-Suspendedonsilverwings
Her eyes scanned the sky for...well she wasn't really sure what she was searching for, but that she was searching---that at least, she knew. The lush grass beneath her had its normally vibrant green hue dulled by the falling of the sun as the curtains of dusk's stars drew themselves sharply over the vivid sunset, multi-faceted like a precious gemstone. Last fading rays of crimson matched the unique shade of her eyes, like garnets that sparkled with something that couldn't be articulated. Footsteps padded softly on the grass, nearing her, but she didn't bother to turn her head.
"What are you doing out so late by yourself?" a familiar and kind voice resonated through the stillness. The young man who spoke stood a little behind her and to her right, tall with a lithe frame, deeply tanned flesh, platinum white hair and liquid amber eyes. Somewhat aloof, she continued to analyze the sky above her and merely shrugged in her grounded state as the answering voice sighed. "It's not safe. With Sin growing there are more fiends than ever...you promised you'd be careful." His voice was a combination of reprimanding, frustration and worry. He crossed his arms, discouraged by her behavior---not that she was ever more responsive but that didn't change how he felt---and her stubborn refusal to listen directly.
"Look around Baralai, there's nothing here to hurt her," a new voice came and was quickly joined by another---a young man with long brown hair, down to behind his knees, and fair-skinned with small silver frames that set off his eyes strangely, like they could pull you in almost.
"Yeah, only us!" the third smiled, an Al-Bhed. "And we're not dangerous!"
"Now that's debatable, don't you think?" Paine arched an eyebrow and commented dryly. Gippal seemed to consider it and then shook his head.
"Whaddya mean?" he queried and Nooj tried to muffle his laughter at Gippal's expense.
"She's kidding," Baralai summarized and Gippal blinked in realization. Shrugging, unaffected by her trademark, light-hearted cynicism, the Al-Bhed strode over in front of her and bent down, resting his hands on his knees.
"What are you doing?" he asked, quirking a smile only Gippal seemed to possess, kind of crooked but like his eye-patch, it had its own uncanny charm.
"Nothing," she replied, gazing at him steadily. "What's it to you?" she challenged and Gippal put his hands up in mock defense.
"Just askin' a question, don't have to get all up in arms about it," he teased and Paine suppressed a smile. He didn't need to be encouraged. While Nooj watched with mild interest in the exchange, Baralai had a slight pain, a twist of his heart perhaps. Gippal seemed to be so easy around her, while he----Baralai----could do nothing but reprimand her out of his concern. And he wasn't blind, that they all had a certain relationship with Paine was transparently obvious to him. It was when he got into examining exactly what kinds of relationships those were that the answer became muddled in doubt and wonder. Silently, he made his way to her left and knelt beside her. She acknowledged his movement with a brief look---not unkind but not smiling of course---and a very slight inclination of her head before turning back to Gippal, who was too close to her in Baralai's opinion.
Nooj had sat himself down to her right so that they all rested on the knoll together, Gippal having moved slightly forward and to the right, facing the other three.
"I was searching," Paine finally said after a silence had covered them in its glasslike shards for an undetermined time.
"For what?" Nooj asked, evidently interested as he turned his eyes towards Paine directly.
"I'm not sure," she admitted a little feebly. Unusual but perceptible, this was one of those moments that the three young men were always taken by, a moment when the unflappable Paine was just a mite less the cool persona she had built herself, and a percentage more the normal human Paine who had her doubts, her worries and her dreams in life. "I think I was looking for a meaning."
"Of what? For yourself?" Nooj continued the inquiries as he turned his whole body to face her, resting his arms on his knees, drawn up to his chest.
"It was like a dream, one I have yet to experience," Paine said slowly, testing out her words as if she weren't altogether sure they were the right ones to convey what she wanted to explain to them.
"Maybe you're having a sub-premonition," Baralai suggested. A sub-premonition was a feeling one had, not a dream necessarily, but a mere feeling of one, but a potent one that preempted something to come, usually something paramount in the life of the person, and sometimes, depending on who that person was, all of Spira. Summoners were said to have them often, but Paine was no summoner. They all knew that and so they wondered like she had been.
"Impossible," Paine scowled.
"Not probable," Gippal chimed in and ruffled her hair playfully. Surrendering her steel shield momentarily, Paine let a chuckle escape as she batted his hand away, giving them all a rare, beautiful smile as she propped herself up on her elbows, eyeing them all, perhaps scrutinizing them...but just a little of course.
"Fine, 'not probable'," Paine rolled her eyes and Nooj laughed, as did Baralai. If the latter's was a little forced, well...no one seemed to take note.
"Well I'm turning in," Nooj announced before standing to leave.
"Night," Paine threw over her shoulder, casting a kind gaze in his direction, to which Nooj smiled in turn and nodded before turning away.
"You should all go, you'll need your rest if you're training tomorrow," Paine pointed out and Baralai at least knew the hint; he knew her well enough rather, to know it was a hint, one that requested them to leave her alone.
