Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to anything in this story. Please don't sue me!

A/n: Important:

'' - Thoughts

Italics -Flashbacks

"" - Dialog

Bold - Translated Al Bhed text

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Gippal sat in the cold parlor of the funeral home staring at the Berber carpet. Nothing seemed to make any sense. In the room to his left a warm light welcomed loved ones to view his fiancée for one last time.

"We're all very sorry for your loss." a voice whispered to him as they passed. Gippal simply nodded, never bothering to look up and see who had spoken.

The a familiar figure took a seat next to Gippal and waited a brief moment before speaking up, "Gippal you should drink some water or eat something you look sickly pale." his mother's shrill voice suggested as she waved off on lookers.

"I haven't had much of an appetite mother." Gippal responded dryly. Yuna sat down on the other side of Gippal chair next to Gippal and looked sympathetically at his mother.

"Gippal I know how you must feel. I lost someone I loved too. It's hard, but when it's over you realize it was best to let go." Gippal took his face out of his clammy hands and looked at the former summoner.

"You didn't. You got him back, you didn't let go. And if you did, it took you two years. But then you got him back so it doesn't really count, does it?" he said harshly. Yuna blinked and stood up.

"You know Gippal don't think you're the only one who misses Rikku or has lost a loved one!" She screamed all eyes in the room focused on her small weeping figure, "and don't you dare think that those two years were easy, they were the worst years of my life, and I don't want what happened to me to happen to you."

With that Yuna took Tidus' hand and stormed out of the funeral home. The room remained quiet with only the faint sounds of Gippal sobbing silently to be heard.

---

"Hey Cid's Girl you look like you need someone to dance with." Gippal said motioning to the girl from his place in the center of the dance floor.

"Whatever Gippal." Rikku said with a sigh before turning back to her drink.

"Aw come on you know you want to." Gippal said teasingly. Rikku turned around and he held his hand out to her.

"Fine, one dance…but it's just to make you shut up." Rikku mumbled.

Gippal shrugged, "how 'bout we make it two? And then I'll buy you a drink."

---

"Gippal dear you really must have something to drink. It's been six days since the funeral. You're going to waste away! You need to eat, rest, and get back to work for Christ's sake!" Gippal's mother, Pihho, was still hanging all over him.

"Sus, edc ugyo ev oui ku rusa huf.» (Mom, its okay if you go home now.) Gippal said in their native tongue. His mother scowled she didn't like it when he addressed her in Al Bhed, it made her feel like a foreigner for some reason. Pihho prided herself in the fact that it only took her six months to learn fluent Yevon.

"Gippal one: I can speak Yevon too, two: I'm not leaving until you start eating." Pihho said stubbornly. Gippal sighed and stared out the window.

"If only she were here…"he whispered to himself before drifting off into a fitful sleep.

---

Rikku got up from her bed when she heard a soft clinking sound on her window. She parted the blinds to see a familiar figure standing under her window in the moonlight.

"Rikku," Gippal called softly, "come down from there!"

"I can't I'm staying at my Pop's house and he would kill me!" Rikku screeched. Gippal chuckled and shrugged.

"Fine, then I guess I'm going to have to climb up." he said with a twinkle in his eye. Rikku gasped and grabbed a sweated off her chair near the window.

"Hold your horses I'm coming." she said. Gippal smirked, that line always worked to get her down.

When she finally descended from the second-story window Gippal ran over and wrapped his arms around her thin body. "Glad you could make it." he whispered into her hair.

Rikku sighed, "me too." She turned her head and their lips met just as the sun began to rise.

---

"Gippal dear you have some visitors this morning!" Pihho called from the front room of Gippal's small house in Djose. Ever since he and Rikku became engaged he had added on to the temple, with permission of course. He had added a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and office onto the studio apartment he had once lived in on the Temple.

"Lusehk" (Coming) he called back.

Gippal rose from his bed and groggily walked into the front room of the apartment. Two blurry figures were seated on the couch and his mother was knitting in the lazy boy recliner.

"Wow, you're a mess." Tidus said bluntly. Yuna elbowed her boyfriend and plastered on a fake smile.

"We brought you some apple pie. Rik- I mean someone once told me you love apple pie." Yuna said, catching herself before she said a tabooed name.

"Rikku told you." Gippal answered. Yuna nodded truthfully.

"She would want you to eat son." Pihho said from the corner she was sitting in, "She wouldn't want to think that you were wasting away like this."

"Ruf fuimt oui ghuf sudran, oui hajan megat ran tet oui? » (How would you know mother, you never liked her did you?) Gippal replied angrily.

"Nonsense, you just need some rest. Go back to bed and I'll put this pie in the kitchen for later." His mother responded. Gippal didn't answer but turned back into his bedroom and locked the door.

"Forgive him" Pihho said to Yuna and Tidus as they rose to leave. "Give him a few months and he'll be back to normal."

"We all hope so, thank you for watching out for him Ms. Nuca." Tidus responded.

"Please, call me Pihho. Please visit again." she said softly. Yuna and Tidus nodded and exited the room.

"He will be over this Rikku soon enough, I'll make sure of it." She whispered to herself before returning to her knitting.

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A/n: Alright this chapter was kind of boring, but it sets the stage. Remember things aren't always as they seem.

Please review and leave me your thoughts! Thanks!

Lucy!