A/N: Yeah, I finally updated. I'm going to be honest- I don't really have any good excuses this time around other than the normal stuff, I'm just lazy.

Big hugs and thank yous to all my reviewers, and I hope you enjoy the chapter :)

oooo

The next week went by amazingly fast. I spent as much time as I could with Gippal, which wasn't much because he was, once again, pretty busy with work. He had informed the council that I had agreed to marry him and they stood by their decision to announce it to the public at the concert. After that, the wedding plans would begin and within the next week or so we would have to decide on a date so we could figure out everything else.

The pressures of everything were starting to seep in. We hadn't even officially begun planning anything yet but I could feel it coming, and Gippal's explanations of everything that had to be done didn't help much either. Given his status, this wedding would be big. Very big.

I had called Yuna the day after I accepted Gippal's proposal and she was absolutely thrilled to hear that we were getting married. She gushed on and on about how it was horribly romantic, even given the whole circumstances under which it happened. She then offered to help with the wedding plans, which I gladly accepted because I knew I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I was never much of a girly girl, I was more like the girl who would rather play "fiend wars" with the boys than play dolls and dress-up. This whole wedding thing was not my field of expertise.

Yuna was delighted that she could help, and I knew that she absolutely loved this kind of thing. She then insisted that she come a few days before the concert so we could have some "girly time" to talk about the wedding and catch up on things.

I was cleaning up the bedroom a little bit one day when Rei came running in the door, saying something about Auntie Yuna being here. I followed her to the door, feeling quite confused. Imagine my surprise when I opened the door to see Yuna grinning at me, luggage in tow.

I could only stare at her, dumbfounded, as she opened up her arms for a hug.

I laughed and hugged her as best I could. "Yuna... what are you doing here?"

"Surprise!" She giggled and let go of me, grinning wider.

"Why didn't you tell us you were coming? We could have met you at the hover." I was in complete shock. For one, it was a week before the concert, and two, Tidus wasn't with her!

"I wanted it to be a surprise," she said plainly, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "besides, I didn't come on the hover."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Brother was making some drop-offs in Kilika, and he offered to give me a ride on the airship. Knowing that I wouldn't be by myself was the only thing that made Tidus let me go," she smiled.

"Tidus doesn't know Brother very well, does he?" I laughed. "By the way, where is Tidus?"

" Oh, he's back on Besaid coaching blitzball. He's got one more practice to go, I think, then he'll meet us here."

"Oh," was all I could say. I was still a little shocked to see Yuna at my door. "You don't have to stand out there all day, Yunie, come on in!" I giggled and took her luggage for her, leading the way to my room. "I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to stay with me and Rei. We don't have that many rooms here."

Yuna just laughed. "Don't worry about it. It'll be like a slumber party, just like old times."

I rolled my eyes. "Slumber party? I wasn't aware we had slumber parties."

"Well, not technically, but we did sleep in the same room on the airship... and we used to stay up at night sometimes telling stories and playing truth or dare, right?"

"Um... yeah, I guess." I plopped her suitcase next to the bed and I pulled the air mattress out of the closet. "Hey, remember that one time we dared Paine to go out on the deck and do the chocobo dance in her underwear?"

Yuna paused for a moment, thinking, before her face lit up and she started giggling hysterically. "Yeah, we only got her to do it because we threatened to tell Baralai she sort of had a thing for him," she giggled some more, "that was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Her face was so red I thought she would explode. I think I took pictures, I should find them sometime."

"Good luck. I think Paine tried destroying your film or something," I laughed, then attached the air pump to the mattress. "You get the bed. I'm sorry to say that my housekeeping is still as bad as it used to be," I said, referring to my unmade bed and various clothes thrown about the room.

"Yeah, I can see that." Yuna said, grinning.

I looked up at her and shot her a death glare. "Meanie."

She gave me a look of mock hurt and gasped. "Stupid-head."

"Poopy face."

We both giggled again, and I noticed that my mood had drastically increased. Having Yuna here was definitely helping with the whole anxiety thing, and I decided that with her help I might actually be able to pull this whole wedding thing off.

oooo

I visited Gippal later that day and told him all about Yuna coming over. He was surprised but he was pretty happy about it. We both decided that we wouldn't tell the council she was here until the day she was actually supposed to arrive so that she would be left in peace for a few days. I wanted her first few days in Home to be as enjoyable as possible, even if that would mean she would be stuck in the house. She didn't seem to mind, however.

