What was she thinking?

Paine regarded the letter on her lap with a frown. Wouldn't writing a letter defeat the purpose? With a sigh she crumpled it up and tossed it into the waste basket across the room. If she was going to do this she had to do it right.

She was in the Celsius' cabin and fortunately all of the Gullwings were on a mission and had left her in the ship while she 'rested' because she'd been pretending to be sick...it would make running away a lot easier.

Three weeks had passed since the defeat of Vegnagun and already things were becoming unbearable again: at least for Paine anyway. Yuna's boyfriend Tidus had recently joined the Gullwings as well as some guy named Cameron, and believe it or not Calie who would be better off with the kinderguardians in Paine's opinion.

According to Shinra, who claimed to know everything, with the exception of Tidus they were only temps...and they would get bored and quit soon.....but still all this was too much for Paine to take. She missed the old Gullwings; just the six of them her, Yuna, Rikku, Buddy, Shinra, and Brother, all hunting for spheres and doing random things all around Spira. She used to hate those days...she was so miserable trying to chase her past that she didn't realize how much fun she was really having. Now all that was gone...she wasn't part of that small group anymore... she was no longer special. After all if Calie, a little kid, could do Paine's job than what did that say about being a Gullwing...about Paine.

And if that was bad enough she hadn't heard from Nooj, Gippal, or Baralai since they'd spoke in Luca prior to their big speech in Luca stadium. She thought that once she found her friends, once they'd forgiven each other and become friends again, that she would see them a lot...or at least as much as time would permit. Now she wondered if they really cared that much about her in the first place. Who was she trying to kid, she was just the recorder to the Crimson Squad and the sidekick to Yuna...she'd never accomplished anything on her own...she was completely worthless and entirely replaceable.

With a bitter sigh Paine finished packing her things, the only things she left behind were her garment grid, it came with the job in Paine's opinion so by leaving she'd have to leave it behind, and the Crimson squad spheres. She left them on her bed...she couldn't bear to watch them once she left.

Then after taking one last look around the ship's cabin, and bridge Paine went up to the deck. The deck was so beautiful even if the Celsius was less than ten feet above the ground. The Celsius was hovering over the calm lands, the part of them that wasn't covered with loud crowds and attractions, which could still be heard and sort of ruined the moment, but the place still had a sort of calmness to it.

Once upon a time Summoners crossed these lands on their way to Zanarkand;it was here that their resolve was put to the test and even the most powerful guardians and summoners' resolve faltered and sometimes broke. How ironic was it that here in this place Paine would give into herself and run away from everything that had happened in her past. Still, being here the resolve Paine once felt was strengthened.  She was too tired to go on like this anymore; she needed to start over soon before she really did break completely.

After glancing around to make sure the Gullwings were nowhere in sight, Paine took a deep breath and jumped off the deck. When she got to the ground she pulled out her sword, ready to defend herself from any fiends, and took off on the first journey in her brand new life.

A/N Hi everybody. ^_~ So usually I post this kind of thing on my Fanfiction.net account (In fact I was originally just going to put it up on there.) But in light of the Just-Write-It challenge being a fan fiction story about your OTP (One true Pairing) I decided to put it up on here. Okay so Paralai is absolutely my OTP (They are so perfect.) And the funny thing is, is that when I first started writing this story I hadn't planned on making it a Paralai story....but I just couldn't help it because it worked so perfectly. Anyway so since this is the just write it contest my goal is at least 10,000 words by the end of the month, but the story might be longer than that. Anyway so I'm going to post another chapter of this every Monday and sometimes Friday...so you can look forward to that. ^_~ Alright well see you in the next chapter. Bye-nee -Reibun