81: Falling (Again)

White. Everything was so white. She opened her eyes slowly and blinked a few times; the painful brightness receded slowly, shapes and forms coming together. The song of the pyreflies surrounded her, and a familiar pastel sky took shape.

Hesitantly, she held a hand before her. Solid and human. Very human. And, she noted as she sat up, she was wearing her Gullwings traveling gear; the same outfit she'd donned for her visit to Guadosalam in what felt like a lifetime ago. She wasn't surprised to see she was sitting in a field of multicolored wildflowers, surrounded by waterfalls; it was the Farplane alright. She spun around, searching for Bahamut. And stopped when she saw Auron instead, kneeling at her side.

"You've returned," he said, watching her from behind his dark sunglasses.

She folded her hands into her lap, suddenly nervous. This wasn't the Auron she'd come to know during the course of Braska's Pilgrimage; the man she'd passionately loved and shared all her secrets with. No… this was Tidus and Yuna's Auron; their guide and teacher, distant and reserved. His face was weathered and craggy, and silver peppered his dark hair liberally. She couldn't read him; his expression was hidden behind that enormous cowl he wore.

She picked at the fabric of the bows on her sleeves, almost afraid to look at him. Had it all been a dream? A wild flight of fancy and wish-fulfillment? Well… he was here right beside her in the Farplane, being plainly dead, and she wasn't screaming her head off. That had to mean that something had fundamentally changed within herself, at least. After a few strained moments, she reached for her long scarf and tugged it high over her reddening cheeks. Only when she felt as safely masked as he was did she meet his steady gaze.

C'mon, Rikku. He's dead, and you might not be human. Just do it!

"So, umm… " she said, swallowing around the lump in her throat. Was any of it real? What do you remember? Are you still in love with me? Of course, what pushed itself out of her dry mouth was something entirely different. "… Long time no see?"

"Yes," he sighed, leaning back and settling on the ground next to her. "It's been a very long time." He sounded tired.

She squinted in frustration; that told her just about nothing! Exasperated, she kicked out with her feet, and hit something hard.

"Careful," Auron said sharply, and she looked down. Then she sucked in a deep breath.

"Is that—?"

Auron nodded at her. "Yes. That's you."

Her initial horror faded quickly into fascination. The stone at her feet was large, and pulsed softly with energy all around its runic edges. Carved in relief below the glass casing was a startlingly accurate likeness of her body. She could see every strand of hair in her ponytail, every plait in her braids, every curve of muscle in her back. Her arms were stretched over her head, and surrounding her were white wings and a circular disc full of runes. She ran her hand over the stone, shivering. "So it was real. I really… I mean… I'm Eden, now."

"You are Rikku," Auron said vehemently, with more feeling than he'd shown since she'd woken. He shook his head, some of the tension leaving him as he chuckled. The sound was rich, low, and made her belly do nervous flip-flops. "Of course, only you would turn yourself into an airship," he concluded, his one eye meeting hers with a spark of dry humor.

Carefully, she inched closer to Auron's side. "So… you remember?" she asked, feeling her pulse pounding rapidly against her throat. Which was strange enough, because she wasn't entirely sure she should have still had one in her current body.

He turned his gaze onto the Fayth stone, not meeting her eyes. "Yes," he said. "I remember everything."

"Then why—" she began, but bit her lip and cut herself off. For her, seeing Auron last had been a matter of moments. For him… it'd been years.

Maybe he really didn't love her anymore. Time was a cruel mistress that dulled everything. Carefully, she reached a hand out. His eye shot to her face, but he didn't move. She lowered her fingertip slowly, placing it at the start of the scar on his temple. She traced a light path over his eye, and then his cheek, pushing his cowl down. He didn't flinch, and she could feel his gaze burning into her. "Have you been guarding me this whole time?" she asked.

He shifted slightly, leaning in to her touch. "Hnn," he grunted. "I promised to protect you."

Her palm smoothed against his cheek and then cupped his face, the sudden release from her uncertainty leaving her in a rush of lassitude. "Then why are you being like this?"

