Pairing: Slight Rin/Rikku
Theme: to understand and be understood
Spoilers: If you don't know about Home.
Disclaimer: FFX, characters, places. Not mine.
A/n: I know, it's sort of random... I don't think I've ever seen this pairing written but I just had to try. There's no real romance unless you really squint, though, I mean, not really. So if you don't like the pairing, "They're just friends:D"

It actually took me practically no time to write this. It just sort of happened. Also I feel slightly weird, because I consider myself an Aurikku fan, but... well, let's face it, Rin is absolutely HOT. 3 And he's Al Bhed. I needed someone who could understand her feelings.

- // -

When she chose to take refuge in one of the airship's empty rooms, it wasn't because she didn't feel fine; it was merely because she felt slightly tired and needed some place to rest for the night without being disturbed. She felt fine, she really did, if she didn't she wouldn't have told Tidus as much, so there.

She groaned and shook her head. She didn't even believe it herself. She couldn't believe how she'd managed to convince Tidus, how well she had been at hiding the grief in her eyes and making her voice stop shaking when she had lied to him. She closed her eyes, and shook her head finally coming to stop outside one of the few and far in between empty rooms of the ship.

Unfortunately the room which she had thought wasn't occupied, was, but when she realized this she had already closed the door behind her. Turning around, she came face to face with the room's occupant, Lord Rin, the owner of many of Spira's finest travelling agencies, himself.

"Rikku?" he questioned, surprised, pausing to look at her. "Yna oui ymnekrd?" he inquired, quietly, noticing the strained look on the young Al Bhed's face.

"I'm fine," she replied, though not in a very convincing tone. She managed to add a small, shaky smile, which didn't quite reach her eyes as everybody was so used to. "I'm sorry; I didn't think anybody was in here." She turned to leave, but her hand froze on the door handle at the sound of his voice.

"Rikku," he repeated and she could feel how his eyes would have burned a hole in her back if such a thing was possible.

"I'm fine!" she insisted, turning around to face him again, giving him a slightly more convincing smile.

"Rikku-" he began, but was cut off, rather angrily, by the teen.

"It's nothing! I'm totally, seriously fine." Her smile was more real this time, but only because she forced it to be.

"Rikku..." he said again, feeling somewhat stupid at his lack of eloquence. Rikku looked up to meet his eyes, and knew he was not convinced. She wasn't going to make him believe that she was fine so she might as well just stop trying.

"Okay!" she exclaimed, after a pause, "so maybe I'm not really fine, anyway, maybe I'm really, totally not fine, but it doesn't matter." She sniffed pathetically, crossing her arms over her chest. "If Vydran can give the order to destroy the home he built himself, I can at least be strong about it..." she trailed off, and looked down, away from his sympathetic gaze.

"This is about the destruction of Home," the merchant stated curiously, almost jumping at the fire in her eyes when she looked up to meet his gaze once more.

"Of course it's about Home! What else would it be!?" She stilled and covered her mouth with her hands, surprised at her own outburst. "I'm... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." she trailed off, looking down in embarrassment, noticing for the first time that he wasn't wearing anything on his feet.

"It is alright, Rikku," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder lightly causing her arms to drop to her sides again. "There is nothing to be sorry about. I understand your distress," he murmured, removing his hand after giving her shoulder a slight squeeze.

"But you're so calm!" she cried, and he shushed her, worried she might attract more attention than necessary, but his attempts were in vain when she continued, somewhat louder. "How can you be so calm!? This was our Home! The Al Bhed's Home! Wasn't it your home, Rin!? Didn't you think of it as home!?" Her voice grew in volume and she pounded on his almost bare chest in frustration. It wasn't until he gripped her small wrists in his hands that she stopped and took a deep breath at his request, calming down.

He'd had known her for a long time, but it was only then he realized how long it had been since he had last seen her, really seen her. She had gone from being a happy-go-lucky child to becoming a happy-go-lucky teenager. The only difference was that now she was, in fact, a teenager. Even though she was often still only the happy child he once knew, he also realized that the happy-go-lucky façade she insisted on keeping up was sometimes just that, a façade. It was hard being known as being the happy one or the serious one or the anything one; it was tough to let go off a well kept façade in front of the rest of the world.

He was shaken out of his thoughts of her when he felt surprisingly strong fingers grip his vest tightly. He breathed deep and looked down first at her bowed head, then at her clenched fists. "I may not have lived there in a long time, but it is still my Home, as well as the Home of my people," he paused, sighing. "Cid, Brother, Keyakku, you-"

"But Keyakku is dead!" she cried, despairingly, looking up to meet his gaze with pain-filled eyes.

"But we are not," he replied as calmly as he could muster and put his hands on top of hers gently in a comforting gesture.

She released her hold on his vest and slid to her knees with a strangled sob, clenching her hands and pressing her palms against her forehead in frustration.

Rin sighed, inaudibly, stepping over to the bed soundlessly and sitting down. "Rikku," he called and she lifted her head in time to watch him pat the spot on the bed next to him.

