(Full summary- A description of Paine's relationship with Gippal, Nooj, and Baralai, with some action and people that were presumed dead reappearing thrown in. Primary focus is Paine and Gippal. Definitely worth your time if you like a couple of slightly less common pairings. The first chapter will be pre FFX-2 flashbacks, the second will be flashbacks to times during X-2. Some actual story will start in chapter 3, set just after the game's ending. Pairings are these- Paine/Gippal, Yuna/Tidus, Rikku/Auron, Lucil/Nooj, Baralai/OC. The whole brother thing is figurative, obviously Paine and Baralai aren't related. Updates may be a tiny bit infrequent, but I shall not stop in my quest to write a good Paine/Gippal! And I know you're all tired of this lengthy intro and AN by now, so I'll shut up. Without further ado, here is chapter 1)
"Firstly, you're just a kid. Secondly, you're a girl. Thirdly-" but the fat man who was taking applicants for the Crimson Squad didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. The tall sixteen year old girl with silver hair and crimson eyes, dressed all in black, and carrying a Warrior's sword that could rival Sir Auron's heavy katana leaned over the desk and grabbed the portly rich looking man by the collar.
"Listen Mister," she said. "You let women into the Crusaders, and I've seen you sign off on 'kids' younger than I am. So you'd better-" It was the teenager's turn to get interrupted..
"Fine," he said. "I'll let you in, but women can't fight. You'll be a Sphere Recorder for that team over there. Come to think of it, you troublemakers will probably do well together. Some jackass Al Bhed blew up the same way you did; you'll be working with him."
After treating the man to a glare, she accepted her papers, recorder, and spheres, and headed over to the three guys she'd been pointed to.
Her group consisted of a tall man with long brown hair and two machina limbs, who introduced himself stiffly as Nooj (The Nooj? Nooj the undying? The Deathseeker?), a soft spoken young man with platinum white hair, brown eyes, and bronzed brown skin whose name was Baralai (Definitely looks like he was raised in Bevelle), and the final member was an Al Bhed teenager, who introduced himself with a cocky wink as Gippal (The jackass. Ha. Now he is... attractive? Well, I won't deny it, but he looks like he knows he's hot. He'll probably end up annoying me to hell). As she got acquainted with her new partners, she never knew she was embarking upon a journey that would bring her 3 friends with whom she could trust her life, while simultaneously giving her somebody to love. The Crimson Squad would bring Paine a mentor, a brother, and a lover.
"Hey Paine." Somebody was poking her, and with great reluctance she opened her eyes to find a spiralled blue one about two feet in front of her face.
"Gippal!" she snapped, more out of embarrassment than anger. "What are you doing in my tent? It's got to be after midnight."
"Come here," he said, wearing an evil grin. "You'll never believe what I saw." Grumbling about how this had better be good, Paine allowed herself to be dragged out of her tent and into the two man tent shared by Baralai and Gippal.
"Look at him," Gippal said as he snickered, gesturing to their innocently sleeping comrade. "He sleeps with a stuffed animal!" On closer inspection, Baralai was found to be clinging to a small yellow stuffed chocobo, which, due to the worn for wear look it had, Baralai had probably had since he was a young boy.
Does he wonder WHY strangers think he's a... what did that guy say... a girly-man? She too snickered slightly. "So?" she asked.
"So... now we have dirt on him!" Gippal had a classic untrustworthy smirk on his face, and Paine knew he wasn't going to let Baralai live it down.
"Whatever," she said. "I'm going back to bed."
"Aww, come on Doctor P!" Gippal said. "You're no fun."
"And you're too much fun," Paine retorted smoothly, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Too much fun..." he said, stroking his chin with a deliberately thoughtful air. "I like the sound of that."
For Yevon's sake, that idiot transforms everything I say into some suggestive comment! She was blushing, and she couldn't let Gippal realize it. "You are a... idiot!" she yelled, raising an arm to smack him. Gippal caught her by the wrist before she hit him, and refused to let her go. "Am I really an idiot?" he asked softly, standing too close for Paine's current comfort zone.
Why does he have to be so annoying! And charming too, that's the worst thing. He knows me too well, the egotistical git. "Let me go," she hissed, giving him a glare that any other person would quail under.
He looked like he wanted to antagonize her even more, but then something changed behind Gippal's sparkling blue eye and he dropped her wrist. She turned on her heel and walked back to her tent without a word. Baralai had slept through the whole episode.
Ugh... what happened? The last things she remembered were in a fog. They'd been fighting a Queen Coeurl, then she'd blacked out, but not before hearing three male voices scream "Paine!" She been revived for a brief moment to find Gippal staring down at her and saying she'd be okay, Baralai covering them, and Nooj still fighting the Coeurl, and then the world had blacked out entirely.
These memories rushed into her head as she slowly opened her eyes to find herself in her own tent. After thinking for a moment (which was hard, due to her current disoriented state) she concluded the Queen Coeurl must have got her with a Death Spell, and her brief moments of revival had been by Phoenix Down. She tried to sit up but the world swam before her eyes and she quickly lay back down to recover from the dizziness.
