Gippal hadn't meant to see, he swore that he hadn't up one side of the desert and down the other, but that didn't deny the fact that he had. He had been heading back from a meeting with Cid and Nhadala when he paused for a brief moment to appreciate the delicate silhouette of a girl from the camp who had carelessly left the lamp on the other side of the room while she was getting changed. He could almost hear the fabric of her shirt as it slid up over her head and then down her arms. It shouldn't have turned him on, but to see the slight figure reaching over, rummaging through her things, and it was quite clearly a girl, he found himself unable to look away. He cheered his good luck as long hair, that by all rights should be blonde as the Al Bhed were the only ones that used the tents, slid over a delicately carved shoulder. It was like it was a show put on just for him, unknowingly but teasing all the same. He knew he wasn't able to see the women that worked here, romantically at least, and his chance happening on this tableaux was the closest he would ever get to one of them while he was the leader.
He paused merely a moment, not even long enough to be called a peeper, but long enough to fully appreciate the moment of female beauty. Enough to know that he would need a cold shower as soon as he could get back to his own tent.
The woman headed towards the door and as she unzipped the tent door, stepping out into the evening air, he froze. The shadow had been a little strange at the top, but he hadn't really been looking there, and something was familiar about her posture. He abruptly no longer needed that shower, he'd felt like he was doused with cold already.
"Cid's girl?" His voice was low with disbelief and as she turned to smile at him, bringing warmth to the cool desert night, his other foot, held suspended for that moment, crashed to the ground.
"Hey, I have a name you know." She came over to punch his shoulder lightly. She stretched her arms up, bouncing on her tiptoes. He couldn't help but notice that certain parts of her bounced more than others, and carefully shifted the paperwork held in his arms. "What'chya doing up so late, Gipster?"
"Had a meeting with Cid, the man tried to eat me alive." A smile tugged at his lips and Rikku let out a giggle.
"Vyrdan is a little scary some times." She leaned back on her heels, her scarf swinging until it could touch the ground. He could also see strait down her shirt at this angle, showing off her yellow bikini top, and he looked out over the desert instead. She looked as though she had put on a shirt over her thief dress sphere, but that was all, her long, golden legs still showed too much in a mostly male faction.
"And you?" Gippal asked, taking care not to actually look at her until she bounced around into his line of vision.
"Taking care of the last of the Machina parts. One of the shipments came in a bit jumbled up so I was sorting. Boooring." She cocked her head to the side, letting her blond hair slide back over her shoulder and he is forcibly reminded of the silhouette on the tent wall. Attractive until he knew who it belonged to. After, he wasn't sure how to feel. She was a bouncing ball of energy that never seemed to have a chance to settle down. After the Vegnagun incident, he got the full story of all that she and Yuna had accomplished together and was shocked. The little kid had done some pretty remarkable things. She nodded at the papers curled in his hand. "Heading back to Djose?"
"Yeah, I've got a meeting with some of the suppliers first thing in the morning and a turbine that keeps acting up that I can't figure out."
"Want me to check out the turbine?" Her green, swirly eyes were alight with interest. "I mean, if the great Gippal can't figure it out..."
"Yeah, sure. Might as well." He grinned as she jumped up, pumping her fist in the air.
"As soon as I can get a ride tomorrow, okay?" She punched him in the arm again and then turned towards the desert.
"Where are you headed?" Gippal asked, curious as she didn't look like she was headed to bed, her thieves swords strapped to her side and her pouches bulging. She tightened her scarf to keep off a chill and grinned.
"Some of the workers mentioned a really big and icky sand worm over on the eastern expanse. I thought I'd take a look."
"At this hour of the night? Interesting."
"Wanna come? You could stash your papers in my tent."
"Tempting. Hold on. Were you planning on going out there on your own?"
"Well, yeah. I'm not a little girl you know." She wasn't, she really really wasn't, but something inside of him, that small part that reacted to the chance to be a knight in shining armor, told him to help her out.
"Brother and Buddy would kill me if I let you go out there on your own. Besides, someone needs to save you from getting your butt kicked." He tucked the papers inside her tent flap and put a shoe on them. Rikku made a fidgety motion.
"Meanie! I've grown up a lot, I could kick your butt!"
"Right, I'll believe that one, Princess."
