A/N: Okay finally got the next chapter done. Sorry it took so long but I had to get my end of semester exams out the way and then I kinda got distracted by the Supernatural finale here in Oz. But I got it done and here it is, the next instalment of Hidden Friendship.
Disclaimer: I don't own nothing, except Noah and I don't really want him anyway
Chapter 4: In Hiding
Yuna woke up early the next morning. She immediately knew that something was missing. She could hear Paine sleeping next to her on the right, the heavy grind of the Celsius' engine and the sound of a whistling Hypello from the bar. It took Yuna a moment to realise that there were no sounds of life coming from her left. Rikku's bed was empty. It didn't even look like it had been slept in. She was curious and she stood to investigate but a wave of nausea came over her and she was forced to run to the bathroom. When she emerged later, Paine was just getting up.
"Hey Yuna, have you seen Rikku?" Paine asked curious to the absence of the cheerful bouncy member of the trio, but not overly unhappy about it.
"No I haven't." Yuna replied, sitting down on the bed a thoughtful look across her face. "Do you think she came home last night? What if somethings happened to her."
Paine raised an eyebrow. "I suppose that really depends on how you define 'something' doesn't it? Wasn't Rikku with Noah last night?"
Yuna nodded absently and then bushed as she realised what Paine was insinuating. "Oh" she squeaked and then blushing madly she fled the room.
She headed towards the bridge so that she could call Tidus. Tidus had stayed on Besaid after they found him again. He'd taken on the responsibility of captaining the Besaid Aurochs and on the other hand ... Brother wouldn't let him on the Celsius. Brother's crush on his cousin was a source of disturbance and embarassment to all who knew him. Yuna called Tidus at least once a day on the comspheres though.
However when she got to the bridge, Buddy, Shinra and Brother were already talking to someone on the sphere network. As she came closer, Yuna saw it was Noah.
"Noah" she cried in surprise, not expecting to hear from him this early in the morning especially if he and Rikku had been up late last night as Paine thought.
"Good Morning Lady Yuna" Noah replied formally, raising an eyebrow at her surprised tone.
"Is Rikku with you?" Yuna asked eagerly searching the backound of the picture for her cousin's familiar blonde head.
"No why would she be?" Noah asked looking generally perplexed by the question. "
She left halfway through our date last night because you called her. From what I could gather from the conversation there was some sort of emergency and you needed Rikku right away. Now it was Yuna's turn to look perplexed.
"What are you talking about? I never called Rikku. I wouldn't have interupted your date for anything, not even the world ending. Though I guess you probably would have noticed that on your own ..." Yuna trailed off thankfully stopping the babbling as she tried to work out her thoughts.
"It must have been someone else." Buddy jumped in helpfully. Bnoah however shook his head.
"She definitely said that it was Yunie." Noah said andhe watched as Yuna's face turned from confusion to worry. Everyone in the room knew she was already jumping to the worse case scenario. Problem was Yuna was usually right about these things.
"Someone must have tricked her into thinking it was me. What if they kidnapped her? Oh My God. Rikku could be in terrible danger. They could be holding her ransm, after all she is one of Spira's most prtominent figures, the Al Bhed Princess..." Yuna started to chew on one of her finger nails. It was a bad habit which only appeared when she was worried.
"Not to mention she's your cousin." Noah prompted. He honestly thought that Yuna watched way too many movie spheres, but he wasn't going to say that out loud. An idea crept into his mind and he smiled evilly. If Rikku was going to disappear on him he may as well get what he wanted anyway. "Ooh no my Fiancee might be in trouble"
Noah smiled pleased with himself for only a moment before relalising that he still needed to survive Yuna's ear shattering squeal of delight. Damn that girl had a good set of lungs on her.
"OH MY GOD. Rikku's engaged!." She yelled and Noah thought she did some sort of victory dance. Noah shifted guiltily. He'd always been a terrible liar, which was actually surprising since he was good at deceiving people. However Yuna was too Euphoric to notice, or maybe she was just gullible.
"We have to find her, there's so much to do. We have to find a dress, flowers, a cake ..." Yuna turned away from the sphere, lost in her own little world of thought counting off her check lis. Paine's face appeared in the screen.
"Don't worry Noah, We'll find her." She said and the communication ended.
While Yuna and Paine were discussing her wedding, (Well Yuna discussing, Paine jsut listening to Yuna babble) Rikku was standing in a dark side alley in Bevelle, completely unaware that she was even engaged. She shifted impatiently from leg to leg as she peered out into the street. Gippal had gone to see if he could find the house his friend had given him. Her attentiondrifted as she began to realise what they'd done. They'd broken away from family, friends, titles, everything and they were going to keep it that way. It sounded insane and Rikku had to pinch herself to make sure it wasn't a dream.
