The Adjacency of Ones
Inside, Outside, Upside-Down
The colossus Vegnagun held a presence untouched by any other thing in Bevelle. Though no one was aware of it, the enormous machina commanded a devout following of scientists and officials who marveled over the creation they had brought. With the power to destroy even the vilest of enemies, Vegnagun would be the tool to bring Zanarkand to its knees.
At least, that was what Dr. Tunel felt whenever he stared up into the demonic visage of his greatest creation. Standing with the rest of his team in the midst of their secret facility just adjacent the holy temple at Djose, they all took great pleasure in presenting the weapon to the war council. Applause rang through the caverns and a thousand workers celebrated the achievement of their name. Dr. Tunel stood before them all and raised his hands, hoping to get another moment to gloat.
"You have all participated in the greatest work ever done in the name of Bevelle. Our creation will prove that no other people are as strong as we and that not even Zanarkand can stand against us. Let them send their summoners and warriors against us! We will crush them and Bevelle shall rule all lands!"
The applause nearly overwhelmed the caves, filling each passageway with echoes and shadows. Equipment was being stored, workers being moved and, slowly but surely, the massive cave began to appear more and more like a cave and less like a laboratory. Dr. Tunel's work would never be forgotten, for his name would now live on in history as Bevelle's greatest mind. For this, he could not begin to douse his smile.
Stepping down and coming back to the council, he tucked his hands behind his back and simply beamed within his own name. "As promised, we have delivered the most powerful weapon ever built. From the construction of the infrastructure to the infusion of a thousand of the most powerful fiends, this has been my dream and my nightmare. However, I now stand here...a completed man." The aggressive speech was met with a few soft chuckles, a few off-handed remarks about lost lives and lost wives but then with the stern face of business.
A warrior monk stepped forward and fell undaunted by the splendor of the moment. Dr. Tunel addressed him with his eyes, then sighed and turned to him fully. The monk was very stiff about that. "Your accomplishment is noted, doctor, but now we must set into motion the wheels of Zanarkand's destruction."
With a snap of his finger, recoils ripped through the caves as soldiers in uniforms mimicking the monk's fell into the cave and began to massacre the workers. Cries of agony and horror fell as nothingness across the stoic face of Vegnagun and blood soaked into the ground. When the last recoil fell silent, Dr. Tunel gasped across the floor of the cave, lost upon the sea of dead bodies. Only one shadow slipped away into the caves and set in motion the foundation of a fore-sought story.
The future had not happened yet and it seemed Dr. Tunel's future was bleak at best. In a fit of rage, he turned to the monk, his fists clenched in fury. "You bastard! This is an outrage!"
What he was met with was the barrel of a gun being lifted to his face, its black eye staring down at him with the utmost indifference. "Bevelle thanks you for your work, doctor, but no one must learn of this colossus. Sleep well knowing that your creation will do exactly what it was designed to," the monk said quietly and pulled the trigger. The single pop which followed sealed the name of Tunel away forever, but something that would not settle was released. A howl of wind and a burst of cold would not settle over the bodies of the dead and the war council felt ill in the sound they heard next.
The shifting of metal and stone signaled the life infused into Vegnagun, reacting to the death of its creator, and tentacles of metal began to move. Pyreflies began to lift from the dozens of dead bodies and circle, as if dancing to the tune of carnage that had marked the last moment of their lives. The members of the council lingered only a moment as the machina shifted more, making a run towards the exit of the caves. Leaving a writhing, mourning beast in its den, the warrior monk stopped at the ingress of the cavern, looking back inside at it.
An aide lingered a moment as well, horrified at the sight. "What do we do, sir?"
The monk snorted, showing no deterrent in his eyes and no reluctance in his voice. "If it takes me a thousand men and a thousand men more, I will get that weapon to Bevelle. I will return for you," he lulled with a final casting of eyes on Vegnagun, and then disappeared into the light, leaving the screams of a hundred souls to pad the walls in which a solitary machina lived.
