Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to FFX-2 or Charlotte Lamb's works.
A/N: This is a Gippal-Rikku romance, based on the Charlotte Lamb novel, 'Obsession'. All feedback is most welcome.
Passion
Chapter One
"Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship."
Oscar Wilde
Rikku was tired. She had a bad cold and had been in bed all weekend. She really didn't want to go to work this morning, she wanted to be tucked up under her duvet, hiding from the miserable weather and the world. Dogs had the right idea, they went away to lick their wounds and only returned to the world when they were whole again.
She was currently walking along the banks of the Moonflow, heading towards Djose Temple. She would catch a hover when she reached the woods, not feeling like walking and having to cull several fiends en route. Also, she had slept in a bit this morning and if she didn't catch the hover she would be late. And that was the last thing she needed.
Since the defeat of Vegnagun, she had been rather at a loose end. The Gullwings had split up, Yuna staying in Besaid with her beloved Tidus, and Paine disappearing somewhere with Nooj. Leblanc certainly hadn't liked that, but there hadn't been much she could do about it.
Rikku had gone to Bikanel with her Father and Brother, as they prepared to rebuild Home, but her mind was elsewhere. When a job offer came in from the Machine Faction, she decided to take it on a trial basis. That had been two years ago, and she was still at the Machine Faction, working as Gippal's secretary.
When she had first arrived, she had been surprised to hear how many secretaries had come and gone before her. Gippal was not a saint, she knew, but deep down she believed he was a pussy cat. Not so, when it came to his precious Faction, it appeared. She'd only been there for twelve hours before she considered walking out. Gippal was a slave driver. He had built his business from the ground up with his bare hands, and it meant everything to him. He had a source of personal energy and drive which few could hope to match, yet he expected everyone to work as hard as he did.
Gradually, over time, Rikku had learned to deal with this side of her old friend she had never seen before. Cool, capable and confident, Rikku ran his office with ease, taking care of the little things and leaving him to concentrate on important matters.
Her first few months on the job had been spent reorganising his office and most of the Faction so that it ran efficiently and effectively. Crossover of procedures and waste during production were eliminated. The Faction was more successful than it ever had been before.
Gippal's temper didn't improve, however, but Rikku was able to cope with it. She learned to laugh at him when he was snapping like an angry couerl. And, he had put her salary up several times so when he really pissed her off, she thought twice about leaving.
She arrived at her desk at nine o'clock on the dot. Putting her bag down and her coat in a nearby cupboard, she picked up the mail and began sorting it. It was only a few seconds later that the door to Gippal's office banged open.
"You're late!" he accused, "I expect to find my letters open and sorted when I arrive and not to have to wait idly for you."
Rikku glanced at the clock, it was still nine. "I'm not late –" she began, but was cut off.
"You are. Get here on time in future. Got your pad? Send a dozen moon lilies to Miss Gemuse, you know the sort."
She did know the sort. That meant Ceara Gemuse was out. How long had she lasted? Three months. Since Lady Yuna Day... Yes, it was Lady Yuna Day, the anniversary of the bringing of the Eternal Calm. There had been a big party; all the important names in Spira were invited to it, in Bevelle. Baralai had been the host, if Rikku had remembered rightly, and Gippal had met Ceara there.
She wasn't a bad sort really, dark hair, tall, sinuous with smoky eyes and rich laughter. His usual type, in fact. Rikku had rather liked her, in fact. She was a tad more intelligent than his other women, and they had got on well together.
Rikku remembered the night they had met particularly, for the very next day, despite it being her day off and that she was sporting a terrific hangover, she had been ordered to send a dozen moon lilies to his previous girlfriend. What had her name been? Rikku couldn't remember. But she had been the same type as Ceara. Yes, three months, that was about usual for one of Gippal's flings.
Rikku thought it was silly, but it was his life to with what he pleased. He was rich, and had made all his money himself. He could afford to buy himself the toys he wanted, and did.
Gippal went back into his office, and Rikku took the chance to contact the florist on the CommSphere installed on her desk. When she placed the order, the florist smiled wryly.
"On her way out, is she?" she chuckled and Rikku nodded.
"Looks like it." She replied.
"The usual card?"
"Yes, just 'Yours, Gippal'."
"That's a laugh."
Just before lunch, Gippal came back into her office with a smile. "There's a party this weekend. Rin's hosting it. Probably wants to show off because he won the contract for placing guard machina on the Mi'ihen Highroad. Don't know how he plans to make a profit on it; with the quote he put forward he'll be losing money. Anyway, you better come. Stick to me and don't drink."
Rikku frowned. She hadn't bargained on having to go to one of those parties this weekend. She had a friend coming to stay with her and didn't feel comfortable leaving her alone while she went off to some awful business do.
