Categories > Games > Final Fantasy X > Everything Looks Better
Chapter Three
0 reviewsTwelve years after Yuna calls the final Aeon, Auron begins a new pilgrimage.
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Zanarkand Marina
Jecht's houseboat was the least maintained of all the vessels in the Zanarkand Marina.
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[/ It was overdue for a reseal, the underside crusted in Sinscale spines, the sails were ripped, the lines were frayed and all of the internal machina was rusty. The inside fared no better. The tidal wave from the Sin attack 3 years ago and a malfunctioning pump made for damp carpets and mold. With no power, the cooling unit smelled like something died in it and judging from the old fishing equipment on deck, something just might have. Arachnid webs blanketed the cluttered shelf of Jecht and Tidus' old Blitzball trophies, the sailing books were warped, the rounded sectional in the center of the cabin had a family of geckos in it…
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[/ …and Raine wanted to live there.
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[/ Auron couldn't forbid it. No one could. The boat was hers by default when her mother died and so was the dock space it inhabited. Raine asked Auron to meet her there, which she knew was redundant because he would already be following her, but it was her tactful way of letting him know she expected his company. Auron knew which route of sun-bleached boardwalks to take from when Tidus lived there, but as he approached the ramp, he heard the music inside, something trendy that rattled the windows.
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[/ Knocking was futile, so he let himself in. The screen on the door was torn and the hinges were loose and it didn't close all the way because the door frame had warped. Inside, it didn't take long for the fishy smell to hit him and it made his eye water, but he stood on the landing, looking down into the circular parlor. The stucco walls were marked with a grimy flood line about 2-3 feet from the floor, which was mostly concealed with a layer of dried mud. Raine had pushed all the furniture to one side of the room and was using a broom as a dance partner, singing the words of the song to it, twirling around a pile of debris she had apparently been cleaning up. Auron leaned against the unsteady banister and watched her performance with quiet amusement.
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[/ Eventually, she saw him and shrieked, shocked and mortified, the broom dropping to the floor with a hasty thwack and she immediately ran to the portable radio to turn it down.
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[/ "How long have you been standing there?" she asked breathlessly. She was wearing pink shorts and a pink tank top under one of her brother's old, oversized Abes jerseys, typical attire for outside chores back at her great-aunt's house in C-South.
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[/ Auron started down the steps into the remains of the living area and leaned his katana against the wall. "Not long."
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[/ "Well you're just in time. I'm about to break for lunch."
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[/ Glancing around, Auron wondered how much work she'd done to earn a break, and noticed a red plaid blanket had been spread out picnic-style on the floor. In the kitchen niche at the back of the room, Raine hoisted down a basket from the filthy island counter.
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[/ Auron affected remorse as best as he could. "I'm not hungry."
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[/ "Go figure. But I made these sandwiches myself, so just pretend, okay?" She kneeled down on the blanket and began unloading foil wrapped food items from the basket, arranging them into two place settings. "And sit. You make me nervous standing that way."
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[/ Sighing inwardly, Auron settled cross-legged at one corner of the blanket as Raine thrust a sandwich into his gauntlet. He noticed her knees were dirty and there were mud stains on her shorts and her ponytail was messy with sweaty fly-ways. She appeared to have been working hard on something, but it wasn't apparent in the present room.
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[/ Auron used his tucked hand sparingly to remove the foil from his sandwich and bit into it without checking to see what kind it was. Raine sat on her hip with her legs to the side and draped a cloth napkin on one thigh as she ate with small bites. She stole glances at him while he chewed. There had been only one other instance he'd eaten in front of her and he had to endure the skeptic stares of her great aunt and uncle, who had evidently been expecting someone different when Raine announced she was bringing someone home for dinner.
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[/ "What is this?" he asked around his food.
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[/ "Tuna fish."
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[/ Auron stopped chewing a beat. "I mean, what are we doing on your father's houseboat?"
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[/ "To celebrate. I'm moving in."
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[/ He took another large bite, taking no enjoyment of the flavors, just for the sake of appeasing her. "By yourself?"
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[/ "Not with Jory, if that's what you mean."
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[/ "That's not what I said."
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[/ "That's what you meant," she sang. "Besides, Jory took one look at the place and turned his nose up at it."
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[/ "Maybe it was the smell."
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[/ She straightened her neck and frowned apologetically. "Does it still smell? I opened all the windows that weren't painted shut. I must be used to it. I've been here since dawn. But you knew that."
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[/ He did. What he didn't know was what she'd been doing since then. Everything was still in shambles.
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[/ "I can't live with my aunt and uncle anymore. They tell me I can stay until I'm done with college, but I didn't expect to stay with them after high school. Jory promised—" Her eyes met his for a split second before she slid them back down to her sandwich, preoccupied as she picked off an invisible speck from her next bite. She nodded with new determination. "It's best this way."
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[/ "It's not livable."
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[/ "It will be when I fix it up."
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[/ "Hmph."
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[/ Something flittered in the corner of Auron's eye and as he turned to look, a gecko skittered onto the blanket, a brown ridge of bone tracing down its spine. Its long green tail twitched as it looked at Raine with a narrow, cocked head, its beady yellow eyes staring greedily and curiously at her sandwich. Raine screamed, threw her sandwich at it and scrabbled backwards like a crab. With a lipless mouth, the gecko bit into the soft bread and gulped down a large bite.
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[/ Auron shoved the rest of his sandwich into his mouth and patted the crumbs off his hands and lap as he got to his feet. Balanced on one leg, he centered a boot over the lizard.
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[/ "Stop!"
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[/ Far out of the gecko's reach, Raine was kneeled on the back of the crescent shaped couch with her hand stretched forward to halt him. She looked at Auron, horrified.
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[/ "It's a pest," Auron reasoned.
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[/ "It's a baby."
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[/ The lizard gummed another piece off the sandwich, unaware how close to death it was.
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[/ "What would you like done?"
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[/ "Just—put it outside."
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[/ Auron rolled his eye. He wrapped his gauntlet hand around the end of its tail and picked it up, a section of tuna fish and bread still wedged in its mouth as it tried to swallow while swaying upside down. On his way to the door, Auron held the critter away from his body, battling with its flexing tail as it thrashed to escape. At the threshold, he started to swing the critter way back—
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[/"Gently!" Raine called.
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[/ -and instead dangled it over the deck until its claws frantically scrabbled at the wood surface. Auron released it and it scampered across the boards, down the ramp, its slender tail whipping behind as it made a sharp turn straight into the bay.
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[/ Back in the living area, Raine slipped down leerily from her gecko-free sanctuary on top of the couch cushions and sat alert on the blanket. Her eyes slid tensely to a dark frayed hole in the upholstered furniture.
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[/ "You know there's probably more," Auron said, lips quirking as he strode by her.
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[/ "Where are you going?" she asked anxiously.
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[/ "To see what you're getting yourself into."
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[/ Flanking the kitchen were two short hallways leading to the bedrooms. She was right about the smell, it did go away after a while, but another musty stench led him into the only bathroom, an adjoining one, off one of the bedrooms. It looked like it would be functional once the water was turned back on, as long as the plumbing was undamaged. The bedroom was considered the master, but it was tiny, just big enough for the slumped bed, a bedside table and a dresser, all discolored from water damage. The shag carpeting was rumpled, packed with black sludge and still squelched in some areas when he walked across it. A locked door at the back of the room led to a back deck with a pleasing view of the ocean, but the area was littered with overturned and broken patio furniture, pushed around by the flood and other storms. Around the door frame, the walls were crumbling and Auron squatted down, sticking a finger into the plaster and pulling off parts of the wall in chalky chunks. A layer of green fuzz covered the wooden studs inside the wall and the insulation had disintegrated.
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[/ The place wasn't even safe to stand in, let alone sleep in.
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[/ "Auron!" Raine called from another part of the houseboat. "Can you come here?"
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[/ Not another gecko.
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[/ Back in the main room, Auron circled around the kitchen to the other hallway, where there were two other bedrooms, half the size of the master bedroom. The first one was so full of junk he couldn't get a foot in. He found Raine in the second one, which was nearly empty. The carpeting had been pulled up and all the loose dirt and carpet staples had been swept into a black lump in the middle of the room. She was sitting on the twin bed, just a bed frame, a bare mattress and a pillow with no case.
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[/ He shook his head at her. "It needs to be gutted."
