When The Going Gets Tough, Gippal Get's Going

Gippal rubbed his eye as he sat at his desk at Djose temple. It had been a long day. The sand storm was finally beginning to weaken but the machine faction had lost days of work. He was so short on parts since no one could go out and excavate them. Today could not get worse.

RING RING

Gippal sighed and looked at the phone. If he was at home, this would have been an ignore the phone moment. Too bad he's at work right now.

"Djose temple, Gippal's office."

"Hey Gippal, Rin here. I was just calling about my... friend Valentina. She's in need of employment and I thought it would be a great idea for her to work with the machine faction." Rin thought that nobody knew that Valentina was his daughter. Unfortunately for him, everyone knew. But you couldn't tell Rin that.

"I see. What kind of position is Valentina looking for?"

"Well, I thought about the positions available at the temple and I found one perfect for her. She had mentioned that she wanted to take over Nhadala's job since she seems to be M.I.A, but Valentina is really not someone who would last in the desert. So, in turn, I have decided to make her your P.A!"

"My personal assistant?! I already have one! It's really not necesary for me to have a second one."

Not to worry young Gippal. I already thought of that. Your old assistant has been moved to the hiring agency out front with no affect on her wage."

"But that's like demoting her! She has been nothing short of fantastic at her job. That seems so unfair to her."

"You worry too much. I have already spoken to her and she has agreed. Her wage is not affected in anyway so it's not a demotion at all. You are the only person who seems to have a problem with this. Is there an issue I should know about Gippal?"

No. There is no issue Rin. Please let her know she starts tomorrow at 7:00 am." Gippal hung up the phone and sighed. Today got worse. He was now in a bigger mess then before. Lord give him strength.

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Rikku put the finishing touches on her homemade dinner for Gippal. Then felt like crying. What was suppose to be a delicious, wholesome meal, turned out to be ablack lump of something. She had tried so hard to no avail.

"Poopie." She heard a knock at the door and got up to go answer it.

"Delivery for a . Is he home right now?" The short delivery man asked.

"Um, no he's not home at the moment. I'm his...roomate. Is there something I can sign for him or does he need to be the one to do it? I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

"Sure, sure. Listen miss can you just hurry up and sign it. This is my last delivery before I get to go see my wife and kids." Rikku nodded and quickly signed the clipboard, grabbed the package and closed the door behind her.

Just to have it opened again.

"Hey Rikku. What's that strange smell? Is something burning?" In a flash Rikku remembered her lame attempt a dinner.

"Um, not anymore. I tried to make you dinner since you were out working all day but it didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to. By quite I mean it didn't turn out at all." Rikku looked at the floor, a tear forming in the corner of her eye.

"Hey don't worry about it. We'll just go to the little diner in the middle of the moonflow."

"Really?! I have never been there yet!!! You have to take a shoopuff to the middle of the moonflow where it sits, floating majestically." Rikku giggled a little. "Wakka must never go there."

"Nope. He says the place is unnatural. I say the place is gorgeous. It's really romantic if you think about it." Romantic, Rikku thought. She would love to have a romantic evening with Gippal. He probably knew all this from taking Valentina there already.

Well, let's get going then! I'm starved."

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Gippal watched Rikku bounce into the bathroom to wash her face before they left. He mentioned the word romantic, hoping it would trigger an emotion that told her she wanted a romantic evening with him. But her expression hadn't changed at all.

"Guess your gonna have to try harder old friend." Gippal muttered to himself. The package sitting in the floor then caught his attention. He opened the box and pushed all the white stuffing stuff, which no one really truly knows what the hell it is, to find a picture frame. In it was the picture from Nhadala's last birthday. It was of him, Nhadala and Valentina. We were all smiling and Valentina's arm was around Gippal. He had to get rid of it before Rikku saw it.

"Hey, what's that? Is that what was in the package?" Before he could stop her, Rikku had snatched the picture away from him and was looking at it. "This is a nice picture. You should put it on your mantel. I cleaned it off so it should be fine." Rikku then took it and placed above his t.v.

"Uh, listen Rikku. Something came up while you were in the bathroom. Here's some money to order a pizza. I have to actually go somewhere tonight. Work plans, you know." With that Gippal dashed out the door and walked towards the chocobo renting center. Tonight was obviously going to spent in his favorite Luca bar instead of at the Moonflow cafe.

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Rikku sat on Gippal's bedroom floor crying. She could never compete with Valentina. She was prettier, taller,had bigger boobs and was clearly much more sophisticated. She had her own apartment while Rikku was shacking up with Gippal. That settles it. She was obviously standing in the way of Gippal's happiness. Tomorrow she would look for an apartment, today she would seek comfort.

RING RING

"Hey Yunie? I need to talk..."

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"It's only monday Gippal! Usually you wait till friday before knocking a couple back. Wanna talk about it?" Kyla, the bartender asked him. She was a pretty young Kilikan girl who used to have a crush on Gippal. Now, they were close friends.

"It's a girl Kyla. Actually it's two girls." Kyla chuckled at that.

"You know how to get yourself in sticky situations don't you Gip!" She popped open another beer and passed to Gippal. "Tell me everything."

"Well you know Rikku. Rikku is the girl for me. I know it. She's my sun, she makes my day a little bit brighter! I couldn't live without her. She makes me feel like no one else ever could."

"So I don't see what the problem is? Marry this girl, pop out a couple kids and make a grandpa outta Cid. Everyone's happy, your carrying on the Al Bhed race! VOILA! Problem solved."

"But! Yes there is a but, there is a girl named Valentina. Nhadala'd daughter. She's determined to ruin what I'm trying to create with Rikku. She sent a picture of us to my house when I wasn't home, knowing Rikku would be there to sign for it. She also got Rin to pull some strings and get her hired as my personal assistant."

"Wow. That's a duzee. Maybe you should have a few more beers." Kyla pulled out another beer and handed it to Gippal. "So what are you going to do?"

"Well that's why I'm here. I have no clue. We were suppose to go out for dinner tonight... but I bailed. She saw the picture of Valentina and I just didn't have the balls to take her out to dinner after that. How could I? How must that look to her?"

"So, in a nutshell, your brilliant idea was to ditch her and run off? Most likely letting her think you had a prior engagement with Valentina? Am I the only one who sees the problem here?" Gippal looked at her with his mouth open. He hadn't realized how it would look to Rikku if he ran off in the night with no explanation.

"Oh god, Imade things ten times worse didn't I?"

"Try a thousand. You better go home to Rikku and sort this out." Gippal nodded. He tried to pay but Kyla declined with a brisk 'on the house'. He quickly hailed a hover and hoped he wasn't to late to undo the damage he had done.