brokenprism | Rikku : Many Things

Title: Many Things
Setting: FFX, Pilgrimage
Theme + Number: (4) Whisper; (8) Stay awake; (21) Watching; (43) Foolish; (90) Quiet time
Claim: Rikku
Rating: K+
Warnings: n/a
Summary: Rikku and Auron: watching and waiting.

"Auron," Rikku whispers, "are you awake?"

Of course he's awake: she knows it's a stupid question. Legendary Guardians don't sleep. But Rikkus don't sleep on nights in the Calm Lands, it appears. It's too quiet, too peaceful and silent and Rikku can see right through it, right across that calm facade into Mount Gagazet, and in her mind's eye she can see through that too, to The Place Which Must Not Be Named. Rikkus can sleep through the loud clanking of machina repairmen, the gruff cursing of Al Bhed, but this - this quiet time? - keeps all Rikkus awake and unhappy.

"Of course I'm awake," Auron replies, echoing her thoughts because Auron can read minds. Rikku is convinced of this: how else would he know, time and time again, exactly when she was going for his pockets? She may not necessarily be the fastest, hottest, slipperiest thief this side of the Moonflow, but she's in the top five; and Auron may be legendary but he's definitely not the fastest, hottest, slipperiest anything. How he catches her she'll never know. She blames the mind-reading. She can't compete with that.

She scrambles over across the ground, half crawling, torn between wanting to be quiet and wanting to break the quiet with her fists: Yuna is sleeping, curled on the ground with Lulu wrapped around her protectively. Rikku watches them, almost jealous of their rest, but part of the jealousy is fueled by the desire to wake them up, shake them, demand that Yuna sing to her, make someone make some noise before all of her joy is gone -

"Rikku," Auron suggests in a low voice, "you could be quiet."

"I don't wanna be quiet," she whispers back violently as she stands up, haphazardly tucking hair behind her ears for safekeeping and brushing dust off her knees. She always feels foolish in front of Auron because that's how Legendary Guardians work: they are stone pillars and everyone else is crumbly little Rikku-pebbles that may be totally slick and sexy but aren't worth much in the long run.

"I don't wanna be quiet, and I don't wanna be calm," she continues, slightly softer, explaining herself in the ramble that seems to be her forte around Auron. "This may be the Calm Lands, but - I'm full of - it's like nervous energy, y'know? It's too close. It's too quiet. I'm not a quiet person, Auron." She throws him a grin. "I need a little bit of noise."

Auron doesn't reply, which is an irony in itself, although completely expected. He's simply watching. Rikku wonders how someone with only one eye can watch so many things. She's absolutely sure that he's still watching Yuna in sleep, while watching the plains before them for fiends, and she's also rock-solid sure that he's watching her even though that eye is elsewhere: he'd catch her picking her nose if she tried it. It probably helps that Auron can read minds, but still.

She scrambles up next to him on the stone, perching herself like a little blond bird next to him and watching. She stops bobbing as soon as she realizes she's doing it: bobbing and humming a little song and now Auron's eye is definitely on her and boy, is ol' Rikku an idiot.

She already feels like a fool so she just blurts it out: "Auron, are you really gonna let Yunie die?"

Auron, to her surprise, chuckles: a low murmuring sound against the silence. "One does not exactly 'let' Yuna do anything," he replies, obviously amused by the concept. "She is made of steel."

Rikku is obviously not amused by the concept: this is Yunie, and You-Know-What in You-Know-Where, and even if Auron has a nice laugh she's still not going back to sleep while time runs away. "You could stop her," she suggests. "She'd listen to you. You've seen it."

"Zanarkand?" Auron says it softly, and she can't help but shudder. The laughter wips itself off his face and he's back to stony pillar-ness. "Yes, I've seen it." He glances over at her. "And that is exactly why Yuna will not listen to me."

"She would!" Rikku bursts, earning her a shushing from The Legendary Pillar. "She would," she insists, back in her urgent whisper. "She doesn't need to die."

Auron's face changes - well, something flickers across it, something only a slick shiny thief would be able to catch, somebody faster than fast itself: something dark and empty and yet full of a strangely grim, determined, hopeless hope. Rikku wonders what an emotion like that is doing on Auron's face but in the time it takes her to wonder it slips away.

She feels a chill, and whispers, "Does she?"

To her surprise, Auron replies: "No, she doesn't."

Rikku claps her mouth shut quickly: did Auron just agree with her? Agree to save Yuna's life? No, of course not; he's still standing there all stoic and smug like he just ate rocks or something. This must be a Rikku-lesson: the point of the whole pilgrimage is that no one has to die, yet summoners do it anyway.

"There is always a choice," Auron murmurs, watching the distance; and Rikku sees it again, sheeting across his face like rain down an Al Bhed window: it's something like hope, anyway. And not a hope for peace, a hope for a Calm, time bought by the life of his friend's daughter. It's a different hope; it's a tricky hope, a hidden one, something only the eyes of a thief could see. Grim and bleak and highly unlikely. But it's Auron's.

Rikku is the Queen of Subtle. "Do you know something we don't?" she whispers.

Auron chuckles again, and she makes a mental note: twice in one evening; perhaps the Legendary Guardian has been smoking the Calm Land Grass. "Many things," he says to her, voice a low growling whisper in the night. "Go to sleep, Rikku."

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