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[/ "I've got all summer before school starts."
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[/ "It needs new insulation."
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[/ "You don't think I can do it? I can hire people to do the work. I have my inheritance."
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[/ He knew about the inheritance. Jecht spent most of his money drinking and gambling and Tidus had not been a star player very long, so whatever was left could not have been much, considering her mother still needed to work to make ends meet. "You'll burn through it just getting a crew out here to take down the walls. And you need it for school."
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[/ She frowned. "Why are you being so difficult?"
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[/ "This is too much work for you."
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[/ "No it isn't. I cleaned out this whole room in just one morning."
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[/ Auron scowled. Her priorities were skewed. Why put so much effort into one room when there were other rooms that needed more attention?
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[/ With a sneaky grin, she pointed to something behind him and he looked over his shoulder. When he saw what she was pointing at, Auron rotated all the way around and just stared.
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[/ "I thought it was a good place for it," she said. "What do you think?"
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[/ Auron approached it apprehensively. He was afraid the bracket might fall from the load of his katana, which Raine must have snatched while he was inspecting the bathroom. But she had drilled the brace straight into the studs behind the wall and it appeared quite sturdy. No one had offered him a place to hang his sword before. There were often two or three to a room back at the monastery in Bevelle and inns were always temporary, although he supposed this too would be temporary; he had 7 years left before Sin's rebirth.
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[/ He wasn't sure how to feel about Raine's offer, although he reacted similarly at her graduation 6 weeks ago. He had been standing at the back of the auditorium with the late arrivals and he felt fine during her valedictorian speech, but sensed a heavy constriction in his throat when she accepted her diploma. Tidus never graduated high school. He had opted to put it on hold and finish in the off-season so he could play center for the Zanarkand Abes. Auron had to step out to the lobby to collect himself, but there was no opportunity to do that now.
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[/This way you can keep your promise to my brother and you don't have to skulk in the bushes to do it."
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[/ "No," he said, decidedly crusty.
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[/ He heard the squeak of springs as she got to her feet. "No?"
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[/ "Did you not hear me?" He wrapped his fist around the hilt and lifted it off the bracket with a weighty clank.
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[/ "I heard you," she admitted with a tremor. "May I ask why?"
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[/ Auron kept his back to her, rested his sword over his shoulder. "You expect us to be roommates?"
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[/ "I wasn't expecting anything. I thought it was a nice gesture."
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[/Rotating his face to the left, he saw her from his peripheral vision as she stepped forward cautiously, diffidently.
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[/"Are you angry with me?" she asked.
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[/ "I'm not angry," Auron said, but even he knew his tone alleged otherwise. It wasn't because she asked him to move in. It was because he wanted to. "My sword is very heavy. Don't handle it again without my help."
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[/ "Okay, I won't," she whispered and the obedient nod that followed suggested fear.
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[/ Auron started to leave the room.
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[/ "Are you leaving?"
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[/ "Break time is over," Auron said in the doorway. "Demolition starts now. Get your broom."
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[*Frozen Lake, Macalania
Macalania Temple loomed shadowy and archaic under the ice as the late evening sun tilted off the arctic lake, the monotonous grind of their boots on the frozen road oppressively tense. Usually Auron didn't discriminate between silences, preferring quiet over any type of silence, whether it was comfortable or awkward, but Auron relied on Raine's prompts a little too much, he realized. There was more she needed to know, but without her pestering inquiries to prod him, he couldn't seem to find the words.
Raine was wearing the provisions he'd acquired for her from the bazaar in Kilika, the tan coat made of dingo fur, insulated with chocobo feathers, and the gloves boiled from behemoth skin. She hefted the handle of the staff to her other shoulder, sniffing from the cold.
"Want me to carry that?" Auron asked. Already his katana was over his left shoulder and the dense book of Yevon's teachings was under the opposite arm, but sometimes the swooping way she fidgeted with her rod made him nervous.
"I've got it," she muttered.
Before the revelation in Macalania Woods spoiled her concentration, Raine had been a better student than Auron was a teacher. The woman who once fled at the sight of a baby gecko stood up to a chimera's aqua-breath today, but he supposed the attack of Sinspawn during her wedding in Zanarkand helped her better realize her own durability. On only her third try, she had extracted a dozen Pyreflies from a small Iguion, but he tried not to seem too encouraging, alluding beginner's luck. Her fourth Iguion struck an endless leak and by her eighth and ninth, the lizards were detonating into a colorful swarm of delicate orbs before she had even properly begun the dance. It was difficult to give her the praise she deserved. Every time she sent a new Iguion, she'd give him that hopeful, expectant look, hungry for approval, and it pained him to deny it from her, but already she was sending a piece of him away along with every sent fiend, a section not already claimed by the Pyreflies.
In any case, he found himself drifting back a step farther than the last during the sending dance, and those last few Iguions he only nearly got out of the way in time before she stirred up the Pyreflies in him, a constant bilious gnawing in the back of his brain, insects crawling on the inside of his skull. The distress made him irritable. He didn't have this concern in Zanarkand, but now that he was back in Spira, all his old problems were still waiting for him.
Toying with her rod again, she wearily rolled it off the curve of her shoulder, swinging it in a way that made Auron edgy as the Pyreflies pulsed.
"Give me that," he snapped.
Pinching the book to the side of his ribs with his elbow, he tore the staff out of her hands, confiscating it. Immediately, he regretted his ill-temper as her face went from startled to sullen, her gloves disappearing broodingly into her coat pockets.
"Yes, Sir," she mumbled indignantly.
Auron glared obliquely at her. He hated that title.
"Did you bring Tidus here to die, too?" she asked dryly.
"Tidus made his choice," he said, but it felt like she'd driven the end of his katana into his chest. "You haven't made yours yet."
"Oh, now I have a choice?" she scoffed. "You hurtle me into Sin's butthole and now I have a choice?"
"You've always had a choice."
"Really?" she said ironically. "So if I asked you to take me home, would you think I was selfish because I didn't want to die?"
Auron didn't say anything.
"That's what I thought," she said.
"I recall a time you did want to die," Auron said coolly, after a few moments. "Very selfishly."
Sharply, she sipped the air. Auron kept his gaze straight ahead to avoid the hurt that was most definitely in her eyes.
"That's hitting below the belt, asshole."
"Believe me, if it was my decision, you'd still be in Zanarkand."
When they rounded the cliff, a sliver of the Travel Agency came into view and Auron felt the tug of the book from under his arm as Raine pried it free. She hugged it against her like she used to with her school texts. "I can carry a book at least."
With the eerie sagacity of two people who had spent more time with each other than anyone else in the last ten years, Auron and Raine came to a slow stop in the path, neither questioning the other about the halt. During a pregnant pause, Auron stared across the gorge, the shadows of the mountains cast long over the ice-covered lake as the chill of night advanced.
"Am I really the best candidate for a Pilgrimage?" she asked, tucking her face into her coat, bracing from a flurry of loose snow. "I don't even like walking that much."
"Among other things."
"I'm having a hard time believing my brother brought me here to die. I mean, if I'm going to die for a cause, I'd like to know what it is."
"That's fair," he muttered without enthusiasm. She was right about this. There were better Summoners out there and Tidus hadn't given Auron much to go on when he tasked him with monitoring his little sister.
Zanarkand Ruins was a graveyard of old memories, including his own, projecting off stray Pyreflies and shortly after Yuna chose Tidus as her Final Aeon, when Tidus took Auron aside, the memories began to repeat. That look of hesitancy in Tidus' desperate eyes was the same as Jecht's, and as Tidus anxiously scratched the back of his head, Auron knew what Tidus was going to ask. The cycle was repeating, replaying in front of him, spinning out of control. He had hoped for a new result, urged his comrades to get off the path he had worn down and begin hacking away a new one, but their shock and denial of Yevon's lies stunted them. Auron had changed nothing.
Raine pierced him with her blue eyes, cutting through the armor of his sunglasses like she always could, somehow able to look into the eye that wasn't there. "You can't keep secrets from me anymore. That's not what family does."
Auron looked at her wryly.
"It counts," she said defensively.
He sighed tetchily through his nose, but nodded. "I know."
"Come on, Auron. What is it? As his sister, it's up to me to avenge him? Eye for an eye and all that?"
