Tidus had proved his wedding tackle was equipped and fully functional and I was in Gippal's ship getting drunk.

Or trying to, at any rate.

I kept looking for the good stuff, the stuff Gippal pulls out when he's trying to get laid or score some serious points with the big boys, but all I kept finding were half discarded cans of Al Bez. It was annoying me greatly, because I knew—knew—that there was something of higher proof, all I had to do was find it. And you would think that would be easy on his ship of love and drugs and sex but apparently the Fuzzy Navel has more hidden compartments than I had originally anticipated, for the vodka was nowhere to be found.

I sighed, defeated, and slumped into the driver's seat to fume and listlessly sip the half finished can of Al Bez Gippal was busy nursing while we landed. I couldn't care less about his koodies at this point. I just wanted to get plastered. Or at least obtain enough of a buzz so I could go back there and face Yunie and her ever growing uterus of doom.

I heard the opening of the exit ramp and looked over my bare naked shoulder to see—the gods have no mercy—Gippal, of all people, entering the ship with a gargling Vinida in tow. He seemed more chipper than I had seen him in a long time, and if I hadn't been wallowing in self pity I may have commented on it or at least taken a mental note so as to collect one more piece of the puzzle that is Gippal. But as it were, I was not in the mood to play 'strip away the layers of the mysterious emo bishie' and all but grunted a response.

He brought The Pest with him. I do not like The Pest.

"Um, the pot luck thing is almost ready," he informed me, shifting the pudgy one from one jutting hip to the other. "And…and are you drinking my beer?"

"Beer? Gippal, this is piss water. In fact, I've tasted piss water better than this."

"When's the last time you drank piss-"

"Where's the good stuff?" I demanded, now stalking around the cabin. "Where's the vodka?"

"…It's a little early for the vodka, sweetheart," Gippal drawled, finding my current disposition amusing to say the least. "Why don't you go back to Yuna's and ask for some nice, wholesome, tonic water and we'll—"

"Vodka, Gippal," I ordered. "Now."

He looked at me for a minute, almost as if he were sizing me up for an attack (which is stupid, because we all know I can kick his butt any day) and then with a sigh, placed The Pest down on the metallic floor and swaggered over to the mini bar he had located in his…bedroom.

I should have known.

I poked my head in and saw him kneeling over some nondescript cabinet with an actual lock and key.

"Gippal, you keep your alcohol in a safe?"

The man in questioned released a quick hiss of breath. "No, of course not, Trampie. I just keep it locked up so annoying brats like you don't get their messy little paws all over it."

"…I only have paws when I use my Beserker Dress Sphere…" I argued weakly, watching Gippal procure a bottle of what I could only hope to be one hundred proof vodka. If they made such a thing. Which I'm pretty sure they don't. But they should.

"Besides," Gippal continued, approaching me with the highly anticipated beverage, "You would not believe Nooj's dirty little habit of drowning himself in booze after a losing battle."

"Nooj looses battles?" I questioned incredulously.

There was a half nod of affirmation, and then an odd jerk of head that seemed to say Gippal was remembering more than he wanted to.

"It doesn't matter," he finished, handing me the bottle whole. "Go to town, kiddo."

In light of the current proceedings, I couldn't find it in me to care what Gippal was apparently hiding, and greedily grabbed at the long necked container of inebriation. I tossed some down the hatch right away.

"Still suck at holding your alcohol, Cid's Girl?"

"I can hold my alcohol better than you can," I spat back, residue beverage flying across the space between us.

"If you say so."

"…What? You're not gonna prove me wrong?"

And now that I think about it, that was all I had really wanted since day one. To get drunk with Gippal so I could momentarily forget all my problems. That's why I went to his trailer that night. That's why I kept hanging around his side. I wanted the obliviousness that came with a night of consuming way too much booze and a companion that wouldn't try to make any moves on me if Yunalesca returned from the Farplane and demanded he touch me with a ten foot pole.

And right now I really just wanted to get on top of something and rant.

I have a penchant for doing that while intoxicated.

"No, you're on your own this time," Gippal said, going back over to The Pest and tickling him into and epileptic fit of giggles. "I'm on babysitting duty."

"Oh, so you were assigned to exterminate the rodent infestation?"

Gippal's face got strangely contorted at this, and he looked over at me like I had just profaned some great sacred ritual and wasn't deserving of the air I breathe.

"It's a kid, Rikku."

And I stood there, wobbling slightly, for I am liable to do that even while sober, balance never being a skill I could add to my lacking itinerary, and watched as Gippal returned to his previous nauseating baby talk as he prodded and poked at the rolls of fat Vidina had covering his body.

"I don't like kids."

"Yes, I believe you've made that fairly obvious."

I snorted at the general ickiness of the entire situation and opted to drape myself shotgun as Gippal resumed the pilot position, only this time with a toddler in his lap.

"Yuna's pregnant," I shot out, guzzling back more vodka. Gippal didn't seem alarmed by this in the least.

"So is that why you're all pissy?"

"She didn't ask me first," I continued blithely. "She didn't ask me for permission."

"I'm sure you were the last thing on her mind in the heat of the moment," my comrade dripped satirically, and I had more self respect than to ask him to elaborate on the last remark.

It was now that Vinida chose to pull at Gippal's eye patch.

"Oh, gods, Gippal! He's going for your eye!"

"…It's not like he's gonna find anything."

I found myself instinctively cowering away from the newborn, out of fear for my ocular vision that Gippal had no problems giving up, as was clearly evident by his lack of, well, eyeball.

"So how come you hate babies so much?"

"How come you lost your eye?"

We both snarled in unison, for neither of us was willing to divulge in information about the requested.

"I mean, this can't all be stemming from losing Yuna," Gippal pressed on. "Even you don't over react that much."

And I wanted to scream at him right then. I wanted to grab him by the collar of his shirt and holler into his ear until my cheeks were blue and my lungs caved in. I wanted to claw at his face—his perfectly immaculate, unblemished face—and make him bleed and make him writhe and make him feel—for maybe the first time in gods know how long—because how could he know what it's like to lose your family? How could he know the intimacy we formed on the Celsius? How could he even fathom looking out for anyone other than himself?

"You can't just keep throwing people away!" I exploded, and Gippal seemed somewhat taken aback by this comment.

"That was…unexpected."

"Woman are not disposable and friends are not forgettable!"

Gippal's nose scrunched up at this.

"Gods, Rikku, it's not like Yuna's dying."

"Well…well…well what do you know? Huh? I'm…I'm losing my home here, Gippal! I'm losing my family! I'm losing everything I had for a second time! I'm all alone now, don't you understand? I'm all alone and I have nowhere to go, no one to follow—not that I follow people normally but I certainly don't go at it alone—and maybe, if you pulled your head out of your ass long enough to notice what's going on around you, you'd see that there's meaning in relationships and not everything is measured by how big an orgasm you can get out of it!"

I'm pretty sure, had Vinida been at the talking age where babies repeat every word they hear, Lulu would have some very interesting words to say about her son's broadening vocabulary.

"And it's even worse with Home being destroyed and now this and—"

"And so boo hoo frickin hoo," Gippal cut in, fire in his eye and granite in his jaw. "You lost your precious little Gullwing concubine. Be grateful you had it to begin with, Rikku. I lost my original Home too, and ya know what I had to return to?" He paused, waiting for an answer but already knowing I wouldn't offer one. "Oh, that's right, nothing! You at least had an airship full of people just as half whacked as you who were willing to put up with you!"

