Chapter Five: Esbydeahla
"We're leaving in three minutes," muttered Gippal in irritation. "What's taking that girl so long?"
"I told her to bring more water this time," explained Paine. "Clearly what we had with us the last time we went down there wasn't enough."
"It's going to weigh us down. We'll be travelling more slowly... we might have difficulty defeating fiends."
"Shut up, Noojie," suggested Gippal in a friendly manner – or at least as friendly as he could manage, being extremely impatient. "So long as we don't run into that... 'Angry Mainthing', we'll be fine." He heard steps behind him and turned around, fully prepared to belittle Rikku for taking so long; but it was Baralai who emerged into the bridge, adjusting his headband and glancing around.
"Are we leaving yet?"
"Yes, Baralai," Gippal said in exasperated tones. "We're going down into the desert without water, and then whoever dies last is the winner." He pushed past him and headed towards the lift, determined to find out what that girl was up to.
Gippal knew, of course, that the sensible thing to do – and certainly the least hypocritical – would be to march straight up to Rikku as soon as he entered the Cabin, demand to know what in Spira was taking her so long, and take the water up himself.
Upon entering the room and seeing her engrossed in a book, clearly oblivious to his presence, his Plan Of Action was somewhat thrown. Common sense battled with his ever-present desire to seize upon a poking-fun-at-Rikku opportunity... and failed miserably.
And that was why – of course – Gippal wasted a further fifteen minutes standing quietly behind Rikku, machina weapon drawn, waiting to see how long it would take her to notice him.
Immediately following the blitzball game, the stadium was attacked. Dozens of fiends poured into the stands, and a number of Sahagin somehow entered the sphere itself, where they were disposed of by Wakka and the nameless young man from Zanarkand. Although they and the legendary Auron managed to defeat a number of the fiends, the true saviour of the people that day was Maester Seymour Guado... or so it appeared. For -
As Rikku turned the page, the glint of metal in her peripheral vision caught her attention. She turned... and found herself staring down the barrel of a gun.
Quite understandably, she shrieked in terror and fell off the packing case.
Seconds later, Gippal was disarmed and pinned against the wall, Rikku's daggers at his neck. She withdrew them when she realised who it was, then slowly retreated to a safe distance, eyeing him suspiciously. He rubbed the back of his head and glared at her.
"What was that for?"It was impossible to tell who asked it first, and neither seemed prepared to answer. Finally, Gippal burst out laughing. It took Rikku by surprise – it wasn't the most common reaction from people who were almost killed in error, after all.
"Okay," he managed at last. "Maybe I'm permanently crippled now, but that reaction was completely worth it."
She groaned. "That was a joke?"
" 'Course. You weren't hoping that it was actually an attempt on your life, were you?"
She rolled her eyes and sat down again, picking up her copy of The Legendary Pilgrimage: Maechen's Records of an Extraordinary Journey. "Okay, fine." When Gippal still didn't leave, Rikku cast about for something witty to say and came up with a petulant, "...Well... I'm glad I attacked you, too!"
He snickered. She glared. All in all, it was a regular conversation between the two Al Bhed adventurers.
"Anyway, I came down to pick up the water," Gippal said, after watching her for a moment. "You have been getting water for us, right?"
The words seemed to stir something in her; she frowned and mouthed 'have been getting' a couple of times. "Um, yeah, but..."
"Great. Where is it?"
"In the sacks, but... um... oh, yeah!" she said, remembering. "I got something for you and the other guys – wait a sec..." She rummaged in a box, then came out with what looked like a gun. "Here it is!"
Gippal examined it, frowning in confusion. "Um, Rikku... not that I don't appreciate this, but I already have a pretty good weapon."
"No, it's not a real gun. So now you, Nooj and Baralai can all aim at each other without being in any danger. You seem to do it a lot, so I thought..." She trailed off, noticing Gippal's expression. "...um, did I... say something weird?"
Gippal stared at her. When he spoke, his voice was quiet and serious and not like him at all. "...That's not funny, Rikku."
"Um -"
"You went into the... the Den of Woe, didn't you?" He almost winced as he said it, the memory of that place burned into his mind. "You attacked your friends, didn't you? Don't you know how much it hurts?"
(If this is what is takes.)
"Yeah, um... I'm sorry, I -"
"No, it doesn't really matter. Just – don't mention it again, okay?"
"Um, okay." Rikku seemed about to say something else, but then thought better of it. She passed him a couple of large sacks. Gippal glanced inside to check that the water bottles were actually in there – he wouldn't put it past Rikku to forget – but they passed the inspection.
"Thanks, Rikku." He turned to leave.
"Hey, have you kissed him yet?" she asked curiously. Gippal paused.
"Hmmm? Nah, not yet," he responded almost automatically, before realising what the girl had just said. "...Uh, wait. I think there might be a mix-up of pronouns here."
