You Will Move

An Aurikku fanfic born from the fact that my pen will not move!! Come on pen, make words!

A/N: Writersblockoneshotygoodness! I know I should be working on Don't Steal My Sunglasses, but I have to write a fight scene next (chapter 5 -glares-) and I have serious writer's block.

So here you go. AuronxRikku as usual, yis?

As they ducked into the Travel Agency the guardians shook off the beads of water that hadn't soaked into their clothes. Auron stepped inside after brushing water away from his eye, running a hand through his hair. Rain felt good sometimes.

Rikku followed, slightly hunched over with her hands curled into fists and pressed together close to her chest, a habit born of nervousness.

They had decided to revisit Thunder Plains because of Tidus's intense obsession with the stones that littered the plains; apparently he had an insane need to find out why they glowed. Damn mysteries of Spira, Rikku was undoubtedly thinking. And why couldn't they stay in the airship? Because the airship had to be "repaired," and everyone remembered the last time they had tried to sleep through the ship being "repaired."

Thunder crashed outside and the very girl jumped. She had gotten better, Auron noticed, but not so much that she would sleep soundly tonight. Thunder Plains was still a living hell for the poor girl.

Yuna greeted the shopkeepers and warmly requested rooms. Five were available. Lulu and Wakka immediately volunteered to take one room. There was only one bed, they notified them. "That was no problem."

Auron abandoned the slight chance that he would take a room with a certain Al Bhed, cursing himself for trying to even mentally suggest it, and he informed the others that that he was going to retire early. His mind was, of late, wrapped around the soon-to-come battles with Sin and his thoughts and fears rarely earned him a good night's sleep. If he was to rest, he was going to have to do so as soon as possible. Plus he was dirty; he wanted to take a shower.

Rikku jokingly asked for his sake, saying it would "help me get to sleep, you know?" but he refused to let her have it. He strode away, claiming first dibbs to the showers.

Soon he had washed away the metallic air around him that came with never-ending lightning (how did the shopkeepers who lived here stand that?) and he was lying in bed, trying desperately to go to sleep. He rolled over to stare at the ceiling as thunder boomed again and he faintly heard Rikku whimper from the lobby. That wasn't what was keeping him awake, though—if he tried, he could ignore that. He didn't know what was keeping him awake. He actually wasn't thinking about Sin or anything related to it; his thoughts were just spinning around his frustration at not being able to get to sleep. He was being childish, he told himself. Childish. He relaxed each part of his body, and soon he had drifted off to dream.
In the dream he was running through utter darkness toward an unknown target. Running as fast as he could, but it didn't seem to be fast enough. There was no light source and yet he could see his hand if he held it up to his face. He ran and ran, not bothering to wonder what he was running to. He had to get there, wherever 'there' was.

He suddenly saw something out of the corner of his eye and skidded to a stop. Off to his right, two bodies lay unmoving on their stomachs beside each other. A man and a woman. Cautiously he approached, examining the two as he got closer. And then an unseen force overturned the man, and Auron stopped with his foot still in midstep, eye widening as his breath caught. It was his father, his eyes staring blankly to the sky in death, just like the day that Auron remembered; the day when Sin attacked.

He put his foot down and suddenly a circle of light spread outward from it, building an image as it went. It was like when Seymour had shown them the sphere of Zanarkand, but this was no Zanarkand. The blackness of the previous world had been replaced with white, and he had a shadow now. Still paralyzed from the previous vision, he stayed still and gazed at it. And then another shadow joined it, striding across the floor to stand next to his. He turned his head in the direction of the owner, but there was no one there. His eye returned to the shadow as it began to take the shape of a person; a person he knew very well…

Yunalesca.

Her shoulders shook in silent laughter as a sword appeared in the shadow's hands. She raised the weapon and pierced straight through his own shadow's heart, but both he and his shadow felt the effect. He doubled over in pain as blood began to pour from his mouth, holding back a cry as Yunalesca's shadow drew the sword out deliberately slowly, sending jolts through his entire system. He collapsed, blood pooling, and the background faded to black—from his falling unconscious or for some other reason, he didn't know.

