Title: Everyone Says Hi.
Rating: M.

Disclaimer: The characters in this story do not belong to me. FFXII and all of its characters are property of Square Enix and all of their other rightful owners. I do not make any profit in the writing of publication of this story. I do not have permission to use them, but eh, I'm using them anyway. The lyrics used in this story, from the song Everyone Says Hi by David Bowie belong to their exclusive owners as well. The story and situations however do belong to me, and unauthorized redistribution and duplication is prohibited.

Author's Note: Another songfic. Spoilers, if you've not finished the game. You've been warned! Takes place a few months after Balthier goes missing from Bahamut, I suppose, although there is no frame of time in specific. It's just obviously before he takes the Strahl back. Inspired by the fact that I still listen to my iPod Shuffle too often, and because Vaan just seemed a little too excited to see Balthier at the end of the game. XD

After Bahamut, everyone spent all their time worried sick. Vaan couldn't figure out why. Their lives had all come around full circle; complete and happy and full of so many wonderful things yet to come. Everyone but himself. For Vaan, there was a void. A huge emptiness that peace and liberty and even freedom could not fill. If anyone had a right to worry, a right to feel and alone, and afraid, it would most definitely be him.

And yet, he wasn't. Rumors spread through Rabanastre like an infection, passed in whispers from thin lips to curious, expectant ears. Whispers that gave him hope, even if just the slightest bit. But with that small amount of hope came an even greater amount of pain. He couldn't, didn't want to accept that he had been abandoned. Again.

And each time Penelo spoke of him, worry lacing her voice as she asked, "You think he's all right?" Vaan would shake his head and laugh. He supposed no one had really known Balthier as much as he thought.

He was the Leading Man. Of course he was all right.

Said you took a big trip, they said you moved away.
Happened oh so quietly, they say.

From the small tidbits he'd heard on the street, Balthier had been long gone. He'd left Ivalice and gone someplace far, far away. No one was quite sure where. It didn't surprise Vaan, not really. Balthier had always been clever and swift. He was about as tangible as the very air he sailed upon. Impossible to grasp, always fleeting.

Vaan hated it. More than anything, Vaan hated himself for loving the damned man as much as he did. It had been careless, falling for him the way he had.

But weeks before their final moments together on the Bahamut, it hadn't seemed so stupid. Not when he and Balthier spent their watch hours lying in the grass together. Definitely not when Balthier made love to him under the stars of the Tchita Uplands. Not when he had promised his a lifetime of love together in the skies. Not then.

It was nothing less than perfect then, their sweat-sheened bodies glowing in the moonlight as Balthier made gentle, passionate love to him. His skin felt like gold under Vaan's wandering hands, and when it was all over, Balthier placed a chaste kiss on Vaan's forehead, before adjusting his cuffs and helping Vaan to stand.

But Vaan wasn't naïve anymore. That precious moment meant nothing any longer. Balthier had done much more than use his body for pleasure, Vaan knew. He had taken his innocence and crushed into a worthless pile of dust that had easily slipped through his fingers. He had ripped Vaan's perfect, untouched heart right from his chest and left a huge scar there that just wouldn't fade.

But he tried not to think about it. It was all he had left of the man.

Should have took a picture, something I could keep.

It was stupid of him, to give himself to Balthier so willingly. He should have known that this would happen. The man was a sky pirate, for the sake of the Gods! He had done what any good pirate would have done. Taken what he wanted and made off with his prize.

If anyone had a right to be hurt by Balthier's disappearance after Bahamut, it most definitely was him. And yet, he couldn't blame the man, because it was in his nature. It was what sky pirates did. The only one he had to blame for all of this was himself, for forgetting that exact fact.

At first, he had wished so many bad things on that damned man. But in the end, he somehow just stopped being angry. He just forgave him. He didn't know why. And he, just like the rest of his old friends, those that had fought for freedom and a happy ending, prayed to the Gods that he and Fran were well.

But he prayed for Balthier most of all.

Everyone says hi.

Day by day he heard more snippets of a grand tale about the sky pirate. As bitter as he still was, as fresh as the wounds were, they brought a smile to his face. A story about the sky pirate who after the war commandeered yet another Archadian airship and flew far away, leaving his friends behind, though the part that explained why wasn't made up just yet.

Said you sailed a big ship, said you sailed away.
Didn't know the right thing to say.

It became quite a romantic story. Vaan tried to determine how much of it was true, but with Balthier one could never be sure. Even his own rendition of the tale was bound to be full of exaggerations and grandeur, if he ever got to hear it.

All Vaan wanted to know was how much was real. How had he gotten away? Why did he run? Did he mean any of the things he had told him? Were all those moments they shared a lie?

I'd love to get a letter, like to know what's what.
Hope the weather's good, and it's not too hot for you.

Vaan wasn't sure how much of it was real, but one thing he did know was that he would wait, as long as he had to, until they met again and he knew the truth. Until then, he'd just keep waiting.

Everyone says hi.

Reviews? Plz?