Along A Small Corner of Bhujerba
Author: Asagi
Pairing: Balthier x Vaan
Warning: Male x Male relationship, non-consent neko… drunk neko for exact ^^; (rape without explicit scene), A bit of OOC
"I want to drink it."
That was almost a dozen times Vaan said the line. Made a waitress nearby desperately holds her giggles and struggled to keep balance with her fully loaded tray. He sulked behind a goblet he gripped by two hands on an arched table in the middle of the room. Vaan glared into his goblet and found some purple liquid filled it. He wanted something else, his eyes showed that.
The teenager complained quietly with his eyes a couple seconds after a waitress brought his drink to the table, he realized that he got a different kind of drink from everyone else. What was that…? The bar's owner, Melissa had told him that it was Madhu when he asked about the drink she served for someone earlier. But before he asked that he wanted to taste it, a short legged moggle sneering at him and said that he was too young to drink it and better to come back again later. Much later.
"Here. For you."
Melissa put forth a small plate of sweet treat in front of him, and quickly earned a tired groan from the boy who dropped his head on the table with an audible collision sound. She laughed it.
This is The Cloudborne, a small bar that resided in one busy corner of The Sky City of Bhujerba. Where the teenager got dragged by some Bhujerban into, upon his bold announcements around the city regarding the city's ruler, Marquis Ondore's lies and about how the traitor, Captain Basch fon Ronsenburg was remain alive and has escaped the prison.
For umpteenth times in that early evening Vaan tried to grab another goblet on the table with Madhu in it, and for that as much times he failed. Everybody in the room was always preaching about his young age and their responsibility as an adult to keep away a young teenager like him being stained from any adult things he shouldn't have before he reached at least twenty.
Of course he knew that that was just a bluff. As if they were really care about it. It is just because Balthier told them to distance him from those alcohols contained drink with an unlocked gun in his hand and a single shot between a customer's legs that ignored him before he left out the place with his partner, Fran. At this exact time he cursed grudgingly upon that busy-body sky pirate who made him looked like a pathetic little kid in front of everyone.
"So, they're your friends?"
Melissa's question cut a waterway long line of swearing words Vaan mumbled for about ten minutes and moved his attention to the squeezed grape he finally decided to drink.
"Your guardians then?" She asked again when she didn't get any responses from the boy.
"No, they're not!" Vaan exclaimed loudly, then stared back down. "And stop treating me like a kid." He said again in a low voice.
She sighed when she saw the boy frowned. "Well, it's not like I treated you like a kid. But… What was it…?" She put her forefinger on her chin, looked thinking to search the right words. "Hmm… Not the right time."
"That's the same thing." He commented sharply, made the bar owner slightly winced and laughing nervously.
A second later, the door behind him opened roughly. Revealed a dim light scenery outside and a drunken green Bangaa standing with a half empty bottle in his hand. Without closing the door, that Bangaa walked wobbly to the center table and took a sit right beside Vaan. The teenager automatically ignored him, but not with the other.
The green Bangaa suddenly leaned to the boy, leered into his goblet with his red eyes. He twitched, then laughed very loud, makes Vaan jolted and almost fell from the stool.
"Wha-What?" Vaan snapped. He inhaled deeply to calm down his surprised chest.
The Bangaa choked down his bottle empty in one gulp, an alcohol smell liquid running down his crocodile-looking mouth, through the sharp teeth and down soaking his body. Vaan twitched his nose at the scene, if only he could to say that it was disgusting. But he couldn't, then he just shifted his body slightly to avoid the sputter.
It was proved fail, as now the Bangaa nonchalantly stretched out his arm around Vaan's shoulders and pulled him closer.
"Hahaha. What'z thizz? You 'hic' are in a bar, and yet 'hic' you drinking zum juice. Mwahahaha!"
"What's wrong with that?" Vaan complained, he struggled to get off, but the Bangaa's arm was too strong for him. On top of it he was heavily drunk.
"Lizzen kid 'hic' ." He got a serious tone; stared at the boy into his eyes. Vaan twitched the edge of his lips, he couldn't stand their faces right now were very close and he could to see the Bangaa's sharp teeth clearly.
"…'hic'. It'z pathetic… a wazte! Hahahaha!" Vaan felt a terrible creep down to his spine when he saw those sharp teeth more clearly inside a grimacing crocodile mouth now.
