FicWad

With her chin rested casually on her palm, Lulu took another look at the city she had spent almost a year living in to pursue further studies in black magic.

She snorted towards the city as her own way of saying goodbye as she waited for the ship to set off in another couple of minutes. She surveyed around, counting the number of passengers and concluded it came close to probably only ten with most of them being old folks who craved for more peace and quiet.

She pushed herself off the railing she was leaning against, ready to go into the cabin for some rest as the announcement and alarm went off.

A faint scent of flower floated in the air, it stood out among the salted smell of the sea that Lulu was all so familiar with. Curious, she looked and tried to trace the source of the flowery scent. It was then she spotted a young girl, probably not more than 7 years old, her small arms wrapped around a bouquet of bright yellow sunflowers that seemed out of place for Bevelle.

Lulu observed quietly. The little girl walked towards a trio, handing over the flowers to one of them, whom she thought looked familiar. The ship was huge and barely filled up with people, footsteps were the only sound on the dock, and the voice of that girl.

“I'd take good care of myself, father.” Her voice was faint, but the dock was quiet enough for Lulu to catch what she was saying through the sea breeze. The young brown-haired girl rubbed her eyes with her sleeves, trying to hide her tears, as if she was worried that it would jinxed her kin's trip.

The man, formally dressed in a huge robe, knelt and held her, his hand patting her back, reassuring his daughter. Lulu strained her eyes a little, trying not to alert the trio, for it was rude to be staring at people. She realized that man was a Summoner.

That was why. She tried to distract her own attention away from the father and daughter, and focused on the two guardians standing behind the Lulu could not quite made out the face of the warrior in red since his back was facing towards her direction, and another man who was topless and tanned, bearing a weird symbol tattoo on his chest, she wondered how painful it was to ink such a huge tattoo on himself.

The waiting guardians held her attention, especially when she saw how the tanned guardian tugged onto the tip of the red robe of the swordsman, who then irritably slapped his hand off and glared at him. She stood and continued to observe, the interactions between the two guardians, so very much amusing to her.

She always thought the guardians would hardly showed any emotions, always so focused on protecting their Summoner. Yet this pair seemed so different from what she initially thought, she moved herself to another location, where she could still looked at them and hopefully to not get discovered by them.

She giggled a bit to herself, when she saw how the older man seemed to be drunk and was trying to drag the red robe off of his fellow guardian. She swore she could almost spot a vein threatening to break apart in the annoyed swordsman's forehead.

Lulu's thoughts was then interrupted by the final honking of the alarm, informing them that they must part, with whoever and whatever that would still continue to remain in Bevelle. She turned her attention back to the father and daughter, and she saw that the young girl was paying her last respect to her father.

The Summoner smiled, proud of his daughter, and patted her on her head.

“Thank you, Yuna.”

~ * ~

Lulu continued to lock her sight on the fading view of the harbor of Bevelle, unable to take her mind off the young girl who had chased after her father hoping to see as much of him as possible before he went on a journey of no return.

She didn't notice how long she had been standing there, but by the time she returned to her current state; the sky was already dark and filled with stars. The temperature had fallen, and the cold sea wind began to raise goosebumps on her pale pearly white skin.

She pulled out a couple of her hairsticks and let her long black wavy hair landed gracefully onto her shoulders, brushing a handful of it to her neck, hoping to keep herself warm enough as she had the intention to stay out here to watch the stars.

However her privacy did not last long as she heard a loud bang on one of the wooden walls of the cabin and followed by an angry scowl.

"Jecht! Stop making a scene! You are being a disgrace to Lord Braska!"

Lulu noticed the two men she had saw earlier stumbled out of the cabin with one of them who was named Jecht obviously drunk and feeling too high for his own good.

"Argh! Don't be such a spoiler, Auron! You need to relax and enjoy!"

She walked near a corner where it had allowed her a full view of the two men pulling and struggling with each other, as she matched the names and faces and had them memorized.

Jecht pulled a blitzball out of a sack and threw it towards a very annoyed Auron who swung his huge and long sword and slashed the ball into two.

"Hey that's not the way to play the game man!"

Auron swung his huge sword back to his shoulder and growled irritably at the man, "Haven't you made enough of a fool of yourself back in Bevelle? Now get to bed before you topple off and drop into the ocean!"

He dragged Jecht and pushed him right into the cabin as he caught sight of Lulu standing in the shadow looking amused at them. He smiled awkwardly at her as he gave another kick to Jecht who tried to pull him down the stairs that lead to the inside.

Lulu lifted her hands to her face as she tried to control her laughter, she swore she had never seen such a lively and interesting bunch of guardians, though obviously Auron was not really the lively type in the first place from what she observed.

"Young lady, I apologize for the scene made just now. But I'll suggest that you get inside the cabin. The weather is cold."

She smiled towards the young and handsome swordsman, though at the young age of twelve, she held herself confidently and firmly against the older fighter, "Thank you for your concern, I'll like to watch the stars tonight."

"I see." He said as he pulled his red robe from himself and handed over to Lulu.

"Here, this should help to prevent you from catching a cold."

"You are quite a gentlemen, considering we don't know each other."

He smiled, "Take it as a compensation for disrupting your peace."

She accepted the offer graciously and watched Auron marched back into the cabin. A flip of the fabric and she had it wrapped around her bare shoulders, her thoughts drifted away as the wind spread scent of the faint musky smell of his robe into the air around her.