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Room 4, Rin's Travel Agency, Macalania

Raine felt far away.

Auron's exhilaration was laced with dread as he cinched his arms a little tighter around Raine, attempting to lure her into the present, but she was blankly preoccupied. An uneasy silence thickened before his organ had completely drained and he tucked it away. Quickly.

Rigidly unraveling from his arms, she buttoned two arbitrary shirt buttons, swiped the garter from the nightstand, and found her pajama bottoms at the end of the bed.

"Where are you going?" Auron asked.

"To clean up."

Auron trained her with a sharp eye as she fished her underwear out of the flannel pant leg, keeping her back to him as she snapped on the bathroom light and closed the door.

Damn.

A Guardian should make a Pilgrimage easier, not complicate it.

Squeezing his lips together, Auron rolled onto his back, raising his head off the bed as he tied the drawstrings on his trousers, then entwined his fingers behind his head as he stared at the ceiling.

Nothing about today had been easy for her. Jet-lagged, hungry, homesick…. He couldn't help to think it was a matter of timing. How different would things be if he had just asked her not to marry Jory? Maybe if he had taken her to bed in Zanarkand, when everything was simpler, when the air smelled different and the food had flavor, she might still be in his arm now, pestering him with some form of pillow talk. She would not be locked in the bathroom and he would not be wondering when a man finally was immune to making mistakes.

Mistakes.

Seizing with panic, Auron sat up straight. "Raine?" he called, his voice deep, hard.

The seven seconds it took for her to answer felt excruciatingly long. Auron heard nothing but the Pyreflies rustling frantically at the back of his skull, reminding him Raine had ventured out of their comfort zone.

"Yeah?" Her muffled voice echoed from the bathroom acoustics.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Auron exhaled. "Nothing."

Interestingly enough, the Pyreflies were not only quieter when Raine was near, but they were downright mute when he was balls deep in her, and he couldn't help the curl of his lips as he smiled to himself. He had to admit she was a worthy contender, her contribution instinctive and mostly unquestioning, but maybe he'd shown too much of himself, he thought, and his smile faded. With a sinking sensation, Auron had the oddest notion that his skin was see-through and Raine didn't like what she saw.

Unable to shake his disturbing thoughts, he rolled off the bed, approaching the cart by the door. He rattled through the dishes, the uncovered trays. Raine's fork, knife and spoon were under a napkin on her unfinished plate, and he checked the other sets of flatware to make sure they were all complete, namely the knives.

I've made so much progress and you coming back…well, it's liable to set me back.

There had been a reason she had sent him away in Zanarkand. Maybe he should've heeded it.

At the bathroom door, he gripped the door knob and knocked.

What was she doing in there?

To his surprise, the door was unlocked, and he swung it open, too fast. He discovered her on the toilet in a curious position, head down, legs apart, looking critically down at her thick blond nest of pubic hair. At his entrance, she straightened, pinned her knees together, her expression melted with embarrassment.

"What are you doing?" he asked around a bewildered smile.

"Auron," she scolded. "Privacy?"

After careful consideration of what he'd walked in on, Auron leisurely faced the door. "I thought it would be locked."

"I'll lock it next time," she muttered. "I didn't realize you had issues with your impulse control."

Auron smirked. If she only knew the impulses he'd resisted over the years.

Leaning a hip on the edge of the sink, he noticed her garter sitting by the basin, but it was her ring that snagged a double look. He looked away from it swiftly; one more thing he wasn't supposed to see, but he couldn't ignore it. "Having regrets?"

Her pause was careful, tentative. "About what?"

Pinching the ring between his index finger and thumb, Auron held it up over his shoulder so she would see it.

"Maybe," she sighed. Auron heard the papery flick of toilet paper and the shuffle of her movements as she finished up. "I don't know. I think I need to see more cards before I answer that."

"Fair enough." Behind him, the toilet flushed. "Which cards would you like to see?"

"It will have to be a personal one, I think," she said, standing next to him, turning on the faucet to wash her hands.

She was wearing just her pajama top and underwear and his eye darted straight to her legs. A swing of desire came readily over him. He wanted her again and the Pyreflies danced at the thought, but now wasn't the time. Considering her temperament, it might never be the time again. "I figured. You're being abnormally unsociable."

Without looking up at him, her forehead crumpled, affecting annoyance. "No I'm not. You did exactly what I asked, thank you."

Auron laughed, hard and gritty, but stopped abruptly when Raine shot him a cursory look. He had suspected it before, but now he wondered seriously if Raine was pursuing momentary diversion, to distract herself from their Pilgrimage. He knew he should feel hurt, used, maybe angry, but he instead felt strangely turned on. This ruthless version of Raine was quite unexpected. "You think I only did that because you wanted me to?"

"Didn't you?"

He conceded with a side nod. "Partly. I hear it's not as fun with only one enthusiastic participant."

She bullishly smothered a grin, tried instead to look defiant. "Is that what you had? Fun?"

He raised one brow. "Wasn't it obvious?"

"It was a little more than just fun, don't you think?"

She was seeking verification of his feelings. They were present and accounted for and his larynx dropped to say it, but his lips stayed sealed. The longer the pause, the more difficult it became.

Flushing, she shook her head to dismiss him from answering and hastily dried her hands on the towel. "Never mind," she said and quickly circled around him to leave the bathroom.

Auron caught her by the elbow and said, a little too bitterly, "Don't forget your ring."

With an irritated sigh, she reached for the ring between his fingers, but Auron didn't let go right away. She tugged and when he still didn't let her have it, she frowned up at him.

He said, "I've always believed actions speak louder than words." Releasing the gold trinket, he hoped she understood his meaning. Lying with her was more than fun.

"Is that so?" she asked, clipped.

She held up her left hand for him to see, making a rather ostentatious demonstration as she displayed the ring in her other hand, between her thumb and forefinger. A second later, she deliberately joined the ring to her left ring-finger, sliding it purposefully in place. Her point was not lost on him. Raine intended to stay married and she expected Auron to act accordingly.

