A/N: Before I start my regular babbling, I want to give a massive thanks to -Ria- who gave up precious time to BETA this for me, even though she still refuses to admit that she even did all that much. (Ooh, and I hope you enjoy your week away somewhere, and I promise not to bother you again on the BETA front, I've decided that if you're that sure of my abilities, I shouldn't be lazy and make you check over my stuff for me). Thanks again for this though, it meant a lot!
Now, for the rest of you, I'm SO sorry I've been bad and not updated for such a long time... school is hard... and I have exams that determine my future, and I do so want to go to uni, as opposed to living on the streets in a cardboard box... lol... And I STILL do not own FFX-2! You'd have thought Square-Enix would've handed it over or put a restraining order on me by now, but NOOOOOOOO...
-Jezzi- As they say, laughter is the music of the soul, which is totally irrelevant to anything else I can think to say... So... thanks for laughing? -slaps forehead- That sounded so lame... Never mind, thanks again for reviewing, hope you enjoy the chappy!
-FlyHigh4Life- Funny in many different ways? I can only think of two... Funny ha ha and funny weird... -giggles- Heck, it's a compliment, so I'll add it to my slowly growing horde and treasure it always, thank you! And I hope you enjoy this chapter too!
-Cutekitty- Awww... thanks for sayin' that... shucks... lol... Sorry I took so long updating, but I hopethis isworth the wait!
-K-Jaye- -eyes up the cookies hungrily- Oooooh, lol. Thanks for finding this funny, I mean, I can't tell if what I write is funny, cos if I did I'd probably be conceited of something... Or maybe... nope, the word is gone, and I can only think of 'zombie' to replace it, which so badly doesn't work... Never mind, enjoy!
-Ria- I wanted to encompass as much as I could, mix and matching genres to end up with something that just about pulled it off whilst still being vaguely credible. Or maybe it's just cos I like fluff, action and comedy... Scratch that, the first one sounded so much more profound... Well, seeing as you BETA-ed this, I can't really ask you to enjoy it AGAIN, so, I hope you liked it the first time, or something... -sighs- I wish I was better at this...
-Star99- Awwww... -huggles- Get well soon, 'kay? Not just for the sake of fiction, but for well, you, cos being sick is very un-fun. Thanks for reading this anyway, and especially for likin' it. The bit with the lisping I just had to add, because it sounded so funny in my head. It was actually kinda ironic, cos I found out I was allergic to pineapple in NYCand my tongue swelled up like no one's business and that's where I got the idea from; which kinda makes me think that I'm making Rikku just as unfortunate as I am, which is a real shame for her... lol... Well, enjoy!
-sugarNspikes- Thanks for reviewin' again, and so quickly! I know I'm lewd, crude and really pushing the boundary of kiddie friendly, but you cannot censor greatness! Or badness! And yeah, I do like the taste of blood, I just can't imagine that people don't, so I tend to push my views onto other people, and this time it just happened to be a character. Even though biting your tongue really well... forgive the pun in advance, but, it bites, don't it? They should have some CIA unit devoted to cutting down tongue-biting related accidents, like they do with homeless people and prostitutes!
"..." Speech
'...' Quotes, emphasis
-italics- Thought
Chapter Seven: Decisions Made, Insults Hurled, Kisses Shared and Cookies Tossed
"Hi!" I stated feebly, wondering how the hell I was gonna pull this off. I mean, come on, think of the massacre if I announced: Muthwoom Wock Woad! "I think we will go to Bevelle!" I chirped very carefully, enunciating away even the possibility of lisping. Paine, still probably from gratitude, or the chance to see her boyfriend, didn't question me on the matter, thank Yevon. Gippal, whom I have cursed black and blue and with so many warts he'll be a big, walking, talking… wart, decided to question my decision for her.
"New Yevon? Cid's Girl, come on, how can you trust them? I mean, Yevon's in the name for pity's sake. Aren't you an Al Bhed?" He asked, eye sparkling with barely concealed mirth. Damn him for enjoying this…
"But, New Yevon had the info to begin with, Nooj don't know nowt!" I explained, exhaling loudly when I managed to hold onto my battered pride by the skin of my teeth. Thank you Kilikan colloquialisms!
