Rikku slept in as late as possible. She had spent the whole night tossing and turning trying to make sense of her own brain that it was early afternoon by the time she dragged herself out of bed. Paine had claimed pent up frustration and was out searching for any possible stray fiends to plunge her sword into. Now that the killing was scarce, she scraped to find ways to train. The day went by with few events, most of the crew doing final prep work for the show that night and staying out of one another's hair. By the time the sun started setting, they gathered in Dona's hall for a big group dinner before the show began.

"This all looks delightful, thank you so much for all of your hospitality, Dona," Yuna said sweetly as the whole group sat down to partake. A banquet of fresh seafood and fruits and vegetables from the forest was laid out with elegant garnishes. Dona and her people had outdone themselves.

"Anything for old friends," Dona said coldly, glancing down the long table at Gippal. He swallowed hard and looked down at his plate.

"Someone say something about old friends?" a large figure called from the doorway.

"Nooj!" Dona cried, jumping from her seat at the head of the table. "I had no idea you'd be in town! Aren't you ass deep in some big sphere dig?" Dona gleamed with excitement, her poise and fake smile melting from her face.

"Productivity is at a stand still thanks to the fact that I can't get any decent help. The two best for the job seem to find jetting around Spira playing pop songs more important," Nooj joked, gesturing at Gippal and Rikku who were sitting side by side and trying to ignore the fact that fate had put them there at another meal.

"If you can pay me more than this slob, maybe my mind can be changed!" Gippal joked, casting a hand towards Buddy. His mouth was still full as he set down his napkin and got up to shake hands with his old friend. Buddy didn't look amused.

"Nah, I couldn't take you away from all this glory, and I certainly can't feed you as well," Nooj smiled back, giving Gippal's hand a firm shake. "How's it going?"

"No major complaints," Gippal shrugged, lying through his teeth. Paine, who was sitting across from Rikku, stiffened in her chair.

"Nooj, it's wonderful to have you. You have to sit down and join us, I positively insist," Yuna smiled at him. She'd always admired his power and drive of setting up the youth league even if she didn't completely agree with his methods.

"Well, if Lady Yuna insists," Nooj chuckled, helping himself to a glass of wine and squeezing onto the bench beside Paine.

"Where's your woman?" Gippal asked, putting another forkful of fish into his mouth. Rikku snorted into her drink and tried to cover it up with a cough.

"She's at the chateau. Wardrobe crisis or some other such womanly thing. I haven't been back in a few days. After I saw you in Luca I was back on site," Nooj replied, filling his empty plate.

"What are you working on?" Rikku perked up.

"We've got some massive sphere readings a few miles off the coast of the Baaj ruins. We've got a few ships stationed and some excavation divers. Seems there are some very ancient machina under the surface. Some buried in the sand at the bottom, but we know it's there. Very hush-hush," Nooj replied, trying to contain an excited smile.

"Spheres too?" Rikku's eyes widened as well.

"Possibly. From what we've uncovered it looks like a small trader outpost. Can't be sure yet," Nooj replied, making it clear that he didn't want to say much more.

"That's great, Buddy. That could be really big for the Youth League," Gippal rested his forearm on the table.

"Here's hoping. It's been a while since we've had a big break," Nooj rolled his eyes.

"It's nice seeing so much of you. Wish Baralai could've been here. I like having the whole team back together now and again," Gippal grinned. Paine couldn't overlook how happy he looked. She hadn't had a chance to ask Rikku how the night before went. The thief looked slightly uncomfortable sitting beside him, but more out of nerves than out of hate. Gippal seemed relaxed for the first time in months. They weren't stiff or putting as much distance between themselves as humanly possible.

"Are you going to be able to meet us in Bevelle in a week?" Rikku asked, a piece of melon on the end of her fork. She had been avoiding the fish. She didn't have the stomach for it. Growing up so far from it her whole life soured her on the foreign delicacy. Gippal loved it. She had suffered through far too many seafood dates with him on which he ended up eating both of their plates.

