Slightly edited thanks to all the lovely reviews I've received since this thing was posted, I look back with a slightly more refined eye (to shiny things up) and still find this funny :P

"Rikku, for the last and final time: I do not know how to get out of here. Or when. Or why us." Auron sighed as the Al-Bhed bounced irately around the prison that had them both trapped in the Cloister at Bevelle. See, they has all been progressing through the trials as normal when Tidus dropped a sphere by mistake.

It'd rolled along the floor like something possessed and then implanted itself firmly in a groove by Auron and Rikku's feet. He'd stopped quite naturally to peer at the large rosette inlaid on the floor lighting up, and Rikku was forced to either stop too or bump into him. She chose the former, which unfortunately lead the two of them to being surrounded by a bright flash of light and see all the walls rearrange around them; teleporting the pair to a small room about three by four meters with no doors, windows or any other markings. Just a cell all on its own somewhere in the catacombs of the Cloister.

Auron also most unfortunately ran out of sake about two hours ago, and now had to endure the girl's endless ranting with growing sobriety.

"Look Auron, sitting around getting wasted isn't going to help anything, is it?" Rikku said tersely as he shook the last of the last drops of alcohol out of the heavy clay bottle into his mouth, while she more usefully scouted for a pattern or escape mechanism - perhaps tapping every blue brick in the room…Oh who was she kidding? They're all blue!

"Getting what?" he echoed dullly while leaning his head back against the wall in a groggy but depressing realization that there was no more sake.

"Wasted," she repeated as if he was some kind of moron requiring special treatment (he was Yevonite), as admittedly she was just a little frustrated at having to be trapped with him of all people. "Means drunk off your guardian ass."

"If only," he muttered quietly, but underestimating the resonance of the room.

"What?" she echoed accusingly.

"Nothing," he groaned, "and I am not drunk…"

"Said the Yevonite, I think it had been proven that you are all hypocrites and liars," she interrupted viciously while trying to listen at the walls and work out if any of them were hollow. Shutting his eyes, he attempted to ignore her jeering.

"My supposed faith is of no relevance to you." He replied sharply and drew up one knee to rest his arm on it, "Aren't you a walking oxymoron yourself? Al-Bhed Guardian?" He frowned and wondered if it was actually getting hotter in here, thinking that it might be the effect of two people producing constant body heat in such an enclosed space.

"Supposed eh? The Legendary Guardian's conviction not shaken at all is it?" she implied dryly as Auron dragged off his one glove and rubbed his face with it. The temperature was definitely rising and he wasn't very suitably dressed for the heat in such a thick robe.

"I would prefer if we stayed off the whole topic overall," he said flatly, as the last thing he needed was the overwhelming desire to tie up this irritating girl… or to devise some other sinister method to keep her quiet.

"Fine," Rikku remarked as she fell from her feet and stared at her nails absent-mindedly, and after a while trying rather ineffectively to scrape all the day-old dirt out from underneath them.

She looked up at Auron another time, like her seeming very hot and bothered, and then glanced at the sword by his side and came across an idea. Shuffling across the floor, she tucked her fingers under the flat part of the blade and dragged it towards her and then sat back, balancing the thing on her knee so that the tip hovered just about in front of her. She shifted sideways slightly to get at the right angle and began to run the point under her nails in sequence.

"What are you doing?" Auron questioned wearily after a minute or so of the pursuit, and she jumped at his voice, slicing her finger on the razor-sharp edge of the blade.

"UF!" (ow) she shrieked petulantly, "You made me jump! Cut my finger now…" she mumbled while sucking the aforementioned fingertip, which Auron rather began to wish she wouldn't in front of him, especially as she saw it fit to draw her wounded fingertip slowly back and forth across her lower lip in some sort of a boredom-induced pastime. This was both tainting her lips with blood and pulling her mouth half open, and it was unnecessarily provocative for a girl of her age.

Rikku let out a heavy sigh, sweating in the fetid humidity of this chamber that made her skin crawl and itch, so ventured to peel her top over her torso to expose her lithe stomach. Then at the sight of her abdomen heaving in and out with her breath, Auron began to sweat as well… abeit, not entirely because of the heat.

"It is actually getting hotter in here, isn't it?" she suddenly announced, "It's not just my imagination. I only pray to the Fayth that they put air holes in this box," she continued worryingly while fanning herself with her hand. The rise in temperature eventually gave Auron cause to slip his other arm out of his robe, as like the rest of him heat emanated from every pore and he couldn't cool down with the dense material coating him so thickly.

