Okay, just in time for christmas eve! I know I said I would make the chapters longer, but since Windfighter said it wasn't a problem with short chappies....well, you know! I wanna thank all reviewers, especially Windfighter, I know I complain about ye on FFU, but consider this a christmas gift....to all of you!
Normal POV
Gippal spent the whole next day to help the maintenance team in the engine room, Rikku sometimes stopped by to help too, but she spent most of the time in one of the cabins.
Raze had been put to work in the engine room too, according to many he was a natural with machina. Narroj was going on and on about the fact that they never had the chance to check the whole temple, he was a born treasure seeker and he loved to do research about ancient stuff, although Macalania temple had only been abandoned for three years.
Thanks to Gippal's and Raze's work in the engine room they were able to take off five hours earlier than predicted.
When they got back to Djose, Gippal immediately got back to work. Rikku was amazed by how he could actually live without sleeping atleast six hours a night.
Rikku spent the following days working on the rouge guards the League had ordered. As she was just about to take a break, a guy showed up telling her Gippal wanted to see her.
"Huf fryd tuac ra fyhd? (Now what does he want?)" Rikku said fiercely.
"E drehg ra'c kud fung vun oui! (I think he's got work for you!)" The man replied smiling slightly.
"Geez…" Rikku sighed. "Frana ec ra? (Where is he?)"
"Dra fungcrub uh dra puddus vmuun. (The workshop on the bottom floor.)"
Rikku snorted as she walked out of her own workshop, she had been doing such a good work during her time at the faction that Gippal decided she'd have her own room for work; there were quite a few faction members who had achieved that kind of praise.
"His private workshop, huh?" Rikku thought as she stood on the lift. "Must be something big." The workshop on the bottom floor was Gippal's private workshop, and he rarely let anyone in there, the only one Rikku knew had been working there except Gippal was Narroj.
As the lift stopped and Rikku walked of she saw Gippal running around checking several blueprints a time; he was clearly very stressed. Rikku had been thinking of teaching him a thing or two about how to treat her when she was going to take a break, but when she saw him she immediately felt pity for him.
"Hey, Cid's girl, 'bout time you showed up." Gippal said casually without turning around to face her. Rikku felt her anger rise up again.
"Why don't you try using my real name, huh?" She asked fiercely. "Khan said you wanted to see me."
"Yeah," Gippal said as he scanned through one of the blueprints. "There's a canyon in the Sanubia desert that needs to be investigated, normally I would have gone myself, but apart from all the work I got here, the League called and wanted me in on one of their meetings."
"What's that got to do with me?" Rikku asked, although she already knew the answer.
"I'm sending you and Raze to Bikanel instead of me." Gippal said. "You'll meet up with a couple of Nhadala's workers there, they'll take you to the place, and you'll be in charge of the mission."
"Why me?" Rikku demanded. "Why don't you send Kairou? Or Narroj? Isn't he supposed to be the top archeologist here?"
"I don't trust Narroj," Gippal said, still scanning through the blueprints. "Besides, he's got his hide full with paper work, and Kairou has to look after the faction while I'm gone."
"Narroj is a great guy," Rikku stated firmly. "I don't understand why you don't trust him."
Gippal sighed, and he finally put down the blueprints and turned to face her.
"Because, Cid's girl," Gippal said, Rikku suddenly noticed how tired he looked. "He's obsessed with old legends and ancient stuff, it's hard to notice, but after what I've seen during his time here I have a hard time trusting him"
"Aren't you being just a little unfair?" Rikku said and crossed her arms.
"No." Gippal said as he turned back to his blueprints.
Rikku sighed and looked around the room; her eyes came to rest upon a machina hanging on straps from the ceiling about three feet above the floor; it looked like a broad iron belt with four long mechanical arms attached to the back of it, each arm had what looked like a folded claw at the end of them. Between the arms on the back of the belt there was something that looked suspiciously like the yellow spine Gippal had brought back from the cave, although it was all metal without the yellow goo.