Auron held himself still, granite against her soft, probing touch. "It's been… a very long time," he repeated. "I've returned as second-hand goods." He finally turned so she could see his entire face. "While you… have remained untouched by time." Something caught in his voice, and his hand reached up to finger one of her long braids. "I've been used and broken. Old man is right. The living are waiting for you to return to them. To that vibrant life you were destined to have in the real world. Without me." He caught her hand and gently removed it from his lined, leathery face. "You need to go back and forget about-"

She jumped him. As it turned out, she'd inherited Auron's intolerance for monologues, and being somewhat more action-oriented, went straight for his lips.

He went rigid with shock, and then a little bit of panic as she knocked him right over onto her Fayth stone, her mouth sealed against his. He tried to push her away, so she reached up and grabbed the tufts of his silver hair and yanked them back, forcing his head down while her legs worked their way around his waist, straddling him. His mouth parted in shock and she went on the offensive, coaxing him into the kiss with slow, determined sweeps of her tongue until she felt him responding.

It was only when his hands circled to her hips, fingers flexing, and his head raised to chase her lips that she relented, releasing her tight grip on his hair. But not too much, because she immediately settled her weight on his torso, trapping him below her.

"What was that you were saying?" she hummed, crossing her arms over his chest and glaring at him. "You're not second-hand goods. And the only thing you're leaving untouched is me. What's going on, Auron?"

His chest rose and fell, his one eye wide and dark. Then he turned his head away from her. "I am many years dead, Rikku. And you are not."

"Well I'm not exactly normal either, am I?" she protested, pounding the stone beneath them. Despite his mortification, Auron caught her hand on the second try, stopping her from hitting… herself, she guessed. She flipped her palm in his grip, wrapping her fingers around his. "What gives?"

He sighed. "I've lived a lifetime without you, Rikku. I've had time to think. About us. About you. About myself, as well." He caught another one of her braids and let it slip out of his fingers. "You said you knew me better than myself. But do you really?"

"Of course, I—" she started.

"I cared for Jecht's wife," he said abruptly. "Did you know that?"

Her mouth snapped shut, her eyes going wide. There was a creeping, cold sensation in her chest; a sharp stab of jealousy, and then the dull, bleeding ache of betrayal.

Auron grimaced. "I'm sorry. I forget… that you haven't lived in the same space of time as I. Anne was not your replacement. In fact, she was nothing at all like you. We were both hurting from loss, and like recognizes like." His fingers clenched around hers involuntarily. "She never returned my feelings, though. She was as devoted to Jecht as he was to her. A couple so perfect that she withered away and died when I told her the truth: that he'd never return." He sounded bitter. There was a whole story behind his words. A different world – an entirely different universe – that he'd lived in that she wasn't a part of. She'd traveled to the past… and he'd continued on into the future.

"Why are you telling me this?" she managed to say.

"Because I want you to understand," he growled. "My life should have ended long ago, but still I kept going. I've watched you grow up. Shaped you in ways that I never should have, not with the knowledge I held. I clung to the memory of you, and your adolescent self fell in love with me." He gave a frustrated sigh. "And history repeated itself. I've lived a full and long life, and it's time for me to rest. But you… you're just beginning. You have the longest road ahead of you, and you can't spend the rest of your days tied to the curse of my memory." He reached for his cowl to pull it back up. "My story is done; my life is over. Yours is just beginning."

Her hand shot out and caught his, yanking his cowl back down. "You're still blaming yourself after all these years?" she asked him incredulously. "Auron… we all made our own choices. And admittedly," she said, thinking with a flush of embarrassment about how obviously she must have mooned over him when she was fifteen if he'd noticed, "some of them were bad." Then she leaned in, glaring. "But not this one! I don't regret one moment we spent together. Not back then, and not now." She wrinkled her brow. "You know, you called me your suffering once. Rude, by the way! But the feeling isn't mutual. You're the love of my life, and I already promised I'd follow you anywhere." She spread her hands, gesturing at the stone he was sitting on. "Well, here I am! And you're not getting rid of me this time!"

Auron was staring at her like she'd grown a second head. It wasn't a totally ungrounded fear, she figured; she was still new to this whole aeon business.

"You are making a mistake." He said it like it was final, but she could see that something had softened in that tough exterior after her bold declaration.

Well, there was nothing like doubling down. She placed both of her hands on his face and stroked his cheeks, staring at him intently. Then her eyebrows went up. Wait, something's different. Realization dawned. She dragged him in closer, turning his head slightly to the right and then left, inspecting him; he allowed it, bemused. Releasing him, she sat back. "You died when you were twenty-six, right? Everything else, all of this…" she said, waving at his face. "That's all your doing. We're made of pyreflies, Auron. We can look like anything we want to. You're the one who's choosing to look like an ancient bag of walking regret."