Rikku muttered quietly in Al-Bhed to herself, displeased by Auron's latest action because it was unfair… unfair that someone like him had to had such good (toned, muscular) arms whilst being forbidden fruit. Because like it or not she was Al-Bhed right down to her blood, and the hatred Yevonites had for her kind was not the easily-forgivable type, and her people also frowned upon Yevonite-Al-Bhed relationships almost as much as they did. She even heard that Auron used to be a monk, and just the thought of the way he saw Spira was enough to make her sick.

But not stop her lusting for him... damn her young-maturing hot Al-Bhed blood. Low life expectancies in the desert meant that people matured and settled down very young - use it or lose it as they said: Rikku's mother only seventeen when she had her, and Yuna's was a tender sixteen when she eloped with Braska... (now that had been a scandal and a half). The Al-Bhed had simply evolved into a constantly horny race of people, which although it kept their population up was a bit of a pain when it made her lust after old, old Yevonites she was trapped in cloisters with.

Then again... she was in disgrace here.

"I expect there is ventilation; we would had passed out by now if there had been a limited supply of fresh air," Auron stated whilst raising his arm to pull apart the buckles of his cowl, slipping it over his head and discarding it as a weighted breath escaped his lips.

"I. Am. Dying," she groaned tritely with childish emphasis on every word, and then swinging her knees around whilst forgetting his sword was still balanced on her thigh Auron's katana slipped, causing it to clatter to the floor with an ear splitting clang and nearly catch his leg. Luckily for him he moved clear just in time; but saved a nasty wound at the cost of the piercing clash.

"For Yevon's sake, Rikku!" He suddenly snapped as the sound reverberated around the room tinnily before dying out, however, she lost her temper just as much as he did with this brutal reprimand.

"Oh shut-it!" she hissed hotly, "I've had just about e-fucking-nough of this too, Auron!!"

He was momentarily silenced by her 'choice of words,' as he couldn't recall having heard Rikku swear so strongly before. Even during the Thunder Plains when she was at her wit's end nothing this crude was ever heard from her.

It almost had a maturing effect on the guardian, at the very least bringing him to the realization that they were both feeling very much the same right now: uncomfortable, hot and very irritated. Although, not that that meant he was going to be any more sympathetic, of course. He still had his reputation to think of. She was also a huge annoyance. A huge... young... flexible annoyance.

"You think I'm enjoying this any more than you are?!" he snarled back. "Surprisingly this was not how I planned on spending the trial, trapped in a room with a whining…"

She lashed out to punch him in the arm but he grabbed her hand in his iron grip before she could pull away, and squeezing her fist very tightly in his own and clicking the joints as he glared at her.

"I'm not going to crush your hand, Rikku, but keep in mind that I can." he threatened and released her mashed fingers contemptuously.

"Vilgehk suuto pycdynt…" she muttered under her breath, but his ears pricked. (fucking moody bastard)

"Cdibet kenm." He retorted in a heavy mainland accent, actually being somewhat knowledgeable of some basic words and insults in her language. Surprised at first by the fact that he knew any Al-Bhed, as he was a piece of choice bigoted-Yevonite-better-than-thou material, (although he did stick up for her that one time in Maclenia), however, seeing as he appeared to be so very smug about 'one-upping' her all of a sudden, she decided to had a bit of fun with him. (stupid girl)

"E cdemm fuimt, ihtancdyht dryd csynd-ycc?" she spat as if it were another insult. He seemed none the wiser, scoffing uninterestedly and rolling his head back. (I still would, understand that smart-ass?)

"Milgo oui lyh'd ihtancdyht sa dammehk oui e't vilg oui, palyica ev oui tet e pad oui't cgeh sa ymeja fuimth'd oui?" she continued with an amused sense of total freedom, stretching out her stiff knuckles with relish as she tried to recall the dirtiest Al-Bhed limerick she knew. (Lucky you can't understand me telling you I'd fuck you, because if you did I bet you'd skin me alive wouldn't you?)

"Rikku," he suddenly growled and turned his head to meet her contempt-filled eyes, "Shut the fuck up." She tightened her lips and boiled with annoyance, despising how he was even able to make swear words sound much scarier than she could.

"Watch your tongue!" she scolded enviously, raging at the (small) bolt of fear he'd sent through her. "You kiss your mother with that mouth?!"

