I Know
FFXII
Fran/Balthier, Ashe/Basch in a platonic sort of way
Spoilers through Salikawood
Game Present Tense
Began 7 December 2006 01:07 GMT
Finished 7 December 2006 17:43 GMT

Author's Note: For Jadie and Shikee

I Know
An Angst Romance In Two Acts

Chapter One: Home

The Salikawood was beautiful, despite it technically being Archadian territory. Nothing could stop the gentle spirits of the trees and the ancient voices of the mountains from singing their songs. The group hesitated, lingered in the woods, whether they observed this in themselves or not.

Fran observed it. Since stepping from the last rock ledge onto the canopy of the great forest, she observed everything. The smell of moss and the feel of the breeze awoke in her some ancient Truth. It was almost as if she could remember hearing the voices of the strong, beautiful trees of her home… Almost. She was lulled into quietude and simultaneously gripped by a bleak longing for her home. She spent significant time away from the group, wandering the paths the branches twisted for her, remembering. The others, she thought, were busy collecting fruit, hunting treasure, and tracking down Moogles.

She thought wrong.

A knock from the tree trunk nearby stopped her wandering and attracted her attention. She paused, and listened.

Again, there was a dull, hollow knocking sound.

Her ears swivelled, catching a faraway voice in the air. She looked down—way down, at least twenty yards—to the next sizable branch that snaked its way through the forest. On the base of the branch was a very familiar Hume man with his brows furrowed just enough to make him appear to pout. He was knocking on the trunk of the tree with a single fist, but the sound reverberated up to her. Fran okay?

She knocked back in their code. Stay. On my way.

Balthier obediently stood where the branch met the great round trunk and waited as she made her way through winding paths back to where he stood.

They did not speak. Their understanding was as old as their memory.

We're moving away from your home, and toward mine.

I miss it, but will never return.

I don't want to go home, but I want to go home.

Balthier opened his arms, and they embraced silently.

This is home.

Fran buried her face in his neck and felt him do the same, and Balthier understood her and she him, and they were each grateful for the strength and understanding of the other.

"The others are staying in one of those odd little bungalows," he told her. "Penelo discovered a King Marlboro and is sleeping off the effects. Vaan is watching after her, and the queen and the captain have wandered off. I… I know this is hard, my dear."

"It is harder," she said into his collarbone, "for you."

"No…" he whispered. "…No. It would be harder without you by my side. If you need time to yourself, I will leave you to it, but… return to me."

Fran smiled gently. "Always will I return to you."

Balthier smiled back. "Thank you."

They did not release each other for a long time.

You can never know anyone, he had told Larsa. Not even your own father.

He lied. For all the women that Balthier had known in the physical sense, all the detestation that Fran had for Humes and their violence and their weaknesses, and for all the aloofness and disdain they displayed for others, they knew each other in a way deeper than words and for that moment and forever, Home was them.