A Line in the Sand


Author's Note: Without actually saying the name, I'm sure you all figured out who received an eyeful of this little scene. But now, it's time for you to decide how the story ends. What feels more right? What ending would make you most happy? Still in the present, loves. And one more chapter, maybe two, after this!


She Is


There was a certain, uncomfortable silence that had settled over the pair. He'd apologized and she'd assured him that there was no need for such reassurances. He'd insisted and she'd been too stubborn to ease her protests to kind acceptance. Baralai had wanted to apologize; he'd wanted to shoulder all of the blame himself. The last thing that he had ever wished to do was to make Rikku feel guilty, as though some part of their situation was somehow her fault. And, regardless of how many times she had so patiently and softly insisted that their union had been something she, as well, had desired, Baralai could not hear her answers.

His hand remained on top of hers and he found himself wishing that the drink the waiter had brought him was stronger, that it had been larger. Baralai wished that he'd ordered the shot, rather than the watered down version that had so seemed to suit Rikku.

He wondered for a moment why that drink seemed so familiar to him; why it seemed that he'd been taught, sometime long ago, to favor that drink himself. But he wasn't going to ask her. He was quite certain that she was content to the heavy silence that filled them and he wasn't willing to upset her further. She could be quite a spitfire when angered and Baralai wasn't certain he wanted anything more than her attention for the time being.

Rikku, on the other hand, seemed to have let her gaze focus, once again, on the horizon. The breeze had returned, blowing long strands of her golden hair into her eyes, and she was grateful for the excuse to remove her hand from Baralai's and fix her loose hair back away from her eyes, once again. He might have spoken to her then, but before he'd had time to formulate a coherent thought about what he might like to say to her, Baralai was interrupted by the return of their waiter.

The man had returned to the table, perhaps a bit anxious to bring them their food and free the space that they were occupying for another lunchtime occupant. Or pair of occupants. Either way it hadn't mattered, his voice was only kindness, though there was a bit of irritation laced somewhere underneath it all, when he asked, "A refill for you and the lady?"

"Yes."

Rikku had answered a bit more quickly than she should have, but her head wasn't spinning, yet. At least, not as fast as she would have liked for it to be and, even though she wasn't upset with him and he not upset with her, she wasn't above letting alcohol calm her nerves and return her to some blissful state of normalcy.

"Indeed," Baralai offered the waiter a smile. "As the lady wishes."

"Forgive me," he paused, studying the remainder of liquid in their glasses. But it was just the remains of less-than-solid ice that lined the bottom of the glasses. "But what were you having?"

"Scotch and water."

Feeling her breath catch in the back of her throat at the painfully familiar male voice, she was almost afraid to turn around and see who its owner was. But she hadn't needed to, as soon as she'd heard that slow and drawling tone, she'd known. Her heart was racing, electric sparks shooting through her body at being so close to him after so long.

"Gippal," it was a whisper and, when she turned around she was met by a fire and ice glare that Rikku knew only he was capable of producing.

He was standing slightly behind the waiter and, because neither of the table's occupants had had their attentions focused on anything but the uncomfortable silence that had settled over them, neither one had noticed the other man approaching from the entrance to the courtyard. His voice had been as much of a surprise to the waiter, however, as it had been to both Rikku and Baralai.

"I-is that right?" the waiter managed to stammer, looking from Baralai to Rikku. He turned to look at Gippal, feeling a bit squeamish by the terrible looking glare he had focused on the lovely young lady seated at the table, and he wondered if he should just leave and come back later or if they were going to be offended by a certain lack of alcohol if he went away so soon. He was silently praying for something, anything that could tell him what to do.

Finally, Baralai managed, "Yes, please. One for each of us."

His eyes were trained on Gippal, who had looked at him for the first time and, as quickly as the waiter left, the Al Bhed pulled his chair away from the table but didn't take his seat. With his forearm resting on the glass table top, Baralai noticed for the first time that Gippal's fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles were turning white.

"G-Gippal, I-"

"You know, I never would have thought I'd find you here, honey," he cut Rikku off, taking a step towards her. His voice was full of a biting sarcasm that shamed Rikku enough to cause her gaze to fix on the floor. He grabbed her by the shoulder, his voice slightly rough, "Five whole months and I don't even get a hug?"

"Gippal, I really must insist-"

"Sit down, Baralai."

But the Praetor didn't sit down. Instead, he placed a hand on Gippal's shoulder and attempted to pull him away from Rikku. The look in her eyes showed him that she was upset and, after already upsetting her as much as he had, Baralai wouldn't stand to let someone, anyone, else hurt her. He had some making up to do with her and he hoped that removing Gippal's grasp might be enough of a start.

Gippal shrugged off Baralai's grasp and turned his attention to him. His voice was low, so that he didn't draw much more attention, but it was still so near a growl that Rikku felt chills rush down her spine, "I have a lot I could say to you, right now, Baralai; but I remember promising Spira peace between our groups. So for now, I'll hold my tongue."

"What could you possibly have to say to me?" the confused praetor took a step forward, glaring at the slightly taller man.

"I could tell you how your girl came on to me," Gippal said nonchalantly, a rather bitter smirk on his face as his arms crossed over his chest. "She was practically begging for it."