Shadowing her out of the bathroom, Auron pressed his shoulder on the mount of the door and folded his arms. Raine straightened the coverlet, crumpled from their previous activity, and slipped underneath, lying on her back. She had picked the left side, where he had tucked her in earlier, and he interpreted the Auron-sized gap on the right as an invitation. Crossing the room, he mirrored her under the blankets, both of them steely, staring at the ceiling. He waited for her card request and wondered why he was always the one with cards to show.

"When is it your turn?" he asked.

"My turn?"

"To discard."

She turned her head so her cheek rested on her pillow. "You want to see one of my cards?"

"Hmm."

"All you have to do is look," she said, pointing her chin back to the ceiling. "My cards are all face up in front of me."

He twisted his lips, bemused. "I think there are a few stashed up your sleeve."

She sighed. "You're surprised by this? You've given me a lot to think about today."

"I tried not to overwhelm you. But you're too damn smart."

Smiling sadly, she said, "I just wish we had more time."

Auron paused. "It's still your choice," he reminded.

"Say I don't do the pilgrimage. Will you find another Summoner to guard?"

"I am a Guardian." Raine didn't respond and in the quiet, the Pyreflies in his head fluttered in revolt. For the first time, he speculated the Pyreflies were actually reacting to his own tempers, instead of acting independently of him. "But I'll come back."

"If you're not Sin," Raine muttered.

"Little chance of that," he said. Finding one person with an appropriate bond was difficult enough.

"If you don't come back dead, then."

Auron clenched and stared at the ceiling.

"Look, I'm not faulting you for it. It's like Tidus and Blitzball, it's what he does."

"And what is it you do?" Auron asked.

"I don't know," she said with a light shake of her head. "My sports anchor job in Zanarkand…it's not who I am. I don't have a pull like you and Tidus do."

"You just haven't found it yet."

"Maybe it's Summoning, and I just don't know it."

"Maybe," he said automatically. He didn't think so, but he'd been wrong before.

"How long has it been since you've been to bed with someone?"

"Years."

"Was it Lulu?" she asked without hesitation.

He wanted to ask the relevancy, but he promised to show her cards. "It wasn't Lulu."

"Was it ever?"

"No, Raine," he said sternly so she would quit asking. Lulu had been a Guardian and a friend, as was the Ronso, the Al Behd girl and the red-headed Blitzballer. "The last time was before I came to Zanarkand. The first time." Before the Pyreflies reanimated him.

"Who?"

"Their names escape me," he said and when he felt her harden, added, "I've never been with anyone more than once." He wasn't sure that last part was helpful, either.

She pondered that for a while, emoting nothing conclusive and eventually said, "Well, you are a hard man to impress."

Auron grinned. Incidentally, after learning Auron was a recently dismissed monk, it was Jecht who orchestrated Auron's lost virginity, anticipating Auron might be less of a "stiff." The woman whose name Auron had long forgotten, if he had ever known it, had come up to his room after the party had retired for the evening and she declared there were no refunds, insinuating she had already been paid for. Auron suspected it was a lark, just to see what he would do, as if Jecht didn't really expect Auron to go through with it. But Auron simply widened his door and let her inside. If Jecht knew then what Auron was doing now to his only daughter…Auron closed his eye and tried not to think about it. It had a serendipitous feel, but Auron was convinced Jecht and Tidus wouldn't see it that way.

After a few moments of thoughtful quiet, Raine said, "No one's ever done that to me before."

"Done what?"

"Remember when you asked me if I was sure?"

Auron's lips twitched. "Yes."

"Everything after that."

He glanced over, questioning.

"Jory was the missionary-type," she explained and looked down at her hands folded across her belly. He could tell she was uncomfortable bringing up Jory, but this was probably the only context where Auron didn't mind.

"Ah," he said and tried not to sound too smug.

"You must have been with a lot of women with more experience than me." Raine peeked over uncertainly. "Do you remember the woman who liked your tongue in her backside?"

"Although they probably wouldn't have protested, yours is the first I've…tasted," he said with a chuckle.

"Tasted," she repeated with a shudder of revulsion.

Auron mocked insult. "The Summoner is not pleased with my technique?"

"Oh, the Summoner is pleased. I just never pegged you for an ass-man."

Remembering her on her knees in front of him, holding her ass up to him as an offering, Auron was glad he was safely under the covers. "What did you peg me for?"

"Boob-man, considering all the looks you used to sneak in the houseboat."

"You might think differently if you'd been aware of the stares when your back was turned."

She giggled and her hand reached across him until she found his hand. Pulling it down into the space between them, she laced her fingers with his. No one had ever held his hand before. He rather enjoyed the frivolous weight of it and Auron let his drowsy eye close, contently listening to her heart beat.

"I was thinking about shaving. Down there."

Eye opening, he said, "Is that what you were doing?" He faintly smiled at the recent memory of her self-examination on the toilet. "I hope you reconsider. I need fewer reminders of our age difference. Not more."

"It's only polite to clean up when expecting visitors."

"I prefer you looking as a woman, not pubescent."

"Speaking of pubescent…"

Auron regretted his choice of words. "Raine…."

"Why did you make me wait so long?" she asked ruefully.

"Had I handled you the way I had tonight before you were ready—"

"You were absolutely right to let me suffer in teenage angst, Auron, but I recall making you an offer in my early twenties."

"I was…." Auron wavered. "Not ready."

She dimmed. "I shouldn't have been so forward."

"I shouldn't have been so craven."

She rubbed his palm with her thumb, her nail catching a stiff callous and she absently picked at it. "How old are you, anyway?"

He chuckled. "I was 25 when I started my first pilgrimage."

She clicked her tongue. "You're forcing me to do math?"

