"Balthier?"
"Hmm?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Of course, my love. Anything."
"Can I paint your toenails?"
Balthier, who had been in the middle of reading an exceptionally long letter from his friend Camille in Rozarria, slowly lowered his reading material and gave Ashe a quizzical stare. They were enjoying an easy quiet morning together, with Ashe sitting by Balthier's feet, painting her own nails. Now she had finished, she needed something else to do.
They looked at each other, Balthier eyeing the Queen curiously, Ashe politely waiting for his answer whilst wearing a small but impish smile. After a moment, Balthier narrowed his eyes to regard his woman and her request.
"What colour?"
Ashe bit her lip to hold back her giggling, as she glanced over her collection of varnishes. Grinning, she couldn't help herself with her first suggestion.
"Pink?" She offered, and Balthier snapped his letter back up.
"No!" He said firmly and Ashe laughed to herself. She had already known his response to that but she just couldn't resist it. She filtered through her choices again.
"Red?" Balthier lowered his papers again and quirked his mouth as he contemplated it. Ashe was barely able to contain herself as she saw his thoughts process on his face. Eventually, he made a decision.
"No." He answered, and raised the letter once more. Ashe had one last go.
"Blue?" She tried and once again, Balthier looked at her, one eyebrow raised.
"What shade of blue?" Ashe held up the small glass bottle for him to see. It was a rich, midnight blue, one she had just put onto her own fingernails. Balthier studied it.
"No sky blue?" He asked, hopefully. Ashe smiled apologetically and shook her head.
"I'm afraid not." She said. "It wouldn't go with your colouring anyhow. You need a darker shade." Balthier let out a loud laugh and shook his head at her comment.
"I can pull off sky blue!" He objected, and Ashe finally succumbed to her giggles at that point. He stared at her again, waiting for her to finish, before a mischievous grin spread across his face, and he placed his bare feet in her lap, giving her a wink.
"Do it."
Two days later, Fran returned to The Strahl after running some errands, only to find Balthier taking a nap in his pilot's chair, his feet up on her chair opposite him.
Shaking her head and knowing the kind of complaints she would hear after he woke up from sleeping in such a position (again!), she turned to leave the cockpit, only to do a double take at something that had caught her eye. Balthier had kicked off his shoes for comfort, and Fran was perplexed to see her friend with blue toenails! For a second she was worried he had caught some form of disease before she realised it was decoration. She knew Balthier was could be too vain for his own good at times but this was taking it to a whole new level. She then recalled an image of Queen Ashe as she waved Fran and her beloved Balthier off on their current quest. The Queen had the same colour paint on her fingernails.
Shaking her head again, this time in exasperation, Fran left the cockpit and Balthier to his dreaming, believing she had just witnessed a perfect example of this strange and random thing Humes refer to as true love.