Rikku fell back onto her backside and stared almost aimlessly into the projection. The last image she saw was a wild Vegnagun inside the caverns and the bodies lying around it. Afterwards, the person recording the sphere fled along with the council, ending the history set in the red sphere. Even after the images stopped, she still stared at the space like it was showing over and over in her mind. Never had she guessed that the creation of Vegnagun, who now lived on only as a memory itself, would have been immersed in such hues of red and black. Though she had felt nothing when she had helped to destroy the beast, she suddenly felt a seeded remorse at the gray figures that had created such a horrible creation.
"Huh, didn't expect to find anything like that down here," Gippal said as he leaned his head back against the stone, taking a bit of pressure off of his torso. He had suspected the Vegnagun had been created under some jaded circumstances, but seeing the death of entire workforce all in the name of Bevelle was more than even he had wanted to see. "I guess that either Nooj," he began again as Tau ejected the sphere into his hand, "or Baralai will want this."
Rikku, who slowly drew Tau into her arms and hugged the cool machina into her chest, stared quietly at the stone floor of the cavern, almost envisioning the red blood flowing as it did over a thousand years ago. Her understanding of people who created such horrible weapons was threadbare, to say the least. Her heart had always told her that machina helped people, not killed them. Instinctually, she hugged Tau a bit tighter and spoke to Gippal without raising her eyes. "Can we just forget that we found it, Gippal?" With shock brimming on his face, he looked to her past the red sphere, not quite expecting to hear such a thing from a sphere hunter. However, he found such a look on her face, one stewing in her swirled green eyes and causing a frown to betray her good nature, and let out a belated sigh.
Without any question, Gippal let the sphere slip from his hand and to the stone floor, the red orb rolling between baby stalagmites and cracks in the rock until it slipped into shadows once more and faded from existence once more. The sounds of chiming impacts marked its further descent into an unknown portion of the cave.
"Come on, Rikku. Let's go back."
The entire way back, Rikku had been preoccupied with what she had seen on the sphere; so much, in fact, that she had failed to see Gippal dragging his Mortar along instead of lugging it on his shoulder as he always did. Gippal was quiet as well, but only because he didn't really have much to offer Rikku about the past of Spira. People died everywhere in the wake of hatred lying stagnant in the hearts of all. Wars were fought and cities were demolished all while babies cried and lovers wept. That was nothing new.
However, upon reaching the lift, Gippal caught her arm and pulled her to a stop, breaking whatever trance she had been in. "Listen, what happened in there was a thousand years ago. We all know that Bevelle has never played nice and that bad people exist everywhere. But," he cooed at her and smiled as straightforward as he could, "I also know that there are some pretty great people in the world too. There will always be a Yuna or a Nooj to make sure the world doesn't totally suck, right? Hey, there may even be a few Rikkus to keep everyone smiling. What we saw on that sphere won't go any further than us, okay?"
There was nothing more comforting than the warm, consoling words of someone held close to the heart and Rikku felt the heavy burden by the memories in her head lifting away like a fog. It was another thing which made Rikku uncontrollably drawn to Gippal – his ability to make the world seem just a little bit better than it already was.
"Thanks, Gippal."
The ride up was entirely a different mood than the ride down. Rikku bobbed back and forth on her feet, still picking over Tau as if she could unlock the magic locked within. However, this time there was something lighter about her; something unburdened by worry. She had emerged from caves with no new horror stories about Gippal and all workers accounted for. Gippal seemed pleased at their accomplishment and new light began to shower across her shoulders and head as they neared the top of the lift. She had never been so happy to see the inside of a temple again.
Gippal only took a moment at the top of the lift to calm down the workers, one of which who was being treated for injuries caused by the fiend. Gippal did cause a stir among the workers as he officially designated the caverns off limits. Though he didn't offer any explanation, the lift was powered down at the entrance to the caverns was to be sealed.
Rikku smiled at the swift action which was brought by the orders of her senior Al Bhed. Sometimes she forgot that the cool, carefree boy that she had grown up with was now the leader of one of the largest groups of Al Bhed in Spira. That kind of authority could cause a girl to get giddy.
"Come on. You can clean up in my pad," Gippal quipped as he headed through the temple. Rikku followed, though she still was busying herself with her new toy. Before she could let her attention wander from Tau, she found herself in a single room in the upper levels of the temple. By the messy state and the random machina parts everywhere, she assumed it was Gippal's personal room. It caused her to smirk.
