FFX-2: Baralai/Gippal, Epsilon
Fandom: Final Fantasy X-2
Pairing: Baralai/Gippal
Theme set: Epsilon
Rating: Up to a hard R in a couple
1. Motion - The soft, rocking motions of boats never failed to lull Baralai into remembering things from that night - when all four of them had planned to run that ship, when they could all laugh together, when Gippal had asked (so casually, as usual), “Got anything exciting planned?” and Baralai knew.
2. Cool - Of course, he had planned to play it off cool (even if he was slightly nervous), but then he saw him for the first time and nearly stammered as he took in his dark skin, brown eyes, effortlessly graceful body.
3. Young - “Sixteen,” Gippal finally admitted under his breath, grinning, before adding, “But you’re the one who looks it.”
4. Last - It was surprising, how easily the blood-stained, numbing, I-won’t-ever-tell-anyone secrets came out to Baralai, as if they were cards he could simply lay out on a table - all but the “I’m falling in love you” one, which he saved in his hand for last.
5. Wrong - He used to think that the muttered accusations about the Al Bhed were wrong, but it wasn’t until he saw Gippal shifting toward him in the sleeping bag next to his, a content smile edging ever so slightly on his lips, that Baralai knew they were.
6. Gentle - They thought he was gentle - soft-spoken and polite - but Gippal knew it was something Baralai slipped on before facing them (like it was just another piece of clothing he tugged on all those early mornings) and that the real gentleness lie in Baralai’s calloused fingers tracing the curves of his face, throat, back, trailing down, down.
7. One - When the bandages came off, Baralai stood in front of a mirror, head turned to look at the scar that marred his back (taunting him with you could have died), and came to the sudden understanding that he also bore the weight of other scars on other bodies.
8. Thousand - People say when you’re dying, your life flashes before your eyes (or in this case, it would be eye), but Gippal didn’t experience that at all - only the light getting darker and the hand clasped in his getting colder.
9. King - “Say I’m the king of the bed,” Gippal teased, fingers circling lower and lower - only to find himself flipped over and on the receiving end, once again facing the punishment for forgetting Baralai’s strength.
10. Learn - “You kept saying, ‘Duilr sa,’ (‘Touch me,’) when you were sleeping,” Baralai informed him, attempting to hide his smile behind the rim of his mug of coffee, and Gippal wondered if those Al Bhed lessons were such a good idea after all.
11. Blur - “Run!” and everything was a blur, except for Baralai, who Gippal made sure was at his side, no matter how fiercely his heart tried to escape his chest.
12. Wait - In Gippal’s nightmares of that place, he called out for him to wait, please wait, because the only thing he’d ever truly been afraid of was dying alone without him.
13. Change - Bang.
14. Command - Due to Baralai’s youthful appearance and reserved nature (at least for the people he worked with), Gippal wouldn’t be surprised if people thought Baralai was the more submissive one, but honestly, he only let himself be in a submissive role about half of the time.
15. Hold - When he awoke, the first thing he felt was the blinding, breath-stealing stabbing in his chest, and the second thing he felt was Baralai’s arms around him.
16. Need - Everyone Gippal had known in his life had left him, whether by death or because they just had to move on, but he quickly learned to live without needing anyone - and then Baralai left and Gippal came to the terrifying realization that he was the one person he had needed.
17. Vision - After the Al Bhed girl had gone on and on about how cute Baralai was and how he was like a “jeceuh” (“vision” - her words, not his) without him understanding a single word of it, Gippal wryly replied, “Dryhgc, E drehg E ryja kuut dycda, duu,” (“Thanks, I think I have good taste, too,”) resulting in a sulking girl and confused Baralai.
18. Attention - “Looks like I have your attention,” Gippal breathed, laughing faintly, before grasping him in one hand and reveling in the resulting moan.
19. Soul - Baralai confessed he was afraid of Gippal’s soul parting from his first, so Gippal decided it was time he confessed that he was afraid of finding Baralai doing paperwork up there.
20. Picture - The long-gone spheres were the closest thing he had to a picture, yet it was enough just to close his eye and let his mind do the picturing for him - short of really seeing Baralai beside him where he could touch him and breathe in his scent and feel his warmth.
