Deep
Chapter Two
… in Explanations
By RingPrincess
A/N This story is the
result of a germ of an idea, a pet theory, sexual tension and stress.
Put all ingredients in a brain, mix well, spill into Word, edit and
post. Serves all. Enjoy! Also always remember Rippal Shippers. That's rippal(underscore)shippers(dot)livejournal(dot)com. There is also the directors cut over at my LJ which is ringprincess(dot)livejournal(dot)com.
Last time:
Rikku glared at the rocks. 'This is so pointless.' She thought and looked back down.
Gippal stood over her, trapping her against the wall.
Rikku bit back a scream.
"How you've been, Rikku?"
"Bu.. busy," she stuttered and glanced over his shoulder. Paine and Yuna were staring at them. Paine had raised her eyebrows and Yuna's brow was furrowed in confusion. Tidus stopped pacing to watch.
"Uh huh," Gippal leaned in closer.
Rikku squeaked and shoved back further into the wall. She wished that it was soft or there was a door behind her so she could open it up and get away. Gippal's grin was wickedly amused and he dragged one hand down the wall to cup her hip.
'Damn, damn, damn,' Rikku thought. She was thinking that quite a bit lately in his presence. He dragged her forward and Rikku wished she had the willpower to break away or even slap him. 'Not in front of my friends, Gippal, please,' she thought in a panic before he kissed her. She got the vague feeling that if she had said it aloud she wouldn't have been able to stop him. Not that she wanted to any more as he massaged her lips with his.
Gippal cupped the back of her head with his hand and undid the handkerchief holding her hair up. It tumbled around her shoulders as he nibbled her bottom lip. He pulled away and asked, "So, may I talk with you in private?"
Rikku bit the same lip he just had as she stared up at him, cheeks slightly flushed. "Uhh, yeah, umm, sure."
Gippal smirked and ands buried in her fine gold hair. They broke once they were out of breath.
"Just lead the way," she purred and hooded her eyes.
Gippal reluctantly released her and walked from the room. Rikku didn't dare look at her friends as she strutted after him. He held the door open for her and she ducked under his arm to go through. Gippal however looked and saw the stunned faces of Rikku's friends. Paine's lightning stare was particularly uncomfortable. He cleared his throat and looked away. 'Note to self, never kiss Rikku again in front of the rest of the Gullwings or on second thought, don't kiss her in public, anywhere.' He thought and led her up the stairs through the cloister of trials and into the antechamber before the room for the Fayth.
He found a window ledge to lean against and watched her with crossed arms. Rikku fidgeted for a moment before crossing her arms, unconsciously imitating him.
"So," Gippal drawled.
"So?" Rikku's brow furrowed.
"About that explanation," Gippal raised his eyebrow.
"Ah," Rikku looked at the floor, hair hiding her face. "About that." She licked her lips. "It's complicated."
"It better be."
Rikku's head snapped up and she glared at him. "You think I enjoyed embarrassing myself in front of you."
Gippal's eyebrow hadn't lowered yet and it remained up and he looked skeptical.
"Okay, so I did." Rikku sputtered. Her face flushed. "But that is not the point!"
"Please do get to the point," Gippal's lips twitched.
"And you were naked first." Rikku pointed out and raised her own eyebrows.
"You didn't have to join me."
Rikku placed her hands on her hips and sighed. "Okay, where do I start? Don't say it, the beginning." She looked at the ceiling and then back down. "Well, a week or so ago we got readings about spheres coming from deep in the Moonflow. However, as you well know there is nothing in that far in the Moonflow. So we went in-"
"We?"
"Yuna, Paine, Tidus and I," Rikku glared at him, "and scouted out where these signals were coming from. Turns out it was a base of bandits, a lot of bandits. So we retreated to come up with some sort of plan of action."
"And decided to steal the spheres from the bandits," Gippal concluded.