"It-it's because no one would give me that drink."
"Hah? You mean thiz?" He slid forth a Madhu-filled goblet nearby to him. The boy nodded slightly, his neck was still held by the green arm around him. "Then drink."
"Huh?" Vaan raised his head and eyebrows at the same time.
"Come on, drink it." He ended with a loud hiccup.
"But… They said that I'm still a kid and can't drink it." He muttered lowly.
"Hahahahaha. You know what. 'hic' I've been drinking madhu since I waz born. Don't 'hic' worry about it. You're already old enough."
"I won't let that kid drink it if I were you." Suddenly a customer who sits on a table behind him interupted, he has a warning expression towards the Bangaa.
The non-human creature hiccups once again, "Heh? What's the problem whitz that?"
But before that customer could to say the line further, Vaan cut in. "Really? I can drink it?"
"Yeah. What? Your parents here?"
"No!" Vaan snarled again. And it was not that if he had parents too though.
Slowly the teenager took the goblet after the drunken Bangaa let go off him and let him drink for the first time. He brought the goblet closer to his lips; a strong smell of alcohol choked his nose. Almost makes him decided to stop, but no. He wouldn't overlook this chance. Not if he would never find another better.
Melissa looked at him with worry and mouthed 'oh, my.' She couldn't imagine what kind of carnage would happen in her bar later, just before she saw a figure line of a certain sky pirate and his Viera partner across the wide opened door. Half running.
Cloudborne Street. A couple of minutes earlier.
"After our preparation is finished, we will go to the Marquis' mansion tomorrow. You should sleep early too, Fran. I think we can't let our guard down there even if we actually invited to come. Hm, what's the matter?"
Balthier turned his head to Fran who suddenly murmured something around the bar's door was open and she saw a Bangaa hold Vaan. When the man's eyes trailed her sight into the bar, he already saw the boy dropped his goblet onto the floor and just frozen in his stance. Everyone in the room except the green Bangaa who gave Vaan drink looked like hold their breath down. Moreover after a random customer shouted and pointing to their direction.
"They're back!"
Confused and also at the same time he could to read what was going on right now, the sky pirate unconsciously dragged his feet to the bar faster. It was terribly silence when he stepped into the room. Balthier walked closer to the boy, he still hasn't moved an inch. He glanced to the bar's owner, but only earned a little smile from her.
"Vaan?" He put his hand on Vaan's shoulder. The teenager jolted slightly, he raised his head and looked up at the sky pirate with empty eyes. His pupils were like a blue nethicite that shrouded in red blood vessel threads. They looked painful.
"Vaan, you…" He asked again, in his head he knew what had happen during the time he and Fran gone. He cursed, glaring to the side, that Bangaa hasn't realized yet what will happen to him after this and kept drinking down his glass.
Vaan tried to stand, "I'm tired." He said in a low husky tone, he put the weight of his body on his stiffed arms on the table. The older man snaked his arm around the boy's waist to help him standing straight. Balthier gasped when Vaan's head suddenly flopped to the side and finally his legs gave up then almost dropped roughly to the floor if the sky pirate didn't catch him quickly before that happens.
"Hey!" He slapped the boy's cheek. Vaan groaned lowly. His eyelids were half open, but with no any conscious drew in there.
Balthier smelled a strong alcohol from inside Vaan's mouth. "I told you, don't drink it. You won't stand the alcohol."
"Are you worried about him, Balthier?" Fran raised her white eyebrows. Because as long as she could to remember, her partner was never particularly think or concerned about anyone else. Especially a young lad like Vaan.
"No." He answered stoically. Fran raised her eyebrows higher.
"Eh?"
He sighed. "Well, it's only because he said he never drink madhu before. I thought that I could have his first glass and gave it with my…"
"You can use some rooms upstairs if you want." Melissa cut in. "The nearest inn is quite far from the Marquis' mansion. And I believe it will be easier for you, since Captain Basch seemed won't be here until tomorrow morning."
The man nodded, he remembered Basch was taken by some Bhujerban to someplace only they know where earlier. Maybe they wanted to discuss some serious matter with him regarding the rumors, or maybe they wanted to ask why he could still alive if Marquis Ondore had given him a death sentence two years ago.
"Alright then."