"Nu…Nu…" I sputtered, reeling and whirling and flailing due to the verbal backlash of Gippal's previous tirade. I was trying to catch my footing but the alcohol was making it difficult. "Nu-uh!" I finally spat. "Nu-uh! You had the Crimson Squad! You had Nooj and Baralai and—"

--and I stopped. Not because Gippal interrupted me, because he didn't. But he looked as though he was thinking of disemboweling me, with his own two hands, right there in front of Vidina, and if I didn't know him better I would have readied my daggers and had them singing halfway through his gut by now. I'd be back flipping and stabbing and dodging, I'd be pilfering and evading and slicing, I'd be dancing and slashing and hacking, because I'd be fighting for my life if he were to act on all the rage that was currently pent up in his face. And even if I summoned my Machina Maw, it wouldn't be enough, because Gippal was killing me with his stare and his throbbing jugular was dancing at way too fast a pace to be considered normal.

"Don't," he hissed, leering dangerously close to my face. "Don't ever mention that name in front of me again."

And he didn't yell. Gippal doesn't really yell. He never has. I somehow doubt he ever will. When he gets mad, he just seethes and glares and occasionally hisses, which is how you know you've pushed him too far. I discovered this in middle school. I could only tease and taunt him for so long before he finally whirled around and cracked—gods, it was practically audible—and then I'd be left standing in the wake of an impending tsunami, something so powerful and so irate it could take you down without a second's notice.

Only I never got to crack at him. I could yell and I could whine and I could cry, but I couldn't strike fear into anybody's heart the way Gippal could. And I suppose that's why he was pretty much left alone by all the local bullies, all the kids who had balls too big for their boxers. They'd leave me alone, because it was no secret that when provoked, I could totally kick ass, and they left Brother alone for the most part, because he was Cid's kid after all, but every once in awhile, one of them would grow brave, and one of them would jump my sibling when he wasn't looking. And it was violent and it was gruesome and he suffered a lot at the hands of less dignified men. And that was a reality Gippal knew nothing about. It was a life he never had to live. People didn't hide behind trash cans and jump out and break his nose on his way home from school. They didn't torment him endlessly when the grown ups weren't watching. They didn't threaten him and provoke him and piss on him like the way they did to Brother. Because Gippal could hold his own, and Gippal knew how to work it to his advantage, and everyone admired if not revered him for it. And what did it all come down to? Who was really the better man? Because Brother lacked brains and charisma it's alright to designate him as the school punching bag?

…And how could Gippal not know this?

How could someone with so much influence and power not help those in need?

He just looked the other way. For nineteen years he had been looking the other way.

"Do you have any idea what they did to him?" I asked.

I didn't care how cryptic it sounded, seeing the anger and the flood of memories it thus provoked made me realize Gippal had nothing on me.

"I was the one who set his nose," I continued. "I set his nose and you let them break it."

Gippal's mouth opened and closed.

"Rikku…what the hell?"

The boiling heat that was coursing through Gippal's veins simmered down to a mere bubbling, and the rage that was etched so firmly into his features seeped away due to the sudden onslaught of confusion.

And somewhere in the midst of it all, The Pest decided now would be a good time to cry.

I officially hate babies.

"I guess now would be a fan-orgasmic-tastic time to head back for the lovely pot luck supper Yuna has planned," I said, sarcasm dripping off my very words. "Maybe I'll mount her table and tackle those annoying Bevellian issues I seem to have an infatuation with while plastered."

"No you won't," Gippal grumbled, rising from his seat and tossing Vidina over his shoulder in a lame attempt to stop the crying.

I glared.

"Ooooh, it annoys me how you always act like you're right all the time!"

"…But I am," he assured me, staring down at me countenance, which was insipidly draped across the seat. "I took a tip from the dead guy," Gippal continued, and it took me a minute to remember that Cyclops often referred to Auron by the vague and nondescript title of 'The Dead Guy.'

"You couldn't get drunk off that bottle if you nursed it like a newborn."

I blinked stupidly.

"I gave you distilled tonic water, Trampie."

I continued to blink stupidly.

"Only gods know why you didn't taste the difference. Maybe all that sand finally went to your head."

I voiced my discontent my throwing said bottle across the space of the cockpit and watching, quite satisfied, as it shattered on the nearby wall.

Vidina found this amusing and stopped crying long enough to giggle.

"Did you honestly think I'd want to deal with a hung over companion at a family pot luck?"

Since I did not attempt a coherent sentence, for fear all that would come out was a shrill, inaudible squeal, Gippal answered the question for me.

"No. No, I don't want to deal with your word vomit and your literal vomit and your emotional vomit. If you wanna get drunk wait do it on your own time. Just because you can't find happiness doesn't mean you have to go stealing Yuna's."

"I am not trying to steal Yuna's!"

That time I did squeal. And crack. Characteristically.

"Good," Gippal confirmed. "Then try acting mature for two hours so we can go eat dinner with the grown ups."

And with that, he left.

o-o-o-o

As it turns out, my ten minute walk quickly turned into a sixty minute endeavor, what with my chat with Tidus and my pit stop at the Fuzzy Navel and the consequential fuming spree I went on shortly there after.

I was livid. How dare he speak to me so condescendingly? How dare he presume to have the upper hand in family affairs when this was, indeed, not his family? How dare he think he's above me in maturity when he was the one who got his jollies out of rolling around with generic NPC's and guzzling beer for breakfast and rum for lunch and wine for dinner?

I reach for the vodka once and get pegged as the irresponsible one because of it.

At least I don't drink and drive.

If Yunie ever had the gall to do a room check on the Fuzzy Navel, like she was notorious for doing on the Celsius ('Rikku, what is this chewing tobacco I found under your mattress? Did you buy this in Luca?' 'No, I stole it in Luca.' 'Rikku! We do not chew tobacco! We are ladies!' Brother would then helpfully point out: 'I no lady; can I chew tobacco?' The answer was no.) If Yunie were to do a thorough once over, she would find Gippal's half discarded plethora of Al Bez bottles encircling the pilot's chair.

Okay, so maybe that was a slight exaggeration. There wasn't really, like, a pile of them or anything, because regardless of Gippal's fickle nature, he was surprisingly neat. But there was one bottle opened in the cup holder. And he shouldn't have been operating heavy machinery in lieu of it.

Distilled tonic water. Please. I didn't even know they made such a thing.

They probably don't. He probably just pulled that out of his ass, where he seems to keep a large assortment of things.

One can only be kept occupied pacing up and down the length of a beach for so long, and after about fifteen minutes of such I decided it was time to go back, swallow my pride (along with my bile) and join the others in this highly anticipated—as Gippal so astutely called it—'pot luck thingie.'

I don't think that man has ever eaten a decent three course meal for dinner. He probably lives off booze and onion rings. And the occasional take out. (I wonder what comes first, the pizza or his partner?)

Eventually I staggered back to the village, my adrenaline wearing off from the previous confrontation. The sun had long ago sunk beneath the waves, and I was at the mercy of the stars and full moon for guidance. It didn't matter; I still tripped, even if I was sober. I probably would have tripped in broad day light. I'm agile in stealing, just not in walking. It's comparable to how Paine can break through any fiend's skull in one hit yet ceases to be able to open her own soup cans.

"Rikku. Open this for me. Now."

"…What? You can't open a soup can?"

"Would I be asking if I could?"

Dammit. I was even beginning to miss her. And even if she was ridiculously emo, she was surprisingly nice. Blunt. Monotone. Rough. Caustic. But nice.