"Pretty much," Rikku nodded. "So, we infiltrated the base. Harder than you think since it is an all male thing, stole the spheres."
Gippal pointed at her throat.
"Yes, and I stole this." Rikku reached up to touch it. "And we got out, almost without being caught."
"But you were caught," Gippal's tone was full of 'why am I not surprised.'
"So, I set some charges and blew the base up and we split up to return to the Celsius. I laid a trail that I'd scouted earlier that would get me out of the Moonflow, but had places I could conveniently lose them."
"Which is where you ran into me."
"Umm, yeah."
"Okay, sounds plausible."
Rikku swallowed. Gippal's eyes didn't leave her and she wanted to cringe back. "So, that's it. That's what happened." She stuttered.
"Uh huh," Gippal ran his eye down her body. It didn't take much imagination to remember what it looked like without clothes. He returned his gaze to her now beet red face.
"Look, I couldn't turn back and I couldn't go around. There was nothing to do but go forward. I thought you wouldn't see me."
"You're not that sneaky."
"And so you found me out and the bandits were coming and I honestly couldn't think of any other way to make you follow me."
Gippal pushed away from the ledge and strode in front of her. He placed his hand on her hip again. "So, you got naked, kissed me and ran away into the water. Like I said, Cid's girl. I wish I knew you were such a tease."
Rikku's knees felt weak. "Me too," She muttered, her eyes focused on his lips.
"Wasn't the getting naked part going overboard."
She squirmed. "I had to be sure that you would follow."
"Anything for the goal huh?" He stroked her side.
"If the goal is staying alive, and it's with the right person. You might say that." She licked her lips.
"Impressive," Gippal cocked his head. "I didn't know you had that in you."
"I'm just chock full of surprises." Rikku ran a hand up his arm.
"So, how disorganized do you think the bandits are after your little attack?" Gippal looked away from her.
Rikku took two steps back in shock. 'What the, talk about subject change, this is not going the way I thought it would.' She clenched her fists and her stomach churned. "Why?"
"I was thinking of doing something about it. Travelers have been complaining." Gippal shrugged and rested a hand on his hip.
"You're mad," Rikku spat. "You don't know anything about the organization as a whole. You have no idea of their numbers or equipage. You could be killed!"
"I don't think so." He shook his head.
Rikku opened her mouth and shut it again. Silence stretched between them and Rikku looked around, anywhere but at him. She gritted her teeth jaw bunching. "We took out one base, Gippal. I don't even know if it was an important base or anything. It was taken out through stealth and we didn't go out of our way to engage them in combat."
"And that means?"
She looked back at him. "It means that no one has any hard information on these guys. You could be facing anything!"
"We had no hard information on Vegnagun."
Rikku shook her head. "That's different."
"How?"
"It was one thing, one machine. This," Rikku waved her hands. "This is a gang of people, and people are far more dangerous than machines. We control the machines!"
Gippal shrugged.
"You tell him, Rikku." A kindly male voice said from the door. "He won't listen to the rest of us."
Rikku whirled, spine straightening and a smile forming on her lips. "Sal! I didn't know you were working for the Machine Faction!"
"It's a recent appointment." Sal, a younger Al Bhed with short spiky hair and pale green eyes, shrugged and glanced back at Gippal. "You are still determined to invade the Moonflow."
Rikku turned sideways to keep an eye on both men.
Gippal nodded. "I think we can take them."
"I think it's a bad idea." Rikku shook her head. "And you haven't given me any reasons to even start thinking it is a good idea."
"I think you're just concerned about me." Gippal teased.
"I would be if you were worth the time," Rikku sneered.
Gippal's eye narrowed and he glared at Rikku.
Sal cleared his throat. "Gippal is of the opinion that we will be better armed and outnumber the bandits by quite a margin."
"You've no guarantee of that," Rikku frowned. "I'd agree with you normally. All the bandits I've fought against use swords and items. I just have a bad feeling about this."
"And we all know you act on your feelings," Gippal spat.
