It's me. I'm back! And so; after a long period of absence for which I apologise sincerely; is Fahrenheit in Celsius.

This chapter, I hope you'll be glad to hear, is quite a long one. And as my friend xiao32615987 said; I'm like a puppy when it comes to praise; review or I'll have to put a Big Sad Puppy Dog Face up as my next post. See how you like that!

If Sydney Clock is still reading, I would like to ask a simple question; do Yuna and Paine need to vilg the cred out of each other before you review again?

anyway, enough of that, back to the story, YAY!!


It didn't take the three of them long to get to Buddy's room. Paine had suggested trying here first rather than the bridge, even though Buddy seemed to spend all of his time there. There was something bugging her about the idea, but she wanted more time to think about it before mentioning it to the others.

Rikku rapped her knuckles politely on the door, then put her ear to the door in an unnecessarily theatrical manner. After almost half a minute of that, Paine gave up. Pushing Rikku gently out of the way, she drew her leg up, and planted a heavy kick on the steel door. She really wasn't too bothered about denting it, the doors were extremely strong, no matter how much force she put into a kick, there never seemed to be more than a tiny indentation in the metal, and even then only where her heel impacted.

Knowing that Buddy wouldn't open the door, Paine looked back to Yuna and Rikku, who were both smiling at her ever-so-direct approach to get people's attention. "What exactly are we going to say to him then? It's not exactly a normal conversation topic. How do you start that kind of conversation?"

The other two girls shrugged, and looked at each other, then back to Paine. "I don't think it would be fair to expect Rikku to say anything," Yuna began, pretending not to notice the look of relief that flashed across her cousin's face, "It's basically just about us Paine."

"Look, I'll tell him…" Paine replied, annoyed at the nagging feeling in her mind as much as their avoiding the question, "but first we need to figure out exactly what it is I'm going to say. Do you actually want me to just walk up to him and put it out there face up?"

"It might be easier…" Rikku started.

"For you yes." Paine interrupted, secretly enjoying Rikku's disorientation and embarrassment at the implication.

"I mean you should get it over with," Rikku retorted, not wanting to lose face, "You might even shock him so much that he won't realise until we've got the information we want."

Paine was impressed, that was a pretty devious thought for such a bubbly mind; then she did something even rarer than smiling; "that's plus 3 Rikku."

Rikku looked a bit puzzled, but then realization dawned; "Respect points? I got some back?"

Paine nodded; "I hope you've been keeping track, if you ask how many you've got, I'll have to take five off."

"Before or after you tell me?"

"Who said I was going to tell you?" Paine enjoyed the way Rikku sagged down, and found that it was just as much fun to watch her get over it and bounce back up again.

Since Buddy hadn't already opened the door, they decided that he wasn't going to; Rikku, seemingly needing to find a release for some of her limitless energy, pointed this out. "Well, he's not here. Wanna try the bridge?"

"I guess so." Yuna followed her cousins bouncing form running down the corridor, and Paine strode calmly after them, calling up; "If you want to tell him that's fine with me."

She caught up to them in the elevator, "Don't worry Paine, we wouldn't take that away from you." Rikku grinned. "We know how much you hate it when people do stuff for you… But I guess to you is a different matter." She looked meaningfully at Yuna, who blushed as always. Yuna always wondered why they teased her about being shy, but she guessed it was fair. They all teased each other about things like that. Except Paine, neither she or Rikku teased Paine very often.

"Let's just go up shall we?" She reached between her friends, trying to make it look casual as she, she assumed discreetly, brushed her hand against Paine's firm stomach. After pressing the button for the bridge, she tried to avoid blushing as she noticed the way Rikku winked at Paine.

They spent the short ride to the bridge in silence. Yuna only spoke up again as Paine stepped out of the elevator, "Good luck…" Even as she said it, she wondered why she had. Ignoring Paine's dismissive 'Why would I need it?' she searched her mind for that exact reason. Unknowingly, she found her subconscious telling her the same thing Paine's had told her. Even so, she couldn't figure it out.

She felt Rikku tug her arm, and followed her onto the bridge "You don't want Paine to tell him by herself do you, Yunie? That's not a very girlfriendy thing to do is it?"

Yuna blushed once more at the first use of the word, as much that Rikku said it first as anything. Her embarrassment was forgotten as she reached the stairs and saw that all four chairs were unoccupied. The only person on the bridge, was an annoyed looking Paine, who stood; arms crossed, right hand cupping her chin, staring at Buddy's chair, as if by sheer force of will she could make him appear.

She looked so intense that for a second Yuna almost thought it might work.

Rikku stayed on the raised platform, watching as Yuna walked quickly down the stairs to her girlfriend, and so was the first to hear the footsteps coming from the elevator a minute after their arrival. She was surprised that she hadn't heard it leave or reopen, but what surprised her more was when the voice accompanying the footsteps said; "What's everyone doing up here so early?"

