Wee, Chapter Two:

10) You actually were telling the truth.

I do that quite a lot, yet people are always surprised.

-justhavefaith

"You actually were telling the truth..." Rikku said slowly, amazement bright in her eyes as she met Gippal's look with a smile on her face, finally getting a hold of her exuberance for the time being.

"I do that quite a lot, yet people are always surprised," Gippal quipped back, his own eye bright as he smiled back at her, relieved to hear her laugh. She had been so oddly quiet around Djose before she left to visit Yuna here on Besaid. It had worried him. Rikku and quiet didn't usually belong within the same island as each other, much less her being the source of it. It hadn't been until after she left that the rather obvious problem had been pointed out to him...

Baralai flinched at the sudden loud noise that echoed through Djose Temple, a.k.a. the Machine Faction base. It was standard procedure to hear some sort of explosion at least daily, but this sounded less fiery and more like fighting. Abandoning the guard he was forced to bring with him, he darted up the stairs, easily able to locate the source as more loud noises followed the first. It didn't exactly soothe him when the source proved to be Gippal's office. Not hesitating, he opened the door, only to find him face to face with one half-depressed, half-enraged Al Bhed. "She's gone, Baralai..." he murmured before sinking to the ground.

The Praetor didn't even have to ask who was gone; there was only one she who would have Gippal in this sorry state. "Aren't you the one who said trying to ground Rikku is like telling it to rain in the desert? It works maybe half the time, and even then only for a little while," the Yevonite tried to console as knelt down to be eye-level with the almost boneless Al Bhed, "She'll be back once she gets bored with wherever she went, which won't take too long. Did you say yesterday you were surprised by how long she stayed here?"

"You don't get it..." Gippal said lowly, "She went to Besaid. She only goes to Besaid for two reasons. 1, she's visiting Yuna and if that were the case she would have told me or maybe even dragged me along, and she'd have been back today seeing as how she left yesterday. 2, they had a major emergency that couldn't wait for me, in which case I would have at least gotten a call over the commspheres or again, she would be back already. Or 3..." The Machine Faction leader trailed off and rolled his eye upwards as he murmured off-handedly, "Huh, guess I have three reasons."

Now Baralai was worried. Gippal could be sort of... okay, extremely scatter-brained, but that was only concerning things he didn't consider important. RIkku was not on that rather long list. Before he could comment, Gippal shook his head and finished, "Anyway, where was I? Right, 3, she's hiding from something or someone to the point she's using Yuna as an excuse. Cid's girl has to be either extremely pissed off or nearly suicidal to use that reason, and she'll disappear until she either sorts herself out or someone convinces her to come back, both of which could take weeks." Running his fingers through his already disheveled hair, Gippal muttered, "It's been four days already, Baralai... It's definitely 3. Now I just need to figure out what the hell I did."

Shaking his head and praying for guidance, Baralai tried to figure out how to help his friend navigate what was sure to be a minefield. If his earlier tentative ventures towards Paine had taught him anything, it was that men tended to screw up without intentionally meaning to screw up. It all came down to how women perceived their little bubble and how men seemed to keep popping it. "Has anything happened recently?" he finally asked.

"Everything has been going fine. I've been keeping my distance without being cold, she's been being bubbly and way too irresistible for her own good. Same old same old," Gippal muttered depressingly. "I've had a couple of girls around to try and distract myself, but tried to keep her from finding out."

"Which pretty much guarantees that she did find out," Baralai informed him, "Rikku probably has the entire temple networked so she learns about everything, even secrets." That brought a slight smile out of the somber-but-usually-recklessly-happy Al Bhed. "Let's go into your office, what's left of it, and finish this conversation. I have a feeling you don't want your workers overhearing this." One of Gippal's chief complaints was how his workers found his constant sidestepping of Rikku just too funny/cute and constantly intervened. The Praetor managed to get the larger man inside his office, though navigating the space that was usually waiting to turn into pure chaos incarnate and now had was difficult.

Groaning as he saw the state of his office, Gippal collapsed in his chair. "I'm so dead... It took Cid's girl months to get Djose organized..." he muttered under his breath.

"I hear from a reliable source she still has to come in here and straighten you out once a week," Baralai said knowingly. It always amazed him that flighty, impulsive Rikku was a complete office neat freak, though it balanced out Gippal and his amazing knack of losing anything and everything work related, especially when it was boring and needed done. When Gippal only sighed instead of laughing, Baralai found an empty spot to sit (which happened to be on the corner of the desk) before asking, "Your workers haven't been up to any tricks lately, have they?"