Sal's eyes widened. 'I missed something.'
"Don't be an ass." Rikku's mouth twisted.
"Then don't be a bitch." Gippal retorted.
"I at least follow through on my feelings." Rikku tossed her hair. "Take my word for it, you go through with this something will go wrong."
"Unlikely," Gippal straightened up.
"I can see I'm wasting precious air and time. If you insist on being a fool, let me help you out in this invasion." Rikku's eyes narrowed.
"I can handle it."
"In all your manly pride," Rikku rolled her eyes. "I'm serious, let me help."
Gippal sauntered past and paused in front of the door. "It's under control. I'm going to go finish planning." He took the stairs down at double speed.
"Whoa," Sal blinked. "What did I miss?"
"A lot of nothing," Rikku inhaled deeply to try to let go of her anger. 'How did we in two seconds go from just about kissing to completely pissed at each other?' She shook her head. "Well Sal? What do you think?"
"I already said I agree with you." Sal clucked his tongue. "But I'm new here and my word doesn't carry much weight even if I'm 'Senior Technician.'"
"A pity," Rikku's voice dropped. "Look," She reached into her pocket and pulled out a transmitter. "If you get into trouble, call me." She passed it to him. "I'll come running."
Sal stared at the small machine. "He's right. You do sound concerned."
"I am," Rikku admitted. "Though the bandits don't know it was the Gullwings that invaded them, it was a near thing a few times." Her shoulder's twitched. "And well, I feel somewhat responsible for Gippal's sudden mood."
Sal frowned and pocketed the transmitter. "Look, I was going to set up a back up plan with Rex without Gippal's knowledge."
"Rex is here too!" Rikku giggled. "Poor Gippal."
"We try not to crowd him." Sal sniggered and then calmed down. "Here's Rex's radio frequency. I'll tell him to keep an ear out for you if things get over our heads." He held out a slip of paper.
Rikku shoved it into her pocket. "I hope they won't." She bit the inside of her lip. "But all my hopes lately have been dashed rather quickly." She shrugged and felt a tickling in the back of her eyes. She violently repressed any sadness. "I better get going. I left my friends in a lurch."
Sal laughed. "I promise to work on Gippal, but I can't promise much."
Rikku grinned and skipped down the stairs. She passed Gippal halfway through the old cloister of trials and quickly turned her head away. Her transient good mood left. She trudged the rest of the way through the corridors and down the stairs. Her thoughts darkened. 'I don't get it. I thought for a moment there he was really interested in me. He even said he was impressed and he kissed me in front of Yuna, Paine and Tidus. I had them believing that nothing was going on between Gippal and I and now that it seems there really isn't but what they saw says there is.' Rikku scrubbed her arms. She felt strangely dirty though she hadn't done anything strenuous. 'I mean, his kiss. He kissed me like it meant something. He couldn't have kissed me like that if he didn't feel something for me. Right? Or maybe I'm just deluded. And the things I said,' Rikku squirmed. 'I must be crazy. And he didn't say anything.'
"Rikku," Yuna's voice snapped Rikku out of her thoughts.
"Yunie," Rikku gasped. "Don't scare me like that!"
"Are you okay?" Paine frowned and crossed her arms.
Rikku shrugged. "I guess."
"You don' t look okay," Tidus commented with his typical bluntness.
Rikku winced. "I, I-"
"Wow, that kiss really must have thrown you off." Yuna shook her head. "Though you seemed pretty into it at the time."
Rikku colored.
"So much for nothing happening between you and Gippal," Paine said.
Rikku stiffened and clenched her fists. "There is nothing happening between me and Gippal and right now that asshole can rot for all I care." She stalked from the temple towards where the airship was parked.
The other three looked at each other, small smiles on their faces and hurried after Rikku.
"But Rikku, he kissed you. I'd say that is progress of some sort." Yuna commented.
