A/N: Incredible appreciation for everyone who reviewed. I read every single one and they really cheer me up. I really appreciate and always consider the advice/constructive criticism since I'm writing this for you guys anyway. I'm so very sorry for the late update, but updates will still be slow. This is why I now think this story will just be a simple romance/humour kind of like my other fic, "Bedtime Story". I'm actually kind of embarrassed of this fic because it's so plotless. I am still contemplating on whether or not to give it up, but I have the next chapter solidly written so… I don't know. Let's see if I can come up with something cool (grins) HMM…

Mammoth thanks to Nefertieh for her wonderfully generous help with game details!

And monstrous special thanks to Canada Eh (which I should've mentioned during the past two chapters, so very sorry!) for her continual help and support.

Again, very sorry for the late update. You must have forgotten what subtle plot I had by now (sigh).

Three Stupid Words
Chapter 5: Morning After: Gippal

"HAHA! Thanks, my Boy!" Cid's deep voice bellows out as he examines the new gift in his hands.

I give him a weak smile and return to staring out at the great expanse of Bikanel sand for any sign of Nhadala. The desert sun was getting to me. Combine that with having just recently found out that my entire love life is fuckin' screwed, makes me about three seconds away from firing the whole damn island.

"Oh, she'll be here soon," Cid says, slapping me on the back. "The team hasn't even arrived yet. You can't do it all by yourself, you know."

I nod in agreement with him, though I still wasn't exactly sure of what I was nodding at. Besides remembering that Nhadala had called me down because of some special machina discovery, I can't recall anything else. And I don't dare ask Cid. Because considering the way he's been talking to me ever since I bumped into him earlier, it seems like this issue is pretty big. And don't let this great blond hair fool you 'cause I'm not all about handsomeness; I'm pretty damn smart in that I ain't going to tell our leader that I've completely forgotten my responsibilities because I got drunk and slept with his daughter.

"Gippal!"

I glance up in relief at the sight of the short-blond haired woman jogging towards me, waving frantically with her clipboard, and seven diggers – 4 male, 3 female - following closely behind her.

"Sorry, for arriving so late," she says, then looks around suspiciously. "Oh… She's not even here yet."

My ears perk up. "Who?"

She opens her mouth to answer when Cid cuts her off. "Look, Nhadala! Look what this boy got me! Look! Just look at it!" he beams, holding the gift out proudly before her. "A cactus!"

She smiles weakly and gives me a peculiar look.

"You know what a cactus means, don't cha? It means strength! Might! Danger." He chuckles, grinning back at her. "Bet none of your diggers ever got you a cactus," he says in a mocking tone.

I'm never giving him anything again.

"No… no they haven't," she says, stepping back. She reaches for the stack of papers attached to her clipboard and gives them to me. "A rough excavation report for Machina XO3," she informs me. "It's the third one we've found this month in Section B54. We're planning to send a quarter more diggers there within a few weeks time, to unearth some more artifacts, but the sandstorms have really been acting up through the Central Expanse lately." She laughs lightly. "And you'd think that ruins everything, but they're actually helpful in uncovering hidden machinery, just like the XO3. I mean, there's no way it would've been discovered if…"

I quickly read over some of the highlighted points in the papers, trying to obtain back any memories from yesterday as she continues to talk.

"…and I'm actually 15 minutes late for a camp inspection, but if you -"

"Go," I tell her, aimlessly waving my hand. "I can ask one of the diggers if I require anything more."

She nods immediately. "Right. I'll – I'll catch up with you later. All the equipment has already been set up last night but I'm not sure if the sandsto-"

I shake my head unworriedly. "It's alright, Nhadala. I know what to do," I lie casually to make it look like I'm not.

"Right. Right. Okay." She steps back and gestures toward the team. "Well, you can all introduce yourselves… And… right… Okay, I need to go," she says awkwardly before finally leaving.

Cid then suddenly glances around the area with a puzzled expression on his face. "The hovers should be here already. Stupid workers. And she's not even here yet!" He turns to me with a confident look in his eyes. "Wait here, my Boy. I'm gonna go see if I can find out what happened to them for you."

