A/N: Thank you guys for all of the positive reviews for last chapter. It's nice to know that I was able to bring a little bit of fluffy-ness into your lives. :)

This chapter is a little bit different from the ones I've been doing. Not too much is going on, it's just about the thoughts of both Gippal and Rikku. It's told in the third person, and I'm not quite sure why I did that. It just seemed to fit better than switching between different views. I hope you enjoy this installment anyway, as boring as it may be. The action will resume again, I promise. :)

-

Even though it was afternoon, the room was dark. Only a small streak of sun crept through a crack in the curtains that covered a large window. Gippal was sitting in a chair he had placed next to his bed, staring at the little girl curled up inside of his blankets. Rei was taking a nap in the large bed, Datto clutched to her side and her tiny hand curled next to her face, her small body rising and falling gently with each little breath. Gippal seemed entranced by her... he couldn't tear his eyes away from her slumbering form.

All of this was so new to him. Of all the things Gippal could seem himself someday doing... he never really saw himself as a father. He guessed that he saw it as a possibility in the far future, but... when he was this young? He had already accomplished quite a bit in his twenty-two years of life, but a family was something he always saw as something that would come later down the road. And even though he didn't like to admit it sometimes, he imagined that family to be with Rikku. He didn't even start to think about things like marriage until, well, about two years ago. He didn't intend on marrying Rikku right then, though- they were both still pretty young and his career was just starting to flourish. There was too much going on.

Things like his career and high status didn't seem to matter much now, though.

Now Gippal had to decide what was going to come next. At that moment he had no idea where they were going to go from here. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to think. Hell, he didn't even know what to feel.

What little he did know was that he had to face what life had given him. The day before, Gippal was the twenty-two year old Machine Faction leader, looked up to by all Al Bhed and a leader for his community and his people. Although he was an important figure, he was still a young man. A man that still had nearly a lifetime to experience. To the public, he always appeared calm and intelligent. He always knew what to do and how to get it done. Gippal was a bit more experienced than most guys his age, but he was still a young man. He still had fears and, although he did not like to admit it, he did not always have the answer. He was still a human being.

Today, Gippal was still that same young Machine Faction leader. He was no different as a person, but he felt like he was. He was a father.

A father.

He honestly did not know what that truly meant. His own father had left his mother when he was very young so it's not like he had a father figure to base his own actions on. His mother worked so hard to provide for them after he left. They mostly traveled around, looking for odd jobs that would put the next meal on the table. His mother was very kind and loving, and Gippal loved her greatly, but she wasn't his father. He just never had that male figure in his life. His mom never even had a single boyfriend that he could base it on. She loved his father so much, and she didn't want to go through that again. Then, when Gippal was in his mid-teens, his mother came down with a very bad illness that they called cancer. He took as many jobs as he could trying to support them both and to help pay for his mother's medical bills.While his friends were out having fun and gawking at girls, Gippal was forced to grow up. She had no one else.

Despite all of his efforts, his mother died about one year later. Gippal wasn't even there when it happened... he was doing a job for a neighbor. He came home at night to find her laying ever so still on her bed, her eyes closed and her skin frighteningly cold.

He would never forgive himself for not being there for her. He let her die alone.

Gippal dealt with his grief by burying himself in his work. He became obsessed with learning all he could about machina and he would end up working for people like Cid, trying to absorb everything he could. A couple of years later he joined the Crimson Squad. It seemed like a noble cause at the time... it felt like he finally had some sort of purpose in his life. That was, until it all went wrong.

He dealt with his grief in losing Rikku the same way. He buried himself in his work until he knew nearly nothing else. The more his mind was on other matters, the less he had to think about her. The less he had to think about how, once again, he had screwed up.

People told him that it was unhealthy for him to work so much. A guy he worked with tried to hook him up with other girls, but none of them mattered to him. None of them were her.

Now he had approached a moment in time where Rikku had returned to him. Rikku, his Rikku, was back. He looked at her softly as she stared at the wall, apparently also in deep thought. Maybe she was wondering what to do next, too.

Only a week ago he was a lonely man that had nothing. Today, he had the love of his life back and a daughter. His daughter

He had everything he had ever wanted. Yet there was something still bothering him, plaguing him, bordering on the edge of his thoughts. Why?

He looked over again at Rei's little sleeping form. She had his unruly thick hair, but she had Rikku's cute little nose and face. Her big eyes, too. Those big, bright, green eyes that never ceased to amaze him. And as he watched her slumber, he was overcome with a feeling of amazement. He and Rikku had created this little angel, together. This child was created through their love. Having unprotected sex like that was not the smartest move they had ever made, but Gippal didn't think it was a mistake. How could you look at her, that little girl, and say that it was a mistake? He might have thought that yesterday, but now... now he did not know what exactly to think. Everything was so different now... everything had changed.

The thought that was bordering on his mind had returned. As much love as he felt for both Rikku and his newfound daughter, he could not help but have some anger directed at Rikku. He had lived for two years not knowing that his daughter existed. He missed her growing up. He missed two years of his daughter's life, and that was time that he could never have and Rikku could never give back to him, no matter how sorry she was.

He knew it was unfair to be really angry with Rikku. She had done what she thought was best. He still couldn't help but feel a little bit upset, however. It was understandable given his circumstances.

