Disclaimer: FFXII is Squenix's. This story's mine.
Warnings: Vaan x Penelo and Balthier x Fran possibilities.
Author natterings: So I was drawing Balthier one day and noticed it. Why the left hand? Here's one answer.
Left Hand Ring
It was hot today. Everyone was irritable, or at least edging on it, except for Fran, whose marvelous ears kept her cool. It was a long day, their only company was each other. He had begun to notice little things about everyone because of the uninterrupted contact. Princess Ashe was indeed conscious of the length of her skirt. Penelo hummed only around Vaan, and only very quietly. Fran somehow did not sink in the sand despite her heels. Basch smelt faintly, for some incomprehensible reason, of tea.
And then there was Balthier. He just didn't get it.
After a pair of not difficult antlions, Vaan made his move.
Fran was striding in the middle of the party, just about to move next to her partner, when Vaan appeared beside her.
"Hey, Fran," he greeted her, suspiciously quiet. He half-suspected she'd flat-out refuse to what he'd propose. Still, he thought stubbornly, if anyone knew about it, it was Fran.
She flicked her gaze towards him, as if gauging his actually being there. Then she followed through with a head turn. "Hello." It was clearly her fatigue that made this strange behaviour passable.
He slowed a little, knowing she would detect this and fall back as well. They kept maybe fifteen paces behind Ashe and Penelo, who also seemed to be conversing. They were undoubtedly less awkward though. Basch and Balthier were now walking together out of the rest of the group dynamics. Basch laughed softly at something Balthier said. Ashe twitched accordingly.
After sometime, Vaan looked up at Fran again. Sheesh, she was tall. Balthier must be pretty secure in his masculinity to pirate around with a girl taller than him by half a foot. Vaan almost tripped over a tangle of shrub in the middle of thinking this. But he didn't get off completely scot-free, as one of the pokier branches caught in his darned armour and he ripped it free with an annoyed grunt. Fran just looked at Vaan making a fool of himself. To distract her, he asked, "Could I ask you something?"
She always found that question kind of paradoxical, but pointing it out to the boy seemed inane. She thought, dryly, that he better not ask her age, and took her eyes off of him. "Go ahead."
Now having her permission, his tongue tied itself. "Uhm, this is gonna sound a little weird." He laughed a tad nervously, feeling like a total dork as he did so. Fran said nothing, just offered her silence as a go-ahead.
"Okay. Er." He touched the back of his neck, advertently checking for sunburn. "How did- how did Balthier get those rings that he has?"
She blinked once, thinking of said rings. Her memory was fresh, and the words had passed her lips before she had the time to blink again. "As loot."
He nodded. He suspected as much. He examined his own bare fingers, stupid sand underneath the nails. He bought some time, glanced at his assaulted foot. "Ah-um. When'd he get them?"
He was surprised she answered him at all. Such questions had to be a waste of the senses she could be using to warn them, unworthy of being even asked. Still, she didn't act that way. She didn't sigh or look around for a distraction, like most would have. For the first time, Vaan was beginning to see just how good a partner she may be to Balthier. "Four years ago."
He nodded again, his eyebrows raising. They walked on. Penelo was speaking, her voice lilting musically ahead of them. Vaan couldn't help but notice - even with his head full of questions - that there was a light dusting of sand on the seat of Penelo's suit-thing.
Vaan looked at his shoe again, trying to not be hyper-aware of the hyper-aware Viera. Sand must've been building up in Balthier's shoes - Vaan had saw the unconventional design. Ho hum. Vaan thought of the colours of the rings: pink and blue.
He chose his words carefully now, staring at the sand and making sure not to fidget. "Fran, um. Why- why does he wear them on his ring finger?"
Fran was silent. Longer than she had been at his other questions.
Vaan rushed to babble, his eyes probably wide with stupid juvenile embarassment. "I mean uh-- He can't be married, right? He never talks about a wife. Or a um. Husband." Vaan mentally kicked himself. Hard.
Fran's eyes were focused on the back of a head of spiked hair. She said her words slowly and with precision. Luckily for Vaan, she also seemed to ignore everything he had just said. "He wears them because of a commitment." She paused, eyeing Vaan now. "Not of the marital kind."
Vaan felt his cheeks flame. "Oh. Oh." He dug his fingertips absently into the tanned skin of his back.
"You would care to know what kind?" she asked after a while, with a tinge of amusement.
Vaan snapped at the dangled bait. "Yes! I mean... if that's what you..."
Fran might've smirked. "Why not ask him, then?" she suggested, then lifted her eyes up again.