Meanwhile in the lobby, Rikku yawned and jumped at the thunder at the same time, something very awkward when done the way she did it. Tidus laughed, and she glared.

"Shut up!" she ordered. "I'm going to bed." She turned around and began to walk into the hall.

"Good luck with that."

She whipped around to glare again. Tidus drew back. "No, seriously!"

She walked away. "Hmph!"

Yuna and Lulu muttered their goodnights behind her as she strode down the hallway, hunching over in anticipation for the next bolt of lightning.

As she passed Auron's room she noticed that the door was slightly ajar. She heard him fearfully mutter something in his sleep inside, and she stopped. Was he okay? She heard him moan softly, and decided to go in just to see.

It was easy for an uber-master thief like her to slip through the door without moving it at all, but it wasn't so easy to move around in the dark. She stealthily groped her way around, holding her hands loosely out in front of her so that if she ran into something, her arms would fold and make no noise. But she didn't hit anything.

Auron shifted and she was able to reorient herself by following the sound. The bed was always on the right side of the room, so if she just walked forward a little, she would hit the nightstand—

But she did not hit the nightstand. She tripped over the bed itself and managed to catch herself by using her legs as a lever so she wouldn't go plummeting down on Auron's sleeping form. But that wasn't enough; she fell forward—though more slowly—and her hands landed on his blanketed shoulder. She and her heart froze just waiting for him to wake up and yell at her or worse, sternly scold her in that low mentor-ish voice. She blushed just remembering the sound of it.

He didn't wake, though. Strange; he was such a light sleeper. Lightning flashed outside and briefly illuminated the room through the veiled window. She was too tense to even jump. But several more flashes followed, and she was able to see.

Sweat poured down his forehead and he had a stressed look on his face. He shifted again, breathing heavily. And from what she could feel from his shoulder, his muscles were tightened.

Is he having a nightmare? she thought, debating on whether or not to wake him up. Stern scolding voice…she immediately decided against it. Reluctantly lifting her hands from his shoulder, she stole one last look at him before slipping out of the room and gently closing the door behind her.

And then, somehow, he was running again.

The dream—no, the nightmare had reset itself. Darkness surrounded him again as he ran, still not knowing where he was going nor where he was. For a moment he fantasized that he was running away from something, but immediately dismissed the idea.

And suddenly a voice rang out from everywhere and nowhere.

"My mom died a long time ago, when I was little. A machina went on rampage…"

Auron stopped at the voice, Rikku's—a voice he would recognize anywhere. A spotlight shown down ten or fifteen feet in front of him, and then she appeared, facing away from him. Slowly she turned around, beaming as usual. He took a step forward.

Something creaked in the distance, whining like a…

"No…" Auron stepped forward again, finding that an unseen force was holding him away. A gargantuan machina stepped out from the shadows behind her, gears cranking like mad. Rikku didn't seem to notice at all. She just stood there beaming at him with that perfect smile.

"Rikku, turn around," he urged, "Move!"

She folded her hands behind her and dug the tip of her boot into the ground as she always did when he was talking directly to her. She giggled.

"E muja oui," she said softly, and Auron was forced to watch as the machina leaned down and did something along the lines of devouring her. There were several sickening crunches as the thing's insides crushed her, and then it abruptly stopped. It shook for a few seconds and then fell to the ground; it had malfunctioned.

Auron stared in horror as slowly but surely, the crimson cause of its malfuction began to pour from inside of the machina. The first drop hit the floor. He stared for a long, long time before he finally screamed.

"No!"

Auron awoke with that cry, sitting straight up, his eye wide. He was breathing heavily and his face was slicked with sweat. He was shaking.

For some reason he couldn't calm himself. He continued to shake and pant as if he had run a marathon (hell, he had in his dream). Only the sweat seemed to slow.