"No, he used me to get what he wanted. Get it straight." Rikku hissed, "bastard."
Yuna faltered. "Used you?"
"He wanted information. He kissed me to get it." Rikku stomped up the Celsius' ramp. "End of story."
"Gippal is not like that." Paine frowned.
"Oh really?" Rikku turned and placed her hands on her hips. "Then explain to me why he has this sudden urge to invade the bandits in the Moonflow."
The three shrugged.
"Because he knows we invaded them, that's why. He thinks he can wipe them out." Rikku supplied.
"Wait, how does he know-" Tidus began to ask.
"He just does," Rikku whirled and entered the lift.
"The only way Gippal would know that is if one of us told him." Yuna said slowly and leaned against the lift's rail. "And since none of us three have talked to him in the last three days that leaves you."
Rikku clamped her mouth shut.
"Rikku's on the defensive again," Paine stage whispered to Yuna, who nodded. Tidus rubbed his chin.
"And they do seem closer," Yuna mused. "Something must've happened that she didn't tell us."
"Hello, right here!" Rikku pulled her loose hair back into a ponytail with her hand but since she didn't have anything to keep it up she let it go.
The lift opened and they walked towards the bridge.
"So, what happened?" Yuna pried.
"Tell us all the dirty details." Tidus supported.
Rikku shook her head. "I'd rather not."
Paine smirked. "Brother, Rikku is hiding something."
Brother jumped out of his seat. "Rikku, spill!"
"Ah, an order," Yuna grinned.
Rikku crossed her arms. "I don't think so."
"What?" Brother waved his arms. "You refuse to follow my orders. I am the leader. I am the-"
"Yo, sweet," Buddy interrupted from his station.
'Oh if there're really are any gods listening,' Rikku thought. 'Thank you.' Her shoulder's sagged in relief as everyone's attention turned to Buddy. "What?" She asked.
"I'm getting reports of some hover bikes for sale in Macalania." Buddy placed his hands behind his head. "And since Shinra's been wanting something new to tinker with," Buddy shrugged.
Rikku looked over at Shinra. "Well?"
Shinra turned about in his chair. "The hover bike has distinct possibilities for improvement."
"Are they anything like what we used when we went after Yuna that one time?" Tidus asked.
"Most likely the same model or near enough." Rikku shrugged.
"Awesome," Tidus rubbed his hands together and didn't notice Brother's glare.
Rikku bounced up and down. "What do you girls think?"
"We have the chocobos," Yuna said.
"But hover bikes are really cool. You'll really like them." Rikku bounced over.
"We'll get the hover bikes if you tell us what happened between you and Gippal." Paine tapped her foot.
Rikku's heart sank. "Is that really fair?"
"Depends on how much you want the bikes," Paine shrugged.
Rikku looked at Shinra and bit her lip. Shinra turned about in his chair and went back to his work. Rikku worried her lip more. 'Even if he tries to hide it, he really wants those bikes. I just don't want to tell them everything that happened.' Rikku's thoughts stopped. 'Wait,' her heart sped up a bit and she couldn't help but smile. 'I don't have to tell them all of it. They said they wanted to know what happened between Gippal and I, they didn't say how detailed I had to be.' She narrowed her eyes and tried not to feel too smug. "All right then, I'll tell."
Silence filled the bridge.
Rikku crossed her arms. "Coming back from the base through the Moonflow I came across Gippal at an inconvenient spot where my only choice was to go forward. I tried to sneak past, but when that didn't work to get Gippal's attention and get him to follow me to someplace out of sight, I kissed him."
The silence deepened.
"He followed me into the Moonflow where we waited for the bandits to arrive and leave once they lost my trail. We had a short conversation, kissed again and went out separate ways. Today, I explained to him what happened before that moment and then we proceeded to get into a fight." Rikku shrugged.
"You kissed him." Yuna dragged out one word at a time.
"About five times now, but who's counting," Rikku straightened her shoulders. "So, how about those hover bikes?" She turned to Buddy.