Later that night Yuna insisted that we have some "girly time," which I wasn't too excited about but I agreed anyway. I came out of the shower to find Yuna on my bed in pajamas, munching on an apple and leafing through a bridal magazine. I groaned and plopped down next to her.

"Say, Rikku, do you have an idea what kind of dress you want, or color, or anything?" She flipped the page over to a very lacey and elegant looking gown. "Ooo, this one looks pretty! What do you think?"

I frowned. "It's... kind of frilly. And it looks pretty expensive."

Yuna looked at me and frowned. "Rikku, honey, you're getting married to Gippal. You can afford almost any dress you want."

"Well... I guess you're right... but I don't really know what kind of dress I want."

"Well, let's start with colors. Would you rather have white, or something else like lavender?"

"Um... well, white I guess." I was still feeling pretty uncomfortable with the whole wedding thing. Normally I would be pretty excited with planning parties and stuff, and I had a lot of fun helping with Yuna's wedding, but with my own... well, it was just different.

"And do you know what kind of dresses you want the bridesmaids to wear?"

"Um... not really."

"Have you even picked your bridesmaids yet?"

"To be honest, I haven't even really given all this stuff much thought yet." I sighed and collapsed down on the bed. "Well, you'll be my maid of honor, and, um, Paine'll probably be a bridesmaid, though I don't know if we'll be able to get her into a dress again." I laughed, recalling the difficult time we had getting Paine into a dress for Yuna's wedding.

"Well, she'll have to wear a dress if she's a bridesmaid. Have you figured out any others?"

"Um... no... come on, Yuna, it's not like I'm buddies with a whole lot of girls. Lulu can be another one, if she wants to come here. I'm not going to force her, though."

"You should probably have more than one bridesmaid, Rikku."

I sighed. "Why? What if I want to have a small, simple little wedding? I'll just have a few of the close friends and family, it'll be nice."

Yuna frowned. "I know that's what you want, Rikku, but you and I both know that with you and Gippal's popularity it'll be anything but small. The officials will try and turn it into a big deal no matter what you try to do. But it'll be alright, because all of your good friends will be there, and you'll get to have the dress and stuff you've always dreamed about."

"But I've never had a dream wedding or anything. I never thought I'd get married."

Yuna laughed and flipped another page. "Oh, who would have ever thought that miss independent wouldn't want to get married?"

I picked up a small pillow and tossed it at Yuna, startling her and causing her to drop her apple on the floor. She looked down before glaring up at me, an evil grin spreading across her face. I put my hands up in mock surrender, and she laughed before tossing another pillow rather roughly at my head. I gasped, and picked up the pillow she threw and hit her with it. She grabbed another one and followed suit, and before we knew it we were engaged in an all-out pillow war, laughing and shrieking and being rained on by feathers that were swirling all over the room. Our fun was interrupted by Cid, however, who marched into the room and declared in a gruff, sleepy voice that some non-crazy people in the house were actually trying to sleep.

Yuna and I stared at each other for a moment before he left and tried to hold in our giggles until he got back to his room. We couldn't contain them for long, however, and before we knew it we were laying on the bed giggling like madwomen.

Rei entered the room a minute later, looking very sleepy and clutching her teddy bear. She had fallen asleep on the couch earlier and we must have woken her up. I smiled at her and motioned for her to join us on the bed. She unenergetically climbed up and fell back asleep again as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Yuna looked over at her and smiled. I had a feeling that she was thinking about her baby, and I let her get lost in her thoughts for a few moments before I finally broke the silence.

"Wow... that was pretty funny, wasn't it?" I whispered.

"Yeah... Cid must have thought we were acting like twelve year olds," she giggled, then covered her mouth quickly to suppress the noise.

"Well, we were kind of acting like it. And look at us," I laughed quietly and pulled a feather out of my hair, "we're a mess."

Yuna grinned. She had little feathers in her hair and on her clothes, and I helped her brush some of them off before working on mine, and then clearing off the bed. Every now and then we would start giggling again, for no apparent reason, and I really did feel like I was a young teenager again. I mean, it's not like I was much older than a teenager, being in my early twenties, but a lot of the time I felt a lot older than I really was. For the first time in a while, I felt really young and carefree again. Gippal made me feel energetic and young and confident in his own way, but with Yuna I really felt like I could be a teenager again.

