Letting Go
by PrettyGothGirl

All Disclaimers Apply
Summary:Brother has exotic tastes, Cid has dynastic notions and Paine comes back for more while Anikki starts taking more control of his life.
A/N:I wrote another part of this yesterday, but it's farther down the line, but I didn't want to post out of order and and... well... so I wrote this bit. Not as angsty as last one, I promise! The full version (I'm cleaning these up because of the rules and all) is over at my writing journal prettygoth ink.

Paine snuck under the covers along side of Anikki, and curled up into his side trying to quickly find a comfortable position so as not to wake him. His skin was warm and she wasn't surprised to discover that he wore nothing to bed. She smiled and relaxed.

"Hi." Anikki said, his voice sounding groggy, his arm already moving around her waist.

"My bed was cold." She repled. It was an excuse of course. She'd been more lonely than cold, wanting some of that skin-to-skin contact he'd so freely given her a day or so ago.

He smiled, accepting it. "Warmer now?"

She closed her eyes. "Much." She wasn't sure who fell asleep first, her or Anikki.

--

Buddy opened the door of Brother's room and walked right in all without knocking. "Get up. It's late." Brother sat straight up, eyes wide, the girl on his chest, sliding off. "Woah, woah," Buddy spun about and faced to door. "Not what I needed to know. There are some limits to friendship."

"Then knock."

"If you're going to have some girl in your bed, Bro, you should really lock your door." Brother made some sputtering noises that died out a few moments later. Buddy shrugged. "Anyways, get her off the ship so we can get in the air."

Someone snorted.

"It's not like we've anyplace to be and I'm the captain, so I'll say when we leave."

"Sure, see you in ten." Buddy left.

"Ten! Ten!" The door shut off Brother's indignation.

--

Anikki crossed his arms. "Everyone on this ship gives orders but me."

Paine stared at the door. "He didn't recognize me."

"I'm not moving this ship until I'm good and ready, which means after a shower, dressing and food." He jutted his bottom lip out into a pout. It made Paine want to kiss him and do other things to him.

Paine moved around him to look into his face. "Just those three things?"

He furrowed his brow. "I didn't want to assume or presume. Sleeping together and," he frowned, "umm, fucking each other are two different things."

She placed a hand on his arm and hooded her eyes. "Do your tattoos go all the way down?"

He swallowed. "I'll go lock the door."

--

She ran a hand down his back, his head about the vicinity of her stomach. "How did a submissive man like you become so dominant in the bedroom?"

He smirked. "I have to be in control someplace."

She laughed, stomach bouncing up and down. He blew a raspberry into it, making her laugh harder. He sucked a nipple into his mouth and her laugh turned into a moan. "Anikki."

He grinned and kissed her parted lips, biting on the bottom one. "Shower with me."

"That sounds like another order."

"It is."

She licked his bottom lip. "All right."

"Not that you really need help getting wet."

Her eyes widened and she froze and then she slapped his butt. He laughed and she had to grin with him. "You're crude."

"The fun type," he kissed her forehead, sat up and headed for the shower. She rolled her eyes, something she found she was doing a lot with him and followed.

--

Anikki was ravenous. He couldn't remember being so hungry. Paine was watching him eat with a bemused smile as he worked on a second plate of food.

"So are we ready to leave yet?" Buddy asked from the door.

Anikki shoved his plate away. "What is the damn hurry?" He rotated the stool to face Buddy and crossed his arms. "I don't see a reason to leave. Yuna and Tidus are off on a honeymoon, Rikku's on maternity leave. The sphere oscillafinder isn't exactly bombarding us with sphere waves and the commsphere network isn't overwhelming us with requests for help. We've a nice berth here in Luca. There's some mechanical shit that needs our attention and since I'm the captain I say we stay here."

Buddy reared back. "I don't disagree with any of that. You're just usually so eager to be on the move."

"Well, for once I'm not."

"Cid's on the bridge."

Paine's eyebrows rose. "Usually he makes himself right at home."

Buddy looked over at her. "I told him Brother was busy."

Paine's eyes traveled to the rather nice bruise on Anikki's neck. "That he was."

Anikki flushed and crossed his arms. "It's my business, not anyone else's."

"Then you better cover that up then." Buddy nodded.

"I've some make up." Paine offered.

Anikki shot her a covert glare. "What is the point of getting marked if I can't show it off? No thank you."