I nod appreciatively as he pats me on the shoulder, in a father-to-son sort of way, before boarding his own hover and steering off into the distance.

As soon as he is out of earshot, I glance at my team of diggers, trying to read their faces for a clue of what exactly was I supposed to know to do. They're all staring back at me with the same expression, waiting for me to give them their first order.

I straighten my posture and step up to the first guy, tall and buff looking. "Your name?"

"Zek, Sir."

I nod thoughtfully. "And do you know what your task is for today, Zek?"

"To assist with transporting Machina XO3 onto the Faction's cargo airship, Sir."

"Y'damn right that's what you're gonna do," I tell him with a stern look. I then walk over to the guy standing next to him, short and skinny. "You?"

"My name's Paeul, Sir."

"And your task for today?"

"To help dig up the new machina, Sir."

I grimace, wondering how the little guy ever got signed on to be a digger in the first place. I am about to assign him to just carrying our water when the female beside him catches my eye. I immediately walk up to her. "And your name, Miss?"

"Kirya, Sir," she replies with a bright grin. "My job is to record the excavation and fill out the rest of the report!" she tells me diligently.

"Can't think of anyone better for the job than you," I say, giving her one of my famous smiles.

She blushes faintly.

The other two girls are ugly so I don't bother interrogating them about anything. I've already got the basic concept of what to do. Dig up new machina. Transfer new machina. Fix new machina at Djose. Nothing special. Nothing hard. Even boring. I have hired help to do this sort of thing. Why am I needed?

I feel a tiny jolt of excitement as my eyes cross the rough sketch Nhadala had drawn on one of the papers, and I realize that the site is in the Central Expanse. It'll be interesting at least with the sandstorms ravaging on our backs and all. Maybe we'll fight a fiend or two. And I'll of course have to heroically save poor Kirya from any harm…

I slap my hand against the sheets with a drive of determination. "Okay, let's get going!"

"But our Leader hasn't returned yet with the hovers, Sir," Paeul points out. "And the Lady hasn't arrived yet either."

I raise my eyebrow in interest. "The Lady?"

"Yes, Sir," says Zek with a questioning look. "The Lady, Lady Rik-"

"I'm here."

The bitter, icy tone in her voice freezes my flesh cold and we all turn in the direction of the speaker, standing just a few meters away. Rikku.

The first thing I notice is that her eyes have lost its energetic, happy-go-lucky sparkle, and has been replaced by a dark, wounded expression. Her shoulders are sagging, and her body is slightly bent as if she's about to topple over in exhaustion any second. Her hair is pulled into a loose ponytail draping over her chest, over her orange bikini top. Her matching thong is still visible as usual, but this time coming out of a big pair of old, khaki-coloured cargo pants. And then… vilg… then, there in her right hand, crinkled between her middle and index a finger, is a conspicuous little piece of paper.

I can't say anything to her, and simply stare as she stares directly back. I can't imagine how she figured out it was me who wrote the note. I was so careful to disguise my writing and everything! And now she's standing there, paper in hand, staring at me with such an accusing, confused, and heartbroken expression that I can't believe I'm the one who did this to her.

This is why I never want to have a relationship with girls like Rikku. Girls who are so kidish, and young and immature, completely unaware of the mechanics of relationships and dating. I mean, I sleep with her once and all of a sudden it's like I'm her one and only true love, who got up the next morning and left without any explanation. Because I did leave her a note.

I quickly walk over to her and lead us a bit further away from the watchful eyes of the team. Then, as soon as we're a safe distance away, she raises the note to my eye and her face creases in upsetting disbelief.

I take her by the shoulders and explain before she is able to speak. "Look, Kid." I gesture down at the paper. "Last night… Whatever I said, whatever I did, I'm sorry. It didn't mean anything, okay?"