"Well... I guess we should go to bed," Yuna yawned, "we can stay up all night talking about girly stuff tomorrow."

I laughed. "Alright. We'll make it a plan then."

I found it hard to find sleep that night, however. I stared at the moon for a while through my window as I moved around on the air mattress. After a while I could hear the sound of Yuna's gentle snores, and it was probably a few good hours before I finally drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

oooo

I blinked a few times but quickly shut my eyes again when they met the blaring sun. I yawned and rolled over to my other side. Ugh, what time was it?

Yuna walked in the room and glanced over at me, smiling. "Morning, sleepyhead."

"Morning." I yawned. "What time is it?"

She glanced at a clock out in the kitchen. "It's almost eleven. Rei wanted to wake you up earlier, but I convinced her to let you sleep."

I smiled. I couldn't remember the last time I had slept in that late. "Thanks. I'll be out in a minute."

Yuna grinned before going back out into the kitchen where I heard Brother talk to her for a few minutes. I sighed and slowly crawled out of bed, stopping in the bathroom before wandering out into the living room. Rei was sitting on the floor scribbling a picture, crayons spread out all around her.

Yuna sort of waddled over to the couch, her hand on her back. She really was getting pretty big, and I remembered that the baby was due in only a few weeks. She plopped down on the couch with the bridal magazine she had yesterday and I groaned.

She caught this and shot me a look. "Rikku, at least look through the magazine. I'm not asking you to make a final decision yet or anything."

I sighed and sat down next to her. She handed me the magazine and I flipped through it, listening to Yuna make comments on some of the dresses. I found a strapless white one that I thought was okay but I told Yuna not to get too excited yet because it wasn't final. She just shrugged and set the magazine down, only to bring out a pad of paper and a pencil. I looked at her funny and she just sighed.

"We need to write down a list of people you want to invite."

I groaned. "Do we have to."

"Yes. Believe me, you want to get this stuff done now so you're not worrying about it at the last minute."

"Yeah, but what's the rush? We're waiting until after your baby is born anyway, so it will be at least a month before the actual wedding. We haven't even set a date yet."

"I know, but contacting everybody and ordering everything takes time. Just work with me."

I groaned again. "Alright... we'll start with the obvious. You and Tidus, Paine, Lulu, Wakka, Vidina, Cid, Brother, and Rei obviously, then there's, um, Nhadala and... arrgh, I don't know." I sighed. "I told you I'm not very good at this."

Yuna helped me come up with some more names, mainly people we had met on our various travels, and people we thought Gippal would like to invite. He didn't have any family, so I just had to think of some of his friends. When we were done I had everybody I could think of, but I would have to run the list by Gippal to make sure.

Afterwards, Yuna wanted to talk about plans for the bridesmaids.

"You know, Rei is going to make the most adorable flower girl," she told me while flipping through the magazine again. "I'm sure we can find her a cute little dress and she can get her hair done and everything like the rest of us. It'll be fun." She smiled and looked at Rei, who had glanced up at us at the mention of her name. "You'd like to wear a pretty dress for mommy's wedding, won't you, sweetie?"

Rei nodded enthusiastically before going back to scribbling on her coloring book.

I visited Gippal that afternoon and ran the list by him. He added some more names but said otherwise it was fine. He was pretty surprised that Yuna had me working on wedding plans already, but he agreed with her that it was a good idea to get started early. I could only spend a few hours with him because he had to work again. The time with him was still nice, however, as that was the most time we had spent together in a while. Gippal promised me that things with work would get better once the concert was over and everybody settled down a little, and we could talk more about the wedding together.

It was a nice day out and we walked around outside together. Every now and again Gippal would stop to kiss or hug me, making me feel like a lovesick teenager again. It was turning out to be a pretty good week, and I decided that with Gippal's support and Yuna's help this wedding thing might turn out to be less stressful than I thought.

I was feeling so happy, and I kept trying to shake off this little voice in the back of my mind that said something bad was going to happen. I was just being stupid... I guess I just had this thing where I thought it was impossible for life to be this good. I was just being silly, I told myself as I held Gippal's hand and laughed as he kissed my forehead once again.

It's nothing... the voice will go away, and I'll realize that I'm just being childish. It's just a dumb feeling.

Gippal put his hand around my waist and pulled me toward him, making me giggle. I stood on my toes and gave him a quick kiss.

But if it's just a stupid feeling... then why am I so worried?