Paine walked into the Luca ball room dressed in her normal dressphere. She did't really see the reason to get dressed up like Rikku and Yuna. The guys were even in their normal clothes. She saw that everyone of her friends were paired off. Gippal and Rikku, Yuna and Tidus, Nooj and Lebalnc, and even Baralai who was dancing with a redhead that was unfamiliar to Paine. She walked to the balcony. The waiter handed her a glass of red wine. She set it on the riling and stared out to the stars. A lot of stuffed has changed since her squad days. She only sees the guys on missions now which are probably over now even though Yuna says she is going to return, Paine doesn't think that Yuna will want to spend to much time away from Tidus not after being split up with him for two years. She picked up her glass and swurled the wine around before taking a drink. She heard footsteps behind her. She turned around and saw Baralai.
"Hey." She said. He nodded and walked over to her side. "Weren't you dancing with some girl?"
"Yep, and if you see her, please tell me." he said.
"Why, did she run off on you?" Paine asked.
"No, I ran away from her.I don't want to dance with her again. She keeps stepping on my feet." He said making Paine laugh a little. Then he looked to the room and he flipped over the riling. Paine looked down at him. He put a finger to his mouth to say "Shush."
"Excuse me, but have you seen Baralai anywhere?" She asked Paine.
"No sorry I haven't." Paine lied.
"OH well I could have sworn that I saw him come over here." She said.
"I've been the only one here for about fifteen mintues." Paine lied again.
"Well if you see him could you tell him that Gina was looking for him." She said and walked away. Paine bent over the riling to look at Baralai.
"Hey Gina's looking for you." she said. He looked up and climbed up the riling so he was face to face with Paine.
"So I heard." He said.
"How do you know her?" Paine asked him.
"She works at the temple." He answered. "She always hangs around me." He said looking Paine in the eyes.
"And do you always spend time with people from the temple?" Paine asked him
"I guess not, if I'm here talking to you." he said trying to climb over the riling. Paine offered her hand to help. He took it and she helped him over the riling.
"I see that it easier to flip over the riling then to climb it." Piane said not realizing that she still held his hand or the closeness of their bodies.
"It really isn't." Baralai answered not realizing it either. 'Man I never noticed how handsome he is.' Paine thought. 'Wait a mintue did I just think that?' "So how's are the Gullwings doing these days?" Baralai asked after him and Paine let go of each other's hands and backed up.
"Besides Yuna seeing Tidus again and taking some time off, not much." Paine answered. "How's thing in Bevelle?"
"Same as usual, except for the prist staring at me differently and the mountains of paper work." he answered. "You know after the whole dissappearing thing."
"Yeah but in time they probably will look at you the way they used to." Paine said.
"And what about the moutains of paper work?" Baralai asked.
"Now that, you'll have for the rest of you life." Paine said making Baralai luagh a little.
"Paine, Brother's yelling at us to get back to the airship." Rikku said.
"Alright." Paine said. "See ya later." Paine said to Baralai.
"Yeah see ya." he said and Paine ran after Rikku.
"Yunie and Tidus are riding with us back to Besaid and we are spending the night there." Rikku said as they walked to the Celsius. "So Paine what did you and Baralai talk about?" Rikku asked once everyone was on board.
"That's minus two respect points, Rikku." Paine said.
"Oui Pimmo!" said Rikku and walked off.
"So Paine where were you? I didn't see you at the party." Yuna asked.
"I was talking with Baralai out on the balcony." Paine told her.The next morning Paine woke up in Besaid and walked out of the tent to see Rikku hugging Yuna and Tidus. "What are we leaving this early?" Paine asked her. "No, I am. Pops called and he said that he's rebuilding home and he needs all the help he can get so Brother, Buddy, Shinra, and I are going to help him along with the people at the Machina Faction." Rikku told her.
"So I'll see ya around." Paine said.
"Yeah I guess so. Bye guys."she said and left Besaid. Paine started to walk away.
"Paine where are you going?" Yuna asked.
"The Beach." Paine answered her walking off. When she got to the beach she heard the a guy on the ship yell all aboard to Luca. 'It's better than staying here.' Paine thought and got on the ship. She walked over to the front of the ship.