"Oooo!" She turned on her heel and stalked towards the eastern expanse, passing the border easily. She pulled out her daggers, and started running, her toned legs pumping. He found himself hard pressed to keep up. Fiend hunting wasn't usually called for when running a Faction. She saw it much sooner than he did, tumbling down into her crouch and attacking before he caught up. He always carried his gun with him, and was never so grateful as now. Her attacks were much faster, double sided and he only got the chance for one good hit. She did three times the amount of damage he did, the same strength, but so much faster, being able to recover and strike again in a chain of unrelenting pain. She hit the sandworm time after time, slicing at it until it stopped moving and exploded into a burst of pyreflies. Humming happily, she picked through the items that it dropped, stopping a moment to clean her dagger on the end of her shoe.
"I kicked it's tail, I get the spoils." She said, tossing up a potion so it broke on her shoulder to expel the powder that she breathed in deeply. The scratches she got from the worm vanished, leaving her looking whole and healthy. She tucked her new things in her pouches and turned back around, snapping her legs together into a stance that would have held a salute if she had even a modicum of respect.
"Fair enough." He sat on the rock that the sandworm had been hiding behind and leaned on his gun, watching her. "Where to next, any more fiends to fry?"
"Noperoni." She said, brushing sand off of her knees and heading back towards camp. "Time for some beauty rest, if I'm going to come and show you up in your temple."
"I'll look forward to it."
"See you tomorrow, Gippal the big Meanie!" She blew a raspberry at him and then vanished back into her tent, zipping it violently. He chuckled and got onto his hover. It wasn't until he'd found his own bed in Djose that night that he realized he'd forgotten his papers in her room.
They didn't reappear, safely ensconced in her arms, until well in the afternoon. She was wearing the alchemist dressphere today, the huge gun safely tucked into her side as she grinned under her goggles.
"You left a shoe on them so the first one's got a print on it!" She said cheerfully. "Silly Gippal!"
"I expected you much earlier than this, Cid's girl."
"Yeah, yeah. This morning was disasteriffic." She bounced over to the desk, shoving some paperwork out of the way to make room for her pert bum. Gippal checked himself and decidedly did not look at the part of her anatomy that was currently taking up the space where his elbow used to be. "Brother left me in Bikanel, so I had to fight my way through a thousand fiends and walk here."
"Hovers?"
"All due in for repairs or are taking research teams out to the desert." She wrinkled her nose fetchingly and sighed. "Nhadala wouldn't lend me one."
"You ready to take a look at turbine?"
"Ready for spaghetti." She jumped down off of his desk and winced as her now sore feet throbbed. They caught up on the way from Gippal's office to the engine room, trading quips about her dad, his temple, and the things that the two of them had been up to. As they neared the turbines, they had to stop talking as the hum of the machinery droned the other out. Rikku didn't mind, this was her happy place, she was completely content to be surrounded by Machina. She let a mischievous smile steal it's way over her face as she snapped her goggles into place around her eyes. Her huge shoulder pads would make it difficult if she needed to get into the machine, but it would offer the most protection against scrapes on any exposed edges. Gippal opened the door for her with a flourish and she sailed through it, giggling.
"I did try restarting it and nothing changed. I also tried oiling the parts, but the whole thing refuses to turn." He shouted to be heard over the din, and she nodded absently, noting that she understood. She turned her full attention to the turbine and Gippal knew that he should get back to his work, but he was interested to see if she could do it. Did Cid's girl have what it took to be a Al-Bhed mechanic? He pulled up a bit of space on one of the worktables and sat on the corner, one leg on either side of the point to watch. To watch her work, certainly not to watch the short Al-Bhed as she climbed up the turbine, her legs stretching for the next foothold. She reached in one of her hands, grasped something inside and then pulled her foot back and kicked a part of the wall. There was a clunk that was hardly audible and the turbine started, knocking her back off of it onto her feet. She swayed and Gippal caught her easily. "Ve-ry impressive, Cid's girl."
She waited until the metal doors closed behind them before explaining. "It was a unlinked coupling. I just had to kick it and it jiggled enough to fall into place. It was kiddy stuff. If you get one of the other engineers in here, they can make sure it doesn't come loose again. See, there you go, now your job is easy as pie."
"Heyyy, I hadn't had much time to look at it." She rubbed at her cheek with the heel of her hand while she grinned at him, leaving behind a streak of grease as she pushed up her goggles. He didn't understand why he found that streak of grease so fascinating, perhaps it was because he'd never seen a girl that he was even mildly attracted to, not that he would ever admit it, as it was Rikku and that thought was wrongwrongwrong, but a girl that he had some attraction to, covered in the byproduct of his one true love. It was probably the same as if they were those monkeys in the Zanarkand ruins and she had managed to slather herself with the scent of gil. He leaned forward until they were nose to nose and she didn't lean back, well used to his invasion of personal spaces.
