Author's Note: Hey everyone! I'm back again with some more BalthierxVaan because they are sorely underrated and deserve more love. This idea just popped into my head the other day and I had to write it. Many thanks to my beta MagicCandyCat because without her, this would have been absolutely diabolical and would have deserved to be burnt to a cinder by flamers. As it is now, beta'd, it's much better and I now actually like the story.
Disclaimer: Do you see Balthier and Vaan having hot makeout session every five seconds in FFXII? No, therefore, it does not belong to me.
Warnings: Character death (?), yaoi (shonen-ai or boyxboy love, whatever you prefer to call it)
Vaan had changed.
There was no denying it. He was no longer naive and self-conscious. No more ringing his hands in his shyness. He walked with a self-assured swagger that even his lover, the infamous sky pirate Balthier, was proud of. The elder blonde had watched as his young lover became the most promising young sky pirate he had ever encountered.
Being an orphan, Vaan had no experience of love and affection from anyone other than Penelo, his best friend and closest thing Vaan had to family.
Balthier had changed that.
The sky pirate had taught the thief to love and to trust- something the younger boy had never expected. Balthier provided him with a sense of safety, protection.
He had taught the boy to fly, in more ways than one.
Vaan thought himself fearless, as did everyone else he knew. There was no fiend too strong, no situation laced with anxiety, no drunken pervert who didn't know the word 'stop' able to scare Vaan, so everyone thought.
That was soon proven to be false when Vaan found his lover's barely breathing body.
Pulse quickens.
Eyes widen.
Breathing quickens.
Temperature increases.
Tears form.
The young blonde dropped to his knees beside the sky pirate's body. Lifeless chocolate eyes stared up at him.
Blank.
Hollow.
Mentor's eyes.
Pupil's soul.
Vaan shook his head, grey eyes rapidly filling with tears.
"Balthier..." he croaked weakly, pulling the bloodied sky pirate into his arms. Balthier laid limp in Vaan's arms.
His breath had gone.
"No! Balthier! Stay with me!!!" the blonde boy pleaded desperately, shaking the cold body in his arms as if it would miraculously wake him. The chocolate orbs stared, unblinkingly at the ceiling of the darkened room and tears started to fall onto the sky pirate's limp form. Vaan clung to Balthier's lifeless body as he cried, the unmistakeable tang of blood and death hanging in the air.
The blonde's agonised cry of his true love's name bounced off the walls of the silent room. His shaking sobs were all that could be heard. The blonde looked down at the once gorgeous face of his lover, now marred with blood, bruises and numerous cuts. Vaan allowed his eyes to travel further down. Balthier's intricately detailed vest had been slashed open numerous times; the gold of the material stained crimson with blood.
The blonde shuddered, picturing how much Balthier had to endure before death had ripped him from this world of pain and suffering. Vaan searched for a phoenix down and tried it, in vain. He also tried casting raise, but to no avail.
The charming sky pirate was gone and nothing would ever bring him back.
Vaan threw his head back and screamed; a mournful, chilling sound.
That same sound filled The Strahl where the blonde shot upright, covered in a cold sweat, panting as though he had run a ten-mile race. He could still smell the foul stench of blood and death, as clearly as if he were still in that room. Balthier's lifeless eyes haunted his vision and the blonde visibly trembled.
The door of his room banged open suddenly, making him jump. There, in the doorway, dirty blonde locks tousled by sleep and with chocolate brown eyes staring, concerned but loving, was Balthier.
"Vaan? What's wrong?" The elder blonde rushed to the visibly trembling boy and pulled him into a close embrace.
"Nightmare..." the younger muttered, wrapping his arms tightly around the sky pirate's naked torso. A soft expression graced the handsome features of the charming Archadian as he looked down at the trembling boy in his arms. As he absently ran his fingers through flaxen locks, allowing the younger boy to calm down, the sky pirate remembered his nightmares about the teen in his arms. Although Balthier didn't know for certain that's what the nightmare was about, he could safely guess by the way his young lover clung to him.
Desperately breathing in the scent of cinnamon and gun powder, Vaan felt his racing heart calm slightly. The fingers in his hair lulled him back into a sense of security. The teen rested his head against the sky pirate's chest, feeling the gentle rise and fall as the other breathed; hearing the steady heartbeat that Vaan thought had stopped forever.
"Balthier?"
"Hm?"
"I love you"
"I love you too" The smile was obvious in the Archadian's rich voice. A shiver ran down the thief's spine as those simple words reassured him more than ever.
"Promise me something" Vaan looked up into Balthier's chocolate eyes.
"Oh? What would that be, my dear Vaan?"
"Don't die before I can get to you and heal you." Vaan stated, a hint of pleading in his voice. The sky pirate chuckled.
"Unfortunately, I cannot make any such promise..." Upon seeing the thief's crestfallen look, the sky pirate continued. "However, I can promise you that, as the Leading Man, I shall not die. I shall wait for you for as long as humanly possible before succumbing to the depths of unconsciousness that my body will most likely desperately crave." Balthier explained.
It took a while for the younger blonde's sleep fogged mind to process what had been said, and the sky pirate waited patiently for the understanding to come.
"Good enough" Vaan smiled and snuggled into Balthier's grasp, feeling much better about the whole ordeal.
As long as he had Balthier, Vaan was fearless.