Etched in Red and Gold

It was a clear picture in his mind still—the first time they met again since they were children. He didn't see her at first or really recognize her until she said something—what was it—he couldn't remember. He turned to her, and looked into her eyes. A smile instantly overcame his lips. She was quite grown up in her short skirt, her daggers like claws at her side, and her reddish blonde hair messier and longer than before. But he couldn't mistake that childish oval face and those jade-green eyes.

"Well, if it isn't Cid's girl." Her features lightened up. He could tell she had been glaring at him for being all over Yuna. It wasn't his fault that he'd never been close to a hot celebrity before, but then again, Rikku was a celebrity of some kind too. "How's Brother?" The question easily translated into "is he still pissed," but he already knew the answer. It was Brother, of course, he was still holding the grudge—still brandishing the rusty old knife from his festering wound—or battle scar, as he was likely to think of it.

"Same as always. Buddy's around too," she said as she danced on her tiptoes and cocked her head to the side. She was really cute in that flirty, teenage way, certainly pretty, but he tended to like his women older. Still, his eyes lingered on her attractive curves and the twinge of red that emerged as she pressed her lips into a smile.

"Yeah, same as always," he said before his attention got unexpectedly diverted to Paine. The team that composed the Gullwings had been stitched with bits of his past, all bundled up into that red ship, except for Yuna, but then Yuna was part of everybody's life. She was a celebrity after all.

And when the Gullwings visited him again, Rikku was the first person he noticed. It was instinctive, if not magnetic.

"Hey Cid's little girl." He ruffled her hair, and she adjusted her headband with a pout.

"I have a name you know," she muttered, and then Yuna said something he couldn't avoid responding to. It was just too tempting.

"You two seem close." Yuna smiled while nudging Rikku.

"Yeah, we made quite the couple," he said. She glared at him, her eyes wide, and ran to him and pushed him.

"What are you saying?" she shouted in Al Bhed and hid her face. It was the greatest thing he'd seen in a long time.

"Ah, Rikku's always good for a laugh," he said between chuckles. He couldn't believe that the girl hiding behind her hands, blushing madly, had actually defeated Sin.

He'd heard that Rikku had fought alongside Yuna and the other guardians in Zanarkand. At first, he'd laughed. Riah, the old man that now ran human resources for the Machine Faction, had told him all about how the princess of the Al Bhed and a summoner, half Al Bhed herself, had defeated Sin, as if it had just been the two of them. It was an important achievement for the older Al Bhed to know that the race contributed to bringing the Eternal Calm. It didn't really matter to him, and at the time, he couldn't believe that little Rikku had actually stood up against Sin. Little Rikku who was afraid of thunderstorms. It didn't make any sense, but the possibility was incredibly amusing.

Then he found out it was all true. Rikku had actually become a guardian and faced Sin. It came out in the Spiran news broadcast. When he heard the reporter in her quick monotonous voice describe all about the last pilgrimage, he thought back to the last time he had seen Rikku when he had been nine. Rikku boarded with them for a whole year, and after Home was built, his parents went there and stayed a while—just a few months. In those months, he met Buddy and Brother. Taking to the older—and finally!—male companions, he totally ignored her. It wasn't his fault that in the biological fabric of his being, he had a propensity to think awfully bad of girls. They were whiny and conniving, even if Rikku was one of the more tomboyish ones. She was okay, but she was no Brother and Buddy, that was for sure. She usurped most people's attention anyway. She was the little queen of the Al Bhed, the princess. It was stifling, even though he could tell that she didn't like the attention. She spent most of her time bothering her father if not being around his mother. She didn't take to other little girls. Instead, she surrounded herself with adults.

"I heard you're leaving next week," she said to him one of the few times he had been left alone. Cid had sent Brother on some errand, and Buddy had been punished for breaking some machina at home.

"Yup," he said as he tinkered with an old toy of Brother's. She stood there next to him for a while, and then sat down to watch him. Her presence unnerved him for a moment, but then he became used to it.

