Disclaimer: FFXII is Squenix's.

Author natterings: First FFXII ficlet ever! Now, before you nail me for Balthier's unsmoothness, remember that he's quite young here. Though a Judge, he is still, in a sense, an adolescent. (And hey, wouldn't you be a little shaky around Fran the first time too? XD)

Life Anew

Okay. This wasn't a big deal.

So maybe he was lost. But how could he not be, after leaving the city he'd called home for his whole life, and walking calmly through the strange wilderness trying to formulate a proper plan? Geez, it was practically a requirement that he be lost.

So really, he was right on track.

He was just so tired of all this justice yadda yadda. What was justice anymore? His moral compass was scrambled right now. Without it, what did he have? His father was this... invisble force that threw him off.

He squinted his eyes in the dark, as if it would help his vision. Should he go back? Damn, it was hard to see. You know, if he didn't know better, he'd say that he was just about to walk into somethimmpf.

"Excuse me," the somethimmpf said. It didn't seem the polite, meek kind of 'excuse me' though. Qualities in this certain 'excuse me' were abundant in the annoyed kind.

Luckily, he knew a thing or three about dealing with abundantly annoyed persons. He ceased contact of his cheekbone with some kind of limb, and backed away with smooth respect. He absently twitched his shirtsleeves into place. "Sorry."

"You should watch where you step," the voice revealed itself to belong to a woman.

"Yes, well," was all he could produce. He looked up, sensing that this was where the voice was coming from. Had he run into her... leg? What should he say? 'I'm sorry for touching your leg?' 'I'm sorry, milady, for violating your tender skin.' He began to speak, starting out sounding nonchalant and then having it dissipate through sincerity, "I'm sorry for this."

A silence stitched lightly with amusement was all that came out of her for awhile. "It's fine."

He was quieted for a moment. 'Fine.' 'Fine' was not a word that people used to actually describe a situation. Especially when that person was a woman.

"Really though," he insisted. He wanted to smooth everything over to a perfect conclusion, as Judges were wont to do. (Would that tendency ever leave him?) "If I hadn't run into you I would've had an encounter with this rock you are sitting on, and that would have been a lot--" he stopped himself. What - 'Less pleasant'?

She was quiet a lot. He only noticed this because he realized that he himself was acting like a blabbering idiot. What was up with that? He was a Judge. You know, those guys who had dignity. And a vocabulary.

"-- not good."

If he could've seen her face, he'd have seen her eyebrows go up.

"Right! So." He scratched behind his head with a finger and awkwardly looked around. Like he'd see anything. He tugged, hard, at his shirtcuff.

"So?" she prompted. Her voice was very nice actually. Kind of scratchy undertones with a smoothness layered over top. Like, um... melting... ice cream.

You're melting ice cream, numbskull. His utter unsmoothness was really quite frustrating.

She was very still. Was he even talking to a living being? He shifted his stance to catch some of her in the moonlight.

Wait. Were those Viera ears? Everyone knew the Viera had insanely heightened senses. The cogs in his brain started to turn.

He had to keep from grinning. "So, I'd better get back into the city..."

"Mm-hm," she mm-hmed in her multi-layered voice.

"It's very dark though. It's really too bad I can't tell which way it is."

"Yes," was all she said, nodding her head once. The ears accented the movement. How had he not seen them before? He really was losing his touch. Soon he'd lose all his delegation skills and his ability to read people. Hm. All the more reason to march up to his father and tell him that there was no way, no how, he'd continue on with this nobleman crap--

... Was she examining a fingernail?

Waitaminute. This wasn't right. She was supposed to point him towards the city with her excellent senses! Not blantantly ignore a request for help!

His eyes squinted, an indignant kind of squinting, and his hand made its way to his hip without him realizing. What did he need to do to get this woman's attention?

"So, what's a Viera like you doing in a place like this?"

It didn't hit him until it left his mouth that he could possibility be beat up by her for saying that. He didn't think this particular Viera was your average peace-loving Viera.

Her mouth was set firmly, but even in the meager moonlight he could see her borderline incredulous expression.

He bowed his head and touched his forehead briefly, expressing his embarassment at himself. "I mean, ah. Ah, what are you doing so far from the Wood?"

Incredulous expression still in check, she spoke. "I chose to leave. Is that so abnormal?"

"No, no it isn't." He hesitated. After all, he'd chose to leave his home too. Just, he was going back to make it official. A true man didn't just get up and go.

She tilted her head.

"It's not common to see your kind around these parts."

"No," she said. Were he less put-off, he would've heard something akin to regret in her tone. As it was, he didn't.

A pause. The absolute weirdness of the situation was just beginning to catch up with him. Standing around outside in the dark, talking to a random Viera? Weird. Definitely weird. He had to sacrifice his (admittedly, not so good) plan.

Fisting a hand in his hair, he approximated where her eyes would be, and looked into them. "Could you possibly help me find the city?"

Was she smirking? She knew all about his failed trick, didn't she? That meant she'd purposely not given him an answer...

Devious. He'd like to get to know this one.

"Can you follow directions?"

"Normally I could. I can't see though," he told her honestly.

"Move," she said to him. He stepped aside, she jumped down.

"Come." She gestured with her- um, nails? Claws?

He shook his head and blinked multiple times, clearing his mind. "Right."

As they walked, displacing pebbles and blades of grass, he thought idly to himself.

The thought that she could be leading him somewhere wrong didn't even occur to him. There was this sense of trust he had given her right off the bat. Kind of odd. That hadn't happened. Ever.

Pushing away this realization, he started up the conversation again. He could sense she didn't want to speak about the Wood, so he'd avoid that. He'd bring it up some other time. Already, he knew there would, in fact, be another time. "So, what were you doing out here?"

She turned her head slightly, those ears moving gracefully as well. In the moonlight, they looked delicate, thin even. "I was sensing the world around me."

He nodded. "So you could sense me coming?"

She blinked. "Yes."

"Why didn't you tell me I was going to hit you?" he asked, a laugh unwillingly creeping into his words.

"I assumed you would not. I suppose I overestimated you."

What! This one had a bite. He blinked back complete surprise. "Hey, that's not nice." Even so, he'd known she wasn't serious.

That was when she looked half over her shoulder at him. Her eyes were lit in a most surprising smile. The moonlight traced the edges of her lips, upturned.

Well, wasn't that one of the prettiest things he'd ever seen.

Silence settled between them once again. It wasn't an awkward one. Just now, he'd felt the decision click subtly into place. He was leaving. He was leaving, and somehow, this woman made him feel less alien to the idea.

"Up ahead."

He looked up from looking at her face. Over the crest of the hill was his home. Calling it home didn't feel right though. He looked over the grand city, an engulfing metropolis. His domain. It didn't fit him anymore, not since he'd found out his father's intentions.

Then, a new flutter of an idea came to him, a promise of delight in its foreign nature.

"I'll be leaving this place tomorrow," he told her.

She looked at him. He could tell she looked in a different way.

He looked back at her, full on. "Any chance I'll be seeing you?"

She lifted her chin the smallest fraction, and turned back the way they came.

He kept looking though, knowing, just feeling deep down, that she'd do something. One step. Another. Another.

That was when she looked half over her shoulder at him, and ever so slightly, smirked.