Quietly, Sora approached the half-asleep Kairi. She was lying on one of the beds in the cabin, one hand on her stomach, the other resting on her bandaged shoulder. She was cringing; tossing and turning in an attempt to fall back asleep. He sat down on the end of her bed and she stopped moving, one of her eyes opening a crack. She half smiled at him, looking uncomfortable. She was flushed; she had a fever.

"Kairi, are you going to be okay?" He asked quietly, watching her with worry. She groaned and shrugged, sitting up a little.

"Maybe."

Yuna reached the top of the stairs and found Sora talking quietly with Kairi, trying to find out what was wrong. Rikku came racing up the stairs seconds later, almost running into Yuna. Baralai followed.

"What's up?" Rikku whispered, standing on her tip-toes to see Kairi and Sora better from over Yuna's shoulder. Yuna shrugged. The three of them were silent for a moment; then Sora stood up and walked towards them.

"Is she going to be okay?" Baralai asked, rooting through his bag of items. Sora smiled, looking a bit relieved.

"She's fine. With her shoulder, she can't deal with the movement on the ship. We need to get her to the ground and she'll be alright." He answered. Instantly, Rikku was running down the stairs.

"BROTHER!" She yelled, running into the elevator. Yuna smiled, following. Baralai and Sora were left standing at the top of the stairs. Baralai looked around.

"You know, it's probably not such a bad thing anyways." She said absently. Sora looked at him.

"Huh?"

"I mean, we could all probably use a rest. Being grounded really wouldn't be such a bad thing." He explained. Sora nodded. Baralai started down the stairs, but noticed Sora wasn't following.

"Coming?"

"Nah, I'm gonna stick around here a while, make sure Kairi's gonna be okay." He answered. Baralai nodded in understanding.

"See you later then."

The Celcius landed in Luca, and the group stayed at the same hotel that Sora had been at the night before. It was actually quite a nice hotel; it had a games room (pool tables, card tables, ping pong, air hockey, and the like), it had a swimming pool and it was just off of Luca's shopping district. Sitting in the games room, everyone (except Kairi, who was still asleep, in one of the rooms) was trying to decide what to do.

"Might as well just stay around here." Paine said.

"We need the rest, and it's not like there's not enough to do." Baralai agreed. Gippal frowned.

"What do you mean? There's stuff to do, but it's all boring stuff. I mean come on, who actually likes shopping anyways?" He asked.

"I like shopping!" Rikku replied defensively.

"Me too!" Yuna agreed.

"So do I!" LeBlanc answered airily. All three of them looked at Paine. She rolled her eyes.

"I guess I do too." She said resignedly. Gippal crossed his arms.

"But you guys are girls. You don't count." He said firmly.

"Who said girls don't count?" Yuna, LeBlanc and Paine asked angrily as Rikku smacked Gippal across the back of the head. Gippal shrunk into his chair.

"Okay okay, but what do I have to do here?" He asked. Paine shrugged.

"Amuse yourself." She replied, sounding bored. Baralai tried to keep from smiling.

"I'm sure you'll find something to do. It don't blame you for not wanting to hang out here and play some pool with me and Nooj and Sora and Tidus. We all know that we'd kick your ass every time." He said lazily. Gippal glared at him.

"Wanna bet? I'll take you on any time, and beat you, too! I'd take all four of you on at the same time and kick your asses!"

"I doubt that. I've never been beaten at pool." Nooj answered.

"Well there's a first for everything!" Gippal answered.

"That's just pool." Sora said, sound bored. "You try air hockey. It takes some serious skill to beat a pro like me."

"I'll kick your sorry ass at it! Bring it on!" Gippal answered. Rikku giggled.

"Now look, you're getting him all excited." She scolded, half laughing. Gippal frowned.

"What is this? Everybody versus Gippal day?" He asked. Yuna grinned.

"You brought this on yourself." She told him. Gippal opened his mouth to reply, then seemed to think of something better.

"So, Baralai and Nooj'll be keeping busy with pool, I'll be busy kicking Sora's ass at air hockey, so that leaves Tidus." He looked at the blitzball player, grinning evilly. "Of course, you won't have any problem keeping yourself occupied with her around." He said, glancing at Yuna, who flushed.

"What are you implying?" Tidus asked, glaring at him. Gippal smirked.

"You know what I'm implying." He answered, laughing.

"SHUT UP GIPPAL!" Everyone shouted. Gippal frowned, shrinking back into his chair.

"How is it fair that everyone can laugh at me, but I can't laugh at anyone?" He asked meekly. Paine shrugged.

