Baralai ruminates on his relationship with Paine and comes to a rather obvious conclusion (that's not so obvious to him). Or: Baralai is in love and is an idiot about it.

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italics = denotes thought or memory (for the most part)

Not Mine

Romantics - 2 Days Until the Coronation

The Inn was a small thing on the northeast side of the Capital City, actual worldly directions notwithstanding. It was situated near the Capitol building itself but tucked away to the side and just a little out of reach. Here a man-made beach sloped downward into the sand, for the visitors to enjoy at their leisure. The Inn itself was boxy with two floors, and if you were lucky or in Baralai's case - had the money for it, you could end up in one of the rooms facing the ocean. Baralai's room, no the room he shared with Paine - was smack dab in the middle of the six large rooms that made up the upper floor. Here he sat in a plush thatched wood chair on their balcony as he stared out at the surf.

Besaid was beautiful at night, stars littering the sky - seen in a way that they were unseen in Bevelle. Bevelle's own lights too fond of drowning out the sky's own nightlights. The sound of the waves peacefully lapped up the shore and created a soundscape that could lure any right minded man to his rest. But it was not time for sleep quiet yet, there was still about an hour left in the twilight of night and music wafted down from the city and was softly swallowed up by the ocean. Perhaps they would go to bed before the music ended, but for now he was content just to be.

Baralai had always thought of himself as a simple man who only needed simple things. Books, tea, and good company. But he knew that those things were just the surface of it, and he would be a hypocrite and a fool to not say that he didn't enjoy the sort of luxury that living the kind of life he had lived brought him. If he wanted to he could demand daggers of the finest metals, carriages of the best made machina parts, the finest sewn clothing. He demanded none of these things but sometimes they were given to him anyway. His guns were of the finest craft - Gippal had seen to that, and the guest room that he now resided in was part of that as well. Overall it was hard for him not to think of himself a lucky man.

But he also knew that he would give up all of his worldly possessions in a heartbeat for the love that Paine had given him. In this he understood that he was lucky as well. That the woman he had loved so fiercely and with such great longing even after her death - had been returned to him. And then through some miracle had come to love him back. He remembers acutely the day she had reached over and covered his hand with hers. The way his hand had tingled when she had removed it. How a few weeks later she had reached out and kissed him, taking the lead in their love life as she often did with him in life generally. His lips had tingled then too. Before they had become involved - when he had asked her to join the Fiend Hunting Corps, he had only done so because he had seen how badly she had needed to something, anything - that wasn't standing around waiting for her life to start. Never in a million years would he have hoped or dreamed that it would lead to love. And that her love would be with him.

No one knew that he and Paine were sharing a room currently. The story was that she was in the same inn as him but a room adjacent. This made it easy to explain away the many visits she made, as well as made it easy for her to slip over in the night unnoticed. He had gotten a visit from Lulu earlier in the day to let him know that she had no plans of telling anyone about their relationship but honestly Baralai was tired of hiding it, tired of pretending in front of other people that he wasn't with the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Who he could see - despite the fact that she would never age, himself growing old with.

Oh how he'd changed from all those years ago. That man who had been found with little sanity and even less love in his heart was not the same man he was now. It was a marvel how far he had come - from hating the Sinspawn, to falling in love with the Valkyrie mythos of who Paine was, to eventually seeing her for the woman she truly was. Removed of labels and a completely different person than of who he had dreamed about all those years ago when they had all thought her lost to them. Finding that despite the loss of his preconceived notions, he loved her still.

Behind him he could hear her shuffling about the room, putting things away and generally getting ready to go to bed. A moment later she joined him out on the porch. Before sitting down she placed a tumbler of whiskey on the table next to him, and a small glass of wine next to her seat. Having settled both of them she sunk into the rocking chair across from his and opened the book she was currently reading, "Long day?" He asked her.

"I wasn't watching children the whole day like yesterday so it was much more tolerable." She flipped a page over.

"You like children more than you let on." He took a sip of the whiskey she had brought him and smiled at the taste, and at how smooth it was. Paine had fantastic taste in liquor, and for that he felt blessed.

"Some children." Paine corrected.

"Some children then. But Naimi is like her mother," Baralai paused, "and her father. So I can't see how you wouldn't enjoy her at least a little."

At that Paine laughed, "Auron and I have mended our relationship for Yuna's sake, and while we are no longer at each other's throats we also share commonalities that clash. It is the Rikku in her that saves Naimi for me." She was blunt in her words and Baralai would have it no other way.

Somehow, despite their intensely different outlooks on life Paine and Rikku had always gotten along the best out of Yuna's friends after all was said and done. Perhaps it was because Rikku found a sounding board in Paine or maybe it was because Paine had her father's bearings when it came to friends, he did not know. But living on the same island had allowed the two women to become close friends. Rikku would often go to Paine with questions on fiends that she had run into in her travels and Paine would return the favor by bringing Rikku whatever treasure she had uncovered in the many deep dark places she traveled.

At one point their adventures had crossed during a trip to the newly rediscovered Omega Ruins. Together the two women, and Auron had excavated most of the ruins. Eventually they had run into two more difficult creatures and almost died. However the whole experience, especially coming out the other side alive - had left them bonded in a way that was deeper than just their Guardianship of Yuna, "But she's a good kid isn't she." Baralai said.

"For the most part. There is a trouble making streak in that girl a mile wide. When you consider her parents it's easy to see where it comes from."

She turned another page and laughed lightly at something that was in her book, and remained a mystery to him, "What did you think of Kelk?"

"He's like his father in a way, hard to decipher and a bit of a puzzle. He seems more playful than his father though, which might just be because the Ronso are less segregated than they used to be. He, walks like the world is his to own."

