A/N: The first chapter’s here, folks! I’ve made a lot of changes from the original fanfic, including the fact that this is written from the third person, while the original one was the first person. Personally, I like how I portray the characters in this one, that’s maybe the thing that I’m most proud of. The chapter’s (all of them will be) also much longer than the original one too. Reviews and ideas for the fic are very much welcome.

For new readers, this is male/male slash, Gippal/Baralai AU-ish, so if that’s not your cup of tea, run for the hills!

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X-2, its characters and places etc belong to Square Enix Co., Ltd. The story is mine.

I: Saviour

It was a peaceful Friday evening in Bevelle, late enough for parents to call their children inside, but early enough for some people to still walk around in the city, with or without a specific destination. The good thing in wandering around Bevelle was that you didn’t have to be worried about getting mugged; the security of the city was class A, and nobody could enter or leave the city at night time without an explicable reason and their identity being checked. Some people thought that it was a little overdone, but it still didn’t mean that the whole city was full of policemen or security cameras. There were two gates from which you could enter the city, and once everything had been checked there, it was peaceful. Should any commotion arise – a party at the wrong place at the wrong time, a drunkard making a scene in a bar – it was taken care of quickly, mostly due to the trust between the authority and the people of the city. They weren’t afraid to call the guards if something was wrong.

This was why Baralai wasn’t the least bit scared to be out so late. He felt secure in the city, and so the barely-a-kilometre way from his friend’s house to home didn’t concern him at all. His family lived in the eastern part of the city, which meant crossing the park and the long bridge over Bevelle River in order to get home, but he didn’t care... much. The April evening was surprisingly chilly, and he had left his scarf and gloves home, stupidly thinking that he wouldn’t need them. Well... he’d just have to endure another lecture about listening to his mother rather than being rebellious. Which he wasn’t, really... He was almost 18, after all, not some stupid little kid who did what he wasn’t supposed to just for the sake of doing it.

He stopped on the bridge and leaned against the railing, looking at the slowly flowing water below him. To think that the weatherman had said that the perfect swimming weathers were just around the corner... He shivered at the thought. The weatherman could go and test the water himself before talking...

He scanned the river for the last time before starting to leave, when his eyes fell on something... someone, he realized with a bang. There was a person in the river! He gasped in horror and rushed down to the edge, noticing that he would have to go into the water in order to get the person out... Thoughts of the freezing water returned to his mind, but he ignored them and the damn weatherman who had to be wrong just when he was going to take a nice little dip. Not that he had a choice.

He dropped his heavy jacket onto the ground and went to the person’s rescue. They must have fallen from the bridge, he thought, and he managed to get this person onto dry land, soon realizing that the first-aid course his mother had forced him to take hadn’t been that useless after all. This person, a male now that he could look more closely, was cold, bleeding and unconscious. “Dear Yevon...” Baralai mumbled, praying from all his heart that he would get this boy to breathe.

At times like these he wished that someone would have invented a cordless phone of some sort... And one that would work, preferably, since it seemed that all the new technology in Bevelle was good-for-nothing.

He took a deep breath and hoped that his attempts wouldn’t be in vain...

Suddenly the boy he had tried to resuscitate opened his eyes, turned onto his side and started to cough the water out of his lungs. Baralai breathed a sigh of relief, but before he could do anything to ask if the boy was alright, he passed out just as suddenly as he had woken up. Baralai’s heart leaped into his throat, but fortunately, the stranger was breathing. He had caught a flash of bright green eyes, and now that he looked a little closer...

An Al Bhed?

What was an Al Bhed doing in Bevelle, of all places!? If someone found out, he’d be in big trouble! He could not be seen with the Al Bhed, or he could kiss his dreams to become a priest goodbye.

On the other hand... didn’t the teachings tell to always help the ones in need? He wondered if the rule applied to the Al Bhed, too, but his conscience wouldn’t let him leave the Al Bhed to die. Whether that was a good or a bad thing, he didn’t know.

