Quality Time
by PrettyGothGirl
All Disclaimers Apply
Summary: Rikku and Gippal get a taste of what things could be like if circumstances weren't against them and they weren't so stubborn.
Author's Note: (glares at characters) That's right. Stubborn! This wasn't supposed to be a chapter, but then Gippal wanted to look and next thing I knew I was 40 or so words away from my limit so I just filled it in. Anyways, this hopefully gives me some time to work on the next chapter, which is back to the main story.
Rikku and Gippal stared at each other across a hotel room. He leaned against the doorjamb. It was the only thing keeping him upright. Her shoulders slumped and she blinked and blinked again.
She rubbed her eyes and slumped more. Why were they here again? "I- I can't do this tonight. I got maybe twenty minutes sleep."
"Lucky." He muttered.
Her head jerked up. "You didn't get any?"
He shook his head. "One crisis after another as soon as I walked in the door." He groaned and rubbed the back of his neck. Rikku took a step forward and fell onto the bed. Her eyes closed and it was only the fact that she was in the worst position and all her clothes were digging into her that she sat up. Gippal staggered across the room, missed the bed entirely and fell into a heap on the floor. He leaned against the bed. He moved his head to look at her. "I say we sleep."
"That is the best sentence I have heard all day." She said. Gippal grinned. She sighed. "But there's only one bed."
His eyes closed, and his head started to droop. He jerked upright and forced his eyes open. "And this is a problem because? It's big."
Gippal always had an answer for everything. She was far too tired to argue with him. She pushed herself to her feet. "Fine, I get the bathroom first."
Gippal stared at the door, his eyes opening and closing as he listened to the water run and her moving about. It didn't take her that long. She exited, still fully dressed. Her hair spilled across her shoulders, free of restraints. He held his hand out. "Help me up." She eyed it. She glanced at him. Was he going to try and pull her down onto him or not? She bit her lip and grabbed it. She braced her body as he used her to pull himself to his feet, groaning all the way. He let her hand go. "Thanks."
She smiled, relieved. "No problem."
He walked around her into the bathroom. The door shut behind him. Her fingers flew as she threw off her clothes, throwing them into a haphazard pile on the nearest chair. Dressed in her underwear she pulled back the covers and rolled underneath them. She was going to be asleep before he got out. This was a really stupid idea. She shouldn't be anywhere near a bed with Gippal when things were so haphazard. Tidus was right. They were spending far too much time alone. But here she was doing it, rationalizing it due to a need for sleep and the desire to bash Tidus' head in, and Paine's right next to him because she was being sarcastically pushy. Rikku groaned and rolled to her side on the extreme edge of the bed. She was stupid, stupid, stupid. She closed her eyes.
The bathroom door opened. She wouldn't look. She would not look. She wouldn't.
She cracked her eyes open and relaxed minutely. He still had his pants on. She relaxed a little. He dropped his shirt on the floor and moved around to the other side of the bed. Her spine itched, the back of her neck tensing. She rolled over to watch him. Unable to bear the fact he might be watching her without her knowing.
He sat on the edge of the chair, leaning over to take off his boots. He tossed them somewhere near where hers had ended up and unbuckled his belt. He stood up, shucking his pants and answering the age-old question of boxers or briefs at the same time. She got a short glimpse of gray boxer-briefs before he slid under the covers and reached over to turn out the light.
She closed her eyes and tried not to think about the fact she was in bed with Gippal and they were both next to naked. It didn't work.
He stared at the ceiling a few minutes, inwardly cursing the fact he was exhausted, cataloguing the amount of Rikku's clothing on the chair, coming to the correct conclusion and wishing he had the energy to take advantage of the situation.
Less than five minutes later, they were both asleep.
He woke up a lot warmer than normal. It wasn't a feeling he was adverse too. Being born in the desert and then leaving it made him attached to being warm and thus he didn't want to stir. The reason for the additional warmth of more than the covers he could barely feel over him was nestled back against his chest, his arm around her waist, her hair somehow managing not to get into his mouth but stream across his neck. He raised his head and looked down. Rikku still slept, her eyes closed and lips shut as she breathed evenly through her nose. His lips twitched upwards. She looked cute and sweet.
He straightened his legs to ease the tension from them from being tangled with hers most the night. Their legs rubbed together, his slightly hairy ones against her smooth skin. He couldn't feel anything but skin under his arm, which made him think she was wearing as little as he'd thought last night. His body liked that notion, liked the very idea of being curled around Rikku and was telling him so, insistently. He inhaled, shifted out from behind her and eased her down to the bed. He glanced at her still face.
He hadn't had a chance to look at her. He'd touched her often enough, teased her skin, caressed the underside of her breasts, but he hadn't looked at her. He brushed her hair away from him and next to her back. His fingers caught in the tangles and loops. She'd seen him naked and had yet to return the privilege. Now, he could rectify that a bit. If she caught him at this, he was going to be slapped. He propped his head on his hand and grinned. It would be so worth it.
