AN: Yeeeey here it is! Chapter 6! A lengthy one. I just had too much fun writing this one to stop.
Asty: Angra Mainyu is an ugly ugly sand beast from hell that I HATE MORE THAN TROMELL GUADO. And I really hate Tromell Guado for being a twat. I only beat him/her/it with two level 50+ dark knights and Rikku as a super speedy master Alchemist. Painful amount of prep. But yey! Here's to more melodramatic similies and metaphors in t his chapter. Hope you like it:) Oh, and did I tell you you're awesome? 3
But a note to my loyal readership, please please please let me know what you think! Don't sit in silence! Review me! Do you love it? Do you hate it? Is the story moving too slowly? Should I bring in more characters? Should Auron and Rikku just strip and get it over with?! (yeeeaaahhh!) I keep asking my cat Truffle what he thinks but all he says is "...meow". What does that even mean?! Do you like it Truffle?! Do you?! I promise each and every one of you a hundred happy moogles dancing with flowers if you do review! A HUNDRED.
Chapter 6
O'aka, it seemed, had already anticipated the need for food from the two travellers and bustled into Auron's room almost as soon as Auron had put the sphere down. Either that, or he was incredibly bored with his inn sheltering only two guests from the blizzard. Never the less he arrived with a tray of warm bread, various regional cheeses and spiced vegetables for two, the rich aroma making Rikku's belly cry out even louder. Once O'aka had dropped these on the table he forbid them to begin, threatening to unleash a blob of angry flans on them if they dared to go near the food until he had returned with something for them to drink. Rikku stamped her feet and beat the table with her knife and fork in mock protest. The atmosphere was jovial as Rikku and O'aka's conversation bounced easily off each other and Rikku began to relax and forget about Auron's overbearing stuffiness. However she was harshly reminded of it as soon as O'aka left the room taking all the conversation and lightness with him.
Auron hadn't moved from his leaning spot against the wall since he set foot in the room and was staring at the blanket that Rikku had thrown on his floor. Rikku, unable to stand the silence that hung between them, began to finger one of the loaves of bread on the table.
"Show some restraint Rikku, and respect for your host" He glared at her from across the room. Feeling like she'd just had her hand slapped away, she hung her head and followed the grain of the wood on the table with her eyes, trying to stop her lip from wobbling. Auron saw he had upset her and sighed as he stooped to pick up the blanket she had dropped on the floor. Forgive me Rikku, I never did know how to talk to people. He stared at it in his hand for a moment and slowly walked towards her. Before taking a seat opposite her he discreetly draped the blanket around her shoulders, so quietly she barely even noticed.
O'aka knocked the door before entering and Rikku let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding since Auron had wrapped the blanket around her.
"Fighting with each other already, eh?" O'aka joked, seeing the awkward pair avoid the other's eyes across the table.
"Ha, no way O'aka, we were nearly petrified from starvation waiting for you to come back! Lets eat!" Rikku tried to ease the tension.
O'aka dropped some crockery, a pot of steaming tea, and to everyones surprise, he hung a cauldron of mulled wine over the fire, mentioning something about it being the perfect thing to ease stiff muscles in this frigid part of the country. Rikku giggled as he winked at her and nodded his head over at Auron. He opened a small cupboard near the bed and withdrew three cheap looking earthen mugs with Macalanian symbols printed on them, merchandise for tourists that hadn't sold since the temple sunk. Catching a glare from Auron that could send a behemoth running, O'aka hastily put back the third goblet and let himself out of the room mumbling something about leaving some wine for him.
Like mist descending on a valley the atmosphere turned heavy and uncomfortable. Auron began eating and Rikku followed his lead.
"Auron," Said Rikku, breaking the silence, "did no one ever tell you it's rude to wear sunglasses inside?"
He cocked an eyebrow at her, "No, I don't believe anyone was ever brave enough to, until now." He chuckled to himself and slowly took them off, deliberately folding them on the table.
"Better?"
"Uh huh."
She laughed at herself internally, remembering how much she had wanted to say that to him when they were alone outside the far plane two years ago. The pained look on his face then had stopped her, and she had guessed that perhaps Auron was carrying something heavy inside him, a weighty secret. Somehow, now that she understood that he was unsent, she felt more comfortable. He had stayed on this plane to honour the wishes of his two best friends. That in itself was remarkable, and suddenly she felt privileged to be sitting opposite him.
"You seem amused." He growled at her. The truth was Auron didn't like seeing Rikku on her best behaviour like this. It seemed strange and very unlike her. He hated himself for his earlier snipe and wondered if that was why she was being quiet. She caught him looking over at the mulled wine and stood up to get some.
"Yeah Auron, I don't know if you realise it but your scariness is actually really funny."
"...My 'scariness'?"
"Yeah!" She laughed, spilling a little wine over the side of her mug. Auron's 'scariness' was one of the favourite topics her and her fellow female guardians had loved gossiping about on pilgrimage. "I'm pretty sure that behind your big sword and you're big angry attitude lives a little softie that just wants to be loved!" She winked and stuck her tongue out at him.
He snorted at her and held out his mug, unable to look in her eyes but smiling none the less.
"And how would the Lady Rikku know that?"
"Well, Sir Auron," She retorted, hand on hip, "The Lady Rikku might look like a little girl, but this little girl," she said, pointing to her chest, "can take apart even the biggest machina, and people are just like machina, 'cept made from different stuff"
He turned his head to look at her, a stunning young woman telling him worldly truths about himself with her hands on her hips, the lines of her body illuminated by the blazing fire behind her, and he smirked.
