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Title: Bound and Divided
WARNINGS: Shounen-ai (tame m/m interaction) Caveat/Author's Note: Despite the above warning, this is pretty tame, and doesn't really have to be read with the m/m interpretation. Summary: Set pre-game. In Zanarkand, Tidus goes missing. Sometimes, the things that bind us to someone also keep us separate. "Bound and Divided"
Tidus strolled down the roadway toward Zanarkand's docks, and home. His stride was easy, swinging: the setting sun was warm on his skin, he felt great, and life was good. Suddenly a looming shadow in red and black detached itself from a darkened alley, picked him up by the front of his outfit and shook him like a kitten. "Where the hell have you been?" a rough voice growled. "A-Auron!" Tidus had recognized his mentor instantly, but that didn't ease his nerves any. He'd never seen Auron so angry. He gripped the man's arm where it held him off the ground. "Uh, hey -- I was just -- there was this girl --" He chuckled nervously. "Haven't you listened to the alerts? Fiends have been sighted in this part of the city. There have been deaths." "Um... we kinda... weren't paying attention to much..." Except each other. Tidus struggled in Auron's grasp. "Hey, what's gotten into to you? It's not like I've never disappeared for a couple of days before." "Not when there are fiends around." As if to emphasize the point, an unearthly howling sounded in the distance. Auron put Tidus down and shoved him in the direction of the docks. "Go. It's not safe here." Tidus didn't need to be told twice. He took off for the houseboat, Auron following just behind with sword drawn, guarding their retreat. Once they were in the houseboat, Auron circled quickly from room to room, making sure every possible exit was secure. Back in the living area, the swordsman seemed to relax slightly, but still kept his katana at the ready. "We should be safe enough for now," he announced. "I hope so," Tidus said. He spied a small pile of fabric near Auron's foot, resting as if it had fallen from his coat. "Hey, what's that?" Tidus picked it up, and found that it was a pullover. "It's just like mine." Except that the one in his hand was badly torn and stained dark with blood. "I found that... not far from here." Auron kept his back to him as he spoke. Tidus looked at the bloody garment in his hand. "This is why you were so angry. You thought I was hurt." "I was... searching... when I found you on the street." Auron said nothing more, but Tidus had long practice in reading the set of his guardian's shoulders. Auron's anger had been fueled by fear. They didn't get along that well, but they were each the only family the other had. Auron must have been frantic with worry, thinking him wounded -- or worse. "I'm sorry for scaring you," Tidus said quietly. "I didn't know." "Hn." But the tension across Auron's shoulders eased a fraction. They stayed quiet throughout the evening, watching the newscasts. The fiend was a wily one, and darkness had fallen by the time the screens announced that the alert had been lifted. The monster had been destroyed. "I should stay the night," Auron said. "There might be more." "Yeah," Tidus said. Fiend outbreaks tended to run in spates, with none sighted for a long time, then several close together. When it came time for bed, Tidus got out an extra blanket and gave it to Auron. There was a spare bedroom that had once been Auron's, but the older man preferred to sleep on the couch, as if to remind them both that he no longer lived there. Tonight he probably wouldn't sleep at all, just stand guard over the houseboat. Tidus lay on his back in his darkened bedroom and closed his eyes, but sleep wouldn't come to him either. He kept thinking about Auron, and that bloody pullover, and the expression on Auron's face when he'd grabbed him. A soft step and the darkening of his open doorway pulled Tidus away from his thoughts. Auron, looking in on him. Tidus didn't move. Auron just stood there for the longest time, completely silent save the faint sound of his breathing. Tidus risked slitting one eye open, and looked at his guardian. Auron's face was in shadow, but with his head bent like that and his stance, Tidus knew he was lost in memories. Bad ones. Auron seemed to have a lot of those. Tidus opened both eyes and turned on his side. Auron acknowledged his wakefulness with a slight shift of stance, but didn't look away. There was just enough reflected light for Tidus to make out the faint glitter of one eye, staring at him from above the dark glasses. "You okay?" Tidus asked. "Yes." Tidus wasn't sure that was the truth, but it was an answer. "You really thought I was dead, didn't you?" "Yes." Fainter now, like the word cost something in a currency Tidus couldn't understand. But he did understand. Or thought he did. "It must have been rough, thinking you'd broken your promise to my old man." "That too," Auron said, and Tidus knew he'd heard what Tidus couldn't say. They looked at each other for several minutes, mute and unmoving. Then Auron broke the stillness by stepping forward, toward Tidus. His gait seemed almost reluctant in its hesitancy, yet Auron didn't stop until he'd reached the bed. He bent like a mannequin with stiff joints, seating himself beside Tidus. The katana made a metallic chink as its tip rested against the floor. Tidus watched his guardian carefully. He couldn't read anything at all from Auron now. Still, there seemed to be something radiating between them, surrounding them, and Tidus had the sense that anything at all might happen. Even this close, Auron was all shadows and stark lines. His coat was black in the darkness, and where the dim light picked out folds and highlights it looked streaked with blood. Tidus shivered. Only Auron's left hand, curled protectively and held close to his chest, seemed human. Tidus thought of the pullover, and Auron's face. He slid back, making room on the bed. Auron looked at the revealed expanse, and then at him. "You can sleep," Tidus said. "I'll be safe." Slowly, so very slowly, Auron lowered himself to the bed. He lay rigid for several seconds, then his breath escaped in a long sigh, tension escaping with it. His eye closed. Tidus relaxed, too. That sense of possibility, both attractive and frightening, had passed. He put his head down, and slept. Auron's sword lay between them all night. End
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