A/N: Gasp. Review people. I feel alone. If you review, I stay happy. That's right.
Okay, I have like, no ideas for this story; it's all just coming as I go. I'll try to fix it up as best I
Can…thanks!
Disclaimer: Eep! I forgot one last chapter! Oh no. Well, how about this-for the first two chapters, and ALL THE REST, nothing belongs to me. Except for if I make up some…certain Al Bhed character.
Luca Docks: Early in the Morning
Rikku munched on one apple as she strode quickly through the streets. A very frustrated Gippal followed closely behind.
"Slow down a bit?" Gippal asked. His legs were getting rather sore from striding quickly, trying to keep with Rikku. "Trying to get rid of me or something?"
"Maybe." Rikku said with a playful grin. So what if she hated him for what he had done? She was allowed to tease him a bit…she missed having fun with him.
"Seriously Rikku." She heard him groan. With a sigh she slowed her pace to keep step with him.
"Here." She said, tossing him an apple. He caught it in his right hand immediately and bit into it.
"Yum. Juicy." He added, smiling at her. Rikku rolled her eyes.
"You better be talking about the apple."
"No duh."
For a while the two ate their apples in silence (Rikku bought those other two while walking to the docks with Gippal), until he broke the silence.
"Why did you have to go to the docks again?"
"I had a feeling there's something here I need to see."
"U huh." He muttered skeptically. "Sorry to be an unbeliever when it comes to your psychic abilities." He snorted. Rikku grimaced.
"Okay, okay, I lied. Cid called me earlier to tell me there's a surprise waiting at the docks this morning-in fact it was a few days ago." Rikku frowned up at him. "Happy?"
She heard him give a low whistle as he stuffed his gloved hands back in his pockets. "Wow…callin' your dad Cid now, eh? Do I sense some tension between the two of you, or—"
"Nope. No tension." Rikku snapped, tugging at her scarf. "None. At. All."
"All right, all right! I was just asking, Ms. Crab Apple." Gippal muttered. Rikku just rolled her eyes. She had a feeling she was going to be doing a lot of that now.
"Okay. We're at the docks now. Hurry up and go where you're supposed to. Then you have to give me my answer." Gippal stated simply. Rikku glared at him.
"That sounded like an order." She snarled. He bent down and leaned in closer so he was just her height.
"Maybe it was, Al Bhed Princess." Rikku felt his hot breath, and she shuddered, pushing him away.
"Seriously, brush your teeth more often."
"I'm all natural, though! You can't expect me to go against my beliefs, do you?" She glanced up to see him with a grin plastered all over his face. Wow. His first real smile towards her in years.
"For the safety of myself and others-yes." Rikku stated, sticking her tongue out at him. "Now come on! It's dock…4, I think he said."
Rikku had to admit, she was a little excited to see what the surprise was-and that it needed to be kept on a dock caused her to be all the more curious. Maybe it was a giant teddy bear! Rikku grinned excitedly. Probably not, but a girl could have her dreams.
"Come on, old man! I want to get there faster!" She tugged at his sleeve until he gave in and started off in a small trot beside her as she started to run. After a few turns and twists around people, Rikku found herself breathing heavily at the entrance to dock 4.
"Thank Yevon." Gippal muttered beside her. "Did you take the most complicated path just to spite me?"
"Of course." Rikku remarked absent-mindedly, eyes scanning the dock.
Gippal straightened up and looked around as well. "So, what's the big surprise? Your own pretty pony?" Rikku punched him in the arm.
"Ouch! I forgot how much that hurt." He muttered, rubbing at his arm.
"Glad to remind you of it." She sighed heavily. "I don't see anything…" She ran up more and realized that towers of boxes covered nearly the whole dock—she guessed this was the import/export dock…everything looked sent in from somewhere else.
"Maybe it's one of these." She thought out loud, her finger pointed at her chin thoughtfully. She heard Gippal walk up behind her.
"And what? The one for you is gonna have on a big stamp "For Rikku; Love Cid" on it?"
"NO! I was not expecting that." Rikku muttered, feeling her stomach lower slightly. Well, he had just made her idea sound stupid.
