Disclaimer: Square owns 'em. I just write this fic containing them.
A/N: Out of the desert at last? Nope. It veered, I say. My mistake! XD 'Nother lemon in this chapter. I thought it would be interesting for them to swap roles… :D
Thanks to: JokaJoker (You psychic person, you! How did you guess that they would eventually see…? XD), Jade Samurai (Say goodbye to blasphemy! Bwahahaha!), Icicle Goddess, Slave Monkey, Nanashi2, Slash Fanatic, SakuraBubbles the Muffin Child (Thanks for letting me know about the "…" I fixed them up right away so they wouldn't be as big of a pain in the arse. And would you like an egg?), Yuuka Yagami (Sleeping bags everywhere thank you as well.), BBchan (Y'know, I went back, read the lemon scene, and agreed! Thanks for inspiring me to lengthen it – Oh, another pun! XD), Wai Aki, Kirie Himuro, Shinnyu Kudzu (Wow, I'm not that good! There are other really great ones! But thank you very much.), yuyemi 01 (Broken heart? Sorry… I'm glad this counts as a remedy, though.), Capitan Shibby (Brussel sprouts aren't bad, but prune juice…I have never had. As long as it's not grapefruit – Ack!), Hidama (I'm glad you liked it! I'm a big fan of your story…), Kaji the Harlequin (I love yous, too.), and Liebchen.
Chapter Five – Yellow
"Sticky!" Rikku exclaimed, sucking on her fingers to get the pancake syrup off.
Gippal buttered two pieces of toast and gave one to Baralai, who sent him a smile as thanks. "I was wondering… Is something wrong with the ship?"
The other crew members at or around the bar stared at him.
"Noooo!" Brother howled. "Are you insulting my ship?!"
Gippal attempted to swallow a laugh and failed. Brother sometimes produced a clan of wild, enraged monkeys in his mind. "No, I just thought…I dunno, it would go faster?"
"It's not as fast as some people think," Buddy explained.
"But it's fast enough to get us to Spira so you guys can give a speech," Yuna declared, sitting down with a plate of eggs.
Baralai spit out his coffee in a very undignified manner.
"What?!" Gippal had gone from relaxed to extremely anxious. "This is kinda on short notice, don't you think?"
Baralai nodded, searching for napkins to wipe the mess up and finding them behind the bar.
"I agree," Nooj stated. "And we don't have a speech prepared, either."
"You don't need a speech!" Rikku cheerfully insisted. "Just make it up!"
"In front of all of Spira…" Baralai groaned, pushing his plate away. "I… I can't do this…"
"Are you okay?" Yuna asked, peering at him concernedly.
Gippal immediately knew what was wrong. "He has a fear of speaking in front of people, even though he's the Praetor…" He patted Baralai on the back reassuringly. "C'mon, just picture someone running out in the crowd in a chocobo suit," he advised.
"No, Gippal!" Baralai protested. "Then I'll laugh in front of everyone."
"I can see the headlines now: Praetor laughs at speech –"
"Gippal…! You're teasing me…"
Gippal smirked. "Wouldn't be the first time."
Baralai reddened, well aware of the hidden innuendo, and gave him a look.
"Paine, are you just going to sit back and let this happen? Don't you have any responsibility in you at all?" Gippal prodded her arm.
"Don't start," she muttered. "Or else I may tell everyone here about your embarrassing secrets. Like how you talk in your sleep about stuffed cactuars or wear lipstick –"
"I do not wear lipstick!" Gippal shouted hotly. "That was completely nonconsensual!"
Yuna and Rikku cracked up, while the rest of the crew seemed to be attacked by a case of the twitches.
"You really don't seem the type…" Yuna kidded.
"I swear! They held me down!"
Paine went on, "And the tent, when we walked in on –"
"Never. Happened," Nooj interrupted. "Never."
"You swore you'd never speak of that!" Gippal yelled accusingly at Paine.
"Because it never happened," Nooj repeated.
"Did we…scar you that badly…?" Baralai looked amused.
"No. It never happened."
Paine shook her head. "He's in denial. Can you blame him?"
Gippal grinned. "You make it out like Baralai and I weren't victims at all…"
"You weren't."
"Never happened."
"Um… What never happened?" Rikku questioned. "…Paine?"
She sighed. "It's better off you don't know."