He looked surprised, but she pressed her hands against him and kept stroking his face with light, cautious touches, careful not to back him into a corner again. "You big dummy." Her tone softened, growing as light as her constant, gentle touches. "Living all those years thinking it was your fault. That you were to blame for what happened to any of us. Or that you ruined me somehow, and that this wasn't meant to be. I already told you, I made my own choices too. You can't control that, so you just have to live with them. And my choice is that I still love you. Then. Now. Always."

He closed his eye and thumped his head back against her stone. Encouraged, she leaned down and peppered small kisses across the line of his jaw, the curve of his cheek, the tip of his nose, both of his eyelids. Her fingers worked through his hair, massaging his scalp and reveling in the smooth silk of his hair, only slightly coarsened by age.

"Also, your older voice is liquid sex," she said conversationally between her ministrations. "That burr should be illegal. I'm gonna get you to say my name until you wear it out. And then I'll get you to say it backwards." She tickled his neck. "And I like your hair. Very debonair. Not so stiff and formal like when you slicked it back during the Pilgrimage," she added, trailing a finger down his chest plate. "You could stand to lose the cowl, though. It makes you look old."

"You're incorrigible," he finally managed, circling his arms around her. "Nothing I say will convince you to rethink this terrible mistake you're making?"

His gloomy prediction might have had more impact if she wasn't so skilled at picking out the sliver of hope in his gruff voice.

"Not a chance," she said, grinning against him. When she reared back to look at him, he'd changed again. His hair was a little darker; still shot through with silver, especially at his temples, but, like the deep, textured lines on his face, the streaks had faded. He still didn't look as young as he had on Braska's Pilgrimage, and the scar over his right eye remained a constant. Losing Braska, Jecht, herself, and, she thought with a twinge of pain, whomever else he'd met during their years apart had indelibly changed him, chiseling his features into a permanent solemnity. But he no longer looked like a worn-down relic of a brutal, too-long life.

"Rikku… I've missed you, too."

She leaned down to kiss him again, and this time, he met her willingly.

.x.x.x.

"I can't believe you gave Yunie advice instead of me!" she complained as Auron led her through the fields. "It's not like Vegnagun went easy on the rest of us, you know!"

"And I can't believe you kept Lenne close after everything you'd been through!" he snapped, scowling at her. "You're almost as gullible as Wakka." He paused, and then smirked. "Besides. Yuna has better aim."

"Look here, buster—" she started hotly, but her argument tapered off as she noticed where he was leading her. The ground rose steeply beneath her feet, and the massive waterfall tumbling down over the path was sending clouds of mist billowing into the air around them. "… Where are you taking me, anyway?"

Auron sobered. "There's something you need to see." Squeezing her hand, he turned and walked them through the falling water.

The world misted white, blinding her, but she stayed dry, and the pressure that pressed against her body wasn't from falling water. When the light cleared, she was alone in a brightly lit cavern. Crystals reflected soft, dreamy light that came from no discernable source over the entire cave. A thick carpet of wildflowers covered the ground, impossible as they should have been. There was no waterfall; no exits, even. "Auron?" she asked uncertainly, looking around.

"Hello, Rikku."

She froze.

Braska stepped forward, dressed as he had been at Baaj: in tattered rags. His hair, long once again, was bound in the thick braid that ran down his back. It was tied off with one of her bows.

"You're here," she breathed, afraid that if she moved too quickly or made any sudden moves, he'd just… disappear.

"Cunno," he said quietly, his smile as fragile as her cautious movements. "You have questions."

After a moment, Rikku managed to make her legs work and closed in on him.

"Why're you sorry?" she asked, drinking in his presence and shying away from the relief she felt.

He shook his head. "I'm sorry for what I did to you. For turning you into my Fayth. I never intended to make two, you see."

Rikku jerked back, surprised. "I'm a Final… wait, you did me like Jecht?"

Some of that stiff, cautious formality melted out of Braska as he laughed. "No! Although, when you put it so tantalizingly like that…" he trailed off, his blue eyes twinkling with amusement.

"Get your mind out of the gutter!" She socked him in the arm, but it didn't stop his laughter. "But what really happened? How'd you manage to make me into… into… this?" she asked, gesturing at herself.