Considering her, Auron rolled her staff back and forth across his shoulder, just as two men came out of the inn. He recognized them faintly as Guardians, but he couldn't recall their names or from whose pilgrimage they belonged to. One glanced over, quickly consulted the other, and then they both smiled at Auron and waved. Auron gave them a brisk nod and was relieved they didn't come over as they headed the opposite direction. Raine noticed the two men, but took strides to ignore them.
"Inside," Auron said, gesturing to the door.
"You can tell me now."
Auron hesitated.
She smiled cruelly, jerked her head towards the Guardians hiking away from them. "Are you afraid I'll make a scene?"
"You are your brother's sister," he muttered, jaw tensing. The last time he had this conversation, Tidus screamed at him on the deck of the S.S. Winno, but he knew Raine was too introverted to raise her voice in public. He peered over his glasses at her to capture her eye contact. "Let's get one thing straight. The Tidus you know is dead. You will never see him again."
Eyes widening, she bristled with the anticipation of his confession.
"Tidus is Sin."
Raine blanched and numbly shook her head. "But in Zanarkand, you said—"
"I know what I said," Auron murmured. "Many die fighting Sin, but only a few become Sin."
Raine's eyes unfocused, seeing something in her mind's eye only.
Auron's brow puckered. "Raine?"
By the time he noticed the sick green tint on her face, it was too late. Her vomit was mostly bile and water and it splattered his chest first before spilling down to his boots. Then she fainted.
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[*Zanarkand Marina
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[/The summer before Raine started college had been dedicated to the houseboat. Auron helped her gut it so she could have the mold removed and she had the carpets pulled up so the floors could dry out and hired an expert to have the machina rewired so she could have power. Everything Auron knew about machina he had learned from the Al Behd girl on his last pilgrimage, but it was enough to fool Raine into thinking he was expert. With a bit of tinkering, Auron managed to get the stove working, but was unable to restore the refrigerator, which was probably for the best since they never could get rid of the smell. Small wonder, considering the rotten fish they found liquefied and congealed in one of the bottom drawers. She ended up buying a used refrigerator from an auction-house. The outside walls had all been insulated with pink hard foam and the windows sealed, edging the houseboat's status to "barely liveable," just in time for the colder months, and when she started college, she put the renovation on hold to concentrate on her studies.
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[/ That had been six years ago.
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[/ Auron sat at the breakfast bar in a wobbly, high-back bar stool Raine rescued from someone's trash, along with three of its brothers. She had painted them white and sewed cushions for the seats and stenciled daisies on the backrests. The kitchen was being held together by shims and caulk and all the cupboard doors had been removed for refurbishing, exposing dry foods, canned goods and spices. Carefully slicing tomatoes and cucumbers on a butcher block of wood, Auron kept on the opposite side of the island counter at the outskirts of the kitchen, to stay out of Raine's way as she made dinner.
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[/Every morning, Raine managed to leave the ramshackle of a houseboat looking polished with city sophistication, her hair twisted up and pinned, although she was having some trouble getting used to her new bangs. She was constantly blowing them out of her eyes, fussing with them. She was still wearing her clothes from work, straight leg trousers and a pale blue shirt, although her blazer and press pass had been hastily draped on the stool next to him and her heels had been kicked off somewhere in the living area so she could pad around in bare feet.
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[/ "How was work?" Auron asked. He finished the tomato and started on the cucumber.
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[/ "Long," she stressed, leaning over the sink to the window. She rolled it open to let in the cool evening air and to help ventilate the steam from her sauce. Outside, the water lapped lazily against the docks. "Memorial Cup, you know."
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[/ Auron inclined his head in comprehension. The last Memorial Cup ended short when Sin used the Zanarkand Stadium as target practice, the day they pronounced Tidus dead when they couldn't find his body in the wreckage. This time, they were not only memorializing Jecht, but Tidus, too.
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[/ "What happened?"
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[/ "A full half hour of sudden-death overtime. The Abes squeaked by with a winning goal in the last ten seconds. I was the only one who could do post-game interviews."
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[/ "Where was Colton?"
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[/ "At home with the flu," she said, but she seemed almost chipper about it.
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[/ Finished with his task, Auron handed Raine the cutting board for inspection and she grinned. "I like how all the cucumbers are perfectly cut to the same size." She scraped the cut vegetables into the bowl of lettuce with the dull side of a knife. "Split a beer?"
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[/ "Sure," he said and slipped down from the chair to grab a glass from the doorless cupboard by the sink. Out the window, the docks glowed from the pillars of light marking each houseboat and the sea air was salty and breezy and across the sparkling bay, the Zanarkand skyline glittered against the night.
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[/ Raine found a bottle in the refrigerator and they met in the middle of the kitchen to trade so he could twist the bottle cap off. It opened with quick hiss and Raine held the glass he'd given to her, at a tilt to reduce the foam, as Auron poured. When they had equal amounts, she tapped his bottle with her glass with a ceremonious clink before they toasted each other and took a sip. For a moment, she was six-year-old Raine again, ticking together plastic tea cups, raising their pretend beverages to each other, ingesting something imaginary. He wondered if she remembered how they used to do this when she was little, or if it was something he had taught her to do without her realizing it.
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[/ Settling back on his perch, he held the bottle between his hands and watched her for a few minutes as she stirred the sauce, flipped down the heat and covered the pan.
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[/ Reaching into the cupboard for plates, she paused, glancing over her shoulder at him. "Are you going to eat anything tonight?"
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[/ "I'm not hungry. Sorry."
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[/ "No worries," she said, a rare glint of Tidus bleeding through. She made a carefree gesture with a roll of her shoulders that made Auron cease in mid-sip so he could take notice and absorb it fondly, glumly. He remembered a bit of dialogue with Jecht from years ago, around the fire with Summoner Braska, another casual gripe about Tidus. "He cries more than his baby sister," Jecht complained in his gritty voice. "And that girl's always playin' in the dirt. Mother says she's a Tomboy." Then he would grumble something unintelligible, pretend to rub the smoke out of his eye.
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[/ Raine fixed her plate and pulled over one of her stenciled bar stools to sit across from him. She crossed her legs and put a napkin on her lap.
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[/ "So you did post-game interviews?" he asked, circling back to her talk of work.
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[/ Warily, she slid her eyes to his. "Ye-ess," she said, somehow making it a two syllable word.
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[/ "Women's locker?"
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[/ Spearing one of every vegetable onto her fork, she took a bite and shook her head no.
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[/ Auron glowered down at his beer and took a sip.
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[/ Raine grinned roguishly as she talked around her salad. "Oh, Auron, it's nothing I've never seen before."
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[/ "It's not you I'm concerned about."
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[/ "The men are gentlemen… it's the women's room you have to watch. They don't cut men journalists any slack."
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[/ Auron rolled his eye. "Hmph."
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[/ He didn't follow her to the Stadium, not anymore. She had put up with him in high school and through college, but once she entered the Zanarkand work-force, she had a credible reputation to uphold. Sometimes Auron stopped by the Stadium to check on her, usually around lunch time when she'd be eating at one of the vendors and had time to visit with him. She considerately let him know if she was going to be late, which was new and a little strange for him. Oddly intimate.
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[/ "Oh," she said, shaking her fork at him. "Before I forget. The toilet is doing that thing again."
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[/ "I'll look at it."
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[/ Her eyes flew to the clock over the stove. "Shoot, what time is it?"
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[/ Fumbling with the remote in the junk basket under the counter, she activated the curved holographic screen in the parlor and rotated it so they could watch from the galley. Raine clicked through the sports channels, stopping at her network. Auron turned to watch, moving gingerly in the unstable chair.
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[/ The sports anchors were older, greyer and stuffier than Auron hoped he'd ever get, deep in discussion about the season's chances for the Zanarkand Abes, before introducing Raine in the locker room. She was dwarfed next to the bare-chested Blitzball player, who was in some stage of undress, but it was hard to tell from the angle of the sphere-cam. He was still wet from the sphere pool and water dripped off the ends of his shaggy hair. Auron was familiar with his fresh-from-the-fight appearance, full of charged adrenaline and vitality, as well as the faintly vacant eyes of a typical jock. Raine was her usual professional self and never once gave the impression she noticed the Blitzball star was half naked.
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[/ "You guys escaped with a win tonight, how do you feel right now?"
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[/ Somewhere off camera, a small riot of excitement distracted the athlete, but Raine commanded his attention as she beckoned him like a siren with her microphone. "I feel pretty good, defense put on a good game and offense played their butts off."
