Desert Rose
Chapter Twenty-One: Touches in the Dark
by PrettyGothGirl
Summary: Love is like the rose, it only thrives with tender care and a little adversity. Part Twenty-One: Rikku and Gippal get some quality time together and Sennet gets his eyes opened in a way he would have rather left alone.
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.
Rikku posed and waited. She didn't have to wait long. Gippal pushed the curtain aside and his attention riveted on her. She grinned, feeling mischievous and beckoned to him. Playing with the children and the phantom touches and the teasing and the just being near him, had been steadily increasing her awareness of him until it was a fever. He was cool water and she needed to drown in him, his smell, his touch, his taste, to break the heat.
He set the packs down with care, came, leaned down and kissed her.
She slid her hands up his chest and around his neck. The soft texture of his shirt contrasted with the smoothness of his skin separated by the bump of the collar. The fine hairs at the nape of his neck tickled her fingers. Her eyes closed and she focused on the feel of his mouth over hers, hot and firm. She buried her fingers in his hair.
His lips parted and he brushed his tongue across the seam of her lips. She opened her mouth to him, rubbing his tongue with hers. His hands wrapped around her hips and he pulled her upright. She hooked a leg around him, pressing her body to his. He ended the kiss.
"I have wanted to take you out of your clothes all day." He whispered.
"In front of the kids!" She whispered back and grinned. She'd felt the same way.
"I restrained myself." He brushed her lips with his. "It was hard."
"I'm sure that's not the only thing that was hard." She ground her hips in a little circle. His lips slammed back onto hers as he swallowed a moan. A hand dropped to under her ass and he squeezed. Oh sweet sands. She curled her fingers more into his hair. He broke the kiss and licked his lips. She licked hers as well, grinned at him and then with viscous delight rubbed her hands through his hair rapidly, messing it up until it fell into his eyes. He scowled and tossed his head. The hair moved to the side and settled right back. She grinned. "Now you're as cute as Eli."
"As Eli?" His eyebrow rose.
"But much, much sexier." She kissed him and pulled down the zipper that held his shirt closed. He made a low noise in his throat as she shoved it off and it dropped to the floor. She stroked his chest with her palms, smooth, warm and muscled.
"He'll have to grow into it." Gippal unbuckled the sides of her top.
"I can't wait that long." She brushed her lips across his with every word.
"That's what I'm for, Rikku babe." He pulled her shirt off over her head and it joined his on the floor.
"Good thing." She twisted her head and licked his neck. His fingers fumbled with the catch of her bra. She smirked. "You're still bruised." She ran a finger down his side. "I'll have to be gentle." The bra loosened. She pulled it off and let it go. She reached up and dug her fingers under the band holding up her ponytail and pulled it out. She shook her head and he watched her hair fall. He sighed in pleasure. Immediately, he buried a hand into it. She nuzzled his neck, their upper bodies touching. His other hand stroked her back. Sands, she loved the feel of his fingers skating across her skin. She inhaled against his neck, earth and musk and the sharp smell of leather. His head tilted to one side. He exhaled.
"Rikku."
She unhooked her leg and reached for his belt buckle. She brushed her lips across his neck. "Gippal, sexy." The buckle parted and she undid the top button of his pants.
"Boots."
"Right." She ducked down and undid both her and Gippal's footwear. She trailed her fingers up the side of his legs as she stood, hooking her thumbs into his waistband. Their lips met again. She shoved his pants down and wiggled as he pulled on hers. They fell off her hips and around her ankles, her underwear with them. He picked her up and set her on the bed. The kiss broke and she wiggled backwards. She grinned and crooked a finger at him.
She shifted her legs so she was kneeling on the bed and watched him. He knelt in front of her. She moved into his lap, rubbing her hands across his chest. Smooth skin covered hard muscles, just enough of them. She sighed and with a smile and half closed eyes, leaned up to kiss him. His fingers trailed down her sides and cupped her hips. She shuddered as coupled with the light feel of his lips on hers it made her skin feel alive.
