Dawn came as a sliver of apricot on the perfect ocean horizon. Approaching the houseboat, dashes of sunlight reflecting on the water were slashed by navy stripes of distant waves. Normally dawn meant quitting time, but this morning Raine halted her exercise to look. She had seen a thousand sunrises, but something told her to pay attention to this one, as if it were Zanarkand's last daybreak.
"What are you doing?"
"The sun is pretty this morning," Raine said, drifting out of her battle stance. She glanced over her shoulder at Auron. The muscles and veins in his arms were rigid and his katana was raised to strike, but now he lowered it a drop, raising a wise eye over her head to the sea.
Raine transferred her lance to one hand, sagely propping the handle on the deck with a soft thud. Auron approached her side and grinned down at her. A morning wind ruffled his hair, which was whiter these days and was in need of a trim, and as he faced the sun, his new tail switched across his shoulder. It had recently been laced in a wonky braid and tied off with a pink butterfly clip.
Every day before dawn, Auron instructed her on the finer points of combat, something he knew more about than Summoning and sending dances. Apparently, Auron had been impressed with her ability to wield a patio umbrella on that day of the Sinspawn attack and found her a used spear for practically free at the auction house in G-west. If they did find a way back to Spira, Raine agreed she would give Summoning another try. Auron had also been impressed with her aptitude to nearly send him, without the status benefits of a staff, and Raine gathered that was supposed to be a big deal. But if it didn't work out, she would at least have back-up skills as a Guardian.
It used to be dawn was the only time they could find to train for their next pilgrimage, right before Raine went to work, but now they did it mostly out of habit. After twelve years of searching for a way back to Spira, pilgrimage ambitions had gotten stale. Talk of Spira was now perfunctory, conversational, their Spiran agendas now mechanical and empty, like an extravagant vacation they would never be able to afford.
As they settled their gazes back on the sunrise, Raine grabbed her spear with both hands and spun counter clockwise, swinging the shaft down at the back of Auron's calves, flipping his feet out from under him. With a grunt, he landed hard on his back and Raine shoved the head of her lance into his face, halting just inches of his nose. The impact of his fall rocked the deck and water smacked against the sides of the boat.
Auron didn't flinch but arched an eyebrow at her, and when he found his breath said, "You play dirty."
Raine smiled. "Oh, you have no idea."
"I thought I did," he said, waving the spear out of his face and sitting up. He reached up to her and she grabbed his hand, hauling him to his feet. "I was winning, you know."
"You
were
winning," she said. "Lucky for me, you're a sucker for sunrises."
"I know a Ronso who might be interested in learning that move," Auron said. More obligatory Spira chat. Who were they fooling? Raine was never going to meet a real Ronso. "Although I doubt Kimahri would have an easier time distracting me with a pretty daybreak."
While Auron twisted at the waist to stretch out, Raine heard his spine snap in several places as he corrected his back and she inwardly grimaced in guilt. For a man nearing sixty, he looked great, but even Legendary Guardians wear out eventually and Raine found herself pulling her punches a little more often than usual. She would never tell him that, though. Maybe it was an unnecessary precaution, but it was one she extended into the bedroom, volunteering to be on top on account of the trouble his back gave. Not that she minded. And once they got into a rhythm, neither did Auron.
With the assumption Sin would someday venture close enough to the Zanarkand dream so they could hitch a ride back to Spira, Raine made friends with some of the other marina residents, most notably the ones with sea-ready vessels, since their rickety houseboat could barely survive monsoon season. Masquerading the search for Sin as a social event, Raine entertained and Auron easily played the part as the reclusive whale watcher, standing guard with binoculars. Without Tidus' influence, the chances of meeting Sin at sea were astronomical, but they had to try, even if it meant risking their socialite friends. Dreams were disposable in the grand scheme of it all, Auron tried to make Raine see.
"I was a dream once," she reminded him on several occasions.
"More like a recurring nightmare," he would joke and managed to wink at her, not easy with only one eye. For four years they hunted Sin this way, but after Auron and Raine got the surprise of their life, they came to a mutual agreement their time would be better spent finding a way off the dream without Sin.
There was no way of knowing for sure what was happening outside of the dream and it was quite possible Tidus had already been defeated as Sin by another Summoner party. Raine knew Auron didn't like to talk about this. If it was true, the fact there was still a Zanarkand dream for them to live in meant the cycle went on and someone else's Guardian was now the catalyst for Sin's rebirth. Auron had been prepared to sacrifice himself to make sure that never happened again. During their midnight pillow talks, Raine would try to pin Auron down on details about which one of them would become Sin if it came to that, but he would promptly shut down and evade her. "I'm still thinking on that," he would say and roll towards her with his most persuasive kiss to end the conversation.
Bracing her spear on her shoulder, Raine headed inside the houseboat. "Shower?"
After consideration, Auron said, "The girls will be up soon."
"Hmm." Raine nodded. "I don't think Willow bought that water conservation excuse we gave her last time."
"She did get all your brains," Auron mocked blame and held the screen door open for her.
After locking their weapons in the glass case by the stairs, Auron went to prepare the morning meal and Raine hurried to the bedroom to undress and start the shower.
All her paid time-off was used up during her first wedding and Raine had nothing left when she returned to Zanarkand, but wrestled with her decision to go back to work at all. She was unsure she could keep up the charade of Zanarkand life, knowing everything around her was just a massive simulation. Her first few broadcasts were agonizing, fearing she would stray from the teleprompter with declarations of other worlds, dreams and Summoners. But that was the fastest way to unemployment and, like the real world of Spira, Dream Zanarkand still had an economy that ran on money. It got better over time, her urge to rip the wool off her viewers' faces, although when her father or brother came up in interviews or panel discussions, Raine found herself smiling like a lunatic to disguise her impulse to stand up and cry, "He's Sin, all right? They both were! Their deaths meant something. They were not born for Zanarkand's own amusement! They bought Spira time!" And they did, Raine eventually realized. Whatever reason, suicide or sacrifice, they became Sin so someone else didn't have to and gave people of Spira more time to figure out how to defeat Sin for good.
Raine's shower was quick and efficient to leave some hot water for Auron and to take over getting the girls ready for school while he showered for the day. After, Raine would have hustle to get ready for work. Today was a big day. Tournaments. She liked to get there early to watch warm-ups. Sometimes pre-games showed her more about the players than in the actual game. She expected to be late tonight and if she couldn't tuck the girls in at night, she liked to spend time with them at breakfast.
She dried off before stepping out of the shower to avoid making puddles she didn't have time to mop up, running the towel over her arms and legs. Not long after starting their early morning exercise regimen, Raine had noticed her arms taking on more definition and she could feel her core getting stronger. As an added bonus, it snapped her body back into shape after both pregnancies. Auron developed a less rigorous routine during her early months, but a few weeks before her third trimester, he would wheedle her back into bed and show her the only exercise she was allowed for the remainder of the pregnancy.
Discovering she was pregnant had been relatively traumatic for Raine. She had disposed of her birth control prior to her first wedding and didn't bother getting more after her second since Auron believed himself to be infertile. Plagued by dark fantasies of Auron leaving her, Raine took nine days to tell him. Once a cheater, always a cheater, someone had told Raine once, and there had been that one night Raine caught Auron spying on her and Colton from work when she had to stay late at the station. When she had confronted Auron about the snooping, he just muttered something about "old habits," but Raine wasn't sure if he was talking about his Guardian days or how Raine had offered herself to Auron when she was already committed to Jory.
