Finale
A/N: This is going to be the final chapter in this little experiment of a chronicle. There is no song fic to this chapter, and it is told in third person. I feel that is the only way to complete the circle. This may have a "Great Gatsby" kind of feel to the ending, but I promise that it will rock your world! Okay, so maybe not really, but it will be action-packed. And ya know what? I am in a very big FFX-2 mood, and I think I have an idea for another story taking shape in my head. We'll have to see though, when the time comes, if I can write it! (Note-- things that are inside the "~" marks are flashbacks. This chappie has a bunch of them!)
Rain pelted hard against Shuyin's face, making his hair cling to his head. He staggered through the falling rain, through the cold night. On the horizon the sun was just starting to peek up from the mountains. Soon, soon, this night would be over and he would be okay. All this will be settled.
"BARALAI!" He screamed, slamming a hand on the door. The rain was letting up for the sun, and soon it would end altogether. He was not sure how that made him feel, but at the moment he only felt one thing: anger. Rage built inside him and he knew that he had to let it out, and that he was going to use Baralai, dear Praetor, for his punching bag. That man had done something to Tidus, had done something that made Tidus do what he did...
~Tidus looked at Shuyin, blood flowing from his wrists. "I'm sorry, so sorry..." He had said, trying to turn out of Shuyin's line of sight. "This was not supposed to end this way, it was not..."
Shuyin looked at him, and could not decide what to say, or what to do. It seemed that there was no way to avoid what had to happen.
"This is... fate." Tidus had told him. "I guess this is what had to be."~
Shuyin slammed his body into the door: maybe the harder he knocked, the sooner Baralai would answer. He was no fool, he knew that Baralai and Tidus had a physical relationship, he knew that their relationship did not extend that. There were lines he knew Tidus would not cross, but last night, this morning, whatever, there was a change in Tidus. What had caused that change?
The door opened and a Guado servant was standing in the doorway. Shuyin brought up his sword before the man could say anything and sliced him down the middle. The Guado hit the floor with a slick *slap!* sound. "Better to die not knowing the truth than having to live with it," he growled at the dying man, "Your leader is a bastard."
Stepping into the house, he looked around, looked frantic. It seemed very quiet, and he headed for the crystal stairs at the opposite side of the room. "I'm coming for you..." he whispered.
***
Baralai woke up with no one next to him. There was the final waves of rain, but he could see the sun trying to break over the horizon. As soon as he was awake, he knew that there was something wrong in the house, something, or someone, was here that should not be. He jumped out of bed and grabbed his staff. He was clad only in his boxers but he did not care: his life was on the line here.
Someone was next to him.
Before he could even turn around metal slammed against his back, sending him falling forward, crashing to his knees on the marble floor. They would definately be bruised, if he did not die here in the next few minutes. Pain surged from between his shoudler blades. When the sword came into view, he knew that he could have died if whoever was weilding it had wanted him to.
How the hell had he gotten there without Baralai knowing? And who the fuck was it!?
Questions swirled in his mind as footsteps came around his body. He saw yellow and red sneakers... perfect legs... it couldn't be!
His head was bent and he could see no further than a little about the shoes, and he choked out: "Tidus..."
The hilt of the sword came down hard on his head, sending him to the floor. His chin smacked against the ground, a cut splitting open the skin below his lip and warm blood flowed onto the floor. The small puddle grew rapidly, but Baralai knew he was far from being done.
"I'm... not... TIDUS!" The voice that came from above him said, slowly, his voice growing louder with each word spat through gritted teeth. Indeed it was not Tidus. The voice was deeper, the tone rougher. Tidus always sounded weak or kind, and there was none of that in this man's voice. But if it wasn't Tidus, who the hell was it?
When Baralai fell for the first time he had lost his grip on the staff. Now he searched with his eyes, scared to move, trying to find it. With the staff he had a fighting chance, without it, he had nothing. The man standing over him, the man who looked so much like Tidus, would kill him.
