Not sure if any of you did vote for Quite The Couple's Rippal awards, but if you did, and you haven't seen the results, go check em out.

(Plus, it's a great way to find Rippal fics that you might've never read before. There is absolutely nothing that could be bad about that.)

Dedicated to knightlineninja, in the hope that she might be semi-flattered, and spoil us all with the next part of 'Minutes and Seconds'. Yes, I have no shame.

Dirty Deeds

Chapter Four: Gippal's shortcomings

Anhour later, he finally worked up the courage to find her. It was then that he proceeded to panic. She wasn't in the mess hall, or in the kitchen. Or even with Dachi. (Though it had taken at least fifteen additional minutes to work up the courage to check.)

He had all but given up, relinquishing himself over to the fact that he had run her off, when, by some strange twist of fate, he happened to notice that the front door to the temple was no longer locked.

Reluctantly, he peeked his head out, eye widening in relief when he found her sitting on the stone walkway, propped on a rock, staring up at the stars.

His first instinct was to leave her there, and sort things out in the morning. But he quickly reminded himself that he might not ever have another opportunity like the one he was being presented with right now.

"Hey kid, you out here?" He called out softly as he pushed himself through the doorway.

She dropped her head down to look at him, a small smile gracing her lips. When she made no other move to acknowledge him, he took it as a sign to continue, "Mind if I join you?"

She scooted over a bit and gestured to the ground. He happily took the spot she offered.

They were silent for a moment before Rikku spoke up, her voice so low that Gippal was, at first, unsure she had really spoken at all, "What happened to us, Gippal?"

"The end of the world." He answered honestly.

She gave a slight smile and a nod to show that she agreed. "I didn't want things to change between us, you know."

"Yeah, I know. But it happens, people change. Not much you can do to prevent it."

She nodded again, "Tell me about it. Yunie, Paine, Tidus, they've all changed. I'm not even sure I know them anymore."

"Gotta grow up sometime, Kid. Yuna and Tidus have two years worth of lost time to make up for. And Paine.. Well, honestly, I don't know what to tell you about her."

She laughed, "Well, we had three years to catch up on, you know. And you don't see me staying at home doing nothing all the damn time."

He cocked an eyebrow at her, "Rikku, you couldn't sit still if your life depended on it."

She nodded, "Tell me about it."

"And it hasn't been three years since I saw you."

"Nope, but it might as well have been. This is the first decent conversation we've had since.." She let her voice trail off, a slight blush tinting her cheeks.

"I hardly call that conversation, Kid."

"Hmm. Maybe you're right. It was definitely decent though."

He sent her a sort of sideways glare before crossing his arms indignantly, "Decent, huh? Best I can remember, I had you begging, babe."

She tried to contain her laughter. Really she did. It just didn't work out the way she had hoped it might. "Honestly Gippal!" She took a moment to catch her breath, "Are you always this touchy when you think your manhood has been insulted?"

"Only when it's unjustifiable."

"You were sixteen, Gippal. I won't hold any of your.. shortcomings.. against you."

"Want a rematch?"

She merely stared at him as if he had grown another head.

"Because if I wasn't good enough the first time, I'm sure I could.." He cut himself off abruptly. This conversation was a loaded gun. Therefore, this was not a conversation he was having. That's all there was to it.

She shot him a questioning glance at his sudden silence, but said nothing. If he didn't want to finish his sentence that was his business.

After a moment, he continued, though on a completely different train of thought than before, "I think of all the people that we know, you've probably changed the most."

She lifted her gaze to his, "Think so? I sometimes wonder if I've changed at all."

Gippal laughed at the little huff she gave, "Trust me, kid. You've changed. Look at you, you're all grown up. Got your own business now, and two world-savings under your belt."

"I had help on both counts." She brushed a strand of blonde hair out of her eyes before continuing, "It's more Anikki and Dachi's business than it is mine. And beating Sin.. Well, that was definitely more Yunie and Tidus than me."

"It might be Anikki's business, but there wouldn't be anyone left to hunt the spheres if it wasn't for you." She nodded, and he continued, "Plus, you might forget, kid, I was on the Fahrenheit when Cid bombed Home. And I was in the farplane with you when the whole Vegnagun thing was going down. I've seen you fight. I know very well what you're capable of."

She grinned, "Careful, buster. Keep it up and I might think you're complimenting me."

He grinned as well, "Ah, I can see your point. Well then, I apologize, I meant to say 'your fighting style sucks'."

She punched his arm lightly, "Yeah, yeah, I think we both know you like my style."

He eyed her bright yellow pajamas for a moment before looking back up at her, eyebrow cocked, "That depends. Is this an example of what you call style?"

She stuck out her bottom lip, "Dachi likes my clothes."

Gippal frowned, "I'm sure he's more interested by what's under your clothes than the clothes themselves."

She hit him again, "And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"It's a pretty common sense thing, kid. Dachi is more interested in what you look like with your clothes off, than he is what they look like on you."

"So what, now a guy can only be interested in me because I'm hot?"

"I'm simply saying that it's a big factor."

