Disclaimer: FFX, FFX-2 – neither of them belong to me, I'm just a poor, starving fan : )

A/N: whew – sorry for such a long wait for this post … I really couldn't find any inspiration and to be honest, I'm not happy with what I've written but I decided to post anyway. If it's really bad then just let me know and I'll try to improve it.

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far and this chapter is dedicated to Sariah Loire-Valentine as a 'get better soon' wish!

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Rikku's Story

By: JoeyStar

Timeframe: Set a month or so after the 'happy' ending of FFX-2

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Chapter 4

When Gippal and I had been trapped in the corridor, we had been somewhat shielded from the blast that had shaken the party-room. This was the first thing I realised when I saw the pitiful remains of what had once been Bevelle's most expensive function room. My second thought was along the lines of wondering how in Spira my friends had survived such an onslaught. If Lady Luck had turned her back then the outcome of events could have been quite different, you know?

Beside me, Gippal whistled. "It's gonna take a lot of gil to fix this place up again. Baralai's gonna have his work cut out."

I rolled my eyes in exasperation. "That's hardly the most important thing," I objected. "People could have died, you know? Our friends!"

"I know, I know," he drawled, far too casually for my liking. "Don't get your braids in a tangle."

Glaring at his broad back, I reluctantly trailed after him as he stepped into the room, carefully picking his way across the rubble.

Gippal seemed to know exactly where he was going and I followed blindly, for wont of anything better to do. And do you know what was really galling? As we crossed the room, in full view of everyone else, no one even glanced at us. And when I stopped in front of him and looked up, he was giving me one of those cocky, slightly patronising grins as if he knew what I was thinking. I resisted the urge to stamp on his foot, telling myself it was the immature thing – actually, he was wearing heavy boots and I'd be more likely to cause myself injury than hurt him – and settled on internally cursing him instead. I mean it wasn't that I couldn't admit he was right, you know? But did he have to be so insufferably arrogant about it?

I could almost hear his mental tally. Gippal: one, Cid's girl: zero.

Why, oh why was I letting him take the lead in this?

While I had been calming my murderous urges, Gippal had crouched down and was digging through the rubble in a movement reminiscent of the time we had spent in the corridor – when he had found the first bomb.

"What are you doing?" I asked, curious in spite of myself.

"Just lookin' for a friend," he replied without looking up. "Make sure no one's watchin' us, would ya?"

Where did he get off giving me orders? Just because he was a year older didn't mean I was going to play some kind of subservient role in our investigation. I lived be my own rules; I always had done and I always would be. I didn't orders from anyone! Well, if you didn't count that time on Yunie's pilgrimage when I followed Auron's orders – or when Yunie led us all over Spira looking for Tidus …

Unconsciously I found myself surveying the room. I wasn't following Gippal's orders – no, I was … I was simply interested in seeing what everyone else was doing. After all, they couldn't all be trying to uncover who had masterminded this plot and implicated the Al Bhed, could they?

Some were obviously curious tourists; they were standing well back from the actual bombsite, pointing and whispering amongst themselves. A few others I recognised as members of staff that had been serving us at the party, though I couldn't work out why they were in the room with us. Over by what had once been the door, I spotted a member of the media – a man who must have had remarkable informants for him to have gotten to the scene of the bombing so quickly. Staring at him made me think of Shelinda, the Yevon priest turned reporter, who Yuna had befriended so long ago. I wondered how long it would be until she arrived in Bevelle, ready to tell the world of Spira about the bombing of Lady Yuna's party.

Bored with my people-watching, I turned back to find that Gippal was still engaged with his intent examination of the rubble. Irritated, I shifted from foot to foot, trying to see what he was so interested in.

"What are you looking at?"

"Just wait a – hey, aren't you s'posed to be watchin' the room?" his green eye turned accusingly upon me.

"I was bored," I whined, folding my arms across my chest, still shifting restlessly.

He laughed at my expression and threw something to me. "Here, play with this."

Looking at the object I thought at first that it was the bomb that Gippal and I had previously found in the corridor. Then I noticed distinct changes between this one and the last. A bomb this might have been, but a different one.

"Would you stop throwing these things around as if they're confetti?" I protested, shoving the bomb back at him. "What if it was still live? You could have blown me apart!"

His eyes raked my figure. "Such a crime against humanity."

It couldn't tell whether he was joking or not.

"How did you know where to find this?" I wondered aloud as Gippal stood and brushed his dusty hands off on his trousers.

"It's opposite the one that exploded in the corridor," he explained distractedly, glancing around the room. His eyes alighted on something known only to him and he walked passed me without another word. Wanting to object but not knowing what to say, I had no choice but to follow him back across the room, in the direction of a pair of Bevelle citizens who looked up as Gippal approached.

