♠naiveté love♠
the blearing phoenix
6-10-07
vaan/fran: pairing
au/fran meets vaan and she tries to be rather inconspicuous about her fascination with him.
author's disclaimer/I do not own Vaan or Fran nor do I own any of the apparel/accessories/video game console/video games that are mentioned within this fanfic.
romance/humour/general
author's notations/Hi everyone, I'm back after another long period of absence. I just jotted this down roughly again. This is a companionable piece to, poetry love so enjoy it.
Just like the other one, this is set in an Alternate Universe (AU) and just like Balthier and Ashe, Vaan and Fran are also in high school.
Happy Reading!
TBP
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The intro...
Boys were ignorant, it was an inveterate fact that played through Fran's fine tuned mind, yes, boys were ignorant. Furthermore, boys were also naïve, unusually, stubborn, and they hated to admit that they were wrong about something. Oh yes, boys could never be deemed as weak by their female counterparts because that just left the balance of human nature all distorted. Human nature was supposed to be perfectly equalized and balanced, yes. That, in Fran's opinion was complete and utter bull. Boys were ignorant and incompetent and they never rationally thought out things, ever, period.
While Fran's opinion seemed to support some feministic ideals – and it did, because it actively proclaimed that men were inferior to women, Fran seemed to have a point. It was, (and she always reiterated this to Balthier whenever they got into some whispered debate), a known scientifically proven fact that women were more intelligent than men – logically and only logically, and that was what Fran always left out.
Therefore her point was flawed but anyway, ahem, we did not come here to discuss human nature and plausible conclusions about men's possible "inferior" intellectual capacity. Oh no, we came here to talk about Fran's little "love" story as it was so nicely called by Penelo.Yes that's exactly why we're here. So, shut your traps, kindly we ask you, and sit back and listen to everything we tell you. After all you may find it useful.
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vaan/fran meeting…
The day was plesant, the sky was a happy shade of orange, and the locals were convivial. Fran was among these very hospitable locals and she was no where near convivial. In fact, Fran walked with a rather lax slouch and there was this frown that she had on her face. Her brows were furrowed and her garnet eyes were unsually stark. No one dared to make queries as to why she was so angry so they left her to gait through the mazelike town heatedly. She wove through passersby making a beeline for the nearest Dunkin' Donuts.
The magenta and bright orange awning was too cheerful for her. She squinted through sheets of pattering raindrops, veiling her eyes from the tailing headlights of a barreling SUV. The air was humid and warm it wasn't cooled like she had first alleged it to be. She pulled off her black leather jacket and slung it over her wrist. Fran just ignored people after that, staring at them as they passed by, but not really studying their physical features. She never felt the need to start studying people because they never really interested her and they never would see her again, probably, so to her it was a lost point really. At least this was what she thought as she pulled the plexi-glass door open.
Cool air rushed in, settling into the tiny pores on Fran's skin, making her shiver ever so delicately, making her lips quiver and such. She wrapped her jacket around her shoulders and greeted the way-too-perky-for-her-own-good cashier with the bubblegum stuck on her pink fingernails. Fran sniffed at the air curiously, catching the scent of stale doughnuts and cold coffee in the air, and then she fished out eight dollars out of her pocket. Scanning the colorful menu, eyes flitting from one ridiculously priced item to the next, Fran settled on her choice and relayed this piece of info to the girl. Gingerly ringing this up on the cash register as if the buttons would somehow chomp her fingers off if she dared to press them, the cashier told Fran to wait for her order to be processed.
"Thank you," Fran thanked her and dropped ever so graciously into a chair, toenails scraping against her wooden sandals. Her eyes darted over to the side and she spied an ash-blond haired boy who was blowing invisible bubbles into the air. He looked truly jaded with everything around him, spindly fingers fiddling with his phone, and his tongue catching dust every now and then. His eyes were like chocolates and he glanced at her with them, his countenance bearing pure childlike innocence and wonder. Boys were naive she reminded herself.
Shrilly, was how the cashier's voice sounded when it resounded in Fran's ears. The white-haired girl with the acute olfactory senses rose from her chair and picked up her order. Fran cautiously peeked inside, before paying off the cashier and receiving her receipt and then she sat back down in the plain maple wood chair. The black cushion that supported her rear was too hard and she felt uncomfortable in such a cold almost-vacant sort of room.
Add cheap light fixtures and the constant smell of stale over-baked donuts, and you got yourself a cheap fast food chain store. Dunkin' Doughnuts was scarcely heavenly, Fran concluded as she nibbled at her plain glazed donut. In fact she normally detested such poorly funded eateries. The only reason she was going there was because she was supposed to be meeting Larsa and Penelo there for a friendly reunion. They'd recently returned from a "stately" (it was hardly like this but this was what Larsa described it as) trip to Florida.
