What I Wouldn't Do For You

Chapter One: The Deal

Well, Spira has been saved once again. The chick that used to be the High Summoner had defeated Vegnagun like she had done to Sin when she brought about the Eternal Calm. Things are peaceful, and all is well. The Youth League and New Yevon had stopped pointing fingers at each other and put aside their differences. The sun is shining more often, children are laughing and playing, parents could smile knowing that their kids have a bright future ahead of them...

And I still hate my life. It's been the same, uneventful routine for me: get my ass out of bed, shower, eat breakfast, work, work, work, put up with deadweights who shouldn't even be in the Machine Faction because it's like they've never even see a machina before, work, work, put up with MORE deadweights, eat dinner, lie in bed for an hour or two thinking about how crappy my day was, and sleep. And the thing that gets me is that I wake up to the same stuff I went through yesterday. Life just LOVES playing twisted little games with me, doesn't it?

But I'm obliged to do all this stuff. I'm the leader of the Machine Faction, so it's my job to keep everyone and everything in its place. I was always taught that once you've started something, you have to go with it until the end. So whenever there's a problem, I have to be there to fix it. It's as simple as that.

...what am I saying? Nothing is simple anymore. It hasn't been for a long while. I thought I used to be able to do this stuff without hating it, but now...something's changed. I don't know if it's me or what, but I know things aren't the same anymore, and I don't know how long they've been that way. All I know is that all I could ever think about is HER...

Rikku...

The girl with the bright smile and the clear green eyes that I would love to look at. The one who was the joy of the Al Bhed clan: constantly bouncing around and teeming with life. The one who I loved to tease and torment, even if she grew to despise the way I acted towards her, but she never said anything. Cid's little girl.

And the one that I can't stop thinking about. It's really getting on my nerves, too. Damn her.

When I lived at Home in the Bikanel Desert, I was friends with Rikku's older brother. We would always go out into the desert salvaging whatever machina we could find and tinkering with it later. And Rikku always followed. She wasn't the type to stay in one place, she always had to be doing something, it didn't matter what. We would let her come with us despite the fact that a place where dehydration and famine were common wasn't the best setting for a little girl. Whenever Brother and I were messing around with the stuff we found, she would always bring us something to drink or eat. Even if she never admitted it, she was always worried about the people around her. She'd do anything to bring a smile to a person's face, and that was one of the reasons I began to like her. Really like her.

And how did I show that I had a crush on her? I did what any other little boy with a crush on a girl would do. I tortured her.

I did stupid stuff like pull on her braids, or trip her when she wasn't looking. The one thing that really pissed her off was when I called her "Cid's little girl". She hated being caught in the shadow of her dear old dad, so I knew that it got to her when I didn't call her by her name. She would fight back by pouting or sticking her tongue out at me. And of course, that only made me tease her more.

Guessing how I made sure that no other guy went near her? Simple. I lied to the other kids that she and I were dating. I figured that if they thought Rikku was my girl, the other guys would back off. I mean, I had my good share of fights before. And I would always be the one standing after they all were over. So I thought it was safe to assume that the message that Rikku was MY girlfriend was clear. No matter how much she denied it. As far as everyone was concerned, we were together. And everyone believed me.

...except one person. Supposedly, he must have not considered me a threat because he began to hang around Rikku more, making jokes and laughing with her, and she would smile. I decided not to say anything though, until one day. The kid went up to her and gave her a flower, and Rikku smiled and her cheeks turned red. I realized she was blushing, and that was the last straw. I went up to him and demanded him to back off before something bad would happen. But he didn't leave Rikku. So I made him leave.

He ended up with three missing teeth and a broken arm. And believe me, if a bunch of adults hadn't seen me and held me back, that bastard would've been a dead Al Bhed.

I got turned into the elder, and because of the fact that life just loves playing twisted little games with me, it happened to be Rikku's dad, Cid. Could anyone blame me for being nervous for the first time in my life? How would you react if you were brought before the dad of the girl that you liked so much you beat up a kid for her? Surprisingly, my punishment wasn't so bad. Because I was a friend of Brother's, Cid went easy on me and told me that I couldn't go out on excavations in the desert for a week. He knew about my love for machina, so he decided that not allowing me to go out to the desert was fair enough. I didn't mind my punishment, but what upset me was that Rikku was angry with me. She avoided me for a while and that was enough to hate myself.

I didn't know that she had forgiven me until I turned thirteen. She handed me a present and with a big smile on her face, she said, "Happy birthday, Gippal." I opened it up and found a brand new pair of goggles. She must have known mine had broken the week before when I was finally allowed to go back out to the desert. I was so happy that she was talking to me again that I actually was nice to her for the remainder of that day. After that, the torturing and the arguing continued, and life was good again.

