The Joker and the Thief

Enjoy!

I start the engine and quickly realize that I'll be deaf by the time I get to Paine's. It'll be totally worth it though. I know I'll love every minute of it.

Hello, Spira. Rikku coming through!

I get my hover to Mi'ihen with a narrow margin of success. Have you seen those stairs? Seriously. Once the trail becomes a little easier to travel, things begin to go as planned. I take my time on the Highroad, and enjoy the scenery. Someone has established a chocobo ranch on the highroad, and it just so happens that it's hatching season. There are more fluffy chickies than I can count!

I pass that and look over to my left to see the old ruins in the ocean. They always catch my attention when I see them. They look…like they're waiting on something. Or someone. I can't ever decide. They just look so lonely and majestic at the same time. I never realized how long this road is. I ride over the ravine and what's left of the old road. I see Rin's place out in the distance, and the mountains beyond that. There aren't many hovers on the road today, but it isn't really peak travel season either, so I'm not really all that surprised.

I pass Rin's eventually and once I get to Mushroom Rock, I stop to update Paine.

"Yes?"

"Hey Paine! Um. Just got to Mushroom Rock," I say, looking out over the water. "I should be able to ride the shoopuf pretty soon."

"That sounds fine. It was raining here earlier, and it looks like it's headed your way. Be careful."

"Will do! See ya soon." I turn off the CommSphere and get resituated to get back on the move. I start my engine and leave Mushroom Rock Road in the dust. Before I know it I'm passing Djose. Not many people hanging around outside, guess the slavemaster's got his grip on the whip today. Leaving that behind, I get to the Moonflow. I really hate to just rip through here on a hover, but what else am I supposed to do? I can't just leave it, especially around here. Gippal's guys would have this thing scrapped and chopped before you could say "Al Bhed scum!"

I do slow down though, for the noise and for the consideration of everyone around me. The storm clouds are getting closer. Paine wasn't kidding. I make it to the Shoopuf. I park my hover and see that other people just standing around.

"I'm sorry, Missh. Ze shoopuf ish closed today." Wow. Really? I've only ever needed to ride a shoopuf three times, and fourth time, I'm screwed? Of all the luck.

"Um, sorry. Closed?" How the hell do you "close" a laboring creature?

"Ze Shoopuf stepped on submerged ruins, Missh." I look over at the beast. Sure enough he's (she's? It's?) got a bandage on its foot all the way up to the ankle. Poor thing. Shoopufs look so sad to begin with, without getting their toesies all hurt.

"When will he be, er, open again?"

"Hopefullily tomorrow." That puts me behind of course, but it's just a drop in the ocean. I just hope it doesn't inconvenience Paine too much.

"Okay," I say. "I guess I'll be back then." I walk back to my hover to call Paine again. I hear thunder in the distance.

"Calling again so soon? What's up?"

"Paine!" I wail, "The shoopuf hurt his footie, look!" I point the CommSphere at the wounded animal.

"Poor thing. Why are you telling me this?"

"Um, hello? He can't cross the Moonflow. I'm stranded until tomorrow!"

"Oh! Right. What are you going to do in the meantime?" I haven't even gotten that far, and so I said as much.

"I haven't even gotten that far." I frown. Paine raise her eyebrows.

"You're going to have to find somewhere to stay before that weather hits."

"It's pretty close as it is." Then it hit me. My closest option was Djose. Dammit! I shrug in defeat.

"I'm gonna have to go back to Djose and see if Gippal has a…closet or something." I shake my head. I do not want to have to do this, but I don't have a choice.

"Sounds like it, Rikku. Bummer." She says sarcastically. She knows where I stand on Gippal: preferably his windpipe. The thunder is getting closer.

"I hate you. Alright, I really gotta go, The bottom's about to fall out over here. I'll talk to you soon."

"Can't wait to hear all about it." She chuckles.

"I bet. Bye!" I quickly get my things back together and race back to Djose. I park in the courtyard out front of the temple, grab my bag and run to the shelter of the threshold right as it starts to pour. There's no guard outside today, and I don't know if it's because there's no security risk anymore or because it's raining. Regardless, I pound on the door. Much to my surprise, Gippal himself peeks out from the door. He looks at me like I'm from another planet. The feeling is mutual, but I have to put on a neutral face, nonetheless.

"Cid's girl?" I cringe. "What are you doin' here?"

"What does it look like I'm doing, Gippal? I'm standing in the freakin' rain, waiting on you to let me in." He opens the door fully, without a word, and lets me in.

"Thanks." I say.

"Yeah. No problem." I look around. Not another soul in here but us.

"Where is everybody? I ask. It's odd seeing this place empty.

"It's…Saturday. Where my employees are on their days off is none of my business."

"Ooh! Weekends off? Do they get full medical and dental, too?" He chuckles dryly.

"Why are you here?" He asks.

"I was trying to visit Paine. But I got waylaid." He furrows his brow and scratches his chin. This is my cue to continue justifying myself.

"I got as far as this side of the Moonflow, when I discovered that the shoopuf isn't running because he got his foot stuck in some ruins or something. Anyway, I didn't have a chance to go anywhere else before this damn storm hit. The shoopuf should be well enough to cross the Moonflow tomorrow, but in the meantime I…need somewhere to stay."

"Hold on, I'm still trying to process that Paine accepts visitors." He's got a point.

