WARNING: Spoilers for the Crimson Spheres. If you don't know what happened in the Den of Woe with the Crimson Squad, you probably shouldn't be reading this.

FYI, this was also written for the Kissing Battle. notcynical requested Baralai/Gippal.

He looked too pale, lying there. The sheets were dark, too, throwing his white skin into sharp contrast. His face was slack, expressionless - Baralai had never seen him like that, before, not even in sleep.

Not so much as a finger twitched.

And it didn't matter what the Al Bhed tried to tell him in their clumsy, broken attempts at Spiran - that Gippal was going to be okay, that he was going to live, that Baralai had simply healed faster and there was nothing to worry about - Baralai couldn't not worry.

But he couldn't stick around, either. He had things to do. He was going to get to the bottom of all this if it took him to his last breath. What had happened in that cave had not been natural - what Nooj had done had not been natural. There were answers out there, and he was going to find them.

Baralai leaned down, intending to kiss Gippal as he'd done so many times in the desert - but he couldn't. Gippal looked like a corpse already - only the shallow rise and fall of his bandaged chest reassured Baralai that he was still breathing.

He couldn't kiss lips that wouldn't kiss him back.

So Baralai brushed his lips over Gippal's forehead, the blond spikes of Gippal's hair tickling his nose.

"Don't die," he whispered.

When he left, it took every ounce of his will not to look back.