"Gippal?" Rikku said tugging at Gippal's sleeve. "What's that?"
Gippal turned around and followed Rikku's finger to see where she was pointing.
"Oh," He said and grinned as he noticed she was looking at his latest creation. "This, Cid's girl, is the future!" He walked over to the machina and gestured for it.
"The future has four arms?" Rikku frowned. Gippal laughed.
"Recognize this?" He said and pointed at the spine like part of it. Rikku nodded.
"It looks like the spine you got from that fiend." Rikku stated.
"Exactly!" Gippal said. "I've been trying to copy the technology, and I came up with this; with this we won't need heavy cranes to do our work anymore! The arms are supposedly strong enough to lift stuff that weight over two ton! This thing," He pointed at the spine thing again, "is supposed to attach to your own spine, and then you'll be able to have full control over the four arms as if they were your own." He smiled proudly.
Rikku looked at it skeptically. "Does it work?" She asked.
Gippal's smiled faded.
"It's still on beta," He said. "So it would be kinda dangerous to test it on an actual human."
Rikku smiled and just stared at him. "Do you…..ever get to sleep the days?" She suddenly asked him.
"As long as there's coffee," Gippal said. "I don't really mind working late."
Rikku rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"Why don't you just let someone else do some of your work?" She asked.
"Everybody's busy with their own stuff," Gippal said and stepped away from the machina. "Besides, most of the work I do here is too….important, for regular mortals."
Rikku rolled her eyes again. "Oh, so now you're some kind of holy mechanic?"
Gippal grinned and held his arms out. "Hey, I'm one of a kind!"
"Yeah, riiiiight!" Rikku said sarcastically.
Gippal chuckled and went back to his blueprints.
"Oh, by the way," He said and turned to Rikku again. "You'll be leaving in two hours so you better start packing.
"Hey wait a minute!" Rikku said and took a few steps closer to him. "I haven't said I would-" She was interrupted by her feet tripping on a machina lying there on the floor, she stumbled right at Gippal who was kind of surprised of what happened, and they both fell to the floor; Rikku on top of Gippal, their faces only inches away from eachother.
Silence.
"I uh…" Rikku said.
"Uhm…" Gippal mumbled.
Rikku had her hands on Gippal's chest, and Gippal had his hands on Rikkus waist.
"This is so NOT good!" Rikku thought.
"What do I do? What do I do!?" Gippal thought.
"So…uhm…" Rikku managed to press.
"Maybe we should…." Gippal started.
"Get up?" Rikku finished.
"Yeah…"
"Okay, I'll just-" Rikku tried to push herself up, but just as Gippal tried to lean against his elbows Rikku slipped and their lips connected in a very unexpected kiss. Funny enough, none of them pushed away, they just stared at eachother, lips still locked. Eventually, Gippal fell back onto his back so that their lips parted.
The two of them quickly got to their feet, Gippal scratched the back of his head, facing the floor, Rikku held her hands behind her back, also facing the ground.
"I…ahem…" Gippal tried to speak.
"I should go pack." Rikku said, forgetting the fact that she was gonna turn the job down.
"And I should get back to work." Gippal said.
Rikku walked back to the lift and Gippal turned back to his blueprints.
When the lift was heading up and Gippal was no longer visible, Rikku touched her lips with her finger and silently smiled to herself.
Rikku POV
What is wrong with me!? It was just an accident…so why in the Fareplane am I acting like the lucky schoolgirl who just got kissed by the school's hottest guy!? Dammit! I'm over him! Over! Wait, did I just say he was hot? Fuck!.......okay, I admit he's hot, but I just….AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHH!!!!
Normal POV
The Priceless swooped through the air, heading for Bikanel Island. The grey metal shining in the sunlight. Rikku was restless, after what happened earlier that day she had a hard time concentrating.
"Just act casual!" She told herself as she paced around the airship. "Act as if nothing happened!" Suddenly she crouched down clutching her head tightly. "Ooooh I'll never be able to look him in the eye again!"