"This Lady Rikku doesn't look like a little girl to me" he growled, purposefully. Stop yourself right there, old man.
Rikku's face heated with surprise and she quickly turned to fill his mug from the cauldron. She prayed to Home he hadn't seen her blush. They finished their meal together in silence stealing awkward glances at each other when the other wasn't looking, his earlier words and their subtle undertone hanging plainly between them. Rikku studied Auron as he sat motionless, plate pushed away, staring at his hands clasped on the table in front of him. He seemed to have retreated back into himself again, his back straight, shoulders relaxed, head low. She wanted to reach over the table, grab his face and beg him to talk to her like that again. He, on the other hand, was repeatedly beating himself for allowing the slip that had surely convinced Rikku he was some sort of pervert back from the dead to prey on her. If he didn't rein it in soon he would have to cut ties with her and go on alone.
His eyebrows knitted together at the thought off that. Rikku watched as his face creased into itself and his hands clenched into fists. It occurred to her that her shameless flirting with him had started this internal debate he was suffering. He was probably fighting the urge to tell her to leave after finding her suggestive words immature. Perhaps he thought he could find out whatever she knew without her help. Being around him was exhausting, she thought to herself, she never knew what the trigger was that set him off. Eventually they would erupt at each other as they had in the past and he would send her away, she thought sadly. Don't send me away, she pleaded at him with her eyes. But he wasn't looking at her so she got up and walked past him to the door.
He gave her a side long glance over his shoulder and said her name, the tone blurring between question and command.
"I'll be back Auron, I'll just get Vegnagun's spheres." She said quietly, not noticing his face relax and his fists unclench. Looking at him sat there, alone, her diaphragm knotted. This man had always lived his life for others, he had even forsaken his eternal rest for the protection of Spira. The door clicked shut and she stood in the hallway, resting her hand and forehead on the cool wood of the door. Auron deserves to experience life for himself, she told herself. And she knew since the moment he had inspected her eyes on the Moonflow two years ago, that she wanted to be the one to show him what life could be like.
Auron paced his room while he waited for her to return. Things were beginning to get too heated between them, and he could feel the tension was reaching ridiculous levels. Ridiculous enough for O'aka to give him a look that said he knew exactly what Auron thought about Rikku when he had arrived at the inn, her unconscious body thrown over his shoulder. He couldn't help it, she had passed out in the snow, how exactly was he supposed to have brought her back to the inn? It was the length of time he had spent in her room, he knew, had caused O'aka to make those comments when he had returned to bribe him into silence. And he had spent too much time in her room, but it had been so long since he had been in anyones company. Had she noticed how he had placed the bags for her? Or how he had started her a fire to warm the room? It had been the surprise of finding her barely clad in her usual garments that had caused him to finally leave the room after he removed her poncho. He left discreetly, but not without allowing himself a lengthy gaze over her body before he shut the door.
Thinking back on that final image, he wasn't sure if he was so ready to cut ties with Rikku after all.
It seemed that no amount of training for being a warrior monk would be enough for him to deal with his feelings toward this woman.
"Auron, can I come in?" Said Rikku as she knocked softly on his door.
"Of course"
Maybe it was the fire, or possible even the mulled wine, but she felt a distinct heat as she came back into his room. It was the sort of warmth you felt when sitting too close to someone, it gave the satisfaction one feels when breathing in the familiar scent from a lovers neck. Auron, noticing it too, unbuckled the broad belt around his waist and shed his red woollen coat. Rikku's cheeks flushed as she watched him unstrap the grey collar from his neck. Hoping to calm her nerves from just being alone in the room with him she put the spheres on the table and reached for another mug of mulled wine. Auron raised an eyebrow at her.
"It's uhhh...great for warming up after being out in that blizzard..." She said, innocently braiding her fringe and hoping Auron wasn't judging her too harshly.
"Well...let us begin."
They sat together, backs to the fire, sipping the wine as Rikku explained the truths Maechen had revealed about Lenne and Shuyin after the concert in the Thunderplanes. Auron kept his gaze low, listening intently to everything she said. As she continued, remarking on the similarity in looks of Shuyin and the Zanarkadian friend they had both lost after Sin's defeat, she noticed the intensity of his posture. She had always loved watching him like this on pilgrimage. He would sit, leaning on his katana far into the night after their friends had retreated into their tents to sleep. Sometimes she would sit up and try to watch him discreetly, desperate to ask him what it was that he thought about so late into the night and if he ever found time to sleep. But just at the moment she felt brave enough she would always succumb to sleep out in the open, next to the warm fire, waking up the following morning wondering how it was she found herself in her tent.
"It was you..."
Auron turned from the sphere he was watching, ready to tell her to focus on the work at hand.
"You were the one." She said, half to herself, and grinned into her mug. Auron turned back to the sphere and nodded, reading her mind. Back then, Kimahri and Auron had had an unspoken duty they shared during the pilgrimage which was taking turns at putting Rikku to bed. Looking at the bags under her eyes tonight, and the two empty mugs of wine in front of her, he quietly looked forward to the moment he would be able to perform this duty once again.
Shortly he felt her comfortable weight against his arm and her blonde hair fell in front of the sphere. He shifted his arm around her back, brought her legs across his lap and carried her over to his bed.
Looking at her deeply asleep under the bed covers he felt a pang of jealousy. It had been over 12 years since he had known the comfort of a nights sleep. Easing himself soundlessly back into the wooden chair, his back to the embers of the fire, he watched Vegnagun's sphere once again. Unease came over him as he realised once more that the origin of this immense weapon of power was indeed his former home.
He watched Rikku shift in her sleep. Tomorrow they would travel to Bevelle.