Until, of course, Cid allowed Rikku when she was fourteen to go onto expeditions on the Al Bhed salvaging ship to look for machina in uncharted parts of Spira's oceans. What is it about Brother and him allowing Rikku to go to places where the possibility of her being ripped apart by fiends existed? I opposed to it, but she went anyway. As I said, she loved doing things out of the ordinary and hated to stay at Home doing nothing.

As the time I spent away from her got longer, my feelings for her grew even more. It drove me insane being at Home and having to spend my days without teasing her, so I left for a while. I didn't come back until the Eternal Calm was established throughout Spira.

I had to come back. I nearly had a freaking heart attack when I heard that Rikku was one of the High Summoner's guardians and was going to fight Sin. I wanted to beat the crap out of Brother and Cid for letting her go to her death. I had so many things that I still had to tell her that I was too damn stubborn to admit when I was younger. I had to say I was sorry for everything I had done to her. For Spira's sake, she was going to go and fight SIN, the monster who was responsible for killing Yevonites and Al Bhed alike! She was gonna die, and I wouldn't be there to protect her...

So wasn't I relieved when I saw her in Luca Stadium when the High Summoner made her big speech on a sphere that was recorded at the time. I didn't know where to go and find her afterwards, because the Guado had destroyed Home. Luckily, I met up with a few other Al Bhed and we all traveled to Bikanel Desert where Home used to stand. Cid was there gathering all the Al Bhed, and so was Rikku, safe and sound. She saw me and waved at me as Cid was giving a speech of his own about rebuilding Home and the Al Bhed clan itself.

After Cid was done, Rikku weaved through the crowd and went up to me. She had grown more beautiful since the last time I saw her. "Hi, Gippal," she greeted me enthusiastically as she smiled. "What have you been up to all this time?"

I didn't answer. I couldn't because I was at a loss for words. She had just returned from putting her life on the line fighting Sin, and she had the nerve to say 'hi' to me and ask what I've been doing for the past year or so that I hadn't seen her. I wanted to yell at her for risking her life, but I was so happy that she was safe...

I did the unthinkable and I hugged her. I didn't care that she was shocked or that a bunch of people had seen us. I just held her.

"Fryd dra ramm ec dra syddan fedr oui?" I asked her, still hugging her. I was afraid that if I let her go, she would leave me again. "You could've died."

She hesitated, probably still a little surprised by how I was acting. But I felt her arms wrap around me, her pretty face next to mine. "Cunno," she apologized in our native tongue. "I'm sorry for making you worry about me."

We hugged for a while, not noticing anyone else but each other. I then asked her if she would be my girlfriend, and she said she would. From then on, we were always together, digging up machina and tinkering with it later. I would still tease her, but not as much as I used to. Dating me was a chance for her to see that I wasn't the arrogant jackass I usually was, so she didn't treat me like one like everyone else did. I felt like I was able to tell her anything, but I held back. I wasn't used to all these new feelings, and something told me that she wasn't either. Still, I cared about her more than anything, even if I never really told her. And for a while, things were great.

Then I began the Machine Faction. There was so much I wanted to know about machina, and I wanted to improve the efficiency of my people's inventions. Rikku didn't have to tell you I was obsessive over the stuff, 'cause everyone knew I was. So me and a bunch of other Al Bhed kinda distanced ourselves from the tribe and created our own organization, with yours truly as the leader. Both Rikku and I knew what this meant. We wouldn't be able to do as much stuff together since my hands were tied with the Machine Faction. But she didn't disapprove of it; she just smiled like she usually does and did everything she could to help me.

When I was seventeen, though, that's when everything fell apart. Brother and his close friend Buddy discovered this really great machina in some frozen wasteland, Spira knows how long it was buried under the ice. They did a little modifying and ended up with their own ship, the Celsius. Rikku would go flying around with them helping people to learn how to use machina. Then this whole craze with the sphere-hunting business came about, and Rikku founded the Gullwings with Brother and Buddy.

I really don't want to talk about what happened, let alone think about it. Let's just say some stuff was said, and we decided to split up after that. I stayed with the Machine Faction and she went off collecting useless spheres. Figures.

Afterwards, we still talked to each other, just not as much. I returned to tormenting her with jokes and pranks, and she just pouted. Things went back the way they were before we were dating. The only difference being that I hardly saw her for the rest of that year.

Oh, and that whole deal with Vegnagun being resurrected and coming close to destroying all of Spira. Need to add that, too.

In the end, I didn't see her much. And that's why I've been moping for the past few months now. She put herself in danger again by going with her little friends to fight Vegnagun to save Spira, and this time, I didn't even get to hold her after all of it. I didn't get the chance to hug her and scold her for being so stupid, and it's really eating away at me.

