Disclaimer: Square-Enix owns Final Fantasy and their characters. I do not.

Summary:Reach out to the hearts if Spira. That was the mission. But they may find themselves reaching out to each other, as well. Set after 'Perfect/Good' ending. Rikku / Gippal

This is going to be an experimental fanfiction. The continuation of this story mainly depends on the feedback. So I really hope you all enjoy and I will gratefully consider all suggestions made. The beginning will start out a bit slow, as I am trying summarize quite a few things, but it moves along pretty quickly after that.

Thank you,

Eione

Bittersweet Symphony
Chapter I

A beautiful city it must have been; a city of lights… a city of life. And yet now it lay in ruins. Very seldom buildings stood, but even those were hazardous. No one would be able to go back here and live like their ancestors once did a thousand years ago. Zanarkand. Here I stood, eyeing the site before me; standing on the threshold of Mt. Gagazet and the place I was to spend time in for the next few months. This place wasn't going to be nearly as great as it used to be, but our mission wasn't to rebuild. No, our mission is to show what this place really was to all of Spira. After all, this place is so much more than a tourist attraction, it was a place hidden in the hearts, in theblood, of many.

Yuna stood in front of me, fingers intertwined with her long lost lover, still pondering over the idea. Still trying to see if it was the right thing to do. She turned to Tidus, who just gave her a smile of reassurance. He was the one who used to 'live' in Zanarkand. It was his O.K we wanted before proceeding with the plan. But of course, he had to make it difficult, so he gave Yuna the option of choosing what to do. After a while of thinking she decided she wanted to do it, but now…

Now she was having second thoughts.

With the help of New Yevon, the Youth League, and the Machine Faction, we were planning on building a small "town" in a vacant area in Zanarkand. That way, Zanarkand wouldn't just be some whole joke of a tourist attraction, and people could actually settle down. A lot of questions asked between us all were 'Who is going to want to live amongst ruins and fiends?', and 'When we solve that problem, what if we don't have enough room for all the people who want to live here?'. Eventually we came up with reasonable solutions. A majority of the population in Spira are pretty much rooted to where they are right now. If no one has bothered with this for the past millennium, then no one it going to be rushing to the spot at the news of the new town. But then if there are going to be a lot of people, we decided to limit it to a select group. In the middle of 'New Zanarkand', as we plan to call it, we're building a small research center, funded and owned by the three leaders of Spira. That being Nooj, Baralai, and Gippal. The people who planned to work there would be given housing space.

As I finished going over the mission in my head, Yuna finally spoke that she was done with her decision. She turned to face us, a smile on her face, and for once in the past hour looking confident.

"Well?" I asked in anticipation.

"Gullwings… lets get started!" Yuna pumped her fist and I jumped up and down giving a 'Whoopee!' every other five seconds. Even Paine, who of course wasn't the person to jump up and down in excitement, shifted next to me, a smile on her face.

After our five-second celebration, we proceeded down to where we were going to set up camp, plan and design, et cetera. My bag landed on the ground with a small thump and I stretched out my arms, glancing around the campsite. I spotted Paine organizing her things, a few workers set up tents, and in the distance I saw two figures standing while overlooking a small lake. When I squinted my eyes I could see Yuna and Tidus, and I smiled for them, genuinely glad that they were happy. But I couldn't help the pang of slight jealously in my heart when I saw them give each other a quick peck on the lips.

'Why am I so jealous? I've always been so carefree about everything… why is now any different?' I was torn away from my thoughts when someone to my left whistled. I turned to see one of the workers, a fellow Al Bhed, look up at the sky in admiration.

"Lralg uid dryd yencreb! Cina ec uha ralg uv y machina…" (Check out airship! Sure is one heck of a machina…) The faint humming of an engine purred nearby, the sound increasing by the second. When I looked up, I saw an airship descend near us, and by the designs on the side of the airship, I could almost immediately tell who it belonged to. Pretty soon everyone began to turn around to see what all the ruckus was about.

'Seems like someone likes to make a big entry.' I mused. The ramp of the airship lowered, and four familiar figures appeared. Yuna began to walk in their direction, most likely planning to greet them and talk about our status (which wasn't that important, but I guess it doesn't hurt to say that all we're doing is setting up camp). Paine and I glanced at each other, silently agreeing that we should follow. It wasn't just Yuna's job to greet everyone. It was the Gullwings who decided this, after all.