"Go up to the stairs behind that door, you will found a few rooms you can use for the night." She explained while pointed to a wooden door in a corner.
Balthier lifted Vaan's body on his arms. His chest was wet and also reeks of alcohol. But on the other hand he also quite delighted by the scene of Vaan's luster skin reflected by the bright lamp in the room. Just before he stepped on the first stairs, he turned his body graciously to the Bangaa who still drinking and shouting loud nonchalantly. He moved Vaan's body onto his shoulder; his hand grabbed his loyal long barrel gun on his back and pulled the trigger three times without hesitant. The first bullet breaking the goblet in that Bangaa's hand to pieces, the second one sunk to the wooden table in front of him and the last one was almost hit the side of his head.
The atmosphere in the room became silence once again. The drunken green Bangaa who was still frightened out with, only could to turn his head a little to the mark of a bullet that crossing his head on the floor and imagined if the shooter didn't miss the shot and that bullet actually makes an ugly hole in his ugly head. He passed out immediately after his eyes met with Balthier's.
Balthier put his gun on his back again and hold Vaan like before, walking upstairs, Fran stared at him questioningly.
"How dare he took that from me." Was the last sentence she heard before they picked a room and closed the door.
Midnight had passed only a few minutes ago. Vaan squirmed under a thin white sheet. His fingers reached his head and slightly pulled a handful of hair in his fisted hand. He groaned as the sharp pain in his head won't just go away but become more and more painful every time he moved.
He tried to open his eyes, but stuck half lid opened from the pain that stung his head like a slicer. Five minutes he stayed on that state, then his eyes began to see more clearly and captured a man wearing a white shirt and ruffled his hair dry with a white towel coming out from a door across where he was laying at the moment.
"You're awake?" The man stated as he saw the teenager has opened his eyes.
"Balthier?" Vaan said when he realized who the man is when he walked closer to him.
"Quite a chore I've got here."
"Huh?"
"You. You drink madhu without my concern, and then just fell unconscious after that. I had to carry you here." Vaan trailed him stopped beside the bed stand, threw the towel with abandon to a small wood chair nearby, then pour some drinks into a tall glass. "How's it taste? You like it?"
"What?" He curled his forehead in question.
Balthier raised the glass in his hand, "This. You always wanted to drink it, now you have, how's it taste?"
Vaan hummed a little before he vaguely remembered all the things happened before he gone unconscious. He laughed nervously behind the sheet he gripped like a life line.
"You even threw up on me that I have to washed you earlier." He said nonchalantly as he sits on the bed beside Vaan.
"Eh?" Threw up he said? He didn't remember he did it. Or maybe he did? He cursed under his breath; he couldn't remember what really happened with this kind of annoying pain in his head.
And wait a second! Did he say, washed…him?
Vaan gasped sharply. Now if he thinks about it, he felt like he actually doesn't wearing anything under the sheet. He raised his knee slightly, to only found that there was nothing except the thin sheet covering his body from the cold air in the room. A dark shade of red crawled fast his face to behind of his neck and left a visible trace of burning feeling.
"Whe-where is my clothes?"
"I gave it to a waitress to get washed. You'll get it back in the morning."
He slowly buried his head into the pillow and gripped the edge of the sheet tighter than before. What was he ashamed for anyway? They are both men. It wasn't a big problem if he saw the others naked, right? But why he felt different if Balthier is the one who saw him.
The sky pirate chuckled at the scene. He got unruly hair despite his usual brushed back hairstyle; several locks of his still wet hair fell on his temple without him minding it.
"What?" Vaan snapped at Balthier who wouldn't stop his chuckling even after he death glared him.
The older man shook his head; he exhaled a deep breath, still wore a wicked smile on his face. "Nothing. You know, I thought you would compel or threat me to give you madhu since you really want to drink it. But actually this is become much more interesting, although I never expected that there is an ugly Bangaa who gave it to you first than me."
Balthier shifted his position a little, so that now his left arm supported his weight beside the teenager's head. He continued, "Then again, I bet that that Bangaa didn't do the same thing with the way I will do it right now."
He earned a confused glare on Vaan's face, which is made the sky pirate felt an unbearable urge to tease the boy further.
"Now that you already have your first glass, the second one won't be that hard, right?"
