Post Note: When Vaan stole from that imperial at the very beginning of the game, Penelo was pretty darn quick to take her cut. Yeah, yeah, it was "for the bread" Vaan took. Whatever, Penelo. :)

Prompt: Remind.

Character(s): Main Party. (Balthier. Vaan. Penelo.)

Noisome Incendiaries: Remind

Vaan is convinced that the no one gives him –and Penelo too, he guesses- nearly enough credit.

He is just the orphan kid tagging along for the ride.

The thing is, though, Vaan has been fairly okay with this fact. He has not really minded that this is how the others view him. Vaan is saving the world…that in itself makes it more than worth being viewed as the token golly-gee-whiz, overactive, wide-eyed kid.

Plus, ya know…Vaan usually is overactive and wide-eyed. So it's not like there was a lack of truth in the assessment. And Vaan would have kept quiet about, if not much else, his feelings on the subject. Yes, his comrades viewed him as a kid. But he was saving Ivalice, reinstating a rightful heir, avenging his brother, flying in airships, infiltrating holy grounds, tombs, and messed up laboratories, and what other "kid" could say that?

Aside from Penelo.

And maybe Larsa.

...But they don't really count. Point is, Vaan would have been quite content to work behind the scenes and aid his friends in the only real way he knew how. And how is that? Well, thanks to some rather snippy attitudes, the entire party was about to find out.

And it wasn't even Ashe, whose temper was downright venomous of late, who had impelled him to such an extreme measure. Balthier really ought to have known better than to attempt to bark orders at a pair of wild street urchins.

"I'm just saying-"

"Vaan," Penelo hisses, for the first time noticing the stares of the, ever sharp eared, wretches of Old Archades, "keep your voice down!"

He ignores her, "-that he has NO right to boss us around like that! He's the one who tried to steal from me, I don't have to listen to him, I didn't get you kidnapped, and unless we're on the Strahl, which we're not, I-"

"I think you are being ridiculous. He has a lot on his mind right now, I'm sure Balthi-"

"Penelo, please, that doesn't even-"

"Yes, it does, you're just too thickheaded-"

"If you really want to get on the subject of thickhea-"

"And it was hours ago, anyway, why are you getting so angry now-?"

"Because he-them! All of them- don't seem to realize just how much we actually do for-"

The squabbling voices of the teens faded as the pair fell even further behind from the rest of the party. Balthier repressed the impulse to press the heels of his palms into his eye sockets and scream. It was bad enough that the group had just wandered for days on end through an underground, wyrm filled, palace in which they had only survived by the skin of their teeth. There was no need to make their first few hours of fresh (albeit Archadian) air miserable by polluting the ozone further with their screechings and incessant rambling.

After he had engaged the pair in a brief conversation (concerning the sewers, the filth, the runoff, and clarifying that, no Vaan, this is not actually the capital) Balthier had thought the dynamic duo satisfied.

As had been a fool's hope, apparently.

Balthier glanced first at Basch and Ashe, whom had taken the lead in front of him and then at his Viera partner, ever by his side, whose ears were twitching in such a way to suggest she, at least, was still listening to the younglings' conversation. The sky pirate cleared his throat, causing the princess and her guard to pause. He lifted one brightly ringed hand and pointed at a few buildings, each in various states of distress, slightly to their right, "A little past those houses there ought bring us to a stairwell into Archades proper. Naturally, it will be guarded. I advise that if we keep along this roa-"

That was when Vaan's voice, raised to an octave Balthier had no idea could be achieved by males, shattered all previous prospects of civil discussion "I don't care- I'm doing it!"

It was also when the boy, running full tilt, launched himself onto Balthier's back.

"Hgnn!" The pirate staggered to save himself from falling. His hands shot up to his neck, which is exactly what Vaan had decided to wrap his arms around, and instantly began trying to disentangle himself from the boy's death grip.

Balthier was vaguely aware of Penelo, whom had run up beside them. The girl was yelling and moving as though to place herself between Vaan and Balthier's (unwillingly) meshed bodies. This may have actually have been of some help had the girl also not kept on stumbling repeatedly and grabbing onto Balthier's various body parts, who was having a hard enough time already, to keep her own balance. And wasn't she a dancer? Shouldn't she have grace and poise, or something of the like? Ah, well.

After a few moments more, Balthier managed to grab a fistful of the boy's vest and sent him heels over head over his shoulder and onto the ground. Vaan's breath left him in a whoosh as his back connected with the cobbled street. Balthier knelt next to him, breathing heavily and glowering quite impressively.

"…Hey," Vaan reached out for Balthier's forearm, gripping one of the gauntlets he wore underneath the frilled sleeves, "You know how much those cost us?"

Balthier looked at the boy, at his wrist, and then back at the boy, "Vaan." He warned.

But Vaan is nothing, if not persistent, "We picked 'em up in the Hunter's Camp, right?" the boy dug his elbows into the earth and maneuvered himself into a sitting position, "How much did they cost? You know right?"

"Of course not," he snapped, "You and Penelo were the ones doing the shopping, then."

"Uh, huh." The boy's blonde head bobbed up and down enthusiastically, "And you know what? They were more than we could afford, but we got 'em anyway."

Baltheir's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth, ready to put an end to the seeming foolishness, but it was Penelo who spoke up.

One hand rested on a tilted hip, the other was twirling no less than three Elixirs over her knuckles and through her graceful fingers. Her smile looking far more amused than contrite, "You didn't actually think we paid for all this stuff from the gil we earned selling pelts, did you?"

(Bewildered, Balthier's hand went instantly to the item pouch at his hip. It was empty.)

They were only a pair of Lowtown orphan kids. They had no connections. No ability to sense the mist. No real previous battle experience. No royal blood. They possessed no arcane knowledge of secret lands and hidden paths… half the time Vaan couldn't even read the map.

So maybe they couldn't save the world. But with quick tongues and quicker fingers, they could keep provisions stocked for the ones who could.

And that was almost the same thing.

…assuming Balthier did not decide to shoot them in their sleep, of course.

Noisome Incendiaries: Remind: End.