Everything Looks Better Ch. 07

Auron spilled a handful of peas onto his plate, passed the bowl to Uncle Cetan and as he hooked a thumb over the edge of the bowl, provided Auron with an intense double take. Initially, Uncle Cetan fixated on Auron's scar until he shot his wife a quizzical look.

"What did you say you're name was?" Raine's uncle asked.

"Auron," he said and Aunt Naya passed him a plate of hot rolls under a cloth napkin.

A few silent minutes went by as the rest of the food was distributed and Auron tried to ignore the crimson fume in Uncle Cetan's pressed lips as the room's gravity plummeted. When everyone began to eat, Aunt Naya asked, "How do you know Raine, Auron?"

"I'm a friend of her father's," Auron said quickly, before Raine could answer for him.

"Jecht?" Uncle Cetan said and his expression looked as if he'd found a dead roach in one of his rolls.

"Auron was my father's sponsor," Raine said.

Flashing Raine a hard look, Auron nearly set the record straight, denying her statement, but then he couldn't think of anything to say in its place, so he let it go.

"You must have had your work cut out for you," Aunt Naya said.

"It wasn't easy," Auron said through his teeth. Was Raine trying to make this meeting difficult?

"I wasn't aware he quit," Uncle Cetan said.

"He did," Auron said without hesitation because this part was truthful. "Before he died."

Raine dimmed, chewing her food thoughtfully. Auron avoided her gaze and concentrated on his meal, navigating forkfuls over his high collar. There was a gap in the dialogue, filled with clinking silverware, the crepitus in Uncle Cetan's jaw as he ate, and the wooden squeak when someone shifted uneasily in their chair.

Quietly, feigning sincere interest, Aunt Naya asked, "Do you go to school...or do you work...?"

"Neither," Auron said and left it at that.

Naya didn't have a response and quickly took a tiny bite of potatoes, chewing quickly.

"Do you live in C-South?" Uncle Cetan asked.

Live? "No."

Uncle Cetan started to question further when Raine spoke up. "My aunt and uncle both went to C-South High."

The constant tension, which had plateaued shortly after they began to eat, sharply escalated at Raine's seemingly innocent comment. Uncle Cetan and Aunt Naya exchanged anxious glances and Auron met Raine's eyes in confusion, but she just smiled down at her plate.

"The year my uncle graduated, my aunt was..." Raine's head lifted to look her aunt in the eye. "How old were you, Aunt Naya?"

Someone's fork dropped firmly to a plate with a startling clank.

"Raine," Aunt Naya said, shaking her head in quick shakes, her face rigid, as though this was rude conversation. With a sheepish glimpse at Auron, the older woman picked up her fork and picked at her roast.

"That was different," Uncle Cetan said, low and pithily in his great niece's direction.

Auron's eye came over the top of his rims deliberately to look over the dinner table at Raine, who had, with one question, simultaneously warned her caretakers of their hypocrisy and gave Auron a not-so-subtle hint on the direction she thought their relationship should be going.

After absorbing a table full of glares, Raine rolled her eyes in defeat and said, "Not that it matters. Auron and I are just friends."

Another long moment followed and Auron couldn't seem to eat fast enough.

"Now I know where I've seen you," Aunt Naya said. "You were at my niece's funeral, weren't you?"

"I went to make sure the children were safe," Auron said after a rather uncouth swallow of roast. "As a favor to Jecht."

Raine rolled her eyes again when Auron said "children."

"Oh," Cetan said, thoughtfully frowning with new understanding, his posture reproving as he leaned to Raine. "Why didn't you say that?"

"I forgot," she said insipidly, giving Auron a dull look and slumped back in her chair, moody teen.

Safely smirking safely behind his collar, Auron was pleased how rapidly he had gone from potential suitor to guardian in her folks' eyes.

"Are you a Duggles fan, Auron?" Cetan asked and the strain of the situation immediately dissolved.