I began to spot Nooj coming toward us, LeBlanc having a hold onto his free arm, smiling and waving her fan as usual. Resisting to roll my eyes, I smiled and them, waving and jumping up and down.

I never really did understand how they got together. I don't see anything 'Woojie' about 'Noojie'.

Baralai came behind him, looking like he was trying not to laugh at Nooj's facial expression. He looked up at us and smiled, and for what seemed to be an extra second, he gazed at Paine longer than he did Yuna or I.

I guess he did, because I could almost hear her tense up. I covered my mouth, stifling a giggle, and looked up just in time to see the last person come up: Gippal. He stood next to Baralai, completing the trio and looking like business. They all did, actually.. except for LeBlanc of course.

"Thank you so much for coming!" Yuna said, while making a small bow of gratitude.

"Well, I wouldn't feel right if the project said 'Brought to you by The Machine Faction' if I didn't even help." Nooj coughed next to him, mumbling something along the lines of how Gippal was taking all the credit again. He noticed this and added, "Oh, and of course New Yevon and the Youth League!"

"You're helping enough already by donating. You really didn't have to make the trouble of coming down. I'm sure you all have work to do back home."

"We do, but its all taken care of. Now, we can stay and talk about the weather… or we can actually see what we're going to be working with." LeBlanc said quickly (and rather rudely). Yuna muttered a quick 'right!', and we started back off to camp.

The tents were finally all set up, and it began to grow dark. The workers were crowded around one fire, and Yuna began to start one for the rest of us. I offered to go get some water, because all the times that we've been to Zanarkand, I've never really been able to appreciate the beauty of the place at night. Humming to myself, I swung a large canteen back and forth while I headed to the small lake. My humming turned into singing, and the moon listened quietly to my voice. Then again, the moon didn't really have a choice.

Approaching the lake, I bent down, tucking a strand of hair away from my face and dipping the canteen underwater.

"Riaru na sekai ni yureteru kanjyou… maketakunai.. mou—"

"Nice singing, there, Cid's girl." A voice said from behind me. I shrieked in surprise, nearly dropping the canister and falling in myself. I turned around to face Gippal, his one eye twinkling, and him trying not to laugh toohard.

"Edc hud vihho, Gippal!" (Its not funny, Gippal!) I pouted, "I could've fallen in!" He raised and eyebrow, as if mocking me. As if, and I could hear him now, he was saying 'Which would give me more reason to laugh at you.' By this point in my thoughts I had stood up and crossed my arms. "And my name is Rikku." He chose to ignore me so I sighed and asked him what he was doing there. He shrugged.

"I was just taking a walk around, heard you singing, and here I am. What about you?" I raised the canteen as if it was obvious.

"Getting water for camp. Even a chocobo could figure that out."

"Well I'm not a chocobo," I snorted but he continued, "and you shouldn't be out here alone. There are fiends hiding out here, y'know." I smiled and gave him a poke in the belly.

"Aw, is wittle Gippal worried?" His face didn't show any sign of joking around, "Relax, Gip, I saved Spira twice, I think I can handle a fiend or two." I could tell he was worn out, most likely from the flight here, so I didn't push him any further and he didn't argue back. "Well, lets just head back to camp. Yunie sent me out here a while ago and she might think I fell in." At that comment he chuckled and we headed back to the campsite.

Our first night we spent just sitting around, each of us occasionally sharing a story or two. We didn't want to sit around talking about what we were going to do as far as architecture and placement; we were all too tired and knew we had all of tomorrow to think about it.

Yuna and Tidus were the first to decide to turn in. As they got up I couldn't help but ask, "Should I be worried about using ear plugs?" This caused both of them to turn a bright shade of red and I grinned impishly.

"That is a good point…" Paine said, deciding to join in on the teasing. Yuna grew even more embarrassed, especially since her intimacy with Tidus was shared in front of Gippal, Baralai, Nooj, and LeBlanc.

"Ohh, you guys! Stop it!" The Ex-Summoner stomped her foot on the ground, and Tidus has yet to say anything for he was too shocked.

"Oh, c'mon, Yunie, we're just having a little fun." I said once I saw that my cousin was getting a bit peeved, but she just made a small 'humph' and strode off towards the tent, Tidus following suit. LeBlanc, at this point thought it would be a good idea to start laughing at the situation.

"Well, I think it's going to be a bit awkward now, don't you think?" I just shook my head.

"It'll be okay. Yunie knows that I kid around. She'll be over it by morning."

