A/N: I know, I know…it's been forever. I just read this awesome R/G story, and now I feel hideously inferior. Eh. Whatcha gonna do.

I'm trying to make it a bit more interesting—I'll try to go into more detail so you can imagine the scene better…sorry if I haven't been describing very well in the past…

Have fun reading!

Rikku's Boat—Off in the Ocean

Rikku's vision was blurry as she blinked her eyes open. Augh…had she been sleeping? She couldn't even remember what had happened…

A furl of frigid wind whipped over her body, causing her to shiver. Wait…wind…?

Something soft brushed against her eyelid as she struggled to keep them open. Wait…what was that? She waited until her vision came into focus to discover what her head was snuggled into.

What the…

It took every nerve in her body to stop her from screaming out. Her head was tucked down beside Gippal's chest, her face buried into the ruffles of his clothing. She now felt that her body was squeezed into a small ball, yet still facing the straight body of Gippal. She felt a warm weight around her waist, and she could only guess it was his arm.

"G-G-Gippal?!" She hissed, her stomach clenching up in fear. If he had awoken some time during the night…

She struggled to lift her head up to look around their surroundings. The muscles screamed for her to stop—every inch of her body ached. Her eyes grew round as she saw that her and Gippal were snuggled up nice and cozy like…on the deck of the boat!

The sun barely peeked over the horizon. The sky was a hazy orange color, reflecting off the waters surface, giving a murky look to it. The boat bobbed along lazily-giving the feeling of a swaying baby's cradle. Either it was just free-floating, or someone was steering down below.

Okay. This is too much. Rikku reasoned. What were the two of them doing, of all people, lying together, all through the night, out on the freezing deck of a boat?! Al Bhed's weren't built for this kind of weather…that's why she felt as if her body didn't even exist, it was so numb with cold. No wonder she had been snuggled up to Gippal-she had lunged for the warmest thing near her.

She rotated her body slowly, shivering as Gippal's arm stayed around her waist. Soon she had made it onto her back with disturbing the snoring beast beside her—thank goodness for that. She felt his arm lying on top of her stomach, causing shivers up her spine. For a moment, she didn't want to move.

When she remembered who she was lying beside. Her ex boyfriend!

She quickly forced the upper-half of her body to sit up so she could lift his arm off. She grabbed it before it could fall any lower.

Her hand reached out for the tip of his gloved as if it were a germ. She gingerly lifted it up and rested it softly against his own body, moving slowly and carefully as to not wake him.

And then she moved fast.

Quick as a flash she scurried back on all fours, knees scraping against the metal of floor, her hands tripping over each other from moving too fast backwards.

And there she stayed, in that position, for at least 15 minutes, still trying to make sense of all that she had been faced with this morning. What did the others think? Had Gippal known this was happening? Because if he did, she would never hear the end of his relentless teasings…

She was snapped out of her thoughts as Gippal shifted so his back faced her. She sighed with relief. Thank Yevon. That was a little weird…

The memory of his arm lazily wrapped around her waist caused her face to flush a deep crimson, even though there was no one there to be embarrassed in front of.

Wait! Ew, ew, ew! The logical side of her brain screamed. Who knew how much she had snuggled up to him during the night-waking up with his chest in front of her face was enough for her to die of embarrassment.

"I need to get out of here." She muttered, shakily standing up. Going down into the hatch and snagging a nice warm blanket and some coffee sounded like an awesome idea…

With a last shiver she started to walk to the automatic door, when she paused to look back. Should she wake him?

…Nah, he might as well sleep while he can.

Rikku scurried down the metallic stairs, making sure to keep her footsteps soft so they didn't echo around the small room-she didn't want to let any of the guy's know she was there

Soon she heard the hiss of the door closing behind her. With a sigh and a small smile, she allowed the comforting warmth to seep into her skin as she finished descending the stairs. In the room there was a small table with 4 old chairs around it-the same ones as always, old metal frame with worn away read leather. One wall had the controlling system on it that had 3 big screens double the size of the one Shinra had. They all seemed the same as it though, with Al Bhed text scrolling in bright neon green with complicated diagrams on each. There were three plush chairs in front of each screen, with a large, connected keyboard with huge, flat buttons that blinked different colors. Speakers were sunk into the wall at each side, and Rikku saw all the wires hanging loosely from the roof. She sighed. These guys were never the organized type. The walls were shiny and metallic, just like everything else in the room. The only light were from the computer screens, and a small bulb overtop the iron table.

There were three doors to the left-one for the boys, one for her, and the washroom. She sighed, wondering if her room looked the same. With a shake of her head she stumbled over to the coffee machine near the small kitchen area. She felt another shiver crawl up her spine as she finished pouring the coffee. With a content sigh she sipped at the steaming liquid, a huge smile plastered on her face. She plopped down on one of the old chairs, her legs splayed out in "Y".

