Disclaimer: I do not own Gippal, Baralai or any other characters from Final Fantasy X-2. SquareEnix does. The end!

Vin: So you made it to Chapter 2! I applaud your bravery. Truly. 3 This is where the true idea for the story is—the whole point! The whole beginning! AH! This is where the TITLE COMES FROM! ZOMGBBQLMAOROFL! . . . So there.

P.S. Is LeBlanc's name spelled Le Blanc or Leblanc? I went crazy trying to figure out which was which.

Thank you all people who posted reviews! It's greatly appreciated!

Warnings thus far: BoyxBoy lovin!Gippal X Baralai--Nudity hints—language

Bound to You, Literally
Chapter 2: The Escapade Begins

As soon as Baralai and Gippal arrived at the diner, they were greeted by nine pairs of staring eyes. Wait, nine? Gippal had to recount the number of people just to make sure he counted right. It seemed that more people came then what was originally planned. Nooj and Le Blanc sat next to each other, and Le Blanc was hanging onto Nooj as if she were glued to him. Yuna was sitting on a blond haired man's lap, who Gippal guessed was Tidus. Rikku and Paine were sitting side by side, and they were talking with Yuna and the blond. Oh no, they were here too? Gippal looked over at Brother, who was running around like a mad man and scaring off other customers. Who knows if Brother was doing it purposefully or not. Buddy and Shinra were at another table, watching Brother and shaking their heads in discontent. What a motley crew.

"They have arrived," Nooj finally said, raising an eyebrow.

"Finally," Le Blanc added, ending with a sigh as she snuggled up to her Noojie Woojie.

"Where were you two? Were you kidnapped by Hypellos," Rikku asked, standing up and making a fighting stance as she continued, " and you took them down one by one? Then while you made your way back, you were held up by bandits?"

Rikku had a damn good imagination, Gippal gave her credit for that.

"Oh yes! Then after the bandits, we were approached by a beautiful, young woman who took us into her home. After we entered, she turned into a terrible old witch and tried to eat us. Yet, we still escaped! Narrowly, yes, but we escaped!" Gippal added sarcastically.

"I knew it!" Rikku joked.

"Okay you two weirdoes, sit down so we can order our breakfast," Paine said rolling her eyes.

"Your no fun, Dr. P!" Gippal whined.

Paine gave a quick smile before she shook her head. Then Yuna jumped off of Tidus's lap.

"Good Morning, Gippal… Baralai. I don't believe you two have met Tidus yet," Yuna greeted.

Tidus jumped up, and held out his hand.

"Nice to meet ya! My name is Tidus!" Tidus greeted with a smile.

Gippal grabbed Tidus's hand and shook it, "Well I'm Gippal. Nice to meet you too."

Tidus looked over at Baralai and held out his hand to him. It took Baralai a couple seconds to realize that Tidus wanted to shake his hand. Then it took Baralai even longer to actually shake the blonde's hand.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Tidus. I am Baralai," Baralai said.

"Nice to meet you too, Baralai!" came Tidus's chipper reply.

"You'll have to excuse my friend here, he's a bit…slow… in the mornings," Gippal teased, putting a hand on Baralai's shoulder.

"Okay, you guys have met each other, can we order our food now?" Brother shouted in an abnormally loud voice.

Rikku shot Brother a glare, but before she could say anything, Yuna held up her hand.

"Umm, sure Brother! We can order now, right guys?" Yuna looked to the others with pleading eyes.

Multiple answers of "yes" filled the air, and the people who were standing sat down.

"The diner sure seems empty," Gippal observed.

"Yeah, our fearless leader made sure he scared everyone off first," Rikku answered.

The waitress came over a couple minutes later. Personally, Gippal thought she looked terrified of them. Well, he probably would too if one of the people in the group ran around the restaurant giving orders and acting insane. The waitress took their orders a brought their food out relatively quick. Maybe she really was scared.

