The Sanubia Desert was perhaps the least-romantic spot in all of Spira. When Rikku opened her eyes to find her hand on Auron's chest and his still larger hand on hers, it didn't matter that there were no birds outside her window singing happily, nor that the sky was far from cloudless.
"How long have you been awake?" she asked him, sitting up and touching her disheveled hair, yawning and stretching.
"Not too long." Auron grinned amiably, one hand supporting his head as he remained lying motionless, staring up at her. His deep chocolate hair was streaked with gray that the sunlight turned silver, but nonetheless his young spirit that had been lost for so long told her they should both be ready to accept that he unmistakably wanted to be with her-and for Rikku, that was worth anything.
"I don't want them to find you," she said, the corners of her shining salmon mouth pointing down. "You'll be in big trouble if someone finds out! It must be ten in the morning already!" Thrusting her tongue in her cheek, she shook her large rough hammock when she threw her weight down again.
"Don't worry." He reached over and stroked her porcelain cheek with the back of his hand. "I work an afternoon shift."
"Oh...." She felt Auron's hand reach for hers as they kissed quickly. There would still be, she concluded, a twinge of guilt in both of them for a long time. How was she supposed to get used to this?
"Breakfast is in my room today," he told her. "Bring yours, and I'll treat you to some sake."
Rikku stared at him, perplexed as she hopped down to the floor. "And since when do you encourage me to bend the rules, huh?"
The older man winked, smiling contemptuously. "You'll find that I have so many more years of experience than you do. You just get caught easier, that's all."
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Several hours later, it was still impossible to break her from her daze. Suddenly it was as if gratifying her every desire was unnaturally frightening, and like she was committing crimes that would go unpunished for a long, long time.
"You know what we should do," Yuna spoke, sighing as she unrolled yards of shining pink silk, "maybe Tidus and I will run off for a small, private ceremony. Just the two of us."
"Then why are you telling us about it?" Paine pointed out, walking about and examining different colors and patterns of fabric on the next table. "Guadosalam doesn't have that great a selection, by the way."
"Yunie won't stop until she finds the perfect one!" Rikku added, just as bright and chipper as usual except for the fact that today she was daydreamy and paid minimal attention to her friends' missions that began to seem trivial.
"What color sashes, you guys?" Yuna asked, pondering over the same soft pink roll for several minutes. "Pink?"
"Blue or green," Paine suggested. "But I guess those aren't very soft and romantic colors, are they?" Making a face at a purple-and-yellow striped roll she spotted, the tallest of the three women gave up and stood by the entrance to the tiny shop.
"I also have so much more in the back, Lady Yuna!" piped the Guado woman, clapping her slightly webbed hands together anxiously and fidgeting with her dark hair, rolled up tightly to reveal a veiny green hairline that matched her rather pistachio complexion.
"I wasn't talking about me, I was talking about you guys," Yuna leaned and whispered to Rikku. "I can't separate you from sparkling green, but Paine?"
"Purple?" Rikku guessed, shrugging. "It's criminal to put her in black at a wedding, and red'll make her look like a--"
"Um, you guys," Paine interrupted sharply, biting a fingernail and still holding on firmly to the handle after she jerked the door shut. "I think we should split."
"Why?" Yuna asked, blinking curiously in the middle of holding majestic amethyst against her chest. "We were in the middle of wondering whether you'd look good in pink or purple."
Paine grimaced but drove off her annoyance quickly. "I just saw Gippal. He and, uh, she, are heading this way." She and Yuna winced uncomfortably at Rikku, expecting their little blonde comrade to puff up in anger, but instead she stared out whimsically, playing with measuring tape.
"Oh, really? Hmm. I thought it would take longer for him to get over me, but that's okay. It means he's happy doing his own thing."
Yuna and Paine exchanged confused looks and stared at her friend as if they hadn't seen her in ten years.
"Well," Paine said quietly, sucking in her breath. "Have it your way." She turned the doorknob and welcomed in the leader of the Al Bhed Machine Faction, who held out his arm to a dull blonde in aviation goggles and a green-and-orange suit.
Rikku snapped to attention and ducked underneath a table. 'What is Gippal doing here?' she thought. 'Oh, yeah, Paine said something. Just what I need.' And who the hell was this girl hanging out with him? How long had this been going on? Wasn't Gippal suffering at all? She crouched with her arms hugging her knees as she saw a pair of boots in undoubtedly the latest fashion for teenaged guys, creating shadows like great big puddles on the floor and thudding closer and closer to her ears.
"Don't be silly, Rikku," he said boastingly in the common language. "You can come out from under there."
"Heh," she said awkwardly, reaching for a strikingly ugly yellow roll by her feet and emerging from underneath the pink tablecloth. Smoothening out her bright citrus top and green skirt, she held her nose higher than usual in dignity. "There it is."
"How's it going?" Gippal purred, holding a hand on his hip proudly and extending the other arm around his new girlfriend's waist. "I think you know Sohaila...?"
"Hey," Rikku said, turning just a little pink when she recognized the woman. Sohaila had only been one of her old Al Bhed friends she knew in her childhood. Sure, when they were like eleven they'd have sleepovers and such, but really she was no different than the other Al Bhed girls. Nor was she different from the women today. Rikku remembered that all she really had going for her was the button nose and clean grin. Other than that, she was your average blonde Al Bhed, with the average type body, doing the average type job everyday. "It's been a long time."
"Yes, it has," said the girl in response, playing with the ends of her plain and uninteresting hair, in her drab voice that no one was going to remember anytime soon. "Do you have a new boyfriend?"
"In fact, I do," Rikku replied, rocking back and forth on her heels to pretend everything was going normally. "I just came back after having him visit my house last night, and we had a nice breakfast this morning. It was sweet," she half-lied, taking care that Paine and Yuna seemed too busy squabbling over bridesmaids' dresses to hear what she'd said.
But Gippal, most of all, was hit hardest with what Rikku had said. Quickly he cleared his throat and hid the frown that fell on his face instananeously. "I see. Well! Sohaila and I were just coming by to have a dress made. One for Yuna's wedding and another I'm buying for the ball on her birthday."
"How sweet!" Rikku faked through gritted teeth, already beginning to feel her blood boil. "Yunie and I were just planning on the color we bridesmaids are wearing, and I'm buying another one just in case my boyfriend and I make big plans." At this point she no longer cared if she was laying it on too thick. It was like waging a war. She knew that they only came to the shop to taunt her, and that no one in that room truly cared about Sohaila.
So she gathered up all her passion, and with it marched straight to the counter, leaned over and asked of the Guado woman, "Excuse me, I need to have a dress made if you'll take my order, please. I need it bright cherry red and gold, with ribbons down the front like that catalog there... Yes, just like that....."