Chapter Two: Parting is a Sweet Sorrow

Marriage had never really come up in conversation between Seymel and Baralai. They both knew they were going to get married at some point to each other, it was more a question of when. Both sides would be in uproar if the Praetor of New Yevon and a high ranking Youth Leaguer got married – it would probably cause a riot. Seymel's favourite joke to Baralai when any of this was brought up was, "Let me check my diary...It says here that no way am I going to leave the Youth League just so I can marry you. And down here it says that you won't leave New Yevon to marry me and it also adds a footnote explaining both sides would kill each other during the ceremony, so I think the date we can set is, let's see...when Hell freezes over." There was one major problem they did have to overcome. By the laws of Yevon, only married couples can sleep together, in any shape or form. After half a year of seeing each other, the two were pretty certain they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together but, due to their complicated lives, could not marry, yet wanted to be together as man and wife. If ever it was found out Baralai had had pre-marital sex, he could kiss any ties with New Yevon goodbye. Staring into Baralai's handsome face, knowing Hell freezing over is the closest time to her getting Baralai for herself was pretty unsettling for Seymel, and Baralai wasn't very happy either about the arrangement.

What to do? In the end Baralai made an announcement that if couples were planning to definitely get married, that clause could be wavered. Which sorted the problem out nicely, as Seymel and Baralai were definitely going to get married – when exactly was a question neither of them were prepared to answer.

Seymel lay in the hotel bed, curled slightly into Baralai's body. She loved running her hand gently along his chest – there were rare few times she ever got to touch it, he wore so much heavy fabric from his neck downwards. A slight mar graced his chest near his right shoulder – the bullet wound he seldom, if ever spoke about. He had discussed it with her, the first time they had slept together. She had lain much like she was now and seen it – her curiosity got the better of her and she had enquired. Seymel never forgot the shiver of an old painful memory passing before his eyes, as he quietly recounted the tale. She had been horrified at some of the darker stories Baralai had held deep down inside of him. She still had a few secrets tucked away, but in time she knew they would be revealed; it was all a question of time. Seymel lightly stroked his hair affectionately, the bandana gone on the dresser, making his white hair lie flat. The blue bandana was there to allow him to see – his hair had a nasty habit of flopping into his eyes. When Seymel had first seen it happen, that night he'd nervously removed it, and it fell into his eyes she had laughed her head off.

As a Praetor, no-one really considered Baralai a particularly strong opponent. Seymel and a precious few knew otherwise. The now extinct Crimson Squad were no joke – you had to be healthy and strong in mind and body or you were dead. Seymel had seen Baralai fight mercilessly with his quarterstaff. It was one of very few times Baralai had scared her. He whirled his weapon around and made a harsh, angry battle cry that had sent an awful chill through her body. Though his fighting and training made her feel insecure about Baralai at times, it gave him a nicely toned body she was now curled up against. He was awake, she realised. He opened his eyes and stared through the glass ceiling up to the stars.

He looked so unhappy at times, like he was off in another world or, she feared, back into dark memories he would do better to forget.

Seymel turned her mind to other problems. The reason she had came back to visit Bevelle again. The Youth League and New Yevon were as underhanded as one another. Knowing Seymel and Baralai were not going to split made them decide to try and turn the relationship to their advantage. Spying. Neither were interested in it – Baralai hated talking about it - they strictly didn't talk about anything to do with their work. But still both sides tried to persuade them to betray each other. Seymel gave a heavy sigh and Baralai looked to her.

"You don't like to admit it, but both sides try to use our relationship to their advantage," she said and waited for a reaction. Baralai groaned and fell silent.

"...I don't want to talk about it," he murmured, making Seymel frown and roll away from him slightly.

"You never do. I'll tell you what they tried to get me to do. They tried to make me spy on you – all the time. And I told them to stuff it or get my Firaga," she raised her voice slightly in irritation.

He remained silent. He knew her black mage skills were her favourite punishment on out of hand Youth Leaguers. It always made him laugh a picture of Youth Leaguers being chased by a furious yelling Seymel, who would run with a fistful of fire.

"...You'll get upset," he began warningly. She met his gaze firmly.

"I don't care. Tell me," she persisted, her hand unconsciously gripping his arm lightly.

Baralai's eyes clouded over with the dark memory.

