I've been banging on about writing another older!Larsa and spirited!away!Penelo AU that'd be a little more light-hearted than "In the Wake of Tomorrow" for so long that finally putting this up feels almost anti-climactic! But anyway, here it is at last. And very special thanks goes to my lovely and talented beta-reader, Naviechance, who braved the horrors of finals week and my online wailings about dialogue and characterization to do a bang-up job looking this fic over. Anything half-way decent about this chapter is probably due to her. ;)

And as always, reviews are much appreciated! I really want to know if I should try and continue writing this series or switch over to the roughly billion other projects I've still got zinging around in my brain. (Such are the perils of belonging to about 4 fandoms at a time!) So if you enjoyed this-- or thought it was an awful waste of space-- do let me know and I'll take your opinion into consideration.


Title: In The Hour Before Us, Chapter 1

Fandom: Final Fantasy XII

Pairings: Penelo X Larsa

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Boy meets girl. Boy rescues girl. Boy then technically kidnaps girl. When Penelo first meets Larsa Ferrinas Solidor, she has no idea what's in store for her... AU Larsa X Penelo fic


It all began, as so many of the major events in Penelo's life did, as the result of something stupid that Vaan had done earlier.

That fact alone should not have surprised her. After all, most of her traumatic formative experiences could be traced, directly or indirectly, back to something stupid that Vaan had done. That one time, after Vaan's brother had died and her family had taken him in, that she had gotten herself spanked thoroughly for raiding the family cookie cabinet till it could not take any more? Vaan's fault. That curious incident on the Giza plains when she had been forced to run for her life from very angry werewolves who hadn't taken to grave robbing well? Vaan's fault.

And her present state as a guest of the imperial prince of Archadia -cum- kidnapping victim -cum- fugitive of the law? Also completely and utterly, through a torturous plot line that hurt her head to think of it too long, Vaan's fault.

Penelo might not know how long she'd be away from Rabanastre, or how many miles her current location was from there or even how she'd find a way back. But she found herself swearing all too furiously nowadays that she'd be damned if she didn't find her way home-- and that she was going to kill her very best friend in the world when she got there.


But that was going too far into the story in a way that didn't begin to explain how everything that had abruptly turned upside down in her life was (she felt this needed to be emphasized) Vaan's fault.

And she hadn't even gotten to Larsa yet.

She knew she'd remember until the day she died of the way she had met Larsa Ferrinas Solidor, youngest son of perhaps the most powerful emperor in the world. Penelo wasn't the sort of person to have a lot of certainties in her life-- perhaps just that Migelo would always let her work in her store, that Kytes would always run to her when he needed a place to hide from angry, screaming store owners, that Vaan would always find a way to drag her along into his troubles-- but this was one of them.

It would be hard, of course, to forget any chain of events that started off with her very best friend in the world (who she was going to kill quite soon so never mind, scratch that part off) abruptly losing his mind, running off with dashing air pirates to steal priceless treasure and needless to say being caught (nobody had ever said Vaan was the brightest bulb in the lamp, after all). This heedless chain of events had somehow lead to her being kidnapped by a group of sadistic Bangaa bounty hunters with grudge against said pirate, which eventually necessitated a screaming run through deadly mines filled with the angriest skeletons in the world and ended with her being threatened with imprisonment by one of the empire's most frightening guard dogs for being gauche enough to be traumatized by everything that had happened.

All told, Penelo felt quite safe in designating this as one of the worst weeks in her life. It was true that nobody had died, which put it a little above her fifteenth birthday, but she didn't think she was going to paint this period in rosy tones in her inevitable, scandalous, scarlet-woman memoirs.

But even if all of that hadn't happened, she knew she'd still remember Larsa, the white of his gloves and the sparkle in his eyes and the glint of his blades and all. For one, the man really knew how to make a memorable entrance.

She had probably been arguing with one of the prick judges of the empire as to how much of a danger she really posed to whatever lord he had done such a terrible job of protecting when he'd arrived, rendering her oblivious to his presence. Perhaps he had stayed in the shadows for a moment or two, lingering beyond her sight to watch as she and Judge Ghoulish had come thiiiiis close to exchanging more than harsh language and imaginative conceptions of their respective family lines with each other. Perhaps he had smiled a little as she had used nothing more than her fingers and her native love for shadow animals to demonstrate what exactly said judge probably did to himself when there was no one else around.