A silhouette darkened the alley entrance and Rikku tensed putting her gun up in readiness. That was the good thing about her alchemist dress sphere, the weapons were easily accessible and didn't require hand to hand combat.
"Relax Ri, it's just me." Gippal's voice emerged from the silhouette and Rikku breathed out heavily in relief. She was really too tired for a serious fight anyway, even if she was running on nervous energy and excitement.
"Don't scare me like that." Rikku said pouting as she lowered her gun. Gippal jut smirked at her.
"Come on. We're almost there. " Gippal whispered and he took Rikku's hand. Rikku took comfort in the warmth and smiled as they ran through the streets. it was still early and the streets were empty. Even in this dodgy part of Bevelle. All of the night shift had gone home or were too engaged in business to notice two Al bhed passing by.
Finally they reached an abandoned home with tyhe windows boarded up. Gippal fumbled around with the keys, finally sliding the right one in and turning it. The door was a little stiff though and Gippal entered into some aggressive negotiations with the door. Largely he kicked it until it swung open. Riku's eyes widened at the sight of their new home.
It was dusty and needed some serious repair work, but Rikku could already imagine what it was going to be like when they'd fixed it up. The house had two storeys though at this point in time it would've been dangerous to attempt to get to the second floor as the every second stair in the staircase taking up much of the front hall was broken. On this floor there was a tiny kitchen and a huge lounge room as well as a laundry and a tiny bathroom. Gippal promised her that there was a bigger kitchen upstairs and that he'd fix the stairs tomorrow at the latest.
"Oh it's wonderful." Rikku said throwing her arms around Gippals neck and kissing him silly. Gippal was surprised at first at the onslaught of Rikku but quickly kissed her back.
"So what are we going to do? Do we have to lie low for awhile?" Rikku asked as she looked around the rooms again. She made her way into the kitchen. Rikku had always been a kitchen person. Probably because that was the place where she best remembered her mother.
"Yeah. We need to lie low until the initial search has worn off. Besides we can use that time to fix this place up and sought out what we were going to do. I thought maybe we could open our own shop or something. We're both good at fixing Machina and it's becoming more and more popular now that Yevon's gone. Besides we he enough saved up to survive until we can establish a reputation for ourselves." Gippal was serious and he ran a hand through his blond hair as he thought. The light falling on his features from some partially unblocked window illuminated his features making him appear even more handsome at least to Rikku. Rikku just nodded. "Do you want to start here, while I go get us some food and stuff. I won't be long promise."
"Sure." Rikku said She kissedGippal lightly on the lips but drew back when he tried to pull her closer. He tilted his head to look at her and pouted slightly. "Later Gip, you've got to go shopping or my stomach will never forgive you."
Gippal looked as if he was going to argue with her, but then his stomach growled loudly and he laughed. "Looks like my stomach will kill me too. I'll be back soon Ri."
With that he left, bolting the door behind him, leaving Rikku alone. She looked around trying to work out where to start first. Eventually she started in the kitchen , wiping down surfaces, emptying cupboards of things that she refused to think about and polishing the set of pots she found underneath the hotplates.
Rikku whistled happily as she worked. She had a home. It was hers and Gippals. Not Yuna's home which she kindly let her cousin stay in, not her brothers airship, No a home which was hers. She'd always wanted to have her own home, ever since she was a kid and her favourite role in her childhood games had been the mother of all the other children. Rikku smiled as she remembered that Gippal had usually played the Dad, until he got too 'cool' to play the games.
Rikku smiled to hereself. Somehow she knew that everything was going to be fine.
It was two months before the search for Rkku eased enough for comfort, and a month later that the search for Gippal almost died out. The machine faction weren't overly worried about their leader as he had a tendency to disappear if he wanted and there was no reason to believe that he'd been injured or hurt. They just thought he'd wanted to get away and so they called the search off. But the search for Rikku continued though it failed to break headlines after the first two months.
Rikku and Gippal still remembered watching the first sphere report that pronounced her as a runaway. The noosy ex-acolyte Shelinda had been repoting and filling most of the creen but in the background you could vaguely make out the fancy restaurant in Luca where Rikku had last been seen.
"I'm standing outside of Spiran Delights the fanciest restuarant in Luca and the place where Rikku Highwind, the Princess of the Al Bhed, guardian and Cousin to High Summonrer Yuna as well as being a member of the Gullwings was last seen. That's right she has disappeared. it is believed that she was kidnapped after receiving a call from a person impersonating Lady Yuna. However there are no leads on suspects. The crime took place around 7:30pm on the 15th of July after Lady Rikku was leaving a date. It has also been announced that just before the incident Rikku had accepted the proposal of Noah Geyts, a prominent member of the Al Bhed community. ..."
