She stared at her companions and attempted to tell them the truth behind her dreams.

"Yunie, you love Baralai!" Rikku's exclamation over that known fact sounded as if she couldn't believe it.

Paine smirked, "Really? You chose him over your rescuer? Who'd have thought?"

"I've never told you two the weight of my relationship with Baralai? How we have gotten close?"

Paine made another attempt at scoffing, "Well, considering that you two make glances at eachother like two school kids on their first date, it's easy to see that you had some kind of attraction. Baralai has his charms, to be sure, in fact all three of them are quite charming. It's just lucky for me that I'm not into guys."

Yuna and Rikku both looked at her in surprise. Rikku especially made a backward movement, her arms waving up and down excitedly, "Whoa! You mean, you..." She sputtered unladylike. "You mean you're a lesbian?"

"Get a grip, you two! You've never noticed? I hang out with three gorgeous guys during the crimson squad days and neither of them got me in the sack? Hah. I was too much of a guys girl if you know what I mean. Honestly, you two are thicker than Clasko's love for Chocobos."

Paine's last words were etched in frustration but she finally revealed her true self to them. It felt like a huge baggage had lifted off of her chest and she could finally be free to enjoy her sexuality with them. Rikku on the other hand was a bit uncomfortable. She spent so much time with Paine that she wondered if Paine had designs on her.

Paine noted her discomfort and laughed, "Rikku, you're not my type. So don't worry. You'll always be my bud though."

Rikku was both relieved and insulted. "Oh! Um, why am I not your type?"

"Too hyper for me."

This revelation gave Rikku something to ponder on. Then as if some light bulb lit up on her head as on many occasions she has been noted for, she confessed, "Yuna's your type!"

"Duh, Sherlock." Paine replied back with her eyes rolling heavenward.

Yuna blushed crimson and she nearly gasped out loud, "Oh my! I never knew, Paine."

"It was one of the reasons why I loved hanging around with you, Yuna. What can I say, you've earned major respect points and to tell you the truth, I'd always been in love with you, almost as much as Brother displays his crush but mine in a more subtle way."

"Why thank you, Paine...but..." Yuna was perplexed. First her dream, now Paine's new confession. It was all so much to take in.

Paine sat next to her on the bed. "Now tell us, what was it that you wanted to tell us about Baralai?"

"Well. Um." Yuna was displaying her shyness again and blushed deeply.

"No more secrets between the three of us. I've revealed my secret. Now it's time you tell us what's going on between you, Baralai and Tidus!"

"Yeah, Yunie! And I can tell you what is with me and Gippal!"

Both Paine and Yuna laughed, "Rikku, I thought you said nothing went on between you two."

"That's what you think!" Rikku giggled nervously.

Yuna began to feel much more at ease and she began her tale of how she and Baralai went to meet up in secret areas of Spira so that they can have their little rendezvous and make love.

"It's so difficult to tell you everything, but I have saved a sphere in one of our meetings. Would you like to see it? I mean, I'm not ashamed to show you two since we're all so close and there's nothing I want to hide from."

"A sphere! Of you and Baralai? Ooooh! Does it have any naughty scenes?" Rikku barked up excitedly.

"Well, no. Just intimate scenes but nothing too rated R or X."

"Ohhh poopie."

"Rikku!" Yuna scolded. "I'm not about to show that part!"

Paine sniffed, "It's because she's not getting any from Gippal right now."

"Hey!" Rikku yelled, "Don't say that!"

"Alright you two. I'm going to show you the sphere but I'm not sure how accurate it is because it's been a while...and well, just ...here."

Yuna produced a tiny sphere in her right palm and held it up for her friends to see. All her memories and feelings were there for them to feel, to understand. This way, they would know the extend of her love for both Baralai and Tidus.

Yuna was quivering in a thick woolly sweater, stared down at her new flashy hiking boots that she managed to conjure from one of her dress spheres, which are now cooling on the pile of snow in the mountains of mount Gagazet. She felt stiff and achy in the cold; her pangs of hunger threatened rebellion against an unwanted brunch and the metallic burden of acid pumped into her stomach linings. She should take one of the healing potions but she had left them on the ship. Now the cold mountain air seemed to thrill at her expense. A flurry of snow stung at her face, and the wind thrashed about, whipping her long brown hair. She had let her hair grow a bit and now it is at the length that passed the middle of her back. Maybe as long as Lenne's was. She could be mistaken as Lenne too.

