I reached out my hand, and held fast what little did not slip between my fingers.
Chapter Two: Paint the Seconds
"I still don't see why you had to drag me along, Rikku," Paine sighed.
Rikku ran up the steps, swerving out in front of the warrior and stopping her where she stood. "'Cause you and I don't do enough stuff together, s'why!" She exclaimed with arms wide open. She gave a little smile, her eyes twinkling even in the cabin's low light. Whether she was just trying to be emphatic or offering a hug, the warrior hadn't a clue.
Not even having to try to conceal her amusement Paine deftly replied, "That's because I don't like you."
Rikku's expression fell all the way through the floor, and further still to the ocean far below the soaring Celsius, "What?" She mumbled, her form drooping as a flower might wilt. She had always thought that, on some level, Paine looked at her as a friend. Or was at least fond of her, anyway. But the way the warrior stared blankly back, entirely unfazed and unmoved by the thief's suddenly saddened state, drilled a hole into Rikku's heart. Her arms rag-dolled to her sides, "I-I had fun, though," she nearly whimpered. Paine arched an eyebrow, and Rikku rambled on in a bleary-eyed daze, "I mean, sure, maybe you're not a really an open person or anything, but... I'd just kinda.. sorta hoped that maybe this'd give us a chance to bond or something, since we never do anything outside of jobs, and even then it's never just me and you." Rikku's disheartened rambling gave way to a pause for breath, but Paine's silence persevered. Rikku sniffed dejectedly, swiftly wiping her nose on a gloved hand, "Well, sorry for just bein' a bother, then." She felt crushed, and it showed from her face to the very way she stood.
Paine smirked, the look so small Rikku could scarcely detect it even as close as she was to the warrior. The taller girl ruffled Rikku's hair in a loving manner before brushing her aside and carrying on up the stairs. She only felt a little bad for the prank.
Rikku remained where she was for a moment longer, a frown settling in around her eyes and mouth while the scene replayed again and again in her head, nonsensically trying to take away a meaning from the moment. She shot Paine an acidic glare and grumbled, "Pek, ikmo cdibet-rayt." Flying up to the second level she dodged around Paine, heading her off with a finger in the woman's face, "Don't do that again! Not ever! Not ever again!"
Paine folded her arms together, this time not bothering to hide her smile, "You're telling me what to do, again," she cautioned, the velvet in her voice warmer than it usually was.
"You're vilgehk right I am!" Rikku almost snapped, though she kept her voice low. She half expected a warning of "Language!" to come from somewhere nearby. Her expression softened and she asked, "So what does that mean, then?"
Paine shook her head, mourning that she had somehow managed to get trapped in yet another inquisition, "What does what mean?"
Rikku pointed at the stairs, "That! What did that mean, huh?" She stood on the tips of her toes, getting as close to Paine's face as she dared. To her credit, it was just close enough to see Paine's scarlet irises catch fire.
The warrior's brow came together as she tried to figure a way out of her predicament other than violence. She looked down and massaged the bridge of her nose, "Rikku... I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, okay? Can I get by, now?" She looked back up, meeting Rikku's accusing glare.
Rikku shook her head adamantly, "No. I want to know what that meant!" She demanded.
Paine rolled her eyes, "Rikku...!" She let out a frustrated groan. What did the girl want from her? An admission of friendship or something?! This was ridiculous! She fought the urge to shove the blonde back for getting so close and met the girl's demands with a challenging stance, boring her eyes into Rikku's with all of the vehemence she could possibly muster toward something so stupid. She didn't need fuel to rile herself when she needed to, intimidation was an art and she had long ago learned to master the methods of putting coal to a flame that came at a call.
But still, Rikku would not back down, and if anything she just stared back harder. "I want to know, Paine." Her voice was deadly low, and it even managed to chill Paine a little. An impressive feat, but nothing to merit disclosure or, at the very most, breaking down.
"Why?" Her opponent growled back in a husky timbre laced with knives.
Rikku sputtered, faltering in her conviction for a moment, "Well, uh.. I... Because!" She tried to regain her composure, despite her short-lived loss of face. "Because it matters to me, Paine!" She refused to give way under pressure, and stared back for all she was worth. She was tired of always being seen as the littlest- the easiest to break and the simplest to make. Sweet, innocent little Rikku; incapable of being something worthy of fear and respect. No matter how tirelessly she worked to prove herself, few ever seemed to see the details within the image. It added to the ire, the heat burning higher.