"Who are you?" he asked, his voice coming out weaker than he hoped it would. With the words a small amount of blood poured over his lips. The pain was great, but he had had much worse in the past. There was a breaking point, even for him, and he was not close to it. "What the fuck do you want!"
In the moment before the other man answered, Baralai thought of Gippal. He saw his muscular, tight, hard body, his blonde hair, his eye patch. He heard his voice, that damned fucking sexy voice, and he wanted that again. When had his life become so messed up that he lost the one he loved? WHEN!?
~He had come home one night from Bevelle. It had been a long, hard day. He knew that he was in for it back home: before he had left in the morning Gippal and he had gotten into another fight. These fights were fairly common, and they would probably have broken up by this point, but they were too in love with each other to really break away. There were no lights on, but he could hear muffled voices, and a feminine shreik, as he entered the house.
What was going on?
Thinking Gippal was just doing what he does, entertaining guests --very well, by the way-- Baralai moved into the kitchen to get a glass of water. That was when he heard the moaning coming from down the hall.
That was not the sound a happy guest makes. That is the sound an excited lover makes. But this was a female voice, crying out like that. From what he knew Gippal once had a thing with some chick named Rikku, but he had claimed to be "Completely over girls" by the time they started seeing each other.
It hit him like a brick wall. Gippal lied.
The glass fell from his hands and crashed on the floor, exploding in a million tiny pieces. One shard scratched across his ankle, drawing a thin line of blood, just deep enough to leave a scar.
Baralai ran down the hall. He burst into the room and saw HER, lying on THEIR bed. That night was only a few weeks ago, but it seemed like forever.~
"Who am I?" The voiced repeated Baralai's question. "I was the one who fucking LOVED him!"
Loved who? Baralai thought, finally spotting his staff a few yards away. He could get to it in a matter of seconds, and he could get on his feet sooner. "As for what I am doing," he said in a voice just above a whisper, "I am here to take revenge."
Baralai saw the shadow of the sword rising, and knew that it was now or never. As the shadow started to fall he rolled away, swiftly moving to the staff. Once the cool metal was in his hand, he clenched down, determined not to lose it again, and leaped to his feet. "REVENGE FOR WHAT!?" He yelled over the clang! the sword made as it hit the tile. A few sparks jumped at the other man's feet.
Now that he had a better view, the guy looked A LOT like Tidus. His clothes were slightly different and the hair was different, a little longer and less poofed-out, but otherwise they could have been identicle twins. "Who are you?" Baralai asked again in a mixture of wonder and horror.
"Let me introduce myself to you, dear Praetor," the words slid off his lips as though he had rehearsed what he was going to say. He knew that this moment would happen, and he wanted to be perfect. "My name is Shuyin. I was in love with someone that you STOLE FROM ME!" The last words were shouted. He was shaking from head to toe, pain, rage, building with each word he spoke. "YOU KILLED HIM! YOU TOOK TIDUS AWAY FROM ME! GIVE HIM BACK! GIVE HIM BACK TO ME RIGHT NOW YOU FUCKING BASTARD! YOU DID THIS! YOU KILLED HIM YOU FUCK!"
"Tidus? I did NOTHING to him. He left last night in one of his temper tantrums."
"You did everything to him! You used him, you abused him. You want to know where he is? He is lying in his fucking bathroom, bleeding from his fucking wrists! He is DEAD! DEAD! Because you hurt him! YOU FUCKING KILLED HIM!" Repeating his phrase, he charged at Baralai.
Rage clouds the mind, and made it easy for the white-haired man to dodge the younger man's sword. He hit him over the neck with his staff. Shuyin went sprawling on the floor. Before the Praetor could finish the job that he knew he had to do, Shuyin was up with inhuman grace and lightning speed. His sword flashed through the air and sliced through the flesh on Baralai's chest. Crimson blood seeped down, turning his white boxers maroon, soon black when the blood was dried.
"Shuyin, whoever you are... STOP THIS!" Baralai screamed, biting down on his lip to not show the terrible pain that fought to over take his senses. "You don't know what you are talking about!"
