A/N: I warn you, I only have a very, very vague idea of where this is going. And by that, I mean super vague. All I know is that this demanded to be written. Mostly by myself, though a few reviewers have mentioned that they wouldn't mind some lose ends being tied up. So all I really know is that this demanded to be written, and it's going to take more than one chapter to do so.

So here's the prologue, dears.

Enjoy.

Unfinished:

Prologue

Vaan and Ada found themselves in a prison cell.

Not that that was anything unusual.

The duo probably couldn't count how many times they had been arrested and thrown in a prison cell, now in four different countries and three continents. It was almost something to boast about, if they were the kind to boast. And they were.

They now found themselves in one of the cleanest prison cells they had ever been in (probably the cleanest), and Vaan would certainly thank Penelo the next time he saw her. They found themselves in a prison cell in Archades, the very city where Penelo ruled at the side of her best friend and husband, Larsa. It had been a year since their adventurous, epic wedding, and Penelo had never been as happy as she was with Larsa. Vaan should have been jealous, he should have been bitter that Penelo had found someone that loved her for who she was, while Vaan was still nursing a heartbreak from—how many years ago, now?

But he wasn't. That kind of life, stuffy, prissy palacelife was not the life for him. It never would be. He glanced at his partner, for a moment.

Ada was staring off into space, her eyes glazed over slightly. It was definitely impossible to tell what she was thinking. He loved Ada, he knew that. But—it wasn't the same. He knew that. She knew that. And it would never be the same. It would never be the same as loving her.

He felt a momentary pain in his chest, the kind of pain he often associated with unfinished business. He almost gasped. Almost. He was almost on the verge of letting the pain get to him, after so long. Almost.

Almost.

Vaan knew that he would have to get over this eventually. It wasn't right, for a sky pirate, as free and as unburdened as the wind, to be tied down by something as burdensome as a long lost love. But wasn't it just painfully obvious that he couldn't let this go?

He remembered talking Balthier into making an appearance at Ashe's coronation banquet, and he had only watched as the older sky pirate just shook his head in disgrace. It wasn't fitting, for a sky pirate, Balthier had explained to him, to chase after a princess like this. Vaan had pointed out in return that he had felt this way about his princess before he had become a sky pirate. ("Is that who you really want to be, Vaan? The kind of man who gives up his dreams, his aspirations for some girl?" He had wanted to reply that she was not just some girl, but he knew it was futile. Maybe Balthier was right. He didn't really want to be the kind of person to give up his dreams.)

But, in retrospect, it didn't matter anyway. Ashe had suffered two long years to attain her throne and her country, and she wasn't about to give it up for him, either. It was times like these, when he pondered that notion that he was jealous of what Larsa and Penelo had. After a botched kidnapping attempt, they had prepared to give up everything for each other, (Penelo herself even risked her life by stepping out of that airship, yet Vaan couldn't even face Ashe in broad daylight) and expressed a true, genuine love. Like the kind that happened in fairytales, he supposed, although he had never really been that familiar with fairytales, himself.

Every time he and Ashe seemed to run into each other, on the other hand, they fought. They argued. Was it really fair to compare whatever Vaan and Ashe had between them to the fairytale-like love story that Larsa and Penelo had woven? If anything, the former pair had a love forged by hate for one another, by the ability to get under each other's skin, by the fact that they trusted one another, turned their backs and ran away, but in the end still came back.

And forgave one another.

Maybe that was the trick.

Maybe that was the answer.

Forgiveness.

But would they ever meet to fight and run and return and forgive once again?

"Well, well, well, what have we here?"

Vaan realized that he had not been imagining those footsteps.

He and Ada looked up simultaneously to spot Balthier, and to his right Fran, as she spoke.

"A couple of amateurs, maybe?"

"Fran, I do believe your right. I think we may have stumbled across a couple of amateurs. After all, a real sky pirate is never on that side of the bars long enough to sit, let alone get as comfortable as those two. It's almost like they've spent days in there."

"Oh, shove it, Balthier."

Balthier's face soured slightly, in mockery of Ada. "It's been a while, I forgot about how nasty that girl's tongue is. Picked that up in Rabanastre, did you? Sounds as though she even learned it from the Queen herself." He turned to Fran. "She must have, she was so pleasant when we first plucked her out of that village in the desert. Was it the Estersand, or the Westersand? It escapes my memory…"

"What do you want, Balthier?" Vaan spoke for the first time since Balthier and Fran had arrived, his metaphorical feathers rustled by the older sky pirate's mention of the Queen.

Balthier raised a single eyebrow, a necessary sky pirate technique that Vaan had not yet managed to master. "A little impatient, aren't we, Vaan? After all, real sky pirates wait for the perfect moment of opportunity. Well, if you insist, we've come to get you out of here."

"That's a relief." Ada said, an edge to her words once more.

Balthier threw a glance at Ada before announcing to their prison cell in general, "But you're not going back on your prissy little airship, no. We're going to get some Moogles to move that to Dalmasca, where you probably won't get arrested for wearing colors that clash, although I suspect you two were arrested for something more serious than a lack of fashion sense."

"Wait—why are we coming with you?" Vaan asked as Balthier unlocked the door to their cell.

"If I remember correctly," Balthier began, letting the iron metal door swing open, "and I always remember correctly, you have some unfinished business to take care of in the capital city."

"We're in the capital city, you geezer." Ada replied, referencing back to a favorite joke that Balthier was coming to the end of his golden days.

"The capital of Dalmasca, you cheeky little snob." As he gestured for Fran to lead them out of the prison, he asked Vaan, "Now, I'm no expert on ransom, but what do you suspect they would be willing to pay for a Queen?"