Baralai, who had been snoozing in the corner, looked up at the sound of movement and smiled wearily when he found her awake.
"Hey Sis," he said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. It had been 2 months since they'd first met, and Baralai (usually only when they were alone) often called her that, reflecting his protectiveness for the friend he'd come to love like a sister. Nooj said he was above such petty hobbies as nicknaming people, and Gippal preferred to annoy her by calling her Doctor P.
"How long have I been out?" she asked Baralai curiously.
"Almost a day," Baralai replied. "You've had us all worried about you. Even Nooj was worried, though he was trying not to show it." Hmph. Typical Nooj.
Just then, the tent flap opened and Gippal and Nooj looked through. Both looked visibly relieved to see her awake. Baralai stood up and winked at her before saying "I'll leave you two alone," and walking out of the tent, grabbing Nooj by the arm as he went by and pulling him out of the tent along with him.
Damnit, why did he have to do that? I wonder what Gippal spouted off while I was out that made them think... no! Don't start thinking like that! That train of thought is strictly off limits!
"Feeling better?" Gippal asked eventually, sitting down on the edge of the bed like Baralai had done. "You took quite a beating."
"State the obvious, why don't you," Paine muttered sarcastically.
"Sorry," Gippal said with a chuckle. Turning serious, he said "We were really worried about you. I-" but then he frowned and didn't finish the thought.
"I'm just glad you're alright," Gippal continued. "If we'd... if you'd... I don't know what I would have done." He offered her a weak grin that was only a semblance of his usual cocky smirk, and reached down to smooth stray strands of Paine's silvery hair away from her forehead.
Paine shivered at the gentle touch of his fingers, and suddenly became overly aware of the fact that Gippal's face was very close to her own. Part of her told her she was being silly, but it was overruled by a much larger part that wasn't quite sure of itself, lost in the depths of Gippal's blue eyes.
Whatever fragile spell that held her in the moment seemed to affect Gippal too. He slowly, almost timidly, closed the remaining gap between them and gave her a soft, gentle kiss that felt only half real. She was too shocked to respond in any fashion, and if she had she didn't know whether it would have been to slap him or kiss him in return. She was just... confused.
The moment was rudely broken by the sound of approaching footsteps, and Baralai's voice calling out "Guys?" Gippal and she quickly broke apart, and Baralai entered the tent to find a blushing Paine and a pale Gippal giving him strange looks. Paine saw his eyes flicker back and forth between them, and she suspected (but hoped she was wrong) that Baralai had a good idea of what had just occurred.
For the next several days, Paine and Gippal would tiptoe around each other, awkward in each other's presence and not sure of where they stood. Their behavior would not go unnoticed, and it was only with intervention from Nooj and Baralai that they'd eventually have a heart to heart talk about the feelings that existed between them.
Paine could not believe what was happening to her. The four of them had stopped at the Al Bhed Home as they passed through the Bikanel Desert, where Gippal had been warmly received by the Al Bhed's leader Cid, and Paine (who had only just learned of Summoner Yuna's lineage) had gotten a chance to meet the brother-in-law of High Summoner Braska and Summoner Yuna's Uncle. Both of Cid's children (including Gippal's ex-girlfriend Rikku) were away (she learned that Rikku had joined her cousin's pilgrimage, and that her older brother was off salvaging machina with a friend) and weren't on the island.
Of course, you'd think such an innocent visit would have turned out perfectly fine. But no... Paine now found herself locked in a room with Gippal, fuming at the fact that Nooj and Baralai's plot (which seemed to involve everybody except for herself and Gippal) had worked. Her anger was also tempered by a fear of what Gippal would say to her. She'd been reluctant to admit it, but she knew she had feelings for Gippal and was afraid that Gippal did not seriously return them.
"What did you mean by it?" she asked eventually. Gippal sighed and placed a hand on the back of his neck in a nervous gesture.
"I probably meant exactly what you thought I did," he said. "I thought that you weren't speaking to me because you were mad I'd taken advantage of you when you were weak in bed. To tell you the truth, I know I act like a... ladies man, but it's just in my nature. Besides-" at this point he cracked a grin. "It's fun. I really do... feel that way about you, and annoying you all the time was my way of saying it. I'm immature like that." He cracked another grin, and Paine almost laughed. He's right on that one.
Paine was speechless, but Gippal read her expression and understood. "You think I'm toying with you. You think I'm not serious." He sighed, but suddenly his face regained a bit of its mischievous glimmer. "I'll show you I mean it," he said. With two swift steps across the room, Gippal reached her and pulled her into a passionate kiss.
For a second Paine was shocked. After the shock wore off she briefly felt an urge to pull away and smack him, but gave in to her heart, which was telling her this felt right. She wrapped her arms around Gippal's neck and kissed him back; the two of them breaking away only reluctantly.
"Now do you believe me?" Gippal asked, with his familiar cocky smirk firmly in place.
