"So, what's with Frowny McPoutypants?" Keran's voice drifted back to her over the dull hum of the engine.
"Who?" A nervous little giggle left her throat, and she tightened her arms around his waist just a little.
"The guy who was glaring at us from the window. What was his problem?"
"Oh." Her cheek touched his shoulder. She'd been hoping to avoid this subject…at least until they'd reached Kilika. "That was Gippal, of the Machine Faction."
"Really. Gippal, huh?" The name sounded strange on his lips. "I think I've heard of him before."
Of course he had. Everyone in Spira had heard of him. Just as becoming Yuna's guardian had brought Rikku and the others some degree of fame and popularity, Nooj, Baralai and Gippal had not escaped their own slice of notoriety.
"Yeah, sure," she replied noncommittally.
"So what was his deal? He looked kinda pissed."
"He probably was. At me, I mean." She ducked her head down against him. "We had a falling out of sorts."
"Was he the guy you had a thing for from Bikanel?" He didn't sound angry – merely curious.
"Yeah, that was him. Only something's come up, something I didn't know back then." She didn't want to tell Keran. She liked him even if she didn't really love him, and she didn't want to hurt him. But it wasn't fair to lead him on.
"Well, that sounds ominous." He sighed. "Might as well just spill it, huh? I'm gonna drag it out of you sooner or later."
"I'm sort of…married to him." She wait for him to do something, say something. She expected at least an angry exclamation of disbelief – at worst he'd probably hang a sharp right, push her off the hover and keep right on going. When he didn't react at all, she hurried on to explain. "My father arranged it just before my mother died. We were both just kids at the time – I don't remember it at all. I didn't know about it at all until just recently."
"How'd you two find out?" His voice was calm, but she knew a calm demeanor could hide a hell of a lot of crazy.
"Pops finally told me when he thought I was gonna bring you home to Bikanel to meet him." She grimaced. He laughed a little, startling her.
"How'd he like that?" He asked with a chuckle.
"He didn't." She sighed. "Keran, I didn't know, I swear I didn't."
"I believe you," he said. There was a brief pause, then: "What'd he say when he found out?"
"He already knew. He knew the whole time."
Maybe he heard the bitterness in her voice, because he sucked in a deep breath.
"Harsh. That must've hurt."
Only Keran had seen past the anger to the terrible hurt lying heavy beneath it. She blinked away tears. "Yeah. It really did. A lot. I can't even divorce him. The Al Bhed, we…we don't divorce." She took a shuddering breath. "I'm really sorry."
"Not your fault."
"It's not fair, though."
"Life isn't fair." He sounded so much like Gippal in that moment that she gritted her teeth in frustration. He continued, unaware of her irritation. "I kind of have a thing for you, but I know you're not interested in me like that. I'll get over it. We'll be…friends."
Her irritation dissolved. She'd forced him into an awkward situation, a torturous game of look-but-don't-touch. She felt guilty. "I could try. Just because I'm not interested now doesn't mean I can't be."
"Liar," he said gently. "I know I'd just be competing with him. You're not over him, even if you wish you were, even if you hate him. You still love him."
"I don't." She scowled. "If I loved him, I would've stayed in Djose."
"Love doesn't die just because you're mad at someone." He spoke with the wisdom of someone who'd been in the situation before, and she resented the implication that she wasn't the mistress of her own emotions.
"I don't love him," she insisted.
He shrugged. "Regardless, you don't love me either."
"No," she said slowly, softly. "I don't. I'm sorry." There were worse men she could choose. Keran was dependable, loyal, handsome…really, everything any girl could want in a guy. But she didn't love him, and she probably never would.
"If I thought for one second that you loved me, even a husband wouldn't keep me away. So don't be sorry – you're probably saving me from an untimely demise."
"Huh?" She lifted her head from his shoulder, wrinkling up her nose in confusion.
"Didn't you see the way he looked at us? He probably thinks I'm doing you or something. He doesn't look like a guy I'd relish meeting in a dark alley. And there are a lot of dark alleys in Kilika."
"Aim for his bad side." She grinned. "He's got lousy depth-perception."