"Purposefully." Baralai continued her train of thought.

"Yes. Slowly and with ease, but with his shoulders held straight. I suppose though that is the way he must walk. The next leader of the Ronso."

"And Shinra?" At this point Baralai almost felt like he was playing twenty-questions.

At that Paine only shrugged and took a sip of her wine. Baralai supposed she had nothing to say about the boy then. Which was fine, while Shinra was a smart teenager there was nothing memorable about him. Someday maybe, down the line when he had made a name for himself using his inventions - then he would be a proud business man with many stories to tell but as it was now his journey was a blank canvas.

Talking about children though made Baralai think about the future, about where he wanted to go and how he wanted Paine to be with him for all of it. To the bitter end, whatever that was and wherever it lead, "Where do you see us in a few years?" He asked.

"Something like that is impossible to know." Paine told him raising an eyebrow at the question.

"Try." Baralai implored her.

Sighing Paine put her book down and closed her eyes. For a moment she was quiet and Baralai let her contemplate what he had asked her. Soft breathing was their only companion for a few moments and then with her eyes still closed Paine begun to talk, "We own one of the larger huts in Kilika. It's simple but warm and homey. You haven't retired from politics. Instead you've become a local leader on the island who informs Yuna of island wants and desires. I'm still on the Fiend Hunting Corps, perhaps I am its leader, but whatever it is I enjoy it. You miss me when I'm gone but reunions when I return are better for it." As she speaks Baralai watches a smile cross her face, in that moment he wants to reach across their chairs and kiss her - but he does not because he had asked this of her and he dares not interrupt her, "When you come home we drink like we are drinking now, and talk about our days as we are now but we are interrupted by the sound of small laughter."

As she speaks the words Baralai's eyes go wide, he had not expected that and perhaps Paine had not either for her eyes open and now she's looking at him as if she does not know what to do or how to proceed, "A child?" He asks.

"I don't - I do not know. Maybe all the talk of children got me thinking, maybe it was just subconscious and I did not really mean it."

That much was true, perhaps the talk of children had shaken her perspective a little. Made her add a child when she had not wanted to, nor had thought of one before. While Baralai would love to have children he knew that he would throw it all away if it meant that he could live the rest of his life with the woman in the chair beside him. He had already spent much of his young adult life without thinking about or considering children, he could go many more. It wasn't until he had started the relationship with Paine that he had even begun to envision what his future spawn may look like. The idea was not unpleasant to him, but also not so important either. No the important part of what Paine had envisioned was perhaps something else entirely to him, "You still picture the two of us together though."

"I do." She told him honestly.

"We've been together for almost two years now." He said.

"We have." She answered.

Overall it had felt like longer, and Baralai did not doubt that this was because they had been keeping it a secret for so long. The first few months they had been unsure of what they were, if what they had was just a casual fling for both of them when they were on a break from their work or if it was something more. It didn't help matters that they only saw each other every few weeks and sometimes could go more than a month without little more than comm pleasantries. Finally six months in, Paine had suggested over a shared dinner that Baralai had cooked the two of them, that they give it a go. Baralai had wondered if it was possible to do so, to continue their relationship since they were so often away and Paine had told him that she thought it was worth it. And so with Paine's say so they had graduated from a fling to a relationship proper.

Because they were so often not seen together, and because their contact remained much the same - save their comm communications which became more teasing, and grew in warmth, it never registered to the two of them until many many months later that they were still seeing each other in private and that they had not yet told any of their friends. A few drinks in and laying naked in bed, the two of them had decided that they were fine with the relationship as it was. Neither of them knew where their dalliances were heading, save that there were enough of them to constitute the fact that they were together and enjoyed it. As both of them were rather resolute and didn't like committing until they had the whole picture and were ready to commit, this arrangement suited them fine.

Lulu finding them had thrown a wrench into that which Baralai had not been prepared for. While her ultimatum had eventually gone nowhere it had gotten him thinking about the future, about if Paine was part of that future and what it would mean if she was. The answer to the first question had come easier than he had thought it would - he wanted Paine in his life. No matter what.

Having decided that he had set out upon self reflection on just what that meant that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. What it meant that he wanted the spawn of sin to be his forever. The answer to that of course, had been that it no longer mattered. Yuna's Spira was new and brave and terrifying and despite the fact that he protested some of her political choices in their many meetings, he loved it. He loved how the world was evolving and changing and he wanted Paine to be part of that change, part of the world that opened up to him every day. He was getting sentimental Baralai thought. He hadn't used to be this sentimental. He couldn't even blame it on old age yet, "I think I'd like to spend the rest of my life with you." He said honestly, "And I think I'm ready to let everyone know."

"I'm glad you finally realized it." Paine told him.

"You knew?"

"Baralai, from the moment you looked at me for the first time again - after my father birthed me from the ocean, I knew."

"You didn't have to choose me." He told her honestly.

"I know. But I did. And I think that is all that should matter to you." Her words were spoken very matter of fact and if anyone else had said it Baralai might have been offended, but Paine was not anyone and therefore he was not.

"It is." He said.

"Good." As she spoke Paine stood up, "I purchased something for this occasion. Let me go inside and get it."

"And maybe more whiskey?" Baralai asked her, during their conversation he had finished his glass and not noticed it.

"I'll bring the bottle."

As she went back inside to retrieve whatever it was that she had purchased Baralai sunk back into his chair and once again looked back at the ocean. The music still played, and the ocean still lapped and Baralai found he was glad of it. Of the turn of the tide, that had returned Paine back to him.

N/A: I love writing Baralai's thoughts on love just because he's so silly about the whole thing. It takes him forever to figure things out. Good news though - Paine is always a few steps ahead of him.