She wanted to be mingled with him, like their pile of clothes on the floor, entwined, entangled, unable to find the boundaries of her skin and his. She slid her tongue into his mouth. He touched the tip of her tongue with his and they began to curl around each other, friction changing from moment to moment. She ground up against him, eyes closing. His breath hitched. His cock between her thighs was hard and thick and she knew with the right twist of her hips she could have him inside her, filling her up. She ached for it, from her clit to her stomach to the back of her mouth. Her hands moved towards his shoulders, scraping with her nails wanting to feel more of him against her. He pressed down on the small of her back bringing her closer. Their chests touched and she could feel the beat of his heart, moving as fast as her own. He sucked down on her tongue and she suppressed a moan. Couldn't be loud. Her fingers glided along his neck and cupped his face.
She felt the leather of his eye patch. She put a finger under it.
Gippal jerked away. "No." He whispered. It sounded like a reflex.
Her eyes flew open and she stared at him. He had his head down and was looking away. She wasn't going to take it off. She just wanted to feel his skin and only his skin. It couldn't be that bad. She looked at the patch. Could it? It wouldn't change her opinion of him at all. The patch took up his face, so dark it was what you saw first. What did he look like without it? Her spine straightened. He couldn't yell at her. They had to be quiet.
She slipped her fingers under it and slid it off before he could grab her wrists or protest. She tossed it onto their pile of clothes. His head whipped back to her, his eye wide. His only eye, behind the patch was an almond shaped bit of scar tissue.
She took him in, all of him in. He looked so different without it. She trailed her finger down the cheekbone under the scar. Symmetrical, perfect, "Oh Gippal." She kissed the hollow, the scar tissue smoother than his regular skin, slightly hard. He shuddered. "You're beautiful." She kissed it again, barely pressing her lips to it. She dragged her lips down his cheek until they brushed across his.
He shoved her back onto the bed, his lips pressing down onto hers hard. She wrapped her legs around his, skin sliding skin and pulled all of his weight unto her. Her hands slid into his hair, soft and fine and he moaned low in his throat and broke the kiss. "Rikku." He stared into her eyes. The skin around his eye tight, lips pressed together. He looked desperate, afraid.
She rubbed her nose against his and smiled at him. She wasn't going to leave him over a little scar tissue. "I have candy for the conquering chieftain." She stroked his back, rubbing up and down as if he was a baby to be soothed. His eyebrows rose and he frowned. He looked confused and she continued to smile. "I thought that we could share." She tilted her head and kissed the frown away, conveying with her body and her lips that his scar didn't mean anything to her. He was still the same. He was still her Gippal.
He sighed and relaxed, his body inexplicably becoming heavier, too heavy to be like a warm blanket. She nibbled his lower lip and hoped he understood. He moved off of her and broke the kiss. "Is the box bigger than Eli's?"
She grinned and ran a finger from the center of his forehead down his nose. "Oh, yes." She kissed him quickly and rolled off the bed, standing up in the same motion. She stepped over their clothes and rummaged through her packs, coming up with the flat box. She spun.
Gippal lay sprawled on the bed. He was half smiling, but his fingers tapped on his thigh. She smiled back and crawled in next to him.
"I'm not beautiful."
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, you are." She laid down on her back and set the box on her stomach.
"Girls are beautiful, boys aren't." He scowled.
"Boys can too be beautiful." She worked the top off with her fingernails and randomly picked out a candy, something soft and sugary and chewy. "And you are." She shoved it into his halfway open mouth, pressing her index finger against his lips. Didn't he know better than to argue with a woman?
He glared at her as he chewed on the candy. She took her finger away and smirked. She brushed his bangs away from his eyes and watched them fall back. He swallowed. "I'm handsome, sexy, bad ass. You're beautiful." This was a stupid argument. She giggled as quietly as she could. He picked out a candy and ran it over her lips. "And cute and sexy."
She licked the shell of the sweet. His compliments were overlapping with what he was, which meant she could be bad ass too. "And bad ass?"
He grinned. "Yeah."
"Then, if I can be bad ass, you can be beautiful." She raised one eyebrow a little higher than the other and smirked.