21. Fool - Baralai might have been a fool for vengeance, but then, that was mostly because he had always been a fool for love, and so Gippal found himself unable to hold it against him.
22. Mad - First impressions led most to believe that Baralai was the more calm and collected of the two, yet it was Gippal who was able to reign in Baralai’s typically stubborn temper - “Baralai!” with a firm grip on his arm - on the rare occasions when he did let it go.
23. Child - When he was picked on for being “just a kid” back then, Gippal had steadfastly denied it, but now his stomach twisted up whenever he heard someone recall seeing children with guns - and well, he just had to settle with the fact that he and Baralai had been while they hadn’t been.
24. Now - “Now,” Baralai directed under his breath, and with each gunshot, Gippal only trusted him more.
25. Shadow - Inside the tent, he struggled under moist, needy kisses peppering his neck and jawline to remind him, “Gippal, I haven’t turned off the lantern, and they’ll see our -”
26. Goodbye - Through the crack in the door, Baralai murmured, “Someday we’ll meet again,” and shut away the bandages, the blood, his sleeping face.
27. Hide - “You caught me,” Baralai admitted, hiding behind a pillow, as Gippal blinked drowsily and smiled slowly with the discovery that Baralai had been watching him sleep.
28. Fortune - Gippal wasn’t much of a fortune teller, but he did occasionally feel the urge to make these things up (hey, that’s what real fortune tellers did, too, right?) - “Baralai, your tea leaves are saying you’ll be lucky in love…and maybe this is just me, but it kind of looks like they’re pointing at me.”
29. Safe - Blearily, he registered the red-stained bandages but also the white (clean) ones, white ceiling, white sheets, white hair resting on the white pillow beside his, and felt, strangely enough, safe.
30. Ghost - In that cold, silent room when his eyes found the ceiling rather than sleep, Baralai remembered tales he had heard as a child about Bevelle Temple being haunted (screams of traitors and others who were executed, they insisted), and being here now, he could understand - though all that haunted him were whispers of things someone had once told him, back before he became someone he had had to leave behind.
31. Book - When Baralai asked Gippal if he could please go get a book for him, he couldn’t help but look at a few other books, and when he found one with men entangled in really compromising positions, he also couldn’t help but grin and ask, “Hey, is this the one you were looking for?”
32. Eye - He was the only person upon first meeting to look at his face as if it were whole, the only person who kissed him there, and later, the only person who forgot along with him, to the point he slipped up - “eyes” - and didn’t notice.
33. Never - Baralai could do without many things, having been trained to adapt readily, but he found out the hard way that he could never live without Gippal in his life.
34. Sing - He softly sang the old Al Bhed hymns he had heard as a child when Baralai needed help getting to sleep all those cold nights in the desert and, later, when the last thing either of them wanted was sleep.
35. Sudden - All the best things came to Gippal suddenly - the first kiss they shared (Gippal had pulled him forward sharply by the front of his coat), the realization that he loved him (as he confessed to Baralai when he was sure his eyes were closed in sleep), the words Baralai spoke mornings later when everyone else was still sleeping (“I was awake that night.”).
36. Stop - Baralai was frozen in place, breath loud in his own ears, unable to stop staring at the bare skin suddenly revealed to him, but then Gippal caught his wrist and placed his hand on his chest so that he could study his body even more thoroughly.
37. Time - It wasn’t until morning that time began to exist for them again.
38. Wash - When they were so dirt-caked and itchy they couldn’t stand it any longer, Baralai and Gippal did what everyone else did in the camp - they undressed and climbed in the nearby water to scrub at their clothes and body, and though they always ended up doing this together, the first few times (before they had grown to be physically intimate) were full of awkwardness, fumbling, and stolen glances.
39. Torn - Gippal swung around, yelling out his name in surprise, jumpy from Baralai sneaking up on him, and struggled for breath before muttering, “You’re lucky I didn’t tear you a new one on accident…”
40. History - Baralai knew enough about history to know that mankind continually made the same errors, but if there was one thing he had learned from his own history, it was that he couldn’t afford to make the same errors again - no, he couldn’t part from him again.