- -
Gippal managed to stay away from Kilika for exactly four days. In that time he had had far too much time to read all sorts of frightening, infuriating possibilities into the little kiss the man called Keran had given Rikku.
He was overcome with the urge to make it absolutely, positively crystal goddamn clear to the man that Rikku was off limits, and Gippal would find a way to make him pay if he so much as thought about putting his hands on his wife. It mattered not even a little that Keran might not even know that Rikku was unavailable. It was just infuriating to imagine that somewhere there might be a man trying to pick up his wife. Even more aggravating was the thought that maybe Rikku might allow herself to be picked up.
He shifted his thoughts away from Rikku and Keran as he realized that the passersby in Kilika seemed to be giving him wide berth down the narrow walkways. It was only when one woman nearly plunged into the water below rather than pass too close to him that he realized he'd probably been scowling the whole way. He didn't like being angry and irritable. Usually he prided himself on his easygoing nature, his general good humor. Only Rikku had the power to twist him into little knots. He didn't like that he was irrational where she was concerned, that his fixation with her had brought him to Kilika to warn off a man he didn't know and might not recognize - even if he did manage to find him - since he hadn't gotten too great of a look at him. Rikku he could find. He knew her face, he knew her habits. He could pick her out of a crowd in less than three seconds.
He had no idea where to even start looking for Keran.
"You're Gippal…right?" It was an unfamiliar voice.
Gippal turned around, finding the speaker immediately. Keran. Well, how absolutely accommodating.
"Yeah." It was just a confirmation, sharp and harsh.
"Don't think I need to ask why you're here. I was kind of expecting it." Something of a grin lingered around Keran's mouth. Gippal could see why Rikku liked the man. He was handsome, with a pleasant sort of face, the kind one could tell smiled easily and often. He had boyish good looks, shaggy brown hair, intense dark eyes, and was a few inches shorter than Gippal. Still, he didn't look like he worked hard or often. Certainly not at backbreaking labor like most of the Al Bhed were used to. He was a Yevonite, through and through.
"You want me to stay away from Rikku." It wasn't a question. Keran shifted to the side of the narrow walkway, allowing for traffic. Gippal kept a few feet away, regarding Keran curiously.
"Yeah." He didn't feel the need to explain any further. Just so long as Keran got the point.
"I've got no intention of keeping away from her."
Gippal shifted a little, his hand going to the holster at his belt. He knew he couldn't very well shoot the man in the middle of Kilika, and he was pretty sure Keran knew it, too. But he wanted the other man to be a little afraid of him.
Surprisingly, Keran laughed. "No need to be so hostile. I'm not fucking her or anything. She wouldn't have me on a silver platter with an apple in my mouth."
Gippal relaxed just a little. "She's my wife."
"Yeah, she mentioned that." Keran stuck his hands in his pockets, regarding Gippal levelly. "If she wanted me, I'd take her in a heartbeat," he said. "But she doesn't. So can you resist the urge to kill me? I like Rikku. I'll watch out for her. She's a good girl, a good friend."
Gippal didn't really trust the man, but he had to have a sort of grudging respect for him.
"I can't watch out for her all the time," Gippal said slowly. "And she's got absolutely no common sense. You'll keep her from being picked up?"
Keran shook his head slowly. "I'll keep her out of trouble. But if she wants to be picked up, that's her prerogative."
Gippal shifted uncomfortably. "You're a Yevonite."
"Yeah."
"We're Al Bhed."
"Yeah, it's kind of hard to miss." A sardonic grin twisted up the right corner of Keran's mouth.
"What's Yevon got to say about divorce, or about honoring other ways of life?"
Keran knew what Gippal was asking. "Yevon considers all other ways of life sacrilege, blasphemy. Your marriage would be dishonorable, unsanctioned, unacknowledged." He watched Gippal flinch as the words hit home. "However, New Yevon preaches tolerance and acceptance towards different cultures. I follow the new ways, not the old."
It was a relief. Gippal blew out the breath he hadn't even realized he was holding. So she was his for good, if he could find a way to keep her.