"Terrible, isn't it dearie?" the older woman – who had iron-grey hair and looked like someone's grandmother – said to me, shaking her head. "Poor Lady Yuna."

"Er … yes, yes it's horrific," I replied quickly, hoping my response would satisfy her and that she would release me from the conversation.

I wasn't so lucky. "I expect you and your husband were staying here, like us?"

I opened my mouth to vehemently deny the woman's assumption when Gippal broke in smoothly, wrapping his arm around my waist. "Yeah. We were terribly shocked to hear about the explosion." My friendly smile grew fixed and I tried to ignore the fact that his fingers were resting against my bare skin.

"Naloa and I were staying a couple of floor above, weren't we Naloa?" the younger woman butted in excitedly. "We heard an almighty bang and then we were evacuated for our own safety and we decided to come down and have a look. Just think – the Lady Yuna stood in this very spot!"

"Hush child," Naloa, the older woman, scolded. " 'Tis a terrible thing to have happened. The Lady Yuna could have been killed."

"Oh no – she's fine," I said, wanting to reassure them. Gippal dug his elbow into my side, a moment before I noticed my mistake. "So I've heard," I added, smiling in what I hope was a convincing way at the two women.

"Really? Thank Spira," the younger one gushed. "It would have been horrible if anything had happened to her."

"Well it was lovely to meet you ladies," Gippal told them, sounding incredibly sincere and regretful, "but my wife and I must be on our way."

"Of course," Naloa agreed. "Come Annia – let's go and see the Chamber of the Fayth."

"Oh yes!" Annia cried enthusiastically and the two moved off towards the entrance. Once they were out of sight, I stepped hurriedly away from Gippal. He didn't seem to notice but turned to scan the rubble-strewn floor instead.

"Come on, we're running out of time," he told me.

"Hold on!" I grabbed his arm and pulled him back. His glanced down at where I was holding him and then looked back up again, his eyebrows raised and a smirk dancing around his lips. I flushed and released him, but refused to back down. I have my morals, you know? "The whole … the husband and wife thing? Why did you say that?"

Gippal shrugged uncaringly. "What does it matter? We're never going to see them again."

"But – but it's the principal of the matter!" I protested, stamping my foot, childish behaviour be damned.

"Well, I could have explained that you're Yuna's cousin and I'm the leader of the Machine Faction and that we're currently investigatin' the explosion ahead of everyone else so that we can clear the Al Bhed name," he paused for breath, "but somehow I thought husband and wife might be safer."

Put like that, all my protests faded. "You could have said we were friends," I muttered darkly.

"Where's the fun in that?"

Spira this man was irritating! I stuck my tongue out at him but somehow I wasn't surprised when he completely ignored my reaction and turned his back. He started digging around on the ground once more with singular purpose and I was left to my own devices. Again.

I decided it was time for a little revenge. He wasn't the only one who could be irritating.

I began toying with my braids, tucking them up into my headband and then pulling them back down again.

He didn't notice.

I tried plaiting them together but I only succeeded in tying them in knots. My face turned bright red and I bit back a yelp of pain as I attempted to untangle them.

Gippal still didn't notice.

Deciding to leave my hair well alone, I settled on a loud, impatient sigh. I know I saw Gippal's back stiffen but he didn't turn around.

I started tapping my foot against the floor, as loudly and as obnoxiously as I could. It was interesting, I decided, how different sounds could be produced depending on the amount of pressure I applied against the floor.

Gippal ran one had through his spiky hair, affecting a nonchalant manner. I noticed the light trail of dust his fingers left behind and stifled a snort of laughter. Acting, he might have been, nonchalant he wasn't.

Still intent on provoking a more substantial reaction out of him I was about to embark on a series of interesting coughs when something rather interesting caught my eye.

"Gippal."

He ignored me, intent on his work and obviously assuming that this was another of my distraction techniques.

"Gippal," I said again, eyes fixed on the entrance where an alarming number of robed Yevon priests had just appeared.

"Hey – quite interruptin' me. I'll be done in a moment." There was real irritation in his tone now but I was no longer interested in pursuing our stupid competition.

"Gippal!" I hissed his name for a third time and the urgency in my tone finally caught his attention. He sat back on his heels and twisted his face towards me. "What?"

"Those Yevon priests you were talking about? Well, they're standing in the doorway, you know?"

"What?" he repeated dumbly, following my gaze. "Tysh !" (Damn)

He swore under his breath and rose from his crouch, pushing something into my hands. "We've gotta get out of here."

I looked at the item I was now holding. Another bomb? Was Gippal looking to start a collection?

"Are you – ?"

"Come on," he cut me off, grabbed my hand and pulled me hurriedly from the room, taking the southern exit that had originally been the door to an antechamber, but was now nothing more than a hole in the wall.