She figured what she needed right now was a large bowl of chocolate ice cream, but since they didn't have anything like that on this faith forsaken airship, she decided to get some fresh air instead. She strode of upwards to the airlock, still rummaging about Gippal inside of her head.
As the airlock opened she moved straight to her favorite spot in the far end of the deck. She leaned against the railing and sighed heavily.
"Dammit…" She cursed silently and lowered her head.
"Something's troubling you." A deep voice said from next to Rikku.
Rikku quickly hurled around and saw Raze standing there, gazing out into the distance.
"Hey!" Rikku panted. "Where'd you come from?"
"I'm sorry if I scared you." Raze said, still not looking at her. "I was standing in the corner next to the airlock as you walked out, but you seemed too preoccupied to notice."
"Rikku turned her head away, ashamed. "Sorry…" She said sheepishly.
"So what's troubling you?" Raze asked.
"Huh?" Rikku turned to him again.
"It's easy to see something's bothering you." Raze stated.
Rikku blushed slightly. "Nothing's bothering me…"
"It's about…Gippal and Narroj, is it not?" Raze said, still staring of into the distance.
Rikku quickly turned to look at him. "What do you mean?" Had she been that obvious? "Whaddaya mean 'Gippal and Narroj'?"
"To me it looks like your mind is twisted," Raze said. "At first it seemed as if you had made up your mind for one of them, but apparently something happened recently that made you slightly change your mind about the other."
Rikku just stared at him, mouth wide open.
"Dammit!" Rikku stomped her foot. "How the hell do you know stuff like this!?"
"Your face expression tells a long story," Raze said simply. "And due to the way you look at them and talk to them from time to time." He was silent for a moment. "I understand you and Gippal used to be a couple."
"How'd you know that?" Rikku said quickly.
"The way the two of you talk to eachother." Raze answered. "You tease eachother, and sometimes you even act like you hate him, all just to make people think there never was anything between you."
"Hey, I don't act like I hate him!" Rikku stated. "He really makes me mad sometimes."
Silence.
"So what happened today?" Raze suddenly asked.
"What?" Rikku said, afraid of what the answer might be.
"Like I said," Raze stated. "Something apparently happened recently to change your opinion about Gippal, and earlier today I saw you coming up from the lift to his workshop, red as a tomato."
"I wasn't red!" Rikku said and blushed.
"I believe you can ask anyone who was present when you ran off towards your room, trying to hide your face." Raze stated.
"I did NOT!" Rikku protested.
"Say whatever you want." Raze said as he turned to leave. "I guess you prefer to deal with your own problems." He stopped for a second. "People say you two 'made quite the couple.'"
Rikku leaned against the railing and snorted. She sighed heavily. "It was just an accident; I'll just act as if nothing's wrong." She chuckled. "Quite the couple?" She snorted again. "Yeah right."
Gippal was sitting with his feet on the table, barely listening to Baralai's ramblings about the increasing number of fiends being reported throughout Spira. He was bored, and in deep thoughts.
"Rikku's lips, they were so soft…." He thought, but then he snapped and shook the thought out of his head. "Dammit!" He cursed inside of his head. "Don't go getting those thoughts about Cid's girl now!"
"Gippal, are you listening?" Came Baralai's voice.
"Huh?" Gippal snapped out of his thoughts, everybody was looking at him.
"I was saying," Baralai said. "That the Machine faction will have to put a little more effort in building defensive machines, and I asked you to state a report on your progress in development of rouge guards."
"Oh!" Gippal straightened, feeling slightly embarrassed. "Well, we had a little delay on the rouge guards but we expect them to be finished in about two days time," He took a deep breath and spoke very quickly. "And as for the extra effort you're asking for; we can't work faster than this because of the lack of reliable and competent personal, we're already pushing ourselves to the limit, and thanks to that new squad you guys put me in, we have a lot of extra work from time to time."
Everybody was still staring at him.
"What?" He said.
