Final Fantasy X-2: The Luckiest Day
Nooj stared into the engine room, lips pursed. He could still hear Gippal and Baralai's laughter in the hallway behind the closed bulkhead door. Sometimes he wished he could demote them on principle for being brats.
"Well, this is lucky." Paine was trying not to laugh at his displeasure, too, and Nooj wondered how long she'd last.
"I'd like to know how."
Paine's eyebrow went up, and she glanced back at the nest. "Well, my parents used to tell me chocobos laying eggs in a place where people lived was lucky."
"Mine told me it was a bad omen." Nooj remembered that well enough, among the other bad memories from his childhood. Bad memories were so pervasive; it was all he could dredge up when thinking back to his family. "Two years of bad weather and Si—" He paused. "It seems as if our concepts of these eggs is quite different."
Paine walked forward to stare at the huge nest and the two eggs sitting in it. Nooj had been to some of the chocobo farms that had bred and fostered the Chocobo Knights, but the eggs were something he had never seen. Of course, Fate had to arrange it so the first time he did it meant two eggs on his ship and the mother nowhere to be found.
Too late for breakfast, he thought, but kept his mouth shut.
"I didn't think anything would come in here, with the smell," Paine said. Nooj agreed; the engine room reeked after its soak in the ocean for so many years. They hadn't cleaned this part of the ship yet. Paine looked toward the ramp leading out into the field. "I guess she really needed a place to lay the eggs. Think she'll be back?"
"I wouldn't know." Being a captain of an airship was a headache, and he had no idea how he had let the others talk him into it. Yesterday it had been the plumbing, the day before that, a leak in the engines. Today was the day for finding chocobo eggs and everyone else wanting to keep them.
"Maybe we should treat them like they're lucky." Paine stood up and crossed her arms, and gave him a pleased look. "Our ship, our rules, right? Unless you want to be negative about it; don't let me stop you."
He ignored the jab. "My father—" Nooj paused when Paine's face registered surprise. He knew he didn't speak of family that much. It was too easy for him to forget how much he was still keeping from Paine?from everyone. "He said a month before I was born, a chocobo laid eggs in our hut while we were out fishing. They couldn't go anywhere near the door for over a week."
"So your parents thought it meant bad luck?"
"Everything had meaning, especially if it made them victims." Nooj thumped his cane on the floor, nodded. "Perhaps I prefer your way." Nooj didn't expect Paine to look at him the way she did, with a hint of promise.
"Trying to score points with the pilot, captain?" She was teasing him on purpose. Nooj reminded himself they were on duty, and Baralai and Gippal weren't above recording anything they saw that looked interesting if they stumbled across it. There was no reason to give them cause.
"If I say yes, how many points do I earn?" He didn't expect an answer, but the warm flush he teased onto Paine's face was worth it. "If the chocobo chose our ship, perhaps it's a good blessing. It was a safe place." It was a surprise to him that he felt like he understood the chocobo now—safe spaces were hard to find outside the cities these days, or even inside them.
"Well, I guess that means we'll leave the door open." Paine backed away from the nest to stand with him. "Lucky us."
"Indeed," Nooj said, and damn any recorders, he thought, pulling a startled Paine close to kiss her.
After all, luck had been on his side for months already.