Shuyin slid across the floor, his feet whispering on the marble. There was a passiveness in his eyes now, and that look sent chills down Baralai's back. The white haired one was growing ever weaker from loss of blood, and soon he would not be able to fight at all. However this was going to end, it had to end quickly, and it had to happen now. The younger man stood directly in front of Baralai. He looked him over, then whispered: "I can't see what he saw in you." Then he looked around the room and said, "Oh, I guess that is it..."
The insult drove deep into Baralai's core. "I gave him security. I gave him whatever the fuck he needed, or else he would not have kept coming back." He tried not to let too much anger into his voices, and he said them quietly, not meeting Shuyin's eyes. Those were the last things he wanted to see. Now or ever again.
"He came back for your money."
Baralai knew that was not true, but he was growing faint, and could not argue any longer.
***
No, don't go back, don't do it, Gippal told himself. What happened in that house last night was some kind of sick torture, and I never want to have to go through that again. Something has changed in Baralai, and I do not know him anymore.
He was nevertheless walking back towards Baralai's mansion in the Macalania Woods. The rain was only a drizzle by now and the sun was gaining more ground, shoo-ing away the clouds.
When he arrived at the front door, he saw the blood, the dead servant, and the nearly silent house all at once. "Oh YEVON!" he screamed and went charging into the house. He cursed himself for not being prepared and not bringing his gun, but he whipped out the knife he kept in his boot as he charged up the stairs. "BARALAI!"
***
"BARALAI!"
Shuyin's head jerked towards the door. Baralai recognized the voice as Gippal but there was no way to know if Shuyin knew or not. Why was Gippal coming back? he thought. Did he want to make peace? Sort things out? Talk about something? After their last meeting he had doubted whether or not the boy would ever want to talk to him again. But he was coming back, and he had no strength left to call out to him, to warn him. Shuyin knew this, and moved to one side of the door, waiting.
No.
The word screamed in Baralai's mind, screaming out, but it would never be vocalized. He could feel himself slipping away, his mind starting to leave his body, but he was still able to see what happened next.
The door opened swiftly and Gippal stormed into the room. Baralai was sinking slowly to the floor in the middle of the room. He began to run to him.
~The day they had met, it had been raining. It came down in torrents, sliding down the trees in the forest, hitting him hard. They pelted along his face, they made it hard to see. His hair was matted down instead of spiked up, and his eye patch was feeling very uncomfortable from the wetness.
He got to a clearing in the woods and decided that if he was getting this drenched from walking UNDER the trees he did not want to risk anything else. Sitting down with his back against a tree, he was going to wait for the rain to clear, or at least let up a little bit.
Then he saw something across the clearing. A person, wearing only a white shirt that was by now completely see-through and a pair of old pants, was trying to cross the clearing. Even through the wall of rain Gippal could tell that he was hot, that he wanted to meet this person, that he wanted to be with this person. And that was just going off a blurry look through the rain.
The figure walking towards him fell to the ground, mud splashed up around him. Was he hurt? Gippal forgot about the rain falling like bullets around him and ran out to meet the other man, almost having to push his way against the rain. He dropped to his knees in the mud by the man, and all he could tell what that he did not look like he was breathing, and he was lying face-down in the mud. Had he suffocated?
Rolling the boy over, and partially into his lap, he wiped some of the mud away from his eyes and mouth. His fingers were busy checking his neck for a pulse and Gippal could not resist a look down the man's chest, seeing his abs, his pecks, and he knew that he wanted this man, but he tried not to let it show, since the man's head was now in his lap. There is a time for everything, he told himself, you don't even know he is alive!
But sure enough there was a pulse, and it was growing stronger. Gippal would have to get him home, and soon. He was going to be okay, maybe a little sick, but he would be fine. The rain crashing down made the mud run in lines away from his face, and Gippal gasped at the perfect features facing him.