Buddy shook his head. "You might want to be careful, kissing Gippal like that. He might get ideas."
Rikku snorted. "Unlikely, he's denser than a ton of sand."
"How could you?" Brother exclaimed. "My own sister kissing-"
"One of your friends." Rikku reminded him. 'And thank goodness you guys are so shocked about that it doesn't even occur to you I'm leaving something out.' Her smile became broad and she stretched.
"You're proud of it." Yuna gasped.
Rikku froze mid stretch and her stomach twisted. Her arms collapsed back to her side and she hugged herself. 'Not really,' Rikku thought. 'I think I enjoyed it a bit too much.' Rikku's stomach twisted. 'I forgot it was a ploy.'
"Oh come on, she managed to divert the bandits without getting her or Gippal hurt." Tidus smirked. "She should be proud of herself."
Rikku was glad they couldn't see her sour expression as she stared out the bridge's wrap around window. The argument continued behind her and she was left alone with her thoughts. 'Of all the people, why did it have to be Gippal that day? Anyone else I would have acted sensibly and knocked them out. But no, with him I stripped to nothing and kissed him in no manner that I had business kissing him. He probably thinks I'm some sort of slut now.' Rikku shuddered. "I'm tired. I'm gonna get some sleep." She muttered and walked from the bridge.
Rikku wasn't aware that the conversations halted or of the concerned gazes directed towards her back.
--
Gippal clutched the mug of beer tighter, his elbows rested against the window ledge and stared out the top floor temple windows. He frowned and forced himself to relieve the pressure on the undeserving cup. He wasn't mad at it, he was mad at himself and he couldn't figure out why, which was making him more angry.
A small dot of light moved slowly across the star spattered sky. 'Wonder if that's the Celsius,' Gippal mused and took a sip of his beer. 'Cid's girl should be asleep by now.' He immediately spat the beer back out as his mouth soured. "Cid's girl," he whispered. He groaned and rested his forehead against the cool side of the mug. 'What the fuck is happening between us?' His eye closed and scraps of memories floated past his consciousness. Her devious smile, her smell, the cold brush of her nipple ring against his chest, and that damn kiss. Her clenched jaw, her bunched fists, the quickness of how she had stepped away from him and her acidic commentary. 'Sides of the same coin,' he mused, 'both exciting and as frustrating as a rogue machine. Sands, where did she learn to kiss like that? How many other men has she kissed and why does it matter so much to me?' He trembled. 'But this doesn't explain why I'm so mad!'
A scrape of a boot against stone alerted Gippal to a new presence in the room. He opened his eye and looked over his shoulder. It was Sal.
"Shouldn't you be with Rex?" Gippal took a sip of the beer. He tried not to let the other man's sexuality bother him. Gippal was still getting used to the idea that one of his childhood friends chose to be with another male.
"Rex understands." Sal cocked his head. "Shouldn't you be asleep?"
"If you're here to talk me out of attacking, it won't work."
"I wouldn't dream of it at this point," Sal said softly.
Gippal snorted.
"I actually wanted to talk to you about something or rather someone else." Sal shrugged.
"Cid's girl," Gippal guessed shrewdly, unreasoning anger bubbled in him.
"Yeah, Rikku." Sal frowned. "Why do you still call her that terrible name, Gippal? I swear, from all accounts you kissed in front of her friends. Couldn't you at least call her by her name?"
"If all you wanted to talk about is what I call the girl, then go away." Gippal replied and glared into his drink.
"She's not the girl you used to pick on."
"You think I don't know that," Gippal hissed and turned around to face Sal. He sat halfway on the ledge. "You think I don't know how much she's grown up, Sal." Gippal placed the mug beside him so he wouldn't throw it at the other man. "Oh, I know." He said fervently.
Sal leaned against the door. "Tell me."
