Hiya! It's me again, with my disclaimer.
Disclaimer: I don't own Square or Final Fantasy. Saddening, isn't it? These characters aren't mine…
Tales of an Al Bhed Princess
Chapter 1: "Auntie Rikku's" Story (just after Vegnagun "incident")
Yuna was extremely busy telling Tidus the beginning of her story as they boarded the airship. They had spent a little over a week in Besaid, talking and such. She had, of course, told him her story, but now seemed like a good time to tell him about the basic job of a sphere hunter.
"… The Gullwings are sphere hunters, and sphere hunters are, well…This!" Yuna explained, spreading her arms to emphasize her point. They had just stepped out of the elevator and onto the bridge.
"Nice airship!" Tidus exclaimed happily. He was obviously impressed.
"Yeah, we have a pretty sweet set-up," Rikku commented from the bridge stairwell.
"I'll say! Look at this! These machina are incredible!" Tidus mused, poking at the random inventions around Shinra's old workspace.
"Compliments of our resident genius!" Rikku sang as she leapt off the platform to wear Yuna stood. She danced a little, like she always seemed to do, especially if she was excited. Then, suddenly, she stopped. "Well, not so resident anymore…" she added, remembering Shinra had gone to work on his "Farplane Energy Project".
Yuna rolled her eyes. "Rikku hasn't changed one bit…"
"So I see," Tidus replied, grinning. He stopped playing with the machina and faced the two cousins.
"Have to!" Rikku shouted. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Yunie, you're such a meanie…"
"You're not helping your argument," Yuna pointed out, holding back the urge to laugh. She just wished Rikku hadn't taken her words so seriously. Still, she found her cousin's reaction comical. She bit her lip to keep from smiling.
Rikku, however, didn't find it funny. People had been telling her to "grow up" or "change" since her eighth birthday. When she said she had changed, they all just laughed, much like Yuna was now…
"Shut it, Yuna!" Rikku snapped. Yuna jumped back in surprise.
"Rikku, I-"
Rikku kept ranting. "Who are you to tell me if I've changed?" she asked.
Tidus, not wanting any part of this, turned back to a particularly interesting machina and began to tinker with it, even though he had no idea how to do anything useful with a machina.
Suddenly, there was the sound of the elevator door opening, followed by footsteps.
'Thank Yevon!' thought Tidus, relieved that the girls had suddenly stopped arguing.
"Brother's still not coming down," Buddy informed, halting Rikku's tantrum.
From her position behind Buddy, Paine added, "I can't even drag him away from that bar…"
Yuna knew how hard it was for Brother to accept that she loved Tidus, but this was ridiculous! He was seriously hurting himself…
"Drowning his sorrows?" Yuna asked out of concern.
"He called it 'wading'," Buddy offered. Brother had been in the cabin drinking and whining to Barkeep ever since Tidus and Yuna re-united. No one had been able to get him to stop…
Suddenly, Rikku completely forgot the prior argument and switched into "who cares about my idiot brother?" mode.
"If he wants to drink himself into an alcohol-induced coma, I say let 'im. It'll be all his fault! No guilt for us!"
"I'll go talk to him," Yuna volunteered. She is the good girl after all…"Buddy, can you get on the CommSpheres and start asking people up? I really want them to meet Tidus."
"I'm on it," Buddy replied, making his way to Shinra's old station.
Rikku jumped in the air. "I'll help with the inviting!" she proclaimed happily.
"I'll go with Yuna," Tidus said. He slung his arm around her. Yes, he does follow him everywhere.
Paine just sat on the staircase railing. "Well, I guess I'll be back-up then," she said in a bored tone.
As Yuna and Tidus stepped onto the elevator, they could her Rikku protesting.
"Nuh-uh! You can be third-in command inviter! Right after me and Buddy."
"I'd rather not…" Paine argued.
"C'mon, it'll be fun!"
"I doubt it…"
"Don't make me pull you down…"
"Yeah, right."
This was followed by a loud crashing sound and Paine shouting. Tidus glanced over his shoulder to see Rikku sitting on the floor scratching the back of her head. Paine was beginning to stand up, her body rigged with anger.