"What do you fucking think?" he spat furiously whilst tugging at the fastening to his robe, sure that if he didn't get the shroud off soon he was going to get heat stroke and pass out, he was already beginning to feel slightly lightheaded and disorientated, and passing out really didn't seem like such a bad idea if Rikku was going to keep this up.

"I think a courl would be better company that you are," she retorted spitefully as he stood to shrug that infamous robe of his from his shoulders into a pile on the floor. He kicked up a cloud of dust in doing this that got up Rikku's nose and made her sneeze. He could even make undressing an annoyance. In that it made her sneeze... and that she wanted more of it... stupid, stupid Al-Bhed lust...

"My thoughts exactly," he countered as she scrambled to her feet to evade the haze that he'd created. "I would take well to the thought of you and a vicious fiend trapped down here in my place." She laughed scathingly at his turned back.

"Yeah? Well what makes you think you aren't one? Yevonite monster." she goaded and Auron whipped around while taking a foreboding step forwards with just a hint of madness in his eyes, from this point on knowing that he was going to do something to her for putting him through this. He wanted to leave the subject of his faith alone, and she simply wouldn't... wouldn't stop, wouldn't leave it, wouldn't cease looking like a piece of rather edible oiled-up ass to him.

So what that thing was exactly changed the closer they became. Being edged threateningly onto the wall, Rikku tried raising her hands as a distraction in case he really was a fiend and could be thrown off by a few smoke bombs and a glysal green, but Auron captured them. Before she was aware of it, he had her pinned back to the warm brickwork without an ice-flan in hell's chance of getting free.

His breath ran heavy in deliberation; palms hot and damp against hers as the sight of her teeth unconsciously chewing on that tempting lower lip made up his mind.

"Well, if I'm such a monster to you, I might as well take fucking advantage of it," he muttered darkly just before he crushed his mouth over hers; curling his teeth around her lip and biting it as she squeaked with surprise, too stunned to move or do anything as the heat of his body got closer to hers. He dragged his mouth across the skin of her cheek to her ear without breaking contact, roughly kissing her jaw several times and then sinking down onto her neck, pushing her head aside to expose a great (tempting, arousing) deal of it to him.

She felt his red-hot tongue against her skin snake a burning trail down her neck to the collar of her top, which he scratched with his stubble as her head started to spin from the dizzying amount of blood pounding through it.

"Vilgehk-vyodr, Auron!" she hissed as he worked his way around the base of her neck, arching her out from the wall just enough to bring his lips over the top of her spine and again sinking his teeth into the soft skin, leaving a red-purple mark as she let out a small whimper under the sting. Dragging her arms roughly together he trapped them again with one hand as the other fell straight down to her chest, his humid breath running across her skin as he rubbed heavily over her pert breasts, which reacted rather noticeably to his calloused hand. (fucking-fayth, Auron!)

From the pressure he was exerting on her wrists, Rikku knew that it would be futile to struggle as Auron worked this sexually abusive way around her body, however, that used the principle that she wanted him to stop... and she really couldn't think about anything right now, so instead of trying to stop him and possibly get herself into a worse situation, she only let out the odd squeak when he pressed or squeezed (or bit, she might add) too hard, soon realizing he always lightened the contact as a result.There was obviously still some human in him.

She shivered as he began to draw the rest of her top over her breasts with his spare hand, like some kind of old fosilised instinct that'd awoken in him when he kissed a woman (or girl), while the other still fixed her firmly to the wall. He quickly released her hands to rip the whole garment over her head in one hurried motion, without giving her a chance to protest or get away; though she failed to even think of doing either and just held her arms against the wall as if he'd nailed them there.

Dropping the abandoned clothing onto the floor, he pressed his mouth insatiably against her skin, which was made bitter with perspiration and sweet with his own Sake-scented tongue. Rikku between waves of 'oh yes that's the spot' continued to deliberate about what to do with her arms, until Auron moved up enough to finally push their lips together, and solved this problem as the arms that had started all this were now at the perfect height for her to perch her hands on them, whereupon she squeezed and ran her fingers inquisitively around the knotted and scarred muscles.

The return of his embrace shocked the logical part of Auron's mind (which didn't had anything to do with his body at the moment), as it meant that Rikku was actually accepting what he was doing to her… more than accepting: encouraging even.

This at least settled his mind's fear that he was actually raping the poor girl, and gave him charge to continue moving his rough hands greedily all over her sensitive skin, while kissing her in a way he doubted she had ever been before, or probably would ever be again. What he thrust into her mouth was raw lust; their lips sliding over one other and teeth clashing as he pulled her closer, her back coming away from the wall and into a rough, wanting embrace.

