Better At A Distance

by PrettyGothGirl

RG: Nooj witnesses Gippal being serious and a little scene that makes him think that he'll keep his policies on the Al Bhed Elder, better at a distance.

Better at a Distance
by PrettyGothGirl

All Disclaimers Apply
Summary: Nooj witnesses Gippal being serious and a little scene that makes him think that he'll keep his policies on the Al Bhed Elder, better at a distance.
A/N: A birthday fic for siilentfall over at quitethecouple. I haven't done a short in a while.

Nooj grimaced as he saw the Fahrenheit hovering over his Mushroom Rock Road base. It wasn't that he didn't like Cid. He just preferred the crotchety old man half a continent or even an ocean away. It was easier to like him from a distance. He walked into the room expecting to see the Al Bhed leader standing with his arms crossed looking out over the water or something. Instead, there was Gippal seated at the round table with his feet up. He had his head down and Gippal actually looked thoughtful.

Nooj blinked. Cid was never far from his ship. So, instead of a greeting, which he wasn't very good at, he asked what he thought was the logical question. "Where's Cid?" He leaned on his cane and stopped next to the table and a little away from the thinking Gippal.

Gippal looked up. "Huh? Oh. On Bikanel."

Nooj nodded slowly. Gippal went back to staring at his knees, his arms crossed, and chin down. Nooj waited, but when apparently no further answer was coming he prodded again. "Why is the Fahrenheit here?"

"He gave it to me." Gippal didn't even look up this time.

Nooj waited again for Gippal to say more. The other man kept silent and seemed overly engrossed in something. Nooj frowned. Gippal wasn't usually so serious about his thinking. It wasn't normal in Nooj's experience for Gippal to sit and think without eventually making some joke or wise-crack. Gippal didn't like silences overmuch or his own thoughts apparently. Nooj waited a few minutes, but Gippal's mouth stayed shut.

Nooj rested a hand on the table. "Apparently, there's a catch."

Gippal did look up this time. His eye filled with humor. "You might say that." He fell silent again.

Nooj wanted to sigh. He hated asking question after question, but it was usually much easier to draw things out of Gippal. He was a puppy, put a ball in front of him and he could chase it for hours and hours past a normal person would give it up. "Well?"

"He wants me to marry Rikku."

Nooj decided he needed to sit down. "Marry his daughter?" He clasped his hands in front of him.

"Yeah, that's not a problem though." Gippal shrugged. "We've been married for years."

Nooj let the silence drag out for a while mostly because he didn't quite believe what he was hearing. "Years." He finally said. Gippal wasn't much more than nineteen. If he'd been married for years… Nooj did the math and it didn't add up because years could mean about anything.

"It was sort of a joke, but it was legal and binding and we never actually told anyone or acted on it, but we are married." Gippal shrugged again. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Nooj fixed his glasses so he could rub his nose. "I see."

Gippal grinned, a flash of humor before he sobered again. "I don't think you do." He waved an arm and then put it back. "Doesn't matter."

"You'll have to tell me the story some time."

"It's not much of a story. Anikki said something like he couldn't decide if we were acting like children or an old married couple. So, we went, got married and then decided that as a joke it was probably a really bad idea to carry through with it and actually tell people and we didn't." He shrugged and examined his boot.

"It was a joke."

"Sort of. You know, impulsive idea, run, jump off a cliff without looking, don't think of the consequences but something we really wanted to do anyways and just needed an excuse for. It wasn't an unusual action for us."

Nooj jiggled his foot and decided he had to ask the question. "How old were you?"

"Thirteen, fourteen."

Nooj coughed. "She was twelve!"

"Or thirteen. I'd have to have the paper to know for sure." Gippal looked up at the ceiling and his brow furrowed. "Hmm, anniversary is coming up." He looked down and blinked at Nooj's appalled face. "I told you, we didn't act on it. Yeesh. We've never acted on it and half the time we forget about it. It's never exactly changed anything. I think Rikku has forgotten."

"Who would actually marry you?"

Gippal looked irritated for a moment until he realized that Nooj hadn't meant to be insulting. He wanted to know whom would marry the two of them at that age, not who would marry Gippal in general, as if, he wasn't good enough of a guy to marry. "A guy who thought the joke was as funny as we did." Gippal shrugged. "It wasn't that hard to find someone. That's not the point."

Nooj adjusted his glasses again. "So, marrying Rikku isn't a problem."

"No." Gippal examined his boots.

"What is the problem?"

A sigh ripped from Gippal's chest. "He also wants me to take over, officially. He's old. He's tired. He wants to retire. Oh, and he wants lots of grandkids to visit and since Rikku is inclined towards that direction he wants them soon while he's not too old." Gippal closed his eye. "I am not cut out for this." He muttered.

"I take it he's just handed the reigns over to you without actually waiting for you to say yes."

Gippal's eye opened and pinned Nooj into his chair. "Pretty much."

