When the Sun Sleeps

Disclaimer: I don't own Rikku, Yuna or Gippal or the places mentioned. FFX-2 is © Square-Enix

Author's Note: I hope I didn't mangle the characters up too badly. The first chapter was set in past tense, but the chapters that follow will drift between past and present. I wasn't really thinking about what tense I was writing in because some of the scenes require present tense while some occur as memories that the characters had happened upon. Either way, the characters will act and speak as they are, caught in the age that is portrayed.

Thank you to those who cared enough to review, and for those who bothered to read (as I can see from the number of hits)

Chapter Two

Yuna

4

From our height, the smoke from the temple looks like a silken grey scarf, unraveling with the confident breeze. It's a scarf like Lulu's, I decide, the one that has tiny beads here and there that look like little pearls with the moonlight reflected on them.

My thumb twirls around my index finger absently, trying to coil the flexible stem of a small flower around my finger to form a ring. The petals are weak in their softness, pliable and easily torn, but I like the colour -a bright yellow similar to the shade of a quartered mango.

I peer into the basket looped around my wrist -the flower is too small to be added to the collection. I smile and raise my fingers in front of me; this flower will be my own.

Rikku grumbles and digs her nails into the sides of her arms, "It's so cold here. Why did they tell us to pick flowers all the way over here on the farthest hill!"

It was more of a complaint than a question, but I answered her anyway.

"All of the prettiest flowers grow here, and you want the temple to look pretty too, don't you? Especially since all the important people from Bevelle are coming. Everyone's busy with other tasks, so we should work hard as well."

Rikku gave me a doubtful look then snatched a flower from its stem without looking and shoved it into my basket.

"They just wanted to get rid of us," she mutters with some ounce of betrayal.

I watched as she flopped onto the grass and spread her legs in front of her, green eyes looking at the leather straps of her sandals without really seeing them.

Plucking another flower from a tangle of vines, I frowned thoughtfully, "No, they wouldn't do that."

She pouted gloomily and tears away some of the grass by her side without forgiveness -just like Gippal, she doesn't know what to do with her hands when she is at rest. I sat down softly beside her and hugged my legs close to my body, brushing her tangled hair to the side and combing through it with my fingers. When Rikku is angry, she appears to be sad and subdued. She is the greyness of a churning sky before the first rumble of thunder begins a storm.

"Pops has to go to another stupid meeting today. Its because those old men from Bevelle and Bikanel are congre...congregat-" she stumbles over a word that Uncle Cid has fed to her," meeting here at the temple."

Rikku sighs with a true amount of despair and mimics my position, curling into herself.

"He never has time for me anymore."

Her words are muffled against her knees. Rikku won't cry in front of me, she rarely gives in to tears, but she will hide her face anyway; moments later she will brush away her long bangs by herself and practice a smile. I won't insult her by offering these small comforts for her because Rikku is confident and resilient -she wants Uncle Cid to notice this in her, and smile at her with a softened look to his eye while he says, "You remind me so much of your mother". But this won't happen today, so Rikku continues to hide her face, even as I tuck a beautiful flower with no name behind her ear.

"I'm sure Uncle Cid wishes he has more time to spend with you too. He is probably just as sad as you are" I fold my hands together and rest them in my lap.

"I'm not sad, Yuna" she responds swiftly.

A new voice breaks the thin veil of tension: Gippal.

"Hey!"

His voice is breathy, "They need help down at the docks. Come be useful for once."

Both Rikku and I know not to retort because the roughened contours of Gippal's personality balance out the softness of my own and the vibrancy in Rikku's. This is how we fit together.

Gippal tags Rikku's arm and he leaps forward and halts in motion, a challenging look in his eyes.

"Race you down" he indicates the steep slope of the hill with a swift flicker of his eyes.

"Don't be an idiot, I have better things to do than run down a hill."

He makes a non-committal gesture with his hand (clearly not impressed), "Whatever. I'm taking Yuna though."

Gippal tears the basket from my hands and pushes it into Rikku's. In the breadth of a gasp, he has me on his back, my legs held in front of him with his careful grip and my arms looped instinctively around his neck. He tears down the hill and I try not to scream as he weaves around the tangle of underbrush and vines. Gippal laughs when I hide my face in the crook of his neck, trying to curl away from the feeling of air whooshing past me. He likes to push me into his world of recklessness with him.