I suppose he'll always be the same old annoying Gippal. "Yes," she told him with a rare smile. "And I've got a question for you. We've obviously done what the troublemakers wanted us to, so how are we going to get out of here? The only way they'd know when to let us out is if-" oh no. I'll never live it down.
"If they were watching us," Gippal finished. "We'll get revenge on them later, I assure you."
At that moment, a click sounded and the door slid open, admitting Nooj and Baralai. The former was only letting a flicker of amusement betray his otherwise typical stony expression; the latter looked openly pleased with the situation.
"Anything you two want to tell us?" Nooj asked, letting slip a rare smirk.
"Yeah," Gippal replied with an untrustworthy smirk of his own. "Watch your backs. You two have an appointment with Doctor Payback." That line caused all four of them to start laughing, and this would become one of the happy memories that Paine would return to on the long nights that waited in her future, the nights where she would lie awake and wonder whether her 3 friends were even alive or not, or whether they remembered her. This would become one of the memories that she held dear as she pursued her past.
Nooj shot us... Nooj... Why? Baralai... Gippal... shot... where are they? She forced herself to sit up despite the sharp pain in her side where the bullet had grazed her. Looking around, she saw that Nooj was nowhere in sight, and Baralai was only visible as a figure in the distance, fleeing down the Mi'ihen Highroad as fast as his legs could take him. Gippal was not so lucky- he lay several feet to her left, face-down and unmoving. She staggered over to him, and gave him an X-potion before giving herself one as well. The powerful elixir healed her wound immediately, and Gippal also sat up and opened his eyes.
"Where's Nooj? Baralai?" Gippal was panicking. "We have to get out of here. Why would Nooj do that?"
"Search me," Paine said sadly. Her mind was still reeling. In the space of five minutes, she'd been betrayed by somebody with whom she would have entrusted her life without a second thought.
She was in a fog of shock and denial as Gippal said that they'd have to separate and find someplace safe, that now they possibly had more enemies after them, that it would be dangerous if they traveled together. Paine found herself wishing that this was all a dream, that she'd be able to wake up and Nooj wouldn't have shot them.
Take me with you! Her mind was shouting, but the words didn't pass her lips. She opened her mouth but Gippal interrupted her. "Save it for later," he said, in a soft tender voice barely above a whisper. "We have to believe that we'll see each other again. All of us. Even Nooj. We have to believe there was an explanation behind it. We will see each other again. Understand?"
Paine just nodded, not trusting her voice. There were so many things she wanted to say to him, but she couldn't put any of them into words.
"Goodbye." One last kiss, and he was gone. Gone out of her life forever, leaving a hole that would never mend. Or so she thought...
"Everyone...everyone has lost something precious. Everyone here has lost homes, dreams, and friends. Everybody... now Sin is finally dead." I've lost friends, but for once it wasn't Sin's fault, Paine thought cynically. The defeat of Sin, though a joyous occasion, only brought Paine part way out of her depression. She'd been living as a shell in a Luca hotel, coming outside only once to stand with everybody, facing Bevelle, and sing the Hymn of the Fayth. For that one night, the burden had been lifted off her chest and she felt connected again. But the Eternal Calm wasn't going her way. Nooj, Baralai and Gippal had disappeared without a trace, and the one man she'd been hoping to see appeared to be dead... again. She now stood in the Luca Stadium, listening to Summoner... no, High Summoner Yuna's speech, but her mind was elsewhere.
"Now, Spira is ours again. Working together... Now we can make new homes for ourselves, and new dreams." It's going to take me a long time to find dreams worth pursuing again. She'd heard from the rumors that two of Yuna's guardians were dead. She didn't give a care for the first one. Apparently some blond Blitzer. The second one however... she'd wanted to see him, to know if he was the same Auron... She hadn't seen him for 10 years, and rumors had been flying around during that time that he was dead. She preferred not to examine her childhood memories of growing up in the Bevelle Temple, but she did remember a man called Auron, with dark hair and a red jacket, who'd come to visit her every day. As a little girl, she and Yuna had actually been playmates; their fathers were friends, and they'd stand together as Braska (who at the time was an apprentice summoner) and Auron, his friend who would later become his guardian, came in the door; they'd run to their fathers and be greeted warmly. But after Braska's calm had come, Yuna was taken away, and Paine's father stopped visiting her. For the next several years, the little girl would grow up in the Temple. If she thought hard enough, she could remember fleeting images of Baralai there too. At the age of twelve, she'd ran away, and at sixteen, she'd joined the Crimson Squad.
She had never before made the connection between her little playmate and the High Summoner. You were my childhood friend. My father was supposed to have been your guardian as well as your father's. Where is he?
"Although I know the journey will be hard, we have lots of time. Together, we will rebuild Spira. The road is ahead of us, so let's start out today." You can rebuild Spira, but you can't rebuild my life. Everybody I cared about is gone. The wild cheers of the crowd echoed dimly in her ears.
"Just, one more thing... The people and the friends that we have lost, or the dreams that have faded... Never forget them." You're right on that one. I won't forget my father, or my friends. Even if they all turn out to be dead, I'll keep the memories.