His home wasn’t that far away anymore, and his mother would probably see the situation like he did... but his father wouldn’t approve. Baralai made a decision, and lifted the Al Bhed into his arms, which wasn’t exactly easy. For one, this Al Bhed wasn't exactly anorectic, and for two... well, try to carry an unconscious person in your arms and you’ll see that it doesn’t work like in the movies. As if that wasn’t enough, he had another problem: he had to get to their house without anyone noticing. He couldn’t really just say hi to their neighbours while carrying an Al Bhed to their house...

Somehow, he made it to the back door of their house without getting caught, and even managed to knock with his arms full of an unconscious Al Bhed boy. ‘Please let it be mother, please...’

Lady Luck laughed at him and his prayers, and a moment later Baralai’s father opened the door, looking rather irritated to be bothered so late. “Baralai?” he asked in confusion before his eyes settled on the figure in his son’s arms.

Baralai walked past his father and started to explain, “I-I found him from the river when I was coming home from Paine’s,” he told his father as he laid to the Al Bhed onto the couch in their living room. “He was awake for a while, but passed out almost immediately after waking up. I couldn’t just leave him there, you understand that, don’t you?”

Cedrick, Baralai’s father, frowned and knelt next to his son to the floor to check the stranger from injuries. “You sound awfully defensive, son.”

Baralai bit his lower lip. He didn’t want to lie to his father, but...

“What in Spira is going on here?” Baralai’s mother, Eva, asked as she came downstairs. “Do you know how late it is?” she asked and then turned to look at what her husband and son were looking at. “Oh my...” she gasped and hurried to them. “What happened, who is he?”

Baralai shrugged. “I don’t know who he is, but I found him in the Bevelle River when I was on my way home,” he said. “But, umm...”

“There’s something else to it, isn’t there?” Cedrick asked with a frown, while his wife rushed to get some things she would need to take care of the boy on their couch.

“I think that he’s an Al Bhed...” Baralai mumbled, a half of him hoping that his parents hadn’t heard him.

No such luck. “A heathen,” his father spat and stood up. “I want that... that thing out of my house, now!”

“Cedrick!” Eva exclaimed, but was ignored.

“How can you bring one of those filthy creatures into our home, Baralai?”

“Father, I couldn’t just leave him to his death!” Baralai protested. “My conscience would have haunted me every day, and what about the teachings? Haven’t we been told to always help people in need?” he asked. He knew he had done wrong when he had brought the Al Bhed there, but he couldn’t leave anyone to die when there was something he could do about it, an Al Bhed or not!

“Don’t you try to use the teachings against me, Baralai!” Cedrick hissed and then stormed away from the room.

Baralai turned to look at his mother with an apologetic expression, but she only smiled. “Take him to the guest room,” she said and hugged her son. “You did the right thing, Baralai. Your father just hates it when someone proves him wrong.”

Baralai nodded and offered a small smile to his mother. “I’ll go prepare the guest room now,” he said and went up the stairs, eager to get the Al Bhed under warm blankets. Once upstairs, he was happy to realize that the sheets had been changed recently, so he didn’t have to bother. He moved the comforter aside and then rushed back downstairs to get the Al Bhed. He frowned as he heard voices from the kitchen, his father’s angry grumble and the gentle tone of his mother. He glanced from the Al Bhed to the stairs, wondering if he could make it by himself...

“Move.” He then heard his father say and then the Al Bhed was picked up.

Baralai managed a half-smile at his father as he started to follow him up the stairs. “Thanks, father.”

Cedrick merely grunted. He knew that he would probably have done the same in Baralai’s position... not that he was going to admit it aloud. “Open the door for me.” Baralai obeyed. “I didn’t see any open wounds, he should be fine,” Cedrick mumbled once he had lied the Al Bhed down onto the bed. “And change your clothes, you’ll get ill.”

Baralai smiled at his father’s retreating back and then turned back to the Al Bhed, ignoring the last comment. Dirty blonde hair, tanned skin, and – if he remembered correct – green eyes.

“Maybe we should find something for him to wear,” Eva said as she entered the room. “His clothes are soaked and covered in dried blood... I’ll get something for him.”

Baralai nodded and glanced to the Al Bhed briefly before following his mother to his room to look for dry clothes. “How’s father?” he asked while changing into dry clothes.

