I do not own Final Fantasy X-2 or any of the characters therein. This is the first chapter of my first true story, please enjoy -

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Part 1: First Impressions, Mixed Emotions

Chapter 1: Arrival

Paine leaned back in her chair. Outside the window clouds rolled slowly by as the large airship flew over Spira. They weren't above the clouds, and the sky was a beautiful grey with patches of black scattered around.

The telltale promises of a nice thunderstorm later that evening. She sighed and stretched her arms behind her. The door below slid open and the patter of feet warned her of what was coming.

Aw, hell. Paine rolled her eyes. Rikku ran up the steps and over to her bed. She opened a dresser and rummaged around inside. She pulled out a sphere grid and ran off. The footsteps paused halfway down the steps. Rikku ran back up and waved at Paine.

"Hi." she said happily, then ran back down the steps and into the lift. Paine stared at the stairs for a moment. What the . . . She shook her head and relaxed. She had all the time in the world. She glanced back out the window and with satisfaction noticed that the sky seemed to have darkened a little.

She propped her legs on her bed and closed her eyes. Something pulled at the back of her mind. Something that Rikku had told her the day before. Paine decided against sifting through the possibly thousands of things that Rikku had told her yesterday. Then another thought entered her mind.

Why did she just grab a sphere grid? Paine groaned. Shut up, before you go and actually get interested in this. Not while you're relaxing. Hell, if I keep thinking about it then I might just have to get up and -

"Oh, alright." Paine sighed and got up from her chair. She walked slowly down the steps and then to the lift. She ran a hand through her silver hair and hit the button for the bridge. The lift jerked and then slowly started rolling down to the bottom deck.

For some time now Paine had been a member of a sphere-hunting group known as the Gullwings. It was Rikku, her irritating older sibling, Brother. Someone named Buddy, and a genius kid named Shinra.

At first they had been going on as they normally did. Watching out for alerts for spheres and the like. Then one day Rikku found a sphere that, for some reason, really excited her. Paine had looked at it, it was just some angry guy in a cage, you could barely even see his face.

Rikku had yet to tell her what was so phenomenal about the sphere.

The lift began to slow and then finally stopped altogether. The doors failed to open. "Damn it, Brother!" Paine slammed her fist into the door. She kicked it twice then remembered that there was an emergency comm in the lift. She hit the button.

At first there was no response, then, "Yes, who is it?"

"Brother," Paine said coldly, not trying to hide the icy edge in her voice, "if you do not get me out of the shitty lift and fix it, I will wrench your head from your body." she thought for a second. "Then again that probably wouldn't make much of a difference seeing as how you don't have a brain."

There was a momentary silence, then Brother responded, "Well what if I just leave you in there?" Paine stared at the comm for a second.

"Just get me out of the damned lift." she muttered. Brother sighed.

"Alright, you'll be out in a jiffy." Paine heard him say something in Al Bhed in the background, this was followed by a whiny Rikku saying, "But why do I have to . ."

"Just open the lift so Paine will shut up!" Brother screeched. Paine balled her hand in her fist. Oh yeah, he's dead. The comm shut off and a minute later the lift hissed open. Rikku was greeted by a rather stoic Paine. The warrior frowned and then shoved past the tiny Al Bhed girl.

"Paine, wait a second!" Rikku said. Paine stopped a few feet from the door.

"Hmm?"

"We have a new addition to the Gullwings today." Rikku replied cheerfully. Paine raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" she asked disinterested. So that was what Rikku had told her. Paine stepped aside and motioned to the door. "You wanna go first?" Rikku nodded and raced through the door, Paine followed at a much slower pace.

Rikku was already down the steps and was standing, no, bouncing up-and-down next to another girl. She looked slightly older than Rikku. She had short, brown hair with a really long, braided ponytail. And she was apparently wearing a gunner dress sphere.

"Paine," Rikku said, calming down long enough to speak, even though Paine knew good and well that Rikku could multitask, "this is Yunie."

The girl laughed, "Actually," she turned towards Paine, "I'm Yuna." she said shyly. She held her hands together in front of her and made a slight bow. Paine nodded a greeting. The girl seemed different. Wait a minute, Yuna? She couldn't be the High . . . Paine realized she was looking at the High Summoner. She made no sign of her recognition, but inside she was shocked.

She took a closer look at the girl. Her eyes were what really gave it away. Her two-toned eyes. Paine suddenly found them very entrancing. A shimmering green next to a deep blue. Then her thoughts took a different direction.

Paine noticed the creamy color of her skin and her curved form. Her shy composure. She shook herself. What the hell was that? Her mind yelled at her. She averted her gaze and ran a hand through her hair. What was she doing!? Paine almost turned to go back to the lift, then decided against it, remembering her previous situation.

"Hey, Brother." Paine called. Brother looked away from Yuna. "You gonna fix that lift? Because unless you do, we're stuck here." Brother thought for s second. He looked once at Yuna in strange way, then over at Buddy.

"Hey!" Buddy turned. "You and Shinra, fix the lift." Buddy tried to say something. "Shut yer' hole and fix the leeft!" Brother said in his usual mispronunciation. Brother sighed and he and Shinra walked into the hall that led to the lift.

Yuna turned to Paine, who was still on top of the steps, "So, how long have you been with the Gullwings?" when Paine failed to respond Rikku answered for her.

"Just a little bit. She said she joined because she always wanted to fly on an airship." Rikku said happily.

"I think that's a good reason." Yuna said with a smile. Ugh, aw shit, now there's two bubbly idiots on this ship. Then her eyes glanced on Brother. And one angry idiot. Paine rolled her eyes and waited.

