V Day Ch 10

Finally! It took forever for me to wrap this story up – but I think I may have done it! Weird how it turned into a Paralai fic, huh?

Somehow, most of the movies showing at ten in the evening on Valentine's Day were soppy pathetic romance chick flicks. Who knew?

Apparently not Baralai. Fool.

"So," he said, back from the snack counter with a bag full of popcorn, "Chosen anything yet?"

Paine sighed, and pointed at the list of showings.

"…Ah."

"Exactly."

They stood for a minute, contemplating what to do next.

"….There's lots of food and stuff back at my place…" Paine murmured, and Baralai immediately perked up.

"Cool. And now we have popcorn too," he grinned, and thus Paine's 'revenge' continued.

Paine was relieved that Rikku was gone – she was a little worried the driver would have assumed she was a dead body for the trash. Or that he'd propped her up against the wall, asleep, for Gippal to find.

She asked, and apparently he'd left on the floor outside the door, propped up against the wall. Nice.

Paine unlocked the door to her apartment, feeling a bit weird. None of her friends had been invited back to her place before, except Tuna, when they first moved. Inviting yourself did not count in her book. The fact they had stopped off at the store and stacked up on alcohol was also rather daunting.

Hmm. Paine was a little worried. She'd never seen Baralai drunk. This could be bad.

At least she was sure in the fact she'd kick him out if he got too drunk, praetor or no praetor.

She opened the door, flicked on the lights, and froze.

"Ooh! Paine! A secret tryst, eh? Glad I didn't miss it!"

Of all the times Paine had said she would kill Gippal, she couldn't help but wonder why the hell he was still hanging about. In her apartment. At her dining table.

Drinking her wine!

"What are you doing here, Gippal?" Baralai asked, sounding slightly more annoyed than Paine would have thought.

"Well, I had a wonderfully romantic night planned out – a bit like you guys," Gippal grinned. No one else did, so he continued, "Then I get here, Paine's gone, and my girlfriend is passed out face first in the back of a limo, with the driver singing loudly to crap music. It was rather scary, to be honest."

And Gippal took a large swig out of the wine bottle.

"Where is she then?" Paine decided to ask, then regretted it.

"I dumped her on your bed. Let's hope she hasn't puked on it, shall we?"

"You better hope," Paine growled, before making her way over to her room to assess the damage.

Baralai seemed pretty annoyed himself, but settled for collapsing at the dining table and glaring menacingly at Gippal, who snorted in response.

"Don't look at me like that, 'Lai, you're too pathetic to try to kill me for ruining your Valentine's Day."

"You think? Try me, Gippal."

He decided not to, and instead ransacked the bag full of booze.

"Ooh, classy stuff."

"You have no shame, Gippal."

He grinned. "That's why you love me!"

Baralai couldn't help but smile. "I'll try to remember that."

Paine, on the other hand, didn't, when she realised Rikku had puked on the floor (What kind of a boyfriend leaves his girl strung width-ways across a bed with her head hanging off?), and instead clobbered Gippal with a chair – and later, used her ninja skills to rob his wallet and wipe it clean of any traces of cash.

Much, Much later than Paine would have liked, after Rikku had woken up and her and Gippal had decided to have a party in Paine's apartment, both getting spectacularly drunk, Baralai decided it was time to take everyone home. Paine couldn't help but feel it was partly thanks to her constant glaring at anyone brave enough to look her in the eye.

"Hey, Paine?" Baralai asked on his way out. Gippal and Rikku had already tumbled down the stairs giggling like freaks, so Paine decided to let him speak.

"Erm… yeah, so sorry about tonight. I kept hanging about and stuff…"

Paine smiled. Again. What sort of crazy voodoo power did Baralai have over her?

"It's fine," she said, "But we never did get to watch a movie…"

Now it was his turn to smile. "Well, I'm free next weekend…"

Weird how things work out, huh? Paine was glad her and Baralai had sort of kinda but not really become date type buddies – thing - , but was NOT very happy about this kind of arrangement. The last thing she needed in the mornings was Gippal grinning like a Cheshire cat, enquiring why, today, she had decided to wear Baralai's shirt.

He wasn't grinning so much when Nooj came to collect for Gippal's best man tuxedo and his wallet had been wiped clean through.

Revenge is sweet.