AN: Why you guys no review?! This maketh me sad!

Any ways, 'nuff of that. I finished FFX-2 remastered yesterday! Got perfect ending, shed a tear. Also, how awesome is it that Auron and Jecht advised YRP during their fight with Vegnagun?! I squealed it was so awesome. Wrote down all their lines so I can use it in this fic. So, without further a do!

Chapter 4

"Rikku, is everything alright?" Yuna's bi-coloured eyes scanned her cousins face. "You've been acting so strange for days now, ever since Yoonapalooza. You seem so...distracted. And now you want to run off to Macalania Woods alone?"

"I'm fine, Yunie. You don't have to worry about me!" Rikku gave her a little hop and a thumbs up. It was true that she was struggling with the idea of telling Yuna that Auron had returned from the Farplane, but she did not want to cross katanas with someone who pretty much laughed in the face of Death. And much as she missed her blonde Zanarkadian brother, she also saw how it destroyed Yuna when he left her. She would never put her cousin through that again. Nope, better to keep her mouth well zipped. Auron was her little secret and she had to admit, she kind of liked it that way.

"Yuna's right, Rikku. You're hiding something."

"Aww come on Doctor P. Stop analysing me." She said, sticking out her tongue. Paine just huffed and shrugged her shoulders. Yuna rolled her eyes, that was pretty much a typical Paine reaction. But still, Rikku only acted like this when she was hiding something big, like when the Al Bhed were kidnapping the summoners during her pilgrimage or like when she dated Gippal behind her father's back a few months ago.

"You're going to meet someone aren't you. You're going to meet a guy! I know you, Rikku." Either Yuna was now telepathic, or Rikku had no control over her own facial reactions as she found herself blushing once again and scrambling to make excuses.

"No Yunie! It's just... I'm going to...you know, it needs fixing, the CommSphere..."

Paine and Yuna looked at each other. They could force Rikku to tell them the truth, but they pretty much guessed she was off to meet a guy. So they both agreed without saying a word, that perhaps it might be better, and more entertaining, to let her go and interrogate her when she returned.

"Well Rikku" her cousin compromised, "As long as you call us the minute you get into trouble, we'll leave you alone."

Rikku signed with relief.

"But! Only on one condition..." Yuna smirked.

"Oh no..."

"You HAVE to wear something warmer! It's blowing a freaking blizzard down there, you can't run around in just a bikini!"

Rikku regarded her skimpy outfit from top to toe. "But I'm wearing a scarf!" She giggled and ran off with her bags to the teleporter.

Yuna and Paine watched her run off like concerned parents. That girl would never learn.

Rikku looked around the woods and was hit by a pang of nostalgia. The atmosphere in the woods was no longer hot, stuffy and thick with life as it had been when she passed through on Yuna's pilgrimage. Back then she had loved the place, it gave her a living, leafy roof over her head protecting her from the devastating lightning of the Thunder Planes. Now, it was just cold and empty. Patches of the outside world were visible through the scant canopy and little flakes of snow were being lifted and blustered about by a relentless draft of icy air. Macalania Woods had become a withered graveyard in less than two years.

She felt her skin prickle in the cold. It was no more than a half hour walk to the inn, but Rikku was glad that she had a heavy Ronso poncho on. Pulling the woollen garment tight around her to stop the draft and calm her nerves, she choose her direction and set off.

Auron leaned against the open window frame in his room at the inn with his eyes closed savouring the feeling of the cold wind on his face and arms. He had missed this, the myriad of sensations that the weather blessed his skin with. On the Farplane he had missed the simple taste of rain water, the pain in his muscles after a long battle and despite his stoic nature, he had missed the familiar sound of chatting around the campfire, even if he didn't partake in the conversation. Soon, he would be in the company of the most energetic person with the biggest zeal for life he had ever had the luck to meet in his life, and death. The ageing man turned to face himself again in the mirror. He was not nervous, but intrigued as to how the next twenty-four hours might pan out. He was a ghost enjoying feeling the weather again and she might inject him with life.

At the sound of a huge engine in the sky he turned to the window in time to see the massive Celsius fly over the blizzard. Rikku must have landed, he thought to himself. And without a second thought he grabbed his heavy red coat and marched out into the snow.

"Ohhhh... I know I take a left here somewhere..."said Rikku whilst she dusted off a layer of frost from one of the strange crystal-like flowers that blossomed all year round in Macalania. She was looking the one that reminded her of Wakka's head, she knew when she saw that one she had to take a left out of the trees and the travel agency would be straight up ahead. The problem was, as she got closer to her destination the trees were thinning and the snow was coming in thicker and, if she was honest, her Al Bhed sense of direction was letting her down.

"Urgh, this is worse than a sand storm!" She moaned to herself as she strained her eyes through the tides of snow. The trees were gone but she couldn't tell when she left the woods, or if she had just stumbled into a meadow in the middle.

She brought her hands to her forehead, protecting her face from her whipping hair and stinging ice. Visibility was zero and she caught herself as her foot clipped the edge of a massive precipice. She hauled herself back just in time to stop herself falling off the edge. Well, at least I know I'm near O'aka's inn- she told herself taking a few breaths to calm her beating heart that was working hard after her near death experience. But looking around she just couldn't place herself along the edge of the sunken lake. For all she knew she could be on the wrong side with no cover or shelter during this maelstrom of a storm. Her fingers and knees were making it painfully obvious that they were not impressed with her loss of direction as they began seizing up with every step in the minus temperatures. Pulling the Ronso wool tighter around her head she cursed herself for thinking that a poncho would be enough to stave off the cold and eventually she gave into her stiffened body and plopped her bottom down on the snow. Maybe the storm would break soon, maybe someone as stupid as her would be out in the storm and catch sight of her radiant yellow and green poncho. Maybe that person would be the rigid, stubborn, pig headed man who brought her out here in the first place, she grumbled to herself through her chattering teeth.

And it was. She had no idea how long she had been frozen on the spot, but seeing Auron appear through the storm like a blood spatter on snow her limbs heated and powered by relief she tried to run to him. Her legs though, still moody for having had nothing to protect them, seized up again and she tumbled over down into a snow drift. The last thing she heard was her name being called just before she succumbed to the bite of the snow.

AN: next chapter will be pure Aurikku. Can't wait to finish work tomorrow to get started on it!