"Don't you think he should know? I mean, Bevelle's hiding a big secret again." Gippal said in a chastising manner, and I resisted the violent urge to rip his throat out with my teeth.
"I don't want a fight between Yevon and the Youth League." I said simply, mentally patting myself on the back for this sustained period of absolute genius. Shinra, eat your heart out!
"Won't they fight anyway?" He asked, infuriatingly persistent bastard that he is. The rest seemed to be as intrigued by my enigmatic half-answers as Gippal, so I wasn't going to get any favours on that front.
"Duh, but not now, we have time to do what we do." I said as if he was an exceptionally dim bulb in a class of pre-schoolers.
"And what's that?" He asked smugly, knowing full well that I couldn't answer with anything that didn't have the stupid mother grumbles letter S in it!
"Save the world, of course! Right Rikku?" Yunie chirped pleasantly, much to my eternal gratitude.
"Yup!" I answered, before giggling nervously.
"Ok then, it's decided, Bevelle, here we come!" Buddy quipped before leaping into the navigator's chair. The little group started to disperse and I sighed with relief. Excusing myself with as little noise as possible I fairly ran all the way to the engine room, hoping I'd be able to hide out there until I could speak like a normal person again.
To my surprise, I was met with a small round of applause.
"What do you want, Gippal? You could've helped me out a bit in there!" I stated venomously. "What do you want, Thwipple? You coulda helped me out a bit in dere!"
"Oh, but Cid's Girl, that was just too good an opportunity to pass up. Very well done though, you handled that like a true master." He said amicably, as if he wanted to just gloss over deliberately attempting to publicly humiliate me.
"Bastard…" I muttered under my breath. "Bathtard…" "If you don't need me anymore, I'm going back to my room to read my book, and hopefully I'll be able to finish this conversation when we get to Bevelle." I said icily, before hauling myself upright and dusting off invisible pieces of lint from my soggy outfit. "If you don't need me anymorwe, I'm going back to my woom to wead my book, and hopefuwwy I'wll be ablew to finith thith converwthathion when we get to Bevellwe." As soon as I was half way across the room Gippal grabbed me firmly by one arm.
"Whatcha reading?" He asked obnoxiously, as if daring me to answer with anything other than the scintillating Adventures of Spot the Dog.
"The Fledgling's Guide to Necromancy and Primitive Flesh Forming." I said haughtily, an effect that was rather ruined by the truly heinous lisp. "The Fwedgwing's Guide to Necwomanthy and Pwimitive Fweth Forwming." HA! That wiped the smirk off your cocky face! I proceeded to laugh triumphantly in my head until I was back in my section of the bedroom, where I pulled out Undead and Unemployed.
Ok, I'd told an eensy weensy lie, but I HAD actually read that book! It just, sounded kinda more impressive than a tale of boinking in swimming pools with parasitic blood sucking fiends and being bribed to rule over the others in the species with designer shoes! Ah… designer shoes… The only good things to come from going to charity balls… I'm shallow, so what? Good, that shut you up…
Anyways, my major weakness, apart from stupid Gippal and maybe also Yuna's stupidly freaking huge eyes, is shoes. Honest to Ifrit I think I have such a frighteningly huge capacity for shoe trivia that no one else on the planet can compare. Then again, half of the planet is unfortunately male, so my achievements are rather less impressive. I don't mean that in a harsh way, but come on! If I asked Gippal to describe what I had on my feet, he'd probably say: Uh… they're kinda… white, maybe? Or at least something to that infinitely damning effect… I giggled at the notion of Gippal accusing me of wearing ankle boots that were 'so last season', until it began to worry me. The image had become so vivid in my twisted mind that Gippal was now clad in a burgundy suit made from crushed velvet, thankfully hiding the most of the ruffled shirt that was temporarily blinding me with its dazzling whiteness. To top it all off he was also wearing what looked to be hosiery and high heeled pumps… and a powdered wig. Yevon above that is one creepy mental picture.
