A/N: Thank you, amzing reviewers and readers, thank you for being amazing. I hope you excuse any and all grammar/spelling/typing mistakes. You can only get so good at reading your own work, you know? Anyway, onto

Chapter 4

"Rikku? Are you even listening to me? Rikku!"

My head jerked out of my hands at the sound of my name being shouted in what sounded like a pretty pissed off tone. I looked around to see who'd said it and found Brother glaring at me irately across the table.

"What?" I asked. "Sorry, I wasn't listening."

He made a sound half way between a sigh and a snort, threw up his hands, then continued with his story in rapid Al Bhed. My head dropped into my hands again, and I turned my attention inward once more, to my thoughts.

Gippal had kissed me. He had kissed me. He had kissed me.

To say I was surprised would be about the biggest understatement of the year. To say I didn't like it, well. . . . that would just be wrong.

I mean, come on, Gippal's a good kisser! He always has been, and if anything, his technique has only improved over the years. And I can't deny I hadn't been checking him out, or kind of hoping he'd show some sort of interest in me. . . So yes, caught up in the heat of the moment, I kissed him back.

As soon as we drew apart however, I demanded to know why he had done it. And you know what his answer was?

Well, for starters, he laughed. And then he shrugged, and said "Just because."

Just because. Just because! As if I had asked him why he bought green candles instead of blue ones, or why he chose beans over broccoli. Just because, as if he'd kissed me on a whim, just because I was there, just because he was bored, most likely having already finished with his conquest of the night.

Just because. Well, he can take his 'just because' and shove it up his--

"Rikku?" This time the voice was deeper, calmer. I looked up to find Buddy looking down at me, gentle concern on his face. "Are you done?"

"Wha- oh, yeah." I pushed away my uneaten breakfast and stood up, putting on my best chipper smile. "Come on, everyone, let's get to work!"

My squadron and the Machine Faction members trouped out of the mess hall, heading towards our building room. I followed behind, and that was when I saw him.

Striding past us, with that Fruna bimbo practically hanging off him, was Gippal.

He flashed me a playful smile. "Hey, Cid's Girl."

I stood staring at him for a moment. How could he treat me so casually, after what he had done? He was acting like it hadn't even happened!

Well two can play at that game.

"Hey, Gippal!" My smile was even brighter than in the mess hall. I felt like my cheeks were going to crack. I gave him a cheerful wave, then continued on with the rest of my group, resisting the urge to knee him in a very sensitive place as I walked past.

I entered our circular room to find most of my team already hard at work. The sight put a real smile on my face. I was so pleased with the way everyone was working. We'd have this machina built in no time.

"Rikku," Shinra tugged on my bright "Chocobo Cutie" t-shirt, startling me out of my thoughts. "Look at this."

"What is it?" I asked, taking the small piece of machina he held up to me. It was a mass of wires and screws and switches and metal. My kind of thing.

"It's an old central mechanism to a Muytehk Lnyha."

My face lit up. "Like we're trying to build? This is the thing that will make it go?"

"Yes, only that one is broken." Shinra took the machina back, caressing it lovingly. "We'll be building on own."

"You should get right on it then," I said with a smile, realizing that was what Shinra had been waiting for.

"Okay," he agreed casually, but I could hear the delight in his voice. "Look was it says on it." He held the machina up to me again and I could make out a faded word on the side.

Tilg. It meant 'duck' in Al Bhed.

"Tilg?" I said out loud. "Why does it say that?"

"Maybe it was the name of the old machina," Shinra suggested.

"Well in that case, we'd better name ours the same." Just like with boats, it was considered bad luck to rename machina that had already been christened. "The Tilg."

Shinra laughed a bit and ran off, happily dissecting the machina piece and muttering to himself about the things needed to build a new one.

We worked through the morning, every bit as hard as we'd worked the day before. It was lovely, both because we were getting things done and because I was able to forget about Gippal and his stupid male ego.

Ryhcis joined us for lunch, and I told him and the others about finding the name Tilg on the old control mechanism. He thought it was pretty amusing and agreed that we should keep it as the name for our Muytehk Lnyha. I asked him if he'd like to come see our progress, and he'd said he be delighted, and he'd try and come during his break.