The eyes opened, and when their eyes locked, the man lying in his lap reached up, in wonder, in awe, and brought his lips crashing into Gippals. "Take me home," was all he said, and he passed out from the cold and his fall.~
Gippal did love Baralai. He really had no idea what he was doing with Rikku for those couple weeks, but in the end his love for Baralai overthrew whatever he felt for her. She was nothing in comparison to him. He was like a God to Gippal.
Before he could reach his love, pain erupted on his side. Someone had stuck a sword clear through him. Crying out in pain, the knife flying from his hand, he crashed to the floor. There was someone behind him, of course, someone who had come here to kill Baralai. He did not know who it was and he really did not care. Whoever it was was going to pay, and pay dearly.
***
Shuyin was almost finished. Then this other man came into the room. Too easily hidden from, too easily taken care of. Time to finish off this new blonde man, who was reaching towards Baralai and his knife at the same time. Were they lovers? Rage filled his mind again.
He started forward just as the other man gripped his dagger. Gippal spun around and threw it at Shuyin, just as he swung his sword down on the man on the floor. The knife struck deep in Shuyin's chest, drawing a mass amount of bright red blood. How did he have such fucking good aim? Shuying thought, his head already starting to go woozy. He could feel his heart trying to beat, but the dagger was too deep in it.
He was going to die.
But so was Gippal.
The sword had crashed down on Gippal's arm, cutting it off completely. He could not feel the pain, all his attention was on Baralai, who was now out cold on the floor, still bleeding from the chest. The wound looked only like a scrape, but a nasty one. It was not fatal.
Gippal used his own blood as lubricant and slid himself to his lover's bed, grabbed the sheet, and slid over to Baralai. He tied it tightly, as a make-shift bandage. He hoped that it would hold.
Once the adrenaline of saving his lover's life faded he was overwhelmed by the pain. It seemed to become him, completely. He was the pain.
Looking over at Shuyin, he knew that he had at least killed the man who threatened his lover. His poor Baralai. At least he would survive this. At least he would make it through.
Closing his eyes, Gippal slipped into the pain and faded away.
I love you Baralai...
A/N: This is going to be the final chapter in this little experiment of a chronicle. There is no song fic to this chapter, and it is told in third person. I feel that is the only way to complete the circle. This may have a "Great Gatsby" kind of feel to the ending, but I promise that it will rock your world! Okay, so maybe not really, but it will be action-packed. And ya know what? I am in a very big FFX-2 mood, and I think I have an idea for another story taking shape in my head. We'll have to see though, when the time comes, if I can write it! (Note-- things that are inside the "~" marks are flashbacks. This chappie has a bunch of them!)
Rain pelted hard against Shuyin's face, making his hair cling to his head. He staggered through the falling rain, through the cold night. On the horizon the sun was just starting to peek up from the mountains. Soon, soon, this night would be over and he would be okay. All this will be settled.
"BARALAI!" He screamed, slamming a hand on the door. The rain was letting up for the sun, and soon it would end altogether. He was not sure how that made him feel, but at the moment he only felt one thing: anger. Rage built inside him and he knew that he had to let it out, and that he was going to use Baralai, dear Praetor, for his punching bag. That man had done something to Tidus, had done something that made Tidus do what he did...
~Tidus looked at Shuyin, blood flowing from his wrists. "I'm sorry, so sorry..." He had said, trying to turn out of Shuyin's line of sight. "This was not supposed to end this way, it was not..."
Shuyin looked at him, and could not decide what to say, or what to do. It seemed that there was no way to avoid what had to happen.
"This is... fate." Tidus had told him. "I guess this is what had to be."~
Shuyin slammed his body into the door: maybe the harder he knocked, the sooner Baralai would answer. He was no fool, he knew that Baralai and Tidus had a physical relationship, he knew that their relationship did not extend that. There were lines he knew Tidus would not cross, but last night, this morning, whatever, there was a change in Tidus. What had caused that change?
The door opened and a Guado servant was standing in the doorway. Shuyin brought up his sword before the man could say anything and sliced him down the middle. The Guado hit the floor with a slick *slap!* sound. "Better to die not knowing the truth than having to live with it," he growled at the dying man, "Your leader is a bastard."