Her body heat dissipated rapidly into the icy cold. She lifted eyes haunted with dark circles to stare into horizon of what is called Fayth Scar. She had fought her way up here alone and lifted her boots to make more tracks upon fresh snow. The Ronso were used to this weather and it suited them best. Even those who traveled around Spira could not stay away from their precious mountain. Some have even made their home up here at Fayth Scar. Her thin frame now shuddering in waves from the dry cold, she remembered his kisses with feeling and what had started as a token attempt at rebellion had gotten out of hand; he'd put it right with his courteous, reassuring normal reaction. Baralai was her balance wheel, and has been for several years. Her touchstone. He was here, somewhere up in Fayth Scar.

A frostlike pattern of snowflakes fell in unison in front of her and if she calculated her footsteps circumspectly, she'd be in Fayth Scar in no time. Kimahri was in Guadosalam for two days to settle social relationships between the Guados and his clan. It was a step into the right direction. Trommell had first made the trek a couple years ago to try and make a relationship with the Ronso's but that didn't really fare too well. The scars of the Ronso's dead were still crying out for vengeance and hurts never really go away. Hopefully this visit will be a successful one and with Kimahri as elder, he'd always make it his business to insure peace among his people.

The mountain harbored many secrets and one of them were the hot springs above, the waterfall of steamy water came crashing down on the large cavernous hole that held the water in a bowl like presence, and many visitors came to relax at such a tempting site. Yuna climbed up the steepness of the mountain's crevices, making the best of her agility and fortitude and the strength of her new black hiking boots that made her look somewhat fetching. She had a pair of gloves on to ward off the cold and a trusty blade attached at the back. Disarming several fiends a long the way was no problem but as she continually made her way up, a nice charm bracelet was convenient for peace from intruders.

She walked into the alcove of the hot springs, and then that's where she saw him. He turned, as if he was expecting her.

"Yuna." He breathed, his blue eyes lit up and made a move towards her.

Her throat was suddenly too tight to answer. Determined not to be intimated by his charm, she swallowed and stood in response. She felt herself fully and confidently encircled by his arms as he moved her into a more intimate and seductive embrace. It complicated her concentration as she tried not to feel so much of his body. She came her for a reason and just because his lips softly touched hers, played with her tongue, tasted her, made her feel like liquid among the hazy fog of the steaming water around them, she could fight this; gently pushing at his chest.

"What is it?" the concern in his face evident in the guarded blue eyes. Baralai loved to hold her, touch her, and despite her thin build she was softly full and pliant in front, her back firm to his touch. Surprisingly, always so right. He was careful now not to hold her too close but in the contact of their bodies he felt her tension and was surprised.

"So, is this what you expected?" he asked after a short pause.

She looked up at him, tears welled in her blue-green eyes, clearly confused and unable to read his meaning, then looked away. So, the tension was a response from him. "When you came up here, I mean."

He tried to break into her silence. "The cold, the scenery?"

"Baralai, please, don't tease. I wanted to see you but..." she faltered. How could she tell him?

"But what?"

Okay. So she hadn't expected the first time to be easy but this hurt too much and she held back tears and shifted uncomfortably. She had to tell him that it was over between them. This could not go on. Baralai seemed to sense that, as he always did. He sighed and released his hold on her. "You don't have to tell me."

"Oh? I don't?"

"You came here to tell me that it's over right?"

Wordlessly she moved her mouth, but then bit them and walked away, facing the springs, breathing in the steam and letting her lungs get a blast of hot wet air.

"Is it Tidus? Again?"

She rolled her eyes and swung back to face him. "There you go again! Why is it that whenever we get around to speaking privately, you bring up Tidus!"

"Because you love him."

"He's but a dream, Baralai."

"Really? Could have fooled me. And the rest of Spira by the way." His voice lowered, to a near whisper and she could see the faint touch of anger behind his eyes, his jaw twitched at his clenched teeth. She knew he was trying to be patient with her and then he took a deeper sigh, ran a hand over his white silverly strands, slowly realizing that he was close to losing her.

"Alright. You may do what you want, Yuna. I can't hold your heart nor your body. You have always been your own person."

