Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy X-2 or it's characters. That's Square-Enix's property. Kai and Irik belong to me, though. So no stealing!
Rikku glanced over to her left. A wide smile spread across her face when she saw Paine's silver coif. "What are you doing here?" She asked, turning slightly in her seat to face her friend. She noticed the warrior's hair had grown longer, and her eyes seemed brighter.
Paine sighed, her breath making a swooping sound. "A business trip. I'm working on a little something to bring some life to Spira again." She told Rikku, grabbing her drink from the bartender and raising the glass to her lips.
"You, bring life to Spira? Of all people..." Rikku laughed merrily as she drank, the liquid searing her throat.
"Don't laugh. It was Baralai's idea. He suggested I start a faction of sorts. Gippal wanted to come, but decided to take on a mission for Nhadala at the last minute." Paine finished off her drink quickly, setting the glass down with a loud chink.
"Careful with the glassware! S'not cheap!" The bartender shouted as he mixed drinks for a young couple.
Rikku set her glass down as well, hoping the noise would reach the barkeep's ears. "So, what regarding your new "faction of sorts" brings you to Kilika?" She asked, resting her chin in her hand once again.
"I wanted to talk to Dona. To see if she wanted to join. I want leaders from everywhere. Anyone I can get. My mission is to unite us, and inject some spirit into the people." Paine explained, her eyes wandering. She jerked them back to Rikku's, and couldn't help but notice a little sadness there. "Why aren't you with Rin?"
Rikku blinked. "Why aren't I with Rin?" She repeated. "Because I don't want to be."
"Oh boy. Trouble in paradise already?" Paine motioned for the bartender.
"Done ruinin' my glasses? What'll you have?" He grabbed the two empty glasses and stowed them away for later cleaning.
"Same for both of us." Paine told him before returning her attentions to her friend. "So, you have to tell me what happened."
"Promise you won't tell Gippal any of it? He'll just be disappointed in me." Rikku sat up straight, looking Paine directly in the eyes.
"Why would I?" Paine smirked, remembering how Gippal up and left a few days ago. Not so much as a goodbye as he disappeared into the sand.
"Okay." Rikku readied herself. "I guess it all started when we first got here. Rin took me shopping. He doesn't know that I like to buy. I made him mad by spending gil."
"He got angry with you for spending a fraction of his millions?" Paine asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well...I did insist on the nicest, most expensive place to stay. And...well...I guess I deserved for him to be angry with me." Rikku bit her lip, thinking back to what happened. "But, when we went swimming, he was checking out other girls! He's a married man!"
"So you did something that offended him, and he did something that offended you. I'd say the two of you are pretty even now." Paine told her, finishing off her fresh drink. She eyed Rikku's that sat untouched.
"Have it." Rikku said, noticing the glint in Paine's eyes. "After that, I cried all night and slept in the bathtub. And in the morning, I was stuck in the shower curtain, but Rin wouldn't help. He just laughed at me. So I left, and here I am."
Paine let out a low whistle. "Sounds like you're overreacting. Maybe you should both apologize to each other?" She suggested, setting Rikku's empty glass beside her own. "Two more please!"
"I'm not apologizing to him! I apologized once. He never said sorry. Even if he did, I don't think I'd forgive him. I don't like being married anymore." Rikku grabbed the offered drink from the bartender and downed it in one gulp. She was going to get good and drunk tonight. "Another!"
Paine grinned and finished her own. The bartender came by and gave them two more, taking away the empties. They had drink after drink, the other patrons at the bar becoming fuzzier and fuzzier as the night went on.
"Gippal left me." Paine blurted out after what seemed like forever.
"What?" Rikku's eyes widened and she couldn't help but laugh wildly when she saw the look on Paine's face.
"It's true." Paine said after Rikku had finally stopped laughing. "He just left one day. He didn't even say goodbye to me. All he did was mutter something about Nhadala and Luca before he disappeared into the desert."
Rikku swallowed. Despite her drunkenness, she was all seriousness now. "But...you two were so in love." She frowned and pushed her drink away.
That's just it. We weren't in love. We thought we were. But we were so wrong. Everyone was wrong." Paine, too, became very serious. "It doesn't matter to me anyway. I started seeing someone yesterday."
Rikku's eyes widened greatly. "Already? Who?" She asked as she began to wave her arms about excitedly.
Paine blinked. "You have to swear that you won't laugh. Otherwise, you'll have no respect points."
Rikku nodded feverishly, ceasing her waving. She leaned in close so she could hear her soft-spoken friend clearly.
"Isaaru and I had dinner last night." Paine told her quietly, so that only they could hear. She couldn't bear it if her personal life became the gossip of Spira. It was bad enough that she was secretly dating a geeky ex-summoner. "Anyway," She began, noticing the look in Rikku's eyes, "Do you want to join my faction, or not?"
