Wrong?

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy X or any of its characters and I make no money from writing this story. If I did own FFX, Tidus would just admit he's gay and get on with it already

A/N: Woohoo, I finished editing chapters 2 and 3! This chapter still doesn't have sex yet (sorry) but there is some language and violence. Or is it technically references to violence? Oh well, you've been warned either way. Enjoy!

***

It was around noon the next day when Auron returned to the houseboat and was surprised to find the front door unlocked. He frowned, lines creasing his forehead with the action. Tidus was usually good about locking the door when he left for school if Auron wasn’t around. He’d have to remind him to be more careful from now on.

With a resigned sigh, reminding himself the boy was only fourteen and was bound to make mistakes, the warrior entered, immediately heading for the kitchen to take care of the slight hunger pains in his stomach. When he saw the head of soft blond hair on the couch, he stopped so suddenly he rocked back on his heels.

What the hell was the boy doing at home instead of at school? And why was he sleeping in the living room? Had he fallen asleep there the night before, consequently never waking up for school? Annoyed, Auron stomped over to the sleeping figure… and froze when he truly saw it.

Tidus was asleep on the couch in just a pair of black shorts, curled up in the fetal position and shivering. Someone had beaten him. Badly. Dark, ugly bruises and long, red scrapes stood out against the boy’s unusually pale skin, his cheeks tear-streaked, brow furrowed even in sleep. As Auron ran his eyes over the teen’s body he couldn’t find a single place that had escaped harm. His arms, his legs, his chest, his back, his neck, his face… all were hurt in some way or another. His lips were split and swollen, his right eye completely swollen shut, and a large gash along his left temple looked as if someone had bashed his head against a wall. His neck had the obvious tell-tale bruises of someone trying to choke him, and his wrists were bruised like someone had held his arms down so he couldn’t fight back. The rest of his body was just a litany of similar injuries.

Auron felt a slight sense of alarm as he knelt by the couch gently placing a gloved hand on the boy’s hair. “Tidus.” His other hand felt the boy’s forehead to find it very hot. He had a fever. “Tidus, wake up. Tidus!”

The small, shivering figure whimpered and blinked eyes open slowly. After a moment, he registered someone was touching him, and instantly panic set in. He sat bolt upright, ignoring the pain that shot throughout his body, striking out wildly against his new attacker, squeezing his eyes shut in an attempt to make it all disappear. “No!” he screamed, his throat protesting the assault. “No, go away! Get the fuck away from me!”

“Tidus!” Auron hadn’t exactly been expecting this reaction and caught the boy’s flailing arms, pinning them at his sides. “Tidus, it’s all right.”

“Don’t touch me! Let go of me, dammit!”

“Tidus, stop!” Auron roared, raising his voice for the first time in years. Unconsciously, Tidus obeyed, and went limp in his grasp, willing his eyes to shut tighter. “Go away,” he begged in a pleading whisper. “Go away, go away, go away, go—”

“Tidus.” Auron’s firm voice cut off his repeating mantra, and the boy cringed at the sound of his name. “Tidus,” Auron repeated, much softer this time. “It’s all right, Tidus, open your eyes.” He smoothed the boy’s hair, an action reserved only for when Tidus was truly and justifiably upset. “Open your eyes.”

Tidus trembled in terror as his uninjured bright blue eye opened to one single amber one peering at him over dark glasses. He knew that eye. “Auron?”

“It’s all right, Tidus. I’m here.”

Tidus blinked slowly, letting his mind catch up and take in his surroundings. He was safe in his living room. Auron was here with him. He was safe… Before he could stop it, he was sobbing like he’d been the night before and he’d thrown his arms around Auron’s neck in a death grip, terrified the older man would disappear if he didn’t hold on tight. “Auron! Auron, I’m… I’m sorry!”

“Shh.” Auron wrapped his arms around the boy’s slender figure, tucking his head beneath his chin. “Hush, Tidus. It’s all right now.”

Vaguely in the back of his mind, Tidus realized that Auron was holding him, letting him cry on him. He had only done this once before, when Tidus’ mother had died. He had only been seven at the time, and he’d barely known Auron. Yet still, when he was crying at his mother’s funeral, feeling helpless and alone, the person he’d gone to wasn’t any of his mother’s friends with their familiar faces. It was the large, mysterious man in red… But that had been a one time occasion. Any other time he would get a periodic hand on the shoulder, on rare occasions a pat on the head, and if Tidus needed calming, usually after managing to injure himself, he would stroke his hair for a few moments. But to hold him like this…

Auron was thinking the same thing, surprised by his own actions. He normally avoided physical contact with anyone as much as possible, not even hugging Tidus back when he’d been younger and the small boy had wrapped his arms around Auron’s waist affectionately. He’d settled for awkwardly patting him on the head like a puppy and sending the boy on his way. But this time, when the sobbing boy had flung himself at him, he’d instinctively wrapped his arms around him, wanting to hold him and comfort him. He’d known something bad had happened as soon as his eyes had landed on the boy’s injured body, that much was obvious. What truly startled him was the way the boy panicked when he’d first woken up. That was when Auron became certain something very bad had happened.

