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Title: Sanubian Sunshine: Illumination
WARNINGS:Male/female romance, of the tame sort. Sap, hurt/comfort, and maybe a touch of angst. Spoilers lurk. If you haven't finished the game yet, why not?! Summary: Rikku finds herself lost in the Sanubian Desert. Feedback: Feedback is great! Read and review, please. Corrections to my grammar, spelling, and punctuation are welcome. Characterization is important to me, but it's my weakest area. Any comments about the characterization would be wonderful. If you have suggestions for *improving* it, I will *adore* you! By the way, if you simply must flame me, be aware that points will be awarded for originality and style, and also proper use of the above mentioned spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Author's Notes/Apologia: Okay, here's the first part of my first fic on fanfiction.net. This is a vignette that sets up later vignettes, in which actual cuddling will occur. ^_^ On my own personal crap-o-meter, this one ranges from 'sucks' to 'not so bad'. Please let me know if I got the characters right - or at least close. Oh, and while I have paid attention to the canon of the game, I've also taken some liberties with it. -- Armadillo. Al Bhed translations at the end of the section. Sanubian Sunshine, Part 1: Illumination The dry desert wind stole over Rikku's body, plucking at her clothes and hair, driving her to wakefulness. She sat up with a groan, rubbing at her head. "Oh, man. What happened to me?" At first the heated air and the barren landscape surrounding her seemed like a dream. The last thing she remembered was being trapped under the Temple at Macalania, ice and blue-white light and the Hymn of the Fayth in her ears. And then... darkness. No, not darkness. Sin. "But how the heck did I get here?" For this was, undoubtedly, Bikanel Island. Around her lay the Sanubia Desert, trackless and familiar all at once. It gave her a weird little rush of homecoming, lifting her heart. She hadn't realized she'd missed the brutal sun, or the flinty smell of the sand in her nostrils. Rikku giggled. Sin had taken her home. But where were the others? "Hello?" she called out, climbing to her feet, and then again, louder. "Hello!" Nothing answered her but the wind. "Oh, well. I'll just have to go and find everybody!" She knew they were all fine. Of course they were. Rikku refused to believe that Sin might not have deposited her companions safely, as it had done for her. She chose a likely direction and set off across the desert. After perhaps the better part of an hour, she topped a low rise and stopped to wipe the perspiration from her brow. Gee, it was hot. A headache threatened at the backs of her eyes, and she pulled her goggles on to protect them from the sun. Rikku looked out over the horizon. She'd still not quite found her bearings, but this place looked familiar. She was certain she'd traveled in this part of the desert before, but the shifting sand made it hard to identify landmarks. She squinted, looking for ruins or one of the signs her people left to aid them in the desert. Way over there to the right was a dark spot. Rikku headed toward it. She slowed her pace when she saw that it was not a sign... then broke into a run as she recognized it as a man, trudging up the slip-face of a dune. Big red coat, dark as heart's blood against the sand. "Auron!" Rikku shouted. "Hey!" She waved frantically and dashed to catch up. "Auron! I'm so glad to see you! Have you found any of the others?" Her joy at finding him vanished once she could see him clearly. Auron's face was screwed up in a tight grimace, his cheeks wet with tears. Even the damaged one had a track of moisture leading from beneath the scarred lid. "Hey. Uh...." Rikku stopped short. He wasn't... crying. Auron didn't cry. "Are you all right?" "It's a bit... bright." "Oh." Looking closer, Rikku could see Auron's grimace was actually more of a squint. "Yeah, the glare's pretty bad." "I take it there's no sign of the others?" Auron began walking again, and Rikku fell into step beside him. "Not yet. But I found you, though! So the others are probably around here somewhere. Oh, I just hope Yunie's okay." Rikku hugged her arms close to her body as the worry overtook her. Family was important to the Al Bhed, and she couldn't stand the thought that something bad might happen to her cousin. Yuna had been through so much already. "I hope so too," Auron said, and Rikku could hear the sincerity in his voice, though it was as calm and even as ever. Right, calm. Rikku took a deep breath and let it out. All she could do for Yuna right now was search for her, and hope for the best. Rikku tagged along behind Auron, and together they marched through the desert, searching for their lost friends. And marched. And marched. The sun rose to its zenith, baking them with heat, dazzling them with its brilliance. They passed ruins now and then, the great stone columns crumbling into little more than rocks and gravel. Sir Auron moved as tirelessly as an ancient machina, attacking the dunes head on, plowing up one side and then down the other. Rikku struggled to keep up. It was twice as hard walking this way, in a straight line across the dunes. Eventually Rikku's thighs had had enough. "Auron, I'm tired! Let's rest a while." His response was everything she'd expected. Auron never altered his pace. "We should keep moving." Rikku jutted her chin out, frustrated. He might have been made of stone, but she wasn't! "Well, let's