A/N: Well here's the second chapter already. I update now so you'll have more to read and hopefully review on. ;) It's a little longer but I hope it's not too bad.
I don't own any characters and stuff and all that etc etc...
Chapter 2: The best night.
Rikku got into the elevator first, and waited for Paine to come in before she pressed the button for the cabin. She met the crimson eyes of the warrior as she entred the elevator and smiled brightly, thinking about what her friend had told her. It's true what Paine said. I still have her and she has me, were the best of friends. And she's never ever been this kind and.. and cute to me! We don't need Yunie.
She pressed the cabin button and the elevator started to move. She looked at Paine and saw her looking back, smiling, a real smile! Rikku had almost never seen her look this happy, so she asked her. "What'cha smilin' about?" Paine just shook her head and chuckled.
"Well I guessed, since I cheered you up, I was permitted to smile too but if you want me to stop..." She replyed with a raised eyebrow, the smile still playing on her lips. Rikku just stuck her tongue out at Paine's apparent irony and jumped out of the elevator as soon as the doors slid open. She then ran ahead past the bar, giving her order to the hypello when passing him. The hypello mumbeled something about "Alwaysh in a hoorry, mish Rikkoo." and started to prepare her meal. Rikku sat herself down at the table in the corner where the little stage used to be, and watched as the silver haired girl walked over and sat down in front of her, giving barkeep her order on the way.
"Shinra said the boys were gonna be down for three days. That means they should be up by tomorrow, ready to send us on another sphere hunt. So, let's do something extra fun!" Rikku said and rolled her eyes up, trying to come up with a plan for the evening. If we weren't stranded here with a sick pilot we could've totally gone and done something in Luca. Well we'll just have to party it out on the ship, just the two of us!
The girls' meals arrived and they left Rikku's question unanswered for the moment, both being too hungry to leave the food another second. When both of them were finished, they shot the plates to the side and Paine restated Rikku's question about how to make their last night off something fun.
"Oooh! I know, I know, we can get the old karaoke machine out and go a little crazy!" Rikku said and bounced in her chair.
"And could you please tell me what evil deed I have done to deserve that." Paine asked with a very sceptical look on her face. But Rikku wouldn't budge.
"Oh come on! It's fun, and everyone will be sleeping or be somewhere else. It'll just be you and me and that machine!" Rikku said trying to convince Paine. "We'll even wait for barkeep to leave. Please..."
"No Rikku, really I hate karaoke. Especially if the songs are old and... stupid." Paine said sounding a bit more serious about it.
"Well then Dr.P, you think of something funny to do." Rikku giggled at the look she recieved, calling her by her most hated nickname.
"Don't call me that or I'll tickle you to death." Paine said with a smirk. "But yeah I've got an idea of what we could do. If this ship was moving I'd take you out gambling in Luca, but it isn't. So I thought, why not just play a little card, have a few drinks, listen to some music and just hang out here?" She said looking at Rikku. Wow, Is this really the Paine I know? She's never ever given a good proposition of what to do on free time before, well except for sparring and killin' stuff... But this is just too great!
"That's a great idea Painey! Even though mine was better but I guess playing cards is always fun. Especially with drinks involved!" She gave the warrior a beaming smile and a wink. "But first, I want some ice cream before this dinner is over." She said skipping over to barkeep. "Hey barkeep, why dont'cha bring me some ice cream, then you can take the evening off." She said and gave the hypello a cute look.
"Oollright mish Rikkoo." He replyed and went to get the ice cream.
When Rikku was finished with her dessert she turned to Paine again, who had just been sitting back in her chair, still wearing a hint of the unusual but rather beautiful smile. She then suddenly got up, grabbed their empty plates and walked over to the bar. She put the plates on the desk and went behind it to get something good out, to use for mixing drinks. Well, now we just need a deck of cards don't we! Rikku thought and went up the stairs in search for a deck of cards. After a fair few minutes of looking she still hadn't found as much as a single playing card. Oh poopie! Fro dra ralg is there not a single deck of cards on this tynh airship?
She pondered for a moment and then got an idea. Excited, she went into her equipement drawer and took out the "lady luck" dressphere. She changed into hers, and with the dress came a bunch of dice and a deck of cards! She threw the sphere down to Paine who skillfully caught it and raised an eyebrow. "Nice idea with the dressphere and all but.. do we really need two decks?" She asked looking at the sphere with a frown.
"No we don't! But if I'm to wear this stupid dress just to get the cards, it's not more than fair that you should wear yours too! Besides, unlike me you look really great in yours!" The last part was very true. She kind of liked seeing Paine in her elegant, blue and black lady-luck dress, it suited her. She saw Paine look at the dressphere again and... wait, was that a blush? Wow, this last week she really has become more...more... ah well she seem to have changed for the better! Before she would have snapped at me and taken at least five respect points, now she looks like she likes being complimented! I knew there was a real human girl in there somwhere! Go Painey!
"Ok... Just this once though. But don't expect it to be a habit, me running around in this just because you like it." Paine finally said, sounding a little embarrased.
"Sure Painey, just for tonight!" Rikku said and giggled at the black clad warrior's now apparent blush. Paine just shook her head and got changed. She walked up to the table with the drinks and then went to dim the lights a little, and put on some music. It was nice, jazzy, instrumental music like the music she had heard at the gambling houses in Luca. Rikku went and sat down at the table again and Paine soon joined her.