“Sulking in the kitchen, probably,” Eva answered with a laugh. “He pretends to be angry, but he’s very proud of you.”

“I’m not so sure about that...” Baralai mumbled and then took the clothes that his mother was holding. “You go make sure that father hasn’t trashed the kitchen, I’ll take care of the Al Bhed,” he said and went back into the guest room.

It was only a few hours later when the Al Bhed started to stir, his eye opening slowly. He stared at the ceiling for a while, and had someone been watching him, they would have noticed the look of utter confusion on his features. This ceiling was white. Ceilings weren’t white in Bikanel. Where was he?

He was tired, despite the fact that he had just woken up, and the feeling he was experiencing was like a major hangover. He groaned, sitting up slowly to be able to look at his surroundings. The room he was in was neat and simple; a desk, a chair, and a nightstand beside the bed. There was one thing that he was sure about: he wasn’t in his tiny apartment in Bikanel. There was no machina around, and the room was actually clean.

One hand came to rest on his forehead; the headache was terrible. He wondered if he had been drinking again, but if he had, it still didn’t explain why he was in an apartment that surely wasn’t one in Bikanel. He closed his eyes and frowned deeply, racking his brain for any information on what had happened.

For a good five minutes, there was nothing. Then suddenly, it all came back in a swift flow, making him sigh and fall back onto the bed. So... He was alive.

He made a note to himself to ask Lady Luck what she had against him the next time he’d see her.

Baralai eyed the clock on the wall, tapping his foot impatiently on the floor. The Al Bhed had been asleep for a few hours now, and he wanted to go check that everything was alright. He kept himself from doing that, though – his father wouldn’t appreciate it if he showed that much concern for the heathen that he had to check on him every fifteen minutes.

Eva smiled at her son’s nervousness, shaking her head slightly as she returned to read her book. She had made a notice that Baralai was glancing at the clock every two minutes, but instead of annoying her, it made her smile. “Would you go to check if our guest is still breathing, dear?” she asked, not raising her eyes from the book. She knew that Baralai was simply itching to go, but she also understood why he didn’t. “Call us if he’s awake.”

Baralai nodded and rose from the chair, trying his best not to look like he was in a hurry. He felt his father’s eyes on him the whole time, but he ignored it. As he reached the door to the guest room, he hesitated for some unknown reason. Shaking his head, he entered the room, and met the green eyes of the once unconscious Al Bhed. Or well, a green eye and... He quickly looked down as he noticed that there was no other eye, but then realized that he was being rude. The Al Bhed had turned away and closed his eye when he looked up again. Baralai bit his lip, hoping that he hadn’t offended the Al Bhed. “Um...” he pulled a chair next to the bed and sat in it. “How are you feeling?” Oh yes, really smooth, Baralai, he scolded himself mentally. He didn’t even know if the Al Bhed spoke their language!

“I...” the Al Bhed started quietly, gaining Baralai’s attention. “I am... fine...” he mumbled, adding a thank you after a short while of silence.

Baralai smiled, glad that he didn’t have to think of any complicated way to communicate with the Al Bhed. “Do you feel like eating something? Does anything hurt?”

The Al Bhed nodded ever so slightly. “My head. And, um... I don’t think anything would stay inside me right now...”

“Alright,” Baralai said and stood up, happy with the Al Bhed’s knowledge of Spiran. “I’ll get a painkiller for you, and my father will probably take a look at you now that you’re awake. Just lie back down, I’ll be back in a second.”

“Wait,” the Al Bhed called, but didn’t look up from the sheets that he had been studying so intently. “Is there anything... I could use as a...” he frowned, racking his brain for the Spiran word, and then made a gesture towards his missing eye. “The... thing, uh...”

“An eye patch?” Baralai suggested with a smile, noticing the gesture towards the supposedly blind eye.

“Yeah...” the Al Bhed nodded. “If... that’s what you call it.”

Baralai chuckled and turned around to leave the room. “Sure, I’ll ask my father,” he said and left, closing the door behind him.