Balthier sip the liquid in the glass, but haven't swallowed it yet. Then he shifted his body further, made his position now is exactly above the younger one in the bed and stiffed arms both sides of his head like a sturdy pillars pinned his body down. He bent his left arm, his hand cupped the teenager's head and make sure it will stay in its place as his right hand caressing Vaan's crimsoning cheek, up to his temple, brushed a blond lock to the side and wormed down lifted his chin to the exact place where their lips are on the same line.
Vaan blinked his eyes emptily, he hasn't found out why he didn't resist Balthier at all. The sky pirate's eyes hypnotized him to stay still and go wherever he took him to. He didn't noticing how much close their faces to each other before the older man made his lips shivering from his breath. It felt warm and at the same time it was cold from midnight air flowing around them.
He hasn't realized that Balthier had pulled off the only cloth that covering his body to the side. Harshly let him shuddered from the sudden freezing air that finally reached onto his body. Although soon he would only feel the heat as their naked skin cling to each other and Balthier pressed his lips to his own, poured a warm bitter liquid down into his throat while the sky pirate's well-grounded tongue possessively claiming every nooks and crannies he could to find in his mouth.
Vaan unconsciously clutched the burning skin behind Balthier's unbuttoned shirt. Did he want this to stop? But the other read it different. The man did stop for a while, still hasn't removed his lips from the swollen lips he found treasured, only to ask if the teenager felt a little spinning in his head. He didn't get any answers instead of a languid flicker of dreary eyes and weakened arms arched to his neck.
For the time as he downed his body craving for Vaan's increasing heat, Balthier still hasn't realized that he holding him tighter and slowly become afraid of losing him anytime he took his eyes out of him.
Dark light of the dawn haven't changed the air in the city. Balthier looked at the boy laying on his side beneath him with the same eyes as before he released all of his passion to him. He pulled Vaan's body up by his wrist and put the teenager on his lap. Never crossed his mind that the boy would actually this weak to alcohol, if he remembered how he could to emptied three bottles all at once when he was at the same age as Vaan. No, it was two years younger than Vaan for exact.
"It's cold." Vaan whimpered lowly.
Balthier chuckled when the teenager snuggled closer to him, curled his body in his lap. Come to think of it, maybe he would take an advantage from this for a little while in the future. He rounded his arm around Vaan's waist, his skin turning colder, then the older man took the sheet that half hanging the corner edge of the bed, quickly folding Vaan's body with the thin cloth, covering all new red marks he made and several old ones that haven't recovered yet. But just after he put the boy back to the bed and about to kiss him, he jolted in quite surprise as the door across him opened roughly with a loud sound.
Before he could to turn his head to the door, he felt a strong hand pulled his shoulder and hit his face hard with terrible anger. What's worse? The familiar figure that Balthier just realized who he is, shortly took Vaan outside to another room, leaving the sky pirate fell harshly onto the floor, grimacing to hold the freshly burning pain he felt on his cheek.
Fran noticed that the room Balthier was in last night opened a little. She pushed it, shown her a scene where her partner was sitting in front of a window while holding a tall glass he put on the knee of his crossed legs.
From the way his clothes untidy, ruffled hair nothing like his usual self. She also captured a new dark indigo mark on his cheek and he looked nudging the inside with his tongue, she got all the things in line what were happened not too long ago.
She walked closer, "Maybe you should lock the door last night, Balthier."
"I did." He answered stoically; makes the viera turned to the door and found the lock broken with some little parts of it scattered around on the floor and the door handle hanging freely from its base. She let out a realized expression on her face.
"Hm… Then maybe Basch will always block you away from that boy." She said understandingly.
The sky pirate finally turned to his partner, staring at her in surprise but quickly back to his usual stoic face. He smirked in a mischievous way,
"Vaan is mine, he can't do anything about this." He said confidently.
Fran decided to step out of the room, shaking her head amusedly.
"There is a small temple on the way here, perhaps you want to bring that boy there before Basch has completely blocked your way."
He chuckled lightly, "After another bottle of madhu… yes I will."
A/N: A short sequel for my earlier story 'On the Way through the Sky'. Just put up the idea about how Basch would slaughter Balthier. Haha. Well… not really slaughter, I don't know if this is work that out or no.
Thank you for all Reader-san tachi who spare their times to read this fic. Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu. Don't flame me, please. It won't get me anywhere. Critics and advices are much more appreciated.