A/N: To clear up any confusion from the last chapter, Gippal did not sleep with Aulyne; he made a makeshift bed on the ground and slept next to her.

Nine Months
Chapter 26

She turns over and sees his figure across from her. Stopping to watch him sleep, wondering when he came back into the room. Knowing why he's balanced on the edge of the bed to avoid touching her. Wishing she hadn't said what she said earlier.

He's peaceful, where he sleeps. Smooth cheeks, closed eyes, deep breathes and messy hair. Perfect, to her, even in his anger and frustration, always perfect. Always perfect because although he's upset with her, he never leaves her side.

But she still feels saddened that he's on the extreme side of the bed, clearly marking a wide gap between them. She's been gone for a week without him beside her. And now that he is, she's still unable to lie within his arms, unable to feel his comforting embrace. But at least... at least he's there. And at least the gap between them isn't an ocean apart this time. Even though it feels further than an ocean, because she's close to him and not in his arms.

"I hate that I have nothing to offer you," she mumbles quietly. She listens to his deep breathing for a moment, wanting more than ever to touch him, to reach for his hand and feel him squeeze back, but she's too scared.

She says the words she's been holding in to keep from chasing him away, the words she's too afraid to say to him while he's awake and can look at her. And there's the possibility that he won't say them back. "I love you," she says, to his sleeping face. Something inside her tells her he loves her, too. That his problem is just saying it out loud.

She glances down, tracing circles on the bed. "That's all I can give you... love."

She bites her lip again and turns away, staring at the same spot on the wall that she often stared at after she lost the baby. The spot on the wall that means nothing and makes her think about nothing. Nothing except how life is ironic and how every time she feels empty, every time she loses something, she stares at this very spot as if it could give her the answer, as if it could fill her up and make her whole again.

He remembers that he's still mad at her. That's the first thing he remembers when he wakes up. But he opens his eyes and there's her face in the sunlight beside him. Her beautiful face in the sunlight. And that's the first thing he sees when he wakes up.

He turns himself around to get a better look at her, her skin a little red. He touches her shoulder lightly, realizing she's cold. Literally cold. Maybe he should've just knocked down the bedroom wall and built her a fireplace last night instead of causing an argument between them.

He thinks the comforter will just have to make do this time, so he takes his portion and overlaps it onto hers before slipping out of the bed and heading for the bathroom. He hopes his body heat will warm her up. It's the closest to a hug that he can give her.

She opens her eyes and feels warmer than before. Looks over at his spot and finds it quilt-less and empty. She curls up under the blankets for a moment, hugging her knees with a sigh before setting her warm feet on the cold floor. She pulls a sweatshirt on over her head and glances at the bathroom door. And even though he covered her up... she walks out the bedroom door and makes her way down the stairs to the kitchen. Because there's no way he's still making her breakfast. And she wouldn't've let him, anyways.

He spends more time shaving this morning. Takes a little extra care in combing and adding gel to his hair. He even brushes his teeth a second time. But when he leaves the bathroom and finds that she's not in the bed, he's more at ease. But not really. She's still somewhere in the temple, and he doesn't like the thought of accidentally running into her and going through an awkward moment. He thinks he'll just ignore her if that happens. Wait for her to make the first move because he knows he'll say something stupid if he does it first.

She sits in his office, sorting applications as she eats her cereal. She didn't want to eat in the kitchen, because he usually stops in there first. And he usually doesn't make it down to his office for another hour and a half or so. She thinks she'll get everything sorted before he shows up, so she doesn't have to deal with him.

He skips breakfast – a rarity for him, but he'd rather an empty stomach than a hot head if he runs into Rikku in the kitchen. He spends the majority of his morning in the workrooms, rolling up his sleeves and digging into a heavily wired, spark flying hover. He splits up the group that had been working on it to different stations, finishing the project himself. Fixing the problems himself.

She takes over for the young man at the hover station at the corner of the Highroad in the early afternoon. She knows he usually stays at this junction until well after dark, and he hasn't taken a day off in quite awhile.

"You sure? I don't mind staying... I mean, there's stuff I can do at home, but... are you sure?" he asks, already peeling off his work gloves and goggles.

"Yeah! Go, I've got things here. You work hard every day, don't stress." She grins and waves him off, leaning against the cliff-side as she waits for the rare traveler to ask for a hover transport. She's glad she found such an out of the way spot. There's no way Gippal'll run into her out here. He doesn't ever stop the working, after all. And work only goes as far as the stone bridges.

He works rigorously within the first few hours, many workers having already sensed his sour mood and avoided asking him too many questions. He hasn't gotten much accomplished, though, which tells him perhaps he's not as concentrated as he thinks he is.

He hears a pair of heels walking across the stone floors from his position underneath the hover, and he glances out momentarily to meet with a pair of nice, long, tanned legs. Aulyne.

"Hey," she tells him, leaning down to look at him. "I'm going now, okay?"

He hesitates for a moment before recalling that he had approved of her taking a week off a few days ago. He looks toward the small suitcase behind her, and then at the flirty summer dress she's got on.

"...Remember?"

