Written for the FF Kissing Battle on LJ.

Frozen Memories

Basch stamped his feet in the snow to keep warm. The sky was clear and the night air was bitter cold against his face. He estimated it was at least two more hours before sunrise.

"Nothing," said Balthier, "except for the two of us, is foolish enough to freeze out here in this weather. So, if we must keep watch, at least you could stand a little closer." Balthier opened the thick fur blanket that he had been holding tightly around him, over his coat and over his weapon.

Foolish.

"Fine," Balthier quipped, "stay there and freeze."

Basch rubbed his hands together. His fingers were thick and stiff with cold, and could hardly move.

"Even if something did attack our camp, you couldn't even grip your sword to repel it." Balthier stepped closer to Basch and draped part of his blanket around him. "A little warmth will not kill you."

Unfortunately, Balthier was right, and that was how Basch found himself in snowy mountain pass with Balthier leaning closely against his left shoulder while they both stood together, wrapped in a thick, heavy blanket of fur. But the pirate did not remain silent.

"I remember you mentioning some girl you had back in Landis."

"Your reason for asking?" Basch could think of at least two directions the pirate planned to take this conversation and neither he wished to discuss in their current situation.

"You've never mentioned anyone after her, you know, some girl that a handsome young knight would sneak off to meet at the Sandsea to relieve a little tension."

What few occasions that Basch recounted were not worth mentioning and had done little to, as Balthier put it, relieve tension.

"Now that I think of it…" Balthier paused and, damn it, Basch knew what he remembered. "Vossler mentioned that time when you were, what was it, about twenty-three?"

Nothing could have been further from relieving tension. Basch cleared his throat to signal the end of this line of conversation.

Balthier took the hint, but he continued talking none the less. "I cannot remember the last time I have been this close to someone who insists on remaining as stiffly stock-still as you are right now while wrapped inside a warm fur with someone else."

Basch was on watch. His limbs were still thawing from the icy cold.

Balthier turned against Basch's arm and slid forward, pressing himself against the left side of Basch's chest. The tip of Balthier's nose was almost touching his cheek and his breath was hot against Basch's numb face. "You need to loosen up, relax."

"I'm on watch. We're both on watch."

"Fine, not now, but," Balthier paused, "let's suppose that you weren't on watch. Perhaps you were back in the tent, which is almost as cold as it is out here, and so you decide to look for a little warmth, a little excuse to loosen up, unwind, enjoy something other than all of this honor and duty you adamantly adhere to—"

"You are not implying that—" Basch jerked his head to the side to get a better look at the expression on the pirate's moonlit face.

"No, calm down," Balthier chided. "If I were your type, I would have figured that out quite some time ago."

Basch exhaled, realizing that he had been holding his breath, and he mentally crossed off one of the two reasons that would motivate Balthier to start this conversation.

"I'm just suggesting it might do you some good," Balthier said.

"I think I have reached a point in my life," Basch said, "where I can decide my affairs for myself."

"Really?" Balthier inched ever so closer. "I've seen enough to doubt that." Balthier's breath was now mingling with his own, but before Basch could turn away, Balthier's lips had gently pressed against his, and although he didn't want to admit it, nor did he want to admit that the pirate's tongue was slowly moving across his bottom lip, he felt a hot tingling sensation at the base of his spine. For a moment he forgot who it was against him, and merely recalled sensations long forgotten. He forgot and remembered until his lips responded and his breath shuttered, and immediately Balthier pulled back, returning Basch to where they were both standing.

Shit.

"You should try to relax." Balthier turned against him until his back pressed against Basch's chest. They were tightly cocooned within the blanket. "You might find you enjoy it."