"I take it you've gotten to the latest sex scene via a brutal staking with the aid of antique furniture?" A voice asked from seemingly nowhere. Consequently, I jumped about three feet in the air, but it at least erased the look of utter distaste from my features. Struggling to calm the erratic pulses of my straining heart, I answered with no previous line of thought.
"Seeing as I've saved your sorry self many times during the course of this so not glorious day, I thought you would have realised that I'm not really squeamish. Oh, and as I've said before Gippal, I'm not as naïve as you think I am, cos I'm pretty darned sure that I've gone through sex ed. by the age of seventeen. Not to mention that there's been a major confrontation between Surfer Dude of the World Barriers and a dish-washing dishy vampire over the Queen of the Damned working at The Mall since then, but then again, she just got fired…" I stated blithely, before returning to my book. This was when it struck me. Gippal already knew that I was reading a sappy erotic comedy and therefore had enough blackmail material to last him until the end of time, which was a weird kind of incentive to just leave Bevelle to its own machinations… "Think before you speak, Rikku!" I hissed to myself, before concluding that I should also add; 'Develop an interior monologue, Rikku!' and be done with it. Gippal snorted with poorly concealed amusement.
"I guess the only logical conclusion to this would be: necromancy my ass, Cid's Girl." He quipped smoothly, before delivering the finishing blow of a knee crippling, inside liquefying smirk. "Nice to see you've lost the lisp, even though I was getting quite the kick out of it." He added, almost as an afterthought, the bastard.
-Wait a second, I DIDN'T sound like Igor?-
"Sad, sorry, soliloquy, sentimental, solitary, slinky, svelte… WOO HOO, I can say the letter 's' again!" I shrieked excitedly, before leaping from the bed so fast I blurred. "Ooh, Anima, I'm so happy I could kiss you Gippal!" I cried shrilly, before beginning my humiliating routine of flailing for joy.
"Then don't let me stop you from doing so." He replied in the smarmiest tone he could muster. I rolled my eyes whilst chuckling low in my throat as Gippal screwed his eyes shut and puckered up.
"Gippal, you look like someone just shoved a lemon down your throat, which has unfortunately killed the mood past the miracle of resuscitation." I stated with a fake pout, pretending to be distraught at the notion of something detracting from smoochy time. Not that I didn't enjoy kissing Gippal, much to the contrary, I just didn't trust myself, let alone him, so close to a bed; and if he got me to that bed, neither of us would be sleeping in it, if you catch my drift. This would not be much of a challenge unless I'm talking to one of those people that need enlightenment in the form of a big old neon sign being paraded around by a guy in a lobster costume. If you are one of those people, tough luck, I'm still in denial and will not utter the fact that I was considering allowing Gippal to shag me into the mattress so hard the springs broke. I paled instantly, screwing my eyes shut as I let loose a supersonic wail in my head. "Now look what you've done, you stupid inner voice resultant from some sort of schizophrenia!" I bellowed in utter anguish. Gippal had the good grace to just stare at me in unabashed horror, thank Shiva, so I performed the time old ritual of giggling nervously before fleeing as fast as my stumpy little legs could take me. I nearly got to the door too! However, Gippal caught my shoulder in his vice-like grip and I was pirouetted around into his hard, warm chest before I could fall to the ground from the sudden change in inertia.
"Sometimes I forget you're your father's daughter…" He muttered, whilst shaking his head and chuckling. I flushed an interesting shade of vermillion, which didn't help matters any. It didn't stop me from being snarky though, no sirree Bob! What does that even mean?
"Why Gippykins? Hoping insanity skipped a filial generation?" I simpered, before frowning at how my neck had begun to ache from craning it up so high, just so I could look at the infuriatingly tall man.
"More like hoping that Brother had inherited your share as well as his own." He answered with a grin, "but call me Gippykins again and I will not hesitate to do something drastic." He said, oh-so-threateningly. I pretended to mull it over for a second.