Stepping into the house, he looked around, looked frantic. It seemed very quiet, and he headed for the crystal stairs at the opposite side of the room. "I'm coming for you..." he whispered.
***
Baralai woke up with no one next to him. There was the final waves of rain, but he could see the sun trying to break over the horizon. As soon as he was awake, he knew that there was something wrong in the house, something, or someone, was here that should not be. He jumped out of bed and grabbed his staff. He was clad only in his boxers but he did not care: his life was on the line here.
Someone was next to him.
Before he could even turn around metal slammed against his back, sending him falling forward, crashing to his knees on the marble floor. They would definately be bruised, if he did not die here in the next few minutes. Pain surged from between his shoudler blades. When the sword came into view, he knew that he could have died if whoever was weilding it had wanted him to.
How the hell had he gotten there without Baralai knowing? And who the fuck was it!?
Questions swirled in his mind as footsteps came around his body. He saw yellow and red sneakers... perfect legs... it couldn't be!
His head was bent and he could see no further than a little about the shoes, and he choked out: "Tidus..."
The hilt of the sword came down hard on his head, sending him to the floor. His chin smacked against the ground, a cut splitting open the skin below his lip and warm blood flowed onto the floor. The small puddle grew rapidly, but Baralai knew he was far from being done.
"I'm... not... TIDUS!" The voice that came from above him said, slowly, his voice growing louder with each word spat through gritted teeth. Indeed it was not Tidus. The voice was deeper, the tone rougher. Tidus always sounded weak or kind, and there was none of that in this man's voice. But if it wasn't Tidus, who the hell was it?
When Baralai fell for the first time he had lost his grip on the staff. Now he searched with his eyes, scared to move, trying to find it. With the staff he had a fighting chance, without it, he had nothing. The man standing over him, the man who looked so much like Tidus, would kill him.
"Who are you?" he asked, his voice coming out weaker than he hoped it would. With the words a small amount of blood poured over his lips. The pain was great, but he had had much worse in the past. There was a breaking point, even for him, and he was not close to it. "What the fuck do you want!"
In the moment before the other man answered, Baralai thought of Gippal. He saw his muscular, tight, hard body, his blonde hair, his eye patch. He heard his voice, that damned fucking sexy voice, and he wanted that again. When had his life become so messed up that he lost the one he loved? WHEN!?
~He had come home one night from Bevelle. It had been a long, hard day. He knew that he was in for it back home: before he had left in the morning Gippal and he had gotten into another fight. These fights were fairly common, and they would probably have broken up by this point, but they were too in love with each other to really break away. There were no lights on, but he could hear muffled voices, and a feminine shreik, as he entered the house.
What was going on?
Thinking Gippal was just doing what he does, entertaining guests --very well, by the way-- Baralai moved into the kitchen to get a glass of water. That was when he heard the moaning coming from down the hall.
That was not the sound a happy guest makes. That is the sound an excited lover makes. But this was a female voice, crying out like that. From what he knew Gippal once had a thing with some chick named Rikku, but he had claimed to be "Completely over girls" by the time they started seeing each other.
It hit him like a brick wall. Gippal lied.
The glass fell from his hands and crashed on the floor, exploding in a million tiny pieces. One shard scratched across his ankle, drawing a thin line of blood, just deep enough to leave a scar.
Baralai ran down the hall. He burst into the room and saw HER, lying on THEIR bed. That night was only a few weeks ago, but it seemed like forever.~
"Who am I?" The voiced repeated Baralai's question. "I was the one who fucking LOVED him!"
Loved who? Baralai thought, finally spotting his staff a few yards away. He could get to it in a matter of seconds, and he could get on his feet sooner. "As for what I am doing," he said in a voice just above a whisper, "I am here to take revenge."