Paine hid her smile behind her glass.

"Cid's gonna ask." Buddy said.

Anikki threw his arms up. "Because vydran's never slept with a woman in his life, which is obviously not true since, shoopuf, here I am and oh yes, let's not forget Rikku!" He stood up and strode past Buddy. "And I swear if he goes on about children or a new Home again I'm going to send him flying head first off the deck."

Buddy turned his head to watch him. "What's with him?" He asked Paine.

She shrugged. "Maybe he's angry."

"Huh."

--

By the time Paine and Buddy reached the bridge, Anikki and Cid were shouting at each other, which was nothing at all new. Anikki however, was making more sense than normal.

"I'm not going to help you build a new Home. It's wrong. If you wanted Home so much you shouldn't have blown up the last one!"

"Guado and fiends were tearing it apart! We had no choice."

"Of course we had a choice. There's always a choice. We could've evacuated, regrouped and retaken the city."

"There wasn't any time."

"It's called delegation. Gippal, as much as he annoys me was right there in the desert. Rin could have done it. Fuck, if I'd been thinking straight I'd have made you pilot the ship and done it myself. You've no restraint. You get wrapped up in what's happening in the moment and you forget everything else, including your own children and your people and what your doing might mean to them. That no one wants a new Home is your fault. You're the only one who's still blatantly obsessed with the notion, up to the point of almost alienating your own niece and your daughter. You're still alienating your daughter. It's her life, her choice and she's chosen Gippal." Cid stood blinking in the face of Brother's tirade. "I'm tired of shouting at you. It only causes more shouting and until you can come up with a decent apology and mean it this time you are banned from my ship. Go back to sulking in the Thunder Plains for all I give a shit."

"Son." Cid swallowed. "I just want-"

"You want, you want, you want. What about what we want? We have our own lives, pursuing what we want without you. Off my ship, now or I'll physically kick you off. I'm done talking with you." Anikki turned around and stalked to Shinra's station. He leaned over the boy, who wisely didn't say anything as Anikki worked through the different screens, bringing up some diagrams, the interior blueprints of the Celsius.

Cid stared at his son's back, his shoulders sagged and he left. Paine quietly moved aside to let him pass.

Buddy cleared his throat. "Brother-"

"Anikki," he corrected.

"Anikki, not to criticize your social skills but that was a little cold."

"Nothing I said was untrue. He wasn't getting the message and the engine is overheating so I'd like to fix the cooling system before it melts on us. We've nothing but time on our hands."

"He's still your father."

Anikki straightened and turned. "I didn't ask you. Every time he comes into my life he tries to take control and quietly rearrange into something that he would enjoy. An arranged marriage to an Al Bhed girl, rebuilding Home, criticizing my ship, my appearance, my life, telling me to get my act together, that I'm useless." He pointed at the deck plates. "This is my life, this ship and everyone on it. It's all I have and- the radiator is going and I'm going to fix it."

--

That night Anikki took Paine dancing. She looked at the seething mass of people on the floor and looked over at him. "This is supposed to be fun."

"You wanted to do something off ship, complaining you were bored."

"I thought we'd get a drink."

"This is fun."

She crossed her arms. "I don't think so."

He sighed and pulled her into the crowd. "Try it. You use that songstress sphere."

"That's different and I hate that sphere."

He began to move his hips to the music. He grinned at her. "You must dance for me. My sanity depends on it. Dance, Paine, dance." She sighed and mimicked what he was doing. He chuckled and spun her about, placing his hands on her hips. "More like this," He said into her neck, moving her hips back and forth in the appropriate degree of sway. "You're too stiff."

"This isn't really dancing." She wasn't sure where to put her hands. "This is moving back and forth pretending your dancing while really mimicking other things."

He moved back around in front of her and grinned down at her. "That's because you're not feeling the music. Close your eyes and listen for the beat. Like fighting you have to put your whole body into it." She closed her eyes. Maybe if she didn't have to see around her she could enjoy this more. "Your shoulders, your head, your arms, your fingers, your waist, and hips, your ass, your knees and feet." He teased her sides with his fingers and she shivered.

"I can't concentrate if you do that."

He chuckled into her ear. "This isn't about concentrating. It's about letting go and just doing it."

"Like sex." She cracked an eye open to look at him.

"And being drunk."