"Pwease don't hurt me Mr. Gippykins!" I cried in the most babyish tone I could adopt on such short notice, before gasping in mock horror. "Oh no! I'm so sowwy Mister… I… I… I didn't mean to…" I wailed, lower lip quivering as I threatened to turn on the waterworks. Gippal however, didn't seem to be playing along, the look in his eye was dangerous and feral, and while I was proud of the fact that I was too stupid to be scared, I was cautious of what could happen next. I turned the cutesy face up a notch, cocking my hip and staring up at him through my lashes.
"That lip of yours is just asking for trouble. So cute and defenceless, it's just asking to be taken hostage." He narrated huskily, eye never straying from my mouth as my tongue darted out to wet my suddenly dry lips. My breath caught in my throat as he decided to come up close and personal, invading my space as his breath fanned out against the side of my face. "Sweet little things like yourself shouldn't try to tempt the big bad wolf, you never know what might, happen." He whispered into my ear, hot breath tickling as it played havoc with my skin, only to be inflamed further by the tongue that was now making its leisurely way around the outer shell. I would have dwelt on the irony of a blaze starting under my flesh in direct result of it being laved so thoroughly, but I didn't really give a damn about irony, or the fact that it really wouldn't have been that pleasant for him to feel me up through my still sodden outfit.
Yeah, I was a heartless bitch alright, but his lips were on mine so he really didn't care either, so yay for me. Growling against my mouth he released my bottom lip, which had well and truly been given what it had been promised, to glance at his lack of progress with my hair ribbon, after he had tossed my bandanna indiscriminately away, meaning I'd never see the thing again. The man had always had a bizarre obsession with my hair, never relinquishing an opportunity to play with it, even when we were children he would always be fiddling with one of my braids or hair ornaments, probably because he could never sit still and was never brave enough to grow his own blond locks out; but then again, if he had quirks I was a raving psychopath.
All reverie and whimsy was duly expelled from my head when I looked into my Gippal's eye to see the self-satisfied smirk before my vision was obscured by a curtain of hair. Even though I noticed, I simply glossed over the fact that I'd called him 'mine'; after all, we were engaged… Seconds later his hands roved through the matted strands, parting my stubborn fringe before capturing my lips with his own. My eyes fluttered shut dreamily as I collapsed into his embrace. As if sharing my sentiments he groaned with need, allowing my tongue to slip into his opened mouth and dance languidly with his own. As was the trend, this didn't last, as all pretence of gentility and innocence was pushed out of the way by liquid fire and passion. The pit of my stomach began to make my desire known through all of the pores in my body, so I pressed closer to him, pushing forward and arching back, thrusting my breasts up and out to scrape my hardening nipples against his chest. The hand in the small of my back responded by a hard digit rippling up the notches of my spine, causing me to arch back harder and relinquish power as my senses overloaded.
He took advantage of my utter incoherence by allowing me a much needed breath before launching an attack on my neck. Altering between butterfly kisses, long sweeps of that damned talented tongue and a nip to my pulse points before kissing his way up my jaw and latching onto my other earlobe, tracing the shell and blowing softly against the cooling skin. All I could do was hold on as tight as possible. Arms wrapped tightly around his neck and legs locked around his hips, head lolling to the side, eyes closed in ecstasy. He broke off to look at me and my eyes flickered open to the heat of his intense gaze. I smiled dazedly and he chuckled. A badly coordinated kiss landed on his nose and I leaned my forehead against his. "So, just how is the necromancy going?" He panted conversationally, making me mock scowl.
"I have actually read the book, you know…" I muttered in exasperation, trying to cling to fragments of lucidity in my thoroughly shaken psyche.
"So, how do you raise the dead?" He asked melodramatically, all equipped with spooky hand gestures. I had to laugh at his antics; the man was just as crazed as I was.
