Hey, here's the first of my challenge responses (I separated them into two stories). We'll start with the Gipster and, well, the title.

Disclaimer: I don't own FFX-2. Never have, never will.

He leaned his head against the door, he tried to wrap his head around it… again…

Ixion, all this shit was hitting the fan at once. He had just come to terms with his new situation as it was.

He never should have left her there, two months ago. It had been a bad day, and he had allowed himself to drink till he was stupid, the pair only encouraging him. Only when reminded of a shipment arriving early the next morning from the desert did Gippal bow out early, leaving them alone. God, if he knew what would have happened… If he could have prevented all of this…

Knocking quietly on her door, he said just barely loud enough to carry through the wood, "Rikku? Can I come in?"

He heard a muffled sniffle, and took that for a yes. Aeons, that made his heart break. Opening the door, he looked in. She was curled up under the covers as tightly as she could comfortably in her condition. The braids, beads, and bandana were gone, her hair loose to float haphazardly over her face. Her clothes were thrown over a chair, and he suspected she had pulled on one of his shirts, as had become her habit over the last few weeks, to use as a nightshirt.

"Oh, honey…" he murmured, as she tried to muffle her sob. Sitting down on the edge of her bed, he hesitated only briefly before gently rubbing her back as she cried. "Let it out… Just let it out…" he managed to murmur, fighting his own overwhelming emotions. Sands, how had this happened, and so fast? It seemed like yesterday she showed up at his doorstep, in tears then too and completely soaked through from Djose's recent batch of thunderstorms.

It had taken him hours to get her to calm down and explain what was wrong. He still hadn't been able to believe it for a while, just able to offer her what help he could as he tried to make sense of it all. Finally, he had managed to understand exactly what was going on, and was about to take an improvised step forward, a step he had been hesitating to take for years now. Then he came running at her panicked scream, and blood was everywhere…

Swallowing thickly, Gippal pushed those terrifying hours out of his mind and continued to try and sooth the shattered girl lying in his bed. He hadn't been sure he wanted to punch first, the doctor for callously breaking the only dream that Rikku had that was her own, or Dachi for however inadvertently making her suffer through this with only Gippal by her side. Cause he knew, no matter how much Rikku assured him, that she wanted someone who loved her by her side right now, and instead she had an ass, one that struggled constantly with his feelings and would always be too much of a coward to confess to anything non-platonic anyway.

"Why?" It took him a moment to realize the croaked, broken question had come from Rikku. "Why, Gippal?" she asked again, and he wasn't able to stop himself from sweeping her into his arms. She tucked her head under his chin, grabbing on to his shirt like it was the only thing keeping her sane.

"I don't know…" was all he was able to tell her, gently sweeping her hair out of his face absently, "I just don't know, honey…"