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[/ "What was the biggest challenge their offense brought tonight?"
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[/ "Actually the center had a really good game, he's got a wither shot we really have to look out for, but we kept up our perimeters and held it up really well. They were doing a lot of tackle slips and pile venoms, so we'll watch the spheres next practice and fix it."
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[/ "You guys are playing the Zanarkand Duggles next; will that be the biggest challenge yet?" Raine asked.
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[/ While the Blitzball player talked about the other teams' techs and formations, Auron felt a swell of pride for Raine, that familiar tightening in his throat. Submerged in her prepared and relaxed TV realm, Raine was refined and competent for the sphere-cam, the light wisps of blonde hair framing her lean face, her voice crisp, stripped of regionalism, her words solid and clear, not at all like the mumbles and sarcastic murmurs off camera that Auron got to witness.
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[/ "It was a tough game out there tonight, we're just going to scheme them up and practice hard and see what happens. They've got a solid flatline form, so we really just have to contain them and do our best to make shots. The Duggles are really making some strides in dismantling the Jecht Shot, so we'll just have to beat them at their own game."
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[/ The sphere camera switched to the anchors at the desk, at the top of the stadium. "The Jecht Shot, as you know, was the trademark goal-making move of the legendary Jecht."
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[/ Raine was on camera again, her smile bright, unpretentious, her playful tongue in cheek expression flirted with the camera. "Yes, Gabe, I think I know that more than anyone."
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[/ Behind Auron, Raine's mouth was full of salad when she snorted. "At least I don't look as pissed as I felt."
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[/ With a scripted laugh and exaggerated lilt, the anchor said, "Of course, our own reporter Raine is the daughter of Jecht and brother of Tidus, the center for the Abes 8 years ago."
/]
[/ "Hmm," Auron said, indifferent, as the show went to commercial.
/]
[/ She prickled. "What?"
/]
[/ "Your eyes are too dark."
/]
[/ "It's the sphere-cam make-up," she said, dismissive, eating the hot pasta and red sauce carefully.
/]
[/ "Your eyes look small."
/]
[/ "Are you blind in the other eye, too? Maybe you don't know what you're seeing." There was a mocking challenge in her tone.
/]
[/ Auron arched his eyebrow, faintly smiling.
/]
[/ Twirling her pasta onto her fork, her mood darkened. "Something didn't feel right about tonight, though."
/]
[/ "Why?"
/]
[/ "The whole memorial. My dad, my brother. Everyone here thinks they're dead. I mean, they are, but not the way they think. They're giving them a memorial for all the wrong reasons. And I'm on sphere-cam, covering it, adding to the lie."
/]
[/ "Would it be easier if you didn't know?"
/]
[/ "I don't know," she said thoughtfully. She shrugged to indicate she'd get over it and a drop of red sauce hit the chest of her shirt. Swiping it with her finger, she sucked it off. "Dammit. I manage not to splash the whole time until I sit down to eat."
/]
[/ She began undoing the buttons, revealing a white camisole with lace trim and Auron's faint smile transformed to a vague scowl as his eye sunk down to her cleavage first before swimming around to her bare arms, shoulders and neck, all tinted through his sunglasses. The outline of her black bra showed beneath the nearly translucent fabric clinging to her curves. When his gaze traveled up, he felt the spike of surprise as he met her direct eye contact, followed by the burn of shame, even though she most likely couldn't tell what he was looking at through the reflection of his sunglasses. But she sat unblinking, seemingly holding her breath and he realized she was no fool.
/]
[/ Auron dropped his face and studied the label of his beer bottle, guiltily shifting in his shaky chair.
/]
[/ "What do you have planned tomorrow?" she said, nonchalant. It sounded like she was changing the subject, although her jest about his near-sighted eye was the final punctuation to their previous topic.
/]
[/ "Probably go to the shipyard, see if the supervisor has any work for me."
/]
[/ "Auron, you don't have to work. I need you here at my beck and call." She smiled impishly and tilted her head back to sip her beer, looking at him playfully through her lashes. He was hypnotized by the angle of her neck as she swallowed.
/]
[/ "You need a new toilet. I can only repair the old one so many times." So many times, before he broke it completely.
/]
[/ "I don't want a new toilet until I can afford it myself. I want to finish this place on my own." She shrugged one shoulder casually and winked at him. "And the kindness of others."
/]
[/ Pushing back her plate, she propped her foot on the seat of her stool, hugging her knee with one arm and finished off her beer. The stool shifted dangerously, but held. Genuinely startled when she burped, she shielded her mouth bashfully to excuse herself.
/]
[/ Sweet Raine, he thought, and offered to take her plate, as he did every night. She still had the grace to act surprised every time he washed her dishes and this was usually done in companionable silence, as she read the sports page for her bylines. She read with one leg tucked under the other, and tonight she played with her newly chopped bangs, running her fingers through them, absently twisting them around her finger. Sometimes he would catch her trying to look up at her bangs, a strange, possessed look that made him smirk behind his collar. On nights like this, he found the domestic routine agreeable and on certain occasions he felt like he belonged in Raine's houseboat, this was his home and she was his family.
/]
[/ Later, she folded the paper and tossed it to the table, propping both feet on her counter, leaning back hazardously in the rickety bar stool.
/]
[/ "Auron, I want to ask you something."
/]
[/ Standing at the sink, without his cloak, just trousers, breastplate, collar and boots, he rinsed a glass. "You may ask me anything." Fortunately, Raine usually didn't know the right questions to ask him, despite her reporter's background.
/]
[/ "How much longer are you staying?"
/]
[/ Auron paused and then submerged another glass in the hot water. "I can leave anytime."
/]
[/ "No, I mean, how much longer until you have to go back to Bevelle?"
/]
[/ "Two years."
/]
[/ "Two years?" she whispered.
/]
[/ Auron looked over his shoulder, his hands still in the sink. "Is that a problem?"
/]
[/ "Must you go back?"
/]
[/ "I can't very well live in your spare room forever."
/]
[/ "Why not?"
/]
[/ Auron sighed inwardly. "The pilgrimage."
/]
[/ "Oh yes. Duty calls." Raine locked eyes with him and she didn't let go until Auron turned to drain the water. She dropped her feet from the counter and hopped off the stool. "I'm going to bed early. Lock up?"
/]
[/ "Hmm," he said, a yes.
/]
[/ Most nights did not end this way, talking about the impending pilgrimage. There would be time for that later and he much preferred the normality, the pleasant monotony, of her work-chat or discussions of house repairs. Years ago, he knew she would soon want to do what most women her age were doing. Get married, have children. He wanted her to be happy in Zanarkand while she still could, but how was he going to take her away from a husband who loved her and children who depended on her?
/]
[/ Raine stopped at the hall to her room, her hand against one of the exposed wall studs and looked down at her shoulder so she could see him peripherally. "I'm glad you decided to move in."
/]
[/ Auron nodded definitively. Living under the same roof with Raine had its challenges, but he was better able to protect her this way. What he did or didn't want was irrelevant. "It makes more sense, don't you think?"
/]
[/ "I do. Hey, Auron?"
/]
[/ "Yes?"
/]
[/ "Is your bed comfortable?"
/]
[/ Slipping the dish towel from a ring under the sink Auron dried the suds off his hands and wondered if she found a new mattress on clearance. "It's more than I need," he said. He slept rarely, if at all.
/]
[/ She started to go into the hall, changed her mind. She gave nothing away, her eyes clear as she examined him. "Because, if there's anything I can do to make your bed…more comfortable, you will let me know?"
/]
[/ Auron stopped wiping his hands, straightened his shoulders and gazed at her. Her meaning weakened his knees. Forget she was Tidus' sister, forget she was 20 years younger, forget how she called him Owen until she was 9… he had a mind to follow her into her bedroom to discover just how comfortable her bed was.
/]
[/ But forgetting was too hard. "Raine, everything you give me is more than I need."
/]
[/ Rubbing the side of her face with her shoulder, she sagged and faced the hall, strangely rejected. "Good night, Auron."
/]
[/ "Good night, Raine."
Jecht's houseboat was the least maintained of all the vessels in the Zanarkand Marina.