Exactly how she came to be in this situation was still out of Rikku's comprehension, but found herself really not caring in the heat(stroke) of the moment because to be honest: Auron smelt good; he felt good; he kissed good and hell he even tasted good, like charcoal smoke and a lot sake. It was in her blood for Fayth's sake, how could they expect her to resist?

She quickly started to mirror his ministrations and ran her tongue enthusiastically back against his, which he found endearing to say the very least. He tightened his fingers deep into her sides and back, very probably hard enough to leave marks. Although she didn't appear to mind it, as each twist and pinch only made her try to reach the back of his throat with her tongue even harder, and without even thinking about it she began scouting her hands over his torso to find out how his clothing could be undone, because for all too-obvious reasons, his being half-naked was very important to her at this time.

After realizing what she was attempting to do, Auron brought his hands away from Rikku's breast and inner thigh respectively to take hers and guide them to the line of fastenings on his chest. With her nimble fingers, she made short work of the armor and pulled it away, to be discarded along with the growing pile of clothes at their feet. Surrounded by the tense warmth of his chest and arms closing in on her, she began to feel a little faint and broke away from his mouth to steal a ragged breath.

"This is…" she wheezed, as he appeared to fall into similar consideration of their situation, his limbs still wrapped tightly around hers and gripping her like he was considering choking her, but a little more tranquil in his thoughts. "…Unexpected," she continued whilst feeling the powerful rise and fall of his chest against hers.

"Very," he replied as he dropped his head against the wall behind her and closed his eye for a moment… he wasn't sure what had just happened, but knew that he really didn't want to stop. It was as if ten years of death and loneliness and fustration had suddenly come undone, and all he wanted was to keep holding onto this girl who was all the things he'd lost. Things he'd never had: Yevon were masters of channeling sexual fustration into religious fanaticisim, and repression went hand in fucking hand with that.

"Rikku...I-" He began gruffly, but she cut him off with a cheery "… Eh who give a fuck?" and kissed him again with an ear-to-ear grin; it was highly likely Auron would never be in this state again, so she might as well take advantage of it whilst it lasted (and the blackmailing potential was awesome).

He returned her gesture passionately, but paused when his hands reached her waist again, hovering over the top of her shorts and giving her an opportunity to stop him before his last shed of dignity absconded. She did the total opposite and urged Auron further down, inviting him to pry apart her belt and let it fall to the floor as she ground her hips against his hands. Settling her own hands against his chest, she felt his fingers at her shorts as he boldly took control of removing all remaining attire between them, listening to her startled release of breath as he spread her roughly up against the wall once more.

She knew what was coming next with a sense of anxiety; not that she didn't want it, but she wasn't stupid enough to think that it would be all sugar-coated and fluffy: she'd had sex-ed classes before. So she braced herself for a shock and waited for Auron to brutally and mercilessly ravish her or something similar, he certainly had the wood for it (and how). She could only imagine how much cum he could have backed up being a stiff Yevonite (in all senses of the word) for all those years.

However like a wolf, (fiend indeed) he acutely sensed her anxiety, so held her firmly against the marginally cooler bricks while dropping his lips softly over her mouth, neck and jaw, brushing his fingertips down to her parted legs and slipping his fingers through the warmth collecting between them. She shuddered suddenly and he repeated the action, displaying an amazing amount of patience, considering how much he wanted her: despite how much he shouldn't.

Auron seemed to know exactly where and how to touch, in spite of everything she liked to think about him and mainlanders in general, to the point at which Rikku clenched her eyes shut and gasped for breath as cold air shivered across her back and up the center of her spine. She could only feel his hands against (and almost inside) her, which coaxed soft moans as he spoke again and forced her attention onto all of him - not just his fingers.

"Are you sure?" he stated hoarsely and moved his hand down her leg to push her further up the wall, as she was slipping, surprised that he was actually asking this as it implied he had a level of caring for her decision. Rikku let out a displeased squeak when his fingers moved away and bit her tongue thoughtfully before speaking.

"Yes of course" she replied after a short pause, because to be honest 'why not?' He was wildly attractive, seemed to know what he was doing, had those arms, she was as horny as a goat right now and finally... what else was there to do in this box?

So she really, really wanted to, in short.

This ambling train of though was interrupted when she suddenly let out high-pitched gasp; Auron had wasted no time in positioning and burying himself deep inside her, not exactly gentle but by no means rough like he'd been at the beginning… She stung and burnt for a moment as he pushed slowly into (and through) her. In response, she tightened her grip a little and whimpered into his warm shoulder as he held her close.

