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[jaebility]

"Yunie would probably have a heartattack if she knew you were spying on her." Rikku's voice came drifting over, interrupting Auron's thoughts. "That or she'd smack you with her staff. Which would be pretty hilarious, actually."

Auron thought that his spot under the tree was a decently private place, but the Al Bhed had once again proved him wrong. He tipped his head upwards to look at Rikku who was perched on a branch and grinning down at him. "I'm not spying," he corrected, "I'm guarding."

"Oh, right, right. Me, too, then. Nothing wrong with guarding. 'Sides, it's not like they're even doing anything interesting. Lots of making gooey eyes at each other and saying dumb things like 'Oh, but I believe in you!' and 'Let's watch each sunrise together!' and stuff like that which makes me barf all over."

"They'd better stick to that," Auron grunted, "It'd be a shame to castrate Tidus, but I'm sure Jecht would forgive me."

Rikku laughed and kicked the tree branch with her feet, raining bark down on the scowling guardian below her. "Ah, youth," she said wistfully. "So innocent. So pure."

"You're at least two years younger than Yuna," Auron pointed out, "Hardly ancient."

"Never innocent, though!" She said with a laugh. More pieces of bark showered downwards. "Brother has these magazines... Certain, probably illegal in most of Spira magazines that would cause Pops to explode if he discovered they existed. But besides that, I'm not all good-as-gold like Yunie. I've looked at Brother's secret stash of magazines and no one comes out unscathed from that. And I've been kissed. Twice."

"Which makes you an expert in all relationships, I presume."

"I'm an expert in everything," Rikku said with an insulted sniff. She swung down suddenly, hanging onto the branch with her knees. "I can do amazing feets of amazingness. I can catch fish with my bare hands. I can hold my breath way longer than anyone else. And I can pick locks like nobody's business."

"Certainly things to be proud of."

"Damn straight. And I can do five cartwheels in a row without getting dizzy. A hundred gil says that you can't do that."

"I've never tried."

"What's stopping you? I would definately pay to see you do cartwheels. That would probably be the best thing ever. I'd die a happy if you did a cartwheel. You don't even need to do five. Just one will be enough. Will you? Please? I won't tell Tidus or anyone, I promise."

He titled his head back again to look up at her upside-down, quickly turning red face. "How much?"

She squinted her eyes in confusion. "How much what? How much of awesome would it be? It would be the ultimate of awesome."

"How much gil."

"Ah." Rikku pulled herself back up onto her branch and rilfed through her pockets. "Hold on, hold on, don't go changing your mind. I've got at least fifty gil in my pocket. And I know that Wakka's got a good hundred on him. So... I'll give you two hundred gil. A whopping two hundred gil for one measly cartwheel."

"Your fifty plus the hundred you plan on stealing from Wakka equals one-fifty, not two hundred."

Rikku snorted with laughter and jumped down from her branch. "Add on the fifty that you had in your pocket until very recently and you get two hundred."

Auron shoved his hand into his pocket - empty. "Rikku."

"Come on, ask me how I did that." She waited for less than a second and then exploded again with laughter. "Another totally awesome skill of mine. I've been up in the tree for like ever waiting for someone to come and amuse me." She plopped down onto the grass next to him and nodded her head sympathetically and knowingly. "You should keep your cash closer to you, you know, those big-ass pockets are easy to reach into. Someone might take advantage of that. Here, you can have it back. Look how gracious I am."

Her hand slid into his pocket to stuff the stolen money back to its proper place.