A/N-Yay! Thanks for all the reviews! And to those that are confused as to why I spelt it Gippel and not Gippal, it's because Gippel is the Japanese way that you write his name, and it really ticks me off when people change the original name, ya know? I'd like it to remain the same. Well anyway, onward with the story! Again, thanks for all the reviews! ^_^
♥Every Heart♥
Chapter Two: Er…SURPRISE!!!
As the rain splattered against Djose Temple, a certain blonde man with green eyes peered out through the double doors anxiously, and then turned around to face Cid, who was smirking.
"This is some plan you got, Cid. Rikku is gonna kill you for sure this time." Cid looked unfazed, a smirk still visible on his old features.
"Don't you worry about that. If anything, she will kill you. You're the one who agreed to my proposal." Gippel rolled his one eye. Looking outside once more, he swiftly turned and stalked past Cid and entered his room, slamming the door shut.
+_+
I yelped as another big drop of icy rain came in contact with my left eye. Paine, Yuna, and I were running as fast as our legs could, splashing icky mud all over the place.
"Are we there yet? Ow!" I wiped another drop from my face, squinting hard in order to see what lay ahead of us. "Ooh, poopie! Another fiend! You'd think they'd be smart enough to go find some shelter!" We stopped in front of the Chimera, Yuna behind it, Paine to the left, and me right in front.
"This is your lucky day," Paine said in a bored fashion, unsheathing her blade and running towards the fiend, slashing its body forcefully. Yuna's turn came up and she trigger happy'd the Chimera to death. It gave a last cry of anguish before its body fell to the floor with a heavy thud, splashing mud all over us.
"Hey! No fair! I didn't even get to go!" Yuna smirked and Paine rolled her eyes, and we were off again. After a few more fiends and minutes, we saw Djose Temple approaching. "C'mon, guys! Run a little faster; we're almost there!" I cried, taking my speed up a notch.
"Slow down, Rikku! You might slip or—"Yuna's words faded in the distance as the rain fell down harder. I should've listened to her. One minute I was running on the slick mud, the next, I was on the ground, my face in my mud. Pushing myself up my the elbows, I gave a bellow of fury, ferociously wiping away the brown stuff with my hands. Standing up, I examined myself. I was covered head to toe with mud.
"ARGH!!!"
"What's the matter…? Oh." Paine came up beside me, covering her mouth with a gloved hand, trying to conceal her laughter. I glared at her, feeling the mud slowly plop onto the ground. A few seconds later, a drenched Yuna came, running at full speed. She didn't seem to acknowledge us at all, as she ran headfirst into Paine, sending them both crashing to the ground.
"HAHAHAHAHA!!!" I grinned, pointing mirthfully at Paine. Nicely put, the both of them were caked in mud. I laughed so hard that tears came out of my eyes and I had to kneel on the ground because my chest was hurting so much. I could barely make out Paine's ruby eyes glaring at me and Yuna's bewildered face. Anyway, while I was laughing to my heart's content, Paine had made a mud ball. When I saw it in her hands, I didn't have a moment to react. She threw it right into my face, and because my mouth was open, it went there too.
I gave a cry of fury, but it sounded strangled since I was vehemently spitting out chunks of dirt. A mud ball match ensued, but we were interrupted by Yuna's calm voice that was hovering above us.
"Hey…I don't see a raging machina…" I looked at our surroundings. We were right in front Djose Temple, yes, but there was no sign of destruction anywhere. I stood up slowly, squinting hard.
"Something's not right." Paine stood up, scanning the area warily with her eyes.
"What's going on out there?" I swiveled by head in the direction of the temple, squinting some more. I could make out someone approaching. The person had a huge head of blonde hair, and he seemed to stroll over to us after pausing, a slight cockiness to his walk.
"Gippel? Hey, it's Gippel!" I waved over to him. I could now make out his right eye patch, and the easily recognizable smirk etched onto his features. He came to a stop right in front of me. I realized that I was the only one out of the four of us that was still sitting on the ground, drenched with rain and…well, mud. He just stared at me for a few seconds, and the air around us seemed to grow tense as Gippel's brow furrowed, and his eyes darted to Yuna and Paine, who were still muddy as well. Then, spontaneously, he clapped his hands together, motioning towards the temple.
"Want a bath?" I released a sigh of relief that I didn't know I'd been holding in and rolled my eyes.
"Yah, we'd appreciate that!" Yuna said enthusiastically from behind Gippel. He nodded quietly and offered a gloved hand down to me, which was pretty un-Gippel-like. Hesitantly, and with extreme wariness, I placed my right hand onto his outstretched left one. He pulled me up roughly, and before I knew it, he had me in a headlock, playfully messing up my hair.
"E ryjah'd caah oui eh y faag, Cid's meddma kenm!" He grinned as I glared up at him, trying to fix my hair in futilely.