Baralai saw the shadow of the sword rising, and knew that it was now or never. As the shadow started to fall he rolled away, swiftly moving to the staff. Once the cool metal was in his hand, he clenched down, determined not to lose it again, and leaped to his feet. "REVENGE FOR WHAT!?" He yelled over the clang! the sword made as it hit the tile. A few sparks jumped at the other man's feet.
Now that he had a better view, the guy looked A LOT like Tidus. His clothes were slightly different and the hair was different, a little longer and less poofed-out, but otherwise they could have been identicle twins. "Who are you?" Baralai asked again in a mixture of wonder and horror.
"Let me introduce myself to you, dear Praetor," the words slid off his lips as though he had rehearsed what he was going to say. He knew that this moment would happen, and he wanted to be perfect. "My name is Shuyin. I was in love with someone that you STOLE FROM ME!" The last words were shouted. He was shaking from head to toe, pain, rage, building with each word he spoke. "YOU KILLED HIM! YOU TOOK TIDUS AWAY FROM ME! GIVE HIM BACK! GIVE HIM BACK TO ME RIGHT NOW YOU FUCKING BASTARD! YOU DID THIS! YOU KILLED HIM YOU FUCK!"
"Tidus? I did NOTHING to him. He left last night in one of his temper tantrums."
"You did everything to him! You used him, you abused him. You want to know where he is? He is lying in his fucking bathroom, bleeding from his fucking wrists! He is DEAD! DEAD! Because you hurt him! YOU FUCKING KILLED HIM!" Repeating his phrase, he charged at Baralai.
Rage clouds the mind, and made it easy for the white-haired man to dodge the younger man's sword. He hit him over the neck with his staff. Shuyin went sprawling on the floor. Before the Praetor could finish the job that he knew he had to do, Shuyin was up with inhuman grace and lightning speed. His sword flashed through the air and sliced through the flesh on Baralai's chest. Crimson blood seeped down, turning his white boxers maroon, soon black when the blood was dried.
"Shuyin, whoever you are... STOP THIS!" Baralai screamed, biting down on his lip to not show the terrible pain that fought to over take his senses. "You don't know what you are talking about!"
Shuyin slid across the floor, his feet whispering on the marble. There was a passiveness in his eyes now, and that look sent chills down Baralai's back. The white haired one was growing ever weaker from loss of blood, and soon he would not be able to fight at all. However this was going to end, it had to end quickly, and it had to happen now. The younger man stood directly in front of Baralai. He looked him over, then whispered: "I can't see what he saw in you." Then he looked around the room and said, "Oh, I guess that is it..."
The insult drove deep into Baralai's core. "I gave him security. I gave him whatever the fuck he needed, or else he would not have kept coming back." He tried not to let too much anger into his voices, and he said them quietly, not meeting Shuyin's eyes. Those were the last things he wanted to see. Now or ever again.
"He came back for your money."
Baralai knew that was not true, but he was growing faint, and could not argue any longer.
***
No, don't go back, don't do it, Gippal told himself. What happened in that house last night was some kind of sick torture, and I never want to have to go through that again. Something has changed in Baralai, and I do not know him anymore.
He was nevertheless walking back towards Baralai's mansion in the Macalania Woods. The rain was only a drizzle by now and the sun was gaining more ground, shoo-ing away the clouds.
When he arrived at the front door, he saw the blood, the dead servant, and the nearly silent house all at once. "Oh YEVON!" he screamed and went charging into the house. He cursed himself for not being prepared and not bringing his gun, but he whipped out the knife he kept in his boot as he charged up the stairs. "BARALAI!"
***
"BARALAI!"
Shuyin's head jerked towards the door. Baralai recognized the voice as Gippal but there was no way to know if Shuyin knew or not. Why was Gippal coming back? he thought. Did he want to make peace? Sort things out? Talk about something? After their last meeting he had doubted whether or not the boy would ever want to talk to him again. But he was coming back, and he had no strength left to call out to him, to warn him. Shuyin knew this, and moved to one side of the door, waiting.
No.