He pressed the candy into her lips until she accepted it. "Oh be quiet." She shoved the candy to the side of her mouth and stuck out her tongue. He stuck his tongue out back, picked up the box and set it off to the side. He wiggled down until his head was next to her shoulder. "Good day." He whispered and ran a hand along her stomach. "Candy, girl in my bed, won a battle."
She cracked the candy in half with her teeth, sucking on it. Once in half it started melting quickly, sugary sweet. "Eli won. His strategy, his victory." She worked her arm free without bumping him and lightly scraped the back of his neck with her fingernails.
"Details." He kissed her neck.
"He was pretty proud of himself."
"He should be." He teased the underside of her breasts.
She arched, moaning. "Do you think he likes me?"
"Oh babe, he adored you the minute you pulled out that chocobo coin." He sighed. "They all did."
"Well, I liked them. Calla was an angel."
He rested his head on her shoulder and rested his hand over her stomach, covering it, protecting it. "You want them." He shifted his head and to try and look at her face. "Kids, I mean. Not Calla and Eli."
She looked down and bit her lip. Wasn't this a little early to be talking about kids? It wasn't really a question. She could tell by his tone of voice. She nodded. "I understand kids." There was a lot more to it than that. She wasn't sure if he'd want to hear she wanted four to six of them so no one would ever be lonely or lack a friend, even if she died and couldn't take care of them anymore. She didn't want to die, but she didn't want her children to suffer the lack of attention that she had gone through. Pops had been there and he hadn't. It was hard to balance being a leader and being a father.
"Talk to me, sweetheart." He rose up to his elbow so he could look down at her.
She smiled. "I was just thinking about my childhood. You're lucky." She cupped his cheek. "Your mother is a beautiful, wonderful lady."
"Wasn't yours?"
"I lost her a long time ago." Rikku sighed. "She was pregnant; twins." She closed her eyes and tried to remember her mother. She couldn't really see her face, just remembered her swollen stomach and her smile and laugh. She opened them again and smiled at Gippal. "She was always happy and laughing. That's the most I remember. Anikki remembers more, but he won't talk about her. Pops, Pops moved on." She rubbed her thumb along his cheekbone. "I was so lonely afterwards. I don't want that for my kids."
Kids, only kids seemed to pay attention to her, seek her out. She knew every child in every village of the Phoenix. She knew their vocations and knew what every single one of them loved as a little present, who was sick, who wasn't. She knew a lot more about the children than she knew about her peers. She smiled a little. "Now I'm lucky."
"Why's that?"
"I have you."
He grinned. It covered his face and reached his eye oh so slowly. "Yeah, that would make you pretty lucky."
She narrowed her eyes. "Your ego is talking. I don't want to talk to your ego. I want to talk to you."
"My ego and I are the same thing."
She poked his chest. "Are not."
"They so are, because I'm even luckier to have you." He whispered and smiled. She sighed, relaxing into the bed. There was no way she could win. He smirked. "I may be bruised, but you aren't. So, where was I?" He maneuvered till his mouth hovered over her neck. "Oh right, here."
Her eyes rolled up as he started to suck on the skin. She hoped they got a little sleep tonight.
--
Sennet pushed back the curtain to Gippal's room and immediately wished he hadn't. He intellectually knew that Gippal and his new girl were sharing the bed. It'd been made very plain last night.
He wanted to back out. He wanted to shut his eyes. He wanted to do something, but he couldn't. It was his brother and he'd never seen his brother like this. And maybe that's why he couldn't look away.
His gaze wandered from the rumpled piled of clothes to the entwined bodies under the sheets, so much for not having sex. The girlfriend used Gippal's chest as a pillow, locks of her hair fell across her face. Gippal had his arm around her waist and the sheet bunched right underneath thankfully cutting of the view of anything else. Sennet bit his lip as he saw that Gippal wasn't wearing his eye patch.
It just didn't look right. Gippal, hair messed up, eye patch gone, arm around a girl, naked except for the chains. It was Gippal, his brother, his perpetually on the move, girl in every village, never let one into his bed, always single, brother. Sennet's brow furrowed. Why now? Why her?
