Merefire
Record Cover

Yawning, Gippal stretched out on the tapestry-covered ground, his one green eye brightly lit by the luminescence of the crackling orange fire. A peaceful, light expression graced his face as he put his hands behind his head and rested it against the log. It was hard, but everything was covered with tassels and rugs so the harshness of the bark did not hurt his hands.

The night sky was littered with stars, stray Pyreflies wandering around the air magically around the village.

The day had been spent lounging around in Kilika, celebrating the Festival of Fire with the rapidly growing town's inhabitants, including the Youth League and their celebrated Meyvn, Nooj.

It was rather nice that Gippal and a few of the Faction's workers had been there alongside Baralai, or else the partygoers would have lost their heads completely and ended up burning the whole town down; which had only narrowly been escaped thanks to Lulu and Rikku's combined multiple Waterga spells. Lulu had taken care of the starting fire quite easily, but Rikku had stumbled upon the spells a few times and almost tripped over flat onto her face, worn out with the effort. Yuna, of course, had been of no help, for the only magic she knew were only of restorative quality.

Rikku now sat next to where Gippal lay, her legs hunched up. She was gazing into the fire, golden blonde hair illuminated by the flames of the bonfire lit in front of them. Warmth washed over her body as the night air blew over the fire and into her front.

People could be seen and heard dancing and singing around the bonfire, joyous in celebration of an ancient tradition previously forgotten because of the terrible reign of Sin. They celebrated Kilika, the expansion of the tiny water-side village, and their friend, the fire. It was beautiful.

Truth be told, the only reason Gippal had come to Kilika that day was because Nooj had insisted Baralai come, and in turn, Baralai had wheedled into Gippal following. Gippal, in turn, had dragged Rikku along, and as she had refused point-blank to being the only girl around them, had brought Yuna, and, well… rest assured, everyone else had followed along soon after to wait for the fireworks.

Something yellow, pink and white caught Rikku's eyes, and she focused them away from the fire and ahead of her. Tidus and Yuna were laughing and giggling, running around the village doing who-knows-what, Yuna's long bound hair whipping out from behind as they ran hand in hand. Rikku smiled. Her cousin was now, so truly happy, it was such a remarkable change from her moody, sullen, upset state following two years after the defeat of Sin. Rikku continued to smile and traced patterns absentmindedly on the ground next to her bare toes.

Her toes and fingers looked even more uncannily orange that night, not only because of the orange nail polish, but also because of the fire. Rikku smiled and looked at her fingers splayed out on the ground next to her feet. Gippal had shoved her hand away, the day she had painted them, and taken the brush off her, insisting that she were no good at painting her nails, and done them himself right then and there. Rikku had laughed then, and told him he'd make a better woman than a man if he enjoyed painting nails so much. Gippal had laughed and given her a light push in response, telling her that no, it were only her nails that he liked to paint. But only, 'Coz you're so hopeless at it, baby girl. Someone's gotta do it right for ya, Honey'. Rikku smiled at the memory.

He had kissed the tips of her fingers afterwards, and slid off his chair to grab at her feet, wanting to do her toes. 'They're cute toes. I like 'em. Can I have 'em?' He had yanked at her ankle after he was done, telling her that she had lovely, cute ankles as well before pulling at her legs again, forcing her to tumble down onto the floor next to him. The bottle of orange nail polish had flown across the room and all over the carpet, and Rikku had screeched in loss.

'That was my best bottle, you big meanie! You buy me a new one or you'll have my daggers to answer to!'

'Hey, you, what's with worrying over the nail polish when my carpet's half destroyed?! RIKKU!'

It was to be concluded that Gippal was rather fond of his home-furnishings.

Rikku stuck her tongue out, and when she wouldn't stop whining, Gippal apologized with a roll of his eye.

'Cunno, pypa, I'll get you a new one in Luca next weekend, that sound okay?'

Rikku turned to her side to look down at Gippal. Catching her eye, he grinned and reached up, tugging on her scarf. He pulled it away and let the soft weave sift through his fingers, the fine tassels lacing together back and forth. The colour seemed even more intense as the warm orange light flooded the air. Letting go of the scarf to let it drape over his chest. Everything about the colours were so concentrated; the deep reds, vivid oranges and bright yellows about the fire were so… Crazy.Orange.

All the colours that made his mind skip to Rikku whenever he saw them. Gippal took Rikku's hand in his and squeezed it, looking up at her. He wondered wether he should make orange his next-favourite colour, after purple. He would make it the first, he thought, but purple was his most-favourite colour, and nothing could change that. So maybe whilst orange couldn't be his first favourite colour, it could be his second favourite colour, and- What the hell, Gippal.

Gippal let go of her hand and sat up next to her, brushing himself off. He wore no armour today, and was clad in only his lilac shirt, red pants and heavy combat boots. His guns had been discarded as well; thinking that if anything were to go wrong, well, Yuna and her former guardians were all there and… all yours. Besides, what was a man if he didn't know how to use hand-to-hand combat?
He yawned and rumpled his hair and crossed his legs, tired.

