We walk along, and she laces her fingers with mine, finally realizing that I wasn't really listening. I feel bad and tug her over, kissing the corner of her forehead. She seems satisfied with that and walks along in blessed silence.

We both stop short when a brilliant red flan oozes into our path. It snarls at us and opens its mouth widely, menacingly. I think flans are a little ridiculous looking, but… They sure seem to scare the rest of Spira. It turns away from us, seeming to write us off. How insulting…

"Hey, Gippal, look-look-look!" Rikku says, tugging on my sleeve.

"What, what, what, what, what?" I ask every time she pulls on my shirt.

"He's got something in there!" she says, pointing to the flan while jumping up and down.

"Yeah…?" I say, not sure where she's going with this.

"Well… don'tcha want to know what it is?" she asks, bending at the waist and taking my hand in both of hers, bouncing up and down on her toes.

"I'm dying to know," I say sarcastically, grinning down at her. She smiles evilly and turns to the flan. "Wait… Rik-."

"Shh!" she says. The flan is busy trying to burn the grass on the Highroad to a crisp, which Rin has prevented from happening with some sort of spray that makes the grass… well, invincible. That's why it's so tall. Let's just say Rin isn't the best scientist. The gardners all quit because they said they, 'couldn't manage the mutant grass anymore.' "We're going for the element of surprise here!"

"But how're you gonna-?"

"Shh!" Rikku says, slapping my hand.

"Rik, don't do anything stu-."

"Shh!" she repeats again. She pulls a grenade out of her pocket.

"You're gonna get buuuurned," I warn quietly, quietly enough to satisfy her. She slips her leather gloves off and drops them in my hands.

"Hold these please, I don't want to get flan goo on them," she says daintily. She then makes a run towards the flan. She pulls the pin out of the grenade, then plunges both hands into the flan. She leaves the grenade behind, trapped inside the flan. The flan howls and starts flowing around in circles. I've gotta hand it to her – she's brave. I would probably puke if I put my hand in that thing.

I then realize what's going to happen.

I mean… it is a fire flan…

"Rikku!" I yelp. I grab her arm and duck her into the grass. The flan explodes a moment later, sending its flaming bits all around. Rikku giggles in delight when she sees a piece land in front of us in the grass. Of course, the grass doesn't catch fire. But we would have. We flip over, and I breathe a sigh of relief. I hold my hand out to help her up. She takes it, then rips it back.

"Owie!" she squeaks. She examines her hand. "It burned me…"

"Well, yeah!" I say. I take her by the forearms and drag her to her feet. "Let me see…"

"Don't touch it," she whispers. She blows on it with a frown on her face, as if that will actually help. Her hands have turned a brilliant pink, and white welts are starting to rise on them.

"What was in it anyway?" I ask. At least she got whatever she was after. She clenches her hand around her prize tighter and turns her back to me, wanting to examine it for herself first. I wait patiently, knowing that if I try to peek at it, she'll run away from me until she can get a moment of peace. She turns back to me after a few seconds with her hand spread open and a wide, cheesy smile on her face.

"Ten gil!" she says proudly. I straighten up. All that. For ten gil?

I smack her upside the head and start walking back towards Djose.

"You big meanie! I'm ten gil richer than I was two minutes ago!" Rikku shouts as she follows me. Sometimes, she does the dumbest things.