Auron sighed, waking up on a rocky shore with no sign of Tidus or Rikku anywhere. He looked around and tried to get his bearings. The last time he went through a portal, it was to the Spira of the past, where he worked as hard as he could to fulfill his promise to Jecht and look after his son. This place, however, was entirely foreign, a whole other world.

"Oh, you're awake!" Said a voice behind him. It was soft and high and carried a cute feminine charm to it. Auron turned around to see a short girl who looked to be in her early twenties carrying what looked like a flask of some sort and a rag. "Do you feel alright? Nothing hurts?"

"I'm fine." He replied, staring out over the blue ocean. Truthfully, Auron felt a bit sore and had quite a headache. "A blond boy and an Al Bhed girl," He said.

"Huh? Al Bhed?" The girl put a finger to her petite chin and tilted her head, visibly confused.

"Have you seen them?"

"I don't know about this Al Bhed thing, but I haven't seen any blond boys around here." The girl stepped closer to Auron, holding out the flask. "Drink some of this. It'll help."

Auron accepted her offer and took a swig of the drink. It was sweet and cold, a bit fizzy, and like the girl said, it immediately started to replenish his energy. After one more drag, he handed the flask back to the girl and looked her over. She had medium length pinkish hair that fell over her shoulders, curling towards her face at the ends. Her bangs were swept to the side, cascading over neatly groomed eyebrows that sat atop a pair of mossy green eyes. Her face was round but not fat, and her well-proportioned nose sat well in the center of her face. She was pretty, more cute than beautiful, and had a soft sort of aura around her. She reminded Auron of Yuna three years ago, and smiled a bit when he remembered how much the ex-summoner had changed.

"What's so funny?" The girl asked, crossing her arms and relaxing her posture a bit. Auron shook his head and turned back toward the ocean, deciding that this girl may be able to help him out in this foreign new world. The girl walked forward and stood beside him, staring out at the ocean as well and watched the fading sunlight sparkle over the water, dying the sea foam a creamy orange.

"Name?" Auron said, his eyes still locked toward the horizon. The girl looked at him, confused by the word that suddenly and unexpectedly came out of his mouth.

"Huh?"

"Your name. What is it?"

"Oh, right. Sofya. Can I ask yours?"

"Auron." He said, turning around. He walked to the road a couple feet from the shore. The road and Sofya were both signs of civilization, so Auron figured he couldn't be that far from a town or village of some sort. Sofya just stood at the shore, watching Auron's back shrink. "Are you coming?" He asked, stopping and looking back.

"Um, yes!" The pink haired girl jogged to catch up with Auron, and they started their walk to town. "My home is this way. If you're lost, I can tell you how to get back home. Where are you from?"

"It doesn't matter. I'm too far from home to go back now. I have something to do here."

"I see. What about that boy and the… what was it? Al Bhed? Are you going to look for them?" Sofya looked up at Auron, who wore a neutral, almost cold expression.

"Yes. I made a promise to a friend." Auron briefly wondered whether that promise still held after everything that happened, and decided that it wouldn't have mattered either way. He was annoying sometimes, but the blond blitzer did mean something to Auron. He didn't want to see Rikku getting hurt either. Sofya spoke up again, her soft, warm voice cutting through the misty seaside air. A light drizzle had started to fall along with the temperature, and Auron could see that the young woman was cold.

"Promises are important." She said, hugging herself as a way to shield herself from the cold. "What about the Al Bhed? Is it part of the promise?"

Auron gave a small snort of laughter at Rikku being called an 'it'. "No, she isn't."

Sofya blushed, realizing her mistake, and laughed to cover her embarrassment, giving a short 'I see'. The conversation came to a dull silence as the two's feet crunched over the brown, gravelly road. Unable to bear Sofya's frequent shivers and sniffles as the cold air moved in with the moon, Auron took off his red haori and gave it to her. Sofya took it hesitantly, pondering whether or not it was okay to take the coat from me. After a second, she decided to slip it on. While it was clearly too big for the petite girl and looked more like an oversized robe, the haori suited her. Auron even thought she looked like a summoner it.

"Thank you." Sofya said. Auron nodded and continued on, finally noticing some buildings and a few people come into view. "Well, we're here. Welcome to Rumald. It's a small town, but the people are nice and friendly. I'm sure we can find more information about your friends if we ask around. Maybe they came through here."

Auron sighed. He didn't like people, and now he'd have to talk to slews of random townsfolk. What a bother. Auron looked around, not knowing the first thing about this place or who to ask. Sofya seemed to notice this, and smiled up at him.

"I'll come with you. We should go to the Inn first. Maybe they got a room there." Sofya started walking, and Auron decided to follow her. It looks like he'd have to stick with this girl if he wanted any hope of navigating this world.