Auron gazed across the table at Raine, who was picking at her dinner with her fork, and a spark of pity penetrated through his normally obdurate shield. "I am," he said. "They play dirty, but I think that's their appeal."

Raine's eyes flicked up from her plate to Auron and then glanced obliquely at her custodians to make sure they didn't notice her shy smile.

When dinner was over, Auron declined the offer of coffee and pie from Aunt Naya and stood to leave. Raine dropped her napkin on her plate and jumped up as well. "I'll see Auron out."

Auron descended the stairs to the landing by the front door, lugged on his boots and collected his equipment. Raine slipped into her shoes and grabbed a sweater from the coat rack before flicking on the porch light. It had gotten dark outside during the meal. When they were alone on the front stoop, Auron swung around to chide her for the position she'd cornered him in during dinner, but she was pulling on his bare arm, leading him further into the yard.

"Where do you stand?" she asked.

"On what?"

She grinned. "Where do you stand when you watch me?"

He considered her, debating.

"The yard is only half an acre, Auron. If I want to know, I'm going to find out."

He nodded upwardly. "Back here." He led her around the side of the house, to the copse of landscaping junipers by the privacy fence separating their yard from the neighbors. He slid in between two bushy trees, tramping back to the spot he found to have the most cover.

"Cozy," she said looking around, although they were shrouded in darkness. She faced the lit house. Aunt Naya was in the window where the sink was and Uncle Cetan was carrying over dishes. "My aunt can't see you?"

"If she can, she's never shown it."

Raine was quiet for a few moments, stepping close to him so she could study the house. "You really can see right into my room."

"When the curtains are open." Usually she closed the blinds on the weekends when she didn't have to wake up as early.

"Of course." She glanced up at him carefully. "How much can you see?"

He glowered. "My vision is better than you think," he said sharply.

Raine flashed him a contrite look. "I didn't mean—" She shook her head and didn't finish. "Nothing. Nevermind."

Auron realized what she meant and felt like an asshole. He inwardly sighed and relaxed his tone. "I'm familiar enough with your routine to know when to look away."

Her nod was unreadable. A warm breeze rustled the scaly evergreen leaves around them as they watched Aunt Naya wash the dishes and Uncle Cetan wipe down the table and slide it back against the wall.

Recalling something that had been bothering him, he smiled curiously down at Raine. "So how old was your aunt Naya?"

"Huh?" she asked, unable to peel her eyes off the mundane activities in her own house.

"When your uncle graduated from C-South. How old was your aunt?" He ventured a guess out loud. "Three or four years old?"

With a sidetracked glimpse, Raine said, "Thirty-three."

Auron had never gaped in his life, but his jaw dropped like a weight was tied to his chin. "You're lying."

She giggled. "You thought my uncle was the older one?"

"Isn't he?"

"Chestnut 51," she said, shrugging carelessly, gazing back over to her house. She said it as if that was the answer to all questions.

Auron frowned. "I don't understand."

"It's her color dye. For her hair. It makes her look 20 years younger."

"I'll say," Auron said, slightly beside himself as he pondered this. His eye was pulled to the sliding glass door by the deck as her Uncle Cetan's full frame became a forbidding silhouette against the light in the kitchen as he searched the back yard, arms folded sinisterly.

"I think that's my cue," Raine said. "Thanks for today. You're a good listener."

A hug followed. It was unexpected, clumsy and over too soon. Without another word, she was ducking out of the trees, running back to the house. Uncle Cetan floated away from the patio door, back to the living room to watch the Blitzball highlights. Auron faintly heard the slide of the door on its rollers as she went inside. She said something to her aunt, who looked up from her dishes. The older woman nodded, picked up a towel to dry her hands, and Raine took her place in the window above the sink as she took over dish-duty. Her aunt joined her uncle in front of the holographic screen. Auron speculated this was done to impress him somehow, since Raine had never volunteered to do dishes before.