There were tons of piles of pages, all paper-clipped together. A small calculator sat at the side, and Rikku grabbed a random pile of papers, flipping through it slowly as she sipped at her coffee. Everything was written in Al Bhed, and it took her a few minutes to change back into Al Bhed mode-she had read in English for so long.

There was a silence except for the quiet humming of the computers as she read slowly through the pages, and as she read, her eyebrows furrowed together, a small frown tugging at her lips. She didn't remember her crew making plans like these…they had gone in search of ruins, and Sunny, Bilak and Lienn had all said that was their job…but what was this? Wanderings down near the Moonflow? And as she read, it said nothing about machina, or ruins.

The Boss wants you here by tomorrow morning with the tool…if not, you're in for a surprise, and it may not be good. I'm not supposed to help you, but I feel sorry for you-you have no idea what you're getting yourselves into. Follow this, and everything will flow smoothly-unless the tool seems to have some defects.

After this little note a large picture followed, quickly scribbled by a pen. It looked like the weather patterns near the sea by Djose Temple. Along with weather patterns of precipatation, the water currents were shown in vivid red ink. A little dot was shown bobbing on what was drawn as water…black arrows from the dot seemed to mark out a route on the complicated dots and lines, arrows and zig-zags…Rikku felt a head ache coming on, but she couldn't stop flipping through, trying to figure out what was going on.

And suddenly, something in her stomach knotted up…was it, fear? Rikku hadn't felt fear in a long time—not since, well…even fighting Vegnagun she had not truly felt fear-only an adrenaline rush, or something of the type…

The other pages continued to speak of a place near Moonflow, along with other diagrams showing routes through things, plans on defeating…a "tool" or something, an asset these people needed…but, who was in on all of this?

"Rikku?"

A voice snapped Rikku out of her trance. Without showing any emotion, she pushed the pile back to its place, which was only a few inches away.

Now she glanced up. "Sunny?" She gave him a small smile. "Hullo." She watched nervously as his eyes darted to the piles of paper, his eyebrows furrowed only a tiny bit.

"What're you doing?" He asked, his voice a bit sharp. Rikku shrank just a little, without even really knowing why.

"J-Just drinking my coffee." She answered; trying to make sure it didn't come out as a frightened sort of whisper.

He answered with a nod. "So…where were you?" She asked, eyes scanning the room, looking anywhere but Sunny. Was he part of these plans that the papers spoke of? The attacks and whatnot that were written in step-by-step details? Did he know something of this tool? Rikku's memory flashed back to when Gippal and her had been having a-er-conversation.

"I don't trust them, Rikku!"

She shivered involuntarily. "Rikku? Did you hear me?"

She snapped out of her thoughts. "Huh?"

He smiled. "I said I was steering the boat-I've put it on auto-pilot for now." Her jerked his thumb in the direction of past the kitchen, where the steering controls were.

"I-I see."

After this followed a silence, where Sunny slowly filled a mug with coffee. "So…how was your sleep?" He asked, trying to hide a smirk-and Rikku knew it.

"Fine." She answered bluntly, not bothering to go into the itty-bitty details. Now she could see he wasn't hiding a wide spread smile. But it seemed—forced. Like he didn't actually want to be smiling.

"Something up?" She asked, a bit confused.

"Huh? Oh-nope. Nothing at all." He heaved a sigh and pulled a chair out across from her. He rested his elbows on the table and slowly sipped his coffee.

"Well, just one question."

Rikku felt a bit queasy, but laughed it off. "Fire away!"

"Well—how come-you know-" Rikku was surprised to see a red tinge in his cheeks "how come you're stuck with a guy like Gippal?"

Another silence followed this, only because the young girl was trying to comprehend what he was saying.

"Huh?" She asked, her answer to everything.

He blushed even deeper. "What I mean is, how come you're with…him? I mean, I think you deserve something better, don't you? He seems to tease you a lot, and it looks like he never believes in you or anything…" Rikku saw that his cheeks were flaming red, and she tried to ignore that.

She couldn't have one of her best friends having feelings or her. So she did what she always did when something happened she didn't want to-ignore it, until there was no other choice.

"Well, you know, he's not that bad…" As she sipped her coffee, the words she had stated clicked in her mind. With sudden second thoughts she nearly spit out her coffee all over the table. Sunny glanced up, slightly alarmed at the squirrel like cheeks she had from trying to keep the beverage in. Finally she choked it down, gasping for breath.

"Gippal? And me?! HA! Please Sunny, I'm more mature than that! I wouldn't ever go with Gippal!" She giggled incessantly, trying to forget what she had first told him.

"No need to worry! Gippal and Rikku are never said in the same sentence!" She stated with fake cheerfulness, never noticing the irony of her sentence. Sunny smiled tentatively.

"That's a re—"

He stopped in mid sentence and glanced, alarmed, up at the staircase. The sounds of someone running up the stairs caused Rikku to whirl around to see what he was looking at. But all she saw were the last fragments of combat boots disappearing through an opening door.