"You always had a messy room. I would think being the big, bad leader of the Machine Faction, you could at least afford a maid."
"Huh, and I was hoping you'd take the job," he replied and walked over to a solitary stand near his surprisingly simple bed. Laying the Mortar against it and locking it in place, he let out a deep sigh of relief and ran a hand across his ribs. It was the first time Rikku noticed that their fight with the Adamantortoise took a bit more out of him than she thought. "There's a shower in the next room. No one will bother you up here," he said, interrupting her blatant stare. Without saying much else, he turned as if to head out the door and back down to work.
However, Rikku stood in his way with a defiant hand to his chest. "Hold it right there. Are you okay, Gippal?" she demanded and poked her finger into his chest.
"Worried about me?"
"Well, duh! Of course I'm worried about you, you dope. Let me see what's wrong."
Gippal smirked and chuckled through a false smile, not moving at all to leave or to show her his injuries. "I'll be fine. Besides, you'd have to take my shirt off to see it." Now his smile became very real; a taunting, devious smile as he watched her eyes bulge a bit. Knowing just far Rikku would go in this little game, he stood there, letting her have full access to him. This was him daring her.
Rikku now felt a new kind of fear in her chest; a fear which she hadn't felt for a while in Gippal's presence. She knew that he knew just how flustered he made her, so this little dare he was putting before her really ticked her off. He didn't think she would do it! Deep down, she didn't think she would either. However, with her heart racing in her ears and her fingers shaking, she reached up and began unfastening the garments which covered Gippal's shoulders. Though his smile never broke, she knew that he was sure of where she would stop this. Even as a red blush was burning across her cheeks, she continued to work on the garments until they fell the floor behind him. By this time, sweat was glistening on her skin and her hands felt as if they were going to fail her at anytime. Still, he smiled at her. Damn his smile.
"Well, you're almost there," he lulled and tilted his head a bit. In his mind, she would never go any further because she was still just a little girl who blushed every time he winked in her direction. He still had her where he wanted her.
The remark caused her eyes to narrow and a sour expression to come to her. Rikku snorted lightly at him ruining what atmosphere had begun to form, but she also knew that he was just playing some stupid game with her. Well, she wouldd show him just how much she had grown up. With a bit more confidence, she twisted a bit and took the glove off his left hand, leaving it bare and revealing the sleeve that was tucked into it. She had almost forgotten how soothing his hands were, though she didn't allow herself to linger on it too long. Without breaking stride, she twisted back and pulled at the other, biting at her lower lip as her fingers ran across his. With a simple tug, she pulled the glove off and dropped it to the ground. Now came the hard part. Still trying to live with the unruly pace her heart was beating at and the sweat she could feel cooling her skin, she faced him straight on and lifted her hands to his midsection. At first, she awkwardly tugged at the shirt, trying to get it untucked. It even caused him to snicker a bit, but an annoyed look up from her ceased any more laughter. Finally, the lip of his shirt broke from his pants and she hesitantly slipped her fingers up under his shirt.
The feel of his stomach under her fingers only furthered just how fast her heart was beating and how visibly her abdomen was breaking and swelling under her breath. His stomach too caved a bit at the feel of her hands, but she could no longer force herself to look up at him. Her face was beet red. Yet, she continued on and slid her hands apart under his shirt, pulling the bottom lip up completely from his pants. By now she could feel the warmth churning in her body and she could no longer control the shifting of her legs. Just doing this was driving her crazy! She hadn't even gotten his shirt off and she was already burning inside.
Finally, she began to lift his shirt up, much to the surprise of Gippal. His smile had faded as he watched her, felt her fingers across his skin and listened to her breathing. Already she had gone further than he thought she would and now he was actually convinced she may actually take his shirt off. Maybe she wasn't as little as he thought she was.
Pulling the shirt up over his head too all of her reach and grace, pulling his hands free of the sleeves until the shirt was nothing but a mess on the floor. She now had Gippal standing shirtless in front of her, his sides bruised and slightly cut. However, her entire reasoning for taking his shirt off was lost to her. Her eyes fell across his torso and dulled while though line became shadow, no detail about him was lost on her. By now she was on fire inside and could barely stand still in front of him, feeling more vulnerable now than she ever had with him. That was the part she didn't like and her senses surfaced enough to attempt a rescue. "You...you should have someone look at that," she said, barely aware of her own voice.
