(-Author's Notes-)

Okay, This is something different for me. I'm doing this by request and it's a Rikku/Yuna story, of course. However, It's a little different, so read on!

(-Disclaimer, Summary, etc.-)

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Final Fantasy X or X2, nor the characters contained therein! They are property of Square-Enix! I am merely borrowing them for non-profit fanfiction!

SUMMARY: It's no secret to most how Rikku feels about her cousin Yuna. But, When the blonde finally confesses, two years after Yuna's Pilgrimage, she doesn't quite get the reaction she'd prefer. /Poor Summary, I know. But, I did this fic by request for SamuraiZoe/ Pairings mentioned inside.

RATING: T

GENRE: Drama/Romance, I suppose.

LENGTH: 1 Chapter

PAIRINGS: Rikku/Yuna(unrequited at first), Paine/Rikku(unrequited)

WARNINGS: Shoujo-ai/GirlxGirl story! Also, As it was typed by request, it's a bit different to my typical stories.

REQUESTED BY: SamuraiZoe

(-COMPLICATED LOVE-)

(Rikku's POV)

!Flashback/2 Years Ago!

Me and Yunie were alone for the only time during her Pilgrimage, it was during the night before we finally reached Zanarkand. Neither of us could sleep and I had found her staring off toward our destination... where we would hafta say goodbye. I... I wanted to tell her how I felt, why I was so against her sacrificing herself. I wanted to tell her that I'd rather Sin destroy Spira than watch her disappear forever. But, She woulda probably just smiled and told me it would all be alright. And, That's when I realized something for the first time, I was thinking selfishly! It wasn't like I was the only one who loved her or the only one who'd have missed her! Also, She was going to sacrifice herself to protect everyone, because she loved all of Spira.

So, Instead of telling her, I just stood beside her that night and stared with her...

(End Rikku's POV)

Two years later, Rikku and Yuna started the Gullwings along with Rikku's brother (uh) Brother. They had also recruited two more Al Bhed, Buddy and Shinra, as well as a silverhaired Spiran woman with a distant personality, Paine. Despite the girl's personality, She became close friends with Rikku and Yuna. Paine and Rikku, particularly, developed a rather unique friendship that mostly consisted of their opposing personality-types clashing and Rikku losing what Paine called Respect Points.

And that's what brought us to the present where, despite all the cheerfulness and lighthearted pranks going on, Rikku still wanted to tell Yuna how she felt. Although, At that point, The blonde thief was actually afraid of telling the brunette Summoner-turned-gunner. Afterall, How could she tell Yuna, her cousin, that she had fallen in love with her? Rikku had thought long and hard about her feelings over the past two years, besides the fact of them being related, they were also both girls. She asked herself over and over again if she was actually in love with her cousin or if it was just something else, but her heart kept arriving back at the same answer: Rikku was, no-doubt, entirely and honestly in love with Yuna! And, so, she finally decided to tell Yuna how she truly felt.

The next day, Rikku approached Yuna when the two of them were alone in the Celsius' cabin. "Um, Yunie?" She began, causing the brunette to turn toward her.

"Hm? What is it, Rikku?" Queried Yuna in response, blinking her eyes twice as she noticed that the blonde was facing the floor, "Is something wrong?"

"N-no, Nothin's wrong, Yunie." Rikku replied, her gaze still lowered to the floor, afraid to look into the gunner's eyes, "There's, uh... there's just something I, um, wanted to tell you..." She gulped hard, fearing the worst reaction from Yuna, "Th-this'll probably sound really weird," she continued, "but, um, promise me that you won't freak out, okay?"

"You're sounding weird already, Rikku." Yuna said, smiling as she wondered what in the world her cousin was trying to say, "What is it?"

"Promise me, please?"

Yuna sighed a little at that, but accented, "Okay, I promise I won't 'freak out'." She said, "Now, Will you tell me what's up?"

Rikku remained silent for several minutes after that, silently rubbing her right forearm with her left hand nervously. "Um, We're friends, right? I mean, Reeeeally close friends!" She finally said, breaking the silence that had fallen over the cabin, "Right?"

"Huh?" Yuna responded, her head snapping back slightly in surprise, "Of course we're close friends, Rikku. Why?"

"Because..." Rikku tried, faultering at first. ("It's gotta be now!") She mentally told herself. "Because... I love you, Yunie!" She stated, louder than was strictly neccessary as she jerked her head up to look at Yuna. Yuna could clearly see the tears that were already running down her cousin's cheeks as the blonde continued, "And... and, not like I'm s'posed to!" She continued, shaking her head back and forth, "Not like a friend, or family! B-but, I love you l-like girls are s'posed to love 'boys'!"