The whole group was deep in conversation, when suddenly Yuna looked over toward Gippal, wide eyed with horror and her mouth hanging open. It took Gippal a couple minutes to realize she wasn't looking at him. Slowly, he looked over beside himself to find out why Yuna had such a shocked look on her face. There was Baralai, not moving a all, with his face down in the syrup covered pancakes in front of him. Gippal grabbed Baralai by the back of his head band and pulled him up. Nooj actually was the first one to crack a smile. He was trying extremely hard to keep a stoic look, but was failing miserably. Gippal grabbed his napkin and tried wiping the syrup off Baralai's face. The sticky goop was hard to get off, and Gippal's napkin kept tearing in it. Now not only was Baralai's face dripping with syrup, but had little pieces of white napkin stuck to it too. Then Paine ordered a pitcher of water "on the double" and a sponge from the kitchen. Paine handed it to Gippal, who tried cleaning the syrup of the Praetor's face. After a few minutes the syrup was gone, and Gippal was relieved when he found that Baralai had only fallen asleep, and had not died on them. Now that would be a sad way for a Praetor of New Yevon to die. "Praetor of New Yevon drowns in Pancakes at Local Diner," Gippal imagined that headline on newspapers and beamed. That wouldn't be the most valiant way to die. After a couple minutes, Baralai opened his eyes. At first he didn't remember where he was at. Well that is until he noticed that staring him in the face, was his Al Bhed friend, with a huge grin plastered on his face. Baralai could hear the others laughing. Heck, after he registered what had happened in his mind, he started laughing too. Figuring he could worry about the embarrassment later, Baralai kept laughing with the rest of the group for a couple more minutes.

Breakfast continued after that fiasco, with nothing else "exciting" happening to them. After breakfast, the group was hanging around outside of the diner conversing. Suddenly Rikku held up a box.

"In here, my friends, is a fun new invention that Shinra invented!" Rikku announced.

Now everyone's attention was on Rikku. She opened the box and pulled out something that resembled handcuffs.

"Ummm, handcuffs, Rikku?" Yuna asked, titling her head.

Tidus was grinning, he was probably thinking of something dirty Gippal assumed. Shinra took the handcuffs away from Rikku.

"Not just ANY handcuffs," Shinra said, slightly annoyed.

Gippal smiled, "What, do they have a built in clock and coffee maker?"

Baralai tilted his head down a bit, so he could hide his smile behind his collar.

Shinra was getting testy now, "No, they do NOT Gippal. My invention is a pair of handcuffs that can fit around almost any sized wrist."

"Or bedpost?" Gippal added, trying to tick the little guy off.

Gippal's comment did tick Shinra off quite a bit.

Shinra tried to continue, " and it's got a computer interior so they would be almost impossible to pick the lock with out the actual key."

"That's it?" Gippal teased.

No, overkill was not in the Al Bhed boy's dictionary. Shinra fumed and walked off, muttering in Al Bhed, and took his invention with him.

"Aww weren't you a bit harsh on the little guy?" Yuna asked.

"I was just teasing," Gippal reassured.

"Yeah, but the kid had been pretty proud of that invention," Nooj added.

Then it struck. The horrid sound of clicking came from out of no where. Then a laugh that resembled a "weasel laugh" came. Gippal looked down to see that his right wrist was now handcuffed. Following the chain, he found that he was attached to a dark skinned wrist, Baralai's. Gippal slowly lifted his arm, pulling Baralai's arm up with it. Shinra skipped out from behind the two men, laughing still.

"Oui nayb fryd oui cuf (You reap what you sow)" Shinrasang between his laughs.

"Oui...oui meddma! (You...you little!)" Gippal said, voice full of astonishment.

Baralai stood and stared at the cuffs that were on his and Gippal's wrists. He was completely speechless. Suddenly Baralai found himself being dragged by Gippal, who was trying to go after Shinra. Everyone else stood there and laughed while the two people chased each other around. Wait, make that three if you count Baralai who was helplessly being dragged by Gippal. After a few minutes, Gippal stopped trying to chase the smaller Al Bhed.

"E keja ib... (I give up…)" Gippal sighed, holding his hands up in the air.

Shinra laughed again, "I always am right."

"Yeah… umm now could you undo this?" Gippal said, raising his and Baralai's trapped wrists higher.

Shinra shook his head. Gippal and Baralai both twitched.

"Wh…what?" Gippal asked.