The meeting was held at Nooj's place; the old Youth league HQ. Most of the ones present were delegates from the regions throughout Spira. Delegates like Tromell; the leader of the Guado. A female Ronso named Lupa. The delegate from Besaid was an old man who used to be a monk at the Besaid temple, the townspeople had nearly begged Yuna to be the delegate but she said that she simply would not deal with any kind of politics, so they elected the monk named Gind instead. The delegate from Killika was a young but professional woman clad in green, her name was Fay. Rin was there, to represent his agency company, and believe it or not but Wantz, O'aka's younger brother was there too, he represented the O'aka business in Macalania. The delegate from the calm lands was none other than the former owner of the Open air company, Yig, but since the two companies in the calm lands now were only one big company you couldn't call him the owner anymore. The delegate from Luca was a former Blitzball player named Hassé. There was an Al-bhed from the Thunder plains named Hatchi; he was in charge of keeping the lightning rod towers in good shape. There was a Hypello from the Moonflow named (believe it or not, he has a name) Looner. Baralai and Paine represented Bevelle, Nooj was there and of course, LeBlanc was clinging onto him. When the Guado came back to Guadosalam LeBlanc allowed the Guado to have their beloved manor back, shortly after that the syndicate became a part of the League, and LeBlanc moved over to Nooj. Ormi and Logos were of course there too. Apart from Gippal, there was one other person coming from Djose; namely Erea, the official delegate.
"How do you manage, Gippal?" Paine asked and broke the short silence which had followed Gippal's quick words.
"Whaddaya mean?" Gippal said and leaned back in the chair.
"How do you manage to be so tired and act so awake?" Paine asked with a smirk.
Everybody laughed at this comment, Gippal just chuckled.
"It's a gift, alright?" He said. "So how are you gonna fix the problem with the lack of protection?" He asked, turning to Baralai who was sitting next to Paine.
"We'll just have to dispatch some soldiers to each region; after all, real persons are a little more trustable than machina." Baralai said.
"Got that right." Gippal said and stretched.
"Everybody approve of the decision to dispatch soldiers to each region?" Paine asked, everybody raised their hand.
"Then it's settled," Nooj said firmly as he got to his feet. "We'll take a break, be back here in half an hour."
Everybody began to clear out; Gippal walked out to the observatory, he leaned against the railing and sighed heavily.
"You okay?" Paine asked as she walked up next to him. "You're a mess you know?"
Gippal chuckled. "I'm fine, just a little tired that's all."
"You must be working really hard then." Baralai stated as he walked up to the two of them. "It's been a while since I last heard any rumors about you waking up next to a blown haired brunette after a too wild party."
Paine smirked and Gippal snorted.
"So I take it you work really hard," Baralai said as he leaned against the railing next to Paine. "Or maybe you're becoming really good on hiding things."
"I just got an eye for machina, that's all." Gippal said and grinned.
"Speaking of which," Paine said. "How'd you lost your eye anyway?"
Gippal's grin vanished.
"Just a little unlucky dust with a fiend." He said simply as he looked at his feet.
"Care to tell us what happened?" Baralai asked as he leaned over so he could see Gippal's face.
Gippal just stared at his feet as he remembered himself pushing a thirteen year old girl out of the way, the last thing he saw with his right eye was a cascade of green liquid being shot straight into it.
"I just got in the way of a sulky Malboro." Gippal said.
"You did it to save your perky Al-bhed princess, didn't you?" Came a female voice.
Gippal turned around and saw LeBlanc walking over to them.
"What happened to your Noojie?" Gippal asked her, trying to change the subject.
"He's of chatting with that Tromell." LeBlanc said, clearly irritated, but she quickly changed back to her interrogating self. "So, am I right? Did you loose that eye of yours to save your perky princess?"
"Perky princess?" Paine said and frowned, although she knew who LeBlanc was talking about.
"Who?" Said Baralai.
"That Gullwing girl," Said LeBlanc with a smile. "Rikku."