at least walk along the base of the dunes." "It's faster this way." "No, it isn't!" Rikku protested, kicking sand at his ankles. "We're wasting all our energy going up and down, and trudging through this loose stuff, when we could be walking on firm, flat ground right down there. We'd have to walk farther, but it would be a lot easier!" Auron didn't say anything at all. Rikku fumed silently. He was so stubborn! Like he knew everything there was to know about the desert, when she'd grown up around here. In fact... she had grown up around here. The ruins they were currently walking among looked really familiar. Just boulders and rocks, really, but that one there had traces of the same ancient markings she'd seen on her very first machina-scavenging expedition. Rikku kept her realization to herself. If the great Sir Auron thought he knew where he was going, who was she to argue? Just ahead, Auron's boot caught on a rock and he dropped to his knees. "Aha! See, you're tired too," Rikku teased, though she did feel a hint of concern when he didn't get up immediately. "It's not that," Auron said. He reached a hand under his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. "I can't see." "What?" Rikku scampered up to him, worried now. His one good eye was open, but blood-shot and unfocused. The round Yevonite pupil had shrunk to a pinpoint. "You're sun-blind!" That big, stubborn, arrogant... dummy! "Why didn't you say anything? I could have let you borrow my goggles!" "It's a bit late for that now," Auron said. Oh, she'd been stupid. She should have known from the first that Auron was having problems with the light. That was why his eyes had been tearing. Usually it took longer before the sun blinded a person, so she hadn't been thinking of it. But Auron did wear those dark glasses all the time, even at night. Maybe his eyes were more sensitive to the light. Anyway, if she'd been stupid, he'd been worse, not saying anything until he'd gone half-blind. Or was that three-quarters? Rikku waved her hand in front of his face. "You really can't see anything?" "Just vague outlines." "That's bad. Here, take the goggles." Rikku tore them off - wow, it really was bright out here - and thrust them at him. Auron rose slowly to his feet and fended her off. "No. You need them. You have to take the lead." "Why do you always have to argue? We need to find some shade." But he was right, and Rikku knew it. One of them needed to be able to see. She thought fast. "Um... um... okay. Why don't you put your hand on my shoulder and let me guide you? Keep your head down and your eyes closed, and that will help with the glare." "Very well." With his sword on his right shoulder, Auron shrugged his left arm free from his coat and reached blindly for her. Rikku took his groping hand and placed it on her shoulder. She settled her goggles back on her face. "Okay. Ready?" Auron grunted, and they set off. "Here we go." Rikku let memory and instinct guide her feet as she led Auron between the dunes. If she was right and this was the site of that first expedition, there would be a small shelter not too far from here. She hoped. Beside her, Auron moved confidently, his stride scarcely more hesitant than if he'd had both eyes open and in perfect working order. His hand felt rough against her skin, callused and strong. It was... nice. A big hand, it practically engulfed her shoulder, and made Rikku feel both protective and protected at the same time. She'd lead Auron to the shelter. She'd make sure he was all right. And then she'd smack him a good one for being such a dummy. Rikku picked up the pace.
The sun had shifted to a position low in the sky by the time the campsite with its small tent-like shelter came into view. "We made it! We're here!" Rikku crowed, feeling pleased with herself. She only resisted breaking into a run out of deference for the man clinging to her shoulder. "Where's 'here'?" Auron asked. "It's an old Al Bhed campsite. The sand ate most of it, but the shelter's still standing!" Rikku slipped free of Auron's hand so fast it hung in the air for a moment, as if reaching after her. "Hang on a sec while I check it out. Cool or shady places usually have things living in them out here -- there might be fiends." Auron frowned and gripped his katana more tightly. "I'm not going to be much good in a fight." "The shelter's too small for anything really nasty. I can handle it!" Rikku bounced around the campsite, doing a high-speed reconnoiter. She made sure to disturb every container and hiding place in the area. She evicted a lot of disgruntled lizards, none bigger than her finger, and one snake. She yelped as one of the old crates exploded in a small flurry of the tiny brown desert mice. They hopped away over the sand as fast as their little feet could take them. "Rikku?" Auron called, his voice hard and wary. "It's nothing!" Rikku called back reassuringly, laughing at her own silliness. "Just a nest of mice!" A quick glance over her shoulder showed Auron relaxing out of his combat stance. The shelter now devoid of tiny inhabitants, Rikku dashed back to Auron and pushed him ahead of her, tugging at his coat so he'd duck to enter the low shelter. "The best thing for sun-blindness is just to lay back in the shade and not look at anything bright," Rikku said. She guided Auron to a seat in the shadiest part of the small structure, dragging a crate over to serve as a backrest. "Can you open your eye? I'd like to see how you're doing." Auron opened his eye, which began to