The evening was a dull one. The concert wasn't until the following night, giving the girls and the crew some down time. After sunning themselves until dusk, the Gullwings packed up and headed back to the Celsius, their home away from home. Yuna and Tidus wandered into town to have dinner together. Brother was off muttering something in Al Bhed about Kilikan women and Gippal was caught giving him directions to Dona's house. Buddy was having dinner with some of the city officials and talking logistics of tomorrow's concert. Paine was lying in bed reading when Rikku came back from her shower.

She was suspiciously quiet.

There had been no talk of nightlife yet, and Paine was perfectly content staying in her bed. Rikku was probably going to want to go out and party her sorrows away, as usual, but Paine didn't know if she was up for tagging along and making sure Rikku didn't sleep with anyone important out of spite. She watched Rikku towel off her hair, sitting at the foot of her bed, sighing a lot. She was in her pajamas, a pair of green short-shorts with ruffles on them Paine had heard so much about in the trenches in the old days, and that same worn out white t shirt she had debuted at the inappropriate breakfast. Her boots lay in a tired heap, on standing upright, one toppled over, next to her trunk. All of the beads that were normally strung up in her locks were sitting in a bowl on top of her trunk.

She looked a little sad.

"What?" Paine finally asked. The only thing worse than an over chatty Rikku was a huffy silent one.

"Hm?" Rikku looked up, combing her fingers through her wet hair.

"What's wrong?" Paine asked, placing the book facedown on her sheets to mark her page.

"Nothing," Rikku shrugged.

"You haven't said a word in hours. I have to guess that something is wrong," Paine almost smiled, but not quite.

"Yeah," Rikku chuckled. She looked like she was thinking, staring down at the carpet. "You think Buddy was kinda harsh today?" she asked, looking up at Paine.

"No, I think he was very harsh today," Paine grumbled, turning onto her side and propping herself up on her elbow so she could look at Rikku.

"Yeah," Rikku glanced away again. "He's been weird lately."

"He always was kind of an odd one," Paine chewed on her thumbnail thoughtfully.

"And like, not to wave my own flag too proudly or anything, but I know he likes me. And I know I may have been a little, well, ENCOURAGING of that in the past, but like, it was never anything more than drunk teenaged fun," Rikku gestured with her hand, then let it fall, defeated, against her thigh.

"He's a bit older than you. He should have known better," Paine grumbled.

"Maybe," Rikku shrugged, looking away again.

"He's treating Gippal like shit. I know Gippal's an ass and probably deserves it sometimes, but not from Buddy," Paine rolled her eyes. "All in all, I'd say he's been almost a gentleman since he joined us." Paine flicked her eyes up to gauge Rikku's reaction.

"I've been kind of a meanie to him," she got out in a small, guilty voice.

"Not that big of a meanie," Paine lied.

"No, he has been pretty nice to me. I don't know," Rikku was twisting the ends of her hair unconsciously. "I just don't want to get wrapped up in that big bag of hurt again, Paine!" She whined, pulling her legs up and sitting cross-legged on the bed.

"I know," Paine replied, almost compassionately.

"He just makes it so easy! We're so bad for one another! Every time we get together, it's so good, and then when it falls apart it gets worse every time! He's so sweet and foxy one minute and the next, it's like, like he's ripping my heart out with a wrench and running it through an exhaust system and churning me into the gears and like, it's really, REALLY hard to put yourself back together once you've been through that!" Rikku yelped. Paine tried not to laugh.

"Sounds pretty awful," Paine agreed.

"I don't know if I can take that anymore, you know?" Rikku looked up at her again. Paine could see in Rikku's eyes that she as torn. "And when he's nice like this? It makes it worse. It's just," Rikku trailed off, gesturing in the air and trying to find words. She looked and sounded like she wanted to cry. Paine glanced to the stairs, alarmed. She didn't want to be here if she cried. "I miss him." Rikku finally spat out.

"So go talk to him. He's right downstairs?" Paine shrugged.

