Baralai sighed, looking down at the sleeping Gippal. He was so worried, and he couldn't help but feel like this was all his fault.
"It is my fault," Baralai murmured, brushing a tear from his cheek. More tears followed and soon he was sobbing. The sixteen year old looked back to Gippal, sighing once again. "Please wake up."
Gippal's eyes slowly fluttered open. He blinked, confused at first as he started to wake up. He looked up, noticing Baralai sobbing at his side. Gippal then remembered what happened and mentally cursed. 'Why did I react that way? I know Baralai is not like all those others. He didn't mean to fall on me. He actually cares about me...he called me adorable.'
"Baralai..." Gippal weakly moaned, reaching for Baralai's hand.
Gasping in surprise, Baralai looked up, smiling in relief, "Gippal, you're awake!" Baralai squeezed Gippal's hand, "Oh, Yevon, I'm so glad. You scared me to death."
Sitting up, Gippal frowned, "I'm really sorry, Baralai, I didn't mean to worry you."
"Wait, why are you apologizing? It was all my fault. I'm the one who should say I'm sorry. I'm really clumsy and I fell."
"No, it wasn't your fault, Baralai." Gippal said, "I have...some problems when people touch me...it makes me remember. I-I hate remembering." Gippal looked away from Baralai.
Baralai was dying to know what had happened to Gippal. He wanted to know his whole story, but he didn't want to ask. Gippal made it clear that he didn't like to remember, so Baralai knew he wouldn't want to talk.
"I-if you want to talk, I'm here," Baralai whispered, his eyes widening when the older teen tried to get out of bed, "ooh, are you sure you should get up?"
Gippal smiled, "I'm fine, Baralai, besides, I really need to go."
Baralai frowned, "go, go where? Are you leaving me?"
Gippal looked at Baralai, his eyes twinkling. 'He's truly adorable and innocent.'
"Of course not, Lai, I need to use the bathroom."
"Hehe...ohh," Baralai flushed in embarrassment.
"You're the adorable one," Gippal said, enjoying how Baralai looked when he flushed. "And about that talking thing...let me think about it, kay?"
Baralai watched as Gippal walked to the bathroom, falling onto his bed and giggling like a school girl. 'He called me adorable...me! Could that mean...does he...' Baralai bit his lip, 'actually like me?'
In the bathroom, Gippal leaned against the door, breathing heavily.
Gippal remembered it quite clearly. He and his best friend had been at the park playing when two grown men swarmed then, knocking out both boys. When Gippal woke up, he was in a cold, damp room. His best friend was lying over his lap still passed out.
He'd taken the boy by the shoulders, shaking him gently. 'Wake up, Tidus,' he'd yelled. The blonde didn't wake up right away, scaring Gippal to death.
"Baralai," Gippal yelled. He'd decided he wanted to talk. He had to get this off his chest.
"Yes?" Gippal heard Baralai answer.
Opening the bathroom door, Gippal walked over to the bed and set down next to Baralai. "I-I want to talk about what happened."
"All right." Baralai smiled, happy that Gippal seemed to trust him enough to open up to.
"I had just turned thirteen years old..."
Thirteen year old Gippal grinned over to his eleven year old best friend, Tidus. Both blondes were sitting in the park, warn out. They'd been play fighting for a few hours.
"How come I can never beat you?" Tidus wined, giving a cute pout.
"Haha, that's because you're so small, and I'm big and strong." Gippal proudly puffed out his chest. "I look older then I am, don't I?"
Tidus nodded, "yep, you're all muscley like a grown man."
Gippal smirked, "sure am. Don't worry, Ti, soon, you'll get bigger and all the girls will be all over you."
Tidus rolled his eyes, "size doesn't matter; I already have many admirers, thank you very much."
"Yeah, cause you're so cute."
"Got that right."
The two were the best of friends, so they were comfortable talking like this. Neither one had feeling for the other; bet even so they knew the other was cute. Both boys were openly gay, but still acted like they liked girls.