water almost immediately. He blinked repeatedly, his gaze flicking back and forth as if he were trying discern his surroundings, but it was obvious he couldn't see much. Auron's eyes were the warmest cinnamon color, Rikku noted. She lost herself contemplating the tiny variations in shade, streaks of copper and russet and bronze adding depth to his gaze. "Well, doctor?" Auron asked, with dry humor. Rikku started, pulling herself back to reality. "Um, you tell me," she said, as if her mind hadn't wandered. "What can you see?" "The same," Auron said. "Outlines and shadows." "But it's not worse. That's something, I guess." She stuck a finger in her mouth, gnawed on the tip while she thought. "Somewhere around here I saw a first-aid kit... aha!" Rikku spied the box and pounced on it. It contained several small vials, each labeled in Al Bhed. "Yes! These will help." She took up one of the potions and broke the seal. "Take your glasses off and tilt your head way back," she advised Auron. "I'm going to put this right in your eye, where it will do the most good." Auron removed his glasses, then slouched down until the top of the crate supported his head, his face tilted toward the sky. "How's that?" "Perfect! Try not to blink for a second." Rikku landed a couple of drops right on target before Auron blinked his eye closed reflexively. The excess ran down his temple and Rikku swiped at it with a finger. "There, all done." Rikku said, satisfied. Auron's eye was starting to look better already, the irritation fading. "If you're comfy, just stay like that and let the potion work." "Hm," Auron grunted assent. He shifted slightly, nestling his arm inside his coat, and was still. Rikku dusted her hands together and looked around the tiny shelter. There was only an hour or so of light left. She and Auron would have to spend the night here, and look for Yuna and the others in the morning. Maybe she should see about making it more comfortable. Near the entrance to the shelter there were a few machina her father's team had left behind. From the vantage point of the top of an ancient water condenser, a small green lizard, braver than its cousins, stared at her with regal authority. "Rammu, deho gehk," Rikku breathed, speaking softly so as not to disturb Auron. "Ryja oui y kevd?" She lifted the tiny monarch from his throne and deposited him on her shoulder, then settled herself in front of the condenser and inspected it. Years in the desert had not been kind to the machina. The domed grey housing was pitted and scratched from wind-blown sand, making the machina look little different from the rocks it had rested among. It was badly dented along one side, with a thin crack in the housing. That was probably why it had been left behind. With so many functional machina still around, sometimes the busted ones weren't worth the effort. Rikku lifted the housing cover and sighed. Dust and grit seemed to have gotten into every crevice of the internal machinery. It looked fixable, but it was going to be a pain. Rikku brushed and blew away the dust, reconnected wires, and scavenged parts from the other machina nearby. The lizard stayed on her shoulder and watched as if supervising her progress. In her rummaging for parts Rikku discovered a heating element, a squat cylinder the size of a blitzball. She set it aside. If it still worked, they'd be glad of it later, when the chill of the desert night came in earnest. At last she slotted a power cell into the machina, closed the housing, and pressed a button. The machina hummed softly, and beads of dew began to form on the condenser plate. They swelled, gathered, and soon a rivulet of water was trickling into the container at the base of the machine. Rikku caught a few drops and moistened her lips. She offered a drop to the lizard, who accepted it with a dignified flicker of pink tongue. She offered another, and another, also accepted. Thirst satisfied, the deho gehk then climbed from her shoulder to her head, clinging to strands of her hair like a rider holding the reins of a mount. Rikku looked up at her hair-line. "You be good up there, okay?" Pulling the heater into her lap, Rikku leaned back against a crate. The light was fading fast; she'd have to work quickly. Across from her, Auron made a small noise that might have been a snore. He was completely limp, his mouth open slightly. The hand that had clutched his glasses lay half-open and relaxed on his thigh, the dark lenses having fallen to rest in his lap. Rikku smiled, and it wasn't the same impish grin that normally graced her features. Auron must have been more tired than he'd let on, to fall asleep so quickly. The way in which he lay revealed more of his face than usual, and Rikku indulged herself by taking a long look. Asleep, the lines of his face smoothed out almost completely, making Rikku suspect they'd been carved more by pain than age. The streaks of grey frosting his dark hair made him seem older, too. The edge of his eyebrow intrigued her, the contour of bone curving just so before it flowed into the angle of his cheekbone. His down-turned mouth seemed to perpetually frown, but the curve of his lips was surprisingly sensual, full and lush. Beard shadow graced his jaw, accentuating its strength. Rikku knew he shaved every morning, with a small oval mirror and a cut-throat razor that gave her the shivers just to look at. Even so, usually by mid-day the stubble was back, dark as ever. It was strange, that he still needed to shave. She could still hear Seymour's voice, eerily