Tension. What was that saying again? ...There was so much tension in the room that you could cut it with a knife.
It was really starting to unnerve me.
Usually I'm the epitome of cool, calm, and collected, but when you have six people standing in front of you staring in shock, mouths gaping open, and all you have is one pillow to cover your more intimate parts, you'd start to crack. I would have gathered the sheets on the bed and cover myself more, but somehow I don't think Rikku would appreciate it. Jumping back into the bed was out of the question.
Eyes darted around the room, still trying to assess the situation. I could feel three pairs of eyes on me - the High Summoner was staring at me with astonishment, Paine's were something akin to amusement, and Brother's...Brother's glare was, simply put, made me want to hide and cower behind the Al Bhed girl beside me and call for 'Mommy'.
Oh boy. He was pissed.
I was starting to sweat under his defiant stare, and subconsciously tried to press the pillow closer against my front, as if it would cover it more. You'd think I would want to grab the other pillow on the bed, but somehow Brother's fierce look told me to stay put and none of my body parts should come within five feet of his little baby sister, otherwise something would be amputated.
My eyes were looking everywhere but Brother and Rikku. The ceiling, the walls, the door...the door looked pretty good right now. Maybe if I ran fast enough, I'd be able to make it out of here and run for my life.
Hah. As if.
As I was contemplating other ways to get out of here, a vaguely familiar blonde stepped up. Have I seen him from somewhere...? Blonde hair, blue eyes, with clothes of a blitzball player. Now that I think about it, he does sorta look like that Shuyin guy...but Shuyin's already been reunited with that Lenne girl. Hmmmm.
His mouth started to open, wanting to say something. I suppose he's going to be our icebreaker, is he? He'd better say something smart. Something not to make the situation worse.
Unfortunately, had I known who he was, his naïveté, and his darn habit of saying the worst things and the wrong time, I would've shut him up. I probably would've said something before him. Or maybe I would've just run away, taking my chances with that door.
"So..." the blonde-haired guy said casually, "Rikku's finally got herself a man, does she?"
And then all hell broke lose.
---
Bittersweet
Chapter Two: The Aftermath
---
A strangled "Whaaat?!" from Rikku on my side, Brother lunging for my neck, the High Summoner slapping that blonde guy upside the head, that same guy cowering on the floor, Paine standing off to the side with a hint of a smile on her face, Buddy trying to restrain Brother, a little Al Bhed kid laughing next to Paine, and ten seconds later, I was still trying to find my voice in all of this mess. Getting alarmed of the threatening glare Brother was sending me and aware of the growing headache that was throbbing in my temples, I merely sat down on the bed (because I don't think I really had anything to worry about since Buddy and Paine were restraining Brother now), and clutched my head in my hands.
"Fryd dra ramm ec kuehk uh?!" (What the hell is going on?) Brother shouted. I felt Rikku bring up the sheets closer to her face before going under and hiding herself from view. I sighed. I guess that left me to answer.
"Uhhh..." I began. "It's not what it looks like?"
"Well it looks like you and Rikku had a little fun last night..." the blonde guy said. Man, I really need to figure out who this guy was and shut him up!!
"Tidus!" Yuna yelled in exasperation, throwing her hands up in the air. "You're not exactly making things better right now!"
"...Tidus?" I whispered. Sounds he possibly be-
Rikku's head popped up from the sheets for a split second. "Tidus was one of Yuna's guardians on her pilgrimage, Gippal." she said. Oh, so Cid's Girl does speak!
I turned to glare at her. "You could be helping me out here, you know!"
She tried to give me the puppy eyes. Unfortunately for her, I was one of the few people who could actually refuse that look. "Well you're Mr. Big Guy, I figured you could handle it all yourself with your smart wit and great thinking skills..."