"I'd like to. You're going to be in Guadosalam in the next few days, yeah? I'm going to try and make it home for that. Leblanc's been raving about having you there. She's been remodeling the place for weeks," Nooj rolled his eyes again, but this time it had a lot more sincerity behind it.

"Good lord," Paine muttered, her drink swallowing her words.

"So how many shades of pink is it now?" Rikku giggled before getting all of her words out. Gippal snorted with laughter, then turned and looked at her.

"Good one," he chuckled. She blushed. Paine's jaw fell.

What exactly happened in that storage locker?

"Thirty-seven, I believe. Although I am not up to count on how many shades of mauve there are in the drapes," Nooj joked right back. Rikku put a hand over her mouth as her giggle turned into a full fledged laugh. Yuna glanced down the table at the crowd and gave them a 'please stop being inappropriate' look.

"Aw, come on, Yuna. You'd laugh too. We're talking about your favorite person in the whole wide world!" Gippal's face was red he was trying not to laugh. Yuna tightened her jaw.

"Pity you didn't have her tag along, Nooj," Yuna got out through gritted teeth. It just made Paine and Rikku laugh harder.

"She still wear that outfit all the time?" Gippal asked.

"Yes." Nooj added a heaping pile of shellfish to his plate.

"That thing is a wreck," Gippal laughed.

"We have those, you know," Paine chimed in.

"You do not," Gippal's face paled.

"Yeah. We do. Mine's blue," Paine was trying not to laugh.

"They're foolish and ridiculous and as unpredictable as the attacks. Shinra should've equipped us with some double-sided tape before sending us into battle in those stupid things," Rikku huffed.

"Double-sided tape, I KNEW it!" Gippal banged a fist on the tabletop. "All these years she kept telling me it was magic!" Rikku and Paine burst out laughing at the sincerity in his voice.

Dinner went on light hearted and surprisingly pleasant. As a few more drinks were passed, the crimson squad and Rikku got a little rowdier and laughed a little harder. Paine was doing all she could not to excuse Nooj and herself. Not here and not now. It would be too obvious. She caught Gippal's eyebrow raise once or twice at a few exchanges between the two. No need to have to deal with that whole mess. She restricted herself to her platonic best behavior until they all split up to get ready for the show.

"Seriously! I wish I had some magical outfits that made me good at stuff!" Gippal laughed. He and Nooj had gotten the girls back onto the topics of their mystical costume changes. "Like, I put on a pair of pants and suddenly I had this friggin' huge-ass gun to blow people away? That's got to RULE!" Gippal threw his hands up, turning to face Rikku and Paine.

"It's not THAT simple," Rikku rolled her eyes, feeling the weight of the decent buzz she had going. "And besides. You have to wear a hot mini-skirt to get the huge gun. Otherwise that'd be too easy. It's cheating," Rikku pushed him playfully in the shoulder. Paine caught a twinge of red in his cheeks at her touch and tried not to throw up in her mouth.

"Whatever. You have knight stuff and samurai stuff. Don't tell me that YOU of all people are slinging a giant samurai blade in a hairline mini," Gippal pointed his fork at Paine.

"There is very little I do in any sort of mini," Paine said flatly.

"That was dangerously close to a nudie joke, Dr. P," Rikku cocked an eyebrow at Paine. She was unconsciously scraping all of the seafood off of her plate she wasn't going to eat onto Gippal's. She hadn't even realized she was doing it until he and Paine stared blankly at her. "What?" she glanced around at her friends.

"Nothing!" Paine blurted.

"I don't know?" Gippal babbled.

"Nudie joke!" Nooj held his glass up to toast to break the tension.

"I'm not going to eat it?" she shrugged, trying to play it cool. Not that it was habit or anything and not that it felt so good to have that familiarity back. Not even a little. "I think eating fish is creepy."

"Fair enough," Paine shrugged.

