Sometimes You Just Have to Hit Things
Final Fantasy X-2 drabble
by Ataramos
To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.
William M. Thackeray

Paine wanted to hit things.

To say that she was seething would be an understatement. As usual, it was kept well below her cool exterior, but inside, it raged, like a fire threatening to burn out of control. Having been around Rikku and Yuna as long as she had had tempered her a bit, begun to break a few cracks into her, but there was one thing she knew she would always have to keep under wraps, and that was her fury. It would flare every time one of the others were badly injured in a fight against a fiend, or every time those she once called friends would show their lack of trust and seem to use the Gullwings for their own means, never telling her what was going on, other than to tell them to stay away. Yeah, she knew they were trying to protect her and the others, but really, screw that. Her original motive of seeking to learn of her past had now been overshadowed by the wish to make Yuna finally happy, and free Rikku from the burden she knew the young Al-bhed carried, and that meant finding the young man from Yuna's pilgrimage, and resolving the issue with Shuyin.

Shuyin. The current target of Paine's rage.

Watching Yuna sing, after the initial shock of Lenne's ghost popping out of her, brought forth the revelation that under all the twisted motives, and well, the want to destroy the world, Shuyin was simply another person denied his love. It was likely why Lenne was so attached to Yuna, aside from the Songstress sphere, because the former Summoner was truthfully in the same situation as the long dead singer.

Paine didn't want him to be a tragic villain.

She wanted him to be twisted, evil, have nothing but the destruction of the world as his motivation, not fueled by the pain of losing someone. It made him harder to hate. Yes, he still deserved everything they could throw at him to stop him, but now, she knew she couldn't do what she wanted to, which was punch him square in the face. Not that she had quite figured out how to punch a ghost, but still.

Afterwards didn't make things any better. Listening to Rikku and Yuna talk, she heard Rikku wonder if anyone in love could ever really win. Yuna, in her infinite wisdom far to great for someone her age, replied with something along the lines of how 'To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best', basically saying that no matter what, being in love was what mattered. Even if you lost, as it seemed Lenne and Shuyin had, and with each passing day, Yuna and Tidus.

So it made her want to hit things. Silently leaving the bar area of the cabin, she thought she snuck out unnoticed, making her way to the deck. Swinging her sword around, she paced about, muttering venomous nothings under her breath. She didn't hear the door open, or the soft footsteps make their way partly across the deck, pausing behind her, and well out of her swords reach.

"It's not fair, is it?"

Rikku's voice startled Paine out of her thoughts, the warrior swinging around and briefly holding her sword up, dropping into a calm stance once she saw the thief. "What isn't?"

Rikku walked past Paine once it became obvious she wasn't about to be cut in half, and leaned against the tail of the gull at the front of the ship. "That he's not just pure evil, like Seymore was."

Paine arched an eyebrow, turning and walking up near Rikku. "You feel the same?"

Nodding, Rikku glanced up at Paine. "I was kind of hoping that there wouldn't be anything emotional attached to all this...Yunie picks up too strongly on emotions..."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Paine looked out towards the horizon. "I'd almost say it's a fault, but it's honestly more of a strength."

"Yeah."

Silence fell over the two as they contemplated love, and the affects it had on people. After a bit, never one to hold still, Rikku sighed and pushed herself up from the ornament, pulling out her daggers. Paine arched an eyebrow. "What're those for?"

Rikku shrugged, the barest of smiles teasing at the corner of her lips. "Spar with me?"

Paine offered Rikku a half smile, stepping back a few paces and drawing her sword again. "Okay, but why?"

"Oh...sometimes you just have to hit things..."

Paine couldn't agree more.