"Tell me again."

"Tell you what again?"

"Our story."

He sighed, rolling his eye. "I told you three times already!"

"I want to hear it again. Please?"

"Fine." He slid an arm around her, tucking her securely up against him, her head beneath his chin. "But only because you asked so nicely."

"It's because you love me."

"Pfft. Whatever."

His breath whooshed out and Rikku withdrew her fist from his stomach.

"Start talking," she advised.

"Okay, okay. So once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl."

"How beautiful was she?"

"Well, maybe she wasn't beautiful exactly. But I'm sure she was prettier than the backside of a shoopuff."

"Gippal..."

"She was the most beautiful girl in all of Spira."

"That's better. Did you love her?"

"Not right away. She was kind of an awkward kid, all gangly and clumsy."

"And beautiful."

"Well, yeah, but you didn't notice it so much because she was just a kid." He laughed at her indignant expression.

"But she was beautiful."

"Who's telling this story, anyway?"

She had the grace to look embarrassed, and he continued.

"She was amazing. She was funny and smart and she had the most fantastic butt you ever-"

"Gippal!"

"All right, all right. She was pretty much the best friend I ever had. The only person that ever really understood me, and definitely the only girl that could kick my ass."

"It's your lack of depth perception." She patted his cheek sympathetically.

"Thanks. So this girl was really something. She was braver than most grown men, and she was still just a kid when she ran off to help save Spira the first time."

"The first time?"

"Oh, yeah. She did it twice."

"It wasn't just her. It wasn't even mostly her," Rikku corrected.

"I'm sure they couldn't have done it without her."

"Maybe they could have."

"No way. You obviously don't know this girl like I do. Now shut up and let me finish."

"Shutting up."

"So this amazing girl saved Spira twice before she was even out of her teens. She was so fantastic that every sane man in Spira was in love with her."

"Even though she was Al Bhed?" She giggled at his ridiculous exaggeration.

"She single-handedly destroyed all of Spira's preconceived notions of the Al Bhed. Being Al Bhed only made her seem exotic to them, and, since she was the daughter of the Al Bhed's leader, she was practically a princess."

"Oh. So everyone loved her?"

"Everyone," he confirmed.

"But not you."

"Well, maybe I did, but I didn't know it yet."

"When did you know it?"

"Hold on, I'm getting there. So after saving Spira the second time, everybody thought she'd go home to Bikanel."

"She didn't?"

"You know she didn't. She hung around Besaid, helping to plan her cousin's wedding."

"You know Yunie. If we let her plan anything, we'd still be fighting Sin. Yunie's a doer, not a planner."

"Of course. Anyway, the wedding was the event of the millennium. All of Spira turned out to Luca Stadium to wish Yuna and Tidus well. Of course, this amazing Al Bhed girl was the maid of honor. She was so beautiful that she outshone the bride."

"No, she didn't! She was crying so hard she tripped on the hem of her dress and nearly fell flat on her face in front of all those people!"

"And that's when I knew I was in love with her."

"When she almost ruined Yunie's wedding?"

"No, dummy." He flicked her forehead. "When I saw her cry."

"But she looked horrible. Paine even said her make-up was running down her face."

"She looked beautiful," he corrected. "I didn't realize it until then, but in all the years I'd known her, I'd never once seen her cry. Not when her mother died, not when Home was destroyed, not when Sir Auron and Tidus disappeared. I knew she wasn't crying because Yuna was getting married. I knew she was crying for everything she hadn't cried about, ever, because she could finally do it without looking weak."

"How did you know that?"

"I just knew. It was the first time I'd ever realized that she really was just a girl. Just a girl who'd lost her Home and her mother and her friends. A girl who'd been through more hardships and conquered more enemies than most people do in a lifetime. And just like that, I realized that I loved her."

"So you loved her because she cried?"

"No, I loved her because she was beautiful and smart and funny and brave. I only realized how much I loved her when I saw her crying. I wanted to hold her and protect her and tell her that she didn't always have to be the hero. I wanted to be her hero, for once."

"So what did you do?"

"Naturally, being the suave, debonair, ruggedly handsome man that I am, I swept her off her feet and – ow, ow, ow, okay, I get it!"

She let go of his ear, smiling sweetly.

"What did you do," she prompted.

"I asked her if her make-up had been applied by an aspiring clown, and then I asked her to marry me."

"And then what happened?"

"Before or after she kicked my ass six ways to Sunday for insulting her?"
"After."

"Well, about three minutes after I regained consciousness, she jumped on my stomach until I admitted that I loved her, and then she said yes."

"And then what?"

"That's the end."

"No, it's not. Every story that's any good ends with Happily Ever After."

"And this is a good one?"

She grinned. "The best."

"How d'you know?"

"I'm living it."

He relented. "Okay. We'll live happily ever after. Just for you, Cid's girl."