"But Paine –"
"Respect points," Paine simply reminded, effectively silencing her.
--- Past:
"Gippal… We have to get dressed. Wake up…"
He opened his eye a crack and yawned. "Baralai…? Why?"
"Because," Baralai told him, smiling, "if we don't and Paine and Nooj…"
"Oh, right!" Gippal sprang up and smacked into Baralai. "Ahh!"
Baralai rubbed his forehead with Gippal. "Good morning…"
They laughed together, limbs intertwined and breath mixing. Gippal thought it was nice, comfortable, and he bent up to claim Baralai's mouth with his own. Running his tongue over Baralai's, he forgot completely about dressing.
"Gippal… We have to –" He was cut off when Gippal tackled him to the cave floor.
"Yeah? You were saying?" Gippal nibbled his ear.
"If they walk in right now, they'll see you absolutely naked…"
"So?" He enveloped an earlobe in his mouth.
"Ah… You won't say that if it happens…" Baralai briefly touched his lips to Gippal's but then dragged them away. "Mm… Clothes."
To Gippal's amazement, they were in every possible direction – on rocks, near the entrance, behind them…
"Whoa." Gippal blinked.
"I wasn't thinking about where these were going at the time…"
Crawling over to his pants, Gippal had to agree.
---
"That song you were humming yesterday… I was wondering, what is it?" Baralai pulled on his remaining boot and gave Gippal a curious glance.
Gippal was strapping on his shoulder armor. "The one that made you almost impale me?" He beamed good-naturedly.
Baralai reddened. "Yes…"
"It's just what I remembered at the time."
Baralai looked like he wanted to push it further, even opening his mouth, but Gippal turned away from him abruptly. He wouldn't tell him the words. It was far too romantic of a song. No matter what they had recently done, Gippal wasn't about to push that on him.
"I'm really hungry right now," Gippal announced, trying to change the subject. "Let's catch some food."
"How would we go about that?" The expression on Baralai's face said that he was aware of Gippal's tactics but had decided not to keep at it.
"Rats."
"What's wrong?" Baralai must have thought he was saying "rats" in the place where a swear word would normally drop in from his vocabulary.
"No, I mean we eat the rats." Gippal was delighted with this new proposal.
Baralai didn't seem so keen on it at all. "They could be infected, and then there's the whole business of catching them in the first place…"
"But they taste great!"
---
And so, they ended up on their stomachs at the entrance of the cave, keeping a lookout for rats. Gippal found that his eye patch also doubled as a sling.
"Gippal…" Baralai laughed.
"What? It has to come in handy for something else besides sitting there." To demonstrate, he snatched a rock from the pile in between them and placed it on the part of the patch that would usually cover his eye. It flew…and there was loud thudding and a squeak. "We got one! Yeah!"
"I don't know if Paine or Nooj will want to eat these…"
Gippal stood up, brushed himself off, and offered a hand to Baralai. "Even if they won't…that means more for us!"
"Should we just tie their tails to the stick, as if we went fishing?" Baralai inquired, raising an eyebrow.
Gippal was confused. "…Fish tied to a stick?" He scratched at the skin above his belt, reminded of the bodily substances there and the absence of much-needed bathing water to wash them off.
"With fish, you tie them up…" Baralai started to explain.
He had a lot of explaining to do. There weren't very many fish in the desert.
---
Two shapes shimmered in the distance.
"Hey!" Gippal shouted, waving his arms. "Hey!"
Baralai did the same, and Paine and Nooj came up to them, with slightly less enthusiasm.
"I hope you had fun without us," Paine told them, voice heavy with sarcasm.
"Oh, yeah… We had lots of fun…" Gippal smirked pointedly at Baralai, who pretended to check his nails for embedded sand.
"Do you have our sleeping bags?" Baralai asked worriedly.
"I thought you had them," Nooj disclosed.
"Cred! (Shit!)" Gippal cursed.
"I suppose you'll have to find other ways to keep warm…" Nooj chuckled, already walking back the way he had come.
Gazing at Baralai, Gippal could think of plenty.
---
Gippal ducked down and examined the object in the sand. He couldn't believe it… "A tacand nuca (desert rose)."
"It's just a flower. We have to move." Nooj generally didn't boss him around this much, but they were only a day or two away from the completion of their "mission" in the desert.