I think her and Auron would have gotten along.

Or, The Dead Guy, as Gippal has so affectionately dubbed him.

'What? You expect me to keep all your friends straight? I wasn't there, Rikku. From what I hear, there was a dumb ass hottie, a moping dead man, an anal religious fanatic, a dominatrix in denial, a barely articulate ronso, and your cousin summoner. The hell do I need names for?'

The hell did we need him for?

As I ventured forth into the proximity of Yunie's hut, close enough in radius for the interior light to splash down onto the dew shone grass, I heard a slight crackle from behind me. Alarmed, and only slightly over anxious, I spun around and unsheathed my daggers, only to be greeted with the quite bemused face of said cousin summoner, cradling her abdomen as if its contents were actually desirable.

Had she been doing that all along and I had just been too dense to notice?

"Yunie." I intelligently remarked. I should have added 'the sky is blue and the grass is green' to my list of notable exclamations.

"Rikku," she returned, equally as astute.

I think we should run for clergy.

"…What are you doing out here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" she asked, like it was perfectly normal for her to be scowering the deserted beaches alone with a baby inside and no weapons at hand. "Looking for you!"

I stood, dumbfounded. "Well, here I am."

"Yes, Rikku, I can see that." She giggled. "But where did you go?"

"The beach," I answered simply.

"That's…a very broad location here in Besaid."

"…I had to go back to the ship to get something," I lied. Well, not really. I went there to get vodka. It's not my fault I couldn't find it.

"Did you happen to run into Tidus while you were out?"

She chose now to sit on a conveniently placed tree branch, just broad enough in size to support her now widening frame. Funny how I notice all these things after the sun goes down.

"More like tripped over him," I supplied. And that could have been taken literally, especially if you knew Tidus as well as we did. We never made for a very dexterity ridden group. Lulu's belts kept her movements to a minimum, Wakka was just too damn lazy to dodge anything, preferring instead to take frontal assaults head on, which worked, considering his thick skull and all, Kimahri practically shook the ground when he made an attempt to avoid anything smaller than a Tiamat, Auron skillfully reflected all opposing characters, Tidus fell flat on his face, and Yunie just casted Protect on herself. I hid behind the scenes and stole things.

In light of my current—previous—group, we weren't much better, except Paine was pretty good at avoiding bullets. Don't really have to think hard as to why.

"He blurted out your big surprise," I came forth with, figuring it was best to settle these matters quickly rather than dance around the subject at hand. I preformed that feat enough with my father. We were capable of doing the most intricate of verbal waltzes around any controversial topic, and it could last for weeks at a time. We'd take breaks to eat dinner and go to the bathroom.

Yuna smiled. "I figured as much. He was never any good at keeping secrets, now was he?"

"…He did a pretty good job of negating to tell us his father was Sin," I replied emphatically. "But other than that, he was the official audio commentary."

"He still is."

"Yeah, but now he can't blame his blatant stupidity on Sin's toxin."

"He tried to get away with the excuse of prego-brain," Yuna recalled with a nauseating fondness that made me inexplicably want to gag on a part of myself.

"He's not even the one who's pregnant!"

"And you think that stops him?"

I paused.

"No."

You would think being, like, dead or something for two years would have changed him, but apparently not. Yuna matured so much and Tidus was just as stupid as when we left him.

Can't say I envy her. The guy may be good looking, and have a body to die for, but his head was all hallow and his brain matter was grey.

"Rikku…" Yuna began. "Are you alright?"

"You're pregnant," I shot out. Then stopped. Silence followed.

"Yes. I am aware of that."

"Yeah, well…you're pregnant."

I saw no need for further explanations.

Apparently Yuna can read me like a book, and I guess it's not all that hard, unless you're stupid or something like Shinra (the kid could build a power converter out of mirrors and a handful of paper dixie cups but I think he forgot he was the only one who bothered wearing a mask, because he absolutely sucked at reading facial emotions. If you did not audibly say, 'I am mad right now, Shinra. I want to punch you in the face. Twice.' He would have absolutely no idea you were contemplating homicide.)

"And this bothers you?"

"Of course it bothers me!" I replied. "I don't want babysitting duty on the Gullwings!" After seeing Yuna's facial expression change to something that resembled confusion, I quickly continued, "After we get resituated and all, you can't let Paine look after the kid, because, well, she'll emotionally scar him for life, and you certainly can't let Brother do the job, otherwise he'll turn up dead. And maybe Buddy would be a decent babysitter, if he wasn't constantly watching after Shinra to make sure he didn't electrocute himself or fall out of the emergency exit hatch."

"…Shinra's too big to fall out of the emergency exit hatch," Yuna noted dimly. For some reason, that was the comment that resonated with her. Not, say, the one where I pointed out THE GULLWINGS GET RESITUATED. I should have hired a singing quartet to give her a musical telegram, maybe then my innuendo would have gotten through.

Maybe it did get through. And she was just choosing to ignore it.

"Yunie, we did not discuss this," I whined, like I was asking for a lolly pop or dessert before dinner (which Pops would have predictably said, 'go right ahead; but if you give yourself a stomach ache, don't come whining to me! And puke in the bathroom, dammit, cuz I sure as hell ain't cleaning it up.') It was somewhat similar to what Gippal would say, which is why I guess I never much minded the way he talked to me.

(Then again, he seemed ridiculously fond of The Pest for reasons unknown to mankind, so maybe he would make for a more gentile father figure, if he ever settled down long enough to impregnate some unlucky female with his deformed sperm and her reluctant egg.)

"I was unaware we were supposed to discuss…such matters."

"Yunie, we're the Gullwings! We discuss everything! That's what you said when we formed the team!"

"…But I was referring to accepting treasure hunts and looking for spheres!"

"Yeah, well, same thing!"

"Nu-uh!"

And I had to smirk, because she picked that phrase up from me.

(Along with, like, a bunch of other less admirable habits, such as burping after dinner and gargling her hi-potions.)

What? It works better if you gargle it!

"Rikku, what's really bothering you?"

I made some strange sound of defeat and plopped down on the grass, not really caring that the dew was seeping through my shorts and making my butt all damp and chilly. I'm sure Gippal would have had a field day mocking me when I returned to the hut for dinner, but right then I was more preoccupied with feeling sorry for myself as opposed to looking ahead and anticipating potentially embarrassing incidents before they happened.

"Yunie, are the Gullwings ever going to get back together?"

There was a brief interlude of reprieve between us as Yuna sat and contemplated the matter.

"Well, I suppose after the hiatus—"

"Yeah, but what are you gonna do about the kid?"

My cousin blinked. "It's not excess cargo, silly."

Yes it is. But I kept such musings to myself.

"Can't you just leave it with Tidus?" I begged, and maybe I would have gotten down on my knees for dramatic effect if I were not already situated on my butt.

"…No." Yuna answered simply.

"Well, alright, I guess you can bring Tidus with you," I grumbled. "But I don't want him getting in the way of our sleepovers!"

"Rikku…"

"Or our all nighters! We always pulled all nighters on a Friday! Even Paine agreed to it."

"I think maybe it's time…"

"And, like, every Thursday night he has to let you sing and dance for us, no matter how horny he is. And on Wednesdays we go out and play cards. And Mondays are ice cream days and Tuesdays—"

"…That perhaps we grew up?"

And the air caught in my throat and the words lodged in my mouth. I was rendered incapable of forming a sentence and opted to sit there and stare at her blankly.

"No." I answered. "No, no thank you."