Although he was still aging, he was actually 25. If he thought of it that way, she was really just a year older than him. And if he got really technical, he might remind himself her Zanarkand was 1000 years behind his Spira. But he had not gotten around to telling her these sorts of details and it made him slightly sick knowing these conversations were still looming. He had best stick to the numbers that would make sense to her until then.

"There are exactly 20 years between us," Auron said. Give or take 1000.

"Forty-six," she said, as if testing how his age felt on her tongue. She cautiously sipped air. "My father was 25 when he had me."

"I've always been painfully aware how close in age I am to your father." Had he lived, Jecht would be 51 this year, but Auron refused to reflect on how much time had gone by since his first Pilgrimage. Only old men did that. "If this makes you uncomfortable—"

"Auron, I've never been more comfortable with you than I am now. For once, you're talking to me like I'm an adult."

He didn't want to ruin the moment by asking about her therapist's diagnosis or if Raine still thought their attachment was harmful to her psychological health. It couldn't be more destructive than her relationship with Jory, which Auron suspected Raine kept secret from her doctor. "I think I know why Jecht asked me to watch over Tidus and not you."

"Why's that?"

"You're stronger than Tidus, and he knew it. Smarter, too. He knew you didn't need me."

"And again I'm punished for my strength," she said. "Admit it, Auron. I pale in comparison to Tidus, Jecht's prized star-player. We all know a daughter could never be as good at Blitzball as the legendary Jecht."

"Don't be pessimistic. "

"And I beg to differ on my need for you," she said with renewed frustration. "So would Tidus, I imagine, since Tidus obviously thought I needed your minding."

Auron didn't say anything. He was still trying to figure that one out, too.

"I hated how unfair it was Tidus got all your attention and you never included me in any of your activities."

"If it makes you feel better, I'll refrain from including Tidus in any of our activities."

Raine laughed and flashed him a sneaky look. "Activities? Plural?"

"One of us should stay optimistic."

She laughed again and Auron grinned at her. Her smile idled a long time and it was still there when she asked, "When did you start thinking of me like that?"

Auron blinked, startled, and furrowed his brow. "Ask me something else."

Her eyes widened. "How young was I?"

"It's…" He scowled. "Complicated."

"You don't think I know that? If anyone's going to understand our complexities, it's going to be me."

She was right, but it wasn't easy to explain.

"I'll tell you when I started," she offered.

He passed her a wry look. "I think I know."

"My childhood crush on you doesn't count."

"Then it doesn't matter," Auron said firmly, squeezing her hand. "Only now counts."

Smiling wickedly, she said, "You don't want to know when I started touching myself while thinking of you?"

The mental image goaded a jolt from his groin, but he disguised it with a disgruntled, "Hmph."

She rolled over to face him. "Seventeen."

He glowered at her persistence, but she had provoked his interest nevertheless.

"It was that night on Gagazet. Do you remember?"

"I remember." He narrowed his eye furtively. "Seems like an odd time."

"After you walked me home, I received a half-hearted lecture from Aunt Naya and I went upstairs to my room, changed into my pajamas, got into bed and—"

"I get it." He remembered that night he'd been standing in his usual spot within the clump of juniper trees, in the backyard where he could keep an eye on her window on the lower level. Of course, when the light had gone out, he thought she'd been sleeping.

"Sometimes I would imagine you were watching while I—"

He cleared his throat, trying to get his wits about him. "I said I get it."

"Other times, I would pretend I was in Jory's car again, and you would come barging in, throw Jory out and come into the backseat with me and lock the door."

A half-smile crept onto his face as he pictured himself in place of Jory in the backseat of his car, groping Raine with the frantic abandon of a Zanarkand raised teenager. He shifted the blankets around his emergent erection.

She smirked. "Your turn."

Gauging her with his eye, he inhaled a long breath through his mouth and held it appraisingly, judging if he should tell her.

She blinked. "Oh my, was I a kid?"

"No," he snapped and then gave a torn shake of his head as he tried to remember when he stopped thinking of her as a child, which might have been sometime last week and that was hardly an exaggeration. "Your mother's funeral."

Her head came off the pillow a fraction. "I was 14."

"You…appealed to me."

She wolfishly grinned.

He rolled his eye. "Not like that. It was platonic."

"I was such a mess that day." She jutted her jaw pitifully. "And as I recall, you were mean."

"I know, I'm sorry." He stroked his thumb over the bumps of her knuckles. "You surprised me that day. You were so cynical for a girl your age and I kept seeing glints of myself in you."

"That's nice, it really is, but it doesn't exactly answer my question."

With a sigh, Auron turned on his side toward her but his sunglasses dug into the back of his ear and he took them off. Folding them neatly, he handed them to Raine and she reached back to set them on the nightstand. She snuggled back into her pillow and waited for him. Light had a muted appearance through the filter of his sunglasses and without them, her golden hair now looked on fire, as if the sun was hitting it instead of the soft lamp light on the dresser. He had to squint to look at her.

"You were eighteen."

She lifted her eyebrows doubtfully. "Eighteen?"

"That day on the swings."

Groaning, she covered her eyes. "Another bad day? Why can't you remember the days when I looked cute and was having good hair?"

"Those bad days, as you put it," he said with light grit in his voice, "were your best days of personal growth."

He remembered them because they shaped her into the woman he would eventually care deeply for, but it didn't hurt on that day she was wearing her short cheerleading skirt and the matching tight sweater and she had touched his hair in a way that made his spine tingle.

"Wait a second. That day on the swings, I wasn't 18 yet."

He glared at her. "To me you were. Do you want to hear this or not?"

"Of course, please."

"Do you remember when you and Tidus were children and you used to play on the swings together?"

She narrowed her eyes into wary slits. "Ye—esss." Two syllables.

"You had difficulty swinging on your own and Tidus would let you sit on his lap so you could both pump your legs."

"Lots of kids did that. It made the swing go higher."

"Yes, well…." He slipped a finger between the buttons of her pajama top, stroking the dip of cleavage there. "There were no swings at the monastery where I grew up. I imagine I would need help learning to…pump."