"Seems to me like maybe you're being a little unfair."

"How do you figure that?"

"How do you know what Dachi's intentions are?" She moved away from the rock and laid back on the ground before continuing, "And how is it any of your business, anyway?"

Gippal winced, that one had stung, "I know what his intentions are because he's a guy. It's how we think, kid." He moved over to lay beside her, "And it's always been my business."

She remained silent for a moment, as if processing the information, "So, because we slept together once, it means I can't ever sleep with anyone else?"

He blinked, "I didn't say that." 'Yes I did! Yes I did!' His mind screamed.

He ignored it.

"Because if that's the case, it's sort of a double standard, don't you think?"

He didn't answer, because he had no answer to give. She was right, of course, it was a double standard. Why should he have been allowed to fuck around, and she hadn't?

At least, he hoped she hadn't.

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, "Are you sleeping with Dachi?"

For a moment, she looked shocked, as if it were the most absurd thing in the world. Then the question sunk in, and she gave a little smile, "If I am, would it matter?"

"I don't have a right to tell you who you can and can't have sex with." He replied honestly, though even she could tell his heart wasn't in it.

"No, you don't." She cast a glance over in his direction, surprised to find him looking back at her, "Maybe someday, I'll tell you."

A look of frustration passed over his features, and she couldn't help but laugh.

He just looked so damn cute when he pouted.

"I'm glad my discomfort amuses you."

"It does." She answered between giggles.

"Why won't you just tell me now?" He asked after her laughter had finally died down.

She looked over at him, eyes shining, "Honestly, Gippal, what makes you think I'm so easy to get into bed, anyway?"

"I'm not saying you're easy, kid. I'm just saying that you've still got a long way to go before you're grown up enough to understand men and their intentions."

"Dachi's intentions are good."

"Maybe they are, but I know if I was in his position, my intentions wouldn't be anywhere near pure."

Rikku's gave an exasperated sigh, "Gippal. You're a total whore. It's not exactly fair to compare your sex life and my sex life."

He winced again, "So you are sleeping with him."

"Where the hell do you get these ideas at?"

"If you didn't have a sex life, you wouldn't have referred to it as 'my sex life'."

"So you're just assuming that I have to be having sex to refer to a sex life?"

"I'm not assuming shit. I'm simply telling you that you wouldn't have referred to it as your sex life had you not had a sex life to refer to." He blinked. Did that sentence even make sense?

Apparently it did, because she slapped her own forehead before continuing, "Have you ever actually seen anything to indicate that I might be sleeping with anyone"

"Well, yeah. It didn't exactly seem like an asexual meeting that I walked in on earlier."

She dismissed his words with a wave of her hand, "Aside from that. Before today. Was there ever anything to say to you 'Damn, Rikku got herself some?' Or are you just assuming?"

"He had you pinned to the fucking wall, Rikku."

She covered her face with her hands. She knew he couldn't just let it go.

"I just wonder, you know, what would've happened if I hadn't walked in at that moment. If I had waited five more minutes, what would I have found instead?"

She laughed again, "I can assure you, Gippal, I'm a big girl. I could've handled whatever came my way." She laid a hand over onto his shoulder in reassurance.

"That's not the point!" He all but snarled at her. She drew her hand away as if it had been burned, a look of confusion spreading over her features. "The point is, I want to know, if I had walked in five minutes later, would I have walked in on him fucking you?"

She pushed herself off of the ground quickly and shot him a withering glare. "We've already established that what I do is none of your business. If I choose to fuck Dachi, there's not a damn thing you can do or say about it. I never once bitched at you over any of the girls that you rubbed in my face, I expect the same courtesy from you." She marched back toward the temple angrily, her head held high.

Gippal didn't even try to move from his spot on the ground.

'Well, Fuck.'

That hadn't gone exactly as he had planned.

It wasn't until she was halfway up the stairs that Rikku realized two things.

One, she was supposed to be convincing Gippal that he wanted to be with her, not scaring him off by making him think she was insane.

And two, that it had been almost stupid to let him think she had been sleeping with Dachi.

Of course, she hadn't actually given him a real answer. Which in the end had the potential to make things so much worse.

Because now he would be more likely to try to pry one out of Dachi. And that could never end well.

She was tempted to wake the darker skinned male and tell him of the new development, but quickly decided against it. There was far too great a chance that Gippal would be eavesdropping tonight. Especially if he saw her go into the room of the man he had just finished accusing her of having sex with.

In the middle of the night.

In her pajamas.

She shuddered a bit, nope, that definitely wouldn't be the best of plans.

Besides, she was fairly certain she had knocked the wind out of his sails when she had stormed off. There was a pretty good chance that he wouldn't just go in and wake Dachi up demanding answers.

In the morning, however, would be an entirely different story.

But she wasn't worried. Because he was right, dammit. She was Lady Rikku, Guardian of Lady Yuna, assistant saviour of the world. And she still had a bag of tricks up her sleeve that would make a digger blush.

She smiled, an evil, calculating smile.

She would make damn sure Gippal knew exactly what he was missing out on.