A jolt of surprise flashes in her eyes, and she blinks in absolute incredulity. Her mouth opens and closes repeatedly, words stuck on her tongue. Then, she tilts her head up a bit more to face me directly and searches my eye for any hint of falsehood in my statement. "Nothing?" she barely whispers.

Though I know it's somewhat cruel, I can't help chuckling softly at her innocent question. "Rikku," I begin, contemplating on how to put it all into three simple words. "I was drunk."

And just like that, her shoulders instantly fall from their hopeful state and her head droops down hard. She brings her hands to her face, and I could've sworn I saw that those were tears she was wiping off.

A soft hum in the distance reminds me that Cid has returned with the hovers, and I quickly glance at Rikku in anxiety. Her eyes are swollen and red, and she glaring downward at the ground, clearly upset. If Cid finds her like this, forget the stupid cactus, he'll fricken murder me in broad daylight. And then Shelinda will finally have a breakthrough in her broadcasting career by tragically reporting, "Handsome, young, Machine Faction leader, Gippal, has been beaten to death by scary, vicious Al Bhed Leader, Cid. And now, an exclusive interview with the happy daughter of Cid herself…" Ugh… The humiliation…

I desperately reach out to ruffle her hair in a playful manner, showing her that she's got nothing to be embarrassed about; that we can still be on friendly terms with each other. That I do at least care about her, if not in that way. But before I am able to, she growls in a menacing tone,

"Touch me and die."

My hand numbs in mid air.

"Gippal! Rikku!" her father's voice bellows out. He steers the train of hovers towards us, parking between us and the team. "There are only two of the special Central Expanse hovers available, one for two riders and the other for eight. I figure that should be enough for you guys now, eh?" He doesn't notice Rikku's state, and instead boards his own hover. "Now, I've got an emergency down at New Home but Gippal-" He pauses to look at me with an excited expression. "-You will join me for dinner tonight, won't you my Boy? There are some machina development projects I'd like to discuss with you, and of course, the details of today's excavation."

"Gee… I don't know Sir… I have this, this thing-"

He narrows his eyes. "I thought you said yesterday that you were spending the night in Bikanel…"

I chuckle nervously as if it brought my memory back. "Right… yeah… of course. I'll – I'll be joining you then."

He grins satisfactorily. "Good."

We all randomly begin to collect around the hovers as he leaves. I'll find a way to get out of the arrangement tonight. Say a worker in Djose underwent spontaneous human combustion or something…

I run my hand over the frame of the two-seater hover, remembering that our Faction had built a whole line of these to be custom made for the Central Expanse. Admiring its relatively small size, I find myself imagining how great it would feel riding a whole half hour on this baby with Kirya. But my train of thought quickly derails, and my mind ends up drifting back to this morning's encounter with Syrisina.

It's still a bit hard to swallow. The fact that my entire goal of finally having a genuine, long lasting, eternal relationship with someone is already up in smoke. The fact that I got dumped and can't even remember. Instead, I spent a heap of money on that stupid plant and acted like a desperate idiot in front of her, thinking we were still together. Now she thinks I'm the one who's hurt by all this. The one who's crawling back for a second chance. Which is just completely wrong because I don't get hurt. I never get hurt. I am indestructible.

BAM!

Yevon shit, what was that?

I stare at the puff of sand that had just sprouted out of the ground a mere few inches beside me. And then, almost on instinct, I turn to look at Rikku for an explanation, finding it in the pointed gun in her hand.

Her eyes are fixed on me intently, all trace of hurt and confusion disappeared into a sea of ravenous fury and disgust. She tosses the gun on the ground near me, and mutters in a cold tone, "You left your pistol behind."

My face pales in realization as I watch her reach into the wide pockets of her cargo pants and pull out my shoulder pads, straps, and gloves. Then, without a word to anyone, she walks steadily past us all and onto the smaller hover. "Keep up, will you?" she says before disappearing towards the Central Expanse, leaving a trail of sand and silence behind her.

Thanks for reading. Please Review. Aiming for update next Thursday.

PLUS! My recently published Rikku/Gippal website. Check Bio & "Homepage"