Once the door had been closed, the Al Bhed sighed and lay back down onto the bed. In all his confusion, he had forgotten to ask where he was and why... Well, he supposed he could ask when the dark-skinned boy came back... with the promised painkiller, he hoped. He wasn’t feeling all that good. He closed his eye, and without even noticing started to drift off to sleep.

The sound of the door opening pulled him out of his light sleep and he blinked to clear his vision. A man with slightly fainter skin colour entered the room, his son following after him silently. The man sat down in the chair and started to dig around for something in his bag, mumbling something about damn heathens, Bevelle and something being against the teachings of Yevon.

Then it clicked in the Al Bhed’s head. Yevonites. He was in the house of a Yevonite family. In Bevelle? An Al Bhed in a house of Yevonites... He shivered at the thought.

“Father,” the dark-skinned boy said while helping him take the painkiller. Why was his head swimming like this...? “He speaks Spiran. If you must curse him, do it somewhere else.”

“Since when have you started to order me around, Baralai?”

The Al Bhed was starting to feel rather uneasy. There he was, in the middle of a family quarrel, managing to cause a fight between a father and his son by his mere presence. He had never been ashamed to be an Al Bhed in a world where the most of the people believed in Yevon, but now he felt like he wasn’t where he should have been... at all...

“Oh dear, can’t you two see that you’re making him feel uncomfortable?” a kind-looking woman with beautiful bronze skin entered the room. The mother, no doubt. “Cedrick, dear, would you please check if the dinner’s ready?”

The man in question stood up, mumbling, “A couple of painkillers and he’ll be fine,” before he left.

Eva shook her head at her husband’s behaviour before turning to the Al Bhed. “Please forgive him, he has a foul mouth but he means no harm,” she smiled, tilting her head. “So, what’s your name?”

“Um, Gippal, ma’am,” the Al Bhed answered, looking down to his tightly clasped hands that were now resting in his lap. “I’m... sorry to be a burden...”

“Oh shush, you’re not a burden!” Eva waved her hand dismissively, taking the eye patch that was meant for their guest from the floor where it had been dropped earlier. “Here, I hope it’ll do.”

Gippal nodded and took the eye patch, strapping it into its place carefully. He never even slept without his eye patch, so he was happy to have something that could act as one. “Thank you.”

“It’s alright, darling. Now, Baralai told me that you didn’t feel like eating, so maybe you should rest for a couple of hours and try then. You must get your strength back,” Eva smiled and turned to leave. “If you need anything, just shout, I won’t let you get up just yet,” she winked and exited the room after adding, “Baralai, dear, I trust that you look after him.”

Gippal sighed. This... wasn’t what he had had in mind... He was a person who wanted to be able to watch after himself, not relying on the help of others. The situation made him feel really uncomfortable. “Your mother is really nice,” he said to the boy who was with him in the room, for the sake of breaking the silence if anything.

Baralai nodded. “She is. Always helping others, no matter who they are or what they have done.”

“I’m really sorry about this, you know...” Gippal mumbled, adjusting his eye patch. “I’ll leave immediately... when your mother lets me.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Baralai said and stood up. “It’s not like you wanted this to happen, right?”

‘Damn right,’ thought Gippal.

“Well, I guess I’ll let you sleep some more. My room is the one next to this, and I’m usually there, so if you need anything...” Baralai trailed away towards the end, remembering that the Al Bhed wasn’t supposed to be up until he had recovered fully. “Um, just bang on the wall or something...” he said and then walked to the door. “Good night.” And with that, Baralai left.

Gippal still hadn’t remembered to ask how he had gotten there.

Another few hours later, Gippal woke up again, to find his headache gone. Happy with his discovery, he sat up on the bed and hmm-ed. Now what? He sure as hell wasn’t going to stay there, in Bevelle of all damned places on Spira... but getting out into the city wasn’t actually an appealing option. The Yevonites that lived in the house could already have called a guard to shoot him for all he knew...

He didn’t really want to get up, the bed was comfortable and he hadn’t been sleeping in a proper bed for two months, but at the same time he felt like an intruder; he was what the members of the family considered a heathen, he was the one who was where he wasn’t supposed to be. He chuckled aloud. Well, now that wasn’t a new feeling to him... He always felt like he didn’t belong anywhere. Ever since—

“Hey, you’re up.”

