Paine might have found the boat they were taking impressive if she hadn't been living in an airship for the last two years. Anyway, it was comfortable and she found herself rather giddy to be alone with Baralai. She would never admit this of course, so when she and Baralai went below deck to a quaint little sitting room of sorts, she simply said "Charming." In a voice that was unconvincingly flat and sat down on what looked like a love seat.

'How Ironic, I never thought Baralai would encourage spontaneous behavior' she thought as Baralai sat down next to her— a bit too close, but she found it rude to mention, so instead she scooted over an inch or two. If he noticed this he pretended not to, though it was hard to tell what he was thinking behind those diplomatic eyes of his.

"So..." She started awkwardly, trying to think of something to talk about. "What were you called back for anyway?" She asked lamely, it was hardly a good conversation opener but at least it wasn't as cliche as remarking upon the weather or inquiring about what his favorite color was. (Which was blue, though he would undoubtedly say he didn't have one, or ask why such trivial things were important, before pondering over the subject for a moment and remarking that he always liked the color of the sky. Or on a off day he would distractedly reply 'the color of her eyes', which she found rather amusing since he clearly only liked the color crimson when he was referring to her irises or to the squad they had once belonged to. But not that Paine was keeping track of such things...okay maybe she was a little.) She suppressed a sigh and forced her thoughts back to the present, she needed to get her head out of the clouds, if anyone knew better than that it would be her. Had the school of hard knocks taught her nothing?

Baralai frowned, as though sensing that she was pushing her own emotions away, and replied "Nothing important, they just are overly dependant. Perhaps it's because of the Yevon Maesters being unsent, those dead guys never took a break. Apparently the people expect the same from me."

Paine rolled her eyes; she knew how needy and mindless the people of Spira— especially Bevelle— could be. She knew all to well their need to feel like everything was perfect, worse was their distaste for anything that wasn't 'perfect', which unfortunately had always included the red-eyed orphan freak-child that was her. Once again she suppressed a sigh 'Man, I've got baggage!' She thought. Realizing that Baralai was expecting a reply, she said "How did you become praetor anyway? I assume you didn't volunteer for the position yourself."

Baralai chuckled and then related to her the tale. "I was unfortunate enough to be in Bevelle when the calm came." He smiled sheepishly at the memory. "That priestess Shelinda was frantically gathering people to help out in the temple...and well as you well know, I have a hard time saying no to things"

Paine nodded at this, but inwardly she frowned. Yuna was the same way. 'They would be perfect for each other' the negative side of her seemed to whisper. 'Yuna is engaged!' She mentally snapped back while listening to Baralai's story.

"And so the lot of us she'd gathered decided that we would revive Yevon and run it as a group...under the direction of the newly elected praetor of course."

'Fine, not Yuna then' The thought came to her mind. 'Anyone would be better for him than you!' She attempted to shoo these negative thoughts away to no avail as Baralai finished his tale.

"And when the Praetor was asked to leave and we needed a knew one...well the others sort of volunteered me and well..." He blushed "I was so confused I had accepted the position and several hours had gone by before I really knew what was going on."

The both chuckled at this, for the Crimson squad had soon learned that if they could fully confuse Baralai (Which had only been easy for Paine) they could get him to agree to nearly anything. (Paine chuckled at the particular memory of Gippal worriedly claiming that they had broken Baralai, and his shocked expression as though he had actually thought it was true.)

"So what about you?" He asked. "How did you come to join the Gullwings?"

Paine smiled thinking of the first day she'd joined the Gullwings. She'd been between jobs and she had found a job add requiring someone who wasn't afraid of giant deadly fiends and had a high tolerance level (At the time she had thought they meant pain tolerance, but Rikku had meant putting up with Brother's shenanigans.)

She retold this with a melancholy smile, remembering how sad she had been that day. She recalled being so lonely that she had pretended the squad was alive and had given them a tour around her little apartment in Luca. She had laughed with them and also cried at her own foolishness at the same time time; apparently there was some of that lonely little kid left in her. Little had she known that would become the most important trait needed for her job, for all of the Gullwings were kids at heart, and it showed most profusely.

As she regaled many of her amusing tales of the Gullwings, she marveled at how much she'd grown since being with them. She'd joined to try and find what she had lost, namely the Crimson squad, and though she was glad that she had found them, she was amazed that she'd found something she didn't even know was missing. She'd found herself in those seemingly pointless years.

By the time she finished she yawn and closed her eyes. "Wake me up when we get to Luca" she said with yet another yawn, and then with a smile stuck on her face she fell asleep, knowing for once that everything was perfectly alright.

A/N Hiya everybody, NaNoWriMo is officially over so I have a bit more time on my hands to update my fan fics.

So, these one-shots do follow a basic storyline, but it's still a one-shot collection, so don't be fooled by the closeness in the chronological orderliness of it all, these are meant to be one-shots not chapters. (Which is important because really though a few of these one-shots continue one plotline said plot-lines aren't very lengthy and they vary from one-shot to one-shot)

Anyway, thank you for the guest review, LaLaLa, I'm glad that you are enjoying this one-shot series. And as long as we are talking about reviews, if you enjoy this series of one-shots please review, follow, and favorite it so that way I know to try and update it as often as possible. On that note, I hope you enjoyed this one-shot. Love y'all -Reibun