We fled down the damaged corridor like guilty children, hoping that none of the Yevon priests had noticed us. Once again, Gippal took the lead, though this time I recognised that we were heading towards the entrance of the building.

"Where are we going?" I puffed, resenting his assumption that I would simply follow him like an obedient puppy.

"Somewhere safer," was his enigmatic reply.

"Oh we're really going to be safe with –" I did a quick mental calculation, "three bombs in our possession!"

"Four actually," Gippal corrected me in an absent tone.

I blinked and pulled up short in surprise. "Four? Where did the fourth one come from?" By all accounts, we had picked up one in the corridor and two in the room so where had Gippal come up with the fourth?

"I picked it up when you weren't lookin'," he told me casually.

A horrible suspicion struck me. "And how many bombs do you think there were altogether?"

"Who knows?"

"Gippal!" I snapped, incensed by his continuing refusal to tell me anything. "You took all of the bombs, didn't you?"

"Yeah," he said easily, raising an eyebrow at me. "Is there a problem, Cid's girl?"

I stared at him as if he had grown three heads. How could he be so blind? "You've stolen all the evidence, you know?"

He shrugged, completely unconcerned. "It's either that or get slapped up in prison. And you wouldn't want that, would ya?"

How did he always manage to do that? Twist me around his little finger and turn any situation to his advantage? I glared at him, mainly due to frustration than any stronger emotion.

He sighed and gave me an imploring look. "Rikku, I'm really not interested in seein' the inside of any prison cells at the moment, okay? So can you please stop questionin' everythin' I do?"

"As long as you stop treating me like a child," I shot back, "and actually tell me what you're planning to do."

I thought he was going to refuse; make some lofty remark about the fact that I was a young girl and it was his duty to protect me from the harsh realities of the world but once again, Gippal surprised me. He met my fierce gaze quite calmly and nodded once. "Alright."

Just like that. If I had known it would have been so easy I would have spoken up a long time before then! I should have been cheering about the fact that I had finally got an advantage of Gippal but somehow, the easy way with which he had acquiesced took all the fun out of winning.

I bet he'd done it on purpose, just to annoy me. Gippal was like that; sometimes I think he lived for my humiliation.

"You only had to ask, you know," he continued airily. "I think that when people have a problem then they should talk about it, don't you?"

"I'll remember that next time," I told him sweetly through gritted teeth.

"If you do, it'll make our partnership easier."

Partnership? So now we were partners in this investigation? I frowned, searching for some kind of insult in his words. Gippal was never so accommodating with me without having an ulterior motive.

I eyed him suspiciously, my gaze raking over his face, looking for a telltale smirk or that characteristic sparkle in his eye. He stared solemnly back and then his eyes narrowed as if he was considering something. All thoughts flew out of my head and my heart started beating so loudly that it formed an interesting counterpoint to the sound my fingers were making, nervous tapping the broken bomb in my hands.

When Gippal took half a step closer and reached out with one hand, my mouth became suddenly dry and I must have forgotten how to breathe because my lungs began to ache. I watched, mesmerised, as his hand drifted closer and closer to my face. His fingers brushed my cheek and I leant forward unconsciously, instinct overtaking any rational thoughts that I had left. My eyelashes had just fluttered closed when I felt his hand move past my cheek and graze my hair.

My eyes snapped open again. What was he doing with my hair?

Gippal stepped back and his arm came into my vision again. He was holding a chip of plaster and as I watched he let it slip through his fingers and fall to the floor. "It was in your hair," he explained calmly, his expression neutral.

My cheeks flamed as he blew the dust of his hands and turned slightly to look down the corridor. What had I been thinking? Had I really thought that he was … that Gippal and I …

It was ridiculous! Not to mention insulting. If I was looking for someone to spend my life with – not that I was – then Gippal would be the very last person on my list, you know?

Suddenly I was grateful that nothing had happened. After all, that momentary lapse of judgement could have ended in an incredibly embarrassing situation! The last thing I needed right now was for Gippal to think that I actually liked him. If he wasn't arrogant before – which he was – then he would be insufferable after hearing something like that.

Really, I should have been thanking Gippal for such a narrow escape but as he didn't appear to have even noticed, I thought it safer to remain silent.

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He led me out of the building and into the city of Bevelle, through a back entrance to the complex so as to avoid the media interest that was building up outside the main gate. We were heading to where his airship was docked, he said, which meant traversing a good part of the city as swiftly as possible.

You know, people often mistake Bevelle for merely being the centre of the now-fading Yevon faith, or as the base for Baralai's New Yevon operations. Being not as architecturally interesting as the Zanarkand Ruins, nor as beautiful and popular as Luca, Bevelle is hardly the number one tourist destination in Spira. This is only the third time that I've been here and on the previous two occasions, I was thrown into jail for treason and attacked by one of the leaders of the temple.