"Alright, in the morning then," Baralai took her hand in his and just held it for a moment because she didn't pull away and then squeezed it like a friend would, one who's trying to reassure the other of something. Paine didn't know it was Baralai who needed the reassuring though.
"Sleep well," she called and Baralai liked to think it was something special, even when he knew very well that it was not...that for the moment Paine viewed them the same way she had throughout these past sixteen years: as friends. Platonic relationships are so overrated, he grimaced internally and glanced over his shoulder once more before leaving the knoll completely, more specifically: leaving Paine alone with Gippal, reluctantly. Again he felt they were too close, but maybe it was just that he could never get close enough.
"You've never been the most observant man," Paine shook her head and smirked at Gippal who blinked and scratched his head thoughtfully.
"What?" he asked honestly and Paine suppressed the laughter that wanted to bubble out of her. Maybe she pretended she didn't feel because then she didn't have to hurt like she knew other people did...
"You do notice you're the only one left," Paine asserted, brushing her thoughts aside like the stray hairs that kept rebelliously falling in her eyes.
"You're here," Gippal said matter-of-factly.
"Idiot," Paine smirked and reclined on her back once more, hands forming a cradle for her head as she ignored the Al-Bhed beside her. He seemed to pause to think for a moment before rolling onto his stomach and inching up closer and closer to the side of her face, subtly...and then...he sprung into action, pulling the one deadliest move even Paine wasn't immune to: tickling.
"Ah-ah-ah, stop it!" Paine gasped between laughs, clutching her sides, attempting to shield the rest of her ticklish self. Gippal grinned.
"Password," he answered simply and Paine rolled her eyes even as she gasped for breath.
"Never!" her eyes were alight with a beautiful amusement and stubbornness inherent in all her ways that Gippal had come to know, indirectly and directly.
"Say it..." he insisted as he continued barraging her with his fingers, attacking her sides as he knew by now that they were her most ticklish spots. Now, what she was supposed to say was what he always made the password whenever he got any of them in a position they wanted out of, but couldn't get out without him letting them: "Gippal is the sexiest Al-Bhed in all of Spira!" Paine of course, would never relent, whether it was because she disagreed with that statement or not, however, was still unknown.
"This isn't fair!" she laughed contagiously, finally, just letting her walls down completely. Sometimes it was too much work to hold them up...especially after building them so high around people less friendly than her immediate comrades.
"Life isn't," Gippal stared her in the eyes as he released her from his hold, letting her catch her breath, now somewhat ragged from being unable to breath quite right while being so...accosted. Taking a rather defining gulp of air, she sighed and quirked a wary expression.
"Isn't it though?" she challenged him still.
"Well, if life was fair," Gippal reasoned, his tone deceptively light-hearted, "Sin wouldn't exist, and people wouldn't have to fight." His eyes, swirled like all the Al-Bhed, seemed to encompass a greater meaning than he normally cared to expose; Paine did not fail to notice.
"Point well-taken," she accepted and they sat once more in a comfortable quiet that draped itself like silk upon them. Sin...Paine did not agree with it, as it was the cause of much death and suffering...but she wondered sometimes if the power behind it had anything like the emotions of a human, any reasons and regrets that made it act the way it did. Surely there was some small inference to everything.
"Summoner Braska's daughter sets off on her pilgrimage tomorrow you know," Gippal noted absently. Paine only nodded. The Al-Bhed turned to look at her, not for the first time as if he'd never seen her before and like every time, found something new about her to fascinate and beguile him. Something about her brought the three of them together with her.
What was it?
"She'll be the one to end it," Paine's voice seemed displaced, incoherent of her own words and Gippal's eyes flashed alertly, leaning his head to one side in confusion.
"Paine...?" he tried and she continued to stare vacantly into nothingness...scaring him a little. Gently he took her by her shoulders, shaking her slightly. "Paine!" he echoed her name a little louder and her trancelike state broke itself into pieces as she inhaled sharply, like she'd been held underwater for too long. He did not let go though, almost afraid of what could happen if he did; Gippal only asked her questions with his eyes and she shook her head as if trying to clear it of something. "Are you alright?" His voice was atypical with anxiety.
"Yes," she whispered so quietly, the wind threatened to run away with her voice but Gippal caught it and let her shoulders go softly, hands slipping down her arms briefly before he edged back a little.
"How do you know she'll be the one?" Gippal questioned out of curiosity more than his faith in her statement.
"I just do," Paine replied simply, her face honest and pure of meaning turned upward slightly so as to look him in the eyes, as she was slightly shorter than him. Transfixed by the uncharacteristically winsome expression she wore, he leaned in a little bit, unconsciously. She didn't move back and soon they were less than an inch apart.
"Gippal..." she began but didn't finish as he closed the distance between them.