"Well, whatever. I honestly don't care about that anymore. Now I'm curious about what's going on with you?"

I opened my mouth, then closed it, then raised an eyebrow. Me? When did this turn around?

"Err, what do you mean?"

"Oh, you know. I have my Noojie, Yuna has that blonde fellow—"

"Tidus.."

"Yes, him. As for Paine and Baralai, I can tell there's a bit of chemistry going on—" Paine abruptly stood up, muttering that she was going to bed and left. Baralai just suddenly decided that his shoes were really interesting which I laughed at, forgetting for a moment where LeBlanc was headed in the conversation. "So that just leaves you and Mister Eye patch over here…"

"You know what.. I'm tired." Gippal started.

"Yeah, I think I'm going to go to bed, also. After all, yawning is contagious!"

"No one yawned—" LeBlanc said, but couldn't finish her sentence because before she knew it, she was left alone with Nooj. "Well,that was a bit rude, don't you think?"

Walking over to my tent, I could hear voices coming from inside. I wasn't sure who it would be, because only Paine and I shared a tent, there was no one else sharing with us. Then all of a sudden the voices stopped, and when I peeked in I could see Baralai and Paine…kissing. I gasped, and they seemed to have heard something because they immediately tensed up. After a couple of seconds I realized I was still standing in the same spot and decided to quickly escape before Paine caught me and deducted what's left of my respect points.

Replaying what I just saw in my head, it just… well… didn't seem right. I mean, I knew that Paine and Baralai had feelings for each other. I first became suspicious when we first went to Bevelle to meet him and Paine was facing the opposite direction while he was talking to us, but… Paine was always so closed of, I just started getting used to her being more friendly, and now I had to deal with her being all lovey-dovey.

I laughed, realizing that what I was thinking was not only ridiculous, but really hard to imagine. It doesn't matter if they were right in front of me now, sucking off each other's faces, it still wouldn't seem right.

"What are you doing?" I realized then that I was laughing a bit too loud, and I turned around a bit flushed to see Gippal raising an eyebrow at me. Whoops. I guess I was laughing in front of his tent while he was trying to sleep.

"Oh! Sorry, did I wake you up?" He shook his head.

"No, but I got kinda weirded out when I heard someone outside my tent laughing in the middle of the night. What are you doing, anyways?"

"Um," Gee, how was I going to explain this, I mean, I wasn't even supposed to see anything! "So I guess you noticed that Baralai wasn't in your tent, cause you're sharing, right?" We were silent for a moment while he let my question sink in. A wave of realization went over his face and he looked at me with a mixed expression of amusement and… something close to disgust.

"Were they…?"

"No.. but they were—"

"Okay, say no more." He interrupted, not wanting to know. For a moment we just stood there, awkwardly, and Gippal started to look around as if he was making sure no one was coming. "Well, here, come in, I don't think you want to go back to your tent, even if Painewas alone." I shuddered at the thought of my fellow sphere hunter murdering me in my sleep, so I agreed and stepped in. "Are you tired?"

"Oh, um, a little." My face was met by something soft, and it took me a while to realize that Gippal had just thrown a shirt at me.

"Here, you can use one of my shirts to sleep in." I opened my mouth to say something, but I decided to keep my mouth shut. As he messed around with his things I just stood there patiently unsure about what I should do. He must've noticed my lack of movement, because he turned around to check on what I was doing. "Just go change in the corner, I have no interest in looking," I scoffed at this and he rolled his eyes, "I'll just go outside if you're going to be a prude about this… and you can sleep on my side."

"Where are you sleeping?" I asked. I didn't want to feel like I was taking over his tent. I was already wearing his shirt to sleep and sleeping on his side.

"I'll just take Baralai's side… unless… you'd rather sleep together." He smirked at me, and I wrinkled my nose in disgust.

"I think I'm fine, thanks." He just kept on smirking and left the tent, letting me have my privacy. When I felt safe enough, I headed to one of the corners to change into the shirt Gippal loaned me. Once I was done I crawled over to where he told me I could sleep and slipped under the covers. I yelled out that I was done and he came back in.

"Just get some sleep, we have a long day tomorrow." He said as he proceeded to lay down. "And if you get scared, you can always come over here." I could practically hear him smirk.

"E's hud aekrd yhosuna, Gippal!" (I'm not eight anymore, Gippal!) He laughed and stopped for a bit, as if reminiscing. "I know you're not. Just get some sleep, Cid's girl."