I've not had much luck in Bevelle, you know? Either as an Al Bhed, a Guardian or a Gullwing. I used to think the whole damn placed was cursed or something and it's certainly never redeemed the Yevonites to me.

But that's just the central temple and there's much more to Bevelle than that. After all, the city is as old as the Zanarkand Ruins and I know Yuna thinks it's a pretty cool place – she was born here you know?

Lots of people live here in Bevelle and they're not all scary Yevon priests as I used to think. They're just normal people who happened to live here rather than in Kilica, or Luca. I think I can appreciate that now and I can certainly appreciate the fact that I'm no longer going to be arrested here in Bevelle, just for being an Al Bhed.

The thought made me start as I realised that, if the Bevelle authorities discovered any more bombs in the wreckage, this new tolerance for my people might be destroyed again. I shivered and hoped that Gippal was right in his assumption that there had only been four bombs.

"Do you think this attack was meant to blamed on the Al Bhed in general," I asked, my question following my thoughts, " … or you?"

Gippal glanced across at me and pulled a face. "Doesn't give me much of a choice, does it?"

I reflected on my poor choice of words and shrugged. Gippal was an adult; he'd get over it.

"I don't know. I can't think of anyone in particular that has a grudge against me."

"Just lots of people in general?" I suggested.

He raised his eye heavenward.

"It must be your warming personality," I continued blithely. "People only have to meet you and – bang, instant grudge."

"You know Rikku, I think I liked you a lot more before I said we were partners. You're really not endearin' yourself to me."

I was too busy giving Gippal a taste of his own medicine. "Or maybe it's an ex-lover," I guessed loudly. "You've certainly got plenty of them."

"You're just jealous because you've always wanted to be one of them."

I pulled up short at his words, almost dropping my precious cargo in amazement. Suddenly my light-hearted teasing had become a great deal more personal. How dare he assume such a thing? It was complete nippecr (rubbish); he was slandering my good name and instead of colouring as he obviously expected me too, I found myself burning with anger. It gave me added confidence and I stood up on tiptoe so that I could glare more easily at him.

"I'm sorry that your fragile self-esteem brings you to say such things," I said sarcastically, "and it breaks my heart to have to tell you this but I feel you should know the truth. Not every woman finds you as irresistibly attractive as you seem to think you are. And those that do bear a remarkable resemblance to Wendigos. And to be completely frank," I smiled sweetly, "I wouldn't be tempted even if the continuing existence of the Al Bhed race depended on it."

I thought my eloquence had thrown him. I was sure that this time, I would come out of our verbal jousting as the winner. Surely I finally had the upper hand; my victory was ensured!

Apparently not.

Gippal simply stared at me for several long seconds and then he burst out laughing. You would have thought I had cracked the funniest joke in Spira considering the extent of his mirth. As I watched in frustrated bemusement, he clutched his sides and gasped for breath.

"Oh – oh Cid's girl," he gasped, "you – you certainly make life more interestin' with your – your honesty. Gotta say it's refreshing after the usual hero-worship and all." He tugged on one of my braids before I could stop him and pressed his lips close to my ear, his warm breath tickling the hairs on my neck. "I think," he whispered intimately, "that I touched a nerve, don't ya?"

Spluttering with anger, I pushed him away, hoping that he would fall flat on his face. He didn't; he just continued to laugh. People were beginning to stare at us now and I felt sure that my cheeks were glowing as brightly as a Moogle's pompom.

I sniffed haughtily and, with all the poise I could manage, swept past the sniggering Gippal. Choosing a street a random, I strode down it, all my suppressed frustration lending wings to my feet. At that moment I honestly didn't care if Gippal followed me or not but I was completely certain about one thing. Trying to work together on this mission had been a mistake from the start and I was better off on my own.

"Rikku?" his obnoxious voice hailed me but I ignored him, refusing to turn around.

"Rikku!" he called again, a little more forcibly this time as he hurried after me.

"What?" I snapped, whirling on my heel. "What is it? If you crack one more supposedly clever remark Gippal then I swear I'll –"

"Um …" he cleared his throat and struggled to keep a smile off his face.

"What? What what what?" I persisted. I recognised his amusement and it only served to irritate me further. "What do you want Gippal?"

His humour won out and he grinned unashamedly. "We're goin' towards where my ship is docked, right?"

I nodded abruptly.

"Well … you're goin' the wrong way."

Any self-esteem I had managed to cling onto fell into oblivion. "Don't say it," I spoke through gritted teeth. "Don't even think it."

His muffled laughter followed me as I stalked back the way I had come.

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