Notes: pain..pain pain pain! Erica wants no more olives; she wants no more pop, for her stomach is in pain, lots of pain. She is also very tired but just had to write a chapter today >_<. I hope my Aurikku site will be up soon, I would like to put fanart and fanfics on there (make it kinda a mass aurikku site…maybe). Though I dunno how well I’ll update it. Maybe my cousin can be the webmaster heh heh. Oh I made a rikku fanart, its her in the dress from chapter two. A little different looking but it is my image of the dress ^^;; its actually well drawn for me ^^;;

Chapter 8

Untitled Feelings

An eye opens, it looks all around the room. The other eye opens, and both investigate what they can without moving. A body desperately attempts to sit up, but fails and falls back down in pain. A hand lands on something next to the body. The face turns and notices another body. The body is asleep, with a scowl on his face. His young face should not have such a look, for it makes a bad image. The head turns its head and looks at the ceiling. Pain is continuous; nothing can be done about it except for rest and time. Painful images are remembered, a man…many men. Their feet and their hands abusing the body, the face, everywhere of the person. A tear falls down the face, and she screams.

Auron wakes up, noticing Rikku had awaken. He wasn’t sure when she woke up but was sure she was still in pain. He felt horrible for the girl, having to go through such pain. His arm moves, wrapping itself around Rikku. He looks at her sadly, wanting Rikku to stop crying, but knows that it will not happen anytime soon. He nods, understanding the pain that she’s going through. He thinks, about what he should do.

“I should have not left you alone Rikku.” Auron whispers. Rikku shakes her head, showing it is not his fault. Auron refuses to accept the truth. If he had been there, no if Rikku had been with him none of this would have happened. Images pour through his mind, all he can see is Rikku in pain. All he can see is the bleeding, the bruises, the open wounds, the tears, and can only hear her screams. Auron starts to shake. A worried look comes from Rikku’s face and he tries to stop, as she should only worry about getting better.

Auron sighs. He stands up from the bed to look out the window. The ground is covered, in snow and ice. He turns around and looks at Rikku. Tears are coming down his face. Impressions, actions, none of those things mattered in this case. He comes up to Rikku; he sits down on the bed next to her. Rikku looks at him oddly, wondering what is wrong. They look at each other, staring into each other’s eyes. Auron makes a decision. He lowers his head just above hers, and kisses her on the lips. The kiss is soft, full of emotion. In a moment the kiss ends and he leaves the room, Rikku with a face of confusion.

A few moments later, Rin comes in. He has some new clothes for Rikku to wear, as the other ones have bloodstains that cannot be removed. He says they are her size. Rikku looks at them, and smiles then thanks him. He leaves then one of his assistants comes in, a woman and helps Rikku dress. She nods and leaves the room. Rin comes back and the two of them speak for a while. He tells her he’s figured everything out but will not say a word to anyone, especially Cid. Rin leaves the room, Rikku alone once more.

Braska and Jecht come into the room next. They ask Rikku a few questions, mostly concerning her health. Braska casts another cure spell, then gives her a couple of potions. Rikku’s pain decreases and its able to move without so much pain shocking through her body. Braska guarantees that nothing has happened to stop the pilgrimage, and no one is going to report this to anyone. Rikku is happy and sad, but she figures when they go on Yuna’s pilgrimage they’ll get what they deserve.

They leave the room, letting Rikku get some rest. Rikku does not want to rest however, as the only thoughts in her mind now is Auron. Auron kissed her, and Rikku wasn’t sure why. She thinks about the kiss, his lips on hers. His lips were soft, and comforting. Rikku had never felt so protected in her life. It felt like nothing would hurt her in that moment and nothing did. All her pain and suffering went away for a fraction of a second during that kiss. She saw the door open.

Auron stood there, his face red. He was blushing. Rikku giggled. She stood up slowly, then walked toward him. It hurt a little to move, but she was soon being held up by his body. Auron looked at her again. She grabbed his hand and directed him to the bed. He sat down, next to her not once letting his gaze leave her face. She caressed him, and kissed his cheek. Three words escaped Auron’s mouth. Rikku turned her head and frowned. Auron knew she could not return the feeling, yet. He felt hurt, he felt rejected.

“Its not that I don’t love you, I just…I just wanted you to wait to say those words until you knew.” Rikku told him.

“Until I knew everything? You did not seem like you were going to tell me.” Auron responded.

“I don’t want you to hate me.”

“I’ll love you no matter what your words are, Rikku.” Auron held her hand.