Just as she attempted to step away and hurry out of his sight, his arm came across her and his hand gripped the wall behind her, providing a dire obstacle to her escape. With his arm blocking her exit, she swallowed a bit and looked back at him, mentally hating him for not letting her go.
"You surprised me, Rikku. I didn't think you would ever be this bold, but here we are. Maybe you're not Cid's little girl anymore." Gippal's voice was only furthering the despair in her eyes. She hated him for stopping her and loved him for keeping her there. She was surprised also. Never in a million years had she seen herself undressing Gippal, but she had just done it. Now she had no idea what to do next.
Gippal apparently knew exactly what needed to happen next. The arm blocking her escape buckled at the elbow and he began to lean in to her, placing his other hand against the wall at her other side so she could go nowhere. This forced Rikku to press her back into the wall and face him, her eyes wide and her chest rising and falling quicker than ever. As she was frozen between his arms, he leaned down and kissed her on the lips. Resting on his elbows against the wall, he let the kiss linger until he finally leaned up to look at her.
Her eyes were still closed, though not pressed shut as they were before. Her fists hand pressed into the wall, her knees were locked and her lips were still slightly puckered. She looked rather silly! However, she felt superb. She had really just kissed Gippal; or rather, Gippal had just kissed her. A clarity settled over her that she had never felt before and her eyes opened to his face – his beautiful face. Why did he have to look at her like that? Didn't she know what it did to her? Didn't he know how his kiss made her feel? Couldn't he see it in her eyes?
The next thing she knew, Rikku was nearly tackling Gippal, sending him tripping backwards over random machina parts until he came to rest pretty hard on his bed and Rikku right along with him. There was no control as she began to kiss him, letting loose all of the pent up desires she had fostered for him over the years. Nothing could measure the pleasure she was feeling as his hands began to wander over her body, feeling how hot her skin was. How he managed to remove her scarf without her help was a marvel even to her. Damn, he was good. Straddled across him, her legs holding barely any of her weight off of him and feeling his body between them, she had never felt such desire for anything in her life. Even when she felt the release of her top, it was almost instinct to slip her arms from the straps and toss it aside. New levels of pleasure assaulted her as she felt her bare chest pressed against him, the sensations of her most sensual areas being stimulated. It was only after this burst of ferocity that she slowed down a moment and just kissed him, tasting the lips which had mocked, teased and taunted her for as long as she could remember. Although she could barely contain herself, she pulled her head up from him and attempted to catch the breath which had eluded her since coming into his room.
Apparently, Gippal was as pleased as she was, for he rested his head back on the bed and looked up at her, his arms wrapped around her body to keep her close. Yet, in all of the fondness she had and the uproar he had caused in her body, she still stared at the one thing which marred his gorgeous face. The eye patch was mussed to the side, but still covered a face that she wanted to stare at uncovered. To that effect, she reached her left hand up and tried to grab the strap, of which Gippal reacted by pulling his head away in the slightest. However, she wouldn't give up and, after a timid look from her, Gippal moved his head no more. Pulling the strap from his head, she let the eye patch fall to the floor among the parts and pieces of the machina. Then, she looked back to him for the first look at his eye since he gave it up to save her.
Gippal's right eye remained closed with the left, until a light sigh escaped his lips and both were opened to her. Although no vision came to the eye, it still instinctually moved along with the left as he looked her over, revealing just what the acid had done so many years ago. As much as Rikku had been dreading it, she was shocked at just how benign it seemed. His right pupil, though once the same beautiful green color as his left, was now a dulled gray color. Though it had never been a sour point for him, he still looked up at her with a lame expression.
"Gippal...I'm..." she started but couldn't say anything after it. It had been so long ago but she still felt so awful about it.
"Things that happen in the past don't define us. As long as I'm who I am now, it doesn't matter. I never once blamed you, Rikku."
Rikku smiled softly and let out a deep, welling breath. It was something she wanted to know for a long time and hearing it from his lips, within this moment, made her feel instantly happier than she ever had before. "Thanks, Gippal." With that said, she leaned down and kissed him once again.