"Do you hate me?" He glanced up at her puzzled by the suddenness of her question. Her brow was wrinkled, and her eyes were intensely expectant. He shook his head.

"Only you would come up with stupid ideas like that," he said, and focused on the toy again. He almost had the wheels working.

"It's not stupid. You don't like me anymore. Ever since you came here, you stopped liking me," a pause and then, "I wish I was a boy."

"No, you don't," he said, "You'd make a stupid boy." She hit him in the shoulder, and he whipped to the side about to scream at her, but stopped. Her eyes were full of tears and her lower lip quivered. Before he could muster anything to say, she ran out of the room and left him. He shook his head and went back to his work. He didn't understand her at all. But leave it to the little xiaah to go on and tattle on something he hadn't even done. It wasn't his fault that she was full of crazy ideas, and that she wasn't a boy he could dignifiedly hang out with.

"I heard you made Rikku cry," his mother said to him as she tucked him in bed. She smoothed the sheets and sat down next to him.

"I did not." It was so typical of Rikku to get all the attention.

"You should be nice to her. We don't know how long it'll be until we can come back." She petted his messy blonde head. "Would you like to stay?" She asked gazing off toward a wall.

"What?" The nostalgic gleam in his mother's eyes disconcerted him. She looked sad, and she had never looked sad before they had to leave for one of his father's expeditions. She hid something behind her soft green irises, and as she shook her head slightly, he saw her spiral pupils widen slightly, glancing past him, as if she were looking into the future.

"Never mind, sweetie. Just be nice to Rikku. You two were so close for so long," she said nostalgically and then shook her head. She kissed him on the forehead and left him.

The morning that he had to leave, it finally hit him. Rikku sat by the corner, while Brother and Buddy talked excitedly about Zanarkand and how it would be so cool to be in Gippal's place. Gippal felt her heavy eyes on them, pulling at him and dragging the sadness from within him. He had never had to say goodbye to someone before.

"You two, scurry! Let the boy pack." Cid said from the living room. He had been talking to Gippal's parents for the last hour. After the boys left the room, Rikku got up slowly and warily neared him.

"I heard your parents and vydran talking. Zanarkand is dangerous," she said.

"I've been there before. It's no big deal."

"And when Sin comes back?"

"Stupid, that won't happen for years."

"And when Sin comes back, you'll come back here?" She grabbed his hand and held it. He shrugged, and she released her grip on him.

"Probably," he said and zipped his backpack.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" She asked, and he simply looked at her. "Your stuffed cat. I still have it."

"You can keep it," he said with a smile. "I don't need it."

"It'll miss you while you're gone. You should come back for it. You should promise to come back for it, or it'll think you don't like it at all because it's childish and stupid." Her eyes started tearing up, but she bit her tongue and breathed in deep.

"It'll be fine," he said and grabbed his bag and exited the room. He set it by a stack of boxes and luggugage by the front door. She ran out towards him suddenly and wrapped her arms tightly around his chest from behind.

"Promise you'll come back for it!" she yelled.

"Rikku," Cid said. "Come back for what?"

"For the cat!" she uttered angrily, tears pushing out and wetting her face. Magda went to them and first glanced at her son. Gippal was crying. He hadn't said anything, but he was crying, silently and still. He didn't know why he was sad. He didn't understand that. He would miss Home. He would miss the little girl that had annoyed him for over a year. Magda pulled Rikku away from Gippal gently and the little girl instinctively wrapped her arms around his mother's neck. He wiped his tears forcefully as heard his mother say, "We promise."

In the background, he heard his father chuckle slightly.

"They make quite the couple, don't they Cid?"

---

Chapter has been edited. The purpose of this chapter will come much later. It's not a break in plot. I'm not very fond of linear plot, which you can probably see a bit through this story. However, don't worry, the narrative of the den of woe plot does develop linearly throughout the story, and so do Rikku's relationships. So it shouldn't too confusing. I'm staying as traditional as I can withstand with this story.