“Then please wait. Wait for me to tell you those words until I am able to tell you everything.” Rikku saw him nod. She hugged him. Auron smiled, he would have to wait, but if that’s the least that would happen then so be it. He had Rikku on his hook; all he had to do is wait to reel her in. He wasn’t even sure of his own feelings, and how he decided he loved Rikku. After seeing her at Macalania temple, he knew his heart belonged to her. She had managed to take his heart, to tear down all the walls that he built up.

“I’ll wait for you.” Auron let go of Rikku, and walked out of the room.

A few hours later.

“We’re almost out of Macalania. We are going to go through the Thunder Plains and then stay in Guadosalam. We’ll most likely stay a night at the travel agency near the Thunder plains tonight. At this time of year, the Thunder Plains can be impassable at night, so we will go through them in the afternoon, the time where there isn’t so much thunder.” Braska showed a map he borrowed from Rin, the travel agency next to the thunder plains to Jecht and Auron.

“There are few fiends in the next stretch of Macalania we are to travel through. The one thing though, this part of Macalania is the longest, and most confusing part of Macalania to travel through. If we leave in the next couple of hours we’ll get there about midnight and leave the next day a little after noon. Auron are you listening?” Braska saw Auron was drifting off into his own thoughts. Braska had never seen Auron this way. Auron was always the one who paid attention the most and not one bit of information passed him by. Braska was concerned for the man.

“Huh? Oh, sorry Braska.” Auron assured him he’d pay attention to the rest of the time. After Braska explained his plans to the two men, Jecht decided to go to Rikku’s room. He knocked on the door.

“Oh, hello Jecht!” Rikku opened the door, sounding more cheerful then she had been in the past few hours. He stepped into the room.

“So how is the monkey?” He patted Rikku on top of the head. Rikku gave him a dirty look then gave up. ‘I guess I’m stuck with monkey…’she thought.

“I’m okay, for all that’s happened.” Rikku was amidst packing her things up to get ready to travel. She wished that they would stay another night but Braska assured her when she was feeling ill they’d take a break, no matter how late it would be before they got to the next travel agency.

“That’s good to hear. I can’t believe they of all people would do such a thing. I mean so what if you guys don’t believe in Yevon’s teachings, and so what if you use machina…no one should care.” Jecht complained

“That’s the thing. They think using machina is what causes Sin. If machina is not used anymore, then there wont be anymore Sin, however…that’s not possible. Yevon decides when using machina is okay and when it isn’t. Rather it isn’t Yevon that decides, its all the high priests, and maesters and such who decide when machina is okay and when it isn’t.”

“That’s just plain stupid!” Jecht really didn’t understand Yevon very much but he wasn’t a fan of it.

“Yeah, well don’t let too many people know that, or you’ll be in huge trouble.” Braska and Auron walked in.

“Jecht, you should let her be for a while, she doesn’t need too many people bothering her.” Auron muttered.

“I’m not bothering you…oh wait…are you jealous? Hmmmm? Just cuz I can do this and nothing will come about it?” Jecht grabbed Rikku and kissed her on the mouth. He ended the kiss abruptly and walked out of the room, chuckling to himself. Rikku just stood there not moving one bit, Auron looked like he was about to kill Jecht and Braska, had been filming it onto a sphere the whole time.

“JECHT!!! I’LL GET YOU FOR THIS!” Shouted while exiting the room.

“I hope he doesn’t kill him!” Rikku wondered.

“I doubt it Rikku, the most Jecht will suffer is a broken arm or something.” Braska smiled. Rikku just glared at him with a weird look.

“We must be be off Rikku, It is quite a walk to the next travel agency at the border of the Thunder Plains. I’m sorry we cant stay here for a while, I hope you’ll be alright.” Braska helped her pack up her things into her bag.

“I’m fine now! There’s a little pain but it isn’t much.” Rikku answered to his worries.

“No..not physically, mentally. Rikku, you do not have to pretend to be alright if you’re not. It was a terrible thing they did, something that’s not forgivable. It is something that no one should have to go through ever.”

“Don’t worry Braska, us Al Bhed are used to this happening. It is something we expect to happen and we usually try to avoid it as much as possible by travelling in large groups. No one has purposely tried to attack the al Bhed for a while…” Rikku explained.

“What do you mean Rikku? Why not too long ago a bunch of Yevonites killed a group of Al Bhed one night.” Braska told her.

“I…oh yeah. Well…I think we should go!” Rikku grabbed her bag and left the room as quickly as possible.

“Strange girl.” Braska said to himself and left as well.

End notes: grrr! Don’t worry they’ll all be out of macalania in my next chapter. I hope…