This all her damn fault. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be such a mess right now. If we hadn't broken up, if she didn't go and nearly got herself killed twice, and if she hadn't left me, none of this would've happened. Women are evil, and if you ask me, they're worse than fiends. Pure and simple.

I'm suffering because of her, but I hate myself for not telling her how I truly felt about her. Heh...ain't life a bitch?

I thought it was hopeless, until Brother and Rikku showed up at the Djose Temple today. I stood there, looking like my bad-ass self and greeted them.

"Hey Brother," I greeted, and I grinned when I spotted his sister. "Well if it isn't Cid's little girl!" I teased, messing up her hair as I did.

She just rubbed her head, trying to smooth the long blonde strands of her hair out. "I have a name..." She whined.

"Riiiight," I smugly replied, and then I turned back to Brother. "So, what brings you to my humble abode?"

Brother cleared his throat like he was going to make a big speech. "Gippal, we need your help," he said in his heavily accented voice.

"...okay...with what exactly?" I asked, a bit suspicious.

"The Celsius is having some sort of trouble," he explained. "It has not been flying as well as it should. Something with the engine. I went to Nhadala to see if she could help, and she told me that a team excavated an ancient machina from the desert. She let me take a look at it, and I found out that it has a part that the Celsius needs."

I knew exactly where this was going, so I shook my head. "Hey man, what do you think I'm running? A junkyard? I pay people good money to risk their lives out in that desert to find machina."

The look on Brother's face was devastating. "But I can't find any parts on the market that are compatible with the Celsius! That machina has what I need!"

I didn't change my mind. "Sorry, Brother. But I can't just sell stuff that people worked hard to find."

He was about to say something else, but Rikku stepped in. "C'mon, Brother. He has a point. We'll have to look somewhere else."

"Don't you get it, Rikku?!" He snapped at her. "There IS nowhere else!" He fell to his knees and grabbed my hands, almost at the brink of crying. "Bmayca, Gippal!"

"Here we go," Rikku sighed, knowing exactly what Brother was going to do.

"Let go of me," I hissed, but he didn't.

"I need that part more than anything! The Celsius won't be able to fly again without it!" He emphasized. I always thought that the guy was too dramatic.

"Stop it already. You're making a scene!" I tried to tell him and looked nervously at the people who began to watch.

"I will do anything for that part!!!" He shouted, his hands cutting off the circulation to my own.

Those words hit me like a lightning bolt. "What did you just say?" I asked, hoping I heard the lunatic right.

"I will do anything!!!" He repeated, almost crying this time. My eye darted over to Rikku, who was oblivious to her Brother's sob act. She was just swaying back and forth with her hands behind her head and a smile on her pretty face.

This was it, I thought. The perfect opportunity. Man, I'm such a genius.

I yanked my hands away from Brother. "There IS one thing..." I said, and his head shot up. "But I wanna discuss it with you." I looked at Rikku. "...alone."

She heard me and stuck her tongue out at me. "Pek sayhea," she replied and skipped off to the area near the item shop. She spotted a squatter monkey and instantly squealed with delight when she saw it. She approached it and began to scratch behind its ear, saying over and over again about how cute it was. A part of me wanted to laugh, but the other part began to hate the stupid animal.

Anyway, I had to make this proposal sound casual. I didn't want either Rikku or her insane brother to catch on, so I had to word it in a way that it wouldn't sound suspicious.

"So, Rikku helped modify that ship of yours, right?" I asked him, even if I already knew the answer.

"Yes, yes, she did," he answered, beginning to calm down a bit. I guess he was a lot more confused than desperate now. Guess 'cause he didn't know what Rikku had to do with getting the machina part he wanted.

"Tell you what. I'll let you have the part for your ship if you can convince Rikku to hang around here for a while. I could always use help with dealing with the Machine Faction, so if she could stay here for...I don't know, a month at most-"

"She will stay for three!" Brother nearly screeched.

Cha-ching! I am SO the man...

"...sure."

"Whoopee!!!" The lunatic cried after we shook to make the deal solid. To Al Bhed, once you've made a deal with someone, it's your responsibility to keep your end of the bargain...or suffer the consequences.

Believe me, you do NOT want to see an angry Al Bhed. With the technology we've developed while all those other idiots were praying to a god that didn't exist, no one wants to mess with us. We WILL hunt you down.
"So, will Rikku go through with it?" I asked, a bit afraid that she wouldn't.

"Of course, of course," Brother shook off the possibility-no, reality that his sister would NOT be happy with the deal we made. "I will talk to her and she will happily agree."

He turned and nearly skipped to his sister, who was now feeding the squatter monkey with a piece of a candy bar she stowed away in one of the leather pouches she wore around her waist. I watched her stare at Brother as he explained everything.