Rikku spun round with a squeak; which both startled Buddy, and alerted the other two to his presence. "Oh…Buddy, hi. We were um… Early? Whaddaya mean early? It's not that early…is it?" Rikku hoped desperately that her babbling wouldn't be too obvious, and that he'd just answer the question and leave her alone. Typically, neither of her hopes were fulfilled.

"Rikku, not even Paine is usually up at this time, and she usually has to wake you up. What could possibly have you three all out of bed at Six Fifteen?" He switched his gaze to Paine and Yuna lower down; "Does she normally babble like that when she wakes up? Or did I just scare her more than I thought?"

"She's always like that."

"Oh. Alright then." Buddy headed down to his console, and leant against the back of his seat; lifting his goggles out of his pocket, and strapping them across his forehead. "So, I'm guessing it was you girls that woke me up." The confused looks from Rikku and Yuna prompted him to continue, "Or Paine at least. No-one else on this ship knocks like that."

"So you do actually sleep then?" Paine's calm demeanour was impressive. It was like there was nothing abnormal about them being on the bridge before anyone was normally awake; it was even as though they weren't about to tell him about their 'activities' earlier.

"Occasionally. Even I need to recharge sometimes."

"So, how do you stay awake for such ridiculous periods of time? You don't drink coffee, and you'd be jittery if you took pills. Spill it." Paine maintained her composure and reputation among the people who knew her by drinking enough coffee each morning to keep her awake until late. She was sure it wasn't a good idea, but didn't care.

"It's not that hard really, I just keep myself occupied, and exercise vigorously."

Paine grunted and shook her head, turning away, "You expect me to believe you?"

Slowly, a grin spreading across her features, she turned back to look at him. It was a childish tactic, but it might just work. It might also get her off the hook about the other thing. "If you tell me your secret; I'll tell you mine."

Buddy looked interested, he crossed his arms, and leant back. "So that's why you came down here is it? You wanted to tell me something, but now that you can get something out of it you're gonna give it a shot, huh? Fair enough. It's a deal. You go first."

"Why should I?" Yuna and Rikku were watching this with a mixture of amusement and worry. Yuna was more worried than amused, the feeling that something was wrong had increased markedly since Buddy and Paine had started bargaining like this.

"You're going first because you were going to tell me yours anyway. Don't deny it I know you were."

"I'm not denying it, but everything's changed now. You should go first for the same reason. You can trust me to tell you mine afterwards, but I have no guarantee that you'll tell me yours." Paine's logic, and utter lack of trust won out over Buddy's attempt.

"Alright fine, I'll tell you." Buddy looked a bit put out by his defeat, but he knew he could never beat Paine on something like this. "It's probably not as exciting as you might think, and you have to swear on your sword that you'll tell me yours afterwards."

"Deal." Buddy obviously thought he had her with that, but her sword was now no longer the most important thing in Paine's life. "How do you do it?"

Buddy grinned, and looking at Rikku and Yuna said, "This is between me and Paine, so if you two could wait by the elevator, that'd help."

The two cousins looked at Paine, who shrugged. Nodding in acceptance, they turned and headed off to wait out of earshot.

After watching them leave, Buddy and Paine turned to each other, and she gestured for him to speak. He smiled slightly, and began; "Trust me, it's nothing exciting; you know how noisy the elevator door is? Well, basically, I'm a very light sleeper, so sometimes when we're on autopilot, which happens quite a lot really, and there's no one else in here; I sleep in my chair. Why d'you think it reclines so much?" To emphasise his point, he slid into the chair and lay back, hands behind his head, legs stretched out.

Paine looked at him in surprise; "Is that it? You sleep lightly enough to get woken up by the elevator?"

"Yup, told you it wasn't going to be exciting."

He waited a moment, while she shook her head in disbelief. Then raised his head, and spread his hands; "Alright, your turn. What was so important you got Rikku out of bed before midday?"

Paine shook the disbelief from her mind; gazing calmly at the Al Bhed, who grinned back at her from his, really very bedlike, chair. Feeling that odd worry creeping back again. Not letting on about her discomfort, however, she simply shrugged and said; "I'm not sure your secret's good enough to be worth traded for my biggest secret, but a deal's a deal. You get a secret, then we stop acting childish and keep our secrets secret."

Buddy looked a bit disappointed, but decided not to push it. If Paine had decided that she didn't want to tell him it, any amount of attempted persuasion would be more likely to result in pain than divulgence. "Fine, what is it?"

She leaned in closer, supporting herself on the arm of his chair; she whispered, pretending it was more important, "My sword's not the most important thing in my life anymore."


Okay, well, with this updated version, which I hope you all enjoy more than the origional, you all have a reason to review, if only to give me a verbal slapping for putting you through the frist incarnation, or to say that you preferred the Atom-bomb subtlety (thank you xiao32615987) of Buddy's origional explanaition.