Slam. Kairi cringed. It seemed to her that Gippal was going to put his fist through the door.
"HEY!" He yelled. "Wake up in there!" The eight that were awake were all gathered around the only hotel room door left unopened: the one that Nooj and Leblanc were sleeping in. It was Leblanc who answered the door.
"Need you be so loud?" She asked Gippal grumpily. Gippal shrugged.
"Hey, an earthquake couldn't wake Nooj, so you gotta be loud." He answered. Leblanc crossed her arms.
"Well you have just disturbed my very delicate beauty sleep." She informed him. Gippal gave her a look that said I really couldn't care less.
"Where's Nooj?" He asked. Leblanc stuck her nose in the air and went back into the hotel room.
"Noojie!" She called. A minute later Nooj appeared in the doorway.
"Morning." He said, sounding rather groggy. "Up a bit early aren't we?" He asked, looking at the rest of them. Paine shrugged.
"Well, now that the two of you are up as well, let's get going." she said. Nooj raised his eyebrows.
"And this is coming from the one who would sleep in until dinner if given the chance, if I recall correctly…" he said slowly. Paine shrugged again. Leblanc now re-entered the picture, fully dressed and ready. Kairi glanced at her.
"That didn't take you very long." She observed. Leblanc smiled airily.
"I'm a trained professional, love" she said simply. Kairi looked sarcastic, and Rikku rolled her eyes. Leblanc stepped out into the hallway and Nooj disappeared back into the room, closing the door behind him.
"I'm gonna go wait in the games room. Who's coming?" Gippal asked. Sora, Tidus and Baralai followed him, leaving the girls in the hallway together. Leblanc smiled at Kairi.
"Have fun yesterday, love?" she asked, referring to the shopping day. Kairi, however, took it to mean something different and grinned, turning a bit red. Rikku giggled at her. Leblanc looked rather confused. She took a moment, but then seemed to understand and crossed her arms.
"Aren't you a bit young?" she asked off-handedly. Paine rolled her eyes.
"You talk pretty conservatively for the way you dress." she said. Leblanc smiled.
"Why thank you!" At this, Kairi, Yuna and Rikku burst out laughing. Leblanc started to look confused again, not realizing what Paine had meant by her words. The conversation continued and Leblanc learned of all that had happened the night before.
"So, all of you lost your virginity on the same night?" She asked, sounding surprised and almost impressed. Kairi, Rikku and even Paine grinned. Yuna said quiet, turning slowly redder. Rikku grinned at her.
"Aww c'mon Yunie! Don't be embarrassed!" She said happily. Yuna smiled.
"I'm not, honest." she answered, her voice whispy. Suddenly, she turned at looked at Kairi almost in horror. Kairi was grinning ear to ear. Yuna slumped. "Of course you know. You probably knew the whole time." she said. Kairi shrugged.
"Actually, I didn't pick up on it until now. You're really good at masking your feelings." Kairi answered. Yuna sighed.
"I was raised to know how to. It's no wonder." She said. There was silence for a moment as Paine, Rikku and Leblanc watched them, curious to know what was going on. Kairi was waiting for Yuna to speak, and Yuna was sorting out her words in her mind.
"Do you have something to tell us Yuna?" Kairi asked innocently. Rikku then seemed to clue in.
"Kairi, what isn't she telling us! You'd know, right? 'Cause you can tell these kind of things, right?" She asked excitedly. Kairi shrugged.
"I can tell what she feels, I can only guess at what she's thinking, although I think I'm pretty close to being right." She answered, pushing Yuna to speak. Yuna, who was turning redder by the second, sighed.
"Okay okay. We didn't all lose our virginity on the same night." She said. Rikku gave her a funny look.
"You…didn't sleep with Tidus…?" She asked, sounding confused. Yuna almost laughed.
"I did, but that doesn't mean I lost my virginity." She said quietly, her face beet red, but her blush beginning to fade. Rikku's eyes went wide.
"YOU'VE SLEPT WITH SOMEONE ELSE BEFORE!" She cried. Yuna looked horrified.
"NO, No! Not at all!" She answered. Rikku relaxed a bit.
"Then what are you talking about?" Paine asked, looking somewhat lost. Yuna rubbed her hands together nervously, looking at Rikku.
"Ummm, you remember my wedding that you guys crashed, right?" she asked. Rikku grinned.
"Tidus was soooo mad…" Suddenly, she recoiled, horrified. "SEYMOUR DIDN'T HURT YOU, DID HE!" She asked, fuming. Yuna sighed.
"No Rikku. See, after the wedding…" Yuna began. Rikku grinned again.
"I know, in Macalania. In the spring." Rikku said, teasingly. "Oh, how romantic!" she exclaimed, giggling. Yuna grinned.
"Ummm, after the rest of you guys fell asleep, me and Tidus kind of, snuck away…" she said, her voice trailing away. Rikku slapped her hand over her mouth.
"YUNIE! No fair, how come you didn't tell us before!" She asked, pouting. Yuna crossed her arms.
"I think you'd have been the only one who wouldn't have tried to kill Tidus on the spot. It was really important for a summoner to not be involved with anyone, never mind one of her guardians." Yuna said, grinning mischievously. Paine raised her eyebrows.
"On your pilgrimage? My, my, my. Looks like our cute little innocent Yuna isn't as little and innocent as we thought." she observed. Yuna grinned.
"But I'm still as cute as you thought, right?" She asked, giggling. Paine rolled her eyes, but still smiled. Leblanc nodded approvingly.