"Yeah," he says quickly, forcing out a chuckle. He turns back to concentrate on the pipes. He decides not to tell her about the small stain on the rear of her dress as he hears her footsteps leave the room.

Rikku sighs heavily as she sees Aulyne approaching... looking gorgeous, as usual. She glances down at her work clothes and then brushes her messy hair out of her eyes, suddenly feeling self-conscious. And then she gives Auyne the sweetest, fakest smile as she walks up, heels clicking on the stone pathway. "Where to?"

"What are you doing here?" Aulyne asks, stopping when she sees Rikku.

"Needed a break from the office and the hover guy had to go home."

"Oh." Both of them are quiet as Aulyne sets her suitcase in the carrier on the back of the hover. "Moonflow. The pier."

"Alrighty!"

And it's suddenly a little awkward as the two of them climb on the back. A little awkward since neither of them are really speaking to each other. A little awkward because as Aulyne walks away, Rikku calls after her.

"Hey, uh, Aulyne? You got a little stain... right there... yeah." And she points to her rear before driving off.

Gippal eats a part of Zy's sandwich when the worker isn't looking. Without Aulyne around, there's nothing to eat. And not talking to Rikku means no salty potatoes either. He could go into the kitchen and make something for himself but he doesn't exactly feel like using his newly learnt cooking skills after last night's argument. He could order out instead. But then that would lead to an uncomfortable situation if Rikku finds out he didn't order anything for her. And if he does decide to order for her, she may take it as him making the first move to apologize. And that's not something he's planning on doing for some time.

That's how he justifies eating out of Zy's lunchbox. But he provides compensation for the guy afterwards by letting him leave early.

She walks into the front door, turning down the long corridor toward the supply room. The hover station is out of spare energy packs, and she wants to make sure that it's well stocked the next morning. She goes inside and pulls the boxes out, setting them on the hover station cart. She catches herself thinking about how she might as well be in Bikanel, for all the contact she's had today, but she pushes it aside. Even if they aren't talking, it's still nice to be in Djose. Even though it's cold, and dark, and dank... because he's here. Even though they haven't spoken or seen each other since the previous night. She shuts the door quietly behind her, walking slowly down the corridor.

And as she glances into one of the workrooms, there he is. Her back to her... talking to Yelina. She watches for a moment as the girl shifts her weight from foot to foot, placing a hand on her hip, blowing her bangs out of her eyes flirtatiously. Tries not to watch as he eats it all up in stride instead of turning away like a good boyfriend should, in her opinion. And then she shakes her head and walks away quickly, her anger rekindling.

She takes the stairs two at a time, but stops when she hears her name echo through the entry hall. When she turns, she spots Lianna, one of the few Yevonite girls at the Faction. "Can I help you?" she asks, voice uncertain because she hardly ever talks to the other clerics. She's better with the guys and wires, not girls and nail polish.

"Well, uh... we're having a Faction girlie night... dinner and a romantic comedy. You wanna come? We're meeting in an hour!"

And Rikku stares at her for a moment, thinking back to Aulyne in her little dress that afternoon. And she smiles, nodding her head. "That'd be great!"

Yelina touches his shoulder lightly before walking away, and Gippal struggles to hold in a heavy sigh until she's completely gone. He has too much of a gentle heart around girls these days, he thinks. And the workers have taken notice, as well as taken advantage of it. But after his sandwich incident this afternoon, he supposes letting another worker out early can't be so bad. Maybe Rikku was right about him working too much, and perhaps working his own Faction members too much too.

Still, he doesn't think that a girl's night out qualifies as a good reason to leave the temple early. But he's actually looking forward to finishing up work on Yelina's assembly. He's already finished with the previous hover, and needs something else to busy himself with.

By the time he's disassembled the entire contraption Yelina had made a mess of, the temple is nearly empty, as well as his stomach. He can feel sweat trickle down the side of his face as he struggles to unscrew a bolt Yelina had nailed on the wrong end. A while later, he gives up and sends the rest of the machine to be melted.

He's tired by now, and feeling a little weak from the hunger. He peels off his shirt as he makes his way back upstairs, smiling to himself when he feels a rush of cool air on his skin from one of the open windows.

As she zips the back of the dress up, she wonders what the hell she's doing, getting all dressed up to go out with a bunch of girls when she never really gets prettied and glittery when she goes out with Gippal.

"Then again, he's only really taken me out twice, hasn't he?" she asks herself bitterly, smoothing the dress over her stomach, pulling it down because she thinks it's tad too short. "And since when is anything too short for me? What am I, a prude? When did that happen?!"

She carefully goes through her make-up bag, setting all the appropriate brushes out on the counter in a line. With a deep breath, she taps the base color brush into the powder, flicking it over her cheek bones uncertainly. Blush follows, and finally, a setting powder. She highlights her eyes with a rich brown color, and as an afterthought puts some green highlights into the decor to match her eyes and her dress. She's shocked when she looked at her porcelain face in the mirror, and she quickly shoves all the brushes and jars back into the bag so she isn't tempted to experiment with the colors some more.

