Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Final Fantasy x-2.

A/N: I'm soo sorry this chappie took ages to upload! I've been so freaking busy lately! But no matter, I've posted this new chappie now, and please do enjoy it.

On with the story!

Chapter Twelve

There was all the world and his wife

Frances gawked at the vision, her mouth hanging open. Viola had gasped that Lady Rikku was changed.

"I…Lady Rikku, what…?"

Rikku gave her a sweet smile and said gently. "How many times do I have to tell you, Frances? Please call me Rikku! This 'Lady' busy is kinda strange for me. Now we have some work to do."

"But here, in Mr. Gippal's estate room?" No lady in Frances's experience would ever poach in Mr. Gippal's room. Now even her.

Rikku understood well enough, but her smile never faltered. Frances was quite used to being the vision of housewifely behavior at Djose Temple. But Rikku was taking over. She'd postponed too long as it was.

"Please sit down." She said, and Frances sat, the keys at her waist jingling loudly.

Rikku sat forward, her hands flat on the beautiful mahogany desk. "I think that you and I'll work together really well! And right now I'd love a quick tour of the temple, please."

Frances pulled her scattered wits together by a thread. Everything was changing so quickly, at a dizzying pace. She could only nod.

After their short and brief tour of the temple, Frances said later to Otis in the privacy of her small sitting room: "Just like a whirlwind she is, Otis. And her looks! I wonder what happened to her!"

"What Mr. Gippal'll say, I can't begin to imagine. He'll probably be much more interested in sex with this new appearance in her. Although he did mention to me that he'd leave her alone for a couple of weeks when he arrives home. Guilt more likely!"

The two old martinets drank their tea in silence for some minutes, each thinking that life as they had known it was long gone and wouldn't likely return.

"More new clothes arrived for her this morning. Viola is all agog."

Frances glanced toward her small clock on the table beside her. "Oh no, Lady Chauncey is going to arrive any minute now. Miss Rikku did invite her over for tea."

"I believe." Otis said calmly, a glimmer in his rheumy eyes. "That Carruthers is to join her for dinner."

"Scandalous, I call it!"

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Lady Chauncey looked over her teacup at Gippal's wife. She had felt so sorry for him upon her first meeting with Rikku.

Perhaps, I should feel more sorry for him now.

"So, Chauncey, you have to see the rest of my new wardrobe when we finish our tea! Thank you very much for your help!"

"Rikku." Chauncey said suddenly. "I really don't understand, you know."

"Yes. But can we please, please not talk about it? Now, what do you think about this new top?"

"You look beautiful." Chauncey said quite honestly. "Have you heard from Gippal?"

"Nope." Rikku said, sounding not at all downcast.

"But it's nearly two weeks, Rikku! What the hell is he doing in Luca?"

Rikku shrugged, a glimmer of a smile playing about her mobile mouth. "I'm very sure that he amuses himself."

"Ah, I wouldn't not care if I were you."

Rikku said very gently: "But you're not me, Chauncey! Ah, here are my dear father-in-law and Carruthers!"

"You've a sphere from your dad, Rikku." Chandos said, handing her a bright orange sphere.

"Thank you. Now, here's your tea. Carruthers, you like milk, don't you?"

"Yes, Lady Rikku." Carruthers said. He felt still in something of a state of shock. Gippal's wife had turned from a toad into a prince—or something along that order. She'd asked for his help for the following day. He didn't know yet what to make of it.

Rikku saw that her father-in-law was gazing pointedly at the sphere she'd laid on the tea table. "I'll get to it later." She said.

It had begun to drizzle by the time Chauncey left Djose Temple, and Rikku, concerned, said: "Do ya wanna stay for dinner, Chauncey? I could send a message to Del."

But Chauncey refused. Rikku, rather than returning to the drawing room, sought out Otis.

"Tomorrow, Otis, would you come with me to Mushroom Rock Road? You've helped helps here, and I need you assistance in choosing new parts."

Otis was stunned by such an invitation. He felt immensely flattered, and his impassive features showed it. "I'ld be delighted to assist you, Miss Rikku." He said. His opinion, without his conscious realization, had just shifted noticeably.

"Oh! Please don't call me Miss Rikku. Rikku'll be fine!"