"Not that I can think of," Gippal shot back, obviously not in the mood to discuss his workers' matchmaking efforts that were always far from subtle. When Baralai leveled a look at him that distinctly reminded the Al Bhed of Paine, he sighed and grabbed a hold of his temper; the Praetor didn't deserve his anger. "They tease me about her, like they always have, though they may have gotten more vocal than usual."

"As in, saying it more often, like maybe while Rikku is in hearing distance?" Baralai suggested. Judging from the look on Gippal's face like he had just been hit over the head with a board, he figured he was right like usual. Shaking his head, the darker skinned man crossed his arms, "I'll take it you respond like you have for the last year and told them all sorts of lies about why you can't date her." When his friend said nothing, Baralai's temper finally snapped. "Damn it, Gippal! You know how sensitive Rikku is about what others think of her, especially other Al Bhed, and you more than any other! Why couldn't you just tell them to bugger off rather than say anything about her?"

"Because my mouth works faster than my brain," Gippal snapped back, "You should know that by now."

They glared at each other for a moment, before both sighed in defeat. "So, are we doing this the covert way, or are we doing things the stupid way?" Baralai finally asked.

"Covert way meaning...?"

"I somehow convince Paine to go in first."

"Sure. Works for me."

Pulling himself out of memory lane, Gippal grinned as he finally set Rikku down on her feet, intent on taking her somewhere a little more private for what he hoped would be a typical Cid's-girl-being-touchy-feely celebration of their declarations.

However, apparently Rikku had other plans. She squirmed away from him and rested her hands on her hips, glaring at him. Gippal gulped. How a girl that was barely over five-feet scared the ever-loving crap out of him he would never know. Though, that pose gave him a nice view, he realized as he leered at her.

"Hey, eyes up here!" she warned, moving her hand to snap her fingers to get his attention before pointing to her face with the same hand.

"But the full view is so nice..." Gippal jokingly whined, only to gulp when she pulled out one of those nasty crimson blades of her. "Okay, I'll focus."

"We need guidelines," she told him firmly, "I know you, and unless someone very clearly outlines what is and is not acceptable, you are going to do all sorts of nasty things." He smirked but she continued doggedly, though not without eeping and blushing at the look on his face. "No bringing other girls around," she finally managed to squeak.

"No worries there, pypa," he teased, though the look in his eye was serious, "They were just distraction to try and keep my hands wandering somewhere those pretty little blades would cut my hands off for going." Gippal felt his smirk grow wider when her blush only grew darker at his honest admission.

Clearing her throat, Rikku managed to add, "No running off after friends possessed by spirits intent on destroying the world with a big-ass machine."

"Sure, ruin my fun."

"And could you try to keep your office at least somewhat organized?"

Rolling his eye, Gippal took a step forward, same eye wickedly brightening when she took a step back. "Then how would I get you into my office so often?" When she glared as she stepped back, he conceded even as he took two steps forward, "Alright, I'll make an attempt."

"And for Shiva's sake, I have a damn name!" she finally whined, stomping her foot and pouting.

All he could see was that full lower lip. So long control... he mused before surging forward, swinging her back off her feet. Any worries he had over her weapons vanished when they hit the ground, her hands were too busy getting a grip on his hair in surprise to keep their grip on the handles. Catching her lower lip in between his as she gasped, he didn't hesitate to take what she unconsciously offered, groaning at her taste. His breath hitched when she eagerly responded, making him lose all resemblance of sanity as he lost himself in the wet heat of her mouth, her tongue running desperately against his. Groaning again as he forced himself to break the kiss before he did something he certainly wouldn't regret but would rather take his time getting to, he closed his eye and rested his forehead against her shoulder. A smug grin tugged at his mouth as she panted for breath, her fingers still tangled in his hair and her feet not touching the ground anymore. "Whatever you say, pypa," he whispered heatedly in her ear before nipping her lobe teasingly, making her shudder delightfully.

Rikku whined deep in her throat and refused to let go of him this time when he set her down. She was surprised when he nudged her head with his, making her look at him straight on. "No running to Besaid next time I do something stupid," he told her firmly, "I'd rather you hit me and call me a dumbass first, so we could do the girly thing and talk about what's bugging you."

Angling her head so she could lightly brush her lips against hers, she wasn't able to restrain the smug grin that crossed her face when his eye drifted half-closed, the now familiar heat of desire lingering in the blue-green swirls. "All right..." she breathed, moaning softly when he resumed his furious kissing. Taking a deep breath when he finally let her breath and turned his attentions to her neck, she half-moaned, half-whimpered, "Gippal?"

His first answer was a groan and a sharp nip at her neck that made her melt. "Yes?" he finally breathed against her skin before licking where his teeth had left a mark.

"Never mind..."

Three goes up tomorrow!