He took a step back and let the curtain fall. He didn't want to see anymore. "Gippal, mom's got breakfast ready."
He heard the girl groan. He couldn't remember her name. Didn't want to remember her name.
Gippal groaned too. Sennet grimaced. Gippal only groaned when he hadn't gotten enough sleep. Sennet crossed his arms. Served his brother right then, fucking a girl in his parents' tent. "We're up." Gippal said in a husky voice.
"No." The girl muttered and he heard the sheet move. "Not up."
Sennet's lip curled. She sounded like a sulky brat. The sheet moved again and she squeaked.
"Up."
"Gippal!"
His brother laughed. "Rikku." Sennet heard kissing and moaning. He left.
Mom looked up as he entered. Sennet scowled. "They're coming, as soon as they finish their make out session." He raised his voice. He wanted Rikku and Gippal to hear him.
His mother sighed. "Sennet." She murmured.
He could hear Rikku's laughter.
He scowled again. "You-"
"Give her a chance."
Sennet sat and fiddled with the corner of the cushion. "They were up half the night."
"Did they interrupt your sleep?" She asked as she dished out the food.
"No." Now he wished they had. She smiled. It was her knowing smile. Sennet stopped. "What?" He didn't like it when his mother had that smile.
Eli bounced into the room. "Is Rikku still here?"
Sennet started playing with the cushion again. It seemed some people didn't have any trouble remembering her name.
"She and your brother are dressing."
Eli sat down. "Do you think if I asked she'd show me how to do the coin trick?"
"She may not have time." She passed Eli a plate. "Hand that to your brother."
Sennet took the plate and stared down at the food. He wasn't hungry. "Party and run." He frowned and poked at it.
Eli's fork tapped against the glass. "She is from a different village. And Gippal comes and goes all the time."
It was perfect eleven-year-old logic. "You just like her."
"She's really cool. You should've seen her tossing big bro about and pulling coins out of nowhere. And she was really nice to Calla."
"You just have a crush on Calla."
Eli sputtered. "I do not!" He turned red.
"Do so."
"She's a girl." Eli made a face.
"Sennet, did you wake Sen?" His mother interrupted.
"She was up." He turned his attention back to Eli. "Of course she's a girl, which is why you like her. You wanna hold her hand and kiss on her." Like Gippal was to Rikku. Sennet inwardly frowned.
"Ewww, gross."
"Mornin' ma." Gippal entered, leaned down and kissed Aelwin's cheek.
"Did you sleep well?" Aelwin asked and handed him food.
"When they got to it." Sennet said.
Gippal's eyebrow rose. "Mornin' to you too, Sennet."
"Where's Rikku?"
"Sen wanted to have a girl chat. Girl speak and no boys allowed." Gippal picked his way over next to Eli. "I'm assuming she wanted to ask one of her favorite questions."
Sennet turned red.
"Which one's that?" Eli asked.
"When you're older, kiddo." Gippal sat down and ruffled Eli's hair.
Eli frowned. "I'm a big boy now. This is a sex thing, isn't it?"
"Or maybe not." Gippal said and picked up his fork without a single change of expression.
"Eli has a girlfriend too." Sennet said.
"I do not." Eli stabbed his fork at his plate.
Aelwin sighed and shook her head.
Sennet wasn't about to let the argument go. "Do so."
"Not."
"You love Calla."
"Do not."
Gippal spoke up. "Calla's cute."
Aelwin smiled. "She's a little young for you, Lil' Man."
"Plus, I'm taken." Gippal pointed at Aelwin with his fork.
"True."
"Rikku thinks Calla's cute too."
"Oh, too bad she has parents. You can't adopt." Sennet rolled his eyes.
"Sennet!" Aelwin said and frowned.
"Don't worry about it, Ma." Gippal smirked as he shoved food about his plate. "We can just have our own."
Sennet dropped his fork. "What!"
Eli's eyes went round but then he began to grin.
Gippal snickered. "Eat your breakfast, Sennet."