I turned to my side, my back facing Gippal, and closed my eyes, thinking back to simpler days where I did resort to sleeping next to Gippal for comfort.

Flashback

It was raining that night in Bikanel, sand and water wasn't a good mixture, but I didn't care as I dirtied my boots, running through Home to find someone. I came across a door, and let myself in, knowing that the resident wouldn't care.

"Cid's girl? What are you doing here?" A young Gippal asked me groggily, trying to wipe a bit of the sleep out of his eyes. I opened my mouth to answer, but a flash of lightning went through the sky and I cringed, biting my lip to try to hold in my whimpering. Gippal noticed this (he always noticed everything) and moved aside on his bed to make room for me. I dove in under the covers, our green eyes meeting for a moment, and I looked down, giving him a hug and muttering a small apology and a thank you.

He didn't say anything. He didn't have to. Just being there with him made me feel better. Gippal knew that, but he wasn't going to tease me about it until the morning when the sun was shining and the sand was dry again.

End Flashback

I smiled at the memory, and before dozing off I muttered: "I have a name you know..."
Sunlight streamed in through the opening of the tent, and I smiled as the rays warmed my body. I smiled, happy that I got enough sleep last night. So far it was a good day. Birds were chirping… people were outside working… wait…

My eyes snapped open when I realized that there were quite a bit of voices outside the tent.

'What time is it?! And why didn't that idiot wake me up?' I tore off the sheets and walked outside, seeing everyone begin to get ready for the work ahead. I looked around, trying to find a certain blonde haired man, and at last I spotted him, and when I did, I marched right up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

At the moment he was talking to Nooj but when I interrupted him he turned around and gave me an amused look.

"Can I help you?"

"Why didn't you wake me up?! You just left me sleeping when this project is as big for me as it is for you. Maybe even bigger! But nooo! You don't think about what Iwant, you just care that you look good in front of your employees!" He just kept on smiling which just totally pissed me off even more and when I was about to open my mouth he beat me to it.

"Well, you were sleeping so peacefully, I didn't have the heart to wake you up.. oh and," He leaned forward, his hot breath tickling my ear, and whispered, "nice pajamas."

At this moment I just realized that I had stormed out of Gippal'stent wearing nothing but Gippal's shirt. This was a bit awkward.

I looked down, and felt the heat rise to my cheeks, and a small 'Oh' left me mouth.

"W-Well then," I stuttered, way more than embarrassed, "I.. I'll just.. let you get back to what you were doing…" I slowly turned around to go back into the tent, and when I reached the entrance I could hear the people that stopped to watch and listen slowly get back to what they were doing.

I was back in my tent now, changing into my work clothes and putting my hair up into a simple ponytail. As I looked at myself in the mirror I felt bad about what I had done. Not just because I made a fool out of myself but because I yelled at Gippal when all he had done was watch after me. Sure he was a bit of a jerk and cocky while doing it, but he still did.

When I decided I looked decent enough and that my face wasn't crimson anymore, I decided to go find Gippal to apologize and say thank you. Even though it was going to be hard. That guy never made it easy, and my pride could never really take saying sorry to him. I stepped outside for the second time today, this time calmed down and not wearing a shirt that barely covered me up. I've worn less, yeah, but that's not the point here.

I wasn't sure how he was going to act, because no matter what he seems like he is in public, he doesn't like being made a fool of in front of everyone either, and me yelling at him didn't help his reputation as a 'leader of Spira'. Whoops.

I started to walk towards him, but stopped a couple feet away, just staring at his back wondering if I really had to do it, especially right now. But I never got the chance to decide. He just turned and walked away, not noticing me, and yet I stayed rooted to the spot, still being able to smell the familiar aroma of his cologne

So, usually first chapters end with something that makes you think, 'Bring it on!' But I wanted something different. I tried to make this chapter long enough, and I filled it with a bit of fluff. But even though they're going to have fluffy moments, I'm not going to make them go any further than teasing, tender moments, et cetera until later chapters. In the game they obviously have some kind of feelings for each other, so I'm not going to change around their feelings in this story just to make it seem like they don't like each other. But I'm rambling now… Please review and tell me what you think! Alsoif you have any questions, feel free to ask, but make sure I have a way of contacting you back! I'll answer mostly anything, unless the answer comes up in later chapters, then that's when I have to keep my mouth shut!

Eione