Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ You Better You Bet ❯ Rinse and Repeat ( Chapter 2 )

Whee! Chapter two! It sucks being busy. I mean to write more often, I really do, but school and my job get in the way. Enjoy!

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Rikku was quite unhappy with her conversation with Auron. Not only did she not obtain the desired results (which had been to thank him, not fight), but she was reasonably certain that he thought she was immature and about as intelligent as one of Lulu's moogle dolls. Which only inspired her to try even harder to convince him that she did have a clue and that she was a worthy guardian for Yunie. It didn't occur to her that Auron had never said she wasn't a worthy guardian. She was also fairly certain she had made things worse by following him out the door, yelling at him. Oopsie...

The party was now crossing the final section of the Thunder Plains. Rikku was still sticking close to Auron...Lulu's "logic" was winning over her growing feelings of distaste. Auron seemed to be tolerating her presence, or was simply ignoring her. She had a feeling it was the later, as her actions had been pretty extreme. She sighed and shuffled on, heedless of the looks the others were giving the pair.

Auron, meanwhile, was too busy thinking murderous thoughts to actually pay attention to Rikku. The girl was like a deeply embedded splinter - annoying as hell and impossible to get rid of. He toyed with the idea of offering to let her ride on his shoulders for protection. If Lulu hadn't brought up the fact that lightning was attracted to taller structures, she probably would have fallen for it, not realizing that it would have made *her* a taller structure and thusly more likely to get zapped. But he felt something almost akin to pity for her; he knew how scarring past experiences could be.

***

Yuna was sitting in her room, looking moody. Suddenly, a large crowd burst in. Tidus, Wakka, Lulu, and Kimahri were all standing there, with expressions ranging from smug (Lulu) to indifferent (Kimahri) to annoyed (Tidus). The pool was quickly explained.

"But that's not very nice!" Yuna protested, feeling the need to defend her two loyal guardians. Then, in an undertone, she added, "Were they really staring at each other?"

The others quickly confirmed it. Yuna frowned.

"Mt. Gagazet," she said quietly, looking scandalized at her decision to take part. Then, a voice came from the door.

"I couldn't help but overhear your little discussion." They turned to see Rin standing in the doorway. "May I participate?" he asked.

"Sure. As long as you've got the money, ya?" said Wakka, looking to the others for their assent.

"Fine then. I claim all of my Travel Agencies."

Thus, the pool was expanded.

***

Naturally, when Auron walked out, trailed by a yelling Rikku, everyone had scurried out behind them, listening closely. The conversation (if you could give it so civilized a label) that ensued had not been pretty.

"Don't walk away, you big meanie!" Rikku had yelled. Auron had ignored her. It continued.

"Come on! Stop ignoring me!"

"Auron! I'm talking to you!"

Nothing Rikku had said could get him to respond. She stood, her lower lip trembling, staring at his retreating form. She didn't even seem to notice as a bolt of lightning hit the ground just inches behind her. Rikku was used to being the center of attention at all times. She disliked being ignored. She sniffed angrily as the tears rapidly pooling in her eyes threatened to spill over. She would *not* cry. She ran up behind Auron, grabbing his arm. He walked on, dragging the girl behind him like dead weight.

"Auron!" Rikku whined. He halted and turned slowly to face her.

"What do you want from me? I have nothing to say to you. I think my feelings have been made quite clear. Now leave me alone." And with that, he strode off, leaving a shocked Rikku standing there alone.

In the distance, Lulu was cursing violently under her breath while the other bettors breathed a sigh of relief.

***

As the group walked toward the edge of the Thunder Plains, no one talked. If things hadn't been bad enough with the tension between Rikku and Auron, Yuna had made her decision and announced her plans to marry Seymour. Morale seemed to be at an all time low. Something needed to be done.

Lulu considered her options. They were almost out of the Thunder Plains and she was running short on time. Suggesting stopping to rest was out of the picture, as they had just done so, and besides, Auron probably would have continued to ignore Rikku. No, Lulu decided, she would have to force a conversation herself, though it was probably a lost cause.

Lulu strode forward until she was even with Auron, who was leading.

"I think all this tension is affecting our performance in battle." Weak, but better than nothing. She decided to ignore the fact that it had actually helped them. A pissy Auron was a powerful one; the fact that he seemed to be taking his frustrations out on the fiends upped his strength. Auron's single russet eye rolled back to look at Lulu.

"I haven't noticed any difficulty," he stated simply. Lulu was ready.

"Well I have. Maybe you're fine, but some of us are sensitive. Tidus seems distracted. Wakka's accuracy has gone down. And the nerves of a black mage are a very sensitive thing. I just don't think we're at our usual level all around," she said, with a dignified sniff.

Auron just rolled his eye and walked faster, leaving a dejected Lulu in his wake. She cursed. They had just exited the Thunder Plains.

***

Bonus mini-fic:

Signs you're obsessed with Final Fantasy X (all things I do)

- Whenever you hear those two guys in your English class discussing the game (even though neither have finished it yet), your head jerks over and you hang on every word (even though you can't stand one of them for flushing your Barbie down the toilet in kindergarten...long standing emotional issues).

- You're failing Physics class because you spend the entire time doing one of two things. You're either playing SimCity on your Palm Pilot, giving all your cities Spira inspired names (and designing them as loyally to the game as possible...Luca's on the water and centered around the stadium, etc.), or you're writing fan fiction and plot outlines (again on said Palm Pilot).

- When you say you're going to check your email, not only do you do that, but also check FF.net for updates and reviews. If there are none, you click the reload button. Again. And again. And again.

- When driving around in your car, every song that comes on the radio must be in some way related to FFX's plot, characters, or imaginary couplings.

- Some days, your clothing choices are "inspired" by FFX. Orange and green sooo match; large, floppy sleeves are sooo in this season; knee high boots and purple skirts are HOT; and damn...gotta look good just in case you're randomly pulled into a parallel universe a la Tidus. Since once you're there, you apparently don't change clothes, every day you have to wear something you wouldn't mind being stuck in.

- You go looking in graveyards for Auron (ok, so I haven't done this one).

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