Now his body acted of its own accord as he deftly untangled the boy’s arms from around his neck to Tidus’ desperate cry of protest. It was silenced when Auron sat on the couch, lifting the boy into his lap, his strong arms pulling the boy close, leading his head so he could cry on his shoulder. One hand buried itself in the soft hair at the back of the boy’s head while the other one rubbed his back soothingly, very lightly so as not to hurt his bruised skin. He rocked him gently, burying his face into the mop of blond, dimly noting that the boy’s hair smelled like lavender. Tidus, meanwhile, just sobbed softly into his guardian’s shoulder, listening to the soothing sound of his heart beating steadily in his chest beneath that red coat. Auron was here. It would be all right.

Both Tidus and Auron were surprised at how quickly Tidus calmed, though as soon as Auron tried to set the boy down, Tidus began to panic again. It dawned on Auron then that he was what was calming Tidus, and he held the boy firmly in his arms, not able to place the foreign feelings welling up inside of him. He hadn’t felt this way in a very long time.

Once the panic had again subsided, Auron changed his tactics, lifting Tidus up like he weighed nothing and carrying him into the bathroom. He set him down gently next to the sink, standing between his knees, reaching up into the medicine cabinet and pulling down a bottle of potion. Tidus normally hated drinking potions, and Auron readied himself for an argument; but to his surprise Tidus drank it down in a few gulps, not once complaining about the taste. That just made Auron worry more.

Now he set about carefully examining the boy’s injuries, making sure none were too serious. He dabbed a wet cloth against the nasty gash along Tidus’ temple, wiping the tear-streaks from his face as well. Then he started gently prodding along the boy’s skull, trying to find any discernible cracks or particularly bad lumps. He did find a few that worried him, and he frowned, wondering if the boy had a concussion. “Tidus, when did this happen?”

Tidus jumped slightly at being spoken to, then allowed his mind to register the question. “Um… yesterday… yesterday evening… I think… Was yesterday Sunday?”

Auron scowled slightly at the question. “Yes, yesterday was Sunday.” He realized the boy had fallen asleep after it had happened and hadn’t woken at all until he came home, so if any damage from sleeping with a concussion was going to occur, it was already done. He wrapped the boy’s either cracked or broken ribs then continued feeling down the boy’s shoulders and arms, freezing when he reached his right hand. The three fingers on the end were twisted and out of place. “Tidus, your fingers are broken.”

The boy blinked slowly as Auron took his hand delicately into his own much larger ones, then turned his gaze to the offending fingers. The image of a booted foot slamming down on top of them and twisting painfully flashed through his mind, and he shivered slightly. “They were stepped on,” he replied blandly, and Auron looked up then into the boy’s face. He didn’t like the way it was completely devoid of emotion.

Fighting the urge to demand the whole story until he was done with the task at hand, he said softly, “Well, I’m going to have to put them back into place. It’s going to hurt, all right. Just hang on.” Tidus gave no response, but he hadn’t been expecting one. He took the fingers one at a time, pulling them back into their rightful positions with three practiced yanks, wincing slightly at the sound of bone popping.

Tidus watched this uninterestedly, waiting for it to hurt. He felt the small sharp stings when Auron pulled each finger, then waited patiently for it to actually *hurt*. When he realized that was it, that was the “pain” Auron had told him to be ready for, he started laughing like an idiot. This began to seriously disturb Auron, because Tidus sounded anything but sane at the moment. “Stop it,” he growled. “What’s so funny?”

“You said it would hurt,” the blond gasped between maniacal giggles. “You said it would… would…” The laughs abruptly turned into dry sobs, no more tears left. Tidus gripped the front of Auron’s red coat so hard his knuckles turned white, resting his forehead against his guardian’s chest. “It *hurt*… Auron, it hurt so much…”

Auron knew he wasn’t talking about him setting his fingers. He wrapped his arms around Tidus protectively, a feeling of rage growing from the pit of his stomach and spreading through his whole body as he looked at the small boy beneath him, battered and in *pain*. Who had dared do this to him? The boy could be annoying at times, sure, but that was his worst fault. He’d never done anything to deserve this, and Auron wanted to find who had hurt him and make them pay. “Tidus,” he said, his voice betraying his anger, “tell me what happened.”

Tidus’ sobs stopped instantly. Auron thought it was because of the question, but really it was the tone of his voice that had startled the boy. “He’s mad,” Tidus thought, shutting his eyes tight. “Shit, he’s mad…”

Well, of course he was mad, the logical part of his brain made him realize. He was being a damn crybaby again; Auron had every right to be mad at him. Taking a deep breath, Tidus said softly, “It’s okay. I’m sorry.”

Auron blinked, not expecting this particular answer, or anything like it really. “Okay? What’s okay? Why are you sorry?”

Tidus winced slightly at the powerful voice and carefully kept his gaze on the floor, his hands tightening harder on the fabric in them. “It was my fault. I’m sorry.”

/“Faggot! I can’t believe this!”/

“Tidus, how is it your fault? What happened?”

Tidus took another calming breath, closing his eyes again. “I can’t tell you. I’m sorry, Auron.”

