Rikku stretched as she emerged from her quarters aboard the Celsius and headed sleepily toward the communal area rubbing her eyes. As soon as she entered, Barkeep greeted her a warm smile.

"Good morning Mish Rikku – did you shleep well?"

"I've had better, but thanks for asking…" She sighed leaning on the bar.

"Ahhh, then I hash jusht the thing Mish Rikku – Hypello tonic poshion – helpsh shleep. I'll leabe shome in your quartersh for tonight yesh?"

"That would be great!" Rikku smiled at the friendly creature and looked around standing on her tip toes to look to the upper level. "Hey, where is everyone?"

"Mish Yuna shaid shomething about a meetingsh?"

"A meeting? With who?"

"I'm afraid I'm not shertain Mish Rikku."

"Where are we?"

"Djoshe Mish Rikku."

"Oh…" She replied distantly, realisation suddenly hitting home. "Oh no!" She gasped, her face dropping at about the same speed that her heart sank into her boots. "Did anyone ask for me?"

"No Mish Rikku." The Hypello shook his head.

"Right, well – if anyone asks, you've not seen me, okay?"

"Of coursh Mish Rikku!" He bowed his head slightly as she hurried toward to the sliding door. As the door opened, Rikku came face to chest with an all too familiar cerise and lilac uniform and an involuntary gasp escaped. Cringing, she slowly looked up to see Gippal leaning nonchalantly against the wall playing absently with the cuff of one sleeve.

"Hey Cid's girl," He smiled looking down at her and shifting his position to fold both arms over his chest. "You're running away!"

"I am not!" She denied quickly without thinking of an excuse.

"So where are you off to in such a hurry?"

"I'm… doing an errand! Yeah, that's it! Barkeep asked me to go inland and pick up some supplies from the store by the Moonflow."

"The Moonflow, huh?" He chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Rikku demanded crossing her arms defensively across her chest.

"You are!" He replied with a smile. "Tell me kiddo, do you actually know where we are?"

"Duh, of course! We're at Djose!" She said in a sing-song voice."That's why you're on board annoying me!" She rolled her eyes.

"Uh-huh, that's what I thought…" He sighed. "We're in Besaid kiddo."

"Huh?" Rikku looked up at him. "But Barkeep…"

"All a plan I'm afraid. I put him up to it!"

"But… I don't understand!" Rikku furrowed her brow.

"Well y'see I had this sneaky suspicion that you were trying to avoid me…" He looked at her with a slight smile. "Sooo, I thought I'd put this little test together to prove it one way or another."

"Lemme guess – I failed, right?" Rikku cringed.

"Yeah, pretty much!" He nodded. "Thanks Barkeep." He nodded to the hiding Hypello.

"No probablem Shir… I am shorry Mish Rikku!"

"We'll have words later!" Rikku smiled at him. "I won't forget!" The Hypello gave her a warm smile and nodded.

"C'mon kiddo, how's about we go get your 'supplies' and take a walk on the beech?" Gippal nodded to the doorway. Rikku's shoulders slumped in defeat as she slowly followed him down to the cargo door.

The Celsius was docked in the low tide of Besaid beech, the ramp leading straight into ankle deep water.

"So, one thing I don't understand…" Gippal began as they headed down the ramp. Rikku looked up, eye's wide at the sudden break in the silence.

"What's that?" She asked anxiously.

"Why are you avoiding me? Did I do something to annoy you more than usual?"

Rikku paused, taking the first step from the familiar metal of the Celsius into the warm, relaxing waters surrounding Besaid Island where, almost a year earlier, Yuna and Tidus had shared their romantic reunion.

"I haven't been avoiding you!" She replied simply as they splashed through the water onto the wet sand leaving a fresh trail of footprints up the beech. Looking around she could see several other trails mingling together and heading up toward the village trail.

"Okay, sure…" Gippal snorted mockingly.

"I wasn't!" She protested. "I just … haven't been actively seeking you out!" She shrugged with a smile.

"Uh-huh, and the excuse for your absence the last three times your ship mates visited Djose temple is…?"

"Would you believe supplies for Barkeep?" She grinned sheepishly.

"No." He replied flatly, following as she headed up toward the little secluded cove to the right of the village trail.. "C'mon, tell me the truth, it's driving me crazy!" He continued.

Rikku stopped and turned sharply, anger clear on her face.

"Driving you crazy?" She said forcefully causing Gippal to stop abruptly and lean back slightly. "I'll tell you what's wrong, I am so tired of being happy little Rikku ... nothing bothers her. I'm tired of pretending that everything is okay. It's not okay!" She said, her hands balled up tightly. "For the past year my hormones have been doing a real number on me! I can't concentrate on anything since…" She stopped abruptly. Gippal watched silently as she cleared her throat and turned away. "Where is everyone anyway?"

"Well Yuna is in a meeting of sorts, that wasn't entirely a lie. She and Tidus headed up to see Lulu, Wakka and the baby. Your Old Man's here too, barkin' orders at Brother and Buddy. Paine went with them to try and calm him down, or stop Brother from offing him!"

