It took only ten minutes to get to Luca on Brother's airship. He said he was going there anyways, but I think he just wanted to watch me with his little sister.

Rikku was being her normal bouncy self while walking around Luca. It caused a small smile to rise to my lips.

"Well, so…what's the surprise?" Rikku looked up through her thick, long eyelashes. Yevon did this girl have an effect on me.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot. Do you want food or your surprise first?" I knew the answer already, but I had to tease her a bit.

"Do you have to ask?"

"Well, you never know. You're gonna be 21 and you could like food now."

"Gippal, just give me the damn surprise!" Rikku swore. I don't believe I had ever heard that girl swear before either. This girl was defiantly getting sexier as she got older. I'm beginning to become afraid to see what she's like when she turned 25…

"Fine, fine. Follow me." I smirked as I began to walk to the jewelry shop that I knew Rikku loved. I had to make sure that this birthday was going to be the best one she had ever had. Even better than the one where Cid had taken her to the zoo and let her ride on a chocobo and also bought it for her. God that girl lives the big life.

Soon Rikku figured out where we were headed and her eyes grew wide with joy. She looked at me with those big green eyes and nodded knowing she knew where we were headed.

"Gippal!" She threw her arms around me in a tight hug right outside of the shop. A bunch of men gave me envious looks as they saw Rikku throw herself at me. Protectively I wrapped my arms around her waist, making it clear to the men around that she was mine, and no one else's. Technically.

"Why'd you bring me here?"

"What? You don't want any piece of jewelry for your birthday? Well, I'm sure I can find some girl that does." A smile formed at my lips knowing that she was getting jealous.

"No! No! I do! Come on!" She grabbed onto my hand and pulled me into the store.

If only she had known the real reason that I was bringing her here. She would have flipped out if she found out I only came here was to look at engagement rings. This makes it easier, because now she'll see me walk right past them and not think twice about it, also if someone sees me all alone news would travel to Rikku quickly…That would run my plan.

Rikku ran straight for the back of the store looking at all of the colorful new shipments of jewelry they had just gotten. I moseyed my way down, trying not to make it obvious what I was looking at.

"Can I help you find the right ring, sir?" Obviously my plan didn't work. Even Rikku heard this and ran over to see what I was looking at.

At first her eyes were full of jealousy, and then quickly filled with sadness. "Gippal, why are you looking at engagement rings?" She sounded as if she was going to cry. Why did the store clerk have to make a big deal out of it?

If looks could kill that sales' women would have died right then and there. I softened my eyes for when I looked at Rikku. "There's no reason. I'm just trying to find out why you like this store so much." I gave her a goofy smile, trying to get a smile out of her.

It sort of worked. She gave me a half smile, but I could tell she was still upset. "Well, the stuff I like isn't her this time…" She began walking towards the front of the store. God I hated seeing her this upset. It was killing me inside.

I gave the store clerk another nasty look before I went to grab Rikku. She wouldn't budge when I grabbed her wrist and began to pull her, so I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder.

I brought her back to the jewelry that she was originally looking at and set her down. "Now, what type would you like? Necklace, bracelet, earrings?...Uh I'm not forgetting some sort of jewelry am I?"

She slowly nodded her head and went over to this orange, yellow, and red pair of earrings that looked like a waterfall. They were very pretty if I do say so myself. "I like these, but they're kind of expensive…I would never make you pay for something like this."

I smirked at her. "Hey, miss." I called over the sales lady. She came running.

"Yes, sir? Can I help you with something?" She looked like she was afraid I was going to kill her, and I really don't blame her.

"Yes. I would like these earrings, the matching necklace, and…" I turned to Rikku. "Like anything else?"

She shook her head silently, afraid to speak.

"Well, then I'd also like a few of those feather things. Earrings, right?" I pointed to a far off rack that had a bunch of feathers earrings, the kind that Rikku had liked since we had grown up together.

"Yes, sir." The clerk nodded her head and scurried off to get everything.

I looked over at Rikku, to see her completely in shock. "Rikku, breath. I don't want to explain to Cid why his daughter isn't breathing. You OK?"

Rikku nodded and looked up at me. "You know you didn't have to buy all that. That's more then I spend in one month for clothing. Why'd you do it?"

I smirked, "I said anything you wanted, right? And I'd thought I through in a few things that I thought you'd like."

My whole body became tense. 'Crap, how am I going get out of this one?' "I saw them and was looking at them, but I really didn't know they were engagement rights…" I was really hoping that she would buy it.

Luckily she didn't have to because the sales clerk came back with a small bag with all the jewelry. "Anything else I can help you with?"

I looked down at Rikku. "Anything else?" She shook her head. "Nope, we're good."

The clerk nodded, "That will be 15,000 gil then."

"Gippal! Let me pay for some of it! Please!" Rikku's eyes grew wide when she found out the price.

"No. I got it." I pulled out my wallet and handed the clerk the money.

"Thank you. Have a nice day."

"Thanks. You too." I grabbed Rikku's hand and intertwined our fingers. "Let's go get something to eat."

