The Joker and the Thief

Paine and Rikku spend some quality time with a bottle of wine. Only emotional confusion can come of it.

Thanks to those of you that favorite and added this story to their alert lists! :D

Enjoy!

"Paine's place is huge," I think to myself as I sit in her kitchen. I've finally made it here after spending the night in Djose. Mr. Shoopuf was in tip top condition when I got to the Moonflow this morning, thankfully. I got here a little less than an hour ago, and we're about to meet Baralai for lunch. I'm honestly a more than a little excited about seeing Paine in love; for one, because it's Paine we're talking about, because it's easier to picture Brother with manners, and for two, because that means that maybe I'll get to see a totally different side of her. Love changes people, so I've heard.

"You ready?" Paine asks, as she comes into the room. She'd gone to get her jacket.

"You bet!" I say. We leave her apartment and begin walking down her street. It's bustling with people and noise. I mean, Luca is big, obviously, but Bevelle is in an entirely different league.

"How was Djose?" she teases.

"Awful. And weird. But mostly awful." She lets out a quick laugh.

"You'll have to tell me all about it tonight. Looks like Baralai's already here." I am relieved as she opens the door to a small café. I hadn't noticed him, but I see now that he's sitting by the window. He stands up when we come in and immediately hugs Paine and kisses her cheek. I know it's hard to believe but trust me, it's adorable.

"Rikku, how are you?" He asks as me as we sit down.

"I'm great! How are you?"

"I'm doing okay. Can't complain." He sneaks a glance a Paine as she looks over her menu.

The waiter comes to take our drink orders and then leaves. Apparently, Paine has already told Baralai my plans, because he asks, "So what kind of trouble are you two getting into tonight?" He laughs. Paine smiles and is quick to reply.

"We haven't decided. It might be the kind that looks like my wine rack." I'm all for that if she's going to want to hear what happened last night, but instead, I laugh.

"Who knows?" I ask. Baralai chuckles but doesn't press further.

After lunch, (that Baralai paid for, because he's the most perfect gentleman ever), I asked Paine if she would show me around Bevelle. Baralai couldn't come along because he had all kinds of Yevonite stuff to take care of back at the temple, apparently.

We don't go too far, we stay pretty close to the vicinity of her apartment and the café. She shows me her favorite armory and where she buys her coffee, although not at the same place, which is a shame because it'd be so convenient. All sarcasm aside, I discover a lot about Bevelle. I ask Paine if she knew that Yunie was born here.

"No, I didn't know that. I was too, not that that means much in a place this big."

"Well, she was," I confirm, "When her dad went on his pilgrimage, Kimahri took her to Besaid. When Yuna started her pilgrimage, Wakka and Lulu were sort of like her parents but siblings at the same time."

"That explains so much. I mean, I never really wondered, but since you brought it up that all makes much more sense."

"Well I realized we didn't learn each others backstories while we were doing the Gullwing thing…at least, not until almost after the fact." Paine laughs.

"Yeah, I'll say." I'm glad to see that the Crimson Squad is behind her. I know it must have been a heavy burden on her.

"Lets go home" she says, eventually. "It's starting to get pretty cold out here. There's also wine to be had and dirty laundry to be aired."

"Oh my gosh. You're dying to hear about last night."

"I just think it's funny. I'm not remotely surprised that you would get yourself into a situation like that. It's just your luck."

"You are so right," I say, as we begin walking back towards her apartment.

Once we get inside, we take our coats off and hang them by the door. We walk back into her kitchen and I sit down at the bar. Across from me is the sink and more counter space in front of a huge window overlooking the courtyard of her apartment building. It's starting to get dark.

"I didn't say it earlier, but I really like your place. I think it suits you."

"Thanks. I like it. The rent's not bad for the size and neither is the location." I nod in agreement. She walks to her fridge and pulls out a bottle of red wine and some cheese. She goes to a cabinet and pulls out some crackers. She sets all of these items on the bar.