"…Rikku, I don't think Paine is coming back," Yuna said, two decibels above an inaudible whisper.

"She's replaceable," I blabbered stupidly. Not really, but I'm sure we could find some other sultry, mysterious character to serve in her stead. We already did it once when Lulu went out and got impregnated on us.

"And we still have a ship and stuff," I continued.

"Then why aren't you using it now?"

She said the latter so gently and gossamer that it could hardly be considered confrontational, but it was all the same.

"Ooh!" I heaved. "That's because I got stuck rebuilding Home!"

"See?" Yuna prodded. "Life is pulling us in different directions."

"No…no it's not!"

I could never tell if my stubborn streak was something I inherited from my father or something that was the by product of hanging around Brother for so long. Either way, it was an aspect of my personality that wasn't going anywhere, and I saw no reason to confront the character flaw now.

"Rikku," Yuna began, voicing dipping to that of a whisper. "Have you ever been in love?"

"What?" I snapped. "No! Ewie!"

"Then I guess this will be hard to understand, but I love my child, Rikku, even if it's not born yet. And I can't keep throwing myself in danger every time something life threatening shows up because…because it's not just me anymore, ya know? Now I have a family to think of, and they need me."

"Well…we need you too! And aren't we family?"

"Yes…" Yuna stated cautiously, then quickly added, "Well…no…"

"Whaddya mean no?"

"I mean…Rikku…Tidus and Lenne come first…"

"Lenne?" I screeched. "You're naming the thing Lenne? No! N-O. I forbid you to name it after the lover of the maniac who nearly destroyed all of Spira! Why don't you pop out a boy next time so you can name it Seymour? That'll really be a riot and a half!"

"…Well, we are anticipating siblings," Yuna remarked in all seriousness.

"Yunie!" I whined. "What's gotten into you? You weren't supposed to go off and make babies yet! This wasn't in the plan!"

"I wasn't aware we had one, Rikku."

"Well…well we did! And in that plan we were supposed to stay Gullwings forever and ever! I mean, I understand if you need to take a hiatus every two years or something, but you can't just abandon us like this! That's just…that's just not fair! You're being selfish! Stop thinking of yourself, Yunie!"

Never mind that was probably the most hypocritical thing to ever fly out of my mouth, next only to, 'Oh, that's Gippal, he's the leader of the Machine Faction. He's annoying, but he can be alright,' which is what I said when Yuna first set eyes on the bleach head at Djose Temple. I was upset and wasn't thinking straight. Now, I mean. Not then. But apparently I was suffering from some severe mental aberration then, too. For the only time Gippal was ever 'alright' was when he was passed out on his couch, because then he was silent. Otherwise, he was irritating as hell. 'Oh, that's distilled tonic water, by the way. I'm not actually man enough to have vodka on my ship.'

And in response to my last remark, Yuna fell victim to the onslaught of pre-pregnant hormones, and actually began to sniffle. At this, I felt horrible. More horrible then I had ever felt in my entire life. Gippal was right, I was stealing her happiness, wasn't I? But I didn't mean to! It just…happened.

"Yunie! You're not allowed to cry either!" I said, as I crawled over to her side, immediately overtaken by remorse and guilt, and wrapped my arms around her in a feeble attempt to stop the snivels.

It was to no avail, because they came anyway, and I could do nothing but hold her as she cried quietly into my shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she choked out, like she actually owed me something, like I was actually right and she was actually wrong, like she actually didn't have the right to start a family and I actually had the right to tell her not to.

"Don't be sorry. I'm sorry. I'm stupid, Yuna. I'm stupid and I love you, okay? And I'm not ready to let you go just yet."

But it wasn't just her. I mean, she was a large majority of it, but I didn't want to lose the atmosphere on the Celsius in general, I didn't want to lose my lifestyle, I didn't want to lose the comfort of our make shift family, since most of our parents were dead and our friends were all eaten by Sin or making babies or attending to less admirable duties than sphere hunting and world saving. (Leading the Ronso race comes to mind.)

Yuna wiped her eyes and tried to regain her composure, and I assured her that Lenne would probably be a great addition to the Gullwings once she was born, and we could get her her own baby dress spheres and all. (Though I made sure to point out Tidus would have to fend for himself when it came to wardrobe preferences, because I was not busting my rear to get a fourth set of clothes for every sphere we found when he didn't exactly wear a shirt to begin with. And I really shouldn't be talking, but whatever. I dehydrate easily.)

"I know," she assured me, gently rubbing the tip of her nose on the back of her hand. "I know, Rikku, I know."

I helped her up and brushed away the remainder of her tears with my left arm warmer. At this point, I was ready to offer it to her as a tissue if need be. But thankfully, her snot didn't run with the same fervor that Brother's did.

"You can have your baby," I stated gently. "We'll work around it."

No, we won't. And I knew that, too. But I had just made her cry, for gods' sake, and what soulless girl makes pregnant women cry?

Yuna clung to my arm as we walked hand in hand back to her house. And that was so like her, now wasn't it? Loyal even if beaten within an inch of her life and naming her off spring after malevolent forces that threatened to destroy Spira.

"My pot lucks are pretty good," she confided in me, the color in her face slowly returning in the light of the hut. "I made extra for tonight. There's plenty to go around."

"I'm sure there is. Say, you got any tomato juice?"

"No, why?"

"No reason, just wondering."

o-o-o-o

And I'd like to say Gippal made a fool of himself and everyone hated him and they all continued to look at me with pitiful expressions adorning their faces as they sat in wonder and awe of his blatant stupidity. 'Aw, Rikku, you poor thing,' they'd say. 'How do you put up with him? You must be so brave, I wish I was more like you.'

I'd like to say he told inappropriate jokes and got on everyone's nerves, that he belched at all the wrong times and said all the wrong things.

But as it turns out, everyone loved him. Everyone except Tidus and me. Which only further proves my suspicion that we were secretly twins separated at birth and ostensibly a very large amount of time (which technically wouldn't make us twins, now would it?)

We were the only two who could see through the charade and knew that deep down Gippal was secretly the no good son of the devil, the spawn of darkness itself, evil incarnate. We made intimidating hand gestures at him to get our point across. Really? No. Tidus just sat and glared every time Gippal was able to elicit a giggle from his newlywed with one of his primitive attempts at a joke and I attacked my food with all the vigor of a pent up serial killer.

Lulu kept commenting about how good he was with children, Vidina hadn't left his lap all night, and even my cousin couldn't help but be amused by his less than stellar nature. I suppose she's not to blame, though, because she was pregnant and therefore apt to do highly illogical things.

Wakka was about two steps away from getting out a loose leaf notebook and taking notes on how to be a better father, because Gippal is, of course, as we all know, the guru on such things. I had to repress the urge to foretell everyone I had caught him red handed with every Al Bhed on the island, even the male ones, but that would have been lying because I had only caught him with the female ones, and only half of them at that.

I went to pour myself another glass of water from the sink (no alcohol, I had already checked) and was surprised to hear Gippal come up behind me.

"You look perfectly pissed."

I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn't see.

"They all like you," I grumbled, waiting for the cup to fill to the rim. "And I don't."

Gippal seemed to take this into consideration for a moment, and then whacked me on the shoulder with the side of his hand. "Hurry up, I'm thirsty."

"She's naming it Lenne, did you hear?" I hissed, like we were coworkers gossiping around the office water cooler. "Lenne! After Shuyin's dead girlfriend! The kid is going to need therapy when she finds out her namesake ten years from now!"

"Well, you got any better ideas?" Gippal drawled. "I'm sure they're open to suggestions."