Rikku frowned, mock-thoughtful. "Really? Let's see... have you kissed him yet?" she repeated experimentally, putting special emphasis on the 'him'. "...no, seems fine to me."
Gippal stared at her in disbelief. At last he spoke, trying to keep his tone level and joking. "...Look, I - I don't know what you're accusing me of, but -"
She rolled her eyes. "Drop it, Gippal."
"You know?"
Rikku blinked up at him, her expression far too innocent. "Why, Gippal, I'm not sure I know what you're talking about. Could you please tell me this incredible secret? I'm sure that nobody could ever figure it out, seeing as you're always oh-so-subtle..."
Gippal groaned, managing - with admirable self-control - to prevent himself from thwacking his own (or perhaps Rikku's) head against the wall of the airship. "You never used to be this sarcastic. I always thought that Paine was a bad influence."
She shrugged. "It was pretty easy to figure out, really. You're obsessed with Baralai. I'm not blind, y'know."
He sighed, sitting down and leaning back against the cold metal of the cabin wall. "...I'm starting to think that Baralai might be. Why can't he realise?"
"Maybe you should tell him?"
"Heh. You've gotta be kidding."
"Why's that?"
" 'Cause he'd hate me."
"And, of course, he'll fall in love with you instantly if he figures it out because you keep flirting with him."
"...Shut up."
"I could help you, y'know. We've got the recording from that flying CommSphere in our database. I could invite him to a screening of Gippal's Finest Flirting Moments, and we can see if he figures it out."
"Shut. Up."
"Aww, c'mon! It'll be fun!"
Gippal buried his head in his hands. "I am not having this conversation with you." A thought struck him, and he looked a little surprised. "Wait a minute... you're okay with this?"
Rikku tilted her head, staring at him incredulously. "Bit slow, aren't you?"
"I just... can't believe you're okay with this. Didn't you have a crush on me?"
She flushed and quickly broke eye contact, transferring her attention to one of her braids. "...Maybe. But, uh, I don't think I can compete. Not really."
"With Baralai?"
Rikku shrugged awkwardly. "...He's cute."
"Yeah, but he doesn't have breasts."
"Banjand. Like that matters to you," she scoffed. Gippal sent her the best Evil Death Glare he could muster, and was annoyed to find that it was wasted – she still wasn't looking at him.
"Seriously, though..." he began.
Rikku interrupted him. "I mean... you really seem to care about Baralai, and stuff. And you care about me – I think – but I think that's more of a little sister thing, y'know?" She shook her head. "...It'd be nice if you'd fallen in love with me, but you haven't, and I've – I've got to deal with that. I'm not going to be all insanely jealous and stuff. I'm not a little kid anymore, right?"
Gippal was taken aback; he hadn't realised that Rikku had matured so much. Then again, he reasoned, she did save Spira. Twice.
She's been through a lot, and I guess it must've really affected her. Those people she mentioned – Auron and Tidus – they were her friends, and she lost them. It isn't just Yuna who's been hurt by all this.
...You should've thought of this before, Gippal, you idiot. Why didn't you talk about this to her earlier?
"...Sorry."
And that makes perfect sense as a response to the last thing she said.
It does. Kind of.
Sure. You know, Gippal... you talk to yourself too much.
Only way I can be sure of intelligent conversation. Well, that and Baralai.
You're thinking about him again. You're always thinking about him. Stop that and comfort Cid's girl, for goodness' sake!
He closed his eyes, leaning back against the wall. "...you're right. I'm... sorry." He mentally cursed his voice – somehow he couldn't sound as if he was taking the situation seriously. "I'm really sorry."
Brilliant.
Great, now I'm mocking myself. Does anyone not mock me?
Baralai?
That's not true – he laughs at me sometimes... and look, now I'm thinking about him again. SEE WHAT YOU'VE DONE? SEE IT?!
You would have started thinking about him anyway. Seriously, you can't blame all of your problems on your own thoughts. You can't distance yourself from your own thoughts by thinking in second person and then arguing with yourself.
...that's true. Shut up. Stop analysing me.
There you go again.
Gippal was startled out of his internal dialogue when Rikku began to laugh. This was not the reaction he had expected.
"Okay, I think I might've missed something here. What's so funny?"
She grinned cheerfully at him. "You don't have to apologise so much, y'know. I actually think that it's kind of cute."
"Cute?"
"I just think you'd make a pretty good couple."
Gippal stared at her, utterly astounded. "...Cute?"
"Abso-posi-you-better-believe-it," she said, in cheerful mockery of Gippal's words before the fight with Vegnagun. "You guys look great together. We saw some of those Spheres from your journey, remember?" She smirked and imitated his voice. " 'Got anythin' exciting planned?' ...I think I began to give up any hope of 'capturing your heart' aaaall the way back then, 'cause I thought that you and Baralai were just too cute."
Gippal groaned and began to beat his head rhythmically against the wall, ignoring Rikku's chirpy "Good luck with him!" to the best of his ability.