Desert Rose
Chapter Fourteen: Oasis Confessions
by PrettyGothGirl
Summary: Love is like the rose, it only thrives with tender care and a little adversity. Part Fourteen: Confessions is good for the soul and Rikku's Tyibreha friends are most insistent.
A/N: Extreme Alternate Universe. Fanon Culture Based. Shortly, the Al Bhed are a nomadic tribal people living on Bikanel without any contact with the rest of Spira. If you want to see the source document, email or comment
The teasing started as Rikku pulled off her clothes. It was rule two of the oasis. Rule one being, what went on at the oasis, stayed at the oasis.
Araxie started it. "Ohhh sands."
"What is that?" Iola asked sounding very interested.
Sen swore. "Shit."
Rikku flushed and unconsciously covered up the underside of her breast. "Nothing."
Laaysa ran over and pried her fingers away. "Oh come on, we want to see."
"It's just a bruise."
"In the shape of teeth, you told me nothing happened that morning." Sen accused.
"Nothing did happen that morning." Rikku protested.
"Wait, wait, back up." Chavvi face-palmed.
"Umm," Rikku bit her lip. "I'm dating Gippal."
"What?!" Everyone but Sen shouted and sat up to stare at her.
Rikku collapsed onto the sand and grinned at all of them. "Gippal and I are ummm, together."
"And this is the boy you said, was just 'a guy' and 'all right?'"
Rikku flushed and bit her lip. "Did I say that?"
"Yes!" They chorused.
"Well, he is all right."
"More than all right from the looks of things." Araxie's eyebrow rose.
"Face it, Rikku, you're glowing."
"I am?"
"Yes."
"Which is so not fair, so tell us."
"Like when you got that bruise." Sen pointed at it.
"Sen! You're being as bad as Laaysa." Saffi chided.
"Hey!"
Sen crossed her arms. "Well, I want to know. You said nothing happened."
"That morning." Rikku flushed. "You didn't get a chance to ask what happened that night."
"You had sex with him." Sen glared at her. "You said you weren't ready."
Rikku turned red. "Oh my. Fuck no. We didn't have sex Sen. Is that all you think we do?"
"You still didn't tell me what you did that morning! You neatly evaded the question."
"How about you let Rikku tell it her way and don't interrupt." Fariishta glared at Sen with a 'I want to hear this too, so be quiet' look.
Laaysa jumped up. "Snacks!"
Rikku stared off after her. "Again?"
"This deserves munchies." Iola nodded. "I'll help!" She ran off after Laaysa.
Sen tapped her fingers on the sand and Saffi reached over and pressed down on them. "Relax, she can't leave until she tells."
"Hey!" Rikku started and glared at Saffi.
Saffi smiled sweetly back.
Rikku muttered mean things under her breath, the only audible bit was "and I'll sic Gippal on all of you, so there."
There were a few blinks and everyone began to giggle. "Rikku!"
"Oh sands. That's priceless."
Rikku pouted. "I can so be threatening."
Chavvi shook her head and laughed. "Not right now."
Iola and Laaysa set down two big bowls of snacks and Araxie reached over and grabbed a large handful. "All right, we've got snacks, now tell."
Rikku swallowed and lay down, kicking her feet in the air. She didn't want any more speculative looks at her breast. "Well, I went into Thunderbird territory after our meeting."
"You what?" Iola's jaw dropped.
"Shhh." Laaysa clamped her hand over Iola's mouth. Iola licked her palm and Laaysa squealed and let go, shaking her hand. "Eww, Iola!"
"Anikki had a part he couldn't for the life of him how to fix, so," Rikku bit her lip. "I thought Gippal would know and went to ask. He did and umm, I sort of gave him my commsphere number." She stopped and fiddled in the sand. "He called me later and we set up a swimming date…"
"And he bit you." Araxie finished.
"Noooo. That was our first date."
"You've had more than one." Laaysa sat up straight.
"Stop jumping to conclusions," Fariishta glared at Araxie.
"Hey, I'm telling the story!" Rikku glared at them all. They settled. "Right, swimming date and he umm… shit, can't tell, and err… we kissed and decided to meet three days later."
Sen's eyes widened and she stared at her. "He didn't, not that early."
