What Was It You Wanted?
"Paine…"
"Baralai, when someone storms out of a room, they usually don't want to be followed. So go away."
Paine heard footsteps coming up the rock behind her, and then a shadow was between her and the sun. It had taken her months to find this place, a hidden little rock staring out of the lake in Besaid where she could go when Rikku was hyper or Tidus and Yuna were in 'cute' mode.
"I said go away." She muttered, running her fingers through her shoulder length grey hair and turning a bit so she wouldn't have to look at him.
"I'm not moving. Paine, what you said back there…it's been months, I didn't think you still…"
"What? You thought they would just go away, Baralai? That some time would pass and I'd just get all better?" Her hand pulled a loose pebble off the rock and hurled it towards the lake. "It doesn't work that way."
"But, it wasn't me. I couldn't have," Paine cut the praetor off, pushing herself to her feet and turning to face him.
"Shut up. Don't you think I know that? Do you think it makes a sin-cursed difference?" She clenched her fingers into fists, resisting the urge to shove him backwards into the lake. Instead she just let out a little growl and dropped off the stone, back onto the little trail her boots had carved over the last few months. "It doesn't matter."
He followed, of course, jogging to catch up with her just as she reached the main path back to town. "But, you stayed with me afterwards…while I was recovering. You were the one who sat there with me."
"Yeah, well…" Paine shook her head, stopping. "I didn't have the dreams then."
"Dreams? What dreams?"
"I know. Rationally, I know that it wasn't you. It was a thousand year old ghost come back to avenge his love and…can you see why I have a problem? It doesn't matter." She let out another little growl and took a few steps away. "It was you."
"But…"
"No buts, Baralai. It was you. You were piloting the damn thing, I saw you at the controls just before it threw me a hundred yards, before it fired missiles and lasers and tried as hard as it could to kill me. You were driving." She turned to face him then, arms crossing, "And every time I fall asleep, I see you trying to kill me. Over and over, like a sphere reel playing in the back of my mind."
"But it wasn't me. It was Shuyin, I couldn't stop him. I just…watched." He took a step towards her, reaching for her arm, but she stepped back quickly.
"It doesn't…go away, Baralai. Just go away." She brushed past him and started back towards her rock.
"Paine, I…" He started to follow and she spun around, hands out.
"What? What the hell do you want?"
"I don't know. I'm not sure…"
"You want me to say it's all better? That everything is fine and dandy and it'll be just like before when I was your recorder we flirted and laughed and nothing was wrong? Is that what you want?"
"No, no…I…" Baralai took a breath and frowned.
"Then what? Why won't you leave me the hell alone?"
"I'm sorry."
"Then go away."
She disappeared through the forest towards her rock, leaving Baralai standing there staring after her.
(This is the first in a number of post-game scenes that have popped into my head since I finished the game. They may develop into an actual story, I'm not sure yet.)