"That… is somewhat complicated," he murmured, sinking into the flowers. Somehow, Rikku found herself following. "Creating a Final Aeon requires giving another a piece of your soul. It's no simple feat." He leaned against her, his eyes going distant. "Time is strange here. It flows in all directions. You can have a vague sensation of what once was and what will be, if you stay long enough. Most don't."

Rikku watched him carefully. "Not you, though." Fifteen years had passed since Braska's Pilgrimage ended. That meant he'd been here even longer than Auron. "You weren't waiting for me, were you?"

Braska shrugged. "I felt incomplete. Drifting. I only understood why when Auron sought me out and brought me back. He was desperate to save you." He smiled. "And I did have help. Bahamut is fond of you; you and Yuna did him a great service twice over. It's not easy to put the King of all Aeons that far into your debt. And since he'd already granted Yuna her greatest wish, that left only you. You might say the perfect opportunity presented itself when you slipped into our realm."

Rikku bit her lip. "But you're dead. And I don't mean Unsent. You're… well, you're here."

Braska's tiny, knowing smile raised the hairs on the back of her neck.

"You wanted your own all-consuming love story so badly that even your companion, Lenne, felt it. I know you were searching for Auron, but I'm afraid it was I who offered what you sought," he said, leaning against her. "We forged our own connection well before you arrived in Bevelle." His arm lifted, tucking her in by his side. "You made your wish in the Farplane, and I made mine in Baaj. We both strained to reach a love that we were certain we'd never obtain."

Like recognizes like, she heard Auron saying. Suddenly, Rikku was ashamed of the swell of anger and betrayal she'd felt at Auron's confession. Pot, meet the kettle.

"Bahamut allowed our greatest wishes to touch by opening the doors between our wounded hearts, even through time." He smiled wryly. "Perhaps he wanted to deal with two problems at once. Maybe he even thought he was granting his pet summoner a boon. Most aeons do not have a fine grasp of… nuance."

For the briefest moment, she wrestled with the idea that she didn't have free will, not really. It was a train of thought that was immediately amputated by the sheer presence of Auron in her life. "But… you didn't get what you wanted in the end," she pointed out. "You didn't get the girl."

"A perfect love is not something one crafts solely from one's own desires. The feelings born from that would never be honest or real. They would only be hollow, self-serving lies. I believe Yu Yevon discovered that the hard way." He buried his face into her hair. "That was never what I wanted to find, and never what you were created to be. You are still yourself, Rikku. But you are also my soulmate. Nothing more, and nothing less."

Soul-what? "Hang on now! That was Raenn!" Rikku pushed him off, feeling unsettled. Something wasn't right. Where was Auron? Where was she? She looked around, confused. "Why isn't Raenn with you? Isn't the Farplane the place where you can go and get your happy ever afters? You could be with your wife again! Why are you with me?"

"Raenn has already moved on," Braska said, shaking his head. "You know now, don't you? Spira is saturated with pyreflies. They're not just souls – they're life itself, the flesh and blood of this planet. And all life returns, over and over again, to sustain its creator. It was only Yu Yevon who perverted that cycle with Sin for far too long, freezing the souls of the dead into a stale dream from which they couldn't awaken."

"But then… why didn't you move on too, when you got here? To find your second chance with her? It's been fifteen years!"

"There's no guarantee that two souls will ever meet again in life," Braska chided her. "Besides, the nature of love is more expansive than that. Those feelings aren't tied to single persons. Each and every one of us comes to this world as bits and pieces that have been remade, combined anew every time we enter the cycle. This is how life continues in Spira; by constantly recreating itself from our shattered fragments. We break apart in death. And when we come together to be reborn, we create a new soul, a new chance, a new life each time. To remain static, unchanging, eternal… that is the anomaly."

Rikku digested the information slowly. "But then you and Auron… you're both still here."

"Auron," Braska sighed, "was anchored here by his guilt and his duty. Even here, in the Farplane, he couldn't bear to see you die. Now that you've relieved him of that burden, I suspect he will be moving on as well."

She felt the sudden spike of fear; that the hazy, pastel bliss of her return was all just a fleeting dream. "And you too?" Rikku whispered, wondering why she couldn't feel Braska the way Jecht had said he could.