Baralai was clearly fighting to hold his temper in check. One hand had clenched to a fist at his side and his jaw was set in a painfully straight line. Before he could speak or act, however, he was interrupted by Rikku's voice.

"How dare you?" Her voice was a low growl, something so uncharacteristic and unexpected that it caused both men to freeze. She rushed from her chair to stand between the two men. Her eyes were trained to the ground, back to Baralai, and fists clenched tightly at her sides. She was standing in front of Gippal but all he could see was the top of her golden hair, piled atop her head.

He felt his breath catch in his throat and his eyebrows furrowed, "Rikku I-"

"Stop!" she snapped, her green eyes finally looking up to meet his one good eye. Then her voice softened and the tears began forming in her eyes, "Just stop, okay?"

Gippal fell silent, his mouth agape as he stared down at her. He tried again, "Rikku…"

"I think you should go," her voice was level, though Gippal was sure that he'd never seen her so angry at anything in his entire life. He'd pissed her off before, sure – even caused her a few tears along the way – but he had never heard her voice so emotionless or seen her green eyes so full of fire.

"And miss this opportunity for a drink with old friends?" he fired back, sarcasm seething through his words.

"This isn't that opportunity, Gippal," she took a step backwards to stand next to Baralai, her features softening back to sunshine as she offered him a weak but reassuring smile. He put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You wanna bet, sweetheart?" he grabbed her arm, pulling her towards him and away from Baralai so that her face was close to his. But he wasn't rough with her as his anger might have made sense for him to be. Instead, as he looked down into her soft features, he could feel his anger subside, give way to sadness and that damnable pain that he'd known while watching them on their afternoon rendezvous from across the street a few moments before.

Rikku was his girl.

He'd been afraid of commitment, sure, but he'd known the instant that she'd walked out of that hotel room door that he wasn't going to be alright without her. Gippal had spent all of three days trying to find her, trying to be sure that she was alright somewhere, even if it wasn't with him. He'd wanted to bring her back to Djose. He'd been ready to start making right of the wrong he'd caused when he'd seen her tears. But she'd run away and he'd been far too stunned to go after her immediately.

Maybe he'd had a bit too much to drink on that fateful trip to Luca when he'd run into Paine again. And, yeah, maybe he'd been a bit homesick for Rikku after a few weeks away to actually think about the fact that the lovely warrior he'd known from his days in the Crimson Squad wasn't the woman he was in love with.

But he wanted to make right of the situation.

He'd been carrying around an engagement ring for damned near a year now. It had taken him almost a year before that to even buy the damned thing, then he'd held it, waiting for that night when he'd planned to tell her everything. How was he supposed to know that pair of dark black panties he'd smuggled along for the trip to Luca didn't belong to Rikku? And, though he'd told her on that night that he wanted to confess everything, tell her everything, Gippal was too afraid of what her reaction might be to his unfaithfulness; he'd ruined everything between them.

Would it mean anything to Rikku to know that he hadn't brought another woman back to Djose since she'd left; that he hadn't even been able to bring himself to look at another woman? Would she like to know that her things were still in their drawers, next to his things, mixed together in the room that they'd shared? Would it appease her to know that he'd said goodbye to Paine the moment he'd gotten off of the Commsphere with Baralai? Would it help things if he pulled out that damn ring right now to show her? Because Gippal had it; he carried it with him everywhere.

It was a reminder of the mistake that he had made and a prompt to hurry up with his apology to her already.

"No, Gippal," she frowned, pulling away from his grip. "I'm serious."

"So am I, Rikku. I've waited to see you for five months," he barely breathed, his lovely sea green eye completely empty as he looked down at her, reaching out towards where she was standing, slightly away from both himself and Baralai. "I've wanted to apologize to you for so long and this is what I find?"

Baralai, utterly shocked by this declaration, felt his eyes narrow just slightly at the Al Bhed man in front of him. Hadn't he already hurt Rikku enough? Hadn't that night been enough? His voice was low, aware that this interaction had begun to draw more than a few wandering glances, "Enough, Gippal!"

"I wasn't talking to you," he snapped back, returning his attention to Rikku and taking her hand in his. He inspected her palm for a moment, taking a deep breath, and then dropped a small white box into her hand.

She looked up at him in open surprise.

The box he'd left in her hand was small and white, wrapped in bright yellow ribbon, her favorite colors together. Tugging gently at the bow on top of the box, she watched the ribbon fall to the ground, noticing by the deep creases in its silky composition that the bow had been tied for quite a while. Quite a long while.

Baralai watched curiously as the ribbon floated to the ground, caught for a moment in the breeze, before it landed, forgotten, at her feet. He bent down to pick it up, wanting nothing more than to let her have this moment with Gippal. He and the other Al Bhed man had held this secret in confidence for many months; it was only fair that she now know for herself what he'd really had planned for her on the night everything had fallen apart around her.

With trembling fingers, Rikku lifted the small white lid of the box and felt the tears welling up in her eyes, betraying her completely by falling down her bronzed cheeks. Her green eyes scanned the object inside for a moment before she opened the box into the sunlight, admiring the way the small diamond shimmered in the afternoon sunlight against its platinum band. The box felt so heavy as she held it and her hand went to cover her mouth, stifling a sob as she fought against herself for control of her emotions.

She was barely aware of her next action; her heart was pounding so rapidly in her chest…