That led to Buddy asking him what he did in the Faction-- turns out he's a member of the Hover Building and Repair Squad-- which was followed by a lengthy debate of Hovers versus Chocobos.

By the time dinner had rolled around, I had put the Gippal incident in the back of my mind and told it firmly to stay there. Ryhcis had managed to come by our cavern during his break, and ended up staying until the leader of his squad sent someone to look for him.

We may have been working our asses off, but the atmosphere in the room was still decidedly lighthearted and fun. There was a lot of talking and joking and laughter, and people started referring to us as the Tilgmehks, or the Ducklings. It was sort of like one big machina building party, which was the way I liked it.

Ryhcis, while he was there, only added to the merry environment we had conjured up. He was soft-spoken and fairly quiet, but he had a quirky sense of humor and a bright intelligence to match. We got on wonderfully together, my blazing cheerfulness balanced by his steady calm, and after he'd spent his break with us I felt almost as though he were one of the group.

At dinner, I was in such a good mood that I only cast Gippal one withering look behind his back, and didn't have any pictures of Fruna suffering an abrupt and violent death in my head at all. We Tilgmehks talked and laughed and joked, then retired to bed not long after, exhausted by the days work.

Ryhcis very nicely walked me to my room, then said goodnight and retired to his own. I lay on my bed, eyelids closing as sleep came quickly, thinking that I was probably better off without Gippal, and that, had it not been for him, I would have been really enjoying Djose.
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The rest of the week passed in a happy blur of frantic machina building as we struggled to complete a part before the weekend, which were days off for the Machine Faction, and half of the Tilgmehks would be leaving to visit their families. I wanted the part done so I could get it sent to Home over the weekend and they could put it to use on Monday.

I only saw Gippal at meal times, where I made of point of not looking at him if I could help it. Fruna was often at his side until Friday, when she was replaced by some other fake-ass looking chick. Not that it mattered to me. He could be with as many girls as he wanted. I didn't care.

Well, not much anyway.

I regarded our kiss as a mistake. A temporary lapse of judgment on both our sides. We put it behind us, acted like it didn't happen, and pretended that we'd forgotten all about it. At least, that's what I did. I made a point not be around Gippal long enough to find out how he felt about it.

Until Friday, when I didn't have a choice.

"Vnyoat fena!"

The shout came from my left, and immediately I ducked. A shower of sparks shot very close to where my head had just been and I heard Brother cursing loudly in Al Bhed.

"Shut it off!" I shrieked, also in Al Bhed. "Shut the power off!"

I heard Brother give another long litany of swear words, but the sparks didn't stop. By the sounds he was making, he couldn't get close enough to the power switch.

"The plug!" I shouted, keeping my head covered by my arms. "Go for the plug, on the wall!"

I heard other members of the squadron scrambling to do as I had instructed. There was a loud snapping sound and the sparks faltered, then died.

After a few moments, I straightened up, pushing sweaty strands of hair from my face.

"Cunno," Brother muttered.

I sighed, biting back the angry reprimand I had just been about to throw at him. After all, it wasn't his fault. We'd been having wire troubles all day. A lot of the machina pieces we were using were old pieces we were taking apart to rebuild, meaning their wiring in particular was in varying states of disrepair.

It was late in the afternoon and I was rushing to get one last piece finished before I called it a day. I knew many of the other groups in the temple had already wrapped up for the day, but if I didn't finish it today, we'd have to wait until Monday and it probably wouldn't reach Home until Wednesday. Also, I had always been a bit of a perfectionist when it came to machina.

Unfortunately, it wasn't going well. We just had one last thing to finish, but if it wasn't the wiring it was the power, or the controls, or the screws, or any number of things until I was frustrated almost to the point of tears.

When I yelled at one of my squadron members in a mixture of Al Bhed and Common, using the most uncomplimentary terms from both until I thought he might pass out, I realized that I should call it a night.

I began dismissing members until it was only me, Buddy, Brother, Shinra, and Ryhcis left. Ryhcis had shown up after his own group had been dismissed for the day, and refused to leave even when I told him he could. I accepted his help mainly because he was an ace at wiring, but also because he presence was oddly soothing.

No amount of presence could calm me down a few hours later, when yet another wire short-circuited, letting out a shower of sparks that grazed my arm, giving me an array of tiny burns.