"Gippal, I need to head home; mom will get worried if I'm not home soon." Tidus started to stand up, letting out a squeak of surprise when he felt strong arms go around his waist.
"GIPPAL!"
Gippal jumped to his feet and started to run to Tidus' aid, seeing the large thug that was holding him.
"Hey let go of him!"
"Frank, just knock him out already," someone behind Gippal instructed. Gippal watched with wide eyes as Frank hit Tidus over the head with the butt of his gun.
"No! Tidus!"
"Shut up!"
Gippal gasped in pain, everything going blank,
Baralai looked down, tears falling down his cheeks, "you guys were kidnapped?"
Gippal nodded, "yeah. When I woke up..."
Gippal woke up, wincing in pain. He touched his head, pulling his hand away. His eyes went wide, seeing the blood on his fingers.
"What happened?" Gippal blinked, trying to remember. "Oh my Yevon!" He exclaimed when he remembered.
Noticing a weight in his lap, he looked down. "Ti." He whispered, fear clear in his voice.
Hair matted with blood, Tidus was lying in Gippal's lap.
"Wake up, Tidus" Gippal took Tidus' shoulders and gently shook him. Tidus stirred but did not wake.
"Oh Yevon, is he...dead?"
"Howcoudsaytha..." Tidus mumbled.
Gippal smiled, "Tidus, you're okay! What did you say?"
Tidus painfully set up, holding his head, "I said, how could you say that? I would never die and leave you."
Gippal grabbed Tidus, pulling him into a gentle hug, "aw, I know. Me neither; I'll never leave you either."
"You sound like lovers..." a weak voice moaned from somewhere in the room.
Tidus and Gippal jumped. "Whose there?" Tidus asked, sounding frightened.
"J-just another slave." the voice answered.
"S-slave." Gippal gasped. He was a slave!
Tidus stood up, heading toward the voice. "Are you okay?" Tidus asked, concerned.
"I took a hard hit to the head, but I think I'll be okay." The voice answered.
Tidus gasped when he finally found who was talking. He knelt down, touching the boy on the shoulder. The side of his face was really bloody and swollen. His lip was busted too.
"Hi," the teen set up. "Who are you?"
"I'm Tidus and he's Gippal, and no we're not lovers just really good friends." Tidus answered.
The teen smiled, "oh. My names Wakka."
Gippal stood up and walked over to Wakka, sitting down next to Tidus and Wakka. "Do you know what's going on?" he asked Wakka.
"Y-yeah, these guys are gathering people to be...be..." Wakka looked away from Gippal and Tidus, "pleasure slaves. After they find you a master you go live with them and follow their orders. When your master gets tired of you, you come back here until a new master decides to buy you."
"Buy?" Gippal gulped.
"Y-yeah, so far, I've only had one master." Wakka frowned. "He got tired of me fast though and threw me back in favor of a younger boy."
"T-that's awful." Tidus cried, doing his best to clean Wakka's wound with a ripped piece of his shirt."
Wakka shook his head, "it wasn't so bad. As far as masters go, he was decent. I've heard of terrible masters." Wakka shuddered.
"I want him!"
Everyone jumped when they heard a loud male voice.
"Oh, and him."
Four men barged into the room. Two grabbed Tidus and two grabbed Wakka.
"No! Let them go!" Gippal yelled, crying as someone else came and held him down. "Tidus! Tidus! Olive juice!"
Tidus struggled, "Olive juice, Gippal!"
Tears fell down his cheeks, as Gippal watched the men take away his best friend and the redhead.
'I'll never see them again, will I?'
Baralai frowned, holding Gippal in a hug, "olive juice?" he quietly questioned.
Gippal smiled. "It’s something we came up with. When you say that it looks like you're saying 'I love you.' So whenever we felt like being mushy and silly, we'd say that, you know, really meaning 'I love you' cause we did. We loved each other so much. We were so close like brothers.'
"A-after that, did you see Tidus or Wakka again?" Baralai asked.
"N-no, but I met many other slaves." Gippal sighed
Gippal stopped crying when he saw with wide eyes as a thug threw a small girl into his room.