Suddenly, the two heard low mutterings behind a wall of boxes. They sounded rather deep and-and threatening. She was just about to ask Gippal about it, when she felt his hand close over her mouth. She glanced back at him with round eyes, but he just shook his head and put a finger to his lips. Rikku grew stiff-he actually, truly, looked concerned. She gave in and decided to stay silent. Gippal led her over to the wall of boxes, and he motioned for her to squat down. She willingly did so, feeling a little ticked to be ordered around by him—but he seemed worried, so whatever.
"Ec cra rana oad?" (Is she here yet?)
"E tuh'd ghuf, pid ed'c dygehk vunajan...ra dumt ic du pa fyedehk vun ran..." (I don't know, but it's taking forever...he told us to be waiting for her...)
"CRICR, eteudc! E drehg E zicd raynt cusadrehk...crid ib." (SHUSH, idiots! I think I just heard something...shut up.)
Rikku stiffened at the words. Wait…those voices sounded too familiar to be frightened of…
She stood up suddenly, causing Gippal to give her an alarmed look. He frowned up at her, and she just shook her hand at him.
"Hello?" She asked tentatively.
"Rikku!" She heard Gippal hiss. She heard the conversation cease from behind the boxes.
"Rikku?" A voice asked. Soon three heads popped up from behind the boxes. Rikku nearly shrieked with happiness.
"Bilak! Lienn! Sunny!" Rikku gave a great big laugh and ran around the tower of boxes to the three men standing there.
"Rikku!" The one, Sunny, cried, giving her a great big smile. Rikku laughed out loud again and hugged all three. "I thought you guys had-had died!" She cried, tears of joy leaking out from the corners of her eyes.
The two others, Bilak and Lienn, grinned hugely at her.
"It's been ages Ri!" Lienn cried, ruffling her hair. Rikku laughed.
"You guys haven't changed one bit!"
Sunny's blond hair reached down to his shoulders. A pair of goggles hid his green, swirly eyes, and he wore on a blue Al Bhed style shirt with black paints. He wore elbow high gloves and combat boots. Lienn's dark, nearly black skin allowed his spiked, blond hair to stand out. He wore a similar shirt to Sunny, but his was green and differently styled. He wore on just plain shoes and wore no gloves. Bilak was dressed in his trusty full Al Bhed body suit, with his blond hair just down to his ears.
"Hey, hey, but you've changed!" Bilak said, pointing at Rikku. "Look at you: all grown up!"
A huge, loud, and forced cough caused Rikku to break apart from the hug with the three men.
"Who are they?" Gippal's voice asked, still filled with suspicion.
"Oh, oh! Gippal, these are the guys, along with Brother, who came with me on the boat when I was 15!" A pause met this. She sighed. "YOU left already. I went with them to go check out some ruins—this is Sunny, Bilak, and Lienn. You guys, this is Gippal—" She paused, trying to find the right word.
"—My acquaintance." She finally decided. Gippal ruffled her hair.
"You know, Cid's Girl, the word 'friend' isn't that hard to say."
"Maybe it is." Rikku said, glaring up at him coldly. Gippal raised an eyebrow at her, but said nothing more.
"So, how'd you guys get here? How did you know I would be here?! How did you LIVE?"
Sunny laughed. "Well, first of all, Cid knew we've been around for a bit, and decided it'd be nice for you to see us again after so many years. He told us to come here and meet you here this morning. Secondly, we got here on the boat—"
"THE boat?" Rikku cried, her eyes glinting with excitement. Sunny held up his hand.
"And thirdly, we survived because, after that sissy boy was thrown off-"
"Hey." Rikku muttered, crossing her arms and giving him a pouty face. "He's not a sissy."
Sunny raised an eyebrow, but went on. "After he was thrown off, you fell in with him, as you know. Us three stayed on the boat, too brave—"
"Afraid." Lienn butted in, elbowing Sunny. Sunny sighed.
"Fine. We were too afraid to jump off, so we tried to handle the boat and keep it steady while Sin floundered around for a bit. After a few zaps from the electric crane, he kinda slunk off. After that we were all too tired to worry about anything, so we let the boat drift, and soon we made it to the base of the Calm Lands, and from there we made our way until we found Cid, and then he got our boat for us, and—tada!"
Rikku just kept grinning, excitement running through her. She had thought her friends died! She was so glad they had survived the attack!
"I just thought-I thought I would never see you again…" She wiped at her eyes, feeling stupid. She could feel Gippal's eye shooting daggers at her, but she chose to ignore his suspicious feeling.