"This is so classy. I'm so excited," I laugh, half serious. Paine laughs as she pulls a knife from a knife block on the other side of the kitchen and puts it on the bar with the other items.

"Oh, we need glasses," she remembers.

"We could just go without, and up the sophistication factor."

"Shut up," she says jokingly, as she pulls two wine glasses from a tall cabinet. She sets them down as she sits across from me at the bar.

"Begin," she says authoritatively. That's the Paine I'm used to. She begins pouring the wine. I squirm in my seat, uncomfortably.

"Where should I start?" I ask.

"From the beginning." She looks up at me, mid pour, "I want to know how you know Gippal in the first place in order for having to bum the night in Djose to be so awful. Then I wanna know what happened last night. In other words, everything." She hands me my glass.

"You sure know what you want," I say, taking a sip.

"Baralai doesn't seem to mind it." I almost choke.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Quid pro quo, missy!" I exclaim. She sips her wine to hide her smile.

"We'll see. This is payback for every time you've ever badgered me about anything," She says.

"Fine. Alright, where to start? You said you want to know how Gippal and I know each other?" She nods.

"Well, as I'm sure he made you more than aware, he's an Al Bhed. That in itself would probably qualify since Pops is our leader and everything, but there's more to it than that," I say grabbing a cracker and some cheese.

"Gippal, Brother and I used to always play together when were really little, and probably up until…whenever it is that you stop playing. Pops and Gippal's dad were really close friends, but since Gippal's parents' relationship was always a bit on the rocky side, Pops always sort of looked after him, both as a favor to Suuno, Gippal's dad, and because Gippal was like the sane son he never had, not that that's really saying much." Paine raises her eyebrows in agreement. I take a sip of wine.

"I guess when we were little, we were the two kids that the grown-up always cooed over because they all thought we were gonna get married someday or whatever. He and I both knew better though. We were just friends. We'd never dated or anything like that, and as you could probably guess, he's always been a huge flirt anyway, and since I'd grown up with his brand of 'charm', I saw through him pretty easily. We all hit puberty and it was like a bullshit switch went off and he just turned into the cocky idiot we know him to be today."

Paine laughs because she knows its true.

"It's true, though! We hit thirteen and fourteen and I just couldn't stand to be around him anymore. We stayed that way for a couple years," I say, sipping my wine. Paine listens intently.

"Then what?"

"Then, late one night, I'd almost fallen asleep when I got a knock on my door. It was Gippal. He told me he was coming to say goodbye. I asked him what he meant, but he wouldn't tell me. He had his stuff over his shoulder and I knew that meant that he was leaving right then. He gave me this big hug and kissed my cheek and he was gone. I know that sounds so melodramatic, but that's what happened. That was pretty much more interaction than what we'd had in roughly a year before that.

Of course I later found out that he was leaving to join the Crimson Squad. He'd left in the dead of night so that no one would try to stop him, I guess. Then when the Guado attacked Home, I saw him on the airship, but I wasn't sure if he saw me. The ship was so crowded and we were having to deal with fiends, and the whole thing was just a mess. But at least I knew he was okay. At that point, I still had no idea where he'd gone. I didn't know what the Crimson Squad even was until you came along."

Paine looked into her wine glass, "We were such kids then," she says, as if the thought had never occurred to her before.

"I know! I mean, that was right before I went with Yuna on her pilgrimage. I was just 15. It's sort of strange to think about now. Anyway," I say, trying to get back on track, "seeing him in Djose was the first time I'd spoken to him since the night he left. That was almost three years, Paine, and he acted like nothing ever happened. I know nothing happened happened, but he just acted like, like our friendship wasn't even important enough to acknowledge anymore. Make sense?" I have to pour myself more wine.

"It makes sense," Paine says. She's got both elbows on the counter. "Did you want something to happen?"

"What? No. I just don't know. I'm pretty sure that ship has sailed. We're not at that place anymore, and I'm not really sure if we ever were. He was my first kiss when I was like six, but that was about as far as it got."

"I see," she says, "So what happened last night?"