"Ur vyodr," (oh fayth) she whispered once more and tightened her legs around him as the pain pounded away, slowly being replaced by the mind-blowing feeling of being as close to a man as was physically possible; which intensified as he began to send bolts of sensation through her body with slow and carefully chosen movement. As she gradually yielded he was able to move faster and farther, deepening his own pleasure as she arched her back hard against the wall and her hips buckled against his thrusts; rhythmically meeting while as she tensed herself against the shudders pulsing through her body - soon knowing she was close, only having to stretch a little further to reach it...

From the rapt expression on her face when he glanced at her, Auron could tell Rikku was nearly gone: hot-blooded Al-Bhed that she was, so increased his pace to try and meet her climax. He heard loud beating in his ears and shared her rapid pulse throughout his entire body, forgetting all inhibitions bar the feeling of Rikku being wrapped tightly around him and the soft gasps that escaped her lips as he hit that particular spot again and again.

It was ironic really that someone as vocal as Rikku should be so quiet in sex; having always seemed (to him at least) more akin to be one for screaming down the walls.

All of a sudden she made the final leap and pushed her hips completely off the wall at a loss to herself; swelling with the waves as she crashed back down hard onto him, and he thrust one last time before the tight clenching of her body around his triggered release. He slammed her back into the wall and drove out another rise as the last convulsions of their bodies shook free and manifested in a single bruised kiss.

A post-coital calm followed in the wake of this Sin-shattering sex, and Auron turned around so that his back was to the wall, slowly sinking to the floor with Rikku's limp body still straddling him, her head drooping against his shoulder with youthful exhaustion.

They eventually seperated to lie apart and feel the gratifying sweat evaporate off their skin in the now even more intense heat. Nothing more could be heard apart from the gentle intake of breath in the small chamber. Rikku sighed serenely, closing one eye and then the other as they stung lightly from her pooling sweat: the aftermath of their passion.

"You are definitely better company than a courl," murmured Auron with tired amusement as he turned his head to looked at her, watching an eyelid slide closed over her verdant eye in contemplation. Then for some bizarre reason, found himself making a deeply personal confession.

"…I'm... unsent, you know." He stated offhandedly and awaited her reaction, but nearly repeated himself when nothing was heard but a tiny noise of consideration. Frowning, and wondering if she misheard him, Auron actually began to repeat himself but was abruptly interrupted by her reply.

"I heard you." She drummed her fingers on her stomach in thought. "Just now or - ?" she inquired almost humorously, rather failing to take this all that seriously as to be honest she had suspected something after Guadosalam… Along with all those other hints that had unfurled themselves along the way.

"A long time ago," he explained, wondering what in Spira had possessed him to say that in the first place. It was bound to be a mistake… In fact, it already was a mistake and would likely continue to be one for the indefinable future. He always had a habit of saying stupid things after sex... perhaps that was why he'd been avoiding it for so long. Although the results of that he noticed with a red face were now running slowly down Rikku's bare thighs - he should've thought more carefully about coming inside her (although it felt so damn good) and only prayed that being unsent meant he wasn't going to be fertilizing any ripe young Al-Bhed eggs. Prayed very hard.

"...Cool," she replied, and again he was stunned by her uninterested reaction. Surely something a little more dramatic would be expected of this? "It explains a lot actually… Although, I can't say I know why you're telling me."

"Nor I," he added calmly. "In fact, perhaps you should ignore it - forget I said anything." She pouted slightly but still didn't look at him, and Auron realised that it was mildly annoying; he wanted her to look at him, then he might have a chance at telling whether or not she was regretting this.

"Well, you've said it now so I can't exactly pretend I never heard it," she announced through a yawn, still resisting the urge to glance at him because she knew he wouldn't be looking back at her and it'd just make everything awkward.

"Rikku," Auron suddenly cut in sternly, "look at me." She turned her head like a shot and met his eyes while chewing her lip anxiously. Then he held out an arm so insistently that she had no other option but to take it. Auron coaxed her to his side and she perched her head on his stomach.

"Ya huh?" she inquired while slipping her arms up and stacking them below her chin to make a rest, but went to move away again when he didn't answer, fearing that he might be uncomfortable with her there. She knew guys didn't go for all that cuddling stuff, so even though she wanted it she wouldn't be a burden to him.

"Stay," he insisted with a hand over her forearm, and she did so while bubbling inside, lolling her face against him contently and listening to his heartbeat.