"I should go see what's up…" Rikku nodded, turning to leave.

"Whoa, hold it right there Missy, we're not done here." Gippal frowned planting a hand on her shoulder.

"Awww, there more?" Rikku moaned.

"Too right there's more! For a start you can carry on with whatever you were saying before you stopped yourself. You say you're tired of pretending - I'm listening what's with you?"

"Nothing!" She huffed, realising how much like Paine she sounded.

"Okay, go ahead – I'll just go wait on the ship while you explain to your Old Man why you keep avoiding me." He shrugged, sitting down and laying back in the sand, arms behind his head. Rikku frowned and glanced back at the trail of footprints, including her Fathers, and shuddered.

"I guess you are the lesser of two evils."

"Thanks." He smiled slightly propping himself up on his elbows and watching her.

"It wasn't a complement!" She snorted.

"So… you were saying…?"

"Lets just say things haven't been great, can't you make do with that?"

"No!"

"Damn it Gippal, what do you want from me? Haven't you taken enough already?" She snapped, instantly regretting it. She clamped her hand over her mouth and turned away from the hurt in his expression. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that…" She sighed crouching down and hugging her knees.

"W…" Gippal began sitting up fully and watching her face. "What did I do?" He asked, stunned. Rikku looked at him, bit her lip and squeezed her eyes closed against the sting of tears.

"You… left me…" She managed, a single tear running down her cheek as she dropped onto her knees. The horror on Gippal's face was instant and it made her want to cry all the more but she restrained herself.

These were unhappy memories she didn't relish bringing up and with them brought back the fear which had partly prevented her from heading to the Farplane in Guadosalam with Yuna and the rest of the party 3 years ago. The all too great possibility that he might appear before her terrified her more than even she thought possible.

"I… I'm sorry!" Gippal replied quietly. "I really am so, so sorry… I never…" He scrambled toward her, reaching out. "You know I had no choice!"

"Of course you had a choice! There's always a choice!" She shook her head sadly, her tone still sharp and annoyed. "I really thought my heart would break, it hurt so much!" She continued, tears flowing freely now. Gippal still looked utterly ashamed of himself.

"And then…" She continued. "After leaving home and escaping on the Fahrenheit, I finally find out that you're alive and then you vanish again and I hear from Pops that you're running the Machine Faction!"

"Don't you get it?" Gippal managed finally, gently cupping her cheek with his hand and wiping her tears away with his thumb. Rikku moved slightly towards his touch. "I did it for you!" He said softly. "I did it all for you. I left to fight to protect you, the thought that I might never see you again almost destroyed me!"

"Then why didn't you come back?" She sobbed quietly.

"I did, I swear it! It took me forever but I finally hunted down Cid's Airship and you were gone! Cid said something about Yuna's pilgrimage and that I shouldn't interfere. It wasn't long after that when we decided to take the Djose temple as the base for the Machine Faction. I thought if I was in one place you'd have more chance of finding me. Then of course I was 'nominated' to be the leader and with thanks to your Father's input , there wasn't much choice about it. After that I found out as much as I could about how and where you were from Cid and anyone else that knew."

"Pops never told me any of that!" She sniffed, smiling slightly. "He just told me that you were the leader of the Machine Faction and that you were far to busy to be worrying about me."

"You're trusting everything on what came from your Old Man?" Gippal laughed softly.

"Yeah, pretty dumb huh?" She smiled. "We're both a totally lost cause, aren't we?" She blurted out a laugh and a sob simultaneously. He smiled at her tenderly.

"You know, I never stopped thinking about you. Through any of it! Through the war, through your pilgrimage with Yuna, the battle with Vegnagun…" He said solemnly.

"Me too." She nodded. "So…" She sniffed again but continued smiling. "what's with the eye patch? Is it actually needed or are you playing up the sympathy from the ladies?"

Gippal chuckled. "Yeah it's needed." He nodded. "I was stood a little too close to a very big explosion and got hit by flying debris. The rest of me healed but this never did." He gestured to his eye.

"May I see?" She asked cautiously. He nodded and allowed her to reach out and remove the eye patch. He squinted slightly at the dramatic change in light and blinked slowly.

"Can you see?" She asked curiously, studying it and waving to his extreme right. He smiled and nodded.

"It was damaged but not lost. I can see shapes and colours, but not much detail. Kinda like looking through a cloud…"

Rikku looked into the silvery-blue of his eyes, one now slightly foggy with a slight scar visible across the lid. Gently, she ran her thumb beneath his eye, her hand resting cautiously on his temple. They sat, frozen for a brief moment until Gippal made a sudden move toward her.

"Ay, Rikku! Where ya been at? C'mon, Lu's been askin' for ya!" Wakka's loud and unmistakable voice assaulted their tender moment as they both looked up. "He-he, oops, sor-ry!" He added as he looked down from the small cliff overhead.