"That's not funny." Sennet protested. His fork had fallen into his food and fished it out.
"Who said I was joking?" Gippal asked. Sennet lost his grip on his fork and it clattered against the plate. Gippal snickered. "We aren't going to have kids right this minute."
"I want nephews and nieces." Eli nodded. "I wouldn't be the youngest anymore."
"Grandchildren would be nice." Aelwin nodded. "If Rikku's agreeable to the notion."
"Mom! Don't encourage him." Sennet groaned. Eli didn't know any better, but his own mother…
Gippal tilted his head and smiled. He looked at Aelwin and made a small nod, his eyebrow rose in smug satisfaction. Aelwin's eyes widened and she put her hand over her mouth to hide a smile.
Sennet closed his eyes. This wasn't happening. They weren't acting like Gippal was going to marry Rikku and have a family. His brother married. Sennet put his plate down away from him. No. That was just wrong.
"I hope you were done with that." Gippal said.
Sennet cracked his eyes. Rivet was bent over his plate, nose buried in the middle as he tried to get everything at once. "I was." He watched Rivet eat and refused to look at his older brother. He didn't feel like he knew him anymore and it was all Rikku's fault.
--
Sen was flopped over Gippal's bed and watched Rikku sitting on the floor as she brushed her hair up into a ponytail. "So did you two have sex?"
Rikku stopped mid stroke for a second. "What?"
"Well, I asked Gippal last night and he said no. Just, you two change by the hour and the answer might be different this time."
"It isn't." The brush rasped through the length of Rikku's hair.
"Why not?"
"Sen!" Rikku's eyes widened and she looked around the room. "Here? I want to be very loud and appreciative when we have sex and I can't do that here in his parents' tent. Plus, it's intruding on Aelwin's hospitality." She flushed. "She asked us to keep it down."
"But it'd be naughty and risky." Sen grinned.
Rikku dropped the brush and worked her hair through a hair band. "And I want to be loud."
"You could be loud."
"You're conveniently forgetting about Eli."
Sen sighed. "All right, I understand. Don't be kinky." She hooded her eyes. "You have a very nice hickey."
Rikku bit her lip and pressed her fingers to the bruise. "I hoped it wouldn't be so obvious."
Sen sighed and balanced her chin on her hands. "It'd be less obvious if you put make up over it."
"I didn't bring any."
"I saw you put lip color and kohl on." Sen kicked her legs in the air.
"I didn't bring any powder." Rikku rolled her eyes. "It's not something I carry."
"You should. All right, no sex. Tell me about the sexual behavior."
"It was nice and quiet."
"You don't have to hint." Sen pouted. "I just was curious."
"You're always curious."
"I just want you to be happy."
"We are."
"And to know absolutely everything."
Rikku's shoulder's sagged. "I-I want to have a little for myself, you know." She looked at her lap. "I've never done this before and you girls have all these boys and Gippal is mine, my only." She glanced up at Sen.
Sen looked away. Rikku made it sound like the other Tyibreha had boys by the dozens bringing them flowers and giving them presents and drawing their pictures and kissing and cuddling and holding hands. Her eyes hooded. Well, Rikku was the only one with a boyfriend. It wasn't the same. Having lots of boys and having a boy like Rikku had Gippal were different things. Talking to Rikku was the only way she could find out what it was like. So hopefully she'd recognize it when she experienced it. She forced a smile. "You have a 'little' to yourself, because you won't tell me anything."
"I do tell you things."
"It was quiet is not information, nor is nice. It leaves out whether or not you were having sex or just cuddling."
"We didn't have sex."
"Just cuddling then?"
Rikku fiddled with her bracelets. "And kissing and lots of touching." She flushed.
"See, that's better."
"Sen."
"What?"
"I'm hungry."
Sen rolled over. "Oh fine."
Rikku vaulted to her feet. "Candy doesn't last very long."
"Is there any left?" Sen sat up and looked around for the box.
Rikku grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. "It's Gippal's. Come on. Food."
Sen sighed and allowed Rikku to tug her out the door.
--
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