"Hey aren't you the girl from the party?" someone asked making Paine turn around. It was Gina.
"Yeah. So what of it." Paine asked.
"Nothing. Where are you headed?" She asked.
"Nowhere." Paine answered. Gina looked at her funny then left. 'Strange' thought Paine.The breeze blew her hair away from her face. It wasn't much longer before the captain of the ship informed everyone that they had arrived at Luca. Paine got off the ship and starting walking. She walked trough Mi'hin Highroad, Djose, Moonflow, and all the way to the Tunder Plains before she realized how far she had walked. She kept walking intil she reached Bevelle. She went to the temple and saw Baralai entering his office. She followed him. "Hey mind if I drop by?" Paine asked from the doorway. Baralai turned around to look at her.
"Oh there you are, you know that you have all of Besaid worried about you?" Baralai said leaning against his desk with his arms folded.
"I was just walking and before I knew it I was here. Guess I really didn't think about them." Paine said entering his office.
"No harm done. I'll just call them and tell them that you're all right." he said.
"Thanks." Paine said noticing the huge stack of papers on his desk. "I see you weren't lying about the moutians of paper work."
"Yeah and I really should get to work on them." he said and sat down in his chair. Paine sat down on one of the brown leather chairs in front of his desk.
"Wouldn't you rather be doing something other then paper work?" Paine asked him.
"It's my job, you get used to it after a while." Baralai said marking something down on a sheet of paper.
"I think that you need to get out more instead of just staying here and doing paper work all day." Paine said. "Come on Baralai you're young.....I mean it's not like you're fourty or something like that. All I'm saying is that you need have some fun before you are fourty."
"Did you come here to lecture me?" He asked somewhat teasing Paine.
"No, I didn't." Paine said and went back to watching him work. After what seemed like hours Baralai got up. He pulled Paine out of her seat by her hands.
"You said something about getting out?" he said.
"Let's go." She said letting a smile appear on her face. She brought Baralai all the way to Luca. There was a night club not to far away from the town square that Paine was very familiar with. People were lined up to get in the club. Paine grabbed Baralai's arm and dragged him to the front of the line. The man letting people in seemed to have known Paine. (A/N: I can't remember what those people are called.)
"Paine it's been a while." The guy said. He had raven black hair that was long enough for him to have it in a pony tail and he wore brown leather pants and also a leather vest with nothing underneath.
"Yeah it really has. So are you going to let me and my friend in?" she said to the man and pointed back at Baralai.
"Sure go right ahead." he said and let her and Baralai in the club. Inside there were black lights around the walls and a couple on the ceiling. It had tables around the room and a bar at the west end. Baralai looked around you could easily tell that he didn't get out much. There were people dancing in the center of the room to the loud music blasting at every inch of the room.
"You come here often?" Baralai asked so Paine could hear him.
"I used to during the two years when we were separated." she said into his ear. "Come on." Paine said as she pulled him to the dance floor just as the music went to a slow song. Paine put her arms around Baralai's shoulders and he put his arms around her waist. They danced to the music. "Not bad for a Praetor." Paine said before putting her head on his chest.
Just then someone came into the room screaming "Party, Party, Party!" which made everyone in the room look in the person's direction. It was Brother! "How did that so called leader get into a place like this." Paine asked Baralai not wanting an answer. Buddy, Gippal, and Rikku came in after him. "Oh shit." Paine said.
"What?" Baralai asked. He didn't see them.
"Rikku and Gippal are here. If they see us then we'll never live this down." Paine said. Baralai seemed to under stand.
"What are we going to do?" Baralai asked her.
"There's away out. Follow me." Paine said. She grabbed his hand and brought him to the hallway where the bathroom are. There was double doors at the end of the hall that were locked. Paine kicked it and the doors swung open. Paine and Baralai walked out of the double doors and closed the doors behind them.
"That was close." Baralai said as him and Paine walked down the street.
"Come on, let's go back to Bevelle." Paine said.
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Please R&R Next chapter up shortly.