When Paine entered Djose temple she expected to see her friends discussing some important business or reminiscing over old times...anything but this!
Her heart pounded in her ears, time itself seemed to come to a stop. There they were in that same circle...Pireflies surrounding them...guns pointes at each other...ready to fire...ready to kill.
With a shout of despair and adrenaline pulsing through her at unhealthy levels Paine ran to stop them once again. At the sound of her voice Baralai snapped out of it. He gasped and tried to get the other's attention.
"Guys, it worked...snap out of it Paine's here!" Gippal was the next...he stirred slightly and looked around in disbelief.
"We did it...We did it, Nooj your a genius! Nooj?"
Nooj had snapped out of it as well but had collapsed on his knees. "Great...let's never do it again...I'm getting too old for this."
Gippal laughed "you're not that old you know."
"Easy for you to say you're not the one missing limbs." Nooj chuckled "You are missing an eye though...You probably lost it doing something far more idiotic than I ever did"
Gippal could only pretend to be insulted for a moment before laughing as well "touché...but you know I..."
Baralai interrupted them. "Um guys..." He was knelt down in front of Paine who had collapsed to her knees and was sobbing her eyes out.
"Dr. P, what's wrong?!" Gippal asked stupidly.
"What do you think is wrong?" Nooj asked suddenly remembering how clueless the one-eyed Al Bhed could be. "She didn't know what we were doing...she walked in to us pointing guns at each other's heads..."
"She must have thought that we were once again being controlled by an unsent such as Shuyin." Baralai explained calmly. "Paine..."
Paine looked up and into Baralai's loving brown eyes. She didn't say anything as she was still crying too hard. Baralai sighed with relief when he saw her beautiful crimson eyes...he could stare into them all day even if they were full of tears. He leaned a bit closer and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. "Everything's going to be alright." He whispered gently to her.
Paine returned the hug and sobbed into his shoulder. This was admittedly the first time they'd seen her cry like this...and probably the first time Paine had cried in years...so naturally she had a lot of crying to do to get rid of all her pent up emotion.
Baralai and Nooj understood this pretty well but Gippal didn't get it...so he just went on acting like an idiot.
"Oh...? He exclaimed "You thought we were...oh." Gippal frowned. "Oh Dr. P, I'm sorry." His face brightened a bit. "But this wasn't what it looked like...you see Nooj brought these Pireflies from the Den of Woe so we could practice...we were trying to train ourselves to resist the Pireflies so we could stop anyone like Shuyin from taking control of us again..." He paused slightly to gasp for breath...he talked way too fast to keep up with his breathing. "Anyway we had this all under control...look these guns aren't even loaded. I took the ammo out myself."
He pointed his gun in the air and pulled the trigger for proof.
BANG!
Gippal cringed with an embarrassed half smile when his friends gave him a look of sheer disappointment.
Nooj smacked his forehead with a sigh. How close were they to actually shooting each other?
" Never again." He mumbled " never. trust. Gippal. with. important .tasks." He muttered to himself not caring if Gippal was listening.
Baralai, after gazing at Gippal with a look that said 'Your idiotism astounds me at times', turned back to Paine. "I think you may have saved our lives...thank you" he whispered gently to her.
Paine just kept sobbing into his shoulder.
"Dr. P, we're sorry...it won't happen again." Gippal said kneeling down in front of her and Baralai.
"You have our word." Nooj promised from where he sat across the room. He slowly got up and walked over and knelt down next to Gippal.
"Please say something." Baralai whispers to her, concern evident in his voice.
After a tense moment Paine was finally able to say something amongst her sobs. "I thought I'd lost you." She whispered followed by more tears, she was sobbing so hard her whole body shook and Baralai had to hold her steady.
A second later Gippal and Nooj had their arms around her in what proved to be an awkward group hug of sorts...but it was still comforting to her...even Nooj who wasn't the touchy-feely type loved her as a friend enough to try and comfort her.
"We'll always be with you." Baralai whispered to her so softly that she barely heard it...but it stopped her crying and pierced her heart filling her with a sense of peace and comfort.
"Hey guys are you in here?!" They heard Rikku's voice call out just before she saw them; they were all sitting on the floor with their arms around Paine.
"What are you doing?!" She asked with a laugh.
The three let go of Paine instantly, especially Gippal who jumped up and put his hands up in surrender. "This isn't as weird as it looks Rikku, Paine was just..."
Rikku cut him off "It's fine I believe you...I just wanted to tell you all that your invited to Besaid tomorrow for Tidus and Yuna's engagement party..." Rikku explained happily. "It turns out they kind of sort of already got engaged two years ago...but now they've made it official." Rikku beamed as of she was the one engaged and not Yuna.
"Right." Said Gippal happily"Count me in. Nooj?"
"Count me out...I don't really even know Yuna..."
"she saved your life!" Rikku argued.
"I'd have to bring LeBlanc"
"Okay, Okay, you don't have to come..." Rikku exclaimed mind suddenly changed at the mention of LeBlanc. "How 'bout you two love birds?" She asked glancing over at Paine and Baralai who were still rather close to each other having just barely broken off of the hug. They turned and Baralai blushed.
"we'll be there...Paine wouldn't miss it for the world...and I wouldn't miss Paine for the world...I mean uh..she..I..." He sighed in frustration, his face turning red in embarrassment. "we'll be there." Baralai was stuttering now, an old habit he'd thought he'd done away with.
Paine snorted, somehow already having gotten rid of any sign of her previous emotional breakdown. She couldn't help laughing at Baralai's expense...he was a good friend for sure...maybe even more than that...
"Riiiight..." Rikku trailed off. "So is anyone gonna' tell me what just happened to Paine?" She asked referring to the way she'd found them.
Paine stood up and stepped around Baralai, confidently striding over to Rikku. "Nope..." She said flatly. "What happens between the Crimson squad stays between the Crimson Squad." She winked at Rikku "Besides I don't think you could handle it."
She walked off without saying good bye and Rikku chased after her. "What do you mean I can't handle it?! Come back here?!"
The three men just stared at the empty space where the two girls just were.
"fryd fyc dryd?" Gippal wondered aloud "women make no sense." He sighed then turned to his friends. "well see ya Nooj...we need to get together again without trying to blow each other's brains out." He turned to Baralai "see you tomorrow man...and good luck with Dr. P, oh and just a word of advice if you ever want out of the friend zone you should actually tell her how you feel..." He chuckled a bit before walking towards the door. "well see ya"
Baralai sighed...'Tell her how I feel?... Easier said than done, well we'll see what happens tomorrow..until then I can't stop thinking of those beautiful Crimson eyes.
A/N Finally I got this written! I rewrote this one-shot three times! Lol anyway I hope you enjoy this is going to be a LONG series of one-shots because I love Paralai and writing for them is easy for me to write (wither it's good or not is for y'all to judge.) Anyway I figured Paralai needs more fan fiction but ESPECIALLY more fluff since like 90% of Paralai fan fiction is super depressing! :( Though this is mostly fluff there are some slightly depressing ones in here too, since I do mention the back story I gave Paine in this series (Read my other Paralai one-shot 'Scars Fade' to see the back story I gave her if you want to know before I mention it in this one-shot series. ^_~ anyway mata-na! Minna'san ga arigatai! ^_~ bye-nee -Reibun