Penelo woke up and saw mostly darkness. She felt really tired and sore, but regardless she knew she had to get out of bed. Though she couldn't see the clock in the room she had a funny feeling she had overslept. She slowly sat up, remembering that she was in her bed, and pushed the button to open the large window next to the bed and when the shutter opened she got an eyeful of sunlight that was nearly blinding to the point she had to cover her eyes until she adjusted to the light.
When she was able to see clearly, she saw the clock on the wall opposite her and saw that it was actually past noon. She had indeed slept in.
Yawning she tapped the space next to her with her hand, and felt nothing. She looked there and saw that she was alone. "Hm...where'd Vaan go off to?"
The ship known as the Galbana soared through the skies above Ivalice, its destination known only to the pilot.
Vaan was doing some navigation work, and while the twenty year old was busy toying with knobs and switches, he was unable to notice Penelo sneaking up behind him. At least until the creaking of the ship gave her away because he snapped out of his concentration, not to mention noticed her shadow looming over him.
"Hey Penelo."
She stomped her foot on the metal floor. Not a smart move as she was bare foot and thus it made a thunk sound instead of a pure stomp. "Ouch."
"You know you shouldn't try to scare me when I'm driving the ship, I could crash it by accident."
"I forgot," she replied. Taking a seat in the chair next to Vaan, which was designated as her spot, Penelo sat cross legged and put her hands behind her head, "How long have you been at this?"
"Since I woke up a few hours. The auto-pilot broke down and I thought I could get it to work from here before setting down somewhere to really work on it," he said, then pressed a few more buttons. When nothing happened he stopped. The thing wasn't working. He decided to take a break, glancing at Penelo, and took note of what she was wearing, "You know you're lucky the rest of the crew is back in Rabanastre otherwise you wouldn't be able to walk around like that."
Penelo kept her arms up, and she knew he was right. The outfit she wore was risqué to say the least, consisting of very short white undershorts and a simple white top that didn't hide very much skin. One would remember that it was only three years ago that she had helped save Ivalice, and then two years after she had become a Sky Pirate, and was now a part time dancer for the theatre of Rabanastre. In short she wasn't a little girl anymore and right now it showed.
Shrugging her shoulders, Penelo lowered her arms and rested her hands on her lap, "If we weren't taking our break I certainly wouldn't be either."
Vaan had been keen to her changes from her teens into adulthood, what with Penelo hitting that time of life no one wanted to be a teen growing into an adult. That was when he knew she really grew up. From there she really filled out in every place on her body, and from there it was pretty obvious that she was no longer a teenager.
That's not all. After the events two years ago, having saved Ivalice for the second time Vaan and Penelo settled with the idea of travelling together, and within a few months of that decision the two had made yet another bit of progress.
The first night spent in their new ship Vaan had slept in a separate bed from Penelo, and a mere two months later they were sharing the same bed in the master suite. It was a gradual thing and it was not just a thing that happened overnight. And before anyone thought they were connecting the dots and thought that she and Vaan were already at 'that' point of their intimacy, there wasn't any. Penelo had denied that right from the get go to the other members of their crew. She saw it as a sign of progress in their relationship that was slowly going from a sort of brother-sister thing to a more romantic relationship. It wasn't a shocker to either of the two childhood friends as their relationship had gradually progressed over the years even under their noses and when it all came together it felt rather natural.
Thus she was more than comfortable with him than she was normally, especially with how she dressed around him. Not that Vaan had a problem with it, when she did it just for him anyway. She had to dress sort of provocatively to put on a good show that much he knew right away, though he had drawn the line that she wasn't to go any further than that. Not that Penelo had wanted to anyway, she was like a rock in things she would never do.
She finished putting her hair in the long pony tail she was well known for, the braid going the full length of her back. Now she appeared to be ready for the rest of the day.
"Well, I hope you slept well enough. I got back in at a late hour," Vaan said, relaxing in his chair while watching the clouds fly by the ship's windows.
"That's fine. Long as you came back at all, I'm fine with it," she said, sounding more like the mature adult she was proud to be now.
"You would've missed me, I know," Vaan laughed, easing up on the throttle a little bit.
"Actually, that's one of four things I'd be thinking if you weren't around."
Intrigued, Vaan returned his attention back to Penelo. "Really? I'd like to hear the rest if it's alright."
Penelo stood up, "well, the first of the four is that I would've missed you. The second is I wouldn't be able to do this sky pirate business without you..." She moved closer to Vaan just as he put the ship's course into cruise control and steadied the speed to the minimum. He did this just in time for Penelo to sit on his lap, which sort of took him off guard but he composed himself within seconds. "The next...I wouldn't be able to live without you by my side."
Vaan made eye contact with her and for the longest time they stared at each other, unblinking until Vaan smiled, "I'm glad. This would be...very dull and less fun without you here too, Penelo."
She smiled, and adjusted herself to where she straddled his lap, pulling his arms down to his sides with her own hands, and kissed the corner of his mouth first, before she moved on to his lips fully. As a dancer, Penelo was very talented in her flexibility and the position she was in between the control console and Vaan made her arch her back in what could only be described as painful to look at but also provocative at the same time.
And Vaan was enjoying what he was receiving. True, he and Penelo had a relationship going but he was very sure to take it really slow with her and move at her pace. Thus, he took what he got and never demanded anything in return. "Got to know, Penelo...what was the fourth reason?"
She pulled back, sitting at an upright posture, "Well, not as intimate as that last one but it's important nonetheless."
Curiosity piqued, he asked, "What is it?"
She smiled slyly, "I wouldn't be able to drive this ship without you."
Vaan rolled his eyes and had he not been held down he would've huffed in disappointment. "I was kind of hoping for some other reason…"
Knowing full well that she had deflated him, she laughed, "Don't worry. I'll make it up to you…"
Vaan smirked, his humor returning to him, and his hands went to her lower back, "I look forward to it."