And I was worried about Brother making a scene...

"Ruf luimt oui tu drec du sa, oui zang!" She cried in Al Bhed. Her bright green eyes glared at him, her little hands balled into fists like she was going to go onto a rampage and kill him in front of all these witnesses. "Fryd uh Spira yna oui drehgehk?!?"

"Ed'c dra uhmo fyo fa lyh cyja uin creb!" Brother tried to reason with her, but it obviously wasn't working.

"What am I, a bargaining chip?!?" She shouted at him, not caring or noticing that she had slipped out of our language. "I have things to do, I can't stay here for three whole months!"

Brother didn't back down. "Yes, you will! We need that part for the Celsius or it will never fly again!"

This little bit went on for a few hours. Attracted quite the crowd, too. Even if a lot of the argument was in Al Bhed, no one had to know how to speak it to realize that Rikku was angry and on the brink of killing Brother and me. A member of the Faction told me that after she was done with Brother, she would go after me. He suggested that I hide.

But hey, what can I say? I'm Gippal, the fearless leader of the Al Bhed Machine Faction. I can face anything, even the wrath of a seventeen- year-old girl.

Y'know, I could have stopped the whole argument by stepping in and telling Brother that I could just give him the part without Rikku having to stay at the temple. But I didn't. Deep down inside, I wanted her to stay that long. If she stayed, I would be able to hang around with her more and make up for the time that we had lost. Call me selfish, but the truth was that I still cared about her. This is my one chance; if I let it go, I probably won't see her until the next time Brother needs something. And I can't wait that long.

After what seemed like another war had ensued, Brother came back to me with a huge grin on his face and a fuming Rikku by his side.

"Rikku has agreed," he said. I tried to catch a look at her face, but her long bangs and neat braids covered her emerald green eyes. "She will stay here at Djose to help you with the Machine Faction."

"Excellent," was all I could say, and I grinned at Rikku. "So, Cid's little girl ready to make herself at home?"

She didn't say anything. She didn't even react by saying "I have a name". She just went off to the direction of the Celsius to gather her stuff, or at least that's what Brother told me. I allowed him to go back to Bikanel Desert to get the part that he had agreed to hand over his sister's social life for. To give to Nhadala as proof, I wrote a quick letter granting my permission and gave it to Brother. When Rikku returned with a huge knapsack on her back, he said good-bye and left for the desert.

"Lemme show you where you'll be staying," I told her, and she simply nodded and followed me into the temple. All of the Faction members that had seen the spat between Brother and Rikku cleared the way for us since they wanted to keep their limbs attached. I opened a door that was in the back of the temple and introduced her to the guest room. It wasn't very big and didn't have any windows, but it had its own bed and dresser.

"This all right?" I asked her, feeling guilty that I was the reason that she had to stay.

She paused, but forced a weak smile. "Yeah, this is okay." She went over to the bed and began to unpack her stuff. Her back was to me, and all I heard was the shuffling of her hands as she took out all of her clothes and laid them out on the bed.

"So...you gonna be okay?" I asked her.

Of course she's not okay, dumbass, the cynical voice-aka my conscience-said. She's stuck here for three months because you can't just TELL her that you like her so damn much.

She turned to me and smiled again. "Sure! I'll be okay."

I hate it when she does this. She puts on a smile even though she has every reason to be depressed because she doesn't want people to worry about her. She had every right to hate Brother and me, but Rikku isn't the type to hold a grudge.

"Dinner's in thirty minutes. Get settled in and come out to eat, okay?" She nodded and returned to unpacking her stuff. I left her alone and shut the door, feeling like I had just murdered someone. I knew that she was pretending that nothing happened because she didn't want to see me upset. Rikku never wanted to make people unhappy, even at the cost of her own happiness and even if I happened to be the person that caused this whole mess.

But hey, I'll make it up to her. How long can a girl that I've tormented since the day that she could walk be miserable?

...damn it, what the hell have I gotten myself into?

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This is my new attempt at a GippalxRikku fanfic. I know it's a little boring, but I promise that it'll get better. Really!

And for those of you who don't know Al Bhed, here are some translations:

"Fryd dra ramm ec dra syddan fedr oui?" Gippal *What the hell is the matter with you?

"Cunno." Rikku *Sorry.

"Bmayca" Brother *Please

"Ruf luimt oui tu drec du sa, oui zang!" Rikku *How could you do this to me, you jerk!

"Fryd uh Spira yna oui drehgehk?!?" Rikku *What on Spira are you thinking?!?

"Ed'c dra uhmo fyo fa lyh cyja uin creb!" Brother *It's the only way we can save our ship!