Warning, some adult content ahead.

Her fingertips trembled on his skin as he slid his rough work-callused hands over her body. His touch, smooth and rough and warm, seemed to burn and rasp along her already sensitized skin. Her hands ran up his chest, over his shoulders and down the skin of his back as her eyes fluttered shut in pleasure. She felt his breath hot over her ear whispering things she couldn't understand but seemed to know all the same. His mouth claimed her body and she moved, writhing in pleasure from his tough as her core tightened with need. Her breath stolen from her chest by his lips and taken inside of him, belonging to him, just like her body felt like it belonged to his touch as he explored it fully. His hands and lips and teeth were everywhere and it was like drowning in the sea; no matter how she writhed, how she clung she couldn't find purchase in herself, couldn't breathe, couldn't think. But it was hot and harsh and felt so good! The moans and noises of need and urgency she heard in her ears she vaguely recognized as hers, and there was his soft encouragement as she clung pulling him closer while he filled her again and again until it was too much for her to bear and--

"Urrrg!" she muttered gasping for breath and sitting up in her bed. Her whole body was alive and humming with need, her breath coming in short gasps, her face flushed, the flesh of her center swollen and hypersensitive.

:Damn!: she thought in frustration.

She couldn't get away from him even in her sleep, and Rikku thought she'd rather die (or have to listen to Seymore sing Bevellian Opera which might be nominally worse than death) before she'd ever admit to having those sorts of dreams about him to the subject of them. A small part of her noted, and thought it might be important that, while she enjoyed Steelwind's company, it hadn't been the famous hero she'd been dreaming about making the beast with two backs with.

She moved to get out of bed, but it was more like an languorous stretch and every part of her was still tight with need and hunger. When her hand accidentally brushed across her stomach, shivers of arousal puckered over her skin and her body tightened even more.

There was no way she could fight like this.

:Guess I'll have to take care of this first,: she thought with resignation as she plucked up a towel hanging nearby and departed to the ensuite shower.

She closed her eyes and let the flow of water and the fanstasy take her, until she exploded into little bursts of silent gasping pleasure.

She washed up, feeling more relaxed, and banished the last of the dream with thoughts of the fights ahead of her. She was not going to blush or feel awkward around that guy just because of her hormones and some stupid dream. No way. She was Rikku after all. Besides, it would only feed that ego of his and the thing was already quite large enough as it was. Almost as large as she'd imagined his--

:No! Bad thoughts!: she scolded herself.

She really needed a boyfriend... or a new machina to build, a new machina would be nice. But nevermind that now, she had some tail to kick.

* * *

The sands were significantly warmer now, past the heat of midday. The young man facing her across from the sands of the fighting circle looked young. He still had that wet-behind-the-ears, untested-in-battle look to him. He was trying to hide his nervousness by running small practice manuvers (punches, blocks, dodges) but it looked to her like he was trying to remember what he was supposed to be doing with himself. Had she ever once been like that, where she didn't know quite what she was going to do, or what came next in a fight? Rikku sighed a little to herself, was she getting old?

:No way!: she admonished herself.

No she wasn't getting old, and in no way was she ready to settle down and start thinking about kids; she still had so much adventuring to do, so many parties to liven up, so many feinds to hunt, so much treasure to find...

:I'm too young for kids!: she thought desperately.

Which was another reason why she had to win this thing, to put her pops in his place firmly on the sidelines in her life; the nerve of him anyway! He barely has time for her and Brother when they're kids but now that she's all grown up he thinks he can just start treating her like a kid! Well, Rikku had plans of her own already and they didn't include settling down at Home.

"Next round, Rikku and Adjed! Fight!" her father called, presiding over the match.

:Another mechanic,: she judged.

Rikku powered up a Mug, stealing his three icegems and taking him out of the picture at the same time. He fell to the ground like a rock when she darted past his side, deftly picking his pockets in the process, and spun, dance-like, around his back, nailing him with a soft blow to the back of the head and returning to her starting position.

"Rikku wins!" Cid said, starting to sound a little frustrated. Well good, it served him right.

Another young man took the place of the last after Adjed was carted of the sands by two medics with a stretcher between them.

"Next round, Rikku and Korlath; fight!"