Rikku looked thoughtful for a moment, before opening her mouth to speak. "I don't know if it would be in the Al Bhed leader's best interests to make decisions without the approval of her people. As it is, she's disgraced her family by what she did, and surely her people would be disappointed in her actions." She glanced up through her lashes at Paine, who was laughing jovially at her.
"Listen to you, all grown up and leading your people. I'm amazed by how much you've grown in just a few years. You're so different from the Rikku who used to follow me around, pestering me for my deepest, darkest secrets." Paine said, the mood turning nostalgic almost as quickly as it turned serious. "I kind of miss that Rikku, now that I'm seeing more of this one. I miss deducting respect points. Though, you've got so few now, I don't think it would matter even if I did."
Rikku nodded slowly. "I miss the old Paine, just as much as you miss the old Rikku. But it's a part of our past that's long gone. We've just got to get used to what we have." She smiled at Paine, and stood up from her stool. "I think I'm going to leave Rin, and find myself a place to live. On my own, of course."
Paine stood too, and enveloped Rikku in her arms. "Okay, grown-up. I'll see you sometime?" She asked as she pressed her face into Rikku's hair.
"Of course. I'll never leave my people." Rikku replied as she pulled back, taking one last, long look at her friend. "Bye." She waved over her shoulder as she left, her steps a little crooked, but her eyes never wavering.
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Gippal trudged through the crowds of Luca, not paying much attention where he was going. Head bowed against the bright light shining down on Spira, he was headed for the Blitzball stadium, to meet an old friend. Nhadala had asked him to travel to Luca for her, to deliver a message to her cousin Irik, that his sphere business was taking off in Sanubia. He didn't realize until after he left, that Irik was an old childhood friend, who took off when they were younger for "bigger and better things". He was almost excited to see this little piece of his past.
The locker rooms were crowded with Blitz players of all races, genders, and ages. The Al Bhed Psyches were playing an up-and-coming team, the Moogle Maniacs. He found the Maniacs' locker room with little difficulty, and standing in a far corner of the crowded room, chatting with a lithe-looking young woman, was none other than Irik. Gippal swallowed his nervousness down like a bad potion, and stepped up to them.
It was like something had hit him in the back of the head, hard. The woman Irik had been talking to, was like a walking, talking version of the aeon Shiva, except for the fact that her skin and hair weren't blue. When she looked at Gippal, his heart froze over, and he found himself unable to speak. She was a beautiful creature, her wide blue eyes set directly on him. And when she spoke to him, albeit in a rather unsatisfactory tone, he found himself unable to think.
"Can I help you? Are you lost?" She questioned, annoyance apparent in her voice. Here she was, having a serious conversation with Irik, when some lost looking loser wandered up to them, staring at her like an idiot.
"I uh...I'm here to talk to Irik." Gippal answered after a few minutes of trying to calm his heart down.
The woman made a noise of exasperation that was meant only for Gippal to hear, and walked away in a huff. Irik, the man whom she had been talking to and the one Gippal sought out, turned around slowly to look at Gippal.
"What do you need?" Irik questioned with the same annoyance as his companion. "I've got a game soon, so make it quick."
Gippal was shocked. Had he really changed that much from when they were children? How many people in Spira had lost an eye as children? He decided not to pursue it any further, for fear that the goddess of a friend he had would show up once again. "Your cousin, Nhadala, sends you a message from Sanubia. You're sphere business is booming." He managed to say.
"Well, that's good. If you'll excuse me, I've got to find Kai." Irik said, walking away without even thanking him. He was far from the easy-going boy Gippal had known as a child. But at least he knew the woman's name now.
Leaving the Bliztball stadium, Gippal again bowed his head against the harsh sunlight, and made his way for the inn where Baralai was staying.
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Baralai was sitting at the desk in his rented room, poring over documents of some sort. He wasn't paying enough attention to what he was reading to get any kind of information from them. All he could think of was Rikku, and what she was doing at that very moment. And of course, where Gippal happened to be with dinner. As he picked up a pen and began to write, the door slammed open and he jumped, a line of ink running across the first page of a chocobo ranching agreement.
"Gippal! Don't fling open the door like that!" Baralai shouted, hastily wiping at the ink, hoping it would dry slowly enough that he may remove it from the paper.
"Sorry, but my hands were full, and I knew you were busy. Did it get ruined?" Gippal apologized sheepishly as he leaned over Baralai, examining the paper himself.
"Unfortunately, it didn't." Baralai should have been relieved.
"Unfortunately?" Gippal repeated.
"Some imbecile wants a chocobo ranch in Bevelle. What kind of moron would want that? Aren't there enough of them in the Calm Lands?" Baralai answered, a little uncharacteristic anger in his voice.
"My my, mister Praetor. I've never heard you bad-mouth anyone before. It's actually quite a treat." Gippal laughed and dodged a well-aimed kick to his shin.