"Not like that, it's not that simple," Rikku let out a deep breath. It was shaky and she wiped one of her eyes. "I miss who he was. I miss who I was, who we were. We're different now. Too much as happened and I don't know if we can have it back."

"Probably not," Paine nodded thoughtfully.

"He was my best friend, Paine," Rikku finally got out, her voice strangled by the tears she didn't want to cry.

"Okay," Paine sighed, getting up slowly.

"What?" Rikku had a worried look on her face.

"Come on," Paine nodded towards the stairs and Rikku followed her. The warrior demanded two beers from Barkeep and handed them both to Rikku.

"I don't know if I really feel like having a drink," Rikku looked down at the bottles in her hands.

"I don't care. I know one very tired and cranky Al Bhed slave that would probably be thrilled if you brought him one," Paine was pushing Rikku towards the elevator.

"What? No! Right now?!" Rikku yelped.

"No time like the present. Be genuine, tell him how you feel. Or don't, and sit up here not crying to me, it's your life," Paine shrugged as the elevator door slid open.

"Paine!" Rikku snapped.

"Storage Number Three is where Buddy's keeping him. I at least want you two on speaking terms before you come back up here," Paine said sternly, then hit the button for the lower levels and stalked back to her bed.

Rikku silently cursed Paine for the entire elevator ride, then stopped and panicked when the door slid open on the low level. She hardly ever came down here. And what was she going to say? Would he even want to hear it? A few hours ago he was bringing her drinks on Buddy's orders. She slowly inched past Storage 1 and 2 and paused outside of 3. It was hot and uncomfortable down there. They didn't bother climate controlling the storage lockers. It was a waste of power.

She paced back and forth a few times before reaching up and gently tapping on the door with her knuckle. She held her breath. There was some crashing and Al Bhed cursing on the other side.

"Yeah?" Gippal snapped, opening the door just wide enough to look out. His eye flew wide open when he saw her standing there.

"Hi," she said lamely.

"Rikku, hey," he stuttered. "What are you doing here?" He stepped into the hallway, carefully closing the door behind him. Shirtless. As usual. Although she couldn't blame him. The heat down there was unbearable.

"Well," she began, dragging the word out. She wasn't exactly sure what she was doing down there. "Everyone is out, Paine is turning in, we're both making it an early night, and I know you had a long difficult day, so I thought you might want a beer before bed," she tried. He wanted to smile at her. He wanted to do a lot of things, but he was too surprised. She held a bottle out to him and took a sharp sip from the one in her other hand.

"Thank you," he took it slowly. "Did you tell Buddy about this? He'll probably make me run laps or something to make up for it."

"No, I did not. He doesn't know I'm here, he's in town with some big-wigs talking money and numbers," Rikku chuckled. They were both fidgeting, rocking on the balls of their feet and sipping nervously from their drinks, being careful not to make eye contact.

His hair was messy. He was sweaty and a little dirty. He was dressing a lot simpler these days. He let his hair do what it wanted, didn't spike each strand as perfectly straight anymore. He smiled more sincerely and she'd be lying if she said she didn't love it. He looked grown up. He looked like a man all of a sudden. It as comfortable and the worst thing ever all at the same time.

"Did you want to, um, come in?" he gestured towards his door. It wasn't a come on or a proposition, and she could tell. If anything, he just seemed lonely.

"Sure," she said. Her voice was a little empty, almost as if she were still trying to decide how she felt.

"Sorry about the mess," he said sheepishly, not turning around as he walked in.

Boxes were piled from floor to ceiling all around a crude bunk. The dingy work light hanging form the ceiling gave the room a dirty yellow glow. Rikku fought a gasp at the tight, cramped space he was calling home. The bed looked uninviting. He had a duffle bag on the floor that was open with a few things falling out. Parts of the engine appeared to be scattered amongst the clutter on the floor. He had clearly been repairing equipment. There were wire cutters and spliced cables all over the bed and the boxes.