"Theoretically, you need to find a place where the divide between the planes is at its finest, or otherwise it's infinitely more dangerous to cross the threshold into death. For instance, Guadosalam is a favourite for rookies because it houses the entrance to the Farplane. I'm going to skim over the basics cos your eye is already totally glazing over, ok? It's your own fault anyway for asking… When you die, your soul emerges from the body in the form of pyreflies, right? Unless Sent, the soul is still bound to the cadaver, which leads to regret, bitterness, and anger. After a short period, shorter for the young, as they are often more confused and frightened, these negative emotions mutate the corpse into what is known as a Fiend, which prey on the living to exact their revenge upon them. However, if a Necromancer interferes, the Unsent are born. They may possess a total lack of mental faculty, such as the zombie monks you sometimes see springing up from nowhere, due to using whatever pyreflies are on hand to inhabit a similarly available corpse. These are used as mindless drones; their purpose is simply whatever task they are given. However, if a whole, powerful soul is returned to a body, they become the Greater Dead. These Unsent beings have extreme unearthly powers, given to them by the Necromancer that summoned them. The old Maesters were such an example, Mika and the others must have had a Necromancer on hand at the moment of their expiries." I reeled off, getting rather fond of my subject as I went on. "So, in principal, if you want to raise the dead, you use black magic to force pyreflies into corpses, if you want it in layman's terms." I concluded with a bright smile. Gippal didn't seem to be blinking anymore, and I wondered if he'd developed the rare talent to sleep with his eye open. Then again, he had promised that he would learn to do so earlier, seeing as he was afraid I'd knife him and do a runner… as if!
"Your capacity for random trivia is truly harrowing." He announced to the empty room, well, empty with the exception of yours truly, but he wasn't even talking in my general direction, which was kinda rude… especially seeing as I was practically draped all over him like some possessive blanket-creature.
"Was that rhetorical or can I put in my two Gil's worth?" I asked snippily. I'd never been one for silence when conversation was a possible alternative, and thank Ifrit that Gippal was the same or he probably would have strangled me by now. He cracked a small smirk at my inability to shut up for even the briefest period of time and shook his head.
"I was just thinking aloud…" He admitted casually. "So, where did you even find that book?" He pondered, and I wondered if that was even a cue for me to tell him. Of course I dredged on, because if he was gonna talk at me I could easily return the favour, even if he wasn't listening. It still made for a more sane interchange than pulling off one of my socks and having a conversation with it. Not saying I've ever done that… especially not when Paine was ignoring me so I made Dave perverted and start hitting on her. I giggled nervously, as if it would disprove the fact and drag me up and out of the hole I'd just dug for myself. I didn't give Gippal time to ask about the state of my mental health and tried to answer nonchalantly.
"Stole it from Bevelle…" I said, with some small semblance of pride, seeing as it was a really big book and I was an enemy of the state! Gippal's eye went huge; I'm talking size of a dinner plate huge too!
"Please tell me you're joking…" He pleaded rather pathetically, and I wondered if what I'd done was necessarily a very bad thing…
"Heck Gippal, I think it's rather safer in my hands than Yevon's! I mean, do you want to go up against zombie politicians again? Cos they're really creepy and enjoy committing wanton acts of destruction and evil! I'd just not have to worry about feeding my goldfish!" I chirped. "That would be so cool! I could have an army of undead goldfish warriors; they could serve my every whim, as long as it involved water!" I cheered, entertaining the idea with a psychotic grin. "Or I could get mice and hamsters and make a circus!"
"If I had to entertain the notion of which of you would be more lethal given the chance, I'd probably have to seek professional help to rid me of such emotional trauma." Gippal responded calmly, not quite daring to look me in the eye, as if such an action would cause me to react in an ill-favoured manner and make me set my undead minions on him. I'm not sure if I disappointed him by taking the rather tame, well-worn path of rolling my eyes sardonically, but I was too peeved to really care.
"Fine, psychiatrist Rikku, at your service!" I chirped; saccharine smile plastered to my face like someone had grouted it on. It was Gippal's turn to sigh melodramatically, playing with his earlobe as he did so.
"Cid's Girl, I think you've misinterpreted the scientific terminology, you're not a psychiatrist, you're just psychotic." He said as sympathetically as he was able to, which pretty much meant he was mocking me with a slightly less obvious smirk. I merely scowled harder, wondering why the hell Gippal was just as schizophrenic as I was. One minute I'd be at his throat in a reaaaaaally good way, the next I'd be in much the same position, with an offensive weapon of some kind… "That's it; I'm pouring all the peroxide down the storm drain, it's soaking into your brain and taking over." Gippal announced, cutting my reverie off suddenly. For a few, painful moments, I just stared at him quizzically, before my eyes narrowed to irate slits.