He knew it would take time to get over these feelings... but right now he needed to decide what was going to happen next.

-

Rikku glanced over at Gippal, who seemed to be deep in thought. His eyes seemed to be stuck on Rei. He had that look of seriousness on his face that Rikku had seen before. It was the same look he got when he was thinking deeply about a problem at work or trying to solve some kind of machina problem. He was sort of frowning, but only slightly, and his elbow rested on his knee while his hand supported his face, resting underneath his chin. He was completely still and unmoving, oblivious to what was going around him. Rikku used to think that it was cute when he did that, a long time ago.

She had been, overall, pretty happy with how the meeting went. Gippal didn't say anything stupid and if he was still furious with her he hadn't said anything. She knew he was still a little mad at her, but that was to be expected.

She had sometimes wondered if Gippal ever thought about having a family. It didn't seem like he would, he was always focused on business. She had sometimes wondered what kind of a father he would make.

She didn't think he would know what to do. He was always dealing with men and women usually much older than himself and probably had little contact with children. He handled himself pretty well today, but in the long run he would probably be clueless.

Rikku was too, at first.

When Rei was first born, Rikku felt absolutely helpless. She knew absolutely nothing about parenting or even remotely how to be a mother. Without Lulu's help and guidance, she didn't think she would have made it. Rikku remembered when Rei was just an infant, and she was always running to Lulu with all sorts of questions. She didn't know what she was doing, and even though Lulu kept telling Rikku that she didn't know at first either, it didn't make her feel any better. At least Lulu remembered having a mother so she had some sort of idea.

Rikku's own mother had died in that house fire when she was very young. She didn't know too much about the incident because she was very young, and Cid and Brother didn't talk about it so she never learnt much from them. She didn't really know much about her mother, except what Brother told her. She never saw a picture of her because they were all lost in the fire.

Brother said that she was very pretty. She was short, especially compared to Cid, but she wasn't weak or anything. She was a fighter and could have beaten Cid up blindfolded if she wanted to. She was very kind and loving. Brother told her that she used to make up all these adventures and tell them to her as bedtime stories. He said her favorite one was about a little girl who befriended an abandoned chocobo and they had many adventures together as the girl tried to become a Summoner so she could someday defeat Sin.

The fire, she later learned, was a sort of hate crime against the Al Bhed. Her father was a very prominent figure in the Al Bhed community at the time and was targeted. They never found out who exactly set the fire.

Throughout her life she would come to a greater understanding that many people did not like the Al Bhed. They were hated throughout Spira for what they were and what they did. It always seemed so senseless to her but she encountered it often. Cid taught Brother and her to be proud of their heritage and who they were, to never hide themselves because of that. He told them that they shouldn't fear anyone or ever think anybody was better than them because they weren't. They were just as human and good people just as much as anybody else. Yet as Rikku would begin to travel throughout Spira later on in her teens, she found that hard to do. She knew she wasn't any less than anybody else, but she didn't always feel proud of who she was.

She had always told herself that her children would be different. They would live in a time where the Al Bhed were not looked down upon as lesser beings, but as equals. They would be proud of who they were. Rikku could only hope that Spira would be that kind to Rei... that she would never have to go through what she went through. As much as she wanted the best for her daughter, she knew that times of peace rarely lasted long, and that harder times were ahead. They always were.

Rikku's eyes moved from Rei to Gippal again. He was staring off into space, still looking all contemplative. Rikku didn't really like the silence, but she didn't really know what to say. She didn't want to make Gippal mad again so she just sat there in silence for some more.

She really didn't know what they were going to do now. Gippal had met his daughter, but Rei had yet to know he was her father. Rikku knew that Gippal would ask her eventually when he was going to tell her, and she didn't know if she could give him an answer. Truth was, she didn't really know. She wanted to tell her, but she didn't want to hurt her. She didn't want Rei to get all attached to Gippal only to have to leave him behind.

This brought up a new question. Would they even be going back to Besaid? Would Gippal let Rikku take his daughter away, now that he had just found her?

He wouldn't. Who would?

She thought she knew him. Before she came she thought that Gippal would just be angry at her and disinterested in Rei. When the time came he would only be too glad to get rid of them.

That was when she was still really angry at him, though. She had it set in her mind that Gippal was an insensitive bastard that cared nothing about her.

The way he looked at Rei, though, told her that he did care. The way he told Rikku that he still loved her told her that he wanted her to stay. The looks he gave Rei said that he acknowledged her as his daughter and perhaps even wanted to be a father.

They would have to figure out what they were going to do. She wondered if Gippal would let it be known to the public that he had a daughter or if he would try and keep them a secret. She knew that Gippal would be looked down upon for having a child so young, with an even younger girl no less, and keeping it secret this long. He would lose some of the respect he had gained. He was supposed to be responsible and somebody who didn't make mistakes, somebody the little kids want to be when they grow up. That was part of the reason why she found it so hard to tell him in the first place.

Yet Rikku also knew that Gippal could not keep this secret for long. Somehow, someway, it would leak out and he would look even worse for trying to keep it hidden. She didn't know what he wanted to do, but there would be time to talk later. Now, they had time to just think and watch their daughter sleep, and Rikku was content with that for now, even though she wanted answers.

She sighed quietly. She knew that this wasn't going to be easy. They would make it through, though. It would be hard... but they would make it.

They always did.