Another crazy story! And another crack pairing! Who is it this time? It is the glamorous Zexion x Paine pairing! Hope you enjoy! R&R please!

Paine stood in front of the jewelery store, trying to measure the thickness of the windows. Her friend, Yuna was inside the store, figuring out how tight the security is and her friend Rikku….was with Gippal. 'Lazy bum,' she thought. Her cell phone rang. "Paine here," she answered.

"Hey Paine, its Yuna. Why don't you head back to base? I'll handle things here."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, you need a break from all these robberies. Go back home and enjoy a nice hot bath!" Paine rolled her eyes.

"Alrighty, if you say so." She hung up and started to walk down the icy streets. 'Damn this cold!' she thought as she shivered, her tiny leather jacket not keeping in the heat. A car sped by her, driving through a muddy slush puddle and sprayed it all over her face and the right side of her body. "Hey! Watch where you're going!" she spat out. 'As if this day wasn't already stressful enough', she thought bitterly. The car that had sprayed the mushy ick onto her had started to back up. It stopped next to her and out came a man whom she could have sworn had come down from heaven. Or hell. She wasn't sure which one she liked better. His hair looked like pure silver and his eyes seemed as if black opals had been drilled into his skull. She was convinced that Sephiroth must have been proud of her doings and sent her a little gift. In other words, he was gorgeous.

"Are you ok?" the man who was a jewel itself asked.

"Y-yeah," she stuttered,

"Sorry about that. I was kind of in a hurry."

"I-it's ok," she stuttered once again, partly because she was cold and partly because of her nervousness.

"You're cold," he stated in a very business like manner.

"N-no, I-I'm f-fine."

"Here," he motioned towards his car. "Get in."

"W-Why?"

"I'll give you a ride." Her eyes widened and her face started to turn cherry red. "Not like that! I meant I'll take you home."

"Oh," she said, somewhat disappointed. 'I was kind of meaning he would….what the hell am I thinking? I don't even know this guy!' "That's very nice of you, but I can walk."

"No, you'll freeze to death," he said. "Get in."

"I don't ride with strangers," she said as she started to walk away. He quickly grabbed her arm and threw her into the car and quickly went into the driver's seat. "Where are you taking me?" she said, fear obviously in her voice. Was this man a rapist?

"I'm taking you home as soon as you tell me where you live," he said.

"I told you, I don't ride with strangers. Nor do I even speak with them." He sighed. Seeing as this was getting both of them nowhere, he held out his hand.

"Zexion."

"What?"

"My name is Zexion," he repeated. "Now I'm not a stranger to you."

"Oh….I'm Paine," she replied. There was a long silence.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"We're no longer strangers."

"So?"

"So aren't you going to tell me where you live?"

"Huh?" she asked. "Oh right, right. I live 10 blocks from here just go down this street and make a right turn at every traffic light you hit."

"Alright then," he said and started the car. There was another long silence. Paine couldn't stand it. She was so use to hearing the annoying sound of Rikku's voice bugging her all the time. Sure, she loved to have some peace and quiet time but this was just too much. She needed some sort of noise.

"So….what do you do for a living?" she asked, trying to get a conversation started.

"I'm a detective," he said and her eyes went wide. 'Crap!' she thought. 'I'm sitting in a car with a detective. Not to mention a very good looking one…NO! Don't think about that. Just keep your cool and make sure he doesn't figure out that you are a thief."

"Oh, that's nice," she said, looking down into her lap. Another silence.

"You?"

"Huh?"

"What do you do for a living?"

"Oh I'm a……." Paine started, trying desperately to figure out a job that would impress him, 'Wait, why do I want to impress him?' "I work at a store." 'That was lame.'

"What store?"

"The uh…..jewelry store. In fact, I was just done with my shift over there so that's why I was walking home."

"Oh…" Once again another long silence. "Is this your house?"

"What?"

"Is this where you live?" he asked, getting quite annoyed at how often she would space out.

"Oh yeah," she said and quickly got out of the car. Zexion being the gentleman he is, also got out and lead her to the door. "Thanks for the ride, Zexion."

"It was no problem." She nodded and started to go inside. That is till Zexion grabbed her arm once again and pulled her back to face him. She looked at him confused. "I usually get a payment for these kinds of things," he said with a smirk. Her eyes widened. Did he want….that? He saw the fear in her eyes and he couldn't help but laugh. "N-n-not th-that!!!" he managed to say in his fit of laughter. As soon as it calmed down, he said, "I meant a date."