Gippal had repeatedly expressed that what was a "mission" to some was "bullshit" to others. Sending them out in the desert had been ridiculous, and he hadn't learned any new combat skills at all. What he had learned was from Baralai.
"Are you kidding me?!" Gippal exclaimed. "Some people would pay 30,000 gil for one of these! They're pretty rare… I've never even seen one before."
Interest apparently piqued, Baralai crouched down next to him and studied it. He was followed by Paine.
"Its only color is yellow." Gippal's fingers brushed up against the stalk. He gasped and jerked his hand away. A small bead of blood grew on his fingertip, a drop of vivid red.
"That's what you get for stalling…" Nooj warned.
"Yeah, well…" He stuck the injured finger in his mouth and sucked on it. "Here." Gippal broke the stalk with his other hand, careful this time to avoid the thorns. He handed it to Baralai, who eyed it quizzically. "Use it for medicine," he clarified.
Really, he thought such a rarity belonged with Baralai.
---
"Gippal, wake up." A hand nudged him. "Come on… You must have been having a nightmare."
Or not. As Gippal recalled, it had been an extraordinarily pleasant dream involving himself and Baralai, though it did nothing to alleviate the biting desert cold. Even the fire couldn't help with that.
"What makes you think that?" He rolled onto his stomach to hide the obvious tent in his pants. Paine and Nooj were right there. The thought of doing anything in front of them was horrid to begin with, and even it hadn't been, there was always the risk of getting caught.
Baralai frowned. "You were…making noises…" He crawled over to where Gippal lay. "Gippal?"
"Is it my watch yet?" Gippal tried desperately to concentrate on unarousing things – an enraged zu, moldy cheese, that terrible snoring Nooj was capable of and was now showcasing – but to no avail. Baralai's breath down his neck was complicating things.
"Your watch is before mine. You never forget that…" Baralai gripped his shoulder and turned him over. "Oh." The look of worry on his face was rapidly changing into one of amusement. "Gippal, you could have said something."
"They're right here," he pointed out, his voice down to a whisper.
To his surprise, Baralai stood up and tugged his arm gently. "There's a sand dune over there…"
His pulse quickened at the very idea.
Then they were running, laughing, falling in the sand. Gippal had tripped over himself, an event he frequently experienced, and as they were holding hands, they both stumbled. Baralai didn't appear to mind at all, pulling him up and into a kiss. Tangling a hand in Baralai's soft hair, he tasted him almost fiercely, nipping at his bottom lip, rememorizing the ridges and hills of his mouth in an instant. Somehow, they managed to fall behind the sand dune. Actually, a sand dune. He had little knowledge of how they had ended up here.
His back smacked into the sand, but the wind didn't truly get knocked out of his chest until Baralai began the process of unbuckling and unstrapping. There was the sound of a zipper opening slowly, the pop of the button on his pants… His reaction was immediate. So was the cold.
A shiver ran through his body. "Cold…"
"What kind of dream did you have?"
Baralai's warm breath beat on his erection with the question, and his lips could scarcely form the answer as a result.
"It was…ahnn…" A moan slipped out. "…nice…"
Fingers wrapped around the base of his length and were now smoothly gliding up and down. Baralai pressed gentle, chaste-but-not-chaste kisses to his thighs, brushed his thumb over the tip and smeared the fluid gathering there –
"Ah!"
Gippal brought one hand to his mouth and used the other to hang onto the back of Baralai's neck. The mouth surrounding him was hot, intensely so, forcing him to clamp teeth down on one of his fingers. He felt every minute sensation, the pressure, the rolling of Baralai's tongue… Gippal's movements gained a more even rhythm, one that he made sure wasn't too rough or difficult for Baralai to keep up with.
Watching Baralai was a turn-on in itself. Their eyes met, and smiling mischievously, Baralai dipped his tongue into the slit at Gippal's tip.
Gippal lost it.
A sound between a growl and a groan tripped out of his mouth, and he arched and succumbed completely to instinct. Baralai was able to keep up for the most part, which surprised Gippal, because he had lost all threads of control and was sure Baralai had never done this before.
The heat held him captive, feeding on his emotions and nerves like kindle. He couldn't escape, didn't want to. Pleasure tightened its hold on him, closed in…
"Nnn!"
He sucked in air as Baralai swallowed and made a pondering face at the taste.