Flattery was not going to work. Before I could answer her however, Brother managed to escape Buddy and Paine's grip and rush over to us. His face was in front of mine, blocking my view of Rikku and disrupting my conversation with her, in two seconds flat. "E's kuehk du gemm oui..." (I'm going to kill you...) he said harshly.
I scratched my head nervously. "Eheheh..." I weakly chuckled. "Nice to know..."
Jeez, where did all my confidence go to? All my manly-machoness? That bad-ass reputation that I worked so hard for? I sound like a bubbling, cowering idiot for goodness sakes!
"Uhh...Brother?" Rikku said. Brother's face turned around, and then he started to stare at her. I could see her trying to back down from it. Brother was really intimidating today...
"Fryd dra ramm fana oui drehgehk Rikku?!" (What the hell were you thinking Rikku?) Brother angrily said. "Gippal...uv ymm baubma?!" (Gippal...of all people?!)
"Hey!" I yelled, insulted. "I resent that!"
The look in his eye as he turned back to me told me to shut up. Rikku also tilted her head at me so she could glare at me. So she was going to try to reason with him? Finally...the only people who could try to rationalize with him have been her and Cid.
"In case you've forgotten Brother," Rikku spoke, "I'm an adult now. I can do whatever I want!"
Fru cyoc oui'na yh ytimd?!" (Who says you're an adult?!) Brother replied.
"Have you forgotten what I've helped do for Spira? Sin and Vegnagun? I don't think a mere teenager could've done what I did!"
Brother actually backed down for a moment. A moment was the keyword. "That may be true," Brother replied in his heavy accent, going back to the English language. That meant Rikku was getting somewhere with him. Maybe I can get out of the unscathed? "But you can't just find anyone random and screw with them!"
"Well actually," Tidus said, chipping in his two cents. "That is actually called casual se-"
"Tidus!" Yuna said.
The blonde sent a floppy grin the High Summoner's way. "Shutting up now..."
"Hu E lyh'd!" (No I can't!) Rikku screeched, losing her patience, completely ignoring Yuna and Tidus. Oh crap...Rikku only speaks Al Bhed when she's really really angry. "E lyh'd zicd veht y nyhtus bancuh du synno yht E tet dryd zicd veha uh so ufh!" (I can't just find a random person to marry and I did that just fine on my own!)
The room fell silent. It seems like the only person who didn't know what was going on was that Tidus fellow. Yuna and Paine, with their mouths hanging open, stared at Rikku like she had grown two more heads. Buddy and Shinra suddenly seemed more interested in where this conversation was going. Brother's eyes were hastily going back and forth between me and Rikku, in shock. It seems like he was waiting for a denial from me...but it never came. Rikku looked away from everyone's stares, tears threatening to spill in anger.
When the silence went on for a little too long for comfort, that darned blonde spoke, still confused at the situation. "Okay..." he said. "Someone wanna fill me in with the story?"
I sighed audibly. Noticing how rigid and stiff Rikku had become and still wary of Brother's gaze on me, I decided to speak. "Yesterday," I said slowly, "I was coming from Djose by means of the Mi'ihen Highroad to take a break from the Machine Faction for a while...and I saw Rikku on that terrace right after the stairs."
Brother looked to Rikku for confirmation, who nodded her head stiffly in reply. "We went to a bar to kinda...catch up and ended up being drunk off our asses...and I guess we found wandered to some chapel nearby...and got married."
"Ev drec ec y zuga, oui lyh cdub huf," (If this is a joke, you can stop now) Brother said cautiously. "Ed'c hud vihho." (It's not funny.)
Rikku looked about ready to cry. I wanted to do something to help her, but it didn't seem possible with Brother standing there. Suddenly, her façade changed into a more collected one. "Get out," she said calmly and suprisingly even.
"Rikku-" Brother said desperately.
"Go." she demanded.
Brother looked like he was about to say something, but Paine interrupted him. "Let's go," she said to everybody. "Let's talk about this later with we're all sane." She then ushered everybody out of the room and then dragged Brother out of the room.