"You. Have. Grease. on. Your. Face." With each pause, he tried to get it off, wiping with a lavender handkerchief that vainly attempted to be manly and made Rikku giggle.
"You. Have. Lace. on. Your. Hankie." She mimicked him, submitting to the cleaning of her cheeks as he scrubbed. When he finished, they were flushed pink and he was standing far too close to her for his own comfort. He looked down at his handkerchief, now stained with oil and shrugged. They were cheap, and he went through clothes faster than even the five foot two clothing wonder in front of him as he lost them to grease stains. She tightened delicate fingers around it and smiled up at him. "Here, let me clean it. I'll have it back in a jiffy."
"Will that jiffy be longer than a week?" Gippal asked, returning her grin and loosening the handkerchief from his grasp.
"Easy as pie." She evaded. "I've got a great new cleaning solvent."
"You..." He leaned forward again, until their noses were almost touching. Rikku licked her lips and he felt his heart thud a little harder. "Didn't answer my question."
"It'll be done when it's done!" Rikku chirruped, sliding the handkerchief out of his hand and stuffing it down her shirt. She leaned back and snapped her goggles in place, whipping him in the face with hair and beads before heading towards the door. "I'm stealing a hover, I'll bring it back later!"
"Don't you dare, little girl." He said warningly, following her out. She reached the hover and had it working in a matter of seconds. He made a grab for the bars on the bottom, but she already had it up in the air.
"Hah!" She tossed her hair over her shoulder in an exceptionally non Rikku and very appealing way, reminding him of the scene in the tent. "Just try and stop me, old man and I'm gonna kick you in the spleen!"
"Just try to return it in one piece, hear me?"
"Loud and clear, I will return one piece." He let her take it of course, because while Rikku respected Nhadala, she had no qualms stealing one of his pieces of equipment.
"Rikku, master of the blade, creeps through the shadows, cutting down all who stand in her way!" She leapt out of the shadows at him as he turned a corner and bit down onto his shoulder. He had been calmly walking through the halls of Djose when her slim lithe body attached to his back in a flying leap. "Rawrrr...rawr...Oh, you're not Paine."
"Good one, desert girl." The intended target came around the same corner and must have been only a few seconds behind. "You manage to not only look like an idiot, you also attacked the wrong person."
"Meanie." Rikku stuck out her tongue, still attached to his back with her slim legs locked around his waist and her arms around his neck. He could feel the tickle of her bangs on the back of his neck. He also tried to ignore where her breasts were pushed up on his back. "I was totally going to win with my "crouching tiger, hidden Rikku" attack."
"Where's my hover?" Gippal asked, turning his head to look at her. She, in response, dug around in her cleavage before handing him a small gear. "What is this?"
"The one piece you asked for." She slid down his back like a monkey and grinned at him. He groaned, handing it back to her.
"Please tell me that you took that out of a non vital place."
"Of course."
"And that you know how to put it back?"
"Naturally."
"And that you will?"
"Lickety-split."
"And that I'll get my hover back?" The last one was said exasperatedly and Rikku grinned her cute little grin up at him.
"Oooh, enough already!" She stomped a foot on the ground and then grabbed onto Paine's arm, wrapping herself around it while urging the other girl forward. "If you don't leave me be, I'm gonna whack you good."
"Hah. Try it, munchkin."
"Hold on Paine, this could get a little rough." She dropped her friend's arm and then lunged at him, taking him down to the floor in a flurry of papers and pain. "Ten gil on Rikku," Paine said calmly, leaning up against the hall's wall to watch.
"What is taking so long?" Yuna asked, coming around the corner. She blinked and leaned forward, peering into the mess of limbs that were scrapping on the floor. "Is that Rikku and Gippal?"
"Yes. He was asking for the hover back and she jumped him." Paine had a smile on her face as Gippal made a grunting noise when Rikku hit him with her sharp elbow somewhere painful. "They will probably be at it all day."
"This shouldn't take more than...two rounds." Yuna said, and Paine held out twenty gil. "Three. Rikku always comes back for a third."
