Fanfare! Here is the update of the night...Chapter 4! Things start to get more confusing for everyone in Luca now...and the humor is starting to remotely enter the story. (Maybe it's humorous to me because I know the ending? Lol) Oh man, I am madly in love with my muse right now...She's being very good to me!!! Okay, I hope you all are enjoying this story...and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
4.The Confusion in Luca Continues
Cred, cred, vilg, cred! Gippal cursed as he roamed the streets of Luca looking for some trace of his experiment. What was I thinking when I made this? Was I that heartbroken and desperate that I had to do something this insane and idiotic! If anyone found out about it, they would think that I completely lost my mind…
He turned a corner and gasped when he saw Rikku looking in a store window. Dammit, Rikku! Now is not the time to be window shopping!
He ran over to her and spun her around, making her shriek. She almost instinctively knocked him out, thinking he was a burglar, but stopped when she realized that it was only Gippal.
"Oh, hey, Gippal!" She said cheerfully as she brushed off the invisible dirt that was on her shoulders. Instead of replying, he started to circle her. "What are you doing? What, were you a Zu in another life or something?"
"No, I'm just curious about something," he stated, leaving Rikku speechless. "Have you, by any chance, gotten any strange reactions from people today?"
"Aside from you, you mean?" Rikku said with a slight laugh. "You gotta admit, Gippal, you've been acting really peculiar around me today. However, the circling thing is the most entertaining."
"Did you know that Paine and Baralai were here?" He asked, afraid of her reaction.
"They are?" Rikku said as she let out a squeal.
"So, you didn't see them?" He asked as he furrowed his forehead. Rikku shook her head as she squealed again, causing Gippal to let out a groan. "That's what I was afraid of."
"Where are they?" She asked excitedly as he shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, some help you are."
"What are you doing hanging around here anyway?" He asked her as she threw her hands in the air.
"I started to go shopping, but then I got pretty bored. So now I'm just aimlessly roaming the streets of Luca, half hoping that something interesting happens. However, that red dress in there is an interesting thing to me." Gippal chuckled at her overactive nature.
"Well, maybe you should go back to the hotel and wait there in case something interesting, besides a new red dress, happens," he said as Rikku rocked on the balls of her feet.
"Wait for what? Why, is some big fiend going to attack Luca?" She started to bounce on her toes as she thought of the possibility of fighting again.
"Not that I know of, but I wouldn't doubt it," he said, thinking that would be the best way to get to go back to the hotel. I know that she wouldn't run and hide, but she would at least go tell Tidus and Yuna about it… "Ya know, it's a common trend for any big gathering in Spira. A lot of people show up, then a big fiend follows and tries to snack on them."
"Yay! Then that'll give me something to do while you try to look important by signing your name on a piece of paper!" Although Rikku knew that a fiend wasn't in the city of Luca right now, it still gave her something to make fun of Gippal for. Just like the old days…
"Yeah, thanks," hereplied sarcasticallyas he put his hands in the pockets of his pants. "Anyway, I'm on a mission right now, so I'll talk to you later."
"A mission? What kind of mission? Wait, do I have to dress you up as a huge moogle? Paine and I had to do that to Yunie once," Rikku let out a giggle at the thought of one of their first missions as the Gullwings. When Leblanc stole Yuna's garment grid, they had to get it back somehow without the rest of Luca recognizing Yuna. "We couldn't have had two Yunas in Luca at the same time. Everyone would've gotten confused. After that mission, that got me thinking. What if there was a Rikku imposter? Could you imagine two Rikkus at the same place at the same time?"
"I prayed I never would have to worry about that," he muttered as he looked at Rikku again.
"What was that?" She asked, not hearing his comment.
"D'ah, nothing." Rikku again had to giggle at his behavior as he shifted his weight. "This is my cue to leave since that awkward feeling is returning in the air."
"Okay," Rikku said as he started to walk away. "Wait, Gippal, you are joining us all for dinner, right? We have reservations at The Golden Staffat six!"
"If all goes well, yeah," he said as he continued to walk off.
"Well, I guess I better go get ready then!" Rikku exclaimed as she hopped off toward the hotel.
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"Knock knock," Paine said as she peeked into Yuna and Tidus' hotel room. Tidus was still putting clothes into the dressers, but looked up when he heard Paine's voice. "Hey."
"Hey, Paine!" Tidus said as he walked over to her. He knew better than to hug her, he made that mistake at he and Yuna's wedding. She let him hug her, oddly enough, but gave him the most violated look when they separated. He was able to use the excuse that he had too much to drink, although he was completely sober. However, he learned his lesson and refrained from another hug. When Baralai walked in, Tidus shook his hand. "Hey, Baralai."
"Hey, Tidus. We asked the people at the front desk if you guys were here, so we decided to come find you." Baralai said as he looked around. "Where's Yuna?"
"Over there, sleeping," he said as he gestured toward the room where the bed was.
"Yeah, I can't imagine that carrying a baby would be an easy task," Baralai said as Tidus and Paine nodded. Baralai tapped Paine on the shoulder and a broad smile appeared on his face. "See what you have to look forward to, Paine?"
"That wasn't funny, Baralai," she said with a grim look on her face. When he noticed the look, his smile dropped and he looked at his feet.
"No, it wasn't," he replied quickly and Paine nodded.
"Yeah, so anyway," Tidus said, trying to break the ice. "I'm in the need of some fresh air. Let's go outside and walk around."
"What about Yuna?" Baralai asked as he motioned toward the room she was in. "You think she'll be okay?"