/]
[/ It was overdue for a reseal, the underside crusted in Sinscale spines, the sails were ripped, the lines were frayed and all of the internal machina was rusty. The inside fared no better. The tidal wave from the Sin attack 3 years ago and a malfunctioning pump made for damp carpets and mold. With no power, the cooling unit smelled like something died in it and judging from the old fishing equipment on deck, something just might have. Arachnid webs blanketed the cluttered shelf of Jecht and Tidus' old Blitzball trophies, the sailing books were warped, the rounded sectional in the center of the cabin had a family of geckos in it…
/]
[/ …and Raine wanted to live there.
/]
[/ Auron couldn't forbid it. No one could. The boat was hers by default when her mother died and so was the dock space it inhabited. Raine asked Auron to meet her there, which she knew was redundant because he would already be following her, but it was her tactful way of letting him know she expected his company. Auron knew which route of sun-bleached boardwalks to take from when Tidus lived there, but as he approached the ramp, he heard the music inside, something trendy that rattled the windows.
/]
[/ Knocking was futile, so he let himself in. The screen on the door was torn and the hinges were loose and it didn't close all the way because the door frame had warped. Inside, it didn't take long for the fishy smell to hit him and it made his eye water, but he stood on the landing, looking down into the circular parlor. The stucco walls were marked with a grimy flood line about 2-3 feet from the floor, which was mostly concealed with a layer of dried mud. Raine had pushed all the furniture to one side of the room and was using a broom as a dance partner, singing the words of the song to it, twirling around a pile of debris she had apparently been cleaning up. Auron leaned against the unsteady banister and watched her performance with quiet amusement.
/]
[/ Eventually, she saw him and shrieked, shocked and mortified, the broom dropping to the floor with a hasty thwack and she immediately ran to the portable radio to turn it down.
/]
[/ "How long have you been standing there?" she asked breathlessly. She was wearing pink shorts and a pink tank top under one of her brother's old, oversized Abes jerseys, typical attire for outside chores back at her great-aunt's house in C-South.
/]
[/ Auron started down the steps into the remains of the living area and leaned his katana against the wall. "Not long."
/]
[/ "Well you're just in time. I'm about to break for lunch."
/]
[/ Glancing around, Auron wondered how much work she'd done to earn a break, and noticed a red plaid blanket had been spread out picnic-style on the floor. In the kitchen niche at the back of the room, Raine hoisted down a basket from the filthy island counter.
/]
[/ Auron affected remorse as best as he could. "I'm not hungry."
/]
[/ "Go figure. But I made these sandwiches myself, so just pretend, okay?" She kneeled down on the blanket and began unloading foil wrapped food items from the basket, arranging them into two place settings. "And sit. You make me nervous standing that way."
/]
[/ Sighing inwardly, Auron settled cross-legged at one corner of the blanket as Raine thrust a sandwich into his gauntlet. He noticed her knees were dirty and there were mud stains on her shorts and her ponytail was messy with sweaty fly-ways. She appeared to have been working hard on something, but it wasn't apparent in the present room.
/]
[/ Auron used his tucked hand sparingly to remove the foil from his sandwich and bit into it without checking to see what kind it was. Raine sat on her hip with her legs to the side and draped a cloth napkin on one thigh as she ate with small bites. She stole glances at him while he chewed. There had been only one other instance he'd eaten in front of her and he had to endure the skeptic stares of her great aunt and uncle, who had evidently been expecting someone different when Raine announced she was bringing someone home for dinner.
/]
[/ "What is this?" he asked around his food.
/]
[/ "Tuna fish."
/]
[/ Auron stopped chewing a beat. "I mean, what are we doing on your father's houseboat?"
/]
[/ "To celebrate. I'm moving in."
/]
[/ He took another large bite, taking no enjoyment of the flavors, just for the sake of appeasing her. "By yourself?"
/]
[/ "Not with Jory, if that's what you mean."
/]
[/ "That's not what I said."
/]
[/ "That's what you meant," she sang. "Besides, Jory took one look at the place and turned his nose up at it."
/]
[/ "Maybe it was the smell."
/]
[/ She straightened her neck and frowned apologetically. "Does it still smell? I opened all the windows that weren't painted shut. I must be used to it. I've been here since dawn. But you knew that."
/]
[/ He did. What he didn't know was what she'd been doing since then. Everything was still in shambles.
/]
[/ "I can't live with my aunt and uncle anymore. They tell me I can stay until I'm done with college, but I didn't expect to stay with them after high school. Jory promised—" Her eyes met his for a split second before she slid them back down to her sandwich, preoccupied as she picked off an invisible speck from her next bite. She nodded with new determination. "It's best this way."
/]
[/ "It's not livable."
/]
[/ "It will be when I fix it up."
/]
[/ "Hmph."
/]
[/ Something flittered in the corner of Auron's eye and as he turned to look, a gecko skittered onto the blanket, a brown ridge of bone tracing down its spine. Its long green tail twitched as it looked at Raine with a narrow, cocked head, its beady yellow eyes staring greedily and curiously at her sandwich. Raine screamed, threw her sandwich at it and scrabbled backwards like a crab. With a lipless mouth, the gecko bit into the soft bread and gulped down a large bite.
/]
[/ Auron shoved the rest of his sandwich into his mouth and patted the crumbs off his hands and lap as he got to his feet. Balanced on one leg, he centered a boot over the lizard.
/]
[/ "Stop!"
/]
[/ Far out of the gecko's reach, Raine was kneeled on the back of the crescent shaped couch with her hand stretched forward to halt him. She looked at Auron, horrified.
/]
[/ "It's a pest," Auron reasoned.
/]
[/ "It's a baby."
/]
[/ The lizard gummed another piece off the sandwich, unaware how close to death it was.
/]
[/ "What would you like done?"
/]
[/ "Just—put it outside."
/]
[/ Auron rolled his eye. He wrapped his gauntlet hand around the end of its tail and picked it up, a section of tuna fish and bread still wedged in its mouth as it tried to swallow while swaying upside down. On his way to the door, Auron held the critter away from his body, battling with its flexing tail as it thrashed to escape. At the threshold, he started to swing the critter way back—
/]
[/"Gently!" Raine called.
/]
[/ -and instead dangled it over the deck until its claws frantically scrabbled at the wood surface. Auron released it and it scampered across the boards, down the ramp, its slender tail whipping behind as it made a sharp turn straight into the bay.
/]
[/ Back in the living area, Raine slipped down leerily from her gecko-free sanctuary on top of the couch cushions and sat alert on the blanket. Her eyes slid tensely to a dark frayed hole in the upholstered furniture.
/]
[/ "You know there's probably more," Auron said, lips quirking as he strode by her.
/]
[/ "Where are you going?" she asked anxiously.
/]
[/ "To see what you're getting yourself into."
/]
[/ Flanking the kitchen were two short hallways leading to the bedrooms. She was right about the smell, it did go away after a while, but another musty stench led him into the only bathroom, an adjoining one, off one of the bedrooms. It looked like it would be functional once the water was turned back on, as long as the plumbing was undamaged. The bedroom was considered the master, but it was tiny, just big enough for the slumped bed, a bedside table and a dresser, all discolored from water damage. The shag carpeting was rumpled, packed with black sludge and still squelched in some areas when he walked across it. A locked door at the back of the room led to a back deck with a pleasing view of the ocean, but the area was littered with overturned and broken patio furniture, pushed around by the flood and other storms. Around the door frame, the walls were crumbling and Auron squatted down, sticking a finger into the plaster and pulling off parts of the wall in chalky chunks. A layer of green fuzz covered the wooden studs inside the wall and the insulation had disintegrated.
/]
[/ The place wasn't even safe to stand in, let alone sleep in.
/]
[/ "Auron!" Raine called from another part of the houseboat. "Can you come here?"
/]
[/ Not another gecko.
/]
[/ Back in the main room, Auron circled around the kitchen to the other hallway, where there were two other bedrooms, half the size of the master bedroom. The first one was so full of junk he couldn't get a foot in. He found Raine in the second one, which was nearly empty. The carpeting had been pulled up and all the loose dirt and carpet staples had been swept into a black lump in the middle of the room. She was sitting on the twin bed, just a bed frame, a bare mattress and a pillow with no case.
/]
[/ He shook his head at her. "It needs to be gutted."
/]
[/ "I've got all summer before school starts."
/]
[/ "It needs new insulation."
/]
[/ "You don't think I can do it? I can hire people to do the work. I have my inheritance."