"I won't disappear," Braska said, gathering her into his arms and falling back into the wildflowers. The ground gave way, and they kept on falling, surrounded by the soft, velvet press of flower petals and a riot of color. "I can't, because we succeeded. There's so little left of my soul to give back to the world. Part of me will always stay with Jecht. And the other part will always be with you." She felt him smiling against her. "I wished for an all-consuming love, and I so found it."

His hand raised, and she realized her palm was pressed against his, perfectly synchronized. The flowers closed in on her, pushing against her skin like beating water. "It isn't what you expected, is it? Having a soulmate. It doesn't mean to be with the one you love forever. It means to be two halves of the same whole. To be one person, you and I." He drew her in. "We never met along the way, Rikku. We were in each other all along." He kissed her.

But he didn't; he couldn't have, because there wasn't anyone else there with her. Maybe there never had been.

The pressure faded, and she realized she was still walking; Auron was holding her hand, leading her out from the other side of the waterfall. Her feet slowed to a stop. "Auron," she said slowly.

He turned to look at her. "Yes?"

"Did Braska— was he here? Did you call him to save me?" she asked.

Auron stared at her for a long moment. "I did," he finally said. "But he…"

Dream Eater.

Reading her expression, he pulled her in. "He exercised his Summoner's privilege," he said firmly. "As you pointed out… we all made our own choices. I'm sure he wants you to accept his."

Rikku hugged Auron, and a moment of doubt chased her. She tightened her hold on him and decided she didn't care if the feelings threatening to overwhelm her were her own or Braska's. What does it matter? We both love Auron. "Braska told me you'd be moving on soon. That's not fair, you know."

"You won't be staying here either," Auron chided her. "Tidus has been heckling you to return to the land of the living for some time already, hasn't he?" He was about to continue, when a shout echoed through the valley. Auron's head twisted around, his gentle expression morphing into one of annoyance. "Oh, for the love of Shiva's frozen –" he swore.

"'EEEEY! Rikku!" Jecht – a very, very human Jecht – was thundering up the hill towards them with a huge grin plastered over his face. He was closing in fast, and he grabbed Rikku's hand as he passed them.

"Lookin' good, Auron!" he yelled, yanking her away. "I promise I'll bring her back real soon, so hang tight!"

"Jecht!" Her happy exclamation turned into a scream of surprise as he flung them off of the edge of the path, tumbling down towards the endless flower fields in the valley below.

"Jackass!" she heard Auron's faint call carry over from the hillside.

They hit the ground in an explosion of flowers – surprisingly, it didn't hurt at all. Jecht rolled around laughing, coming to a stop on his back. Rikku picked herself up off the ground, blowing some flower petals from her mouth, and flipped her hair back so she could see. "What was that for!"

"Aww, c'mon. I missed ya!" Jecht said, sitting up and brushing the flowers out of his hair. "An' don't tell me that wasn't fun. Did you see Auron's face?" He snickered. "'Bout time that guy lightened up. Five straight years of Auron's special brand of happy an' you'd do it too. It wasn't easy hangin' out around him while he was actin' like he was some kinda old fart the whole time." He shot her a grateful smile. "Glad you got him to come correct, Blondie."

She leapt over and hugged him tightly. "I didn't know you'd be here," she admitted, sniffling a little.

He hugged her back, then pushed her away, looking uncharacteristically serious. "You guys did it. You made my boy real." The blinding smile returned, but tempered this time with gratitude. "I… ain't got no words, Rikku. I been waitin' to thank you since forever."

"Me too," she said suddenly, feeling very small in his presence. "I mean, thanking you. I just… I treated you like dirt towards the end, and you just kept popping up and helping me anyway, even after you got… well… aeonified. The stuff I did to you… that's not what friends are supposed to do to each other."

"Hah!" Jecht said, rolling back into an easy squat, hands on his knees. "I get it, though. I mean, you were tryin' to stop that bloated alter-ego o' mine from squashin' everythin' for another thousand years. I think you get a pass for that. It all came out right in the end anyhow," he said easily, as if it had always been a foregone conclusion.

"Jecht... you're too good for this world," she told him fondly. Surprisingly, that was what broke his smile.

"Yeah, I guess," he mumbled, picking at the flowers.

"Wait… you're moping now?" she said, scooting closer. "I was just trying to compliment you!"