"Rikku's mine," he said firmly, holding Keran's eyes. "She's always been mine and she always will be. No one takes what belongs to me." He was willing to fight for what was his, just as he had been doing for years.
"I think you gotta work on the way you talk to her," Keran said critically. "You talk like that and she's gonna think you're gonna try to walk all over her. She's not gonna stand for that. She's independent, you know? Wants to make her own way, do her own thing. She's not gonna go with you quietly if you start acting like a caveman around her."
"When has Rikku ever gone anywhere quietly?" Gippal cocked an eyebrow. "The point is that she's my wife. My wife. She might not like it now, but she'll get over it."
Keran fought laughter and lost. "Okay, I'm definitely sticking around for this. After everything Rikku's had to say about you, I would love nothing better than to stick around and watch you make an ass of yourself." He clapped Gippal on the back, steering him the opposite direction, towards the bay. "Come on. Least I can do is buy you a beer. It would be inhospitable of me to let you humiliate yourself while sober."
- -
Gippal had no idea why he'd let Keran buy him a beer, much less why he was still seated at the bar with him. He didn't like the man. At least, he didn't want to like the man. That would make trying to intimidate him into keeping his hands off of Rikku a little difficult.
"So, please. Enlighten me as to what your grand plan entails." Keran tapped his fingertips on the counter, waiting for the bartender to refill his mug.
"Plan?" Gippal echoed weakly.
"Yeah, you know. What're you gonna do?" He studied Gippal's blank expression expectantly. "Surely you don't intend to just glare her into submission."
"Nah," Gippal said, taking a long drink. "Wouldn't work. I don't intimidate her."
"So how're you going to get her back?"
"Well…" He hadn't really thought that through very well. Most of his little fantasies had involved warning the male population of Kilika what they could expect if they attempted anything with his wife. "I haven't really thought about it."
Keran choked. "You haven't thought about it!"
"You eat a parrot for lunch or something?" Gippal glared.
"Sorry." He had the grace to look embarrassed. "Look, you could maybe attempt to be charming or something. Failing that, you could try…oh, I don't know, not glaring. It's a little off-putting. You want her to like you, right?"
"She likes me," Gippal assured him. "She just doesn't remember it yet."
"Sure," Keran said doubtfully. "So what're you going to say to her?"
"Dunno." Gippal didn't know if he actually wanted to have a conversation about how he intended to get Rikku with a man who might or might not actually be attempting to get into her pants himself.
"You're not gonna club her over the head and drag her back to Djose, though."
Probably it would be effective, but…"Nah." Gippal grinned. "She's heavier than she looks."
"Better not say it to her face." Keran rolled his eyes. "You know how girls are."
"Not really." Gippal winced. "Just Rikku."
Keran stared at him like he'd grown a second head. "What?"
"I've never been interested in other women. Just Rikku." He drained his mug. "She's important to me. She's mine. I grew up knowing she was my wife, that I'd have to protect her, keep her safe, put her happiness above my own." He shifted back in his chair with a sigh. "She's everything." He splayed his fingers out on the counter. "I'm not going to give her up without a fight. I can make her happy. Maybe she doesn't need me, but I need her."
"Whuh." Keran blew out a lungful of air, hunching over the counter. "That's pretty heavy. Guess I really don't stand a chance." A wry sort of smile twisted his lips. "So what'd she have to say to all that?"
"Uh, well…" Gippal hesitated. "I haven't told her."
"You stupid bastard." Keran exploded. "Girls go crazy for that shit. If you say that to her and mean it, she'll be like putty in your hands."
"Not Rikku." Gippal dropped his head. "She's different."
Keran arched a brow skeptically. "She can't be that different. Who knows? Maybe she's changed. It's been a couple of years since you two were an item, yeah?"
"Yeah." Maybe Keran was right. Probably he knew Rikku better than Gippal did, now. "I don't know. Maybe she has changed." He hoped not. He'd loved her just the way she was.
"Well," Keran clapped Gippal on the back in that brotherly sort of way. "What's the worst that can happen?"
Those, Gippal decided, were famous last words.