At that point, Yuna had already begun to back away from her cousin and closer to the steps down to the lower part of the cabin, her hands clutched to her chest. Her miscolored eyes were showing hurt and shock, which Rikku saw all-to-clearly. Thoughts ran through the nineteen-year-old's head, all of which were pushing her closer and closer to the stairs, telling her she had to leave. Without forethought, The gunner's lips moved of their own accord, "I-- You can't!" She said, her voice sharing the same qualities her eyes showed as her heart thundered in her chest, "W-we're both girls! A-and, We're related at that!"

"But, Yunie!--" Rikku stated, but cut herself off as Yuna spun around and rushed down the stairs, her 'ponytail' trailing behind her as she went. This left the blonde standing there, staring after her as even more tears spilled from her green, spiralled eyes.

Downstairs, Yuna rushed toward the cabin's door, her vision beginning to blur with tears of her own. As she neared the door, it opened and she rushed right past Paine who sidestepped the brunette. Paine had come back to the cabin to see what was taking Yuna and Rikku so long, and she barely noticed the tears running down Yuna's face because she had rushed by the female warrior so fast.

"Yuna...?" Paine questioned as she looked back over her shoulder toward the elevator that the gunner had entered just seconds before. After a moment or so, the silverhaired eighteen-year-old heard sobbing coming from upstairs inside the cabin and headed up where she found Rikku, lying on her stomach on one of the three beds with her face buried in a pillow as she continued crying her eyes out. Paine immediately became concerned about the blonde as she approached the bed and seated herself on the edge of it, next to Rikku. The silverhaired female warrior reached out a nervous hand toward the blonde and began to rub small circles on her bared back, to which she barely reacted. "Go ahead and let it out, Rikku." Paine said, comfortingly, "What happened?"

"Y-Yunie... hates me!" Rikku cried out, her voice muffled somewhat by the pillow.

"Don't be ridiculous, Rikku." Paine responded, "I've seen you two together. Not only are you cousins, but you're also best friends!"

"Y-yeah, but--!" Rikku said, stopping as she had to swallow hard, "I... I told her how I really feel about her! Th-that I'm in love with her, but she doesn't feel the same way! N-not only that, but--" She cut herself off as she continued sobbing.

("So... Rikku IS like me, then.") Thought Paine to herself, a slight glimmer of hope reflected in her red eyes. With that, She decided to chance it and gently shook the blonde thief slightly, "Rikku..." She said, which caused the girl to turn her gaze up toward her leather-clad friend.

!S!

Yuna had decided to return to the cabin, ("I'm sure I just misunderstood Rikku.") She thought to her herself upon re-entering the cabin and as she made her way to the stairs, ("I should just talk to her about it to clear everything up!") However, She overheard Paine's voice, though she couldn't quite make out what the warrior had said, and opted to climb the stairs just far enough so she could see what was going on. What she saw, though, shocked her to no end... and her miscolored eyes widened as they witnessed Paine lean in to kiss Rikku's lips. The gunner felt unsure emotions well up inside her at the sight as she felt something akin to betrayal spark in her heart. With that, She quickly turned and, once again, ran as fast as she could out of the cabin. Had Yuna actually looked closely, though, she would have surely seen the surprise in Rikku's green eyes.

As Paine kissed Rikku, Rikku knew it wasn't right and that she only loved Yuna in that way. But, at the same time, She also felt very depressed, not to mention the feeling of rejection by Yuna, and she started to think that the possibility might've existed for her to learn to requit the silverhaired warrior's feelings. With that, The blonde's eyes drifted closed as she started to return the kiss. However, As she did, a single thought ran through her mind that shattered that theory and proved something very important to the blonde thief, and the thought was, ("Yunie...") With that, Rikku's eyes immediately snapped back open as she pushed Paine away, which caused the warrior to reopen her own eyes.

"What's wrong, Rikku?" Paine queried, having been rather sure that the blonde hadn't resisted in the beginning, "Why'd you break away?"

Rikku sat up on the bed and lowered her head until her eyes where shaded by her wild bangs, "... Yunie." She said in response before she turned her teary-eyed gaze toward Paine, "I-I... I only love Yunie... THAT way!" Her sentence was ended, not in a shout, but in a solid statement... one that she was absolutely sure of. "Paine," She added, seeing the hurt in her friends red eyes, "You said you loved me just before kissing me, y'know. So, I... I think you should be able to understand. A-and, besides, if we started something, I would just be lying to you and... and that would hurt you even more, a-and--" She was cut off before she could finish by one of Paine's gloved fingers.

