Final Fantasy Fun

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 43: "Sunrise"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Auron/Lulu, Yuna, Wakka
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2400
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The Story So Far: Freed from Sin's bonds, Lulu rests on Brother's airship after the final battle with Yu Yevon.


Illustration by author

Sin was dead, but for those who had passed through the eye of the spiral, old echoes kept returning. 

Here, now: a quiet space. An airship cabin. Thrumming walls and floor. Not quite room enough for two on a narrow bunk. Blue-black light spilling through a glass window curving from floor to ceiling, emanating cold. Warm blankets, the warmer flesh beneath. The mage's flickering presence dreaming nearby like a sword in its sheath, her powers slumbering, all polished curves and steel. These things Auron remembered and savored, although he felt the irrevocable gulf between then and now like the knotted flesh under his right eyelid. Still once again he sat meditating on the cold deck beside her bunk, contemplating journey's end and the gleam of one pale shoulder in the first light of dawn. 

It seemed to him that Lulu's hair held a faint translucence like the boughs of Macalania trees. Or maybe he was dreaming. He was very tired.

A crash roused him. He must have dropped off after all. The sky and cabin were dusted in a pinkish-gray light. Beside him, Lulu sat bolt upright with a feral hiss and a flash that smelled of burnt feathers. Auron flicked the top blanket out from under her hands and clapped it against the floor, snuffing out sparks. 

"My sword fell," he said. "Propped outside." 

"Ah." She exhaled. Nonetheless, the rigid line of her shoulders flinched in counterpoint to the clanking beats of the weapon tumbling down the staircase.

Auron remembered how he had found her, chained to ice by his own swords. Swallowing a surge of anger, he rose to stand between her and the door. "Bad dreams?"

"Of course." Defiance drew her voice taut. "But they're my dreams."