Before completely exiting the room, Tidus turned to me. Giving me a two-thumbs up he said, "Good luck Guppy!"
Maybe he was really stupid, or maybe I could excuse him because my name was said only about two times this morning, but I wasn't about to forgive anyone for calling me that. That name's been haunting me ever since my Al Bhed childhood days. Teased relentlessly by the guys...laughed at by the girls...brought back bad memories.
"The name's Gippal," I said, stopping myself before I continued and called him 'Dipshit'.
The High Summoner just sighed and proceeded to grab his ear and haul him the rest of the way out.
---
Once everyone was gone, Rikku let out a long, deep breath. I turned to look at her. "Hey...you okay?"
I walked over to the other side of the bed, where Rikku was. She looked up at me and gave me a small smile. "As okay as I'll ever be..."
I sat down on the bed next to her, still extremely conscious of the pillow that hid just one thing. "We've gotten ourselves into a huge mess, huh?"
She laughed. "Yeah..."
After that, we just sat there in a long and uncomfortable silence. I didn't know what to say to her, and I don't think she knew what to say to me either. Seconds ticked by, and we still had no idea what to do. We didn't exactly want to go out there and face the world...we had no idea what we would do.
Rikku sat next to me, nibbling on her bottom lip, contemplating things and ideas in her head. I just sat there and stared at the wall. What a...nice...wall it was...
Suddenly, out of nowhere, her hand came up and smacked me upside the head. "H-hey! What was that for?"
"I've decided that I'm mad at you," Rikku replied, content with herself. "Now get out of this room!"
"Get out?! What are you talking abou-" I was promptly interrupted when Rikku stood up, still clutching the sheets to her body, dragged me to the door, opened it, and shoved me into the hallway. "What do you think you're doing!?"
"I told you to get out!" she exclaimed. "Good bye hubby!" With that, she slammed the door in my face.
"Open up the door, dear wife," I hastily replied, banging on the door roughly.
Several people passed me by in the hallway, noticing my state of undress. I laughed nervously at them, trying to play it off. What a great morning this was...
"Rikku!" I yelled, trying to get her attention from behind the door. After three more hard knocks, I decided to give up.
I sighed. Where could I get some clothes?!
---
A/N: Ack!! Sorry about the long wait - I had a little trouble in writing this chapter. You see, I kinda take a while to write things because I'm a perfectionist --;;
I thought I'd try to alternate POVs every chapter - Rikku to Gippal to Rikku and etc. Like the idea? Or would you like this to be the only Gippal-oriented chapter? Sometimes I feel when I write both Rikku and Gippal, they're kinda OOC. =/
And now for the reviewer response
x Dreamin Of You x: I'm glad you like the story so far. Thanks for being my first reviewer! Hope this is soon enough...kinda anyways.
miyazawakano: Does it really seem like something our beloved couple would do? I just thought it'd be fun to write XD Thanks for adding me to your favorites list! I'm honored.
cutekitty2: Thanks for your compliment. I'm glad you like that it's different - most of the RxG fics I've read is that Cid's the one who's arranged the marriage, or something along that line...and I figured what the heck? What if they were married in the first place?
Anna: Glad you like the story. Sorry about the 'update soon' part though...
Id: You're right, Spira might not even have a legal drinking age at all. Good for me!
GCLover: I'm happy that you love it. Here's the second part - hope you enjoyed it.
RingPrincess: I'm glad you feel that I've caught their characters - sometimes I feel like I'm writing them OOC.
Al bhed Princess: Here's part two - I've continued! Rikku wasn't there at the whistling scene. Oh well. Whoops...
i won't tell: Glad you like it. Happy reading
gothic-rikku: Is the bust by Brother and Tidus good enough? Okay, so maybe it was all Brother, but Tidus provided the comedic relief. Good right?
Kiwifroot: Thanks! Here's my update.
Keep them reviews coming! ;]