"Suit yourself," He said.

"You know how the inns are run by that big family, the Imalas?" Sofya asked, turning her head. Auron decided to pretend to know what she was talking about, figuring that telling the girl about Spira would be pointless and bothersome.

"Sure." He said.

"Well, they made this awesome new technology that lets you communicate with anyone with another of the same device from anywhere in the world! Isn't that amazing?"

"A telephone?" Auron had remembered the cell phones the people of Zanarkand always played around on. He had decided once to get one, but found it too complicated and just gave it to Tidus as a gift for his tenth birthday.

"You've heard of it? They're only in the inns now, but pretty soon they'll start distributing them to people everywhere. I bet they'll be expensive." Sofya expressed her interest as she stopped before a large wooden building. The sign above the entranceway read 'Imala Inn & Pub- Rumald'. Auron walked inside, suddenly assaulted by the smell of cheap bar food and liquor. A man, about thirty years old, welcomed him and Sofya in.

"Well, good evening folks. What can I do for y'all?" He asked, his voice twangy and deep.

"Hi, Dalin. This guy's looking for his friends. They might have gotten a room here. Their names are… uh…" Sofya looked up at Auron. He remembered that he never told her their names or gave a good description of them, and spoke over the loud music that had started up from the live band near the back of the room. Auron hated places like these, and usually avoided the ones back in Zanarkand.

"Tidus and Rikku. They're both blond, the boy has spiky hair and you can remember the girl from the spirals in her eyes."

"Well, I think I woulda remembered folks like that if they came in here, buddy. Sorry." Dalin shrugged and Auron sighed, disappointed that those two idiots hadn't been here. Auron knew he should have held on to the boy when they jumped through. "Wait, did you say swirly eyes? Why my daughter said she got a girl just like that in the inn down in Faldrin. Said she was with her boyfriend or somethin'."

"Faldrin? That's not that far from here! See, Auron, I told you we'd find them." Sofya flashed a big smile and bowed to Dalin, thanking him.

"How do I get there?" Auron asked. He wanted to be sure of how far the journey was so he could start preparations. Dalin took out what looked like a world map from the brown satchel that hung from his shoulder.

"Well, we're here. Faldrin's straight across, on the other side of the island here." Dalin moved his finger from one side of a small island on the map, which was Rumald, to the other side, Faldrin. It seemed easy enough. "Should take you about a day or two to get there by foot. I'd lend you a Chocobo, but I haven't got any in the stables right now."

"It's fine. Thank you." Auron said. He nodded to Dalin and left the Inn, glad to hear the annoying band fade out as he walked away from the pub. Auron did need a place to stay for the nigh, but anywhere was better than that god awful drunk's nest. He heard small footsteps clicking behind him, and Auron turned around to see Sofya running to catch up.

"Wai… Wait up!" She called. Finally catching up, she paused to catch her breath before speaking again, Auron's haori drooping over her left shoulder. "Leaving like that is bad manners, you know."

"You'll learn to follow the leader eventually," Auron joked. He started walking again, Sofya by his side this time. After a few turns, He found an items shop and bought a few potions and ethers, standard stuff for a day's journey. Sofya luckily knew the woman who ran the shop and got a good discount on it, and bought a few accessories of her own that they had on display. After they finished shopping, Sofya took Auron to her home, a small wooden cottage that stood out from the other, more modern homes he had seen around the town.

"You live alone?" Auron asked as they walked through the front door. Sofya frowned for an instant, her face briefly clouding over before returning to the cheerful expression she'd had this whole time.

"I used to live with my friend Talya before she…" Her voice trailed off. "Anyway, yes. I live alone."

Her face seemed to cloud over again, as if a dark memory had been recalled after a long time. Auron felt a bit guilty for asking his question and sighed, looking around the small house. Sofya took off the red haori and handed it back to Auron, and then gave a quiet thank you as she walked to the set of stairs nearby.

"You can sleep on the couch in the living area. I hope you don't mind, but I'm a bit tired, so I'm gonna go to bed a bit early." She said, that uncharacteristic look of depression still on her face.

Auron nodded and watched her walk up the stairs, then made his way to the cheap looking couch and laid down. Though it was a bit lumpy and uncomfortable, Auron was used to sleeping in worse places, and he fell asleep rather quickly, deciding to think about finding Tidus and Rikku and killing Yurlungur tomorrow.

I'm not sure if I did Auron's character well or not, but I tried to write him as best I could. I'm probably not gonna pair Auron up with Sofya or anything (Unless you guys want me to?) , just have kind of a protector/protectee kind of father/daughter relationship. This is still a Tikku fic, so the romance is gonna focus on them. As always, please review/fav/follow and thank you for reading!