"Dammit!" I screamed, wrenching my hand out of the machina, cutting the palm on the metal as I did so. Blood splattered onto the ground of the cave and I swore furiously again.

"Language, Cid's Girl." I heard a laughing voice from the doorway say.

"Gippal." I didn't turn around, not wanting him to see the tears of pain and frustration I was trying to blink from my eyes. "I really don't have time for you right now."

"I'm hurt," Gippal said with lazy sarcasm, and I could tell he had moved into the room. "But I actually have something to give you."

"What?" I whirled around, fixing him with a glare. I was feeling pretty stupid and discouraged at the moment, and not in the mood for any of his jokes.

He just smiled at me, and held out his hand. Laying on his palm was a collecting of long, shiny wires that looked utterly new.

"I thought you might need some," he said, still half-laughing. "Seeing as how you were working with mostly old machina."

I opened my mouth, but didn't have anything to say. I looked at the wires and felt all my frustration melt. I would be able to get finished tonight after all, and ship this part off to Home for them to use on Monday.

I looked up at Gippal, who was still smiling, and then, though I have no idea what possessed me to do so, I went "Oh, Gippal!" and flung my arms around his neck.

"Hey, easy," I heard him mumble in my ear. He sounded half-amused, half-surprised. "They're just wires."

"Right." I drew back, sufficiently embarrassed. "Well, let's get these installed then and we can call it a night. I'll can send it off to Home tomorrow."

Energy and spirits renewed, we, with Gippal's help, made quick work of fixing up the last of the wiring. I thanked everyone somewhat sheepishly, apologizing for keeping them so late. Buddy and Brother shrugged it off, both knowing me so well that it didn't bother them. Shinra said he would have done the same thing in my place, and Rhycis said not to worry, and that it was nothing. Gippal just smiled.

I told them to go to their rooms get a good night's sleep and that they deserved it, and then began to move around the room, cleaning up tools and discarded parts.

I picked up one scrap of metal, then dropped it with a low cry, the sharp edges poking the cut on my hand.

"What did you do?"

Gippal, it seemed, had not left, and hurried over to me upon hearing my cry of pain. He saw the blood that had dried, crusting my palm and some of my forearm and whistled. "Geez, Rikku, what did you do? I thought you'd have learned to be more careful by now."

"It's nothing." I tried to put my palm out of his sight but he grabbed on to my wrist, turning my hand this way and that to examine the cut. "And what do you mean 'by now'? I've always been careful."

Gippal let out a low chuckle. "Sure you have. Just like you've always been willing to give up on difficult machina. We grew up together, remember? I know you, Rikku." He released my wrist. "Make sure you wash that out well."

"Yeah," I said faintly. "Um, Gippal. . . Why. . . why did you bring me those wires?"

" 'Cause I knew you'd need them," Gippal said with a shrug.

"Oh." That made sense. "Well. . . . goodnight then."

"What, no kiss?"

I stopped dead, and looked up at him in surprise. He looked equally startled, as if he hadn't meant to say that. A faint blush crept into his cheeks.

"I'm just joking," he added hastily. "I mean, what happened the other night, it was--"

"A mistake." We both said at the same time. I smiled weakly and he let out a little laugh.

"Right," he agreed. "Because, after all, you're just Cid's little girl."

Just Cid's little girl. So that's what he thought of me. Just Cid's little girl. I'd been right then, the kiss just had been on a whim. I swallowed, trying to think up a response. I had been right, so why did I feel so awful?

"And you're just Gippal," I managed to croak out. I forced a smile onto my face. "SO annoying."

He laughed again, and bade me goodnight. I snuffed out the lights, then walked to my room and threw myself down on the bed without even getting undressed. His voice echoed in my head.

You're just Cid's little girl.

Those words hurt. They hurt a lot. I didn't know why, I hadn't been expecting him to like me. It's just. . . well I guess I'd kinda been hoping he would. But no longer. Those five words were enough to crush all of my hopes or expectations.

I'm better off without him, I told myself. He's not you're type. You'd fight all the time. He's too much of a flirt. You're too young for him.

Repeating those things over and over in my head, I rolled over and fell asleep.

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A/N: Reviewers and reviews are fabulous, and I love you/them all. Not to blatently hint or anything like that. :)