"Bad…?" Gippal panted, grinning.
"It's a little strange but not exactly bad…" He raised an eyebrow and with mock-indignation remarked, "But you accuse me of impaling you?"
Letting out a short laugh, Gippal yanked Baralai's coat, causing him to tumble into waiting arms. "You have some by the corner of your mouth…" He licked it off and decided it was a weird yet not entirely undesirable taste. His hands framed Baralai's flushed face and felt his ears, his jaw, his lips.
He wished that it was possible for him to say something. Even with the moon as his only light, he was able to just make out Baralai's features, his expression of wanting and knowing, cutting deeper than physically. Baralai was dearer to him than anyone he had ever known. Out in the desert, they had been hungry, thirsty, cold, and tired, but he was the happiest he had ever been. How could he tell Baralai all this in words?
Gippal mused that there were other ways to tell him, possessing his mouth, tasting himself on Baralai's tongue. He was in an awkward situation with his pants around his ankles, but he could cope with it enough to grab Baralai and pin him to the ground.
"Gippal…"
He was intoxicating. Parted lips, heavy-lidded eyes…
The red cord around Baralai's neck was untied, armband tossed aside, coat shrugged off. Those dark curves of his collarbone were flawless, inviting. Gippal lightly bit and savored the skin there, cherishing the gasps and other tiny noises Baralai was emitting. Marks would likely be left behind, but he couldn't see them developing now in the blackness. He undid the leather armor at Baralai's waist and bunched his shirt up above his chest. Gippal slid a hand up his stomach and started rubbing tan, firm nipples. Another quiet noise breezed by his ear.
The other traveled to the area in need of attention between Baralai's legs. Gippal kneaded him through the fabric of his pants, taking advantage of a bared throat and trembling himself at the hands caressing his back. They drifted lower, cupping muscle and squeezing in time with his ministrations.
"Pants. Off."
He scratched uselessly at the waistband until Baralai stopped distracting him and offered assistance, fumbling as well with the irksome laces.
"Boots or no boots?" Gippal questioned. The pants and undershorts had come as far as they could, hindered by said boots. "It's cold."
"I don't mind. It'll be easier if you take them off…"
Gippal nodded, unable to speak when he thought about what Baralai was referring to. What he was going to do. He was struck by the trust in Baralai's eyes and the complexity of his own emotions.
The boots thumped into the sand in a length of time that definitely counted as a record for Gippal. He'd never shucked boots off so quickly in his life. Baralai's knees were shaking against the side of his face, the velvety skin behind them irresistible. Gippal's tongue darted out of his mouth to skate around the backside of a knee, retreating only to allow his lips to graze the tender flesh.
"Gippal!" Baralai's leg jerked uncontrollably, almost pegging Gippal in the head.
"Sensitive there?" He flashed a grin at Baralai.
Baralai smiled. "Almost everyone is. I'll prove it to you someday."
"Prove it now?" Gippal shifted up and pressed his body to Baralai's, breath wavering at the warmth and hardness he found there.
"Right now, I'd rather… Nnmm…" Baralai writhed, incapable of speech for a moment. "What…are you doing?"
Gippal was scrounging in the pockets of the pants around his boots, searching. "Tada…" He fished out a bottle of cooking oil.
Baralai's mouth dropped open as he beheld Gippal's prized possession. "Gippal, Paine would kill you if she discovered where that really went!"
"She won't find out." Gippal smirked and peeled off his gloves with his teeth, uncapping the bottle and spreading its contents over his hands.
Baralai lifted up his head and watched. "Shouldn't we conserve that?"
"Yeah," Gippal agreed, "but for reasons other than cooking."
It looked like Baralai's face grew hotter, if that was possible.
"Baralai… Are you all right?" Gippal checked for any signals of unease.
"Yes."
"Okay, relax… This might feel kind of funny…"
This was only the second time they had done this, but Gippal had always been told that he was a quick learner. Besides, how could he forget?
A slicked finger carefully pushed into Baralai. He stiffened, breath stilling. Gippal felt muscles tightly clench around his finger, and he wondered how he was going to fit another finger in there, let alone…
"Hey, you can breathe…" he told Baralai reassuringly, resting a palm on his chest.
Baralai's ribs began to rise and fall again hesitantly, and he smiled at Gippal. "I'm…all right."