/]
[/ He knew about the inheritance. Jecht spent most of his money drinking and gambling and Tidus had not been a star player very long, so whatever was left could not have been much, considering her mother still needed to work to make ends meet. "You'll burn through it just getting a crew out here to take down the walls. And you need it for school."
/]
[/ She frowned. "Why are you being so difficult?"
/]
[/ "This is too much work for you."
/]
[/ "No it isn't. I cleaned out this whole room in just one morning."
/]
[/ Auron scowled. Her priorities were skewed. Why put so much effort into one room when there were other rooms that needed more attention?
/]
[/ With a sneaky grin, she pointed to something behind him and he looked over his shoulder. When he saw what she was pointing at, Auron rotated all the way around and just stared.
/]
[/ "I thought it was a good place for it," she said. "What do you think?"
/]
[/ Auron approached it apprehensively. He was afraid the bracket might fall from the load of his katana, which Raine must have snatched while he was inspecting the bathroom. But she had drilled the brace straight into the studs behind the wall and it appeared quite sturdy. No one had offered him a place to hang his sword before. There were often two or three to a room back at the monastery in Bevelle and inns were always temporary, although he supposed this too would be temporary; he had 7 years left before Sin's rebirth.
/]
[/ He wasn't sure how to feel about Raine's offer, although he reacted similarly at her graduation 6 weeks ago. He had been standing at the back of the auditorium with the late arrivals and he felt fine during her valedictorian speech, but sensed a heavy constriction in his throat when she accepted her diploma. Tidus never graduated high school. He had opted to put it on hold and finish in the off-season so he could play center for the Zanarkand Abes. Auron had to step out to the lobby to collect himself, but there was no opportunity to do that now.
/]
[/This way you can keep your promise to my brother and you don't have to skulk in the bushes to do it."
/]
[/ "No," he said, decidedly crusty.
/]
[/ He heard the squeak of springs as she got to her feet. "No?"
/]
[/ "Did you not hear me?" He wrapped his fist around the hilt and lifted it off the bracket with a weighty clank.
/]
[/ "I heard you," she admitted with a tremor. "May I ask why?"
/]
[/ Auron kept his back to her, rested his sword over his shoulder. "You expect us to be roommates?"
/]
[/ "I wasn't expecting anything. I thought it was a nice gesture."
/]
[/Rotating his face to the left, he saw her from his peripheral vision as she stepped forward cautiously, diffidently.
/]
[/"Are you angry with me?" she asked.
/]
[/ "I'm not angry," Auron said, but even he knew his tone alleged otherwise. It wasn't because she asked him to move in. It was because he wanted to. "My sword is very heavy. Don't handle it again without my help."
/]
[/ "Okay, I won't," she whispered and the obedient nod that followed suggested fear.
/]
[/ Auron started to leave the room.
/]
[/ "Are you leaving?"
/]
[/ "Break time is over," Auron said in the doorway. "Demolition starts now. Get your broom."
*]
[*Frozen Lake, Macalania
Macalania Temple loomed shadowy and archaic under the ice as the late evening sun tilted off the arctic lake, the monotonous grind of their boots on the frozen road oppressively tense. Usually Auron didn't discriminate between silences, preferring quiet over any type of silence, whether it was comfortable or awkward, but Auron relied on Raine's prompts a little too much, he realized. There was more she needed to know, but without her pestering inquiries to prod him, he couldn't seem to find the words.
Raine was wearing the provisions he'd acquired for her from the bazaar in Kilika, the tan coat made of dingo fur, insulated with chocobo feathers, and the gloves boiled from behemoth skin. She hefted the handle of the staff to her other shoulder, sniffing from the cold.
"Want me to carry that?" Auron asked. Already his katana was over his left shoulder and the dense book of Yevon's teachings was under the opposite arm, but sometimes the swooping way she fidgeted with her rod made him nervous.
"I've got it," she muttered.
Before the revelation in Macalania Woods spoiled her concentration, Raine had been a better student than Auron was a teacher. The woman who once fled at the sight of a baby gecko stood up to a chimera's aqua-breath today, but he supposed the attack of Sinspawn during her wedding in Zanarkand helped her better realize her own durability. On only her third try, she had extracted a dozen Pyreflies from a small Iguion, but he tried not to seem too encouraging, alluding beginner's luck. Her fourth Iguion struck an endless leak and by her eighth and ninth, the lizards were detonating into a colorful swarm of delicate orbs before she had even properly begun the dance. It was difficult to give her the praise she deserved. Every time she sent a new Iguion, she'd give him that hopeful, expectant look, hungry for approval, and it pained him to deny it from her, but already she was sending a piece of him away along with every sent fiend, a section not already claimed by the Pyreflies.
In any case, he found himself drifting back a step farther than the last during the sending dance, and those last few Iguions he only nearly got out of the way in time before she stirred up the Pyreflies in him, a constant bilious gnawing in the back of his brain, insects crawling on the inside of his skull. The distress made him irritable. He didn't have this concern in Zanarkand, but now that he was back in Spira, all his old problems were still waiting for him.
Toying with her rod again, she wearily rolled it off the curve of her shoulder, swinging it in a way that made Auron edgy as the Pyreflies pulsed.
"Give me that," he snapped.
Pinching the book to the side of his ribs with his elbow, he tore the staff out of her hands, confiscating it. Immediately, he regretted his ill-temper as her face went from startled to sullen, her gloves disappearing broodingly into her coat pockets.
"Yes, Sir," she mumbled indignantly.
Auron glared obliquely at her. He hated that title.
"Did you bring Tidus here to die, too?" she asked dryly.
"Tidus made his choice," he said, but it felt like she'd driven the end of his katana into his chest. "You haven't made yours yet."
"Oh, now I have a choice?" she scoffed. "You hurtle me into Sin's butthole and now I have a choice?"
"You've always had a choice."
"Really?" she said ironically. "So if I asked you to take me home, would you think I was selfish because I didn't want to die?"
Auron didn't say anything.
"That's what I thought," she said.
"I recall a time you did want to die," Auron said coolly, after a few moments. "Very selfishly."
Sharply, she sipped the air. Auron kept his gaze straight ahead to avoid the hurt that was most definitely in her eyes.
"That's hitting below the belt, asshole."
"Believe me, if it was my decision, you'd still be in Zanarkand."
When they rounded the cliff, a sliver of the Travel Agency came into view and Auron felt the tug of the book from under his arm as Raine pried it free. She hugged it against her like she used to with her school texts. "I can carry a book at least."
With the eerie sagacity of two people who had spent more time with each other than anyone else in the last ten years, Auron and Raine came to a slow stop in the path, neither questioning the other about the halt. During a pregnant pause, Auron stared across the gorge, the shadows of the mountains cast long over the ice-covered lake as the chill of night advanced.
"Am I really the best candidate for a Pilgrimage?" she asked, tucking her face into her coat, bracing from a flurry of loose snow. "I don't even like walking that much."
"Among other things."
"I'm having a hard time believing my brother brought me here to die. I mean, if I'm going to die for a cause, I'd like to know what it is."
"That's fair," he muttered without enthusiasm. She was right about this. There were better Summoners out there and Tidus hadn't given Auron much to go on when he tasked him with monitoring his little sister.
Zanarkand Ruins was a graveyard of old memories, including his own, projecting off stray Pyreflies and shortly after Yuna chose Tidus as her Final Aeon, when Tidus took Auron aside, the memories began to repeat. That look of hesitancy in Tidus' desperate eyes was the same as Jecht's, and as Tidus anxiously scratched the back of his head, Auron knew what Tidus was going to ask. The cycle was repeating, replaying in front of him, spinning out of control. He had hoped for a new result, urged his comrades to get off the path he had worn down and begin hacking away a new one, but their shock and denial of Yevon's lies stunted them. Auron had changed nothing.
Raine pierced him with her blue eyes, cutting through the armor of his sunglasses like she always could, somehow able to look into the eye that wasn't there. "You can't keep secrets from me anymore. That's not what family does."
Auron looked at her wryly.
"It counts," she said defensively.
He sighed tetchily through his nose, but nodded. "I know."
"Come on, Auron. What is it? As his sister, it's up to me to avenge him? Eye for an eye and all that?"