The friend was a woman name Lila. She was a cousin of Lulu's and she and Rikku had struck up a bizarre friendship a year into the Calm. Truthfully, she had no idea why she was still friends with Lila, since the woman went out of her way to make sure she outshined Rikku wherever they went, not that Rikku was at all vain, but at times it could be somewhat hurtful. It was all rather subtle, a dig here, a sly comment there, but it all added up to a sort of hidden enmity where Rikku spent most of her time wondering what she was doing with Lila.
She didn't have the heart to tell her to get lost however, so she had been deliberately not keeping in touch with the other woman, hoping she would get the hint and forget her. Unfortunately, Lila was proving to be rather more tenacious than she'd bargained for, and had invited herself to stay this coming weekend. Apparently, Fayth help her, Lila was bored. Rikku foresaw disaster on the horizon if a bored Lila met up with a single and available Gippal.
"I'm afraid I can't come to the party, Gippal. I'm going to be busy."
"Busy? Doing what? Is there a man involved? Really, I had no idea. I thought you were fancy free. Well, bring your man along; he'll have the time of his life. Rin always does these things well." Gippal replied with a smirk and Rikku grit her teeth.
She knew it would be a good party, if you liked that sort of thing. There would be champagne flowing like water, and plenty of food. But she wouldn't have a chance to indulge in any of that if she went. She would be forced to spend the whole evening with Gippal and remember everything which was said, and who to. Gippal would have to drink, to be polite, and maintain the fiction that he and Rin were old friends not in intense and sometimes fierce competition with each other in the machina market.
"It's not a man, it's an old friend. Lila. You know, Lulu's cousin?" she replied with false calm.
"Lila, hmm. Nice name. Looks like Lulu, does she?" He asked with a twinkle of interest in his eyes.
"She's married." Rikku said firmly and Gippal laughed.
"I don't bite. Bring her along; I look forward to meeting her." He declared and then sauntered back to his office as if that decided the whole thing. Rikku sighed. Lila was just the type of exotic brunette that Gippal fancied. And if she were persuaded to embark on one of Gippal's three-monthly jags, just to be dumped afterwards when he had tired of her, Rikku would never hear the end of it. It would of course, be all her fault. Of that she had no doubt.
No, she decided. There was no way she was letting Gippal or Lila come within a mile of each other.
Lunch time arrived and Gippal's younger brother, Cyvan came into her office.
"Ready for some lunch, Rikku? I thought we might try that new place on the North Bank." He offered with a warm smile, and Rikku grinned right back.
Cyvan had been on her Pops' airship when they fought Sin. He was one of the engineers which helped repair it, and basically kept it in the sky. He had been doing his own thing after the victory, until Gippal found him and herded him along with him to the Machine Faction. Cyvan was easy going, and when his brother told him he needed someone to train new engineers, Cyvan had agreed affably.
He was a sweet guy, but sadly lacking in that special something, that indefinable charisma which made Gippal so magnetic to other people. Rikku liked him though, and had built a solid friendship with him in the time she had spent at the Faction.
Though her family and theirs had been close, Rikku hadn't seen much of Cyvan when they all lived at Home. Even then he had been knocking about the machina workrooms, instead of running around outside with his older brother and her.
Rikku locked away the papers she had been working on and retrieved her money and jacket.
"We going to get a hover? It's a bit of a trek from here." She asked and he nodded.
"Hey, if you're good, I'll even let you ride the Shoopuff." Cyvan replied, and Rikku laughed.
"Heard about the party this weekend at Rin's?" Cyvan asked as they were finishing their desert, and Rikku grimaced.
"Gippal mentioned it." She replied and he smiled ruefully.
"You going for fun, or as Gippal's memory bank?" He asked, knowing his brother only too well.
"His memory bank." She answered with a scowl.
"You don't like him much, do you?" Cyvan said, with an unreadable look. Rikku sat back and frowned.
"Not particularly. I have nothing against him per se, but the days of us being best friends are well over."
"It's funny. Most women just throw themselves at him. He has trouble fighting them off."
"Not me." Rikku said firmly. "Whatever charm he has, he doesn't waste it on me, or any of the other girls who work there. Ask Magdalena if she fancies him." She said, mentioning Cyvan's assistant, a sweet girl, who got on with everyone.
"Maggie's terrified of him, I know." He said, sounding preoccupied.
"I've made a promise to myself. The day I leave I'll tell your brother what I really think of him."
"And what might that be? Do tell Rikku, after all, we're old friends." A voice interrupted them, and they both looked up to see Gippal standing over their table with a dangerous look in his eyes. Not one to be intimidated easily, especially by a man who, as a little boy, used to dance naked in her parent's garden, Rikku got up out of her chair.
"I'll tell you the day I leave." She replied nonchalantly, and Cyvan jumped up to pay the bill. Taking Rikku's arm, he guided her out of the restaurant, neither of them looking back to the figure watching them closely, his eyes on their linked arms.