"Don't cry about it, Rikku. We're here now, so there's nothing to be sad about, right?" Sunny asked, smiling and wiping away a stray tear of hers. She gave him a shaky smile.
"Now, how about seeing the boat, Rikku?" Lienn asked, turning his head towards the water. Rikku turned to her right and gasped. There, floating calmly in the dock waters, was the good old, square, metallic boat of hers-one she had helped create.
"This is unbelievable…" She muttered, stepping onto it. As soon as she stood on it, she immediately felt at home-everything was good again. It was just like how it used to be—her, Sunny, Bilak, Lienn, and Brother going on a voyage—it had helped her so much get over Gippal. But after Sin attacked, she had thought her friends, or the boat, would ever show up again.
"She's the exact same." Bilak said, giving her a smile as he leaned against the railing. Rikku's eyes sparkled at him.
"She sure is."
"Uh—Rikku?" Gippal's voice called from the dock. Rikku glanced up-a little surprised to see him there. She had almost forgotten he was still here! With two quick steps she was back on the dock.
"What Gippal?" She asked, a little exasperated. She just wanted to explore the boat over, and talk with her old friends for a while. He was making everything awkward.
"Sorry to break up this lovely reunion—" He sneered over at the group of three men, talking quietly on the ship, "but I need to ask-are you coming to Djose, or not?"
Rikku glanced sadly at her three friends. "I-I don't know." She finally managed.
He sighed. "Rikku, you said you would know by now—"
"GIPPAL!" She hissed, eyes flashing. "I've just met my best friends I haven't seen or heard of in over two years—I thought they were dead! You know how that feels? Well, it sucks, all right? Give me time to actually talk to them and spend time with them, and-and—" She stopped, a small smile creeping up on her face. She turned to run back on the boat, when Gippal gripped her arm.
"What are you doing?" He asked carefully, eye flashing.
"I'm going to ask them something!" Rikku said, rolling her eyes.
"Rikku-or should I say Ri-I don't trust them. Not one bit." Rikku looked up at him to see dead seriousness in his eye. She looked back at her friends, who were now laughing over something. Rikku looked up at Gippal with a disgusted expression on her face.
"Gippal! How dare you say that about some of my best friends?! That not only insults them, it insults me!"
"Look, it's just that-well-didn't you hear them talking earlier? They sounded angry, sinister—I know you were scared—"
"Well, yea, but I didn't know they were my friends!"
"That doesn't matter! You were scared all the same, and whatever intentions they have for you—they didn't sound pleasant, all right?"
Rikku heard pleading in his voice, and she smiled at him. "Are you—concerned for me?"
A red tinge creeped up the back of his neck and around his ears. "No. Of course not. I'm just trying to be the smart one here, since one of us isn't even bothering to try."
Rikku glared up at him. "Do I really want to work for you?"
"Yes." Gippal said, smiling lightly.
Rikku sighed and looked at her friends once more. "Oh yea! I had an idea!" She quickly ran down onto the boat to talk to her friends. She looked back to see Gippal roll his eye and lean against the boxes, while watching her closely.
"Hey guys—feel like doing an old friend a favor?" She asked. The three broke away from their conversation.
"Anything for Rikku." Sunny said, bowing. Rikku giggled.
"Anyone still know how to steer this baby?"
"How do you think we got here?" Lienn asked, smiling proudly with a thumb pointed at his chest.
Rikku just smiled.
"Can you give me and my-my friend a ride to Djose Temple? It's pretty urgent."
A/N: Heehee. That's right. I introduced new characters-I'm stupid and can't remember if Buddy was on the boat or not, so let's say he wasn't. Anyway, these three are just three other random guys I said were on the boat because I DO remember three other guys on there, other then Brother. (I remember Brother was there because he said something in Al Bhed and that was cheap cus I couldn't understand and I clicked yes and he showed me the sphere grid AGAIN, and that got me mad and made me remember that forever). BUUUT, anyway, not much Rikku and Gippal, but I'm sure you'll survive. Just wanted to show that Rikku and the three had a pretty tight bond before. Notice how Rikku concedes in calling Gippal a friend later, even though he was suspicious of her friends? Hmm…poor Rikku can't make up her mind. R&R please!