"RIKKU!"
Rikku screamed and jumped to her feet. She began to run around the bridge, with Paine in hot pursuit.
"Is it always like this?" Tidus asked Yuna as they stepped into the elevator. She smiled warmly and nodded.
"Well, you never get bored," she replied as the doors closed.
The yelling girls could still be heard from the cabin.
"Get back here, Rikku!" Paine yelled, sword now in hand. This game of cat and mouse had been going on for nearly twenty minutes.
Rikku, being so smart and all, stopped running and turned to face Paine. She was walking towards her, slowly and calmly, rage burning in her red eyes.
"You wouldn't hurt me," Rikku stated with confidence. Paine kept walking towards her. "Would you?" she asked, obvious fear in her voice.
Buddy ignored the increasingly annoying fight in the background. This was totally ridiculous! Why would people even want to come if they saw what was happening in the background? Simple, you told them Yuna needed them to come.
"Right, be there to pick you up shortly," Buddy responded.
"See you then," Nooj replied before his image flickered away.
Buddy grinned. So far he had convinced both Baralai and Nooj to come up. Lucil and Elma, of course, were dying to come, too. How could he refuse? He had even persuaded Kimarhi to leave his Elder duties for a few hours. Le Blanc said she would be there with Logos and Ormi, which was weird, since they hadn't been invited… Some of the other people they had met couldn't make it, or just weren't wanted here. So the only person left was…
"Hey, I heard the Gullwings are throwin' a party. So, uh, where's my invite?"
"Hello Gippal," Buddy said, rolling his eyes. "I was just about to call you, although this really isn't a party…"
"Not until I get there at least. I can't believe you called Baralai first, though. He couldn't party to save his life. I bet I was the last person, huh?" Gippal continued, totally disregarding what Buddy was trying to say.
"Sorry," Buddy defended, "I was just calling whoever popped into my head. Wait, how'd you know about this anyway?"
Gippal smirked and began a completely false explanation. "Well, I set up this camera in the cabin and-"
"Never mind, I don't wanna know," Buddy interrupted.
Suddenly, Rikku shouted in surprise. "Owie!" she screamed. "Paine, that hurts!"
"Well, it'll teach you not to pull me down stairs, won't it?"
Then, out of no where, the Al-Bhed girl ran forward and tackled Paine. Due to their location, Buddy and Gippal could see the whole thing. They just stared as the two girls fought each other.
"Five gil on Paine," Buddy mumbled under his breath. This was so pointless…
Gippal, shockingly enough, didn't want to see two women rolling around beating each other senseless. Well, at least not two of his friends, anyway.
"Heya, Cid's Girl?" he asked over the sounds of the fight. Rikku instantly stopped trying to hurt Paine and stared at the screen. She had forgotten that people were watching.
"Why are ya tryin' to kill good old Dr. P.?" he continued.
Rikku giggled nervously. "Would you believe me if I said I forgot?" she asked, as she stood and helped Paine to her feet.
"You're the only person in the world I'd believe that from," he replied. "Anyways, since you invited me last, you guys will pick me up first, right Buddy?"
Before Buddy could protest, the CommSphere disconnected.
"Heh, sorry," Rikku offered to Paine. She ignored this though.
"He'll never change, will he?"
Buddy shook his head, and Rikku replied, "Nope! He'll always be his big, goofy, meanie self!"
Paine rolled her eyes. 'She'll never change either. I bet if he asked her to, she'd jump off the summit of Mt. Gagazet…'
And she says she doesn't have a crush on him…
Okay, so this is Rikku's story. Obviously, it's not her POV anymore…
Sorry if the people seem a bit out of character. I'm workin' on it, I promise. Don't worry; it'll start getting good soon. And to all you Rikku fans, I'm sorry about the "she's so smart" comment. Don't be mad. It wasn't meant to be offensive.
Oh, and Icewolf9, thanks for the hint on the anonymous review thing. I had no idea what I was doing…
Rayne-Shadow Goddess