Quality Time Chapter 20: Mirrors
by PrettyGothGirl
Summary: Cid contrives a way for Rikku and Gippal to spend some quality time together. Chapter 20: Rikku stares into a mirror and contemplates why she is here and Gippal wishes for a better mirror.
Small A/N: Happy Birthday Amazonturk! This was supposed to be an interlude and it turned into a chapter. So, lots of chapters ahead! Pt. 1 of a Casino Royale twofer.
Large A/N: Here we are at chapter 20 (you see that 42, ignore it). Thank you to all of those who have stuck with me to this point. You have all been supportive and at halfway/third-way through I want to clarify some questions/remarks I've received regarding the story ever since I started. Quality Time, to me, isn't about dating, romance or easy. If that's what you want to read, please go read Desert Rose. Quality Time is about relationships, specifically Rikku and Gippal's, and their pitfalls, false expectations, fear, bad communication, partnerships, trust issues and a major amount of blind lust in the context of cheesy/bad/funny/cliché romance scenes from action films. Relationships have holding patterns. This is where we are now. We shall progress. It takes time, especially when events conspire against them. For those of you who are willing to endure the journey, thank you for your patience and bearing with me, because this fic is a bear to write. It pleases me that you all take the time to read and respond, even if it is a supposedly negative review. I love you all.
Anonymous Review Warning: Lack of email in anonymous reviews causes PGG symptoms of irritation and annoyance resulting in apathy over stated opinion in said review. If your opinion is important enough for you to comment, then I want it to be important enough for me to reply to. Thank you.

Rikku rested her hands on the edge of the sink and stared into the mirror. Why was she doing this again? Right. He'd threatened to get kinky. She sighed and her head dropped. Not that she'd known what that meant, but with Gippal… it could be anything. She wasn't willing to take the chance that she'd change her mind. Just one last mission, this was it. Besides, she'd been kinky enough with Gippal and getting kinky with him might make her forget why she as so angry with him.

She shook her head. She wasn't going to forget. It was hard to forget when he was so stupidly male. He toyed with her feelings, lied to her and didn't respect her decisions. In her opinion, those were very good reasons to be angry.

She jerked open a drawer pulling out the thin sheets that held the tattoo part of her disguise, the case of little jewels and the bottles needed to make them stick. She set them onto the counter with a little more force than necessary. Hot tears welled in her eyes. He couldn't leave her alone. He pushed and poked and prodded and it hurt. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She'd tell him everything if she thought he'd listen and understand. What was wrong with him? Hell, what was wrong with her? Why couldn't they just act normal without hurting each other?

She sniffled. She had to pull it together. She inhaled through her mouth, straightened her shoulders. She was being weepy. Damn it. It was all his fault she was crying. Stubborn, egotistical… male. She splashed her face with water and patted it dry. Being angry was the only way she was going to be able to make it through the night.

It would help if he weren't male in other aspects, like his smell and his body and the way he kissed. The way his hands gripped her waist when he held her close, warm and strong. She shook her head and grabbed one of the papers. That train of thought wouldn't help anything. Stupid, stupid, they were both being stupid. She applied the tattoos, turning into a stranger.

The stranger in the mirror and her looked into each other's eyes. Damn it, they both still loved him.

Gippal knocked on the door.

"What?"

He opened it enough to stick his head and arm around to place a dress on the door hook. "For the evening."

Her eyes narrowed at the champagne colored scrap of fabric. "I have dresses." She had lots of dresses, a closet full of dresses.

"And they're all lovely. I need you looking especially gorgeous so when you walk up behind me and kiss me on the lips the man across from me will be thinking about your cleavage and what's keeping your dress on and not his cards."

She blinked. That was such a male tactic. Well then. She pasted on a sweet smile. "I'll try."

He stared at her a moment. She couldn't read what was on his face or in his eyes before he shut the door. She turned back to the mirror and set out the makeup boxes. She'd have to play up her eyes with a light yellow dress. Bright red lips wouldn't match. She dipped her brush into a pale yellow and swept it across her lids all the way to the brow bone.

The door opened again. "What's this?" Gippal thrust a jacket into the room.

"A jacket." She flicked her eyes up to glance at him. She'd picked it out weeks ago and there hadn't been anything appropriate to wear it to, until now.

"It's fitted."

She raised her eyebrows. He'd gotten her a dress which meant he knew her measurements and how much of him had she'd been touching? Did he not expect her to know the same for him? "I am intimately familiar with your measurements." She said. He clenched his jaw. "And I need you too look handsome at that table."

He turned and shut the door without a word. She smiled and dipped her brush into the brown. Stalemate.

Gippal shrugged into the jacked at tugged his sleeves into place. Damn, for a better mirror. He turned left and right. It fit perfectly, falling just so in the front and not bunching in the back. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Rikku leaned against the door spying on him. The sash of her robe loosely tied so that it fell a little off her shoulder. He tore his gaze away from that patch of skin. He adjusted his shirt before turning his head to stare at her. She was all the more desirable now that she was mad at him and he knew she wouldn't touch him.

She laughed and retreated into the bathroom.

He sighed. If things were well, he'd have chased after her and kissed her delving his hands under her robe. He fiddled with the zipper tab of his shirt collar. If things were well…

This was stupid, all of it. He gritted his teeth. Normal people talked out their problems or screamed at each other. How come he and Rikku couldn't get this? Why didn't they just talk? It was almost like they were running so much from and to each other they didn't have time. That and Cid's little plans didn't help. Damn Cid. If he hadn't…

Gippal shook his head. Yeah, he'd be in Djose and Rikku would be gallivanting all over the world and he'd never see her. He'd never have worked up the courage to kiss her or hold her hand or stroke her hair.

He'd make things well. He'd set things straight. Shake the answers of out her. But first, he had to do well in this card game.

He glanced at the bathroom door. This would be her chance to escape. Would she actually come?

He exhaled. She would. He had to trust she would. Trust, isn't that what relationships were about, trust. Despite the fact the two of them were idiots at all of this. If nothing else, she'd show to embarrass him or hurt him in some manner.

If only she knew how easy that could be.

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