Something deviant burned in her cool blue eyes. "Swings, huh? You're kinky."

"Hmph. So we've established." He raised his eyebrow sardonically. "Have my answers satisfied you?"

"Just the opposite," she said with a suggestive curl of her lips, sliding her fingers through his chest hair.

Laughing, he turned her hand and kissed her palm, noticing the braid of dark tissue across her wrist. Gently, he twisted her hand up to see her scar better. His scar.

Raine's focus changed, looking at something behind him, until Auron realized she was looking at his dead eye. Her gaze followed its path from the apple of his cheek up to the side of his forehead, back down again, her expression flatly casual, like she was scanning the sports page. Remembering herself, she snapped her attention back to Auron's good eye.

Raising her hand to his face, he softly kissed the twisted flesh before guiding her fingers up to the blind side of his face. Startled, her eyes searched his, as if to ask if he was sure, and he nodded once.

Her breath quickened as she cupped his cheek, gravely studying his scar, outlining the wound with her thumb. Some parts he could feel, some he couldn't. Aside from his own hands, his scar had never been touched before. Propping herself on an elbow, she grazed his cheek with her nose before her lips brushed against the edge of his beard, traveling upwards to his eye, her breath hot on his cheek and temple as she licked upwards to his eye socket, swirling her soft tongue where the lids were fused together. Auron raggedly sighed, suddenly aware of a nerve linking his eye to his groin, and he groped for her under the coverlet, pulling her warm body on top of his.

Her knees tightened around his waist, her pubic bone settling in a not unpleasant way against his erection. His hand went to the back of her neck to lower her face to his and she kissed him hard, their teeth hitting. This was his first "second time," and Auron was delighted with the urgency of it, their intense kisses, eager writhes and bold caresses.

When she broke away, a thin spider-web of silvery spit glinted as it connected their lips and Raine's eyes were primal as she wiped her bottom lip with the back of her hand. She eased up, tugging her shirt up over her head. Without the dark screen of his glasses, her nipples appeared paler and pinker than before and there was a tender flush of arousal in her cheeks he hadn't noticed last time. Her breasts beckoned him and he sat up to kiss them, his hands tracing the spine and muscles in her back. Fingers burying in his hair, Raine bent back slightly to watch him, her breath uneven between her wet lips as she smoothly steered him to the breast that needed the most attention.

Hardly able to stand the friction in his pants anymore, Auron fell back on his elbows. For a moment Raine looked lost and Auron offered her a hint, his eye flicking down to the tent of his arousal before arching an eyebrow at her. Grinning, Raine fumbled with his drawstrings as if opening a wrapped present and one of her hands brushed against the tip of his erection. He flinched and groaned.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

He was about to let her know it wasn't a groan of pain, but by then she had peeled his trousers down until he sprung free. She stopped, giving his erection a puzzled look and checking inside his pants. Auron scowled, irritated by his own insecurity. There was not a chance in hell Jory was more impressive than him.

"Do you always go commando?" she whispered.

"Commando?"

"You know, without underwear?"

"Oh," he grinned. "Always."

With a nervous giggle, she grabbed him with both hands and kneeled down to put him in her mouth. He sharply inhaled and then lowly moaned in exhale. He nearly let his head dangle backward in pleasant relaxation, but he was fascinated by the sight of Raine cradling his balls and he didn't want to miss the occasional look she'd shoot up at him to measure his response. He resisted the urge to jerk his hips upwards, the incredible pressure of her strong tongue squeezing him against the roof of her mouth, the tugging, vacuum sensation of her sucking drawing him further into her. With a wet pop, her lips came free.

"You're very good at that," he grumbled, hating the idea that whiney Duggle ever enjoyed her lips like that.

With a cool smile, she rocked forward and toyed with him between her thighs, lining him up to her. She sunk down and he hissed like he was dipping into a Gagazet hot spring. Her walls were scorching, her body temperature so much higher than his, and they gasped at the same time as they acclimated to the other. Raine shivered, clenching around him and Auron lifted his knees, clutched her waist and planted his feet on the bed to drive into her. Every plunge did amazing things to her breasts.

Like a bolt, Auron sat up, holding her against him. He tried to throw her down on the pillow without sliding out, but it couldn't be done.

Raine squirmed to adjust to the new position. "I thought it was my turn to be on top," she breathed.

"Next time," he rasped. "It's time I give missionary a try." He leaned back slightly to look down between her legs, her blonde pubic hair matted and dark from their fluids, and reinserted himself. Lifting up on his knees, he grabbed one of her thighs and stretched her leg back, flinging the crook of her knee over his shoulder.

She smiled lazily. "Missionary with modifications," she said and jerked when he jammed into her.

He experimented with different angles until he found one that made her gasp. As she smashed shut her eyes, her head pressed a deep crater into her pillow. Immediately, Auron drew out until just the tip of him remained inside. "Did I hurt you?"

"Yes," she said breathlessly.

Auron froze, unsure how to proceed, but she opened her eyes into thin slits, looking at him through her lashes.

"Do it again," she whispered.

Grinning, he kissed the side of her knee and thrust forward. Arching, her moan was nearly a scream and Auron knew he'd found the right spot again. He drove into her, his gentle bumps eliciting soft moans at first, and then he began stabbing into her. She was beyond sounds now, her fists collecting wads of his chest hair. He hissed, but didn't slow down until he felt the shudder of her orgasm. Auron pounded once more, feeling the pleasurable pinch of her cervix, spurting his own silent explosion. He crashed on top of her, exhaustively spent.

"I'm getting sweat on you," she said between breaths and pushed on his shoulders.

He hadn't noticed, but flopped over on his back anyway. Raine's chest was still quickly rising and falling, droplets of perspiration beading on her smooth breasts. "I need to shower again," she declared.

Auron nodded. "Let's go."