"Yes." He said later to Frances. "Lady Rikku has asked me to help her."

Frances was jealous as could be until Rikku summoned her and asked her advice on new uniforms for the crew here. "You've done so well all this time, but now it's time to find new clothes for the workers here. I trust your experience and eye in this."

Frances expanded under Rikku's twinkling green eyes.

Tomorrow, I'll bear you, Carruthers, in your den.

She returned her wandering attention to Frances's excited suggestions. The woman was actually smiling at her, for the first time.

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Gippal watched a blitzball player tackle his enemy with great force it had him lying unconscious while he lunged for the Blitzball and made for the goal.

He and Lazarus were watching their team lose when Amalie strolled by.

"Quite a crush." She said, lazily surveying the screen. "I don't think I'd ever seen them win a single match before!"

"Pity, isn't it Amalie?" Gippal grinned up at her. "Hmm, I haven't seen you since the Macarena was cool."

"Ah huh." Lazarus agreed. "Now will you excuse me, I have some things I need ta do."

"You also haven't visited me for quite some time." She placed a hand on his thigh and smiled seductively up at him. "Fancy coming over tonight?"

Visit you tonight? I can't. I can't do that to Rikku. I've already put her through hell, and she doesn't need a lying, cheating husband to add to her list of bad luck.

Gippal smiled, shaking his head. "I'm married."

Amalie stared at him, certain she'd misunderstood. "Fryd?" (What?) Her English was good, but…

"I'm married." Gippal said again.

"I don't understand." Said Amalie slowly, her dark eyes fastened intently on his face. "It's most curious…yet so fascinating. You have left your lady wife in Djose?"

He nodded.

"And you love each other, no?"

Gippal laughed. Actually laughed at that. "Opposite really. She hates me."

"Well…She'll fall in love with you. No woman could resist you for very long."

"Ha! She hates me, she spits on the ground I walk, she—

"Huncahca. (Nonsense) I'm sure you bring her love. And she melts all over you, Lunnald? (correct?) After all, you are an excellent lover. E sruimt ghuf." (I should know)

The two of them looked at a nearby couple making out near them.

Then Amalie said abruptly. "You should do that to your wife."

"Yevon, I haven't even kissed my wife! She'd faint, she'd have galloping hysterics, she'd expire of tearing feelings on the spot!"

"Huncahca." (Nonsense) said Amalie. "What a ridiculous notion you men have of women. Is your lady wife fashioned differently from me?"

"I wouldn't know." Gippal said acidly. "I haven't seen her body. And I haven't seen yours in, like I said, since the Macarena was considered cool."

"Just why do you now like her so?"

"Her personality is cold, almost rude. She's not very pretty." He said. She—

"Is fat?"

"No, quite slender as a matter of fact. But her glasses, her hair, her clothing—

"So, Gippal, the fact is that you don't wish to pleasure her as you did to me? You are repelled by her!"

"Amalie…"

"Spectacles can be removed." Amalie said gently. "And clothing can be removed as well."

"But her hair—she looks like a nun, with her ridiculous ugly caps—

"Cdibet. Quite Cdibet. (Stupid. Quite Stupid) as I said. Caps, as well as everything else, can be removed."

Gippal heard himself saying, most inappropriately: "I have wondered about her breasts…Oh Yevon! Look at what you've brought me to! Why, Amalie? Why are you helping her?"

Amalie eased herself out of her seat, taking her drink with her. "It is not right." She said finally, not meeting his eyes. "You can charm even that fat man at the counter when you wish to. Yet you do not want to charm your wife. It is truly not fair."

"I would've. Only if she'd let me."

She turned to left, leaving Gippal pondering about himself and his wife.

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Carruthers stared at Rikku, reminding her forcibly of Frances's initial reaction.

"But, Lady Rikku, I…well, I don't think it would…no, it's quite impossible, Gippal, what will—

Carruthers mopped his brow with his white handkerchief.

"Rikku'll be fine. Now, listen, Carruthers. You're new here. I'm new here. I'm telling you all about my outlay of Gil, not only for the faction, but for the household items, and you've no real choice but to agree. After all, my husband isn't here."

"Now, the first thing we have to do is make sure Belvis is coming home! His experience, I understand from my father-in-law, is most impressive, and he knows the machine faction stock."