It took all of Auron’s self-restraint not to slam his fist into the wall. Maybe if this had been a regular fight, if Tidus had come home with a few bruises after grating someone the wrong way… But this wasn’t a regular fight. Someone, Auron was almost sure several people, had severely beaten him, and that was not something that could just be left alone. Anger seethed out of him in a nearly tangible form as he grabbed Tidus chin and forced the boy’s face up to look at his. “Tidus, you will tell me what—”

“No!” Tidus shoved Auron in the chest with enough force to make the large man stagger back a step.

/“You lied to me, you fucking faggot!”/

“I’m not talking about it! I won’t! I don’t care what you say!”

Auron narrowed his amber eye, but not in a threatening way. “Tidus—” he started calmly.

“I said no!” Tidus gripped his hair with nearly enough force to pull it out as hot tears he didn’t think he had left flooded down his cheeks. Auron couldn’t know, Auron couldn’t know, Auron couldn’t know… “I don’t want you to hate me,” he sobbed desperately, unable to look up at the man in front of him. “I can’t… please… I don’t…”

Abruptly, Tidus toppled forward completely unconscious, Auron catching him before he hit the floor. The intense heat radiating from his small body reminded Auron of the boy’s fever. Cursing silently to himself, he took the boy to his room, tucking him in bed, pushing a stray lock of blond out of his eyes.

/“I don’t want you to hate me.”/

Auron squeezed the bridge of his nose between two fingers, shutting his eye tight. Stupid brat. What a ridiculous thing to say. All he wanted to know was what had happened so he could find who had hurt him and kill them. So he could ease this feeling of guilt spreading through him like poison.

Guilt. He wasn’t used to the feeling and wanted it gone more than anything. If he could find whoever had hurt Tidus and get revenge for the boy, it would go away, right? This feeling of guilt because Tidus had gotten hurt, and he hadn’t been there to protect him. He hadn’t even been there to help him afterwards. He had strolled in a day later to find the boy a broken, crumpled mess, all because he hadn’t kept his promise to protect him.

Auron ran a hand roughly back through his hair, willing away the foreign feeling in his stomach. He had failed Jecht… No… More than that, he had failed Tidus. He didn’t know when looking after the boy had changed from just keeping a promise to actually wanting to stay with and care for him. He didn’t look at him as a son and yet… yet he found himself truly caring for the blond brat in a way he couldn’t quite describe. Wanting to protect him not for Jecht, but just because he didn’t want anything to happen to him.

/“I don’t want you to hate me.”/

“Stupid boy. Don’t you know I could never hate you?” He gently ran his fingers along the sleeping boy’s swollen face, feeling sick. “I’m sorry. I won’t let this happen again… I’m sorry.”

***

It took about three days for Tidus’ fever to go away. It took about three weeks for his injuries to completely disappear. And it took about three months before the horrible nightmares that plagued him began to dwindle. Auron helped him through it all with more patience than Tidus could ever remember the older man having before, always telling him it was all right when he attempted to apologize. Of course no matter how many times Auron told him that, he knew it wasn’t all right. He had been stupid, and now Auron had to deal with the consequences too; and that just wasn’t fair to the older man. So he did his best to stay away from Auron as much as possible, trying to lighten his burden.

Auron let Tidus stay home from school for two weeks before telling him it was time to go back. The boy didn’t argue about going to school in general, but he practically begged Auron to let him switch schools. This surprised his guardian slightly, but it made it rather obvious that Tidus knew who his attackers were and they went school with him. Not seeing anything particularly wrong with this arrangement if it would make Tidus feel better, he enrolled Tidus in another nearby school.

Despite the fact that Tidus’ grades were average at best, the school was thrilled to have the boy for his blitzball skills. They immediately offered him a spot on their high school team, but the boy just gave the principal and coach a small smile and shook his head. “Thank you, but I’ll just wait until next year when I’m actually in high school.”

Auron was so shocked to hear this come out of Tidus’ mouth he nearly fell out of his seat. Tidus had declined an opportunity that could easily further him in his blitzball career? Of all the strange things the boy had done since he’d been beaten up, this was by far the strangest and most out of character. When he mentioned this to Tidus later on at home, the boy refused to meet his eyes.

“Well, y’know, Auron, I’m still not totally healed yet and everything. I mean, it’s really tough playing with those bigger guys… Besides, there’s no rush, right?”

Even though this actually made some sense, Auron knew he was lying. Any other time he’d relish the challenge his injuries could pose, pushing himself harder just to prove he could overcome them. He’d done it before. “Tidus…”

After once again trying to make Tidus tell him what had happened, Auron sat on the couch in the living room, nursing his sore leg. He’d gone from tactfully trying to coax the story out of the boy, to forcing it out of him with harsh words and his most threatening voice. The result had been a swift quick to his left shin and a screaming, nearly hysterical Tidus locking himself up in his room, yelling about how he’d never tell.

Auron sighed deeply and rested his head in his hands. Maybe, he pondered bitterly, it was time to admit defeat on this subject. And so he decided reluctantly to leave the past alone.

***

A/N: Heh, hope that chapter was enjoyable and not too boring or anything... Anyway, READ ON FOR BOY SEX!