"Baralai!" her face was etched in deep concern. She saw him hurting there. But she knew that she had to end it because the future would hold too many memories of her and Tidus and this would be a gaping hole between them.

"What?" His face angry now. "You want something, Yuna? You want this before you leave?"

Baralai's arms went around her waist and his lips descended on hers. Her own body responded to his hands caressing her form in a possessive but gentle grip. She leaned into his deepened kiss and played with his tongue. The unmistakable heat spread through her body, signaling the inevitable. It would be a matter of seconds and her wits went flying. He breathed into her ear, after trailing a kiss along her cheek, "Take your clothes off."

"Baralai." She gasped aloud. "Here?" her mind was not registering that he wanted her naked but then when his hands expertly removed the top of her cashmere sweater, revealing her full breasts to his possessive hands, she awoke with some clarity. "No!"

"No!"

Yuna stopped the sphere. Both Rikku and Paine went, "Awwww! We're just getting to the good parts."

"Um, I didn't realize that this was a bit over PG rating."

"Yunie! It's not like we haven't done it ourselves! Do you think we're a bunch of kids?"

"I swear you two! This is private. I was only meaning to show kisses between us, not anything more personal than that!"

Paine was laughing aloud now, "Yuna, you're in love with Baralai and funny thing is, you can't make up your mind if feeling guilty for loving him is the result of your loyalty to Tidus. Or the other way around."

CHAPTER SIX,PART TWO: Peek a boo

"End of the discussion, Rikku."

Yuna was determined to put this to rest and go down to the bridge and have a bit of conversation with Buddy and Brother. She hadn't had much communication with them in awhile and Brother's still stinging from her marriage with Baralai.

While she was gone, Rikku and Paine looked at eachother and nodded, "you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"What, Rikku? I'm not going to sneak a peek into Yuna's private life." Paine had her arms crossed but her body movement leaned towards the sphere Yuna left behind on the bed. "Yuna must definitely trust us completely if she thinks we won't take a peek and you know what? I'm not going to disappoint her."

Rikku huffed, "That's because you're in love with her."

"And your point?" came the caustic reply.

"My point? It makes all the difference in the world. You think that by keeping her secret, you'll get a chance at Yuna yourself? That's not going to happen, Paine and you know it. So dream on!" Rikku confirmed with honesty, her hands pointing towards Paine in a preaching manner.

"Save it, Rikku. I know I don't have a chance in hell with her. Unless I get a dresssphere that makes me dress up like Baralai or Tidus." With those words, Paine pondered deeply. "Maybe if I can get Shinru to make me one…."

"Oh no you don't, Paine. That's violation of the Al bhed code section 248516.55"

"What?"

Rikku hopped onto the bed Yuna occupied awhile ago and she picked up the sphere. "Now, if you want to take a peek into Yuna's nakedness, then you'd better pay close attention, my friend."

Paine perked up at that remark and sighed, "How'd you get so wicked? You've definitely been hanging around me way too much, Rikku. Or that brother of yours has been rubbing off on you with his crazy talk of how he lost Yuna and how his heart has been breaking every single day."

Rikku paid no mind to her complaining friend and turned on the sphere….

Paine didn't object, for if there were signs of Yuna's nudity somewhere there, it was well worth a peek even if it did violate Yuna's privacy. It's just that it would only be this one time and there would be no one to tell her right? So that was what was on both their minds when they watched with anticipation….

From the cave entrance, they couldn't be seen, two bodies locked in a torrid embrace. Baralai trailed his fingers gently along the swell of her thigh, absorbed in the hot-silk feel of her; he encountered pale pink, then the plunge of soft downy skin into the sudden hollow of her waist, abdomen smoothly taut under the tips of his fingers. He wanted her, always wanted her and if she's going to make her goodbyes, he'd make damn sure he'd give her want she wanted and denied herself. He'd never taken advantage of a woman and for sure he didn't want to start now, not without their consent but Yuna's responses were consent enough. There he encountered the undersides of her breasts, soft and warm through the shirt. He ached to slide his hand up under the fabric and feel the soft-firm roundness of her, possess the tantalizing peach-brown nipples he'd gotten familiar with, taste them and hear her moans and cries. He could never understand her own obsession with some damn dream guy that was the rift between them. If he could live with the fact that this Tidus was hers in dream only then he could remain impassive to that side of her in which she gave her heart to.