All she knew was that, somewhere along the line, the judge who had seemed quite excited about devoting the rest of the afternoon to persecuting her abruptly switched his attention towards the entrance of the mines. "I see you've been out walking without the company of your cortege, Lord Larsa. We caught this little… vagrant wandering out of the mines. You must take care with such undesirables about."

Something about the reverence with which the metal plated bastard spoke that name sent a fission of tension through Penelo. Even then, however, she hadn't really seen him just yet, focusing all her ire (clouded through confusion though it might be) on her would be interrogator. "I was kidnapped! It wasn't as though I decided to run unarmed through fiend-infested mines on some merry lark!"

The judge just glared at her again and they might have easily come to blows-- which she knew very well would be disastrous for her, but oh, how she itched to rip his helmed off and wipe off that smug smile she just knew existed behind it-- had a quiet, calm but very firm voice not interrupted them both.

"If it is a crime to wander on one's own... then I too am guilty. This young lady, no doubt, has had enough tribulations to justify her actions-- more so, even, than I. If anything, she's more in need of help than all of the rest of us placed together. Marquis, I trust that your estate can accommodate another guest?"

It was then he had stepped into the sunlight, the mythical Lord Larsa they had talked of with such acclaim... and something in Penelo stopped and wondered. He had to be someone important if one of the highest authorities of the Archadian law looked ready to bow down to the knee in front of him... and yet, he wasn't exactly an imposing portrait of royal power either.

He was simply a tall young man of about her age, with dark, shining hair, a calm, rather bemused looking face, and narrow, piercing, blue-gray eyes that were already fixed on her, even through the glare of the sun.

It was at that point that Penelo, as though the kidnapping alone hadn't been a clue, should have known that her life would change forever.

"Judge Ghis," he finally said in reply to something she had barely heard, "I shall heed your counsel. I will not travel unaccompanied any longer."

Somewhere in between the moment she had first seen him and he had first touched her, Penelo finally realized that this was to be a turning point of sorts. Somehow, she knew that she'd always remember the glint of the armor of the judge glowering at her, the way the light had hurt her eyes so as she stumbled out of the darkness, the dizzy vertigo that came from knowing that she was free and yet not free in the sky city she found herself within, and the catch in her throat that came as her knight in silk and velvet had caught her hand in his and led her towards the safety for what seemed the first moment in forever.

"Thank you, Penelo," he had whispered afterwards, as they had walked through the streets towards sanctuary, his fingers still laced with hers, his smile still soft and tender.

Still taken aback by his touch, by the suddenness of his decision to protect her, she could only stutter out a weak, "Of course" in reply. Which was stupid, really, a stupid way of repaying his kindness. She should have been the one thanking him for what aid he had given her.

And naturally, she had, later. She was grateful. She'd always be grateful.

She just didn't know if she was really grateful enough to give him what he wanted from her afterwards.


It was only an hour later, when Penelo found herself locked in a spacious but still unmistakably intimate bedroom at the estate of the local ruler with her newfound protector, that the panic set in.

It wasn't especially because she didn't trust this Lord Larsa. She trusted him insomuch as she could trust any virtual stranger that had swept out of the blue and saved her from near-certain incarceration. It was just that Penelo had heard before that young men could act like animals around young women, and long experience with Vaan had taught her that said stories were mostly true. Of course, Vaan was also like the idiot brother that nature had kindly spared her, so he had never actually gotten fresh with her. (The thought alone was too much to contemplate sober.)

But this Larsa, no matter how masterfully he had just helped her, was very much a young man to her young woman. Though he looked harmless enough, standing with his hands folded at his front and peering at her through the cover of his ridiculously long lashes, she had no idea of what sort of person he really was.

There was just she and he in this room right now, a spacious and terribly comfortable looking bed a few feet away. This was just the sort of scenario she had whiled away far too many hours reading about in cheap romance novels that inevitably starred a hero with a mullet and larger breasts than she had. Thankfully, it didn't look as though Larsa was ready to start ripping off her non-existent bodice-- which was just as well, considering most her wardrobe now looked as though it had already suffered mightily at the jaws of a mutant Chihuahua.