Paine was honestly impressed, though she hid her approval underneath a scowl. Rikku unflinchingly refused to back down, locking them in a contest that felt like it went on for hours. But how long could she hold this for, the warrior wondered. She glowered back without pity, holding the two in place for as long as it took. Several times she thought it looked like Rikku might start to cry from the tension alone, but each time the girl managed to push those feelings away. Her shell would bend, but never crack, and kept firm against the sortie. The warrior finally nodded, so moved by the girl's unwavering audacity, "All right. You win."
This truly threw Rikku off, "Wha-what?" She blinked and stumbled back.
Paine smirked, "I said, 'you win.'"
Rikku shook her head, "I know what you said, but..." She squinted up at Paine in confusion, "Really?"
"Yeah, really. You earned it. I like you, Rikku. I think of you as a friend." Just as soon as the words had left her mouth her demeanor took a drastic shift. Paine came in close, seizing the Al Bhed's eyes with a terrifying glare. In a voice barely louder than a whisper, she made very clear, "Never try to use this against me. Got it?" The threat was all in what remained unsaid, and in the cataclysmic inferno smoldering deep within the warrior's stare. A precipitous drop into the realms of the imagination, ephemeral and horrifying.
Rikku nodded, the color drained from her face, "Uh... Yeah. Sure thing, Painey."
"Painey" rolled her eyes and walked away.
Rikku stayed where she was for a few seconds more, her thoughts slowly working themselves out of a thick tangle. On the one hand, she managed to score a win! On the other, she just made herself a potential target. Not like she would ever actually exploit Paine like that. Rikku might be crazy, but she was hardly stupid. In the end, though...
She looked back over her shoulder at Paine, and gradually a smile worked its way back onto her face. Content with herself, she was about to go and fall into her bed, no regard for her clothes, when her eyes found Yuna.
"Hey, Paine..." the thief called out quietly.
The warrior was digging out something to wear for the night. "Hm?" The sound was barely above a grunt.
Another caustic glare, "You notice sumthin' 'bout Yunie?"
Continuing to ignore the thief, "She still has her clothes on. Again."
A nod, "Yeah, don't ya think we should.. I dunno.. do sumthin'?"
"Like not care?" A sarcastically weighted suggestion, despite being truthful.
Rikku's fists rested on her hips, "Would you like it if I or Yunie had the chance to make your night more.. sleepable, but didn't?"
Paine shook her head. "'Yunie or I,' 'sleepable' isn't a word. I'd have appreciated that you hadn't bothered me," she listed out her reply methodically, glancing back at Rikku once she was done and quietly delighting in the look of outrage Rikku was very poorly fighting to hide.
Grinding her teeth in frustration Rikku growled, "You're a heartless monster. You know that, right?"
Paine chuckled softly, "Mm. I'm the evil beast living under the stairs and.. don't care what people sleep in." The bathroom door slid shut, leaving Rikku to awkwardly swallow the retort she'd had at the ready. Deciding she would not leave Yuna to another uncomfortable night's sleep, Rikku stepped out of her boots and padded quietly over to her cousin's bedside. She nimbly fished out Yuna's garment grid without stirring her at all, and had been about to deactivate it when she realized she would do better to have something for her to wear already picked out. As she was searching through her cousin's things, she gave pause for a moment to wonder whether or not it was necessarily bad that she batted barely a 'lash at rummaging through her clothes. Deciding to tuck away the matter of her possibly questionable scruples for another day, Rikku carried on with her task.
Yuna slept in just a shirt and cotton pants, which Rikku finally remembered were always kept in her dresser's middle drawer. She heard the shower kick on, and breathed a sigh of relief that she would at least have time before Paine came back out again. At last, readily equipped, Rikku switched off the grid. Yuna's clothes disappeared entirely, leaving her completely bare of cover. She fidgeted in her sleep, and Rikku reflexively dropped, without so much as a whisper, to the floor for fear Yuna might wake. Realizing that this would look far more incriminating of a crime she was not even committing, Rikku sat back up, peering over the lip of the bed at her cousin's still shut-fast eyes.
Rikku's pulse slowed measurably.