He tugged the blankets down to her hips and sighed in contentment. She was gorgeous. It didn't matter that her breasts were sunk a little into her chest because she was lying down. Her pink nipples were tight and round, peaked from the cooler temperature. His eyes swept the long column of her throat, where the curve met the shoulder and the hollow. All places he wanted to lick and kiss. He caressed one of her breasts, thumb rubbing over the hardness of her nipple. She moaned deep in her throat. Her eyes fluttering open as she wiggled against the bed.
"Gippal?" She said, voice thick with sleep.
He leaned down and kissed that curve of her throat, inhaling her scent, sweat and a bit of musk that was the smell of her. "Morning gorgeous."
She reached over and slid her hand into his hair. "Gorgeous? I like that one." She yawned. "But I'm all morning messy." She stretched, arching upwards and groaning.
He swallowed hard. She had to stop doing things like that. He was a man and he wanted. She tugged on his hair and he moved so he could look in her face. "You still look gorgeous to me." He murmured trying to get past the sexual haze she constantly put his thoughts into.
She propped her body up with her elbows and pressed her lips to his. He claimed her bottom lip, nipping it with his teeth. He pulled away before he could give into the temptation to slide his hand off her so he could hold his weight over her, press her down with his lower body and deepen the kiss, which would lead to other things, like sex. And if they were going to have sex, he really needed to take her out on a real date first or ask her to be his girlfriend. It was only right. She smiled at him without a clue of his thoughts and lowered her eyelashes. "Enjoying the view?"
"Immensely." He grinned and brushed her lips with his.
"Good. What time is it?"
He scowled, consulted his inner clock. It refused to answer. "I don't know." He looked over his shoulder, muscles stretching. The complimentary clock on the bedside table unmercifully displayed the time. His eyes widened. "Shit."
Rikku tried looking over his shoulder. "What?"
"It's past mid morning, make it more like midday." He eyed the clock. They'd slept over twelve hours. No wonder he felt well, rested.
"Oh Spira," she whispered, her own eyes widening and face paling. "Anikki is going to kill me." She started to roll out of bed.
Gippal's arm moved over and trapped her where she was. She could fight him, but a glance at his face made her stop. His eye danced and he was grinning. "It's a little late to be worrying about that."
She frowned. "What do you mean? I didn't tell them where I was going. They're probably frantic by now."
He rolled his eyes. "They know you can take care of yourself. Besides, if it's noon, there's no way I'm going to get any work done today and by the time we both bathe, dress and get something to eat there won't be time for you to do any work either. So, there's no rush."
She stiffened and glared at him. "Who said I was going to bathe?"
"I did." His eyebrow rose. "Plus, you've got that nifty transmitter to the Celsius. You can call Anikki, reassure him that you were out late but were too tired to head back so you rented a hotel room, which is the truth."
Truth to tell, he was getting a little tired of lies. He was tired of Rikku touting she was out with other men when she was with him. It made his stomach knot, even if these men didn't exist. He didn't like being jealous of figments of her imagination.
She stared at him. "There is no way to win with you. I know it. You know it, especially when we're mostly naked. So, fine." She paused in her semi-annoyed muttering and bit her lip. "We could spend the day together."
"All right."
"And I'll ask Shinra to see if he can jury rig some sort of way to route the radio through the commsphere system so you can call Djose."
It slipped out before he could censor it. "They'll assume I'm with my girlfriend. They won't care."
Her jaw dropped. "Your what?!"
His mouth formed an appropriate curse. He flushed and couldn't meet her eyes. "The entire temple thinks I have a girlfriend." He grimaced. "Persistently and invasively spout that they think I have a girlfriend. They won't stop picking on me." He whined.
Her mouth opened and closed for a few seconds before she giggled. "Oh good, you too."
His head snapped up. "Me too?"
"Tidus. Paine." She flushed. "Mostly Tidus." She looked away. "So, who is the supposed girlfriend?"
"They didn't say." Gippal swallowed, wondering where this was going. "And I didn't ask." Rikku'd almost killed that woman over a kiss. He didn't want to think what she might do to a girl that the temple theorized was his girlfriend. "I don't think they have any ideas." Damn it. It wasn't like any of it was real. Just like the guys weren't real. Oh fuck. He couldn't ask her not to feel what he was feeling. Emotions were dumb.
She relaxed a little. "Okay." She met his eyes. Her smile trembled. "You want the shower first?" She reached up and cupped his cheek. "I promise I won't run away."
He sighed. "All right. Since you've promised." He turned his head to kiss her palm. He rolled off the bed, stretched and picked up his clothes.
She watched him curling up into a little ball. The door closed behind him and the water started running.
She had two more things to add to her list.
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