Nooj smiled. "So, who gets to tell Rikku?"

Gippal returned to examining his footwear. "She's going to break my legs, bust my jaw, smash something over my head and then slit my throat."

"This is why you're sitting here, because you're afraid of her."

"Afraid?" Gippal's head shot up. "Afraid? Are you nuts? Afraid of Rikku? No, no, no, no. I have a very healthy dose of respect for Rikku's abilities, but fearing her would be insane on the bordering of stupid."

"You said she was going to kill you."

"No. I said she was going to make me suffer. She likes me too much to kill me." He paused. "I hope."

"Slit your throat?" Nooj raised his eyebrows.

"She can do it without killing me." Gippal frowned. "It wouldn't even scar."

Nooj decided that Gippal was the one insane at that moment. He watched as Gippal looked at his legs more and chewed his lip. It looked like the other man was about to get around to what was really bothering him, what had driven him here to Nooj's table to be serious.

"It's the responsibility, the official responsibility. I've been leading people for a few years now. They were my people. There weren't a lot of them. They weren't all Al Bhed either, though the most loyal ones are. This-" Gippal ran a hand through his hair and rubbed his neck. "This is all of them, all the Al Bhed and my wife. When it was just a few of them, what I did didn't really matter as much. Now it's all of them and I'm supposed to be the one making decisions to affect all our futures." Gippal sighed. "Plus, there's the whole title thing. I hate titles. It's bad enough that Rikku is Lady Rikku. Now I'm Elder Gippal or Lord Gippal." He shuddered.

"Have them call you Gippal." Nooj didn't see the problem with this, but he was a Mevyn and hadn't gotten a choice in the matter either.

Gippal rolled his eye upwards. "It doesn't work that way. You can tell them once, and tell them one hundred times to call you 'just Gippal' and it doesn't stick. They get a kick out of making me uncomfortable. It's their little revenge."

Nooj pressed his fingertips together. "Or they respect you and want to show their respect."

"You're full of positive spins."

Nooj snorted. "So, what are you going to tell Rikku?"

Gippal slumped. "I don't know. I don't even know if she remembers."

Nooj smiled. Gippal's ego was taking a blow over the fact that his wife might not remember their wedding.

"She's going to want to do it over again anyways. Do it proper. I know her. I know she will. She'll want my mother's permission, Cid to bless us, my nieces to carry flowers, Yuna to stand up for her, the dress and the whole shebang. I married her secretly to get away from that. And then," Gippal inhaled. "Because she's the daughter of the last Elder and I'm the new Elder the party will last for a week to a month. I don't think I can perform for that long without throttling someone."

Nooj snorted again and then started to laugh.

Gippal sighed. He had fully expected that reaction at some point. "But that's not the reason I'm here." He took his feet off the table. "I had my men clear out the bandits in the Moonflow. I was wondering if you had any use for the human bandits or if you wanted me to dump them into desert excavation with the rest of them."

"For not being Elder very long, you're efficient."

"I've been Elder for a week." Gippal uncrossed his arms. "It needed manpower I didn't have before. Well?"

"I don't. Ask Baralai. A week, and you haven't said anything to Rikku."

"Like I said. She's going to hurt me. I'm not exactly sure how to blurt it out. Cid probably told her by now anyways." He brightened. "Then she could hurt him and not me, but not too much since he's her father." He sagged again. "No. She'll hurt me on principle. Oh well."

At that moment, Rikku swept into the room. Nooj didn't know Rikku could do that, as she was a small person. She stared down her nose and her carriage was exactingly straight. "Nooj." She said and nodded at him. Then her gaze focused on Gippal. "Gippal."

Gippal swallowed and clutched the arms of the chair. "Rikku."

Nooj leaned back in his chair to watch. She stared at Gippal solemnly for a few moments and then broke out into a sunny smile. Gippal didn't relax at all. She walked over to his chair, her hips swaying and sat in Gippal's lap. She smiled up at him. "What's wrong?"

"Why should anything be wrong?" Gippal danced around the previous subject.

"You look like you're on your way to your own execution." She tilted her head and moved her face close to his. "Are you?"

"Not that I know of."

"Good." She smiled at him.

Gippal tried to smile back. It was weak at best. "What are you doing here?" He paused. "In my lap?"

"Looking for you." She pressed her lips together for a moment. "You aren't easy to find at the best of times."

Gippal shifted his weight. "Well-"

"But Pops giving you the Fahrenheit makes it a lot easier." Rikku twisted and grabbed the hand behind her. She picked it up and placed it on her hip, patting it in place.

Nooj put a hand over his eyes. Gippal's eye widened. "I can see how that would be true."

She looked up at him. "Mmm-hmm. That, and since it's actually in both our names, I did need to move my stuff. It'd help you'd keep it stationary for more than a few hours at a time."

"Both our names?" Gippal knew his voice sounded weak.

"Yep." She nodded. She bit her lip. "Or something like that." She half closed her eyes and looked at him between her lashes. "Pops is upset with you."

