Part Two

My dearest Yuna,

I thank you for your return letter, and am sorry to hear of the circumstances on Besaid. However, my offer still stands, should you ever wish to come to Bevelle. The people would be greatly happy to have a visit from the High Summoner.

As I received your letter, I was speaking with one of the representatives of the Machine Faction currently in Bevelle. I informed him of the situation with the needed parts, and he said that the required equipment would be shipped out of Kilika as soon as he could get word back to Djose. Apparently quite a few rumors have been circulating about Gippal and his whereabouts – I believe the Machine Faction is quite grateful to finally have news of his location.

Please let me know if you need anything at all, Yuna. I am at your service.

Best wishes,

Baralai

Yuna watched as Gippal buttoned his pants, a simple pair of jeans that he had started wearing after spending a few days on Besaid Island. The blue had faded and had changed to an odd color of green from swimming in the salty ocean. "Where are you going?" she asked, putting down Baralai's letter on the bedside table, on a cloth the same color as Gippal's jeans.

"I got a message from Benga, at the Machine Faction," Gippal explained, fastening his belt on the very first hole. "They're delivering fans for the Celsius today, which means I need to be there to meet them."

"Baralai organized it," Yuna informed him.

"Thanks for asking him." Gippal ran his hands through his spikes, arranging them into order on the top of his head.

"I didn't ask him," Yuna replied, her eyes following every movement of Gippal's hands.

"Oh, I see," Gippal replied, turning away from the mirror finally, his vivid emerald eye meeting Yuna's gaze. "So you wanted to keep me here, did you?"

Yuna stood up off the bed slowly, digging her fingernails into her palms. "No, that's not it!" She bit her lower lip, turning her eyes to the ground and tracing the lines of the green and yellow woven rug.

"Aw, cfaadraynd, you don't have to deny it," Gippal replied, tangling his hand in the back of Yuna's hair. "I know you'd hate to see me go."

He was so arrogant that it made Yuna clench her teeth… the terrible part was that he was right. Everything he said was right – she didn't want to see him leave Besaid, because that would mean the end of this sweet affair she had gotten herself so attached to. She enjoyed the way Gippal's hand felt in her hair, twisted up among the strands with the same casual grace that he tangled his body with hers during those stolen moments of the day. When they were on the Celsius, space was limited and so were beds – Rikku would surely notice who her boyfriend was sleeping with. Yuna could already see her cousin's face grow green with anger and jealousy, and she would tear them apart strand by strand. Rikku was like that, and Yuna didn't want to see her hurt like that… and so, she would sacrifice what she had so foolishly created with her cousin's lover.

No longer would Yuna feel the electric of Gippal's touch, see the current of emotion running through his eye.

She hardly even noticed him kissing her, and she mentally reprimanded herself. They would be leaving as soon as the airship was fixed, and this would all have to end soon… she should enjoy what she could while it was still possible.

But before she could lose herself in his mouth, he was gone.

Yuna walked down the sandy main road of Besaid after visiting with Wakka and Lulu for a while. She loved those two like her brother and sister, but they were so wrapped up with each other and the baby that she often felt out of place in their little hut. She smiled softly, remembering the days when she and Lulu would sit outside and play with dolls, arguing about whether the dolls should have green or black clothes, and giggling as they watched Wakka run around with the boys of the village.

She felt as though a butterfly had landed in her stomach when she found herself wishing that she could go back to that time when everything was so simple and peaceful… and when she didn't have to worry about looking in the wrong direction and seeing the man she had just slept with draping his arms around another woman.

Yuna clenched her teeth and looked away. She needed to walk forward into the temple… even if she couldn't remember why, exactly, she had been going to the temple in the first place. Maybe she hadn't been going to the temple, but it seemed like a good idea, as long as it would keep her from looking at Gippal and Rikku.

The heels of her boots clunked on the steps as she walked toward the entrance, refusing to turn her head to the right and let her eyes see the happy couple again as they stood there on the pristine green grass looking out over the side of the hill.

She couldn't close her ears, though.

"We'll be leaving this week, right?"

"You saw how well it was going. We'll be in the air soon, cfaadraynd."

Yuna fumed. Cfaadraynd was what he was supposed to call her, not Rikku! Cfaadraynd was Gippal's name for Yuna! He was supposed to whisper that to her, and her only, during the throes of passion!

Perhaps Yuna had made a mistake to think she was special.

Once she got inside the temple, she staggered under the weight of her anger until she found herself crouched down before the statue of High Summoner Gandof with her face hidden between her knees. She was the High Summoner, for Yevon's sake! Shouldn't Gippal treat her with a little more respect than that? Shouldn't he be proud to be with her, and want to devote himself to a relationship with her?

Obviously not. Yuna was clearly not important enough to make Gippal to stop pawing at Rikku. But what else was she to expect? Gippal was an Al Bhed…

…but she was half Al Bhed, too – she had one tell-tale green eye, just like Gippal. Anything she could say about Gippal, she could say about herself.

Everything Yuna thought about relating to Gippal was illogical. She had known from the beginning that Gippal and Rikku were rather involved, and that she was just a plaything for Gippal – or maybe even just a conquest. She had known that! And yet she consented to it; she didn't even try to resist him.

Yuna wished she could take the past few weeks back and do them over again. She would have never let Gippal hold her as night was falling and Rikku was busy arguing with Brother. She wouldn't have let him sweet talk her that night, away from the hustle and bustle of airship repairs, and she most certainly wouldn't have invited him back to her hut to share her new soft lime green blanket when the night grew cold.

She couldn't go back in time. She couldn't fix it, and she had let herself be hurt by her cousin's boyfriend! Everything was such a mess.

Yuna turned her face upwards, looking at the stone face of High Summoner Gandof. "What should I do?" she asked the statue, as though it would have an answer for her.

Lord Gandof, of course, had no answer for her. Yuna sighed, her eyes tracing the lines of the stone-hewn robe of the High Summoner, finding simple comfort in the familiarity of Yevon.

The temples had always been there for her, even after the abolishment of Sin, to offer that familiar comfort. The priests of Besaid were always friendly to her and, particularly after the Vegnagun incident and Yuna's friendship with Baralai, willing to help her with whatever she needed.

Baralai.

Maybe that was the answer she needed.

She caught the attention of the nearest priest and asked for access to the temple's Commsphere. For Yuna, the temple would do anything – even put her on a direct line to the Praetor of New Yevon.

Everybody,

I've decided to take Baralai's invitation to visit Bevelle. I'm sorry to leave on such a short notice, but I decided that it was time.

Yuna