"It's... okay, Rikku." The silverhaired warrior said, forcing a tiny smile of reassurance as she used her fingers to brush some blonde hair behind one of the thief's ears, though Rikku could still see hurt being reflected in the older girl's eyes, "I guess... your heart really DOES belong to Yuna, huh?"

Rikku nodded in response, knowing she was hurting Paine, but the blonde felt that lying to her friend would cause her even more hurt in the full swing of things.

!S!

(Yuna's POV)

I... I couldn't believe it! Rikku... and Paine, they were-- they were... KISSING! Was Rikku just lying when she said she was in love with me? Wait! Why was I so upset? I should've just been happy for them, afterall I wasn't in love with Rikku! But, still, Something about having seen that kiss... caused me to feel something I've never felt before. Could I...?

(End Yuna's POV)

Over the next two weeks, Things changed around the Celsius: Rikku and Yuna barely spoke to each other, Yuna would watch out the corner of her eye as Rikku talked with Paine, and the others were unsure of how to ask what was going on. Yuna still wasn't sure what was happening to her, that small pang of betrayal she'd felt when she saw that kiss was slowly becoming something that more closely resembled jealousy. She missed when Rikku would cheerfully call out to her all of a sudden and she missed talking with Rikku, but most of all, she just missed having the blonde always close. The gunner felt as though she had lost Rikku to Paine, but why would she feel that way? Then, It came to her and she gasped audibly as her miscolored eyes widened.

Later that day, Yuna followed Rikku(who was alone) to the deck of the Celsius and tentatively approached her. She wanted, if nothing else, for things to at least go back to the way the were before the blonde's confession... No, That wasn't all she wanted and she knew it, even though she kept telling herself that. The gunner took a deep, silent breath and steeled herself before speaking, "R-Rikku." She said in an attempt to gain the thief's attention.

Rikku immediately spun around at the sound of her name and locked eyes with the gunner, "Y... Yunie?" She responded, which caused Yuna's heart to beat easier at hearing the blonde call her by that nickname. "What's up?" Rikku asked, smiling.

"Um, I... wanted to ask," Yuna started, nervously, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer as she asked, "Are you-- are you in love with Paine now?"

Rikku's green eyes went wide at hearing that question, but she soon lowered them to half-closed as she glanced off to one side at remembering what happened that day. "Why do you ask that?" She queried, her eyes still averted from the gunner. Yuna was unable to respond, but Rikku didn't really give her the time to, "No." The blonde answered her cousin's earlier question. Yuna pulled her hands up to her chest, cupping one over the other, as Rikku turned away from her, "I... thought I might be able to love her that way, but I--" She stopped herself mid-sentence for a couple seconds before she continued, "but I realized that my heart will always be yours, Yunie." Yuna could already hear the tears in her cousin's voice, "It's yours, whatever you wanna do with it..." Rikku continued, pausing to sniffle twice, "But, I wish... I wish we could at least go back to the way things were before I told ya!" Upon finishing her sentence, Rikku brought her hands up to start wiping away her tears just as she felt Yuna's slender arms encircle her waist before she was pulled back against the gunner.

Yuna laid the side of her head against the back of the thief's with a quite smile, tears forming her miscolored eyes, "I'm happy to hear that, Rikku. I really am, but--" She said, cracking her eyes open slightly, "What if-- What if I said that just back to the way things were isn't good enough for me?"

"Y-Yunie, You--"

"Mm-hm." Yuna responded before the girl could finish her question, "I love you, too." After finishing her sentence, She moved her head around so it was positioned of Rikku's left shoulder as the blonde turned her head as far as she could toward it. And, The two girls pressed their lips together gently just as the elevator's door opened to reveal Paine, who saw the kiss vividly.

At first, Paine felt the same reactions that Yuna had before, but then she noticed the tears of joy running down Rikku's visible cheek and realized just how happy the girl was. Then, The warrior smiled and vowed to herself that she would protect Rikku and Yuna, and their relationship, from anyone or anything.

(-THE END-)

Ramblings: This fic was done by request, but I actually think it came out pretty good myself! Anyway, Feel free to R&R and, if you like it, then send an e-mail or PM to SamuraiZoe as that's who requested this story. Well, I'm out!