41. Power - Political power came at a high cost, but Baralai thought that it was the only sure way to prevent what had happened to them from happening to others.
42. Bother - The majority of Baralai’s colleagues thought that Gippal constantly interrupting Baralai’s work must be a bother, but then, the majority of Baralai’s colleagues thought that a desk’s sole purpose was for paperwork.
43. God - When pleading with Baralai to take a vacation, Gippal made sure to point out that he could probably ask for a vacation, they’d be okay without him for a few days, and though it really bore no relevance to his argument - “Baralai, they let a…tick thing control their lives.”
44. Wall - During one of those mornings that Gippal was over “visiting” and found the spot beside him in bed empty (a certain Praetor was busy overworking himself again, he figured), he decided he should really find out how thick these bedroom walls were, just in case.
45. Naked - The first time he ever saw Baralai naked was somewhat disastrous, because walking in on him changing (hey, tents have no doors to knock on, he kept saying) was just slightly embarrassing and not as sexy as he wanted it to be, but at least the second time more than made up for that.
46. Drive - It wasn’t that Baralai didn’t think Gippal could drive it (because he was confident Gippal could handle any set of controls given even a little bit of time to study them) but the fact that he drove fairly recklessly at times that led Baralai to dig his fingernails into the seat.
47. Harm - “…Am I hurting you?” Baralai managed, brown eyes wide with concern and searching his face, but Gippal only took his trembling hand in his and shook his head.
48. Precious - Gippal was about to let out one last retort during a disagreement about (what else?) Baralai’s duties, but Baralai grabbed onto his arm before he could turn away and whispered, “The most important thing to me is you.”
49. Hunger - The moments of desperate hunger they had shared would never be mentioned to anyone else - the hunger for each other, for knowledge of their betrayal, for the last bit of bread in a dead man’s pocket.
50. Believe - Face turned up to the sunset that had so many years ago overlooked a slaughter, Gippal found Baralai’s fingers in the cool grass, simply smiling ever so slightly and saying, “I knew I’d see you again, anyway.”
Pairing: Baralai/Gippal
Theme set: Epsilon
Rating: Up to a hard R in a couple
1. Motion - The soft, rocking motions of boats never failed to lull Baralai into remembering things from that night - when all four of them had planned to run that ship, when they could all laugh together, when Gippal had asked (so casually, as usual), “Got anything exciting planned?” and Baralai knew.
2. Cool - Of course, he had planned to play it off cool (even if he was slightly nervous), but then he saw him for the first time and nearly stammered as he took in his dark skin, brown eyes, effortlessly graceful body.
3. Young - “Sixteen,” Gippal finally admitted under his breath, grinning, before adding, “But you’re the one who looks it.”
4. Last - It was surprising, how easily the blood-stained, numbing, I-won’t-ever-tell-anyone secrets came out to Baralai, as if they were cards he could simply lay out on a table - all but the “I’m falling in love you” one, which he saved in his hand for last.
5. Wrong - He used to think that the muttered accusations about the Al Bhed were wrong, but it wasn’t until he saw Gippal shifting toward him in the sleeping bag next to his, a content smile edging ever so slightly on his lips, that Baralai knew they were.
6. Gentle - They thought he was gentle - soft-spoken and polite - but Gippal knew it was something Baralai slipped on before facing them (like it was just another piece of clothing he tugged on all those early mornings) and that the real gentleness lie in Baralai’s calloused fingers tracing the curves of his face, throat, back, trailing down, down.
7. One - When the bandages came off, Baralai stood in front of a mirror, head turned to look at the scar that marred his back (taunting him with you could have died), and came to the sudden understanding that he also bore the weight of other scars on other bodies.
8. Thousand - People say when you’re dying, your life flashes before your eyes (or in this case, it would be eye), but Gippal didn’t experience that at all - only the light getting darker and the hand clasped in his getting colder.
9. King - “Say I’m the king of the bed,” Gippal teased, fingers circling lower and lower - only to find himself flipped over and on the receiving end, once again facing the punishment for forgetting Baralai’s strength.