He went to the girl's side, "are you okay?" he whispered, bending down and helping her up.
The girl looked up at Gippal with watery green eyes. "They took me away from my mommy, daddy and brother."
Gippal sighed, "they took me away from my parents too, and my best friend."
"They're mean."
"Yeah, who are you?"
"Me is Rikku. I'm ten years old."
So they're kidnapping girls too, not just boys, Gippal thought.
It had been three weeks since Gippal found himself in this dank room. Rikku had come and went fast. She was adorable and not many could resist her.
Gippal looked around the room; half wishing someone would take him. He was tired of this place and its cruel people.
He'd already been roughly handled by someone named Bud. Bud to Gippal's horror pulled his pants down and touched him in places he'd never been touched before, seeming to be inspecting his worth.
"Tidus, Wakka, Rikku...please be okay." Gippal moaned to the empty room.
"Heads up, Gippal." Gippal looked up, gasping when Bud threw a girl in his arms. Bud snickered, "good catch."
"Bastard," Gippal growled, looking down at the dark haired girl. "What did you do to her?"
"Aw, she displeased her last master by...well you know biting his man hood, so we need to re-sale her." Bud shook his head, "sluts these days."
"She's not a slut, so shut up." Gippal yelled as Bud left the room.
"Hey are you okay?" Gippal asked as the girl started to wake up.
"Oh, peachy keen," was the girls' sarcastic remark.
"Stupid question; I know you're not okay... I'm just worried about your head."
The girl smiled, "sorry, I'm not used to people actually caring. I'm fine. It's just a bruise. My master got a worse deal then me, let me tell you."
Gippal made a face, "so I heard. Ouch."
"He deserved it." the girl whispered.
"Oh, I know." Gippal patted the girl on the back.
"My name's Gippal, and you?"
"Lulu. This is my third time in this room." she whispered, shivering. "I came here when I was ten," she looked away from Gippal, "I'm twelve now."
Two years! She'd been a slave for two years!
"What's wrong, Baralai?" Gippal asked, noticing that the silver haired youth seemed to be thinking hard about something.
"I just realized something I think. Six years ago, my friend disappeared. I'm wondering if she was taken by the same people who took you and the others."
"What was her name?" Gippal quietly asked.
"Paine. She was just ten when she went missing." Baralai answered.
Gippal bit his lip, then shook his head, "no, sorry, I didn't meet any girls by that name."
"You have nowhere to go now, do you? You're parents?"
Gippal sighed, "They’re long gone. One of my masters told me. My died of a sickness and dad died in a chocobo accident."
"I'm sorry," Baralai whispered.
"Gippal, you can stay with me for as long as you want."
Gippal smiled, "really?"
"Yes...I G-Gippal, I like you. I don't want anyone to ever hurt you again." Baralai exclaimed, throwing his arms around Gippal's neck.
Gippal tensed at first, but a soft smile overcame his features as he relaxed, hugging Baralai back.
"I never thought anyone could ever like me for real." Gippal tightened his hold on Baralai.
"I do, really I do."
"I'm glad. I like you, too. Tidus would approve I'm sure." Gippal whispered, frowning a bit. He really missed his best friend. He couldn't believe it had been five years already.
"This place they took you...do you know where it was?" Baralai suddenly asked.
"The men had Besaid accents, so I think it was on the isle of Besaid." Gippal answered.
"Well it shouldn't be so hard finding the slave house; that's such a small island." Baralai pulled away from Gippal, "I think it's time you're reunited with your friends, Gippal."
Gippal stood up, "you really think we could find them?"
"Of course. They must keep records of who they sale their slaves to. So we'll find them, then save everyone!"
Gippal grinned, 'Tidus, Wakka, Rikku, Lulu, everyone else, we're coming!'
"Let's do it!"
Baralai nodded, 'Paine if you're out there, I'll find you!'
"We can't just go; first we need supplies; weapons, healing magic...we need a white mage on our side." Baralai smiled. "And I know just the mage; she happens to live nearby."
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