((Author's Note: It's been ages since I last attempted an extended piece of writing, and so I thought I'd see whether I could pull it off. This is going to be a multi-chaptered Gippal/Baralai fic. Whatever you do, don't let me abandon it – just once, I'd like to finish a chaptered fic.

This is just the prologue. It's extremely short. Chapter One should be up reasonably soon.))

Prologue: Ryncr Mekrd uv Tyo

"Baralai?"

"Yes?" He glances up from polishing the steel rings of his weapon, unsurprised by the interruption. Gippal smiles awkwardly and sits beside him on the wooden deck.

"Got somethin' to ask you."

"What is it?" asks Baralai, mildly curious. The Al Bhed searches for how to word his query – query? Confession? – without scaring his friend out of his wits.

Baralai is an amazing person.

Outwardly, he seems frail. His soft-spoken attitude and innate politeness make him appear to be an easy opponent, a 'bicrujan', to use some Al Bhed slang.

Gippal made the same mistake of judgement the first time he met Baralai. (That guy can't want to join the Crimson Squad, can he? He wouldn't last five seconds.) But Baralai possesses incredible strength of both mind and body, and by now Gippal knows that better than anyone.

"...yeah, so that's pretty much it. Um, so what do you think?" His voice is unusually nervous as he glances over at Baralai, wanting to see how he takes it, and he is frightened by the lack of emotion on his face.

"Baralai?"

Baralai hesitates before responding. "That was... unexpected. I'm not really sure what to say."

"I guess that's a no, then," murmurs Gippal, trying and failing to hide the bitter disappointment in his voice. "Sorry 'bout that, B. Forget I ever said anything." He stands and turns to leave.

"Wait."

He doesn't.

Baralai gets to his feet and runs after him, the sound softened by his boots. He catches Gippal by the wrist.

"I said it was unexpected." He smirks. "I didn't say that I wasn't flattered by it... or that I thought we couldn't make it work."

Gippal turns slowly, a grin spreading over his face.

Baralai is everything that Gippal ever wanted, something beautiful and pure and perfect. He never believed, before he met him, that such a thing could even exist. He's not even sure that he believes it now.

He never thought that he could be...

pressing him against the wall, hands on his shoulders as you lean in to take his lips with your own. he inhales sharply at your touch, closing his eyes, and then...

and then...

and then

you

wake

up.