C-South Residence
/]
[/In the fading evening light, before the street lights were activated, Auron waited idle on the front stoop, surveying the local children as they played freeze-tag in the street. Across the road, one of the neighbors was watering his garden and another neighbor was at her mailbox, sorting through magazines and bills. Limping down the sidewalk in front of the house, an old man with his grey-muzzled dog raised his hand in amiable greeting and Auron nodded back, wishing Raine would hurry up.
/]
[/ Behind him, the door finally unlatched and Auron faced Raine. She was still in her cheerleading uniform, but seemed better now since their conversation on the swings. She summoned him inside. "They said it was okay."
/]
[/ "You said they wouldn't mind," Auron said.
/]
[/ "They don't," she said with a simper. "I asked them."
/]
[/ Auron braced himself and stepped over the threshold, into the entryway of the split-level home of Raine's great aunt and uncle, the first—and last—time he had been inside. It was humid and smelled of roasting meat. The game was on upstairs and it was intermingled with the general sounds of cooking: running water, a spoon beating the side of a sauce pan and the heavy, muffled boil of something thick. Downstairs was dark, below ground and faintly dank.
/]
[/ "You can take your boots off here," Raine said, pointing down to the rug with a pile of shoes in an array of sizes. Her sneakers were already at the top of the pile.
/]
[/ Auron didn't usually like taking his boots off for any reason so that he was always battle ready, but he doubted a fiend would come tearing through sleepy C-South. Leaning his sword on the wall next to a brass coat rack, he bent down to loosen the laces, then propped against the door to kick off his boots. Considering his gauntlet for a moment, he snapped it off and hung it from one of the coat-rack's hooks.
/]
[/ "Can I take your coat?" she asked eagerly.
/]
[/ "No. Thanks."
/]
[/ Her eyes were dancing. "Do you want to see my room?"
/]
[/ "I've seen it."
/]
[/ "From the inside?"
/]
[/ Auron hesitated, wondering the harm in humoring her, but was instantly suspicious of his own judgment to be alone with her in her room. Possibly, it was to prolong the inevitable meeting of her aunt and uncle.
/]
[/ "I'm going to show Auron my room," Raine called up the stairs.
/]
[/ Auron shook his head, disapproving, but she just smiled at him. What made Raine believe her aunt would think that was anything but a bad idea?
/]
[/ "I'll call you when dinner's ready," the older woman answered and Auron glared up the steps at someone invisible.
/]
[/ "Come on," Raine said.
/]
[/ She grabbed his hand, flicked on the downstairs light, and Auron's head whipped sideways from the combination of her sharp tug and his reluctance to follow. At the foot of the stairs, they maneuvered through a cramped family room, between dusty boxes and mismatched furniture. Raine brought him to a dim hallway with a few doors, dropping his hand as she disappeared into the first dark room on the right.
/]
[/ Auron stood blind in the doorway while she shuffled around the familiar room and a click later, she was bent by the lamp next her unmade bed. She snatched up a few intimate items off the floor on her way to her cluttered desk where she turned on another lamp. Auron drifted in slowly. Her bedroom smelled so sweet it was almost dizzying and he noticed a molten cluster of scented candles on top of her dresser, next to several boxes of matches. Her walls were a collage of posters, mostly punk bands, kittens and a diagram of a water molecule behind her door, but Auron halted his attention on the poster over her headboard: the center for the Zanarkand Duggles, half-nude and dripping wet.
/]
[/ "That's for appearances," Raine explained, while she inconspicuously shoved the dirty underwear from the floor into the top desk drawer. "I'm a Duggle now. You can thank peer pressure for that."
/]
[/ "Hmph."
/]
[/ "So what do you think?"
/]
[/ Auron nodded listlessly at the rest of the room. "It looks suitable."
/]
[/ "Oh, I want to show you something," she said. She kneeled by her bed, lifting the dust ruffle to rummage underneath. Her short little umbrella skirt hiked up, revealing a sliver of white underwear and his shoulders shook in silent chuckle at the print of red hearts. He was looking at the undergarment of a girl, but his eye meandered a little too long at the milky white thighs of a woman. Darkening, Auron spun around to face the mirror over her dresser, quietly chastising himself.
/]
[/ For distraction, he glanced over the photos tucked into the frame of her mirror, group photos of her friends, of the other cheerleaders, a couple old pictures with Tidus and some older ones of her mother and father, discolored and worn, as if folded many times. Jecht's face was rounder and more clean-shaven than when Auron knew him and his arm draped coolly over his wife's reedy shoulders. Moving on, Auron's focus wandered over to the picture of Raine with Jory, captured in a spontaneous pose when Raine had jumped on Jory's back and he was carrying her piggy-back for the camera.
/]
[/How sweet, Auron thought with a deep glare. Brainy Rainy and the boy she was having sex with.
/]
[/ Where did the time go? It felt like just yesterday she was reprimanding him for stepping on sidewalk cracks, frantically upset about the condition of his mother's back. Today, he was having demonstrative fantasies of her on the swings.
/]
[/ "Here they are," Raine said behind him. She had three white tubes, all different lengths, and when she handed him one, he realized it was a rolled up poster.
/]
[/ "What are these?"
/]
[/ "Tidus' old prints."
/]
[/ Auron snapped off the rubber band, unrolled it partway and turned it right side up. It was a group photo of Tidus' old team, the Zanarkand Abes, signed by all the players in black permanent marker.
/]
[/ "Those are actually all their signatures. It's actually worth a lot." She handed him another one and Auron traded her.
/]
[/ "Why don't you hang them on your wall?" Auron asked rolling off another fastener.
/]
[/ Her grimace was loosely disgusted. "I used to, but they made me uncomfortable, so I took them down."
/]
[/ "Uncomfortable?"
/]
[/ "His bedroom eyes freak me out."
/]