She smiled and closed her eye again listened, realizing he already had her hips swaying in time. Her shoulder's twitched and she had the urge to place her arms above her head. She tilted her head back and forth, opening her eyes when Anikki grabbed a hand and spun her about. She ended up flush against his chest.

"I think you got it." He grinned.

"Like I said, this is pretending to be dancing and mimicking other things." She smirked. His hand rested on the small of her back.

"You might be right. It's still fun." He closed his eyes and nodded his head to the beat, the clubs odd lights reflecting off his earrings. So he didn't see the trouble.

A hand came down and clutched Paine's shoulder. "Hey sweetheart, this Al Bhed trash bothering you?" Anikki's eyes snapped open and Paine easily slipped from the hold by ducking her shoulder and stepping closer to Anikki. His hand slid lower, most likely by accident. The other guy, no there were two of them, guys didn't like it. "Hey, girl, answer me, is this greasy piece of shit bothering you?"

Anikki stiffened. "My friend and I are dancing, fuck off."

The guys looked at him and then looked back at her. She chose a neutral expression and turned around, leaning on Anikki's chest. They sneered at Anikki and she sneered back. "You're too good for him doll." One said. "He's Al Bhed."

"No shit." Anikki muttered. "And you're a Yevonite with a grudge."

The guy stiffened. "You've got your own women."

Anikki eyed the nearer guy up and down. "What do you think, Paine?" He leaned down and murmured into her ear. "I'd rather get out of this without throwing the first punch."

She smiled. She'd play. "Horrid personality."

"Personality isn't everything." Anikki let her go. "He has nice lips."

"Too thin. Plus his hair is all the wrong color."

"Not into brunettes."

"Blondes are my flavor of the month."

The guy looked between them and gaped. "You're, you're-"

"I just don't know." Anikki sighed and his hands flew about. "I mean, muscles are good but I can find that almost anywhere." He shrugged. "On second thought, not my type either."

"We agree yet again."

Anikki sized up the other guy. "The red head?"

The redhead reared back and threw a punch at Anikki. He spun out of the way and a circle of watchers formed around them.

"You fucking blasphemous pervert." The redhead hissed.

Paine glanced at the crowd. The brunette made a grab at her and she stepped back, swinging into a high kick. It landed along his jaw and there was a crack. "Not that I'm not flattered, but no thanks. We best get out of here, captain."

The redhead swung about. "Captain?"

Anikki sighed. "Just when I was having fun."

The redhead flushed and threw another punch. Anikki stepped inside it and sucker punched him in the gut. "Drunk as Sin," he muttered and let him fall to the floor.

A bouncer shouldered his way through the crowd and coughed. Paine stepped in front of Anikki. "These men came after my Captain for no reason, the red head threw a punch and-" She shrugged. "I can smell the alcohol on them from here.

The redhead gasped. "Lies."

The bouncer looked down and grimaced. "Sorry about this, Lady Paine." He glanced at Anikki. "Lord Anikki. It won't happen again." Paine took a second look at the bouncer, an Al Bhed. She snorted. The bouncer glanced over at Anikki. "Elder Cid was in here earlier complaining about you telling him off." Anikki rolled his eyes. The bouncer grinned. "Good on you, Bro. We'll clean this up and let you get on with your night. Blowing up at Cid was long overdue, maybe he'll listen this time."

"I doubt it. We'll go and get out of your hair, cousin."

"Oh I lost all that years ago." He waved a hand and a few other bouncers came out of the crowd, picking up the guy who was out cold by his shoulders and ankles.

Anikki gestured for Paine to precede him and the crowd broke up, going back to the music sensing the show was over.

The night air chilled her. She glanced over at Anikki as they strode down the street. "The Lord and Lady was a nice touch. Is he really a cousin?"

"Two or three times removed on my mother's side. I think." Anikki shrugged. "So much for dancing."

She half smiled. "You knew we wouldn't be able to leave without a fight." He scratched the back of his head. "But you didn't care because you're related to the workers. You just didn't want to be at fault." He whistled looking everywhere but at her. "We'll have to try it again sometime. It was fun."

He smirked. "The dancing or the fighting?"

"Laying down the hurt is always fun."

"I can think of something more fun."

"You'll have to show me."

He grinned at her. "Only if you're up to it. Race you back to the ship." He took off back towards the Celsius.

She made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat. "What is it with this family that makes everything so dramatic?" She asked rhetorical before running after him.

END

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