"That's true." Carruthers lowered his eyes a moment.

Rikku suddenly bounded out of her chair and began pacing about the drawing room, her steps a stride, not lady-like and mincing. Carruthers watched her perambulations with a good deal of wary interest.

She paused, her hands fisted at her sides, her green eyes dark with emotion. "I think it's time that I asked my father-in-law about funds. It'll cost a great deal of Gil to do all this! I can't do it all on my own, ya know?"

"No, I'm sorry, but you can't, Gippal said—

"Oh, who cares what Gippal has to say!" Rikku clasped the papers on the desk and exited the room. "And Carruthers, why are all those shoopufs here?"

Carruthers glanced out the window at the shoopufs and the eleven Hypellos feeding them. "Er, I heard that something came up at the Moonflow a couple of days ago. Mr. Chandos allowed the Shoopufs and the Hypellos to stay here since the temple is close to the Moonflow." Carruthers blushed red. "And I-I believe that it is mating season for the Shoopufs."

Rikku's eyes dilated. "Mating season? Don't tell me…"

"M-Mr. Chandos wants every male in the temple to help the Shoopufs with their mating. Everyone i-including Gippal."

She looked at him, then burst into laughter. She laughed and laughed, clutching at her sides it almost hurt to breathe.

Gippal was going to witness the Shoopufs mating? Someone like him? That is all too funny!

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"When're you leaving?" Lazarus asked abruptly.

Gippal stared at him. "Wha?"

"I mean that you've been in Luca for nearly two months. When're you returning to Djose Temple?"

"Me? Oh, I don't know. I'm deliriously happy, I'm over the moon in Luca, and I can dance a jig if I could!" Gippal breathed out a sigh, rubbing his hand warily over his face. "No, actually I wanna die."

"You're a miserably unhappy bastard." Lazarus said, interrupting him smoothly.

"I wasn't until rather recently. You just had to put it that way, didn't you?"

"Friends should be good for something." Lazarus said, brushing a fleck of nonexistent dirt from his elegant sleeve. "You do have a wife now, you know."

"Why the hell is everyone so concerned about Rikku? You saw her, Laz. You know that she hates me."

"Yes." Lazarus said very quietly. "I saw her. Quite clearly, as a matter of fact."

"And just what does that cryptic bit of wit mean?"

Lazarus shrugged. "Go home, Gippal, that's all I meant."

He expected his friend to rage at him, perhaps plant his fist in his face, but Gippal did nothing. They strolled through Luca's streets in silence.

"It's going to rain soon." Lazarus remarked, glancing up at the darkening sky.

Gippal grunted. He kicked a stone out of his path.

"Have you heard anything from your old man?"

"Not a blessed word." Gippal said, and then frowned. That in itself was odd, most odd. His dad should be urging him to return, piling accusation in his head, but there had been no word from that wily old autocrat.

"Alrighty." Gippal said finally, and there was a measure of relief in his voice.

"Alrighty what?" asked Lazarus.

"I'll leave in the morning."

And I'll court my wife and take off her glasses and her ugly cap and her clothes. I'll kiss her and see her breast and…

"She doesn't like me, you know." He said again, this time more to himself than to Lazarus.

"No, probably not." Lazarus agreed. "But, my friend—

Gippal threw up his hands. "No, don't say it. Amalie says I can charm even the fat chubby man known at the Regent."

"Alright. I won't say another word." Lazarus said agreeably. "But, this person if a little different from the Regent. She's still at the temple, right?"

"Where else would she be?"

Lazarus shrugged. "Who knows? Back in Bikanel Island?"

"Naw, if she so much as went to the Moonflow, dad'll send a message so quickly your head would twirl on your shoulders. I've so much to do, Laz, and it looks about ready to pour."

"Really?" Lazarus asked, seemingly startled by this bit of information. "Go easy, Gippal." he added, shook his friend's hand, and strolled off, a slight smile on his lips.

Go easy! What did Laz expect me to do? Fling my wife onto the ground and ravish her?

TO BE CONTINUED…

A/N: Oh no! Gippal is coming back to Djose Temple without Rikku's knowledge. Will the next chappie be the one chappie that Gippal will see Rikku for who she really is? You bet! I'll be posting it in a week and a bit, so please watch out for it and please review if you can!