Considering her, Auron rolled her staff back and forth across his shoulder, just as two men came out of the inn. He recognized them faintly as Guardians, but he couldn't recall their names or from whose pilgrimage they belonged to. One glanced over, quickly consulted the other, and then they both smiled at Auron and waved. Auron gave them a brisk nod and was relieved they didn't come over as they headed the opposite direction. Raine noticed the two men, but took strides to ignore them.
"Inside," Auron said, gesturing to the door.
"You can tell me now."
Auron hesitated.
She smiled cruelly, jerked her head towards the Guardians hiking away from them. "Are you afraid I'll make a scene?"
"You are your brother's sister," he muttered, jaw tensing. The last time he had this conversation, Tidus screamed at him on the deck of the S.S. Winno, but he knew Raine was too introverted to raise her voice in public. He peered over his glasses at her to capture her eye contact. "Let's get one thing straight. The Tidus you know is dead. You will never see him again."
Eyes widening, she bristled with the anticipation of his confession.
"Tidus is Sin."
Raine blanched and numbly shook her head. "But in Zanarkand, you said—"
"I know what I said," Auron murmured. "Many die fighting Sin, but only a few become Sin."
Raine's eyes unfocused, seeing something in her mind's eye only.
Auron's brow puckered. "Raine?"
By the time he noticed the sick green tint on her face, it was too late. Her vomit was mostly bile and water and it splattered his chest first before spilling down to his boots. Then she fainted.
*]
[*Zanarkand Marina
/]
[/The summer before Raine started college had been dedicated to the houseboat. Auron helped her gut it so she could have the mold removed and she had the carpets pulled up so the floors could dry out and hired an expert to have the machina rewired so she could have power. Everything Auron knew about machina he had learned from the Al Behd girl on his last pilgrimage, but it was enough to fool Raine into thinking he was expert. With a bit of tinkering, Auron managed to get the stove working, but was unable to restore the refrigerator, which was probably for the best since they never could get rid of the smell. Small wonder, considering the rotten fish they found liquefied and congealed in one of the bottom drawers. She ended up buying a used refrigerator from an auction-house. The outside walls had all been insulated with pink hard foam and the windows sealed, edging the houseboat's status to "barely liveable," just in time for the colder months, and when she started college, she put the renovation on hold to concentrate on her studies.
/]
[/ That had been six years ago.
/]
[/ Auron sat at the breakfast bar in a wobbly, high-back bar stool Raine rescued from someone's trash, along with three of its brothers. She had painted them white and sewed cushions for the seats and stenciled daisies on the backrests. The kitchen was being held together by shims and caulk and all the cupboard doors had been removed for refurbishing, exposing dry foods, canned goods and spices. Carefully slicing tomatoes and cucumbers on a butcher block of wood, Auron kept on the opposite side of the island counter at the outskirts of the kitchen, to stay out of Raine's way as she made dinner.
/]
[/Every morning, Raine managed to leave the ramshackle of a houseboat looking polished with city sophistication, her hair twisted up and pinned, although she was having some trouble getting used to her new bangs. She was constantly blowing them out of her eyes, fussing with them. She was still wearing her clothes from work, straight leg trousers and a pale blue shirt, although her blazer and press pass had been hastily draped on the stool next to him and her heels had been kicked off somewhere in the living area so she could pad around in bare feet.
/]
[/ "How was work?" Auron asked. He finished the tomato and started on the cucumber.
/]
[/ "Long," she stressed, leaning over the sink to the window. She rolled it open to let in the cool evening air and to help ventilate the steam from her sauce. Outside, the water lapped lazily against the docks. "Memorial Cup, you know."
/]
[/ Auron inclined his head in comprehension. The last Memorial Cup ended short when Sin used the Zanarkand Stadium as target practice, the day they pronounced Tidus dead when they couldn't find his body in the wreckage. This time, they were not only memorializing Jecht, but Tidus, too.
/]
[/ "What happened?"
/]
[/ "A full half hour of sudden-death overtime. The Abes squeaked by with a winning goal in the last ten seconds. I was the only one who could do post-game interviews."
/]
[/ "Where was Colton?"
/]
[/ "At home with the flu," she said, but she seemed almost chipper about it.
/]
[/ Finished with his task, Auron handed Raine the cutting board for inspection and she grinned. "I like how all the cucumbers are perfectly cut to the same size." She scraped the cut vegetables into the bowl of lettuce with the dull side of a knife. "Split a beer?"
/]
[/ "Sure," he said and slipped down from the chair to grab a glass from the doorless cupboard by the sink. Out the window, the docks glowed from the pillars of light marking each houseboat and the sea air was salty and breezy and across the sparkling bay, the Zanarkand skyline glittered against the night.
/]
[/ Raine found a bottle in the refrigerator and they met in the middle of the kitchen to trade so he could twist the bottle cap off. It opened with quick hiss and Raine held the glass he'd given to her, at a tilt to reduce the foam, as Auron poured. When they had equal amounts, she tapped his bottle with her glass with a ceremonious clink before they toasted each other and took a sip. For a moment, she was six-year-old Raine again, ticking together plastic tea cups, raising their pretend beverages to each other, ingesting something imaginary. He wondered if she remembered how they used to do this when she was little, or if it was something he had taught her to do without her realizing it.
/]
[/ Settling back on his perch, he held the bottle between his hands and watched her for a few minutes as she stirred the sauce, flipped down the heat and covered the pan.
/]
[/ Reaching into the cupboard for plates, she paused, glancing over her shoulder at him. "Are you going to eat anything tonight?"
/]
[/ "I'm not hungry. Sorry."
/]
[/ "No worries," she said, a rare glint of Tidus bleeding through. She made a carefree gesture with a roll of her shoulders that made Auron cease in mid-sip so he could take notice and absorb it fondly, glumly. He remembered a bit of dialogue with Jecht from years ago, around the fire with Summoner Braska, another casual gripe about Tidus. "He cries more than his baby sister," Jecht complained in his gritty voice. "And that girl's always playin' in the dirt. Mother says she's a Tomboy." Then he would grumble something unintelligible, pretend to rub the smoke out of his eye.
/]
[/ Raine fixed her plate and pulled over one of her stenciled bar stools to sit across from him. She crossed her legs and put a napkin on her lap.
/]
[/ "So you did post-game interviews?" he asked, circling back to her talk of work.
/]
[/ Warily, she slid her eyes to his. "Ye-ess," she said, somehow making it a two syllable word.
/]
[/ "Women's locker?"
/]
[/ Spearing one of every vegetable onto her fork, she took a bite and shook her head no.
/]
[/ Auron glowered down at his beer and took a sip.
/]
[/ Raine grinned roguishly as she talked around her salad. "Oh, Auron, it's nothing I've never seen before."
/]
[/ "It's not you I'm concerned about."
/]
[/ "The men are gentlemen… it's the women's room you have to watch. They don't cut men journalists any slack."
/]
[/ Auron rolled his eye. "Hmph."
/]
[/ He didn't follow her to the Stadium, not anymore. She had put up with him in high school and through college, but once she entered the Zanarkand work-force, she had a credible reputation to uphold. Sometimes Auron stopped by the Stadium to check on her, usually around lunch time when she'd be eating at one of the vendors and had time to visit with him. She considerately let him know if she was going to be late, which was new and a little strange for him. Oddly intimate.
/]
[/ "Oh," she said, shaking her fork at him. "Before I forget. The toilet is doing that thing again."
/]
[/ "I'll look at it."
/]
[/ Her eyes flew to the clock over the stove. "Shoot, what time is it?"
/]
[/ Fumbling with the remote in the junk basket under the counter, she activated the curved holographic screen in the parlor and rotated it so they could watch from the galley. Raine clicked through the sports channels, stopping at her network. Auron turned to watch, moving gingerly in the unstable chair.
/]
[/ The sports anchors were older, greyer and stuffier than Auron hoped he'd ever get, deep in discussion about the season's chances for the Zanarkand Abes, before introducing Raine in the locker room. She was dwarfed next to the bare-chested Blitzball player, who was in some stage of undress, but it was hard to tell from the angle of the sphere-cam. He was still wet from the sphere pool and water dripped off the ends of his shaggy hair. Auron was familiar with his fresh-from-the-fight appearance, full of charged adrenaline and vitality, as well as the faintly vacant eyes of a typical jock. Raine was her usual professional self and never once gave the impression she noticed the Blitzball star was half naked.