It took close to thirty minutes, but Buddy and Shinra got the job done. They were about the only competent members of the Gullwings. Paine was happily the first person on the lift, making sure that she was on and the doors were closed before Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum got on too.

As the lift rolled upwards, her thoughts strayed back to Yuna. Her smooth skin and long legs. Stop it! Paine shook her head and shut her eyes. What was going on? Normally she had total control over her thoughts. Now some girl shows up and her brain figures it's a good time to jump in a skillet and fucking scramble!

Why was she so obsessed with this girl from Besaid!?

Yuna and Rikku were chatting happily as they boarded the newly fixed lift. It had been two whole years since they had last seen each other. And for them that was far too long. Rikku had gotten Yuna to come along by showing her a mysterious sphere with someone on it who looked a lot like Tidus.

Yuna had noticed instantly just how much Rikku had changed. And, although she looked older, she still acted just like she used to. This thrilled Yuna, making her feel as if not everything had changed. She's still the same sweet, bubbly teenager that she had been two years ago. Yuna was glad that the deaths, in a way, of Tidus and Auron hadn't changed her.

"So, how long have you and Brother been doing this?" Yuna asked as they boarded the lift.

"Oh, we started not too long after we all split up." Rikku said. "Its really fun too. We go all over Spira. And I mean all over."

"It sounds like a lot of fun."Yuna said with a laugh. Once the laughing stopped, Rikku took on a slightly more nervous tone.

"Yunie?" she asked. "Did you join just because of the sphere?"

Yuna shook her head, "Not just because of the sphere. That just gave me the last push I needed." she said with a grin.

"Good." she hugged Yuna, Yuna returned the hug, still smiling. "I'm glad you're here." she said softly. "It's just been so lonely. Paine doesn't talk and Brother . . well, he's Brother." Yuna giggled and they separated when the lift doors opened. Rikku led Yuna into the cabin, introducing her to Barkeep, then led her up to the balcony where their beds where.

"We've always had a third bed, just in case we needed one." Rikku said. Yuna listened, but her eyes were focused on Paine, who was staring out the window above, her eyes revealing that she was off somewhere else. Her silver hair and red eyes made Yuna shiver. Something about her just seemed so . . mysterious, dark.

"Yunie?" Yuna turned her attention back to her cousin.

"Sorry, I kinda drifted off for a second." Yuna said.

"This is your bed." Rikku pointed to the one in the middle. "Mine is the one on the right, and Paine has the bed on the left." Rikku said. "You can put your sphere grid in your drawer there whenever you don't need it." suddenly Rikku jumped. "Oh, I forgot something! There's a second dress sphere in the grid I gave you, try it on real quick. I think you'll like it!" Rikku bounced on her heels. Yuna nodded.

She activated the grid, and with a small glow she was dressed in a blue dress and brown boots. Paine glanced at Yuna once she was in her songstress clothes. She immediately wished she hadn't. While it was slightly less revealing than the gunner dress sphere, it was more seductive. Paine drew a silent breath. Yuna looked her way and their eyes locked. Those beautiful blue and green eyes . . .

Paine quickly averted her attention back out the window, but the image was there. What on Spira was happening to her? She squeezed her eyes hut, but the image just became more vivid. She sighed and tried to think about something else.

Yuna frowned when Paine quickly looked away. What was that about? She looked nervous. But the warrior quickly regained her stoic attitude. Rikku giggled and started twisting the upper half of her body from side-to-side.

"Ooh, don't you look sexy." she taunted. Yuna laughed.

"Oh, quit it." but they both burst out laughing. Paine raised an eyebrow and tried to drone out the irritating noise. Yuna changed back into her gunner clothes and she and Yuna started talking again. Paine sighed and went down to the bar. She ordered a glass of alcohol from Barkeep. Maybe some liquor will help to shut those two out! She downed the first glass, but nursed the second. It helped a little at first.

The liquid slowly clouded her thoughts, but then opened a pathway to a flurry of unwanted thoughts. She frowned but continued drinking anyway.

Rikku loved that her friend was back. It had been far too lonely with just one other girl on the Celsius. Especially when that girl was as antisocial as Paine. Rikku enjoyed occasionally irritating the quiet warrior. Paine was a riddle, and Rikku was desperate to solve her.

She tried everything, but nothing could get Paine to open up any more than to say, "Leave me alone," or just growl. And if Rikku ever irritated Paine too much, the warrior headed straight for the bar and let the alcohol mute her out. Of course, none of this did anything to faze the energetic thief.

Rikku once broke into Paine's dresser, which was locked, to see if the warrior ever wrote anything down about her past. Of course, she had always known that it would be a lost cause to think Paine would be the mushy, poetic type who kept a diary. The result of her little excursion was to be cuffed on the back of the head.

All Brother was good for was ordering everyone else around and then doing absolutely nothing himself. Rikku was also quite sure that the Celsius was on autopilot most of the time.

Her life was confusing. But she welcomed the confusion, because it gave her something to work out when she was all by herself. Even so, she was glad that an old friend was with them. Yuna was smart, and kind. Maybe she could get Paine to open up! That thought excited her too.

Rikku was seventeen, and in all the confusion, there was one personal riddle that she still couldn't solve: Her feelings towards Paine. Paine was a strong woman. Beautiful, and mysterious, and Rikku was strangely attracted to her in way that, for a while, she couldn't understand.

She had been working up the courage for weeks to try and tell the warrior this, but now that Yuna was here, she may never get a chance. But the next time she and Paine were alone she was going to try and talk to Paine about it. Maybe if she could at least get a few words out of Paine, and get her feelings off her chest, then that would help solve one of the riddles. Or maybe more than one.