"…And she wants to have more!" I continued, the corresponding horror evident in my voice. "They'll be, like, a herd! Or a pack! Of fiends!"

"Pity your mother didn't share your astounding foresight."

Oh, I had a ready remark for that one, but Tidus beat me to it.

"Hey, Nipples, mind if I barge in?"

Sometimes I wish Tidus was Al Bhed. And that he was born sometime within my generation. That way we could have been best friends growing up.

Gippal slowly turned around to shoot a look of ocular arsenic over his shoulder, to which Tidus responded with a toothy grin.

"This is my sink," Tidus pointed out, literally, jabbing a finger in the direction of the faucet.

"I'm in line," Gippal returned, reverting to his previous activity of mindlessly pushing his hand against my shoulder.

"And stop touching her," Tidus ordered. "She's not your sister."

Gippal paused.

"She's not yours, either."

"Well, yeah, but we saved the world together and stuff." Tidus leaned in for the kill. "That makes us intimate."

And he probably shouldn't have said that, because the word 'intimate' for Gippal takes on a whole different meaning, but none the less Tidus delivered the conceit right there into Cyclops' lap, and I had to stand, breath bated, praying to whatever deity resided in the heavens that no one would resort to first degree murder on my account.

"I saved the world with Brother, too," I chimed in, stepping between the two. "So, it's kind of like a rite of passage, ya know? All siblings save the world together!"

"…All family saves the world together," Tidus added. "Yuna's your cousin, too."

And he made a good point, what with the first time around being practically a family affair for him an all. And now that he had surfed the waves of time and created a new family for himself, he did not want to let Gippal in on the accomplishment.

'This is my home. Stop stealing my family and stop stealing my lime light.'

And I knew better than anyone else in that hut just how protective one can get when defending their rights to their loved ones.

Well, it's nice to know Gippal didn't receive the seal of approval from everybody.

But that must have been a new feat for him, because I couldn't remember the last time someone didn't fall in love with Gippal on the spot, besides my Pops and Brother and Buddy. And they all lived with me, so they didn't count.

Gippal seemed to waver uncertainly, not used to his charm not working and consequently getting him whatever he wanted. He was unsure of how to respond to such, and it was clearly evident through his body language and facial expressions.

He couldn't even resort to the old excuse, 'it's because I'm Al Bhed, isn't it?' because I was Al Bhed, too, and Tidus liked me just fine.

"He's kind of annoying," Gippal threw out. "Why'd you bring him back?"

"We didn't," I answered, in all honesty. "He just kind of…popped out of the water."

Gippal's eye twitched at the mentioning of water, and Tidus was actually perceptive enough to pick up on it.

"That's right," Tidus boasted, hands on hips. "I can swim."

Okay. Now this was entering the realm of pathetic.

"That's enough, boys." And I hated to break it up, but I had to for fear they really would go at it for my sake (or Yuna's, as it were. I was probably just a pawn for dominance. That's usually how it goes.)

Lulu seemed to smell the tension, what with her ultra keen Lulu senses, and said from the table, completely calm and at peace as usual, "Say Rikku, why did you choose to leave three months early for the Ribbons Ceremony?"

I paused. I did?

Come to think of it, I couldn't even remember what the invitation said. Or what happened to it, for that matter. It was probably buried under a pile of machina in the endless black abyss that is my room, never to be seen or heard from again. I was never very good at keeping track of things, which I guess is fairly evident, because you would think that with all the hoop-la involved around receiving that invitation I would have at least had the sense to hang onto it. But now that I was faced with the matter head on, I didn't even know why I was in such a rush to get to Bevelle to begin with.

"Um, we wanted to RSVP in person?" I suggested.

Lulu arched a superior eyebrow, and I wished I was able to pull that off but every time I tried Brother just asked me if my contact lens had fallen out.

Seeing she was somehow not convinced, I added hopefully, "Pit stops? Lots of them?"

"We came to visit Yuna and then we're going home," Gippal explained, too much authority in his voice for my liking.

"What?"

"I'm the pilot," he offered in the stead of a decent explanation that actually made sense. "And I say after this we're heading home."

"Gippal," I hissed, getting as close to him as my gag reflex would allow. "There is no Home to return to."

"The Remnants Of Home," he corrected. "There, is that better?"

"That was a terribly original nick name. Come up with that one our your own, then?"

And I kinda wanted to hug Tidus for delivering that last remark, because, hell, it was pretty funny, but at the same time I wanted to turn around and punch him because he had no idea what we were talking about.

"Tidus, hush!" I said, finger to lips. I admit that was pretty juvenile, but I was in the midst of trying to figure out some way to convince Gippal to stay away from 'The Remnants Of Home' for as long as possible. Witty comebacks were the last thing on my mind.

I looked over the table and, for some strange reason, saw that Yunie's eyes had grown to the width of economy sized marshmallows and her face had a pallor that would rival the snow found at the peak of Mt. Gagazet.

I squinted in response. Her expression looked comical, but I couldn't fathom why me returning to 'The Remnants Of Home' was of such great dismay to her.

"Gippal!" I whined, after some conveniently placed awkward silence. "Why do we have to hurry Home? What's there at Home that's so important, anyways?"

"Ah, it's not Home," Tidus pointed out. "It's: The Remnants Of Home."

"That's getting old now," Gippal grumbled, and it looked as though he was fresh out of comebacks too.

I can't imagine the embarrassment that follows from losing to Tidus in a battle of wits.

I imagine it was a lot like the embarrassment that Auron felt when he realized Nooj had decided to steal his shtick as the cranky old guy—and even had the gall to pilfer his color, too! Gee, Nooj, at least get your own shade. Red was Auron's. I'm pretty sure even Vidina knows that.

'Yes, but I never got the pleasure of having a mechanical leg.'

I swear, sometimes it's like the man never died. One of these days I'm going to have to take a trip to the Farplane just to duke it out with everyone's favorite scar eyed hero. Tell him to stay where he belongs and get out of my head and stop interrupting my internal monologues. The audience doesn't find him half as funny as they find me.

"Well, at least stay the night," Yuna proposed, fiddling something fierce with the hem of her skirt. "We do have a guest room, after all."

"But it only has one bed, ya?" Wakka could be heard muttering to his wife. She elbowed him in the chest. They really did operate like an old married couple.

"Trampie can just sleep on the floor," Gippal dismissed, flicking my nose for emphasis.

As I rubbed my violated facial feature, and cursed vehemently in Al Bhed, I have to admit I was pretty much done with the insult and moving on by the time Tidus came to my rescue.

I guess he wasn't used to the way I let Gippal talk to me.

"What did you just call her?"

Gippal paused, mid stride, stuck somewhere between me and the sink.

He probably thought he was being benevolent, his remark nothing more than a surrender to letting me stay. And I somewhat appreciated it on a very basic level, because I know Gippal couldn't pull generosity out of his butt if he tried. And the wayward insult was just the silent agreement his balls were too big to allow him to say.

"I call him Cyclops," I offered, as if the nick name Cyclops was just as offending as being referred to as a tramp.

"…Bambie," Gippal articulated. "I said Bambie."

"Did not—"

"I heard Bambie!" Wakka volunteered, anxious to avoid confrontation, and probably also anxious to avoid picking sides. (And as we all know, he probably wouldn't side with me anyway.)

"Rikku, what did you hear?" Lulu questioned, the voice of reason amidst all of our hyperactive ones.

