AN: Written as a very, very, very belated birthday fic for Vegetaspr1ncess.

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"For cryin' out loud, Rikku, would you put on some freakin' pants!"

Rikku winced at the sound of the furious bellow. She removed her safety glasses, setting her jaw stubbornly as she turned to face Gippal.

"I will not," she said with an icy glare. "It is hot, in case you haven't noticed, and the air conditioning's been out for a week. You get the air conditioning fixed, and I will consider wearing pants."

Her ponytail whipped him in the face as she spun around, dismissing him. For good measure she bent over, relishing his agonized groan. If she had to resort to wearing a bikini in the workshop just to stay cool, well, then, he was damn well going to suffer the consequences.

She'd just about finished tightening a bolt when a stinging pinch on her rear made her shriek and jump. Only she forgot she'd been working under the hood of a hover, and ended up slamming her head into it.

"Ouch!" she wailed, shooting a poisonous glance at him over her shoulder. "What did I ever do to you?"

"You have been walking around like that all morning." He wagged a finger in her face patronizingly. "You leave anything exposed that's typically covered by the uniform, and it's gonna get pinched."

"I would've thought you'd be happy." She thrust out her lower lip in a pout. "Just look at all the business you're getting." She motioned to the line forming outside of the workshop – a line comprised primarily of men with small, portable, and easily fixable machina. A few of them Gippal knew were capable of fixing their own machines. Obviously they'd lined up for the sole purpose of getting a glimpse at the hot female mechanic working in a bikini.

"Yeah, like I want business from men whose only interest is ogling my girlfriend." He glared right back.

"Well, then, it seems we are at an impasse. I'm not going to put any pants on until you get an air-conditioning technician out here. There's at least two in Bikanel that can be here in a few hours." She smiled sweetly.

"No can do. I have better things to spend money on right now than air-conditioning. A little heat isn't going to kill you, so suck it up and get dressed." He frowned at her.

Her smiled widened, so dripping with saccharin sweetness that he felt vaguely nauseous. Then, ever so slowly, she uncurled her fingers and let her wrench fall to the ground.

"Oops,"she gasped. "How horribly clumsy of me! I'll just get that." With deliberate slowness, she bent over to retrieve the tool she'd dropped.

Gippal was suddenly aware of the hush in the room. Normally the workshop was a riot of noise – laughter, curses, even the occasional vulgar, highly suggestive song rent the air – but now it seemed that no one had anything better to do than to stare at Rikku's fabulous behind. Which he promptly pinched.

"Would you stop that?" She complained.

"When you stop bending over," he replied. He whirled on his employees. "Next person I catch staring at my girlfriend can clean out their locker," he growled. Then he turned to the line formed outside and issued another ultimatum. "Next one of you I catch staring at my girlfriend is banned from Djose for a year!"

Sullenly, about half the crowd dispersed, gathering up their machines and grumbling as they went. One young man pulled a set of batteries from his pocket, popping them back into the "broken" machine, which miraculously began functioning again.

Fairly growling with frustration, Gippal stalked back towards the main building.

"Where are you going in such a snit?" Rikku inquired innocently, secure in the certainty that he'd be headed for the nearest commsphere to call out a technician.

Gippal turned, allowing her to savor her imagined victory for all of ten seconds before he promptly crushed it.

"I'm hiding your pants," he said. "The way I see it, you've got a few more good pinches coming to you!"