"Wha-how-why?" Gippal sputtered.

Rikku picked up his other hand and placed it on top of the one already on her hip. "You're better at this Elder stuff than he is." Her eyes sparkled.

Gippal sighed. "You're torturing me, aren't you?" He blinked. "No. I take that back. You haven't even begun to torture me."

"I'm not easy to find either, unless you know where the Celsius for more than a few hours and that's not often."

Gippal wasn't sure why she suddenly switched the subject.

"In fact, let's face it. The Celsius generally doesn't stay in place for more than a few minutes so you'd have to know where it landed to be able to find me." Rikku frowned. "So, I thought I'd spare you the trouble of having to find me because we need to talk."

"No good conversation starts out with that sentence." Nooj muttered.

Rikku jumped. She turned her head. "Sorry." She flushed. "I forgot you were there."

"I was listening." Nooj smiled.

"Oh." Rikku blinked and then shrugged.

Gippal wondered if he should do something with Rikku's hands. He picked one up and put it behind his neck and then the other, before putting his hand back down on her hip. He stroked the skin under his fingers. "So, um, what are we talking about?"

She tapped her fingers on the back of his neck. "Huh? Oh, we need to talk." She pursed her lips together. "Pops gave you the Fahrenheit, you're better at this Elder thing than he is, hard to find each other…"

"Uh, Rikku are you going to get to the point," he paused. "Ever?" Or was she going to hold him in suspenseful torturing limbo.

"Shh, I'm thinking."

Gippal sighed.

Nooj shook with suppressed laughter. Gippal tried to glare at him over Rikku's head but Nooj wasn't even paying attention. Gippal had the feeling Nooj thought he deserved this. Gippal clenched his jaw and decided that at some point he would find a way to get Nooj back.

Rikku crossed her legs. "So, you're forgiven for not telling me. I swear, half the time the commsphere network doesn't work since you keep stealing yours for parts."

Gippal flushed. "I do not. My workers do, and how they keep finding them is a mystery."

She glared at him. "Hush. Though you could have put some effort into finding me to let me know."

Gippal glared back. "I didn't realize you needed a personal announcement about your father passing the gil to me. I thought he would tell you himself."

She whacked the back of his head. "It would have been nice as a courtesy since we'refriends."

Nooj snorted.

Gippal winced and ducked his head down. "I was getting around to it! I've been busy."

"You missed half of them. So I've been running around cleaning up after you." Rikku sounded grumpy.

"I did not!"

"Did so." She gave him her best 'I'm not done, don't even think about speaking' look. "Besides, if you had told me I could have helped. You have a lot more resources now that you're Elder. And, you should have come to me anyways. I would have enjoyed helping. I'm not Yuna, you know. You can ask help from me." She sighed. "However, same problem, finding me."

"How long have you known?"

She blew right past his question. "I'm willing to follow your lead. You're a lot better at this than I am. Pops was thinking of passing it on to me and that would just be a disaster. I'm glad it's you. People like you, respect you and want to help you, unless you know it's big scary machine/fiends boiling out of the temple. But not everyone has a will of iron to stand up to danger, especially when it's the almost certain death kind. No blame there."

Gippal's stomach began to knot. He was getting a bad feeling about all of this; Cid wanting him to marry Rikku, the whole making him Elder, Rikku finding him through the Fahrenheit.

Rikku continued to talk. "People love you. You know, even Leblanc's goons who are Al Bhed are leaving her. They want to see what you're going to do. Leblanc's people are pretty loyal. You're the best choice. You've actually done something." She frowned and really sounded grumpy.

"Hey now," he reached up and tilted her chin up. "You saved Spira, twice. That's something."

She jerked her chin off his finger. "It's not the same. I want to help and if you don't include me. I, well, can't." She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder.

Gippal stared down at the top of her head. The implications of her little speech shocked him. "Rikku, did you set this up with Cid?"

Nooj coughed. Gippal didn't glance at him, entirely focused on Rikku.

She hunched her shoulders to her ears. "I can't hear you, la la la."

He pinched her. "Rikku!"

She yelped and wiggled off his lap in the most distracting fashion. She jumped out of his reach and rubbed the little red spot. "There's no need to be all pinchy about it."

"You did." He pointed at her.

She grinned and stuck out her tongue. "I'll never admit to it."

Gippal shoved the chair back and lunged for her.

She danced further out of his reach and laughed. "Too slow!" She ran out the door.

Gippal ran after her. "I'll give you too slow, you little-"

"Not fair. Your legs are longer."

"Who cares about fair?"

"I do! Put me down!"

Their voices faded away, Gippal laughing at Rikku's protests.

Nooj sighed and sank down into his chair. He rubbed his nose. The Al Bhed were never going to be same with those two children in adult bodies leading. Perhaps, Gippal would also be easier to deal with half a continent or even an ocean away, especially if he brought Rikku along.

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