"I was just getting some work done," he added.

"This is where you're staying?" she asked, her eyes wide in shock.

"Yeah. I know it's not exactly like my suite in Djose, or my estate in New Home, but she'll do," Gippal crossed his arms over his bare chest and tried to stand up a little straighter and seem a little prouder. It wasn't working. She wanted to be sick.

"Buddy put you in here?" she glanced around. The contents of his bag were strewn onto the floor. Folded shirts. A few pairs of work pants and shorts. His boots. A handful of books.

"It was all he could do on short notice. And I can't sleep in the kid's bed. I'm too long," Gippal mustered up a chuckle.

"This is wrong," Rikku said, her voice still somewhere else.

"It's not that bad. I've slept in cold wet trenches for weeks. Been dragged through deserts and snow and all sorts of fucked up training when I was with the Squad, I think I can sleep on a lumpy mattress in a closet," he grinned at her. It wasn't his cocky, lady-killing grin, it was a warm one. She didn't feel like smiling back.

"I'm sorry about today," she blurted out. They both looked surprised when she did.

"What do you mean?" he asked carefully after a few moments.

"Today. When Buddy made you wait on us. We had nothing to do with it and I'm sorry," she said quickly. She didn't know where it was coming from, but she couldn't stop it from coming out.

"I knew that," he replied, taking a sip.

"And I know that allegedly when we got drunk in Luca a few days ago I said something about not being mean to you anymore," she gripped her bottle with both hands, her thumbnail scratching at the label on it. He grinned.

"Yeah, you did say that."

"And I haven't really followed up on that, and it's not that I don't want to or anything, It's just that sometimes, with you and me, cause of all the crummy stuff we've done or said or wanted to say or thought really loudly or implied-"

"Rikku, relax," he interrupted her. He could tell she was having a hard time with this. Apologies were never either of their strong areas.

"And I'm not saying that I want to be nice to you, or anything, but I noticed you were being significantly less of a butthead, and I wanted to just tell you that I noticed," she finished, trying to retain an air of confidence, but failing miserably.

"So you came down here to tell me that I'm not being as big of a butthead as usual," he said slowly.

"Yes."

"And bring me a beer for it," he added.

"Uh huh."

"Thank you? I guess?" he didn't want to laugh, but the whole thing was so silly. "You're welcome," she nodded. She looked torn on the inside. He could see it in her eyes. They always gave her away. He knew them so well. "And," she said taking a deep breath. "I can't promise overnight results, but I am going to make an effort not to be such a meanie, like I claimed at the bar, but I can't make promises, because when you're a butthead, it makes me a meanie, and even though you're not a butthead right now, you're actually quite the opposite of a butthead these days, you still might turn around and BE a butthead just when I stop being a meanie, so it may take me a little while to be comfortable with the fact that you maybe aren't a butthead at all anymore," she said quickly.

"I would love nothing more than to not be a butthead," he joked back, trying to stifle his laughter but she was just so damn cute when she was flustered.

"Not helping!" she snapped, whacking him in the stomach. He flinched away and laughed.

"You hit like a girl," he smiled.

"See? Butthead," she rolled her eyes playfully.

"Takes one to know one, Cid's Girl," he taunted.

"DO NOT. CALL ME THAT." She pointed hard at him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Old habits," he held his hands up to surrender.

"I'm gonna go," she pointed over her shoulder towards the door. The few beats of silence between them were getting awkward. Being nice to one another was new again. "I have a big day of doing nothing followed by being a rock star and drinking too much at night, if you want to get in on any of that with us," Rikku shrugged. "But for now I'm going to get some sleep," she glanced down at his less than desirable bed and felt guilty for a moment.

"Thanks for the drink," he held his bottle up.

"Don't mention it," she said lingering in the open doorway for a moment and looking back at him in the dim light. He looked broader and bigger in the small room. "Night," she tacked on.

"You too, Rik," he said for the second night in a row. He missed saying good night to her. But what he really missed was saying good morning.