"I made myself look like a complete bitch, thanks for asking," I say sarcastically. Paine snorts into her glass in a very unladylike manner.

"Really?" She asks, recovering. "How so?"

"Well, after I'd talked to you, I made it to Djose right as it started pouring. I banged on the door, and he let me in. and that was where I made my first mistake by making some jab about how I didn't see anyone working…and then he reminded me that it was the weekend, so I basically accused him of being a terrible boss, but he let it slide. He then led me to the room he was going to let me stay in, and he brought me dry clothes. I didn't ask or anything, which sort of weirded me out because I wasn't expecting him to be that nice. Then afterwards, I pretty much blew up at him after he called me 'Cid's Girl', like I'm some little kid. You've been there when he's done that, you know what I'm talking about. I didn't mean to blow up at him, but I was just so stressed out. He was kind of prodding me about why I was traveling and I didn't want any grief from him about it and instead of diverting him," I pause, trying to think of the right word, "detonated on him, then he got all insecure and made some comment about me having 'saved the world twice', and it was just this misunderstanding and completely disasterrific. But, I apologized."

"And then what happened?" Paine asks, before eating a cracker.

"Here's where it gets weird, Dr. P.: He was genuinely nice to me after that."

"Well, what's so strange about it?"

"It's just his attitude, I guess. He's just so damn cocky, and sometimes just mean."

"But you say you were friends?"

"More like by default, with our dads and everything. I mean, like I said, when we were little, we were nearly inseparable, despite him being mean to me. There probably wasn't a single day of our childhood that he didn't push me down." I look past Paine into the bright lights of Bevelle's night life. "But he always helped me back up," I say quietly.

"Sounds like you have some majorly conflicting emotions," Paine says, wiping her eyes.

"I know I do, and I don't know how to fix them."

"And Gippal's the only one that can help you there," she says. I roll my eyes. "So what happened after he was "nice" to you?

"Well, apparently, before I'd showed up in a sour mood, he'd ordered a pizza, and when it arrived we shared it over completely neutral small talk. I felt kind of bad for taking his food, but he offered, and I hadn't had anything, so I just went with it. He kept joking with me the whole time and I don't know if it was for my benefit, or if he'd lost the ability to talk like a normal person with a normal sized ego."

"I'm thinking you might be being a little hard on him."

"Maybe I am," say, "I mean, you've technically spent more time with him in the past few years than I have. What was he like when you guys were in the Crimson Squad?"

Paine leans back in her chair and sighs as she thinks.

"Loyal. Loyal is probably the first thing that comes to mind. He would have taken a bullet for any one of us," she says. I'm sort of surprised, but on the other hand, not really.

"I'd say he was pretty funny, but he knew when to be serious too. He was good at staying focused. He's clearly ambitious, and yeah, he does have a big ego, but I think it's just for show." I nod my head and consider what she's saying.

"I wonder if maybe he treats you the way he does because, since he hasn't seen you in so long, he probably subconsciously thinks you're the same as you were almost 3 years ago."

"That's deep, Paine," I say. She grabs the empty wine bottle.

"I didn't get this out for nothing," she says, smiling. I giggle.

"I guess that's a possibility," I say, getting back on topic. "He's just so hard to read, sometimes." Paine nods her head.

"So where did things finally end up last night?" I blow a strand of hair out of my face.

"After the pizza and small talk, I guess you could say things were at least semi- okay. We went our separate ways. When I woke up this morning, he was already up, so I packed up my stuff, told him goodbye and 'thanks for the shirt', and left. But, naturally, I left something there, so on my way back to Luca I have to pick it up."

"What was it?"

"It's this journal, notebook type thing, where I'm writing about my travels and whatnot."

"Does he know you're staying in Luca?"

"No, most of our small talk was about Home, and how everybody was doing, and blitzball stats, things like that. Nothing personal really, I didn't want to get into it since that was part of why I blew up at him to begin with." Paine nods in understanding.

"Well, here's hoping things go better when you have to stop back by there," seh says, raising her glass. I raise mine too.

"Here's hoping."