We went to a small café close to the Highroad. It was a nice quiet little place that only a few people knew about. Rikku seemed to like it.

"Mmm! Gippal, this place is so good! Why didn't you tell me about it?" Rikku tired to say with a mouth full of food.

"You know it's not very polite to talk with food in your mouth full?" I smirked at her. "And one of the days I had off I found it. It wasn't that long ago and it wasn't like we were really talking for the past few years."

"Well, this place is still really cute!" Rikku swallowed her food and smiled, completely ignoring my last statement. "Thanks, Gippal!"

"And why do I need to be thanked? Can't I take you out and get you a birthday present?"

"Well, then you should rap them and give them to me on my birthday! I'll even act surprised."

I laughed. "Well, then how are people going to know that you're mine? This way no grease monkeys at the party will go after you."

"Gippal! I am not dating you! You never asked me out! And you yourself are a grease monkey! Don't I get a say in this?" She pouted, making her lips ten times more kissable then they already were, and put her armed underneath her breast causing them to push out more than they already did. God this girl was really trying to kill me tonight.

I took a deep breath. This was going to be hard if she kept doing this to me? Did she really believe that I had enough self control? Honestly if it wasn't for the other people at the restaurant I think I would have claimed her as mine. In more ways than one. "Nope."

Rikku gasped as her lips collided with mine. I was not going to lose her again even if she was going to be living right by me from now on.

She brook apart from the kiss first gasping for air. I smirked.

"Gippal…" She placed her head against my chest listening to my raging heartbeat.

I breathed in her sent. She was to die for. "So does that mean you'll be mine?"

"Way to ruin the moment Gippal!" She hid her face from me. "I guess. Just don't tell Vydron. I don't know how he'll take it, knowing that his little girl has a boy friend. I think it might kill him…"

"I think he'll be fine with it…" I thought back to our conversation with one another. Rikku will want to kill me, and I would probably let her.

"No! Please just don't tell him. He's gonna pressure you to marry me! And I don't want that!...Wait! That's not what I meant! It came out wrong! Oh, Yevon…I'm a mess…"

"It's OK." I gave her a quick peck on her cheek. "Well, we should probably get going back before Brother destroys Luca looking for us."

"Yeah…"

What Rikku had said about not wanted to marry me was really getting to me. How was I supposed to take that, even if she had said it wrong?

"Gippal! Vydron is looking for you!" Someone's choppy English called through my door.

I trudged over towards the door and opened it quickly finding Brother standing there. "What does he want Brother? Can it wait?"

"I'm not sure. All he said was that he had some business with you he wanted to discuss. But I wouldn't wait. He didn't seem very pleased." Brother looked down at the floor awkwardly.

"Fine. I'll go and find him…" I opened my door wider to go and look for the Al Bhed leader.

"You don't have to go looking for me, son. I'm right here." Cid called rounding the hallway.

"Oh, OK…"

He pushed me aside and walking into my apartment. I was planning on making it something like a vacation home, considering I lived in the temple. Close to work, and it had the best weather, especially when Rikku came over. She had never gotten over her fear of thunder, so when she comes over and has to stay in my room it's the perfect time to get extra close to her, and it's all on her own.

"Well," Cid stated as I closed the door behind us. "We have a problem. Rikku won't marry you."

"WHAT? You already asked her?" I fell back onto a nearby chair, to overwhelmed to stand.

"No, no. I saw her in the hall, she was very happy. Which don't get me wrong, I'm happy that she's happy, but that's not it. She was wearing expensive jewelry that someone, such as her, would receive from someone who cares about her. So, as of right now she has a boyfriend making the marriage impossible." Cid was shaking his head furiously.

"Um, Cid? What did the jewelry look like?" You could tell from my voice that I was not as concerned as he was.

"They were yellow, orange, and red feather necklaces and earrings. She was happy that it could only mean a gift from a boyfriend."

"It's OK Cid. I gave her the jewelry. A birthday present that I let her pick out."

Cid shook his head. "No, she couldn't have picked it out. I was looking at jewelry similar to that and she would have nothing to do with them because of the price."

"Only the thing that she picked out was the earrings. I choose everything else." I smiled.

"I don't know how you did it, but I guess you did. Good job. See you at Rikku's birthday in two days." Cid waved his hand over his head as he walked out the door. "Bye Gippal!"

"Bye Cid…" I called after barely over a whisper. What Cid didn't know was that Rikku doesn't want to get married yet. Well maybe not that but at least not me. That was hurting my ego still. I could still hear it clearly in my head, and it was killing me inside.

Two days. That's all I had. Two days to change Rikku's mind of marrying me, and to ask her to marry me, ruining her life. This was going to be a very stressful two days.

Sorry this took so long to get out. I've been busy and I know that's not really a legit reason not to upload. Well hear it is. Hope you like it. Please comment and tell me how I could improve the story. And also sorry for any problems. Right now my finger can't be used and its one of the main fingers you need so it took about 3 days to type out instead of just a few hours. Well anyways here it is.

I don't own anything. Just the idea :)