A thin gray dawn crept through an overcast sky that day and with thelight came a fine mist of rain, gathering on the leaves of the foliage that was now growing around the edges of Fayth Scar. They spilled quietly onto the ground and splashing onto rocks at the entrance to the cave, wearing at the boulders in the process of centuries. High up on the side of the canyon, the coal-black dragon stared down with yellow eyes at the entrance, watching for intruders that had invaded his cave.

"We're not alone, Baralai" Yuna whispered against his lips, feeling them trail down her neck while she looked up from the canyon of the hot springs.

"Oh really? Then I suggest they get an eyeful of what's going to come because I've a mind to give them one." He continued with his lovemaking but Yuna pushed at him gently,

"Baralai, I'm serious. It's one of those dragons!"

"Another one? Shall I slay the dragon for you?" his lethargic lovemaking was making him heady and the consciousness of it didn't make him alert, until Yuna reflexively checked for her guns, found it in safety in place. The dragon's fire came at them, an initiative for the fiend but Yuna and Baralai had moved out of harm's way just in time, right before they heard the breath of flame extinguish out in the air.

"What the hell is a dragon doing in the top of the springs?" Baralai retorted, more angry with the fact that this fiend decidedly interrupts them in the middle of something more prevalent.

"It would explain why there are fewer visitors in the hot springs these days." Yuna replied back with urgency, reloaded with a double barrel pot shot and took aim, shot back and hit the dragon's skin, penetrating it with minimal damage.

"Allow me," cried Baralai, retrieving his Double Razor Ring Rod and threw the dragon a whipping drill shot, sending bullets deep within the skin of the fire breathing fiend. This allowed time for Yuna to reload a more deadly blow to the dragon and as the dragon took a more menacing approach, Baralai protected her with his body, sending the Rod he held swinging like a boomerang to the creature, breaking it's armor plate and the rod whipped back to Baralai's hand. The fiend on the other hand reached out with it's claw and damaged the young man in return but with no serious injury. Yuna took this time to take her target out and she did that with the trigger happy she used, glad that she had double strength charm bracelet on her left arm. The dragon went out like a light and the pyreflies flew out of it's body as it disappeared.

"Well what do you know, fiends who are coming out of the farplane and guarding the hotsprings." Mused Baralai with some laughter in his voice. He straightened out the dust off his immaculate clothing and gave Yuna a quick over to see if she was hurt. She wasn't and he inwardly sighed a silent relief.

"I guess that the threads between the farplane and here have not closed."

"Nor would it ever be." came the reply from the man who just moments before their little battle were on the verge of seducing her in the hot springs during midday.

"I'm hungry." Yuna proclaimed.

"Always work up an appetite after a little battle?" Baralai joked, as he lifted a white brow at her. He was already working his way into his back pack, checking for supplies. "Ahh, it's a good thing I came prepared."

He brought out a large thin cloth of checkered white and blue and set it down on the ground, then took out two metal cups, a small bottle of red wine, and some wrapped up bread and cheese.

"It's not much but I always think of how hungry you get after we make love."

Yuna blushed at that, she was still so unused to his blunt talk but it was so reassuring that he wasn't as ashamed of it as she was. It came too easily for him while she, she always felt like a blushing virgin after they made love. She decided then that it would be good for them to remain friends, and what's a little meal between them after a little battle to make matters less strained?

Baralai created a small fire, he had killed a small gull earlier and skinned it, so he made sure that it was fully cooked before setting it on the paper plates that was in his sack. Awed at the feelings she created in him, he found himself studying her face, noisey in her eating habits, as if always famished. She told him the story of Buddy's gull fiasco, their rescuer and how they were called the Gullwings in the first place and Baralai laughed.

"When you gotta eat, you gotta eat."

"Yeah but, couldn't they have just waited?"

Baralai lifted the corner of his lips, "Would you?"

She didn't reply and drank her wine, letting the warm liquid travel down her throat, making her feel warmer than their atmosphere.

"Would you like a swim? It's a shame to let this go to waste, you know?"

"And let you take advantage of me?" Yuna replied in a somewhat flirtatious manner.

"Of course."