Unable to take it any more, Penelo finally broke their increasingly vicious cycle of glancing towards the ground, at each other for a half second, and then back down with a question that was gaining increasing momentum in her mind. "Anyway, the person behind us, the one who was trying to manhandle me when you came along, he called you Lord Larsa. So, um, even though this is probably a really stupid question, I just wanted to know. Who are you, in particular?"

She winced at the question even as it flew out of her mouth. Way to take one for the team in terms of looking like an absolute rube, sweetheart.

But no trace of mockery shifted Larsa's elegant features as he laced his hands in front of him and began to answer. If anything, a small smile seemed to be playing upon his lips. "I fear that there's almost... too many ways in which I can begin answering your question. But probably the simplest way is to ask if you know of a man named Gramis Gana Solidor."

The name sounded all too familiar.

"He is the emperor of all of Archadia-- as well as my father."

Oh hell, oh damn, oh blast it all. She was in so, so, so much deeper than she thought. If Vaan had any sense or idea of what inventive tortures swept through her mind now, he'd stay clear of her until she lost the ability to securely hold a hammer.

"I felt it only right to tell you the truth, since events have conspired to let me know exactly who you are."

Again, Penelo felt capable of only staring blankly at him. Something had seriously gone awry with the world if someone like him knew of someone like her, rather than vice versa. "And... I'm sorry but I have to ask, who do you think I am?"

Tilting his head to the side, Larsa answered. "You're Penelo Antirrhinum Majus, aren't you? I don't suppose there could be more than one kidnapped damsel in distress taken within the depths of the Lhusu mines at the time I arrived."

She had always been ridiculously bad at hiding surprise. Tying to stifle a smile at the expression on her face, Larsa went on. "You're sixteen years old, you've lived in Rabanastre all your life, you work as a dancer for the Muthru Bazaar and a shop clerk for Migelo's Sundries, and you apparently have a very mean right hook when you're mad."

Her brain felt oddly swimming for a minute, as though she'd just taken in Old Dalan's secret stash of non-Archadian-approved pharmaceuticals again. "And how do you know all that?"

Across from her, Larsa quirked an eyebrow up. "Because the friend that came to rescue you told me so."

"Vaan!" Penelo immediately clapped her hand over her treacherous mouth, even as the echoes of her cry rang through the room. When Larsa gave a small nod of acknowledgement, she simply wanted to scream out some more. She couldn't help it, she really couldn't. Gruesome thoughts about all that she could do to Vaan with a load of phoenix down, one very sharp axe and stick of butter aside, he was her friend. Her very best friend. And despite it all, despite all the times they had fought and quarreled and argued and nagged each other, he had come for her.

He had really come. They might have wasted many cheerful hours planning out Vaan's eventual brilliant career as a sky pirate; he might have spent just as long telling her that she was damn well invited for the ride. He had always joked that even if he had to travel halfway across the world to have her by his side, she'd be with him. And that was just what he'd done now. He hadn't succeeded, true-- that she was still in one piece was more a testament to Bangaa negligence and this Larsa's kindness that anything else. But he had still come for her.

She felt like a lunatic, she felt like an idiot, she felt so grateful to be who she was now, despite everything, that she'd probably only end up nicking Vaan's pocket change for the next couple of months as punishment. Hell, she might even let him pick hers. She couldn't stop smiling, she couldn't stop believing, and something soft and slick went sliding down her cheeks and wide, wobbly mouth before she even knew it.

"He really means that much to you?" A soft voice interrupted her mid-hysterics and even through her haze of sudden happiness and even more present exhaustion, she answered.

"Vaan's my best friend," she told him, wiping away her ridiculous tears as quickly as possible. "In the entire world, in all of the world. Haven't you got someone like that?"

All the warmth in his face was as quickly snuffed out as the light within the Lhusu mines.

"No, I-- not quite." Very carefully, with his eyes turned towards his spotless white gloves as though in examination, Larsa continued. "You two must have known each for a very long time."

And how. "You could definitely say that." Penelo shifted a little and tried not to feel too dizzy at that slight movement. She had only been speaking with Larsa for a few minutes, and she already wanted to crawl into the bed that lay so lovingly beside her. But she owed him at least her thoughts and her history, if he wanted that much. "I've known him since we were five years old and he introduced himself by puking all over my shoes after a few too many spins on the merry-go-round. He even lived with me and my family after-- well, for a while."

Larsa's laugh was soft and gentle and sounded curiously like a lullaby. "And you must have grown quite close since. Do you consider Vaan to be as a brother?"

