Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Guardian ❯ Games ( Chapter 10 )

Guardian, Chapter 10
Games

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Between Tidus and that cat, I was destined never to sleep again. The endlessly irritating ball of fur refused to sleep curled up on its own pillow anymore, instead preferring to nestle under my chin when it lost interest in the sport of chasing my toes as they shifted underneath the sheets. The purring was pleasant enough, if it had not managed to lick my face unpleasantly with the sandpapery tongue every time I was about to fall off of the edge of awareness into true slumber. I would have shut it out of the room, and had indeed often tried, but it meowed right outside the door as though being slowly dismembered, tail first, until I capitulated and let it back in. It would finally deign to curl up and sleep sometime right before dawn, which gave me nearly an hour until Tidus came lumbering in.

This morning was no exception, though I had nearly let myself hope that the boy might have at last discovered the joys of sleeping in. The door flung open, banging against the tiny spring that tried admirably to protect the walls from this child.

"Auron!"

I'd long ago given up on pretending to be asleep. I tried the direct approach. "Go away, Tidus."

He wasn't buying it. "You promised to train me today!"

And a more regrettable promise had never been made. It had been a last-ditch attempt to shut the boy up about wanting to learn the technical forms of sword fighting that I still practiced outside almost daily. I couldn't bring myself to stop, however useless the skill might be in this world. It was one last tie to the man I had been, and I'd done so nearly every day of my life since I entered the monastery so long ago. There was no way I was going to let him touch an edged weapon, so out of exasperation I finally offered to teach him some simple hand-to-hand. I'd half-hoped Serra would object, but she had not minded.

My days of rising before the sun were over, or so I thought back then. "The sun is barely in the sky, boy. Get out of here and don't come back for at least an hour, or there won't be any training," I grumbled unpleasantly.

He gave a small growl of frustration, and then there was no doubting the consanguineous ties between this child and Jecht as he said. "You never want to have fun, Auron!"

Behind closed eyelids, I was suddenly transported back to another life, or perhaps only two years ago, facing down an unkempt ruffian with his hands on his hips, an indolent smirk ill-concealed among the stubble as he taunted, "Lighten up and live a little, Auron! You're such a stiff!"

My only reply then had been a disdainful glance down my nose at him -- he hated that, having to look up at me -- and a calm, "You are an ill-mannered pig who wouldn't know tact or decency if it bit you on the ass..."

I forget now what it was he'd wanted the three of us to do, but it was something that took us away from the journey at hand, and as much as I dreaded the outcome I'd thought I understood, the seriousness of the task weighed on me, and delays seemed foolish. Lives rested upon our diligence.

I glared at him, and he made a rude gesture in return. "Must you always behave so abysmally?" I cried. "Braska-sama--"

"--should be allowed to enjoy this journey," he finished for me, the infuriating grin sliding like water from his face. For once it was plain to see that I grated on him as much as he did me.

This was no summer outing, and I was tired of him acting like a child on one. "You demean Braska-sama and his pilgrimage with your total lack of regard," I said flatly.

His response was more heated. "You act as though it were a funeral march!"

Enough. Attempting to mask the pain of the words by encasing them in ice, I clipped, "Our duty in this is to protect him until the end, when he means to sacrifice himself to save us all!"

If I'd meant to shock him, I was sorely disappointed. Instead, I was the one who stood amazed at the foreign expression of sorrowful understanding his features settled into. "I know, Auron," was all he said, quietly. "Braska told me." He ran a hand through messily unkempt hair, impossibly managing to make it look even wilder. "Something in all of this didn't ring true to me, and I asked him what the catch was."

In a muted tone I wouldn't have thought him capable of, he continued, "Don't you think, Auron, that in addition to guarding him through this quest, we should also try to cram as much happiness into it as possible? Your refusal to stop being miserable pains him. He will not change his course, though for you, he almost would."

I was stunned by the open regard he held for Braska. The softness strange in his voice did not hide the bitterness when he spoke next. "Time with those you love is precious, you great fool, and should never be wasted."

