A/N: Yay! More! I had some awesome reviews that made me giggle. Thanks! Hmm…let's see if this chapter is going to work out…
Djose Temple, Gippal's Office
Rikku sighed heavily and brushed her bangs from her face. "I guess I better get started…"
"No way!" She heard Gippal cry. She whirled around, a wee bit shocked.
"Uh—I thought I was your assistant." She stated in a confused sort of tone.
"Not like that, you're not." Gippal said, pointing at her clothes, skin, hair…anywhere and everywhere on Rikku was covered in oily grease left over from her sleeping rag.
"Oh." She whispered meekly.
"I don't want grease all over my paperwork now." He stated with a hint of a smile.
She headed for the door, but turned around as she grasped the handle. "I wouldn't be like this if you had just GOTTEN OFF OF MY BED!" She cried, a huge smile plastered on her face. She said the last bit very quickly, and then escaped the room, letting the door slam shut.
Gippal stared after her, a small grin on his face. "Oh, that was funny though. All your little tantrums were worth the look on your face." He started to whistle a quiet tune, spinning on his heel and sitting at his desk, his body lost in the mountains of paper.
…………..
Rikku returned refreshed and revitalized, along with her hair let loose and wavy. She gazed at herself in the washroom mirror. "Hmm…my hair looks awesome like this." She murmured, fingering the honey golden locks fondly. "I wonder if Gippal like—"
"RIKKU!" A familiar voice cried. Wynter bounced into the washroom, and Rikku was glad to see she had washed up.
"Hey Wynter." Rikku answered, looking away from the mirror and washing her hands even though she had just had a shower.
"Wow—your hair looks really nice like that!" Wynter flipped the bottom and Rikku let out a giggle.
"You think so?"
"Yea! I wish I could grow my hair out…"
"Oh. Why can't you?" Rikku asked, intrigued. Wynter averted her eyes from Rikku's gaze and looked down at her hands, where they were wringing each other nervously.
Rikku felt like she had just asked a question she wasn't supposed to. "Oh, if you don't want to tell me, I'll understa—"
"It's because of my father." Wynter cut off Rikku's apology abruptly. Rikku shut her mouth accordingly, watching Wynter worriedly.
"Your dad?"
"Yea." She was silent for a few more seconds, before she spoke up again. "I'm only sixteen right now, turning seventeen in two months. My father thinks I'm too young to be out working on my own, so he comes and checks on me every two to three weeks. It's really annoying, actually." She said with a small, obviously fake smile. "But he—he doesn't think girls should have long hair. Ever since I was little my hair's been about this length-the longest it got to was my chin, but my father…got angry." She said bluntly, and Rikku gulped.
"Angry, as in…?"
"Yea. That whole beating thing. I personally found his whole taboo thing really stupid…but for fear of my life, yes it's extreme, but that's about how I feel, I don't grow it out."
Rikku felt something in her throat. She coughed, feeling a deep sense of pity for Wynter. "Gee Wynter, I'm sorry…"
"Why?" Wynter asked with a grin. "It's not your fault. I'm just so glad you're here now."
Rikku, once more, felt the guilt in her body grow steadily higher. "Well then, it's obvious." Rikku stated with a glint in her eye.
"What is?"
"We're growing out your hair."
"WHAT?!" Wynter cried, eyes wide. "NO! Rikku, if my father saw me-"
"I'LL talk to him!" Rikku cried, smiling now. "Don't you see? That's how I won my dad over! Rebellion! I left him to go on a ship when he didn't want me to-I went to go fight Sin when he didn't want me to! If you go against what he says, and let me handle the talking, of course, he'll learn to live with it!"
Wynter hesitated. "What if he takes me away from here?"
"He can't. You're now Gippal's employee-the only way you can leave is to be fired or to quit. And I'll tell Gippal not to fire you." Rikku gave her thumbs up. "Don't worry, everything will be—"
Her eyes found the clock that was hanging over the bathroom door. "Holy Jeebacles!" She cried, eyes wide. "I gotta go Wynter-Gippal'll have my head for being late." Rikku gave her a small wave as she exited the room, realizing her pity for Wynter was now determination. She was going to help Wynter overcome her father's pig-headedness. Woohoo for Rikku, the rebel! She'd fix everyone's lives, going around Spira to help the inhibited…
"You're late." Rikku had entered the room at top speed, feeling her lungs thumping her chest.
"I am?" She asked in shock, glancing at the clock. "I'm sorry, my showers are so long, and I just got out, like, 30 seconds ago…"
"No you didn't." Came the voice. Rikku craned her head to try and see Gippal, but all the papers blocked him from her view. This made her slightly nervous, because she couldn't see the expression on his face.
"How would you know?"
His head peeped over a long column of paper. "Your hair's dry—if you just got out, it'd be wet."
Rikku let her mouth open and close in silence. "How would you know something like that?!"
"It's just common sense, Rikku." He drawled. "It's really not that hard to acquire-for some people."