10. Learn - “You kept saying, ‘Duilr sa,’ (‘Touch me,’) when you were sleeping,” Baralai informed him, attempting to hide his smile behind the rim of his mug of coffee, and Gippal wondered if those Al Bhed lessons were such a good idea after all.
11. Blur - “Run!” and everything was a blur, except for Baralai, who Gippal made sure was at his side, no matter how fiercely his heart tried to escape his chest.
12. Wait - In Gippal’s nightmares of that place, he called out for him to wait, please wait, because the only thing he’d ever truly been afraid of was dying alone without him.
13. Change - Bang.
14. Command - Due to Baralai’s youthful appearance and reserved nature (at least for the people he worked with), Gippal wouldn’t be surprised if people thought Baralai was the more submissive one, but honestly, he only let himself be in a submissive role about half of the time.
15. Hold - When he awoke, the first thing he felt was the blinding, breath-stealing stabbing in his chest, and the second thing he felt was Baralai’s arms around him.
16. Need - Everyone Gippal had known in his life had left him, whether by death or because they just had to move on, but he quickly learned to live without needing anyone - and then Baralai left and Gippal came to the terrifying realization that he was the one person he had needed.
17. Vision - After the Al Bhed girl had gone on and on about how cute Baralai was and how he was like a “jeceuh” (“vision” - her words, not his) without him understanding a single word of it, Gippal wryly replied, “Dryhgc, E drehg E ryja kuut dycda, duu,” (“Thanks, I think I have good taste, too,”) resulting in a sulking girl and confused Baralai.
18. Attention - “Looks like I have your attention,” Gippal breathed, laughing faintly, before grasping him in one hand and reveling in the resulting moan.
19. Soul - Baralai confessed he was afraid of Gippal’s soul parting from his first, so Gippal decided it was time he confessed that he was afraid of finding Baralai doing paperwork up there.
20. Picture - The long-gone spheres were the closest thing he had to a picture, yet it was enough just to close his eye and let his mind do the picturing for him - short of really seeing Baralai beside him where he could touch him and breathe in his scent and feel his warmth.
21. Fool - Baralai might have been a fool for vengeance, but then, that was mostly because he had always been a fool for love, and so Gippal found himself unable to hold it against him.
22. Mad - First impressions led most to believe that Baralai was the more calm and collected of the two, yet it was Gippal who was able to reign in Baralai’s typically stubborn temper - “Baralai!” with a firm grip on his arm - on the rare occasions when he did let it go.
23. Child - When he was picked on for being “just a kid” back then, Gippal had steadfastly denied it, but now his stomach twisted up whenever he heard someone recall seeing children with guns - and well, he just had to settle with the fact that he and Baralai had been while they hadn’t been.
24. Now - “Now,” Baralai directed under his breath, and with each gunshot, Gippal only trusted him more.
25. Shadow - Inside the tent, he struggled under moist, needy kisses peppering his neck and jawline to remind him, “Gippal, I haven’t turned off the lantern, and they’ll see our -”
26. Goodbye - Through the crack in the door, Baralai murmured, “Someday we’ll meet again,” and shut away the bandages, the blood, his sleeping face.
27. Hide - “You caught me,” Baralai admitted, hiding behind a pillow, as Gippal blinked drowsily and smiled slowly with the discovery that Baralai had been watching him sleep.
28. Fortune - Gippal wasn’t much of a fortune teller, but he did occasionally feel the urge to make these things up (hey, that’s what real fortune tellers did, too, right?) - “Baralai, your tea leaves are saying you’ll be lucky in love…and maybe this is just me, but it kind of looks like they’re pointing at me.”
29. Safe - Blearily, he registered the red-stained bandages but also the white (clean) ones, white ceiling, white sheets, white hair resting on the white pillow beside his, and felt, strangely enough, safe.
30. Ghost - In that cold, silent room when his eyes found the ceiling rather than sleep, Baralai remembered tales he had heard as a child about Bevelle Temple being haunted (screams of traitors and others who were executed, they insisted), and being here now, he could understand - though all that haunted him were whispers of things someone had once told him, back before he became someone he had had to leave behind.
