Promises, Promises Pt. 1
by PrettyGothGirl
Summary: In an effort to get out of doing one thing, Gippal promises to do something else and given that he is promising such to Rikku, he really ought to know better.
Author's Note: This is a story I wrote back in 2006 and is a prequel to 1frickengirl's Handy Man, which can be found at Quite the Couple on Livejournal. The challenge was to use the words yellow, puppy and toaster. I just found it the other day on my computer. I didn't realize how easy it was to lose stories.
Anonymous Review Warning: Lack of email in anonymous reviews causes PGG symptoms of irritation and annoyance resulting in apathy over stated opinion in said review. If your opinion is important enough for you to comment, then I want it to be important enough for me to reply to. Thank you.
It was one of those strangely typical commsphere conversations with Rikku. Whatever she wanted was hidden behind layers and layers of pointless minutiae of day-to-day living.
"I'm thinking of getting a puppy."
Gippal looked up from the paperwork he was doing at Djose and frowned at the commsphere. He watched her pour something into a bowl and start mixing. He frowned more at this, because when Rikku mixed something it usually ended in an explosion. He relaxed though when he noticed the flour, sugar and what looked like a box of cocoa on the table. Plus she was using her aluminum bowls and not her glass or copper bowls. She'd explained to him once magic didn't stick to copper. He concluded whatever she was mixing this time was safe, like a cake or something. She was a good baker, since all it took was to follow a recipe. "A puppy?"
"Yeah, there's this shop on one of the squares and they're really cute."
He turned back to his paperwork, talking with Rikku always made it somewhat less boring. "Don't puppies usually turn into dogs?"
"Well, yeah, but it is rather lonely since I've got the apartment and I thought a puppy might give me someone to talk to."
"And what am I?" He asked with a sharp look at the commsphere.
She sighed. "You aren't here, you know, in person, talking on the commsphere is all well and good-"
"And gil wasting."
"-but it's not the same."
"So you've said over and over again."
"I don't want to argue with you. But the puppies are adorable, you should have a look."
"No thank you."
"Help me pick one out?"
He made the mistake of looking over at the commsphere. She was looking straight at it with the widest eyes he'd ever seen, bottom lip beginning to jut out just a little bit. He looked back at his papers and steeled himself against that look. "No." He'd already wiggled out of a promise to fix her toaster. He wasn't going to help her pick out a puppy either.
"Please."
"No."
"They're cute."
"No."
"They're soft and furry and rolly-polly."
"No."
"There's a yellow golden one."
"No."
"Come on. It's not going to ruin your manliness to look a bunch of puppies. And I haven't seen you in ages."
"No."
"Not even just to visit me." She wasn't pouting anymore. She looked truly upset.
He swallowed back a huge lump of guilt. She was right. He hadn't seen her or any of his friends in person in ages. Now she looked like a forlorn puppy, a forlorn kicked puppy. He shoved the papers away. They could wait. "All right, I'll come. I even promise to fix the toaster, just no puppies."
She smiled, instantly cheerful again. "You promise."
"Yes, I promise."
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