"I'll leave her a note and lock the doors. She'll be fine but I don't want to leave for very long," Tidus said as he scribbled a note down on the hotel paper with the pen that was on the counter. "Ya know, you would think a ritzy hotel like this one would give us something better than this tiny pad of paper and cheap five gil pen. I don't know, maybe I'm expecting too much."
"Let's go, Tidus," Paine said as Tidus finished the note and they started to walk out to the Luca streets.
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"Hey guys!" Rikku said as she saw Tidus, Baralai, and Paine. "Paine! Baralai!" She tightly wrapped her arms around Baralai. "I've missed you guys so much!"
"You…You saw us earlier today, Rikku," Baralai said slowly as he put his hands on Rikku's shoulders. She narrowed her eyes at him in confusion and to her surprise, Baralai was giving her the same look.
"N..No, I didn't," she said as she carefully eyed the three of them.
"Yeah, you did. At the docks. It was about twenty minutes ago actually," Paine said as she inspected Rikku. "Wait, were you wearing that earlier today?"
"Yeah, I haven't changed all day." She innocently looked over at Tidus for a second opinion, who thankfully nodded. "Are you guys okay? I think it's something in the sea air or something; makes everyone speak crazy talk."
"I guess so," Paine said slowly, figuring that Rikku was going insane as well.
"Done spending your daddy's money?" Tidus said as he looked at her empty hands. "Wait, you didn't buy anything."
"Yeah, I know I didn't," Rikku said with a huff. "I was looking in the window of one of the stores I wanted to go in and then Gippal walked up to me and freaked out that I was out by myself. It's a shame really, because I saw a really cute red dress that I wanted to buy in there. But yeah, back on the Gippal topic, I don't understand what's gotten into him lately."
"He was acting strangely when he saw Paine and I, as well," Baralai said as he looked up at the sky. "Now that I think about it, it was right after we saw you."
"But you didn't see me," Rikku made clear as Baralai chuckled. "I haven't seen you guys since Yuna and Tidus' wedding. A million apologies about that by the way. I've been busy helping my pop and Gippal fix up Home."
"Gippal was looking for you though, and he seemed pretty adamant about it," Paine stated as she tapped her toe against the stone road. She ignored Rikku's apology because she was too deep in thought about why her friend was acting so strange earlier. "After we said that we saw you, he started to ask us a million questions, then when I didn't know the answer to them, he ran off trying to find you."
"He..ran off to find me?" Rikku asked with a slight smile. Ever since I've gotten here, he's been constantly looking for me. Maybe he's trying to grovel or something, with hopes that I'll take him back…Not like I will though. I like being single…Right? "Huh."
"Maybe we should corner him and ask him what his deal is during dinner," Tidus proposed. "However, I think that we should go wake up Yuna. I don't really want to leave her by herself for that long."
"Why not? We all know that she's fully capable of taking care of herself in a sticky situation, knowing that she has found herself wound up in the stickiest of sticky situations." They started to walk back into the hotel as Rikku found hilarity in her own sentence. "Ha! 'Stickiest of sticky situations.' Try saying that statement five times fast!"
"We'll let you try that one out," Paine said as Baralai opened the door for them. "Do we know when Nooj and Leblanc are going to show up to grace us with their presence?"
"Nooj contacted me a few days ago stating that they would arrive today some time," Baralai said as they all stepped onto the lift that would bring them up to their floor. "I'm pretty positive that they're staying in the same hotel as we are, so we can tell the front desk to contact us when they arrive."
"Are they going to be here in time for dinner?" Rikku asked, slighting bouncing on her toes. "Because I don't want to wait much longer. My tummy is speaking to me and announcing that it needs to be fed."
"Yeah, I feel you on that one. As soon as we wake up Yuna we can all get ready to go eat," Tidus said as they reached the door to the suite he was sharing with Yuna. "I say about an hour?"
"I guess I can tell my rumbly tummy to wait that long," Rikku said as she rubbed her stomach. "Not longer though!"
"Okay, that works," Tidus said as they all went into their separate rooms.
Rikku opened the door to her room and stepped inside. She was originally going to be sharing a room with Gippal, but due to the breakup, she called and ordered another room for herself. Considering how many people were going to show up for this ceremony, she was lucky that she was able to get a new room on the same floor as her friends. She took the bandana out of her hair, letting her hair fall naturally, and threw it on the couch of the living room portion of the suite.
She figured she wanted to look nice because she knew they were going to the nicest restaurant in Luca—The Golden Staff. It was a seafood and steak restaurant, and although Rikku wasn't a huge fan of either, she knew that they had 'to die for' desserts. That was definitely a big enough reason for her to get excited. She threw several things out of her suitcases to find the outfit that she wanted to wear after she got out of the shower. She decided on a nice pink skirt with a lacy white top; not too fancy, but fancy enough. To top off the outfit, she bought white stiletto shoes that tied around the ankle. She saw them in Bikanel and couldn't help herself from buying them.
After hopping out of the shower, she got dressed then dried her hair and brushed it until it shone in silky waves down her back. She put on silver hoop earrings, a silver necklace, a silver bracelet, and a lot of makeup. She usually didn't wear this much make up, but she felt like she wanted to look extra nice. You never know, I might find the man of my dreams tonight! She giggled at herself as she put on her Al Bhed Angel perfume and tied up her shoes.
She exhaled as she looked at her reflection. Yay! She thought to herself as she twisted and turned. She looked over at the clock and realized that she just had enough time to walk to Yuna and Tidus' room before her hour was up.