Rikku was a bit nervous to see no smile on his face, or a twinkle in his eye. "Are you mad?" She squeaked quietly, feeling herself blush. She didn't even snap back at the comment Gippal had made about common sense…uh-oh.
"Well, I hired you for a reason! To come here isn't to lounge around in the bathroom doing who knows what! I need you to help me--you said you'd do what I asked as long as it had to do with work." She saw a small frown on his lips now-almost a hurt one.
"Fine, just stop your little sad face." Rikku cried, sticking her tongue out at him and coming around to his side of the desk. "Just give me some paperwork."
"Here." Gippal said, dropping a piled as long as his waist to the top of his head in front of Rikku. She stared at it, open-mouthed.
"What?!"
"Sign my name on every line you see."
"But I don't know your signature!" Rikku was in shock. She had to do this? This was INSANE!
"Here." Gippal slapped a piece of paper in front of her with a messy Gippal written on it in cursive. "Just eyeball it, no one really cares about it anyway."
Rikku sighed as she picked up the first piece of paper-it was wafer thin. "How many of these do I have to do?"
"Till they're all gone." Gippal groaned, sitting back in his chair and picking up a pen. Rikku let out a heavy sigh and dropped her head to the sheet.
"I can barely read the writing." She muttered, squinting at it.
"You're not supposed to be able to see it."
"Well then it's stupid to be doing this."
"You don't think I think that every second of my life?"
"You do?!"
"No."
"Oh."
For the next hour or two, Rikku wrote down Gippal's hideous signature. She felt her hand cramp up at the most inopportune of moments, causing the signature to mutate as her hand froze and her fingers went numb. Her feet started to fall asleep, and her back and neck ached. At times Rikku would mutter things like "human slavery" and "just kill me now, please". It was all very painful. Rikku didn't know if she'd be able to do this for a job-she may just have to quit.
"Done!" Gippal cried, throwing his pen on the desk. Rikku looked over to see that the three or so piles that had surrounded him were all nicely signed and sitting on the floor, waiting to be taken away.
"WHAT?!" Rikku looked back her pile, which was still overflowing with pages. She had barely signed any.
"This sucks." She muttered, crumpling up the reference signature Gippal had given to her, in annoyance. After all, she had memorized his signature already, so what was the use?
"Here." Gippal said, wheeling his chair over to her. "Go. Go outside and get some fresh air." Rikku gazed up at him, surprised. She saw a smile creep up onto his godly features.
"Seriously. I know you're not used to being locked up in an office, like me, so go outside and have some fun. I'll be done this in about 15 minutes."
"Promise me that's all your doing?" Rikku asked, smiling. "No more paperwork today?"
"Nope."
"Or tomorrow?"
"No—what? Yea, of course I'll have paperwork tomorrow!"
"No! Gippal—just—no!" She cried, frowning. "Remember what I said?"
There was a silence as Gippal looked at his thumb as if it was suddenly the most interesting thing in the world. He let out a mumble that even a bug right by his mouth couldn't understand.
"What was that?"
"I said yes." He snarled.
"Then that's all I have to say." She was about to leave, but then hesitated. She wanted to go outside so badly…and Gippal was being so nice about it. But did she really want to leave him with her work?
"No." She sighed heavily, sitting back in her chair. Gippal gave her a curious look.
"Huh?"
"Go." She said numbly, picking up a pen. There was a silence.
"What?"
"Go outside. You need to get away from here more than I do. You work on this stuff everyday of your life. Let me take some responsibility. I'd feel to bad if I left anyway." She gave him a forced smile.
He owes me big. She thought grumpily, watching a smile break onto his face.
"Thanks Rikku!" He leaned over and gave her a quick squeeze, than stood up and ran for the door. "Oh, and don't look in my desk. It's private." He waved his finger at her, and then escaped from the door.
"Lucky jerk." She muttered, smiling. He had hugged her—that was good enough payment for a little while anyway.
She slowly wrote out his signature on the next twenty sheets or so. But something was bugging her in the back of her mind.
Go look in his desk.
She sat up slowly, eyes unwillingly looking over at the mass amount of drawers in his desk. "But he told me not to…"
"But then again-he shouldn't have said anything. He knew it would pique my interest." She argued with herself for a few more moments, until her good, well-behaved half lost—it rarely ever won.
Rikku lunged at the drawers, opening the first one with a shaky hand. She giggled. Ooh, Gippal wouldn't know she was breaking his rule. Yay for Rikku, the rebel!
The first drawer contained nothing but paperwork. "Boooring." She said, closing it and opening the next. More bills and checks and whatnot. She closed it, too, and opened the next. Some pens, pencils, tape, glue, paperclips…
"Where's the interesting stuff?" Rikku cried, slamming one that contained pictures of machina with a loud 'bang'. It echoed on the walls, and Rikku froze. Hopefully Gippal hadn't heard that, or she'd be in trouble.