Rikku is beside us, matching his speed with a terribly concealed grin. Half of the flowers that were previously in the basket are now trailing behind us. Gippal smirks, "Gotta do better than that Cid's little girl".

He grips my legs tighter, "Hold on, little bird", and dashes forward.

This time, I do scream.

Rikku

5

The sun is so hot on my shoulders, arms and legs. It feels like that time, when I was very little -and didn't know any better- and I tried to touch fire. But that was only because it looked sparkly and Pops was roasting palm nuts on it, and how can something like that be bad for you?

I sigh and rub a hand across my forehead. Yuna giggles beside me but I am too tired to ask her why. It'll only be until I get home that I realize that I've been walking around with mud smeared on my cheeks like last time, except it was watermelon juice instead.

Yuna clucks her tongue and pats her thighs and the dog runs up ahead, making the ducks flutter their wings before settling down again.

"I hate chores! They're so..." I pause, try to remember a bigger word for what I'm trying to say, then finish lamely, "boring."

Every single day, Pops makes us take all of the animals to the grove near the forest so that: the ducks can eat the snails (which "damage crops"), the dog can "get some exercise" and the goat can "eat something other than our clothing". That's what Pops says every time I ask him, even though he gets red in the face when I continue to pester him about it, which means 'Stop'. Gippal doesn't know that it means 'stop' though, that's why I'm not allowed to play with him.

Yuna finds a bit of seaweed -still wet- by a patch of grass and tries to tempt the mallard into hurrying forward for it. The slick, green head shimmers in the sun, and the dull, brown lady ducks waddle up a bit. Usually, I like to try to gather the little yellow and brown puff of a duckling in my hands before the mother sees, but its so hot, and doing anything other than dragging the branch I found in a ditch around, making thick lines in the mud as I walk, is not worth it.

The little ducklings stumble over nothing as they try to catch up to their mommies. Something tugs stubbornly at my wrist. I almost forgot about the itchy rope tied around my wrist -and the annoying part is that a goat is attached to the other end. The family goat that Gippal insists on naming 'Rikku' even though it's a boy and 'Mr. Gruffs' is a much better name anyway.

Mr. Gruffs has some of the rope in his mouth, chewing at it and tugging at it when I try to move ahead.

"Yuna!" I yell.

She looks back in between clucking at the ducks and trying not to lose sight of the dog.

"Try feeding him some grass", she offers.

"Grass never helps," I mutter, but she is too busy with the ducks up ahead to hear me.

The goat and I have a staring contest while he chews at the rope -I don't think he likes me very much. I poke his hoof with the stick I've been carrying even though I know that it's a mean thing to do, but it is so hot. Mr. Gruffs doesn't care at all that he's been poked which proves that he could never be named 'Rikku', because I would retaliate if I was poked.

I plop down on the ground beside him, ignoring the squish of soft mud on my legs. I try to tug the rope out of its mouth half-heartedly, and then pout when he doesn't let go.

"I should call you 'Gippal' instead", I mutter.

"Rikku! Hurry up!"

Yuna's voice is distant already.

All of a sudden, I can taste mud because it's all around me, covering me and moving. Gippal tears off from somewhere behind me, and the goat is running for its life, jumping and bleating and pulling me with him.

"Idiot!"

My voice comes out garbled and sputtering, full of mud, even as I run with the goat, spitting as much as I can to get the awful taste out of my mouth. The worst part is that Gippal is laughing as he is running, teasing me between smirks.

I don't like him...at all...well, maybe just a little...but only sometimes.

Even though I fall on my face in the grass when the goat decides to stop suddenly, all I want to do is shove Gippal's face in the mud and sit on top of his back so that he has no choice but to swallow some of it before I get off. But Gippal is already smiling at me in his stupid way, and ruffles my hair as if he's so much older than me. And I already forgive him just a little bit.

"You shouldn't be so clumsy, Cid's little girl."

And the forgiveness is gone in a flash...

Gippal

6

"Where did you get that one?"

Yuna picks up one of the coins that I spilled out of my pouch and onto the floor. She holds it up with two fingers and lets it glint in the sun. I try not to smile too widely when Rikku leans over my shoulder to look at the coin that Yuna's holding.

"I got that one when I went sailing to Kilika. I found it in the old ruins -its gotta be really valuable."

