Aww...the picture perfect ending, right?

...Wrong. Not yet—maybe not ever.

I'm almost near the end—or am I? Who knows?

Anyway, I'll stop trying to be witty and just tell you the rest.

Soon, many months later, the war ended. Cid and Brother barely scraped out alive. Neither wanted to give up and get out of the fray. How stupid. Gippal had to stay out after that to let his eye—err-former eye adjust.

But I couldn't help but feel it was my fault, no matter how much he tried to console me.

Did I add Cid hated it that me and Gippal had to share the same house? D

But I'm getting off track. The war went on for a looong time—more than six months at least...but they backed out when one of our engineers figured out how to shut down all their machina guns.

Shows how brave THEY were.

"What? Really?" Rikku cried as the Al Bhed in the doorway nodded sternly. "They left? Honestly?" He rolled his eyes.

"Yes."

Rikku's eyes lit up! "Gippal! Gippal! The Yevonites LEFT!"

She heard him running to them from behind a door. "Really?!" He asked breathlessly as the door swung open. Rikku nodded, giggling, and giving him her biggest smile since the war had started.

"Really and truly!" The two laughed, jumping around the air and whooping. The messenger just grinned and left them to have joy.

Gippal wrapped Rikku in a surprising hug. "You know what this means?" He asked with a large smile.

"What?"

"We're free now!" He let go, pacing the room with anticipation. "Now the Al Bhed aren't stuck in Home anymore. We can wander Spira again, do as we please!"

Rikku gave him a shaky grin. "But—isn't that why Home was made? So Al Bhed wouldn't travel and get picked on?"

Gippal gave her a hand wave, now lost in his thoughts. "I've been wanting to head to Djose forever...I hear they have machina that needs fixing—"

Rikku sighed, sitting down on the floor. Of course. She should have known he'd want to leave. He never was the kind to stay in one place. He used to be—until he became of age.

"Gippal...can't you just stay?"

Gippal stopped pacing. There was silence for a few moments as he fiddled with a picture on the wall. Rikku twiddled her thumbs.

"Well?"

He sighed, dropping his arm. "Rikku—I want to travel."

"Without me?"

There was another silence. "Well—not exactly without you..."

He sighed, rubbing at his temples. "I knew this would happen." He muttered.

"What?" Rikku snapped. "What would happen? You'd just—abandon me here in boring Home, even though since you've stayed here during the war and we have a relationship? That you would leave what we have together in the dust and start over?" She stood up quickly, feeling her eyes water.

"Was this all just a time waster?!" She asked louder this time. "WAS IT?"

Gippal groaned. "Rikku, you're making it bigger than it is, just leave it. We need to celebrate! I mean, Cid and Brother are out now!"

Rikku's frown grew steadily larger, hoping to intimidate Gippal, but to no avail.

"Augh. Fine." She said, sighing. Gippal grinned. "Good. Come on!"

Even though I gave into Gippal—I didn't in all reality. I mean, over the course of the months when we were cooped up together—oh, don't worry, nothing like that happened! But, I mean, we just got to know each other again. It had been soo long since we had done much together, since even before the war we had been drifting apart.

And who's to say we didn't steal a few kisses here and there? Even though they were innocent, and we were young—they meant something, and were deeper than you'd think.

Everytime I was with Gippal, I felt like I was floating on air...but then he spoke of leaving, and my heart became lead. Even when I found Pops and Brother and nearly hugged them to death, I wasn't really that happy—nothing was what I thought it would be...nothing.

Rikku stood outside, wiping the sweat off her brow. A rare breeze blew past, and she sighed with contentment. She had needed one of those.

The girl heard other Al Bhed who were helping to rebuild the broken down Home sigh as the breeze wafted past them as well. She was so happy to see their destroyed sanctuary being steadily rebuilt. Everyone was pitching in, lending a hand here and there. That's what was good about the Al Bhed, always helping one another out.

Rikku decided to get back to work, and grunted as she went back to her uncomfortable kneeling position. She heard footsteps behind her, and then hands covering her eyes.

"Guess who?" A sing song voice called out.

"Hmm...a monkey's uncle?" She guessed jokingly. The hands left.

"Lucky shot." Gippal laughed, sitting down beside her. "So what's up?"

"I'm TRYING to get this STUPID gate mechanism working, but it seems to be stuck..."

"May I be of service?" Gippal asked, bending one knee and swirling his arm about uselessly. Rikku just sighed, tired of his old jokes.

"You can try, but it's harder than it looks—"She stopped in mid sentence as Gippal slid underneath, and in a number of minutes was back out.

"There. As steady and strong as ever."

Rikku frowned, and begrudgingly started it up, watching in amazement as the gate opened.

"Wow..."

"She did it! Rikku fixed the gate!" A voice called out. Cheers started up around her, and she blushed.

"No, it wasn't me, it was—"

She pointed to Gippal, but he grabbed her arm and put it back down. "Take the glory this time." Gippal whispered, smiling. "It's the least I can do."

He gave her a quick wink, and with a smile turned around and walked off.

'What was that all about?' Rikku thought. 'He doesn't need to repay me for anything...anything I know of.'

And then the sickening thought hit her.