Inside, Outside, Upside-Down
The colossus Vegnagun held a presence untouched by any other thing in Bevelle. Though no one was aware of it, the enormous machina commanded a devout following of scientists and officials who marveled over the creation they had brought. With the power to destroy even the vilest of enemies, Vegnagun would be the tool to bring Zanarkand to its knees.
At least, that was what Dr. Tunel felt whenever he stared up into the demonic visage of his greatest creation. Standing with the rest of his team in the midst of their secret facility just adjacent the holy temple at Djose, they all took great pleasure in presenting the weapon to the war council. Applause rang through the caverns and a thousand workers celebrated the achievement of their name. Dr. Tunel stood before them all and raised his hands, hoping to get another moment to gloat.
"You have all participated in the greatest work ever done in the name of Bevelle. Our creation will prove that no other people are as strong as we and that not even Zanarkand can stand against us. Let them send their summoners and warriors against us! We will crush them and Bevelle shall rule all lands!"
The applause nearly overwhelmed the caves, filling each passageway with echoes and shadows. Equipment was being stored, workers being moved and, slowly but surely, the massive cave began to appear more and more like a cave and less like a laboratory. Dr. Tunel's work would never be forgotten, for his name would now live on in history as Bevelle's greatest mind. For this, he could not begin to douse his smile.
Stepping down and coming back to the council, he tucked his hands behind his back and simply beamed within his own name. "As promised, we have delivered the most powerful weapon ever built. From the construction of the infrastructure to the infusion of a thousand of the most powerful fiends, this has been my dream and my nightmare. However, I now stand here...a completed man." The aggressive speech was met with a few soft chuckles, a few off-handed remarks about lost lives and lost wives but then with the stern face of business.
A warrior monk stepped forward and fell undaunted by the splendor of the moment. Dr. Tunel addressed him with his eyes, then sighed and turned to him fully. The monk was very stiff about that. "Your accomplishment is noted, doctor, but now we must set into motion the wheels of Zanarkand's destruction."
With a snap of his finger, recoils ripped through the caves as soldiers in uniforms mimicking the monk's fell into the cave and began to massacre the workers. Cries of agony and horror fell as nothingness across the stoic face of Vegnagun and blood soaked into the ground. When the last recoil fell silent, Dr. Tunel gasped across the floor of the cave, lost upon the sea of dead bodies. Only one shadow slipped away into the caves and set in motion the foundation of a fore-sought story.
The future had not happened yet and it seemed Dr. Tunel's future was bleak at best. In a fit of rage, he turned to the monk, his fists clenched in fury. "You bastard! This is an outrage!"
What he was met with was the barrel of a gun being lifted to his face, its black eye staring down at him with the utmost indifference. "Bevelle thanks you for your work, doctor, but no one must learn of this colossus. Sleep well knowing that your creation will do exactly what it was designed to," the monk said quietly and pulled the trigger. The single pop which followed sealed the name of Tunel away forever, but something that would not settle was released. A howl of wind and a burst of cold would not settle over the bodies of the dead and the war council felt ill in the sound they heard next.
The shifting of metal and stone signaled the life infused into Vegnagun, reacting to the death of its creator, and tentacles of metal began to move. Pyreflies began to lift from the dozens of dead bodies and circle, as if dancing to the tune of carnage that had marked the last moment of their lives. The members of the council lingered only a moment as the machina shifted more, making a run towards the exit of the caves. Leaving a writhing, mourning beast in its den, the warrior monk stopped at the ingress of the cavern, looking back inside at it.
An aide lingered a moment as well, horrified at the sight. "What do we do, sir?"
The monk snorted, showing no deterrent in his eyes and no reluctance in his voice. "If it takes me a thousand men and a thousand men more, I will get that weapon to Bevelle. I will return for you," he lulled with a final casting of eyes on Vegnagun, and then disappeared into the light, leaving the screams of a hundred souls to pad the walls in which a solitary machina lived.