"Done." Yuna shook on it, the money between the two of their's palms. Yuna watched the fight for a moment and then clapped her hands together. "Wait, isn't that the hover that we lent to Wakka so that he could get back to Lulu in time with the medicine for Vidina?"
"Probably." Paine shrugged. "I don't think that Rikku could get another on short notice, even if she's Cid's girl."
"Stop calling me -mmph!" Rikku was protesting the name which she secretly always thought of as Gippal's name for her when he caught her head under his elbow and shoved it to the floor. "Do you ever clean down here?"
"I'm not usually wrestling with people on the floor."
"Well I guess I'm just special then." She grumbled, relaxing. Gippal watched her warily, and waited for a sign that she's done. "Okay, I think it's breaktime now."
"My thoughts exactly." Yuna said, smiling at her. "Round one."
"Round one? What do you mean, a break?" Gippal asked, staring down at the girl he was crushing. Rikku took in a deep breath and then let it out. After a moment, she did something to get her leg free and kicked him halfway across the room. He hit the wall and slid down it, looking at her dazedly. He didn't know that she was that strong. He had to admit though, that the only reason she had gotten that kick in was because he was thoroughly distracted by her soft skin and curves that were tantalizingly close under her scanty clothing. She stood up, brushing off her clothes.
"Game set and match in round two. Pay up, Paine." Yuna grinned at her friend, sticking out her hand.
"It's all in the wrist." Rikku flopped her hand back and forth on the aforementioned bit of her while wrapping her fingers around her wrist.
"You kicked me, that did not involve your wrist at all!" Gippal howled, rubbing his chest where she hit him.
"Yuppers." She grinned at him and then yawned. "Lets go back to the ship, I'm all tuckered out."
She left Gippal there, wondering when she had become so strong and how he had missed it. He saw her several more times over the next few days, and each time, they ended up in far from proper positions, wrestling on the ground or sparring. She always won. Gippal would like to assuage his manly pride and say that it was because he let her, or it was because he wouldn't hit a girl, but deep in his heart he knew it was because of her dimples, her sharp elbows and her mean right hook. The pattern continued until Nhadala, in a fit of joyous insanity, upon finding out that Rikku, Yuna and Paine had beaten the enormous monster in the desert, kissed him flat on the mouth. She apologized profusely, and he, bright red, accepted the apology, but the tell tale sign of a yellow, orange dipped scarf vanishing around the corner after long tan limbs had run away told him that Rikku had been there and had seen. She didn't return the next day.
Two months later was the next time he saw her and she came down out of the sky, running a hover much higher than it should have been, landing almost on top of him. She beamed at him, wearing her bikini top and suggestion of a skirt, her scarf wrapped around the handle bars of the hover so it didn't get in the way and her beads clacking against each other as she tossed her head excitedly.
"Where's the breaks on this thing? Haha just kidding! Ready or not, here I come!" She jumped out of the hover right before it landed, lunging towards him out of it and he had enough time to throw out his arms for her to land in them. Her shoulder caught him in the mouth and again, he was knocked to the ground. She yelled happily into his face as he winced and felt his jaw, "Pow! Right in the kisser!"
"Hello, Rikku." He said calmly, unable to resist grinning back even when the pain in his jaw twinged. She leaned forward and kissed his jaw while pulling out a potion and dumping it on him.
"Sorry, now chin up, eyes forward!" She tangled her long, skinny arms around his neck and he felt that lovely, fluttery feeling in his stomach that he had come to associate with Rikku. It didn't hurt that she was currently nestled between his legs with her arms around his neck. Some of the workers, who were startled by the shadow flying so close to their heads, stopped to watch the spectacle and some even wolf whistled at the show. Rikku ignored them, smiling adorably up at him, with the look that he knew always let her get her way. "I'm returning the hover."
"Really? You're not going to whisk it away again?"
"No, no. Luzzu is coming to pick me up, we have a date. He's got his own hover." She, upon divulging this information, did not seem to care that it was probably not appropriate for her to still be entangled in him.
"A date?" Gippal's voice cracked a bit on that one, as she nodded happily and squirmed in his lap. "With Luzzu? But...He's a Crusader!"
Rikku stood up abruptly, brushed off the back of her skirt and, more coldly than she had ever said anything in her life, remarked, "Well. It's not like anyone else was asking, was it?"