"I guess life isn't fair, is it?"

"Poor widdle Gippal." Rikku said, standing up and walking over him. "Is evewybudy teasing you?" She asked, looking down at him. Gippal stood up, bringing himself up to full height and towering over her.

"Who's little, meddma bnehlacc?" He asked, stooping a little so they were face to face. Rikku turned red, and frowned, crossing her arms. She started to back up a little, turning redder with every step.

"Hey!" She shouted once she'd backed up a few steps. Gippal just smirked, seeming satisfied. Everyone else but Paine looked quite confused (do Baralai and Nooj speak Al Bhed? Well, for the purposes of this story, they do not, because I don't remember if they really do or not). Rikku kept backing up, blushing even more furiously than before.

That night, Rikku was lying on her bed in her room, staring at the ceiling. She had just pulled on a huge shirt, which was her chosen pajamas, and so her hair was half fallen out. The bed next to her was actually her own, but she had stuff thrown all over it, so she decided to steal this one until Paine got out of the bathroom. They and Yuna were all sharing a room. Yuna had snuck off somewhere with Tidus and they weren't about to go look for her, for fear of walking in on her and Tidus doing something 'inappropriate', so it was decided that Yuna was going to get stuck with the cot laying at the end of Rikku's bed. Paine emerged into the room, her hair soaked and dressed in very comfortable looking black pajamas. She gave Rikku one look and the Al Bhed girl rolled off and began to clear her own bed. Paine flopped down and flipped on the TV, with, however, no intention of watching it. She waited patiently as Rikku went through her stuff, throwing some of it on the chair next to the window, some of it on the floor and the rest of it back in her bag. Finally, Rikku sat down on her bed and got comfortable. Almost instantly, Paine heard Rikku sigh.

"I'm not tired." She complained. Surprisingly, Paine took it well.

"Its 11:00" The warrior observed, showing no hint of emotion. Rikku rolled over and looked at her.

"So? Are you saying that it's late or that it's early?" She asked, sounding curious. Paine just shrugged. Rikku grumbled something incomprehensible. Paine half smiled.

"Are you still angry from this afternoon?" She asked, sounding like she still found the argument amusing. Rikku sat up.

"No!" She denied angrily, pouting. Paine sat up as well, watching Rikku.

"You can't get so worked up over the stuff he says, you know he's just being himself." She said, looking suddenly interested in her finger nails. Rikku huffed.

"I know! I told you already that I wasn't mad!" Her voice was loud enough to almost be a yell. Paine shushed her and shrugged.

"You sound pretty mad to me." She observed lazily. Rikku shook her head vigorously.

"I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!" She insisted. Paine lifted her hands in defeat.

"Okay, okay, you're not, but then what are you? You're certainly not yourself." Paine told her, standing up and walking over to the bathroom door. She flicked off the light and leaned against the wall as Rikku spoke.

"I'm…ummm…I dunno." She admitted. Paine walked over to the disdraught young Al Bhed and sat down next to her.

"Well, all he did was say you were little, and you are the youngest of us. I can understand if a guy got angry at him for saying that, but otherwise…" She smiled evilly. "Rikku, is there something you're not telling us here?" She asked seriously, but not trying very hard to hide her smirk. Rikku frowned, snatching a pillow and swinging it. Paine blocked the blow with her arm, but Rikku had been expecting her to do that, and so she made a wide arc over her head and hit her in the back of the head. Paine ignored it and Rikku frowned even more.

"Oh course I'm a girl! And him calling me little isn't what bothers me!" She announced, sound distressed. Paine looked surprised.

"Well then what is bothering you?" She asked, sounding curious. Rikku started to turn red again, her eyes dropping to the floor.

"He didn't just call me little." Rikku recalled. Paine thought a moment.

"That's right, he said something else too. Meddma… What else was it he said?"

"Meddma bnehlacc." Rikku answered quietly. Paine raised her eyebrows. Rikku was staring at her lap and didn't see that Paine understood, so she kept talking. "He called me little princess. He called me a princess." Instantly, Rikku became afraid of what Paine would say. At first, she had just been worrying that Paine might tell Gippal, but now she was suddenly worried about what Paine might say. She jumped when she felt a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.

"I get it." They were words that wouldn't mean much of anything to anybody, but coming from Paine, and at that time, they were the most comforting words Rikku could have heard. She looked up and smiled. The moment was broken as the younger girl pounced on Paine in a fierce hug, nearly knocking both of them over.

"Thanks Paine-y!"

Hurrah! We've hit 20 chappies! Much love and R+R!