The word screamed in Baralai's mind, screaming out, but it would never be vocalized. He could feel himself slipping away, his mind starting to leave his body, but he was still able to see what happened next.
The door opened swiftly and Gippal stormed into the room. Baralai was sinking slowly to the floor in the middle of the room. He began to run to him.
~The day they had met, it had been raining. It came down in torrents, sliding down the trees in the forest, hitting him hard. They pelted along his face, they made it hard to see. His hair was matted down instead of spiked up, and his eye patch was feeling very uncomfortable from the wetness.
He got to a clearing in the woods and decided that if he was getting this drenched from walking UNDER the trees he did not want to risk anything else. Sitting down with his back against a tree, he was going to wait for the rain to clear, or at least let up a little bit.
Then he saw something across the clearing. A person, wearing only a white shirt that was by now completely see-through and a pair of old pants, was trying to cross the clearing. Even through the wall of rain Gippal could tell that he was hot, that he wanted to meet this person, that he wanted to be with this person. And that was just going off a blurry look through the rain.
The figure walking towards him fell to the ground, mud splashed up around him. Was he hurt? Gippal forgot about the rain falling like bullets around him and ran out to meet the other man, almost having to push his way against the rain. He dropped to his knees in the mud by the man, and all he could tell what that he did not look like he was breathing, and he was lying face-down in the mud. Had he suffocated?
Rolling the boy over, and partially into his lap, he wiped some of the mud away from his eyes and mouth. His fingers were busy checking his neck for a pulse and Gippal could not resist a look down the man's chest, seeing his abs, his pecks, and he knew that he wanted this man, but he tried not to let it show, since the man's head was now in his lap. There is a time for everything, he told himself, you don't even know he is alive!
But sure enough there was a pulse, and it was growing stronger. Gippal would have to get him home, and soon. He was going to be okay, maybe a little sick, but he would be fine. The rain crashing down made the mud run in lines away from his face, and Gippal gasped at the perfect features facing him.
The eyes opened, and when their eyes locked, the man lying in his lap reached up, in wonder, in awe, and brought his lips crashing into Gippals. "Take me home," was all he said, and he passed out from the cold and his fall.~
Gippal did love Baralai. He really had no idea what he was doing with Rikku for those couple weeks, but in the end his love for Baralai overthrew whatever he felt for her. She was nothing in comparison to him. He was like a God to Gippal.
Before he could reach his love, pain erupted on his side. Someone had stuck a sword clear through him. Crying out in pain, the knife flying from his hand, he crashed to the floor. There was someone behind him, of course, someone who had come here to kill Baralai. He did not know who it was and he really did not care. Whoever it was was going to pay, and pay dearly.
***
Shuyin was almost finished. Then this other man came into the room. Too easily hidden from, too easily taken care of. Time to finish off this new blonde man, who was reaching towards Baralai and his knife at the same time. Were they lovers? Rage filled his mind again.
He started forward just as the other man gripped his dagger. Gippal spun around and threw it at Shuyin, just as he swung his sword down on the man on the floor. The knife struck deep in Shuyin's chest, drawing a mass amount of bright red blood. How did he have such fucking good aim? Shuying thought, his head already starting to go woozy. He could feel his heart trying to beat, but the dagger was too deep in it.
He was going to die.
But so was Gippal.
The sword had crashed down on Gippal's arm, cutting it off completely. He could not feel the pain, all his attention was on Baralai, who was now out cold on the floor, still bleeding from the chest. The wound looked only like a scrape, but a nasty one. It was not fatal.
Gippal used his own blood as lubricant and slid himself to his lover's bed, grabbed the sheet, and slid over to Baralai. He tied it tightly, as a make-shift bandage. He hoped that it would hold.
Once the adrenaline of saving his lover's life faded he was overwhelmed by the pain. It seemed to become him, completely. He was the pain.
Looking over at Shuyin, he knew that he had at least killed the man who threatened his lover. His poor Baralai. At least he would survive this. At least he would make it through.
Closing his eyes, Gippal slipped into the pain and faded away.
I love you Baralai...