Title: A Lesson
Fandom: FFX-2
Rating: G
Wordcount: 150
Characters: Paine, Rikku, Yuna
Spoilers: None
Notes: Written for the Alphabet Fic Meme, to first_seventhe's request of "Pain - YRP". This one started out wanting to be a drabble, but I just couldn't make it fit into 100 words. Then I tried expanding it to a double drabble, and that was even more awkward -- if it's possible for a 200 word story to be unwieldy, this one was. So I pared it back again, and it ended up as a "drabble-and-a-half", which is probably cheating, but oh well.


"Ow!" Rikku whirled away, a breath too late. "Careful, those things are sharp!"

Paine glared back, scowl complimenting her Berserker warpaint. "You wouldn't get hurt if you'd get out of the way."

Rikku inspected her arm: four thin red lines, evenly spaced, already stinging. "I'm bleeding. From a sparring match. Aren't you taking this a little too seriously?"

"There are two kinds of fighters: serious and dead." Paine morphed out of her dressphere; the frown remained. "If it takes a few scratches to teach you the difference, fine." She pivoted on her heel and stalked off, brushing past Yuna on her way out of the cabin.

Yuna watched Paine go, then moved to Rikku's side, White Mage sphere in hand. "What was that all about?"

Rikku held out her arm for Yuna's Cure, still staring at the closed door. "Who knows? Sometimes I don't think we'll ever figure her out."