He reached up and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. Wow, he really was shaking. It didn't help that the certain Al Bhed that he was now sure he harbored feelings for was not in sight, either. He carefully slid out of bed and paced as calmly as he could fake, cooling himself off as he reached for a towel to dry his face. She was in the room next door. Alive and safe. Alive, safe. He continued to repeat those words in his head as he walked back and forth.

And what about me? he thought. Oh, right. Dead and safe.

He stopped at his own door, trying to decide whether or not he should see her. He almost immediately invented a hundred excuses to go, the first being that she was probably having a hard time sleeping due to the thunder, anyway.

It boomed outside and his ears picked up the faintest squeal. Speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear…

He slipped into the hall. Oh, so childish.

Rikku squealed at the thunder outside in spite of herself, trying to relax so she could go to sleep. She could try turning on the lights so that the flash wouldn't distract her as much, but no, she had never been able to fall asleep with lights on. She sighed and buried her face into the pillow just in time to hear a knock on the door.

"Come in," she yelled into the pillow so that her visitor would hear. The door opened, but she heard no one walk in. Soon after, the door closed and she dismissed it to be one of the shopkeepers checking up on her. She yawned and rolled over just as lightning illuminated the room, and jumped ooh, say, fifty feet at the person who had actually entered.

It was Auron! He leaned against the opposite wall, watching her with an amused look in his eye. And he was utterly…shirtless, wearing only black pants that looked like they were made of a very soft material. Can you say "perfectly toned chest?" She sure could. But she didn't, of course. She just squealed and retreated under the covers, only keeping her eyes exposed.

"Hello," he greeted softly, walking over.

"H-hi!" She shrank away from him, wanting nothing more than to have the power to travel through solid objects so she could escape his piercing gaze. The passive gaze that made her heart start to beat faster no matter how much it wanted to stop.

"Having trouble sleeping?" he asked, stopping at the side of the bed. "Is it the lightning?"

"No, no! I'm just…not tired, that's all." Go away, go away, go away before my chest explodes, dammit!

"Mm." He lowered himself to sit on the floor with his back leaning against the bed.

"What about you?" Rikku asked. He turned his head and she detected the hint of a smile.

"I'm just not tired, that's all."

Oh, she had forgotten about his psychic abilities to tell what people were thinking and if they were lying.

"Well you usually have no trouble sleeping," Rikku replied. "Something must be up."

Auron paused. "I…had a dream. A nightmare."

So he had been having a nightmare! "And?"

"It woke me. I supposed that you wouldn't be sleeping either, so I came here. But if you want me to leave…" he prepared to do so.

"No." YES! "Could you…stay for a while?"

Auron settled himself and she rolled back over to face the wall away from him, taking it as a yes. He abruptly asked her how she got her fear of lightning. She had already told him, she said. He knew, but he wanted to hear the whole story. So she told him everything that had happened that day up until the miscast spell, and her heart slowed a little (though she could still hear it thrumming in her ears).

"You haven't jumped at thunder during our whole conversation," Auron pointed out.

"Hey, you're right! Thanks!"

"My work here is done." She heard him get up to leave.

"Wait! You're going?"

He stopped. "I have to sleep, too."

"Aww, come ooooon! Stay? Please?"

A pause. "Alright."

There was silence. "Just one thing," Auron said.

"Yeah?"

"Promise me that when you are being attacked and I tell you to move—" she suddenly felt an arm slip around her waist, "You will move."

She rolled over to find that Auron was lying next to her. When had he gotten there?! He pulled her close and rested his chin on the top of her head, and for a moment she thought her chest actually had exploded. He softly told her to relax, and she found that she was, in fact, relaxing. She sighed once before burying her face in his chest.

Outside thunder clapped louder than it ever had that night, but Rikku didn't care.

She was too busy falling asleep in a legend's arms to do that.

Fin. Yeah.

Writer's block…not gone…-brain fizzle-

Ehh, I'll be ready to fightwrite soon enough. Read and rate and all the works, yis?

-Ari Elisianete