"Well you ain't wrong." He fell back into the flowers, then wriggled his arms and legs around, making a flower-angel. Pyreflies sang indignantly and drifted away where he'd packed down the wildflowers. "I never was real, so I ain't got no soul. There ain't nothin' to be reborn out there. I'm stuck here."

Rikku quieted. "I mean… don't you have some of Braska's soul in you too now?"

Jecht nodded companionably. "Yeah. Just like you. That's why I can be here at all, see? You feel like Braska too, y'know." He put a hand to his chest.

Rikku copied his movement, and felt the pulsing warmth in her own chest, like their hearts were beating in sync. "Yeah," she said, smiling at him. "You too. You feel… comfortable," she said, and it was true. "Like if I ever needed anything, I know you'd always be there to back me up."

"Same," he grinned. It faltered, though. "But I ain't like Tidus an' you. You got people waitin' for you up there," he said, tilting his head towards the vast expanse of pastel sky above. "People who really care. They want you back, so you got a way out." He sighed, sitting up and clasping his wrists, doing his best to look like he'd made his peace with the eternal flower fields. "Nobody up there loves me enough to bring me back into the real world." He shrugged. "Ah, well. This place ain't so bad either. We got plenty o' flowers, at least. Tidus comes by on the regular, too. Keeps me up to date on stuff." He gave her a sharp look. "You better, too. Don't be a stranger when you leave this place."

Rikku frowned. "What do you mean no one? Tidus is up there, you know."

Jecht shook his head. "Tidus is up there 'cause the rest o' Spira is carryin' him. He can't do it by himself." He looked over her shoulder; Auron was stomping his way back down towards them. "Y'know, I think I'm gonna miss that bastard," he said fondly.

Rikku sat back on her heels, frowning fiercely. "That's not right. You gave up more than most of us. How can you be stuck? They don't even have blitzball down here! That's just wrong!"

Jecht winced. "Way to rub it in, Blondie." Then he shrugged. "We can't all be Al Bhed Princesses," he teased. "Guess I just ain't superstar material in the real world. It's fine, Rikku. I had a good life. I'm okay with this. It's… comfortable, I guess."

"It's not okay!" she said hotly, springing to her feet and pacing. Jecht and Auron were legendary guardians in her time. They'd commanded respect, Auron doubly so when the word had gotten out that he'd come back for another Pilgrimage. But it was true; after the Eternal Calm descended, it was almost as if all of Spira had been caught in a mad rush to forget the pain of the past… and its heroes, as well.

She stopped, and looked at Jecht, doing his best to pretend not to be moping in the flowers. "You're wrong," she said suddenly, and with absolute certainty. "You're not trapped here."

Auron caught up with them. He looked like he was about to open his mouth and verbally eviscerate Jecht for his stunt, but stopped when he heard her. He frowned. "Is this why you've been unbearable lately?" he asked Jecht.

Jecht stood up and crossed his arms defensively, huffing and turning away from them. "Well, 'scuse me," he drawled sarcastically. "Sorry if I got them feels just 'cause everybody's leavin' now."

"Stop being such a drama queen!" Rikku said, stomping her foot. "I already told you! You're not stuck here! There's a whole community of people who love you enough to wish you back to the real world."

Jecht and Auron turned to face her, and she shook her head.

"The world's only ever had one Hypello hero. And I hear their tribes have long memories," she said, grinning at Jecht. Then her smile dropped. "Oh geez. I think you might actually become the literal god of Blitzball if you decide to go back." She clasped her hands together and bowed her head. "I'm so sorry, Spira."

Jecht stood there, looking dumbfounded. But it melted when Auron marched up to him and – unbelievably – crushed him into a hug first. "So I can stop worrying about you now?" he said, pushing Jecht back and giving him a shake. "You always were an endearingly blind fool."

"Ya got younger," Jecht said distractedly, blinking at Auron. Then he broke into a wide grin. "Uh. I mean, yeah! You know you love me, man," he said, knocking Auron in the shoulder.

Rikku covered her mouth and smiled; again, catching glimpse of a sliver of their world, their own lives in the present that she hadn't been a part of. This time her ignorance didn't hurt, though.

"Stop smilin' like that an' get over here, Blondie!" Jecht demanded, drawing her into their group hug.

A/N: Cunno = Sorry

Probably something I should say as an author, too, for getting so philosophical. Please let me know your thoughts by leaving a review, I love reading them all!