[/ Auron unrolled the poster and realized what she was talking about. The second picture was a close-up of Tidus, the lighting filtered and dreamy, and he was as undressed as his Duggle equivalent over Raine's bed, with a very unbrotherly look on his face. Auron smirked and rolled the poster back up. "I see."
/]
[/ He wasn't particularly interested the last one, but she had worked so hard to find them under her bed. It was an action shot they used to sell at the stadium vendors.
/]
[/ "I've been trying to find some of my father, but those are a little harder to find."
/]
[/ When she replaced the rubber bands on them all, she tossed them on her desk, then bounced on her bed and leaned back on her hands, crossing her legs by the ankles. Their eyes met for an instant before skimming to other parts of the room. He was becoming delirious from the suffocating scents of all those candles and the air vibrated as their separate chemicals mingled in the space between them, agitating in an unstable reaction. Auron didn't realize this was the first of many moments like this, fighting vile instincts and feeling subhuman for having them in the first place.
/]
[/ "Dinner!"
/]
[/ Aunt Naya's supper call startled them both. Auron nudged himself away from the desk and waited to follow her upstairs. She got up with a vaguely irritated look on her face, but it didn't seem completely directed at him. The air outside her bedroom was noticeably cooler.
/]
[/ Raine stopped at the landing by the front door, where his katana was still leaned up against the wall and inclined conspiratorially towards him. "Whatever you do, don't mention anything about the Duggles' losing streak. It will set off my uncle."
/]
[/ "I'll try to hold back," Auron said blandly and mounted the stairs two at a time after her.
/]
[/ Straight ahead on the main floor, the dining table had four settings and in the steamy kitchen, Raine's Aunt Naya was reaching into one of the cupboards for a stack of four plates. She spun around, her smile genuine and beaming until her eyes rested on Auron. He tried not to notice as the woman's expression swiftly altered into something phony and remotely maniacal.
/]
[/ "Aunt Naya, this is Auron," Raine introduced, apparently oblivious to the immediate shift in her aunt's nature.
/]
[/ "Hello Auron," the older woman said stiffly, glancing with aggravation into the living room, where her husband was busy with the game. From where Auron stood, Raine's uncle was just a helmet of white hair over the back of his rocking armchair.
/]
[/ Auron's head bobbed once in respect. "Good evening." He stopped himself before he called her "ma'am." She couldn't be that many years older than him.
/]
[/ A wild grin still pasted on her face, Aunt Naya stared intensely into the living room. "Cete, come meet Raine's friend."
/]
[/ "In a min—dammit! Get him!"
/]
[/ Every one of Auron's muscles seized, until he foolishly realized Uncle Cetan was screaming at the screen, the audio swelling with cheers. Cetan was sitting forward in his chair, hostile from an undesirable turn-around in the game.
/]
[/ There was an uncomfortable moment as the three of them stood looking at each other, and eventually Aunt Naya gestured toward the table. "Auron, why don't you have a seat?"
/]
[/ Raine dragged out one of the chairs. "Sit here. This is where I usually eat," she said and skipped to the chair opposite him, against the wall.
/]
[/ Slowly sitting, Auron was content to wait for the elder man, but Aunt Naya lifted a bowl of mashed potatoes and handed it to Auron. "Why don't you get us started?"
/]
[/ Auron let his sleeve fall back so he could hold the bowl with both hands and flopped a generous spoonful onto his plate, passing it across the table to Raine, who was eying his uncovered arm with a deep blush as she flicked open her napkin and laid it on her lap.
/]
[/ "Son of a—" Uncle Cetan muttered from the living room, as the horn on the television announced the final score. Auron assumed the Duggles had lost, one game of many, apparently. Hastily scooting in his chair, Auron gave the patriarch room to stomp by. At the head of the table, across from Raine's aunt, Uncle Cetan whipped his chair out and slumped into his seat, grumbling something about a worthless defense and Auron got his first real look at Raine's uncle. His hair was not all white, as he previously thought, but marbled black and gray, deep grooves frowning around his eyes as he offered Auron a curt nod and reached for the mashed potatoes.
/]
[/ "You look familiar, Auron," Aunt Naya said. "Do I know your parents?"
/]
[/ Auron opened his mouth, but Raine spoke up. "Auron's an orphan, Aunt Naya."
/]
[/ "Over at St. Dolam's?" Uncle Cetan asked, jutting his thumb, apparently in the direction of St. Dolam's.
/]
[/ A local orphanage, Auron assumed.
/]
[/ "Bevelle, actually," Raine said, lips twitching as she met Auron's eye. Auron slanted his head formidably at her, but she was unruffled at his reproach, almost giddy, her eyes bright and gleaming with mischief. Raine waved her fork in the air and seemed to dot an imaginary "i" with it as she pointed slightly to Auron's right. Aunt Naya was holding a bowl of buttered peas in Auron's blind spot.
/]
[/ Cetan reached across the table to spear a few slabs of roast. "Never heard of it."
/]
[/ Auron spilled a handful of peas onto his plate, passed the bowl to Uncle Cetan and as he hooked a thumb over the edge of the bowl, provided Auron with an intense double take. Initially, Uncle Cetan fixated on Auron's scar until he shot his wife a quizzical look.
/]
[/ "What did you say you're name was?" Raine's uncle asked.
/]
[/ "Auron," he said and Aunt Naya passed him a plate of hot rolls under a cloth napkin.
/]
[/ A few silent minutes went by as the rest of the food was distributed and Auron tried to ignore the crimson fume in Uncle Cetan's pressed lips as the room's gravity plummeted. When everyone began to eat, Aunt Naya asked, "How do you know Raine, Auron?"
/]
[/ "I'm a friend of her father's," Auron said quickly, before Raine could answer for him.
/]
[/ "Jecht?" Uncle Cetan said and his expression looked as if he'd found a dead roach in one of his rolls.
/]
[/ "Auron was my father's sponsor," Raine said.
/]
[/ Flashing Raine a hard look, Auron nearly set the record straight, denying her statement, but then he couldn't think of anything to say in its place, so he let it go.