Gippal raked his fingers through his hair. "Cid's girl," He glanced at Sal and grimaced. "Rikku and I met up at the Moonflow. I was swimming and she was running or rather leading some bandits on a false trail."
"I think I can see where this is going," Sal muttered.
Gippal crossed his arms and looked at the wall over Sal's head. "So, here I am minding my own fucking business when out of nowhere I feel that I'm not alone and so, stupidly, I confront empty air. Lo and behold, Cid's girl stands up and when I won't let her pass she somehow manages in two seconds to be completely naked and she kisses me. While it is every man's dream to get a woman out of her clothes that fast and I desperately want to know how she managed the trick, eh, not important."
Sal began to snigger.
Gippal's gaze dropped. Sal shook his head, his eyes tearing with laughter. Gippal growled. "I'm glad you can see the humorous side to this. Then after kissing me she has the gall to run away into the river and I follow her and trap her against the rock. At this point the bandits show up and so we're stuck in the river behind this rock where I assume they couldn't see us. They finally leave and we're still in this very awkward situation."
Sal guffawed.
"Though it didn't seem quite so awkward at the time. I was too mad to really care. I demanded an explanation and she gave me a very quick version of what was happening. And eventually I let her leave. But the strangest thing throughout this encounter was at times I felt like I was dealing with two different people." Gippal rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "She flipped from having the sexuality of a coeurl in heat to being timid then back in the space of less than ten minutes."
Sal blinked. "Okay, I think that was too much information."
"You asked," Gippal said savagely.
"So, next question, what did you feel about this? Did you like it?"
"I'm male," Gippal exclaimed, then flushed as he remember what Sal was. "Sorry."
"I'm not hurt." Sal shook his head. "But you being male doesn't tell me anything."
Gippal groaned and rubbed his face in his hands. "Fuck, of course I liked it. It even impressed me once I knew what was happening." He couldn't mention to Sal that Rikku had the sweetest body he'd ever seen though, which was an added bonus to everything else he'd been saying. "Then today, I don't know what happened." He sighed. "I was going to let her explain and then ask her out on a date on the pretext that seeing each other in the nude does break quite a few barriers. But I never even got the chance, one moment things were going well, then the next," Gippal spread his hands. "Boom. We're so pissed at each other that I couldn't see straight."
Silence stretched between them and Gippal looked up at Sal's slack jawed face.
"What?" Gippal asked.
"You," Sal mouthed each individually as if they would hurt him, "were going to ask Rikku out?"
Gippal didn't say anything and Sal continued.
"When you like to screw up, you like to screw up big time." Sal shook his head. "Wow, but coming from you. I didn't expect you to settle on one girl for, for years."
"It was just one date," Gippal protested.
Sal snorted. "You admitted you were impressed with her. You've never said anything like that before, especially about Rikku."
"Witness my confusion." Gippal replied.
"Maybe it was something you said." Sal shrugged and rubbed his chin.
"You're so helpful." Gippal muttered.
"Go to bed, man. It'll look better in the morning."
"You first." Gippal stood up and gestured towards the door. "You at least have someone to return to."
"Now that sounds like jealousy." Sal reproved.
"So what if it is? No matter what gender they are, you have someone to go to at the end of the day."
"Gippal," Sal interrupted.
"What?"
"Shut up before you add depression on top of anger and confusion."
Gippal blushed. "Night."
Sal sighed as Gippal strode quickly away. 'Now if I only knew what Rikku felt about him or maybe that kiss was a major clue,' He thought. "Night." He said softly to Gippal's rapidly retreating back.
--
TBC...
Letselina: ME... EVIL... I wouldn't dream of it. grins So happy that you enjoyed it, here is another piece.
foralwaysx: THANKS! READ MORE! BECOME ADDICTED!
marajade963: bows thank you... thank you... always around for a laugh as long as it's not at me, but with me. WITH ME!
And always, Cuppycakemonster who reminds me that diamonds look better on black velvet than with other diamonds. Huggles!
