Disclaimer apparently I do not legally own any Final Fantasy characters, despite the fact I own two of the games (FFX and FFX-2). Sigh Places, names and Gippal's eye-patch are not my property.
The Truth behind the Eye-Patch
Rikku had been knee-deep in work all morning long. Nhadala's team had made a huge find in the Central Expanse only a few days ago and parts had been being shipped to Djose non-stop ever since. When her stomach started growling and refused to stop, she knew she had to take a break. Wiping her hands on her work pants, she got up and made her way to the food tent.
There were not many Al Bhed present at the time, it was rather late in the day and it was likely that the others had already taken their breaks. There were however, three females seated at a table near the cafeteria line. As Rikku picked up a tray, the girls spared her a quick glance before continuing with their conversation.
'Must be new' she thought seeing as how she did not recognize anyone from the group. Rikku balanced on the tip of her toes to look at the food on display, but there was not very much to choose from.
"Dra kio ec ypcumidamo kunkauic!" she heard from one of the girls behind her. (The guy is absolutely gorgeous!)
'Definitely new' she realized. The regular Al Bhed who worked at Djose only cared about one thing and that was Machina. Otherwise, they did not last long with the Machine Faction. They just did not have the work ethic or they got bored and left.
"Sue, teth'd E caa oui dymgehk du res aynmean dutyo?" one of them teased the other. (Sue, didn't I see you talking to him earlier today?)
"Oui dymgat du Gippal?!" (You talked to Gippal?!)
The name peaked Rikku's interest and she stopped in front of the green jelly-like substance to listen in on the conversation.
"Famm, ra tet lusa ujan du caa fryd E fyc piemtehk"one of the girls stated, and you could hear the excitement in her voice as she continued, "ra dumt sa E fyc tuehk y 'knayd zup' yht du 'gaab ed ib'!" (Well, he did come over to see what I was building, he told me I was doing a 'great job' and to 'keep it up'!)
'Oh pa-lease' Rikku thought 'of course he told you that. That's why he's in charge because he knows how to motivate people!' Then with a brief pause in thought, she added 'not that he doesn't flirt un-necessarily at times…'
"E drehg E fuimt ryja samdat nekrd uh dra cbud! Ajanodrehk ypuid dryd kio ec caqo!" (I think I would have melted right on the spot! Everything about that guy is sexy!)
"Rec ryen." (His hair.)
"Rec fymg." (His walk.)
"Rec aoa-bydlr." All of the girls cooed collectively at the last one. (His eye-patch.)
"Ur oayr, ra'c kud dryd dudym pyt puo esyka drehk kuehk uh." (Oh yeah, he's got that total bad boy image thing going on.)
'Oh Brother' thought Rikku.
"Ruf tu oui drehg ra kud ed?" (How do you think he got it?)
"Tuehk cusadrehk ranuel E's cina." (Doing something heroic I'm sure.)
'HA!' She could not help but laugh a little. 'Something heroic like cowering away from a fight with Vegnagun while I went and took care of it!?' Okay, so maybe she was not being completely fair. He HAD been injured but she was just so tired of everyone being deemed a hero except for her! How many times did a girl have to save the world before she got a little recognition?
"E raynt ra'c ryt ed cehla lremtruut. Ra sicd ryja paah naymmo ouihk frah ed rybbahat." (I heard he's had it since childhood. He must have been really young when it happened.)
"Ra sicd ryja paah jano pnyja." (He must have been very brave.)
'Or you know, incredibly childish!'
"Syopa oui luimt ycg res Sue." (Maybe you could ask him Sue.)
"Ycg res fryd?" (Ask him what?)
"Ruf ra kud ed." (How he got it.)
"E rayn ra tuach'd mega du dymg ypuid ed." (I hear he doesn't like to talk about it.)
'With good reason.' Rikku thought. The girls continued to come up with some rather amazing stories on how Gippal may have acquired his eye-patch when Rikku decided to put an end to it.
Walking over and placing her tray down at their table, Rikku started to talk. "Hello girls. I think there's something you should know about Gippal…"
-LATER-
"I ran into some members of your fan-club today." Rikku informed Gippal as she climbed into the bed beside him.
"Oh really?" the leader of the Machine Faction asked with a knowing smile on his face.
"Yes, really." she said, pulling the covers up over her.
"And were they thinking dirty thoughts?" he asked the AlBhed girl beside him while twirling a braid of her hair in between his fingers.
"Don't flatter yourself." she told him, slapping his hand away, causing a tug on her hair. "Owie!" She cried and waited for him to let go of her hair before hitting him playfully again. "You big meanie!"
"I didn't do anything!" he exclaimed, hands raised in the air before he proceeded to fold them behind his head. "So seriously, what did they have to say about the 'Great Gippal'?"
"The usual. How you're full of your self and smell funny."
"Hey!"
"If you MUST know, they spent most of their time discussing how you ended up with that eye-patch…"
"Yep, chicks LOVE a little mystery."
"…And once I had had enough, I walked over and set them straight."
"You didn't…"
"I didn't what? Tell them you bought that thing at a costume store when you were eight years old and have refused to take it off ever since?" She smirked at Gippal and enjoyed the look of horror on his face. Then, lifting his eye-patch and looking into his beautiful swirling eyes she said; "No Gippy, I just informed them that you were taken. And that if they wanted to get to you, they'd have to go through the Al Bhed that defeated Sin and personally kicked Vegnagun butt."
He smiled a beautiful and generous smile before placing a kiss to her lips. "Thanks babe."
"Yeah, yeah. Your secret's safe with me," she told him, turning off the bedside lamp before adding "for now."
The End.
A/N: Well that was it, my first FF fic. I will not ask you to be kind, but I do ask you to be honest! I always listen to what reviewers have to say and am willing to go back and make improvements.
Also, let me know how you felt about the translations. I originally wrote the whole thing in English and did not have anyone talking Al Bhed but I could not decide what was better. I felt like I was cheating if I made the workers speak English because very few Al Bhed did in the game. So if this needs to be replaced, I can do that too. Thanks!