And it occurred to me, with startling clarity, that Lulu was letting me decide how this situation played out. I was the one violated, after all, and she must figure it only fair I have a say in how said violation was handled.

"…I heard Bambie," I agreed weakly, not wanting to have to pitch my arch rival against my second cousin.

I wonder who would win?

"You don't have to let him speak to you like that, Rikku," Tidus whispered harshly, stepping over to me and invading my personal space.

"Tidus," Lulu cut in. "Rikku heard Bambie. And that's all that matters. Now let it go." As if to prove her point, she abruptly brought up the shade of leaf green they were choosing to paint Vidina's nursery.

Yuna, at a loss, torn between her mentor and husband, followed suit and started discussing with great vigor the benefits of painting the room a soothing tint as opposed to a more bright, obnoxious one, like say canary yellow.

I stood there awkwardly and pulled at my hair.

"That was him trying to be nice," I explained quietly.

"Well if that was him being nice, I'd hate to see how he treats you when he's being mean."

I didn't bother to tell him it was much, much worse.

I learned that in Secondary School. So did Brother.

Gippal's night, not to mention charisma, now ruined, he opted to retire for the evening, saying the pot luck supper was incredible and how he wished the water was this clean in Home.

…Leave it to Gippal to compliment someone's tap water. And make it sound convincing, at that.

He turned to head down a short hall that dwindled into the shadows at the far side of the hut when Tidus hastily shot his arm out and grabbed Gippal by one of his monstrous, boney shoulders.

"You're sleeping outside," he hissed.

Even Gippal knew better than to argue.

(Tidus was strong enough to save the world, after all.)

And this was his home turf. Men get strangely territorial when they are not the guest. If we were in the Bikanel Desert, I wonder if Gippal would have surrendered as easily as he did.

Then again, perhaps he finally felt a small morsel of guilt over calling me a tramp all these years.

…No. He probably just didn't want to piss Tidus off. After all, as Tidus himself had wasted no time in pointing out, he can swim.

"Fine."

He then did an abrupt turn around and slithered out into the night. Probably to find solace on the Fuzzy Navel, only I doubt he'd be resorting to the locked up tonic water he had tricked me into drinking.

"Now go make Yunie laugh, you were always good at that," Tidus directed, pushing me gently towards the table. I was torn—for some odd, inexplicable reason that I don't think I'm capable of explaining even now—between enjoying the rest of the meal with four of the bestest friends I had ever known, or running out into the night after my comrade to see how he was fairing after being owned for the first time in his life.

There was a lot of unspoken emotion behind Tidus' eyes, and I'm pretty sure I picked up on most of it even without him saying. For a moment it looked like he was pitying me, thinking 'here is a girl strong enough to kick sin's ass yet ceases to be able to stand up for herself in light of masculine mockery'—well, he wouldn't say that because Tidus doesn't use words like 'cease' and 'mockery' (he does use words like 'ass' though)—and I found myself quite disturbed to be looked at like that from someone I fought beside for so long.

Was Yunie right? Were we really all changing?

I shifted uncomfortably, and resumed my seat next to my cousin with more confidence than before.

Tidus was right about one thing.

It is easier to laugh when Gippal isn't around.

o-o-o-o

It was night time, and crickets were chirping outside of the hut. There are no window panes in Besaid (unlike Home, where we negated to use locks but always installed glass windows, otherwise the sand would be the death of us all) and there are no doors, either. I was at the mercy of the cacophony going on outside my bedroom, and found I had a hard time sleeping in light of it.

Then again, maybe that was compliments of Gippal more than the crickets.

And, gods, I was thinking about him again, wasn't I?

Not long ago, after everyone had left and I went to find solace in the shower while Tidus and Yunie cleaned up (I offered to help, of course, but the look in Yunie's eyes was telling me they definitely needed some 'alone time', and not for sexual reasons, either) so I walked off to the bathroom, eager to avoid being a pawn in yet another argument.

Even though I turned the water on and closed the door (which really wasn't a door, but more like a dense flap of cloth made to keep cold air and curious eyes out) I was able to hear Yuna berating her husband for treating their 'honored guest' like so.

"Gods Yuna, he called your cousin a tramp! And you were just going to sit back and take that?"

"…N-no! But Rikku has been dealing with Gippal for years and I don't think we should be making things more awkward for them by—"

"Them? Yuna, there is no them. There is her. And there is him."

There is no them.

"But maybe he can…can change, ya know?"

"No Yuna, I don't. Not everyone repents, not everyone is filled with as much remorse and guilt as you!"

Silence.

"I didn't mean it like that."

More silence.

"…I know."

I wanted to turn the shower off in honor of this dramatic moment, but figured that would only be slightly suspicious because nobody is capable of taking showers is under thirty seconds.

"I just want Rikku to have a happy ending, is all."

"Well it won't be with him, I can tell you that much." Tidus sighed. "And you need to stop playing match maker. You're a summoner—a damn good one at that—but you're not a marriage counselor."

There was a long exhalation of breath.

"What good am I if I can save the world but can't help my friends?"

And I imagine Tidus got that sickenly sweet look in his eye, the one he had fallen culprit to so many times on our first pilgrimage, and I heard the rustle of fabric and knew that the two were probably partaking in a long, emotional embrace of some sort and I probably should have stopped eavesdropping but I didn't.

"I was waiting to see how she reacted," Yuna confided. "If she took offense, then of course I would have—"

"I know."

There was some more fabric rustling, and I was pretty sure all the warm water had already run out of the shower and I wasn't even undressed yet.

"It's just not like Rikku to…accept stuff like that. I mean, when did she start letting people walk all over her?"

"Not people," Yuna corrected. "Person."

"Yeah, well, same difference."

Typical Tidus logic.

"Maybe they both just need to grow up a little?"

My eye twitched. If Brother had been present, he would have inquired as to the where abouts of my contact lens.

"Nice try, Yuna," Tidus chuckled. "I don't think that one eyed guy is capable of growing up."

"Actually, I was referring to—"

And I heard footsteps. And I panicked. And I threw myself into the shower. With my clothes on. Because I am a genius.

Turns out, all it was was Tidus walking by to get some paper towels or napkins or what have you from the closet in the shallow hall, and he would have to be blind stumbling drunk to come into the bathroom with the water running anyway. But I didn't possess that much foresight at the time and opted instead to freak out in fear of being caught listening when I shouldn't have been.

So now I was in a freezing cold shower. With my clothes on.

Gods, could this day get any worse?

o-o-o-o

Yes, Rikku, it can.

It can always get worse.

And it usually does right after you say it can't, too.

I had wrapped a towel around me in the aftermath and went on the hunt for Yuna's long forgotten dress spheres. There were more on the Fuzzy Navel but I had to get there first, and going nude wasn't exactly an option.

Well, I mean, it was an option, but not an option I planned on pursuing.

I found her white mage sphere in the closet of odds and ends (for as wonderful and amazing as Yuna is, she is not exactly the neatest person by any means. All cleaning duties fell upon Buddy and Paine while we ventured around on the Celsius. Yunie and I just tended to make a mess. Shinra helped.)

And I'm sure Tidus is none the positive influence, either.

He practically owned a patent on the term 'dry shower' and wasn't shy of utilizing said patent every day during our journeys. I mean, we all did it, but Tidus was the only one to constantly remark on it. 'Gee guys, it's been, like, five days since I've taken an actual shower. I never thought I'd be able to say that. Thanks for the deodorant, Auron. It really helped.' He would usually respond in a gruff monotone, 'No it didn't.'