"I have a name you know! Rikku! Say it with me! Don't be shy! Rikku!" I huffed, standing up on my tiptoes so that I was eye to eye with him. He just smirked that arrogant smirk of his.
"Right." Then he turned to Paine and Yuna. "Let's get inside. We have some stuff to talk about."
+_+
"Ah…" I sighed, toweling my long blonde hair. My body was devoid of the horrible mud, and I smelled much better. Humming, I blow-dried my long hair and expertly braided some strands, adding the usual baubles to them, along with the blue bandanna. I changed to my regular Thief sphere and skipped out of the bathroom, winking at Yuna.
"It's all yours!" I sang cheerily. Yuna smiled gratefully, still caked with mud, and entered the bathroom. I continued walking until I entered the main room, and when I was sure Yuna was out of hearing range, I let go of a huge laugh I had been holding in.
"What's so funny?" I gasped and turned around, and sure enough, there was Gippel, smirking a few meters away from me.
"Ed'c huha uv ouin picehacc!" I yelled to him. He smirked, crossing his arms. Remembering why YuRiPa was here, a tilted my head questioningly. "Frana ec dra sylrehy?" For a moment there, I thought I saw panic arise in his eyes before that smirk of his came back on.
"There is no machina, Rikku."
"Then why am I here?!" I was already getting fed up with his little mind game. I stomped over to him, squinting hard up at him when I stood directly in front of him. I poked his chest. "Damm sa!"
"Can't stay away from me, can you?"
"Ooh!"
"Rikku, Gippel!" Immediately, I turned my head quickly towards the direction of the familiar voice. Grinning, I ran at full speed and tightly hugged my Pops.
"Pops! Hey, how's it been going? How is everyone?" Chuckling, Pops gently slipped out of my iron grip embrace and walked towards Gippel, who was still standing where I had left him.
"Lusa rana, Rikku." Merrily, I skipped over to the male Al Bheds. I stopped in front of Pops, habitually linking my arms behind my head and moving my body energetically as if dancing to a hidden beat.
"What's up?"
"You're about to find out, Rikku…" As my Pops said these words, Gippel seemed to be sliding slowly away from me. Naïve as ever, I tilted my head cutely, trying to dig out what the heck Pops was talking about.
"Okey dokey! Spill! Why is there no raging machina, no one here but us, and this suddenly…tense…silence…" I finished the last part meekly, seeing Gippel eyeing my quite tensely. Pops coughed, grabbing my short attention once more.
"Well, Rikku, as you know, I am the leader of the Al Bhed tribe, and I'm growing old. The person that gets to be leader of the Al Bhed tribe is chosen by me. He has to meet my qualifications, must be male, and he cannot be a relative of our family because our people believe that more than one family should get a chance. But before the next person can become leader, he must marry…" I rolled my eyes, bored, and crossed my arms. How many times have I heard this? Let's see…one, two, three, four, five. Yeah, five. No, wait, there was that one time when I was four and we were just yapping…ok, that's six. Wow.
"Rikku, are you listening to me?!"
"Whaa? Yah, Vydran. So I guess you want Gippel to be the next leader?" I asked, taking a guess. Looking relieved, Pops wiped the sweat from his forehead and Gippel looked even more at ease.
"Good, good. Well, you see, Gippel? She doesn't mind you being leader!" I think there was a hidden message when Pops spoke. Suddenly realizing a minor detail, I stared at Pops for a while.
"So, who's the lucky lady that Gippel over here gets to marry?" Gippel laughed nervously, scratching the back of his blonde head, his feet shuffling. Why's he so nervous all of sudden? Usually this guy is like, a stone. Cool, calm, and collected. Pops started sweating a little too much for comfort, and everyone seemed to be backing away from me. Feeling my left eye twitch in annoyance, a placed my hands on my hips and jutted my chin out, staring straight at Pops.
"Ok, spit it out. Why are you guys so nervous? What's going on?"
"Well, you see Rikku…Gippelwilltakemyplaceasleaderwhenyoumarryhimbecauseheagreedtomyproposal, k?"
"Huh?" Someone sighed deeply over to my left, as if they were making a final statement before they went to the Farplane.
"Cid wants me to be leader of the Al Bhed tribe, and since I must marry, I…Cid, chose you to be my wife."
"Er…SURPRISE!!!"
And that was the last thing I heard before I blacked out.
A/N-Reviews, please! *skips happily around* I have to tell ya'll that I might not update sometimes because I have no inspiration, and I don't want the chapters to come out bad, k? Well, click that button! Thanks!
Translations:
E ryjah'd caah oui eh y faag, Cid's meddma kenm! : I haven't seen you in a week, Cid's little girl!
Ed'c huha uv ouin picehacc! : It's none of your business!
Frana ec dra sylrehy? : Where is the machina?
Damm sa! : Tell me!
Lusa rana, Rikku. : Come here, Rikku.