"Fran!" A girl with a bright sun filled smile scurried across the small gap between them and wrung Fran's hands in hers, seating herself in one of the uncomfortable chairs. Fran swallowed a small bit of doughnut and patted Penelo's arm in a silent greeting gesture. Penelo was all sunshine, rainbows, smiles, and chattiness. Fran was hardly as sociable, preferring to just play the part of listener. So she listened to her girly friend gabble as much as she pleased. Larsa had sprouted a few inches so he brushed against Fran's shoulder now. He had a face full of pink little pimples yet his complexion was still as dewy as ever, like a newborn's.
The two were garbed in cotton and denim—white and pink long-sleeved shirts and dark-blue and light-blue jeans-shorts. Larsa's russet hair was clipped neatly so that it barely brushed against his broad rounded shoulders. His eyes were still piercing and still had that wizened look to them. Penelo brushed a strand of blond hair from her midnight-blue eyes and she inspected the frosting on her donut.
"Penelo, that boy seated by the window, the one who seems to be staring directly at the sun outside, do you know his name?" Fran asked, mouth spewing out words so quickly that she couldn't even catch them before they tumbled out. Penelo wrinkled her neat sunflower-yellow brow and guffawed knowingly to herself. She was wondering on something and that frightened Fran just a smidge.
"You like him?" Penelo asked in a heartbeat and Larsa had to swallow down as much iced coffee as he could before he spat it out.
"Not at all. I'm just curious. It is not what you would call "liking" merely an interest in him. He seems …," Fran's voice trailed off here as she saw the chocolate-eyed boy glancing over at her again in a very injudicious manner.
Larsa daubed a napkin at the corner of his little mouth, slackening his mouth into a tightly pursed line, blood draining from his lips, and then he said:
"Vaan Ratsbane, is his name if it interests you. He's a sophomore, single, and not looking as I've been told by his … associates." He pondered some more, indicating this action by tapping his chin ever so thoughtfully with his forefinger, and added, "He's a heterosexual by every account." As if the thought of this Vaan being a homosexual ever crossed her mind, how absurd, Fran inwardly scoffed at that.
"He seems cute right? You should go talk to him. You know, I hear he adores poetry but then everyone's bound to fall in love with poetry when you sign up for Mr. Sephiroth Hojo's poetry class, right?" Penelo's last question was purely rhetorical, Fran rose an eyebrow to this in an incredulous manner, and discarded the remnants of her donut crumbs in the trash bin. She wordlessly waved to them, purse clutched loosely in her hand, and she sat down next to this Vaan boy.
He regarded her with a shy smile, the kind a little boy would throw your way when he was nervous about meeting someone older than him. He had sunkissed skin, bronzed, tanned, just a lovely shade of golden, and he had a lean physique. Muscles that were delicately toned and little puckering lips, oh he was quite cute but that was all Fran would ever see him as. Cute. He was naïve though, Fran recited in her head as she found her eyes roving over his tall form. He played with the metallic napkin dispenser idly, a sheet filled with scrawled mathematic notes by his hand, and a moss-green messenger bag thrown on the chair across from him.
"Hello," He flashed a charming smile at her and Fran really had to fight down the urge to blush, her visage as expressionless as ever.
"Hello." Her voice was toneless, just devoid of any true meaning. His was pure and almost childish. In fact the idea sparked within her like a lit flame and it burned and burned until she extinguished it, settling her eyes on his. She wanted a mug of hot chocolate now.
"My name's Vaan."
"So it seems. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Vaan."
"Likewise. What's your name?" There was a firm handshake, he had a nice strong grip, Fran ended it and shook out the crinks in her long hand afterward. His eyes fell on her white bodice, she silently wondered why it would, was there something wrong with her bodice? Fran fancied bodices but apparently Vaan didn't like them quite as much for he squirmed in his seat and his eyes flitted over to the window again.
"Fran. My name is Fran."
"You like Geometry, Fran?" The boy who was not yet a man asked her, fingers twiddling with themselves. Fran quirked her head at him ever so slightly, just enough so that he wouldn't catch it and she smiled, barely. There was a small crease in her face that was almost miniscule but he caught it and smiled at her – heartily, happily, childishly.
He was naive.
"I do, do you take that as a class?"
"No I have an AP class for Calculus next year though, I skipped Freshman year." Vaan answered her casually, tongue tracing his bottom lip, his fingers tracing patterns on the wet wood. A soda had been there, Fran mused. She heard this through one ear, the other one tuning in to hear the faint chattering of Larsa and Penelo. They were looking at her now, watching for her reaction to this. Fran was admittedly duly impressed, Vaan was a very academic student but he was still naive.