Penelo laughed right back as best as her lungs could manage. "I guess I can sometimes see picture him like that. I actually did have an older brother but he-- well. He isn't here anymore, but Vaan is, and he drives me insane on a regular enough basis to fill in the spot."

Larsa finally raised his head at that. "Older brothers really do seem to go out of their way to cause trouble, don't they?"

"Yeah," she said, softly. "Yeah, they do. It's damn lucky for them that we're stuck with them, right?"

"Right," he said, his voice all smooth and velvety and warm again, and reached out to take her hand in his. Her short, narrow fingernails scraped against the fine cloth of his gloves as she reared back in surprise. Even through them, his hands were surprisingly warm. "They are, and I'll keep you safe even from the worst of them. As I ought to have said before, I'm your protector now. Wherever I go, I'll attend you and keep you away from harm."

Again, Penelo had the sensation that something vital was slipping from beneath her aching feet, and she hardly aware of it.

"Why?" she asked, softly, genuinely lost. It almost felt as though there was some enormous story tugging at the world around her, one that she could only glimpse at through confused little cut-scenes that mostly precluded her. "I'm so grateful that you helped me back there that it's ridiculous. And I'm still not sure why you did it but I'm so, so thankful for that. But you don't have to do anything else for me. I can't-- it'd be stupid for me to take up any more of your time, since Bhujerba has a lot of airships. If I can scrape up the fare, it should be easy to get back to Dalmasca."

Of course, that still left the question of how on earth Penelo could scrape up said fare. She wondered if any relatives of Migelo worked in Bhujerba, how long it would take to go home again, and whether Kytes had managed to get into any trouble in the meantime. He always did take Vaan as a role model far more seriously than he ought.

"Because," Larsa replied, voice still serene, "Vaan would have wanted me to-- and because he helped me in a grave matter earlier. He's a very... strong and giving person, despite some rough edges, and I thought I ought well pay him back for his favor."

Oh. That made sense. Vaan, massively aggravating or not, did have a certain bone-headed sort of charm that seemed to draw people in, like moths to a rather dim flame. But despite that explanation, something in Penelo wilted a bit. She didn't want to be seen as some charity project, taken in because of her friend's actions, and she still wanted to ask...

"But even if you didn't feel like you had to help me because of Vaan helping you earlier... well, would you have?"

Larsa's eyes narrowed at the floor and Penelo went still, waiting for an answer. There, again, went her mouth, running off without her brain having any say in it whatsoever. The very last thing she wanted to do was offend him-- or, god forbid, have him throw her to the tender mercies of Judge Ghastly once more. But after a long, agonizing minute, Larsa answered her with no chagrin whatsoever in his tone.

"What did you call him again?" Larsa finally asked, one side of his mouth coming up seemingly without his notice. "Judge Ghis, I mean, when we first met each other. I couldn't hear your initial conversation very clearly, but it seemed as though he had done something to upset you and you said he 'sure was talking big for a giant armored tampon,' yes?"

Embarrassed, Penelo cringed and tried to hold down a guilty giggle, only to look up and see Larsa's shoulders shaking in silent laughter. When he finally recovered, he looked up with a grin. "On the whole, you're quite an unusual person, Penelo. And I would have protected you even without knowing exactly who you were. It's the least I could do for all the entertainment you provided me earlier."

Without meaning to, Penelo's mouth formed another perfect O. Larsa smiled at her again, this time with all of his face and with wide, warm eyes, and something around her knees abruptly wanted to buckle. She wasted almost a whole minute wondering why that was before she finally realized he wanted an answer.

"Yes," she said, after the last of the echoes in her mind had died down. "Yes, that's a good reason. And I... I just wanted to thank you for that, again. If there's anything I could do for you to really repay you in something besides entertainment value though... just let me know, all right?"

Larsa simply looked at her again, seriously this time, with eyes as solemn as a widow's shroud. "In fact-- and thank you for offering, Penelo-- in fact, there is something you can do for me. But it might take far longer for you to reunited with your friend and return to your home if you do. Would you be willing to help me, regardless?"


And that was how she found herself actually thinking of traveling to Archades as the royal heir apparent's guest -cum- mistress just a few days after she had met him.

Friendship be damned, she really was going to kill Vaan in his sleep as soon as she found a way back to Rabanastre.