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How Can I Help?

Baralai couldn't believe his ears. How could she actually believe she didn't need him? It hurt for her to say those things to him, but it hurt even more that he couldn't understand. She was locking up all her feelings like she always did. She hid behind the black clothes and angry looks. He was close to shaking her out of it. Watching as she stalked away, he began pacing the floor. He was so busy in his thoughts he forgot about everyone around him. All he was trying to do is share his love with her and she couldn't even see it. Searching through Spira for traces of her wasn't enough. For goodness sakes, he walked through most of Spira so he wouldn't miss a clue. Could she not appreciate what he did? What he went through to find her? One thing was clear. As soon as he found out who kidnapped her, he was going to kill them.

Just as quickly as the argument happened, he stopped pacing as a thought dawned on him. She wants me to stay out of her business. She said all those things to push me away! He wanted to think it was something else, but his gut told him that's how it was, whether she meant it or not. "I guess I have to decide whether to give her what she wants." Looking around, he realized he had been talking out loud. "What?" It sounded angry, but he didn't care. He ran up the stairs to his room. Maybe a few hours alone in the dark will help!

Paine's heart was aching. She knew some of the things she said was wrong, but it was her life. She should be able to control her own life shouldn't she? As the tears trailed down her face, she dared a glance towards the door. In her heart she hoped it was Baralai. But much to her dismay it was Yuna and Rikku. Just what she needed. Two peppy girls trying to cheer her up. Well...this time she didn't think she would ever be cheered up. She would just have to break it to them.

"Before you two even think about trying to cheer me up, I don't want to hear it. He had no right to believe that he can solve my problems." She glanced at them. Realizing they were going to keep their mouths shut and listen for once, she jumped up and started pacing again. The tears running down her face continued. "I almost died! I fought to get out of there even though I was in pain. I forced myself to keep going to stay alive, but now I wish I would have just let myself die. I don't need him at all. Sure he tried to find me and finally did. But that doesn't mean he should try to make me want him or for that matter need him. He shouldn't have kissed me like that."

She kept pacing, only stopping long enough to wipe her nose. "It's not like I didn't like his kiss. It was a wonderful kiss, stirring things inside of me that I didn't know existed. He caused aches in places I didn't know I had. But I just can't let that happen. Not between Baralai and myself. He was like a brother to me. All of them were. Why does he have to change that now?" She swung towards them. "WHY?" She screamed looking up at the sky.

"He loves you!" Rikku said quickly and quietly. Paine looked at her. In her heart she wanted to believe it. But her mind wouldn't allow her to believe it. She shook her head and sank to the floor again. She drew her knees to her chest and continued to let the tears flow. Normally she wouldn't show feelings in front of anyone, but Yuna and Rikku were the lesser of the two evils. For so long she didn't have friends, after everything happened. More than ever, she longed for some one to lean on. Someone that wouldn't care if she screamed what she felt. Someone who would listen to all she had to say. Someone she could just talk to. Someone who could make all the pain go away. She wanted to believe that Baralai could be all those things to her, but she couldn't. She just couldn't.

The door of the ship opened. Paine's heart fell when she turned to see Brother standing there. "A message came in for Paine." He looked between the girls. "It's from the guy who kidnapped you!" Before she realized it, she had jumped up and ran towards the door. Angry pulsed through her body. Once she took care of this guy she could return to her normal life. Or maybe she would move to a different part of Spira to get away from everyone, but especially Baralai. She knew she was dripping wet, but she sat into the chair and opened the message.

The man wasn't shown clearly, which upset Paine, but the sound of his voice caused terror to run through her body. "Paine...you escaped this time, but next time you will not. Trust me. You will get what you deserve soon enough! You are warned." The message cut off. Her body started to shake. How could this happen to her? She was the one who could take care of herself, but right now she would gladly give up all control to stop the fear she felt.

Baralai was seething. How could he allow her to think he was just going to stop having the feelings he was? He couldn't just walk away from her when he knew she needed him whether she believed it or not. He would just have to think of a way to tell her without her smacking him. "I better go check on her!" Walking into the bay, he felt and saw something was wrong. All the girls were hugging themselves, but what really got him upset was watching Paine shivering. Not only was she soaked, but tears streamed down her face. He felt as if he had been hit with a brick. I made her cry! It was almost too much to take. For a few seconds he couldn't decide whether he should walk over there or just turn around and sulk in his room.

He decided to walk towards them. As he got closer everyone turned around and looked at him, except Paine. She just sat there staring at the blank screen shivering. She was worrying him. Before he realized what he was doing, he swung the chair around and picked Paine up. Carrying her away from everyone, he made his way back to his room before he put the squirming woman down.

"What happened?" He demanded as he looked at her. Grabbing up one of his shirts, he thrust it at her. "Put this on before you die from a cold." He stood there looking at her.

Paine couldn't believe he actually picked her up with her conscious and carried her to his room. She was trying to get up her courage to tell him to bug off, but when he handed her his shirt, she almost busted out crying again. "Turn around Baralai." For a moment she thought he wouldn't do it. When he turned around she stripped out of her wet cold clothes and pulled on his dry shirt. Her stomach did a flip-flop when she smelt his cologne on the shirt. Her thighs almost melted. All of a sudden, her energy just slid out of her body and she collapsed on his bed. "You can turn around now."

He almost didn't hear her say he could turn back around. He was too busy imagining her body as she slipped her clothes off. Each sound caused his dick to get even harder. It was so weird that he could be so turned on by just being around her. He should be upset with her, but seeing her cry wasn't something that would allow him to stay upset. It caused him to want to fight everyone in the world to make her happy. At this very moment, he would do anything to make her happy. Anything to make her problems go away. He took one look at her face and wanted to kiss her senseless. Her lips looked so pouty right now and inviting. He would have given into his body's wants if it wasn't for him wondering what happened. "Now tell me what happened!"

She shivered again. She could tell he wanted her from the sound of his voice. And lately she has been noticing that she wanted him more and more. Under all this stress, it was getting hard not to give into her body's demands. It really annoyed her that her body and her heart were betraying her head, but that could all be dealt with after she got rid of this threat. Slowly she began to tell him what the message said. The whole time she talked she watched him. The more she talked the more angry he got. His body got tight with unreleased anger and probably lust. His eyes got a possessive look in them, like someone took over his body. As she looked at him, she knew that the man she was looking at this very moment wasn't the Baralai she kissed two hours ago. This man had the lust for blood in his eyes. A man that would search all of Spira to find the threat against her and get rid of it. The moment she realized that she burst into tears and flopped on the bed. She couldn't bear to lose him when she was so confused with the feelings she had.

Baralai didn't get any closer to him. He just stared into space thinking of ways he could torture and kill the man that hurt his woman. Any other time he would pull her into his arms and soothe her as she cried, but he was too upset. He had to release some of this anger or he was going to regret some of the things he said and did to Paine. Before either of them realized what was happening, he jerked up his bag and packed his things. Paine was quietly watching as he packed. Her heart ached but her mind demanded she keep her mouth shut. Baralai took one last look at Paine as if it was going to be his last and walked out the door. He was telling Brother to let him off the ship and he would go find the kidnapper and kill him.