"And I know how much he likes it, not to mention he's worse than a modified Al Bhed trash compactor when it comes to food," Rikku carried on, trying to convince herself more than her friends that the gesture was no big deal.

"You always did think fish were creepy," Gippal chuckled, ignoring it all and spearing his fork into another bite.

"They smell creepy!" She protested.

"You smell creepy," he couldn't resist.

"And you smell like a butthead!" Rikku snapped.

Gippal didn't say much after that.

The concert went off without a hitch. Everyone in port was thrilled and cheering their hearts out. It was an overload of celebrities all on one night. Maven Nooj of the Youth League was a treat. He was chatting with some of the younger men about his current project between songs. They were interested in joining. Gippal had brought them out of the past and into the future with his genius designs. He tried to play his fame off when women swooned at him as he worked the boards. And of course, the Gullwings, Spira's golden girls, saviors of the world and all around amazing women. They were signing autographs and taking photos while Tidus and Gippal dismantled the stage. A few local men jumped into help, claiming that they could hardly repay Gippal for the advances he brought, so what was a little manual labor?

"Hey Gip, saw an awful lot of laughing going on at dinner," Tidus perked a brow at Gippal as they heaved another section of the stage onto the Celsius. There wasn't going to be much of an after party that night. Buddy needed them in the air as soon as possible for a PR event that following morning in Luca. He was shouting and cursing at Gippal to hurry his ass up, but he was doing it in Al Bhed so fewer people caught wind of what a jackass he was really being. With Paine and Rikku out of ear shot, he was safe.

"Are you, like, a sixteen year old school girl or what?" Gippal snapped at Tidus. He was annoyed with Buddy and his harsh words. He was trying to be the bigger man and not let it show. He was also annoyed at himself for acting like a childish boy and crossing the line into stinky jokes putting him back on butthead duty.

"Yikes, very ouch, sorry, Bro. Excuse a guy for trying to be happy for his friend," Tidus joked.

"Sorry," Gippal grumbled.

"So you're still in the dog house?" Tidus asked out the corner of his mouth. He had a knowing smile, and in some weird way, it comforted Gippal. Tidus had been showing genuine interest, and now that Gippal was headed in the right direction, he may want to capitalize on it. Tidus and Rikku were pretty close. If the idiot wasn't attached to Yuna so badly it would make him skeptical. She was practically the guy's sister-in-law. Maybe he could help.

"I'm on probation," Gippal muttered, crossing his arms over his chest as he watched the young youth league boys do all his work.

"That sounds like an awful lot of work," Tidus tried not to laugh.

"Apparently, I'm a butthead," Gippal turned slowly and looked at Tidus.

"Oh, yeah. You totally are a butthead," Tidus winced.

"That seems to be the public vote. And apparently, when I'm a butthead, it makes her a meanie," Gippal sighed, quoting her directly.

"She hasn't been that big of a meanie," Tidus shrugged.

"This is fucking stupid," Gippal growled, frustrated. "Forget I said anything!" He grunted as he tried to lift a piece of the set that was clearly a two man job.

"Hey, whoa! Hey!" Tidus grabbed the other half. "You're making this too hard on yourself!" Tidus cried, steadying the equipment.

"I can carry it, it's fine," Gippal spat out.

"Not the stage, you asshole," Tidus rolled his eyes. "The girl!"

"What?!" Gippal stopped short. He was mostly just surprised that the dumb one had the gall to call him an asshole.

"If she doesn't want you cause you're a butthead," Tidus said simply. "Then don't be a butthead."

"But I'm an asshole, man! It's hard!" Gippal cried.

"Fine. If you want to be a stubborn fuck, then fine. I can save my profound wisdom for someone else," Tidus threw his hands up as they tossed the set into storage.

"You call that profound?" Gippal snapped.

"Maybe? Maybe not?" Tidus shrugged. "But you're the one that's sleeping by yourself tonight. Not me."

"Get fucked, pretty boy," Gippal huffed.

"Oh, I intend to," Tidus jabbed Gippal in the ribs with his elbow.