Instantly, Rikku moved herself and sat in his lap, putting her hands at his waist. Gippal wriggled and fidgeted under her, the feeling of her fingers against him feeling rather nice. Settling herself, Rikku put her nose into Gippal's shoulder.
Placing his head atop Rikku's own, Gippal ran a hand ran gently up and down her side, nuzzling against her.

For a while, they sat together in silence, snuggling together, hands trailing over skin gently, lovingly. Neither realised the small smiles they were earning from people sitting around them; for they were not the only ones sitting in front of the fire not still dancing, celebrating, or feasting; namely Lulu and a few others of the villagers. It was quite nice, to see couples start sharing their affections, because nothing had really been this comfortable or casual for a long time.

It wasn't until a smug, challenging look from Tidus had come Gippal's way that he broke the silence. Gippal shot a glare at Tidus' direction. Tidus smirked, jerking his head away from the fire and towards the general direction where people danced in celebration, golden lamps hanging by threads hanging across the sky, held up by poles of Kilika wood. Tidus, allowing himself to be whisked away by a highly euphoric Yuna, bright red in the cheeks from exercise, grinned a last time and disappeared into the crowd.

So, Tidus wanted to challenge him, huh? Well, it was time for the goody-two-shoes to find out how the women would be dragged to their feet on the dance floor as he, Gippal,- actually, only Rikku. Yeah. Rikku, and Gippal. Or was that GippalandRikku.

Shaking his head as if to shake off his thoughts, Gippal nudged Rikku in the side. She shook her head and buried her head further into his neck, her legs wrapping around him, arms tightening. Gippal leaned down and kissed her softly on the crown of her head. Rikku looked up and returned a kiss, pressing her mouth gently over Gippal's own bottom lip. He could feel her smiling against him.

Shifting his weight around, Gippal took her arms and pulled them away from around his neck. Rikku looked at him questioningly. Gippal only grinned in response.

"Blondie, over there," He says seriously, casting a glance over towards the area where music could be heard from, "Wants me to kick his butt."

"What?"

"He wants us to come dance." Gippal pushes Rikku off of his lap and gets up. He picks the scarf up and Rikku along with it, and wraps it around her neck, leaning forwards to kiss her again.

Rikku's eyes widened as she felt his mouth cover hers, and oh, she could taste him, smell him, sweet and soft and musky and absolutely mouth-wateringly gorgeous- Spira, he was so good.

Gippal trailed his tongue over her bottom lip, biting down softly on the lush, candy-pink flesh before he sucked it into his mouth. He moaned as his tongue flickered across her lip, tasting mangoes and strawberries, smelling cinnamon and mint. Rikku closed her eyes and slipped her arms around his neck as she felt him circle her in his arms and continue the embrace, deepening the kiss. A small sigh escaped her lips as she felt his tongue slide past her lips and slide over hers. Electricity shot down her spine and she shuddered forwards into him. It was timeless bliss, perfect, the whole world was shut out around them… Gippal's hands had just started to move down Rikku's back of their own accord until someone interrupted-

"Hey! You two, get a room!" Wakka scowls, sleeping child in his arms.

The two standing next to the fire break apart and turn to stare at the ex-Blitzballer-Guardian, a native of Besaid.

Rikku scowls and fiddles with the belts crossed on Gippal's chest, still gathered in his arms.

"Isn't that what you said to Yunie when Tidus came back?"

Wakka crosses his arms and looks at her.

"That not my point, ya, what I'm saying is-"

"Yes?" Gippal says smoothly.

Wakka made a face in retaliation.

"Yuna's looking for you, ya? Go find her." He said grumpily, and stalked off in search for his wife.

Gippal made a 'tch'-ing noise.

"Just because he's never made out with anyone in his life, I mean, come on,-"

"Gippal, he has a wife."

"Yeah but do you really think Lulu is-"

"You don't want to finish that."

Gippal's eye widened as Lulu walked past, a tiny smile etched upon her face, black hair dazzling with the reflection of light from the fire.

Rikku giggled and took Gippal's hand in her own.

"Wanna go find Yunie? Kick some dancing-Tidus ass," She giggled again and hopped around in circles, dancing a little skip-hop-wiggle. Beads and braids swayed around, and Gippal was momentarily speechless as he stood grinning at the sight of her spinning around, a wide smile on her face.

She stopped spinning. Gippal nodded.

"But we're continuing this later." He bent down and kissed her again. "Promise?"

Nodding, Rikku promised him, locked her pinkie finger and pressed her thumb against Gippal's, and pulled him towards the crowd. Her face was glowing with happiness.

"Pinkie-promise, with cherry-pie, whipped cream, chopped nuts and extra snuggling,"

Oh Spira, baby, they were gonna have fun this night.

Number 7 for livejournal community 10snuggles claim. :) The rest can be found on my lj, if you wanted to read them, but I don't consider them well-written enough to be posted on The theme is snuggling, so there's ALOT of fluff :D Basically it's just a drabble/oneshot challenge where you write about your couple snuggling and all fluff-like. It was fun writing this :3

Review, pretty please, because you've gotten this far?
RC