"I don't know how to unlock them yet, they were just a prototype," Shinra replied.

"Why did you put a prototype pair of handcuffs on us then?"

"To see if they worked, of course."

Shinra could sense that Gippal was kind of getting angry so he made a mad dash for the Celsius. Buddy and Brother ran after him.

"Have fun kiddies!" Brother teased as the trio ran off.

Baralai and Gippal exchanged glances. They could tell that this was the beginning of a very long day…

It was five o'clock in the evening, seven hours since the fiasco had begun. The others had left long ago, wishing them good luck with their new found problem. Rikku had reassured Gippal and Baralai that she would have Shinra find a way to release them, but until then, they were stuck together. Gippal was lounging on the couch, while Baralai was sitting on the floor.

"I can not believe that happened," Gippal said.

"It seems that Shinra does not have the same sense of humor as you do," Baralai added.

"I was just teasing," Gippal sighed, "I'm sorry about this B."

"It's no problem."

"You serious?"

"Indeed, I think we will be able to manage, right?"

"You are correct sir!"

Baralai looked back at Gippal and gave him a reassuring smile. Gippal found that he had really grown fond of Baralai's smile. Then Gippal began to realize how much Baralai smiled around him. It made him feel really good inside. After a few moments of silence, Baralai began to speak again.

"Well, we are going to have to develop a system," Baralai began.

"Huh? A system?" Gippal looked confused.

"We both are working men you know. We also have some pretty important duties to attend too. So, we're going to have to make an arrangement on how we can get our work done like this," Baralai continued.

"I say we take a vacation until further notice."

"I have a feeling that the New Yevon monks wouldn't like that too well…"

"Oh yeah… the ones that can't live a day with out their Praetor Baralai…"

Baralai sighed and shook his head. Gippal took his right hand and messed with Baralai's hair.

"Don't worry about it! So what do you think we should do about work?" Gippal asked.

"Well I was thinking that every couple of days we could alternate from Djose and Bevelle, and at least one of us could get some of their work done," Baralai replied.

"Sounds good to me!"

"Yeah, but I'm going to have to go inform the monks about it…"

"Of course… but first a nap!"

Baralai laughed, "A bit lazy are we?"

"Me? lazy? Never! I'm just drained from all the excitement of this morning," Gippal retorted.

"Fine, we'll take a nap…"

"Yeah, but umm this isn't very comfortable…Maybe we should try the bed."

Baralai blushed a bit at the thought of being in the same bed as Gippal, but quickly disregarded the thought.

"Umm sure, I guess…" Baralai trailed off mid-sentence.

Gippal jumped off the couch and helped Baralai up off the floor. Then he escort Baralai to his room. Baralai's bed still wasn't made from this morning but neither of the boys really cared. After lying down in the bed, the two tried numerous styles of how they could sleep comfortably. The chain on the hand cuffs was short, so if the boys tried laying side by side, they might as well have been sleeping on each other. Finally Gippal got an idea. The two boys got up again and rearranged themselves to where they were lying on their sides with their cuffed hands resting near their sides that were farthest from the bed.

"Isn't this a bit close?" Baralai asked.

His heart was racing and he didn't know why. Sure he and Gippal had shared a sleeping bag through out the whole Crimson Squad training, but they still had never been this close.

"It's the only way we can be comfortable," Gippal stated.

"Okay, as long as you don't think we're too close…"

"It's fine. Just go to sleep."

Baralai fell asleep quickly. Gippal smiled as he watched his friend sleep.

"Now who was the one who was tired?" Gippal whispered quietly.

Gippal noted how peaceful Baralai looked when he slept. The two boys were close, close enough that Gippal could feel the other boy breathing. He was a thing of beauty and innocence to Gippal. Like an angel that came straight from the purest part of the Farplane. Ever since the days in the Crimson Squad, Gippal had a sort of fancy for the Yevonite. Yet he thought of it was because the he and the young man got along so well. Maybe it was a bit more than that. Was this love? Gippal couldn't really tell. A part of him wanted to hold Baralai close and tell him that he didn't have to be alone anymore. Gippal fell asleep adoring his teammate. Maybe being stuck with Baralai wouldn't be so bad after all.

Or so he thought.