If she could describe his lips, they would have been inviting, she supposed inattentively as his hands came up to cradle her face gently as the kiss deepened...by whom, it was hard to tell. Strange how even the most stoic had the same hormones, the same physical attractions within them...given the right people to awaken them. Her long-time friend and playmate had in seconds transformed himself into someone completely different and Paine couldn't decide if it was for the better or otherwise...even as she became bolder herself, wrapping her slender arms around his neck, tangling her tapered fingers in his soft, short hair. Breathless, she suppressed a moan as Gippal laid tender kisses on her neck, down to her exposed collarbone. So new...almost she couldn't handle the feelings ricocheting within her, but a part of her insisted on continuing. Yet, he must have felt her uncertainty as he paused suddenly.
"I-I'm sorry Paine," he whispered and opened his mouth to say more but some primitive yet very sensuous part of his companion had taken over her and her crimson eyes did not look regretful, but wondering, and a little intrigued, a little wanting as she dipped her head to place a soft kiss, surprisingly soft coming from Paine, at the base of his lithe neck. Groaning, he fought with himself...he didn't want to lose her as his comrade; that would be far too painful and empty a void...in addition, something in him sensed the other two men, his friends, had feelings for the tempestuous being before him too, particularly Baralai. But...his hands encircled her waist thoughtlessly as he bent his head and kissed her again, this time with more passion...passion she met bravely with a cataclysm of her own...but he couldn't stop. She wasn't making him...he reasoned desperately with himself, with the last bits of his remaining coherent thought.
Yet another moan escaped his counterpart's lips into his own, their lust increasing... and he wondered if she was feeling anything like he was. Maybe they were acting out of frustration...misunderstanding...emptiness...anything similarly displaced...and maybe they just wanted each other...maybe that. Blinded now by both emotional and physical desire, the Al-Bhed eased her down against the lush grass as they kissed, enthralled with each other, his hands slipping her top off her right shoulder slightly, his lips tracing a path on her now moonlit flesh. A soft cry shuddered from her broken breath as her head fell back instinctually and he said something she couldn't quite hear as his hands moved expertly up and down her sides, pleasurable, no longer playful.
Not that it really mattered at this point.
So far gone into the throes of their intense ardor, it was perhaps fortunate and unfortunate that they were interrupted, as someone's petrified yell blared through their earlier stillness, previously drowned in their own soft moans and fevered movement. Eyes snapping to sudden reality, Paine and Gippal separated like fire and ice...each slightly taken aback at their actions, and a little confused at their subsequent emotions roiling in them.
They had to wait to examine those though. Adjusting her clothes accordingly, Paine didn't say anything but merely took off in the direction the yell had come from, leaving Gippal to pause inexplicably before sprinting after her just as Nooj and Baralai made it to the knoll. Spotting Gippal's fast running form, they followed; they too had heard the scream.
Paine hurried through the bush, so much woods and not enough path, she scowled, more than a little bit irritated, more than a little bit easier than normally she would have been. Why did I let myself do that, she shivered slightly and not from the brisk wind. Yes, Gippal was attractive, even sexy, his voice had a sensuous charm to it to be sure...but weren't they always just friends? Then what was that? Her mind reeled from it and her body still felt a lack from being interrupted, it wanted more, she realized with a mixture of admission and denial, polar-opposites. But what did she want? What do I want, she wondered obsessively. Had she known Gippal was thus attracted to her? The others? Some small part of her waved a flag of uncertainty.
She knew she loved them all, much as she joked and teased them; they were the only family she could remember, but what about more? And since when did they find her attractive? To her, the very idea was preposterous. But she knew if Gippal felt the way he expressed earlier, she shouldn't put it past the other two who had much less exacting standards, if she recalled, somewhat dryly. She really shouldn't joke about this...but how else could she handle the severity of her own feelings, considering she couldn't pin them down as of yet? Thankfully, her thoughts were invaded by a change of location...
I was sure it came from near here, she thought as her feet carried her into a vast clearing. Then she heard the whimper and followed it cautiously to a particularly thick bush and lifted the front branches to reveal a small child. A boy no older than perhaps ten with black hair and blue eyes, tan skin and a slender frame sat, cowering and Paine's real self felt a wave of empathy for him. Her outer self offered a hand to him, which he took, still shaking uncontrollably.
"Was that you who yelled?" Paine asked. The boy nodded. His clothes were torn with small bits of dried blood from place to place, wrinkles in them, but nothing that seemed terribly injured. She wondered if he would mind telling her if those small injuries he sustained were the reasons for his outcry...but he gripped her arm, tight...like a death grip.
"I'm scared," he whimpered, eyes tearing up and Paine still asked...
"Why?" He only pointed behind her and even as she turned to see, three voices shouted simultaneously:
"PAINE! LOOK OUT!"
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Well my first fic. Pairings will change and loop, more characters will come into the story, and this is actually not so much an AU as what could have been the four [Baralai, Gippal, Nooj and Paine's] unelaborated background. It's not unlikely that at one point or another, each man had feelings for Paine; this will explore that possibility and the very way in which they all come into who they are by the end of FFX-2 and thereafter.
Review if you think it's worth continuing please. Thanks ;)
Paine is THE BEST! :D
-Suspendedonsilverwings aka Tae-Jung Hee