Vaan was afraid of that. Strange that he would find Balthier intimidating in such a circumstance and Fran to be comforting. Well, whatever. His interest was too strong now to die. He nodded firmly to himself, put a hand to his cheek to check for potential leftover blushing, and jogged to the head of the group.
"Hey! Hey, Balthier!" Vaan called, his heavy vest hitting taut muscle, up, down, up, down. The party was currently spread out over the downward part of a sandhill, and Vaan charged ahead with more than his usual speed.
Balthier turned, his profile distinguished as always. "Vaan! To what would I owe this visit?" Basch turned as well, though more with the puzzled quality of people who had about three hours of sleep.
The aspiring sky pirate thud-thud-thudded next to the full-fledged. "Just wanted to ask you something," he said more quietly than he'd intended.
"Basch," Penelo called. She was walking in a line with Fran and Ashe on either side, a ways behind. "Have some water." Basch took the hint, and fell behind in formation with the girls.
Vaan glanced backwards for a second, focusing on Fran, knowing she had had a hand in this and wanting to thank her somehow. She looked right back at him, then raised her chin ever so slightly. Go ahead. It was a slip of guidance, but it was also a dare.
Vaan looked a second longer. He swiped a finger under his nose, an involuntary action, and turned back to Balthier. He was on Balthier's left side, the side with the rings. He let himself look unabashedly at them, as if gathering courage.
"So. What is this that you wanted to ask?" Balthier asked. He was sweating, Vaan realized.
"I was just talking to Fran," he started.
"Is that so? Talked your ears off, did she?" Balthier said with a completely straight face, his eyes squinted against the sun.
It took a while for Vaan to realize this had been a joke. By this time, Balthier had already turned to look at Fran, smiling despite himself.
He looked at the exchange between partners with a classic clueless expression. "Uh. Right." He shook this off. "Well. It's about your rings... Fran- Fran says you have a commitment."
"That I do."
"So, um. Whatisit?"
Balthier blew air out of his nose amusedly, placing his hands on his hips. Harsh sunlight bleached out the intricacies of Balthier's shirt, those sophisticated patterns blurring. "So that's all you wanted to ask me." He tilted his head thoughtfully to the side. "I thought it might be something more pressing. Tips. Something to do with Penelo, perhaps." His dark eyes seemed to twinkle.
Vaan stiffened right on cue, realizing that the only kind of tips Balthier would ever give that had anything to do with a girl would be of the suggestive-grin-smirk kind. "N-n-n-no! You-- It's-- ju-just answer me!" The blush was a given.
Balthier grinned disbelievingly. "Whatever you say."
Vaan tried to glare through his embarassment.
Balthier then clucked his tongue quietly, a sound of resigning, and let out a small chuckle. He didn't look at the rings even as he spoke of them. What a very Balthier thing to do. He paused, as if contemplating his answer, though Vaan knew very well that he could answer in a heartbeat. "Well. A commitment to her, of course."
Vaan blinked many times in stupefaction. "Fran?" he blurted.
"Well, yes. To skypirating."
"Fran is skypirating?"
"What have we been doing all this time, Vaan. Three guesses."
"No, I meant. As in. Fran equals skypirating?" Vaan drew two unnecessary horizontal lines in the air to illustrate.
Balthier looked at Vaan as if he'd overestimated the boy. Should Vaan have seen something he hadn't already?
"Of course. It's obvious, isn't it? Without Fran, how could I ever go on?"
Vaan looked at the rings again.
Balthier walked on, his gait a little funny. Sand in his shoes. He gestured as he spoke, general sweeps of his arms, never reaching above his shoulders. "As flattering as it is for you to think my capabilities quite so high, a leading man without his lady is like a tree without its roots."
Vaan turned to look at Fran mid-stride. She must've heard - as a Viera it was impossible not to. She had told Vaan to ask Balthier instead. Fran didn't like tooting her own horn.
Vaan was just about to turn back to the path when he saw Balthier looking at Fran too, sunburn splayed across his left temple. A smile graced his face for her, natural and plain as day. Fran returned it. Vaan felt that in any context other than this, her smile just wouldn't fit.
He looked right at Penelo now, saw her arms swinging at her sides like she always had them when she walked. She sensed him within a second and looked up, inquisitive. He grinned back at her.
Balthier clapped his hand upon Vaan's shoulder, those rings hitting bare skin. Pink and blue. He then said confidentially (still knowing Fran could hear) and with an obvious smirk in his voice, "I am married. And it's a better marriage than most ever know."
Penelo tilted her head at them both, her bangs falling across her forehead.
"You'd be lucky," Balthier told him, "to try it."