Back on her nice cool airship Lulu agreed to prepare a light lunch in the tiny kitchen/bar just off the cafe area on the ship. No-one ever felt particularly hungry in the heat of the day, but even so, it was important that Rikku get her vitamins. She had the rest of the fighting to do when she returned to the sands in two hours.
"Hey!" she said, yelping in surprise when she saw an unexpected visitor had made himself at home on HER airship without so much as a by-your-leave-miss-Rikku.
"Who invited you here?" she demanded.
"Nice digs, Cid's Girl," he said, not bothering to answer her question.
He had his arms casually up behind his head staring out the nearby back of windows that looked off the side deck with his feet up on the nearby table and the chair tipped back on its hind legs... acting for all the world like he owned the place.
"No-one gave you permission to be here," Rikku pursued.
"Hey, we're all friends here," Gippal said, waving an arm at her. "You tell Paine to drop by any time she wants."
"You're not Paine," Rikku pointed out. "And I didn't extend the invitation to you."
"Now now, don't be grouchy. I know it's almost time for little Rikku's nap but--"
Rikku internally debated the emotional satisfaction she might derive from kicking the chair legs out from under him and tossing him out over the side of her airship into the harbor below. But then she remembered that Gippal wasn't a very good swimmer, and she wasn't actually out to kill someone that day.
"Don't you have your own airship to infect with your presence?" Rikku said pointedly. "Why are you here messing about on mine? You'd better not have touched anything!"
"Relax," he said. "I can think of parts other than your ship that I'd rather be touching."
He raised an eyebrow suggestively at her. Rikku rolled her eyes at that and posed in her casual manner hip cocked with her arms behind her head, ostentatiously ignoring him.
"Yeah, whatever," she said with off-handed dismissal.
She and Lulu walked behind the counter to the tiny kitchenette/bar just off the lounge and started prepping ingredients for lunch. Lulu set Rikku to chopping up vegetables and meats for kabobs while she started making the sauce.
"You look very domestic Rikku, it's quite fetching actually. The apron's a nice touch," Gipal said smoothly, walking over to the counter and sitting himself down at the bar separating the kitchen from the lounge. He was pouring on the charm.
"You're welcome to come over and cook for me anytime," he added, as if he were conferring a great favor. He tilted his chair back and set his feet up on the nearest flat surface.
"I'd poison your food," she muttered.
"Of course, I'd have to insist you bring that apron... all other clothing is optional."
"Hold it dere, bruddah," Wakka said in a warning tone, rising from where he'd settled himself at a nearby table. Tidus stood up right along with him and said
"Hey Riks,"Tidus called casually. "Want me ta, ya know... take care of this guy?"
He had one hand drifting to where he kept his Crest and the other hand ready to sign out the Sun Sigil into the air, summoning up Caladbolg. One of the advantages of owning a Celestial Weapon was that it was always a part of them. At need it could materialize at thier side with little more than a word and a gesture.
"Don't bother," she said to Tidus. "He's like a cockroach, you think you get rid of him and he pops up in your cereal box."
Undaunted by the protective ire of two legendary Final Guardians, and one kitchen knife wielding Al Bhed hero, Gippal continued with his shameless flirting.
"Relax you two, she's crazy about me," Gippal reassured them both. The two blitzballers exchanged a dubious glance.
"Watch," Gippal said confidently. He called over to Rikku
"Make me a sandwich, woman!"
She turned to Gippal, pointing her very large and scary-looking kitchen knife at him.
"Just remember which of the two of us is slicing and dicing here," she warned him. "Keep it up and you'll wind up on the menu.
Rikku caught the gleam in his eye that said he wasn't going to let that one slide. She could see the "baby, I can be your main course anytime" or something along those lines being born on his lips so she quickly added a menacing
"Or rather, parts of you will be."
"I love it when you talk dirty to me," he replied, grinning unrepentantly.
Rikku made a sound somewhere between a choke and a snarl, gripping the knife in her hand and very obviously gauging the distance between the two of them to see if she could make a throw without hitting her other guests. Lulu very calmly put a restraining hand over Rikku's and said
"Don't."
Rikuu made a frustrated face, and Lulu smiled slightly; it wasn't exactly what you could call a nice smile.
"This is how you do it," she said in a teacherly tone.
She waved a hand in a practiced, almost off-hand, gesture.
BZZZZZT!
There came the cackling roar of electricity singeing the air.
"Yeeoow!" Gippal yelped as the blast from the Thundar spell that Lulu fired off shocked him. He started suddenly at the pain buzzing along his nerves and the chair he was sitting in tipped over and dumped him unceremoniously on the ground.
Yuna was trying to diplomatically hide her symptoms of mirth and Lulu looked merely pleased with herself, but Rikku and Tidus were laughing out loud and Wakka was grinning.
"Ha-ha!" Rikku sing-songed. "Serves you right."
"What are you talking about?" he gasped, trying to quickly recover his aplomb as he climbed to his feet. "That was the sparks of our love."
"I am amazed," Lulu commented dryly.
"At my rapier wit?" Gippal said, digging up a charming grin, with effort.
"That anyone can actually sling out that tripe with a straight face," she corrected.
Rikku started spearing the bits of meat and vegetables for the kabobs as Lulu readied her firaga spell to sear it well. Gippal seemed caught at a loss for once, so Rikku followed up quickly on Lulu's victory by pushing a plate of fresh greens that she'd just diced and mixed with vinegar and oil at him over the counter.
"If you're going to stay and freeload," she said. "At least make yourself useful. Set this on the table."
"Since when am I your servant?" he said, affronted at being made to work during lunch. "Although, if you're looking for a bedroom servant, I'm very well qualified for the position. In fact I know many positions..." He waggled a brow at her.
Lulu paused in the midst of her firaga spell, shocked, and Yuna's jaw dropped.
"That's it," Tidus said, flatly.
He started reaching for his crest; this was defiantely a situation that called for a sword. Gippal was saved by the bell. The ships com-system chirped, announcing that a visitor had arrived.
"I wasn't expecting anyone..." Rikku said, mystified. "I wonder who it is." She ordered the Ghiki to give her a visual and a holo-screen popped out of a comsphere set into a nearby table. It was the veteran she'd fought earlier that day.
"Permission to come aboard!" the slightly rough and raspy voice of Gelnin Steelwind said, into the com.
"Oh! Uh, permission granted," Rikku said.
It escaped no-one's notice that Rikku put a hand absently to her hair to straighten it and checked her apron quickly as she keyed in the codes to unlock the main entrance to the Ghiki.
Yuna and Lulu exchanged a surprised look as Yuna, scandalized, mouthed the words "older man!" behind her hand to Lulu.
"We're about to have lunch in the lounge," she added to Steelwind over the com. "Just follow the maintenence bot."
She tapped in a few more commands, obviously addressed to said bot and then turned back to the meal.
"I thought you said this was a closed meeting between Guardians, to discuss strategy," Gippal said, sounding for all the world like he was put-out by Rikku's casual invitation of a near-stranger to eat lunch with her and her friends.
"At least he asked," Rikku pointed out sharply. "Unlike some people I could mention, who just stoll up in my ship unannounced, Mister Steelwind is a gentleman. He has manners."
"Pfft," Gippal said, making a noise halfway between a grunt and a snort as he rolled his eyes.
manners ain't everything y'know," he grumbled.
"Manners maketh a man," Rikku replied primly, turning back to her food preparation and ignoring him.