"Indeed you are love!" She announced. Yuna grinned. The hotel room door opened in Nooj stepped out, almost tripping over Leblanc. Catching his balance, he looked at them funny.
"What are you doing?" he asked slowly. Rikku grinned up at him.
"We're sitting in the middle of the floor, what does it look like?" she asked, smiling sweetly. Nooj opened his mouth to speak again, but decided against it. If he was ever going to truly understand women, it certainly wouldn't be any of these women anyways. They were, shall was say…unique.
………..
One by one, ten people wandered out into the sunshine in front of the hotel. Yuna shaded her eyes and looked up, searching the sky for the Celcius.
"Hey Brother, where are you guys?" she asked. It was Shinra who answered.
"On our way to get you guys. Brother's off ranting again, so don't expect him to show his face on the bridge for a while." He replied, his voice layered with static. Yuna grinned.
"Kay." she answered. Rikku smiled approvingly.
"It'll be nice to have a break from him anyways." she decided. Paine smirked, nodding in agreement.
…………..
The group of them walked onto the bridge. Buddy and Shinra were sitting, looking rather relaxed. Buddy smiled at Kairi.
"Feeling better?" He asked. Kairi smiled back.
"Much, thanks!" she answered. Tidus was sitting on the stairs, Yuna sitting comfortably in his arms. Kairi was leaning against the wall next to Paine, with Sora and Baralai standing with them. Rikku was standing watching the clouds passing by with her hands clasped behind her back, not noticing Gippal standing behind her. Grinning, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her backwards, pinning her against him. She gasped, surprised.
"Hey! Let go…" she commanded, but her voice wavered with the feeling of his arms around her and went quiet. She struggled a bit for a moment, then stopped as he turned her head towards him and kissed her. She all but melted. Brother was just stepping into the room. He caught sight of Rikku and Gippal and his face started to turn red with anger. He paused, tense and contemplating whether to leave or to kill one of them. Then, shouting in angry Al Bhed gibberish he turned on his heel and marched back out again. Rikku jumped when the near silence was broken by Brother's yell, nearly knocking both her and Gippal over. Gippal let go of her, holding only her wrist to make sure she didn't fall. He shook his head.
"Don't jump like that next time, hm?" He said, releasing her wrist. She shrugged.
"Brother's kind of scary." She observed. Gippal crossed his arms.
"You can say that again." He agreed. Kairi, Sora, Paine and Baralai were watching Brother stomp out of sight. Kairi was rather bewildered, as was Sora.
"What…happened?" She asked quietly. Without even having to look, Paine pointed in the general direction of Gippal and Rikku. Kairi glanced their way and nodded in understanding. Sora still looked confused.
"Why's Brother so mad? Gippal's not such a bad guy." He said. Baralai shrugged.
"Speak for yourself." He answered. Paine smirked.
"Brother's never liked Gippal from the time they were kids. According to Rikku anyways." she said. She looked back over at Gippal and Rikku. "Other than that, I couldn't say why." Tidus and Yuna were walking over, and Tidus wearing a sly smirk.
"As much as he'd hate to admit it, Brother's really overprotective of Rikku." He said. "Before we went to fight Sin, he asked me to look after her for him."
"He did?" Rikku asked, overhearing. Tidus grinned, nodding. Rikku smiled.
"AWWW HE DOES LOVE ME!" She exclaimed, spinning around. Gippal, not having heard anything but Rikku's outburst, watched her with confusion written all over his face.
"Oooo-kayyy. Not even going to ask." He said, crossing his arms. Suddenly, the airship jerked, knocking everyone off balance. Shinra stood up in his seat so he was just barely over the height of everyone else and able to get everyone's attention.
"No worries, everyone. Spira's a big planet, so I had to give the airship a little extra juice to get out of the gravitational pull." He explained. Paine looked at him, not believing what he just said.
"The gravitational pull? Come on Shinra, you don't actually expect us to believe that you got this thing into space, do you?" She asked, almost sarcastic. Shinra shrugged.
"Look for yourself." She did, and was taken aback. All that could been seen for what seemed like an million miles was stars. Sora looked questioningly at Shinra, who seemed to just remember something and went rummaging through his stuff. In a moment, he pulled out a gummiblock and handed it to Sora.
"Here. I've reproduced it, so I don't need that one anymore." He explained. Sora took it and stuffed it into his pocket. Buddy sat back, craning his head to look at the rest of them from his seat.
"So? Where to?" He asked. Yuna, Rikku, Paine, Leblanc, Tidus, Gippal, Baralai and Nooj all looked entirely overwhelmed and didn't answer. Sora shot one glance at Kairi and it was clear she had the same idea on her mind. He smiled, walking over to Buddy. He inspected Buddy's map and, sticking his tongue out in concentration, pushed a few buttons. Buddy sat up again.
"Woah, careful with the-." He started to say, but stopped when the engines began to hum gently and the airship began to move forward. In a moment it banked for a few seconds before leveling off again, facing a new direction. Buddy looked impressed. Sora looked up at the rest of the group. They were all standing in silence and confusion except for Kairi, who couldn't help but grin. Sora grinned back.
"And we're off." He said, slinging his arms around Kairi's shoulders. Leblanc crossed her arms.
"Well that's fine enough, but where exactly are we off to?" She asked, one eyebrow raised. The rest of them nodded in agreement. Sora smiled slyly.
"A little place I like to call Traverse Town. I want you guys to meet some friends of mine."
……………..
WOOOO! I finally got things going again. For a couple of chappies there it looked like we weren't going much of anywhere. Bwahaha! The plot is steadily (if slowly) thickening. RnR!