"Are you insinuating that I dye my hair?" I asked slowly, voice like steel on velvet. Gippal held his ground; he'd always had a spine as well as an overbearing ego, which made it hard to look imposing at such a vantage point.
"Yeah, I think you'd be vain enough to hide the greys, even though it seems you've been a wee bit lax today." He drawled, examining a strand of hair that flashed in the dying sunlight.
–What? I was going grey already? Heavens to Betsy NOOOOOOO!-
My anguish was, for once, not vocal, thankfully, but Gippal seemed amused anyway by the look of unabashed horror on my face. "Hey, I think you should leave it, I mean, heck, Paine can pull it off, why can't you?" He asked amicably, making me wail to myself quietly.
"Because I'm not a freaking albino!" I screeched, running my hands through my loose, tangled hair, trying to identify the physical signs that showed the end of my youth and the onset of senility. I stopped dead, however, when Gippal started to snicker like some troublemaking brat. "You're messing with my head again, aren't you?" I asked, feeling redundant as well as thick as two short pieces of driftwood. As opposed to replying and then proceeding to beg for my forgiveness, Gippal continued to snicker like the stupidly tall mutant child he was; so deciding upon a quick course of action, I heaved myself upright, putting my entire bodyweight on one of Gippal's legs for leverage and delighting at how he winced, before flouncing off, or beating a hasty retreat, to spend my time more profitably on the bridge, where I could scheme away and actually think up some decent comebacks.
Gippal, for once, seemed inclined to let me have my moment of solitude, even though as soon as the elevator doors shut fast on my pathetically waving self, I became distinctly aware of this little, Gippal shaped hole in my psyche which hadn't been there half as noticeably before. It was safe to say that this niggled at me as I sat in the gunner's chair, in fact, it'd also be fair to say that it damn well irked me. I'd spent the best part of the afternoon with the man and now was practically unable to function without devolving into some twisted version of a little prehistoric housewife that busied herself until she could rejoin the coefficient that was her and her better half. Somehow, all of this was his fault, I don't know how, and I'm definitely not gonna waste my precious time hypothesising, so I'm gonna stick with the tried and true option of: He paid a wizard to do it.
After I'd suitably found and stapled the blame to the suitable offender, I viscerally tore my thoughts from stupid Gippal and his equally stupid wizard, and moved them along briskly to Bevelle, threatening to taser the stragglers who were looking back to my irritating fiancé with hero worship in their eyes. If my thoughts had eyes, which I severely doubt… Leave me alone, it was a metaphor!
Anyways, we were going to Bevelle, which means that I was 'accidentally' going to stumble upon the Yevonite formerly known as Baralai. Of course, Gippal would help me out by pointing at him with as much subtlety as I could force him to use, and then all would be merry. After a brief interchange involving me blackmailing him in order to unearth the Ballad of Paine from the dusty recesses of the priest's inebriated subconscious, of course. Then we'd just give the sphere to whatever member of authority available and then return to the ship to dispose of Gippal on a sand dune in the middle of nowhere and then cure Yunie's sudden case of anaemia!
Wait a second, scroll back a bit… Anaemia?
Yeesh, she was never as bronzed as I was, and I doubted that she ever would be
-which is one positive factor of the desert childhood, let me tell you-
but now she was ashen, I'm talking Paine pallid! Ooh, alliteration, I'm so nifty! Er… never mind.
I leapt from my chair like I'd been given the mother of all electric shocks,
-which I'd actually received many years earlier, and I can still tell you how it feels, but, maybe later, cos I; the great Rikku, have a mission to complete!-
and bounded over to the Lady Yuna, who was gazing out of the window with a rather familiar expression of melancholy, terror and a pinch of 'woe-is-me' which seemed to be parasitically absorbing the colour from her pretty features.