"Good…" He wriggled his finger more, eliciting a soundless cry from Baralai. Guessing it was where Baralai had touched him before, he added another digit and moved the two fingers in synchronized motion. Baralai bucked and gritted his teeth, bending his back as far as it could go. Gippal continued, stunned by how absolutely beautiful Baralai was.
"Nnnn…" Baralai twisted and clutched Gippal's wrist. "Please… I want…"
Understanding and drowning in need, Gippal retracted his fingers and gripped Baralai's lean hips, positioning himself. "Baralai…" He captured Baralai's mouth with his own, thrusting forward at the same time, muffling Baralai's voice. Gently exploring with his tongue and smoothing white hair comfortingly, Gippal attempted to block out the instincts seizing his body.
But it was so hard to. Baralai was wonderfully tight and hot around him… Just when he thought he couldn't hold off any longer, Baralai pulled away and stared into his eyes honestly.
"Gippal, you can…" he trailed off.
Gippal placed a kiss on the tip of Baralai's nose and clasped his hips and erection. He established a leisurely pace with his thrusts, trying to soak in all he could.
Baralai moaned, eyelashes fluttering, pulse racing, and Gippal experienced a wave of belonging. This was right. Caring this much… It had to be. Baralai was everything to him, and it should scare him, but there was no fear.
Only a sense of peace and…
He drove in and out faster, hitting that spot again and again, wanting more. Baralai held him in tighter, and in return, the hand around Baralai's sex squeezed harder, matching their rhythm.
Blinding heat, dizzying… Occasional pleading in his ear and his own words…
Baralai went rigid, a sigh escaping as his body shook and became lax.
"Baralai… Baralai…" Gippal murmured, because nothing could be sweeter than what he had just witnessed.
Baralai supported him by the waist, thumbs slipping in the semen on his stomach. Gippal gazed into his tired, content face and –
A guttural groan slid out of his throat as he sank into Baralai, trembling with the force that his release hit him. Pulling out, he set his forehead on Baralai's and softly kissed his lips.
"I'm not cold anymore," Gippal informed him.
"Neither am I," Baralai replied with a slight laugh.
Gippal laid his head on Baralai's chest, thinking it would be lovely to just stay like this. Reality was already calling him back, but he temporarily shut it out.
"Oh… I can hear your heart…" It was still recovering from exertion, beating rapidly, but it was a powerful echo. He was astonished by such simple music, and yet, he knew it to be more than simple. "E muja oui… (I love you…)"
Just like that. Just like that, he had said it.
They both froze, and Gippal instantly hoped Baralai wasn't recalling too much of his earlier Al Bhed lessons. By process of elimination, he could figure out the middle word…
"Gippal…" Baralai was unreadable.
Gippal jerked away as if burned, fumbling for his pants, belt, and shoulder armor.
"Wait –"
Baralai reached out for him, but he dodged effectively and scrambled up the sand dune. He wasn't thinking, just knowing he might have messed it all up. Why did he have to say it? It was true that he felt that way, but that didn't mean he had to –
"Gippal, stop…"
He whirled around at the hand on his back, giving up getting away, because Baralai obviously had him now.
"Why did you run? You didn't even give me a chance to…"
Fingertips were pressing up on his chin, but he didn't want to meet Baralai's eyes. There was a possibility of getting hurt by looking into their depths.
Filling his lungs with air, he spared a glance to see…compassion, thoughtfulness, truth.
"I…love you, Gippal," Baralai whispered. "I love you."
He couldn't say a thing. But somehow, he knew it was all right.
Baralai enfolded him in an affectionate embrace, brushing his lips against Gippal's.
Everything was all right.
---
"We should be running into the ships soon," Nooj notified them.
"I was getting used to the desert, too," Gippal stated. "Seriously."
They climbed another hill, and there they were. The ships. Months of struggling with sleep deprivation, cold, little water and food…
"We're saved!" Gippal cried. "Saved!"
He sprinted toward the ships. As he ran, he could have sworn Paine muttered, "He was getting used to it?"
Gippal was already imagining himself taking a shower.
---
A/N: Wow, that completely had a mind of its own. Sorry that I didn't get to the camp. Gippal and Baralai just couldn't keep their paws off each other…
Next chapter: The camp. I mean it! Now that the ships have been sighted, there's no way they can be in the desert anymore.