At any rate, I brought the sphere back to the bathroom and slipped into one of Yuna's white mage robes (I figured they'd be the most comfortable to sleep in, if by chance I somehow regained access to my logic and negated to go check up on Gippal in the middle of the night) and pattered into the guest room, careful not to draw any attention to myself, for Yuna and Tidus were now doing the obligatory make up kiss that always follows the argument. Well, their arguments, anyway.

Personally, I'd vote for hot kinky make up sex. But that's just me.

And so there I was, sprawled out on the guest bed, donning Yuna's white mage garb, and listening to those damn crickets that didn't stop chirping long enough to breathe.

I was able to take this for about three more minutes before I bolted out of bed, made for the window, tore open the flap, and hurtled myself out the side of the hut. Sleeping wasn't an option, and I was worrying about Gippal's welfare, only because I feared the alcohol consumption he no doubt ingested would threaten his mental stability, if not urge him to up and leave me here at the mercy of Tidus and Yuna, the two star struck lovers of doom.

So I was going to the Fuzzy Navel for my own sake. Not his. No. Never his.

The robes dragged on the wet sand that trailed from the hut to the ship. I felt bad about soiling them, but I promised myself I'd wash the coat before returning it. It was highly unlikely Yuna would notice them missing anyway. What with preggo-brain and all. She probably can't even remember where she keeps the salad dressing.

It was no surprise my subconscious told me to carry my daggers on my person. Yes, a white mage with a weapon. That's someone you definitely don't want to piss off. (And who was I looking for? The one person who pisses me off. My logic astounds me sometimes. Astounds.)

Eventually I made it to where the Fuzzy Navel was docked, and was surprised Gippal was either too moronic or too far gone to have closed the exit ramp. He was definitely drunk. Must be. You don't leave exit ramps open during the middle of the night.

I don't know what I expected, maybe for Gippal to be pacing the confines of the ship, wildly proclaiming his lunacy for all to hear, or for him to be making love to himself, since there's a lack of woo-able Al Bhed on a small island village like Besaid. Perhaps indulging in his Ronso Porn. Who knows what that man does in his free time?

I walked up the gently sloping ramp and entered the Fuzzy Navel, in all of its sexy metallic glory. It smelled vaguely of alcohol and cologne, patent Gippal scents, so no surprise there, but here's the thing: he was sitting in the pilot's seat, perfectly placid, face unmoving, Al Bez can hanging limply in his hand, as he stared aimlessly out the windshield, gnawing his lower lip deep in thought.

And here I was expecting some action.

I then tripped on the white mage robes and fell flat on my face. I have the dexterity of an obese guado, which is to say: none at all.

"Cid's Girl?"

I offered up a muffled response.

"…In clothes?" he finished. "Well, now, there's a surprise."

"Muck Foo," I answered, then climbed to my knees.

Gippal made an effort to move, quite a feat for a lazy bastard such as himself, and squat down next to me.

"Ya know," he began, voice mitigated and hardly there, "I didn't mean it."

"What, about my clothes?" I questioned stupidly.

"No, no. I meant every word of that." A sigh. "Look, never mind. Are you, like, alright and stuff?"

And that threw me for a loop, for when was the last time Gippal ever asked about my well being?

"Um. And just what does the 'and stuff' entail?"

Gippal's right eye regarded me skeptically.

"Your just full of spunk tonight, aren't you kid?"

I returned his one eyed stare, only I used both of my eyes.

"Only when provoked."

Gippal stood up, and for a small, small, fleeting moment, I almost thought he was going to offer his arm in aid. Of course, I blame this faulty assumption to some sort of head trauma I sustained during the fall and found my heart oddly sinking when Gippal, in turn, simply made his way back over to the pilot's seat.

"What are you doing here anyway?"

He asked the former without eye contact or even the common courtesy of aiming the inquiry in my direction.

"I dunno. The crickets were loud."

Again: I hit my head on the way down. Really.

"And ignoring the fact that you are undeniably insane, are you trying to tell me the crickets made you come looking for me?"

"…No, Gippal. It was the voices in my head."

"I was unaware you were schizophrenic."

"I'm not," I assured him. "Auron was channeling me through the sixth sense. He says to tell you only men without balls carry around diet tonic water in their mini bars."

"…And after he was done engaging in the petty activity of insulting your pilot's beverages, he told you to come looking for me in the middle of the night?"

"…Something like that."

"I see."

"No you don't, you don't even have both eyes, you don't see much of anything!"

"Lame," Gippal dictated, resuming his previous seat.

I racked my mind for a comeback but I was deplete of repertoire.

"Are you spending the night here?" I asked, extracting the Al Bez from his left hand.

"You interested, Rikku?"

A raised eyebrow accompanied his last remark, and I found myself quite envious of this apparently very common eyebrow raising skill that everyone seems to have mastered but me.

And when was the last time he referred to me by my real name?

"Sorry, Gippal, but I'm not as Trampie as you think I am."

And at this, Gippal looked genuinely contrite, and it kinda scared me. The face didn't look right on him, like he had plastic surgery to make it contort like that or something.

"There's a bed in the back," he cryptically offered.

I stared.

"Give me one good reason why I should care."

"You can't hear the crickets through ten inches of sheet metal."

When I remained unconvinced, Gippal gave a slight shrug of his shoulders, leaned back, and closed his eyes, feet characteristically propped up on the dashboard.

"Well, suit yourself. But I'm pretty comfortable right here. Think I'm going to go to sleep now."

And then he was oddly silent.

Unsure of how to react, or if I should possibly say goodnight, I absent mindedly took a sip from Gippal's Al Bez can and then left it in the cup holder next to his seat.

"Alright," I agreed, not knowing if Gippal even heard me.

And maybe this was his way of apologizing.

I wandered into the designated room with its silk sheets and canopy bed (and very lonely looking mini bar) and couldn't fight the urge to kneel next to the furniture and try to open the doors one last time.

But it was still locked.

Bastard.

o-o-o-o

Towards the middle of the night, or during some ungodly hour in the morning, I crept back out to the cockpit and leered over a gently snoring Gippal, feet still in the air, can still in the cup holder. Without really taking the time to second guess myself, I silently mouthed the words to a low grade cure spell and watched in satisfaction as the green haze enveloped my comrade in its healing aura of star dust and moon shine. I then tip toed back to the bedroom, telling myself at least that would take the edge off of his impending hangover tomorrow morning.

o-o-o-o

Morning didn't come to me in dappling forms of sun light and the chirping of far off birds singing some private melody. I wasn't stirred awake by a gentle sea breeze or the far off smell of Yunie's cooking. I didn't even receive the courtesy of some scandalous sounding alarm clock or the juvenile prank of ice cold water.

No, my wake up call was a string of Gippal vilifications originating from the cockpit as he ranted and raved and cursed everything to kingdom come.

Rubbing out my eye boogers, I stumbled to my feet, surprised to find myself still dressed in my mage clothes—well, Yuna's mage clothes, as it were—and made my way into Gippal's presence.

"Is everything alright?" I yawned, stretching my arms out to maximum wingspan.

"Someone stole the damn power converter!" Gippal exploded. "It's gone! Those things are expensive, dammit, and they don't just grow legs and walk off!"

"What about the spare power converter?"

I asked this with a lull in my voice, my mind still hazy mind not yet grasping the gravity of our current situation.

"That's gone too!"

He started pacing frantically. "It's not like I misplaced them. Hell, that would be like misplacing a...a tire on a land rover or something. And nobody could do that except Brother!"