"Yunie! What's wrong, are you alright, how many fingers am I holding up, don't go towards the light!" I bellowed, superhumanly fast. It took my dear, white as a sheet cousin a few painful seconds to unravel my convoluted garbling, but realisation finally dawned, and it was just as precious as the sun poking out from under the horizon to signify the start of the new day. Well, sort of, maybe I'm being a wee bit hyperbolic, but I'm still not used to talking like a normal person yet, (A/N: as opposed to Elmo, -giggles-) so comprehension of what I'm saying is still in the opening stages of novelty.
"I'm fine Rikku, and you're not holding up any fingers, because your hands are pressing quite hard into my shoulders; in fact, you're hurting me…" She mumbled distantly. I laughed sheepishly and pried my hands from my unofficial commander in chief.
"Sorry about that, but you just look, kinda, sick…" I offered lamely. Seemingly realising that someone had caught her brooding, her visage instantly transformed into the well-worn mask I'd already had my fill of during her pilgrimage, and it was all I could do not to sigh dramatically and then threaten to throw her overboard. What? I know we were family, and I do love the girl dearly, but if she thinks she needs to lie to me, she's got another thing coming, probably involving violence! Contrary to popular belief, it does solve a lot of problems; which is probably the only useful thing I've learned from Paine in all of our months of travelling together… which is really sad, if you take the time to think about it… "If you're worried about the whole digging thing, don't worry, it'll be totally cool! They don't let newbies stay out in the sun very long anyway, even though I'm sure Paine will probably suffer, cos her skin's probably afraid of natural light; I'm saying probably way too much, so I'll just stop now…" I babbled, wondering if I might just be able to catch her out again. It wasn't the most subtle technique, but I was an alumnus of the school of blunt questioning to probe for tender nerves and then go on hammering away regardless; and it's never failed me yet!
Apart from that time when Clasko burst into tears… which was SO not my fault! I mean, come on, I was wondering what was going on with him, Elma and Lucil,
-and you can't blame me, it was like some, evil love triangle that everyone but them was aware of! -
until he suddenly started to wail like I'd shut his hand in a door because no one loved him! If I hadn't thought on my feet the world would be totally submerged, it was that bad! So, I just mumbled something about me and the Chocobos loving him, so he was happy, even though he was more pleased about the big yellow abominations of nature liking him than me, which was rather a knock to my self-confidence. Honestly, I was in no way romantically interested in CLASKO of all people, but come on, he chose Big Bird over a Princess? What is wrong with that man?
"I'm not worried about digging, Rikku, I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun…" Yuna mumbled with as much feigned joy as she was able to muster, which really wasn't all that much. I immediately did a double-take, wondering what question of mine she'd just answered, until revelation reared its glorious, metaphysical head and all was well with the world. Apart from the fact that my cousin was silently having a nervous breakdown and the fact that not even Clasko found me attractive, but hey, one out of three ain't bad!
–Must, resist urge, to burst into, tears…-
"Hey, you two, I'm setting her down, so I want to see big smiles and no maiming of religious officials!" Buddy called to us from his seat, still frantically and seemingly randomly stabbing at the controls in front of him. Heck, I could work a machina with the best of them, just so long as you didn't ask me to navigate, seeing as my map-reading skills were second only to Yuna's. The airship started to emit disturbing noises that had always slightly freaked me out, even though every time I heard a screech or a clang I systematically addressed the noise to the part it had come from. Metal started to squeal from seemingly all sides and I took a deep breath.
–Don't worry Rikku, just the thrusters rotating to slow our descent, at least Brother's remembered that we need them to land this time; seeing as at the Moonflow he made you jump from a considerable height instead-
I told myself with calm that I wasn't feeling. Then again, Brother wasn't the kind of person that inspired total; or really ANY confidence in his supposed 'subordinates'… "Ok people; the landing ramp is down, move out!" Buddy concluded, turning round momentarily to make an ushering motion with his hands, before returning to frolicking with his flashing buttons. I let out the breath I was holding and plastered on an uneasy grin, my stomach telling my brain that next time we should probably walk.
"Bevelle, here we come!" I said weakly, just as Yuna tossed her cookies over my shoes.