/]
[/ "You guys escaped with a win tonight, how do you feel right now?"
/]
[/ Somewhere off camera, a small riot of excitement distracted the athlete, but Raine commanded his attention as she beckoned him like a siren with her microphone. "I feel pretty good, defense put on a good game and offense played their butts off."
/]
[/ "What was the biggest challenge their offense brought tonight?"
/]
[/ "Actually the center had a really good game, he's got a wither shot we really have to look out for, but we kept up our perimeters and held it up really well. They were doing a lot of tackle slips and pile venoms, so we'll watch the spheres next practice and fix it."
/]
[/ "You guys are playing the Zanarkand Duggles next; will that be the biggest challenge yet?" Raine asked.
/]
[/ While the Blitzball player talked about the other teams' techs and formations, Auron felt a swell of pride for Raine, that familiar tightening in his throat. Submerged in her prepared and relaxed TV realm, Raine was refined and competent for the sphere-cam, the light wisps of blonde hair framing her lean face, her voice crisp, stripped of regionalism, her words solid and clear, not at all like the mumbles and sarcastic murmurs off camera that Auron got to witness.
/]
[/ "It was a tough game out there tonight, we're just going to scheme them up and practice hard and see what happens. They've got a solid flatline form, so we really just have to contain them and do our best to make shots. The Duggles are really making some strides in dismantling the Jecht Shot, so we'll just have to beat them at their own game."
/]
[/ The sphere camera switched to the anchors at the desk, at the top of the stadium. "The Jecht Shot, as you know, was the trademark goal-making move of the legendary Jecht."
/]
[/ Raine was on camera again, her smile bright, unpretentious, her playful tongue in cheek expression flirted with the camera. "Yes, Gabe, I think I know that more than anyone."
/]
[/ Behind Auron, Raine's mouth was full of salad when she snorted. "At least I don't look as pissed as I felt."
/]
[/ With a scripted laugh and exaggerated lilt, the anchor said, "Of course, our own reporter Raine is the daughter of Jecht and brother of Tidus, the center for the Abes 8 years ago."
/]
[/ "Hmm," Auron said, indifferent, as the show went to commercial.
/]
[/ She prickled. "What?"
/]
[/ "Your eyes are too dark."
/]
[/ "It's the sphere-cam make-up," she said, dismissive, eating the hot pasta and red sauce carefully.
/]
[/ "Your eyes look small."
/]
[/ "Are you blind in the other eye, too? Maybe you don't know what you're seeing." There was a mocking challenge in her tone.
/]
[/ Auron arched his eyebrow, faintly smiling.
/]
[/ Twirling her pasta onto her fork, her mood darkened. "Something didn't feel right about tonight, though."
/]
[/ "Why?"
/]
[/ "The whole memorial. My dad, my brother. Everyone here thinks they're dead. I mean, they are, but not the way they think. They're giving them a memorial for all the wrong reasons. And I'm on sphere-cam, covering it, adding to the lie."
/]
[/ "Would it be easier if you didn't know?"
/]
[/ "I don't know," she said thoughtfully. She shrugged to indicate she'd get over it and a drop of red sauce hit the chest of her shirt. Swiping it with her finger, she sucked it off. "Dammit. I manage not to splash the whole time until I sit down to eat."
/]
[/ She began undoing the buttons, revealing a white camisole with lace trim and Auron's faint smile transformed to a vague scowl as his eye sunk down to her cleavage first before swimming around to her bare arms, shoulders and neck, all tinted through his sunglasses. The outline of her black bra showed beneath the nearly translucent fabric clinging to her curves. When his gaze traveled up, he felt the spike of surprise as he met her direct eye contact, followed by the burn of shame, even though she most likely couldn't tell what he was looking at through the reflection of his sunglasses. But she sat unblinking, seemingly holding her breath and he realized she was no fool.
/]
[/ Auron dropped his face and studied the label of his beer bottle, guiltily shifting in his shaky chair.
/]
[/ "What do you have planned tomorrow?" she said, nonchalant. It sounded like she was changing the subject, although her jest about his near-sighted eye was the final punctuation to their previous topic.
/]
[/ "Probably go to the shipyard, see if the supervisor has any work for me."
/]
[/ "Auron, you don't have to work. I need you here at my beck and call." She smiled impishly and tilted her head back to sip her beer, looking at him playfully through her lashes. He was hypnotized by the angle of her neck as she swallowed.
/]
[/ "You need a new toilet. I can only repair the old one so many times." So many times, before he broke it completely.
/]
[/ "I don't want a new toilet until I can afford it myself. I want to finish this place on my own." She shrugged one shoulder casually and winked at him. "And the kindness of others."
/]
[/ Pushing back her plate, she propped her foot on the seat of her stool, hugging her knee with one arm and finished off her beer. The stool shifted dangerously, but held. Genuinely startled when she burped, she shielded her mouth bashfully to excuse herself.
/]
[/ Sweet Raine, he thought, and offered to take her plate, as he did every night. She still had the grace to act surprised every time he washed her dishes and this was usually done in companionable silence, as she read the sports page for her bylines. She read with one leg tucked under the other, and tonight she played with her newly chopped bangs, running her fingers through them, absently twisting them around her finger. Sometimes he would catch her trying to look up at her bangs, a strange, possessed look that made him smirk behind his collar. On nights like this, he found the domestic routine agreeable and on certain occasions he felt like he belonged in Raine's houseboat, this was his home and she was his family.
/]
[/ Later, she folded the paper and tossed it to the table, propping both feet on her counter, leaning back hazardously in the rickety bar stool.
/]
[/ "Auron, I want to ask you something."
/]
[/ Standing at the sink, without his cloak, just trousers, breastplate, collar and boots, he rinsed a glass. "You may ask me anything." Fortunately, Raine usually didn't know the right questions to ask him, despite her reporter's background.
/]
[/ "How much longer are you staying?"
/]
[/ Auron paused and then submerged another glass in the hot water. "I can leave anytime."
/]
[/ "No, I mean, how much longer until you have to go back to Bevelle?"
/]
[/ "Two years."
/]
[/ "Two years?" she whispered.
/]
[/ Auron looked over his shoulder, his hands still in the sink. "Is that a problem?"
/]
[/ "Must you go back?"
/]
[/ "I can't very well live in your spare room forever."
/]
[/ "Why not?"
/]
[/ Auron sighed inwardly. "The pilgrimage."
/]
[/ "Oh yes. Duty calls." Raine locked eyes with him and she didn't let go until Auron turned to drain the water. She dropped her feet from the counter and hopped off the stool. "I'm going to bed early. Lock up?"
/]
[/ "Hmm," he said, a yes.
/]
[/ Most nights did not end this way, talking about the impending pilgrimage. There would be time for that later and he much preferred the normality, the pleasant monotony, of her work-chat or discussions of house repairs. Years ago, he knew she would soon want to do what most women her age were doing. Get married, have children. He wanted her to be happy in Zanarkand while she still could, but how was he going to take her away from a husband who loved her and children who depended on her?
/]
[/ Raine stopped at the hall to her room, her hand against one of the exposed wall studs and looked down at her shoulder so she could see him peripherally. "I'm glad you decided to move in."
/]
[/ Auron nodded definitively. Living under the same roof with Raine had its challenges, but he was better able to protect her this way. What he did or didn't want was irrelevant. "It makes more sense, don't you think?"
/]
[/ "I do. Hey, Auron?"
/]
[/ "Yes?"
/]
[/ "Is your bed comfortable?"
/]
[/ Slipping the dish towel from a ring under the sink Auron dried the suds off his hands and wondered if she found a new mattress on clearance. "It's more than I need," he said. He slept rarely, if at all.
/]
[/ She started to go into the hall, changed her mind. She gave nothing away, her eyes clear as she examined him. "Because, if there's anything I can do to make your bed…more comfortable, you will let me know?"
/]
[/ Auron stopped wiping his hands, straightened his shoulders and gazed at her. Her meaning weakened his knees. Forget she was Tidus' sister, forget she was 20 years younger, forget how she called him Owen until she was 9… he had a mind to follow her into her bedroom to discover just how comfortable her bed was.
/]
[/ But forgetting was too hard. "Raine, everything you give me is more than I need."
/]
[/ Rubbing the side of her face with her shoulder, she sagged and faced the hall, strangely rejected. "Good night, Auron."
/]
[/ "Good night, Raine."
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