…………

Rikku stepped out onto the deck nervously, a large, pillowy quilt stuffed in her arms. She could barely hold it without it almost exploding out. The cursed thing was blocking her vision—but then again it might not be the worst thing. She didn't want to see Gippal lunging off the side of the boat in attempts of a suicide.

At that she felt her stomach drop. She felt terrible for constantly repeating that her and Gippal would never be together down in the hatch-clearly he took it the wrong way. Perhaps he had thought she was lying and had said they had never been together…

Lies, lies, lies! The voice sang in her head. Rikku chose to ignore it.

"Gippal?" She called, her voice quiet. There was no answer.

"Curse this stupid quilt…" She grumbled, struggling to lift one arm up to pat down the quilt loudly and more than needed.

"Gippal?" She asked again, angry to see the quilts edges bob back up in front of her view. "Okay, the deck isn't that big! If you don't answer I'll walk right into the ocean, and then I'll bet you'll feel pretty bad—"

"I'm right here." She heard a quiet answer. She swerved to her left and trumped off into the direction.

"Err—Marco!" She called, still confused of his position.

A small chuckle answered. "Polo."

"Coming!" She sang, running up to him. With a quiet thump she felt her body smack into his back.

"Oh. Hullo." She mumbled meekly, her face flushing red.

"What's that you got in your hands?" He asked, his voice lighter now.

"Oh, oh, oh!" She was so excited the quilt slipped from her hands and onto the deck. She blushed as she bent down to pick it up. But now it wasn't folded, so she scrunched up the top and stood up again.

"This is for you! 'Cause you know, I expect you'll be cold…"

Aw geez. Her mind muttered, knowing she had just given away that she had known he was out here. At least he might not know she had been out here with him.

"Hey, thanks Cid's Girl." He said, grinning. In one swift movement he had grabbed it and wrapped the old gray quilt around his shoulders. "Ah, that's better."

"I have a name!" Rikku muttered, folding her arms.

"Not to me you don't."

"Ooooooh…"

Rikku nearly blew up on him before he interrupted.

"Err—" Another silence. Rikku stopped and saw that his cheeks had flushed slightly pink.

"Yea?" She asked quietly.

"Do you even remember last night?" He finally blurted, his eye trained on the ocean waves to his left.

Another silence when Rikku tried to figure out a nice way to answer that question.

She couldn't find it.

"Ah-no." She answered truthfully, feeling her cheeks heat up. "I must have been so sleepy…"

"You were." Gippal stated. With a yawn he stood up from his sitting position. "Well, I-er-think I'll go get some coffee."

As he turned Rikku, dying with curiosity, finally blurted, "Aren't you going to tell me what happened? Tell me how I ended up tucked beside you this morning when I woke up? On the deck? Huh? HUH?"

Gippal stopped in his tracks. He turned slowly around, and Rikku was slightly flustered to see a cocky smirk on his face.

"Well, well…snuggled up close to me, did you?"

"Ooooooh…YOU had YOUR arm around ME, so don't be getting' any ideas about how I feel, buster!"

Gippal turned slightly red, but then just shrugged it off. "Who am I to tell you your whole life story? I thought you were smart enough to remember it…but, you know, I guess it wasn't that important to you…" He trailed off, swerving around, and started to walk off once more.

"One night isn't my whole life story!" She cried, stamping her foot in frustration. "And what's with the emphasis on 'you'? I don't think you're striking the proper tone here!"

She heard a sigh coming from him, and he slowly turned around.

"Look, Rikku—"

Suddenly the boat lurched, waves lapping dangerously close to the top of the deck. Rikku went sprawling, and felt her arms automatically clutch around an iron pole from the deck's rail. Thank Yevon she hadn't flown off this time.

In a matter of seconds she felt a heavy body lean overtop of hers. Her stomach tightened, even at a time like this.

"G-Gipp--?"

"I'm not letting you fly off again." He muttered through gritted teeth, his hands enclosing around her small frail ones. Rikku felt much safer with his hands holding hers onto the pole.

But the dangerous rocking didn't float off, as it should have. Instead, it got rougher, and Rikku felt her legs slowly fly up, higher each time. Suddenly the door hissed open, and she heard the heavy clomping of boots. They stopped rather close to her and Gippal.

"What is it?" She heard Gippal hiss. Her eyes were closed shut, in fear of seeing a huge wave coming to swallow her up. She felt the salty water lick at Gippal's hands, seeping through to her own. She grew rigid with fright.

"It's-it's-well-" She heard Lienn's voice, rather shaky, falter. Bilak stepped in.

"It's a fiend—a huge fiend—and it's coming right for us."

A/N: Whew! Long, aggravating, and hard. Please give me good reviews, I miss them. It's been forever since I updated, and I'm sorry-I've had all sorts of tests and whatnot. I probably won't update for another6 days or so-I have a huge L.A. character sketch project.

Tell me what you liked, and why! Please, please!

Thankie!