Gippal turned to look towards the door, finding – what was his name again? L-something? No? Damn, he hadn’t really forgotten... Ha! Baralai! – Baralai looking at him with a kind smile. “Uh, I think so.”

Baralai looked at him a little oddly and leaned against the doorframe. “Mom was wondering if you wanted to try to eat something...”

“Um, yeah, sure...” Gippal mumbled, but did nothing to get up.

Baralai shook his head slightly and walked to the Al Bhed. “Need help?”

“No,” Gippal said stubbornly, tried to stand up, and realized that his head was swimming worse than before. “Yes.”

“That’s what I thought,” Baralai smiled and helped the Al Bhed up. “Let’s go then,” he said, and so they made their way downstairs, Baralai supporting Gippal all the way to the kitchen/dining room.

Eva turned to look at them and smiled. “I’m glad to see you up and awake,” she said while serving the food.

Gippal seemed to take this the wrong way, and he lowered his head. “I... I’ll leave as soon as I can...”

“Oh, there’s no need to rush,” Eva said before calling her husband – who also hadn’t been able to go to sleep, because of the heathen in his house – to the table.

Baralai helped Gippal sit down and then took a seat himself. He cringed a little at the glare that his father sent to the Al Bhed’s direction, hoping that the dinner would go well... He made sure that Gippal wasn’t going to pass out, and then started to eat his own food.

“So, Gippal,” Eva then started a conversation, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “Do you remember what happened before you woke up here?”

Yes. “No, I’m afraid I don’t,” Gippal answered quietly. He hated to lie to his saviours, but it wasn’t like he was going to stay there for long, so it didn’t really matter. Eva then told him that Baralai had found him in the river, and then brought him to their house to rest. He was thankful... Kind of...

“Your parents must be really worried about you.”

Gippal gritted his teeth, giving a mere nod as an answer. The conversation died as soon as it had begun, and the rest of the meal was spent in silence. Gippal didn’t have the courage to look up from his plate, and the fact that he could feel Baralai’s father’s glare on him didn’t really help... “Um, thanks for the food, it was delicious,” he said after he had eaten and started to stand up.

“You’re not leaving already, are you?” Eva asked, frowning in concern.

“Yes, I promised myself that I would leave once I could, I don’t want to be a burden,” Gippal explained with a slight smile. “Thank you for your hospitality, I’m in your debt.”

“Oh, no you’re not,” Eva said and stood up to take the dishes from the table. “If you’re sure that you want to go, Baralai will surely accompany you for a while, won’t you dear?”

Before Gippal had a chance to protest, Baralai had already nodded his agreement and stood up as well. “Alright, let’s go then,” the dark-skinned boy said and smiled to Gippal.

Gippal could only nod, thank Eva again and then follow after Baralai. He didn’t have guts to look at Cedrick, so what if they thought he was rude now. He’d rather keep his head...

“You sure it’s okay to leave like this?” Baralai asked once they were outside, noticing that the morning sun was starting to get up in the sky. He hadn’t even realized he had been up for the whole night! He was going to tell the Al Bhed that the guards at the gates would probably throw him in jail — or shoot him — without asking any questions if they caught him, because of his race of course, but then realized that he didn’t want to offend the Al Bhed boy.

Gippal nodded. “Sure, I mean, I’m fine now so I can stop bothering your family, right?” But where would he go? Wander around in Bevelle, where everyone hated those like him? Not a very pleasant choice, but he had to start from somewhere, and getting out of Bevelle was the very first thing on his to-do list.

Baralai frowned slightly. “You weren’t bothering us, you know, Mom and I—oh.” He blinked a couple of times and turned to look at the Al Bhed. “If this is about my father, you shouldn’t care about him. He’s never really been fond of the Al Bhed, but what can you do when—”

Baralai’s voice started to fade away and Gippal raised a hand to hold his forehead as a wave of nausea washed over him. Damn... Maybe he wasn’t in such a good condition after all... He found Baralai at his side, holding him so that he wouldn’t fall, but soon it was all black and he passed out.

tbc...