[AN: A bottomVaanxtopBalthier ficlet. It's also on Archive of our own
and I've decided to reformat it so that it is easier to read.
It's a rather new idea and the making will be slow too!]

[Summary: Vaan decides that he needs to leave his home, Rabanastre, in order to live his life.
His childhood friend Penelope would only stop him, so he chooses to not
inform her of his departure. During his travel however, he soon
finds out he may not yet be cut out for the world.
That is when a certain space pirate comes to the rescue.]

Vaan ignored the tuft of hair that lay across his face. Huffing, sweating and bleeding from his arm, the boy ignored the pain and the exhilaration that made his body tremble. Gripping the small makeshift dagger he had, he waited for his opponent to make a move.
The giant rat, standing aloof meters before him, continued to be silent, whiskers on his large shifty nose the only part of it moving. Silence dragged on and Vaan could see no opportunity to get an upper hand over the beast.
Scowling, he knew he'll have to waste much time later disinfecting his growing number of wounds. He'll never hear the end of it from Penelo, who will with no doubt find out that he had managed to steal away into the sewers once again and gotten hurt.

But Vaan knew he wouldn't let Penelo's worry stop him. He wished to explore the world and hopefully own his very own airship. He wanted something beyond searching for treasure in the Giza Planes, running errand within the town.
His rebellious dream wouldn't come true if Vaan kept shut in inside Rabanastre, letting his youth be squandered away by doing nothing. He needed to learn to fight and defend himself, so that when the time came, he could manage the sand seas, the plains and mines, to travel through the Nabreus Deadlands and simply enjoy the exciting life an adventurer could have- no, a sky pirate could have.
To do this however, the blond boy knew he would need to leave Penelo behind. He believed his yearning to go would not be understood by the girl, so he knew that he had to prepare to leave her behind.

Wiping his brow, Vaan accidently smeared blood across his forehead, not realizing he had a deep gash on his hand. This was after all, a deciding battle; he had little time to check himself over during combat.

Blade in hand, he stepped toward the silent creature. Perhaps it was trying to trick him, playing some kind of maneuver that could throw down Vaan's barrier. Aged 17, Vaan ignored the notion. The blade sliced the furred arm, and the rat screeched. The pink tail caught Vaan's leg and he stumbled, regaining his posture in order to quickly avoid a slashing motion of the creature's claws.
Cursing himself he felt his ankle ache and a dull but strikingly stark pain began to seep up his leg. Twirling the dagger, Vaan pressed the knife deep into the rat's side, the hilt roughening its skin. Screech reaching a louder resonance, Vaan held his ears and kicked it to make it shut up, it fell down on its side but continued to writhe in pain, emitting more loud noises.
The noise was bad. Vaan knew that loud noises from beasts, especially pained noises, attracted not only bigger monsters, but humans as well. He had to shut it up, but no matter how long he kept delving the dagger into its chest, the noise became all the more shriller.
He eyed his surroundings, the sewer entrance was still without any other beings. The boy stepped towards its head, the beady eyes shining at nothing particular, forearms whipping about. With a deft, yet hesitant slash, he slit the throat, looking away from the widening gash.

Although Vaan could stab the monsters without guilt, it was the finishing blows that egged on his guilt. A move like that kills any opponent, the same applying to humans. He touched his own neck, waiting until the gurgling sounds ceased. Once they did, Vaan turned around and looked at the dead creature. It was quite indeed dead. Crouching down, he let his hands rummage around the tuft-like dark fur, searching for anything of value.

Giant rat claws weren't especially valuable, neither were their bones or their tails. What was valuable about them was that they sometimes carried what seemed to be precious stones encased in their skin. They are simply of a systemic lupus erythematosus cause, the disease causing horrific skin mutations in the rats due to their habitat, forming these stony substances that many rich humans took to wearing them as lace around their neck, especially in Rabanastre, where richer gems were not as common.

Vaan gave a gasp of delight when he brushes his fingers over one of these hard bubbles, its color a deep blue, aligned with little pebbles that broke through the skin. Still gripping his dagger, the boy cracked his knuckles and set to work, cutting the substance free from the rat's body. Once finished, he held them up to his face, wrinkling his nose at the smell. They were quite pretty, the color unique and alluring. He stared at them briefly before slipping them into the inner pocket of his vest. He would sell them later on the underground market, if any of the guards caught him with these jewels they would be confiscated without a doubt, all of his hard work in vain.

Slightly shaking of exhausting, he got up from his position. He checked up on himself, realizing the searing pain in his hand as well as the blood flow that had enveloped his hands. His feet shook slightly; his ankle was turning blue with dark spots. Sighing, he got out a small hand towel, cleansing his hand of the blood, stopping the blood flow of the gap. He wrapped the cloth around his ankle to cover the bruise and checked himself over again to make sure it wasn't too painfully obvious he had taken a toll down in the sewers.
Glancing at the reflection of himself in the sewage water, he quickly wiped the red from his brow. A small smile found its way onto his face, he truly believed no one would be able to expect Vaan to achieve this small feat, a feat which will help him grow and get stronger. They will never see the day coming, when the boy would finally leave his home. Turning away from the body, he made his way down the pathways and back up the stairs into the underground.