/]
[/ "You must have had your work cut out for you," Aunt Naya said.
/]
[/ "It wasn't easy," Auron said through his teeth. Was Raine trying to make this meeting difficult?
/]
[/ "I wasn't aware he quit," Uncle Cetan said.
/]
[/ "He did," Auron said without hesitation because this part was truthful. "Before he died."
/]
[/ Raine dimmed, chewing her food thoughtfully. Auron avoided her gaze and concentrated on his meal, navigating forkfuls over his high collar. There was a gap in the dialogue, filled with clinking silverware, the crepitus in Uncle Cetan's jaw as he ate, and the wooden squeak when someone shifted uneasily in their chair.
/]
[/ Quietly, feigning sincere interest, Aunt Naya asked, "Do you go to school…or do you work…?"
/]
[/ "Neither," Auron said and left it at that.
/]
[/ Naya didn't have a response and quickly took a tiny bite of potatoes, chewing quickly.
/]
[/ "Do you live in C-South?" Uncle Cetan asked.
/]
[/Live? "No."
/]
[/ Uncle Cetan started to question further when Raine spoke up. "My aunt and uncle both went to C-South High."
/]
[/ The constant tension, which had plateaued shortly after they began to eat, sharply escalated at Raine's seemingly innocent comment. Uncle Cetan and Aunt Naya exchanged anxious glances and Auron met Raine's eyes in confusion, but she just smiled down at her plate.
/]
[/ "The year my uncle graduated, my aunt was…." Raine's head lifted to look her aunt in the eye. "How old were you, Aunt Naya?"
/]
[/ Someone's fork dropped firmly to a plate with a startling clank.
/]
[/ "Raine," Aunt Naya said, shaking her head in quick shakes, her face rigid, as though this was rude conversation. With a sheepish glimpse at Auron, the older woman picked up her fork and picked at her roast.
/]
[/ "That was different," Uncle Cetan said, low and pithily in his great niece's direction.
/]
[/ Auron's eye came over the top of his rims deliberately to look over the dinner table at Raine, who had, with one question, simultaneously warned her caretakers of their hypocrisy and gave Auron a not-so-subtle hint on the direction she thought their relationship should be going.
/]
[/ After absorbing a table full of glares, Raine rolled her eyes in defeat and said, "Not that it matters. Auron and I are just friends."
/]
[/ Another long moment followed and Auron couldn't seem to eat fast enough.
/]
[/ "Now I know where I've seen you," Aunt Naya said. "You were at my niece's funeral, weren't you?"
/]
[/ "I went to make sure the children were safe," Auron said after a rather uncouth swallow of roast. "As a favor to Jecht."
/]
[/ Raine rolled her eyes again when Auron said "children."
/]
[/ "Oh," Cetan said, thoughtfully frowning with new understanding, his posture reproving as he leaned to Raine. "Why didn't you say that?"
/]
[/ "I forgot," she said insipidly, giving Auron a dull look and slumped back in her chair, moody teen.
/]
[/ Safely smirking safely behind his collar, Auron was pleased how rapidly he had gone from potential suitor to guardian in her folks' eyes.
/]
[/ "Are you a Duggles fan, Auron?" Cetan asked and the strain of the situation immediately dissolved.
/]
[/ Auron gazed across the table at Raine, who was picking at her dinner with her fork, and a spark of pity penetrated through his normally obdurate shield. "I am," he said. "They play dirty, but I think that's their appeal."
/]
[/ Raine's eyes flicked up from her plate to Auron and then glanced obliquely at her custodians to make sure they didn't notice her shy smile.
/]
[/ When dinner was over, Auron declined the offer of coffee and pie from Aunt Naya and stood to leave. Raine dropped her napkin on her plate and jumped up as well. "I'll see Auron out."
/]
[/ Auron descended the stairs to the landing by the front door, lugged on his boots and collected his equipment. Raine slipped into her shoes and grabbed a sweater from the coat rack before flicking on the porch light. It had gotten dark outside during the meal. When they were alone on the front stoop, Auron swung around to chide her for the position she'd cornered him in during dinner, but she was pulling on his bare arm, leading him further into the yard.
/]
[/ "Where do you stand?" she asked.
/]
[/ "On what?"
/]
[/ She grinned. "Where do you stand when you watch me?"
/]
[/ He considered her, debating.
/]
[/ "The yard is only half an acre, Auron. If I want to know, I'm going to find out."
/]
[/ He nodded upwardly. "Back here." He led her around the side of the house, to the copse of landscaping junipers by the privacy fence separating their yard from the neighbors. He slid in between two bushy trees, tramping back to the spot he found to have the most cover.
/]
[/ "Cozy," she said looking around, although they were shrouded in darkness. She faced the lit house. Aunt Naya was in the window where the sink was and Uncle Cetan was carrying over dishes. "My aunt can't see you?"
/]
[/ "If she can, she's never shown it."
/]
[/ Raine was quiet for a few moments, stepping close to him so she could study the house. "You really can see right into my room."
/]
[/ "When the curtains are open." Usually she closed the blinds on the weekends when she didn't have to wake up as early.
/]
[/ "Of course." She glanced up at him carefully. "How much can you see?"
/]
[/ He glowered. "My vision is better than you think," he said sharply.
/]
[/ Raine flashed him a contrite look. "I didn't mean—" She shook her head and didn't finish. "Nothing. Nevermind."
/]
[/ Auron realized what she meant and felt like an asshole. He inwardly sighed and relaxed his tone. "I'm familiar enough with your routine to know when to look away."
/]
[/ Her nod was unreadable. A warm breeze rustled the scaly evergreen leaves around them as they watched Aunt Naya wash the dishes and Uncle Cetan wipe down the table and slide it back against the wall.
/]
[/ Recalling something that had been bothering him, he smiled curiously down at Raine. "So how old was your aunt Naya?"
/]
[/ "Huh?" she asked, unable to peel her eyes off the mundane activities in her own house.
/]
[/ "When your uncle graduated from C-South. How old was your aunt?" He ventured a guess out loud. "Three or four years old?"
/]
[/ With a sidetracked glimpse, Raine said, "Thirty-three."
/]
[/ Auron had never gaped in his life, but his jaw dropped like a weight was tied to his chin. "You're lying."