"So Rikku, what do you want to play?" Paine asked as she sipped her drink and started to shuffle the cards.
"I don't know really. I'm not much of a gambler so I was hoping you could decide and teach me some games. I know there are a lot of different pokers and other stuff, but I don't know how to play." Rikku said looking at Paine's cards, flying through her hands.
"Well, actually it was a few years since I had the time, or even wanted to gamble or play cards... I don't really remember the rules for any good game... What do we do?" Paine asked with an embaressed smile, scratching the back of her head. There was a brief silence. Hey how should i know what to do? This was your idea Dr.P! Why think of something to do and get all dressed up when...Fyed! E'ja kud ed!
"Oh! I know what to do! Lets take the stuff you know, then just make the rest of the rules up as we go along! It'll be so funny!" Rikku said sounding hopefull and bouncing up and down in her chair as she said it. Paine looked at the thief with a mix of amusement, disapproval and what Rikku identifyed as resigning to a really stupid thing Rikku proposed. Yes! she has no better idea so she is accepting mine! This is going to be such a fun, but silly night!
"Yessss! Thanks Painey, now how do we start?" Rikku asked, and Paine started to explain.
A few hours and a few drinks later they were both laughing out loud, playing a wierd mix of poker, please go fish, and some other games not a person in spira could've heard of before. Rikku looked at Paine sitting in front of her, laughing a real, clear laughter that she hadn't heard even once before. It really suited her, this new, happy face. She wondered why she had always been this silent, cold warrior all the time. She said she had a reason for it, and Rikku thought that maybe she could sneak it out of her now, when she was in a really good mood.
"Hey Paine, why didn't we do stuff like this before, when Yunie was here? Why are you so serious and distant all the time?" Rikku asked softly when the game took a little pause. Paine's smile died down a bit.
"Well I... I can't tell you..." She hesitated, making Rikku feel a little hurt. When paine noticed Rikku's dropping eyes, she spoke again, sounding apologetic. "Well... I mean, I can't tell you now because it would ruin this nice mood. But I promise Rikku, I'll tell you some other time... All I can say now is, well... Some things happened... But, I think I could leve those things behind me now..." Paine trailed off, but turned and she smiled up at Rikku again with a face that pleaded that she drop it for now.
"Let's just get back to the game so I can win those hi-potions back, ok?" Paine asked, giving Rikku another big smile as she started to deal for another round of Rikkuish Paineful Poker. Rikku nodded and smiled back.
"Ok, but I'm gonna hold on to that promise! I wanna know everything about you Paine!" Rikku said and could swear she saw Paine blush again. Ooooh! she is so sexy when she blushes like that! Did I just say she was sexy out loud? No I just thought it... Whait, I think she is sexy now? I haven't had that much to drink!... But it's true... She is pretty hot... Especially those crimson eyes, so fierce yet so gentle... Fryd? Fryd ys E drehgehk? Why the heck is Paine on my mind in THAT way!? ...But she was being very cute to me today...she has been friendlier this last week... and she said she was always going to be there for me... That's really special and she's always...
Rikku trailed off in thoughts about Paine, but Paine threw a card in her face and laughed softly.
"Hey don't fall asleep on me! I'll take your respect points to the last one." Rikku landed back in reality with a big splat and jumped to her feet.
"I'm not sleeping!" She said and blushed, meeting the ruby gaze of the person she just trailed off in fantasy about. She felt uncomfortable and still she couldn't help but to like the thought of her and Paine together. Or rather, she couldn't get it out of her mind.
She had been questioning her own sexuality since last year, but thinking of the silver-haired girl now somehow confirmed her suspicions. It's not bad is it? I mean I'll just not tell her I'm attracted to her and all is gonna go well... Isn't it? She asked herself, then looked back at Paine and smiled a wierd half-smile.
"You look really tired Rikku. Maybe it's time to go to bed?" Paine said and tilted her head. Rikku nodded and gave her a big yawn in response. After cleaning up a little bit they left the rest for barkeep to deal with. Rikku then started to walk a zombie-like walk towards the stairs, feeling the sleepiness coming down on her like a shoopuff from the sky as the word "bed" mentioned by Paine, echoed through her head.
"Hey Rikku." Paine said, stopping her with a gentle hand on her shoulder. She turned around and faced the crimson eyed warrior.
"Even though a bystander could've easily taken this as just another fancy dress party, I just wanted to say that..." Paine then hugged her tight and continued in a more sincere tone: "It's a long time since i had this much fun. Thank you for the best night in a long time Rikku."
At this, Rikku couldn't help but to blush a deep shade of raspberry red and just answered: " Anytime Painey, anytime..." And as the taller girl let her go, she turned quickly to avoid Paine seeing her face and she walked up to her bed. She undressed and cuddled down under her sheets without saying anything else. Wow... Paine really looked happy tonight. I wonder if she realises how awsome everything will be now if this continues. And this new Painey is really something... I mean, I've had a crush before but to have one crash down on me like this... I hope she doesn't find out.. She would so hate me for being into girls... Which I apparently am...
"Good night Painey..." She whispered.
"Kuut hekrd so muja..." Paine whispered back, but Rikku didn't hear. She was already asleep.
No al-bhed translations this time... R&R but don't forget to be nice too...;)