Rikku fell back onto her backside and stared almost aimlessly into the projection. The last image she saw was a wild Vegnagun inside the caverns and the bodies lying around it. Afterwards, the person recording the sphere fled along with the council, ending the history set in the red sphere. Even after the images stopped, she still stared at the space like it was showing over and over in her mind. Never had she guessed that the creation of Vegnagun, who now lived on only as a memory itself, would have been immersed in such hues of red and black. Though she had felt nothing when she had helped to destroy the beast, she suddenly felt a seeded remorse at the gray figures that had created such a horrible creation.
"Huh, didn't expect to find anything like that down here," Gippal said as he leaned his head back against the stone, taking a bit of pressure off of his torso. He had suspected the Vegnagun had been created under some jaded circumstances, but seeing the death of entire workforce all in the name of Bevelle was more than even he had wanted to see. "I guess that either Nooj," he began again as Tau ejected the sphere into his hand, "or Baralai will want this."
Rikku, who slowly drew Tau into her arms and hugged the cool machina into her chest, stared quietly at the stone floor of the cavern, almost envisioning the red blood flowing as it did over a thousand years ago. Her understanding of people who created such horrible weapons was threadbare, to say the least. Her heart had always told her that machina helped people, not killed them. Instinctually, she hugged Tau a bit tighter and spoke to Gippal without raising her eyes. "Can we just forget that we found it, Gippal?" With shock brimming on his face, he looked to her past the red sphere, not quite expecting to hear such a thing from a sphere hunter. However, he found such a look on her face, one stewing in her swirled green eyes and causing a frown to betray her good nature, and let out a belated sigh.
Without any question, Gippal let the sphere slip from his hand and to the stone floor, the red orb rolling between baby stalagmites and cracks in the rock until it slipped into shadows once more and faded from existence once more. The sounds of chiming impacts marked its further descent into an unknown portion of the cave.
"Come on, Rikku. Let's go back."
The entire way back, Rikku had been preoccupied with what she had seen on the sphere; so much, in fact, that she had failed to see Gippal dragging his Mortar along instead of lugging it on his shoulder as he always did. Gippal was quiet as well, but only because he didn't really have much to offer Rikku about the past of Spira. People died everywhere in the wake of hatred lying stagnant in the hearts of all. Wars were fought and cities were demolished all while babies cried and lovers wept. That was nothing new.
However, upon reaching the lift, Gippal caught her arm and pulled her to a stop, breaking whatever trance she had been in. "Listen, what happened in there was a thousand years ago. We all know that Bevelle has never played nice and that bad people exist everywhere. But," he cooed at her and smiled as straightforward as he could, "I also know that there are some pretty great people in the world too. There will always be a Yuna or a Nooj to make sure the world doesn't totally suck, right? Hey, there may even be a few Rikkus to keep everyone smiling. What we saw on that sphere won't go any further than us, okay?"
There was nothing more comforting than the warm, consoling words of someone held close to the heart and Rikku felt the heavy burden by the memories in her head lifting away like a fog. It was another thing which made Rikku uncontrollably drawn to Gippal – his ability to make the world seem just a little bit better than it already was.
"Thanks, Gippal."
The ride up was entirely a different mood than the ride down. Rikku bobbed back and forth on her feet, still picking over Tau as if she could unlock the magic locked within. However, this time there was something lighter about her; something unburdened by worry. She had emerged from caves with no new horror stories about Gippal and all workers accounted for. Gippal seemed pleased at their accomplishment and new light began to shower across her shoulders and head as they neared the top of the lift. She had never been so happy to see the inside of a temple again.
Gippal only took a moment at the top of the lift to calm down the workers, one of which who was being treated for injuries caused by the fiend. Gippal did cause a stir among the workers as he officially designated the caverns off limits. Though he didn't offer any explanation, the lift was powered down at the entrance to the caverns was to be sealed.
Rikku smiled at the swift action which was brought by the orders of her senior Al Bhed. Sometimes she forgot that the cool, carefree boy that she had grown up with was now the leader of one of the largest groups of Al Bhed in Spira. That kind of authority could cause a girl to get giddy.
"Come on. You can clean up in my pad," Gippal quipped as he headed through the temple. Rikku followed, though she still was busying herself with her new toy. Before she could let her attention wander from Tau, she found herself in a single room in the upper levels of the temple. By the messy state and the random machina parts everywhere, she assumed it was Gippal's personal room. It caused her to smirk.