"I'm not bad-mouthing anyone, Gippal. Unlike you, I do watch my tongue, and hold it when it is necessary." Baralai sighed and set down his pen, leaning back in his chair and looking up at his one-eyed friend. "It's just that I don't think a chocobo ranch in such a splendid city is necessary. Bevelle is clean and orderly, and chocobo's are not. Besides, the Calm Lands aren't so far away. One can simply go there for a chocobo if it is needed."
"I get your point. I just don't agree with it, though. Who doesn't want to ride a chocobo around town? I used to when I was little, and we found them wandering the desert. Rikku and I, we nursed one back to health and had it for years. He was our best friend, that chocobo." Gippal's face became expressionless as his mind was sent into a dream-like state.
"Did you complete your task?" Baralai questioned, jerking Gippal harshly from his memories.
"You mean Nhadala's message?" He asked, leaning heavily on one corner of the desk, knocking over a jar full of something pink. "I did. And I met this girl. Her name's Kai. She looked just like Shiva. So pretty, but Yevon was she mean."
Baralai's jaw dropped, and his eyes went wide. "Kai?" Kai was his sister's name. A sister he thought to be dead. "Did she look to be about twenty?"
Gippal thought for a moment, dredging up a picture of her in his mind. "Yep. She did. Why do you ask? Keepin' tabs on the ages of my girls?"
It was her. It had to be. "No. Kai is my sister." Baralai told him. "At least I think she might be. I had thought her dead many years ago, when I returned home after the fight with Sin."
"Sister? Dead?" Gippal was lost, and he didn't think he cared to be found.
"Yes. My father had married an Al Bhed woman after his marriage to my mother, and my birth. I knew not of this sister I had until both of our parents had died, and she came looking for me. One rainy evening in Bevelle, a beautiful little child appeared on the doorstep of my home, begging to see me. I had to go see her. I couldn't just leave a young girl out in the cold. She told me who her father was, and how she knew me, and I believed her. I'm glad I did, because Kai was the greatest gift I could have ever asked for. The only thing was, after all the time I spent bringing her up as a model young lady, she ran away from home. I guess it must have been around the time I left home to join the Crimson Squad, when I met you, Paine, and Nooj. All of the hired help were convinced I was going to be killed helping to fight Sin, and Kai picked up on this. She told her tutor of her plans to run away, and why. It was because she couldn't live without me in such a large house. She was afraid of being alone again. So she fled, and I never saw her again. How I wept when I returned home. We scoured all of Spira looking for her, and turned over nary a thing. Such a gorgeous thing she was. Soft shining silver hair, and big sparkling blue eyes. The most delicate face and tiny body you would ever find. I miss her to this very day. But she did always have a mean streak about her. Always sassing me and talking back. She never got along well with her tutors." Baralai paused after his long story and looked at Gippal. If he wasn't seeing things, there was a tear in his friend's eye. Was his story really that heart wrenching?
Gippal took a deep breath. "Well, it's her. Big sparkling blue eyes and bad attitude. But her hair sure isn't silver anymore. Looks like she dyed it bright purple." He tried not to notice the dismay in Baralai's expression.
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Not knowing what to do with himself, Rin was sitting in silence in the darkened room of the villa. Rikku had left abruptly, without much of an explanation, not even giving him time to apologize. He hadn't the slightest clue what was going to happen now. Everything seemed to be going along wonderfully. He and Rikku had been getting along famously, until something just snapped. He wasn't quite sure what, but he knew now that the Al Bhed princess was a little too much for him to handle. Maybe it was time to ask Cid for some advice...
A/N: Okay. Long time no see, folks. I know that my legions of die-hard fans have left me because I am the ultimate slacker, but I'm trying to make it up to you by giving you this mega chapter! holds it up in all it's glory Look how long and shiny and beautiful it is! I know. Nothing can explain my absence, and nothing in the world can make up for it. But I'll try. I know that this all may seem a little silly right now, but I'm trying to work out the kinks in it. I've decided to start writing from other character's POV's some, just so we can see Baralai's side a little bit too. Unfortunately that involves his BFF, Gippal, and the introduction of a few new characters, OCs of mine, Irik and Kai. Yes, Kai is going to be a love interest for the jaded Gippal. Unfortunately, poor Irik has had a lifelong crush on Tidus, and will not get his man in this fic. The other one that follows the lives of Kai and Gippal, however, allows Tidus to leave Yuna, and fall for Irik (I'm actually going to kill Yuna in my other fic). Aaaanywho. Yes, Kai is Baralai's sister. Get over it. If you don't like it, pretend I said ex-girlfriend or something. And that's that. This truly is the chapter from hell, and no, Rikku and Rin aren't going to get off that easily. They need to have sex first! dims the lights and puts on the music Of course, there may be a little consequence for them when they actually do split. D But you'll hear about that later. For now, review the latest chapter of my longest running fanfiction while I run off to write another!