I suddenly felt a startling pity for this uncouth, inconsiderate boor, who had lost both his world and his family in a day. Bowing my head in defeat, I conceded to his request for whatever had begun the whole altercation. He grasped my shoulder and squeezed in an almost-painful gesture of companionship, and I nearly smiled. From then on I think we understood each other, and fought mostly in jest. At some point I forgot that my Summoner and I had ever traveled without him, and loved him almost as dearly. I wish I had said so, even once. But men like us just did not give voice to those things.

Cracking open my eye, I saw his son's crestfallen expression, and made an attempt to please him and buy another fifteen minutes of sleep at the same time. In the least irritated voice I could manage, I sighed, "Why don't you go make us breakfast?"

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It was an idyllic late-summer day, when just enough breeze floats by to keep you from sweltering as you bask in the last of the golden summer sun. Auron had finally dragged Tidus outside to "wear the boy out", alternately running him around with the blitzball and making him practice the forms he had started learning from the warrior-priest. I followed after, both to tend my garden and protect it from stray sphere shots.

I finished watering and pruning long before they tired of their game, so I sat out in a chair near the water to watch. It was fascinating, how the normally somber Guardian grew almost lighthearted as he played with my son, now and then a small smile flittering across his features. If it were only for an instant, it still was a hundred times more often than I ever saw him smile otherwise. If Tidus were being more outrageously silly than usual, the older man even sometimes laughed: a low, throaty chuckle. Tidus's childish exuberance and affection must have slowly healed something in Auron's tattered soul.

Growing bored with my role as a spectator, I decided that they were having entirely too much fun to leave me out. I grinned impishly; they looked much too hot...

I walked casually over to the hose, and turned it on them full blast, laughing devilishly.

Tidus shrieked, "Mom!" while Auron looked momentarily stunned, albeit only for an instant. Then an expression of mock ferocity graced his features, and he darted toward me more quickly than a man that size had any right. I squealed in terror, dropping the hose in my haste to escape.

He deftly caught the hose one-handed before it touched the ground, snatching my arm firmly with the other. I struggled futilely, somewhat transfixed by the unbridled merriment I had never seen before in his gaze. "I think Madam needs a drink," he said, and turned the hose into my face.

I yowled in mock-anger, spluttering. He released me, and unfortunately for him he was standing near the water's edge. Unmercifully, I rushed him and with a shoulder to the gut sent him sprawling into the bay. Unfortunately for me, his unfairly honed reflexes kicked in as soon as he saw me brace to charge him, and he pulled me in along with him.

When we surfaced, I heard him laugh out loud for the first time; it was a full, joyous sound, untainted by any sorrow. We were both grinning like fools, treading water less than a yard apart. A smile was such a beautiful thing on his face. For an instant I thought he meant to grab me, probably to try and dunk my head underwater as Jecht had tried -- I was nearly as agile as my husband in the water, and he didn't succeed often -- and then I wondered why I had thought that, because he hadn't moved at all, though my heart still raced expectantly.

Disappointed for no reason I could name, I said, "We should probably get out and go dry off, it's nearly time for lunch..."

His expression sobered, and he drew a wet tendril of hair out of my face. "As you say," he replied.

The water around me seemed suddenly charged with something, some new element that frightened me with its thrill. I quickly climbed out of the water and turned away, confused.

I heard him climb up behind me, but he said nothing more to me, only shouting at Tidus to stop dripping on his sword as the boy had taken advantage of Auron's absence to examine the forbidden object in more detail. I nearly ran inside, though why, I couldn't say.

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One gesture can change everything in a moment, turning everything you know to be true on its head in the blink of an eye. The shining lock of dark, wet hair called out to me to move it from where it lay concealing the beauty of the pale cheek beneath. And in the space of a breath, or the pause between two beats of her heart, the unassuming gesture suddenly blossomed beyond its intention -- her pupils dilated, swallowing up the abruptly darker violet swimming around them, lips parting slightly as she leaned into the touch, most surely unaware of the action. I could not breathe for the look in her eyes, but before I could gain any insight from their study she suddenly sprang away in a great deluge of water, exiting the sea with the ease of one long used to the motion.

She was gorgeous even soaking wet -- undeniably so, as I could not help but noticing the sodden clothing clinging to every swell and hollow as she climbed out with her back to me. I had it left in me to be remotely glad of the ocean's chill, darkly amused by the body that refused to believe it was dead.

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End Chapter 10