31. Book - When Baralai asked Gippal if he could please go get a book for him, he couldn’t help but look at a few other books, and when he found one with men entangled in really compromising positions, he also couldn’t help but grin and ask, “Hey, is this the one you were looking for?”
32. Eye - He was the only person upon first meeting to look at his face as if it were whole, the only person who kissed him there, and later, the only person who forgot along with him, to the point he slipped up - “eyes” - and didn’t notice.
33. Never - Baralai could do without many things, having been trained to adapt readily, but he found out the hard way that he could never live without Gippal in his life.
34. Sing - He softly sang the old Al Bhed hymns he had heard as a child when Baralai needed help getting to sleep all those cold nights in the desert and, later, when the last thing either of them wanted was sleep.
35. Sudden - All the best things came to Gippal suddenly - the first kiss they shared (Gippal had pulled him forward sharply by the front of his coat), the realization that he loved him (as he confessed to Baralai when he was sure his eyes were closed in sleep), the words Baralai spoke mornings later when everyone else was still sleeping (“I was awake that night.”).
36. Stop - Baralai was frozen in place, breath loud in his own ears, unable to stop staring at the bare skin suddenly revealed to him, but then Gippal caught his wrist and placed his hand on his chest so that he could study his body even more thoroughly.
37. Time - It wasn’t until morning that time began to exist for them again.
38. Wash - When they were so dirt-caked and itchy they couldn’t stand it any longer, Baralai and Gippal did what everyone else did in the camp - they undressed and climbed in the nearby water to scrub at their clothes and body, and though they always ended up doing this together, the first few times (before they had grown to be physically intimate) were full of awkwardness, fumbling, and stolen glances.
39. Torn - Gippal swung around, yelling out his name in surprise, jumpy from Baralai sneaking up on him, and struggled for breath before muttering, “You’re lucky I didn’t tear you a new one on accident…”
40. History - Baralai knew enough about history to know that mankind continually made the same errors, but if there was one thing he had learned from his own history, it was that he couldn’t afford to make the same errors again - no, he couldn’t part from him again.
41. Power - Political power came at a high cost, but Baralai thought that it was the only sure way to prevent what had happened to them from happening to others.
42. Bother - The majority of Baralai’s colleagues thought that Gippal constantly interrupting Baralai’s work must be a bother, but then, the majority of Baralai’s colleagues thought that a desk’s sole purpose was for paperwork.
43. God - When pleading with Baralai to take a vacation, Gippal made sure to point out that he could probably ask for a vacation, they’d be okay without him for a few days, and though it really bore no relevance to his argument - “Baralai, they let a…tick thing control their lives.”
44. Wall - During one of those mornings that Gippal was over “visiting” and found the spot beside him in bed empty (a certain Praetor was busy overworking himself again, he figured), he decided he should really find out how thick these bedroom walls were, just in case.
45. Naked - The first time he ever saw Baralai naked was somewhat disastrous, because walking in on him changing (hey, tents have no doors to knock on, he kept saying) was just slightly embarrassing and not as sexy as he wanted it to be, but at least the second time more than made up for that.
46. Drive - It wasn’t that Baralai didn’t think Gippal could drive it (because he was confident Gippal could handle any set of controls given even a little bit of time to study them) but the fact that he drove fairly recklessly at times that led Baralai to dig his fingernails into the seat.
47. Harm - “…Am I hurting you?” Baralai managed, brown eyes wide with concern and searching his face, but Gippal only took his trembling hand in his and shook his head.
48. Precious - Gippal was about to let out one last retort during a disagreement about (what else?) Baralai’s duties, but Baralai grabbed onto his arm before he could turn away and whispered, “The most important thing to me is you.”
49. Hunger - The moments of desperate hunger they had shared would never be mentioned to anyone else - the hunger for each other, for knowledge of their betrayal, for the last bit of bread in a dead man’s pocket.
50. Believe - Face turned up to the sunset that had so many years ago overlooked a slaughter, Gippal found Baralai’s fingers in the cool grass, simply smiling ever so slightly and saying, “I knew I’d see you again, anyway.”