"Oh…Sure, why not?" She took his hand and grabbed a pen from her pocket. She scribbled something on it.

"What's this?"

"My number. Call me and let me know when we should get together." With that said, she winked at him and went into her house. Once she closed the door, she leaned on it and blushed. Rikku came running up to her, demanding to know what she had just saw outside the window. 'This is gonna be a long night,' Paine thought bitterly.

&&&&&&&&&&&&

Zexion looked at his hand while he drove. He knew it wasn't the smartest thing to do but he couldn't help but ponder what had happened just a moment ago. What had happened for the past couple of minutes. What had just happened between him and that girl. Paine. He shook his head. He shouldn't have his mind on her beautiful silver hair, her rosy red eyes, her shining pale skin, her….damn it he should have better things to concentrate on, like his case at the jewelry store. 'I have to forget about her at the moment,' he thought. 'I have to focus on this case!'

&&&&&&&&&&&&

"What makes you so sure that my jewelry store will be the next target of a possible thievery?" the young store manager asked Zexion.

"There is a pattern," Zexion said. "All the places that had been robbed were jewelry stores. But that's not it. The first store that was robbed, it was on First Street. The second one, Second Street. Your shop is the only jewelry store that is on Third Street, making it a very possible that your shop is the next target." Yuna, who was pretending to be a customer, was closely listening to the conversation going on between the detective that was after them and the store manager. 'Smart ass,' she thought as the detective had figured out their ways of choosing a target.

"But these thieves aren't the greatest thieves ever. They've only stolen one object from each of the stores."

"True, they had stolen one object, but it was the most valuable thing in each of the stores. It was the jewel that was most guarded in their shops. Tell me, what is your most valuable thing? What is most guarded item in this shop?"

The store manager pondered for a moment, then snapped his fingers with a little "a-hah!" sound and motioned Zexion to follow him into the back of the store. Yuna stealthily followed and watched from a safe distance. The manager pulled a necklace out and Yuna's eyes went wide. There it was. The "Eterna", the necklace of eternal love. It was a simple necklace. It had a silver chain with a diamond pendant on it. Very, very simple, but there is more to it than meet.

In a fairytale that is taught to all the children of Escado, there were two warring kingdoms, one was Escado itself and the other was Lescallia, the present day country that Escado hasn't had friendly relations with. A young warrior from one of the countries, Ike and the princess of the other country, Elincia, had fallen in love. Ike didn't know what to do about it and therefore goes to the three sister mages of his country asked them for advice. Ilyana, being as optimistic as she is, has Eterna made for him to represent his eternal love for the princess. Pricialla, being down to earth, made a necklace with a ruby pendant, Tiette, to represent that they were in love in general. Lute, being chronically pessimistic, had made a necklace with a black diamond pendant, Vieta, to represent that their love would never work because it was forbidden. They gave him the necklaces and told him to give Elincia the choice of the necklaces and depending on which necklace she chooses, that is how their love will wind up. If she chose Vieta, they would never be together and they will love each other from afar. If she chose Tiette, they would get married and will have a peaceful life elsewhere. If she chose Eterna, they would get married, rule over both kingdoms, and bring peace and prosperity to all. The rest of the story was too sad in Yuna's opinion that she did not even want to think about it any further than this.

This was only a replica, though. The real Eterna, according to the story, had disappeared. Whether or not the story was true or not, it did not matter. There was still only one Eterna, one Tiette, and one Vieta. And people have been trying to get their hands on these necklaces for years. Yuna smirked. 'Too bad for them. We've already got Tiette and Vieta. All we need now is Eterna.' Yuna observed as the manager explained how the security works for this necklace. She noticed it was the same as the other two necklaces, with detecting lasers and all that other nonsense. Piece of cake for Yuna, Rikku, and Paine. 'This is way too easy,' Yuna thought. Her expression quickly changed as Zexion yawned at the manager's explanation. "Too easy," he stated flatly.

"Wh-What?" the manager said. "I'm afraid you don't understand, Detective, but this is the best security in the whole entire town!"

"That's what the other two managers said," Zexion said. "They had the exact same security here and look what happened. Vieta and Tiette, both stolen, right under their noses. Give me Eterna, I'll make sure that it will be kept under greater security than this." The manager hesitantly handed Eterna to him. "Thank you for your cooperation. Don't worry, I'll make sure nothing will happen to it." With that said, Zexion headed out of the store, knowing that one of the thieves had over heard them talking.

Short, I know. Hopefully the next chapter will be longer. We'll see. 'Till then, reviews please!