"...They asked me to marry a very prominent New Yevon lady, fully knowing I had you. I got...so angry. I almost wanted to leave for good..." he trailed, briefly reliving the flush of emotions. His anger had made the lady flinch when he had berated the priests over his relationship with Seymel. They acted as if she was some – some fling or something, nothing of importance to him. He was fiercely protective of the relationship he and Seymel shared, so much so, it scared him every so often when he thought about it. He wrapped an arm across her bare back and drew her to him. She laid her head across his chest, some of her hair tickling him.

"Never leave because I want you to. Not because of me. If you ever leave, I want it to be because you wanted to. Promise?" she whispered. Baralai felt better when Seymel came up with her little gems of wisdom. What he would do without her...?

"And the same to you. I promise," he replied and he felt her mouth form a smile on his chest.

"Good, then I promise too," and she fell silent and seemed to drift off to sleep.

He ran a hand along her lustrous hair, wondering how he ever came to get this woman's love. They spent so long away from one another at times, it was a miracle they even recognised one another when they finally reunited. Two months...it hadn't felt like it. Seymel muttered something like 'firaga' before unconsciously covering her arm across his chest. He watched her for a moment before settling into sleep himself.

Seymel and Baralai, it must be noted, didn't agree on a lot of things. Lots of couples stay together because of the love they share for one another as well as common beliefs and interests they held. This was not true of them – you were lucky to get them to agree on anything. She loved blitzball and he couldn't see the point of it. He loved the cosy intricacies of Guadosalem and Seymel hated that place almost as much as Bevelle . She adored travelling and Baralai would rather just stay put in one place at a time. One of a rare few things the two did agree on was seafood. Kilika, where their main home was, had a lot of fish for sale and it was some of the most mouth watering fish you could get your hands on in Spira. It was one of their main points to getting the house.

Dawn light slid along the covers of Seymel and Baralai's inn bed and onto their faces. There was no reaction from Baralai, but Seymel's eyes snapped open almost immediately. She was still curled up in Baralai's arms, who had only just begun to crack his eyes open and mumbled about the time.

"Uh, five I reckon," she guessed and got up, wrapping a gown around her. Baralai lay looking up at the glass ceiling which showed the bright blue sky tinged with pale early morning light. He pushed his hair away from his face and sat up. Seymel had disappeared into the shower – he could hear her voice faintly singing to herself from the bathroom. He smiled to himself and couldn't believe he had such an amazing energetic other half in his life. When he was in the Crimson Squad, well...he never liked to think about it. He'd had a far more sombre view on life – he'd been willing to perish for Yevon. Now he had risen to the top rank as Praetor at such a young age, he actively discouraged violence in New Yevon. It didn't solve anything and it separated loved ones from one another when the death toll began to mount. He cast away those gloomy thoughts, got up and went to the dresser where his picked his bandana up and rubbed his fingers into the material thoughtfully. Work was going to break them apart, he feared. The hostility between New Yevon and the Youth League mounted with each passing day and neither side was backing down. Some of the priests were taking use of machina and using it for battle purposes to ward off Youth Leaguers. Yes, Nooj did always like to whip situations into a frenzy before sweeping in during the battle and then getting what he wanted – spheres now. He still felt a cold hard resentment towards Nooj after he shot Gippal, Paine and him. The scar didn't hurt him in any way, but it was a reminder of what happened between supposed friends. Of course, now they had all drifted out of contact and gone about their own business as if the others were dead. Nooj had gone off and formed basically the new Crusaders – the Youth League. And Gippal, he had formed the Machina Faction and contentedly fiddled with machina all day, or machines as he liked to call them now to cover up the bad name machina had got. And he, he had pulled Yevon back together into the New Yevon. He had believed in Yevon – he still did. It had it's heart in the right place morally, but Yu Yevon had caused much trouble...

He didn't know why his old friends had come into thoughts now, and he didn't like it. Those memories of times past had been good, but the bad ones were the darkest he'd ever had.

His train of shadowy thoughts were broken by Seymel exiting with bathroom with a grin, towel wrapped around her and not much else.

"I have to go to Headquarters today, so I'm going to have to hurry off if I'm going to make it," she told him and changed into her dress. Her hair was still soaking even after vigorous towelling, but she didn't seem to care. She grabbed Baralai around the waist before he made it to the bathroom and planted a kiss square on his lips.

"I'll see you when I see you, 'Lai," she whispered and he nodded and kissed her on the forehead, eyelids, cheeks and finally her lips before he let her go. She smiled jovially and left him standing, wishing their lives weren't so distant at times, before he too went into the bathroom and she drifted out of his life.