with his gloved hand. The door creaked open, and Tidus walked inside, quietly closing the door behind him. Shockingly, his friends were still there, planted firmly on the couch in front of the sphere.

"Hey, he's back," Teyron said as Tidus walked in. "Welcome home."

Tidus raised a hand, giving his friend a brief wave. "Where's Szera?" he asked, noting that she wasn't with the guys.

Arlan sighed, downing a glass of water. "Downstairs," he said simply. "She's pretty pissed off at you. Watch your back."

He nodded, kicking off his boots before walked glumly down the hall in sock feet. Tidus stopped in his tracks when he reached the stairs. His stomach sank and guilt filled him to the breaking point. He sighed, not at all eager to get his ass handed to him by Szera. For all he knew, she just might use Auron's sword to hack him to bits. Trying not to think too much about it, Tidus descended the stairs and approached the door, knocking lightly.

A rustling sound came from inside, and the door abruptly opened to reveal a teary-eyed Szera. Tidus opened his mouth to apologize, but Szera's open-handed slap beat him to it. Eyes cast to the floor, Tidus silently took the blow, not at all interested in angering his friend further.

"You're heartless," she hissed, smacking him again. "I can't believe you'd run away like that! After everything he's done for you, you up and run when things get bad! I can't believe you!

Tidus hung his head. "I know. I'm sorry."

Szera slapped him a third time for good measure, only to embrace him afterward. "You're stupid," she whispered as tears fell from her eyes. "Stupid."

"I know," he said.

"You'd better apologize when he wakes up," she demanded, closing the door behind them. "And if you don't, I'll beat you within an inch of you fucking life."

Tidus nodded. "I will."

Before you review, I want you all to know this: THIS IS NOT SHOUNENAI, YAOI, OR ANYTHING ELSE. It's not even IMPLIED. I don't LIKE things like that, and I don't write them, either. It's basically the same thing that would happen if your best friend were dying on the street. It's regret (for not being able to stop the horrible things from happening to them), sorrow, and fear (for their life). That's all. So don't start saying things like "OMG that's so kute! They're so hot together!" Just don't do it, okay? I'm not screaming at you guys. I'm asking nicely and trying to make my point. Thank you for reading.