"Vaan. A word."
The young man/boy slowed beside Balthier, who kept his gaze averted as he spoke.
"If something untoward should happen to me, you're taking the Strahl." He tried to remove himself from the situation before Vaan could press, but walking away didn't stop the boy.
"Untoward? What's this about?" Balthier noted that his choice of words had matured, because he was quite certain that Vaan would have sported the sound 'huh' in this situation.
"I am," he replied, "the leading man. Might need to do something heroic." He paused and added, almost as an afterthought, "Don't worry, I'll show you how to fly her." Balthier continued his upward trek, where Fran had fallen a bit behind waiting for him.
"Your trust of him extends to piloting the ship?" she asked. Balthier shook his head.
"Not at all, but someone has to take her. Besides, she's served us well, and I'd rather her be flown than scrapped."
Fran needn't ask him why he wasn't leaving his beloved ship to her; it was an unspoken agreement, a true partnership, which meant that if something 'untoward' happened upon him, then she'd take the brute of it as well, if not for him. It was something that always had been, as sense of togetherness that extended beyond life itself. Fran knew that they could be without one another, as they had been for the majority of their lives, but now that there was another choice it seemed silly. Why would she spend the rest of her extended lifetime without him when she could just as easily spend it with him (or not spend it at all, depending on which set of religious views one took)?
"How might you teach him to pilot in the midst of your thing untoward?" she asked, amusement lacing her mystical accent.
"I'm the leading man. I can do whatever I please."
She gave him one of those looks, the ones that he'd never been able to read, but he'd guessed was somewhere trapped in the middle of amusement and annoyance. "You've grown even more witted in such company."
"Please, Fran. I've always been witted, but with sense enough not to use it on you."
This look was pure amusement, where her eyes danced, and was saved only for him. "Then I've underestimated your intelligence."
"You may be the brains in the relationship, but that doesn't mean that I've not got any."
"You misunderstand."
"Easy, considering how you spout riddles around the point."
He saw a ghost of a smile, which was so rare now that they weren't alone. The rest of the group, save the lagging Vaan, was only a few feet in front of them. Fran's long strides, which Balthier had grown accustomed to jogging aside, had placed them in close proximity to their party.
She stopped as they all stood by the door and Vaan ran to the front. Balthier was smiling at her, daring her to say something.
His smile, lighter than a thousand skystones, lit such an outline against the cerulean sky, and Fran couldn't help thinking that this is what freedom was.
0FIN0
This has been begging me to write it since I saw this part of the game, and I finally hit the inspiration jackpot. But I'm afraid that my vocabulary/pattern of speech isn't as cultured as the Sky Pirate duo's, and I hope that such doesn't hinder their being in character.
I suppose that this could be platonic and non-platonic, depending on which eye you squint, but I'd think of it as just a friendship here. It's very short, which I don't like at all, but I suppose it will have to do.
I've not received much feedback (negative or positive) for the things that I write for this fandom, and that kind of scares me a bit. So please tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, and whether or not you'd like to see more from me. I'll try to reply, but the site isn't sending me any of my alerts or anything, so I might not. Thanks.