And so it was that the Baralai diligently fell back into his duties as The Praetor of New Yevon and the protector of Bevelle, taking to the heavy workload like a Blitzer to water. Sure enough he'd had an afternoon of luxurious reading to himself, he hadn't really attended to his paperwork in a long time. A little more than a week if he remembered correctly. Baralai was a serious man by nature but he was human enough to admit he was being entirely ridiculous. He stretched out his legs and leaned back in the chair, laughing softly. On the inside, somewhere, he was still the young man who enjoyed to laugh and have fun, a free spirit. It was true he possessed an extended vocabulary for someone his age, indeed, for people older than himself. He also admitted that he would rather spend the day reading or writing instead of drinking (Gippal), shooting (Gippal), hooning around in Machina (Gippal) or tending towards the promiscuous lifestyles (Gippal)... But no matter how much he tended to hide behind these different sides of himself, he could never quash that spirit. He could scold himself as much as he liked for not keeping on top of the paperwork, but he knew that paperwork was the reason he'd taken the boat to Luca. It was the simple reason of the fact it would keep him away longer. He glanced at the calendar, realising with a shock that it had been around four days since he had visited Yuna in the Bevelle Hospital. Lately, he would sit down for what he intended to be a few hours and a few days would go by instead.

He drank the remainder of the iced tea that sat by his elbow and absently placed the glass on the shelf above his desk. He didn't place it far enough towards the wall and it fell to the desk and shattered. His first reaction was to shift the paperwork then scramble to clear the glass shards. A moment later, however, he felt a sting in his lip, so he pressed his fingertips to his mouth and made his way to the bathroom. While he rummaged in the drawers for cotton wool and antiseptic, he looked up and saw himself. It was a strange sensation, not recognising the person in the mirror. Baralai slowly let his fingers drop from his lips and the objects fell from his other hand into the white, porcelain sink that was now stained with his crimson blood. His eyes were dark and moody, his hair and robes were dirty and dishevelled, his honey-coloured skin was paled and the stubble on his face was becoming painfully noticeable. Baralai couldn't even stand up straight, for Yevon's sake. He stared at the blood that was smeared on his hands. This wasn't who he was.

Forgetting about his lip, he exited the bathroom and wandered down into the main room. There was a handful of notes that had been thrust under his door and his Comm Sphere was flashing. He pressed the button to play out all the messages, before sitting down to flick through the notes he'd picked up.

"We're leaving to go out now B. We'll be at the, Crid ib Rikku! Please! One second! Ok sorry... We'll be at Moonlilies... Rikku! Heh... Uh... Gotta run..."

To Baralai, Praetor of New Yevon,

Tromell Guado would be overjoyed if you could set aside some time to discuss relations between Guadosalam and Bevelle at the soonest possible date at your convenience....

"Yo 'Lai, we had a good time out. Pity you didn't come. Looks like someone came by and brought Yuna some presents. Well, uh... See you soon. "

"Hi, Um, It's Rikku here! Well, Leblanc and Nooj are here, so you should come down and join the party! Seeya!"

Lai, It's from Gippal. I don't know If you got the messages on your Sphere, and it looks like you're busy, but Leblanc and Nooj...

Baralai crumpled that one up.

"B! Come on! Answer the door already!"

"Baralai, we've been past five times today and you're not answering.. We're getting worried... If you don't want to see us, just give me a call or whatever..."

Baralai sat up straight, feeling guilty.

"That's It Baralai!!! Maybe if you cared, you'd actually know that Yuna woke up this morning and that she was asking for you, but no...."

Baralai felt a little ashamed but after awhile his common sense and the relief he felt pushed his pride back down to it's normal, acceptable level. The Praetor reached for his Comm Sphere and called Gippal, who answered almost immediately. It appeared he was in a cafeteria of some kind.

"Baralai! Man, you look like shit. Are you okay?!"

Baralai wiped at the blood self-consciously.

"I'm sorry..."

Rikku's head appeared in the projected screen.

"Baralai! We're glad you're Okay and all, but you better shakey shake your way over here lickety split!"