smooth: "We Guado are keen to the scent of the Farplane." What did the Farplane smell like? Auron, when she'd been close enough to smell him, smelled like a normal man. Oh, he had his own unique scent, just like Wakka and Tidus did, but it wasn't anything to do with... dead people. Rikku shook her head. The ghost of Lord Jyscal had been creepy and frightening, and she'd been filled with dread as she watched the Guado Maester struggle to free himself from the Farplane. Auron... wasn't like that. Auron was too real and alive to be a ghost. And yet, he pretty much had to be, didn't he? He hadn't visited the Farplane with the others. And Rikku had been the only one to notice that he'd cried out and fallen to his knees when Jyscal had appeared, as if the stretching boundaries of the Farplane had pained him somehow. It didn't matter, Rikku decided. Unsent or not, she liked Auron. Wanted to... well, those were just daydreams. Auron was Auron. He didn't get close to people. In one small way, Rikku was wildly jealous of her cousin. That impenetrable wall of distance was thinner with Yuna than any of the others, and Auron showed her a gentleness that Rikku couldn't help but want for herself. Or at least wish that he would share. All she'd gotten was "Fine." and, "Nice knowing you." Rikku bit her lip, remembering how Auron had treated her on the Thunder Plains. Oh, she'd been so mad at him! Mad enough, come to think of it, that she'd walked right out of the Travel Agency to finish giving him a piece of her mind. Rikku wondered if he'd done that deliberately. Probably. The thought made her smile. Auron chose that moment to wake. He straightened with a groan, rubbing at his neck. "Hi," Rikku greeted him. "How's your eye?" "Better." He retrieved his glasses from his lap and started to settle them on his face, then hesitated, blinking at her. "You... have a lizard on your head." Rikku grinned. "You noticed!" She scooped their benefactor from her hair and set him at the edge of the shelter. "Drana oui ku, nakym uha," she said softly. "Pa cyva." The lizard inspected the expanse of sand before it gravely, then set out with all the dignity of a ruler of empires. Rikku turned back to Auron, who was watching her with equally grave curiosity. "There's water, if you're thirsty." Rikku used a small metal basin to scoop water from the condenser's collection well. "I hope you don't mind that it came from a machina." Auron said nothing, but the alacrity with which he accepted the basin made her suspect he wouldn't have minded if the water had come from the snout of a shoopuf. He drank deeply, then cupped his hand in the remaining water and rinsed both eyes, washing away accumulated grit and the salt of tears. Rikku noted that he paid special attention to the scarred one, and that he was still squinting a lot, even though dusk was rapidly approaching. "Your eyes still hurt, don't they? Do you think I should put more medicine in them?" "I'll do it," Auron said, shaking the clinging drops of water from his fingers. "Okay." Rikku shifted the heater off her lap and retrieved the mostly full vial, handing it to him. Auron tilted his head back and tipped a bit of the greenish liquid into his left eye, and then he used a thumb to lift his scarred eyelid and applied the potion to his right eye, too. To Rikku's surprise, she glimpsed not an empty socket, but an intact eye. She couldn't tell if it was actually blind, or if the nerves of his eyelid were just too damaged to work, and she didn't ask. In Spira, one didn't ask the maimed about their scars. Rikku dug in the first-aid kit and came up with a handful of gauze, passed it to him. Auron used it to dry his eyes and face, then donned his glasses. "Night is falling. We should get going." "Oh, no! No, no, no! We can't travel at night!" Rikku shoved the heater aside and sat up on her knees. "It's not safe!" Auron tilted his head curiously. "Why not?" "The sand worms come out at night! They're huge!" Rikku spread her arms to their fullest extent, demonstrating their size. "They're so big they just swallow people right up!" She brought her hands together in a 'chomp' inches from Auron's nose. He didn't move. "Surely something of that size can be avoided." Auron climbed to his feet. "Come on. We need to find Yuna." There was an urgency in his voice that Rikku recognized. She dropped her arms. "You're really worried about her, huh?" "Yuna can take care of herself," Auron said, as if that were an answer. In a way, it was. The only thing Rikku doubted were his motives. She bounced up, grabbing his sleeve to make him turn and face her. "Are you worried about Yuna for her sake, or are you worried she might not finish her pilgrimage?" Rikku spat the words. "You know what's going to happen to her! Don't you care about her at all?" A lengthy pause, as Auron regarded her silently. "I care." His hand, when he used it to disengage her from his coat, was gentle. Rikku stared after him as he left the shelter. Shaking herself, she grabbed the remaining Al Bhed potions and followed. "All right," she called. "But if we see a sand worm, we run away, right? Right?" But Auron was already striding into the gathering darkness.
Al Bhed translations:
"Rammu, deho gehk. Ryja oui y kevd?" -- "Hello, tiny king. Have you a gift?"
Next Installment -- Part 2, Overcast. After the events in the Al Bhed Home, it's Auron's turn to do some comforting -- of a more emotional nature. Rated NC-17 for lemony goodness.
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