Yuna's eyes glint with amazement at my boasting and Rikku looks bored- she never believes my stories. I watch as she rises; I complain when she walks near my treasures because she still drags her feet when she walks and always manages to kick sand onto me. Her green shorts crinkle when she crouches down and picks up a feather from my pile. She lifts it to her eyes then makes a face, "I bet you got this from a seagull. It's not worth anything, it's not even special."

I snatch the feather from her, "It isn't from a seagull."

I place the feather in Yuna's waiting palm and continue on as if I hadn't been insulted (because, what does Rikku know anyway?).

"That feather came from a Couerl when I went to the Calm Lands. It brings good luck."

Yuna touches the spine of the feather and admires; Rikku rolls her eyes.

"Oh this is pretty. What about this?"

Yuna puts the feather aside and points to a hand-painted card that shimmers when you twist it because it has something that looks like gold foil bordering it in a fancy pattern.

"That's a tarot card," I explain. "When I went to Kilika, there was some old lady in a tent. She could read fortunes and she taught me how too. I can tell you your future," Yuna got really excited then and clasped her hands together in front of her. I closed my eyes and folded my arms over my chest, grinning, "I can tell you your future, if you give me something in return."

"Oh! Um..."

Yuna searches herself for something, and then stops at her hair where a small, white flower rests. She untangles it from her hair and holds it in front of me, "Will this do?"

I take it from her and pretend to examine it, looking for faults.

"It'll do", I say and tuck it into my pocket. I grab her hand and Rikku squawks loudly.

"What?" I smile through my irritation. "It's a palm reading."

I take Yuna's small hand in mine and open her palm so that I can see the soft lines. I trace the one slanting up to her finger and explain, "That's your health line. You'll be very healthy in the future."

Rikku scoffs, but I trace another line, one stretching across her palm to curl around her thumb. "That's your happiness. But look -" I point to where the line fades a little for a long while before it darkens again, "It gets disturbed in this section. Maybe something will happen that makes you sad."

Yuna frowns and makes a small sound. I find another line, one that intersects the previous one, "That's your life line. It's long so you don't have to worry."

There are two other lines criss-crossing together and disappearing halfway to the middle of her palm. I point, "Your love line. Looks like two boys, little bird."

I wiggle my brows at her and she laughs a little, blushing. I touch one of the lines with my finger and trail it down to her wrist because I know she's ticklish and it'll make Rikku jealous.

"Quit fooling around, Gippal." She turns to Yuna, "You don't believe all that nonsense do you?"

Yuna's face shows conflict. I know because sometimes I get caught between the two of them. It's because all of us know that there are bonds that you can stretch a little, and bonds that break right away if you do something wrong.

Rikku huffs and sits down by my other side. She crouches, ready to flee if she has to, and looks at her palm then frowns at me, "I don't want you to read mine."

I shrug and she gets up again.

"I wasn't going to read yours anyway. Not even if you asked nicely."

I frown; she doesn't take the bait.

My hands find something smooth and dry, my fingers knowing that I have picked up the small bone. I hold it up to my eyes so that they can both see it.

"This," I continue proudly, "is a bone from a Sand Worm."

Rikku snatches it out of my hands and puts one hand on her hip, "It looks just like a chicken bone."

I open my mouth to argue back, but she flings it over her shoulder and puts the other hand on her hip, saying, "Besides, Sand Worms don't even have bones."

I run to the direction where she threw it, hoping that it didn't reach the water. When I find it, Rikku is turned to me and Yuna's gaze has also shifted from a shiny pebble in my pile to me, almost agreeing with Rikku without openly saying it.

"How would you know? You haven't even left the island once, Rikku. Besides, I killed it myself with just a stick. Everyone in Bikanel knows about it, just ask them. They even built a statue of me because I was so brave."

Rikku sits down again, eyeing me tiredly. She takes the bone in her hands again, examining it very closely despite her frown.

It isn't really a lie, just a true story that doesn't have much truth to it. I did see a Sand Worm once, and I did go to Bikanel. There was a statue too, of some guy -I forget his name- that if you squint and tilt your head, he kinda looks like me.

Rikku's elbow touches mine when she leans back against the palm tree and Yuna's hair flits against my neck with the breeze.

I'll show them one day, I decide, when there's a sand storm.

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