When the dishes were done, Raine shut off the kitchen light and passed by the patio window. She paused at the top of the stairs to say something to her custodians and headed downstairs, out of sight. Auron's eye traveled diagonal across the back of the house to her bedroom window, still lit from when they were there earlier, and a moment later, the door opened wider and she strode into her room. She avoided looking out the window and headed to the corner where her bed couldn't be seen and Auron waited patiently for her to come into view again. There were times she was on her bed for hours, reading or chatting with a friend on a commsphere, so this was not uncommon. But she was visible again a few minutes later, at the window, closing the curtains.

Hmph. That didn't take long.

To entertain himself, he glanced back to the living room. Her aunt and uncle were still watching a recap of the Blitzball game, quiescent in their chairs. Auron leaned against the fence, brooding over the consequences of showing her his usual post, until her curtains split open again. She had changed into loungewear, a pink tank top and purple running shorts, which she would eventually sleep in. She opened her closet door, which blocked nearly half the window, and busied herself inside for another few minutes. When she approached the window again, her hand came up to fiddle with the locks and release the window.

"Auron!" she hissed across the yard.

Auron came quickly, only so she didn't say his name again and risk her parental guardians hearing. As soon as she saw him, she delved into her closet again and Auron immediately grew wary. He lowered down to one knee at her open window. There was music playing low in her room and he could hear commotion in the closet.

"Raine?" he whispered.

"One sec."

Auron checked the dark yard for nosy neighbors. Raine came out of the closet, covered neck to ankle in a shimmering yellow gown and a perfectly square graduation cap with a black and gold fringe swinging against the side her face. She made a showy "ta-da!" gesture, her hands shaking like tambourines, and he snorted.

"Graduation's in two months," she said, leaning her arms on the chest-height windowsill. "You're coming, right?"

He tilted his head, evincing an ironic look.

"You can't miss my valedictorian speech."

"I won't," he promised.

"Every student gets four seats, I think. You can sit next to my aunt and uncle. You can talk to my uncle about Blitzball."

Auron didn't say anything. He was sure a decline would diminish her upbeat mood.

"Do you want to come in?" she asked, swinging the window wider.

Badly.

"I'll be fine out here."

"Are you sure? My uncle and aunt never come down here, not since the laundry was moved to the main floor."

She misinterpreted his hesitation as a silent scolding.

"Okay, okay. Look, I'll leave the window unlocked. In case it ever starts to rain or if you just want to talk."

"Lock your window," Auron said.

"But—"

"Don't argue. You'll be safe from—"

Me.

"—prowlers."

"I thought you kept me safe from prowlers?"

"Do your homework," he said sternly and walked back to his spot in the trees before she could respond. He heard the windows shut on his way.

Back in his thicket of junipers, Auron situated to run on idle for the remainder of the night. Raine sat dutifully at her desk, studying.

Auron had to remind himself it wouldn't always be like this. Her crush on him would eventually disappear. Right now, school was slowing down to give her time to apply to colleges, but life would pick up again when her higher education commenced. She was feeling disillusioned by the people she had considered her friends and soon she would make new friends, who would take up most of her time. And judging by their conversation on the swings, she would be a little more critical this time when choosing them. He also speculated a proposal would be in her near future, which wouldn't make Tidus very happy, but there was nothing Auron could do about it.

Was there?

His thoughts were interrupted as the house began to darken. Aunt Naya and Uncle Cetan had turned off the lights and gone to bed. Soon, Raine put away her homework and started her nightly routine, disappearing into the bathroom across the hall and returning with a freshly washed face and brushed hair. A new move had been added to her routine, however, a short wave in Auron's direction, before the lights blinked off. He smiled without humor at her good-night gesture, suddenly losing himself in contemplation.

It occurred to Auron he could use Raine's attraction to him to permanently remove Jory from the picture. It might even be advantageous when it was time to take her to Spira.

Auron scowled at the idea and shook his head.

Unless...