After a few more moments of silence, Rikku realized Gippal wasn't coming. With a relieved smile she opened the next drawer—and stopped, eyes wide.
………………
"Hey, Boss!" A voice cried as Gippal entered the temple from outside. He had been sitting on the bridge, just relaxing. He was coming in for a cup of coffee, feeling rather light-hearted. But his heart sank like a stone as an Al Bhed came waddling over to him.
"What is it?" He asked grouchily. Great. More work.
"Me and some other Al Bheds heard this great big bang in your office—we think it might be a burglar."
Gippal froze. Burglar? He had important documents in there! Just as he was about to go up running, he let out a relieved laugh. "It's no burglar, Kli. It's just my secr-er-assistant."
Kli nodded. "All right then, Gippal. But I still say you go up and check on the assistant-it was no figment of my imagination."
Gippal nodded, feeling his stomach knot. Rikku, and a loud bang? That spelled trouble. With a heavy sigh he tromped up the stairs and turned the big wheel on the front of the door.
"Rikku?" He called, stepping into the round room. "Kli told me he heard a loud bang, and—" his voice faltered as his eyes fell to Rikku. She was sitting on the ground, legs splayed, going through photographs—photographs that were-er-rather personal to Gippal.
"RIKKU?!" He cried, eye flaring with anger. Rikku looked up, shock in her eyes. She scrambled up, dropping the photograph she had been looking at.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"I-was-er-well—" She stumbled on her words, eyes wide and fearful, lip trembling.
"OUT!" Gippal yelled, pointing to the open door. "GET OUT OF HERE RIKKU!"
He saw her mouth open and close in surprise. "What?"
"Get out!" Gippal repeated, a bit quieter this time. "I thought I could trust you! But I guess not! Rikku's too good for rules, eh? It doesn't matter if she sleeps in, or is late for work. Noo, Rikku can do what she pleases. Even go through MY PERSONAL THINGS without asking!"
Once more he pointed at the door, an unknown and unbeatable anger pounding in his chest.
"Get out Rikku." He said in an eerie, calm voice. She didn't move, only stared at him with glistening eyes.
"I-I'm sorry."
"I don't care about your apologies." He said in a menacing sort of voice. "Just get out of here."
He heard something that sounded like a sob escape Rikku's throat. His eyebrows rose slightly, but before he could comprehend that Rikku was crying, she raced out of the room, clattering down the steps as she left. A large group of Al Bhed had gathered at the sounds of their yelling, and Gippal watched them watch her as she ran to her bedroom. In a few seconds he heard a loud 'SLAM' from Rikku's door. With a heavy sigh he too slammed his door shut, leaning against it afterwards.
"Great. I just blew up at Rikku. Now she probably hates me." His eyes wandered over to the photographs, and anger boiled up again. "But she shouldn't have looked! Even when I asked her—no—TOLD her not to look in my desk!" He stomped over to the pictures, and his hand grazed one as he began to hastily pick them up. He stopped, and sat down on the ground, grabbing a handful of them to look at.
"She probably thinks I'm a stalker." He muttered, a small frown on his lips. But he was thankful these pictures were not of Rikku—no, they were of a different girl. Nhadala. But then, he realized, there were only four or five of her.
And it was always with Gippal. There, in Luca eating ice cream. In Besaid, giving candy to the little children there. In Bikanel, where they were pouring over a map of the area. All over Spira. He let out a sad smile. He had nearly forgotten what it were like to be in a relationship-always having someone to talk to no matter what-and they were always willing to listen and help.
"Why am I such a jerk?" He muttered, leaving her pictures alone and looking at the rest. Here he was with some random girl. What had her name been? Jenny, or something. And there were six or so more with different girls on each. Gippal ran a shaking hand through his hair. "I am such a loser." He muttered.
Is this what he had decided to do with his life? Jump from random girl to random girl? Never staying in a relationship? Breaking their hearts like he had Rikku's?
"Rikku…" He muttered, gazing at the last photo. He fingered it fondly, letting a small smile play on his lips. He remembered this scene perfectly.
It was Rikku and Gippal at the age of fourteen and fifteen. He was standing on the banks of the Moonflow, almost rolling on the ground laughing. Rikku was sopping wet as she floated in the water, a big frown at her lips. Her eyebrows were furrowed and she was yelling something at Gippal. He had pushed her in when she wasn't looking, and she had been mad at him for weeks.
He chuckled. Oh yes, those two had had good times. Their relationship was the only one he had truly cared about…and he had ruined it.
"I am such a jerk." He repeated, angrily this time. He stomped over to his desk and threw the pictures into a drawer. He then stomped out of the office, slamming the door. He needed to think.
And just like in the photo…he went to the Moonflow.
A/N: Eek! Yea, I didn't know how to write that he went to the Moonflow to think because it was the place he remembered a happy memory at or something like that. O-o Umm…it's not that great of a chapter, but I really had no ideas. Rikku's opinion (angry opinion) on the photo's next chapter!
Review, please! Thanky-doodle!