Unlike the last several that Rikku had fought, this one looked like he knew what he was doing. In fact, she thought that she recognized him... yeah, he was an Al Bhed Marine! Marines were the Al Bhed equivalent of the crusaders or the warrior monks of Bevelle; they protected and defended the various explorer teams sent out to the distant corners of Spira to explore old ruins for machina (Rikku had had half a dozen of them on her team when they'd dove down to explore Baaj Temple and found Tidus there instead). They had also patrolled and defended the sands near Home, back when Home had been out in the Sanubia Desert and not near the Bikanel Shores where they'd recently rebuilt it.

Rikku knew for a fact that they were tough; they went through special training to be the best fighters among the Al Bhed, and she was pretty certain that any one of them were certainly able to match a Crusader (or was it Youth League Member now?) or a warrior monk from Bevelle. But were they a match for Rikku?

He started the fight off well, casting haste on himself and then protect. He didn't bother with shell because he already knew that Rikku didn't rely on magic to fight her battles. Rikku darted in and stole three bomb cores from him. In reply Korlath danced a few paces to the side then aimed a flying kick at her head Rikku ducked and rolled out of the way pulling out two items from her belt pouches, a bomb core and an arctic wind mixing them together with the three customary shakes she lobbed it at him on the fly. It was a weak cracking noise indicating the weak snow flurry attack resultant from the mixer. Still, he wasn't protected from it and it did do some damage.

:Not enough, though: she thought as she watched him shake off the effects.

She'd have been disappointed if it had been anything less from a member of her peoples best fighting corps. He was up and a her as she recovered from her roll out of his way. Rikku bent backwards out of the way of his first swing, and leaned to the side to avoid his follow-up. She was a little off-balance by the manuvers and fell backwards ungracefully on her rump. Darn her clumsiness! This was not the time for it.

Her opponent tried to turn this to his advantage with a sweeping side-kick designed to knock her out but she flattened herself into the sands and when he tried to stomp down on her, she caught his foot and twisted sending him down. They both rolled apart and recovered.

Rikku decided to go on the offensive. She found her feet and darted around to the side, forcing him to turn to keep her in sight, she feinted another steal. He committed to the counter of trying to grab her arm to twist and throw her down, but she pulled back at the last moment. While his right flank was unguarded she sucker-punched him, jabbing her fist into his stomach and he went down in a heap at her feet.

"Rikku wins!" her father announced.

Deciding that she'd had enough consecutive battles without a break, Rikku signalled a time-out and walked over to her little tent for some shade and a cool drink.

"I stand amazed, Cid's Girl took down an Al Bhed Marine," a cocky voice said from off to one side as Rikku went back to her shaded tent to take a sip of her water while they carted mister marine off to the medics tent.

Despite his irritating demeanor (and Rikku was putting any and all thoughts of certain dreams had while napping firmly out of her mind) Gippal might possibly be one of the only people around her age outside of her family that wasn't trying to marry her, so for that alone she was willing to cut him a break.

"Don't act like its a big surprise," she said, injecting extra confidence into her voice. "I'm the best."

"Right behind me of course," he said.

"Um... no," she said. "I'm definitely better than you too."

"Oh really?" he said, an odd edge to his tone.

Rikku didn't want to have to kick his buttocks as well and risk alienating the one Al Bhed male near her age who wasn't interested in marrying her so she quickly amended

"But I will admit that you gave me a bit of a run for my money in the Den of Woe."

"That wasn't me," he said. "It was my evil doppleganger."

"Whatever," she said, putting her arms behind her head. "All I remember is that you had nice things for me to steal from you. So maybe you could win... but I doubt it."

"That sounds like a challenge to me Cid's Girl," he said. "Since we're both here anyway..." he gestured out into the sands.

"You gotta wait your turn," Rikku insisted. "And besides, I think you've forgotten one major point here--"

"And what's that?" he asked, crossing his arms. Rikku grinned and said

"If you win, you gotta marry me. Father's orders. And since Pops is the Leader of the Al Bhed...."

"Right," he said wryly. "I'd be rounded up in the middle of the night by about twenty or thirty angry Marines, thrown into a sack, and chained to the altar if I tried to get out of it."

"Most likely," she agreed.

"Well, good luck with the rest of the rabble," he said waving at her as she walked back out into the sands to face her next challenger.

Rikku missed the speculative look on Gippals face as he wandered off.