"You always had a messy room. I would think being the big, bad leader of the Machine Faction, you could at least afford a maid."
"Huh, and I was hoping you'd take the job," he replied and walked over to a solitary stand near his surprisingly simple bed. Laying the Mortar against it and locking it in place, he let out a deep sigh of relief and ran a hand across his ribs. It was the first time Rikku noticed that their fight with the Adamantortoise took a bit more out of him than she thought. "There's a shower in the next room. No one will bother you up here," he said, interrupting her blatant stare. Without saying much else, he turned as if to head out the door and back down to work.
However, Rikku stood in his way with a defiant hand to his chest. "Hold it right there. Are you okay, Gippal?" she demanded and poked her finger into his chest.
"Worried about me?"
"Well, duh! Of course I'm worried about you, you dope. Let me see what's wrong."
Gippal smirked and chuckled through a false smile, not moving at all to leave or to show her his injuries. "I'll be fine. Besides, you'd have to take my shirt off to see it." Now his smile became very real; a taunting, devious smile as he watched her eyes bulge a bit. Knowing just far Rikku would go in this little game, he stood there, letting her have full access to him. This was him daring her.
Rikku now felt a new kind of fear in her chest; a fear which she hadn't felt for a while in Gippal's presence. She knew that he knew just how flustered he made her, so this little dare he was putting before her really ticked her off. He didn't think she would do it! Deep down, she didn't think she would either. However, with her heart racing in her ears and her fingers shaking, she reached up and began unfastening the garments which covered Gippal's shoulders. Though his smile never broke, she knew that he was sure of where she would stop this. Even as a red blush was burning across her cheeks, she continued to work on the garments until they fell the floor behind him. By this time, sweat was glistening on her skin and her hands felt as if they were going to fail her at anytime. Still, he smiled at her. Damn his smile.
"Well, you're almost there," he lulled and tilted his head a bit. In his mind, she would never go any further because she was still just a little girl who blushed every time he winked in her direction. He still had her where he wanted her.
The remark caused her eyes to narrow and a sour expression to come to her. Rikku snorted lightly at him ruining what atmosphere had begun to form, but she also knew that he was just playing some stupid game with her. Well, she wouldd show him just how much she had grown up. With a bit more confidence, she twisted a bit and took the glove off his left hand, leaving it bare and revealing the sleeve that was tucked into it. She had almost forgotten how soothing his hands were, though she didn't allow herself to linger on it too long. Without breaking stride, she twisted back and pulled at the other, biting at her lower lip as her fingers ran across his. With a simple tug, she pulled the glove off and dropped it to the ground. Now came the hard part. Still trying to live with the unruly pace her heart was beating at and the sweat she could feel cooling her skin, she faced him straight on and lifted her hands to his midsection. At first, she awkwardly tugged at the shirt, trying to get it untucked. It even caused him to snicker a bit, but an annoyed look up from her ceased any more laughter. Finally, the lip of his shirt broke from his pants and she hesitantly slipped her fingers up under his shirt.
The feel of his stomach under her fingers only furthered just how fast her heart was beating and how visibly her abdomen was breaking and swelling under her breath. His stomach too caved a bit at the feel of her hands, but she could no longer force herself to look up at him. Her face was beet red. Yet, she continued on and slid her hands apart under his shirt, pulling the bottom lip up completely from his pants. By now she could feel the warmth churning in her body and she could no longer control the shifting of her legs. Just doing this was driving her crazy! She hadn't even gotten his shirt off and she was already burning inside.
Finally, she began to lift his shirt up, much to the surprise of Gippal. His smile had faded as he watched her, felt her fingers across his skin and listened to her breathing. Already she had gone further than he thought she would and now he was actually convinced she may actually take his shirt off. Maybe she wasn't as little as he thought she was.
Pulling the shirt up over his head too all of her reach and grace, pulling his hands free of the sleeves until the shirt was nothing but a mess on the floor. She now had Gippal standing shirtless in front of her, his sides bruised and slightly cut. However, her entire reasoning for taking his shirt off was lost to her. Her eyes fell across his torso and dulled while though line became shadow, no detail about him was lost on her. By now she was on fire inside and could barely stand still in front of him, feeling more vulnerable now than she ever had with him. That was the part she didn't like and her senses surfaced enough to attempt a rescue. "You...you should have someone look at that," she said, barely aware of her own voice.