/]
[/ She giggled. "You thought my uncle was the older one?"
/]
[/ "Isn't he?"
/]
[/ "Chestnut 51," she said, shrugging carelessly, gazing back over to her house. She said it as if that was the answer to all questions.
/]
[/ Auron frowned. "I don't understand."
/]
[/ "It's her color dye. For her hair. It makes her look 20 years younger."
/]
[/ "I'll say," Auron said, slightly beside himself as he pondered this. His eye was pulled to the sliding glass door by the deck as her Uncle Cetan's full frame became a forbidding silhouette against the light in the kitchen as he searched the back yard, arms folded sinisterly.
/]
[/ "I think that's my cue," Raine said. "Thanks for today. You're a good listener."
/]
[/ A hug followed. It was unexpected, clumsy and over too soon. Without another word, she was ducking out of the trees, running back to the house. Uncle Cetan floated away from the patio door, back to the living room to watch the Blitzball highlights. Auron faintly heard the slide of the door on its rollers as she went inside. She said something to her aunt, who looked up from her dishes. The older woman nodded, picked up a towel to dry her hands, and Raine took her place in the window above the sink as she took over dish-duty. Her aunt joined her uncle in front of the holographic screen. Auron speculated this was done to impress him somehow, since Raine had never volunteered to do dishes before.
/]
[/ When the dishes were done, Raine shut off the kitchen light and passed by the patio window. She paused at the top of the stairs to say something to her custodians and headed downstairs, out of sight. Auron's eye traveled diagonal across the back of the house to her bedroom window, still lit from when they were there earlier, and a moment later, the door opened wider and she strode into her room. She avoided looking out the window and headed to the corner where her bed couldn't be seen and Auron waited patiently for her to come into view again. There were times she was on her bed for hours, reading or chatting with a friend on a commsphere, so this was not uncommon. But she was visible again a few minutes later, at the window, closing the curtains.
/]
[/Hmph. That didn't take long.
/]
[/ To entertain himself, he glanced back to the living room. Her aunt and uncle were still watching a recap of the Blitzball game, quiescent in their chairs. Auron leaned against the fence, brooding over the consequences of showing her his usual post, until her curtains split open again. She had changed into loungewear, a pink tank top and purple running shorts, which she would eventually sleep in. She opened her closet door, which blocked nearly half the window, and busied herself inside for another few minutes. When she approached the window again, her hand came up to fiddle with the locks and release the window.
/]
[/ "Auron!" she hissed across the yard.
/]
[/ Auron came quickly, only so she didn't say his name again and risk her parental guardians hearing. As soon as she saw him, she delved into her closet again and Auron immediately grew wary. He lowered down to one knee at her open window. There was music playing low in her room and he could hear commotion in the closet.
/]
[/ "Raine?" he whispered.
/]
[/ "One sec."
/]
[/ Auron checked the dark yard for nosy neighbors. Raine came out of the closet, covered neck to ankle in a shimmering yellow gown and a perfectly square graduation cap with a black and gold fringe swinging against the side her face. She made a showy "ta-da!" gesture, her hands shaking like tambourines, and he snorted.
/]
[/ "Graduation's in two months," she said, leaning her arms on the chest-height windowsill. "You're coming, right?"
/]
[/ He tilted his head, evincing an ironic look.
/]
[/ "You can't miss my valedictorian speech."
/]
[/ "I won't," he promised.
/]
[/ "Every student gets four seats, I think. You can sit next to my aunt and uncle. You can talk to my uncle about Blitzball."
/]
[/ Auron didn't say anything. He was sure a decline would diminish her upbeat mood.
/]
[/ "Do you want to come in?" she asked, swinging the window wider.
/]
[/Badly.
/]
[/ "I'll be fine out here."
/]
[/ "Are you sure? My uncle and aunt never come down here, not since the laundry was moved to the main floor."
/]
[/ She misinterpreted his hesitation as a silent scolding.
/]
[/ "Okay, okay. Look, I'll leave the window unlocked. In case it ever starts to rain or if you just want to talk."
/]
[/ "Lock your window," Auron said.
/]
[/ "But—"
/]
[/ "Don't argue. You'll be safe from—"
/]
[/Me.
/]
[/ "—prowlers."
/]
[/ "I thought you kept me safe from prowlers?"
/]
[/ "Do your homework," he said sternly and walked back to his spot in the trees before she could respond. He heard the windows shut on his way.
/]
[/ Back in his thicket of junipers, Auron situated to run on idle for the remainder of the night. Raine sat dutifully at her desk, studying.
/]
[/ Auron had to remind himself it wouldn't always be like this. Her crush on him would eventually disappear. Right now, school was slowing down to give her time to apply to colleges, but life would pick up again when her higher education commenced. She was feeling disillusioned by the people she had considered her friends and soon she would make new friends, who would take up most of her time. And judging by their conversation on the swings, she would be a little more critical this time when choosing them. He also speculated a proposal would be in her near future, which wouldn't make Tidus very happy, but there was nothing Auron could do about it.
/]
[/ Was there?
/]
[/ His thoughts were interrupted as the house began to darken. Aunt Naya and Uncle Cetan had turned off the lights and gone to bed. Soon, Raine put away her homework and started her nightly routine, disappearing into the bathroom across the hall and returning with a freshly washed face and brushed hair. A new move had been added to her routine, however, a short wave in Auron's direction, before the lights blinked off. He smiled without humor at her good-night gesture, suddenly losing himself in contemplation.
/]
[/ It occurred to Auron he could use Raine's attraction to him to permanently remove Jory from the picture. It might even be advantageous when it was time to take her to Spira.
/]
[/ Auron scowled at the idea and shook his head.
/]
[/ Unless….