Gippal had turned the sphere off in anger. It had taken all of Rikku's assurances and promises to get him calm again, though she was filled with anger as well. Gippal finally calmed down when Rikku promised that she'd never leave him and she's always be 'Gippal's Girl'.
Now they were both looking forward to their own event. They were going to open their own business now that the searches had been called off. They'd even timed it to coincide with Yuna's wedding to Tidus which was finally going ahead. Rikku kind of wished that she could go to the wedding, even anonymously but there were too many risks that she'd be recognised. So gippal had promised that he'd get a sphere recording of it and that he'd keep her so busy she wouldn't have time to think about it.
They were taking advantage of the media's distraction to finally open their shop, "The Salrehlc". Rikku had posted so many flyers and smiled so hard when she was door knocking and telling people all about it that she wasn't sure her face would ever stop hurting. But the excitement was worth it. They'd turned the bottom room of their home into a work space complete with bare concrete floors and tools stacked in a corner. Gippal had wanted to keep the carpet, but Rikku had told him that he'd be cleaning the oil stains and he'd quicklyy accepted the new concrete floors.
The shop was filled with their neighbours, people that they'd met gradually as they integrated themselve into their new lifestyle. Some of them had been rather standoffish at first, but Rikku's continuous smile and Gippals friendly attitude had won them over and removed some of the old stereotypes, so much that most had shown up to see the new store and try and get old machina fixed.
Gippal sighed with relief when the doors shut for the final time that night, but as he saw the huge grin on Rikku's face he knew it had been worth it. It hadn't been so bad, Gippal had just been so worried that someone would come and recognise one of them that it had been hard to relax.
"Come on. We're going to celebrate." He said and Rikku eyes widened before she ran up the staairs to change. Gippal smile in anticipation before heading up to get changed himself.
It wasn't Bevelle's finest restaurant, Hell it wouldn't have got higher than three stars, but it was cosy and the atmosphere was friendly. Rikku decided that she liked it better than most of the fine restaurants she'd been to. For a start she didn't have to wear a ridiculous evening dress and no one had even mentioned the dreaded high heels. The waiters hadn't even gazed disapprovingly at her boots. Rikku loved it and she smiled at Gippal who seemed a little nervous. He smiled back though.
Music played in the background and the table was lit by candles. Rikku thought it was incredibly romantic and the nicest thing that Gippal had ever done for her.
"Here's to the successful opening of "The Salrehlc"Gippal announced lifting a glass of champagne in Rikku's direction after the food had been cleared away. Rikku smiled and obligingly raised her own. There was a slight tinkling noise as the glasses met.
"To us" She said and winked at Gippal suggestively and rubbed one of her legs against his. He spluttered on his champagne and she laughed. It took Gippal only a second to regain his composure though.
""Care to dance, Ri?" He asked with a nod towards the small dance floor just away from the tables. She nodded but kept flicking her eyes at him suspiciously. It wasn't till they were dancing closely that he acted though, whispering suggestively in her ear as they danced so that no one else could hear. But Rikku's bright red face was enough for anyone to guess.
"Why'd you do that?" Rikku demanded angrily as they walked away from the restaurant. Gippal laughed and pulled her close, kissing her collarbone and chuckling when Rikku shivered at his touch.
"I love you Ri." He muttered as he continued and Rikku didn't want to pull away. Somehow they managed to stumble home , Gippal's arms never leaving Rikku's waist. He led her up the stairs to the bedroom that they shared. Rikku gasped as he flicked the lights on, though they were dimmed. The bed that took up most of the room was covered in rose petals and there were unlit candles standing next to the bed waiting to be lit.
"Gippal." Rikku gasped trying to form the words to tell him all the thoughts running through her mind. He put one finger to her lips to shush them.
"I wanted to. Ri. You're absolutely everything to me, always have been. Will you be mine always? Will you marry me?" Gippal said. he didn't need to get down on one knee, Rikku thought this way it was unique. She didn't hesitate, just threw herself at him, kissing him with everything she had, fiercly as if trying to prove that this was real, and he kissed her back just as hard needing it.
"I'll take that as a yes then." Gippal said with a wink when they finally drew away. Rikku just nodded and pushed him backwards onto the bed.
Rikku and Gippal got married in a quiet ceremony, though few attended the ceremony a couple of months later. The hunt was still on for Spira's two missing celebrities but no one had actually considered that they might have disappeared together. Cid and the Gullwings in particular searched for Rikku everywhere, but never found a trace of her and Rikku felt no need to tell him where she was. She didn't even tell him when his grandchildren were born.
A/N: Please Review I'm not posting the next chapter unless I get at least ten reviews cos I know that there are a lot of people out there reading this who aren't reviewing. So please review and feed my creativity to get this fic finished.