♥ faux afflictions.
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Vaan is much too naive for his own good, Balthier thinks, leaning on a weathered rock and absent-mindedly fiddling with the holster at his hip, fingering the gun inside tenderly.
Even as they progress on their perilous journey, Vaan thinks it a childish game, cheering on the players he likes and slashing through their enemy in jest; high-spirited taunts and shouts of glee ensue at the small victories. He never seems to realize that his game is so much more than their band of misfits versus common fiends, but rather, their band of misfits versus the world and all who inhabit it. From a city in which he had been cared for and sheltered, he was thrust into the care of another and yet another, and as such Vaan never seems to realize what would happen if that group disbanded -- a small betrayal compared to the rest (yet only from a view that skims the surface of truth) -- and he were to be left to fend for himself in an Empire who cared not for his name, but for the price his head would fetch.
As they well learned in Rabanastre, thieves only get caught in the end, and next time there very well may not be such an easy escape.
He longs for freedom in the skies, but does he realize what that freedom entails?
Balthier sighs, slipping his hand from the polished weapon, and stands, alerting the others who are seated around the small fire to which Fran was now tending, and bids them a pleasant night. His gaze falters when it lands on Vaan's half-pout directed at him; after his last disastrous attempt to fly the Strahl, Balthier outright refused to lend the controls to the boy any time soon, and he supposed Vaan was still disgruntled by this fact.
Later, when Balthier listens to the splatters and feels the telltale crystallized raindrops of a storm approaching, he does not seek shelter like Vaan and Ashe, whom he can distantly hear complaining over the roar of the wind, but rather closes his eyes and lets the slick drops of water drown him, tasting the freedom from his every pore. He does not notice when Fran comes to stand beside him, reveling in the brisk and cool rain that drenches his world.
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end.
my first ffxii story, and it's just a trite drabble, really. please tell me what you think, so i can better direct any other ffxii fics that may come after.
oh, and, i haven't beaten the game, yet i know a great deal more than i should: i'm a huge spoiler-whore, really, except i beat myself up after it. so although i'm only in sochen cave palace, i do know some key points later in the game, but please correct me if i got anything outrageously wrong.
thank you ♥
i don't own anything.