She looked at him for a long while before getting up and took a few small steps until she was standing in front of the older Al Bhed. She paused then muttered "Yes?" quietly, unsure of what else to say.

"Sit," he ordered and patted the bed beside him again and she did, settling down on the bed beside him. There was a short, tension filled paused which she used to get comfortable and he used to figure out what to say to break it. "If you need to rest you can use this room," he settled on studying his hands awkwardly. He looked at her and noticed the half dried tears on her cheek, wondering if she had even noticed them herself. He said or did nothing though, afraid that if he did she would start crying again, and he wasn't sure how to handle crying Rikku.

"I couldn't sleep anyway," she replied and he winced when she wiped her cheeks and eyes with her palms. She pulled her hands away but he could she it had been in vain when fresh tears spilled silently.

He didn't know what to do until he remembered. "Here," he said, producing a handkerchief from his pocket.

She eyed him in wonder, but took it gratefully and wiped her eyes. He winced again, though not noticeably, when she blew her nose, but chose not to comment on it. When she tried to hand it back to him, he shook his head and she put it on the bed table beside his goggles that he had left there earlier. She kept her eyes trained on him, furrowing her brow in wonder.

"I am a merchant," he said simply in reply to her unspoken question. "I am supposed to have what my costumers need."

"I'm a costumer to you?" she said and looked at him with her big green spiralling puppy-dog eyes and he almost forgot to answer.

"No!" he said, harshly, so quickly that she almost jumped. "I..." he trailed off, wondering how someone so small could make him loose his calm like that, "I am a friend too."

It was implied, but she understood. "Friends," she said and grinned at him, a real, contagious smile and he couldn't help but return it with a little smile of his own. "We're friends."

He put a hand on the small of her back and she immediately took the cue, leaning her head against his broad shoulder. "We have lost many, but we must believe that their deaths have not been in vain and we must know that we will have our revenge," he started, hand moving in small circles on her back. "You and your friends will ensure that. You've made some very good friends."

"I have." She nodded in agreement and to his surprise wrapped her arms loosely around his waist.

With a sudden feeling of something that wasn't quite uneasiness, he stiffened, but continued regardless, "I have faith in your strength, Rikku," he said, and wondered if he meant the group's strength or her own. "We may have lost Home, but we will build a new one together."

She looked up at his face, and he met her eyes with a smile. "I don't want us to be scattered again," she said and buried her face in his sleeve.

"We will not," he assured her, and his hand began moving again despite the stiffness in his body.

"Promise?"

He knew he couldn't promise her such a thing when he could barely promise her that either of them would be alive tomorrow, but her eyes were too full of hope for him to be able to let her down.

When he didn't answer she looked down and shrugged. "Well, can't have everything!" she said, her voice laced with faked optimism.

He sighed and took her chin in his hand and forced her to look back up at him. "I cannot promise you tomorrow, but I can give you today," he whispered and gently pulled her hands apart and untangled her arms from around him. He put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her gently and she complied until she was on her back on his bed. He took the covers from the end of the bed, gently pulling them over her.

She smiled and he stood and turned around intending to let her get some well-deserved rest, but stopped abruptly when he felt a hand close around his wrist. "Stay," she whispered and he turned back to look at her in question. "What?" he managed to say and frowned at her.

"Cdyo," she repeated this time in a language she was sure he understood. She tugged at his arm softly, but still strongly enough to make him take an involuntary step forward.

"Rikku," he warned, or tried to warn, but the name on his tongue only managed to sound like a question.

She didn't say anything, only pulled at his wrist again and managed to make him take another step forward so that his knees were touching the side of the bed.

He sighed and seemed to give up, or give in he wasn't really sure. He pulled his wrist out her grip a little too fiercely and his heart almost broke at the pained look in her eyes. He went to the door and turned off the lights with a push of a button before returning to the bed with small steps, thanking whoever made the ship for making the small but clear windows, through which a little bit of light shone. He sat down at the edge, taking off his vest and placing it neatly on the floor beside the bed. Then he removed his necklace and placed it beside his goggles and the forgotten handkerchief.

He paused uncertainly, but complied when she raised the covers with a grateful look in her eyes. "Dryhg oui," she whispered when he crawled under the covers pressing his body hesitantly against hers. His arms snaked around her waist and he felt hers do the same around his waist. He looked into her eyes when she turned her head to look at him, and before he could stop himself he had leaned forward and their lips met in the softest of touches.

"Oui yna famlusa," he replied when he pulled away after only a brief moment. He could feel the beating of her heart in her chest, pressed against his own and the warmth of her breath against his lips. She closed her eyes as he closed his and then felt her face against his neck, felt the heat of her skin against his and fell asleep knowing that if nothing else they had today.

- // -

Al Bhed Translation:

Yna oui ymnekrd // Are you alright

Cdyo // Stay

Dryhg oui // Thank you

Oui yna famlusa // You are welcome