FFX-2; Gippal/Baralai
Title: Touched
Author: twilightsrain/edenbound (ficjournal)
Theme: Intimacy
Rating: PG
Baralai wasn't used to being close to people. It wasn't against Yevon's teachings, and companionship was a thing to be desired, enjoyed, companionship like blitz teams and pilgrimages and strong stable marriages --
Not companionship like laying in Gippal's arms, feeling his lips brushing the side of his face, feeling the warmth of Gippal's body (did all Al Bhed have such hot blood?) against his whether there were clothes between them or not.
But he came to include that such companionship was wonderful in its own way.
It was the small intimacies that scared him most. Sex was a big intimacy, and it was fine, and it meant nothing he didn't want it to mean. Kissing, too, kissing and touching, but -- lovemaking, and the look on Gippal's face, and tracing his fingers over Gippal's bared and scarred eye, the sound of Gippal's voice when in the world of sleep he would speak in his own language, those were things that brought them close, so close, maybe too close.
Sometimes Baralai would feel a little flutter in his chest as he watched Gippal's face when they lost themselves in sex, and he could almost swear their souls had touched.
It was an unspoken rule for Baralai. Don't get too close to anyone. You'll lose them to Sin.
But he got too close, he dared the dare.
And he lost Gippal. Not to Sin, this time, but to a betrayal that cut much deeper and threatened to cut them apart altogether, threatened to send them into the cold world of death, apart and alone. And they did separate then, with only a few words, nursing their wounds and the heartache of being betrayed and separated, going to whoever they thought they could trust.
And Baralai mourned the loss of those small intimacies, the things he had come to love about Gippal, the things that had made him fall so utterly, hopelessly in love.
Author: twilightsrain/edenbound (ficjournal)
Theme: Intimacy
Rating: PG
Baralai wasn't used to being close to people. It wasn't against Yevon's teachings, and companionship was a thing to be desired, enjoyed, companionship like blitz teams and pilgrimages and strong stable marriages --
Not companionship like laying in Gippal's arms, feeling his lips brushing the side of his face, feeling the warmth of Gippal's body (did all Al Bhed have such hot blood?) against his whether there were clothes between them or not.
But he came to include that such companionship was wonderful in its own way.
It was the small intimacies that scared him most. Sex was a big intimacy, and it was fine, and it meant nothing he didn't want it to mean. Kissing, too, kissing and touching, but -- lovemaking, and the look on Gippal's face, and tracing his fingers over Gippal's bared and scarred eye, the sound of Gippal's voice when in the world of sleep he would speak in his own language, those were things that brought them close, so close, maybe too close.
Sometimes Baralai would feel a little flutter in his chest as he watched Gippal's face when they lost themselves in sex, and he could almost swear their souls had touched.
It was an unspoken rule for Baralai. Don't get too close to anyone. You'll lose them to Sin.
But he got too close, he dared the dare.
And he lost Gippal. Not to Sin, this time, but to a betrayal that cut much deeper and threatened to cut them apart altogether, threatened to send them into the cold world of death, apart and alone. And they did separate then, with only a few words, nursing their wounds and the heartache of being betrayed and separated, going to whoever they thought they could trust.
And Baralai mourned the loss of those small intimacies, the things he had come to love about Gippal, the things that had made him fall so utterly, hopelessly in love.