"He only did it once," I argued weakly, sleep still clouding my peripheral vision.

It was strange watching how protective Gippal became over his machina. I momentarily wondered if I'd ever find a guy to get that protective over me.

Except for, like, Tidus, because he's married and stupid and stuff.

"Argh…dammit!"

Gippal was now clutching his head. It's nice to see how well my cure spell worked.

I should stick to stealing. This is proof.

"Can't we just borrow one from Yunie or something?"

"Have you seen a single ship on this gods forsaken island except the one we're standing in?"

I paused. "So you think this place is pretty boring too, then?"

Gippal stopped. "Rikku, what? I'm rampaging here, stop trying to start conversation."

"I'm just saying, I think we may have that in common."

Another yawn.

"I'm not a morning person," I added, as an after thought.

Gippal stopped bemoaning his fate long enough to almost smile, and it made my heart do something funny, like fill up with carbonation or soda or something. Bubbles. There were bubbles in my chest.

"Um. Ahem. Anyway," he started pointedly. "You are aware that this thing won't fly without a power converter."

"Nu-uh, just get outside and push."

"That's not funny, Rikku. That's not funny and I'm not laughing."

"But you want to," I commented, breezing by him and heading for the Comm. Sphere he had been neglecting ever since his first girlfriend.

"Celsius, remember?"

"Have you gotten in contact with the Celsius in the past week?"

"…No," I answered, the reality slowly sinking in like a bowling ball in my stomach. "Um. So what do we do? Call Pops?"

"Your Pops hates me more than he hates you. That's not gonna help."

I paused, that last line ridiculous yet true all at the same time true.

"Hitch hiking?" I suggested.

"The precocious attitude is loosing its charm now, Rikku."

"Who says I was being precocious? I was being resourceful. And my resources say we should go back and check with Yunie and Tidus before we burst an artery over this."

Gippal glared something lethal at the mentioning of Tidus' name, but refrained from vocalizing any discontent. He just supplied me with a quick, vertical jerk of his head, to which I took as a nod, and followed me, begrudgingly, back to the Besaid Village where Yunie and Tidus were to be interrogated as to the misplaced power converters.

o-o-o-o

Well, Yunie and Tidus were about as helpful as any two newly weds could be, which means not at all.

Yuna feigned innocence, all the while giggling every time Tidus snuck his hand under the table to pinch her leg or some such nonsense. I hardly saw why such groping was necessary, let alone desired. If Gippal were to jab at the flesh located on my left thigh, I'd promptly remove his hand. From his body.

Right when I had pretty much given up on getting anything worth while out of the couple (and they seemed so sane when they were single) Gippal threw out a half hearted, "Well then I guess we'll have to walk."

This snapped Tidus out of his romantic stupor long enough to gargle his spit in the back of his throat and consequently choke on his tongue.

"You? Walk? Alone?"

His string of incoherent sentence fragments was amusing to say the least.

"I saved the world twice," I reminded him tartly. "I'm not too worried for my well being."

"But it's not the fiends I'm worried about," Tidus grumbled, making a very large point out of staring at Gippal when he said this.

"I know, those pesky Yevonites, they may take to street evangelism and try to convert us or something."

And, though I will never admit this out loud, Gippal does have a small penchant for at least being dimly amusing on various occasions.

Yunie bit the inside of her cheek so as not to smile. I did the same.

Tidus put his 'grr' face back on and started pacing the length of the hut. I sheepishly returned Yunie's dress sphere after changing back into my original clothes (or lack thereof) in the bathroom, all the while moving to the steady beat of Tidus' complaints originating from the other side of the room.

While my in-law muttered and groaned and frothed at the mouth, I snuck outside into Yunie's rather miserable attempt at a garden and tried to call Pops on the Comm Sphere I had snagged from the newly wed's possession.

Some dialing. Static. A couple swear words. Then, "Rikku? Where the hell you be, girl? I can't remake Home if you're out there—"

"Ribbons Ceremony, remember?"

A characteristic scratch of the head. "Sumthin' like that."

"Yeah, well, long story short, I found a ship—" and what I really mean to say is stole— "and it, um, kind of broke and stuff."

"So where are ya?"

"Besaid," my voice lifting as I momentarily anticipated a grandiose rescue by the long forgotten Fahrenheit. "You gonna pick me up?" I say me because I'm pretty sure Pops would make Gippal swim back to the desert before offering him a ride.

"…Nah," Pops muttered. "That's too far. If ya'll were closer, then maybe."

I hope the static infested comm screen did my angry face justice.

"So what am I supposed to do?" I asked, hands on hips. "We can't get back to the Remnants Of Home and Bevelle is, like, two years away."

"Wut's wrong with—wait a sec, Remnants Of Home? Who the hell came up with dat there idea? This ain't no remnant!"

"…Gippal," I answered with a sigh, and in retrospect, I am kind of upset I didn't come up with it on my own. It's pretty fitting if you think about it.

"Stupid one eyed git! You tell him he ain't welcomed anywhere else, and then we'll see where he goes runnin' off to!"

"…Pops, how am I supposed to get to Bevelle?"

I momentarily contemplated returning to The Remnants Of Home but quickly discarded the idea. If I went back, I may never get out. So first things first: get to Bevelle. My life can be put on hold until then.

"Well wut's wrong with the feet your mom and I gave ya?"

I said something not very nice in Al Bhed, shut off the sphere by throwing it into Yuna's patch of radishes, and then stalked back into the hut.

Gippal took one look at my face and was already smirking. I despise him. Despise.

"Looks like someone's Pops doesn't much care about them," Gippal leered, and I made an attempt to kick his crotch area but he expertly parried it with a conveniently placed chair, thus landing me on my back and staring up at a concerned looking Yuna.

"The Comm Sphere is in the radishes," I offered. Then stood up.

"Come on Gippal, if you want to make it to the Ribbons Ceremony we gotta go now."

"…We're walking?" he muttered, not particularly tickled with the notion.

"Any better ideas?"

I'm sure Tidus had about fifteen on hand, but Yuna clamped a hand over his mouth before he supplied us with them.

"Alright, alright," he sighed. "Just lemme stop by the Fuzzy Navel one last time."

"…Why?" I questioned, my disgust not clandestine. "So you can kiss it good bye?"

"No," he answered in all seriousness. "The vodka."

I saw three different shades of red before seeing white and don't quite remember what happened after that.

o-o-o-o

Author's Notes

o-o-o-o

You people are too kind. I am so thankful and flattered you've all taken the time to not only review, but leave such insightful comments on the chapters beforehand. I appreciate the time you people take to tell me what you think, and I am trying fervently to reply to each and every one, but I usually don't get around to it until the next chapter is ready to be uploaded XD.

(HawkofNavarre, I totally fell for your review, by the way. I thought you really were mad at my Gippal bashing, and I think I actually stopped breathing for a minute. XD)

The Gippal bashing will stop as soon as I flesh him out more as a character. But right now it's just too much fun.

Also; there are still underling elements as to why Rikku hates babies. Insanity is not one of these aforementioned elements.

Anyway, thank you for your time and your comments! (Bows.)

PS: The naming of Yuna's daughter Lenne was not my initial idea. I was at a loss of what to call her, and then stumbled upon Firefly Rebirth's fic 'What Time Cannot Erase,' in which Yuna already has a daughter named Lenne, and it just fit her character so perfectly (not to mention Rikku's impending reaction) so I couldn't resist. If Firefly wishes me to change the name, I will. But I am hell bent on naming her sibling Seymour. XD