"Well, it's true, and I'm one of them. So can I stay or not?"

"What makes you think I have anywhere for you to stay?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe the fact that this is the only building in a fucking 10 mile radius!"

"Whoa. Calm down." He laughs. "There's a spare room over there." He points to the right side of the stairs. "It's small, but if you're only here for a night you should be okay."

"Thank you." I walk over to the room and open the door. Small? Yes. But it's not so bad. I was expecting cobwebs and skeletons of hookups past. I put my bag on the floor next to the bed. A few minutes later, Gippal comes in.

"Here. Just give 'em back tomorrow." He says, handing me one of his shirts and a towel. Oh jeez. Now I'm borrowing his stuff, I'll never live this favor down as it is, even without borrowing his stuff. What else am I gonna do, though? I'm soaked.

"Oh, great! Thanks," I say, surprised.

"Yep. Sure thing," He says, closing the door behind him, on his way out.

I towel off my hair as well as I can before changing into the shirt and the driest pair of shorts in my bag. I lay all my clothes from the bag out on the floor to dry. Luckily, the CommSphere survived because it was in the bottom of the bag, covered by everything else. I didn't wanna take any chances with that. I wipe my eyes. This won't be so bad, if I don't let it. Spend a night, give him his stuff back, and be on my merry way; that's all I have to do. The worst part will be telling Paine about it, and probably Yuna too. They're such meanies. I can be civil though. I can at least try.

I feel so dumb right now. How are we- am I- supposed to kill time? I can't just go to bed. I'm not tired, and even if I was it would be sorta rude. Stupid rain. Stupid shoopuf. (Not really, he's too cute.) I can't believe I'd ever say I was thankful to Gippal, but here I am.

I walk out into the main sanctuary and sit on the stairs. He's in his room with his back to me for a second until he comes out and joins me.

"So, what do you do for fun around here, all by yourself?" I ask. I'm not in the mood for icebreakers, but I'm in even less of a mood for awkward silences.

He shrugs.

"I dunno. I go to Luca sometimes. Sometimes I stay here and just chill out and wait for people to knock on my door. Sometimes it's the pizza guy, sometimes it's Cid's Girl." He smirks at me. I sigh for the millionth time since I got myself into this.

"I have a name." I've said that to him so many times I can't muster up the venom to go with it anymore.

"Yeah, yeah," He says. "So why are you going to Paine's, huh?" Why is he so interested in my life? Get your own. Damn.

"I'm just doing some traveling. That's all." I really don't feel like going into "This is my journey and I have to make my own path, blah, blah, blah." I'd never hear the end of it. I'm just not feelin' it, and I don't owe him any explanations anyway. Luckily that seems to sate his curiousity about my plans.

"How's Cid? He doing okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Getting crotchety in his old age, I guess, but he's fine." Gippal laughs.

"He's always been crotchety."

"Yeah, but you haven't seen him lately! Things couldn't be going better at home and he's always barkin' about something," I say.

"How is the reconstruction coming? I've heard some of the guys mention stuff here and there, but I haven't been back for a while." The silent truth: he hasn't been home since the Guado attacked Home in the first place. I know it. He knows I know it. I just nod my head in acknowledgement.

"It's going really well. There have been a couple of accidents along the way, but no one's been seriously hurt. It's going pretty fast too." He seems pleased.

I'm gonna regret giving this much away, but whatever. It's better than silence. "That's part of the reason I'm traveling, actually." He raises his eyebrows. "There is literally nothing left for me to do there. There are almost too many people working. We have more people going out on digs than there really should be. I won't bore you with the details though, you know how all that works."

"Yeah. Sure do." He crosses his arms, nonchalantly. "So you just said 'See ya? I'm going on vacation?'" Here it comes. I knew I shouldn't have given any scrap of a reason for my being here. I won't be making that mistake again.

"No. I just have some things to attend to," I say, trying to be as vague as possible.

"Aww, Cid's kid's growing up on me."

That's it. I'm done.

"Yeah, Gippal. I am. I'd say you're falling behind. Quit making fun of me and catch up." By the look on his face, I see I've caught the chink in the armor. I'm not sure if I'm sorry or satisfied.

"Sorry, Rikku. I didn't realize saving the world twice in a row qualified you to be an expert on everyone else. I'll really try to do better, considering I'm the one who let you in from the rain, and into my home and business. My mistake."

"That wasn't how I meant it and you know it." I guess I can see how he thought it was though. Wording is a bitch. "All I meant was that I'm not a kid anymore, and neither are you. I didn't think it'd be too much to ask to stop being treated like one. My mistake," I say mimicking his tone. His face softens a bit.

"I'm just messing with you. That's all it ever was." He pauses. "We used to be friends." 'Used to be' being the operative words in that sentence, of course. I can't get into all of this now. I'll have to save it for any other rainy day but this one. I rest my head in my hands and rest my elbows on my knees and sigh.

"I'm sorry. I just…I'm tired. I'm stressed out. My plans are shot to hell. I just have some things that I'm dealing with. I'm not gonna bore you with them, but there it is. I didn't mean to sound like I'm not grateful, because I am. He sits next to me on the steps, but we're not touching.

"Wanna wait on the pizza guy with me?"

I guess I can try to give this "being civil" thing another shot.

A/N: Aha! He finally appears. And why is Rikku so pissed?

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