The iron feels awkward in her hands as she tries to get the back of her head. "Oww!" she cries, flinching and sticking her hand under the faucet. "Damn thing... why's it have to get so hot?" She thinks she's fried a few chunks of hair by the time she's done, but it's curled, and that's all she cares about.

She set's the curling iron down on the counter, spraying her hair into place. With a bit of confusion, she fumbles around with her lipstick. She's not sure if the shade of red she's selected looks good on her, but her lips pop, and she supposes that's okay. She steps back and looks at herself in the mirror. Sees how her heels accentuate her calf muscles, makes her already long legs look even longer. She feels uncomfortable in heels, though she knows how to walk in them without problems. She's even painted her fingers and toenails green to match her dress, and as she blows on them, waiting for them to dry, she grins to herself. For the first time in a long while, she feels like she could knock someone dead with a smile. And that's exactly what she plans on doing.

She grabs her purse and a knitted shrug from the closet before rushing out the door, because she wants to be on time. She hasn't bonded with any women in a while, and even if it isn't Yuna, Lulu, and Paine... she thinks it's time she got out of the temple. Especially since she's still mad at Gippal and she doesn't want to spend an entire evening cooped up in their bedroom, silent or bickering about stupid things. She closes the door softly behind her, turning toward the stairway.

She doesn't let the shock show on her face when she sees Gippal in front of her. She doesn't let her eyes wander over his bare chest either. She simply flicks her curly hair over her shoulder, smiles what she hopes is a killer smile, though it wavers just a bit, and saunters past him with a confident stride, silently thanking Yuna for all those hours practicing high heel walking as she steps onto the stairs. Smirking because she's positive she doesn't have a stain on her ass.

It's been nearly three hours since she's gone, and he starts to wonder if she's skedaddled off to Bikanel, married the first guy to take notice of the cleavage revealed underneath her dress, and got him to build her a fireplace.

He takes another swig of the wine bottle. The good wine this time because if Rikku's out having a blast at some noisy, cramped up, pervert-filled nightclub, then the least he can do is try and make himself unaware of it. Although, perhaps it's not working so well if he's sitting in the bedroom and staring at a picture of them on the nightstand.

But it's not like it's a great picture or anything anyway. He's not even awake in it. She'd taken it early in the morning without him knowing. Stole a camera from his desk, snuggled up close to him. She'd kissed his cheek as she looked into the lens with a mischievous glitter in her eyes. Then again, he was the one who played around with fire and metal and made a frame for the picture. She really liked it then.

He takes another swig and whoops-! There goes another bottle finished. He's probably not gonna be feeling so upbeat tomorrow morning. But what's it matter, anyway, because he wasn't feeling so cool before this anyway. After he'd seen her strut down right past him – as if he'd just been another stone brick on the wall. Was she really that mad at him?

He walks out of the room, slowly down the steps – and maybe tripping once or twice – before reaching the main floor. His footsteps echo throughout the temple, which is completely empty now with Aulyne gone. He sighs, leaning against one of the temple columns and sliding down to sit on the ground. Staring at the closed temple doors. If Rikku comes in right this moment and sees him like this, she'll think he has apologized. That he's completely and pathetically fallen apart at the sight of her moving on while he's still miserable over their fight. So he forces himself up, and makes his way into the workroom, and sits down there instead.

She bids the other girls goodbye at the split to the highroad and the temple. They had a fun night, talking about the various problems they were having with their men. When Rikku had told her story about their fight and passing him in the hall (after a few drinks, of course) all the women had been rolling with laughter. And as she walked a bit tipsily up the stone path to the front doors of the temple, she thought that it had been a highly successful evening. She'd been hot and fun.

It takes her a few minutes to get upstairs, what with her slightly tipsy situation and her unwillingness to bring down her good mood by seeing Gippal. But when she walks into the room and he's not there, she's both slightly glad and a bit pouty. Because she still looks hot, and she wants him to see it. Again.

She notices the wine bottle sitting by the picture on the nightstand. One of the nice ones, the ones he always wanted to 'save for a special occasion'. She picks it up, laughing a little when she sees that it's empty. And she sighs, knowing he won't be too far. She leaves the room after taking her heels off and putting fuzzy slippers on, instead, and she walks down the stairs, holding tightly to the rail.

With a sigh, she calls out his name, checking all the workrooms. He's in the one she saw him talking to Yelina in that afternoon. Passed out on the floor near a worktable. With a sigh, she kneels next to him, nudging him lightly. The first contact she's had with him in about twenty-four hours now. And she tells herself that she's not forgiving him... just making sure he'll get a good night's sleep so he can feel every ounce of his hangover in the morning. "Gippal, come on..."

Eventually, she gets him to wake up enough so that he can stand up. She puts an arm around his waist, draping one of his over her shoulder as she guides him in his exhaustion and intoxication to the couch in the game room. He passes out the moment his head hits the pillow, and she grabs a spare blanket to tuck him in before heading back up to the room, satisfied with her actions.

A/N: We hoped you enjoyed this chapte!. Our forum, The Faction, now features 'deleted scenes' from this story if you're interested (check bio for link). It is under "Screw ups" on the forum. And thank you everyone for your feedback and encouragement, please keep it coming!