Fortunately, it was that moment that the hover of the dreaded Luzzu, whom Gippal swore was old enough to be Rikku's father floated into view. His friend, whom he was just now allowing himself to think of as attractive bounced to the hover, and, in a fluid movement, ran up the side to throw her arms around Luzzu's neck and kiss him soundly. She tossed him an angry but victorious look before hopping into the hover and flying away with the older man. Gippal sat in the dust, watching his childhood friend who had turned into a brilliant young woman before his eyes take off with whom he would consider completely unworthy of her.
It would be weeks before he would even hear her name and it was through Paine. She wouldn't even come around with the other two, preferring to let Yuna, Paine, Buddy or Brother to deal with him while she would wander off with Luzzu. He was careful not to mention her because he really did not want to know what she was getting up to with the older man and Yuna had a tendency to share too much and Buddy or Brother not enough. They knew as much as he did about Rikku's goings on, he was sure. "So, Rikku misses you."
It had no segue, it was just placed on the table to stare at him.
"Well, I'm sure that Luzzu can comfort her."
"Oh they're not together anymore." Paine said it casually, watching him, watching how he would react to this news. His ears pricked up, but he made no overtly visual signs. "They had a huge fight about a lavender handkerchief that she had stuffed down her shirt and broke it off the next day." Gippal could feel the tips of his ears turning red. Paine just observed his reaction and then let the edges of her mouth turn up in a small smile as she thought that he was utterly ridiculous. " You wouldn't have any idea what that could be about, would you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." He murmured, tightening a gear on the machina that the Gullwings had dug up. He had no idea why they brought it to him instead of having Rikku fix it, but he supposed it was so Paine could corner him. He allowed himself his own small smile, because no matter how much it hurt him to see Rikku hurt, he couldn't help but feel a little vindication. Paine took the wrench out of his hand and looked at him seriously.
"If you do not go patch things up with Rikku right now, I am going to take this wrench and hit you over the head with it." Gippal looked at Paine in a bit of a panicky way because he fully believed that she would do it. She, on the other hand, looked at him, deadpan and unreadable. Gippal swiveled his eyes back and forth between the wrench and Paine's face, and decided that facing Rikku would be better than courting head trauma any day of the week. At least he knew he could get Rikku to smile eventually.
He found her in the hover yards, and the only way he recognized her was by her blue and white pixie boots that stuck out from under the engine. He wrapped his fingers around her tiny ankle and pulled hard, making her slide out from under the machina abruptly and shout in surprise. She was covered in grease again, looking delightful with mussed blonde hair and a smattering of freckles that she always got if she played in the sandbox for too long. She glared at him, not even getting up, so he stood over her with her foot in his hands for a moment, just staring down at her. He caught sight of something violet and peeking out of her bikini top and he grinned.
"So, I hear that you have one of my handkerchief's tucked away in your shirt."
"Well, hello there." She rolled her eyes. "Nice to see you too."
"I want it back."
"It's right here." She evaluated him, running her eyes up and down his skinny frame. She, still laying down, crossed her arms under her chest and pushed her breasts up so the handkerchief was more prominent. "Come and get it."
He stared at her, mostly in a detached sort of shock that she would be so bold. Gone was the playful child from his formative years and it was replaced with the silhouette on tent that had frozen him in the middle of his steps on the way back to Djose. That tempting, delicious, Al Bhed girl that somehow he knew was Rikku, but he refused to believe it. She was beautiful and had become so while his back was turned and abruptly, he had the vague feeling that she had been attempting to show this newfound feeling to him and he had been steadfastly ignoring it. He frowned at her.
"If I go after that handkerchief, you're getting all of me, you know this?" Gippal said, crouching down next to her, pulling her up to a sitting position by her scarf. She limply draped herself over his chest and lolled her head against his shoulder before giving him a heartbreakingly sweet smile.
"What do you think I'm after?" The sweetness turned to light as her lips stretched into a grin and he ran a finger over her lips and found himself with the need to kiss her or he would strangle her. As he did like her as a friend, he found the first option better. He kissed her, grease and sweat and all, accepting that Rikku would probably beat on him for the rest of his life, but seeing her covered in the life blood of machina and glowing with her love of him made it worth it.
A good hour later, he found himself clutching his old handkerchief to his chest and panting as she went back to work on the engine, humming. To the casual observer, not much was different in their demeanor or appearance but after a moment of boredom, Gippal slid under the engine as well. To be honest, not much work was done on the engine after that.
AN: Thanks to Icicle streams for nominating this for the 2009 QTC awards! Please help me out by voting!