Rikku nodded. "Yeah. He even asked and everything. He was so nervous about it." She giggled. "It was so cute. He sticks his tongue out when he concentrates really hard sometimes, like when we made sand cities the second date. Though he doesn't do it when he's working. Usually he was cursing people out." She blinked. "So anyways, I couldn't make our third meeting, some step cousin however many times removed got her first marques and I just had to be there." She frowned. "Not really necessary since I'm not technically related by blood but I'm the Tyibreha, so, naturally I had to attend." She sighed and then grinned because the next part of the story was her favorite. "Then Gippal was so upset he couldn't see me. He staged a girl's raid across tribal borders and swept me away back to his village."
"So romantic." Iola sighed.
Laaysa smacked her gently. "Iola!"
"Well it is." Iola glared at her. "That's true dedication."
"Get on to that morning." Sen interrupted the two youngest Tyibreha.
"Impatience." Fariishta rolled her eyes.
"Well, we cuddled."
"I know that!"
"And I took a bath."
"That too."
"Sen!"
"Shut up!"
"And that's what happened that morning. He'd never cuddled before and I can tell he really enjoyed it." Rikku ducked her head. "And I let him watch me take my bath and he, shit, I can't say."
"Stop teasing us."
"I forget. I'm not allowed to tell." She paused. "Well, he didn't exactly swear me to secrecy, but he swore Sen to it and so I don't think it'd be fair for me to tell."
"Rikku." Araxie ground her teeth.
"Well, it wouldn't." Rikku glared at her. "It's his secret and is not mine to say."
"He just does it around you."
"Something like that." Rikku tilted her head and grinned. "Though he's yet to show me one."
"He won't." Sen said. "Not until he's actually made a final one and it's perfect."
Rikku sighed. "Oh well. He brushed my hair and wove flowers into it."
"She wore a dress." Sen said in an undertone.
"A dress?"
"Rikku!"
"You've given in."
"I thought you hated dresses."
"He provided it!" Rikku glared at Sen. "It wasn't like I had a lot of choices. I could've worn one of his shirts."
"It was almost see-through. In some places it was." Sen smirked.
Rikku sputtered and hid her face. "Sen!"
"See-through!"
"Oh my."
"And you actually wore it."
"Gippal picked it out and he liked it." Rikku said.
They all giggled. "Oh that explains it."
Rikku shook her head. "Rin was furious at Gippal for doing the girl's raid."
"Understatement." Sen muttered.
Rikku hid her face. "I told him I wasn't worth it." She muttered.
"Don't say that. Don't ever say that." Sen said vehemently. "You are so worth everything Gippal has done, is doing and will do. If he heard you say that he'd kiss you silly."
Rikku rolled her eyes, but blushed at the same time. "He did, several times." She shuddered.
"Besides, you heard what he said about you, to my father's face and somehow father didn't figure it out." Sen shook her head.
Laaysa and Iola broke into the seriousness.
"Can Rikku get back to the story, please?"
"Yeah, I want to hear the good bits."
"They have a point." Fariishta gave Sen a level stare. Sen made a show of shutting her mouth.
"Where was I?" Rikku blinked, distracted by what Sen had said.
"Rin was mad." Saffi reminded.
"And Gippal made a speech." Chavvi said, glancing at Sen for confirmation.
"What did he say?" Iola bounced up and down.
"That I was valuable, worthwhile, precious and beautiful." Rikku sighed and looked far away. "But in a lot more words."
"Awww. That's so sweet." Iola melted into the sand. Laaysa looked like she was about to silence her, then thought better of it and didn't.
"I made him dinner, because I owed him dinner and we umm," Rikku blushed furiously. "Ended up making out and I bit his hip and he bit me and uh-" she looked into the sand. "We fell asleep together and that was it." She finished in a rush.
"She's leaving something out." Chavvi whispered. "I can tell."
Rikku squirmed and refused to look up. "Not telling." She glanced up with a tidbit to distract them with. "He kissed me when he took me home." She grinned. "In front of my father and brothers."
"What did they do?"
"I don't know. I sort of ran away giggling like a maniac." Rikku bit her lip and grinned up at them.
Laaysa threw a snack at Rikku. "Back to the uh part."
"No." Rikku hid her face again.