Gippal wrestled the Comm Sphere off her.

"That's for sure... Where in Spira have you been? Yuna's been calling for you..."

Baralai blushed and averted his eyes.

"I.. I just felt weird while I was around... Like I was intruding..."

Something appeared to be attracting Gippal's attention outside of Baralai's viewpoint.

"Yeah, Yeah. Love does that. Well if you're gonna 'shakey shake' over here, you'd better do something first. It's called bathing. Oh, and shaving.... Cred, I have to go!"

Transmission ended.

Baralai sat there for a minute, cradling the Sphere in his hands.

"Love?"

Baralai managed to shower and shave safely in an amazingly short amount of time. He couldn't be bothered fixing his hair with the headband, so it naturally fell into soft spikes like it did while on the ship. He quickly picked a black, button up shirt and some baggy jeans before pulling his boots on underneath them and bolting out the door. So much for the calm, collected Praetor.

Gippal and Rikku caught him as he walked into the doors of the Hospital and towards Yuna's room and dragged him off in the opposite direction.

He shook them off him "Gippal! Rikku!"

Gippal shook his head.

"Uh uh. I bet you haven't eaten for awhile..."

Baralai glared at the Cafeteria sign as if that would fix everything.

"I'll eat later. I need to see her..."

Gippal rolled his eyes and strode away, jauntily, to see Paine who was idly browsing through books in the Gift Shop. Rikku however, sighed sympathetically.

"I know how you feel Baralai, but you have to take care of yourself too ya know. She's actually asleep, so you have some time to pack something in your stomach and explain things to me." Rikku winked and linked her arm with his, leading him back out of the Hospital. Baralai looked at her quizzically.

"Hospital food sucks." Rikku giggled and gestured to Gippal, who nodded.

They took seats at a nice little shop across the road that Baralai had never really noticed. He picked up a menu and read it while Rikku rummaged in her pockets for some Gil.

"They make a mean milkshake."

Baralai smiled wanly and handed over some Gil.

"I'll take your word for it today... I'll have... Vegetarian Lasagne with a small salad and a white wine."

Rikku's eyes sparkled. "Wine? Oooh, you're being indulgent aren't you?"

It was Baralai's turn to roll his eyes at her teasing, although he held back all manners of insults he could have played in return, and shrugged, acting convincingly hurt.

"You're right. I'll have a vanilla milkshake then."

Rikku pet his head playfully, although a little guiltily and skipped up to the counter.

She returned about ten minutes later with their food. After she took a sip of her Strawberry Milkshake and a bite out of her chicken salad, she leaned across the table and stared at Baralai speculatively.

"Ok, Tell me all about it."

He swallowed his bite of Lasagne. "About what?"

"About Yuna silly!"

Rikku grinned victoriously. She knew she had won when Baralai flinched ever so slightly. If she wasn't such a trickster she would have missed it.

"Did Gippal...?"

"Nope! I figured it out all on my lonesome!"

"Well done." He said dryly.

Rikku smirked, but became serious, while she drank some more of the milkshake.

"So what are you going to say when you talk to her?"

Baralai sighed. "I don't know. I'm in extremely unchartered territory... And I don't want to hurt Paine, either..." He pushed a square of Lasagne around with his fork, avoiding Rikku's eyes. "There's a lot of people who wouldn't approve. If she does want me, we'd have to keep it quiet for awhile..."

Rikku smiled gently.

"Well it's worth it or it's not..."

Baralai met her eyes.

"It is. I love her, Rikku."

Rikku began to look at the Praetor differently. She'd always seen him as being somewhat emotionless and the like, but she'd had the chance to re-think her opinions. She decided that she quite liked him.

"Well how about we make it 'less talk, more eat' so we can go and do something about that, huh?"

Authors Note: Thank you so much for the reviews!!!!!!11111oneonetwo. I Love you all! I had exams for a few weeks and have been battling writers block, so it's great to be back.

Love,

Corrupt

Ps. Sirea, ur Yunalai is awesome! Don't give up on it!