"That's quite impressive. Yet you still have much to learn, yes?" Fran tested him, narrowing her ruby eyes at him, daring him to challenge her with something equally stunning.
"Yes, of course, everyone does. The world is full of many things to learn about." Vaan smiled and chuckled to himself, probably at some inside joke he'd just remembered in his head. Fran still thought he was naive although his response was awfully honest and mature for someone of his impressionable age.
"Senior?"
"Pardon?"
"You're a senior?"
"Yes."
"Ah." Silence. Choking silence and then the silent ticking of a clock and that was all they heard. Some patrons exited the store, it was close to half an hour since Fran's arrival, her eyes were burning from the stupid fluorescent lighting. Vaan was still naive.
"I have a question for you, answer honestly too, okay?" Vaan's chocolate eyes were imprinted on her mind and left some shattering visual impact on her now. Fran was going to slip into some fitful sleep and dream of his chocolate eyes and thirteen-year-old voice when she got home, if she got home. Darn him and his naivete.
"Then inquire if you'd please to do so."
"Right, well, would you date me? Before you answer, think about this, if you would why and if you wouldn't, give your reasons for that as well." Vaan sat back in his chair, satisfied with his queries, and awaited her answer with his mouth parted slightly. It looked like he was trying to sip up air like it was water. Fran processed the questions and then thought about the answer, effectively drowning out every little twittering noise that could break her thin bit of concentration. Larsa and Penelo were biting their nails, staring at her from the edge of their seats.
"I would date you Vaan, in all earnesty. I would as you possess naivete and brilliance in that mind of yours. You seem content with the world, as a true optimist would be, but you seem annoyed at the materialists that litter it, you love simplistic things, you love doing simplistic things, you think realistically as well. This makes you a balanced realist and a lovely optimist. But you're too young, only sixteen so it would seem." That was even for Fran, perhaps the most long-winded explanation she had ever blurted out in one breath.Vaan barely blinked as he registered this thoroughly letting it just sink into his system then he laughed. That laugh would silently, just barely, haunt her, and lurk within the deepest cavities of her mind for a long while.
"What do you find so laughable about that?" Fran asked agitated, for it was as she thought boys were indeed naive, stubborn, and ignorant. He was indeed an ignoramus perhaps the biggest of them all.
"Because, Fran, I'm seventeen and the last time I checked age never truly mattered in a relationship. The last time I checked, the only time it mattered, was when said relationship occurred between a man and a boy, a child and an adult, a woman and a daughter, etc., etc., etc. So I fail to see why you wouldn't date me. Anyway, I guess your right about me being the way I am. You're very keen, Fran, I like that. Anyway, I have to get going and so should you, shop's closing in a few minutes," Fran paused here to peer at the window and she noticed the velvet canopy that blanketed the sky – night. Vaan was right. She gathered up her belongings, purse, crumpled receipt, and all and sauntered over to Larsa and Penelo.
"Ooh, he's so cute!" Penelo exclaimed in a squeal, squeezing Fran's hands a little harder than the older girl deemed necessary. Larsa just nodded his head as if he knew that the situation would play itself out in that order all along and perhaps he did. Either way, the three bid each other their adieus and Fran watched the two merrily depart the store, arms linked together, a true blossoming couple indeed.
"So ... here's my number and my e-mail just in case you ever feel the need to reach me."
"I hardly ever got the chance to ask you for that ..."
"Ah, ah, ah, I pursued you and evidently you replied with display of mild interest in me. It's mutual so I felt the need to give this to you. We can keep in touch this way you know, very useful Fran, I doubt you'd pass up the chance."
"...You make a fine point about that." Fran begrudgingly admitted through clenched teeth and then she smiled a little smile, something close to true genuineness, and Vaan smiled back. The two of them exited the store and left for their homes, Fran feeling something odd twisting knots in her stomach. Perhaps, she thought, Vaan wasn't so ignorant at all, maybe he was just unique and truly beautiful in a way.
Closing Author's Notations : Don't tell me, I know it already, Fran was terribly OOC and so was Vaan, and that was for a reason. The reason is partially because they're in a different location, in a different time period altogether, heck they're in a different dimension how about that one!
Anyway, this was long, so this serves as a follow-up to "poetry love" so it follows the same "meet-a-boy-and-get-charmed-by-his-amazingly-unique-persona" theme. Old, overused maybe, but I think this was pretty darn original especially the pairing. Do not flame, but criticize constructively at will for I may wince at it but I'll love you for it.
Yeah so I'm going to bid you all adieu and I hope that you'll enjoy the third installment for this. You'll see who the pairing is when I send it out.
With Love and Cookies,
x The Blearing Phoenix