"Rikku." Sen smirked. "I'll tell Gippal where you're ticklish."
Rikku's head snapped up and her eyes widened. "You wouldn't!" Sen just raised her eyebrow. Rikku flushed.
"Bu-"
"Tickles."
"Bu-"
"He likes to tickle."
Rikku whimpered. "He kissed-"
"Not very embarrassing."
"Araxie!" Everyone else shouted and threw snacks at her.
"Well it's not."
"-andhediscoveredmyclitring." Rikku mumbled.
Araxie blinked. "What?"
"See if you'd stayed quiet!"
"You're going to have to say it again and this time Araxie will keep her mouth shut." Fariishta glared at her.
Rikku squirmed again. "Do I have to?"
"Yes!"
Rikku buried her head in her arms and moaned. "He kissed d-do-down there, you know and he sort of, kind of, discovered my clit ring and sent me over the edge."
"Oh fuck."
"Wow, just wow."
"I'm jealous."
"And all you got out of it was a bite mark." Araxie sounded rather incredulous.
Rikku pushed upwards. "Hey! We're doing this right. Slow."
"That does not sound slow." Araxie snorted. "I mean, what was his reputation? You should be having sex by now."
Fariishta glared at Araxie. "Araxie." She hissed. "Rikku is happy."
Rikku huffed and sat up. "I can defend him myself." She glared at Araxie and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "He wants me as a female, not as a fuck. That's all those other girls were, fucks when he had an itch at their places. I sleep in his bed. He brings me flowers, gives me presents."
"Presents?" Iola squealed.
Rikku looked down and smiled, pushing her hair behind her ears, showing off that she was wearing the earrings. "He gave me these."
Iola scrambled across the sands and peered at them. "They're so pretty and so different."
"Show them off too much and you'll start a trend." Chavvi grinned and examined them at a distance. "She's right though. They're pretty."
"There's just one thing bothering me." Rikku shoved Iola away lightly. "What does he smell like?" Sen almost choked on a snack. "It's manly and good and makes me want to eat him but I can't figure out what it is!"
Sen started coughing and Fariishta reached over and pounded on her back. She was grinning though.
"You can't tell." Iola giggled.
"That's horrid." Chavvi shook her head. "I thought better of you."
"I can't pin it down. I'm an alchemist, not a perfumer. I leave that to the experts."
Sen gasped in air and wiped away tears. "Ambergris." She inhaled again. "Ambergris, musk and a bit of leather."
"Ohhhh." Rikku tilted her head to the side and then blinked. "Wait, how do you know?"
Sen smirked at her. "I asked. I wanted to know what drew the girls to him like bees to honey and he said it was they way he smelled."
"Oh puhlease." Chavvi rolled her eyes.
"Partially it's true." Fariishta tapped her lips with a fingernail. "Smell is an attractant between two people. It's finding what clicks that's the hard part."
"Oh, it clicks." Rikku breathed. She fell to her back and smiled at the sky. "It does."
"Rikku's gone all melty."
"And girly."
"Iola, Laaysa!"
"We want a boy too!"
"So, I'm assuming you've seen his cock? Since he's seen you naked and all." Araxie's voice was mocking.
"Yes." Rikku put her arms behind her head grinning.
"Well, are you going to tell us?"
"There's a reason for that reputation." Rikku licked her teeth.
"Which tells us nothing."
"He's nice."
There was a few minutes silence before they realized Rikku wasn't go to say anymore.
"You know, it's like pulling teeth to get information out of you."
"He's my boyfriend. Why are you all so interested anyways?" Rikku scowled. They were ruining her good mood.
"Because deep inside you want to tell and we are just doing what's in your best interest so we can all giggle over it."
"I don't want to giggle over it." Rikku said. "I want it. Plain and simple, just because we haven't had sex, doesn't mean I don't want to. He has a point. We should want to be together as people and not as a quick fuck. That just falls apart. Like, him and Lynnia." She snickered. "The bitch doesn't get it."
"It almost sounds like you're in love." Araxie said.
"And if I am? I don't see where it's your business."
"Love between enemy tribes always ends badly."
Rikku didn't move. "You know what, Araxie. I don't give a shit. Gippal's worth it."
Silence reigned in the oasis.
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