"How do you had a heartbeat if you are dead?" she asked inquisitively, her head rising with Auron's heavy breathing.

"I don't know," he replied, releasing the breath as another silence ensues. It was silly, because before she wouldn't stop talking and now she couldn't be quieter, when he wouldn't mind hearing her prattle.

"Think we should get dressed in case the others find us?" she inquired some time later and pushed up on her elbows to looked square at him. He thought on this, but became distracted by watching her yawn heavily again. He lifted up a hand to rest behind her jaw and guided her lips onto his, kissing her indolently as she crept closer. Encouraged by her ever-eager response, Auron draped his arms over Rikku's back and deepened the kiss, tongues sweeping softly together as he tried to absorb every drop of pure gorgeousness from this girl.

After a little while she broke away from him, and just as he had learnt her body from touch she started to learn his with her mouth and tongue; tracing long twisting scars across his chest and kissing tenderly along the arms she seemed to have an ususual interest in, finishing on his hands where she suckled gently on each digit. Auron felt shivers on his skin, even in spite of the heat in the room, as her lips graced his hips, and followed a trail of pubic hair down from his navel to his groin.

She took him into her mouth and he groaned with a roll of his hips, and she slowly teased and sucked another erection from him, to his surprise she didn't seem repulsed by a male organ. Years ago he wouldn't have considered this possible - having sex so soon after having already having done so, but with this girl he believed in miracles and his body seemed to agree, because within no time he was hard as hell again and aching to feel her body around him once more.

So she obligingly clambered atop him (so much for regrets) and feeling his rise up against her, slowly eased her tender self down as she was deigned control this time.

They progressed languidly and unhurriedly as the heat was taking an effect again and they weren't in such a race towards climax. Auron's hands rested heavily on her waist and she calmly rocked herself over him, nervous at first, but relaxing with his guttural noises of encouragement and just following what felt right. Then, upon the inevitable drawing close to another release, Auron let a hand fall from her hips to make a fist over a tender spot between her legs with his rough hands, and she ground against him as he gave the (literal) hand she needed to climax with him a second time.

Rikku subtly opened an eye to watch Auron come in curiosity, lips slightly parting as an almost inaudible groan clawed it way out of his throat and his hand tightened around her waist as his thrusts deepened inside her. The precise details of how getting dressed turned into this again seemed a little hazy to her, not that she had any complaints. They sprawled apart once more and she drifted asleep for a short nap to regain her energy and such.

Waking to the sound of boots in the distance, Rikku saw Auron leaning over her, peering down through glasses that he'd put on again, along with the rest of his clothes. However, he was still without his outer robe or cowl and she was still totally naked - but how long had she been asleep?

"I think they're getting close," he remarked softly; still fuzzy from waking up, and dropped Rikku's small bundle of clothes onto her stomach. "I'd hope you wouldn't want them to see you like this," he continued almost possessively as she wriggled obediently into her shorts, realising that a lot of things were sore… In a sort of satisfactory way... but still a little achy.

Just as she'd fastened the catches on her top a bright, sphere-activated light cut a path across the floor and outlined a shape on the wall as a loud crack was heard: the hidden doorway splitting open and the hiss of hot air escaping as the rest of the party came into view.

"You think you guys could've gotten more lost?" Tidus berated as both captives ran hurriedly to get out of their cell. As enjoyable as parts of it had been a prison was still a prison.

"We were not the ones who dropped the sphere," Auron stated stonily as Rikku eagerly pushed her way to the back of the party and began dashing along the path.

"BELOVED FREEDOM!!" she screamed, waving her arms about and causing many to flinch at her high-pitched squealing.

"How the hell did you cope?" Tidus asked Auron disbelievingly on the party's hasty route as far away from that blasted chamber as possible. In response, the elder man grinned behind his cowl and watched Rikku out of the corner of his eye as she rubbed her legs with a frown: failing to climb the stairs away from this dead end without pulling a strained face. Shooting him a dirty look, she then winked with those big, green eyes and ran her tongue slowly along her lips.

Auron let out a small chuckle, choosing his words carefully. "There are ways."

I'm off to sleep for ten hours as I was up late last night finishing this dam-thing XD

Now I'm off again, as I just converted this into past tense because I'm neurotic like that.

Off for a third time, as I have a habit of revising old things that are popular. (Thankyou to eveyone who reviewed!)

Back again for a fourth time, because I love to improve and this has a timeless value ;P

Reviews are my sun on a rainy day.