She realized all too late just how difficult this might turn out to be. Yuna was laying on her side, near-fetal. Rikku wanted to hit herself. She could not wake her cousin up, so it came down to either her giving up or relying on the faith that her skills as a thief would allow her the care she would most certainly need to re-dress Yuna. She was not a quitter – perhaps purposely forgetting her wish to simply discard their earlier mission – and so she resolved to do right by the woman she loved. Gingerly she laid her hand down on Yuna's calf, wincing for a moment should something go amiss. When the world did not explode, and the planet's rotation did not reverse, Rikku released a captive breath she had not realized was being held. She was psyching herself up. That would only make things harder if she did not calm down and focus on the goal rather than her fear. The muffled sound of the shower still running flooded back in, catapulting her to work with appropriately due haste.
Biting her lip in concentration, she went about straightening Yuna's legs. Once that was done she figured she would only need roll Yuna onto her back and the rest would, theoretically, be simple. She fumed in her head at how heavy the limb seemed to be now that she was trying to work with caution. This was not picking a lock, this was trying to manipulate a sleeping human being without alerting them to the existence or the actions of the puppeteer. Rikku paused as a possible conspiracy dawned on her, but she shook off the desire to ponder whether or not people were all marionettes in some freakish show and carried on with her mission. She eased Yuna's right leg down, down until it was straight. After making a quick mental decision, Rikku took her left hand and slowly worked to move Yuna's left leg into a more agreeable position.
She must have been a heavy sleeper, or maybe just exhausted, because Yuna did not react at all, much to Rikku's pleasure. However it was after she had lowered and released Yuna's legs that her eyes found and locked onto the brunette's vagina. She came to a stop, her jaw muscles slackening as wicked ideas permeated throughout her devious brain. Her eyes flickered from Yuna's face to her pussy, back and forth, while her thought processes faltered again and again. She very nearly had to slap herself to start thinking again at all, but still she could not break her eyes away. A very clear, and quite concise question arose to the foreground of the battlefield: Should I?
Surely, she figured, just a taste wouldn't hurt.. right? An imagined view of the scenario ran through her head...
Rikku ducked low and moved in, her tongue finding its way to trace neatly along the line between Yuna's pussy lips. Not wanting to wait any longer, she pushed further onward until the wet muscle was buried deep inside. Her head moved in closer, as if to deepen an amorous kiss...
She broke from her stupor, finding that her fingers had made their way between her own legs. Her pulse quickening from more than just embarrassment, Rikku was more than mildly surprised at just how much the fantasy turned her on, and not just because it involved a sexual act with Yuna, but one during which Yuna was sleeping. It excited her in every conceivable sense of the word. She was set aquiver with desire, and unconsciously had even begun to lean forward in anticipation. It was tempting, oh so, but then Yuna's words from earlier rang through her mind.
"Not now, Rikku. Not yet."
The pictures passed away, and Rikku felt a hollow guiltiness weighing down in her heart. She would not want to betray Yuna's trust like that. If Yuna wanted to wait, then wait she would. She filled her lungs with air, dispelling the bonds of lust that had taken hold. She slowly rolled her cousin onto her back without a problem, though Yuna mumbled something nonsensical in her sleep that nearly gave Rikku a heart attack from fright. She recovered quickly and succeeded in slipping Yuna's pants and shirt on without waking her from her sleep. It is worthy to note that after rolling Yuna onto her back, Rikku managed to tear her eyes away from the woman's breasts within less than forty seconds. Give or take. She draped covers over her cousin and, standing to observe her handiwork, Rikku did a quiet little victory dance. After softly kissing Yuna's forehead and whispering, "Goodnight," Rikku went back to her bed where she lay undisturbed, even after Paine's return.
The silver-haired woman set down her garment grid and had been about to crawl into her own bed when she took notice of Yuna's altered state. Curious, she walked from her bed to the gunner's, passively observing how Yuna had obviously been given a change of clothes to sleep in, and that she was now lying on her back instead of her side. Her eyes drifted from Yuna to Rikku. The blonde was now sound asleep, one half of her body hanging precariously off the side of the bed as she slumbered. Rolling her eyes, though unable to spare a smile, Paine let the girl be and went back to her own bed.
Throwing a final look across at Rikku once under her sheets, Paine whispered, "Determined to the end, hm?"