Just as she attempted to step away and hurry out of his sight, his arm came across her and his hand gripped the wall behind her, providing a dire obstacle to her escape. With his arm blocking her exit, she swallowed a bit and looked back at him, mentally hating him for not letting her go.
"You surprised me, Rikku. I didn't think you would ever be this bold, but here we are. Maybe you're not Cid's little girl anymore." Gippal's voice was only furthering the despair in her eyes. She hated him for stopping her and loved him for keeping her there. She was surprised also. Never in a million years had she seen herself undressing Gippal, but she had just done it. Now she had no idea what to do next.
Gippal apparently knew exactly what needed to happen next. The arm blocking her escape buckled at the elbow and he began to lean in to her, placing his other hand against the wall at her other side so she could go nowhere. This forced Rikku to press her back into the wall and face him, her eyes wide and her chest rising and falling quicker than ever. As she was frozen between his arms, he leaned down and kissed her on the lips. Resting on his elbows against the wall, he let the kiss linger until he finally leaned up to look at her.
Her eyes were still closed, though not pressed shut as they were before. Her fists hand pressed into the wall, her knees were locked and her lips were still slightly puckered. She looked rather silly! However, she felt superb. She had really just kissed Gippal; or rather, Gippal had just kissed her. A clarity settled over her that she had never felt before and her eyes opened to his face – his beautiful face. Why did he have to look at her like that? Didn't she know what it did to her? Didn't he know how his kiss made her feel? Couldn't he see it in her eyes?
The next thing she knew, Rikku was nearly tackling Gippal, sending him tripping backwards over random machina parts until he came to rest pretty hard on his bed and Rikku right along with him. There was no control as she began to kiss him, letting loose all of the pent up desires she had fostered for him over the years. Nothing could measure the pleasure she was feeling as his hands began to wander over her body, feeling how hot her skin was. How he managed to remove her scarf without her help was a marvel even to her. Damn, he was good. Straddled across him, her legs holding barely any of her weight off of him and feeling his body between them, she had never felt such desire for anything in her life. Even when she felt the release of her top, it was almost instinct to slip her arms from the straps and toss it aside. New levels of pleasure assaulted her as she felt her bare chest pressed against him, the sensations of her most sensual areas being stimulated. It was only after this burst of ferocity that she slowed down a moment and just kissed him, tasting the lips which had mocked, teased and taunted her for as long as she could remember. Although she could barely contain herself, she pulled her head up from him and attempted to catch the breath which had eluded her since coming into his room.
Apparently, Gippal was as pleased as she was, for he rested his head back on the bed and looked up at her, his arms wrapped around her body to keep her close. Yet, in all of the fondness she had and the uproar he had caused in her body, she still stared at the one thing which marred his gorgeous face. The eye patch was mussed to the side, but still covered a face that she wanted to stare at uncovered. To that effect, she reached her left hand up and tried to grab the strap, of which Gippal reacted by pulling his head away in the slightest. However, she wouldn't give up and, after a timid look from her, Gippal moved his head no more. Pulling the strap from his head, she let the eye patch fall to the floor among the parts and pieces of the machina. Then, she looked back to him for the first look at his eye since he gave it up to save her.
Gippal's right eye remained closed with the left, until a light sigh escaped his lips and both were opened to her. Although no vision came to the eye, it still instinctually moved along with the left as he looked her over, revealing just what the acid had done so many years ago. As much as Rikku had been dreading it, she was shocked at just how benign it seemed. His right pupil, though once the same beautiful green color as his left, was now a dulled gray color. Though it had never been a sour point for him, he still looked up at her with a lame expression.
"Gippal...I'm..." she started but couldn't say anything after it. It had been so long ago but she still felt so awful about it.
"Things that happen in the past don't define us. As long as I'm who I am now, it doesn't matter. I never once blamed you, Rikku."
Rikku smiled softly and let out a deep, welling breath. It was something she wanted to know for a long time and hearing it from his lips, within this moment, made her feel instantly happier than she ever had before. "Thanks, Gippal." With that said, she leaned down and kissed him once again.