Venus/Mars

These were for a drabble challenge inviting us to write 100, 200, 300, or 400 word FFX drabbles on the 7 deadly sins. (The cupcakes in Sin #2 are a running joke in aulu fandom, don't ask.)


LUST

"I suppose I could add you to my list."

Lulu was rusty. She hadn't played that game in so long. It was ludicrous to be playing it with the boy from the sea who tagged after her looking for guidance when he wasn't hunting her cleavage.

That list. Yes, she still had it, dusty and neglected as it was. Jassu had stirred her ever since he told her what the sea meant, what it really meant, to the fishermen who spent their lives with it. She was intriguing, although there was something strangely off about that Summoner who seemed to materialize out of the ground at unlikely moments to challenge Yuna to a friendly game of you-show-me-yours-I'll-show-you-mine. The others were all dead. Except, well.

The problem was, he probably was too. Just about the time she had been quite certain she would like to start living again, and pondering whether it would be possible to crack open that armor and learn whether his scar went all the way down, Seymour had put a name to her suspicions. Then Auron had to go and clinch them by fleeing the Farplane gates like they'd bitten him.

Guardians did not survive pilgrimages. The legend was a sham. Or at least his breathing was.

Knowing didn't help. Yevon, it didn't help at all. Lulu watched Auron in combat, deadly and efficient. She listened to his curt retorts and was grateful when Tidus or Wakka or Rikku said something foolish to goad him into grumbling. She watched him hide behind those glasses, his coat, his cowl, his scar, and she knew with a thrill that all his vitality was mere illusion, that every step was a battle. Maybe she had grown so accustomed to death that it smelled like life to her. All she knew was that she wanted to find out what would happen if black magic and the pulse of pyreflies were brought together, whether death and death might cancel out each other somehow, breed life again hot and burning between her thighs.

Sir Auron, circled in red, right at the top.


GLUTTONY

"Have another."

What did Rikku put in them? Lulu bent forward to seize half. It wasn't like sharing strawberries. You couldn't finish with mouths pressed together, hot and wet, because it was just cupcake, sugary-sweet like the girl who'd pestered Rin for keys to the kitchen. Lulu couldn't fault her. Auron with pink sugar dusting his stubble was quite a sight.

Especially with a cupcake army marching down his chest. Because, well, Rikku had made a double batch.

Storage would be no problem.


GREED

Lulu told herself it would be fine. This time, she had warning. No unpleasant surprises, no stranger from the front lines telling her how her lover had been ripped to pieces. She'd watched Auron's death in advance while the others were busy reeling over Yunalesca's madness. Signed and sealed along with his missing eye, his down payment to the Farplane.

Was it greedy to beg? He was tired. She felt it when he was going away from her, even while they moved easily in the shadows of her cabin, rough and heaving in the grey dawn. His good eye glazed, not because of what she was doing to him, and for a moment she was afraid he might turn pyreflies again then and there, and she'd grab his chin and push her tongue hard into his mouth until he growled and hurt her sweetly, slamming her against the thin mattress.

Ten more years, Auron. For life this time, instead of death. Is it so much to ask?

"It's been... long enough."


SLOTH

A fist banged on the door. "Hey, Lu, you up?"

The mage raised her head with a groan. She was getting old. Well, Wakka had accused her of it, but the glorious ache in her hips and jaw confirmed it.

"Unh," she replied with less than her usual eloquence. "Getting there."

"Hey, do you remember which room is Auron's? Nobody's seen him yet."

Auron lay there unhelpfully, arms folded behind his head. How long had he been awake?

"Sorry, no," the mage answered.

"Hurry up, ya? Rikku's drivin' me nuts." Wakka stumped off down the corridor.

Lulu wasn't usually much for fuzzy chests, but Auron was so warm. She nuzzled against him, eyes flickering shut.

"You do remember we're on pilgrimage?" Auron chided mildly.

"Mmm," she murmured. "Rikku's right. Let's just forget the whole thing. I know this island..."

"No."

"The beds are larger."

"They stick flowers in your drink."

Lulu raised her head, blinking. Auron's deadpan was as ironclad as ever. "One of Jecht's bright ideas?"

"Worse. Warrior monks, post-investiture celebration." Auron sounded pained.

"Lulu?" Rikku's voice this time.

She buried her face in his chest again. "Ten more minutes!"

"Guardian. Up."

She gave in. There was a lot Auron could do in ten minutes.

WRATH

Lightning kept drilling into the same spot like a storm in the mountains, hammering again and again at an iron-ore peak until it wasn't just individual bolts, it was a tree taking root.

Lulu felt her strength leeching away; she wasn't doing it right. Always anchor first to Spira's pulse, don't use your own energy, let the ebb and flow of the planet's current rush through your fingers and out. But this was personal, it was from her heart's fire, and she had enough fury to outlast the bitch no matter how many times Yunalesca changed--

"Lulu." His voice, calling her out of the haze. "It's finished."

Auron risked folding a gloved hand over her outstretched fingers, bringing her arm down gently to her side. She wanted to lean back against him, but the others were there, and maybe they'd realize why it was wrong, so futile for her to care.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

He shrugged. "Don't be. That was worth waiting ten years to see."

ENVY

If only.

Tidus was there, coming up out of the sea again like an Aeon (but the Fayth were gone, how in Spira could anything have dreamed him back into being?) and waving with that goofy kid grin on his face. The mage had missed him, his clueless questions and his energy and his innocence and his loving Yuna so badly that it hurt to watch, knowing where the Summoner was going. But it hadn't ended up that way at all, and Yuna and she had both lost something when Spira got saved.

It felt like that again today. Her newborn son in her arms, three days old, and Yuna back from all her lonely wanderings and her face lit up with so much joy that the Fayth should be singing. Everyone was whooping on the beach; Wakka was pounding him on the back.

Happily ever afters. Vidina stirred and nuzzled against her, and she bent to kiss that soft cheek fiercely. "You'll never know loss." It was a lie, of course; nobody could change the world that way, and she would never admit false hopes into Vidina's future.

Wakka would be a good father.

She watched Tidus and Yuna together again in the shallows, holding onto dreams that didn't die and didn't fade away before your eyes.

She'd settled for life. She'd settled for what was possible. Yuna hadn't.

Vidina's hair was red, not black, and those pudgy features belonged to Besaid, not some other plane.

Lulu had everything. It was just the sea spray, salt in her eye.


PRIDE

"Yevon!" Auron swore. A splinter of coherence returned to his face then, and he grimaced at himself in chagrin, grinding his teeth as he lost that round of the game.

"I heard that," she murmured, eyes twinkling. "I thought you didn't believe in Yevon any longer?"

"Has... anyone... ever... told you... that what you are doing... is probably blasphemy?" he grunted.

Carefully, sweetly, she twisted her hands in that certain fashion, feeling the frost prickle between her palms and his warm flesh before quickly melting to water in the heat between them. "I was just trying to make you feel at home," she purred.

He groaned and gripped the furs under him, struggling to hold still. "Witch."

Her lips twisted into an arrogant smile. Lulu always had taken pride in her skills, but with Sir Auron, she had definitely surpassed herself. "You've come to the best."