"Who, Cid's girl?" Gippal said and pretended to snort.
"Aaaah, of course." Said Baralai as it dawned to him.
"What do you mean 'of course'?" Gippal said and straightened up.
"There are a lot of rumors going around about you two lately." Stated LeBlanc. "Seems you two have been spending quite some time together."
"Well, since she's working at the faction it's kinda hard to avoid being around her!" Gippal said.
"I believe that the reason there haven't been any rumors about you and another one night stand is that you've been too busy cuddling around with your very special princess." LeBlanc said and smiled and evil smirk.
"What!?" Gippal said in disbelief. "With Cid's girl? Don't' be thick! Cid would kill me!"
"Which is a good reason to why you're keeping it a secret." Paine stated and smiled.
"Come on!" Gippal held his arms out as he backed away from them. "Would I keep something a secret from you guys?"
"Yes." The three of them said at once.
"Okay, okay trick question!" Gippal held his finger up in defense. "Would I keep the fact that I have a girl secret?"
"Only if it's life threatening." Paine said. "And since we are talking about Cid's daughter here…"
Whatever…." Gippal said as he waved the statement away, he reached into his pocket for his cigarettes. He pulled out the package, but something fell out of his pocket; Gippal looked down to see Rikku's locket on the ground. He quickly picked it up and shoved it back into his pocket, he lit the cigarette and looked at the others; they were staring at him, Baralai and Paine both had smirks on their faces.
"What?" Gippal snapped.
"Is that the same necklace you used to play with every time you thought no one was watching?" Baralai asked.
"Huh?"
"In the Crimson squad," Paine said. "You always used too sit outside the tent to watch the stars while playing around with that thing."
Gippal was thunderstruck.
"How the hell do you know about that?" He spoke quietly, slight anger in his voice.
Paine dropped her smirk when she saw the look on his face. "I uhm….woke up one night," She said. "I noticed you weren't in the tent, so I took a peek outside; you were lying on your back, staring at that locket while humming some kind of song."
Gippal turned his gaze to Baralai and said. "Baralai?"
"She woke me up," Baralai said. "She said you seemed to be kind of sentimental."
"It was about a week after the Crimson squad training started." Paine said.
Gippal chuckled and took another blow on the cigarette.
"So you guys…kind of…watched me, other nights after that?" He said.
Paine and Baralai looked at eachother, then at Gippal, and nodded. "We kind of thought it was a nice song…" Paine said and shrugged.
Gippal chuckled and kept smoking his cigarette. Nobody said anything for a couple of minutes, not even LeBlanc, but then Paine broke the silence.
"So who's the woman on the picture?" She asked.
Gippal quickly looked up at her; Paine looked at her feet slightly ashamed and said "One night you fell asleep out there; I saw the medallion in your hand and I got curious."
Gippal looked down and nodded.
"So…" Paine repeated. "Who is she?"
Gippal sighed, why couldn't she just drop it?
"Her name was Keyda," He said. "She was Rikku's mother; she died…when Rikku was six."
Everyone was silent, then Paine said "Then I guess the two others are you and Rikku?"
Gippal looked at her; then he smiled and nodded.
"Ahaa!" LeBlanc said triumphantly. "So there was something between you two!"
"Not that there is anymore!" Gippal said and dropped his cigarette and put it out with his boot before he strode back inside, leaving the others there, smirking.
LeBlanc sighed. "They must've made 'quite the couple'…"
(A/N) I know what ye're thinking! That invention of Gippal's sounds a lot like the mechanic arms used by Dock Ock in the Spiderman 2 movie, well, that's where I got the idea, so just imagine that thing when I start writing more of this thing!
I managed to get another discrete fluff! Yay!
And yes, I know, there's a lot of talk about Rikku and Gippal making 'quite the couple', I thought it would be something funny....since Gippal says so in the game!
Well, please review....please? There aren't a lot of people reviewing actually! So please! take yer time....you don't have ta be a member on the site, so just....review!
I'll update soon, merry christmas!
